Chapter 73: Lydia starts her revenge...

"Three layers. Triple checked. It'll hold," Molly said. She put the magnifying glass down on the table. There were no cracks in their summoning circle. No gaps in the wax of the ritual circle at the center of it, or the salt around the circumference of it that enacted the summoning circle, or the circle of ash that provided added resilience behind that.

"You know your lines?" Onyx asked.

"I do," Molly said, and then favored her with a wink.

They were back to their normal clothing and back to their apartment. They had made sure that the upstairs neighbors were out for the evening and the guy next door was out at work. A heavy pair of curtains was laid against the windows. The pair enacted charms of discretion and disinterest around their apartment. It was all the privacy they could manage.

Not for the first time, the young couple felt like they would soon have to find an acceptable way to start making some money with all this witchcraft stuff. For one thing, they really needed better digs.

"I still figure this is gonna take a few hours. You ready?" Molly asked. She held out a circlet of vines and stems. Interwoven within them were the strands of blonde hair Molly had found.

"I love you, Molly," Onyx answered simply.

Molly grinned, took Onyx in her arms and kissed her guilty look away. Eventually she leaned her forehead against her lover's. "This is why I'm with you," the redhead reminded her. "There's no point to all this if we can't help our friends. It's not about you sleeping with him. I like him, too."

Onyx nodded. She let Molly pull away, then turned to light the last candle. Then she frowned. "Wait, like him how?"

"Oh please. You knew I was a tramp when you brought me home," Molly laughed.

************

Lydia was relentless.

She allowed Carlos neither rest nor the oblivion of unconsciousness. He begged, at least while he could still talk, but all that did was make her smile. He would have cursed his virility, and Lydia's unending, merciless lust, but that thought didn't drift through his mind until he was incapable of speech.

Shortly after sunset, it was time. These things had to be managed very carefully. There was a very short window in these rituals between the ejection of the soul from the body and the final expiration of life. She would have only the briefest of moments.

Lydia reached over Carlos's head, granting one last caress of her breasts against his face while she pulled the ritual dagger from behind the wooden headboard of the bed.

Carlos couldn't even really tell what was happening at that point. He only barely felt the point of the dagger as it carved shallow, profane runes into his arms, his shoulders and his chest. There wasn't much blood. That wasn't the point. All the while, Lydia called out to her master.

The cuts stopped bleeding. Lydia rocked harder against him, calling out wantonly in a tongue rarely used on Earth, "Ba'al! Come to me, lord and master! Your servant offers this body, that you may take pleasure in hers! Ba'al! Ba'al!"

Carlos let out a last, final sigh. His hands stopped twitching. Lydia continued to grind against him. A moment later, a tiny puff of ash came from his mouth. More escaped from the cuts on his upper body.

Lydia gasped and quivered in orgasmic surrender when Carlos's hands grasped her hips with sudden strength, vitality and urgency. The forceful, selfish rhythm left no illusion of the succubus having any further control. She was gripped, used, and then tossed to her side.

Her partner rose off his back to look at his surroundings, then down at the smiling, submissive woman sharing the bed. Black smoke swirled in his eyes.

"Tell me quickly why this is worth my while," said a much deeper and sinister voice than had ever come from Carlos before.

Her satisfied smile was undiminished by her master's apparent irritation. Lydia said only one word: "Lorelei."

What was once Carlos cocked his head curiously. "What of her?"

"Belial has lost her and I know where she is."

************

"Why would you do something like that?" Alex asked. He sat upright on the bed. Rachel lay next to him. He had pulled half the comforter over her so he could think straight.

He didn't want to think straight. He wanted to make love to her. She clearly wanted that, too. But this was crazy.

"Because it will help keep us together, Alex," Rachel explained. She reached out to take his hand, speaking in a voice that was both loving and urgent. "I'm telling you, it's not what you think. It's not what any of us thought. That urge to obey peaked like three days into this whole deal. You might get a few days to boss me around, which could be kinda kinky," Rachel noted with a brief grin, "but in the end, I'm not really going to be your slave. Not really."

"Lorelei doesn't disobey me," Alex said.

"Of course she doesn't. It's in a demon's nature to have a master. But she gets off on obeying you. Maybe the ritual reinforces that and maybe it doesn't, but that's part of who and what she is regardless. She doesn't obey you because of the ritual, Alex. She wants you as her master because she has to have one, and she loves you and respects you. If I were in her shoes, I'd feel the same way.

"That whole thing about not being able to lie to you is irrelevant to me anyway, by the way. I told you that straight off. I couldn't lie to you regardless."

