Hi everyone! I know its been a while but life has been one chaotic, crazy, mess and I'm getting my shit back together. I'm also working on other series to hopefully publish here.
In the meantime I've been seeing comments on my (poor) grammar in past chapters, and so I'm trying out different grammar programs to fix that :) But just a reminder that I'm doing this for free and for fun with no editors, between classes and work shifts with google doc and Microsoft word so it's still not going to be as perfect as it could be!
Keep your fingers crossed for quicker updates in the future and new stories!
~~~
Cassandra hummed, bringing the blanket she had clutched in her fist closer under her chin as she appreciated how absolutely cozy she was right then. No scratchy thin blankets piled heavily on top of her to make up for their inadequacy, no flat musty pillow that she'd had for ages now. As she curled in on herself the mattress springs didn't even whine or creak like they always did if she even breathed too heavily.
She cracked open an eye remembering that this wasn't her bed. Still ultimately grateful for that as well.
Sunlight cascaded through dark drapes onto the floor beside her, it must have been well into the morning or maybe even early afternoon. The fathers would have her head on a platter for being out so late.
But she didn't really care.
Long into the night after having been bent over just about every which way she could have, and torn into over and over by the body that no longer laid beside her, the demon had given her what he'd promised. A key that could open her locked library door, a cloak he claimed that would keep her hidden as long as it was worn when the sun was below the horizon, and an odd medallion that could bring her to his home. He said he'd show her how to use it in the morning.
Cassandra turned over, humming at how her body ached in nostalgia from the previous night, seeing that the demon was nowhere to be found, she settled for the few minutes of peace and quiet she hardly ever had the luxury to enjoy.
She grinned softly, taking a long moment to stretch and enjoy the light of the day before rolling out of the bed as gracefully as her clumsy, sore, body would let her as she made a beeline for the open bathroom door. Her lover had admittedly cum all over her the night before but she'd been far too exhausted and shaky to do more than run a wet cloth over her body. Which to say was not sufficient for her standards of cleanliness.
No sooner had she figured out the foreign temperature system of the demon's shower and stepped into warm water that the door opened and a disheveled head of raven hair, strung chaotically on black and red horns, greeted her with a dopey smile.
"Morning nun." He stretched, yawning to show giant fang-like teeth that went all the way to the back of his mouth, which explained the dark crescent-shaped bruises that bloomed over her body.
"I do have a name you know." She shook her head good-naturedly as she turned around the small glass box to try and find some soap, glad to see a tile shelf attached to the wall behind her with all the supplies shed need.
"Let me guess, it's something ironic like 'Chastity' or 'Hope' right?" He hadn't been with an abbess in quite some time, but he remembered they all had quite amusing names of faith.
"No, no." she chuckled. "It's Cassandra." she began to lather a bar of what she knew to be shampoo in her hair, not deterred by the demon's gaze at all now as he admired her body despite how foreign it was. "And what about you? Any name I can call you besides 'Demon?"
He smirked as he decided to join her, plucking the soap from her hands as he slicked back his now dampened hair.
Cassandra realized how... big he was in comparison to her for the first time. He had to stand at least a whole foot taller if not more, and he was built wide, not lean perse, but he must have done a lot of physical labor in his day, scars common on the flesh she could see now that the sun touched him.
"I have many names, but I'll give you a fond one." He leaned his head back to rinse the lather out of his hair, grooming the stray strands that were caught on his horns so they finally laid against his head. "My friends call me Amon."
"Like the demon lord?" She paused, blinking hard to comprehend it.
"While I'm impressed by your history knowledge, I'm glad to say that is not the case." He tapped her nose again, amused at how she took a breath of relief. "I'm much younger than that senile old fool."
"So humble." She rolled her eyes, rinsing the last of the soap from her body before stepping away from the warm water. Grabbing her towel as she sat back on the lip of a nearby tub to watch Amon preen and show off for her. She thought it was cute when he even brought his tail around to scrub the dark wine colored scales.
"Mind handing me a towel?" He raised his eyebrow at the fact she had stolen his.
She grinned, mischief lingering on her lips as she took off her own towel to give to him, a dark hand reaching out to take it only for the young girl to snatch it away at the last second.
He grinned at her antics when she brought it back to him, leaning forward to take the cloth only for her to dance out of his reach with a snicker.
"You are quite the imp." He shook his head. "Come on now, I'm getting cold."
"If you want it why don't you come get it?" She quipped, delighting in the goosebumps that rose on her skin with how Amon licked his lips. She put the towel behind her back and rocked on her heels waiting. He looked her up and down a moment, snapping his fingers so a crackle of dark magic crawled around her waist, pulling her forward despite her digging her heels into the tile in surprise.
"You have no idea who you're in company with." He winked as he took the towel from her awe loosened hands. Snaking his fingers around the soft lines of her jaw to pull her close, kiss her deeply. "But I have to say your boldness is refreshing."
She felt slightly dopey between the magic he'd used and his own kiss.
***
Cassandra held her newest trinket high in the air in front of her. Ironically the demon had given her a star, the holy symbol of her temple. To the rest of the world, it was carved from simple wood and strung on a chord with beads of the same material, modest enough for a nun that no one would blink, certainly not like they would have if she accepted the crystal-studded silver chain initially offered to her.
The young abbess pinched the bottom longest point of the star, pulling slightly to reveal the strong blade hidden inside the small nick-nack. She reminisced about how she'd used it over the past two weeks, slicing literal holes in reality that always led her to the demon's library. She'd hardly slept between her duties at the temple and the way she'd get lost in her research at night. She was behind the outermost garden wall now so she could get five minutes of quiet, so irritated at the incessant squeaking of her sisters that she'd just about resorted to violence before ducking away from the group. She'd certainly be scolded for ditching them to do her chores by herself but she didn't care. With all the pent-up frustration she held she might as well look forward to at least some kind of stimulation.
She'd tried to find the demon to help her with her... desires, the past four nights she had visited his home. But he warded the doors carefully so she couldn't leave the room unless she had his explicit permission. The magic that sealed her into the library stung like fire and would root itself in her spine the harder she tried to press through it, and the demon hadn't visited her once since the second night she came to read.
The blade made a satisfying click as she rammed it back into its holster in frustration. There truly was no rest for the wicked was there?
She looked around the wooded area in front of her, realizing that no one on the road would be able to see her through the brush and long stretch of trees that sheltered the west side of the temple. She looked up, the stone wall that separated the garden from the local wildlife standing far enough above her head that no one would be able to see her from the other side as long as she rested against it as she was now. And since she had jumped the fence there was no path or gap to her isolated little side for some time. Nobody would be wandering past her unless they were slinking about for quiet like Cassandra was.
Her heart beat a little quickly at the realization, the nagging between her legs becoming more urgent now that she wasn't distracted...
She looked around a moment, keeping a sharp ear to the wind. There were no footsteps, no yelling, just the very distant chatter of the nuns hiding in the shade of the stone porch on the opposite side of the building, birds chirping, and a cow baying far away on the road.
She peaked her head over the wall, her nose pressed flat to the rough grout as she made sure no one was in the garden. Which to her anxiety and delight, there was not a soul.
She slid back down, letting the stone slowly hike up her robes as she sat, sliding hands down the buttons on the front, slowly releasing the top few toggles so she could dip her hand to graze across a hardening nipple. Cassandra noted that while it was nice, it was nothing like the demons hands on her, and certainly not comparable to his mouth.
She took her hand away, feeling no loss at the mild tingling left behind as she inched lower towards her hips.
She dared not take off her underwear with how out in the open she was, but she hissed softly as she dove fingers down the front of the white cotton.
She gently trailed over the coarse hairs between her legs, now trimmed as she had seen in various literature she had nosed through in the past week, humming at how the gentle touch rippled over her flesh.
"Shit." She whispered at how wet she was as she slid a single digit upward to part her lips. How pent up was she at this point? Not even a stiff breeze had passed by her today but she was this drenched?
She wasted no time to dip a finger shallowly inside, immediately sighing in relief at how her hips clenched, the hungry spot in her desperate to be fed as she let her other hand clumsily dance over the bead of pleasure at the top of her slit.
She let her head lean back on the wall, body suddenly abuzz as the memories of her first night with Amon forced their way into the black space behind her eyelids. While the bruises had faded she could still feel his teeth in her, the softness of the sheets and the way he had devoured her over and over.
She could swear that if she opened her eyes she'd see his horns, ready to hold onto for dear life from between her legs, tongue deftly writhing over her sex as he kissed and sucked at her lower lips. Eyes full of yellow flame and desire.
"Oh, Gods..." She was grateful for her vivid imagination then. Holding on to the image of him beneath her, switching between the idea of holding onto the dark horns on his head while she rode his face and taking him deep into her mouth as he fingered and lapped at her, or maybe holding her down by the throat and making her thank him for causing her the sweetest pain.
