by Dani Stowe
“I need to kill you,” he says, his eyes wild with disillusion. “I need to kill you before you curse someone else, but first I need to get that tattoo off of you so I can free you of your own curses. I can save you. I can free your soul from witchcraft.”
His words force a flood to flow from my eyes. “Bradley, think about what you’re saying!”
Bradley fists my hair to pull my head back and lays the tip of the knife into my stretched, arched neck. My tat winds itself around my arm, which captures his attention but is not helping as his conviction to conquer the magic and overpower it becomes more apparent in his actions.
“Aaaaggghhh!”
Bradley yanks my head as he follows the dragon’s head with the knife, but the dragon moves to my back. Bradley pushes me forward so my back faces him as he searches for the critter that is running all over my body to avoid being stabbed. I am tossed and turned quickly and cannot stop screeching as Bradley chases the dragon under my skin with the point of his knife, eager to stab me with it.
Bradley finally gets frustrated and yanks my head back by the hair again. I feel a slight tiny pierce in my flesh below my jawline and I scream! Adrenaline surges through my body until my mouth slams shut as both Bradley and I jostle unintended together.
Something’s hit the boat.
We rock back and forth. Bradley tumbles on top of me and grabs my arm to steady himself as the boat sways.
“What is that?” he asks.
I don’t reply, although I have a strong suspicion.
The boat shakes violently and Bradley grips me tighter, except this time he’s clinging to my neck.
“What the fuck is that?” he yells again as he continues to choke me. The whole boat begins to tip to one side. Things toss and slide about—random stuff, sharp stuff, all his fishing gear flips and pours out of storage. Bradley grips me tighter as he tries to block things out of the way to keep them from hitting him, but I don’t care because I can’t breathe!
“What the fuck is that?” Bradley shouts one more time as the boat keeps tipping over to one side.
I am gagging, struggling to breathe. Bradley’s weight crushes me when the boat lands hard and flat back against the ocean’s surface. The jarring releases his grip on me and I can breathe again.
Bradley gets up and races to the guns on the wall where he yanks a rather large one and opens a drawer, taking out what looks like a dart.
“What...what are you going to do?” I ask, my voice coarse.
“Something is under the boat. I’m going to tranq it,” he says as he loads the gun.
“Can you cut me free?” I plead.
“Fuck no. If it’s hungry, I might have to use you as baaa—ay—AY!”
I watch in horror as Bradley’s face comes crashing to the floor. A large purple tentacle has gripped him by the ankle and is making its way up his leg to bend and break every bone from his toes to his ankle then his shin to his knee, crushing all of it. I shut my eyes. I can’t watch!
Bradley is screaming with unimaginable pain when suddenly he pauses. I peep with one eye to see him get control of himself for a brief second to aim the gun and fire.
The tentacle lets go of Bradley’s leg. My eyes follow the long purple appendage as it slips off the boat and the next thing I know, I’m dangling! My whole body is hanging!
I look down into the water as the whole boat is being flipped. I take a big breath. All I feel at first is a rush of cold until the boat lands hard on my hands and pushes me down until I’m consumed by seawater.
I panic. It’s not just the water that I fear, but also the boat on top of me. It’s pushing me down further—into the dark. One light of the boat remains lit though it’s starting to flicker. I kick my feet and yank at my wrists and I feel a hand on my lower back. I turn to see Orphelius and he’s enormous.
For a moment, I forget I’m in distress and need to breathe. Seeing Orphelius like this—his lower half spanning my entire panoramic view of the deep blue ocean is hugely incredible. He looks like something pulled right out of a fairytale or perhaps reanimated from an ancient mythological sculpture. I am in awe of him until I notice the tranquilizer dart—the one Bradley must’ve shot him with and is still stuck at his side. I try to speak.
A wave of water floods my throat, filling my stomach, and I feel heavy—I’m drowning.
Orphelius notices my distress but he kisses me, of course, before he tugs at the ties to my wrists to set me free and pull me through the water that turns black as the boat light goes out.
