Out of the Night: Escape

My fear resurfaced, "Wait! I answered your question! What more do you want?"

"You ran away. You put yourself in danger and could have been found by any number of dangerous monsters before I got to you. You still need to be punished." The emotions I read off of him had morphed from anger into concern and fear.

He had been worried about me, I realized.

It didn't make the next strike any less painful. The stands of leather whistled through the air before landing on my reddened thighs. The weave of the fabric on my leggings rubbed against the raw skin with each strike. He mercifully paused, reaching up to lift my blood stained shirt over my braless breasts. My nipples were already hard, and the feel of the fabric moving over them sent shivers down my sides.

He admired them for a moment, moving in to kiss each of the peaks, leaving saliva that intensified the cool air of the room.

Then the flogger changed target. Damien swung down and the sharp sting of each strap of leather spread across one breast and then the other.

Before long, my chest was bright red. My nipples were pointing into the cool air and every time a stray strap found contact with one of them I yelped, the sting making my core tighten. He spread out the blows, covering my entire chest and stomach. The strikes soon overlapped on every blow, intensifying the sensation.

"Please!" I was begging, "I'm sorry! I made a mistake! Please stop!" My body was hot and raw from the blows and it was beginning to surpass my pain tolerance as he continued.

"Say you will never leave like that again," he demanded, no pause in his steady rhythm.

"I won't leave you again!"

"Swear it"

"I swear! Please, Damien!"

He hit my chest a few more times, finishing with a final blow directly between my spread legs.

The sharp sting on my engorged clit made me scream.

The flogger hit the floor with a thud. I was left alone for a moment, and I tried to gather myself. I was unsuccessful before he reappeared. Cold metal against my stomach made me suck in sharply. Damien used scissors to quickly cut away my leggings. The absence of fabric rubbing against my raw skin was a relief. The relief was short-lived.

I heard the buzz before I saw it. The black rabbit vibrator was similar to one I had owned before and I knew exactly how this was about to play out.

He pressed the tip against my entrance, moving it over my wet lips. It moved smoothly, and I was so slick, that by the time he pressed it in, it slid easily into me. It wasn't nearly as thick as Damien, but the bulbous head pressed up in just the right spot, vibrating pleasantly. I sighed, relaxing into it. He pressed it deeper, until my clit was also stimulated, the soft vibrations feeling so nice.

He started to move, moving with small thrusts, circling the toy so that it rubbed against my g-spot without leaving my clit. It felt incredible. I quickly climbed toward an orgasm.

I half expected him to pull away, not letting me finish, but he pushed on. I came with a moan, thrusting my hips to meet his movements.

He didn't stop. My climax was drawn out, my body taught, legs shaking in the restraints.

He didn't stop. I was over sensitive and I pulled away. Only, I couldn't move far and he followed. I cried out as I was quickly brought to a second, painful orgasm. Unlike the first, I didn't relax afterwards. The sensations were too strong.

He didn't stop.

"Damien, it's too much!" He pressed in, watching my face as his thumb moved to the buttons below the hilt. The vibrations became stronger and I screamed. The nerve endings in my clit were on fire, my walls clamped hard on the toy, and I shook my head, tears escaping the corners of my eyes.

A third orgasm took over. It took longer than the previous two, pain waring with pleasure. When it struck my entire body bowed, restraints biting into my reddened skin. I screamed his name as he rode it out.

It wasn't until he was sure my third climax had passed that he pulled the vibrator out of me. My conflicted feelings of relief and emptiness were erased at the feel of his cock at my entrance. He pressed in, filling and stretching me in one long stroke. We groaned together.

He was moving in me now, gradually picking up pace until he was pounding into me. My hands gripped the chains restraining them. The stretch of his cock inside of me was the perfect balance of pain and pleasure. When he pressed into me he brushed against my oversensitive clit. He reached up and squeezed my breasts roughly, making my breath come in gasps.

He finally thrust hard, staying deep inside of me, and I felt his cock expand and pulse. Thumb and forefinger pinched my nipples, making me cry out once more as he growled his own release.

His body collapsed on top of mine, his face buried in my neck, cock still inside me.

"You will never put yourself in danger like that again." He demanded hoarsely. I nodded, unable to talk coherently. "We can be happy together, you don't need to be afraid. I'll make you strong."

