Master of Fire

Ember woke up in her bed, wrapped up in the silky black sheets. She looked around bleary-eyed and found Demetri perched at the foot of the bed, leaning against the bedpost with his stormy eyes closed in sleep. She had never seen the ghost sleep before.

The halfling smiled slightly, knowing in her heart that the ghost had meant what he had said to her.

You trusted him before.

A stern voice in her head reminded.

Look where that got you.

The time she spent as the demon's captive felt like a nightmare. She had sunk so deep inside herself that most of the depravity broke softly against her heart like waves. She simply had not cared: Demetri's betrayal cut her to her very soul and nothing the demons could do would hurt her more. So she had curled up inside herself and refused to fight.

That was a mistake.

She thought to herself.

I should never have stopped fighting and given into the darkness. That's what Demetri did. He gave into the darkness and let the anger and the hate consume him. He couldn't forgive my mother. But I can forgive him. I can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and come out bloody but unbowed.

The halfling knew she was mixing up her scripture and her poetry, but she could not have cared less. Overcome by a wave of fatigue, she sunk back down into the sheets and slowly drifted into the arms of sleep and an all-too familiar dream.

Ember found herself standing on the beach again. The waves lapped gently against the silver sand.

Where was the young man? She expected him to rise up out of the water like he did before. She stood for a short eternity, waiting.

Suddenly there was a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and he caught her up in a kiss before she could even say his real name.

He pulled out of the kiss but touched her lips, asking her without words to stay silent. The dream-Demetri's eyes blazed bluer than she had ever thought possible.

"

Ember, you did it

," he breathed, running gentle fingers down her face. "

You saved me.

"

The dreamy apparition pulled off his blood-stained shirt to reveal smooth, flawless skin. Despite herself, the halfling beamed up at the young man, revelling in the love that shone from his eyes.

"

I am free now

," he said, grabbing her hands and pressing them against his chest. "

Can you hear my heart?

"

Ember realised all at once that she could, she could hear it beating.

"

It beats for you

."

"How is that possible?"

she asked him breathlessly.

"You're dead!"

"You gave me your heart,"

he said.

"Then how am I alive?"

she asked, suddenly aware that her own chest was silent.

"You have my heart,"

the ghost said,

"and it beats for you."

Suddenly Ember felt a surge of life course through her body as her still heart began to beat.

She gasped in air as if tasting it for the first time and shot up in bed, startling the ghost out of his spectral slumber.

"Ember? Ember are you alright?" He was at her side in an instant.

She looked at him, her fiery eyes lit up with a glow he had never seen. Her soul was radiant and her renewed inner strength glowed through her eyes like a thousand candles.

"I'm fine," she smiled. "For the first time in a long time, actually."

"Good," he said. "Because you need breakfast."

With that Demetri scooped the girl up into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and laughed as the ghost planted kiss after kiss on her forehead.

He carried her down the long, spiralling staircases that led to the kitchen. He set her on her feet and then picked her up again and put her on the counter.

Demetri's stormy eyes pierced hers and he reached out to trail a hand through her dark tendrils.

"Fuck, I love you," he whispered.

Ember smiled and bit her lower lip. It was hard for her to understand what she was feeling. The love in his eyes made her blush, made her want to smile. This same man who had done such terrible things to her now had the power to make her heart glow... and she did not believe that he would abuse it.

"I- um," the halfling did not know what to say. Demetri mercifully silenced her with a kiss.

For the rest of the day Demetri agonised over her, intent on making sure every last wound the demons had inflicted on her was healed. That night as they entered her bedroom, Demetri insisted on giving her wounds a final once-over.

"You just want an excuse to touch me, don't you?" she teased as he ran a powerful hand down her back, feeling for tender spots.

"And to undress you," he smiled darkly. "Open up that shirt Ember, I need to see how that wound is healing."

The halfling hesitated, but the ghost didn't. His fingers were at the top of her shirt in that moment, slowly unbuttoning it.

Ember shivered as he pushed the sleeves off her shoulders and pulled her towards him, grinding his pelvis against her naked body.

"I want you now, Ember," he whispered lustily in her ear. "I want you and I am going to have you."

"I don't know if I'm ready," she said firmly, trying to push him away.

"You will be."

With those words, Demetri's faded into her body and took control.

He could feel her spirit struggling against his... But it was a fight she was not used to and he overpowered her easily.

"You're mine, Ember."

Demetri's voice filled Ember's mind as he took command of her body. All he left in her power was her voice and face.

"Demetri! Please!" Ember cried.

"I never pull out until I am fully satisfied."

