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Seriously, was I becoming some dog?
Not wanting to open that metaphorical can of worms, I tried to return to the practiced movements of moments before, but not before drawing up my sixth sense in hopes of getting an idea of what, or more likely who was watching me. It felt demonic, which wasn’t immediately out of the norm for me considering my propensity for hell puppy playtime, but this was different...more. Raw in the truest sense of the word.
I turned back towards the truck and let my other senses take hold more than pure sight alone. And that was when I caught it, the soft edges of a tempered red aura glowing from beneath shadows and a canopy of trumpet honeysuckle bushes at the top of a small sharp ridge on the northern edge of my tiny clearing. I couldn’t see any direct form, only the general aura of a man, a telling sign of an intense invisibility glamor. I knew how to see through this type of spell normally, looking for refraction in nearby objects, but whoever this was had such a mastery that absolutely no distortion existed. Even more problematic was that my stalker held the high ground. I, however, kept the element of surprise, one I would be happy to abuse to slap his ass silly with some well-timed wrath.
I waited with forced breath for any potential slip-ups - something that would give anything else away about this person watching me. I could get absolutely nothing energy-wise from this guy. All of his powers coiled so tightly around him that I doubted my psychic tendrils could pull anything off. This meant I was shooting with only what I had gathered earlier - frickin awesome. Really, could this day get any better?
When the next rumble came, accompanied by a taunting growl that rattled my back teeth, I sprung, spinning and throwing a quick spark of wrath. Much to my chagrin, the wrath bounced away harmlessly, striking the ground mere feet away from him. I cursed inwardly - my initial assessment had been correct: just like the hell bear from earlier, this guy was entirely wrath-based, and the main essence I had stored up wasn’t going to do shit on its own. Well, thankfully, I still had a little humility and justice from watching showboating teens get their asses handed to them in training earlier.
Before my stalker could respond to the first hit, I wrapped a tendril of justice around my next spark, sending it speeding into his shoulder. Much to my delight, the glamor fell away as the man lifted an arm across his broad chest to touch the tare I had put in his overly expensive-looking suit. At least, I hoped it was expensive. Served him right for stalking.
He was intimidatingly tall, with broad shoulders and lean muscular arms visible under his tight sleeves. His unkempt hair was a dark black and appeared almost blue in a patch of sunlight that peeled between the tree leaves overhead, matching the unruly stubble that crossed his jaw. His hair and olive skin perfectly accented the dark charcoal suit he wore, complete with vest, black shirt, and charcoal tie, drawing attention to the corded neck beneath. His face was angular, saved from prettiness by two scars: one that bisected the edge of his heavy lower lip and the other crossing the inner corner of his left brow and nose, making it a wonder he hadn’t lost his eye. And what eyes he had: I couldn’t find a way to look anywhere else but straight at them. They were wide and framed with thick black lashes, drawing me to his bright flaming irises, bordered by a distinct black ring that caged in the power exuded there. His stare radiated pure fire with a color bridging between amber and my bracelet's burnt copper hues. Heat crept up my neck, morphing the anticipation I had felt earlier to desire: I craved his gaze, needing to burn it to my soul. But I also felt the urge to challenge him - a need to bring him to his knees before me.
“Well, that was unexpected,” his deep, bemused voice carried across the clearing, the tones like a liquid caress of pure gruff masculinity that fit his alluring physique almost too perfectly. “I’ve never met a caster who could control the virtues and the sins.”
Well fuck it, I guess he had been paying attention. Time to silence him then.
I wrapped a small chain of humility around my right pointer finger before placing my left hand on my cocked hip, giving off an air of nonchalance. I allowed the chain to weave its way around my hand, and I followed its pattern with my eyes, my willingness to take them off. My opponent intended to jab at his pride. I snaked my hand out before me, playing with the chain by rocking it back and forth across my forearm before gathering it quickly into a ball I threw at him.
He sidestepped my attack effortlessly, moving so swiftly that my eyes barely had time to register. The only outward sign of his interest in the situation was a slight uptick in his right cheek and a nearly invisible narrowing at the corners of his eyes. His breathing remained calm and steady, with no signs of exertion or rising of his heartbeat to indicate any strain. He was baiting me, trying to see what else I could do, but I refused to rise to it, folding my right arm across my belly to lightly graze the fingertips of the hand still clasped at my cocked hip. Externally, I may have been playing it cool, but inside, I was seething with the need to bring this arrogant bastard down a peg.
He must have grown bored of waiting as he reigned a searing ball of fire above me. I dove, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck prickle and singe as I just avoided the collision. I rolled and jumped back to my feet, my chest rising and falling from the quick movements as I felt a sting to my pride. The cocky bastard had put his hands in his pockets, the uptick in his cheek now a visible smirk. Gods, I wanted to wipe that cocky expression from his oh too handsome face.
