Chapter 18
The drag of the power rising in her was electrifying. Red, raw, sexual power. Thorn could sense them all – from Led at her back, to the pog, which was vaguely male, to these molloks. As soon as the last mechanoid was defeated those two stood and their tentacles waved as they tried to figure out who and what she and Led were, and what threat they posed.
They wanted...something here. Desires were her territory, and this was a desperate one. They’d kill to take it, if an individual justified it by getting between them and whatever it might be.
Her? Perhaps. Led for sure.
Whatever they intended, she felt the need to experiment, to use this new power.
Led yelled to her, but she lifted her arms, uncurled her fingers, and waved forth a tsunami of lust.
She could have made them want her.
But that was repugnant.
A startling revelation descended upon her – only one male drew her and he stood behind her. Led was not s’kar. More than a little angry at herself, she increased the lust blanketing the molloks, turned it up to inferno level, and added a topping of who the fuck cares if it’s public.
Smiling, she observed the result.
Tentacles whirled and tangled and began to probe for openings. Clothes were torn away. The molloks became naked so fast their clothes hadn’t floated down by the time the first tentacle speared inside one of them.
Orgasms enveloped them, raining down one after the other from their cries and the squirt of mis-aimed appendages. They rolled into the shadow of the wall and carried on fucking each other, oblivious to onlookers. Of which there were few, admittedly.
Her skin seemed to ripple in time to the shudder of dust and fragments on the ground. Fascinated, she stared.
“What the hells did you do?” Led joined her. “Oh, I do know. Don’t bother saying.”
“The things I can do,” Thorn said in amazement.
She gestured, and a tentacle climbed and curled, silhouetted against the pale sky. It descended, re-entering the fray, and there was a yelp from somewhere within the ball of rolling bodies.
“I’m getting the hang of this.” She held her hands before her. “Whoaaaah. The fire in my veins...”
“Enough! You’ll put me off noodles for life.” He snared her arm, pulling her with him as he headed toward the pog, only pausing a moment to rummage among the remains of the mekinja and extract something. “Hey! You, sir. The law is slow. What say you? Are you okay? Where is the law?”
“I...I don’t know. They shot down the police drones that came over.” The pog pushed himself upright, reaching a height at her neck level. He seemed oblivious to the shards beneath his fat, unshod feet. Several of his eight gray hands patted his body at once. “I feel unwounded, just dizzy.”
“Do you know why they attacked?” As he spoke, Led was scanning the street, the gun still toted in his free hand, as if he were wondering who else might be out there.
“There are no more,” Thorn told him. “I can feel people, especially males.” Exhilarating. If only her head wasn’t beginning to spin. Or was it the world? Concussion maybe, like the pog?
“Okay. Good.” Led studied her a second then returned his attention to the pog. “Know why they were here?”
“I believe it’s some secret left in a body? I had a threat sent just before, so I hardened my defenses, turned on the turrets...” He waved upward. “They didn’t believe I hadn’t stolen something.”
“I’m due to return this body, and we have a starship to catch.” Led’s grip on her arm tightened.
“You are, sir? Never mind. I recall your data, and you are of good standing with us. Send me all your details soon. Drop this loaner at the LoL center on your destination. Mine are locked down and safe behind thick doors, and I cannot currently change your loaner.”
“Very well.” Led nodded. “Please inform your law officers that we aided you, and I only slaughtered...” He turned and frowned at the bodies. “A few non-sentient mekinjas. The molloks will, I’m thinking, survive?”
Thorn nodded. She sure hoped so, though her grasp of their health was fuzzy. “I don’t think they can die from...that.” She waved her hand in the vague direction of the fucking scrummage. “I’m sure it will wear off.”
“You’re sure?” He tsked. It seemed a habit of his.
“Stop tsking at me. And release my arm.” Because where he touched her was heating up as if she were branded. Uncomfortable, she tugged.
He grabbed her tighter. “We are done here. Let’s get our gear from the coach then run to the spaceport. I’ve told Smorg and Jocelyn where to meet us there.”
He had? Such forethought. She had an inkling she would’ve normally thought of that herself.
