by Milana Jacks
“Then we go in?”
“Deal.”
Clementine refused to leave her shop, and arguing with Seven proved a waste of my time. So I decided to spend my day in the market street, trying out different vendors, seeing what people came up with. This led me to a discovery that a hot dog I’d eaten yesterday wasn’t processed meat but a lab-grown alternative vegetable mix that tasted like pork.
For lunch, I got us burgers from my butcher’s wife. Her husband ran the only local butcher’s place a mile away from my house, and I protected his livestock with my life. I walked back into the store, happy to see Clementine brooding over her lack of business. Not many cyborgs ventured down here today, which meant a slow sales day for the girls. I shouldn’t be happy, but I damn sure wasn’t gonna have my spirit in constant contact with cyborgs and living at the Cy’s mercy. I’d find a way to get her out of here, and if not, I would park my ass in the store permanently until she gave up and came home with me, never to return.
Another issue was Arthur had finally accepted leaving my territory. This meant he needed his bird with him. Not gonna happen either.
“Ooooo,” Seven said and grabbed a burger from the box I set on the table. “You’re good to me, dragon boy.”
Clementine ate this morning’s donut. Her eyes lit up. “Mmm, vanilla filling. I love vanilla.”
Seven snorted. “Oh hey, we still have your goodies.” She pulled out a bag with the cuffs and the flogger I’d bought the other day. I took it and sat down.
Clementine sighed. “It’s two o’clock. Should we close early?”
I nodded, and lo and behold, Seven said, “I think so.”
“God, I hope cyborgs show up tomorrow.”
“They will,” Seven said and glanced at me. “Unless there’s a dragon spitting fire at them.”
“I don’t spit fire.”
“Huh. I thought that’s what dragons did. That and virgins.”
“Speaking of virgins,” Clementine said, “I’m ready to summon Mother Nature.”
She believed I could actually summon her. I’d clear up that misunderstanding, but not right now. “Yes, it’s good timing.”
“Why?” Seven asked. Both girls leaned in, interested in the summoning. While Native Americans believed in spirits, my dad hadn’t taught me much about the culture. Dream-catcher making was a hobby, something my dad had taught me how to do. Besides, when I became a dragon, I developed an interest in handmade items, preferably decorated with jewels. Making things like dream catchers allowed me time to think and enjoy my solitary existence, but I highly doubted it could summon any spirits, let alone one as powerful as Mother Nature. “The winter solstice is coming, and the spirits have aligned.” I had no idea what I was talking about. I stood and headed for the door. “You coming?”
“Definitely.” The girls closed up early, and Clementine joined me for a flight back home.
Good. One day at a time, and before she knew it, she’d have slept a week at my house.
15
Clementine
Knight and I sat cross-legged on the floor, dream catcher laid out flat between us. We joined our hands and hummed. Though Knight asked me to close my eyes, I kept glancing around, expecting Mother Nature. Ten minutes of humming later, I squeezed his hand. He opened one eye. “Shhhh.”
“I don’t think it’s working.”
“Give it more time.”
“I imagined spirit summoning required some sort of a ritual. We’re just sitting here.”
Knight lay back, hooked two thumbs under his sweatpants, and pulled them off. He tossed the pants on the couch and sat back down, then stripped off his T-shirt. His pecs flexed. “Your turn.”
“Is it necessary?”
“Yes.”
“I think you’re full of shit.”
“Of course I am. Dream catchers catch bad dreams. Mother Nature isn’t a dream, though I do believe she is some sort of a spirit.”
“You bastard.” I laughed at my naïveté. If Knight said the sky was pink, I’d believe him. I was so gone for this dragon.
His thumbs rubbed my palms, and he tugged my hands. I leaned forward, and he did too, and our mouths met halfway. Knight pecked my lips. “You’re beautiful.”
I smiled against his lips, feeling heat color my cheeks. He kissed one, then the other, moved on to my neck, and inhaled. “Your scent is addictive. I could live just from having you around. Stay with me, Clementine.”
