Over the Moon

by Angela Knight

  “You, Warrior Lord,” Lucinda said softly, her eyes running appreciatively over his stunning loveliness before moving on to Amber. “And you,” she said, looking up once more at the giant. Slowly, she reached out and stroked her hand just above Amber’s arm, as if caressing something solid but unseen. “Two powerful Warrior Lords.”

  She flowed with sinister grace to the last of my men, Chami. Laughter was not in his eyes now, nor was the boyish charm he usually sported evident upon his lean face. That boyishness was as deceiving as the rest of his appearance. It had been a long time since he had been a boy, over a hundred years at least. Monère lived up to three hundred years of age. They were considered mature at a hundred, seasoned at two. There was a coolness to Chami’s eyes now, a seriousness much more in keeping with his deadly nature as he let her smell him.

  “Ah, but this one…” Lucinda turned her unsettling gaze back to me. “This one you have not claimed. His scent is not upon your skin. Nor yours upon his.” Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “I smell Halcyon’s scent upon your neck, but nowhere else on your body.”

  Gee, all that from one sniff. My hand lifted to my neck, the skin tingling where Halcyon had bit and tasted me. The wound had healed, was no longer there, but the remembered feel of where he had pierced my skin lingered still like a phantom memory. And the memory was not one of fear.

  “Halcyon has not even taken you to his bed,” Lucinda murmured with surprise, shaking her head. “And yet you hold him as if in thrall. Is that your allure for him? The tease, the chase? The anticipation?”

  “I am not teasing Halcyon,” I said. “I do not wish to be his lover. As you can already tell by smelling me, my bed is full.”

  “Ah, yes. Your two lovers.” Lucinda smiled, sauntered over to Gryphon, and brushed the back of her fingers down the side of his face in a light caress as he stared impassively down at her.

  An unfamiliar feeling swept over me—hot, sharp, like taloned claws. Jealousy.

  Slowly, carefully, I pulled Gryphon away from her touch. “Mine,” I said, baring my teeth at her. “Don’t touch.”

  She laughed again with wicked delight. “Oh. Now I glimpse your attraction to my brother. A little cat showing her claws.” She swayed seductively back to Chami. “What about this one? Can I touch this one?”

  I looked at Chami but could read nothing in his carefully blank eyes. “Only if he wishes you to,” I finally said.

  Lucinda leaned forward and pressed her soft full curves along Chami’s long slender length. One hand ran down his chest in an almost touch, brushing again just above his skin. “Such lovely thrumming power,” she murmured, looking up into Chami’s eyes. “So, my delicious one. Do you want me to touch you?”

  “What do you want?” Chami asked bluntly.

  “A drink of your blood,” Lucinda replied, an eerie echo of Halcyon’s words to me when we first met.

  Chami’s blue eyes glinted like hard diamonds, but his face paled even more than its usual whiteness. “Will you leave us then?”

  Her lips curved slowly, lusciously. “Yes, I’ve seen what I’ve come to see.” And the almost touch became true touch as her hand moved that one last inch of distance and stroked his chest.

  “Then take your drink and kindly depart.”

  “Chami, no,” I protested. “You do not know what it is like.”

  “On the contrary,” Chami said. “I know exactly what it is like.”

  I shook my head. “It will not be like what you experienced with Kadeen.”

  “That can only be considered good, milady.”

  Kadeen had ripped into him and almost drained him dry. It was incredibly brave of Chami to willingly allow another demon to touch him after that savage experience. And he was doing so to protect me. To get rid of her. But he didn’t know what she could do to him with a simple taste. Nothing like what he was expecting. And I didn’t know how to tell him that.

  “It is my wish,” Chami said to me softly and glanced back at Lucinda. “I only ask that you be gentle when you take the drink you desire. A drink, not a draining.”

  “Agreed. Gentle…” Lucinda laughed huskily and the sound was like the soft tickling brush of fur stroking over your naked skin, chasing a shiver through us all. “Yes, I can do gentle.”

  With an almost tender gesture, she drew his head down to her. And he came to her, trembling.

  “So sweet,” she murmured against his lips.

  “I am far from sweet,” he whispered harshly.

