The Halloween Files

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/60154081.

Rating: Explicit
Archive Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Category: F/M
Fandom: Original Work
Additional Tags: Psychological Horror, Horror, Demons, Hell, Sex, Vaginal Sex, Oral Sex,
Dream Sex, Wet Dream, Chases, Anxiety, Soul Bond, Soul Selling,
Demon Deals, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Porn With Plot,
Porn with Feelings, Manipulation, Explicit Sexual Content, Bi-Curiosity,
Demonic Possession, Fear of Discovery, Fear, Fear Play, Fantasy,
Paranormal
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2024-10-29 Words: 11,376 Chapters: 1/1
 The Halloween Files
by viciouscuddle

Summary

***An annual compilation of spooky one-shots to celebrate the holiday***

Lily Drury had the perfect trophy wife life.

Until today.

Until her husband came home early.

Because something is off...

This man might look like her husband...

He might talk like her husband...

But he is *definitely not* her husband.

How do we feel about demons? *wink*

Notes

I'll update this story annually with new one shot specials for Halloween.
2024- Lily and Bálaam's story. (Human/Demon) 11,258 word one shot. Story is started in
present day then jumps back in time, just to circle back to present day.
Lily - Present Day

Lily Drury was the perfect little house wife, living in the perfect mansion, in the perfect gated
community, in the perfect–

Her lip curled as she stared at her made-up reflection. Her right hand balled into a fist and she
resisted– just barely– punching the vanity mirror until her knuckles were shredded and blood
rained down on the stupidly expensive cosmetics below. She hated putting on makeup. Hated
it. She hated the layers and the goopy feeling and how it made her skin feel smothered.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she forced herself to set the powder brush down, to stand
slowly, then calmly walk into her closet. From there she chose a simple sheath dress that fell
just above her knees. It was beige, and boring, and purchased by her personal shopper.

Lily wasn’t allowed to pick out her own clothes.

She wasn’t allowed to decorate her own home.

Her husband, she thought with a sneer, wanted those aspects of their life taken care of by a
professional. And why shouldn’t they hire people for that? They had the money to buy this
lifestyle…so why not?

Because I fucking hate this lifestyle, she thought bitterly.

Lily had met Colin in college. They took one look at each other and fell madly in love.

Or at least Lily had felt that way…at the time.

She’d felt…overwhelmed by her emotions in that second of eye contact.

Their relationship had been a whirlwind. The sex…well the sex had been okay. Not like she
had anything to compare it to. Sex was just…sex.

And Lily had to talk about it in the past tense because it had been literally years since she’d
had sex with her husband.

Colin was just too busy. Work ruled his life.

Lily would have been glad to have found evidence of an affair…at least it would have given
her a good enough reason to leave him.

But try as she might, he didn’t stray. At least not to her knowledge. And try as she might to
disconnect herself from a man she didn’t understand loving, Lily stayed right where she was.
Something– some tether held her here, despite how unhappy she was. Colin just wasn’t
interested in her anymore…not like that anyway. Just in how she looked, how she talked,
how she acted, and that she was on his arm for every social event that he had to attend in
association with his job.
And every time she wanted to leave him…every time she considered it– something held her
back.

It was frustrating. So fucking frustrating.

Lily felt…tight. She felt like too much stuffing had been pushed into her skin. Every moment
of every day, she felt like bursting at hidden seams. Rage and anger would spiral up so
quickly inside her, it took her breath away, then in the next second– it was snuffed out.

She wandered their home like an apparition. A well manicured, coiffed and plucked, ethereal
spirit.

Their housekeeper and maids avoided her like the plague. She caught Rosanda crossing her
chest once as she passed her in the hall.

Lily didn’t care.

She just…didn’t care anymore.

The man she’d fallen in love with was gone. Her life was…gone.

Existing as this shell of a human being was how she lived now.

So she sat down at the desk in her small home office. She went through her email, worked on
the household budget, paid several bills, then wrote out a menu from pre-approved meals
their in-home chef had given her. It was the most control she had over her own household.
Still within certain confines. Still controlled by someone else. Just an illusion of freedom to
keep her docile.

Docile.

She hated that word.

Lily hated when Colin would smile and call her that. Especially when he said it to people at
parties.

“My lovely, docile wife, Lily.”

It sounded so fake. So stupid. But people still smiled indulgently, thinking it a term of
endearment that it certainly was not.

Lily didn’t feel docile. Not inside. She felt like a wildfire, ready to burn and burn and burn.

When the bills were done, she took the list of meals to the kitchen to leave with their cook,
then wandered the house.

Room to room, she walked slowly like a ghost surveying its haunt.

Would Colin notice the special meal she’d planned to celebrate their anniversary? They
would be celebrating a decade together, afterall. A special occasion. Perhaps he’d even kiss
her…just once. As she stood in the formal living room, staring out into the backyard, Lily
pressed the tips of her fingers against her lips.

When was the last time Colin had kissed her? Her birthday? No. Last Christmas? She
couldn’t remember.

Other wives from her husband’s social circle came to visit and have tea.

Tea.

Lily could remember being a broke college student and reading tatty old paperbacks where
women in crinoline gowns had tea at noon and gossiped. She’d laughed and thought, how
boring.

Now she was one of those ladies. She should get a hoop skirt and bustle and be done with it.

They left after a few hours, plastic smiles frozen on their plastic faces.

Lily went back to her room, sat at her vanity and stared at herself again.

She was doing this more and more recently.

Her fingers went to her face, pulling and stretching the skin on her cheeks and eyes, trying to
change the shape of her appearance until she recognized something familiar in herself. It
never happened.

A door slammed, startling her.

Lily turned and stared at her bedroom door, her eyebrows going down in sharp confusion.
That sounded like the front door…

The maids had left hours ago. The chef wouldn’t be here for another two at least, to start
dinner. Colin didn’t get home until well past six…

Her gasp was faint.

Colin stood in her bedroom doorway, chest heaving, blonde hair disheveled, a dark and
menacing expression carved into his features.

“There you are,” he growled.

The tightness in her body snapped and whipped, her skin stretching and constricting…at least
she felt like that was what it was doing.

That wildness inside her was seething. A fire, a storm, a hurricane.

Lily stood so quickly she knocked the upholstered stool over.

Colin stormed to her, grabbing her tightly by her upper arms. Before she could say anything
his mouth was slanting over hers.
And she dissolved.

Her body went limp against him, her fingers curling into his starched dress shirt as his arms
wound around her.

Colin’s tongue was hot– scalding, inside her mouth. He kissed her deeply, darkly, and with
such repressed hunger that she began shaking in his arms.

This was– this was–

It had never felt like this before. Never.

He tasted like honey and something darker…a heady liquor, a smoky fire.

He tasted like a stranger– not her stockbroker husband who ate foie gras for lunch each
Thursday at their upscale country club.

Colin drug his mouth from hers, only to latch onto her neck, sucking and licking at her pulse
point. His strong arms curled tighter around her back, lifting her onto her tip-toes and moving
her toward her bed. They didn’t have a marital bed anymore…not for years and years. Colin
had claimed a guest room almost seven years ago, claiming he hated waking her when he
came home late and then left early. She’d let it go because at the time she’d lost the will to
fight for her marriage.

