.

Crimson Claws

28.

Music to accompany the last section after the trigger warning:

Hozier - "Like Real People Do" (Lyrics on Screen) on Youtube or on Spotify

.

.

"Why is it that even though I live in fucking New York - shiny, glistening, blinding what-cost's-the-world-I'll-take-two New York - I always end up in the darkest, creepiest corners? Shity Labyrinth community, I see Derek or Claw or Thomas fixing shit aaaall fucking day and nobody even installs a light here! Costs only 9.99 at Ikea but no! We want Nora to break her fat fucking neck!"

Nora stopped short, her footsteps echoing a few moments further down the tunnel through which she stumbled with only the help of her cell phone light. Presumably - she realized - this was intentional, that it was not inviting here. A deserted part of the labyrinth where no one should go if they could avoid it. And all the easier to hide the Xanatos guilt treasure here. She laughed choppily and rather meanly.

Sure, that's why there were no cobwebs here, even though it was so far from anywhere. Claw had hidden the card here somewhere. Someone big had to come through here often - someone like Claw - who else.

"Sneaky Hotstuff," Nora muttered proudly by proxy, amused despite the unpleasant surroundings.

Which didn't get any better when, after two more corners, she came to a scaffolding covered in thick tarpaulins with a dozen signs hanging from it. Danger! Area under construction. No unauthorized access. Hard head area. Danger to life. Danger of collapse. No passage. No exit. No entry. Authorized personnel only. And always danger, danger, danger.

Nora took a deep breath, cleared her throat because the dust and concrete abrasion got into her throat. The signs and the construction fence were sensitive, the walls of the tunnel were covered in cracks, fissures and chipped breakages of varying degrees of severity, some so fine and others so wide and running from bottom to top that any sensible person would take these signs seriously and turn back. But on her best days, Nora was not the most rational person, she was stubborn and determined.

As she couldn't lift the two pieces of barrier fence that met in the middle of the tunnel and pull them away from each other, no matter how hard she tried, she squeezed through the side between the scaffolding and the curved wall. Another ruined blouse!

"Nice try, Stripey. But a bit rich. No one ever told you about camouflage by understatement, huh?" she huffed flippantly, wiped her hands uselessly on her equally filthy pants and turned around. Only to shriek because she almost smooched a DAMN SKULL! She lost her footing despite the crutch and fell against the scaffolding, which swayed under her weight but didn't fall over thanks to the concrete weight racks.

"Ho-Ho-Holy motherfucking Queen of Cows," Nora stuttered and clung to the scaffolding with one hand, the other over her heart. It took her several minutes to get over her shock, fish her lost crutch off the ground and regain her footing. In the cell phone light, she saw the silently swaying skull hanging from the ceiling. Not a human one. But real, it had to be real, not a Halloween accessory because- damn Nora just KNEW it was real. It was clean, stripped of all flesh or fur, and the thick coarse thread holding the skull was a little sloppy but effectively looped around the bone and through the eye sockets. Nora walked around it appraisingly to inspect it. That was ... maybe a fox skull or a small dog. Nora shone her light down the corridor ... saw another dozen animal skulls hanging in the light from those of small birds, cats, rodents, Nora assumed everything the New York wildlife had to offer such a superior hunter. But that the skulls were so neatly and eerily displayed here?

"Damn Claw. If this was you ... I'm sharing a room with a psychotic creepy serial animal killer."

With a shudder that went right to her bones, she stumbled on, trying not to slip with her crutch, although she hardly needed it for support these days. She dodged the animal heads and tried to imagine they were just pieces of plastic, but it was difficult for her. Just as hard as it was for her to believe that the generous, gentle tiger mutant, who often worked in the kitchen for the community and whose lap and the places under his wings were fought over by the little ones on movie night, could have built this setup here. He probably knew what put normal people off and if there was really THAT MUCH money on the card you went to extremes for it - but - how had he cleaned the skulls so thoroughly?

