The Forgefires of God (The Cause Book 3) (33 page)

At the top of her pubis, he stopped, and Tonya gasped as he took his hand away.

“Tonya!” Shadow said, “don’t let him do this to you!”

The Noble leaned down to her, so slowly, and Tonya found herself gasping for little breaths of air.  Then he kissed her, and it was as if she kissed a volcano.  His tongue found its way into her mouth and filled her with fire, burning her up from the inside.  Her knees gave way, but he caught her before she fell.

He held her like a child, supporting her under her legs and back, and his hands found their way under her dress.  Every touch made her nerves tingle, and Tonya marveled that her body was capable of so much sensation.

“You should work faster, Master Shadow,” the Noble said before he carried her off.

Charisma.  He was fooling her mind to make her think she wanted him.  She ought to fight this, but she didn’t know anything about Chimera charisma.  The fight wasn’t worth the effort.

Besides, if she fought, she might win.

“Find us somewhere private,” she said, whispering with the last remnant of her rationality, but he kissed her again and interrupted her words.

“You’re doing far too much thinking,” he said, with his so-arousing voice, and she didn’t care, because her last remnant of rationality vanished, drowning in a sea of sensation.

By the time the Noble found a place for them, Tonya was long past knowing or caring.  Only sensation remained, and need, and the scent and touch and presence of the man who knew her body so magically.  His touch was too fast and too slow and just perfect, and she had never dreamed that her body could feel so strongly or need so badly and the only regret was that she had gone so long without experiencing what she experienced now.

There was a moment of pain when he entered her, because he was so big and she had grown so small over the years, but her body adjusted, and she didn’t care.  Then there were the urgent motions as they reached for the mountaintop together, and then the touch of heaven, pleasure beyond dreaming, and the sensations went on and on until she collapsed gasping in her magical lover’s arms.

Then there was the applause.

Applause?

Tonya blinked the sweat out of her eyes and tried to remember where she was and how she got here, and who this magnificent blonde Noble was.  Or why Hancock, Hoskins and Rizzari were standing above her and clapping their hands.

“It’s about time,” Hancock said, as she clapped her hands in that slow, mocking beat.

“And you give
me
a hard time about my sexual activities,” Lori said.  At least she stopped clapping.

Hoskins clapped his half-formed claws, a misshapen monstrosity of a man, halfway between Monster and human.  “All right, Fred, you win.  I’ll pay.  You got her, and the bonus for doing it in public, too.”

This didn’t sound good.  Tonya metasensed around, past the body of the Noble, Fred, who remained on top of her and inside of her, and realized that she was indeed out of doors.  Hell, she wasn’t even outside the camp, but at the camp edge, the only cover a small bush just a couple of feet away.  Besides the applauding audience, other wide eyes watched from behind tents and supplies and vehicles.  Tonya spotted Danny with a shocked expression on his face and absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do in this situation.

“All right,” she said to Fred, above her.  “Let me up.”

He just smiled down at her, and moved his hips in a slow motion.  “You’re not done yet.  After I seduced you away from Shadow, the least I can do is make sure you’re satisfied.  Major Transforms are good for a lot more than just one go.”

Tonya didn’t even try to hold on as the sensations washed over her.  “Get us some privacy this time,” she said, before her charisma faded and her rational mind went under once again.

To give the man credit, at least he took her back to her room for the second round.  Which was, Tonya admitted to herself as she lay on her bed in complete exhaustion, a truly spectacular experience that had gone on for far longer than necessary and still not long enough.

The Noble lay beside her, idly drawing pictures with his claw on the sweat of her stomach.  He hadn’t been nearly as consumed by the lovemaking.  He was far more experienced, and the experience definitely, and embarrassingly, showed.  She wondered how annoyed Shadow would be.

“Join my new Barony,” he said, when he saw her looking at him.  “I’ll give you pleasure like this every day.”

Tonya blinked.  “You’re serious?”

