Exquisite Possession: A Dark Scifi Romance (The Machinery of Desire Book 4) Page 11

  “Thank you, I believe I should say. If you come with me, the scavs will follow. That makes me getting hurt less likely. I asked them myself but they won’t follow me.”

  JI sniffed, hard, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand while he thought. He planted his palms on his thighs. “You’d wipe out every last one of those scavs with a sneeze, M. Reconnoiter, find him if you want to, but go tell Ryke afterward. Then leave it in their hands. Let mekkers handle mekkers.”

  He leaned forward. “You’re a free mech now. Find something beautiful to do.”

  “Beautiful.” On deadly sharp pincers, he rolled backward, forward, backward. “I’d rather do something good and worthwhile. Farewell, JI.”

  “Farewell, M.” Neither of them was altering the other’s mind. “I will miss you.”

  “I also. I will miss you. Friends forever.”

  “Friends forever.”

  Were these tears, this water leaking into his eyes?

  He watched M disappear down into the stairwell. Another part of his life, gone.

  The mechling surgeon was taking a long while.

  This Osta possibility that Fern raised had been weighing on him.

  Aunt M had not been willing to try her skills on him and explore his brain. She possessed knowledge, but not this sort. She knew mechling innards back to front, not human brain surgery capability. Ditto the mechlings.

  He was the only one gifted with any true understanding as to how he’d transferred his mech brain into Osta. Only he was capable of finding and hunting down any aberrant Osta brain cells.

  If he could.

  Mobilizing his neural tissue had once been simple, if of limited use until the wolf-spider mech showed him how it could ravage another’s mind. He concentrated down, turning his awareness inside-out, willing himself to find that part of him…far down inside, deep, where his darkest thoughts dwelled.

  Where are you, Osta?

  Where. Are. You.

  To wriggle a single neuronal strand, to swim it through a finger, even that was a good beginning. It would show promise.

  He tried and tried, blanking out all else, straining, only to find nothing would grow or move or stretch. He couldn’t even feel himself like that anymore. He’d left this too long.

  Sweating, he woke himself to the outside world and found a mechling parked before him, on the lounge. Green polka dots and a fake row of black teeth at the front. Wow. Fern’s painting. This was one of the few mechlings that had the ability to speak aloud.

  If any part of Osta remained, it would have to stay inside him. Unless it started speaking words to him, he could bear it, surely?

  “Can I help you, JI? You wish this implant still?” Balanced on the tip of one elongated metal limb, held high, was a circlet of tiny spikes. Made especially to his design. It would thread around his cock, beneath the skin of the shaft. The thin spikes would project through the skin and larger spikes could be attached on, as needed.

  “Perfect.” He nodded.

  “Then please undo your pants.” It flourished several long needles in another limb, twirling one dexterously.

  Each of those would be inserted in the groin area, to deaden the pain. He wasn’t looking forward to that, for some reason.

  “I can watch the procedure?” he asked, undoing his pants and bringing out his cock.

  “As long as you don’t faint, yes. There will be blood. One other thing I almost forgot to tell you. Even with the grounder helping heal this…no sex for a week.”

  Damn.

  “Ready?” it asked, needle poised above his groin.

  “Go.”

  The needle slid in, disappearing into his flesh.

  Ouch.

  Chapter 18

  A week had passed since JI had collared her. Fern touched the spikes at the front. The tactile nature of this gave her a thrill every time. Not sharp but threatening, like the spikes on his cock that she’d glimpsed. Though he’d promised to talk more, their conversations had been trivial, as far as Fern was concerned.

  She touched up the paint on the little gray mechling sitting on the work table. This one had merely wanted spots and stripes in pink. The decorating sense of these guys was in its infant phase. Most of it wore or washed off within days, but it gave her something to do that satisfied her arty side. Waiting for monster season was frankly tedious, with JI being on a no-sex break.

  The light was fading. She looked up at the many small windows. Waik lights were never to be wasted. She and JI would retreat to the upper tower soon.

