“You are my everything, Kuno.”
He inclined his head, his tawny eyes misting with tears as he gazed at her.
“So what is it you want to ask me, Kuno?”
“It is difficult.”
“Cat got your tongue?”
He almost smiled. “I have always wondered, knowing the true circumstances of your marriage, why you never changed your name from Sinclair, after you left. If this question offends…?”
“I had no other name to take.”
“But your family name?”
“I had six families and every time I was fostered, I had to change it to the latest. No option. Every placement was as bad as the one before. Sinclair was just the latest.”
“And the worst.”
Sam shrugged. “I never knew my blood parents’ names, and even if I had, they gave me up.”
“Then, how about Lucas?” He smiled. “I know it’s old-fashioned for the woman to take the husband’s name as her own, but would you mind? It was my mother’s family name.”
A felinus son offering the mother’s name to his mate. It was a rare and indescribable privilege.
“It would be my honor.” She inclined her head and then smiled. “And what about Ronsevaal?”
“I don’t use it. Hell, Sammi. Mention that word and you have people scraping the ground for favors. You can be Samantha-Sharille Lucas-Ronsevaal San Duran fe’ha tu if you really want.”
She grimaced. “Is that the full title?”
“For high ceremony, there’s more. The name reveals lineage. Cats are very proud of their ancestry.”
“What a bloody mouthful.”
“Let me fill your mouth with other things besides words.”
“What other things?” she whispered huskily.
He leaned into her, his mouth slanting over hers. He dipped his tongue over her lips, gently parting her.
He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the Temple. Immediately, the security shield sprang into life, encasing the Temple in a muted silver glow.
“No one comes here uninvited, beloved, the screen is for privacy. Besides, we don’t want to scare the birds. You can be very vocal when aroused.”
“You were the one screaming his lungs out yesterday.”
He blushed. “Is it any wonder? I didn’t realize you could do that with water and bubbles. It tickled.”
“I’ll tickle you some more.”
“You promise?”
Slowly, he untied every ribbon holding her traditional mutatis robe together and prized it open, teasingly, as if he were opening a parcel.
“Yep,” he said. “A very precious parcel.” Their thoughts merged.
John stood back and shrugged off the robe. It fluttered down his body.
Sam feasted her gaze on him, every long, hard inch of him. She reached out to cup his body.
“Aaaah.” John doubled over, gasping. “Stars, hell, it hurts.”
He fell to his knees and Sam dropped beside him, cradling him to her. “Is it the mutatis? Tell me what I have to do.”
John shivered and then swore in felinus.
Time to seize the initiative, Sam, she thought. Lying back on the ground, she raised her knees, parting her legs. “Kuno…” She managed a deep and sexy felinus purr and John lifted his head. His pupils dilated and his eyes glowed.
The felinus ridges of his cock splayed, engorging. A flush raced from his head to his heels.
“It begins, Shari-mine. It may frighten you. I might hurt you. It is mutatis.” John crawled forward and settled between her thighs. The tip of his erection parted her nether lips, skimming back and forth, teasing, tormenting. Edging closer, he slid inside her.
Sam waited for the thrusts. Time passed. He remained immobile, made no sound. Just joined.
“Kuno, saer wan naemis-al.”
Sam squirmed at the sultry whisper, in itself a caress. My name is Kuno and I exist for you.
“Samantha, saeran wan naemis-alen.” My name is Samantha and I exist for you—she returned the pledge.
Slowly, the pressure built inside her, every cell flaring to life. He breathed into her, his mind caressing. Her mind touched his, merging. His pain, the frustration lanced her. The passion burned.
Then, abruptly he withdrew, and lifted her upright, bringing her down onto his lap. His gaze locked with hers.
Even as Sam began to form the question, the answer came: fast and hot. His mind touched her, a caress as deep as it was fleeting. The blood in her veins ignited, swirled around her body. Stars formed. Then the starfire.
He was doing this just with his mind?
She fastened her legs around him, pressing her heels into the small of his back—one of his erotic zones.
