SUNDAMAR

His boots crushed the ground, leaving angry footprints behind him. He wasn’t a quiet valos, not by a long shot; those who were powerful didn’t need to hide. Their strength did the work, allowing them to rule over others, and have all their demands met. It was all his and had been since the day he opened his eyes. Sundamar was given dominance before he even knew his name, and he hated it.

A valos could be born with it but that wasn’t true power: true power had to be earned. He had earned nothing, which was why he was a shadowed dirt leader.

A twig snapped under his heel, making him bite down on his teeth so hard that his jaw locked. Another snap, another crunch, another thump, each new sound ticked away at him, reminding him that no matter what he did, he would never fly.

Sundamar barreled through the forest, sending the wild beasts fleeing with his loud approach. Even the ak'rena, the four-legged screechers that infested and feasted on anything in their path, gave him wide berth. It was unfortunate because he itched to draw his sword and send limbs flying. Another part of him wished to pierce something as well...

He cursed as his member rose to attention.

Snap. Crunch. Thump.

He came to a stop, sniffing the air as a breeze swirled past his nose. It was gone before he could name the scent it carried but he had discerned one piece of information. He scanned the grove around him: the broken foliage on the ground, the fruits pulled from bushes, bitten into and left behind.

Sundamar smelled... blood. It wasn’t fresh. It didn’t smell like valos sanguine nor a Sonhadra beast; it smelled... used, possibly tainted. He dropped to his knee and lifted one of the forgotten fruits to his face. There. A bite mark, similar to a valos’s bite but smaller. It can’t be a valos. First off, he knew no valos that readily feasted on poison fruit, secondly, he smelled none of the species in this glen nor nearby, and thirdly, the bite was far too small, delicate almost, as if the being who nipped it was afraid to and took the tiniest morsel possible.

The female’s been here. He dropped the spoiled fruit and stood, one hand reaching back to clasp the hilt of his broadsword. Moments passed as his fingers twitched upon it, waiting for a possible trap to spring, but when the silence continued, only interrupted by the occasional forest song, he let it go with a sigh.

I really want to stab something. His swelling organ twitched as though in agreement. Sundamar shifted on his feet before he forced himself to stop,  refusing to acknowledge it.

He perused the area and found more footprints amongst the slight drizzle of rain. He wasn’t a tracker by any means, having been raised to lead rather than follow, but he could easily make out the large footprints of the ak’rena and the smaller, more chaotic, prints of a small valos. Booted prints that may only be from a valos whelp, which meant either the Creators were back or one of the other species were breeding.

Sundamar figured the former was more likely. It was the only explanation for the lifeforce flowing back through him. He moved to the center of the attack and that’s when he saw it, the blood he’d smelled earlier. A washed out trail that dragged off into the forest.

He gritted his teeth, and with his hand back on the hilt of his broadsword, he followed the prints. The dried, muddled edges were rehydrating with rain and already washing away. He picked up his pace as he was led further and further from the attack site. His fingers tightened as he moved with caution because even though it was midday and the ak’rena were creatures of the night, it didn’t mean they wouldn’t awaken and attack him.

The sword slipped silently out of its scabbard as the dank scent of wet dirt and reinvigorated blood heightened. There were no more small valos prints, none that had followed this trail, and he found a whisper of relief knowing that the pale girl from earlier hadn’t risked her life.

Although every step he took on this path was one step farther from her, his heart beat wildly knowing he was close. She looked nothing like he had ever seen. This need to conquer won’t release its hold on me. It wasn’t simply the magnetized pull he felt with the female, it was also the mystery of the stone that lay before him. A stone that could finally make him whole.

His eyes landed on a strip of tattered orange cloth. Blood glistened on the dirt around it.

Sonhadra had undergone a change, one that he hadn’t seen nor known about until it had already happened.

The blood path deepened, and the trail was no longer just on the ground, but dripping on the nearby plants and bushes.

Splatter. The earthy scents strengthened and he swallowed down the bile in his throat. Another strip of strange orange cloth. Sundamar passed it all by, intent on what was ahead of him.

His booted feet squished beneath him and the wind picked up. His skin prickled. He felt cut off, hidden away from the sun and all its glory. Even now, his temperance diminished and he teetered on the border of uneasiness. The gloom always had this effect on him, same as his brothers, but he felt it more than Galan, Quist, or any of the others had. Lusheenn detested all places blacked out and dark.

His nostrils flared and he tossed a thick branch aside. A nest of sleeping ak’rena lay on the other side, their maws gored with the strange-smelling blood, and their bellies distended. In the middle were more pieces of cloth, drenched in murky rain and browned-out blood. Bones had been picked clean and limbs accompanied them. A head so alike a valos, with a toothy mouth poised in an endless roar, stared back at him.

