Alex had been led through the palace so quickly that she scarcely had time to admire the amazing architecture of it. Her eunuch guide rushed her from one room to the next, gently chiding her to move faster and not dally, while she just gawked at the beauty of it all. Now she found herself in a room with a small pond-sized bathing pool in the middle of it. At the far end, Alex could see the most beautiful face she had ever seen sticking out above the water, long black hair swirling around it.
“Who's this?” Carolina asked. Her tone was bored and her startling blue eyes were half-lidded as she reclined in water, a mound of bubbles barely concealing the pale skin of her breasts.
“My Lady,” the eunuch standing next to Alex said with a bow, “This is a human. Lord Balthazar requested that she remain in your custody.”
Carolina’s eyes opened fully as she sat up. Her gaze pierced Alex with a suddenly piqued curiosity.
“A human you say?” Carolina asked, glancing from the eunuch back to Alex. She swam to the edge of the bathing pool, her eyes studying Alex as she gracefully floated closer.
“Yes, My Lady,” the eunuch said, bowing again. “Master Tavi came across her as he was securing the borders.”
“Very well, you may leave the girl with me,” Carolina said, dismissing the eunuch with a wave of her perfectly manicured hand.
The eunuch quietly shuffled out of the room and the demoness relaxed back into the water of her bath, not saying anything more to Alexandra. She simply sat, eyes closed and head resting on the edge of the large rectangular bathing pool. The heat from the water lifted up around the room, and Alex could feel sweat forming on her face as she stood awkwardly before the bathing beauty.
“Don't just stand there,” Carolina finally said, cracking an eye open to look at Alex, “disrobe and join me.”
“I…um…No, that’s ok,” Alex stammered out. “I’m fine.”
“You're filthy,” Carolina said, opening her other eye and sitting up a bit. Her nose scrunched in disgust. “And you smell awful. I won't have you in my presence as such.”
Alex looked down at her hands. Her nails were caked with a mixture of dirt and dried blood, and the rest of her body was in a similar condition. She glanced around the small room, searching for privacy. For the most part the space was empty, tiled from ceiling to floor in a light red marble. The only pieces of furniture were two thin tables filled with bottles of various liquids and a stool that held a few large towels. She turned her back to the demoness who was watching her intently from the water and began to slowly unbutton her pants.
“I’m not going to bite for heaven’s sake,” Carolina said with a heavy sigh. Alex heard the water shifting and looked over her shoulder to see the demoness climbing out of the water, completely unabashed of her nudity. The soapy water slid down her slender hips as she padded over to Alex who was blushing profusely. She raised a wet hand to Alexandra’s shoulder, cleanly slicing through the dirtied fabric of her shirt with a single pointed claw. The garment slid off and fell to the ground, as Alex squeaked in surprise and slapped an arm over her suddenly exposed breasts.
“Much better,” Carolina said with a smirk that made one shiny fang pop out the side of her mouth. She turned away from Alex and stepped back into the water. “Now, hurry and get in. The water's perfect.”
Alexandra removed her blood caked blue jeans and tipped toed to the edge of the pool, trying as best she could to protect her modesty as she lowered herself into the hot water. The water really was perfect, and she quickly relaxed into the lightly perfumed bath. As Carolina began to make her way over, her cheeks heated to a rosy glow and she stiffened.
“Don’t be so shy, girl,” Carolina said with a jingling laugh that rang through the tiled room. She reached out, grabbed Alex by the wrist and pulled her closer. “I want you to tell me about your kind. I never even knew you existed. I've only heard stories.”
“My name is Alexandra,” Alex said with a pout as she gently tried to pull away from the overly friendly demoness. “I wish everyone would stop calling me girl.”
Carolina tilted her head to the side, a shapely brow arching as she considered Alex. “But that's what you are? Why do you seem so ashamed? It's a good thing, I assure you.”
“I’m not that young,” Alex said, finally able to pull her hand free.
“Age has nothing to do with it,” Carolina said, leaning over the edge of the pool to grab a glass bottle with a viscous pearly liquid inside. “You've never lain with a man. You're still a girl. Though if you'd like, I'm sure there are many suitors eager for a chance to change that.”
Alex blushed deeply and tried to hide her face behind her hair. “How...how do you know I'm still—“
“You really are adorable,” Carolina laughed and pulled the cork out of the glass bottle. “It's in your scent. Though I must admit it's a little harder to discern with so much moisture in the air.”
“My scent?” Alex asked, her brows pulling together. She didn't realize she even had a scent, much less that these demons could so clearly smell it.
“Yes,” Carolina said as she poured a handful of the liquid into her palm. “We can tell much about a person from their scent.”
Now she understood why everyone was calling her 'girl', but a slew of new questions popped into her head and her blush deepened further.
“Like...what kinds of things?”
“Where someone is from, or where they have been, who they've been with,” Carolina elaborated as she moved behind Alex and began to massage her scalp with the thick liquid, working up a healthy lather. “Even a person’s emotions, desires, arousal are present in their scent.”
“You can smell all that?” Alex gasped, a mix of amazement and embarrassment.
“Yes, of course,” Carolina said, gliding through the water to move in front of Alex. “Now, rinse your hair and then you can wash mine.”
18