We remained like that for a while, until we came back down from our passion. Damien had then unchained my hands, bringing my arms down to my sides and rubbing life back into them. He unbound the rest of my body but I remained where I was, still a bit too exhausted to move.

As I lay in the afterglow of orgasm, something occurred to me. "I felt all of that."

"Mhm," Damien agreed, returning his tools to their places behind me.

"No, I mean, the pain. I didn't feel pain before, when I was hurt, but this time I felt it... why?"

"Maybe I wanted you to feel it." He thought a moment before adding, "Maybe YOU wanted to feel it." I could hear the smile in his voice when he responded.

I scoffed. "I did NOT want to be hit, Damien!"

"Didn't you?"

"No!" But I wasn't so sure.

...

Damien carried me to the bath when I proved too wobbly to stand. The remaining tatters of my clothes were thrown away and I was placed into the tub of warm water. I hissed when the heat contacted my raw skin, but it faded quickly. Damien removed his own shirt and for the second time in as many days, washed my own blood off of my body.

As he worked, I noticed marks on his right forearm. Stopping his hand, I turned it over to inspect the four parallel scars that now marred the once smooth flesh. He allowed me to look and run my fingers over the raised marks.

"What is this?" I asked, recognizing that they lined up perfectly with the swipe Adam had taken at me while he was a bear.

"You asked before about how you were kept safe. Nothing can kill you without killing me first, and I'm very hard to kill."

I moved his arm and reached for his abdomen, confirming my suspicion. A faded two inch line scarred his side in exactly the same spot Dagr had stabbed me.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He had let me believe he didn't care that others might be hurt to protect me. He had let me think the worst. I didn't understand it.

He shrugged. "Didn't want you doing anything unwise, like killing yourself."

"Why would I do that?"

"To kill me."

Oh. I hadn't thought of that.

"Do they hurt?"

He moved my hand away, stepping back to remove the rest of his clothes. "Pain stopped having meaning many, many years ago."

Leaning me forward he climbed in behind me, bathing us both, massaging my shoulders, my breasts. He moved his hands down my body, soothing away any remaining aches. By the time we got out of the water I was half asleep. As I leaned on Damien for support, he wrapped me in a towel and guided me to bed. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

...

I woke up sooner than my body would have liked. Looking out of half closed eyes, I watched Damien who slept beside me. Quickly, I realized why I had woken up. Damien was twitching in his sleep, brows furrowed, eyes moving rapidly behind his eyelids. He was breathing harder, a sheen of sweat covering his brow and chest. A low growl was vibrating out of his chest.

My eyes opened fully as I wondered if I should wake him. The growl turned to a moan. It was such an unfamiliar sound coming from him that I couldn't tell if it was a moan of fear or pain. Either way, I knew he was having a nightmare.

"Damien," I whispered. I placed a hand on his shoulder, shaking lightly. "Damien, wake up."

His eyes shot open, inky black, no white visible. He snarled, baring his double set of fangs, rolling over me and pinning me to the bed. His nostrils flared.

Hunger, fear, and anger mixed in a horrible cocktail of emotions that invaded my mind.

"Damien!" I squeaked, terrified of the way he looked at me. It was like he was gone, replaced by only the demon. The next moment I cried out in pain as his fangs sank into my neck. I felt him pulling the blood from my body, making my veins ache and my head go foggy. Unlike the other times he had fed from me, I felt only discomfort and pain. My neck burned where his fangs had torn my skin, muscle, and vein. His hands gripped my arms with a bruising strength, holding me down.

I feared he wouldn't stop, struggling under him, trying to pull away. It was no use against his supernatural strength. "Damien!" I cried out, black spots appearing in my vision. "Stop!"

He finally reacted, pulling away, breathing hard. Blood and saliva dripped down his chin. I watched as his expression slowly changed from monstrous to confused. Whites returned to his watery eyes. "May?"

His hand went to his mouth, fingers coming away bloody. Seeing the red stains seemed to break his spell, as his brow further wrinkled in worry, regret. "Shit! May, are you ok?"

The black spots filled my vision. I felt him shaking me, heard him saying my name, but I couldn't fight unconsciousness when it came.

