Ritual Sacrifice

Riki and Gondar have been partners for months, but a more vicious hunter threatens to ruin their relationship.
Contains blades and lots and lots of cutting. You can also read it on AO3 if that’s more of your dig.

Months had gone by since Riki and Gondar began their work together as a contract-killing duo. What started as a desperate attempt by Riki to save his own life had turned out to blossom into a considerable source of income, as well as an amorous relationship.

When they had first started working together, they were both trained, cold-blooded killers and still clueless, nervous virgins. Weeks of passion and intimacy, however, led to the two of them becoming quite confident in themselves, each other, and their shared talent for never getting caught, no matter where they decided to make love.

Somewhere, in a dimly lit temple room, the Bounty Hunter was crying Riki’s name as loud as he could.

He never knew how much he would like it. Having lived nearly his entire life hiding in the shadows, quiet as a mouse, it felt liberating to be able to make sounds of passion. Not a single soul besides the Stealth Assassin could hear his cries of sheer ecstasy, his collected moans and groans as the satyr rammed his cock into Gondar’s backside. He had even taken his bandana off, a habit he was still remembering to get used to – the Hunter found it quite enjoyable to talk without the cloth in his face.

SLAM!

The two froze.

Some shuffling could be heard from the corridor, and then the sound of footsteps coming closer and closer. Both Riki and Gondar channeled their tricks of stealth, and disappeared from sight. There wouldn’t be anywhere to hide: the room had no particular features about it other than the altar they lay upon, intricate carvings in the walls and some dried, caked blood on the floor.

In through the door walked Strygwyr the Bloodseeker.

The two hunters gasped, and both of them were instantly filled with feelings of dread. Strygwyr was known for his talent at hunting out elusive, sneaky heroes, and of course Riki and Gondar both matched that description. If he caught the scent of blood from either of them, it certainly wouldn’t end well for the hunters.

Strygwyr appeared angry as he threw his sharp weapons onto the altar recklessly, barely missing the two cloaked lovers. He growled and grumbled something under his breath and began to walk towards them. Riki and Gondar clutched each other for dear life as they both hoped he couldn’t see them.

Suddenly, the Bloodseeker lost his footing on the uneven ground. He fell on his side, and one of the containers he had been carrying on his belt shattered on the impact. He grunted as he tried to pull himself up, angry that he had broken a flask of one of the most valuable tools for a hunter: enchanted dust that could reveal even the most well-hidden heroes.

Strygwyr rubbed his head and blinked a few times as the dust settled around the room. Then he stared in disbelief at the sight in front of him, taking a few moments to register it as real. The Bounty Hunter and the Stealth Assassin themselves were scrambling to get off of the altar, freezing when they caught the Bloodseeker’s gaze.

Strygwyr’s expression shifted from annoyance to delight as a wicked smile formed on his face. “Well, what an interesting sacrifice,” he laughed, noting the unintentional hilarity of discovering the two on a ritual altar. “Not one, but two notorious cutpurses offering themselves to the Flayed Twins… trusting their most loyal servant to handle the process.” He sauntered over to his blades he had discarded just a minute ago, and wielded them as if he were ready to strike them where they were.

Both of them began desperately pleading and begging for the Bloodseeker not to attack, to drop his weapons, to have a civil discussion instead like rational people. Strygwyr still clutched his weapons, but lowered them to his sides as he contemplated the usefulness of the two hunters in front of him.

As shifty as they were, he begrudgingly had to admit that invisible hunters could serve as useful scouts. Both of them, like him, were excellent trackers and could easily take down vulnerable targets. Perhaps if he spared them, he could collect even more blood for the Flayed Twins.

“Stop your stuttering,” he declared as the two hunters were still babbling about how they’d do anything to stay alive. “I will spare your lives in exchange for your service.”

Riki and Gondar went silent and exchanged worried glances. Neither of them thought that sounded like a good plan, but there didn’t seem to be any preferable alternatives.

“No more contracts,” Strygwyr growled. “You will answer only to me. And don’t think you can turn tail and run away, either. I can track your scents from miles away.”

Riki was puzzled. “That’s not going to matter if we stay out of harm’s way.”

Strygwyr flashed a smile and lifted his blades again. “I will. You won’t.”

The satyr gulped as the Bloodseeker inched towards him, resting one of his blades on Riki’s face.

