Blood Ties, Part 28

You follow Ceriss into her bedroom, which is lavishly adorned, the colorful sheets so impossibly soft that you assume there must be magic involved. The curtained bed is large, and you're pretty sure that the current "three" is by no means the largest number of eager participants it has supported in its use.

Ceriss is in no state of mind to think of such revels now, however. She sits down at the edge of the bed like the strength has gone out from her legs, and you realize how much it was taking out of her to keep up the brave face during your planning. Now her shoulders slump, her stone-faced mask collapsing, allowing you to see the hurt and the bewilderment beneath without any disguise. "She... she never told me..." the tiefling whispers, tears welling in her eyes. "Something so horrible happened to her, but... she didn't want me to bear the burden of knowing how I..."

She looks up at you from where she sits, blinking through the tears. "Fuck me," she pleads, a look of almost feral desperation in her eyes. "Please, I can't... Even if it's just for a little while... I don't want to think. I don't even want to remember my own name when you're done."

You obey.

A noticeable gulp is the one concession you make to Niko's supposed innocence. But you're confident that past this point, you can rationalize most of what you'll be doing as "rising to the challenge" of her obvious, desperate need.

So—with that perfunctory display of nervousness out of the way—you make the first move, reaching up to grab Ceriss' classy dress by the decolletage and just wrenching it down, pushing her roughly back onto the bed. She moans in appreciation as you climb over her, with Janessa following right behind. What follows is hot, sweaty, frantic and utterly physical, as you do your best to give Ceriss the temporary solace she seeks by fucking her brains out.

You rail her into the mattress while Janessa rides her face, the sorceress screaming her orgasm into Janessa's cunt as you unload into her. You make her deepthroat you, grabbing her by her horns and forcing her to take your cock to the hilt, so that you feel Ceriss' moans as Janessa finger-fucks her from behind. You do all that, and so much more, pushing Ceriss to her very limits as you pull out all the stops.

By then end, Ceriss lies in a tangle of sheets, hair plastered around her face as she gasps for breath, utterly spent. Having fulfilled her plea, you and Janessa now give her some much more tender attention, nestling her close between the two of you as you gently caress her, murmuring soft reassurances as your hands roam her body. She just clings to you, holding you close, her soul suffused with the yearning desire that you are so very good at creating.

She's nearly there. Just one more sexual encounter, and you're pretty sure she'll be ready. Even without needing any of your supernatural allure at all.

You trace your hand up along her face, then caress her ram-like horns, running your finger along their curved shape. "Goddesses, you're so beautiful..." you whisper, adoringly. "Every last part of you."

Ceriss looks away. "I'd like nothing more than to cut them off, now," she says bitterly. "Just another part of my heritage that I got from... him."

"No!" you blurt out, using your best impassioned protest. "Ceriss, if there's one thing that I've learned from watching you... it's that... there's nothing inherent in anything you got from him that you need to be afraid of. You're not a person who takes joy in the suffering of others. You just aren't! And... and I bet there are even plenty of demons who think that way too!"

A tiny, humorless laugh escapes the tiefling. "You know, I always worried that the way I felt about sex was like that. Something in my blood. I just... could never understand why everyone else was so uptight about it. It made so much sense to share and enjoy it, to feed that desire. But now, to find I'm actually the spawn of a creature like this..."

You open your mouth to reply... then hesitate, uncertain. You'd made a similar observation yourself, hadn't you? That Ceriss' unusual libido was very reminiscent of a Second Circle denizen and their heightened needs. Even just now, the way she so hungrily turned to sex for solace in her moment of anguish. It's an instinctual drive that you feel a closer kinship toward than most mortal means of coping with distress.

But... no. No, that doesn't make sense. You know, sure as the sun rises, that whoever her sire is... that's the one Circle he can't be from.

...right?

"That... that just goes to show that it's something about him, not something inherent to your ancestry," you say. "I've watched you, Ceriss. I've watched you work yourself to the bone to protect people you barely knew. I've watched how you spread pleasure, and help others to do the same. What, exactly, do you have in common with the scum who tortured all those girls?"

You take a deep breath. "Ceriss, if you're what it means to have demonic influence... then... then demonic influence must not be so scary after all! In fact... I'd even be willing to bet you that there are other demons who would want to hunt down that monster themselves for what he's done, if they heard of him."

Ceriss raises an eyebrow. "Oh? Really? What would you be willing to bet, exactly?"

You respond with a grin perfectly pitched between youthful recklessness and earnest faith. "Loser has to do one thing the winner asks."

