Love as a Form of Binding

I've spun this out without meaning to since I fleshed out one character a bit more and added another because she makes me smile and chuckle. The result is that I've unwittingly pushed back the first of the (obligatory) demonic sex scenes back until now, so sorry for that. I've polished this up in the middle of a humid evening with no AC. Now I'm probably sweating more than the characters in this thing. No wait... maybe not.

So grab whatever food, beverage, or person you like to read with and I really hope you enjoy this. A word though, there is quite a range of emotions in this one chapter, so if you find yourself feeling for Maezou, keep reading and don't give up.

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She was delighted. "This is perfect!" she said babbling and looking at the finished room in the basement. "I was going to say that to complete my binding, I would have liked to have a room that was a bit darker, and if there could be some kind of fire, it would be my preference – I don't have anything nasty in mind, Toby, I'd just prefer the warmer light, and this is just right."

Maezou knew that she was chattering, but she couldn't help it. She was nervous now. "It's below ground so it will hide us a little. I want to go and get the blankets and pillows from the bedroom - "

She noticed his face and knelt before him in silence.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

She looked up, "I see that you want to talk to me. I think you are displeased with me."

"No," he sighed, "I want to talk with you, not to you, and you don't have to kneel like this. Please stand up."

She rose before him and looked down at her feet, waiting.

Toby lifted her chin, "Stop this, Maezou. This is not what I wanted and you know it. I just need some explanations. I'm not angry with you. I just want to know what's going on."

He kissed her softly, "Just help me understand some things. Who was Zele talking about? She said that she was told to say some things. By whom, and for what purpose? She said 'none of us'. Who did she mean?"

Maezou took a breath, "We have two who wish us well, Toby. They are doing what they can to help us. One of them is Zele. You can't know it, but the little bit that she showed you tells me that she likes you very much. She is always strange to people when she meets them at first, but she wants to help."

"And the other one?" he asked, "Who is that?"

"My mother, " Maezou replied, "She watches for us and told Zele what to say to us."

"Come here," he said quietly as he reached for her, "We can talk like this, can't we? I just can't kiss you if I want any answers before next week." Maezou felt better instantly in his arms and put her head against him.

"Your mother?" Toby smiled a little, "I was going to ask you if you had any family. I just didn't know how to. So if we're ... as we are now, and for all intents and purposes pretty much married,.."

"There is nothing like this for demons," she said, "though I am sure that my mother understands what it means for humans and I like the idea of it for us. If I have family, as you say, it is my mother and Zele. She is helping in her way too. She told Zele about what happened to me and where I am. She knew that Zele would come, so she told Zele what to say. The way that this storm stays here, I know that she is close by."

"What does one have to do with the other?" he asked.

"Everything," she said quietly, "she made this storm to hide me – and you now."

"She made this storm..." Toby repeated it and it still made no sense.

He felt her nod. "Yes, Toby. My mother is a storm demon, the most powerful one, and the oldest. You were sleeping, but she came to see us. She told me that she likes you, and she told me things that I never knew." She reached up to touch his face. "I am not as much of a demon as I thought. My father was a man, like you."

He was struggling with some of it, but tried to get all of this. "That changes things for you?"

She shook her head, "No. It changes nothing about how I feel about you. I already made up my mind about that. She came after that and told me that what I wanted – to be with you, could be done. I was too slow to tell you that you might die. I tried to say it better, but I was already running out of time and we had to hurry. I will never tell you what came into my mind as I sat with you. It is better not to know. I'm just so glad that you helped me again." He felt her exhale, and almost knew what she was going to ask, but he waited for it anyway.

"Do you still want to do this with me?"

He looked at her and wanted to laugh. She looked so much like a worried child, this fearsome demon in his arms whose only other friend was a murderous-looking dog-girl and whose mother probably drove weather forecasters nuts the world over. He thought that he probably ought to be worried about what might amount to a mother-in-law like that, but Toby hated weather forecasters with a passion. He saw them as idiots who'd gone to university and come out with even less sense. His mother's bunions and arthritis, before she died, were better predictors of the weather. For that reason alone, he already liked Maezou's mother.

