Illusions of Grandeur - Chapter 4

Story by mizor4 on SoFurry

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#4 of Illusions of Grandeur


Lace woke with the first hint of dawn, a soft golden glow infusing the curtains drawn across the window. Verdance curled tightly around her in his sleep, the pale green scales covering his head tucked comfortably beneath her chin. His slow breathing caused his entire body to undulate around her, holding her in a protective nest of scales and vines and fangs. He didn't stir, and she felt too comfortable to want to wake him.

Her body ached, but more with the stiffness of sleeping too long than any lingering injury. Prodding delicately at the bandages wrapping her chest told her the cut hadn't gotten infected, and though sore, the flesh had likely closed. Overall, she'd escaped unscathed. The thought of crossing paths with that strange pokemon again left a smoldering anxiety near the periphery of her thoughts. She had perhaps come to rely too heavily on her illusions. The same trick wouldn't work twice, and she couldn't imagine a way to match his impossible speed.

For a while, Lace chewed on her lip and hoped Verdance woke soon to distract her. She'd even let him berate her for being careless, but she hoped he'd let her entice him into something more enjoyable for them both. A soft growl rolled unbidden from her chest, but she just didn't understand him. Not that she met many other males besides the Salandit, but the ones she had never acted so coolly towards her.

Smooth scales shifted around her, coiling tighter, gently embracing Lace. His large powerful body flowed easily against her fur, wonderfully so. Assuming him awake, Lace cooed softly and nuzzled back against him.

Verdance recoiled, large red eyes snapping open, head slipping from her shoulder. He blinked a moment. "S-Sorry," he murmured, coils loosening.

Lace frowned. "Why are you apologizing?"

The haze of sleep lifted slowly from his guarded expression. "It's nothing." Verdance tried to rise, but Lace wrapped an arm around his sinuous neck and dragged him back to her shoulder.

"I wanted to thank you for yesterday, for all the help you've given me since I arrived." Lace leaned into him and ran her tongue along the underside of his jaw. He stiffened, but not in the way she hoped.

"It was nothing." His coils held unnaturally still around her as if he readied to spring away.

"Do you not like me?" Lace asked, trying to keep her tone neutral.

"You don't owe me anything," he said instead of answering. "Especially this."

"And what is_this_, exactly?" Her claws twitched, and Lace had to stop herself from stabbing them into his emerald scales. "Why can't you ever just answer me?" The easy way she lay among him belied the heavy tension settling over the room.

Verdance's tail flicked in annoyance. "I barely know you. It's a bad idea. What if I- I don't want young."

"Neither do I." Lace threw up her arms before getting to her hands and knees, shoving her snout directly against his, her icy blue eyes pinning him. "We're not compatible," and before he finished opening his mouth to argue, she added, "Yes, I'm sure. What's your next evasion?"

Verdance hissed, baring large curved fangs. "Just because you don't like what I have to say doesn't mean I'm evading. I'm sorry if not wanting to take advantage of you makes me the bad person here."

"Take advantage? If you don't want me, then say so. I don't care!" She did. "But stop treating me like an idiot! Maybe I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not a real alchemist like you, but I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I certainly don't need you trying to make decisions for me." Lace didn't remember standing, or grabbing Verdance by the throat to drag him up with her. The wound across her chest echoed a phantom pain with each ragged breath. "And I don't need you to protect me."

His eyes didn't meet hers, voice low. "I don't think you're an idiot."

Just like that he cut the tendons of her fury. Lace shoved him from her grip but put no force behind it and sank back down in the middle of his coiled body. "Then why?"

Verdance rest his head on his body, gaze staring through the wall. He looked hunted, the ear-like protrusions wilting over his smooth scalp. "It's a lot of things. The last few years have been hard for me."

Lace immediately regret her outburst, damn him. Or maybe that had been his intention. She hated how she had to second guess everything he said, looking for hidden meaning and manipulation. It was exhausting. Not that it mattered. She didn't have a reply. Instead, she wriggled her snout underneath his chin and stroked one of the golden markings on his body, her claws skittering across armored scales.

