Blackness had seeped malevolently beneath the surface of his white skin, swirling, spreading slowly in a sluggish creeping advance even as I watched, like a dark hand of corruption moving insidiously within him. Like an evil hand of death, despoiling the clean flesh it touched, changing it into putrid mush.
It had spread across his entire abdomen and was moving up his chest. The blackish discharge oozed from the hole in his side like fecal drainage, making the nurse in me wonder if his bowels had been perforated. But only for a moment. The Monère part of me that could smell him knew that it wasn’t stool that leaked out his side but rotten, decaying flesh.
“Merciful Light. It looks even worse than it feels,” Beldar said faintly. “And it feels really, really bad.” A painful shudder rippled through him.
A sharply indrawn breath turned me to Amber, to find him kneeling beside us. Wetness glistened his eyes as he gazed upon the horror that was Beldar. Any doubts about whether Amber cared for this man ceased to be as I looked into those deep sorrowful eyes. Yes, Amber cared. He cared deeply.
“Do not fear, Beldar,” Amber murmured. “Mona Lisa shall aid you.”
The total faith I heard in Amber’s words shook me. How could he believe in me like that? Completely, with such absolute trust?
Beldar’s face suddenly twisted. “Oh, Goddess!” he cried, as another agonizing wave of pain wracked his body, and the corrupting darkness crept further up him. “Hurry, please,” he gasped, fear wild in his eyes. “If you are going to try and save me, do so quickly while there is yet something to salvage.”
I gazed at him helplessly for a moment. With his fear echoing within me, desire was the farthest thing I felt. Then a wonderful calm stole over me, that stillness that sometimes came upon me before a battle, when I knew there was nothing else to do but go forward. The doubt, the unusual hesitance in me faded away, disappeared as I realized there was no one else to help him. Only me. We no longer had time to doubt and worry. Only act. And I knew what I wished to do.
My right hand came up to cover the ravaged side of him, to barely touch the ruined surface gently. Putrid slime wet my hand, coated it. But it was the pain deeper within that decay that called forth my own power to the fore, pulling it from the center of me. It flowed up my body, and washed down my arms and out through my hand in a powerful rush. The Goddess’s Tears embedded in my palm tingled and warmed, reverberating my hand as that energy spilled down into his wounds, taking away his pain, balming it like a cool wind as it searched and assessed and found that the damage within him was deep and malignant, frighteningly so.
“Oh, my,” Beldar breathed, turning wondrous eyes to me. “You took away the pain.”
“Only temporarily. And only the pain. I cannot heal you that way.”
“I know,” he whispered. “You heal with sex.” And with the pain gone, the look in his eyes became more heated, more male.
I shook my head. “No intercourse, Beldar. Amber will be the one in my body, bringing me as I bring you.”
“No sex?” he said, pained. “I’m dying, Mona Lisa, truly dying. But you are killing me even more.”
I touched his sweat-dampened face. “You are not mine, Beldar. I must return you. I would not be doing you a favor returning you more powerful than you came to me. You walk the line already with Mona Sera. I do not wish to be the one to tip you over so that she feels threatened, so that she feels she has to destroy you.”
He froze under my hand in that unnatural stillness the Monère were capable of. And I did not know if it was in fear, or because he was not used to a woman’s gentle touch, making me wonder how long it had been since anyone had touched him in kindness, in tenderness?
“You think optimistically,” Beldar said quietly. “In terms of a future when I do not know if I truly have one. When I saw you that first time with Amber, there on the dungeon floor as you tried to save him, both of your bodies aglow, filled with our moon’s marvelous light, I thought then that if Amber were to die, being with you, being in you like that, would be a wonderful way to go.”
Slowly, carefully, he brought up a hand to lay it over mine, to press my fingers even more into him so that my palm cradled his cheek and jaw. Turning his head ever so lightly back and forth, he rubbed himself against my hand. “I still feel that way. That it would almost be worth dying for if you touched me as you touched him. With care and compassion and kindness.” With those words, Beldar laid himself bare, let me see him naked without his cheerful, blithe mask. As I gazed into his serious, beautiful green eyes, I did not know how to respond.
