The Scarlet Dove Issue 17

Issue Seventeen ~ The Final Betrayal

Back Then...

"Tom...we can't..."

The hand on her shoulder slid over and down her back, his rough fingers tickling the gentle curve just above her belt. The feeling gave Sara Kane a chill, sending goosebumps rippling across her porcelain skin. He took her hand, gripping it tightly and rubbing his thumb against her sensitive palm, sending an irresistible rush up her arm.

"I need you," he whispered, his hot breath brushing her neck.

"We can't," she whispered. "I can't."

"I know you want to," he replied without missing a beat. "You can feel it, can't you? Feel yourself wanting...needing me?"

Sara could feel her cheeks growing warm. Her heart beat a little fast as she began to feel powerfully drawn to him. As always.

"Yes," she murmured.

"Of course you can," Tom Danvers was speaking in a soft, soothing tone. "Because a part of you belongs to me, that part you know only I can ever truly touch."

His words poured into her ears like sweet, smooth honey. He took her hand and led her to the couch. Tom pushed the curly red bangs back from her face and looked into her pale blue eyes. Sara felt almost captivated by his gaze. The longer she looked into his eyes, the more she desired to give herself to him, to give of herself to him.

Tom leaned forward, pressing his lips against hers. Sara returned the kiss, hesitantly at first but feeling her reluctance begin to melt. When he pulled her towards him, she felt a similar compulsion. She came to him, crawling up onto his lap and kissing him deeply.

Sara paused, pulling away. "What about Jack? I don't know if I can betray him this way anymore..."

"Sshh," Tom interrupted pressing a finger over her ruby lips. "I know you love him. But we both know, he needs this as much as you do."

"But he wouldn't understa-ahhh..."

Reaching down, Tom slid a hand under her skirt to grab her warm mound. Sara gasped, swallowing an involuntary moan. She felt an instant rush of warmth, followed by an intense yearning.

"And I need you in a way he

never

will," Tom went on.

Sara felt an overwhelming desire to submit herself to Tom Danvers. She wanted to be consumed, devoured, to pour her very life force into his, as she'd done many times before. She knew he would use that energy to protect her husband, but there was something within her as well...a deep desire to give of herself that way.

"I'm ready," she groaned. "Take me Tom, take me now!"

Danvers laid her back on the couch, quickly wrestling off his pants. Even in the dim light Sara could see his cock already erect and eager. Laying beneath him, the woman gathered her skirt around her hips and spread her long, slender legs. Danvers loomed over her, pulling her panties aside and rubbing the head of his cock along her damp seam, causing tendrils of warmth to crawl through her torso.

Sara moaned, her chest flooding with sensual energies as her soft pink nipples grew stiff and erect. Suddenly a bolt of pure lust rippled down her spine, ending in a wet gush between her legs.

Her hand slid up the back of his neck, into his thick salt and pepper hair, pulling him to her. Danvers leaned down, kissing Sara as he pushed the head of his cock into her tight wet cunt. At the moment of penetration, Sara moaned into his mouth and her thighs trembled against his hips. The throbbing warmth as his manhood filled her, sent a rush of energy up through her chest and down her mile-long stems. Tom pulled back, beginning to pump his rigid member in and out of her slick little tunnel. Sara held him close. She kissed his face and neck, even as her own delicate throat and chest flushed bright red.

"Take me, Tom," she panted. "Drain me completely, take all of me!"

Danvers was only half-demon, but the power of the incubus had her fully under its sway. No woman could resist that demonic influence, however, poor Sara Kane had been corrupted at her core. She wanted to give herself entirely to the draining of her lifeforce, to be devoured and consumed and to die in the arms of Tom Danvers. He never knew why she was so susceptible, but it made being with her all the sweeter.

She moaned desperately, feeling his cock swelling and thrusting inside her needy, aching cunt. Sliding so deeply, it took her breath away and left her head spinning. Each time it plunged into her, she felt a surge of orgasmic energy building between her shapely hips and spreading slowly through her stomach and into her chest.

Along with the sensual electricity buzzing through her body, she began to sense her own life force being pulled to the surface, gathered in preparation. She could sense the hunger, the lusting, the needing, Tom wanted her in a way no human man ever truly would...completely and ravenously. There was something intoxicating, addicting about being wanted that way.

