Demon's Alter-Ego Ch. 01-04

"So, you tell me why Ezra hasn't killed me yet?" He said this without emotion, as if Ezra killing him was a foregone outcome.

I scowled, "Shouldn't the question be why haven't I killed you?'"

He did a laugh breath that wasn't joyful at all, "You're right. Why haven't you killed me?"

I blinked at how quickly he agreed with me. Goddess knows how many times I contemplated the act, wondering if I could, but I still played it off as if it didn't matter to me, "It wasn't on the warrant."

"Uh huh. That's not the answer."

I took a sharp inhale, his voice saying that damn word was such a trigger for me. I was going to hurt him if he kept saying it. My lip curled in a snare even as I gave him a truthful answer, "I don't want killing to become my first answer to every problem. I did that in one very important instance, and I can't stop thinking that maybe I should have done something else."

He nodded his head thoughtfully. "So, the real question is, why would Ezra let your decision effect his?"

I gave him a disbelieving look for the question, how did he parse that out so quick? "Because he's Ezra. Who knows!?" My thoughts were screaming, 'Because I am his Eshera. He does what I ask and follows where I go'. Thankfully, Oldavai couldn't read my mind, just my emotions, and by the look on his face he knew something was up.

He shook his head, "That's an answer, but not the one you're thinking. Why do you think Ezra isn't in your reference book, 'Hunting Nightmares'? I'm in it. Everyone knows me and he's been around just as long as I've been."

"Because he stopped being in the spotlight and you never did." My exasperation started to show through in my tone with all his questions. Couldn't this demon just say what he wanted to say without giving me a quiz?

He gave me a hard stare, "He's not in there because he made sure he wasn't. I don't know how, but I know he did. I didn't care if I was written in ink and published, he did. He likes all of us to forget how powerful he is." He closed his eyes and used his hands to demonstrate his calming breath.

"Again, why am I still alive?"

"I. Don't. Know."

"You do know!" He yelled back at me, and I took a step away from that rage.

"And this is why I know I should be dead! This emotion from Ezra is why I had to come in here." He turned back around to the fireplace. His hands were palm down, spread out on either side of him. "Right here. It's everywhere inside and outside the perimeters. It's like he pissed around his territory. Very potent and aimed specifically at incubi. He made it so I couldn't come in without your permission. And right here is where he worked magic so heavy that you were not in the house when he did. You never would've missed it, so he had to hide it from you."

I watched as he crowded close to the fireplace and stuck his arm up the flue. As he moved it down, I saw each inch come down covered in gray soot. His hand gripped something. I sucked in my breath knowing there was a revelation coming that I wouldn't like.

His voice quieted, "If you had kept my offering inside you, you would have felt, at the very least, something like a lingering obsession. You would have known something powerful was in striking distance of you. Something frightening."

Those words and volume ratcheted up my heartbeat and I felt the first stirrings of fear of Ezra. What did Ezra do that riled up Oldavai this much? I knew it was bad from the first words he spoke in my cabin. And it was, I could detect a faint tremor in his body as he turned around. In his hand was a circlet made of magic. It was a beautiful, twisting, knotted construction reminiscent of ancient artwork. The weave flowed like fire, sparks jumping to complete a swirl, from the deepest red to the striking blue of hottest flame. Its shape changed as I watched, each creation different, some to fit a wrist to others that could span the length of a throat and beyond. I found myself moving closer to where he stood and startled when Oldavai dropped it. The noise was a clang that reverberated through my hearing, as if actual metal.

He hissed and shook his hand. I watched in horror as a burn ate away at his skin and then into muscle. My peripheral vision saw his human visage stripped away, but the dragon magic caught my eyes, demanding I look.

"What is it?" I whispered as I reluctantly raised my eyes to him.

He placed his left hand on his right and closed his eyes in pain. "It's a collar, Dove. It's a dragon's collar. For you."

I backed up a step, "I'm not a dragon."

He made his humorless laugh, "No. You are not a dragon, but you are a dragon's hoard, and that gorgeous torque is made specifically for you."

I gasped and backed away from it even more. "No," I whispered.

His eyes opened and all the pain of the magic induced burn was reflected in them. "I need to take care of this. Give me a moment, my sweet pain." He took another deep breath and walked over to the couch, where he carefully sat down.