But now, as he lowered her back against the butter yellow comforter, she felt– desire. Such a
strong desire. Lust shot through her, her body going molten under her husband’s fevered
touch like it never had before.

It had never felt like this before. Not even in the beginning, when they were young and
desperate for each other. That was a fraction of this– a drop of water against a tidal wave.

Something ripped and Colin growled. Lily’s eyes lazily found his as he loomed over her, his
fists ripping the material of her sheath dress down the center, until he’d rent it from neck to
hem.

It– that shouldn’t have been possible. The material was heavy– woven wool, thick and tightly
knit. But he had…he’d ripped it right in half without so much as jostling her in the process.

A grim expression fell on his face as her lips parted and she reached up for him.

“No, my lovely. Let me look. Let me taste. I’ve waited eons for you…”

Colin’s words confused her. He’d…waited? And it had been a long time since they’d had sex
but…eons?

Besides his predilection of calling her docile, Colin never bothered with pet names, but Lily
understood now that she very much liked him calling her his lovely.

Hot hands skimmed up her arms until they reached the shoulder straps of her dress. He pulled
them apart and Lily leaned up, helping him to remove the remnants of her dress. Throwing
the ruined garment on the floor, Colin looked down at her body.

Lily suddenly felt self-conscious. Her strapless, nude bra pushed her breasts up and she was
relatively thin, but Lily had never liked exercising, therefore she was soft all over. Her
panties were high cut, ending just at her bellybutton, acting as a built-in girdle to smooth out
the extra layer of pudge on her stomach. She was nearing thirty, and her body wasn’t as toned
as it used to be. Colin hooked his fingers into the waist and yanked them off her. Quickly, he
snapped the center of her bra and pulled that away too, leaving Lily to lay beneath his fully
clothed body– completely nude.

Her breathing turned shallow, a pink blush crawling up her neck and face.

“Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful,” Colin breathed…as if he’d never seen her naked before…
never loomed above her.

Hot hands smoothed up her stomach, over her breasts then out to her arms.

So hot– his hands were like brands. Scalding yet dry, he petted her, eyes soaking in her body
with an expression she didn’t think she’d ever seen him have before…reverence.

Then just as she was going to ask him what was wrong…what had caused this dramatic
change in him, his right hand clamped down around her throat and Lily froze.

Like a prey animal that sensed a predator, Lily became very, very still.

Her dark brown eyes locked with Colin’s blue ones and she resisted the urge to cower under
his intense stare.

Had he always had this– this– power to him? Had he always felt this dangerous?

No. No, she decided, he had not. Something was very different about her husband and she
wasn’t terribly upset about it. Instead, Lily decided she liked this…very much. More than she
probably should.

Colin felt…dangerous– wild. He felt like…like home.

“Have you missed me…wife?”

Then his eyes bled red…completely red– no pupil, no sclera, only red, red red. Instinct flared
to life inside her. Her body and her mind warred with itself.

Run, stay, run, scream, pull him closer, flee, leave, kiss him, hold him, go, go, go!

As she gulped in a breath, her body vibrating with a combination of fear and desire, disgust
and love– she brought her knee up and kicked.

The body above her went sprawling, the hand at her throat instantly loosening and falling
away.

Lily leaped from the bed and ran.

Out of the room and down the hall, her gasping breath was the only sound besides her
galloping heartbeat in her ears.

She was naked.

Naked and vulnerable and terrified.

Something– something was terribly, terribly wrong with her husband.

As she reached the front door, she tried to twist the knob but it was stuck. Jiggling it wildly,
her shaking fingers twisted the lock but it wouldn’t budge.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Locked in. Trapped. Captive.

Pausing she heard loud steps pounding down the hallway. He was coming.

Fuck. He was coming for her.

Turning, Lily ran further into the house, her eyes wild, her breathing coming so fast, she
feared she’d faint at any moment.

Breath. Just breathe. You know this house, you can hide. Get a phone. Call for help, her mind
soothed. Just breathe.

“Where is my lovely wife? Where is my eternity?” a dark voice called.

A shiver ran down Lily’s neck and back before she crept through the empty kitchen. Just as
she was crouching down, the light snapped on. Ducking down the rest of the way, she
crawled toward the corner archway. Just around that corner was the door to the basement. She
could hide amongst all the boxes and things stored down there. He’d never find her there…
right?

“Lily…lovely Lily. My soulmate. My everything…won’t you come out? Won’t you let me
love you?”

His voice grew lower and lower until it sounded like a demonic growl.

Insane. Colin had gone insane.

‘But that’s not Colin is it?’ a voice whispered inside her head.

Red eyes, red eyes, red eyes…

Her heart palpated in a hard and uneven rhythm.

Slowly and quietly she rounded the corner and stood, whipping open the basement door and
slamming it shut behind her. Lily locked it and took a single step back, very aware of the
stairs that dropped down behind her.
BANG!

She screamed, her eyes squeezing shut and her hands coming up to cover her face.

BANG! BANG! CRACK!

The wood of the door began to splinter.

“Nothing can keep me from you, my lovely! Nothing! Not this door! Not this mortal body!
Nothing!”

Tears of terror slipped down Lily’s face as she turned and stumbled down the stairs as fast as
her feet could take her. She didn’t turn on the lights– instead, she wound her way through the
tightly stacked boxes until she got to the back corner. Moving a box on the floor beside an
old dining room table, she crouched under it and slid the box back in place. Spider webs and
dust rubbed on her arms and feet, making her skin crawl in revulsion but she clamped her lips
shut and calmed her breathing as the banging on the door grew louder and more frantic.

While she forced her breaths to come out slow and silent, her heart could not be controlled
quite so easily. It thundered in her chest as her body shook violently. Pressing her hands to
her ears, Lily sat down on her bare bottom and curled herself into a tight ball.

Someone would come soon…their chef…Ortego…Ortego would come and he would…he

could call the police or– or— the maids, at least they would be here tomorrow morning–
someone…someone would come to save her–

The door gave way. Lily could hear chunks of it hitting the wall and falling down the stairs.
She smothered the startled scream that welled up in her throat– but just barely.

“Lovely Lily, reason for my existence, won’t you come out and let your husband love you? I
have waited so long to claim my beautiful bride.”

His sing song voice sent chills down her spine and–

And caused a strange sort of longing to fill her.

Which was crazy, right? Lily was terrified, not…not intrigued. This man– or monster was–
well he was— he would hurt her…right? Those eyes…those red, red eyes… That meant he
was evil. Didn’t it?

“Lily, please. Please. Come to me, my love. I would never harm you. Never. Please, come to
me. Let me hold you.”

That– was not her husband’s voice.

Dark and deep and strangely…familiar.

And desperate.

So full of need and longing and…

Lily realized that she’d uncurled herself and was reaching toward the box that was hiding her.

Jerking her hands back, she froze and tried to listen for movement.

Where was he? Was he close? Had he found her?

