CHAPTER NINE
“I can’t possibly knowwhat your women want nor do I care to learn it,” Fetch said to Fathom and Fin from the private balcony overlooking the forested mountains.
“We are not asking for intricacies,” Fathom said when hitting the wall they all three shared regarding the intimate details of their relationships. “A template, a model, a blueprint would suffice.”
Fin added, “Elixirs, lores, runes.”
Fetch placed his palms on the rail, angling his head at them. “What you are needing is specific to your female. Mine is nothing like yours and vice versa,” he happily reported.
“How would you know this since you don’t know ours?” Fathom marveled, his patience growing fangs.
“When you finally mate with your wife, you will fathom what I’m saying.”
Fathom stared at his brother, wanting to throw him over the balcony.
“Allow your wife to make suggestions,” Fin all but demanded.
Fetch’s head shook. “Not opening that door, brothers.”
Fathom eyed Fin as he walked off, the air sizzling in his wake. He regarded Fetch again, his powers stirring with the need to avenge. How had his lust grown barbaric?
“I’m going to see Kaphas,” Fetch said.
The change of subject acted as a hot iron in his wounds as Fathom held the cement balcony rail, wanting to crush it. He pushed his thoughts toward Kaphas and all that needed fathoming with him. With his own fetching abilities, he knew why Fetch was going to see him. There was much to learn in the evolving young being that required their fetch, fathom, and finishing gifts.
“You coming?”
“I am,” he muttered, pushing off the rail. “But not with you.”
Fetch’s chuckle put barbs in his spine as he went to find Rosalie.
“I do think you’re on the right path,” he offered behind him as he discerned his wife was in their private bathroom.
His chest filled with a hungry growl as he let himself into their bedroom and locked the door. What must be done with her had been fetched but not entirely fathomed. But before the day was up, it would be finished.
****
“DEAR brOTHER,” FETCHannounced to his brooding new sibling sitting on the floor in the corner of his containment room. He was filled with all the new things requiring to be fetched. With his rapid growth schedule, Fetch could likely collect them every hour after each of his births.
Had anybody else fathomed what he was yet? He was thinking Fathom and Fin hadn’t or they’d have mentioned it. Was it because he was the only one who’d mated with his woman that allowed him to see more than his siblings?
Fetch sat next to Kaphas, looking around at his holding cage. “This brings back memories,” he mused. “Except yours is missing a female begging to have her soul raped by your cleansing powers.”
“As you have surely fathomed, she doesn’t want me,” he said simply, the matter settled and yet hardly.
“About that...”
“Don”t attempt to convince me I should return to being Handy. I won’t.”
“I have fetched as much. I’m here to hopefully fathom it.”
“It’s simple. I’m not Handy. I’m Kaphas.”
“That is assuredly a finished fact,” Fetch said. “But Handy is part of Kaphas.”
“And Kaphas is forevermore the prime mover of this vessel. And she must choose him.”
Fetch angled a look at him, realizing. “You’ve fathomed this.”
He aimed his golden eyes at him. “I have more than fathomed it. I have finished it,” he said with an eerie calm.
“Pain is telling Butterfly about you as we speak. She will come and you may fetch those same things that I have.”
“I know there are many things to learn,” Kaphas indulged. “I have layered and ordered them in accordance with what must be. Whether I remember what I fetched and fathomed doesn’t matter. It is finished.”
Fetch nodded. “And do you understand your powers brother?” he asked. “We cannot have a dangerous repeat of last night.”
“Maybe you should be speaking to my creator since I’m yet lacking my full fetching and fathoming skills. He surely took long enough to act.”
“He said your defenses hacked the chill chip to prevent shut-down,” Fetch said, still amazed over that one. “But...perhaps he was actually distracted with his own female. They can become larger than life and death.”
“Can’t say I fathom it.”
“But you will. Have you spoken to her since?”
“No. But she’s next in the que.”
“And you’re not thrilled,” Fetch discerned.
