Calliope's Wings

by Guin Archer

  “You are opari,” Ruune whispered into my ear. I sniggered at him around my mouthful before thrusting a large leg of poultry into his face over my shoulder.

  “Tepet,” I ordered pseudo-gruffly.

  “As uum Taytani speaks,” the Xerbai agreed smoothly, taking the food from my hand into one of his. The other he kept firmly planted at my stomach, his clawed fingers scratching soothing circles into my covered abdomen. All the while, Kor’s hand remained steadfast on my thigh. It was more than a bit surprising, all things considered, that the two weren’t more forward and that I was equally as welcoming of them.

  Maybe it was like a blue moon on Earth. All the conspiracy theorists and spazzos out there seemed to think the waxing moons and atmospheric changes and whatever the fuck else had certain affects on people. Certainly, people claimed they were hornier on a full, harvest moon.

  While licking my fingers of dripping stew, I eyed the way the males were openly grinding themselves into their females and the females, in turn, were all but dry-humping their males. A flash of mint green silk caught my eye and I could see Gaddi bent over one arm of her Dorai and getting rammed up her cooch from behind. His own face was screwed up in the most volatile expression anyone could see outside of a battlefield. His growls and her cries were drowned out in the dancing orgy taking place before us.

  Fuck…he’s really plowing the shit out of her, I thought wonderingly as Gaddi was bounced with great force over his cock – where everyone could see, no less – and drawn back roughly to take him again and again without mercy. It was clear her Dorai was older than her by some years, but in that moment, there wasn’t a single thing that could’ve been argued to say they weren’t a match for each other.

  “You like to watch, Calliope,” Kor all but purred my name, making my flesh and nipples pebble. A concentrated dose of his ooroo hit me broadside and I groaned. One of his knuckles skimmed my clit through my garments. I jerked on Ruune’s lap. “Would You like to be watched?”

  “No,” I mewled wantonly. And I didn’t. I’d had enough of being exhibited for the public’s eye to last ten-thousand lifetimes.

  Still, his touch was fire.

  He grunted and I could feel the smile on his split lip against my temple when he nuzzled me.

  “Brah. You know I am a selfish los’kah. They may hear Your voice as You relish in my claim, but they will not see You so ravished and vulnerable.” Growl again. “This is only for our eyes.”

  Sweet baby Jesus, he needs to stop or I’m going to do something stupid like hop onto the flagpole he has in his trou and tucked up into his pelvis.

  He made me forget myself.

  “Uum Tohtahk! Taytani! You look well this lune.”

  At the sound of that particular voice, all my arousal wilted. Like, a carefully cultivated orchid plucked from its stem and tossed out into a sand pit wilted. If I was a man, my dick would’ve deflated so quick I’d have been peeking at it to look for holes that shouldn’t be there.

  Uptip and her brago flounced over to us. Her eyes were appraising my males, Kor especially, and the little green monster that had been growing in me snarled.

  Then, a flicker of movement from Zek made me see something disturbing. Ookie. Like, Cersei and Jaime Lannister ookie.

  I don’t know if Zek actually fucks other males, but I’d bet my next life that he fucks his sister.

  Ewww!

  Maybe they were pretending Zek was gay so no one knew he and she were diddling. Heaven knew incest was frowned upon no matter what world you lived on.

  When Uptip caught my eye on her brother, she scowled and looked a little over her shoulder to peer at him. She snapped an enraged sound to get him to stop ogling her ass like it was on the menu for the night. He did so quickly, his cheeks tinting minutely in shame at being caught.

  Unbidden, I snatched my hand around Kor’s wrist and squeezed tightly. I had more reason now than ever not to like or trust the duo.

  “What a magnificent band on your neck, Kor,” she complimented my man with a purr.

  “He is Tohtahk to you, Rahvashti Uptip,” I warned her darkly. “Know your place.”

  Her expression flickered to a glower.

  “Es’a Rahvashti,” she sneered.

  “And es’a Innintani. I say he is Tohtahk to you.” Now go away and pork your brother, you skank.