Sundamar pressed a finger to his lips, unsure why he enjoyed seeing the dismembered being. It was dead but he taunted it all the same.

The girl who held his heart had escaped this. She still lived and was nearby. He knew because he felt it. If his body wasn’t drawn to her, his broadsword was.

But first, he had a mess to clean up and a nest to clear out. He raised his sword, now ablaze with white light, opening the skies, and severed the first head.

One bloodcurdling slice and the soul of the beast sank into the ground.

One arching swipe and two more joined the first.

It was only during the rare moments of battle did he appreciate not having a pair of wings of his own. Only during battle could he spin his giant sword and sever Sonhadra in half.

Wings be damned.

***

YAHIRO

She dreamed of sparkles. Not the gaudy store-bought ones, but the ones that were created by the light. Sparkles that reflected off of a cubic zirconia window-chime, the likes of which her little sister collected when they were children. They hung next to toy unicorns, fake wands covered in gemstones, and the nag champa incense piles always found in their foyer.

But these sparkles were different. They were a million little spotlights created by the sun’s rays moving through the trees. The breeze shifted the leaves like an exodus of monarchs, making the trees glitter although when in reality, it was an illusion. It didn’t stop her from becoming mesmerized.

“What’s on your mind, Yahiro-chan?”

She peeled her gaze away from the trees to look at her papa. It took her a moment to blink the sunspots from her eyes. “The sun.”

“It’s a beautiful one.” He lifted a cup to his lips.

“There’s only one sun.” She felt smart correcting her otou-chan. He was her everything, her parents were everything, and her younger sister held her love. Yahiro loved them to the point of pain. She loved them like she loved the fake sparkles just then.

“If you think so. Your world is large, yes?”

Yahiro tilted her head. “Yes.”

“Is this the same sun you saw yesterday when you went to bed?”

She played at her lips, confused by Papa’s questioning. “Yes.”

“Will it be the same one you see tomorrow?”

Yahiro thought about it but knew that Papa was leading her toward something she wasn’t going to grasp. It was his way.

“Yes,” she answered confidently.

“Ah.”

She narrowed her eyes and continued to watch him as he silently sipped his morning tea. Not far away, the loud sounds of her mama picked up: the garbage disposal running and a stressed voice talking to herself. The fleeting peace Yahiro held without knowing was quickly coming to an end. She watched it like she watched the end credits to a movie but with a cacophony of dishes rather than music.

“There’s only one sun, otou-chan,” Yahiro stated, more to reassure herself.

“Then what do you call that?” He pointed before them and she followed his finger. She blinked but only saw grey clouds. But behind those clouds was a golden-red orb. It wasn’t the sun; it was much too large, much too red. She lifted her hand and rubbed her eyes with a shiver.

“Awake.”

The voice wasn’t Papa’s. It was his, and as he came into view, her father receded and vanished.

Yahiro moved away feeling sad. “Sorry, I must’ve dozed off. How long have I been out?”

“Out?”

“Asleep,” she corrected, climbing out of Quist’s lap and away from his heat. The canopy of wings shifted to stay over her head.

“A little less than a noon’s rising worth.”

That told her nothing but she didn’t care, didn’t ask, accepting it like how she was coming to accept everything else. Instead, she looked around, feeling disparaged and itchy. Her eyes landed on the rippling brook. It looks so fresh... so clean. The sweat, dirt, and grime under her awful skin-tight prison uniform quickly became unbearable. The phena waded undisturbed below the surface.

“Is that safe?” She pointed at the water. “Can I clean myself in it?” He followed her finger not unlike she had moments before in her dream and nodded.

She tentatively stepped out into the rain and Quist drew his wings back but not before he shook them out, sending the excess water flying. The squelch of water sliding underneath her uniform, lukewarm and uncomfortable, made her wish she could trade her left arm for a long bath and spa day. But she only had a running brook on an alien world to sate her needs and she wasn’t going to look a gift-horse in the mouth.

Not a gift-horse... The brook was the best thing to happen to her in awhile.

Yahiro hobbled to the edge and sat down, checking her foot, and to her amazement, found it pink and half-healed. She ran her finger over Quist’s feather and looked back at him. He remained seated under a tree canopy several yards away, watching her intently. In his sights. She took a deep breath and looked back at the water, subconsciously reaching for a gun that still was not there.

“I’m going to take a bath,” she stated.

“Why?”

