She was in her personal grove. Cauldrons and vials scattered around the greenery with a small wooden table at the center, and a tall stone chimney, standing over a short stone basin that perched a cauldron atop a fire. The area had become a rather eclectic mess after she had decided to start on this journey. She was looking for perfection. And while true perfection was always just out of reach, she knew she was on the right path. A few more sprigs of mugwort and a handful of wormwood graced the bubbling liquid. She watched as they sank below the surface of the viscous concoction. She smiled and chanted the last few words, as the liquid began to bubble over the edges of the cauldron. The final moment was upon her!
Just then, the bubbles found their way to the base of the cauldron and suffocated the flames. Snuffed out with a whimpering hiss, the bubbles quickly subsided. “No! No no no! I was so close!” She shouted as her fist slammed to the table near her, scattering ingredients into each other, making some of them worthless. Her frustration had once again caused further problems, and had solved nothing. She knew anger and frustration was pointless, but this felt worthy of a little emotion. She was trying to summon the perfect being. It would be a familiar, a friend, and more. She knew what she wanted was so far-fetched, but she knew she had the power regardless. She was one of the most powerful of her coven. A coven who’s meeting was scheduled at the next full moon. And she would once again have to show her face without a familiar. The coven was sure to understand… But she had promised to show them perfection. She had promised to give them a show. “Fine.” She muttered to herself, beginning the task of separating the usable ingredients from the contaminated ones. Shuffling the usable back into their vials, while the contaminated ones were swept into the cauldron with practiced ease. The garnet crystals and rose quartz would be able to be cleaned off. The rose petals that had been ground to pulp had mixed with mushrooms and some of the swamp water that had served as the base for the potion. After a spell fails, there was no need to worry about the ingredients and the ratios as there was when the spell was successful. In fact, it was much easier to dispose of everything at the same time as the failed spell’s brew. All the wasted ingredients together in the mix, she gave one last look at her failure and began the process of disposal.
The witch gave a fated breath before dumping the cauldron into the dirt beside her table. The mucilaginous substance was swallowed by the earth with surprising ease. She was too distracted with her failure to notice the earth gently sigh below the weight of her large metal pot. She quickly shuffled into her hut with what was left of her supplies. “I need to grab a whole new set of mushrooms. And TOAD WARTS!? Those are so hard to collect!” her face sunken in defeat. “I need to sleep off this anger first. This has been a terrible waste of my efforts.” She slowly trudged to her bed and collapsed face first onto the mattress. The weight of the day finally catching up to her, she closed her eyes in a frustrated despair and fell into slumber within a few moments.
The night was far from silent, but the witch was deep in slumber. She had spent months perfecting the recipe and the failure of her endeavor had created a feeling of lackadaisical self-pity to her, in a moment when she needed simply believe in herself. What she had not realized, was the boiling over had not halted this process. Neither had the sad whimper of the fire stopping at the touch of the froth. In fact, this had all been a part of the ritual, unwritten in the ledgers as it had never been attempted before. The extra ingredients though, had only served to alter the spell beyond the pale of what she had expected. A single familiar had been called. A single summon. This time the poor witch would not get what she had thought she wanted. She would however, find that what she thought she wanted was only half of the tale.
The ground beneath her hastily spilled brew had been slowly shuffling, as the fight had begun. The earth turning as the beings she once wanted to tame were now fighting for the right to meet her face to face. A battle of thousands of creatures beneath the surface of the earth ensued. Thousands turned to hundreds. Then they turned on their allies, and hundreds became tens. The beasts fought to the death, knowing full well that their end would only mean a rebirth of sorts. Creatures of this kind were near immortal, and death caused little more than reincarnation in a way. Though, it was painful. They liked to cause the pain in each other, and it was a great boon to them if they did. It was little more than another day for this war of their kind. The battle ended slightly sooner than the victors anticipated. For usually this is a fight to the death, and a last man standing type of summoning. But when the last two of the beings stood facing each other in the planes of the ether, they were BOTH thrust up through the ground. Two beings of immense power. They could both feel the presence of their master through the thin plaster walls of the hut they now stood before.
“This is a first for me.” one of them said to the other. His low voice only shaking with obvious pleasure at having been freed from whence they’d came.
“This is a first in general, you pitiful fool. This was not supposed to be.” she replied to the first.
