The Devil of Dunwich

 

The Devil’s Kiss

Dunwich, Massachusetts, 1723

Chapter One

 

“Thank you for coming, Miss Hynde.”

“Did I really have a choice, Goody Barebone?”

The two women had met in the forest, not far from the village, but far enough for privacy and silence. The clearing was easily found by Tace Hynde, if nothing else Obedience Barebone gave very good directions. Tace adjusted her bonnet and looked around the clearing. It was still early spring and there buds on the trees were just beginning to blossom, holding many possibilities but nothing beyond that. Everything was gray or brown, dead with only the potential for life.

Goody Barebone had brought along a small black iron pot which she had suspended over a little fire by a chain and tripod. The fire was contained by a circle of stones that had to have been arranged long ago because they were set into the ground and were carefully arranged. She must have arrived some time before Tace because the contents of the pot were already slowly bubbling thickly. Looking around on the bare, hard earth Tace was glad she had brought along her grandmother’s quilt as instructed by Obedience; there was nothing to sit on that wasn’t dirt or half-rotten brown leaves. “Are we having a picnic lunch then?” she asked as she spread the large covering on the ground near the small fire.

The older woman smiled and let out a little laugh. Even away from the village elders, away from the village and its strict confines of expected behavior it was hard for Obedience to break the rules she had grown up following. Hard, but not impossible. It was easier with a friend, a companion, a confidant. Before answering the pretty blonde woman who had only recently blossomed from her maidenhood, Obedience pushed back a few stray locks of black hair under her bonnet. They weren’t graying, not yet. She wasn’t an old woman by any means, but premature aging was a danger to a woman like her. “No sustenance today, my dear. Nothing to sup, that is. We’ll receive our sustenance another way.” She looked into the pot and carefully stirred it with a heavy iron ladle. “It’s almost ready,” she judged. “Time be garb ourselves skyclad.”

Tace looked blankly at Goody Barebone, and then looked at her in shock, when then older woman loosened the collar of her dress and abruptly pulled it over her body. In an instant she was naked under the weak spring sun. Almost naked, Tace realized. Obedience was still wearing her boots and warm woolen stockings that went up to her thighs, but these she pulled off leaving her only in her bonnet and nothing else. Skyclad. Obedience looked at Tace expectantly, waiting for her to strip off her dress as well.

The young, blond woman moved slower than Obedience. She had suspected that something like this would happen, but she wasn’t fully prepared for it. After loosening her stays and opening up her collar, she pulled down her dress to reveal her warm undergarments. These too she pulled off, along with her stockings and shoes, leaving her as naked as Obedience, also in her cap.

The air was cold which caused her nipples to pucker, giving her the appearance of arousal. Sensing the heat of the fire, Tace stepped forward and absorbed the meager heat which also brought her closer to Obedience. The two women were a study in contrasts. Miss Tace was very young, blonde, with small, high breasts and pink nipples, and taut skin over her lean body. Goody Barebone was older, with much larger breasts that hung lower on her torso with a curvy body that was still pleasing to her husband because it hadn’t gone over to fat just yet. The tangle of hair at the apex of her legs matched the dark luster of hair on her head. Obedience let her eyes rove over Tace’s body. “Oh to be youthful again,” she said to Tace’s discomfort.

The young blonde had to force herself not to hold her hands across her breasts and cover her quim. “What now?” she asked.

“You are bored with your life, yes? Following the orders of the elders is a burden. You want more power and control of your life?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The words came out automatically which made Obedience smile.

“We are all equals here. There is no need to call me ma’am.”

“Yes…Obedience,” Tace said with a bit of pride in her voice having overcome her years of indoctrination of behavior.

“Give me your hand,” Obedience requested as she knelt down next to the fire and picked up a small knife from the kit she had brought along with the iron pot. Tace held out her left hand to her new friend and felt the warmth of Goody Barebone’s fingers. “The left hand,” Obedience murmured. “Automatic or choice?”

“My parents used to beat me for using my wrong hand,” Tace said softly.

“There’s nothing wrong with the left hand here,” she replied. “A cut to the finger, nothing unexpected for a good housewife, yes?”

“I’m not a housewife just yet,” said Tace.

“Soon,” promised Obedience as she drew the knife across the pad of Tace’s ring finger. She hissed in pain. Obedience thrust her hand over the boiling pot and let several drops of blood fall into the roiling liquid. Tace wanted to draw away from the intense heat, but Obedience held it there forcing the blood out until she judged there was enough in the pot. “Did you bring his offering?”