She peeked back over her shoulder at the alien. “Because I’m dirty and disgusting. Why else?”

“You have Sonhadra all over you.” His eyes roamed slowly over her body making her swallow.

“Which means I’m dirty,” Yahiro replied dryly. “I also have blood, sweat, and tears on me as well. Don’t you bathe?”

His lips quirked up into a coy smile. “With water? No. Not unless Sonhadra tries to return me to the dirt early. The sun keeps me clean.”

“And if there’s no sun?”

“Hmm...”

She looked away and chewed on her lower lip, gnawed on it until it was raw and red. Her fingers itched to tear off her clothes but she didn’t know how the alien would react. Has he seen a nude woman before? Will he be repulsed by me? Am I opening myself to something that I’ll have no control over?

Does his kind rape?

Yahiro combed her drenched hair away from her face, wishing Quist was a human because she at least knew the outcomes of baring oneself in front of a human man.

And although Quist looked like a desert warrior, angel nomad, he also looked dangerous and at times, angry.

Yahiro played with the snap of her pants. “Would you give me privacy?”

“Privacy?”

“Eerrr. Uuh. Aloneness? Can you let me bathe alone?”

“Yes.”

She let out a long breath of thanks and waited for Quist to leave, glancing over her shoulder a minute later when he hadn’t moved. “Well?”

He shook his head in question, his eyes never leaving her.

“Aren’t you leaving?”

“No. I promised you life. And my eyes, Yahiro of Quist.”

“But you said I could bathe alone!”

“You will. I have no need to wash. I’ll wait for the clouds to disperse.”

She fumbled with the snap, dying to open it and tear off her disgusting clothing, but didn’t want to lead the alien on in any way. What if nudity means...? She wasn’t shy, she’d been naked in front of countless men, a way for the Snake to crawl under her skin, but she didn’t want to digress into culture shock any more than she wanted to keep her clothes on.

More time passed without her decision.

“Do you need help? Are you hurt?” Quist came toward her and crouched at her side. Her heart pounded.

“No.” Yahiro curved into herself. “I’m just trying to protect myself...”

“From what?” His hand settled on the whip at his side. After a moment of narrowed perusal, he returned his gaze to her. “We’re safe. They’re no ak’rena nearby, although my brot—”

“Have you seen a-a naked female of your kind before?” she blurted out.

“—brother—There are no light female valos.”

No females? Too many philosophical questions came to mind. “How is that possible? How do you even know what a female is then?”

He smiled down at her, his hand still poised on his weapon. “Other valos have females. Lusheenn has a sister, the Creator of blazes, but the light is only populated by males.” He spat the last part, his brow furrowing in anger. “He gave us sex organs,” Quist grasped the bulge between his parted knees, “but no place to put them, no way to use them, instead gleeing when we’re forced to use our hands. He created us as half of a whole and for that... he must die!”

Yahiro flinched back but was caught with a powerful grip on her wrist. She tugged, but he kept her trapped.

“Galan, my older brother, has suffered the most. He was created when Lusheenn was hard as Sundamar has told us. The miserable, endless need in him has never left, not in the hundreds of thousands of dawns, noons, and dusks that have passed. Our Creator spoiled us from the inside out, rotting with whatever whim he had the day he made us. There was no mercy, no forgiveness, and it’s my duty to seek him out and deliver his death. Even if it means killing the sun above and sending my brothers and me back into the abyss.”

She had stopped fighting him, hearing his words but not understanding them. And I thought I would cause culture shock with my nudity but this... Him... Quist and this alien world are nothing, nothing like home. Her mind reeled.

The only thing she could think of to say was, “I’m sorry.” And she truly was. Her concerns were miniscule compared to his.

He let her go. “Why?”

“I’m trying to understand but... this,” she waved her hand around her, “confuses me. You confuse me,” she finished in a whisper. “I wanted to take a bath, to clean myself, focused on the now, but-but here you are, an alien, one on a planet god-knows-where, with more on his mind than survival and I’m afraid stripping naked in front of you would get me—us hurt. I guess I’m sorry because I don’t understand and—” She took a quaky breath. “All I can think about is getting out of this uniform and sinking into that water. You’re thinking about destroying the—the sun.”

Oh god.

She missed her papa in that moment more than she ever had when she was still on Earth. More than the endless months kept prisoner underground and in outer space.

Quist sat back, the anger melting from his face, his hand still cupping the now obviously erect alien dick in his hand. “A bath is important to you, Yahiro of Quist. My vengeance has spanned the ages of Sonhadra and can span another day. Bathe and know that when you’re in my sights, nothing will harm you, and that I won’t harm you. I keep my oaths.”

