by Erik Reid
“Yeah, I could sleep on the floor I guess, if you want.”
“Hmm,” she said.
“This is where you say you don’t want that. You want me to stay in the bed with you. Right?”
“I do!” she said. “I was just caught on the word ‘sleep.’ I’m so tired, but also wide awake.”
“I know the feeling,” I said, slinking down a bit so that the sheets tented higher between my legs. In the faint moonlight, I doubted it was that noticeable, but I suddenly wanted to be noticed.
“I wonder if I’m awake now because my brain thought I was sleeping earlier,” she said. “I wasn’t sleeping, I just… black out sometimes. The way some people faint at the sight of blood, I faint when people fight. I can’t take it, not one bit. I just want everyone to get along, to play fun games, and be good friends.”
Serious talk alert.
“People do fight, though,” I said. “What happens then?”
“I fall down I guess,” she said. “Sometimes I wake up someplace new, or dirty. Sometimes I have blood on my hands, but I don’t know why.”
“Do you think maybe you got into a fight too? And that you blocked it out?”
“Goddess no,” she said. “I make people laugh, not cry. See?”
She surprised me then, sneaking her hands under the bedsheet and poking her fingers lightly into my ribs. I squirmed away from her out of shock more than anything else.
“Oh, come on,” she said. “Don’t tell me you’re not ticklish?”
“Am I?” I asked. “I’ve never checked.”
“I can check for you,” she said.
Spoiler alert: I had checked, and I wasn’t ticklish. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t enjoy letting Kaylee figure that out for herself. She tossed the bedsheet aside and ignored my cock, too smitten with the idea of tickling me to realize what else might lie on the horizon.
Instead, she straddled my stomach and poked at my ribs, my abs, my chest. She ran her fingers under my arms and all over my body, searching in vain for that one weak point that might force an awkward sound from my lips.
Her tail wriggled back and forth behind her, twitching excitedly as she explored my body, darting in different directions to help her maintain balance while her knees gripped my sides. Occasionally her tail would swat my dick without her realizing it, and each time that minor contact sent an excited pulse through my whole body.
“I think two can play at this,” I said, tiptoeing my fingers from her hip bone up her side. She squirmed more the higher I went, probing the delicate space between her ribs with just enough pressure to confuse her nerves and throw her body off-balance.
It didn’t take long before she was laughing and scrunching up in odd ways to evade my touch.
I wrapped my arms around her and rolled us over, pinning her beneath me. I took her wrists and held them over her head as my weight lowered onto her, resting my hard cock against her body.
Her eyes widened. “Someone really liked this game,” she said.
“Someone really likes you,” I said. I leaned down to kiss her. My lips touched against hers, first for a light peck, then a longer kiss, until I pressed harder and probed my tongue into her mouth.
She lay there passively as my hands held her wrists down, then I had a brief moment of panic. I let her go and leaned upward, making sure Oscar didn’t hold too tight or leave a bruise. He was so indelicate with the synapper pods I failed to pluck earlier, but with a simki he was as gentle as I would be. She was fine.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “I just wanted to look at you. You’re a sexy little simki, you know that?”
“I would say you’re a sexy little human, but you’re not,” she said. “You’re very big, in a way simki are not.”
That made me smile. I had my share of compliments back home too, but I was glad to know my anatomy impressed here just as much.
A crosshairs emerged in my vision, but not one meant for combat. This Tactical Assist directed me to a small spot along Kaylee’s neck.
I leaned down as if to kiss her on the lips, but it was a fake-out. A moment before my mouth would have touched hers, I darted to the side and kissed her neck instead, just below her jaw. She moaned as the light pressure of my lips against one of her sensitive spots sent goosebumps prickling up her skin.
When I leaned back, the crosshairs split in two and traveled down to Kaylee’s nipples. I followed Oscar’s trail, kissing my way down the simki’s neck and chest. I cupped her breasts, marveling at the touch of her soft, plush skin against my fingers despite having one hand covered in Oscar’s black fabric. Every tactile sensation transmitted perfectly through that glove, right down to the pebbled skin of Kaylee’s areolas as her nipples hardened against my touch.
