Adverse Effects

by Alicia Nordwell

  Nicklaus slid sideways out of the door. “Yes, of course.” He covered his mouth with one hand. “Is he…?”

  “We’re okay, and everyone is safe, Nicklaus. We just need some time alone.”

  “I understand. Just a moment.” Nicklaus spent a lot of time in his room. He was quiet and didn’t interact often with the group of friends rapidly forming around Seral and his tziu, but Yaseke had tried to draw him out. He was young, and shy, but very considerate of the needs of those around him. He wouldn’t pry.

  He was pulling a shirt on when he came out of his room. Nicklaus ran a hand through his short hair. “I commed Fieo. I… I, uh, I’ll be gone for the afternoon with him. The suite is all yours, and there’s some juice or water in the refrigerator thing if Dade needs it.”

  “Thank you, Nicklaus.” Dade spoke softly. He wasn’t looking at the other male, but he had responded. Yaseke smothered a sigh of relief.

  “You’re welcome.” Nicklaus slipped out into the hallway. The heavy metal door slid shut behind him with a quiet hiss. The lock engaged, and the panel turned red.

  “C’mon.” Yaseke led Dade into his old room and over to the bed. Dade slumped onto the low mattress. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Wait.” Dade caught his hand, and Yaseke stopped. He cupped Dade’s cheek and made him look up.

  “I’m just going for a cleaning cloth. I’ll be right back.”

  Letting him out of arm’s reach was the last thing Dade looked as though he wanted to do, but he let go of Yaseke’s wrist. Yaseke stroked Dade’s cheekbone with his thumb.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  Yaseke hurried into the bathroom and returned with a soft, warm cloth to wipe Dade’s face and neck. The skin under his black eyes looked purpled, and the blue of the isitziu was too pale against his skin. For such a large male, Dade seemed small as he let Yaseke wash the sweat and stress of the council meeting away. His breathing gradually deepened, and some of the tension in his muscles eased. Dade lifted his hips when Yaseke tapped on them, and Yaseke pulled down his shorts.

  His cock lay limp over his balls. Dade looked up. “I’m sorry.”

  Yaseke shook his head. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m sorry that you had to use your ability that way. You shouldn’t have to do something that hurts you.”

  “It does.” Dade’s voice broke.

  “I know.” Yaseke urged Dade to scoot back on the bed and stretch out. He dropped his wrap and then curled up against his isit. Dade still felt a little clammy, but his shaking had eased. He put his arms around Yaseke’s waist and slid his hand down to Yaseke’s hip.

  “This feels good.”

  Yaseke’s cock thickened. It had been too long since they were together like this, naked and alone in bed. He didn’t regret bringing Pira and Maerit home with them, but he missed the privacy they needed to have an intimate relationship.

  But Dade wasn’t in a place mentally to respond to him in the same way. “Let’s take a nap.”

  “I’ve been sleeping too much lately.” Dade yawned.

  “That yawn and those shadows under your eyes say otherwise.” Yaseke knew Dade’s sleep wasn’t very restful. “This will end, Dade.”

  “I hope so.”

  Yaseke leaned forward and kissed Dade on the lips softly. “Rest for a bit. We don’t have anyone looking for us, or anything to do for the rest of the day.”

  Dade closed his eyes as he let out a deep sigh. Yaseke couldn’t sleep, so he watched Dade for a while. He was still, so contained, while he slept. Then his eyes started moving under the lids and his feet twitched. His hand opened and shut spasmodically a few times, digging into Yaseke’s hip.

  Yaseke rubbed his arm, but Dade didn’t wake up. Instead, he began to mumble, his voice vibrating in a strange way Yaseke couldn’t understand.

  “Dade. Wake up.” Yaseke patted his face. “You need to wake up now.” No wonder Dade wasn’t getting any rest. Was he having these nightmares every night?

  “No!” Dade went rigid. His eyelids flew open. “Yaseke? No, don’t look!” Dade squeezed his eyes shut.

  “Stop that. You won’t hurt me.” Yaseke leaned forward. “Open your eyes, Dade.”

  “I-I was hurting you. I could see your eyes, and I was—”

  “You were dreaming. I’ve been awake the whole time, Dade. You didn’t hurt me. I don’t think you could.” Yaseke whispered, “Open your eyes.”

