Chapter 79 - Unexpected Revelations (2)

I didn't hesitate before answering—it was obvious that I could not allow her to stay anywhere else. “Yes, you may. And call me Verath when we are in public...”

“Naturally,” Efari replied. “It is good that we have the night together, my love. We have not exchanged yet.”

“Exchanged?”

“Yes. To use descriptive human words, we will partake each other until we have fucked each other into oblivion.”

“Oh...that exchanging.”

And to think I had thought she meant something else. Still, how exactly did a Devourer “partake?” I felt a little curious.

“Is that really necessary,” I said. “Us exchanging, that is?”

“Yes,” Efari replied. “We are mates, you and I. And unless you want me to kill you, I suggest we put your tool of generations to use, so that you can truly become my master and mate...not just in name. Trust me, you will not like battling me. I am far superior than those male Devourers you faced.”

From her colorful words and intense, dark black gaze, I could not tell whether the female Devourer was being serious. Still, it would not hurt me to see how our exchange would play out if I err on the side of caution—I was nothing if not practical.

When we got back into my inn room, a few of the knights who were staying in the rooms beside me gave enthusiastic grins toward me. I didn't bother to deny their knowing looks; it was the first time they were correct in regards to my nightly visitors.

The door closed behind me. Efari undressed, her cloak falling toward the floor and sprawling in a pool around her feet. Then her form-fitting long gown with a sleeveless tunic slid from her shoulders, revealing two small breasts.

Her tanned body looked soft, yet supple, like a willow tree. Though not human, Efari looked entirely similar to one. Her naked form was that of a predator, a dangerous grace which could be seen even as she walked toward me. An animal sensuality. In a way, she was similar to me. Her sex was hairless, and there was a very subtle manner to her walk. It was cold and efficient. Bestial. Only slightly different from that of a trained warrior.

I undressed and we walked toward the bed, just about wide enough for the both of us. Our breaths mingled together as her body moved atop mine. I could feel the rhythm of her form, the contractions of her wriggling body, and the beat of her heart. Then we switched, her body below mine, her hands wrapped around me, and her nails digging into my back. It was just a slight sensation—there was no pain. She could not harm me even if she tried with a steel sword.

It took a long time before I joined Efari in the apex of her pleasure. It was an effect of my dampened capacity to feel. Pain, pleasures, and other emotions were dampened. Thus, it took much longer for me to feel aroused and to join Efari in her completion.

As our bodies entwined once more for a longer while, Efari on top, I saw her arch her back out of pleasure. At the same time, I saw white mist—life essence—drawn out from my body, the denser part of it coming from my chest. The mist was absorbed into her body.

Caution instantly took over just as I was about to kill her with my transformed hands, my life essence came rushing back out from her body. My own life essence, as it entered back into my body, felt strangely foreign. I realized the strange addition—it was her own life essence which had mixed into mine.

Efari looked down at me, her dark eyes boring into mine. Her small mouth opened, and her voice hissed out a word in her tongue, “ZAKIR.” Her voice became a soft, possessive whisper as she said the word once more. It was like a velvet caress.

“Mine,” she had said.

Efari laid her head down against my chest, her arms wrapped possessively around me. Then she quickly fell asleep, having finished the exchange. I laid still with her body warm against mine, her medium length hair a sprawled mess on my chest. I wasn't sure what she had done to me. I wasn't even sure whether I should kill her for not warning me.

Strangely enough, I didn't think her exchange had been anything bad. At least, I could not feel anything negative. Instead, I felt a little more powerful. Stronger and sharper.

I looked down at Efari lying down on my chest and I thought a little in amusement. What would the offspring of a dragon and a Devourer be? I wasn't sure. I would have to ask Efari when she woke up. Unlike Lizil, the succubus I had made a “deal” with, I had not been assured that a child would not be made.

And somehow, I felt a slight attraction to her. Perhaps it was an effect of her Goddess's mark on me? Or was it because she had given a little of her life essence? And just what would this entail? The future was uncertain and there were many questions on my mind.

----

[127 Days Remaining]

It took us a little more than five days to get back to Asolance. Along the way, Efari received many curious stares from my soldiers. I also heard some whispering, but it did not go further than that. They did not ask me any questions. I had been their commander during the days of turmoil, and they had seen me stand steady with Baroness Calina. All of them were loyal and orderly men of the Serle family. There was no need for them to question me, their commander.

Our return trip was longer because we had to bury our dead and retrieve our horses. The extra horses also contributed to the delay.

When I asked Efari how old she was, she answered me with a slight frown. It was rude to ask a woman her age, she told me. Nonetheless, Efari eventually gave an answer. Her age? She was three hundred and twenty-seven years old.

My face was a mask as she looked carefully at me for my reaction to her answer. From her childlike manner and pouting face, I could tell that I had come upon a sore subject.

“Am I too old for you?” she asked in a sulky voice.

At that moment, an uneasy feeling ran through my body. I answered with a "no."

And in truth, I did not mind the disparity in our ages. For all other people would know, she looked like a woman in her mid-twenties.

Through the questions I asked Efari along the way, I learned that ever since her Goddess had gone silent more than a thousand years ago, her people—already a small number to begin with—were slowly dying off one by one. They had been killed by powerful monsters in the Wilds; that was why her race had migrated toward human lands. But that had only slightly decreased the killings; they were now hunted by human adventurers, hunters, and other organizations across the human kingdoms. If she had to estimate, there were perhaps a little over three hundred of them left, with only a very few females, the stronger of the species.

In addition, being a long-lived race that fed off the life essences of other creatures, children were exceedingly rare. She was also sure that there could never be a child between the two of us. Efari had also told me that the six male Devourers who had been killed were barely past their hundredth year mark—just mere powerless younglings.

At that, I asked her why she did not save them.

She replied with a slight shrug of her shoulders, “They were not part of my family...just strays I picked up in my search for you. My family has long since died off. I have no one...except you, my love. And I have little love for most of my race. I am only devoted to the Goddess, and now, you.”

I remained silent and brooding as Efari brought her mare closer to my own horse.