“Hey, could you help me?” I asked.
She immediately stood at attention. “What can I help you with?”
“I need to—um—can I have that outfit from before? But also, maybe something to cover it up. It would be good to have a few layers to disrobe. Something sexy.”
Polaris looked at me. “You seem anxious.”
“Yes, I am, thanks for noticing.”
“The outfit is clean. I will bring you a sexy cloak.”
I’m not really sure there was such a thing as a sexy cloak, but, you know, good enough. “Okay. I’m going to take a quick bath.”
I sank into Niko’s bath, dumping in some essence of flowers, glad that Wretch was off with him instead of me. I could have stayed there for a while but I told them only half an hour, so I quickly ran through scrubbing and shaving everything possible. I wanted them to realize how serious I was about this. Polaris barged in with a pile of clothes.
“My lady, would you like me to braid your hair?”
“Sure. Maybe just two little ones at the sides. I want to look relaxed.”
She combed some scented oil into my hair, which was getting pretty long, and worked it into braids with her metal hands. “You still seem nervous,” she commented. “Why?”
“Um…”
“What is it like to be a woman?” Polaris asked.
“Wow. That’s very existential to handle right now. It’s—well, a better question might be, what is like to be me? And the answer is, very strange. Did Niko tell you to ask me these questions?”
“No. I just wondered.”
“Do you have consciousness?”
“How would I know?” Polaris asked. “I am conscious of you but they told me I don’t have a soul, back home. We Silver Scribes are made from four elemental crystals that can mimic the illusion of life. Still, my artificial mind does wonder things. I’ve noticed that other women here talk to each other a lot but you don’t have any women to talk to. Do you need women to talk to?”
“It would be nice,” I admitted. “When I was kidnapped I talked to Himika a lot.”
“I could mimic a woman for you to talk to…”
Whether Polaris had a soul or not, she sounded lonely, and I could converse with chickens, for heaven’s sake. “I wouldn’t mind having a friend,” I said. “I haven’t had many since I was in the dance troupe. When I got home, people treated me like I was different. I’d been places they would never go. It was like I’d gotten older and they hadn’t. So I tried to—I don’t know—play dumb. Like it wasn’t a big deal that I was ever in the troupe and I wasn’t thinking about any of it, and just stay like the goofy, naive kid I used to be. Not that I’ll probably ever know how to become a really serious, mystical priestess, but…” I sank back in the water as she was starting to braid my hair. “Maybe I could.”
“Do you like being the priestess?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think it would be nice to know that your guardians love you.”
“I hope they really do… I’m extremely nervous about making them do a quartet. I hope they don’t hate me.”
Polaris patted my head like I was done. She came around the bathtub so she could meet my eyes with her unblinking silver ones. “I could watch the quartet and give you my observations afterward. I think you’ll be distracted but I can pay attention to their individual reactions and make a report.”
I laughed. “You’re a pervy little robot, Polaris.”
Then I paused. Was I a terrible person? But she was inanimate and soulless (um…right?) and she had such a weird perspective that if it didn’t go well, she might have some insights on it afterward. After all, it made me feel genuinely better that she said I was the only woman Niko’s heart only beat fast for, because when I first showed up he made it pretty clear he was used to having a lot of female attention. “I mean…do you think you could still tell if you hid in the closet?”
Chapter Sixteen
Phoebe
The cloak actually was kind of sexy, with a collar that was cut low around my shoulders. Nothing covered my arms, but four panels of fabric draped over my body modestly. I was sitting on the bed trying to look regal and goddess-y, all perfumed skin and flowing hair and some extra jewelry Polaris dug up, when the door opened. I hadn’t heard any yelling leading up to this, but maybe I just hadn’t noticed over the bath water and talking to Polaris.
There was Niko and Gilbert, and behind them—yes—even Forrest. He walked right up to me and gave me a kiss.
I’m sure my eyes were shining. I was afraid to comment on this surprising circumstance just in case I messed it up.
