Tempest

by Shakir Rashaan

  I looked down at keket, and then I glanced back at Osiris, before the ability to speak returned. “Big Brother, I would be honored to take keket tonight. I’m still in shock You would offer, but I would be a fool to reject.”

  “Little bro, I have to look out for My brethren, if it will help them shine more.” Osiris grinned as he gave keket’s leash to me. “But whatever burns or scratches she incurs by Your hand, You are responsible for the care. I know You already know the protocol, but it still bears expressing.”

  Yeah, talk about pressure?

  “Consider it handled, Sir.” I nodded, tapping keket to kneel while I finished my preparations. “I will treat her with the care I use with Our girls.”

  “I have no doubt You will, Sir.” Osiris smiled as he made his exit. “Now, make sure You show out tonight. All eyes will be on You.”

  “This is how I prepare for a fire play scene.”

  I knew I drew crowds, but to have the whole island watching my every move was humbling, and that was putting it mildly.

  Not that I couldn’t work a large crowd, of course, but I honestly thought there were other things the guests were doing tonight.

  We were lucky the weather was favorable for tonight’s festivities. It was warm enough to perform with keket naked and ensure she wasn’t uncomfortable in the night air, while the winds stayed calm, allowing the demo to happen out in the open air instead of the confining space of one of the large tents. The crowd was able to form a semi-circle so that any sightline would be good to view from.

  keket smiled like a Cheshire cat that swallowed a canary as I used everything from the fire gloves to the fire wands, saving my newest skill for last. I had only done it once before with shamise, so my nerves were a slight bit on edge. Having my mentor’s slave on the Cross to perform it in front of a captive audience did nothing to help calm things in my mind.

  I marveled at how radiant her skin shone against the firelight the torches provided, giving the area an intimate glow. I focused my attention to her breasts and nipples, moving up to her eyes to keep the connection strong between us. She was fast approaching subspace, and I did my best to slow down her ascension, keeping my voice in her ear and my hands on her body.

  “Are you still with me, love?”

  “Mmmm, yes, Sir, i’m still with You. Your hands feel so good.”

  “We’re almost done, little one. I have one more trick to execute.” I gave her fair warning before I reached in the bag for the powder I needed. “I’ll take you off after I finish this last move.”

  “Mmmmm, yes, Sir, i’ll be waiting,” she purred.

  I took the top off the cornstarch container, taking great care not to inhale the fumes once the canister was opened. The thing about cornstarch was, if inhaled, the damage to the lungs was not anything to be played with. Since I was a beginning fire breather, I didn’t want to use the fuels that more experienced fire breathers used because I still cared about my lungs to a degree. But I knew enough to know to respect what I was about to do, and I needed as much concentration as possible.

  “And now, ladies and gentlemen, for my final piece to this demo, I will breathe a fireball toward keket, and if I do this properly, the fireball will not burn her skin, as the compound I’m using evaporates once it is in contact with the fire,” I explained to the crowd. The majority of them were completely awestruck, with some not believing I was doing all of this to keket and she didn’t have a burn or scratch on her. I even invited different people in the crowd to feel for themselves that while her skin felt hot to the touch, she was unharmed.

  DK did her best to volunteer when I asked for a few to do a quick how-to with the flash cotton. Once she was chosen, she got as close to me as she could as I showed her the way the flash cotton worked, eliciting whistles from the men in the crowd who had a feeling she was trying to arouse me while she was on stage. I cut my eyes in my girls’ direction, and while sajira and shamise scowled in territorial defiance, my Beloved smirked at the desperation in DK’s body language.

  I remained oblivious to it all. I couldn’t have been happier with the way things had turned out. Osiris looked like a proud teacher in the audience, and my Beloved and the girls were having giggle fits while high-fiving other guests around them. I even had the undivided attention of more than a few women in the crowd, including DK, who seemed to never take her eyes off me, despite the attention the men gave her during the demo.

  The crown jewel of the evening would be a blast if I pulled it off.

