Two Parts Demon (8 page)

“Now, get going. You need to lock in that binding spell before dawn tomorrow.”

“Or what?”

Minerva grinned. “Ask your mother.”

Everyone was already mounted except for her. Freddy was sticking out of the pouch that Lenora was carrying. Benny hauled herself onto the back of the pale horse, and their herd wheeled and galloped out of the park.

Goblins were having cookouts all over the park, each fire a different colour. Benny realised that Minerva had called in a distraction that kept their tinkering with the gate to the demon zone from alarming the locals. It was about the same time that she figured out where she knew her horse from.

She leaned over the pale neck and whispered, “You are looking wonderful, Pooky.”

He snorted and poured on the speed.

When she looked back, Tremble’s face was glowing with excitement. There was something about this predawn ride that was getting him all worked up.

Argyle kept looking east, and when they finally thundered to a stop in front of the manor, she dismounted to open the door for him as quickly as possible. Light was stroking the ground near the drive, and he made it inside before it struck with full force.

She didn’t blame him. Being blinded by the sun wasn’t any fun.

Benny stood in Argyle’s shirt as the rest of her family made it into the house. The horses reared, plunged and headed for the open space behind the house.

Her parents held hands and headed upstairs for some privacy. Benny padded to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee.

Freddy hopped down the stairs with a wild look in her eyes. She transformed back to human in the doorway to the kitchen. “Dude, I just saw your parents naked...again.”

Benny grinned and gestured for her to take a seat next to Smith and Tremble at the counter.

“Okay, who wants breakfast?”

Three hands were raised, and Benny sighed in relief. Things were finally getting back to normal. She scrubbed her hands and started making breakfast.

Freddy got up and grabbed dishes and cutlery. “Do you feel any different?”

“Lighter, if that makes sense, like I just took off really tight underwear. I feel like I can breathe now.”

She filled a sheet pan with bacon and slipped it into the oven. She crossed the room and pulled out a loaf of bread, popping four slices into the toaster before heading to the pan she was heating on the stove.

She took the orders for eggs and pulled the bacon out before buttering the toast and stacking it. Once the next batch of toast was in process, she cooked the eggs in rapid succession.

Breakfast was ready in ten minutes, and they were all sitting, sipping coffee and enjoying a well-earned silence.

There was enough bacon left for her parents when they came down, wearing robes and relaxed expressions.

Lenora came over and kissed Benny on the forehead. “How long will the binding last, Benny?”

Benny paused. “I think it is for life. I would have to check the book.”

Lenora paused. “The book?”

“Yeah, it has been a while since I had to do any potion making.”

Her mother nodded but looked worried. “Which flask did you use?”

It seemed like an odd question. “The one with your initials on it.”

Her mother grabbed her, hauled her out of the room and whispered frantically in her ear. When her mother had briefed her as to the ramifications of that particular flask, Benny’s palms got sweaty.

There was no problem as long as she consummated the union within a week of drinking the potion. If she went beyond that, they would all experience agonizing pain and be completely useless until the joining was completed. It was better to lock in the union and take the pressure off.

She steeled herself and went to fulfill a promise. “Smith, come with me.”

He got to his feet with a curious expression.

She smiled. “I made you a promise.”

He was at her side in an instant.

“What brought on this sudden decision?” Smith blinked as she unbuttoned his shirt. Her bedroom looked a little weird with a shifter in it but Benny was willing to get used to it.

Benny glanced up at him through her lashes. “First and foremost, I made you a promise in the demon zone. I hold to my word. Second, when you showed your demon, it was an incubus, so sex is high on your personal agenda. Third, my mother just informed me that the vessel I used for the spell was originally designed to enforce arranged marriages. It was the gag gift that they had gotten to make sure that she and my father left their studies long enough to consummate their union. If I don’t have sex with all three of you in the next five days, we are all going to suffer.”

She unbuckled his belt and stroked him through the fabric of his jeans.

