:Transform to your natural form,:she said in my mind.
Immediately, the dark alfar bulged out of this fragile human body, a nightmare wave of teeth and claws that could not be denied. Licking her lips, she released Dörr and scrambled toward me across the mattress. Dropping to my knees beside the bed, I shuddered with bliss as she bit me. She gripped the top ridge of my shoulder in her jaws and ground her teeth back and forth, working my thick hide.
:I didn’t know it would feel so good to bite. Goddess, I feel like I could maul you.:
Guilt thudded in our bond before I could suppress it.:My apologies, my queen. That very well might be my fault.:
She paused, lifting her head, much to my regret. Searching my eyes, she reached up and cupped my thick, distorted alfar face in both hands.:Show me.:
I released an endless sigh of sorrow, for she would surely send me back to Niflhel once she knew the truth of my being. Yet I would never deny her.
All I had to do was close my eyes.
Infinite darkness swelled inside me, spilling into her bond. Falling. Deeper. Until there was nowhere else to sink. The lowest of the low, the darkest pit of Hel. Raucous rumbles vibrated the air and black rock beneath my claws. Licking essence from my talons, I crouched in the bottom of a glistening black stone well, waiting for my next conquest. Days, years, who knew how longI waited, for here, time was meaningless. Narrow, concentric levels rose around the pit, providing ledges for other alfar to perch and watch. They stomped and pounded and bellowed, chanting my name.
Svar. The Endless Slough.
Named not for the primordial ooze from which I crawled but the pits of black blood and alfar essence into which this ring sank. A black bottomless ocean of death, created by slaughtering others of my kind. Legends said we were immortal, but we could die if enough damage was dealt.
I was an expert at slaughtering that which cannot die. If we lost enough essence, the body slowed and weakened. Eventually we failed to regenerate. If enough flesh was torn apart… Or better yet, devoured…
The body disintegrated into the pits and became part of the Slough.
Another alfar dropped into the pit, already screaming. Fear. Rage. I wasn’t sure. Most of the warriors in the rings were here of their own volition but sometimes a weaker, younger alfar was tossed into the pits for fun. Something different. Not a challenge—but a diversion. After millennia, we’ve seen all the ways we can kill and fuck one another. Kill by fucking. Fuck by killing. They were one and the same.
We were bred for killing, but I had developed a taste for it. A hunger for death. Flesh in my gut. Essence on my hide. My cock destroying my victim from the inside out while I feasted.
Once I was the young, weak alfar tossed into the pit for the amusement of others.
Now I amused only myself and savored every victory.
My opponent was bigger than me. Since we never stopped growing, he must be older. Perhaps a true challenge had fallen to me. Though I wasn’t sure why he continued to scream. I couldn’t hear exactly what he yelled over the din and clamor surroundingus. It didn’t matter in the end. I had killed far larger opponents than him. Besides, words would never quell the thirst burning inside me.
The need to feel. Even pain. Taste. The only sensations left to me in infinite darkness.
I could already taste his flesh in my mouth. His bitter essence as I tore into his broad chest, seeking the core. We didn’t possess hearts or organs like living creatures but there was a single black seed of Iðunn’s golden apples buried deep in the sludge. The only thing that tasted different from everything else in this hellscape.
He didn’t wrestle me for dominance. He didn’t knock me aside. He didn’t try to avoid my cock, even though I was famous for the way in which I used it. I took him down to the black, slick stone. Pinned him. Sheathed deep. Making myself wait before tearing him asunder with blades and spikes I’d grown over countless battles.
Don’t kill him too quickly. Make him last. Feast.
His mouth pressed to my ear. “It’s me.”
“It’s me,”reverberated in my head.
Though I still didn’t comprehend who lay beneath me. I lifted my face from the hole I’d made in his chest. Looked him in the eyes.
Dörr stared back at me.
Horror choked me. Shame blacker than the darkness from which we’d crawled. A friend. No, a brother, if a nightmare like me dared claim such kinship. Bigger, more powerful, far older, he could have throttled and fucked me into submission before making himself known to me. But he’d known indulging in an attack would only stir my bloodlust.
He took no pleasure in killing. Fighting. Or fucking, for that matter. I honestly did not know why he’d come to the pits at all.
Now that he had my attention, one of his big hands clamped around my nape. His other thick arm locked around my waist and his claws sheathed in my side. Pinning me to him. Forcing me to hold his gaze. My image reflected back at me in his shining obsidian eyes.
“Choose.”
He didn’t elaborate. I knew. I felt the strength and might bulging in his body. He would crush my spine, pop my head off and shred me in half. Putting me out of torment. Or I could leave the pits and never return.
