The heavy door swung open silently, and the tall, muscular shadow walked into the room, dragging her long tail on the floor behind her.

       Her room should have been empty, quiet, and ready for her to rest. Instead, there was a very angry woman tied to the large gunmetal torture table at the center of the room. There were two shadows sitting cross-legged on the floor, watching her.

       “Who’s the old lady?” 

       The woman muffled something through her gag in protest, struggling with the restraints holding her down by the ankles, wrists, and throat.

       “Leiana!” The shorter of the shadows jumped up and smiled, showing her six fangs. “We waited for you.”

       The other stood slowly and pretended to brush dust off her chest casually. “Apparently, the old hag has a problem with our kind.”

       Leiana frowned and stepped closer to get a better look. “Demons? Most humans have a problem with us.”

       “No. Asexuals.”

       Leiana nodded as realization hit her. A chill ran down her spine, all the way to the sharp end of her tail. She stretched her neck to both sides before walking up to the table and looking down at the woman lying there.

       “Do you understand what’s happening here, old hag?” 

       The woman’s eyebrows furrowed. She tried to twist her body against the restraints.

       Leiana laughed and waited for her to stop. “That is your name now. No point in fighting it. Let me tell you what’s happening. I am Leiana. I am the most skilled and creative torturer in the Dark. The Huntress herself watches my work and calls it art. I have brought our mistress to tears with the pain that I’ve caused the most deserving of souls. Good, you’re paying attention now.” She chuckled, her voice echoing through the room. Behind her, one of the two shadows moaned softly.

       “I am more than a torturer,” Leiana continued. “I am what you humans call asexual, aromantic, and—what is it? Sex-repulsed? No, perhaps sex-averse is more fitting.” She sighed loudly. “Humans and their need to define everything. Those two behind me are also asexual, but very sex-positive. Now that you have all of the information I had, are you clever enough to put the pieces together?”

       The two shadows behind Leiana snickered.

       “I’ll dumb it down for you, old hag. We’re shadows. Humans call us demons. I’m a master torturer, an artist of pain, and you are an insult to my very existence. Behind me are two other shadows who are also insulted by you. They’re here to watch me work.”

       Leiana turned to face the spectators. “Anything else I should know?”

       The taller, calmer one nodded. “She thinks we don’t have sex. I mean I know you don’t, but she thinks that none of us do, like that’s the big thing about us.”

       “She mocked us, all of the people like us,” the shorter one added.

       “I see,” Leiana smiled at the woman and stepped on a stone on the floor. The table tilted, moving to an upright position with a click as it locked into place. “Now you can watch just how wrong you are, old hag. These two are like all other shadows—they like to watch. Personally, I don’t feel a sexual thrill like they do. It feeds the monster that lives inside me enough to calm my rage. For them, it turns them on. Now, someone like you, someone ignorant like you would think that my two friends here wouldn’t experience that like the other shadows, so they’ll show you that they do. They’ll watch me play with you, and you’ll watch what it does to them. You’ll watch asexual demons fuck each other while you bleed and scream, until I decide we’re done.”

       “I think she’s into you,” the short one snickered. “Look at how she’s staring at your body.”

       Leiana watched the woman and tilted her head slightly, trying to get a sense of her thoughts. It was a skill only the Huntress had mastered, though experienced shadows were sometimes successful with less intelligent humans.

       “No, she’s just confused.” Leiana turned to the woman and shook her head in disgust. “Humans are so obsessed with your genders and shapes. We are shadows, we have no gender. We use female pronouns for all shadows in honor of the Huntress, but it is meaningless. Our shapes may appear feminine at times, but our sex is not like yours. You’ll see. I’ll make sure your eyes stay open.”

       Leiana stood in front of the human, towering over her. She held her head in place with a firm grip on her chin and licked the edge of her own steel-like nail. Behind her, one of the shadows moaned at the sound of the sizzle.

       “You’ll want to stay very still for this, old hag.” 

       Slowly and carefully, Leiana moved the sharp edge of her burning nail along the crease, where the woman’s upper eyelid met the brow bone. Her nail sliced through the skin cleanly, and the woman started to thrash. Leiana’s grip on her face didn’t falter, sliding outward from the inner corner to the outer edge. The flesh curled back with a soft sizzle before falling to the floor. 

       “We’ve just started, old hag. Lower lid is next. We can’t have you missing any part of the show.”