"Yes, I want to do this. I wouldn't care about all this stuff, but it's what you need to happen, and that's enough for me to agree. But I do want to make love with you, Maezou. There's something that you ought to know about me. I may not be faster than a speeding bullet, or more powerful than a locomotive, or able to leap tall buildings, but if I have a choice and it's explained to me so that I can understand it in my own simple way,... well, if I tell you something – then you ought to know that I mean it."

He hugged her to him tightly, "I heard what was said and I get it. I might just die doing this. I'm not crazy about it, I'm probably a little scared of that, but not all that much, I don't think. I see this as my part of what we're doing for each other. You've done what you had to do and soon it'll be my turn. I still want to do this for you."

She didn't know what to say to him.

"By the way," he said, "If it happens, I want you to know that as far as I'm concerned, if I die, you already have my release from this if that's what you need from me. Just how is it that I'm supposed to die, if it happens?"

She snorted a bit sadly at the irony of it. "What was supposed to happen in these bindings was that a human seduces and binds a demon. It was to work no matter what the ones in it were, male, female, two of one kind, anything. The human receives some long life, a slave for pleasure, and power. I don't think that you noticed, but the final words are for the bound one to say, so that they have the last chance to avoid the binding."

He nodded, "I noticed, but I didn't know what it was for. That makes sense."

"Toby, I told you that this was never meant for ones like us. I think that if there was love in it, it was probably one-sided and the slave gave all to a greedy human. When they joined, the human began to receive the gifts. But this was also never meant for much more than weak upper demons at best. We both love each other. That is an important difference, and better for everything – but much more dangerous for you. I am not one like that. I was once, and for a long time, but not anymore. I am a strong demon. That's why no other form of binding would work."

She thought for a moment and felt the cold edge of her fear in her chest for him. He looked down and he saw that her eyes were filling. He touched her head and stroked her red braids with his fingertips, "Come on, Maezou. I know I'm really blind in almost all of this, but I've found that in anything, it's better to know as much as you can beforehand." He kissed her lips softly, "That's what I'm trying to find out now. As much as you try to hide it, and as obviously powerful as you are from my point of view, I've noticed that you do have your own fears – and I hate to see them in you. Just say it so that I understand it, honey."

Maezou sighed, "I always tried not to look at things too much, because I always saw unfairness to me. I found it easier never to try too hard to see. But some things cannot be ignored, no matter how hard I tried not to see what is plain. I think that any ruler who sends a hunter gets more than the value of the soul. They must, or they could just sit and wait for the normal amount of souls to come. So there must be more value added for the trouble of keeping and sending out hunters. If I am right, then my life has been even more unfair because I got nothing for what I did for all of that time."

"Most of the ones I was sent for were nothing much in effort to my eyes and I didn't care anyway, but over time, I saw that I was sent on harder and harder hunts. There were hunts where I would arrive to find others waiting for me. Not demons, Toby. The other servants. We never spoke to each other, but they led me right to where I needed to be and they waited while I took the soul. I hated those hunts, because I often had to work hard and it was a short hunt, so I had no luxury of time to stalk and set things up to make it easier for myself. Once, the man was leaving on – what do you call those loud things with two wheels?"

"Motorcycles?" he suggested.

"Yes," she said, "he was already moving away quickly. I looked at the others and they only looked at me, as though they expected something of me. I was angry because I had just finished a hard hunt like this, and now I had another one. I could have flown after him, but I reft his soul out of him from where I stood hundreds of feet away in my rage. It flew to me and his machine went on for a time, slowing until it hit a building. The others backed away from me, and I left. I knew then that I was easily one of the best hunters and I knew why I was always given one hunt after another. I must have been making my ruler rich if he could guarantee that his huntress would always come back with the wanted soul. His price for that must have been high."

