Firesnake

by Cassandra Kane

  “So you’re saying that you can tell now that Firesnake didn’t show up a thousand years ago?”

  He nodded. “They sifted through the history books and realized that all mention of Firesnake had disappeared. As a historical fact she was still in our memory, but stories of her no longer appeared in any of the ancient texts. Soon she’ll disappear even from our memory as our reality changes. It is feared that if that happens, we’ll again revert to being enslaved by the Kolkola. Or worse.”

  Meri frowned. “And your job is to find Firesnake and return her to a point a thousand years ago from your present reality?”

  Ryen nodded. “This is my task.”

  “How are you taking her there?” she asked suspiciously.

  He smiled. “The Chan will come for us.”

  Frowning, she shook her head. “Not us. You. I’m not Firesnake.”

  He leaned toward her, his gaze capturing her own. “Firesnake was a fire starter. The legend goes that she was unwanted in her own world, and left it for Calanir. There she saw the injustice of the Kolkola and freed the Chan with her power.”

  It sounded as though he was reciting a well-worn litany. Maybe he was a religious nut after all.

  “So what if Firesnake was a fire starter?” She shrugged. “I’m not the only one.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  His softly spoken words sent a shiver through her. It was true there weren’t any others like her. No one with a fraction of the power she had. Hadn’t Charlie Charwith billed her at the Carnival as having the rarest ability on Earth? Hadn’t he and his people protected her from the government’s interest in her abilities, keeping her in the limelight so that any attempt at making her “disappear” would be more trouble than it was worth?

  “Why do you think she came from Earth?”

  “It was written.”

  “Not any more,” she snapped. “According to you it’s all disappeared, right?” Meri got up and paced about the kitchen restlessly, attempting to digest the information. Finally she leaned back against the marble counter and watched Ryen, who sat with his hands loosely cupping his empty coffee cup. Hands she longed to touch.

  “Was it also written that she was a virgin?”

  Ryen swiveled in the chair and turned to look at her. His gaze flashed over her body, resting on the smooth tanned skin of her midriff, lingering on the peeking underside of breast revealed by her bikini top.

  He looked away. “It is said she undertook a transformation when she lost her virginity. It is said that sex triggered the change, making her very powerful. The Chan don’t want this to happen before you get to Calanir.”

  Meri stomped over to him. He refused to look at her, and in fury she shoved at his shoulder. “I’m not Firesnake and I’m not going to Calanir! Do you understand that, Jon or Ryen or whoever the hell you are?”

  He jerked up his head, eyes blazing with anger. “I understand,” he snarled. Then he caught her wrists and jerked her toward him. She stumbled and toppled onto his lap. He crushed her mouth beneath his.

  It was a hard, punishing kiss that left her senses reeling. His hand caught hold of her hair, pulling it back as his mouth moved over her, devouring her lips, skimming her jaw and down her neck. His free hand impatiently brushed the thin straps of her bikini aside, and she felt his cool mouth over her breasts, suckling first one hard peak and then the other until she was squirming and panting with desire.

  Suddenly he pushed her back against the table and stood up. She stared at him, her face flushed, her heart pounding with the unexpected rush of desire, waiting.

  A muscle pulsed in the hard line of his jaw. “You can stay here tonight. I’ll show you to your room.”

  And he walked out. Again.

  Chapter Five

  Meri woke from a restless sleep to the sound of beep, beep, beep coming from the room next door. Jon’s room. Or Ryen, as he preferred to be called. She could hear the murmur of his voice as he spoke to someone on the phone. Turning her head, she saw the alarm clock on the bedside table read 3:17 a.m. She’d been asleep for just under an hour.

  Ryen’s words had haunted her, the implications swimming around and around in her head. She hadn’t had half her questions answered, not by a long shot. But when he’d shown her to the spare bedroom, all thought of them had flown from her mind.

  Ryen had rummaged in the drawer of a dresser and brought out fire-proof sheets. He’d even tossed her a short tunic-like shirt made of the same fire-proof material. A night dress.

