Ravenous (Taint of the Gods #1)

35. RHYDIAN

35

RHYDIAN

M y mother stared down at me from the wall. It felt as though her eyes bore straight into my very being. A testament to my skill that even as a sketch on paper I could still feel her knowing gaze.

It hadn’t been my intention when I’d drawn her. Lily had always wanted pictures of our mother, ever since we were children. Even knowing her very image sat encrusted in gold in The Gardens , she’d always wanted more. But this one was different. This one was for her child, for my little niece or nephew. A portrait that fully encapsulated who our mother was. I hadn’t fully realised until this moment how realistic the piece was. How at any moment those soft features could turn hard with warning, to scold me for being so reckless. And how uncannily similar those features were on my sister’s face.

The door opened, startling Jae from his position on the floor—who was in the process of trying to string up the baby’s cradle.

Sal entered the room, and then right behind her, hair draped over her shoulder and wearing that buckskin vest that was a constant reminder of our morning in Keltjar, was Rieka. She caught my eyes and for a moment I had actually hoped her inner voice would greet me with some snarky comment. To ask me why I hadn’t slept in our bunk the last two nights. Or ask why when I’d made it a condition, I hadn’t turned up for morning training and been unable to explain where I had gone for the night. But as expected, she looked away, giving her attention to my sister, following Sal as she sat on the bed to check on Lily.

For twenty minutes, Rieka ignored me. I sat on my sister’s sofa to give Sal room to work, and even then in perfect view of her, she not once acknowledged me.

In the end, I couldn’t take her silence any longer. “I need to apologise for yesterday, ” I finally managed to say, hoping my inner voice conveyed my sincerity.

Rieka’s response was clipped. “No need. You obviously believed me to be a danger to Lily.”

I kept my voice calm. “Because the last time I used my taint on you, you threatened to kill me if I ever did it again.”

“A perfectly sensible conclusion to jump to when seeing me with your pregnant sister,” t he words laced in sarcasm.

I shifted the cushion, finding the sofa no longer comfortable. “You’re scolding me after I said I was sorry?”

“Technically you haven’t said sorry yet. And I never said I would accept it.”

My inner voice groaned in frustration. “You are impossible. I wrack myself with guilt for the last two days because I felt like shit accusing you of something so heinous, and you can’t even accept my apology.”

“You should apologise to me for yesterday. I wanted nothing more than for Lily and the baby to be alright. But you weren’t wrong about me.” Her tone was so casual, that I thought I’d misunderstood her words.

“Come again?”

Rieka finally looked at me from across Lily’s bed, those pale blue pools somehow darker. Haunted.

“I told you I’d be honest with you Rhydian. I did think about it. As soon as I learned Lily was your sister, I wondered how I could use her against you. It just turned out I wasn’t as cold-hearted as I thought.”

For a moment, I felt vindicated. It hadn’t been irrational to believe her at her word when she had taken every opportunity to demonstrate she kept it. Her every action since we’d agreed to this bet had been with one goal in mind. To seduce me to secure her freedom. And she’d just admitted she’d do anything to secure it.

I should have been storming across the room and throwing her against the wall for wanting to harm Lily. I should have dragged her out of the room and locked her in the cells until the month of Marian, marriage facade be damned.

Instead, I found myself sinking further back into the cushions of the sofa as a single memory surfaced, snuffing out my anger as if it were nothing more than a candle blown out by a swift breeze. A memory that reminded me of what I was keeping from her, what I had been willing to do and had done to secure my people their freedom.

Leaning my arms across the back of the sofa I asked, “So you don’t intend to gut me in my sleep then?”

An amused smile rose on her face. “No, I don’t intend to gut you. I want to thank you. As much as I detest your taint. I’m grateful you didn’t let me die. Even if it was for selfish reasons.”

Of course she would think that. Why wouldn’t she? It was perfectly reasonable to believe I saved her life for the sake of my deal with the buyer. But in that moment, seeing her fall from Si’mon’s grasp, the idea of her colliding with the train and getting injured in the fall…

The thought that I might have to watch as the collar on her neck burned the life right out of her because we might not have been able to get her back to the train before the beacon died.

It irritated the fuck out of me.

“I guess we’re both selfish creatures,” my inner voice admitted.

For a moment, her expression softened. “At least we’re goal-oriented.”

The laugh I let slip was unexpected. For both of us. Her smile faltered for a moment before she too laughed. Soft and light. It made my chest tighten, in a new and unusual way.

But that smile quickly vanished with the sudden quickening of a heartbeat.

My eyes shot to Sal as her hands loomed over my sister’s large belly. She gave my sister a quick smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes and withdrew her hands. “The good news is the baby is healthy.”