I leaned down and sucked on those buds slowly, pulling her into my mouth and holding her lightly with my teeth while my tongue played against her. Her hips started to roll, and that was my cue.
I stuck two fingers into my mouth to wet them, then reached down for Kaylee’s clit. I rubbed in gentle circles, pushed lightly against the hood, and then grazed against the sensitive pearl within.
All the while, Kaylee kept her hands above her head and lay there, moaning and biting her lip. My cock throbbed with needs that she hadn’t addressed, but the minor rocking of her hips offered up an answer to that.
I kissed each nipple once, then planted my knees beside hers. A quick touch of my fingers to her outer lips helped me open her up and find a slick, ready entry. I slid my dick into her wet hole and sank slowly until she gasped in a sharp breath. All of her muscles tensed, gripping me tight.
Without pulling back, I ran my palms up her front and rubbed her breasts, catching her hard nipples in my palms and giving a light squeeze. I cupped her from the sides and let my thumbs tease her nipples, relaxing her with pleasurable touch until she unclenched and let me plow deeper inside her core.
Her breathing came in short bursts now, like she wasn’t sure she could fit air and my cock in her body at the same time. My thrusting started in slow motions that quickly picked up speed, diving into Kaylee’s body faster and faster while her hips met mine at the same speed.
We synchronized our rhythms, panting and grunting, losing our rational minds in the carnal animal desires that rocked our bodies.
She was practically gushing now, her hole so wet and eager as I pounded her harder. Heat and pressure built inside me, but I breathed deep and willed my body to hold back.
Suddenly, Kaylee arched her back and pumped her hips hard against mine, engulfing my cock in her satiny heat. “I’m at the finish line,” she said.
“Me too.”
Her muscles clenched hard, gripping my dick as she came. I shot in rapid bursts, her breasts still cupped in my hands and my hips moving in sharp thrusts that I could no longer control.
When Kaylee’s body rested beneath mine, I rolled onto my side and lay next to her. The scent of sex hung heavy in that room as post-orgasmic calm washed over us.
Sync Progress: 5%
New Magnification Strength: 1,500%
I guess Oscar liked that too.
“That was fun,” Kaylee said. “I don’t think it counts as a game though.”
“Unless we make it one,” I said, tracing a finger between her breasts and down to her navel. “How about, whoever comes the most times in one night wins?”
“That sounds fun,” she said. “But I’m sleepy now. You tired me out.”
“Okay,” I said. “But whether this was a game or not, I will want a rematch.”
“Hmm,” she said. “That sounds nice.”
She nuzzled her nose against my arm and wrapped herself around me, naked limbs entwining my body as she fell quickly into a deep sleep. I barely had time to find myself a comfortable position before she slipped into a cute little snore.
The aching efforts of the previous day finally caught up to me, sapping my brain of any will to stay awake. With a sof
t pillow beneath me and a warm woman on my side, I drifted quickly off to sleep.
CHAPTER 15
The crack of wooden beams splitting in two. The muffled grunt of a voice straining with effort. The clank of metal against stone.
My eyes peeked open just the slimmest sliver. The moon barely lit the room, so it was still nighttime. My body and mind were exhausted, which meant I hadn’t slept much by then.
Yet, the quiet empty streets of this outlying draykin village weren’t quiet anymore, and they sure weren’t empty. I slipped out of the bed carefully to avoid waking Kaylee and I peeked between the slats of the window blinds.
A woman stood at the center of the adjacent intersection, surrounded by five men dressed in simple clothing. They seemed to stagger where they stood, like they were drunk. The woman, meanwhile, had her knees slightly bent and her fists raised.
I wanted to go back to sleep. None of this was my problem. The woman, however, started shouting threats at the men and the noise caused Kaylee to stir in her sleep. She rolled over and furrowed her eyebrows, but then resumed her snoring.
