Farewell To All That

Eyes straight ahead, the woman ran with all her might. The trees were thick black shadows that reared before and around her, snatching at her tunic to rip the fabric. She pushed on, though, left with no time to think before she darted left or right to avoid the massive trunks that would suddenly appear before her. She was relying on instinct to guide her through the maze of the forest, and praying to the gods that she could keep ahead of the man behind her.

Samuel had been her keeper for years now. She couldn’t put a more definitive time stamp on their relationship, however. She had been kept holed away in his rooms at Castle Aodhain since that fateful day so many years ago when he defeated her former liege lord and assumed the role of lord of the keep. Since then she’d rarely been allowed to leave, and only with him accompanying her. That made it hard to keep up with the days.

She had come to him of her own accord, a broken woman in need of help. The night was a tortuous and twisted ordeal that had left her shivery with the idea of repeated possession at his hands. Something about the way he used her set her mind free, and for the first time in six months she had been able to deny her need for opium. His harsh hand became her poison of choice, and she hadn’t looked back once.

But as time wore on, she began to note little discrepancies in his behavior. Even from the beginning, there were some nights that he tortured her within an inch of her life. But at the beginning he would tease her with the thought of death, only reviving her because he knew oblivion was what she secretly craved. And as the years wore on, something changed. As soon as he saw her starting to glaze over something would click behind his eyes—sapphire blue would bleed to an icy hue. He would call for the mages and hold her so tenderly while they fixed the myriad damage he had inflicted. And always during these times he would pet her until she fell asleep, a look of concentration on his face, the objects of his contemplations always explained away with “I thought I remembered something.”

There was no denying he was crazy in all forms of the word, but she had finally discovered the source of the problem quite by accident. While they were together one night he spoke out in his sleep, recounting an experience from his childhood. She had been terrified to hear him recite a conjuring chant for a fire demon. And as he screamed and thrashed next to her, things suddenly became so clear: he was possessed and hadn’t a clue about it. And she was determined to draw it out of him. Sadly, she had fallen in love with the part of him that was tender even if she was addicted to the harsher hand of the demon. She was willing to sacrifice that part of her life for a chance with Sam…if she could fix his fractured mind.

It was the simplest thing in the world. All she had to do was wait for him to play cat-and-mouse—as he had tonight. He would set her loose outside of the castle, hunt her down, and then drag her back for another night of twisted and painful sex. Some nights he just pushed her up against a tree and fucked her within an inch of sanity, always pulling back just before she could find release.

This night, though, she was the cat and he the mouse. Her path was headed for a circle of consecrated ground just outside of the forest. The villagers in a nearby town used it to give offerings to the gods and to burn their dead. The demon would be controlling Sam at this point, and as soon as he set foot on the holy ground she would have the advantage. She was half angel and had the ability to purify, even if that ability was rather weak. She only needed him inside the holy ground to make sure the demon couldn’t fight back against her intrusion.

Finally, she cleared the forest and saw the charred patch of ground in the moonlight. It was so close, but she could hear Sam behind her, his footfalls indiscriminately crunching leaves and twigs as he gave chase. Putting on a burst of speed, she touched foot into the circle and was tackled from behind. They went down hard, the air leaving her lungs when she was slammed into the ground.

She gasped and choked, trying to get her breathe back. Everything depended on her being able to call the demon out and expel it from Sam’s body. If only she could get the breath to speak!

Flipping her onto her back, Sam lay between her legs and held her down with his hips. “Oh, Taegan,” he murmured rapturously, following it with a softly derisive tsk. “Did you really think you were going somewhere, Kitten? You’ve never run that hard from me before.” Though he could see she was still struggling to suck in air, he grasped a handful of her long black locks in his hand, leaning in to demand, “What do you have to say for yourself?”

She took in a shuddering breathe, coughing out the words that would free him from the demon. “I cast you out,” she croaked, placing her hand to Sam’s forehead. She called forth her power, pushing against the malignant presence that snarled within him. It was almost as if she could feel the demon ripping itself away from him one deep claw-hold at a time. Sam’s body jerked and fought against her, sapphire light bleeding through his eyes as he screamed in rage. And then he gasped and the demon poured out of his mouth into the night air.

The beast was a smallish orange and black mist that hung about the sacred circle for a while, still hissing and screaming its wrath. Taegan couldn’t understand most of what it was saying, but she caught a few words of a curse and shuddered, holding Sam’s shaking body against her. The demon finally left and she vowed to herself, come what may, that she would keep Sam safe.

“Kitten,” he whispered, raising his head shakily to look at her in dismay. “What did you do to me?”

A few loose hairs had escaped his braid and were clinging to the sweat on his face. She smoothed these back, cupping her hands on his flushed cheeks as she took in the icy blue of his eyes; it was a color she rarely saw gracing those piercing orbs. And it seemed so strange that more emotion stared back at her in the cold color he wore now, rather than the warmer sapphire that was prevalent when the demon ruled his hand. “You’ve been possessed by a fire demon,” she told him quietly, “and I forced it out of you.”