Nora thought with renewed cringing how it felt when her foster mother's cat had licked her skin - on the few occasions when the otherwise disapprovingly staring shithead felt affectionate towards her and she herself had allowed it. His tongue was like sandpaper. And Claw? Was his tongue similar? She shook her head, not wanting to let that image take root in her mind. Claw looked like a monster, but he wasn't one. However, the evidence dangling here somehow spoke a different language. Nora was at least able to distract herself a little as the skulls became fewer but the signs more. This time no official construction site signs from the printer. Instead, they were made of cardboard with colorful acrylic lines on them, forming spidery, almost droll letters and, finally, warnings.

Turn around!

You don't belong here!

Our territory!

And especially wholesome: We will kill you.

Nora just wondered if maybe she wasn't entering Claw's hideout but the hideout of some sect of retarded hillbilly killer kids. Could be possible. Gargoyles and mutants? No problem. Why not feral, animal-mauling kids? New York New York, baby. It wasn't until she stumbled around the next corner and found a huge bulky rock in the middle of the path that she was sure again that Claw had a hand in this. Because the thing that almost completely barricaded the corridor was not a rock. Well, it was. At the moment. But not really. Because it was a gargoyle! Bearded, arms raised, claws pointed prominently at any poor idiot who tried to pass by and showcasing its fangs in its open mouth. Okay, that was impressive.

"Seriously Claw? You harnessed the clones? You blasted bastard, if everything here didn't totally creep me out you'd deserve a kiss," Nora muttered, rolling her eyes but smirking. She had never been more grateful to have come here during the day, even if of course no ray of light would ever reach down here and so the sense of the time of day was quickly lost. She had seen the Manhattan clan on television like everyone else in the world, Nashville even in real life because he had attended one of the theaters with Mrs Xanatos that she had sewn for. She wasn't a fan, she didn't give a shit about Gargoyles as long as they didn't piss her off like humans. But okay, she had to admit, a petrified gargoyle was a cool feature. They were supposed to be part of the community, but apart from Delilah, she had never seen one of the clones. No wonder, if they were guarding the card like good stupid dogs.

But then Claw should have instructed them properly, Nora thought as she bent down to dive between the raised arm, the half-opened wing and the broad clawed feet. For there was a heavy iron door behind the stone clone barrier - but the key to it dangled from the petrified pocket of the clone, who had been too clumsy or too careless to slip the key properly into his pocket before sunrise.

She tugged the key free, tearing the ribbon that was on the key, but at least nothing broke off the clone - she would have been sorry if it had. Then she slid the key into the lock, turned it so that several mechanisms in the door shifted audibly and pulled the heavy iron door open. Heavens, this was definitely too emotional and physically demanding for someone with her constitution, she thought. What would come next? Laser beams from the walls? A heavy stone ball rolling down the hallway that would crush any intruder like in Indiana Jones?

None of the above. After the unromantic iron door, Nora found herself in a brightly whitewashed corridor with wooden doors that looked like normal apartment doors except that they were high and wide. And it was bright in here. She blinked until her eyes adjusted to the lights above her. The glow was strange. Warm on her skin. Although, unlike the always steamy tunnels outside, there had to be air conditioning at work here. She switched off the light on her phone and pocketed it. Tentatively, she opened one of the first doors. Behind it was a nice study with pleasantly dark panelled walls and books about social work, social psychology and management on the shelves. Certificates on the wall confirmed that Delilah Darwin had an advanced degree in these subjects from NYU's distance learning program.

Nora snorted in amusement at her chosen surname. At the same time - and with the opening of the second door, which housed a large bathroom with shower, and the third door, a large, perfectly outfitted pantry and utility room - she realized that this was the home of the Labyrinth Gargoyles. Next came a bedroom that logically looked unused and was perhaps a guest room of some sort. This apartment looked lived in and at the same time lifeless, too clean and tidy. Perhaps it was different at night when the residents were awake.

"Well ... this is ... much cozier than I would have thought," she mumbled. All her comments so far were really just to fill the eerie silence that prevailed here too. The friendliness and brightness of the rooms after so much spookiness wasn't really touching. Rather deceptive. This was confirmed by a half-furnished children's room behind the next door. A half-built crib lay scattered around the room as if an incapable father had simply left everything lying around. The walls were half painted with a nice yellow color, not neatly but like children would paint it. There was even a "window" with a screen simulating an illuminated New York at night that didn't exist. Nora didn't even want to think about this can of worms and quietly closed the door again.

