Her Eternal Soul

"If she knows we are here," grunted He'dtaalh, always ready for a battle, "Then we might as well go introduce ourselves."

Rising his head and pulling back his shoulders so that he stood every inch of his eight feet, he stepped out of Nai'dqa's shadows and into the sight of the hirini.

-----

I got only a split second of a warning before a creature I had never seen before stepped out of the darkness of the forest around me and into the light.

I gasped, my breath catching in my chest, burning me in a way I had never felt before as I stared at the demon coming to take my soul to Hell.

Being raped over and over again by creatures I had never seen before, forced to do things by monsters that twinkled like the stars in the sky, I had begun to think that there was no such thing as a God, let alone the devil. But that assumption was just proven wrong.

"Lucifer," I breathed out, finally pushing past the blockage. The male in front of me was massive, at least eight feet tall, with shoulders so broad that there was no way I could touch them both at the same time. In fact, his entire body looked like it was sculpted out of marble, his pecks and abs so well defined like only a master carver could create results like that.

He had what looked to be 3D tattoos trailing over both arms and down his pecs and torso. The ridged matched the dark grey skin tone of the creature standing, staring at me from the forest. However, the negative space around the tattoos was done in a light blue color, making them glow from the very heart of him.

My eyes trailed past his chest and neck to his face. He looked human but too beautiful at the same time. His cheeks were cut with the same precision as the rest of his body, but it was his bright red eyes that drew me in and made me want to submit to him in whatever way he wanted.

They looked harsh, just like the Prophet warned us, but they also seemed to have a hidden depth. It was like he was trying to bring me closer to him through his eyes alone.

His royal blue hair was long, flowing down to the small of his back. And while I had never been attracted to long hair on men before, it suited him. Like a pristine ocean, begging me to jump in and be embraced.

Finally, I got to the top of his head to see three massive horns that jutted out of his luscious hair and reached up toward the sky by at least another two feet. There were two on the left side of his head, the one in the front toward his forehead a bit bigger than the one in the back, but on the right was only a single horn. It looked like the counterpart had been brutally cut off, the stump rising just over his hair so he couldn't hide it.

He was, without a doubt, the most amazing male I had ever seen.

I wanted to be scared; after all, the devil was standing in front of me, making all sorts of promises without even saying a word…

And yet, I couldn't muster even the slightest bit of fear.

Maybe the prophet was right; maybe I really was destined for the devil.

Not knowing what I was doing, I reached forward, wanting to touch the stump where his horn was missing. I wanted to offer him some comfort about something that must have almost destroyed him when it happened.

I wanted to touch the male, but I was too weak. My arm dropped to the ground like lead, and I closed my eyes. Maybe that was how I knew I was dying. I finally found the one who would take my soul for all eternity.

-----

He'dtaalh stared at the tiny creature, utterly entranced by her beauty. He had never seen anyone nearly as small as she. Probably half of his size, it was easy to dismiss her as unthreatening. After all, what could a creature do when she couldn't even move on land?

He watched her blue eyes trail up and down his body, noting all his markings. He wondered if she understood what she was seeing, if she could tell his lineage, his ranking, and his accomplishments from each ridge. He straightened even more, puffing out his chest and displaying himself before he could even think about what he was doing.

Was he really treating her like a female Nycteromys? If one of his own was staring at him like that, he would assume that she was interested in mating with him. Was that what the hirini was implying? That she wanted to mate with him?

Her hair looked like fire where it spread out behind her on the sand, and his fingers twitched uncontrollably. He wanted to reach forward until he could wrap one of his fingers around the strand, and he wanted to see if it would burn him if he went too close.

Then again, he was willing to burn if it meant being able to touch the hirini.

But weren't they supposed to be cold, as unfeeling as the water they called their homes? Why was she so different from the rest? Were there even more of them?

With so many questions running through his head, it took him a moment to realize that she had held out her arm toward him, her tiny fingers stretched as far as they could go, trying to touch him.

"Hirini," he whispered in amazement just as her arm dropped to the ground like it was too heavy to keep up. "Hirini!" he yelled out a battle cry as he raced forward, falling to his knees beside the captivating creature.

Her eyes were closed, and while her chest lowered and raised with every breath she took, it was too shallow.

"No!" he bellowed again, realizing just what was happening. His mate was dying before he could even speak to her, and he refused to let that happen.