Love as a Form of Binding Ch. 08

She felt a little self-conscious and wanted to hide behind a more neutral expression as she'd always done before, but she knew that it wouldn't work. This was no ordinary man or demon or even any ordinary male of any sort that she'd ever known. The same groups of muscles that she'd seen on him when she'd watched him loving her sister were there, though they were only this far away – the most wonderful male that she'd ever seen in her life was mating with her now and it was almost too much for her to believe, though she felt plainly that it was happening.

Her eyes took it all in as she sighed and cooed to him how much she loved him. Zele couldn't help it. Only the one who'd first accepted her and adopted her as her sister had ever made her feel this way before, though in a different way, and that was only a matter of the hardware involved. Zele knew what this was, and she knew as well that she had no choice in it as her tail ran softly over his back, leaving phosphorescent trails on him.

Zele was in love.

For her to feel like this required that she take down all of her barricades and thick armor plating to offer herself. She didn't know why it had to be this way, she just knew that it was how she loved and it was fraught with peril. That was why she'd seldom done it before. It felt so right and so good to her now as she eased herself against him in time with his slow thrusts.

Zele wanted to thank him, but she thought that it would sound silly, so she just told him that she loved him. She didn't even expect to hear anything like that from him, at least at this early stage. She was just thankful that he'd accepted her, but then her gaze locked onto his eyes and in the soft glow there, she saw something that she'd never seen before in her long life and there was no mistaking it.

Zele saw love for herself in the face of a male.

She almost burst into tears. Zele held it back, but she couldn't stop her eyes from giving her heart away as wet trails appeared on her face and the droplets ran down her temples to hide in her hair. She didn't mean to, but she gasped a little anyway as she tried to speak.

"Toby? Do you love Zele a little now?"

Her reward was a smile and his nod, and then he was kissing her as softly as he fucked, and she felt him harden more inside her. "Yes, Zele," he whispered, "If that's what's making you cry, I love you. I'm learning that I can and I can feel it."

"Zele needs to ask," she gasped as she rocked him slowly, "Is there less for Maezou now because of Zele?" She was afraid to hear the answer, but she had to know. She wouldn't ruin what her sister had for anything.

He shook his head a little and then she felt his cheek against her own. "No," he whispered, "there's just more room in me, that's all."

Zele sighed and she lifted her wings from the floor to wrap around them both while she shuddered and wept softly as the first of her orgasms came to her. She felt her mouth pull into a smile that she had no control over.

Maezou sat on the top step forty minutes later and watched as her male made love to her adopted sister. She didn't know if they'd notice, but she didn't think they would as she closed her eyes down to slits and watched by the light of her eyes. As far as she could tell from the times that she'd looked in on them, they'd never really sped up. There had just been times when he'd gone a little deeper while she'd rocked him a little farther now and then. Judging by the faint glow of what the left on his back and flanks with her tail, Zele was in bliss.

She saw Zele's wings fold over them once more, and she thought that she could hear a very soft cry. Toby kept stroking now for a minute longer before he groaned and they stopped. Maezou smiled when she noticed that her sister's wings trembled during this long frozen moment between them and she knew that he was filling her then, because she heard her sister's quiet gasps from his contractions.

This was the best outcome that any of them could have hoped for, since now her sister shared a love bond with their male. Now she felt at least some degree of confidence that the three of them might stay alive for a time.

She knew that Zele would likely want Toby to love her just as he'd been when he'd made love with her, and that was fine. She was even rather certain that they'd both take turns with him and help each other along at the same time together, and she grinned at that.

But she knew that for her shy and timid heart, Zele now had a way to love with him that they could always have. She'd felt his emotion as he'd seen her sister's tears run and Maezou had seen for herself how his heart had swelled for her. It almost made her sigh out loud to herself as she remembered. So she knew what her sister was feeling.

Now there really were the three of them.

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They stared at her when she'd suggested it.