Once my face hits the surface, my body feels a sense of release and relief. My lungs expand until I tense once again.
It’s dark. The stars are the only things that twinkle with virtually no light to help at all. I turn and see the marina in the distance—a long way off. I hear a gasp and I can barely make out the head of Orphelius.
“You’re going to—” he gurgles.
“Orphelius!” I yell, grabbing him.
“Let go, you need to...”
I dip my head under the water and feel around his waist. When I feel the tranquilizer dart I yank it right out and come back up.
“Swim to shore, Ku...Ku...” Orphelius’ head begins to sink below the surface as something else rises out.
Damn it! We’re not alone and it’s not Bradley.
“Orphelius!” I yell and cling to him with both hands, but he’s sinking. He’s too heavy and he’s dragging us both down.
The faint view of a fin comes into view and now I’m scared. I think I’m more scared now than I was with Bradley. For whatever reason, I think I’d rather deal with getting beat than get eaten by a shark.
I dip my head below the water and grip under Orphelius’ arms. I kick. I kick hard. I’ve never been a really good swimmer, but fuck! This really shouldn’t be so difficult. I can barely get my face to the surface so I can take a breath as Orphelius is just too heavy and he’s slipping. “Orphelius, wake up, please!”
My head falls below the surface and I realize how exhausted I am. I want to swim back to the top, which is getting farther away; we are sinking. He’s going to drown me, but I don’t want to let go.
I think of Shelley. She told me I was going to have to make a choice whether I wanted to live or die. She also told me if I didn’t believe in Orphelius, I would die.
I do believe in him. I do believe that after everything he’s been through, the only thing he ever wanted was for me was to live.
I squeeze him between my hands to grip him one last time and I let him slip from my fingers.
The water feels thick. I feel as though I am suspended in a big black vat of loneliness. I debate if it’s worth kicking my feet at all, especially since I know there’s a shark nearby. I can’t hear it. I can’t see it. But I know it’s waiting for Orphelius to be completely clear of me.
A rubbery sensation glides under my fingertips and I smile to myself. I recognize the feeling and I hear a click, then a whistle, and a few more clicks. Kicking my feet, I slowly bring myself back up and I can see why Orphelius was so desperate to save the dolphin pup.
Once I reach the surface, a whole family of dolphins surrounds me. I can hardly see them, only hear their chorus, a family chorus, of clicks and whistles. A hard fin pushes against my palm and I grab a hold of the animal I know is going to bring me to safety.
I’m completely fatigued by the time my toes touch a shallow ocean floor, but I thank the whole pod for bringing me to shore. I’m more thankful the pup has made it back to its mother.
It’s so dark and I have no idea where I am until I notice a glow that can only come from the mountain peak described in a story—mine and Orphelius’ story. It comforts me, reassures me, and I know exactly where I am.
I’m so tired—my lids heavy with a desire to shut. I crawl on my hands and knees, clumping and gritting at the sand as I go up a few feet until I collapse.
Sand has already made its way into my mouth and I decide to leave it there. It’s only two grai
ns—two small pieces of a greater unknown that have somehow found a way to come to rest together in my mouth, in me.
Chapter 20
Kumiko
A WARM BREEZE BLOWS across my chest and my breasts tingle. My breathing is once again in sync with the ocean as small waves unfold near my feet onshore.
Oh yes, I’ve been here before. More than once, apparently.
I open my eyes to see the peak of a mountain where I once thought I was stranded and I feel a soft touch glide over my foot. The touch moves to my ankle where it wraps around my leg tightly.
Days ago, I would’ve panicked at the feeling—the feeling of something slick and strange gripping me but instead, I keep my eyes fixed at the ridgeline that shoots straight into the sky as I am yanked about a foot across the sand until my heels touch the water.
