Prison Moon_Ice Heart

by Alexandra Marell

  “Were you awake when they did this?”

  “It hurt, if that’s what you wish to know. But pain is of little consequence to a slave.”

  “We can’t risk removing this until all the anchor points are free. Just in case you were planning to rip it off in some demonstration of macho strength.” She gave him a warning glare, a little peeved by the hint of mirth in his eyes. “It all looks clean, no infection here. I’d leave it and let it work itself free.”

  “Sound words. It cannot be easily ripped from bone as you put it. That would make a gladiator too vulnerable in a fight.” He moved to button his tunic. She stopped him.

  “No, let me look.” Who wouldn’t want to look at this? If he lost condition in the cage, it didn’t show in the V of muscle disappearing into the waistband of his pants. Smooth and hard under her roving fingers. She skimmed his obliques, sliding up over his pecs to cup his powerful shoulders, the corded muscles of his neck. He stood steady as the mountain, his only reaction a deeper rise and fall of his chest when he breathed.

  Leaning in she breathed in the tang of sweat-sheened skin. Tasted salt with flicks of her tongue, smiling when his abs tightened impossibly hard.

  “You make me want to be wicked,” she said, skimming the heavy metal buckle fastening his belt. If they were to die here, she wanted to die doing this. Outside the shelter, pattering rain made puddles of the marauders blood. A whirr of bird wings rose on the thermals, the flocks seeking shelter from the storm. No sign of the smaller hovering camera. It wouldn’t risk so tight and narrow an entrance where Kelskar might take it out with one blow of his sword.

  “Don’t let me stop you.” Kelskar’s eyes flashed in the half-light of the canopied shelter. “We have a window before they come again. What did you have in mind?”

  In answer she dropped to her knees. Ran one finger along the hard outline of his cock. Pressed her mouth to the hard length straining against his pants, thinking she might come just by doing this to him. A scandalous thought for the former owner of a little tea room by the sea.

  “I planned to grow old surrounded by vintage teacups, lace, and sugar frosting. Instead I’m...” Her voice trailed away, choked by memories.

  It seemed so far away, so long ago.

  “Instead you’re here with me. Will I ever earn your forgiveness for my part in this?” Kelskar caressed her cheek, shaped her lips with his thumb. “Bound to me, as I am to you.”

  “Bound to you, yes.” No doubt in her mind. She wouldn’t have survived that cage without him on her side. If Fate cut her a break then its name was Kelskar.

  Janie groped for his heavy belt, felt his fingers on hers, helping her unbuckle and unhook with frantic urgency. If she thought too much about this, she’d stop and wonder what the hell she was doing. They could be jumped at any time. No time for leisurely explorations, she wanted to do this, needed to do this for him now. To let him know she was his, and he hers.

  Everything else could wait. Now was all they had.

  “Touch me, Janie.” Kelskar’s growling plea made her shudder. Feel powerful in a way Justin never did. She made love in bed on crisp linens in the dark of the night, not on her knees in the dirt with gladiators from another planet.

  “You would have me wash?”

  “No.”

  “Then take me in your mouth.” Kelakar’s legs trembled with the effort of standing still. He guided her gently, fingers winding in her hair, pulling thick strands from her plait. A strong sure hand holding the rest of her life.

  Could the camera see them? She didn’t care.

  She’d seen him, in the cage, in their cave lower down the mountain. Every bit the fantasy warrior, right down to this. Velvet smooth, hard, and ready for her. Standing unashamed, a man who knew his worth and owned it. She circled him with her fingers, curving them to the shape of his cock, sliding the silken skin slowly up and down. Kelskar moved his hips in time while she pressed her thighs together and rode the delicious sensations sparking every nerve.

  “See how a woman of your stature can master a beast like me.” He groaned out the words, one hand resting lightly on her head, giving her permission to take charge. Pleading with bigger thrusts of his hips for her to take him.

  Janie pushed loose hair away from her face, embarrassed by her total abandon. What if she couldn’t take him all in? She did this with Justin, but he looked nothing like this.