“If it does not work,” Beldar said quietly. “If you cannot save me, then will you take me into yourself?”
I’d been reared among humans and had enough of their blood in me so that intimacy with a man was not something I shared lightly. A bond was forged between people who joined their bodies one with another. And I was possessive enough that I wanted to keep those that I claimed. But if Beldar was going to perish, then for that short period of time before he went, he would be mine in truth. Only mine. My touch would be the last he knew. My kiss, the last to touch his lips.
“Yes,” I said, in a husky rasp. “If it does not work…[ ]then yes.”
Mixed emotions flurried across Beldar’s face. “I do not know now what I wish for. For you to heal me…or not heal me.”
I laughed softly and let heat seep slowly into my own eyes. “No intercourse does not mean no pleasure, Beldar.”
He turned dazzled eyes to his old friend. “I envy you your Queen, Amber. It must be joyous to belong to her.”
“Yes,” Amber said. “She is more. Better. We are fortunate.”
“I am the one who is fortunate,” I said, rising to my feet, my thoughts centered on what needed to be done. “Help me remove his clothes, Amber, and your own while I wash my hand and retrieve the bedding from the other room.”
“And then I shall remove yours when you return,” Amber rumbled, his eyes bleeding from deep blue to that pure startling golden amber. His cougar eyes.
Pulling myself away from the hot sensual promise in those eyes, I went into the bathroom. Cold water ran over my hands as I washed them in the sink. Drying them, I went into my bedroom, tore the comforter from the bed, and brought it out into the living room. Spreading it over the carpet, I tossed the pillows I had also carried with me down on top of it.
“This will jostle him less,” I said softly to Amber, “and give us more room to maneuver.”
With that striking gentleness that I always found so surprising in one so big, Amber lowered Beldar down onto our makeshift bed, Beldar’s bare legs and naked pale arms looking so white against the blackness eating the center of his body.
In the short moment of time I had been gone, Amber had managed to rid himself of his clothing. Big and brawny, he was a shocking contrast against Beldar’s injured frailness, his skin gleaming white and pure and whole like the healthy animal that he was. Muscles bulged in Amber’s arms, shoulders and chest as he laid Beldar down on top of the comforter. The sinewy columns of his legs flexed and swelled, his powerful thighs bulging as he knelt, moving in that natural, graceful, unselfconscious ease that I envied. I would never be as comfortable as he was, unclothed.
My eyes moved down him as Amber stood up. And the sight of him dangling long and thick, stirring, coming alive, becoming wider and fuller, made me flush with heat. I stood unmoving, a pliant doll, as he came to me and with gentle care, lifted the T-shirt over my head. Those large fingers, surprisingly nimble, undid the clasp of my bra and I watched as those twin cups dropped to the floor, a splash of whiteness. Instinctively, my cheeks burning, my hands came up to cover the small, delicately rounded curves of my breasts.
A sound of protest came from the ground. “No, please. Don’t cover yourself.” Beldar’s eyes locked with mine, vivid, pleading, flashing with a deepening green fire. “Let me see you,” he whispered.
Trembling, I dropped my hands back down to my side. Closing my eyes, I felt
the cool night air whisper across my skin, felt my nipples peak and bud beneath that breezy touch.
“You’re beautiful,” Beldar said softly. “Beautiful.”
I shook my head, knowing I was not. But didn’t tell Beldar to look away. Dying cut him a lot of slack. I kept my eyes closed and let his remain open.
I felt the waistband of my jeans tighten and then loosen. Heard the rasp of the zipper sliding down. Felt the worn denim and then my underwear being pushed down my legs, leaving me horribly, vulnerably naked. My hands fisted, my jaws clenched. I shook with the control I exerted to remain still under Amber’s gentle disrobing.
Beneath his urging hand, I stepped out of my pants, shaking like a leaf blown by a strong wind. A hand tilted up my chin. “Open your eyes,” Amber said softly.
My lashes lifted and I stared into his brilliant amber eyes.
“Drop your shields,” he murmured, stroking his fingertips along the softness of my cheeks.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You keep leashed your natural attraction to us, your Aphidy, barricaded behind a high strong wall of your will. Allow it to come out and it will be easier for you.” He bent down and pressed his lips against mine in a soft sweet caress. “Lower your shields,” he said, and capturing my lower lip with his teeth, bit down hard enough for it to both hurt and please.
