by Viola Grace
Salat’s arms tightened around her as Salmet came in with a tray and a pitcher of weird green smoothies. She wasn’t getting away.
Salmet looked at her and said, “This wasn’t my idea, but you don’t look well.”
Khytten grimaced and reached for the first drink of the tray. She drank the disgustingly healthy stuff down, swallowed, and then went for the next. Her body was absorbing it before it hit her stomach, which was a shame; she rather wanted to throw up. Salmet held the tray and watched her as she consumed close to two litres of the stuff, and then the glasses were topped up.
She did the same again.
Torenne pressed a hand to her chest, and Khytten could feel the diagnostic taking place. “You need more, but let’s get some solids in you before we try again.”
“Can I just get up and walk around? I will be fine. This isn’t even the worst I have been.”
Salat reluctantly released her. “Who took care of you then?”
“I did. I learned how to feel what was happening and get myself somewhere safe. I just never have a place to hide nowadays.”
Torenne sighed. “Sorry, not sorry. Take my hands.”
Khytten took her friend’s hands and got to her feet. She swayed a little but managed to stand. She sighed and stretched upward on her toes and then bent in half to the ground, taking inventory. She wasn’t sore, she wasn’t achy, she was just numb.
“What the hell am I wearing?” She looked down, and there was a froth of black and grey in sheer fabrics.
Torenne chuckled. “A nightgown based on a fairy tale design. You were a sleeping beauty, so we dressed you like a princess.”
Salmet smiled. “You look lovely. The baby is home now. The parents are very happy that you have helped out, but they are concerned about the cost to your health.”
“I don’t do that often, so it isn’t a concern.”
Salat stood behind her with his hand on her back. “What did you do, exactly?”
“I gave her some of my life. Just a few weeks, just to get her stable. It comes out of me in a rush, which is why I try and space it out, but she wasn’t going to last if I didn’t do something.”
Salat wrapped his arms around her. “You gave up part of your life?”
“Sure. I do it all the time. What do you think comes out of me? I get bits of it back from you and Torenne, but I give more than I take. Good thing that I regenerate fast.”
Salmet blinked. “I didn’t know that is what was happening.”
“I pull life and energy from the world around me. That is how I can keep generating in stressful situations. I pull energy from the crisis itself.” She smiled. “Thanks for asking.”
Salat asked, “Can you pull life from those you kill?”
“I could, but the energy source is usually tainted in some way. Pain does that. It would take a bit of processing, and I don’t know how much time that would take or what the end result would be.” She looked up at him. “Is there a robe for this or something?”
Torenne smiled. “Of course. Just a moment.” She went to the closet and opened it to show a stunning array of clothing that did not suit her or Salat. A grey and black robe was in her hands, and she came over with it over her arm. “Salat, you have to let her go, or she can’t go downstairs to meet her admirers.”
She was turned loose, and Torenne helped her on with the robe that added just enough fabric to make the gauzy panels opaque.
She smiled. “Thanks.” She curled her hand around Salat’s bicep and said, “Get me out of this room for a while? I need a bit of a walk.”
He nodded and put his hand over hers. Salmet led the way downstairs, and a gathering of folks who bore a startling resemblance to Salmet and Riko were gathered to visit the new baby.
Leodai looked relieved. “Oh, Khytten. I had no idea what it would cost you.”
She smiled. “It’s okay. I did. It wasn’t my first time; it won’t be my last.”
Salat murmured, “You have done that before?”
“Once. Years ago. I was young and stupid, but the child survived.” She spoke softly as she saw the joy of the new mother and her family. She lost herself in the memory and didn’t see Riko coming toward her. When he touched her and then dropped to his knees, her eyes widened. “You shouldn’t have known that.”
Salmet went to her husband’s side. He was kneeling with his head down and breathing heavily.
Salat turned to Khytten. “What did he see?”
“A secret.” She looked at Riko, and a deep sadness welled in her. She had kept that secret for nearly a decade. He looked at her, and tears were streaming down his cheeks.
Salat asked her, “Will you tell me, or does my father need to blurt it out?”
She took his hand and looked around. “Which way is out?”
He pulled her out into the back gardens, and he asked her again, “What happened to him?”
“He felt and saw what I felt and saw when I held my daughter for the first time. When she was finally healthy and strong. She was the first baby that I healed.”
“Wait. You have a daughter?”
“Somewhere. I had to tell folks that I found her, as there was no way that I could have brought a child to term when I had only been raped five months earlier. That was what prompted the lawsuit. I claimed the child was mine, but my parents didn’t want to believe that they had been derelict in their duties. That the person they charged to take care of me had hurt me and then accused me of lying. There was no trace of my pregnancy because it had ended in a baby.” She chuckled weakly.
“You... you were a child.” He looked shocked.
“I was, and then, I became a mother and a liar and a hero with empty arms, all in one day.” She smiled. “I held her in my hands and gave her everything I had, and she grew big and strong in a day. She would be close to thirteen now.”
“Is she active?”
