Innocent Sacrifice - 7. Chapter 7

The shock on Zhihao’s face had been almost funny as he’d opened the door of Snakes and Snakes, his jaw practically scraping the floor as he recovered.

“Never?”

“You’ve never had alcohol before, ever?” Zhihao stood aside so his lover could enter the bar. “We’d best be careful with you.”

“What’s that I hear?” Su Yin turned towards a familiar voice to see the big green scaled naga smiling at him. “We’ve got a virgin in the house! Don’t let Jem make you any cocktails.”

“Inai!” Su Yin left the yaoguai’s side and bowed before his rescuer with a bright smile. “Thank you again for the other day.”

“You’re welcome.”

Only when he straightened up did Su Yin realised that they were being watched, and he and Inai had drawn the attention of most of the people in the bar. The barman looked particularly interested, though the young tanned man with the brown hair still managed to nonchalantly pour some bright rainbow coloured fluid through a silver strainer into a slim glass as he arched an eyebrow.

“Inai… please tell me you haven’t actually done something nice for somebody have you? Is it snowing?”

The naga made a rather vicious hand gesture Su Yin assumed to be some kind of profanity, and the barman smiled knowingly.

“So, what can I get your skinny little friend here? I assume you’d be the boy Zai asked me to order this for.” The owner of Snakes and Snakes shot the tall glass along to the end of the bar without spilling it, then reached onto a high shelf above the bar and brought down a slender ceramic bottle with a corked top, sealed with red wax. Su Yin recognised it, he’d seen through doorways where people would sit and drink from tiny cups, and laugh. It had always looked fun. “Kiaza went and stole you this on special order. Very expensive.”

“Oh….” Su Yin frowned as Zhihao made his way towards him across the bar and wrapped a possessive arm around his waist. “How do I… pay?” He glanced up at his lover. “Do we have money?”

Zhihao and the barman both burst out laughing, and Su Yin blushed at his feet.

“Everything down here is done in trade, little one.”

Su Yin’s eyes snapped up and he glared at the barman. He might have been taller than Su Yin was, older too, but Su Yin didn’t know him, and he didn’t like a mocking tone in the man’s voice.

“My name is Su Yin.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.” Su Yin glared at him. “Use it.”

“Well then, I’m Jem, and this is on the house. Welcome to Snakes and Snakes.”

Jem unsealed the ceramic bottle and poured out two small cups of clear rice wine. He held one out to Su Yin, who took it, and he held the barman’s gaze as they both drank. The spirit was sharp and somehow hot against his tongue and down his throat, but Su Yin nodded at Jem, and the barman poured him another before turning to deal with a demon along the bar.

“You don’t need me to protect you, do you my love?” Zhihao kept his voice low and soft as he spoke, taking the little cup Jem had used delicately between two claws. Su Yin refilled it automatically.

“No,” the boy agreed. “But it’s nice to know you’re there anyway.”

Su Yin leant into Zhihao’s embrace and smiled as his lover kissed his neck and nuzzled his hair. Inai rolled his eyes.

“You two are way too sappy. Come on, if you’re going to wander around the Inner Circle being all cute, I figure you should meet some more people like yourself.”

“People like me?”

“Other recruits,” Zhihao explained.

Ten minutes later Su Yin found himself sat at a large round table, fidgeting slightly on the tall chair which the others seemed to think was normal, being introduced by Atoki to a rather interesting selection of other people. Atoki’s lover was a leonine-wolf shaped beast with enormous horns and eyes made of fire, but he spoke with a gentle rumbling voice, smiled, and there was no point where the pair of them weren’t touching. Tobias nodded at him across the table, but he was involved in a rather heated discussion with Zai, the demon Su Yin had met with Zhihao on their first tour of hell, and another person with black skin decorated with lava patterns who had a boy straddling his lap, snuggling happily.

“So, you’re the new guy everyone’s been talking about.” The slim, pale boy in the lava demon’s lap asked. He looked about the same age as Su Yin, and seemed normal at first glance until he ran a hand through his blond hair, and Su Yin noticed his horns.

“Why are people talking about me?”

“Because no one from Xingjhao has ever recruited before,” the boy replied excitedly. “And there hasn’t been anyone recruited at all since Jem showed up.”

“Jem is a recruit?” Su Yin shot a doubtful look at the barman, pouring drinks and bickering good-naturedly with a bulky man who appeared to be made mostly out of stone.

“The only person ever to come to hell completely voluntarily,” Atoki told him. “Took him no time at all to find his niche.”

“So….” the slim pale young man called Jahke had moved around the table until he ended up in the seat next to Su Yin. “How did you two meet?”

