The Defector

by J. C. Andrijeski

  Revik nodded, grateful. He fought to relax, to lean into the other male, then he felt hands on his belt and opened his eyes.

  Dalai smiled at him from where she unhooked the clasp.

  “We need to get him down,” Nurek said to her. His voice still held that denser sympathy as he rubbed Revik’s shoulder, pressing against his back. “Get him naked and then get him to lie down, ilya. He needs fucking so badly I’m having trouble controlling my light.”

  Revik felt his tongue thicken, but didn’t speak.

  Dalai smiled up at him, then at the other man, nodding.

  “I know,” she said. “He’s like a walking advertisement for sex right now, aren’t you brother?” she teased softly, deliberately caressing the front of his pants. “Even with the scars, he’s young, though. How old are you, brother Dehgoies? Will you tell us?”

  Revik fought to think, feeling his face warm.

  “Seventy-nine,” he said, after a pause.

  Dalai flinched, looking up at him.

  Her hand remained on his crotch, but Revik felt shock emanate from her light. That same shock and surprise opened her purple and blue eyes wider, even as she glanced at Nurek, who laughed.

  “Gods,” he said, kissing the back of Revik’s neck. “We’re fucking child molesters, ilya. Did you have any idea he was so young?”

  Dalai shook her head, surprise still flickering through her light.

  “Gaos, no,” she said, her bewilderment audible in her voice. “I thought he had to be a century at least, given his time with the Rooks and his placement there.” She looked up at Revik, studying his face openly. “So, he’s not even at his full weight, yet. How is that possible?”

  Revik started to tense.

  He considered making a crack about them talking about him as if he wasn’t there… but they were both caressing him with their hands and light, so he found it difficult to hold onto his resistance, much less the thread of his thoughts.

  His pain worsened the longer they touched him, but he found his desire to fight them melting, too, especially when they continued to warm him with their light, exploring him carefully with their hands. Dalai caressed him for a little longer, then returned her hands to his belt and finished unhooking the clasp.

  Revik’s body relaxed even more as she undressed him.

  He leaned more of his weight against the larger male, still fighting half-heartedly with his light, knowing he was losing that battle, too. Nurek was stroking him from behind and Revik let out another low groan––

  When movement at the tent door jerked his eyes to the left.

  By then, Dalai already had his clothes more or less off, and was pulling the last pant leg off his ankle. Half-struggling against the arm that now held him tighter, exuding reassurance, Revik found himself cringing, feeling overly exposed.

  He didn’t feel better when he saw who stood there.

  Mara smiled at him, those almond-shaped and brilliant-colored hazel eyes sliding down the length of him to linger on his now-uncovered erection.

  Revik felt another conflicted stab of pain and unease at the intensity of her stare, even as Ontari smiled at him, from where he stood just behind her.

  “Mind company?” Ontari asked Nurek politely, glancing also at Dalai.

  Dalai laughed, but slid her body protectively in front of Revik’s.

  Nurek held him tighter against him, still exuding reassurance through his skin, and now an overt protectiveness, as well.

  Revik felt a gratitude so intense it nearly brought tears to his eyes.

  Dalai kept her voice light, but Revik heard that caution reach her words.

  “Just how many are waiting out there to molest our poor brother?” she said, quirking an eyebrow at Ontari. “Do you have any idea how young he is? He’s just told us, and now that I know, I think we’d better take it a little easy on him. At least until he’s well enough to be more discriminating in his affections.”

  Ontari waved her concerns away with a smile.

  “Oh, there were more,” the other seer said cheerfully. “Believe me, there were more. Balidor capped it at the two of us, with admonitions that we play nice with his newest recruit. Besides, I think he’d prefer it if brother Revik could actually walk tomorrow.”

  Dalai laughed, half-leaning against where Nurek held Revik.

  Even so, she didn’t move from her protective position in front of him. Revik felt the wariness of her light, and breathed another pulse of gratitude at her and Nurek.