Khytten smiled. “Oh, she had so much power in her, so much potential. I hope wherever she was, whoever she became is making good on that promise.”
“You haven’t sought her out?”
“No, I haven’t. I am terrified.” She smiled weakly. “So, your father got the pain, panic, regret, and loss all in a wave of longing.”
Salat leaned down and kissed her. “Oh, kitten. That is a heavy burden.”
“And now a burden shared if your father ever stops sobbing.” She could hear poor Riko dealing with the loss of a child that wasn’t his.
“Can I find your daughter for you?”
“If you can. I scrambled her DNA so her father couldn’t find her. You would have to go by the actual news reports, and most of them have been expunged due to the nature of the court case.”
“Where did it happen?”
“Here. In Aksalla. My family used to summer here, and I went into labour near Kalidan forest. I was found unconscious next to a naked nine-month-old baby. There was no trace of my labour or delivery, just the giant little girl and me.” She chuckled. “There was no way that she was a newborn, so I was arrested and charged with kidnapping. My DNA didn’t match hers by design, so they sent me into criminal assessment, and I was returned to my home city for therapy.” She smiled. “I was found not criminally responsible and put out on the streets.”
She wrapped her arms around Salat. “I am sorry to tell you this. It is probably not something you want to know.”
He hugged her. “No, but I need to know. An unknown child could be used against you.”
“I will know her if I see her.”
“How?”
She chuckled and held on. “She wears my thumbprint under her collarbone.”
“What about the father?”
“He died in a team versus villain event. A group of young girls in cages were found. He showed his true colours, and my files were purged with a government apology for the lack of action on my case.”
Salat held her away from him. “And that is whe
n you went into the peacekeeper training?”
“Shortly after, yes. About a year. And then, I same to Aksalla, and now, you are up to date.”
He ran his hand down her back. “How can you be so cheerful about it?”
“She’s alive. She’s strong, and she is out there somewhere. He’s dead, or he will be if he isn’t.”
“What was his name?”
“Amrose also called the Convincer. But mentalist stuff doesn’t work on me, so I got away after the first attack. I learned that evil can be protected by the law and that babies need all the help they can get. So, when I was returned home, I put my focus where it needed to be, and from there, I plotted my course.”
“I know that case.” He held her tight. “Samyel worked that case. It burned parts of her soul.”
“Yeah, I can see that. He was not a nice man.”
He exhaled. “Now I am regretting a number of choices I have made with you.”
“What, the negotiating for sex while I was all tied up?”
He sighed. “Yes, that would be one moment. The main one.”
“I am no longer a child. I am no longer vulnerable, and if I wanted you down, I could just dose your next snack.” She smiled. “I also shoot people without compunction. If you irritated me, I would not hesitate to zap you in your butt.” She patted his aforementioned anatomy.
“What about the spankings?”
She blushed and looked up at him. “I enjoy aspects of it. Not the monstrous accumulation I currently have going, but otherwise, it is fun.”
“So, if I kissed you, it would be fine?”
She laughed. “Yes, it would be fine.”
“I have missed you.”
“I have missed you. Have you been brushing my teeth?”
“If not, I only have myself to blame.” He lifted her and kissed her.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips, and she pulled herself in as the kiss deepened.
* * * *
Torenne chuckled and looked at her friends and their epic stand-up make-out session. Salat was wearing Khytten like a burr.
Riko had stopped sobbing, and he would only say, “She’s a very strong woman.”
Salmet sighed. “That’s it?”
“That is it. It is very personal, but Leodai is lucky that Khytten has an open heart. That openness saved Delia’s life.”
As if waiting for her cue, the little one started bawling with hunger.
Torenne waited to see if Khytten would respond, and the only response that she had was definitely not child-friendly as her hips slowly ground against Salat’s.
“Go for the frozen stuff. Khytten is going to be busy for a while.”
The family looked out through the glass panels, and a bit of amazed giggling occurred. This was not how they saw their brother and son. He had always been a stoic figure to them and considering that he was laughing with the woman in his arms as he walked into the high maze behind the house.
Based on the grip Salat had on Khytten’s butt, they were not going to be back for some time.
Torenne activated the ocular implant and prepared to enjoy the show.
* * * *
Khytten put herself into his hands, and he pressed into her; the tense feeling was just like the first time. He was too big, he wasn’t going to fit, and then there was nothing better.
She gasped against his neck and moaned.
“Look at me.”
She tilted her head back and looked at him, her lips parted, and she smiled on her gasp. “Hi, Torenne.”
Salat smiled. “She was worried.”
“She should be worried. You are inside me but not moving. That is worrying.” She stroked his neck and slid her gown off her shoulders.
He bent his head and drank while she clasped around him and released, squeezing in a beat that eventually became a rhythm.
She felt the graze of his teeth and shuddered, and then, he started to lift and lower her while he licked at her skin.
She groaned and dug her nails into his shoulders. He pounded into her and moved inside her, activating nerves and senses that had been ignored for over a week. She rocked with him, her voice gasping and getting higher and breathier as she whispered, “Oh, Salat, I have missed you.”