I feel a fumbling at my waist as the button and zipper to my denim shorts come undone. The breeze across my chest blows harder and my nipples tighten. I caress them with each hand, keeping my eyes on the clouds. I know what’s down there messing with me, but I’m not going to look. Not right now. If I’m in a dream, I don’t want to wake up. I don’t want to disturb the hands and tentacles at work on my shorts and underwear, both still a little damp and being stripped down my ass and pulled off my legs, which are then spread wide.
A tongue licks up my slick center and I see a pair of seagulls float by. They weave in and out between one another allowing the wind to catch their wings, spreading them apart, and then reuniting them back together.
Perhaps this is not a dream and I’m in Heaven?
If I’m in Heaven then I’m so pleased to be dead because it feels so good, although I know I did not choose to die.
I glide my hand down from my breast to my naval, inching my fingers towards the space between my legs that is already occupied by a head rolling. I stroke my fingertips through soft hair and hear a groan. A tear falls from the side of my eye, as my body trembles with the firm, flat grind of Orphelius’ tongue.
Another soft touch, then another, and another—many touches graze across my toes. They make their way up my legs and along every inch of my skin. Some touches grip while others feel as if they are suckling and caressing until one finally tightens around my nipple and pinches. I yelp and try to come up, but my hair is too quickly wound tight to pull my head back to stay flat on the sand.
Orphelius rolls his head with wild reckoning, bringing me to a state of rising ecstasy and I realize of all of Orphelius’ appendages, it’s amazing how his tongue, the smaller appendage compared to the rest of his limbs, can work so much magic.
A surge rises at my core and I try to relax. I don’t want to come yet. I don’t want this to be over. I don’t want to wake up or be forced to exit through the pearly gates of Heaven. I let myself relax to be fully open and I sense Orphelius takes notice.
One soft touch—not a finger from a hand, but something else glides up my inner thigh until it finds my entrance where it circles, forcing me to arch my back, and it enters me.
Deep it goes, deep into my core, plunging as Orphelius licks. Digging as Orphelius strokes. Fucking as Orphelius laps and now, I’m near coming.
“I want you,” he says, stopping to come up and settle over me, blocking my view of the sky and I squint.
“You have me.”
“No, I want you to say that I am your master. This is the reason why I believe we keep getting separated. I need to hear you tell me, tell yourself, tell the world that you’re mine. That you belong to me. That I am the master of your heart, your body, and soul—the whole of your domain. Tell me I’m your master. I want every creature to know that no matter what shape or form either one of us is in, I will always come for you, for what’s mine.”
Right now, it wouldn’t matter if Orphelius was a man or a sea monster or even an angel. “You are my master, Orphelius, as I believe you have always been.”
Orphelius groans as he enters me, but he teases me. He thrusts only a little—in and out, and I want to feel him in me as deeply as he was moments ago.
I lace my fingers behind his neck. “Don’t tease me, master. Please,” I beg.
He invades my mouth with a hot tongue that melts into my core, which he quickly retracts to say, “I love you.” Before I have a chance to say anything back, his tongue, laden with the taste of my own sex, is already tangled back in my mouth.
His body falls heavy and that’s when I feel it—his tentacles retracting. His body is changing, but he keeps trying to pump me and kiss me. I open my eyes to his red grimacing face. He’s in pain and he’s still trying so hard to make love to me.
“Fuck me,” I tell him, “but I want the real master—the Master at Arms. I want all arms.”
Orphelius pauses for a millisecond and I feel a splash as he flips me over. He pulls me until I’m on my hands and knees and he takes me from behind. The first thrust is painful. His cock dives so deep it feels like it reaches up to my throat and I mewl.
But he doesn’t stop. He wraps a tentacle around my waist to pull me with more thrust as he penetrates me. My core is in pain, my center is getting raw, and I’m not sure I can handle all of it, then Orphelius invades me even further.
I feel flicking at my clit, a pull at my hair, fingers in my mouth, and slippery pressure between the cheeks of my ass. I gurgle, trying to make a sound. I’m not sure I want him to invade me there, but it’s too late. I let out a moan as he enters me again.
