Longing's Levant

by Charlotte Boyett-Compo

  “Have I not told you she is?” Morrigunia snapped.

  “She is in an extended sleep unit,” he said. “You could have damaged the seal trying to open it.”

  “I damaged nothing,” the goddess said with a dangerous narrowing of her green eyes. “Had I damaged it, would she not be so much moldering dust by now?”

  Wincing at the thought, the Reaper took comfort in knowing what his tormentress said was true, but he needed to know the stasis was holding, that Aisling was, indeed, sleeping. More importantly, he needed to know she was alive.

  “Why?” Morrigunia asked, reading his thoughts easily. “You are here, she is there.” She pointed to the north. “You can’t even see her island from here.”

  “Morrigunia, please,” he whimpered, fresh tears starting down his cheeks. “Let me but see her just once. Bring her here, please!”

  “Don’t you think if I could have done that I would have long ago?” the goddess asked with a snort. “I would have liked nothing more than to see the devastated look upon your face when I took her back.” She leaned toward him. “Imagine it, Reaper—your ladylove within a hairsbreadth of you being able to put your lustful hands upon here and then poof! Gone in a heartbeat!”

  The anguish was almost more than he could bear and without thinking, he laid his head in the goddess’ lap and sobbed. His hands were wrapped around her hips, his cheek pressed against her shimmering cloth of gold gown.

  “There, there, my love,” she cooed, stroking his dark hair. “Morri will make it better for you.”

  She crooned to him as he cried, sang an ancient Chalean lullaby to soothe him as she threaded her fingers through his thick curls and when his body convulsed with the increase in his sorrow, she bent forward to wrap him in her arms.

  “Hush now, Sweeting,” she said. “You will make yourself ill.”

  “Kill me,” he said between the heartbreaking sobs. “Kill me, for I can not stand this loneliness any longer.”

  Morrigunia drew in a long breath and lifted her head to look out at the sea. She could see the demon standing framed in the doorway of the airship. He was waving his arm. Even as she listened, the ship came to life with a sputter of its mighty engines then began to hum in a powerful rumble that shook the ground under her feet.

  “Such an impressive machine,” she commented. “I look forward to flying in it.”

  Cainer Cree was beyond hearing. He was lost in a misery so dark, so deep he could barely move and he vowed to himself he never would again. He would lay where he was and never rise. It was a vow that communicated itself to his captor.

  “That will not do, deargs dul,” she declared, and pushed him away from her.

  He fell upon the ground and curled into a fetal position, his palms together, hands pressed between his crooked knees.

  “That will not do!” Morrigunia repeated. She stared down at him and became alarmed at the steadiness of his gaze. Though his eyes were open, she could tell they had lost their focus. “Get up!” she ordered.

  The Reaper ignored her. He had willed his thoughts to The Levant and was listening to the warrior and demon. Riel Evann-Sin was taking command just as Cainer knew he would. What needed to be done to get the intricate ship aloft was there in the warrior’s hands and he was already seated at the controls.

  “Get up!” his tormentress commanded.

  There was a trilling sound and Morrigunia tore her eyes from the Reaper to gaze with wonder at the airship. It was lifting from the rocky island where it had sat for centuries. Dust billowed from beneath its sleek black belly.

  “Go with the Wind,” she heard Cainer whisper, and looked down at him. He had closed his eyes.

  “No!” Morrigunia shouted. “Get up! Get up now!”

  A low hum began on Achasán Island, and she watched as the ship began to rotate, its nose coming around to face her. For a long moment, she stared at the awesome machine then slowly turned her head to look down at the Reaper. She winced for he was as still as death and she knew he would remain so.

  “So be it,” she said, and with a roar, vanished.

  “Cainer, get up!”

  It was not Morrigunia’s words but Riel Evann-Sin’s that opened Cainer’s eyes. He stared at the ground before him and watched an ant crawling over the grass with a large leaf clutched in its mandibles.

  “Cainer, get up before she comes back!”

  The ground beneath his cheek was vibrating with the power from The Levant. He lay where he had fallen, and once more bid the warrior a safe journey to his lady.

