Page 17 of Demon's Obsession

The oak didn’t reply, but then they didn’t need to. Once Silas and the oak had formed their bond, they had no secrets from each other. His tree was right, it was a beautiful night. While Silas had a perfectly good bed down in his house, whenever he felt off-centered, he knew he could spend time in his tree. It never failed to make him feel better. Ignoring the hole in his heart, Silas breathed slowly and evenly, taking in the sounds of the surrounding forest.

If he strained his ears, he could hear Wanda, Dougal, and George about half a mile away, most likely enjoying the pizza he’d bought, and talking about him. Silas hated to worry his friends, but he couldn’t be untrue to himself if he tried. That just wasn’t who he was.

The oak picked up on the way his thoughts were going.Why do you feel the need to spread your song beyond the forest?

Silas chuckled softly. “You know why. I have always believed that we forest folk have such a blessed life. Oh, I know not every dryad has the same good fortune, and many forests get plagued with wildfires, decimation, and the cruelty of man. But here, in this place, we are so fortunate. I just want to share that good fortune with others, even if it is just for a short while.”

Your songs bring joy to many, and that is indeed a gift. But why do you think you stray beyond the forest boundaries, when so many of your kind never leave their tree, or at least the forest they are in, not even for a moment?

“I know it’s wrong of me.” Silas sighed, his neck arched as he searched the stars. “My family would tell me so often that my only purpose in life was to be with my tree, to be with you, and yet… you know how I feel. And you know, more than anyone that those feelings, the urges inside of me to sing for others, to explore beyond the forest boundaries—it doesn’t belittle or take away from what I have with you.”

I am not an insecure sapling questioning my place in this world, so why should you be any less secure in who you are?

“I’m not sure I did any good tonight. My intentions were good, my execution of those intentions was clearly lacking.” Silas sighed and rubbed his chest. “I didn’t want to leave that demon.” He chuckled briefly. “I don’t even know his name, and to see him calling on another, to do what? Show me how insignificant I was? To throw my song back in my face, after all I did for him…”

You’re getting off track,the oak said gently.Breathe deeply and focus on what happened before the second demon was called.

“He was tormented,” Silas whispered the words because they seemed so wrong to even consider them in the peace of the forest. “It was just as Dougal said. It was as if the human and demon sides of this one being were fighting each other for control, and I don’t know why.”

That’s because, in all your searching, you never once considered how valuable you are, how special you are, on your own merits.

“Special?” Silas thought back over the conversation he’d had with Dougal. How there were rare cases where a demon would find someone and want to commit to them, if that person was special enough. “He didn’t want that bond with me. He was fighting it. He called in someone else to stop him…oh.”

The leaves rustled as the tree shook with laughter.Think about how you feel, as the days roll around to when you are due to sing again. You get edgy and excited, because you know what you’re doing is a positive thing, even as you know others would try to talk you out of it.

Now imagine having twenty times the energy, twenty times the need to always be proving yourself in a world already viewed as harsh and calculating. Can you imagine the torment a being might go through if they suddenly realized their future was not their own?

“It would be intense, and it was.” Silas thought for a moment, and then added, “But I would never want to be with anyone that wasn’t fully committed to me in a way that honors us both. He would need to come to that decision on his own.”

It would seem your demon has done exactly that. However, he shouldn’t have relied so heavily on myths and fairy tales about our kind.

“The demon is here?” Silas whispered, rolling to try to see the ground below where he was lying. “What do you mean?”

He’s knocking on my trunk as if he expects a door to open.The leaves were shaking in earnest now.Can’t he see the house?

Chapter Twelve

Dakata

Nervous, it was a new concept as he knocked on the base of the tree, inhaling the intoxicating scent of his blissful one. The tree shook and Dakata turned back to Kishi and Merihem, two thoughts registering at once. They were naked, Kishi remained aroused and both of them were thoroughly amused by this situation.

“Fuck off,” he growled irritably.

“Erm… this is my tree,” said the purest voice, sending shivers down Dakata’s spine, hitting parts that perked up.

He slowly turned around to the tree as his friends disappeared in the blink of an eye, making it look like he was talking to Silas. His demon became pissed.

When he finally faced Silas, his attention wasn’t on Dakata’s face, giving them time to look at the delightful dryad.

Long, shapely legs were bare as he made his way down the tree. The thin shift the dryad wore that touched the top of his thighs was practically see-through. Each contour of the body beneath was visible, and whatever thoughts Dakata had about handling this situation fled as his two sides came to the same accord—they wanted to taste the tree nymph. “Ours,” he said gruffly. “You belong to us.”

Dakata, not understanding his reasoning, reached out, past Silas and caressed the trunk of the mighty oak. Silas released a low moan that sent delightful shivers through Dakata, his eyes hooded as he ran his hand down the bark, acquainting himself with the life force of his blissful one. It was there, alive in the tree. A living force that matched the dryad, who flushed with each touch.

Chest shuddering, Silas’s hands fluttered at his sides. “What’s happening,” he whispered, his body as aroused as Dakata’s.

He made for a heady sight as he leaned back against his tree, trembling and flushed. The front of the shift tenting with the next round of touching. The resulting groan and parted lips were all the invitation his demon needed. “You are our blissful one,” he answered softly, not breaking the spell they were weaving together.

Dakata moved and bent at the knee, then found he was still too tall to kiss the plump, delicious looking lips. On his knees, he grinned in approval as it put them at the right height.