Her voice was feminine, if a little deeper than the usual handmaiden. There was also a sibilant quality to it-like the hiss of a snake. From his hiding place Nai watched a long slender black tongue emerge from between her lips and flicker as it tasted the air.

"Surrender to my coils and I'll reward you with unparalleled sensual delight," the guardian lamia said as she searched for Nai.

Her upper body was as curvaceous as Nai liked his whores to be. Idly he wondered if she was naked. He couldn't see. She was a silhouette-black on darkness.

"I'm a servant of Aphrossi," the guardian lamia said. "We do not deal in cruelty or pain. Even our enemies are loved."

There was a snare in her words, a subtle enchantment that dulled the senses and caused her prey to wonder if surrendering to her coils might not be a bad thing. Nai was strong-willed enough to resist.

He was also intelligent enough to notice that the guardian lamia only seemed to move within the pools of darkness clotted beneath the eaves of Bollinbrocco's rotting townhouses. Magic and sorcery often seemed grotesquely powerful to those with little knowledge of it. He was under no illusion as to his chances should the guardian lamia get her coils around him.

The thing with magic and sorcery was that it was also governed by equally powerful clauses and conditions. He suspected the guardian lamia, being a creature of shadow, could not enter lit areas. Brightly-lit streets were as much a barrier to her as a raging river would be to him.

It gave him an idea, a plan that might just save his skin if his hunch was correct.

He circled around to Merag. This district was right behind the Unicorn's Mark and inhabited by the Mergam, a queer tribal race from out beyond the River Cyoa. This was a holy time of year to the Mergam and they celebrated by lighting up their streets with gaily-coloured paper lanterns. He remembered remarking on it with displeasure after noticing his window at the Unicorn's Mark overlooked Merag. How Lucanni, the god of thieves and rogues, loved irony.

He plucked a low-hanging lantern while making his way to a large townhouse that stood by itself in the centre of a tangled loop of streets. As he expected, taking the lamp created a bridge of darkness across which the shadowy guardian lamia followed. He led his supernatural pursuer in a circle around the dilapidated townhouse. Back at the start he reached up and returned the lantern to its original hanging place. A continuous strip of yellow light once again ran through the centre of the street. Nai backed away to the other side.

Now we'll see, he thought.

The guardian lamia reached the edge of shadow and stopped. She hissed in frustration and retreated back into the darkness.

Nai smiled. You'll not be taking the soul of Nai tonight, he thought. He was right. She couldn't cross the lit areas and he'd trapped her on a small island of darkness surrounded by bright lanterns.

He looked over at the inn. It was no more than an intersection and a street away. It did not matter. He didn't need Seferia's help now. Oh, the demon would escape the maze of light at some point, but by then the Heart of Aphrossi would be in Madam Esqetti's hands and its guardian her problem. Nai would be returning to the Unicorn's Mark with a lot of gold. And as Nai had not required the help of the others, there would be no need to inform them of his newfound wealth. It was only fair. They hadn't done anything to earn it after all.

Instinctively he slipped into the darkness on his side of the street while he pondered the most direct route to Madam Esqetti's luxurious house of sin. He'd no sooner crossed the threshold into darkness when two black arms emerged from the shadows behind him and wrapped around his body. Nai's eyes bulged in fear. The guardian lamia. Somehow it had teleported from one side of the street to the other.

"Silly man," the dark lamia whispered in his ear. "I cannot traverse the light, but the light is nothing more than broken shards of glass in an ocean of darkness. The ways between them are infinite."

Nai couldn't squirm out of her grip. She turned him around and wound her serpentine lower half around him. He slashed out with his dagger to little effect.

"Don't be like that," the guardian lamia said. "I'm a servant of love. I only want to love you."

She caught his wrist and twisted. Nai's dagger flew away.

"I want to hug you," the guardian lamia said.

Her coils, heavy and soft like sacks of wet clay, twisted him deeper into the darkness. Nai couldn't pull himself free.

"Squeeze you," the guardian lamia said.

She wrapped him tighter and her coils inexorably squeezed him until his limbs were pinned to his sides. Nai might not be a muscle-bound oath like the warrior of their party, Peakjohn, but he was not a weak man either. It meant nothing to this supernatural horror. He doubted even Peakjohn's muscles could withstand the guardian lamia's unnatural power. He would need brains not brawn here.

Or luck.

There was Peakjohn himself. Bleary-eyed, the big warrior had just emerged from the entrance to the inn. He yawned, stretched and then turned to relieve himself against the inn wall.

