Chapter 12
Previously: Obsidian: Ash and Moonbeams – Chapter 11
That’s not the word her papa used, but, maybe? And Caliban sounds so matter-of-fact about it. She tilts her head because… because her drac is wagging its tail so much at his tone. Wags its tail so hard that she just wants to hug him tight. So she does.
“I’ve never heard that word before. The texts Papa has call it hermaphrodite and the book Arthur got from the fae, uh, right, that was talking about differences in sexual development.”
She tries really hard to remember the words, but they just didn’t mean anything to her, so the best she can do is describe it.
“There was something in there about somebody looking like a girl but not being one in their blood. For a while, well, I thought I had to be a woman for the demon I got blood obsessed with and married. But he actually likes men, so I thought I got it wrong, but…”
She’s not sure where she’s going and she knows that sense of being lost is probably from all the times Gregory made her helpless and also from missing Quincy’s blood in her heart, feeling unsettled and floating again. Broken blood bond, no matter how glad she is to be rid of it. It was a blood chain to Gregory, but her blood bridge to Quincy isn’t in place. Her drac feels like it can’t run as hard as she wants to.
Still, she holds a hand over the hole in her chest to try to keep in as much of her love as possible.
“But John loves my drac, loves his wolf-girl, and Quincy calls me his fallen angel, and he said angels don’t care about gender. And that, I really liked that. I miss them so much. I want to hold you, be held by you, want to let my drac keep running with you because you feel so right.”
~
It seems to be her thing to just… ramble her thoughts out there, with little consideration of context or consequences.
It’s… Okay, fine, he thinks it’s cute.
Puppy. She is such a puppy.
And cute isn’t really his thing, usually. It marks someone as prey more than anything else, makes him feel like hunting and breaking and killing.
But apparently, cute combined with predator is his thing, because there’s still the exciting niggle of hunting instinct, but on a more… equal basis.
A more fun one.
One that won’t just be over. One where he’ll get both sides of his urges scratched, not just one.
Fuck, he’s horny. It itches in his teeth and his groin, and her being a clingy, emotional puppy isn’t actually putting a damper on it, which is… a bit unusual.
He drags his mind back to the conversation.
“So, you’d prefer if I consider you a girl or not? Or you don’t care?” She did say a lot about ‘wanting to be good for her men/him’, and was talking about how she’s apparently straddling a relationship between two who have pretty opposite partner preferences.
~
Not caring is the last thing she does. Her heckles are up and she’s growling loudly before her thoughts have fully caught up to what set her off.
But of course: ‘I don’t care’.
The demon’s words that always cut to her very soul.
She hugs her drac tight on the inside and lets herself bark.
Not at Caliban.
He is being so sweet with her. And he still smells horny. She’s so happy about that.
“It’s not about prefer. I’m me, I’m a drac, I’m the monster in the story. I just don’t want to be alone! Alone in here and there’s a… a Radu and a Quincy-shaped hole in my heart that I don’t have the blood to fill.”
Reaching with both her hands, she drags one of his close and puts it over her chest. “So you help me hold it all in!”
She presses his hand tight against herself, wraps her arms around it. Yes, this will work. He’s so big, his hand is huge on her.
“I need you to see me. My drac. Not just part of me. I hate that! You are better than that! You’re my dog fishie with the lovely teeth that showed me right away that we can be monsters together.”
The thought makes her smile, makes her drac bounce and whine and want to get closer, so she leans down and nibbles on one of his fingers with a fang.
~
That frisson of pain from her fang isn’t doing anything to calm the horny situation- he should’ve talked to her earlier, then they wouldn’t have gotten so far from camp and could fuck in… not exactly comfort, but the closest thing to that to be had here, sooner.
He makes a sound of appreciation in the back of his throat and then puts his thoughts back on what she’s saying rather than his cock and her fangs. (Oh, fuck, her fangs in his cock, now there’s a thought… Later.)
