huge space of warmth and calm and knew immediately
where she was. Trying to pick up the splintered memories that she
could stand to look at, she knew who had brought her here.
The Demon who had been too late to stop the
revolting human males.
So he might take the last thing they had
not.
Of course, Ember thought, she had no
guard . She had acted foolishly and run from Constantine, only
to be pierced by the low cock of humans in her nether and where she
took food.
It was a dim joy that somehow her body had
rejected their seed and damaged their worthless weapons of
plunder.
Ember hung her head, her hair wet and untangled,
the ocean pool she lay in having undone the days of damage
automatically. She felt cleansed, healed and right.
On the outside.
On the inside she felt dirty and unwanted,
untethered to anything or anyone... adrift.
When she saw him in the shadows she did the most
natural thing in the world.
Ember screamed, her mouth opening and calling
The Mother who lay heedless and unhearing, too far way. She but
lifted her salty head sleepily at an alarm only loud enough to
disturb, not to awaken.
The Mother went back to dozing and Ember watched
as a demon of pale red skin and deep eyes strode to the pool she
lay in and she moved in a spinning twirl. The water was of the sea
and knew her, holding her like finely spun glass as she flowed away
from the Demon who approached. His nearing presence allowed her to
see that he looked like he glowed because he was literally on fire.
Her gills burst as she dove under the water and when she rose his
face met hers and she gasped.
Ember began to plunge underneath the surface
again but his huge hands clamped over her wrists and he cringed,
the water acting like acid and she yelped at the heat of his flesh
against hers.
“Do not,” he said slowly, his hands circling her
forearms easily. “I do not wish you harm.”
“Then why do you... hold me?” she all but cried,
the assault by the humans was still fresh.
Kane searched her eyes, guileless and sparkling
like the deep rubies buried in the walled heat of his homeland.
Ignorant eyes.
“You are a demon female, you must be
protected.”
Ember shook her head in denial, her resistance
arrested by her shock. “I am Ember, Princess of the Mer.”
Kane narrowed his eyes on her and said slowly,
“And I am Kane, High Demon and tracker of female breeders who
possess blood of the Demon.”
“I am not a Demon,” Ember whispered, but her
mind shoved the shards of memory of the human males into her mind
like glass ribbons.
They cut and sliced at her denial, tearing it
out.
“Ah... but you are. Those human males thought
they would make a game of raping you.” She cringed at the truth of
his words, her shoulders beginning to shake with soundless sobs and
Kane sighed, bringing her soaked and naked into the heat of his lap
and she tried to fight him. Her movements and the residual seawater
made him hiss in pain.
He clamped her wrists together and put them
behind her back, forcing the front of her against him. Her perfect
round breasts, which shone like beautiful pearls against the heat
of his chest began to undo him and he restrained himself against
the complementary coolness of their skin contact. She was rare,
this half-breed Mer.
“You are enough Demon to have scorched the seed
not meant for you.” He held her small wrists easily with one hand
and cupped her chin. She tried to jerk it out of his hand and
winced at the bruises laid there by the human males.
Giving up, Ember listened.
“They assaulted you and died for their trouble.”
His eyes searched hers. When he finally had her attention he
finished, “A male that attempts sexual penetration with a female of
a certain amount of our blood will find his cock scorched and his
seed ignited. No male can enter the Demon female unless he be Demon
as well.”
Ignoring his words she asked instead, “Are they
truly dead?”
Kane gave a single, terse nod. “They would
Learning to Kill: Stories