Tace thought it was late to be asking, but she nodded and fell to her knees to scramble through her dress while she sucked on her wounded finger. The coppery taste of hot blood was strong on her tongue. With her awkward right hand she found her dress’s pocket and pulled the scrap of folded paper out. Inside was one long brown hair, carefully twisted into a loop. “Is this enough? I plucked it from the shoulder of his jacket as he passed by me in church last week.”

Obedience smiled. “As long as it is actually his, it is more than enough.” She snatched the hair away and dropped it in the pot as well, stirring everything up with the ladle.

“How long?” Tace asked.

“Just a few minutes now. The potion works best if you gave it to him, but with a bit of his essence, the purpose will be served.”

“How did you learn all this?” Tace asked nervously, and not just because what she was participating in was sacrilegious, and not just because she was naked in the woods with another woman.

“From mother to daughter, from aunt to niece, from friend to friend,” Obedience said. “We need to spread our influence. Will you spread it with me?”

Automatically Tace nodded. “Yes. Of course I will.”

Obedience ladled up a scoop of the thick broth and poured it into a pewter mug. “Let it cool a bit, not just because you’ll burn your tongue, but you’ll burn everything inside. You need to down it all in one go. Can you do that?” She passed the mug to Tace

“I’m a brewer’s daughter,” Tace said with false pride. “I can do it.” The heat of the broth came through the walls of the mug and Tace warmed her fingers on it.”

“What follows once you drink this potion is dangerous, but full of rewards, material and ephemeral both. You can’t turn from this path once you start. There is risk of death from our Christian enemies and risk of death from our dread lord as well. Now, do you wish to join with me or will you run back to the village like a coward?”

Tace gave her answer by lifting the mug to her lips and quickly swallowing the entire contents. It was hot but nothing she couldn’t handle. It warmed her insides. “I’m no coward,” she declared.

“Do you feel it?” Obedience asked after a moment.

With a shake of her head Tace said, “No. I feel nothing.” Only after she spoke the words did she feel another burning, this time much lower, not in her stomach but her quim. “Oh.” Her left hand went to her sex and she felt her wetness on her fingers and a desire deeper in her that she wanted to fulfill. Her eyes were shining with an enthusiasm that would have thrilled the reverend if she was in church, but she was in the woods with Goody Barebone and her eyes were shining with physical lust not love of God.

“You feel it now,” Obedience told her and Tace nodded in agreement. “Your soon-to-be-lover feels it as well. But you need to slake your desire now.”

“Uh-huh,” Tace moaned

“On the quilt,” Obedience said. “We can take care of you, but we need to hope your paramour cannot complete his needs now.”

Tace didn’t resist as Obedience brought her down to the quilt on the cold ground. She didn’t resist when Obedience gave her a kiss on the lips, then the neck, down to her breasts, down to her belly, and then she felt Obedience’s tongue separating her nether lips and plunging into her cunt.

“Oh!” she declared as the older woman buried her face between her legs. Tace knew what Obedience was doing, but she couldn’t believe what the dark-haired woman was doing. It felt good. Obedience must have done this with other women before. “Don’t stop,” Tace begged as she tried to wiggle away from Obedience’s strong tongue.

Goody Barebone lifted her head up. Her cheeks and chin were wet with Tace’s leavings. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” she said as she wrapped her arms around Tace’s thighs and held her in place. The feeling that Obedience summoned up in her was incredible, a longing and desire she couldn’t control. Before she knew it she was calling out with an ecstasy that would shame even the most fervent of saints.

She wasn’t sure of it, but Tace wouldn’t have been surprised if she had passed out under Obedience’s treatment. “You have a true passion that will please our true master,” Obedience declared when Tace returned to her senses.

“Thank you.” After the moment of elation had passed she felt a bit of embarrassment at what she had done, but the feelings hadn’t entirely faded.

“Would you like to meet whom you now worship?”

It was the question that Tace had been dreading and anticipating. This was the full moment of truth. She nodded knowing she didn’t have any real say in the matter. Her choice had been made days, weeks, months ago. “Yes. Please.”

“So polite,” Obedience murmured and pulled Tace up to her knees facing her. She exchanged another quick kiss with the blonde woman, their bodies tight together for warmth, and then she turned them both to face the small fire, both on their knees. From the kit next to the fire Obedience picked up a small handful of powder. “Don’t flinch,” she warned Tace and tossed the powder into the fire. It immediately flared up and Tace wanted to lean away, but Obedience grabbed her hand and held her fast. Tace expected the quick flare to immediately die away for she had seen similar reactions in the blacksmith’s forge, but it didn’t. The powder kept the fire blazing forth and it changed fire from yellow-orange to blue-green. It seemed so wrong.

“What is this?” Tace asked as she continued to shy away from the flames.

“It is how we speak to our master,” Obedience told her. “Back straight. You want to be presentable when he comes.”