Lily’s breathed out in relief as she exchanged a smile with Jae. But it was Sal’s expression that made me uneasy. “What’s the bad news?” I asked.

“The placenta still hasn’t moved.”

Jae stood, the baby cradle discarded on the floor as he walked to his wife. “But, you said it should have moved by the third trimester. She’s thirty-two weeks.”

Sal shook her head. “I said should move. It hasn’t. A vaginal birth is now no longer possible.”

Lily was trying hard to control her heart rate, the sensation of her Bloodwork tickling my senses. I watched as she breathed in deeply trying to contain her panic, but Sal’s next words made her pale.

“The baby will be breech.”

I watched as Jae squeezed my sister hand, a terrified expression shared between them before Lily raised her gaze, her eyes locking with mine.

“What are her options?” I finally asked.

Sal opened her mouth to speak, but it was Rieka who answered. “An abdominal birth.”

Sal confirmed Rieka’s words, to which Jae asked if Sal couldn’t just move the placenta herself.

“Cellshaping on pregnant women is dangerous enough. But doing it inside the womb, in all likelihood her placenta will abrupt and they’ll both bleed out. And neither of your taints will help,” she said, directing that last comment at me and Lily.

“Can you create something that would shift the placenta?” Lily asked as the tears began streaming down her cheeks.

“I don’t have the right plants. We just ran out of sakror root as a painkiller, and I don’t even have the right equipment.” The expressions on my sister and her husband’s faces were distraught.

I saw Jae look to Rieka a moment before he spoke in desperation. “Can your Gods’ Tongue do anything to help her?”

Rieka appeared startled, her words coming out in a stutter. “Jae, I-I barely have a hold on my taint, I—”

“Even if Rieka knew a spell, I wouldn’t let her,” Sal interjected. “We have no idea what the lasting effects of Gods’ Tongue would be on the baby.”

I watched as my sister clenched her jaw before speaking, her hand squeezing Jae’s tightly. “Am I going to die?”

Sal slid her hand across the bed in search for my sister, who took it firmly in her own. “No. Because I’m going to get those supplies.” Sal turned her head in my direction as if those pale green eyes could see me. “I’ll find them in the medical facility on the raid.”

“Absolutely not!” I shouted, appalled that she would even consider it.

Rieka’s voice jumped into my head then. “ What raid?” I shook my head as though the action alone would rattle her from my thoughts.

Sal continued to make her case. “Rhydian, you and I both know I’m the only one who can identify the medicines I need. The Medics do not label the products so I can’t even describe to you the items I require. I need to come.”

“You know how dangerous it is. Wade wouldn’t allow it.” It was a low remark, evident by the furious expression on the mender’s face.

“Wade controls me as much as you control your wife. Besides, Wade isn’t here, and he won’t be back in the time we’d need the medicines,” Sal was quick to remind me.

“Let me come.”

I snapped my attention to Rieka as her inner voice continued. “ You know I have the training Rhydian, take me on this raid and let me protect Sal.”

“Why would you help Sal?”

“I’d be helping Lily, who, unlike your notoriously absent ass, has done nothing but treat me like a person and not something to be protected for fear of damaging the merchandise.”

I’ll admit, that stung.

“What’s happening?” Jae said from beside Lily. “Is this that thing that she can do? Are they having an entire conversation in their heads?”

“Yes. I believe they are, and it is quite rude,” Lily said, drawing Rieka’s startled eye. “Speak aloud. Now!”

I knew what the result was going to be the moment I answered my sister. But was it ridiculous to hope they saw reason? Lily continued to glare at me, waiting for my answer.

Rieka just had to say the next words aloud, giving me no recourse. “So it’s ok for me to go on a run when you want but not when I offer?”

I huffed, rising to my feet in frustration.

“Someone speak now!” Lily demanded.

“I offered to go on the raid to help Sal and Rhydian is flatly refusing.” The words flew off Rieka’s tongue with ease.

My sister scoffed, a clear indication she was unimpressed with me. “You didn’t tell her?”

“Tell me what?”

I kept my eyes on my sister as I directed my words to the woman they all believed my wife. “I hadn’t found the right time.”

Sometimes, given her current state, I forgot Lily was still a Runner.

“Tell me what?” Rieka repeated.

Eyes like my mother’s, both disappointed and impressed at the same time Lily told Rieka what I could not. “The Runners voted to bring you on the next raid. They were just waiting for Rhydian to tell you.”

Rieka slowly turned her gaze to mine. “Glad to know someone sees my worth.”

Sal and Rieka left a few minutes later, followed by Jae. Lily had asked him to find her something to eat from The Kitchen since she was craving something sweet. Lily always kept a stash of things for the pregnant women aboard the train.

