TWENTY-TWO

Cecelia woke to darkness.

Groggy and disoriented, she tried to remember what had happened, where she was.  For a brief, terrifying moment, she thought she was back in the clutches of the Krevorags, the alien traffickers that had captured her and the other human women from Earth.

But then she heard Rixavox’s voice and she smelled a familiar scent of stone and warmth.

She relaxed.

“Luxiva, I am here,” he murmured down to her.  She realized he was carrying her in his arms, the way he always carried her to the…

It was why it was so dark.  They were in the tunnels.

“The Rillirax?” she guessed softly, her voice sounding faint.  She felt so weak and her skin felt like it was on fire.

“Tev,” he said.  “We must hurry.  Try to stay awake, Sessela.”

Dimly, she remembered their conversation before she’d passed out.  She’d told him that she was falling in love with him…and the things he’d told her…

A violent shiver racked her body and Rixavox cursed, his pace quickening.  He was murmuring something in Luxirian, like a prayer, a question, his voice getting louder and louder as they approached the end of the tunnel where the Rillirax was hidden.

Something was different.

As Cecelia fought the urge to go back to sleep, to that blissful place where she didn’t feel like her insides were being burned, she felt what she could only describe as power.  Pure power.

And when they stepped through the Rillirax?

Cecelia gasped, her back arching slightly.  It was like soaking in the sacred pool—that same touch that was both light as air and yet heavy—was all around her.  She felt the power gliding over her skin, soothing and incredible and comforting.

Rixavox continued to speak in Luxirian on the threshold.  When she glanced up at him, feeling some of the pain leave her body, his eyes were closed, his brows furrowed, and he concentrated on ancient words that Cecelia felt in her very soul.  The feeling that he brought to every single syllable, every purring rasp, brought tears to her eyes.

And she knew.  She knew what he was saying, or rather, asking.  It was a prayer, to the Fates, to his deities.

But it seemed more than that.

It seemed ritualistic.

Cecelia heard herself panting when he stopped, her breathing labored.  Other than her harsh breaths, there was no other sound in the Rillirax.  But Rixavox seemed to be waiting for something, eyes still closed, his body completely still, as if waiting for the Fates to pass judgment on them.

And then it happened.

An energy, as hot as lightning, ravaged through her body, beginning from the very tips of her toes to the top of her head.  She felt it everywhere, coursing, exploring, prodding.

“W-what’s happening?” she gasped out, clenching her fists tightly, fearing the energy would leak from her fingertips and that its power would be consuming.  She didn’t feel the pain of whatever had been plaguing her body, whether it had been cancer or…something else.  It was replaced by this intensity, this probing magic.

Rixavox’s muscles were tight against her and she wondered if he felt it too.  “The beginning of the ravraxia.  The Seeing,” he said, looking down at her.  She jaw his jaw was tense, teeth gritted.  “I will explain soon, but just hold on to it, luxiva.  Let the Fates look inside you and then let them pass on.”

His words didn’t make sense and yet they did.  She understood, in a primal part of herself, what he meant.  She needed to be patient as this force, this energy was inside her.  She needed to open herself to them, to let them see what was inside her heart, her soul.

Cecelia gasped when they left, just as suddenly as they came.

And in their place was a warmth.  The pain from before vanished completely and something else was building, building in its place.

Her eyelids fluttered shut, her lips parting.

“R-Rixavox?” she questioned, her voice ending on a slight whimper.

Instead of the stinging desire that began rising in her body, all Rixavox seemed to feel was a supreme relief.  In a guttural voice, he said, “The Fates have blessed us, luxiva.  We can begin now.”

Immediately, he strode into the familiar cavern of the Rillirax, with its creeping silver vines and beckoning pool and humid warmth.  With extreme care, he placed her on a small boulder next to the water and he undid the bundle of furs he had strapped to his back, shaking them out, before laying them on the ground.

Her body was taut, overcharged, like remnants of the Fates’ energy she’d felt still remained inside her, would always remain.  She rubbed her hands over her arms and gasped.  Everything was sensitive.  Overly sensitive.

“B-begin what?” she asked, a wave of soft, gentle pleasure rolling through her.

Rixavox gave a purring growl and when she looked at him, his eyes were squeezed shut.  When he discarded his shirt, baring his chest, she saw his muscles were enlarged.  His horns were completely straight.

He feels it too, she realized.

But he was fighting against it.  She could see it in the rigid lines of his body.

His back hunched slightly and he gave a ragged pant, leaning one hand against the wall of the cavern.  The same wave of desire racked her body hard too and her moan echoed around the cavern, nipples tingling under her thin tunic.