Lace considered. "You don't charge Draft for the medicine, do you?"

He shifted just enough to level one of his red eyes at her. "You're still caught up on that?"

But no, she hadn't seen even a single metal disk anywhere in the house. "You don't charge anyone." Lace sat back, frowning at him.

"If you're trying to seduce me for my money, you're going to be disappointed." His flat affect left her unable to read him. Verdance simply stared off at something only he could see. If he wouldn't talk about himself, then perhaps she needed a different angle.

"I don't want money, not yours anyway." She sat back, letting her illusion look away, leaving her free to study him closely without appearing to. "Back home I trusted everyone completely. We'd do anything for each other." A wistful smile crept across her face. "I've never felt so alone before." She placed a tender touch on what she imagined would be his shoulder if he had arms. "I want to remember something simple and honest."

A vertical slit pupil swiveled towards her, his tone dark. "Nothing here is simple. Why add complication?"

"It doesn't have to." Steeling herself, Lace leaned in and took his head in her hands, drawing his nose to hers. Even his breath had a fresh, floral hint to it, warm against her snout. "You done so much for me. Tell me how I can help." Her tongue dragged slowly up the bridge of his snout, jade scales slick and intricately textured.

Then she lay back pulling him with her, drawing his long body atop hers, of as much of him as she could. His entire length extended nearly three times her height. Scale pressed against her fur, his body slightly cooler than hers. Lace licked along his jaw, towards his neck and the ivory scales beneath, her claws wrapping around to pull him closer. Verdance didn't protest, but his silence sent another wave of guilt through her.

"Do you want me to stop?" she asked quietly. "I will." The pause, her position not letting her see his face, the tension in his body, and his infuriatingly contrarian nature left her expecting him to say yes.

"When you regret this, don't hate me. Please?"

Lace hated the sorrow in his voice, the way his body nearly quivered from the effort of holding so still. "I won't." It took a moment, but his coils slowly relaxed, shifted, sliding about her with fluid grace, scale rasping quietly against the blankets beneath them.

A river of glittering green surrounded her, flowing over her limbs and against her body. Lace giggled, etching the sight of his bejeweled body to memory. The slithering sensation writhing about her distracted her enough that she didn't notice him slip between her legs until his body slid against her pelvis. Lace hissed in satisfied surprise.

Verdance wrapped around her stomach and back, head curling over her shoulder to hover in front of her face. "You're sure we can't-?"

She tried not to take his persistence at making sure they couldn't breed personally. "Yes." Softening her voice, she guided the conversation elsewhere. "You know it's usually polite to make sure a girl is ready first." She wriggled her hips, pressing the heat of her sex against his bare scales. "But I think I've been waiting long enough." She nuzzled against his chest, her heart racing, voice husky. "Tell me what you need."

He didn't reply, but scales slid between her legs, dragging against her fleshy lips. Lace let her claws flex against his armored neck and skitter harmlessly across his back. Something far softer than scale pressed against her entrance. Only then did it occur to her how much bigger than a Salandit he was.

Lace grit her teeth, whining as his body flexed, winding tighter around her shoulders, holding her in place. Under his insistent coiling pressure, her body surrendered to him, and Lace gasped, all the air in her lungs rushing out as if to make room. His slow thrust stretched her right to the edge of comfort, filling her.

Verdance hissed in satisfaction, eyes squeezed shut, mouth open. His twin curved fangs glittered wetly in front of her face, menacing as they were enticing. Lace still held her arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him closer, running her tongue up one of his fangs, its surface glassy smooth. His long forked tongue flicked against her throat.

