Damned and Desired (10 page)

“You like this, don’t you?”

“I never knew it could be this good.”

Trailing his mouth over her abdomen, he moved down to part her moist folds and circled her swollen clit with the tip of his tongue. Dragging his tongue back and forth over her most sensitive bud, made her body shudder.

“Oh, yeah, you like that.” Brad slipped a finger inside her cunt and Sakari arched her back.

“It’s good. I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. Come for me. Then I’ll make love to you.” She bolted upright and had him on his back. How the hell did she do that? Martial arts? “I’ll get a condom.”

“In a minute.” Kneeling between his legs, she took his cock in one hand and cupped his balls in the other. She leaned over and gently sucked one testicle into her mouth as she stroked the hard length. A drop of pre-cum seeped out and her thumb rubbed it over the head.

“I want to be inside you.” His voice low and husky.

“Soon.”

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Damned and Desired

She deep throated him again just as he was about to lose it. She seemed to sense it and stopped. Gripping his shaft almost painfully until the throbbing eased, she went down again. This time she moistened her finger and pressed it at his anal opening.

He groaned. “Sakari, I’m on the edge here.” He sucked in a breath as she gripped him again, stopping the climax. “God, I want to make love to you.” Gripping her wrists he tried to draw her up to him but he didn’t have the strength.

“Now.” Her mouth slipped up and down in a quick rhythm, giving him the sensation of fucking her. He had no strength left to resist. The orgasm pulsed through him. He felt his seed shoot into her mouth.

After several moments, she raised her head and smiled. “You’re okay, right?”

Darkness rolled in from the edges of his vision and soon he couldn’t remember anything.

53

Kathy Kulig

Early the next morning, Sakari arrived at the entrance to the portal with Valdon.

She’d left Brad sleeping peacefully. All she’d wanted to do was curl up next to him, feel his warmth beside her through the night. Instead, she had to drive out to the desert with Valdon and return to Anartia. The demoness wouldn’t wait for her offering.

The scent of the sea flowed through the portal from Anartia mingling with the desert air. Leaving her car parked far off the road, she rushed toward the gateway between two worlds. Tiny lizards skittered across the cool sand. And a pair of crows perched in a tree silently watched them pass. She suspected peaceful was not the state of Anartia. And calm was not how the demoness Gwyllain would greet her when she returned.

Like a massive magnet, the vortex charged the air with an invisible current, drawing her closer. Its energy swirled like a horizontal tornado. The nebula stones unlocked the gateway for passage.

The ground rose to a grouping of boulders overlooking a dried-up riverbed. The portal was invisible at the base of the ten-foot-high rock formation but its magnetic pull disoriented her. As she got closer Valdon stopped and glared at her. “What’s wrong?”

he asked.

“I feel dizzy.” She held her hand to her head, waiting for the moment of discomfort to pass.

“It’s the portal’s location. Tarik placed this one in the middle of an energy vortex to conserve energy by using natural forces from this planet. The vortex amplifies the portal without draining energy from Anartia. The dizziness is caused by the conflicting energies. It should pass.”

She nodded. “Let’s go then. I want to return as soon as possible.” Traveling through the portal with Valdon would give her some comfort. The sooner she got the trip over with the better. She also wanted to see Brad again. But did she dare? She
had
managed not to harm him. Zorian’s training had worked.

The thought of transferring her collected chi through a sexual encounter with Tarik gave her an odd feeling. This was her job, why should she feel awkward about it. She had never been swept away by the sexual attentions of a man before. In the past while she was a slave, she would find pleasure with slaves, or another Drone when her body demanded release. And for a time, she even indulged in Zorian’s masterful skills.

What she and Zorian had was never more than a friendship. In those heated moments, she would submit to his scorching attentions, pushed beyond her limits.

From intimidation, to pleasure, to pain, she proved that she could remain neutral, enjoying some of their sessions and numb to others. She later learned the reasons for 54

Damned and Desired

their repeated encounters were quite different. She only wanted to prove to him and herself that she could be a good Drone, by never crossing the line in feeling emotion.

