Her Soul to Take (Souls Trilogy)

The last thing I saw before the house plunged into darkness was Leon’s wide, sharp smile and golden eyes blazing with righteous fury. I’d fucked up. I’d really fucked up. Why did I ever think I could control a demon? Why did I think I could make that work? Some chalk and a Google search didn’t make me a magician — but it sure as hell might make me a corpse.

The house had gone completely dark. Not dark like the night — dark like a void, as if all light had been sucked up. I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face. I couldn’t see the floor beneath me. But I could feel the cold, creeping up around me like frosty hands settling on my back. I heard a little pat, pat, pat and the jingle of a bell as Cheesecake fled up the stairs. He had the right idea.

Run.

I tried to find the stairs, but my foot struck something hard and I swore, stumbling in the dark. Laughter sounded, echoing darkly from all around me. The sound of scratching claws came from somewhere above me, dragging eerily along the ceiling like something out of a horror film.

“Stop it, Leon!” Fear dug in deep between my lungs. I held out my hands, trying to feel for something, anything, in the dark. “I get it, okay? You’re pissed! And I probably deserve that.” A breath against my ear made me whirl around, striking at nothing. More laughter. I whirled again, furious, goosebumps prickling over every inch of me.

“Leon! Come out! Stop playing with me like this! If you want to punish me, just fucking do it!” Silence followed. Complete and utter silence, so heavy that I wanted to hold my breath because it sounded too loud. I gulped, and whispered, “Leon, please…please come out…”

Suddenly, across the room, two golden eyes blazed into my sight. Just eyes, no form, no face. Staring at me, staring into me. If looks could kill, his would have set me on fire.

“I’ve been in Abelaum since 1902.” Despite his gaze across the room, his voice whispered directly in my ear. “Over a hundred years, Raelynn. A hundred years of servitude. Coming and going only when summoned. Killing when ordered. Fighting when commanded. No sleep. No safety. Months and months in the dark, in confinement.”

His eyes vanished. I shuffled around, my hands outstretched, trying to find the stairs, the couch, a wall, anything to center myself. “Leon, I’m sorry, okay? I get it, I do, I shouldn’t have tried to trap you.”

“I offered you a deal.” His voice was above me now, sounding even deeper and more inhuman than ever. “A damn good deal. And I’m being very generous, because that deal still stands. I’ll tell you a secret, Raelynn.”

A little light returned: gray and cold, just enough to see my breath form clouds in front of my face.

His hands grabbed me from behind, one around my waist and the other around my throat, hugging me tight against him as his tongue licked my ear and he hissed, “I really fucking want your soul, Raelynn. I want it so goddamn badly it makes me sick. I want to own you, from now until eternity.”

His teeth nipped at my skin and his tongue played, teasing that sensitive spot just behind my ear until I was twitching.

“You deserve to be punished,” he said. I managed to nod as his hand gripped my jaw.

“I know.”

His hand around my waist moved lower, gripping my hip so hard his claws pierced through my jeans. “What did I fucking tell you about wearing panties?”

He shoved me forward, and I stumbled but caught myself. I immediately stripped out of my jacket, pulled off my shirt, and began to peel my tight jeans down my legs, stumbling from foot to foot. I could see only his silhouette in the dark, watching me, eyes bright. 

“Trying to be a good girl now, are we? Suddenly so cooperative. Do you think taking your punishment so eagerly is going to make me go easy on you?”

With my jeans around my ankles, he seized me again and pushed me against the wall, his body pressed close to mine. Some bizarre mixture of fear and need made me moan as his thigh pressed up between my legs. Hearing him speak about his captivity had been like needles slowly stabbing into my heart. The guilt was eating away at me. I’d acted out of desperation, but I’d tried to take advantage of him in the process.

Demon or not, he didn’t deserve that. He didn’t deserve to have felt trapped where he’d thought he was safe.

I deserved whatever punishment he decided to mete out. I needed it to make this awful guilt go away.

“The little doll wanted to play at being master.” One claw traced down my cheek as he shook his head. “How did that work out for you?”

I gave a frantic shake of my head. “It-it didn’t…didn’t work —”

“No, it didn’t work at all.” There was a rumble to his voice that shivered through my belly. He leaned over me, pressed his forehead to mine, and asked softly, “Mercy?”

I knew what I’d done. I knew what I absolutely deserved.

“No. No mercy.”

He chuckled darkly as he stepped back, giving me a little room to breathe. “Good answer.” He unbuckled his belt, the metal clinking, the leather making a smooth sound as he slid it out of his jeans. He ran it through his hands as he doubled it over, and snapped the two sides together. “No mercy.”

I watched wide-eyed as he raised his hand and curled his finger at me. “Come here. Now.”

I obeyed with slow, shuffling steps. I dreaded it. I wanted it. I needed it. I knew exactly what he was going to do, what I was going to let him do. I stood before him, naked except for the panties he’d scolded me for wearing, and my bra. He paced around me slowly, taking his time, snapping the belt intermittently and chuckling when I jumped. 

“You’re looking a little nervous, doll.” He stood in front of me again, and tapped the belt up under my chin, tipping my face up toward him. “Tell me, do you know what is about to happen?”

I gulped. “You’re…you’re going to spank me.”