The inexorable pressure slowly searching towards her core never withdrew, only halted long enough for Verdance to realign before forcing a little bit more of himself inside. She couldn't take much more, her body writhing of its own volition. A mewling growl rattled between her bared fangs that she couldn't mute. But if he asked her if she were okay, Lace would bite his throat out. Luckily for him, he appeared too lost in his own pleasure to notice. Good. _You deserve it,_she thought, hugging him tight as he brought his scales flush with her rump and driving a soft cry from her throat.

The base of his shaft was noticeably thicker than the rest and had a strange texture, almost like hundreds of tiny spines latched into her walls as they clenched around him. In the brief pause as Verdance adjusted, it felt as if his cock dragged at her insides. Then he thrust again, unable to force his scaled body any closer to hers, yet he sank a little deeper, swelling within her, reaching deeper, his tip nearly kissing her womb. A low vibrating hiss resounded though Verdance's entire body. He let Lace draw him to her throat, his jaws clenching, wanting to bite but holding back.

"That's it." Lace nipped one of his ear-like protrusions, panting against his scales, groaning at the sudden swell within her belly. A constant muscular contraction ran through the lower half of his body and through her, a stretch running through her inner walls all the way to her core. His steady cadence squeezed the sensitive bud inside her pussy in a wonderfully sensual way that left her gasping, shuddering at the thought of feeling him truly thrust rather than this teasing massage. Not that she protested.

Verdance held her whimpering body tight, nuzzling against her, his body in constant sinuous motion in and around her, gentle despite how his size dominated her small figure. Without warning, his shaft engorged fully, each eager pulse stretching her further. For a moment Lace thought she might burst, her low whine harmonizing Verdance's growl of satisfaction. Seed blossomed deep within her, swelling to the point of pain before it could squeeze past Verdance's thick base to leak from the imperfect seal her lips tried to maintain.

Though she didn't cum, it left Lace writhing, her claws scrambling to find purchase somewhere on his scaled body, her legs locking around his long body, holding him flush against her sex, quivering to wring out every last drop of his precious cum.

Lace whimpered, whispered terse pleas into his ear, nuzzled fiercely into the crook of his neck. His orgasm endured far longer than Lace expected, the regular swell of his cock continuing even after the desperation drained from both of their bodies. Lace slumped underneath him with a hand on her strained belly, as if she could feel him within her. Verdance let his head rest on her shoulder, pointed nose twitching against her throat as he emptied himself in her body.

An odd chill spread across her wrist, and only then did Lace notice his second shaft laying across her pelvis, its tip leaking a small trickle of clear fluid into her fur. Lace craned her neck for a better look at his completely alien anatomy. Nestled in her sleek gray fur lay a long shaft of glossy pink flesh, entirely covered in fleshy spines and protrusions. Barbs covered his thicker base section like a forest of tiny fangs curling backwards towards his body in a way that would lock him inside a mate. Lace squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to think about how she had a replica of that currently inside her. At least it didn't hurt. Hopefully pulling out wouldn't either. His body ceased its steady pumping contractions, but his massive shaft hadn't diminished any.

Lace explored the shaft laying across her belly, stroking him gently. Both Verdance and the cock inside her twitched in response. His large red eyes fluttered open as if noticing her for the first time since he took her.

Lace smiled weakly. "It's been a while, huh?"

"Yeah." The hint of a pale green blush spread across the white under-scales, or maybe it was the reflection from the rising morning sun or perhaps her imagination entirely. His eyes remained hooded and distant.

Lace idly licked the top of his head. "You want to go again?" she asked, and in that moment when he looked up, she knew she had him. His lips parted, ready to speak but no sound came out. Lace cupped his chin, pulling his snout to hers. "Just give in." Her tongue traced his lips. "Enjoy it. Enjoy me."

A quiet hiss answered her, his body shifting, a tug pulling at her from inside her pussy, the barbs on his cock desperate to remain latched into her soft flesh, but he forced their bodies to part with a sucking wet tearing noise. Lace yelped more in surprise than pain. She sank back, the sudden emptiness compounded by feeling heavy seed ooze from her stretched pussy. Cum soaked into the fur between her thighs and rump.

