Chapter 12:
Hopeless
In the underground darkness of their hidden lair, Evadne heard Jonathan’s footsteps as he came back from his task.
“It’s done.” Jonathan said tiredly.
She perked up at his words; he’d taken far less time than she imagined, some good news at last.
“How many?”
He sat down on one of the chairs by the central table, morose from his latest misdeeds.
“Does it matter? They’ll do as they’re told, same as the rest.”
Evadne almost hissed at him, but she felt the guilt within him, the guilt he always felt.
It wasn’t an easy thing for an Empath to force a monster girl to become a Tenebrae.
With some effort she sat up in bed, her multitudinous injuries screaming at her that movement was a bad idea.
“It brings us that much closer to finally finishing with all of this, I’m proud of you.”
Her words were hollow and he didn’t answer, his head in his hands, the convoluted knot of emotions within him stubbornly refusing to give way to the same rationalizations that had always worked before.
“What are we doing Eve? What are we doing to these poor girls?”
Her eyes narrowed as she felt his guilt winning the struggle within him.
“We’re saving them.” She said sternly.
“Are we?” He looked up, his eyes dull; “Or do they need saving from us? You-we’ve- killed so many to get here, so many of their loved ones, the other Empaths... all for our plan to fall apart just on the brink of success.”
Evadne had to stop herself from screaming at him in frustration; it wasn’t him that had been laid up in bed for weeks, desperately struggling not to die.
But she calmed herself quickly; exhausted as he was she knew he wouldn’t bother reading her emotions, but she had learned to tread carefully whenever he got into one of his moods.
He’d run away from her a number of times, long ago, when he first came into his gift and had learned that she was the one who had killed his parents.
Though they never discussed it openly, he fled from her and all of the darkness that she carried with her at every opportunity.
At the time she had less patience for his outbursts, she used force to subdue and restrain him, the demon inside her made her capable of ignoring her bond-mate’s orders.
But she had to change her tactics when she came back from hunting one day to find that he had opened both of his wrists in a bid to finally be free of her.
She had nursed him back to health, just as he was now trying to do for her, and she had opened up to him, if only partly. Because she knew she had to give him a goal, something to live for.
So she spun for him a fairy tale; one of monster girls oppressed, and of a corrupt organization secretly dedicated to the systematic enslavement of her kind.
She spoon-fed him this nonsense for years, with enough germs of truth in her lies for him to palate them as she inflated his ego with promises that he alone amongst the Empaths had the strength of will to do what was needed.
By the time he was ‘discovered’ by Sadie Essig and her blasted Dragon, he was very firmly indoctrinated into Evadne’s secret plan to save all monster girls everywhere, no matter the cost.
He never really was all that bright.
But now he had almost sunk all the way back into the same depths of despair she had felt the day he had tried to kill himself.
With no response from her, he rose to his feet, moving woodenly.
“I’ll make lunch.” He said lifelessly.
She felt his frustration, his own thwarted desires, and she was keenly reminded of his desperate hope to be her saviour, despite the fact that she didn’t need saving.
Normally she ignored it, her hateful desire for revenge far outweighing her desire to keep him stable. But she knew that the last several weeks of playing nursemaid had weakened his resolve to the breaking point, especially with what he had just done.
She needed to keep him invested.
“I am not hungry.” She hissed seductively, her tongue playing over her lips; “At least not for food.”
Hearing the heat in her tone, and feeling the dark hunger in her thoughts, he turned to see that she had shifted her legs over the edge of the bed and was leaning forwards so that he could see down her shift.
“Eve...” He breathed, rocked by the sudden wave of desire at the tantalizing sight of her cleavage.
“Come then, hum- Master. I’ll use my hand, you can even cum on my tits.”
They both knew that it was little more than a chore for her: he could read her intent as readily as she could read his desire.
But in the end, the spark of arousal she lit inside of him blazed to life and he was just too horny to care about her motivations.
“We shouldn’t, your injuries.” He mumbled unconvincingly.
