Feral Fever

by Feral Fever (lit)

  "It's safe." Borun nudged me with his hip toward the door to the guard house. "Your commander has departed with Johnson."

  After the murder, it would be odd to expect them to carry through with the plans for the princess's arranged marriage. Is that where they'd gone? "Did they escort the princess to Slaken?"

  We stepped through the doorway into the soft light of the guards' hearth fire. One guard stepped deeper into the room, his broad striped back and black queue retreating into shadow beyond the dancing flames.

  "Princess Frenyl has refused to complete the political alliance." Borun walked me to the fire's warmth and gently took me by the elbows. His glowing gaze behind his mask locked onto mine. "Stay here with the guards. Ishan has summoned me."

  What else would he learn about the breakdown of Luvk social fabric since our departure? "Alright." After all, these guards were proving they'd die for me. I might as well just get used to the fact they're going to be on watch at every turn.

  "Lehd." Borun stared back toward the doorway.

  The big Sunset clan leader's stripes shimmied in the darkness until he stepped into the fire's dome of amber light.

  "Stay with Aisling," Borun ordered and departed.

  Lehd pulled off his mask and tossed it aside with the same disdain for the molded metal he had the first day he yanked it off to humor me.

  I didn't have anything to cast off but the endless days of travel that had coated me with grime. "Is it safe to find clean clothes among my things, or should I stay here?"

  "Come with me." Lehd stepped past the hearth.

  It's amazing how small I felt walking behind him. Or any of these guards.

  Lehd guided me into the darkness around the glowing pool and into my personal quarters where my clothing had been neatly folded and placed upon Borun's sleeping skins.

  Undoubtedly laundered by Morna. A girl could get used to all this pampering. But I had to be careful not to let it go to my head. Not to become one of these Queens. Begging to bathe at this late hour probably was something a Queen would do though. Or just do, making Lehd hover at attention with his ass on the line. But I just felt sticky. Would asking for permission be the safe not-so-pompous route since Borun had left for who knows how long? I met Lehd's golden gaze where he towered with his striped arms crossed over his chest and smiled. "Is it alright if I bathe?"

  "If you wish." Lehd waved me toward the pool.

  When he stepped through the doorway at my heels, I almost choked and paused. I should have known he'd stand guard duty. "Can I have a minute for privacy?"

  He turned to me with those glowing eyes. "What's a minute?"

  Obviously an Earth term. I clutched my clothes to my chest like I hid behind them already nude. "A measurement of time."

  He nodded once and stepped aside.

  Okay, let's see what happens. I strode toward the pool.

  The door creaked behind me.

  Was he gone? I turned.

  And stood alone. Okay, I'd better hurry before he guesstimates the length of a minute. I stripped, grabbed the soap dish and a drying fur, and hopped into the warm bubbling water. By the time I surfaced for air, Lehd moved through the shadows around the pool like a tertiary carnivore in search of his supper.

  Good thing I wasn't beneath him on his food web. Or, maybe I was!

  He headed toward the pile of skins and sank into the shadows.

  If I hadn't seen him descend, his stripes would have camouflaged him.

  One by one, candles flickered with flame around him. Like magic. I heard no sound although he must have had a lighter. The seven flames cast enough light to where I could barely see his stripes. I tried to ignore him by grabbing a bar of soap, careful to keep my cleavage beneath the swirling water, and worked on lathering my scalp.

  The chore required I sit with my back to him on the ledge to work on the ends. So, I scrubbed…

  What was Borun hearing?

  What was Lehd doing?

  Just ignore him.

  I finished lathering my hair from root to ends and dove into the water, swimming underneath the surface across the pool, hitting the edge, turning underwater, and kicking my body back across in one smooth movement to touch the seat where I had sat to wash.

  Lehd sat doing something with his hands in the candlelight when I propped myself back upon the ledge.

  Flickering light danced upon a metallic object in his grasp.

  Well, he was busy. So, I scrubbed my skin.

  "Aisling?" he asked me, curiously, but gently.