Lucanni be praised! As the bards said, the god of rogues and always smiled down on the most adventurous of thieves. Nai opened his mouth to yell for the big warrior's attention...

...only for his cry to be smothered in the massive breasts of the guardian lamia. She moaned and sighed like a tavern girl in heat as she rubbed her naked tits against his face. They were huge-as big as Bulbosia melons and soft like fine Kallahian cushions.

Nai was shocked as his body responded. He didn't know what it was-a temporary dislocation, the feel of her flesh against his face, the musky aromas of sex and perfume that reminded him of times spent in fine bordellos. For a moment he forgot himself and let his lips kiss the smooth skin of her breast.

The guardian lamia leaned back with a satisfied purr. "The desire to love is always stronger than the desire to fight."

And Nai's desire to survive was stronger still. He looked back towards the inn and Peakjohn...

...and was horrified to see the warrior was far far away. Peakjohn hadn't moved; he was still pissing up against the tavern wall. Nai hadn't moved either. Yet somehow the distance between them had grown into a vast impassable gulf.

Sorcery. No doubt of the same witchery that had allowed the demon to appear on his side of the street.

He was doomed. The guardian lamia had dragged him down through one of the cracks in the world and there was no escape. Unless...

She caressed his face and planted soft lips on his cheek. The monster had him at her mercy and yet seemed more interested in loving him than killing him. It was befitting of a servant of Aphrossi, he supposed.

"Then let's make love," he said. The guardian lamia's face was shadow upon shadow, but he gave her his most charming smile nonetheless.

Why not. Had he not done this many times before. There had been plenty of girls-noblewomen, heiresses of fat merchants, innkeepers' pretty daughters-he'd promised the world as he'd bedded them, only to leave them before the cock crowed, often light a piece of valuable jewellery. Seducing a servant of Aphrossi was a far greater challenge. But they said Lucanni, the god of rogues, smiled down on the audacious and what could be more audacious than charming a servant of Aphrossi to let him escape with her goddess's Heart?

"My lovemaking will take you to heaven," the guardian lamia said.

She kissed him on the lips with full, sensual lips. Her long flexible tongue entered his mouth and entwined with his. Her kiss took his breath away and made him feel as giddy as a gauche teen. He knew this would be a challenge.

Nai had tricks of his own. After the kiss ended he followed up by kissing her lightly on the cheek. He moved down her neck and across the curve of her breast, leaving a trail of gentle kisses. Her skin didn't feel like any woman he'd kissed. It was warm but also slightly sticky, as if it was so hungry for his touch it was reluctant to let him go. Her form confused his senses. She was at once both as insubstantial as shadow and solid enough to hold him tightly bound.

"How about you relax your coils a little so I can love you properly?" Nai asked.

He felt the pressure around his legs lesson. A little more and he might be able to squirm free. And once he was free he was going to wait in the light until the sun rose above the horizon.

The guardian lamia pulled his robes aside to expose his body. Her hands found his cock and stroked up and down. The sights and scents of the temple of Aphrossi-and possibly the influence of the Heart of Aphrossi-had left him partially erect. A few light touches from her skilled fingers and he was rock-hard and throbbing. Sighing in pleasure, the guardian lamia slammed the soft swells of her breasts against his naked chest. She mewled like a tavern wench in heat as she rubbed her soft tits against him.

While Nai liked to charm and seduce the bored and spoilt heiresses, it was only their jewels and gold that attracted him. For his baser pleasures it was always the most vulgar of women that gave him the greatest satisfaction. The guardian lamia, despite her inhuman nature, triggered all his secret turn-ons. His prick was so full of need it ached.

He'd been prepared to fuck her if it would give him a chance to escape.

Now he needed to fuck her just to relieve the unbearable tension in his loins.

She rubbed her body against his. His erect prick slid and bounced against her flat midriff. Again he felt a stickiness to her skin that reminded him of thick mud after a heavy storm.

"I want you inside me," the guardian lamia said.

Though it shamed Nai to admit it, he wanted to be inside her as well. But where? She'd rubbed what would be the crotch of a human woman against him and he'd not felt anything resembling the opening to a vagina.

The pressure of her coils lessened as she shifted position. Dimly, Nai remembered this was supposed to be his trigger to do something. He couldn't remember what. He was too focused on wanting to fuck her.

Her coils slithered higher up his body, binding the two of them closer together. A thick coil looped around his buttocks and tightened like a noose. His hips were forced forwards and he plunged into her.