Clutching at Tom's muscular arms, Sara wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him into her even more deeply. She moaned eagerly, feeling her orgasm building as his rigid tool plowed deep inside her. Her entire body seemed to fall in rhythm with his thrust, her heart beat, her breath, even her mind could think of nothing but the erotic sensation of his dick sliding in and out, in and out, in and out of her hot, gushing womanhood.

Sara whimpered, teetering on the edge of orgasm. Sensing this, Tom reached down and pressed his thumb into the soaking folds her labia against her pulsing clit. She felt an electric charge as the incubus reached into her and began drawing her life force. The woman surrendered immediately, ready to be devoured.

When Sara came, throwing her head back and crying out, Tom drained her. He absorbed her energy hungrily, greedily, believing that this surrender must be a truer bond than love. She gave of herself more deeply than Jack could ever understand, it wasn't just energy it was part of herself.

Those thoughts were enough to bring Tom to orgasm as well. Sara clung to him, feeling the gooey rush deep inside. Too quickly her strength ebbed, and she slumped onto the couch.

Quickly, Tom pulled away. He had nearly drained her too much, so intoxicated by the connection he felt to this woman.

"You know I'd do anything for you," he murmured, looking at her gorgeous body stretched out on the couch, her head at rest in a pool of crimson hair.

"D-do anything... to protect J-Jack," she replied weakly.

"Of course," Tom sighed. "The man who's every action puts his family at greater and greater risk."

"Scares even me sometimes," Sara admitted. "But I know this fight is something he has to do, and I'll support him to the bitter end."

"You have no idea how bad things are about to get," Tom sighed. "The enemy he's making..."

"That's why we do this despicable thing," Sara said, pushing up on her elbows. "So you have the power you need to protect him...so he can come home to his family..."

"How can you love him so?" Tom asked, doing up his belt and trousers.

"For the same reason you do," Sara replied.

Tom said nothing, regarding her with an expression that was half longing and half resentment.

"Because great men make us believe that we can be great too," she replied, sinking back on to the couch.

Tom made no reply. He waited, watching Sara until she'd fallen asleep then walked up the hallway. The door to the child's room was cracked, and he eased it open ever so quietly. He watched the little girl sleeping, so peacefully, and Tom Danvers dreamed of the things he would never have.

Prelude

"I heard Creed got dumped off at the PD, trussed up and basted like a goddam thanksgiving turkey?"

Tom Danvers eyes rolled so hard they nearly popped out of their sockets. "Aw gee, Pierce where do you get your intel? The River Run?" He turned to face the billionaire. "Speaking of, where are you at with that reporter dame?"

"Dame? Jesus, Danvers how old are you?"

The two men were in the security office of the Summit facility. Pierce was in his favorite spot, leaning against the door jam. He was wearing a sleek, navy blue suit. Tom was kicked back in front of the monitor bank, wearing his usual black tactical gear.

"Old enough to spank your little bottom," Danvers replied. "You were supposed to have run her out of town by now."

Pierce ran a hand through his hair, a viper's grin splitting his face. "Guess you haven't heard then."

"Heard what?" Danvers sat forward, crumpling a yellow sticky note in his fist.

"I got her man! I got that bitch!"

"You got her?" Danvers snapped, standing. "What do you mean you got her? You were supposed to run her off, not get her!"

"Oh...I guess Dominion doesn't tell you everything," Peirce replied snidely. "He sent me after her cuz she's the fucking Scarlet Dove!"

"Dominion sent you..."

"That's what he employs me for," Pierce smarmed. "Finish the job's you can't..."

"Dominion doesn't employ you at all, ya little shit," Danvers interjected. "He contracts your

family's

company, because he's old friends with your uncle."

"Yeah? Well, I'm still the one running this division!"

"You're what?!" Danvers laughed. "

I

run this division, kiddo, you're just middle management."

"I'll show you middle management, gramps," Pierce growled, straightening and cracking his knuckles.

Danvers's hand whipped across his face, an openhanded slap. Pierce threw a straight jab, followed seamlessly by a right hook. Danvers slipped the feint and accepted a knee in the ribs, which was the real attack. Grunting, he slammed an elbow into the billionaire whelp's chest, driving him back against the wall. Pierce snarled, throwing a rapid punch/elbow combo which Danvers blocked before slapping him again. He pinned the younger man's arm, then grabbed him by the throat.

"Good moves, kiddo," Danvers snarled. "But your batting out of your league, that's why you're really here." Pierce tried to speak but Danvers grip made sure that wasn't a possibility. "I asked for you to be assigned to this division because I didn't want any of your family members around that might be more difficult to control."