  She did not throw another Geas upon you, Reaper! Evann-Sin shouted in Cainer’s mind. You are free to leave! Do it before she realized her mistake!

  The Reaper narrowed his eyes, hearing the words, but afraid his warden would return should he attempt escape. To have freedom snatched out from under him at the last minute was something he did not think he could endure.

  You have to try! came the strong suggestion.

  The Levant was hovering just off the coast of the Isle of Uaigneas. Overhead, the leaves were whipping as though a hurricane wind thrashed at them.

  Cainer straightened his legs and pushed himself up. He turned to look at his L.R.C. as it sat suspended just beyond the cliff. In the fading light, it was beautiful for the rising moon cast a shimmer of light upon its sleek, black hull.

  I have her coordinates, Reaper, the warrior told him. We can bring the E.S.U. on board.

  “Her?” Cainer questioned.

  Your lady, fool! We can retrieve her but you have to hurry!

  Dropping his gaze to the underbelly of his ship, the Reaper stared at the area where the tracking beams were located. They could latch on to Aisling’s E.S.U. and draw her up into The Levant in a matter of seconds.

  He took a tentative step away from the cliff and toward the well-beaten pathway that led down to the shore. Then he took another and then another until he was walking faster, then loping then running full-out as he crashed past the low hanging tree limbs. Keeping apace of him was The Levant, its quiet engines barely making a rumbling sound as it moved. Though he stumbled at times and had to reach out to grab a tree trunk lest he fall, he kept going, his only thought to reach the shore.

  Why the hell doesn’t the gods-be-damned teleporter work, Reaper? the warrior growled. I could just transport you up here!

  Though he was barely winded as he ran, Cainer’s heart was beating faster than it ever had before. His headlong rush to get to the shore took nearly all his conscious thought but he managed to convey to Evann-Sin that the unit had been damaged upon landing in Chale.

  Can’t I fix it?

  “Later,” the Reaper snapped but was overjoyed that the warrior was rapidly accustoming himself to the machine and knew the possibilities of it.

  He was nearly down the cliff, holding his breath for fear Morrigunia would materialize at any moment. As his feet hit the beach, he went down, crashing heavily to his knees but was up in a flash, streaking toward the waiting ship. Already, the gangplank was lowering a foot above the lashing sand beneath it. Putting his hand up to shield his eyes from the flying sand, he raced toward The Levant.

  Speed it up, Reaper! the warrior shouted in Cainer’s mind. We don’t have all night!

  He was only a couple of yards away. He dragged in one last breath and leapt for the gangplank, propelling himself through the opening only a second or two before it came down. He rolled along the floor as the warrior banked The Levant steeply to starboard and the L.R.C. began climbing as it arced.

  Kaibyn helped the Reaper to his feet. The men staggered for the ship was increasing speed.

  “As soon as I got the ship online, I put a tracer out for your lady,” Evann-Sin explained. “She is on Finscéalta na Gaoithe. Do you know that place?”

  Cainer shook his head. “An island?”

  “Aye. We’ll be there before you can snare a rabbit,” the warrior chuckled. He glanced up as the Reaper came to stand beside him. “Want to take over?”


  Before Cainer could answer, Evann-Sin was out of the console chair and the ship made a sudden downward plunge.

  “Shit!” the Reaper yelled, and had his hands on the controls before the vessel crashed. “Don’t you ever do that again!”

  Evann-Sin laughed, and cast Kaibyn a look but another traveler caught his eye and drew his immediate attention.

  Morrigunia was sitting on the bunk of the E.S.U., her legs crossed, her arms folded over a luscious chest whose bare breasts gleamed in the overhead lighting.

  Kaibyn looked around. “What is it?” he asked.

  Knowing the demon could not see the goddess—nor apparently could the Reaper for he, too, looked where Evann-Sin was staring—the warrior shook his head. “I…”

  “Take good care of my deargs dul and go with the Wind, warrior,” Morrigunia said softly, and she winked at him. Her blessing imparted, she left.

  Evann-Sin let out a shaky breath. Closing his eyes for a moment, he silently thanked the goddess.

  “What are you thanking her for, warrior?” Cainer asked.

