Kerrigan's Race (The Syreni Book 1)

by C. M. Michaels

  “You’ve been in my palace less than two minutes and you’ve already disarmed the captain of my guard. I feel a bit like poor old Priam during the battle of Troy, welcoming a beautiful but deadly gift inside my walls.”

  “My goddess!” I dropped to my knees and slapped my arms and forehead against the marble floor hard enough to give me a concussion, the short sword I’d been holding completely forgotten. Hearing it clang against the marble several times as it skidded to rest at the feet of the deity I served only added to my humiliation.

  If Priestesses were whipped for choosing the wrong shade of lipstick I could only imagine the punishment that awaited me. I’d be lucky to be crucified and hung in the courtyard without first being tortured. My heart sank even further. Deannie had taken responsibility for me when she’d accepted me as her Priestess. I couldn’t imagine what would be done to her. Or to Stelios, for abandoning his stoic, regal demeanor to entertain my childish antics. “I accept full responsibility for my appalling behavior, my Goddess. Your guards were only being kind, and my High Priestess did everything she could to prepare me. Please hold me solely accountable and punish me accordingly.”

  After ordering the repentant and totally subdued Stelios and Kostas to return to their post—their faces hat hit the deck as fast as my own—she bent down to my level and ran her hand through my tight braids, rolling the beads near the ends of the strands between her fingers. “Be at ease, child. You’re plea is noble, and reflects well on your character, but the only offense you’ve committed is the careless neglect of Stelios’s prized sword. I’m quite certain he sleeps with it. You are the first Priestess in the thousands of years he’s guarded my chambers alongside his brother to engage them in genuine conversation. Never before have these halls echoed with the delightful sounds of their unabated laughter. It’s no wonder you won over the people of Teresolee and captured Aristos’s heart so quickly. My father and Neptune chose well when they made you queen. While you committed no offense, it is quite telling that even dressed as a vixen—and late for your appointment, I might add—you were unable to resist the irresistible lure of a fine blade. Truly a female after my own heart. You may rise, my fiery young warrior. Let me have a look at you.”

  I was careful to keep my eyes cast down at the marble floor as I rose to my feet and stood before her. My heart fluttered like a bucking stallion as her silky smooth, olive-skinned hand reached for the strap of my dress and slid it off of my shoulder, letting the filmy garment slip down my body to pool at my feet. The pads of her thumbs gently teased my gold-dusted nipples until they hardened under her touch while her long, elegant fingers stroked the sides of my breasts. “You’re even more beautiful than I imagined. If only your appointment as a priestess wasn’t just a cover. The fates can be such cruel hags, at times.”

  A cover? It was all I could do to keep my head lowered in deference and resist the overwhelming urge to look at her. “Forgive me, my goddess. I don’t understand. I’m not actually a Priestess?”

  “The fates have provided more information on the foretold Snow Elf uprising, offering the first details on the role you will play in the attempt to prevent their alliance with the Water Fae. The chilling images they shared were of you living as a mated Elvin female, with alabaster skin and pointed ears, dressed in their traditional furs with your abdomen swollen with a child, doing battle high up in the snow-capped mountains to defend the Elvin king—your mate—from the radical sect of warriors set to overthrow him. The bloody corpses of the soldiers loyal to him are strewn across the battlefield as far as you can see in the driving snow, leaving you all alone, hindered further by your pregnancy and the need to defend the helpless ruler cowering behind you. You fight gallantly—proving yourself a warrior worthy of being remembered by the gods—until a sword is plunged through your body from behind, just beneath the shoulder, numbing your left arm. Out of sheer force of will you take down three more warriors before the inside of your right leg is cut all the way to the bone. A crippling blow. After being disarmed and stripped of your clothes, you’re raped by the dozens of warriors left standing and strung up upon a pyre to be burned alive along with your unborn child while you watch them behead the king.

