Chapter 10
Zarblu had woken instantly when the emergency-red words lighted the insides of his eyes. He’d blinked away the millisecond of confusion and read them.
From Ledderik and his Captain of the Guard.
The text scrolled downward.
While tracking a wren that escaped from your zoo, sir, we observed the female ascending the outermost wall. She’s entered the fortress. We are observing her progress and carefully slowing her by patrolling nearby without apparently spotting her. What are your orders?
Even as he exited the bedroom, he told them to keep doing exactly that. Keep the circle around her impenetrable and small. Apprehend her only if she was about to injure anyone, including herself, or escape. By the time he reached the part of the wall where they had her cornered, he’d rearranged himself into the sleeker form she knew from before. He sped along the last few corridors.
She’d hear him coming, but that was unavoidable. His species wasn’t made for stealth.
Ledderik joined him and he slowed. “Report?”
“Don’t run, sir, you’re eroding the hallways.”
“Hah. Stick to what I asked.”
“Also, sir is making enough noise to alert the battle droids in the upper levels of the atmosphere.” He then rattled out who was near her and how they were armed, that she only had the sword, and that her climbing route had them baffled.
Zarblu ignored the insolence. This cyborg had been in his service for almost a century and he was rather fond of the flesh-and-metalborn. Plus Ledderik’s addiction was ongoing and he never liked to leave a project incomplete.
“Haven’t killed anyone lately, Led? That alley-wanker for instance?”
They hadn’t spoken since that text exchange.
“No, sir. I’ve been good.”
“Hmmm.”
They rounded the corner that led into the corridor before her position. Apparently she was now in a dead-end room.
She didn’t appear stupid and so he was sure she’d know what was happening. This needed to be fast.
“You’re sure it’s only the sword? No explosives, projectile weapons, energy devices?”
“No. Nothing else on the fast-scan.”
“Unprepared perhaps, though I suppose that means she doesn’t intend to kill anyone unless she has to. Now if it were you, I’d be contending with a bio-weapon, an assault laser, and a plethora of sharp things, at the least.”
“Of course. One must never be bereft of weaponry. I do think she’s simply low on funds.”
If she only had the sword...
At the last cross-section, on sighting the room he broke into a jog, then ripped off the door and flung it aside.
Mila was in the far corner, legs apart and well balanced, with both her sword and teeth bared. “Hello, Zarblu. Ever heard of knocking?”
He managed not to smile. “I have a key but this didn’t seem a time for keys.”
They exchanged more words. The more she said the more her manner impressed him...among other things. It was time for her punishment, for acclimatizing her to his size. Catching her was only half the fun.
His next step brought him up against the point of her sword. Another step and it scraped up his chest to beneath his chin. Fragments of stone flaked and fell to the floor.
She knew she could not easily hurt him, yet she defied him. It only amplified his craving – to take her properly, full length, burying his cock in her.
Gods, not yet. Still, it was not yet.
Soon. Very soon. If everything turned out for the best. If she responded to him adequately.
Before another thought could hit the surface of his brain, he had her over his shoulder and was striding out the door and down the corridor to the appointed rendezvous with his guards.
Ledderik arrived and kept pace.
“How did you find me?” she said from behind his back.
Zarblu glanced at the trapped female. Only her butt and legs were in view. He smiled. “A little bird told us.”
“Oh. Knew I should’ve disposed of it.”
“Killed it? And would you have?”
“I suppose...not. I dislike killing small creatures.”
“Myself also.”
Now that seemed to shock her into silence. He chose not to elaborate. Either she would believe him, or not. With more time, he would convince her. He walked faster.
Even if there were such a thing as a female stoneshifter, this soft, salacious, seductively curvaceous woman with all her...he tried not to tighten his hold on her butt...her nice bits, would still attract him.
The tower room awaited. The door hung open. The small fireplace that was allowed the guard captain crackled with yellow-and-red flames. The overhead lights were on, though dimmed. The plunge pool that was large enough for Andurians was filled and sloshing with warm water.
“Good.”
