Innocent Sacrifice - 8. Chapter 8

“Nami? Where did the Alan Hollinghurst books end up?” The fawn leant over the bannister; already half hidden behind a stack of texts balanced precariously under one arm.

“Don’t you still have them back at the house?” Atoki called up to him. “Jeez, Jahke, be careful! Either you’re going to fall off there, or you’re going to knock me out with… is that my copy of the Norton Anthology? What the fuck are you going to do with that? Prop up the bed, or throw it at Sitka and kill him?”

“There’s a poem Tobias recommended….” the boy mused as he browsed the high shelf. “Oh, got it. SHIT!”

Su Yin jumped away from the centre of the mosaic floor under the dome as a book tumbled from the upper floors and landed with a smack exactly where he’d been standing. There was the distant noise of Jahke dropping yet more books on the carpeted floor as he hurried to see what had happened.

“Oh gods! Su Yin, I’m so sorry! Are you OK?”

“We can always trust Jahke to try and invade the new guy’s personal space.” Tobias appeared from a dimly lit side passage next to Su Yin, and rolled his eyes. “Only he’s usually much more direct. Have you come to help me whup their butts again at cards? Winning is such good fun.”

“No.” Su Yin bit his lower lip softly, hoping he hadn’t misread the easy conversations of the evening he’d spent with the former humans of Zinkara Rumah. “I was hoping for some advice.”

“You want those two fools as well?” Tobias’s words held no derision, and he stepped around Su Yin to shout up the spiral staircase where Atoki and Jahke were bickering good naturedly. “Boys! Come on, Su Yin needs our help.”

“How exciting,” Jahke said as they all finally settled in one of the smaller reading rooms off the main spiral of the library.

The fawn seemed perfectly at ease lounging around in nothing but a slim loin cloth with a woven belt wrapped around his hips, but Su Yin knelt carefully on the firm cushion of the chair Atoki had gestured to before he set out the tea. Tobias poured a steaming brown mixture into a large mug, and began to stir in heaps of sugar while Su Yin sipped at his own delicate cup. Su Yin watched him with a frown.

“Is it very different in Zinkara Rumah?”

“From your house?” Tobias queried. “I don’t think I’ve ever been to Xingjhao, though you certainly have better architecture.”

“I like our architecture,” Atoki interjected.

“You would, you have the giant fireplace.” Jahke turned to Su Yin with a smile. “I’ve been to Xingjhao, just after Jin-Ha moved in – he invited Sitka and I to visit.”

“He was limping for three days after that,” Tobias recalled.

“You just can’t keep yourself to yourself, can you Tobias?” The fawn rolled his blue eyes and sighed. “To answer your question, yes, our house is very different from your house, and not because of the way it looks. Xingjhao is a very private place, you’d love it Tobias, no sex in the kitchen.”

Su Yin yelped as his cup slipped from his fingers, remnants of his tea staining the front of his jacket. He wiped at the spillage with his hands, and placed the fallen vessel back on the tea tray.

“I’m sorry-”

“Don’t worry about it, we’ve made worse messes.” Su Yin had the distinct feeling Atoki wasn’t talking about spilling tea, or any other foods. “You’ll have to come visit sometime and see for yourself. After all, if Zhihao takes you to the Palace for consideration, then you’ll meet Kiorl and Lahja sooner or later. You’ve pretty much met everyone else.”

“Zhihao says everyone in Zinkara Rumah is like us… that you all prefer… um….”

“We all like guys?”

“We’re all gay? Yeah,” Jahke said at the same time. “It’s kinda useful.”

“Useful for you,” Tobias shot him a dark look.

“You’re such a prude Tobias.”

“Did we not all agree, a long time ago now, to just get along?” Atoki glared at his housemates. “Sorry Su Yin, but since Tobias doesn’t share, and Jahke is the most promiscuous demon in hell-”

“I resent that.”

“So noted,” Atoki smirked. “They butt heads rather more often than necessary about their different tastes. Did you want advise about… that?”

“Yes,” Su Yin admitted softly.

