“What are you?” She whispered under her breath. He heard her question anyway.
“I am of the species Volaticus. It means ‘winged man.’ My race is Elven. We are ninety eight percent genetic kin to Homo Sapien … Human. The two percent differentiates my kind from them as drastically as the two percent differs them from apes.”
His answer didn’t surprise her. He could have called himself a snuffaluppogus and she probably wouldn’t have been surprised. It wasn’t what he called himself that was amazing, it was that he existed at all. Her fear had given way to incredulous, excited curiosity the second she saw the back flaps.
“Elven. Like fairies and elves in the North Pole?” She was trying to wrap her brain around everything she was seeing and hearing. She felt like jumping up and down, clapping her hands like she was watching a magic show.
There was humor in his voice “We are most likely the source of those myths, too. Our other two close genetic kin species also make up some of the human myths. Human kind does like to take small grains of truth and embellish it into something altogether different.” He spoke of humans with affection and tolerance in his tone, like they were beloved friends or children.
“Aren’t you supposed to have pointy ears?” She was trying to remember anything she may have heard about Elves. She could come up with a cute blonde guy who had played an elf archer in some movie she watched once. What was the name of that movie? She couldn’t remember, but she distinctly remembered he had pointed ears.
“I am loving your enthusiasm, Jess, but we are not elves and I am not an elf. We are Elven. I am Elven. It is singular and plural.” Jess could tell Shane was finally starting to relax. She was sure he had been afraid she would freak or something. His voice resounded in her mind with humor and relief. “No, we don’t have pointy ears. Our hearing is directional. We can hear great distances in the direction that we aim our hearing. At some point someone utilized the term ‘point’ rather than ‘direct’ or ‘aim.’ Over time the ‘point’ terminology was taken literally: ‘pointy ears.’” He laughed, “That is how myths and legends are made.”
“Well, that’s just plain stupid. If you know that the myths and legends are wrong, why doesn’t ‘your kind’ correct the errors?” Seemed like a simple solution to her.
Shane took on a much more serious tone. “Jess, you are taking all of this rather well. You are amazingly smart and resilient. This is the first time I have ever explained our existence to anyone. There are stories of Elven who have, and most entail screaming, fainting, weeping, and uncontrollable fear. Humans sometimes even urinate on themselves. Those are the good stories. Many times the two races of the Volaticus species have been forced to explain after having been captured under torture. Humans treat us like a science project at this point of their evolution. They are a fear-driven species. They believe the solution is to destroy anything they don’t understand. They are not advanced enough at this time to understand us.”
She was sure he wasn’t giving the human race enough credit. Most people were good, but she bit her lip. This wasn’t the time to start a political debate with him. There were far more intimate things she wanted with him right now.
“May I touch you?” she asked hesitantly. “Not like a lover,” she corrected quickly, wincing. He probably thought she was pathetic at this point. He’d said he desired her. Was he being truthful in that?
Shane lifted his chin, fully extending his wings for her. “Of course.” He had a slight lisp from the fangs.
Chapter Six
When Jess had added, ‘Not like a lover’ to the end of her request, the disappointment he had felt had been immense. He’d known that once she saw him in true form there was a chance she might no longer find him attractive. She had no basis for comparison outside of the human form, but hearing it confirmed by her was disheartening.
Biting her bottom lip, she stood and walked toward him, peering up at him when she reached the middle of his chest. Her diminutive height didn’t detract from how much power she wielded. Having watched her fighting ability earlier, Shane knew that although she was immensely talented and strong, she was no match for him physically. Her ultimate power lay in her effect on him. She effortlessly challenged the control he had always had over himself. The unfamiliar protective and possessive feeling she brought out in him. He was well aware that at this moment, this tiny female before him held the entire power dynamic between them. He prayed to the fates she didn’t realize it and crush him.
“Volaticus.” She stopped within an inch of making contact with his straining erection. He clenched his fists, forcing himself to remain perfectly still for her exploration when every cell in his being cried out for him to take her.
She reached up and lightly touched his dentes. There was no way she could have known they were an erogenous zone to the Elven. He gave an involuntary, swift intake of breath as her gentle touch generated a tremor that raced through his body.
“Do they hurt?” She withdrew her hand, concern in her voice. Unable to speak, Shane could only give her a slight shake of his head in response. Again she bit her bottom lip, a habit of hers he found endearing. He would give anything to bite her lip for her, if she’d let him. She reached out her hand to his dentes a second time, and he could feel them stretch for her in return. Shane pulled his mouth back from her, running his tongue over the surface of them.
“Careful.” He cautioned her telepathically. She swallowed hard but nodded. He leaned his head down slightly and opened his jaw wide to give her access.
She lightly touched the points. “They feel the same as regular teeth to my fingers.” Her expression was full of wonder. Whatever fear he’d seen from her earlier was gone. “They move! I saw a program one time that showed how a snake could pull its prey into its body by the fangs. They kind of move like that.”
“The dentes muscles are very developed. They control the ability to erupt and retract. We can also lock our jaws.” Like the rest of his body, he could feel the sanguindente muscles trembling with the strain of control he was exercising. When her eyes met his, she must have realized that her effect on him was both agony and ecstasy. She must have felt empowered to know that he was not unaffected by her after all.