He stalked to the chair he’d ordered and sat, laid her belly-down over his lap, and put his feet on the soft footstool. Then he began to disrobe her, gently, undoing straps and buttons, clips, whatever impeded getting her naked, without breaking anything. Whenever she wriggled to get free or spouted curses, he held her a moment until she ceased.
There was no possibility she could defeat his strength, and even that was heady. Why? He’d had many, many sacrifices. Perhaps his failure with Tiana had affected him, made this seem more than it otherwise might be?
He decided he didn’t care to figure out the reason.
Whatever he tossed aside, Ledderik retrieved. The cyborg would cleanse her clothes and gear before bringing them back. The boots and weapon sheaths were gone, only her body-hugging suit remained. Reaching beneath and between her thighs, to undo the buckle that ran between her legs, made his chest tighten.
It felt sodden, there.
Already.
He made himself inhale and exhale methodically, needing to burn the oxygen from the air to function.
His head swam for a second with giddiness.
“You cannot get free. Be still, Mila.” He smoothed his large hand over her, chiding her, letting her feel his massiveness, the scratch of his hand. “I can be rougher. I can be smooth as polished stone. It all depends on you. Be good for me.”
That she didn’t do more than pant, catch her breath – it made his toes curl.
No further protests came from her lips. Those lips...he remembered how they looked when she spoke, or whispered, or gasped during sex. He’d looked that day, when she’d orgasmed, and had been spellbound. He wanted to see that again.
Though he’d had his hand over her mouth a few times to muffle her curses, now he let his fingers drift over her there, let one rest along the divide of her lips. Tempting, to tilt back her head, to see her face, but he decided not to.
No eye contact, yet. He knew how it was with these creatures. It might stir her to new rebellion. He had her subdued though. This was addictive.
This must be how Ledderik felt when he killed.
Go slow. He did not wish to injure her or frighten her severely. He paused and looked to the door where a line of his guards waited. Four of them.
He knew some stoneshifters would use artificial means, when caught by urgency and a need to quickly acclimatize their sacrifice – increasingly larger dildos or a dilating apparatus.
He would not. His mouth twisted. That would be distasteful and unnatural. The traditional ways would work well with this one.
One. If he didn’t say her name would it lessen the attachment he felt? What if she was no better than the other?
This was his true, penultimate, test. Soon he would see.
He pulled the body suit off her, threw it in Ledderik’s direction, and waited for the man to leave.
Now he had her naked. He left one hand on the swell of her ass, with a finger idly venturing into the split, the other hand he kept below her neck, quietening her. Quietening her before the storm.
Mila.
The rhythm of his respiration became irregular.
His cock ached to turn to stone.
Thank the forgotten ones she could not see his eyes, his face. He adored having her over him, pressing on his cock. It was a struggle to keep his erection down. If it rose he would need to shift her aside. Perhaps once he had her more aroused he would roll her over, let her suck him while she was fucked.
His middle finger delved along, found her pussy then went into her to the first joint. He revolved it, round and round, reversed the rotation, and went around again, spreading her cunt. She wriggled at the invasion.
Such copious slickness leaked from her entrance. She responded to him. Unlike her sister. He muttered a prayer. At her next squirm, he withdrew and smacked her butt, lightly.
Her gasp was pleasing.
As was the redness on her skin.
Biting her there... He sucked in a morsel of air and held it. No. This was too close to his time. If he tasted her he might not stop.
Fire rose in his stone blood.
He began to play with her, exactly according to his plan, and his needs.
Fucking her could never come too soon.
If she truly could be his sacrifice, after the basht application at the arena, his touch should arouse her to great, mind-blurring heights. She would let others fuck her without protest, eagerly, providing he allowed it. And he would. This had to be done or he might kill her...
If she came to the sacrifice hall, if she let herself be strapped down for him, for his beast-state.
He groaned at the thought.
Hands on flesh, pressing at her, moving down her body, squeezing every muscle either side of her spine, the muscles of her back, waist, and sides, then finally her ass cheeks. Squeezing, holding, owning her. When he gripped her ass the stretch pulled apart her cunt. He moved her as he wished to, taking, making her submit.