That makes one of us. She glanced back at the twinkling water. “Promise?”

“Oathed?”

“Yes.”

She turned away from him and stepped into the water, loving and hating the cool feel of it over her skin. Loving and hating it as much as her turmoiled emotions. Once she was crouched with her waist below the shallow middle, she tugged off her orange pants and clutched the material in her hands while she dared a look back at the alien.

His eyes bore into her and his wings were as stiff as two towers at his sides. “What does nudity mean in your world?” she asked, her belly rolling and her heart racing, her fingers playing at the bottom edge of her shirt.

“It has no meaning.”

“So this,” she indicated herself, “has no meaning?” Yahiro hoped.

“It does and it doesn’t.”

“I don’t understand?”

“I’ve never wanted to see what happens next so much as I do now.”

“That helps not at all,” she sighed, loving the water against her bare legs. She sank further in.

“My body feels connected to yours and yet I don’t know what to expect. All I know is that my member has swelled for you. That I hope to see a place where it’s meant to be, and that this is all for naught.”

Yahiro coughed and sputtered and turned fully away from him. The knot in her belly grew worse and she tried to ignore it, but his presence made it hard for her to do so. She looked down and watched the water sweep the dirt away from her skin.

“And if you find that... place?” she asked.

His voice was directly behind her, caressing her ear. “Then I’ll have a little hope.”

Her skin prickled and she rubbed her palms over her bare thighs. “I won’t show you,” she whispered hoarsely, refusing to turn around and face him.

“Don’t you feel the connection?” His finger caught a lank of her hair and tugged it lightly, his nearness burning her from the inside out. “This is obvious.”

You make it sound so simple.

You... you have no idea. Nothing about me is simple. I’m used up, chewed up, spit on and spat out. I’ve been shot at, stomped on, cut, beaten, and urinated on. She wanted to cry but didn’t. She wanted to stop the thoughts but couldn’t. They broke me apart... until I was as horrible as they were.

There were two types of evil men in the world: those who were born evil, their horror embedded in their very soulless cells, and those who were made evil. She had been by the heads of both.

“Please,” she said it so softly she barely heard herself. “Please don’t.”

Her hair was let go, and with it, her breath. Yahiro heard the flutter of Quist’s wings flap behind her as she bowed into herself. The pressure lifted and he moved away. Without turning to face him, she unzipped her shirt and let it drop, watching it flow a few feet away and catch on a rock.

Her underwear went next and then she lowered her entire body beneath the shallow water, forgetting the world around her, luxuriating in the clean, fresh feeling of water over her unclean skin.

She felt him watching her. Felt his eyes on her bare skin and pert breasts with nipples that had grown taut under the cool water but she refused to acknowledge it. He continued to watch her as she rubbed the dirt from her skin and moaned in pleasure. She made sure her legs remained closed.

The lullaby of soft rain was the only noise between them for minutes, hours, days—who knew? Yahiro let her body rise to the top and allowed herself to drift with only one hand pressed down to the silted dirt to hold her in place.

Throughout, she scrubbed her hair over and over again, enjoying the feel of it over her neck and shoulders. Sonhadra was a distant memory.

The only thing that covered her was Quist’s eyes—his eyes, and her contentment. She held onto it for as long as she could.

It wasn’t until her stomach growled anew that she realized her second night was upon the horizon when she slipped out of the water to lay upon the ground beside him.

Her eyes were closed as soft feathers ran across her water-wrinkled skin. He dried her off, every curve and hidden spot of her explored and warmed. It was erotic and too forward, but the exhausted bliss she kept succumbing to made her not care at all.

The barest touch of the outer edges of his furthest away feathers caressed her. Her skin rose in gooseflesh and she arched off the ground with a shiver with each swipe. He continued to brush them over her body long after she was dry and long after the rain had trickled a slow-burn stop off the leaves above.

She curled up and shifted closer to him and he covered her with one of his wings. The other one continued to touch whatever parts of her remained uncovered.

It didn’t matter. There was no one left in her world now but him, and coming to that realization seemed to lift a weight off of her shoulders.

Yahiro opened her eyes and looked up at the alien who tickled the curves of her areolas and softly scraped the stems of his feathers along the curvature of her butt. She kept her thighs firmly together, even with each new swipe over her peaked nipples or curious silken probing at her bare pelvis whispering lower. His eyes glowed with intent. Her pulse thrummed as her pussy contracted and she broke apart in squeamish embarrassment as the tip of one feather brushed over her swollen clit.

Her legs quivered and she struggled to keep them together as her body gave in to his exploration.

