by Viola Grace
She laughed softly against his lips. “See? I told you that the light was good for something.”
He held her close and eventually lifted her to slowly slide into her. It seemed her state in the waking world translated because, while it was a snug fit, he was inside her. The rest of their time in the dream state was spent with him lifting and lowering her in a steady and fulfilling beat. She lost count of how many times she had cum, but it was just a dream, after all.
Chapter Nine
Alric looked at his wife, sprawled out on the bed, her inky hair covering her elegant spine. He sighed and turned back to the crystal that the Dhark had sent along. As the images began to fill the screen, he began to shake.
The second to last image of Elurra being beaten in front of the throne chilled him. Wide spans of her back were cut open, and she simply sat and took it, rising when the count was over. He knew many men who would have collapsed from the pain of it. The final image was the med scan with the listing of how much damage had been done to her body. None of that damage was visible now, but the fact that she had withstood it all without giving in to despair, that was something.
He looked into the other files, videos of the same incidents. There was one that was blurred out. His curiosity was aroused. It nearly trumped his fury.
He glanced down to see that it was more than his curiosity. He was still with Elurra on the dreamscape. Splitting focus was what the sandmen were best at.
He eased back into bed with her. They didn’t need to rise for four more hours. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight to him. His personal princess.
* * * *
Elurra felt a warm, wet touch on her neck. She grumbled and shifted away from it. The touch began to work its way down her spine. She sighed and squirmed a little. “If you wake me up this early every day, we are going to have words.”
He chuckled against her shoulder and then her neck. “Are you sore?”
She looked back at him. “The benefit of drinking from a lover is that I recover five minutes after sex.”
“I am not just a lover; I am your husband.” He lifted her knee to her chest and stroked her with two fingers, and when she responded with embarrassing speed, he slid his cock into her.
The feeling of being filled from that angle drove out all words and oxygen. She inhaled sharply when he began to rock against her. She moved her hips, gasping and twitching as nerves on the front of her inner walls were stimulated with every stroke.
Alric moved his arms around her and held her breasts as he picked up speed. The heavy slamming against her would have been objectionable if she wasn’t already rocketing toward release. She didn’t scream when she came; she let out a little squeak as her nerves burst into flame for just an instant before she began her jolting spasming float back to reality.
Alric thrust deep and groaned, holding her carefully as he held himself inside her. When he was finally still, she raised a hand and patted his forearms. “Next time, give me a cup of tea first. I am parched.”
He rolled her to her back and kissed her. He was grinning when he lifted his head. “Next time?”
She snorted. “Of course, there will be a next time. I will probably be cleaning my teeth one day, and you will take me from behind. There will be a next time for that, too.”
He grinned. “Do you have more of these ideas? I would like to make a list.”
She placed a hand on his chest and closed her eyes at the feel of his pulse under her palm.
He smiled. “What do you feel?”
“Breakfast, but I have heard it might not be pleasant if you are not having sex with me at the time.”
He shrugged. “There is only one way to find out.” He flopped to his back. “My body is at your disposal.”
She climbed over him, looking for the best place to bite that wouldn’t upset him. She focused on his right pec. First, she kissed him then she worked her way down his neck, nipping and licking as she went. When she got to the biting part, his erection was pressing into her thigh again. She drank her fill and smiled when she looked up at him. “So, your size is useful.”
He chuckled and threaded a hand through her hair, bending to kiss her. He had to fold himself nearly in half to make the connection, so she leaned toward him and met him halfway. She smiled when he cuddled her against him. “When do we have to get up?”
“Dawn. Three and a half hours from now, give or take.”
“I really need a shower. Sex is fun, but it is very sticky.”
He carefully rolled to his feet, keeping her pinned against him, and he walked her to the shower of his private quarters. The bathing started arousal, but Elurra called a halt to that. She wasn’t going to confront the queen while there was cum running down her thighs. That was Vietta’s move.
In the short time that they had been in the bathroom tidying up, the bots had stripped and reset the bed. Elurra ran to the bed and crawled between the sheets, snuggling and sighing happily.
Alric crawled into bed behind her, spooning up against her. “Did you get what you need from me?”
She nodded. “I did. Thank you. I will be going to the castle armed and dangerous.”
He chuckled. “It’s cute that you think that.”
She smirked. “It’s funny that you think I am not serious.”
They cuddled together and napped for two hours. When they rose, they got dressed, and she put the jewels back in place. Her aunt was nothing if not avaricious.
He put straps across his chest, and his cloak reminded her of his boy in the dreamscape. She touched the fabric. “I like the stars.”
He chuckled. “Thank you. Now, would you like to have breakfast?”
She beckoned him down so that she could kiss him. “Yes, please.”
He sighed as she kissed him softly, and then, she slowly released his neck. “Now, I would like breakfast.”