  “The actions sanctioned by the Moiria, the fates who control our destiny, to have you intervene with only limited guidance from the deities you serve are clearly not enough. You fail, child. The Syreni and all of human kind are annihilated. My father and I agree we need to act more aggressively to ensure that dire version of the future never materializes. I will train you in both battle tactics and hand to hand combat, utilizing whatever time we have left before the events unfold that take you to the Elvin king. You’ll continue to train beneath the ocean in your Syreni form as well. There are two wars looming on the horizon. One fought at sea, to protect your unborn child and ensure the continuation of the Syreni race, and one fought on land with the fate of two worlds hanging in the balance. Mastering both sets of skills is essential.

  “As a Priestess, no one will question your frequent visits to my palace. It’s no secret amongst the gods that I almost exclusively favor the company of women. Everyone will just assume I’m enjoying the novelty of transforming the Syreni queen into my personal play toy. Were the other gods to find out I was training you, a human, in the arts of war—when I’ve denied numerous requests from deities even more powerful than my father in the last decade alone—it would raise unwelcome questions, inevitably revealing our attempt to meddle with fate. Entire pantheons have fallen for committing far less brazen acts. You must tell no one you are anything more than a Priestess, child. Not even your High Priestess. My immortal life depends on it, as well as my father’s.”

  As hard as I tried, I couldn’t blink back the tears that pooled in the corners of my eyes. She was risking the immortal lives of her entire family to intervene, defying the fates and the rules that governed the gods in order to save two worlds and everyone I loved from annihilation. Hearing I might be forced to abandon Aristos and our family to become a Snow Elf and mate with their king crushed my heart. I was determined to find a different way to quell the Elvin uprising than what she’d described, but if the future the fates foretold came to pass I’d do what was asked of me, knowing it was the only way to keep everyone I cared about safe.

  But my determination to do my part regardless of the personal sacrifice it required didn’t mean I’d suddenly been transformed into a Hollywood actress. Pretending to be a Priestess who’d been sated by the gods was way beyond anything I could pull off. “I’m not that convincing of a liar, my goddess. My fellow priestesses will be able to tell I didn’t actually sleep with you the moment I walk in the door. I’ve seen firsthand how drunk with lust they are afterwards. I can’t fake that. I vow on my life and the lives of everyone I love that I will never mention my training to anyone, but if I don’t service you like any other priestess would, they’ll know something’s off. If they start sharing their questions with the deities calling upon them it wouldn’t be long before one of them started raising questions of their own. Being a priestess can’t just be a cover. I need to become one.”

  Athena took a firm grip of my chin and forced my head upward, leaving me no choice but to look at her. I fell into her soft emerald eyes like I’d been pulled into a glorious dream I never wanted to wake up from. Her hair was spun gold, the bundle of curly waves captured beneath a flowery green wreath crown. The floor length gossamer white robe she wore came together at the shoulder, leaving her arms bare but concealing her full, ample breasts. “You are a queen, child. Your Syreni body carries our next princess inside your womb. And you’ve merged your soul with your compar. The emotions conveyed through your bond would let Aristos know you’d been unfaithful the moment I return you to your world. I refuse to ask either of you to bear such a burden.”

  “I don’t mean to argue, but the alternative is that both Teresolee and earth are destroyed. The end of the Syreni and human races. I exist to serve you, Goddess. Above all else. A
ristos accepts that. As long as my actions reflect your will I can face my compar with a clear conscience, just as I did after spending a week as a handmaiden. I think it helps that I’m in my human form here. No one will ever touch my Syreni body but him.”