“I’ve never been called a dog fishie before,” he snorts in amusement, “is that a compliment? Monster, yeah.” He gives her a grin, flashing those teeth. He likes being a monster, and it seems she does, too.
So much fun, so much promise.
He realises he’d like to see what kind of monster she grows into, once she leaves that lapdog training thoroughly behind.
“Monsters together sounds fun.” Should he? Oh, whatever, fuck it: “Though you’re talking like you’re looking for more than a spot of fun.”
~
“I like dogs, John and I have puppies, and you remind me of John and you have shark teeth and the most common shark I know is called a dog fish. It’s perfect for you.”
Kissing her bite shut, she nuzzles into his arms and smiles up at him. “John always chuckles that I like to adopt all the dogs I can. My drac likes you. As I said, likes you the way it liked John right away.”
With a shrug, she reaches up and tries to comb her fingers through his beard. “I’m too hungry to be anything but wolf brained. My drac likes you. I’ll keep you. Monster pack. We’ll bite the meanies who made us be stuck here together.”
~
Caliban snaps his teeth at the air. “Oh, I’d love to take a bite out of fucking Heimdall.” He narrows his eyes up at the sky and Asgard far, far away at the other end of Yggdrasil, then looks back at the puppy being all clingy in his arms- snorts at the thought of what practically anyone who knows him would think of that. Their faces would be hilarious.
“Okay, then, dog fish to your puppy I am. And I guess we’ll see where your drac takes things.”
He’s… surprisingly fine with the idea.
But then, they are stuck here, and he’s fucking sick of being bored.
And she’s not looking to parade him around as some conquest, there won’t be any ‘look, I’ve tamed the monster with my cunt and my charm’ kind of shit.
Yeah, no, this is fine.
~
With a chuckle, she shows her fangs. “Wolf puppy and dog fishie, I like us! And I like that you care about my drac. Oh, and because my men taught me how important that is: Also, thank you for asking and being sweet with me so that you know that yes, you have my consent.”
Yes, he rather very much has. It’s nice in his arms and they talked important things, even with words being terrible, which makes her want to get to being close with more real things than words. But he said it’s hours! Ugh! She pouts at the distance.
Oh, actually, silly her, she shouldn’t just rely on words. It’s important after all. Taking his hand again, she sticks her fang through his skin once more, but this time, concentrates and, rather than leaving it at a hunting bite, switches to her soul bite. The one Quincy has told her can be communication when she can’t talk.
There, her warm sense of Caliban being right, her drac’s curiosity and sense of liking him, and her consent, well, really, that’s her horniness for him. Same thing.
~
He blinks in surprise. He’s never been accused of being sweet in his life.
Or of being overly considerate about consent.
But then she bites him, and this time, it’s different.
Which is a pity, because no pain, but on the other hand, he’s feeling… “Are those your emotions? Are you doing an emotion-share thing?”
That’s not a kind of magic he’s ever experienced in person.
He’s not sure what he thinks about it. Part of him is wary at the closeness, the intimacy of it, and wary of the price there’ll be to pay for it.
Part of him thinks it feels surprisingly nice.
Most of him feels the undeniable pulse of horniness and agrees.
Fuck, he wants to fuck.
~
Silly lack of minstrel powers! Her Quincy could hear her without her having to kiss the bite shut. She misses just having fangs in each other and still knowing exactly what the other means.
Kind of like with John’s grunts, he doesn’t need words either. Well, she’ll get there with her dog fishie!
For now, though, she tells him out loud: “Yes, I wanted to make sure you know that I’m not just talking. Words are silly. They never really get across the distance between us, and I want you closer.”
Yeah, yeah, she’s pouting at the distance again.
“Silly gravity. Your camp is way too far away!”
~
“You have a thing about being closer,” he observes. He has a sense that that’s what her repeated mentions of ‘alone in here’ are about, too- ‘in here’ being… herself?
“Is that a dhampir thing?”
He looks around, and, nope, still rocky lava worm territory, full of ash and dust. He’s not quite desperate enough to fuck here, yet.
