Chapter 6
Chapter Six
POLLUX
Edgar’s been gone for what feels like forever. He left behind his watch, and based on the hours I’ve tracked, it’s been only two days. I look out of the tree, gripping the bark, and sigh. Where is he?
I shouldn’t have let him go. Why did I? Maybe because I want to make sure he really wants to be here. For him to keep coming back on his own and choose me—me with him.
“What’s with all the gloom and doom?” someone says from below. My eyes lower and I hop onto a branch, wings lightly flapping.
“Over here.” Finian waves from the ground, wearing a strange covering.
“Like my new dress? Works better when I have feet.” He sways from side to side, framing his face with his webbed hands.
“It’s nice,” I squawk out. He can speak and understand many languages, mine included. He’s taught me a little of his too, so I can usually follow when he makes the switch between the two.
“I stole it from a human on a large cruise ship.”
I make a high-pitched sound with my throat, shaking my head. “You can’t keep taking what doesn’t belong to you.”
“So many of us do it.”
“Here is different,” I breathe out. “It’s…it’s.”
“Uncivilized,” he says in blatant English.
“Yeah, that,” I say in the same language, not as clearly as I’d like it to come out.
“You spoke English.” His voice jumps in excitement.
“Yeah,” I say in Edgar’s native tongue again.
“That’s great…wait…but why? Is Nova back?”
“No Nova. Edgar.” My heart drops when I remember he still isn’t here.
“Edgar?” A crease forms between his brows.
“Yeah. Mine.” It’s the only term I can think of to call him.
“Yours?” His eyes widen. “What do you mean? Like a pet from the human world?”
“No pet,” I respond. “Human.”
“A human? Like a real one…not in those boxes they call TVs or a book?”
“Yes. Real. Feels good.”
He laughs, perching himself on the nearest rock. “I don’t believe this. You like a human. How did this happen? Did he come here or did you fly through some random portal by accident?”
I shake my head, grunting out in frustration. I know he can understand me when I speak the language of my kind, but I can’t help but be jealous of him for knowing Edgar’s so well. He’d be able to communicate with him better than me.
“It’s okay. You can talk to me the way you usually do.”
“I wish I didn’t have to,” I mutter, folding my arms in front of me, my wings following.
“I can always teach you more English.”
I blow out a bubble. “I want Edgar to teach me. He promised to come back.”
“Did he?”
“Yeah, but…but maybe he got stuck somewhere. Maybe…he’s in danger.”
“Or maybe he decided what he got from you last time was enough. Lots of human men are like that. I’ve ended up in the beds of several, only to be tossed out once I was no longer this new and shiny thing to them.”
“They do that?” My chest tightens.
“Yeah. At least from my experience. Or maybe he’s just busy and he’ll be a little late.”
Sighing, I fly to another branch and cross my legs. “Maybe. I want him to come back already. It was less lonely when he was here.”
“I bet.” He waggles his brows. “I’m guessing you two did more than talk and sit around like we’re doing.” His lashes flutter.
“We…we…” I twist at my fingers, biting the inside of my cheeks.
“He drilled your insides, got it.”
My mouth hangs open, my face heating. “What? There was no drill involved.”
Laughing, he slaps his leg. “No, silly. It means fucked. Used his cock to give ya a good pounding.”
“This English language is weird.”
“You’re telling me.” He leans back on his hands, lifting a knee. “So, what’s he look like?”
“Like…like…” My words stop coming when Edgar appears behind him, holding two bags.
Finian whips his head around and then looks back at me. “I definitely approve. Tell me all about this visit later, okay?”
Jumping off the rock, he lifts the front of his dress and takes off in the opposite direction Edgar came from.
“Hi, pretty birdy.”
“Hi.”
“For a minute I thought that was going to be someone you planned on rescuing me from today, but then he didn’t try to eat me. He also spoke English.”
“Friend. Finian. Siren.”
“Ah. I see. Have you two been talking about me?”
“Yes. Missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too, baby. So much. Want to come down here and give me a hand up the tree? Or a wing, I should say.” He laughs half-heartedly.
“Yeah. Up.” I fly down, my feet hitting the ground harder than intended.
He pulls me into him, kissing my mouth and rubbing his nose to mine. “I really missed that too.”
“Kiss,” I say.
“Yeah.” He smiles. “And I plan on doing a lot more once we’re inside.” He eyes the top of the tree.
“More. Yeah.” Lifting myself off the ground, I latch my bottom talons onto his shoulders and lift him in the air, swaying as I go higher. My wings flap and I soar up to the tallest branch, setting him down lightly. He looks back at me, giving me a half smile before crawling into the hole.
