Otherworldly

by C F Rabbiosi

  “We all feel the pull, Kassien,” says Tenak. “Human women, they have always tempted us. But we have created new laws to keep them out of our bloodlines in case breeding them was possible. It has been decided. By your own royal family.”

  “I feel it, yes,” says Brekter. “But the need is repulsive. I hate myself for it.” The more reproduction has become threatened, the more our bodies seem to have awakened.

  Perhaps I should also hate myself, Bbt I cannot. Deep guilt settles into my stomach if only for a moment before the sharp pangs of my desire choke the life from it. “You have not tasted her, then. If you had felt her lips or her body gripping you, you would hardly be able to live now.”

  The half-smile that drags the corner of his mouth coupled with a villainous glimmer makes my bile turn to ice water. “You—” I cannot stop the fist that breaks into his face. His head bounces backward and he releases a pained hiss. It is as though I watch my actions from the outside and I know what a fool I am being, I just cannot bring myself to care. It is made worse as the others come inside.

  “See?” sputters Brekter through blood-stained lips. Efaelty and the other females stand behind me, their concern rolling off them in waves. “He is incapable of handling this delicate situation!” he tells them. “Let me be the one to mate the human. I will not lose my mind, like our prince here. I will fulfill his wish, or let Tenak, even!”

  With a hand on Tenak’s shoulder, I say, “I forgive you for what you have done, my brother. Our times are rough. I understand. I will do whatever I must to ensure that we thrive.” Tanak’s graying beard reminds me that his age may interfere with the virility needed in this delicate situation even if he is a virtuous man of healing and medicine. And just the opposite, Gerakon is hardly into his twentieth year. Of course he could bed her, but would he have the control to keep her in one piece? Nodding at the thought, I look to Efaelty with resolve. I cannot allow the obvious choice, Brekter, anywhere near her.

  “You will wake from this dream,” growls Brekter. “If you do this, one day you will realize who you have killed,” he lifts his chin toward my mate, “and who you have betrayed.”

  My eyes wander the faces around me, but they are lost in the tumultuous sea I cannot swim through. “I will allow you down from your manacles in one day’s time,” I say to my men, “when you will attend the ceremony and bear witness to the wedding and bedding of Calypso and I.”

  I breeze out past Efaelty without marking her expression. My lovely mate, she would reflect nothing as she worked to hide the resentment of my decision. She is reasonable and will understand. I am the prince of this World Koridon anew, and she will subject herself to my rule. They all will.

  Brekter’s screams push out through a clenched jaw as I rush down the corridor. “Fool! You cannot do this! Kassien! You come back here!” His roars shake the foundation as I make my way back to her.

  19

  ~Kassien~

  The darkness bathes me inside Calypso’s sleeping quarters, a place where, if this were an active ship, precious new animals or other lifeforms would be locked up so only the commanders may have access. Outside these plasma walls, the tree tops bend, the wind howling them over, and a million stars twinkle overhead. I take these things in as she would, absorbing their beauty, and for the first time since I can remember, I wonder what it would be like to hold her through the storm. Through every storm, and let myself feel each cool drop of rain this planet sheds and taste the wind it blows.

  I watch the steady rise and fall of her chest and the subtle movement of her eyelids. They crack open before I am ready, content in her peace. She gets to her feet, a slight tremble in her core, and the warming sheets fall away from her form. “Come,” I say mechanically, still lost in her, knowing she will follow.

  I take her to the bathing chambers and, locking us inside, I press the combination into the mainframe that allows water to flow out at a warm temperature to fill the bath. She shivers as steam swirls around her.

  “Undress.” I cross my arms and, lost in my turmoil, forget to soften my demand. Or turn away.