Verdance reared up, towering to gaze hungrily down upon her in a way that left Lace wanting him to strike. She wriggled enticingly, arching her back, stretching to show off her lithe body, her mane a messy spray of fiery color around her. His sinuous neck followed her every swaying motion, ruby eyes burning with desire that left Lace giddy.

While Lace didn't know how two snake pokemon would mate, what position would trigger his instinctual reflex to breed, she doubted that it mattered. Keeping her head turned to hold one of her icy blue eyes on him, Lace rolled to her belly and pushed up onto all fours, a universal sign of submission, offering herself.

Before she could wiggle her rump at him, Verdance encircled her, green scales a blur of motion, entwining and tightening. It felt as if he touched all of her all at once, scale against fur, constricting. His head ended up curling up from her chest, over her shoulder, and around her neck, cheek against hers. The rest of his body coiled her torso before nudging her legs apart, his body squelching against her messy entrance. Somehow he managed to support a majority of her weight like this as well. Lace pulled his cheek tighter against hers.

"Anything you want," she whispered. "Don't hold back." Each time he inhaled threatened to crush her body between inflating coils. It should have scared her.

"Why?" he hissed, fragrant breath hot in her ear. "Why do this for me?"

Lace bit him on the neck hard enough to make him flinch. "Why do you think I'm doing it for you?"

A blunt pressure gave her enough time to gasp before his powerful body and control over their position let him spread her around his thick cock, the one that hadn't already mated her. The initial thrust drove pleasure and a tormenting fullness to the very tips of her claws. Verdance apparently enjoyed himself as well, as his body momentarily crushed down around her, leaving Lace gurgling weakly before he relented, only to finish plunging himself into her sex.

The way he held her in his curls let him compel her to arch her rump out, his tail free to find the best angle to take her. All Lace could manage to stop herself begging was to whine softly. He didn't hurt her, his coils leaving her immobile but unharmed, claws only managing to scratch weakly at the floorboards.

He somehow managed to penetrate her more deeply this time, the pressure of his strange cock brushing right up against her innermost wall, occupying every crevice her body could offer him. Feeling him test such a sensitive barrier tightened her throat in anticipation of pain, urging her to remain unflinchingly still.

Lace had never felt so vulnerable in her life, surrendering every facet of control over to another, her very life to a pokemon she barely knew. It thrilled her in a terrifying way, emotion and physical pleasure feeding off one another, blurring reality and desire. His cock undulated within her, a slow bulging that traveled from his base to her absolute depths as if trying to massage open the entrance to her womb. It drove Lace mad.

Penetration almost never brought her to orgasm, but Verdance forced her to the edge, teasing her, letting her writhe in desperate need of relief. She knew the feeling of his seed pouring into her body again would send her tumbling into an abyss of pleasure, and her walls spasmed to hasten that inevitability.

His body tightened so slowly, Lace didn't realize until she gasped for each shallow breath, her head spinning, pulse hammering in her ears. A slow hiss in her ear drowned out though alongside the rush of seed crashing against her womb. The swell trapped within her grew, and Lace dissolved into a maelstrom of bliss.

Lace wanted to scream but only had one last pathetic whimper left in her lungs, eyes rolling up into her skull, claws twitching uselessly. Heat and pressure crushed her externally and from within, compressing her pleasure into a brilliant jewel of pure ecstasy.

Lace blinked, not sure if the room evaporated with her or- A small strand of drool hung from her lip. She could breath almost normally again. Her insides boiled with a leftover, resonant pleasure that left her extremities tingly.

Verdance no longer held up her entire weight, though his body still contracted, continually pumping cum deep into her pussy. A quiet, contented sigh washed from her ragged throat, and Lace let her mind rest in the gentle eddies of pleasure left over from giving herself so wholly to a new lover. A white and green snout gently nudged her cheek, twice, before Lace let her eyes flutter open, almost shocked to find Verdance staring at her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his own voice thick with contentment.

