by D. R. Rosier
Vino said, “I have decided to give it another chance, under one condition. I believe that humans are civilized mostly because of fear of punishment, laws and rules. When one gets power, it can corrupt, make the person feel above all that. However some humans, Bill included, fight those thoughts and try to do what is right even without that threat above them. I don’t know if that will change or not so here is what I require to continue.
“Ariella, I need your oath that you will destroy Bill if he becomes what I fear.”
Tiffani listened as Ariella started speaking a language her translator did not work on, her voice was low, guttural and filled with growling and roaring at different pitches. Tiffani looked up at Vino when Ariella finished and he just nodded, looking tired and conflicted with his decision.
Vino said, “And have you decided? I can see the answer in your mind but I want to hear it spoken.”
Bill nodded firmly, “I am a little nervous after your story, but I just can’t see myself being a monster, no matter what power you may give me.”
Vino said, “I hope you are right.”
As Vino, Bill and Ariella disappeared in a blinding white light Tiffani sighed. All she could do now is wait, and hope.
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Bill looked around trying to get his bearings. He was in a huge cavernous room. The walls and floors were golden. When he touched the wall it was warm and soft. He realized where he was and couldn’t help but smile. He was on Atlantis.
Vino nodded at him, “I can’t make the change through my avatar. You had to come here for it.”
He looked at Ariella and said, “You should be able to scan me now, I dropped the energy concealing me. When the change is done you will need to teleport him and yourself out right away, before my body starts to disintegrate. At this pressure under the water it won’t take long for me to implode when my protective energy wanes, so do not tarry.”
Bill felt sad for the old man for a moment. He couldn’t imagine spending a hundred thousand years with nothing but self recrimination, regret, and a duty that constantly reminded him of it.
He saw Vino send him a sad smile and direct him to lie down on the table in the center of the room. He thought Ariella looked frightened but she nodded at him in encouragement. He lay down on the table and waited. He saw a white light surround him, then enter his body. He felt a strange tingling in his scalp and behind his eyes. Slowly, something came into view. It was white and wispy at first, but slowly over time he realized he was seeing the life essence of Vino.
It was beautiful. He not only could see the life essence he instinctively knew what represented what. He could see the regret plain in the essence, and the thin hope that Vino had carefully concealed from them. He knew he could reach out and touch it, but did not. He was afraid of what might happen. This wasn’t the time or place to start experimenting after all.
He didn’t seem like he was going to go crazy, of course he realized that if he did it would be a gradual thing. As he learned to use his powers he would need to be careful not to cross the line, or he would find it easier and easier to keep doing it. He looked over at Ariella and could see her life essence. He wasn’t an empath perhaps, but he could read the worry and love in her essence even if he couldn’t feel it directly. That was kind of cool. Things were still getting sharper and brighter and he started to hope he could control it enough to turn it on and off, or it would be very distracting.
He returned his attention to Vino’s life signature, his essence, and saw that it was dimming. He selfishly wondered if Vino had enough in him to finish this, then felt ashamed at the thought. As Vino’s life essence faded more, he felt the tingling stop.
Vino said, “My hopes go with you Bill, and I am sorry but my responsibility goes with you Ariella, do not fail. Do not give up until you have found their home world and removed the Sprisi from existence.”
Just as he saw the ancient Dravii’s life force dissipate, he saw something rise. A golden wisp in the shape of a dragon was taking off. Did he just see a soul? Maybe those mediums aren’t nutters after all.
As the white lights of teleportation surrounded him he heard a dreadful crack as Atlantis started to implode, they appeared on the bridge of Ariella.
He looked at his mates’ one at a time, surprised at what he could read and know.
He studied Gwen, she looked worried for him and full of a love for him that boggled his mind. He had just never thought of himself as being worthy of something like that. She shone with it. He could also see she felt like she was missing something but she wasn’t sure what it was. He really needed to control this, if he was hit by all this information by everyone he looked at he would no doubt lose it. He could also see the tendrils of her life force, spreading out to everyone’s head, no doubt her ability to read emotions.
He changed his focus to Larissa. She had her typical stone warrior face on but her essence told a different story. He could clearly see she had been fraught with worry about him and Tiffani. He had been hurting her too. He felt like he wanted to fix it and he saw golden tendrils leave his mind and move toward Larissa. He panicked and pulled them back. What would they have done to her?
He was awed when he focused on Ariella the ship. Her life force was so much more complicated. He could make out her blinding love for all of them, and her sad duty that she had been charged with by Vino. But there was so much more that his mind simply couldn’t grasp. At least, not yet.
That is when he realized the truth of the horror of his power. If he could reach out and affect a life force to end someone’s life. That means he could manipulate it to other ends as well. He realized that golden tendril heading for Larissa may have simply choked off her ability to worry, at all, ever. He may not be able to control people like a Demonae, but he could do much worse.
He shuddered. He could change a beings nature. Much like the elder Dravii changed him but he could do it easily, instinctively. They were new instincts, given with the powers. He was a danger to anyone that was close to him, his range to do this wasn’t that large. That is why he needed to be teamed with a Dravii to hunt the Sprisi. He would have to learn how to control it, or he could accidentally change someone with a random thought, as he almost just did with Larissa.