“I can easily live without fetching and fathoming my own things, but I can”t seem to handle it with her.”
“The female,” he whispered, his body responding as thoughts of Rowan began to sing through his blood. “She is indeed a remarkable being. Fetched by blood and bone and only partly fathomed while finishing. Each day holds another puzzle. And you think you fathom this puzzle, but no, no, no. That would be a misfathoming. Every puzzle is different.” He lolled his head to Kaphas, grinning. “I fetch a little excitement has cropped up in your blood.”
Kaphas stood and paced as Fetch discerned exactly what it was. The same consuming fire in his brothers.
“How much have you tasted?”
“I want to tear the world apart for one drop of what she holds for Handy. And every second I’m alive, I despise him more for it. That’s how much I’ve tasted.”
Fetch stood now too, hearing Pain heading their way with a very anxious Butterfly. “Your company is here. But before I go, I need to impart a little gift that I fathomed.”
****
KAPHAS WANTED THISdestined meeting done so he could get on with his issues with Celeste. He didn’t know why this meeting was required but everything in his memory bank said it was. This woman played a pivotal role in his evolution and the faster he learned how, the quicker he could get on with that evolution. He had one more death, and the countdowns were becoming excruciating.
Once he was fully grown, then something else would begin. He didn’t know what, but within him was an eagerness to do whatever it was.
He heard the outer door open then a soft knock on the glass. He came around the room divider and made his way over to the door of his room, opening it.
The second their eyes connected, something in his mind opened. Those drawings on his eyelids returned but they weren’t strange now, they were symbols that defined her. She was a key. And he knew her better than he knew his brothers and himself.
“Butterfly.” The word barely carried on his breath as they stared at one another.
“Handy?”
His head shook but it lacked his earlier conviction as her voice sparked every neuron in his being.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “Kaphas.” Her small smile stirred him in ways he needed to understand. “That’s a... really badass name.”
Her smile grew and he stepped aside to let her in, eager for what he felt coming now.
“Thank you,” he said, watching her as she entered. He shut the door, realizing. “You’re not afraid of me.”
She looked over her shoulder and turned, smiling. “Why would I be?” Her gaze moved over him, and her smile grew. “Wow.... look at you.” A breath rushed out as her eyes glistened back on his. “You finally got your very own body.”
What he’d done to her came to his mind and for the first time, he felt the full meaning of his actions. “I had to hurt you,” he whispered. “It was the only way.”
She nodded a little at him, her forehead pinched over clear blue eyes. “Pain told me.”
He held her gaze as memories connected to events. “You were supposed to be for him.”
She smiled more. “I sure was. And now I am his. That woulda been the deal with or without that pregnancy. But I know Quantum required it. I understand. Even though it hurt like a muthafucka.”
He angled his head, realizing something he hadn’t once considered. She wasn’t angry over his lie as much as she was hurt over... “You wanted the baby,” he marveled, wondering why he never imagined or thought such a thing.
She lowered her head and nodded. “But... I know the drill. God’s mind is above all,” she said, wagging her finger in the air before aiming her half smile at him. Seeing the purity in the blue depths with his very own eyes had him spellbound. “His perfect will, that’s what I always say, that’s what I believe. When God wants me to have a baby—if He ever does—ain’t nothin’ gonna stop me from havin’ one.”
He stared at her, and she stared at him. “Can I give you a hug?” she wondered, her face filling with an aching need he was intimately familiar with. So familiar that he closed the distance and opened his arms.
They were magnets. The way she flew into him and wrapped her arms tight meant something profound at the very base of who he was. She was more his creator than Quantum was. He lowered his hands over her back, marveling that he was touching her. More profoundness. He was feeling her with his own body and the awe that produced came from secrets in the depths of him he’d one day understand.
“I don’t hate you,” she murmured against him. “I could never hate you. You know that, right?” She pulled back and looked up at him and without thought he lowered and kissed her forehead. Her breaths shook with emotions that he shared with her, just before they were replaced with Fetch’s gift. And just like he said, he suddenly knew exactly why it was perfect even while not having a clue how he’d give her such a life.
