A groan emerged from his parted lips as his eyes slid closed and his hips lifted, pressing up into her. “Blue,” he breathed out, the tendons on his neck standing out.
She brought the tip of him to her entrance. She was slick, ready, but he still stretched her. His hips pumped up in little motions as she gradually sank down, taking him in.
And then they were joined. She’d known the mechanics, but she marveled that a piece of this man she loved was inside her. With Forrest there had been too much too quickly for the moment to sink in.
She didn’t think she’d ever not want this.
She leaned forward, lifting up a little, and then sank back down. Up, then down.
Mo’ata curled up, propping himself on one elbow while the other hand reached for her. The change in angle put pressure on that spot, and while not as delightful as his fingers, it caused her muscles to tighten around him. They moved together as he brought her lips to his, and the sensation increased. She slipped her hands around his shoulders, clutching him to her as a new urgency filled her.
“You know I love you, right?” She whispered the words against his lips. “Almost from the beginning, something in me knew. And that same something is going to love you till the end of everything.”
He closed the distance, and her mouth opened against his. His hands drifted to her hips, and he lifted her as she steadied herself against him. Sinking back down, she tightened around him, enjoying the increased sensation. They found a rhythm, working together. The pleasure built once again. And once again, those feelings burst through her, and she gasped, a small cry escaping as she stiffened.
Mo’ata continued to move for a few more moments, then groaned, his head straining back, his teeth clenched. Warmth filled her as the pressure eased, and he came as well. They stayed as they were, arms wrapped around each other, chests working for oxygen.
When he leaned back, taking her with him, he slid from her. She missed him being there, but the cuddles were nice as well. She’d need a shower, and soon, but for now, this was just right.
His hand stroked over the hair that had mostly come out of its braid and down her back as a faint hum rumbled in his chest. It was the song that had played as she walked down her aisle. She suddenly remembered where she had heard it before. Her first night of karaoke. Forrest had sung it—for her, she now knew. How the hell did she get lucky enough to have two men love her as they did and even more willing to protect her?
“You didn’t use my gift,” she said, unsure if she was upset or not. She should be…
He bent down to drop a soft kiss on her forehead. “I know what a condom is for. It is unnecessary with me. I am not diseased, nor will I father a child on you. Yet. Birth control on Karran is different from Earth.”
“Oh?” That was good, right? She didn’t want a child, not now, not with everything going on and everything she had yet to do. But someday…
“Do you really want to know right now?”
She craned back and caught the small smile he sent her. She shrugged up a shoulder. No, she didn’t need to know right now.
His fingers traced down her arm and then up, as though he couldn’t get enough of touching her. “Till the end of everything, huh?” he murmured.
She reached up and poked at his left nipple. “Yup.” She laid her hand in the middle of his chest, drowsiness stealing up on her. His heart beat against her palm, and she counted. One. Two. Three.
“I believe I shall do the same. Till the end of everything.”
Her eyes slid closed. She’d have to get up in a little while and get back to her room before she was missed. But this was nice.
Chapter 14
PHILLIP
Lowering himself to the tufted red silk of the meditation pillow, Phillip slowly relaxed. This room, in this spot before Brika’s crystal, was the only place he could think clearly. Everything else, all the fighting and sideways glances, all the interactions with Blue and the others, all his cravings, they faded away.
In this room, he saw his actions for what they were, and he saw himself for what he was. He saw the face of every person whose life he had stolen. He saw the essence of them, and he saw flesh pink and round, filled with life. He saw them after, drained and pale and limp.
More, he saw his own jealousy, his need to be first, to be the best, and to be the most. He saw himself as he had been on Earth, a cocky kid who loved to play the game. And he saw what he had then become, someone who would resort to lying and trickery to cheat another of what they had earned. Someone who enjoyed when others stumbled and fell, who reveled in the looks of longing and pain Kevin had given his sister. Someone who enjoyed the wariness in the gazes of even those closest to him.
When had he become just a monster?
When had he become…
Evil?
As the Chief Elder said, the plinar could only build on what was already there. For a being to form which reveled in the taking of life, something in him had to be open to the idea.
His thoughts wandered as he stared at the glow of Brika’s Sacrifice. The crystal’s light waned and waxed, shifting over the surface in waves of color. All shades of purple. He wondered what her life had been like. Had she really sacrificed herself to save her people from a monster? A monster like him, like he had become.
Not like you.
His spine stiffened, and his gaze darted around the room.
Silly.
He focused once more on the crystal. Brika?
Yes.
The word came to him. Actually it was not in words she spoke, but thoughts, ideas. How?
It has not been easy to reach you, young one. Your plinar is muffled, trapped. I could have spoken to you sooner if not for that.
It had to be done.
Yes. A sigh that wasn’t a sigh.
I’m sorry.
I am not the one you need to tell.
No. Colors swirled in front of him as peace wrapped around him once more.
You are not as Shardon is.
The thought snuck up on him, quiet in his mind, and his eyes slipped closed. I am. A monster.
No. For true evil cannot admit that it is.
Maybe. But that does not excuse what I have done. What I still crave when I am not here. With you.