  Mara hadn’t taken her eyes off him.

  Raising her gaze from his lower body, she quirked an eyebrow at his face directly, a smile touching the edge of her lips.

  “You don’t mind if we stay, do you brother Dehgoies?” she said. “You did make an open offer. Were Ontari and I somehow not meant to be included?”

  Revik fought with emotions conflicting around his light, distrust.

  He didn’t plan to speak, but did, his voice coming out harsher than he intended.

  “You don’t want me,” he said to her. “You made that clear. Why are you here?”

  She smiled openly at that, tilting her head at him, even as she made a dismissive gesture with her fingers. “We are a long way away from our introduction in those caves, brother. I had my role to play there, anyway. I would have thought brother Balidor told you that?”

  Revik shook his head, feeling a sharper panic settle deeper in his chest.

  “You don’t like me,” he said.

  She smiled again, her eyes holding a more predatory glint.

  “Do I need to like you?” she said sweetly.

  “If it means you’re going to hurt me if you don’t, then… yes,” Revik said, his voice short.

  His face flushed hotter after he said it, but he didn’t lower his gaze.

  He could feel Dalai hovering over him protectively again, even as she made a negative gesture to Mara.

  “Maybe you should go, sister,” she said, her voice worried.

  Mara looked only at Revik, though.

  “Brother,” she sighed, clicking softly. The coyness dropped from her voice, even as she rested her hands on her hips, frowning. “You are paranoid, indeed. Did you somehow miss that I’ve been flirting with you for days out here? That I offered to go along with Balidor and the others to protect you against that Rook? That your friend, Jem, has warned me away from trying to seduce you… repeatedly, I might add?”

  At Revik’s silence, she walked closer to him.

  She glanced at Dalai as if for permission, then walked closer still.

  After another few steps, she inserted herself between Dalai and him altogether.

  Pressing her fully-clothed body up against his, she wrapped her fingers around his cock and he let out a low groan, unable to pull it back.

  “I want you, brother,” she said.

  Revik fell silent.

  She looked up at his face from where she leaned against his chest, watching him fight to control his breathing.

  “Believe me in this,” she murmured. “I want you… especially after your little display out there. You gave every male seer in this camp a hard-on, brother. You made every female wet, imaging you inside them.”

  When he closed his eyes, she smiled, pressing against him with more of her body.

  “…The fact that you think none of us like you, or want you, or are affected by the insane amounts of pain you’ve been inflicting on us for the past week since we pulled you out of those caves, only makes us want you more.”

  Revik looked away, unable to hold her gaze.

  He heard her smile, even as she started to massage him.

  “Open your light, brother,” she urged, her voice a purr. “Why won’t you open your light to us? Isn’t that the point of this little exercise?”

  He groaned, feeling his pain worsen when he realized she was using her light to try and open his. He felt her there, briefly, toying with him, and nearly lost it then and there.

  “I won’t let you
come. Not that fast. Don’t worry, brother.”

  “Fuck…”

  “We will. Open your light. Please, brother.”

  He fought her, mindlessly that time. Then he fought to do as she asked. He couldn’t do either, but trying worsened the panic in his throat and chest.

  He heard her smile when he closed his eyes again, then she spoke softer once more, her voice a murmur.

  “Gods, you are beautiful, brother. Even more beautiful than I imagined. How did someone as beautiful as you end up a Rook? We are all wondering this. Not only me.”

  He fought to hold onto his light, to keep her out, but only groaned.

  When he let out another, heavier groan, she pressed into him with all of her weight, slowing the movement of her hand as her fingers tightened.

  Her light was growing hotter, more demanding.

  “You like compliments,” she said shrewdly, watching his face. “You like them a lot. Something tells me you also don’t hear nearly enough of them.”

  Revik felt her sliding deeper into his light and let out another thick gasp.

  As he did, the male behind him tightened his hold on him, pressing his erection against Revik’s other side.

  Revik let out another sound and Nurek’s pain worsened.