The noises she made and her writhing became ever more violent.
When she grasped for the floor and instead found his leg and gripped it, he smiled, feeling evil and triumphant. Her gasps deepened, sharpened into whimpers, pulling lust through his cock in kicks and spurts. His erection grew and thickened, inevitably.
The guards at the door were restless, muttering, stamping their boots. He ignored them. They would wait. This was a reward for them, as well as their duty.
He lowered his head and sniffed her back where sweat beaded her skin. Yes, oh yes, her scent was cloying, changing for him also.
“They obey me, the same as you will, Mila. Soon I will have them stuff themselves into your ready little cunt. They will make you take their big cocks, but they will hold themselves back from coming, because I say they will. You...you will take them and be pleased.
“Because...” He dared to lick her shoulder, once, his rough tongue scouring her skin. “Because I say it will be so. Understood?”
A series of gasps and a whimper seemed all the assent he would get.
He massaged her some more, going between her legs for the first time, making her produce more of the thick moisture needed to ease the entry of their dicks.
“These Andurians are large, but I am larger when in my beast-state. I can see you want me to take you, to fuck you, but we must be slow. Very...” He pushed her thighs further apart and he worked three fingers into her cunt. “Very.” A fourth of his immense fingers slid in alongside the others. He shoved them in and out as he spoke more words. “Slow. Soon I will fuck you properly.”
Lust swam in veins of crystal and filled his balls until at last basht leaked from the tip of his member – his cock rose like a temple dedicated to the female form. To her form. While looking down at his trembling, incoherent Mila, he grasped the shaft and ran his fist to the tip, squeezing.
Soon...
Then he raised his arm and beckoned to the guards, waiting for them to line up before he restated what they must do. Though clothed they’d all opened their pants and freed themselves. He eyed their bared erections. As he’d previously directed, they were in order from smallest to largest.
“Good. Come.” He curled his finger. “But, do not actually come in her. If you do I will fling you from the ramparts and feed your remains to a thyrax. Understood?”
They all nodded. Still their faces glowed with eagerness. Their cocks were at full mast and ready. No wonder.
He turned and pulled the befuddled girl into position, dragging her until she was partly off his lap. Her knees were on the footstool, her face near his balls, and her forearms rested on the chair between his thighs. He gripped a large amount of her hair at the base of her neck and angled her to let her view his face.
“You heard what I told them? You will not move. You will accept their cocks because I tell you to. Be good and take them.”
She blinked, licked her lips, and then...then she nodded so slightly he smiled. Unwilling to admit to what she was agreeing to, yet willing to stay where he put her. Her mouth was slack, slightly parted. Her sides trembled. And her cunt? He leaned over her to feel and check that it was opening for the guards behind her.
It was. His hand glistened with her, with strings of wetness that dripped from his fingers.
“Good girl.”
As the first guard positioned himself behind Mila, as he pushed into her, her eyelids lowered, and Zarblu swore he heard a breathy moan. He stroked her forehead with his wet thumb then put that thumb to her mouth.
When she licked the tip, his eyes narrowed. The world shrank down to this instant, to her and what she did.
She was wet for him, dilating, docile even. For this warrior girl to be in this heightened state of arousal said everything was right.
Such a succulent, reddened mouth. A mouth made for sucking.
Her breasts were heaving and flushed. Her nipples were reddened also, from exertion and her response. She was ripe for him. He’d always appreciated the breasts of female humans, and when they moved like this, oh forgotten ones, what could he do except put his cock to her mouth?
He grabbed it at the middle, angled it and her head until her mouth touched him there.
That first lick from her pink tongue had him shuddering.
The guard grabbed her hips and pushed closer and her mouth dropped open, fully. Her moan vibrated across the head of his cock.
He watched avidly as the first guard took her from behind, thrusting vigorously and rocking her onto his, Zarblu’s, cock. That lewd tongue of hers licked around and over him, kissing him, leaving trails of her saliva and greedily consuming what was left of the basht. Her eyes glazed and she swallowed parts of the head despite the struggle to fit any of it within. Her teeth scraped and slid, and he swore. Not at pain for those little white fangs of hers could never harm him – no it was the surge of pleasure.