A trio of black, head-sized drones zoomed in from overhead, swooping to hover well above where she could’ve reached, then played a digitized light over her, Led, and the bodies.
Quill Police Corporation was written on their bellies.
Two deviated to examine the molloks.
The one remaining with them played a deadpan message. “Due to snipercam recordings, you are cleared of legal implications. Your identities have been registered. Please deposit the weapon and go about your business. Our records show you are scheduled to leave this planet. Be there, or be arrested for loitering, or worse.”
Led lowered his gun to the ground then held up his hands. “Done. Let’s go get our stuff, Thorn.”
The molloks down the road had been sprayed with something by the drones and were looking unhappy, writhing about, screeching.
She pointed. “What are they –”
“Come! Ignore that unless you want us treated the same.”
What gear was there to rescue?
Her coat apparently. His jacket. A few smaller things like a bag he slung over his shoulder. Those were theirs?
She expected new transport but he took her hand after dressing her in the red coat and led her down the street then through a few others. Police flitters screamed overhead. By then her head was getting even less together. Places she looked at were smudging when she stared. Her feet were stumbling over things she couldn’t see.
Finally he turned toward an alleyway in the shadows behind a fountain – two tall stories of sculpture. Neck wobbling as she was towed past, Thorn studied the artistic installation. She was pretty sure a giant was portrayed in the stone and he was peeing to create the waterfall.
Led stopped between a pair of high, sky-clutching edifices of shininess and lit-up ads...evening was coming, and he gently set his hand against the side of her face.
“Are you okay?”
Thorn blinked at him, swaying, knowing she wasn’t normal. “What did you give me?”
“A dose of the agruth drug. One of them. One is left. It seemed wise. You were going into full on whatever it is you do, and I had no other choice.”
“Ahhh. So that’s why I could make the noodle ummm orgy thing.”
“Yes. I’m going to call a flitter cab, but first I need to take care of you – take care of things that won’t be possible in a cab.”
“Oh?”
His thumb wiped away a hint of tears at the corner of her eye, tears she hadn’t known she’d lost. “This drug, I don’t think Fiana even knows all about what it might do to you. Seems as if it gives you control, but for how long? And what side effects? It’s designed for a male siren. So... I’m worried.”
He lowered himself to his knees and, with his hand to her belly, pushed her back until she solidly bumped into the wall of the building.
She let out a soft oof. “Hey, hey, hey. What’s this?”
He wriggled her pants down to her ankles and beyond, pulling her legs out entirely after removing her boots. “What do you think? I’m finishing fucking you. If I don’t do this, bad things will happen. Your eyes have ruptured blood vessels. Some of your skin has too. I’m hoping this will calm you.”
Thorn giggled. Sex to calm her?
He laid his palm on her thigh. Far too near her pussy. Luscious, liquid heat spread from where his skin touched hers, and she squirmed, whimpering as she pushed herself forward, wanting that hand to move.
“You’re falling apart.”
“This isn’t the place for sex.” But her fingers weren’t in his hair or doing anything vaguely like stopping him; they were flat against the wall, trying to get a grip on the rocklike material, because her body wanted to stay right here. Because...sex.
She wanted it, wanted to jam him against her, make him fuck her, could imagine those double cocks pushing up into her, again and again.
Oh fuck, her mouth was open and she was moaning.
And yet, she shouldn’t want it because she was a good s’kar.
“No sex?” His hands ran all the long way up the outsides of her legs as he stood, so slow it was almost reverent and took her breath away as she waited for him to arrive at eye level. “You’re sure?”
But he was taller than her, and was looking down at her biting her lip. Not fair.
It was a little hard to talk. “Mm. That. Yes.” Had she just said yes or no to his question?
“But you’re all naked.” His deep male tone rumbled into her, into her muddled brain, stirring her pussy, and without pants on she wondered if he could see the glow down below. It felt as if she were glowing. No clothes and this guy looking at her like she was edible.
His pants were off too. When had he done that?
“That was a trick question.” Thorn swallowed. “Fuck.”
“Indeed, fuck.” He put his hands either side of her and somehow the big teeth seemed the lesser of his evils. This was Led, and at his core he was nothing but Led. The rest was costuming, not him. She liked him more than anyone, more than she should.
