by Sam Hall
His lips were silk and steel, his tongue finding mine almost as easily as breathing. His hands went under my shirt as mine did his. Clothes were a barrier, an affront. I needed more.
“Stop.” The voice was a gentle feather of a suggestion, quickly brushed away. I tugged so hard on his shirt it began to rip. “Stop!”
I stood with my back against a wall of empty road cases, looking past Johnno’s shoulders at the stage beyond, with him jammed up against me, panting.
“You need to even her out, not push her higher. Will she let your bandmates take some of her energy?”
Aen’s voice was this clear, calm sound cutting through the maddening heat. I blinked and looked past them both.
The rest of The Changelings stood there, clustered tight as a group, watching the three of us burn. Because we did. All our skin glowed phosphorescent bright, a cold fire, and I wasn’t sure if it would burn me whole.
“She’s going nova,” Jen said, eyes wide, shouldering the others aside and taking a hold of my shoulders. “Ki, can you hear me?” I nodded. “You need to let some of this power out, give it to someone else. It happens to novitiates sometimes, because you don’t know what your magic is yet. I can take some, but it’s going to be weird.”
“Here,” Marlow said, his warm eyes swimming into view. Jen didn’t let me go, just held me as I moved into the other man’s arms, let my hands go to his face, our lips connecting on automatic. What burned inside me rushed into him, feeling like a bolt of white light. The world felt like it stopped for a moment, everything going completely still. The sounds of the crowd, Jen, the stage, the lighting, my camera—it was all gone, except for Marlow and me. All I could hear was the pleasure-pain of his moans, the rasp of his lips on mine, the feeling of his fingers raking over my back as he struggled to hold me closer.
“Get them apart before she burns him out completely.”
I blinked, the world reasserting itself with a violent snap. I growled as the band held my lover back, Marlow glowing like the sun. His eyes were like lasers, roaming the whole area aimlessly as he struggled to find his equilibrium.
“What the fuck are we gonna do?” Johnno said, appearing at my shoulder. “She’s so fucking sensitive, and she’s building power like a goddamn nuclear bomb. Someone could take her back to the bus.”
“That won’t make any difference,” Aen said. “Not unless you cancel the show. The energy here is pulling at her, and you’re about to push it a whole lot higher.”
“We’re not cancelling the fucking show,” Liam said, staring the others down when they looked on in fear. “This is exactly what we wanted. I fucking told you to tie her to us, Johnno.” He shook his head when no one responded and stepped closer to me. I could only stare at those burning blue eyes as they looked onto mine, unable to move when his hand cupped my cheek. And I didn’t want to. A small part of me deep down inside screamed about this, but right now, I could see. I had the power, and he was somewhere for it to go. He needed it, wanted it, and I wanted to give it to him. He smiled when I leaned in towards him, needing to make that connection. “You gonna give it up to me, butterfly?”
“You sure, Kira?” Jen asked. “It’d be the easiest place for it to go until we can get a feeder here.”
I nodded my head, but I wasn’t sure at what. It didn’t matter. I stepped in close to him to the sound of protests, but Liam didn’t care. He watched me come to him with the strangest expression on his face, and it took me until the next day to place it. There was a softness there.
But not when we kissed.
As soon as I was close enough, his arm wrapped around me, jerking me tight against him. He didn’t kiss me at first, just seeming to relish the feel of me against him. For a split second, I saw that triumphant smile that was all teeth before I tugged him closer.
My back landed on the wall behind us, and as my breath rushed out, it went into him and he swallowed it down hungrily. As he did everything. His hands shoved into my hair, holding me hard against him, his tongue pushing into my mouth.
His hunger awoke an answering one from me. I remembered some of it, as more of the power leaked out of me into him, the more I came back to myself. But right now, I didn’t fucking care. My fingers raked his back, slid up his shirt, and skated across a body turned to stone. I flipped us around, slamming him against the bricks, swallowing down his wild laugh as I kissed him again and again and again, until I finally pulled back, panting.
