Chapter 2-18

After the standoff, Myta led Ket back to our camp. I wanted nothing more than to get some real sleep, but the need for answers outweighed my fatigue. I woke, and grabbed a leaf of tak, letting the minty taste invigorate my senses.

It took a few minutes for Myta and Denu to return, with the spirit in tow. I tried to temper my impatience, knowing that I was still on edge. We were dealing with unknown forces and agendas again, and any misunderstanding could lead me into disaster. More than that. I would be leading the entire company into disaster.

Sati woke and joined me, and though I hadn’t tried to summon her, I was happy enough for her presence. Myta and Denu took seats around the small fire I’d laid, while Ket flopped onto the ground across from me. I could feel the apsara’s surprise at the strength and size of the phantom leopard. Sati had seen Ket briefly before, but never unveiled, and in her full glory.

“It’s good to see you,” I smiled warmly at the spirit. “Although I wish it were under better circumstances. This Saoirse is the second shifter, bearing your aspect, that has attacked us. Can you tell us why?”

*Of course, vethris.* I was surprised that she used the spirit title. It told me that this conversation was more formal than I’d anticipated. *Saoirse’s actions were… misguided. My granddaughter felt you were a threat to our clan. If you suffered another attack, I can offer a good guess why, though I cannot say with certainty.*

I filed away the ‘granddaughter’ comment to pursue later. Spirits couldn’t truly reproduce in a biological sense. So she probably meant that the shifter had inherited her aspect somehow, probably as a deliberate gift to her family line.

“I think I can guess where this is going then.” My thoughts went grim at the prospect. “Shifters have been disappearing from clan Ket? And are reappearing as corrupt abominations.”

*Not just from my clan,* Ket corrected me. *All the clans have lost some of their fiercest warriors, and they have not reappeared.*

I shared a glance with Myta. “Then the Pure are assuredly holding them in reserve, building up their forces for a major attack.” I noted. “Are the disappearances focused in one area, or has anyone been able to track them at all?”

*That I do not know. The clans are loathe to share such information, but the druids will have it.*

“Then it’s just as well that we needed to see them anyway.” I sighed, not looking forward to my reception among Metic’s awakened community.

“I don’t quite understand. Why would the druids have this knowledge if the clans aren’t communicating?” Myta’s confusion was understandable, as the politics of Metic were largely opaque to outsiders.

“You know that the druids are the Metic equivalent to sorcerers?” Myta nodded, though I forestalled Sati’s objection with my next words. “The have different methods of manipulating mana, but their place in Metic society is much like that of sorcerers here. Only, the druids are much more unified than our sorcerers. All the major clans have druid advisors, and while the clans won’t share information between them, their druids will.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Then wouldn’t the druids just share a rival clan’s information with their own clan?” Myta asked.

“They have a convoluted code of behavior to follow. Part of that is that they aren’t allowed to share such information unless it is required to address a threat to all the clans. We will have a hard time convincing them to talk to us.” I hesitated. “The Pure abducting and corrupting their warriors would definitely qualify as such a threat, but we have little in the way of actual evidence.”

“The attack by that abomination doesn’t qualify?” Sati’s tone was outraged, but I shook my head.

“The body is gone, and Ket didn’t witness the attack. Our report of it is suspect, as outsiders. We’ll need more.”

We spoke for a little longer, but I called our meeting to an end when I realized that we were retreading the same ground. I needed to rest, and there was no telling when the Pure might strike at us again. Myta and Sati joined me in the tent, and I regretted the tak. It would make sleep more difficult to find, despite my weariness.

Myta spoke to Sati briefly, before the apsara went off into her partitioned section of the tent. Then my flame began to undress and clean. Myta hadn’t bothered bathing when the rest of the camp turned in, as she and Denu had known they were going out hunting. I took the opportunity to admire her gorgeous form once more. Her toned muscles and light gray skin glowed in the light of our little lamp. Her collection of vicious scars were largely gone now, leaving her body unblemished.

“Is there some way I can serve you tonight, master?” With deliberate grace, she posed for me provocatively.

“I would think that after this evening’s events you’d want some quiet time.” My eyes drifted down to her neck, to where a set of brutal claws had just threatened to tear out her throat, but Myta snorted.

“You should know better,” she scoffed. “That wasn’t a real fight, just enough to get my blood up. And I knew I wasn’t in any real danger. I felt your anger, when the shifter offered us her deal. You would have killed her just for the threat of injuring me, if Ket hadn’t appeared.” She stalked towards me, in an almost predatory fashion. And I could, in fact, feel her desire. It was raw and intense, but tempered by her devotion to me.

“You’re mine. My flame.” I felt a flicker of embarrassment over how emotional my response had been at the time. “I understood her proposal, I could even respect the sentiment. I know that you are a warrior, and are prepared to suffer such injuries. But, the disrespect…” Myta cupped my cheek in her palm, cutting off my newly rising anger.