  The warrior locked eyes with the Reaper. “For giving you your freedom.”

  “Broadcast it to the world, why don’t you?” Kaibyn snarled. “You’ll have that bitch on us now!”

  Cainer intercepted Evann-Sin’s thoughts—and his memory of a few moments past—and heaved a sigh of relief. He added a silent thank you to Morrigunia, and heard the tinkle of silver laughter in his mind. “No,” he said. “I think she has moved on.”

  Since Evann-Sin had programmed in the coordinates to Zenia’s ship, The Levant was soon hovering over her, the underside tracking ports opening slowly as a laser beam on the aft cut into the other ship’s topside, peeling back the hull as though it were a grape. When the access hole was large enough to draw its target through the demolished hull, the Reaper lowered twin cables and locked on. There was a loud shrieking of metal against metal as the E.S.U. was pulled out of its harness. As the E.S.U. came free of the other ship—wires trailing—The Levant dipped slightly, but with ease and never-forgotten skill, Cainer brought the slightly swinging E.S.U. aboard and positioned it beside his own. It was a tight squeeze for The Levant had been built for only one occupant.

  “Take over, Riel!” the Reaper ordered as soon as the E.S.U. was in place. “I have but moments to get the unit reconnected.”

  Evann-Sin slid into the control chair from the left side as Cainer left it on the right. “Why is there a hurry?”

  “Those lines you see trailing there are receptors from a thin mesh screen situated atop Zenia’s ship. The screen captures the rays of the sun and sends them down through the wires into the E.S.U, forming an artificial atmosphere in which my lady lives. The units are made so they are recharged by the power of the sun. In disconnecting the wires as I had to in order to bring the E.S.U. to The Levant, the life support system—that artificial atmosphere—was deactivated. My lady is in a state of stasis but that won’t last long.”

  “Stasis?” Kaibyn repeated, his forehead crinkled.

  “Inactivity resulting from a static balance between opposing forces. In this case—life and death. That means she will not be able to exist without the power generated from the sun.”

  And then the Reaper was standing over his lady, and for the first time in hundreds of years looked down into her beautiful face. His hands trembled as he pressed them to the glass hatch.

  “She is lovely,” Kaibyn whispered as he came to stand beside Cainer.

  “Aye,” Cainer said so softly the word was but a breath of sound.

  “Will it cause her any harm to open the unit now?” Evann-Sin asked.

  Cainer nodded. “I’ll need to rewire this unit into my own and bring her up slowly. The artificial atmosphere must be in place before I can wake her.”

  As the Reaper set about doing what needed to be done to awake his lady, Evann-Sin began typing in the coordinates to the Abyss. He stopped and looked around. “You’d best go back to the island, Kai,” he said.

  Kaibyn tore his gaze from the beauty lying in front of him. “Why?”

  “We are heading for the Abyss, demon,” Cainer answered for the warrior.

  “Oh,” Kaibyn said. “Right.”

  One moment the demon was there and the next he wasn’t.

  “He seemed a bit dejected,” Evann-Sin remarked.

  “I think he wanted to wait until my lady was awake,” Cainer laughed.

  “Always enamored of other men’s women, isn’t he?” the warrior sighed.

  It didn’t take the Reaper long to rewire Aisling’s E.S.U. As soon as he was sure the unit was working properly, he replaced Evann-Sin at the console and began typing in the data that would begin the decompression of his lady’s unit.

  “Have you any notion what you’ll do about Lilit when we reach the Abyss?” Cainer asked.

  “I intend to rid the world of the bitch. Why?”

  “What about any others with her?”

  Evann-Sin narrowed his eyes. “That depends. If they have harmed my lady in any way—even given her a hangnail—I will crush them.”

  “Good man,” the Reaper said. “Best not leave anything there that can harm the human race. The Mage knew the right man to hire for this mission.”

  “What will you do when this is over? Will you return to your home?”

  Cainer’s fingers stilled on the computer’s flat keyboard. “I have not had time to consider my options yet. I suppose that depends on what Aisling wants to do.”

  “Nice to be able to say that, isn’t it?” Evann-Sin asked softly.

