Craven favored having a foot amid both planes. Making him impossible to fight off. Physically able to touch.

But not be touched.

Or hit.

Or kicked.

My skirt was folded into a wide roll draping my belly. My feet were pushed further apart yet, revealing indents in the mud where his toes pressed in for leverage. Dislodging leaves as they slid sideways.

His weight dropped over me. Flattening the tops of my thighs, while simultaneously indenting the insides of them from where his pointed hips pressed in. Then I felt the thickened knob of his piece wiggling my inner lips apart.

I braced myself expecting pain, but he'd already healed the damage the goblin had done. So, I felt only the rough intrusion as he slipped in and seated himself.

I tried to wake enough to escape him but filtering through the layers of sleep was like swimming out of a pile of endless pillows. Getting through one only made three others tumble down on me.

He inserted himself and my back lifted with the pressure inside.

He was kind enough that there were hints of pleasure in Craven's taking. He'd learned me well over the years.

Though not like Gray.

No one is like Gray.

Craven moved agonizingly slow. Slipping entirely out then gliding back in at a pace that could bring one to tears of impatience. Seeping in deep and sighing in bliss.

Then withdrawing. Savoring every second. Knowing I could wake and banish him.

If I could figure out how.

The woman stood in shock with her handful of berries. Mesmerized by what she watched.

My limp body moistening enough at the center to let him glide into my opening. Parting it and causing my hips to lift in offering, with each long stroke. Planting himself in then gliding out and letting my backside release back to the leaves. Sliding me over their surface with crunching and grating each time he stuffed me full again.

Out.

Then in again.

The woman felt such an aching need inside her at the sight. Hearing a man's hungered moans. She found herself lying sideways on the leafy floor. So aroused she ached. Yearning to endure what my body was. Envisioning the pleasure of an unseen intruder feasting on her flesh.

Craven increased his pace. Gaining greater pleasure as my body surrounded him. Molding along his edges and seams to perfectly grip him. Slightly too tight which only built the friction to a thunderous level. He pushed in harder, losing his tenuous control.

"Spark feel so good. Can't stop. Can't stop, Spark. Have to inside this time."

"No..." I moaned tossing my head.

That was my worst fear. Nurturing the spawn of one of the monster's that had taken me.

"Have to going to come."

I tossed aside the foggy haze of pillows. Swimming through them faster as I felt the urgency of a woman's desperate need for self-preservation. Pitching the last one away far enough I could force my eyes open. I lifted my hands and splayed them.

"Away!" I commanded. And because I'd left my sleep state, he was banished from his completion. Whimpering and crying out like a wounded puppy.

But he didn't have far to travel for his next meal.

I rolled onto my trembling knees as I heard the first cries of the woman nearby. Blinking I tossed my head to shake away the haze of a much-needed slumber and the magic Craven had used to lock me there.

I focused my blurred gaze on the woman, who was now pushed up against a tree. Her legs kicking and her knees sliding up and down the unseen sides of the thing grinding her into the bark.

"No!" I shouted. Running to her.

But suddenly her head fell back and she shouted in pure ecstasy.

I realized this was no victim.

Her lust had summoned him in the same moment I banished him.

And there was hungry pleasure written over her as he pounded into her.

She clutched at the invisible back. Clawing for more as she cried out orders for him to take her more fiercely. To puncture deep into her womb.

I looked away in horror. Willing to take advantage of the other woman's zeal for the incubus, and escape.

She's willing. Let him feed on her.

I scrambled back toward the ridge and walked along it. Grateful that, at least, my sore spots were healed.

I sighed. Nightfall was coming and I was exhausted.

I knew that heading to the next tavern would just make it easier for Jackson Gray to find me again.

I'm not doing that.

I didn't know when the canyon had formed through The Valley of the Hushed, but it was its presence that had kept the Pyre Army from getting to me.

The direction I was heading would take me straight to the harbor of Central City.

It was then that an idea began to form in my mind.

Gray had let it slip months ago that there was a place the Pyre Army couldn't reach.

Haven Island.

It was a long voyage from Ferus.

But one well worth making.

I imagined what it could be to be on an island where monsters were only permitted when they wanted sanctuary from other beasts.

The downside was that I'd be in a small country where there'd be little escape but the positive would be that it was tightly controlled by the Haven Hoard who allowed no dissension in their country.

Jackson Gray was kneeling down, sifting dirt through his fingers. Watching the direction, the wind carried it. Twisting on his haunches he balanced one hand to the dirt and peered into the shrubbery. Envisioning how Fiere moved.

"Are you sure she came this way?"

"She was here." He murmured to his second in command. Realizing that they'd not have much longer they could travel before the sun was fully in the sky and far too hot for his army to travel.

He looked back at the canyon.

"Most of them are already headed that way." Bart told him. "It's already too hot for most of us. I don't know how you tolerate the way you do."

"Tough skin." He slapped his shoulder for emphasis.

"Stubborn character." Bart countered.

Gray looked up at him and Bart took the hint. Silencing and letting him think.

"What makes you think she was here."

"She stood right there." Gray pointed to the side of him. At a thick trunk.

"There's a tree there."

"So was she."

"How do you know."

Gray stood and turned to it. "Because I can still smell her on the leaves."

He pointed to ones that were lower than the others.

"There's a bit of red hair, caught in the bark, here." Gray stepped to the other side of the tree to point at a few wisping copper hairs which danced in the wind. Glinting brightly in the sun.

"I don't know how I missed that." Bart frowned.

"And I saw her." Gray murmured.

"What was that?" Bart blinked at him.

"Across the clearing."

"Dammit! We were that close?"

"We're always that close."

"Not close enough." Bart snorted. "I don't know how she keeps eluding us."

"Oh, well." The second in command shrugged. "You'll get her eventually. Nothing evades you for long."

"No." Gray stared off toward the west. "Nothing does..."

"Where is she headed, that direction?" Bart queried.

"Right where I want her to."

Noon came blessedly quick. And I knew the Pyre Army would've stopped. Unable to take the high sun sifting through the trees.

Too bright and too hot on their skin.

Sighing in relief I huddled leaves in a wide circle. Sanctifying it with the special moss that would keep Craven at bay.

I curled up under a shrub, within the protective circle. Enjoying blissful peace as I finally slept.

It was a restless slumber.

I frequently jerked awake at the smallest sound. I felt a fingertip brush a lock of hair from my forehead to tuck behind my ear.

"You look so beautiful sleeping, Baby Girl."

I groaned aloud without opening my eyes. "Shouldn't you be with your Army Day Dog?"

He chuckled quietly. "They think I am."

"What would they do if they knew what you really are?"

"Mock me." I sensed his shrug.

I peeled open my reluctant green eyes to see him.

"But follow me, nonetheless."

The shadow of his head was blocking out the sun above me.

He was crouched down above me. His knees almost over my chest.

I skid sideways to try and escape the closeness but as I feared, he tipped forward and pressed his knee down against my chest. Pinning me effortlessly.

I grunted, wiggling as I shoved at his muscled knee.

He tilted his head to watch me. "What are you doing? You look like a squirrel under a boulder."

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