  Her lips part but close again, nodding at my instruction. She unties her top and lets it fall. The orbs of enticing flesh set beautifully upon her chest, making the taper of her waist more pronounced. I had hoped being close to her again would ease the constant tempest of need raging through me, but instead, the damnable thing catches fire. I fear she is in danger with me, yet maybe she always will be. I must somehow control myself and bind her to me, if I am to protect her from my enemies. Brekter thinks she is an animal and would cage her and abuse her as such. As much as my nature could appreciate her in that luscious state, vulnerable and bowing to my every need, all I want is to free her…from her own people and from mine.

  She slides the leather down her thighs and steps out of it, giving me a view of the soft folds framing that perfect place meant to connect our bodies. I want to take her throughout all the hours of the night, her body stroking me, pulling me in and out until my release drenches her and claims her as mine.

  She stands there, defiance stained across her striking features, fearless and wild.

  “And now?” She slides her tongue over her satin lips. She really must be a dauntless creature to tempt me so.

  “Get into the water.”

  She tips her head and smiles before a splash sparkles through the air above her. I stand over her submerged body, her hair floating around her, and grip the sweet-smelling soap from the side. The pearlescent bath frames her like a piece of artwork only found on this strange rock and reflects her unique-colored locks. The soap bubbles up in my sliding hands and she comes to a sitting position, water streaming down her back. I glide my fingers through those long strands that shine like azure fire and dig my fingertips softly into her scalp to wash the lake and dirt away.

  “Mmm,” she sighs. She takes my soapy hands and slips them over her soft, round breasts. Her nipples harden and tease my every nerve as they slide over them. With the smallest tug on my arm, she has me stripped and submerging myself behind her. Already fully erect, it aches even harder as she lies upon me. Bringing fresh water to rush the soap away, I move the sopping hair over her shoulder. Handling, stroking and manipulating her silky mounds, I bring my lips to her neck where they are being called, never the same again since she touched them with hers.

  A rush of bliss throbs through me as I slide my shaft up and down her back. My sack presses into her crevice as she sits upon me. Lust percolates from her pores and I breathe it in. I breathe it all in, and it drives me harder against her. It is not enough. Like I have been fantasizing about again and again, I take her by the neck and pull her from the water.

  I pause momentarily, the cloud of sex armoring against decisive thought, but finally decide to lay her on the floor. Once again, I long for her to take me inside so I may possess her for hours and ease all the searing pain, but everything inside me argues with these animalistic urges. If I am to take her as a princess of our people, she must be treated the same as any Koridon female. She must be given proper ceremony and bedded before them so they may see our union and the conception of the royal child.

  Her legs spread for me, pink folds opening to show me the glistening mouth beneath. That and the glint of fear behind her arctic gems will me to take what I have already claimed.

  Her. All of her.

  I sense that she is in the first stages of being breed-worthy, and the more I drive my seed into her, the higher the chance she will conceive. But tomorrow her chances peak—thus the rush to ceremony. Using one palm to stabilize myself over her, I guide myself to her slit. Her body is so small, it is almost monstrous that I want to be inside of it, but in the wet sand near the lake, as my entire being went up in flames, I was able to push inside her. And she liked it. Inch by torturous inch, she took me and rocked along my submerged crown. Her body milked and sucked at it until everything around us turned black. Light only bled through the darkness when I realized her leg was war
m and wet with fresh blood.

  I touch her quivering slit to stab through, but she stops me and encircles my shaft with both hands.

  I nearly question her act, but as she strokes me up and down, I am taken by the incredible sensation her hands create. She rises to her knees and bends over to lift the underside of my shaft to her tongue. I sit back, fall back, as she continues her wet, slithering tongue work all over the staff she holds. Jolts of lightning with every wet flick, I beg her to release me. She pauses her lips atop the head and opens wide. The head pushes into her teeth and she smiles. I do not care that it doesn’t fit. Where she had me before melted me within her hands. She felt like warm honey stroking my desirous flesh, each touch sending rushes of bliss.