Demetri walked Ember's body to the mirror and began to run her hands over her own breasts.

Ember gasped at the sensation - it was such a strange feeling. It almost felt as if her spirit was pressed tightly against Demetri's, so tightly that she could feel all of his emotions as they pulsed through him. She could feel Demetri's hunger for her. His lust was intoxicating... but so was his love. Ember could feel the ghost's love for her coursing through his spirit just beneath those powerful desires that seethed on the surface. It was such a deep, deep feeling.

"You can feel it, can't you? How much I want you..."

Ember's thoughts snapped back into focus as the ghost used her own fingers to pinch and twist her nipples. The halfling cried out as the ghost continued his delicious torment, revelling in both the feeling of her own cold fingers on her erect nipples and the feeling of ghost's spirit jolting beside hers with a sudden burst of electricity each time she moaned.

Demetri ran Ember's hands down her abdomen, around to grab her ass.

"God what a beautiful little ass,"

the ghost growled lustily.

"I want to be inside your ass, Ember. I want to fill your ass with my cum. Say yes."

But before Ember could say a word, Demetri had changed his mind and directed her wandering hands to her dripping pussy.

The halfling cried out as he thrust one of her own fingers inside her cunt. Then another. He drove them insider her gently at first, but soon she was finger-fucking herself harder and harder.

"Fuck, Ember,"

the ghost's voice echoed through her mind,

"your pussy is still so tight. I want to fuck you raw."

The halfling moaned, biting her lips in a futile attempt to stay quiet.

"Let it out, baby,"

he whispered, lust seething from his spirit.

"I want to hear you screaming my name."

Demetri finally pulled the halfling's fingers out and shoved them inside her mouth.

"Lick them, Ember,"

his dark voice commanded.

"How do you taste?"

When the ghost withdrew her fingers the halfling whispered: "Why don't you come find out?"

Demetri stopped moving Ember's hands and his spirit crackled with lustful excitement alongside hers.

Ember went weak in the knees when Demetri's spirit suddenly left her body, and she would have collapsed to the ground had Demetri not wrapped his strong arms around her and pulled her up and to his chest.

She did not have a moment to speak before Demetri's burning lips met hers. She parted her lips slightly to allow his feverish tongue to invade her mouth and twist about her own tongue. Demetri slowly ground his pelvis against her, with one of his hands groping her ass and pulling her hips into him. The other hand was whispering around her jaw-line and neck, pushing her hair away from her face.

Demetri shifted his grip and picked Ember up. He carried her to the bed while his kisses wandered past her mouth and down to her neck.

He threw her onto the bed and pulled her ankles towards him so that his wandering mouth could travel even lower to push past the lips of her pussy and lick at her wet sex.

The halfling moaned as the ghost's tongue licked and nibbled at her clit before moving his twisting tongue lower and pushing it inside her.

"Demetri? Demetri I want you to do something for me," Ember begged between moans, her fingers wrapped in his silver hair.

"What?" the ghost asked, licking his lips as he reluctantly lifted his head.

The halfling pushed the ghost away and fell to her knees in front of him: "Please, please fuck me Demetri."

The ghost simply stared at the girl, taken aback by the heat pouring from her eyes.

"On your knees and begging for it," he whispered to himself.

"Please, Demetri?" she whimpered, slipping a finger inside herself as she knelt before him.

The ghost did not need to be asked twice. He pulled her up from her knees and lifted her onto the bed. Demetri's pants were gone in less than half a second and then he was on top of her, his thick cock pushing gently against the lips of her pussy. The ghost wrapped an arm under the halfling's back and pulled her into a kiss as he drove his dick deep inside her.

She could not scream while the ghost kissed her, not even as she felt his huge member pressing against her insides.

Demetri began to fuck the halfling slowly, building up speed as her wet pussy lubricated his cock.

"Oh Demetri," Ember moaned, breaking away from the kiss.

"Fuck, Ember you feel so good," Demetri groaned, grinding his dick deeper and deeper inside her.

"I- Demetri I'm cumming," the halfling cried as the ghost pummelled her.

The ghost kissed her, keeping her ruthlessly silent as her orgasm rocked her body with spasms of pleasure.

When her pussy was no longer clenching around his dick, Demetri felt himself on the verge of cumming.

"Ember, oh fuck," he rasped in her ear, "I'm cumming, I'm cumming."

The halfling closed her eyes as she felt Demetri fill her with his cum. The ghost panted as he emptied himself inside Ember's tight sex, letting his cock grow limp inside her as he lay breathlessly on top of her.

