How I became the Empress of Hell

“My lady, I was hoping to speak with you… If you have a spare moment.”

I gave Gehenna a non-verbal signal with the motion of my head and a tight squeeze of the hand that was clutching my own. She leaned in for a kiss, which I happily obliged, before promptly departing. I turned towards the person leaning against the wall and glanced up at her. I had to really crane my neck upwards to look her in the eyes, and I again marveled at her sculpted beauty.

Tesrif's features were often obscured by the heavy set of armor she always seemed to be wearing, so it was easy to forget just how attractive she was beneath those layers of metal. Her creamy white skin tinged with a healthy dose of red gave her a slight ‘otherworldly’ appearance that only served to enhance her beauty. She had large, expressive red eyes, and as I studied them closer, I saw that the crimson irises had small flecks of orange that glowed slightly like tiny embers. Her facial features were sharp, with high, shallow cheeks and a pointed chin. Like the rest of her body, her neck was corded with the same well defined muscles. Make no mistake, while Tesrif had extremely broad shoulders and muscles that could put most bodybuilders to shame, she still maintained distinctly feminine curves. She was the epitome of a ‘hot muscle mommy,’ and looking at her so closely most definitely made my heart rate increase exponentially.

“What can I do for you, Tesrif?”

“It’s… ummm… well. It's a rather… uh… peculiar issue.”

I banished away the smile that was threatening to break my otherwise serious demeanor and cocked an eyebrow curiously. She took this as a sign to continue and opened her mouth to speak, before closing it just as quickly and pursing her lips. After considering her words carefully for half a moment, she spoke in a soft tone, just above a whisper.

“We have a security issue.”

My eyes opened wide in mild surprise, as this was not what I had been anticipating. I was so caught off guard I found myself at a complete loss for words.

“Oh?”

She hesitated for a moment, glancing down the hall and then back at me, before continuing. 

“As I was doing one of my routine sweeps of the castle, I realized someone was… following me.”

“Following you? Who? What did they look like?”

“That's the thing, m'lady… I never saw them. Not once. Nor did I hear them. I would not have even known they were there, had they not slipped something into my belt pouch. Multiple times.”

I gave her a concerned look and narrowed my eyes. I was seconds away from calling for Hana when Tesrif reached into the aforementioned pouch and pulled out a small collection of folded pieces of paper. A blush crept up her face and she quickly averted her gaze.

“They are um… well… I… they are letters. Addressed to me. Well… I assume to me. They uh… don't actually address me by name. Not precisely.”

An enormous grin was again doing its best to push through my concerned facade, and it was taking every ounce of self-control to maintain my serious demeanor.

“O-oh?”

I was fortunate that the slight tremble in my voice had made me sound confused, instead of making it obvious I was seconds away from bursting into laughter. Tesrif glanced down at the letters in her hand, her blush deepening even further. She made a move to hand them to me before quickly pulling her away. 

“They are um… of a uh… personal nature.”

I was so close to completely losing all semblance of seriousness I found myself only able to repeat the same one word question. 

“Oh?” 

Tesrif inhaled deeply, and let it out in a long slow exhale. Her eyes remained downcast towards the floor as she lifted her arm to hand me the small stack of letters. I was grateful for the opportunity to focus my attention elsewhere, and I quickly unfolded the first one and began to read. All of the letters started with the same ‘To my blue-haired goddess’ and quickly devolved into lines of some of the most ridiculous phrases that would normally be found in the trashiest of romance novels. After reading through the last one I looked up at Tesrif with an amused smirk.

“These are cheesy as hell! ‘You are my warrior vixen clad in black as deep as the night.’ These are so bad! They're–”

“Wonderful.”

My breath caught in my throat as Tesrif uttered that single word. Out of all the ways this conversation could have gone, the absolute last thing I expected was seeing the look of titillation written all over my demon general's face.

“I'm sorry, what now?” 

“They're… wonderful! No one has ever said things like that to me. No one has ever… looked at me like that. Seen me in ways that make me seem… beautiful. I know you and your betrothed have told me things of that nature, but… those letters… they capture a side of me that I didn't even know existed. Which is what makes the entire thing that much more distressing.”

“I… I don't understand.”

“No matter how wonderful they are, the fact remains I have absolutely no idea how they were able to sneak past not only my enhanced senses, but also Lady Hana's. I was under the impression that she was able to sense all beings present within the castle. She told me she wasn't able to detect anyone, so since even she was unable to locate a hidden presence, that means we are dealing with someone who is adept at surpassing all forms of detection we have. This large gap in our defenses poses a tremendous security issue that we need to address.”

I thought… for several long moments… about the best way to address this situation. A single question burned in my mind as I looked up at Tesrif.

“When you spoke with Hana, what exactly did she say?”

Tesrif's expression became thoughtful as she considered my question.

“She said that at that exact moment she was only sensing other clan members within the entirety of the castle and the surrounding area.”

I nodded slowly, looking deeply into the warrior woman's eyes.