With a gasp, a jerky sob, I loosened my control. Like a wild animal suddenly set free, the inner power within me that was always near the surface, roared out with breathtaking force, spilling from me and hitting the others.
They cried out and suddenly Amber was crushing his mouth down on mine, forcing my lips open, plunging a wide, thick tongue inside, hunting, seeking, finding, capturing my tongue with his, kissing me with almost punishing force, as if he would eat me alive. I opened my lips wider, slid my tongue against his, and pushed and parried, teased and tantalized, hungry mewling sounds spilling from my mouth as I ate from him in turn.
Amber’s strong arms wrapped around me and the world tilted and cloth brushed against my heated skin. I found myself on the ground, my face only inches away from Beldar. His luminous eyes, sparkling like precious emerald gem-[ ]stone, were opened wide, dazzled and dazzling. His lips were parted; full, flushed, cherry-red…[ ]alluring. I leaned over and tasted him, too.
Beldar groaned as my lips met his, and his mouth moved against mine with a terrible hunger.
“Let me in, let me in,” he pleaded, and the echo of his words, so like Gryphon’s, sent a flush of tingling heat through me. I parted my mouth and he swept in and took control of the kiss, his agile tongue hungrily learning the contours of my soft inner flesh, the smooth surface of my teeth, the feel of the wet slide of my tongue against his, rubbing, sliding, gliding against mine, entwining them and then sucking my tongue into the cavern of his own mouth.
The taste of him was tart and tangy, like sweetness edged with something sharper. He murmured, groaned, breathed into my mouth, one hand sliding to the back of my neck to hold me to him, the other hand smoothing down my shoulder. Then like a lure he could not resist, he cupped my breast, rubbed a thumb over a taut nipple, peaking it even more. I made a soft sound and he ate it down.
“Blessed Lady, you are so sweet, so sweet,” he cried and swallowed me up in another kiss.
Behind me, Amber pressed his heated lips down my back, and nibbled my shoulder, making me push back and writhe against him as one big hand flattened across my belly and pulled me back against him so that he pressed, thick and long, against my bottom, a hard shaft riding between my cheeks.
Before me, I slid a hand up Beldar’s hair-prickled thigh until I held him full, thick, and aroused in my hand. He nipped my lower lip as Amber had done earlier, a sharp sweet stinging bite. I rewarded him by wrapping my fingers hard around him, pulling a low agonized sound from deep in his chest. But like the nip he’d given me, I knew it wasn’t pain he felt but pleasure.
Amber’s splayed hand smoothed even lower down my belly, sliding into my triangle of hair. A thick, callused finger pushed slowly inside me with testing roughness and I bucked back against him, squeezing that coarse finger with delicate, clinging inner muscles. At the same time, unconsciously, I squeezed what I held in my hand. Beldar groaned long and hard into my mouth, and he bucked forward, pushing himself within my tight grasp.
He tore his mouth from mine, pressed his heated face against me, and panted in my ear. “Oh, Goddess. Oh, Goddess. Yes, yes, more.”
And then I couldn’t hear anything. Could only feel as Amber pulled his finger out and began pushing his much bigger, much wider penis into me.
I wasn’t stretched enough, wasn’t wet enough. I was moist but not soaking wet. I was dry enough, tight enough, to feel every pushing, stabbing, stretching inch of his pulsating hardness moving into me, invading me. And it was wonderful, wonderful with that touch of discomfort. I could feel him even more, even sharper, with that edge of pain mixing with the incredible pleasure.
Light began to shimmer my skin, turning me into a luminous glowing thing, leaving Amber with no doubt as to what I felt. We only glowed in pleasure. And it was pleasure that inundated me, a painful pleasure.
I turned my face into Beldar’s. “Shine,” I whispered against his full, tender lips, “Shine for me,” and lapped across the parted seam of his mouth. With my hands, both of them now, I pumped Beldar’s hard velvety shaft in my closed fists in time to Amber’s stretching, insistent push-[ ]and-slide entry into me.
