T. Grey: Ties That Bind

He closed his eyes and gave her everything he had, and she took all of it. Meeting him thrust for thrust. She trembled harder, faster as she came onto another climax. He was right there with her, his balls pulled heavy and tight, his cock swelling, and his rhythm faltering.

Her scream sent him over. Her pussy started its delicious, erotic ministrations. Gripping and squeezing, coaxing and pumping around his cock until he couldn't hold it in anymore. He shoved himself inside on her quieting scream and shouted as his cock jerked, spurting hot and long inside her. She wrung everything from him, pulling pleasure from deep within his body.

He felt like he was coming down from a high. Drifting somewhere in space. His lips found hers and whispered words of love were shared.

He started to pull out but her sweet sex stroked his cock, so he thrust back in. His cock started to harden again, her soft breaths turned to soft moans. Then he was taking her again, riding them both up and up until their sweaty bodies clung together in a release that blinded him.

Their lips clung together, neither having enough energy to actually purse their lips to kiss. “Tomorrow, we mate,” he said.

“Okay,” she said, breathless. Her eyes never opened.

He found the energy somehow to pull out of her and spoon against her. He heard her breathing deepen and spoke up before the thought left him.

“Maybe purple.”

“Huh?” she whispered.

“Maybe our children will have violet hair. A mixture of both of us.”

She sighed, a smile curling her lips up. “I like that.”

He thought of the color his brother's eyes used to be. “Yeah, I'd like that too.”

The next morning Lily didn't get to see Telal at all. He was whisked away by peers early in the morning and all he told her was that they would prepare for the mating ceremony and see each other later.

Her stomach danced with butterflies but excitement too. Someone knocked at the door and she answered it, relieved to find her sisters.

“I'm so happy you're here! Come in!” Her sisters tugged her into a hard hug.

“God, we're so happy you're all right,” Chloe said, tears in her eyes. They'd talked over the phone since the big fight in the rift but she hadn't seen them yet.

“Yeah, me too.”

“We're proud of you,” Willow said.

Lily blushed and waved her off. “Don't get all gushy on me or you'll make me cry. So how's mom doing?”

Chloe looked grim. “Better, I guess. She won't leave her room but she talks every now and then. We've brought her some of dad's things. Old pictures, his journal and such. She just started crying when she saw them. I don't know if it'll help or make it worse to be honest.”

“She just needs time. This is a huge change for her. Is she...coming?”

Chloe looked away. “I asked her to come but she wouldn't say anything. I'm sorry, Lily.”

Lily nodded, her lips pulling into a tight smile. “It's okay. I understand.” She did even though it still hurt her. She was content with just having her mother back one way or the other. Maybe in time, who knew, she'd be able to have a normal conversation with her.

A soft knock came at the door. “Aren't I famous today?” Lily opened it to a dark-skinned stunner of a woman. The woman smiled politely and held a white box in her hands. It shined like it was made of opals.

“Hello, I'm Celine. I'm here to begin the ritual.”

Lily let her in and took a seat by the fireplace. “Ritual? This doesn't involve bloodletting or tattooing?” She laughed a bit nervously. Her sisters sat around her on the floor. Their nearness comforted her, eased the butterflies in her stomach.

“No bloodletting, but a form of tattoo, yes.”

Lily's eyebrows shot to her hairline. “Hey, I'm all for skin art, but it's not for me. What is this?”

Celine smiled in understanding then knelt before her, lifting the opal box with a small golden latch up. “This contains the ritual instruments.”

“She said instruments, this doesn't sound good,” muttered Willow.

“Shh!” Chloe said.

Celine opened the latch and pulled the top up. Lily squinted at the objects inside. Inside was a glass container the size of an ink well with a paint-like substance inside the color of chocolate and a cone-shaped object that looked like it was made out of parchment paper.

“What is all this?”

Celine picked up the ink well object. “This is the sacred bowl or durku . Inside it contains a special ink that I will use to paint onto your body. This cone, the lathu , will hold the ink so I may draw precisely onto your skin. It will look very beautiful on your paler skin.”

“Why do you do this though?”

“It is our way. When a mating occurs each demon, err,” she blushed, the look stunning on her dark skin, “person has sacred symbols and words painted onto their hands, feet, and stomach. It is the final binding.”

“Is it permanent?”

She shook her head. “No, it will come off naturally in a few days. Washing it helps, though most newly mated couples prefer to let it wear away on its own.”

“I see, let's begin then, shall we?”

Lily had to undress completely and lay down on the bed. Celine lit white and red candles around the bed on the floor. For “purifying and love” she said.

She wasn't exactly comfortable having her sisters see her naked but they were more focused on watching Celine work. Celine poured some of the liquid into the cone. The substance did pour like paint, too, Lily noted. The cone came to a very fine point to where Celine kept a finger pressed across it so none of it would spill.

She settled on her knees at the end of the bed, one of her feet pulled up on her lap. “I shall begin now if you're ready.”

Lily nodded and Celine set to work. What unraveled was a piece of art on her foot that covered her toes up to her ankle. The lines were intricate, the design incredible. Lily looked at her sisters’ faces and saw that they, too, had their jaws on the ground.

“How can you make such fine detail with that little cone?”

Celine smiled. “A lot of practice, my lady.”

What looked like small flowers colored the edge of each toe with leaves coming off to cover the toes. Extending off of that, leaf-like patterns swept up her feet intermixed with demonic letters. Around her ankles thin lines were drawn then branched upward in triangles with wavy lines off them.

Similar yet different patterns were pained onto her stomach from hip to hip and then each of her hands. The design covered the top and bottom of her hand extending from fingernail to wrist. Her fingers had the lines traveling down them with little ticks coming off each side. But that was only a small part of the major design that was a flower in full bloom drawn in the middle of her palm.

“It's so beautiful,” Lily said in awe.

Celine finished and packed up her tools. “Thank you very much.” Celine went into the hall then came back a few seconds later. “This is your gown.”

Lily whistled. The black dress looked sexy, flowing, and half see-through. “Telal will like this.” Chloe slapped her in the arm. “I probably deserve that one.”

With the help of her sisters, Lily dressed. A black slip went first and felt like real silk—soft and luscious against her skin. It didn't completely cover her shoulder, and it slid down, barely, to mid-thigh. Lily kept looking down at her painted feet, which, in a way, resembled sandals and her hands, gloves.

“It's beautiful, Lily.” Chloe sighed with a look of longing. “I'll have to get a henna artist to color me up some time. I think Tyrian will like it.”

“Count Lyonis in too,” added Willow.