“You’ve always held true to the things your grandmother taught you. You’ve worked hard, despite the obstacles.”
“I’ve had my moments of weakness. Too many. I’ve been tired, so damn tired I just wanted to lay down and die, but…if I had just given in and quit, I wouldn’t be here. With you. With me and my beautiful baby girl given another chance to be together—even if I am a bit of a freak.”
“We can live near Jada if you like, up on the surface.”
“I thought you couldn’t go out in the daylight,” she frowned.
“I can. I’m from a different age than my Shikar brethren. Over the centuries, living underground, they have developed a genetic sensitivity to sunlight where I have not. And you have my DNA within you now, so though you are Shikar, you are also like me. You should rejoice in the sunlight, just as I do.”
“Are the others jealous of you, do you think?” She knew she would be.
“They do not know. Well, most of them don’t. Or if they know, they do not understand the why of it.”
“How is that possible?” she scoffed, incredulous.
“Every few thousand years, I disappear for a while. Until the memory of me fades. Until, when I choose to return, there are none who remember me.”
“Why the hell would you do that?” she exclaimed.
“Not all of us live so long as I have. Indeed, only Grimm is even close to my age.”
“How can you know that?”
“I don’t, not for certain.” He frowned, and Niki could see the thoughts swirling behind his pensive gaze. “But none here, in this place, are as old as I. They know I’m old, but they’ve no idea just how old I am.”
“Well? How old are you?” Her voice rose an octave with her surprise.
He paused for a moment, then laughed. “You know, I’m not certain anymore. I can remember the Egyptians. The Atlanteans. The Babylonians. Sumerians. Neanderthals are a vague memory—I might have been only a child still or they might have been a tale told to me by my mother. I don’t know. My age can only be measured in my mind by the phases of human development and civilizations, years mean nothing to me anymore.”
She didn’t know what to say. What did one say to someone older even than Methuselah? Way older. “Are you—” she swallowed. “Are you serious?”
He nodded against her and her nipple hardened. The tip of his tongue darted out to taste it.
“Oh my god. Can you—are you immortal or what? Can you die?”
“I’m sure I could be killed. But…I don’t know the rest. Do we, any of us, really know if or when we will die? Some of us grow tired and leave, to the shores and lands of the realms beyond, but if we do not grow tired, do we ever just stop? I don’t know. I haven’t.”
“Humans die,” she said emphatically. “They get old or they get sick or hurt and they die.”
“Human souls never die,” he reassured her. “Just as Shikars, they travel on to the lands beyond. But unlike us, humans do not take their bodies with them. They do not need them, I think. I think there are new forms waiting for them across the way. Stronger forms that do not weaken with age or illness.”
“Will I die?” she had to ask. “Now that I’m like you?”
He lifted his head to meet her gaze. “I will not let you get hurt.”
“But what if I get tired, as you said, what if I want to travel on?”
“Then I’ll go with you,” he smiled, unconcerned with that. Concerned only, it seemed, that she might be hurt and killed through unnatural means. “But I doubt you’ll grow tired of this life any time soon with me around to keep you happy,” he said arrogantly.
It seemed to her that Shikars viewed death as casually as they might view a sunset or a rain shower or a sneeze. It was, oddly enough, reassuring to her.
“I don’t really feel too different,” she admitted.
“You’ll be faster, stronger, perhaps a little more intelligent. Your powers will be exponentially greater and you’ll have a firmer control over them. Between Cady, Steffy and Emily, I’ve noticed that the effects are different from individual to individual after the change. No doubt you’ll eventually show Caste traits just as they did.”
“Caste traits—you mean like a race distinction or whatever? Huh. So what traits might I have?” she asked, curious.
“Well Cady is a multiple Caste, she is an Incinerator and a Hunter—she creates fire and can also track Daemons. Steffy is showing incredible skill with Foils. Emily, of course, is a Traveler. I think Raine had much to do with that. It was Raine, after all, who gave her sister the power she needed for the transformation from human to Shikar, for Emily was no psychic as a human.”