“Hold on, I’m going to pick up the pace.”
~
Oh, oh, this is awesome! She’s feeling rattled with him starting to not run but jog. She’s so high up that her drac gets a bit of a rush and it makes her holler and laugh.
“This is a dhampir thing! It likes to feel alive. Mother thinks it’s because we’re not fully alive but also not dead like her. Her drac doesn’t do it. Quincy’s does. But Quincy also likes lots of space. He likes to be on the roof and spar with the Divine, and you better not interrupt him then.”
Wiggling to get on his shoulders rather than being only in his arms, she wants to be higher up, too! This is fun. But so is holding on tight to him. “No, the wanting to be close is all me. Radu was so good at it. All deep in here, mind and blood and soul. But my men think he’s bad, so I can’t have him. But Quincy also does minstrel things, and we… we were still getting vampire married, he was supposed to be in here. My sang du coeur.”
~
“How do you spar with the divine? Doesn’t sound as straight-forward as throwing down with some self-declared gods in a training yard.”
It’s been a while since he’s had the need to exert himself, now that he’s got a fairly good idea of the wildlife and its habits around here. It feels good.
It also helps a little with the insistent thrum for sex in his body.
“Explain this ‘in here’ thing? What’s a minstrel, and what does that have to do with anything?”
~
As if she knew. “You’ll have to ask Quincy, I don’t even get what that Divine thingie is.”
As if she could think straight with him smelling only hornier… It can’t hurt, now can it? Just a tiny little sneak peek before they are finally at camp!
Turning rat and climbing down, she sticks herself above his waistband and just sniffs. Yes, good smell. Best smell. Yes, yes, her tail is wiggling excitedly while she gets back up to his shoulders.
Yeah, that silly grin is going to stay right on her face, she doesn’t care, and right, he asked her something, so she points at her nose. “I’m a knight, senses and animals and loving my drac lots. Quincy is a minstrel. That’s the other kind of vampire or dhampir. He’s all social. Doing things with minds and telling his drac to behave. Radu is a voivode, he can do both, but he’s suuuuch a minstrel. He can do so much with his mind. Can walk right into me.”
Yeah, she’s horny from the nice smell and that it’s been far too long anyway, but the memory of what Radu can do with his mind and fangs, yeah, the tail wag is back on her, human form or not. She wanna so badly.
~
“…How did you do that without falling off?” He laughs at her climbing down to very definitely sniff his crotch- like the puppy she is. Also- he raises a hand and puts it on her wiggling butt. “You’d be wagging your tail if you had one right now, huh?” He grins at her. “Like that smell?”
~
“No fair that I don’t have my tail in my human disguise! John always lets me have it in his dreamscape.”
It’s been a week away from him, that’s weeks of dreamscape adventures she missed. Weeks of threesomes, too!
It’s probably that thought that makes her naughty as she shows off her clinging powers: by staying human-shaped but crawling back to his chest, hands securely holding her in place so she can wiggle her butt right in front of his face. “Drac clinging powers, told you I’m a knight, which also means, night, you smell so good!”
~
“That… is a hilarious power.” He snickers. “Sticky puppy.” And also, well, if she waggles her ass right in front of his face… He bites it.
There’s too much fabric to make it more than a teasing nip, but… in a little while, he tells himself.
~
Silly layers! But it’s one of her favourite dresses…
It’s ruined, though.
She should swat at him, she really should, but that felt so nice, so instead, she lets herself melt against him. It’s too much fabric to stick, so after just a moment of sitting on his face, she turns around again, gets on his shoulder proper. She doesn’t like teasing and that was totally teasing.
She’ll make up for it later, right now she can be nice in other ways. She wasn’t done with his hair, after all. There’s so many tangles, her comb is getting stuck, but not even tugging hard at it. Wait, that… Oh, asking is best, she thinks. “My hunting bite hurts you, right? It’s meant to make people not get away from me, so you like pain?”