“A blood bond, female,” Rixavox rasped.  When her half-lidded eyes found his gaze, his pupils were enlarged, darkened.  Everything about him seemed bigger, larger.  It was then she realized that she was seeing parts of his Instinct, that primal, animalistic force that he kept at bay.  It was more apparent to her now.

“The Fates have taken away your pain, given you the gift of desire that will fuel the ravraxia,” he explained, straightening from the wall when the wave passed.  He approached her, sprawled across the top of the boulder.  Even with his Instinct shining through, Rixavox’s eyes were soft as he looked at her and she almost choked on the emotion that welled up in her chest.  “But they have only given us time, the illusion of health.”

“I don’t understand,” she whispered, leaning up towards him, needing to be close, to feel his skin on her own.

“Levrix was poisoning you,” he said.

Cecelia’s breath hitched.  “What?”

“With anglavix, a powerful and dangerous herb.  This is not the hellixaxava, but something different.  The poison still resides in you and we must cure it before—,” he stopped, swallowing hard, “before it takes you.”

“How?” she asked softly.

“A blood bond,” he replied.  “My blood is strong.  The Fates’ will aid their power during it, strengthening it further.  Kirzalla and Privanax believe it will be enough to cure you, of both the poison and the hellixaxava.”

“Really?” she asked quietly.  The light of the Luxirian moon illuminated her eyes and Rixavox knew he’d never seen anything so beautiful, so pure, than what he saw in her gaze.

He exhaled a sharp breath.  “You must understand that a blood bond is…powerful.  Blood bonds are only performed during mating ceremonies, the ravraxia.  What you feel now…it might only be a sampling of what will come.”

Another wave of desire was rising within her again, each one more powerful than the last.  She feared what she would do when it crested.

“But you said Luxirians mate for life,” she whispered, trying to clear the fogginess in her head from the Fates’ presence, from the prickling, tingling lust that sizzled in her veins.

He shook his head with a growl.  “It does not matter, Sessela,” he insisted.  “You will still have the choice to return to your home planet.  This does not change that.”

“But—”

“You do not know the fear I feel, even now,” he said, maneuvering his forehead to lean against her own.  Cecelia sucked in a breath, her eyelids fluttering shut at his nearness, before she opened them to look into his eyes.  “Seeing you like that, afraid that the Fates would take you to the blackworld, away from me…it is the worse fear I have ever known.”

“Rixavox,” she whispered, her throat beginning to burn.

“I will do anything to see you healed,” he finished.  “Anything, luxiva.”

What she felt for him was unparalleled, she realized.  And there was no one who was his equal in her eyes.  There never would be.

The wave of pleasure was beginning to crest and she found herself clutching at his arms, squeezing harder with every passing moment.

He was waiting for her answer.  And Cecelia knew that he would do nothing until she gave him her full acceptance, that this was something she wanted, even as the energy within her—within them both—was becoming unbearable and impossible to ignore.

“Yes,” she whispered against him.  She leaned forward, pressing her lips against his.  “I’m ready.  Yes.”

Rixavox’s hands immediately encircled her waist, clutching her to him as he wedged his hips between her legs.  Cecelia gasped, the pleasure of feeling him against her overwhelming.

She felt so many different emotions at the same time…an intense need for Rixavox, fear that her body might not be able to heal, happiness that she was with him, awed by the power and magic of that place, but most importantly, she felt love.  She felt love in her heart, something she’d never experienced before, and she felt loved by the alien male who was kissing her like she was the only woman in the entire universe for him.

Because to a certain extent, she was.

It was humbling, beautiful, pure.  She would have probably burst into happy tears if the desire making every part of her body tingle had been any less distracting or intense.

Rixavox hauled her up in his arms and she wrapped her legs around his hips, holding onto his shoulders as he walked them over to the padded furs he’d placed down on the floor of the cavern.

“The blood bond,” he said, voice ragged as he laid her down gently, “is performed when we are joined together, when I am deep inside you, tev?”

Cecelia sucked in a breath and nodded, feeling heat branch out from her center at his words.  “O-okay.”

The wave began to crest when he dropped down over her, settling his weight between her thighs.

“Rixavox,” she gasped and then moaned, her back bowing.  The only way she could describe it was like mini-orgasms throughout every part of her body, spreading, growing.

His purr made his entire chest vibrate and she heard his jaw pop from how hard he was clenching it from the pleasure.

“It will feel even better, luxiva,” he rasped, grabbing the hem of her tunic and pulling it over her head.  He accidentally ripped it with his strength and tossed it away with a growl, before dropping his head to nuzzle her breasts, sucking the tips of her peaked nipples into his mouth.

It was too intense.  Cecelia was surprised when a soft scream tore from her throat as stabs of pleasure assaulted her body.  She thought she might cum just from him sucking on her breasts.