He grinned. “Yes, my princess.”
There was a lot of possessiveness in that my. She couldn’t blame him. It was what she felt when she had him under her, and her teeth were in him. Anyone getting between them at that moment would be taking back a stump.
He offered her his arm, and they walked through the halls, the slippers on her feet didn’t make a sound on the floors, which was good. His boots were silent as well.
“So, why are you walking so quietly?”
“I am on a very thin cushion of air. It is handy for making quick changes of direction.”
She chuckled. There were members of the crew stirring, and nearly all of them stopped and stared at her as they passed.
“I am guessing that there aren’t many women on board.”
“None. The colony ship is on the way. Metguard women will be suitable mates if they are available once the rest of the colony gets here.”
She frowned. “Why are you even all coming here?”
He patted her hand. “We have no world. Your father offered us a place here in exchange for taking you as my bride. If you had actually been dead, we would still have come, but we would have invaded. Your people would have been subjugated, and we would still end up in charge.”
She grimaced. “So, I am very glad to be alive then.”
He lifted her hand to his lips. “I am happy about it as we don’t have to exert ourselves for the takeover.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Oh, I am going to make you exert yourself. Taking over Metguard is going to be very hard work.”
He looked at her and grinned smugly. “I look forward to the challenge.”
She winked up at him, and then, they were in the dining area, and he was helping her make selections at the machine when a voice said, “Commander, may I speak to you for a moment?”
Alric kissed her cheek and let her figure out her meal while he stepped away to speak with what appeared to be his second in command.
She could clearly hear the hushed words in Masuae, the language of the sandmen.
&nb
sp; “Sir, she’s a vampire!”
“She always has been. She was born to it and was a consumer when I first met her.”
“You can’t trust vampires. They are treacherous bloodsuckers.”
She took her tray and walked past them on the way to the commander’s table. “We are also wonderful dancers and delightful conversationalists.”
The second in command froze, and his head turned toward her.
She sat down, and Alric spoke to him, “She is her father’s heir. She is the face her people recognize. She will be queen.”
The man looked at her. “She speaks Masuae?”
She snorted and looked up at him. “Yes. I was going to marry one, and I do not like secrets. They get annoying after a while.” She said it in what she knew was accented Masuae, but his widened eyes showed her she was understood.
Alric patted his buddy on the shoulder. “We leave for the palace in an hour.”
“She is expecting us for lunch.”
“Then, add one to the count for the palace to expect, and we will see you at the shuttle bay.”
Alric got his meal, and he sat with her. “We could have gotten table service.”
“But, then, I wouldn’t have gotten to play with the dispenser. I really miss being able to work with tech. She had it banned for me. All items in the palace were checked for my prints on a daily basis.”
“Why?”
She smirked. “She was worried I would get into her surveillance system. She worships the images. They are her favourite form of entertainment, but I think she just likes looking at herself.”
“So, the images that I saw... she ordered them?”
“Oh, yes. Wait. What images?”
“The Dhark sent a data crystal full of files of you being beaten.”
She widened her eyes. “Oh. Damn. Right. I wonder how they got them.”
He shrugged. “I am glad that they sent them, it explains why you ran.”
“Oh. I ran because one of her lovers had been told to take me out and kill me. Strike off my head and dig out my heart.”
He grimaced. “Who is it?”
“I don’t know if she let him live once she found out that he didn’t do the job.”
He growled. “If you see him, you will let me know.”
“Yes, Alric, I will let you know. Now, why are we going so early?”
He grinned. “I wish to take stock of my new home and get a feel for what you would like to do with it.”
She sighed and finished her food, setting her implement down. “I would love it destroyed. She burned all of my father’s things. My things. It is an empty stone hulk that has seen far too much pain. All that history has been tainted. If this is a fresh start, it should be exactly that.”
“So, your parents’ time together?”
Elurra smiled. “Is in me. I am the end result of their love and commitment. I don’t need a building to do that. The trees are still there, the pathways. Those are the parts that I treasure. Those are the places where my father held my mother before I was born, they cuddled together and looked at the stars. It was my mother’s idea to choose the sandmen. She told my father that they—you would be good for Metguard.”
“How do you know that?”
“My father knew their time together was short. He had created the surveillance system that let him see his wife in the images. Vietta said she had destroyed those vids as well, and that broke my heart.”
He nodded. “Understandable. We will run through her system and make complete copies before we destroy the castle. Okay?”
She laughed at the caring and violence wrapped in that one sentence. “Yes, thank you.”
He finished his meal and smiled. “Would you like a tour of the ship?”
“Yes, please.”
He smiled. “I’ll show you my home, and I get to destroy yours. It hardly seems fair.”
She grinned. “It will be a romantic gesture. I promise to dredge up some weird fantasies for you to carry out at a later date.”
