Caught in Darkness Ch. 06

The screech beetle stopped moving. Dead.

The other giant bug overcame its pain and fixated its one good eye on him. It thundered forward intent on revenge. The man reached down and snapped the other sharp mandible off the dead screech beetle and held it in one hand to meet the charge. As its charge came within a few feet of him, he leapt into the air at the last second and pressed that sharp tusk outwards. The momentum of the monster did the rest of his work for him as he impaled the other eye with the other mandible. With matching injuries the monster wailed out that same soul wrenching screech. Its assailant had climbed atop it during its agonizing wail and hung on. But it knew what to do against that.

The giant beetle ran forward hard and fast; it knew how to dislodge an unwanted rider. What it didn't know, or couldn't see, was how close it already was to the wall it was charging at. Its rider jumped off at the last moment, and there was a sickening crunch, as the massive bug splattered itself against the spiky protrusions of the stone wall.

The arena was calm and quiet now, with just the faint drip-drip of green ichor as it bled down the stone walls.

He gathered up his mistress and her chain, and walked to the gate the other noblewoman had taken refuge behind. The bars were meant to keep something larger inside; they were far enough apart he could slide his mistress's body to the other side and climbed through himself.

On the other side, he found the woman collapsed against the wall, her hand dangled form the lever that closed the gates. Her face was feverishly pale, even for a Zecarin, and a broken bone protruded from her left leg.

"w-who..?" she managed to get out as he squatted next to her. The slave undid the buckle over his gore drenched hood and pulled it free. Brown curls of hair fell loose and dangled from his head.

"I am Mule." He said.

"Who do you serve?" She said. She was in pain, and her body was loosing the fight to stay conscious. The Alluring was not going to last much longer

"Your life is in my hands. To save it, you must save The Majestic first." He stated plainly. "I will tend to your wound as you tend to hers." He turned and picked up the Majestic. His mistress was limp in his arms as he carried her and placed her beside The Alluring with her head in the lady's lap.

"You can heal her." Mule stated. "Do it." He then squatted beside her and started to examine her broken leg -- the shin bone had broken cleanly and protruded from the ripped skin almost the length of his finger. The Alluring hesitated. So much of this situation was wrong, and yet she felt compelled to do as he had said. She placed a hand on The Majestic's breast and closed her eyes.

"There is too much pain, I can't concentrate on the energies." She whimpered. Her teeth chattered from the cold chill of shock. Mule placed one hand on her thigh, right above the knee, and other on the back of her neck, behind the ear where the skull started. He arranged his fingers and pressed firmly into the lady's flesh. She jumped from the sudden pain of the pinched nerves, but that immediately faded, along with the pain of her broken leg. Her breathing started to calm, as she recovered her wits. She closed her eyes again and this time a soft yellow glow came from the air about them and flowed into her hand. Through her fingertips it entered The Majestic's chest and the whole limp body spasmed once and drew in a sharp breath.

"There, she will live, but it will be some time before she recovers." The Alluring said. She turned her head to face Mule. Their faces were only inches apart, but in her daze she could only stare at him.

"Can you heal your leg?" Mule asked. It suddenly dawned on her that she could have healed herself also. She placed her hands on her thigh. It confused her that she could lift and move the broken limb but felt nothing of the pain. She brought the knee to her chest and grabbed her calf with one hand, and pushed the bone back in with the other. The flesh squished, but realigned, and then she called the magic into her fingertips to heal the flesh. There was a sudden jolt to her system, and Mule had to hold tight or break the connection. The bone was now solid, but the flesh was pink and scabbed over.

"This is going to hurt." He said calmly. "I'm going to release the pressure, nerve by nerve slowly. You will then feel everything you didn't feel a moment ago. You may blackout. Are you ready?" He waited for a response. She gulped once then turned to look into his eyes searching for something.

"Please. I have served well. Please don't kill me. I can serve you even more." She begged. Her hands touched the one he had placed on her thigh. One held his wrist, and the other caressed the back of his hand. "Anything you desire, I will do."

