by Renard, Loki
He let out a sigh of what could have been relief or exasperation. Possibly both. “That sounds like a positive judgment. Very good. You must have done well.”
“Yes,” Faith agreed. “I must have.” She gave a little shrug, the sort he wouldn’t find suspicious.
“You should take your meetings with Ephemera more seriously,” Serkan lectured.
“Mhm. I guess,” Faith said. She wanted to get away from the room with the glowing evil. She wanted to get back to Serkan’s place, into his bed, forget about what she’d heard and what she’d have to do.
Thankfully, Serkan seemed just as eager to leave the council chambers. He guided her out of the building and toward home. Faith’s head was spinning with what Ephemera had asked of her, and her heart was pounding at the thought of pulling the heist off. She did her best to look calm and keep her breathing nice and slow. She had to keep this secret to herself. Thankfully she was good at keeping secrets. She’d been doing it all her life.
The familiar pangs of homesickness began to rise again. She wanted to go back to Earth badly. She missed everything about it. She even missed the assholes who had been trying to off her. Back on Earth, she had known who she was and she had known what she wanted. The stakes had never been this high back then, not even when she was being pursued by gangsters. It was not just her life on the line now, it was Serkan’s too. She had to do this for him as much as for herself—and she had to figure out a way to do it without ever being caught or suspected of being the one who had committed probably the biggest crime in Svari history. The silver lining of the situation was clear though—it would be the end of the council. The end of Ephemera. Destroying that creature would be a pleasure.
“Are you sure Ephemera said nothing of importance to you? You seem lost in thought,” Serkan observed as they walked across the gleaming sky way, the city falling deep below their feet.
“Everything Ephemera says is of importance, right?”
“Right,” Serkan replied, his tone guarded. He wasn’t buying it. She was going to have to make something up to throw him off the scent.
“She just wanted to see if the treatment was having any effect, without you around. She floated about a bit and made noises about love and light and that sort of thing. I told her what she wanted to hear. It was fine.”
“Ephemera knows when it is being lied to. So do I.”
Faith cast a quick glance over at Serkan. He was giving her one of those knowing, stern stares that made meeting his eye difficult. She felt guilty, which wasn’t fair because this wasn’t even a secret she wanted to keep. She had to for both their sakes.
“Who even knows what a super-consciousness wants or why it does what it does? She just talked to me. I guess she got the answer she wanted. Jesus! Even when I do something right I end up doing something wrong in your eyes. Quit hassling me.”
“There’s no need to get an attitude,” Serkan frowned. “I need to know what is going on.”
“Then ask the talking glowworm,” Faith said, relieved as they reached the building in which Serkan’s dwelling lay. “I’m done for the day. I’m going to bed.”
Chapter Ten
Serkan watched Faith all but flee toward the bedroom. His eyes narrowed as he watched her shapely form disappear. Something was wrong. And not in the usual way. He was tempted to follow after her, but he knew her well enough to know that all that would achieve would be giving her an opportunity to act out and get herself into trouble. She had been in a terrible mood since the garden temple ceremony—actually, since she had arrived on Svari.
He paced his home, looking out on the world that he had once regarded as perfect. He wasn’t so sure anymore. Faith had pointed out the hypocrisies he had allowed himself to be blind to. She had relentlessly picked at the frayed edges of the Svari culture and it was beginning to become unraveled even in Serkan’s devout mind.
The treatment had been designed to bring out her essential sense of goodness. The repeated orgasms acted as a mental reset. The notion behind it was that if a subject could be taken to the very limits of their capacity for pleasure, and then was treated well, they would align with the good and the useful. A natural sense of right and wrong would emerge. Unfortunately, Faith’s natural sense of justice did not exactly coincide with Ephemera’s law. And, he supposed, neither did his anymore.
He stood in front of the window, his arms folded over his chest, a frown on his face. Faith was his patient. He knew her internal processes, understood how to stimulate her physically. He could draw ecstasy from her quivering flesh and make her bottom blush until she was soft and uncharacteristically submissive. And yet he still didn’t know what was going on in her mind. Even Ephemera’s analysis had not revealed that.
Training Faith was not easy. She was more than a handful. Every time she began to understand what was wanted from her, she would do the precise opposite. He did not regret a single one of the punishments he had given her, even the ones that had seemed harsh at first. All had been more than deserved, and all had been absolutely necessary.
The treatment had served its purpose. It had brought them closer together. It had made Faith more open. It had created a bond between them that was already healing so much of the sadness she carried in her heart. But now she felt closed off again. It was as if the book he had been reading had been slammed shut in front of him. And it was obviously because of what Ephemera had said.
The next grand celebration of Ephemera was not far off. Faith would likely not want to go, but they would attend. She had been entranced throughout the dancing. Perhaps at a second ceremony, she would begin to understand the wisdom of Ephemera. And perhaps he would rediscover it.
“What are you doing, Serkan?”
He turned from the window to see her standing behind him, looking grumpy and tired.
“What’s wrong? I thought you went to bed.”
“I can’t sleep,” she said, rubbing her left eye. “My brain won’t let me.”