Her fingers quickened, Cassandra biting her lip to try and keep quiet as her orgasm loomed closer, muscles wound tight as she pressed herself harder against the cool stone wall.
Blood rushed into her face, in her mind she was face down on the ground, Amon striking her ass without reserve as he tongue fucked her center.
What do you say? She fantasized him pulling away, replacing his tongue with fingers so he could tease her with his words.
"T-thank you." She choked out to the empty air.
Her hips began to clench, waves washing over her as she climbed further up the wall, mind completely blank minus the image of her lover bringing his face back to her hole. Cassandra hiccupped, instead of volume rising, her breath quickening as the pleasure built and built, bringing her to the peak of rocking hips and hot breath.
"Cassandra!"
She snapped her eyes open, hands flying quickly out of her underwear as she instinctually attempted to close the toggles at her collar, panicking at the stomping footsteps of the father's as they ground into the gravel towards her. Her heart pounded, and she knew her face must be flushed, if not from her arousal at least from embarrassment. Her fingers were slick and shaky, she couldn't seem to get the fang shaped buttons through their sister loops for the life of her.
"Cassandra! Don't pretend you aren't here, Helen saw you!" She knew they were aggravated, and she wasn't just going to get a few stripes on her hands by the tone.
She whined, wiping her hands on her side as she gave up on the buttons and popped up so she could be seen.
"S-sorry!" She was still so aroused, the cotton between her legs so damp that she felt it smear between her thighs.
"We need to talk." He scowled at her, looking her up and down as though he were assessing a pile of garbage "For the love of the god's woman button up your robe." he shook his head, clenching and unclenching his fists in rage before he barked for the girl to follow him.
Cassandra felt her stomach ice over, the fact they didn't ask her what she was doing outside the wall, why her robe was half open or just why she wasn't doing her duties... she was in for a world of trouble.
***
"Do you understand why you were punished, Cassandra?"
The young nun looked down, her knuckles were bloodied, swollen around the patches of pink and red blisters that speckled her already scarred hands. The cuts took in what now felt like cold air, the muscle pulsing underneath to desperately tell her that something wasn't right with the area of her body in question.
"Yes." she felt like she was watching her raw fingers through a window, like the pain wasn't her own. She realized he was speaking from behind her, by the closet where he kept canes of various sizes and other implements of punishment. She knew the retaliation was unfair, it was his ego and his prized moral narcissism that spurred him on. But the cane still struck down to her soul nonetheless, surprisingly he hadn't tried to clip her in the face this time.
"Then what do you have to say to Sister Helen?" She could hear him, cane at the ready to be put away, but still held in preparation to be used again if he needed to change the course of punishment.
She wiped her tear covered face with the untouched heal of her palm, refusing to look at the blonde she shared a room with. "I don't have anything to say to Helen." she scowled, gods she sounded like a pathetic child.
There was a long sigh. A click of the cane being hung and the rough sliding of another tool being taken down.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself then? Any shame at all?"
"Why should I?" She spat, feeling fire roar up the back of her throat like bile. "It's not my fault you never give me five minutes to even breathe by myself."
"You slink off to be unattended at two in the morning to read by yourself every week. You know that's not why you're here."
She stayed silent, refusing to look at the mousy woman who had betrayed her. It wasn't her sister's fault she knew, the naive girl didn't know any better.
Or maybe she did. Helen certainly never got in as much trouble as Cassandra since she followed the rules so tightly, just as she did today. But what kind of life was that? The young abbess was angry at her sister for being so gullible, so compliant and ignorant, and hurting her for trying to be something different than herself.
"What happened to you, Cassandra?" The same girl finally blurted out, tears on her cheeks now as she finally broke her previously uninterrupted, uncomfortable silence. "You- you've always been willful! But you changed... the past two weeks you've been so cruel and cold! You don't talk to me at all, you just read and do your chores and disappear to who knows where every single night and come back whenever you feel like it. Now you're slinking off to... to..."
"Fuck myself?" She could see why the demon had liked teasing her with those words on their first encounter, Helen's face was priceless. Like she'd reached out and struck her without lifting a finger. Cassandra still couldn't recall any hint that her roommate had spied on her while she was alone, but she had been lost in her thoughts enough that she didn't doubt it. She had known there was a risk of getting caught.
"Now that's enough!" The priest cuffed her harshly on the back of her head. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but-
"But what?" she laughed, anger blurring her judgment. "You'll strike me till you can see bone?" She held up her bloodied hands to make a point. "You've been doing this for two decades now and it doesn't seem to work, does it? So why don't you give it a fucking rest?"
Cassandra stood up, both her sister and the Father's moving backward in alarm. She knew her eyes were strange, something disturbingly inhuman to the two of them as an unnatural ice clung to the back of their necks, and it frightened them.
Good.
"Maybe instead of hitting me until you feel relieved of your own moral failings or locking me up, you should learn to not meddle with things you don't understand."
The father's mouth fell open wide before rage overtook their face. She saw his fists clench and her moment of courage withered as old habits and memories took over. She knew that face well, Cassandra no longer felt like the novice mage learning to control her supernatural talents, but a small child who didn't want to be locked in the dark by the cruel priest that now grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.
"You have gone too far, Cassandra." Was all that was said, dragging her violently past Helen and out of the room to the hall. Cassandra knew where they were going and her stomach iced over, it fought with the fire and wind that stirred in her to fight for her pride. She felt like the room had grown larger, suffocating her with how vulnerable and exposed it made her, the fathers' grip almost burned her flesh.
"Let me go!" She tried to wriggle out of his grip, battling the suffocating fear that tried to crawl down her throat. She couldn't do this again. She had come so far, the nightmares hadn't hit her in weeks, the bouts of panic were rare now. This would bring all of her progress to a grinding halt if not send her hurling backward.
"Helen come and help me with her!" Her assailant yelled in frustration, wrestling with her futilely.
"Fuck you!" Cassandra couldn't get him to release the grip he now had on her robes, She was so angry, she felt like a child, she was scared. He'd lock her in that tiny black room till the next day, there would be no sound, no wind, no light. It would grow unbearably hot throughout the afternoon and before he threw her in there he'd take a leather strap to her back till he drew blood. She'd never been a compliant child, while she'd learned how to make the temple work for her and vise-versa she'd never been able to be quiet and compliant. While they hadn't made this punishment for her, they never used it on anyone in the monastery asides from Cassandra and that just made it worse.
A fist came over the back of her head so hard it stunned her a moment, enough where the fathers were able to restrain her easily. Tears came to her cheeks again.
"I'm not going back into that god damned room." The girl whispered, desperately trying to hold onto her will and determination. She'd had it taken from her too many times in the past.
"There are consequences to your actions. You will face them."
"No." She whispered. There was a new flavor on her tongue she didn't recognize, not the copper of blood or the salt of tears, the bile of fear or anything else. This was bitter like dirt and sour like spoiled food. This was hatred, this was rage.
She felt anger boil up inside her chest until she felt she might pop, savagely striking out as some kind of barrier violently crumbled down in her mind to release the flood of spirit that fought to get out. She even went so far as to bite the arm loosely held under her chin and twisted the joint of his elbow until he shoved her body away from him for his own safety.
"I'm not going back into that room." She shook as she reiterated her will, trying to remember what she'd read, what she'd learned. She wove her intention into the air with her words and her breath trying desperately to push out the fear. She was shocked to see the soft glow of power that fell off her skin like a heavy fog. She was resolute now, and the air around her was tangible with her will, she could touch it with her mind and feel the difference between herself and the two people that shared the hall with her. Helen was afraid, and the fathers were angry and... humiliated.
She reached out farther with her curiosity, digging tendrils like phantom limbs deeper into his flesh.
"You're pathetic," she whispered, words spilling from her that she knew belonged to his own mind. "You're nothing but a desperate animal full of shame, so scared of dying that you bury your head in the dirt each day as the sun sets, fearing that the night might be your end." Cassandra saw his truth under his skin and in his blood, felt it course through her as though it were her own feelings and couldn't stop them from pouring from her lips even if she'd tried. She pushed the tendrils of her will deeper. "You came to the gods not in devotion, but in such fear of what might happen to your forsaken, hollow, soul that you crawled here begging for a place where you could hide. Everything you think you love is only fuel to try and keep your inevitable fear of life itself away. You're a fucking worm wallowing in ecstasy of the ignorance of the dark." She hooked her claws in him deeper. "Your faith is empty." She pulled him closer with her ghostly limbs and saw him stumble as he fell to his knees in front of her, paralyzed with how the tables had so suddenly turned. They could all see the faint outline of the tentacles now as they reached into the priest's face, his heart, his neck and curled around his waist as though he were to be pulled in and consumed by the monstrous young woman. Cassandra's demonic, fathomless eyes stared deep into the hollowness in his chest and he was sure that she truly might try to devour him. "You are empty."