He swallowed. “You seem to know what you are doing.”

“My great grandmother is a succubus. I had a far more thorough introduction to sex talk than you could imagine.” She stroked his chest and pulled his head down to her, kissing him and nipping lightly at his lips.

He growled, and she felt his hands on the shirt, peeling it away from her until his warm palms were stroking her skin.

She sighed and leaned into his hands as he familiarized himself with her skin. The shirt she wore soon hit the floor, and she was left in bare feet as he started to kiss the side of her neck.

Jessamine floated in, paused with her eyes wide and floated back out again.

Smith lifted his head and made a face. “You still taste like whatever that was you were covered with. I think a shower is in order.”

She smiled. “I do believe you need to be naked to properly shower.”

He grinned. “I do believe you are correct.”

She grabbed him by a belt loop and hauled him into her en-suite bathroom. The shower was large enough for four of them to stand in.

“All right, furball. Strip.”

He chuckled and removed his shoes, socks, jeans and underwear. When all he was clothed in was glorious golden skin, she sighed happily.

She stepped into the shower and scrubbed her hair, her skin and, then, she asked the age-old question, “Will you wash my back?”

He was behind her with a shower puff and a sincere desire to get every inch of her squeaky clean. When her back was clean, he turned her and went over her front with attention to all the details.

When he lifted her and pinned her against the shower wall with his body, she was more than ready for him to join her in the most basic of fashions.

He rocked into her over and over. She clawed at his shoulders when she came. Finally, he roared his own satisfaction a moment before he bit her to hold her still while his hips jerked. She hissed at the pain, but it was part of mating with a shifter.

A need for knowledge of his true name, his soul name, burned with the rest of her, inside and out. The spell caster within her needed the true name for protection and she wanted to protect him. She wanted to protect all of them.

When he let her go, she stroked the wet hair out of his eyes and smiled. “Can I know your true name now?”

He blushed. “Andrew. William Eric Andrew Smith.”

“Oh, those are good names for a mom to yell.”

He laughed and eased her down the wall until she was on her feet. “They were indeed.”

She stood, and she should have been woozy, but her bloodline was a little on the robust side. Kyria had once told her a tale of taking a regiment of warriors without once lying down, and while Benny wasn’t proud of the comparison, she was ready for another lover.

She sighed and stroked his chest and neck, enjoying the feeling under her hands. “Okay, towels for everyone, and I will find a guestroom for you to crash in.”

He sighed. “Will you join me?”

“Eventually. I want to join with Tremble before I get some rest though. Will that bother you?”

“If you come in smelling of sex and my partner? Surprisingly no.” He frowned as if the thought didn’t disgust him. The confusion that crossed his face was adorable.

She laughed. “That is the binding spell. It makes you want to do what is best for everyone in the union. Even the other guys.”

He wrapped her in a towel and draped another around his hips. He cuddled her against him as they walked back into her bedroom. He sat on the chest at the end of her bed and pulled her onto his lap, inhaling and exhaling against her neck. Being with her seemed to relieve tension in him, so she leaned against him and enjoyed the closeness with her mate.

William Eric Andrew Smith. She wondered what Tremble’s name actually was.

An hour later, Andrew was tucked into a guest bedroom, and he was breathing evenly. Demon shifting was exhausting, and it had been his first time. He would sleep for hours.

Sighing softly, she closed the door and went down the hall, searching for Tremble. Her sundress swished around her calves with every move and it felt loud in the silence.

He wasn’t upstairs, so she went downstairs and found him in the library talking softly with her father and looking at some of the demon texts.

Her father looked up and smiled. “Benny, you look rested.”

She winked. “Close enough.”

He walked away from the elf who was raptly poring over the text, and he came over to give her a hug. “Thanks for coming for us, Benny.”

“You would have done it for me, Dad. Have you talked to Grandpa yet?”

