To rush up to the aft of the ship and roar at Haru for mistrusting me.
He shot me a mocking sign with one hand, not even looking back, and returned to having his fun, navigating his damned ship through a monstrous storm. Anyone else would have found shelter, but not him. Truly, he was mad.
I don’t ever want to eat you, I whined.
And I don’t ever want to be eaten, but this does not change the fact that you have eaten every lover before me but Vaal and Blessed Land.
Am I to be on trial for my sins for the rest of eternity, then? I complained.
You are on trial for the sins of now. Until I have your word that you won’t consume people again, I shall not trust you.
Did that mean he didn’t trust Vaal?
Yes.
Well. It seemed Vaal and I were on equal footing in this respect. And there he was, the canny monster, back from seeking blood.
Did you find any? I asked.
Yes, he answered. He was in one of his Uncle manifestations, a ship-sized shark that resembled Little Brother. I supposed that, when he wanted to be solid, it wasn’t convenient to be so massive you caused tidal waves whenever you moved. Uncle-sized was good enough for general use.
Where did you go? I asked.
Back to that island. Remember where Haru traded for water?
Yes. Putrid water. So?
Well, the island’s gone now. No more putrid water.
I laughed. Not like a human laughs, but wriggling very energetically, my coils rubbing against each other.
Don’t do that! Vaal complained. Worm! It makes me hungry again.
Bloated carp! Haru’s going to be really pissed with you.
He already is. He’ll get over it.
Would he? He didn’t seem inclined to do so. From him, from that miniscule almost mortal body, I sensed a deep anger lurking. He was really pissed with Vaal.
I fought through a ferocious wave, at the same moment thinking something didn’t fit. Hadn’t Haru let Vaal eat a man for sucking his prod not long ago?
Yes. He had, damn him. How could he be so hypocritical?
I just eat bodies, Vaal said. I don’t eat souls any longer.
He didn’t eat souls? How could he swallow people and not eat souls?
Remember what Haru said about things not rotting in my stomach? It’s because I don’t mash souls up anymore. I just sort of suck on them for a while. They can still give off quite a charge. But when they start getting mushy, I spit them back out and let them go off into the ether, or wherever it is they came from.
Oh. I hadn’t known that. I could eat people without actually eating them.
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it, Vaal! Haru’s angry thoughts intruded. I wanted him to agree not to eat people at all! And now you’ve gone and given him the secret to continuing your disgusting habit!
Soul sucking, Vaal replied. Yes, it’s such a vile habit. I really should stop.
I wriggled violently again, laughing with him at Haru.
Fuck off! Both of you!
My, but he was peevish when sailing in a storm. I’d never seen him so impolite.
Wait until you see him after a broken bone. Not pleasant. Not pleasant at all. This is very mild really, Vaal said.
But why did he want me to promise away eating people if I wouldn’t be destroying souls any longer? I demanded, irked that he’d thought to rid me of life’s most pleasant appetizer.
Because I hoped you possessed more native integrity than Vaal, Haru spat into my head. But see I was wrong. You are neither of you anything but animals.
Vaal and I were silent for a few moments, then I said, Let’s fuck him while he’s strapped to that wheel.
Surprisingly, Vaal didn’t agree at once, but sank beneath the surface and out of view.
Where are you going?
Hiding. You had better, too.
Why?
“AIIIIIIEEEEEESSSSKKRAOWL!”
If you’ve never heard an ether dragon roar and wail at once, then you are fortunate, for such a thing will burn water, let alone piddling mortal bodies. An expansive wave, and some of the ocean beneath, went up as a cloud of plasma. Fortunately my mouth had been aiming in a different direction than the ship. I snapped my jaws shut, glared fearfully at Haru a second, and then hid beneath the surface.
Far beneath the surface.
I found Vaal at the very bottom, many leagues away. I sidled down to cower underneath him as he coasted through the black water.
What did he hit me with? I asked. Whatever Haru had tossed, I didn’t think it had been irritation that time.
No, that wasn’t irritation, Vaal answered. That was out and out annoyance.
