The Pleasures of Hell 03.050

~~Day 73~~

~~David~~

He sat up, wiped the sweat from his brow, and looked around at the pile of bodies. Sexy, naked bodies.

Caera purred into his ear, pushed him onto his back, and cuddled into his side. Daoka cuddled into his other side, and she chirped and smiled at him and kissed his ear.

Jes lay on the Las, literally. In a strange twist, the little ladies had jumped her and filled her with tongues, rendering her defenseless. Apparently, the story of how she'd stabbed Silvain had impressed them.

David had dug a ditch for them, wide, with tall walls. Plenty of space. The demons had killed the remnants, too, so they had peace and quiet. Not really. There was still the endless choir of hundreds of thousands of remnants around, past the walls of their ditch. But whichever demons took watch kept any remnants from growing inside their little fortress.

With no risk of nearby demons, and thus probably no nearby angels, David was free to play the music and craft them a small fortress. It was nothing but ditches and walls of rock, and if they wanted to get from one room to another, they had to climb over the walls; he sucked at building, but he'd get better. With him in the current room were Caera, Daoka, Jes, and the Las. Laoko, Timaeus, Acelina, and Moriah had rested in another room.

He'd asked Acelina and Laoko if they'd wanted to join, but they'd said no. Strange, considering how much they'd enjoy the night in the spire, but whatever reason they had, they didn't share it, and he didn't press it. Timaeus had no interest in fucking the ladies, apparently, and Moriah...

"Moriah," he whispered, and Caera and Daoka cuddled in closer, ears near his mouth. "You think she'll join us someday?"

"You want another girl wrapped around you?" Caera asked.

"Not sex. Well, I mean... that's not what I was thinking. I just meant she's alone. She could be sitting with us."

Jes climbed off the Las, got up, stretched her wings, and pulled her tail around in front of her.

"Give her time. I'm sure you'll seduce her."

"I'm not trying to seduce her."

Daoka giggled and rubbed her nose into his ear.

"Maybe," Jes said. "But if this journey is going to take months, and it probably will, sex is a good way to make sure we don't break."

"Demons and angels can break like that?" David asked.

The gargoyle shrugged, picked Lasca up by her legs, hung her upside down, and swished her left and right so she swayed like a pendulum. Lasca giggled and let her arms, tail, and wings go limp with the swaying.

"Maybe not like humans," Jes said. "You can lock up a demon in a hole in the ground for a million years and they won't break. Angels too, I assume. But that doesn't mean this trip isn't going to get hard."

Nodding, Caera nuzzled into his neck, opposite of Dao, and she kissed his earlobe. "Use your aura and make her fuck you."

"Uh... I'd prefer to not do that."

She chuckled and licked his neck, cat style. "You're so sweet."

The benchmark of being 'sweet' in Hell was, apparently, not raping someone.

"You wouldn't--"

"I haven't," Caera said, chuckling again and rubbing her cheek on his. "But this is Hell. Demons enjoy doing what they want to souls, and that often includes sexual things. That's just a part of how Hell works."

He frowned. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

Daoka sat up, smiled at him, and trailed some claws down his naked chest as she clicked.

"Dao's right," Jes said. She scooped up Laara, and dangled her upside-down from a leg, one La in each of the gargoyle's hands. "You can be all sweet and romantic, and I bet that works on some girls. But sometimes, a man's gotta be aggressive. You ever see Rocky? He had that girl--"

"Adrian," he said.

"Right. He practically had that girl pinned to his door! And she melted right into him."

He rubbed his face. Never did he think seeing such an old movie would provide valuable information for a conversation in Hell.

"That's... I mean... I don't know. I'm not Rocky. I can't imagine doing that. And besides, he knew the girl when he did that. And..." Navigating the nuances of romantic intentions was something he'd never understand, let alone the very problematic topic of when being aggressive was a good idea or a bad idea, when it was romantic and exciting, or just abusive. It was a tough thing to figure out for normal people on the surface, let alone him in Hell. Why couldn't people just say what they want, directly, with no fluff? Preferably in an e-mail, in bullet-point form.

"Girls like aggressive guys," Jes said, and she dangled Laara and Lasca over him. "You got Daoka and Caera here spoiling the fuck out of you, doing all the work. Next time, I want you to turn on your aura, come up behind him, choke me, spank my ass, and body slam me."

He gulped. "Uh... I don't think I can lift you like that. Or reach your neck well enough to choke you."

