Belly of the Beast Read online

  One moved toward her, undulating around her, flicking his tongue over her breast until her nipple grew turgid, standing erect. He bit down on it, drawing a gasp from her. She relaxed fractionally when she felt no more than a twinge of pain, but even as he moved away again she wondered if the next bite would, or the one after that. She knew once it began that it would continue much the same and feared once the fever was fully upon them that they would begin to bear down on her harder each time, biting her in truth rather than merely simulating a bite.

  As he left, another approached her from the other side, flicking his tongue over belly, nipping her flesh before he moved on. Both fear and heat surged inside her as another approached her, flicked his tongue over her other nipple and then, lightly, bit down on her, raking his teeth along the distended tip before he released it and moved away. Within moments, she felt them all over her, felt the flicking of their tongues over her skin, nipping her. Sometimes it bordered on pain, occasionally one bit her hard enough to draw a gasp from her, but she began to relax as pleasure began to far outweigh the discomfort and even the harder nips with sharp teeth sent heat spiraling into her belly.

  She closed her eyes, but that only seemed to focus her mind more surely on the sensations flooding her. Her head began to swim as the drugging euphoria of bliss sucked her down. Despite the clouding of her mind, she tensed as she felt the heated flick of a tongue along one thigh. The licking moved lower, traced her nether lips and the seam where they met. After a moment, the tongue parted her nether lips, flicking along her cleft. Gasping, she pushed backward with her legs, moving away from the touch.

  To her relief, instead of following her, he moved away.

  Her relief was short lived. A moment later, Behsart knelt over her. Straddling her belly, he dragged her hips to the edge of the offering stone once more until it bit into her buttocks and her legs strained against the counter pull of the manacles around her ankles. Tightening his knees around her, he pinned her so that she could not move. As a tongue flicked along her thigh once more, he caught the fleshly lips of her sex and pulled them wide, stretching her so that the mouth of her sex opened.

  She felt the flicking tongue move along the tender flesh of her cleft, sending sharp stabs of pleasure through her belly. Moving up her cleft, the hot tongue flicked the tiny, exquisitely sensitive bud of her clit, until heated desire had her belly clenching and unclenching. She gasped when he nipped her, sending a sizzling shaft of arousal through her. He did not linger. Once he had bitten her, he moved downward again and she felt the tongue thrust inside of her. It seemed to swell, to lengthen, undulating through her passage. As it began to slowly withdraw, Behsart’s hold shifted, spreading her body’s opening wider so that the tongue plunged more deeply inside her, curling against the walls of her passage, stroking her.

  She shook, tried to twist away and discovered she couldn’t. The thrusting continued until she was gasping hoarsely, her body trembling.

  As he moved away, Behsart shifted once more. Bending his head, he opened his mouth over her exposed flesh and sucked and licked her clit almost savagely, punishing her for her attempts to escape the invasive tongue until she was gasping shrilly.

  She was trembling on the brink of release when he lifted his head. She shuddered at the abrupt cessation of stimulation, feeling a shiver skate through her as her body began to cool. Moments passed. While she struggled to catch her breath, the priests began to nip and lick at her breasts and belly once more, her arms, her neck.

  Her flesh quivered as she felt the skate of a hot tongue along her thigh. As the tortuous sensations neared her sex, Behsart caught her nether lips, pulling them wide and offering the exquisitely sensitive inner flesh for the delectation of the demon Hezifath.

  The heated tongue moved back and forth along her cleft, nipping at her clit until she began to quake with imminent release. She fought it, dreading it, knowing that once it began they would not allow it to stop until they were ready to move on. As he moved down her cleft, Behsart shifted his hold on her, spreading the mouth of her passage wide to receive the tongue of the serpent. Two others approached her, flicked their tongues over her nipples and bit down on them as the tongue was thrust deeply inside of her. She gasped sharply, her body convulsing with pleasure. It continued to spasm as the tongue was thrust into her over and over.

  The moment the priest withdrew and moved away, Behsart shifted again, burying his face against the tender flesh, sucking her clit into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue. The tremors of her climax, which had began to subside, mounted once more, tearing through her in almost painful waves until she was screaming with the nearly unbearable pleasure.

  Darkness began to engulf her before he ceased to torment her.

  She was still gasping, trying to catch her breath when they began moving over her again. Her body, heated now to the point of release, was not allowed to cool more than a handful of moments as they continued the ritual unceasingly, teasing her flesh to such sensitivity she felt faint, dizzy. Each time the serpent approached to spear her womb with his tongue, Behsart parted the lips of her sex, opening her wide for them and holding her. Again and again they brought her to culmination, until she was hoarse from crying out, until her flesh quivered and shook without cease.

  She wasn’t even aware that the torment had ended at last until she felt her ankles freed from the manacles and her legs dropped limply to the floor. When her wrists were freed, Behsart scooped her into his arms and lifted her.

  She hung limply, too weak even to feel much dread as he strode from the circle and lay her face down on the altar. She was dragged back until her feet touched the floor. Her legs were spread wide, her ankles chained again. The manacles were placed around her wrists once more, drawn upward so that her arms were above her head, her cheek resting against the cold stone.