Fighting was a trigger for her, and here it was, outside her window. I needed to make it stop, no matter how exhausted I was.
I pulled my clothing on and trod lightly on my way toward the door, when a thought struck me. Dani took a handful of noxyweed from one saddlebag, but we had also plucked a few reflex-enhancing seedpods along the way. I thrust my hand inside the bag and found a pair of prickly knobs.
Synappers.
I popped them into my mouth and started to chew as I crept down the inn’s stairs toward the front doors.
The prickly skin on the outside of those pods was a strange sensation against my tongue so I pinched the pods between my rear teeth and crunched on them until they burst. Their contents broke loose and I nearly choked on their overwhelming bitterness.
My mouth felt like it was full of sand. Small granules crunched between my molars and stuck in the spaces between my gums and my lips. They were hard to swallow, clinging to my throat and nearly forcing me to cough, but I held my diaphragm steady and forced them down.
Occasional crunches still sounded between my molars from errant seeds that worked their way loose from my teeth and back into general circulation inside my mouth, but the worst of it was over. An aftertaste like a mouthful of espresso lingered, but my eyes felt brighter and my mind a little sharper.
Hot damn. This was Silura’s answer to coffee. In the raw.
Quicker than any hotshot latte I had downed in the past, these little seedpods set my body on high alert. Each passing second honed my senses, focusing stray shadows into distinct shapes; sharpening background noises into intelligible sounds; instructing my muscles on their next precise move.
I leapt down the final three steps and landed almost soundlessly in front of the inn’s welcome desk, rolling my feet as I hit the ground to smooth my movements and spread the impact while avoiding an attention-grabbing thud.
The innkeeper sat behind his desk, leaning forward in his chair with his dagger held loosely in his hand. He stayed asleep.
Emboldened by the herbaceous uppers coursing through my body, I opened the front door and sprinted toward the block’s corner, stopping on a dime and leaning just enough that I could catch the sound of the scuffle unfolding below Kaylee’s window.
“Come on, love,” one man said, pausing to burp before he continued. “The faster you stop fighting it, the quicker we all get to sleep when we’re done.”
“I’m not your love,” she said. “Though I’d be happy to send you off to sleep. Permanently. Now for the last time, stand down. I have work to do.”
“Working this dick!” one man yelled. The others laughed, but the woman just shook her head.
“Pillow talk is over, boys,” she said. “Come and get it.”
The woman had a long, fur-lined tail much like Kaylee’s, but this tail was all white. A pair of pointy cat ears sat atop her head, also purely white, surrounded by long white hair that fell in boisterous waves. Tight bands of gold covered her wrists and her ankles, but a more delicate piece of jewelry caught my attention. A golden necklace chain hugged her neck closely with a small glass ornament, shaped like a bell jar, with a glowing blue flame inside it.
A cerulean blue top held her large breasts tight, like a sports bra, while her short shorts were similarly athletic. She dressed almost like a boxer. Almost. Boxers don’t have black leather belts slung across their hips with a handful of glistening throwing stars at the ready.
She reached for her belt now, poised like a gunslinger at a Wild West duel.
“Beat it, fellas,” I said. “I mean that literally. You have hands. Go home and use them.”
The woman’s head swiveled to face me. “Get out of here! I can fend for myself.”
“Hush,” I said. “I’ve got a girl sleeping in there and I want her to stay that way. I need this over fast. You hear that, all of you? Go home. You’re drunk and ugly and loud. A terrible slobby trifecta of loser-dom.”
“Bitch doesn’t understand the new hierarchy,” the man said. “Guards is gone. This is our town now.”
“So you’re the assholes robbing everyone?” I asked. “The least you could do is keep it down. Future victims need their sleep.”
The five draykin ignored me after that, turning their attention to their female target. Their dark leathery wings beat lazily behind them as they shifted from foot to foot, each gaging the most likely means of restraining this woman and taking what she wasn’t willing to give.