The ghost slipped out of the halfling when her breathing had finally returned to normal. He lifted her into his arms and carried her back down to the bathing pool, washing all the stains of sex from her beautiful body as her eyelids began to grow heavy with sleep.

When they were both clean, Demetri walked her back up to her room and lay naked beside her, tangled up in her long legs and the dark satin sheets.

"Ember?" he whispered in her ear.

"Mm-hmm?" came the sleepy reply.

"Do you love me?"

The halfling smiled to herself and pulled the ghost's arms tighter around herself.

"Yes, Demetri," she murmured, "I do."

"And I you, Ember," he replied breathlessly. "Forever."

Consumed by unbridled happiness, the halfling surrendered to sleep as the ghost's kisses landed lightly on her shoulder and neck.

++++++++

Ember woke up shivering. She sat up groggily, looking around the room for Demetri: The fire was out, an icy wind poured in through the open windows, and the ghost was no where to be seen.

"Demetri?" she called out, clasping the sheet around herself and stepping gingerly onto the freezing floor.

There was no answer.

Ember felt her heart sinking as she began to realise that something must be wrong... Terribly, terribly wrong.

She wound her way down through the caste slowly, calling out for the ghost with increasing desperation.

The halfling had almost made it to the kitchen when the castle was racked by a terrifying tremor. Ember screamed and clutched her hands over her head as stones from the ceiling cracked and fragments crumbled to the floor.

"Demetri?" she cried again as the quake subsided. "Demetri where are you? What's happening?"

All of a sudden, Ember felt a hand on her shoulder. She whirled around and saw Demetri fading fast into nothingness.

"Demetri!" she screamed.

"Ember! I don't understand what's happening," he cried. "I love you!"

And then he was gone. Ember screamed and clamped a hand over her mouth. She rushed down the stairs but found that the entrance was blocked by fallen stone. Suddenly the ceiling above her caved in and Ember's world went black.

++++++++

Ember woke up shivering. She reached out an arm for Demetri... But all her fingers found was cold stone. She opened her eyes and fell backwards when she saw that she was curled next to a tomb.

The bed was gone. The castle was gone. Demetri was gone. She was alone in a mausoleum.

Her stomach sank and her head began to spin.

"Oh my God," she whispered. "Oh God, no!"

She could barely stand, but she struggled to her feet all the same. Tears threatened to flood her eyes as she clutched at the stone wall for support. It was Demetri's tomb.

Ember's chest rose and fell fast as she read the inscription. She felt her heart aching, breaking into pieces each time she read the name etched into the cold stone.

"You promised you wouldn't leave!" she cried. "You promised!"

The halfling leaned against the wall and let her knees buckle beneath her. She sank slowly to the ground and buried her head in her hands.

"You promised you wouldn't hurt me again, Demetri," she moaned into her hands. "You promised!"

Ember let her tears fall freely: She cried for all that had happened to her. Most of all, however, she cried because she knew that she had lost the ghost forever.

"You promised me forever," she sobbed to the empty stone room.

The halfling could not see anything beyond the tears in her eyes, or hear anything over the sound of her own grief. But, suddenly, there were fingers tracing down her arm.

Ember started and wiped away her tears furiously.

"W-who are you?" She asked as the figure slowly came into focus.

The young man kneeling in front of her had hair the colour of moonless midnight, but his eyes were the bright blue of a tropical sound set ablaze by the setting sun. He was the man who had appeared to her in a dream once upon a time. He was Demetri.

He reached out his hand to brush away her tears and smiled: "Ember, it's me."

Ember's lips trembled as she shook her head and backed away from the young man: "No, no, no... you're a dream! You're a fucking dream! Get away from me!"

The young man smiled and opened his leather jacket. She stared at his chest. There were no festering wounds, just old scars that had healed long ago.

"Put your hand on my heart, Ember," he whispered gently.

The halfling reached out her hand ever so slowly until her fingers touched his bare chest. His heart thundered inside and she could feel the life coursing through his body.

"It beats for you, Ember," the young man said breathlessly. "You saved me."

Ember's teary eyes were uncertain as she stared into the young man's. But the longer she held his gaze the more certain she became that the young man on his knees in front of her was Demetri and that he was not a dream. Finally, her eyes lit up and she flung her arms around him with a chocked sob.

Demetri fell on his back laughing as the halfling squeezed him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her and held her as close as he could, kissing her neck and cheeks as she pulled out of the embrace.

"I will never leave you, Ember, never" he smiled. "Your love brought me back from the grave... and I won't be going back there unless you're by my side."

THE END