by Viola Grace
“As long as it isn’t his penis, I think I am fine. I am consuming Banor. Does that answer your question? I mean, there is the other way, but it does take a while.” She kept eating with neat precision.
When all of the food was gone, she sat back and sighed.
Lexo hissed, “His kind feeds on human women.”
Understanding clicked. It would explain a lot.
Allura looked at Lexo. “He hasn’t done that yet, but tonight will only be our second time properly having sex. I mean, the hours of foreplay is very entertaining, but sometimes, you just want to dive in.”
Lexo slumped. “You are having sex with him?”
She twisted her mouth in a smile. “He is having sex with me. I have to initiate the contact. He then reciprocates. It is rather nice to have a give and take. It has not been my past experience.”
Banor reached over and pulled her up and onto his lap. “She is an excellent partner and is considering becoming what we need, the liaison between the species.”
Lexo’s mouth opened in shock. “Allura? She is hot, but she is a woman. They won’t listen.”
“By the time she returns to them, she will know the ways of the Others and will have possession of her own forms. She will able to crush you to vapour with the flick of her energies, so I would be hesitant to get on her bad side now.”
“Aside from her beauty, why would you want her?”
Banor smiled. “She likes the swing in the courtyard.”
She blushed. “I really like the swing in the courtyard.”
Lexo was confused, but they ignored him as their gazes met. Promises were made in that look.
“That is... disturbing. He can’t leave here. You know that, right?” Lexo was pulling out the stops.
Allura smiled. “Excellent. If he has to wait for me, he is less likely to stray, and I have a reason to return.”
That statement stunned Lexo. He gave up.
While she cuddled with Banor, he gave Lexo orders to return to his family and resign from the defenders. He needed to claim that the guilt from Allura’s injury was too much for him to bear.
He left the castle, and they got their second night.
Later that night, exhausted and curled up against Banor, she smiled. “Huh, you really do devour human women.”
He chuckled and held her close. “I find it most enjoyable.”
She sighed. “So did I.”
He stroked her back and asked, “Do you mind it that I cannot travel?”
“You are bound to this world, right? It isn’t an issue.”
“Do you know why I am bound to this world?”
“Um, no. We haven’t discussed it.”
“I have grown too large.”
She held in any comments about any other part of his body. “How so?”
“Over the centuries, I continued to evolve here, keeping an eye on my people. When the time came for me to visit one of the Other communities, I could not compress myself enough to leave.”
“Oh, well, your loss is tragic, but it is my gain. If you hadn’t been stuck here, you wouldn’t have caught my father and then wouldn’t have sent him home with enough treasure to keep my family afloat for a few years. Oh, and you wouldn’t have been here to help me.”
He squeezed her. “I have never been so delighted to be here at the right time.”
She laughed. “I think Lexo wishes that you hadn’t been here for me.”
“He will learn his sentence when he returns home. He is going to be tethered for a few centuries.”
“Is that like the webbing?”
“Yes and no. It is a mark in the skin that stops him from being able to shift.”
“Oh, so he is going to be human.”
Banor chuckled. “Yes, until they let him go. That will be up to them.”
“He doesn’t know?”
“He doesn’t seem the type to give things a lot of thought. If I hadn’t intervened, you would be degrading at a rapid rate.”
She stroked the muscles of his arm. “You are selfless and generous.”
He laughed and rolled her to her back. “You are insatiable.”
She blushed. “Sorry.”
He moved down her body. “Don’t be, I like it.”
She shivered as he devoured her again. She truly appreciated his devotion to her needs.
Chapter Ten
Allura finished her call to her family when she turned and looked at Banor suspiciously. “They just got a delivery of jewelry and artifacts.”
“Did they?”
She looked at him in amusement before she walked up and hugged him. “Thank you.”
“You are welcome. Are you feeling better today?”
She looked up at him and nodded. “No more aches and pains.”
