Chapter 17
He carried Mila up the stairs and lifts to the aerie at the top of the fortress. His nest sat atop a tower he’d had constructed several thousand years ago when first his pangs of missing something had begun to grow. Once it had been little more than raw stone with straw and padding to cater for the fleshborn. The library and the zoo had come hundreds of years after that. Time ran slowly for stoneshifters. Very slow.
There were sayings.
Ask a stoneshifter for something, tell your grandchildren to wait for the answer.
A mountain will rise before a stoneshifter.
He was a little different however. His brothers often didn’t understand what moved and puzzled him.
Information and feelings had sifted into his stoneflesh and made changes. He saw things. Wanted things. Needed more.
And this, her?
He lumbered up the last step, sighted the aerie.
Zarblu gathered her closer then lowered himself to sit on the soft, throne-like bed under the broad arched-roof shelter. She was still nude – he’d stripped off the remains of her dress so he could better feel her body, see her little female parts.
Wondrous female parts. The contrast between her smoothness and his solidity and roughness...he ventured a sniff then a lick of her belly.
Though she grumbled and moved when his tongue swept over her navel, she still slumbered. That was not unusual after the sacrifice mating. He placed her on the bedding and examined her as he pondered, turning her gently on the pillow-strewn bed, checking for bruises, tearing, and blood. Though there was a little blood at her entrance where he’d plowed her, it was nothing of consequence. Normal.
Of all his mates, she’d suffered the least.
Enjoyed it the most.
He felt his eyes flare red as he remembered her cries of joy, her weeping as she writhed backward into him, as he fucked her to the utmost depths of her cunt. He stretched and rolled his new shoulders. His shape needed some refining. It was roughly done and still held some of the beast characteristics, such as the hornlike protrusions at his joints, and the gems that sparkled beneath the light blue moons of Dispora.
He was a pretty monster at the moment, he supposed. Perhaps he would keep the gems.
Mila might like that. She looked at peace. He stroked her face and she snuggled into his large hand, even as he curled his fingers about her jaw. With more pillows, he made a nest for her in his lap. She’d awaken soon and wish to leave. Now that made his heart feel heavy.
Sadness.
It was a feeling he’d become used to over the time he’d had the zoo. Not all the sick creatures he’d brought here survived the doctors’ treatments. The planets he returned them to were a part of his many hobbies. A pity he could not visit those planets except through second-hand drone footage.
A great, great pity. Zarblu sighed. And there it was again, his somewhat unnatural longing for more.
The purple wren was one of the cheekier survivors. It flitted about the fortress roofs and paid him visits for seed, but refused a safer home in the zoo.
“What will I do if you wish to leave?” he asked the softly snoring Mila. He wanted to keep her a little longer. Then maybe a little longer after that. And a little after that.
She added a brightness and excitement to life. Dispora was a well-worn shoe, if one with some dirty things stuck to the sole.
By the time she wakened, the sun was peeking above the stuttered horizon of his city. Towers and skyscraping buildings rose to the sky, jutted into the blue. Aircraft zoomed or puttered across; some left violet trails that faded rapidly but imprinted a stark brightness on retinas, while other dilapidated vehicles left brown smears on the sky. His city, and he knew every single part of it almost down to the pebbles on the paths, because this had been his and his world for millennia.
How did a stoneshifter ever see more?
A very good question.
“Hello,” Mila said softly, then she found his hand by her stomach and rested her own hand over his. “I’ve slept.”
Not a question but he answered. “Yes, you have. Do you feel well?”
Her hesitation made a frown settle on his brow.
“I...feel extraordinarily well.” She met his gaze, fully. “Also odd. What I did... How I behaved –”
He placed his finger over her lips. “Shhh. It was normal. Believe me, please. I would not have you doubt yourself. I know you enjoyed the...” He paused to consider words and found his mouth stretching into a smile. “Process.”
Mila pushed herself into a sitting position, a shy smile showing on her too. “You mean the fucking? Wow. That was...just wow.” She shivered, staring into space for a moment. “I guess honesty is in order. Yes, I enjoyed it. You.” She reached up and tapped his chest. “Were true to your word. You kept me safe and I’m actually feeling grateful. I think? Yes, yes I am. And if that feeling is a result of chemicals, fuck, I don’t care.” She bent her head back to look into his eyes. “Thank you.”
