Drowning at Dusk Ch. 03

Her hands lashed out, grabbing me by my wrists and forcing me down onto the fur blanket covering the tent's floor. Still stunned by the thoughts of what was to come, I remained motionless as she grabbed the silken ties, and quickly bound my wrists together. Xelari drew her knife; I tensed, wondering if she was going to mark me yet again, but instead she jabbed it into the ground to serve as a post for the silken ties.

Helpless. Pinned. Vulnerable.

With a bit of work, I was sure I could get out of those bindings.

But why in the Voids would I even want to?

I watched with wide, desperate eyes as she stripped out of that armor. Though I'd seen her naked only minutes before down at the stream, I absorbed every detail. The slope of her hips. The firm dark nipples. The soft, smooth stomach, the way her calves tensed as she prowled towards me.

I took in a shuddering breath as she knelt between my legs. Her fingers stroked up and down the shaft. The runes glowed, but of course I felt nothing just yet. The sight of her, though...

Moaning, I leaned my head back.

"Already moaning, Esharyn? That doesn't bode well."

She leaned down, and I moaned once more at the beautiful sight of her lips enveloping that fake prick. Her hair brushed against my thighs, and her fingernails raked over my stomach. Though I felt nothing from the toy itself, the sight of her was enough to make my sex glisten and my hips rock up against her.

After a soft laugh against the dildo, she released it from her mouth with a wet pop, then rose to straddle me.

"Are you ready, Esharyn?" she asked, the fingers of her left hand grazing over her sex, while the right hand took hold of the shaft.

"Yes," I said, that single word exploding with need.

"No," she said, laughing. "You are not."

And indeed I wasn't.

As she descended, I felt a pulse of tightness in my own sex, an odd echo of what it felt like to be fucked. Xelari raised her hips up, then fell back down: slow, smooth, perfectly controlled. The sensation, which had started out as uncanny and awkward, quickly blossomed into something else. Each downward rock of those hips sent echoes of sensation up through my sex, like the tentative efforts of a lover getting acquainted with my body.

As I moaned and writhed, I recalled her earlier warning about not being able to climax. As delightful as it was to have the beautiful dusk elf rocking above me, I knew those pleasurable echoes wouldn't be enough. I'd need something real inside me, or fingers or a tongue on my clit, to bring me to a true peak. With my hands bound and the harness around my waist, though, I had no hope of that.

Xelari climaxed within minutes, her dew-wet fingers stroking gently against her clit as she rode me. The echoes within me heightened, and my jaw tensed. It was nothing like a true climax, and just felt like one of the smaller weaker little peaks en route to towards true pleasure.

It felt me panting, whimpering, and wanting more.Needing more.

Fuck. This was going to be brutal.

"Are you not even going to try to wriggle your way out of those bonds?"

I'd been so focused on the pleasure that I'd not even tried. My forearms tensed and my fingers struggled and strained, but the silk was so soft and slippery that I couldn't actually gain purchase. I grunted with the effort, and then again as her hips slammed down against mine.

"I love to see you struggle," she cooed, her breath still even and strong despite the increasingly frenzied efforts of her hips. "So weak." She laughed. "I bet you don't even want to break free, do you? You'd be content to just lay there all night, helpless and needy."

I growled at that, and redoubled my efforts. My fingers managed to get hold of the silk, but struggled in vain to actually undo the knot. Whatever technique she'd used to tie the bonds was nigh-unbreakable. I'd have an easier time breaking into a warded room.

"Shut up," I snarled up at her. She laughed at my defiance, throwing her head back and raking her nails between my breasts. "I'm trying. I can do it."

"And if you succeed?" she said, beaming down at me. "What would you if you freed yourself?"

The ache in my arms and my core made it hard to think, and it took a few moments for me to finalize the fantasy.

"I'd pin you down. Grab you by the wrists or the throat. Fuck you. Make you...make you come so hard that the echoes would get me off, too. Then I'd-"

Her fingers brushed over to flick over my nipple, and the defiant fantasizing collapsed entirely. I mewled and thrust up against her, and she let out another triumphant laugh.

