War-Torn

by J. E. Keep

  “It don’t have to be that way,” he said, reaching out to brush a stray tear from her pristine cheek. “Anythin’ could’ve happened to you out here, and I’m old enough ta be let off, so nobody’ll question when we set up a ranch or somethin’ somewhere and you’re with me. They’ll assume you’re my wife and leave us be.” He shook his head. “Ain’t many women that serve anyhow. It’ll fool ’em.”

  Her lower lip trembled. “If I’m with you and you’re caught... if one of the other soldiers sees us... Levek, you should be free, but if you take me, you won’t be.”

  “Don’t say that. Once we’re beyond the front and the camps” — he shook his head — “they won’t question it. I’ll have somethin’ to prove my discharge, and I look the right age anyhow.” He forced a smile. “You don’t have to decide nothin’ now, Cas. Ya don’t. I know ya only got here, and... and ya ain’t seen the worst the front has to offer. Not by a long shot.” He took a deep breath, trying to steady his voice. “But I’d like to get out of here with somethin’ of value to hold on to. And I can’t do that on my own.”

  He made it sound like it was about himself, but his prime worry was for her and her alone.

  Her chin dropped to her chest. “When are you planning on leaving, Levek?”

  “I told ya, I ain’t gonna leave without you,” he said and squeezed her shoulder. “But if we wanna get out of here with some part of us intact, we should go soon.” He couldn’t help it, he had to pull her in for a hug. He wrapped his arms about her and squeezed her dainty form, so ill fit for life at the front, and savoured the moment. “Take a few days, think on it. But for your own sake, Cas, don’t wait too long, huh?”

  She hugged him back with such warmth and compassion, it was hard to handle, and she nodded eagerly. Her head tilted up and she whispered in his ear, the backdrop of gunfire nearly drowning her out despite the protection the hideaway provided them. “I don’t know if I can stay by myself.”

  Levek held her long after that, unable to say more. He struggled for the words, but they weren’t coming to him.

  It was the sound of the emergency siren wailing in the dark of night that broke their moment.

  “Dammit,” he swore out loud. “It’s the call to battle stations.” His men would be waiting for him.

  “Be careful,” she said as she stepped back, trying to hide the fact that she was still wiping away the salty tears from her cheeks. “Let’s go save some lives.”

  He couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Be safe, Cas. I’ll return soon as I can.”

  Which might be never, a voice reminded him in the back of his mind.

  Chapter 16 – The Soldiers

  When at last the two bandits were passed out from the agony, the Major gestured to the two Landsreck. “Take them to the cart. Aside from a few broken pinkies they have no serious injuries. Nothing to keep them from serving on the fronts anyhow,” he said with a slight curve of his lips. The cruel torture of the two brutes had brought out something in him, Liena’sa realized.

  The two soldiers dragged their unconscious bodies through the dirt on their way back to the cart. Despite their pale faces, they knew better than to utter a word against their superior’s methods.

  “They’d tell you anything to get you to stop, sir,” she said lowly as the others left their earshot. “I think I was getting ready to tell you where the hideouts are just to get you to stop.”

  It wasn’t the first time she’d seen him perform such a thing, nor even the first time she’d seen that expression. The toothy grin that was so out of place on his stern, angular face. “Of course, Lieutenant,” he said smoothly, not even sounding like himself. He slipped the torture device back into his pocket and stepped towards her. “We got the information we really need anyhow.” He reached up, rubbing his fingers across her face until he was palming her cheek.

  It bothered her a little, to know the pain those fingers inflicted, yet she leaned into it like a small kitten. Her wide eyes fluttered shut as she let her lips drop open. There wasn’t the option for debate or disagreement. He watched out for her, and that was all that mattered to the half-elven woman.

  “You liked that, didn’t you?” she asked in a soft voice.

  “No,” he said harshly, yet again his voice filled with such uncharacteristic emotion, “I loved it.” He grinned, pushing their bodies together as he grabbed her about the waist with his other arm, pulled her head to the side, and dove in, biting and sucking her neck in the woods. Such lust for her. She always knew it was there, but he usually contained it so well until the height of his passions, when he was hilted inside her.

