Untouchable Beauty

by Meraki P. Lyhne

  Seldon ushered Daniel out first, smothering a snicker at the sight of the boy fighting to pull the fabric of the pants snug enough around his narrow hips for them not to slide down. He ended up with a bundle of fabric in front where the laces were tied and with the too big t-shirt hanging over, he looked like someone trying to hide a deformed hard-on.

  They had another cup of coffee in silence while Seldon caught up with a few of the reports and read the news of the Great House of Dahlidin. He also read a few of the human news sources just to stay in the loop, but he didn’t search anything regarding Daniel. Seeing his mother bawl at a camera had been enough. Politics was completely redundant to waste his time on because the Grand House took care of all that and had nothing to do with who ran for president or what idiotic bills were being passed in the different states. Even the one they were hidden in.

  The front door opened, and Caledon hollered a hello.

  Seldon got up. “Guess that means I have to go to work.”

  Daniel got up and took his cup, shaking the thermos. Then stopped. “Do they want coffee, Master?”

  “I like the way you think.” And Seldon did. The boy showed hospitality worthy of Seldon’s approval. A ghost of a smile passed the boy’s lips, and Seldon wanted to see a genuine one, soon. Caledon and Maldon came in.

  “Work?”

  “Yeah. Daniel has a question before I go, though.” Seldon looked at Daniel.

  “Would you like coffee?”

  Caledon smiled. “We would, thanks.”

  Daniel left the table, and Seldon packed away his computer, putting it in a drawer.

  “We’re toning down the calling me master because he’s confused and scared. I found him with a knife. Thought he was going to try and end himself.”

  “Because of what he saw yesterday,” Caledon said, nodding. “I told you I picked you because you’re my fourth Sire. I was actually contemplating on denying you the spot because you train the troublesome ones. But I need you more versatile with breeders in general.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning you are a Sire of my House, and I decide how it’s run.” Caledon gave him the stare, reminding him that despite their growing friendship, Seldon was still working for the man.

  “Yes, My Lord. And yeah. He actually thought I was going to beat him with a pool cue.”

  “We’ll be gentle with him,” Caledon said somberly before breaking into a huge smile. “And we’ll dose you when you get back.”

  Seldon harrumphed. As much as he loved it, he knew he was going to be fucking exhausted and sore in every muscle in his body. One in particular when considering Caledon’s size. With Maldon, too, he was going to be very sore.

  “Yeah, okay. Teach him to play pool if you want. See you later, Daniel.”

  “Yes, Master,” Daniel called out before coming around the corner. Nope, the skittish was far from gone.

  Seldon tried to push thoughts of the frightened boy from his mind as he made his way to the stables. That little ghost of a smile had momentarily brightened the boy’s face and brought out the beauty that seemed to have clouded over by the fear. Seldon wanted it gone, and Caledon’s words came back. The lord wanted him more versatile.

  The word made him smile because all he knew of the word was the rare breeders that could feed more than one classification. Seldon had never met one, though, only heard of them. Did that mean Caledon wanted Seldon to be able to train more than the troublesome breeders? Probably. But right now he had to focus on this fighter.

  He made his way to the room mentioned in the email and opened the door, stopping short at the sight of the man lying on the floor, convulsing, and the surprised breeder shackled to the wall.

  “What the…” Seldon’s brain snapped into gear, and he hammered his hand on the emergency button just inside the door before kneeling by the red-eye. The breeder kicked out, almost hitting Seldon who dodged the attack and moved in to punch the breeder in the gut. The breeder doubled over as the air left his body. Seldon returned to the red-eye and dragged him out of the breeder’s leg’s reach.

  Two guards appeared in the door seconds later.

  “Get a doctor for the red-eye,” Seldon commanded.

  “Yes, Sire.” One guard ran off, and the other came to help Seldon with the still convulsing red-eye.

  “And the breeder?” the guard asked.

  “Leave him be for now. I’m here to train him, but we have to figure out what the hell caused this.”

  A doctor came in and knelt—the guard backing away to make room. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know. I came in here, and he was like this. Think it just happened because the breeder still looked shocked.”