“I am staying with you.”
“Tomorrow and the day after.”
“Okay.”
He paused. “Okay?”
“Mm-hm.” I tilted my head to give him better access to my neck and reached for his dick when he kept staring at me. “Knight, you worry too much.”
He bit my neck and licked it. A deep rumble sounded in the room as I stroked his dick. It turned into a purr when I grabbed both of them and slid my hands up and down those hard lengths. I wondered if I could take both of his cocks. I wondered what that would feel like. I hadn’t had anal sex before, but I wasn’t opposed to it. I’d try anything at least once.
Knight tugged the hem of my shirt, and I put my hands up, so he took it off. I wasn’t wearing a bra. His hands slid from my shoulders to my small breasts, and his mouth followed, his tongue flicking my nipple. First the left one, then the right. I squirmed in place and gripped his hair, held on to it as I lay down so he could remove the rest of my clothes.
He leapt up, scooped me off the floor, and I yelped at the sudden movement. I hung on to him as he spilled the contents of the black bag on the table and picked up the cuffs. He looked around his house. “There.” He strode over and stopped right before the alcove made by his bed. “Can you reach?”
I gripped the iron rails supporting his bed. Knight released me, and I hung there, unsure what he intended to do until he brought a chair, and I rested my feet on it. Well, my toes, really. “You’re so short.” He chuckled.
“Ha-ha.”
Knight cuffed me, making sure the cuffs’ chain wound around one rail. Then he kicked the chair out from under my feet. My biceps strained, but I didn’t care about the strain because Knight knelt, slung my legs over his shoulders, and put his mouth on my pussy. He tongued my clit, tugged my clit ring with his teeth while I rubbed myself all over his mouth and chin, enjoying the friction of his five-o’clock shadow. He stuck two fingers into me, and I tightened my muscles, gripping his intrusions, moving up and down on them. He glided his fingers inside me, slowly at first to open me up, then he pumped and licked my clit. Sweat broke out on my body. “I’m coming,” I whispered and closed my eyes.
His fingers left me, his mouth detached, and I blinked at him in surprise. Knight wiped his mouth, then dropped my legs. My arms protested as I swung while he walked back to the table and grabbed the flogger. I tensed, somewhat excited, somewhat scared.
He swung the flogger, his tattooed shoulders working as he made a figure eight. The flogger whipped through the air while my heart beat in my ears. “How are you holding up?” he asked.
“I’m okay.” My muscles tingled, but it wasn’t too bad.
“Are your hands numb yet?”
“No.”
“This won’t hurt much. I promise.”
“Okay.”
“You will tell me when your hands go numb. Answer me with yes, my lord.”
“Yes.”
Knight swung. Leather stung my breasts. I pinched my lips together.
“Yes what?”
A swat over my breasts again. My nipples perked, needing his mouth. I squirmed in place, trying to rub my thighs together.
“I asked you a question.” Swat. Oh my God. I need him inside me. My pussy clenched every time the flogger landed.
He picked up my leg and held it. “I’m gonna flog your pussy.”
“Yes, my lord.”
We locked gazes. I knew calling him my lord meant something to him. He hated the fact I was also another dragon’s bird, even though Knigh
t knew I loved him and no one else. He was the one for me.
Knight nodded, backed up a bit, and swung the flogger so the tails caught my ass and my pussy. I threw my head back. He kept swinging, picking up the pace, under and over my breasts, my ass, my pussy, and as my skin burned, heat built in my belly. “Please take me. I need you inside.”
He didn’t. He dropped my leg and found a rhythm, circled around me while making figure eights with the flogger. The leather landed everywhere apart from my middle, marring my body with red stripes. Knight stopped behind me, put a hand over my lower belly, and lifted. The flogger hit the couch, and Knight shoved two fingers up my pussy from behind. I screamed at the intrusion and tried to spread my legs. Knight bit my shoulder, working his fingers in and out of me. My body convulsed, and liquid heat gushed out. Oh, the sweet release. I hung my head, exhausted.