I growled, earning another ball of fire. This time, however, I was prepared, throwing a shield of psychic tendrils over my head to absorb the flames, imbuing me with a torrent of wrath that took virtually all my concentration to keep tempered within my void. I felt my remaining reservoirs of humility and justice naturally attempt to flee, and I had to use every ounce of my self-control to hold them to me without losing the energy I had just gathered.
Hells below, but did it feel invigorating? The flames of pure wrath that licked through my body caused my skin to crackle and emanate with visible waves of deliciously exquisite heat. I rolled my shoulders and swayed my head back and forth as I reveled in the heady intoxication. Snapping open eyes that I hadn’t even been aware I’d closed, I allowed the fire that scorched its way through my blood to rise to my arms, coating every surface until I was a walking embodiment of flame.
“Thanks, handsome,” I winked at him, only to watch as he disappeared into a wisp of black smoke.
Fists flew at me, and I found myself ducking and weaving, bringing my arms up to block a powerful elbow directed at my head. The asshole was fast, reappearing directly before me in time to strike out without any detectable exertion. I didn’t have time to ponder how the hell he had done it as he dematerialized again to grip me from behind, slamming his hard body up against my back and pulling me into a headlock, the air whooshing from my lungs as he dug his fist directly into my left kidney. The flames that scorched my skin nipped and licked at his suit, burning the edges and lighting his sleeves aflame without so much as a single to the delectable coating of black hair across his forearms.
Fuck that hurt. But even though I felt darkness crowding my vision as my lungs screamed for breath, I refused to admit defeat.
Drawing the flames directly to my core again, I concentrated them into a quick burst, pushing outwards with every scrap of conscious effort I could. This knocked my attacker off his balance, allowing me to gasp in the much-needed air my lungs required.
Without fully allowing my breath to catch, I spun out at him, throwing a kick directly towards his chest that he batted away like he would a fly. I charged, throwing a series of punches he dodged and blocked with fluid grace, the taunting still there in the glowing embers of his irises that framed narrowing pupils.
When he knocked away another kick, I was forced to spin around to avoid losing my balance, forcing him to stamp his foot down on my right calf and buckle to my knees. Before I could register, he had knelt behind me, one fist back around my neck while the other twisted my hair around his hand until he had forced my head back, exposing the curvature of my neck to him. That dark side of me hissed and clawed, registering the submission my exposed neck posed.
The arm around my neck hardened, the roughened olive skin beginning to crack and pop as it changed. Initially, I thought I was burning it with the little flame I still held. Still, as it continued to harden and crackle, the roughened patch turned a startling black that ebbed with a liquid flame beneath deep grooves, reminding me much of hardened lava cracking over an active flow. He taught me something important: I may control wrath, but hewaswrath. I reached deep for the last tendrils of justice and humility, but I could feel a crush of suppression seal the void within me.
I bucked my hips and attempted to throw back my elbow, missing his side as he used his leverage on my hair to roll me to my back, pinning me below his massive frame. He straddled me, my hips secure between his massive legs. His hand still held my hair, so he tilted my head sideways and gripped my right and left wrists with his other, pinning them above my head swiftly.
“Don’t bother squirming,” his harsh tone and focused gaze brooked no argument, but still, I pulled my face into a snarl and attempted to throw my hips to buck him off. He chuckled when I started sliding my legs inwards to make a last-ditch effort at his balls, but He-Man here squeezed them tighter between his powerful thighs, removing any last vestiges of hope in being able to move my lower body again. What did this guy eat to maintain these muscles - a freaking elephant?
“Shhhhh,” he cooed as I tried fruitlessly to rock my shoulders and raise my chest to get some leverage to escape his impossibly firm grip. Panic tightened in my chest, and dots crossed my vision as he tugged tighter on my unruly locks, my scalp prickling with the pain.
But something else also happened - my traitorous body responded to his tug with a warm tingle that ran straight to my womb. Despite how I mentally loathed this submission, my body grew tense and hot as he squeezed my legs together, giving me a small taste of friction that had me biting back a moan.
“Calm, Little Thief,” he whispered in a dark, sensual tone with just a hint of warmth, an invitation to listen to the soothing rumble in his chest. “I just want to see you.”
???
Marik
Lucifer below, but she was exquisite. Her delectable curves nearly detracted from the dangerously exotic way her body could move in the throws of combat. For a human female, she was fierce, with all fists and lithe movements, and how she responded to my taunting made my demon ascend with anticipation of his next conquest. She’d had shit in the way of real training, something I was elated by the prospect of remedying. And Heaven be damned, the way she had absorbed my wrath had my cock so hard it hurt. I had never once had someone steal my power in my many millennia, and while it should make me desire to feel her crushing windpipe beneath my claws, it made me excited to see what the thief could do next.
She had seen him there, my Demon’s true colors, no doubt measuring his worth. I had allowed him to surface to play a more active role and angel’s balls, but did he relish in it?