I pulled—up and up. One long slow squeezing pull, almost terribly tight—and Beldar rewarded me with another groan, with the shimmer of his own pleasure lighting him from within.
As Amber pulled out of me, his fat mushroom head bumping and gliding along my responsive inner tissues, making me catch my breath, I started with my other hand at Beldar’s base, pulling slowly, tightly, up his root as my other thumb swirled over his weeping crown, rubbing over his sensitive tip, anointing him with his own essence.
I lifted my thumb and brought it to my mouth, my tongue flicking out to taste him as Beldar watched with harsh breath and glittering eyes. I savored his essence, swirled it along my tongue and opened my mouth to his, sharing his own taste with him. Grating a rough oath against my lips, he plunged his tongue into me. Pushing, retreating. Sliding in, sliding out. Again and again in a heavy surging rhythm, fucking my mouth as I tightened my lips around him and sucked his tongue, my cheeks hollowed out, my mouth a receptive oral sheath for his thrusting aggression. He murmured, muttered, made wild sounds against my lips. And then he was tearing sounds from me as his fingers clasped my nipples, tugging and squeezing them, rolling them between tight thumb and forefinger in rhythm to his thrusting tongue and his sliding, hot-frictioned movement in the sheath of my hands.
The sensation of Beldar’s hands, lips, tongue, and fingers, his pulsating hardness in my hands, and Amber’s thickness pushing, pulling in me…It all built and built in a powerful spiraling tension within me, winding me tighter and tighter. The room glowed brilliantly with our incandescence, with our bright light as I twisted and climbed and stumbled to the very top of the cliff, teetering there for a long precarious moment, heat filling me up, swelling, brimming. And then spilling over.
I reached blindly down with one hand as I felt my contractions begin and found Beldar’s tightly scrunched balls. One squeeze and I spilled him over, too. He pulsed and jerked in my hands, and wet fluid splashed onto my stomach and chest, so hot. And then I was taken over by my own release. But even then…even then I did not forget. My hand released his pulsing length and found his wet oozing side. And the reason for all this, the purpose, was foremost in my mind amidst our tumultuous release.
Heal—I thought, I willed, even as I shuddered and trembled. Please heal! And crying, convulsing, I spilled the hot energy of my climax and of Amber’s jetting release into that wounded, blemished spot, channeling everything pouring out from us there, with strength and with prayer.
Please, Mother Mo
on. Please help me help him. Save us. Save my people. I can’t—won’t!—give any of them up.
My light peaked and began fading back into me, and I felt Amber’s incandescence mute and dim. But the room still glowed. Beldar still glowed.
I removed my hand, pulled back from Beldar so I could see. And wanted to cry in anguish. To say no!
The torn flesh had healed. But his skin still had that dark stain, that malevolent blackness against the pure white of the rest of him. But the darkness was different somehow. He gleamed from within like a shiny unearthly thing. Radiance burst from him with almost harsh brilliance, lighting even that dark rotted core of him so that it gleamed and sparkled like black diamonds caught beneath the sun. But it wasn’t the sun that shone. It was the moon—our life source, our energy. The essence of who we were.
Amber shifted, pulled out of me, and lifted up on an elbow to gaze uncertainly down at Beldar. “What’s happening?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I whispered, as befuddled and caught up in the wonder of what I was seeing as much as he.
Beldar looked down at himself. But as the light started to change, to grow even brighter, fiercer, his expression of awe gave way to one of frightened panic. His eyes rounded and he threw back his head, screaming in hoarse pain. His body thrashed and rolled in agony.
“What’s wrong?” I asked and grabbed his hands, pinning him down so he wouldn’t hurt himself as he tossed and turned.
“Hurts,” he cried. “Dear Goddess, it hurts. Worse than before. Ahhh!” He bucked suddenly, his body arching up off the ground, almost lifting me with him, as a violent spasm gripped him. His feet pedaled frantically against the floor, moving him clockwise around me, as if he could desperately outrun the pain that way.
“What’s the matter?” Amber asked, grabbing Beldar’s ankles, anchoring him still. But the moment Amber touched him, he knew. As I had known with that first contact.
Over the Moon Page 24