  “He looks…Get a stretcher,” the doctor bellowed, and the guards ran off.

  “Looks what?”

  “Look at his mouth.”

  Seldon tried to see, but the man was still shaking, throwing his head from side to side, his eyes rolling back in his head. He finally saw discolorations and foaming around his mouth. “What is that?”

  “Looks like poison.”

  Seldon turned to look at the breeder who had almost recovered. “Get out, Doctor,” Seldon whispered and lifted the red-eye, holding on tightly to not let the man shake out of his grip. The doctor apparently heard the warning in his tone and hurried ahead. The guards were on their way down the hallway with the gurney, and Seldon placed the man on it. The guards strapped him down enough to prevent him from jerking off the gurney, but not enough to harm him by restricting fitful limbs too tightly.

  “You stay here, you do not go in, no matter what you hear, and you do not let anyone pass before I come back, I don’t care if it’s a lady or lord to the Grand House,” Seldon barked at one of the guards.

  “Yes, Sire.”

  Seldon helped push the gurney to the medical facility close to the stables. As soon as the doctor had the assistance he needed, Seldon left them to do their job and ran for the training facility’s office where he called up the camera of the room with the fighting breeder.

  He watched the first fifteen minutes of a poor training session. The red-eye tried to get the breeder to break down and allow himself enslaved verbally, but when it turned out the breeder knew more scare tactics than the red-eye—enough to impress Seldon—the red-eye had moved to corporal means. It didn’t even look like the breeder felt it.

  “You’ll fucking break when you’re dosed enough. And I’ll gladly help speed that up, you filthy breeder!” The red-eye moved in to take a firm grip on the breeder’s jaw. “Better get fucking used to getting spat in the mouth, breeder! It’s real simple, you just open your mouth like this…”

  The breeder spat in the red-eyes mouth, and Seldon felt a growing admiration for the guy’s resolve. And then the red-eye collapsed, and a split second later, Seldon opened the door.

  Seldon gaped at the screen and fell back against the backrest. It was the breeder’s spit? A human’s bodily fluids could do this? Cubi didn’t get sick often. Not by most human ailments which included STDs. Getting nourishments through bodily fluids, this was a necessity by evolution, so how would the red-eye have been poisoned by spit alone? Seldon wasn’t a biologist and wouldn’t venture a guess. A bad feeling crept up his spine and had the short hair in the back of his neck bristle.

  The red-eye on the tape said something that caught in Seldon’s brain. Dosed enough? He opened the files on the breeder and was confirmed that he was the one that didn’t take to the doses.

  “Holy shit,” he exclaimed and printed out a copy which he unceremoniously stuffed in his back pocket as he ran back to the medical room. “It’s the breeder’s spit.”

  The doctor looked up, incredulous. “Spit?”

  “The breeder spat in his mouth, and two seconds later he flopped around on the floor and then I arrived.”

  The doctor took a step back and stared at his patient. Being a red-eye, too, Seldon wondered when he had taken his education as a doctor in the hum
an world. “Get me gloves and swabs. And I want more blood tests done now.”

  “I’ll go bag the breeder, you, guard, come with me.”

  “Don’t kill him. I need him here, alive, and sedated,” the doctor demanded while running swab after swap inside the quivering patient’s mouth. “Like with snake bites, you make the antidotes from the venom of the snake.”

  “Got it.” Seldon turned and left, trailing the guard, and they went by the way of the guard room where Seldon took a tranq rifle and three darts. They ran to the door still guarded, and Seldon loaded the rifle. “When I say go, you open the door wide, but not hard enough for it to bounce back off the wall, got it?”

  “Yes, Sire.” The guard knelt, hand at the ready by the door handle.

  Seldon took aim to where he expected he’d be aiming right at the breeder, hoping the surprise would shock him into not moving long enough for him to take aim and fire. If he had read this breeder correct from watching him for fifteen minutes then this guy’s survival instinct was tuned and his body pumped with adrenaline, already ready to set his body into action. “Go.”

  The guard quickly turned the handle and pushed the door opened. The breeder turned his head. Seldon fired and didn’t miss. The breeder roared at him and jumped toward them, but then his eyes rolled, and he wobbled a bit before collapsing on the floor.

