Page 16 of A Soul to Steal

Gideon looked down to see his torso had turned transparent, and Aleron held a floating white flame within him. No, it wasn’t a flame, but a human – that looked strangely like him – covered in fire.

Then, the weirdest fucking sensation abraded him.

From his groin, over his navel, and all the way up his chest, hefelta large and imposing thumb rub over him. It was warm, calloused, and left his entire body tingling. Shit, even his cockjerked,excited by the most intimate touch he’d ever received.

Leaping back in surprise, Gideon self-consciously covered his groin in reaction.

That did not just happen.There was a stiffness within his pants, an unwelcome one. He was semi-hard because of what this Duskwalker had just done to him, or his soul, rather.

Well... that answered his earlier musings on whether or not he could feel pleasure, and if his dick was active in the afterlife! Not how he would have liked to discover that.

Even now, the stroke of Aleron’s thumb against his entire body still tingled.

“Are you okay?”Aleron asked, lowering his head and shoulders as he reached out to Gideon’s face. He brushed the backs of his curled claws over one of his cheeks.“Your face has turned all red.”

He darted away from his tender caress and awkwardly covered his mouth and nose. He wasnotblushing because of this monster. He wasn’t – he refused to believe it.

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it,” he choked out, his words muffled behind his hand. He wished his face would stop feeling hot, or that his ears didn’t burn, and he muttered to himself quietly, “Bloody hell. How much am I going to learn in just one day?”

Aleron’s bat skull tilted sharply.“It has not been one day, little human. It has been many.”

Gideon froze, and the embarrassed and aroused flush swiftly fled from him. “What do you mean, it’s been many?” He turned his gaze to the false sky as he lowered his hand. “But the sun hasn’t gone down.”

“It never does. It is always day here.”

“But... how am I not tired? I haven’t slept or anything.” He wasn’t even hungry!

Aleron’s head tilted the other way, like he didn’t understand why he was so shocked about this.“I am tired, though. Although we are both Ghosts, this is a second life for Mavka. We are a part of life and death, and so we exist in both worlds – just separately.”Then he reared back to sit on his hind legs, his tail splaying behind him against the ground.“Unlike you, what you see before you is my entire essence. I do not have an inner soul. I am truly physical here, and I must rest. The only difference is I no longer hunger, and that I can truly be harmed.”

His eyes grew wide with alarm. “Harmed? So you can’t heal like me?”

“Yes, this. I have a mortal form here, despite living forever in this world.”He touched a foreclaw to his chest.“If I am hurt, it will heal slowly, painfully, and will scar.”

“Doesn’t that... worry you?” Gideon asked, unsure of how he would have felt if their positions were reversed.

Was Aleron afraid? Why did that make his chest pang? At least Gideon no longer had a need for fear.

“No,”he answered.“Nothing here wishes to harm me besides the environment, and it takes much to do so. I only know this because I hurt myself and Weldir needed to heal me.”

Poor guy.He couldn’t imagine dying, only to find out the afterlife could be lastingly painful.

He reached out and patted the Duskwalkers big, rounded shoulder. “Guess we better look out for you, then.”

Gideon’s brows twitched as he frowned when Aleron’s feathers puffed and his orbs turned a bright yellow. He found he liked their colourful glow; it made it easy to read that Aleron had gone through an emotional change. Figuring out what they meant had quickly become a secret game and a main point of interest for him.

“You wish to... protect me?”He said it as though he was truly perplexed.

“Well, yeah,” Gideon grumbled, slipping his hand over his mouth as he averted his gaze. He didn’t like the relieved undertone in Aleron’s response, and how it made pity swell. He doubted any humans had been kind to this Duskwalker. “I take care of my friends.”

“I am surprised you do not wish to harm me, but this makes me happy.”

A coldness ran through his body and created a steel knot in his gut. He imagined many humans had attacked Aleron to make him feel that way, and after speaking with him... he wondered ifit had even been deserved.I know Demonslayers will attack a Demon even if it’s not one they’re hunting.

They likely would unfairly attack a Duskwalker who was just moseying through the forest.

If all Duskwalkers could be this... kind, and perhaps not always bloodthirsty monsters, would the relationship between their species be more friendly? It would have been nice if they could have worked together. Gideon winced, knowing humans were violent towards anything that frightened or confused them.

“I would never do that,” Gideon said, unsure if that was a lie or not. Had he been alive, he may have reacted differently to all this. He gave Aleron’s shoulder a harder pat before walking forward to restart their journey. “So, how did you hurt yourself? Just so I can keep it in mind.”

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