"All right," she said, taking a deep breath. "All right, I'm sorry. I just kind of...lost it there for a moment."

"Understandable," the big Kindred rumbled. "I am told that a rush of l.u.s.t often accompanies the first flowing of a Khalla's nectar."

"Am I? Flowing?" Emily looked down at herself and was horrified to find that one breast was now noticeably smaller than the other. "Oh my G.o.d, I'm lopsided!" she exclaimed.

"It's only that I haven't drained the nectar from your left breast yet." He stroked the full globe which still radiated an aching fullness that Emily could feel all through her chest and torso.

Her left breast suddenly started aching so fiercely she didn't know if she could stand it.

"Well, uh, can you? I mean, if you don't mind?" she asked desperately.

"Of course I don't mind, my Khalla," he said gently. "It's just that..."

"Just that what?" Emily demanded, beginning to get worried. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "It's just that while I was draining your right breast, your nectar should have started flowing spontaneously from the left. Do you remember what I told you-that a Khalla's b.r.e.a.s.t.s should flow like a fountain when she is in the second stage of Scintil?"

"Yes, of course I remember." Emily shuddered. "Ugh, I really don't want that to happen."

"But it needs to happen," he said earnestly. "Otherwise your b.r.e.a.s.t.s will continue to fill with nectar with no way to relieve them. Well, other than for me to continue draining them for you."

Emily bit her lip. "Oh, I'm so sorry. That's...it's really not fair to ask you to do that. Is there someplace we could buy a breast pump around here?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you seriously suggesting that we use an artificial device to pump the nectar from your b.r.e.a.s.t.s?"

Emily shrugged. "Well...yeah? Why not?"

"Because it's blasphemy," Tragar said harshly. "Even worse than the sacrilege I commit by sucking it from you with my mouth."

"Okay, sorry!" Emily threw up her hands but the sudden motion jiggled her full left breast, making her groan. G.o.d, it seemed like it hurt even more now that the right breast was back to normal! Why was that?

"Forgive me, my Khalla." Tragar cupped her full globe, caressing her gently with his big, warm hand. "I should not be debating with you when you are still in pain and need. Allow me to help ease your discomfort."

Without waiting for a reply, he ducked his head and sucked her left nipple deep into his mouth, taking as much of her breast between his lips at once as he could.

Emily gave a long, low moan of mingled pleasure and release as she felt the deep pressure begin to ease. Before when he'd sucked her, she'd had her eyes tightly closed. This time, though, she watched...watched as the big Kindred sucked her full globe, caressing and ma.s.saging her breast to help her release the nectar. She watched the strong column of his throat move as he swallowed, drinking her down, taking all she had to offer and looking for more.

The sight of the big Kindred sucking her breast made her feel hot and breathless. He's just doing this to help me-that's all, she told herself. I have to stay in control this time! But her stern lecture to herself didn't help-she couldn't help getting aroused all over again. His hot mouth on her tender peak giving her pleasure and relief from the constant pain she'd been in for so long was s.e.xual and healing at the same time. With each deep pull on her nipple, she felt an answering surge in her p.u.s.s.y until she was nearly moaning with desire.

Without thinking about it, she sank down in his lap until she felt the thickness of his shaft brushing against her outer p.u.s.s.y. She had the sudden urge to feel him against her again, to feel him sliding against her as he suckled her nipple in strong, deep pulls. Sinking lower, she felt his thick c.o.c.k nestle between her p.u.s.s.y lips until he was rubbing against her swollen c.l.i.t...rubbing in just the right way.

Oh G.o.d, feels good...so good!

"Emily..." Tragar stopped sucking for a moment, looking at her warningly.

"What?" she asked hazily. "I'm not...not trying to put it in me. I just want to rub against you some. Is there some law against that? Is it more sacrilege or blasphemy or whatever?"

"No, but it makes it d.a.m.n hard for me to resist you," he growled. "Feeling your soft, hot little p.u.s.s.y rubbing against my naked shaft makes me long to breed you which I know I must never do." He gave one last deep pull on her breast and then sat back. "I am finished now, anyway. It's time both of us covered ourselves."

