Chapter 25 The Empyrean Call
The Empyrean Call
Sheba emerged from the velvet depths of sleep to find the guest quarters bathed in the soft, cobalt glow of the ship’s idle-state lighting.
Beside her, Idan was deep asleep.
His massive frame hogged the center of the mattress while he breathed heavy, his muscled chest rising and falling steadily.
She tried to rise, then winced, a dull ache reminding her of the bruising on her temple.
At the same time, her consciousness bloomed, pulsing with signals caught in the cross-talk of a billion souls all the way to the rim.
Clenching her fists, she summoned the barriers Zavier placed in her mind, and the noise faded.
She remained motionless for several minutes, slowing her inhales to calm herself.
Needing to feel Idan’s hands on her, heat-seeking his healing touch, reassurance, and comfort, she leaned over him.
Sheba pressed her lips to the sinewed column of his throat, her mouth finding the pulse that beat beneath his bronzed skin.
Her tongue traced a vein all along his nape.
Her fingers glided over his forearm, her caress light as a feather, until she caught a subtle hitch in his breathing.
Idan turned his head, opening his eyes as they ignited with a molten amber luminosity, locking onto hers.
He reached out, his hand cupping the back of her neck.
‘Good morning, beautiful,’ he murmured, his voice a gravelly resonance that vibrated through, under her, and into her ribs. ‘Ko’Sawa?’
She took his hand and placed it on her bruised temple.
He got the memo, his fingers releasing a golden glow.
It hit her with heat and a blissful surge of radiance, almost like he was injecting a narcotic into her veins.
She relaxed, her discomfort melting away. ‘I could get addicted to you, hell, I’m already obsessed.’
He chuckled, sliding closer, nibbling her earlobe.
‘Hey,’ she murmured, her utterance dropping to a provocative whisper, shifting her hand to his nape, sinking her hands into his thick fall of hair. ‘Take me out of my mind, transport me out of these voices crowding me, shatter me with your touch.’
‘Fokk woman, you take my breath away,’ Idan rasped as he turned to her, his diamond-hard cock searing her stomach. ‘I’m the one who’s so high on your aura and essence.’
Sheba shifted, slipping her thighs over his, straddling him until she pinned him down, hands splayed over his sinewed, muscled chest, where his sigils flared with desire.
‘I can see waves of heat radiating from your skin, Idan,’ she muttered, in wonder as her desire ratcheted. ‘I hear the blood rushing through your heart like a flooded river. It’s so wild, I want to explore all your senses and dive deep into the crux of you.’
Bending over, she seduced the remaining sleep from his limbs with a slow, deliberate series of kisses that traced the sinewed muscles of his chest.
They stripped the little clothes they wore between them, before falling on each other once more.
Idan cupped her tits, suckling on her hard tips, lashing them as her pussy, wet and ready, swirled over his throbbing cock.
When he finally flipped her onto the pillows, the experience fractured into a kaleidoscope of sensory extremes.
The contact of his skin against hers sent jolts of static electricity through her nerves.
The Ssignakht magnified every touch until her entire body tingled with a hyper-conductive energy.
When his thick obsidian-tipped phallus slid into her, she had to suppress her screams.
The sensation of being stretched ripped out of her in waves that seemed to surge beyond the edges of the universe.
As they moved together, the room dissolved into a spectrum of incandescent light.
Sheba didn’t just feel the slickness of his skin; she discerned the atoms storming beneath his dermis, as their passion ratcheted.
She caught the sound of soft abrasion of the sheets, as if it were the crashing surf.
Sheba perceived the rhythmic contraction of his muscles as a series of glowing, topographical shifts.
Her psionic anchors held firm against the galactic noise, but they quivered with the sheer force of her own pleasure.
Sheba arched her back, her fingers digging into the hard slabs of her lover’s shoulders as a surge of crystalline white light flooded her vision.
The diamond dust in her pupils flared, aligning with the radiance of his sigils that cast a pulsating, strobing glow on the walls.
Every nerve tip felt as though it had been flayed open and rewired with liquid starlight.
From her toes to her lips and even the tip of her nose, she tingled as the oncoming deluge of bliss rolled over her.
She let go, screaming harder than she ever had as she bucked through her ecstasy.
Over the next few minutes, her body shuddered and trembled as she writhed through a series of never-ending orgasms.
Afterward, as the intensity ebbed into a warm, humming afterglow, Sheba lay tangled in his arms, her heart hammering, chest heaving.
‘Wow, that was the most intense, freakin’ mind-blowing, incandescent, star exploding ecstasy-filled savagery I’ve had,’ she breathed, still reverberating all over.