“I’m sorry,” he said sympathetically. “Do you need some help getting to sleep?”
“How are you going to do that?”
“A good spanking always makes you sleepy,” he suggested with a smirk. “That would be my prescription.”
“That’s your answer to everything,” she sulked. “Smacking my ass.”
He noticed that she didn’t say no. He also noticed that she didn’t seem upset by the prospect. Maybe she was starting to understand that she did actually need a warm bottom every now and then. It wasn’t just part of her biology, it was part of her on every level. She was much more settled and happy when she’d been spanked.
“It works,” Serkan said. “And when something works, I stick with it.”
He closed the distance between them and took her hand in his. She did not resist as he led her back to the bedroom. He noticed that she was wearing a long shirt and no panties, which made access easy. Almost as if she’d hoped that she’d end up with her bottom bared.
“Lie down,” he said, helping her to do so.
“This feels a little weird,” she said. “Usually I’ve done something wrong when you’re like this.” She squirmed on the bed, her cheeks moving under his hand in a way he loved.
“Well, you did give me attitude on the way home from Ephemera,” Serkan said, tapping her cheeks. “That’s more than enough reason to spank your bottom, young lady.”
* * *
Usually his growling would be an irritant, but right now, Faith needed him to lecture her. She needed to feel that she was being punished and forgiven, even though she knew she couldn’t really be forgiven for the situation she was in. She was planning a betrayal of everything Serkan believed in.
He began to spank her, his palm landing on her bottom with a light stinging sensation that felt too good. She needed for it to hurt. She needed to be reminded that he was strong enough to protect her.
“I guess I didn’t give you enough attitude,” she said. “Ephemera looks like one of those neo
n signs you see outside sex shops. Your council has the aesthetics of a brothel.”
His palm landed harder, just as she had hoped it would. It was a solid slap that jolted her against the bed, her flesh aching under the force of it.
“And don’t even get me started on your potted plant dancers,” she added, squeaking as his palm started to land harder and faster, blazing heat across her ass. “They look like they’d been hitting the fertilizer.”
Serkan let out a short laugh. She risked turning her head to look at him. To her annoyance, he looked amused. That wasn’t what was supposed to be happening.
“You’re in fine form tonight, Faith,” he said, rubbing her bottom gently.
“It doesn’t hurt,” she said, trying to goad him into spanking her harder. If it hurt more, she could lose herself in the spanking. She could forget about how damn guilty she felt for planning to do what Ephemera had asked her to do. She knew she didn’t really have a choice, Serkan’s life hung in the balance, but still she felt horrible about it.
“Your bottom looks like it hurts,” Serkan murmured thoughtfully. “It’s hot and it’s very red. Usually you’d be whining to the heavens with this level of heat.”
“Well, it doesn’t hurt,” she said again. “You spank like a girl. My butt has grown immune to your treatment, Doctor.”
“Ah, immune,” he said. “Well, I suppose some resistance may have built up. Let me try something with a little more sting, my rude little brat.”
He left for a moment, went to the creation station, and returned a few moments later with a freshly created implement, a long plastic-y, leather-y strap that was three inches wide and around fifteen inches long. He laid it across Faith’s cheeks and she felt the slight warmth from the creation process. Pulled from the ether to punish her bottom. Specially made just for her bottom. There was a care in that, a care she had felt every time Serkan had ever punished her. Even the first time when she’d not know what he was doing or how to take it, she’d always felt that he cared.
Tears began to bead in her eyes and she let out a little sniff.
“Faith.” Serkan looked at her with concern. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” she whimpered.
“You’re lying to me,” he said, leaving the strap laying across her bottom. “What have you done? What do you think you need to be spanked for?”
Dammit. He was on to her. He knew what she was doing. He understood her far too well to be manipulated. But Faith couldn’t tell him what the truth of the matter was. Ephemera had threatened both their lives if she did. So she was just going to have to keep up being a brat and hope that he figured she was a pain in the ass.
“Nothing,” she muttered against the pillow.
He turned her over and looked into her eyes. “You’re so unhappy, aren’t you,” he murmured. “I wish you would talk to me, Faith.”
“There’s nothing I can say,” she sniffled. “And there’s nothing you can do. Except beat me.”
“No,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and drawing her close. “You’ve had enough. Any more and you’ll bruise. I don’t want that. You don’t deserve it.”
“Trust me,” Faith mumbled against his chest. “I deserve everything you can give me and more.”
“It’s my decision when you are punished,” Serkan reminded her, his hand sliding down to caress her bottom better. Faith took a deep sobbing breath against his body. Why couldn’t he just beat her? Why couldn’t he flood her body with pain and let her forget the agony of the betrayal she was being forced to commit?
“You suck so much,” she whimpered tearfully. “You didn’t even use that strap. I bet you don’t know how.”
“It’s not going to work,” Serkan replied. “I’m not going to be goaded into punishing you, so just relax and get some sleep.”