“Phoebe,” he said. “I know I’m not always that agreeable. But the fight with Abel did show me one thing. Niko and Gilbert would never fight me or each other or betray you. They’re doing exactly what they’re supposed to do: making you happy. You’re right. We should all be as strong as we can so we can protect you tomorrow if the worst should happen like it did the last time.”
Even as he said this, I still felt a little sad, because Abel was still an enemy and I knew I would never feel complete as long as this was true, even to my dying day.
But for now, it was good enough.
Forrest drew me to my feet and slid his fingers up my neck in a caress that made all my hair stand on end. As he started kissing me again, I shut my eyes even as I heard Gilbert and Niko moving close.
Just the anticipation of it all brought out a little “mmm” sound as Forrest kissed me. I suddenly felt four hands slipping under my cloak. Hands that slid across my sensitive skin, finding all my sweet spots as the body heat of my men surrounded me. Forrest found my fingers and entwined them with his, pulling them up against his broad chest as Gilbert’s hands brushed my breastbone sigil and then massaged my breasts down to the points of my nipples, and Niko’s hand spread my legs a little and stroked my clit and pussy lips with both hands. Holy hell, this was amazing.
“Mmm…oh…” I dug my tongue hungrily into Forrest’s mouth, overwhelmed by it all. How did three feel like so much more than two? Their bodies circled me on all sides and I had never felt so protected.
“Do you want us all to fuck you, Phoebe?” Niko growled into my ear.
A responding groan slipped out of my throat. Was this actually happening? I could feel a little tension in Forrest’s clutching grip on my hands, but it was pretty easy to ignore that with Gilbert and Niko doing all sorts of things to me. Hands sliding up and down every plane of my body with slow, deep, sensual strokes and then back up to where now I was pretty sure Niko was handling my breasts and Gilbert was the one touching me between the legs. Niko was rougher than Gilbert, pinching my nipples until I whimpered while Gilbert slid his fingers in and out of me a few times and then teased my folds again, his fingers slick. The whole time, Forrest was kissing me like he would never let me go, his face rough as it scratched my skin.
Finally, Forrest drew back. He looked at me and only me.
Niko’s hand unfastened the clasp of my cloak and drew it off me, and then he nudged the scarves away from my breasts, his fingers resuming their teasing of my nipples. Gilbert was kneeling on the floor, his hands gripped around my legs so I couldn’t close them.
I writhed a little, biting my lip, my skin growing hot as Forrest held my hands and looked down at my nipples in Niko’s fingers. He was getting hard, and his dark eyes were intense and possessive.
I am not quite sure what he wanted. But the fact of him watching me was heightening the intensity of my need. I realized I was shedding my discomfort with the situation faster than he was. Maybe this is how it was to have a dragon’s blood. Maybe not all of our feelings were the same.
“Phoebe,” Niko purred. “Why don’t you tell us what you want now?”
“I want…” Right now I wanted everything. I wanted all of them in every way, until I couldn’t even think straight. But I was afraid to say that. My body was the priestess; enough of Phoebe still lingered in my mind, a
nd I was scared of how much I wanted.
Niko, standing behind me and looking at me from the side, slid his fingers across my opposite cheek and turned my face to him. He kissed me roughly at first, as if making a point, before he slowed down into a sensual rhythm, with one hand moving to the small of my back and pulling me close to him. I felt, or heard, his hands unbutton his shirt.
He let me go and suddenly I was in Gilbert’s arms. He kissed my neck and ear before he made his way into my mouth, his hands on my breasts again. They were feeling overly sensitive from all the attention.
“Ohhh…nnn.” I made a little sound that was almost protest.
“Stop us if it isn’t beautiful,” Gilbert said in my ear.
Niko caught my wrists in one of his hands and lifted them up over my head, and Gilbert grabbed my legs, and they carried me over to the bed so my legs dangled off the side of the tall mattress. Niko lounged on the bed behind me, keeping my wrists pinned down under one of his. He leaned closer to me with a grin. “I wonder how much pleasure we can wring out of you in a single night? And how much you can give?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“You’ll be weak at the party tomorrow,” Niko continued. “But we’ll all be strong enough to handle anything. Forrest especially, the lucky bastard…”
Gilbert was taking off my last little garment as Forrest lifted up the gold ornament for my sigil.
