Nothing? I wanted to die. I couldn’t let Vaal hurt him again.
Shh. It’s all right. We only made him uncertain. He’s feeling better now.
Uncertain? Vaal had uncertainties?
I drew away from them, frowning. Vaal looked so blissful, nuzzling in against Haru’s neck, licking the traces of blood I had neglected. One glance at me turned his expression hard.
“What?”
I couldn’t risk Vaal’s wrath again, not if I was to keep Haru safe. I didn’t dare let Haru protect me.
“This girl, Vaal. Forget about her. She was a figment, and ghost whose scent came out of my skin.”
He dropped Haru’s captured leg.
“Ow! Vaal! Easy!” Haru protested. “I wasn’t ready for that.” He winced and squirmed forward. “Ah, get your shaft out of me! You hurt something!”
“I’ll kiss it better.” Vaal glared at me. “This figment? A little more explanation, please?”
“It was someone I ate, a sacrifice. She came out of my skin for a moment.”
He stared at me, just stared for several long seconds: then, “Show me.”
“No.”
“I said show me!”
“I said no! She wouldn’t like you. You’re a cold fuck of a monster with no compassion. Look what you did to Haru and me the moment you smelled my weakness?”
“Your weakness?”
He released Haru, who tumbled forward into me. I put my arms around him to keep him upright.
“Yes. It was your weakness,” Vaal said. He pointed a dagger-tipped finger at me. “I didn’t eat you for your weakness, Omos. Recall that.”
“You weren’t certain from where the blood spilled, and so you hurt Haru for it.” By spilled blood, I referred to my spiritual frailty, and Vaal knew it, but a ruptured psyche didn’t concern him. Only Haru’s loyalty did.
“He denied me my right to know!”
“You’re a fucking ass! He was helping me sort out this figment. It wasn’t your business until I wanted to make it your business. And it’s still not your business! Fuck off!”
This is sooo not doing nothing, Haru grumbled into my head.
Shut up.
“Fucking your virgin figment was sorting it out?” Vaal bellowed. “I could have sorted that out for you!”
“Exactly why I chose Haru, you inconsiderate fuck! Virgins don’t want terrifying shark gods shoving it up their cunnies! They want Haru!”
Haru sniggered against my chest. Vaal, about to bellow, closed his mouth instead, then said, “All right, I can grant you that.”
Haru sniggered again. I squeezed him until he squeaked. With a red face, I looked at Vaal. “Uh…it was really embarrassing. I didn’t want you to see.”
“Yes. I suppose I can grant you that as well.”
Damn. He was being really understanding about this. Perhaps I’d misjudged…
“Now can I see her?”
“No!” Fucker.
“Now that I think of it, there’s more than one woman smell in here, and one of them is familiar.”
I knew the blush on my face was getting redder. Haru had stopped sniggering, waiting to see what would happen next. That or he was afraid I’d pop him the next time I squeezed. “Uh. Yeah. That was Intana’s mother.”
Vaal stared at me. Just stared.
“What?” I cried.
“You kept her?”
“Yes!”
“Oh.”
“What do you mean ‘Oh’?”
“Oh, but…I never thought of keeping a woman.”
Yes, my face was going to catch fire and burn off. “I didn’t realize I’d kept any!” I shouted. “Shut up about it!”
Vaal stared at me again, his expression odd.
“What?” I howled.
“What’s it feel like, to have a cunny?”
Haru made a huge guffaw against my chest. Damn it. I shoved him at Vaal and stalked off to get my clothes.
“Omos! Come on! What’s it feel like?” Vaal begged.
“Fuck off!”
A muffled noise issued from the area of Vaal’s chest. Hell be damned Haru. He was laughing. So much for being gentle with my feelings.
I was being gentle for the girl.
Fuck off!
Omos! Thank you.
I shot a glare at him. He wasn’t laughing any longer. I paused to stare in bewilderment.
Thank you for wanting to protect me.
Oh. That. I smiled ever so slightly and went back to shoving my legs into my trousers.
“Omos? Tell me what it’s like to have a cunny?” Vaal said.