  “Just take what you can. Most women find me too much. I’m a big man.” No hint of modesty in Kelskar’s voice, it sounded more like a challenge.

  So like him.

  “Tell me you like this,” she said determined to keep control. She took him between her lips, smiling around him at his deep rumbling moan. Slid her tongue over the tip and found a rhythm with her mouth, taking him a little deeper each time.

  “Your inexperience is more exciting than you will ever know.” Kelskar grunted the words, his chest rising and falling in great heaving pants. Suddenly he pulled out, leaving her groping empty air. She opened her eyes to see him turning away, groaning like a dying man. Grasping himself, he finished with his back to her, thrusting into his own hand, the groans becoming quieter as he found his release.

  When he turned back, buckling his belt in place, she was still on the ground. Stunned by her boldness. He offered a hand to help her up. Pulled her hard against him, ignoring the pain it must cause his battered chest.

  “Thank you,” he said. “And do not think I rejected you. One day, when we have the gift of time, I will ask it all of you. But know that what you offered me then was a gift without price.”

  “You have a way with words.” A fantasy come to life. Too much happening at once, they should take it slow. How many judged this man by that fierce shell, the steel in his colourless eyes. How many apart from his wife and child had seen the man beneath?

  “And you will become very good at this, I promise you. Time to pack up and move on.”

  “So soon?” The steady beat of his heart soothed her, made her want to rest there forever. The crude shelter of branches and flat palms, the springy bed of grasses and leaves had become a home of sorts over the past few days. She rested on him, wishing they’d met under normal circumstances. That he’d walked into the tea room one day and ordered hot chocolate and cupcakes and sat in that corner table by the window so she could look at him and wonder from behind the cake counter.

  “Will you share your thoughts?”

  Sighing, she straightened and let him go. “I was just wishing I could bake you cupcakes. Serve you steaming hot chocolate in a vintage mug and watch your face as you tasted heaven.”

  “I tasted heaven when I tasted you, Janie Roberts. But your cupcakes came a close second.”

  “Award winning cupcakes, I’ll have you know.” She moved to stow their stash of belongings in pockets and the bag Kelskar made from the stolen coat, warmed by the glow of his words. These small moments were beginning to mean everything. “Best in class at the national cake show two years’ running.”

  Kelskar strapped on his harness scabbard, wiped off the bloody knife and tucked it into the seam of his boot. “In my land, your creations would have been feted at the royal court. The young princess would have loved them. She...”

  Kelskar stopped, mouth half open as if the next word was stuck halfway between his brain and his mouth.

  “You’re remembering something?” Janie kept her voice low, searching his eyes for signs the chip might be about to make an unwelcome entrance. He couldn’t take any more of the head injuries he inflicted so wildly when the chip threatened.

  “You mentioned a princess in your sleep. Do you remember any more?”

  “Only that she was a child and they ordered me to kill her.”

  “And did you?” Oh God, how many sins did the poor man have on his soul? Did he need to remember all of this?

  “I put the princess and her nurse on a transport off world. Or I might have dreamed that to assuage my conscience. I might have killed her.
I don’t know. I just don’t know.”

  The icy calm in his voice made her heart ache. How terrible to have the truth locked inside, in a place he couldn’t reach. To think he might be capable of killing an innocent child.

  “You didn’t kill her.” She tugged at the tied-up coat sleeves, making sure it was secure.

  “You say that, but how do you know?”

  “I know, all right? You wouldn’t do that. Kelskar, it will come back to you. All of it. And you’ll know you did everything you could to save her.”

  “At the expense of my own family? If I didn’t kill her, that’s why they died in the Purge. Why I ended up a slave fighting in the arena while decadents howled for my blood.”

  He ducked from the shelter, a man torn in two by an impossible decision. How terrible to have to choose like that. His voice boomed out, yelling at the camera in words she didn’t understand. A man seeking redemption for sins beyond his control.

  She joined him, resolutely leaving the shelter behind. Trusting him to lead the way. Kelskar would never kill a child. Not him. She clung to the thought while rain beat down and five slaughtered men grew cold at her feet.

  “Do we have everything?”

