The Return - Smokeless Fire

Dark clouds glided between the jagged peaks as I gazed over their sharp points. Physically, I lay in my king-size bed, yet my mind looped through the same aching memory—her memory and everything I had left behind before returning to my appointed throne.

I was Jalmood the Great, the firstborn son of the ruler of lust, set to lead the war for the chosen ones—a feared entity created from scorching, smokeless fire. Once above the realms and the angels, now fallen from grace because of them—the humans.

I closed my eyes, a deep pleasure escaping my lips. But it wasn’t the lips of the Jariye serving me on all fours. It was the memory of her face, carved into every corner of my mind. No slaughter party of damned souls granted me enjoyment as they once had. No appointed task thrilled me enough to distract me from the haunting memory of our first kiss.

I grazed my bottom lip with my thumb, reminiscing about the touch.

A human had become my tormentor in my own kingdom.

The fucking irony.

My skin tingled with the memory of her shivering body pinned beneath me on the wet rock. A second moan slipped from my lips as the Jariye tightened her slow suction, her rhythm syncing with the image in my head. The moans of pleasure and pain blended into a hazy hum around me.

I opened my eyes, scanning the room. Shadows stretched and twisted as bodies writhed in a sensual feast of indulgence. My guests and servants lost themselves to pleasure, but my mind found no refuge in it.

I slumped back, placing the edge of the dried-out snake tail between my lips, its warm texture offering a fleeting solace before my mind dragged me back to her—her naked body now exposed, taunting me to touch.

I thrust my hips at the memory, my grip tightening around the Jariye’s head. She slammed her hands against the bed as the tip of my length hit the moist wall of her throat. My glare bore into her watery eyes, but pleasure quickly overtook her pain. My expression remained blank as she arched her back, eyes ghostly white, a loud wail of euphoria escaping her.

The sky outside was still the same—dark clouds gliding undisturbed over the jagged peaks.

Movement beside me. A second Jariye slithered against my chest, her pointy fingers tracing slow patterns over my skin.

“Let me serve you, my lord,” she whispered, her yellow eyes smoldering with lust. Her body pressed against mine, dangerously close to my lips.

I halted her with a single hand, dragging it up the curve of her sweat-slicked skin. Soft, breathy hisses of desire escaped her parted lips. As my fingertips reached her silky silver hair, I clenched my hand into a fist, yanking her head backward. Her warm breath hit my face, thick with longing. My anger bristled, but I forced myself to exhale through my nose.

I growled.

Then I dragged her down, forcing her mouth where it belonged—on my cock.

Without a second thought, I kicked the other Jariye off me, her body hitting the floor with a muffled gasp. She didn’t dare protest.

The second one swallowed me whole, my eyes shutting on impact. My hips moved in slow, controlled thrusts as she sucked me vigorously.

Icy shivers rippled through me as the image of her appeared again—her naked body trembling in my arms, her gaze dark with hunger as she looked up at me. A ghost I couldn’t banish.

The memory vanished as the Jariye moaned against me.

“Quiet,” I snapped.

I clenched my jaw, desperate to drown in the intoxicating mania of that night. The way my fingertips had traced her soft human skin for the first time. The way her pleading cries had echoed in my ears. The way her doe eyes—a conflicted blend of fear and pleasure—had locked onto mine, unblinking.

I had her. I had her in my sealed embrace, a silent promise to never let go.

Yet I did.

I left her with no farewell, no explanation.

My thrust hardened, while a silent war raged inside me.

“Keep going,” I ordered the Jariye, fisting her hair as I fucked her mouth harder.

As soon as my eyes closed, I chased her ghost in a mental maze, my head tilting back as the memory overtook me—me, on my knees, nuzzling between her legs. Torturing her with slow nibbles and teasing licks.

“Don’t stop. I am almost there,” I urged through clenched teeth.

“Do you want me to ride you, my lord?” the Jariye gasped between breaths, amusement curling beneath the strain in her voice as drool spilled from her lips.

A piercing scream ripped through the air as my hand struck her cheek with brutal force. The memories vanished, replaced by a room full of faces and eyes following the Jariye’s naked body skidding across the marble floor.

Some guests laughed at the display. Others remained too lost in their own pleasure to notice.

The Jariye stroked her cheek, her irises narrowing as she crawled into a defensive position, glaring at me.

Then his voice slurred through the room like rotting wine.

“Shhh… Come here, you pretty little prey,” Igneous purred, his cup dangling loosely from his fingers. “Ahhh, you’re new, aren’t you? I like new. Fresh. Soft. Unbroken.”

His grin stretched as he yanked the Jariye onto his lap.

“Mmm, I would never get tired of this,” he muttered, his tongue clicking against his teeth.

He positioned her against him, his hands guiding her hips.

With each thrust, she whined uncontrollably.

“Feed from me, my lord,” she moaned, pleading.

“Ohh, that’s not how this works, sweetheart,” Igneous groaned, voice thick with mockery. “Beg for it—pathetically. Show me how low you’ll crawl just to please me. Make it desperate. I want to hear you break.”

