Spell, Crook and Handle Pt. 02

"Hey," I said as I turned. "Whoa, you are so beautiful!"

The demon blushed as I saw her as she must have been before her fall. She wasn't a creature of flesh and blood. No, she was crafted of light and woven into a tapestry of living radiance. She was grace and splendor made manifest. I felt my cheeks flush as a wave of awkwardness flooded me. How do you address a being like her?

"Are you alright," she asked and I nodded. "You seem different somehow."

"I can see you," I said and the words tumbled from my lips. "I cannot do your beauty justice. There are no words for the ethereal light that wells up from every part of your body..."

"Stop, stop it right now," she shouted crystalline tears rolling down her perfect cheeks. "I am damned! I am darkness! I have forsaken the light!"

"But lady, it has not forsaken you," I said and she was gone.

The dream collapsed in the wake of her departure. I opened my eyes and my dream sight had followed me into the waking world. I lifted my hand up and looked at it. My skin was marbled with veins of sparkling light and fathomless darkness. The new colors permeated everything and it took time to process it all. I slowly sat up and found my body sheathed in sweat as if I had just broke a fever. I looked around and saw the subtle nuances carved in the walls and floor of the chamber.

"Your fever broke. It was touch and go." Tatiana said and I turned to face her.

I could see it clearly now. The dark power that possessed her was the manifestation of Yig's will. Her body while still as lovely as I remembered was a tainted thing with no signs of light left in it at all. She was host to a monster. The pity I had felt before returned and I almost wept for her. I was able to stand and she rose with me. I looked at the emerald metal device and could easily read each surface completely. It had worked.

"I can read it," I said and she clapped her hands together.

"I knew you'd survive," she said. "Though it was touch and go for a bit. You are very strong just the man to take the Heart out to the world. Give it to your king and earn your reward."

"That is the plan," I said. "I need the money."

"I will take you to it now. Then maybe you could punish me one last time before you go."

"Aw, what the hell why not," I said as she led me out and into another tunnel.

As we walked to the chamber that held the Heart of Ashurbanipal she told me about the inverted dome. It was a kind of transportation room. It could move people from one part of the massive complex to another. She said that most of the chambers and tunnels were underground. They spanned several miles and were a maze unless you knew how to navigate it. Tatiana told me that we would be passing through the main dome to get to the Heart. Apparently the first large dome we had entered was only a kind of entrance chamber. The main dome was much larger and far more impressive.

It took us the better part of an hour to walk from the claw chamber as I thought of it to the outskirts of the main dome. The further in we went the larger and grander the rooms and their decorations. We came to a pair of massive double doors. The hinges were attached to the floor and ceiling allowing them to pivot open. They were so finely balanced that a light shove was enough to send the multi-ton structures moving. She hadn't lied. The main dome was unlike any structure the world above had ever seen or would likely be capable of building in the foreseeable future. It must have been half a mile high and a couple of miles in diameter. It was crafted as everything else was in dark granite.

The pillars and statues were a series of cyclopean masterpieces that while awe inspiring were also the stuff of deepest nightmare. There was nothing of Yig and his children here. No, this was the sole domain of the builders. The aquatic theme was everywhere and the mind numbing hybrids immortalized in morbid green monuments dominated the landscape. The pillars showed the octopus headed beings with their tentacle limbs aimed skyward holding up the dome. They had a rudimentary humanoid form, two arms, two legs and a head. But there that comparison ended. The creatures possessed massive wings that in some of the columns clung to the body of the figure and in others were fully outstretched. As with the other statuary above here the realism was strikingly profound. I feared these things would step from their bases and attack at any moment.

"What the hell are they," I asked but Tatiana shook her head. "Ah that's right, it is a forbidden subject."

"This is our home now," she replied.

The center of the dome was dominated by a massive dais and throne. Sitting upon that throne was a behemoth that embodied the source of the hideous horror surrounding it. I led us close to one of the pillars to get a better look. The green stone was slime covered and glistened under the light of the glowing lichen. We use the word alien far too lightly. These carvings, if carvings they were, depicted a life form so alien to our own as to be an anathema to all normal life. I turned away as the sense of being watched suddenly overwhelmed me. Could they be alive? Were they just hibernating? Gods, if they were to spring to life I would scream and never stop. I picked up the pace as the sense of a presence became too much to bear.