"We will speak more in a moment." Mule reassured her. "Even if it is after your nap." He released her knee and thigh, one finger at a time. Her face started to scowl in pain, and then she took on a pitiful pleading look as she cried out from the twinges in her leg. Then came the hand to her neck, and finger by finger that one too was released. Her leg suddenly kicked and she wailed in agony, before collapsing to the ground.

Fainted...

When The Alluring came too, she was alive but gagged and bound. She looked down and found her dress was missing; she sat in her white lacy undergarments. Her hands were tied behind her and her legs were also tied together at the ankles. The taste of mossberry was in her mouth, the same herbal scent she used in her hair, and that's when she realized that it was her black hair serving as the gag. In the darkness, she could see the man that had done this. He sat with The Majestic in his lap, his body was bare but for his smallshorts, and sweat beaded all over his chest and arms. As she watched him, her memory of the frantic events that had just transpired came back. The explosion, the fall, the screech beetles, and then Mule. The room was hot, very hot. There was a faint orange glow from around the corner; it was one of the lava rivers that flowed through the caverns. Mule had taken them from the Arena; she didn't know where she was now. Sweat dripped into her eyes, and she realized she was starting to glisten.

"I am Mule." He said quietly. In his lap laid The Majestic face down. He was pressing the skin around a piece of stone shrapnel embedded in her back and squeezing it out. Her breathing was raspy, and loud. As each one was pushed out, she would bleed a little, but it closed over quickly. "I am not Zecarin, but I have learned much of their ways." He said again in that same calm quiet voice. "I have questions, and I can take my answers from you, as a Zecarin male would." The Alluring shifted uncomfortably on the ground and waited for him to finish. There was nothing else she could do, without him she couldn't find her way back, and she wouldn't want to, half dressed and bound -- the embarrassment would be too much.

As the last of the bits of debris were pulled from his mistress, the human laid her carefully onto the stone ground. He laid her face down, on her stomach and folded her arms under her head to rest. When he turned, she could see the sweat pouring from his face, and body. The heat of this room was affecting him worse than a Zecarin; perhaps there was a chance there.

"But I am not Zecarin. I am human. And I can smell the Sapphic in you." He said. The Alluring pulled her legs together and brought her knees to her chest. "Why ask for what you can take, correct?" She watched him warily. The Alluring had seen him kill two giant, ten foot tall screech beetles with his bare hands -- not even The Unkillable could boast that. She knew he was dangerous. "You will nod Yes, or No to answer my questions. Do you understand?"

Yes. He pulled her legs down from her chest and straddled them at the knees. His fingers gently, sensually caressed one of her long, pointed ears. It made her breath shallowly and close her eyes. It was an erogenous feeling.

"If you lie to me, I will move from this, to this." He released her ear and grabbed her nipple through the fabric and pinched it hard. She squealed from the sharp pain. "If you lie again, I will move to this." He reached below her panty line and started to rub her most sensitive spot. "If you lie a third time, I will take you, as a Zecarin male would. With this." He stood and pulled his smallshorts away and his half-hardened cock dangled inches from her face. She looked at it in curiosity before looking up at him. There was a hard suppressed concern in her eyes. Mule sat and straddled her thighs and began to play with her ears again. He leaned in to one of them to whisper.

"I can smell the Sapphic in you. You have not yet been taken and bled by a male. But you smell of sex. I know this to mean you are Sapphic, a lover of females. Yes?"

Yes.

"Are you lying to me?"

No. Mule stopped caressing her ears and pinched both her nipples.

"You lie." He sighed disappointed. "Will you lie again?"

NO! she shook her head vigorously, and whimpered from his torture of her sensitive nipples. He released them and started to rub her clitoris through the fabric as promised.

"You are still lying." He growled. She muffled a moan of ecstasy. Then glared at him defiantly and shook her head once in No.