“Home,” he says, settling himself in my nest.
“Home.” I move next to him, stretching my legs out beside his, and he grabs my hand, kissing the back. His lips move up my wing and then back down to my palm.
“I have something for you. A few things actually.”
Sitting up taller, I look over to where he’s reaching into a large bag. A long piece of cloth comes out with his hand. It’s soft and fluffy. He lays the box-shaped item over my lap and I tug at it, poking the top with a talon.
“It’s a blanket. For your nest. It’ll keep you warm and it smells like my bed. Made sure it did.”
Bringing the item to my nose, I inhale it. It does smell like him. I breathe it in again, rubbing it over my face, and then I smile at him. “Feels good.”
“Yeah. It’s snuggly like me.” His lips tilt to one side. “Want to compare and contrast?”
Laughing, I nod. “Compare.” Tossing the blanket to the side, I tug him on top of me and he seals his lips over mine. A hand slides up my clothing and he nips a trail to my neck, rubbing his face in my feathers as he rubs a finger outside my hole.
Moaning, I lift my hips to seek out more. “More,” I beg.
“Did you miss this, baby? Me touching you? Me kissing you? Me being inside you?”
My head bobs and I lift his face to mine to crash our mouths together, my tongue flicking between his lips.
Another finger presses against me and then they slide inside, one wiggling all the way before he adds the other.
Oh, it’s so, so good. I did miss this, but mostly because it means he’s here now.
He was only a little late. My friend was probably right about him being held up by work.
Making my thoughts scatter, his fingers go in deeper and he curls them. My heels jump against the floor and I spread out like a starfish, rolling my hips. I make sounds I didn’t know I had in me, kicking forward and curling my toes.
His fingers move in and out, spreading apart to stretch me more.
“So tight,” he says. “I need to help you relax more down there. I know just the thing.”
Before I can ask what, he snakes down my body and shoves his face between my thighs.
His tongue invades my hole, licking his way deeper.
I pant, bucking my hips and sliding my claws into his hair.
I rub at his scalp, humping his face, and I smile up at the ceiling, wondering if this is what humans describe heaven as feeling like.
My stomach tenses, my hand falling from his head, and I lose control of my limbs when he swirls his tongue, hitting so many wonderful spots.
I cry out, hooting and laughing in between as I come undone beneath him. He kisses each of my feathered thighs and smiles up at me, licking his lips. “I was in need of a snack. Thanks for giving me the best one I could ever ask for.”
I light up inside, lifting him up my body. He pecks my lips and leaves the taste of me behind as he collapses beside me.
“So…do you like having me on top of you more than the blanket?”
I move my hand from side to side, twisting my lips, and he laughs, lightly punching my shoulder.
“Where’d you learn that from? I’ve seen you do it before.”
“Finian.”
“He teaches you a lot, huh? I don’t need to be jealous, do I?”
“No jealous.” I turn my face to his, stroking his hip. “Yours.”
“Mine,” he says back and kisses me. It’s patient and gentle, lasting longer than any of the others we’ve shared. We both gasp for air when we finally break away, and he sits up to shove his hand back in his bag. When he lifts it again, there’s a small tree made of plastic wrapped in his fingers.
“A tree?” I sit up too, head tilting as I touch the branches.
“Christmas tree. It’s for Christmas, something humans celebrate. It’s a holiday in December.”
“December?”
“Yeah. This month is called December where I’m from.”
How strange to name days. We’re too busy trying to stay alive to really think about things like that, I guess. “Christmas tree.” I touch the object in his hand again, our hands briefly brushing together.
“I brought it to share some festivity with you, and to have a place to set my gifts for you.”
“Gifts?”
He opens his mouth and closes it before it breaks apart again. “It’s a lot to take in, I know, and that’s why I brought this.”
The next thing he takes out of his bag is black and has a flat surface on both sides. That’s until he opens it and hits something that makes it light up.
“This is a portable DVD player. I don’t need it anymore, so it’s yours to keep. I brought some movies to go with it too. Christmas movies.”
I touch the bright square and then jump when it makes a noise.
Smiling, he taps the side. “Sorry. I didn’t realize how loud I had it. Do you know what movies are?”
“Yes.” I watch as he slides a shiny silver circle into the DVD player.
“Let me guess…Finian told you.”
I nod, scooting closer, and lower my eyes when a man shows up in place of the bright blue light.
“That’s the menu. I’ll hit play once we’re comfortable. This is called The Santa Clause. It’s funny and one of my favorite Christmas movies.”
I motion to the blanket. “Comfortable.”