“Jahke...” the demon with the lava patterned skin sighed, “you’re such a nosy bastard.”

“You love me, Shindae,” the boy reminded him. “Please?” he directed his question at Su Yin with wide eyes.

“Um… well, I think he was supposed to kill me.” Su Yin shrugged, because the idea of Zhihao hurting him now seemed as impossible as wanting to ever sleep alone again. “My town sent me to be a sacrifice.”

“And a good choice you were, too,” Zhihao told him.

“You play cards in your world Su Yin?” Tobias asked him from across the table. The young man with many scars was playing smoothly with a tall deck of long slender cards, their backs detailed with frenetic geometric patterns.

“Yes, some.” Su Yin frowned as the images on the deck as Tobias fanned them out. They were unlike the simple white, black, green, and red cards he was used to with their familiar sleek patterns, but each was like a painting showing figures and scenery. “I do not know these though.”

“We’ll teach you.” Tobias grinned at Atoki. “Wist?”

“Sure,” the librarian replied, “but we’ll need a fourth.”

“Zhihao?” Su Yin turned to his lover, but Tobias shook his head quickly.

“No way, he can’t play with us.”

“Trickster demons are… well, tricky.” Atoki looked annoyed at his lack of ability to find a better description. “Suddenly someone will have a hand with all the major arcana and the King of Fishes if we let your boyfriend join us. Jahke, you’ll play?”

“Sure thing.”

Su Yin kissed Zhihao as he stood to follow the others, and wondered if his lover would be annoyed not to join them. As he took his seat at the small square table, Tobias arched an eyebrow, shuffling the cards without looking at them.

“You’re nearly as bold as Jem, Su Yin.”

“Excuse me?”

The young man began dealing four stacks of the long cards as he spoke.

“You’ve been here, what – two weeks? And you just got up and left your man there without a by-your-leave. I doubt he minds, he looks smitten. You’re a bold one. I expect people underestimate you all the time.”

Su Yin frowned.

“Should I have asked permission?” The idea rankled.

“Technically.” Jahke’s voice was very carefully measured as he replied. “You’re wearing a Chain of Possession.”

Su Yin touched the necklace at his throat with a smile.

“For protection, I know. But technically, until he takes you to the Palace for consideration, you belong to him. You’re his responsibility and his property.”

Su Yin glared at the pale fawn.

“I’m no one’s pet,” he snapped.

“Whoa….”

Jahke held out both palms in supplication. His blue eyes were wide and edged with not an insignificant amount of fear. Su Yin instantly felt guilty for snarling at the boy, and equally proud he’d defended himself.

“It’s a technicality, Su Yin. No one thinks of you that way,” Tobias explained. “Not even Inai apparently. You’re braver than any of us were when we first got here.”

“How long have you been here?”

“I stopped counting when I reached three figures,” Tobias replied nonchalantly. “Jahke’s been here, what? About sixty years or so.”

“Vruu and I have been together nineteen years this past season, and Jem’s been serving drinks and creating alcoholic concoctions for the past decade.” Atoki took one of the piles of cards and fanned them out in his hand. He scowled. “This is a shite hand. Jahke, you’d better have something good up your sleeve, or these two will wipe the floor with us.”

The pale fawn on Su Yin’s other side smirked as he took his own cards, all signs of fear and apprehension having vanished without a trace.

“It’ll take Su Yin a while to pick up the rules, we’ll be fine. Trust me.”

“Uh-huh,” Atoki looked doubtful.

Tobias turned the top card on the remaining pile face up and nodded.

“Dragons are trumps, left of the dealer goes first. Just follow what you can, OK?”

Su Yin examined the intricately painted cards with a smile. They were beautiful, strange, foreign, but they were cards after all, and Su Yin had always been very good at watching quietly.

*

“Your turn Su Yin.”

The boy laid a card down on the trick without ceremony, and Atoki reached out for his winnings before he looked, and groaned.

“WHAT? Again!” He hid behind his free hand as Tobias took the cards instead, and added them to his and Su Yin’s ever growing pile of winnings. “How does he keep doing that?”

“He has all the good cards,” Jahke sighed heavily.

“But how does he know he has all the good cards, he’s never played before? And don’t give me any of that ‘beginners luck’ crap – it never rings true when playing Fourchess.”

