Flirting with Sin Ch. 04

The creature's 'head' turned toward me and it pushed itself high into the air, standing on several feet of appendages coming from the bottom of its robes.

"Welcome, good Hunter."

I didn't hear the words so much as I felt them, hammering against my eardrums and pounding into my temples. The room seemed to pulse and throb when it 'spoke.'

"How fortuitous that I should receive a servant of the Lord on so blessed a day. My daughter has returned to the Church, you see," it said, gesturing the long appendages of its left 'hand' toward a far corner of the room.

Alison was there, caught in the grasp of this monstrosity from the neck down, her body wrapped inescapably in its writhing appendages. "T-Trevor! This thing is...!"

"I am Father Richard Gales, minister of this chapel. I am but a humble servant of the Lord and those who worship here are the members of my flock," he boomed. There was a subtle twitch in the flesh covering its face, like it was trying to smile. "I must thank you for bringing my daughter back into the fold, Trevor Rensor, albeit through false pretenses."

I set Voh down to rest against the wall and drew the sword. Waves of malice ran up my arm, Lightsbane's murderous intent rippling along the holy symbols, causing a crackle of holy light that shocked my nerves and made my muscles twitch. I pointed the sword at the malformed creature floating on his writhing mass of tentacles.

"You are no servant of God. You're a shell of a man, twisted by the blood you've drawn from the former clergy who infest this place as satyrs and undead," I accused him.

"I am a righteous and charitable man, and the form you see before you is the result of my piety. My Lord has gifted me with many arms with which to cast my blessings and dole out his judgement," he spoke into my head, stretching his long fleshy tentacles toward me. "If the Lord's choice was for me to draw His gift from the blood of those less pious than I, I am not one to question His judgement. For the Lord works in mysterious ways."

"You're sick!" Alison hissed, struggling against her binds. "You killed Mother, and for what?! To sit down here in your little basement and grow fat off her blood?! You're no man! You're a swollen, bloodsucking monster!"

Father Gales turned his sightless gaze toward Alison. There was a scratching noise in my head that must have been laughter, but sounded more like a hideous cough. "Gentle Felicity. So beautiful. Such a devoted woman of the cloth, despite her sinful existence. Such a temptation set upon me by the Lord. And though I sinned, I did make amends. Even in death, she was so beautiful." One of the Father's veiny, throbbing appendages wrapped near Alison's face stroked her cheek. "You bear such a resemblance to her--you even have her eyes."

Alison roared, her face twisted in fury. "You stole her from me! I'll kill you!"

"To think such terrible, sinful thoughts. But for you are a woman born of sin like your mother before you, the devil may yet still have his tendrils in you. I forgive you for them, my daughter, but the Lord may not," he said, his wispy voice echoing inside my skull.

The mass of appendages wrapped around Alison carried her to the center of the room. Struggle as she might, the cat demon could do little but growl.

"Demon Hunter, bear witness to the Lord's light. Though Alison may be tainted by Lucifer's nefarious touch, she may yet be saved."

The appendages around Alison's body constricted, their veins pulsating like they meant to break free from the flesh. The grey skin darkened to a deep crimson and rhythmically expanded and contracted around her body. The room filled with the sound of crunching bone; Alison wailed in agony.

"What are you--stop!" I shouted.

I pulled back the hammer of the magnum and squeezed the trigger--click.

"Damn it!" I swore. The gun was dry of blood and empty of bullets.

I slammed silver into the chambers, aimed at the writhing mass above and pulled the trigger. The bullet ripped one of the appendages free, black bile oozing from the wound. Gales did not so much as react, even as I emptied the chambers into his limbs.

As I was reloading the tendrils coiled around Alison loosened. A bundle of autumn-colored hair and sickeningly twisted limbs crumbled to the floor. She twitched and shook violently. Her arms were bent and twisted in unnatural ways, the bone cracked free from the muscle and pierced from the skin. Then she reeled, arched her back and her spine cracked; the limbs curved back into their proper places but grew longer; the muscles swelled, the hair and fur covering her body thickened and covered more of her skin; her paw-like hands and feet grew larger and her claws elongated like swords coming from her appendages. The cat demoness turned to look at me, her great mane of hair twisting around her body, her emerald green eyes eerily aglow, sitting below her fur-covered forehead and the whiskers coming from her eyebrows.