They sat discussing what they'd planned for the day over breakfast. Zele was watching the discussion as she struggled with cutlery. She'd seen how human children struggled to learn the same thing once or twice, and it only frustrated her more. She hadn't spent all that much time on Earth among humans. Whenever she'd been here before, she'd just found something to eat and ate it. But now she wanted to learn the proper way to do this. She sighed quietly.

If she grew any more frustrated, she'd be fine with just picking up the damn pancakes and wolfing them down, followed by taking a long pull at the syrup bottle to wash it all down slowly.

"Well, you said that we'd need to buy food, Toby," Maezou said, "and for that, we have to go into town. Either we all go together, or I will stay here with Zele while you go alone. And that isn't what we want if we need to buy some real clothes. Besides, it would leave you alone and almost defenseless."

"Or you could just go with Zele in the truck." Maezou offered.

Zele listened as she set down the knife and fork to pick up her mug of coffee in both hands. She liked the heat of the thing against her skin as she tilted it back and swallowed a few times.

She really liked coffee.

Toby grinned at Zele's efforts and he smiled at Maezou. "I hear you, but how do we do it then? I'm not sure that I understood what you said."

"It ought to be simple – though it likely won't be at all, "she said, "We hold Zele in a – I guess that you'd call it a trance between us, but really, it's more of a state where she doesn't really think. We have to share our magic between us, though you will have to allow me to direct yours for you. I was there every time that Zele chose a new shape. I don't remember the first choice, since we were both little," she said indicating how her sister looked at the moment, "but I do remember how she chose the hellhound-ish shape for herself, and also the dog-girl one. I don't know if she can remember how to do it now, but I'm suggesting that we provide the force for her to choose another one like a human woman."

Up to that point, Zele had managed to cut a piece of one pancake into a manageable size and had it stuck with her fork. She was just about to put it into her mouth when she'd heard what Maezou had said and the piece fell off the fork back onto her plate. Zele groaned, certain that she'd be feeling pretty weak with hunger soon. Starvation couldn't be that far off, could it? She lowered her head to sniff at something on her plate.

"What are these?" she asked, indicating a breakfast sausage with her knife.

"They're breakfast sausages," Toby replied.

Zele stabbed a sausage viciously and managed to get it into her mouth before it could realize its peril and jump off the fork as well.

"Why do I need to have a fourth shape?" she asked around the vanquished sausage, "Do you know how heavy I would be then?"

They looked at her, just as thin as Maezou. She'd still look the same, but would weigh over a quarter of a ton.

"Good point," Toby said.

"You shouldn't speak with your mouth full," Maezou said, "It's considered rude."

Zele thought briefly about stabbing Maezou's hand with her fork, since she wasn't in anywhere near the obvious danger of starvation that she felt. "You shouldn't speak about ways to make Zele heavier while she is busy changing."

They looked at her again and Toby's fork fell to his plate with a clatter. They were sitting with a pretty girl beside them.

Maezou was amazed. "How did you – "

"Zele can do this herself without another shape," she said, "She has never needed to before. She has always been able to do this. When we were small, she made herself like you. When you became a young demon female, Zele followed you, but she did it her own way. Zele has no dog-girl now, and if she cannot get more of this into her mouth, she thinks she will die soon. Zele can change that shape, but she can't change back to the dog-girl for a few hours."

It solved the problem for the moment, and Maezou reminded Toby that he needed to feed her, so he did. Zele watched with a frown.

"Zele wishes that someone would feed her something." She looked out of the window as a motion caught her eye. She watched as a cat jumped here and there carefuly, trying to get to the door of the home where she lived across the street while staying out of the snow as much as possible.

"Something like that," she pointed.

"That's a cat," her sister said, "and it's covered in cat fur."

"Names are not important, " Zele shrugged as she held up her last sausage on her fork at them. "What kind of animal is a sausage?" she asked, "Little sausage-creatures? Did they have legs once? Were they covered in sausage-creature fur?" She smiled as she bit off a piece. "Do they get any bigger than this? Zele wants a nice fat sausage now."

