His Human Hellion (Ultimate Passage Book 2) (13 page)

She nodded.

“All I want is the key to get out. Give me the key and let me go. I mean you no harm.”

The boy walked closer. “Who is that, Lein? Why is he behind there? Is he hurting you?”

“No, he’s fine. I’m fine. Go play, Feroz.”

“But Lein—”

“Now, Feroz.” Her voice was strained, then she lowered it for Finn’s ears alone. “I do not have the key.”

“You lie,” Finn hissed.

“I am not lying. My husband has it.”

Finn looked at the boy. “Send him to get it.”

“I will not involve my son in this.”

“You’d rather he witness your
neck being broken? I’m only seeking my freedom. Do not escalate this. Tell him or I will tell him to tell your husband what I will do to you.” Finn kept his voice low, forcing the heinous words out of his mouth. Was this what he had become?
A thuggish lowlife who threatened women and children?

“Tell
Par to give me the key, Feroz. Run.”

The boy ran off, gleefully, in pursuit of a grownup chore, unaware of the undertow of danger and tension. Finn envied his blissful ignorance.

Finn’s first assumption was that this woman was raped by an Asazi, a soldier possibly, during a raid. Why else would she have a half-breed child? But the child used an Asazi word, and with ease, and she didn’t flinch. “Why does your son call his father by the Asazi word?”

“For the same reason he calls me Lein.” Under his forearm, her muscles tensed.

“Do not do anything foolish.” He cautioned her. There was something he liked about this Kormic, with her patrician, calm ways and clear, honest eyes.

“You do not hate me.”
She swallowed under his arm, her throat moved under his arm. She shifted slightly, moving her neck.

He eased off some of the pressure. What she said was more of a statement than a question, yet he felt compelled to respond.

“I have seen too much war, too much hate, and the results they can bring.” He paused. When did he, the consummate soldier who had dedicated his life to perfecting his military skills, come to this? “Are you afraid of me?”

“You are an Asazi soldier. You wear the uniform.”

He didn’t need to glance down to verify her accusation, but he also couldn’t get the entire shift his life had taken the last few months. When did he change so much? “How long before your husband arrives. I must get out.”

“If I open it, before he arrives, do you promise to release me unharmed? And leave m
y family alone and unharmed?”

“You do have a key, then?”

She nodded, dug into the front of her shirt, pulled out a key, but held it out of his reach. “Swear it.”

“I swear it.”

She handed him the key, when he reached it, she yanked free of his grasp and ran for the forest.

Finn unlocked the door, but had no idea where to go. He took off after her in a sprint. “Wait. Tell me which way is—”
He grabbed her by the arm.

Behind him in
fluent Asazi a voice said, “Your uniform says Asazi Elite, but you have attacked a helpless female.”

Finn
froze. It felt as though he’d been struck in the stomach. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. He didn’t want to look. He didn’t want to do it, because he had to be wrong about that voice. But he had to see for himself.

That voice. His father? No. It couldn’t be.
He turned around. “Par?”

Marissa

Marissa slept after the meal. She woke up, swung her legs over the side, put weight on them. She stood. Her legs worked. She took a step. They still worked. She could leave. There was no cell, no locks, Saraz had told her so.

The voice returned.
But it’s safe here. There is food, and water.
She couldn’t argue with that logic, but at the very least she could explore. Exploring was a good idea, for when she did decide to leave this place, at least she would have a general idea about the layout.

She slipped into a hallway, amazed at how this building reminded her of the
medieval castles in the movies. Or maybe it was like the inside of temples. There were no windows. Was it underground? She shivered. It very well could be, for all that she couldn’t see outside.

She heard the sound of moans. Was someone in pain? Could Saraz be torturing someone? She suspected he had a cruel streak, and those eyes only went toward confirming that theory.
So you’re going to condemn him on his eyes?
Jeez, when it was put that way, she had to wonder, especially when the Asazi were willing to condemn her so easily. Hell, they did condemn her to a certain death. If Saraz hadn’t taken her away, out of the rainforest, she’d have been Kormic-bait.
Oh, so now Saraz is your best friend?

The moans became louder, accompanied by whimpers. She followed the
noise down the hallway, tiptoeing. The sounds increased in tempo and volume, becoming frenzied. She peeked in a doorway.

A sight of tangled limbs greeted her. Two Asazi women, one a redhead, the other a blonde were nude, interwoven with each other.

And with Saraz.

He
was engaged in a threesome. He was behind one woman, she was on all fours, breasts bouncing, while the other one was semi-wrapped around both of them. Marissa clapped a hand over her mouth, catching her surprised gasp.

Saraz whipped his head her way, his eyes glowing with lust. He didn’t seem surprised to see her, not at all. He
beckoned Marissa closer.