"Trevorrrrr...!" she growled my name, a crazed bloodthirsty slur.

Alison's green gemstone eyes set on me, filled with primal hunger. A familiar chill crawled up my back--a trembling in my spine, a fear that dug its way into my every nerve. The feeling of being seen as prey, as merely a meal for this terrible predator. Alison was gone, only the demon remained.

"Look upon my daughter, Hunter. This blessed form is what the Lord has chosen for her. Is she not beautiful?"

Gales' voice echoed in my head like painful stabs against the walls of my sanity. The demoness before me clutched her head and wailed, crooning and roaring in confused agony.

"Get... get oooouuut! Get ooouuut!" she cried, falling to her knees.

"In this most holy of forms, she may even help me to spread His blessings. Lay down your weapons, Hunter. Allow His gift to grace your body."

The Father's maddening voice triggered some unnatural response in Alison--she sprang up from the ground as if pulled by strings. With her hungry gaze affixed on me she sprang into the air, claws sailing through the heavy atmosphere toward my navel.

The long demonic claws clashed with gun and sword; we were face to face with her struggling to push her blades into my neck. She was hyperventilating through her fangs and her eyes were crazed and confused.

A tentacle came soaring through the smoke; I pushed Alison away and fell backward just before the appendage smashed the stone where I was standing. Two more whipped toward me, the writhing mass that was Father Gales sliding along his appendages into the middle of the room. I managed to duck under one of them, but the other wrapped around my ankle and flung me into the air, where it caught me again and dangled me in front of the cat demon.

"Face the weight of your sins, Demon Hunter. Face His judgement," the voice bounced off the walls of my mind, growing louder with each word.

On all fours, Alison's muscular limbs were primed to pounce on me like a rat caught in a trap. Right as she sprung I desperately fired the magnum--the bullet bounced off the stone floor and ripped through her side, sending her tumbling in a thrashing mass of limbs.

I split the limb holding me in twine and black ooze spray all over my robe. As I hit the ground, several more appendages came darting after me. Suddenly Lightsbane felt heavier--I glanced at it to find the blade growing, curving, the hilt elongating to support it. It had become the shape of a scythe, the curve razor sharp, hot to the touch and burning with a violence so intense I felt it overtake me.

With the scythe-sword in hand, I cut straight down an appendage come grasping for me, the two halves flopping back and forth as I split them, the black ooze splattering all over the ground. Lifting the scythe-sword upward I split the tentacle free, brought the blade down on three more trying to wrap around me. Steadying the magnum, I aimed for the Father floating above--when a ball of hair and claws bound into me, knocking me several feet across the room.

Alison was on all fours, hissing and spitting. Gales lowered himself, his tentacles stretched out around me. The cat demon inched toward me on her paws, the predator savoring the moment before she moved in for the kill. I felt Gales voice penetrate my head once more, a high and mighty sneer.

"Give thanks to the God in Heaven, Hunter, for His love endures forever. Give yourself up to Him, let Him absolve you of your sins."

The scythe shrunk in my grasp and the sound of many shards of metal hitting stone met my ears. Lightsbane had become a length of chain, the links retracting inside its hilt. I felt blood drip down my forehead as I tried to make sense of it.

... Blood!

The bullet casings scattered the ground around me. I held the chamber open next to my head, let the blood dribble in. Again some unseen thing, wet and slimy, traced itself over my head and my fingers trying to lap up every bit of plasma it could, and the gun became red-hot and painful to grasp.

The demoness let loose a great roar and launched from the floor, propelled by her large paws. I grasped the hilt and threw the chain toward her; a length of chain-links came clinking out of the hilt, launched by an unseen mechanism, and wrapped themselves around her limbs, her torso and her neck. She tumbled to the ground growling and gnashing her teeth, but unable to move.

With what strength I had left I raised the gun toward Gales. The blood built up within the chamber, boiling and bubbling, a ball of the plasma concentrated in the barrel. Every tentacle attached to the Father picked itself from the ground and made for me like the whole undulating room was putting forth a desperate attempt to stop me.