  “Sweet and gallant. You fear me and yet you yield to me…for your Queen.”

  My hand clenched Gryphon’s hand tightly as Lucinda turned her mouth slowly into Chami’s throat. One tiny hand held Chami secure behind the neck, the other lightly gripped his shoulder. Lifting up on her toes, with her small luxuriant body pressed against the slender bend of his, they looked like lovers embracing. Until her lips drew back, and her teeth lengthened and sharpened.

  Gently, she ran the tip of her long, sharp fangs once, twice, across the pulse bounding slowly, powerfully along his neck. He shuddered, shook in her arms but did not fight her. Gently, almost tenderly, she sank those fangs down into his flesh until those mauve lips pressed tight against his skin and the strong column of her throat worked, swallowing.

  I watched as Chami’s eyes glazed over and then widened in surprise. As the tension that sang in him relaxed beneath her thrall. As she took him over, drank him into her body. And gave him back pleasure instead of pain. Pleasure like nothing else in this world.

  And I wondered. Did his groin tingle, ache, throb as sensual tendrils raced like invisible caressing hands over him, inside him? Was almost agonizing pleasure swelling up within him, then bursting from him as he cried out, held her tight? As he jerked and shuddered helplessly against her. As light shone free from his body, called forth by his pleasure, liming him in harsh brilliant beauty—a true child of the moon. What he was. What we all were. Monère. Supernatural creatures descended from the moon, faster and stronger than humans. Descendants of another race from another planet long dead.

  The blinding brilliance of the moon’s rays slowly faded back into Chami. Now it was Lucinda who held him. Who laid him down gently on the ground, the scarlet red of his blood brilliant upon her lips like lipstick. And I wondered…[ ]did Chami wish even now, sated, almost insensate, for more of that sharp, painful ecstasy?

  Lucinda licked his blood from her lips slowly, savoringly, her eyes heavy-lidded and languorous.

  “A small taste of me,” she whispered. And I shuddered and shivered in remembrance of Halcyon’s words to me. A small taste of me, as I taste you.

  Lucinda straightened and her gaze lifted to regard me once more. “Let Halcyon fuck you. Maybe then his fascination with you will fade. That fascination endangers you both.” With those words, she walked out the door, closing it softly behind her.

  I rushed over to Chami and knelt beside him. “Chami, Chami. Are you all right?”

  His eyes, when he rolled them up toward me, were still dazzled, his pupils darkly dilated. He was still floating in the glowing aftermath. My eyes lowered to the wetness staining the front of his pants. Tears of his pleasure. Evidence of his orgasmic release.

  “You knew,” Chami said, his voice languid, dreamy.

  I met his pleasure-punched eyes and nodded. “Yes.”

  “Merciful Mother.” His voice rolled out slowly, stretched softly. “How can you resist that?”

  And though his whisper had been but the barest sound, his question echoed long and loud and haunting in the sudden silence of the apartment.

  CHAPTER 3

  It was quiet after Chami left. To change, he said, though a part of me wondered if he was hurrying after Lucinda to give them both another taste. Another drink of his blood for another drink of her pleasure. But even as I wondered, I didn’t try to stop him. The real danger to us had passed, from her and from our other enemies who we had either killed or banished. We were safe enough for now. And Chami, e
specially, could look after himself.

  We all had special gifts. Chami’s unique power could be discerned from his full name, Chameleo. A name given to him for his chameleon ability to blend with his surroundings so that he became invisible.

  Guilt kept me silent because Chami had no one in his bed. Nor did Aquila or Tomas, the two other guards sworn to my service. And even though I had made it clear before I had taken them on that I would not be sleeping with them, still I felt guilty. Because Monère men gained power from sleeping with a Queen. Gryphon and Amber had gained enough power from mating with me to become Warrior Lords, able to sustain their own life without a Queen. Able to rule their own territories should they so choose. But they had chosen, instead, to be with me.

  The question haunted me—had I been less human in my morality and more willing to take many into my bed as other Queens did, would Chami, Tomas, or Aquila gain enough power to become Warrior Lords as well?

  But I could not be less human. My humanity was stretched thinly enough as it were, taking both Amber and Gryphon as lovers, although not at the same time. No, not that. Alternating weeks. Stunned with relief that they were not leaving me, I’d only just promised to try it.