She stepped into the really nice huge living room, whistling appreciatively. Much more pleasant than her own dump. Photos on the walls with the whole labyrinth clan of mutants and gargoyles, far too many claws and fangs in every picture. Monstrous family scenes on the other walls too, many clearly random and blurred as if operating a camera was quite a feat. A reassuringly humming fridge- finally some form of inanimate life. A large kitchen clearly sturdily built for gargoyle needs, a dining table with stools, a large if rather worn couch landscape. Television, DVD player, music system with scattered CDs. Everything here was like a distorted version of playing house, Nora thought, frowning. Or maybe ... Michael had said it. They were his family. Maybe gargoyles weren't so different from humans (or mutants).

Nora only had one door left, which led off the living room. And she forgot her thoughts about equality and integration as soon as she opened it. Because there were the other gargoyles in a large room that ... didn't look homely, but really like a burrow. No furniture and the floor crunched under her shoes and crutch, covered in fine to less fine dust, easily two inches thick. Again, bright lighting that seemed warm and strange, directed at the assembled statues that cast deep dark shadows on the floor. Then Noras realized. These were UV lamps. Every single lamp in here. Understandable since these gargoyles didn't have the luxury of sleeping under real sunlight. Nora cleared her throat uncomfortably, finding this somehow pitiful and unnatural, no matter how much the rest of the apartment overshadowed her own living conditions. Delilah crouched a little to one side, appearing less wild even in crouch, but rather contemplative and serene even as a statue. But the other two statues were huddled together in the center of the room, their wings overlapping one another and merging as stone, as if they were guarding something in their midst.

"HA!" Nora shouted, stumbling purposefully through the sand and dropping down to feel around between the legs and wings of one of the gargoyles in the area they were shielding. There was a hollow, perhaps carved into the concrete, padded with that gray sand but also with cloth and blankets, and Nora didn't even get to wonder what for before her hand brushed over something smooth and round. Not a card. A perplexed grunt slipped out of her and she pressed her head to the ground to peer under the statues.

Her eyes widened as she realized what lay there, nestled among the sand that was not sand but finely crushed gargoyle stone skin from hundreds of evening awakening sessions and cozy blankets. These gargoyles were not guarding anything. They were protecting something. With warning signs - human and homemade, with hung animal skulls, with a sentry in front of a locked door, with their own bodies here. They were protecting their own EGG. And Nora, despite all the red flags, had stumbled into their den, INTO their nest.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, her time was up. Suddenly it cracked above her. And all around her.

"Oh fuck. OHFUCK!"

Nora shrank away from under the statues as the rumbling, hissing and roaring in the room became deafening and she was showered with sharp shards of stone from all sides. When she looked up, she saw Delilah turn her gaze on her, but she lost her glowing eyes when she recognized the human in her nest and the female gargoyle opened her mouth perplexedly to say something.

Nora crawled to her inelegantly but was sure that she could charm Delilah into not being too mad.

"Hi Deli girl! Good morning or -uh evening. You only take 15 wrong turns and hey - great place. Love what you've done with it. And nice egg. And your boys? Good to see them for once, just when I thought, no idea, female gargoyles devour the males like praying mantises but hey, guess not. And-URGH!"

Nora was already being picked up from the floor by two rough paws and thrown across the room. Clutching her crutch tightly, the end of it hit someone's beak in flight, causing a shrill howl. She landed in the soft sand dust with an oof, but before she could catch her breath, the larger of the male gargoyles dragged her across the floor and pinned her down. Hot wet breath and drool spewed into her face as the peachy-orange gargoyle roared at her until her ears rang with angry glowing eyes. Delilah clung to his arm, screaming something Nora couldn't understand, but worse - she couldn't breathe!