Minutes ticked by in silence. Every few seconds she could hear sounds but it was hard to
judge how close they were. Boxes were moved, his faint curses floated to her as he searched
through the chaos of their storage space.

“Lily…this is unnecessary, my love. I know you saw…something strange. I know that this
is…confusing. But I can explain…we can talk about this. Please, sweetheart, come out. I
need you, Lily.”

He went silent and Lily’s heart began to beat faster, the fear inside her so overwhelming she
thought she’d scream just to let some of it out.

One thing was certain. That was not her husband. That was not his voice and– and what he
did with his eyes? That was not normal…not human.

Devil…demon…evil… her mind supplied.

Lily kept her breathing low and silent as she licked her lips.

But don’t you feel like you’re a little evil? she thought. Don’t you feel the darkness inside you,
like a physical weight, dragging you down?

And why was she tempted to reach out to him? Why did her mind tell her one thing and her
heart say another?

He’s hurting. It’s genuine. He’s stressed that he can’t find me…he won’t hurt me. He could
have when he walked in…he could have hurt me and he didn’t. Even when he ripped the
dress, he didn’t hurt me.

Then her common sense reared its head and glared at that soft, stupid part of her.

Red eyes, demonic voice, and he broke down the door like an animal. He will hurt us. He will
hurt us and he will like it. That– whatever that thing is, it’s not Colin.

Yet in the darkness of her hiding spot, Lily couldn’t ignore the feeling of yearning that spread
through her. As if the fear and terror of the last forty minutes had stripped her down to primal
instincts, she was surprised at what was left behind inside her.

A desire to go to him.

A desire to sooth him.

A deep seated knowledge that he wouldn’t hurt her…not more than she could handle.

And maybe…maybe she’d like that– for him to hurt her a little.
“Lily! Lily, please!”

Begging…he was begging. His low and graveled voice was pained. He sounded like he was
in actual pain.

Her fingers reached toward the box slowly– silently.

And then it was ripped away–

Sheer absolute terror ripped through her body.

Lily screamed.

♇♇♇

Bálaam - Eleven Years Ago

Hell wasn’t anything like mortals assumed. There were no rivers or lakes of fire. There were
no demons with pitchforks and pointed tails running amok, torturing evil souls.

It was…well it was pretty boring actually.

Yes, it was red and black and bleak. Yes, it was filled with demons and monsters that
occasionally traveled to the human realm and prayed on the weak and vulnerable.

The currency in Hell was souls, and with that in mind, Bálaam was beyond wealthy.

As a demon prince, he was powerful. Incredibly powerful. There were only seven demon
princes after all. Technically, there was no king, but mortals did love to assume there was a
grand poobah devil someplace that ruled over the barren landscape.

It didn’t really matter to him what mortals thought.

Bálaam had a small company of well trained, well disciplined demons that frequently crossed
into the mortal realm and made deals for souls. The other six princes had a similar structure
set up. It worked, and why mess with something that worked?

Free agent demons wandered, trying to collect souls on their own. The problem with that was
that most of them were terrible at negotiating or fooling a mortal into agreeing to a bargain.
Also, it helped if they had access to the power to make their end of the bargain come true.
Most of the time those transactions ended in either a dead mortal, or one so psychologically
traumatized, they ended up in psychiatric care.

Bálaam’s power was vast. In the ranking of power amongst the seven Princes of Hell, he
came in second. Only Azazel was stronger than him. There were specialty demons that didn’t
rank amongst the Princes but had power in their own right.

One in particular held Bálaam’s attention.

Gremora
A shedemon that was the root and cause of all his misery.

Bálaam leaned back in the leather executive chair and watched Colin Drury say his vows
through the mirror portal perched on the other side of his desk. The church was half full but
all of the guests were Colin’s.

That was because his bride was an orphan.

But not because she had actual parents.

Because as a baby she’d been left on an orphanage's doorstep.

Bálaam’s hand curled into a fist as the dark haired beauty demurely looked up into the eyes
of her soon-to-be husband. Her lush mouth formed the words that would bind her to that
filthy piece of mortal garbage.

Lily Avalon was beautiful. Dark chocolate eyes that slanted in– hinted at an asian heritage.
Dark black hair was pulled back and styled ornately beneath a white vale. Her dress was
beautiful but– not her. Bálaam didn’t know how he knew that…he just did. He just knew that
the dress she was wearing was not the one she’d have chosen for herself.

Her lips were glossed in pink but Bálaam knew that they were a creamy nude color when she
was makeup free. That she hated wearing makeup at all.

He knew that Lily conformed and twisted herself to be this woman because that is what it
took to make Colin happy. The desk groaned, creaking from the pressure he was placing on
the surface with his splayed palm.

Bálaam eased off it, gritting his teeth as he watched the rest of the ceremony.

It was done.

She belonged to Colin now.

To his credit, he had seriously considered just stealing her. It was in his nature to take things
he wanted.

But this was more than just want.

This was destiny.

Lily was designed for him. For him. Not for that cheating, mortal toad.

Gremora was crafty like that.

Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor Hell a fury like a woman scorned.

Yet, Bálaam had not had a chance to scorn Gremora. Not yet anyway.
Gremora was a powerful demoness who held the ability to see into the future. That was the
main gift that had allowed her to accumulate as much power as she had. But her
otherworldliness kept her from collecting the souls she needed to attain power at a higher
level.

That was what set Bálaam and his brother Princes apart. They could harness their demon
traits and suppress them. All the lower demons under his command held that ability as well.
When you could blend in with mortals, it made bargaining so much easier.

Gremora’s secondary gift was– complicated. She had the ability to bind souls. It wasn’t a true
binding but it was solid enough that only a bargain could undo the damage she’d wrought.

When Gremora had set her eyes on Bálaam she looked into her future, sure she’d see herself
seated at his side.

Botis, fourth in rank of the Princes of Hell, had come to him shortly after to enlighten him.

Bálaam could still remember that day. It was the day his entire world had shifted.

Staring in Botis’ window into the other, he watched as Gremora conjured her own vision of
Bálaam’s future. He could feel her confidence that she’d be present in it– then her anguish
and jealousy as a different demoness appeared by his side.

Short, slender, and wearing a wicked grin made of malice and spite, Lily had stood beside
him. She had pressed a delicate hand to her burgeoning belly as Bálaam wrapped a
possessive arm around her slight frame. The two dainty horns barely poking through her
forehead were…fuck she was adorable.

Love matches in Hell were rare.

Demon children even more so.

Botis began to murmur the knowledge his gift provided to him.

“Her spirit would have already entered Hell by now…but Gremora has intercepted it.”

A flash of the vision and Bálaam watched as a violet glow shot across Hell’s skyscape.

It was a wild soul. A soul that was either anguished and dark, or holding enough past injury
to be denied entrance into the pristine halls of Heaven. Left alone in the wilds, those souls
would eventually grow into demons. Even hearts of darkness started from just a seed.

Wild souls were uncommon, but still nothing unusual.

Gremora walked toward the violet flame that quivered in a clump of blood grass. She spoke
soothingly to the soul, explaining where she was…what she was doing there.