A mass of dark crimson launched from the gun, the force throwing me to the ground. It tore through the Father's limbs, chunks of pulsating flesh and black slime flying everywhere, and connected with his shoulder where it blew his arm-appendages and half his chest free from his corrupted form.

Something stirred within Alison; she struggled against the chains, freeing one limb at a time until she could again move. Rather than attack me, however, she yanked me along as she dove after Father Gales' body, yowling in ear-piercing ferocity.

The cat demoness tore into him, her claws sinking into his grey pulsating flesh and ripping free chunks of black corruption. Biting and tearing and growling, she came upon a dark red organ, still beating. She sank her fangs into it, tore it from the arteries, clawed and bit at it as endless torrents of black blood poured over her jaw and chest.

"Oh, Alison... my sweet, sinful daughter. I forgive you... May the Lord have mercy on your soul..." the voice entered my head again, weak and whispering.

I approached her, gun held steady, the chains firmly in hand.

"Alison?"

Slowly her head crooked around to gaze at me, her face and neck absolutely covered in gore. A low threat rumbled in her throat and her eyes were wide with distrust. Gales' heart fell from her mouth and chunks of it littered the ground. She stood and tried to pull away from me, screeching and struggling against the chains.

Pulling the hilt toward me, the chains snapped around her arms and bound them together but her legs held steady. I grabbed the chains and drew them in, inch by inch, forcing her to stumble toward me. She bit at the air and hissed; once I had her at arm's length, I pressed the barrel of the gun against her forehead.

Fangs bare, she was sucking in air like a cornered beast and glaring death into me. My finger was steady on the trigger. If I pulled it now, my hunt would be complete, my holy duty fulfilled. The Church would accept my transgressions if I paid some small penance. If I pulled the trigger, Alison would die.

I stared at her. For the briefest of moments, her face softened. She blinked, and there was something in her eyes, small and subtle and vulnerable, the same as I had seen before in another as they stared down the barrel of a gun.

Fear.

That's right, I remembered. I promised.

I drew the rosary from my pocket and showed it to her, but she merely cast a confused look at it and hissed. Holding Lightsbane's chains steady by the hilt, I slipped the rosary's chain over her head, through her hair and let it fall to her chest.

Alison's skin sizzled where the metal touched. She let out a pained mewl and looked like she was making an effort just to stand. Yet nothing more happened--despite being visibly weakened, her corrupting demonic presence was as overpowering as ever. The terrible demon transformation Gales had forced on her was resisting the rosary's blessing. I would need to sap her strength in order for it to work... and there was only one way I could think of.

Gripping the chain, I forced her close to me. With my free arm I pulled her into my chest, her wild hair spilling over my shoulder, her breasts pressed against me. She hissed and glared at me, tried weakly to bite at my collar; I grabbed a handful of her wild auburn mane and pulled, forcing her to look up into my eyes. In those emeralds with black slits cut down their middles I saw hostility, anger, indignance--and a vulnerable little girl. I pressed my lips against hers and shoved my tongue into her mouth, probing, searching. I felt the rough texture of her tongue, tasted the heat of her breath. Her father's corrupted demonic blood was everywhere I kissed her, it was smeared between our tongues. She tried to slip away, tried to break free from my grasp, but I tightened my grip on her hair and tasted her until I had touched every corner of her mouth.

A trail of bloody saliva connected our tongues. She gasped for air. Her scowl faded to a look of confused weakness. My hand slipped from her hair, down her breast, trailing her curves. I felt along her thick, muscular thighs, her ample behind. She shuddered and let out a growl, but it soon softened into a weak mewl.

Dripping moisture, she gasped at my touch, but hissed and turned away from me. I pulled the chains binding her and forced her to face me, forced her to stand and endure as my fingers slid across her opening. She snarled in my face and lunged for my neck. I could have pulled the chain taut and choked her, but instead I let her bite me.

As her fangs sunk into my neck, I pressed my fingers into her nethers. She gasped, but still she bit down, my blood dribbling into her mouth. The pain only spurred me on--in and out I penetrated her with my touch, reaching deeper, my hand wet with her dripping honey. Her mouth fell open, meowling like a wild beast in heat. I reached into her, mercilessly rubbing the warm folds of her velvety void, and she could but cry out as I forced pleasure into her. Alison's face was a troubled mix of rage and desire; I stared into her with determined brows, silently enforcing that there was no escape.

