by Viola Grace
She blushed. “There were other reactions, and I was surprised.”
“Reactions?” He tilted his head, and his eyes were still red.
“Uh, yes.” She stepped back, away from him. “It was unexpected, and I was surprised.”
He frowned. “I don’t understand. The other offerings have all been susceptible to my venom.”
She blinked, and a hot blush ran in her cheeks. “I am a different species.”
He smiled. “Ah, that must be it. Well, I am glad. That is the health effect that troubles me the most.”
She shivered and crossed her arms over her breasts. “Yeah. Not worried about that. My health is fine.” She looked him over. “What is your name? I presume you know mine.”
“You are Amorbilla Kekx. Transport ship worker. I am Dronix. I have no other names.”
She nodded and took the seat that he had originally put her into. “So, why every fifty years? How much do you need to take? What has happened to the other offerings?”
He smiled and crouched next to her. “I don’t know the first. I just get hungry for blood every fifty years. I take the entirety of the living body over a period of months if the female is acceptable.”
She waited. “What about the others?”
“Ah. I return a few to their world of origin. Others decide to remain here and have married within the population.”
“There are people here?”
He chuckled. “Of course. When I settled here, I guarded the locals, and they have been interbreeding with the offerings for a very long time.”
She sighed. “Well, that is something. Can you return me?”
He smiled and said directly to her. “No.”
“What? Why?”
“I don’t want to.” Dronix chuckled. “I have not had my fill of you yet.”
She swallowed. She didn’t know if she could take a month or more of those body-gasms. He was bound to notice eventually.
“Is there anywhere I can wash up and change? I am still a little slippery.”
He nodded and got to his feet, extending his hand. She lifted her arm, and her hand was captured.
“This way to the sleeping quarters and bathing rooms.”
They climbed upward and finally emerged on a level where the view was the entire surrounding area from all directions. The windows were huge, and she could see everything.
“The bathing rooms are through here. The water is filled in a tank and heated by the suns.” He walked her around the room, pointing out the amenities. “This is your wardrobe. The gowns all look the same to make sure you are identified to the locals. Food arrives in this space here. It is delivered to the floor below, and then, the counterweights bring it here. There is usually food here about twelve hours out of the day.”
“Why is it loaded from below?”
“It is heavy and hard to manage and for privacy. You would not believe the number of offerings who have tried to slip away dressed as staff.”
Billa looked over at the huge bed, and she cleared her throat. “You sleep here?”
“I rest here. I don’t really sleep, and sometimes, I get hungry in the middle of the night, so the location is convenient.”
She nodded as if that made sense. The other necessities were easy to locate, and when the tour was done, she looked at the bathing area. “Right. So, I am going to take a bath.”
“As you like. There is food for you afterward.”
She nodded and walked toward the bathing space. She paused and asked him, “Can you control where those minerals land?”
He smiled. “Of course. Normally, I aim them away from civilisation.”
“Can you hit the ship I arrived on? Those bastards had no idea what would happen, and they sold me. I really hold a grudge.”
Dronix inclined his head. “I will have it done.”
She smiled. “Thank you.”
She stepped into the bathing room and eased the door shut. When the door remained shut, she exhaled in relief.
It took a little figuring to get the water flowing, but it cascaded from the ceiling at a pleasantly warm temperature. Billa took off the gown with a bit of fighting and stepped into the cascade of water, feeling the slick coating on her body dissolve and disappear.
She walked over to the controls and turned them off, sitting on the bench under the water. Soap and hair-care supplies were in elaborate bottles. Billa sniffed her way to the right items.
She sluiced herself clean and sat in the rapidly cooling water. A glance at the dress reminded her of one specific thing. She had forgotten to get a new dress.
She sighed and washed the fabric with some soap, getting it clean and giving herself a reason to remain in the cooling water. When the dress was rinsed and ready, Billa had no option. She got out of the tub, hit the drain, and she twisted the dress tight, squeezing all the water out.
The dressing table with brushes was in the other room, so she was only able to take a towel and wrap it around her, holding it in place as she opened the bathing room to tiptoe out toward the wardrobe.
“You can leave the dress in the bathing room. Someone will replace it.”
She paused and slowly turned around. Dronix was sitting in one of the windows and watching her.
She sighed, tossed the wet dress into the bathing room, and then, she turned to the wardrobe, picking one at random and pulling it on over her head. The cord that was next to it in the closet made sense when she figured out that she needed to wrap the dress in place for any kind of breast support.
With the dress in place, she pulled the towel off, and there was another snort from the other side of the room. She didn’t care. She was stuck here, and she had to make efforts to be pleasant, but there was no way that she would skip around naked with him watching her. She had no idea if sex was on his agenda, but despite her previous reaction, it wasn’t on hers. She heard the snort in her own mind and ruthlessly punched her libido until it was quiet.
