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"New husband? I am your husband. By virtue of betrothal." He smirked. "You cannot escape the laws."
Raphael walked in reading the copy of the official document. "No, it appears you missed your chance." He picked up her trunk easily. "Come my wife." He held out his arm for her to cuddle under.
"You! You knew where she was!" Enver moved to strike Raphael with his rapier. Raphael blocked it with a large wing and turned to look at the foolish man. "You’re a devil. You speak in contracts." He tried to smoothly transition. "Let us make a deal devil."
Raphael squeeze Tav’s hands reassuringly. "Let’s hear it." He tilted his head.
"You give me the girl so I can marry her. I can give you some fine souls." Enver looked triumphant.
Raphael smirked. "I cannot accept the deal. It would break the deal between me and my wife. See she jumped out of a 2nd story window just to escape you. She only wants to be mine."
Enver looked gobstruck that she would rather be wife to a devil than him. "What? How dare you you wretched whore-" He struggled to breathe suddenly with Raphael’s hand around his throat.
"I would appreciate it if you didn’t insult my wife. She is mine by human terms and the terms of the hells. You cannot touch her." Raphael’s eyes glowed dangerously.
Tav slid from under Raphael’s arm making a statement. "I never wanted to be yours. If my parents hadn’t betrothed me to you, I would have picked a pig over you. Luckily for me, I attracted someone else." She leaned up to kiss Raphael. "Let the foolish man go so we can leave. I need nothing else here."
Raphael obliged his wife kissing the ring on her finger. "Of course. Let us leave." He transported them back home. He set the trunk down for the debtors to take care of. He led her to her new room. "Welcome home wife." He purred.
She leapt up into his arms, skirt rising up her hips. She kissed him hard. "That was the hottest thing you have ever done for me." Tav murmured softly. "Would you think me completely shameless if I told you I want you right now?"
He purred. "Oh I would love nothing more." Raphael pressed kisses to her throat as he walked her back towards the bed. She let out soft feminine noises as he set her on the bed and bit at her neck. He towered over his elf. She felt him move her a bit kneeling over her. She adjusted to have a pillow under her head and his hands pushed her skirt up. He made the fabric disappear and touched her where she wanted him most. "You are so wet for me. Me choking the man of your nightmares did that much for you?" He smirked kissing her. "You are delicious."
Tav arched and tried to press into his hand. She whined as his finger entered her soaking folds. "Oh fuck. Raphael!" She could see his control twitch with how she moaned his name. The woman arched fluidly using her whole body to thrust back onto his finger eagerly. "I need more. I want to take all of you." Another finger breached her and began thrusting. Her wetness dripped onto his hand as she wrapped her arms around his neck to kiss him. She moaned his name in a sultry manner, hoping to break his control. "Raphael."
He growled inserting another finger. "I am trying to stretch you so I do not break you. You test my patience brat." Raphael nipped her lower lip harshly. "I do not have the control to be human for your first time. I am large. I need to make sure I don’t hurt you." He bit her neck hard.
She moaned. "Fuck! Don’t you feel how wet I am. I can take you." Tav moaned as he abused her sweet spot. His thumb massaged her clit in smooth circles. "Please!" She wanted it so badly.
Raphael felt his cock twitch and he growled in her ear. "Come for me first Tav. I want to see your face as you writhe in pleasure from my fingers inside you. Give me your pleasure little elf." He watched as her eyes rolled and she moaned his name. She squirted covering his hand. He used that natural lubricant to coat his sizable cock. He positioned himself at her entrance.
Tav tried to arch into it, but his large hands on her hips stopped her. He was going to go at his pace. Raphael pressed inside with slow, but firm, pressure. She froze feeling the burn of the stretch. She whimpered his name again and tried to relax. He smiled reassuringly. "That’s it. Take my cock, nice and slow." She met his eyes, her own glazed over with pleasure. There wasn’t an ounce of pain in her eyes. He managed to get inside her all the way to the root. It was rare that a woman was able to take all of him on the first try. "So good. You are so tight around me." He stroked her abdomen and up her chest to her throat. She reacted positively to it and smiled eyes rolling again.