He squeezed her windpipe and her feet scraped ineffectually across the floor, kicking up dust en masse and he paid no attention to the blows she made with her crutch. Nora's free hand desperately scratched through the dust looking for a weapon, anything. But she found nothing but the sand and in an act of desperation she pressed her full hand into the clone's face. His roaring broke off before he gasped and began to cough, spitting a thick load of phlegm onto her cheek but finally letting Delilah pull him away so Nora could breathe. Panicked, she turned around, crawled a yard, straightened up and dashed out of the room as fast as she could with her crutch and her leg in a cast, leaving the other gargoyles behind her. Only to bump into the angry colossus in the corridor who had just been standing guard outside as a stone.

He roared as well and Nora just managed to jump up and roll over the table before the gargoyle thundered into it and pushed her across the room with it. If Nora had been between the table and the wall when he reached it, she would have been severed in two. Nora shrieked and squeezed her eyes shut as the table smashed against the wall instead and she was thrown up by the impact. But even though the landing hurt - she didn't land on the floor. But into a strong hairy arm.

She heard a different kind of roar directly above her and opened her eyes only to see CLAW, white electricity sparking beyond his eyes, who had grabbed her and was kicking the black-bearded gargoyle away. As he - obviously blinded by rage - tried to rush at them again, Claw yanked open the fridge door and the clone crashed into it, tearing it off its hinges along with all the contents of the door compartments and skidding with it across the floor as he fell. Claw backed away with Nora against a wall as the clone jumped up. Now faced with an equal opponent, the gargoyle didn't immediately pounce on them, but roared so loudly that Nora wanted to cover her ears, but she couldn't. She couldn't let go of Claw. She couldn't let go of Claw, clinging to his arm, stiff and yet feeling bereft of all bones. Claw put a hand over Nora's ear and roared back like a beast, his teeth gleaming with drool and his eyes pure menace. Nora both feared and longed for the drop that fell over her like a heavy blanket.

.

"BURBANK!" Delilah yelled from the side, leaping over the shattered refrigerator door, splinters of wood and scattered food and into her co-mate's path. She spread her wings to catch Burbank's eye and hissed to control that sense too. He faltered, looked down at the female, lost the glow in his eyes.

I knew she had him by the scruff of the neck, figuratively speaking, and lost my own aggressive stance, trying to get my heavy breathing under control and not draw any more attention to myself and Nora. I had never run so fast in my life. I think I had even torn down the door to the gargoyles' quarters. Maybe the roar of a gargoyle and Nora's scream had something to do with it. Not the usual Nora yell. Not that of an enraged fury, which always had something insane but also something euphorically contagious about it. But a scream full of fear and anguish.

Where I was trembling with adrenaline, Nora was almost frozen now and it was probably instinctive on my part to pull her closer to me, just as it was instinctive on her part to climb up me. I willingly and probably subconsciously complied as I gripped her thighs as she wrapped them around my waist, I supported the leg with the cast and welcomed her arms wrapping around my neck and digging her fingers into my fur at my back. I needed that, I realized with a sigh, and at the same time the greatest tension fell away from me.

And with this insight, I realized something else. Nora was more than a duty. More than my responsibility because I was too nice and too involved. I wanted Nora to be safe, protected, cared for. I wanted to take care of her, make sure she felt comfortable, could smile, could snark with the clan. When had Nora become more than she was? More for me. The feeling of having her safe but so distraught in my arms did things to me that I didn't know were meant for me. Ever. I didn't know if it was love but it was something and with this shocking realization and the helplessness of what to do with this realization came the anger of how Nora had gotten into this situation.

WHAT was Nora doing here? What normal thinking person pushed past warning construction signs, scaffolding, animal skulls scraped clean by the gargoyle boys themselves and their own disturbing warning signs? ONLY Nora Sykes! Why? Was she that curious? That bored? Even though her sewing room looked like a hospital for cuddly toys by now? It wasn't unusual for Nora to wander around sometimes. She seemed a restless drifter by nature, probably even without the bipolar disorder. Again, that comparison to a stray cat. She was still not a prisoner and occasionally left the labyrinth during the day. People needed daylight, even I left our home during the day through the exit that was well hidden in Central Park to breathe some healthier air and keep my eyes adjusted to daylight. But one of the labyrinth dwellers had noticed that Nora had wandered in this particular problematic direction and since word had gotten around that this problem child was practically MY problem child, I walked the route to the Gargoyles' quarters just to reassure myself. Because it was currently (and probably for the next few years) life-threatening to approach this area without being clan.

