Please Note: This chapter contains Mature Content including some non-consensual violence
Harlee POV
I could help but moan as Zeev moved with me. He had me pinned down on the couch, my legs wrapped around his waist, mouth eagerly exploring mine. I arched against him and then noticed the glow.
"Zeev wait-we didn't discuss this! There's so much going on right now!" I squirmed, trying to escape him, and Zeev slammed my shoulders against the couch, grabbing my wrists in one hand and holding them above my head, holding me down with the other.
"Zeev!" I yelled as the glow intensified, and then began to build between us. I was forced to squeeze my eyes shut and turn my head.
"You told me to stake my claim." Zeev snarled. "Consider me doing just that." His voice had lost all reason. I bucked, trying to escape him again, but he growled, his Form slithering slightly around me, so that his legs became the leathery taloned version, locking mine in place.
"ZEEV!" I screamed. He captured my mouth with his own as the electrical zap happened within me and the light winked out, the heat moving inside me as Zeev ended the kiss and drew away from me. My face was covered in tears that I wiped angrily away. I untangled myself from Zeev, refusing to look at him, and stood up. The heat in my lower abdomen was a painful reminder that I had just basically been raped by a Demon. I grabbed at my clothing.
"Rape? No I.." Zeev reached for me.
"I asked you to stop." I said softly.
"Did you no longer want children then?" Zeev asked quietly. "Or just not mine?" I looked at him quickly, his face was crestfallen.
"No, it's not that. I just don't think it's the best time." I responded. "But what you did was still wrong." I walked from the room to let him stew.
Zeev POV
I sat with my head in my hands for the better part of an hour. Harlee never came back to the living room. I could feel the tumble of her emotions through our link, but the one thing that kept repeating was she hoped she didn't get pregnant because she wasn't sure she could love a child that had been forced on her. A child of rape. The word kept tumbling through her head. She was horrified that I had betrayed her, but my own words kept haunting her. 'I am a Demon' my voice rang over an over in her head. I shuddered, but stood and dressed, then left the house, stepping into a deserted field of wildflowers. I looked at the stars. I used to be able to hear the singing from Heaven, but I couldn't anymore.
How had I Fallen this far?
Harlee POV
When Zeev left the house I panicked. Yes, I was outraged, and hurt beyond belief, but he would come back, right? Zeev was like a favored pet who had bit me. I felt betrayed, but I still didn't want to lose him, because I realized I still loved him. I was just... heartbroken.
"Come back soon, big bad wolf." I said, rubbing at my suddenly aching chest. Within an hour or two Ash returned.
"Harlee!" Ash cried, scooping me up in a tight hug. "Whew, smell the pheromones on you! Where's bird brain?"
"Zeev.. stepped out.. for a while." I responded dully.
"Did you guys have a fight?" Ash asked with interest. My stomach growled. "When was the last time you ate? Here, have a caramel." Ash pulled a candy from his vest pocket.
"Seriously-you and the candy!" I scolded.
"What? I like it! It helps me keep my energy up, and helps make me taste sweet." Ash shrugged. "Now, come on, I may not be as good of a cook as bird brain, but I can still make a few decent things." Ash tugged me towards the kitchen.
It turns out, almost all Ash knew how to make were sweet dishes, but the baked pears were delicious anyway. I ate about four of them myself before sighing and shoving the plate aside. Ash looked at me happily.
"Satisfied?" Ash asked, though the question almost seemed to hold a double meaning.
"Yup, very." I responded, choosing to ignore it, and Ash seemed to glow. Ash excitedly chatted about their day while I stood to clean up the dishes.
"No-um, pardon me for saying Mistress, but I sense a piece of bird brain-uh I mean Zeev's Core, within you. Let me wait on you so it has time to implant." Ash responded. I snatched the dishes away and slammed them in the sink with a sob. Ash hesitated for a moment, but then I felt the coolness of their embrace.
"Are you ok? Mistress? Harlee?" Ash asked. I sobbed louder and turned into the hug, burying my face in Ash's shoulder. Ash stroked my hair and let me cry, even though my tears were wetting the exposed skin of the shoulder the shirt revealed. I could smell Ash's Autumn scent getting stronger as my tears wet the skin further, and Ash's cool temperature felt good on my hot face. I clung to Ash, and suddenly I was being scooped up and carried to the bedroom.
