#varikai

Ever since leaving the void, he had found it difficult to sleep alone, or even to be alone, ever. Stillness and silence agitated him beyond reason, drawing his thoughts to dark places that he preferred not to visit. Painful echoes of insanity, alone in the frigid and endlessly dark and empty void. Eventually shutting down entirely, until that unfortunate human girl had woken him from his eternal slumber.

Nobody had ever invited him to sleep beside them, which was understandable. Such activities required trust, and he rarely fostered this feeling in others. The human girl had quickly crumpled beneath him, her fragile gray soul fracturing even further every time he touched her. She had deeply loathed him, and he had gained nothing but slight predatory satisfaction from sleeping beside her.

Eventually his mate had come to expect his presence, but only because he had so often forced his way into the bed. Even then, he was only accepted because his mate’s preferred human had finally died. Despite his superior strength, intellect, and sexual prowess, he had always been his mate’s second option. Better than nothing, and eventually not even that.

After his mate, neither Bird nor G had seemed to desire him as a sleeping companion. He was expected to perform his duty as G’s Master, which had only ever been hurting him, even when Voidster hadn’t wanted to. Even to depths that had caused him such internal anguish that his wretched horns had sprouted as a reflection of his own self hatred. Constantly torn between the desires of the two males, he had only now begun to realize how deeply unhappy he had become while involved with them. The grieving had passed, and now that he looked upon the relationship with a critical eye, he knew that they had not deserved his devotion. G had valued only his violence, and when he dared show any sign of tender affection, he was rejected.

His feelings toward his own child, Nineveh, had cooled considerably as time went on. He held no malice for his daughter, but she had become nothing but a reminder of undeserved intimacy with a male who had eventually betrayed him, as every male he had ever cared for had. He spent less and less time with her, leaving her care to whatever female was available and at hand.

Now there was Varikai. The tantalizing, fascinating, frustrating hybrid who had initially caught his attention while he was still attached to G. Everything from her half-human soul to her surprising ingenuity and resourcefulness intrigued him. He had gravely underestimated her when they had first met, and she had passed into the hands of multiple others before they had finally crossed paths again. Now she belonged to Lucifer, whose power he could not hope to rival. 

She had convinced him to receive the mark of her master, who he had disliked on sight, despite the strange fascination he felt for the other male. His mistrust only grew after the violent, violating night of intimacy he had spent with the two of them. Still, Varikai had done nothing to betray his trust in her. If anything, she continued to embrace him, to entice him closer, to soothe him with affection and validation he had rarely ever known from others, and always lost eventually.

The moment she had created her game to tempt him, her flight through the forest while he had hunted her, he had realized that she understood him on a level he had assumed no female ever could. She catered to his ferality, delighted in his violence, and made no attempt to control or tame him. If anything, she seemed to prefer fanning the flames within him until they grew to a roaring, insatiable hunger, despite the consequences. No...because of the consequences. She embraced his sadism with no complaint, no feigned distaste, no petty game in which he was the villain. She wanted it, and did not pretend at anything else.

Restlessly, he rolled from the tangled sheets, pacing over to the windows that showed him whatever scenery he might desire. He usually kept them set to display a sparkling cityscape far below him, feeling content at the heart of humanity, unseen by most, knowing that he could descend among them and hunt whenever he wished. Tonight, the lights of the city brought no comfort. The bar below was quiet, most patrons either asleep or back in their own realms at such a late hour. This wasn’t where he wanted to be.

He went to his bedside table, opening the drawer and rummaging for something. It wasn’t long before he drew out the small vial of virgin’s blood that Varikai had given him so that he might also access the realm of Hell. He remembered the sigil he needed to draw, dipping his claws in the blood and drawing it with a deft surgeon’s touch on the floor of his room. Within moments the blood began to crackle with magic, the portal opening before him.

He had not done this alone, yet. The first time, Varikai had gone first, drawing him in after her. It was eerily similar to stepping into the void, and he instinctively rebelled against such a notion. But Varikai was on the other side. She must be. His aversion at this point was unneeded. He would not be trapped in the void ever again. Keeping his eyes open, he stepped into the portal and disappeared.