What for? What would she want to get closer to that for?
She shook her head, denying his request. Her legs collapsed. Marissa landed on her hands and knees. She tried to stand but couldn’t, they were immobilized, boneless jelly.

She realized then that he was the reason she
had lost control of her muscles.
Damn him.
Her legs were useless, she couldn’t get them to move. She ground her teeth in frustration.

Saraz smiled and
beckoned her again, thrusting into the redhead, who gasped with every pumping action. The blonde held the first woman open, a hand on each of her butt cheeks, splaying her folds for his driving thrusts. Both women had rapt expressions on their faces.

He beckoned Marissa forward again. Sensation returned to her legs. She rose
. “I don’t want to.”

‘I want you.’
He spoke in her mind, projecting the words, loud, forceful. ‘
Come to me.’

Even though she’d denied him, Marissa could not stop her forward approach, getting closer to the trio. He maintained a steady thrusting rhythm, his
eyes seducing her.

‘I want you.’
He spoke in her mind again.

“I cannot,
” she said. She belonged to Finn.

He grunted, threw his head back, his wings erupted from his body, he threw his head back,
with a bone-creaking sound, he was shifting into his saural form.

Marissa was stunned and a bit horrified at how his wings and this
shifting resembled her sex with Finn. Then she was furious with herself for comparing this with what she and Finn had. And at the same time as she was furious and repulsed, she felt the lower half of her body responding to the lust, the passion, and the raw sex of it all. The pulsing insistent between her legs. She hated it, couldn’t control it.

The
redhead’s scream pierced the air, her head thrown back, it was more pain than pleasure.

The
blonde brushed the hair back from the screaming girl’s face, cupped her cheeks, drew close to her, and whispered loud enough for Marissa to hear. “You will be okay, you’ll get used to the size. It’s only like this at the end when he changes form.”

Saraz pulled away from the girl slowly, changing, shifting back to his human form, but not before Marissa witnessed his size.

She gasped.

He smiled, almost a shy smile. “It only hurts them when—”

“You do that? It happens, every time?”

“Only as I climax. My saurus takes over, including . . .” He pointed. “There. The change is sudden, filling them, stretching them.
Some enjoy it. Immensely.”

Marissa found her body responding to him, a wetness formed, a thrum radiated from the center of her sex.
What the hell is this about?
She was furious at her body’s betrayal of Finn.

Saraz smiled a soft smile,
conciliatory. “Do not be angry at yourself. All females respond.”

She
fumed at his arrogance.

Saraz gestured to the two women. “Our guest needs a bath.”

“No, I don’t.” Marissa didn’t want to spend another moment with him. He confused her. Her legs.
God, they were getting that jelly feeling again.
“Stop. Don’t do that to me.”

‘Stop being so argumentative.’

He’s in my head. Shit.
“Fine, I need a bath. I’d rather not have you there while I bathe.”

He flashed a smile and strode from the room, ass flexing, muscled back
now wingless.

The two women led Marissa to a bathroom the size of a locker room, the tub was half the size of the
room. A flowery smell wafted from the swirling steamy water. Candles lit the entire room, casting shadows that flickered and moved with every motion. The water threw the reflections of surreal waves on the walls.

“You will bathe,” the redhead said, reaching for Marissa’s top, pulling it over her head.

The blonde tugged on her jeans.

“I’ll do it.” Marissa pushed her hands away, ill at ease with their comfort level with each other and her own body. Marissa rushed into the water. She wasn’t a prude by nature. Hell
, she’d gone skinny dipping before, but this . . . there was too much sexuality. Too much . . . just too much. She turned to face the women, sunk in, covering her breasts. They slipped into the water behind her.

“What are you doing here?” The blonde asked, reaching for a cloth and a jar with a rose-colored gooey concoction in it. She dipped the cloth in the jar, rubbed it between her hands.

“I’m not sure what you mean.” Marissa stared at her, transfixed. She came closer, almost within touching distance.

The
red-haired one sidled next to Marissa. “We aren’t sure how you came to be here. A human. On Kormia, and now with Saraz.” Her face had a sneer when she said the last part, as if the
with Saraz
bit bothered her the most.

“I’m not with Saraz. I didn’t come here to see him. I was ejected from the Asazi town, banished, cast out into
Midland.” Marissa lowered her voice. “Truth be told, I would rather be home.”

The blonde reached out, put her hand under the water, and was moving it. Marissa flinched when the blonde ran her hand across
her ribcage, but forced herself to be still. The blonde’s hand kept moving, finding Marissa’s hand, she pulled her to a stand, so she was standing in the water up to her hips. Taking the flowery-scented cloth, she moved it over Marissa’s shoulder in slow, circular waves. The redhead reached for Marissa, put her hands on her shoulders and pulled Marissa back into a semi-leaning recline against her torso, then moved her hands to Marissa’s nape and started a mesmerizing massage. Marissa closed her eyes. Why was she so relaxed? Was this the effects of Saraz? Was she hypnotized?