Chapter Three
The food on the tray was in small amounts, but there was a lot of it. She carried the tray to the table and looked out her nearest window while she tried the variety of samples that had been put there for her.
She sniffed some of the carafes on the tray and recoiled from the wine. Fool me once. She drank the water and juice, sitting on the window ledge, looking out at what turned out to be a city below her. Far below.
“Why is everything so tall?”
He shrugged and walked over to sit across from her. “Because I built it. I was bored, and I had an idea of what a habitation was supposed to look like, and I didn’t want to be disturbed. I like being alone, but I accept the necessity of the other beings living here.”
Billa chuckled. “So, you are not a fan of people.”
“The urge to socialize comes and goes.” He looked at her. “So, why did your people offer you up?”
She snorted. “I am guessing that it has something to do with my lack of interest in starting intimacy with strangers in ship support tunnels. I usually carry a lot more blades than the ones that you found.”
He nodded. “They might have pierced my outer hide, but I didn’t want you to have one break if I was feeding from you.”
She looked at him, and his eyes were changing from red to purple while she watched. “What is going on with your eyes?”
He blinked. “My eyes are telling you when I am hungry. I do try to stave it off as long as possible, but as long as I don’t get to the point where I am ravenous, I will have more control.”
Billa nodded. “Understood. So, um, what was I coated in before?”
He chuckled. “Saliva. I can fly in space, but you needed to be carried in a sealed manner. So, I put you in my mouth and flew home.”
She nodded. “Right. Well, that explains why the dress was coated.”
He nodded. “I placed you on the pedestal and rested. You woke up quickly.”
“I don’t kn
ow how to respond to that.”
Dronix chuckled. “The sight of you dangling off the platform both heartened me and terrified me. The offerings usually sit there and weep.”
“I am not much of the weeping type, and getting down would have been feasible if I hadn’t been coated. I forgot about that until I was over the edge.” She looked at her hands. “I normally have a much better grip.”
He frowned.
“What is it?”
“I am hungry again. I shouldn’t be hungry again until tomorrow.”
Billa blinked. “Um, should I get you some of the snacks?”
He snorted. “No. I would ask that in this case, you lie on the bed. It will keep you from falling.”
She made fists in her gown. “What if I don’t want to?”
“Then, you will be putting yourself at risk for my hunger taking over.”
Billa debated it for a moment, and then, she got up and stalked over to the bed, sitting and then lying back, flopping like a sullen toddler.
Dronix stalked over, his blood-red hair slithering down his back with a life of its own. His breathing picked up, and Billa was pretty sure that she could make out an erection under the black trousers.
He crawled onto the bed and looked down at her, a low growling hum emanating from his throat. He licked his lips, and his tongue flicked around in a disconcerting way before he leaned forward and pressed his mouth to the opposite side of her neck. She held her breath, and then, she felt the searing pain, immediately followed with a wave of heat that had her thighs rubbing together.
Every sucking pull was like fingers inside her, and she whimpered and moaned, threading her hands into his hair and holding onto him.
Dronix paused, and he lifted his head. He frowned at her dazed expression. She could feel the flush in her skin and the slick invitation that she was offering in her sex.
“Have I injured you?”
She groaned, embarrassed. “Not really. I was rather hoping that you would continue.”
“I don’t understand.”
This was pulling her out of the pleasurable fog, but she asked. “What do you do for sex?”
“What?”
She released his hair, yanked up the gauze skirt, and took his right hand, pressing it against her. “What do you do for sex?”
He looked down at her, and astonishment filled his expression. “You... want me?”
Her face was on fire. “You are really attractive, but the side effect of your feeding is... this.”
He moved his fingers against her carefully, slipping one inside her. Her inner muscles gripped him tight, and he slowly began to move the digit.
“This is unexpected. The other offerings did not react this way.” He frowned. “I am unsure if I should continue.”
She whimpered, “Are you still hungry?”
He moved suddenly and resumed his position at her neck. The searing pleasure of his bite ran through her again, and she soon started to buck against his hand, her muscles clasping his finger hard.
Her body was shivering and jerking slightly when he finished his work at her neck, and he licked at the mark he had left behind. He pulled his finger out of her, and to her hot humiliation, he slowly licked it clean of the cream that she had produced.
He looked at her and cocked his head. “This is something that needs researching.”
She nodded. “Okay. I am guessing that I just stay here?”
He frowned. “Yes. Remain on this floor. I will be back in two days.”
“Wait; what?”
He kissed her quickly, and then, he left. That was it. He was gone, down the steps and away.
Billa pushed her gown down, and she pulled the bedding over her. The food cupboard rattled slightly, and she sighed. With her neck and groin aching, she walked over and took the tray of what seemed to be soups and beverages. Of course. Blood loss. You would need to replace fluids rapidly.
She drank everything but the wine and put the tray back in the cupboard. Billa went back to the bed and was about to tuck herself in when she saw Dronix’s other form flying away.
