THERE WAS SOMETHING IN THE DARK

THERE WAS SOMETHING IN THE DARK

RILEY’S POV

I groaned as my eyes peeled open to the familiar ceiling of my room. A face was hunching over me, blurred out by a flimsy glass over my vision.

Loud sobs hit me first.

Then, next, the familiar sweet scent of the perfume Elindin sprayed over me every single morning after she got me prepared.

It took a while, and a lot of blinking, for the fog to clear out and for me to realize the sobbing person was none other than Elindin. She wasn't the first person I'd expected to see after being in a nightmare; I hadn’t expected to wake up to anyone at all. But there she was, weeping. The bedside lamp cast a golden, trembling glow on her profile. Her lips quivered, tears and snot running down her face like I’d just died and resurrected.

I tried to blink through the fuzz in my head, not understanding what was happening.

Nothing was adding up enough to make sense.

Not the dreams I’d had.

Not the thing that had appeared to me in the void, and not how real its touches had felt.

But I was back in my bed. I was here. It was a relief to see the familiar ceilings over my head. The darkness I'd been in, the voices that had screamed in chorus was all gone. The man that had appeared amidst my hysteria… gone too.

I’d cried for Seneca; instead, he had come. At first, I couldn’t tell if the presence I felt in the dark was a man or a demon. But the rotten stench that stung my nostrils told me that it was not a man. It smelled like it'd crawled right out from the underworld—the bottoms of hell where fumes and lava erupted. Where souls begged for water, and it rained lava and brimstones instead. He smelled of dried blood, and corpses. 

And… he'd touched me.

I blinked, heaving now. 

The memory felt like a fever dream now. 

But, nevertheless, it clung. 

I could still feel every sensation and touch. 

One second it had just been me. 

And, the next, clammy fingers slithered around my ankles and yanked. 

I yelped as I landed backwards into a heap of pillows and a mattress that hadn't been there a second ago.

The thing was on me immediately, growling as he tore my pants into shreds. 

I swung my fists in the air, locking my knees.

Like an instinct, I knew what it had come to do and I tried to restrict access to my inner thighs, but its fingers spread my legs wide for his perusal. 

Next, he gripped my wrists tightly against my thighs as he held me down.

“My breeder,” the demon growled greedily, the sound vibrating in the mattress beneath me.

“Please,” I’d choked, immobile. “I’m a virgin. Please!”

It had snorted. 

“I know. And I’m going to save the best part of you for Seneca. I’m just going to... prepare the soil. You haven’t felt the tongue of any man yet, have you? No, no, no, don’t tell me. It doesn’t matter.” 

It had been stupid. Demons didn’t care if you were a virgin, or innocent, or a child, or a baby born a few minutes ago. Demons took. That was all they ever did. TAKE.

I struggled, but it was too strong and I didn’t have the proper leverage to shove it off. It buried its head between my legs and latched onto my clitoris with its hot mouth.

“Hmmmph!” I’d groaned
. 
     Nightmare or not, I felt everything. 

The tongue that followed after was as real as the oxygen I gulped into my lungs. It licked my pussy from my base up to my clit. Then, it began to lap up my juices. My heels thrashed against satin sheets as I surrendered to a pleasure that was so intense it felt like an outer body experience. 

“My virgin breeder,” its baritone voice purred against my asshole as it licked it clean. “So innocent.”

I was so close to an orgasm as it did it over and over again. Sucking my clit, and with the same feverishly hot tongue, eating out my ass. I let out guttural sound I didn’t even know I had in me.

“Ahhhh! Ahhh fuck! Plea— yes… FUCKKKKKK!”

Heat tightened in my lower belly and instincts pulled me forward before I could think, my ass bucked in the air, trying to grind against its face—or in this case—the lack of it as it had been too dark to see if it had one. 

But, just as my eyes rolled back as the sensation built up to a release, it pulled away. 

I remembered looking down, through a haze of lust, and seeing blood-red eyes retreating into the darkness.