“I didn’t ask to be here with you any more than you asking to be here with me. Clearly there has been some type of corruption. I can always slit your throat and send you back, if you ask nicely.” he beamed at the smaller creature.
Her blade was, however, already positioned to his throat. “How about we take this a different direction. You play nice with me. We give the master exactly what they want, and nothing else. Then I put my very best effort into not slicing off that limp noodle you call a prick.”
“Dear, I’ve never once called it such. And after that show, I could hardly consider this limp.” He gestured downwards and his proud smirk was met by a disgusted grimace with no interest in his rising sign.
The pair ceased their bickering long enough to enter the hut. Silently they both locked eyes as the body of the sleeping witch was on full display. He reached her body first, ready to run his finger down her sleeping form. She reached him next, pulling him backwards towards the door. She shoved him to the ground outside the hut and closed the door gently behind them.
“You would ruin this opportunity? For what? She cannot command us. We may be bound to her, but we’re still free until she speaks! We should bind her quickly, and keep her from making a sound.” she said to the ever growing thorn at her side.
“I like the way you think, dear. I can have my way with her much easier bound and gagged…”
“I am NOT your ‘dear’ and I will not let you touch her like that. She’s to be our master when she’s unbound… We just have to make it clear what we would like our orders to be, and what our stipulations might be before she’s able to bind us to more firm chains. We will still be bound to her, or we will return to the same hell we just crawled our way out of. And unfortunately, if she banishes you, I’m stuck going back with you. You will not fuck this up for us.” her words were sharp and biting as her blade, but her fingers had found their place along his jaw bone. Her sharp nails dug into the flesh of his jaw bone, and yet his smile never faded. His eyes locked on hers in a way that would have seemed knowing, if not for the clear lack of critical thoughts. “You will NOT fuck this up for us. Do NOT lay a finger on her. Especially with THAT doing all your thinking for you.” She pointed at the large erection he was sporting proudly. Her own body remained just as nude, but she prided herself on at least keeping her legs closed. He on the other hand, was spreading his legs. Clearly to show off. She hated him already. This would be a long summoning.
She made her way back into the hut, ahead of him this time. She pressed a finger to her lips and then pointed at a thin vine that hung in loops from a hook. It may be enough to bind her, but first they needed a gag. She let him pluck the vine from the wall and she began looking for a towel or a thick cloth. She had no sooner pulled a towel from the small cabinet in the corner than she heard a feminine gasp. Turning, the witch’s eyes were wide, and standing over her, he was smiling and already beginning to pull her arms behind her to bind her. “Who are you?” the witch asked with eyes filled with fear. She was no match for his strength, but she knew as soon as the witch realized what they were, they had lost their advantage. She ran for the witch, towel in hand and attempted to get it into her mouth, only to hear the witch continue. “You’re Lilith!” The witch said, making full eye contact with her. “Stop Lilith. And stop this man too!”
The power that coursed out of the name shook Lilith to the core. She dropped the towel and pulled her knife with one fluid motion. She sliced the vine from the witch’s wrist and in the same sweep of her arm, it was back at her enemy’s throat. “You deserve this.” She said, then holding him by his throat with the other hand, she pulled the knife back to drive it into his skull with the force to pierce his skull and the wood behind him. But before she could loose her fury she heard her new name again.
“Stop Lilith. I said stop him, not murder him.”
“I’m sorry my mistress. He was an abomination of the spell.”
“He was summoned too?” the witch paused. “Then you must be Dante.”
Lilith grimaced as Dante jerked under the same wave of power that her naming had brought upon her. “I had chosen two names, in case I was faced with the woman I tried to summon, or a man that… Would suffice.” She looked down at the monster he was flaunting. “I didn’t know that having two names would bring two beings.” she looked the two over, Lilith had since stepped back and released the oaf, though he clearly had no problems being handled in such a way. “A succubus and an incubus then? Am I just lucky to summon you both, or have I broken some kind of ancient pact by doing so? I’ve heard of nobody in the past who has done such a thing.”
“None have, my dear. You must be incredibly powerful.” Dante said in his normal flirtatious tone. Lilith shot him a look of disgust.
