The Sacrifice

"Yes," I cried out, shameless in my need for release.

"Come," he demanded, his voice a deep, strangled sound, as his fingers continued their sweet torment. "Come, Lenore," he demanded, my name velvet on his lips.

And just like that, I did.

And I did with what seemed like my whole body.

The pleasure started at the base of my spine and spread outward until it overtook me completely, stealing the strength from my legs as the waves crashed through me.

I was vaguely aware of crying out his name at the apex of the orgasm, my fingers clawing at him, holding on for dear life as it felt like I shattered apart.

"Alright," Ly said, voice almost... coaxing—even if that didn't seem like something he was capable of—as I came back down into my body, gasping for air, body trembling wildly, seemingly out of my control. "You're alright," he added, his arm anchoring more tightly around my midsection as his fingers slid out of me, out of my skirt.

"I'm shaking," I told him, as though he couldn't feel that for himself.

"Aftershocks," he told me, and I could feel him shrugging it off.

Aftershocks.

That was an apt way of describing how I felt.

Shaken after.

"It'll stop," he added as they continued, and as I continued to cling, not trusting my legs to hold my weight.

"Who are you corrupting now?" a female voice asked, making Ly instantly tense. Which, in turn, made me do the same, my stomach wobbling as Ly let out a quiet, "Fuck."

"Red, fuck off," he demanded, turning slightly, seeming to try to hide me.

It was right then that I remembered where we were, that there were other people around, and I had a role to play.

"Why should you get to have all the fun? I want to talk to her too."

"No," Lycus said, turning me to face his chest completely, his arm roping around my lower back as his other hand grabbed the back of my neck, keeping my face pinned to him as he turned to face the unknown woman.

"Don't be a killjoy."

"There are dozens of other people here to corrupt."

"Fine. Have your fun," the woman said, and I could hear the sound of her heels clicking away from us.

Neither of us immediately said anything or even moved. I clung to him. He held me to his body.

I'd embraced many women in my life. It had always been nice and comforting.

But this?

This was something new entirely. Something that was both nice and comforting, but managed to be other things as well. Like exciting. And it, oddly, made me somehow feel very small and very protected.

Protected.

In the arms of a demon.

It made no sense.

But there was also no denying that was how it felt, either.

"Think you're done here," Ace's voice said, making the both of us stiffen, but there didn't appear to be anything in his voice that suggested he knew it was me that was clinging to Ly. "There's work to be done," he added before walking off.

Those words seemed to break through whatever emotion had allowed Ly to hold onto me.

He all but flung me away from him.

I flew backward, nearly slamming into the wall with the sudden lack of his strength holding me up.

"Go back to watching people fuck," he told me, something coming down over his face, masking anything real. It was a hard and cold mask, making a shiver course through me. "And don't fucking talk to anyone. Don't make me regret letting you be here, witch," he said, turning on his heel and storming away.

Alone, I fell back against the wall, feeling a sudden need to pull the jacket closed in the front, cover up, hide away.

I wasn't familiar with the sensations assaulting my system all at once. But they were reminiscent of sadness, of rejection, of confusion, and of shame.

"You okay?" a female voice asked at my side, making me turn to find a pretty, petite blonde-haired, green-eyed woman standing there in jeans and a loose-fitting sage green shirt, an outfit that seemed out of place in this home full of near-nakedness. Including, it seemed, my own.

It was right then that I realized there was wetness on my cheek, that I had tears flooding my vision.

"I don't know," I admitted, shaking my head, reaching up with one hand to wipe at my cheeks as the other held the front of my jacket closed.

"They're bastards, every one of them," she declared, the vehemence in her voice making me wonder if she had personal experience with their wickedness. "Even the woman."

"Red," I recalled Ly calling her.

"Yeah, Red. She's just as bad but in a different way. Did they hurt you?"

That wasn't an easy question to answer.

Yes and no.

Daily.

And who knew what was to come?

That said, I didn't think any of that was what this woman meant. She meant in the way men could sometimes hurt a woman. When she was unwilling and he refused to respect that.