  How could you resist that? Chami had asked. And the answer, truthfully, was not easily. Had I met Halcyon first, my elegant Demon Prince, I could have loved him. He was gentle, extraordinary, and so lonely. It was his loneliness that called most strongly to me, because before I met Gryphon and he brought me fully into this new world, I was lonely and alone in a sea of humans. Raised among them, but different, always apart like Halcyon was among the Monère. I resisted Halcyon only because Gryphon feared him. While Gryphon shared me generously with Amber, he was insanely jealous of Halcyon.

  Halcyon does not belong to you, Gryphon had told me. He is not one of us. And being with him does not strengthen but endangers you.

  I resisted Halcyon’s lonely sensual allure because I could not bear the thought of losing either Gryphon or Amber. I could not bear to be alone again after just having found their love and knowing what it was like to be loved by them—deeply, passionately, intensely, with body and soul. The same way I loved them.

  A finger ran down my neck, startling me from my thoughts, stroking over where Halcyon’s neat puncture marks had branded my skin not long ago. And though they were gone from sight, they lingered still: invisible marks. I turned to gaze into Gryphon’s eyes, blue and rich like the summer sky.

  “Was it like that for you?” Gryphon asked me softly, silkily.

  My throat went suddenly dry at his question, at the way he had asked it.

  “It was the price for bringing me back, a sip of my blood,” I said with only the slightest quaver. “He could have kept me in Hell.” Almost had.

  “Did you enjoy it like Chami?” Gryphon asked. His voice deepened, lowered, grew more softly menacing. “Or did you enjoy it even more?”

  I’d never been afraid of Gryphon before. Never. But looking into those blue swirling eyes, hard and hot and laced with an indefinable emotion…[ ]something like fear—a thrilling touch of it—chased down my spine and raised goose bumps on my skin.

  I backed up as he advanced until I was stopped by something solid, something tall, something unmovable. I rolled my eyes up. “Amber,” I whispered. He was a solid blocking wall behind me, Gryphon a silky threat in front.

  “It is said that a demon dead can give great pleasure,” Amber said quietly, his deep voice rumbling through my back, “so that one would do almost anything to experience it again and again.”

  Always before, Amber’s bigness had been a comfort, never a threat. But now, with Amber behind me, Gryphon before me, jealousy and insecurity singing in their voices both…now his bigness was far from comforting.

  “I-I chose to return to you,” I said, stuttering. “To you both.”

  “But did you consider, for one brief tempting moment, staying with him?” Amber asked, his voice deep and dangerous as his broad hands came up to grip my shoulders lightly, imprisoningly.

  I could not answer Amber, dared not, because for one brief mad heartbeat of time I had. If Amber and Gryphon had not been waiting for me above, I would have stayed in that other realm with Halcyon, surrounded by his love, returning it.

  “We can please you as well as he can,” Gryphon murmured, bending down to place a kiss upon my neck in the spot where he had touched me before—Halcyon’s invisible brand. “Differently. But just as much.”

  I shivered beneath the light press of Gryphon’s lips, scared by the dark promise in his words. Scared even more by my reaction to them, because—God forgive me—the sensual threat dangerously lacing his words chased deliciously through a hidden, murky part of me. The thought of sex not totally safe, not totally sweet, with a hint of danger…Apart of me—that frighteningly dark, cruel part of me that was slowly emerging—thrilled to the potential violence. Within me, secret parts softened, warmed, heated, and clenched with a deep, pulling throb. The pungent fragrance of my growing arousal perfumed the air, filled my nostrils. Made me close my eyes in shame, in want, in need. I was torn, both wanting to fight that dark side of me and embrace it.

  “There is nothing to prove,” I said, my voice tremulous. “You…you do please me. Both of you.”

  “Then let us please you again,” Amber said. “Let us please you together.”

  I gasped as he pressed his teeth to the other side of my neck, as he laved my tender skin with his hot, rough tongue. Amber’s teeth and tongue on one side. Gryphon’s cool, soft lips kissing me on the other side. I exploded into heat. Moaned my need. Gasped for air. Grasped desperately for thought, for control. But there was none.

