CHAPTER 19

So, a forbidden romance, then? Maybe he was forced to marry for land or wealth, and the woman was a childhood love of his. Perhaps they had been in love this entire time, their entire relationship forced into seclusion. That would make this tryst even more precious, more passionate.

Abella gasped at the sudden sensation in her pelvis. Her hand had moved on its own down to her groin, and she stroked her stiff labia with the knuckles of her fingers.

The woman dismounted, then moved so that she was bent over the bench. The man moved to penetrate her from behind, and as he pressed forward they both let out cries that sounded like startled birds.

Groaning, Abella bit down onto the wall to keep from making any noise. Her teeth ground against the fine stone, and she let out a grunt as she worked one of her fingers into her triangular vagina. Designed for laying eggs, it was easily stretched, which meant a single finger wouldn't do.

She was up to four fingers when the man pulled himself out of the woman. His cock was hard to see in the darkness, but she could make out glistening fluid on the head of it that reflected the distant lights. The lovers shifted about so that the woman could take his cock down her throat, and Abella could hear her groan and swallow as the man came.

Abella was close to an orgasm of her own, and was strongly contemplating using the thick tip of her tail as a cock substitute when she heard the ominous creak of stone wings up above her. She groaned in disgust as another creature landed on the building behind her, then licked her fingers off before turning around.

"Peeping on the humans again, I see." Her brother Pierre smirked at her. "Aren't you supposed to be scouting right now, runt?"

She snorted at him. "You know I would have finished my task before indulging my fancies."

Pierre shrugged, a movement that sent a ripple through the massive muscles of his chest. Out of all of her siblings, he was by far the largest. Only a couple of men in the clan were larger than him: their leader Torsten and Seneca, their shaman.

"I would expect no less of you," he said with a grin that showed all his fangs. The large horns on his head curled downward like a ram, and he moved to join her on the edge of the building. "Don't these fleshlings know that there's a plague?"

"It's about passion, Pierre. They're in love." She spoke to her brother in whispers that couldn't be heard by humans from ten feet away, much less the top of a building. "Look at how he pines for her."

Pierre grunted. "If he pines for her, then why does he leave her before she finishes adjusting her dress?"

Abella watched in dismay as the nobleman threw some coin down for the woman and wandered off into the night. The woman tucked the money in the folds of her skirt and spent a couple of minutes rearranging her clothes before she left the garden. Gone was the illusion of love and passion, and the whole interaction now felt tainted.

"Hmmf." Pierre snorted in disgust. "They can't even breed properly. He has given her money for what? Access to her loins? Disgusting."

"They breed for fun," she explained, then stood to her full height. She was a full head shorter than him. "And it is the oldest profession in the world for a reason. Do you think she deserves shame if she earned some coin to feed her family?"

"Breeding creates more of them," he grunted. "She may have earned some coin, but what now? Will that coin feed the child that is born next summer? The humans are foolish, and I wish your fascination with them would wither like a flower in the fall."

Abella said nothing. Any argument she had with him here would only continue once they were back, and some of her other siblings would likely join in.

"That's what I thought," he muttered. "Come home, Abella." He opened his wings and leapt into the sky. She watched him ascend and then looked back down at the gardens below.

"Fuck," she muttered, then opened her wings to follow. Pierre was dozens of feet above her as she flapped her wings, and she was almost fifty feet above the garden when she heard the clattering of metal followed by a scream that was cut off.

Curious, she widened her ascent and looked down onto the cobblestone road below. Near the edge of the alleyway, she could hear the ringing of metal as a solitary coin rolled across the street and struck a stone before coming to a halt.

Instead of ascending, she hovered up above, moving her head back and forth in the hopes of catching another sound. The streets below were silent.

As she turned her head to look away, she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye along one of the nearby rooftops. The dark figure scurried across the roof with the woman slung over its shoulder, then leapt a thirty-foot gap onto another roof.

"Pierre?" She looked up at her brother, who was watching her. He had a look of confusion on his face.

She followed the mysterious creature. It rustled when it moved, and there wasn't enough light to see what it was. Perhaps a vampire? It had been a while since Abella had even heard of one actively hunting. There had been a clan in Eastern Europe that had gone head-to-head with one and only a couple of them lived to tell the tale. Usually if a creature like that was discovered, the clan would initiate contact to avoid a potential misunderstanding. There was plenty of room for everyone as long as the humans didn't cause trouble.