  Boy howdy, if looks could kill. The Rahvashti, supposed exalted female who I just thought needed to have the air popped right out of her ego, promised death in her eyes. They screamed retribution. It was only for a second, but I saw it clearly. Ruune saw it, too, because he peppered the air with a frightening sounding rumble that vibrated through my bones.

  Kor was too late to see it, his prideful silvered eyes locked onto me while Uptip showed her ugliness. When he turned, she was back to being the uppity bitch I had every urge to clothesline. She made me feel exceedingly violent.

  “Forgive me, Innintani. You are right, as always. We are so fortunate You have come.”

  Brown-nosing, incestuous slut.

  “Uptip is soon to prepare for her display,” Zek cut in with a forced cheery voice. His lecherous gaze found me and his smile wasn’t nice. “You will display also, Taytani?”

  Display what? Nobody said anything about a talent show.

  My Xerbai petted my stomach again soothingly. His whisper met my ear, a bolster to the fray the siblings put on my nerves with their mere presence.

  “It is customary for Rahvashti, should they be available, to perform dance or song learned from Innintani of long past to share with the Lubrei. It is considered an honor.” His nose nudged the tip of my ear. “You play Your ashati for us all whenever You ride the Xxyx. Rahvashti Uptip can give no honor greater than Yours.”

  Shit. I was just killing time playing my lyre, which I guessed was called an ashati. Now that I knew it meant something to everyone, I’d be putting more effort into it. I was getting good and I knew with a little more time I could replicate songs I knew from my Earth.

  “When was the last Innintani?” This I asked with my skull arched back onto his pectoral. I still had to look up to see his chin.

  “Many seasons ago. Before even the Tohtahk’s coming. Eighty winters.”

  Fuck. That meant the last human – if my theories were right – to come to Intau were from prohibition times. What were the chances of me finding someone who knew the last Innintani person-to-person? I mean, it’d been a stretch before. Now it seemed impossible.

  Still, I made myself stay in the present. I didn’t need to be getting all glassy-eyed and dopey as I followed along with my random trains of thought.

  I blinked at Uptip. I wondered what she’d do that she ‘learned’ from the histories of my people.

  When did the jitterbug first blip in the entertainment world? I’d love to see her lanky ass try to do the jitterbug.

  A thought occurring to me, I pursued my lips and squeezed Kor’s wrist again, drawing his attention fully back to me. I cocked my head a little.

  “How many seasons have you?”

  Kor chuckled softly, lifted his hand and mine along with it, and knuckled my cheek. His eyes were…adoring. So much softer than they’d been when I first met him. Gentler even than when he gathered me from the lake.

  “You ask now, uum Taytani? Would it matter?” His head shook softly. “I have two and seventy winters.”

  I diddled with a man old enough to be my father. Talk about daddy issues. It made me wonder if Tauren had daddy kinks or not, but it was a fleeting thought.

  “Am I too young for You, uum Biis’a?”

  “No,” I returned honestly and simply. Also confusedly. “I am younger than you.”

  I wanted a camera to capture the expression of surprise on his face. He almost looked like someone just told him the sky wasn’t actually blue.

  “You cannot be!”

  “Why not?” I arched a brow at him, fighting a giggle when his silvered eyes, with the barest of bright spots in their c
enters denoting a pupil, twitched to watch it move. I was the only humanoid on this plane with eyebrows, though my changes through resurrection had paled them out to all but hide against my skin. I know I felt the pads of his fingers running across them while I was caught between wakefulness and sleep. He was a tiny bit obsessed with them, I was sure.

  “Innintani are ageless. They exist outside of our time. You cannot…” For once, the male was struggling for words. Maybe because he so rarely spoke? He was a regular talking-Thomas tonight. “You are not aware of time passing in Skyvryn? Do You believe Your existence begins here, uum Taytani?”

  Tricky question. One I needed to mull over before I tried to tiptoe around whatever answer I was going to give him. Either way, though, I didn’t want our current audience of two nosy-as-fuck siblings to be listening in. It wasn’t a good idea to weaponize your enemies.

  And I was sure Uptip and Zek were my foes.

  “Your dress is opari, Rahvashti Uptip,” I complimented by way of diverting from the topic of my age and heritage. It did the trick, too, because the other female was vapid enough to be distracted by persons fawning over her.