Jess leaned until her lips were centimeters from Shane’s. “Can I touch them with my tongue?” The warmth of her breath mingled with his.
He hesitated, his heart already pounding adrenaline into him, stuttered, his mouth watering. His Adam’s apple bounced up and down the way the rest of him wanted to at her proposal. She didn’t wait for his answer. The tip of her tiny pink tongue slipped out to gingerly touch the surface of his dente. Shane groaned loudly, his eyes falling closed, enduring a few of her tentative licks before she withdrew her tongue from him and smiled.
“They aren’t hard like teeth … or soft, either. More like cartilage, really sharp cartilage.” Shane was still swimming in a sea of oral sensation. “What are they called?”
“Sanguindentes. It means ‘blood teeth.’ or simply dentes.” He could hear the strain in his voice, even telepathically. The female was pushing his limits of control. “We require very little human blood to survive. When we are active, a pint will last us several days. We may require more if we are injured or use excessive amounts of energy. Even then, we never require enough to drain a human. Most now days we obtain our sustenance from bagged blood, donated by humans. We use what is considered tainted, or drink what remains after the platelets humans need are removed.”
“Like the Red Cross?” Her eyes widened.
Shane nodded. “The Red Cross is a Volaticus organization. One of many symbiotic ways of aiding humanity while still obtaining what our bodies require. A human hemophiliac with a single nosebleed can go through more blood than an Elven would require for a month. By ensuring that there is blood on hand for human use whenever and wherever they have need, we try to give back.”
“The Red Cross does more than just blood. They help with more than that.” She wor
ded it as statement, not a question.
“Yes.” Shane answered anyway, hoping that by talking facts he could tear his mind away from the sweet oleander smell of her, away from the knowledge that the bowknot at the waist of the robe she wore was the only barrier between his naked flesh and hers.
“So if you help humanity, why hide from humanity?” Jess’s honest question revealed how sheltered her life had been up to this point.
“One day humanity will reach the evolutionary point of tapping into their psychic energy. Their ‘enlightening.’ Then they will be able to accept knowing that there are other enlightened species sharing space with them. Until then, they will view our differences as a threat.” Shane shrugged
He could see her trying to digest the information. He’d already explained to her that humanity still leaned toward the tenancy to try to destroy that which they didn’t understand. He was sure her own anomalies had made her feel somewhat ostracized in her life. She had a compassionate and understanding nature. That same nature made her incapable of conceiving that not all of humanity was as amazing as her. He could feel himself falling deeper under her spell.
“Doesn’t that bother you? That you live in secret?” Jess leapt to a wrong presumption.
“We don’t live in secret, Beauty. We enable humanity to exist blissfully unaware of our existence, for the most part. We are out here. Everywhere. Living amongst humans as equals is relatively new thinking. The last few thousand years it has become more and more common. We have our own communities and societies too. Nests like this one.” Shane didn’t want to romanticize Elven for her; she needed to know the bad too. “Not all Volaticus are good people either. Not all have embraced this thinking. There are those among my kind who are rebelling against living a symbiotic lifestyle. Rogues, who wish to go back to the days when we preyed on humans, subjugated and lorded over them like gods. Some are just plain bad.” Her eyes widened. He wasn’t sure if she was reacting to what he was saying or the sound of his voice. The gold of her eyes proclaimed it was the latter.
“There are also those who kill at the vein of another enlightened species. They are called Morsdente … ‘death teeth.’ No matter how enlightened a species becomes there will always be evil found in their numbers, those so abhorrent that warriors hunt them, like me. ” He unintentionally leaned toward her as he spoke.
She placed one of her hands on each of his ears, effectively holding his face between her palms. Her mouth was so close to his that he could feel her breath across his lips, his dentes throbbing for her to lick them again, his cock throbbing for the same. Even his ears were pushing against her hands, trying to get closer to her. She continued her dubious study of him, seemly oblivious to his state.
“Why are you speaking telepathically to me when I’m right here?” she whispered, running her hands from his ears, down his neck, across his shoulder, and down his arms. Stepping back, he could see her taking in the full view of his body. Again her gaze lingered on his erection. She slowly circled around him, continuing her perusal until she stood directly behind him.
Shane released the breath he had been holding and lifted his face up toward the ceiling, letting his eyes fall closed. He clenched his fists in an effort to hold still for her inspection. Did she not realize what she was doing to him? He wasn’t sure how much more he was going to be able to endure. She was rapidly sending him over the edge into rapture—something he didn’t even know could be achieved when a female was not in estrus heat. He drew a deep breath of her oleander scent into his lungs just to further torture himself. She definitely wasn’t in estrus. She was making him crazy just the same. Could she really doubt his desire for her? His control was being tested, but just being near her, he admitted to himself, made it worth this sweet agony and more.
