End: I Wish I Could Save You

"Oh darling," Ella let her fingers caress her daughter's face. "I..."

She bit her lip. There were tears in her eyes, and a look...a look Lois hadn't seen since before her mother had died, all those years ago. A look of pure, unselfish love.

"You have to go," Ella whispered. "Now, before it's too late."

Lois was taken aback.

"Mom, what?"

"I was wrong, all those years ago." Ella gripped her daughter's hand and sat up, trying to pull Lois up. "I should never...I should never have promised her you. Some favors come at too high a price. You need to leave now, before midnight. If you're here, the devil will come for you and...and you'll take my place in hell. I don't..."

Ella's breasts heaved, her voice cracking with emotion. "I don't want that for you. Not anymore."

"No, mom." Lois reached out and hugged her mother, their bare, sweaty breasts pressing together. "I want to stay here, I want to save you! I can't lose you again!"

"Lois I love you, but you can't...I had my life! I lived it full! You can't...you can't just stay here so an old woman can get more cock for her tired cunt! There are people out there for you to meet...and love...maybe some someone...you can be a mother too someday. I want...I want you to have a future, Lois...baby..."

"Tick tock, ladies," A new voice broke in—elegant, rich, the voice of a woman confident and self-assured, with a slight Mediterranean accent. "Time is almost up. I assume we all know the stakes here?"

The devil wore the form of a woman, tall and regal, slim and feral, her skin the red of fresh blood. There was not an ounce of wasted fat on her, unless you counted the slim breasts topped with dark pink nipples on the bony chest. Dark horns swept back from her brow, and beneath them her eyes were white-on-white in dark pits. Her pubis was hairless, the clit unnaturally prominent between the slender thighs.

"Lady Blaze," Ella breathed.

"So...is the dutiful daughter here to give herself freely in your place?" The demon asked.

"Yes!" Lois yelled, leaning forward on the bed, even as Ella grabbed her daughter's shoulders and held her back, screaming "No!"

The smile grew a fraction wider. "Well, well...if you can't hold up your end of the deal, Ella, then it's back to sucking cocks in hell for you...and you do have such a talent for that my dear..."

Lois threw herself off the bed and grabbed at the demon's legs. "No! You can't!"

"Lois please...stop! It's okay! I deserve this!" Ella wailed.

"I rather think I can, Lois Lane. My pact is with your mother. She refuses to meet my price...so I will have her soul instead of yours."

The reporter swallowed. "What if...we made another deal?"

Blaze's eyes went dark, and then reappeared. Lois realized the demon had blinked.

"Such as?"

"What if I gave you...something else? For my mother's soul."

"Lois, no!" Ella was out of the bed now, kneeling beside Lois, trying to drag her daughter to her feet. "Just go, please! Please! You can't...you can't give up your soul. You don't know what it's like...all those years..."

Blaze made a motion, the merest flick of a finger...and Ella's voice stopped. Her mouth moved, her eyes pleaded, but no sound came out.

"And what will you give me, for your mother's soul, Lois Lane? She already refused to give up her own for yours. What do you have, to sell or barter for what you desire?" Blaze's eyes were shining bright now, intense on Lois, drinking in every hint of movement, like a predator ready to pounce.

Lois remembered how, as a teenager, she had an—encounter with a boy. His rough hand groping her breast through her shirt, pulling at her pants—and she had broken off and run straight home to her mother, and Ella had held her all the way through the crying and the rage, the weakness and humiliation... And told her about her own time, dealing with men who only knew what they wanted. They had rocked together, two wounded hearts, and Lois had come away stronger from that.

The reporter stiffened her lip and stared Blaze in the eye.

"What do you want?"

Blaze's lips peeled back to reveal sharp teeth. "You amuse me, Lois Lane. Your mother's soul is worth little enough, and yours I cannot touch...yet. But if I cannot have what I want most, I may yet have a little bit of fun. Give me your body this night, to do with as I will—and you may keep your soul, and your mother's as well."

Ella Lane's mouth hung open, eyes afraid...but Lois stood up, and placed her hands on her hips.

"It's a deal," Lois said, wondering after all the wild events of this night might yet be left ahead for her.