For the first time, I panicked a little.
“I’ll turn into that dragon thing again!”
“Phoebe,” Forrest said. “I think you’re supposed to turn into a dragon thing. Nothing bad happened when you did. When I wore this, my strength reached a new level.”
“Do you think it’s really safe, before we know what it is?” I worried I could lose myself in my other form.
“I think it would be a greater risk not to try it,” he said. “We don’t know what will happen at this party. If you turn into a dragon entirely, like Abel, I think the three of us can manage. But if you’re truly afraid…”
“No! No, I’m—I’m not afraid.” I finally dared to say it; I couldn’t contain myself anymore. “I’m just so glad you’re all here letting your guard down.”
“Well, it’s worth it if you’re happy, I just…,” Forrest said, slipping the gold around my hips.
“No ‘just’ right now!”
“Let’s not get into any lover’s dithering,” Niko said. Keeping my hands held up, he reached down and sucked on one of my nipples and Gilbert spread my thighs open and kept giving me little teasing touches. It was driving me into a crazy level of anticipation, but Forrest started slowly stripping off his doublet. I watched him shrug his way out of the leather and now he was just wearing a shirt that clung to every curve of his muscles. He reached down for his buttons.
“Take that shirt off,” I said.
Forrest frowned at Gilbert, who quickly acted like he hadn’t been watching, and then obliged me in pulling the shirt up over his head, showing off a body of brute strength. I’m glad he had become a knight and not worked in the family restaurant; what a waste that would be. He was made for fighting. His very bones and ribcage were thick and surrounded by solid muscle, but he was tall enough that he also had a sense of grace and proportion. As I was watching him, when Gilbert’s hand fluttered down to my clit again I could hardly stand how much I wanted to feel Forrest’s strength all through me.
He walked toward me now, keeping his attention razor focused on me, his thick manhood erect. It felt like a moment of truth for me. I was going to become whatever strange blood sang in my veins, and this time I would know it, and they would all see it.
I started to feel a little scared after all, but it was much too late to be scared.
Forrest picked up my legs and pushed into me, as deep as he could go, and I closed my eyes even as I felt Niko watching my reaction. Niko’s hand stroked my forehead where my sigil was that belonged to him, although it stayed dormant because his own sigil was hidden away. It still felt both soothing and stimulating and then I felt Forrest’s sigil press close against the gold between us. My skin burned there. Gilbert slipped in behind me now, stimulating my breasts and the sigil there with both hands and Niko pulled my mouth back into a kiss.
I was totally gone at this point. All I could do was ride out the intense sensations sweeping through me. Forrest had barely made contact when I started to hit my first orgasm. “Oh, please,” I breathed, and I don’t know if I meant ‘please stop’ or ‘please please don’t stop’. At any rate, they didn’t stop. A flutter swept through me and I felt myself succumbing to some kind of transformation. My hands seemed to grow and a tickle and pressure covered my skin.
Now the guys all had to draw back a little to see as they sensed what was happening.
All of my skin had taken on this almost translucent, pale color that seemed to shimmer in the candlelight and clear scales with pink and purple tints had climbed up my arms past my elbows like gloves. Claws had grown where my fingernails had been.
And I felt different, too. Or maybe I felt more like myself. This feeling that had been growing inside me since my powers first awakened—a frightening awareness that my body was a vessel and sex was my power, and all of this was much bigger than me. Phoebe was just along for the ride as my bloodline seized the reins. The longer it went on, the less I could resist it, but maybe it was better if I didn’t resist it.
The dragon inside me was not a nervous little human who didn’t know what to tell her mom or how to manage the feelings of four men. She didn’t just give, she also took, and she was ready to take everything she needed.
Niko grabbed something stuck to my head.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Horns, darling, you have horns and your eyes are like crystals.”
“Oh!” I closed them. “Do I look strange?”