“I want to know if we’re compatible,” he whispered next to her ear, his breath warm against her lobe. She desperately wanted to know too. “Let me look at you, human Yahiro.”

She squeezed her eyelids tight as his hands joined his feathers on her skin. They were warm and large, soft but probing. She told herself if she kept from looking at him, then none of this was real, even though the knot in her belly screamed at her that it was.

“You have been looking at me,” she rushed out to say as his palms smoothed over her breasts and down her sides, stopping on her upper thighs to cup them. He moved to straddle above her, taking his feathers away, and replacing them with the heat of his body. “I haven’t left your sight.”

“No... and you never will, Yahiro of Quist.”

“Don’t say that,” she whimpered, holding still while trying to adjust to what was happening. She liked the sound of being his but she wasn’t and could never be... because she already belonged to someone else. She shot down the memories that rose like acid in her throat. Yahiro pressed her palms to her face and stole back the moment.

His hands moved inward until his thumbs brushed over the slight folds of skin on either side of her clit, slowly spreading them back until her bud was revealed. Her breathing grew ragged as his fingers caressed the area around it, driving her closer to madness.

“You jump when I touch this,” his thumb pressed her bud, making her jerk beneath him. “Why?”

“It feels good,” she gasped. He did it again but this time in light circular motions. The tempo increased and the spot between her breasts slickened with sweat. He didn’t stop. Instead, he explored and kneaded, pinching and flicking her clit over and over as she writhed under him.

Quist let go and took hold of her hands and pulled them from her face. She was teetering toward climax and borderline murderous when his playful attentions stopped. Her eyelids shot open as he dragged her hands down and placed them on his erected bulge.

“If you won’t let me look at you, look at me, tell me if we’re compatible,” his strained voice demanded. He pressed her open palms on either side of his erection and she wasn’t even bothered by his forwardness.

Yahiro wrapped her fingers around his length, feeling its hardness through his cloth pants, thankful for the similarities in shape to a human male. Except... it felt off. She swallowed and leaned up to explore him further, gripping him harder, trying to figure out if it was something under the cloth that made his shaft have texture, or if it wasn’t in the cloth at all and that the bumps she felt were actually part of his dick. He placed his hands back on her thighs as she tried to move the excess material around.

“What are those bumps?” She slipped the corded belt from his pants and paused, looking up and waiting for his assurance.

“Sun piercings.”

“That’s—that’s a lot of bumps. Can I see it?”

His lips lifted up into a lazy smirk, one that should never grace the mouth of an angel, let alone an alien that looked like one. “So you’re curious about our compatibility, human Yahiro? Not all valos are built the same.”

Her hands strangled the excess cloth on his lower hips, suddenly way too nervous about what she might find. Quist tickled his feathers up and down her arms and over her exposed back. It did little to soothe the ache or reassure her. If anything, the fact that he had feathers sent an image of a feathered dick to her head.

She’d been through a lot down in William’s dungeon but this... nothing prepared her for this.

“What’s that face for? Have I hurt you?”

“No.” She swallowed. “You haven’t hurt me once yet. I kinda wish I had a genitalia textbook that I could read somewhere private and alone. I’d settle for an explicit webpage on the anatomy of valos, or-or an intellectual seminar.” She ended with a cough, her gaze locked on the tent of his pants.

“I don’t know what a genitalia textbook or webpage words are. A smart seminar would be an intel gathering?” Yahiro laughed hearing Quist try and say the Americanized words.

“Never mind,” she chuckled softly, breathlessly. “None of that has anything to do with you or this place.” She imagined trying to explain to him what the internet was and quickly gave up. The hands on her thighs lifted and cupped her breasts. She jerked as he pinched her nipples. “Too much!”

“They were going soft.”

“—because I was distracted—”

“By my erect member?”

He let go of her and tugged down his pants. A very stiff, incredibly beautiful, alien cock presented itself in front of her face. The smell of sweet sugar and hops filled her nose. Yahiro scooted back a foot so he no longer straddled her waist, putting some distance between her lips and his curved tip.

“Will it fit inside you?”

She barely heard his words as her eyes went wide at what she was seeing. It caught a lone ray of the setting sun and glittered like polished gold.

“Yes,” she choked out and wasn’t prepared when he tugged her legs out from underneath him and thrust them open. To check for himself.

The bumps on his cock weren’t bumps at all. They were indeed piercings, dozens of them, the same kind that were around his nipples and down the curves of his arm. Except they weren’t in any particular design; they were everywhere.