  “Yes, I checked.” She handed him the make-shift bag, following his gaze to the dark forest from where the dead men appeared.

  “We’ll go that way,” Kelskar said and stepped out for the trees. “There’s a woman and child out there who need our help.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Kelskar hacked the long sword through the tangled branches, carving a path through the closely-packed trees soaring high above. Deep purple fronds hung in tight knots, in places blotting out the sky.

  Moving towards or away from settlements? Hard to tell up here. He knew only that the sun rose on this side of the mountain and set behind them. Janie dragged her steps, exhaustion written in every stiff move. A tight smile and she speeded up, stumbled over a branch cursing with no thought for stealth.

  “Fuck it. Who put that bloody thing there?”

  He snaked out an arm to steady her, raking his gaze over the crowded tree trunks, the mossy ferns and the few weak needles of late afternoon light filtering through the canopy. Indignant shrieking from high above followed their progress. Furred, long-limbed creatures threw themselves from branch to branch, periodically dropping low to peer at the intruders invading their forest.

  “Fuck,” he said, testing the expletive on his tongue. “I like this word. Have you need of rest?”

  “No.” Janie swiped damp hair from her eyes and plopped down onto a fallen trunk. “Okay, yes. Give me a moment.”

  “We can make camp here. I believe the sky is clearing so perhaps the weather gods will be kind.”

  “If the seasons follow Earth, we’re moving into winter. How will we survive that?”

  He looked down on the forlorn bundle sitting on the log, knees drawn up like an elven tree nymph surveying her domain. Damp to the core for two whole days since leaving the shelter and they both felt the chill. He lent her his body heat, but with the weather deteriorating a permanent shelter was becoming a priority.

  “Do you think we’ll find that woman? I can’t bear the thought of her out there, terrified and with a baby too.”

  Kelskar dropped his pack beside the log. Two fallen trunks to spare them the damp forest floor. Four trees, ancient by the size of their gnarled trunks grew together almost as one, forming a semi circle of shelter and dubious safety. Another upturned. The gnarled roots provided a canopy of sorts. A solid wall to guard their backs.

  “It’s a big moon. Likely we’ll encounter more felons before we see her. We tried. It’s all we can do. Come hide the belongings and we’ll hunt. I’m hungry.”

  “I’m always hungry in this place. But I’m not complaining.” Janie hauled herself from the log, arching her back to ease the stiffness.

  “You may complain all you like. I would regularly consume one half of a roast Quathor at the Ludus Maxim. My stomach reminds me of the fact every day.”

  Janie sighed. “Let’s hunt then.”

  He had been about to insist this time that she be the one to kill the quarry. But her exhaustion spoke of a woman on the edge. All in good time.

  “I can’t leave you alone. Better I keep you with me.”

  “I know.” Janie hunkered down at the base of the widest tree to scrape out a hiding place in the fallen leaves and fronds. Kelskar dropped in the coat bag. Everything else, they carried in pockets or strapped to their bodies. He hauled Janie upright. He dwarfed her from the start, but now he lifted her one-handed, as easily as a fallen feather from one of the exotic birds skimming the canopy.

  “Don’t ask me to kill anything today. I’ll just freak.” Janie lifted the straggly plait hanging limp over one shoulder. Inspected the twine fastened to keep it tamed. “And I used to worry about split ends. Cut it for me. I don’t even have a comb to rake through it. Do it now before I change my mind.”

  “If it becomes a necessity, I will. But I would like to see it for one time spilling over your naked body. Feel it caress mine as you take me from above. No need for such drastic action yet.”

  “You’re not helping with that kind of talk.” Janie lifted her eyes to the sky and flicked the plait over her shoulder. Her gaze dropped to his belt and below. “Mortal danger is an aphrodisiac. Who knew?”

  “Hormones,” he said, listening for other sounds above the creatures who shared this forest space. The snap of a twig under a man’s boot, the crack of a blade slicing the ferns and small shrubs. “Survival and the need to procreate, to leave a mark on the world are closely entwined.”

  “In other words, danger makes a person horny. Cut my hair when it becomes unbearable then. I’ll cry, but ignore me. I’m past all that.”

