Livvy's Devil Dom (11 page)

She felt Sael's
concern as he gave her hand a squeeze.

"Okay?" he
asked softly. "There's still time to change your mind, you know. I won't
hold it against you."

Livvy laughed, and it
sounded harsh and forced. "You won't be able to.
Because
you'll be dead.
And no way am I having that on my conscience. You'd
probably haunt me for the rest of my life. No, Sir, let's get it over and done
with. Then, can we just leave here and forget all about it?"

Not that she thought
she would. It was all the stuff nightmares were made of.

The older man cleared
his throat as the crowd moved closer.

 
"Sael De Laphouresse. You are here,
thirteen moons after you released yourself as Olivia Martin's Devil Within.
To show your mate-marks, your semen-stains, and your bites.
To show you come together in all ways possible, bare and open?"

"I am."
Sael bowed his head.

****

Saffaul turned to
Livvy. Sael had never realized how icy and distant his father's eyes were. They
seemed to bore into them both, cold and unrelenting.

"Olivia Martin?
Do you accept and agree with all that will happen? You will do all those things
decreed, here in front of our elders. Show how you open yourself to your Devil
Within. Let him mount you, ride you, and fill you everywhere. Let his seed
spill, let his semen mark you. Let him bite you and drink your blood. And then
will you milk him, drink his seed, and leave him drained and empty?"

Sael saw Liv swallow
hard.
"I, er."
Her voice faltered, and
a sheen
of perspiration covered her skin.

"Liv, you don't
have to," he whispered urgently. "We can finish it all now. I'll
understand."

"Shut up,"
she whispered back. "Just shut the fuck up." She cleared her throat.
"I will," she said firmly.

"Then we will
proceed." Saffaul smiled, his fangs bared, and sharp looking. He flicked
his wrists in the same manner Sael had done. A bed, softly covered, but with no
fripperies to detract from the view of what was about to happen, appeared in
front of them.

"You know what
you need to do and accept this diktat freely?" he asked again. "You
know the consequences if you do not accede to this?"

"We do."
Sael spoke for both of them. Livvy pulled at his arm.

 
"I can answer for myself." She
looked at Saffaul and the others who now had gathered close by. "I agree.
I love Sael. He makes me complete. I will do all you ask for him, so he can
live."

"So be it."
With a secret smile, Saffaul flicked his wrist again.

Liv gasped. There was
a definite breeze.

Sael watched her look
down and move to cover herself. She was very definitely bare. He could see
shame in her eyes, and could have cried for her. Why couldn't she see how
perfect she was?

"No. Don't do
that. You're beautiful. Stand tall and rejoice in it." Sael, as naked as
she, tail swishing, horns out, fangs and incisors filling his mouth, kissed her
gently on the lips.

These extra teeth could
be so interesting, if … well...

"This is it, Liv.
This is our command performance. We'll do it, and we'll do it well." His
full mouth made his speech difficult, but he saw she understood every word.

I can do this, for
Sael, for my love. His life is at stake. I can do it. Forget everyone. Think of
Sael, just Sael.
He heard her thoughts as if she had spoken aloud.

Liv straightened, put
her hands on her hips, and smiled.

"Well?" She
challenged. "What first?" Sael looked at her. She glowed.

His father's eyes
grew speculative, and he spoke, his voice harsh and authoritative. "Open
yourself for whomever so desires to take you." His hand flicked, and each
and every person was naked.

Sael's heart seemed
to stop. Suddenly, the enormity of what he asked of her, his Livvy, his heart,
his love, hit him. She was his and his alone; no one else should touch her.
Nothing should come between them. It was as if a light bulb went off in his
head. How
could anyone
willingly let their lover,
their other heart, be given to others? He remembered all those times he had
watched, and, he thought shamefully, taken part, and wanted to scream and cry
how wrong it was. It might be his heritage, his culture, but it was wrong. He
realized it had taken him being totally committed to Livvy, irrevocably in love
with her, to understand that. Sael knew he would accept whatever punishment
they meted out to him, even probable death, rather than continue this. He knew
it was just mechanical in, thrust, come, and out, sex. No love.
Worthless.
He might not want to die—he sure as hell and
Saffaul didn't want to—but for the first time in his life, he wasn't going to
be selfish and put himself first.
At least, not yet.
He'd make sure Livvy was safe,
then
think of himself.

No! No, not that. No,
I won't let you. Livvy is mine and mine alone. I will die rather than let this
happen.

Sael stood in front
of her, and shielded her from all those eyes.

"Livvy, I can't
do this to you. I can't share you.
You
are someone precious, someone so
special. In fact, I won't even sully our love by taking you here, in front of
witnesses. Our
love
is precious, not to be defiled by doing anything
that means so much to us with an audience.
Love.
Not
lust, a quick, convenient fuck. No, our love has meaning."

He realized he shook
with the intensity of his emotions. "I may have accepted this, my
heritage, in times now past. To my shame, I have taken part, fucked whoever was
here, and thought it was okay. Now it's my time, and I think it's all
wrong."

Couldn't she see how demeaning
this all was? Consenting adults were all fine and dandy, but he wasn't one of
them anymore.

Sael turned and faced
her, and his tail flicked, showing how aroused he was. "You're mine, Liv,
mine and no one else's. I love you, as you, not for what you can do for me, but
because you are you, loyal, loving, and true. I can't do this to you; I can't
do it to us. I won't. What we have shouldn't be shared, never, ever.
Ours and ours alone."

Tenderly, he picked
up her wrist and touched that tiny tattoo to the one that matched it on his
wrist. She looked as if she was about to cry,
love
and
anguish in her eyes, mirroring all he felt. It was too much to bear.

