"He's a-an incubus, he said. A demon." I finished desperately. Clinging to her.

"An incubus?" She breathed. "How did he find you?"

I lifted my skirt and turned my leg to show her the black ridge along the inside of my thigh. Much of the redness had gone now.

"Yes. There it is..." He sounded pleased to see it. "Making me hard just looking at my mark so close to your..."

"What do I do!" I cut him off. Forcing myself to focus on Hales.

"Demons are controlled by their name. Saying his name should hold great power over him."

I nodded in understanding. Fleeing the hut.

"Get his name!" Hales shouted after me. Standing in her doorway.

"Worst advice ever." He dogged my steps. His voice brushing the back of my neck.

"You're name..." I said thoughtfully. Ignoring him.

"My name..." He echoed.

"Does it hold power over you?" I thought if he'd deny it, it'd confirm that it did.

"Yes, yes it does." He admitted.

***

"What is it?"

I heard his cluck in his cheek. Chiding me for asking what I knew he'd not answer.

"Now that, you have to earn."

I decided then that I would. I would do whatever he wanted. Surrender. Let him take this body however he wished.

As long as he'd tell me his name and I could have him gone from me forever.

"I like the sound of that." He was whispering in my ear, so close his breath stirred my senses.

I re-entered the tavern in the same crazed state I left it.

The barmaid watching me as stunned as before as I climbed the stairs two at a time. Holding up my skirt to keep it from the way.

I rushed into the room I'd bought for today and I unlaced my bodice and let it fall to the floor then shrugged from my dress. Kicking it off my feet and standing naked in the center of the room. "Fine. Take me. Just tell me your name."

"It's not that simple..." His voice floated to me.

I couldn't tell where he was. "Then what do you want!"

"If you're going to earn it, you won't do it by offering yourself to me. You'll do it by giving yourself to me."

"How?" I shook my head in confusion.

Stop speaking in riddles!

"I'm not." He said. Knowing my thoughts as he always did.

Was no part of me sacred from him?

"No." He answered in a dead voice.

"What do I have to do?"

"Pleasure me. Willingly give yourself to me. Seduce me..."

"And you'll tell me your name?"

"Yes..."

"You vow it?"

"I do."

***

"How do I know I can trust you?" I asked anxiously.

"Oh, you can't." He said decisively.

I was sure he was circling me again.

"But I am a creature of my word." He said calmly. "That's what got me here. I kept my vow."

To become a demon?

"More or less." He answered my unspoken question.

The door to the room was tossed open then and the two large men that'd brought me my bath water filled the doorway. Surveying me in my naked state.

I shielded myself with my arms. I didn't lock the door! How could I be so careless?

"Perhaps you wanted them to have you?" He suggested. Humor in his voice.

He knows that's not true.

I don't want anyone to have me!

Greed brightened their faces and they walked to me. One caught my shoulders and the other grabbed my legs. Lifting me off my feet. They put me on the bed.

The bigger of the two smelled acrid and had food stuck in his beard. He grinned lasciviously as he climbed atop me but he had almost no teeth.

I shouted for help. Screaming for someone to come.

It's a tavern. No one cares. No one is going to challenge them.

"I would." He said from the shadows. "If you wish. I don't like sharing my things."

***

I turned my face to the shadowed corner where he'd been before. "Please, help."

His face emerged from the shadows. Pulling together the darkness. His eyes were hard rubies and his mouth was tight. Nearly white. When he stepped from the shadow. His foot thudded heavily. Drawing the attention of the two men.

The other had gone to the bottom of the bed and gripped my ankles. Holding my legs on either side of the larger one who was fumbling to get out of his pants.

***

Now they both stood frozen staring at what rose from the shadows.

He straightened, and his head lifted nearly to the ceiling. Twining horns jutting from it. He splayed long red wings that looked to be made of fire.

"She's mine!" He roared in a voice that shook the room.

I've never seen him like this. It dawned on me then that he could present himself in whatever form he chose. Or at least either of the two I'd seen now.

The demon or the man...

It was an eerie realization.

***

Both men fell sideways over the bed to put it between them. Stumbling for the door and left as quickly as they'd come.

He retracted back into the shadows and I ran to slam the door. Turning the lock and pressing my back to it as I caught my breath.

Can this get any worse?

For once, he didn't answer my thought.