Sword

by JC Andrijeski

  “Here?” he said, soft. He glanced again at where Garensche and Wreg stood on the other side of the pool, putting down towels as they talked. “There are people watching, wife.”

  “They’re not looking. No one can see.”

  “They’re about to jump into the pool.”

  “They won’t notice,” I said, kissing his throat.

  “They’ll notice if I start slamming you against the side of the pool and groaning.”

  When I laughed aloud, he kissed me again, lowering one hand from the edge of the pool to hold my fingers against him. His mind was in mine then, sending me what he wanted, getting more explicit when I gasped against his mouth. He broke off the kiss, breathing harder when I continued to massage him.

  “Well?” he said, leaning his face against mine.

  “Well, what?”

  “Think you could hold your breath that long?” he murmured.

  I laughed, slinging my arms around his neck.

  “I think your pals might notice that, too.”

  “Maybe you’re right.”

  When I met his gaze, I caught him looking at me, that sadness in his eyes again. It was gone almost as soon as I saw it, replaced by another faint smile, but I clung to him tighter. He must have felt something, because he shook his head, his voice a murmur.

  “No serious talk.” He kissed my mouth. “Please, Allie. Not today.”

  Before I could respond, he grabbed me around the waist, and began dragging me with him across the pool, swimming hard with his legs and his free arm.

  I laughed, struggling against his hold. I shrieked when he reached the shallows and began to walk, picking me up and slinging me over his shoulder.

  “Put me down!”

  “Really?” He halted in mid-step, looking up at me.

  I looked down at him, pausing in my struggle against his hands long enough to think. “No,” I said. “I guess not.”

  His smile returned. He glanced at Wreg and Garensche.

  “Sauna’s ours for awhile,” he said.

  Wreg laughed. Garensche rolled his eyes in mock irritation, hands on his massive waist.

  “Hose it down afterwards,” he said. “I beg you.”

  Revik walked up the stone steps, still holding me around the waist and legs. Yanking open the wooden door to the sauna they’d built into the rock wall, he carried me inside, then slammed the door shut behind us.

  He laid me on the cedar plank bench, then used a wooden ladle to pour water on the rocks in the fire pit in the corner––which was an honest to gods fire pit, not an organic, or even an electrical one. It was already hot in there, but once he’d poured the water the air was dense, too, and dimly lit, with only the gold runner lights on.

  “They’ll hear us,” I whispered.

  “No, they won’t.” He looked at the door. “Thick walls.”

  He proceeded to kiss me, pulling me into his lap. He had his fingers inside me as he read me, sliding them deeper and with more precision until I was biting my lip not to cry out, clutching his neck. He was getting better at pulling on my light, too, even in just a few days, coaxing it out in a sensual pull until I arched against his hand, my light wrapping hotly into his. After a few minutes, I was sweating, and not only from the clouded air.

  “Stop,” I managed. “Stop. I’m going to come…”

  “That’s the idea, love.”

  “Stop,” I insisted, pushing his hand away.

  He tried to maneuver me over him, but I stopped him from that, too.

  “You’re doing everything but what you said you wanted,” I reminded him.

  I felt his pain spike as he remembered. His eyes were glowing when he kissed me harder. He let out a short gasp when I slid down out of his lap, so that I was kneeling between his legs. I felt his pain worsen as he looked at me, even before I yanked down his swimming trunks.

  “You’re such a sucker for this,” I teased him.

  He smiled. I saw his eyes narrow, making the glowing eyes predatory.

  Seeing the pain there, I laughed, shaking my head.

  Pushing his legs apart, I massaged him until he fell silent. When I felt his muscles start to relax, I took him in my mouth, pulling on him with my light until his back arched. I felt his light open when he let out a low groan, winding deeper into mine––deep enough to make me nervous––until I stopped, panting, fighting to control my own aleimi.

  Even so, I could tell he was holding back. He had been since that first night.

