Grace Goodwin - Destiny

When Crayden exited the room through a small rear door, I followed, keeping to the edges, moving like a shadow myself. Adrenaline pumped through my body, and with the fresh supply of energy I’d sucked off Nix like a vampire last night, I felt better than I had in days. I hadn’t exactly sucked anything from him, but I started thinking about what I could suck on him. Yet, I felt good. Revived, better since I’d arrived on this planet.

But the hunger was building again. I could feel it at the base of my spine, an ache that would become a burn, then stabbing pain. The pressure behind my eyeballs would increase until it hurt to see. My head would pound. My skin would hurt. Ache. My clit would throb with the need to come, but not be assuaged. Oh, I’d tried with my hand, and while I’d come, it had done nothing to soothe me. It had only made it worse. And now, I knew what I could have, and I began to hunger for a specific touch and heat. Dammit, it was all him.

I felt odd. Alien. For the first time in my life, I had to come to grips with the fact that I was not completely human, and that was a mind trip all its own. Earth was only half of me. A damn good half, but only half. And despite being told for years, hell, my whole life, hearing it from my mother and knowing I was not ‘Earth’ normal were two different things.

The Ardor wasn’t finished with me yet. And since I’d had a few hours of relief from a few incredible male-given orgasms, I was not eager to go back to where I’d been before Nix. I could go back to Plan A, which was a consort at the palace, but the thought made me cringe. Just, no. I didn’t want a complete stranger getting anywhere near me with his cock.

Nix had been a complete stranger, too, if I was going to get technical, and he’d gotten more than just near me with his cock. He’d gotten in me. In me so deep I hadn’t known where I ended and he began. But my pussy was not interested in technicalities. And neither, apparently, was the rest of me. Too bad. No more naughty time until we had Mom back, and I could keep Nix inside me for a week. Work now, sexy times later.

“Suck it up, Princess,” I scolded myself and slipped through the door into a very dark, very quiet tunnel behind Crayden I’d never seen before. It was cool, every surface—floor, walls, ceiling—made of a smooth gray and pink stone. The sensation of being underground was strong, but I knew that was not the case. Still, I wondered how much stone was in the arches over my head to create the deep quiet I’d only ever experienced below ground on Earth.

Once the door slid shut behind me, I closed my eyes and listened with my new bat hearing. I didn’t know exactly what the citadel had done to my sisters, but Mom had told us about the royal ‘gifts’. Seeing things no one else could see. Speed. Brain power. Fighting skills. Psychic stuff that would give us an edge over the general population. Nothing crazy. We weren’t like Wonder Woman or anything, according to her. Just… more. And I had to admit this super-powerful, vampire level hearing had come in very, very handy.

I used it now, focused like I’d practiced during all those meditation sessions. I’d gotten pretty good, able to focus on one beating heart in the room over all the others, then move on to the next. Listen to that heartbeat while I listened to the kitchen staff talk about dinner on the floor beneath us. All that meditation and focusing had worked wonders, and I could control it most of the time, as long as I wasn’t freaked out or I wasn’t in too much of a hurry. I zeroed in on what I needed and heard the soft sound of Crayden’s feet as he moved steadily away on my right.

Moving that way, I followed. Lost the sound. Heard muffled grunts.

Fighting? I knew the sound of hand-to-hand combat. Of fists striking flesh. Of kicks landing solidly on an opponent’s back or thighs.

Running now, I kept going and going and going. Crayden had been fast, dammit. And a lot farther ahead of me than I’d given him credit for. And, my hearing was better than I’d ever imagined.

I was out of breath when I reached another door. I pushed it open and blinked at the bright daylight. The tunnel led to a large park within the fortress. Tall trees, bushes and trails for walking surrounded the area. And this one was used fairly often, a gathering place for initiates, when the weather wasn’t blistering cold. After being in the tunnel, I rubbed my arms against the chill. It hadn’t been cold in the city, but up here in the mountains. God, I was ready for a Hawaiian vacation.

I caught sight of steam, which rose oddly from the ground behind a short bush. I walked around the corner to find that it wasn’t steam… exactly. Crayden lay sprawled on the hard ground in a pool of blood, the cold air causing the soft wisps of heat to rise from the pools of hot red liquid like fog from a stream.

I winced and looked away. “Shit.” I didn’t need to feel for a pulse to know he was good and dead, the slice across his throat big enough to take down a lion, let alone a man. Still, I went over to him and knelt, blood soaking through the knees of my pants, coating my palms as I felt around for a pulse, tried to officially determine if he was well and truly gone. Beyond saving.

Nothing. The ReGen wands and pods they had out here in space were amazing, but dead was dead. And Crayden was gone. I had no idea how a pod could heal having his carotids severed.

I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to listen again, to find the sound of someone running away. Breathing hard. Or laughing. Anything. All I needed was a noise, a direction to go. Something.

A scream sounded at a distance. Then another. The pounding of at least a dozen feet. Shouts.

I stood slowly, paralyzed for a few heartbeats, anger beating inside me. They were ruining everything. A fleeing killer was lost in all the racket.

Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!

I couldn’t hear a damn thing with them all carrying on like panicked idiots. The murderer was going to get away.

A hand closed around my upper arm, a big hand. My heart leapt into my throat. My instinct was to spin around, karate chop him in self-defense. Do anything to keep my head attached to my body. The instinct was there, but for a split second, I thought it might be Nix.

Whipping my head around, I looked up into the eyes of a fortress guard. My hand flew to my chest as I tried to calm down.

“Are you all right?” His gaze looked me over, then scanned the area, as if the killer may still be about. “Did you see anything?”

I shook my head, held my hands out in front of me, saw the blood covering them. “No. God, the poor man. I came out of the fortress and found him like this.”

The guard looked up and around the walls of the building. “I’ve been on patrol. You didn’t see or hear anything?”

“Did you?” I countered.

The guard frowned, staring down at me like I was a child. “Cleric Crayden exited. I saw him when he stepped out. He does this often and we see him here after morning meditation and reminders, so I thought nothing of it.”

He spoke into his comms unit, announcing the murder and requesting backup and a sweep of the area.

“You saw him get killed then?” I asked when he was done, wiping my hands on my pants, leaving streaks of damp.

He shook his head. “No. I walk patrol along the top turret on the south corner. I saw him, walked around, and when I came back to this side, I saw you exit and kneel down. It was then I saw his body. You are the one who had an opportunity to witness the killing. Or hear it.”

He didn’t say I’d done it. If he suspected me, we wouldn’t be standing about, idly chit chatting. “Did you see anyone? Hear voices? The sounds of a fight?”