The first guard staggered away and out the door at the click of his fingers, no doubt to finish himself elsewhere. He’d never let them come over her or inside her, never.
The second guard made her silent for at least ten strokes – so overwhelmed she forgot to breathe. Zarblu feared she’d asphyxiate and pulled her mouth off his cock.
Her long ragged inhalation, the way her eyes locked to his when he placed her mouth on him again...that was ecstasy bottled. He struggled not to come when she writhed through her first climax.
After that male took her, Zarblu checked her dilation with his fingers and knew she must be taken further, deeper. But the third guard was too much. At his approach, Zarblu’s instincts to possess, to keep Mila exclusively his only, were pushed breaking point.
The Andurian positioned himself, held her hips, and plunged into her. Zarblu hissed but only grabbed her head and pinned her to the seat, tried to force his cock deeper into her mouth, where it couldn’t go.
Denying the urge to swat away the man and kick him out a window was excruciating.
She orgasmed again. Choking on Zarblu’s cock, spluttering, she mouthed him then sucked furiously, even as she arched and shook with lust. When the Andurian stared down at the female coming on his cock, and looked as if he’d do so himself...it was the final burden.
Zarblu erupted with anger. “Go!” he roared. He thrust an arm toward the exit. “Go, before I kill you.”
Bewildered, the man withdrew, with his massive erection barely pleasured, then he ran for the door without a backward look.
Zarblu curled over the shaking female, growling softly, gathering her to him.
It was enough. It must be. Had to be.
She would be ready.
Endangering her because of a weakness of his own would be intolerable.
When his passions calmed, he picked her up and carried her to the hot pool. He walked in, submerging them both in the bubbling water. The heat brought him a measure of calmness, took away the beast.
So terrible had been his fury, but it was over.
Her eyes closed and she snuggled into him.
Perfect, surely. Others had fucked her enough. She would take him. Could take him.
Only she didn’t yet understand his purpose. Legally, she had to agree to be his sacrifice. With the need to mate with him wracking her, this would happen.
Perhaps he would have Ledderik be even more cautious than the past few times. Yes, that would be wise.
He sighed and let his own eyelids lower, stroked her, cradled her until he felt her stir against his chest.
When he looked down he met her eyes beholding his. Wide and blue.
“Are you well?” His large hand dwarfed her jaw as he pressed it from beneath, making her maintain that eye contact. “Are you well?”
“I...am well enough.”
“And your female parts? Does it hurt unbearably?”
“It hurts but I will live,” she said quietly.
Mixed with the warm blanket of air above the pool was another scent that was not soap. He put his nose to her wet hair and sniffed, then licked her, recalling the last time he’d done this – before, just before the sex. Before sex, when she bucked and groaned as they took her, dilating her for him. His cock rose, thrusting up, pumped with stone-blood lust, poking into her bottom where she sat over him.
For a while he was too overcome to speak. Opening wide her legs and shoving into her was all his brain could comprehend. His primitive beast-brain threatened to override all sensibleness.
He growled then pushed her off him and swirled his head under water for several seconds. “Sit over there.” He pointed at the opposite side of the bath. “It’s safer for you.”
Quickly, she slid over. “I should go.”
Jaw clamped shut he managed words, a warning. “Do not say that. Not...yet.”
He needed her. Under him. Now.
Grab her and keep her until he’d pumped her with his cum. Until it leaked from her, poured from her. To drag her away to a dark, dark place...
Redness sifted over his eyes and the fires from burning oxygen in his chest intensified, roared. The edge of the pool, where his hands grasped the stone, crumbled under the pressure of his fingers. A piece snapped off and he released it and eyed the frothing water, watching the blurred shape sink to the bottom.
“Talk to me, please. Of good, normal things. Human things.”
Desire consumed him and he fixed upon her face, on only that, ignoring the seethe, the wildness gutting him, as her smell poured over his scent cells.
His need to fuck a fleshborn had never been so awful.
Asserting his intelligence over his archaic stoneshifter side was imperative.