  He’d been prepared for her. Or for Firesnake.

  So was she really Firesnake after all? And if all he’d said was true, what kind of creature had this Firesnake turned into after she had sex?

  The memory of his lips on her breasts, the savage passion of them, had left her tossing restlessly on the bed. It had taken hours to cool her burning body, to rest when she was aware that he lay in the next room and it would be so easy just to tip-toe over and slide in beside him…

  As she listened to the murmur of his voice, Meri realized that the noise that had woken her hadn’t sounded like any phone she’d ever heard. She slid off the bed, put her feet into her insulated sandals, and went out to the hallway. Following his voice, she crept to his door and paused, listening.

  She could hear another voice responding -- a cold, mechanical voice. Curiously, she gently turned the doorknob…

  “…we cannot be sure to be there…” the mechanical voice said.

  Not mechanical, she realized, just filled with static.

  “I would re-iterate my request that we be picked up as quickly as possible or I cannot vouch for Firesnake’s safety,” Ryen said in a low, urgent tone.

  “Your task is precisely to vouch for her safety.” The static-filled voice sounded dour. “We do not understand the nature of the threat.”

  There was a long silence. “I find her… attractive,” Ryen said. “She has entered a heat cycle, and my pheromones are responding.”

  Meri opened the door. Ryen sat on the edge of his bed with a small silver device in his hand. He looked up and saw her, and a flush crept over his face.

  “I see,” the voice from the device said after a pause. “It is your mission to resist. Firesnake must be intact.”

  She folded her arms and watched him coldly.

  “Understood.” Ryen stared at her.

  “We will make your proposed rendezvous. Out.”

  Ryen pressed a button on the silver gadget and threw it on the bed beside him.

  “I suppose I’d be flattered your pheromones are finding me so hard to resist,” she said, her eyes narrowing, “if I didn’t think you were a cold-blooded, low-life, lying bastard.”

  She swung around and ran to her bedroom. As she slammed the door shut behind her, Ryen’s hand slapped against the door and held it open the last few inches. “Get away from me, you alien freak!” Meri yelled, pushing with all her strength against the door.

  “I’m not a liar,” she heard him say through gritted teeth.

  He gave the door a massive shove and she sprang back as it flung open. He stood in the doorway, scowling, wearing a pair of low-slung pajama trousers that only served to emphasize the outline of his raging erection.

  “I never lied to you.” His fists clenched as he stared at her in frustration. “I told you everything about my mission --”

  “Stuff your mission! Get out!” Meri caught the nearest thing to hand -- the bedside lamp -- and flung it at his head.

  He ducked and the ceramic lamp smashed against the opposite wall in the hallway.

  “I’m not Firesnake!” she shouted. “And if you take me anywhere it’ll be over my dead body.”

  For a moment his expression looked so thunderous she thought he might just make that happen. Then he gave a sigh and rubbed a hand over his face. He stared at her, his features softening. “I understand your fear,” he said calmly. “I am also fearful. But we cannot discuss it like this. In anger. I will make us some iced tea.”
>
  Meri blinked as he abruptly turned and walked away. Three times he’d turned away from her, and all of them had left her feeling like a complete ass.

  So he thought he was the logical one, the reasonable one, did he? Well, she’d just see about that.

  Ryen set the kettle to boiling and took a tray of ice-cubes from the freezer. As he knocked them out over the countertop, he sensed Meri’s entering the kitchen. He closed his eyes, tried to think of something innocuous that would force his erection to die down. But all he could think of was her. He could feel her like a heatwave shimmering over him.

  He glanced around and saw her observing him warily. Didn’t she know how beautiful she was, with her dark hair all tousled and her eyes burning with anger? He couldn’t help but admire her fighting spirit. She would make any warrior proud to have her as his mate.

  He took a deep breath as he turned away. Better not to tell her about that. Yet.

  When he turned back to her with the jug of iced tea, he found Meri sitting on the edge of the table, her thighs spread wide, her feet planted on the seat of a chair. Her nightshift had ridden up over her thighs.

