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“What are they talking about?” It wasn’t that I suddenly cared because Seb did. I wanted to prove that Seb didn’t need to be there. Or, at least, could talk to me instead.

“No idea,” Seb admitted. “Something magic.”

“Then why are you listening?” I asked flatly. Better to do something that interested them.

“Because look at him,” Seb said, that smile growing to something with real substance. “This is what he lives for.”

To me, Gabe looked concentrated, bordering on irate. It was clear him and Wyst didn’t see eye to eye in their discussion, only just on the side of civility.

“Gabe tried to teach me magic,” Seb explained, voice far away but black eyes present and swimming in the reflective firelight. “I lack the subtlety for the kind he knows. I can’t connect to the power or energy without him.”

“Don’t you use magic?” I crawled over the tree Seb sat upon to sidle up beside them. If they weren’t moving, I’d join them. It was better than staring into the woods on my own.

“Yeah, just a little blood magic.” Their arm settled over my shoulders, pulling me into their side by sheer weight. “Like your green fire, but different. That’s our connection to our devil heritage. To the hells. It’s not the same as the magic Gabe and Wyst learned.”

“How are you not bored when you don’t understand and can’t understand what they’re talking about?” I grumbled.

Seb hummed again, though I felt it more than heard it, pressed against their chest. “Before we ran into you three, it had only been me, Gabe, and Skrit for a while. Skrit’s smart, but her interests don’t really overlap with Gabe’s. The two of us get along better than she does with him. And before it was us three, we’ve never grouped up with another wizard like him. Other magic users, sure: Warlocks, clerics, rangers.”

“How long have you been traveling around?” Seb made it sound like years.

“Doing merc work like this? Since around the time I met Gabe, before we started fucking. Gabe was, uh, an idiot outside of academia, but he got better.” Seb chuckled softly, pure contentment on their face. Their attention lapsed, defaulting back to Gabe as he executed a long winded explanation.

“Anyway, Wyst is his first intellectual match in his area of expertise. I love what it’s doing to him.” I believed them, their bottom eyelids drawn up, the weight of their cheeks lifted.

“I don’t get it,” I mumbled.

Seb sniffed a small laugh, hugging me in tighter with a rub over my chest. “I can’t be his everything, little one,” they snickered. “But I want to be around for it.”

I felt a little pang at that. There was a depth to their relationship I had never before seen. The likes of which I’d never have, even if Seb didn’t let me go anymore, either. It was silly to feel like I was missing anything, considering Seb had done more than stay like they’d promised. I had their attention whenever I wanted it. But beside Gabe, I stood in his shadow.

I was lucky, anyway, to have these three at my side. Skrit and Alice had my back when it mattered, too. The group was sometimes more than I knew what to do with. It was good.

I sat outside a tavern, across the street, shrouded in shadow, waiting. Adventurers liked taverns. Besides shops, taverns were the most common place to find their kind. I could understand why. Taverns seemed warm, lit orange by the domestic fires inside. More importantly, they exuded the most enticing scents hinting of the friendly taste of their foods.

I wouldn’t know. I wasn’t allowed in taverns. I was called scrawny and filthy. Lowlife, parasitic, and whore. I’d chase away the paying customers.

I was a whore. That identity didn’t make me bad.

During slow times, if caught lurking outside their place, tavern keeps would chase me off. Violence against people like me was acceptable, so I made sure to hide well. When that failed, I ran even better.

Unkempt child of the streets wouldn’t be what defined me for much longer. Not if I succeeded in this hunt for an adventurer.

My legs had gone numb from the snow, almost a soothing sensation to the alarm bells of cold in my head. I’d need to move soon if I didn’t want to spend the entire trek home in acute pain as I walked warm blood back into my toes.

I had thought finding the right person would be easy. I saw them often enough, gallivanting drunkenly under the star laden sky without a care for the slumber of the city’s inhabitants. As soon as I needed one, they ceased to exist. Not entirely. Only in the unobtainable kind of way.

I needed my adventurer drunk. And I needed him alone.

I stood and shook off the worst of the snow from my tail and seat. Feeling would come back in time. It was time to give up before things got worse. I’d return the following day, assuming my mother didn’t have other plans for me. I doubted it; I hadn’t seen her for a few days.

I’d taken one wobbly step before the tavern door opened, spilling that distant warmth across the terrain of ice in the street. I froze in place, willing myself to blend in with the darkness of the more removed environment.