His thumb moved over her cheeks, feeling her tears. Happy tears. He felt them. Shared them, even while being unable to produce that. Would he ever be able to?
She grabbed his hand and kissed it then turned at finally sensing Celeste who was watching them from the outer room.
“Guess my time is up,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him tight one more time. “Never forget who you are, Kaphas. And how much we all need and love you.”
Very aware of Celeste’s eyes on him, he lowered and kissed her forehead once more. “The universes may pass away, but I will stubbornly remain.”
Her big laugh entered him and knitted up a million little fissures as she pulled out of his embrace.
His hands missed her the second she turned and made her way to the door. “I’ll let your other Butterfly in on my way out.”
She gave a peculiar knowing giggle that he instantly recognized. It was one of the many signatures of her soul. She had a secret drawer full of them. A special one for every person she met and touched.
Before she was out the door, his universe shifted to his other Butterfly. The little creature that called to every appetite within him, both the known and yet to be known.
The moment she entered his room wearing her white habit from head to foot, the air shifted with something he didn’t recognize.
“Hello,” she said, as she entered his room and closed the door, avoiding his gaze. He allowed that one word to meander its way through him, contemplating the odd taste and color in her voice. He’d wondered how she felt about everything that happened the night before. Did she know he’d nearly killed her and the rest of the people there? He wasn’t happy to learn that about the chill-chip. He preferred having others to blame besides his half-baked self. But as much as he dreaded with all his being the death he’d suffer in a few hours, he needed to finish it. He needed finishing. As Fetch said, it couldn’t happen again.
“Why did you come?” he asked, ready to get to that and what still tainted her voice.
He eyed the surprised look on her face. “Well...I thought we were friends,” she said, appearing unsure.
Thoughtthey were friends. “Has that changed?” he wondered, mindful of his new powers stirring oddly in him.
She folded her arms at her waist then dropped them, looking at the floor. “I don’t know, did it?”
“Why would it change?”
She hugged herself and moved oddly about in place.
“Are you in pain?”
She finally met his gaze, and he identified confused anger in it. “What do you mean?”
“You’re moving around like something pains you.”
She made sounds similar to exasperation. “Nothing has changed on my end regarding our friendship,” she assured.
He recognized the same heat in his blood from the night before as he focused on that one word she’d stressed. Nothing had changed on her end. “Nothing has changed on mine, either.”
“Were you mad at me for talking to that Creole King?”
It was everything surrounding that question that interested him. That odd color was back in her words.
“I wasn’t doing any different than you, now was I? ‘Cept, I spoke to only one Creole King while you spoke to all my sisters. Also, I know why you were speaking to my sisters, which was not the same reason I was speaking to that King. In fact, I didn’t speak to him first, he spoke to me, and as a guest, I was obligated to speak back.”
Finally understanding the taste and color in all her words came with more heat in his blood—and alarm. His little jealousy trick had worked. That’s what he was experiencing. Her jealousy. For him. Not Handy.
“You find this funny?” she accused, crossing her arms under her breasts now, more agitated.
“I find this...amusing.”
“Well, that’s the same thing,” she informed. “Are you malfunctioning still?”
The flustered question made him smile more.
“And you know, maybe you weren’t told yet, so...as a friend, you should know Butterfly and Pain are married before the eyes of God. It’s not my business what you do but...again, as your friend, it’s inappropriate to have her here unchaperoned and...I accidentally saw you kiss her, and that is a sin, unless she’s a close relative.”
He turned when all that heat in his blood gathered in his cock and doubled its size. He quickly gathered his thoughts, realizing she was officially playing into his first plan. What was the next step? He couldn’t remember if he’d even planned one. “You are surely a good friend,” he said, deciding he was enjoying her jealousy too much to end it too quickly. “Did any of your sisters express interest in me?”
