The Krinar's Bane

by May Sage

  Still, she’d have sex if he wanted to; she was always ready, and eager to take all of him.

  But instead of starting to remove her clothes, as she thought he might, he just shifted on the bed, pulling her with him.

  “Goodnight, doll,” he whispered, closing his eyes.

  She couldn’t help staring; she’d never seen him sleep. He was out like a light, his entire body completely relaxed, immobile except for the rise and fall of his chest. How painfully perfect he was, like a bronze status crafted by a master.

  It was as she stared at his long dark lashes that she realized how screwed she was.

  That night, she started counting.

  Six.

  They had six days left together.

  Sixteen

  Idiot

  The silence was heavy, oppressive. It needed to stop, or he was going to go mad.

  He was leaving this afternoon. He’d finished his work, although he’d only worked while his Eva had been asleep. When she was awake, he watched her draw, smile, laugh. He listened and spoke to her. He’d taken her to restaurants and concerts. More than anything, he’d loved her, again and again.

  But he was leaving this afternoon.

  “I’ll miss this place.”

  Never mind. He’d take the silence.

  “Move in, then.”

  His reply was curt and simple; what else was there to say? He owned the apartment because he wouldn’t have felt comfortable in a place he just rented - besides, most homeowners wouldn’t have felt comfortable renting to a Krinar. It had simplified things. But now it was just going to be empty. She might as well enjoy it.

  “I can’t move in, Zarken.”

  She left it at that, without giving even one single valid argument, so he just ignored her. “The house is already programmed to answer to your command. It’s a nice piece of real estate. It’ll be a shame to let it stand empty.”

  “So, sell it.”

  Again, she wasn’t even attempting to cite one reason why she shouldn’t move in; there was none.

  Now that the idea had crossed his mind, he was intensively eager to execute it. Of course, she should live in one of his dwellings. That appeased the part of him that had wanted to claw out and chain her to him for the last few days.

  Somewhat.

  “You’ll be safer here - there’s a doorman. And perfectly independent,” he added, knowing how she liked her independence. She insisted on paying for half of their dates, which was, he was certain, just another plot to render him utterly insane. “I won’t be there, you won’t have a landlord to worry about.”

  “It’s because you won’t be there that I can’t move in,” she snapped. She took a deep breath, before carrying on, “How am I supposed to move on here?”

  Zarken counted to seven thousand in his mind, while willing his body to stay still. If he moved right now, if he destroyed every piece of furniture, every window, every wall in a fit of rage, he would frighten her.

  Move on. That’s what she was going to do; they both would.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not getting clingy,” she assured him, interpreting his expression.

  She read him completely wrong. His Eva was quite perceptive, and clever, too. But she’d never been able to read him. A good thing, or she might have run days ago when something shifted.

  He couldn’t pinpoint the exact day, the exact hour when it had occurred, but he knew that he loved her. Loved her, his doll. He’d never loved anything or anyone, but in less than a month, she’d wormed her way to his frozen heart. Was it because she was so weak? So perishable he was forced to notice it now, before she faded away?

  Love would pass, though, he knew it would. Everything passed.

  “I know the drill. I’ll have wrinkles in ten years and you…”

  She didn’t finish her sentence. She turned away from him and Zarken remained where he was, although he could almost taste her silent tears. They smelled so strongly of salt.

  You’ll be beautiful in ten years, with or without wrinkles, he wanted to tell her.

  And she could be without. If she was his, she’d never age, and stay by his side until the end of time.

  That’s how long she’d have to endure his indifference, after it came. Krinar didn’t let their charls, their human companions, die.

  Come with me, he almost said.

  He wasn’t that cruel.

  In time, she’d forget about him, and move on. So would he. This was the best thing for her.

  “You know what, let’s not talk about that. We should enjoy today.”

  She came to face him, a sunny, beautiful, fake smile plastered on her lips. She straddled his lap and pressed her pelvis against his.

  “I know how I’d like to spend the rest of my day.”

  So did he.

  Her clothes didn’t survive the next second.

  Seven hours later, he was on a transport to the ship taking him to Krina.

  Seven days later, he was working in his lab.

  Seven months later, he was still keeping busy.

  The one thing he wasn’t, at any point, was bored.

  That particular feeling had died on Earth, to be replaced by something else.

  Anger.

  Everything pissed him off. Everyone was offending him with their mere presence because they weren’t the person he wanted to see.

  * * *

  “Lahur.” Zarken greeted the elder, touching his shoulder out of courtesy.

  He had to play nice, although Lahur pissed him off, as his name didn’t happen to be Eva. “You look well.”

  “You do not,” the Elder replied.

  That was putting it mildly; but he looked much better than he felt.

  “I don’t believe I’ve had time to thank you for your work on Earth.”

  Zarken lifted a brow.

  “I gave you nothing; there’s nothing to be thankful for,” he bit out.