  “Good shot, Sire.”

  “Thanks. Get a gurney. And a surgeon's mask.”

  The guards ran off, and Seldon placed the rifle inside the door, but he didn’t advance on the breeder. Instead, he knelt and looked at the man hanging from his manacles. He was big and had that bad-boy vibe. Quite handsome in a rugged way, reminding him of his oldest son, Marcadon. Certainly took care of his body. He had a strong musky odor, and Seldon found himself attracted to the sheer masculinity of him. He wanted to run his fingers through the dark coverage of body hair, but he was cautious due to the discovery of what his saliva could do, and the man definitely drooled as he hung there, his head sagging forward.

  He had a few tattoos and Seldon moved closer to have a look. One was the international BDSM logo—the Ying and Yang symbol with a third drop twisted in there. If Seldon had to venture a guess, then this guy was a weathered Dom. Something about the way he had run circles around the poisoned guard. They way his mind had worked around the mind-fucks, and his body around the pain told of experience with both but not as a receiver. Someone who knew what he was dealing with.

  Damn! I would have loved him as a Changeling here. Could have made one skilled trainer.

  The breeder’s body odor assaulted Seldon’s sense of smell, and he hadn’t had a proper bath since he got here. His skin flaked a bit, and his lips were chapped, meaning he had still refused nourishment, apparently finding death a better alternative than becoming a slave. But something permeated the body odor, and it had Seldon’s dick harden painfully. He wanted to taste him. The guards returned, ripping Seldon out of his thoughts.

  “Give me the mask.” Seldon held out his hand. He then slipped the mask over the breeder’s mouth and nose so he wouldn’t be able to spit on anyone else. Grabbing his arms he nodded at the guard to release the manacles. To a couple of red-eyes, this breeder was too much to move on their own, so Seldon took the arms and nodded them to take a leg each. Together they got him onto the gurney and rolled him back to the doctor.

  “Good thinking,” the doctor said, pointing to the mask before he took a blood sample.

  “How many have you heard of who are able to withstand the doses?” Seldon asked.

  “Breeders? None.” The doctor looked up.

  “Okay,” Seldon mumbled, worrying his bottom lip. “I’ll inform the Lord of the House, now. I’d appreciate updates, too, but I’m pretty sure everything goes through him now.”

  “Yes, Sire.”

  “You. Send someone to disinfect that cell. Take precautions and be thorough.”

  “Yes, Sire,” a guard answered and left with Seldon who hurried back to his apartment where he found Caledon, Maldon, and Daniel still at the dining table playing cards.

  “That was a quick session.” Caledon looked up with a smile that fell as soon as he laid eyes on Seldon.

  “I need to see you in my office. We have a problem in the training facility.”

  “Fold. Keep playing.” Caledon left with Seldon and followed him down the hall to the office. “What’s up?”

  Seldon collapsed in his office chair, pointing to the leather chair by the cabinet. Caledon sat, leaning forward and leaning his elbows on his knees.

  “I’ve heard of three breeders in all my years who could withstand the dose.”

  “They’re rare. I’m a few hundred years older than you, and the number isn’t much higher amongst collected humans. Four or five. I noticed we have one now. He’s not the one you’re trying to train, is he? We can’t feed off of someone like that.”

  “So, we’ve never tried to classify one, either?”

  “No, it would be pointless. They’re like the Washed Cubi.”

  Seldon nodded, not in the mood to remember Cubi history about how some Changelings lost their ability to dose.

  “Okay. I’m pretty sure he’s a dominant sadist in the human world because…you should see the video.” Seldon found the paper in his back pocket and handed it to Caledon. “He’s also the fighter. He spat the red-eye in the mouth, and his spit is poisonous to us. Enough to send the red-eye into a violent fit. He’s being treated, and the doctor is trying to make an antidote from the spit. Like they do with snake venom.”

  Caledon gaped. “Never heard of this.”

  “Maybe because no one ever tried to classify one. The normal procedure is a dose in a juice because it doesn’t require penetration or sensitive organs around teeth. That means no transfer of bodily fluid. Until this feisty fucker spitting back.”