  “It’s all right to cry. Keep your humanity, Janie. I’m here to catch your tears.”

  “Are you for real?” She drew her knife, the hilt clutched in her fist in a stabbing grip.

  “Sometimes I wonder myself.” He wasn’t referring to the way honeyed words dripped from his tongue. His talents in body and voice were booked out well in advance at the Ludus Maxim. Women with the cash to pay his master enjoyed his flattering sweet talk as well as his cock. “Reverse your grip. Then you can use your body weight in an upward stab. It’s more effective that way.”

  Janie changed the grip, swiping the air in an experimental stab. A gesture he’d seen too often since their landing. Though it pained him to do so, he must turn her into a killer or she’d die here.

  He flexed his arms, pumping the muscles for increased strength. Each flex pulled at the failing anchor points in his chest. Three completely free now, the fourth not far behind. No sign of infection there, though his head ached, each new day bringing a creeping awareness of the poison in his blood.

  He would fight it. Didn’t he have the best incentive to live standing beside him?

  “Kelskar, look at that.” Janie’s voice dropped to an urgent whisper. Between the trees, a quadruped, hoofed creature, the height of his shoulders quivered in shock at finding intruders in its domain. Shock turned to challenge. The creature lowered its horned head and charged, twisting through the tree trunks, negotiating the slippery soil with surprising agility for a creature bearing such bulk.

  Janie threw too soon. Her knife spiralled through empty space to land well-short of the creature in a pile of fallen leaves. Kelskar pushed her behind him, standing his ground, the short sword balanced in his hand. A knife wouldn’t take it down, doubtful it would drop with the gladius, but he had neither the space nor the angle to use the long sword as a spear with any accuracy.

  “Get behind the trees. Now,” he said, every muscle taut and ready to throw his body from the creature’s path if he missed. He thanked all his gods she chose to obey without question. Janie slipped, righted herself and flew behind the widest trunk, leaving him to face the beast.

  Wait, watch the trajectory, the twisting run learned to outwi
t predators. Throw when in range, pulling to the left and hope the creature stayed to form. Balance was everything.

  The short sword arced and spun in a blur of movement. Sliced into flesh and bone. The creature dropped with a soft grunt into the ferns and long grass, the sword hilt swaying to and fro. A clean kill, saving the need for a messy despatch in front of Janie. She crept out from behind the tree, eyes averted.

  “Is it dead?”

  “I don’t know. Stay where you are and we’ll wait to see if it rises. I’ve seen it happen.”

  “Your sword is sticking out of its head. How can it still be alive?”

  “Believe me, it can be.” He watched for twitching and signs he’d merely stunned the beast. His stomach growled, urging him to skin, spit, and roast the thing, uncaring such a fire might attract roving gangs. Predators more deadly than any beast. Hunger blunted his edge, slowed his reactions. Coupled with the infection invading his blood, he was half the gladiator he remembered.

  “Watch out, Janie there’s another.” By the gods, in his befuddled state he’d omitted to factor in a mate. He backed towards the tree, Janie behind him. No, not a mate, a much smaller creature breaking through the forest and running straight at the fallen beast.

  A creature capable of dragging off his prize? By the dark god, they would not have his dinner from him. He raced for Janie’s fallen knife, swooping low to snatch it up on the run. The fallen creature trembled then rolled, legs in the air. In its final death throes or rising for another attack? Those sharpened horns would do him real damage if they struck home.

  “Kelskar, over there. To your left.” Janie’s voice rang out between the trees. He flicked a glance to the left for the mate, or whatever meant to challenge him for the fallen carcass. The felled beast let out an angry bellow, scrabbling for purchase on the wet leaves. The embedded blade flicked to and fro.

  He must have hit the brain. How could he have missed?

  With a mighty heave, the beast rolled almost in a circle, springing upright with supernatural energy. At the same time a humanoid burst from the trees, hooded and cloaked, a bundle clutched to its chest. Kelskar stood between them, the furious beast roaring to his right, the humanoid ploughing through the undergrowth with no thought for danger.