  The Elder was one of the only people in this galaxy or the next who could give him a wise, indulgent look, and he used that power at full force.

  “You went to create an algorithm, that you may not have relinquished to our care…”

  “It wasn’t one hundred percent accurate. If one human can throw it off, it’s worthless to us. We can’t take actions simply because there’s a good chance of something happening.”

  “Yes, yes,” the Elder replied. “Still, you came back with plenty of useful research. “Take your analysis on that human woman, Eva, was it?”

  He managed to keep his fists lose.

  “What you’ve brought did tilt the balance in favor of abolishing the non-interference mandate.”

  “Come again?”

  “We’ve just announced it. We’ll share our technology with humans now. Responsibly, of course.”

  Oh. He didn’t feel any particular way about it now.

  A silence stretched as the two men stared off.

  “Just spell it out,” he finally bit out.

  “I read those findings myself. It made me curious, so I pulled up some recordings.”

  So, that’s what it felt like when someone disregarded his privacy. He made a mental note to do his best to abstain from that particular tendency in the future.

  “And?”

  “And, you’re being an idiot, and making the hundreds of employees working for you miserable in the process. I hoped you’d come to your senses on your own; as you haven’t, here I am.”

  Zarken glared at the Elder.

  “I’m protecting her from me. Young fools like Korum may not realize it, but you and I know what time does to us. To our feelings.”

  “Yet, you see me before you, neither bored to death like you were not so long ago, nor bitter and depressed as you are now.”

  Zarken shrugged.

  “So, you’re different than me. That doesn’t change the facts, Lahur. I’m a moving corpse. I don’t feel. I don’t care. That’s who I’ve been for so long I couldn’t remember a time I was anything else.
” His voice had risen to a shout. “And each time I find something to occupy my mind, it’s flickering. A passing fancy that lasts a day at most.”

  “And yet, it’s been quite a few days and the woman still has you by the balls.”

  True.

  “I was you once - most of us Elders went through this phase. And now, I have a purpose amongst the Elders. I have Krinars I care for. You’ve never had either in your comparatively long lifetime. Not until now.”

  He let the words sink in.

  “I’m going to tell you something, and if it means nothing to you, stay here on Krina.”

  Zarken lifted his eyebrow, curious.

  “Eva is mortal and fragile. There’s been a bout of illness in her region, and floods in her country too. She may already be dead.”

  “She isn’t,” he replied automatically. A good stalker always knew.

  But his words hit the mark nonetheless.

  Eva might be caught in a flood, or catch an illness. And regardless, she would grow old and die, soon.

  He sighed.

  “I’m an idiot.”

  Lahur nodded, vehemently, agreeing with all his heart.

  “When’s the next transport to Earth?”

  Seventeen

  Now and Forever

  Her “moving on from the alien lover” plan was going well, in the sense that she’d just stopped living in denial, packed her bags after one too many times when her roommate had thought it necessary to tell her she needed a guy - a human guy - and moved into said alien lover’s apartment.

  She’d called the concierge of his building, first. “We have been instructed to give you the keys if you require them, Miss Quill,” he’d said.

  Eva wasn’t surprised; it sounded like a typical Zarken move.

  Then, she also started to draw him, over and over, on most of her illustrations. Sometimes, it was a like for like rendition, other times, he was a blond angel, or a Viking. Her work became increasingly popular, and no one seemed to care that she kept on drawing the same man.

  Her best “moving on” move, though, was fingering herself with her eyes closed and imagining his hands on her, calling him as she reached her climax; well, when she managed to, which wasn’t often. She dreamed of him every night, and told herself in the morning, that it would pass. Every pop song said so.

  That night was the worst one, by far. Her dreams were so realistic they were downright cruel; she could feel him, smell him, and hear him. She knew that in the morning, she’d die a little when she woke up alone in that too large, too comfortable bed she loved and hated.

  “Zarken?”

  “Shush darling. You need to sleep. Look at those bags under your eyes.”

  “I hate you,” she mumbled. “I hate how you made me love you and left.”

  “I hate you too, doll. You’re the bane of my existence. Now, sleep, sweetest.”

  And she did, restlessly.

  She refused to open her eyes for a whole minute when she woke up in the morning, unwilling to face reality just yet.

  “I know you’re awake. Your breathing changed.”

  Holy fuck.

  She’d never moved so far, spinning around so quickly she somehow managed to fall off the bed.

  He laughed. The asshole fucking laughed.

  “And that, I missed too. I’ll be right back.”

  Under her dilated, incredulous eyes, her magnificent Krinar stretched his long frame out of his bedroom and walked back in with a familiar device he’d used dozens of times on her.

  “Don’t move too much, doll. You might have a concussion.”

  Oh. Concussion. That might explain why she was seeing him here. Only, she’d seen him before gracefully falling on her ass. So, unless she was still asleep…

  “Let me just heal this,” he said, using the device on her as she finally regained the ability to speak.

  “You’re here.”