"They are watching us," I said shivering from the sudden onslaught of a deep and biting psychic cold.

"You have nothing to fear here," she replied smiling.

"Fuck you," I snapped. "There is something terrifying here and I need to get the stone and get the fuck out of here!"

"I will protect you," Tatiana said as she clung to my arm.

It was going to take forever to get to the far side of this dome. The closer we got to the dais the more effort it took to take a step forward. It was impossibly huge that thing that sat on the throne. I could see more and more detail of the being and like the others the surface of the statue was covered in a gelatinous slime. It looked as if it had been dredged up from darkling depths that had never seen the light of day. I couldn't look at it any longer. I stared at the floor to be able to cross the chamber. We stopped and I looked over at Tatiana as if she had lost her mind. The gold reptilian eyes greeted me and she laughed.

"Come now lover look upon him," she said taking my head in her hands and turning my gaze upwards.

I couldn't speak. The sheer size of the thing was overwhelming. If it were to stand up it would tower above us at the height of an office building, maybe taller. I tried to look away but petit little Tatiana held me in a vice like grip.

"We do not mention its name," Yig said through the girl. "We call it the Dreamer in the Depths. Look upon it and feel how insignificant you and those insects calling themselves humanity truly are."

"You said you went to war and defeated it," I said as my tears fell.

"I lied," she said and released me. "We protect this place. Come on lover you have a stone to collect."

I turned to look at Tatiana and all hint of Yig's presence was gone. She smiled sweetly and led me forward. It would be a mercy to put a bullet in her brain. How many people had she led here to their doom over the last nine decades? One had been a pilot that much I was certain of. There was the collection of military patches she had gotten from soldiers lured here. She was a flesh puppet for the entity known as Yig, her father.

I was shaking after gazing upon the seated abomination that was the Dweller in the Depths. I hated that I was afraid! I clenched my fingers and my teeth trying to master my fear. I looked around the dome and counted the glistening statues at the perimeter of this chamber. There were twelve of them. Each of them was unique and posed in a different ways. An idea began to take hold pushing my fear down by an overpowering curiosity. A dome and twelve figures, could they be representations of the zodiac? If that were true, I looked straight up and there it was. At the apex of the dome was the great black star and spiraling in orbit around it the lesser stars. The rest of the dome's interior was what could only be a star map.

I had learned to master my hunger now I would use those tools to conquer my fear. I mentally grappled with the amorphous cloud of terror and shoved it down next to my bottled up hatred. It would be just another tool when the time was right. It took a few minutes but I managed to take control, for the moment. I lay down on my back and stared up at the vaulted space above me. I looked with the eye of an archaeologist not a shivering coward. Anger rose up in me and burned away the last of the fear. I was pissed at myself for my reaction to the architecture here. I looked at the details at the top of the dome.

"Sultan and his court," Tatiana said laying down next to me now.

"The sultan of what," I asked but I got no reply. "Why would someone who could create all of this venerate this sultan?"

"Good question," she said. "I don't know."

There was that feeling again, the sensation of being watched. I looked towards the double doors we were heading for. I saw something move near the far side of the dais.

"There is a survivor," I hollered. "One of my friends is alive!"

"No it's not," she said quite convincingly. "Not a man."

"What is a woman doing down here?"

"She lives here," she stated matter of factly. "That's my mother."

"Wait you said she was dead!"

"No, I said she was gone," Tatiana giggled. "Gone stark raving mad..."

I was in a madhouse. I had to get the fuck out of here! If it hadn't been for the energy I had gotten from the pool as well as that huge chunk of Tatiana's life force I would have been tired from all of the walking we had done. The woman appeared and she was wearing the tattered remnants of a ball gown. I recognized her instantly from the few photos that existed, Grand Duchess Anastasia. She was little changed and the classic beauty as I remembered. The photographs didn't do her justice. Her strawberry blonde hair fell in long ringlets to her lower back. She was built like her daughter, short and petite with a cute round bottom. Her blue eyes were bright and wild like some untamed animal. Anastasia closed the distance between us and was staring at me. I could see the high cheek bones, long straight nose and full kissable lips as she smiled down at me.