Then, in a flash of speed and dexterity, Gremora trapped the burning flame in a crystal dome.
“I curse, thee. I curse, thee. I curse, thee. Thrice, I curse thee back to the mortal realm. No
family, no love, no entreaty. You shall find a false mate and bind thyself to him. You shall die
a mortal death and be released.”

Bálaam began to understand then, his entire being shaking with terror and anxiety– two
emotions he had not felt in eons.

If this woman…this future demoness, Lily was his fated mate, then sending her soul back to
the mortal realm would–

Gremora was re-writing history. History that had not even had a chance to happen yet. She
was stealing his fated mate. She was stealing his chance at happiness!

But it was done. It was done and there was nothing he could–

“A soulbond like this cannot be broken,” Botis whispered. “She is yours and you are hers.
Your souls are intertwined. Look inside, you will see it’s true.”

Bálaam didn’t need to look inside. He could feel the anguish bleeding through his pores and
he never even had the chance to meet her. His soul knew. It knew Lily was its missing piece
and it despaired at her loss.

“A soulbond cannot be broken,” Botis repeated. “You can bargain for it back. Gremora has
linked your mate’s soul to that of another– a mortal. But should he bargain away that soul…”

…then the demon who controlled that mortal’s soul would control the bond paired to it.

Bálaam curled his hands into fists and stormed away from Botis, not bothering to thank his
brother.

There were plans that needed to be made… and enacted.

♇♇♇
Bálaam - Ten Years Ago

Rotting fruit.

It’s what all the humans in the club smelled like. Their bodies mashed together in clumsy
movements as they partook in various vices and sin. If he were another type of demon, he
might have enjoyed the scents in the air or the hedonistic atmosphere.

But Bálaam was not that kind of demon and tonight, he was stalking very specific prey.

He saw a tousle of blonde hair ahead. There… the mortal man he had come to seduce with
promises of wealth and power. As Bálaam made his way closer, disgust bloomed at the scene
that unfolded through writhing bodies.

The man was promised to another and yet he violated that covenant with alacrity. Leaning
back in a wooden chair, Colin Drury watched with dilated eyes as the woman on his lap
continued to writhe. The scraps of material that covered her sex had been pushed aside and
she ground down on his cock, moaning and shrieking with false ecstacy.

Bálaam could not fault the woman, it was her vocation to elicit these responses from the
males around her. It was her livelihood. A profession as old as time.

But the filth beneath her was a perfidious pretender. Aggression roiled inside Bálaam as he
watched the public display of human mating. The woman was covered in sparkling glitter,
sweat rolling down her neck and back as she put on a rather convincing show. Colin grunted
as he released inside the latex sheath over his member. The group of males surrounding him
cheered before the woman was then passed around, her holes stuffed again and again despite
the public location. Despite not knowing these males.

However, once she was off his target, Bálaam lost sight and interest in her. He had one goal
tonight. One.

“Quite a show,” he rumbled. Bálaam’s voice, he knew, was better than the whore’s pussy. It
was deep and velvety, alluring and beguiling.

He was a demon after all. It’s how they were designed, what they were best at. Luring this
weak male would be child’s play.

Colin’s eyes were already blown from alcohol and drugs, but the pupils dilated even further
when he focused on Bálaam’s profile. The demon knew his kind– ultra masculine, in charge,
selfish– yet insecure. He would be terribly easy to manipulate. Already, he was unsure of his
body’s reaction to another man, someone he considered an alpha male on sight alone.

“I’m getting married in a week. Just leaving bachelorhood with a bang,” he slurred, tipping
back another shot of amber liquid.

“You work at Prescotts don’t you?”

Recognition flared in Colin’s eyes, a blend of panic and excitement. He was unsure if his
crude display of public indecency would harm his professional standing. But…if it didn’t, he
was excited that he may have found someone sympathetic to his deviations. A possible
partner. A possible partner who would share a woman…who would–

Bálaam has no interest in whores or sex. Drugs did not affect him. There was only one thing
in this cursed realm that he wanted. Only one thing that would sooth the tumultuous rage and
evil within him.

“I do, yeah. I started a few weeks ago. At the bottom of the ladder right now.”

Colin was trying very hard to appear less affected by the alcohol. If his senses were correct,
and they always were, Bálaam detected the mortal was also under the influence of a
stimulant. Probably cocaine. Bálaam noticed some of his friends doing lines off the whore as
she was passed around.

“You know, I know some people there. I have a little pull.”

Colin’s eyes narrow on Bálaam slightly. Not enough to look outwardly suspicious but his
drug addled brain was trying to work through the implications of his words.

“Do you know Mark Aberton? He’s my boss.”

“No, but I know Jonathan Mitchell. We get together for a game of golf every once in a while.
I used to invest with Prescott several years ago until I went to Sutherland.”

With the second seed sown, he watched as the inebriated man absorbed the information fed to
him.

Bálaam was prey to him now. He was a huge leap on a shitty little ladder. He was sex, and
cum, and grinding hips.

Leaning toward him, Colin braced his elbows on the tall round table, a long finger tapping
the empty shot glass he just drained.

“If you’re ever interested in coming back to Prescotts, I’d be happy to see what investment
options we can tailor to your needs.”

A standard, scripted response Bálaam was sure Colin said to a hundred people a day as he
cold called potential investors. But those calls were for minnows–guppies. Bálaam was a
whale. Despite his drunken stupor, Colin could see the signs of wealth. Tailored clothes,
custom made watch, and shoes worth more than his monthly rent.

“Possibly. I’m interested, anyway. You said you’re getting married tomorrow. Do you plan to
stay faithful to your new bride?”

A daring question to ask so quickly, but Bálaam found his temper flaring at this imbecile who
could go from infidelity to talking business so casually. Colin didn’t seem to notice the thread
of hostility in his tone.

“Does anyone ever plan to cheat?”

Power leaked from Bálaam’s pores in a rare show of recklessness. He hated this human. He
hated his leering smile and false camaraderie. He would suffer before this was all said and
done. It was within Bálaam’s power to make it so and so he shall.

Bálaam could have sent a lesser demon to handle this. It had been decades since he’d come
topside to deal with mortals face to face, but this human was important despite how worthless
he appeared at first glance. This bargain would be the pinnacle of Bálaam’s existence. And it
was with a two-bit, two-faced, shit-stain of a mortal man. But for her…for her, Bálaam
would do anything.

Suppressing the growl working its way through his ribcage, he leaned back from the table
and slowly spun the tumbler of expensive vodka in his hand. When he looked back up at
Colin, he knew his green eyes had a faint glow. His dark black hair was now lustrous, his
skin– faintly luminous.

“I can give you what you want,” he murmured.

Closing the distance between them slowly, Bálaam scented the man’s fetid sweat and the
cloying candy smell of the stripper. Underneath was an inferno of desire. Bálaam’s hand
came up, blocked from the rest of the room by his body and he pushed a firm palm against
Colin’s chest, right over his breastbone.

“I can make all your dreams come true,” he whispered against the shell of Colin’ ear.

Colin shuddered, then pressed his erection against Bálaam’s hip.