"This is us,
Liv," he said softly as he rubbed their wrists together. "When we
took these, we made our vows, to be true to each other.
To be
as one.
Well, I can't be true to you, be as one with you, if I let
others taste you.
In any way.
So, I say, no more.
Nothing.
I love you; you are my completion, and I can go to
whatever is chosen for me, and know we have had this perfect love. No!" He
put a finger over her lips. "This is the one true thing I can do for you,
so no arguments. If you love me as you say, please accept this. Please,
Livvy-love."

He looked at her and
waited. Predictably, she argued.

"But if I don't,
we don't, then you'll die, and I'll have it on my conscience." Her voice
wavered. "I can't let it happen."

Then her voice grew
stronger. "I won't let it happen. Sod you all, you stupid perverts."

She shrugged his arm
off, and Sael watched her turn in a slow circle, taking her time to stare at each
and every person in the eye. To his amazement, several elders could not look
her in the face, and some even reddened. She hadn't finished.

"This man is
worth more than all of you put together.
And to be honest?
I agree with him. It is bloody demeaning, and goes against all I believe in.
But because I love Sael, I was prepared to stand here and let myself be
gang-banged. I still will, but believe me, you'll get no pleasure, and if I
ever,
ever get any powers of any kind, you'll all suffer. Once we've got this
farce over, and Sael and I are together."

It seemed she'd
conveniently forgotten she'd said once it was all over, so were they.

"So, just get on
with it. Who's first?" She touched each breast in turn, and wriggled her
hips in a deliberate parody of what they had talked about in previous days.

His heart swelled.
His Livvy.
He was so proud of her, but he wasn't going to
let it happen if he could stop it.

"But if they do,
then the life inside you will be touched by evil. And I couldn't live with
that." Sael tried to explain to her. Did she understand? Did she realize,
as he did, a new life grew inside her? "Please, my love." Sael didn't
give her any more chance to argue. With one last, deep, swift kiss, and a nip
on her tongue, he stood proud and turned to the silent crowd.

"Please clothe
her. I'm ready. This will not happen."

Chapter Ten

Livvy watched,
aghast, as Sael bowed to his father, dignified to the last, and allowed two men
to take an arm each. She saw his father do that wrist flick thing again and
found
herself
dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. If
anything signified she was no longer part
of what was
happening, that was it
. Sael was still naked.

"Please,
please." Tears burned her cheeks as she watched them turn Sael away. But a
moment later, her anguish turned to anger—
an anger
so
fierce, she knew she could have committed murder if any weapon had been to
hand.

"You bastards,
you fucking … in every way fucking and stupid
bastards
.
How do you ever think you'll flourish and multiply with such crappy, bloody
ideas? Kill the good guys, eh? Oh yeah, that's so sensible, isn't it? You
deserve to die out. You've about as much sense as my cat. And I don't even have
a cat. You kill him, you kill your future. Crazy."

Some of those present
murmured angrily. One man moved toward her, with his cock jutting out. Livvy
looked at it and then at his angry face.

"Oh, big
man," she said in a mocking tone. "Want it bitten in half?
My pleasure.
Not yours, because I'll make sure you never
come again.
Hard to take part in a gang-bang with no cock to
bang with, eh?"

The man stopped and
looked toward Saffaul, who she noticed, stood silently to one side, and watched
her and Sael. A smile played over his face. She ignored him. As far as she was
concerned he was no better than any of the others.

"And no lead in
that stupid pencil either it, seems."
Hell, I'm on a roll now.
"No
backbone, no spine, no bloody mind of your own, eh? Crap, all of you, pathetic
and weak. Come on, who's next, eh?"

No one moved.

"Ah, like I said.
Feeble, pathetic and … ahh."
She ran out of
things to say. Livvy turned and walked toward Sael. It was difficult, but she
ignored the two Saffaulians who held him as she put her arms around him.

"I love you so
much. You are my Sir. I'm your pet. Is there no other way? I'll do it, you
know, for you, for us. And we won't be affected by it." She wondered if
either of them actually believed that.
"So, what
next?"
She kissed him, uncaring that the man on his left tried to pull
her back.

"You move me
away from him now, and I'll bite your balls off. You owe us this." Sael
might be unable to hold her, but she could hold him tight, lean into him,
feel
his warmth and his love. And give him hers. His body
was icy, his breath cold, shallow, and harsh.

"What's
happening to you?" Livvy whispered in his ear. She felt his breath warm on
her throat for a second before it became frigid once more.

"It's
time," he said softly. "Saffaul is harsh, and retribution is swift.
I'm closing down."

"What?"
Livvy stared at him. His skin was bluish and wrinkled. His eyes, once so
bright, were now dull. "No. Not that. Why, for God's sake, why is it so
ridiculous?"

"It's not
considered ridiculous on Saffaul. It is the way, Liv. We can't change it. Look,
my love, no more. Think of yourself. And what we have created. I love you.
You've proved your love for me. Remember what we had with love and pleasure. Keep
our love safe and strong. And also remember—" In spite of the seriousness
of his situation, Sael smiled. "If it's a boy, call him Nic."

Livvy watched, tears
streaming down her face, as the men led Sael away, not in chains, exactly, but
very definitely in custody. She'd done everything she could, and
what did he say? If it's a boy…
She
touched her tummy, as if it would tell her if a life grew inside. He had to
live. No way could she kill the father of her child.
Her
love.

"Hold on, you
bastards. Don't I have say in all this? I've a mind of my own, you know. Can't
I say let's just get on with it?"
And
we can be a family
. How could she cope without him?