Exquisite Possession: A Dark Scifi Romance (The Machinery of Desire Book 4)

by Cari Silverwood

  Below, the abyss, the mammoth manifestation of this world, Aerthe. It sloshed and vomited forth blue from some crack in the crust, gulping down the torrents of water, and smelling the atmosphere but not quite emerging into the sunlight. It clutched the unwary to its womb and swallowed them. People came here to wish? They should be running from her, it, whatever. The sex of this world was undocumented.

  But now, now he meant to try seeing more than the crystal had given him. Because what he might do with this stone could have terrible implications that would echo for millennia.

  He closed his eyes, let his mind relax. Perhaps he should pose questions to himself.

  Such as, why me?

  No voice arrived to inform, yet the knowledge came to him.

  He was unique, the only mech-humanoid hybrid, and as such he was above the matters that drew people to hate and oppose each other, to discriminate and seek power, to lie, kill, and make war. He was also the only one who could use the unique waik power in the crystal.

  JI considered this. He had the impression the latter was the key point. Above the matters of people? Pfft. He was weak and probably stupid and getting stupider day by day. It seemed a common failing that came pre-installed with being organic.

  But, it was a good start.

  Did Aerthe think like people, and did she articulate her aims and plan? Why did she not directly influence the machinations of men and women?

  No answer. Either he was not meant to know or it, whatever informed him, did not know either.

  Stick to himself then. What to ask next?

  In one mind-swamping download that overwhelmed JI with data, Aerthe revealed everything she might desire to, drowning him, pouring info into every crack in his brain. He choked and almost released his grip.

  A warning, surely, and it declared, this was not his show, it was Aerthe’s.

  Shaking, with his abraded fingernails locked into the rock crevices all that kept him alive, he rummaged through thoughts.

  Whatever she’d thrown at him he could not understand in entirety. Not here.

  He needed to go back to where he could be in silence, maybe to confer with someone wiser to the ways of humanoids.

  Fern.

  Or he could just fuck her. There was that.

  Ahhh, he had definitely been humanoid for too long.

  Chapter 40

  During the return journey, the short-range communicator of the ramm had let him hear a summary given out to the mekkers tasked with guarding their people. A final meeting was scheduled between the leaders.

  Last chance. His brain nudged him.

  The reunion between Aunt M and a barely awake Fern was a small sideshow. JI had unloaded M and his relevant bits, plus some tools he might need, unloaded himself also, then told the pilots to go away. They’d obeyed.

  Now he was left to contemplate.

  “You’re alive!” Fern hoarsely said. She tried to hug M and failed. Too spiky, apparently.

  They cried over each other, well, M couldn’t cry really. Fern did, though.

  He had to admit he had watery eyes too.

  Aunt M had survived the crash and burn of the KI-mech, and Aerthe had not chosen to eat him. Perhaps one big metal thing was enough for one day.

  Now that was over, he had to think.

  “Shhh!” He held up his hand and beckoned to Fern. “You...” He pointed at M. “Need to go fix that leg of yours. Tools are there.”

  “Bossy. You have changed, JI. Though I deserve it. I guess I was evil for a while. The judge compelled me.”

  “I know this. I forgave you. So did Fern. Fix yourself and be quiet.”

  The glare of his red eyes swiveled to the equipment, and M began tinkering with the parts.

  JI frowned. One of the rescued bits seemed utterly new. Perhaps it’d been dropped from a different machine?

  Fern crawled over and sat next to him again, her blue shift riding up her thigh. “You went to the Chasm. What else did you find? I can see there is more.”

  “I tried to speak to Aerthe. I will tell you what there is that I understand. I was given information and it seems that in one of the possible futures, I become this great God Emperor.”

  He ignored her astonishment.

  “I was sure that with this crystal, I could accomplish miracles and monstrous things. I could make people do almost anything. I could kill. This is the information I was given.”

  He rolled out the images, speaking softly:

  A sea of people before me, and the vision swept outward, and further, skimming their heads, and rising higher I saw that the multitudes were endless.

  My word became law.

  I became God Emperor of Aerthe.

  There was no war in my lifetime. There was prosperity, and it was easy to achieve good, but I must forever be vigilant, forever use my Word of Stone. The more I used it the more I needed to use it.

  It wasn’t addiction, it was need. To stop was to produce chaos. I was the man who held back war, but each time I gave way and tried not to use the stone, violence erupted within days or weeks.

  With your sensitivity to the crystal, you, Fern, were the most affected. The crystal wiped all your resistance, dulled your intelligence, and you became as close to a true pet as the God Emperor of Aerthe might wish. You never thought an original idea again.

  When you died, I moved on.

  Over the centuries of my prolonged life, I used the power of many healers and so endured long past a time that any man should live. I became fat and greedy, and in the end, I was a man with a mind that barely rose above worm level.

  JI pulled a face. A chilling vision, to him. “Hundreds of years of peace, Fern, but at a cost.”

  “I see. Both awful, and good. God Emperor. Wow.”

  “Bad for you most of all.”

  “What if you send me away? If we both agree to that—”

  “And lose you? And you also lose me? I don’t want that.” He wrapped his arm over her.