Toby chuckled as he rolled up a pancake and held it out to Zele, "Here Zele, try it this way."

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Maezou spent a little time helping her sister decide how her illusionary clothing ought to look, but it wasn't long before she had it, after seeing photographs in a magazine. She tended to go for a slightly Goth look, but always added bright accents to it.

As they drove, Toby asked about the glow that he'd seen in the dark the night before. Zele looked a little uncomfortable and turned to Maezou. "Can Maezou tell Toby for Zele?"

Her sister nodded, "Alright, but remember that we talked about this long ago between us, Zele, and it's nothing to be ashamed of. I've always been proud of you for it." Zele smiled a little and looked out of the window.

Maezou turned to Toby, "Along with our mother, we've both always wanted to know more about Zele - what she really is and where she came from, since she has no idea. If there's one thing that I'd like to be able to do, it's to finally find out so that she will know herself. I think it's a cruel twist of fate to live and not know a thing about yourself. But we know a few things, her and I, that no one else knows about her.

In the form where she is like me, she has a tail, but it's thicker than mine. When we were babies, it was almost like a pacifier for us both a lot of the time. Mother says we were happy little things, but one of us often had the end of her tail, and she says that Zele was as fascinated with it as I was, since my tail is thin."

She laughed, "Our mother told me once that she found us together and I'd fallen down trying to walk to her and started to cry, but Zele put her tail in my hand and I was fine chewing on it. It was just a soft tail then.

But we've figured out a little more about it since then. We think that Zele is something that lays its eggs. She's like a cricket that way, or something. If she's been alone for a while and then has sex, nothing comes from her tail. But the next time, if it's not long after, a thin fluid seeps out of her tail, and that was what you had on you. It glows in the dark and seems to come after she's had an orgasm.

I looked at it once very carefully, and you can just see tiny little pearls in it, and we're sure that they're her eggs, but they're not fertilized, since she's never been with another of her kind. We think that if she found a male of her kind, she'd put the eggs on his back, like she did to you, but we're not sure. She's used her tail on me and she's let me use it as a toy before, so I can say that her eggs are harmless since I got some inside me."

She smiled at Toby, "They taste something like you do, though her tail doesn't get hard like, uh, yours," she grinned.

"Anyway, it's just another thing that I've always loved about my sister and something else that makes her special."

"Zele has always liked to be special to you, Maezou," Zele said quietly as she looked out at the snow-covered countryside, "but she always wished that she could be not so special so she could find another one like her."

She brightened then and smiled at them both, "But Zele is happy that she is loved by you both, and it is not so important anymore."

She leaned forward between the seats in front of her. "Zele thinks that her eggs - if they are eggs - are to be put inside another of what I am because it feels good to me that way. It feels good when they come out, but better if my tail is inside something warm. It is nothing like how your seed comes, Toby, but it is good to me.

I always had a dream," she said softly, "and it has no sense, but, ... I think that males are shared with my kind. I think that females get the seed and then share it, or use their tails themselves. I can do that, but it is not so good as when a male is in that place."

She shrugged, "Zele thinks that she will never know, but she is not sad over it anymore, and now she is happy, and that is more important to her."

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The grocery shopping didn't go too badly, once it was explained to Zele that she couldn't just take something that looked appetizing to her and consume it on the spot, but she cast long looks at things like large roasts sitting there in front of her defenseless in their clear plastic wrapping. Toby decided that the least perilous way to feed Zele was by the drive-through method, though it was obviously expensive and left them with a lot of packaging afterward.

The expense of the food was nothing in comparison to the cost of the clothing.

It was dark and snowing again out in the deserted parking lot as they walked out of the mall on their way to the truck. They passed an alcove of the building that was hidden a little behind some of the mall's landscaping and Maezou stopped Toby.

"You asked me about vampires," she said, "There are three of them in that little place there behind us, young ones and one a little stronger." She looked at Zele, who nodded. Toby watched as Zele's illusionary clothing disappeared and she stood on her cloven feet on the snow-covered sidewalk.