A lone man staggered out the door, teetering before slamming it shut behind him. His hands clambered at leather armor to shuffle it out of the way, his feet haphazardly carrying him down an alley. He looked lithe and manageable. Perfect.

Ignoring the complete numbness of my own feet with each step, I followed after him.

His hands scrabbled at the ties of his braies, blocking him from the piss he undoubtedly needed to take. He muttered urgently under his breath, but his endeavor was fruitless.

“Need some help with that?” I asked. I stopped a healthy distance away. Just in case he certainly did not.

The man’s attention shot up so quickly, he nearly threw himself backwards. Regaining his balance, he stared at me in a daze. A grin overtook him. “Hey, little girl.”

He was going to let me flirt with him! My heart slammed into my ribs. He was perfect. He was about my build, if a little taller. That was to be expected.

I stepped into his space, reaching to him and running my fingers over his leather. I liked how it hugged him. It was soft enough in the right places, like he’d spent half his life breaking it in just right.

“What are you doing out here all alone?” he asked. The desperation of his bodily functions fell to the wayside.

“I’m not alone,” I replied silkily. I slunk around to his back, stepping as tall as I could to whisper to his ear: “I’m with you.”

“How do you know I’m not some rogue bastard that’ll take advantage of a dame like you?” He wasn’t feeling the boast. No, I was making him nervous.

I backed off of him, circling him until I was in front of him again. “I’m counting on it.”

His drunken grin sharpened, his balance preciously close to dumping him flat in the alley. “Like what you see, pretty lady?”

I got an upgrade from girl to dame and lady. How charming. He was the first one that met my criteria and didn’t fend me off, so I readily accepted all he’d let me have.

I smiled at him, bringing myself closer again to run my hand down his chest. “You haven’t shown me anything yet.”

His attention sprang back to his braies, his fingers tearing the tie free to loosen the beltline. He took a step from me, whipping out his cock and nearly pissing on himself before holding it in position. He sighed into the stream, nearly tipping sideways in the abandon.

I waited patiently in place, dropping the expression people wanted to see. There was no use performing to an audience of none.

He shook himself off, turning to me with a leer. “How about now?” His eyes flicked down to his cock, half-hard in his hand.

“Not here,” I giggled. Sure, he was all warm in his armor and clothing, but I only had undergarments. Ill fit ones at that. My shirt had long sleeves, but they reached only as far as half my forearm. My braies fit around my waist, but they weren’t long enough to cover anything more than mid-thigh. Standing and moving hadn’t renewed feeling in my feet and tail.

I traced my fingers over his thumb holding out his cock, careful not to touch it. That was for later. “Don’t you have some place to go?”

There was nothing left in his eyes but booze and sex when he looked back to me. His mouth opened, wanting, but not immediately forthright with answers. “No.”

I crowded in closer, sliding my touch up his wrist to grip it. My nose hovered beside his.

“You don’t have anywhere you’re staying?” I persisted. Gods, I needed somewhere warm to go. The heat of the hells were weak in my blood.

“Uh, yeah. I can’t bring you there,” he excused quickly.

Frustrating bastard. I had an alternative. One I’d never explored before. But it was my last night in town. I was not only going to go out with a bang, but one that could offer me a great deal of closing.

I twisted my other hand into the hair at the back of his neck, bringing my lips to his so close to feel the static of touch. “Do you mind a little walk, then?” I wasn’t convinced he’d make it. I need him to.

“Yeah.” He was completely mesmerized.

I smiled, careful to wipe the relief from the expression when I needed to flirt a little bit longer. My hunt was over. I needed only bring him home. “Good boy.”

He startled, pulling back against my grip on the back of his head. He was far older than me. He had to be somewhere in his mid-thirties. He must have expected to be called boy by someone like me. I hardly knew where it came from.

I rocked back on my heels, released his head, and flicked my hand from his wrist to settle his braies back over his cock. His clothing and armor tumbled back into place.

“It’s not far,” I promised. I went to the nearest tavern that outsiders frequented to hunt.

I stepped away, waving my tail behind me to garner back his attention. His gaze went exactly where I wanted it.

“Coming?” I prompted.

He staggered forward after me. I led the way with a sway in my hips and twist to the tail. Pretty things to keep him going. I didn’t mind if he passed out before the sex – less work for me – but I’d prefer he did it inside and away form the frosty cold.