“I think,” she whispered. “My thinking is a little fucked right now.”
“You sound drunk. On that power of yours?”
“Mmm. Maybe.”
That he then lowered his head and managed to kiss her shoulder was remarkable. Dalks had hopeless mouths for kissing. Then he plain stopped.
She wriggled, found his leg between hers in just the wrong place since it squashed into her pussy, and she coiled her leg behind his, then her tail, and pressed onto him even firmer.
Words came out she hadn’t meant to say. “Oh. Ohhh. That’s...nice.”
Her eyes closed.
“So maybe if I torture you I can get an answer to this?” He crushed his thigh onto her clit, rhythmically. “Tell me. If we find this geneticist, what will you pick? S’kar or siren?”
“Unfair. So unfair.” The heaviness of his leg on her. Heat pulsed and pulsed, and wetness surely dripped from her.
He levered her up the wall and nuzzled her neck. “Tell me the truth. You know if you choose s’kar, I’m gone after? I can’t be there with you, if you’re s’kar.”
That would be bad, yet... “You’re a loaner. You sold yourself.” She grunted and her eyes rolled back as his dicks almost...almost slid inside her.
“I am. For now. I sold myself but I was wrong.” He humped her slowly, poking between her legs while watching her eyes.
The huge screens of ads far above painted them with pinks, greens, blues as they rolled through the scheduled selections. Prettying this up. As if sex wasn’t a basic, primitive, disgusting thing.
“Tell me what you’ll choose. Because if you say s’kar, know this – I intend to change your mind, girl. I don’t exist without you.”
Really? She didn’t know what to say, partly because she’d lost all the words somewhere.
Led chuckled then he drew back, just when she needed him because she was lost. Where had the words gone?
“I just remembered. I’m going back there to wash. Had my dicks in the reverse position before, in the coach. The logistics of these two dicks. This’d be like trying to cram a grenade into a launcher that’s meant for flowers? That’s bad, right? Two of these has got to be a pain if you have them all your life.”
She blinked at him. What?
“Never mind.” Led let her go and backed off, hand out. “Stay there.” Then he jogged to the fountain.
Thorn slowly slid down the wall. Lower down, the wall was cold and she started to wonder why she was here. What was the reason? The air shuddered with repeated blows. Colors receded and flowed. Dust specks rose then shook with those blows. Her heart was doing that. It was the beat of her blood. She stared past the jiggling motes into the shadows on the opposite building.
Crawling hurt her hands because there were bumpy bits on the ground. It was almost a relief when someone grabbed her tail and halted her, then hauled her upright by her hair.
“Where are you going?”
It was Led and he was naked and dripping, and rippling with shiny muscles. She pressed her hand over his chest area and hummed at the warmth. Cold water, warm male. She knew him, and he was good and nice to touch.
“Not getting an answer am I? At least you crawl slowly. Say, your hair has grown since BART, a lot.”
She shrugged at that, purring a little as he tilted her head using her hair and studied her face, her throat, then lower down.
“Not that it matters,” he said quietly. “Must be a siren thing. This, though...”
He ran his big finger from her lips – she tried to bite it – and down her neck until she felt him reach her top, and he pulled that down. The air was cool on her freed breasts. She waggled her ass, lashing her tail too.
Leaves circled her, rattling on the ground, stinging her bare feet.
He ducked below her sight and she felt him suckle and lick first one nipple then the other while holding her hair. Her sighs were low and agonized – she wanted more than this. Needed. Her breathing became labored. Then his hand pushed between her legs and he grunted, licked there too, as he slowly penetrated her and fingerfucked her while she babbled some begging words. The night grew darker, warmer, more scintillating on her skin, his fingers inside her seemed to expand.
“You’re liking it so much,” he mused. “And things are scattering about below. Your powers are doing weird stuff to you.”
Without saying more, he took her to a wall then eyed her while he dried himself using clothes.
Then he bit her neck as he found her entrances with each cock, and shunted in, fucking her against the wall until she was gasping and crying and screaming all at once.