She reached out to take him in her hand and checked, not bothered that he had no testicles, but more concerned with the fact that every square inch of his cock had at least three beautifully polished baubles. The tip of her pointer finger was small enough to trail across the spaces of unpierced skin.

“You did this to yourself?” No man would go through so much pain.

He didn’t answer her and when she tore her gaze from his shaft to look at him, it was to find him staring intently between her legs. A slight breeze slipped through and she tried to clench her thighs shut but he held her still.

“Quist?”

He pushed her legs up and held her in place, forcing her to lie back on the cold moss, regardless of her struggles. Familiar embarrassment flooded her but he seemed unconcerned by it.

“What’re you doing?”

“Which one is your opening to receive me?” he asked, trailing a finger from her clit to her back bud. “I see two.”

“Quist!” Yahiro couldn’t have been more on fire if the sun were directly overhead and boring down on them. She grabbed hold of his wrist but her attempts to move him away were deterred. “You promised you wouldn’t hurt me,” she whispered, squeezing everything shut but it only made her feel that much more empty.

He stopped and bowed over her, covering her completely, pressing her into the ground. “I would never hurt you,” he whispered over her lips. Quist pressed his chest into hers and she could feel the nips of his piercings tease over her naked flesh. The tip of his cock brushed back and forth between her legs. He lifted her legs up to hook around his waist. “Where do I put it?” His eyes went dark with craving.

“Here,” she choked out, losing her mind to the deepening shadows and the spitfire desire in her body. The instant connection she had felt for him burst apart any doubts she had. She guided his hand back between her legs and pressed his middle finger to her pussy, already wet and clenching with the need to wrap around something, anything, preferably his cock. His finger slowly delved in, probing and testing her quim. “It stretches,” she gasped, tilting her head back. She released his hand and moved her hips to feel more of his finger inside of her.

His heated breath hit her cheek as he leaned closer but he didn’t kiss her, instead, the only kisses he gave came from his panting alone as he tentatively explored her sex as she had explored his.

“Do I...?” he stopped and she squinted her eyes open, slowly losing his golden features to the early evening haze.

“What?”

He planted his knees down and moved her pelvis upward until her butt rested on his thighs, and he pressed his free arm next to her head to keep above her. His wings were ramrod straight behind, mirroring the erectness of his ornate dick. Their mouths hovered close, a hairbreadth difference, but she couldn’t make the move to kiss him, to lock their lips. She was afraid that she’d lose what was left of her soul if she did.

“Do I push in?” he asked as he swirled his finger around in a slow, agonizing circle, each brief pass pressing deliciously, heavily against her g-spot until it moved around again in an effort to stretch her but not being able to do so.

The sweat between her breasts trickled down to her belly and her brow beaded as she fought his tortuous ministrations, rolling her hips to the movement of his finger. “Yes.”

He pressed his hand hard against her pussy, sending her reeling.

“Oh, god yes!”

“Divinity,” he corrected, the strain in his voice borderline dangerous. “Lusheenn,” he continued.

“Yes, yes, yes.” She grabbed his wrist and pressed it harder against her pussy, vibrating from the pressure. It was almost enough to achieve relief from... almost. “If I’m wet—” she moaned and arched up. “If I’m wet enough, you just—just line the tip of your—member—” she broke off with another moan as his hand assaulted her, “—where your finger is. If I’m wet enough, you’ll slide in.”

He removed his hand and she screeched in frustration, sending strange birds flying from the trees around them.

“Quiet, Yahiro.” His order had her scrunching her face but he lifted up into a crouch, his body heat disappearing with him, and spread her legs out even wider. She held back her distress long enough to see him staring at her opening with hunger.

“Quist, if you don’t enter me now I’m going to die.”

“Die!?” he snapped his gaze to hers, shocked.

She tossed her head back and writhed her hips closer to him, displaying herself. “Yes. Die,” the word ended on a strangled moan.

Within the next moment he lifted up, aligned his cockhead with her pussy, and pressed into her. Yahiro squeezed her eyes shut and shuddered. When he made no progress, she careened upward and caught his strained shoulders. One of his arms instantly banded her to him.

“More,” she gasped. “We’re compatible. More,” she reassured as she sat down on his thick, beaded, golden, metal shaft.

A groaning, whining, gruff exhale seethed through his bared teeth as he pushed up into her. The sounds coming out of the alien became deeper and stranger as he stretched every slick inch of her until he was completely settled and fully sheathed.

The effort left her breathless and she placed her slick brow on his shoulder. Her body needed more, needed an explosion, but also time to adjust to his girth and the sensation of a half a hundred baubled piercings.