For once I wasn't struck by his beauty, instead I was mesmerized, lulled even, by the collar. I almost couldn't pull my eyes away from it as I dropped to crawl closer to where it lay. "It's beyond amazing," I said in awe.

Oldavai grunted, "For the first time in my life I agree that there is something more beautiful than my race. I have hungered my entire life to see a dragon's living collar and you are going to put it back in its hiding space."

He couldn't see me flinch, but I did. Even as I knew its magic was burning away his arm I said, "I don't want to touch it."

I heard Oldavai clear his throat before speaking. "Ezra's not dead, Dove, otherwise that would not be alive. I touched your collar, and he will know. If you don't touch it, he will come here and destroy everything."

There was silence between us.

"Dove, if he comes here and finds you alive without that collar in your hand, he may very well kill you so no one else can have you. I have seen a dragon destroy their hoard so no one would touch it. It was the most destructive sight I had ever seen. So..." he stopped, and I heard him take a shallow breath of pain. His voice came out tight and weak, "If you don't touch that damn collar this fire is going to eat away everything I am."

At his words I charged over to him and looked into his bloodshot eyes. The fire had burned the flesh off his arm and was flaring up his throat and down his chest. Flares of it had caught on his glittering hair and I panicked, "Oldavai!"

"I'm begging you and I have..." he took a painful, shallow breath, "never begged in my life." His breath and voice came out in a wheeze, "Touch that which is made for you and let it know that I did not dare steal a dragon's hoard from the dragon who owns it."

Touching him was out of the question, but I made a sound of distress as he fell sideways on the couch. The fire had made its way to his lips and was halfway down his chest. His arm was a mess, but the fire didn't sear away his flesh higher up, it just kept burning and burning. It stayed pivoted on him, not a single flame spread to the furniture. My hands came up to my mouth as I watched and firmly decided there was no way I could let anyone suffer if I could help.

I ran back to the collar and stretched my hand out towards it. Fuck, please don't latch on to my neck. Please, oh please, don't collar me in reality. I closed my eyes as I cautiously drummed my fingers over it, refusing to grab in one rush.

My eyes squinted in anticipation of pain. It pulsed and swirled, but there was no heat. The fire darted up my arm in caressing blue flames until I felt engulfed in swirls of pure power. I clenched the collar to my chest and felt complete in a way I hadn't since I pulled Oldavai's magic out of me. I walked over to him and looked down at his unconscious form. His arm looked raw and boney, a shuddering mass of wet muscle and bone. Other parts of him were covered in red, scaly ridden second-degree burns, but the fire was gone from his body.

I knew this was good for Oldavai, but I couldn't pull the emotion from me. The magic of the collar was looking out at his form through my eyes, it knew Oldavai and would kill him if I allowed. More of the collar's sentience washed over me and I had the understanding that it could make my heart beat even if it that organ stopped. It would keep my blood flowing, my mind active. Ezra's magic was so strong that this collar would keep me alive if I ever needed it. So potent that no one would be able to hurt me unless Ezra destroyed his own magic that gave me the right to direct the collar. Oldavai was wrong, with this torque, as he called it, no one could physically steal me from Ezra unless I allowed it and he was still alive. I knew instinctively that if anyone ever stole from a dragon's hoard it was only because the dragon allowed it. Ezra's power was a whisper in each leap of flame. I had another moment of crystal clarity in my day as I remembered.

The past embraced me and I relived the moment of Ezra slamming himself into me. I moaned from the memory and felt myself get wet. Phantom shifting sand moved on my back and his whispering was as clear as the bruising grip I could now feel on my hips. These words, so lost in the moment of our love making at that time, suddenly were loud in my memory.

Ezra had been so angry, "I will be your shroud. I will refuse your every foolish decision." He growled low, "And it will never happen." He pushed harder into me, trying to get as far inside of me as he could, and I could feel myself tighten over the memory of his fullness. His voice tuned into my mind, 'You are my hearth whether I collar you or not. Do you understand, Dove? You cannot escape me.'

My remembered scream of ecstasy was loud in my ears as I felt him lifting my hips with the flexing of his wings. He rubbed the inside of me incessantly, as if he would wedge himself permanently. His roar echoed in the memories as he emptied his burning essence deep in me. My body mimicked clenching him in the present as I remembered doing it in the past.