As soon as the door closed, I waited for the scolding. It didn’t come.

Lily just stared at me. Her eyes burned into the back of my head as I walked over to their small personal bar and poured myself a drink that burned on the way down.

“What?” I said finally, unable to stand her glaring any longer.

“I showed you everything that occurred in your absences. Everything she did that I could observe because you asked me to keep an eye on her for you. And I did that because you’re my brother and I love you. But you’re being a truly shitty husband.”

I downed another glass.

“Rhydian, she’s making the effort. Why aren’t you?” My sister’s sincere words were blades carving the lie into my skin.

Because we're not married , I wanted to tell her. Because I’ve sold her to one of those purist fucks who think giving themselves a prestigious title like Naven takes away from the fact they enslave other human beings. That if I do not do this my niece or nephew will be born in a prison they may never leave and their parents likely won’t live to see them walk. That I’m no better than those fucking slavers and the thought of wanting to touch Rieka after making that deal makes me want to cut my own hands off.

I committed an unforgivable act. One I doubt even you would forgive sister.

“I know you Rhydian. I know it is not love. Not yet at least. However this relationship occurred, Rieka is here now and I can see she cares for you, that you both care for one another. But if you don’t see it going anywhere, break it off and let her be with another.”

Oh, how I wish I could.

I took another swig. When I was finished, I gave Lily my sincerest smile. “I’ll try harder. I promise.”

I intended to keep my word. But I had work to do right then. I had a mission plan to alter. So I sent word to the others that we needed to go over logistics. Amida was to leave the train at midday to scout out the location for the best routes to the medical facility and Anika was to go with her as backup. Jordry would provide ground support.

We spent the better part of the morning going over the mission to make sure nothing would go wrong. An impossible task in reality. We went over the contingencies that now included Sal and Rieka, and triple-checked the list of supplies we needed to bring back on the train.

I had blueprints permanently tattooed to my eyeballs by the time we finished, and the only way to get rid of them was to order Si’mon and Mal to spar with me in the hall.

It was early afternoon when I finally made my way back to my office, the kharee cravings more enticing than the thought of seeing Rieka again after Lily’s room. Entering the corridor, though not stopping until I was certain I couldn’t sense anyone approaching, I entered my office through the closet.

My senses detected the intruder before I saw them. The Void pouch I’d hidden in the closet, was meant to keep the old library I’d commandeered as my own personal quarters a secret from the other passengers, but it was useless against the one person who was immune.

Rieka.

Lounging in the tub, her hair pulled off her face in those braids of hers, the colour of her roots so altered since the first time we’d met that her hair could have been mistaken for black. Her naked body reflected back at me through the water in large ripples. It was there that I saw the position of her hand and what she had been doing right before I entered the room.

“Shit, sorry,” I mumbled and turned to leave.

Wait, what am I doing?

I turned back around and strode over to my desk, flopping down into my chair, the entire time feeling the weight of her stare. “This is my room. You should be the one to leave. You’re trespassing.” I leaned back in an attempt to feel relaxed. Something I most certainly was not.

Rieka cocked her head in the tub, her voice oddly amused. “I’m in the middle of something.”

“Well then finish up,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant about the fact I’d walked in on her masturbating in my tub.

“You don’t like it when people do things that surprise you?” She arched her back in the tub so that her breasts bobbed just above the water as she moved her hand between her legs.

“In my experience, people rarely surprise me.” A wicked smile appeared on her face at my words, followed by the smallest of bites to her lower lip. Still dressed in my sparring pants, and currently shirtless Rieka’s eyes trailed down my chest.

“You want me out of here, then help me finish.”

Now that surprised me.

Of course, it could have been a game, another move on her part to seduce me, to move me one step closer to achieving her agenda. But it could also—

“Help you finish?” Curiosity taking over, I leaned forward resting my elbows on my knees. “And how exactly would you like me to do that?” My gaze drifted down her chest, lingering where she rested her hand on her right breast.

“The same way you did in The Fight Hall. Take over.”

I sat upright. “You want me to puppet you? Why under the Sphere would I do that?” Rieka responded to my shock with a shrug.

“Because I asked you to.”

I brushed a hand over my chin expecting to catch my beard and finding only stubble.

“I’ll let you control me under one condition,” she continued. “You let me feel it. None of that black-out shit.”

This was insane. And fucking stupid. If I let her feel the puppeting, I’d feel it too. Hemopaths had mental safety mechanisms in place specifically to ensure we didn’t feel those we controlled. If every Hemopath that performed puppetry felt the pain they inflicted on their opponents there would not be any of us left. The only Hemopath I knew who did it was Lily because she claimed it led to synchronicity with Jae when they were intimate—a conversation I would have preferred never to have had with my baby sister.