"Careful she bites," Tatiana warned. "She hasn't seen a man in a very long time."

"How long exactly," I asked as the woman pounced.

I cried out fearing she would claw me with her wickedly long nails but that's not what she did. Her kiss was unexpected and fiercely hungry. It was her hands roaming over my body that took my breath away. I somehow hoped there would be some semblance of the noble woman remaining but I was wrong. She double stroked my cock as her tongue dueled with mine. Tatiana simply rolled onto her side and watched.

"Are you going to fuck her," Tatiana asked. "I think she likes you."

Anastasia slipped the rags from her body and looked down at me. She spit on both palms and renewed her attack on my erection. There was an infectious hunger in her that I could almost smell. The lewd sounds of her hands on my cock echoed throughout the dome. I began to sit up but Anastasia touched my chest and I lay back again. She adjusted her position and lowered her mouth so that she could lick and suck me easier. She knew her way around a cock and that made me wonder. What had happened to a lady of the court to turn her into this? She slowly licked the underside of my dick even as she watched my every reaction.

"You didn't answer," Tatiana purred in my ear. "Are you going to fuck my mother?"

"No, I am going to let her fuck me," I said. "If she wants it that bad..."

"Oh she does," Tatiana replied.

I began to thrust my hips upward eager to feel her wrapped around me. She drove me mad and when I was on the edge she stopped. I was shaking and she just looked down and licked her lips. She wrapped a hand around me again and slowly moved it up and down. The other hand went between her legs diddling her pussy.

"You are beet red," Tatiana said. "Are you close?"

I could only nod since my teeth were clenched tight. Anastasia's fingers squeezed me now as she stroked me off. Without warning Tatiana struck, her lips were wrapped around the head of my cock. Mom just giggled and began to move her hand faster now.

"Both," I begged. "Use both your hands."

Anastasia smiled and did as I asked. She wrapped the other hand around me and double pumped my cock while her daughter licked and sucked on the head. I saw stars and cried out as I came. While her daughter swallowed mom kept stroking me even after the last drop was delivered. Tatiana moved and crawled on her hands and knees behind her mom.

"She is soaked."

I shuddered as my second orgasm reared its ugly head. Speaking of head, Anastasia lowered her head again and trapped the head between her lips. I smashed my fist against the floor as my second climax crashed into me and it was Anastasia's turn to swallow. Her fists stopped but her throat muscles did not. When I was spent she licked me clean and stared in awe at my raging hard on.

"How," Anastasia asked. "You still have an erection."

"Why ask, just use it," I said.

"I think I will," she said in barely a whisper.

She rose up as she straddled me. Her labia brushed against the shaft of my cock as she rocked her hips now. Tatiana was right, her mother was soaked. She was dragging it out again and used her cunt to tease me to the point of breaking. If it were me I would be buried deep inside of her and hammering away at her like mad. She purred as she teased us both.

"He taught me how to be patient," Anastasia said.

"Who taught you," I asked as she rose up her hips and then took me in hand.

"Grigori," she replied as she teased herself with the head of my cock.

"Oh you are killing me," I said as she leisurely rubbed her pussy lips even slower now.

"Patience," she crooned. "Just a little longer and you'll be deep inside of me."

"I've never wanted anything more in my life," I said and she smiled.

Tatiana reappeared and sat watching us intently. As if on cue Anastasia let the tip of my cock ease inside of her and her daughter slipped two of her fingers into her own sex. I watched as the Arch Duchess lowered her body down impaling her pussy completely. She was so damn tight I cried out.

"So big," she moaned. "MMMMM so long and thick, I am going to fuck you now."

She began to move slowly enjoying every inch of me inside of her. She arched her back and thrust her hips with quick hard thrusts now. Her grunts of effort sounded so loud in that place. I sat up and softly bit at her sensitive nipples. She took my hands and placed them on her ass cheeks.

"Help me," she whimpered. "I need your cock so damn bad. It's been so long."