She nuzzled into his cheek. "That was incredible." They lay together for a long while, until Verdance completely sated himself within her, and even longer until he could separate their bodies without effort. His scaled body deposited her reverently on the ground in a boneless heap while he coiled himself at her side.

A heavy mess clung to her fur, the insides of her legs, and while Verdance no longer had his hemipenes exposed, the scales around his horizontal slit gleamed with the evidence of their mating. Even after everything that already leaked from her, she felt as if a good press on her belly might flood the room. She groaned but curled up on herself, flashing Verdance a weak smile before beginning to groom her fur with her tongue.

Each time she snuck a glance towards Verdance, she found his eyes fixed on her attempting to clean the cum from her sodden fur. It didn't help that more slowly trickled from between her sore lips, the delicate flesh his spines latched into raw and sensitive.

He tasted like every other male she'd tried - salty, bitter, but in a fresher, green way instead of the typically metallic meaty musk. After a passable job, she moved onto him, his body twitching when she brought her face to his smooth scales.

"What are you-" he started, then hissed when her tongue dragged along his slit.

"At least on of us has to be a considerate partner." She patted his body and continued her work, licking the cum from his scales far more effectively than she could her own body. Apparently he enjoyed this, and she got to enjoy the sight of his scales swelling to the point they could no longer contain his excitement, and his slit opened to reveal himself. She gave one of his shafts a teasing lick before pulling away, his taste heavy on her breath. "Was it as awful as you expected?" She stoked his cheek.

Verdance glanced away, his erection answering for him. "I got carried away."

"That's half the fun." Lace playfully shoved his snout, forcing him to sit up instead of drooping across across his own body. "Is that all you have to say on the matter?"

"No." He breath heavily, a vine curling beneath her chin to move her snout through a beam of sunlight. Lace stiffened, but he couldn't see her scars. No, he'd be seeing the way her illusions made the reds of her mane iridesce and glow. "I- You're-" He hissed in frustration, letting the words die in his throat.

"Maybe stop trying to hide everything." She pulled her chin free and stared into his large red eyes. "What are you afraid of? Let yourself enjoy things once in a while, especially the good fortune of having a beautiful and willing partner show up on your doorstep." She licked his jaw for emphasis.

Verdance chuckled mirthlessly. "Honesty gets me into trouble."

Lace snorted. "Try it. Say one honest thing to me. Something direct and true." Her red claws grabbed one of the extensions that grew around his neck, golden light reflecting back up onto his pure white scales.

His mouth opened but no sound came out. Lace raised an eyebrow, running a hand encouraging down the length of his emerald body.

"I haven't wanted someone like that in a very long time." He forced a steadying breath. "Not like that, like you. You're-"

The hunger in his tone made Lace shiver. "Say it."

"You're beautiful."

"And?" she asked, leaning in to nudge the top of her head into his chin.

"That's it." His body tensed, as if awaiting judgment.

"Well, it's a start." Lace chuckled. "Your plants might give you the cold shoulder when you fawn over them, but most people like to be told that they're wanted." She wrapped her arms around him, marveling at the way his serpentine body curled and twisted in response to her movements, always remaining in contact with her, maintaining balance. "Back when I lived among the savages," he flinched at her jest, "I let males I favored have me whenever they desired." She slowly ran her tongue along his throat, feeling the muscles beneath flutter. "As much as they wanted." Then she pulled away, pulling a resigned face. "Unfortunately I'm a busy city girl now. Lots to do." She stood up, trying to suppress a smile at the disappointed look on his face, the desire she'd inflamed plain in the predatory way he watched her. "Also someone was knocking at your door some time ago."

Verdance's eyes widened and he bolted upright. "Why didn't you say something?"

"I sure wasn't going to stop you from doing what you were doing to me." She grinned, and Verdance rushed past her and out into the front room.