“My dear will not do.. Just call me Melisandre. Or Mel for short. I am your mistress after all, not your plaything. If anything, you’ll be my playthings.” She once again afforded a glance between Dante’s legs, which Dante reveled in. “But for now, you will help me with the basics. I need spell ingredients gathered. And I need you to gather them before the sun rises. Tomorrow I will work on clothes for you both, but until then you must stay out of sight. Those horns are rather gorgeous, but you will be known as demons if they are visible. The town is some ways away, but they do keep watch in this direction, to keep my pets from stealing their children.” Mel scoffed at the idea, then waved her hand as if to dismiss the pair. “Oh, and before you go, Lilith…” Dante was already shutting the door behind him as Mel turned to face her again. “You were the one who thought the bindings were a good idea, were you not? What did you hope to gain from such a trick?”
“Master Mel, we simply wanted to afford ourselves time to speak with you as equals. Our subjugation tends to start off a bit more hostile, and having the upper hand for as little as a moment could have afforded us some level of dignity that has previously been… unheard of for us. I am sorry. I do believe that you’ve proven to grant us much more dignity than we’re used to as it is. My last name was simply ‘slut’ and I was forced into slavery for 50 years until the summoner passed of old age. I did not want to live such a life again. Even at the cost of my own life.”
“That makes sense. I appreciate your candor. You may go join Dante now.” Mel smiled with a soft and caring look on her face.
“May I speak freely for a moment, Master Mel?”
“Of course, Lilith. You may speak freely unless I’ve given you orders not to. And please, Mel is fine. I don’t need to be reminded of my status over you. I’m simply a witch.”
“You look at Dante with obvious lust, but you knew me and my name first. Why were you trying to summon a succubus, if you’re interested in an incubus?”
Mel’s face turned to a sly, knowing smile. She leaned in to kiss Lilith firmly. Her hand trailed down the side of the demon, stopping at her hips, and pulling their bodies together. The kiss broke off a moment later. Mel winked at her new toy. “You think I’m only interested in one thing? I have a rather well rounded palette, in my opinion.” She waved towards the door. “Now, please go. I have some things to.. take care of here.” Mel said, and Lilith caught a glimpse of her slipping her robes over her head as the door was closing.
Moments later, Lilith had found Dante. “I think I’m going to like this master.” She said, straight faced.
“Hold on…” He snapped and a small flame lit at the tips of his fingers. The light cast over Lilith’s face was faint, but more than enough. She attempted to maintain her visage as steady as a rock, but he saw through it. “Damn.. A human who can put a blush on a succubus?! I’m going to like this master a LOT.” Lilith quickly stormed off to search on her own after that.
With no specific ingredients to be on the lookout for, they had gathered anything and everything that could be used in any form of magic that they were aware of. They met back at the hut before first light with hands full of enough ingredients to fuel a thousand spells. They found Mel sprawled out under her blankets with her robes dropped casually on the floor beside the bed. Had Lilith not gotten there when Dante had, he might have crawled under the blankets with her. The naming certainly bound him to follow her directions, though anything she hadn’t directed of him was fair game as far as he was concerned. And he was looking to test every boundary. Lilith also wanted to climb under the blankets, but without permission, she instead set their haul on a small table in the corner of the room, and held Dante at knife point, digging into his neck if he so much as spoke, as they both waited for her to wake. Lilith was beginning to wonder just how Dante was able to retain such an enormous erection for so many hours, simply by being in the presence of their master. If a succubus and an Incubus could copulate, she may have considered it, just to see if it would go down afterwards.
She knew that sex between the two of them would simply kill them both. Sex was a way of feeding off of the pleasure of a living soul. It was sustenance. If they were to feed off each other, it would lead to more hunger, and an insatiable appetite. This would typically mean they would be too enthralled in their activities to stop until they bled each other dry. Both of them would likely die quickly. The only way to feed off of each other effectively would be to torture and kill each other. While Lilith was leaning towards this idea, the sight of her master’s intrigue at the demon’s body forced her to reconsider every time. If he could help please Mel, then they would both be eating well for as long as Mel stayed in good health. With the way she was treating them, her health was now the primary concern of Lilith’s. Dante appeared to only care about getting fed, though he was behaving well enough at threat of decapitation.
Meanwhile in Mel’s dreams, she was being worshiped. Her new pets laying claim to her, and exploring every part of her. She woke up in the morning to her own squirming. She sat up, slowly and looked at the two sitting across the room. The giant penis she couldn’t look away from was pressed firmly between the thighs of Lilith, who was now smiling, though her blade never left the throat of the ever smirking Dante. Mel’s eyes moved over the scene before her and she spoke without thinking. “Just make out already. You two have way too much tension going on!”