A memory crept in. A tiny Phe, her dark hair long and styled in braids. She looked across the swings at a brown-haired boy. He was huge. “Think he could be our giant?” she whispered.
As though the boy heard, he looked over and smiled at them. Phe waved to him and ran over.
“Hi.” The boy looked down, suddenly shy.
“Hi,” Phe said, friendly as always.
The boy looked up at her, then back down. “You’re Fe right? Do you want to play the giant game? My mom calls me her giant, and she told be a story about a giant who has a fe-fi-fo-fum.”
Phe grabbed the boy’s hand. “Yes! And this is Phi!”
A slow smile spread over the boy’s face. “I’m Kevin.”
They turned together to look at Phi. Kevin looked nice, but Phi wondered if he was any fun. Phi tilted his head back and squinted, just like he’d seen his father do. “How do we know you know how to be a giant?”
The boy’s eyes grew wide, and he grinned. Then his round face fell into a frown. “Fe-fi-fo-fum, I smell an Englishman. Be he young or be he old, I’ll bet that he’s got lots of gold.”
Phi looked back to Phe as Kevin finished. She was looking up at the giant the way she usually looked at him. Phi wasn’t sure he liked it, but she was so happy to have another for their game. He liked making his sister happy.
So, because he loved his sister, he looked back up at Kevin. “I don’t think those are the words, but, okay, you can be the giant. Do you know any Fos or Fums?”
The images faded, and he once more stared at the swirls of purple that were Brika. Was that where it had started? A mere seed of resentment that his sister wanted to be friends with someone other than him?
Somehow, acknowl
edging that released a chain that had held those dark thoughts to him, and a mass of shadow and doubt and fear lifted away. Because that’s what it was—fear that he wasn’t good enough.
Yes, you see.
He did. He saw everything clearly now, the twisted path that had led to his corruption.
I need your help. Shardon has escaped. I was weak when an elder visited, and he was able to slip away. None of the others would listen, or they could not hear.
Escaped? Phi’s stomach twisted, and the peace he’d found evaporated, shadows of fear and doubt moving in on him.
I sense him out there. He has grown cautious, more cunning.
Blue’s image crossed his mind.
He must be stopped.
How?
A sacrifice. It has to be a sacrifice. To draw him in again. I held on as long as I could, but I am not truly strong enough.
Sacrifice? Then it hit him. How could he have not seen it? Blue. That was what Forrest and Trevon were whispering about. That was the tension he saw in the clansman and the frowns the mercenary threw his way. It wasn’t the murders. It was Blue.
And this was why the Prizzoli had insisted she accompany him and stay. Disgust at himself and his own selfish blindness hit him. They were using her because of his fixation. Just as they had used Brika against Shardon.
I was different, Brika sent. And the sacrifice must be willing. I was willing. I think your Blue would be, if things were explained to her.
His heart skipped a beat, and his mind roared in protest.
There must be a sacrifice. If he takes power once more…
Images hit him. Bodies piled in small mounds, all of them pale and drained. Flies buzzed around a child’s slack mouth. Suspicious eyes and ragged hands grabbed at food. A severed foot lay in a puddle of blood. Scorch marks stained burned-out stone buildings.
This is what he wrought before. If it is true you are from a different world, then he can spread far, much farther than before.
It took a sacrifice, did it? Phillip knew what needed to happen. Tell me how we do this.
Brika whispered to him…
Chapter 15
LEVI
Levi knocked on Elder Shinzu’s door. He had attempted to schedule an audience with the elder, but had received no reply, only a note stating that he was not feeling well and would need additional periods of rest. That had been two days ago. Still no word had come from the elder.
“He is not well.” Brini approached from the direction of the shrines. The other guard, who Levi had known well at one point, had originally been assigned to Brika’s Sacrifice this rotation. When the Chief Elder had transferred him to be one of the “guides” for Blue, he had not been pleased, and dissatisfaction carved deep lines around his mouth.
“I am aware. Has he been checked upon? Has a healer come to see him?” Unspoken was the fear that Elder Shinzu was approaching the end of his span and would soon give the last of himself to the crystals.
Brini’s frown turned to a scowl as he crossed his arms over his chest. “No. Not that I am aware.” A hesitation. “I am coming to check on him myself.”
They stood opposite each other, neither moving to knock again or open the door.
“What is happening here, Brini?” Levi steadied himself, sharpened his mind to capture everything about this encounter. Maybe one of his fellows would finally open up to him.
Brini’s arms tightened, then with a sigh, dropped to his sides. The man’s head bowed, and he let out a low hum. Raising his head, he met Levi’s gaze. “I do not know. But something is not right. The illnesses…” Brini shot a look at Elder Shinzu’s door. “He has been worried for some time. Just after you returned the other crystals, in fact. He would not say what it was, but I believe it concerned Brika’s Sacrifice. After one visit…” Brini shook his head. “But the Chief Elder and a few others have confirmed that all was well. It was at the same time the rotations were suspended, and the accidents started soon after.”
“Why are the troop representatives gathering?”