Each time he rammed into her the wall at her back seemed to crumble, pieces flaking off, brushing her legs as they fell.
The world...the world blew out then settled as she came. Muscles straining, she clamped onto his two cocks, nailed to that wall by extreme force, with his hand about her throat to keep her in place while he poured a double dose of come into her.
That wave of swelling pressure inside her...
She shuddered into another orgasm with her hand strangling his hand where he held her, her other hand clutching his side, pulling him deep.
There was a boom and the building shuddered. Something shattered far above. She looked up to see the glittering rain coming down.
“Led! Look out! Glass!” He swore and covered her as fragments rained onto the ground, smashing and tinkling in musical death.
“Oh fuck! Oh fuck!” When it was done she scrambled upright and had to check his back.
“I’m okay.”
But she found tiny pieces all over him. Powdered pieces of glassomer. A balcony above had deflected the worst of it.
It could’ve been far worse.
She bit her hand, realizing how she was back now, in her head properly when before she’d just...been...gone. The dust had stopped rising and the leaves were still and silent.
Good. Panting, she eyed Led, raised her brows. “Wow.”
“The law will be here soon. We have to get to the spaceport.”
“Yes. Give me a second.” She staggered and lay with her back propped on the wall, letting her respiration subside to normal or thereabouts. A shallow indentation, just her size, beside her on the wall, told her she hadn’t dreamed this.
He grinned and found his pants, shook off the glass powder. “Lucky dalks are tough all over.”
“Did the earth move for you?” She smirked as sweat ran down the side of her face.
“Funny girl. We have to run.”
“What’ll you do, Led, if I become full s’kar?” She raised a brow. “Cut my throat?”
“What the? No! Get dressed.”
“Soon. My eyes are a little wonky, and my legs.”
He kneeled before her and wiped away mess from her trembling legs with the dress she’d brought, which freaked her a little, then stuffed it into the bag all wet, then he helped her wriggle her pants back into place to knee level. With her boots on, he rose and considered her.
“You want my answer, Thorn Ironside?”
He’d know that name was going to make her ache and she glared at him. “Why’d –”
“You want to be what you’re not? An Ironside?” He came up to her face. “Then make it your name. I told you, I’m changing your mind. Before I had cocks, I watched people, watched them fuck. I saw how sex rules the humanoids. Without it we’re hollow people running hollow lives. It’s an essential part of us and I missed out for most of my life.
“I’ve seen things you’d not believe. Brothels on fire off the far side of dying suns. Glitter sparkling in space after orgies went wrong and blew out the walls of an orbital. Whores have more power than a fleet of s’kar ships when they want to.
“Be a siren. Be a siren outside an enclave. Be what you want to be, before it’s lost in time. Tears will never replace what could have been.”
She hitched up her pants, fastened them. “You made that up – the glitter part.”
“I exaggerated the glitter but... Okay, I made up that whole part. But I meant what I said.” Led held out his hand and she took it, let him lever her off the wall, steady her.
“Why are you so good to me? Apart from using that dress how you did, now that is ick.”
“I told you. I needed a purpose, and you’re it. I suppose it’s more than that but I’m not good at explaining.”
This was probably the wrong time for deep meaningful discussion.
Thorn stared upward, wondering how much damage had been done there. “We should get to the spaceport before they arrest us for what that drone said – loitering or something.”
He acquired the expression that said he was messaging. “I’ve ordered a flitter cab.”
They strolled hand in hand toward the fountain and she couldn’t help noticing how his hand felt in hers. Such an odd feeling. It was nice. “You are good to me.”
“Yeah... For a killer I’m doing well. This is bad for my image though – holding hands.”
A grin took over and wouldn’t go away. Cute – he was being cute.
“Only way to be sure you won’t run off again.”
Oh. Not so cute.
There was a soft squishy noise behind them. They both turned. A body had splatted to the ground and clearly it’d fallen from above.
“Do you think –” she began. “That...is that a sentient being? Is it dead?”
A flitter cab descended before them, lights blinking as it swiveled to land.
Led cleared his throat. “We should go. Loitering and all that.”
“Mmm.”
They hurried to the flitter cab.