"They have seen us and they'll come after us in a moment out of curiosity. Zele will take them, since she can claim the bounties on them and we need it. No one will ask questions of her, since she rarely claims bounties, and everyone assumes that she sometimes hunts on a whim and nothing more. It may cause the one above them to seek vengeance sometime but I doubt it. These ones are too low for anyone to care much."

"Why can't we just leave them alone?" Toby asked.

"Because they have seen us," she shrugged, "and they will tell someone, and we are not ready yet. Even if you were wearing the clothes in the bag in your hand and not these illusions, they would have seen a demonlord walk past. They'd want to know why a demonlord is here and hope to gain favor in the telling of what they saw and where. Come," she said, pulling his arm, "Let's go to the truck. We have been here too long already."

They walked to where they'd left his truck and placed their purchases in the back seat of the crew cab. Toby looked back, but couldn't see Zele. He just knew that she was there somewhere. They climbed in and he started the engine. He saw Maezou's head turn back suddenly and she hissed.

"There were two females and the slightly more powerful male who turned them. They like to make their own little families. Vampires love their families, and they count their bloodlines as preciously as kings and queens among humans. These are nothing, but the male has escaped. Drive."

As he put the truck into gear, the rear of it sagged for a moment. "Zele has returned," Maezou said, "she hides in the back. Drive away from here, but not in the direction of your house for now."

As he turned onto the main road, Toby asked more questions.

"The male will be in some pain, depending on whether he felt anything for the others, and they feel it if one that they created is killed. If he is a little wise, he will seek out the one who made him. I am counting on him being young, proud and stupid. He will likely follow then."

As they drove, Maezou explained the hierarchies and structures that had arisen among vampires. "Some of them see themselves as important, but that is between only them which family is higher. They can evolve whole societies among themselves, and the older and higher ones live better than kings. The older ones choose carefully when they turn another, but the young ones tend to be a little drunk with their new-found abilities and do not use much sense sometimes. It's a problem for the older ones, just like teenagers are for human parents. They can be told, but sometimes do not heed what is said. It means little to us.

Whether it is explained before one is made or not, it is all a bargain that they are in. They are the damned and the younger ones hold that word up as a badge of some kind and never consider what is meant by the word. In any of the hells, the deal is struck at the instant that it is done and the new damned one, who is not even there and may know nothing of it, trades for time on earth as one of the undead. If they are not claimed or killed, it is a form of immortality. But underneath it all, there is a claim on their souls to one of the hells.

"Did you hunt them too?" he asked.

Maezou shook her head, "Not often, unless I was sent for one for some reason, and it would have had to be over something significant. It almost never happened. I have almost always left them alone, unless they got in my way.

It is always open season on bloodsuckers for hunters, but unless they are old and high up, the bounty is too small for most hunters to bother with. If they are worth something, they are usually so well placed and guarded, it isn't worth a hunter's effort unless he is sent for an old one, so we usually leave them alone. Sooner or later, most their souls are all claimed, though the older ones are much harder to bring down, having gained power over the centuries. It's only more effort than it's worth unless you're sent to bring that one." She shrugged again, "Sometimes they kill each other. We seldom bother them.

But those ones saw us, and we need the bounties, since we have nothing now and we'll need something to trade with at some point. This is like you finding three pennies on the street. It's more important to me that they don't live to tell anyone.

If one of them kills another over something it can start a feud between the families sometimes, but that is rare too. It isn't much to us since they do not come from where we do. They are only going there one day, and when they get there, they are the same as any other soul, no matter how powerful they were here unless a ruler put a higher bounty on them. If I killed one, nothing happened, though once it caused a shift of power among their families until things settled down.

They are not the same as we are and most fear strong demons. They will not dare to harm even a weak demon if they see that he is owned by his markings. It would only cause a lord to send a hunter. There are a few who are owned themselves by demonlords. We leave them alone, mostly. There are harder things to hunt than vampires, though the older ones like to set you a hard search with many traps if they know that they are hunted."