  Dade did, but slowly, as though he was afraid of what he’d see.

  “See, I’m fine.”

  Yaseke leaned forward to give Dade a kiss, but the gentle caress he expected was consumed by Dade’s fierce need. His isit captured him by the back of the neck and the hip and plastered Yaseke against his body as he thrust his tongue inside Yaseke’s mouth.

  Dade was shaking, so Yaseke put his arms around him and squeezed tight. His cock had softened while Dade slept, but now Yaseke felt the lust that had been simmering between them explode. He thrust his hips forward, rubbing his growing erection against Dade’s stomach. He could feel Dade’s cock, already stiff, against his thighs.

  “I need you,” Dade hummed against his lips. Their gazes were locked together.

  Yaseke nodded.

  Dade used his weight to push Yaseke onto his back. Accepting his lover between his thighs, Yaseke wrapped his legs around Dade’s hips and thrust up. It had been days since Dade had claimed him, and Yaseke wanted it, needed it. His fangs ached with the need to bite Dade.

  So he did.

  Yaseke lifted his head and bit down. His fangs sank into the side of Dade’s neck, and pleasure shot white-hot through him. It was as if lightning struck from his mouth, filled with the unique flavor of Dade, to his balls.

  Dade shouted. He curled his arms around Yaseke’s shoulders and went rigid. Yaseke thrust up against him, and their cocks rubbed together. Dade groaned and thrust back.

  His erection was hard, the skin soft, and the way it rubbed against Yaseke’s cock felt better than it ever had before. Yaseke needed to come with a painful intensity. He sucked hard at Dade’s neck, knowing he would leave a large bruise around the claiming bite.

  Dade shuddered. He ground his hips downward in small circles, and then his hand was between them. He fumbled for a minute and then managed to grab both their cocks in his fist. The full lengths of their cocks rubbed together as he stroked their shafts, squeezing the heads at the top of each stroke.

  Yaseke’s legs trembled, and the muscles began to cramp as his orgasm slammed into him. He yanked his fangs out of Dade’s neck and grunted. His claws ripped at the sheets as he struggled to breathe through the hard spasms.

  Just as his orgasm was fading, the pleasure easing down, Dade shouted and buried his fangs in Yaseke’s neck. The pain struck first, but then Yaseke’s balls contracted and he squirted another long jet of come between them to mix with Dade’s release.

  The sucking pulls on his neck held him, lost in that moment and the pleasure, during Dade’s orgasm. It went on and on, for long seconds, as their bodies locked together in passion.

  Yaseke didn’t want it to end, but he needed to breathe. Dade was much gentler as he released Yaseke’s neck and slid his fangs out. He licked at the marks, then collapsed sideways. They sprawled on the bed, their limbs jumbled together. It wasn’t comfortable, but Yaseke didn’t care.

  “You know… I wanted to be inside you. I was gonna get the lube,” Dade said when they could finally talk again.

  Yaseke shrugged, a little embarrassed at the way he had virtually attacked Dade, but not that much. “We needed this.”

  Dade smiled. “Yeah, we did.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  “Do you want to stay here?” Yaseke asked.

  I curled around my tziu, pulling him against my chest. I stroked Yaseke’s damp stomach, the come already wiped away with a cloth he’d brought in before. “I’m not ready to go back yet, if you think the kids are okay with Witani.” I wasn’t ready for a second round, and wouldn’t
be for a while, but there was so little time for just us. We’d never really had a chance just to relax together.

  Yaseke ran his hand down my arm, and the slight prick of his claws made me shiver as they trailed down to my hand. He twined our fingers together. “They’re fine, but I meant here, at the residence.”

  “This is your home, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, but we could live in the city. I can still help people and not live here. I can come to the residence to counsel, or set up an office out there.”

  I urged Yaseke to roll onto his back. I stared down at him, looking into his shiny, amber eyes. “What is this about, really?”

  “You shouldn’t have to do all these things just because you have the ability.”

  My heart began to pound. Had it finally been too much for Yaseke, now that he’d had time to process what he’d seen me do? Had he seen my satisfaction at forcing that bastard to pay, being able to inflict on him a fraction of the fear I knew my family had felt losing their loved ones and being captured by the Vlrsessiums?