"I don't think you would," she purred. "I think if I released your hands you'd just lay there like a good little pet and let me take what I needed."

Fuck. She was probably right.

Whatever the case, she didn't give me the chance to find out, and kept my hands bound. She adjusted her position, her larger, softer breasts pressing down against my firmer, pert ones. The adjustment in the angle of her hips brought forth a soft cry, as did the sensation of her tongue dragging across my neck.

"So loud. No doubt you're disturbing the rest of our comrades out there. Perhaps I should bring in Terakh...that cock of his could certainly muffle those cries."

My mouth, wide open from the heavy pants, would have been the perfect hole for that thick orcish cock. Gods...

She laughed, licked me again.

"You'd like that wouldn't you?"

"I would."

"Shall I summon him?"

I thought about it for a moment. Once again my mind drifted to the cruelest option, the path that would tease and titillate the most.

"No. Not yet. Let him hear our cries. Let him grow hard at the thought of us. Let him go to his tent and stroke himself while he dreams of using me."

"Wicked." She rewarded me with a bite to my neck. "I knew I chose well."

Xelari's next bite muffled a cry of hers, and I felt her shake and writhe above me. Her body rippled with another climax, softer than the first, but the echo of it roared through me more fiercely than the first one. My eyes bulged and my back arched, as if doing so would drag me towards the edge.

No.

Not enough.

So, so close.

"Getting accustomed to it, are you?"

"Yes," I said, my eyes rolling back as I felt the ripples of one of her aftershocks.

"Good. You're learning quickly."

Xelari suddenly stopped, and I growled with fury at the cruelty of it. Her soft fingers caressed my cheek, and she raised her head to meet my gaze. Her silvery curls brushed against my forehead.

"Focus," she whispered. "I'm going to help you."

Her other hand went back between her legs, working slowly against her folds. I felt the embers rise, bit my lip, and whimpered.

"Good. Focus on that. The first sparks of a flame. Focus. Do you feel it?"

"Yes," I mewled, my eyes wide and enraptured by her hungry green gaze.

I took a deep breath and honed in on that sensation, ignoring the pain in my arms, the ache in my back, and the lingering pain from her bites.

Only the echoes.

"Good," she said, her voice uncharacteristically soft and sweet. Caring, even. Nurturing. "Now I'll add a bit more kindling to the fire."

Xelari rocked her hips just once. I cursed and slammed my head back against the furs.

"Good. Focus. Breathe. Feel my climax build. It's yours now, too. My gift to you." She cocked her head. "And you wouldn't want to spurn my gift, would you?"

"No," I managed, hating the thought of disappointing her, of rejecting her 'gift.'

Another gentle rocking of her hips, another cry torn from my throat.

The echo flared.

"Good," she said, her voice shifting from that nurturing tone to something hungrier, more menacing. That single word carried with it the implicit threat that if I didn't come...I'd be punished severely.

I almost wanted to fight off the pleasure just to see what sort of wickedness she'd unleash.

She leaned down again, her lips caressing my earlobe. Her words came in a low, dangerous whisper.

"Focus. Feel the fire,malrixi. Grasp it. Take it. Make it yours."

Unable to speak, I only offered a feeble nod. My eyes closed, my brow furrowed, and my lungs burned with the effort. My toes curled against the furs as I chased that pleasure, reached for it, tore at it, grasped at it like a drowning sailor grasping at driftwood.

She let out a high-pitched sigh, and I felt her stomach tense against mine. Her own climax was on the way, and I could feel the echoes rising and raging within me in response.

"Come for me."

Three words. And I was hers.

It was the command, more than my own mental efforts, that sent me over.

The echo burst and turned into a raging inferno of pleasure, as intense as any of the real climaxes I'd enjoyed. It spread, rippling down my aching thighs and into my curling toes, up through my heaving chest and my tensing neck. I loosed a long, trembling groan that exploded into a ragged scream. No doubt every bandit in the camp had heard that one...and I was glad for it. I wanted everyone to know exactly what she'd done to me.

My eyes snapped open as I struggled for breath, my body rocked by little tremors and smaller bursts of pleasure as I came down from that peak.