“I can make you powerful. I can make you wealthy. I can make all your desires into reality…
and I only want one thing in return.”

A low moan eased from Colin’s parted lips. The beguiling lilt to Bálaam’s words had snared
him.

“Tell me, Colin. Tell me I can have you. All of you. Give me your soul and I’ll give you the
world.”

Pulling away from his ear, Colin looked at him. Their eyes locked, and the rest of the room
faded into shadows.

“Women, wealth, power. You’ll be the envy of every man around you. Ten years of success
and all I ask in return is for your soul. For you to be bound to me for all eternity. You want
that, don’t you, Colin. To have me inside you. You know how good I’ll feel, don’t you. You
know I’ll give you everything you want.”

Colin’s lips crashed against Bálaam’s, his tongue forceful and penetrating. The demon hated
the way this mortal tasted. He hated the way he felt. But he needed this soul. He needed the
commitment.

Gripping a tight handful of hair at Colin’s nape, Bálaam pulled him back. With stern,
glittering eyes he looked down at him. Bálaam’s reproach and disdain were carefully
moderated. Just enough… just enough revulsion to put Colin on the backfoot. Colin was
already confused by his desires– by his reckless actions. He’d never kissed another man
before, much less one that exuded the stern control Bálaam did. Colin’s cock was a hard rod
tenting his pants. He’s gifted, Bálaam would give him that. He was young, a mere twenty
four, but his body was strong and pleasing to look upon. If it weren't for the deceit in his
heart, he may have been perfect for her.

Barely controlling the sneer that wanted to break free, Bálaam brought his lips a breath away
from Colin’s.

“Give it to me, Colin. Say, ‘yes.’ Give me your soul and I’ll give you all I promised.”

His gray eyes were dazed and for a moment Bálaam thought he'd lost the mortal but then–
“Yes.”

The pact struck, searing a sigil into Bálaam’s forearm. Eyes flashing red, Bálaam hissed but
then smiled as Colin’s mouth dropped open.
“Ten years, Colin. You get ten years, then I’ll be back for what’s mine.”

The demon prince turned and left then, draining his vodka to wash the taste of Colin away.
The pulsing brand on his arm was a welcome pain. His lips curled in a satisfied smile.

Soon.

He’d have her soon.

♇♇♇

Bálaam - Seven Years Ago

“Look, Anthony…if I could guarantee investments then I’d basically have the ability to shit
out golden eggs. I can’t do that. But what I can tell you is that I’ve never steered you wrong
before. I’ve made you millions man, and right now, I’m telling you Altcore is hot. It’s on
fucking fire. Invest now, like you did with Teledome and Despark and you’ll triple your
portfolio– yeah. Yeah! That’s what I’m telling you, man!”

Colin Drury laughed, a shark smile spreading on his face when his office door swung open.
Putting his hand to the mouthpiece on his phone he swiveled his chair, ready to lay into his
assistant for interrupting him when all the blood drained from his face.

“So–So we’ll just um, I’ll– my assistant will reach out with the details and get everything set
up. Thanks Anthony, I’m really sorry but something just came up– uh-uh, yeah. No, no, you
won’t regret this. Sorry, Anthony? I have to go. We’ll speak soon.”

The phone clattered as he tried to hang up without taking his eyes off the seething figure now
standing in front of his desk.

“Get up,” Bálaam hissed.

Colin stood, his body flushing hot, then cold. The male towered over him, his eyes so dark,
they almost seemed black. But Colin had remembered them as green before…and he hadn’t
been so tall…right? That night in the club, this man who had promised him untold wealth and
power had been just that– a man.

Now though, in the bleak dreary tungsten light of his office, he looked like a– like an angry
god. Larger than life, dark and forbidding…furious.

“I thought I could handle it. I thought I could let it go– but I can’t. So, I am altering our
contract, Colin.”

Let what go? Altering…what contract?

“What–what contract?”

A smile spread across Bálaam’s face but Colin knew it wasn’t one of happiness or joy. It was
a smile that held violence and pain.
“You promised me your soul, Colin. Don’t you remember? You said ‘yes.’ Now, you have
this office. Now, you have wealth beyond your wildest dreams, success, and the power you
had coveted from those above you. I made all this possible. I gave this to you…and Colin? I
can take it all away…like that.”

The snap of Bálaam’s fingers was so sharp and so loud in Colin’s office, the man flinched as
if a gun had gone off.

“That’s not– I mean, I worked hard to get here. I–”

Bálaam’s chuckle was dark and mocking.

“You just happened to get a meeting with Richard Foy? You just happened to convince him,
with your pitiful charm and subpar influence, to invest in a rinky-dink company that would
have gone nowhere without my intervention? You really think that in today’s society a
company that manufactures and sells plush toys to vending machine companies was going to
make millions without some magical influence? I could have made you a millionaire selling
payphones, you dumb fuck. And I was fine with that. I was fine with the expenditure of my
power to give you your part of the bargain, but enough is enough and now I’m altering
things. Now, within the limitations of the contract, I have fulfilled my end. Women, wealth,
and power. You have all those. You are the envy of all your peers. Ten years of success…well
we’re three down. You’ve plateaued, Colin. All I have to do now is make sure your rivals
aren’t as successful as you and the parameters of the contract are fulfilled…but I could also
go the other way…I could grease your destiny. I could ensure you keep gaining over them.
More wealth. More power.”

Colin licked his lips and shook his head. This was crazy. All the shit that happened the night
of his bachelor party was a blur to him now. He’d been so fucked up on whiskey and coke…
he’d fucked that stripper for god’s sake. What he could remember of this man– this was nuts.

Smoke began to curl around Bálaam’s shoulders, his eyes bled to a solid red– no iris, no
pupil, no sclera…just red. Then the centers contracted, and Colin realized he did have a pupil
in there still, slitted and long like a vipers. It was a shade darker than the blood red around it.

As the image of the man before him blurred and changed, Colin felt every inch the worm he
was. His body shrank away even as his feet were rooted to the floor.

Bálaam let go of the glamor that allowed him to pass unnoticed in the mortal realm. His body
grew…ten feet tall and broad shouldered, his cheekbones shifted, sharpening until they were
so pronounced, they seemed bladelike. His fangs elongated, his tongue forked, then from his
brow, two spiked horns sprouted. Shining onyx and oxblood, they gleamed under the
fluorescent light.

“You know the truth,” Bálaam growled. “You’ve always known, deep down that your soul is
no longer yours. You feel it.”

Colin did know. It was his greatest fear. It kept him awake at night…that hazy memory where
he felt his body become sexually charged in response to this man…when he thought about
how he’d moaned out the ‘yes’ that had cleaved something from his core being.
“Now, you can agree to alter the contract, or I can hamstring you. I can keep you stagnant,
right where you are. Decide, mortal.”

“What– what do you want?”

The room grew hot and dark. It was a dry heat, a smothering heat.

“Stay away from her,” Bálaam hissed, his face gone demonic and angry, his voice
otherworldly.
“You are not to touch her anymore. You will not put your filthy, lying mouth on hers. You will
not violate the sanctity of her body again with yours. She will remain untouched by you until
our bargain is complete.”

