I awoke to find that Gyn had left earlier than usual, so early that she'd decided not to wake me. We were returning to the Demon Realm that evening, so I spent the morning cleaning the apartment, dusting and polishing, taking care of the laundry, the usual domestic tasks that my beloved was too busy for at that time. That afternoon, having transferred whatever items we required from the apartment to our Demon Realm dwelling, I decided that Gyn would appreciate a nice hot bath on her return, so I decided that I'd be waiting for her there when she stepped through from the Human Realm. Having filled the huge tiled bath with the beautiful pink water of the Demon Realm, I shut off the outlet. While waiting for the lava flowing through the channels beneath the bath to heat the water, I stepped back through the portal into our human world apartment to get a bottle of champagne. When I returned, Saur'ex was in our bedroom! The incantations that Gyn had invoked to place the house on lockdown had failed!
"What the hell are you doing, Saur'ex, coming into our home uninvited?" I yelled at him. "And while I'm on that subject, how did you actually get in?"
"I came to make a social call. Receiving no answer, I became concerned for the safety of my good friend Lady Gyn'estar. I entered the house to find her hu-woman pet uncollared and Lady Gyn'estar absent. It is my duty to take the uncollared pet into custody until the matter can be investigated." he answered, grinning in a way only a snake can.
"Did someone write that down for you?" I asked scornfully. "And you've seen me without my collar lots of times, you've even taken it off for me once or twice," I continued "and you know full well that I fucking HATE being called a hu-woman pet!" I said as I threw the bottle I'd been holding at his head. He caught it, laughing, then popped it into the satchel he had belted around the area where his waist would be, if he hadn't had a long python-like tail instead of legs.
"Linzi, your body has given me great pleasure and I am enormously fond of you, so please believe me when I tell you that I mean you no harm. But I require that you come with me." the serpent demon hissed.
"Sorry, Saur'ex, but human females have a very long history of being betrayed by talking snakes!" I hissed back at him.
At this he laughed aloud. "Well put, girl. But I'm afraid I must insist!" he said as he moved his great tail in strong flexion and extension to move closer to me.
I knocked over some furniture in front of him to slow him down, then ran for the mirror, which was directly behind me. But, anticipating my intention to attempt an escape through the portal, he picked up a stool and lobbed it directly over my head to hit the shimmering reflective surface dead centre. As the portal was merely a mirror to the wooden item of furniture, it smashed into thousands of shards of useless glass fragments. I turned and screamed at him in rage and terror:
"You've trapped Gyn in the Human Realm, you asshole! I shouted.
"I have merely inconvenienced her, Linzi. There are many emergency portals in the Hu-man Realm." he replied. "It is YOU whom I have trapped."
I dodged his swiping, grasping tail for a while but he was between me and the door; soon he changed tactics and rolled another stool under my feet, tripping me so I fell to the floor. His tail wrapped round my ankles and lifted me into the air, hanging inverted before him. He ripped my clothing away, then I felt a thick leathery tendril creep down my body; I looked upwards to see the opening near the end of his tail extruding the scaly rope-like appendage that was normally one of my favourite things about him, but now it wound itself slowly round my ribcage and upper arms, pinioning them to my body. It wrapped around my forearms, twisting them slowly behind my back and restraining them. It then literally snaked up my back and looped twice around my neck. Saur'ex then gently lowered me to the floor. I struggled to stand, then began to pull and twist against my living bonds, hoping that if I could hurt him by struggling hard enough, he might release me. Almost immediately, the leather tendril tightened hard, squeezing the air from my lungs and constricting my throat; I dropped to the floor, struggling to breathe, mouth open as I was choked. The snake-demon leaned down, and spoke to me concernedly:
"Please stop trying to escape, Linzi. I do NOT wish to harm you, but I require you to come with me, and I will NOT accept any refusal."
The bindings relaxed. Saurex helped me to my feet.
"Now, we are leaving. Follow me." he said.
Since I was now bound and leashed to him by part of his own body, I had no choice but to obey. He led me to the bathroom, where the surface of the water in the bath was shimmering with the same swirling patterns as a mirror portal does when in use. I had inadvertently provided Saur'ex with the entrance to our otherwise incantation sealed home myself!
"Deep breath, girl," he said as his tail wrapped round my torso and upper arms, pulling me tight to his side, before he slid over the edge of the bath with me, dropping us both into the portal.
It turned out that Saur'ex had been joking; while the portal in the bath had been horizontal, the mirror we stepped through on the other side was vertical. We were in a huge vaulted chamber with carved marble chairs lining the walls; a large throne occupied the wall at the far end. Saur'ex led me to the throne where a tall, dark, handsome man sat. He looked at me with contempt as Saur'ex forced me to my knees in front of him.
"I am the slave of Lady Gyn'estar." I began to protest, but he nodded to Saur'ex, who tightened the tendrils round my neck until I stopped talking and started to gasp for breath instead.
"You will speak when spoken to in my home, hu-woman pet!" he commanded. I nodded my understanding and the tendrils relaxed again. He then ignored me and spoke to Saur'ex:
"Uncollared and unattended, I take it?" he said. Saur'ex simply nodded. I didn't like where this was going!