Su Yin smiled to himself, but didn’t say anything as he looked at his remaining cards. They were on their third hand, and he and Tobias had won almost every trick so far. It wasn’t that he had all the good cards, not especially, but the rules weren’t nearly as complex as some of the games he was used to, and Su Yin had always been good at picking things up. No one had expected him to be holding both the Hierophant and the King of Fishes, or know when to lay them down to best effect. Now they’d gotten to the point of laying down mostly low value Fish cards, but Su Yin had kept hold of a lot of his trump cards, and was using them wisely. More importantly, Tobias had worked out his strategy, and was letting him win, having used up all his high ranking cards to win the earlier rounds.

As they each put down their final cards, and Tobias collected the last trick, Su Yin smiled at a rather distraught looking Atoki.

“Best of seven?”

“OH GODS…!”

Su Yin was almost concerned when the young man’s forehead hit the table with a painful sounding clunk, but a moment later they were all distracted by Jahke leaping up from the table with a peal of delight, and racing into the arms of a black skinned demon with big twisted horns and a ready smile.

“Babe!”

“Well, there goes the end of our game,” Tobias muttered as Jahke and the new demon kissed in a manner Su Yin considered to be deeply private. “Well done Su Yin, it’ll be a pleasure to play with you again.”

“Thank you.” Su Yin bowed momentarily, and then held out a hand to grasp the one Tobias offered. The man shook his hand with a smile. “It will be nice to have friends outside the house.”

“Oh boy, you can’t be bored of their company already?”

“No, but it’s always fun to learn new things.”

Atoki grinned.

“You’re gonna fit right in, Su Yin.” He jerked his chin over the Chinese man’s shoulder. “Looks like you were missed, too.”

Su Yin turned to see Zhihao watching him from the other side of the bar, where he was sat with Inai, a few other demons all built to similarly muscular proportions, and an array of empty glasses. The red skinned demon smiled softly, and Su Yin felt a sharp tug in his chest as he realised he’d missed his lover’s touch too.

“See you at the library soon, yeah?”

“Yes.” Su Yin stood without turning back, ignoring the conversation going on behind him as he crossed the bar.

“Strong and talented, Nassau’s gonna love him.”

“Shut up and deal, would you Tobias. I’m gonna whup your arse at crib if we can find the damn board….”

Su Yin slipped into the half embrace Zhihao offered him, and pressed close to the demon as Zhiahao bade his companions goodbye. They left Snakes and Snakes still touching, and Su Yin was glad of Zhihao’s company as they headed home.

“I thought Jahke was with Shindae.” Su Yin bit his lip as he walked, thinking over the difference between the lava-skinned demon Jahke had been happily sat in the lap of when they’d arrived and the one who’d walked in during the card game.

“No, love. Jahke and Sitka, he’s the one with the horns, have an open relationship. They share.”

“Have you ever…?” Su Yin didn’t want to finish his sentence, but he wasn’t sure which answer he was most afraid of.

“With them? No, though I have been at parties where Jahke has been showing off with others.” Zhihao glanced sideways at him. “Does it make you uncomfortable?”

“I don’t know,” Su Yin admitted truthfully. “I’ve never kissed anyone apart from you.”

“Would you like to?” Zhihao question was without pressure, and Su Yin leant against the yaoguai as they walked towards their house. “Jin-Ha is very attractive after all, and his desire for you is strong.”

Su Yin shivered.

“You do not have to be embarrassed by your thoughts, Su Yin.”

“I’m not, I’m just not sure what I want.”

“It is not something you have to decide now, my love.” Zhihao held his hand tight, and Su Yin turned on the second step to look at the red-skinned demon, for once without having to gaze upwards. “We have plenty of time.”

“Zhihao….”

“Yes, beautiful?”

“I love you.”

Su Yin had often wondered how people knew they were in love. Atoki and his mate were in love, that much was obvious, and Jem with the slinky green scaled snake had clearly adored each other. Atoki said he’d come to hell just to find the man who drove him mad and forced Kiaza to admit he loved him back. Now, he looked at the big red demon who had brought him to hell, and he didn’t have to wonder how he knew he was in love. He just knew.

“That makes me very happy, Su Yin.”

The boy glanced his lover up and down, and smirked. Zhihao’s arousal was impossible to miss, even under his clothes.

“Let’s go to bed.”

In their room, Su Yin peeled out of his silk brocade coat, the one he’d arrived in, but before he could reach out for Zhihao the big demon gathered him up tightly and carried him to the bed. Su Yin leant up on his elbows, a question framed on his lips, and Zhihao smiled.

“Stay.”

“Oh….” Su Yin lay back against the covers, lifted his hips, and eased himself out of his clothes. Zhihao watched him disrobe with mounting and visible interest, and the boy bit his lower lip softly as his fingertips skimmed over his naked body.

“Good boy.”