“So… going by that, we can come to two possible conclusions. Either there is a hidden enemy who can move unseen past all forms of detection and slip love notes into your pocket. Orrrrr…”

I gave Tesrif an expectant look and let the word hang in the air. After a moment her eyes widened and her face turned a deep shade of crimson. 

“It's… It's s-someone in the clan.”

==

After spending the rest of the day helping with various tasks the others wanted my assistance with, I finished the eventful day by making love to Nialla in our shared room. We were resting in bed on our sides with her shapely body pressed back against me. My fingertips traced small circles on her skin as we basked in the afterglow of our love making. 

We talked idly about various topics when all of a sudden she sighed heavily and shifted on the bed so that she was now facing me. The smile on my face drained away as I saw her serious expression. I was eager to know what was on my beautiful lover's mind, but I knew that whatever it was, she needed to work through it at her own pace. After sighing loudly again through her nose and biting her lip nervously, she locked eyes with me.

“I told my parents I want to move to Colorado.”

I nodded calmly, attempting to gauge her reaction to her news. Her cat's eyes remained fixed on mine, and her body gave me absolutely no hint as to the outcome of her conversation with her parents. I took one of her hands in mine and gave her a warm smile.

“And… how did they take it?”

“Well… at first they were completely against it. Especially when I told them part of the reason I wanted to move was to be closer to my two girlfriends.”

I grimaced at her words and nodded my head in understanding.

“Yeah, I can see why they wouldn't be onboard with that. If you were my daughter, moving halfway across the country for two girls you hardly know and you've never technically met in person would raise a lot of red flags in my mind. So… what did you tell them after they said no?”

“Well, they didn't outright say no. They said that moving without considering all the possibilities and ramifications of the decision would be unwise and childish.”

I cocked an eyebrow at that and couldn't stop a smirk from forming on my face.

“By chance, is one of your parents a therapist of some kind?”

“Yeah, actually. Both my dad and my step-mom are therapists. That's actually how they met; they were coworkers before they got together. How did you know that?”

“My mom was a therapist who had her own practice, and that sounded exactly like something she would have said to me.”

“So you know as well as I do that that's as close to a ‘no’ as they can get.”

I nodded in agreement before she continued.

“So, I told them about everyone in our clan and how you all are like my second family, I told them… a lot about you and Emily. Like… everything. They were… a little concerned when I told them you were ten years older than me, but I reassured them that you are a sexy cougar and you're gonna be my sugar momma.”

My mouth dropped in shock, my stomach sank, and it felt like someone poured ice water in my veins. I started spluttering out a response when I saw the playful grin on Nialla's face. My eyes instantly narrowed and I pursed my lips.

“You brat! You said that so seriously I thought for sure you had actually said that and that I was going to have to explain myself to your parents before they got the wrong idea about me. Oh… fuck me sideways. Ha! Whew. Yeah… you got me good. But, what did you actually tell them?”

“I told them how you and Emily make me feel, but more importantly I told them about how you encouraged me to find something I'm good at and pursue it. They liked your suggestion that I look into becoming a tattoo artist. I even showed them some of the stuff I found about several studios that take aspiring artists and teach them the ins and outs of all of it. You definitely scored some points with them by helping me figure out what I want to do with my life.”

I nodded at her and kissed her on the nose before gazing deeply into her eyes.

“I only ever want you to be happy and do something that makes you feel fulfilled with your life. Part of the reason I am so in love with Emily is because of how dedicated she is towards her future career. I want her to be successful, and I will do whatever I can to help to ensure that happens. It will be the same for you, Noelle. If you are truly passionate about becoming a tattoo artist, I will do my best to push you to reach that goal.”

“That's basically what I told my parents you'd say. And that was what seemed to make them reconsider. We discussed what it would look like and all the possible outcomes we could think of. One of the things they made me consider was what I would do if we broke up.”

She paused for a moment and took a deep breath. She gave me a warm smile and shook her head softly.

“Don't worry, I'm not even remotely considering it. I know it's impossible to predict the future, but I just get this distinct feeling from some powerful force that you, Em, and I will never break up.”

I grinned widely at the not-so-subtle influence of my author and her control over everything that happens in our lives. I knew she always did her best to keep everything true to us and how we would do things, but it was obvious that Noelle's assuredness was definitely her doing. A small part of me questioned the realism behind the decision, but mostly I was thrilled that my relationship with Noelle was a sure thing.

“Knowing that, they seemed to really come around to the idea. I think when I'm fully ready to move out to Colorado I will have their complete support.”

“When were you thinking of moving out here? You seemed completely ready to jump on the next plane when we talked about it last.”

“I wanna give my relationship with you and with Emily more time to grow. I know you mentioned something about getting a house and you and Em getting married, so definitely after that. Once you're settled and the three of us have grown much closer, I'll move out there to be with you both.”

I beamed at the beautiful woman in my arms and kissed her several times in quick succession.

“I'm so proud of you for being so mature about this. I love you so, so much, Noelle.”

The passionate kiss that followed rekindled our desire and we made love until Emily joined in. We fucked each other's brains out until all three of our systems were flashing warning indicators at us to take a break. Emily and I reluctantly bid Noelle good night, and we all logged out.