The Eyes of Afodisia
Matthias shifted on his cot, more out of restlessness than anything else. If you overlooked the random beatings handed out by Jeoram. it was almost comfortable. Almost. For a jail cell. He had a mattress on the floor, with a blanket. He had a privy hole. He got fed twice a day, although the food was worthless to him. They'd even given him reading matter. Scripture.
As if he hadn't memorized the entire text, two decades ago.
The trouble was, right now his life was boredom interspersed with moments of heart-stopping terror. The Inquisitors weren't cruel. But they were skilled demonologists, and utterly merciless. Honestly, he preferred the random beatings. But even they were preferable to the Oracle, with her eyes filled with the radiance of Afodisia. Eyes that seemed to see right into the scarred pit that had once held his soul. Her questions were troubling. When she even asked questions. Her statements and her silences were even worse. Even her blood, sweet as it had been, held an aftertaste that he hadn't cared for. Like the burning of spices, it had roiled in his gut for hours.
There was the sound of boot steps approaching his cell, a sound he recognized instantly. "Hello, Aurianna," he said, not looking up.
Not at first, anyway. When he finally did, the sight of her was a blow. "Well, look at you," he said, eyes tracing the curves of her body and lingering on the hint of cleavage at the throat of her blouse. "Tell me, was he any good? Your Jeoram? I could smell you on him, when he last visited." A grin, showing white fangs. "Did he take you, over and over again? Did his seed wash my memory from your head?"
“You are going to have to try harder than that, if you want to hurt me.” She said with a sigh, leaning against the cell bars. “You have to at least be crueler than the paladins who are supposed to be my friends and allies.”
"Crueler than paladins?" Matthias sneered. "That'll be tough. Very little is as cruel as people who believe themselves 'good'."
She looked at him now, sucking in breath. "By the Goddess! Did... did Jeoram do this to you?" She sounded shocked.
"What, this?" He stroked the massive bruise on his jaw. "Well, we weren't introduced or anything, but I'm pretty sure that's him. He likes it a bit rough." He leered as she entered the cell. "You probably noticed, when you two were together."
"Do you need more blood?"
The question went right through him, making him catch his breath and leaving him rock hard. "I... wouldn't turn it down," he answered, voice husky. His eyes were glued to her as she entered the cell, kneeling beside him and fingering his chains.
"Are these getting in the way, healing yourself?"
"Getting in the way, of a lot of things," he replied, lingering on the sight of smooth skin exposed by her top. The memory of the taste of her life and their half naked bodies pressed together tormented him. "Take them off, and find out..."
Her hand covered her face. “Is everything my fault? Do I just cause untold pain and suffering, with everything I do?”
Her distress pulled him from the haze of lust. "What?" Matthias snorted. "You get raped by a few demons and your lover, and suddenly you're a demon lord? At least you didn't end your suffering by swearing fealty to Baath-Me'el to make it stop. Trust me when I say that I've caused far more pain in the world."
“I would have,” she shot back. “Had I been able to speak while Laemohn–” She turned, and it was a relief. He’d been baiting her, yes, but anger was his aim, not pain. “I would have begged Baath Me’el. Had I thought he would have had me, I would have begun begging before the twins…” The words dissolved into weeping. Her arms snaked around his neck as she spoke, admitting her fears and resting against his shoulder. “I considered while he took me before I had even known true horror. I’m pathetic. And it’s my fault you are like this.”
His fangs ached for her, an ache echoed by the throbbing hardness of his cock. Her throat pulsed with temptation, so close to him. Where he could reach it. Instead, his own chain swathed arms went around her. “I made a choice, Ari. The wrong one, clearly, but it was mine.”
"What would have been my fate? Had I agreed?" she asked, calloused fingers stroking the lines of his chest.
"I don't know," he whispered, torn between his need to taste her blood and his unaccountable desire to spare her more suffering.
"Would he have kept me for a concubine?" Her hand traced lower, finding his. “Or would I have been a warrior, like you?"
"I don't know," he repeated, lips tracing the pulsing artery in her slender throat. It would be easy, so easy to slide into her, to taste her as his fangs penetrated her. So easy, and yet he refused. Why? "Maybe both."