"Grow more."

"I'll get right on that."

Laria and Latia giggled, crawled past their dangling kin, and sat on his legs.

"Rough sex!" Laria said, and she bounced on him a couple times. He would have said ow, but large, jiggling breasts on the short-stack's tiny body slapped his brain stupid.

Daoka chirped, scooped the girl up, set her on her lap, and hugged her. Breasts on breasts, squish. David stared.

"No no," Jes said, and she poked Dao's horns with her tail. "Rough."

"Both," Caera said, and she licked his neck again.

Was that the party dynamic? Jes was rough stuff. Daoka was sweet and gentle. Caera was a mix?

With a heavy groan, a set of horns poked up over a stone wall, and Acelina eyeless-ly glared at them.

"Must you always, always talk of sex?"

Jes pointed up at the spire mother and grinned at her. "The fuck you doing over there, anyway? I was looking forward to a drink."

Acelina snorted. "My breasts are not yours to drink from whenever you desire."

"Uh huh."

"And if you must know, I was speaking with Laoko privately."

Jes tilted her head. "That conversation took hours?"

"Yes. It did." Laoko's voice. Her horns poked up over the wall, expression serious. "And we spoke with Timaeus. He will be joining us, but it is best we give him space."

David sat up. "We were concerned he was leaving?"

The tetrad nodded. "I was. But he understands the importance of the mission."

Demons might not have had the special 'something' human souls had, but that didn't mean they didn't have their own struggles. At first, Timaeus had seemed like a smart-but-goofy sorta demon. Now he was full on brooding.

"Timaeus no join us?" Lasca asked. "Sex! Rough sex!"

"Timaeus has little interest in women," Laoko said. "And David has little interest in men, correct?"

He nodded. A lot.

"But that is not the reason Timaeus is upset." Sighing, she hopped over the wall. For just a moment, David thought she was naked, and he stared, hoping to admire the copious amount of jiggle guaranteed to follow her landing. Alas, wearing her armor. "But the fact he is well fed, as am I, is definitely a boon." She held out her bad arm. Not so bad anymore.

"Indeed," Moriah said. The angel hopped over the wall and joined them. She flexed her little wing, winced, and rotated her bad shoulder. "Hellfire is slowing my regeneration, but I do feel much better. A few more weeks."

"Awesome," David said.

Moriah smiled. A little thing, but a smile. She wiped it away quickly and gestured out of the fortress pit.

"Let's go. Arm and prepare, demons."

Daoka shook her head and pulled David into a tight embrace. Cum oozed between her legs.

"We can fuck later," Jes said. "If David's gonna keep us this well fed across Hell, I'm sure we'll be fucking every night."

Caera nodded agreement and stretched out, classic cat style. David stroked her head, and she pushed it into his hand. If not cat, why cat shaped?

Daoka sighed and clicked, but Jes picked her up and shoved her toward the pile of armor.

"David, stop encouraging her," Jes said.

He put up his hands. "Me, encourage her? She's worse than me!"

Armor in hand, Jes rolled her eyes and strapped on her breastplate. "Daoka is a sweet, innocent little girl. You're taking advantage of her."

He blinked and stared at Daoka. The satyr licked her fangs, spent a few moments massaging her heavy breasts, and stuck her ass out as she strapped on bits of her armor.

He pointed. "She's a succubus!"

Caera laughed. "Never seen a succubus with curved horns."

Nodding, Daoka put on her breastplate, and chirped and gestured out of the pit, the direction Moriah had pointed.

Whatever she said, it earned a groan from Moriah.

"Is that how our trip through the Scar will go?" the angel asked. "This boy -- young boy, barely a man -- will drown in succubi?"

Laoko checked her swords, tested the mostly blunt blades with her fingertips, and grinned down at David.

"That could be useful. It is a province of vola, and vola use sex to manipulate each other, and stronger demons. If David can use his aura, and that delightful cock of his, to control the vola instead, he could become quite powerful in the Scar." She laughed and sheathed her weapons. "And if he could seduce all of them, he could rule the province."

Everyone looked at David.

He put up his hands in surrender. "Uh, that's... what, a hundred thousand succubi and incubi?"

"More," Acelina said. "A province used to have about a hundred thousand, and another hundred thousand imps and grems. But for many years now, the Scar, Death's Grip, and likely the Black Valley have been trying to grow their numbers. It could be twice that. Maybe more."