A blood-thirsty god couldn’t steal her away from this moment, nor the oncoming crash of a spaceship. Not even a wormhole that would take her back to Earth.

“Yahiro.” The deep plea shook her to the core. The knot in her belly tightened.

She leaned up and pressed her cheek to his. “Hold me.”

And when his arms came around her and his wings followed suit, she pressed her heels into the dirt and moved. Her motions were jerky, uncoordinated, but Quist didn’t seem to care. His fingers dug into her back as she found her pace, his body tense and unmoving as she used him. She couldn’t remember a time where she had so much control during sex.

Yet she didn’t feel like she had any control at all. The restriction grew with each hard, pressing rub of his golden baubles over her g-spot. Her own strangled breaths filled the air and when she reached around him to hold onto the stems of his wings, Quist broke apart in her embrace.

She was suddenly pressed flat into the mossy grass as he drove into her hard. The soft, wondering trial vanished into the mist, leaving nothing behind but their mutual frustration and need.

He pistoned into her, fast, jerking, pushing and pressing and erratic. It was unrestrained and animalistic, and she was swept up in it. He nipped and gnawed on her flesh, and his feathers fell in waves around them, shaken off by the sudden chaos. She tried to move with him, her chipped nails biting into his flesh, but couldn’t find a singular rhythm to follow.

She screamed as he hit her g-spot one instant, her clit the next, but never long enough to send her reeling over the edge. The frustration built and she tore at him, and the more she tried to retake some control, the harder he pressed her to the ground and restrained her body.

She was on the verge of begging when his cock expanded and stopped, followed by a burning gush of liquid, and the moment it filled her, her orgasm hit.

Yahiro bit his arm as her legs fell away from his hips and she seized, feeling the thick, hot alien seed continue to pump deep inside. Her body drank it up, paralyzed but for her pulsating quim and her womb feasting on what he spewed into her like she was a starving, abandoned animal. She tried to move, to wiggle but made no progress. Her eyes rolled back into her head as Quist reared back and began anew.

Time was lost somewhere, left behind the moment his feather brushed her clit and she didn’t know how many times Quist used and came inside of her, but when he finished, the breath of night-cold air was heavenly on her heated flesh. Her limbs were rocks she could no longer lift and her body was more alive than ever before. No enhanced drug or blissful hallucinogenic haze could compare.

He lifted her up into the darkness although a familiar light had returned, and lowered them both into the brook. She glanced back to see the stone from the night before lying on the ground where they had joined, but the cool water over her raw skin tore her attention away.

They sat in silence within the comforting glow and let the water rush over their skin. Yahiro shifted until her cheek rested against his chest and enjoyed the stolen moment.

It was full dark now and had been for quite some time but she wasn’t afraid. For the first time since she could remember, the night held no sway over her. Quist held her close and leaned back. She was moved with him. A smile graced her lips despite the raw ache between her legs and the friction burns over her skin when wet feathers flowed past her and down the stream in plumes. She picked one up and held it.

“What happens if you don’t find Lusheenn?” Yahiro asked softly. She wanted to remain with Quist but the thought of an endless world hunt didn’t sound appealing to her. I’d join him though. I don’t want to be alone anymore.

“I’ll find him,” he said with conviction.

“How do you know?” Yahiro twirled the wet feather in her hand.

“I was born for it.”

“Your Creator created you to kill him?” Doesn’t make sense.

“Yes. From the moment I rose from the clay and out of the light I knew my purpose. My anger stems from the moment my eyes opened,” he mused as if the memory was a fond one. She didn’t understand it and didn’t try to. She never understood what drove most people to do what they did. “He knew it too.”

Her confusion grew. “He should... if he created you for that purpose?”

“No... it was in the back of his... thoughts?”

“Conscious,” she corrected in English. “Why didn’t he kill you if he knew what he created hated him?” She felt his wings lift and lower behind her, his entire body shrugging.

“He never destroyed any of his creations. Not directly. None of it matters since it all has already come to pass. I feel him, human Yahiro. Last night I felt him more than I ever had during the spans of time. It brought me back to life and brought me to you. He’s close.”

They both tilted their heads and looked at the stone. Her spine stiffened as a shiver coursed through her. She was suddenly cold and unable to breathe. Gingerly, she unthreaded herself away from him and moved back to the shore, picking up her cast about clothes, and carefully put them on, needing, yet hating the feel of the polyester over her skin.

Quist left the brook to follow after her, flinging water from his wings. They banded around her, magically dry, and pressed her back into his hard chest. He lifted her in his arms and tickled her ear with his hot breaths.

