Only one chapter to go and it'll be a fairly short epilogue. Sad to see this one end but excited to begin working on the new projects.
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There's a Fine Line...
Chapter 17
“Where the fuck
were you?” Alicia hissed. Her talons clicked together as she stifled the urge
to wrap them around her father’s neck. “You swore you’d be there and then you
just fucking walked away. You never called or explained or nothing. Marie’s
legs stayed permanently open which eventually brought Markus into the picture.”
“Alicia…” Johnston stepped towards her but she flashed her
dual sets of fangs and launched into the air out of his reach.
“Did you know what he was doing to me? Did you even give a
shit?” Huge tears rolled down her cheeks as she vented over a decade of hurt,
anger, and frustration. “For years, I tried to figure out why you hated me so
much. What did I do, what was so wrong with me that you’d leave us like that?”
“No! Honey, no, no, no,” the newly-appointed General of the
Seventh Circle held his arms out to his only child in desperate entreaty as
fiery tears rolled down his cheeks. “You did nothing wrong, pumpkin. Nothing! It was never your fault,
Alicia.”
“Then why? Why didn’t you come back for me?”
The dark fire of her wings dimmed and she drifted to the
floor. Though Johnston ached to take his daughter in his arms and comfort her, Blake
shook his head. The vampire stepped forward and pulled her against his chest in
a warm embrace, noting absently that her fiery wings neither burned his flesh
nor gave off any discernible heat. He slipped her arms into the sleeves of his
ripped shirt and covered some of her nudity with the thick material. It fit
oddly, backwards as it was, but at least she was partially clothed. Regardless
of familial attachment, the presence of the demon near his naked mate sat
poorly with his beast’s possessive nature. The shirt eased that instinctual
reaction somewhat. Running his hands soothingly over Alicia’s back, he brushed
his lips over the shell of her ear but remained silent. She deserved her
answers.
“He wouldn’t let me.” Johnston growled harshly. His human
form wavered with his struggle to remain in control. “I’ve spent the past
fifteen years trying to tear myself away from Malphas’ will in order to come
back to you. I fought him, and suffered for those fights, until he swore that
you were being cared for.”
“And you believed him? A demon?”
“Yeah, I believed him. I believed him because he hadn’t lied
to me until then. He explained about the changes. He helped me manifest the
wings. He kept me sane down here in this Godforsaken place! How was I to know
it was only a means to an end? He wanted it hurt when I discovered the truth.
He wanted me to hate him. Hate feeds a wrath demon like nothing else, and my
hate fed more than just myself; in some strange way, it fed him, too.” Johnston
paced the oddly changeable floor, tugging on his hair in frustration. His path
was meandering but managed to be one step ahead of, or behind, the columns of
fire that periodically shot into the sky. The more agitated he grew, the more
frequent the geysers until it looked like a fiery fountain at a casino.
“You were bound to him by blood, Johnston. That’s why your
anger fed him.” Blake’s eyes carefully followed the demon lord’s path. They
were uneasy allies at best, and he wouldn’t let down his guard when his mate
was involved.
“He said as much. Rejoiced in it, even. He said the
connection of our bloodline gave him greater control over me. I would have
believed that until I learned he’d sent the Marquis. It didn’t matter what kind
of pull he had over my will, I wasn’t about to leave my little girl in the
hands of a fucking lust demon.”
“You did,” Alicia hissed, burrowing in her vampire’s embrace
and surrounding herself with his scent.
“When I heard about the Marquis, I stormed into his tower
ready to take his fucking head. He batted me aside like a kitten and then he
laughed. He fucking laughed, Alicia, as he strapped me into that damn frame and
forced me to watch that bastard touch you and my Marie.” Flames shot from the
floor as his rage soared.
Johnston’s human form melted away to reveal the demon lord
in all his glory. He stood over nine feet tall with spiraled horns jutting from
his bald head. His wings unfurled twice the length of his height before draping
over his shoulders like a leathery cloak. A black loincloth tied around his
waist covered his genitals but left his trunk-like thighs bare. Unlike his
predecessor, he bore no trace of feathers above his cloven hooves – instead, a
layer of coarse fur covered his legs from knee to hoof. The fur was the same
color as his hair had been when he’d been human.
“I spent ten human years in the Pit, Alicia.” The demon’s voice
was little more than a growl as he continued to pace the cavernous chamber. His
hooves echoed in the silence. “Ten years of constant torment and torture. Ten
years of having the skin flayed from my body only to have it grow back just so
they could do it again. Ten years of fighting in the arenas, pitted against the
foulest of infernal creatures. Ten fucking years of being screwed by any demon
who pleased the General, castrated and forced to eat my own dick, dismembered
with dull blades… only to be put back together just so they could do it all over again!” Flames shot from
the walls and floor and the entire building shook as he stomped around the
room. He reached the metal frame that had recently held his child and ripped it
from the floor. The metal bent and twisted as easily as a wet noodle before
melting into slag at his feet. Outside, the mephits and lesser demons that had
been preparing to test their new General’s strength cringed and slid out of
range of his fury. They would challenge him another day.
“Oh, God.” Alicia’s swirling eyes widened with horror and
she eased from her vampire’s embrace. How could anyone have survived such
torture? How could he care for her that much?
“So do not tell me that I did nothing!” Johnston snarled,
sending foul magic to strike at one of the slowest of the mephits. The creature
shrieked as it slowly burned away. The rest flew much faster to avoid a similar
fate. “My only reason for survival was you, Alicia. My only shred of sanity
concerned you. My final, wavering scrap of humanity centered solely on keeping
you safe.”
“And in the end,” Alicia walked cautiously towards the demon
lord, “you did. Daddy, you kept me safe. If you hadn’t brought Blake with you,
I’d still be strapped to that cage. You succeeded, Daddy.”
“Did I?” His blood-red eyes met her swirling
crimson-and-black ones as he reached a tentative hand towards his child. His
fangs had pierced his lip where he’d bitten through them to hold back his tears
and the blood dripped from his chin to sizzle on the stone floor. “Did I save
you or did I just prolong both of our torment? You’re not a demon; you’re not
even a tiefling anymore. You don’t belong here but I can’t bear to let you go.
Not yet. Please, pumpkin, not yet.”
Daddy went thru hell for Alicia and just want some time w/her, I get it. But will Alicia and better yet Blake have to say about staying for a extended visit w/now top demon daddy. I want more. I don't believe her daddy will force her to stay. And maybe she and Blake can come back and visit on occasion. I want more. How long until it posts? I want more
ReplyDeleteI'll submit on Saturday morning and it'll be around Tuesday-ish (5th) or so :)
ReplyDelete