Chapter 31:
Felled in Darkness
Yana was exhausted, physically and mentally, but pride swelled in her breast.
Jonathan had invaded her mind several times since she had first driven him back, consistently trying to use her own regrets against her. Each time he met with failure, her mother’s encouraging words proving to be a powerful talisman against his dark efforts.
And after every attempt he seemed weaker for the next.
Once again he stood before her, his eyes had dark circles under them and if possible he had lost even more weight.
“Back for another beating eh?” She said cheerily.
He didn’t say anything, so she shrugged indifferently and began to marshal her defenses by bringing the memories of her childhood to bear.
But he didn’t enter her mind.
She waited, but it didn’t happen.
When she finally looked towards him she saw that he was holding her heartstone anklet in his palm with the closed fist of his opposite hand hovering over it like a hammer waiting to drop.
Though she didn’t like to talk to him more than necessary, it was fair to say she was curious.
“I haven’t got all day.” She prodded blithely.
“If I cross this line, she might kill us both.”
Yana frowned, her gaze drifting back to his closed fist, still hovering over her heartstone.
“Whatever you attempt, you will fail.”
“No.” He shook his head; “I’m certain this will work, but the cost might be too great, even for her.”
She rolled her eyes at him, she couldn’t help it, she had long since stopped taking him seriously.
“You’re deluding yourself. Though that wicked creature will surely kill you someday, and probably me as well, you will fail. You know that you can’t break me, I’m-”
His head snapped up and he glared at her with his dark eyes.
“Enough! I’ve had enough! I’m done trying, I’m so sick of all of this! I just want it to be over!”
Yana froze as she heard a faint clink; his fist had opened and dropped something into his palm next to the anklet when he shouted at her.
Her eyes widened when she saw that it was a pitch black heartstone, darker than any she had ever seen.
A chill she couldn’t account for ran down her spine, as if she was staring into a dark gateway within which lurked some terrible danger.
Her mouth opened to demand answers, but after taking a moment to collect himself he turned to the ever vigilant Tenebrae around them and gestured towards her chains with a nod of his head.
“Bring her.”
Naturally she struggled, but the other monster girls had every advantage as they bodily dragged her into the room with the sleeping Evadne.
Jonathan slipped over to the bed and gently traced one finger through the monster’s hair.
After a few seconds he planted a whisper of a kiss on the side of her brow and turned to face Yana again.
He held the black heartstone up so that she could get a good look at it, working it between the pads of his fingers slightly.
“Maybe you have endured far more than I can imagine. But I doubt you’ve endured more than she has.”
Yana’s eyes widened but before she could say anything Jonathan was once again pulling her into her mind…
Or at least, someone’s, mind.
__________
The desperate Chimera’s heart pounded in her ears while the muscles in her back strained as her wings battled the air. In her heart she knew there was no hope, but she could not accept it and raced through the sky anyways.
As she crested the ridge and looked down into the ravine the air suddenly stopped fighting her.
The silence around the village was deafening and her mouth fell open at the sight of the place as she glided towards her family’s den.
In the twilight caused by the human’s device she could see her people, her friends, now nothing more than frozen statues of ash littering the various shelves of the broad canyon.
Some had already crumpled in on themselves to form little piles of grey dust.
“No no no no. Maybe, maybe they got to safety, they are safe, they have to be safe.”
She swooped down to the shelf where her mother first taught her to fly, where she was teaching her own eager children that very morning, where someday they would teach her granddaughters.
But as she rushed inside her heart grew cold at the eerie silence of the place.
“K-Kaylen! Petra! Mama!”
She called for her family as she stood in the rough ovoid front room, dominated by the thick rug her great grandmother had made.
A soft squeak from one side made her heart skip and drew her attention to the kitchen.
In that moment Evadne would swear for all time that she heard the faint sound of her children laughing in the eerie silence.
She stepped to the door and pushed it open with one hand.
The creak of the heavy wood door swinging open was the sound that heralded the end of her world.
Her mother was sitting in her usual rocking chair by the stove, while at her feet were Evadne’s children.
Statues of ash.
She fell to her knees, a hoarse sound tearing from her throat as her new reality overwhelmed her.
Pain struck her midsection as her body rejected what her eyes saw, her stomach heaving as she fell to all fours and vomited on the stone floor.
Once her convulsions seized, she crawled forwards until she was inches from Petra’s frozen features.
With one shaky hand Evadne reached out, intending to caress her daughter’s cheek, desperate for any hint that the child somehow lived.
But with the faintest brush of her finger Petra crumbled before her eyes, closely followed by Kaylen and their grandmother in her chair.
With a clipped scream Evadne scrambled to hold their remains together even as hope died inside her.