He ground diamond-hard teeth on teeth, heard them splinter, tasted the dust. Instincts could be controlled if not denied absolutely.
“You smell good,” he drawled.
“I...” Mila swallowed. “What shall I talk about?”
Smart girl. She realized he struggled for control. “Talk about anything, please.”
He should tell her he wanted her to be his sacrifice yet he was sure she would hesitate. Be honest. He was afraid she would deny it. The female had scaled the walls of the fortress of a stoneshifter to rescue her sister. She might do anything. He needed more to be sure – some angle, perhaps a form of blackmail such as he’d used on Tiana.
And was that moral? Uncertain. Morals were fuzzy creatures and apt to mutate under pressure. But it was legal. That was what truly mattered.
The purple wren that was the catalyst for this event flew in the window and landed on the back of a chair piled with towels.
“You again.” Mila smiled. “Is it a wren?”
“Yes. It stays in my zoo, when it chooses to. I had it cloned from ancient old-Earth DNA. The purple color is new and done by tweaking the code.”
“It’s so pretty.”
The bird then chose to fly to the floor near her, to sip from a small puddle of splashed water.
He grunted, curious to see what else she might add.
“Do you not find it beautiful?”
He considered that a moment. “It’s a small creature. I prefer to dote on the larger ones.”
“To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower.”
Those words made thoughts blossom and ricochet. “The meaning?”
“It’s from a poem. I’m no philosopher but to me this wren...” she held out her hand “...is as worthy of reverence as any creature. In a feather, or the way it takes to the sky, you can see a universe. At least, as much as you might by studying a man, or a monster.”
Her last word bit.
Monster. By that did she mean him?
He eyed the bird. “Do you act on your desires, Mila? If something compels you? Would you do something you fear if it attracts you?”
Then he switched his gaze to the female and saw the last of the soft confusion caused by the sex clear from her face. Wiped away, just like that. His proximity had kept her quiet and subdued.
A mistake to get her to leave his side. A mistake to keep her by him.
She pulled herself straighter and her breasts rose from the water and were bared.
His breath stopped in his throat.
“I do not act on something that is bad for me. No matter how much I’m compelled.” Then she stood and climbed from the pool. Water streamed off her and bared all of her.
Naked, with that narrow triangle of hair at her mons beckoning him. He could have her if he wanted. Logically, he should not. Logic was a two-edged sword.
“Am I the monster?”
He had to know.
“Of course you are. I cannot believe or understand why I let what happened to me...” Now she was clearly flustered, her face flushing red. “Happen. Where are my clothes?”
He snapped out a quick text to Ledderik and the door to the room creaked open. “There. You may go.”
Watching her dress and leave, seeing the door shut and the room empty, it was terrible, but her words had freed him. He would catch her again and this time make sure he left her no legal way to back out.
To the fuck with morals. If he was her monster, then he would behave like one.
The wren returned and landed near his elbow, cheeping and turning its head as if admonishing him.
“Are you a universe?”
He laughed and stood, sending water cascading over the floor and making the bird fly to the chair and flutter its wings to dry them.
Zarblu made a note to leave some seed on the sill for it later. It would return to the central zoo if it wished to. The drones kept most of the flying predators away from the fortress.
Even now she affected him with her uniqueness. How dare she make him think.
How dare she stalk from this room wearing that sexually explosive black suit, sword, long black boots, and her petulant anger, when he’d seen the signs of arousal between her legs as she dressed.
Those legs in those boots...
If she walked around the city in that she’d leave a wet trail.
Gods. Forgotten gods above.
He shoved his hands over his face and scrubbed up and down, letting the tear of friction, of stone on stone, heat him, distract him from his anguish.
He would dream of stripping her naked and her little pink tongue swirling over his cock until the day he turned to dust.
He would trap her and bring her back to him, irrevocably, this time. Trap her, capture her, fuck her into oblivion on the sacrifice table.
As soon as he had her signature, retinal imprint, or voiceprint on the contract. He sighed and the rasp of his breath frightened the bird into flight. The legalities of this century were killing him.