“What are you doing?” the Stealth Assassin asked nervously.

Without a word, Strygwyr ran the edge of the cool, sharp blade slowly across one of Riki’s cheeks, leaving a trickle of warm blood in its wake. He grabbed the satyr’s face with both hands and ran his hot, heavy tongue over the wound. It was an excruciating experience for the Stealth Assassin, who hadn’t felt a cut like that in years. He was always able to evade strikes on the battlefield, but here, he was at the mercy of the Bloodseeker’s whims.

Strygwyr kept his face close to Riki’s and growled quietly. “Do you want more of this?”

“N-no. No, I don’t. P-please,” Riki stammered.

“Then you will listen and obey.”

Strygwyr backed away from the Stealth Assassin, leaving him trembling where he sat. He then turned to Gondar, who was already nervous from watching the Bloodseeker slice his lover.

Gondar’s trembling accelerated as Strygwyr approached him with the same intent. “Please don't…” the hunter mumbled as he eyed the sharp, wet blade. The Bloodseeker laughed at his request. “And leave me with no way to track you down? Please, Hunter.”

Lifting his weapon once again, Strygwyr made a similar incision to the one on Riki’s face. Then, just like with the Stealth Assassin, he licked the blood from the wound and licked his lips. “Now neither of you can run.”

Turning away from Gondar, the Bloodseeker returned to where he originally stood.

“We hunt tomorrow.”

–

“I’m leaving, Riki.”

“No, Gondar. We went over this. I’m not going to let you try to run away.”

The satyr shook his partner as he clasped both hands onto his shoulders. “I know how easy it is for us to, but we can’t do that here. He’s going to find you, and I won’t let that happen for your sake.”

Gondar pulled away from Riki’s grasp as he shot a disgusted look at the Assassin. “You actually believe him? He’s a blind dog, Riki, he’s not going to be able to find us if we leave soon enough.”

Riki clenched his hands into fists. “The cuts, you idiot. He tracks you down by your scent. He’s called the Bloodseeker, how can you be so–”

He stopped himself. He closed his eyes, exhaled deeply, and opened them up again only to see a very sad and disappointed Bounty Hunter facing him.

“Gondar, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to call y–”

“We’ll see who the idiot is after I get back to working alone and you’re still serving a psychotic killer.”

With that, he whirled around and began to walk away, his footsteps as heavy as his heart.

“Gondar, don’t!”

Riki chased after the hunter and grabbed onto his tunic, only for Gondar to yank away from him without even looking back. The Assassin fell to the ground, and he struggled to get up as the Bounty Hunter continued to march on.

“Please, Gondar, stop! I don’t want you to get hurt!”

No reply.

“Gondar, I’m serious! Turn around, right now!”

No reply.

“Gondar… stop… I love you…”

No reply.

The Bounty Hunter vanished.

Tears in his eyes, Riki sat where he fell, lying to himself that Gondar would come back.

–

Gondar was angry at himself.

He never should have taken up the Stealth Assassin’s stupid offer months ago. How could he have been so blinded by dumb lust? Did he really put aside his sense of pride for a few lousy sexual experiences? Where was the Gondar that preferred to be alone, that saw other hunters as nothing but competitors?

For weeks, he had been so convinced that he his life had changed, that he would no longer feel alone in the world, that someone else finally understood him. For weeks, he was smitten by Riki’s charms, totally tricked into thinking he loved him. The Hunter was disgusted. Love. As if a common sneak thief was capable of such an emotion.

He stopped in his tracks as he took a moment to look at the surroundings. For as great of a navigator as Gondar was, he didn’t seem to think he was making any progress wandering around aimlessly in the forest. He had stormed off from Riki in such a dramatic huff that it made him look like he knew where he was heading off to, and at one point, perhaps he did.

But Gondar’s mind was clouded with hateful, spiteful thoughts against himself, against Riki, Bloodseeker, and the entire world. He didn’t know how he felt. He wanted to sit down and scream. He was so preoccupied that he didn’t notice, in the treeline, a sinister figure preparing to strike.

Suddenly, Gondar collapsed.

His skin burned with pain, and it felt like he had been torn open from the inside out. He folded his legs to his chest and quivered on the ground, afraid to move. He knew exactly what caused the injury, but he didn’t want to admit it. He shut his eyes as he heard footsteps approach, not having to look to see who they belonged to.