Hell be damned Vaal. He was never going to leave it alone. Ignoring him, I continued dressing.
“Omos…?”
Fuck.
Chapter Seventeen
After dressing, I left the room in the hopes of escaping from Vaal, but he followed me into the hall, caught me, and rammed me up against paint and wallpaper.
“Omos! Show me this girl!”
“I said no!” I bellowed.
“Ah, I could just bite you!” he spat and let me go.
We glowered at each other, until Haru wandered out, satchel slung over his back, and stepped past us to peer down the stairs. We watched him, saying not a word, because I think the both of us realized he’d been very quiet for some time now. I had a sense that Vaal was only just realizing how stupid he’d been to hurt Haru earlier, because the shark smelled…worried.
“Hallo!” Haru called down the steps, but I knew the house was empty but for us. I’d been listening as the dragon, and none of the staff returned after Haru had frightened them and the surviving soldiers off.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
He turned and, arms spread wide, offered a view of his flouncy-sleeved, pastel yellow shirt. “My outfit is incomplete. I want my jerkin and sash back.” He lowered his arms and looked down the stairs again. “Perhaps both were left hanging in the kitchen to dry.”
He began to descend. Vaal and I shot forward at once, to grab him by the shirt collar and pull him up the steps.
“Ow! Don’t rip my shirt!”
“No,” Vaal said. “Wait for us. If soldiers return, best we are together.”
Haru frowned impatience. “Then come on!”
“No. I have to change clothes,” Vaal replied.
Haru’s frown turned quizzical. “Why?”
Vaal grinned, and then he wasn’t Vaal of the Jumi incarnation. He was Vaal of…
“Sirran!” Haru and I shouted.
“You ate Sirran?” Haru continued. “When did you eat Sirran?”
“Earlier this morning. I had to. He was aiming a thing he calls a cannon at the ship.”
“Oh.” Haru shifted back from him. “Did anyone see…?”
“That a deity ate Sirran?” Vaal finished for him. “No. I tackled him and we fell into the harbour. Everyone on the docks thought sharks got me but not him, though they did wonder why he was naked when he climbed out.”
He plucked at the clothes he wore, and I realized only then that he had dressed in spare clothes someone must have loaned him. The knit shirt had been replaced by a linen one with buttons, and he wore breeches, stockings and buckled shoes.
Haru edged away a few more steps, almost going behind me. “Vaal…?”
“I won’t keep him,” Vaal said. “I know you didn’t like him. He didn’t deserve to know you anyway. As soon as I don’t need the shape, I’ll release his soul.”
“Good,” I muttered, because even if Haru hadn’t liked Sirran, he’d been attracted physically. I was pleased that Vaal’s manifestation of the man had put the creeping shivers into Haru.
“I’ve ordered a cease of hostilities,” Vaal said. “Sirran’s men think that I’ve come here to bring you out as a hostage, to negotiate terms with First Mate for your safe release.”
“And so you must dress the part,” I added. “Look. Haru routed the attackers this morning. Let me go with him to find his missing clo
thes.”
“No. If Sirran’s men see you both unaccompanied, this will turn out poorly. You must both seem subdued and remain in my company.” Vaal walked past us and continued on to what I supposed was the door to Sirran’s room. “Come wait in the room while I dress.”
Giving in, I followed after him, and Haru trailed behind. I smelled his disequilibria, his reluctance. It made the air too sharp. Vaal’s change into the Sirran body had given Haru a shock. I slowed, took his arm, and pulled him up next to me.
“You took my changes easily enough,” I whispered to him.
“I’ve never seen him as anybody but Jumi,” he replied, keeping his eyes lowered.
Something was very wrong here. Haru rarely avoided eye contact with me.
“So? He’s still Vaal ultimately.”
I halted. Haru had begun to weep, truly weep, and there was nothing pleasant about watching him be miserable. Hell. What was this?
“Haru?”
Oh, no. He wept harder. I pulled him against my chest. What was the matter with him?
“Vaal?” I called.