  And she wasn’t wearing any underwear.

  The jug of iced tea slipped from his numb fingers and crashed to the floor.

  Meri gave a slow smile that was pure seduction. “I want to know what you’re fearful about.”

  His face paled. “Cover yourself.”

  Meri arched an eyebrow. “First you tell me I mustn’t suck cock, and now you’re telling me to cover myself. You’re really very prudish, Ryen.”

  Her pubic area was shaved, the mons plump, the folds of her cunt glistening. His erection was so painful he could barely speak.

  “Are you sure your pheromones are in working order?” she asked lazily, leaning back on her elbows as she swung her knees wide.

  “Don’t challenge me, woman.” Ryen’s voice was soft and dangerous. His face darkened as he took a step toward her, then another. His bare feet crunched over the broken glass on the floor, but his expression barely registered the excruciating pain he must have been experiencing.

  Meri swallowed a knot of trepidation. But he had pushed her too far, and she was too stubborn to back down now. An almost unbearable excitement was building inside her, a mounting pressure that demanded release. Whatever he was -- alien or freak -- she had never wanted anything as much as she wanted him. Dammit, he fascinated her completely.

  Ryen pushed the chair to one side and stood between her legs. His hands rested on her knees, slid over her thighs, pushing up her shift to her waist. “There are other ways to take you,” he said with a growl. His hands were hard on her hips, his thumbs angling down to her mons. “Ways that would leave you intact.”

  Her heart beat so loudly she was sure he could hear it. “What ways?” she whispered.

  He said nothing, but she felt his thumbs parting the folds of her pussy, running over the slick insides, spreading her open. Her eyes widened as he fell to his knees and buried his face between her legs. She gasped at the soft rasp of his tongue over her clit, swirling around and around the hot little nub. She felt a rush of liquid dripping from her vagina, felt his fingers brushing her wet, slick opening, moistening his fingertips, never entering.

  Meri lay back on the table, her legs trembling. His tongue felt like heaven. His wet fingers slipped lower, found her anus and ringed it, slowly, slowly. She arched as he suddenly stuck his finger deep inside the small puckered hole, even as his tongue moved from side to side over her clit which felt so swollen it would burst.

  She looked down and saw a thin layer of blue flame over her body. Ryen felt her stiffening and looked up at her, his lips glistening with her juice.

  “I’m burning,” she said fearfully. “I’ll burn you.”

  He shook his head. For a moment he turned away, his eyes searching over the floor, and he leaned over to pick something up. Held up a handful of ice cubes.

  He dropped them on the tabletop, then took one and rubbed it gently over her clit. The sudden coldness between her legs extinguished the flames.

  Ryen watched her closely. “Do you want me to stop?” he said roughly.

  Meri shivered at the flurry of sensations between her legs. Raising herself to her elbows, she looked down the length of the table at him, saw his cock poking through the gap in his pajama trousers. The thick head was swollen, the tip wet with pre-cum. Her answer was to brush her foot over the tip of his cock, then hook her toe over the elastic waistband and pull his trousers down. His penis sprang free -- long and hard and beautiful.

  “I want you inside me,” she whispered. “All of you.”

  Ryen closed his eyes for a moment as though praying. When he opened them, his expression was dark with lust and determination. She watched him go to the kitchen cabinet and take a small bottle of olive oil from the shelf, then come back and place it on the table. She had no idea what he had planned, but the thought vanished from her mind as he shucked off his trousers. Her throat was suddenly as dry as her pussy was wet and ready, and she inched back to the center of the table, giving him room to join her.

  He lifted himself on the table, his knees between her spread legs. Gently, he pulled the shift up over her waist and breasts. She raised her arms, allowing him to pull it from her body and throw the flimsy material to the floor. Goose bumps rose over her skin at the pleasurable thrill of his gaze devouring her body. Almost in slow motion, he bent down and took one nipple in his mouth while his fingers lightly rubbed at the other. Gently, his hand trailed a path over her hot skin, over the smoothness of her pubis to find her center. He stroked along the slick folds and his thumb pressed at her clit.