“I did. He mentioned that he felt something was different. Kyria has not been in touch with him yet, but he feels she will be if she can get out of the zone.”

Benny blinked. “Oh, right. She used to leave, propelled by Yomra.”

Harcourt shrugged. “She will find a way. She always does.”

She leaned back in his arms. “Are you less green?”

He winked. “I am. I feel more like my old self. My father is experiencing the same thing.”

Her grandfather had the curled horns of the demon scholar, the same as Tremble did when he was wearing his demon. Well, she supposed it was when he was wearing
her
demon, but it was his manifestation.

“I am glad. I hope that this doesn’t screw me up with the XIA. They had just accepted that I was a demon blood with self-control. What are they going to think when I let them know that I have cut our family loose from the influence of the king of our bloodline?”

Tremble looked up from the book and stared at her with vivid dark rainbow eyes with slit pupils. “Don’t tell them.”

She left her dad and wandered over to him. “Why not?”

“They will re-evaluate you and demand the spell that was used to release you. I do not feel that the spell should fall into the hands of someone who has not been raised with the self-control that your family has embedded into you.” He gave her a solemn look.

She blinked. “I get the feeling that you guys are going to be tested for demon influence a little more frequently.”

He smiled slowly. “Unless they can prove exposure to a new demon, they have no grounds for testing us.”

He closed his book and moved in on her.

Her father cleared his throat. “I will go and check on your mother and Freddy.”

Benny was focused on the elf that was crowding her back to the study table. “Uh, Tremble...”

He nuzzled his cheek against hers, whispering, “Yes, Benny?”

“What is your true name?”

He moved his lips and exhaled his name against her mouth. “Gelendor. Gelendor Hurias Tremble. There are a few more names but those are the important ones.”

She didn’t have a chance to engage in witty banter. He kissed her and lifted her to the surface of the table. He pushed her dress up over her knees and stepped between them while he undid the buttons holding the front of the sundress closed.

When his hand slipped inside her dress and his long fingers closed over her breast, she arched into his palm. His other hand moved between her thighs, and she groaned when he slid two fingers into her, followed by a third a moment later. She was rapidly approaching orgasm when he pulled his fingers free and left her breast so that he could work at the closure of his jeans.

When his cock was free, he pressed her flat to the desk and nudged against her. He planted his hands on the table next to her and slowly thrust forward. When she slid back, he grinned and draped her calves over his forearms while he gripped her hips.

Benny gasped when he finally went as deep as he could, and she reached up to grip his arms as he started to move inside her.

His face was focused, but he was watching her. When she felt a curl of pleasure, he angled his hips and repeated the inner caress. Every time she gasped, he echoed the motion that had made her twitch. It was strange to be analyzed while having sex, but she was swept up toward release in a few sweaty minutes. She thought it would soon be over, but Gelendor kept her on the edge of release until she was thrashing on the table and hissing at him. She wanted to wrap her legs around him, but he was keeping her precisely where he wanted her.

Benny concentrated and clasped him with her inner muscles to trigger his own orgasm, but her elf simply paused before resuming the slow, even strokes that kept her on the edge.

When she heard herself begging, he bent forward and kissed her, pushing her legs back and grinding against her with slow circles of his hips that had her shrieking as the pulse of release took over.

The table trembled as he pounded into her rapidly until he held himself against her, jerking and shaking as he came.

He released her legs and lowered himself to her, giving her a sweet kiss.

Benny lifted her head and returned the gesture of affection.

He lifted his head and smiled. “I look forward to taking my time with you.”

Benny stroked his pale hair away from his face and tucked it behind his pointed ear. “I look forward to that, too. Thank you for taking the hint.”

“There is no reason for us to delay this. We agreed to join with you before we drank the potion, we agreed to work with you at the XIA and we testified that you had not used your demon nature to influence us. Agreeing to have sex with you was implied.” He grinned.

She chuckled and ran her hands over his shirt. “Next time, no clothing.”