“Don’t see tieflings much anymore,” he mumbled. The silence must have been overwhelming for him. I glanced back, eyebrow perked. “Heard some madman slaughtered an entire family of them te years – more years? – back and there haven’t been many left.”

Is that what his addled, booze-riddled mind thought about over how he was going to rail me? My race? Killing?

“Must have been before my time,” I commented dryly. There was a grain of truth to what he said. My mother and I were the only tieflings I’d ever seen. None of the transients had ever looked to have demon blood. Or was it devil? I forgot the difference.

“What’s your name?”

Why did it matter? “Malxir.”

“I’m Digory.”

“Pleased,” I replied politely. I held a step to fall in beside him. “Digory, would you like me to tell the things I’ll do to you when I get your clothes off?” His chatter was annoying.

The sound from Digory’s throat was far from dignified. That worked for me. Things continued to move in the correct direction.

“I want to use my mouth on you,” I told him in a low voice. I pulled his arm into my chest, hugging him in place. “I want to taste you and run my tongue all up and down your length. Does this sound like something you might like, Digory?”

“I’m going to fuck you like you’ve never been fucked before.” His voice warbled in his drunkenness.

Judging from all I’d seen so far, I had significant doubts. “Yeah? Are you going to give it to me up my tight ass?” I asked. I nudged him, pushing him gently in the direction we needed to go. “Right here.” He turned easily.

“You’re a kinky one, huh?” Digory leered.

Years spent learning this language and people still lost me with vocabulary I’d never heard before. “Yeah,” I purred. I hoped I wasn’t agreeing to something I’d regret. “Here, Digory.”

Digory hesitated at the door, even though he was closer to opening it. “Not a great part of town, is it?”

And the place I found him at was any better? The people were so mean there. “It’s not too late to go back to where you’re staying.” It was. The feeling hadn’t worked its way back into my legs nor tail. The thought of extending my time in the cold was as excruciating as the pain I’d be in warming up in front of my fire. Soon.

He swallowed his fear or apprehension, whatever it had been hanging him up. His hand gripped the handle and opened the door to my mother’s home. I really only lived there. “It’s dark.”

“It is?” I always forgot humans couldn’t see in the dark and needed far too bright of light to see what I could. He wasn’t getting that. I ushered him inside, turning to shut the door behind me once we’d both made it. I needed to guide him to the bed I shared with my mother, but he figured it out from there.

“I’ll start the fire,” I told him. One to warm me up and give him enough to see general shapes by for comfort. It came back to life easily, the embers still hot from the last time I had it going a few hours before.

“Where are we?” Digory asked when I turned back around. He hadn’t started undressing at all.

The place was fairly sparse. It had a bed of old straw and threadbare blankets that had been quilted back together when the holes became too hungry. I’d heard of pillows, but didn’t own one. The clothes that had stopped fitting me some time in the summer hung on the wall in the particularly draft area like their subliminal substance was enough to stay the chill. The ice stopped up all but the worst of the roof leaks. My mother left behind things I needed to run the household, but we didn’t have anything for sentimental reasons.

I ignored his question, distracting him from it by slipping over his lap. “It will warm up in a minute,” I promised him. I didn’t often sit in anyone’s lap like this. It was boggling to be relatively taller. “Why don’t you show me how to take this off of you?” My fingers ran over his armor.

He stared at me open-mouthed for a second, processing. “Right. That’s in the way.” He unbelted first, throwing a leather bag and a sheathed knife aside. Twisting to reach a tie at the side of his torso, he struggled with the corded leather as much as he had his braies earlier. I pushed his fingers to the side and took over. I was faster and not drunk to the point of incoherence. There was still the chance I wouldn’t need to sleep with him after all.

Before long, I had the armor loose enough to take it from his body. Everything else he wore underneath was more standard and easier for me to remove. He gaped at me as I worked everything off of him, backing off his lap as I moved on to lower clothes. I was left disappointed when all that remained were his braies and he hadn’t succumbed to the tranquilizing qualities of alcohol.

“Do you have a pussy like a human?”

I tried as hard as I could to keep from glaring at him. “My warm, wet mouth isn’t enough for you?” I asked with sad, mock innocence. “You’re going to fuck my ass, Digory. It’s so tight. It’ll feel so good.” For him, at least. I’d survive.