  “I’m here.”

  Holy…

  Wait, did that mean she’d actually spoken to him last night?

  Embarrassed to the nth degree, confused, a little pissed, anxious, and feeling that she could walk on a cloud all at once, all she could do was stare wordlessly.

  “You…” she cleared her throat. “Didn’t you finish your job? How long are you staying? And sorry about moving in without telling you; the concierge said…”

  “I told him to let you in when I saw you pack your bags at your place.”

  Eva was right back to being in shock.

  “You were stalking me from another planet?”

  She’d believed he would have forgotten about her after going back home. He probably had tons of supermodel-esque Krinar women, like the ones she’d seen on TV.

  “Only when you were awake. Mostly.”

  Why did that make her feel so damn good?

  “As for how long I’m here for, that entirely depends on you, my sweet. We’ll stay if you really want us to, but I’ll admit I’d prefer to move back to Krina, or at least to one of our Centers here on Earth, if you’re open to that. I know you have friends here, but we can travel to see them, and your mother is welcome with us anytime…”

  She opened her mouth and closed it, and then, she did it again. Then a third time for luck.

  “Wait, you…”

  “I’m here because I really, really tried, doll, but as it turned out, you were right, all those moons ago, when you called me your Krinar. I was yours then, and I’m yours now. I’m here because you challenge me, defy me, and I can’t live without you. Which is lucky, as you can’t live without me either. ”

  “Presumptuous.”

  Zarken smirked.

  “But this… this wouldn’t really work. We can’t…”

  “We can and we will, doll. Step one is to make you immortal,” he said, dropping a light kiss on her forehead.

  She snorted, and said something along the lines of, “Yeah, right.”

  Then, catching his amused gaze, she gasped. “Really?”

  “Really, doll. It’s you and me, forever now. Step two is us getting married, with Laura, and Julie, and whoever else you wish to see on our wedding day.” This time, he kissed the tip of her nose.

  She grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him to her lips, needing to feel him. The kiss started innocently enough, but then he was fucking her mouth, his hands caressing her limbs, as she pulled his back closer, always closer. She pulled at his strange garments until they were undone, and took his heavy, long thick cock in her grasp, wondering if it could possibly have gotten bigger over the last seven months.

  She moved away from him long enough to kneel next to him and drop a kiss on the tip of his erection.

  “And step three?” she asked, before flicking her tongue at his dick, and wrapping her lips around him.

  Zarken hissed, his hips moving forward as he took a fistful of her hair.

  “Step three… is you doing this every morning until the end of time.”

  “Do you intend to reciprocate?”

  “Don’t talk while your mouth could be otherwise engaged, doll.”

  And for the next half an hour, he made sure she didn’t, fucking her mouth hard and fast until he came in a guttural groan.

  He was breathing hard.

  “I’ve wanted that mouth from the first time I saw you. And now it’s mine.”

  “As long as this is mine,” she replied, stroking his length which was already hardening again.

  “Eva?” he called out.

  “Hm?”

  “I hope you had plenty of sleep during my absence.”

  * * *

  The End.

  More from May Sage…

  This was how she died. She knew it, felt it to her bones. There was no other way, not here. Saving herself would mean condemning every breathing soul in the city of night. As little as she liked most of them, and however much they hated her in return, she couldn’t bring herself to destroy so many just to save herself.

  She shoul
d give in now. Drop her bow, accept her fate. Yet she shot one arrow after the next, desperately holding on to life.

  Devi took down enemy after enemy, her mind processing each kill with a cold, analytic indifference. They were relevant because she knew there had been fifty-one arrows in her quiver. Each fae she killed represented one arrow lost. There was every chance she'd run out of weapons before she reached the gates.

  She was at the very center of the city, in the large Square of Dawn, famous for the obelisk erected at the end of the last war. The closest exit was a mile east, and there were three dozen enemies around her right now and more coming at every passing moment. It was a credit to her skill with a bow that none of them had managed to get close to her yet.

  A horse whinnied to her left, and Devi’s head turned sharply. She expected enemy knights. She’d managed until now because she’d only had to deal with foot soldiers; fae knights were another matter altogether.

  When they came into the square from the south avenue, there were only two riders. She stiffened in alarm, until her eyes took in the colors of their habits and then their faces.

  Devi had no issue recognizing the two males, although she’d never seen either dressed in anything other than their fine court attire. Now they wore plain reinforced gear under dark unseelie coats.

  Neither of them looked any less intimidating for it.

  “Vale.”

  The name fell from her lips in a tone she had never used to say it. With relief. Barely conscious of her decision, she adjusted her position to aim at the enemies following Vale and his second, rather than foolishly carrying on attempting to clear a path out of this nightmare. Vale was more important. If he lived through the night, there would be hope for the Isle.

  Her shot hit the mark, killing a fae right behind the prince. As the enemy tumbled, Vale turned to see where the arrow had come from, his eyes landing on her.