The man attempted to scramble away but was held firm, too terrified to even scream as he tried to back away from her, the young abbess stepping on his knuckles to give him back her pain as she finally let him go of her psychic grip.
And then he ran. He ran like the empty coward he was as fast as he could. Cassandra could hear his footsteps echo down the halls well after he was out of her line of sight, knowing that he wouldn't stop for quite some time.
"C-Cassy...?"
Cassandra slowly looked over her shoulder to see Helen on the floor, on her knees in awe and fear, her shoulders trembling at the sight of the glowing vines of energy that Cassandra let freely whip and twitch around her.
"I'm sorry you had to see that." She said simply. The nun felt... refreshed. She rolled her neck and shoulders, feeling her muscles were looser than before.
Cassandra turned as she felt a soft pull at her back, an unnerving kind of knowing tugging at her to walk in the direction of the main room of the temple. She couldn't deny her curiosity, following the writhing arms of energy that wiggled and danced in the direction of her longing. She turned back and saw that Helen was no longer there, totally disappeared from her space on the floor.
She didn't much care about the oddity at that moment, head buzzing as she quickened her steps, finally approaching the giant ebony doors as she stopped to take in their scent, something familiar mingling with the wood and dusty old paint.
A heart, blood, a circle of ashes all flashed across her vision. The demon was behind these doors once again.
A hum of delight escaped her lips as she once again paid her attention to the wetness that had gathered between her legs. She pushed bruised, aching hands against the doors, such little resistance to her that she thought someone else might have opened them for her from the other side.
"Hello, again Cassandra." He was standing before the altar in some kind of mockery of a higher priest's robes, a holy star dangling from his neck.
"You look ridiculous." She stated simply, wasting no time as she pressed the pads of her fingers to his chest, sighing softly as he bent down to kiss her. She was so desperate for his touch, drunk on the potential for the evening.
He reached out to hold her close, pulling her by the seat of her robes until he could no longer wait and hoisted her onto his waist. She spared no time, caring not where she was as she began to undo the buttons of his robe, breaking the flimsy chain of the star around his neck and throwing it to the pews so she wouldn't have to break their kiss. His tongue tasted sweet like honey-wine and was soft as silk against her own. She pressed her hands to his chest as he turned them around to press her back to the cold stone altar.
Gasps echoed not just from the two sinners, but from new voices as well. Cassandra tipped her head back, letting the demon taste her flesh as she opened her eyes. She had somehow been turned around, now facing the pews instead of how she had been laid down, the aisles full of people who covered their mouths in horror. Or was it to hide their own desire?
The nun didn't care, tilting her head up to face her lover as the demon undressed her. She'd have him here and now, old prudish fools be damned.
"You seem excited." He whispered, just to tease her, so his breath would tickle her face as she opened her lips in waiting.
Her underwear was peeled away, thrown gods knew where, as he opened his loose robes to gently stroke his cock against her center. Cassandra could hardly handle the anticipation, she wanted him too badly, she wanted to feel how full he made her and hear him moan at how she enveloped him.
"Please don't be gentle." Her voice was barely audible, breathy and quiet so only he'd hear.
"I won't." His face twitched with arousal as he entered her slowly, filling every inch of her so she'd moan long and low. Amon only took that one moment slowly before he began to fuck her, holding her face close as he pistoned in and out. Despite their silence, Cassandra knew the church's eyes were on her, between her pent-up lust, the demons efforts and the eyes of the temples lackeys she was too close to cumming.
"Now, swear fealty to me." She looked up, her partner's yellow eyes glowing like molten iron directly into her own, his face was darker at the edges, horns more pronounced and his teeth animal-like. A hand came to her throat, black like soot up to his shoulder and his claws digging into her neck.
"Swear." He barked again, the blackness tainting her own skin, crawling from her throat to her face, she could feel it, burning like a fever as it pierced her flesh, She could see it dripping down her shoulders to her fingers which changed to talons just like her lovers.
She wailed, so close again to cumming as her hips spasmed and her voice shook. "I..I..." she hiccupped, looking up at his face again to see his eyes begin to cloud with smoke and black.
She couldn't hold the vision any longer, orgasm fading back as she opened her eyes.
She was outside in the grass, back pressed against the wall of the garden as her sisters clucked and bickered about where she could be hiding from inside the temple walls.
"Holy shit..." the abbess blinked, looking down at her hands hurriedly to see them their usual human color, no talons, not even scabs or bruises from the beating she'd been so sure she'd received. Just the nut brown of the tops of her hands.
She had come far in her studies to have gotten that vivid of imagery during her meditation. It had been only a few weeks, but she had managed to learn how to induce the sporadic dreamlike states that usually brought her visions. Although she was sure that... whatever that was, was just her projecting her own fantasy into an open space. It was too far-fetched to be certain and the images were so jumbled now that she was back from her daydream.
And she hardly knew how to sort through the visions for anything viable. The images were always choppy at best once she was out of the trance state it seemed, she could remember the most important bits and pieces and she needed to write them down. She'd come outside to nap, but she could never quit and decided to take a mental break and meditate instead, not thinking she'd go into such a vivid trance. She tried to save those for the library where she had the privacy to write the visions down without anyone going through them.
She tried to solidify the images in her mind despite the nagging ache of her sex, the only thing that had actually followed her out of her vision which she knew would drive her nuts. She wouldn't be able to get to the library for at least three days, and after the lingering panic of being caught in her dream, she dared not try to relieve the dull throbbing of it in the real world.
"Cassy!" Helen sing-songed from the garden. "Everyone's looking for you again!"
She grumbled, regretting having not taken that nap as she hiked up her skirt to go quiet her bickering sisters. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!"
God, she was so horny. And she wasn't even able to go to the bathroom to clean up after her trance-induced fantasy since Helen had dragged her to the market in such a hurry. Sister Margaret had apparently burnt half of the compound's dinner and they had to go get more meat, and of course, Helen was terrified of Mrs. Tyler and refused to go in the butcher's stall without Cassandra. She discretely rubbed her thighs together, feeling them slick with her own juices and only becoming wetter with how badly she needed release.
"You are such a baby Helen." She chuckled despite her discomfort. "Just stay outside and I'll get what we need."
The young blonde nodded as Cassandra stepped into the shaded area where Mrs. Tyler worked, seeing no sign of her among the barrels and hanging cuts of ribs and flanks of various animals she sighed. Gods she wanted to go home.
"Hello?" She called, shooing off her busybody sister since they might have to wait a while for Mrs. Tyler to get back. She did hunt and trap almost all of the meats she sold anyway, so who knew where she could be.
"Hello?" Cassandra tried again, holding her nose as she walked by a bushel of fish, drying in the sun for preservation.
"I'm back here!" the woman yelled, heavily muffled by the thick walls of the smokehouse in the back of her shaded stall.
The young woman ducked around the counter to the back so she could tell her friend the predicament the convent was in thanks to Margaret's clumsiness.
"Do you mind giving me a hand?" She sounded like she was struggling with something heavy by the way she grunted and the sound of fumbling came around the corner.
"Sure." Cassandra laughed as she scurried into the room, seeing Mrs. Tyler taking down heavy hooks of smoked beef and pork to place in various crates to be cut and placed out for sale later.
"Grab that crate there and take it to the front for me?" she had a slight sheen of sweat on her forehead with how hot the room was, grabbing her own crate to lug to the front.
Cassandra noticed how easy it was for the woman to pick up the crate compared to herself, arms and back flexing in such a way that showed they knew the task well. And The young girl couldn't help but let her gaze linger on the dark skin of her back, the woman not covering much in an attempt to stay cool while she worked.
"Thank you very much, ma'am." The same woman chirped as Cassandra waddled a bit with her load, setting it down as Mrs. Tyler directed. "And what's the reason for getting to see you twice in one day?"
"Margaret."
"Ahhh." was all she said, nodding as she turned to rummage through her stack of receipts. "What'd you order again?"
Cassandra found herself to be staring at the woman's back one more time, she rubbed her thighs together again as heat flared in such a way she couldn't ignore it. She recalled the erotic books she'd thumbed through at the demon's library, various pictures of women tangled together in the throes of ecstasy. She brought to mind some poetry on the matter by a woman named Sappho, and how Mrs. Tyler had immediately popped into her head upon first reading it. She bit her thumb as the light bulb finally lit, heart beating furiously in excitement and anxiety as she wondered how the long canyon of her spine might taste on her lips. And what the knowledge of being sapphic might entail for her in the future.
This has just been the week of, hasn't it? She bemoaned to herself. She'd never seen it as an option to like women, although looking back she saw it was obvious she would have recognized this much sooner had she not been stifled in so many ways.