What the hell am I supposed to do now? She crawled into bed and rested. She could freak out in the morning if this place had a morning. Different suns might have different effects.
By the next morning, she knew without a doubt that she was completely alone. If she was on her own, she was not going to wear the gown.
She was bored. She was exceedingly bored. If she hadn’t been bored, she wouldn’t have been sitting naked in a window seat and watching the suns go by.
Not knowing when he was going to come back, she used the water of the tub sparingly. She was keeping her bathing to one shallow bath every twenty-four hours or so.
It wasn’t the first time she had been left alone, nor even the tenth. Once her government declared her an orphan, she had had no choice but to try and find a purpose and home of her own. The last few years had been all about seeking a species that she liked and that had a sense of community she could consider becoming a part of. She hadn’t found it yet. Billa snorted and kept looking outside. It didn’t look like she would find it here.
She sighed and went to a different window. The city and fields went on as far as the eye could see.
The clatter of the tray announced that it was feeding time, so she got up and went over, gathering the meal and hoisting it over to the table.
She smiled. Apparently, someone was watching what she consumed, and they paid attention to the rejects.
She ate her dinner, drank her juice and water, and set the tray back in the cubby.
With no books, no tablet, and no way of entertaining herself, she lay back in the bed and went to sleep in defiance of the light.
A soft stroking of her cheek woke her from her second nap on the second day. “Billa.”
She opened her eyes and sat up. “You are back.” He was sitting next to her on the bed, his normal clothing in position.
Dronix nodded. “I am. I got the information I needed and am much more informed as to what I can and can’t do.”
She rubbed her hair. “What does that mean?”
His kiss was as much of a surprise as the first one. He wrapped his hand around her, and he kissed her as if his life depended on it.
She felt the first tentative touch of his tongue, and then, it was tangling around hers, stroking and tugging. It was strange but not unpleasant.
He pressed her back against the pillows, and he trailed his left hand over her breasts and belly before he stroked lightly against her thighs.
She parted her legs, and he stroked her folds until they went from damp to slick.
His tongue retreated, and he leaned back, whispering against her neck. “I’m hungry.”
She blushed and held onto his head as he licked his way across her breasts with light nips and flicks of his tongue. He trailed down over her stomach, and she covered her eyes with her arms when he rested on his own belly as he cupped her thighs in his hands before he applied his mouth to her sex.
Her legs were spread wide to accommodate his shoulders as his tongue slid into her.
Billa looked upward as the sensation of his tongue inside her became exciting rather than freaky, and then, she felt the sting that she had assumed came from his teeth.
Her blood surged and rushed, her nerves activated, and she twisted in his grip. He held her still, and she heard a low groan as his tongue withdrew from her, and his lips pressed to her inner thigh.
Billa screamed as the sensations curled through her again with stronger intensity. The soft suction pulled at her with a slow and luxurious rhythm, the neural interference from his bite having the strange effect that he hadn’t anticipated.
Her body rolled and twisted against him, but he held her thigh fast, taking what he needed before he withdrew with some soft licks and a light brush of his lips.
He was smiling when he leaned up and crawled over her. “Thank
you. I have been craving you since I left.”
She blinked at him, dazed and sweaty. “What the hell?”
Dronix turned her to her side and curled up behind her. “I had to seek out advice with this situation. It has not happened to me before.”
Billa chuckled. “This hasn’t happened to me before either. Who do I ask about it?”
“You can ask me. I have had it explained to me by a very amused elder. She was quite frank and gave me some facts that I hadn’t been in possession of previous to this as I did not need the information. Until now.”
She nodded, and her heart slowly resumed its normal rhythm. “So, what kind of information did she share with you?”
He whispered in her ear, and while her conscious mind couldn’t understand the sibilant words, something inside her perked up. Something inside her was waking up, and the conscious side of Billa was getting nervous. The stirring hushed her and soothed her mind into darkness. It would speak to her there.
Chapter Four
Billa woke up for the first of the three dawns. There was a smug feeling at the back of her mind, and her panicked thoughts were quickly soothed when she tried to figure out what was going on.
She got out of bed and walked to the window to watch the suns. She stretched her arms out and let the light wash over her.
Dronix stepped out of the entry, and she turned to look at him. He asked cautiously, “How do you feel?”
She tilted her head. “Different. More. What did you do?”
He smiled and set the objects in his hands down on the desk. “I was told to try speaking in the ancient language to you. It appears to have been just the thing. I have to say; I am rather surprised that you are awake. The elder said it could leave you in a coma for weeks.”
“What? How long was I out?”
“Seventy-six hours.” Dronix came toward her.
“So, what happened?”
He grinned. “You are like me. Well, you will be. It will take a while before you begin to shift, but for now, your body is absorbing what I provide it with. That is why you have such a reaction to the hunger.”