  Oh boy, he better not ask to join me. "Yes?" I scrubbed more furiously.

  "You have no stripes?"

  It was a funny question. Kind of awkwardly inquisitive. Maybe a touch naïve but nothing nosy. He was just curious. "None." I shoved into the water and turned to prop up on the ledge with my elbows where I faced the man's glowing eyes in the shadows, allowing the water to whisk the lather away. "People on my home world don't have stripes."

  "None?"

  "None." He seemed unable to believe the answer. "Some of us have tiny spots called freckles though. But no stripes. Although, a few people choose to have drawings added to their skin. I've seen a few completely cover themselves in stripes like yours."

  He inhaled deeply.

  So loudly I know he thought the idea of a full body tattoo insane. "Luvks would rather have no stripes?" Having him state that much would help me see where Luvks truly stood on the subject.

  "The weaker the markings, the purer one is."

  How did the belief begin? "Why?"

  He shifted his, apparently moving one booted leg that was invisible to my earthling vision in the darkness if he sat still. "The Slakens are pure white. We are not. They refuse to deal with those of us who are low-caste. In doing so, the Luvks began to see only value in fewer markings."

  So the Queens had to be white. Although white stripes had little to do with intelligence given Mart. He was no fool like the Queens. But encouraging the Luvks to rear the high-caste females to behave narcissistically undoubtedly perpetuated the hold the Slakens had on this planet. Any anthropologist knew behavior was learned. Individuals were born an empty slate and absorbed ideas from others in their culture. Or so Renaissance men began to push the point on Earth.

  "When you finish, I will show you something," Lehd said.

  His words broke my train of thought. Why not? "I'll dress if you give me another-"

  "Minute," he finished my statement.

  I couldn't help but smile. He probably didn't want a mathematical lesson on Earth time. But the fact he used the concept in context was nice. Or he proved he was as smart as any high-caste male was thought to be.

  Lehd left the room as one shifting striped mass.

  Big guy. Lots of brains to go with the brawn. And lots of heart. Even though I couldn't hear his. He offered the privacy I needed. I shoved out of the pool and dressed as quickly as possible just in case someone decided to enter the bath. I hauled my laundry and boots back across the cool stone floor.

  Lehd's striped back blocked my entrance when I pulled the door open.

  Yep. I had a bodyguard.

  He immediately stepped aside.

  I dumped my clothing beside the sleeping skins and turned to face him.

  He disappeared into the shadows by the lodge's entrance and reappeared into the firelight with a chest.

  One of the chests sent by a queen. Okay, maybe I should have opened them. But I didn't want to. And now I felt a teeny bit guilty that I should have already foraged through the trunks. After all, the Queens were just being kind. And the guards didn't need to be insulted from my really pathetic culture shock.

  His glowing gaze locked on me. "Come." He dug into the contents and withdrew a leather drawstring sack. "Here." He handed over the bag.

  No problem. I was just going to be nice and open the pouch. I took the heavy object.

  The contents were hard and round.

  I wriggled the strings loose.

/>   Beams of brilliant white light shot out from the pouch's opening.

  What was it? My gaze darted to Lehd's where the firelight gilded his half-cocked smile.

  That smile could melt iron.

  My heart wobbled.

  "Open it, Aisling." He nodded toward my hands.

  I rolled a glittering ball out of the bag into my palm.

  A queen's ball of light. God, I don't want to be a queen.

  Something almost the size of the ball lodged in my throat.

  I gulped back the annoying sensation.

  And everything in a ten foot radius was suddenly revealed to me. The red and purple pillows. The intricate frescoes of flowering vegetation and animals painted on the nearby wall in brilliant colors. Two displays of weapons, obviously Borun's, hanging near the sleeping skins and the door. The orange in Lehd's stripes. "Oh my god. Is this the same room I've been bumping through for days?" I stepped around the room casting areas in brilliant light with my footsteps.

  A low chuckle gurgled inside Lehd's chest.

  I slid my gaze up his bulging pectorals to his sly smile.

  "You should listen to those who know more than you," he carefully said.