“I am speaking to you in this way because it is difficult to speak when my dentes are fully erupted.” In truth he liked the intimacy of speaking with her telepathically
****
Jess visually took in the rear view of Shane, and what a rear. His ass should be molded and placed on display at the Smithsonian. She could picture it with a golden plaque declaring it “the greatest work of art in the history of the world.” Topping his well-formed thighs, it was accentuated by his narrow hips. She wanted to cup his ass cheeks with a compulsion that nearly had her doing just that. Instead she forced her eyes to rise up to where his wings attached into either side of his spine muscles.
He was holding himself so still for her that it made her smile. She wondered what it would take to knock him out of his statue routine and ran her fingers along one of the lower limbs holding the wing membrane. Shane groaned, warming her blood. She’d already realized that he meant what he’d said. He had left her in the tub out of honor, not a lack of desire, making him even more perfect.
“Can’t you make your fangs disappear now?” They made him sexier and harder to resist. Nothing he had shown her had detracted from her attraction to him. In fact it intensified it. Shane grabbed her using the small thumb and fingers at the end of the winged limbs. “Hey!”
“Sorry.” Shane spoke aloud, letting her hear the full extent of his lisp “The dentes, fingers and … other parts of me seem to have a mind of their own right now.”
Was that an invitation? Jess’s felt her chest tighten at the potential sexual innuendo. Unsure of how to respond, she instead asked, “So you can fly?”
“Yes.” His dentes caused the “s” to have a slight “th” sound.
“Could you fly if you were carrying me?” Running her fingers across the thin membrane, she realized just how delicate but strong the wings were. The membrane was paper-thin, the limbs less than an inch in diameter
“Perhaps. How much do you weigh?” He was teasing her, and she playfully slapped at his limb fingers. “Ouch,” he said, pretending she had wounded him. “Yeah, I can.” He let the wing drop as if broken. “What did you hit me for? I was being nice and sweet, holding still for you and everything.” He was pouting. Well, as much as you can pout with fangs in the way. She really liked this playful side of him. He made her laugh.
“Can you put them away?” she requested, wondering if his wings were going to have the same determination to remain as his fangs and his erection apparently did. Shane retracted them so fast that they seemed to have vanished to her.
“Wow.” Jess was unable to conceive of what he’d just done. His back looked normal … No, normal wasn’t the right term. Human. She had to look closely to see the back flaps. Then she was sure she only spotted them because she already knew they tucked away.
Unable to resist, she slid her finger under one of the flaps. Shane jerked, the first movement he had made since she began checking him out. She jumped back, startled.
“That tickles,” he snapped, a concerned look halting his smile, followed swiftly by what she could only describe as defeated acceptance. Damn, he must have thought he’d scared her. Not in what he’d done, in what he was. How had their roles reversed? Now that she was pretty sure he was attracted to her, he was behaving like he thought she no longer was.
“Really?” Using her favorite tool, she went after the flaps again. For the first time she didn’t regulate her speed to appear normal. They zoomed from one side of the room to the other with her trying to tickle him and him lunging away to avoid her fingers. He launched himself into the La-Z-Boy, effectively denying her access to his ticklish flaps. Her momentum put her squarely into his lap, both of them laughing.
Shane’s arms enfolded her. Her laughter faded off as she wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head down on his shoulder. She felt feminine in his arms. Nestling against his chest, she was amazed at how natural it felt with him holding her. Then her brain registered his erection against her bottom.
“So let me guess. We are not allowed to be attracted to each other.” Her voice caught, trying not to cry. That would be her luck, to finally meet a guy she was attracted to. One that didn’t make her head hurt, literally. He wou
ld be forbidden fruit.
Shane rubbed her cheek and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, his touch warm and gentle against her skin. She lifted her face to meet his eyes.
“Jess, I needed you to see me in true form before allowing myself to even fathom the idea that you might offer me such a gift as loving you would be,” he assured her. “That was the only reason I resisted you in the bath.” His eyes darkened to a near black again. “We live very long lives, and walking away from you in the bath was the most difficult thing I have ever done.” He let the full depth of his desire for her show in his eyes. “Wait. That’s not true. Standing here, refraining from throwing you over my shoulder and cave-manning you into the bedroom: That was the most difficult thing I have ever done. The bath is the close second. ”
Jess tried for a tentative smile. Thankfully, that was all the encouragement he needed to capture her lips. She sighed softly at his gentle kiss. “So do you? Want to be with me?” Her hand behind his neck came up and she ran her fingers into his hair.
“More than you know.” Shane’s lack of hesitation was encouraging, and the huskiness of his voice had her shivering in anticipation.
“What’s stopping you?” Jess felt awkward. How did Aymee do this? How do you seduce a man, er, male? All she knew how to do was be her blunt, unsophisticated self. “All the questions we both still have will wait. I want this. I want you. I don’t want to wait anymore.” She looked at him with what she hoped reflected the need she was feeling. For what she could not name, but she knew he would be able to relieve it.
“You’re sure.” Shane asked, lisping from the eruption of his fangs. Her flesh warmed to the stark desire she could see in his dark eyes. Jess touched her lips to his in answer, and he captured them, licking and nibbling at them. She was instantly swamped in sensation. Helpless, she opened to him. Without hesitation he plundered the depths of her mouth, tangoing with her tongue, and she matched his passion with her own.
Immortal Becoming Page 5