“Are you happy that I chose you and not your sister?”
“Um.” Her blinking turned to confusion and redness swept her cheeks. “Chose. You did choose me.” Her fingers on one hand wrapped tightly about his thumb. “I am. Yes. Can we eat? I’m starving.”
Mila was distracting him from discussing the mating but he would wait. Waiting was a stoneshifter’s default. “Of course.”
With her breakfast brought by servants, he watched her eat, then let her rise and walk out on the long thoroughfare. It was held up by square-sectioned columns that ran down into the depths of the building. Some females might be daunted by the drop to either side – not Mila. It made pride glow in his chest.
The thoroughfare led from the aerie to another viewing place, which also sat on a multitude of stone stilts. There, he kept a deep pond and small forest of slim trees and deep green, broad-leaved plants. The purple, red, and green buttermoths of Dispora often visited, blown in by the winds. The little flocks of quad-winged creatures dotted the air about the pond with bright, moving colors.
Isolated, and above the main roof of the fortress, it was both exposed and the perfect place to meditate upon the universe.
Since she was naked, and so her ass was naked, walking along behind Mila was also perfection. The rock of her hips would enthrall him forever.
He caught up to her once she stopped to lean on a steel balustrade, her breasts resting on the top of the steel and made fuller and bouncier looking. Zarblu contemplated her.
It wasn’t too soon. Not for this female.
“Come with me.” He took her wrist and pulled her to the pool and between his legs. She followed his prompts readily, standing before him with her pupils already dilating in what was a mating response. He sat in the pond on the wide step below the edge. Her cunt...he checked her there. It was swelling, already exuding wetness. His erection stood proud. Not as large as he had been but big enough to challenge her, to make her cry in ecstasy again.
Her cunt reddened and swelled more, her liquid dripping and spilling over his cupped hand.
“Now?” she asked, her breasts held high as if offering them to his mouth. Which she was. So many beautiful responses and he doubted she understood her reactions yet.
“Now.”
“Oh.” She pulled her lip into her mouth and sucked.
“Here.”
With hands to her hips he positioned her over his rampant member and pulled her down onto him. He sank in effortlessly, or so it felt to his grateful cock. Her messiness lubricated the glide, the tunneling in, and his thrusts as he made her slide up and down.
The changes on her face absorbed him even as his climax built. So pretty, so sexy, so amazing even. Yet he’d seen this before a thousand, thousand times.
It was her.
She fitted more than just the girth of his massive cock.
When she shuddered and came, and made those small sexual noises, her fingers scratched at his arms. He orgasmed soon after, his cock jammed up well inside her until he could go no further. He grunted and felt another jet leave him. Pushing his hips up and her higher, he grabbed her breasts and squeezed so her mouth fell open and she arched. Another huge pulse left his cock. Letting his cum erupt and fill her, he held her there, impaled and shaking, sobbing, until he was finished.
His chest heaved and he sucked in air for the fires within.
Exhausted, Mila trembled, and he leaned her into him. The pond cleansing circulation drew away the mess of his cum as it drifted from where he was speared inside her. Soon the water would be clear again.
“There, there.” Caressing her back, he listened to her heartbeat lessen in depth and speed. “This time you will remember it all.”
“Just,” she whispered. “Fuck...fuck...” She swallowed, catching breath after breath.
“Yes?”
“Give me time to recover before you force that in me again. I may blow a fuse. A good one, but even so...”
His laughter was as muted as he could make it but she still glowered up at him.
“Are all stoneshifters like this?”
“In what way?”
“Oh, wait.” Distress crept into her tone. “I have something I should’ve said already.”
“And that is?” He curled over and tucked his chin into her hair, gently though.
“I have this infection. It’s a terrible thing. It’s alive, aware, at times. You can’t catch this, I’m told by it, but...I have doubts.” She pulled from him, leaned away to search his face. “I didn’t know you were someone I could like.”
“You can stop worrying. I know about it. I knew after the Arena. I had blood from you and had it examined. I am immune to this infection.”
“Thank the gods. You’re sure? I mean, I can be a fool, but I never want to pass this thing on.”
“I am immune.” He scooped up the heated water and poured a handful over her back, watched a shiver run down her. Wind pushed at them at this high altitude, even fluttering the large leaves of the plants, this was why he had the pond kept warm. “Stoneshifters tend to be. Not much can affect us or infect us.”