But Zorian wanted to uncover those emotions and feelings and connect to her. She realized this when he suggested she move into his chamber. She didn’t believe Zorian had been truly in love with her but he was hurt when she’d turned him down.

Now he wasted his time on the one Drone who showed the least amount of emotion or caring for anyone—Dante. Zorian was setting himself up, loving what he couldn’t have.

Keeping emotions out of her work, is what made life as a Drone easier. She could take pleasure with Brad if she kept her feelings and emotions out of it.

As she approached the portal, Valdon yelled, “Stop!”

“Now what?”

“Where’s your nebula stone? Are you crazy? You can’t enter the portal without it.”

Her hand flew to her throat, searching for her pendant. “Oh, no, it’s gone. I must’ve dropped it.” She looked down on the ground and started retracing her steps.

“It’s probably at that mortal’s house.”

Thinking about what she had done to Brad, the pendant’s clasp could’ve slipped.

“Can’t I go through without it? I should be safe if I hold onto you.” The nebula stone was a navigating tool as well as a mini conduit to direct energy from Anartia to each Drone and servant. That energy provided the lifeforce that maintained immortality. She couldn’t be without it for very long.

“It’s risky. Lose your grip and you’ll never return to Prygos. You’ll be trapped between dimensions forever. Even if you’re not killed, Gwyllain will be furious if you return without it. Dante lost a stone and the demoness nearly eliminated him—permanently.”

Sighing deeply, her shoulders sagged knowing she had to go back and find the stone and that the demoness would be furious when she returned late. “She’ll punish me anyway.”

“Then come back with me to give your offering and I’ll bring you back later so you can locate your stone. And you’d better find it.” Valdon turned without another word, grabbed her arm and walked toward the portal’s entrance. As he placed his hand over his stone, he pulled them both through.

After several moments of swirling blackness and some dizziness, Sakari’s vision cleared and she found herself standing at the edge of a high rocky cliff. Below, fierce ocean waves beat against the rocks, spraying a salty mist high into the air. The sky was turbulent with gray clouds and the wind threatened to blow her and Valdon over the edge. He pulled her away from the precipice. A rumble of thunder echoed through the roiling black clouds.

“This doesn’t look good,” Valdon said, looking up at the sky. “Must be a shortage of chi again.”

55

Kathy Kulig

The fierce ocean winds swept upward over a wide grass field toward a large stone building. The structure, with its marble columns and stairs resembled the Greek Parthenon. A sense of anxiety hit her. The amount of offering she had would not be enough. “How can the state of Anartia be bad when all the Drones are working at the same time?” she asked. Usually they cycled a few at a time while the rest remained on Earth. The demoness could only accept so many offerings at once.

Valdon shrugged. “I don’t understand the workings of Anartia any better than you.”

Zorian was waiting for Sakari halfway down the hill, his blue-gray eyes fixed on her with disapproval. Beside him, the air appeared denser, stirred with an occasional spark, difficult to see but Drones knew what to look for. Zorian had been entertaining the demoness. The residual energy surrounded him.

Zorian shook his head. “You’re late. And you didn’t acquire much lifeforce energy from that mortal. What were you doing with him all this time?”

“He was too strong-willed and injured.” She silently cursed herself for yet another failure. Would Zorian buy her excuse? She wanted to return to see Brad again, wanted him as her Kithra. She could have him many times if she was skilled like Dante. “To subdue him would’ve taken too much time.”

Zorian didn’t comment.

“Why is Anartia in this state?” Sakari asked looking around. “All the Drones are working, the demoness must be busy.”

“She is very busy, taking two, three or more at a time,” Zorian said. “She and Tarik haven’t had much time together because of that. He’s been busy working on his new project.”

“Will the demoness punish me? Is she displeased?”

“Perhaps she will be displeased with both of us. I’m supposed to assist new Drones when necessary,” Zorian said. “You’ve had a few…inconsistencies.”

She winced.

His gaze softened. “Don’t worry. She’s too busy to worry about one Drone’s difficulties. You’ll get better.”

“I’ve learned much about Earth’s culture during the thousand years in exile but little about how to live among the people as a Drone. I only know how to be Gwyllain’s slave.”