  The part of me that was Queen, my Aphidy—the innate, sexually attractive force between Monère men and their Queen—burst out from me, a wild and uncontrollable force set free. It rippled through the air like an invisible arrow, finding and seeking its targets with unerring ease.

  Amber and Gryphon cried out, arching against me as it struck them full force. As it brushed against their own power, flaring it up in response to mine, so that we were suddenly engulfed in a drowning cloud of rising energy, of burning passion.

  Amber’s teeth bit down into me until he almost, almost broke skin but not quite, making me cry out with painful pleasure. Gryphon nipped me sharply on the other side, stuttering my breath. His hands reached down and with one pull, tore open my shirt. Buttons scattered in a noisy roll on the floor, but the sound was drowned out by our pants, our cries. My bra came undone and Gryphon’s long, smooth fingers cupped my aching breasts, pulled low sounds from my throat, while down below, larger, rougher hands shoved my pants and underwear down my legs. I kicked free of them and felt Amber cup me, felt the hard press of his broad hand against my dewy lips.

  The feel of smooth gripping hands above and callused fingers below made me buck my hips back against Amber and arch my chest out toward Gryphon. But the frustrating barrier of cloth pressed against my bare skin.

  “Your clothes,” I gasped. “Take them off.”

  Unable to wait for them to obey me, I blindly grabbed Gryphon’s shirt and pulled. The sound of ripping cloth rent the air, and the violence of it, the tearing sound of it spurred us to an even greater frenzy. Amber ground his groin against my bottom, heavy, full, and wonderfully hard. His hands left me, and a moment later I felt the brush of his hairy chest against my back.

  Belt buckles—one, then another—clanged against floor. Knives thudded to the ground. And then we were all, finally, fully naked.

  They sandwiched me between them, Amber’s thick length a burning brand low in my back, Gryphon’s hardness a nudging prod against my soft belly. I felt empty, so empty. Needing—aching—to be filled. But how could I take more than one man into me? There was only one place I could think of, and it would not accommodate them both. I shook my head, tried to fight clear of the sensual haze, then could only gasp as Amber sank two wide fingers between my legs.

  “No, you’
re too big for her. The other way,” Gryphon said, his words making no sense to me. Amber was big, yes, but he was able to fit into me.

  Amber’s fingers slipped out, and Gryphon spun me around to face Amber. I tried to clear my mind so I could understand what Gryphon meant. But then it was too late to think. I could only feel as Amber lifted me up and sank me down upon his length.

  “Oh, God,” I choked, as his incredible thickness slowly invaded me. He was so big, so thick, so wide that he had to work himself into me. I was stretched, wonderfully, terribly stretched, as with a grunt, with a series of hard little shifting thrusts with his hips, he pushed himself into me one inch, then another, and another and another…

  Like a circuit suddenly connected, I began to glow. Amber’s skin began to shine, turning us into creatures of light. Behind me, Gryphon’s slender fingers caressed down where Amber entered into me and I stiffened, tightened up, causing Amber to give a deep, reverberating groan. One of those slender fingers, wet with my own liquid desire, crept up to circle my anal pucker.

  “Gryphon, what are you doing?” I asked in a high unsteady voice.

  His chest brushed my back in a silky caress as he rubbed himself against me.

  “Let me be in you as Amber is in you,” he whispered against my neck, making me shudder.

  Oh God, I thought, as I realized what he was asking. As I realized that that was what I wanted, too.

  I shivered. Said, “Yes.”

  One more circling, wetting caress, and then he pushed that finger into me. And that slender digit was as tight an invasion in me back there in my virgin anal hole, as Amber’s wide thick length filling me in front, sinking into my vaginal sheath.

  “Oh God, oh God,” I whimpered as he pushed into me, as they both pushed into me. My body clenched involuntarily, spasming around finger and rod, drawing out Amber’s deep groan and Gryphon’s soft moan. But instead of keeping them out, my inner clenching seemed to suck them both in, until Amber hilted within me and Gryphon’s finger was pushed fully in to the webbing. And somehow, he felt as big as Amber did in me. I trembled and panted between them, pinned and stretched by them both.