Palace Life - 3. Chapter 3

The older of the two Asina brothers was lounging in the blue room, his marble pale scales reflecting the sheen of the sky shades silk draped that turned the rom into a tent. He flicked his forked tongue, scenting the air, and recognised the approaching demon before he heard the padding of soft feet.

“Morning Kiorl.”

“Morning…”Kiorl paused. It was almost impossible to tell the snaky boy’s apart, especially when they weren’t together, and with the drapes of the room toning everything blue. The snake moved to face him and Kiorl recognised the slightly morose features of Tua Asina, the older of the two brothers. “Hey there Tua.” Kiorl flopped down on the chaise somehow managing to look graceful as he did so, “Not in court today?”

“I thought you knew,”Tua shifted his position, tucking his smooth seamless feet underneath himself, “Nassau dismissed us all about an hour ago. He had a…” Tua paused, “He sorta snapped.”

Kiorl buried his face in his palms.

“Why did no one come and find me?”Kiorl snarled, “Ye Gods this is shite. Where is everyone else?”

“Went home I think. Where were you?”

“The King was holding high council,” Kiorl stated as though it was blindingly obvious, “I was needed.”

“Well if you will pull double duty,” Tua rolled citrine yellow eyes, “You seen Bir?”

Kiorl stood and stretched, cracking his tail like a whip.

“Didn’t he recruit?”

“Yeah, some pretty little blond thing. Nassau gave him immortality but nothing else. Bir is pissed about it. Especially since Sitka’s boy got everything and more.”

“You have seen Jahke haven’t you?” Kiorl was surprised when the snake shook his head, “He is something fucking special, even when he was human. All pale and pink lips.”

“So?”

“So he and Sitka seem to have been made for each other. They are so in love it’s almost sickening to watch. And they share.”

“No shit?” Tua shook his head, “Well living with you lot he would have to. How are the triplets settling in?”

Kiorl sighed and they turned their conversation to other things.

It was dusk, the fires of hell were dim, blood red, the campfire stars burned hotly in the deserted night. Kiorl made his way to Nassau’s room to find the door hanging off the hinges, metal twisted and snapped. Kiorl stepping gingerly across the floor which was a mess of broken glass, smashed stone and splintered wood. Everything in the room was broken, the bed was a wreck, beams hanging in weird patterns in the air, ruined furs shedding across the floor. There was a big chunk taken out of one wall and the passage around where the door frame had been looked like a giant shark had taken a bite out of it. Kiorl sighed. Nassau had obviously gone off in a big way. The big panther felt a hot stab of guilt that he hadn’t been there. The Prince’s presence in the room wasn’t immediately obvious. The cabinet was another thing which was smashed, the doors in pieces on the floor. Kiorl was worried.

Nassau was tucked into a corner, a ball of bright gold feathers that shuddered issuing soft whimpering noises. Kiorl cleared a space in front of the mess that was his Prince and crouched down. Careful fingers parted the feathers and Kiorl peered into the darkness to a pair of red rimmed storm grey eyes.

“Hey there babe,” Kiorl made his voice soft, inched closer, parting the wings that sealed his friend from him. Nassau clutched the marble bust of his lover, his knuckles white as the stone. “You wanna let go of that now?”

Nassau shook his head violently, but his grip automatically began to relax. Kiorl touched his arm and he flinched. He touched his shoulder and Nassau tossed his head, silken locks falling everywhere. By degrees Kiorl managed to coax him out from his shell of feathers, bringing the boy-Prince into his arms. Physically Nassau was small, and weighed nothing once he’d let go of the marble bust of Mattias. Kiorl scooped him up and straightened his spine. Nassau clung to him, shivering around his neck, wings hanging limp and tripping Kiorl as he exited the room.

Kiorl walked with the Prince up to his room and laid the frail boy on the bed. He was glad they hadn’t met anyone, no one else in Court needed to see their Prince in this state. Nassau lay on the bed where Kiorl had put him and let out creaky shallow breaths, but he was all cried out. Kiorl stripped him silently and efficiently. The Prince was small, pale, cleverly put together and finely muscled. His skin was marked with a twisting line of fire that ran from neck to wrist, wrist to groin to ankle. Kiorl sighed, remembering how he’d gotten those marks.

Mattias had been human, and he and Nassau had been perfect together. They had come close to breaking the world, but had fixed it again. And then Nassau had brought him home and Sathriel had thrown a fit. That first time Nassau and his father had locked horns it had scared everyone so much that the centre of Hell had been nearly empty for days. Nassau had promised to make Mattias demon, and the ceremony had been packed. Nassau plucked the feather, made the wish, and then it had all gone wrong.

The wish had backfired somehow, Nassau got burned, the fire that wrecked Mattias came to live in his skin. Mattias had died and Nassau had never been the same.

Kiorl undressed slowly and took the time to hang his clothes in his vast eclectic wardrobe. He took a huge soft woven blanket and wrapped it around the Prince, leaving his huge wings free. He took another huge fur and laid down behind his friend, tucking himself into the space between the wings and draping the fur over them both. He curled around the boy and wrapped his narrow shoulders in his arms.