  “I know this concept you outlined really well.”

  “You do?” He pulled her down onto her back, with her head on his thigh and her pink hair fanning out over his skin, so she must look up at him. “I must,” he murmured, “Put another collar on you. However, tell me how you know.”

  “It’s classic in fantasy. A hero who must sacrifice for the greater good. And you do the good thing but it’s tragic and you suffer.

  “I don’t like to suffer.” Obviously.

  Fern seemed preoccupied, staring past him, as if pulling up old memories. “Or if you don’t use it, the stone gets lost in a river or something, like the one ring to rule them all, and evil breeds and tries to get the ring, but a huge war breaks out. So that means using it now is smarter – it sidesteps all that.” She cocked an eyebrow at him.

  “No, Fern. No one else can use this. I’m unique. Me or nothing. If I drop it in a river, maybe a fish eats it but that’s it. Do you want to be a vegetable? Seriously?”

  “Just…” She shrugged. “This is bigger than you or me. You.” She reached up and gently poked his chest. “Can be God Emperor of Aerthe and bring peace for, like, centuries.”

  JI sighed.

  “Okay, what else? This is not going away.” She waved at the gathering and the leftover battle mess. The bodies. “Maybe I watched too many movies, read too many books, but this is real. You said it yourself. War is coming, and it may not stop this time.”

  As if it ever had.

  JI raised his head and looked out over the land. People were helping each other, towing away broken machines, aiding the wounded, dismantling trucks that were broken. They were also threatening to shoot each other, judging by the yelling and brandished weapons.

  “An alternative? Did Aerthe not show you alternatives?”

  To turn Fern into a vegetable was a repulsive choice.

  “I glimpsed a future where I used the Word of Stone but very infrequently. People seemed to want to be nice, part of the time. I didn’t see how that be
gan. Why would they be nice to each other?”

  “Hmmm.” Fern fell silent.

  The squeak of Aunt M screwing something into place rent that silence. JI shifted, looked, saw that M now had a limb that ended in a hook. Ouch.

  “Why don’t you try what you and Fern began with?” Aunt M said, glancing over, red eyes intent. “It worked for her. It let you snare a mate who still likes you.”

  There were many reasons for that result, however. Like, they liked each other. She was sexy hot. The mechling echo. And the hotness. Her ass.

  He was getting distracted, but her shift was showing much of her legs, and the cloth was sucked into where the triangle of her mound lay at the juncture of those sexy legs. How could a man think?

  Fern gasped. “The blood contract! Make them sign one. All of the leaders.”

  Well now. “If it was worded with wisdom and forethought…” JI mused.

  “It could make them be nice about many things,” Fern finished. “Not as good as centuries of peace, though. When a signee dies, it breaks the blood contract?”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “But then I make them sign again. It should work? Thank you, M, for the inspiration.” He turned and frowned. “How many is that? Ten limbs?”

  “Yes. Ten. This way when they fall off, I’m still functional.”

  “Mmm. I’m just going to nod and agree because you’re ruining my moment of greatness.”

  A blood contract was binding but also closer to a natural process.

  He was no God Emperor of perfect decisions. Aerthe had chosen him because of his physical affinity with the crystal’s frequencies rather than his wisdom.

  He did not want to be God Emperor.

  There was no way to be certain the blood contract version of the future would work, but it was the best he could come up with.

  “Fern. We should do this now.” The meeting of the leaders would not go on all day.

  He stroked her hair then climbed to his feet and pulled her up. She was strong enough to walk, though he’d carry her if he had to.

  They headed downslope toward the center of the gathering.

  “Ow!” Fern hopped.

  “You’re shoeless.”

  “And pants-less. Do you think the God Emperor could buy me something to wear?”

  JI stopped at the truck of a scav he recalled was called Asshole by Fern.

  He used the focused stone voice. “BRING ME shoes for Fern, and clean pants, Asshole.”

  Calling him an asshole when the man could not retaliate was somehow pleasing.

  The clothes, black pants, and shoes were soon brought, and Fern put them on. Dressing in public when she was in the epicenter of chaos, and she’d recently almost died, naked, in front of thousands…it probably registered as a bare nudge on her annoyance scale.

  “Flip flops? Really?” was her only comment.

  They moved on.

  A tented area of many small shelters housed this last meeting. On the side toward which they headed, scavs lined the perimeter, looking inward.

  “Take my hand, Fern.” He paused to inhale, exhale, in a deliberate way, then extracted the stone from his pocket.

  The heat crackled into his fingers. It knew. He meant to use this thoroughly and well.

  “What I must do will be the greatest exultation of these powers I have yet used. It will shock you into a state where you will lose the ability to talk for some days, however long it takes for them to formulate this blood contract. Understand? You will come back to me though.”

  “I understand.”

  He understood too, but hesitated. What if he made a mistake? “I’m a mech-humanoid not a perfect god being.” Those words were for himself.

  “Yes, and I love you as you are.” She stepped in front of him and placed her palms on his chest. “Now you see the secret to humaning. Life is never perfect.”

  “Humanoiding?”

