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Phury felt hands on his skin, s down his belly They were headed for the juncture of his thighs, and thank God for that His arousal ollen and hot and hungry God for that His arousal ollen and hot and hungry for release, and the closer the hands got to it, theand releasing as it gave in to the thrusting he was dying to do
His cock wept¡ªhe could feel the wetness on his stomach Or maybe he&039;d already co across his skin That special feathery touch made his arousal strain even harder, as if it could reach out and get in the way if it tried hard enough
S for his¡ª
Phury woke up on a body jerk that sent his pillow popping off the bed
"Shit"
Underneath the roll of blankets, his cock throbbed, and not with the usual a wake-up call No this was specific His body wanted so very specific from one particular feht next door, he pointed out to himself
And what a prize you are, the wizard shot back Why don&039;t you go to her, mate I&039;m sure she&039;ll be just thrilled to see you after the way you let her leave last night Not a word to her Not even an acknowledgue with that, Phury looked to the chaise
It was the first time he had ever fed a female
As he felt for her bite one, healed away
One of life&039;s great milestones had been retted it ith her Not at all But he wished he had told her that she was his first at the ti his hair out of his eyes, he looked at the clock Midnight Midnight? Man, he&039;d been asleep for about eight hours, clearly because of the feeding He didn&039;t feel refreshed, though His sto
As he reached for the wake-up blunt he&039;d prepared before he&039;d crashed, he stopped short His hand was shaking so badly, he doubted he could pick the thing up, and he stared at his pal no impression whatsoever
It took hiet the hand-rolled off the bedside table, and he watched his fumbles from a distance, as if it were someone else&039;s hand, someone else&039;s blunt Once the twist of leaves and paper was between his lips, he struggled to get his lighter in position and work the flint wheel
Two tokes in and the shaking stopped The headache evaporated His sto went off across the room and all three came back: The Priain
He left the thing where it was and worked his way through the blunt, thinking about Cormia He doubted she would have told hiht hours in this rooenerated by her bloodlust, and he couldn&039;t take it as evidence that she wanted hiht, true, but that was very different fro him, wasn&039;t it Need was not the same as choice She&039;d needed his blood He&039;d needed her body
The Chosen needed both of the out what little was left of the hand-rolled, he stared across his bedroom at the bureau The medallion had finally stalled out
It took him less than ten minutes to shower, dress in white silks, and put the Pri over his head As the slab of gold settled between his pecs, its weight arm, probably because of its workout
He traveled directly to the Other Side, having special dispensation as Priin&039;s courtyard Taking form in front of the Sanctuary &039;s ao, he found it hard to believe he really had taken Vishous&039;s place as Pri at his shaky hand: This just wasn&039;t him
Yeah, except it totally was
Up ahead, the white stage with its heavy white curtain glowed in the odd, relentless light of the Other Side Here there were no shadows, as there was no sun in the pale sky, and yet there was plenty of illuht source The terees, neither too hot nor too cold, and there was no breeze to brush over your skin or ruffle your clothes Everything was a soft, eye-soothing white
The place was the landscape equivalent of Muzak
Walking over cropped white grass, he headed around the back of the Greco-Ro quarters On the fringes, all around, there was a white forest bracketing the co vistas He wondered as on the far side of it Probably nothing The Sanctuary had the feel of an architect&039;s e, all you would find was a steep drop-off to soiant&039;s wall-to-wall-carpeted floor
As he went along, he wasn&039;t sure how to get the Directrix &039;s attention, but he wasn&039;t in a big hurry to make that happen To delay, he went to the Priold h the white le, lofty roo platform with its white satin sheets
He remembered what Cor fro at her throat todown and been horrified to meet her tear-filled, terrified eyes
She&039;d been gagged
He looked up to the ceiling, where the draping that had covered her face had been hung There were two tiny gold hooks embedded in thejackhaht back to a conversation he&039;d had with Vishous right before all the shit had gone doith this Pri roo had a vision of Phury
Phury hadn&039;t wanted deets, but they&039;d come out anyway, and the words the brother had spoken were oddly clear to hi at a crossroads in a field of white It was a stormy day yeah, lots of storms But when you took a cloud from the sky and wrapped it around the well, the rain stopped falling
Phury narrowed his eyes on those two hooks He&039;d torn the sheet down fro
She was the well the well that he was supposed to fill She was the future of the race, the source of new Brothers and new Chosen The fountainhead
As were all of her sisters
"Your grace"
He turned around The Directrix was standing in the doorway of the te the floor, her dark hair coiled up high on her head With her calm smile and the peace that radiated from her eyes, she had the beatific expression of the spiritually enlightened
He envied all that serene conviction
Aant in its Chosen dress code "I am pleased to see you"
He bowed back to her "And I you"
"Thank you for this audience" She straightened and there was a pause
He didn&039;t fill it
When she finally did, she seeht perhaps you ht wish to meet so did she have in h tea, the wizard chius sandwiches and sixty-nine scones and handfuls of your nuts
"Correet offer
"I saw her yesterday" The Directrix&039;s tone was kind but neutral, as if she didn&039;t agree with hiain "Forgive , and I was required by custoive her a scroll When I didn&039;t hear fro the day"
Good Lord, Corone and she&039;d said nothing about it?
She had told John, though, hadn&039;t she That hat the bracelet had been for
Phury wanted to curse He should have gotten her so
He cleared his throat "I&039;hted herself "It is your purview Please, worry not"
In the long silence that followed, he read the question in the Directrix&039;s kind eyes "No, it&039;s not done yet"
The feed "Has she denied you?"
He thought back to the floor in front of his chaise He&039;d been the one who had stopped "No It&039;s me"
"No fault could ever be yours"
"Untrue And trust me on that one"
The Directrix walked around, her hands worrying thewas an exact copy of what he had on, only hers was suspended from a white satin ribbon, and the chain to his ball was black
She paused by the bed, her fingers lightly brushing a pillow "I thought perhaps you would like to meet some of the others"
Oh, hell, no He wasn&039;t passing over Coruess where you&039;re going with this, but it&039;s not that I don&039;t want her"
"Perhaps, though, you should like to meet another"
This was clearly as close as the Directrix was going to get to putting her foot down and et another First Mate He couldn&039;t say he was surprised It had been five long months
God,another First Mate would be tanta a curse on Cor failed, and she would feel the sah that wouldn&039;t be the case at all
"Like I said, I&039;ht you perhaps beus? Layla, for instance, is quite fair of visage and li to do that to Corrace she suffers now I saithin her eyes" The Directrix drifted over to him "And moreover, the rest of us are trapped within our tradition We had such great hopes that our functions would return to where they have always been If you take another as First Mate and complete the ritual, you release all of us from this burden of futility, and that includes Corrace Any ain on that bed, tied down She hadn&039;t wanted this froht of her so quiet in the h to tell hi about her birthday Nothing about her wanting to go outside Nothing about those constructions in her bedroom
One stroll down a hallway didn&039;t make up for all he&039;d abandoned her to
"We are trapped, your grace," the Directrix said "As it stands noe are all trapped"
What if he was holding on to Cormia because, if she was his First Mate, he didn&039;t have to worry about the whole sex thing? Sure, he wanted to protect her and do right by her, and those were honorable truths, but the ramifications protected him as well
There were Chosen anted it, wanted him He&039;d felt their stares when he&039;d been sworn in
He had given his word And he was getting da oaths that he&039;d race, may I ask you to come with me? I wish to show you a place here in the Sanctuary"
He followed Amalya out of the Primale Temple, and the two of them were silent as they walked down the hill toward a thicket of four-story white structures with colu quarters," she murmured, "but you and I are not bound for the over