“You didn’t listen.”

Gondar stayed silent, still shaking pathetically on the ground.

“You serve no use to the Twins if you refuse to answer their calls, Gondar.”

Still no response.

Strygwyr lifted a paw and rolled Gondar over to lay on his back, eyes and mouth still pursed tight.

“Or maybe you thought you could serve another way?” the Bloodseeker asked mockingly. “The Twins won’t say no to that, Hunter. Ah, you should have told me first, though.”

He ran a finger over one of his blades, gazing down at Gondar’s barely-clothed body. Strygwyr crouched down and pressed it against the Hunter’s fur, only amplifying his nervous shaking.

“Stop shivering unless you want to lose all your blood,” Strygwyr spat. Gondar gulped and tried to focus. He knew that the Bloodseeker wasn’t exaggerating.

“Now, where to begin?” Strygwyr asked himself as he poked various parts of the Hunter’s body. How tempting it was to slice him open and empty all his veins, bathing in the blood for the Flayed Twins. It was disappointing, almost, how he couldn’t simply kill him on the spot.

Yet.

“Perhaps here,” the Bloodseeker mused aloud as he lifted one of the Hunter’s arms. His bracers were gone, leaving his tantalizing wrists exposed. “So much blood from such a small cut…” Strygwyr could barely contain himself. He put the Hunter’s arm down and picked up one of his blades again, examining its pristine metal. Soon, it would be drenched with the Bounty Hunter’s vital fluid.

He brought the blade down to press against Gondar’s fur, the cold steel aching to be immersed in warm blood. It seemed to be this sensation that gave the Bounty Hunter the energy to speak again.

“Please… don’t kill me…”

“You would be even less useful to the Twins if you were dead, Hunter. This is only to teach you that you should listen to your master.”

Strygwyr began to cut along the length of Gondar’s arm as he failed to conceal his gleeful grin.

“Or else you will bleed.”

Blood oozed from the wound, running down the Hunter’s arm slowly. It pooled on the ground below, its dark red hue contrasting against the green grass.

Gondar whimpered. The skin rupture from earlier had left him low on energy, and now he didn’t even have enough to cry out in pain. The searing, burning feeling running down his arm, and the terrible loneliness he felt being pinned down with no sign of help… it made him want to scream. If only he could.

“Ah, but why should we stop there?” Strygwyr laughed as he raised his stained knife and made another incision across the Hunter’s arm. This one was shorter, but bled just the same. “And again!” the Bloodseeker sang, growing more excited with each cut. He sliced up the rest of the Hunter’s arms with very small slashes, each leaving a beautiful scarlet mark on Gondar’s scruffy yellow fur. Then he started to move on to the rest of his exposed chest.

Gondar wanted to hate the feeling, and for the most part, he did. He could certainly do without the agonizing burning all across his body, or the loss of blood that resulted from all the wounds. Yet there was something strangely, disgustingly intoxicating about the Bloodseeker’s demeanor throughout the ordeal. His hot, heavy, passionate breath on Gondar’s face as he giddily sliced open his body as if he were opening a gift, the sheer pleasure Strygwyr seemed to get from playing with him like this, the oddly intimate feeling of giving the Bloodseeker free reign over his body… it was arousing. He could feel the stirring in his loins as his barbed cock began to poke against the fabric of his pants, and he silently hoped that the Bloodseeker wasn’t interested in removing them.

Strygwyr pulled his blade, now blotchy and coated with the Hunter’s blood, away from Gondar’s abdomen. He had already made so many marks all over the Hunter’s upper body, taking special care to avoid any especially vulnerable spots. As much as he wanted to see the blood spill from Gondar’s weak, vulnerable body, he knew it would be wiser to draw out the experience and keep him alive. Of course, that didn’t mean he had to stop anytime soon. He glanced downward at the Hunter’s untouched legs and eagerly began to run his fingers against his blade’s edge again, excited to ruin more of Gondar’s body.

Without a second thought, Strygwyr lifted a hand to the Hunter’s waistband and pulled down. He froze for a moment when, to his surprise, he unveiled Gondar’s erect, tapering dick, poking out of its sheath and waiting for attention.

The Hunter was too weak to feel ashamed.

Strygwyr stared in bemusement before he grinned and looked back at Gondar’s drained, dragging face.

