"You're the blacksmith's nephew, aren't you?" she asked, her gaze dropping from his eyes to his lips, then lower, to the open collar of his flannel shirt where his sweat-slicked collarbone was exposed.
She didn't wait for an answer. With a slow, deliberate movement, she pulled the fine leather glove off her right hand, revealing manicured fingers with rings.
"You've changed so much, from what I remembered about you..." She reached out and pressed her bare fingertips against the side of his neck.
Alex flinched, a jolt of electric panic shooting down his spine. Her hand was cool, a stark contrast to his feverish skin.
"And you're so... soft, my type…" she noted, her eyes darkening as she slid her fingers through the sheen of sweat on his throat.
She pulled her hand back and brought her glistening fingertips to her nose.
She inhaled deeply, her eyelids fluttering shut. "Heavens. You smell like pure, concentrated vitality. Like a Spirit Fruit waiting to be eaten."
"Hehehee, she wants to consume you…" Just then the Empress hissed in Alex's mind, her voice vibrating with excitement. "Look at her pupils. She's high on your scent."
"A cultivator like her... she instinctively knows that mating with you would boost her cultivation."
"Untill you learn how to control your body, you are a walking aphrodisiac."
"Please, Lady Clara," Alex stammered, not minding much to the Empress voice, he gripped the bellows so hard his hands turned white.
He felt dizzy. The heat, the smell, her proximity, it was too much. "My uncle... the sword..."
"Forget the sword," Clara snapped, her eyes snapping open.
She grabbed Alex's chin, forcing him to look up at her. Her grip was iron-strong.
"I need a personal attendant," she said, her voice thick with barely suppressed lust. "Someone to warm my bed... I mean, my bath. Someone with your... complexion."
CLANG.
Lady Clara reached into her robe immediately and pulled out a heavy velvet pouch.
She tossed it onto the iron anvil next to them.
The sound of heavy gold coins clinking together rang out through the silent shop.
"There are five hundred gold credits in there," Clara said, not looking away from Alex's trembling lips. "That's enough to buy this entire miserable shop three times over."
"Lady Clara?"
Some were around, Uncle John appeared and stood in the doorway connecting the shop to the house.
He was wiping his hands on a rag, his face a mask of confusion.
He looked from the bag of gold to the noblewoman holding his nephew's face.
"Is... is there a problem with the order?" John asked carefully.
Clara didn't let go of Alex. She turned her head slightly to address the blacksmith, a cold, arrogant smirk playing on her lips.
"No problem, blacksmith," she said, her thumb stroking Alex's lower lip, pulling it down to expose his teeth. "In fact, I've found something else I wish to purchase."
She gestured to Alex with her free hand, treating him like a piece of livestock on display.
"I am taking the boy," Clara stated, her tone leaving no room for argument. "Pack his things. He is coming to the Azure Estate with me. Immediately."
"She wants to buy me?" Alex felt his blood run cold, even in the heat of the forge.
"Go with her," the Empress whispered eagerly. "A wealthy female cultivator? She will have resources. Potions. And she is strong. Think of the energy we could drain from her..."
"No!" Alex shouted internally.
"I... I can't go," Alex managed to choke out, trying to pull his face from her grip.
"Hush," Clara scolded him, tightening her fingers on his jaw until it hurt. "I wasn't asking you, my little pet. I was telling your master."
She looked at Uncle John, her eyes narrowing. "Well? Take the gold. It's more than a cripple like him is worth in a lifetime. You should be thanking me for taking a mouth to feed off your hands."
"Nope, please leave the store!" Uncle John responded, grabbing a pair of heavy iron tongs. He stepped between Alex and the noblewoman, his broad back acting as a shield.
Lady Clara didn't even flinch. She just sighed, a look of bored disappointment crossing her beautiful features.
"You lowborn trash really don't know when to accept a gift," she muttered.
She flicked her wrist.
WHOOSH.
A blade of invisible wind slashed through the air. It struck the heavy tongs in John's hand, slicing the solid iron clean in half as if it were butter.
The force of the blow knocked John backward, slamming him hard against the tool rack.
"Uncle John!" Alex screamed, scrambling forward.
John groaned, clutching his chest. Blood trickled from his lip.
He tried to stand, but Clara raised her hand again, her palm glowing with a swirling, pale blue light.
The air pressure in the shop dropped, making it hard to breathe.
"Pathetic," Clara sneered, wind swirling around her hands, forming invisible blades.
She looked at John with cold indifference. "I suppose I'll have to kill the owner to take the pet. A shame. He was a decent smith."
She turned her hungry gaze back to Alex. "Now, Alex. Stop making this difficult. Come here, or your uncle dies."
Alex trembled. He looked at John, who was wheezing on the floor, then at Clara, who looked like a goddess of death.
He was weak. His strength was pathetic. He couldn't lift a hammer, let alone fight a C rank cultivator.
I can't stop her, Alex realized, terror gripping his heart. She's going to kill him.
"Help me," Alex whispered, his voice cracking. He wasn't talking to John.
"Oh?" The Empress's voice slithered into his mind, sounding amused. "Now you want my help? I thought you hated me. I thought you wanted to be a man."
"I don't care!" Alex screamed internally, tears stinging his eyes as Clara took a step closer, the wind whipping her hair around her face. "Save him! Please! I'll do anything!"
"Anything?" The voice purred, thick with anticipation. "Careful, little vessel. A promise to a demon is binding. But... I do hate it when others touch my property."
She laughed, a dark, resonant sound that vibrated in Alex's very bones.
"Open your eyes, Alex. Let them see what you really are."
Alex felt a burning sensation erupt behind his eyes, hotter than the forge fire.
His spine arched, and a hiss escaped his throat.. not a human sound, but the warning of a viper.
He snapped his head up.
Lady Clara, who had been reaching for his arm, suddenly froze.
Her arrogance vanished. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks.
In her vision, the small, sweaty blacksmith's shop dissolved into darkness. The boy standing in front of her wasn't a weak, pretty youth anymore.
Behind Alex, rising from the shadows like a titan, was a phantom.
A colossal, spectral snake with silver scales as thick as shields coiled around him.
Its head scraped the ceiling, and its eyes… two burning, vertical slits of molten gold, stared directly into her soul.
"KNEEL," a voice thundered.
It came from Alex's mouth, but it was layered with the Empress's terrifying, harmonious command.
Clara shrieked. It wasn't a scream of pain, but of primal, biological terror.
Her cultivation base crumbled instantly under the pressure of a High-Level Spirit Soul.
To her, a massive pair of jaws was opening wide, ready to swallow her whole. The predatory aura was so intense it triggered a physical reaction.
"Monster! A monster!" Clara screamed, her face twisting in horror.
She scrambled backward, tripping over her own expensive robes. She hit the floor hard, her legs kicking frantically as she crab-walked away from him.
A dark wet stain spread rapidly across the crotch of her silk trousers as she lost control of her bladder in pure fear.
She scrambled to her feet, slipping in her own mess, and bolted for the door, tearing it off its hinges in her desperation to escape.
"Monster!" Her screams faded as she ran down the street, leaving a trail of terrified wind behind her.
Silence returned to the shop.
The phantom snake vanished.
Alex stood there, panting heavily. His eyes dimmed from gold back to black, but the vertical pupils lingered for a few seconds.
His body felt incredibly hot, like he was boiling from the inside out.
He fell to his knees, clutching his chest.
"That was... delicious," the Empress whispered, sounding breathless and satisfied, as if she had just climaxed.