  At least this inner sanctum was much cleaner now – what with JI removing a ton of junk as well as the mechlings being fully powered.

  The clomping of boots from the foyer signaled his arrival – back from a hunt. Without refrigeration, finding enough food was a never-ending quest.

  The bag of still-wet fish and some Aerthe orange vegetable, along with aromatic green leaves, said he’d been to the camp.

  “Three new mechlings?” JI asked. “I saw them outside.”

  “Saw them?” She suspected he did more than that. Small clues had led to that conclusion. The little things hid well when underpowered. “But yes, three more.”

  And no new power cells.

  “I’ll have to talk to them soon.” She gnawed the end of her paint brush and told the mechling she was finished. It scampered away.

  She’d have to ask them if any wished to sacrifice themselves. For the greater good, as some might call it.

  “Yes, a difficult choice.” JI’s mouth twisted. “There are things I never saw before. That is one.”

  A vague statement. She chewed the brush some more, thinking.

  JI stewed over problems a normal person would take in their stride. Life was always that – difficult. One of the rewards she was grateful for was being able to help the mechlings. What was he grateful for? Could he feel joy over doing something good?

  “What do you want from life, JI?”

  “Life?” His eyebrows climbed and stayed high. “I…don’t know. Small things occupy me. You, for instance.”

  “You’re deeper than that, I think. Or will be once you figure out how to be people.”

  “Be people.”

  Her smile encouraged him, she hoped.

  He stood over her and swung her swiveling chair so she faced him squarely. “You sound like M, before she left. She has ideas, dreams, of doing great things. I didn’t…quite, agree.”

  It came to her that JI was unique. That there was no one else to guide him. She wasn’t a perfect person, neither super good, nor bad, but she could help him. Teach him maybe. The simplest things tripped him up.

  “Remember I asked you whether any part of you was Osta?” Fern placed her hand over his where he’d rested it on her knee then playfully, she painted a wiggly pink line on the back.

  He nodded, wary, judging by those narrowed eyes.

  “Is there a reason you think that? Apart from your fetishes?”

  “No. I don’t think that.”

  Blunt. His face had set in concrete. Ugh. Still she had to start somewhere.

  “Like, I was wondering if Osta had a soul, which is a theory from my world, that there is an essence of you that lives on even when the body dies, that maybe –”

  “No. His soul is not in me. I told you I’m all me.”

  “Then why does the choking idea concern you?”

  He huffed out a breath that made her visualize a bull snorting at a matador. His hand arrived over her mouth and he hauled her from the chair,

  Squeaking, she went where he directed. Maybe she’d gone too far?

  “Talking is good, JI!” she said, muffled.

  “Not this talking.”

  The old cage where she’d kept birds was before her, the door swung open while she protested. He thrust her in.

  “Stay.” The door slammed shut and she swiveled to look. Damn, he was serious. “Be good.”

  The last had been said with some amusement, and a glitter in
his lowered gaze. She met his eyes, pouted. Dangerous yet sexy hot. The man had switched and she’d felt it somehow, the change in direction. She also liked the rising bulge at his crotch where his pants held something she’d not seen much in a week.

  “I think, I like you in a cage.” He backed off and paused to observe her, then put his hand over himself and adjusted. “Crawl to the front. Mouth there.” He pointed at the cage door.

  Oh crap, was she ready for this?

  Slowly, she crawled, glad that the cage had been thoroughly cleaned.

  “Have you been bad?”

  Oh, oh, this wasn’t her best side. She hated lying, and surely she hadn’t been bad? Fern shook her head.

  “No? I disagree. For that, I may have to punish your rear end. Make it nice and red. Striped. He undid his belt, slipped it from his waist, then draped it over the cage. It tinkled, and she couldn’t help staring, couldn’t help how her body responded with a leap of joy and what felt like a small gush of lubrication. A tingling.

  JI undid the front of his pants and pulled out that now massively pierced cock. Big before, now it had added dimensions – small blunt spikes sticking through the skin of the shaft a thumb’s length back from the crown.