  And once more angled down beneath her buttocks, pushing first one finger and then another into her anus. Began to move in slow circles, stretching.

  “Tell me if I hurt you,” he said, his hot breath fanning her cheek. “I’ll stop.”

  She shook her head mindlessly, involuntarily tightening her opening around his digits.

  “Relax,” he whispered. Expelling a breath, she forced herself to comply, immediately feeling herself loosen. Meri closed her eyes to savor the new sensation, then felt his tongue scrape along her jaw. A moment later she felt him move away, and opened one eye to see him sitting back on his knees. He had unscrewed the lid off the small glass bottle of olive oil and was liberally dousing his cupped hand. He set the bottle down beside her and slathered the oil over his cock until it shone like the polished glass dildo in her trailer.

  And then his oil-covered hand was between her legs, the palm slipping over her clit and down to her anus. She spread her legs as his oiled fingers slipped easily inside her, pumping gently until she was fully greased, his thumb gently gliding around and around her clit.

  The twin movement had Meri moaning in pleasure as her body arched up to push against his steady grip. A hot, boiling sensation started in her center like a spinning ball of fire. She bit down on her lip as she suddenly felt the tip of his cock nudging her hole. Slowly, he pushed the head inside in small strokes, each time inching deeper and deeper. She cried out at the pain/pleasure as the whole of the cock head slipped inside. Miraculously, she seemed to stretch effortlessly to accommodate him, and suddenly he pushed his length all the way into her tight passage. She heard him groan and shudder. Meri gave an involuntary gasp of pleasure.

  He stopped. “Am I hurting you?” His voice rasped at the effort of holding himself in check.

  Meri shook her head again, needing him to continue and unleash the coil of molten lava curled tight around his cock. Blue flames swept along the entire length of her body, undulating over her skin, flaring to red flames where their bodies joined.

  “Why don’t you burn?” she asked in wonder.

  “Sshhh.” He took another ice cube, half-melted, from the few strewn over the tabletop and rubbed it over her clit. His hips began to move, thrusting slowly, as he rubbed the ice cube over and over her hot nub.

  Meri stopped wonde
ring, stopped thinking altogether, and held on to the sides of the table as his cock plunged deep inside her, withdrew and plunged again. Every time the pleasure became unbearable and the flames rippled over their bodies, Ryen would take an ice cube and rub it over her till the cold liquid dripped over the inside of their thighs and pooled beneath them on the table. A steady stream of vapor settled on the tight muscles of Ryen’s abdomen, beading to water droplets that fell over her hot skin and vaporized again.

  Just as she felt the heat begin to uncoil its tight grip inside her, Ryen gave a cry and stiffened. She felt the torrent of his seed, cool and slick, as he pushed into her one last time. The pleasure in his expression, a pleasure she had created, instilled both a sense of power and satisfaction, and a sudden inexplicable tenderness for him.

  As he gently withdrew his cock, Meri drew him down to rest his cheek on her breast. His breathing was ragged and torn.

  “I’m sorry you didn’t come,” he said softly when his breathing had steadied. “It’s too --”

  “Dangerous. Yes, I know.”

  For Meri had noticed the markings that had appeared over the skin of her arms. Small, flame-like swirls like faint tattoos.

  Inexplicably frightened, she held on to him tight, seeking and finding comfort in his arms.

  He’d been right all along. She was Firesnake, whatever Firesnake was -- or would become.

  Chapter Six

  Ryen did fifty laps in the pool before he hauled himself out. Grabbing a towel draped across a lounger, he dried off. He squinted up at the hot midday sun and closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of the Arizona heat on his cool flesh. Flesh he’d felt was dead these past three years on Earth.

  After a while he went into the house and gently opened Meri’s bedroom door. She still slept, exhausted from the night before, lying curled up in the center of the bed. They’d slept wrapped in each other’s arms. The warmth of her body had made him feel alive, strong and potent.

  My woman. The thought came unbidden and filled him with unaccountable happiness. It was one thing to know his fate, another to embrace it fully.