The Grim Reaper's Mate

Chapter 32

Luna let out a deep, heavy sigh of disbelief. A victorious, almost greedy smiled curled on her lips. A predator that had just been handed her favorite snack.

Butch had long since degraded into profanity laden gibberish. Even that died off when the woman in front of him stepped out of the shadows. Her clothing was fit for a bondage dungeon. Black leather micro skirt, black lace corset, with black f**k me boots to match. Her black lipstick matched her dark clothing and stood in stark contrast to her white, milky complexion.

Alex doubted that they were looking at her clothes. If they were smart, then they'd caught on to the fact that her well-manicured nails had shifted into claws. Or that her eyes were as black as a bottomless pit. Leathery wings were folded behind her back. A pointed tail swayed through the air behind her, catching the moonlight as she stepped forward. The sound of childish whispers had picked up in intensity and volume, to the point where even Butch had noticed them.

"W-What are you?" He asked. There was no profanity now, no confidence, only the small terrified voice of a man confronted with his childhood terrors.

Luna's clawed hand shot out. Butch's jaw broke with a sickening snap as her hand entered his mouth. Alex could see where her bloody claws extended out of back of Butch's throat. He watched in horrified fascination as her fingers closed into a fist around the bundle of flesh at the back of this throat. Nerves tore and bones shattered as she pulled the man's spine through his mouth. A horrifying mixture of blood, saliva and spinal fluid spilled onto the floor at her feet. She pulled his blood appendage back towards her, like a whip being pulled back to its owner. It hung loosely at her side, dripping onto the floor, as what remained of the man slumped to the ground. He gave off his last wheezing breath, little more than a fleshy sack at that point.

A shocked silence filled the room as Alex and the two remaining goons stared at the blood soaked goddess in front of them. The silence was shattered as bubbling, childlike cries of terror filled the room.

The two goons had finally realized the danger they were in and attempted to run for the stairs. The concrete turned to quicksand beneath their feet. They moved a couple of more feet as their boots sunk into the sticky bog. Grey hands, the color of the concrete, shot out of the floor. They grabbed a hold of the men, dragging them down into the Pit. Their screams were drowned out by hysterical childish laughter. As the men's fingertips passed below the surface of the floor, the concrete was once again whole and solid. The whispers stopped.

Luna turned back towards Alex as she waved her hand over the circle.

The blood forming the ritual circle turned to liquid fire as the portal to the Pit opened below him. A rush of hot, arid air blasted up from the floor. It ruffled his hair and filled the room with the smell of brimstone. Embers floated through the portal, causing flickers of light to dance across his skin. Alex looked down. It was like he was standing on one of those glass walkways. The ground seemed perfectly sound, yet he could look down through the circle and see the glow of flames far below him.

Luna stepped into the circle. "You're all mine now." She said.

He was suddenly weightless as the solid ground beneath him vanish. For one agonizing heartbeat it seemed that he might float there, defiant of gravity. Then he began to fall, towards flames and uncertainly.

Darkness took him as he passed out.

****

He awoke in warmth.

His whole body was surrounded by a blissful penetrating warmth, like being curled up in warm bed on a cold winters morning. His thoughts were cloudy. Either unwilling or unable to focus on anything. Like when you first wake up, but haven't quite made the decision to come to full consciousness yet. That murky semi-awareness, that isn't quiet sleep but isn't quiet being awake either. He could have sworn he could hear the slow rhythmic sound of a heart beating. The feeling seemed right somehow, like he was returning to some familiar place. Someplace buried deep in his memories, cut off from time and space.

Memories. The euphoric fog lifted as images of a filthy basement and a blood soaked floor came flooding back to the forefront of his mind. His pleasant thoughts vanished back to the deep confines of his mind as he began to gain awareness of his surroundings. Things that were clear to him until that moment slipped through his fingers, like wisps of smoke in the wind.

He was awake now.

He opened his eyes and immediately recognized the familiar pressure of liquid against his eye balls, only different, thicker. He felt resistance as he tried to move his limbs. He was suspended in a thick syrupy liquid. Like warm honey.

He moved in the direction he thought was up. His sluggish movement made the task difficult. He hit a barrier that prevented him from moving any further upward. Reaching up, he felt it. His fingers hit resistance in the form of a flexible elastic membrane. It would have reminded him of plastic, if didn't feel like clammy human skin. Alex dug his fingers into the fleshy wall. As his fingers began to tear through the material, he tried to ignore the faint sound of screams.

Finally, he managed to claw his way through and his head broke the surface of the fluid. He was in the center of a small pond of golden liquid in the middle of a vast cave.

It was only the rhythmic dripping of water and the earthy aroma of damp stone that told him that he was underground. The place had a lot more in common with a castle than a cave. Smooth stone walls hinted that his place had been in use for a long time. The room was tall, so tall that Alex could barely make out the pointed forms of stalactites hanging from the ceiling.

He pulled himself out of the pool. He didn't shiver as the thick liquid dripped off his body. Despite being as naked as the day he was born, Alex felt no discomfort. The air was hot. It created a pleasant warmth on his skin. He walked away from the pool and followed a well-worn path in the direction he thought would lead him out. The path led out of the cavernous room and into a well-lit tunnel. His way was illuminated by torches jutting out of the wall at regular intervals. Alex tried not to dwell on the all too familiar shape of human skulls that formed the torches.

He had just passed a point where the path branched off into a side cavern, when he heard it. The tell-tale sound of another human being screaming in fear and pain. One of butch's lackeys came scrambling out of the darkness on his hands and knees.