"Psst, Cass." Mrs. Tyler turned her head to look at her curiously, concern turning to a cheeky grin as she gave the nuns face a once over, red as a tomato in the cheeks and eyes a bit glassy as her thoughts raced.
"Oh, sorry I didn't hear you." She cleared her throat as she hoisted herself up on the counter in order to still her fidgeting legs. "Five pounds of ground pork."
"I don't have any on hand, but I can cut you some stew meat in half an hour if you're ok with that?"
"Yes ma'am," She drawled. "I'm just grateful you're always there to save the day." She crossed her legs as she sat down to get comfy, trying to stop herself from the fantasies that tried to run away with her and how she would handle being around the all-female monastery she lived in.
"Anything for you." she winked as she began to assemble her tools, laying down knives of varying sizes as she bustled about, washing her hands thoroughly, dawning gloves and her smock as she pulled large cuts out of salted barrels to lay them on the counter with waxed paper underneath.
She watched the woman wield the knives deftly, neatly packaging their food for the evening in little parcels with twine. "Oh and don't go just yet I have a little something extra for you."
"Oh no Mrs. Tyler you've done more than enough." She insisted as she took the butcher paper to store in her bag, removing the money from the outer pocket. "I'm sorry I don't have more. You always go the extra mile for us."
"It's not an issue." She took the money from her, in exchange plopping a small leather pouch in her hands. "And that's for you."
"Really?" she raised her brows as she examined what must be a handmade pouch. After being given a nod that it was indeed for her she opened it to find a small leather corded necklace, a pendant of soapstone on it in the shape of a sort of squashed sphere, like a skipping rock with a hole in the center. One side held an engraving of the sun and the other the moon, no stars to be seen.
"Mrs. Tyler where did you get this?"
"For the god's sake Cassandra, call me by my first name for once will ya?" She chuckled as she took the leather cord, tying it in such a way that it could be longer or shorter if the knots were slid alongside the line.
"Sorry... Faven."
She nodded her head in approval, "I made it."
"You made this?" Cassandra was floored, she looked at the pendant again, the design was simple enough but to tumble the honey-colored soapstone to be almost a perfect circle? It must have taken ages. "Fae I can't take this."
"And why the hell not?" She took off her smock, gloves already removed but moving towards the sink since her hands needed to be more thoroughly washed now that she was done for the evening.
"You had to have put so much work into this. You should keep it or give it to someone special."
"You are special girly." She wiped her palms dry on the clean washcloth next to her before cupping the nun's hands around the pendant and pushing it to her chest. "I know you're not really allowed to talk to me that much. But you're one of the few good friends I've got in this town. Keep it."
Oh no. the young nun felt butterflies in her stomach the way Faven smiled so sweetly at her. She recalled that poetry again and the way the woman's hands felt on her own, like champagne bubbles came from the pads of her fingers and palms. She was in trouble.
"Umm... Fae..." she muttered shyly, not looking away from the butcher's face, knowing that her eyes were dancing some wild shade of color by the way she didn't break their gaze. Most people were afraid or at least unnerved, but she seemed to enjoy the oddity about her, maybe just glad to have someone else that was different too.
"Oh. sorry." She chuckled, pulling her hands away thinking the young girl was uncomfortable. She'd admittedly gotten lost in the moment, too sentimental and too tender for her own good, she was about to turn away when she felt the young girl's hands back on her own. The abbess' cheeks were that bright embarrassed pink again, breath hitching once as an eerie darkness flashed across her irises, lights like golden stars appearing in the depths only for a moment before she pulled the older woman down by her face into the gentlest, shyest, kiss.
The both of them felt their shoulders fall as they melted into the other. Faven immediately grabbing hold of the young nun's waist to pull her closer with how desperate she was for touch. They parted a moment, Cassandra giggling a bit nervously before she pulled the butcher back to her lips with more commitment, adoring the taste of her and how soft she was, pressing herself closer to savor the fact.
A light squeal of surprise escaped her when Faven seemed to have the same feeling, pushing her up against the counter roughly and hoisting her on top of it as their kissing became more feverish. Her mouth wandered down to the girl's neck, a fire lighting in her belly at how she sighed and tilted her head back in welcome, the abbess holding tight to her and wrapping her legs around her hips now that they were of no use on the floor. Faven knew she wanted it bad, the way she'd been rubbing her thighs together and had been staring for too long since the moment she walked in. not to mention...
"You know, I could smell how wet you were as soon as you sat on my counter." She captured Cassandra's lips before she could respond, pulling her habit away in order to tangle her fingers through silky tresses. She'd dreamed of the ways her hair might feel against her hand.
The butcher happily relented when Cassandra pulled away to kiss and nibble at her neck and ear, the nun cursing as her partner took a risk and began to grind their hips together. Cassandra ground back with the softest moan, effectively making the woman between her legs lose all collection she may have had as she trailed her hand between the girl's legs to feel just how wet she really was.
"Shit..." Her underwear was thoroughly soaked through and it covered the insides of both her thighs, she rubbed the length of the girl's slit to hear her whimper before crushing her soft lips to their own. "You'll have to be quiet lovely, don't want anyone interrupting us right?"
Cassandra giggled as she tried to hush herself, throwing her head back as her panties were pulled to the side and Faven began to toy with her clit. She was so worked up she could hardly stand it, her voice raising as two fingers were slipped inside her, a single thumb pressing her clit as she slowly pumped in and out.
"Shhh." Faven laughed as she pressed her finger to the girl's lips, Cassandra taking it in greedily as she quieted herself, grinding her hips against the probing digits as she reached out to caress and explore her partner's body.
She never thought breasts would be so soft, reaching under the older woman's shirt to roll a coffee toned nipple between her fingertips, surprised to see a metal ring cupping the soft bud that she could ever so gently pull on, circling the outer ring of sensitive flesh with her thumb as the woman sighed.
"Oh fuck, don't stop Fae." Cassandra was so close, hips clenching as the woman sped up her efforts, fingers plunging deeper and making it harder and harder to stay quiet.
Faven clapped a hand over her young partner's mouth as she began to squeal, each note becoming higher and higher pitched until her body convulsed and sputtered, eyes rolling back as she came hard, luminescent mist falling from her skin as an indicator.
The butcher was unphased, enjoying the supernatural way the abbess interacted with the world, especially now.
"That's right baby," she didn't relent, cursing at how her partner's whole body writhed and gyrated in waves in response to her touch, only when she began to squirm and push her hand away did she finally stop, grabbing the girl roughly by the jaw to kiss her again. As the twitching and whimpering subsided she knew it was safe to pull back, pushing her wettened fingers deeply into the girl's mouth, letting her clean them with her devious tongue, eyes locked the whole time in an attempt to torment her before she pulled the butcher close to sample her juices between hungry mouths.
They both hummed, Cassandra quite literally glowing, eyes glittering slightly as she looked up, kissing Faven's jaw several times before coming to her ear.
"God's I want to taste you." She pawed gently at her chest as she shifted her weight to explore the older woman's body more seriously.
Said woman chuckled at the somewhat clumsy nature of her lover, there was no way she'd ever done this before, although that was part of the excitement.
Her shirt was pushed up around her collar in order to more closely inspect the gold rings that rested around her nipples, exploring Faven's chest with her lips and fingers, the softest of moans bringing something dormant lurching to life just as a call from Helen interrupted her for what felt like the millionth time that day.
The two of them immediately separated in a slight panic, Cassandra closing her legs and pulling down her robes before straightening the halter top of the woman she'd been about to undress as her sister finally barged in the area as Cassandra adjusted her habit. "It's been like an hour you two, what's the holdup?" She seemed more agitated than was usual.
"Sorry, she didn't have the ground meat so she had to dice up a new batch for us. Took a bit longer than expected."
"Haven't sharpened the knives in a while." Mrs. Tyler nodded as she pointed to said objects, looking to Cassandra out of the corner of her eye with need but understanding.
"Well, it's time to go! Dinners already going to be late and we don't want to keep everyone waiting any more than we have." She anxiously waved Cassandra over to get her in gear.
"Yeah, yeah, Helen I'm coming." She chuckled, "I'll meet you out there, just let me pack up the last of this."
"Fine, fine." Helen tisked before walking away.
Cassandra came up to Faven slowly, trailing her hand up the curve of her waist, taking in her greedy kiss happily before parting to look up at her need hardened expression. "Not a good time to be called away, huh?"
"Not remotely." She forced herself to grin despite the ache between her legs, pulling the girl roughly to her waist to kiss her neck and take in her scent one last time. "But this won't be the last time I have you."
"Promise?" The abbess bit her lip as she looked up at the butcher through her lashes.