He squirmed in his seat, aware of the way the other three men looked at him. Their confidence with their bodies – so evident in Jahke’s near-nudity and the way Tobias held himself brimming over with subtle strength and power – made Su Yin jealous. Zhihao said he was beautiful, and Su Yin believed his lover, but he couldn’t imagine taking that pride out into the world with him and showing it to others. He wished he was more forward, like Jahke was, so he could simply ask for their advice and get an answer to the lingering feeling the dream had left in his head, but he wasn’t, and he couldn’t.

“Well, between us, there isn’t much we haven’t done. Ask away.”

Su Yin looked across at Tobias and shook his head.

“I don’t know how to talk about… that.”

“About sex?” Jahke queried.

“Yes.”

“Zai always says Asian’s are very reticent to discuss sex openly. Maybe he was right for once.”

“Zai is your mate?” Su Yin asked his friend.

“Yes. We love each other, he’s the only one I’ve ever been with.”

Su Yin didn’t miss Atoki’s look of surprise, as though this was new information to him as well.

“How did you meet?”

“Are you sure you want to know? It was hardly as polite as you and Zhihao’s relationship appears to have begun. I came to hell because I didn’t have a choice, and I learnt to love Zai over time because he brought something out in me I’d never known before – but it was not always a pleasant experience.”

“Oh….”

“You’re not really here to ask about me, though, are you?”

Su Yin took a deep breath, clenched his jaw, and decided there was no point being shy in front of the few people he’d ever known who he considered to be friends.

“I don’t know how to ask him for what I want.”

“More sex?” Jahke queried.

“Different sex?” Atoki guessed with rather more accuracy. “Just tell him. That guy will do anything for you, plain as the fangs on his face.”

“What, specifically, is it you want, Su Yin?” Tobias asked carefully.

Su Yin blushed.

“I can’t say.”

Tobias arched an eyebrow at him, and then leant over to whisper in Jahke’s ear. The pale fawn giggled.

“Is that all? Oh honey, just ask him! He’ll love the idea, I’d bet on it.”

“Huh?”

“Sorry.” Tobias shrugged, he wasn’t very remorseful. “You were thinking rather loudly, and I am an empath.”

Jahke beamed.

“I thought it was going to be something really kinky….”

“Jahke!”

“What?”

“Just try to remember not everyone gives the Prince of hell a blowjob on their first meeting, yeah? What counts as kinky is different for him, and me.” Tobias’s voice was stern. “Whether you enjoy the company of my mate or not is none of my concern, but I know he doesn’t do to you what he does to me. You wouldn’t like it.”

“But it’s only a spanking!”

“Jahke!” Atoki rolled his eyes in despair, but Su Yin clamped his hands over his mouth, and tried to hide inside the high collar of his jacket. He laid a hand, very gently, on Su Yin’s shoulder. “Is that what you want Zhihao to do to you?”

Su Yin nodded mutely.

“You have nothing to fear from asking him. He has asked you to do things before too, right?”

Su Yin couldn’t help remember standing before the red skinned demon, still a stranger, obeying the command to wet his lips, watching the desire flame in Zhihao’s eyes as he’d obeyed. But he remembered the unpleasant pain of the only time he’d tried to take control of their actions, how Zhihao had needed to support him and soothe him afterwards, and how immature and inexperienced he’d felt in not knowing what to do.

“I can’t ask him. We don’t talk about things like that.”

“Seriously?” Jahke looked shocked.

“I know it might sound rather old fashioned,” Tobias began with a smile, “but you could always write him a letter?”

*

Su Yin set his brush down on the rest, and looked at what he had written. It was the tenth time he’d written it, having been left alone in Atoki’s office with all the supplies Jin-Ha would lend him, and Su Yin was finally happy with his work. The strokes were well proportioned and strong, bold, sharp, and decisive. He was not begging with his words, not asking for what he wanted, but demanding it with just as much confidence as Zhihao had when he commanded Su Yin in their bedroom. It had taken him a long time to get his meaning and intention right, but finally the four symbols were presented perfectly on the thick scroll of paper, and Su Yin simply had to sign it, and let the ink dry.

