I pull the towel from the rail next to me, not even looking further at him as I barge past and run and run until I reach the end of the dwelling, until I reach the depression in the floor and I have nowhere else to go but down, down to the bottom, and I can cover my head, and I can shiver, and shiver, and shiver.
DEUS
Her scent. It was like it had been drawn from the stars. My body moved as if controlled by my ancestors, following it, sucking it up like a Sarkarnii starved.
I did not expect to find her pleasuring herself, nor how utterly beautiful she looked as she came undone, all her limbs shaking, her lips quivering, the little peaks on her chest redder than the Zio rubies I used to have in my hoard, when I still had a hoard.
There has never been anything as beautiful.
But then, in a flash, she was gone, even though I wanted to devour her, worship her, lap her into oblivion. And once again, there is a bitter scent to her, although this time not of fear.
Of something else entirely.
The shower stopped running when she left, a single drip continuing to fall until it doesn’t anymore. My cock aches, as it has been doing for I don’t know how long. I shove it back into my pouch. It is evidence of something I don’t deserve.
What do I do?
I asked her to help me shed, and now she has run from me, when she did not run before. My captive is no longer a captive.
I am the captive.
There are wet footprints on the floor, slowly drying but still clear. They go into the sleeping chamber. I follow them. There is no female.
A slight whimper in the bottom of the sleeping pit alerts me to the bundle in the bottom. I stare down at what I know is the female, not knowing what I should do. I flex my hands.
She should not be in there on her own.
She should not make noises which set my teeth on edge.
She should be with me at all times.
I drop into the pit and scoop her up into my arms. She releases a low, terrible moan and then is silent.
The silence is not what I want.
I part the covering over her face. She pushes it back.
“Little ember,” I rumble. “I do not know what ails you, but I am here, if you need me.”
More silence.
“I did not mean to frighten you. I was drawn to your scent,” I add, because it is true. “And I did want to eat you up.”
Possibly too much?
Her clawless fingers curl over the edge of the cloth. A pair of eyes, red-rimmed and watery, look into mine.
My heart does something I thought would never happen again.
It beats.
It thrums in my chest as if life has returned to the hollow I once was.
“Please,” she says. “Please leave me alone.”
The cloth goes back over her face, and there is a spear of pain rocketing through me.
“As you wish, little mate,” I say, retreating from the sleeping pit. “I will be in the other part of this dwelling, should you need me.”