       Leiana licked her nail again and ran it from beneath the lash line at the corner of the eye, moving downward in an arc and ending at the edge of the eye. The skin fell onto the woman’s chest, leaving her eye fully exposed.

       “Now the next one. Keep screaming in that gag, it’s only turning them on.”

       Behind her, she could hear the two shadows undressing each other. First, there was the clang of their armor on the floor, then the sound of their leathers being thrown aside.

       The woman’s eyes filled with tears, likely burning from the dry air and blood spilling from where her eyelids used to be. Leiana walked behind her, holding her head in place, forcing her to look at the two shadows.

       “Look at their bodies, old hag. Muscular, powerful, and what you humans would call feminine. Breasts and a pussy.” Leiana laughed as her two shadow companions held each other by the throat and kissed. “Is that what makes a woman to you humans? Do you have breasts and pussy, old hag? If I tear them off, what will you be?”

       The short demon snickered and licked the other’s neck, leaving a burn mark that healed instantly. “Still an old ha–” She gasped as the other grabbed her hair and pulled her back. They stood there for a moment, staring at each other.

       “You’re watching asexuals, old hag,” Leiana whispered into the woman’s ear from behind. “Those two are in love, have been for centuries. It’s cute. What they’re doing right now isn’t.” Leiana chuckled and watched her friends. She liked this part.

       “They’re not looking into each other’s eyes lovingly. What you’re seeing now is a challenge. One of them will dominate the other. It’s like a game they play before they start. I think it’s fascinating. Not all shadows do it—most just fuck.”

       The taller demon tightened her grip on the shorter one’s hair and smiled. The other didn’t blink or move.

       “Ugh, a standoff. It can last hours, but we can force them to end it, can’t we? Your whimpering is so soft, so pathetic, they can barely hear it. Let’s get you screaming again.” Leiana stayed behind the woman and leaned into her ear, letting out a hot breath. The skin blistered instantly, and the woman screamed through the bit gag.

       A moan escaped the tall demon and the shorter one pounced on her, pinning her down on her back.

       “So easy to turn these two on, it’s hysterical. What do you think? Typical asexual behavior? Me, personally, nothing has ever turned me on, but I am fascinated by many things. For example, how many of your teeth can I remove until I have to tighten the bit gag to keep it in place? And more importantly, can I do this without cutting out your lips?”

       “Cut them off!” one of the shadows shouted before moaning. Leiana turned for a moment to see who’d spoken, and she laughed. It was the tall one, now lying on the floor with her open legs facing the old hag, while the short one was on top of her, kneading one breast with her hand and sucking on the other very loudly.

       “Hmmm, let’s make it challenging. I’ll do it while standing behind you, so you can keep watching them. And what a view! Look at that lovely pussy displayed right in front of you! Why, she must be a woman, right?”

       Leiana shook her head, laughing. She licked her nail and loomed over the human from behind. She closed her eyes, feeling the woman’s face with the other hand to get a better idea of where the lips were. Her nail moved in one smooth and slow motion over the top lip in an arch, from one corner to the other. She ignored the woman’s screams and looked at the two demons in front of her.

       “Look carefully at their bodies now, old hag. Look at the tail.” Leiana laughed loudly and cracked her own tail on the floor behind her. “Our shapes can’t change, we don’t have the Huntress’ power—except for our tails. The end can be changed to almost any shape, depending on how experienced the shadow is. Those two are very experienced in using it for pleasure, though I have seen both of them use it in battle as well. So, they both have pussies and they both now have cocks—what are they?”

       Leiana removed the screaming woman’s bottom lip as she watched the two shadows on the floor, moaning louder with each scream from her.

       “Fuck, I can smell her blood. Her fear.” The tall one squirmed underneath her partner, who held her down by the neck as she licked her nipple with a flat tongue. 

       “Can you smell her tears? I can.” The short one ran the edge of her tail over the other’s thighs, slowly moving up as she arched her back on the floor. She was almost whimpering, begging to be touched. “Can you see her bleeding in front of you? Can you taste her scent, her fear in the air?”

       Leiana sighed. “I don’t get it, personally, but it doesn’t matter. They’re having fun, and they’re not harming anyone, so it shouldn’t bother me. You wouldn’t understand that, though, would you?” She clicked her tongue in disapproval and walked around to face the woman. 