Delilah was lax in that regard, but Burbank, Malibu and Hollywood had become increasingly neurotic and protective about the egg during her pregnancy and afterward. It was their child, their only egg, but they were taking the anxiety of young fathers to a whole new level that even Brooklyn's and Katana's egg care lessons hadn't eased. Even just learning from afar how Demona stole Tachi's egg traumatized all three of them, the fear of that happening again always there. The boys had completely withdrawn from the community because of this obsession with protecting their egg, and luring even one of the three of them away for their necessary nightly flying sessions was exhausting because they were so ill-tempered and grumpy when they didn't have their egg in sight. And in this state - almost separated from non-clan company, almost feral - a stranger stumbled into their nest! They could have killed Nora, and just thinking about it made me feel the electricity inside me spark and I had to take a deep breath to keep it from leaking out. After all, Nora was hanging in my arms, tense as a bowstring and obviously distraught. If I had arrived even 30 seconds later ... I couldn't imagine it.

"The egg needs you," Delilah said as an epilogue to a whole tirade of gentle reassurances as she stroked Burbank's muscular arms and through his beard. Then she beckoned to Hollywood, who carried the egg as if it were the treasure it was, and behind him came Malibu, holding his bleeding beak - however Nora had scored a hit on him.

"Good egg, nice egg, all good, don't worry," Burbank cooed with a love in his tone and eyes that showed so much more of his true character than the instinct-driven frenzy before. As he held out his arms and was handed the egg of them all, he cradled it as if it had already hatched.

Now that I had all the clones in sight, I could start sneaking away. The three of them were family like Erin and Benny were family but they just couldn't be trusted with strangers in their den. Now they were distracted, the three of them clucking blissfully over their egg, inspecting it for damage caused by the wicked intruder. I only turned my back on them when I climbed over the iron door, which was truly torn off its hinges.

Much too late for the show and yet not welcome, Derek, Benny and Thomas rushed towards us. I only realized what I was doing when I had already wrapped my wings around myself and thus around Nora, when I had already shielded her protectively from my family.

"WHAT was going on here?" Derek demanded to know and, like the others, made a U-turn as I marched straight past them. I didn't answer apart from a frustrated huff, concentrating on Nora who was rubbing her head against my neck in the darkness of my wings, making my hair all damp with her warm breath.

"She went through the barriers?" Thomas asked in horror.

"Through ALL of them?" Benny specified and I was grateful that Delilah came after us and described the incident in three sentences in her pragmatic, stoic way. She wasn't prone to anger, she wasn't prone to sarcasm or banter, perhaps it wasn't in her imprint or in her nature and I found it refreshing where others considered it frigid.

"We'll ask Nora about the matter," Derek concluded, lifting one of my wings to force Nora to participate by eye contact. I tore my wing away from him and glared at him with a snarl, which I quickly let fade away. Then I just shook my head with a stern expression while I wrapped Nora up again. I couldn't sign with my arms full of Nora and in my haste I had left my tablet lying somewhere, but Derek - EVERYONE had to understand that Nora would do NOTHING here right now. Except stay with me. She was in shock and I was still on edge and anyone who would have touched Nora now would have put their hand on the line. My best friend of ten years stared for a few moments, then nodded. "Okay, later," he mumbled a little meekly. Benny used his strength to easily lift up the scaffolding that I had torn aside while rushing through earlier and put it back up when we were all through. I carried Nora through the main hall where the most curious or worried labyrinth dwellers stood with Maggie and Erin.

"Is she okay?" Maggie asked softly, one hand already raised, and I gave her a curt nod as I stepped around her and gave everyone else a wide berth as well.

"Nora's in shock. She stumbled into our clutch. If it wasn't for Claw, Burbank and Hollywood would have torn her apart," Delilah commented quite accurately from behind us to the horrified and outraged comments and loud noises from the team.

I didn't care. I grumbled my okay when Maggie called after me that they were saving dinner for us but only did so that no one came after us.