  She’d swear that made her drool more.

  Even as she admired it, JI’s pierced cock enlarged and stiffened. If he fucked her too hard, what might that do?

  “Be good from now on, and I won’t attach the bigger spikes.”

  “Oh fuck,” she whispered.

  “Closer. Kiss the cage door, then open your mouth where I can get to it. Now.”

  Whimpering from a combination of fear and anticipation, Fern pushed her mouth to the cage, kissed the metal, then opened wide.

  The small slit at the front of his cock already exuded pre-cum and she tasted the salt flavor as he slid it into her mouth, over tongue, the spikes bumping her lips and making her open even wider, all the way in until she gulped and spluttered.

  When he began to fuck her mouth, she shut her eyes, appreciating the feel of fullness, the rigid taste of metal, the knowledge he was watching her take this in. His fingers fixed on her jaw, reaching through the wire, urging her closer, holding her by anchoring into her face.

  “Fuck. That’s hot. The spikes going in…you know where else they’re going soon.”

  Again she swallowed, hummed a yes, and managed a tiny nod that made his cock have to follow her movement.

  A thrill ran over her tongue and the smallest spurt of cum hit the back of her throat.

  JI withdrew.

  Daring to look up at him, she ran her gaze past the glistening length of his withdrawing cock, to his face. He studied her with a rapturous intensity.

  “You’re fucking perfect, my pet. That mouth…” JI halted, squeezed his cock, groaning on the exhale. “Turn around. I want that naughty ass at this end. I’m going to punish you with the cage open, then fuck you through the bars. Go. Move. Too slow and it’s extra strikes.”

  JI walked away and patrolled down the length of the aisle beside the cage. Her worry now was not what he’d do with his cock, because he sort of knew what to do with that, but what he planned to punish her with.

  He’d probably never hit anything he didn’t intend to kill.

  What had she provoked?

  Her bare feet nudged the door and she crouched lower, waiting. JI picked up a long object from a far table. Eyes fixed open she tried to see what he held.

  A bundle of wiring, several strands, coated with whatever they used instead of plastic, but thin. It was sure to hurt.

  The cage door swung open, squeaking. “Back out. I want it where I can reach with this.”

  The wires were cool as they slid over her ass in a gentle caress.

  The rain before the lightning. She sucked in a breath and he murmured, “Be still.”

  The swish made her stiffen, then the wires sliced across her ass, both cheeks, leaving a smart of sharp pain. Bearable, and she bit back any noise.

  Five more times he hit her – each time the force increased until the slap of the impromptu flogger cross whip had her hissing through her teeth.

  The sting faded as he stepped away and she saw a blur of movement where JI dumped the wires off to the side. Clothes slithered to the floor, shoes thumped, and a few seconds later he tucked his bare foot between her legs, pressing upward.

  “Up. Higher, girl-pet. You’re a female in heat. Stick it up higher. I know you want this. I can feel it. Dirty thing. You want to get fucked, want this in you.”

  He was pushing all her buttons at once – pain, humiliation, dominance.

  Fern shivered.

  She thrust her ass higher, embarrassed but definitely horny. The flogging had only reminded her of her own female parts, made them puff up. The sting of the punishment was still reverberating, so she lowered her eyelids to recall its blissful feel.

  The power he had over her was as much an aphrodisiac as the taste of him in her mouth and the pain.

  Already breathing hard, she watched him pace to the side from the corners of her eyes.

  “This can be yours.”

  In her mouth, close-up, the spikes had been difficult to see properly, now she savored what he showed her. The late light shone on the metal; the gleam was from their newness, as well as from how she’d welcomed them into one orifice already.

  How his hand squeezed down the length of it, stopping at those spikes. Gods. They were a crown of evil and she wanted them so badly, in her.

  If he didn’t fuck her with that soon… Fern whimpered, squirmed her butt, and squeezed her thighs together.

