Title: Hunter Hunted
Author: Khylaren
Contact: khylaren@yahoo.com
Fandom: Original
Rating: NC17 HET

AN: This is an excerpt from an original story I’m working on and thought I would share.

~ * ~

He lurked just inside the entrance of the cavern, waiting for the sun to set. He was hungry, but he could not leave the safety of the cavern until darkness covered the mountain. 

The wind shifted slightly, blowing across the opening and bringing the smells of the evening to his sensitive nose. He lifted his head, his lips curling back in a snarl as he caught the scent of prey. 

It was close.

The last rays of the sun had finally disappeared behind the mountain when Groth emerged from the cavern, spreading his large wings to catch the evening breeze. His mouth watered in expectation of the hunt. His red eyes gleamed, piercing the darkness easily. 

His wings flapped once, twice, and then he was airborne, soaring over the low growing trees and stunted bushes that grew on the side of the mountain. He followed the scent of his prey, closing in on easily. It was Fey, by the smell, and the thought made him all the more eager to feed. Fey blood was far more powerful than human or elf. Yet experience with the Fey had taught him caution, for unlike humans and elves, they possessed strong magic that could not be dismissed lightly. If the others were with him, he would not worry; but against a lone Gholun, a Fey might be able to hold their own. 

It would not be easy to simply swoop in and kill the Fey as he would a human or elf. It would take some trickery on his part to disable the Fey long enough to kill it. Briefly he considered going back for the others, but dismissed it. He did not wish to share his kill with the others. 

Dropping soundlessly from the air, he crouched and considered the best course of action. He did not sense the spell until it was too late.

With a grunt he fell to the ground, feeling invisible robes bind him tightly, almost crushing his wings against his back. Furious that a single Fey had managed to outwit him, he struggled against the spell, only to feel the ropes draw tighter still. His eyes stabbed the darkness balefully, and his teeth were bared in challenge.

Soft laughter greeted his growls, making him struggle against the invisible bonds once more.

“I would recommend that you cease your struggles. The bindings can cut you in half if they draw tight enough.”  

Groth saw bare feet, the slender toes ending in sharp, black claws, before the speaker’s face dropped into view. His eyes narrowed as he looked at his enemy, assessing her even as she assessed him.

Golden eyes stared down at him, their irises swirling lazily. Short, curved horns peeked out from her black hair. Her wings, like his, were leathery, though hers were the same light brown as her skin. Her tail was long, narrow, and tipped with a sharp looking barb the same black color as her nails. Short black fur covered her legs and torso, though her skin was bare at her neck and arms. 

“Grissette,” he grunted, baring his teeth once more. He had encountered her kind before, long ago, before the hated barrier, when he and his kind had hunted the fey realm. She looked frail, but he knew she was not.

The Grissette nodded, an amused smile curving her blood-red mouth. “They told me Gholun were intelligent, but I did not believe it.” Her tail swept forward, the barbed-tip sliding down cheek caressingly. “I am glad to see I was wrong, for it makes my task all that more simple.”

He felt the clean slice of the barb and welcomed the pain. “What do you want?” he snarled.

Her irises spun slightly faster as she looked at the blood dripping on his cheek, her fingers reaching out to touch it. Her dreamy expression when she brought her bloodied fingertips to her mouth caught him off guard, as did the sudden surge of lust that filled him when she licked the blood from them. 

The Grissette caught his look and smiled slowly. “We are more alike than you know, Gholun,” she crooned. “I could find great satisfaction with you for many long hours before you finally died.”  She shook her head, her tail moving away from his body. “That is not why I am here.”

Groth had to look away from her spinning eyes. He was Gholun. He should not fall so easily under the Grissette’s spell. “What do you want?” he repeated with a low growl.

“To make you an offer you cannot refuse.”

Her words made him turn back and look at her. 

“I will release the bindings that hold you, Gholun, on the condition that you hear what I say. Do not think that you can kill me once you are freed.” Her eyes swirled faster for a moment, and she laughed. “I am not easily killed.” 

Groth had been imagining how easy it would be to snap her fragile neck, but the look in her eyes made him reconsider. So long as she was on her guard, they were more than evenly matched, despite his larger size. He knew from personal experience that the Grissette were blindingly fast, and their claw-like nails were deadly sharp. 

He grunted his assent, and felt the ropes release him. He rose slowly, keeping his eyes on hers as he flexed his wings.  He could not help but feel a grudging respect towards her. She had strength and a sense of ruthlessness he could relate to. He had not known that they apparently shared the call of the blood. 

