Demons' Home Ch. 25-28

"No," Ezra guttered in finality.

I composed myself and cleared my throat. "I was simply going to say, couldn't you ask Her through us. She implied to me that you needed to come to her."

I could faintly see her condescending smile through her veil. "Let me get that council meeting set, Ezra." She turned in a swirl of red skirts and smoke.

I frowned my forehead in thought, "None of that seemed to go well."

"No," Ezra agreed.

CHAPTER 27

"How much do we tell her?"

"Nothing. Demons appeared when I was a young dragon. She always knew I was born as I am and that there was no turning into a demon when I was an adult. It became an easy way to cover the indiscretion of who she was with."

"Maybe she loved him."

Ezra looked at me in heavy silence and said nothing.

"What?"

"No. She is always deliberate with her manipulations."

I cocked my head back and grimaced, "You don't know. You weren't even born."

He grabbed my hand roughly, "I learned from her and I did it to you. Switch topics and walk with me. They will convene quickly to view the truth of my Dame Genesis' statement. Our creator is never a matter to linger days on."

"I don't have my gun!" I gasped out as he practically dragged me behind him with his tight grip. We walked at a fast clip into the gigantic tunnel I first saw his brother emerge from. The deeper we went the softer the light was until Ezra abruptly stopped.

"Yes. You were not allowed to keep it. Nazar is coming."

"Wait! What?!" My perspective went from outrage to concern when it registered what he said. "In dragon..." my words died off as the fire banked completely. My mouth was suddenly dry and I licked my lips before finishing, "form?"

Ezra remained still.

"If we don't move he will squash us like a bug!" I exclaimed and tugged on Ezra's hand.

"I will not do that. Yet. I simply did not believe my own Dame Genesis when she told me that you were given this highest honor."

Nazar's voice echoed in the passage and became more distinct the closer he got, the light flickered from him now. I stepped closer to Ezra's warmth and immediately felt his tail wrap itself tightly around my leg.

He hissed malevolently, "Show me, Scion Ezra."

"Ask the Eternal She to show you," Ezra replied blandly.

Nazar laughed low and dark. "You have nothing and you will both die," he scoffed.

I felt it then. A sort of tingle radiating off my body. And there was a sound, a pinging trill like nothing I'd heard before. The deepest breath left my body and I bowed backwards from the force of primal life streaming off of me. I realized my eyes were closed because I opened them and what I saw of my body was that I was dark. So deep a black that it shined. My mouth opened and she spoke from it, sounding from eons away.

"Child, you do me no reverence."

Then she poured space through us and the infinitesimal specks that Ezra and I were could not hold the vastness of it. We were surrounded by galaxies and then with a silent pop we were back in a fire lit tunnel. The guardian form of Nazar was plastered as low to the floor as he could possibly get. Fire leaked out of his eyes in rivulets, flowing like water on stone.

"Brother, how will you contain it all?"

"Premier Nazar, do not humble yourself before me," Ezra begged as he bent closer to his form.

Nazar looked up at him with his banked ember eyes. "Walk first of me."

"No," Ezra ground out with force.

Nazar held him with his stare, "You will walk ahead of me and I will humble myself before you until it is enough for Her. Now go. Conclave is waiting."

I watched Ezra lift his chin in determination and soundly step around his brother. Ezra didn't look back, but I did. He lingered on the ground longer and then slowly rose by the time Ezra pulled me forcefully left and then immediately right. My feet stumbled to catch up to my hand and I grimaced as I felt eyes watching me.

The room was bright and overly warm. The eyes were all from guardian forms. Zhora stood in front of me to my right. They were huge, larger than Ezra was now, and Zhora was small grouped in with them. Not as small as me granted, but I understood now why Nazar was not as large as he should be. The brothers did it for their mother. To be on even ground with her.

She spoke first, "Where is Premier Nazar?"

"He is guarding," came Ezra's taunt reply.

"There is nothing to guard. I ask again, where is Premier Nazar?" Her voice sounded imperial. I turned to Ezra and watched his jaw clench.

"He is a step behind," he answered with a defiant stare to the assembled group.

Immediate humming and distressed sighs filled the chamber. It seemed to me that they were taking this order of rank a little too far in my estimation, but I was American, so what did I know. Well, I did know exactly when Nazar entered the room. The volume of the room muted and then rose way more than I thought necessary. I scanned the warm hued draconian forms surrounding me and laughed a little at what their idea of a small meeting consisted of. There had to be more than twenty, very nude I might add, males and females attending. I looked back at Zhora, grateful to have someone wearing clothes to focus on.

Nazar came up behind us and placed a clawed hand on each of our shoulders and spoke.

"It is true."

Again the volume rose, until a female shushed everyone and stepped out of the crowd. "Show us," she demanded with an exaggerated circle of her head.

I looked back at Ezra as his grip tightened on mine again. He opened his mouth to speak, but Nazar got there before him.

