by Randi Darren
Wrapping his hands around one of her arms, he winced. Her skin was ice cold.
“Petra, come with me. Just a little closer to the fire.”
“Cold, M-m-m-m-master.”
“I know.” Vince pulled on her arm and the soldier shifted forward sluggishly, her legs pushing at the dirt beside her.
Pushing a large stack of wood atop the log with a hand, he returned his attention to his companion since the fire was happily throwing out heat now.
Vince pulled Petra down into the ground beside it. Putting her back to it, he then pushed himself up into the front of her, and pulled her head down into his shoulder.
Her shivering was intense, and her skin sucked what little heat he had right out of him.
After a second, her abdomen curled forward, her legs stretching out behind him.
Then she contracted everything, and he was pressed into her bodily.
She turned her head slightly, her frozen face pressing into his throat.
Unwilling to fight her, since it seemed more like she was seeking comfort, he relented, wrapping his arms around her in return.
Slowly, the insane shivering went away, and her skin gradually picked up some heat.
Feeling like the worst was over for the moment, Vince closed his eyes and let out a breath as Petra continued to clutch at him with every bit of strength she had left in her.
Chapter 19
Slowly, Vince cracked open his eyes as light stabbed at him through the branches and leaves.
Sleep had been scarce and hard won, and he didn’t really appreciate the early-morning wake-up call.
He’d been forced to feed the fire several times, and had to even gather more wood at one point during the night.
The air was cold but not unbearable. The fire he’d set the previous night was coals and embers now but still putting off a good amount of heat on his arms.
Which were wrapped around Petra, who in turn had wrapped her arms and legs around him.
Blinking a few times, Vince tilted his head to the side to get a view of their surroundings during the day.
In shifting his body, he found he was suffering the age-old problem of all men.
A raging hard-on.
That happened to be buried in Petra’s abdomen.
Heat rushed into his face at the situation. At the same time, he realized he could feel Petra’s nipples crammed into his chest.
Petra nuzzled her face in his neck, his skin prickling wildly at the touch of her lips and memories of the party.
“This one feels her master’s desire,” Petra murmured against his skin.
Vince didn’t respond immediately. He was trying to focus his mind as rapidly as he could. They needed to get moving. Start heading south again for home.
And not thinking about a nude blonde who had devoured him with what seemed like a desperate devotion and—
No, no, no, no.
“That you do, Petra. As I said previously, it isn’t you, or a lack of you being attractive.
“We should get moving,” Vince said firmly.
Petra ignored him, her mouth moving against his shoulder. He felt her teeth sink into his skin and her tongue brush along his flesh.
Below, he felt her legs pull at him, shifting his body around. She was positioning his hips to be parallel to her own. As she moved him, the tip of his member dragged down across her navel.
Vince had a better sense of smell than others. He could smell her moist womanhood and its obvious need without being close at all.
“Petra,” Vince said huskily, leaning in close to her ear. “As your master, I command you to stop. Not because I don’t want to, but because this isn’t the time or place.”
At his words, he could practically feel the war within Petra’s head. Her willpower versus her desire.
Her legs pushed and pulled him up and down at the same time. His member had gotten stuck in the pearl of her entrance. After several seconds where he had to wonder if she’d simply mount him as the others had, she relented.
Her legs shook almost imperceptibly as she eased him back from herself. Her blue eyes caught him and manhandled him with the need there.
“Thank you, Petra,” Vince started. Getting to his knees, and angling his soldier, who was at full attention, away from her, he continued, “We should get dressed and probably head west. I’d like to see if we can take a peek at what happened last night.”
Her eyes tracked his nether parts, her tongue wetting her lips.
She was always duty strict, ramrod straight. Except apparently when it came to her master.
She nodded and then turned her eyes up to meet his own. “Yes, Master. This one would agree that a proper scout is in order. She will conduct this duty and return shortly.”
“Petra, I think—” She was off before he could finish. She’d snatched up her clothes with one arm and dashed off into the trees.
She’d left behind her armor and weaponry, so it didn’t seem like she was expecting trouble.
Vince shook his head, watching the soldier ant weave through the trees as she dressed.
“Maybe she wants to be alone,” Vince muttered to no one. Shrugging his shoulders, he decided to relieve himself of some stress and then get to cleaning up the campsite.
“So to sum it up, Washington has established a bridge head and an encampment on the southern shore,” Vince summarized as they walked along a game trail through the woods.
Petra had reported back and they’d set off as she started to explain what she’d seen.
“This one agrees with that summation. Al was there, as was Seville. The soldiers were busy constructing a fort manned with mechanical gun positions.”
“Machine guns, you mean,” Vince corrected.
“Yes.”
Vince whistled through his teeth. “And you said they were building a bridge as well?”
“Yes. This one saw that they had engineers using cement to lay what looked like walls. They looked like they would be quite high. They’d also set up a temporary floating wooden bridge as well.”
“Right. Well, Portland is in trouble. I hope they’ve secretly stashed some weaponry aside for an occasion like this. They’ll need an armored vehicle or some explosives, it sounds like.”