~
That is not a topic of conversation that’s making him any less impatient, but it’s also a fun one, so:
“Oh yes,” he purrs. “Your bite hurts very nicely.”
~
“I have nice claws, too. Just…” With a giggle, she pulls a bit more strongly on a tangle. “Quincy always tells me that I need to learn to look at the context. I always like strong touch, but Quincy says my masochism is all drac brained. So, do you want me to not be careful with your hair? I mean, I like when John brushes my hair without hurting me. So maybe I know a little bit about context. I just haven’t met another masochist before and, well, Quincy got all green in the face at some of the things I wanted when we were playing hard. John calls him a sissy for that, but they always play growly games with each other, so I’m not sure.”
Until he answers her, she’ll still not just rip this big tangle apart, but it vexes her, that needs some smaller fingers! Turning rat, she attacks that hairball with more vigor.
~
That’s an easy and comfortable question to answer. “Yeah, it’s not going to do anything for me outside a sex setting, and even in a sex setting, I’m more turned on by doing the hair pulling than having it pulled. Generally speaking. But I’m also not really bothered by pain, so you don’t need to be careful.”
But, much more interesting: “Want to tell me about those things that made your Quincy go green?”
Well, she isn’t going to while she’s rat shaped, which is a frankly hilarious use of shapeshifting.
~
He’s telling her things! That feels so nice! Oh, she knows why. This is like when Quincy sat them all down together to talk about what they like and don’t like, because he said it’s important to not make assumptions and to communicate openly about boundaries. John was so red in the face about that! But he was also really good at setting his boundaries, and she was so happy to know that her sang du coeur never made him feel uncomfortable. Not like Gregory did.
And that little bit of hiss is what she needed to get the hairball untangled, there, tada!
Back to her human disguise and comb, she leans in to shower his cheek with kisses to reward him for the communication.
“Thank you for telling me! Quincy says it’s really important to talk about these things and he’s right. And well, I told you, he has lots of this empathy thing and I, well, I like pain. It’s familiar, it’s comforting and exciting at the same time. And when John hits me with his guns, he’s so proud of me for all the training and I’m proud of him when he manages! But also, when we play in bed, he never punches me. That’s important to him, to not be a man like that, but that just means he uses so many fun tools! He knows that I like to not be alone in here, to feel as much as I can of my men. I want them to be in here.”
For a moment, she sighs, because the memory of all those lovely times he really showed her his love, his acceptance of her drac and what it wants no matter how inhuman or scary it might seem, that memory makes her miss him even more. And Quincy, of course, he was green at first but he loves her, too, so he takes care of her the way she needs.
~
Again with the ‘alone in here’. “So, by ‘alone in here’, you mean your body, too? Not just your mind? Penetration does it for you?”
Oh, he’s thinking of the ways he could get into her. His cock, of course, but also her skin looks so thin and soft. So inviting to tear through with his teeth, maybe his fingers, too.
~
“Silly barrier between me and those I want to be close to.”
It was so nice, so very nice to have Radu deep in her, fangs and mind. She felt so at peace, so not alone. Her men try very hard to give her that feeling, too. And well, there are two of them. The thought makes her grin dirtily and giggle. “Yes, me, everything there is to me, and, you know, I do have two men, not just one. Much nicer to have company in here.”
~
He finds himself laughing again- fuck, yes, he hasn’t had this much fun, this much interesting conversation, since he got here.
Actually, probably since a good bit before that. Things have been getting staid, maybe, for a while.
“Your body is a barrier… What, you’d prefer not to have one? Just puddle around, jotunn-style?”
Not that he knows that much about how jotunn do it. Or whether they do it.
Okay, Loki definitely fucks, but in bipedal form.
Also, Loki’ll try everything at least once, that’s kind of his whole deal. Maybe not a good measuring stick about jotunn in general, and obviously, he doesn’t share much about jotunn with anyone on Asgard.
~
“What’s a jotunn?”
And no, she likes her body! She’d just like to be able to share it more so she shakes her head.