Folding his wings against tightly his back, he looked down at her with narrowed eyes. Slowly he offered a clenched fist towards her. “Groth.”

The Grissette looked at the fist for a moment. A little smile curled her lips, flashing her pointed teeth. Her fist swung out and smashed against the top of his. “Khett.”

Groth grunted, approving the strength of the blow and the fact that she was familiar with proper greeting rituals between warriors. 

Khett smiled wider, her tail swishing rapidly. “You hunger, Groth. I have just the thing for you. Follow me.” Her legs propelled her into the air, her wings carrying her high above him. 

He was slower to take to the air, but caught up with her quickly. As they flew lower on the mountain, he considered whether or not he could take her. She flew just ahead, her back to him. It would be simply a matter of diving and taking her to the ground. 

Khett glanced back at him, and he saw the gleam of her eyes for an instant, before she moved, quicker than he could follow. One moment, she was ahead of him, the next, she was behind him, her tail curled tight around his neck. 

“No tricks, Groth, or I will simply kill you here and now, and make my offer to another Gholun.” Her sharp teeth were inches from his ear.

He struggled to keep from plummeting to the ground with her weight pressed against him. He felt a sharp pain as she nipped his ear, and then the warmth of her tongue as she licked the blood she had drawn. He drove his fist upward and met only air, and heard her mocking laughter.

“You cannot best me that way, Gholun. You are much too slow.”  She flew just ahead, her teeth flashing with her laughter. “Come, enough games for now. A feast awaits. Then we talk.”

Groth followed her, his ear stinging from where she had bitten him. The pain was trivial, however, and he did not mind it. His mind was filled with images of Khett beneath him while he sunk his teeth into her long neck, tasting her hot blood even as he thrust into her body, imagining the delicious pain of her claws against his back. His thoughts disturbed him greatly and he pushed his lust aside. She was prey. She was enemy. 

They landed in a small clearing on the lower half of the mountain, and the scent of prey hit him the moment he landed. He looked around warily, half-expecting a trap, and saw what Khett had meant by a feast.

Three humans, bound by the same invisible ropes that had bound him, lay helpless on the grass of the clearing. He could smell their fear, and it only whetted his appetite further. 

Groth turned his eyes to Khett, and she gestured towards the humans. “Go, feed your hunger. I will wait.”

His eyes narrowed for a moment. “You do not feed?”

Her eyes whirled with amusement. “Not on human blood, Gholun,” she said, flashing her teeth at him.

Groth hesitated, not liking that he was effectively turning his back on her while he fed. 

“If I was going to kill you, Groth, I would have done it by now,” she answered, sensing his hesitation. “Now feed, so that we may discuss my offer to you. The night does not last forever.”

He growled softly, and turned to feed.

~ * ~

Groth licked the last of the blood from his lips and rose, feeling full and sated. Turning, he looked at Khett. The Grissette had settled herself on a large boulder, and had apparently observed him feeding. Her tail twitched slowly in the air behind her.

He licked his lips again, reveling in the surge of power that filled him from the blood.

Khett tilted her head, her eyes whirling slowly. “Your hunger is sated?”

Groth flashed his teeth at her, moving closer. He felt almost heady with power. “For now,” he growled softly.

Her lips curved in amusement and she pointed a black-tipped finger at him. “Come closer, and you will feel my ropes again, Gholun.”

He snarled, but stopped. “Tell me what it is you have to tell me, Grissette. What is this offer you spoke of?”

“Some of you have escaped your prison, freed from the Talisman’s spell,” Khett said. “But not all. Though the Talisman no longer resides on your mountain, not all of you have escaped and the barrier yet holds. Do you know why?”

Groth bared his teeth. “No. Why?”

“Because the Talisman still exists, though it is far away, and its spell still affects the barrier, holding the weakest among you,” Khett said. Her tail slid through her hands caressingly. 

He grunted, watching her hands slide over the smooth skin hungrily. “You have a reason for telling me these things?”

Khett nodded, giving him a toothy smile. “My master wants the Gholun to serve him, as the Grissette serve him. He wants to create a force so strong that none on Myr can resist him.”

His mind moved frustratingly slow. “How can the Gholun serve him if we cannot all be freed from our prison?”  He felt the first slithering touch of the ropes on his skin and snarled, struggling as they tightened. Helpless, he watched as she slid from the rock and approached him. 

“He will help them escape,” she crooned softly, her eyes spinning. “He wants them to escape.”  She stopped inches away from him. “Do you know what the Gholun are?”