“Good.” Mila wrapped her arms partway around him and squeezed, then sniffed. “Not sure why I care but I do.”
She was emotional due to the basht and the mating. He decided not to tell her since she might be annoyed. Humans could get angry when manipulated without consent. Besides, he liked her arms around him. He liked many things about her and that might be a problem.
“How did you acquire this infection? It’s an Osirii. A long-lived species – they have been around as long as stoneshifters, I think, and they travel between the stars when mature. But they have a habit of taking humanoids as hosts.” Zarblu removed her from his cock, lifting her, then deposited her on his thigh.
She gasped, one hand propped on him, the other clenching on her leg. A blush fading, she smiled fleetingly, as if her reaction to his cock being pulled out of her cunt should be a secret.
It took her another moment to fully regain her composure.
“It was a tomb. I was on a faraway and what should’ve been a dead planet. I opened the wrong tomb.” Mila shrugged. “The people there died out long ago, except perhaps for this leech of mine. It will kill me eventually.” She cocked her head, squinted past him to the trees at the edges of the lookout. “I guess it’s partly why I was okay with taking Tiana’s place, and being with you. I was dying anyway.”
“Most people are. Few live forever.”
“Except you?”
“We are close to immortal. Some have died from accidents and war. One went off-planet and was killed in battle. Few weapons on this world...” He gestured at the horizon. “Are strong enough to destroy a stoneshifter.”
“You guard yourselves well.”
Too well, perhaps.
“I admit your past occupation interests me. Would you tell me more? I like to hear tales of adventure from out there.” He swept his hand across again, at the unseen beyond.
“My adventures? Sure. I would like to do that. I like stories too. Why don’t you go then? Leave here. You’re rich enough. Yet, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of stoneshifters outside this planet?”
“I am rich yes. Powerful. I own many starships. Yet, to go up there? No.”
He hesitated, teetering, yearning to tell her more than he ever had almost any creature not of his ilk.
For the first time in millennia, he succumbed. “We stoneshifters fear one thing. Death. Out there are many things that can kill us.”
“Ohhh. Now I see.” Her forehead wrinkled. “I think I understand. To be immortal means you see death as worse than we do? To live so long and think you cannot die, unless you make one mistake. Out there are many unknowns and many potential mistakes. Here, you can control.”
He nodded.
“And so you stay on-planet, fearing, never dying, but fearing. Going nowhere.”
“Well then. Not quite that bad, but you summed it up in a few words.”
“Hmmm. You have a deal, Zarblu.” She beamed at him. “I will tell you of my adventures. Show you of the possibilities. You tell me some of your adventures.”
She had no idea how many adventures he’d already heard, building on them, libraries of them. They stung him with their wonderfulness. He had once hated those who could leave. But hate was ephemeral and never lasted for him. Now he loved hearing about adventures and he waited and craved. Waited for some catalyst.
Perhaps what he’d waited for was finally here.
She turned and rested her back against him, her bare feet playing in the water. “A long time ago, in a faraway galaxy, I saw a herd of Druidian freighter ships swarming the sky on a planet that was running out of air and I...”
He listened to her, feeling the small rumble of her voice against his skin, soaking it up, living what she had lived, by proxy.
It was heady stuff. He’d often thought about this theoretically – all the steps in the finest details. To go off planet in a spaceship of his own. One well equipped and armed, with a crew ready to go where he steered them.
Where no stoneshifter had gone before.
Adventure.
When Mila was done talking, when they both decided something new was in order, he had clothes brought to her – a crimson flowing dress, as well as her old clothes. She chose the dress and bare feet as he requested, and that pleased him.
Hand in hand, he took her down to the zoo and introduced her to the many patients, as well as the healthy inhabitants.
“Some will eventually be relocated to their original planets.” He patted the neck of the giraffe. Its orange, cream, and red blotchiness contrasted well with the trees and greenery of the plain the zoo emulated.
“Old Earth again. This one.” She nodded at the giraffe. “We could go there, you and I.”
He froze. To Old Earth. Together. Him? With a girl who’d been a sacrifice.
His heart chose to heat up as his furnace ran riot for a few seconds. His eyes ached to spill moisture with this gift of her words, and stoneshifters cried once in a thousand years. For some it was never.
The most affecting of all this was not that she wanted to travel to Old Earth, or even that she pressed him to leave Dispora, which his species never left. No, it was not that.