“This one saw nothing like that.”
“No, probably not. They’re expensive. Insanely so. Especially to maintain and hire the appropriate people. They might keep that kind of stuff in an armory. I doubt it was on the front line.
“Whatever, not our problem.”
The trees began to thin all around them. Slowly, almost without meaning to, they stepped out of the forest and onto a road side.
Directly across from them was an overly convenient small village.
Seated in the middle of that, in a prominent and obvious position, was an inn.
“A road town.” Vince looked up at the sky above them. They could continue on. There was still a number of hours before it even got into the afternoon.
Petra had taken her time at the river and collected quite a bit of solid information, but not enough to damage their travel speed.
“Let’s stop here for a moment. We can see if they have supplies we can pick up, maybe a mount.”
“This one agrees with her master’s sentiment. This one would like to discuss more of what happened at the party. She has yet been able to discuss that metal stamp in Master’s belongings and what they ordered this one to do.”
Vince grunted and set them on a straight course to the inn.
“Take the road and hide. I’ll take care of this and head out down the road here as soon as I’m done. Better if they don’t see you. At all, if possible. Besides being pretty of face, your body is fairly distinct.”
Petra looked to him and then set off down the road. Within moments, she’d managed to get herself to the side of the road and hidden in the brush. She was barely visible to his eye, but only if he looked directly at that spot.
Leaving her to it, he
entered the inn.
A brief round of haggling, a small bit of info, and Vince was already back on the road, Petra at his side.
“This one would like to know what Master wishes to do next?”
“Head south,” Vince said, holding out a strip of jerky to the woman. “Supposedly there’s a stream south of here. Apparently it’s not mountain runoff, either, so there’s a chance it won’t be as cold as an Ice Fairy’s ass.”
“Any news, Master?”
“None we didn’t know.”
The conversation died after that and they trudged onward.
Vince was sitting on the bank of the stream they’d found. At this moment, he was content.
Washing all the grit off from sleeping on the dirt had given him a blessedly refreshed feeling.
The air had warmed enough that sitting in his wet underwear on a grassy bank didn’t bother him. He’d even worn his favorite pair of boxers for it.
Petra was in the process of scrubbing herself in the same manner as he just had. Her hands were working at one of the creases in her chitin-like skin on her rear end.
Growling, the soldier slapped the washcloth she was using in her hands.
“Problem there, Petra?” Vince asked, shading his eyes with one hand.
She was nude except for the small strip of fabric she’d tied around her waist and nether region.
Vince was doing his best to ignore her chest, even if his eyes continued to roam over her the moment his concentration slipped.
“Yes, Master. This one would ask you to assist her in washing. Unfortunately, she cannot take care of her own needs,” Petra said darkly.
Vince nodded at that and then stood up, walking over to the woman.
“This one apologies, Master. She is worthless as a woman. Her only use is as a soldier to be tossed into combat.” Petra turned her head to one side as she said it, holding out the washcloth to him.
“Now, now. None of that. You’re not the emotional, Negative Nancy type. What’s really bothering you?” Vince asked, taking the cloth from her hand.
Laying his hands on her warm body, he began running his fingers along the firm chitin.
“This one doesn’t know. She is… she is frustrated. She wants to stab something with her stinger and then eat the creature.”
Vince raised his eyebrows at that. Shrugging, he splashed water up onto Petra. As the water cascaded down, he began to scrub at the dirt and grit lodged in the crevices.
Taking his time, since they had plenty of that, he worked diligently on her. Silence reigned supreme for a time as he systematically worked over her abdomen, cleaning, dislodging things, and scrubbing her.
“Master, the metal stamp you took from the dead man. This one had been ordered not to mention it at all. It can unlock any slave collar, break any order, and force any slave to accept new orders.”
Vince had figured it was something like that. It didn’t surprise him that the slavers had a contingency plan put into place.
“This one was scared they would ask her questions about Master. Instead, they only ordered this one to not to speak of the stamp. Then they asked if she was there voluntarily and wanted to be.”
Dunking the cloth into the water, Vince then shook it out. Reaching around to the back of Petra, he started working at the area where he knew her stinger was.
Keeping his fingers mindful, he did his best to clean her up without aggravating her.
“While they didn’t ask other questions, they did reveal that every auction house location has at least one stamp in case of emergencies.”
“Makes sense.” Vince carefully pressed his fingers into the crevices of her chitinous plate, pulling free grit and grunge.
“This one thanks her master. His touch is calming.”
He wondered for a moment. Her venom seemed rather strong and could kill in minutes.
“Petra, possibly awkward question for you.” Vince stood up and gave her abdomen one last look before feeling like he’d completed his task.
“Ask this one anything, Master, she is yours.”
“Your venom seems… extremely strong. Does it survive outside of you for long?”
“This one has never tested that, but she knows it is still effective after a number of days.”
“Would you mind if I milked you? I’ve done it before with snakes. I’d like to see if I can use your venom for anything.”
Petra eyed him warily, her brows coming together.
