The moans came from the rug on the floor next to the bed where naked bodies lay in a heap. A woman’s pale skin glowed in the warm light of the brazier. She lay on her back with her head propped on the hip of a naked human man, who lay behind her. Her long, matted hair hang like a messy, tangled curtain over her face.
The couple was undeniably human, but I couldn’t tell exactly who they were from this distance, especially in this poor lighting.
“Hello Ray,” Timur said loudly.
The slurping noise didn’t stop. The amber glow highlighted the hard muscles in the back and shoulders of the third figure, a male shadow fae. Dark like night, he blended with the shadows of the room, making him almost invisible to me. Only themagical glow of his skin combined with the light of the brazier betrayed his presence.
He lay on his stomach, his face buried between the woman’s thighs. The six black ropes of his tendrils connected to the woman’sleilathas. He ate her out with the gusto of a starving man, like she was his first and last meal and he would die if he didn’t finish.
Lost to his task, the fae man didn’t stop. The woman didn’t react to Timur’s voice either. The guttural noises coming from her mouth hardly sounded like words. Jumbled and strangled with needy moans, she mumbled something impossible to understand.
“Are you okay?” Spurred by worry for her, I got up from Timur’s lap.
The slight tug of his tendril against my upper arm reminded me that we were still connected.
He caught my arm. “Stay with me, Elaine.”
But I couldn’t calm my concern.
“Do you need help?” I called out to the woman.
She paid me no attention. Grabbing the fae man’s hair, she gyrated her hips, rubbing her core against his mouth.
“More…fuck…” fluttered from her lips among the moans and garbled gibberish.
With a clatter of metal, something rolled from under my foot. I bent over to grab it and lifted a tarnished brass cup. It was empty, but a sickly-sweet smell hit my nostrils as I brought the cup to my nose.
The scene in the camp rose in my mind again, when our captors force-fed the golden hyacinth tea to Peter and Maria. The sickening memories of their desperate fucking afterwards flashed through my mind. I couldn’t watch it back then, and my stomach roiled now too.
“She isn’t herself,” I said, dropping the cup. “It’s the tea or the juice…whatever the fuck he gave her.”
The cup rolled along the rug, stopping at an upturned metal carafe with a curved handle. Another one like that glistened from the shadows nearby. A wide tray with bitten bread and a half-eaten meal pack was on the bed. Another one was on the floor. The stench coming from the dishes meant the unfinished food had long gone bad. Why had no one removed it? Maybe because no one had noticed it, too busy fucking the tea out of their systems.
Except that someone kept bringing them more tea, judging by the several empty pots and carafes scattered around.
“Yeah…right there…now…” the woman rasped in a low, hoarse voice I didn’t recognize, but I realized she must be Mia, the only human woman other than myself who came to Ashgate with our caravan.
She curled her body over the fae’s head and came with short, guttural panting. I averted my eyes, but her orgasm was over quickly.
The fae man’s body drooped heavily. His face remained between the woman’s thighs for a moment, his nose buried in the tight curls between her legs, his chest flat on the rug, his limbs outstretched.
Finally, he groaned, lightly slapping her hip.
“Good, good, Sweet One,” he mumbled, rolling off her.
Mia tipped sideways, her head lolling on the stomach of the man lying behind her.
“Ray!” Timur boomed, finally getting the fae’s attention.
“And who are you?” The fae rolled to his side, staring at us.
Now I recognized Ray’s voice, the fae who’d bid on me and almost bought me at the auction. He hardly looked like himself, though. His long hair hadn’t been brushed in a while. It tangled in a long, messy rope that dangled down his back. The detaileddesigns on the shaved parts of his skull had smeared, leaving only faint smudges of gold paint behind. He was completely naked, no skirt, no chest armor, not even a single clip in his hair. His legs fell open as he turned to us, revealing a smooth area between his legs. No cock, no mating cluster, either.
This wasn’t about sex for Ray, at least not literally. He’d been just syphoning the pleasure of the humans in his possession.
“I’ll buy your Joy Vessels,” I blurted out. “Both of them. I’ll pay their weight in gold.”
I wasn’t even sure if we had enough gold for that yet, but I would make more. I’d take out another loan from Ray if I had to, on whatever terms he named. I just couldn’t leave Mia and her companion in Ray’s possession like that.