  She’d thought that they had wrung every ounce of pleasure from her body that could be had, but as the first moved behind her, parted her buttocks and shoved his cock into her rectum, her body began scaling the heights once more. One after another, they drove into her frenziedly until she gasped hoarsely and came, and still the ritual continued until she lost count of the number of times her body was wracked by spasms of pleasure and fell finally into a deep black pit.

  The shivering as her heated flesh began to cool roused her to dim awareness and she realized that she was cradled in Behsart’s arms. Carrying her to a room with a wide bed, he laid her upon it and joined her. Instead of merely throwing one arm and leg over her, however, he gathered her close against his body, wrapping his arms around her.

  "You will displease them if you fight it, my love and I can not allow it. Yield to them. Take the pleasure they offer you and soon we will both be free," he murmured, his voice sounding deeper, less harsh that Behsart’s voice usually sounded.

  "Cavan?" she whispered, but she didn’t know if he responded or not. Within moments, strangely reassured by the steady pounding of his heart beneath her ear, she sank into oblivion again.

  Chapter Four

  When she had been bathed the following morning, the priests dressed her in a deep blue gown. She glanced at Behsart as he took the chain attached to her manacles, but there was no sign of the man. Behsart looked back at her, his eyes filled with nothing but heat and possessiveness.

  She swallowed with an effort. The look should have heartened her, for it could only mean that she was right. Behsart, drawn by the pleasures of the flesh, was slowly but surely losing his control. However, she’d begun to realize that she was as much in control of Behsart as vice versa. He had only to look at her and her body responded with welcoming heat. His rough possession of her drove her into mindless bliss. Moreover, she had seen no more than a glimpse of what she believed to be the soul of the man inside. If she was, in truth, weakening the demon Behsart, why could she not see him more frequently? For longer periods of time?

  When they had left the temple behind and set out across the plain once more, she remembere
d the words he had spoken to her the night before. She knew it must have been Cavan. The words, the way he had held her, spoke of human emotions.

  She’d thought Behsart was punishing her for her resistance, but it seemed that Cavan had been saying that he was the one who had assaulted her senses so devastatingly. It confused her, but the promise of his words lifted her spirits, as well, added another ray of hope to the few that she had managed to gather to comfort herself.

  She tried not to think about the fact that her time was growing short. They had made pilgrimage to three temples. The Demons of each had claimed her. Only four more lay before them and then she would have no more time. Then, if she had not managed to escape, she would be taken to Castle Valdamer and she would either die, or the seven demons would take her to them in her fleshly form and she would be theirs.

  To her surprise, Behsart pulled the horse to a halt as soon as they had entered the forest at the edge of the plain. Her belly tightened with a mixture of dread and anticipation as he turned her to face him, spreading her thighs over his own. Without a word, he caught her arms, looping them around his neck and lifted her against his belly. She swallowed with an effort as she felt the probing of his cock. He bore down on her, sheathing his turgid flesh inside of her. She licked her lips. "Why? To punish me because I tried to resist?"

  He studied her face for a moment. "Because I want my flesh buried inside of yours," he growled, kicking the horse into motion once more.

  To her dismay, he rode with his flesh buried inside of her until the sun had reached its zenith. She could not stop her body from responding to the constant stimulation any more than he could. By the time he pulled the horse to a halt beneath a tree, she was hanging limply against him, too weak even to move. Holding her, he dismounted and finally allowed her to slide to ground. When he’d unhooked her arms from around his neck, her knees gave out and she wilted to the ground. Lifting her, he carried her to the shade of the tree and settled her beneath it.

  She stared at him numbly as he turned and walked to the horse to pull their food from the packs, but she was in no condition to take advantage of his inattention—which he was probably well aware of.

  They ate in silence. Mariel was almost too tied to eat at all, and certainly too tired to try to think of anything to say. He allowed her to doze for a little while after they’d eaten before he drew her to her feet and led her to the horse once more. To her dismay, the moment he mounted, he turned her and mounted her on his turgid shaft. Again, they set out and, despite her weariness her body responded to the ramming thrusts of his cock, building her to a fever, giving her release, and then building again until finally, late in the afternoon, she reached a point where her body was simply too exhausted to respond and she slept, slumped against him.

  She woke when the horse stopped, lifting her head and looking around fearfully.

  She saw that they were still in the forest, however, and relief flooded her. Behsart chained her to a small tree while he made camp. When they’d eaten, he led her into the woods and allowed her to relieve herself and then to a stream. When she’d bathed, he drew her robe over her again, manacled her wrists and took her back to camp.

  He lay beside her on the pallet, pulling her closely against him, but, to her relief, he made no attempt to couple with her. The following morning, they rose and ate, then resumed their journey. To Mariel’s surprise, he merely pulled her against his chest when they had mounted.

  As relieved as she was, she puzzled over it, wondering if he had completely sated himself with her and what that might ultimately mean beyond the fact that her body was allowed to rest. At dusk, they stopped and made camp once more. When Behsart made no attempt to couple with her, Mariel’s anxiety deepened, but when she noticed that he still watched her every move hungrily, she began to realize that it was not that he had lost interest in her but something else that restrained him. She finally decided that it must be his fear of the demon that he was taking her to, but that brought her no comfort at all.