She felt vulnerable and protected but wary that he’d strip her naked and take her again without restraint, knowing she was too tired to stop him, knowing she wouldn’t regardless of how she felt. Thinking about it made her body respond with desire.

His voluminous cloth pants were another barrier between them, but as she felt its belted cord dig into her skin, she knew it would only be a moment for him to get naked again.

“Quist,” she squeaked while his wings blanketed her. Yahiro pressed her thighs harder together to relieve the sudden, yawning emptiness that bloomed, and focused on the well-used pain he’d inflicted without knowing.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked, suddenly, as if he’d known her thoughts. “I saw enjoyment on your face before...”

“You didn’t hurt me,” she said and swallowed, her body burning in a blush.

When their eyes locked, the connection burst like wildfire between them again. Yahiro reached out and closed her fingers over the familiar weight of the glowing stone. The luminescence it gave was weak but appeared to grow stronger with each passing second.

Quist placed his hand over hers as she lifted the stone between them, peeling her fingers back. In the low light, its rounded edges were covered in gilded rose-gold. The patterning stemmed throughout the clear parts of the rock like veins which glowed more vibrantly as the minutes passed.

“It came back,” Quist murmured.

“How? I swear I haven’t been carrying it all this time.” Yahiro plucked at her lower lip, allowing Quist to take the stone from her hand and flip it from side to side. Her palm burned from where it had been.

“It vanished at dawn. I watched it do so. Perhaps it doesn’t exist during the day. It makes sense.”

Her eyes met his. “How? That doesn’t make sense at all. Things don’t vanish like that.” Aliens don’t exist. Alien gods definitely didn’t exist. Sunlight that bathes is too good to be true. God killers are only found in fiction books. Yahiro frowned.

“Things vanish all the time in Sonhadra,” he responded sadly.

“Lusheenn might come back...”she said, thinking he spoke of his creator.

His lips peeled back in disgust. “He’s already back. I feel him more than ever near this stone.” Quist scanned the vicinity around them in earnest.

She hugged herself tighter and refused to look about with him, shivering, wanting to again reach for a weapon that wasn’t there and to hold on to its imaginary comfort. But what she had instead was a man with a whip and a set of wings.

He pulled a string from his pants and wrapped it around the stone then tied another to it to make a necklace. When he was done he pressed the stone into her hands and stood up. “We should leave.”

Yahiro pulled the necklace on over her head. “Are we in danger?”

“We’re always in danger.”

She deadpanned. I wish I had a godsdamned gun.

“My brothers are nearly upon us.” He picked her up.

“Is that a bad thing?” Yes, Yahiro, more aliens are always a bad thing.

***

QUIST

He flew her as far as he could in the dead of night, following the stream inland, knowing it wouldn’t be far enough. There was not enough stored light within him to keep them airborne for long.

The human was strange.

Some of the things she did and said were unlike anything he had been privy to in his millennia of travels. But as he watched her, he began to understand that each thing she did had a purpose. It was a different purpose than his own, but still something he understood. He ran his fingers through her hair and brushed out some of the sticks and leaves that had gotten caught within the strands during their mating.

She had fallen asleep in his arms and when her body relaxed against him, he found a place for them to nestle down for the night.

Her small body fit perfectly on his lap, curled up and receptive, and he didn’t know how he felt about it. His member engorged and hardened every time he touched her, but she was so different from his kind and the other valos he didn’t know how to proceed.

Strange feelings and needs coursed through him. Vengeance and matehood mixed in one. Blindsided by the later right as the former felt out of his grasp.

He had watched the heartstone fade as the night had into dawn. Gone then but now returned. He told Yahiro the truth but he hadn’t mentioned that while she still slept, he’d torn the foliage apart looking for it. Now it sat like a beautiful, warm pendant between her breasts.

He drifted his finger over one of her covered nipples until it peaked. The things her body did were strange and yet enrapturing. He played with the other until it was as equally stiff. She moaned sleepily, shifting over his again erect member and he moved his fingers to the stone. The moment he touched it, he felt home.

He was right there, right there! Quist squeezed his human closer to him. And I lost him.

But now Sundamar stood, staring at him, drenched on the other side of the brook. His eyes fierce and haunted, resembling the worst part about him. He was created in the image of the single most reviled being in Quist’s life. Sundamar’s eyes daggered at the trembling human he held.

The connection he had with the girl was just as startling as Sundamar’s rabid features. The covetous uncertainty. The confused lust. The helpless want.

And that connection. The same one mirrored on his own face.

Quist’s wings stiffened and his hand poised to grab his whip.

“Hello, brother.”