Temper: Deliverance: Book Three of the TEMPER Saga, page 10
Disheartened, Lana couldn’t force herself to stare outside any longer. Instead, her eyes fell on Honda’s pinched lips, on the deep lines of exhaustion engraved around his mouth and below his eyes, catching the worry and anxiety he couldn’t hide.
How I wish we could simply kiss and comfort each other… How I wish I wasn’t the cause of so much trouble and pain… How I wish he had never met me and they were both free and safe from harm… How I wish this could be over...
“I think…” Her hoarse voice wasn’t more than a whisper, meant for his ears only. “I think it will be easier if I just go to him… this nightmare will end… you and Yuki sama will be safe, no more –”
Her breath left her when he brought her down on her back in one swift move. In a flash, she recognized the pure, uncontrollable fury washing over his face. His hand flew to her jaw, pinning her under him.
Yuki and Natsuko gasped in shock and tried to pull him away, but to no avail. He brushed them away without even sparing them a look.
“Have you forgotten our most basic rule already?” Honda growled, face centimeters away from hers. “You do not go to him, for any kind of reason. You do not offer yourself to him or accept the hold he claims to have on you. Where is this impossible temper of yours? It should be burning up ten, a hundred fold, now that we finally see a way out! We will bring destruction to him, not the other way around!”
Red-hot exasperation rose to meet his and she hissed, grabbing his wrist. “My temper is doing just fine! But this has to stop! You heard your mother! There will be a price to pay to get help, there’s always one. And what will this be? What other sacrifice will be demanded? And who will pay it? Not you! Not her! Nobody else! I refuse to let this spread any further. It stops with me!”
“No!” Honda’s roar exploded in the room. “You give up out of pure anxiety, pure fear when there is no certainty, when we don’t know everything! This is worse than suicide. It’s capitulation, treason! You are stronger than this, and you will fight!”
As the sensation of his body pressing against her registered, as his raw, possessive impulse burned out of control, her own anger and frustration became tainted with another familiar need. A sudden desire to bite and taste his blood in retaliation, an urge to engrave his skin with her mark had her wet her lips in anticipation.
The pitch of his growl lowered, exasperation and fury no longer the only things making him shake. Desire and arousal surged in her body and mind. They were going down fast, but would any of them have the will or energy to pull on the emergency brakes this time?
Oh, for fuck sake… What a mess! Here? Now? With her in the room?
Right then, there was a distant shrill scream coming from the forest, but also inside her head.
Ah! So, you can feel this… Too bad, sucker, it’s not for you! Lana screamed in her mind this last thought, and the last shreds of her restraint evaporated. With a dark smile, she twisted Honda’s collar and brought her mouth to his ear, barely refraining from licking it.
“Someone is unhappy with us doing this. You want to destroy him? Why not start here?”
Fiery need and passion burned in his eyes, mirroring her own. “Okaa sama, Yuki san, leave us! Go back to the house!” he barked, barely civil, as Lana’s nails grazed his chest.
“Naruhito! This is totally unacceptable! Have you forgotten yourself? Get yourself under control!” his mother spat, outraged.
“Okaa sama, come with me please,” Yuki interjected. “We should prepare proper equipment if we are to go outside. Goshujin sama, when it is fine for us to come back, please turn on this lamp by the window. We’ll see it from the house.”
“Daughter! How can you approve this?”
Yuki steered the elder outside, and Lana could barely make out her answer. “She is his solution, and this is what they do and are.”
“This is… not smart at all, is it?” Lana panted, fingers pulling down Honda’s jacket to reveal his broad shoulders and heaving chest. “I mean… here of all places…” She bit his collarbone.
Honda pulled down her leggings and pants just enough to access her crotch. He wasted no time inserting a finger and rubbing her clit with his thumb.
“Timing and venue are terrible indeed, but hopefully, as long as no blood is spilled…” His teeth caught her earlobe as his other hand fondled her left nipple.
“No blood?” Lana pouted, pressing her pelvis against her intruding hand. “But… I wanted…”
Honda growled, and bit her nape; while it was much less harsh than usual, it was enough to make her sigh in pleasure.
“No blood, Lana san. With any chance, all of this will be… forgiven or even deemed necessary. But blood is impure.”
She growled in frustration and grabbed his neck, careful not to press with her nails. “I hope anything else is still acceptable.”
Effortlessly, he freed himself from her embrace and spooned against her back, wrapping one solid arm around her to keep her in place. In a single, smooth move, he was buried deep inside her. She gasped loudly and whimpered in appreciation, arching her back and throwing her head backward to offer him her mouth. His lips latched on hers, and their tongues swirled together, their breaths mingling.
“Goshujin sama…” she sighed, eyes closed, when they broke contact. Her body quivered against his brutal thrusts, but desperate for more, she pressed even harder against him, meeting each push with her own.