“You do look strange, but—” Forrest said.
“I do!?”
“He means beautiful,” Gilbert said.
I believed Forrest, though. Gilbert knew how to schmooze; what bard didn’t? Forrest, on the other hand, would never lie to me. “Is this as far as it goes?”
“I guess we won’t know for sure unless we find the other four ornaments,” Niko said. “So we might never know. But it’s safe to say, this ornament amplifies your dragon blood, or allows you to tap into it, and it is…very intriguing.” He picked up my hand and kissed my palm. I didn’t actually feel it much through the armor of scales. “But we can talk more about it later.”
“Yes…I need more…” Niko’s pants hung a little loose off his hips already; I drew out his cock and swirled my tongue around it. Then I reached back behind me and found Gilbert’s erection through thin fabric; his pants were closer to leggings. “I need all of you.”
Forrest was still inside me and felt him throb and tense. “I can’t do this.”
I was afraid it was all going to turn to shit now. He’d been an amazingly good sport and I’d pushed him too far.
“Please, Forrest,” I said. “Something’s happening to me and I know this is what I’m meant to do. The priestess of the gate needs all four of you, like the four directions and the four seasons and the four elements…”
“Four,” he said, through clenched teeth. “It can’t be four.”
“I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have said four. I just—I need the three of you now. I need you all to let go for me. We might have wanted different things for ourselves, once upon a time, but I know I can never go back. I’m scared I won’t be human anymore. But I need you here, Forrest, this is where you belong.” I grazed the back of my finger down his bare skin and he shut his eyes.
I felt Gilbert and Niko exchange one of the knowing looks they couldn’t seem to help but share, and their hands started working me over again; I don’t know how much longer I could bear it, four hands that seemed to know just where to stroke and tease to keep me on the brink of an explosion. I couldn’t keep my eyes open and I cou
ldn’t keep my mouth closed.
Niko turned my head sideways a little more and slid his cock into my mouth and I started eagerly working the length of it and that was when I felt Forrest start to fuck me again. Maybe he was jealous or maybe he was more aroused than he wanted to admit, but either way, he was giving me what I wanted. I found Gilbert’s cock and pulled it free, wrapping my hand tight around it. I heard his sharp intake of breath as his hands upon me became a little more distracted.
I slipped into an ecstatic rhythm of sucking and stroking as I felt Forrest driving into me almost like he was angry, and all of their hands were on me now, stirring my sense of touch to a point it could hardly stand.
I’m sure this couldn’t have lasted for long, even though the moment seemed almost lost in time. But soon the sensations that were spreading through me seemed to gather together into an explosion that radiated through my entire body and I was screaming with pleasure as I took them all and gave them everything. Forrest was growling as he came inside me and Niko was silent but he pulled on my hair. Gilbert was the last to succumb, his breathing quick and almost panicked.
I was actually surprised that as the last deep pulsations ceased, I was not more spent. Not that I was eager to move. But I still felt as if I actually could’ve given them more.
They took the time to bring me down from it all. Gilbert cleaned me up and helped me into a little nightgown while Forrest sat there with my feet in his lap, gently massaging me.
“Forrest…,” Gilbert said. “Do you mind if I stay with her tonight? I don’t care if you’re here too. I’ll stick to one side of the bed if it makes you more comfortable. I’m just—I miss sleeping next to someone.”
“You can stay,” Forrest said. He balled up Gilbert’s shirt and tossed it at him. “Just put that on.”
Niko was the one who would never stick around. Never. He’d pretty much given up his own bedroom to me, but he didn’t stay.
“I’d better feed the cat,” he said, and he left.
I was halfway to dreamland by then, but I still had time to be annoyed about that. He was the only one who accepted the situation without argument, but it was obvious that it had to be on his terms, and his terms didn’t include any affection. No matter what happened, I was always left feeling as somehow, he had the upper hand on me. Was Abel the same way? Was I stuck with two men who would never love me? Maybe that was how the shadow guardians always were.
Priestess Bound: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (Guardians of Sky and Shadow Book 2) Page 12