She moaned feeling owned. "Oh gods! Own me. My body is yours." Tav felt his cock twitch inside her. She arched into his hand. "I need you to fuck me." She purred smiling. "I need you to show me what it means to be willingly married to a devil."
His control snapped and he pulled out slamming back in a few time. She wailed loving the vision of him above her, wings splayed above her like she was prey. She needed this more than she realized and felt complete. He snarled. "You want to know what it’s like? I own you body and soul. You are mine." He kept the brutal pace. He’d meant to be gentle but the brat under him pushed all the right buttons. "Such a brat. I should have known you would be since you jumped out a window." He smirked at her. "You got the better deal I think. If you hadn’t run, you would be stuck under some boring mortal. I much prefer you as mine." Her pussy squeezed him. "I will fulfill every sinful fantasy you have Tav. The more sinful the better. I will claim you utterly."
She cried out feeling every hot drag of his dick. He almost hit the back of her vagina with each thrust. Tav screamed his name.
"That’s it. Let our house know who you belong to." He wasn’t squeezing her throat, just holding. She moaned as his heavy balls slapped her ass. The wet sounds of him fucking her filled the room with a sinful chorus.
"Raphael!" She screamed coming hard on him. He fucked her through her orgasm and kept taking his pleasure from her.
"Give me your pleasure." He growled running his clawed hand down her chest. Red lines raised on her skin and she arched into it. "You like a bit of pain with your pleasure do you? Our relationship will be so smooth." He took a deep, dominant breath. "Come for me, Tav." She wailed her pleasure as he thrust into her a few more times and filled her sinking his teeth into her shoulder. She screamed coming hard, vision whiting out as she did.
Tav felt sore and so well used. She felt hands stroking her hair and opened her eyes to look up at the human Raphael. He looked so relaxed it was unreal. She was boneless as she was held in his warm arms. He stroked her face gently. "How do you feel?" The devil holding her kissed her gently.
Tav relaxed kissing him. "I feel boneless but so good." She shivered feeling aftershocks still. "I should push your buttons more often if this is what it gets me." The rogue grinned like a brat.
Raphael leaned down resting his head on hers. "I should have known you would be a brat." He chuckled. "Good to know you like it rough." He pulled her close. "Damn am I glad I snatched you up."
The elf in his arms purred. "I am so glad you snatched me up. I didn’t think I would manage to find a marriage I could get behind." She nuzzled his neck kissing the skin there. "If you had told me, that in a few days, I would be happily married to a devil, I would have called you a dirty liar."
"I’m not just a devil. I am an archduke of Avernus, son of Mephistopheles. You married royalty instead of simple nobility." He purred touching the bite mark on her shoulder. "And I own you utterly." He kissed her. "You will want for nothing."
She grinned a bit. "I want a bath but my legs aren’t working right now. Think you could help with that?" His deep chuckle resonated through her.
"Of course." He stood and pulled her into his arms. She curled into him feeling taken care of.
"Thank you, Raphael." She stole a kiss from his lips.
Raphael knew this was going to be a delicious relationship.
"How is this still not working?" Astarion snarled. The glow faded from his hands while an owl's irritating hooting overhead remained unintelligible. "I've studied all your damn books. I've followed your lessons no matter how many of them risked my life..."
"As I told you, Astarion, the lake here is not composed of running water. You were in no danger learning to fish in its waters."
Astarion barrelled onward, "And your precious Oak Father has yet to offer me a single blessing! It's because I'm a vampire spawn, isn't it? Well, I'm sorry, you big, dumb tree spirit with all your sanctimonious judgment; I didn't
to be hunted by Gur and forced to turn! Since you couldn't be bothered to save one of your "beloved children" back then, the least you could do is help me now."