Zhihao lent over him without making contact, and Su Yin shivered with the heat of his body. He arched up, wanting the big demon, but Zhihao frowned and shook his head, so Su Yin pressed back into the bed, though he was anything other than relaxed. The yaoguai traced over the soft concave lines of his abdomen with the tips of his claws, and Su Yin fought the urge to flex into the contact. He couldn’t close his eyes, but watching Zhihao’s smug smile as the demon touched him too-lightly drove him out of his mind with lust.

Su Yin bit his lip to keep from groaning, and his lover placed the pad of one thumb over his mouth. The boy lapped at the digit eagerly and Zhihao ducked his head and smiled against his skin.

“Good boy. Moan for me.”

“Nghh! Zhi!”

“Don’t hold back, beautiful,” Zhihao instructed him as he continued his feathery touch down Su Yin’s body. When the tip of his long pointed tongue traced across his nipple, the boy whimpered. “That’s right.” Zhihao punctuated his words with more laps at first one tight bud, then the other. “You’re such a good boy.”

He shivered as Zhihao’s tongue trailed over his skin, quivered as the red skinned demon crouched over him, no part of their bodies touching except where Zhihao licked at his lover, the odd contrasting hard brush of his fangs as he turned his head. Su Yin fisted his fingers in the sheets above his head, trying to stay still as the demon had asked, trying to resist giving into temptation and physically beg for more. It was so hard, and it turned him on more than he thought possible. Zhihao licked along the length of his erection and Su Yin moaned openly. Even with the head of his cock sliding into his lover’s mouth, he heard the yaoguai chuckle with satisfaction.

Every inch of his skin burned to be touched, and Su Yin wanted to whine, to beg, to hurry to the inevitable moment where Zhihao would sheath his cock fully inside him and fuck him until he was exhausted with pleasure. Every sensation was heightened, and Su Yin whimpered as his lover sucked him slowly, craning his neck to look down the length of his pale torso to see Zhihao watching him, his green eyes sparkling with pleasure. Su Yin fell back with a moan; knowing that putting him through such delicious teasing was a turn on for the demon made him want to do everything and anything Zhihao wanted. And if Zhihao wanted to keep him on edge all night, then Su Yin would submit to him.

But the yaoguai had other plans.

Zhihao’s mouth closed around him, hot and tight as he pressed his tongue tight along Su Yin’s cock, and the boy whimpered with the sudden pleasure of the movement. Zhihao swallowed, and the pressure, the knowledge that the demon desired him, made Su Yin lose control.

“Zhi!”

His lover held his gaze as he swallowed, and Su Yin whimpered again at the obvious delight on his face. He slumped back into the mattress, half praying silently that the teasing was over, and Zhihao held his thighs, and spread them.

“Zhihao?”

“Stay there, good boy.” Su Yin shivered as his heels were brought up to meet his rear, his knees parted. “I love to look at you.” Zhihao’s breath was hot on his slick cock and his muscles quivered as the demon moved over him without touching his skin. “You are beautiful,” the yaoguai told him, “and you want me.”

“Yes sir.”

“Again.”

“Yes sir. Please.” Su Yin barely recognised his voice, but every word made him shiver with desire.

“Good boy.”

Zhihao used his thick fingers to spread the mounds of his arse, and the sharp points of his claws made the boy whimper with delighted fear. Zhihao breathed against his tender flesh, and Su Yin couldn’t keep still when he felt his lover’s tongue press inside his body.

“Ahh!”

The yaoguai invaded him swiftly, kept him pinned to the bed with his hands as Su Yin bucked against his lover. He had not expected the sharp coursing of more pleasure through his body, had relished the idea of the slow burning contentment of feeling his lover thrust inside him, and now he whimpered uncontrollably as his lust was expertly manipulated. Zhihao reamed him with his tongue until the boy was panting, his cock swollen once more, and the string of desire from his lips had blended into an incomprehensible litany. The red skinned demon sat back to admire the boy he adored, and slid his fingers across his delicate skin to his slick entrance, and delved into the inviting wet heat. Su Yin arched his back, pressing into him, his body demanding more invasion, and Zhihao was only too happy to oblige.

“Look at you now, impaling yourself on me. You are so beautiful.” He whispered the words against the sensitive skin of Su Yin’s inner thigh, each breath sending shivers up his spine. “I wish to tease you until you can bear no more.”

“Y-yes sir.”

“Yes?” Zhihao frowned softly, unsure if he had heard something in the boy’s voice telling him he’d pushed his lover too far.

Su Yin’s dark eyes met his own, wide and full of desire. He grinned.