“I’ve got the taste of you now, butterfly,” he said. “How about draining some of that tasty damn power into Jakey?”
“You need to get a drainer in here right away!” Jen snapped. “You’re using this as an excuse.”
Liam clicked a finger at a passing employee and said, “Find the sentinels and ask them for the hungriest of drainers, now.” He turned to Jen as Jake sidled up. “She’s exactly what I thought she’d be, and until we can send her power to the reservoir, we’re the ones most likely to be able to drain it from her. I put her in our bus for a reason—this reason. Johnno doesn’t want to rush her? Well then, this is the only option. Billy, you’re up next.”
“The fuck I am,” he said, casting those hollow black eyes over me as Jake settled beside me, dropping a few kisses on my shoulder. “I’ll take everything she’s got to give tonight, but not before the show.”
“Billy.” Liam’s voice was pure menace.
“I can’t do it full. I cannot go out on that fucking stage and do what I have to full of her power. Afterwards.”
“Lucas.”
“No. Fuck no.”
“With us or against us, Lucas. What’s it gonna be?”
“Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain,” Jake said, tipping my chin up, his smile crooked and feline. “Knowing doesn’t help.”
“And what does?” I asked, not even understanding this weird arse conversation, but the words came anyway.
“Sensation.” His hands slid up my arms, trailing over so lightly, but I wanted his caress to deepen. Those long sensitive fingers brushed over my cheekbones, a thumb grazing my lips, his smile widening as they parted and my tongue flicked out. “Fuck, it feels like I been waiting forever for a taste of you.”
Jake started a lot slower and gentler, replacing his thumb with his mouth, leaving gentle little kisses that I struggled to meet, but he moved on before I could respond. It wasn’t until the fire inside me raged hotter, higher, that he stopped.
“There it is, all that lovely power. You ready to give it up to me?”
I reached for him, consciously now, though that throb of power still dulled my senses. It shut out Jen and her increasingly louder protests, the crowd, the band, everything, until there was just those sparkling green eyes and that smile. I tangled my hands in that ragged mohawk of hair, his eyes closing as I did so.
“Pull it harder…” he moaned, grinning when I did so. There was something in that I liked. He was all powerful and famous, but watching him go all squirmy as I gripped him made me feel bold, bold enough to close the gap between us.
Kissing Jake was wet, messy, and sexy, like he couldn’t hold anything back enough to finesse it, so he threw his whole self into it, promising to do a lot more if it progressed further. But it couldn’t.
“C’mon, Jake,” Liam’s voice cut through the haze. “The crowd’s going nuts.”
“No, Ma, I’m staying right here…” he crooned, cradling me in his arms and rubbing his face against me like a cat. “I’m all warm and cozy.”
“For fuck’s sake, Jake…”
His eyes flicked open the moment Liam started over towards us.
“I’m gonna love being your proxy, butterfly. You just fucking wait. I’m gonna have you simmering.”
He jerked away from me right before Liam’s hand smacked down on his shoulder, twisting so that his body brushed his bandmate’s as he moved.
“Miss Rutherglen, I’ve brought the feeders as required.”
Mark stood there, looking stiff and unc
omfortable with Circe, Bran, and Chyna at his side.
“Thank you, Sentinel,” she said with a nod of her head. She turned to face the band. “Kira will be fine now. You gotta get out there.”
“You don’t get to call the shots here, princess,” Liam said. “Lucas, you’re up.”
“She doesn’t need that—”
“I decide what is needed in my court.”
Jen’s eyes flashed at that.
“You didn’t negotiate with my father in good faith. If he’d known—”
“He’d have her installed in his cage, fucking her and letting all his ‘business associates’ run through her, using one of them,” he jerked a thumb at the feeders, “to scrape all the power out of her he could. You know that’s true.”
I searched Jen’s face, for what? Evidence of prior knowledge or righteous indignation, but instead, her eyes dropped down to the ground, and a strange hollow expression spread across her face.
“We’ve got to get this show on the road. Lucas, now.”