Now, awake, I shifted my legs, wincing slightly. I felt sore. My clit felt swollen and oversensitive against the fabric of my underwear, and I could feel my wetness soaking through. I’d never felt this way before. Simply because no one had ever violated—or pleasured me—like the entity or demon in my dream.

Yet, strangest of all, while that ache remained, every other pain I’d gone to sleep with was gone.

“Why are you crying?” I asked Elin in a soft murmur.

“You… you,” she hiccuped. “You… were dead, my lady.”

Rain pattered against the windows of the room, a background noise to her sobs and sniffles.

“Elindin,” I croaked.

“Yeah?” she sobbed.

“I was asleep.”

“NO,” she protested hysterically. “YOU DIED.”

“Okay,” I muttered, just to stop the noise. “How long was I out for?”

“For hours! Hours, my lady! The sun went down, the rain started, and you were hot. Burning hot.” She was hyperventilating now, her hands flapping uselessly. “I checked for a pulse. There was nothing. Nothing!”

“If I was dead, why am I here?” I countered in a raspy voice. “Seneca would have thrown me out.”

“But he didn’t, my lady. He called doctors.”

More things that didn’t make any sense. 

“Seneca let doctors into the estate?” I couldn’t hide my shock. “For me?”

“Yes, my lady. Two from the regent cities. The Dominus was so afraid.”

My brows shot up. “About me?”

“Terrified,” she replied. 

“Where is he now?”

“He’s… he’s outside. Or in the hall. I don’t know. I was just so scared—”

My voice gave into a soft pant, “Elin.”  

Something wasn’t right. 

Talking about Seneca made the throb between my thighs flare violently. Like I was being lapped up again. ‘Setting the soil’ started to make sense now. The demon had meant that if Seneca wasn't going to do the consummation ritual, it was going to make me beg him for it. I suddenly fought the urge to grind against my mattress right there and then. Every inch of my core felt like it was set on fire. I felt myself gush against the sheet. 

My heels dug into the mattress, toes curling painfully.

I whimpered as the ache intensified, spreading. Beneath the sheet, my fingers inched closer to the band of my panties, desperate to rub over my swollen clit, but I clenched my hand into a fist, forcing it away. This wasn’t me. I had never touched before, and now, all I wanted to do was rub until I got a relief. 

“Seneca,” I panted. 

A demand, not a question.

Elin leaned in closer, eyes bulging. “My lady? My lady, what is it? Are you in pain? Should I get the doctors again?”

I shook my head, thrashing it against the pillow. It wasn't pain. It was worse. 

What. The. Fuck. Was. Wrong. With. Me?

Another layer of sweat broke atop my forehead and temples, drenching my hair. My heart pounded against my ribs. I needed him, his weight, his skin, anything he was willing to offer. The primal lust hit me enough to make me physically hurt. 

All I wanted was a touch from him. Like a balm that could heal an invisible throb. It was insane. I didn't want Seneca, or so I thought. I always believed no matter how he tried to make me succumb to his needs, to play the part I was chosen to be as his womb for his little dragon babies, I never would give in. 

But, now, I threw my head, swallowing a moan. It felt like the demon, the entity, the thing, whatever it had been, was between my thighs again. I could almost feel the phantom touch of a warm nose pressing against my slit beneath the sheet. With just enough pressure, just an occasional flick of my clit with a warm tongue enough to drive me berserk. 

The sensation was overwhelming.

I threw my head back, writhing. “Something’s wrong with me.” 

“My lady–”

Tongue plunged deep inside of me. 

I panicked, heels digging into the mattress. 

“Something's wrong with me, Elin.” 

It made no sense. 

How I felt completely bare to something invisible even though I was fully clothed. 

Elin looked mortified as my hips bucked beneath the sheet. “What, my lady, WHAT?” 

“MHHHHPH!” My back arched off the bed. “JUST. GET. SENECA!”

Without another word, she bolted for the door, terrified by my outburst. She grabbed the handle, twisted it frantically.

Then, she paused.

Her eyes darted around the room for a second, before she ripped the door open and scampered down the hallway.