She stood at the center of all five, her fingers fiddling as they hovered a half-inch from her throwing stars. Three polished shuriken sat ready for use, their sharp blades curving slightly as they extended from a circular center with a finger-wide hole cut through it.
When one man bent his knee and started to charge at her, she snapped a throwing star off her belt and flung it at him. The weapon sank its blades deep into his chest, splashing his blood onto the street and forcing him to collapse into a rippling pile of fat and pain.
Now it was on. The others charged her at once, grunting with each step. She let out a roaring war cry and spread her limbs wide, prepared to take on all four alone.
“Dammit,” I said. “I just wanted some fucking quiet.” I sprinted at the nearest draykin and shouldered him, knocking him off-balance enough to topple him over. He landed on one of his wings, snapping something inside it and forcing him to howl in pain. I leaned back to avoid getting smacked when his tail thrashed.
The woman with feline features took on three draykin at once, kicking in wide arcs that forced them to keep some distance, then lashing out with lunges that turned into gut punches. I intended to intervene, but she fought so quickly my opportunities opened and closed in a blink. I ended up watching like a child learning double-dutch jump rope, leaning in one second for an opening, then missing it and waiting another beat.
Calculations swam in my head, comparing timing and distance and speed of motion. When two of the draykin men drifted apart an extra inch, the synappers in my bloodstream urged me forward without a second’s hesitation.
One of them had a fist cocked, aimed at the side of that woman’s head while she spun to block a different attack.
What had started as a drunken show of force to terrify this girl into submission quickly turned into a matter of surly pride and rage. They wouldn’t back down from one solitary woman with a fighter’s instinct. No, these men wouldn’t stop until someone put them down for good.
I rushed forward, pumping my legs hard and reaching with Oscar toward a moving target. At the last second, I curled my fingers around the man’s bicep and held firm, halting his punch before it landed.
“What the—” was all he could get out. The woman finished blocking the attack she was focused on and spun back to find a fist two inches from her skull, with me holding that man’s arm at bay.
I whirled the man toward me and punched him with my left hand, smartin
g my knuckles as much as I hurt his cheek.
“You’re fast,” the woman said. “I’ll give you that.”
“Thanks,” I said, blocking a punch and landing a kick in a guy’s stomach. “I’m Kyle, by the way.”
“Lissa,” she said, constantly in motion as she battled. “You’re not from Silura.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Because I’m not either. Are you from the Order?”
“Umm, maybe,” I said, ducking low and then springing into an uppercut that cracked a man’s lower jaw against his upper teeth. “How do I know I can trust you?”
“I’m a carrier of the blue flame,” she said, tucking into a combat roll to speed past an oncoming kick. “I’m of the highest rank among the hunters.”
“And what are you hunting?” I asked.
“Demons,” she said, slowly, as a frown crossed her face. “Which you would know.”
“Busted,” I said.
“If not by the Order’s doing, how did you travel across realms?”
“A blast of lightning,” I said. “I must have entered the speed force. Behind you!”
Lissa spun back and tore a throwing star from her belt. She flung it fast, and if her target had come at her in a predictably straight line, he’d have taken a shuriken to the throat. Instead, he lumbered and faltered, avoiding her attack by virtue of his drunken unsteadiness.
“Wait,” I said. “Demons? With an ‘s’? Like, more than one of them?”
“Perhaps,” she said. “The blue flame leads me toward the mountains. I’ll find out there.”
I ducked as she pivoted into a spinning kick that kept her airborne while her feet cut a wide arc around us. None of the men took any impact, but they all scattered backward and gave us some space.
The four men regrouped and surrounded us, grunting and huffing. They struggled against the liquor in their veins to maintain the athleticism of a fight they didn’t realize would run so hot.
What happened next was an all-out brawl. They had given up any attempt at aiming or precision and rushed us with arms swinging at random. Their doughy bodies descended on us like a tsunami, splashing their limbs and body flab onto the fight with reckless force.