“Beloved… my wife…” Honda whispered, and she almost didn’t catch it over the drowning sound of blood rushing in her ears.
How surreal… marito mio…
Thinking the words in Italian struck a chord she never thought existed. The emotional wave flooding her was as overpowering as his physical assault, but it was the searing pain piercing her once again that made her cry and sob out of fright.
10 - Trusting Him with Her Life
This time, Lana’s mind didn’t leave the room, although something tugging at her violently was obviously determined to spirit her away. The changeling’s shrill scream was as loud and clear as if he were standing over her. Honda’s rhythm faltered at her scream of fear, and the pulling sensation increased right away; panicking, she dug her nails in his arm and pressed her face against his chest.
“Ah! Please! Don’t stop! Ground me here, pin me to this place, bind me to you, anything, but don’t let me go!” she babbled frantically. The rules had shifted; it wasn’t about quashing his impossible needs anymore.
“Never!” Honda roared and resumed his thrusting. A cry of anguish left her at the whirlpool of hate and rage gathering around and inside her as the two… males clashed over her.
A battle… a demonstration of strength and power… of dominance… of possession… I’m the prize… Old rules, traditions, rituals... What I want, whom I desire doesn’t matter… only the strongest…
A flash of understanding cut through her panic-induced mental fog. She twisted her back to catch Honda’s neck. Despite the cold, beads of perspiration ran on their tense faces. The stakes had never been so high, sex never as serious and dangerous. But this time, it was her life at stake.
“You… you have to overpower me,” she uttered, out of breath. “Make me submit completely, without question or doubt… no… no limits… you must show him... show them who is my lord and master… who has the strongest claim…”
Honda grimaced, and for a brief instant, his bearish grip threatened to crush her ribs. Nodding in grim understanding, he kissed her with a passion and badly repressed emotions that brought fresh tears to her eyes.
“Will you trust me once more?” he whispered in her hair.
Lana gulped hard and squeezed her eyes shut. “With my life,” she breathed back; it wasn’t a figure of speech.
“Relax… relax as much as you can. No fear… no doubt…” His voice was firm but warm and had an unusual hypnotic quality.
Oddly enough, although fury had consumed him only a short while ago, he seemed entirely in control of himself now, as if his extreme drives were poured into one single goal: the destruction of their enemy, of his rival.
“Give yourself to me entirely… no inhibition, no second-guessing, no resistance. Don’t think… don’t think about him, about anything else but me. Focus only on me, on us, and the pleasure I will give you. We will get through this.” His tongue licked the sweat off her nape and neck.
Fumbling around, still deeply buried inside her, he grabbed the discarded sash of his yukata. As her limbs were progressively bound, Lana understood he was going for an unorthodox variation of kinbaku – the art of rope bondage.
It was a perfect mirror image to what the changeling devil had put her through with his tails. She could only approve given the powerful contrast it sent. Helpless, stretched, open, but trusting and fearless, she moaned in anticipation.
They had never done that, maybe because that form of bondage was more a slow burn and an emotional journey rather than frenetic coupling. But the fact he was a rope master didn’t surprise her at all. Did Yuki and he…? Powerful images of her mistress – her wife! – artistically bound in complex patterns, at his mercy, flashed before her eyes. Her pussy gushed with arousal, and she let out another wanton moan.
Oh… I’m definitely bringing this on the table when we’re finally home...
“Lana san, with whom does your duty lie, to whom do you belong?” Honda’s deep rumble brought her back to her immediate surroundings.
His eyes were as black as the night outside; in the dark room, covered in shadows, he was as otherworldly as the deadly threat in the forest. The ghost of a warrior of old, made flesh again, requesting the renewing of long-gone allegiances born in blood and sacrifice.
His hand roamed on her blooming breasts and pinched her nipples, before caressing every inch of her exposed skin. To her relief, the invader seemed to have already been pushed one step back, and his howls of rage were almost muted now.
Lana sighed and lowered her gaze in submission, and it wasn’t hard at all to do it. There was no pretense, no game, only deep and heartfelt sincerity. She ignored her numb hands and feet to focus on the burning heat of his hands.
“To you, goshujin sama. Body, heart and soul.” To express her bottled emotions so plainly was a deliverance, to hear herself say aloud what she had refused to confront for so many months, an appeasement.
“Yet, you shiver. Are you afraid of me?”
“No, only anxious to see where you will bring me.”
“To complete release and freedom Lana san,” he vowed. “But for this, we need another angle… one that will not bother the little one.” He slipped outside her pussy and began to push on her puckered hole.
“Ah! Yes… there… please continue...”