  Watching his face, I wound my light deeper into his, cautiously, trying to remember what he’d done to me in Delhi. It took me a moment of experimenting before I found it. The instant I had, I saw his expression change. His eyes closed, his face contorting in pain as he clutched at my hair, arching into me involuntarily, all the way in, forcing me to relax my throat.

  He let out another low groan, staring at my face once his eyes were open. When I sucked on him harder, pulling more deliberately on that part of his light, he jerked into me, losing control.

  “Gods…” He gasped out another groan, and I gripped his thigh, sending to him to be quiet. “I can’t… gods, baby… gods… Allie… do that again. Fuck… do it again.”

  I decided I didn’t care about the noise either.

  I twisted deeper into his light, pulling on him harder with my mouth and tongue. When he yelled that time, I eased him back, using my light and my hand.

  I did it again. And again.

  I lost track of how many times I got him to ask me, half drunk on his desire when he lost control, gripping my hair again as he thrust into me. I still felt it in him, though. A wall remained there, and he didn’t let me past it. I stopped him again.

  He spoke before I could.

  “Alyson.” His eyes were glowing for real now. He tried to pull me up to him, but I resisted his hands. He was fighting me with his light then, frustration bleeding off his mind and hands, but I pushed that back that way, too. His pain flared at me.

  “Alyson,” he said, his voice thick. “Alyson, gaos… let me come. I want to fuck you with my light. I’m going to do it anyway if you don’t let me come.”

  I gripped his thighs, clicking at him softly. He’d sounded like the boy just then.

  “Go ahead,” I said.

  I went down on him again, until he was begging me, gripping my back. I was starting to calm him down, to slow him down––when I felt the wall in him start to give. He fought it, but I pulled on him harder, until I felt him understand. I was about to stop, to just ask him, when it felt like someone else slid into me from behind.

  Gripping his legs, I jumped violently, turning my head.

  No one was there.

  When I looked up at Revik, his face was taut with concentration.

  “Let me,” he murmured. “Please. I won’t hurt you, love. Please.”

  When I continued to look at him, he caressed my face.

  “I’ll give you what you want, Allie. Just give me this first.”

  I stared up at him. “A trade?” I said. “Really?”

  “Yes.” He nodded, and his pain ribboned out at me. “Yes.”

  I hesitated, watching his face. The idea of letting him use his telekinesis on me turned me on, but it also made me nervous.

  He caressed my face, sending me a heated wash of light. “I won’t hurt you, Allie,” he murmured. “I have a lot of control. I promise I do. Please. Please, let me.” He groaned again. “Gaos. Please.”

  Looking up at him, I swallowed, remembering who he was. Images flashed behind my eyes, things I’d seen in Tarsi’s cave––what I’d seen him do with his light inside those Barrier imprints from the past. For a few seconds, wonder touched my light as I remembered how I’d felt about him then. I’d been in awe of him, of what he could do.

  After another bare pause, I nodded. “Okay,” I said.

  I opened my light, letting him feel me, and his desire worsened.

  Tentatively, I slid my mouth back over his cock. After
a few more seconds, I lost myself in his skin and light, winding back into him even as I took him deeper. I heard him groan, a gasping cry, right before he shocked me, starting with the telekinesis without warning.

  His light flooded into me from behind––

  My spine arched involuntarily when it grew physical, invading me almost like flesh. I gripped his legs, still half-afraid, but he held me tighter.

  “Allie” he said, his voice a lower gasp. “Please. Please trust me. I won’t hurt you, Allie.”

  I forced myself to relax and he started again, slower that time. I moved with him the next time. By the next, I’d stopped fighting him entirely, sweating as that liquid heat wound into me deeper. My mouth was still on him. When I started losing control of my light, wrapping my arms around his legs, I felt him building in seconds.

  That time, I couldn’t concentrate well enough to slow him down.

  I heard him cry out my name, his back arched as he held himself back, trying to keep from hurting me with that other part of his physical organ.

