A/N: I'm new to posting my writing, and I decided to start by posting a backlog of older pieces with minimal editing. Hopefully you'll see the quality increase with newer writing! Feedback welcome.
~Lacey
***
Zalliana licked her newly made lips and smiled at the mortal in front of her.
She had just been summoned from the ether, freshly incarnated, theoretically ready to serve whoever had called her.
The mortal in front of her was rather average looking, for one of his kind, with sandy skin, short brown hair, and piercing blue eyes.
She assessed her own body with her hands and eyes, which made him raise a brow. It was far from the worst one she'd been placed in, it was strong and complete. She even had her curved horns jutting from her forehead, sometimes the lazy ones couldn't get that right. Her new master, it seemed, was meticulous.
In some areas, at least.
He'd 'neglected' to ensure she'd manifest with clothes, and, much more egregious...
She stepped out of the circle, still smiling, and the man in front of her went pale.
"That's not-- You're not supposed to--"
She padded closer to him, clawed feet gently tapping against the cold concrete floor. He fell silent, eyes darting around as though he wanted to run, but he stayed put.
"I believe that 'supposed to' is rather a silly concept," She started conversationally. "Sure, I'm not supposed to be able to step outside the circle, but where would the fun be in that?"
The flickering light bulb above them shattered at her thought, leaving only the ritual candles to light the room. The human cursed, startled, but still didn't move away from her, though he gripped the edge of the table behind him.
"I wasn't going to say that," he said, voice slightly shrill from fear.
She stepped past him and to the books on the table, paging through his notes with interest, golden eyes soaking in every detail.
"Hm?"
"I wasn't going to say that you weren't supposed to be able to leave the circle. I didn't mean for you to be bound to that one spot." He was getting his nerve and color back, he even attempted a leer. "Not magically bound, anyways."
She rolled her eyes, still looking through the books. "Yes. 'Oh no, I meant to do that!' Very convincing, and not at all childish."
"It's true, though. You're bound to the room."
She tentatively tried to poke a tendril of her power forward, backwards, in all directions, for a couple dozen feet, and found that she couldn't.
The demon pushed past the human, ignoring his shiver when she brushed up against him. A closer investigation of the walls revealed the binding runes, and she sighed.
"Why would you bind me to a location, then step inside it? I'm aware the state of general magical education has fallen downhill, but this is just tragic."
"Because... if you were in a circle, it would be harder to do this."
He put a hand on her shoulder and turned her to face him, then kissed her, hard but not deep. His eyes were screwed up in concentration, but hers were open, and though she responded to the kiss, she didn't let it go on for long.
Zalliana smiled down at the man in front of her, eyes glowing in the dim candlelight.
"There are easier ways to find a lover. If humans aren't to your taste, there are even easier beings to seduce, and less dangerous ones. A nymph or a satyr would fuck you six ways from Sunday if you but asked."
He seemed almost... disappointed. The man had clearly been hoping for her to be at least a little caught off guard by the kiss, which she thought was silly.
She had known men, in all the various ways they can be known, for centuries. She knew when one of them wanted to fuck her.
He wasn't exactly the most subtle of men, either. She crossed her arms over her chest, less out of modesty, and more out of a desire to be able to hold a conversation. He met her eyes once more, blushing slightly.
"Well... I've read about you, Zalliana."
It wasn't her True Name, far from it, but it was enough to send a pulse of heat through her as she imagined him moaning it underneath her. She cocked her head to the side, still smiling, and leaned in closer.
"What have you read?"
"First hand accounts, you know, research. Everything... Everyone said you were enchanting."
"Of course. They're quite right." She blinked slowly at him. "Was that all?"
"They said-- There are lots of different associations for every demon, ah, that is, every fallen one, and one of yours was..."
"Yes?" She was enjoying drawing this out, or else she would have left by now. Exit to the rest of the human's plane might have been impossible, but not to her own. She knew what he'd heard, but she wanted to hear him say it.
"Ropes, and knots. And I like, well, I like tying people up, and, ah..." The notes he'd dropped in startlement caught his eye, and he read them from where he stood, squinting slightly. "Fallen one, I ask of you the knowledge, skill, and ability to safely bind, for beauty and function."