  Her hands, slick from the wetness of her tongue, press in and rub over the length. Purring as she sucks the skin into her mouth over various places, I meet her eyes and realize she is watching me, taking my cues. But she has already overwhelmed my system, taken this body for her own and turned it into something unrecognizable. Physical pleasure has always had a place here, but not like this.

  I hold her against the light sweat upon my chest and, as she plants her velvet kisses upon my lips, her sex slides over the underside of my erection. She opens around me and drags across, leaving me suffering for penetration She rolls her hips: back and forth, stroking my outside, and a blissful cramp arises. With waves of ecstasy, I cease to exist. I am a vessel of pure physical pleasure. There is nothing else…

  20

  ~Calypso~

  This giant, this creature from another world, trembles beneath me. His tongue tastes like champagne drenched dreams, the kind that Jay Gatsby poured from the fountains of his mansion parties. Over and over, I think of the way Kassien liquified in my grip and his heated distress as I used my tongue to titillate him relentlessly. Feeling every silent scream he made, my thighs glisten from the reverberation.

  He traces a finger across my spine and goosebumps race down my legs. I shiver against his burning skin. “Kassien, have you ever felt that before?”

  My head rises from his vocal sigh. “My release into a female has been accompanied by a pleasuring sensation. Physical.” I feel him swallow. “But being with you, it’s as though every cell, every synapse, hums.”

  I squeeze my lids shut and soak his words into my skin. Besides trying to deter him from penetrating me, the oral things I did to him felt nothing like what was forced upon me back at the village. Feeling his velvety male skin against my tongue and the underlying steel that seemed to rush beneath, threw bolts of heat straight down to my toes. His muscular form tensed and agonal murmurs drove me to work him harder with both hands to encompass the thickness.

  Out in the forest, Brekter slid his tongue inside me and it aroused him also, and that experience did inspire me to find pleasure in giving it. I hope that isn’t wrong. It was sensational for me as well when he orally penetrated me, but oh…Making this big, experienced Koridon spill his essence with the touch of my hand, mine to love upon and manipulate—I am empowered.

  What world will we open our eyes to, that sublime moment where our bodies are finally joined? Him in me, and me one with him. If only it could be just he and I who awake on this new plane, but I’m supposed to share this moment with his family, the monsters I grew up fearing.

  I have dreamed of being on stage and performing for an adoring crowd like William Shakespeare at the Globe Theater Playhouse in London, a place said to exist hundreds of years ago by a great river across the sea. But how can I pretend past all those who wish me dead or injured greatly? I suppose it doesn’t matter; nothing will save me from it, for all the world’s a stage.

  Nuzzling into his neck I move toward warmer water. “I am completely in shock. I never could have imagined I would fall for a Koridon.”

  “Fall for? Do you mean to say—”

  “Oh, I guess that means—” What do I mean? As I sink into him, our nakedness pressed intimately against one another’s, the thought of moving from his heat makes the newfound glow in my soul cry. Should I say that? “Kassien, how do you say I love you in your language?”

  “I know the phrase you speak of, but it does not exist.”

  “Can you get close to it? Can you try?”

  When he doesn’t answer, I run my fingers gingerly along the side of his face and let them travel down his beard. He may think me brazen for asking such a thing, but somehow, I just don’t care. He stirs and I nestle into his chest to discourage him from getting up and storming out. “I just,” with a note of uncertainty, he struggles, “do not know how to express—”

  “All right. Well, will you take what you are feeling for me, at this exact moment, and tell me whatever is in your mind about it?”

  He drifts off a moment. “Dra endavetas ve dantenne.”

  I recite his phrase over and over in my head, then once out loud, so he can hear me say it and experience this treasured tradition of my people.

  “It translates to, I will hold you and protect you forever.”

  Oh. This gentle phrase spoken by my once feared enemy touches me far beyond the words I love you ever could. As a Koridon, this is what love means to him, and suddenly he has taught me something. Crawling up to find his lips, I dip down and kiss him, letting him feel me saying it again, but this time with his meaning behind it.

