Warsinger - Chapter Eighteen

(Sorry about the late chapters - I've been racing to finish the very final parts of the book!)


 

Three hours and a couple chapters later, I knew Suri would want to see this.

I cleaned up as much as I could before knocking on the door of her suite. By the smell of her perfume and the woody incense she liked to burn, she was home.

"No, thanks. I don't want anything." She called out, her voice roughened from crying.

“It’s not the butler,” I called back, leaning close to the keyhole. “But hey – I managed to find a butler for Kalla Sahasi?”

“You did?”

“Yeah.” I grinned. “But he’s missing his left arm. Serves us right.”

I played a rimshot on the frame of the door. There was a stifled snort from inside.

“I’m still pissed at you, you know,” she called back.

“I know. I came to say sorry, but bad jokes are literally the only way I know how to start conversations like this.”

There was the sound of a chair scrape back, then a sniffle, and then jingling steps, getting closer. The bolt on the door turned, and then the jingling withdrew.

Grimacing to one side, I opened it just enough I could stick my head in. "So I wanted to tell you that- wow-wow-wee-woah."

Suri had gotten her hands on a really, really nice dress. It was little more than a sheathe of dense golden chains, linked together so closely that it hung like fabric instead of metal. Starting from her neck, the chains covered everything they needed to, draping around the curve of her breasts and around her hips until the lower loops hung past her knees. She'd done her short hair up with a fan-shaped ornament that matched the dress, and her makeup. Her neck and legs both seemed to go forever.

"Go on, then." She sniffed, and looked sharply over at me. "Gonna tell me what a waste of money this is?"

"Uhhh..." I blinked a couple of times, shuffling the book I'd bought up into my armpit. "No. You’re gorgeous. What can I even say other than ‘sorry for being a self-centered shitlord’?"

Suri turned and looked down, then sighed. “Yeah… look. Me too. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have chewed you out, then or just now. My head isn’t on right. You were just tryna be responsible before, and I… fuck.”

Suri's shoulders dropped, and she went back to the vanity where she'd laid out her makeup and brushes and slumped down tiredly into her seat. I sidled into the room and closed the door behind me.

"We both screwed up." I dropped the book onto her bed and went to her. When I was behind the chair, I held my hands up over her bare shoulders. "We're tired and stressed and we took it out on each other."

Suri reached up and caught my hand, and guided me to cup her cheek. "Yeah. We did."

"You’re right on both counts. I am trying to be responsible for the first time in my life, but I ended up sounding like an ass." I had a powerful urge to stroke her neck, and let my fingers play along the thin strands of metal there. "I was speaking to you like your goals didn’t matter. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I was wrapped up in what we’d just read and… I dunno." She sighed and lay the weight of her head in it, baring the length of her throat. "You must think I'm vain as hell, getting all dressed up like this."

"I figured you were getting dressed up to feel better." Her perfume was different to Karalti's, sweeter and smokier, but I breathed in deeply as my brain began to reroute my blood to other, less intelligent parts of my body. "Were you thinking of going out?"

"Nah. I was just gonna stay in. Eat some chocolate, you know." She nuzzled her cheek against my palm, and as she did, the fine chains slid over the skin of her throat. My heart suddenly jumped to life, beating a deep double thump in my chest. The rest of the world receded into a film of white noise. My teeth and fingertips began to tingle.

"Yeah... " I unhooked the clasps on the dress, and let the chains slide down her neck. I slowly traced the unseen line of her jugular up to the edge of her jaw. She tipped her head back, lips parting with a gasp, and a pleasurable thrill pulsed through my fingertips.

But then Suri froze, the skin of her neck trembling. "Hector? What is that?"

The sound of my name shook me out of the sudden trance. I looked up to see Suri's eyes wide with confusion and fear. She was staring at me. Specifically, she was staring at my hand. Since becoming a Nasaku half-blood, my fingers and nails had turned dark and metallic, like I'd dipped them into fine powdered iron. The finger resting against her racing pulse had distended into a hypodermic needle point, the tip dimpling the skin just enough to draw a single drop of blood. It welled around the tip, and then ran down the side of her neck in a fine rivulet.

“Umm.” I blinked, and swallowed. “This is awkward.”

I was really grateful for that Willpower bonus as I pulled my hand away, took a couple of big steps back, and turned around to hide the intense, sudden, stomach-cramping hunger I felt.

Behind me, Suri rose to her feet and made to come to me. I warded her back with a hand, and shook my head.

“Sorry,” I croaked. “I just realized today is potion day. Dragon’s Blood Potion. I… uhh…”

"Was that...?" She seemed to be seeing me - really seeing me - for the first time since Al-Asad. "But you said that the Demon didn't turn you?"

"He didn’t." I was panting, torn between hunger, lust and horror at myself. "I'm a half-blood. A Nasaku halfblood. The N-Nasaku eat flesh the old-fashioned way, but draw blood with their... with whatever these are. The sub-type description warned me I'd still have to have some blood, and I've been putting it off, because we had a lot to do, and, uhh-"

"Hey. Hey, it's okay." Suri held her hands up. She advanced a step, and I took one back. "Hector, it's okay."

I shook my head, struggling against the sudden urge I had to turn and bite her.

"Hey."

I looked up to see her nose barely a foot from mine.

"You need blood?" She asked, huskily.

I groaned. "Suri... don’t do this." 

She gently caught me by the wrist and squeezed. And kept squeezing, until I felt something pop painlessly inside the joint and my fingers seized. I winced, and she let the pressure off with a smile.