“You want me to make you come? Without touching you?” It was an enticing offer.

“Otherwise,” she said, continuing in a tone that was both nonchalant and a fucking dare. “You just have to watch as I take my ever-loving time doing it myself.”

“We do this, and I won’t release you until you come. Not until you beg me. Agreed?”

Rieka studied me with a predator’s gaze, her eyes raking down my chest like those claws hidden beneath her skin. Then with an amused expression, she lifted both hands from the water and threw them over the sides of the tub to recline. “I’ve begged for one thing in my life Rhydian. It would be interesting if you can make it two.”

“Agreed?” I repeated.

She cocked her head again staring at me from beneath her long white lashes, she the predator and I the prey. “Agreed.”

I stood from my chair and moved it across the library until I was directly opposite the tub. I sat and centred myself, opening my senses to the room. Rieka’s heart was a beacon urging my taint towards it as if they were tethered to one another. Her heart and mine. The tether snapped into place and I waited.

One heartbeat. Then two.

On the third beat, our hearts beating as one, I dropped my walls.

Everything came in a rush. The heat of the water, the chill of the air on her shoulders, the sensation she felt between her thighs that teetered between pleasure and pain, and the ever-present urge to make herself writhe in that pleasure. I felt everything she did.

I’d known Bloodhounds who needed to perform the physical acts to control; to punch the air to make their puppet punch, but I’d never needed to. That kind of Bloodwork was always for show.

I sensed her body, the way the muscles responded to commands and a thought occurred to me. I found the place in her brain I needed and blocked it.

“What are you doing Rhydian?” she asked curiously, no doubt now feeling the lack of sensation in her arms.

“We agreed that I would let you feel it. Not that you would feel like you were the one doing it.” I moved one of her arms back beneath the water until her hand rested on those thick black curls between her legs. Slowly, in small back-and-forth movements, her fingers slid between her folds as her other hand roamed the already sensitive skin over her stomach.

She kept her eyes on me, her mouth slightly open.

Gently, two of her fingers parted her folds whilst her middle finger found her clit. I made the motions slow. So slow that Rieka’s eye rolled back into her head just as I felt a throbbing sensation low in my own body. My breathing faltered, my grip tightening on the arms of my chair. The sound caused Rieka’s eyes to flash open.

I don’t let the moment last. Her roaming hand reached her breasts where she cupped one before I made her lightly feather her fingertips over the skin around her nipple. Her eyes closed once again as the finger on her clit began making long circular movements, applying pressure with every pass it made.

Her breath hitched in her throat as our heartbeats increased. The sensation that I felt roiling just below her navel and just above her pussy built. I watched as a word started to form on her lips, and I waited for it. She caught herself, biting her lip as she pinched her nipple between her thumb and forefinger, the sensation sending sharp pings of pleasure through my chest.

I increased her movements until her back arched against the wall of the tub giving her the perfect angle to reach down and insert two fingers into her pussy. She moaned at her own penetration; the sound so exquisite that my cock grew hard.

I knew she was fighting it. With each movement of her fingers, she cried out in pleasure, her body writhing in the tub. Rieka craned her neck back over the tub’s edge as the speed with which her fingers fucked her increased. Each time I felt it within my own body, the edge, that precipice of ecstasy I slowed her movements only to build it again seconds later.

“Rhydian. ”

Her inner voice was breathless, delectably so. “Yes Rieka,” I said aloud, my own voice barely controlled. She took her entire lower lip into her mouth as I increased the movement on her clit.

“Please,” she moaned aloud, her inner voice, a perfect echo of her plea.

I gave her what she craved, delighting in the way her body quivered against the release of that pressure. I rode it out with her until our chests were heaving then I released her.

With her arms now her own once again, Rieka’s hands floated to the surface, her fingers splaying out on the water as if the last remnants of her orgasm persisted in those very muscles. Finally relaxed, she opened her eyes and stared at me.

Was that awe I saw in her expression? I would have sworn on the very blood in my veins that this woman had never experienced that kind of pleasure before. It was gone a moment later and Rieka abruptly stood in the tub, the water splashing over the side and onto the hardwood floor.

She must have been so determined to bathe in private that she would have had to cart the water here on her own. There were no water pipes in this room.

Rieka climbed out of the tub and quickly wrapped herself in the towel she had brought. “Thank you for your assistance,” she said, barely glancing at me from over her shoulder.

I relaxed back in my chair; the cockiest smile I think I’d ever had could not be pulled from my face as I said in reply, “It was my pleasure.”

Rieka cleared her throat before bundling her clothes off the floor into her arms and quickly striding out of the library like her ass was on fire.