  The Reaper turned around in his console chair and looked longingly at the E.S.U. where his lady slept. “Aye,” he replied. “Life is once more worth living.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Kaibyn sat down on the one chair in the Reaper’s hut and stared at the charcoal rendering Cainer Cree had drawn of his lady from memory. As beautiful as the sleeping woman had been aboard The Levant, with her eyes open and looking at the viewer, she was a veritable goddess in her own right.

  “As beautiful as I, demon?”

  Jumping at the sound of the voice, Kaibyn snapped his head around. His eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open.

  “Morrigunia?” he breathed.

  “Aye,” she said and came toward him.

  Lovely as Lilabet was, gorgeous as Tamara, beautiful as Aisling—none could hold a candle to the exquisite creature whose naked body glistened with dew in the moonlight cast from the single window.

  “He turned you down?” Kaibyn asked.

  “There is no accounting for tastes, eh, my demon?” the goddess laughed.

  Her bare breasts were lush globes, the dark areolas around her prominent nipples like knowing eyes watching him. A flat belly, tiny waist that flared into very accommodating hips and long legs drew his gaze. The groomed patch of vibrant red hair at the juncture of her thighs was only a shade lighter than the hip-length tresses that curled possessively around her creamy shoulders. A slender tattoo banded her upper left arm, and as she drew closer Kaibyn could make out intricate knot work.

  “There is a raven here,” she said, lifting an elegant finger to point at the tattoo. “It is my symbol.” She caressed the raven. “Do you like it?”

  “Aye,” the demon agreed. She was but a foot away and the sweet scent of heather filled his nostrils.

  “Will you mate with me, Kaibyn Zafeyr?” she asked.

  “With the greatest of pleasures,” he replied.

  She was on him, riding him like a crazed cat in heat and he was lying beneath her, staring up at her bucking, watching her breasts flapping deliciously. He reached up to cup those silken globes and she threw her head back and pumped even harder.

  Never had a woman taken him, Kaibyn thought, as she rode him. Never had one taken charge and—well—attacked him. He decided he liked being the one used for a change and almost wished he could find out what it felt like to be…

  She pried herself off him a
nd before he could utter a sound had turned him over to his belly. Reaching beneath his hips, she yanked his ass in the air and with one swift, deft stroke prodded him with something he knew wasn’t part of her body.

  Yelping, but getting an erection harder than any he’d ever known, he looked back over his shoulder to see her grinning at him.

  “What are y-you using?” he gasped.

  “Don’t worry, demon, it is quite safe. Just a little something many women find convenient when there’s no man around.”

  She probed him deep and it was a bit painful, but as the muscles of his anus grew accustomed to the size and the deep in and out friction, he found he thoroughly enjoyed the sensation. Her fondling his balls as she thrust into him had a truly entertaining feel, too.

  Kaibyn was lost in the violent sensation of being taken in such a manner. He was as hard as stone and aching, and when he was about to come, she withdrew the prod and flipped him over so quickly he knew what Rabin and Evann-Sin had experienced when he’d taken them flying.

  She was on him again, pressed down to the very nub of his cock and bucking once more like a wild horse. The slap of her rump against his thighs was almost obscene. The walls of her vagina were tightening and releasing in such a way, he felt as though she milked the climax from his body. As he poured into her—his fingers pinched around her nipples—he felt her rapid succession of squeezes deep in her cunt and knew she was coming, as well.

  And come she did—with a yell that shook the rafters of the little hut and rang in the demon’s ears for an hour after.

  “Like that, Kai?” she asked, as she slid down beside him on the floor.

  “Aye,” he managed to squeak. For the first time in his many thousands of years of existence, he had more than met his match.

  He frowned.

  “Concerned about your blood-oath to Lilabet?”

  Kaibyn flinched, and his handsome face twisted. “I did not consider…”

  “There is no reason to consider,” she said with a grin. “I am not mortal. You are not mortal. What we do together has no effect on sweet Lilabet. Now if I were mortal, you would have been a bad, bad boy. As it is, you are simply being true to your immortal nature.” She took hold of his cock. “Now, would you like to fuck me again?”