An epiphany seemed to strike him and he went very still against her, letting his head fall back to her chest. “I’ve done such horrible things,” he realized, half in shock at the disjointed memories that were running through his mind. His shock gave way to tears and he held Taegan’s unresisting form tightly against him as he silently cried. He saw three years of torture and abuse reaped on the woman in his arms. Night after night he had raped her, maimed her…killed her. He was a monster, and for the life of him he couldn’t understand why she would undertake to help him.

“Sam,” she whispered, kissing the top of his head and squeezing his body. When he didn’t answer, she just held him tighter and said, “Don’t think about any of it. You didn’t know what was inside you. It wasn’t you.”

He wasn’t so sure about that. The memories included feelings, and he could remember enjoying everything he did to her. How much of that was him and how much the demon? Even now he felt himself stirring when he thought about what would have ensued had she not ripped that piece of him away. His hand stole to her thigh of his own volition, running up beneath the tunic to her bare hip. Trembling, he jerked away and clasped his hand into a fist. It seemed wrong to want to touch her now that he knew what a sadist he was.

Unlike him, Taegan had no qualms whatsoever about being touched. She arched against him, offering a full expanse of leg on either side of his body. “Touch me, Sam,” she commanded him breathily. “I want to know what it feels like to have your hands on me without the demon behind your eyes.” She took his hand in hers, guiding it up her thigh and underneath the tunic before releasing him. “Touch me,” she pleaded, once more cupping her hands to his cheeks as she stared up into his eyes.

Half of him was screaming that this was exactly what he wanted, but there was that little niggling fear that kept him from moving. If he hurt her again, he didn’t think he could forgive himself. After all, he didn’t have an excuse this time; he wasn’t possessed anymore. He chewed the inside of his lip, coming up on his elbows in preparation to pull away, but she refused to be put off.

“No,” she growled, pulling him back down by a handful of his silky braid. She crushed her lips to his, nipping him lightly with her fangs.

His eyes went wide and he pulled back enough to dab a finger to his lip in surprise. He came back with bloodied fingers. Sucking his lip into his mouth, he turned those icy eyes on her, truly appreciating what she was. She was half succubus, he recalled, and that was why it was so hard for him to deny the need to touch her. If she had been anyone else, he would have been able to get up and walk away. But…she was alluring, so much so that he found himself staring steadily into the green flame of her eyes as he leaned back down to continue their kiss. As their lips met, however, he was struck with a deeper sense of attraction. He loved this woman; the emotion gripped him so strongly that he nearly groaned into her mouth.

Breaking their embrace, he stood and kicked off his boots, followed quickly by his trousers and tunic. There was no fear now. He knew her inside and out, and he knew that she loved the darker world that he had provided for her throughout the years. He stood naked before her, bathed in the moonlight, glorious and unbroken.

Taegan was struck with the absolute beauty of him—as she always was—and came to her knees, shuffling forward until she had him wrapped in her embrace once more. She placed a kiss to his hip, casting her sultry eyes up to his. “Tell me what you want,” she prompted softly, placing more kisses to his stomach, watching in fascination as the already defined muscles tightened under her ministrations.

With a finger under her chin, he tilted her head back until she was looking him straight in the eyes. But then he dropped to his knees before her, sliding his hand behind her head to grasp a handful of the black tresses. “I want to love you,” he told her gruffly before placing a trail of bloody kisses down her neck. His free hand trailed under her tunic again, lightly stroking between her legs. He didn’t want to be rough with her tonight; instead he wanted to show her that a gentle hand could also achieve what she needed.

When she would have demanded more of him, he shushed her with a languorous kiss, keeping up his slow caresses. He pulled back to nibble at her ear and neck, listening to her pant with a satisfied smile. Soon she was whimpering and quivering, trying to wriggle around so that he was forced to actually penetrate her. But he tightened his grip on her hair, and eased her to the ground so that she was held immobile beneath him. Slowly he eased his hips forward, rubbing along the slickness of her cunt in a teasing stroke.

She moaned and tried to arch into him, but he pulled back and settled a hand at her throat. His thumb rubbed out a repetitive circular pattern on one of the great veins in her neck, creating just enough pressure to bring on euphoria. He watched as her eyes went half-lidded and only then did he push forward, burying himself inside of her. He started a slow rhythm to match the motion of his thumb on her neck, watching avidly as she gasped and tightened up around him, obviously on the verge of release already. Just when she was about to come, he quickly pulled out, effectively denying her release.