“I get most of that—but what are Foils?”
He smiled at her mischievously and her heart tripped up to double speed. Tryton truly was the most handsome man she’d ever seen. And he was all hers.
He rolled from her and sat up in the bed, holding one arm out in front of him. Niki’s eyes bulged when she saw his skin ripple alarmingly. Scant seconds later, long, glowing blue spines erupted from his forearm.
Niki screamed.
Tryton laughed and the blades disappeared. “Those are Foils.”
“Holy shit! Didn’t that hurt?” She turned his arm back and forth in her hands, inspecting his skin, looking carefully for wounds but finding none.
“No, not at all. When yours come in—they will whether you are a Foil Caste or not—then you will understand better.”
“I don’t want those things in me,” she exclaimed.
He chuckled again and tugged on a lock of her hair teasingly. “Too bad, because they are part and parcel of being a Shikar. Eventually, you will get the hang of them. And of all the other things that come with your new life.”
Niki’s mind reeled. “So much has happened so quickly. I mean—” she looked around them, as if to find the words, “how long have I known you? I can’t tell what time it is, day or night.”
“Time does not matter so much to us. Sunlight and darkness are the yardsticks by which we measure time—and only then because we must. Urgency drives time, the Horde and their machinations give us that. Otherwise, we would be content down here, oblivious to the passages of the seasons on the world above. You and I have not known each other long at all—maybe, by your reckoning, a day, maybe a little longer.”
“How can we be together like this in so short a time?” she marveled.
“Does it matter so much to you? Time?”
“No, I guess not,” she admitted finally. “It’s just a little unnerving when I really think about it.”
“Do not think about it, then. You are probably still suffering from a little shock after all that has happened—there is no cause to dwell on it if you can avoid doing so.”
She was silent for a while, reveling in the feel and scent of him sitting beside her in bed. For the first time in recent memory she felt completely safe. Completely whole and happy. It felt wonderful, almost too perfect to last. “Why are you so sad?”
“I’m not so sad now that I have you,” he said, averting his gaze.
“You’ll have to share yourself with me sooner or later.”
He looked back at her. “I care for you,” he said evasively. “Let that miracle be enough for now, my goddess.”
“You love me,” she insisted, knowing she was right when he shuddered at her words.
“Let it be,” he pleaded.
She sighed and let the subject drop. It was enough that she knew the truth…for now. Eventually he would have to face facts but until then…
“If I am your goddess, why aren’t you over here worshipping me?” she teased, rolling on her side so that her breasts were fully displayed for his hungry eyes to see.
“You’re insatiable,” he scoffed, pretending disinterest and doing a lousy job of it—his cock was at full attention already. “I think it’s time you learned to worship a true god.”
Niki laughed. “If you were worshipped as a god—I do
ubt that—which one were you supposed to be?”
He smiled enigmatically. “I was worshipped as many gods over time. Fuxi of the Chinese peoples, Poseidon—and his son Triton—of the ancient Greeks. Let’s see…it has been so long…Erechtheus and Kekrops of Egyptian and Athenian lore. Ea of the Babylonians and Enki of the Sumerians. The list goes on, but I cannot remember many of them. Some of them were based on eyewitness accounts of humans who had seen me. Some of them were merely borrowed variations from other civilizations’ texts. But trust me, woman,” his eyes glowed rascally, “I was worshipped as god to many different peoples over the course of history.”
“I’m sure you did nothing to dissuade them from worshipping you.” She rolled her eyes. Inside, her mind was a whirl. Was he really serious? And if he was…damn, she was lying in bed next to Triton himself!
Tryton frowned then. “At first I did. I never wanted to be anything more than a man in those days. I walked the seas and the oceans, aided those in need upon the waves, but I did not do it with thoughts of grandeur in my mind. I’d always known humans to be weaker than us, and so I helped them. I had no idea it would come to disaster.”