Tace didn’t know exactly what to expect, maybe some formal words welcoming her new god, or even an incantation to summon him from his otherworldly realm. Tace didn’t know. When Obedience just started chanting “Welcome, lord, welcome,” over and over, she looked askance at her friend. This wasn’t what she was expecting at all. Obedience’s eyes were closed and she was swaying back and forth. Since Obedience didn’t tell her what to do Tace remained silent but she continued to hold her hand. What was to happen next, Tace didn’t know, nor did she know how long they would have to wait.

As it turned out, the wait was very short. As Tace watched, to her utter amazement, the fire parted and a figure stepped up and out from the small circle of stones that surrounded the fire under the pot. Space seemed to warp and part as her new god came up from below. She wondered if the stones served some other purpose beyond simple containment of cook fire.

“Stop it,” he said in a deep rumbling voice that seemed to shake Tace’s body. “I heard you the first time. Saying it over and over is annoying. Stop. Once is enough.”

Obedience dropped Tace’s hand and threw herself prostrate on the quilt in front of the god. “Apologies, Lord!”

“Stop the groveling. I get too much of that everywhere else. What do you want?”

“For you to meet your newest follower, Lord.” Obedience knelt up and gestured to Tace. For her part, Tace was trembling and not from the cold. Having sex on the quilt in front of the flaring fire had warmed her body, but the appearance of Obedience’s lord frightened her to where she had no control over her actions. She was literally shaking, and for good reason.

Obedience’s god, her god as well, was essentially a man, but different enough to scare Tace to her core. Nothing like this ever happened in church. The reverend and the particularly spiritual always claimed to have a direct connection to their god but Tace had never fully understood what they claimed they were feeling. All that changed now that she saw this new, dread god in front of her. The ecstasy that others had felt before she now felt, but not from the same source.

He was easily the tallest man she had ever laid eyes upon. His body was muscular but his skin tone was wrong; it was red-bronze, a color she only saw in the blacksmith’s forge when he was heating metal. It wasn’t even the natural color of the Indians who still lived at the fringes of English settlement. But that was a minor concern. Everything else about his appearance was frightening from the crown on his head that held a circle of small horns that pointed in every direction, to the sharp teeth that filled his mouth, down to his naked body. Tace couldn’t help but behold his manhood. His sex was easily the largest she had ever seen. She had only seen a few men in their natural state, but this dark lord put to shame even the horses and bulls in the farmers’ fields. Unconsciously Tace licked her lips in anticipation of what his member would feel like in her body.

His legs were normal, but his feet, they weren’t the cloven goat hooves that the reverend preached about on Sundays. He had clawed feet, much like a bird. Did this small incorrect detail mean everything the church preached was wrong, or was it just an oversight or minor translation error? Tace didn’t know. What scared her the most, strangely enough, was the tail that suddenly appeared from behind the god. It swept back and forth like a cat’s tail, but wasn’t covered in fur, it looked like smooth skin.

“She is pleasing to my eyes,” he said which caused Tace to lift her eyes up to his. They were yellow-green and glowed with a powerful light. She had to look away. “I will take her.”

“Now, Lord?”

“Of course now.”

“She is unmarried and a virgin.”

Obedience’s statement made the devil laugh. That’s what he was, Tace realized, a devil. Was he the devil she had been warned about all her life or just a minor demon, a minor of evil itself? She didn’t know. “She might be unmarried but she certainly isn’t a virgin,” he chuckled. He reached out and grasped Tace by the throat. His long, thick fingers went all the way around her neck and he ran his taloned thumb along her jawline. “Are you a virgin?” he asked Tace while peering into her eyes.

It was impossible for her to move her head but she managed to squeak out, “No, Lord.”

Obedience looked over at her companion in mild surprise. “I apologize, Lord. I expected her to be a virgin. I beg your forgiveness.”

“Virgins are a waste of time,” he proclaimed and leaned in close to Tace, inhaling her scent. His body was warm, not as hot as the fire, but warm enough to excite her body. His grip was strong; she sensed he would be able to break her neck with only the slightest of pressure and somehow that excited her as well. “She has been with a man before. Maybe more than one, am I right?” he asked Tace.

“Two, Lord,” Tace replied, mimicking Obedience’s speech pattern. “Two men.”

“And a woman as well,” he added after inhaling deeply once more. “You?” he asked Obedience.

“Yes, Lord.”

“Put her down,” he said as he let go of Tace’s neck. Immediately she missed his touch, she could feel a physical longing to have his hand on her throat again. Once he let go Obedience pushed Tace down to the quilt-covered ground on her hands and knees. The reverend had warned the congregation many times that it was wrong for them to express the physical act of love like mating animals. Then again, the reverend also said it was wrong for man to lay with man and woman to lay with woman and she had already committed that sin. It wouldn’t be any worse for her to be used by a devil like a bull used a cow. She prepared herself and was happy she had committed sin with the reverend’s son many times in the hayloft and committed those same sins with Farmer Eustace when his wife was pregnant.