Her face bore the grin of a triumphant conqueror. I'd been so lost in the painful throes of my own orgasm that I hadn't even really heard hers. Judging by the glazed over look in her eyes, it had been a damned good one.

"Adequate," she said, then tapped my cheek with her fingers.

Laughing, she rolled off of me and laid at my side, and didn't reach up to undo my bindings. Too spent and broken to care, I simply laid there, taking in heavy breaths and staring up at the ceiling. Her fingers traced soft little lines up and down my stomach and between my breasts.

Her fingers caressed the soaked toy, collecting some of her moisture, which she then brought to my lips like a priestess taking an offering to an altar. I licked and suckled greedily, my eyes wide and desperate for more.

She obliged by unstrapping the harness from around my waist and bringing the entire toy up to my lips, forcing it past my greedy lips. I moaned around it, my eyes never once leaving hers while I sucked and licked it clean.

After a few moments she withdrew the toy, then finally undid my bindings. I flexed my hands, and she reached out to rub at my reddened wrists. She tutted and shook her head.

"Foolish," she said.

"What?" I asked. "How in the Voids was that foolish? That's one of the best fucks I've ever had."

"I was hasty. I should have given you an escape route first. A code word. Something to say if I took things too far."

I almost laughed at that. I was her prisoner, her leashed assassin. And she wanted to talk about safe words?

"I handled that just fine."

"Yes, but I like to play close to the edge. One day I may wish to push things farther. Beyond what you can take. If there is to be trust and cooperation between us..."

"Emerald," I said suddenly, perhaps picking it because of the color of her eyes. "That's the word."

"Emerald," she said, smiling. "Very well. And I will use it, too, in case you take things too far."

"It's hard to imagine you having limits."

"Limits can shift just as desires can shift. One evening, a woman may wish to be pinned down and ravished until she's brought to tears, while another night she may just want a gentle, passionate licking between her thighs."

The notion of Xelari wanting only gentle lovemaking was nearly as absurd as the Deathless' mission to destroy undeath itself. Still, it was good to have an 'escape route' as she'd put it.

"Can I ask you something?" I said, my fingers idly playing with a few of her silvery curls.

"Ask. But I may not answer."

"When we were in the temple and the dryads first attacked, it seemed like they were showing us what we wanted. What our hearts or bodies longed for. What did you see?"

"What sort of answer are you hoping for? Were you hoping that I saw you?"

"No," I said, only half-lying. "I was just curious."

"I saw myself."

I chuckled at that.

"That's an odd kink, isn't it?"

"It is not just lustful desires that the dryads show, Esharyn. They showed me a version of myself from the future. Triumphant over undeath. Resplendent in victory." She cocked her head. "And you?"

"Nothing as grand or as noble as your visions. I saw you. Bound and helpless like I was on the night that Terakh fucked me."

"Well. Your ambitions, it seems, may be more attainable. At least in the short term."

Our laughter filled the tent.

After sharing a flask of wine, we drifted off: Xelari sleeping in her little cot, with me curled up on the comfortable furs within my bedroll. No ghouls or dryads assailed us through the night, and we rose just before dawn. After gathering our armor and weapons, we stepped out to greet the uncertainties of a new day.

Other bandits had already awoken and were taking down their tents, cooking breakfast, sharpening weapons, and re-soling their boots for the march ahead.

Terakh was near the edges of the camp, brushing his horse.

Xelari and I approached, and he gave us a look which flashed between envy and irritation.

"A word in private, Terakh," Xelari said, and we walked over towards the barricaded temple. The dusk elf ran her fingers along the ancient stone.

"Been meaning to ask about what's next. There were reports of a temple to Jakarius to the southwest that-"

"We have other concerns," Xelari said. "Heroth is the one who sent Esharyn to kill me."

His red eyes widened.

"Heroth. Lord-Protector. Enemy of crime and corruption. Heroic veteran of a dozen battles. Beloved of the people. All that nonsense. He's the one who wanted you dead?"

"I admit it's possible his steward Patrigan could be the true culprit, and he was just using Heroth's name as a cover," I said. "But even if it is just Patrigan, that still means the Deathless have a powerful and influential enemy."