  She wiped away the tears from my cheeks as she studied me, her probing gaze reaching down into my soul to gauge the earnestness of my words. “This will change you, Camithia. I can claim you as my consort so no one else can call upon you—doing so would only strengthen our cover story that I’m smitten with the Syreni queen—but I can’t prevent the lasting physical and emotional effects that will result from regularly sleeping with an immortal being. The moment we kiss you will lose all of your inhibition and self-control. We will do a number of things you later feel ashamed of, depraved acts—at least by human standards—that you would never willingly consent to when not under my influence. Your almost nonstop orgasms will threaten to tear your very body apart, and tasting my desire will leave you incapable of thinking about anything but having sex with me for days. Being physically intimate with me will complicate your training as well. We’ll have to train first, and even then your mind will be so preoccupied with getting me into bed that it will make it difficult to learn what I’m trying to teach you. It will take weeks after we stop having sex for you to feel like yourself again. That being said, I agree it’s our best option. Your incredible sacrifice will not go unrewarded, child. That much I can assure you. Hold out your hands.”

  I complied with her order, raising my arms out toward her chest, having no idea what she was about to do to me. She turned them over so my palms were facing upward then closed her eyes as she called out an incantation. “Ως θεά σας, καλώ τα φίδια κοραλλιών της Ινδίας. Στείλε μου δύο του είδους σας, ένα αρσενικό και ένα θηλυκό, γι 'αυτό μπορεί να σας δεσμεύει σε σύζυγος μου.”

  As your goddess, I call upon the coral snakes of India. Send me two of your kind, a male and a female, so I may bind you to my consort. Even though I’d never studied Greek in my life the words were translated in my brain instantly. As if conjured out of thin air, red, yellow and black banded coral snakes emerged from her upraised hands, wrapping around my wrists all the way up to my elbows, their heads resting atop my forearms.

  Athena waited until they were symmetrically positioned, using a finger to adjust the tail of the female so it ran down the back of my hand like the males, before she closed her eyes again and recited a much shorter chant. “γίνει μέρος της.”

  Become part of her. Obeying her command, the snakes slowly melded into me, transforming my skin into that of a snake where their bodies had been positioned so I was left with brightly colored tattoos. Even after their images stilled I could feel them slithering beneath my skin, getting comfortable, laying claim to their new home. I could even hear their thoughts, such as they were, inside my head. The earthy scent of ripe olive fields—Athena’s unique scent I’d been unable to detect before now—washed over me like I’d bathed in her perfume as my sense of smell became far more acute. With two simple incantations she’d transformed me into a chimera.

  A great horned owl was next to appear in response to her summons from Wyoming, taking perch on her left shoulder, its big yellow eyes studying me as it folded its wings. Athena prodded the bird gently until it shifted its perch to the palm of her left hand. She placed it up against my chest, its wings extended in a side profile, its head right above my heart. When she whispered the Greek incantation for the bonding again the massive bird became part of me, just as the snakes had done, its lifelike image covering most of my chest and abdomen. Inside I could feel its claws take perch on top of my pelvic bones, the crown of its head resting beneath my sternum, basking in the warmth of my heart. Within moments my vision sharpened at least tenfold. Her thoughts were far more coherent than the snakes. She was hungry, and wanted me to eat soon.

  The last object to manifest at my goddess’s feet was a miniature olive tree from Italy, its thick trunk twisted, the green foliage on top resembling tufts of sage brush. After lifting the tree up from the floor Athena circled around behind me so she could press it up against my back. She whispered the now familiar Greek words in my ear as she bit down on my lobe and sucked my owl earring into her mouth. In seconds the tree became part of my flesh, strengthening my bones as its roots spread throughout my body. My breathing slowed as my need for external oxygen was reduced, giving me extra capacity to increase my stamina in battle. Not surprisingly, there weren’t any conscious thoughts from the insentient life form. But I did become far more aware of my body’s rather urgent need for water.

  “In addition to marking you as my consort, the life forms I’ve merged into your body—all three of my symbols as a deity in the Greek pantheon— will enhance your physical abilities, as I’m sure you’ve already sensed. The binding can never be undone. Whenever you take human form they will be a part of you. Don’t ignore their needs. The better care you take of them the more useful they will become. If you are a good host, you may even develop the ability to send them outside your body for a time, using the owl to scout ahead through the air, the snakes to get below ground or into buildings without being detected, making the olive tree grow to lift you to higher ground, or harvest its olives for food.