“Yes, sir,” he repeated firmly, and the yaoguai smiled.

It was going to be a long night.

*

Su Yin was on his knees, the ridges of the bamboo matting dug into his skin, and the irritation distracted him from the hot, delicious length of Zhihao’s cock in his mouth. The demon held the back of his skull in one big hand, guiding him up and down his shaft, applying enough pressure to force the swollen head of his erection into Su Yin’s throat at the end of each thrust. Su Yin could hardly breath, but he didn’t care, because Zhihao wanted him, needed him, and the yaoguai groaned his name as his sweet and salty precum filled Su Yin’s taste buds.

His own erection bobbed in time with his sucking, and he wanted relief. Su Yin wondered if Zhihao would want to see him touching himself, or if the action would bring displeasure to the demon. The boy didn’t want to wrap his fingers around himself – that was for Zhihao to see to if he wanted – but the idea that Zhihao might be annoyed, angry even, made his stomach tighten. The demon’s grip against his skull increased, and Su Yin couldn’t help but imagine those hands against his rear, squeezing and gripping him hard. He groaned around Zhihao’s magnificent cock, feeling wetness begin to leak from his own dick as he visualised the demon bending him over their bed, heard in his mind the swift swish and smack of his hand moving through the air to strike his arse, and he whimpered at the sting he felt only in his head.

As Zhihao gasped his name, his member swelling between Su Yin’s lips, the boy felt his insides lurch sideways, as though they’d been ripped away by some unseen force. His vision skewed and blurred, there was a distant sound like branches tapping against the roof tiles, and sudden pain as he fell from the bed.

Su Yin dragged himself into a sitting position and hugged his arms around his knees, gathering the heavy folds of the silk bedsheets about him as he sat on the floor. It was dark, but he could tell it was day, and he’d been dreaming. He knew Zhihao was not there, the room was silent except for the thundering of his pulse in his ears, and Su Yin pressed his forehead to his knees, and cried silently.

He’d dreamt before, just like everyone else did, but this dream had been so vivid and sharp, and so full of longing for something Su Yin didn’t even understand how to express in words. He loved pleasuring his mate, the red skinned yaoguai he wanted to spend eternity with, so why had the dream made him feel equally miserable and frustrated? No answers came, and misery had made short work of his morning erection, so Su Yin simply got up, dressed in a long silk robe, and left their bedroom.

The bathroom of Xingjhao was shared by everyone, which had surprised him, but Zhihao had explained that in hell, water was a precious resource. Heat however, was not, and the well set into the floor at one side of the room steamed gently with the warmth of the fires below. Su Yin took two buckets, filled them, and took a seat in a shallow, square, claw footed vessel which served both as a chair and a place for the water to drain away. He poured the first bucket over his head in its entirety, and began to scrub at his hair with a handful of soapsand. Hot water and exfoliation made him feel physically better, but by the time Su Yin used a little silver cup to help rinse off his hair and shoulders, his mind still burned with his dream.

“Your hair is getting longer.”

Su Yin physically jumped at the kitsune’s voice, the silver cup clattering away across the floor. The little fox bent to pick it up, filled it freshly from the well, and approached with a smile.

“You’ve missed a bit, let me help you.”

“Jin-Ha….”

“I can see something is bothering you, Su Yin.”

The boy sighed, and held his head in his hands. During the card game at Snakes and Snakes, Tobias had explained how hard secrets were to keep in hell, and Su Yin knew the kitsune would always be able to feel it when he was thinking about other things. The demon poured the water over the back of his neck, took the sponge from his limp fingers, and began to wash his back.

“Does being in hell corrupt a human?”

“Is that what you really want to ask me?” Jin-Ha sounded amused. “Well, I doubt it, most of the humans who end up here are pretty twisted to begin with. But Wakumi says that being with a demon changes a human – that it reveals more of who they really are.”

“Is she right?”

“Well, she eats them pretty quickly afterwards, so I can’t say she’s a reliable source of information.”

Su Yin shuddered involuntarily.

“Sorry. But you are not delicate. I do not think you need shielding from these things. I do not disagree with her though - about humans being with demons, not about eating people – and I have seen Tobias, and Jahke, and many other recruits, change over their time with their lovers. Why do you ask?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

The kitsune laid a gently hand on his shoulder, and Su Yin turned to look at him with a frown. The little fox had promised not to make advances on him, and so far they had reached a relaxed stalemate which Su Yin was content with. He really hoped that barrier wasn’t going to be pushed too far.

“You should talk to your friends, Su Yin. They can help you. Everyone does better with company.”