Page 63 of Claiming Demons

I felt Grey’s stalwart and grounded soul. Ramsey’s body may have been broken, but his spirit surged with hope and determination. Fen, though wounded and weary, possessed an endless well of kindness and generosity, a gentle strength, which belied his ravenous beast.

I spoke to all of them at once.Will you join with me, bond souls with me, share everything you are with me?

It was Ramsey who answered first.Yes, my love. Everything I have is already yours.

Grey spoke next,If this is what you wish… Ana. I… my void… it is a terrible thing. Are you sure you wish to share it?

Yes, if it means I get the rest of you as well. You are far more than your void, my love.

Then I’m yours,he replied.

Fen was hesitant.My beast… it… how can you…? Ana, are you certain?

I am. Give me your beast and I’ll give you enough peace to quell it for eternity.

I felt Fen’s astonishment.Of course, my beloved. I should never have doubted you. Take everything I am and I accept all that you are.

Then I proclaim it. We are one!

We are one,all three of them repeated after me. And with those words we bound our souls in love, everything we had, we shared with each other.

Suddenly I was filled with aspects ravenous and powerful: Grey’s void and his ability to hunt and conquer, Ramsey’s strife and conflict and raw physical power, and Fen’s destruction and devouring, the insatiable hunger and the immensity of strength which reinforced it.

The tenacious fortitude I gained from my guys roused me back to awareness for just an instant.

But that instant was enough.

I surged healing into my arms, then reached up and pulled Erini’s hands from my throat, as my vision returned. Instantly mending my throat, I filled my lungs with needed air.

“Time to send you back to Hades, bitch,” I said with a grin, then punched her with all the pent-up power of war and strife and conquest and destruction. My fist connected solidly with one of her faces and caved in her cheek. That head bashed into the one next to it, and both seemed stunned.

I healed my legs and kneed her, but just for spite, I reached into her with my sex aspect and got her lady-lips all nice and super-sensitive before I drove my knee up between her legs.

The howl her three heads emitted was inhuman, but I didn’t relent. I was going to make sure she couldn’t hurt anyone else today.

I closed in and grabbed a fistful of hair from her two side heads and bashed them into the middle head.

That felt really good, so I did it again… and once more for good measure.

Erini stumbled, falling back, and landed splayed out. That made it easy to summon my sword and rid her of all her remaining limbs. I then healed her, just enough to stop the bleeding on those stumps so she wouldn’t die. As I did, another of those bubbles of energy erupted out of her, trying to push me away. I swallowed it down with Fen’s devouring.

She screamed and writhed in pain, but I wasn’t done. I drove my sword through her stomach and into the ground. I healed around the wound so she wouldn’t bleed internally, but she was trapped, pinned down.

I stood slowly.

“Had enough?” I asked. “Ready to submit?”

She screamed incomprehensibly, still flailing and trying to fight. Rays of destruction blasted out of her.

I erected a bubble of my own, using a mix of my peace and Grey’s void, placing it around her. It stopped her beams instantly, keeping them contained. But she still blasted away for some time, unable to give up.

“She’ll never willingly surrender, not when she’s like this.” Grey’s voice behind me was calm and filled with his usual stoic power. “Use my void to siphon off her power, then she must be rendered unconscious. Only then will this end.”

I glanced back. Grey leaned heavily on a tree, his chest wound still raw and open, but it was healing…?

Right. He had access to my healing now. Ramsey and Fen were getting up slowly as well and I felt their support, their love, their dedication, and their resilience filling me.

I nodded to Grey. “Thank you.” Then I did as he’d said.