Betting On His Demon (5 page)

****

Carr’s cock was already hard, and he hadn’t even made the jump to his cousin’s space.  Just knowing his human would be there was enough to make every inch of him fill with need. 

He’d avoided Julian for the last week.  Carr knew he was weak when it came to Julian, so he’d spent the time combing through Julian’s contract, looking for loopholes.  He’d found none, which only added to his frustration.

They would have to go the straightforward route.  They’d have to bargain with Olivier to get what they wanted.  There was no other choice.

Carr teleported to Olivier’s rec room and glanced at the table spread out and ready.  Olivier smiled at him, his toothy grin devilish to say the least.

“Welcome, cousin!”  Olivier stood and rounded the table.  He wrapped a hand around Carr’s shoulders and turned him around.

Carr’s body trembled when he saw his human bound to the cross.  Julian’s legs shook violently and sweat coated his body.  Carr didn’t see a mark on Julian’s flesh, but did see a thick plug shoved up his ass.  After the initial shock wore off, Carr pulled from Olivier’s embrace and walked around to face Julian.

A thick red ball was shoved inside Julian’s lips and tied around the back of his head.  Anger swept through Carr and his gaze went to Olivier, who now held a flogger in his grasp.  He let the torture device whip through the air and strike Julian’s backside.  Julian’s eyes grew large, and he cried behind the gag.  Carr stepped up, wanting to defend his human, his hands bound by the damned contract.

“Stop it, Olivier!”

“What?  I’m just playing with my toy.”

Carr clenched his fists, his emotions warring within him.  The weight of many worlds rested on his shoulders.  Their safety was more important that Julian’s.  Logically speaking, of course.   Carr wasn’t feeling very logical at the moment.

Olivier lifted the flogger again and struck Julian with the instrument.  Carr raced over and jerked the handle from Olivier’s hand.

“As you wish, cousin.  If you wanted to whip him yourself, all you had to do was ask.”  Olivier smiled another of his wickedly evil grins and backed away, giving Carr space.  “It really matters little who does the act.  I just want to see how red the human’s backside can become.”

Carr looked down at the flogger in his hand and back to the red marks already crossing Julian’s backside.  Carr couldn’t stop Olivier from doing whatever he pleased with Julian.  If Carr didn’t whip Julian, Olivier would.  If Carr did the lashing, perhaps Julian would find pleasure in the act instead of pain.

“Leave us!” Carr cried.

Olivier stepped closer.  “I’ll leave as long as his skin is scourged when I return to play our game.  And remember, the only thing allowed to touch his flesh is the flogger.  You’re not to touch any inch of him with your body.”

Carr trembled, hoping his cousin didn’t see his reaction.  “I’ll take care of him and abide by your
rules
.”

“Not as fun to follow the rules when they don’t benefit you, hmm?  Now you know how I feel when we play this stupid game every week.”

“Out!” Carr said, not mentally ready to battle his cousin in that moment.  His gaze went back to Julian, whose legs were about to go out from under him.

Carr removed the cuffs and lifted Julian mentally after Olivier fled.  He teleported the human to one of the benches where he could lie on his stomach.  In more comfort, Julian could relax into some of the hits of the flogger.  Carr mentally reattached cuffs to Julian’s wrists and ankles, but more for Julian’s safety than anything else.

Julian looked over his shoulder at Carr, his eyes wide and frightened.

“Pain can be pleasurable, Julian.  I’m going to show you just how pleasurable.  The strikes you feel to your skin won’t be anything like what you felt with Olivier, I promise.”

Carr trailed the frayed ends of the flogger over Julian’s back and ass, tickling the flesh and raising goose bumps.  Julian began to writhe on the bench, moans coming from behind the gag.  After getting a hold on his control, Carr let the flogger fly through the air, hitting Julian without much force.  Julian needed to want the pain.  There had to be a slow build-up, a fire banked before it was let loose.