The idea of an army of absurdly sexy demons all following his command was too unreal to even grasp. The horny part of his mind immediately had some ideas involving orgies and pleasuring the girls with him now. But the logical part of his mind came in a second later and kicked him in the balls.

"I uh... don't think I'd make a good ruler."

"Probably not," Caera said, putting on armor. "But we'd help."

"Sure," Jes said. "I mean, I expect a dozen incubi to satisfy mine and Dao's every whim as payment."

Dao nodded, clicked, and made some phallic gestures.

"Dao!" Jes laughed and shook her head. "You couldn't fit that many. And besides, David's a human. You know how they are."

David scrunched up his nose. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. Greedy assholes. You don't want to share."

He opened his mouth, and closed it. She was right. Sharing did not come easily, especially where sex was involved. Demons weren't like that, though.

"I... I mean... I--"

"Don't worry about it," Caera said. "Demons know what souls are like. Problem is, souls don't really know what demons are like." She towered over him, pulled him up to his feet, still towered over him, and kissed him. Her subtle cat-ish snout always made kissing an exercise in caution, his lips brushing against her fangs. And a little tingle worked down his spine when one of her fangs lightly caught on his lip.

Moriah rolled her eyes, but didn't disagree, either. From the look she gave Caera, she could have replaced 'demons' with 'demons and angels'. But she didn't say anything.

Everyone got dressed. The girls still had David's cum dripping down their thighs, but it'd fade soon. And from the way they slapped on their armor like it didn't matter, they were used to wet stuff on their skin between the armor, probably blood.

David snuck a few glances Caera's way as she crawled out of the little fortress, back into the Dead Lands. He'd made the walls high and thick so they blocked a lot of sound, but once the group was back in the thick of remnants, the endless choir of screams came right back. If he ever got good enough and strong enough with the music, he'd make a proper home; assuming living a life in Hell was an option. He'd craft a castle, and--who the fuck was he kidding? He sucked at that stuff. No patience. Mia could craft it for him.

And Caera could live in it with him. The girls could live with him, too, but he definitely wanted Caera with him. Would she? The fuck did it even mean that demons and angels were different from humans? How did that affect things? He needed definitions, rules, something to tell his brain what to expect, what course to follow, how things worked. Figuring out romance between humans was fucking impossible, so how the fuck was he supposed to figure it out with demons?

Mia would tell him to stop thinking about it so damn much and actually get up off his autistic ass and just talk to her. Easier said than done. They never got a moment's privacy, and... he was terrified.

Timaeus led the group again, still ahead, but not so great a distance. Laoko followed behind him, then Jes, Dao, and Caera, side by side. David walked behind them, Las behind him, Moriah behind them, and Acelina in the back. It was a formation they'd grown used to, and it worked.

There were no demons in the Dead Lands, no souls, and probably no angels. If there was ever a safe place to split up so he could talk to her privately, it was now.

Deep breath.

"Caera," he said. "Can I talk to you? In private?" She looked back and raised a brow, and Jes did the same, but he gestured behind them. "Just a bit behind the group."

She shrugged and nodded, and the two slowed down until everyone passed them. The Las looked back, curious, but Acelina shooed them on ahead, and spared a glance back at him, too. Unreadable. Whatever the spire mother was thinking, he still couldn't figure out.

"Something on your mind?" Caera asked. They were back far enough the group was still visible ahead of them, but with quiet voices and the endless screams of the Dead Lands remnants, it was as close to private as they were gonna get.

He took a deep breath and stared at the bloody ground. A path of remnant guts was hardly the place to have this conversation, but it was Hell, she was a demon, and he had to get over it. And he was just looking for any excuse to not have the conversation at all.

"I wanted... to talk about us." Like a band-aid, rip it off.

Caera froze for a moment. "What do you mean?"

He took another deep breath. It didn't help.

"I've never dated anyone. I don't know how to date. I don't know anything about romance, except what I've read in stories, and none of that shit was realistic." Rambling, David. Get to the point. "I like you. I like that you like talking about history and stuff. I like that we get along. I like that you were willing to talk with me about personal stuff. I like--"

Caera half choked on a laugh, walked closer to him, and nudged her head against his hip; she was on all fours.

"Us? You wanted a private conversation about us?"

"Y-Yeah. I mean, I thought we were getting close. Are we... not?" He stopped breathing entirely.

Caera sighed and shook her head. Ice filled his guts. But the tiger lifted her head, smiled up at him with her single eye, and rubbed the scarred eye into his side.