I came to myself with harsh, open-mouthed breaths kneeling on the carpet. The smooth, silkiness of the collar gripped in both of my hands was pressed hard to my chest, caressing my skin as it lazily moved under my sleeves to swirl around my wrists and up my arms. I felt my own soft waves cascade over my lowered face as the memories slowly faded. The uncomfortable feeling of soaked panties registered in my wrecked mind for a second before all I could think of was Ezra.

One thought stopped me from acknowledging the soothing touch on my hair. Ezra had talked in my mind. In a world that Taurin told me no one could do, he did. I sucked in breath. Why does he keep hiding from me? I gritted my teeth as I thought about how manipulating he was. Again, he warned me and again, I let him in. He had said about his mother, 'I learned from her, and I did it to you.'

A voice finally registered in my present-day hearing.

"Dove, what you're thinking needs to stop. You need to come back from wherever he took you. Your body is here with me."

Oldavai kept talking to me and I wanted to swat him away like an incessant mosquito.

"I'm going to piss you off in three seconds. Are you ready, my sweetest pain?"

Still lost in my memories of Ezra, I murmured incomprehensible noises to the incubi, unconcerned with him. I desperately tried to decipher everything that had happened to Ezra and me from his point of view.

And then Oldavai did exactly what he set out to do with the barest of touches that had the heaviest of results.

I barely registered that he was back to one solid body as I shot up off my knees, yelling at him, "You son of a bitch!"

This time I could feel his magic coating me, like being drenched in rain. A golden haze of glitter surrounded me, such a beautiful sight at odds with my anger. And then my legs gave away and he caught me securely around the waist.

"There you are. All back to normal." He swooped me up in his arms and looked down at me with his golden gaze. He focused on the collar, "It's time to put it away before you make that collar think I'm kidnapping you. It knows you now."

I grimaced down at the circlet in exhaustion, he was wrong again, the collar knew who I was all along, how could it not, Ezra made it for me, "I can walk."

He just tightened his hold where he gripped my body in acknowledgement of what I said if not acceptance. "My sweet, I fed off whatever orgasmic moment you had with Ezra. The smell of your arousal fills my nose and for the moment it is all mine. I had to drain you thoroughly to heal myself."

We were at the fireplace, and he nodded his head in the direction where he had originally pulled it from. "Put it back. It will stay where you put it without any help."

I cautiously moved my hand up the flue and hesitantly pressed the circlet against its inner, brick wall. I let go in one movement and was immediately swamped by the feeling of being incomplete. My breath let out in a whoosh. "That collar can heal my emptiness."

"Can it? Or is it meant to flood you with itself," he asked.

My forehead furrowed in thought as he walked us unwavering to my bedroom.

"Something to contemplate if you plan on putting it on. I've never known a dragon to make a hoard from a single living soul though." He gently laid me down on my bed.

"Have you seen many hoards?" I asked weakly, my eyes drifting close.

"No, just the one and it was almost destroyed by the time I got there. There was an ancient city. I don't even know exactly what the hoard was. I just know that nothing was left in the area once that dragon was done. It was seeing that dragon in all its fury that compelled me to find out everything I could about their hoards. Not even my magic can contend with the way a dragon feels about its hoard."

I yawned, "Will you leave me alone now?"

His words were a soft laugh, "Absolutely not. I want to see how long your desire will chain a very powerful dragon."

I didn't know the answer, but I was too tired to think about it.

CHAPTER 3

I yawned and stretched out my body believing for that brief waking moment that everything was back to its natural order. Then I turned to find a different version of Oldavai sleeping next to me. O.k., not everything. He even shed his incubi dust all over my sheets.

My brown hair was covered in golden glitter. My skin was covered in golden glitter. Hell, my eyelashes probably wafted gold off of them. I wanted to push him onto the hard floor, violently. Instead I took a deep breath and turned to shuffle myself off the bed when a very strong arm grabbed and snuggled me into the body it was attached to. His chin rested on top of my head.

"Oldavai," I said in warning.

"What?" He demanded sternly, daring me to object to him.

"I need to pee."

"Go ahead."

I was frustrated and slightly amused with his answer, "Deviant."

"Hmm."

"Seriously."

His huff was all annoyance, "Go, then come back."

