"What happens if I can't?" I asked, my voice quieter than I intended.
The daemon cousin leaned against the jagged stone wall, arms crossed, sharp teeth bared in something that wasn't quite a smile. "Then it's not worth freeing you."
"What!?"
Princess slowly walked over to me and placed her hands on my face. I could feel her touch, although it wasn't quite like a normal touch. It felt more like dense vibrations, dense enough to be solid, but still moving somehow. The unease I'd seen in her earlier was gone, replaced by a calm certainty that made the sulfurous air feel a little less heavy.
"He is simply worried," she said softly, stepping back. With deliberate grace, she slid the straps of her dress from her shoulders. The fabric whispered down her torso, baring her completely from the waist up. Her skin was moonlit porcelain, flawless and faintly luminous. Full, high breasts rose and fell with her slow, sultry breaths. Her wings unfurled wide—each easily the length of a grown person—casting faint shadows across the dusty floor.
I glanced past her at the cousin, who hadn't moved, his scarred wings folded tight.
"Are we really doing this in front of him?"
"It is the only way to know for sure," he said, face unreadable.
"But what does it prove?"
I couldn't help the question. I desperately didn't want to complain, but the daemon cousin's request struck me as coming out of nowhere.
"The last person whose Mana was so dense that I could interact with them directly while bound to the Hotel..." Princess said, voice low, "was the Sugar Patriarch himself."
"And only the Sugar Patriarch," her cousin added, "can unbind our oaths."
Princess's eyes never left mine. There was hope in them.
I stepped closer. The air between us crackled with static.
"Princess?"
"Yes, Teddy?"
"Do you want to be the Hotel's daemon?"
"No," she admitted. "I don't want to be the Hotel's daemon, Teddy. I want to see new places. Taste real air. Walk under skies that aren't rented by the hour." A faint, sad smile. "But our bonds are eternal. Mine was made to the Sugar Patriarch." She said his name fondly.
"I have a lot of reasons for wanting that title," I told her. It wasn't exactly true. I had a vague desire for power and safety, and for the enormous amounts of pussy it was bound to attract, but nothing substantial. I needed to know more about what it meant first, but I did know something. "I promise you this will be one of them. I'll be thinking of you.
"Thank you, Teddy."
"You don't believe me," I said.
"I believe you," she said quietly. "I'm just not sure I believe the Teddy who finally becomes the Sugar Patriarch."
She smiled with what looked like sympathy.
"But we don't have to worry about that today," she said.
She let the rest of the dress slide down her hips with deliberate slowness, the fabric pooling at her feet like spilled cream. What remained was only a whisper of her white lingerie clinging to the sharp curve of her hips and the soft, inviting mound between her thighs. The fabric was already darkened at the center, a telling shadow of her arousal. Her tail, long and sinuous with a spade-shaped tip, flicked once, then curled lazily in the air as if tasting the sexual Mana in the air.
I closed the distance.
My hands found her waist. Her skin felt impossibly smooth, like silk over steel—cool daemon flesh heating beneath human palms. It was cool at first, then warmed fast under my touch. She inhaled sharply when my thumbs brushed the undersides of her breasts up to her nipples. When I tugged gently, she let out a soft, throaty sound that went straight to my cock. I leaned in, lips grazing the pointed curve of her ear.
"I guess I can touch you," I whispered.
"I guess you can," she breathed.
She kissed me.
It wasn't gentle. My mouth opened under hers instantly, tongue meeting hers with what felt like centuries of pent-up hunger. She tasted like electrically charged cinnamon and honey. A low moan vibrated in her throat as her wings flared, tail curling possessively around my thigh.
I cupped one breast, rolling the nipple gently between finger and thumb. She arched into me, pressing closer. My other hand slid lower, tracing the line of her hip before slipping beneath the damp fabric. She was drenched.
Two fingers slid inside her easily. She was impossibly tight with velvet heat. Her walls clenched, hot and slick and pulsing. She broke the kiss to gasp against my neck, wings beating hard enough to send a gust of hot ash through the room.
I worked her slowly at first, curling my fingers, thumb circling her clit in steady strokes. Her hips rolled against my hand, tail tightening around my thigh in steady pulses.
Princess's breathing fractured. Her thighs trembled. I felt her climbing fast toward the point of release.
I dropped to my knees, and she didn't protest when I peeled the lingerie down her legs to reveal the deeper blue flush of her folds. I spread her gently, pressed my mouth to her, and sucked her clit.
She cried out, fingers tangling in my hair.
I took her apart with my tongue, thrusting deep, then flicking over her clit, then sucking until her legs shook. When I added my fingers again, curling, she came.
Hips bucking against my face, wings stirring up a sandstorm in the little hotel room, she came.
A wave of Mana surged out of her, slamming into me like warm, liquid sugar. It sank into my skin and lit up every nerve.
When the shudders finally eased, she sagged forward. I caught her, lowering us both to the dusty floor. She straddled my lap, forehead pressed to mine, breathing hard. Her wings draped around us like a private cocoon, the thin membranes brushing my shoulders with every tremor of aftershock, until the shaking ended.
Her cousin cleared his threat, voice rough. "Well. I'll be damned."
Princess lifted her head. Her eyes glowed brighter than before.
"You lost the bet, cousin. I guess you're going to have to keep hope alive for a little while longer."
He grunted, but a reluctant grin tugged at his mouth.
"Fine. A deal's a deal."
He stepped forward and scooped me up effortlessly with one arm under my knees and the other behind my back. I felt like an infant. It was like I weighed nothing. Princess settled in my lap, arms looped loosely around my neck, wings folding close. Luckily for the both of us, she pretty much did weigh nothing.
As we descended, fighting against the rising burning air, she leaned in, lips brushing my ear.
"You're becoming dangerous, Teddy," she murmured. "Keep touching me like that, and I might not let Elaine keep you when this is over."