Table of Contents
Take Me Fast
Nisa has been working with the priests to host weddings at their abbey and bring joy to newly wedded couples. When a bride asks Nisa to formalize her vows instead of head of the order, the clone is honoured but a little confused. The confusion lasts until the moment that Nisa’s set walk down the aisle as groomsmen and then her fixation with her mates kicks in.
Prio, Raz, and Watt are just as shocked as she is when they see the official for the wedding and she looks them over with hungry avian eyes.
While their instincts scream at them to sweep their bride away, they abide by the regulations of her adopted family and begin a slow and detailed courtship when they want nothing more than to take her fast.
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Take Me Fast
Copyright © 2012 Zenina Masters
ISBN: 978-1-77111-ARC
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Take Me Fast
Four Ever More book 8
By
Zenina Masters
Chapter One
The chimes to prayer and dinner called her and Nisa shifted into her robes to attend ceremonies. The winds were telling her that change was coming, but the wind would continue its conversation with her at midnight.
Dinner was always a formal affair, first the chanting, then the lighting of the candles and finally the evening meal.
She walked the halls of the Harmonic priesthood with decorum. Speed was not a desirable trait in the pathways of the priests. They were focused on serenity at all costs.
Nisa folded her hands in the sleeves of her robes and paced to the great hall where the rest of the survivors were gathered. The scents of herbs and the sweet aroma of the waxed floors had a slight smile curving her lips. It was always nice to walk through the halls after Brother Livvo had done the floors. He put all his effort into it.
Father Wercos raised his arms as she entered. “Let us remember those who have gone before us and the sacrifices they made to get us here to safety.”
She stood in line with the sixteen priests and she bowed her head as they began the low chant of remembrance.
Nisa had had parents for two years of her life. The Mocoorow riots had taken them from her. She had hidden in an underground cavern with their bodies and waited out the insanity above. Leuva Zask had died first, fighting for the safety of her home. Her husband had arrived at the front door just in time to see the fanatic shoot his wife three times in the chest.
Nisa was hiding in the closet as her mother commanded and she saw her father catch his wife and lower her to the floor. The fanatic strode into their home as if he owned it and demanded their food rations.
Rolf Zask fought the man for his gun, was shot twice and had collapsed next to his wife, holding her close as she breathed her last.
Nisa Zask held her breath and with it, she stole the breath of the invader. She crept from her hiding place as he changed colour and dropped to the bloody floor of the foyer.
Rolf smiled gently at her. “You have to run, Nisa. Go to the catacombs and wait until this is over, then contact Dr. Deveraux. She will come and get you.”
Tears rolled slowly down her face as she wept. “I don’t want to go back to the lab.”
“She won’t take you back to the lab, love. She will keep you safe.”
Nisa watched the light fade from his eyes and she sobbed over the family that she had had only too briefly.
She lifted her parents on columns of air and carried them to the catacombs under cover of darkness. For a short moment in time, she had been part of a family and it was a memory that she would always hold tight.
Nisa wiped the tears that always formed when she thought of Leuva and Rolf.
“Now that we have remembered those who have brought us here, we can dine.”
Nisa filed down the hall in her place at the end of the line. As a perpetual guest of the priesthood, she took the final place.
The meal was set out on the table and they each took their assigned seat. Brother Timo handed her a loaf of bread and together, they broke it in two. “How was your day, Daughter?”
“It was fine. I met with two more couples who are looking to have their ceremonies in the abbey.” Nisa smiled.
All of the priests were old. The thirty who had escaped from Mocoorow with her were now down to sixteen. Timo was the closest to her in age and he was four decades older than her twenty-five years.
He served her a bowl of stew, still treating her like a child even though she had been a woman for over half a decade. She took her bowl with a grin. “How was your day?”
“The gardens were in good form. That new compost blend works wonders on weeds.”
“You don’t say.” She kept her attention on her bowl, dunking small chunks of bread into the stew, using the bread as a spoon.
Every night, she went into the garden and weeded by moonlight. Timo’s back was giving way as he aged and it was simply one thing on her list of evening chores. She helped prepare the food, working on the bread in the middle of the night, moving it to where the heat of the fire could help the yeast to rise and fixing the texture. Brother Galianto was close to meeting the creator and she did what she could to maintain his pride.
Sure, pride was a sin, but so was letting people suffer when you could easily assist in their burden.
Brother Timo caught her gaze and smiled. “You might want to keep an eye on the lettuce garden. You missed a spot last week.”
She coughed and reached for her water glass. “How long have you known?”
He grinned. “Brother Livvo has mentioned how much soil there is in your rooms and it was not hard to put the clues together. Also, Brother Galianto requests that if you are going to fuss with the bread, make some muffins for breakfast. It would be a nice change.”