“Well, if they did, I didn’t hear,” she muttered.
“I liked quite a few of them.” He faced her when he realized his body wasn’t getting dangerous, it was getting dangerously aroused. “Did you hear from Handy yet?”
“What do you mean hear from him? Do you know where he is?”
Hmmm. How to respond. “I have hunches.”
“Well is he here somewhere?” she demanded, her breathless hope hitting something sadistic in him.
“I would think if he was, he’d have contacted you somehow.”
“If he was, he’d surely contact me, he’d find a way!” she said, her faith shadowed with little doubts.
“Surely,” he said. “I know if it were me, I’d tear the world apart to get to you.” He recalled the dress she’d worn the night before. “By the way, I never got a chance to tell you.”
“What?” she wondered, worry softening her voice.
He made his way over to her, the closer he got, the more direct his path to her. He stared down into her upturned face, watching the many emotions surfacing then hiding. He affected her greatly and he was sure nothing could satisfy him more. Except watching it multiply. “You looked beautiful last night. You reminded me of...”
Her brow furrowed. “Of what?” she wondered, her urgent need to know tickling his hunger.
“It’s silly.”
His little champion rose up in his defense. “There is nothing silly about whatever you think and feel.”
“A strawberry,” he confessed. “And you’re right. There was nothing silly about what I thought and felt. That was the wrongest word possible.”
“Well...” she allowed in her angelic way. “Whatever the words you think and feel are your right to have.”
Was his arousal touching her? She behaved like it might be. It was definitely potent enough to reach across the charged distance between them. “Edible,” he decided to correct. “But it was only when I wondered if your intimate garments matched your dress that this became the perfect description for what I felt. Could you feel it from across the room?”
She was trapped in his gaze, and he hoped to keep her there. “Felt...what?” she dared.
“How I wanted to consume you.”
Every part of his new body tuned in to the changes in hers. His power followed the heat running through her as he moved the tips of his fingers over her cheek, then across her lower lip. She closed her eyes, blasting his skin with her hot hunger. He could feed it in that second if she’d let him. She’d allow him take as much as he wanted. Then she’d suffer with guilt.
He slid his fingers along her jaw, watching her mouth open more, watching her drown in her own, panting need. “If you were mine, I would kiss you this instant.”
She gasped and he raised his other hand, stroking her lower lip, exploring the full silk.
“And while I kissed you, I would raise your dress...” He pushed the tip of his thumb further, feeling the wet heat as her every breath turned frantic. “And sneak my hungry hand inside your panties and discover the fire burning between your legs.”
His cock beat against his restraint now as he relished in the obscene sex he wasn’t having with her. “Which finger would I use to stoke this fire?” he whispered, moving his thumb along her teeth, feeling her tongue as her brows pinched harder. “Surely all of them.” He squeezed her jaw harder, her worried moans edging her breaths. Worried he would do it all, worried he wouldn’t. “You would have your first orgasm right on my hand. And it would be so powerful, you would forget all the names in your pretty head. Except mine. Kaphas,” he swore hotly as she sucked his thumb with a starved passion.
He used all his new powers to release her then turned, fighting the war he’d ignited inside himself. “But...you are not mine. I’m merely your friend.” He glanced over his shoulder toward her. “I should accept this fate and be grateful I have at least this. I will lock away all these hungers that rage through my body. Until I know if the sister I picked wants me.” He paused, looking away to hide his smile. “Scarlet. That’s her name. Maybe you can ask her if she would be mine.”
He closed his eyes at the sound of the cell door opening and her little feet racing out of the delicious hell he’d created just for her. He’d give her an hour. And then he’d call his only friend and request she attend his next birthday party. Maybe he would ask for one kiss for his birthday gift. Or one orgasm. Just in case he didn’t survive the torture session. Imagining any part of her touching his cock sent his powers reeling inside him, seeking not a way to obtain it but an opportunity. That’s all it needed.