Alex recognized the imposing stature of goon #1. Only he didn't look very imposing at the moment, more like a scared child. He was naked and his face was a sheet of blood as he came crawling towards Alex. He grabbed onto Alex's legs like a drowning man might grab onto a life vest.

"Help me please!"

Alex only stared back dispassionately as small black creatures, with gaping maws filled with sharp teeth, came scampering out of the darkness. They grabbed the downed man, their craws digging into his flesh as they dragged him away.

He babbled incoherently as he tried to fight and claw his way back to the path. One of his fingernails broke as he tried desperately to dig his fingers into the stone floor. It left a crimson streak of blood upon the stone as the creatures dragged him back into the darkness. It was suddenly quiet again. His cries were silenced almost instantaneously, as if swallowed into another world.

It that really just happen?

If it wasn't for the drying blood on the stone floor, he could almost forgive himself for thinking that it was a trick of the mind. A projecting of his own worries onto his perception of the world around.

Alex had no desire to see what that other world looked like. He turned back to the path and continued walking. He could see a patch darkness ahead and grabbed one of the torches to help light his way. One side of the walkway dropped off. He wasn't in a tunnel anymore, but standing on a pathway cut into the wall of a large cavernous room. He couldn't see the other side of the room but he could hear the screams of the damned echoing all around him. He dropped his torch off the side of the path.

He saw them, just before his torch light was swallowed up. An endless field of naked people screaming in agony as nightmarish creatures descending upon them in a never-ending orgy of violence.

Alex visibly gulped as he pressed a little closer to the stone wall.

He was careful to hug the wall as he moved forward. He could see where the line of torches began again. Soon enough, he found himself back a well-lit tunnel. Only this time the path was steadily moving upwards. He left the room and the screams behind him as he started climbing.

Alex exited the cave to find himself in the courtyard of a large castle build against the cliff face. Towers loomed dark against the red stars of an unfamiliar sky. He could see fires on the horizon past the battlements that seemed to close in on him like a prison. The eerie glow sent rays of light streaking across the battlements. A false sunset welcoming the coming night. The light illuminated the ashen plains that surrounded the castle in every direction. A barren wasteland of ash and shadow that stretched for as far as the eye could see.

Lovely.

His legs felt like jelly as he walked out into the clearing. A ruined cathedral sat on the far side of the courtyard, opposite the entrance to the cave. The walls were blackened in places, evidence of a fire sometime in the distant past. Its stain glass windows lay broken in places and defaced in others. Painted additions to the glasswork made a mockery of the religious scenes depicted on them. Alex wondered if the cathedral was a ruin. However, as Alex approached he could see that the wood of the massive doors was impeccable. Freshly polished and beautifully carved.

They were also standing open. An invitation he wasn't sure he wanted to accept. Fighting the sinking feeling in his gut, Alex forced himself to move forward. The time to back out had long since passed.

The room he entered into looked nothing like any cathedral he'd ever been in. The pews had long since been removed, revealing a large expansive room. A large bed, furnished with blood red sheets sat in the center of the room. Along the back wall, where the pulpit should have been, was a massive throne of black obsidian stone. It was there that he walked on shaky legs.

She sat perched lazily on her throne, waiting for him to arrive. He knew she would be. She'd been waiting for him a long time.

Gone was the dominatrix gear she'd been wearing earlier. In its place she wore a pure black sundress that stretched to mid-calf. The dress was...simple. It didn't overly dip down to expose her breasts, nor was it overly short. It was the type of dress a young girl might wear to the park on a Sunday morning. It confused him, that wasn't the type of outfit you'd expect from a succubus of the Pit.

Luna stood on bare feet as she extracted herself from the throne. His confusion only lasted a moment before he was reminded of her true nature. She moved like a supermodel showing off a piece of high fashion. The material didn't show off her body so much as it hinted at what lay underneath. The simple dress drew attention to every curve of her body. His eyes were drawn to her pale legs, the dip of her collar bone or the way the fabric moved with every sway of her hips. She made it look like the sexiest thing he'd ever seen.

Alex grew hard as his eyes wondered over her body. He immediately chastised himself for the feeling. There was a whole laundry list of reasons why he shouldn't get aroused by the raven haired succubus now approaching him.

Luna's eyes shifted down to his growing erection. She made no comment, although a look of amusement passed across her face.

When she was close enough for him to hear her, she stopped. "Did you enjoy your dip in my pool?"

"I-It was very...sticky." He said. He made a conscious effort to look away from her lithe figure. He couldn't afford any childish mistakes here. Not now, when he'd already verbally agreed to her demands. He needed to get his d**k and brain the on same page again.

She looked him over with a keen eye. "Well, it seems to have done its job," she said.

Alex could feel it too. He had awoken well rested and refreshed from the pool. All of his external injuries had been healed. The throbbing pain and dizziness from his beating were gone. Pale, sensitive flesh had replaced the various cuts and abrasions on his body. He felt great, with the exception of the growing ball of nerves in his stomach.

Luna strutted towards him, her eyes never leaving his. Although the dress didn't show off her features so much as it teased, Alex could see the movement of her breasts underneath the fabric. It was obvious that she hadn't bothered with a bra to complete the wholesome look. "So ah, here we are." He said nervously as he continued backing away from her.

"Here we are." She agreed.

"I-I like your place."

"An unwilling gift from a fool, who thought he could banish me back to the Pit. I cooked his entire congregation within these walls for his arrogance."

Fucking hell."Well the place seems just as big as the last time I was here."

She didn't stop moving towards him. "Unlikely, given your standpoint at the time." Despite his situation, he couldn't help himself as his eyes once again fell to the sway of her hips or the way the bottom of the dress lifted up slightly with every step.