He grinned, and there was a light leer to it. “Let’s go for a walk.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t fully shift inside the castle, and I want you to see what I truly look like.”
“Should I be nervous?”
He laughed. “Probably, but I don’t think you will be.”
He took her hand, and they left the castle via the main door. He walked her to the garden, near her tree with the swing.
“So, consider this the third date.” He kissed her until she was holding onto him, and then he eased her back and stepped away.
She was dazed, and what he had said didn’t sink in until he blurred and expanded and... kept expanding.
A form took shape within the shadows, and her fascination with ancient tales gave her the information she needed. She grinned, and when he extended his sharp muzzle toward her, she pressed her hands to it before kissing him softly. He lifted his head, and his body was coiling and uncoiling in the sky above. His claws were needle-sharp and longer than she was tall. Once he had shown her his secondary form, he shifted into a cloud of roiling black energy and fog. This was what she had been expecting.
The tendrils of him were moving lazily, and she nearly missed the fact that he was floating toward her. When the tendril wrapped around her waist, she blinked, and when it pulled her toward the cloud, she got a little nervous. The moment when she remembered the reference to the third date, she knew that things were about to get weird.
She woke up on the swing. Her body was still twitching internally and externally. A few meters away, Banor was pulling himself together.
As soon as he could walk, he rushed up to her and knelt in front of her. “Are you all right?”
She looked at him, narrowed her eyes, and then found her voice. It was hoarse from screaming. “Perhaps we should restrict that to once a month.”
His head hung down in relief. He took a moment and then looked up with a bright grin. “I can do that again?”
She tried to stand up, but her knees wobbled. “Once a month. Maybe once a year if you annoy me.”
He helped her to her feet and then picked her up, carrying her back to the castle. “Twice a week.”
She stared at him. “What are you doing?”
“Negotiating. Negotiating with Others is going to be very important for you. You should learn to do it now.”
She was stunned and started laughing helplessly. “Twice a month.”
“Once a week.” He grinned. “We can rename it Thirday.”
She groaned. “Once a week you can request it. I don’t guarantee that I will always be in the mood to have my mind blown out like that.”
Her internal muscles twitched.
He looked at her. “What was that?”
Allura groaned. “Aftershocks.”
He looked smug. “You enjoyed it?”
“Once a week, Banor. Don’t push it.”
He laughed and carried her in.
The moment when she finished her adaptation, it should have made a gong sound or something. Suddenly, she wasn’t hungry, and she could see the world around her for what it was. She wa
s literally standing inside Banor. He was the castle itself. No wonder he couldn’t leave. She had to admit, it explained the bots and the plumbing. It became what he needed where he needed it.
She located his human form with a quick sweep of the building. He was in the studio.
After five weeks with him, he had painted four portraits of her in various slightly suggestive poses. He had not let her see any of them.
She walked to the studio and knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Banor looked over his shoulder, and he smiled. “Come in, Allura. You can see them now.”
She frowned and didn’t understand what he said until he showed her the first portrait with her reclining on the chaise. There was a bright jagged light over her spine that was right where the blast had struck her.
“That is the priming blast.”
“Correct. I wanted to keep track of it so you could look back on it and see what the progression looked like. You will be able to see it now, right?”
She nodded and looked at the portraits, each one showing more white light burning out of her spine and spreading across her body. The most recent showed that the light had taken over ninety percent of her body.
“I thought it would be shadow. Like you.” She glanced at him.
He smiled. “Each Other has their own frequency—their own spectrum. You are light. You are currently bound by the size of your body, but soon, you will begin to expand beyond it, and once you have enough to achieve your next form, we will work toward it.”
She smiled. “Right. I don’t want to make a full transformation as my next form. What do I need for that?”
Banor was serious. “Tell me what you want.”
She explained it, and he smiled. “You should be able to manage that in three weeks. Is that all you want to be?”
“No, but it is my starting point. I will give it a while before I become a roiling ball of pervy tentacles.”
He grinned. “You like the pervy tentacles. You scream for them.”