He left his work, and went in search of his friends. To his surprise, coming towards him down the passageway was the taller grey-furred shape of the demon he had first met whilst walking with Zhihao through hell.

“Zai?”

“Well remembered. I had so hoped you had finished your writing, I did not much feel like knocking on the door and disturbing you.” Zai smiled, but when his muzzle split, it revealed a row of sharp tipped fangs which seemed much scarier than Zhihao’s long teeth. “Tobias asked me to fetch you something. He thought you might need it.”

Zai used his long tail to un-hook a soft fabric pouch from the many belts he wore across his waist and hips, and delved inside it to bring forth a small square pillar of smooth grey stone, and a double ended metal tool of the sort Su Yin had seen used for carving.

“Have you ever carved a seal before?”

“No. Is it hard to do?”

“Can take a bit of practice.” Zai shrugged. “Just like anything else. I brought you some spares.” He withdrew another handful of square stones from the pouch. Su Yin stared at the way he simply stood holding it with his tail, unable to look away. “You’re wondering how I do that, too. Come on Su Yin, let me help you with your carving, and I promise I’ll let you ask all the questions swirling around in that head of yours. I’m not nearly so sensitive as my mate.”

“Tobias is your mate?”

Su Yin bowed Zai into Atoki’s office automatically, but the other demon did not go directly to the low writing desk and peer at what he’d written. Zai simply sat and laid out the seal stones on the bare floor. Su Yin joined him.

“He said your first meeting was not… civilised?”

Zai laughed. It was a very different sound from Zhihao’s booming joviality, and Su Yin felt the back of his neck prickle: Zai was dangerous, he could tell.

“I attacked him in the dark, raped him, and almost killed him. More than once.” Zai did not sound embarrassed by his statement.

“Why?”

“Seemed like a good idea at the time. I didn’t know I was going to want to keep him then. It was just for fun.”

“You wanted to kill someone… for fun?” Su Yin clarified.

“Sure. I still nearly kill him sometimes, though it never gets to the scary stage where he could actually slip away.” Zai arched an eyebrow spot at him. “I can, and do, heal him. Some of us have rather special skills. Not all demons are as sensible and pleasant as your Zhihao, Su Yin. He’s a trickster, I’m not.”

“What do you do?”

“I’m an enforcer. I beat up people who piss off the Palace, or who cause havoc Upstairs.” Zai held out one of the blank seal stones. “Shall we?”

Su Yin took the stone from Zai, and the tool, and began to follow Zai’s instructions, using what he remembered seeing to help him lay out the characters of his name on the small block of stone. Zai gave very clear directions, and didn’t interfere unless Su Yin asked him directly for help, but simply lounged, cat-like, on the floor, and answered all the questions Su Yin didn’t have time or confidence to put into actual words. Su Yin wasn’t entirely sure how it was done, because Zai wasn’t reading his mind, but he got the flavour of what Su Yin was thinking about clearly enough.

“Liking pain, in various forms, isn’t all that unusual. Not just down here, but in plenty of places across the ‘verse. There aren’t many who take it to the levels Tobias and I enjoy, but then, we share a special sort of bond not many can share in. I feel pleasure through him feeling pain, and he can feel my pleasure too, and so we keep going, and going… usually until the point where he blacks-out.

“The boys didn’t understand why you want to ask for what you’ve asked for, did they? Jahke especially, I’ll warrant. They’ve all become pretty twisted from spending time with us lot. Even Atoki, who will maintain until the ending of the universe that he is exactly the same as he was when he first arrived – don’t believe him. Kid is fucked up in all manner of ways. You’re new, you’ll get twisted eventually.

“Unless you were already twisted anyway? Hmmmm… hard one that. You’re young, younger maybe even than Jahke was when Sitka brought him home, and you’re a sacrifice, so you were a virgin. What your brain and body are going to find natural, the things you are going to desire, want, and need… these are all likely to change as you get older. Not that you’ll get physically older, not unless Zhihao never takes you to meet Nassau – which I doubt.