Shaking her head, she swallowed. “I should have realized that you would figure it out. I will make a note to try to work the muffins into my evening practices.”
“You don’t need to take care of us. We are in service to the creator. We do our jobs gladly.”
“I don’t have a purpose here, Brother, so I work when no one is looking.” She worked at her meal and finished her entire serving. When she was done, she kept her bowl in front of her. Brother Alsred was on dish duty and he started to collect the bowls when the first person pushed back from the table. Just because Nisa ate faster than her companions didn’t mean they shouldn’t get a full meal.
“You have a purpose, Nisa. You bring light to our table and our lives. You are a wonderful secretary for the abbey and our coffers are full since you began to arrange weddings here.”
Nisa blushed. “It seemed like a good revenue source that was easy to manage. The locals seem t
o enjoy it.”
He chuckled. “Even Father Wercos knows that you are the reason we have been able to remain independent from the Alorcanian population. It was a lucky day when we stumbled across you in that tunnel.”
Nisa’s mood suddenly plummeted. “Yeah, that was lucky.”
Her mother and father had been dead for days, there was no sign of Dr. Deveraux and Nisa had been alone in the hidey-hole.
The priests had come, looking for a place to hide. They ate her supplies, drank her water and when the rioters had locked them all underground, they had panicked at the lack of fresh air.
Nisa had moved the air, keeping them all alive until the priests could dig their way out. Air was her element and when they realized that she was responsible for their survival, they invited her to come with them. With the Zasks frozen in the tunnel, there was nothing to keep her in the place she had once called her home.
She had run with the priests to their ship and had rendered all who opposed them unconscious. They had contacted their father house and it assigned the survivors to Alorcan. The abbey on the small colony world had been abandoned for decades and had taken quite a bit of work to get it in an operational condition.
“Have you heard the news about the new lawmen?”
She picked at the crumbs near her and shook her head. “No. No one has mentioned anything.”
“They are a clone set.”
She jerked her head up and Timo was watching her with a small smile on his lips.
“I thought that would get your attention.”
“Which set?” Her voice trembled. The very idea that there were some of her kind on Alorcan and she hadn’t known was enough to get her excited.
Timo shrugged. “I don’t know, but it is said that they can fly.”
The stylized eagle over her heart throbbed in a distracting way. Nisa’s control snapped and wind blew through the dining hall.
All heads turned toward her in surprise.
Blushing, she throttled her talent down and continued picking at the crumbs near her.
They could be her set. They might be right here on her world and she wouldn’t be able to contact them or even meet them. It was a torturous thought and one that carried her through her nocturnal activities.
* * * *
Wattur, Raz and Prio all paused while eating their evening meal in the city of Dekkee.
Wattur looked to his set and raised a brow. “Did you feel that?”
Raz nodded. “I did.”
Prio nodded as well and rubbed at his marking. They all wore the same mark that denoted two things. One, they were all of the Horcross genetic line and the second was that they were matched shapeshifters.
Their fourth was a woman, but they had no idea where she was or if she was even still alive.
Prio smiled. “I think this has just answered our biggest question. She is here, gentlemen. We only need to find her.”
Chapter Two
Despite her best efforts, Nisa could not think of a reason that she needed to go into the city in the valley below. She tried not to think about the other clones on the surface, but it bled through every moment of every day. Throwing herself into her work coordinating weddings at the abbey was her sole distraction, but even then, she found herself staring out the windows and watching for signs of the bird shifters.
Now and again, she would see the huge raptors flying across the city, but they never veered north toward the abbey, so she was stuck staring at them from afar.
“Lady Nisa, Lady Nisa, are you listening?”
The mayor’s daughter was smiling at her and waving her hand across Nisa’s line of sight.
“I am sorry, Beela. You were mentioning using the gardens, but you would have a city florist bring the floral displays up for decoration?”
Beela smiled. “Yes. And the Brothers will supply the canapés?”
“And you will have the main courses brought up from the city and we will allow you access to the kitchens.” She checked off the details on her clipboard and smiled brightly.
“Father Wercos will officiate?”
“He will and in case of emergency, either myself or one of the Brothers can stand by.”
Beela’s eyes lit. “Could you do it?”
Nisa blinked. “What?”
“It would be wonderful if you could do the ceremony. To have a woman officiate would be amazing and certainly make a change from the old men normally running the event.”
Nisa inclined her head. “I will ask Father Wercos if he will allow me the honour of performing your ceremony. Will you allow me a moment before we proceed?”
Beela was almost jumping with excitement. “Take what time you need. I will go for a walk in the gardens.”