Brini looked away, his mouth tight. Levi might have gotten all he would from the man. Pity, as it was nothing more than he already knew. Levi raised his hand to knock again at Elder Shinzu’s door. The lack of response was alarming.
“They’ve come to view the sacrifice.”
At Brini’s words, Levi’s raised fist froze in midair.
“They’ve come to view the sacrifice, to pay their respects to the Chief Elder, and to protest the suspension of rotations.”
Blue’s words echoed in his mind. Could she even be the sacrifice, if one was needed? She had no potential with the crystals. Nothing in the old stories mentioned if Brika had been able to use them, but…
“Why do they believe she is to be a sacrifice?”
Brini’s head twisted around in incredulity, and he snorted. “The same reason everyone else does, the same reason you do, the same reason her protectors are talking to their respective governments and pushing for removing her from Padilra. The same reason Padilra threatened to pull from the Alliance.”
“The old stories.”
“I feel sorry for her. I do not want her, or that Phillip, here. But her I feel sorry for. There is no good end.”
Levi swallowed. He refused to believe that. “Other than the rotations, what are the troop representatives discussing with the Chief Elder?”
A shrug. “Rumor says that she is asking them to prepare.”
“For what?”
“For the eventuality that a monster is born in truth and we must fight.” Brini’s tone hardened, and determination tightened his features.
“She is preparing for a war.” Levi’s belly churned.
“Would you have us defenseless?” Suspicion entered the other man’s tone.
“Of course not. I do not know that a war will be necessary, though.” Even Levi heard the doubt in his own voice. Lianka had become a morass of tension and unease. Already suspicious of strangers in general, his people had had an entire group of them, one a potential Shardon, thrust upon them. Add in the changes to the rotation and everything else, and people were on edge. Both Trevon and Felix had not stopped their talk of pushing the Alliance to make a stand and pull Blue out.
Levi did not want this. His people should have returned to normal, with the exception of a few visitors staying in the guest quarters for a year or so. That was all it should have taken. Handled properly, this would have been as simple as letting Brika’s Sacrifice do its work and easing Phillip into Prizzoli life.
How did things come to this? Should he have not helped the others with the surveillance and sneaking around? Was he betraying his people by doing so?
No, for they were not enemies. Despite what Trevon and Felix said, the Prizzoli as a people were not the problem, the Padilrian government’s demands and threats were.
When did the life of a simple guard become so complicated?
Which brought him back to Elder Shinzu. Levi wanted to see if the man could help him sort through his confusions.
Maybe you need a new purpose, he had said.
Levi knocked again, louder. When there was still no answer, he grasped the lever and pushed.
The door slid open with ease.
Elder Shinzu lay curled in his bed, sleeping. The covers were rumpled around him, and his robes were draped over the foot of the bed. Two boots sat nearby, one fallen on its side haphazardly. A plate of food, a fork speared through an uneaten chunk of fruit, sat on a nearby table.
Levi sniffed. A stale odor, sour and musty, permeated the room. “Elder Shinzu? Is there anything we can get for you?” He didn’t like this. Usually when an elder felt he was ending his span, he made a formal pronouncement. It was a solemn time, but when the proper rituals and sacraments were performed, it was beautiful as well.
Allowing the elder to flounder in such a situation… it was disgraceful.
Levi laid a hand on Elder Shinzu’s shoulder. “Come, wake. Let us care for you.”
Still no movement. The shoulder under his hand was stiff and cold, the bones sharp through the flesh and blankets. The chest was still, no breath moving it. Levi slid his hand to the wrinkled flesh of the elder’s neck, pressing lightly as he sought a pulse.
Nothing.
Straightening, he backed away slowly. “Send—” He swallowed, loosening the tightness forming in his throat. “Send for the Chief Elder, Guard Brini. Tell her Elder Shinzu has passed on.”
His eyes slid closed. It should not have happened like this. Anger grew in him, speeding his heart and tightening his muscles. Levi had attended a draining ceremony for an elder once. He had seen images of the bodies left behind by Etu and then Phillip. There were distinct signs to look for, the purple tone to the lids, the grayness of the pallor. The brittleness of the hair.
If Levi was not mistaken, Elder Shinzu had been drained.
And there was only one person who could have done it.
Maybe the Chief Elder was right to prepare for war.
PHILLIP
Phillip stretched. He had spent longer with Brika this session than normal. But… she had needed to tell him things. Show him. He thought they were ready. But…
They didn’t know where Shardon was.
“Phillip.” His eyes popped open to find the Chief Elder standing before him. She smiled at him gently, and the flesh of her cheeks folded into a map of wrinkles. “I wanted to check on you. You have been in here longer than normal. We had instructed the guards to not disturb you, but even so…”
He raised a brow. “I thought I was allowed the time?”
Her smile strained. “Yes. But something has happened, and I am afraid I need you to come with me now.”
His heart sped. “Is Blue all right?”
The smile faded. “She is all right, for now. No, it is Elder Shinzu. He has passed, and some believe you had a hand in it. We need to get you to your quarters until I can sort this out.”
For a Pixie in Blue (The Adventures of Blue Faust Book 4) Page 17