“No fucking way,” he said and came to stand in front of me. He lifted my chin, eyes positively sparkling. A grin split his face. I’d never seen him smile like this before. He cupped my pussy. “This pussy is mine.”
“It’s yours.”
“I’m gonna make it squirt all over my dick.” He licked his lips, then picked up my legs and put them on his hips. He grabbed my ass and found my small back hole. I rested my head on his shoulder, completely surrendering to letting him do whatever he wanted, take me however he wanted. His thick front cock slid against the length of my slit and found its way inside my wet heat. Knight groaned when he moved my body to impale me onto his length. My pussy stretched, trying to accommodate his girth. I wiggled my bottom.
The back dick poked my ass, and Knight paused briefly to fit it at the entrance. The tip of him stretched my small hole, and pain made me bite his shoulder. He growled in response and pushed inside. I bit down harder. Knight moved inside me, both cocks filling me up. I could barely form a coherent thought. I released his shoulders as he slammed my body against his, his pelvis rubbing my clit, making me beg and plead for orgasm.
“Come all over my dick. Do it now.” He used my body to move us together, hitting that spot inside me each time. I hung like a rag doll, completely lost in the man who didn’t have a sliver of humanity left in him. He growled and rutted, and when he ordered me to look at him, I knew what I’d see. I locked eyes with my dragon, his pupils in slits, his irises the color of mercury. His grip on my hips tightened.
“Yes, yes,” I said.
He fucked me harder, threw his head back, and roared as he brought us release.
Even though I hung helpless in his arms, there was something empowering about the knowledge I controlled this beast and his vast power.
16
Clementine
“The cyborgs are spooked,” Seven said and took a sip of water. “I can’t remember the last time it was this slow. Half the street is empty.”
“Agreed,” I said and washed the dirt from my hands. Only last week, I’d believed it would be the best season ever for me. While doing inventory today, I feared I might not sell a single thing again. It did a number on my self-esteem, and hope that we’d move out of our shithole and into the middle habitat level. Accepting Knight’s offer to leave the habitat and close doors sounded great right about now. Hell, moving to Detroit with Arthur sounded great right about now, seeing as Knight and I had fought this morning right before I left for work.
I sat on a chest next to Seven, who rested her elbow on the table and propped her chin on her hand. “I will die of boredom,” she said.
“We should think about Detroit.”
She glanced at me. “You serious?”
“I have to follow Arthur. It’s almost like a compulsion.”
“You are Knight’s spirit. Doesn’t that count?”
“I don’t know. When Arthur asks me anything, I have to fight not to tell him what Knight says to me. I don’t think I can avoid going to Detroit.
“Knight won’t let you go. That one doesn’t share.”
I chuckled. “I’d hate to lose our shop. At least with Arthur, I can keep it. Knight can’t deal with me working inside the habitat.”
“We’re not gonna lose the shop, and he’ll learn how to deal. This cyborg-dragon problem will pass, and when cyborgs realize they need flowers for their Christmas parties so the society thinks they’re the latest and greatest, they’ll come begging for them.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.” Seven stood. “Gonna get us breakfast.” She stretched out her hand.
I rolled my eyes and opened the desk drawer. Five roges plus our change stared back at me. I handed her three roges.
Seven stared at the bills. “I will die of hunger and boredom.”
I threw my hands up. “Not today!”
“Clementine Arer?” a cyborg at the entrance asked.
I stood to greet him when a group of cyborgs entered the store and spread around our tent. One cyborg flipped the tent closed.
Seven walked back behind the table. “Yes, who wants to know?”
I cut her a glare.
The cyborg looked from me to my sister, then back at me, “We are looking for Knight, the dragon creature. Have you seen him around?”
“Yes,” I said to the level-four cyborg who looked familiar. I pondered where I’d seen him.
“What is your relationship with him?”
“Don’t answer that,” Seven said. “Who wants to know?”
“Colonel Douglas Strain.”