He entered her, deep, home, in one thrust.
He stung.
She squirmed and John’s mind soothed.
It is my felinus self emerging, kitten. The discomfort will pass. The flanges undulated inside her, faster and faster, even as the rest of him remained immobile. Pleasure and pain became one and the same--a glorious unity.
She felt his fingers probing her ass, stroking back and forth, finding yet another pleasure point. She mimicked his journey and John gasped. Inside her, his felinus self expanded--more stinging.
My body touches you, fe’ha tu. It unites with you. We change. We become One.
The words rippled outwards, like a pebble dropped in the middle of a pond, engulfing all. She let the words, the love wash over her, through her, the meaning. To become One.
She touched his mind with her own: This is the gift of my body. It unites with you. We become One. She lifted up and then dropped down, pushing him hard into her. Again. Over and over, she controlled the direction and the rhythm. Stars swirled over them both, into them as the starfire ignited their veins. Convergence beckoned.
Too soon! Sam caught John’s frustrated thought.
He drew away from her and knelt between her thighs. Bending forward, slowly, his breath teased along her skin, soothing. He blew gently across her nether curls, cooling her heated, stinging flesh, interspersing kisses with breaths.
Lifting himself away he knelt over her, cooling her body with his breath, every inch of her. He exhaled across her lips and she parted her mouth to taste him, to receive his breath, his kiss. He breathed into her mouth and she took his breath deep in her and returned it, blowing into his mouth. Back and forth, they exchanged breath for breath, tasting their mingled essences. They had become One.
Kuno stretched over her and Sam gasped as he thrust deep, his felinus cock rippling inside her. That burning sting was back. It was too much.
His gaze held hers. “Breathe with me, honey-cat.” He inhaled, long and slow. “Breathe,” he whispered against her lips.
She matched his breath and at each inhalation, his cock undulated. The sting retreated and in its place was pressure, the most intimate pressure that sent ripples of pleasure racing through her body.
John lifted her, turned her, so she rested on hands and knees. He entered her from behind, his thrusts languid, but the deepest penetration.
His tempo increased, then occasionally, he paused. She knew he was teetering on the edge of orgasm.
Again, he exhaled over her, inhaled deeply and exhaled. She matched him breath for breath. John bent over her, his face pressed into the groove of her neck. His fingers slipped across her stomach and parted her curls, finding her clit. He gently rubbed, while his felinus body inside her, expanded and contracted. He caressed, he teased. The starlight built inside Sam and she moaned.
John gently drew from her, turned her and brought her back down onto his lap. She fastened her legs at his back and again his fingers found her clit, stroking and teasing with his nail.
“My name is Kuno and I exist for you, only for you, fe’ha tu. For you, only for you, forever.”
“My name is…” Sam gasped. Her name…what was it? Yes, so easy, so simple. Why had she not known? “My name is Sharille Lucas. I am f
e’ha tu. You are Kuno and you are my faeth-tul-san. I exist for you, only for you, now, forever.”
The words passed between them. Husband. Wife. Forever. Soul-mates.
The starfire ignited in their veins and spread to engulf them. They moved together, minds and bodies as one.
Sam lifted her cheek from John’s shoulder. About them, the swirling starfire was a myriad of shimmering colors.
John’s hair lifted, tendrils tickling her face. His hair was alight with color: golden blonde, streaked with red and black. In the time she had known him, and especially since arriving on Chizan, his hair had grown, altered hue. She fisted a length and took strands into her mouth, tasting.
He groaned. “Yes, dearest. Yes!” She sucked harder and he bore into her, long low strokes aimed beyond possession. To devastate.
Sam cried her release. Lightning swept through her veins. She heard a sound like shattering glass and John’s climax burned into her.
For a moment Sam opened her eyes and saw that beneath them light emanated from the ground, rushing up to envelop them.
This was the soul of Chizan and it greeted them.
The planet-light coalesced, forming droplets of liquid crystal around them.