  It was a change of pace, something welcomed even as it mingled with her disgust at what he’d done. There was no pity or compassion left in the world, no place for it, and she understood it as well as any. Yet to know he had such sick fancies still struck a strange chord with her, even as she enjoyed his passionate vigor.

  “I like it when you’re like this,” she gasped, and she meant it. Though she hated what it took for him to get to that point, she still loved his lust for her. For sex. For whatever it was he needed that she knew she’d never understand.

  That mouth of his was so hungry, it nipped and suckled her flesh so roughly. It was such a strange dynamic they had. Since the fall of the elven aristocracy and the Union with the humans, elves — and especially half-breeds — had become second-class citizens of the Union. Yet he’d never held that against her.

  As he pushed her back up against a tree and moved his mouth moistly up her slender neck to her ears, he bit and tugged it there. “I want you, Lien,” he muttered in her ear in a gruff, lust-laden voice. She could feel his arousal press through his uniform and against her stomach as one hand came around and undid the buttons of her black tunic.

  Her hand moved down his body, feeling him out as she wedged her fingers between them. She was usually so placid, so docile, yet his crassness had given her permission to do what she usually didn’t. Her fingers rubbed him through his pants, felt out that firm cock, the outline of it so prominent.

  Her pale flesh was reddening beneath her officer’s cap and she couldn’t open her eyes. She couldn’t look at him, just felt him out. Holding him. Rubbing him.

  It was enough.

  As her earlobe snapped from his mouth he hissed into her ear, “Do you like seeing me work, Lieutenant?” Though the words were not in their usual formal tone. He used her rank almost as a tease instead, and as his cock swelled to her touch, she wasn’t sure she’d ever felt it so large.

  Her jacket came open, and he reached inside, yanked her shirt out of her pants, and went in to move across her pale flesh towards her petite breasts. He was hungry for her, and his steel-blue-grey eyes were wide and alight as he looked at the elven beauty before him.

  A soft sound, like a whimper, came past her lips and she rubbed him a bit harder as she shook her head. “I hated it, Major. Every second of it.” Yet she didn’t hate his hands groping those pale mounds, tweaking her already hard nipples. Her back arched, and her hat knocked back against the tree, toppling to the ground.

  He growled at her, though she couldn’t tell if it was driven by lust or disapproval at her response. Though the way he gripped her breast tighter and moved his other hand down over her body, feeling her out as he went, suggested it did nothing to diminish his desires. “And yet you like what it did to me, hm?” he asked between licks and bites of her neck, his hand forcing its way down inside her pants and over her quim, a finger touching upon her slit.

  “Yes!” she practically shouted, her behaviour so uncharacteristic of the tightly wound woman. She was already so wet for him that she was almost embarrassed, squirming under his touch. It didn’t matter if she liked it or not, for it did something twisted to her body. Even if it was just liking how much her lover got off on it.

  The husky groan he gave was of pure approval, his digit dipping into her, feeling her slick warmth. “My sweet, sweet Lien,” he murred in her ear, and sh
e felt the intricate care he made, tending to her slit with his finger like he’d never done before. The sweet tingle of sensations as he prodded her clit, squeezed her breast, and suckled her ear. “You still watched. Like such a good girl.”

  “I’ll never abandon you,” she promised. Even beneath her lusty edge, she meant it. It wasn’t a simple throwaway promise between two lovers. It was a sincere pledge, and she went up on her toes as he glided his finger over her clit. That tiny nub was so tight and excited, and every rub of his hard finger made her sex throb.

  Her head tilted back and her hair tangled in the bark of the tree, showing off the strong, angled line of her jaw. Her pale breasts tilted upwards, her entire body yearning for him.

  He increased the intensity of his motions, biting at her exposed neck, but withdrew his hand from her breast. With his grasp free, he loosened her belt, then his, exposing his stiff cock to the spring air.