She was so tired, so miserable and all she had was him—for the moment. Once she did what Ephemera wanted, she would probably lose him. She had already run the scenarios in her head a hundred ways, and none of them ended well for her and Serkan. Faith wished she could tell him. The words were on the tip of her tongue, and had been many times since Ephemera laid out her deal. But the possibility of him being harmed as a result kept her mouth closed.
These were probably the last days they would ever have together. She should try to enjoy them. The hard lines of his body against hers felt phenomenally strong. He was so protective, so loving. If he knew… he would be in danger. And she had put him in enough danger already.
Fatigue was starting to creep up on her. She couldn’t fight it any more than she could fight Serkan. Her eyes began to close as his hands continued to soothe the pain away and soon she was asleep.
Chapter Eleven
Several days later, something was still very much… off. Serkan could feel it. Faith had not been the same since her audience with Ephemera. It was as if she had a secret, though he couldn’t imagine what she could possibly be hiding from him—and she certainly denied it every time he made an inquiry. The council had been calling on him a great deal lately, mostly to perform various menial tasks far below his station. That had made it difficult to keep an eye on Faith, and it had made it impossible to continue her treatment in any disciplined fashion. He almost felt as though his efforts with her were being sabotaged. But why?
He watched her sitting out on the balcony, her knees drawn up to her chest, her green eyes fixed on the world below. She was deep in thought about something. An escape plan, perhaps? He was rather surprised that she hadn’t tried harder to run away. She’d settled almost eerily since that last meeting with Ephemera. And she’d been paying a lot more attention to the culture. Asking a lot of questions too.
Was he being overly suspicious? She was doing everything he asked of her, and yet somehow he was almost certain that she wasn’t.
“How are you?”
“Fine,” she said, a word without meaning.
“You’d better get ready for the Grand Moon ceremony,” he said. “It is tonight, remember.”
“Yeah,” Faith said sullenly. “I remember.”
He half expected her to refuse to go, but she didn’t say a word. She got up, moving slowly, and slouched toward the bedroom. She stopped at the door and looked back at him. “You know I love you, right?”
“Yes,” Serkan said, surprised by her sudden softness. There was something in her eyes. Grief, almost. He did not know what to make of it. “And you know I love you.”
She nodded slowly. “I guess, at least, with all this, I got to know what that feels like for a while.”
“What are you talking about?” He walked toward her and turned her to face him. “Are you just feeling down, Faith? Are you depressed? Or is there something else going on?”
Faith gave him a sad, watery little smile. “Everything is fine, Serkan,” she said in hollow tones. “I’m just being me.”
“You are very much not being you,” he disagreed. “You’re an unrepentant brat who is never sorry for anything. Now you’re sorry for everything, and you’re perpetually tearful.”
“Maybe your treatments have worked,” she suggested with a shrug. “Maybe this is the new me. Or maybe I’ll feel better soon.”
“Maybe,” he said. “I think you’ll enjoy the Grand Moon ceremony. It is quite something.”
“Yes,” Faith nodded, a small smile playing around her lips. For a brief moment, he saw the spark of mischief he so loved in her. “I am sure it will be.”
Chapter Twelve
“Hail Ephemera!”
Thousands of voices rose in raucous joy as the Grand Moon ceremony opened in the temple amphitheater.
Serkan and Faith sat in their box together, stiffly watching the goings-on with expressions far from the rapt ones most people were wearing. Neither one of them were truly present in the moment. Faith could tell how tense Serkan was; he was barely paying attention to the incredible scene laid out before them. As for her, she was simply trying not to be sick
with the nerves that were brewing in her belly. This was it. Her final score. The one that counted.
The moon was the closest to the planet it ever got in its yearly cycle, and it hung massive over the temple amphitheater, lighting it with a silver glow that made everything eerie and beautiful.
This was likely the last time she’d ever share Serkan’s company too. She had already planned her escape and taken the key that unlocked his ship, which Ephemera had informed her was still docked around the council building. Ephemera had arranged for several diversions for Serkan to allow Faith opportunities to make her plan as foolproof as it could be and she was certain that she would not be impeded once she had the council stone in her possession.
As they sat together in their most tense silence yet, a councilman approached dressed in his finest robes. Faith knew precisely what he would say. She felt a little lightheaded as she realized that her final plan was about to play out.
“Serkan,” he said. “Ephemera has asked that we speak with you now, before the ceremony begins in earnest.”
“Stay here and wait for me,” Serkan said, turning to Faith with a warning look in his eye. She was going to miss being looked at that way. She was going to miss him deeply. But there was no way of including him in the heist, and therefore, no real way to include him in her escape either. These were their last moments together, and he did not know it. Faith fought the impulse to throw herself at him and wrap her arms around him, babble all her love for him. It would not help.
“Fine,” she said in her usual tones. “Just don’t take all night, alright?”
He cut his eyes at her and shook his head, leaning down toward her for one last threat. “Your bottom is mine, Faith,” he murmured. “Don’t forget that.”
His face was so close to hers she could not resist. Before he pulled away, she bounced up and pecked him on the lips with a little kiss.
He smiled as he stood up. “That won’t save you.”
