Charlotte Boyett-Compo- WIND VERSE- Hunger's Harmattan (6 page)

“How long did you remain in Transition?”
she asked, aching for him.

“A week,” he said. “A little longer. I have
no idea. When I reverted, I just lay curled up in a fetal position and cried
with relief until they told me that such changes would be mine for the rest of
my life and that I had the goddess to thank for my predicament.”

“Morrigunia is the goddess,” she said. “Who
is the demon?”

“Raphian, the Destroyer of Men’s Souls,” he
said. “Tariq has told us very little about him. I believe the demon is the only
thing in the megaverse the Prime Reaper fears.”

“I can’t believe your mother knows what
being turned into a Reaper would be like,” Shanee said.

“No doubt she has read the file on R-9,” he
said. “The gods only know how she managed that but if she’s married to a
vice-counselor, perhaps he had contacts. No doubt she would have heard about
Regis.”

“Regis?” she inquired.

Once more his shoulders flexed as if he
were in pain. “Regis was a Chalean who was brought to R-9 after I’d been there
about ten years. He had been a communications specialist on a ship that had
been boarded by Alliance troopers. There was a firefight and only a few of the
crew survived. Regis was the only male and he was sent to us. The scientists
did all the tests on him and were enraged to learn he had a terminal illness
and only a few months left to live.” He shrugged. “They gave him a hellion
anyway, curious to see if the revenant worm would cure him.”

“And it did.”

“He was the only man among us who I have
heard was truly happy about being turned into a Reaper.”

“I wonder if your mother knows she’ll have
powers as well as longevity,” Shanee said.

“Oh I know she does. She’ll have learned
all she could about Reapers. She’ll know the Transference will be painful and
that she will Transition, she’ll need to take tenerse and Sustenance every day
of her life. To her, that would be worth any amount of pain and suffering, but
knowing what happens to you and
feeling
what happens to you are two
entirely different animals.” He laughed bitterly at his unintended pun.

“I wonder how the Burgon is handling his
transformation,” Shanee commented.

“Unlike my mother, Bakari has seen Reapers
in full Transition,” Ailyn said. “It was he who stopped the making of new ones
when he became Burgon because he didn’t want that evil foisted off on men who
did not ask for or want it. Vengeance was his motive for becoming one of us and
I am sure he is dealing with the change as he has dealt with everything in his
life.”

“Like the powerful man he is,” she said.

“Aye.” He released a long breath. “Enough
of such talk.” He got to his feet and reached for the breechclout he had
discarded earlier. “I want to go out to the stream and dive in.” He strapped on
the abbreviated strip of material. “I want to go over Mount Korak to the
village and dive off that gods-be-damned waterfall that taunts me in my dreams.
I want to pit myself against Tariq and see which one of us can swim the fastest
and the longest underwater.”

Shanee grinned. “Men are such simple
creatures,” she said, holding her hand out for him to help her up. “It is the
truly important things in life that they contemplate.”

“It is important to me,” he said with a
sniff. He raked his eyes down her, his gaze hot and possessive. “Despite the
fact I prefer you bare to my gaze,
ionúin,
I would rather no other man
does until our Joining. I believe we should cover you so I can begin
contemplating other important matters.”

Shaking her head, she walked over to the
rock where she had left her tunic and trousers. As she reached for them, she
felt a strange sensation flitter across her body, and when she looked down, was
amazed to see she was wearing a black blouse and matching short skirt. She gasped,
swung her head toward Ailyn. “How did you do that?” she whispered.

“Reapers can rearrange molecules,” he said
with a shrug. “It is an easy thing though it takes energy.”

She fingered the material that was soft and
pliable. “That is a handy trick, Reaper,” she laughed.

“Don’t call me that,” he asked, and when
she met his gaze, she could see he meant it.

“All right,
ehemann
,” she said.

Ailyn asked her what that meant.

“It means ‘husband’ in the Amazeen
language,” she said, “and since Joinings are very rare on my world—almost
non-existent—it is a term of honor whereby a warrioress relinquishes some of
her freedom to mate with a male.”

His smile was as bright as the sun and he
strode to her, lifted her into his arms and swung her around. “How do you say ‘wife’
in Amazeen?” he asked.

“Oh no,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s
an ugly-sounding word and I much prefer
ionúin
.”

He lowered his head to claim her lips and
the kiss he gave her made her toes curl again. It was a promise of things to
come and her entire body practically melted into his arms. When he released her
mouth, he winked at her like a little boy.

“Let’s go play,” he said, and started
toward the chamber entrance with her.

“Are you going to carry me all the way to
the village?” she asked.

“All the way to the stream perhaps,” he
said. “It’s a long way to the village,
ionúin,
and you are no
lightweight.” He shifted her against him—tossing her up in the air as though
she weighed no more than a feather.

Her arms were laced around his neck. “Now
you insult me,
ehemann
,” she said. “I might decide to flirt with the men
in the village.”

“You do so at their peril, wench,” he
growled as he carried her out of the cave and into the moonlight.

The jungle was still but insects were
making noises she’d never heard before. There was a sweet scent in the air,
which he told her was jasmine. As he strode purposefully toward the meandering
stream with its waters silver-shot from the full moon overhead, he told her
about his desire to swim the length of the stream one day.

“It winds down past the village and into
what the people of Theristes call the painted desert where it empties into a
wadi at the base. I’ve walked there but next time, I’d like to swim.”

“I am curious about something, Ailyn,” she
said as he lowered her to the ground.

“What?” he asked. He was haphazardly
braiding his long hair. He frowned. “Would you cut this for me when we go back
to the cave?”