  That grasp of his was so hard and cruel, but it was just his nature, not his intention. He took hold of her slender neck and twisted her around to face the tree. “I need to be in you. Now,” he stated, and for the first time since he’d shown this darker side of himself, that tone of command had edged itself back into his voice.

  Her forearms scraped against the tree, but it didn’t matter. Her ass lofted in the air, her legs spread as wide as her fallen trousers would allow. Her body was such a pale treat, that blonde fuzz topping her slit and helping to taint the air with the scent of her honey.

  Her body was his to control and command, and she never forgot it. Yet when he’d snapped, when he’d acted like a real person without that stern demeanor and that careful exterior, she could fool herself. She could make herself believe that their relationship was based on something more than a trade.

  With one of his long arms wrapped about her, his fingers still prodding that sensitive nub of her clit, the other went from her neck to her hair. He took hold of her by those blonde strands, using the bun she’d crafted it into as reins to hold her by as he slid his thick girth into her, hilting himself in one hard motion.

  The satisfied moan he gave was more than she usually ever got out of him, and he bent over her backside as he began to pump into her pussy. His deep voice rich, he said, “When I catch that noble bitch, I am going to make you watch me repeat that scene on her, Lien.” There was no mistaking the arousal in his words. “And then...” His words were broken off by another groan of pleasure as the slap of his groin striking her ass filled the air.

  Her ass was so toned, her lean body always so fit from their work. There was no room for lazy people, and it had paid off for her in those smooth, strong legs and that lithe figure. She did her best to hide it beneath the officer’s uniform, but it only made it sweeter to have her pinned to a tree.

  “Yes,” she hissed, for there was no fighting it. There was only enjoying the moment of raw passion with her superior officer.

  Somehow Hendrik managed to keep rubbing her clit throughout his wild bucking, their two bodies slapping together so lewdly in the cool spring air. Their black uniforms covered most of them but for the crudely ground-together loins. “When I’m promoted for capturing that cunt,” he said so crassly into her ear, “I’m going to fuck you in the Chancellor’s office itself to celebrate.” With that bit of bravado his balls slapped up against her so noisily as he thrust hard, and she felt him begin to tense inside her.

  “Ah!” she half sighed, half screamed into the forest air.

  His aggression, his needy passion was a release she desperately needed. It was a break from formalities, from cold cruelty, from the grinding slog of their drab, dreary lives. It was something pure, something that felt good and honest. She shuddered against him as he pressed her clit at just the right second, at just the right place, and she trembled against the tree.

  Her cunny clutched him, milking him of his seed as he tensed within her body. Nothing was held back as he hilted in her, his balls tight as he spasmed in her warm clench. “Yess,” he hissed at her, and her tightness drained him of all he had to offer, the tall officer’s virile seed pumping in a seemingly endless series of spurts until his twitches of ecstasy at last ceased.

  That just left the two of them, breathing heavily in the bandit’s former clearing. Something happened then that surprised her all the more, and he kissed her neck one final time, then bit the skin before he pulled back. The familiar cloth from his pocket coming to cup her mound for the seed that spilled from her the moment his wide girth exited, leaving her gaping.

  Her head dipped as she lowered from her tiptoes, her entire body feeling so warm and strained. She didn’t want it to be over.

  The crash back to reality was almost too much to bear and she moved back towards him, wanting to linger against his touch for just another second longer.

  It couldn’t be that perfect. She knew, of course. Theirs was an arrangement, and he was a serious man. Though as he tucked his manhood away and did up his pants, she felt a final trail of his hand upon the line of her hip and rear.

  Something stuck out to her then too.

  When he’d said he’d fuck her in the Chancellor’s office after a promotion, it revealed two things: he planned to go both far and high. But more importantly to her: he planned to take her with him.

  “Let’s go,” came his voice, gradually returned to its former official tone. “We’ve got to catch up to the men and set off after our prey. There’s no way she’s gone north, regardless of what those two fools thought.”