"Promise." She kissed the girl deeply one more time, tongue darting out to trace a love letter on her lower lip before patting her butt to follow her sister out the door.
In the meantime I've been seeing comments on my (poor) grammar in past chapters, and so I'm trying out different grammar programs to fix that :) But just a reminder that I'm doing this for free and for fun with no editors, between classes and work shifts with google doc and Microsoft word so it's still not going to be as perfect as it could be!
Keep your fingers crossed for quicker updates in the future and new stories!
~~~
Cassandra hummed, bringing the blanket she had clutched in her fist closer under her chin as she appreciated how absolutely cozy she was right then. No scratchy thin blankets piled heavily on top of her to make up for their inadequacy, no flat musty pillow that she'd had for ages now. As she curled in on herself the mattress springs didn't even whine or creak like they always did if she even breathed too heavily.
She cracked open an eye remembering that this wasn't her bed. Still ultimately grateful for that as well.
Sunlight cascaded through dark drapes onto the floor beside her, it must have been well into the morning or maybe even early afternoon. The fathers would have her head on a platter for being out so late.
But she didn't really care.
Long into the night after having been bent over just about every which way she could have, and torn into over and over by the body that no longer laid beside her, the demon had given her what he'd promised. A key that could open her locked library door, a cloak he claimed that would keep her hidden as long as it was worn when the sun was below the horizon, and an odd medallion that could bring her to his home. He said he'd show her how to use it in the morning.
Cassandra turned over, humming at how her body ached in nostalgia from the previous night, seeing that the demon was nowhere to be found, she settled for the few minutes of peace and quiet she hardly ever had the luxury to enjoy.
She grinned softly, taking a long moment to stretch and enjoy the light of the day before rolling out of the bed as gracefully as her clumsy, sore, body would let her as she made a beeline for the open bathroom door. Her lover had admittedly cum all over her the night before but she'd been far too exhausted and shaky to do more than run a wet cloth over her body. Which to say was not sufficient for her standards of cleanliness.
No sooner had she figured out the foreign temperature system of the demon's shower and stepped into warm water that the door opened and a disheveled head of raven hair, strung chaotically on black and red horns, greeted her with a dopey smile.
"Morning nun." He stretched, yawning to show giant fang-like teeth that went all the way to the back of his mouth, which explained the dark crescent-shaped bruises that bloomed over her body.
"I do have a name you know." She shook her head good-naturedly as she turned around the small glass box to try and find some soap, glad to see a tile shelf attached to the wall behind her with all the supplies shed need.
"Let me guess, it's something ironic like 'Chastity' or 'Hope' right?" He hadn't been with an abbess in quite some time, but he remembered they all had quite amusing names of faith.
"No, no." she chuckled. "It's Cassandra." she began to lather a bar of what she knew to be shampoo in her hair, not deterred by the demon's gaze at all now as he admired her body despite how foreign it was. "And what about you? Any name I can call you besides 'Demon?"
He smirked as he decided to join her, plucking the soap from her hands as he slicked back his now dampened hair.
Cassandra realized how... big he was in comparison to her for the first time. He had to stand at least a whole foot taller if not more, and he was built wide, not lean perse, but he must have done a lot of physical labor in his day, scars common on the flesh she could see now that the sun touched him.
"I have many names, but I'll give you a fond one." He leaned his head back to rinse the lather out of his hair, grooming the stray strands that were caught on his horns so they finally laid against his head. "My friends call me Amon."
"Like the demon lord?" She paused, blinking hard to comprehend it.
"While I'm impressed by your history knowledge, I'm glad to say that is not the case." He tapped her nose again, amused at how she took a breath of relief. "I'm much younger than that senile old fool."
"So humble." She rolled her eyes, rinsing the last of the soap from her body before stepping away from the warm water. Grabbing her towel as she sat back on the lip of a nearby tub to watch Amon preen and show off for her. She thought it was cute when he even brought his tail around to scrub the dark wine colored scales.
"Mind handing me a towel?" He raised his eyebrow at the fact she had stolen his.
She grinned, mischief lingering on her lips as she took off her own towel to give to him, a dark hand reaching out to take it only for the young girl to snatch it away at the last second.
He grinned at her antics when she brought it back to him, leaning forward to take the cloth only for her to dance out of his reach with a snicker.
"You are quite the imp." He shook his head. "Come on now, I'm getting cold."
"If you want it why don't you come get it?" She quipped, delighting in the goosebumps that rose on her skin with how Amon licked his lips. She put the towel behind her back and rocked on her heels waiting. He looked her up and down a moment, snapping his fingers so a crackle of dark magic crawled around her waist, pulling her forward despite her digging her heels into the tile in surprise.
"You have no idea who you're in company with." He winked as he took the towel from her awe loosened hands. Snaking his fingers around the soft lines of her jaw to pull her close, kiss her deeply. "But I have to say your boldness is refreshing."
She felt slightly dopey between the magic he'd used and his own kiss.
***
Cassandra held her newest trinket high in the air in front of her. Ironically the demon had given her a star, the holy symbol of her temple. To the rest of the world, it was carved from simple wood and strung on a chord with beads of the same material, modest enough for a nun that no one would blink, certainly not like they would have if she accepted the crystal-studded silver chain initially offered to her.
The young abbess pinched the bottom longest point of the star, pulling slightly to reveal the strong blade hidden inside the small nick-nack. She reminisced about how she'd used it over the past two weeks, slicing literal holes in reality that always led her to the demon's library. She'd hardly slept between her duties at the temple and the way she'd get lost in her research at night. She was behind the outermost garden wall now so she could get five minutes of quiet, so irritated at the incessant squeaking of her sisters that she'd just about resorted to violence before ducking away from the group. She'd certainly be scolded for ditching them to do her chores by herself but she didn't care. With all the pent-up frustration she held she might as well look forward to at least some kind of stimulation.
She'd tried to find the demon to help her with her... desires, the past four nights she had visited his home. But he warded the doors carefully so she couldn't leave the room unless she had his explicit permission. The magic that sealed her into the library stung like fire and would root itself in her spine the harder she tried to press through it, and the demon hadn't visited her once since the second night she came to read.
The blade made a satisfying click as she rammed it back into its holster in frustration. There truly was no rest for the wicked was there?
She looked around the wooded area in front of her, realizing that no one on the road would be able to see her through the brush and long stretch of trees that sheltered the west side of the temple. She looked up, the stone wall that separated the garden from the local wildlife standing far enough above her head that no one would be able to see her from the other side as long as she rested against it as she was now. And since she had jumped the fence there was no path or gap to her isolated little side for some time. Nobody would be wandering past her unless they were slinking about for quiet like Cassandra was.
Her heart beat a little quickly at the realization, the nagging between her legs becoming more urgent now that she wasn't distracted...
She looked around a moment, keeping a sharp ear to the wind. There were no footsteps, no yelling, just the very distant chatter of the nuns hiding in the shade of the stone porch on the opposite side of the building, birds chirping, and a cow baying far away on the road.
She peaked her head over the wall, her nose pressed flat to the rough grout as she made sure no one was in the garden. Which to her anxiety and delight, there was not a soul.
She slid back down, letting the stone slowly hike up her robes as she sat, sliding hands down the buttons on the front, slowly releasing the top few toggles so she could dip her hand to graze across a hardening nipple. Cassandra noted that while it was nice, it was nothing like the demons hands on her, and certainly not comparable to his mouth.
She took her hand away, feeling no loss at the mild tingling left behind as she inched lower towards her hips.
She dared not take off her underwear with how out in the open she was, but she hissed softly as she dove fingers down the front of the white cotton.
She gently trailed over the coarse hairs between her legs, now trimmed as she had seen in various literature she had nosed through in the past week, humming at how the gentle touch rippled over her flesh.
"Shit." She whispered at how wet she was as she slid a single digit upward to part her lips. How pent up was she at this point? Not even a stiff breeze had passed by her today but she was this drenched?
She wasted no time to dip a finger shallowly inside, immediately sighing in relief at how her hips clenched, the hungry spot in her desperate to be fed as she let her other hand clumsily dance over the bead of pleasure at the top of her slit.
She let her head lean back on the wall, body suddenly abuzz as the memories of her first night with Amon forced their way into the black space behind her eyelids. While the bruises had faded she could still feel his teeth in her, the softness of the sheets and the way he had devoured her over and over.
She could swear that if she opened her eyes she'd see his horns, ready to hold onto for dear life from between her legs, tongue deftly writhing over her sex as he kissed and sucked at her lower lips. Eyes full of yellow flame and desire.
"Oh, Gods..." She was grateful for her vivid imagination then. Holding on to the image of him beneath her, switching between the idea of holding onto the dark horns on his head while she rode his face and taking him deep into her mouth as he fingered and lapped at her, or maybe holding her down by the throat and making her thank him for causing her the sweetest pain.