Zorian sighed wearily. “Valdon and Dante agreed to assist you.”

His words should have given her comfort. Valdon and Dante were both Drones and guardians to new Drones. They were also not among the original exiles from Prygos.

They’d been assimilated from Earth. A few Drones had been forced into exile with the demoness and her consort. The idea of having a guardian supervise her prey and collection of chi filled her with cold and dread. “Is that necessary? Do I need looking after?”

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Damned and Desired

Zorian sighed, his eyes softened. “Drones that don’t provide, disappear.”

The look she gave him must have shown her fear and doubt.

Zorian stroked her hair like an uncle would his niece and smiled. “Come. Gwyllain and Tarik wait.”

Resigned, she nodded, hooked her arm in Zorian’s and approached the entrance.

Sakari hesitated as Zorian opened the massive wood door. The sound of breaking glass echoed loudly off the white marble floor and tall pillars. It was not a good sign.

Past the foyer a large sunken pool took up most of the main hall. Several women and a couple of male servants wearing white tunics or partially naked knelt at the pool’s edge facing two lounge chairs. Gwyllain, in a sea-green metallic dress, lay on a chair shouting at the young woman scooping up the broken bits of glass. “Hurry, Natesa, clean this up.”

Next to her Tarik was receiving a massage from one of the female slaves and ignoring his lover. The woman had a blue wrap around her waist but her breasts were bare. She kneaded Tarik’s shoulders and neck while he rolled his head and smiled.

“Yes, that’s good. Gwyllain, you really do need to relax. Maybe a little time with Zorian—”

“Can you not hear the state of Anartia and see? You’ve asked to decrease the numbers of our Drones and I have. We’ve ordered the ones remaining to increase their duty but Anartia is still in such a state.”

Tarik gave her a pat on her arm. “A period of adjustment is needed while I work my experiments.”

“Your experiments may destroy our world,” she snapped.

Sakari looked at Zorian for assistance. “Maybe we should come back.”

“Do not leave,” Gwyllain commanded. “If you were not once my personal servant, you would not exist right now. Come here.”

Gwyllain shook her head as if Sakari was an incorrigible child. “Are you trying to destroy us all?”

What could she say? It seemed like a week passed before Sakari could answer.

Every time she opened her mouth to speak, she knew whatever she said would not be good enough or would only anger the demoness more. “I wish only to serve you, mistress. I have much to learn.”

With a snort, Gwyllain ordered more wine from the servant seated at her feet. “I had to lose another of my servants, because of your incompetence,” Gwyllain said to Tarik. “First Dante and now Sakari. If you spent less time in your laboratory and acquired better quantities of lifeforce then I would still have my servant.” Gwyllain’s smile was mischievous.

Tarik looked annoyed. “My experiments required more bio-energy and using the most superior Drones, like Dante, is necessary. At the same time we’ve had to
release
several Drones that haven’t performed well. All this in order to free Anartia.”

57

Kathy Kulig

Sakari wondered if release meant destroyed. Then a glimmer of hope eased into her mind. “I would be honored to serve as your servant again, mistress.”

Gwyllain’s eyes blazed in anger. “Servants I don’t need. What I do need is all my Drones performing their duty.”

Sakari didn’t dare ask why Tarik didn’t just assimilate new Drones from Earth to meet the energy needs of Anartia. The demoness must have guessed Sakari’s thoughts.

“Tarik’s new plan to break Anartia free from exile requires us to decrease the number of Drones by half but increase the amount of life energy collected about three times.”

Tarik merged science and magic to keep their fragile artificial world together, a world he’d helped create for him and Gwyllain as a secret love nest. They were all there because of Gwyllain’s infidelity to her ruler husband. And the ruler of Prygos was not a forgiving man. After discovering the affair, the island world was altered by the ruler’s scientists and was transformed into a prison. Not only of the demoness and her lover but of those believed to be loyal to her.

“If you please, mistress. I have an offering to give.” She wanted to leave as soon as possible so that she could return and find her nebula stone.

The demoness huffed, losing patience. “Tarik has other Drones waiting. You will have to wait your turn.”

Tarik interrupted. “I may see Drones in any order I wish.”