  “Gods.” Nurek kissed Revik’s neck, using hot, liquid light in his tongue.

  He bit him then, hard enough to make Revik gasp.

  Fear washed through him, maybe even fear for his neck, some residual leftover after what happened in that clearing, but the muscular seer exuded reassurance, affection, warmth. He lightly stroked the bandage from where Terian cut his neck, sending Revik another ripple of reassuring light, weaving it in with feelings of safety, of protectiveness, along with a wanting that made Revik lose control of his light, until he let out a heavier groan.

  He found himself relaxing, opening his light more, almost without him willing it that time.

  He felt helpless.

  He tried to relax into that, too.

  “Gods,” Nurek groaned, holding Revik tighter. “You aren’t kidding about him, sister. Youngster or not… he’s lucky we didn’t all attack him out there.”

  “Is it rape when he asks us to do it?” Ontari mused from by the tent’s opening.

  Revik glanced at him, and Ontari smiled.

  “I don’t think he has any idea what he gave us permission to do,” Mara said wryly.

  She glanced at Ontari, too, before looking back up at Revik’s face, her eyes holding a denser scrutiny, as if she were studying his reactions to her words.

  “He did not even seem to notice when every seer in that group started imagining taking him right there, by that fire. Nor did he notice that the only reason we hesitated was because we couldn’t believe he was serious. Dalai and Nurek just have better reflexes than the rest of us… and more power to them.”

  Mara smiled up at Revik when Nurek laughed.

  Then Mara’s fingers tightened on him, massaging his cock harder.

  “He’s lucky Balidor intervened,” she murmured, still watching Revik’s face. “I think brother Balidor was in as much shock as the rest of us, or he likely would have stopped things sooner. I can only guess that he thought for sure he was pushing brother Revik towards brother Jem with his ultimatum earlier… not into group sex with the rest of us.”

  Revik tensed at her words.

  Mara sent a pulse of desire-filled heat, wrapping her light deeper into his.

  “Trust me, brother,” she murmured, pressing her body against his chest. “I am not making fun of you. Not in the slightest. We are all four grateful that was not the case… and for your generous offer out there. I would not be surprised if you find yourself the object of a lot of attempted seductions this week, however.”

  Nurek laughed again, wrapping his arm around him tighter.

  Revik felt his pain worsen, even as Dalai’s hands slid over him, too.

  “Can you feel his light?” the smaller seer murmured, caressing his side, and his ribs up to his chest. “Gods. You are right, Mara. How did someone with light like this end up a Rook?”

  Revik turned his head.

  He saw Dalai smile up at him, felt her pain wind deeper into Nurek’s.

  Revik’s gaze slid higher then, looking over Dalai’s head, and he saw Ontari watching him, too, from a few feet away, his eyes faintly glazed. He was hard, Revik realized, feeling it before his eyes had shifted down enough to confirm it.

  It penetrated his mind that they were getting into his light.

  They were opening him up, more than he’d intended… more than he probably should be letting them.

  The thought panicked him, even as it made his erection worse.

  He felt himself extending then, and Mara caressed the hard end of his cock as it revealed itself, nearly buckling Revik’s knees.

  Nurek held him up from behind, but Revik let out another groan, that one heavier than the previous ones, seeming to come from deeper inside his chest. He leaned harder into Nurek and the seer gripped him around the waist, pressing into him with his cock, even as he started pulling on Revik’s light again, trying to get him to open more.

  Mara tugged on his hair then, forcing him to look down at her.

  He fought to focus on her face, panting, feeling his tongue thicken in his mouth.

  Five years.

  No one had touched him like this in over five years.

  “Am I okay to stay then, brother?” Mara said.

  She pulled at him with her light, winding it deeper into his, coiling it hotly into his belly and groin. When he gasped, her voice grew openly cajoling.

  “I’m asking you, brother Revik. I’ll beg you, if you want me to… and I’ll compliment you all night if you want that, too. I’ll be very hurt if you say no, brother…”

  Hesitating only a breath, he nodded.