He had been putting it off, afraid of what he would see. But he looked over at Tiffani finally, seeing a look of concern on her face. He smiled as he saw her love, he was amazed again that all of these women loved him as much as he loved them. Then he saw the sorrow, worry and the evidence of the suffering she had gone through.
He was struck briefly by guilt.
However, that quickly turned into jealous anger as he saw her deep love, attraction, and lust for Gabe. He heard himself growl, she was his and his alone. He saw golden tendrils race toward her, the intent clear, choke off and kill the part of her that loves the interloper. He heard Gwen gasp as she registered his ugly emotion. He almost screamed in frustration as he brought the tendrils up short.
He focused on his rising hate and disgust for those jealous emotions, trying again to beat them down. He was so tired of fighting his jealousy and instincts, why couldn’t he just win? Why couldn’t he be happy for his love? Why couldn’t he take joy in her joy, even if some of it is not because of him? His mind spiraled as his anger grew, he hated it, the jealousy, the misery he was causing, the animal within him that just wouldn’t let go of what it considered his and his alone.
The golden tendrils were locked in place, so close to Tiffani. As if they were soldiers frozen in place, confused by conflicting orders as his mind fought with itself. His mind felt like a caged animal, running into the bars of his instincts over and over trying to escape.
He screamed in frustration and watched as his mates grew worried and a little scared. That made his anger rise even more, rising on a tide of self disgust that he would scare them so. He just wanted his conflicting instincts to go away. Just go away!
The tendrils suddenly turned on him and dove for h
is own body. His mind exploded in pain and his body shook. He fainted from the pain, losing consciousness before he hit the floor.
Chapter 6
Bill woke up slowly. He was still on the floor. No one moved him? They weren’t that scared were they? He looked up and saw Ariella pointing a weapon at him. Well, he did just kind of go crazy and scream like a madman before passing out. But why is she still holding it on him, and where did everyone else go?
That’s when he realized he was just seeing her, and not any life essence at all. He concentrated a bit and it came rushing into view. He could see she was terrified, mostly of losing him, but she was scared of him as well. Why?
He said cautiously, “Why are you scared of me?”
She said evenly, as if trying to calm a crazy person, “I can’t read you, and you kind of did just go nuts, it’s worrying.”
He furrowed his brow and noticed there was a golden energy, blocking off all the tendrils leading to his head. From everyone. Gwen and Tiffani can’t read him right now either. How did that happen? Maybe he instinctively protected himself when he lost consciousness?
He concentrated again, letting them in one by one. He could see the fear melt off her face when she reconnected to him. He tried to decide not to see the patterns of life around him and his normal vision returned. He wondered at the fact it was so easy to control. But then he wasn’t gifted with these strange powers, it was part of human evolution, natural for him now. His knew instincts and mind would be able to use it, much like learning to walk. He might fall on his ass a few times, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t instinctive.
Then he was suddenly tackled and kissed, he of course wasn’t going to object and pulled her in, returning her kiss. Even though he wasn’t actively looking he had the insight that it wasn’t sexual at all, purely relief that he seemed to be okay.
After they broke the kiss he said, “Umm, any idea what I did?”
She smiled at him and said, “Now that you let me in I do, I am glad I didn’t kill you.”
He raised an eyebrow, “Kill me?”
She nodded happily. “You were about to change the essence of who Tiffani is,” she looked down as if ashamed and said softly, “I couldn’t allow that.”
He sighed, “What happens the next time?”
She giggled.
He said firmly, “How is that funny?”
She said, “It’s not, I am just really happy, relieved, you don’t even know what you did but it changed everything. You could still be a monster if you let the power tempt you into trying to control everyone around you, or anyone who disagrees with you. But that other stuff isn’t a problem anymore and I can’t see you growing power hungry, it just isn’t in you.”
He scowled. “What do you mean not a problem anymore?” he asked sharply. This was too weird, and he was getting tired of trying to drag it out of her.
She tilted her head and said, “Do you remember what happened when you screamed and you wanted your conflicting animal instincts to go away.”
He nodded.
She continued, “Well, what do you think those golden threads changed when they entered your body.”
He was quiet for a second. Could he have rewired his own instincts? Removed what he hated and simply didn’t need anymore? He thought for a second and he was still afraid of death. His hardness at Ariella’s soft body and that kiss meant he certainly had those instincts. But what if he just disconnected them? Short circuited the part of his survival instincts that led to race survival, claiming a mate as his and only his to carry on his line, his genes. He really didn’t understand the full complexities of it, but he had obviously done something.
Ariella said, “So what do you think? Gabe and Tiffani, making love until he gets her pregnant. Your golden goddess, staring down into another man’s eyes as she rides his cock lovingly?”
He looked over at Ariella and knew she was just trying to make a point. But then, he felt no jealousy at all. In fact… He was smiling at the thought of Tiffani having a kid. It was really strange not having a negative reaction. He felt free, unencumbered.
Ariella said, her voice almost awed, “It was your love that did it you know. You had to be stronger than your instincts in the end, to be able to rewrite them like that. If you didn’t love us all so much you wouldn’t have hated that part of yourself enough to change.”