Was there anything a woman wanted more than a man snorting out his frustration and ambling over to kiss you with all the reluctance in the world? I found myself stepping back as he ambled over, and he stopped in his tracks when he saw it. Those pale blue eyes crackled as he drew closer, Jake’s head jerking up when he heard a rumble of thunder.
“You sure this is a good idea?” he said, looking at the roof of the auditorium.
“Yes. Stop pussy footing around. You’ve kissed millions of fucking girls before. I’m not asking you to fuck her,” Liam snapped.
The big man shook his head, trying to shield those flashing angry eyes from me, but I still caught them. A hand slammed down against the wall beside my head, and he leaned in closer.
This was ridiculous. I was still thrumming with whatever they said was my power, but it didn’t feel quite so much like my body was too full or my skin stretched too tight. I could hear the shudder of his breath, see the tension in that big body, but Liam watched us like a hawk. So I did what was needed. I bounced up and placed a chaste kiss on his cheek.
“We’ve kissed,” I said as I felt Lucas staring at me. “Now go play.”
Liam’s eyes narrowed down into slits, and he thought about it, about pushing us further, but the increasingly raucous cries of the crowd seemed to finally sink in.
“Fuck it. Get on stage.”
It felt weird when they went. Suddenly, the air was clearer, easier to breathe, yet I felt my skin tingling, as if missing the contact of the half dozen guys I’d just made out with. My mind tripped over that thought. I remembered my last kiss from before my transition, before Mark. It was tentative and had too much tongue, his stubble scraping painfully over my chin. They were so few and far between that I’d been resigned to remembering them, whether I wanted to or not.
“How are you feeling?” Jen said, coming and taking my hand.
“Better. What the fuck was that?”
She shook her head. “You’re a bit unusual, but I think you’re able to generate power much more easily than others. It’s why everyone’s sniffing around. They can sense that potential. Things like this, music, art, it pushes your buttons more than the rest of us. You’re going to need to formalise something with this preceptor or another. It’s why we live in courts. If we generate too much power, it can be funnelled off into a central receptacle, used by the wider court. If you don’t want Hartley—”
“I don’t know what I want,” I said. “I’ve been on this juggernaut since I took that job, and haven’t had time to work out what I think about anything.”
She rubbed her hand up my arm and nodded. “I’m sorry. This has been such bad timing. Well, you need to use the drainers.” We turned to look at a faintly irritated looking Mark and his retinue. Circe and Bran were much better dressed in band merch and checking me out way too closely, but Chyna just smirked. “Let them keep siphoning off your energy until you’re ready to make a decision. Or we could go home?”
Her home, not mine—the implication was clear. What would I do in mine? Sit and eat bangers and mash with Mum and Dad? Listen to Nan screech like a cockatoo at having one of our kind in her presence while her medication was doubled, tripled to keep her calm while I was around? It stung when I realised it, that I wouldn’t be going back there ever. For a second, I mourned the loss of my little cottage.
“You know that’s not going to work. I wanna be real clear. I don’t want anything to do with your dad, Jen.”
She took a breath in, ready to…what? Plead his case? I frowned slightly, my heart stuttering at the thought of it. He was her dad, I understood that but…
“I get that, but I’m here for you. If things don’t work out for you with Johnno, there’s always Aen.” We both turned to see the man himself lounging against the wall, watching us with a slight smile. “But the band’s about to start, and you’re already glowing. A drainer. Which one are you going to pick?”
Chyna sat on a nearby box, picking at her nails, bored now that the guys were gone, but the other two? They stepped forward as soon as our eyes lit upon them, only Mark’s hands stopping them from coming any closer.
“These?” Jen said to Mark.
“He asked for the hungriest. That was these three. She says she’s on a hunger strike,” he replied, jerking a thumb at Chyna.
“But I’ll break it if I’m reinstated. Doesn’t have to be the rest of the Concubines, just me,” Chyna said, getting to her feet.