He grinned. “I’m going to whip you, Rae, until your ass is red and you’re begging me to stop. Then I’m going to put you down on your knees, and you’re going to gag on my cock until you prove just how sorry you are.”

My body was on fire. Guilt, humiliation, and desire made for a truly heady cocktail. I nodded. “I understand.”

“Bend over.”

A whimper escaped me as I obeyed. I felt so much more vulnerable like that: bent at the waist, reaching toward my ankles, nearly naked. His arm looped around my waist, pinning me close to his side, and the smooth leather belt trailed lightly over my skin.

“This is a very important lesson, doll,” he said, and the belt drew back from touching me. “Don’t piss off a demon.”

The belt smacked down, cracking across my skin with a bite that made me yelp. I didn’t try to stand up nor did I struggle. A second lash came, landing right where the first had left me tender. My cry was louder that time, and I bit my lip.

“Naughty girl. Do you think you don’t deserve this?”

Another lash, another cry. It stung like fire across my skin. Resisting the instinct to struggle away from it was nearly impossible. I sucked in my breath and said, “I—I know….I know I…deserve it —”

The belt fell again, and again, the burn building up until I screamed, and he paused. My legs were shaking, every breath trembled, and my eyes had welled up with tears I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold back much longer.

“How are we, doll?” he said conversationally, and even the sudden, soft touch of the belt teasing over my skin made me flinch. “I don’t think you’ve learned your lesson quite yet, but God, you sound so pitiful. Are you sorry?”

“Yes,” I whimpered. I knew he wasn’t done. “I’m sorry.”

Just as I’d suspected, the belt lashed down again. I shrieked, my bare toes curling, and I found myself clinging to the leg of his jeans just to hold onto something. Those tears I’d been holding back escaped, but they weren’t miserable — they were cathartic.

It felt good to cry. It felt good to endure the pain. It tempered the guilt inside me, and stoked the roaring inferno of my desire. The belt stroked slowly over me again, tingling across my stinging skin.

“If we were in Hell, I’d do this in public,” he said. “Demons do love to see a good whipping. There’s just something about that exquisite suffering.” The belt cracked down, and I would have dropped to my knees if he hadn’t been holding me up. “It really is beautiful to see.”

“I’m sorry!” I cried. “Leon, I’m…I’m sorry —”

“Are you sorry? Or are you just a horny, pathetic little mortal who wants to get off?”

I gasped as he stroked two fingers over my panties. But it wasn’t enough for him to feel the damp through my underwear; he shoved them aside, and his fingers pressed inside me. I was so slick he slid in easily, clicking his tongue as if in disapproval as he pumped carelessly in and out of me.

“So the belt makes you wet. Poor perverted little thing.”

He kept fingering me, pausing only to whip the belt down before pressing his fingers inside me again. My cries had turned to moans. My eyes practically rolled back every time he pushed his fingers into me. It hurt so good. The sting was going to linger on my ass for days, yet another mark he’d given me.

Another sign that no matter how much I resisted giving him my soul, I was his.

I was left gasping after three rapid lashes. As I tried to catch my breath, he said again, “Are you sorry, doll?”

“Yes.” My voice choked with a little sob, but it was heavy with lust. “I’m sorry, Leon, I’m sorry, I am, I promise, I’m so sorry.”

There was a clatter as he tossed the belt to the floor. He pulled me up, and I was dizzy for a moment while I adjusted to standing upright. He held me there, one hand in my hair and the other gripping my jaw. There was no anger on his face. There was only desire, and some desperate, almost pained emotion that I couldn’t name.

“Prove it,” he said softly, and I nodded my head as I dropped to my knees.

I had to open wide for his cock, and he couldn’t fit it all in before he hit the back of my throat and brought a gag out of me. He didn’t keep his hold on me; he let me work, he let me grip his hips with my hands and look up at him as I moved my tongue up and down his length. Seeing his face twitch with pleasure, his lips parting slightly as I moved my mouth over him, was almost as pleasurable as having his fingers inside me. 

“Good girl. Taking it so well for me.”

My insides clenched, and I couldn’t resist touching myself as I continued to suck him. One hand on my clit, the other wrapped around his cock to stroke him as I pressed him into my throat. He exhaled sharply, and pulsed in my mouth, salty precum dripping onto my tongue.

“Just like that, fuck. Are you going to swallow every drop for me?”

I nodded eagerly, watching the pleasure on his face as he laid a hand against the back of my head and thrust into me. His girth made me gag, but I could take it. He moaned, deep and guttural, and the sound tipped me over the edge. I shuddered on my knees, my fingers rubbing me to orgasm, my mouth slack as he used it for his pleasure.

His cock throbbed against my tongue, spurting his cum into my throat. His taste was hot and salty, sweetly bitter. I swallowed it all, sucking every last drop from his shaft before I popped him from my mouth and smiled up at him, light-headed and weak with pleasure.

“There’s my good little doll.”

I couldn’t get up, so he came down to me, wrapping me up in his arms where I finally went limp.

Calm fell over us, punctuated by the fire on my skin. I stared up at him, my breathing slowing, then stopping completely when he leaned down and kissed my lips.

I didn’t expect to feel tenderness from that wicked mouth.