"Remember what I told you last time we were here," she said softly. "Anything I don't want, I'm strong enough to stop you from doing."

The line of blood was still on her neck, winding down in a drying line toward her collarbone. I couldn't stop staring at it. "Look at my teeth now, Suri. It's not like it was before. I could really hurt you."

Her eyes hooded to glowing golden slits.

"Seriously. These do flesh-ripping kind of pain. Not sexy fun pain."

She let go of my wrist, and gently stroked my lips. They parted with a shuddering breath.

“I love it when you bite me, Hector,” she whispered, leaning in. "I REALLY love it. The, umm, surprise finger shiv took me by surprise, I admit. But honestly, I look at you and those teeth of yours and I get wet to the knees thinking about how it'd feel if you just bit me on the shoulder and-"

"I'm not ready yet," I blurted. "I'm sorry."

Suri licked her lips and leaned back, putting a little distance between us.

"Sorry. It's... I can't. It's too intense right now." I reached out and stroked her face, her arms, trying to reassure her. "I can still count the number of times I've had sex on two hands and one foot, okay? I'm into it - believe me, I'm REALLY into it - but I'm so into it I don't feel like it's safe. I need to go get to Karalti and get this potion made up, and I can’t do anything until then, alright? Not… not at least until you’ve got a spawn point. So hey, look: I bought you something.”

I disgorged the book from my Inventory to the bed. Suri blinked at it a few times.

“It’s a book on the history of Dakhdir,” I said quickly, desperate to talk about anything other than the various hungers gnawing at my body. “I couldn’t get really far into it, but it’s got some stuff about the Dynasty you were talking about in the beginning, the Mandana Dynasty. Apparently, they were some of the first humans on Archemi. It was pretty interesting, actually…”

Suri’s mouth flashed in a brief, tired smile. She looked down for a moment, and then flicked her gaze back up to my face. "Are we... are we okay?"

"We're more than okay." I drew a deep breath, meeting her gaze with mine. "Are you coming to Myszno, or do you want to go take care of Big Trouble in Little Dalim?”

"I'll go back with you. I can help you sort out those quests and then... yeah. I dunno. We'll think about Dakhdir after that.”

“You’ll have Karalti and me at your back, if you’ll have us,” I said.

She looked down again: bashfully, this time. Then she caught my hand, stroking her thumbs over the Mark of Matir. It blazed through the iron-tinged skin like a spiny black hole. “I wouldn’t choose anyone else. You sure you can’t stay the night? We could just sleep, you know.”

“I used to get up and sleep eat when I was alive. One time, I woke up in the kitchen and found myself shoveling gummi bears covered in hot sauce into my face.” I shrugged and feigned a smile. “Karalti knows what to do. She’s been donating blood since she was a hatchling. Felt weird at first, but we’re Bonded, so when she says it’s okay, I know it’s really okay with her.”

“I’d donate if I could.” Suri looked up at me from under her crimson eyebrows. "Pity I’m not a dragon, hey?"

She was startlingly beautiful by lamplight, the golden light caressing her dark skin in ways only a dragonman – or a bird – could see. But even as my breath caught, I struggled not to stare at the pulse jumping on the side of her long, smooth throat. 

“Yeah,” I croaked. “I’m sorry… I gotta go. See you in the morning, okay?”

“Okay, lover.” She stepped back, toward the bed, and let go of my fingers. 

It felt wrong to leave, but I sketched a bow for some damn reason and fled the room at a quick walk. I angled for the outside as quickly as I was able to, stalking through the Volod’s rose gardens toward the stairs leading up to the Parade Ground and the Hangars. There was an elevator you could take, but I desperately needed to feel the cold mountain air on my face, the creak in my knees and the heat in my muscles. When I reached the base of the stairs, I had a powerful, sudden urge to run. To just run, and run and run… and when I closed my eyes, I could sense Karalti’s heart beating in excitement up the mountain.

The half-hour walk became a fifteen-minute sprint as I took the stairs two at a time, pelted by the startled guards, and evaporated into shadow around a minister who squealed and dropped a stack of papers as I blew my way down the ramparts. Karalti wasn’t moving from her nest, but I felt as if I were chasing her, somehow… laboring, panting with mingled hunger and lust, I jogged until my stamina recharged and then boosted myself across the flat square. When I rounded the corner of the hangar bay, I found the dragon sitting bolt upright, looming high enough that the arch of her neck vanished into the shadows of the roof.

“Uhh… hey!” Her eyes, normally a clear purple streaked with silver, had filled in with simmering white light. She repositioned herself awkwardly as I stumbled in, heaving for breath, and collided with the bunched mass of her hind leg. I slapped a hand on it.

“Tag,” I gasped. “You’re it.”

The dragon shuffled, curling her tail tight against her rump, and sat on it. Then she reared her head back, undulating her neck and fluttering her horned crest in a way I’d never seen her do before. It was oddly hypnotic, and as I watched her, I felt a sudden jerk deep down in my lower belly.

Karalti telepathically cleared her throat, and then flattened all seven horns against her skull. Just like that, the spell was broken. “So, you know what I was saying before, about you picking up on how I’m feeling now that I’m grown up and, you know, things are starting to happen?”

I rolled my eyes to look at her, still heaving for breath.

“Yeah. Well, boy dragons chase girl dragons when it’s time for… you know.” she said, embarrassed. “But, hey, I just remembered it’s potion day! You’ll be needing some blood, right?”