...

My eyes opened to Damien's face inches from mine. I laid on my side, facing him. He laid there watching me. The emotions I read off of him were complicated, but relief was the strongest one when he saw me awake.

His hand went to my cheek where he stroked gently. I looked at him for a long moment, trying to decipher what he was feeling, what had just happened. He dropped his hand to help me sit up. A glass of water was placed in my hands and I drank. I heard him sigh as he watched me. "I'm sorry," he said, taking my free hand into his own.

I laughed humorlessly. "I've been knocked unconscious more times in the past few days than I have in my entire life." My voice was hoarse, but the water was helping.

"Welcome to my world," He laughed equally dry.

I returned his worried look and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Adam's right," Damien replied, mood darkening further as he recalled whatever had caused his nightmare. "Dagr needs to die."

...

The three of us were in Damien's study, books and materials spread out across a large desk. Damien and Adam stood, bent over the texts, while I sat in the desk chair, sipping on a smoothie and still recovering from the night before. They had been arguing from the moment Adam had presented his research.

"We don't even know what kind of magic he's been using to keep himself alive. For all we know he finally found a demon hybrid he liked and changed himself."

"I don't think so. The man's way too cautious to risk his own well being. And you saw him didn't you? Looks exactly the same as he did back in the day!"

"So do you and I," Damien argued.

"But it doesn't matter! He's still a mage and this will at least weaken and trap him if it doesn't kill him."

"I don't know..."

"May, tell your boyfriend he needs to have more faith in me!" Adam looked at me pleadingly, gesturing exaggeratedly at Damien who was flipping through the grimoire.

"I only met you yesterday, but you didn't exactly leave a trustworthy impression," I replied. Adam rolled his eyes. "And I don't know much about all this, but it does seem risky."

Adam huffed. "It's the best shot we've had in centuries! And I'm pretty sure the old man is slipping. Why else would he visit both you and I in the same decade after hearing nothing all this time. He's looking to strengthen his ranks, and if he came to us he must be pretty desperate."

"When did he visit you?" Damien asked, sounding suspicious.

"A couple of years ago in Budapest. I was passing through, visiting the homeland and he found me in a... compromising position." Adam smirked at the memory before continuing. "He asked me to join up with him, but I politely declined."

The way he said it made me sure he was anything but polite about it. If I had to guess, a demon bear was probably involved.

"So he's gathering allies," Damien thought out loud. "It could be a sign that he's getting scared. Or he's preparing to make a grab for power meaning he's confident he could succeed."

I could feel his apprehension. He wanted this to work but was unsure

"One attempt, Damien. That's all I ask. If this doesn't work you'll never hear from me again."

"If this doesn't work, we will all be dead. Or worse."

I leaned forward in the chair, looking over the old and ancient texts written in languages I didn't know, letters I didn't recognize. Underneath Damien's apprehension I could feel how badly he wanted this to work. There was so much hope bubbling to the surface that he kept squashing down.

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked, still not fully understanding how the bond with Damien worked, but remembering how he said it made him more powerful.

"No," Damien responded immediately.

At the same time, Adam chimed in. "Well actually-"

"No," Damien said again. "I won't risk your safety for this."

"I thought I couldn't be killed?" I countered.

"There are things worse than death." A deep pain accompanied his words, and I once again wondered exactly what Dagr had done to him.

"She could help though," Adam continued.

Damien flashed him a look that would make most anyone else cower. Instead, it just seemed to amuse him.

"How?" I asked. I felt Damien turn the glare to me. I ignored it.

"The magic needed for these spells requires a whole lot of power. More than our boy here can handle alone, maybe more than the both of us combined. If we had a third it couldn't hurt."

"So I could help channel Damiens magic?" I was struggling to understand.

"You can amplify it. Just by being in the same room as him the two of you combined can channel three times the amount of magic. And there's always sex magic."

"Sex magic?"

"Yah, it's pretty self explanatory."

"So what are we supposed to do?" I asked sarcastically, "Fuck in the middle of a fight?"

Damien and Adam both looked at me and my face heated, realizing I had said something wrong. Adam started cracking up, falling into a seat, laughing. Even Damien grinned.

"What I would pay to see that!" Adam exclaimed.