She drew a deep breath. "If a demon gave themselves to this binding, and they were the usual sort, how much could the human have gotten from them? Longer life and a little magic ability? So, if I am this powerful huntress, what will you get from me when we do this, Toby? Beyond what you would need to keep yourself and me safe, as I would do for you, I do not care. For my part, you could have all of it. I only want to love you. I just want your love for me. But you're a man. There must be limits to how much of me you can take. I am afraid that once we start loving each other, it will be too much and it might kill you."

She looked up, so afraid now, "I have no way to give only a little at a time. Once we begin, you get what you get. All of us - Zele, my mother, and I - we are afraid that it will be too much all at once. I will try to hold back anyway, but I don't know how, and you will get weaker until you come out of it. What happens if you weaken enough to die before you come out of it? I am so afraid of this. I don't want to lose you now."

She watched as he clenched his jaw. It frightened her a little until she noticed that he felt resolved and determined about something. He wasn't angry at her.

He smiled down at her, "You know what? Let's go back to the wedding idea for a minute. If you were a human girl and you were dumb enough to want a jerk like me, we'd get engaged, and then the whole time up to the day of our wedding, your life would be a whirlwind of preparation leading up to the big day. For human women, this is their day, and it's all about them. I think that you've been trying hard to not look at how this might come out. I'd like this better if you just kept doing that, Maezou. I don't care if you have to fool yourself or whatever else. Try to look at it like that, ok? This is your big day. I'd want you to be happy more than looking scared to death the way that you do now."

He held her for a minute longer, "You were going to get the stuff from the bedroom."

She nodded and walked up the stairs, meeting Zele on the way. Her friend looked concerned, but put her paw on Maezou's shoulder and held up her other one with the fingers splayed widely as a motion to stop as she began to whisper. "Zele sees now how he is. He is right. Try to be happy - for him at least. We hope for you and him. If you are afraid and sad like this and he lives, you will have missed your joy. He tries for you. You should try for him too." She walked to the front room of the house, fading out of sight to peer out of the window.

Toby was lost in thought as he began to put wood and kindling into the stove. He had just added a few pieces of newspaper in some of the spaces that he'd left when she came back. Maezou saw what he was doing and dropped everything. Toby was reaching for the matches.

"No "she said, "here." She pointed to the contents of the stove. He looked from her finger to the wood, and saw that the newsprint was curling, and some of the kindling was beginning to smoke. She snapped her fingers, and it lit with a gentle "whuff". He looked at her and she said, "I could have just thrown a fireball, but it's too much of a shock to the stove I think, and the wood still wouldn't be going right. This way, it's a gentle start, but it gets going quicker." Toby saw that she was trying hard to lighten up.

He stared at her as she spread out everything and looked a little happier. He chuckled, "You know, seeing you bustle around like that is ... I don't know, it's really good to see. I almost hate to tell you that the couch is a pullout bed, though I haven't pulled it out in a long time."

She spun around, "Oh, no. We can use the couch as a couch. We can even use the couch to, you know. But you and I are going to get just a little wilder than most furniture can stand, Toby. You don't just bed a demon girl on a bed. That's why I wanted a place like this, only a floor or the ground will do, you'll see. This is going to be different from anything that you've ever done before. Leave the drapes shut, and, oh please – please tell me that you have candles."

"I bought a few after the last time that this happened. I also have a couple of oil lamps. Do you want me to get them?" Maezou shook off the last of her gloom with an effort. Zele had been right. So had Toby. If this worked out, she'd feel better looking forward to it. She smiled and felt herself brighten.

She looked happy, and Toby found himself grinning just to look at her, "Bring all the candles, Toby. We probably won't use all of them, but still ... But don't bring the oil lamps. There might be a fire if we use them."

He shook his head, but brought her the candles and the candle holders that he had from all over the house, "I don't get it. How can open candles be less of a hazard than oil lamps?"

She just grinned wickedly, "You'll see ..."

She added more wood to the stove and with a wave of her hand, there was a very gentle breeze moving the air around the room. She set the candles up throughout the room, choosing the places carefully, and then lit them from a little fireball that she held in her hand. Toby couldn't believe what he was looking at.

Maezou spoke to him over her shoulder, "Take off your pants, Toby." She turned to him with a look that stirred his heart, "Are you wondering now what you're getting into?"