Her fingers quickened, Cassandra biting her lip to try and keep quiet as her orgasm loomed closer, muscles wound tight as she pressed herself harder against the cool stone wall.
Blood rushed into her face, in her mind she was face down on the ground, Amon striking her ass without reserve as he tongue fucked her center.
What do you say? She fantasized him pulling away, replacing his tongue with fingers so he could tease her with his words.
"T-thank you." She choked out to the empty air.
Her hips began to clench, waves washing over her as she climbed further up the wall, mind completely blank minus the image of her lover bringing his face back to her hole. Cassandra hiccupped, instead of volume rising, her breath quickening as the pleasure built and built, bringing her to the peak of rocking hips and hot breath.
"Cassandra!"
She snapped her eyes open, hands flying quickly out of her underwear as she instinctually attempted to close the toggles at her collar, panicking at the stomping footsteps of the father's as they ground into the gravel towards her. Her heart pounded, and she knew her face must be flushed, if not from her arousal at least from embarrassment. Her fingers were slick and shaky, she couldn't seem to get the fang shaped buttons through their sister loops for the life of her.
"Cassandra! Don't pretend you aren't here, Helen saw you!" She knew they were aggravated, and she wasn't just going to get a few stripes on her hands by the tone.
She whined, wiping her hands on her side as she gave up on the buttons and popped up so she could be seen.
"S-sorry!" She was still so aroused, the cotton between her legs so damp that she felt it smear between her thighs.
"We need to talk." He scowled at her, looking her up and down as though he were assessing a pile of garbage "For the love of the god's woman button up your robe." he shook his head, clenching and unclenching his fists in rage before he barked for the girl to follow him.
Cassandra felt her stomach ice over, the fact they didn't ask her what she was doing outside the wall, why her robe was half open or just why she wasn't doing her duties... she was in for a world of trouble.
***
"Do you understand why you were punished, Cassandra?"
The young nun looked down, her knuckles were bloodied, swollen around the patches of pink and red blisters that speckled her already scarred hands. The cuts took in what now felt like cold air, the muscle pulsing underneath to desperately tell her that something wasn't right with the area of her body in question.
"Yes." she felt like she was watching her raw fingers through a window, like the pain wasn't her own. She realized he was speaking from behind her, by the closet where he kept canes of various sizes and other implements of punishment. She knew the retaliation was unfair, it was his ego and his prized moral narcissism that spurred him on. But the cane still struck down to her soul nonetheless, surprisingly he hadn't tried to clip her in the face this time.
"Then what do you have to say to Sister Helen?" She could hear him, cane at the ready to be put away, but still held in preparation to be used again if he needed to change the course of punishment.
She wiped her tear covered face with the untouched heal of her palm, refusing to look at the blonde she shared a room with. "I don't have anything to say to Helen." she scowled, gods she sounded like a pathetic child.
There was a long sigh. A click of the cane being hung and the rough sliding of another tool being taken down.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself then? Any shame at all?"
"Why should I?" She spat, feeling fire roar up the back of her throat like bile. "It's not my fault you never give me five minutes to even breathe by myself."
"You slink off to be unattended at two in the morning to read by yourself every week. You know that's not why you're here."
She stayed silent, refusing to look at the mousy woman who had betrayed her. It wasn't her sister's fault she knew, the naive girl didn't know any better.
Or maybe she did. Helen certainly never got in as much trouble as Cassandra since she followed the rules so tightly, just as she did today. But what kind of life was that? The young abbess was angry at her sister for being so gullible, so compliant and ignorant, and hurting her for trying to be something different than herself.
"What happened to you, Cassandra?" The same girl finally blurted out, tears on her cheeks now as she finally broke her previously uninterrupted, uncomfortable silence. "You- you've always been willful! But you changed... the past two weeks you've been so cruel and cold! You don't talk to me at all, you just read and do your chores and disappear to who knows where every single night and come back whenever you feel like it. Now you're slinking off to... to..."
"Fuck myself?" She could see why the demon had liked teasing her with those words on their first encounter, Helen's face was priceless. Like she'd reached out and struck her without lifting a finger. Cassandra still couldn't recall any hint that her roommate had spied on her while she was alone, but she had been lost in her thoughts enough that she didn't doubt it. She had known there was a risk of getting caught.
"Now that's enough!" The priest cuffed her harshly on the back of her head. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but-
"But what?" she laughed, anger blurring her judgment. "You'll strike me till you can see bone?" She held up her bloodied hands to make a point. "You've been doing this for two decades now and it doesn't seem to work, does it? So why don't you give it a fucking rest?"
Cassandra stood up, both her sister and the Father's moving backward in alarm. She knew her eyes were strange, something disturbingly inhuman to the two of them as an unnatural ice clung to the back of their necks, and it frightened them.
Good.
"Maybe instead of hitting me until you feel relieved of your own moral failings or locking me up, you should learn to not meddle with things you don't understand."
The father's mouth fell open wide before rage overtook their face. She saw his fists clench and her moment of courage withered as old habits and memories took over. She knew that face well, Cassandra no longer felt like the novice mage learning to control her supernatural talents, but a small child who didn't want to be locked in the dark by the cruel priest that now grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.
"You have gone too far, Cassandra." Was all that was said, dragging her violently past Helen and out of the room to the hall. Cassandra knew where they were going and her stomach iced over, it fought with the fire and wind that stirred in her to fight for her pride. She felt like the room had grown larger, suffocating her with how vulnerable and exposed it made her, the fathers' grip almost burned her flesh.
"Let me go!" She tried to wriggle out of his grip, battling the suffocating fear that tried to crawl down her throat. She couldn't do this again. She had come so far, the nightmares hadn't hit her in weeks, the bouts of panic were rare now. This would bring all of her progress to a grinding halt if not send her hurling backward.
"Helen come and help me with her!" Her assailant yelled in frustration, wrestling with her futilely.
"Fuck you!" Cassandra couldn't get him to release the grip he now had on her robes, She was so angry, she felt like a child, she was scared. He'd lock her in that tiny black room till the next day, there would be no sound, no wind, no light. It would grow unbearably hot throughout the afternoon and before he threw her in there he'd take a leather strap to her back till he drew blood. She'd never been a compliant child, while she'd learned how to make the temple work for her and vise-versa she'd never been able to be quiet and compliant. While they hadn't made this punishment for her, they never used it on anyone in the monastery asides from Cassandra and that just made it worse.
A fist came over the back of her head so hard it stunned her a moment, enough where the fathers were able to restrain her easily. Tears came to her cheeks again.
"I'm not going back into that god damned room." The girl whispered, desperately trying to hold onto her will and determination. She'd had it taken from her too many times in the past.
"There are consequences to your actions. You will face them."
"No." She whispered. There was a new flavor on her tongue she didn't recognize, not the copper of blood or the salt of tears, the bile of fear or anything else. This was bitter like dirt and sour like spoiled food. This was hatred, this was rage.
She felt anger boil up inside her chest until she felt she might pop, savagely striking out as some kind of barrier violently crumbled down in her mind to release the flood of spirit that fought to get out. She even went so far as to bite the arm loosely held under her chin and twisted the joint of his elbow until he shoved her body away from him for his own safety.
"I'm not going back into that room." She shook as she reiterated her will, trying to remember what she'd read, what she'd learned. She wove her intention into the air with her words and her breath trying desperately to push out the fear. She was shocked to see the soft glow of power that fell off her skin like a heavy fog. She was resolute now, and the air around her was tangible with her will, she could touch it with her mind and feel the difference between herself and the two people that shared the hall with her. Helen was afraid, and the fathers were angry and... humiliated.
She reached out farther with her curiosity, digging tendrils like phantom limbs deeper into his flesh.
"You're pathetic," she whispered, words spilling from her that she knew belonged to his own mind. "You're nothing but a desperate animal full of shame, so scared of dying that you bury your head in the dirt each day as the sun sets, fearing that the night might be your end." Cassandra saw his truth under his skin and in his blood, felt it course through her as though it were her own feelings and couldn't stop them from pouring from her lips even if she'd tried. She pushed the tendrils of her will deeper. "You came to the gods not in devotion, but in such fear of what might happen to your forsaken, hollow, soul that you crawled here begging for a place where you could hide. Everything you think you love is only fuel to try and keep your inevitable fear of life itself away. You're a fucking worm wallowing in ecstasy of the ignorance of the dark." She hooked her claws in him deeper. "Your faith is empty." She pulled him closer with her ghostly limbs and saw him stumble as he fell to his knees in front of her, paralyzed with how the tables had so suddenly turned. They could all see the faint outline of the tentacles now as they reached into the priest's face, his heart, his neck and curled around his waist as though he were to be pulled in and consumed by the monstrous young woman. Cassandra's demonic, fathomless eyes stared deep into the hollowness in his chest and he was sure that she truly might try to devour him. "You are empty."