“Do you want me to prepare you, Lord?” Obedience asked as watched the devil kneel behind Tace.

He snorted at her presumptiveness. “I can rise on my own, especially for such a young, sweet treat.” Tace looked over her shoulder and saw the disappointed look in Obedience’s eyes, but more importantly she saw that the devil’s sex was growing and hardening on its own. “I can easily stiffen on my own.”

It was large, Tace realized, but not obscenely large. It would fit; Tace was going to make sure it fit. She arched her back and invited him inside her. When he presented the purple head to her entrance, right away she felt his heat and felt herself get wetter. He didn’t try to shove the whole thing in all at once like the reverend’s son, but eased it in. It was easy at first but then when he was well inside and was able to keep going, it started to feel like he was stretching her to the bursting point.

It was painful, but not terribly so. Tace found she could endure the torture and even enjoy it.

“So deep,” Obedience sighed as she watched the two fornicate. When the devil thought he had gone deep enough he pulled back, grabbed Tace’s hips, and started plowing her like a fertile field. Obedience’s hand slipped between her thighs and she rubbed her quim while she watched her master mate with her apprentice.

The devil and the girl rutted like animals. Even the sounds that they made were obscene enough even to make a jaded prostitute turn away in disgust. Obedience didn’t look away, she watched in fascination while playing with herself. It was hard to tell if Tace was actually enjoying what the devil was doing to her, but Obedience didn’t interrupt. It wasn’t her place. She enjoyed the display and made herself climax several times while they rutted.

Tace took great pleasure in the way she was used by her lover. It hurt, but the pain was something that heightened how good it felt. As they fornicated she felt him press his thick thumb against her anus. That took her by surprise but the pleasurable feeling wasn’t something she would shy away from. And then she realized it wasn’t his thumb pressing into her. It was the bulbous end of his tail.

It was wrong. It was very wrong and Tace tried to scramble away from the devil, but he had his hands firmly on her hips and she couldn’t go anywhere. Still, Tace tried and for her efforts the devil dug his claws into her skin, piercing the tender flesh making ten small holes that slowly started to seep blood.

The violence emboldened them both and when the devil finished with a series of bull-like bellows, Tace came along with him, not despite of the but because of the pain he caused her. When he extracted his tail from her bottom she felt the same sense of loss as when he released her throat.

Tace looked exhausted but happy when she collapsed to the ground. Her loins were on fire, but a pleasant fire. The rest of her body was sore and the blood continued to weep from her wounds, but she was satisfied.

“Is she acceptable, Lord?” Obedience asked as he wiped his terrible red dart on Tace’s thigh.

“She is acceptable,” he rumbled as he rose to his feet. “I’ll take her kiss now.”

The words were beautiful to Tace. She sprang to her feet and embraced the monster who had taken her human innocence. Even he had not anticipated her rapid movement and was startled when she threw her arms around him, rose up on her toes, and pressed her lips to his mouth. He responded but not the way she had expected. His sharp teeth nipped at her lips drawing blood. She pulled away with her hand to her mouth.

“No, not that way,” chided Obedience. “You must give him the kiss due a devil.”

Tace looked at the other woman, confused. “What do you mean?”

 

Instead of explaining, Obedience merely gestured to the devil who now turned around and placed his clawed foot on the largest rock that surrounded the small fire. His long, sinuous tail grew out of the base of his spine, much like any animal’s tail would, and this he now swept up and out of the way, fully exposing his muscular buttocks as he leaned forward slightly and angled his hips.

“On your knees, girl,” Obedience told her when Tace didn’t immediately move the way she wanted. Almost without thinking—or perhaps because she was being forced—Tace found her knees suddenly hitting the dirt putting her eyes level with the devil’s hindquarters. The kiss she was expected to perform was obvious—now—and Tace realized she was being tested. It was too late, far too late, to change her mind and back out now.

She leaned forward and placed her hands on the devil’s hips. His body was warm, warmer than she remembered when he was using her, and since he didn’t object she proceeding to put her face into the cleft of his buttocks. At first she expected the smell to be terrible, it wasn’t, but neither was it pleasant. It was a strange combination of excrement, smoke, coal, and some heady odor that made her pleasantly dizzy. Her lips and tongue sought out the tightly pinched entrance. That’s what they wanted and that was what she was going to give them. Tace wasn’t shy or afraid. She would kiss the devil with her bloody lips and ask t