He pleaded to them. "Do not anger Her with demands."

My eyes rolled backwards and my head lolled to the side. "Too late," I squeaked out before I was gone from the chaos. I free flowed back to space with the Eternal She.

"My children have become as undisciplined as you humans."

"We are undisciplined, but I think you confirmed that I'm not entirely human," I said rather shrewdly. Thousands of stars flamed in a fury.

"Never, is the best time to remind me."

Then I was back and finding myself on my butt with twenty or so guardians in lowered gestures of obeisance in front of me. A fairly weird occurrence in reference to my small and weak statue compared to them. Ezra was squatted down in front of me, his eyes had their small galaxy within. I knew where they came from now, his trapped father.

He placed his finger on his lips in a silencing motion. I pursed my own in annoyance and he smiled back, extending his hand. I gratefully took it and rose with him to stand. He motioned with his head for me to get Nazar's attention. The Premier's head was down and he leaned over one knee. I put my fingertips on the back of his neck and he cringed slightly, turning his head away from me. I traced a line to his shoulder and down his arm until I reached his hand. I tugged on it and hastily let go when those somber, glowing eyes finally turned to me. I motioned him back out the tunnel and he complied without complaint or hesitation.

Ezra set a clipped pace back to the opening, pulling his brother up along beside him and practically carrying me with his other hand. My feet barely landed with the pace he set until we reached the outside ledge.

"Take her to the Ice Dwellers. Particularly the Sikushe clan. You know their taste." Ezra's clawed hand smacked firmly on my mouth before I even had a chance to open it in dissent. He brought me in front of him and held me in a very tight hug against his chest.

"Ezra, I have not been to the Risen Oorts in centuries." Nazar voice turned admonishing, "Is this wise?"

"Premier, please. You know that Sanctuary is for dragons. Even as my Eshera, Dove is not made for Sanctuary."

They both ignored me and my outrage, blithely continuing their conversation as if I wasn't involved.

"And if the Cloud Dragons sniff her out?" he asked with irony.

Ezra closed his eyes, "Please. She needs to go."

I bit him hard and all I got was more abuse as he spun me around fast enough to get dizzy. My arms ached where he held them in his vice grip. "Dove, Taurin will find you. Our Eternal She said you had more to do. Trust me."

My anger drained out slowly, "She told you that?"

"I swear."

Whatever I was going to say vanished from my mind when I smelled that familiar smell of longing and lust. Bells clinked like a lonely wind chime before I heard her husky voice.

"Scion Ezra does not lie. He simply will not answer you. I lie, but I am not lying to you now when I tell you, he comes for you."

The brothers were turning towards their mother as I inhaled as much as I could. I could feel the rise of my breasts as my breathing went from diaphragm to chest. Oldavai's taste was filling my mouth and my nipples hardened. He was calling me to him. I could actually hear his erotic whispers and see my world speckled with gold sparks. If I stayed a second longer it was over. I had no idea what was over, but I was not going to let it happen. I wretched out of Ezra's grasp and turned to Nazar. My peripheral vision caught sight of the moving mass of guardians crowding the hallway.

I grabbed his arm in alarm and yelled, "Now!"

Nazar stopped arguing and lifted me in his powerful arms. Ezra reached out and painfully yanked out a stray drift of my hair just before Nazar took off running. He leaped off the edge and into the air of a dark night. His form smoked, twisted and changed around me until I found myself in the familiar exhilaration of riding a dragon, even if it was not the one I wanted beneath me.

CHAPTER 28

My body relaxed mile by mile as we flew farther and higher away from Zhora. I hunkered down as low as I could to conserve body heat from the cooler temperatures in the air. Eventually, the steady beat of Nazar's wings lulled me into a dreamless sleep that felt like it had been calling to me for days. When I awoke we were still flying and Nazar's body had formed around me in such a way that I was safe from falling and cocooned with his heat. I peered up and around his shoulders to see us flying around mountains. He twisted and spiraled in graceful aerobatics that had me holding my breath at the nearness of those peaks.

His head lowered several times to scan, occasionally he swooped down low to inspect small villages in the midsts of snowy mountains and their passes. At one village he circled round several times before maintaining a lower altitude over a huge frozen lake. There was only one sign of life standing on the ice of that lake. I saw platinum hair whipping in the wind and felt a gaze honed on us. As I watched, the ice of the lake twisted and rolled, reaching for our gazer's out stretched hands while continuing its climb up his legs.

Nazar descended onto the ice gently and helped me roll off his side. The contrast of his heat and the snap of cold leeching into the bottom of my shoes was significant. My hands immediately went under my armpits and I hopped from foot to foot in a sort of skip towards Taurin. The man in front of me was Taurin, only it was a Taurin I had never met. The ice encased him entirely now, bits of blue mica shining over his skin, and the sword that I had only seen once before in his hand was a sharp edged threat with every step closer. Behind me Nazar let out three short shrieks and I felt his heat ratchet up, warming my back.