  Instead of stopping as dusk began to settle around them the following day, Behsart pressed on, slowing the horse for a time until the moon rose and then urging it into a brisk trot. They came at last upon a village and Mariel stared with dread at the tall, dark shape that loomed in the center of the village. When they reached the temple, she was taken to a cell much like the one she’d been locked in at the Temple of Hezifath and left.

  The soreness and weariness from her coupling with Behsart, and the rituals, had worn away in the days she was allowed to rest, but she was weary from the travel and when they’d left her, she simply climbed gratefully onto the soft mattress and fell asleep.

  She was awakened the following morning when the priests came for her. Grasping her arms, they led her to the main corridor and turned toward the main entrance of the temple.

  She heard the banging of the gongs as they began down the corridor. They seemed almost to step in time to the pounding. When they reached the piazza, the robe was stripped from her. To her surprise and dismay, the priests lifted her up. Spreading her legs, they displayed her to the worshippers of the Demon Bileezal, of the horned cock.

  Fear clenched inside of Mariel as the High Priest intoned the name of one the most feared demons of Daeksould, ousting her discomfort over the way that the priests had displayed her to the worshippers at the foot of the temple.

  It came to her as they set her on her feet at last that the path of the pilgrimage that she’d been led on had begun with the weakest of the seven demons and that each successive temple they visited belonged to a demon more powerful and terrible than the last.

  Her knees went weak as they led her inside so that the priests who held her arms had to support her with each step. She was too filled with dread even to consider struggling as they took her to the bath chamber and prepared her to receive the Demon Bileezal.

  When they had finished, instead of leading her from the chamber, they lifted her onto their shoulders as they had when they’d displayed her and carried her down the stone steps to the offering chamber. Below, she heard the pounding of a drum. The priests moved in concert to the rhythm beat out, stepping, hesitating, stepping again. Mariel’s heart seemed to beat at treble the pace. She was panting with fear by the time she was lowered to the stone floor and set on her feet.

  She looked around fearfully as the procession of priests left the chamber. Her arms were pulled behind her back and her wrists bound together, then she was turned to face a doorway across the chamber. The altar lay between where she stood and the doorway and she stared at it in sick fascination.

  A flickering light caught her attention, dragging her gaze to the door. A priest, wearing the hooded headdress of the Demon Bileezal appeared in the opening, holding a candle that cast the mask into frightening relief. He was bare, even of paint, except for the hood and the cod piece that cupped his genitals. His cock stood erect, protruding from his belly.

  She saw as he stepped from the doorway that the priest behind him looked identical in every respect. In all, twelve filed from the doorway moving to stand on either side of the altar. When they’d lined up, they began to chant. The two who held her arms pushed her forward. Pushing her face down on the altar, they attached manacles to her ankles and then attached the chain to her wrists so that her legs were bent behind her.

  When they had lifted her up once more, they turned her so that she was perched on her knees on the end of the altar. She wavered as the spread her knees, but they held her arms, preventing her from falling. She began to shiver with nerves as the priests began to move around the altar. Despite every effort, she could not prevent herself from staring at the erect cocks that stood out from their bellies. Each shaft was studded with small, rounded metal balls from the tip to the root and around the circumference of the cock. The cocks themselves seemed impossibly huge, nearly as big around as her wrist and almost as long as the distance between the lips of her sex and her belly button.

  She swallowed against t
he knot in her throat, knowing the size alone was enough to cause her discomfort if not outright pain. She had no idea of what the hard, rounded ‘horns’ might do to her, but her belly clenched spasmodically as she stared at them.

  She was jerked back to attention as the priests holding her arms, thrust her shoulders forward, bearing down on her arms at the same time until her back arched, and her breasts were thrust forward. One of the priests circling her stopped. Covering one breast with his mouth, he shoved the erect cock between her legs as he closed his teeth over the engorged bud at the tip of her breast. A mixture of pain and pleasure shot through her as he pulled away, holding her nipple tightly between his teeth. When he released her and stepped away, another took his place, tugging at her other nipple in much the same manner.

  She flinched in anticipation when the third stopped. Instead of catching her nipple between his teeth, he suckled it, flicking it with his tongue until wetness coated her sex. When he had stepped away, a fourth took his place, suckling her other nipple until she felt weakness seep through her. The fifth caught her nipple as the first had, biting down just hard enough to send a shaft of pain through her pleasure.

  At first, each time she felt teeth latch onto her, it jerked her completely from the pleasure the suckling mouths had instilled in her. After a time, her body began to react differently, flooding with sharper pleasure as she felt the pinch.

  She was so dizzy and weak she would have collapsed long before they ceased to tease her if the two who held her had released her. Instead, when the procession around her finally stopped, they lifted her and turned her to face the altar. She saw that eleven of the priests had stepped back from the altar. The twelfth climbed onto it and lay down on his back. The High Priest approached carrying a vessel and poured the contents over the erect cock. The priest lying on the altar worked the liquid over his cock until it glistened from the rounded head to the root.