“No, I have zero problems with you and yours chasing the guys, but I don’t want to get in between it. Have Liam,” I said flippantly, yet as the words came out, I could feel the places his teeth had pinched my lips. She watched me touch them, then jerk my hand down with a flat gaze.
“Off you go then,” Mark said, and she turned and left with a huff.
The two of them left looked at me with hungry eyes, but they didn’t move until I spoke. “Circe, I guess.”
“We come as a complete package,” she said, her brother protesting, but she silenced him with a look. “We’re good. It won’t hurt the way we do it, but it’s both of us together.”
“You skim off the top, then turn the rest into crystals,” Aen said, appearing by my side. “Your word?”
The two of them looked at the other, each moving restively as they appeared to commune silently. Finally, they turned to us and Circe said, “Fine. You want us now?”
“The lady is going to watch the show, and you’ll have a taste to take the edge off, then bleed off her residual energy for storage. You do a good job, you’ll earn yourself one of the stones.”
“Stones?” I said.
Aen lifted my arm, holding it out towards the two of them. They moved closer, Circe taking my hand and running a finger along my skin once she had a nod of permission from me. Her fingers came away coated in what looked like sugar, yet when I touched them, they were sharp little spikes of stone. I gasped when she put it in her mouth and sucked the lot off, her eyes bleeding black for a second, before shuddering.
“You’re strong,” Bran said, moving closer and eyeing my hand like it was a giant spider or something. “Just want to get something on the table. I’m not eating the hairy taco, but I’m more than happy to help you with the very full roster of dick you got going. Like what about you, Fanta pants?”
He looked at Aen with a cocked eyebrow and a salacious grin on his face, one that faded as Aen shifted back into her female form. She smiled, turning to me with a challenge in her eyes. That wasn’t all, I could see that, but I wasn’t sure what else. I moved in to meet her as her lips descended, opening mine to touch them to hers.
Her moan was musical, full of heat and surprise as I kissed her deeply, her tongue softer and more mobile in this form, which made me wonder what else it could do. An image of her nestled between my legs, those feathery tresses trailing along my skin, or her lying on the orgy bed, thighs parted, me brushing my finger through her—
She broke away, frowning slightly,
and had to shake herself before reverting back to her male form.
Man, I seriously needed to get laid, by either version of Aen. The thought was kinda surprising, since having a female sexual partner had never really been on my radar before, but it didn’t feel any less true.
“Whoa, you guys are next level,” Bran said. “So, we do this here? Rocks for keeping her from imploding? You got yourself a deal. Though I note tall, dark, and green-eyed hasn’t said anything yet.”
“No,” Marlow said. “I have to deal with a wardrobe crisis. Play nicely. There’s plenty of others in Hartley who’d be dying to be in your position right now.” He turned to me. “Stay safe, love.” He leaned over and dropped a quick kiss on my lips before breezing past.
“Later?” I said, the words coming out a whole lot more breathy than I’d intended.
“Who? Me or Aen?” Marlow asked, smiling when I couldn’t answer, my mind suddenly caught up. “I’ll find you.”
“How we doing tonight!” Liam’s voice rang out through the concert hall, only to be met by an animalistic roar from the crowd.
Bran gave me a measuring look and then shrugged. “How are we going to do this?”
Evidently, it was going to be me shuttling between the three of them. It took me a while to remember my camera, my skin flaring bright as the band broke into “What the Devil Wants,” a rollicking rock stomp number from their first album. Billy grinned as he played the opening riff, that smile getting wider as the crowd went wild. Liam grabbed a hold of the mic when it came time and purred out the first lyric.
For a moment, I was just stunned, pinned to the spot by the sound of music I’d heard so many times before, re-enacted in front of me. It felt like it hit me on a cellular level, vibrating all the way down to my core. I watched people get up, cheer, dance, but that was alien to me. There was so much—the driving beat of the drums, the whining howl of the guitar, the bass a more sedate anchor that stopped it all from flying off into incomprehensible bullshit, I couldn’t afford to add to it.