Halsin stayed where he was seated, weathering the storm of Astarion's frustration with the patience of an ancient oak. "Silvanus does not interfere in the lives of others often. To do so would be to upset the Balance."
"Nothing like you then, meddling druid," Astarion grumbled.
"Indeed, nothing like me. But that's why he is a god and I, merely a servant."
"Don't sell yourself short, darling." Astarion's smile was sharp enough to slit a man's throat. "You're worth more than any all-powerful prick who sits on his duff all day."
Astarion’s non-stop prodding brought Halsin to his feet at last. "I think that's enough of taking Silvanus" name in vain for today."
The finality in Halsin's warm rumble gave Astarion pause. Halsin was willing to put up with much, far more than he should, but testing his limits would only serve as a reminder of how ruthless the bear could be. There was a reason so many short-lived species looked up to him as a father figure, and it wasn't just his charming magic tricks or sage advice. Still, even in his sternest moments, the bear's methods for discipline were angelic compared to Cazador's.
Perhaps that was why Astarion felt safe holding onto some of his spite. 
apologies. I would hate to upset your druidic sensibilities," he drawled, brushing leaves off his trousers as he stood.
Halsin huffed softly. "No, you wouldn't. But you're hardly the first student in my care who's responded to failure with aggression." The druid drew closer, gesturing for Astarion to walk with him. "Now, let's discuss what happened."
The spawn sighed as he fell into step next to the elf's longer strides. He did his best to ignore the damn owl still taunting him somewhere in the distance with its incessant hooting. "It's the same thing as what happened the last several times. I prepare the spell, say the words, and it fizzles when I try to make sense of the forest's fluffy bunnies."
Halsin nodded along. His eyes scanned the treetops, reflecting the moon, but his gaze turned inward as he picked at the puzzle of Astarion's failing magic. "You say it fizzles when you try to make sense of them. But what about making sense of yourself? Do you feel confident that you understand your own mind when you cast?"
Astarion's gait hitched. His mind hadn't been wholly his when he was with Cazador. And though Astarion had thought he'd outgrown the need for masters when Tav reached out to him because he regained the power to refuse some acts, Astarion realized years later that he'd just molded himself into another kind of pet.
How well did Astarion know what he wanted? Which of his thoughts were from an unlife filled with nothing but chains, and what was really him?
The spawn shed his mounting frustration with a shake of his head. "What does knowing my own mind have to do with anything? It hasn't stopped me from casting other basic spells."
"Speak with Animals is, at its core, a spell of understanding," Halsin explained. "It does not translate the calls of beasts to exact words but imparts their meaning to you directly. That is why no particular mother tongue is required to cast it. However, if a heart holds too much doubt in itself, the spell can fail even the most powerful Archdruids."
Astarion glanced up at Halsin. "You say that as if you've experienced it."
The druid nodded gravely. "I have. I believe I've mentioned that I was once a slave in the Underdark. When I finally won my freedom, I was...lost for a time. I could no longer control my Wildshape, and even the simplest magics failed me."
Astarion had heard this story in pieces before. Each time, a deep, simmering fury burned in his stolen blood. Astarion couldn't avoid making a connection between Halsin's captors and his own Cazador, even if the druid insisted on a difference of scale between their situations. 
To lose his connection with Silvanus after three years of torture must have been hell to a young druid.
"Their torment broke you," Astarion observed cooly as blood hunger churned painfully in the pit of his stomach. 
Halsin appeared oblivious to his companion's feelings, lost within his memories. "Maybe in part. But it was more than that. The rage in my heart was out of control. At them for what they did to me, at my own arrogance that led to my capture, but mostly at the part of my mind that whispered I enjoyed some of the twisted things I learned about myself in those three years." Halsin's eyes slid shut as he chuckled ruefully. "Mostly, I was disgusted that I could find arousal in...well, I will spare you the details. I could not accept those parts of myself, and the dissonance destroyed my inner balance."
Astarion stared at Halsin in silence for a time while they walked. Only the song of nocturnal wildlife, incomprehensible to him, kept the heavy atmosphere from being unbearably uncomfortable. 