Emily looked down and realized her b.r.e.a.s.t.s were the same size now. Which was still larger than she was used to, but not nearly as huge and swollen as they had become ever since she'd entered the second stage of her Shift. No more p.o.r.n star t.i.tties!

"Thank G.o.d," she said aloud, breathing a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad that's over."

"I'm afraid it's not." Tragar looked troubled. "Your nectar is still not flowing spontaneously as it should. And I think I know why-look." He pinched one of her nipples gently, rolling the turgid pink point between his thumb and forefinger until Emily gasped in mingled pain and pleasure.

"What...why...?" she began.

"Look," Tragar said again. He was pointing to the thick amber droplet of nectar he'd squeezed from her sensitive peak.

"What's wrong with it?" Emily asked. "It's clearer now-not cloudy like it was before."

"It's also much thicker than it should be," Tragar rumbled. "Which is why I had to suck so hard to get it to flow in the first place. Your nectar should be almost as thin as water right now-instead it's like dabra-berry syrup."

"I don't know what a dabra-berry is, but I take it that's not good?" Emily asked.

He shook his head. "Not good at all."

"Are you sure you don't want to just get a breast pump? I mean, if it's so much work..."

"It is my very great pleasure to suck your b.r.e.a.s.t.s, my Khalla," he rumbled, his eyes burning with need. "But even if using a mechanical device to pump out your nectar wasn't a sacrilege, it would not be possible. Your nectar is simply too thick."

"What are we going to do?" Emily asked. "I mean, when I, uh, fill up again. Because I will-won't I?"

"I'm afraid so." He looked at her gravely. "I will simply have to keep sucking your peaks at regular intervals until the nectar begins to flow spontaneously-if it ever does, that is."

"I did this to myself, didn't I?" Emily asked in a small voice. "By putting the star-silver d.i.l.d.o-thing up inside me, I mean."

"I'm afraid the star-silver is to blame. You, however, are not." He cupped her cheek. "I take full responsibility for this on myself. I should never have left you in the shuttle where the voice witch could find you."

"I still don't remember much about her," Emily confessed. "Only that she seemed really nice and sweet and that she wanted to help me."

"That is a false memory," Tragar said harshly. "She did her level best to harm you, my Khalla. She sent you into the Howlund alone and unarmed at a time when all of the males there were near their Change. You might have been killed."

Emily shivered. "I admit waking up in the middle of a bunch of h.o.r.n.y guys with no idea at all how I'd gotten there wasn't the best experience I've ever had in my life. Three of them tried to attack me-if it hadn't been for Saskia-"

"Don't speak of it." There was a pained look on the big Kindred's face. "Please, I beg you."

"All right," Emily said quickly. "I was just saying that these Wulven Kindred guys are dangerous. Somebody needs to put them on a leash-literally."

"They are extremely dangerous-even more so when their Beast is near the surface," Tragar a.s.sured her. "You were blessed by the G.o.ddess to have escaped with your life. My point is-you can't trust anything the voice witch told you. You have to purge her teachings from your mind, Khalla."

"All right," Emily said. "I don't remember much of anything she said anyway. I-" The Black Milk, whispered a tiny voice in the back of her brain. You must drink the Black Milk.

"You what?" Tragar asked, frowning.

"Nothing. I lost my train of thought." Emily frowned and shook her head. "Look, it's late. We should get to bed."

"True." Tragar pushed her gently off his lap and fastened his trousers. Emily couldn't help noticing that his shaft was still extremely hard and achy-looking. She felt guilty-what they had done had probably given him the worst case of blue-b.a.l.l.s in history. But if so, the big Kindred didn't say a word about it. He simply nodded at her as he rose from the bed. "I must go and get ready for sleep."

"All right." Emily smoothed down her nighty and crawled under the living flower blanket. She was relieved to find that the sheets below it seemed to be made of actual fabric-not petals. "I'll just..." She yawned. "Just wait for you here."

"As you wish." Tragar stroked a strand of hair from her face tenderly. "Pleasant dreams, my Khalla."