“You don’t have to be strong now. It’s just you and me Nas.” Kiorl stroked the boy’s cloud-soft hair, “Just you and me, sleep now.”

Kiorl tucked himself tighter around the Prince, squeezing very softly until he felt the tension seep away from the boy. Only then did he allow himself to fall asleep.

He drifted in and out of dreams painted on white snow in blood. He was surprisingly warm, lying in the snow, and his crotch was wet, his fur soaked in blood, matted and dark. He awoke in a wave of lust, and his cat eyes found a point of focus on the top of Nassau’s head, his own hand wound into the yard long hair.

“Ah…dear gods….” Kiorl gasped, his voice wet, the air thick and humid. Nassau practically purred around his barbed cock, but the boy-Prince wasn’t looking at him, focused on his task as his slim hand massaged the base of the panther’s thick cock.

Nassau Del Rae gave the most excellent head, better even than Jahke, having had eternity to perfect his skills, and now Kiorl enjoyed those skills. He knew better than to buck his hips up, having discovered the first time this happened that regardless of sexual position Nassau had to be in charge. It turned out you could be a dominant from the bottom. When Kiorl was thrashing in the furs, his claws having shredded the blanket in his lust and haste, Nassau released his cock and blew softly on the wetness he’d left behind.

“Fucking…dear gods Nas,” Kiorl was shaking as he sat up on his elbows to watch his best friend kneel over him, “You the way to wake a body alright.”

“Shush.” Nassau’s brows were drawn low, the little line of a frown that Kiorl wanted so badly to kiss away. He loved Nassau like a brother, a very twisted and sexually deviant brother anyway, and he hated to see his friend unhappy. Nassau grit his teeth as he lined up Kiorl’s dark cock with his own smooth rosebud entrance, a place no one went. Ever. Except Kiorl. Except those times when Nassau needed to be reminded that he had been loved.

The Prince of Hell sank down onto his best friend’s erection, pressing until they were tight together and Kiorl growled in the back of his throat as the furnace heat which surrounded him, the clenching tightness that threatened to cut him off from all his senses because it was so good. He knew what was expected of him and Nassau placed small strong hands on his chest, and he wrapped his long tail around his own thigh as he began to rock up into the slim body of the Prince. Nassau held his wings against his back and as he moaned and writhed, he could almost, almost, pass for human. The most beautiful boy who had ever lived.

Kiorl kept his pace, rocking to meet each thrust, the coupling of their bodies, light and dark, hard but rhythmic as they stoked the fire between their bodies. Kiorl worshipped the moment, the body of the beautiful man who he was not allowed to kiss, running his fingers up and down that perfectly formed chest, the soft brown nipples that aroused squeaks and gasps. Nassau’s cock, thick and velvet soft, in his hand as he jerked the Prince towards completion.

Kiorl growled softly and Nassau closed his eyes, storm grey already unfocused as the fire that twisted around his body burned brighter, glowed like lightning in Kiorl’s inner vision.

“Come.” The Prince commanded, and Kiorl did just that, jerking the Prince in time to his thrusts as he buried himself to the root, flooding that searing hot channel around his cock with his seed. Nassau cried out, wordless, and came in his hand, the thick white fluid pooling in Kiorl’s fur. Kiorl looked up in time to see the name Nassau’s lips shaped when he came.

‘Mattias.’

Sated and high, Kiorl still felt like crying. He never cried.

The two demons took a shower in Kiorl’s bathroom, epically proportioned with a shower that was sort of a waterfall. The light returned to Nassau’s eyes as they scrubbed each other down in the warm rain, and by the time they exited both were panting and giggling, friends again now that the sadness was, if not over, then pushed back for a while.

“I’ll order you room fixed up,” Kiorl said carefully, “You wanna call court for dinner?”

“No…” Nassau looked thoughtful, “Is Tobias still cooking?”

“That boy always cooks.” Kiorl frowned, “You wanna come to the house? Is that wise? You’ll cause a stir.”

Nassau drew himself up to his full height and stretched the joints of his big bronze-gold wings. He didn’t even make a gesture to cloth himself, but simply stood suddenly dressed in a very soft outfit of pale cream linen, a Mediterranean look which suited his light frame.

“Going for dinner at the house of my oldest friend?” He grinned like a naughty school boy, “Now why would that cause a stir?”

The house had seemed oddly quiet since the triplets had moved out. They had bonded so closely with each other talking to just one of them was damn near impossible, and Watara had gotten sick of being the only girl in the house. Kiorl had nothing against girls… in theory, but all that slipperiness and roundness made him feel a little sick, and while of Watara it hadn’t been obvious, he was so not allowing any fleshy females to moves into his house.