‘Still want to give the mask back?’ Idan whispered into her hair, his hand cupping her breast, his thumb teasing her still-swollen nipple.
Sheba followed the shimmering particles of light dancing around them, still trying to make sense of her profound experience.
‘Nada,’ she replied, a smirk touching her mouth. ‘I think I’ll keep the upgrade.’
He laughed into her nape. ‘Fokk yeah, I want you to, because woman, you’re wild on it.’
Two nights later, in Kainan and Selene’s penthouse atop the Sable Tower, Sheba stood alongside her sister in the kitchen, arranging platters of smoked meats and artisan cheeses.
The views from the windows offered a panoramic sweep of Eden II’s skyline.
Inside, the air was cool, saturated with the scent of roasted coffee and delicious food.
‘Sounds like you’re falling hard for him,’ Selene remarked, in a muted murmur intended only for her sister’s ears.
She reached out, brushing a stray curl away from the healing mark on Sheba’s temple. ‘I’m seeing a glow on you I haven’t freakin’ witnessed in years, perhaps never.’
Sheba felt the heat rise in her cheeks, a deep crimson flush.
‘I’m gone, Sel, with him, my world is off the charts,’ she confessed, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. ‘My senses too, they’re wild, amplified. Every vibration, scent, and emotion takes me on a whole new high.’
She paused, a shy smirk touching her lips. ‘And the sex? It was already intense, but now, after this Draquis mask-meld, it’s more sensuous, more primal, and fokkin’ savage. It’s beyond comprehension.’
Selene let out a soft, knowing chuckle. ‘You deserve it, woman. I’ve told you how I thank the stars daily for Kainan’s meta chimeric potency because our lovemaking is out of this world. Now it’s your turn to enjoy the gods’ bounty.’
Laughing, the sisters moved back to the dining area, platters in hand.
Molan and Rina sat tucked next to each other at the dining table, while Zane and Illanna occupied the far end.
The wrap-around terrace was a riot of motion as the various Riders’ children played chase, their laughter ringing out over the expansive deck.
‘Dinner is served!’ Selene called, and the group converged on the spread of the cheese platters, crusty breads, vibrant salads, grilled swordfish, and citrus, spice, and olive-infused rice.
Sheba found her place in the circle, settling beside Idan.
‘The table feels empty tonight,’ Rina noted, passing a bowl of leafy greens.
‘Issa and Ki’Remi are halfway to the Outer Rim on a new mission,’ Zane replied. ‘And Riv is stuck in Katane playing diplomat with K’élisa and the Killen.’
‘Don’t forget Xion,’ Molan added between bites. ‘He’s tethered to the security hub while Katya is off on a ski trip with their spawn.’
‘Is it thirteen or fourteen kids now?’ Kainan growled with a mock-grimace. ‘I can’t keep up with that brood.’
The conversation continued amid bursts of laughter, as they piled more food onto their plates.
When the meal concluded, the children retreated to the play suite for popcorn and a movie.
The adults helped themselves to kahawa and thick slices of chocolate dessert cake and moved to the sumptuous living room.
Kainan opened a bottle of aged whiskey, pouring generous measures for Molan and Idan before sinking into his favorite worn leather armchair.
His meta-golden, flame-etched eyes reflected the amber glow of the hearth as he and the men discussed the recent mission at Ignis IV.
‘We’re now prepping to face the god-king himself,’ Molan rasped, his fingers tracing the rim of his glass.
‘Be careful. Sulfiqar, like most gods, will hate being thwarted,’ Kainan stated, sipping his nectar. ‘If he senses any dissension in you two, he might turn this sector into a cauterized scar on the map of the galaxy just to prove a point.’
‘The question,’ Idan growled, ‘is where do we meet him? It has to be far from civilization, so if we attack, there’s little collateral damage. However, it needs to be dramatic enough to offer him the theater of our surrender.’
Kainan inclined his head, eyes narrowing in thought.
‘Arrange a summit on the Eden Maria, the desert moon plains,’ he eventually offered. ‘It’s quite the panorama, isolated from any city. Yet close enough for Mirage to monitor his every move and for us Riders to respond in case things get out of hand.’
‘Should we give him a tribute?’ Molan asked. ‘Something to pacify the narcissism.’
‘Nada, we’d only puff up his freakin’ ego,’ Idan counseled. ‘I say we go in empty-handed and humble, appearing weak and malleable.’
‘Why do these deities require so much ego-stroking?’ Selene groused, leaning against her husband’s arm. ‘It’s narcissistic to the point of exhaustion.’