Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
I made myself sleep because I needed the rest to keep up what strength I had and to make certain my mind stayed clear and quick. It was the most important thing.
The following morning, when I woke, I was ready the second they opened the door. As soon as it was cracked, I was there, wrenching it open and grabbing the first man I saw, shoving him hard, hoping he’d be thrown across the room. But my warder strength was absolutely gone, and the four men shoved me easily to the ground and put me in shackles.
“If you fight again,” Jaro said as two of the men put me on my feet, “I’ll start taking those pretty teeth of yours out one by one. His lordship doesn’t care about the inside of your mouth, and if I crack ’em all, it’ll make it easier for you to suck him off.”
This elicited a big round of laughter.
I ran through all the possibilities in my mind as I was walked up a flight of stairs and then down a long hall. There would come a moment, I knew, when no one would be looking, and I’d have to bide my time and be on the lookout for the second I’d have to escape.
When the door opened, I was surprised to find myself in a large room with a huge sunken bathtub in the center. Sitting in water, covered in rose petals and lotus, was possibly the most stunning creature I had ever laid eyes on.
He wasn’t beautiful like a man, but instead like a living, breathing work of art. He shouldn’t have existed. He was impossibly perfect. His skin was pale, flawless lavender over a sculpted, carved physique. I wasn’t certain at first it was lavender. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, or the water was bending the colors oddly, but that wasn’t it. There was no trick of light, nothing demonic there, even though he clearly was one. It was simply his skin that contrasted strikingly with his long silver hair and the graceful horns protruding from the top of his head. They were thin, like a gazelle’s, and encrusted with jewels.
I was unshackled and told to strip. When I didn’t move, Jaro reached for the club on his belt.
“Don’t hurt him,” the luminous creature with the mellifluous voice, soft and husky, pleaded on my behalf. “He’ll get in the water of his own accord.”
I was going to turn and fight, no matter what he said, but I wasn’t sure if I could even get myself out of the room. They were many; I was one. And even if I made it out, where would I go? What could I do? I needed a plan first, and perhaps the man I would be sharing a bath with would have some insights. So instead of resisting, I stripped quickly out of my clothes and stepped into the water, taking a seat on the step there, not moving, not looking anywhere but at the other occupant of the bath.
The men left quickly, and as soon as the door closed, I opened my mouth to speak.
“I’m Vaya,” he rushed out. “Tell me what kind of demon you are so I can help you live through this forced desecration.”
“What kind of demon are you?” I found myself asking, concerned for him, my first instinct to protect him. I was a warder after all. We protected the weak.
He was smaller than me, built like a dancer, lithe but with compact musculature, truly perfect, something someone had made, completely unnatural.
“I’m an incubus demon, but I have restorative powers as well. I was made for pleasure and healing and lived with my love for a millennia before I was kidnapped and brought here.”
“Made?” I seized on the word.
“Forged by one of the fallen, I don’t know which, for the pleasure houses in Irkalla, one of the dominions of hell.”
“But you found a love there?”
He shook his head. “Not there. I was on my way, with so many others, from Limbo, where we were initially used after our creation.”
My heart broke for him. He had no idea about anything, he was all shiny and brand new, and the first thing shown to him was not love, but defilement.
“But I didn’t go to Irkalla. We were inspected by the Cherubim and I was taken.”
“Taken by the Cherubim?”
“Yes.”
“Makes sense that they took you; you’re beautiful.”
He gave me a slight nod in deference. “You have to understand, though, that we were all covered, head to toe, but when I was asked my name and I responded, an angel who was standing apart from the others came forward and took my hand.” Vaya gave a long sigh, the memory clearly dear to him. “He removed my glove and turned my wrist over, then bent, and first licked and then bit into my flesh.”