"Thank..." Emily yawned again. "Thank you," she finally managed to get out. She thought he answered something but she didn't catch his words. Now that the constant ache and pressure in her b.r.e.a.s.t.s had eased she felt relaxed and sleepy. It had been a very, very long day and suddenly she couldn't hold her eyelids open one more second.

Her last sight was of the big Kindred walking towards the fresher but her eyes closed before she could see him pa.s.s through the curtain of vines.

Tragar went into the fresher, ostensibly to get changed into the blue sleep trousers his old Master had loaned him. Actually, though, he needed time to himself-private time.

He stripped down and turned on the shower, getting into the coldest spray he could stand-then he turned it even colder. Control-he must regain control! But every time his shaft started to go down, he remembered the soft moans Emily made when he sucked her b.r.e.a.s.t.s...or the hot feeling of her sweet p.u.s.s.y wrapped around the head of his shaft...or the sweet, forbidden taste of her nectar...

G.o.ds, what have I done? He had committed the worst kind of sacrilege known to his people and now it seemed he must continue committing the same blasphemous act over and over again, sucking the nectar from Emily's b.r.e.a.s.t.s because it refused to thin and flow as it should.

Shouldn't have swallowed it, at least. Should have spit it out, he told himself. But she'd already asked him if he didn't think it was "gross" to ask him to relieve her need by suckling her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. As if such a thing could be possible! But for some reason she was insecure about her body, especially since the Tenrah was causing it to change so dramatically. Tragar hadn't wanted her to feel she was disgusting him when nothing could be farther than the truth. In fact, he felt honored beyond measure that she would trust him to do such a thing, especially considering the pain in her past.

But if he was honest with himself, it wasn't only his wish to keep Emily from feeling bad about her body and the service he was performing for her that made him swallow her nectar rather than expelling it from his mouth. Her nectar had been too sweet-to deliciously addictive to lose a single drop. Though he knew what he had done was wrong, he could scarcely wait to do it again. Could scarcely wait to hold her warm, willing body in his arms and hear her moan for him as he pulled her tight peaks deep into his mouth.

This is why drinking the nectar of a Khalla is forbidden, he thought. Or one of the reasons, anyway. Once her nectar fills your mouth you want nothing more than to possess her completely.

It was true-a Khalla was considered a national treasure-an ent.i.ty who had to be free to wander the world, dispensing healing and fertility wherever she went. She could not be tied to one male-not even her chosen mate. She was meant to go among the people and bring them hope and strengthen their faith in the G.o.ddess. How could she do that if she was being kept under lock and key by some jealous male who wanted nothing but to keep her and her sweet nectar for himself?

It was wrong and already he felt the impulse to keep her close, to never let her go. Tragar fought it but he feared it was a losing battle.

No, he told himself sternly as the icy water flowed over his still rigid shaft. It is not for one such as I to possess the love of a Khalla. I do not deserve her-not after all I've done. I must get her safely to the Holy Mountains of Rageron and then resign myself to giving her up to another male-a male more worthy and pure of heart than I.

Just the thought of that-the idea of another male's hands on Emily's soft, supple body, was enough to bring a low, possessive growl to his throat. Tragar swallowed it with difficulty. He had to fight these feelings-feelings which he'd believed were dead and buried with his beloved Landra. But how could he fight the feelings of love and need if he had to continue to suck the delicious nectar from his Khalla's b.r.e.a.s.t.s and hear her moan his name each time the sweet release made her come? Tragar didn't know.

Oh, he was in trouble here...so much f.u.c.king trouble...

"According to the spybot the female is fine and all of the star-silver devices have been removed." Y shut off the viewscreen which he had been using to view the somewhat distorted images sent by the small, furry genetically altered rodent his Master had sent to spy on the Earth female.

"Yes, it is most inconvenient," Master Two buzzed like an annoying insect in Y's brain.

"What shall we do about it?" Y asked. "Do you want me to kill her now?"

"No, of course not, you idiot! Why would you ask such a thing?"

"Because you told me that you wanted the girl dead."