  Pompous windbag.

  “Dashka, Innintani. Your garment is also…unique. I have not seen one like it. You do not mind concealing Your body as though it were not something of admiration?” She looked me up and down as best she could while I was cozened up on Ruune’s lap. Her tightened lips said she found me lacking in some fundamental way.

  Fuck her.

  “I adore my garment. It allows me to move any way I wish and still shows my body well.” I used the nail of one thumb to scratch the underside of one of my breasts. Both brother and sister watched me avidly. “My nipples need not be seen for all to know my biis’a shape. Beyond, are my utakta not admirable? My ink is as bright as most skol and I am proud of it. These are better seen without sleeves to conceal them.”

  “It is not done, Innintani. I would think You would desire to carry on with tradition.” The other female tried to needle me into listening to her. As if. I barely obeyed my own mother, let alone this flat-nosed shebeast from another world. I wasn’t born to step in the footpath of others. I was made to stride my own way and make my own choices.

  So I told her as much.

  “I say and do what I desire. Simply because it was done does not mean it is the only way.” I waved my hand dismissively in the air, an imitation of the same way she gestured me and mine off like we were bothersome gnats. “You should be off now, Rahvashti. Give us all a show.”

  Inwardly, I hoped she was doing some complicated dance and tripped. Karma would be doing us all a favor by making her flop on her face in front off an audience. Then again, she’d probably turn into the Red Queen and command ‘off with their heads’ when we laughed at her. Maybe some others would curb their hilarity. I wouldn’t. I’d be snorting with it unashamedly.

  Uptip’s cheeks darkened with piqued emotion, but bobbed her head in a piss-poor show of subservience before storming off. Zek lingered only a few seconds longer, his bow more appropriate, before he scurried after her like a dutiful puppy.

  Yeah, go kiss her tightwad ass, you fucked up bastard.

  “You are a wonder, uum kisa-uu,” Kor purred to me. I summoned a real grin for him.

  “I am, am I not?”

  Ruune thought I was funny. His chuckle against my back was warm and affectionate. I loved how much he’d come out of his shell now that he had me here for him. Supporting him and loving him.

  Ah shit.

  I froze dead still when I realized what I’d thought so easily and knew, examining it, that I meant it down to my soul. I did love Ruune.

  Sheesh…that kinda snuck up on me there. How the fuck do I deal with it now is the question.

  A big, screaming part of me wanted to go back to Earth. Wanted to go back home to my family and friends. My career. Indoor plumbing. I wanted it all.

  Still, how could I leave this world – if it was even possible – and not bring Ruune with me? He couldn’t come to Earth. No way. He’d be taken from me and experimented on and studied like a lab rat. And they’d have to shoot me dead dead because I’d never willingly let him fall into greedy, vile human hands.

  They wouldn’t know whether to check their asses or scratch their watches by the time I got my hands on them.

  …so, was I staying or going? Could I even go? And what in the royal-blue fuck was I supposed to do in the meantime?

  I know what my body wanted to do. She felt the press of his kii against her ass and ooh’ed and ahh’ed appreciatively. She wanted to slip that ‘sword’ right up into her hot sheath and never let it out again.

  Grinding my teeth to both ignore ‘her’ and block out the rising aroma of ooroo, I launched from the Xerbai’s lap. I couldn’t stay there if I wanted to avoid sex with either male.

  Preternaturally fast, Kor was in front of me, blocking my path. Ruune, too, had my back again, his presence a hint menacing now that I’d essentially made a run from him. I struck their predatory instincts like a gong.

  Oops.

  Kor didn’t look happy anymore.

  “You go where, uum Taytani?” The words were gritted out from between his flashing tusks.

  I squirmed a little nervously under my skin.

  Suck it up, Io. Remember, girl, you’re in charge. You say, not them. Now hike up them big-girl panties and deal with that shit!

  “I am finding Sekhmet.”

  “She is well. You will stay with Your Udon.”