“What disaster?” She kept her voice neutral and quiet, careful not to startle him into closing back up after he’d opened this much to her.
But it was for naught. He shook his head, as if shaking off bad memories, and smiled at her. “We were never meant to interfere with human kind,” he said at last. “I’ve let it go too far in recent times with Cady and the others. And now you.” He shuddered, eyes going dark. “I’ve been selfish for my people and selfish for myself. I’ve been careless again. But things may change soon. I have you and that is enough.”
“You do have me,” she reiterated, hating the shadow that had crept between them in the past few moments.
“You might not want me after…” His gaze wandered, as if he were looking far away from her, from their bed and conversation. He cleared his throat once, twice, before he found the words. “After we go back to Egypt, you might change your mind about how you feel about us. About you and me.”
She swallowed. “It has nothing to do with my mind, whether I love you or not. It has everything to do with my heart and my soul. There’s nothing I could learn about you that could sway my heart from wanting you. Nothing.”
“We’ll see,” he murmured.
He looked so sad, so beautiful and haunted; it nearly broke her heart to look at him.
“I want a shower,” she said at last, to break the awkward silence, to put an end to the dark conversation.
He grinned. “Come with me.” He took her hand and pulled her from the bed. “I’ll have you so clean, it’ll be only your thoughts that are dirty.”
She felt her stomach flip-flop and laughed.
Chapter Fourteen
Niki looked about her, trying not to gape at the lavish bathroom he led her into. It was truly an exquisite work of art. Ornate, carved stone walls and marblesque floors in hues of turquoise and silver and white. In fact, the décor gave the illusion of moving, crashing ocean waves. It was dizzying to look about too quickly, for the illusion was almost perfect and overwhelmingly intense.
It was as big as a house, just this one room. The ceilings had to be at least twenty feet high. A sunken tub the size of an Olympic pool nestled in one corner. It was oval-shaped and quite deep.
“Damn, I’d hate to see your water bill for that thing,” she said, incredulous at the enormity of it all. And she’d thought his bed was big.
Hell, everything about this man was enormous!
Tryton merely laughed. “Come here, let me bathe you.”
“It’ll take a week to fill that thing up,” she pointed out.
“We won’t be using that,” he said, in all seriousness.
She eyed him suspiciously. “Not the thundercloud thing again? I’m not sure I want to risk getting struck by lightning.”
He gave her a rakish wink. “Electrocution is definitely not the climactic ending I had in mind for us this rising.”
She nearly melted on the spot.
“What kind of Caste are you, then? I mean, if you can create water does that make you a Water Caste?”
He ran his hand down her cheek, making her shiver. His gaze was so intense she could almost feel it, like a weight, as it roved over her naked form as she stood before him. “I am the only water power among our people. I am that rare oddity, a Shikar with no real Caste to claim.”
“But you can Travel,” she pointed out.
“Yes, but not with any great frequency as could a Traveler. I can also manipulate fire as do the Incinerators, but again it is a weak power in me. I can throw the Foils too, as Edge or Steffy might. No, I have no strong Caste traits such as those. My power comes from water. The wellspring of the Earth and the tears of the Heavens. Here, let me show you.”
He bent to turn on one of the dozens of oddly fashioned faucets that arched over the rim of the tub like the long, graceful necks of giant swans. A long, crystal clear stream of water fell down, coaxed by gravity and by pressure.
But it never splashed down into the bathtub as it should have.
Tryton waved his hand over the stream and, like a viper to a snake charmer, it wove and undulated, reaching its way toward him. Tryton swirled his fingers in little circles and the stream twisted into spiraling tendrils, like little blooms and explosions of water all around him now.
Niki gaped and he turned to smile into her eyes. The water still flowed, streaming about his hands, arms and head. He walked to her, bringing his halo of liquid with him so that it moved to embrace her as well. Chaotic typhoons of it surrounded them, cooling the air surrounding their flesh, making their hair fly about with the rising force of the wind it stirred up with each passing stream.