“W-who?”

Because for Colin, Bálaam could have been talking about a number of women. With the
wealth and power came a line of mistresses. He’d had four in the three years since he’d
married Lily. The desire to sample different women and explore different lifestyles had been
too great a temptation for Colin.

“Lily,” Bálaam growled.

Colin blinked in shock… “But she’s my wife!”

“In contract only,” Bálaam said, his body shrinking back down to a normal size, the horns
vanishing, the man’s eyes now a jade green. “She was never meant for you. You are— a
complication. I thought I could handle it. I thought since it was only her mortal embodiment
it wouldn’t matter, but I was a fool and you are unworthy to lick her feet. You betray her with
such ease and so frequently that it disgusts me– and I’m a fucking demon. A Prince of Hell.
That should tell you something,” Bálaam sneered.

That was the truth and as much as he was willing to reveal to this sack of human filth.
Bálaam had never thought he could bring himself to care what mortals did in their own
realm. He hated that her soul was tied to Colin’s, but he’d reasoned that he was rectifying the
tangled mess left to him. Bálaam had to be careful and quiet in order to keep his enemies
from realizing what treasure was left on Earth… unprotected… unclaimed.

The rules were stringent. He couldn’t take Lily’s soul himself. She had to remain untouched
and uncontracted so she would enter Hell freely. Once there, he could claim her as an equal.
Once there, he could keep her forever, as was his right.

Now, he had to play this all very carefully, and this– this show of jealousy and rage was
putting everything at risk.

But there was just no way he could watch this filthy little shit touch his Lily again. He’d
raged and raged each time, burning through his castle and hold, until all the underling
demons were terrified and unsettled. His brothers were concerned, his enemies far too
interested, and his life was crumbling apart around him.
Enough was enough.

“Take the deal,” he rumbled. “You know you want to. Put both sides on a scale. One one side,
you still get to fuck the random women who catch your interest. On the other you get to fuck
your wife. On one side, you will grow wealth and power. On the other, you will stay stagnant,
never growing, only maintaining what you have now.”

Colin blinked. It– well it did seem pretty clear which option was better, but still–

His lizard brain was screaming at him to stop and consider all the aspects of this. Clearly,
Bálaam was indeed a demon. Demons were real. Clearly, he’d already sold his soul for the
wealth and power he now possessed. Demon deals were bad, right? Losing his soul was bad.
But it was already done…he had– could he bargain for his soul back?

“If I don’t touch her…can I have my soul back?”

Bálaam laughed. He laughed and laughed, his shoulders relaxing and his body going pliant as
he looked at the idiot behind the desk.

“No, you stupid little fuck. No. You will never get your soul back. And for the heartbreak
you’ve caused Lily, I will enjoy roasting you for the rest of eternity. I will enjoy watching
you receive that same pain back tenfold. Make your afterlife eternity a little more bearable
and agree to my new terms. You will not touch Lily in a sexual manner again. You will not
put your filthy mouth on her, ever again. You will not view her naked body, you will not talk
to her in a sexual way. From this moment on, she is your wife in name only.”

Colin’s body trembled. Nothing like having the demon who owns your soul confirm that he
plans to torture you for all eternity in seven years…

“I–”

“Agree, Colin.”

“I agree.”

Bálaam’s grin was sharp and wide. Just as Colin opened his mouth to ask why, the room was
empty. Blinking, he looked around…everything was the same.

That night he went home and crept toward the main bedroom, his stomach in knots.

Lily lay on her side of the bed, her black hair fanned out on the pillow, wearing a delicate
gray neglige. He turned around and walked to the guest room, as if his body were on strings
that someone else was controlling. He showered there and got into the bed, a tear tracking
down his face.

What had he done?

♇♇♇
Lily - Five Years Ago

The landscape was always barren. She walked through red sand so fine, it felt like liquid
between her toes. While it seemed like it should be hot, Lily never felt that way. She felt…
comfortable.

It seemed like it should be such a dreary place, but to her the red sand dunes, the blood
colored grass, and the sharp jagged outcropping of shiny black rocks were– familiar? No…
not familiar…but–

It was frustrating not to understand her connection with this place.

Lily dreamed of it often, even if she only remembered that while she was dreaming.

She sat between the long red blades of thick grass, swaying with a phantom breeze, closing
her eyes and inhaling the wild honey and cinnamon scent of the place.

Sometimes she felt anxious though…as if she were being chased— as if she were being
hunted. She didn’t like those dreams. She didn’t like how they felt almost like– like
memories.

Usually, she was in the same place, with the same things around her, but this time– this time
she was someplace new. When she came to a large tree with black bark and dead leaves, she
paused. Running her hand down the trunk, she walked around it, noticing in the distance a
building.

No– a castle.

She ran toward it. Her bare feet kicked up the red sand, the dry wind fluttered through her
hair.

As she got closer, the castle grew larger…and larger…and–

There was a moat.

Liquid that was so dark red, it looked black filled the trench and she could see ripples of
things swimming in it.

Carefully, she grabbed the excess material of her long silver dress and hugged it closer to her
body. Tiptoeing across the narrow bridge, she kept her eyes straight ahead and breathed a
sigh of relief when she made it across.

For a place so big, she expected to see people…or– well something. But it was deserted.
Every once in a while she felt like there was a ghostly presence near her…a body or form
moving by her. Lily paused for these, not willing to walk through them.

As she explored the castle, she felt awe and reverence for the architecture, the large paintings,
the tapestries, and ornate decorations.
There was a large kitchen in the basement level, a huge library on the first level along with an
opulent ballroom that she’d twirled and danced in…all alone. On the second story were
bedrooms and offices, sitting rooms, drawing rooms, and parlors. On the third…

Lily crept down the hallway toward a set of double doors, her heart pounding in her chest.

Something big was going to be behind that door, she could feel it.

Turning the gold handle, she pulled the door open.

It was dark inside, only the corners lit with candles. A bedroom…dark and cool and richly
appointed. The floors were a sleek black marble, the enormous bed in the center draped in red
silks and white furs. A sunken pool lay beyond it, half inside the room, half outside on a
balcony.

The doors to the balcony were open, the arid climate blowing into the room. At some point
since she’d entered the castle, night had fallen. Lily had never been here while it was dark
outside…

Creeping toward that balcony, she looked around. Across the room to her right was a bathing
room with a sink and toilet and a large bath. All of it was lushly ornate. Thick persian carpets
were strewn on the floors between the bed and the bathroom. Behind the bed on the opposite
wall was a large desk. It had papers strewn on it, candles melted down to nubs on the ends.

As she got closer to the balcony, her stomach trembled with anticipation.

Whatever was out there– it’s what she’d been searching for each time she came to this place.
It was something– something she needed.

As her bare feet moved silently on the slick floor, she slowed her gait as the tall and imposing
shadow came into view.