John’s seed spilled into her, she felt his heat, his gift, and opened her body to receive it. And with it came the gift of belonging to each other and to the world. It rushed through them, crystal light and body essence.
A part of her in him and a part of him in her forever, and tied to the world a part of its soul in them. This was mutatis. Welcomed, belonging. Home.
They flew beyond the levels of starlight ecstasy, and rapture, this was mutatis, a new convergence.
Never parted. Never alone. They shared the thought as they surrendered to the deepest release. Around them the sound of shattered glass. Sam saw more crystal droplets, alive, pulsing with light, and sound and color. She buried her face into his neck and sucked hard, drawing skin and blood into her mouth.
John’s teeth fastened on her neck and he drew forth a taste of blood as his cock nestled deep inside, the ridges splayed wide.
“Yes, Kuno!”
The fire slowly died and the crystals solidified, landing onto the ground with dull thuds, like miniature hail stones.
The grass sparkled with the colors of Chizan: purple, green and silver.
With one thrust upwards John spilled into her again and she bore down, opening herself, he finding her depth. She taking his length. She gathered the starfire within her and gifted him with her own seed.
“Yes! Oh, yes!” Dearest wife, mine. His mind caressed. He sang the felinus love-song and her blood flowed heavy, thick in her veins. She sang for him, stumbling over the felinus words, substituting them with human-speak, promising him her everything. John wept with the beauty and the pleasure.
Time ceased, only the pleasure and passion of the moment. Starlight Passion. The mutatis.
When a measure of sanity returned, and still united, John carried Sam to the water.
“You think this will quench the fire, Kuno, faeth-tul-san, dearest husband-mine?”
He loved her again in the water, the ripples eddying around them as they moved slowly, languidly.
The shadows of late afternoon slipped over the sacred ground.
They lay side by side on the grass bank. John’s hand caressed her stomach, slipping lower to tease.
“When we go to Broome, kitten, I promise you, I’ll love you properly in the water. The dolphins and whales will sing for you.”
“You didn’t think that was properly?” She raised her head to study him and smiled.
“I’ve kept something for when we reach home. Except,” he said, frowning, “for the first time in my life, I can call Chizan home, too.”
“That is the mutatis gift. We are part of the whole. Never parted, never alone.”
His eyes misted. “I knew you would understand, beloved wife.”
“I’m hungry,” Sam said.
“You want me again?”
“Later. I mean hungry. Food hungry.”
John laughed. “You do need replenishing. Stay there.”
“I couldn’t move if my life depended on it.”
“My wife is replete with her husband’s passion?”
“Satiated.”
“You think?” He pushed himself to his knees and exhaled over her, his warm breath making her skin pucker.
Her stomach rumbled.
He laughed. “I see you are hungry and not for me at this moment.” John stood up.
She watched him walk away, his hair swishing across his shoulders.
John bent down to collect his robe. A twig snapped in the undergrowth. He turned. No one was permitted in the grove while he and Sam were completing mutatis. The steps were too heavy for an animal. Then he caught the scent of human. Man. And then machine.
Moments later, the bushes parted and six dark figures hurtled across the clearing.
“Sam, run!”
Samantha, on the river bank turned at the sound, felt John’s alarm, his fear. She came to her feet.
John was struggling in the grasp of two human-droid creatures. He tore free and faced then, a blur of speed, his hands extended, like claws.
He growled. Pure felinus. Enraged.
A male figure emerged from the forest, dressed from head to toe in a grey spacer-suit. The helmet visor was down.
He leveled a laser at John’s head. “Hold still, kitty-cat!”
“No!” Sam cried, racing across the clearing.
The helmeted intruder looked at her and then slowly, deliberately, lowered his pistol and fired point blank against John’s chest.
Sam flung herself to her knees at John’s side, sobbing, trying to stem the tide of blood from his wound.
John! John. Kuno. Mind to mind dearest! But his mind was blank. Black. She touched his chest. No heart beat. She lay over his body and wept.
Harsh fingers bit into her skin, dragging her to her feet.