Julian moaned at the caress of leather against his skin, and Carr swallowed past the need within him to touch the human.  He wanted to trail his fingers over the light pink marks he’d just made.  Or maybe his tongue.  Either way, the fact he couldn’t touch Julian only made the need grow to dizzying levels.

He would have Julian as his own soon.  He’d bet his own life on that.

****

Julian’s body was aching, hovering between pleasure and pain even before Carr arrived.  Now that Carr was there and tempting his flesh, Julian seemed to slip in and out of focus.  He felt as if he wavered, both extremes calling to him.  The pain felt pleasurable.  The pleasure felt painful.  He tried to focus on Carr and the caress of his flogger, his body taut with need.  On the razor’s edge, Julian could easily tumble either way.

Another strike nearly took his breath away.  The sting of the flogger bit into his flesh but soon ebbed away, leaving behind a thrumming awareness and sensitivity he’d never experienced.  He’d heard of the play before, but never thought it was something he’d enjoy.  Julian hadn’t realized BDSM play could be so awakening.  The rush and clarity he felt as the flogger struck his skin was earth shattering.

Carr measured the blows, giving Julian time to crest and fall before another glanced across his body.  He also varied them in heft, allowing the flogger to strike all over his back, ass, and thighs, so no one spot was overstimulated or left raw.

What surprised Julian the most was his body’s mounting need.  With each lashing, his cock grew harder.  He began to crave Carr in a mind
-numbing way.  After the pain, Julian deserved the pleasure to reward him for his torment.  Julian wasn’t sure why he thought that way, but it seemed a logical end to the game.

And he couldn’t be touched by his demon.

There would be no reward.  He would suffer through this wearisome punishment only to have his all-consuming need elevated to another level.  Julian wasn’t sure he could handle any more want.  He craved Carr like the very oxygen in his lungs.  Without the demon, he wasn’t sure he could go on any farther.

Another volley of strikes hit him, harder than the others had been.  He’d barely recaptured his breath when another round struck.  His body clenched, his eyes rolling back in his head.  As another set of hits cascaded over his flesh, he came in violent torrents.  Heated seed spewed from his cock and coated the bench under him.  Julian cried around the gag in his mouth all while his shaft was milked of every last drop of his essence.

His body shook.  After the experience, he craved Carr’s touch more than ever.  Never had he wanted a gentle, reassuring hand before after coming, but now, he had to have it.

Carr moved around the bench and knelt at Julian’s head.  “You don’t know how much I need to pull you into my arms and show you comfort now.  I want to take you to my bed and sink into you, wrapping myself around you.”

Julian cried against the gag, so raw and emotion filled.  He wanted the picture Carr painted.  But he knew it couldn’t be, not until the contract was destroyed.

If it could be destroyed.

In his weakened state, Julian felt the first tendrils of doubt fill his mind.  Could Carr give him what he’d promised?  What if this was his hell—to taste what could be only to have it ripped from his grasp?  He closed his eyes, fear and torment filling his emptied body.

Julian steeled himself, suddenly realizing how dangerous the game they played was.

Chapter Five

“Oh that isn’t anywhere red enough.  Where’s the cuts?  Where’s the blood?  I am shocked, Carreau.  I thought better of you.  I envisioned you wielding a flogger with great power, yet this is all I get?”

Carr growled at Olivier as his cousin stalked up and yanked the flogger from his hand.  Olivier lifted his arm and slashed the implement over Julian’s raw skin.  Julian screamed behind the gag, the sound sending a shiver of alarm up Carr’s spine. 

Before Olivier could lift his arm again, Carr jumped his cousin, knocking him to the floor and pounding his fist into the middle of Olivier’s face.  Olivier retaliated and flung Carr across the room.  As soon as he was freed, Olivier’s black wings unfurled and spread about him.  He lifted into the air and the flogger transformed into an elongated cat-o-nine tails.  Olivier whipped the tails toward Julian.

Carr raced and threw himself between his cousin and Julian.  The cat-o-nine struck him in the chest, ripping his shirt open, but otherwise causing no real damage.