He nodded, and kissed her gently.  “You’re beautiful, and you overflow with the power a Focus needs to help run a Barony.  You’d love my Barony, and I’ll take good care of you.  Your body needs me.  I’ll make you happy.”

“You want to tag me.”

He pushed her sweat-soaked hair away from her face.  “You use such cold words.  Nobles don’t do tags.  No, I’ll make you part of my Barony.”

“And I make you part of my household?”

He gently tucked her hair behind her ears.  Such a huge man.  A huge man with teeth that were more like fangs, and with a coat of blonde fur covering his skin.  After a moment, he shook his head.  “I’m a Noble, not a male Transform.  I won’t wear a Focus tag meant for a male Transform.  But you know what I can do for you if you join my Barony.”

“You want me to join your Barony just to get good sex?” Tonya said.  He was so close to her, and so powerful, and even now she found that his ripe odor didn’t bother her.  It was going to take days to get the smell of him out of her bed and her room.

Until she did, she suspected, the odor of him every time she went to bed would make her want him again.

“Don’t underestimate good sex,” he said, his rumbling voice still powerful.  She felt so small next to him, and wondered if he were as ignorant of Focus charisma as she was of Chimera charisma.  “You get in trouble when you forget about the body.”

“I don’t even know your name.”

He smiled, and exposed those fang-like teeth.  “Count Frederick Dowling at your service.”  Dowling?  He appeared different from what she remembered.

“Did you really bet Hoskins that you could get me into bed?”

He chuckled, a low, friendly sound.  Tonya wasn’t sure whether she was mad at him or not.  He did use her and humiliate her in public.  However, he was a lover beyond her most frantic dreams and another Major Transform.  Major Transforms
did things
and violated social norms on a regular basis.  Maybe she would be mad later.  Right now, she was too tired.

“Hoskins, the Commander, and several other people.  The Commander was getting pretty irritated with you.  This afternoon at the war council, she said, ‘somebody fuck that woman, or I’m going to do it myself.’”

Oh, wonderful.  “Did everyone in the entire camp get involved in my sex life?”

He laughed, and it wasn’t a friendly sound this time.  “You’ve been smelling like a cathouse since you got here.  Every Major Transform in the camp knew you needed to get laid, and weren’t getting any, and that’s a pain in the ass to ignore if you’re running high juice yourself.  When it’s bad enough to distract the Commander, you figure someone’s got to do something.”

Oh.  This was worse than she thought.  It was bad enough to embarrass herself in public once.  It was worse to realize that she had been an embarrassment ever since she got here.

“I need to get this under control,” she said.

“That might be a good idea,” he said, blandly.  “But you’re not going to find some normal who can give you what I just gave you.  Come back to me when you want more.  I’ll teach you how sex is done.  Teach you a few skills of your own while I’m at it.”

‘A few skills of her own.’  “If you think I’m such a lousy lover, why do you want to sleep with me again?”

“You’re a Focus,” he said, not arguing the lousy lover part.  “So far, the only Chimeras with Focuses are the Hunters.”  He paused, and a dreamy, almost vacant look, spread over his face.  “I’m up for the next Barony, but I want my Barony to be different.  I believe we’re doing Transform households all wrong.  The top Transform households need top Major Transforms of all four varieties.  A Barony.  An Arm Territory.  A Crow salon and one of the named Focus households.”  He sighed.  “I need a beautiful Focus who’s as talented with the juice as she is with weapons and hand-to-hand combat.  There’s much more to life than politics, and I want to take you there and reintroduce you to yourself.”

“The Hunters have
Focuses
?”  Tonya sat up in the bed, and Fred pushed her back down.  His words called to her, to parts of her she thought long discarded.

“They do, and for years.  They call them Pack Mistresses.  I don’t know who or how many, but the Hunters have more than a few.”

“We’ve got to do something about this.”

“Not now.  We’re in the middle of a different war.  Speaking of which, I have duty, beautiful lady.”

“What?  Where are you going?”

“I’m finishing my change to my combat form today.”  Ah, that’s why he appeared so different.  “When next you see me, I’ll be a bear.”