I dug my fingers into her ass flesh and lifted her up and as she dropped down I thrust my own hips upward. Her grunts became cries that got louder and louder. I knew she was close and I did everything I could to push her over the edge. I didn't have to worry. A few moments later she shouted as she came. I could feel her pussy grip me tightly as she climaxed. She clung to me and I held her until she recovered. Once she was ready I got her onto her hands and knees and took her from behind. I didn't possess her patience I needed to fuck her until she begged me to stop. I started out slow but it was Anastasia who once more took control of the situation. She thrust backwards against me and lowered her head until it touched the floor.

"I'm going to cum," Tatiana cried out behind us.

"She is so selfish," Anastasia said over her shoulder. "Always wanting to be the center of attention just ignore her and fuck me okay?"

"You're the boss," I said and thrust harder now. "How does that feel?"

"Amazing," she cried out lifting her ass as high as she could.

I dug my fingers into her flesh and hammered her as hard and fast as I could. My full attention was on her and nothing else. If I had been more observant I would have noticed where she had maneuvered us. But I was fucking her as hard as I could and blissfully unaware. I felt small chunks of Anastasia's life flow into me. This didn't go unnoticed and the Grand Duchess looked over her shoulder suddenly and smiled. That wasn't the reaction I was expecting.

"Are you alright," I asked while I fucked her harder now.

"I am quite fine good sir," she replied. "Or should I say demon... You are an Incubus are you not?"

"It is complicated," I said. "I guess I am."

"How can you be unsure whether or not you are a demon? Oh is that your cock swelling up inside of me? MMMMMM you are going to make me melt!"

My climax curled my toes and hurled poor Anastasia into her own bodily. The demonic magic had her firmly in its grasp. I ground against her as I explained what had happened to me, the book, the demon all of it. She just whimpered her understanding as her hips began to move on their own. I kept my position and as Anastasia moved more bits of her life escaped her. I never saw a hint of fear on her face.

"Something is different about you," I said as a large chunk melted away and filled me.

"I want this," she cried out as she thrust back harder. "I have to be free!"

"Mother, don't do this to me," Tatiana howled as she got to her feet. "Don't leave me here alone!"

Once more control of the situation slipped through my fingers and I began to move with her. She had spent nine decades in this nightmare. I was her only chance at freedom. Even though I was freeing her it was another life on my conscious. She wasn't the first and I feared she wouldn't be the last. I did what I always did. I burned every detail of her into my memory. The way she felt wrapped around me, how her long strawberry blonde hair clung to her back and the soft smile on her face as the life fled her. My body betrayed me as it always did at times like this and drove both of us over the edge together one last time. As she screamed, cum pulsed inside of her and the last of her life force was absorbed into me. I eased out of her tenderly, rolled her onto her back and closed her eyes.

Tatiana just stood there clenching and unclenching her fists. The sound began softly at first and then grew louder until it filled the air. Anastasia, Arch Duchess and last of the Romanov was no more. Her body's energy was gone at the most basic level and disintegrated before our eyes. I looked at Tatiana but the terrible presence of Yig was there.

"You have robbed me of something precious," it said.

"I set her free," I said and I stood up. "Let's just get this over with. Show me where the stone is and I will leave."

"I will uphold my bargain demon," Yig said smiling. "We are very close now, follow me."

I turned to face where Anastasia's body had been and then looked up. Her last act of defiance was for us to make love facing that thing on the throne. She had turned her back on Yig. I laughed and followed Tatiana as she led me on the last jaunt of this adventure. I was tireless now that I had so much energy coursing through me. We crossed the second half of the dome and passed through the matching double doors. She guided me through the winding maze of corridors to our mutual goal.

"This is where we part company," Yig said through Tatiana. "Down this hall is a single door and beyond that the treasury of this place. I cannot enter but maybe you can. There are spells preventing my entry. Good luck demon-spawn and if you survive we may yet meet again."

I looked from the door at the end of the hall to back at Tatiana. She looked so much like her mother. The last memory of Anastasia rose in my mind and that blissful look of release. I had freed her from this place perhaps I could do the same for Tatiana. I opened my arms and offered her a parting hug. Tatiana leapt into my arms and I held her tight. But instead of putting her back down onto her feet I scooped her off her feet and ran. I raced towards the door and Tatiana went wild. She hammered at my chest and head. I crossed the distance faster than I would have thought possible. The door was hinged just like the massive double doors at the top and bottom. I hit the right side of the door and it spun on its axis.