She could taste the ashes of her children on her tongue.
__________
Hours.
Days.
A toxic mixture of sorrow and guilt wracked her heart and suspended it into forever as she wept and clawed into the floor, leaving deep gouges in the solid granite even as her claws bled.
Her vision faded, going black around the edges as grief was all she knew; no longer could she even see the cold kitchen where her children had died.
This was her fault, all of her family, all of her people, were dead because she trusted a human. She could feel the shame darkening her soul.
The only course left to her was to lie down and die too, once her tears were spent.
But in that dark place where she wailed awoke another will, an ancient malice that saw a use for the Chimera’s boundless agony.
Your soul is falling, give it to us, that you may pursue your vengeance.
You’d think a demon’s voice would be terrifying, but it wasn’t.
It was soft, sympathetic even.
Evadne wailed again and languished in the pile of ash that was everything in the world to her.
“I-I don’t want vengeance! I just want to die! To be with my babies again, to hold them tight and feel their little tails slither around my arms!”
Her claws dragged through the ash as she wept, still futilely searched for life where none could exist.
But surely the men who did this must pay? Surely you want them all dead?
Still soft, but more persuasive now.
The image of Malcolm’s face floated into her mind: his uniform showed him to be a spy, the calculating coldness she had discovered in his eyes showed her to be a fool.
“I know what you are.” She said faintly.
Her cheek pressed into the remains of her family while hollow emptiness filled her breast.
Yes, you know why I am here. Your kin woke me, seeking my power. If they had not than I would be as oblivious to your existence as you would have been to mine.
“I don’t care.”
Shhh… poor, wretched creature. Regardless of the circumstance, I am here, and with my presence you now have an opportunity.
It was nothing more than dull curiosity that nudged Evadne to respond.
“An opportunity for what?”
Vengeance. Justice. Whatever you would call it, I can give it to you...
Once again Malcolm’s face, only now his eyes were wide with terror as her snake tail buried its fangs into his guts and tore him apart for murdering their children.
It was some time before the broken Chimera was able to respond; when she finally did it was a single pitifully whimpered word.
“Yes.”
__________
Evadne woke with a start and sat up with a hissing gasp.
“Get out of my head human!”
With her good arm she threw her pitcher of water at Jonathan, the porcelain object smashing into his forearm with a sharp crack as he cried out in pain.
“Shit- Eve stop! It worked!”
The dark monster snarled at him as she tore the covers off, she had to hold her wounded stomach as she stood but didn’t care about the pain.
With the memory of her dead children so fresh in her mind she fully intending on finally killing him.
But the dark-eyed girl kneeling beside him gave her pause.
She leveled her glare on her bond-mate, her teeth grinding together.
“What did you do?”
“I told you it would work, and it did.” He said carefully around a grimace of pain.
Once he was convinced that she wasn’t going to attack him again, he slowly got to his feet while cradling his injured arm.
Her eyes narrowed.
“You twinned her mind with mine.”
“Yes, and she fell in moments. A true warrior, turned Tenebrae. In moments.” He spoke with great emphasis, clearly pleased with himself; “I could do this with however many girls we need! Hell, I could do this with a dozen girls at once! All I have to do is share your mind with them! This is the breakthrough we’ve been searching for!”
Evadne’s crippled tail let out a garbled hiss, which the Chimera echoed, clearly not caring about Jonathan’s latest achievement.
But another presence in the bunker gave her pause.
Dearest, I don’t want to see you suffer anymore, but the boy is right. Remember what you seek, the world must burn for what was done to you and your children.
Though it spoke rarely, the falsely soothing voice in her head had been her companion for centuries, and while it brought her no comfort, it did stop her from killing her bond-mate.
Instead she turned to look into the pure black eyes of the once-proud Amazon.
She couldn’t help but feel a certain degree of smugness at seeing Yana on her knees before her.
Having torn her stitches yet again, she wiped her hand in her own blood and smeared it across the other monster’s face, a cruel imitation of the Amazon’s war-paint.
Finally she nodded her approval.
“A warleader for my army.”
__________
Once Jonathan had changed Evadne’s bandages he took Yana out of the room to get her settled with the other Tenebrae, leaving the Chimera alone save for the demon in her head.
My dearest girl. I meant what I told you before, I don’t want you to suffer from your injuries anymore, please, allow me to bear the burden for you.
The wheedling in the demon’s voice made the Chimera snort out loud, her forearm covering her face as she rested.
“I know what you want from me. You’ve always wanted it.”
The voice responded quickly and with conviction.
I won’t deny that, I’ve never understood why you resist the notion. If you will but let me replace the last dregs of your soul, the power that I could pour into you would be insurmountable! And the destruction of the foul humans that murdered your babies would be assured.