The redhead’s breath was warm on the side of Marissa’s neck. “You know, we can help you leave.” Her voice was a low, seductive whisper.

“Why would you do that?” She barely recognized her own voice. She sounded drugged, spaced out, in a trance.

The blonde moved the cloth across Marissa’s abdomen, raising it, tracing her ribs, then under her breasts, she slid the cloth over one breast.

Marissa shivered, trying to fight the desire that crossed the threshold she thought she’d put into place. Saraz, he must have done something to her to make her susceptible.

“We love Saraz. We think that you will bring about a change we do not want.”

The blonde drifted closer in the haze of Marissa’s consciousness. She put her lips on Marissa’s, traced them with her tongue.

Marissa pulled back, but her egress was blocked by the redhead’s embrace. Except while Marissa knew she was pulling back, she felt like she was moving at a sloth’s pace.

The blonde put a hand on Marissa’s abdomen. “This baby, you cannot give birth to it.”

Her voice lulled Marissa away from the threat in her words, even though Marissa felt like she should act or react. She tried to shake her head, but nothing happen
ed, it was as if she was encased in quicksand.

The blonde’s hand went lower, touching the strip of hair Marissa had sculpted for Finn, then lower still, grazing her clit, she slipped a finger toward Marissa’s entrance. “Saraz wants us to prepare you for him. Ready you for him.”

No!
She screamed in her mind, but her lips didn’t obey, no sound came out. She thought of Finn, somewhere. He had to be out here somewhere, looking for her. She wouldn’t do this.
No!
She moved her lips. “Help me escape.”

“We will, but only when the time is right.” The blonde slipped her finger in Marissa, stroking, caressing.

In her mind, Marissa closed her legs, but she could tell that nothing was happening. At the same time though, nothing she wanted to happen was happening. It was happening to her body, and her body was responding. The finger was moving in and out, slowly, then a bit faster, testing Marissa’s control, her reactions.

When
Marissa’s hips began to move she was pissed, she turned to the redhead, and found her face to face, that’s how close her head was next to hers. “Tell her to stop.”

‘Saraz. I know you are listening, maybe even watching. Make them stop right now.’
She screamed this at him, in her mind, hoping he could hear her.

He stepped out of the shadows. “Get her out, then go.”

The women froze, their hands and mouths stilled. They helped Marissa out of the water, laid her on the side of the oversized bathtub and slipped out of the room without putting anything on.

Her faculties returned. “You heard me, when I called for you.”

“I did.”

“What they said about you, readying me for you, then . . .”

“Do not worry. I will not mate with you. I cannot risk hurting Bearer.”

Thankfully.
She lay on the side of the bath, her mind raging, but tired of the fight, and confused by her emotions. “Tell me about your people, your kind. Tell me where on Earth they are.”

“That does not matter.”

“But your goal is to return?”

“Of course. I have a debt to repay to those who have trapped me here. Those who made a mockery of my descendants.”

“How did they do that? How did they make a mockery of your descendants?”

“The Kormic.”

“I don’t understand.”

H
e lay on the side of the pool next to her, ran his finer along her spine. “They cursed the women.”

“
Start from the beginning.”

“It had
long been a tenet among us, to not become involved with humans.”

“Wait. Back up. Who is us?”

“We are the Brethren.” He looked at her as if that should answer the question.

She didn’t want to argue, didn’t get it
, and wanted to get to the rest of the story, so she nodded.

“I broke the tenet. I fell in love with a human. We kept it a secret. Had a relationship. I would visit her in her isolated village in the mountains. We had children. She thought I was a god. All of the villagers thought I was their own god. Of course she was not immortal. One day she died. But our children had children and so on. I managed to keep the secret for centuries. I would on occasion visit the village to see them. And their isolation meant their genetic pool was concentrated.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “
The Brethren learned of these people, with their wings, their skin.”

Marissa sucked in a breath. “Oh wow. The Asazi.”

He nodded.

“The Asazi
—were—are your descendants.” Sadly, she found herself believing the wack job. “How do the Kormic fit in?”

“
The Brethren were not content enough to merely ban me—and mine—away. They cursed the women. The females. All the babies born from their wombs have been—are—monsters. Kormic. In the scheme of things it didn’t not take long to discover the curse. Babies were born without wings, and with scales and were a horrible blend of our traits. And like reptiles, they emerged almost ready to fend for themselves. The Asazi took these little monsters to the edge of Midland, into the Farlands, and left them there. When the Kormic made their way back, the Asazi would attack them, drive them away.”