She reached up and clamped her hand over his mouth. “Yes, yes. I was there.”
He eased her hand down. “Once you have gained enough energy mass, we can discuss children.”
“How?”
“Well, we decided on the day, you give up five pounds of your mass, I give up five pounds of mine, and we blend our consciousness together. When we separate, one of us is holding a baby.”
She blinked. “Right. Well, that beats forty weeks.”
His eyes gleamed. “Ah, what I could do with forty weeks and all the Thirdays.”
She glared at him, her stomach fluttered. “You still have four days to go before it is Thirday again.”
“But it’s my birthday.”
She leaned back. “It isn’t, is it?”
He snorted. “You will never know, but I am practicing subterfuge. The Others who have human mates say that some light manipulation can be entertaining for both parties.”
She poked him in the ribs. “Don’t listen to other Others. They don’t have to deal with me when I find things out, and you do.”
He winced. “Excellent point, my precious one.”
She snorted. “So, when is your birthday?”
“Others really don’t keep track of their first consciousness.”
She walked up to him and looped her arms around his waist. “Pick a day. That will be the day we celebrate.”
He chuckled. “When is your birthday?”
“You have my file. You know that already.”
He closed his eyes and blinked. “The day you arrived?”
“If I travelled for four days, then, yes.” She nodded.
He groaned. “Come with me. You need to pick out a present.”
She was surprised, but she let him take her hand and lead her down hallways and stairs until they were in natural stone.
Light turned on as they entered a hall. A room opened up, and she nearly came to a complete halt.
“How much gold is that?”
He shrugged. “A bit. I dig it up and sculpt it into things. Beautiful things.”
She stared, and she saw his aesthetic all over. It was all very beautiful.
“Pick something.” He was eager.
She looked at the pedestals with necklaces set on them and the statuary. “I don’t need anything.”
She saw his crestfallen expression and smiled. “Do you think you could manage a Thirday in here?”
“In here? With all of my precious creations?” His grin was slow. “I believe I want to try if you are sure.”
She grinned. “Definitely not sure, but the offer is leaving the table in three... two...” she didn’t get to one. He was a roiling black mass of energy, and she was being lifted up and into the air with her clothing being disposed of and the tendrils of the Other wrapping around her limbs.
Time stood still as she was lost to endless caresses and welcome invasion.
She woke on a pile of golden coins, and Banor was reforming next to her. When he was in his humanish form, he dropped next to her and held her. She could feel his happiness, his favourite things in his favourite place, where he had engaged in his favourite activity.
He kissed her softly, and he stroked her body as if enjoying the difference in the feel between his forms. “Thank you for that.”
She chucked. “Thank you. But I don’t think that the Golden Thirday is going to be a thing. You looked uncomfortable all wadded up like that.”
He sighed. “You are right, but it is still fun to see you against the efforts of my labour.”
She blinked as she realized that the gold wasn’t him. It was a finite resource that he treasured because he couldn’t replicate it permanently. “Well, if the offer is still open, I like that necklace there.”
He followed her gaze and smiled. “My self-portrait?”
“Yeah. If I am going to be leaving this world, even for a while, I thought it would be nice to have part of you with me.”
He squeezed her, a tendril delivered the necklace to her, and as he put it on her, he chuckled. “Don’t worry. I don’t have a shuttle.”
She paused, and her eyes went wide. She started laughing as the greatest mystery of her career was solved. The Others were the shuttles that carried them from world to world.
She definitely had a lot to learn. She might get more next Thirday. It would certainly be educational.
Author’s Note
Well, I was going to call it quits with this one, but I asked for a few more fairy tales suggestions, and I got them. So, I have a minimum of four more coming.
Thanks for reading,
Viola Grace
About the Author
Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.
An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around, and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.
In real life, she is now engaged in beekeeping, and her adventures can be found on the YouTube channel, Mystery Bees Apiary. Just look for the cartoon kittens.