  “One of those.” Fern grinned up at him. He leaned down and kissed her, gently, on those soft, lush lips. Then he grabbed her hair and did it again with more force. That left her panting and wide of eye.

  He smiled and arranged several strands of her hair behind her ear. “You are so small, yet I cannot imagine living without you.”

  “That was a pretty good kiss, God Emperor.”

  “Are you going to keep calling me that?”

  “Yes.”

  “I predict a lot of spanking and discipline in our future, pet-girl. I could’ve had a harem and world domination, and instead I chose you.”

  “Mmm. Good. Let’s do this.” She took his hand again and they walked onward, and into the future of Aerthe.

  And JI stopped once and commanded the first of the people they encountered, to create a cleared path for them to walk though, and they parted as the tide might withdraw before an oncoming tsunami.

  And he spoke the Word of Stone: “YOU WILL LISTEN.”

  The ground trembled. A halo of light burst around them and obliterated everything but his words.

  A hush fell, dust and ash drifted over the heads of the crowd, and wind made the tent ceilings above them flap.

  The people were silent and listened.

  Through it all, the undercurrent of JI’s thoughts never ceased to pulse: she was happy. Despite everything the judge had done to her, Fern was happy. He’d been right to make her forget the pain.

  Epilogue

  Nothing happened fast. Slowly, reluctantly in many cases, the mekkers left their landships and were blessed. Some returned to them and made them into roving markets that blossomed again into cities of all races.

  Some of the more adventurous people even took to the ocean in ships and sailed away, to see what was on the other side. A few of them were eaten by giant fish.

  And the humans? It wasn’t so easy making humans blend in. They missed out on signing the blood contract. They stood out with their shine and people liked owning them. The Aerthe needed them to suffer, a little. Rumors circulated, that someone had found a way to make portals, again, and that the number of humans on Aerthe was increasing.

  Temptation encouraged experimentation, some said, and humans were definitely tempting.

  Aerthe had a few more wars and many babies, marriages, celebrations, and parties.

  JI always regretted not having a harem, or so he teased Fern.

  Mistakes were made. JI may have overstepped the boundaries of right and wrong, may have strayed to the dark side, just a little. He and Fern lived far longer than one might expect a human and a mech-humanoid to live, unless there was intervention.

  The Aerthe would suffer from peace for a thousand, thousand years, off and on, with wars here and there, but that’s as good a peace as any world could expect.

  But all of that is another story.

  For this one has ended.

  Glossary and Characters

  CHARACTERS FROM THE SERIES.

  Ryke – Mekker. The antihero of Branded Possession.

  Gio (Giovanna) – Human. She helped Drette perfect his portals.

  JI – originally JI-mech 34. He appears in all the books and is the main hero in the final novel, Book 4, Exquisite Possession. In Book 2, Claimed Possession, he took over the brain and body of Osta, a Scav leader.

  Mako – Mekker. a king-in-waiting. From Book 1, Acquired Possession.

  Emery – Human. Mako’s blood slave. Features in Acquired Possession.

  Sawyer – Human. Ari’s master. Ex-SAS soldier and Fern’s brother. His story and hers are in Book 2, Claimed Possession.

  Aribelle (Ari) – Grounder. She is Sawyer’s slave and lover. Her and his stories are in Book 2, Claimed Possession.

  Fern – Human. Sister to Sawyer. She stabbed Judge Ormrad and was punished, stabbed by him, and thrown down the chute to die on the surface of Aerthe. Her story continues in Book 4.

  Drette – Mekker. He accidentally discovered portals and so brought humans to Aerthe. Killed in Book 2, by Gio.

  Badh – Mekker. Ryke’s brother. The O
vermekker of the Underdeck.

  Judge Ormrad – Mekker. A cruel, scheming man who appears throughout the series. A king-in-waiting.

  The King – Mekker. He rules over all the swathes, though such rule is largely imaginary due to the lack of communication between swathes. Only at the Gatherings, when the swathes meet, is his rule truly celebrated.

  Gyle – Mekker. The king’s advisor.

  Aunt Mary (Diccano) – A mech or mechling found in the King’s Residence in the Underdeck.

  Osta – Scav. A character from Claimed Possession. A man who kept secrets, though a good leader.

  GLOSSARY

  A

  Above – a slang term used by deckers (inhabitants of the Underdeck) to describe Mekkers who live in the upper decks of the landships.

  Aerthe – a world recovering from a great war. All the cities were destroyed, the countries were obliterated, and many of the advances of civilization were lost when the Mekkers landed and invaded. The world is alive with a magic rooted in the world itself. Though Mekkers have tapped into this to power their swathes, the mechlings, and some later military tech, the world is forever striving to eliminate them – much as a body would destroy a viral invader.

  C

  Core flyer – a hang glider used by deckers to fly over the Engine Sea to do maintenance or other work. Sometimes core flying is a recreational activity.

  D

  Doctor program – a computer program that can be installed in mechlings and mechs. It enables advanced surgery with the correct tools are attached as well as medical skills. The medical skills are designed for Mekkers, rather than Aerthe people or humans, and do not tap into the Aerthe ‘magic’.