The gardens of the abbey were a little more than the simple food-generating plots of Earth. Amazing and colourful blossoming herbs and flowers with medicinal properties lined the pathways and formed natural walks.
Nisa bowed slightly and entered the cool walls of the abbey. She walked past the Brothers at their work and knocked on the Father’s door.
“Come in.”
Nisa entered and bowed slightly. “Father Wercos, I have a query from the bride whose nuptials are this weekend.”
“Yes, Lady Nisa?” His formal address was standard. Only Timo called her simply by her name.
“Miss Beela has asked that she choose another person to perform the ceremony.”
Father Wercos had a smile on his lips. “Who did she choose?”
“Um, she wanted me to perform the wedding. I do have the credentials with the Alorcan government.” Nisa felt a blush burn in her cheeks.
“By all means, you are welcome to wed the couple. I am glad you are taking an interest, Lady Nisa. It has been too long since you involved yourself with people your own age.” He really was sincere. The smile lines around his eyes fanned out in an expression she rarely saw. Happiness.
“Thank you, Father. I will inform the bride and prepare my formal robes for the ceremony.”
“Excellent. I look forward to seeing you in action, Lady Nisa.” He waved his hand lightly and she left his office.
With a bounce in her step, she re-joined Beela in the gardens. “Miss Beela, you may have me as a wedding official if you wish.”
The woman smiled and lunged forward for a hug. “Oh, thank you, Lady Nisa. It is such an honour to have you there for my special day.”
“I don’t know if it is an honour, but I will be happy to do it.”
“Of course it is an honour. A woman of your genetic background and power joining me and Seelil in matrimony, it is a dream come true.”
Nisa blinked and her avian eyes must have shown her surprise. The dark brown of her eyes almost blended with the black of her bird-like iris. Her reddish brown hair was the only bright spot to her appearance.
“I am not sure that I understand the background you are referring to.”
“You are one of the blenders, the designed clones who were brought into the worlds to prove that a variety of races could work together to a common goal.” Beela cocked her head. “Don’t you know all this?”
Nisa smiled and stroked the petals on a flower near Beela. “I am aware of it, I am just surprised that you are.”
Beela blushed. “My father is the mayor. We have all your records at home. I peeked at his documents regarding the abbey before I agreed to consider it as a venue.”
Nisa sighed and lifted the flower to her face. It was bright, fragrant and it gave her the calm she needed to smile at the bride-to-be.
“Well done. Few brides bother to go into my background before having their weddings here.”
“Well, the moment that I heard that the weather never ruins a wedding here, I did my research.”
Nisa sighed. “Well, everything is in order, your payment has been processed and I look forward to seeing you on your big day.”
Beela giggled and hugged her again. Nisa returned the embrace and sighed with relief as the mayor
’s daughter left the abbey for the final time before her wedding.
Nisa headed back to the abbey with her clipboard and wondered just what the hell was going on when a pampered child could find her and her own mates couldn’t.
Straightening her pale formal robes, Nisa gathered her scroll and set a wreath of flowers on her head. It was a gift from the bride and she had to wear it.
When she exited her chambers, Brother Timo was waiting for her and he escorted her to the bridal tent that was erected on one side of the gardens. He left to speak to the groom while she had her last-minute visitation with the bride.
The bridesmaids were giggling, but they sobered when she walked in.
“How are we doing here, ladies?”
The women stared. They looked from her eyes to the cleavage bared by the robes and back up again.
Nisa knew that her mark was visible. She never hid it at formal events. It was best for the single males who were seeking partners to know that they had no chance with her.
Beela was admiring the fit of her gown in the mirror and she turned to look at Nisa with a happy cry. “You look amazing, Lady Nisa.”
“And you are a vision, Miss Beela.” Nisa inclined her head. “Are you looking forward to the ceremony?”
“I am. I can hardly wait to be Lady Beela Seelil Rickk.” She swished from side to side in her gown.
“Good. How are your maids today? They seem a little out of sorts.” Nisa fought her grin.
“They were not expecting your formal gown to expose so much of you. I don’t think they believed that you were really one of the clone set.”
Nisa chuckled and eyed the five women with a raised brow. “These are standard formal robes for a woman of the Harmonic abbey. Not all in the abbey are aging men.”
The maids shuffled in their brilliantly coloured gowns. A blonde finally asked, “Are you really a blender?”
Nisa licked her lips and took in a deep breath, trying to keep the oxygen in the tent steady while she fought her upset. “I do not enjoy the term. It derides the amount of care that was used to assemble my genetic code. It insults the memory of those who chose to bring me into the world and who tried to protect me as I grew.”
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