Crying out, Taegan thrashed underneath him and dug her fingernails into his ass, trying to pull him back. He wouldn’t budge, though, and soon she gave up, collapsing in defeat. He chuckled at her, once again massaging her throat. When she was once again relaxed, he slowly entered her cunt one inch at a time, delighting in the hot little sounds of pleasure that escaped her throat. When he was buried as deep as he could go, he restarted the slow rhythm and patiently watched her face. Again, she quickly neared climax, and again he denied her release. Three more times he repeated his teasing game before taking pity on her. He saw the look of pleasure on her face, felt her body quivering just on the edge, and he sped up his tempo.

With each thrust he slammed into her more forcefully, and when she came a hot rush of fluid hit his groin and soaked them both. He growled low in this throat, a gratified smile playing across his face; he absolutely loved it when she ejaculated. It meant he was doing his part right—and it simply got his rocks off. As it were, he was on the verge of release already and that just did it for him. He groaned, going stiff against her, and then slowly lowered himself so that he was half laying on her and half propped up on his elbows.

She just lay collapsed there, too spent to do more than gasp for air and try to quell the shivery aftershocks from her orgasm. Finally, though, she stirred and kissed him, murmuring, “I had forgotten what that was like.” She refrained from saying ‘making love’ simply for that fact that it sounded ridiculous, and Sam would understand what she meant anyway. She sometimes thought he knew her better than she knew herself.

Sighing contentedly, they lay there in silence for some time, basking in the warmth of the night and passion well spent. When the sun peeked over the horizon, though, they forced themselves to rise. Sam dressed himself and they made their way back to the castle.

Taegan admired the great deciduous trees that towered above them, wondering at their majesty and beauty in the wan morning light. The night prior, they had been merely dark obstacles lacking shape and definition. Now they created a bright green canopy dappled through with the hazy pre-dawn light. Really, she was just amazed at how quickly things had changed. Her eyes flicked to Sam, a shy smile curving her lips as she watched him stride so purposefully through the forest.

As she watched, he stopped ahead of her, his head cocking slightly to the side. It seemed as if he was listening for something. And then she heard it too—silence. The forest was absolutely silent; there were no birds chirping, no animals bustling about, no insects buzzing. It was just an overwhelmingly foreboding silence.

Sam turned to look at Tae, his brows furrowed. “What do—?”

The question wasn’t even out of his mouth when Tae saw why the forest had died. The fire demon hadn’t left them last night; it had merely been waiting outside the circle for a chance to return to its body of choice. It hurtled through the air at an alarming speed, consuming everything in its path…which was headed straight for Sam.

Heart pounding, Taegan’s eyes went wide in terror. She didn’t have time to think, merely ran and dropped her shoulder, knocking Sam to the ground. And then the demon slammed into her back and she was sent sprawling into the forest loam. Her back felt like it was a charred ruin and then that pain spread inward to her very being. She screamed into the earth, fingers digging into the rich black soil as she fought to expel the demon that was eating away inside her.

It felt like liquid flame poured through her veins, burning her alive from the inside out. A harsh cry tore from her throat, and she coughed before vomiting frothy blood onto the leaves that littered the forest floor. Thrashing her head back and forth, guttural words tore from her mouth; the being was telling her that its curse would soon be complete. Tears leaked down her cheeks when she realized she was going to die.

Picking himself up, Sam rushed to her side, flipping her over so he could stare into her eyes. “Fight it, Taegan!” he yelled at her, slapping her cheeks to keep her from giving in to the pain. “You can push it out,” he reminded desperately, hands brushing the dirt from her cheeks. He kept murmuring encouragement as she thrashed and screamed, but soon her eyes went bright red and it was obvious the demon had taken full control.

“We will have you again, Sidhe,” the beast mocked him through Taegan’s lips, its insidious whisper echoing just under the softer tones of the half-breed’s voice.

Steam started to roll off of her body, and Sam was forced to put her down lest he be burned. He had no immunity to fire without the infernal demon infesting his flesh. His gaze was full of sorrow, the icy orbs brimming with unshed tears as Taegan finally succumbed. Her body was quickly consumed, burned down to little more than a few charred lumps that clung to white bones.

And when it was finished, the demon slowly leaked from her body again, its oily presence once more fouling the air. Sam regarded it blankly, too shocked to move or even blink. But the full impact of Taegan’s death hit him, forcing him to squeeze his eyes closed against the pain, and then the demon slammed into him. He fell backward into the dirt, limp as the beast once more reasserted control over him, digging its claws back into the old footholds it had worn into his soul. He gladly welcomed it back; he wanted the excuse to pillage and defile and destroy everything that even remotely reminded him of the dead succubus.

A few tears leaked down his face, quickly turning into steam as his body heated up to accommodate the demon. But insanity didn’t come this time. He was all too aware of the being that shared his flesh, and that fact made him all the more bitter. Rising to his feet, he resolutely walked back to Castle Aodhain and burnt it down to the ground around the ears of all its inhabitants. He didn’t need insanity; clarity was much better inspiration.

He walked away into the sunrise, the black smoke and flames of his former life rising up behind him in a foul gesture of farewell.