#anakis

“What are you playing there?” the woman said, voice low and smooth as pearl. She leaned up against a nearby tree, short dark hair complimenting darker eyes hidden behind panes of glass. Large wings sprouted from her back, each feather black as midnight. Her smile was calm and collected, dripping with what could really only be described as temptation. 

“A dancing song, one to get people excited and keep them on their toes,” Anakis replied, returning with a smile of her own as her fingers danced across the strings of her lute.. Though she had been lost in her music, she knew that woman had not come to this clearing on her own two feet. She was either an angel or a demon, and she wasn’t sure which she would prefer.

The woman batted her eyelashes, taking a couple of steps into the clearing. “You play it so beautifully…is there anything else those hands can do?”

“Oh, there’s plenty I can do. A bard does have to be…rather versatile, after all,” Anakis replied with a small smirk, curling her tails around the rock she was sitting on. “Flutes, lutes, lyres, dulcimers…honestly, if you wanted a different instrument, you should’ve just asked. I’m always willing to…accommodate a lady as pretty as yourself.”

“What about…other things?” she asked, closing the distance between them. The woman towered over her, seductive eyes worming their way into her skin. “I’ve heard that bards are skilled in many areas of performance.”

Anakis leaned back onto the rock, the same melody still singing along. Keep her talking. Keep her talking and do not give in. “Well, of course,” she said, lowering her own eyelids down to narrow slits. “I tell stories, I sing, I dance on occasion. Why, would you like to see something else?”

“I would love to see you dance,” the woman said, reaching out and running a hand through a lock of Anakis’s hair. Her touch was light and soft, gentle and inviting, cold…possessive. “If you are as…versatile as you say, you must be just as graceful with your body as with your music.”

“You’re very kind, miss,” Anakis said with a smile, inching her way up the rock. “Such a lovely way with words you have, and clearly an eye with good taste. May I…ask why you would want to see me do such a thing?”

The woman leaned in even closer, her breath hot on Anakis’s skin. “Is it a crime to want to drink in your beauty, to make it mine?” 

Well, that couldn’t be any more explicit than if it was spelled out in big, fancy red writing and plastered on every sign post from here to Upper Destiny. Either this was a succubus looking to drain her life force or some fallen angel searching for a soul to snatch. And while it was very tempting to see what being the bed mate of an extraplanar being was like, she rather liked living and having a soul. 

Tends to make things easier.

“Perhaps not,” Anakis whispered back, gently pulling the woman closer with her tails. “Though, a favor first.”

“Yes?” Her voice was consuming, overwhelming, soothing her nerves and threatening to pull her under.

Anakis smiled with her best ‘come hither’ eyes. “What should I call you?”

The woman cupped her cheek, fingernails lightly digging into her skin. “I suppose you could call me Kiki,” she replied, bringing her lips just a breath away.

“Then, Kiki, let me just say…” she whispered, fingers momentarily pausing in their song. “GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME, SHE-DEVIL.”   

She struck the chord, plucked magic from the very fabric of the universe, and let it sing. 

The soundwave slammed into Kiki, wrenching her from the embrace and pushing her into the sky. With a scowl and the betrayal seared into the lines of her face, she turned her wings over her face and vanished.