"I also told you I wanted the Verrak a.s.sa.s.sin to care for her before she died. You do not understand the subtleties of the situation, Y. He cares for her but I want him to care more-I want to see them bonded before we tear them apart."

"Bonded?" The word sounded strangely natural in his mouth yet Y didn't know what it meant.

"Yes, yes-bonded!" the Master hissed impatiently. "It is a life-long tie which forms between a Kindred and his chosen female when they give themselves to each other completely. Our a.s.sa.s.sin friend was bonded once before and he lost the female he loved and yet survived. I do not think he will survive a second loss but we shall see..."

"So their love must be complete before we kill them?" Y didn't like the idea a bit-again, it seemed needlessly cruel. But who was he to criticize the Master?

"Exactly. So they must get closer quickly. And do you know what brings people together?"

"I have no idea," Y said honestly.

"Adversity. So let's throw a little in the way of our lovely couple, shall we?" The Master cackled wildly in his head. "Let's see what the Verrak say when they find out that the contract I paid for still has not been fulfilled."

And Y's head was filled with his mad laugher-laughter that went on and on and would not cease, no matter how he wished it would.

Chapter Twenty.

"This is the place." Kate looked around, her fiery red ringlets moving in the slight breeze. "This is the right school-I know it."

"But it's not called George Washington Elementary," Rone objected, gesturing to the lettering on the brick side of the administration building. "It says Center for Academic Excellence'."

"I don't care." Kate narrowed her clear green eyes, almost as though she could see past the letters and right through the side of the school to something else. "This is it-no question. It feels right. And besides, it's the place I saw in that big Havoc's head and the dream."

"Then it must be so." Rone inhaled, taking in the myriad of smells that swirled around the long brick building they stood in front of. He wished he had just a whiff of the missing girl's scent to start with. If he knew what she smelled like, he could track her to the ends of the Earth with no problem. But all they had was a vague idea of what she looked like, the name of the school she worked for, and her last name.

It wasn't much to go on but he and Kate were doing their best. For a little while they'd been certain they had her-there was a George Washington Elementary in the state of North Carolina which felt right and had a Ms. Brooks working there.

However, when they got there, Ms. Brooks had turned out to be an older female on the edge of retirement, who had been happily joined to an Earth male for the past forty years. The false lead had been incredibly frustrating-especially since they knew the girl they were seeking was in grave danger and might be killed at any moment.

Then Kate had been woken in the middle of the night by a Knowing dream-a kind of vision which occurred very rarely. In fact, Rone had only known her to have three other such dreams in the three years they had been joined.

It scared him to f.u.c.king death when she had them because of their effect on Kate. He'd been holding her when this one occurred, watching her sleep because he loved the look of peace on her beautiful face.

Without warning, she had gone stiff in his arms. Then her eyes rolled up, showing only the whites while her pet.i.te body trembled all over. It looked like she was having some kind of a deadly seizure and indeed, the first time it happened, he'd been sure she was. This time, however, he'd recognized the signs and waited with a pounding heart to hear what she had to say.

"Tampa..." Kate had whispered in a soft, ghostly voice that sent chills down his spine. "The girl is in Tampa. Look to the North of the city...find her there...or find where she has been. Her loss is great for she is the one...beloved of the G.o.ddess..."

Rone had waited a moment but there was no more forthcoming. Just Kate rigid as a board in his arms, her face pale and dreaming.

"Kate? Lalli?" he'd asked anxiously, using his pet nickname for her and patting her cheek. Lalli meant girl cub or little girl among the Wulven people. It was how she'd looked to him when he first met her-before he realized her diminutive size wasn't due to extreme youth or inexperience.

Even after finding out she was a fully grown female, the nickname had stuck. Kate didn't seem to mind-in fact, she'd confessed that she rather liked feeling little and protected when she was with him, though she fiercely resented any implication that she was small or helpless from anyone else.

At that moment, as she trembled in his lap, she had seemed so fragile. Rone was frightened, as he always was, that she wouldn't come back this time. Finally, though, her eyelids fluttered.

"What?" She had looked around, obviously confused. "What happened?"