The touch galvanized her. She launched herself at John’s killer, clawing ineffectually at his suit. The ferocity of her attack sent him reeling; he dropped his gun and Sam dove for it. The man grappled with her, both falling, entangled, to the ground. He grasped her throat and her pearl necklace broke. She bit into his hand.
Weeping, Sam kicked and punched, then other hands held her immobile, spread-eagled.
The man stood over her, his pistol aimed at her temple.
“Do it”, she said. “You’ve killed him, so what do I care.”
“Ah, my dear, you are what I’ve come for.”
Sam gasped. The voice. Familiar. The visor lifted.
Horror made her mute.
It was him. Her husband. Dead four years. Now, here, alive. The bastard had killed John.
Screaming, her anger giving her strength, she launched herself at him and the pistol beam took her down. As he loomed over her, she struggled against the paralysis. His booted foot caught her in the ribs.
“You were once mine, you’ll be mine again. Eventually.”
She spat at him. “I’ll die firrrrrssssttt…” The darkness claimed her.
Taren entered the grove, laughing, followed by Zareena and Lenar. All were dressed in the white robes of mutatis, with the black sash embroidered with silver. Years before, each had attained the mutatis.
Taren carried a sash, one each for John and Sam, now they had achieved mutatis. The deepest level of starlight passion.
“Kuno?” Taren called.
“Ready or not,” Lenar shouted.
“Have some respect!” Kareena punched him in the arm.
Taren’s assassin senses cut in. He scented the air. Something wrong. Blood. Anger. Death. Gut-twisting fear. Sam’s fear.
He discarded the sashes and ran, even as he drew the daggers from his belt sheath.
Taren reeled back from the sight in the clearing. Instinct overcoming shock, he raced forward to John’s side. He dropped to his knees, placing his hand
s over the gaping wound.
Kareena opposite Taren put fingers to Kuno’s carotid artery.
“I can’t find a pulse,” she whispered.
Lenar rested John’s head on his lap. “Where’s Samantha?”
“She’s gone. I can’t feel her emanations,” Kareena said.
“John’s not dead,” Taren said. “Trust me. His cat soul holds him. The human, however, is almost extinguished.”
Lenar’s hands fanned over John’s temples. “If he was pure felinus, I could call him back. But he’s a hybrid. He’s fighting me, damn him. He’s dying.”
“Kuno is my brother,” Taren snapped. “His life is my responsibility. I’ll do what it takes.” No matter the risk. He took in a deep steadying breath.
“I’ll be his monitor,” Kareena said.
“I’ll be his strength,” Lenar said.
“I’ll be his initiator,” Taren said. “But we could all die. A hybrid’s never been changed.”
“Shut up bird-brain and get on with it.” Lenar stood up.
Taren flung off his robe and drew his energy, his awareness to his body, his sex. His cock engorged. He lay back on the ground and Lenar carefully settled John onto Taren. Taren’s erection slid into John. Taren placed his hands on either side of Kuno’s temples, his fingers splayed.
“Aaaah,” the moan issued from John.
“Rest easily, brother-mine,” Taren whispered. His mind soothed before he sent the first ripple of shifter energy into Kuno’s body.
Kareena placed her spread palms over John’s chest, the blood bubbling between her fingers. “I can feel his heart, now.”
Lenar straddled John’s body, his hands cupping the semi-erect penis. “I can feel his soul.” He bent his head.
The three linked minds and touched consciousness, found John’s flicker of life, and held it. The soul-touch. Schahor. They built it layer upon layer, weaving light around it.
Taren grasped Kuno’s felinus soul and coaxed back the human spirit. Two halves to be held and joined. In response, John’s body shuddered.
Hurts. Kuno mind-whispered.
Of course, brother-mine. You are a virgin felinus.
A derisive snort. Not a virgin. We’ve shared before.
You are for this, sweeting, Taren sent gently. His love flamed. Let me touch you, all of you. His cock expanded as his mind probed. John shivered. It won’t hurt like this again. First and last time, cat-boy.
Starlight Passion Page 5