Is there a difference?
It’s a matter of degree, Vaal said.
Degree? I wondered if Vaal had experienced a step up from annoyance at any time in the past.
He didn’t answer my thoughts, and I surmised that I might have rambled into a truth.
So. What was one up from annoyance? Exasperation, perhaps? And what did that feel like?
I don’t ever want to know, Vaal said.
My whiskers are singed, I complained.
Shh, shh, shh.
You can’t still be afraid of him this far away? I said.
I was trying to comfort you.
Oh, fuck off! I squirmed against his belly, brushing spiky scales hard into his leathery skin, and he shot away from me, but I caught up and harangued him for causing our most recent relationship disaster.
You did this! You’re the one that went off to eat people, knowing he detests that you do it. And what is with that? He’s so hypocritical! He let you eat a man not long ago.
That was different. That fellow was really annoying.
I poked my snout up near one of his black eyes and put on a mild glow to look at him. I saw myself in his iris, black dragon with star lights everywhere, a bluish silver glow around me, cobalt horns, cobalt whiskers, cobalt nails. Vaal made a sideswipe at me. I shot beneath him again.
Instinct. I knew better than to goad the shark, but did it in any case for the thrill.
You just had a thrill far worse, he said dryly.
Yes, but what was so annoying about that man exactly? I asked.
You mean aside from the fact that everyone warned him that Haru was mine and therefore off limits, but he insisted on believing I wasn’t a god and didn’t exist?
Yes, aside from that.
What a stupid man.
Very. Vaal gave me a shark’s grin, rolling slightly to show it.
How could he not believe you were real?
Haru and I just had a lover’s quarrel—
About eating people, I bet.
Shut up, Omos.
I shot up in visual range for a quick display of my teeth. He sideswiped. I dodged.
And? I prodded, retreating to safety beneath his white belly. You had this fight with Haru…?
And wasn’t present or welcome when this idiot signed on.
And that’s why the idiot didn’t believe in you, I concluded.
Exactly.
So you killed him for pestering Haru during your absence.
No. I killed him because his feet stank.
I almost laughed, but the sensation that had come with the statement had not been facetious. You joke, I said.
I do not, he answered.
I couldn’t believe it. To kill a man for smelly feet?
Haru is very particular about feet, Vaal reminded. This man truly revolted him, but the fool just wouldn’t back off. Haru gave him herbal oils to eradicate the fungus, but the stupid ass didn’t use the cure, said he didn’t believe in “tribal remedies”, of all things. Acted as if Haru came from some backward nation just because he had a god.
This man’s nation doesn’t have a god? I asked, flummoxed by the notion. A people without a god?
He said he belonged to a new movement of “enlightened inventors”, Vaal answered, but he couldn’t have invented anything but h
ow to revolt the crew of a ship.
Right. It all made sense now. The man had deserved to die.
But I wouldn’t have eaten his feet.
I’m going back up, I said.
They’re your whiskers, Vaal answered. Don’t blame me if Haru takes them off entirely.
I growled at him and shot away. From his rear. It never did to swim to the fore of Vaal. Ever.
I returned to the ship and discovered it entering a large harbour. A city claimed the slopes of the natural bowl. Whitewashed structures climbed the beachfront and continued up a low rise of land.
Damn. Haru had found the end of my disaster, and while sailing in a hell-blown storm no less.
The waves were less dramatic in the harbour. I didn’t want to be seen as Omos the god—or demon, or whatever—and let the dragon me slip into the unseen, putting my human body on deck just beforehand. I walked over to Haru and stood with him, but he ignored me. I didn’t demand attention. My upper lip hurt like hell: referred pain from my dragon muzzle.
The crew made ready to heave to, and shortly we rolled at anchor in the rough water, Haru at the stern and looking at the city with his spyglass. The crew, exhausted from the storm, trailed down into the forecastle and left us alone.
“Well, there’s your first point of trade,” I said to Haru.
“Hmm.”