  His light slammed into me harder––pure liquid heat––and I bucked, groaning against his skin. He was so far in me, I barely knew what was happening when he pulled my mouth off him.

  I watched the harder end push out from the softer part of his cock, curving at the tip. Without thinking, I licked him, curling my tongue around it, sucking again, and he let out a weak cry, ejaculating the instant I had. He came for a long time, his eyes half-closed, his hands trembling as he caressed my hair and face.

  As I felt it ebbing, I watched that part of him retract.

  Seconds later, his light surrounded me, half-suffocating me.

  He held me in place with it, forcing my legs wider as he used the telekinesis to fuck me from behind, pain rippling off him at each thrust.

  It felt so much like him, I forgot it was his light.

  He went deeper, angling so far into me I yelled. I felt his light do what the hard part of his cock, or hirik, as he called it, normally did. His aleimi tightened around the rest of my body, forcing me even more open as he went in farther.

  I lost it, groaning, until I had my arms wrapped around his legs and I was gasping, my head in his lap, my back arched.

  Right when I was on the verge of coming, he stopped me.

  His hands pulled me up into his lap, urgent––then rolled me with him to the bench.

  He held me down, fingers gripping my shoulder as he entered me, hard. He was fully extended the instant he was all the way inside. I think I yelled when he slammed into me again. He rested his full weight on me as he angled deeper, and I yelled again. He did it until I was saying his name, wound so far into his light I lost all sense of where I was.

  I felt him let go of the wall he’d been holding between us, somewhere in that.

  His pain flooded my light.

  Grief expanded over me, a denser vulnerability––and a wash of anger, hurt and fear that made me cry out louder. I felt the desperation in it, a want to break me open, and I opened my light more, trying to help him until he lost control, holding me still as he slammed into me harder, groaning from deep in his chest.

  I came until I nearly blacked out, dimly aware that somewhere, I felt him do the same.

  It took longer that time, after we finished, for me to be able to see straight again. When my vision finally cleared I found myself clutching his hair and shoulder in a death grip, my legs coiled around his. I could barely breathe. I lay there, panting in the thick air, and felt like I’d lost about five pounds in sweat.

  When I looked up at him, he smiled.

  He’d been watching me as I came back. His hair stuck to his neck. His eyes were glassed, almost opaque, but I could see him there again. I saw the Revik I knew, felt him in his light. He caressed my cheek with his fingers as I calmed down, until I saw a look in his eyes that made my chest hurt, a look I hadn’t seen in them in a long time.

  “Is that what you wanted?” he said.

  I nodded, gripping his hair tighter. Pain still flickered around my light. I fought to control it, feeling him react, even as his light started to retreat. Watching that presence whisper away, disappearing back behind the other masks, brought up an irrational fear in me. It was nearly enough to make me blurt out everything to him.

  But I forced that back, too.

  He’d been open to me again, for those few minutes at least.

  He slid off me, sitting back. Taking a long breath, he leaned his head against the sauna wall, closing his eyes. “Alyson. You’re going to kill me.”

  I crawled into his lap, kissing his mouth.

  “Is this gratitude?” he smiled.

  I laughed. “Yes.”

  “You want a bigger cock than mine?” he said, quirking an eyebrow.

  Laughing again, I slid deeper into his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck. “No. What about you?” I said. “Did I do all right? Anything at all like the pros do it yet? Or do I still need work on my technique?”

  His eyes grew faintly pained.

  Before I could regret what I’d said, he gripped my hair, pulling me down for a kiss. After a few seconds, he was kissing me harder, letting his light grow serious again as he sent to me how much he’d liked it. Groaning a little, he let his pain flare more as he remembered, along with explicit details about how he intended to return the favor later, back in the room.

  He was still more open than he had been, and I had to fight with my light again to keep it from winding back into his.

  “Really?” I said, breaking off the kiss as I glimpsed one of his thoughts. “Why? You’re already stronger than me.”