There was no orifice. Her skin enfolded his hard member and he sank into the soft, malleable substance of her body. It felt as good as sheathing himself in the tight cunt of a willing tavern whore. No, it was better. Warmer. Tighter. And... Nai sucked in a breath... more mobile. He quivered in pleasure as her silken folds enveloped him and manipulated his prick with the same skill and deftness her fingers had shown earlier.

"I'm a servant of Aphrossi," the guardian lamia whispered in his ear. Her long tongue tickled his earlobe. "My skill at lovemaking is beyond compare. Enjoy the pleasures of my body."

Nai had no choice. Her serpentine lower half was wrapped tight enough around him to lift his feet up off the ground. She squeezed him with regular contractions that drove his hard cock back and forth within the pliable, tenebrous substance of her body. Each constriction was followed by a secondary pulse within her that pumped the engorged head of his cock and sent throbs of pleasure spiralling down his shaft.

Nai was held helpless, both by the irresistible coils of her body and the carnal sensations that overwhelmed him. He was nothing more than a puppet as she squashed their bodies together with regular constrictions. His arousal grew with every squeeze, but it was slow and steady... like the inexorable rise of a river on the verge of bursting its banks. The guardian lamia had full control of him. The moment of his eventual release would be decided by her alone.

"Let it go," the guardian lamia said. "Release yourself within me."

The moment was nigh. Her coils squeezed tight and she squashed her big tits up against his chest. She pressed her full lips against his in a kiss. Nai sank into her up to his balls. The inky-black substance of her body pulsed and tugged on his manhood.

Nai's river burst its banks.

His body shivered within her smothering embrace and a debilitating surge of pleasure burst within him as he emptied his balls into her. Her dark form absorbed his issue entirely. The aftermath left Nai feeling relaxed and pleasantly drained.

But not spent.

The tarry grip of her body kept his manhood hard. Her body pulsed around it like the beats of a great heart and within a matter of moments his cock was once again throbbing with the desire to spurt his seed within her. It was as if the previous orgasm had been an illusion that had never happened.

"Give yourself to me," the guardian lamia whispered. Her coils tightened and she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.

Nai wanted to. He wanted to sink deep into her body and recapture the bliss of his cock throbbing as it poured his seed out inside her.

And then he was sinking. The big cushions of her breasts spread out and enveloped his sides. His hands sank into her ass as if it was fresh mud. The warm, sticky substance of her body crept around and engulfed his balls. He was sinking into her as if her body was a black, bottomless quagmire. She was absorbing him.

That was enough to shock him out of the pleasurable enchantment she'd subdued him with. He was sinking into her, he realised with horror. He tried to struggle free of her cloying grip.

"The goddess Aphrossi does not punish her enemies," the guardian lamia said. "She loves them and through her love they become one with her."

Her body pulsed around Nai's manhood. Unable to resist the animal urge, he released another puff of seed deep within her. And with that his fate was sealed. Overwhelmed by sensations of bliss, he went limp. The guardian lamia's lips puffed up in a sensual pout. She pressed them against Nai's lips in a kiss and her warmth spread out across his face as his head started to sink into hers. Her serpentine coils constricted and pressed Nai deeper into her dark, amorphous form. The tarry substance of her form lapped around Nai's sides and flowed around to meet at the centre of his back.

Nai was beyond caring. Another gentle suck on his manhood triggered a throb of ecstasy. He came again within her and this time all his fears flooded out with his seed. He was quiescent as the guardian lamia drew him into her body. Last to go was his white buttocks. The guardian lamia gave a little flex of her body and they too sank into shadow.

She reared back and her whole body shuddered with pleasure as she let out a loud sigh of orgiastic satisfaction. Then, her task complete, she returned to the temple.

Within the largest, most opulent and most renowned house of sin within Bollinbrocco's notorious pleasure district its owner, Madam Esqetti, stood on a balcony overlooking the main square. The hour was long past midnight and the night's festivities were slowly winding down. Men, their inhibitions loosened by fine wines and subtle perfumes, were retiring to bedchambers with their companion or companions of choice. Some would never leave those rooms, for the house of Madam Esqetti was also known to be in the market for settling long-standing grudges... for the right price.

Madam Esqetti's long nails tapped against the stone balustrade. Most thought they were the long ornamental fake nails favoured by ladies of a certain bearing. Had they thought to look closer they would have been struck by how closely they resembled claws.

Madam Esqetti waited.

