He found a way to breathe, and it was like fire inside him. He gave a shuddering, gurgling groan, then coughed a copious amount of blood from his mouth. He could barely move, shifting aimlessly on the ground, trying to find a way to get back onto his feet. The impact with the ground hurt him more than the ramming from the Demon ever could have, for he had been struck by an object of nature. Hitting the ground caused him true injury, injury he couldn't regenerate, and it had all but incapacitated him. There was nothing but pain. He couldn't even remember what had happened to him, why he was there. The pain was everything, burning into him, through him, searing his body and causing his mind to recoil from the massive shock he had suffered.

He was only dimly aware of something grabbing him by the back of the head, then physically pulling him off the ground. Blood poured from his mouth as he was lifted, clotting the dirt on the dry ground, and he found his eyes being pulled level with a tall, shapely redhead. A redhead with small horns and wings, holding a staff. In his daze, he couldn't identify her. He could only stare blankly at her.

He didn't put up much of a fight, mother, he seemed to hear this strange voice, a voice with no sound.

"I made sure to prepare him for you, child," the redhead said calmly, giving him an evil smile. "Well, Tarrin, it looks like you came out on the losing end of this little dispute. They always do when they challenge me," she said with a light chuckle. "I considered keeping you, Tarrin. I really did. I don't have a Sorcerer of your caliber among my brood, and you could be very useful to me. But I think you'd be too much of a handful. You have an extremely stubborn mind, you can block my own magic, and your power is uncontrollable, even for you, and it would only be a matter of time before you destroyed yourself. No, I like assets that aren't expendable, or more dangerous to me than necessary."

She gave him a malicious smile. "Now that delicate little child of yours. That's another story."

That instantly snapped his mind back to awareness. His protective instincts over his bond-child roared to life in his mind, and despite the pain, he tried to reach up and grab the hand holding him by the hair. But someone punched him in his broken stomach, and he nearly lost consciousness as a firestorm of intense agony roared through him. "Temper, temper," she said, wagging a finger with an amused look. "I thought you'd be happy, Tarrin. I'm not going to kill Jula. I'm just going to make her mine. I could use someone like her. Oh, yes, she'll be very handy. A strong Sorcerer, a Were-cat, and very intelligent. And unlike you, she has a will that can be easily subdued."

"If… you touch her," he wheezed, barely a whisper. "I'll… do more… than kill you."

"Without this, you're not all that much of a threat," she smiled, holding out his staff. To his shock, shock that registered over his pain, his staff suddenly flared with a bright light, and in a span of two heartbeats, was incinerated by some magical fire. It crumbled to dust by the Demoness' sturdy boot, a pile of ash that had once been one of Tarrin's most treasured possessions. "And now you are neutralized. You don't stand a chance against me, Tarrin," she purred. "You never did. I kind of like you, that's why I let you live. And I still will, all you have to do is pack up your little friends and leave. Without Jula, of couse. She's mine now. You lost her when you killed one of my brood. Now she's going to replace him."

In a surge of mindless anger, enough to override the pain, Tarrin lunged at the Demoness with his claws leading. But the hold on his hair snapped his head back, caused him to collapse to his knees as the sudden motion wracked his injured ribs.

"Oh, she'll be very happy, Tarrin, don't you worry about that," she taunted on. "You see, Tarrin, I'm what your friend Phandebrass would call a Succubus. My power is to seduce and enslave the wills of mortals, and I feed off of them like a Vampire does. Except where Vampires drink blood, I drain away the life energy of my victim. It's what I do, and I'm very good at it. Trust me. She'll be very happy in my service, because I'll fix her so her only pleasure in life is making me happy. That's something I could even do to you. Would you like to be my faithful pet, Tarrin? To wish for nothing other than to see me smile?"

The manacles on his wrists weighed on him suddenly, reminding him of why they were there. Never again. He would never be a slave again! With a power borne of utter, mindless fury, Tarrin snapped up from his knees, slamming the manacle on his wrist into the face of the Cambion male that was holding him by the base of his braid. Freed from his grip as he let go and tumbled aside, Tarrin whirled on the Demoness Shiika and pounced at her, with such speed that the brood around the startled Demon could not intercept him. He crashed into her, drove her to the ground, and all he could desire in the world was to sink his claws into the soulless blue eyes of hers. She had a grip on his paws with her own hands, struggling under him to keep his claws away from her face, but she had a knowing smile on her lips.

"So you do want to be my pet," she said in a purring tone She pushed his paws just wide enough to free her face, and she lunged up and kissed him.

And then it was like her lips had become ice.

He could feel it, feel the essence of her invade him. And when it did, it took from him, it drained him of the energy inside him, sought to pull out his soul. There was an intense cold feeling, like Sorcerer's Healing, a cold that attempted to drain away all this strength, his very life force. He could not stop it. And in his rage, his fury at her threats to his bond-child and his mindless panic at being threatened with enslavement, he would not relent. He kept on her, kept trying to dig out her eyes, a look of absolute concentration laying under his mask of fury. Even if she killed him, he would take out those eyes.

But the draining kiss of her was robbing him of his strength. She began to push him away, thrust his claws wider to the sides as the strength powering his muscles faltered. Her kiss began to paralyze, to drain him so heavily that he lacked the strength to move. He felt her could touch reach all the way inside him, reach right to his soul, and he felt it plunge into his core.

His body paled and shuddered when her draining kiss struck at his very soul, attempted to literally tear it from him. But then something else inside him responded to that attack, flooding him with a strange warmth, replacing what she had taken, preventing her from gripping his soul well enough to take it from him, isolating it from her.

Shiika's eyes widened as she pushed him off of her, taking her hands off as he collapsed to the ground beside her. "By the pit!" Shiika gasped, stunned. "He's immortal!"

Mother?

"He's immortal!" she said again, just as shocked. "I can't take his soul! I could never take his soul! He can be drained, but his soul is protected from my power, and some part of him regenerates the life energy I take!" She sat up, licking her lips. "Jula must be the same way. By the pit, my brood, I'll never go hungry again! She'll be an endless supply of life energy!"

He couldn't move. He was cold inside, cold and in tremendous pain, unable to do anything but lay there and hover between consciousness and blissful oblivion.

What of him? he heard inside his mind.

"Leave him," Shiika said brusquely, accepting a hand of one of her male brood and standing up. "He's of no more consequence. Let's go get your new sister, my brood. Oh, wait a minute. Tarrin," she called sweetly. "I know what you're looking for. And just to make you feel like you've accomplished something tonight, I'll tell you who has it."

She laughed wickedly. " I do," she said bluntly. "I have your precious book. So if you want it, you have to face me to get it. I hope that makes you feel better," she laughed scathingly.