A man– standing with his back to her. Broad shouldered, he was– he was enormous. Ten–
eleven feet tall? He turned to the side, resting his hip against the low balcony railing. Lily bit
her lip as she took in the horns protruding from his hairline. Thick black hair fell around the
horns and over his brow, moving gently in a phantom wind that she could not feel herself. He
wore black slacks, a black formal shirt, and a black vest made of richly patterned silk. This
man had wealth. Understated, yet refined. Lily could see it from the way he stood and how he
was dressed.

Lily crept closer, her feet silent, the fabric of her dress hushed.

Then he turned– and looked right at her.

Every cell in her body froze. She would have run in terror had the man not also looked
shocked and startled.

“Lily?”

She jerked back at the use of her name.

Then he was coming for her. Long, stalking steps charged in her direction until he had her
arms gripped tightly in his hot hands.

Lily stared up at the– at the being who held her. So hot. She felt it now, like brands on her
arms. His scarlet eyes flickered, the vertical pupils swelling and contracting as he frantically
took in her appearance.

“How…”

“It’s just a dream,” she whispered. “Just a dream.”

As if she needed to convince herself.

But it was a dream. The only place she ever dreamed of was this one. Well, not this castle,
this part of her dream was a first. But the place she was in, the landscape…she’d dreamt of
this all before in such clarity she felt it was like a second home.

A sort of understanding came over him and he seemed to relax. He did not however release
her. Instead, he drew her closer, wrapping his arms around her in a lover’s embrace.

“Oh, my love. My heart,” he murmured as he lowered his head and crouched over her.
Suddenly, she was being gathered up in his arms, pulled up so he could nestle his face into
her neck. Lily’s hands came up in an action born of instinct. She threaded her fingers into his
lush hair, stroking and scratching in an attempt to sooth his unsettled feelings.

“There, there. It’s okay. I’m here,” she crooned.

The arms around her tightened while her feet dangled a foot off the ground. Lily’s thumb
brushed against the base of a horn and she paused. Then slowly, she stroked it with her
fingers. A shudder ran through the giant man.

“Do that again,” he murmured thickly.

She did. Tracing her fingertips over the shining appendage she reached the tip where she
tested the point. It was wickedly sharp but didn’t pierce her flesh. Not that Lily thought she
had real flesh here…she always felt so– so insubstantial in her dreams.

Stalking toward the bed, the man took great care to lay her out on a section of the thick white
fur. The mattress was plush but firm and smelled like him. Like cinnamon and spices and fire
and smoke.

“I am Bálaam. I am yours. Do you understand?”

Lily nodded, then shook her head. It seemed to her that she should understand but she didn’t
really. Was this how Alice felt when she fell down the rabbit hole?

“We are bound. We are fated. I wait for you here, my love. You feel it, don’t you? In your
dark little soul. You feel me calling and you feel your heart answer.”

Poetic words that under other circumstances she’d scoff at and yet–
And yet she did feel it. Some tether, some connection that tied her to this…this creature. He
was terrifying to look at and yet she wasn’t afraid. Lily was–

Her thighs rubbed together in an attempt to alleviate the pulsing between her legs.

Bálaam’s head inched back slightly and his nostrils flared. The vertical slit of his pupil
contracted, then darkened.

“Yessssss,” he hissed, a forked tongue peeking out to lick at her cheek. “Your body knows…
it knows it’s master,” he growled.

Lily stiffened but Bálaam pressed her more firmly into the mattress and she felt him. Hard,
thick, long against her belly.

“And mine knows too,” he snarled. “Mine knows it will submit to no one but you, my love.”

Relaxing again, Lily reached up to stroke the sharp features of the face looming over her. Her
muscles relaxed into the bed, her eyelids lowering to half mast.

“Bálaam…”

The demon’s eyes slid shut slowly, savoring his name on her lips. “Bálaam…”

“Yes, my love. Anything…anything you desire.”

“Kiss me.”

She felt it again. Heat. Searing heat against her lips and tongue as he kissed her deeply. Large
hands, hot as a stovetop smoothed up her arms and neck until he was collaring her with his
fingers– branding her flesh.

Lily felt dizzy and erotic. She felt her core pulse wetly.

“Please…”

“Never. You will never beg. You will command and I will fulfill every wish and desire your
dark heart has.”

Bálaam manipulated her body. Stripping her from the dress, he loomed over her. Large, dark,
imposing and to anyone else…terrifying. But to Lily, the look in his serpent's gaze was that
of utter devotion. When he spread her thighs and breathed in her scent, she arched her back
sharply, need spiraled through her. Bálaam’s forked tongue lapped at her slit, his deep groan
sending sparks over her nerve endings.

“Pure. Pure and sweet and all mine,” he snarled.

Then it was nothing but pleasure. He licked and sucked and touched her with hot fingers until
she was convulsing beneath him. Until her orgasms rolled one into another, into another.
Until she was whimpering and writhing and his big hands stroked over her bare breasts to her
stomach and then her thighs where he pinned her open like a butterfly.

Pleasure like nothing she’d ever experienced before bloomed again and again. When he slid
himself back up her lax body to kiss her, she tasted herself on his forked tongue.

“What are you?” Lily breathed, her gasping breaths finally calming.

“A Prince of Hell. Your mate. Your eternity,” he said as if it were the simplest thing in the
world.

“You’re…the devil?”

Bálaam’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled.

“No, fireheart. I am a demon. One of many. I hold this keep and all the underlings within.
And we are bound…fated to spend eternity at each other’s sides. You’ll understand soon…
very soon Lily.”

She wanted to ask him more questions. Lily had so many.

But something was happening. Bálaam frowned, his eyes flickering over her as his lips parted
in anguish.

Lily knew what was happening. She was waking up. It was always like this…this slow fade
until her eyes would blink open and she would be back in her bedroom.

“Will you be here when I come back?” she asked. Lily desperately hoped so. For the first
time in her life, she felt like she belonged somewhere.

“Always,” Bálaam said, his voice deep and intense.

And as she felt her body fading from beneath him, Lily couldn’t help but feel like he’d made
her a kind of promise. One she didn’t understand fully.

But when she blinked her eyes open and stared at the ceiling in her bedroom, she didn’t
remember that at all. Oh she knew she’d had a very intense dream but not the specifics. Her
panties were soaked, her pussy sore. Goodness, had her wet dream been that intense? With an
embarrassed grimace, she rolled out of the bed and toward the bathroom to clean herself up.

♇♇♇

Present Day

When Lily blinked her eyes open she was in her bedroom. Staring at the ceiling, she brought
her hands up to her face and rubbed at her eyes and cheeks.

Her body felt sore, her shoulders stiff. She felt…exhausted.

That had been one hell of a nightmare, she thought. Never in her life had she ever felt that
kind of terror or panic. But– but it had to have been a nightmare because she was waking up
in her bed and…

Her hips and legs shifted and Lily froze.

She was naked.

She never slept naked.

Never.

Slowly, she turned her head and saw Colin watching her.

Suppressing the startled scream that wanted to work its way out of her throat, she bolted
upright in the bed, clutching the blankets to her bare chest.

“W-what are you doing in here?”

His expression didn’t alter from the carefully blank one she’d first seen.

“What do you mean? This is our bedroom.”

Lily shook her head, her eyebrows shooting down into an expression of confusion.