“I did not know you felt so strongly about sacrifice, Hunter! You must be all too willing to serve the Twins if this is where…” – he struggled to keep himself from laughing – “where all your blood flows to.”

Still smiling, he looked hungrily at Gondar’s cock and licked his lips. “Of course, there is more than enough here to share with the Twins.”

Strygwyr set aside the drenched weapon. He wouldn’t be needing it. Instead, he ran his fingers across the length of Gondar’s shaft, poking the dick’s spines curiously. “Like little blades…” he said, wrappings his fingers tightly around the cock as if to choke it. Then, slowly but strongly, he began to move his hand up and down, jerking the Bounty Hunter off with the death grip on his cock.

“That’s it, Hunter. Doesn’t it feel good to give in?” Strygwyr laughed softly as he saw the Bounty Hunter squirm with what was left of his precious energy. “Better than the Stealth Assassin could ever dream of doing.”

The words hurt more than the tight vise around his cock. Riki. Memories came flooding back as Gondar realized his mistakes all too late. Riki actually cared for him, Riki loved him, and Riki didn’t want to see him get hurt. In his anger, Gondar had ignored all that at the futile prospect of escape.

What if Riki saw him like this? Would he be scared for his life? Or perhaps, remembering Gondar’s bitter leave, he would simply say “I told you so”. It pained the Hunter to think about, but so did everything else. He was delirious, and could feel his grip on sensibility fading away.

Abruptly, Strygwyr stopped moving his hand, and ran his thumb over the pointy tip of Gondar’s aching cock. “How long can you last, Hunter?” he wondered aloud, his tone seemingly playful and threatening. He removed his hand entirely as a new idea sprouted in his mind.

Strygwyr crawled forward and put his head on the Bounty Hunter’s tummy. Not even able to flinch, all Gondar could think about is how it felt when Riki did the same. The Bloodseeker stared longingly at the Hunter’s erection, a sign of lust not for him, but for the satyr Gondar loved dearly.

“Just a taste,” Strygwyr said softly as he stuck out his tongue and licked the base of the Hunter’s dick. It was hot, and he could feel the tension within. If there was any feeling the Bloodseeker could sense, it was desperation – and he could tell that Gondar, or at least his sore dick, was absolutely begging for release.

“This won’t take long,” Strygwyr said. He lifted his head and placed his mouth over the end of Gondar’s cock, wrapping his tongue around it as he did with his hand earlier. He was disappointed, a little sad, almost, that he knew he wouldn’t have to spend much time working with his mouth. As long he kept the Hunter alive, however, he could keep coming back again and again.

Indeed, as the Bloodseeker continued to suck on Gondar’s dick, he could sense the pressure building within like a volcano about to erupt. “Mmmm…” Strygwyr took the cock out of his mouth for just a moment. “That’s it, Hunter. Release for me and the Flayed Twins, and push the satyr out of your mind.”

Gondar struggled with every ounce of will he could muster not to cum, not to give Strygwyr what he wanted, not to violate the sanctity his relationship with Riki.

He was ashamed, and knew he couldn’t hold out for much longer.

It felt like only mere moments until he lost control, shooting his libation inside of the Bloodseeker’s waiting mouth. Strygwyr didn’t stop with his tongue, still running it all over Gondar’s cock even as it twitched with each spurt of cum. He waited until he knew Gondar was completely spent, then popped the cock out of his mouth as it already began to return to the Hunter’s sheath.

He stood up and looked down at Gondar’s unmoving, gash-covered body. If he didn’t know any better, he would think the Hunter was dead. Of course, he was very much alive, if extremely weak and unable to move. But as long as blood still flowed through his veins, as far as Strygwyr was concerned, Gondar was fit to serve the twins – and, more importantly, himself. He flashed a smile, knowing Gondar wasn’t even able to see it.

“I’ll be back for you if you don’t crawl back by tonight.”

He turned and walked away.

The Bounty Hunter’s faint breathing was the only sound that could be heard in the cleaning. With a hand over his chest, he looked to the sky and tried to dream of what would have happened if he had been more sensible. His thoughts were constantly interrupted by memories: memories of how he worked with Riki, memories of how lonesome he felt before he met him, memories of Riki’s last words to him he pretended not to hear. “I love you.”

He could feel himself slipping into unconsciousness. With a last breath, Gondar whispered,

“I love you too, Riki.”