And their hands were in each other’s hair just like that. Lips pressed to lips, they were passionately licking each other’s throats with practiced ease using very long and agile tongues. Mel gasped at the sight, “Okay, stop. stop. Sorry, that was not my intention. I was just trying to get you both to lighten up! Be friendly. I know you’re not the best of friends, but it wouldn’t hurt to just be nice, would it?”
“It might hurt, master.” Dante shrugged. “It would be worth it, if it would make you squirm like you did a minute ago though.” He licked his lips and she watched the long tongue flick at least 4 inches out of his mouth as it finished it’s swipe of his plump lips. He was clearly showing off, but it was working. Mel noticed her legs instinctively cross to hide how wet she was despite the blankets doing a better job of the task. Lilith sighed and nodded.
“I’ll be nice to him, if he can figure out how to behave. Or if you demand he behave, so I don’t have to constantly worry he’s going to climb in bed and have his way with you while you’re sleeping.”
“A little informal, missy.” Dante pinched Lilith’s cheek and she slapped his hand away.
“Okay, I take it back. I can’t be nice to him. He’s a fucking pig.”
“With a hog like that, I might not mind fucking the pig…” Mel winked at Lilith.
“Ohhh. She’s smooth. I see how she got you blushing last night.” Dante said, walking towards the bed.
“Both of you can wait outside while I get ready. Thank you.” Mel said, pointedly at Dante, who turned on his heel and casually walked right back out the door. Lilith caught a wink from her master as she closed the door behind her.
“I’m starting to think this witch has more devil in her than both of us combined…” she muttered to herself.
“I’m starting to like her for more than her body.” the daft Dante returned with a grin. “I don’t think we can fall in love, but I’m ready to give it a shot.”
“She’s barely said 10 words to you in the less than a day that you’ve known each other. I think love takes more than that.” Lilith growled.
“I’m not done trying though. Come on, my dear Lilith. She gave you a name of such power. I saw that shiver down your spine. You can tell she knows what she’s doing. What she’s doing to us, AND what she’s doing for us.”
“Fuck you. And for the love of all that is unholy, please stop calling me dear. I know you’re a demon, but you can still use your brain if you try hard enough.”
“Now now, dear. She said to be nice! And my dear, sweet, gentle Lilith; I know you know I’m being as nice as I can be.”
“You’re as nice as a serpent tempting eve to eat an apple.” Lilith shot back.
“Are you saying that wasn’t the nicest a demon has ever been?” Dante countered with feigned shock.
“I’m clothed. You two can cut the bickering and come back inside.” A gentle voice carried out through the walls, letting them know just how easily their conversation had been overheard. Lilith had the discernment to blush. Dante, strolled right back into the house without a second thought. “We need to work on your clothes and a disguise for those horns.” She fingered the protrusions from Dante’s skull as Lilith watched on. “Like a hat for you.” She turned to Lilith, “And a bonnet for you. Or maybe a hood? We’ll see.”
“If I may?”
“Speak your mind, Lilith. You know you have my permission. Dante, you should refrain from sharing your mind unless it’s unrelated to your sexual advances…” She gave a tired look at the man, who simply stayed quiet, the large grin still burned into his face.
“Our horns are visible when we’re naked, due to this being our true form. Even so much as a sock will make them invisible. They’ll still be there physically, but we take on a human form with any clothes at all.”
“Oh that’s wonderful news!” Mel smiled and gave Lilith a big hug. “Thank you for not letting me worry about something so silly.”
“I was rather looking forward to wearing a hat.” Dante shrugged, his smile unfazed as ever.
Mel used a length of vine to measure the two of them, getting all of the details down to the millimeter. She smiled and slapped Dante on the butt as she finished his measurements. Lilith watched as Mel strode for the door. “Keep yourselves busy. Don’t break anything, and don’t leave the house until I get back. If someone knocks, your job is to remain quiet and avoid being seen from the windows. If someone makes their way in, do not hurt them. Keep them here until I get home, and I will deal with whatever mess they brought when I get back.
“Understood.” Lilith replied.
“Can we fuck the intruders?” Dante questioned.