“Colin, you haven’t laid in this bed with me in– God, I can’t remember how long it’s been.
Years.”

“That doesn’t seem right. You’re my wife and you’re beautiful.”

There was something off about his tone. It was– dead. Toneless. The phantom sensation of
spiders crawling up her back and neck made her shiver.

“Are you cold, my love? Let me warm you.”

Before Lily could ward him off, she was pressed back against the mattress.

“My lovely Lily. So pure. So perfect,” he crooned.

Lily watched his blue eyes carefully. They’d gone red before hadn’t they? They’d been…
demonic. Right?

But now, they seemed like they’d always been. A denim blue with a gray starburst pattern in
the center.

Colin’s big body settled over hers and Lily found herself melting into the mattress.

“Kiss me, wife.”

A crawling sensation rolled up the inside of her skull at those hissed words.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.

“No. No, stop. I– This is– I can’t. I don’t want–”

His mouth slanted over hers, parting her lips with his strong tongue. Lily whimpered.

It was all so confusing.

She wanted him– yet she didn’t.

Years of neglect had turned the love she had for her husband into ash. But now, faced with his
desire and intensity she could feel something being stirred back to life and Lily hated that.
She hated that now, for whatever reason, for the first time in their relationship, she craved
him.

Colin wedged himself between her legs and she moaned when the hard rod of his cock
pressed against her softness. Her hips tilted of their own volition, seeking the friction that
would feel best.

They writhed together on the bed, a tangle of lips and tongues and gripping hands.

Colin stripped himself of clothes even as he placed hot kisses on her throat and chest. He
worshiped her body with a carelessness he’d never shown her before. Wild and wanton, he
licked and sucked at her anywhere he could. Her breasts, her stomach, her hips and thighs.
Once between her legs, he licked her everywhere. The sensation of his tongue against her
back hole had her eyes rolling back and her fingers clenching in his blonde hair.

But in the darkness of her mind, another image layered over the bliss between her legs.

Black hair…horns…and red serpent eyes that peered up at her from between her legs.

Lily’s pussy spasmed and she cried out as her orgasm washed over her.

Then Colin was smoothing his body over hers. The tip of his cock nudged at her swollen
opening. Slowly, but firmly he pushed into her and it was– scalding.

Lily whimpered, her pussy stretching further than it ever had before. Delicious ripples of pain
were weaving between the pleasure pulsing low in her belly.

As she arched her back, her chin tilting up toward the ceiling, she squeezed her eyes shut and
called out.

“Bálaam.”

An otherworldly roar sounded above her, her eyes snapping open in fright.

Shock stole her breath as her eyes took in the sight looming over her. It was Colin…but not.
Those red eyes were back, serpentine and focused. But he was bigger now, broader and his
face was sharper…not his face any longer. The blonde short cropped hair was darkening,
elongating and at his hairline…two horns began to push their way out.
A thrust had her whimpering and remembering…he was still inside her.

As the body above her finished its devious change, something within Lily began to settle.
The fear and anxiety melted away and she– she remembered.

“I dreamed of you,” she breathed.

“Yes,” he hissed.

His second thrust made her whimper, on his third she cried out, her hands reaching for him.

Bálaam came instantly, curling his body around his one and only love. He rutted over her in
careful strokes, the pleasure of being with her like this so intense, it bordered on pain.

“Mine now. Mine always,” he growled.

“Yes…yes, Bálaam I need… I need…”

“I know what you need. I will always give you what you need.”

His pace picked up. Bálaam grabbed her thighs, spreading her wider and tilting her up higher,
until her bottom left the bed and her chin dipped down against her chest.

“Yes,” Lily cried.

His cock glistened as it tunneled between her legs. In and out, the motion becoming fast and
choppy. The slick, slapping sounds filling the bedroom as the pleasure built and built to a
deafening crescendo. His orgasm from before was a tempering. It was a small release of
pressure against the inferno raging inside him. His cock would not be easily satiated. Bálaam
licked his lips, eyes roaming over his mate. Her beautiful body bouncing and quivering
beneath him. Her swollen pink clit on full display as his cock stretched her lips wider than
she’d ever been stretched before. With a concentrated burst of his power, he sent a hot tendril
of phantom touch against that sweet bundle of nerves.

Lily’s orgasm crashed over her, years of locked memories releasing into her mind. When
Bálaam followed, his hot seed flooding her tight channel, she felt something deep inside her
click into place. It was a claiming, a settling, a vow. He growled and bucked over her,
tendons straining in his neck as he emptied every last drop into her.

As her panting breaths began to slow, she blinked up at the otherworldly man above her.

“Time to go home, my love.”

The words were spoken so gently and lovingly that she began to smile.

Home. Her real home. The red sands and the blood grass and–

Bálaam’s hand wrapped around her throat and began to squeeze.

Lily’s face morphed from one of bliss to confusion, then to fear as her airway was cut off.
Scratching at the hand that was pinning her down by her throat, Lily’s body bucked and
kicked. Bálaam was still inside her. His cock had softened but was still firm enough that she
felt aftershocks of pleasure even as the terror inside her became overwhelming.

“Shhhhh, it must be this way. I promise, it won’t hurt. Just let it happen, my love. Let it
happen. Fall into it and I swear I will catch you.”

But the human instinct inside her screamed at her to fight. Air! She needed air! He was–

It took a long time. Longer than she expected it to take. Minutes…so many minutes. Her
vision grew dark at the edges, the panic inside her a wild thrashing thing. Then–

Nothing.

Just when she thought the cool darkness was all there was anymore, Lily felt herself tipping
backward and falling.

And falling.

And falling.

She fell for days and days, no sense of time or direction. The blackness around her was cool
and soothing and empty and vast.

And still she fell and fell and fell.

When she’d gotten used to it, when it had become all she knew, Lily was startled by the hot
body molding itself around her.

“I’ve got you,” it whispered. “Always.”

Her descent slowed and the darkness began to recede, showing a barren, red landscape.

Tears welled in her eyes as Lily looked at it all. A gusty wind blew around her, the heat of the
wind a balm against her cold flesh. She turned her head to look back at the man holding her–
no, not a man. A demon.

Enormous black, leathery wings stretched out on either side of him. His horns shone dully in
the red sunlight.

“I remember,” she whispered.

“Yes,” he said solemnly.

“I– I came here and then…I was trapped,” Lily said, a tremor of panic in her voice.

“No one else will ever lay a finger on you again. No one will ever take you from me. I will
burn this realm and the mortal one to ashes if they do. I will reign hell on earth and any other
plane of existence should anyone try to take what is mine again,” Bálaam vowed.
Lily shook at the ferocity in his voice, at the seal of power in his words.

He meant it. He’d somehow made it a vow.

Her shoulders curled and she turned in his embrace, clutching the black silk shirt covering his
chest.

“Bálaam…”

“Yes, fireheart.”

“Take me home.”

A wicked grin formed on his face, his fangs gleaming against the red tinged sky. Those huge
black wings flapped. Lily’s breath stuttered in her chest as they shot forward in the sky,
toward the looming red castle in the distance.
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