“No!” Haru shouted and jerked free. He shot down the stairs before I could stop him.
Vaal lunged out of Sirran’s room with only his breeches on. “What happened?”
“I think this change into Sirran really upset Haru. I don’t understand why.”
Vaal took off down the stairs as well, and I followed, demanding to know why Haru had run.
“Because I used him with another man feeling it all from inside me,” Vaal called back. “There’s only been Jumi before.”
“But…you suck on souls all the time! If you’re not chewing them to pieces. Surely men have watched from inside you before this?”
“That’s not the same as letting any of them become a part of my skin.” Vaal skidded on the polished floor, changed directions and charged toward the rear hallways of the manor.
A part of his skin? Oh.
Could Vaal actually release Sirran’s soul, now that Sirran had become a part of his skin?
“Did you lie to Haru?”
“Shit! Yes! I did!”
That idiot. “Why did you do this? We could have found another way to flee this city!”
“I wanted Sirran!” he shouted. “I wasn’t thinking clearly!”
Thinking with his penis, no doubt. And he looked down on me for being erratic.
He stopped suddenly, and I banged into him. “Ow!”
He whirled and grabbed me be the arms.
“Erratic?” he repeated, shaking me, his Sirran face wild, his Sirran blue eyes fierce with desperation. “I saw an image of Sirran fucking Haru until he wept, and of you struggling with Sirran until you both bled, and then fucking Haru together until he wept. And I took him! I took him!”
“Take it easy!” I cried. Vaal stopped shaking me and just stared. “Vaal?”
“What have I done?” he whispered.
“Tell me something. Has Haru been attracted to any other mortal man since this Jumi?”
“Well, of course.”
Damn it! “Enough to want a relationship?”
“Only Kima.”
Kima? Who the hell was Kima?
Oh, right. That Brellin captain who’d died years ago searching for me.
Such a relief. Someone I didn’t have to hunt down and kill. If only I could murder his memory…
His memory… A face… Whose face…?
“Is there some point you’re trying to make?” Vaal said impatiently.
“Yeah, could Haru have been serious about this Sirran?” I asked.
Vaal hesitated, then said, “No.”
“Well, then you’re a real idiot,” I replied. “There was no point in eating him.”
“Was this conversation supposed to help me?” Vaal said and commenced shaking me again. “How could I have been so stupid! We could have just fled without me taking him! But I took him! I can’t stand Haru wanting anyone but me!”
I blinked at him. If Sirran hadn’t been a threat, why had Vaal become so desperate? Unless… “And me. Right? You don’t mind him wanting me?”
“Well, yes, but you’re…”
“I’m what?” I said, my gaze narrowing. “I’m what, Vaal?”
“You’re my bitch dragon,” he shouted. He shoved me off and fled into the back halls.
“Bitch dragon!” I roared. “I’ll give you bitch dragon, you defecated fuck of a rotting fish!” I chased him into the kitchen, where we found Haru tying on his sash. He stood near a table loaded down with uneaten breakfast dishes.
“Don’t touch me,” he said flatly when Vaal approached.
Vaal stalled in his tracks. “Haru?”
“I said don’t touch me!” he shouted.
Vaal lowered the hand he had raised. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I. It’s not as if I’ve never looked at men before him and not found any attractive,” he answered. “You could have left Sirran alone. I would have forgotten him.”
“I know, but…”
“But?”
“But he was beautiful,” Vaal ended dismally. “And you…you were so happy with Omos yesterday, after he promised not to eat anyone, and I…I thought I’d lose you.”
Damn. Uncertainties indeed. I’d no idea Vaal could be this insecure.
“How could you possibly lose me?” Haru demanded. He tugged at the material over his heart, his fingers making a claw in his jerkin. “I’m yours!”
“Your heart is still free to choose,” Vaal said softly. He looked down. Hanks of pale hair clouded his eyes. “You were beautiful yesterday, on the deck with Omos.”
Haru caught up a plate from the table and hurled it at Vaal. It broke against Vaal’s chest, spilling cold, fried pork all over him. The porcelain pieces shattered on the floor at Vaal’s feet, while he stared with a shocked expression.
