Chapter 23
23
It was weird and funny, how fast and hard her heart was beating. She was more invested in finding out what her little nanomachines were made of, or if they even existed, than she’d revealed to herself.
“I have to touch you to do this,” Willow said, asking permission with both her eyes and her words. She placed her hands on the table, palms upward.
She stared at those hands and saw more than slender fingers. Scary? Yes.
Not doing this would be silly. Wouldn’t it?
Very deliberately, Cyn put her hands into Willow’s and was surprised at the heat—hotter than her own skin and exciting in some way. A barely detectable vibration spread up her arms.
Willow closed her eyes. “Don’t speak while I do this. Please.”
The seconds ticked by, then surely it became minutes. Willow’s mouth moved and seemed to whisper words of some foreign language—soft and almost not-there. The minutes sludged by, slithered past, worming new worries under her skin and into her head. If she could fix cancer, what else might this woman do… This beaster woman?
As she’d thought before, it was obvious that beast was nothing like the right description for whatever the beasters had been injected with. Was it magic? Some sort of barely scientific pseudo-crappery to do with telekinesis and telepathy and spoon-bending shite?
Whatever it was, she would find out. This was why Vargr had been fascinated with her from the start. She was the anomaly, and maybe, if they couldn’t figure themselves out, they could figure her out? With that knowledge… the Ghoul Lords might be brought down.
Not that it wasn’t his cock that was leading him places now.
She squirmed on his lap, absorbed in the solid feel of his hands on her thighs, of how close his fingers were to a place she’d love to have them go—between her legs. She was getting way too warm, and her nipples were betraying her arousal, again.
Vargr kissed her neck and made this moment shimmy . Her eyelids lowered, rose. Wrong place, wrong time. Turning her head, she barely caught herself from saying something about not flirting.
A grin spread on his face. She scowled, but his fingers wandered closer to her center. Heavy fingers, possessive, nice fingers. She licked her lips, swallowed. Her mind tumbled again into that pause mode, where sex snuggled in and blanketed thoughts of anything logical.
Just be his. Sit here. Let him.
Oh yeah.
Cyn managed to scowl at him again until his fingers delved directly between her slightly spread thighs and draped over her, covering her clit, and more. Only her tights were between him and her.
Fuck , that definitely felt good. Tingles spread in a vast warm wave.
“You two, behave,” Willow intoned. Her eyes opened, shining blue. “Okay, here is what I found, in spite of all the sexy fucking about you two are doing. Yes, I can feel that too when I’m doing this. You need to go get a room, both of you.” Then she laughed.
Denying that would be useless, besides, she found herself smiling.
Vargr shook his head and sighed. “Two of you dissing me?”
“Dissing?” She swiveled in his lap. “You need a dictionary, man. This is more… teasing?”
“Bingo.” Willow sat back, releasing Cyn’s hands and she folded her own on her lap. “ You have nanites.”
“Wow. Believe me, that’s actually a relief.” She blinked and waited.
Absentmindedly, Willow reached up and began twirling a lock of her drifting, blue hair. “If that’s what you needed, I can confirm it. I saw nothing to say you are anything dangerous. No evil lurking parasites, but I really don’t know what a Ghoul Lord would leave behind inside someone. Okay?”
From the corner of her eye, she saw Vargr nod.
“Nothing else?” he added.
“Well, a little more. These nanites are smaller, faster moving in the bloodstream, and there are more of them. They look red when examined and are hard to see among the blood cells, while ours do actually seem blue. None of that means much, since we have no reference books on nanites. The last thing. Cyn, yours have writing on them I managed to decipher.”
“Oh?” Vargr sat straighter.
“Does maelstrom mean anything to either of you?”
“It’s tattooed on the back of my neck and is also written on Little Mo. This is a mech bug that follows me.” She indicated Little Mo, who’d sneaked into the tent and sat waiting beside the inner tent wall. “Maelstrom was the last experiment done by Dr. Nietz to try and defeat the Ghoul Lords.”
“Fuck me. Really?” Her fingers stilled in her hair. “So you might be some sort of remnant of a last weapon? I… am going to organize a meeting to discuss this. I’m on the Worshipper council.” She levered herself to the front of her chair and tapped the desk. “If there’s anything else, any other information you have, you can say it there. Also bring this critter here.” She pointed at Mo. “We need to do something more than just say words.”
She sure hoped so. The energy in this woman . “Yes. True. Let’s do this.”
“At dusk. It should be organized by then. People are out doing stuff. Be ready. Explore the place or go sleep in the meantime, just stay in the camp. We retreat into deeper rooms when daylight hits. An old habit even though the GLs don’t seem to bother us anymore. Least, not until you and your caravan arrived.
“And keep that critter with you so nobody lights it up with a weapon or kicks it over the edge. People are suspicious of anything new.”
“Okay.” She stood. “Thank you. There’s no payment required for this?”
“No. Gratis. What would you pay me with?” She grinned, her tongue licking out to her top lip and back in.
“Well. Thank you again.”
It struck Cyn at how that reflected on this new world. Values had been reorganized. Sexual favors and relationships of all sorts were, perhaps, more valued than material goods, for those could be unearthed everywhere. Decaying, but everywhere. What had the caravan brought that was worth anything to the Worshippers? People?
Vargr put both hands on her butt for a second then rose to his feet and moved aside. “Thank you, Willow. I like where this is going.”
When Willow stood, he reached forward and shook her hand. Cyn did the same.
Yes, yes. Things were happening. Cyn felt as if her eyes were on fire.
Damn, this was promising.