  “I’m sorry”—my voice cracked—“Yaseke, I’m so….” I shook.

  “Don’t.” He reached up and put a hand over my mouth. “I know what you’re thinking. I don’t think you’re a monster or anything like that. I don’t like you using your ability because I think it hurts you in here.” He slid his other hand over my heart.

  Inside I was a monster. Human scientists had done much more than just change my appearance; they’d changed me into a monstrous weapon no one could stop. I started to shake my head.

  “Stop it. Just stop, okay? I know you’re good in here.” Yaseke rubbed his hand against my chest. “You’ve been a soldier your whole life.”

  “It’s all I know. There are still humans out there, planning something. They could attack at any time, if they figure out the compound was infiltrated. I have to protect you, and that means I have to fight.”

  “We’ll show you how to be something else.” Yaseke stared at me, his eyes begging. “Let the guard find the ship and the other humans. Stay with me and the young.” He rolled against me, burying his face in my neck. “Please, Dade. I don’t want to see you hurt anymore.”

  “Yaseke.”

  “Please, Dade,” he whispered. “Please, my isit.”

  My heart broke at the pain in his voice. “Okay,” I said. I wrapped my arms around the man quietly crying against my neck. He clung to me. “Okay.”

  “Thank you.” Yaseke kissed my neck over his bite marks. He tilted his head back to look at me.

  “I don’t know what I’ll do, but I won’t fight with the guards, and I won’t interrogate any more prisoners.”

  He smiled. “We’ll figure it out.”

  “Yeah.” I knew he’d help me. Caeorleia was a new world, and a culture I didn’t really understand yet. Chances were, there’d be something I was good at, other than hurting and killing people. I had to believe that was true because Yaseke said it was. I knew I could trust him, but my heart was still pounding with the decision I’d just made.

  Changing my life after so long… I wasn’t sure how it would work. I didn’t have to figure it out right away, though.

  “So, do we have enough time”—I bent my head down and sucked on the marks on Yaseke’s neck where I’d claimed him in our earlier frenetic joining—“to use that lube?”

  Yaseke shuddered in my arms as I licked up to his ear and traced my tongue along its soft tip, then nipped the outside curling edges.

  He grunted. “Ugh. Dade! Oh, that feels good.” He sighed. “We have plenty of time.”

  I slid my hand between us. He wasn’t hard yet, but he was thickening. I wrapped my hand around his slender cock and squeezed it. He writhed. Yaseke’s sensitivity amazed me. “You know… there’s one thing we haven’t done yet.”

  “Oh?” Yaseke panted.

  “Uh-huh.” I kissed my way along his jaw to his neck. Just below his ear was one of his hot spots. I dropped a light kiss there, then began sucking. Yaseke went rigid as I brought up a bright blue mark. I spoke with my lips still pressed against his skin, knowing the vibrations would go straight to his shypsoid bone.

  “I want you inside me.”

  Yaseke’s cock surged, hard and full, against my palm.

  “Y-You want—”

  “This”—I stroked his cock—“inside me.”

  Yaseke pulled away from my kisses, and our gazes locked. “Are you sure? We’ve never….”

  I thrust my cock against him, groaning. “I know, but it feels right.” I rolled over onto my stomach and drew my legs up under me. The vulnerable position with my ass in the air was one I hadn’t ever let myself be put in before.

  My tziu gasped. I heard him move around. He slid a hand up and down my back, and I shivered.

  “Dade, have you ever done this before?”

  I looked back over my shoulder at him where Yaseke knelt between my legs. I hadn’t heard him get the lube, but he was holding it. He was staring at my ass.

  “Yeah, but not like this. And not in a bed. It’s been a long time.”

  “Did the doctors…?” He frowned.

  “No.” I shook my head. “It was on the last mission, back when I was still a soldier. No one important, but he didn’t force me. The guards did... things, but I was too dangerous one-on-one for them to risk that.” Dade refused to let their sickness taint what he had with Yaseke. Nothing they’d done was anything like what he hoped he was about to feel for the first time. “There’s no bad memory in this for me, tziu, because I’ve never had someone inside me who I love and who loves me back.”