I skirted off the bed and looked back at him, "Like you have the right to tell me what to do." I turned around to head to the bathroom and he was in front of me with one wrist held firmly in his long fingered grip.

He tilted his head to the side as he stared at me with almond shaped eyes and long, silky, black hair draped around his shoulders. I watched the transformation of his expression into an arrogant mask, "Come back to me when you are done."

I narrowed my eyes on him and then he was gone. My walk to the bathroom was stiff and angry, and I slammed the door behind me. Fucking incubi. I decided to take a long shower too so that by the time I did finally leave the bathroom he would be gone. Only he wasn't.

He was reading one of Ezra's magazines. He flipped a page and said, "I have an immense amount of undiscovered patience where you are concerned. It's quite fascinating. I'm sure my brothers would be in awe if they knew that I haven't strung you up from the ceiling by now, writhing with unfulfilled need."

"What the hell Oldavai?! What do you want?" I was wrapped in a towel, furiously going through my clothes, unnerved by his disturbing words.

"I liked it better when you were angry sex personified, not just angry."

"Well, thank you to a certain angel for small mercies."

"I suppose there is a silver lining for someone with everything," he mumbled.

I finally found what I wanted to wear and debated going back into the bathroom, but he had already seen me naked. I grumbled to myself as I realized he sees almost everyone naked so it might not be anything he really cared about. With that in mind, I struggled to put on my clothes while I still had damp skin, "Let's get this over with."

He didn't even look up at me, proving my point. He sighed, "Yes. That's you, straight to the crux of the matter. No foreplay. Let me deliver this as drily as I can. We need to visit Shorn. I suppose Ila too, just to make her feel validated. You have a warrant waiting, but without Taurin or Ezra I don't know if they will allow you to do it. You're due for your review, doubt that will go well with the whole Iloum incident and all." He finally looked at me, "How are you enjoying me being your messenger boy?"

My eyebrow quirked up, "I have a perfectly good mirror. You can deliver a message that I am here and never darken my doorstep again."

He looked back down to the magazine, "I will darken more than your doorstep, my sweet pain... in the ass."

I growled in frustration and walked out of the room. My room. I was routed out of my own bedroom. Son of a...

I went back to my dry cereal only to realize I already ate it all and proceeded to stomp to my meditation room, muttering all the way.

"Oldavai!" I shouted.

I heard him walk to the room before he stopped and leaned on the door frame, "Yes?"

I was unhinged and my unwanted guest seemed to be the only one with answers, how sad was that. I looked at him, "I have no magic."

"Of course you do," he said with exasperation, "In more ways than one, but most importantly you have mine. You've been making me wait long enough. I might have bonded with you because of my ego instead of brain, but I will never regret it."

"Even if Ezra kills you."

He shrugged, "He's always good for a little fun."

I rolled my eyes, and he interrupted me before I could speak.

"Come on little dove. I will take you there." He beckoned me with his elegant fingers.

I grimaced, "Demon travel always makes me sick."

"You'll be fine. We won't go in until you are no longer green in the face."

I kept a blank face as I walked towards him, "Wow. Thanks."

"It's time to get back in the game."

I scoffed as I placed myself in his arms, "I've been in the game, just not here." He tightened his hold on me and we were gone. Initially I felt the coarseness of the magnetic line scrape at my nerves and then it softened as a million emotions seared through me. And they were all sexual.

"Oh my gods! What was that?" I gasped and bent over with my hands on my knees. My quim tightened with excitement.

Oldavai stood in front of me looking out at the street, effectively guarding me from any onlookers. "That, my sweetest pain, is me trying to sex you out of your foul mood."

I groaned. "I can't think."

"Then it was effective."

"Except everyone in that office is going to smell sex on me!"

He turned to me, looking exasperated again. "And you will be with me." He clapped his hands and gave me a slick smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

I opened my mouth and closed it. That was uncomfortably true.

He leaned in and stared a pair of dark brown eyes into mine. "You look like a fish. Stop it and let's go." He grabbed my hand and hurried me around the corner and up the stairs. I couldn't stop swallowing my conflicted emotions. My vision was cemented on his back, and I watched as he quickly changed back into his incubus self just before we reached the doors. A quick wave back and forth between him and the guards, a fling of magic aimed at a sorceress, who I watched grab it in her fist and we were through without pause.