by Naomi Lucas
“Feed me?” she asked lamely, taken aback, still unsure.
“You do need food like any living being?” he teased.
“I do.” She swallowed and kneeled at his side. “I wasn’t expecting it.”
“Why?”
“You just asked me to take off my clothes.”
“And yet...you still haven’t.”
A blush warmed her cheeks and she turned away. She didn’t want him to see it.
Her body ached, wrung out from the constant, stressful fleeing for her life. It seemed like an eternity had passed since she had last been in Thetras, had last spoken to another human, and those final memories of her kind only filled her with anger. She gritted her teeth. Betrayal.
Aldora rubbed her arm where the Laslite hurt her, where his mark still remained. Even when she’d gone numb, she could still feel the pounding bruise below her clothes, could still feel the way the patrollee had groped and threatened her, how it hadn’t stopped until they were at the top of the sacrificial stairs on the outskirts of town. There had been no remorse from the man, and the press of his fingers at the center of her back made her want to tear off her skin.
She felt them now. A sudden, single violent shiver wracked her frame.
I don’t want to be in my head! It didn’t make the memory of his touch go away.
A large calloused hand took her own. “Female... Are you hiding something from me?”
She stared down at Vedikus’s fingers curling around her palm, overly warm, and slightly damp from the bowl. Another tremor coursed through her but this one wasn’t from disgust. She turned her hand in his and trailed her thumb over his cracked knuckles, waiting for her revulsion, but it never came. He had gone still beneath her fingertips and another tendril of relief flowed through her.
Aldora grasped his wrist, unable to wrap her fingers fully around it, and squeezed. A thick tendon protruded from his skin and rose up his bare underarm. She spread her fingers upon his other hand and moved them from his blunt nails and over his rough pads, to the curve of his thumb and the tough skin where he held his weapons, further still to meet her other hand holding his wrist.
The more she touched him, the more she relaxed. Heat from the fire filled the space between them and warmed the stones she sat upon. Aldora pressed her palm against his and the tops of his fingers curled down over her outstretched ones.
“I’m not hiding anything,” she whispered.
“Then remove your clothes.”
The spell was broken. Aldora snatched her hand back and rubbed the feel of him off her. His hand hovered in the air between them for another moment before dropping to the forgotten bowl.
“I don’t want to,” she said. Even with the heat from the fire now keeping her warm, she didn’t want to, not even knowing she had a chance to wash the blood and mud from her body and clothes made her want to take them off.
They were her last—maybe her only—physical barrier against him. The dagger that lay hard against her ankle wasn’t enough to make her feel completely safe. She rubbed her palms into her clothes again but couldn’t get the feel of him off of her. That singular roughness remained.
Vedikus removed a root from a bag and twirled it in the flames. “You don’t have a choice.”
Her nostrils flared and she slid her hand toward her boot. He pulled the singed herb from the flame and crushed it into the water. The powder vanished within the mixture.
“I have a choice.” She slipped the weapon out, raising it to strike, staring at his exposed back and shoulder. He made no move as she poised the crude tip against his skin, her arms shaking. He swirled the bowl, mixing the contents. Her palms dampened.
And she lowered the dagger. “I can’t,” Aldora breathed.
He looked at her then, and she braced for violence, but only received the damning intensity of his gaze. There was little space between them, no more than a foot, and she drew back as the darkness in them grew. Their pits swirled and burst with each quick rise of the fire, deepening them with each passing second. Her lips parted to be wetted. Her tongue was not up for the job.
“Even if you had stabbed me...” he trailed off, his voice as deep as his eyes.
Vedikus knocked the dagger aside and placed the bowl beside her, but she her attention was on his wet fingers grasping her legs and pulling them out from under her.
“You would not have won,” he finished.
“I wasn’t trying to win.” His large hands slowly moved down her thighs, across her knees, and along her shins, trailing heat with them over her clothes. “I wanted to see if I could do it.”
“You couldn’t.” He pulled off her boots.
A part of her wanted to reach out and touch him again, to see if he would let her explore more but stopped herself. I just tried to stab him, maim him, maybe even kill him. I’ve given him trust. To her chagrin, there was trust, and she couldn’t believe in it. Keeping me alive has nothing to do with trust. And yet, she trusted him in that.
“I don’t know my way out of here without you,” she argued. Vedikus stuffed his hands into her boots and felt around before lifting them to his nose. “Why are you doing that?” Her brow furrowed.
He placed them next to her dagger. “I can discern a lot by smell. Your sweat is laced with many things, your blood more, and your boots reek of both. You are keeping something from me.”
Aldora didn’t want to answer him. She sniffed the air instead, already knowing she couldn’t smell a thing. The only smell that lingered was his. “And the mist sickness?”
“Is worsening, female, far quicker than it should. What are you keeping from me? I will not ask again and I grow tired of prying.” He seized her feet and moved them into his lap.
She placed her palms on the floor and scraped her nails over them, unsure of what to tell him. He wanted something from her but all she had were her thoughts and feelings, and they were her secrets to keep.