I nestled my cheek on the inside of his knee, careful of the angle of my head to keep from touching him with my lateral horn. Horns freaked people out or fascinated them. I maintained eye contact. He didn’t get everything from me. He was too drunk to remember much, so there was no point on performing too hard. I didn’t care to remember him any longer than I needed to.

“Do you want my mouth?” I asked him when nothing passed through his eyes. I could probably push him back in the bed and wait a minute for him to pass out and achieve the same effect. It was tempting.

“Yeah,” he puffed. His hands helped me guide the braies out from under him, exposing him completely. He wasn’t any harder than before, partially soft against his thigh. The expression in his dark eyes was so far away, he almost looked like he’d already come.

I reached for him, placing myself between his legs. The warmth of his tender, fuzzy thighs against my skin was stark enough to almost hurt. He didn’t seem to mind. I’d kept my hands functional and from freezing, even if I couldn’t pull that off for my whole body.

He stank like stale semen and far too many hormones, the dirt and leather too faint to cover it up. I never got to see the best of people anyway. It could have been piss and shit, but he was relatively clean.

He shuddered in my touch, eyes sliding closed when I encircled him with my fingers. I flicked my tongue over the skin around his tip, pulling a hitched breath.

“Has anyone ever touched you before?” I asked.

“I’ve fucked so many woman,” he boasted sleepily. “I’m going to make you scream, little girl.” What was the point of asking my name if he wasn’t going to use it?

I stroked along the top couple inches of his cock in a slow, steady pace. He was lying. I had no doubts my hand was the first to touch him outside of his own and he couldn’t even get hard for me. I watched the gentle push and pull of the skin, his slit peeking out curiously as I moved.

I guided his cock over the flat of my tongue, the taste of his musk and sweat filling my mouth more so than his physical cock. I rolled my tongue against him for him to moan loudly and flop back onto the bed. I hadn’t done anything yet. He was so sensitive, even half aroused, that nothing did everything.

I opted form pushing him any harder, stroking my hand along his shaft in that steady rhythm and playing around his head with my tongue.

“Nna roomssspinnin’,” he slurred.

I dug the tip of my tongue into the gathering of skin at his frenulum to help speed along the process. His hips bucked up faintly with a sharp inhale. No matter the sensitivity, he wasn’t any harder in my hand.

I took more of him in my mouth, clamping my lips around him. The taste wasn’t so pungent. It was easier to play with him. I wasn’t usually in the position where I could pull that off.

His chest heaved with breath, every exhale loud with growing shouts. If they were words, I didn’t recognize any. His leg drew up my shoulder, dropping again when he couldn’t blindly find a place to prop it up.

My amusement dropped away the moment feeling pulsed back into my tail. My legs soon followed, pain cascading down my nerves as they all reawakened at once. I popped my mouth off him to keep myself from accidentally hurting him, willing concentration into my hands. All my brain wanted to feel was the accumulating pain.

I grasped gently at his balls as I retained my rhythm along his cock. I rolled them in my fingers, playing at the testicles as they drew up in his excitement. I leaned into his leg, working hard to hold back my whimpers but unable to stop the tears. This part of warming up never got any easier, no matter how many times it happened.

My hand had stopped on his cock. I pressed my thumb to the underside between the glans, focusing instead on how I played with his balls.

All I wanted to do was smash them in my hand to make myself feel better. My lower half was alight. Unrelenting. Feeling it was all I could think.

I traced my fingers downwards, following the line of thicker skin to the space between his balls and ass. I kissed absently at his slit to keep myself faintly aware.

Some guys didn’t like their taint touched. Too close to their asshole and attached insecurities? Digory was as noisy as I traced over the nerves of pleasure as he was with my mouth on his cock. His noises were breathless, more time between them, but thoroughly lost in the sensation. I could do whatever I wanted with him and he’d enjoy it. Yet he remained soft.

The burning persisted, my tears continued, but I no longer felt like I was accidentally inclined to introduce his cock to my fangs. I lifted my cheek to take him in again, sucking lightly on all I’d placed over my tongue.

Digory bucked with a groan, splattering into the back of my mouth. I cupped his pulsing balls, helping pump him dry with my hand up his shaft. He didn’t have much, but I hadn’t expected to bring him to climax anyway. Not after mere minutes of next to nothing.

I knocked back the bitter taste, once again slumping into his leg. My pain hadn’t disappeared. Not yet.