“You will cease and desist, cousin.  You interfere with me punishing my human,” Olivier said, his lips curling in delight.

“My human.  You knew he was mine, which is why you took him.”

“He signed the paper, Carreau.  He gave himself to me willingly.  With no subterfuge, I gave him money and a pittance of years for his soul.  Now, you will back off or you will break one of your precious rules.”

Carr stood his ground, refusing to move.  No one would hurt Julian, not while there was still breath in his lungs.

“I have overlooked your cheating ways all these years.  You thought toying with me would gain you the win, but you take things too far now, cousin.  If you hurt him again, I will stop at nothing to hunt you down and make sure you pay.”

Olivier’s eyes widened slightly, but he hid the look quickly.  “Do you not realize the humiliation I feel?  We’ve played this game too long.  I followed your rules for a millennia, and what do I have to show for it?  Nothing!  I deserve my day.  And if I have to use your mate to wrench it from your fingers, I will.”

Olivier had guessed the truth, too?  He knew Julian was Carr’s mate.  Anger roiled through Carr’s body, and he clenched his teeth.  Olivier had always teetered on the edge, the dark side of his nature calling him, but Carr had hoped his influence had kept his cousin from letting it win. “This is how you show love for your mother?”

“Keep her out of this,” Olivier said with a snarl.

“Why should I?  She was my loving aunt.  She was born of the light.  Her blood courses through your veins, too.”

“Amon’s blood is stronger.  And it’s been held back too long.”  Olivier’s wings moved faster, the breeze they caused ruffling Carr’s hair.  “It is time for change, cousin.  It is time to release the beasts and let them do their worst.  The building rage in the underworld will only be satisfied after a great war to level the playing field.  Don’t you understand that there can be no good without evil?  You’ve all become complacent.  It’s time for chaos to erupt so a new peace can be found.”

“Chaos doesn’t breed peace.”

“But peace breeds chaos, Carreau.  The hordes grow too large without war to lessen their number.  They threaten to overrun us all if we don’t let them clash.”

“No!  We can’t allow that to happen.  The hordes would overrun the planes and end up on Earth and the other Ethereal realms.  Then we would start a war with the heavens, one which we wouldn’t survive.”

“It’s a risk we must take before the hordes destroy all.”

Carr shook his head.  “It’s a risk we can’t take.” 

Olivier lunged at Carr, using his power to push him across the room.  Before Carr slammed into the wall, he watched as Olivier lifted the whip and brandished it across Julian’s back.  Julian screamed again, the sound chilling the blood in Carr’s veins.  He teleported to Julian and rested a hand on the human before teleporting them both out of the room.

They landed on Carr’s bed, Julian’s weak, tortured body cocooned within Carr’s grip.  A rule broken, this gave Olivier a rule to break as well.

But Carr couldn’t let his cousin hurt Julian another moment.  He’d figure out a way to stop Olivier, one way or another.

****

“Are we really safe here?”

Carr sat in the chair across from the bed, the same chair he’d slept in through the night after rubbing salve over Julian’s back and settling the human into the center of his bed.  Slept was a stretch, too.  There’d been no real sleep, just a series of catnaps he’d had in his attempt for rest.  Julian had slept soundlessly, his body repairing after the decadent torment he’d experienced.  Carr had wanted to slip under the covers and hold Julian close, but the temptation was too great.  He’d already broken one rule in taking his mate.  He couldn’t break another by claiming him.

“It’s safe.  Olivier is a lower-ranking demon than I am.  He can’t enter my abode.”  There was the chance his cousin could plead with a king, but the demon kings were nearly impossible to get through to in their current state.  They’d all been asleep for the last thousand years, awaiting the end of days.  But boons were given, albeit rarely, as even in their slumber, they could hear all going on around them.  Everyone knew their moods, gauged by the aura of power in their chambers.

Carr wouldn’t tell Julian there was an off chance they’d be interrupted.  He needed Julian to relax so he could figure out what the next step was.  But seeing his human in the middle of his bed wasn’t allowing him to focus very much.