"Stop," I pleaded. With my arms raised to urged him to lower his sword. The ice on Taurin glistened as it continued to move and slide around his body. Only when he finally reached me did he deign to look directly at me. The glacier blue of his eyes blazed and I took a racing step backwards from their alienness. This was no laughing, joking Taurin. This was the Icelander coming through, the monster I saw swimming behind the ice of his eyes. I belatedly realized this was another demon I knew nothing about.

The dragon screeched forcefully three more times when I backed away from Taurin and into Nazar's closer protection. It was then that I acknowledged the puddle of water under my feet. In alarm I looked up quickly, only to find that Taurin had made his way within touching distance of me again. His entire focus was on the dragon whose head was down low and shrieking at him. My memory flashed and I saw Taurin telling me, "dragons eat demons". I didn't forget, I just assumed that everything would turn out copacetic. Wrong again.

I made to turn my body towards Nazar and Taurin's hand shot out to restrain me. That was when I realized I erred, he wasn't entirely focused on Nazar. At least his sword went to his other hand before it reached out to freeze my neck. Not literally, just enough to tip the scales so I was non-stop shivering now.

I yelled as loud as I could through my scratchy, cold throat, "Nazar, leave! You're melting the ice!"

He screeched in noncompliance and I felt his fire heat up a notch. Taurin's hand never left me which, thankfully, meant he wasn't moving closer to Nazar. Feeling the implicit warning in the Icelander's loose grip, I didn't try to turn and look at the dragon again. My feet were getting colder and colder as water seeped into their poor construction.

I shouted again, "Ezra knows what he's doing! Leave!"

With one last shriek that pierced my ears, I felt the heat and draft of Nazar as he flexed his wings and lifted himself away. The Icelander stared into the sky until I could no longer hear the forceful push of air from the dragon, then he turned his deadly stare to me.

He looked me up and down while I slowly froze into numbness. His fingers reached out to touch the seam that burst on my corset during my arduous love making session with Ezra. He moved his finger slowly over the seam until it reached a shaw loosely tucked above my bulging breasts. He moved deliberately over my mounds, dipping his finger as low as he could in their valley before rising up to move over the other one. Then, his hand grabbed mine and he pulled me along beside him over the lake.

I tripped over my feet, making the melted ice splash on our legs, and clumsily caught myself before I fell on my face. He paid no attention, just quickened the pace. When I still couldn't recover from the numbness invading my legs, he turned, picked me and ran the rest of the way to the clutters of cabins where smoke rose from each chimney. My breath came out hard when I finally head the crunch of snow underneath his feet. As he wove through the village I caught glimpses of faces in the windows. Some with doors open and blatantly staring. The shades of blue in their bodies a familiarity.

Taurin made his way to a cabin set back from the others and slammed the door with his foot once we were inside. There was a fire burning and a wood stove whose warmth made tears come to my eyes. He sat me down on a chair and deftly started to undress me, starting with my feet. I just sat with my uncontrollable shivering and let him continue. I couldn't decide if he was disgusted with me or not and if he was, for what. He didn't melt or drip, nothing. I expected to see a pool of water underneath him, but he remained the same. His dexterous fingers were freezing on my skin and there were times when the ice moved over the pressure of his touch. My body jerked as he roughly unlaced the tight corset and practically tore it off me. His aloofness was unnerving as he rubbed the edges of the tear. With a scowl he tore at it and ripped it up further, but still he said nothing. I pursed my lips tight as he gestured to the furred rug in front of the fireplace. I looked up at him with a tinge of anger for his neanderthal behavior.

I take it my slowness was too much for him and he grabbed me by the hand, pulling me to where he wanted. I was thrust in front, facing the fire and he pushed my shoulders down until I was kneeling in the welcoming plushness of the rug. Admittedly, the fire felt good on my face, but it couldn't compete with the bone chilling temperature of his hands. He stayed behind me with his hands solidly on my shoulders, the chemise offering no protection. My hands moved up in a deliberate path to push his off me, only as soon as I voluntarily touched him my vision changed.

Taurin's magic took hold and I watched my breath steam the air. My sight filled with the glittering fall of water drops turning into snowflakes. Taurin never moved his hands. The ice covering him did. It moved so fast it was already twining up my fingers like vines.

"Taurin?" I rasped out.

The only answer I got was his fleeting touch across my shoulder blades and the sound of his retreating boots as he moved to leave. The wind whipped into the cabin as he showed himself out and silently closed the door.

I stared at my hands in front of my face and watched ice slowly melt off them. Thoughts raced around themselves until I finally settled on the absurdity that my time here was as ridiculous as my life back home. I sighed and hoped that the male who walked in that door was the demon who annoyed me and not the Icelander who almost turned me into an ice sculpture.