  Yes. I should. But why admit to him he's right? "What do I do with this light ball?"

  He quickly plucked the magical light from my hand, pounced upward, a ridiculous five feet, at least, tossing the ball overhead.

  Something magical happened. The ball just floated above me. "How does that work?" I gaped at it, pacing out a bit of an awkward circle.

  "It is just the way of things. Come, there are more of your light balls inside these chests." He headed toward the now obvious trunks where Borun had left them.

  What was the difference between Lehd and Borun in Lehd showing me the lights and Borun leaving them packed away? Why would Borun not think it important to show me these luxurious lights? I joined the squatting Luvk where Lehd tossed another chest's lid open.

  He immediately handed me another sack.

  I'm certain if I had known him better that he would have stared me down with all sorts of expressive masks. But we weren't familiar enough yet for him to convey anything other than the obvious thrill he had in enlightening his new stubborn boss with those you-should-have-opened-the-damned-trunks-before half smiles. So, I collected the other six balls of light as he uncovered them where he knelt in the balls' radiance.

  That magic light was more illuminating than any sun.

  * * * *

  Lehd stretched out against the pillows around the fire in Borun's lodge while watching his Marshal. Or whatever she would prove to be, he thought. Her heartsong never graded into negativity. And her stride now clipped with ease. Maybe the lighting changed her attitude. Maybe she could just see where she stepped now? Whatever the reasoning behind the uplift in her demeanor, I am glad to be the cause of it.

  She carried the bag her commander had given her over to sit near the fire beside me.

  Had she ignored this gift from Goro's mate as well? What caused a female to be so stubborn? He gulped down a laugh and watched her hands.

  Delicate pale hands. Hands that made him hard just watching them. What would they feel like rubbing against my chest?

  My body went rock hard.

  Not a good thought. Time to think of other things. Like killing Kruk. That bastard needed to die. He'd never touch Aisling. Never see her like this. Inquisitive. Enthusiastic. Gentle. Soft. Just the way those hands had to feel. If I didn't stop looking at her, my seed would line my leathers. I slid my gaze to the seven orb lights overhead.

  Queen lights. Sky demon magnets. Maybe I should have left them hidden inside the chests.

  "Oh, Hell, Goro," she muttered.

  Something about her commander. But I'm not looking. I'm saving myself from spilling my seed.

  "So much for instructions." She sighed.

  Leave it to commanders to forget instructions. I'd been accused of that one too many times myself. More often than not, the instructions lay right before my warrior's nose.

  Her heart suddenly raced.

  My gaze snapped to her stuffing things back inside her bag. "What is it, Aisling?"

  "Uhm. Uh." She didn't look at me.

  A little panic in her heartbeat hinted she hid something in her behavior.

  "Oh, nothing." She shot me a meek smile.

  "Aisling?" I shoved onto my elbows and watched her closely.

  * * * *

  Lehd's black eyebrows arched as he came out of his meditative stare at the light balls overhead near Aisling. At least he hadn't seen the lingerie, she thought. I could have talked my way around the syringes and vials Goro left for Borun and I to use in place of blood exchanges if we were separated. But lingerie was lingerie to men. These Royal Guards had probably seen it all by the time they grew into an enormous sexy piece of man meat lounging on pillows like Lehd did at the moment. Except now he stared at me conspiratorially, focusing all his attention on me.

  I so liked him better before I got to know a real being with personality lurked inside that soldier costume. "It's just girl stuff." I cleared my throat. "Female things from a friend who thought I'd be stranded on a planet where there weren't any, uh, girl things."

  "Girl things," he cooed and nodded.

  Seductively. I'd probably hear about girl things for the rest of my life here on Luvk now. I had to remember not to use specific terms around Lehd.

  Heat crept up my neck.

  He probably wouldn't have seen the blush except for the damned light balls he so conveniently hung overhead. I need to get angry. But he was so bloody cute and sexy. And helpful. Time to change the subject. "Well, I guess I'll read this letter." I produced the envelope Goro's wife Darla had tucked into the backpack.

  One of his arched brows flat-lined.