"Did what Moriah say spark this?"

"I... Yeah, it did. A bit. If you were human, I'd still be saying the same things, still tripping over every word, but... but I..." He rubbed his face. "Fuck me, I don't know what I'm saying. I just know that I like you, a lot."

"You don't like the other girls?"

"I do! I do like them. Jes and Dao are great, and they were my first and--"

"And Acelina?" Caera's grin was unrelenting. "You like her, for more than her tits."

"I like her, too. She acts like a bitch, but there's more to her than that."

"And Laoko?"

"She's... crafty, isn't she? She's smart and crafty."

"The Las?"

"They're adorable and fun."

She nodded. "And Moriah?"

"I... I hadn't really thought about her that way."

Laughing again, Caera nudged into him harder. "Of course you have. Yeah, you met her in rough circumstances, but that was then. I'm not mad at her for this." She aimed her ruined eye socket up at him. "And she's pretty different from us, isn't she? She acts differently. You could trust her with anything and you know she'd never betray you."

"I mean, yeah, she's an angel, but it's not like..." Where the fuck was this conversation going? "Wait. Is this something you've been thinking about?"

She shrugged, while prowling. "Yes, but... I don't know. I think about it, but it's not like humans would. I see you with them, and I think 'he looks so happy'. And I like that."

He finally took a breath. Then stopped again. There was ambiguity in that statement.

"I'm... happiest when I'm with you."

Caera stared up at him. "Why? W--You just explained why. I'm dumb."

He blinked back down at her. That was a nervous reply. She was nervous! A bit.

"I like the other girls, I do. But I... I don't crave talking to them, you know? I like talking to them, a lot. Every day I wake up happy to be traveling with you girls. But... But it's you I wanna stay up all night talking with."

She laughed. "We've never done that. We always do shifts."

"We should stay up all night! If we were on the surface, it'd just happen. On the surface, you can't fall asleep when excited. We'd stay up and talk about stuff. You'd talk about all the things that make you happy. I'd talk about all my nerd stuff."

"You sound like you've dated before."

He shook his head. "I haven't. Maybe it's just a human thing, you know? It's something we crave." Fingers out, he counted off three. "Mia was talking about it, and one idea really clicked. A complete romantic"--he half choked the moment the word was out of his mouth. It was a scary word--"connection, needs three things. Emotional, intellectual, and sexual connection. I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but that was pretty good, right? It's how humans can really connect when in a pair; sometimes more than a pair, but that's rare. We bond, and... and... and I'm ranting."

The tiger laughed again and nudged into his side. "I like your rants."

"I like your... you."

A little shiver worked through the tiger, and she rubbed up against him a little harder. He almost fell over.

"Kia and Marquez were my friends. We enjoyed talking with each other. We enjoyed fucking each other. And we were attached to each other. We liked each other. But..." She looked down and scratched lines in the ground as they walked. "When I lost them, I wanted revenge. You know all about it. But before then, when I was together with them, it was wonderful. It was like with Jes and Dao. Maybe not as bonded as them, but it was close. We were close. But... it's different when I'm with you."

"It is?"

"Yes. Jes and Dao probably feel the same. Moriah said it herself, that angels rarely get romantically involved with each other. What she didn't say, but I think we can fill in, is that angels prefer romance with souls." Sighing, Caera looked around, single eye taking in the nearby remnants and endless fog. "The only souls we get down here are assholes, but there's a reason many demons watch scrying pools so often. I hadn't pieced it together until Moriah said it. We want what only humans have."

"I don't get it. You telling me demons can't love each other?"

"I'm saying there's... a spark missing. I liked Kia and Marquez, a lot. Maybe even loved them. But..." She shrugged. "I don't know. There's just something not there. We all know it. We all see it in the scrying pools, and Moriah confirmed it. You heard Jes say it. There's something not there, but... but when we're with a human, it's different. It's there. We can almost taste it." Despite the screaming choir around them, the air was cold and quiet. He was holding his breath again. But Caera smiled up at him and nudged into him more, melting the ice. "I just know that when I got you in my arms, I feel different, David. I want to wrap you up, hold you, eat you, and--"

"Whoa, eat me?"

Like a child admitting a lie, she looked down and away. "Yes. Me, the others, I bet we all fantasize about it, about... absorbing that spark in you. Literally. Maybe in a bloody mess, with teeth, and meat."