“Who’s Nassau? The Prince of Hell. He’s the only one with the power to grant immortal life to recruits. He can give you more than that too. Jahke didn’t look like he does now when he first arrived. He was just human, like you. Jeremiah chose to be warm, really warm, after all he married a snake. I wonder what you’ll pick. Will you want to look different? I think maybe not…. Ohhh, now, don’t do that. You can’t get rid of such pretty big brown eyes. Well, what was unusual Upstairs doesn’t mean much here. I’ll bet Zhihao loves just about everything about you. How do I know? Have you seen yourself?

“Su Yin! My, my, my… you are a kinky thing, aren’t you? Nice trick with the mirror. I’ll have to find out who got it for him. Well if you’ve been doing that from the start, you’ll fit in just fine. Are you going to repay me, and let me know how it goes once you give him the scroll? No, I thought not. You’ll have to work on keeping your secrets to yourself then. Hahaha! No, I’m not going to tell you how it’s done. Jem’s good at it though, you’d better ask him.

“All finished?”

Su Yin held out the little stone block, the third one he’d started, and Zai traced his short sharp claws across the grooves with a smile.

“Very good. Here.”

It took Zai all of two minutes to drill a hole through the top of the stone with a combination of his claws and the tool, and he brought out a twisted red cord from yet another pouch, strung up the stone and handed it to Su Yin.

“I’ll leave you to your writing. It’s been very nice to talk with you, Su Yin.”

“Thank you.”

“Please do say you’ll come visit us at the house one day soon? Tobias cooks, and I can guarantee he’ll want to show off for guests.”

Su Yin bowed low, and watched Zai’s swishing tail as the demon departed. His scroll had dried in the time it had taken him to carve the seal and listen to Zai’s voice. It had been sort of pleasant not to have to find the words to ask Zai his questions, to sit quietly while Zai told him things which whilst not secrets, were certainly sensitive. Su Yin wondered if there were things he didn’t know about that he might want in the future, and whether Zai was right, and he would change from being around demons. Su Yin knelt before his writing, pressed his seal into the red paste, and signed the scroll on the left hand side. He cleaned the seal, hung it around his neck where the stone clicked happily against the red beads of the Chain of Possession, rolled the scroll, and made his way out of the library without running into anyone.

*

All afternoon, Su Yin sat in the main room at Xingjhao, reading the copy of Journey To The West he’d been given, the scroll curled at his side, wishing Zhihao was home. He’d always been good at his studies, attentive and diligent, but now that he’d had allowed himself to think about what would happen later – or might happen, if Zhihao accepted the scroll – he couldn’t keep his mind on the page in front of him. He turned the pages of chapters eight and nine slowly, not focussing on the words, but brushing his fingertips over the illustrations which showed Tang Sanzang and the Buddha planning Tang’s journey to find someone to take the Buddhist sutras back to the east. Su Yin traced the larger characters for transcendence, good will, and persuasion, then glanced back at his tightly wound scroll. He breathed deeply, remembering the way he’d held the brush, the deep contrast of the black ink against the pale, thick paper. It made him think of the disparity between his own pale skin and Zhihao’s rich red shade, and Su Yin bit his lip as he felt his cock stir against the silk of his tailored outfit.

“Good afternoon Su Yin.”

He looked up to see the sweeping, elegant figure of Fan He Ling standing before him. Even though her eyes were blank, Su Yin had the sensation she was looking right into his heart. He shivered, momentarily petrified, terrified of what the demon might be able to see inside him. Su Yin moved to bow his head, and heard the clink of the seal he’d carved touch the bright gems of his necklace. His life in Laoshan had been governed by protocol and formality, and now felt like a good time to rely on those routines. Su Yin bowed deeply, his palms flat on the floor with his forehead nearly touching his knuckles.

“Greetings, my lady. I hope the noon-day sun finds you well.”

Though her face was an expressionless mask, she hesitated, and Su Yin realised his lack of audible fear had surprised the demon.

“My lady?”

“Yes. Thank you Su Yin. I see you have been to the library?”