"Are you sure?" asks Ceriss, giving you a playful, lazy smile, as she traces a finger up your body. "You may see me as nice... but I've been known to be a bit... exacting... in how I call in such bold wagers..."

The smile you give her is one of utter confidence. "I'm not worried. At all." Ceriss looks a bit surprised at just how confident you are, but you smoothly move the conversation along before she can really ruminate on it.

She'll remember it later on, though... even if she doesn't realize the full significance just yet.

All in all, your efforts are about as successful as you could ask for in distracting her from her anguish and self-doubt. You and Janessa continue to talk with her into the night, until finally she falls asleep in your arms. You grab some sleep as well, before waking and carefully extricating yourself from your exhausted lovers in the half-light before dawn.

You slip out through the garden and into the street. You'd expected to have to search for an out-of-the-way place where Meska is hiding, to deliver her assignment for the day... but to your surprise, she practically jumps you the moment you emerge. "Master incubus!" she hisses, her expression frantic. "You are facing grave danger!"

A chill runs down your spine. "What do you mean?"

"I am receiving word," says the ratfolk spy. "There are many big ones who are going all through the city. Asking about 'Niko Calwen', all along every route between the noble quarter and the worship-place. Asking if anyone is seeing you running. Asking if anyone is seeing anything else out of the ordinary. Asking shopkeepers. Asking beggars. Even asking some of us ratfolk."

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Someone has noticed that the times for your "run" simply don't add up, and they're looking into it. The real question is exactly how much they found out. Such as whether anyone on the ground below happened to notice a black-winged figure flying far overhead.

Is it Ceriss? You find that hard to believe, with all she's been going through. "Do you know who these big ones were?"

At that question, Meska does manage a smile. "They were trying to be subtle, master incubus. But we Thousand Eyes were being much more subtle. We were following some of them back to where they were making their report. We could not enter the building outright, forcing us to be observing from a distance... but we do know it was the military headquarters they were returning to. These big ones were members of the army."

Your eyes widen slightly. General Raxien. He's certainly the only member of the military you know of who's close enough to this case that you'd expect to pay such close attention to details like that. But, on the other hand... you didn't notice any suspicion from him when he met you earlier today. Does that mean the discrepancy only came to his attention after the encounter you had?

Or... was the general just that good at hiding his true objective in that conversation? Even back at the soiree, you'd noticed that you had a hard time reading him. Could he really pull something like that off? Against you? Was that entire meeting just a chance to feel you out? To observe how you reacted when he thanked you for your service in that matter?

Just how much does he know? How much does he suspect? And what will his next move be?

You have to take into account the high probability that he's going take direct action, and very soon. Your disguise is impeccable... but if someone already suspects that you're an unholy fiend, there are direct tests that could be performed that it wouldn't shield you against. The effect that holy ground has on you being only the most recent in your memory. And there are trials that are far more stringent on your kind than merely that.

The one advantage you have is that he doesn't know about the Thousand Eyes. He doesn't know that you know about this investigation, that you have advance warning.

What are you going to do? You could stand your ground, try to talk your way out of whatever happens next. But you'll be a sitting duck. And—depending on how much he suspects from his investigation—there are any number of tests that even you would have a rather hard time explaining why ordinary human Niko Calwen wouldn't simply accept to put any suspicion to rest. There's a very high chance that you wouldn't get out of it without something being exposed, leaving you to struggle with the consequences.

But it would at least keep you closer to Ceriss, vouching for your honesty that you didn't run.

Of course, the other options are rife with their own painful consequences as well. You could flee outright, vanishing into the city, since they only have any connection through your Niko identity. It'd be painful to do, especially so damned close to winning Ceriss over. But it would keep you out of the military's hands, and it would allow you a free hand to pursue the killer on your own. If you can draw him out into the open—alone, even while dodging the military and perhaps Ceriss herself—then you might be able to parlay that into taking her the last few steps.

And granted, a good chase can create its own sexual tension...

Fortunately, either way, you did spend last night laying preparations for just such an eventuality. Which will probably help mitigate the damage at least to some extent, as they filter any revelation through the lens of what you said back then.

The final question would be, do you want to say more?

In either option, you could let Ceriss and Janessa know the secret of your powers—and how you saved Lady Kagan with them—yourself. It would let your words guide how they first hear the news. Of course, it could also raise interesting questions about just exactly what purpose you were following in passing yourself off as Niko, and nosing around the Vekmar war effort...

Either way, you'll have to make a decision. You don't know exactly when the hammer will fall... but you don't expect that General Raxien will delay any longer than necessary given the presence of a possible demon nosing around his war plans. If you want to ensure that you avoid him, you'll have to move fast.