He was in no hurry to get anywhere. He allowed me to lean my weight on him, my contrail failing to hold down all of my whines, as his breathing came back down.

Feeling eventually clarified in my limbs, and with it, my mind. I peeled my cheek from his thigh, backing out from between his legs. I gave myself some time on the dirt before testing my balance. I stood easily.

Digory had fallen asleep where he finished, hairy chest rising and falling with peaceful breath. I ran my fingers lightly through it, testing its softness. I never understood how people could fall asleep so easily beside a stranger, even if it made my life less difficult.

I was done with him. He played his role well.

Shifting around, I gathered all of the clothing I’d stripped off of him. I held the braies up appraisingly to my own waist before putting them back to free my hands.

Getting naked was difficult, but I had all the time I needed to get it done. I toasted my body in front of the hearth, the heat of the fire licking against my bare skin to chase out the last of the chill. Once thoroughly warmed, my task began.

I took on his shirt and braies, tying the underwear to my body. The linen bunched more than I was accustomed to at the waist and the shirt hung a little harder, but I didn’t need to fight for my life to fit them into place. My underwear was meant for a little boy, no matter that I’d technically fit into it for a couple more years. I admired the way the clothes felt with a stupid grin upon my lips before moving on, wearing more of his clothes until the leather armor rested on my shoulders and his boots tied to my feet.

Taking what the clients brought with them was nothing new. Wearing his clothes and leaving him with the very skin he lived in was. I needed them and this was the only way I knew how to do it.

I untied the hilt of the dagger he’d brought with him, pulling the blade to get a good look at it. I had no idea how to use it, double edged as it was, but it made sense to keep it paired with the armor. I stuffed it in its sheath and belted it on.

Digory had been so nice to me, even as drunk as I’d found him. I let him keep his coin, figuring he’d have better use for it than me. I’d learned to use coin incidentally and poorly at that. Finding more had never been an issue. Not once I knew what I was doing, at least.

I didn’t have any belongings to gather and consider. All I had to do was leave, even if I had no idea what to do with myself once I walked through that door. I hadn’t planned that far ahead. Find an adventurer, take his clothes and armor, and leave the city behind. I’d never left the city before.

I fed the fire to last Digory as long as possible through the night. With luck, he’d find his way back to where he had planned to stay the night before my mother came back. I needed to be as far as I could before she realized what happened.

She’d be okay without me. She depended on me for the gold I brought in, but she’d began scolding me for how little I was worth once I’d grown up some. I rarely saw her anymore as she figured out how to make up for the loss. I fed myself, took care of myself, and added to the sour reputation I’d been saddled with for as long as I could remember. I shouldn’t be a hard loss on her.

I just couldn’t do it anymore. I had to try something else.

Fear gnawed at me when I placed my hand on the door to let myself out. It stole my breath and made my vision buckle.

Leaving was stupid. I had a safe place to return to here. I’d always found enough food to get by, even if the hunger pains sometimes laid me out for a couple days. I knew who to avoid and where to go to for a purse of coin. I learned where to scale buildings to get away from a beating. I could endure in this city.

I snatched my hand back from the door like it had burned me, a low whine escaping from my throat of its own accord. I paced back to the fire, clutching myself like I needed to physically hold myself together. The ties on the leather armor offered a perfect anchor to hold.

I couldn’t do it. I was barely a person here, but it was the only life I knew. I understood there were things beyond the city, for that was where adventurers came from and went. It had to be a harder life. I could hardly keep up with the one I had.

What was the point of planning for a way to upgrade my wardrobe? I liked the way the clothes fit and how warm they were in layers. I was too much of a coward to use them? I was to wait for Digory to wake and beat me for seducing him away, then? I’d brought him to where I hid. I had nowhere else to go. I’d backed myself into a corner.

My mother would know what I’d done. If she came back, she’d know that I planned to leave her. She wouldn’t forgive me for trying, even if I had aborted the effort late in the game.

This was my only chance. I had to go through with it. I had to try to be better out there because it wasn’t possible here. People knew me as one of the only two tieflings. They knew I was a whore and a thief. They scorned me.

My feet carried me across the floor. My hand opened the door. These actions were outside of myself, like I wasn’t the one really in control. The relief I felt the moment the crisp winter air hit me was mine. I could hardly handle moving forward beyond the threshold of my mother’s home, but outside of it, I was free.