Bill still did have negative emotions, despite not feeling jealous anymore he still felt guilty at what he put Tiffani through, not to mention the fall out on the rest of his mates. He slowly got up, kissed Ariella and left to go talk to Tiffani, he just hoped she could forgive him.
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Tiffani grinned. Bill had terrified her earlier. She had half thought he might attack her. But she had been reading him since he lowered his protections over his mind and thoughts. She knew he was outside the door trying to get the courage to come in, to apologize to her. Not long, just thirty seconds or so, but still…
Didn’t he know how much she loved him? She had been aching for this moment, when he was able to overcome his conflicting feelings of jealousy and ownership. It seemed silly to her that he was worried she wouldn’t forgive him.
She smiled and looked up when the door opened. She loved the way he looked at her, she thought she was just average for an Angilli woman but she felt so beautiful when he looked at her that way. As her nipples hardened she hoped this first part wouldn’t take so long.
Bill said, “Are you in my mind? If you know what happened you know how I feel and how sorry I am…”
When he started talking she found that she didn’t want to hear his apology. None of it was his fault, not really. Or at least, it was his nature’s fault, something he was born with and had no control of. She had watched as he had fought his nature tooth and nail and knew he truly did love her, suffering as much if not more than the rest of them. She stopped him by covering his lips with a finger, then she replaced that finger with her lips. She moaned deeply into his mouth as he started kissing her back fervently, she had missed his kiss so much.
She knew he desired to make love to her so she started stripping down, mouth watering at the thought of feeling his cock slide between her legs again. It had been way too long and she loved him so much. They made their way to the bed and she gasped as he kissed her softly and slid his cock into her welcoming and hungry core. Her first orgasm came quickly, his love and tenderness overwhelming her, bringing out her feelings of love, passion, and lust. And knowing she was safe in his arms caused her to spiral into ecstasy…
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Gwen was crying, but they were happy tears. She felt a great relief and happiness for Bill and Tiffani. She had a nagging feeling she still wanted more in her life, but she couldn’t imagine what. She had thought long and hard about the empty spot within her, and she knew it had nothing to do with wanting another mate.
It was something else. She wondered at her failure to identify it, maybe she had been a slave for too long. She was still overwhelmed at her full and happy life at times. Perhaps she just feared asking for more and her mind was shying from what she wanted. She knew if she let it simmer long enough, she would figure it out. She wasn’t in a rush or anything. After all, as long as no one killed them, her and her mates would be around for a long time to come.
She knew Bill would soon be testing out his powers, then they would have to go face down some Sprisi. All the powers really did was put them on an even footing to a certain extent. It just meant they could not use their hosts as hostages anymore against attack. Granted, they would be able to kill a lot at once from outside a solar system, but they had hundreds of ships to hunt down Ariella.
Powers or not, Bill would die if the ship was destroyed, or if he was shot by a strong enough energy pistol to get past his protective suit. Gwen bit her lip in thought. How would they go free Gabe, Anise, and Sylvia when the planet was surrounded by over a hundred ships? From what she understood he would need to figure out how t
o harm their life signature or essence to dissipate them before he could feed the right type of energy to Ariella. They might have to go after one not so well defended first, then just take out the ones on Angillia from a distance?
She smiled as Ariella and Larissa came back on the bridge, they would have a good plan she was sure, Gwen knew she wasn’t much of a fighter or tactician.
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Larissa held her breath a moment as she saw Gwen’s tears of happiness. She almost joined her Elvii mate as she too was beyond happy for Tiffani and Bill. However she was a Demonae warrior and would be damned before showing such weakness. It never occurred to her however to make any such judgment toward Gwen though. Her mate was strong too, just not a warrior.
She growled and said to Gwen, “About fucking time isn’t it?”
Gwen giggled and nodded in agreement.
She said, “So what’s the plan, once they get done fooling around in there I mean.”
Ariella said, “Well he needs to learn control, although that seems almost instinctive, much like your power of control, or Gwen’s ability to feel other’s emotions. I don’t think that will take long. Gwen had a great idea even if she doesn’t think so. We need to find an easy target, so Bill can figure out what type of energy to send to destroy a Sprisi. Then after that we can rescue the others in Angillia by destroying every Sprisi in system.
“At that point a few orders from the surface, and from Tiffani, should convert most of those ships to our side.”
Ariella sighed. “Of course, that will just be the start of it. After that we will have to go after the rest, we won’t know how many until Bill finds them. Then there is their world to consider, if we don’t find them and stop them for good this could all happen again someday.”
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Bill was in heaven. A silky, hot, tight, and wet heaven. They had made love for close to an hour, but after resting for a little while, Tiffani took him in her mouth just long enough to get him hard again. Right now he was looking up into her eyes with love and adoration for his stunning mate. She was sitting straight up, arching her back and grinding down on him. He was caught in her eyes, unable to look away as she looked down on him in love and lust and rode him with abandon. He could see her perfect and generous C cup breasts swaying as she rolled her hip and ground against him. Her dark golden nipples were hard and standing proudly away from her supple and light golden breasts.