  “Okay.” Yaseke leaned forward and kissed my shoulder. “We’re going to go really slow,” he said between kisses, each one laid in a line down my spine. I buried my head in my arms, enjoying the tingles. I didn’t ask if he’d topped before. Yaseke seemed to know what he was doing, and I didn’t want to hear about him with anyone before me.

  My cock was tight to my lower abdomen, hard and aching. I heard Yaseke fumble with the bottle, and then his hand, slick and cool, slid between my ass cheeks.

  “Not too slow, I hope.” I gasped as he circled my hole. My balls flexed as I grunted, pushing back as he slowly began to slide inside.

  He pulled his finger out, circled my hole, then pushed back inside. The gliding thrust sent chills down my back and arms. I shivered at the intense feeling of being penetrated, familiar and yet strange in the slow stretching I’d never felt before.

  The second finger Yaseke slid inside me started the burn as my hole stretched around his slim fingers.

  “You’re so tight.” He curled his fingers and hit my prostate as he slid back inside.

  “Fuck!” I cried and shoved my ass back.

  “Dade?” Yaseke sounded uncertain, and he didn’t move his fingers.

  “Do it again.” I shot a glance over my shoulder. “Now!”

  Yaseke raised one eyebrow. “Slow, remember?”

  “Screw slow!” My balls hurt, and I wanted him inside.

  “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  No one had ever cared if they hurt me or not before. I melted for Yaseke, lost in the feeling of his fingers sliding in and out. By the time he pulled them free for the last time and curled his body over mine, I was a needy ball of nerves.

  “Oh.” Yaseke let out a long groan as he entered me for the first time. The bite of pain as he slid his cock inside was soon lost as he figured out the angle to rub my prostate with his entire length as he entered me.

  I moaned, needing to move, but Yaseke grabbed my hips and held me still. My cock was leaking everywhere as it bounced against my stomach every time he thrust in.

  “Harder.”

  Yaseke shoved his cock inside me forcefully, grinding his hips against my ass, but refused to speed up. He began to pant, and my balls tightened. I grabbed handfuls of the bedding. “Fuck.” I was so close it hurt, so ready to blow it was a miracle I hadn’t already.

  “Close,” Yaseke gasped. He l
eaned back and slid one hand around my hip. He held it against my cock, rubbing small circles against my stomach. I jerked my head up and then froze as Yaseke bit down on the side of my neck.

  The intensity of the claiming bite while we were joined, his long cock inside me, his hand rubbing up and down my rigid erection… I was overwhelmed, and my brain shorted out.

  I screamed as my balls turned inside out. I couldn’t breathe in, couldn’t do anything but feel as my orgasm overtook me. Each jamming thrust sent another stream of come shooting from my cock. Yaseke ground against me as he sucked on my neck through his own orgasm. My knees gave out, and we slumped on the bed, Yaseke plastered against my back.

  He slid his fangs out and licked his marks closed. I could feel him panting as I struggled to catch my breath.

  “We have to do that again. Soon,” he said once his breathing slowed.

  I chuckled, and Yaseke writhed, his cock falling out of my ass. There was slick warmth between my cheeks, and my sore hole tingled. “Yeah,” I agreed.

  Yaseke stirred, his wet hair plastered against his cheek. I rolled out of the bed before the knocking could wake him up. Some of the Caeorleians’ attitude toward clothing must have worn off on me, or I was just too tired and satisfied to care as I padded to the suite door naked.

  “What?” We couldn’t have been sleeping long after our shower, and the sun wasn’t even touching the treetops.

  Nicklaus gaped at me. “Uh… um, sorry.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Seral, Ryker, and Fieo are here with Polsh to have lunch and talk about the human ship. I wasn’t sure if you guys….” He stared down at his feet.

  “Give us a few.”

  Nicklaus looked back up. “Do you want something to eat? Mamo sent some falgru meat with that sauce you like.”

  “Yeah, thanks.” We’d missed breakfast too.

  The door slid shut, cutting off the vibrating rumbles I could hear from the central lounge. My tziu was curled on the bed, the silky sheet covering his body up to his ribs. I hated to wake him up, but I also wanted to prove to him I’d meant what I said.