Damien shot him a dirty look.

"No, no, I meant to power up BEFORE the fight. But I'm sure it could work on the spot as well. I won't stop you!"

I sat back, quiet again, a little embarrassed, but curious about 'powering up.'

Damien smirked at me, knowing where my thoughts were. "Don't worry, I'll show you how it works."

Something seemed to occur to him just then and he stood up and walked over to one of the many bookshelves in the study, pulling one down. He flipped through it before setting it in the middle of the table opened to an illustration of a spear surrounded by Semitic lettering.

"If your spell can work to trap and weaken him, this could kill him."

Adam leaned over, reading the text. "Fuuuck, that would do it. Why didn't you bring this over earlier?!"

"Because a weapon like this should never exist. And I didn't think I had a way to make it..." He glanced at me.

"What is it?" I asked, curious.

"It's the kwīnati moti, which literally translates to the Queen of Death." Adam explained as he read. "Basically, it's a spear that can kill pretty much anything with just a scratch. This thing is powerful and deadly. I think you're right, Damien, this will kill him."

He nodded as he read, taking down a couple notes. When he came to one part his eyes got wide and said "Ahhh," as if he had made a realization. He finished reading and picked up his list.

"Well, I can take care of the metals if you two can take care of the... other part." Adam winked at me and showed himself to the door.

...

Damien and I were once again in the room with the chair, only this time he rolled the chair out of the way (had it always had wheels?) and was looking over the markings on the rune covered floor. As he assessed the carvings, he added additional markings here and there with chalk until he appeared satisfied.

"This," he explained, tossing the remaining chalk to the other side of the room, "is a magic circle. It helps to contain energy and forms a protected space."

He then held up a vibrant red jewel the size of his palm. "And this is going to become a talisman."

"It isn't a talisman already?"

"No, right now it's a pretty stone. We need to imbue it with magic to power our Queen of Death."

"We?"

Damien bent to place the jewel in the center of the runes. "You heard Adam explain how our bond makes us powerful, how together my magic is amplified?"

"Yes," I answered when he paused for a response.

"And you heard him mention sex magic?"

My face heated. I nodded.

"The reason that made me think of the spear is because it requires a large amount of stored energy. Energy that is most easily obtained between a bonded pair." He stood and moved towards me, brushing loose hair behind my ear.

"So what... what do I need to do?" Even though his expression remained neutral, I felt the relief he felt. Had he been worried that I would say no? That this would scare me away?

His hand moved from my ear, down my body, mirrored by his other hand. When they reached my waist they moved under the hem of my shirt, touching bare skin with cool hands.

"Lift your arms."

I did as he said and he lifted my shirt over my head, leaving my top totally bare. The shirt was tossed out of the circle in the general direction of the chalk.

My pants and socks were next, I hadn't been wearing shoes, and I was naked.

I watched as he then took his time removing his own clothes. He unbuttoned as I watched, slowly revealing the scared, tattooed, and well toned body underneath. I watched the muscles of his shoulders shift as he worked. The dark trail of hair below his stomach led my eyes to where his hands removed the fabric covering him. He was already semi hard, his slacks falling to the floor to be kicked off along with his shoes. My body tingled in the cool air, but blood was quickly coming to the surface as I imagined what could possibly come next. Soon his clothes had joined mine in a far off corner.

What did come next was not what I expected. Damien took my hands in each of his and guided me until the jewel on the ground was between us.

"Close your eyes." I did. "Breath with me. Feel the air shared between us, focus on our breath."

In. Out. Inhale. Exhale.

I felt the air fill my lungs as it left his. When he sucked in, the air left me, breathing out. Air returned to my lungs as they requested oxygen. Damien released the breath he had taken in a slow exhale. We breathed together, sharing breath, it was a give and take.

I couldn't have told you how long we stood there like that, breathing together, just our hands touching. Each breath began to carry with it something more than just air. I felt an energy fill me as I filled my lungs, and leave me when I exhaled

"You feel it?"

I nodded. I could feel his magic move through me. It felt similar to when it had happened before, except this time there wasn't the same kind of urgency. It actually felt pretty nice, buzzing beneath my skin, like I had had four shots of espresso. It ebbed and flowed as we breathed, moving between us, snaking around us.