“You said...” He paused, put his hand to the top of her head. “You and I.”
“Yes. I’ve had companions who were as unusual...or more so than you? Apart from the size of their...bits. You fear to leave, I know. Overcoming our fears is what makes us better people.”
Philosophy, and this fleshborn female preached it to him. He’d thought this through a plethora of times, an infinity of times. He strived not to scowl. Also companion? He was more than that.
“Bits? Have you now?”
He was stirred to the point of wanting to fuck her here and now.
So confused was he, Zarblu missed her next suggestion as they stood in the exit to the zoo. Animals were bleating, whistling, and lowing behind them, and she’d said something about Ledderik?
The large plates of glassomer that were the doors slid aside and they walked through to the outer corridor. Sunlight beat down on his back, lit her upturned face.
“What was that you said, Mila?”
“Your cyborg, he needs a dick. All his killing addictions might be linked to sexual frustration.”
A novel approach. Where had this idea come from? “None of my psych doctors suggested this, and he’s been with me for close to a century.”
“Pfft. I know a frustrated man when I see one. His eyes were popping out over the thought of you fucking me. Let him have a cock. Even better, give my sister to him and my sword. It has nanites that induce lust. Tell him to scratch her with it, daily.”
Daily? From previous calculations that would have her writhing in front of him begging for it. What would Led think of that?
“That is wicked. Very wicked.” He took her small hand and led her down the corridor. “Is this your revenge? I thought you liked her.”
“I do. Family and all. But, she deserves this. Let it be a lesson for her. Ledderik obeys you and won’t truly hurt her if you instruct him. I’m sure having Tiana and the sword will satisfy him. He can make her want him, over and over.”
To torture her sister sexually would be Ledderik’s first choice, and she knew this. “I agree. She does deserve it.”
“My sword will be happy too. Ledderik will find it extremely chatty. You might also lessen his addiction to killing.”
Unlikely this would cure him but it was worth a try. “And so the sword is Ledderik’s penance? He isn’t fond of chattiness, unless he forces it on people. These are very, very good ideas. I will give the orders.”
“Thank you.”
“Hmmm.” Now all he had to do was decide how long to keep Mila for, before he let her go. She was devious but he’d known that. The two punishments did fit the crimes.
Letting her go was what he always did with sacrifices. This was the after-sacrifice processing time.
Fuck them, keep them a small amount of time until he tired of them, and let them go.
Stoneshifter thoughts chewed away at his adventurer thoughts.
Nothing should ever be done fast.
He’d contemplated leaving the planet for a long time. Just imagining actually doing it, though, it made his feet root to the stone. Made his stone skin crawl.
That night, he sat in the pond at the lookout while she slept in the cozy aerie. He lay back, with the water rippling in around him. The sky was black but dense with the twinkling pinpricks of stars.
Such a beautiful contradiction, and all of those stars were unreachable, for him. For any stoneshifter who let their fears command them.
Fear.
How terrible an emotion that was. All-threatening. Consuming. It’d worn paths in all his thought arrays.
She was correct. He was rich. He could go up there. He simply needed something like an explosive to unroot his feet from Dispora.
Or maybe he just needed her small hand in his.
A stoneshifter could die up there, and maybe that was good. Maybe it was time that he didn’t give a fuck. He’d had enough time sitting on his ass down here.
Done. He ground teeth on teeth. Done. He felt the little pieces of Osirii that had infected him through Mila get spat out into the pond through his skin. His system found them and dealt with them easily.
Mila. Infected Mila, who would die a little faster than she thought because the Osirii had sped up due to his presence. The things loved to try for stoneshifters. A common ancestry, perhaps? Time eroded memories after a while. Data was lost. Stoneshifters forgot.
There was another thing to consider. That little beauty nesting in his aerie had also brought this into his thoughts. Two things were his greatest cravings and his greatest fears.
Two, not one.
He climbed to his feet. The water dribbled down him in irregular tracks, as it sought the easiest way down the ravines and rises of his stone surface. His ears twitched and he bowed his head in a last firming of his decision.
Yes, he knew what he would do.
He’d thought on this long enough. Four thousand and two point three years since he’d first wondered about going elsewhere.
His path along the thoroughfare might seem a lonely one to an outsider but he was finally going to a place where he would never be alone again. He made arrangements as he walked, sent messages of command, had his finest starship brought to readiness.