  Chapter 17 – The Rebels

  Travelling the wide expanse of the woods wasn’t easy. The terrain wasn’t even, and there was no direct route anywhere, Rosa was finding out. Everything was just an endless mire of trees, hills, rocks, and the occasional marsh. Worst of all, it only seemed to get worse the further out from the capital that she went with the stoic rebel.

  She was better equipped for travel than most any, but despite all the preparations she had made, it wasn’t enough to prepare her for life on the run. Just keeping pace with the athletic rebel was proving a near insurmountable task.

  Night was falling, though she had a hard time telling, for the trees managed to keep out much of the sun throughout the whole of the day. “We’ll rest shortly,” came the blonde rebel’s voice ahead of her, and he looked back and noticed how much she was trailing with a bit of a grimace.

  Damn him, he still managed to be hot even with that look, she thought. Even with the scar that blemished his striking features.

  Her nose crinkled as she struggled to keep up, but it was little use. She wasn't used to walking so much, so quickly, over anything but cobbled streets and marble floors. Every step made her muscles scream in protest, but she pushed on like a stubborn mule. The promise of rest was enough to make her try harder, however. Night had set in completely and she longed to rest.

  “There’s a clearing ahead,” he told her simply. “We’ll set up camp there once—”

  He was interrupted by a howl that carried across the night sky. A wolf. Though its long wail was interrupted abruptly. The smooth sound of its cry was cut short and became garbled. The man froze in front of her. Completely still.

  A chill ran up her spine and she held her breath. Even the stillness made her muscles spasm in protest, but fear kept her from making a sound, from moving. What could kill a wolf like that? She barely knew a thing about the wilderness, but for what she’d read in preparation. A bear? Could a bear do it?

  She wanted to inch closer to him, to feel his strength at her side, for she was feeling so very weak and uncertain of herself. Even as her fingers touched her own knife, she didn’t trust her ability to defend herself. Not out here. Not anymore.

  Deathly silence, unnatural and long, took over. It wasn’t until that strange, unearthly cry pierced the air that the world seemed to start moving around Rosa again. She saw the rebel before her cringe—literally cringe in fright!—and realized she had done so herself. Whatever had made that noise had some power of terror
that neither could resist.

  When he looked back to her, he was too pale, like the hearty man had fallen ill and begun to waste away in just such a short time. “We’ve got to run,” he said weakly, but when he tore off at a remarkable rate she knew he was anything but. Fear drove his muscles and he took off at a speed she could barely fathom after the days of endless journeying.

  Her eyes widened, for though she was frightened, she’d had faith in him. In his skills. He’d rescued her from those bandits, and the fact that he was running scared made her feel something she didn’t know was possible.

  Her legs were moving, but though she’d gotten used to walking at a quicker pace along the rough, forest floor, it was so different running. Adrenaline, a natural inclination to flee, flooded her, but it couldn’t give her his grace and agility.

  The trees rushed by them as they went, and he grew further and further ahead of her. She could not keep up with him, for all the adrenaline and fear that drove her legs on despite exhaustion also pumped through him. He was hardened by life and driven by terror.

  They went on so quickly she did not even notice the branches that smacked her in the face and scraped her smooth, pale skin. There was no such thing as the option of slowing down, for though the night had returned to its eerie quiet, there was something she could simply feel.

  It was a presence. It bore down upon her back with an invisible, crushing sensation at the same time it felt to her like the existence of a void. It was wrong. It did not belong in her world, nor any she could imagine.

  Her mind raced, but when she broke through the trees to a clearing... she saw nothing. There was no sign of her guide, the man she hoped would protect her.

  She was gulping for air, wheezing from the exertion, and her body simply wanted to drop to the clearing, to curl into a ball and hide. She’d tried to assassinate the Queen. She’d failed at that, and she’d failed at running away. Tears stung her eyes but she grabbed her weapon tightly and pushed herself on, trying to put distance between her and... whatever it was that made that horrific sound.