I gulped. Oh God, the colonel had come all the way down here in person looking for Knight. And he’d brought an army with him. This couldn’t be good. My bird instincts kicked in, wanting me to flee. My skin itched, the pressure in my chest increased, my bird imposing her flight response on me. But I couldn't leave my sister. “Knight is a customer,” I said. “He came by yesterday.”
The colonel looked around. “For flowers?”
“Mm-hm,” I said.
“Funny, he didn’t bring any to my house.”
“He bought a…”
“Cuffs and a flogger,” Seven said. “Was that for you?”
The cyborg strolled around the store and picked up a pink bracelet with green lucky charms. “How much?”
“Fifty roges. Forty for you, honey,” Seven said.
I wouldn’t pay more than twenty for this one.
The colonel pocketed the bracelet. “For my daughter, Rose. Do you happen to know her?”
“I know a lot of people,” Seven said. “What does she look like?”
He approached the table and smiled, one side of his mouth lifting. He swung. His mechatronic hand backslapped Seven so hard, she flew into the wall and didn’t get up. I screamed and stood to get her. Laser guns rose and pointed at me, red crisscrossing the room. I put my hands up. “Why did you do that?”
“Ah, so you can speak for yourself. Tell me again, have you seen this girl?”
He pressed something on his forearm and projected a holographic image of a young woman, maybe sixteen with long straight black hair and dark brown eyes. Unmistakably Knight’s sister.
I shook my head and glanced at Seven as she grunted and stayed down. Knight had said Rose was so sick, she couldn’t receive medical attention at home, that they’d picked her up and taken her into a facility. So why was her dad looking for her? Was he even looking for her? Colonel couldn’t be trusted.
“Speak!” he shouted.
I jumped and stepped away. “I don’t know her. I haven’t seen her. Never heard of your daughter.”
“Arrest her.”
A pair of cyborgs approached.
I stretched out my hands, palms up, glancing at Seven and backing off toward the rear of the room. “Whatever for?”
“Consorting with the enemy.”
“I haven’t done anything. Hey!” Cyborgs gipped my wrists, bent my arms, and pushed me forward. Before I could say anything, we’d left my store and were heading down the main street. People stared and shouted, some angry but most just booing as we walked. I searched the s
kies, wishing I could call up my dragon in the same way dragons could call the birds. In that moment, I realized two things. I thought about Knight as my dragon and not the dragon lord my creature was assigned to. Second, I needed to contact Knight. In his dragon form, he could hear me. I hoped he was in dragon form, and I hoped this telepathy thing stretched for miles. “Knight, oh my God, they’re arresting me. The colonel came and asked about your sister. He’s looking for her. Are you sure she’s sick?”
We rounded the corner and headed toward the edge of the plasma, where transport tubes took the military up and down the habitat. They would take me up for questioning and do Lord knows what to me. I dug my heels into the asphalt and jerked, trying to escape. I screamed as the cyborg’s grip tightened, and tears stung my eyes when his mechatronic fingers dug into my flesh. He’d break my arm.
If I changed into a bird, I’d betray my kind. Doves cooed on the windowsills, and nobody paid them any mind, thinking they were nothing more than dumb birds begging for breadcrumbs. We freely listened to as many conversations that carried outside of the rooms.
If I changed into a dove, they’d come after every dove on their windowsills.
Knight
Clementine had left for work again, Arthur hadn’t showed with my sister, and my pack hadn’t arrived home last night. The thought of going back to the habitat and making skin contact with the Cy made me nauseated. While I trusted that Arthur and my pack would do what I asked of them, Clementine was a wild card. One moment, I was sure I’d convinced her to stay with me, only to be proven wrong overnight.
I returned to the habitat. The moment I entered the marketplace, I knew something bad had happened. Store owners were pulling down the blinds and flipping the Open signs to Closed. I stopped by the “hot dog” vendor and asked, “What’s going on?”
Sandy shrugged on a jacket. “Military’s making rounds. People’re thinking they’re gonna impose another curfew, so I’m going home before I’m stuck in the store for the day.”