Three days to do this properly and he would leave. Another stoneshifter could have his fortress until he returned...if he returned.
However.
He found the gear he wanted. Companion? She thought him that?
Zarblu snorted as he stood over her with the white collar in hand.
He nudged her with his foot and waited as she came to her knees, blinking and yawning.
“Good. Stay on your knees.” Pleasing, that she didn’t move as he fastened the collar about her neck. Pleasing that she still responded well to his caresses. The mating response should never cease if he remained with her. “This is yours. It will stay on you forever. I am not your companion.”
“No?” Mila licked her lips before she said more in a husky voice. “What is this for?”
If anything ever underscored how the mating response sent Mila into a whole new mindspace, it was this...her slowness of thought, her fuzziness, compared to their previous conversations. He rather loved that he affected her so, and his cock grew a few inches.
“It’s a slave collar. I have decided. I will go to the stars with you. We will explore together. Go to Old Earth.” And now his voice softened, for he heard no protests from the female. “You are mine forever.”
“Oh. I see.”
“Nothing more?”
“You confuse me. Which I admit is a new thing.” A frown appeared on her brow. “Slave?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.” Her lips remained parted.
“Hear me. Your infection accelerates and will destroy what is you within a decade if I do not intercede. And yes, I will,” he added, when he saw the question form on her lips. “I will give you many years of life. I can slow the infection and let you live an extra hundred years.” Which, now that he calculated it, was probably more than she’d have had anyway. He must check the stats on humans.
Zarblu tucked a finger under the collar then clipped on a leash, noting again that she only rested her hand on his wrist, almost as if to keep it there. He went to a knee to see her face on a level with his.
“Understand me?”
“My gods. You can do this?”
“In return you will give me a son. I wish a son.”
“Oh.” That cute blush overtook her. Her lips curved upward, mildly, and that was delight in her eyes. “A child? Well then.”
What he didn’t say was that her hatching a son for him was how he would give her life.
“Yes, a stoneshifter child. It will not harm you. We are small and squishy when born.”
“Squishy?” Mila smiled and tears brimmed in her eyes. “I don’t know why all this makes me happy...” She cleared her throat. “I need time.”
“You will have it on the journey outward.”
She could think. He still wasn’t ever letting her go. The more she was around him the more she would see this as good. It was predestined. Once chosen by a stoneshifter, a fleshborn girl always enjoyed the attention. He kissed her hand then slid his between her legs, felt along her slit while she stood with her eyelids lowering.
“Your cunt has responded to my touch, again.”
“Uh. As if it wouldn’t,” she whispered.
He kissed her breast then rose to tower over her. “Now you will suck and lick my cock until I say to stop.”
After that he would pleasure her and place the seed of his son inside her.
Wait. No. He would do that on the starship. It seemed wise to wait for her to say yes. Rude to do it now, even if he wished to.
What she didn’t know about this could wait for another day. Or never.
He grunted as she attempted to fit the entire head of his cock in her mouth. Her trying was enough to send a thrill down his shaft. He held either side of her head and marveled at her continued efforts, and that disgustingly agile and slippery tongue.
The pressure built, to come, to release, but he held himself back and didn’t try to fuck her mouth, much.
He must pace himself.
As a distraction, he thought of what must be done.
To be a father, a stoneshifter must give up his immortality because some life must go to the bearer of that son. He would gift it to her, Mila, and also to his child. It was how he could partially cure her, let her body hold off the Osirii, allow her to keep her own awareness and mind.
Eventually she would be a black sculpture of her present form and grow black Osirii wings. She would fly among the stars, if she so wished, live in the airless blackness of the universe.
And he would be there with her because minus his immortality he would inevitably be infected. Well, the wings business, he wasn’t sure a stoneshifter could ever fly.
Except in space he’d be weightless. Hmmm.
“Who the fuck cares,” he muttered as he turned her over, to push her head into the cushions and fully present her cunt to him.
He wrapped his hand over her hip, with the leash wound about his thumb, and began to fuck his little Mila deep and well, with some added violence because he knew she liked that.
Her groans from among the cushions made him speed up his thrusting.
Adventure awaited them. Old Earth. And giraffes in the wild. And lots more fucking.
The stars spun past his eyes as he came.
They were going...
To infinity and maybe a long way past that.
To the beyond.
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