“How would this be done?” she asked neutrally.
“It’s rather simple. I imagine you need to put your stinger into something that gives resistance to be able to inject your poison. I happen to have a mason jar with me with nothing in it. I put some fabric over the top, angle your stinger, and put it in. Hopefully your venom comes right out.”
“This one is willing,” she said slowly.
“Great. After me, then.” Vince made his way over to his saddlebags. After a moment, he fished out a strip of leather and a mason jar.
Taking a seat on the grass, he patted the area next to him.
Petra came over and then stood up to angle her stinger towards him.
Reaching out, he took hold of the rear of her abdomen. With a careful hand, he guided the stinger into the leather that was wrapped around the mason jar.
The stinger pierced the leather easily and almost immediately venom began pumping out.
Petra managed to ease herself down into a semi-sitting position as she watched.
Reaching around the base of her stinger, Vince began to gently push on it, trying to simulate prey for her.
Her response was automatic, and she pushed her abdomen forward against the jar.
Vince couldn’t look away. Her venom was freely flowing, a watery, sticky-looking substance that had filled a fifth of the jar already.
Petra made a soft noise that shook his concentration. It had almost sounded like a moan of discomfort.
Looking up to the soldier ant to make sure she was okay, he was mildly surprised.
Her eyelids were fluttering, her breath unsteady, and her cheeks a rosy red.
“Are you alright, Petra?”
“Master, it feels… very good. Though she thinks she must stop.”
Vince then noticed the smell of her. It was the same as from the forest. Maybe even a little more intense.
He looked to her underwear strap as if he could peer through it. The way she looked, the sound of her breath, the very smell of her, and the memories of her from that morning clouded his mind.
Petra must have caught where he was looking, as her hands immediately dipped down to her underwear band. With quick fingers, she unfastened it and pulled it away, revealing her glistening privates to him.
Her fingers pressed to those moist lips and her thumbs stroked the hood of her pearl.
Vince almost lost the grip on his mason jar. Pulling it back, it made a soft pop as her stinger came free of the leather.
Turning his head, he found a flat rock to gently set the glass container down on.
Petra’s hands hadn’t remained idle in his momentary distraction. As he turned his head back to her, she’d changed positions.
Her abdomen was out behind her, and she was hunched over his boxers.
Deftly, she maneuvered her mouth into the hole in the front and fished him out with her lips.
A quick inhale from her and Vince was buried to the hilt in that warm, hungry mouth.
She made a soft mewling noise as she bobbed her head up and down. Her fingers had tracked down his jewels and were massaging them tenderly.
“Damn,” Vince said with a hitched breath.
Petra’s eyes flicked up to him and she seemed to come to herself in that look.
Letting him slide out of her mouth, she backed up, her hands coming free of his boxers. “Master, this one apologizes, she knows she’s not humanoid, but—”
“Petra, shut up.” Vince pushed his boxers down quickly. Reaching over, he slid a hand behind h
er neck as the other pushed up into the mound above her nether region.
The soldier ant cooed into his mouth when his lips met hers.
Moving with his original intent, he pushed her back into the grass, settling atop her as his tongue snaked out into her mouth.
Petra let out a rough breath through her nose against his cheek, her hands alighting all over him. As if his skin were fire and she couldn’t touch him for long.
His own hands went to work immediately. One hand cupped one of her breasts and gave it a gentle squeeze as his other hand reached further down beyond her mound.
Finding her wet entry was easy; the problem was the moment he touched it, she ground herself into his palm.
Whimpering excitedly, Petra threw her head back, exposing her neck as she thrust her hips at his hand.
Taking the invitation, Vince turned his head and sunk his teeth into her white neck. Biting down hard, he felt her buck against him. Hanging on to her, he sunk his teeth as deeply as he could without causing her to bleed.
Her whimpers had turned into panting moans, her fingers hooking into his shoulders and digging in.
Releasing her throat, Vince resettled himself, his hands coming up to rest just under her armpits, pressing to the ground.
She looked at him then, blue eyes wide with hopeless devotion and yearning.
And fear.
Using his knees, he pinned the top pair of her legs against her sides. When he concentrated on the feel of it, the position felt identical to Fes or Meliae. The skin of her legs felt more firm and were thinner, but there wasn’t much difference.
Then he reached down with one hand. Grasping a hold of his shaft, he guided himself to her entrance, and then pushed into her.
Petra’s moans were choked off as he entered her. Her hands pulled at him roughly, her body shuddering underneath him. Inch by inch he filled her, pushing deep into her.
Once there was nothing left to put inside her, he stopped, his eyes drinking in the sight of her.
Her eyes were a touch glassy and her mouth turned up in a small smile. “It hurts, Master.”
“My apologies, Petra. The first time normally isn’t the most pleasant.”
“It feels good already, though, Master. The brief pain was when this one lost her maidenhead. She will be fine. Use her for your pleasure. Your pleasure is hers. Use her.” Petra accentuated her demands by pulling her hips back and then thrusting up at him, effectively forcing him in and out of her an inch or two.