"Yes, you are." He got off of her legs and lifted them up; she struggled against him and kicked. One strong hand grabbed her throat and pinned it against the stone wall, and he squeezed. She choked and fought to breath, forgetting the struggle to guard her privacy. Her lace panties were ripped free and her legs lifted over his shoulders. Each of her knees rested next to his ears and his now erect member rested against the opening of her sex. The Alluring started to weep in her bindings.

"Will you lie to me again?" Mule asked as he slowly rubbed the head of his cock against her moist slit. The Alluring nodded her head Yes and sobbed.

"Now, that, was a true lie." Mule said and lowered her legs. He caressed her ears as he had before in a soothing fashion and pulled the gag of hair from her mouth. The Alluring looked at him with tear streaked cheeks and a half pleading, half murderous glare.

"I know you now." He said. "I believe you will answer me truthfully. I want to learn more about your people." He said softly, in almost a whispering voice as he soothingly stroked her long ears. It had and almost immediate effect in calming his captive.

"There is a scent about you, I can tell. That you and your sister have, but not the other nobles, nor the other slaves I have met. You don't seem to thirst for blood as The Majestic and The Unkillable do. Why?" His voice was calm. The Alluring took in a deep breath to steady her nerves before answering.

"There is a thirst, we all feel." She started. Her eyes were lost, dreamily in his as his attention to her sensual nerves were lulling her into a happily, placid state. "It can be sated with love or with blood." She sighed contently from his ministrations. "The longer they go without love, the more violent they become. Some nobles like it better that way. They are feared more, because they are more unpredictable. Sating it with blood is only temporary, lasts a day or so." She moaned pleasantly and rested her head against the rock wall.

"You and your sister are different." Mule stated matter-of-factly. The Alluring didn't register the comment, until Mule stopped caressing her ears.

"The thirst only comes when we have been taken and 'bled by a male', as you put it." She looked off into the distance and closed her eyes to cry. It was a deep secret, and it was plain to see her admitting it that this was painful.

"The other nobles do not know." Mule nodded, understanding her plight.

"No." she choked.

"What would happen if they did?"

"That doesn't matter anymore. He has my sister, and he will take her. Then I will be alone. Please just end me. Take me if you must, but end me when you have had your fill." Her mood had turned dark and defeated, and the change was not something Mule had anticipated. He stood and reclaimed his clothing to give himself a moment to think. His gaze fell on The Majestic; she was breathing more regularly and was sleeping on the ground.

"The Unkillable," Mule started. "Would he loose his bloodlust, if he took a mate?"

"No, for males it is different." She sniffed to clear her running nose. "The opposite is true. They must go without, and starve the thirst from themselves."

"Eunuchs and Sapphics." Mule muttered. "a bad combination. A combination for war." He turned around a knelt beside The Alluring. "If your sister is taken, can only the love of a man sate the thirst when if comes to her?"

"Yes." The Alluring sighed deeply as she answered. Now her torment was apparent. Either her sister would become a maniacal killer, like the Majestic, or would take a male lover instead of her, and betray the bond she formed with her sister. Mule knelt beside The Alluring and leaned her forward to get at the bonds behind her. She didn't resist, and didn't respond as he untied her hands. The bonds were her shreds of own dress, he returned them to her as he worked at the bonds at her ankles. This confused the Zecarin lady.

"I will take The Majestic home." He stated. "You will go to The Unkillable, and bargain for your sister."

"I do not understand." She said as she pulled the remains of her dress over her head.

"You are not supposed to." Mule responded with a smile as he lifted his mistress and placed her over his shoulder. "Tell him The Majestic lives, and you will swear for him in exchange for your sister."

"Swear for him?" she questioned as meaning suddenly hit her. "You intend to have The Majestic make a claim against his attempt at murder?" the revelation hit her.

"No, but you will tell him that. Is that what you would think she would do correct?"

"The Majestic would just kill him." The Alluring stared at Mule in disbelief.

"That is why he will be confused." Mule grinned an evil, toothy grin.