  He was too suspicious.

  But we weren't having a fashion show tonight. And thank goodness he couldn't read. I yanked the envelope's stiff paper between my hands, pulled the slick flap open, and produced two sheets of folded paper to tuck my nose into. I immediately realized I would have been better off just crawling over to distract my intelligent muscle bound bodyguard with a kiss. Sinking into the darkness of the lack of self-control. Not me. I stood my ground like a good girl.

  Dammit. Darla meant well in wishing me the best, in encouraging me to use my wild and unruly psychic gift. I intended to. Especially if it meant my survival. And my guards' survival. I wasn't going to let anyone down on Luvk.

  But Darla went on to bring up my mother's suicide. Maybe the natural order of things was the best route in general to understanding reality-my Mother's choice. That is the natural order one didn't learn through scientific study. The natural order of the survival of the fittest minus magical intervention via your psychic healer daughter. The type where one rationalized the pathway to the end suddenly upon one's path was just supposed to be there. Mom didn't want me to save her from cancer with my strange psychic power. She wanted to let the disease run its course. To die. In the end, rationalizing hadn't worked with her. She'd given up long before cancer when her twin died.

  My heart thrashed in my defense.

  But Mom was gone. And I was alone. So, I joined the Marshals. Healing may not be easy. But I'd figure things out because nobody else would die because of my lack of assertiveness. Wonky powers or not. I crumpled up the annoying letter and stuffed it back inside my backpack.

  "You no longer look happy," Lehd noted.

  Did I need to come clean? I shrugged. "Is anyone ever truly happy?"

  He shot me a shimmering stare. "I've come close."

  I couldn't imagine when. But happy was relative. And I'd never marched in his boots.

  The door squeaked.

  Borun strode into our living quarters and nodded at Lehd.

  Lehd rose and departed.

  "I see you've come to your senses and discovered the Queen's orbs," Borun announced.

  Each of his hungry strides stole my breath away
as his muscled legs snatched up the space between us. Flashbacks from the first moment I saw him walking toward the commander and I shook me with the power I witnessed in what seemed like a year ago. I just watched the breathtaking view, suddenly so much clearer in the lighting.

  He swooped me up into his safe arms and imprisoned me with his ravenous mouth.

  My body ached for him to stab into me with his hardness. To quake my being with spasms. To make me feel like I wasn't alone. I had him. The warmth of his touch. But he was into deprivation.

  His mouth burned kisses down my neck until reaching the edge of my tank top's scooped neckline.

  Rip off my clothes.

  My heart rattled out my thoughts in Morse code.

  His arms slithered away. And he rose to tower over me where he'd placed me atop the soft pillows. Right where Lehd had been lying.

  I hadn't even noticed him setting me down.

  * * * *

  Borun yanked off one of his boots. "She seemed distraught when I returned," he said to Lehd in the other room. I didn't want to waste time talking to one of the guards though. Aisling was all I yearned for.

  "Her mood lifted. She smiled. Enjoyed herself for a while. Then she opened the letter," Lehd said.

  A splash indicated the Sunset clansman had jumped into the pool.

  "Very well. Whatever you did to get her into the wedding chests was short of miraculous. Thank you." A sign of acceptance of Luvk traditions. I kicked off my leathers.

  Aisling's eyes widened at the sight of my engorged manhood.

  The gesture only tortured me with a wave of relentless throbbing. I sank down on the pillows beside her and slid my hands across the softest skin on Luvk, up beneath her white shirt.

  Her body arched into my touch, begging, pleading I move higher. To those softer mounts perched upon the highest mountain beneath the starry sky.

  I returned to my altar. My very reason for existence. I shoved her shirt up and nipped at each firm bead of her nipples. Therein her soul pleaded I obey. I had so very little patience with the insanity of the day's events. I just needed to tug at the straws of conformity and drink of compliance. Become the submissive warrior. I pulled one taut bead with my teeth, sucking and sucking until it produced the conduit by which I sipped from the well of duty. And I sank down to drink deeply from her writhing body's pink nipples.