Well. A hmm was better than nothing. “I swear only to suck on souls from now on,” I offered. Whined more like. Pleaded. Begged. Grovelled. Hoped. Pined.
“Stop it, Omos,” he snapped.
“I’m a beast!” I howled. “How can you expect to just stop eating people?”
He lowered the spyglass. I flinched, but didn’t run. “Will you at least try to stop eating people?” he asked.
Try? Yes, I’d try. But there were no guarantees.
“I suppose I can expect no more or better from you,” he said and stalked further off. I stared at him for a few seconds, then hurried forward to attempt pacification again.
“I promise not to eat anyone unless they make me angry,” I said. “I promise not to eat anyone for having pleased me.” One of my worse habits, getting fond of someone and then eating him for it. Or her. Most often her.
“And if you put your seed in any?” Haru prompted.
“Didn’t I just account for that?”
“Not quite.”
No, not quite. I squirmed over the decision. To give seed to a mortal was to throw away power, to make them stronger.
“You’ve given seed to me,” he said.
“Yes, but I love you.”
“You loved Intana’s mother, too.”
I looked away. I didn’t want to be reminded of her.
“You destroyed her. She’s gone. Completely gone.”
“Stop it! I promise! All right? I won’t eat anyone for having received my seed.” But this didn’t mean I wouldn’t eat them for other reasons.
“Ah, the workings of a corrupt mind,” he spat and retreated from me again, this time to the starboard side of the ship. I stomped after him, but he presented his back no matter that I tried to confront him on either side.
“You can’t blame me for a stipulation. I could be betrayed by someone that received my seed. I could be angered.”
“And of course you’ve retained your right to eat anyone that angers you. Perfect. Just start a fight with whomever had your seed, and there it ends. In your gullet.”
“In good faith!” I cried. “Haru! In good faith. I won’t go out of my way to eat anyone, but I can’t promise never again to eat anyone. Will that do?”
He rotated to face me. A shock of warmth blasted through my body, then a feeling of melting. He was smiling.
Creation. Thank Creation. It would do.
“Yes,” he whispered and lifted up to kiss me lightly on my lips. My upper one felt better instantly. Hot words breezed into my ear. “You still want to fuck me against the wheel?”
“Fuck, yes,” I whispered. “Right now.” Smiling, I pulled him aft.
Chapter Eleven
I pressed Haru against the wheel, sharing kisses, some of mine settling on his forehead, his cheeks, his ears, his neck. His lips, his mouth, his tongue tasted so good, tingled like he’d taken in the storm, and perhaps he had. Perhaps he held lightning in his fist as easily as he grasped the energy of Creation. Perhaps he’d inhaled the anger of the tempest and rolled the charges on his tongue. I groaned into his mouth, thinking this.
If I hadn’t, the cargo on deck would have detonated, he thought-spoke to me.
I pulled back enough to look him in the eyes. Amusement, warm brown amusement. “You find humour in the oddest things,” I said. “You should keep the cargo below decks, if lightning will set it off.”
“And let my crew set it off accidentally lighting a lamp too close? Resin burns so readily. Safer to risk a lightning strike. Kiss me again.”
He pulled my head down and all but melted me with more tingling, feeding me the charges that he’d trapped while I’d been below the surface cowering with Vaal. Oh, Creation.
“Unmmm!” I clutched at his hips and humped at him through our clothes. His hands left my face. His legs wrapped around my waist.
I groaned again and looked to see where he’d put his hands. He’d wound his arms with the rungs of the wheel and used this position to brace his back as he rocked with me. It became very necessary for me to remove his trousers at once.
“Clothing,” I grunted against his neck. His legs lowered, and I struggled with his belt, then the fastenings of his trousers, but they were being difficult, or my fingers were clumsy with passion.
“Rip them off,” he said. “Don’t lose the belt!”
I don’t know where the belt went. I didn’t care. It skidded off with the torn trousers slithering in a trail along the wet deck, and then I had Haru’s warm body again, warm despite pelting rain and harsh wind, warm despite the wetness of his skin, the hours he’d already spent exposed to the elements. His legs came up to cradle me once more. My crotch nestled against his balls and his crack.