  “I want my hands free,” he murmured. “It’s an aesthetic, Allie.”

  “An aesthetic.” I smiled. “I see. So tying me to your bed––it’s not about you being a control freak. It’s about you expressing yourself as an artist.”

  “Yes,” he said, smiling.

  He kissed me again, putting light in his tongue, then stood, pulling me to my feet.

  “I’m going to pass out if we stay in here,” he said.

  “You might want your suit,” I said, pointing.

  Glancing down as if remembering, he shrugged, smiling. “They’ve all seen seer cocks before. And white man-asses.”

  I bit my lip, but kept the smile on my face.

  “Really?” I said, lifting my bikini top. “Then I guess it won’t matter for me, either. They’ve all seen seer breasts before, too. And other female body parts, I’d wager. I mean, what is Wreg, a couple hundred years old, at least?”

  He grabbed me around the waist when I reached for the cedar door handle.

  “You go out there like that, and you’ll cause a riot,” he said, kissing my throat. His hands tightened, pulling me against him. “Be good, wife. Don’t scare me.”

  I smiled, but caught the seriousness in his voice. Opening my light, I reassured him with a lingering pulse of warmth, caressing his face. I let him feel my seriousness too, the twinge of jealousy that made me say it in the first place. Feeling him relax, I caressed his arms, long enough that his hands tightened on me again.

  Smiling, I kissed his chest.

  “Fine.” Letting go of him, I retied my top, sighing in fake resignation. “Clothes, it is.”

  When we stumbled out of the sauna, expelling steam, and at least wearing what we’d gone in with, Wreg and Garensche burst into loud laughs, whistling. I looked around as they did, saw that about a dozen other infiltrators had joined them by the pool, either sitting on the edge or lounging in the water.

  “Very subtle,” Garensche yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth. “I think I counted your wife’s orgasms, Nenz.”

  Wreg laughed louder, smacking Garensche’s shoulder.

  “Leave the man’s wife’s orgasms alone,” he chided.

  Blushing, and faintly mortified, I glanced at Revik, who smiled a little tensely as well, kissing my cheek. His arms slung around me, and I felt a stronger flush of possessiveness there as
he held me against him.

  I could tell the being overheard part bothered me more, though.

  He’d been raised seer, more or less, and they were definitely more exhibitionist than how I’d been raised by my human mom and dad in San Francisco. I think I’d convinced myself Wreg and Garensche would have left by then, not stuck around when we started making noise. I’d forgotten they were seer, not human.

  Anyway, these people didn’t know me. Their only association with me now would be me yelling out Revik’s name from behind a closed sauna door.

  As I looked around, all of them seemed to be smiling, though.

  I read the Barrier space around us and realized they were all more than a little pleased that Revik’s black mood had broken, as had his long, (in their minds, anyway), period of celibacy.

  I was still thinking about this, glancing around at the faces turned up to his when it occurred to me again, how they all saw him. The eyes watching us reflected an open affection for him in some cases, a worshipful admiration in others––in others still, a near-reverence.

  Before that train of thought could give me another possessive paranoia attack, he grabbed me around the waist. I let out a shriek as he jumped us both into the pool.

  Surfacing minutes later, after wrestling with him for a few beats underwater, I laughed, sputtering for air as I aimed a splash at his head.

  Before I could get him, he swam away from me.

  It took me only a second longer to realize that that time, he wanted me to chase him.

  32

  MEANS AND TARGETS

  “NO.” HE SHOOK his head, arms folded across his chest. “Try again, Allie.”

  Blinking to clear my eyes from where I sat cross-legged on the patterned rug, I glanced up at him.

  “What did I do?” I said. “I heard something.”

  Revik smiled wryly, pointing up at a light fixture in the ceiling.

  I looked at the remains of one of the light bulbs, where a jagged piece of glass hung like an icicle, revealing an organic wire beneath. That last piece fell as I watched, joining the pile below it on the carpet. I winced.