He laughed. “Deal.”
He offered her his arm, and she linked arms with him to get the tour. It was an eyeopener.
Chapter Ten
The hooded cloak that she was wearing was matched by two of the men with her. The only thing that stood out was her height. She had been given a child’s size that made Alric chuckle.
Alric’s demeanour changed when he was walking to the castle. He was no longer the affable and cheerful man who had helped her braid her hair back into a knot. He was something dangerous. Elurra wasn’t afraid, but she didn’t want to get in his way.
The building was hollow. All the laughter and bustling joy that she had grown up with were gone. The castle was riddled with lenses, and the throne room was an exercise in tension.
She glanced over and saw the duke pinned to the wall and three days into rot. Charming.
Vietta was sitting with her crown on. It was very dramatic, but it worked. She was definitely in charge of the room.
“Commander Kharmin, you are early.”
“I arrived when I meant to. Please, excuse my engineers. They are here to determine the structural integrity of the castle so that I can see what will need to be altered.”
Elurra listened, and he nodded to them. They were given full range to look through the castle. She headed to the rear of the castle and headed toward the queen’s private office.
She put her hand on the scanner and walked past the door. All of the doors were still keyed to her biometrics. It was the reason that she had been forbidden to touch any of it.
The vid terminal was sitting and humming through the new information. She reached for the crystals that she had prepared for this, and she set them into the unit to download everything. Years of data.
Everything of note that had happened within the castle would be on that crystal when the burst was done.
She wondered what was happening with Alric and the queen, but it didn’t matter. She had been given her assignment, and she was going to carry it out.
Once she had finished the download, she took the crystal out, and then, she went to check the king’s study. She kept herself stoic as she looked at the charred remains of her father’s desk and the small chair that she used to sit on when he was working. He told her about the treaties, the spells he was crafting, and the harvest in the village. Her childhood had been spent here, and her heart broke all over again when she went looking for anything salvageable.
A bit of poking and prodding later and she stood with tears tracking down her cheeks. She had found it. The fake wall wasn’t visible, it was just something in a faded memory. The cache of books behind it stunned her. This was her father’s personal stash of books, and her mother’s journal was front and center. On a podium, in the small room, the slim volume had pride of place. It was a treasure, but she couldn’t take it yet.
She closed the door and brushed away the marks of her contact. She wiped her hands on the inside of her cloak and looked around. This place was the past, the books were the present, and Alric was her future. She had to keep things in perspective.
Her recon was complete. The archive crystal was with her. She could now find Alric and give it to him.
She calmed herself and left the burned room. She would seek them in the throne room and work from there.
The other engineers would join them as they finished their assessments.
Elurra returned to the throne room, and Alric caught her gaze and gave her a smile and a nod.
She walked to stand next to him, and she gave her report, ignoring Vietta. “The archive has been completed, and I have also found something of interest that will need to be removed before the renovation begins.”
Vietta was staring at her in dawning horror, so Elurra reached up and dropped the hood back.
She smiled at her aunt, and it was not a nice smile. She didn’t bare her fangs, but she was near it.
“You!”
Elurra chuckled. “Yes, me. I thought you were smarter than that. Did you forget what I looked like when I was no longer appearing in the vids?”
Alric reached out and put his arm around her. “I believe that we are here for lunch?”
Vietta frowned. “It won’t be ready for an hour.”
Elurra smiled. “Perhaps we could just have tea.”
Vietta snagged onto that. “Tea, yes, of course.”
She rose and left the room, the courtiers were staring at Elurra as she passed to go to the private morning room. She knew how different she looked. Her cheeks weren’t sunken, her body had filled out, she had curves, and her eyes weren’t haunted. Alric walked with her, and she smiled. The visible show of strength and support was helpful. She didn’t feel like he would let her get stabbed in the back.
He murmured, “How are you doing?”
“Good. But I need three men and ten minutes before you tear this place down. I found one spot worth keeping. Or at least preserving.”
“Very well. When the engineers join us, they will present their reports. You need to identify the region then. They will work around it.”
She nodded and smiled. “Thank you.”
The morning room was set for four, but when the servant saw Elurra, he immediately removed a seat and place. He put a small wooden stool in the spot where the elegant chair had been. Vietta glanced at Alric and saw his scowl. She tried to laugh it off. “It was just a game we played.”
Alric offered her his chair, and he stood behind her when she sat. The queen stood stuck for a moment and slowly took her own chair, staring at Elurra.
The servant realized that things had changed and replaced the setting and the chair. He would be beaten for it later, but for now, he was doing the best he could under penalty of death.
“So, Elurra, where did you go?”
She smiled, her lips tight. “Away.”
The tea was brought, and Vietta took her pot and poured two cups. “Here, Commander. It is my own personal blend.”