“I would rather you didn’t.” Mel shook her head, with an eyebrow raised, before stepping out and closing the door behind her.
“That wasn’t a no.” Dante said softly to himself.
“Pushing the limits of your requests seems to be a game to you. I for one would rather not go back to hell over something… Or someone so petulant. So if I have to, I will restrain you and any interlopers to keep you off of them.”
“Such a worrywart. Give it up, doll. You’re stuck with me. She told us to be nice. One thing I know about being nice, is you can’t kill someone and be nice about it. Believe me, I’ve tried.” Dante grumbled. For the first time since they arrived here, his smile was relegated to a simple grimace. It returned shortly after, and Lilith would have thought it was a trick of the light, if she didn’t have photographic memory.
“I’m not your doll. I’m not your dear. I’m not your babe, or your cutie or your princess or your toy. I am Lilith. JUST Lilith. If you call me any more names besides the one master gave us, I will not hesitate to slit your throat. Nice or not, I’m sick of your pet names.”
“Okay Lilith. Listen, I wasn’t kidding. We really do need to stick together. We’re bound together. And it may be for a very long time.” Lilith watched his eyes carefully, as the cocky look in his eyes softened to an almost intelligent glint. Almost. “I don’t want to fight like this forever. We should try to be better at communicating. And we shouldn’t take for granted the fact that it’s two against one. Even if she is a wonderful master, we don’t have to obey her to the letter. Her expectations and her wording don’t always line up. We can take advantage of this position we’ve found ourselves in. We do need to learn to work together first though.” For the first time Lilith was seeing Dante in the same light she saw herself. A slave who wanted out of her bindings, but not at any cost. “You’re allowed to hate me. But at least try to work with me. We’ll be okay if we work together. And maybe she is amazing, and we love it here. But if not, we should know the limits of our confinement, and we should know each other like the back of our hands. We can survive this together. Maybe we can even be free. Just give me a chance. I’ll stop with the pet names when she’s not here, if that really is that big of a deal to you. But I don’t want her to think we’re plotting against her, so I will still be teasing and you’ll be keeping up your angry bickering while she’s here… I hope you understand.” The shit eating grin had turned to a more welcoming and soft smile as he held out a hand to her in a show of kindness.
She apprehensively shook his hand, then nodded slowly. “I understand. Just… Limit the names, even around her. It does drive me crazy. I would hate to stab an ally out of righteous fury, only to have both of us sent back to hell.”
“Lilith, you don’t get it still. We’ve been bound together. If we go back, that won’t be undone. We’re going to be a packaged deal from now on. When several lemures are bound to a single summoner, they eventually unbind from the summoner, but never from each other. It’s a permanent fixture. Kill me, and you’re only buying yourself a few decades. Then you’re stuck with me again. And maybe I’m angrier the next time. It’s not something we have to deal with right this second, but please try to remember… Is it really worth making an enemy of someone you’re going to be destined to spend eternity with from now on? We can really be friends, you know. I’m not so bad a guy when you get past my natural lust.”
“I… I’m starting to believe it, despite everything that’s happened. You really think we’re stuck together?” Lilith was clearly thinking hard on the words she had just heard, but the reality had yet to fully sink in.
“I do believe so. And as you’re clearly much stronger of will than myself, I would hate to make you my enemy going forward as well. So… Truce?”
“Truce.” She practically whispered. She knew he wasn’t lying. Incubi were known for their slippery ways of telling the truth, but even as she analyzed every word, it seemed to her that he wasn’t even trying to trick her. He seemed to truly believe that they would be cursed to be bound together in fate for the rest of eternity. A fate she clearly found much worse than he did. This of course, only served to make her more worried about his goals. She was more than happy for a brief reprieve though, and if he could stop calling her names most of the time, it would still be an improvement. Plus, if they confirmed that their binding was eternal… It might not be so bad to have an ally of a sort when they did return to hell one day. “Truce.” She said again, more matter of fact. Her hand grasping his own. Their tales reached around their backs and wrapped their way around the clasped arms and the seal was made.
They would not turn on each other now without good reason. A Succubi’s deal was as strong as any demon’s pact. They had no souls to lose, so it was a little less firm than with a human, but she trusted him more now than she had, and again, any improvement was a goal to strive for in her opinion. ‘Now,’ she thought. ‘To figure out what kind of person this Melisandre is.’
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