  “All right, here we go,” I announced as I stood back a couple of feet to execute the maneuver. keket’s eyes focused on the fire dancing on the end of the wand in my hand, hypnotized by its glow and entranced by the entire scene we’d performed. I took a spoonful of the cornstarch into my mouth, and a few seconds later, I sprayed the powder from my mouth, watching the particles explode upon contact with the wand and head toward keket.

  The screams in the crowd were understandably in horror for a few seconds as they thought keket had been engulfed in flames. Those screams soon turned into applause as keket emerged from the flames completely unharmed, and I quickly moved to pick her up before she passed out. Master Osiris stepped from the crowd to help me with the quick releases on her wrists and ankles, and I carried her to the nearby beach towel, where I already had water and ice at the ready.

  “Whew! Was that fun or what?!” I shouted toward the crowd as I continued to check on keket. She was floating, and her body let me know it the way it writhed and shook from the flight into subspace. “I’m absolutely thrilled you were able to join Me tonight, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening. Good night!”

  Neferterri, shamise and sajira, and amani all converged on me. My Beloved kissed me deeply and whispered, “That last part made Me so fucking hot for You.”

  “Damn, Daddy, where’d You learn how to do that?!” sajira squealed as she watched Osiris continue a small burst of fire over keket. She sounded like a teenager with the way she beamed. “That was awesome! I want next!”

  I gave amani pound and shared a nod between us as I continued to survey the crowd as they disbursed. DK stayed in my field of vision the entire time during the aftermath. With so many people trying to get my attention, there was no way she would get the intimacy she thought she would get.

  She mouthed the words, “I’ll see You later, sexy,” before blowing a kiss and walking off in the other direction. I was in such a zone that I didn’t worry myself about her subtle invitation to take care of the wetness between her legs and the lust in her heart.

  That would have to happen another time.

  Tonight, I was greedy for no one else…except my girls.

  My senses were overloaded, and it felt like I’d developed an acute asthma attack.

  Except, I didn’t suffer from asthma.

  Something was wrong, I felt it.

  All I heard were muffled voices…some I recognized, others were slightly foreign to me. I tried to respond to them, but my throat was on fire. My arms felt heavy, causing me some alarm when I couldn’t lift them to get someone’s attention. I searched around me, finding shamise’s face first, but I still heard muffled sounds coming out of her mouth.

  I read her lips, recognizing the worry in her eyes. “You’re going to be fine, Daddy, just keep breathing. You passed out.”

  I passed out? It didn’t feel like I was that out of sorts a moment ago.

  shamise took her hands and kept my eyes on her as I felt the bumps from the gurney rolling across the sand. I presumed that they were taking me to one of the medical tents. My ego kicked in, wanting my body to lift and prove that nothing was wrong with me. It was in that moment that I realized I was strapped down.

  Panic set in. I didn’t do well with being restrained for any reason, and my inability to speak thanks to the oxygen mask over my face only made matters worse.

  I pleaded with shamise with my eyes to tell them to take the restraints off me. I read her lips as she continued t
o console me and try to keep me calm. “Daddy, try to relax, let the staff take care of You, please. You’re no good to us if You continue to fight. Stop being stubborn.”

  I nodded, recognizing the situation was beyond my control. I focused on my breathing, fighting through the pain in my lungs as I continued to breathe deeply. I felt the gurney stop, looking up at the bright lights surrounding me, getting my bearings to realize I was in the medical tent. They lifted me from the gurney and onto the bed, and the next thing I felt was a sharp pain in my right arm.

  “It’s only a sedative, Daddy. They need to stabilize Your breathing, okay?” This time, I heard shamise clearly, giving up a weak smile to acknowledge her instructions. “sajira and i are here with You, and we’ll be here when You wake up.”

  “Whe…where’s…your—”

  “Shhh, relax, Daddy, we’re sending for Goddess now.” Her tone was soothing, reassuring, lulling me sweetly as I descended into the darkness. “Get some rest, let us take care of the rest for now.”