"Yeah, but you can apparently hide things from me like this."

"Well, that's something Lorelei can clearly do too. She sure as hell knew this would happen. I think she was just hoping I wouldn't find out."

Alex blinked. "Why would she do that?"

"Hello? Demon! Bound to be a little naughty! Plus she loves you, dork. Put those two things together. Why wouldn't she want you to have me wrapped around your finger and your cock?" Seeing his displeased look, Rachel finally looked less pleased with the situation and more penitent. "Alex, I'm sorry. I didn't tell you because I wasn't sure if it would still work and I didn't want you to freak out. And it doesn't change how I feel for you in the slightest."

"Well, I'm a little freaked out," Alex put in sourly. "You're taking a terrible risk with your freedom."

"I'm really not," Rachel said. "I love you. I've never felt love like this before. This bond between us... if anything, it helps keep us together."

"Why?"

"Because the one thing it for sure does permanently is obligate me to defend you."

"I thought you were going to do that anyway?"

"I am. That's not the point. That priest was at least smart enough not to try this without being damn sure that his slaves couldn't turn on him. He did a good fuckin' job on that, too. Even the angels couldn't figure out a way to break the bond, and that was when it wasn't even as complete as it is now. So now even if Vincent does get his way and I get removed as your guardian angel, I'm still bound to protect you. Like I said, I'd do that anyway. But this is something I've got to throw at anyone who tries to send me to Bum Fuck Egypt to convey prophecies and shit. They can't send me away from you now. They won't. They can't. The Hosts can be ridiculously political sometimes, but it's still Heaven. They aren't cruel."

Alex sighed, looking away from her for a moment. She reached out and took his hand, which brought his attention back to her. "I love you, Alex."

"I... ugh. I love you, too, Rachel. It just seems crazy that you would put yourself in this position. Even if the whole 'enslavement' thing only lasts for a little while."

Rachel's lips pursed. "Alex, love? I'm suffering from a terrible curse that makes me obey your wishes for, like, three whole days. Would you be a real sweetheart and not order me around like I'm your slave?" She watched his reaction and grinned. "That's why. That sort of thing might be fun and kinky for you and Lorelei, but I know you wouldn't put it on anyone else."

"Is there anything else you're keeping from me? Anything at all?"

"Way too much for comfort, really," Rachel confessed. "But virtually all of it is still stuff you're not meant to know. Please don't ask me to tell you such things. It would hurt you spiritually and psychologically."

"Virtually all? What doesn't fall under that?"

Rachel suppressed a grin. "Are you sure you're not still mad at me?"

Alex almost said something angry, but bit it back. There wasn't any conviction behind it, anyway. He sighed, ultimately feeling annoyed at himself. "I don't know how I can be mad at you. Or Lorelei. I mean, I'm mad, but I'm not gonna stay mad at you, and I know it, so... fuck it, I guess." He shrugged. "Kinda feel like a heel, though... but I love you. And if you're this scared of being separated from me, I guess... well, I guess it's not like I know what it's like where you come from."

Rachel gave him a puppy-dog look. "Can I pull the blanket off now and go back to being naked and willing for you?"

He snorted out a laugh. "Hell, yes," Alex said, shifting a bit as she revealed her glowing, well-loved body again. Once again, his eyes showed how dazzled she really had him. "But what else aren't you telling me?" he asked.

"There's one other part of the ritual that I'm pretty sure is permanent."

"Which is?"

"The part where I'm gonna love it when you get laid by someone else every bit as much as Lorelei does," Rachel grinned broadly. "I mean, I'm not gonna feed on it like she does, but I'm so totally gonna get off on it the same way."

That made Alex smile. He crawled over her, slipping one hand up her belly, then over her breast, which he gently kneaded and toyed with to Rachel's obvious pleasure. "You sure about that?"

"Mm-hmm," Rachel nodded. She reached up to run her fingers through his hair. "I've got one other confession... your smoking hot girlfriend hit on me the other night while you were out playing pool with the guys. I almost went for it. Alex, she loves you, and I love you, but we might cheat on you together if you're not careful."

"Um. Well, I can probably deal with that, but YouTube it or it didn't happen."

"I'd rather you participate," Rachel said, kissing him deeply. As their lips slid together, Alex brought himself between Rachel's legs, which spread for him invitingly.

"You could've sold me instantly on this if you had just told me about the last part of the bond," Alex said softly. "I kinda like knowing I'm pleasing more than one lover at a time. We probably already blew Lorelei out of her mind once tonight already."

"I like it, too," Rachel agreed. "Let's fuck her brains out again."