The ghosts of Kaylen and Petra’s faces drifted across her vision, the shadow of Malcolm’s close behind.
“But I wouldn’t get to see it.” She hissed; “I am not a fool. What good is my vengeance if I cannot taste it for myself?”
A sound like shale rubbing together filled her mind.
Demonic laughter.
Dearest girl. You WOULD taste it! After all we’ve been through together I would not deny you that! However-
Evadne shifted her arm off her face to stare at the stone ceiling as the demon’s voice took on a sudden edge.
-if you do not accept this gift, after everything I have done for you, then your crusade will end. I will find another vessel, a more… reasonable, vessel. And your mind will sink into the darkness I saved it from so long ago before your body succumbs to its injuries.
“I-I will heal. With enough time.” A hint of trepidation nestled its way into Evadne’s breast.
But how much longer can you hide like this hmm? Your body broken, an angel returned and with Amazons dropping in to try to kill your little pet? Dearest, you have no more time.
The demon’s logic was undeniable: the Valkyrie had hindered her twice now, and where there was one Amazon, there would inevitably be more.
With the fresh injuries that Yana had inflicted she simply wasn’t strong enough to prevent them from killing Jonathan if that was now there aim.
“I will still be me? I will be in control?”
The arm that had been resting on her face turned black as the dark power of the demon inside her seeped out, using her own claws to caress her cheek.
You won’t just be you, my dearest. You will be so much more. You will be… me. But of course you will be in control! Have you forgotten about the bond with your pet human? I cannot take what isn’t yours. And while I may know your body as well as you, I cannot USE it as well as you.
The dark well of power that had lurked inside her for centuries surged and Evadne gasped as strength returned to her limbs for a brief moment.
But all too soon it faded to nothing, leaving her as weak as ever.
However, I cannot gift you anything if you don’t open yourself to me, fully.
Her blackened arm drifted from her cheek to caress her breast through her nightshirt, lightly pinching her nipple and causing her to shudder as it drifted lower.
So I ask you, Evadne Contrail, and this WILL be the last time. Do you want your vengeance?
The hand had tossed the blanket off of her, pulling up her shift and revealing her injuries before sliding two claws over her clit.
Tears trailed down the side of Evadne’s face from her tightly closed eyes as she finally let go, a thousand years of tension flowing out of her as she gave up the fight to preserve her mind.
“Yes.” She whimpered.
Her eyes opened and suddenly she was staring at a shadowy mirror image of her body above her, clawed fists on either side of her head.
She could feel it: the power inside her was gone, it had all seeped out of her with her acquiescence.
“Good. Now spread your legs.” The voice that lived in her head suddenly spoke from the dark creature.
But it did so with her voice.
“Wh-”
The shadow leaned back and tore the nightshirt off of her with undeniable strength.
“Your submission must be absolute.” Dark lips spread into a smirk as an equally dark tongue slide out around venomous fangs; “Words are such empty things, I need you to show me your commitment.”
Even with all that she had endured, Evadne was willing to endure far more to punish those she deemed responsible for Kaylen and Petra’s deaths.
Which was pretty much everybody.
So despite the agony in her ribs she spread her legs, her eyes drifting down to see that the shadowy version of her had a very large cock.
Without warning the demon thrust it into her pussy, knocking the wind from her lungs with the violent force of the penetration.
The pain of its dark cock spearing into her was enough for her to scream.
She felt her weakened ribs give out, re-breaking as the demon claimed her with rapid thrusts that would crush stone.
Dark-Evadne slid her tongue out and licked the wounded Chimera’s face.
“Take it, you little whore of darkness! Come on! Squeeze your pussy around that cock! Make me cum! Earn the gift I offer you!”
The face above her was both recognizable and completely foreign; she had never seen herself when she accepted the dark power, never seen the fangs or the look of malice in her eyes.
But as the creature pounded into her with ever more rapid thrusts, she could hear the laughter of her dead children so her resolve never wavered.
She ground her teeth and clenched her battered pussy tighter, the slimy tongue once again slavering over her face.
With the additional tightness around an already girthy cock, the dark Evadne grunted out as she got her orgasm, her cock spewing forth ropes of black cum inside the broken creature beneath her.
“Ah! Fuck you Evadne! Fucking… tight!”
Her hips spasmed as yet more cum burst forth, the wet suction of Evadne’s quim could be heard around the cave as the demon cock pistoned in and out of her.
Evadne felt the demon bite down on her injured shoulder as one last surge of cum flooding her pussy.
It was more pain, but she had so many other injuries screaming for her attention that she hardly noticed it.
Their breasts pressed together as her dark counterpart settled its weight on her, working its cock in slow circles inside her while her ribs screamed in agony.