He groaned, and his thrusts took on a ferocity as he snarled. She felt her orgasm snap through her, and she screamed as her body clenched around him.
He grunted as he jerked into her; he leaned forward and held her shoulder gently in his teeth as he shook.
When they came down, she stroked his cheeks and the thick braiding of his hair. She chuckled. “I can’t run my fingers through your hair.”
“I have to wear the hairstyle until after my brother’s wedding.” He smiled. “I promise that as soon as the wedding is over, you can undo my lustrous locks.”
She snickered. “Good. I like to be able to grab your head at times, and it feels wrong to grab the ears.”
“Really? I think it feels great. Tense anticipation but definitely fun to know that you want me bad enough to injure me.”
“Where did you carry me?” She looked around and took in the high hedges
“We are in the maze in the back yard. The gardens if you want to be fancy. The location we are at is the prefect’s compound. This stuff passes along with the title.”
She blinked. “Wait. It is hereditary?”
“Yeah. So, when I retire, I get the house.”
She stared at him. “Just the house?”
“Maybe control of the Aksalla government.” He ran his hands over her back. “I think it would be interesting to have you in a position of power.”
“Um, I would not be in power. That would be you. I don’t have the education to back up any policies here. Hell, I don’t know much about the place.”
He kissed her. “Think about it. Now, are you ready to go visit with my family?”
She blinked slowly. “Now? With you dripping out of me?”
He chuckled. “Yes. You can tidy up in a restroom. There are several on the main floor.”
“Can you get me to one without passing your family?”
He wrinkled his nose. “Possibly.”
There was someone clearing a throat nearby, and Khytten turned her head and smiled at Torenne. “Hi.”
Torenne chuckled. “You two look cozy. My mom arrived, and she made my dad cover her ears.”
Khytten blushed. “Extend my apologies.”
“You can do it yourself. We are all having dinner together.”
She looked around, and the sun was getting reddish. “It’s evening?”
Salat smiled. “It’s evening. You slept a while.”
She nodded. “Right. I won’t avoid that again. Once was enough.”
Torenne came toward them and rubbed her back. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I could get it over within a few minutes. I don’t do it for my patients, but if it makes your day easier, I will totally be there every time you have a twinge.”
She smiled. “If I am having that kind of pain and you call it a twinge, I can and will break any fingers that come close to me. I have been shot before, and the feelings are comparable.”
Salat frowned. “Really?”
“Solid two days of recovery. Hot, swelling, and aching with chills.”
“Wow. You do that every month?”
She chuckled. “It isn’t a hobby. It’s biology.”
Torenne wrapped her arms around Khytten from behind. “Come on. We need to clean you up, and then, you can properly meet Delia. She’s been wailing hard enough to block most of the noises from you two screwing even for my mom’s hearing unless she was trying to listen in, which would be all kinds of creepy. Bad enough when she did it with us.”
Khytten flinched when Salat pulled out of her, and Torenne held her while she stabilized. Salat walked into the maze.
“Where is he going?”
&n
bsp; “To the centre of the maze. There is a pool he can use to wash up.” Torenne smiled. “You can totally do that, too.”
“Can you lead the way?”
Torenne wrapped an arm around her waist and led the way.
Washing up was worth some cold water, even if she scared some koi.
Chapter Seventeen
They were a little damp from an impromptu splash fight, but her clothing had taken the worst of it, which was probably Salat’s intent. “Apologies for the puddle, Salmet. I fell in a pond.”
Torenne was sporadically giggling. Her father came over and took her hand. “Poor little critter.”
A blast of warm air went up her skirt and lifted and dried the fabric.
When Khytten realized how high the fabric was rising, she slammed her hands down front and back.
“Dad. Knock it off.” Torenne pulled Khytten toward her.
“Aw, things were just getting good.” Halko winked. “Glad you are up and around, Khytten. Torenne has been doctor-worried, which is worried but pretending that she isn’t.”
Torenne cuddled Khytten and smiled. “I was worried. She was so pale and so still, but her body kept going through the motions, so I knew she was still in there.”
The baby was wailing at the top of her lungs, and Leodai had a bottle but was frustrated. Khytten smiled and walked over. “Hey, Leodai, Delia. What is the fuss?”
The little one screamed, her face red.
“Are you regretting her robust health?”
Leodai looked at Khytten ruefully. “No, but she hasn’t been like this before.”
“That is because she heard me. May I?”
“You don’t have to.”
“It’s fine. She can hear me, and it is like ordering off the menu versus getting a custom dinner. The menu is fine. The custom order is better.”
Leodai nodded and scooted to one side, and Khytten sat, opening her nightgown via three tiny buttons before settling to feed Delia.
Khytten’s eyes went wide when she attached, “Holy shit. That is a strong grip.”
Leodai blinked. “In this case, better you than me.”
Salat returned, doing up his belt. He came over and crouched next to her and his sister. “Is she hungry?”