Pierce coughed as his throat was released. "You son of a bitch, I'm gonna..."

"You're gonna what, tell your uncle? Go for it," Danvers spat.

"Get fucked, Danvers," Peirce croaked, rubbing his throat. "I own this company and your boss sent me without even telling you...seems like things aren't what you think."

Danvers's eyes narrowed. "Where is she now?"

"Why should I...?"

"WHERE?" Danvers roared.

"She's locked up over at the Uhaul," Pierce replied, grudgingly.

"I'll let Dominion know," Danvers growled.

"Oh I already did," Pierce gloated. "Another thing you're out of the loop on, I guess."

"Apparently."

"Things are changing, old man," Pierce said, turning to leave. "I'm just letting you know."

Prologue

Tom Danvers approached the doorway slowly. It wasn't that he was afraid, but he had never entered to the "control room" for good reasons. Inside was a familiar sight, as it had been for months; a team of welders and electricians completing "the device," working new networks of wire into the walls, integrating them with the Summit's existing power grid, and ultimately affixing the whole contraption to the metal infrastructure of the hotel.

Danvers always felt a pang of guilt seeing the men working so diligently, since there was no earthly way they would be allowed to walk away from this job.

Dominion himself stood before "the device", currently a roughly two-story monolith of electronics and diodes, with wires and chords spreading out from it, reaching for the surrounding walls like some eldritch horror attempting to infect the building itself...which in a way it was. As always Dominion was wearing his combat armor, all black with an extravagant cape, and that mask with its white rimmed, horned eyeholes. He turned as Danvers entered, hazel eyes already blazing.

"What is it Danvers," Dominion growled. "I didn't summon you."

"How are the preparations com-" Danvers began, but Dominion cut him off.

"I asked what you wanted!"

Danvers met the other man's gaze steadily. "Why didn't you bring me in on your move against the Dove?"

Dominion crossed his armored arms and turned back to the construction. "We moved quickly, I didn't have time to."

"Bullshit," Danvers snapped. "You went to the whelp without even consulting me."

"The last time I consulted you," Dominion snarled. "The hatchet man you entrusted was found on the steps of the Warden City police department, unconscious and bound with a sticky note on his forehead meant to implicate Chief Maddox..."

"Creed?" Danvers scoffed. "Who gives a fuck?"

Dominion turned to regard him, that mask doing nothing to hide his scowl. "Setting that dog on the bird's tail was your plan was it not?"

"Mendeleev was the mission, not the Dove," Danvers said. "And the chemist is dead, right?"

"By all reports."

"Then what's the problem?"

"The problem is that my device is nearly complete," Dominion began intensely. "And yet that superheroine bitch is...was... still flying around my city, while my head of security out-sources what should be his own dirty work to filthy southerners!"

"Please," Danvers scoffed. "The Scarlet Dove has proven herself all but inept in her crimefighting endeavors, she hasn't made a single dent in your operation and ends up captured or tied up every..."

"All but inept!?" Dominion balked. "She has

all but

brought down the Scarpone crime family."

"Enemies of yours..."

"She is the reason Ozone is dead!"

"The mutant?? You're the one who-"

"She completely derailed my mission to the power plant!"

"Alright, so that's one," Danvers conceded.

"And now she has hand delivered the city's most dangerous hitman to the WCPD," Dominion went on. "And seems to suspect the very real conspiracy behind his escape, undoubtedly she will target Maddox next."

"To what end?" Danvers balked. "She's a vigilante who doesn't kill, how can she pose any threat to the chief of police?"

"Why are you arguing with me on this?" Dominion's expression shifted suddenly. "That super slut has shown up and interrupted our every mission...and yet you've done nothing since your ill-fated kidnapping attempt."

Danvers swallowed, narrowing his eyes. "Done nothing? Your operation doesn't run without me!"

Dominion crossed the short distance between them in a flash, seizing Danvers by the throat and lifting him off the ground. "And that was the deal we made!" the villain roared, drowning out the whir of servos from his exo-skeleton. "I spared the Kane bitches and in return you swore to ensure that my plans, ALL of my plans come to fruition!"

Danvers grabbed Dominion's wrist, adjusting just enough to look the other man in the eye. "I know the deal I made!"

"Yet, you have all but ignored the is most persistent problem," Dominion snarled, dropping him. "I begin to wonder if there isn't more to this?"