A powerful Archdruid, completely unable to cast the most basic of initiate spells. The steadiest and wisest mind Astarion knew, buried in a pit of loathing so deep he couldn't find a scrap of light to guide him. It was difficult to believe. Yet Halsin would never speak anything but the truth to him.
Nature was cruel but practical. Silvanus" most beloved druids had no love for giving false hope.
When Astarion broke the vigil between them, his voice remained soft. "And yet here you are, one of the most powerful druids known to the Coast. So, what changed?"
"Time, mostly," Halsin replied equally softly. "And the wise words of my grove's Archdruid. She told me that the past was not to be forgotten or disrespected, but I could not neglect the present. Silvanus" creatures were never designed to stand still. Whatever the drow had done to me, however they had warped my desires or mind, was part of who I was now. And what I did with that going forward was my choice."
"And it was that easy? Problem solved?"
Halsin's lips pulled tight like the ache of an old scar was bothering him. "No. Nothing about it was easy. But with many years of work at separating the present from the past, I found myself again. Enough to move forward, anyway." Halsin sighed, shaking off the memory. He offered a gentle smile to Astarion. "It may sound strange, but I am almost grateful for the practice it gave me. Without it, I don't think I could have willed myself to survive long enough to see Thaniel healed. Still, I am more grateful that my unpleasant time in the Underdark is so long past that it's more story than memory now. I hope you can one day have the same."
Astarion couldn't imagine an existence without the memories of Cazador haunting every choice he made. It felt like each step he'd taken since his master's death was either to give in to the lessons of his previous life or to run from them. Either way, it was damn Cazador in his thoughts, dictating what he did.
How could the bastard's death solve so much yet so little?
With a groan, Astarion's head fell forward. He muttered to himself loud enough for Halsin to hear, "I often wonder what of my actions are my own. I remember nothing from my life before Cazador. The preening and flirtations were all a show I learned to be his good little puppet. I hate that."
"But...?" Halsin prompted.
Astarion gnashed his teeth. "
some part of me also thrills in the power of it all. It's fun watching libido-driven fools drool after me, and I enjoy making my beloved bear hungry enough to devour me whole. I like the control. Feeling desired. Celebrating that it is
choice who I bed and when rather than anyone else's. Yet I keep
hesitating because every time I try to enjoy the high of it, I remember that Cazador was the one who taught me to act this way, and it makes me feel sick."
"And that is likely what is causing this block. Even for the most willing, making peace with this world's horrors is a slow process." Halsin frowned and continued, "I won't lie to you, Astarion. It may take centuries for you to fully come to terms with the scars Cazador has left on you, physically and emotionally."
"I suppose I should thank him for the blessing of making me immortal, then," Astarion spat.
"You don't need to thank that vile creature for anything." Halsin's eyes glowed gold in the forest's darkness. "But I trust that with eternity on your side, you will find your own path and, with it, the ability to cast this spell. You needn't resort to those dark texts you've been consulting."
Only 200 years of practice rolling with the punches, literal or metaphorical, kept Astarion from tripping as he gawked at the druid. He had been confident his collection was safe from Halsin.
"Snooping in other people's things? What a naughty little cub you are," Astarion tittered, hoping it hid his desperation to understand how the druid had figured out that daytime hobby.
"It was more of a guess than anything," Halsin admitted. "You may be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but instincts are hard to overcome. I would be shocked if any vampire spawn didn't find allure in necromancy. I only hope that you can learn to control those urges rather than the other way around, the same as I must with my inner beast."
Relief flooded Astarion. He hadn't failed at hiding his books. Halsin was just leveraging his ridiculous druid insight again, stabbing accurately in the dark after 400 years of experience.
Directing them away from that trap-laden topic, Astarion chuckled. "I don't know. I quite like Mister Bear. Having a walk on the wild side is good occasionally," he offered his most salacious smirk, "don't you think?"