“I had a very instructive time.”

“I don’t doubt. The major demon of the house of Zinkara Rumah is well known to me, and his house is a favourite of the Prince. You will do well to cultivate friendships there. Our Zhihao could do with friends in high places.” She paused, and her dark gaze fell on the scroll at his side. “And what have you there?”

“A letter, my lady.”

“For your Zhihao? He is lucky to have you.”

It was Su Yin’s turn to be taken aback.

“Thank you.”

Fang He Ling inclined her head, her beautiful hair adorned with its huge nodding flowers. If anything, the natural movement of the petals only served to reinforce the stillness of her face.

“A happy demon does good work. You make him happy, and that brings glory to our house. Good day to you Su Yin.”

Su Yin bowed again as she left, and as he sat up he had the feeling once more, like warm sake sliding down his gullet, that his lover was once again nearly home. He wondered if it was an unusual skill, or if every boy who’d ever loved a demon acquired the talent of knowing when their mates had returned from Upstairs. He made a mental note to ask Atoki or Tobias about it, and smiled as Zhihao appeared in the wide entranceway.

“My love.” Zhihao beamed when he saw Su Yin waiting. “I am sorry I was so long. How was your day?”

“Very educational, thank you. How was Upstairs?”

“I stole one left shoe from everyone in a small town and hung them from a tree. Should cause a lot of grief in the long run.”

“I have something for you.”

Zhihao arched a black eyebrow as he took the scroll from Su Yin’s fingers. The boy watched closely as his demon lover read the scroll, his green eyes going wide as he took in the meaning of the four logograms Su Yin had spent so long perfecting. Intention was everything, after all, and Su Yin knew his request had had the desired effect when Zhihao looked back at him, lust banked in his bright eyes.

“Go to our room and make ready for me.”

“Yes sir.” Su Yin licked his lips in exactly the way he knew Zhihao liked, and had the pleasure of watching the yaoguai shiver. He turned on one heel and ascended the staircase as quickly as he could.

The house had remade their bed in a new set of clean silk sheets. These were a deep green like wet moss and embroidered in yellow and gold with a carpet of tiny flowers. Su Yin went directly to the paper screened wardrobe, and took out a short tunic of plain dark red cloth which had been the closest thing he’d found to Zhihao’s skin tone. He’d scrubbed himself clean before he’d assumed his position of waiting and tied his hair into a tight, simple top-knot. Now Su Yin watched himself in the mirror as he removed his clothes, his fingers shaking on the knotted frogs of his jacket. He redressed wearing only the Chain Zhihao had given him and the short tunic which matched his lover’s colouring. He stared at himself for a long breath, wondering if Zai was right. Was he twisted in his desires, and might become more so by being surrounded by demons? A fast little thought flitted across his mind as he reached for the bottle of sweet jasmine scented oil they kept by the bed: what if he was twisted? Did he actually care? Did it actually matter when he was so happy?

Making sure to keep his oily fingers clear of his tunic, Su Yin spread the lubricant over himself, probing his opening carefully, hating that the action still made him blush so hard. He didn’t mind when Zhihao did it. Just the idea of his lover had him nearly panting again, and Su Yin quickly placed the vial back on the little lacquered table, set the jade phallus next to it, just in case, and knelt serenely by the bed just as Zhihao slid back the door.

The red demon smiled broadly, and unrolled the scroll in his hand once again.

“Da wo pigu… I’ve never received such a letter as welcome as this one. Your brushwork is excellent, Su Yin.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Su Yin watched the yaoguai cross the reed matting to the far wall, where there now hung strings and two lengths of bamboo, already cut for holding such a scroll. How the house had known, Su Yin wasn’t sure, but as he watched his lover display the personal letter so proudly, he forgot to feel ashamed. Zhihao stripped slowly, his bright eyes on Su Yin, knowing how closely the boy watched his movements, and came to stand in front of him, his thick red cock already hard.

“You will take everything I give you,” he stated calmly.

“Yes sir.”

Su Yin smiled, wet his lips, and took his lover in his mouth.