  Playing with the end of his long, twisted braid, my mind cuts to Brekter. During our trek through the forest, we talked about so many things, and though there was distaste upon his tongue in everything he said to me, he still seemed determined to make me his his brood mare. Somehow, I just can’t believe he is done with me yet.

  Letting a few minutes of peaceful reflection pass, I finally ask, “What will become of Brekter?”

  Kassien bristles at the sound of his name and my locks tangle in his fingers. “He means to take you for himself. You won’t be safe around him. He tells me you mean nothing, but a certain fascination hides behind his hate.”

  With a shudder, I see him clearly again, lit on fire as he explored my breasts and pleasure centers with his tongue as though it were the sweetest torture. “He told me why you are planning to mate me as your wife.”

  “Wife?” he says gruffly.

  “This is the word for mate. Husband and wife.”

  He gives an approving grunt. “Yes. Our world has become desolate of young. I believe it is a fateful misstep in our immune systems. As the child develops inside, something we have become immune to, something in her blood, attacks the newly forming child’s tissues. Seizes development.”

  “So you believe the human part of your Koridon child will help it survive.”

  He takes me by my forearms and sits up and my legs wrap around his lower back. “I had planned to force you into…” He tries to find the right expression so I will understand. “Marriage. But in only a day’s time, I have decided to ask you.” He needs me to want him back.

  I do, like I’ve never wanted anything before, but do I want him more than freedom? More than my village? “Kassien, I’m afraid. While my heart sings at the sight of you and bursts open upon your touch, I don’t belong in your world, and I am afraid that bearing your child will kill me.” If I can conceive at all. Sadness like I never thought possible touches me because, for the first time, I don’t want to be taken from the earth so soon as my disease process will ensure. And how can I tell him about what I am now?

  “It will not kill you,” he says with such absoluteness I nearly believe him.

  “Brekter said it would. Especially if it were male.”

  “You will not be a thing used only to produce children for me. I mean to make you my princess and our offspring official children of the royal family.”

  His princess. A Koridon princess of our world. This could change everything for my people! Even if my death is fated, in these few years I could do so much. “And you belong in my world more than you know.” He touches my cheek and stares deeply into my icy gems. “I will never let anoth
er male touch you again. You are safe with me.”

  But Brekter was able to take me, once. Will he or another put me in danger again? For my mother, for Scarlet and all those beloved to me, I will take that chance. Though Kassien’s fingers knead into my back lovingly, I stare off as I say, “Yes, then. Mate me before your counsel. But you must not let Brekter touch me again.” The life in Kassian’s touch drains away, bringing me back to gauge his expression. Terror stabs a cold hole through the beating muscle in my chest he had so cruelly set aflame.

  “How did he touch you?” His voice is aggression materialized. The muscles in his arms strain as he pulls back from me and I can hardly hold onto him.

  I have no other thought than to be honest with him. I’ve done nothing wrong. “He laid me down and touched my breasts. He, well, he tasted here and here.” I motion to my chest and below my waist.

  “Did he enter you?” he asks, eerily calm, and his hands shake as though at any minute he’ll snap my spine in half.

  “No. Nothing like that.”

  He doesn’t relax. “He touched your body with his tongue.” He puzzles as though he had never considered such a thing before. Then, rage flickers across his face because he realizes it is similar to what just happened between us. The moment we shared drips away and freezes, forever marred.

  “I’m sorry; did I do something wrong?”

  “No. I—” He clutches beneath my shoulders to the point of pain. “Why would he seek to give you such a feeling?”

  I had not considered why, except that it seemed to arouse him. “He finished himself upon me, Kass.”

  Silver pools of lava give his otherworldly beauty a terrifying glow. “Do you have any desire for Brekter?”

  No, of course not!” I wrap my hands around his neck with all the strength I can muster. “What he did to me was physical, not sexual. I didn’t understand what was happening. I just felt.”