His laughter was wet, a deep, sloshing sound that made my muscles tense. It dragged me back to the self I once was—unbothered, in control.

I slumped back onto the bed, the Jariye’s scream of pleasure clawing at my ears.

“Jalmood, it’s been far too long since you entertained me,” Ivy’s breathy voice dripped with amusement—too much amusement. Forced.

“Give me a fucking break,” I muttered with a low sigh.

My body turned swiftly, hands pinning her down on the bed.

My grip tightened around her throat—tight enough to warn, not yet enough to break—before I would let her touch me.

She gasped, her skin fading to a faint blue as our eyes locked—sparking with contempt.

Yet even as my fingers dug in, something else flickered behind her stare—

a hunger she tried to bury beneath mockery.

“I am not in the mood, cousin.” I clenched harder. “Besides, desperation isn’t your best color. Green is.”

I released her, slumping back with a slow exhale.

She coughed, then chuckled through ragged breaths, massaging her throat.

“They’re right about you, Jal. You haven’t been the same since you came back.”

Her voice dripped slow and syrupy now, wrapping around me like a warning in silk.

“And that makes me wonder. And you know what happens when I wonder, Jaaal.”

Her grin wasn’t what unsettled me—it was the intent behind her words. I knew she just turned this into her personal game.

“I’m adjusting,” I answered simply, forcing every emotion in me to stay buried. Her eyes glinted.

“Aaah, ah!” Her piercing scream shattered what little composure I had left, her eyes flashing blood-red with excitement. Ruthless—just as she’d been since the day she was forged from the same smokeless fire that birthed us both.

I tightened my grip around her throat, forcing her to shift—into the nightmare she became in the human world.

She threw her head back with savage force—

but I had always been faster.

Before she could strike, I backhanded her across the face with my claw, now fully shifted and gleaming.

Gasps filled the room.

For a moment—silence.

Then, Ivy laughed. A low, breathy sound just short of shaking.

The amusement reached her eyes.

“Challenge accepted, cousin.”

Then her face twisted in anger as she cursed in our ancient tongue, her words swallowed by the murmurs of the crowd. I stood up, ignoring their stares. Ivy’s words echoed—Challenge accepted, cousin.

Was she sincere? Or just saving face?

Either way, I couldn’t risk it.

I knew—deep down—that was just an inadequate excuse to go back.

I had tried. I really had.

I had tried to bury the thought of her…

But with each passing day, the yearning for her buried me instead.

If Ivy’s threat was what I needed to justify my return—then so be it.

I’d take it.

Another pathetic excuse to chase her.

As if I hadn’t already sunk low enough.

I moved toward the balcony, the void in my chest dragging me just enough for my toes to skim the cold marble floor. I reached the railing, leaning against the shimmering black pillar, and gazed down at the kingdom below—a concealed playground in purgatory for wicked souls.

I scoffed, watching their hollow amusement. They had no idea what awaited them—completely blind to the real torment still to come.

Judgment would fall when the Divine decreed it. No one knew the hour but Him—He who had no beginning, no middle, no end. Only He knows Al-Ghayb.

The unseen. The unknown.

Yet Father still clings to His greater plan—rallying the chosen ones, the first creation, to wage war before that final day comes.

I don’t even know if I still believe in whatever fate was meant for my kind.

Bound here in purgatory, forced to play our part.

Right now, the only thing pulling at me… was her.

I just wanted her in my arms again.

I looked down at my father’s perfected illusion. A playground of decadence, stitched together with false pleasures, threaded with unseen rot. Pathetic.

Let them think they were free—to indulge, to drown in their darkest desires, to revel in excess without consequence. Let them believe this kingdom was theirs to devour.

They didn’t see it. Not yet.

The gates of our kingdom stood tall—luring, captivating, even to the citizens of this realm.

The moment they stepped through, they became part of the carnival.

They danced. They drank. They fucked. They indulged in the very horrors that brought them here in the first place—while the walls shifted and pulsed around them.

What felt like a never-ending celebration was already feeding on them, turning indulgence into poison, pleasure into torment.

And when the illusion finally cracked—when they saw what had always been waiting underneath—it was already too late.

Their sins became the noose. The nightmare they could never wake from.

This kingdom was not a gift.

It was a sentence.

Once, it had granted me solace. A playground of endless cruelty.

But it wasn’t the same anymore.

I tilted my head slightly, feeling the wind lick at my skin.

“All I want is you,” I whispered into the wind.

A fool’s prayer. Yet here, no prayers were heard.

The thought of bringing her into danger made my wings stretch wide, their shadow casting a dark veil over the kingdom below. I glanced back—for a split second, Ivy’s blood-red eyes met mine. I smirked to the best of my ability.

But she was smarter than that.

The crowd roared in admiration, their voices rising—vibrating through the air, worshipping, marvelling. It snapped me back.

Pathetic.

I spat at the creatures below—once human, once of Earth. Now nothing but indulgent, mindless souls.

Then, with a deafening force, I shot into the sky, my body dissolving into the murky clouds.