Reign of the Demon Queen

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Finally, Reyna throttled down. Lifting my head I took a peek at my surroundings.

A lighted gas station sign revealed a clump of no more than four buildings at a T-junction in the road. This must be the last outpost of civilization on our way to the promised dungeon. We turned here onto an unpaved dirt track and throttled up again.

About ten bumpy minutes later this road terminated at a house crouched on the edge of a densely tangled forest stretching up a mountainside that loomed high above us. The full moon now climbing higher revealed a surprisingly large and modern structure for such a rustic setting. Wind turbines and solar panels gleamed faintly on the roof. Clearly my new lover lived off the grid; there were no power lines out this far and I saw a satellite dish for communications. The entire building was built of solidly mortared stone.

Reyna pulled up beside a rugged four wheel-drive SUV and killed the engine. The silence was profound after that incessant roar, broken only by the buzzing and whining of insects and the intermittent baying of coyotes.

Somewhere in the canyon these normally slinking scavengers were serenading the big full moon as though they thought themselves wolves. I looked up at that satellite, amazed all over again at how huge and bright it was away from the city lights. The internet had been abuzz all week about this propitious aligning of events: not only was the moon to be full on Halloween Saturday but it was also at its perigee, its closest approach to Earth in decades. It appeared something like twenty percent larger and thirty percent more luminescent than usual, giving rise to higher tides and all sorts of unfounded apocalyptic nonsense.

The word ‘lunatic’ derives from Luna, of course, the Latin name for the moon and the apocryphal belief that its maximum waxing inspires insanity. Yeah, right. Of course being well educated I’d always scoffed at this kind of half-baked crap. But now I felt another superstitious shiver shudder through me.

I was certainly indulging in some uncharacteristic lunacy on this portentous occasion. Terror again gripped me as Reyna put the kickstand down. But this was of a more atavistic kind than the perfectly rational fear of having put myself wholly at the mercy of a deranged and sadistic woman I didn’t know from Eve. Rippling with gooseflesh despite the warmth of the night I listened again to the eerie yipping of coyotes echoing around the canyon walls. I thought of all the other, far more deadly creatures amongst which this truly apex predator had chosen to make her lair.

Black bears and cougars roamed these mountain slopes. Rattlesnakes were common: big western diamondbacks. There were killer bees, fire ants, scorpions, tarantulas and black widow spiders. The lethal brown recluse could be found here too. Yet none of these threats could hold a candle to the supremely dominant and desirable woman I had my arms locked around.

The skin of her belly was hot against my forearms, recalling to my gibbering mind the nearly searing heat of her mouth and the unnatural length of both her canines and thin, impossibly mobile tongue.

I remembered the shocking strength of her arms and the elusive gleam of red that flashed occasionally in her eyes, as well as the way she seemed able to effortlessly deflect attention at will. As she pushed my bound arms up her body (again blessing me with the intimate press of her breasts), over her shoulders and head I this time unavoidably bumped the black SS cap she wore. Still it remained as firmly in place as if she’d glued it there. A pitiful whimper escaped my lips and Reyna laughed evilly as she briefly snuggled her back against me.

“I can taste your terror, slave. Sweet as blood to wolves it is! Yet I can also taste uncontrollable lust in you. Oh, you are such a prize for me to find on this night of all nights! By morning you will be hopelessly in love with me, enthralled beyond any possibility of escape. Enter my dungeon with me now, where I can enjoy you at my leisure! Your formerly pointless, utterly wasted life has already changed forever. Let us now make that irreversible!”

Together we climbed off the bike. Again Reyna familiarly seized my p***s-leash and pulled me after her, a manacled prisoner on my way perhaps to the gallows. Her heavy boots gritted on the graveled drive; sharp stones stabbed into my own bare soles. Then we were crossing a porch of poured concrete and my captor paused to open a screen door.

Faster than a key could possibly have been produced and used I heard the thumping clack of heavy deadbolts withdrawing. Ponderously heavy too was the thick oak door that opened before us and we stepped inside. Without releasing my once again urgent erection Reyna kicked this closed behind us. Her brow furrowed for a moment and the deadbolts thumped back into place. Without bothering to turn on the lights (pearly moonlight penetrated the windows but gloom still cloaked everything but the indistinct shape of an enormous fireplace) Reyna tugged her cringing but impossibly keyed-up mutt on toward the back of the house. Carpet gave way to slate beneath my feet as we entered what I deduced to be the kitchen. I heard the quiet humming of a refrigerator and saw glowing red numerals blinking twelve-twelve-twelve on what must have been an electric range. Apparently it was always the witching hour here in Reyna’s domain.

Up against the forest under the closely looming mountain very little moonlight made it through the windows. I was the next thing to blind in the almost total darkness. Still this scary beauty didn’t flick switches or hesitate as she led me across the room. I heard more deadbolts thump back and another unnecessarily heavy portal creak as it opened. The angle at which Reyna held my erection changed then as we moved straight ahead into what was now truly impenetrable blackness. Out of this she spoke a single word of warning that echoed hollowly back at me.

“Stairs.”

These proved to be steep but wide and deep. Tugged implacably along I proceeded as cautiously down them as that relentlessly towing grip permitted. Swaddled by silence and midnight I felt the hair prickling on the nape of my neck – rudimentary hackles usually vestigial in modern humans. I realized we were headed not under the house but the megatons of mountain piled behind it. Gooseflesh and shivers that had little to do with the increasing coolness of the air wracked me yet again as we descended. On and on Reyna dragged me, ever deeper into the earth. Perhaps our destination truly was hell, and an immense catacomb would open suddenly before me, stalactites and stalagmites lit by a lurid red glow. Satanic demons and imps would be capering grotesquely around a lake of boiling magma, where the uncounted damned writhed and wailed for all eternity. Reyna would cast me in with a gloating laugh and that would be it.

These nightmare fancies gained unsettling credence when we at last reached the level. The floor under my bare feet was the rough, unfinished rock of a Dantean underworld. Another door, by the sound of it the weightiest yet unlocked and groaned portentously open. I was pulled helplessly forward by the erection then not into the mythical Christian perdition but a place with the depthless chill and absolute nullity of interstellar space. Though Reyna remained undeniably in front of me the door creaked and thudded shut behind us. Locks clacked implacably closed. Out of the emptiness a disembodied voice purred and dripped with eagerness and evil.

“Welcome to my dungeon, slave.”

Sorceress