Nassau had caused a ripple through the innermost circle of Hell as he’d walked with his companion, neither caring where they trod as they walked to the house. And in truth it was probably good for some demons, not members of the court, to see their Prince smiling and chatting in their midst. No one had stared, they’d been bright enough to keep their eyes, but there had been much bowing a genuflecting as they’d gone past. The first person to see them when Kiorl walked into the house with Nassau behind him had been Jin-Ha. The tiny kitsune had yelped in surprise and thrown himself flat on the floor so hard that Nassau had laughed. The Prince’s laugh was like his anger, big and loud, but welcoming, all-encompassing and beautiful. Kiorl had almost forgotten what it was like to be wrapped up in that laugh. He shook himself down, damn empaths.

“Hey kids!” Kiorl called out his standard greeting to the big house, “We got visitors!” Kiorl moved through the house like he owned it, and Nassau wandered through the hallway and into the rec-room without a moments hesitation. Tobias was in the kitchen, as per, and Kiorl growled at the warm spicy smells coming from Tobias’s stove. The boy, Kiorl still couldn’t think of him as being a demon, had settled in very well indeed, and for nearly eight years had been keeping the demons of the house fed and happy, though not that happy. Kiorl always wondered that he didn’t share, and also managed not to begrudge Zai for indulging in other exploits. To Kiorl, the idea of sexual exclusivity was as strange as the idea of palms trees to polar bears. The concept may has well have not existed.

“Hey Kiorl,” Tobias smiled at him, then rapped his knuckles with a wooden spoon, “Get your finger out of the dinner. You beast. I know where you’ve been,” he wrinkled his nose, “Or I can guess. Shoo.”

Any other demon would have been dead by the end of the second sentence. Even Sitka pulled rank on people, and he was deeply easy going for a demon. Tobias had slid into their world as though their hierarchy didn’t concern him. He hadn’t taken to demon life the way that Jahke had.

Tobias’s eyes lit up as Kiorl felt the presence of the Prince move behind him.

“Sire!”

“How many times Tobias?” Nassau shook his head and smiled gently, thumbs hooked into his belt, looking every inch the unruly teenager, except the giant wings of course, “How has Zai been keeping you?”

“It’s all good.” Tobias stirred his stew thoughtfully, “You’re joining us for dinner?”

“Sure.”

“You just had to get out of the house huh? One of those days…”

And that was the problem being in a conversation with two empaths, three once Zai came to join them with evil smiles and luscious kisses that made Kiorl wonder why he ever got out of bed when he could call anyone to him. You could never understand a fucking thing they said because they were all in each other’s head far more than they were actually in the room. How Tobias ever managed to find the mental strength to keep his soul with Nassau there was a mystery to Kiorl. A part of him, the same part that liked to rip humans to shreds, found fun in torture, wanted to throw his seductive blanket over the boy who didn’t share and find out what it was Zai had that was missing. An even smaller part, just a shadow really, wondered if there was something out there for him, his own pretty creature. The only person he loved in all the multiverse was Nassau, and as much as the Lord Prince cared, his heart belonged to another. Kiorl wandered off from the kitchen and the uneasy feeling he was being eavesdropped on. None of them would mean to do it, but Nassau especially would feel his discontent.

Damn empaths.

Kiorl’s room in the house was the biggest, as his rank dictated, and he had his own twisted staircase to the roof. He shed his clothes as he moved through his room, grabbed a black sarong style arrangement and tied the thin material in a rough knot at his hip as he ascended to the roof. Jahke was lying sprawled on a big blanket with his pretty little head in a book. Like always.

He looked up and smiled, but quickly his attention returned to his book, little horns glinting between his blond locks. Kiorl was hit with the mental image of the boy’s pink lips wrapped around his cock. It was easy to see what Sitka saw in him, and while Jahke was a delightful little creature to play with, his heart belonged to Sitka. It was like other people’s children, you enjoyed them, but then you wanted to give them back when they got tiresome. A relationship to need to nurture every day? Kiorl slumped into a chair and curled his tail into his lap, flicking the tip back and forth.

“Jahke?”

“Mmm?” the pale boy flicked his gaze up and frowned, “Bad day Kiorl?”

“That obvious huh?” Kiorl yawned and rubbed a hand through his messy electric blue Mohawk, “Oh that’s good…” The little blond demon had abandoned his book, and now ran strong fingers over the back of Kiorl’s neck and shoulders.

“I do it for Sitka do when work is bad.”

“How are you two getting on anyway?” Kiorl found himself melting under Jahke’s hands. It was almost as good as sex. Almost…

“I love him.” Jahke shrugged and continued to rub the big demon’s shoulders, “I miss him when he goes to work. I’d like to get a job here, have some responsibility now I’m settled in. I miss Watara.”

“You don’t miss upstairs?”

“No.” Jahke stopped his massage, “I don’t actually.”

“You sound surprised. I would have thought you resent him, just a little, for dragging you away from everything you knew.”

When Jahke smiled, Kiorl saw the demon in him. Bright passion-fire burning in his eyes.

“He’s the one for me Kiorl. It couldn’t be any other way,” He tilted his head to one side, “Why? You’re not thinking of settling down with someone are you?”

Kiorl snorted, got up with a growl and stalked away. That a demon young as Jahke had read him so well… that made him worried. He was almost glad to get back downstairs to find a summons from the palace. Sathriel wanted to see him.

It was nice to have something simple to concentrate on.