“My little god,” I whispered, then nipped at his collar bone. He hissed and arched. His shaft prodded at my belly. I grasped his vest in one hand and ripped it from his chest, lowered my head and set my teeth against his left nipple.
“Unh! Bite the other one for a change! Fuck!” he cried and squeezed me hard with his legs. Heat went through my groin and up my spine, and my shaft felt like it would burn through my clothes.
Clothes. Yes. I had yet to remove my own. But first, to please Haru, I bit his right nipple and had the reward of a whimper and another squeeze that made my breathing more difficult.
“Ease up. Let me get my clothes off,” I wheezed. His legs lowered again, and, for a moment, I could only stare at him, glory in how beautiful he was with his arms locked behind him and his front exposed to all that I might do.
“Are you going to stare or get undressed?” he asked, a smile fluttering on the verge of birth.
“I’m going to suck your glorious prod,” I answered and knelt to worship him. A short laugh and a gasp above me as my tongue met the slit in his shaft; I caught a droplet of his pleasure and shut my eyes, absorbing scent and smell without sight.
“Damn it, you smell like something to fuck forever,” I whispered. I moaned when I put my mouth over him, opened my eyes to see his hips move involuntarily, toward me, thrusting his shaft in further. I welcomed the invasion, let him slide in as far as he could go.
“Omos!” he cried.
It was sweet, his passion, so sweet. I put hands on his hips and steadied him, still buried to the hilt in my throat, and loosed a growl that brought more cries from him. If I did this right, there’d be whimpering. Hold it in. Hold it in, beautiful Haru.
“Oh, fuck!” he whimpered, the first of the sweeter calls. Revenge tickled like bubbles in wine, and I growled again, made him jerk like an animal in a trap. I withdrew enough to take a breath and dove on him again, the growl deeper
this time, longer.
“Unh!” His hips rocked again, but I forced him still. I slid a palm up his groin to his abdomen, to feel the muscles gone tight over his belly, to slip a finger in his navel, to wish I could kiss two places at once. My other hand slipped down to his balls, which had drawn up tight beneath his shaft. I squeezed just enough to threaten pain, but not give it. His legs trembled and another cry of pleasure wheezed out from his body.
Withdraw to breathe, dive forward, growl, growl so low his bones vibrated.
“Oh! Oh, gods! Gods!” His legs came up over my shoulder. I moaned, caught by surprise. The temptation. Creation, the temptation. I took it.
I jerked my trouser fastenings loose, ripped some off in my haste, released his shaft from my throat and rose upward with his legs riding my shoulders. He was positioned for taking, his back still braced to the wheel, his arms still locked around the rungs, his lungs heaving, and with a look in his eyes that smouldered.
“Make me come on my belly,” he said, rocking his bottom against me. “Make me come with only the wind touching my shaft and the cold caressing it. Make me feel you all the way through to my bones, Omos. Burn me until it goes into my shaft and kills me.”
“There’s no oil,” I warned him. He was wet with rain. I hoped it was enough, but endeavoured to ease the way a little more, squeezed my shaft and rubbed the juices beading at the head on his hole. He pressed against me once more, his knees constricting my shoulders, but I forced him still and rubbed my juices on his hole again.
“Wait for me to get you ready. There’s no oil,” I repeated.
“I don’t care,” he answered. “Fuck me, Omos. I need you.”
I looked up from his beautiful body, into his eyes, and the smoulder had become a glow to scorch my very being. Fuck. Fuck, he was supernal in his need.
I took him. His head slammed back and to the left. His eyes shut, and his lips drew back to show teeth. I wasn’t slow, that first thrust. I drove to the hilt, buried myself and stayed buried. The rain and my juices had helped smooth the way, but still it must have hurt him.
“Haru?”
His head straightened, and he directed an irate glare at me. “Ah, what are you doing? Fuck! Fuck me, you great, debased pustule of a worm!”
Loved Him to Death: Omos of the Ether Page 11