  She gripped his hair tighter, and he closed his eyes.

  “Tell me yes,” she said. “Say it.”

  He let out another heavy groan, still not looking at her.

  “Yes,” he managed. “Stay. Please.”

  Smiling, she released him, stepping back.

  When he opened his eyes, still fighting to control his breathing, she stood a few feet away. He pulled at her with his light, hard. He couldn’t help it. He felt the void with her body and light away from his, so intensely it nearly brought tears to his eyes.

  “Good,” she said, sending him another flicker of heat.

  He got the sense she was answering more than his words.

  Before he could make sense of her expression, she glanced at the others.

  Her voice and light shifted, until they held a near command.

  “Get him down. Now,” she said. “I think he’s waited long enough.”

  “Do we flip a coin?” Nurek said, his voice joking, even as he pressed against Revik from behind. “Or fight for it?”

  “No,” Mara said, still watching Revik’s face. “I want to be the one to fuck him first. I will pay the three of you for that, if I need to.”

  Dalai laughed.

  So did Ontari.

  “I am serious,” Mara said. “Name your price.”

  For a moment, Nurek didn’t speak.

  Revik felt him and Dalai exchange looks.

  Revik himself just stared at the tall female, bewildered at the seriousness he felt in her light, and saw reflected in her hazel eyes. The others inside the tent seemed less surprised at Mara’s words. They also felt faintly hostile, which confused Revik, too.

  He felt Nurek grudgingly concede with his light.

  “Fine,” he said, releasing Revik’s chest. “You can go first.”

  The big, Asian-looking seer kept hold of Revik’s arm, even after he released most of his body. Gripping him tightly with his fingers, maybe to keep him upright, or maybe from the possessiveness Revik still felt rippling his and Dalai’s light, the seer stared at Mara, almost as if he was still assessing her in some way. As he did, he continu
ed to support Revik with his light and hand, wrapping a whisper of protective light around Revik’s aleimi.

  Whatever his precise reasoning for either thing, Revik found himself remaining by the other male’s light, doing it almost unconsciously, without letting himself think too clearly about why, even after he noticed himself doing it.

  Nurek gripped him tighter, maybe because he felt that, too.

  Before Revik could clear his mind, or come close to controlling his light, the Chinese-looking seer aimed his voice back at Mara, his tone openly warning.

  “If you scare him, sister, or are unkind to him… or cause him to close on all of us again… I’ll beat the crap out of you, Mara. I mean it. I don’t give a fuck how much money you throw at us.”

  “He won’t be the only one,” Dalai muttered.

  Mara smiled.

  Her pale eyes shifted to Dalai, right before she quirked an eyebrow back at Nurek.

  “You two really are quite taken with our Rook cub,” she observed wryly.

  “So are you,” Dalai accused.

  Mara shrugged. “I never denied that.”

  “I am serious, Mara,” Nurek warned.

  “Oh. I know you are, brother. I know both of you are quite serious. Never fear.”

  Still smiling, she turned, meeting Revik’s gaze. “I won’t hurt him. I have absolutely no intention of hurting him… in any way. Not unless he wants me to.”

  Revik felt Nurek’s grip on him relax, but only marginally.

  “You’d better not,” the big seer rumbled.

  Mara was still staring at Revik, though.

  “You see, little brother?” she said softly to him.

  She stepped closer to where he stood by Nurek and Dalai, moving like a panther, that predatory glint back in her eyes as she looked over his body.

  “…You have us fighting over you already.”

  Twenty

  Friends

  Revik woke to a ping to his light.

  He didn’t know that at first.

  He slid back into consciousness as if riding a heavier wave out of the depths of some darker ocean.

  It wasn’t tiredness he felt exactly.

  Well, it wasn’t tiredness that made it so difficult to open his eyes in those first few seconds. It was more like he’d lost track of himself somehow, in the intervening hours since he’d finally forced himself to sleep.