  Despite me wanting to dispute what she was telling me, there was not much I could do to follow through with what my mind wanted to do when my body was in such distress and in need of rest. I succumbed to the medicine coursing through the blood in my veins, taking solace that our Alpha slave had things well in hand until I awoke.

  THIRTEEN shamise

  “You have ten seconds to get Your hands off my Daddy.”

  The nerve of this bitch…

  Who in the hell did she think she was trying to be hugged up on him like that? And what was worse, he appeared to be receptive to it when I knew for a fact that he didn’t know her like that.

  I shouldn’t have left him alone while trying to get the crowd to dissipate. One minute he was there, the next minute he was gone. He was already having trouble breathing after the fire play session with keket, and while the rest of the crowd couldn’t tell, I knew my Daddy when he was in distress.

  The aftereffects of the fire breathing portion of the scene could have been anything from mild smoke inhalation issues to full-on respiratory distress, depending on the health of the lungs of the person performing the fire breathing. I’d made it my business to learn every aspect of the art from keket while Daddy learned from Master Osiris. She’d cautioned me on some of the things to look for, including the possibility of him hallucinating from the fumes.

  I glared at Domina Korina as she sat in his lap. She didn’t flinch, returning my glare with a cold stare of her own. “Or you’ll do what? He’s with Me right now. you’ll have to wait your turn.”

  One glance at Daddy alerted me that I had very little time to waste, and it was not about to be wasted arguing with this twit. His eyes were glassy and he looked lethargic. He tried to speak, and it only served to concern me further. “baby girl…what…how did you…if you’re here, then what—”

  “Don’t worry, Daddy, You’ll be fine.” I moved Korina from his lap, trying to figure out what the hell was on her mind. The look I gave her would have been a blatant violation of House protocol, but I didn’t care at the moment. “I need to get You back to our hut so You can rest.”

  “Wait, I thought You were going with Me?” Korina actually pouted, trying to play on his sympathies. “I would have taken good care of You.”

  “Pop quiz, ‘baby girl’: what is Master Ramesses’s choice of food and drink for bringing Him out of Domspace?” I snapped. “You have thirty seconds to answer, but i have a feeling You don’t have a damned clue.”

  Korina stuttered, struggling to find the words to answer my question in the time frame I gave. I scoffed as I watched her try to take a cue from Daddy, forgetting that he was not in the frame of mind to know what he was doing. “You see, that’s the problem with you new tricks. If you wanted Him so badly, you would have learned Him, not just what gets His dick hard. Thanks for playing, now move out the way so His real property can take care of Him properly.”

  I moved with him, walking past her while listening to his breathing to make sure he wasn’t in distress. I cut my eyes at Korina, daring her to say another word.

  sajira finally caught up with me with amani in tow. amani took one look at Daddy and shook his head. “Good thing you got to Him before He tried to do anything strenuous. We need to get some oxygen in his system ASAP.”

  “I’ll…be…okay,” Daddy finally said, sounding like he had run about thirty miles. It was obvious he was winded. “I just…need to…get My air.”

  “Sir, we need to get some oxygen in You, no exceptions,” amani retorted, insisting he sat until we got one of the golf carts to pick us up and get us to the medical hut. “Try to relax, and don’t do anything that might cause You more issues; do You understand me, Sir?”

  Ramesses nodded, leaning back in the chair until the golf cart arrived.

  “Where’s Goddess?” sajira asked.

  “She’s one of the dungeon monitors tonight,” amani answered as we laid Daddy onto the stretcher. “Once we have Him situated and breathing properly, we can go back and get Her.”

  I shook my head. Goddess needed to be involved regardless of whether it was something severe or not, and while we weren’t at that point yet, she needed to be told. “All right, let’s get Him somewhere to stabilize Him and we’ll take it from there, but i will have security radio Dom and Goddess so they can meet us at the medical tent. She’s not going to kill us for keeping Her out of the loop.”

  “He’ll be fine. He needs to rest.”