The man attempted to scramble away but was held firm, too terrified to even scream as he tried to back away from her, the young abbess stepping on his knuckles to give him back her pain as she finally let him go of her psychic grip.
And then he ran. He ran like the empty coward he was as fast as he could. Cassandra could hear his footsteps echo down the halls well after he was out of her line of sight, knowing that he wouldn't stop for quite some time.
"C-Cassy...?"
Cassandra slowly looked over her shoulder to see Helen on the floor, on her knees in awe and fear, her shoulders trembling at the sight of the glowing vines of energy that Cassandra let freely whip and twitch around her.
"I'm sorry you had to see that." She said simply. The nun felt... refreshed. She rolled her neck and shoulders, feeling her muscles were looser than before.
Cassandra turned as she felt a soft pull at her back, an unnerving kind of knowing tugging at her to walk in the direction of the main room of the temple. She couldn't deny her curiosity, following the writhing arms of energy that wiggled and danced in the direction of her longing. She turned back and saw that Helen was no longer there, totally disappeared from her space on the floor.
She didn't much care about the oddity at that moment, head buzzing as she quickened her steps, finally approaching the giant ebony doors as she stopped to take in their scent, something familiar mingling with the wood and dusty old paint.
A heart, blood, a circle of ashes all flashed across her vision. The demon was behind these doors once again.
A hum of delight escaped her lips as she once again paid her attention to the wetness that had gathered between her legs. She pushed bruised, aching hands against the doors, such little resistance to her that she thought someone else might have opened them for her from the other side.
"Hello, again Cassandra." He was standing before the altar in some kind of mockery of a higher priest's robes, a holy star dangling from his neck.
"You look ridiculous." She stated simply, wasting no time as she pressed the pads of her fingers to his chest, sighing softly as he bent down to kiss her. She was so desperate for his touch, drunk on the potential for the evening.
He reached out to hold her close, pulling her by the seat of her robes until he could no longer wait and hoisted her onto his waist. She spared no time, caring not where she was as she began to undo the buttons of his robe, breaking the flimsy chain of the star around his neck and throwing it to the pews so she wouldn't have to break their kiss. His tongue tasted sweet like honey-wine and was soft as silk against her own. She pressed her hands to his chest as he turned them around to press her back to the cold stone altar.
Gasps echoed not just from the two sinners, but from new voices as well. Cassandra tipped her head back, letting the demon taste her flesh as she opened her eyes. She had somehow been turned around, now facing the pews instead of how she had been laid down, the aisles full of people who covered their mouths in horror. Or was it to hide their own desire?
The nun didn't care, tilting her head up to face her lover as the demon undressed her. She'd have him here and now, old prudish fools be damned.
"You seem excited." He whispered, just to tease her, so his breath would tickle her face as she opened her lips in waiting.
Her underwear was peeled away, thrown gods knew where, as he opened his loose robes to gently stroke his cock against her center. Cassandra could hardly handle the anticipation, she wanted him too badly, she wanted to feel how full he made her and hear him moan at how she enveloped him.
"Please don't be gentle." Her voice was barely audible, breathy and quiet so only he'd hear.
"I won't." His face twitched with arousal as he entered her slowly, filling every inch of her so she'd moan long and low. Amon only took that one moment slowly before he began to fuck her, holding her face close as he pistoned in and out. Despite their silence, Cassandra knew the church's eyes were on her, between her pent-up lust, the demons efforts and the eyes of the temples lackeys she was too close to cumming.
"Now, swear fealty to me." She looked up, her partner's yellow eyes glowing like molten iron directly into her own, his face was darker at the edges, horns more pronounced and his teeth animal-like. A hand came to her throat, black like soot up to his shoulder and his claws digging into her neck.
"Swear." He barked again, the blackness tainting her own skin, crawling from her throat to her face, she could feel it, burning like a fever as it pierced her flesh, She could see it dripping down her shoulders to her fingers which changed to talons just like her lovers.
She wailed, so close again to cumming as her hips spasmed and her voice shook. "I..I..." she hiccupped, looking up at his face again to see his eyes begin to cloud with smoke and black.
She couldn't hold the vision any longer, orgasm fading back as she opened her eyes.
She was outside in the grass, back pressed against the wall of the garden as her sisters clucked and bickered about where she could be hiding from inside the temple walls.
"Holy shit..." the abbess blinked, looking down at her hands hurriedly to see them their usual human color, no talons, not even scabs or bruises from the beating she'd been so sure she'd received. Just the nut brown of the tops of her hands.
She had come far in her studies to have gotten that vivid of imagery during her meditation. It had been only a few weeks, but she had managed to learn how to induce the sporadic dreamlike states that usually brought her visions. Although she was sure that... whatever that was, was just her projecting her own fantasy into an open space. It was too far-fetched to be certain and the images were so jumbled now that she was back from her daydream.
And she hardly knew how to sort through the visions for anything viable. The images were always choppy at best once she was out of the trance state it seemed, she could remember the most important bits and pieces and she needed to write them down. She'd come outside to nap, but she could never quit and decided to take a mental break and meditate instead, not thinking she'd go into such a vivid trance. She tried to save those for the library where she had the privacy to write the visions down without anyone going through them.
She tried to solidify the images in her mind despite the nagging ache of her sex, the only thing that had actually followed her out of her vision which she knew would drive her nuts. She wouldn't be able to get to the library for at least three days, and after the lingering panic of being caught in her dream, she dared not try to relieve the dull throbbing of it in the real world.
"Cassy!" Helen sing-songed from the garden. "Everyone's looking for you again!"
She grumbled, regretting having not taken that nap as she hiked up her skirt to go quiet her bickering sisters. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!"
God, she was so horny. And she wasn't even able to go to the bathroom to clean up after her trance-induced fantasy since Helen had dragged her to the market in such a hurry. Sister Margaret had apparently burnt half of the compound's dinner and they had to go get more meat, and of course, Helen was terrified of Mrs. Tyler and refused to go in the butcher's stall without Cassandra. She discretely rubbed her thighs together, feeling them slick with her own juices and only becoming wetter with how badly she needed release.
"You are such a baby Helen." She chuckled despite her discomfort. "Just stay outside and I'll get what we need."
The young blonde nodded as Cassandra stepped into the shaded area where Mrs. Tyler worked, seeing no sign of her among the barrels and hanging cuts of ribs and flanks of various animals she sighed. Gods she wanted to go home.
"Hello?" She called, shooing off her busybody sister since they might have to wait a while for Mrs. Tyler to get back. She did hunt and trap almost all of the meats she sold anyway, so who knew where she could be.
"Hello?" Cassandra tried again, holding her nose as she walked by a bushel of fish, drying in the sun for preservation.
"I'm back here!" the woman yelled, heavily muffled by the thick walls of the smokehouse in the back of her shaded stall.
The young woman ducked around the counter to the back so she could tell her friend the predicament the convent was in thanks to Margaret's clumsiness.
"Do you mind giving me a hand?" She sounded like she was struggling with something heavy by the way she grunted and the sound of fumbling came around the corner.
"Sure." Cassandra laughed as she scurried into the room, seeing Mrs. Tyler taking down heavy hooks of smoked beef and pork to place in various crates to be cut and placed out for sale later.
"Grab that crate there and take it to the front for me?" she had a slight sheen of sweat on her forehead with how hot the room was, grabbing her own crate to lug to the front.
Cassandra noticed how easy it was for the woman to pick up the crate compared to herself, arms and back flexing in such a way that showed they knew the task well. And The young girl couldn't help but let her gaze linger on the dark skin of her back, the woman not covering much in an attempt to stay cool while she worked.
"Thank you very much, ma'am." The same woman chirped as Cassandra waddled a bit with her load, setting it down as Mrs. Tyler directed. "And what's the reason for getting to see you twice in one day?"
"Margaret."
"Ahhh." was all she said, nodding as she turned to rummage through her stack of receipts. "What'd you order again?"
Cassandra found herself to be staring at the woman's back one more time, she rubbed her thighs together again as heat flared in such a way she couldn't ignore it. She recalled the erotic books she'd thumbed through at the demon's library, various pictures of women tangled together in the throes of ecstasy. She brought to mind some poetry on the matter by a woman named Sappho, and how Mrs. Tyler had immediately popped into her head upon first reading it. She bit her thumb as the light bulb finally lit, heart beating furiously in excitement and anxiety as she wondered how the long canyon of her spine might taste on her lips. And what the knowledge of being sapphic might entail for her in the future.
This has just been the week of, hasn't it? She bemoaned to herself. She'd never seen it as an option to like women, although looking back she saw it was obvious she would have recognized this much sooner had she not been stifled in so many ways.