“I know, master. And I am glad to know that you care so deeply. Let me show you how glad?” I was embarrassed again. My temper was running too hot lately. Hotter than it had in a long time. But I kissed Myta’s hand, letting myself sink back onto the bedroll she now kneeled beside.

Only a moment later I was raising my head again. The sweet floral scent of Sati’s mana was tickling my nostrils, and I realized that a thin layer of her power filled the inside of the tent.

“Not to worry, master.” Myta soothed me. “I asked her to help me tonight.”

Trusting my vas, I let myself relax again as the apsara’s sorcery soothed my tension. It left me with a gentle, floating feeling, like a mild intoxicant. I slowly began to release tension that I’d been holding onto for months now. Myta’s arrival in my life had been an incredible gift to me, but it had also completely upended my situation. But right now I could lay my worries aside, as I felt her oiled hands slide over my chest.

I was losing time in pleasant reverie, as I hadn’t even noticed her obtaining the oil, let alone warming it. My flame’s strong hands massaged my chest and shoulders, her hair tickling my skin. I grunted, deep in my throat as she found a knot and began to massage it out. The pain shot through my neck as the muscle gave way to her ministrations, and then my grunt changed to a groan of relief.

I quickly lost track of time. Myta’s anticipation built, climbing higher and higher as her fingers pampered me. Her hard calluses were softened by the oil, providing her excellent tools to attack my points of tension. And at every opportunity she deliberately stroked her hair or body against mine. I stretched and arched my back like a cat, reveling in the pleasurable sensation, head swimming.

My senses were heightened, but I was so occupied with the feelings that I barely noticed when Sati came out from behind her curtain to sit near us. I was about to speak to her, when Myta’s hand wrapped around my cock, seizing all of my attention. I bucked my hips, the motion thrusting my length slightly in her oiled palm, and I let out another, pleasurable groan. I was tremendously aroused, so hard and sensitive that her touch was almost painful.

Myta wriggled her fingers where she gripped me, and the rippling sensation caused me to growl. She shifted her wrist a little, not enough to qualify as stroking me, but more than enough to stoke my ardor. I stared at her face with an intensity that must have looked like a glare. Silver light reflected from her skin, and her eyes were blazing bright with golden flames.

Then, my gaze fell to her neck, where that woman had threatened my precious flame. I felt a new wave of possessive anger, imagining those wicked claws dimpling my vas’ glorious gray skin. I thought I might be growling more, but my pulse was pounding in my ears so loudly that I couldn’t hear it. Myta’s lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying.

In the next moment I found that my own hand was wrapped around her neck, even as my flame straddled my hips. She wasn’t trying to pull away. Instead, Myta pressed her throat into my palm as her fingernails dug into my shoulders. Her lower lips kissed the shaft of my cock, and I grunted in frustration as I bucked seeking her entrance. But before my displeasure could build, soft fingers wrapped around my length, angling me upward as Myta raised her hips. It didn’t occur to me at the time that my love’s hands were already occupied.

When my flame brought her hips back down, my world exploded in a pleasure so intense it was painful. She was so slick, and hot, and tight around me that I screamed. Or thought I screamed. The sensation made me think that I had come already, but I was still painfully hard, still hungry. I began rocking my hips as roughly as I could, while Myta’s eyelids fluttered.

Time slipped by as I drove into my vas, bouncing her atop me with harsh jerks of my hips. Her hands relaxed on my shoulders, fingernails no longer digging into my skin. She went from clutching, to holding, to supporting herself on top of me. Her channel squeezed and pulsed around me, again, and I wasn’t sure how many times that had happened. Or how long I was lost in the paroxysm of violent lust.

I let her relax and fall atop me, and my flame was sobbing as she laid kisses on my face and shoulders. She was utterly spent, physically and emotionally, and her words had lost any sort of coherent meaning. When I shifted, she fell to my side, eyes glassy, and a flood of our mixed fluids spilled over me. Apparently I’d come far more than once, but I was still hard and aching.

I was too tired to move, my limbs suddenly seized with weakness and reaction. I couldn’t remember the last time I had ached so much. How long had we been locked together that way? But then came an utterly unexpected sensation. Soft, warm lips pressed to my crown, a soft tongue teasing the tip of my cock.

I tried to lift my head, and managed to crane my neck just enough to see Sati’s head hovering over my loins. Her hair was tied back in a long tail to control its voluminous curls. As my head thumped back to the ground, I felt her lips slip down my shaft as her wet mouth engulfed me. I felt a nagging thought try to pierce the fog shrouding my mind, but it failed to surface.

Instead, my mind was buried in the soothing feeling of soft warmth. The former princess teased one final release from me. A climax that buried me in bright white light. And finally dropped me into satiated sleep.