  Master Osiris understandably showed concern for his student, and I did my best to reassure him that Daddy was okay. Goddess and Dominic were on their way from their respective locations, and hopefully they would arrive soon.

  He was hooked to the oxygen tank, and he was starting to breathe normally soon after we got him there, but true to his stubborn streak, he insisted he was okay and didn’t want to be fawned over.

  Between sajira and me, we had to coerce him to stay still so the treatment could work. “Daddy, quit fighting and let the staff take care of You.” sajira cooed in his ear, and that seemed to get him to relax a little bit. I whispered in his other ear how much we couldn’t wait to take really good care of him when he got out of there. Thankfully with our combined efforts, he was able to relax and let the oxygen do its work.

  “I don’t understand, He was fine during the scene; I kept a close eye on Him the entire time,” Osiris explained. “Did something happen while we were taking keket down from the Cross?”

  “Apparently so.” The doctor joined in on the conversation. “The fumes were a bit much, and for Him to be a beginner, even with the precautions He took, His lungs are not used to handling that much smoke and fumes in such a short, concentrated burst. I’m surprised He didn’t pass out the minute He was done with the fire breathing.”

  I smiled to myself, and sajira shared my smile with a grin of her own. “Doctor, have you ever been around Master Ramesses?” I asked.

  “No ma’am, I would say I haven’t before He screened us to be a part of the staff for the island,” she replied. She looked confused, so sajira placed her hand on the doctor’s shoulder to help clue her in on our Daddy.

  “Then you might not understand the stubbornness of the Great One.” sajira tried to contain her laughter, but the giggles caught up to her. “Saying no to Him is like saying no to President Obama. Not many have the guts to do it without incurring His wrath.”

  “Well, He seems to be stable, so it’s best to let Him rest for a while.” She looked down at him, trying to do a last check before leaving the room. “For now, we’ll keep an eye on Him, but He should be fine in a couple of hours.”

  “I’ll be more than fine, doctor.” Ramesses spoke through the mask, but his words still sounded garbled. He coughed a little bit, which worried me, but amani grinned. I trusted his judgment.

  amani kissed us on the cheek and said, “i’ll be here, too. Goddess won’t need me for a few hours, anyway. Just let Her know everything is fine with Sir and tell Her not to
worry once She gets here.”

  “we will, bro,” sajira said as we headed out of the tent. “If anything changes, you know where to find us.”

  Once outside, I wondered aloud whether or not we’d done the right thing.

  “Goddess hasn’t arrived yet, and neither has Dominic. Do you think the security officers got to them?” I asked sajira. The concern on my face was evident, and the look of anxiety on hers did nothing to help me.

  “This island is pretty big, sis.” sajira probably shared my concerns, but she actually tried to apply some reasoning. “Even if they radioed ahead, the carts can only move so fast. It’s best to be patient and be here when they arrive.”

  I nodded. Without conventional cell phones, it could be difficult to really move without telling someone where we would be, and that would be reliant upon them staying put long enough to relay the message. The satellite phones were used for emergency contact to the mainland, and there weren’t many of those to begin with. Even though there were landlines established inside of the huts and cabins, who would want to pay the exorbitant amount of money to make a call? The attendees enjoyed the quiet comforts without the hassle of modern conveniences. Otherwise, they would have simply gone to Hedonism in Jamaica instead.

  I thought about the possibility of the phone system being able to make calls between the cabins and huts also. The problem with that was even if we were able to call ahead, someone would still have to make the trip to find Goddess inside the dungeon tents to alert her of what was going on.

  sajira seemed to read my mind, placing a hand on my shoulder in comfort. We walked over to the lounge chairs near the front entrance of the medical tent and sat while recapping what occurred hours earlier to pass the time. “Look, sis, we’re better off staying here and relaxing until Dominic and Goddess get here. No point in worrying ourselves over what-ifs unless you want us both to lose our minds. Once they’re here, we can bring them up to speed and focus on Him getting better.”