"Psst, Cass." Mrs. Tyler turned her head to look at her curiously, concern turning to a cheeky grin as she gave the nuns face a once over, red as a tomato in the cheeks and eyes a bit glassy as her thoughts raced.
"Oh, sorry I didn't hear you." She cleared her throat as she hoisted herself up on the counter in order to still her fidgeting legs. "Five pounds of ground pork."
"I don't have any on hand, but I can cut you some stew meat in half an hour if you're ok with that?"
"Yes ma'am," She drawled. "I'm just grateful you're always there to save the day." She crossed her legs as she sat down to get comfy, trying to stop herself from the fantasies that tried to run away with her and how she would handle being around the all-female monastery she lived in.
"Anything for you." she winked as she began to assemble her tools, laying down knives of varying sizes as she bustled about, washing her hands thoroughly, dawning gloves and her smock as she pulled large cuts out of salted barrels to lay them on the counter with waxed paper underneath.
She watched the woman wield the knives deftly, neatly packaging their food for the evening in little parcels with twine. "Oh and don't go just yet I have a little something extra for you."
"Oh no Mrs. Tyler you've done more than enough." She insisted as she took the butcher paper to store in her bag, removing the money from the outer pocket. "I'm sorry I don't have more. You always go the extra mile for us."
"It's not an issue." She took the money from her, in exchange plopping a small leather pouch in her hands. "And that's for you."
"Really?" she raised her brows as she examined what must be a handmade pouch. After being given a nod that it was indeed for her she opened it to find a small leather corded necklace, a pendant of soapstone on it in the shape of a sort of squashed sphere, like a skipping rock with a hole in the center. One side held an engraving of the sun and the other the moon, no stars to be seen.
"Mrs. Tyler where did you get this?"
"For the god's sake Cassandra, call me by my first name for once will ya?" She chuckled as she took the leather cord, tying it in such a way that it could be longer or shorter if the knots were slid alongside the line.
"Sorry... Faven."
She nodded her head in approval, "I made it."
"You made this?" Cassandra was floored, she looked at the pendant again, the design was simple enough but to tumble the honey-colored soapstone to be almost a perfect circle? It must have taken ages. "Fae I can't take this."
"And why the hell not?" She took off her smock, gloves already removed but moving towards the sink since her hands needed to be more thoroughly washed now that she was done for the evening.
"You had to have put so much work into this. You should keep it or give it to someone special."
"You are special girly." She wiped her palms dry on the clean washcloth next to her before cupping the nun's hands around the pendant and pushing it to her chest. "I know you're not really allowed to talk to me that much. But you're one of the few good friends I've got in this town. Keep it."
Oh no. the young nun felt butterflies in her stomach the way Faven smiled so sweetly at her. She recalled that poetry again and the way the woman's hands felt on her own, like champagne bubbles came from the pads of her fingers and palms. She was in trouble.
"Umm... Fae..." she muttered shyly, not looking away from the butcher's face, knowing that her eyes were dancing some wild shade of color by the way she didn't break their gaze. Most people were afraid or at least unnerved, but she seemed to enjoy the oddity about her, maybe just glad to have someone else that was different too.
"Oh. sorry." She chuckled, pulling her hands away thinking the young girl was uncomfortable. She'd admittedly gotten lost in the moment, too sentimental and too tender for her own good, she was about to turn away when she felt the young girl's hands back on her own. The abbess' cheeks were that bright embarrassed pink again, breath hitching once as an eerie darkness flashed across her irises, lights like golden stars appearing in the depths only for a moment before she pulled the older woman down by her face into the gentlest, shyest, kiss.
The both of them felt their shoulders fall as they melted into the other. Faven immediately grabbing hold of the young nun's waist to pull her closer with how desperate she was for touch. They parted a moment, Cassandra giggling a bit nervously before she pulled the butcher back to her lips with more commitment, adoring the taste of her and how soft she was, pressing herself closer to savor the fact.
A light squeal of surprise escaped her when Faven seemed to have the same feeling, pushing her up against the counter roughly and hoisting her on top of it as their kissing became more feverish. Her mouth wandered down to the girl's neck, a fire lighting in her belly at how she sighed and tilted her head back in welcome, the abbess holding tight to her and wrapping her legs around her hips now that they were of no use on the floor. Faven knew she wanted it bad, the way she'd been rubbing her thighs together and had been staring for too long since the moment she walked in. not to mention...
"You know, I could smell how wet you were as soon as you sat on my counter." She captured Cassandra's lips before she could respond, pulling her habit away in order to tangle her fingers through silky tresses. She'd dreamed of the ways her hair might feel against her hand.
The butcher happily relented when Cassandra pulled away to kiss and nibble at her neck and ear, the nun cursing as her partner took a risk and began to grind their hips together. Cassandra ground back with the softest moan, effectively making the woman between her legs lose all collection she may have had as she trailed her hand between the girl's legs to feel just how wet she really was.
"Shit..." Her underwear was thoroughly soaked through and it covered the insides of both her thighs, she rubbed the length of the girl's slit to hear her whimper before crushing her soft lips to their own. "You'll have to be quiet lovely, don't want anyone interrupting us right?"
Cassandra giggled as she tried to hush herself, throwing her head back as her panties were pulled to the side and Faven began to toy with her clit. She was so worked up she could hardly stand it, her voice raising as two fingers were slipped inside her, a single thumb pressing her clit as she slowly pumped in and out.
"Shhh." Faven laughed as she pressed her finger to the girl's lips, Cassandra taking it in greedily as she quieted herself, grinding her hips against the probing digits as she reached out to caress and explore her partner's body.
She never thought breasts would be so soft, reaching under the older woman's shirt to roll a coffee toned nipple between her fingertips, surprised to see a metal ring cupping the soft bud that she could ever so gently pull on, circling the outer ring of sensitive flesh with her thumb as the woman sighed.
"Oh fuck, don't stop Fae." Cassandra was so close, hips clenching as the woman sped up her efforts, fingers plunging deeper and making it harder and harder to stay quiet.
Faven clapped a hand over her young partner's mouth as she began to squeal, each note becoming higher and higher pitched until her body convulsed and sputtered, eyes rolling back as she came hard, luminescent mist falling from her skin as an indicator.
The butcher was unphased, enjoying the supernatural way the abbess interacted with the world, especially now.
"That's right baby," she didn't relent, cursing at how her partner's whole body writhed and gyrated in waves in response to her touch, only when she began to squirm and push her hand away did she finally stop, grabbing the girl roughly by the jaw to kiss her again. As the twitching and whimpering subsided she knew it was safe to pull back, pushing her wettened fingers deeply into the girl's mouth, letting her clean them with her devious tongue, eyes locked the whole time in an attempt to torment her before she pulled the butcher close to sample her juices between hungry mouths.
They both hummed, Cassandra quite literally glowing, eyes glittering slightly as she looked up, kissing Faven's jaw several times before coming to her ear.
"God's I want to taste you." She pawed gently at her chest as she shifted her weight to explore the older woman's body more seriously.
Said woman chuckled at the somewhat clumsy nature of her lover, there was no way she'd ever done this before, although that was part of the excitement.
Her shirt was pushed up around her collar in order to more closely inspect the gold rings that rested around her nipples, exploring Faven's chest with her lips and fingers, the softest of moans bringing something dormant lurching to life just as a call from Helen interrupted her for what felt like the millionth time that day.
The two of them immediately separated in a slight panic, Cassandra closing her legs and pulling down her robes before straightening the halter top of the woman she'd been about to undress as her sister finally barged in the area as Cassandra adjusted her habit. "It's been like an hour you two, what's the holdup?" She seemed more agitated than was usual.
"Sorry, she didn't have the ground meat so she had to dice up a new batch for us. Took a bit longer than expected."
"Haven't sharpened the knives in a while." Mrs. Tyler nodded as she pointed to said objects, looking to Cassandra out of the corner of her eye with need but understanding.
"Well, it's time to go! Dinners already going to be late and we don't want to keep everyone waiting any more than we have." She anxiously waved Cassandra over to get her in gear.
"Yeah, yeah, Helen I'm coming." She chuckled, "I'll meet you out there, just let me pack up the last of this."
"Fine, fine." Helen tisked before walking away.
Cassandra came up to Faven slowly, trailing her hand up the curve of her waist, taking in her greedy kiss happily before parting to look up at her need hardened expression. "Not a good time to be called away, huh?"
"Not remotely." She forced herself to grin despite the ache between her legs, pulling the girl roughly to her waist to kiss her neck and take in her scent one last time. "But this won't be the last time I have you."
"Promise?" The abbess bit her lip as she looked up at the butcher through her lashes.
"Promise." She kissed the girl deeply one more time, tongue darting out to trace a love letter on her lower lip before patting her butt to follow her sister out the door.