“Ah fuck!” cries Orphelius. “Baby, I love you. Kumiko, I love you. I’ve waited hundreds of years to spend one moment with you and I’d wait a thousand more if needed to spend another moment with you like this. Did you hear me, Kumiko? I love you.”
The words echo through every part of my being. I feel flooded, like how I feel when the ocean invades my body, filling every orifice, and consuming me after I’ve fallen in. Orphelius consumes me—emotionally, physically, soulfully. I am his. Indeed, he is my master.
I let him get deeper. He fills every opening of my body with pieces of himself that might be a man or might be monster, but I don’t care. I let him love me. I let him fuck me. I let him be as he is all over me and bring me towards a rising climax.
I feel a suckle on my clit, a pounding in my holes—both at my pussy and my ass. They are both slick, stretched, and raw.
It’s the rawness, my own weakness, against the friction that turns me on. I want to come. I want to tell him I’m going to come so he can come with me, but Orphelius already knows.
“I feel you tightening. Are you going to come?”
I pant in response. “I want to. Can you come with me?” I stretch my neck back to look at him, the sea monster fucking me.
Orphelius wraps a tentacle around my neck for more leverage to pound me even harder and oh, God! My head throws back as my mouth hangs to scream and I peak.
Orphelius keeps the suction on my clit like he’s nursing it as I suction him. He floods me with his hot semen and it’s in this moment I know I’ve fallen off the cliff. We have both reached our peak, but I have fallen, fallen in deep. I am deeply in love with a...
I turn around as Orphelius withdraws himself—all of himself from me and I watch him reshape with a few painful grunts and grimaces. All eight huge tentacles and his barge of a lower body shrivel to become legs. He takes a breath on his hands and knees before he looks up to smile that big, beautiful smile that spreads wider and wilder than the ocean and I feel it—an unbreakable spell.
Curse my heart, I’m in love with a seaman.
Chapter 21
Orphelius
“AHOY BROTHER!” I SHOUT.
Henry blushes, shuts his eyes, and hangs his head at the sound of my voice.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to cry, you ol’ bootlicker,” I snicker.
Henry opens his eyes, laughing, and waves his hands about.
I look to Shelley for interpretation as I scoot in to take her place next to the car and help Henry from the car seat into his wheelchai
r.
“He says hello,” replies Shelley.
“Is that all he said?” I ask. “That sure was a lot of hand signals for such a simple greeting.”
“Um, no,” Shelley mutters. “He cursed you and called you a bunch of crummy titles that I’m not going to repeat.”
I laugh and put my hand on his shoulder and then I smile as I lean forward to make eye contact with him. “Can you believe it, brother? I still cannot. We’re on land!”
Henry tips his head back to chuckle and then reaches for Shelley’s hand and kisses it. He raises a brow as he points to her.
“Yes,” I say. “Who knew a couple of undeserving bootlickers could deserve such treasures. And to be saved by them, no less. She’s lovely. You’re a very lucky man.”
“Not that lucky,” Shelley sighs as she gets behind Henry’s chair. The tone of her voice is thick with disappointment and I escort her out of the way to push Henry myself.
“What happened?” asks Kumiko, coming down the front steps of the beach house as we head around to the back where the ramp is.
“They don’t want to operate,” Shelley replies.
Kumiko whines, “So, what does that mean?”
“It means they’re not going to take the bullet out, but if it moves any further Henry could lose more feeling, including control of some his bodily functions.”
“So, how do you keep it from moving?”
Henry shakes his head.
“We can’t,” confirms Shelley.
I gulp, feeling terrible. I’m pushing Henry’s chair. He can’t walk or stand and I recall a time I once stood over the lad aboard the Annabelle as Henry was forced to swab the deck after taking a lashing because he would not chop his hair when we had an infestation of lice.
I look at his head and chuckle to myself as Shelley rakes her fingers through the chopped strands.
I also feel a rake down my back that lands on my arse and I feel a squeeze of Kumiko’s hand. It makes the hair stand at attention on my arms, chest, and legs.