“I don’t like that I trust you, even a little,” she said at last. A warm, moist cloth, moved across her soles, followed by his hands. She curled her toes and swallowed. “I see my nightmares every time I look at you. I see everything that has scared me all the years I’ve been alive. I see every reason why I made all the choices I had growing up.” Hypathia sitting stiffly on Nithers leg, his hand pulling down the girl’s tunic rose in her head. How Aldora was forced to do the same with other men in town. “Humans are raised to fear everything that has to do with the labyrinth.”
He grunted and kneaded the aches in her arches.
Aldora remained frozen. “I made a lot of hard choices growing up because of it, every girl does. And it made no difference.”
“Because it didn’t save you,” he agreed.
“No. They didn’t save me.”
“I saved you.”
Her breaths stilled. “If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t be here.”
A twisted smile curved his lips before vanishing. “No, you wouldn’t.” His hands moved up her legs, pushing her pants up with them. The water was cold on her skin. Her legs fell open slightly as his shadow loomed over her, and the outline of his horns pierced the ceiling once again.
“Will you hurt me?” she asked cautiously, her chest tight.
“Will you try and stab me again?”
She pondered briefly. “I don’t know.”
He slid his hands higher, bringing the cloth with them until the bunched up material of her pants stopped him. An empty, hollow ache built between her legs, a reaction she couldn’t stop even though she hated it. It helps. It helps the betrayal.
His touch did not make her feel the same way the Laslite’s touch had. There was no disgust, only anticipation. What pressed against his leathers at the crux of his legs, Aldora could only imagine, but she knew instinctively that it was hers to tame. Would his prick look like a man’s? If not in size, at least in shape? Vedikus wasn’t a human, not fully.
That he wasn’t a man didn’t bother her at all. She had never liked men b
efore the Laslite, and she liked them even less now. They were only of use to the frightened women and girls of her town because of their fear of what lay beyond, just out of sight. Her dealings with them had always been quick, brief, and exploitative. Mutual. But only in the sense that women needed them to destroy that piece of themselves and most men took full advantage of that.
He drew his hands off her.
Her breath returned, her stillness eased, and he handed her back the dagger. Aldora took it slowly, narrowing her eyes.
“If you don’t know, try again.”
What? She looked at the weapon, then back to him. The dagger was heavier now. The weight unbalanced. His shadow enveloped her, his eyes lost in the dark. Aldora raised herself up, shifting the weapon in her hand. Her heels pressed into the stone, and she curled her toes.
She poised the dagger at his throat, and moved it until the tip of the blade was at his eye. He didn’t look at it—but at her, unafraid despite the blade an inch from his face. Her hand began to shake.
I...can’t...
Aldora slowly lowered the dagger, discovering something she didn’t like.
I can’t.
“You trust me too,” she marveled softly.
Vedikus laughed abruptly and rose to stand, leaving her kneeling on the stone before him. Her eyes widened. He grasped her hair in his fist. “Oh, I’ll hurt you, little human, but you’ll be better for it in the end. Wash up.” His voice lowered with warning. “Do what needs to be done. Tomorrow we head for Prayer and its toils will be worse still. I’ll be back when you’re done.” Vedikus released her and stormed away.
He disappeared into the shadows without another word.
Aldora listened to his steps until they were gone too, and for the first time since being sacrificed, she didn’t want to be alone. Didn’t want her captor to leave.
Her captor...
My savior. The weight of her thoughts threatened to crush her. She clasped the hem of her shirt. I couldn’t kill him and he trusts me.
The revelation stayed with her as she peeled out of her dirty tunic, pants, and boots, leaving her undergarments on for safety. She washed them in the water, wringing out the dirt and scrubbing off the dried sweat and blood. Aldora draped them on a protruding stone to dry by the fire.
And with deft movements and her senses heightened—listening for his return—she took the bowl and bathed in the frigid spring. Her flimsy cloths plastered her skin. She quickly scrubbed her flesh raw in an effort to rub out her traitorous desires.
He saved me. She frowned.
She couldn’t deny it and glanced at the doorway. Aldora scrubbed harder.
Her undergarments came last, her pulse strumming, as she stripped off the final barrier. She prepared for Vedikus to spring from the darkness and pin her to the ground. To exert his control and fill her head with wicked imaginings.
But as the air breezed over her drying skin, and while she cleaned her final article of clothing, his attack never came. The ache inside her would remain a secret.
Aldora redressed in her wet under layer, bearing the cold water. Time passed on well after she was done, until she lay on her side by the fire, her wet garments clinging to her skin.
Her eyes found the doorway again.
He’ll come back.
She waited for his return but slumber found her first.
***
Aldora woke up to the darkness and cold, to the shuffling of her captor in the shadows where she could no longer see. His presence moved over and around her, slinking in like the mists she had known her whole life. I can’t see him. And yet she knew he was right there.
The power that emanated from him brushed her skin, lifting the hairs on the back of her neck. The dirt crunched next to her ear.
“Tell me your secret.” His voice slithered into her ear, inhuman. Her sex clenched.
This is a nightmare. She was certain her small bedroom would appear with its wooden walls and crates of apples in the corner.