He looked at her a little uncertainly and nodded.

She smiled and chuckled softly, "Me."

He stood, and she admired him, "I told you that I made my decision last night. I thought everything over, and it took a while to work out how this could be done between two unlikely ones like us without breaking or messing up any rules that I could think of. Then as you slept, I prayed to whatever, or whoever runs this universe, and asked for the only thing that I've ever wanted for myself. After that I gave you a tiny gift while you slept. I got you hard, and moved myself to let it rest against me, and just held it there until I fell asleep."

"I wondered about that when I woke up, "he said, "I thought it had been having some fun without me."

She shook her head, "I'm sure it was happy, but no. I felt the tip and found one drop, and I let that be my reward on my tongue. I found out when you were at your best for ... this, and I've brought you back to that with my wish."

He had been semi-erect as they spoke. She stepped closer, and gently blew a puff of air at it. Within seconds, it slapped against his abdomen.

"Remember all those times when a stray thought was all it took?" She chuckled, "Watch what you think."

Maezou closed the distance between them and put her arms around his neck. "I love you, Toby. I think that the best way to start our life as a couple ... is for you to kiss me again, and please don't forget to put your tongue in my mouth."

Toby held her to him and they traded soft kisses for long minutes. He pulled back to look at her with a smile and licked her ear as lightly as he could, while she kissed his neck. When she felt herself shiver from what he was doing, she drew back her lips and dragged her teeth gently across his skin. To his surprise, he wasn't afraid or put off by it. He whispered his love for her, and she sighed, "I can't stand up much longer, Toby. I can feel your love. It feels so good, but I have to..."

She broke the embrace, pulled him to the floor, and they continued there. He worked from her throat and jaw to her shoulders and collarbones and he worked it well, licking and teasing, barely sucking and then nipping just as lightly. Toby kept his eyes open and couldn't get enough of her body and skin. They ran their hands everywhere that they could reach. He groaned to her as he licked and kissed, and Maezou answered with soft whimpers.

He reached a breast, and kissed his way around it as carefully as he could, before finally reaching the pebbly skin of her pale nipple. She gasped as he sucked it into his mouth. Toby almost ruined it with a grin as the cherry pit analogy came to him again, but he fought it off and kept on for her. He did this repeatedly, and she'd arch her back and gasp a little whenever he switched breasts. He noticed that she'd settle a little after that, but he felt as though she was anticipating the next time that he switched, so he tried to keep it as unpredictable as he could manage. Even so, she got the drift, and that's when he pressed his fingers against her mound softly to move in little motions that she couldn't predict as easily.

He stopped for a few seconds to look at her. He really wanted to cry because she was so lovely to him. As Maezou smiled and stroked his pectoral muscles, she said softly, "Toby, look down there, and you'll see it. I can feel my mist."

He turned his head and pulled back farther to see. Parts of his legs were already damp. He didn't crawl right down, but he saw a very faint swirl there, almost like the wisp of steam that curls from a kettle long after it's stopped boiling. He smiled at her, as he moved back up to kiss her mouth again.

"I can feel it, Maezou. You're soaked down there, and like everything else about you, the beauty can make my heart break just to look at. I saw only your back this morning when I woke up, but just studying you, I almost cried."

She sighed as she stroked his shoulders, "Before, you were a handsome man who was kind to me. Then you were Toby, my friend. Now you are my Toby, and I love you. Do you still want to lick me there? I've never felt that."

He smiled, and worked his way there quickly. He looked at the little wisp of fog that hung an inch over her at most. Her whole bottom end was slick, like the stones near a waterfall. Near the rise of her pubic bone, there were little droplets, shining in the dim light like tiny jewels. He'd never have believed that this was possible if it had been told to him by anyone but Maezou. The girl was a walking miracle to him, and he'd never seen this complex series of curves and swells that every woman has looking as stunning as this. It wasn't the slight haze there which wet everything, though that certainly helped. Toby had seen this part of her as they stood before each other in the bedroom. He knew this was here on her, obviously, but he also knew then that it was lovely.