       “I need to see what I’m doing now, but don’t worry. I won’t obscure your view as you watch them. Your pain and fear is what’s giving them pleasure.”

       Leiana took a deep breath and looked at the woman’s bloody face. Without eyelids or lips, she looked like a fleshy skull. She tuned out the two demons behind her and focused on the old hag. Her veneers looked ridiculous. 

       Humans liked to pull out teeth using a pair of pliers or other grabbing apparatus when torturing, but the real fun was with a scalpel. Without any lips in the way, Leiana used a sharp onyx scalpel to slowly cut the gums around a tooth. Blood flowed freely, covering the hard wooden bit gag and pouring down the woman’s chin and neck. After a few moments, a front tooth fell out. Leiana sighed and smiled, practically oblivious to what was going on behind her, and barely even hearing the woman’s screaming. Bloody tears covered her face and snot bubbled from the woman’s nose. 

       “What a disgusting creature,” Leiana mumbled to herself, slowly cutting around the next tooth until both front teeth were gone. “Two more incisors to go, and then the canines.”

       The woman thrashed and gagged between screams as the shadow slowly and carefully removed the other four teeth.

       “The gag’s too wobbly now. Can I remove it, or will you try to speak?”

       Behind her, one of the shadows shouted, “I don’t want to hear her say anything!”

       Leiana frowned at the woman. “It’s very simple. If I remove the gag, which I am inclined to do, you are allowed to scream and cry, but not speak. If we hear a single word or anything that sounds like a word, I’ll cut out your tongue. Unfortunately, I can’t sever your laryngeal nerve like the Huntress taught me, because that would silence you completely, and your screams are very important to my friends here. Nod if you understand.”

       The woman stared angrily at the shadow in front of her, but then she nodded. Leiana smiled and turned to the two shadows behind her. They had already gone back to their moaning and writhing. “It’s incredible how long they can keep this up,” Leiana muttered. “Personally, I’d rather not see it, but I think it’s important for you to. Educational, even.”

       Leiana hummed to herself as she continued cutting into the woman’s gums until all of her teeth were on the floor. She took a step back to look at her work–a bloody, fleshy, toothless skull.

       “I think that’s enough face work, don’t you?”

       “Make her choke on her words!” the tall demon shouted. The shorter one whipped her tail at her face, reminding her that she was not allowed to speak without permission. Leiana shook her head and chuckled. 

       “It appears they want you to choke on your own words as their grand finale for the evening. To be honest, I thought I had more time. I was going to go over every single body part and make you experience levels of pain you never knew existed, just like I did with your face. You’re fortunate that I love my friends, even if it is purely platonic. You’re going to die sooner than I’d like.”

       The woman screamed and thrashed her entire body, shaking her head from side to side and pulling at the restraints holding her to the table.

       “You wrote words. I suppose I could shove the pages of your work down your bloody throat until you die, but that seems… unimaginative.”

       “No!” The woman’s ragged voice silenced the room. The moans stopped for a moment. Leiana laughed out loud, which led the two behind her to resume their moaning. 

       “I believe you just broke my rule, old hag.”

       The woman shook her head. “No, n–” She cut herself off before finishing the second word, realizing her mistake.

       “That’s quite all right. I’m glad you did that. You gave me an idea.” 

       Leiana stood in front of the woman, blocking her view. She forced the woman’s mouth open and pulled out her tongue with two fingers. She licked the sharp nail on the forefinger of her other hand. It instantly turned red from the heat.

       “This is going to hurt, my dear old hag.” She ran the nail across the tongue, cutting it clean off. The woman’s screams barely registered. Leiana was focused on her art, the finale, the end of a life at her hands.

       She walked around the woman to stand behind her, holding her head in place with one hand, the other hand holding the bloody tongue. “Watch them climax to your final moments. Watch these demons, the Huntress’ shadows, asexual and completely in love with each other, fuck and find pleasure in each other’s bodies. Watch their bodies, both feminine and masculine by your narrow-minded views, and know that in your final moments, you were turned on by what you saw. Don’t bother denying it. I can see into your mind.”

       Leiana shoved the tongue into the woman’s mouth and down her throat as she tightened the grip around her neck. “Does this count as choking on your own words?”

       “Yes!” one of the demons shouted. Leiana laughed and held the woman in place until her body stopped moving. She grabbed a shadowy essence as it exited the dead body and held it in her hand. 

       “A little snack for our Huntress,” she whispered.