She laughed mirthlessly.
“My grip is strong enough. Come here.”
One clawed finger beckoned to him: half invitation, half command.
His resistance crumbled and he moved to the side of her bed to loom over her.
Her dark eyes met his in the pale light of the lanterns.
“Pull it out.”
Again, it was a command as much as a request.
He undid his trousers and withdrew his half-flaccid penis.
Her eyes narrowed.
“You are not to touch me.”
“I know.” He whispered.
Just as she hated and loved him, she loathed and craved his hands on her body.
But even as her bond-mate, he was still human, still her enemy, so the scales always tipped against him.
He sucked in a breath as she took his penis between two fingers, working the digits delicately to avoid scratching him with her claws.
“How long has it been I wonder?” She mused.
“T-twelve years.”
With her other hand she tapped her chin, her fingers had worked him up to full hardness.
“Twelve years? That’s a long time to go without release.”
She was barely humouring him, but it really was a long time.
He had been in a nightmarish coma for most of it, though that hardly made it any better.
His breathing hitched as she took his length in her palm, her fingers curling around it as her grip tightened, though she was still careful not to shred his flesh with her claws.
“My, but you must be so backed up. I can’t believe you didn’t nut in that slutty little bunny’s mouth.
As a test of obedience for the first Tenebrae he created since waking from his coma, she had forced him to accept a blowjob from the dark girl, though he couldn’t finish, too ashamed of the act.
The memory of it though brought to mind his very first sexual experience with Evadne: in a rare moment of generosity she had taken his cock into her mouth when he was a teenager, not long after his failed suicide attempt.
Though she nearly killed him herself when he failed to warn her of his release and came in her mouth.
To this day he dreamt about it.
“O-open your mouth, please?” He whispered as she rhythmically stroked him.
Her brow furrowed in a frown.
She knew what he wanted, what he always wanted, but she had sworn never again and she meant it.
“No.”
“I don’t want you to suck it... I just want to see.” He begged.
“No.” She repeated flatly.
She felt his bitter disappointment, but did not relent. Instead she sat up slightly and let her shift fall off of her shoulders, revealing her breasts as she watched him.
“I said you can cum on tits. Is that not enough?”
Her stroking hand paused as she stared at him.
With his release so close, he nodded urgently.
“Yes, it’s enough, please! Don’t stop!”
So weak.
She didn’t bother to hide her contempt for him at this point, but any objection he might have was lost when he also felt her grip tighten and her stroking resume, his foreskin drawing back over his cock-head with each pull of her clenched fist.
“I don’t have all day.” She said drily as she turned in place to position her bare breasts to receive his load.
He gasped at the sight of her nipples presented to him, but also at what he felt within her.
Deep down, way down, he found it in her mind: beyond her hatred and rage, she was horny too.
The speed of her stroking increased, her hand a blur of motion as she lifted one eyebrow at him, her eyes having never left his.
With a grunt he shifted his pelvis forwards, a jet of thick cum shooting out and hitting her chin.
Her eyes narrowed into a glare that he had failed to warn her, but she didn’t stop, working his cock over as his cum shot out again to coat one of her breasts, a thick dollop of it streaming down and tickling her erect nipple.
She drew in a breath, her eyelids fluttering momentarily from the sensation. Her own lust rose as the thought of how good it would feel if she took him into her mouth popped into her mind unbidden.
But she stomped it out ruthlessly.
“Eve... I could always-”
“No.” She said again.
With his release over she let go of his cock, absently wiping the remnants of his cum off of her hand onto his pants.
She had vowed long ago to never again open herself to a human in that way, and with the barely contained rage of her darkened state, she had always found it easy to quench her desires.
All she had to do was think of her dead children.
“I’ll, I’ll make lunch.” He said again, with far more life in his words; “Then I’ll have the new ones fill in the hole they made.”
She didn’t acknowledge his words, satisfied that she had chased off his despair and gotten him back on track.