"You could be a cambion with how you embody temptation, Astarion. But perhaps, on this occasion, you are also right. That's enough study for one evening. Let us hunt."
Halsin had thought of Astarion as a cat back in the days of the tadpole crisis, but the more time spent with him, the more he saw a wolf. It was there in the way Astarion favored clever traps to catch his meals. His preference for companionship and socialization, if in controlled doses. And most notably, his remarkable perseverance. 
Just as a wolf would run for miles until its prey collapsed from exhaustion, Astarion refused to abandon breaking the taboo of a spawn learning to speak with animals. Instead of the spell, which might take decades to learn, he'd started to brew Animal Speaking potions en masse. At first, it was just to provide a nightly chance to bond with the local pack. However, Astarion's daytime boredom soon transformed those simple druidic potions into an art form. 
Many apothecary skills were not so different from those of perfumery. With a steady supply of acorn truffles provided by Halsin, Astarion took every chance to prove it.
Halsin had seen many aspiring chefs attempt to make Animal Speaking potions more palatable in his grove. Honey did little to touch the earthy taste. Even if there was some solution, most gave up on the dream when they realized the grove had no use for a tasty soup that allowed them to converse with animals because they already had magic, and most druids frowned on selling anything outside their groves. 
But Astarion was not a druid. Where a grove would see distraction from Silvanus" teachings, he saw a business opportunity. Any friend of nature would want a chance to speak with their furred and feathered companions, especially those who had no gift for magic.
Vampire spawn didn't have mortal taste buds to appreciate flavors. Instead, they boasted an exceptional sense of smell. Combined with the knowledge that most potions could be applied to the skin rather than consumed for only a minorly diminished effect, Astarion had made a wide array of lotions and bath fragrances that could allow the user to converse with the Oak Father's other creatures.
"I'm still trying to find a way to increase its potency. Right now, if you fail to use the whole bottle, you'll smell like a garden, but you couldn't tell a bee that you aren't one," Astarion sighed as Halsin played guinea pig to the spawn's latest concoction. 
It was an infused oil that smelled of juniper and cypress. Halsin didn't mind making a friend happy by complimenting their genuine skill. Still, from how Astarion's eyes roamed shamelessly over Halsin's freshly oiled skin, he suspected that wasn't the only pleasure Astarion was deriving from the situation.
The druid smiled consolingly. "I think it would be fine to sell as it is. Perhaps you could pay Gale a visit for ideas if you're stuck. I'm sure he would be thrilled to bore you with the finer details of alchemy's many laws."
Astarion recoiled like a cat dropped in a vat of water. "Ugh, no. It's bad enough that he insists on sending me those awful projections with "death-day" greetings every year."
Halsin laughed at that. He rather enjoyed the absurdity of Gale's magical image appearing to all his friends once a year to commemorate their birthdays. Age had not improved the human's social skills beyond those of an academic, but he was unfailingly sweet. It was a shame Gale's comfort only lay in monogamous, committed relationships. Halsin would have enjoyed the chance to intimately know such a kind-hearted, if occasionally too ambitious, wizard.
The druid set aside his perfumed oil bottle. "All joking aside, I do think it might be worth planning a trip to Waterdeep at some point. If not to impress him with your potion brewing, then to visit a city again. And to frustrate him by hiding in the shadows when he goes looking for you."
Astarion's mouth twitched as it did every time Halsin mentioned the city as of late. Whatever mystery emotion it indicated slid away, replaced by a mocking smirk.
"That's fine for me, but what about you?" he wondered. "Going to stay here and avoid the
unnatural horrors
of civilization?"
Halsin shrugged. "I think I could brave it for a time. I've wanted to discuss with Gale the possibility of a daylight spell that didn't burn your skin. The local trees have breathtaking autumn foliage in these parts that I would love to share with you."
"You are such a hopeless romantic, my darling druid," Astarion tutted through his delighted smile. Suddenly, he gasped and clapped his hands together. "Ah, yes! That reminds me, I had something I wanted to show you."