“Ah, I have been saving that for eleven hundred years.” Its long tongue slavered all over her face again; “And I want more.”
“Th-that wasn’t enough?” The battered monster girl wheezed.
“Enough? I don’t know this word! That was just the first.” The dark Evadne trailed her claws over her cheek and cooed down at her; “But I can feel that I broke your ribs again, poor girl.”
Despite its sympathetic words, it was clear the demon held no kindness for the battered monster girl.
The weight lifted off of her, and suddenly she realized that her pussy didn’t hurt, instead a soporific numbness was spreading in a wave from her pelvis.
In the weak light she saw the shadow of herself standing at the side of her bed, it’s erection undaunted, and she looked down to see her skin turning black, starting with her pussy and moving down her legs and up her stomach.
“You can feel me now, can’t you dearest?”
Shadow Evadne stroked its cock and squeezed one of its black breasts hard.
The relief that the broken Chimera felt when the numbing darkness reached her ribs was palpable.
“Yes.” She replied softly; “I can feel you.”
“Good. Now get up. I have only a short time to enjoy this and I intend to make the most of it.”
“Yes… Master.”
The rictus grin that greeted her absolute submission would have been terrifying to behold, but the wave of numbness was gone, and it had left behind a power she had never known.
Like the demon claiming her soul, she too wanted more.
Without delay she stood before her demon self, whose grin somehow grew even wider.
“I always loved those dark lips of yours. Open.”
She did as she was told, her lips parting to allow the dark creature to plunge its tongue down her throat, instantly choking her as it gripped her head and pressed their lips together in a dark mockery of a kiss.
She swallowed reflexively around the wriggling muscle in her throat, the shadow letting out a deep moan into her mouth at the sensation.
Their breasts pressed together tight once more and the creature’s cock nestled itself between her thighs. The demon savoured the various sensations for a moment, plunging its tongue down her slave’s willing throat again and again before finally allowing her to breathe.
Evadne gasped in a shuddering breath. She stood fully nude; the spreading darkness had stopped just below her breasts.
The demon once more licked her face, but this time she welcomed it.
“Ten thousand years and you are my greatest triumph. Now you are ready for the next part. On your knees, slave.”
She didn’t hesitate, falling to the floor, her wings spreading behind her with new strength.
The massive erection was right in front of her, but she felt her double’s claws take hold of her scalp, pulling her away.
Without being told what to do, she opened her mouth as wide as she could.
The cock forcing its way down her gullet was much less painful than the first thrust into her pussy. And all discomfort was forgotten as the promised power spread within her.
“Oh yes! Oh. Fucking. YES!”
The demon was moving her head as it pleased with one hand while the other pinched its own dark nipples.
Evadne had given exactly one blowjob in more than a thousand years, and she had never taken a cock so big. She could feel her teeth dragging along it, but the demon didn’t seem to mind.
In reality, it wasn’t a blowjob at all; it was a brutal skull-fucking that would have killed a human woman.
With each long thrust, Evadne’s nose was pressed tight to the creature’s pelvis, and each time it withdrew it would pull out so that just the meaty head of its obsidian cock was inside her mouth, its shaft coated in her slobber.
She loved it.
Her eyes were rolled back in her head as the power continued to spread inside her, healing old wounds and making her strong where before she was weak.
“Here it comes! You swallow it all! I want-urgh- taste it!”
The demon took three more massive thrusts, then pulled its length out completely, Evadne’s lips popping off the head as she gasped in a desperate breath.
The first jet of black cum plastered her face before the orgasming demon thrust back into her mouth and fired more over her tongue.
“Fuck! FUCK! FUCK! Swallow or DIE bitch!”
The demon’s head tilted back and it snarled.
Despite her new power, the Chimera was helpless in the grip of the creature whose cock was flooding her mouth and she desperately swallowed, taking all of the darkness inside of her.
It tasted of smoke and ash, of desolation and despair, but mostly it tasted of the power that caused it.
Still Evadne wanted more.
Jet after jet emptied into her mouth, the demon’s hips spasming and rocking the cock into her mouth in gruesome ecstasy.
Once again numbness spread within the Chimera, claiming all that she was as power not meant for mortals likewise filled her breast.
Finally the spurting subsided, and the demon looked down at Evadne, now hungrily suckling at the cock stuffed in her mouth.
Her skin was entirely black now save for her face, though dark cum was plastered over her nose and cheeks.
The demon smiled at the continued suction on its cock.
“Greedy little Chimera.”
The sound of shale rubbing together echoed through the room as it laughed and began to pump its cock down her throat again.
Hidden in the darkness of the tunnel leading to the Tenebrae room, Jonathan wept in terrified despair.