It wasn't until I got to my room that I relaxed a little. Nora clutched tighter for a moment as I shifted he weight to open the door. I didn't usually do that, but I locked it behind me again, perhaps I would be gruffer than I wanted to be if my worried friends bothered me.

Although Nora was terribly dusty, as if someone had dragged her through dirt, smelling of sweat and fear, I opened my wings and wanted to lay her on the bed. Something Nora would have wrinkled her nose at and said something very derogatory. What I would have done for a derogatory comment now. The fact that she was so mute really scared me. What scared me even more were the hematomas forming on her neck where she had obviously been strangled and the first look on her face before she clung closer to me. It wasn't sweat that had soaked the fur around my neck. It was her tears. She had been shedding silent tears the whole time.

And now she clung to my clothes and to my fur as I tried to lay her down. In the end, before I lost my stability hovering over the bed under her weight and fell on top of her, I crawled onto the bed myself, lowering myself until Nora's whole body was lying on the blanket. Her legs around my waist gave way a little, perhaps out of weakness because she was still in the cast or out of exhaustion from being in the same position for so long. In order not to startle her, I stayed in the same position, hanging over her with my knees between her legs and supporting myself with one arm where I still had the other around her waist.

.

(Trigger warning: Bestiality)

Hozier - "Like Real People Do"

.

This couldn't be comfortable for either of us but Nora's tension was slowly flowing out of her. She sniffled and one hand left my neck. Warm gentle fingers stroked over my jawline, down my fur and across my cheek. She blinked away new tears, her eyes distant though she looked directly at me. What was that? Where was Nora in her head right now? She stroked my cheek again and again and the purr I let out felt so right that it wasn't even remotely embarrassing. Her touch made the hairs stand up almost all over my body in my equivalent of goosebumps. Our faces were so close together that it wasn't a far stretch. But she did it first. Her lips were a bit chapped as she brought them to my mouth. I only recognized the kiss as one when she pulled back an inch, moistened her lips and did it again.

And I didn't know what INSANITY was making me do it, but I kissed back. Tentatively at first - but by the third time we both had our tongues in the game and God, that was my first real kiss. I was constantly kissed and nuzzled, by the children in the labyrinth, by the women, especially the older ones who had adopted me as a mascot or nephew or whatever, Maggie gave me a peck on the cheek almost every day. But this was different, very different, and I had to hold back to remain gentle and cautious where Nora was becoming more and more intense. Once more her tongue darted forward to flick over my fangs (she was remarkably good at navigating around them) then she began to kiss my face, almost frantically where her voice was desperate and rough even in a whisper.

"Please, please don't leave me now. Please. I'm dropping, I can feel it, please, hold me. Hold me together pleaseplease."

I gasped as her hands ran over my suddenly unclothed chest, hadn't even realized she'd undone the buttons of my button-up. What's more, she pulled me on top of her by one wing and when my crotch touched her, I realized how hard I was. My cock throbbed painfully in my pants as she moaned because I was rubbing against her as much as she was rubbing against me. And for someone for whom masturbation was the norm and had thought it was fine, that it would always be that way, it felt incredible to have a mewling woman underneath me. And yet her tears didn't stop flowing, she was frantic and her eyes glazed over.

I KNEW that wasn't a good idea. I wasn't like that, I was a decent guy who had never lusted after women. From an early age I was accustomed to people who didn't know how to handle their bodies due to psychological or social distress and who were prone to others taking advantage of them. But I wasn't like that. People who were in trouble, who were desperate, they found help here, with Derek, Maggie, Thomas and me. And God knows there were enough examples of past bad choices and toxic, thoughtless sexual encounters in the labyrinth.

Nora was in shock. Hell, maybe I was in shock too. None of this was right, it shouldn't be like this between two adults who should both be able to consent, especially when one of them wasn't human. Nora had been afraid of us at first. She had covered it up with snark and nastiness and insensitive comments, but she had been afraid. She had only begun to feel more comfortable in the community and with us - with me - and this - what was with her understanding of the situation? I wanted her, by God I wanted her and at the moment she wanted me too, but I wouldn't take advantage of the situation. If Nora still wanted to tomorrow or whenever she emerged from this haze she was in then we would talk about it.