  “You told me once, Tohtahk, that I do not ask; I say. Now I say I go.” I lifted my hands, palms out, and made like I was going to push him. I didn’t because that would’ve been useless. Homeboy wasn’t moving unless he wanted to. Still, gestures spoke louder than words. “Step aside, los’kah.”

  “Yuum los’kah,” he rumbled a growl. He snatched my wrists – and forearms since his hands were so mammoth – and tugged me closer to him. My neck creaked to keep my eyes on his face. “Say it, kisa-uu. Allow me to hear that vow and I will let You go to the Xxyx.”

  There was vulnerability in his voice and it snagged at my resolve. So I sighed gustily.

  “Uum los’kah,” I agreed on a whisper. “Uumat.”

  “Dashka,” he husked back, bending to nuzzle me, before he stomped off. From his backside, I could see his hand lifting to finger the torc I’d gifted him while the other fisted at his side.

  He wasn’t thrilled with my abandonment, but he wasn’t going to bitch or stop me. Especially now that I’d called him mine.

  I opened a can of worms with that one. No, scratch that. I overturned a bucket of centipedes. I had to have a screw loose to tell the warlord he was mine, knowing full well that he’d hold me to it.

  “Calliope.”

  I jolted in surprise at my name being rasped out of Ruune’s mouth right next to my ear. It wasn’t just that it was filled with want, but also because he…said…my…name!

  I whirled on him, all but plastering to his vested chest.

  “Say it again,” I commanded roughly.

  The male wilted into me, his mouth finding the crook of my neck as he came to his knees before me. His tongue laved the edge of my bakal.

  “Uum Calliope.”

  Mmhmmm. My name sounded even better when he was all possessive about it. He might have been my slave, but he owned me as much as I owned him at this point.

  Before I could make myself think better of it, I reached up – so fucking tall even on his knees – to cup his cheeks and bring his lips down to meet mine. His silver-speckled eyes widened with surprise at my action, clearly not understanding my human way of kissing.

  He’d learn soon enough.

  He moaned when my tongue scraped against his thin lips and scored over his half-sized tusks. His kii thrust right out and up in his trou and he wasn’t in any sort of mind to tuck it away. On top of that, his own ooroo snaked its way into my nose. It was all musk and, surprisingly, pine. I felt my inhibitions crumbli
ng to dust the longer I stood there consuming him and his pheromones.

  My knees shook and I had to move my hands to his shoulders for support when I backed away. His arms banded around my waist automatically to keep me caged in.

  “You have to let me go,” I told him dazedly.

  “Must I? Can we not return to Your pillau if You wish not to be here?”

  “I will come back. My vow.” I bussed a kiss to his forehead and pushed lightly at his shoulders until his arms dropped heavily. He didn’t come to his feet. Instead, he remained on his knees, his head dropping sadly.

  Goddamn. The kicked puppy look was going to kill me.

  “Let me go, Ruune.”

  “Aichi, uum Taytani.”

  Unable to help myself, I knuckled his blocky chin until he lifted his head again to look at me. I rubbed my thumb over his lower lip, snickering when he licked the tip.

  “Please get my ashati. I think I will play something this lune after Uptip.”

  “Aichi, uum Taytani.” The Xerbai had an order now, a mission, and he was quick to follow it. I rocked back a little unsteadily with how fast he hit his stride. One of our audience – because I was never without at least a dozen eyes on me – caught my back as I stumbled, gently righting me. Ruune’s expression was sheepish. The onlookers laughed kindly.

  “I vow, Ruune.”

  With that parting promise, I hustled away from my pretty-boy before I could do anything else contradictory to my prior resolves.

  I went looking for Sekhmet.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Big Mama was going to be a momma.

  How did I know?

  The great beastie was lying on her stomach, but also listed to one side when I found her amidst a troop of preening male Mahzri I took to be a part of her kinky, not-so-little harem. She was panting a little roughly and I could see her otherwise lean tummy ripple with movement from the inside.

  “You bitch! You didn’t even tell me!” I elbowed my way between the males, not worried in the slightest for my safety, and fell into Sekhmet’s arms for a warm hug. The female adapted to the gesture after I bestowed so many onto her and now initiated them with me. One of her claws sifted through my belled braid while her tendrils kissed all over my face.