"Amisra's holy tits," he cursed, shaking his head. "Why would he do that? And why would he send a lone assassin instead of a company of militia?"

"His steward told me the Lord-Protector was worried about a dusk elf bandit raising a larger raiding band. But..." I frowned, shaking my head. "Something didn't sit quite right about that, even at the time. For one, the Wildwood is outside of Arkostead's territory. It's technically within another province, which meant Heroth should have passed his concerns along to another Lord-Protector, rather than an assassin. And the fact that he contracted out the job, rather than sending a small group of the city watch's best trackers, hints that something else was going on."

"More than just a simple bandit hunt, then," said Terakh. "If the ruler of a city is coming for the Deathless..." Terakh said.

"Esharyn and I will investigate the matter. We'll ride south with you for a few days, then you can take a small group of the mercenaries to that rumored temple of Jakarius. Even if we are being hunted, we still need those relics."

"So just the two of you against the Lord-Protector?"

"I know," I said with a glittering smile. "Odds are certainly stacked against the bastard. Almost makes you feel bad for him, eh?"

The orc and the dusk elf chuckled at that.

"I know the city well," I continued. "I've contacts ranging from courtesans to tax collectors to mercenaries to bathhouse attendants. Someone will know something. Once we know a bit more about why Heroth is after the Deathless, we can go from there."

"What sort of proof did the contract require?" Xelari asked.

"A few drops of your blood. Which may sound like an easy ruse to employ, by just strolling back there with a bloody donation from you. But rich patrons of assassins employ alchemists or mages to use the blood for a scrying ritual, which confirms whether the person is dead or alive."

"Can the ritual be fooled?" Terakh asked.

"Not likely. I've known a few assassins who tried, and it didn't end well for them. And even if we did fake her death, that wouldn't be a complete end to your problems. If Heroth is after the Deathless as a whole, he'd still keep sending other assassins. Faking her death would just buy Xelari herself a reprieve, and would do nothing to ease the larger threat."

"All right," said Terakh, and glanced back at camp. "What about Valrafein and the others back at the main camp? Shall we loop him in as well?"

"No. The fewer who know, the better. Send Vlanda and a few others back to Valrafein, and convey my command to continue the search for other relics in the Wildwood. We'll take a smaller band of hirelings south with us. Safety in numbers while we move through the Wildwood."

She withdrew the circlet of Amisra from her satchel and handed it to the orc.

"If Esharyn and I fail in Arkostead, you must ensure that this makes its way to the Deathless. The fight must continue, no matter how we fare against Heroth."

With reverence and respect I'd yet to see from the orc, he carefully took the circlet and slipped it under his cloak.

"How'd the two of you end up mixed up in all this?" I asked. "You make an unlikely team: can't say I've encountered any group aside from a few mercenary outfits that includes both orcs and dusk elves."

"The Deathless count more than a hundred among their ranks, from all cultures and walks of life," Xelari said. "As for how I specifically undertook the vows..." Her gaze darkened. "That is a tale for another time."

"Or perhaps no time at all," Terakh said with a joyless chuckle. "I've been at Xelari's side for nearly six months. Not a clue of how she ended up taking her vows."

"It is hardly relevant to our current task," she said, wrinkling her nose.

"And you?" I asked the orc.

"Like all good tales, it started in a tavern." He bared his teeth in a wide grin. "I was working as a bouncer when a necromancer decided he needed some more undead minions, so he tried to poison the casks before a big party. I caught him in the act, beat the piss out of him, and then Xelari strode in a few moments later."

"I was already on that necromancer's trail," the dusk elf explained.

"I wonder if our paths almost crossed at some point," I mused. "With the White Talons I hunted down six or seven death mages. And three more once I went independent."

"Perhaps." She smiled. "Amusing, how fate can work. You may well have killed a death mage who wanted me dead...and you ended up seeking to claim my life, only to turn your blade to my service."

"And who knows?" I said with a smile of my own. "We may end up dying alongside one another against Heroth. Won't that be a neat little twist of fate?"

The three of us shared a grim laugh at that, and returned to the camp to prepare for the journey to come.