"Is that why you brought me to him? So that I could be at your side once more?"
"I don't know." There were no answers for her.
"Did you hope they would break me quickly, so I could be your..." She didn't finish the thought, burying her face into the cool marble of his chest. Her tears were wet on his skin, eliciting guilt that warred with his desire for her.
His guilt won. "No," he murmured, running his fingers gently through her raven hair. "I know you better than that, Aurianna. They would never have broken you quickly."
Then she was kissing him, tongue pushing past his lips and lacerating on his fangs. The copper-sweet flavor of her life flooded his mouth, his mind and he pulled her close. He feasted upon her need, returning her fevered passion with a desperate lust of his own. Fingers tugged at her blouse, tearing at the laces, rocking his hips against hers as he felt the soft warmth of her bared chest against his.
She pulled back, her blood crimson on her lips and chin, dripping to stain her breasts. "Take it away!" she sobbed, begging him. "Take it all away, please..."
He lunged forward, his tongue thrusting into her mouth as he tasted her life again before sealing the wound. Trailing down her chin and throat, he savored her skin, her soft moans and needy cries. Bending her back, lips and tongue caressed her bare breasts, following the sticky trail of blood his fingers had left.
"Take me," she asked as he returned to her throat. "Take me hard. It's all I am good for now."
With a sudden, hoarse cry, he shoved her from his lap. "Get out," he snarled, shaking with frustrated lust. "You're a paladin, not some demon's whore." He stared at her as she sprawled before him, legs spread and upper body bared, trembling with the effort required to not bury his fangs and cock in her, to bleed and fuck her.
"Is this what you want?" he asked, rising. "To give up? To betray your Goddess? To prove to the Order that you are nothing more than the broken plaything of Hell?" He wanted her. Wanted her shuddering beneath him as he fucked his seed into her, wanted her screaming his name as her blood coursed down his throat in time with the shuddering convulsions of orgasm.
"GET OUT!" he bellowed. "Get out, and don't come back!" And with a shuddered roar of frustration and anger, he threw himself into the far corner of his cell.
She stood then, glaring down at him. Lust became rejection and hate, filling the space between them. He wasn’t sure if she was going to beat him or force him or both. Either he would have deserved. Instead, tears filled her eyes, cutting him far deeper. “I’m…I’m sorry. For everything.” She turned away from him, and it took all his resolve not to reach for her.
"I am, too," Matthias whispered as Aurianna fled the cell. "I'm sorry."
That look in her eyes. He'd seen that look before, in the Court. And he was relieved and disappointed that she'd left. The thought of her, taking him without regard to his own desires, made his already hard cock painfully rigid. His hand wrapped around his iron shaft as he imagined her pushing him back, her cunt squeezing around him as she pinned him to the floor. His eyes closed as he stroked his shaft and imagined he...
"I told you that you had a chance," an amused voice remarked.
His eyes snapped open. "Enjoying yourself?" he asked, his hand still gripping himself.
"Perhaps," answered Oracle.
"Why are you here?" Matthias asked. His hand pumped his cock as he stared at her, trying not to meet her gold eyes without looking like he was avoiding them. The effort needed to push away Aurianna left him sapped, yet regret gave him the energy to be irreverent. He bucked his hips at her, grinning. "Looking to show me some more pity?"
"Why didn't you fuck her?" The Oracle asked, ignoring his posturing.
"What?"
"It's a simple question," she answered. "Aurianna invited you. Even begged. Why didn't you?"
"How long were you watching?" he demanded.
"Why didn't you?" she repeated.
Matthias didn't answer. He didn't have an answer. Oracle smiled that irritating, knowing smile. "Think about it. When you have answer," she said, golden eyes trailing down his body, "maybe I'll show you pity."
With that, she left. Matthias sunk into his fantasy once more, visualizing Aurianna astride him. As his pleasure built, he could see her in his mind. Eyes closed as she fucked him with abandon. When he could hold back no longer she looked down at him with irises of burning gold– the eyes of Afodisia. His cry was hoarse and shocked as he came, his seed spattering on his stomach and dripping down his hand.
Why didn't you fuck her? a half-remembered voice asked as his mind reeled and his chest heaved from the force of his orgasm.
And still, he didn't know.