  “You will serve under High Priestess Deannie as a Priestess until both wars have ended. You will be given a permanent room inside her temple, just like your sisters, and will be subject to all of the rules and punishments governing Priestess behavior, both your High Priestess’s and those of the deities you serve. Now that I’ve claimed you as my consort, I have the sole right to call upon you, which I will be doing often, both for your training and for far more pleasurable pursuits. As my official consort, you will accompany me to formal balls as well. You will be expected to learn every nuance of our social customs and procedures, and be intimately familiar with the offspring of even the most minor deities from all of the pantheons.”

  She trailed the back of her fingertips sensually along the narrow valley between my breasts and up beneath my chin, squeezing the corners of my mouth to make me pout my quivering golden lips. My eyes drifted shut as she closed the narrow distance between us and kissed me. Her lips were as soft as rose petals, her breath as rich and exotic as summer jasmine in full bloom. In moments her tongue teased my all too compliant lips apart to invade my mouth, claiming what was hers. One kiss was all it took for her to brand me. Every cell of my body yearned for her. A soft moan escaped my lips as she fisted her hand in my beaded braids and pulled my head back sharply, her other hand sliding down between my legs. I leaned hard into her palm as she slid three fingers inside my already slick core, rotating them as her thumb ran slow, titillating circles across my clit. “Είστε ορυχείο τώρα, όμορφη ερωμένη μου. Θέλω να σας ακούσω να το πω.”

  You are mine now, my beautiful lover. I want to hear you say it.

  “Είμαι δικός σου!” I cried back at her, fucking her hand, my eyes rolling back in my head as the inferno that had taken hold in my groin burst through my entire body, sending me over edge in a cataclysmic orgasm that appeared it would never end.

  I am yours.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Alliances forged

  * * *

  Aristos moved on from the nipple ring he’d been leisurely twirling around with his tongue for the last ten minutes—while I recovered from the aftershocks of my latest mind-blowing climax—to take my burgundy-striped breast into his mouth. The suction was so intense I instinctively began to thrust my hips, in spite of being so exhausted I couldn’t open my eyes, reveling in the feel of my tight muscles fisting around the massive cock still buried to the hilt inside me. I’d left my soulcras attached to the thick braids of his storm grey hair, his nipples, his scrotum and the entire length of his manhood. With every coupling our union became more complete. For t
he first time the sensations from our bodies had become indistinguishable. He experienced each of my orgasms right alongside me, as if it was his own body breaking apart into a million tiny fragments, bursting into flame, being besieged by a savage electrical storm that fried every nerve cell in my body. Rupturing with such intensity it didn’t seem possible I’d survive.

  I could feel how tight my sheath was around him, how hard he had to press to stretch my muscles and penetrate each time he drove himself so deep inside me his thick head pressed up against my womb. When he came, I felt his balls tighten, his abdominal muscles contract, even the curl of his tail just before his eyes went unfocused and his hot semen jetted into me. His climaxes brought just as much pleasure to me as my own.

  As I continued to ride my compar, my tail thrashing backward in perfect rhythm with his powerful thrusts, driving him even deeper into me, I realized I enjoyed experiencing the sensations of him making love to me almost as much as I enjoyed being made love to. I’d never felt quite so androgynous before. With our bodies fully merged through my soulcras, we were both equal parts male and female. I could only imagine how disorienting it was for him to feel the tight walls of my sex being stretched out by his rock hard, bulging shaft, his cock brushing up against my swollen clit with every glorious thrust. The intense friction. The inferno-like heat. My hardened nipples responding to the skillful ministrations from his tongue. Each time my body burst apart he lost himself to the experience just as completely as I did. He even had his own aftershocks from my orgasms.

  As pleasurable as the physical sensations had been over the last two days—two days in which we hadn’t yet managed to leave our bedroom, due to the lingering effects from serving as Athena’s consort, which left me in a constant state of heightened arousal—having full access to his emotions was even more rewarding.