Ash deposited me in the middle of the bed and wrapped a blanket around my shoulders, then sat beside me and held me until I stopped crying.
"Do you want some chocolate? Ice cream? Chocolate ice cream?" Ash laughed lightly. "A tissue maybe?" I shook my head and Ash lifted my face.
"What happened?" Ash demanded. I bit my lip as tears sprang to my eyes again. Ash brushed the hair away from my shoulder.
"May I?" Ash asked, brushing the Mark on my collar bone lightly. I hesitated, but nodded and Ash laid a gentle hand over the Mark. I felt Ash sift through my memories of the day until he got to the ones of Zeev.
"Why I outta!" Ash jumped to their feet and their Form shifted, leathery wings sprouting from Ash's slender back. I grabbed Ash's hand.
"You can't." I said, laying a hand on my chest. I moved it out with a pinching motion, lighting up the string that bound the soul pieces together. "Even now, my soul cries out for its other half." I whispered. Ash ran a light finger along the string and I arched. Unlike with other people, the touch was not unpleasant, but seemed to be loaded with Ash's very essence, that scarcely restrained sexuality. Ash was Bound to my soul-so my soul recognized Ash and responded immediately. I panted slightly.
"This is.. your soul?!" Ash said incredulously, running a finger along the string again. I moaned and moved forward unconsciously.
"It's sort of like the umbilical cord between Zeev and I, really." I gasped. "It connects the two halves of.. our.. soul." I finished quietly. Ash placed a gentle hand on my chest.
"I can hear it, crying out for its mate. Is it always like this for you?" Ash asked me. I felt my eyes tear up as I recalled a similar conversation with Zeev about our Bond. I nodded.
"The closer Zeev is to me, the better I feel. It was much worse before the Bond too. But when we shut each other out.." I sucked in an unsteady breath. Ash moved closer, placing a knee beside me on the bed.
"I can help you with this pain, Mistress." Ash murmured. "Incubi specialize in consuming souls over multiple feedings and making our prey feel good about it." Ash straddled me. "We anesthetize the soul so to speak, so it doesn't feel the pain as we draw the power away." The hand on my chest pushed me back on the bed. "I can make the pain stop. At least for a while." Ash whispered, lips brushing mine. Tears were streaming from my eyes. Ash stopped, looking at them.
"Mistress?" Ash asked quietly. I shook my head. With a gentle hand Ash brushed the tears away. "Why won't you let me help you? I'm yours to do with as you please after all." Ash whined.
"I won't use you like that. I'm not.. everybody else in your life." I squeezed my eyes shut, turning my head aside, but Ash suddenly gripped my face and planted a long, deep kiss on my lips.
"That just makes me want to make love to you even more." Ash whispered. "But we don't have to go that far. I just need permission to touch your soul." Ash placed a hand on my chest again. I hesitantly nodded.
"You have to say it Mistress." Ash teased gently.
"You have permission to help ease the pain in my soul." I snapped.
"Ooh, carefully worded, you've been hanging around Demons too long." Ash laughed. Ash smashed their lips against mine at the same time that there was a shimmer of grey smoke around Ash's right hand. I felt an uncomfortable pressure and chill ease into my skin.
'Just relax.' Ash soothed in my mind. 'this is why we usually do this during sex-humans are too distracted to notice.' Ash continued to kiss me, tongue suddenly plunging into my mouth. I had baked a pumpkin pie once that I accidentally burnt a little. That's what Ash tasted like to me, that burnt pumpkin. It wasn't entirely unpleasant though, there was the sweetness from the candy Ash was always eating and the scent was so, so heady. I arched slightly and Ash chuckled.
"That's better." Ash mumbled against my lips. I felt the cold chill spreading in my chest, like ice had somehow made it beneath my ribs. "No, no, no. Don't pay attention to that. Pay attention to me." Ash ground their hips against mine and I could immediately feel Ash's arousal and gasped, struggling back.
"Don't move Mistress!" Ash grunted, pinning me down with their free hand. I felt the chill suddenly strike where the ache in my chest always bothered me. It was a strange sensation, like being bitten by a snake and having venom pumped in, if that venom was Novocaine. It hit like icicles, and then everything went numb. My chest arched under Ash and I whimpered, feeling like I should reach a release of some sort. I felt the numbness move down the thread that bound Zeev and I. It struck him like a blow, making him drop to his knees, clutching his chest.