Groth fought against the pull of her eyes. 

“Of course you do not,” she said, running a black tipped nail down his chest, slicing through the skin in a shallow cut. She leaned forward, her tongue flicking out to taste his blood.

His body burned, shaking with lust and fury. “You speak nothing but riddles, Grissette,” he snarled. He felt her tail slide teasingly between his thighs and stilled.

“True,” she said, her lips curling over her teeth. “Then I will speak plainly, for it seems in your current state that thinking is difficult.”  She placed a single finger in the center of his chest and pushed, knocking him flat on his back. In a flash she was on him, straddling his powerful thighs.

“The Gholun are Fey,” she said, grasping his maleness with her hand. 

He was mindful of her deadly claws, mere centimeters from his vulnerable flesh. With the ropes binding him, he was unable to resist. As she moved her small hand over him, he did not think he could have resisted if he had wanted to.  A low rumble of pleasure escaped him.

Khett smiled, her eyes whirling faster. “You were brought forth from the same wild magic that spawned all the Fey.”  In one swift move she sheathed him inside her body. “You were created from the same fires,” she hissed, “And damned for all eternity for the darkness inside you.”

He had never experienced such heat, such all-consuming hunger. He had never felt such pleasure; the tight heat pulsing around him seemed to swallow him whole. He was helpless in his need, weakened by it, but he did not care. All that mattered was the feel of smooth walls closed in around him. 

A tiny snarl escaped Khett as she rocked forward and back, taking him into her body, her eyes whirling faster and faster as she sought her own gratification. Her nails lightly raked his skin and he shuddered with the combination of pain and pleasure. Her tongue lapped his blood, her eyes closing in bliss. 

Groth could not hold back when she bit his neck, her hips rocking against him in a furious rhythm. With a loud growl his pleasure climaxed, spilling his seed into her, his body convulsing as she bit deeper. After a moment, she raised her head, her lips slick with his blood, and smiled down at him.

“You are mine,” she crooned. “I have claimed you as my own. No other shall have you.”

He blinked, feeling the aching burn of her bite on his neck even as his body still shook from the intensity of his release. He felt the ropes release him but did not stir.  He stared up at her golden eyes, lost in their whirling depths.

“I am yours.”

Groth took the wrist she offered and bit gently, tasting her hot blood for the first time. His body hummed with magic.

She was prey no longer.

She was mate.

~ * ~

The Grissette curled her body beside his, their wings overlapping as they studied the slow turn of the stars above them. 

“You cannot return to the others,” Khett told him, her tail twining lazily around his thigh. He tensed when the barbed tip came dangerously close to his groin, but it did not cut him. 

“No,” he grunted. He had no desire to return to the other Gholun. He would go wherever Khett went. The realization of this made him frown. 

She turned her golden eyes to his, and he felt their pull once more. “You do not understand what has happened, my mate, but you will. My master will explain everything to you when we return.”

Groth’s eyes narrowed. “What of the others?”

A black tipped nail slid lightly over his ribs, light enough to leave only the faintest scratch. “My sisters will come now and claim them. Those that will not comply will feed their hunger.”

He growled, though there was no force behind it. “What have you done to me, Grissette?”

Khett stretched her arms above her, splaying her fingers so that the moonlight glinted off her claw-like nails. “Nothing that was not meant to be, my mate. Tell me, when the Gholun first woke from the fires that created them, who among you was first?”

Groth’s lips curled in a snarl. “I was first.”

She laughed, pleased by his answer. “It is fitting that my mate was first. I was first among the Grissette. We were last of the Fey to step from the Goddess’ fire and long did we live among fey-kind. But no more.”

“I know nothing of these things,” he said. “Why have you come now?”

“The Talisman weakens, and if my master holds it, its strength will never be renewed. All of Myr will serve him.”

Groth scowled.  “The Gholun do not wish to serve.”

Khett turned to look at him, and he was caught once again in her eyes. “They will.”

Faster than she could blink, his hand was on her throat, but his claws did not tear her skin. He used his hold to pull her across his thighs. She could feel his maleness pressing against her, and it pleased her.  She did not fight him when he sheathed his maleness in her body, for that pleased her as well. She could see the struggle within him, as he fought against the pull of her body, the spell of her eyes. She saw him accept the inevitable as he thrust into her, tipping his head back and baring his throat in surrender.

Khett bent her head to bite, to taste what he offered. Her body sang with pleasure and magic as his blood spilled across her lips. And that pleased her more than anything.