“No.”
“I will pry them out of you.” His voice was at her throat now. “Will tear them out from the outside in.” His breath warmed her still-damp clothes. “And replace them with my own.” The heat of his mouth moved down her belly. She parted her thighs as she felt him move over her. He took hold of her legs and pulled off her wet garments before spreading limbs wide. The air touched parts of her that it shouldn’t.
She was helpless and sensed that he enjoyed that, that she had nothing to worry about except for him.
There were no other monsters trying to kill her here, deep within the ground. The walls on every side were solid and impenetrable, even to those sounds she heard roaring above. It was almost like a bubble, one only a single beast was allowed entry to. Her body shook over the stone.
Thick, blunt fingers played across her sex, shocking her with the warmth of his touch.
This isn’t a nightmare. Her eyes widened as she clawed at his hands, pulling them away, closing her legs as far as they could go. Aldora pressed them into his sides, arching her back in an attempt to escape him. His laugh filled her ears and echoed back. He reared up over her as she moved to get away.
Vedikus caught her up in his arms and grazed his fingers down her arm. They left a slick trail in their wake. She squirmed and fought his power, pushing off and away from his large body, her heart and ears pounding. But the more she struggled, the more he slid his hands over her and explored her body. Within moments he had her pinned over his lap, his hand palming her backside. He squeezed her flesh and she dug her nails into his leg.
“Vedikus!” she gasped as he spread her cheeks apart.
His hands stilled. “So that is how I get you to say my name.” His laughter was replaced with a growl.
Aldora bit her tongue, anxious as she waited for his next move. He let out a sigh she felt throughout her whole body and ran his hand not down, but up along her spine to thread his fingers into her long hair. He fisted it and drew her face up to his.
She licked her lips as he positioned her to straddle him. She was still unable to see him, no matter how hard she tried. Her fingers came up to clutch his arms.
“Say it again,” he demanded.
“Vedikus.” His name slithered through her prone figure to penetrate the hollow ache between her thighs, filling her, stretching her out past the point of comfort. His arm wrapped around her lower back and pressed her against his lap. Her exposed sex rubbed over his loincloth. Aldora shuddered as she was settled over his large bulge. He’s not inside me yet. The thought was weak in her head.
“It sounds painful on your lips.” He released her hair.
“Because it is,” she said, adjusting herself, but no matter how she sat on him, his shaft pushed into her. “Vedikus,” she spat.
His sinister laughter filled the space once again, jostling her upon him. A pressure built in her core, each sensation pulling taut where their bodies threatened to join. Her nerves frayed beyond repair.
“I will not breed a sick female,” he said when he was done cackling. “But I would fuck one.”
Aldora didn’t believe him but sagged in his arms at the mention of her illness. It’s gotten worse. How? Nothing else had changed. “You came upon me in the dark.”
Another growl. “I’ll always come upon you then.”
His bulge jerked and an unwanted jolt of pleasure surged through her.
“Always.”
Chapter Ten
***
Aldora ate while he packed up. The sweet scent of charred meat filled the room until it became cloying and thick. The stone walls were coated with the residue of it. Her chewing filled his ears and the space tightened around him.
Vedikus palmed the handle of his axe with one hand and squeezed the grime out of the washcloth; brown and murky water gushed between his fingers. The female studied him as he washed his body. A strange tension had formed the night before, and even when he broke contact and relit the fire, it had only grown.
> The pressure between his legs built and it was becoming harder to ignore. Now that he had spread her thighs and discovered the soft flesh hidden within, ignoring it was the last thing he wanted to do.
She is unlike a female minotaur, even a half-breed. He swiped the cloth down his chest and flicked the water away before it soaked into his leathers. The females that belonged to his old tribe had never fought off the need for sex. It was a natural bodily act, a ritual for his brethren. There were always willing females to curb the needs of the bulls, and mountings were revered among his kind. If there was sex, there was a possibility of creating a mating link, which meant offspring.
But there had been no links since his childhood, and he and his brothers had little to no recourse when they came of age. As the years continued and no sons and daughters were birthed, the tension in the tribe had increased.
Vedikus listened to the trickle of the spring and for any other sign that meant enemies had found them. His ears twitched, hearing only her.
Aldora sat near the fire, watching him through the strands of her long hair. He squeezed the cloth in his fist, wishing it was her silken hair in his grip.
“Come here.” He held his hand out toward her. She stiffened and frowned but closed the distance, ignoring his hand. “Wash my back.”
Her body heat, slight as it was, rushed over his skin like a wave. Vedikus hummed somewhere in his chest, feeling their connection strengthening.
Mount me. His gaze blurred slightly as she moved around him, peeling the cloth out of his hand. When she touched it to his shoulder, he lowered his head in pleasure. The act sent a rush of blood through his horns.
Streams of frigid water dribbled down the curves of his back. His focus was lost to everything else but the way it felt. Aldora washed it then patted the old water away, softening her touch around his wounds.
Her breath hitched. “Some of these...” her fingertip caressed the skin above one of the gashes, “some of these are still open.”