“I don’t want to be incorporeal. I want to be closer to my loved ones. If I could, I so would want to give John puppies of my own body. Becoming one with him in a tangible way. Something of each left in the other. Not alone in ourselves.”
Yes, she’s sighing all longingly, and she knows Quincy always goes ew at her, but still. She scratches at her skin in annoyance.
~
Okay, now he’s intrigued, frowns a little. ‘Becoming one’, ‘leaving something in each other’… Alright, he knows Midgardians are just as likely to rhapsodise about ‘becoming one’ as an expression of love, there’s whole philosophies about split souls finding each other and what not, but… She still sounds oddly like Loki when he’s gushing about his, as he calls it, swarm.
“Jotunn are a species who live around the harsher ones of the worlds in our world tree. There’s some that are the locals on this rock, somewhere. They aren’t incorporeal. They’re shapeshifters, and their base form is… Well, I’ve never seen it, but I hear it’s kind of like a puddle. Or a blob. Liquidy, in any case. And they are able to, as far as I understand, exchange little parts of themselves with each other, that’s how they’re intimate.” Whether that’s equivalent to sexual intimacy… What else could it be, really?
~
Nope, no way can she express herself properly with this human face on. No, this needs ears and whiskers and puppy eyes. Big puppy eyes!
She paws at him, whines, and really hopes he gets that she wants him to tell her more. That sounds even better than vampire intimacy! Blood exchange is utterly lovely. She wants it so much. She needs to get back to Quincy so they can finish their blood bond. But exchanging even more than blood? Yes! Yes yes yes!
~
Oh?
“Hey, what’s this? You really like that idea, huh? Sorry, I don’t know a whole lot more about them- the only one I know to talk to is Loki, and it’s not like we’re friends or anything.”
Huh. He actually is sorry. That’s unusual.
“But when he’s on a roll about his swarm, he’s all on about the superior expression of intimacy that’s exchanging parts and keeping bits of your loved ones with you at all times.”
~
Great, now she knows what she should have been born as! That sounds just about like the best thing ever. And she thought pack earlier, that’s just a different word for swarm.
Turning human-shaped again so she can talk and also to flail her arms, she pouts. “I want my own swarm! And I want everybody’s bits!”
Pressing her hands over her chest, she sighs bitterly. “When Radu had me enthralled, I always had a bit of him with me at all times. His mind in my mind. And not like with that horrid blood chain the demon put on me. That was him just torturing me. I need to get back to my men and finish marrying Quincy. And then he can definitely fix me so I can love John the right way. Having him in here has to make me be better for John. Yes, keeping parts so that I can be the very best and never ever alone. I want it!”
Still pouting and flailing, she wraps her arms around Caliban’s neck and holds on tight. “And you shouldn’t be alone either. I’m keeping you. Wanna be closer!”
~
Caliban bites back a chuckle at her statement of wanting everybody’s bits- she clearly does, in all senses.
“Hmm. What are vampires and dhampirs made of, anyway? I know they’re native to Midgard, but that doesn’t have to mean much. Got a bit of jotunn in you, maybe?”
If she did… could that help them get off this rock? Give them an in with the local jotunn? Jotunn do travel the worlds, maybe that goes for Muspellheim ones as well.
~
What does he mean, what are they made of?
“We, uh, are made with dracs? And blood. But I was born like this. My drac was just asleep inside me until it sniffed enough blood, and Quincy’s…” She blushes and ducks down, a bit embarrassed. “Well, dhampirs have a thing about family, and he smelled so terribly good, and um… I drained him dry, but that helped him wake up, and he isn’t mad about it at all. And, well, now we’re both awake, so the family thing, well, he’s attractive although he’s, well, don’t tell him I said that, well, he’s really not. No fur, you know.”
She hopes that wasn’t too vague, but it’s true, and John always grins about it. Not that Quincy hasn’t chuckled many times that she so isn’t his type, but love and dhampir weaknesses make all that not mean a thing.
~
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