And waited.

The city faded down to quietness and then began to increase in activity again as other industries began their predawn rituals.

"It appears our master thief is not quite the master he claimed to be," she said.

Her true appearance was visible. With none to see she saw no reason to maintain the illusions disguising it. A pair of short red horns poked up out of her temples. Her eyes were red and smouldered like burning coals. Her skin was the colour of freshly-spilled blood. Leathery red bat wings were folded up behind her back. A long slender tail hung down over the shapely curves of her ass. Madam Esqetti was a demon. She had walked this earth for many years and many souls had found damnation between her legs. Tonight, though, her hungers would go unsated.

"A pity," she said. "He looked so tasty as well."

With the sun rising on the horizon, the succubus turned around and retired to her chambers.

The First Time JT Suggs left the note on the counter and walked out of the house. He walked past nice but bland suburban houses as he left his quiet cul-de-sac and turned down the road that led into the centre of town. He walked down leafy lanes alongside a seldom-used railway line. In the centre, opposite the shining glass edifice of the local Tesco supermarket, he hopped on a bus to the neighbouring, bigger town. At the main bus station there he caught another bus that was heading out to an anonymous district on the fringe of the town centre. He didn't have a map; he'd already memorized the route after looking it up on the internet.

JT's heart thudded in his chest as took his seat on the second bus. He trembled with a barely suppressed cocktail of excitement and trepidation. He'd been struggling to keep it all in since he'd made that phone call at lunchtime and been aroused by the seductive, velvet voice he'd heard on the other end.

He was finally going to do it.

The bus reached his stop. He got out, walked down the busy street, turned left and then left again, entering a plain little back street. He identified the door right away. The number was painted on the burgundy surface in white paint. The door was slightly ajar.

JT's heart pounded in his ears.

He walked right by, continuing almost to the point where the side street opened out into the main thoroughfare again. He turned around, walked back, passed the slightly ajar door again.

Yes or no? He wasn't forced to. He could walk back to the stop, catch the bus and return home.

No! He was fed up of having it hanging over him.

Heart pounding, pulse pumping, hands trembling, JT walked up to the door, drew in a deep breath, pushed it open and stepped inside. A small hallway led to a staircase and then up to another short corridor that terminated in a plain white door with an intercom on the wall next to it. Pictures on the walls of beautiful models with come-hither eyes and dressed only in skimpy underwear gave more of an indication of this establishment's function.

JT pressed a button on the intercom. He heard a buzzing sound and a click as the door was unlocked from the other side. The door swung open and JT was greeted by an attractive, busty girl wearing nothing but a skimpy black negligee. Very busty, JT thought, unable to stop his gaze slipping down to the impressive curves of her chest.

"Welcome to Sinful Delights," the girl said. She smiled at JT.

JT mumbled back. His tongue felt like it had swelled up to twice its size and soaked up all the moisture in his mouth. He followed the girl inside.

Beyond both the exterior and interior door, the massage parlour saw no need to mask its presence anymore. JT walked into an open room with a leather sofa against one wall and a stripper's pole in the corner. The walls were decorated with lurid neon tubes twisted into 'XXX' signs and the outlines of sexy devil girls. The room was dim and everything was tinged red in the low light.

Two girls sat on the sofa. One was a blonde with long silky hair and a frilly white blouse, the other was an extremely busty girl with flame-red hair. The redhead wore a tight-fitting, shiny black PVC catsuit. All three girls looked like they'd stepped fresh from the set of a high-class porn flick.

JT had a mental checklist of items that needed to be satisfied for him to go through with this. One of them was the girl needed to have a minimum standard of good looks. If he was going to pay for it, it had to be with a girl he wouldn't be ashamed of picking up in a meat market after a night on the pull.

JT didn't pick up girls at the local meat market after a night on the pull. He wouldn't be here if he could. The principle was still the same. If he wouldn't be interested in the girl if they met under disco lights, why would he want to pay for it with her?

All three were way hotter than any girl he'd have a chance of speaking to under disco lights.

Check.

"I'm Sally," the girl who'd led him in said. "This is Mint and Asami," she gestured first to the blonde and then the redhead. "We're all available at the moment."

Both Mint and Asami smiled at JT. Their full, glossy lips glistened in the low red light.

That was another checkbox on JT's list. He wanted the girl to seem interested. He didn't want anyone who looked bored, disinterested or miserable.

The two girls pouted seductively at JT and pushed out their chests, accentuating their already impressive busts.