A decent request. Full of loopholes, of course. He was clearly an amateur, probably working out of his basement-- the wood paneling walls smelled slightly musty under the ritual incense. But it was a request she could fulfill.
She nodded, and uncrossed her arms. Her smile revealed sharp teeth, and his gaze flicked to them reflexively.
"I will teach you, and take my payment."
He looked surprised. "Well, hold on, aren't you supposed to--"
A rope appeared in her hands, strong, firm, black as shadows but run through with threads of deep purple. She grabbed his hands with one of her own and wrapped some of the rope around his wrists, deftly tying it off before he could think to resist.
"I believe we have covered what I feel about 'supposed to', Darren."
"It's just that, normally, I think we're supposed to negotiate a price, and then we both agree to it, and..." He trailed off, pulling against the rope.
Her smile was wider than a human face could manage, and certainly full of more teeth.
"I believe you misunderstand where the balance of power is here. Quite significantly, in fact." She sliced the excess rope away with a claw, then tested the bonds. "You are within my sphere of influence. When a human is within one of our spheres, we take what we desire, and we leave what we do not."
She ran that same claw down his chest, and he shivered, even through the fabric.
"I would be within my rights to kill you, or take you, or leave you for dead, or any of the much worse things you must have read about me and my siblings doing. But..."
"But?" He clung to the verbal lifeline desperately, hope and fear mixing in his deep blue eyes. It would be endearing, to the kind of person easily moved to mercy.
"But you are a fan of my work, and of my craft. I will give you the experience you wished for, Darren, and you will even live to share."
"Thank you, oh, I--"
"Call me by my name, human, and what I am to you."
"Th-thank you, Mistress Zalliana."
She beamed and nodded at him. "You'll be a good student, I can tell." She used her claws to tear off his shirt and pants, leaving only a pair of navy briefs.
"Hey!"
She raised an eyebrow. "You couldn't have taken it off like this, and you couldn't have continued to wear it."
"Why not?" He looked uncomfortable, vulnerable, delightful.
"You need the full sensation of the ropes on your body if you wish to learn anything," she said, as though it was obvious. The added visual appeal was just a bonus.
He wasn't particularly visibly muscled, academic types rarely were, but he had enough meat on his bones to look just fine, if you asked her.
The shaderope coiled back around her wrist, loosely, ready to obey her wishes, and she hummed.
"Get down on your knees."
Darren did as she asked, though somewhat awkwardly, and his eyes darted nervously about. She wasn't sure what he was looking for, it must have just been a nervous tic.
"Don't worry, darling," she crooned, stroking his hair. "It's going to be okay."
He didn't look particularly reassured, but that was hardly the point, regardless.
She wrapped a loop around his shoulders and secured it at his back, then did the same under his arms, and lower, and lower, until his back and chest were symmetrical pieces of art composed of crisscrossing lines. It wouldn't restrict his movement as much as it looked like it would, but it would form a solid anchor to attach other ropes. She ended it just below the swell of his ass, the last binds securing his upper thighs and ensuring the rope wouldn't be able to slide up his body and free him.
"I don't think this is going to teach me anything." Bold words, delivered with a veneer of bravado painted over a voice attempting to quiver.
"Well, who's the teacher here? Who is the expert?" She circled around in front of him with a gleam in her eye, fangs sharp and glinting in the candlelight.
"...You are."
"I am...?"
"You are, Mistress Zalliana."
She grinned, then got back to work.
"Precisely. Now, hold still, this won't hurt you."
With a snap of her fingers, he floated off the ground. Contrary to her orders, he started to writhe, panicked.
When she next spoke, the fires of her home roared in the echoes of her voice. "Hold. Still."
The struggling stopped instantly.
The important thing, she mused, when getting someone not to react to their fear, is making sure they fear something else more.
She nudged his knees further apart, moved his feet to where they needed to be, and then began tying his legs to secure them in that position. It was a versatile one, she could secure it to the ropes around his torso to keep him in a kneeling position, or lay him back. She chose the latter.