Dazed and moaning, she blindly reached down and fumbled with the material that covered exactly what she wanted, what she needed.  Rixavox’s growl echoed around the cavern as he helped her with the fastenings, before tearing through them like tissue paper and tossing them next to her ruined shirt.

Cecelia felt every inch of him.  His cock bobbed between them and she whimpered when she felt his pre-cum pool just below her belly button, hot and searing, as his thick, ridged length dragged across her sensitive flesh.  Rixavox rocked his hips against her and he groaned.  She felt the sound fill her head as more wetness coated her inner thighs.  She was more than ready for him.

“Now, Rixavox,” she panted, arching her back as she could feel more of his flesh pressed against her.  He felt like heaven.  “Please!”

She saw stars burst into her vision when another wave crashed over her, as demanding as it was exquisite.  The flutterings of an orgasm teased her from between her thighs and her alien warrior hadn’t even touched her there yet.

“Tev, luxiva,” Rixavox hissed.  “Vellixa, ta vellixa.”

The flames of lust licked higher and higher until she thought she might burn up completely.  Mindlessly, she rocked her hips, trying to find him with a single-minded desperation that should’ve frightened her.  Above her, Rixavox looked wild, undone.  His rumbling growls and purrs echoed in the cavern and fueled her determination.

“Please hurry,” she choked out.  “I c-can’t—I—”

Finally, he leaned back slightly.  Cecelia whimpered when he reached down and grasped that thick cock, guiding it towards her entrance.  A part of her wondered if they would fit while the other part continued to roll her hips, desperately trying to wedge him inside.

“Are you sure, luxiva?” he rasped, his voice grated and rough and delicious.

“Yes!” she cried, feeling like she was on the verge of tears because she needed him so goddamn badly.  Her body was literally shaking with need and desire.

She felt the head of his cock nudge at her entrance and he breathed, “Vrax.”  A Luxirian curse.

“Please, honey,” she whispered.  She felt her heart pounding everywhere…in her fingertips, on the sides of her throat, in her stomach, between her thighs.

She was ready.

So, so ready.

His gaze flashed to hers, possession clear in those dark blue eyes, as he growled, “Luxiva.”

Time seemed to stop when he gave one powerful thrust of his hips, their bodies lined up so perfectly that he slid right in, to the very hilt.

Cecelia cried out, mouth wide, and his resounding roar filled her ears and made her spine tingle.

Immediately, she began cumming and her back arched in surprise as she felt those ridges rub against her sensitive walls, stimulating her G-spot, filling her so completely and fully.

“Your cunt is so tight, female,” he growled down to her with a perfect roll of his strong hips.  “Tev!  I feel you.”

“O-oh my God,” she cried, unable to do anything but accept the intense, life-changing, all-consuming pleasure of her orgasm.  And when Rixavox began thrusting?  Every thrust made another orgasm explode in her body, compounding on one another, each more intense than the last, until Cecelia couldn’t do anything except remember to breathe.

Every muscle in her body tensed as she rode it out.  But it was never-ending.  Her skin was so sensitive that she felt every single soft hair of the furs beneath her.  She felt the heat of the Rillirax drifting over their joined bodies like a gentle whisper.  The erotic sounds of Rixavox’s guttural groans, her breathless gasps, and their flesh slapping together as he thrust harder and harder…it was ecstasy.  The purest form of pleasure.

And her Luxirian?  She felt closer to him in that intimate moment than she’d ever felt to another being in her life.

“Kiss me,” she said, her voice nothing more than broken syllables and rough rasps.

She felt Rixavox’s purr as he obeyed.  His ridged tongue swept against her own as he gave another teeth-chattering pump of his hips, stroking in and out, in and out, a maddening rhythm punctuated by fast, sometimes slow, sometimes hard thrusts.

She couldn’t stop cumming.

Rixavox gave a rough growl as he tore away from her lips, a wild, yet focused, look in his gaze as he watched her from above.

“Now, luxiva,” he rasped.

The blood bond.

Cecelia nodded and she gasped when he slowed his thrusts, but he didn’t stop completely.  Then, he dragged the edge of one sharp claw just at the base of his neck and her eyes widened when blue blood trickled down.

Cecelia finally understood what a blood bond meant.  She met his eyes, knowing that this was a male that would literally do anything for her because he cared about her above all others…

She nodded, a strange mixture of pleasure and fear and love looping in her chest.  When she tilted her neck back, there was a brief burning pain as he sliced a small cut into her skin.

Rixavox kissed her again, lingering on her lips, before saying, “Take as much as you can, Sessela.”

That would be easy because she wanted all of him.