"Tr-Trevorrr..." she whined. "I-I...!"

There was a flash of recognition for me in her eyes, fleeting and distant, before she again looked at me like she wanted nothing better than to tear my throat out. I stifled the rumbling animalistic threats coming from her throat by shoving my tongue in her mouth. The taste of my iron mixing with the corrupted blood and her saliva was dizzying; I was sampling the very corruption that fueled her terrible form and my heart was surging with excitement. I would make this unholy creature my own.

Alison's legs trembled as I rubbed the warm spots inside of her. Breaking our sloppy, bloody kiss, her head fell against my shoulder and she let out a roar that echoed down the crimson stone hallway and made my ears ring. Gasping for breath and covered in sweat, she looked up at me with quivering eyes, but her body remained the same.

The demonic beast pressed her tight form against me. Her breasts heaved against my chest. She stared at me with a frenzied primal glare that reached the deepest recesses of my instinct. She was carnal and animal, wicked and hungry. A predator's hunger.

Alison rubbed roughly against me, brushing her cheek against my jaw. Her whiskers tickled my nose. The same way she had marked me as her territory before. Lightsbane's chain snapped taut and I gripped the hilt tight and struggled to hold on; Alison tore her arms free from their constraints and her claws were at my neck and around my back. The demon pushed me to the ground and leapt on top of me.

Excited mewls and drops of saliva slipped from her lips. The tips of her razor sharp claws traced down my face, scratching just deep enough to draw blood. She balled her paws into fists against my chest and shredded my robe and undershirt, ripping them away so she could run her hands over my chest. She lashed me with her painfully prickly tongue and pressed her lower half against me, sighing hot against my neck.

Alison had me in her terrifying grasp. I was again the mouse between her claws, the juicy morsel she would play with before devouring whole. Her thick, powerful limbs held me down, the weight of her thighs enough to keep me pinned. The soft heat of the demon's body, her animal scent and the sight of her bloody fangs would have been enough to paralyze me or any mortal man, but my blood was running hot; this demon temptress's challenge made my head burn with a sinful desire. I would not lie still and let her have her way with me. Not this time.

I gripped Lightsbane and pulled; the chains yanked her arms away--but she flexed her muscles and reached out for me, clawing for my neck, her throat rumbling with excitement. Grabbing her hand and intertwining our fingers I matched my strength with hers, grunting and struggling in a vicious tussle.

The chains creaked under the force of her strength. Her arms strained, her abdominals tightened; it was everything I could do to keep her from pushing me back to the floor. I tugged Lightsbane again and threw my weight against her; the chain retracted several links into the hilt and her wrists snapped together behind her back. We tumbled to the stone floor, panting and gasping.

Alison ran her spiny tongue against my cheek. She growled at me, a purr rising from her rumbling throat. Gritting my teeth, I pushed myself up and pulled her with me; I turned her around as I held the chain tight. With my chest against her back, I forced her head to the floor and held her there with Lightsbane's hilt pressed to her neck.

After a moment of fumbling with my belt with one hand, my desperately engorged member escaped my pants and fell between her cheeks. She twitched and squirmed as I primed myself against her dripping lips. Every muscle in her body tensed; I could feel her working against the chains, desperately trying to free herself. I wouldn't give her the chance. All at once I pushed into her hellish depths; a deep guttural yowl filled the demonic service room and boomed against my eardrums.

The ferocious beast below me writhed as I withdrew and then slammed back inside. I kept her pinned with my arm against her neck and her shoulders. With each thrust her body shook, she squirmed beneath me, her paws grasped at the air searching for something to desperately hold onto. Her muscular back and firm backside strained each time I hilted inside her, the demon's back arching and her body rising to match me. She breathed a troubled gasp each time, both moving with me and trying feverishly to escape.

Lowering my chest against her back I wrapped my arm around her neck and pulled her close as I forced my way into her body. She shuddered and cried beneath me, trembling each time I rammed into her sinfully hot depths. Holding her tight enough to choke her, I invaded her again and again. The flesh-searing heat of her body melted away my reason; the space between the two of us was sealed, skin against skin, our bodies slick with sweat and sticky with blood.