  “We have to go down there. I want to be hands on.” Caledon got up, decisively.

  “Already told the doctor to go directly to you, but that I’d like to be kept informed. About my protégé trainer and stuff.”

  “Oh, you’ll be kept in the loop alright. Maldon can either stay here alone with—” Caledon stopped, snorting at Seldon’s sour expression. “We bring them. They stay in the office while we talk to the doctor.”

  “Yes, My Lord.” Seldon wasn’t crazy about that idea either, but it was better than letting a Cubus he didn’t know stay here alone with the Untouchable he was to protect and train. Not even a purple-eye, even though they were known for a good self-control. They left the office—Caledon bringing the crumpled paper.

  “We need to go tend to some business, Daniel, and you’re coming,” Caledon said, looking at the printout.

  Daniel looked to Seldon.

  “You will always take a counter-order from Lord Caledon. He is the Lord of this House.”

  “Yes, Master.” Daniel got up along with Maldon and they left for the training level. “May I ask…uhm?”

  “Ask,” Seldon said as they got into the elevator.

  “What does Lord of the House mean?”

  “There are eight Houses under each of the eight grand lords and grand ladies to the Grand Houses,” Caledon said. “Each Lord of a House, like myself, is responsible for one of these Houses, home to somewhere between three hundred-fifty to four hundred Cubi. I run the third House under Grand Lord Ildon. I have Sires and Dames under me, a total of six, each with their area to run.”

  “The green eyes,” Daniel said.

  “Yes. Each Sire or Dame has four blue-eyed, called Masters or Mistresses to assist them, and each blue-eye is the red-eyed’s bosses in each their field.” Caledon smiled. “Did that answer it?”

  “Yes. Thank you, Sir, or…”

  “Lord,” Caledon contributed. Seldon watched his Lord’s easy persona and the boy’s ease with him, because when he became insecure in how to address Caledon, the boy’s fearful eyes fell on Seldon.

  “It’s good you ask,” Seldon said, proud the boy
remembered the titles from the day before when he had asked that very question in the stables. The elevator stopped, and they stepped out, Daniel almost stopping short when he realized where they were. “Don’t worry, boy, you’ll be in my office with Maldon. We have to check on someone who fell ill.”

  “Yes, Master,” Daniel whispered and cleared his throat to repeat with a stronger, albeit shaky, voice. Seldon held back a sigh, fearing they’d start all over again.

  Seldon and Caledon dropped Daniel and Maldon off before finding the red-eyed doctor who tended to the unconscious trainer.

  “My Lord,” the doctor acknowledged with a polite nod when he saw them. “Sire.”

  “How is he?”

  “Alive, but…look at his eyes.” The doctor opened one of the trainer’s eyes.”

  “And I’m looking for?” Caledon asked, leaning closer. Seldon looked too and gasped. Caledon looked up, worried.

  “His eyes are losing color,” Seldon explained.

  “Yes. It’s like the spit is…turning him back.”

  Caledon gaped, and Seldon didn’t much like to see the Lord of his House rattled like this. “Verify or refute as soon as possible.”

  “Of course, My Lord. We’re keeping a close eye and doing blood work, too.”

  Caledon nodded, looking at the trainer. Then around the place. Seldon heard the muffled grunts, too. “That would be the breeder, I suspect?”

  “Yes. Right this way.” the doctor led them further into the ward. “We muzzled him because he could still yell at us from behind a surgeon mask. He has quite the mouth on him.” The doctor pulled a curtain aside, revealing the breeder strapped down with heavy leather restraints across his chest and thighs. His wrists and ankles were likewise. All naked and beautiful, and some part of Seldon wanted to break him in. He loved the fire in his eyes even though it was hatred at the moment.

  “He’s…big,” Caledon commented. Seldon uttered a noise of agreement, noticing Caledon turn to look at him wide-eyed.

  “What?”

  “You want him,” Caledon exclaimed.

  “Yeah, I want him, he’s gorgeous. And a challenge.”

  “We have to put this one down, you know that, right?”