Tonya blinked, startled.  It was hard to remember that someone who could be so good a lover was only human by choice.  Duty, though.  She glanced at the clock and saw that it was nearly dawn.  She was going to need to start her own work.  Soon.  Too soon.

“Good bye then.”  She still wasn’t sure whether she was angry with him or not.  “Good luck.”

He smiled, and the smile was predatory.  “Good luck finding other lovers.  And when they don’t satisfy, remember me and my offer.  Remember, there’s a lot more to the Cause than dry research and backstabbing politics.”

Tonya smiled languidly, unable now to disagree.

Carol Hancock: December 23, 1972

My tent smelled musty from long disuse.  Since my people set it up a couple of days ago, it had only added odors, and now also smelled of explosives, juice, and the dry odor of paperwork.  And sweaty Arm, three of which stood before me now.

“Student Dolores Sokolnik,” Webberly said.  Cathy was down, finally, for the evening, Newton with her.  Tonya continued to get laid, thank God.  Suzanne was off being mind-scraped by Betsy; Betsy needed the experience, and a two-bit Focus, at least for a first Focus, made a good start.  I had promised Betsy a Focus to help her with her money issues, and although weak in Focus capabilities, Morris did run a successful household, one that would be more successful now that she didn’t need to pay the onerous ‘successful Focus’ tax.  After this, Morris would belong to Betsy, assuming we didn’t discover anything unexpected about Morris.

We should have killed the ruling Firsts years ago.  Freed from the ruling firsts, the original unlivable bitch Focus Morris had turned into a normal, albeit testy, human being.

Sokolnik was the six-week-out baby Arm Keaton had required me to torture during my visit last August.  That meant she was nearly six months past her transformation.  Duval stood to Webberly’s left and rear, and Webberly had already cleared her plans for the still healing Duval in the fight with me.  Duval wouldn’t be a free fighter, she would be Webberly’s aide de camp and also watch Webberly’s back.

“Commander,” Sokolnik said.  Sokolnik met my gaze, no grovel, nor any sign of dominance or rebellion, though she didn’t wear my tag.  Or, as I saw, anyone else’s full tag, just a half tag from Webberly.  Keaton’s tag was already gone.  I certainly hadn’t possessed Sokolnik’s poise six months out from my transformation, nor had I seen any other Arm this young with her poise or stature.

“She holds tags on Maynard and Fairly, her fellow students, as well as tags on Arms Bartlett and Kent.  Full tags,” Webberly said.  Shit.  Bartlett was only three months younger as an Arm than Whetstone, and was one of Keaton’s own, working out of Minneapolis.  Grabbing Kent wasn’t particularly impressive, given Kent’s spectacular deficit in intelligence, but how in the hell did Sokolnik grab an Arm as talented as Bartlett?

I didn’t have time for a dominance fight.  Sokolnik might have the poise and the command of a two year old Arm, but she didn’t come close to my presence or my fighting talents.  I visualized removing both her legs and arms, and showed that to her without talking.  If she had eyes to see.  The threat was obvious and practical: my threat, if carried out, wouldn’t hurt her long term, but it would keep her out of my hair until I finished with Patterson.

“Commander,” Sokolnik said.  “I would like to formally request your tag.”

She understood my threat and countered it, Arm style, without being flustered.  Damn, she was good.

“What are you offering?”

“Commander, I offer myself, whatever territory I choose to claim later, and the Arms Bartlett, Kent, Maynard and Fairly.”

“Your skills as an Arm aren’t complete, Sokolnik.”

“Yes, Commander.  I haven’t completely mastered the physical skills of an Arm, but combat isn’t entirely physical.  Technically, I should still be a student, but realistically, I can develop my physical skills over time, without any problems.  You can see my other capabilities.”  She took Bartlett and Kent in combat, I realized, mostly by out-thinking them.  Oh, there was lots of potential, here.  By the time of the war against the Hunters, I expected Sokolnik to be one of my top weapons.  I would make sure she got the training she needed.