“No,” she stated emphatically then
continued speaking as though that matter was settled. “Why do you keep to
yourself up here? Didn’t you get enough solitude when you were on
Riezell-Nine?”

“But it gets in the gods-be-damned way,
ionúin,”
he complained.

“If you cut yours, I’ll cut mine.”

“No!” he nearly shouted. “You’ll do no such
thing! I love your hair.” He reached out to touch it in the moonlight. The glow
from the heavenly body overhead seemed to catch in her white tresses and gave
her a mystical look that turned his cock hard as stone.

“Then don’t mention cutting yours again,”
she warned. She tugged on his braid. “I find it very sexy.” Before he could
argue anymore, she ran out into the stream, laughing.

Ailyn watched her backstroking her way
through the water and closed his eyes.

“
Ehemann
!” she protested as she felt
her clothing vanish.

He opened his eyes and grinned at her. “You
don’t need them in there,” he said then dropped his breechclout to dive in
after her.

She whooped and struck out in the stream,
swimming as fast as she could but she was no match for him even if it had been
over twenty years since he’d been an aquatic champion. He easily overtook her
and wrapped his arms around her, bringing her up against his naked body, his
hard cock sliding between her legs so she was straddling that powerful rod.

“When it is safe to thrust into you,
ionúin,”
he said, “you are going to make me one very happy man.”

He was supporting them in the water, his
powerful legs scissoring to keep them afloat but she clamped her thighs tightly
around his shaft and ground her hips against his.

“You have no idea,
ehemann
,” she whispered,
and slanted her mouth over his. She thrust her tongue deeply into his mouth and
rubbed her bare breasts against his chest.

Pure, electric lust drove straight through
Ailyn Harmattan. He had many years of forced celibacy to catch up on and with
one potent kick of his legs, he shot them backward toward the shore. His hunger
was like a living beast ripping at him with unsheathed claws. He came out of
the water, fell to his back with his lady still clinging to him and flipped her
over so she was lying beneath him.

“You are an evil woman, Shanee,” he said in
a deep, husky voice.

“And you are…” she began, but his lips were
on her breast and his teeth were nipping at her nipple and she became like warm
honey, flowing beneath him with her legs spread wide in invitation.

Ailyn’s body was between her thighs, his
cock bent down along her slit but he knew better than to take her. She was
highly fertile and just one errant drop of his sperm would impregnate her. He
knew it as surely as he knew he was about to explode to have her. Even the top
of his head felt as though it were about to burst open.

He released her nipple and licked his way
down her chest, her belly, her abdomen, until he could pluck at her nether
hairs with his teeth.

“You are beyond evil,
ehemann
,” she
accused. “You are malevolent!” Her fingers dove into his thick hair. “Do it,
Ailyn. Do it!”

Although she was arching her hips up to
him, he shook his head. As much as he wanted—
needed
—to thrust into her
warm sheath, he would not. It was sheer torment and his cock burned so fiercely
it was painful but he would deny them both.

For now.

Shanee shuddered as his lips closed over
her clit. His tongue was laving it and she was squirming, grabbing handfuls of
the loose sand beneath her, her heels digging into the mud for they were barely
out of the water. As his tongue dragged along her folds, swirled over her
aching flesh, she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out.

He was poised between her legs and looked
up at her, the moonlight lovingly caressing his handsome face. “Would you like
to see true malevolence, little Amazeen?” he drawled.

The Primary Riezell Guardian lifted her
head to look down at him. There was something so primal in his gaze, so
possessive, that she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. “Ailyn?”
she questioned.

Very deliberately he thrust his index
finger inside her then his middle finger. He swiveled his fingers until he
could touch that fleshy pad he sought within her. She was keenly aware of his
other hand beneath her rump and when he slowly insinuated a finger into her
anus, she nearly shot up from the ground.

“Ailyn!” she cried out, and she heard him
laugh a second before his lips closed on her clit.

There was no way to describe the things he
was doing to her, Shanee thought. Her body was flaming, her womb jerking. The
ripples of pleasure were so intense, so concentrated, all she could do was lift
her hips and moan.

In and out his fingers and thumb went as he
suckled that swollen bud where all sensation was gathering. She bore down on
his hand—impaling her lower body on his fingers—and her fingers speared through
his hair to hold his head to her cunt. He was stroking that spongy spot inside
her and causing such unbelievable pleasure she thought she would fragment.
Powerful, forceful spasms began high up in her channel then shot downward in a
wave that had her screaming her release.

Ailyn lapped at the sweetness that flowed
from his lady’s cunt and ground his stony erection into the wet ground. He came
at the same moment she did though it shamed him to do so. He would have
preferred having been inside her sweet channel.

Half in and half out of the stream, he lay
there with his cheek pressed to Shanee’s belly. He was striving to get his
ragged breathing under control as her hands smoothed his wet hair.

They lay like that for a long while. She
was staring up with wonder at the moon above them and he was looking at the
dark jungle beyond. When he spoke, his warm breath fanned over her naked hip.

“At first,” he said, “when we were brought
to Theristes, I couldn’t get enough of being with the people here. It had been
so long since I’d spoken face-to-face with any one and I was eager to learn
about them, their worlds, how they had adapted to becoming Reapers. I was so
excited I don’t think I slept all that much those first few days but then the
novelty wore off.”

His fingers were still inside her and he
lay there a bit longer just feeling her pulse beating through the softness.
Gently he released his intimate hold on her and brought his arm up to lie over
her thigh.

“One day I realized I had had enough
company and I ventured out into the jungle as another of us had done. I spent
the entire day just sitting by a little pond and watching the monkeys playing
tag in the branches overhead. When I came back that evening Tariq sought me out
and asked me to walk with him.”