I wanted to pull away even though my erection felt like lead in my pants but Nora whimpered and pulled me back down. Her hand caressed firmly against my jeans where the fabric stretched over my cock and I growled, my eyes and teeth clenched so hard they cracked and gnashed. If only I could speak! If only I could ask her if she was really sure, if it might not be enough just to lie with her and hold her (in a non-sexual sense). I hadn't inwardly pleaded for words for years, but here it wasn't even necessary.

"I want it," Nora answered the thoughts in my head, prone to this uncanny whim even in this state. She spoke, that was good, wasn't it? I looked at her, gently gripping her face that she was looking at me, huffing questioningly. She nodded, panting, her soft breasts pressing against my chest with each breath, looking up at me with wet eyes, seeming to really look at me for the first time.

"I want it, you won't hurt me, please hold me, be good to me, please, you could never hurt me, I won't be angry," she begged stifled and I would have felt so much more at ease if some curse words had been slipped in because she barely sounded like herself.

I was physically so much stronger than her I should push her away, wrap her in warm blankets and bring her tea until she threw the cup at my head and mendaciously insisted that she hated it when I coddled her. But at the same time SHE was obviously the stronger one, because my inner thoughts died and my resolve wavered with the next kiss Nora sobbed into my mouth.

I did none of that. Instead, I went with it and hoped she wouldn't cut off my dick with her seamstress scissors tomorrow. She was like pudding in my hands as I lifted her torso to remove her soiled blouse, unclasped herself a cream-colored, unadorned brassiere so that I could pull it off her body and let herself fall back onto the blanket. She was warm and plump and no longer a young girl which was good because I was obviously (clearly) more attracted to adult women. I grumbled in delight at the way her jiggling pale flesh molded to my fingers as I caressed her and she took her first deep breath and arched her back to meet my hand.

I nuzzled down her neck and snuffled around her breasts as her fingers undid my jeans button and zipper. She smelled good. Would smell great without fear and dust. Nora shuddered beneath me and I stared in fascination at the areolas of her breasts as they wrinkled. She pulled my chin up, huffing breathlessly but somehow cheerfully.

"Your nose is cold. Off. Off now," she ordered, panting with pleasure, slapping my bottom impatiently and I huffed a laugh at her bossy tone that sounded more like her than before. I willingly pulled my pants down and this time I escaped Nora's hands because she was also shimmying out of her pants and underpants. Not that I wanted to escape for long. I was on top of her again within 10 seconds and once more we shared kisses that were intimate and deep yet gentle. Nora had the fingers of one of her hands between her legs, stimulating herself as she looked at my throbbing member as if she was assessing whether she needed three or four fingers to prepare herself. I looked down at myself, never having thought about whether I was big or normal or whatever down there. I hadn't been the smallest before the mutation, I knew that from the shower rooms at the mental hospital. And the mutation hadn't changed much about my genitals except that my testicles and part of my shaft were covered in soft short orange fur. What if Nora found that disgusting? I was a mutant and I didn't even know what I was doing here, I only knew sex from the odd porno, which I found largely disgusting.

"Stay with me," I heard Nora say, looking at me with glassy eyes but no longer crying. Her tears had left traces on her partially dusty face but now her cheeks were dry.

"Stay with me. You're too deep in your head. Stay with me," she chanted without taking her eyes off me and okay, that was an ego-boost for my insecurity. At the same time as her shamelessly fingering her vagina. There was something captivating about watching her fingers disappear between the curled hair. I wanted to watch her longer, stroke myself or even lick her, but then she was already done and pulled me closer. This time there was nothing between us. I pulled her hand, which had just been inside her, away from the spot where she had just pinched my bottom and licked her fingers, grumbling with relish, which made her grin.

Whatever wonderfully bold comment she'd had on the tip of her tongue, she apparently forgot it in a yip because my wings had slid under her and pulled her close so that my member brushed across her folds. I cradled her in the cocoon of my wings, licking a wide swath across one of her luscious breasts and her moans immediately went to my head.

"Please," she whispered in my ear before I slid into her moist warmth.

I can't believe I'm letting Claw score before Nash! However, age before beauty.