Tom Danvers rubbed his neck, considering the question. What would Dominion do if he found out that the young heroine was in fact one those "Kane bitches"? That that was why he was holding back on bringing her in.

"We've been at this a long time," Danvers replied at length. "Don't bullshit me, what are you getting at?"

Dominion eyed him for a long moment, then turned back to the device. "Do I need to question both your loyalty and your competence Tom?"

"My loyalty is exactly where it's always been!" Danvers snarled, turning to leave.

Chapter One

"Starling... Starling, wake up..."

The voice seemed far away. The young woman was drifting through a cold black void, yet she had the sense it was somehow more pleasant than where she'd be when she woke up.

"Starling...I know you're tired...but you have to wake up now..."

The voice reached down for her, gruff and unsettlingly familiar. Still Starling felt compelled to reach out for it, letting it pull her up from the inky blackness.

"Ffffuuhck, where...where am I?" the young woman moaned, her glassy green eyes fluttering open.

"You're in the holding cells of Ashton's facility," the voice responded, directly over her.

Starling sat up, scrambling back from the voice. Now that she was fully conscious and aware, she instantly recognized it to be Tom Danvers. She crawled into a corner, hugging her knees against her breasts. She was still naked, and her head was throbbing. They were still in the room where Pierce and Gabe had tortured her, the chain still hanging from the ceiling. Noticing that made her rub her wrists, they were chaffed and raw.

"Thank god you're okay," Danvers said, sitting cross-legged before her.

"I'm not."

"Well, I'm glad you're alive then," he reiterated.

"Sure," she spat. "What did you say this place is?"

"A holding cell," Tom explained. "In Ashtoncorp's secret facility."

"The Uhaul building?"

"Yes."

Starling eyed him from behind a curtain of damp red tresses. "Do you work for Dominion or the Ashtons?"

Danvers was quiet for a moment. "Dominion...I guess..."

"I see," Starling said. "Then you're not a mercenary, you're just an evil man."

"I...I suppose I am."

"Why are you here?" she asked coldly.

"Because we have to get you out of here before Dominion figures out who you are," Tom said.

"Figures out?" Starling croaked. "He already knows..."

"What?"

"He's known since I was held captive under the Summit."

Danvers winced. "Are you certain?"

"Yeah, Tom, I'm pretty sure," Starling pushed a handful of matted, crimson tangles back from her face. "Last time I fought him, he told me all about how you betrayed my dad under the pretense of saving me and my mother."

Tom's head drooped, and he nodded slowly. "That's true."

"I suppose you think that's somehow noble?"

"No."

"Or that it obliges me some gratitude for you," she went on. "Well it doesn't! In my opinion, it just makes your betrayal that much worse..."

"I know."

"Never mind the fact that you were in love with your supposed friend's wife," Starling rolled on. "But you didn't even try to stand by him...in the end, you tucked tale like a true coward..."

"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT!?" Danvers thundered, standing suddenly.

Starling fell silent as the man took a step towards her.

"And it's even worse than you think," he said. "In my heart of hearts, I can't deny that I betrayed your father to clear the way to your mother, as if once Jack was dead there'd be a white picket fence, and Sara and I would raise you as my own...as if..."

Starling's glare softened as the man withered under his confession.

"It was only after..." Danvers covered his face, sinking to his knees. "I realized, whether she knew or not, I'd never be able to look Sara in the eyes again. I'd sold my soul to the devil..."

Starling took a deep breath, and moved towards Danvers, kneeling in front of him despite her nakedness. She moved his hand, cupping his cheeks in her delicate palms and fixing his sorrowful gaze with her pretty green eyes.

"You would have to have a soul, to be able to sell it, you half-demon piece of shit," she said softly. "How long were you coercing and draining the life force from women before you met my mom? And then, what, you think that because you formed some emotional attachment to her, that changes who and what you are?" Danvers tried to pull away, but Starling held on, looking deep into his eyes. "You know what I found when I was researching that article on you? Nothing. You were a two-bit crook, and the press turned you into Robin Hood because it was a better story, trust me I'm a journalist..."

"...alright..." Danvers murmured.

"I know how to read between the lines," she went on. "I know what's embellishment and what's fact. And the fact is you were a two-bit crook before you met my parents, and nothing has changed...that's why you went on to serve Dominion all these years not because of any deal regarding me and my mother..."