Suddenly all the other faucets turned on—or maybe they didn’t, maybe Tryton simply called the water forth from them, she wasn’t sure—but within seconds, gallons upon gallons of water seemed to be flowing from the faucets towards them. Niki gasped and tried to pull away, but Tryton reached out and swept her tight against him. His gaze burned down into hers and she felt something low inside of her clench with yearning.
Not one drop of the water touched her or him. They were cocooned within the rushing, liquid tornado that now raged and swirled around them, standing together in the eye of the storm he had so effortlessly created.
He leaned down to brush his lips across hers. “Hold your breath, goddess,” he smiled.
She took a huge gulp of air one scant second before the tornado collapsed inward and fell upon them with crashing violence.
Niki felt as if she’d been plunged head first into the depths of an ocean current. It swept her hair about her like a wild cloud. Tryton’s blond locks caught and tangled with hers, a contrast of black and nearly white, yin and yang, male and female. She had to clench her arms about his neck to keep from being swept away. He cupped her breasts in his hands—an immovable bastion of strength in the water’s fierce current—and kissed her hard and deep.
All of a sudden, the water around their heads was gone. The flow of it ebbed and changed. It opened up, like the petals of a flower, leaving her free and safe to catch her breath. Niki looked about them and was astonished to see that the roaring water raged only around them, like a cocoon encapsulating them, leaving the surrounding space untouched and dry. With another shock, she realized that her hair and skin, from the top of her head to her waist—where the water still swirled over her—was completely dry. Squeaky clean, dry and satiny, without a drop of dampness to prove she’d been completely submerged mere seconds before.
Tryton was the same, his long hair a platinum waterfall of silk down his chest and shoulders that gleamed fresh and soft and clean.
“Oh my god,” she whispered, amazed.
He leaned down and sucked on her lower lip, taking her amazement and surprise into him, feeding on it with masculine pride. “Spread your legs,” he commanded.
She
must not have obeyed him fast enough, for the next thing she knew he was bending, reaching for her knee and raising it up to hook over and around his hip.
The typhoon of water swirled away. Tryton kissed her neck, scraping his teeth dangerously over her vulnerable skin. Over his shoulder she saw the water reshape itself and she shrieked.
“No way, nowaynowaynoway,” she panted, heart racing, eyes wide.
“Yes way,” Tryton chuckled, fingers moving to brush over her swollen clit.
The giant, crystalline phallus he’d created out of the water moved to position itself at the mouth of her pussy.
“This isn’t possible,” she gasped. But it was. The water-cock pushed its way into her, soft and warm, but still firm enough to let her feel every nuance of its shape and girth.
It began to thrust in and out of her. Tryton let go of her leg and bent to suck on her nipples. Niki shrieked again, the pleasure was almost too intense to bear at once.
Tryton’s hands worked their way around her, sinking into the flesh of her bottom. He spread her cheeks wide and before she could find the breath to gasp a protest, a smaller, sleeker phallus made of water was inserting itself into her anus.
Liquid and warm, water filled every orifice but one. Niki had tears in her eyes and short screaming gasps on her lips as they thrust and stretched her over and over again, as Tryton’s lips and hands worked on her breasts, belly, clit and ass.
She wanted him to feel some of this intense pleasure. But how?
Going to her knees before him, the water cocks still pleasuring her without missing a beat, she took his cock in her mouth and began sucking him.
Tryton shouted his surprise and pleasure, nearly collapsing before her.
His fists tangled in her hair, guiding her over him. His cock was so big, so thick, she could barely take the head of it, but he seemed to enjoy it all the same. Niki swallowed him to the back of her throat, careful of her teeth on him, even when he moved to thrust himself deeper into her mouth. Her spit wet him, wet her lips, and his cock shivered in her grasp.
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