  “I thought so.” JI had a subtle smile that worked for her. A little bit of mean, a lot of adoration. “Should I make you beg?”

  The soft slap of his feet to the rear of her, then the opening of the door again, wide.

  A finger unexpectedly worked its way inside her. Fern gasped. His knuckles hit her pussy lips, and he could go no further. He fucked her there a few times, then worked two more in. “Have to get you good and open so I can fit. Want it?”

  Again with the finger fucking. Good, but not good enough.

  His cock? “Yesss.” Her guttural moan turned into a grunt as he rammed them in then sucked all three out of her.

  “You’re open, but this will likely hurt.”

  A shift of knee, a creak of metal as he gripped the cage to either side. Then his cock poked at her.

  “So sloppy wet, Fern.”

  He shoved, and the cage squealed as she did. The first touch of the spikes and surge of cock going past her entrance then inward, it crammed her opening wider than it should go. Then he slid even deeper. The metal on his dick was a solid presence, a part that should not go in there…which only made this kinkier, hotter.

  Fuck!” She ducked her head, breathing harshly past a lower lip that’d arrived in her teeth.

  “I could make you bleed with this. Maybe I should. You said you liked fear.”

  He went in and out, slow but so deliberate, and it made her groan and push herself at him.

  What had he said? Oh.

  “No! No, please don’t.” The fear was climbing to unmanageable levels. His threat went too far.

  “No bleeding for you? No?” His hand hooked into her collar, and he dragged her from the cage, sliding on her knees, with him still impaled. “You’re sure, pet-girl?” His fingers clamped onto her nape as he fucked her, as he added more words. “Answer me.”

  She brought her gaze down, and stared unfocussed out the cage ahead. The collar rocked on her throat. She choked and spluttered a, “No.”

  “Then I’ll be careful, so long as you’re good. Head down. Say thank you.”

  Fuck, that he listened yet made her obey, fucking hot. She moan-whispered a thank you as he pounded at her, pushing her into the floor as he held her. His other hand reached beneath and began to massage her clit, while he fucked her with his cock. His spiked cock she could feel glide and open her, and shove again. Deep. An
d she babbled thank you, in more soft tones, her nipples brushing the floor and punctuating the ram of cock, the play on her clit. Everything built and built, until she cried out and fell into an obliterating orgasm.

  The susurration of breath and thud of blood, of thoughts undone.

  Then he went at her just a little harder, plowing her into the aftermath of pleasure from being well fucked. He came in her. Her face was on its side, her eyes barely seeing, and with her shuddering in the aftermath of her climax, still.

  Fuck.

  Drool had spilled from her mouth.

  How had he known, she wondered, coming down, feeling him paw at her skin all slippery with sweat and other fluids. What had dripped where, she decided she didn’t care to know, not now.

  Blissful state.

  How did he know, exactly how much to scare her.

  When he let her, she collapsed onto her side, her limbs not working, and she stared outward. Breathing, only breathing.

  “Good, pet?” He put a hand to her shoulder, the pressure sticking her to floor. “You’re leaking cum.”

  Not surprising. “Mmm.”

  He spooned into her, cupped her breast as if he owned it, and she smiled, seeing that male hand on her, there, beside her nipple. “We can talk up above, tonight. Maybe.” JI kissed her shoulder.

  Maybe sounded wonderful.

  The poke of the spikes of his now flaccid cock, pressed into her ass, reminding her of what JI had done. Surely, she was in paradise.

  * * * * *

  That night the monsters came to the beach, for the first time. She watched from their bedroom floor, with JI in a big cup-like chair made of strips of dried plant. He held her, lying curled up in his lap, her head on his right arm, with him stroking her hair.

  Too much she thought, fleetingly, this was too good, too much, after all the terror.

  This fear was not a good fear. It was the paralyzing sort where you knew if you flinched, did the wrong thing, you’d attract something bad. Out there was always something bad.

  She stayed still, not breathing, until she had to or expire from lack of air.

  “I love your pink hair,” JI murmured. “No one else has this color.”