“Idiot!” Haru roared. “I’m yours! When have I ever wanted my heart to be anywhere but with you?”
“When you wanted it to be with Intana! When you wanted it to be with Omos! When you wanted Jumi!” Vaal roared back and snatched a bowl of berries and launched it.
Haru was smarter and stepped aside. The berries and bowl hit the far window, crashed through and hurtled out into the herb garden beyond.
“Don’t fuck with me! You feel the same about them as I do!” Haru bellowed.
“That’s right!” I shouted and grabbed the end of the table and tossed the whole thing over. It slammed into the window and the door next to it, breaking glass, porcelain, wood. In the following stunned silence, they stared at me.
“Idiots! Stop playing around and let’s go!” I shoved a finger at Vaal. “You! Get dressed!” I glared at Haru. “And you! Get used to fucking a blond, white-assed Vaal, because I’m going to be ploughing into him every chance I get, and you’re helping.”
“Am I?” Haru said faintly.
“Yes. Because he’s got this strange idea that I’m his dragon bitch. He needs re-educating. Understood?”
Haru sucked in a breath, shivered suddenly, then loosed the breath out with a whoosh. “Understood,” he said simply.
“What?” Vaal objected. He looked at me. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Fucking you later,” I answered. I stalked over to Haru and prodded him toward a counter where more food rested. “Eat!”
“Omos,” Vaal said behind me, his tone dangerous.
“Vaal,” I replied, then turned and smashed him in the mouth. “Get dressed now! We’ll deal with your stupidity later!”
“Fuck you!” he cried and tackled me, his mouth bleeding from my strike.
I went banging into the counter, vaguely saw Haru grab a serving of something and get out of the way, and then Vaal and I had at each other but good. We wrecked the kitchen in a matter of minutes, energy charged fists going through walls, furniture, iron implements, our bodies ducking out of the way, but most often demolishing something whenever we flew backward from receiving a strike.
I managed to get Vaal beneath me and into his ass in the end. I fucked him in the wreckage, bucking hard into his hole, one hand holding his blond head down, the other fisted over his shaft.
“Fucking slut whore,” I groaned. “Is Sirran enjoying this?”
“Ah, shit, yes,” Vaal cried. “Harder! Do the fucking whore harder!”
I gave him what he wanted. I gave him harder, and after that he was better for a while.
* * *
Eventually we left port, fully supplied and with all but one of our kegs of black powder. Vaal, in his Sirran guise, insisted that hostilities were over and a private agreement had been made between the offended parties. He introduced Haru to several merchants and forced quick trades on them. Porters hauled potable water, of good quality, to the docks and loaded the barrels on the ship along with the new merchandise, after Haru signalled First Mate to bring the ship into berth.
Valerys slowed the departure going off to flirt with a nobleman in his carriage, just toward the end of the afternoon. Haru almost committed murder because the stupid bastard called him a pimp with a low class whore when Haru interrupted the coupling to fetch his great granddaughter.
To end the altercation without immediate bloodshed, Vaal slapped the nobleman across the face and demanded satisfaction. A duel was set for the following dawn, and off Vaal went in Sirran’s carriage, pretending indignation while Haru took his ship safely out to sea.
No one dared to stop us, not with Sirran insisting that Haru sailed the shipment to the capitol on contract. But we removed the cargo of black powder from the deck the moment we were out of sight of shore and had no intention of stopping at the capitol. We’d skip that city and head for another port further along, where Sirran’s memory told of a textile trade that would do for our next trade.
Vaal met up with us that evening before sunset, swimming as a shark, a ship-sized Uncle manifestation this time.
“’Hoy!” I called to him, grinning. “You didn’t want to stay for the duel?”
His human manifestation leapt up from the ocean and onto the deck, and the shark faded into the water. Vaal appeared as Jumi, but in Sirran’s red uniform.
“What? No white-assed whore?” I said.
“Shut up.” He looked away, back out to sea, setting one brown hand on the rail.
Loved Him to Death: Omos of the Ether Page 18