After preparing a makeshift cushion with a thick comforter to support her belly, Honda gently yet firmly pressed on her shoulders. He made her kneel in front of him, her hands tied behind her back and to her ankles.
“Can you breathe properly?”
At her nod, his fingers traced her spine, from her neck to her cheeks, followed by his tongue and lips. Each touch, each brush expressed reverence, passion, deep desire; despite the deadly threats and their unforgiving audience, a feeling of complete surrender and relaxation filled her.
“There is no need for excessive roughness to achieve what we need tonight, Lana san. It is a state of mind. Yours. Mine. This is something that animal can never understand. But others will.”
The sudden memory of the changeling’s awful words made Lana smile thinly against the comforter.
“Ah… can you believe it. He wanted you to witness our… wedding, to make you see how I should be properly… handled. And now – argh yes!”
Honda’s teeth had sunk in her neck, and his balls slapped her cheeks. “Now…” he growled, rocking his hips against hers; this time she couldn’t press back but only accept his rhythm. “Now, be silent. Stop mentioning him, push him away, far from us, from anything that we are… and enjoy this.”
As his thrusts quickened, Lana’s mind became blank with bliss. The warm cover muffled her cries. Pain shot throughout her body, from his relentless pounding, her ties, her position, but also the reddish scars that marred her. But she welcomed it; it was so different, so much more manageable than the torture that beast had put her through. It had purpose, there was no ill intent behind it, and sparkles of pleasure were quickly turning into a burning furnace. Each time he reached her deepest, most intimate places, they proved the extent of their mutual trust.
She whimpered at a sudden feeling of loss when he stepped back. But it lasted only the time for him to turn her on her back again. He covered her to claim her mouth.
“Ah it is bliss to take you like this,” he whispered against her lips. “But I have to admit there is nothing better than when you fight me back,” he smirked.
Panting and sobbing, she managed to croak a wry smile. She wet her lips and challenged him with a quirked eyebrow.
“Untie me and see what happens…”
He slapped her ass twice then rammed his shaft harshly inside her stretched hole to remind her of their specific predicament. She howled at the pleasurable pain.
“You and your smart mouth. There will be plenty of time for that when we get to celebrate our wedding, the three of us, somewhere warm and sunny, far from here.”
“Uhn… Bali… or Thailand… all of us on a beach... niiiiiice.... I’ll call… the travel agency… as soon as we’re home…”
Her babbling was interrupted by his invasive tongue. Sitting up on his knees, he gripped her hips and proceeded to ravage her with unprecedented energy.
Uh no excessive roughness, right? That’s… that’s just perfect oh!
Reaching her climax, soaking in the heavenly pleasure her husband offered her, she opened an eye. What she saw made her heart stop. She froze and moaned a warning but couldn’t do anything else with his mouth on hers. He seemed completely oblivious, and continued his pounding, chasing his release.
A shapeless gray smoke floated above them, stretching from the altar. She could almost make out facial features, countless lidless eyes and gaping mouths here and then, but maybe her imagination played tricks. To her horror, it covered Honda and disappeared into him, right when he came hard, filling her.
11 – Healed
Unable to call for help, Lana sobbed. The feeling of something else than a human tongue sliding from his mouth into hers, going inside her throat, made her heave and gargle.
Honda finally registered something was amiss; he broke his kiss, and stared at her, worry bursting his bubble of climatic pleasure. Reduced to silence, he blanched and recoiled, but found himself unable to roll off Lana. They were fused together at the mouth and pelvis and linked by the phantom rope.
Horrified, the helpless and gagged couple could only stare at the grey wisps of smoke pouring from his nose and mouth into hers. Lana gasped before realizing that oddly enough, she could breathe. The tendril was warm and silky, pushing inside her, passing her throat, going into her stomach.
Tears of panic ran down her cheeks; Honda’s trembling hands brushed them away, but his own plain fear and horror only fueled hers.
Why? Why are they doing this to me? Was I wrong then? That wasn’t the solution? But… what other choice did we have? Oh, please, forgive me, please don’t do anything awful, I don’t want to die like that!
Just as she was about to pass out, the invader retreated. But something was different. It was larger now, or rather…
It’s… it’s caught something! It’s pulling something out of me!
Lana began to hyperventilate. There was no pain, but this was not normal, nothing was supposed to come out of her, not like that! She made retching noises as the tendril passed her throat, her mouth and left her, to her intense relief. The couple gasped. Lana still couldn’t speak, her throat and mouth refused to work.
“What… what is that?” Honda uttered, shocked. The wisp of grey smoke held a black, shapeless clot of some undefinable material, as big as a mandarin orange, dripping with saliva and other fluids. “Lana! Your face!” He stared at her in hopeful wonder, and then at her chest and body. “Your wounds… it’s only pale scar tissue now!”
Lana didn’t have time to rejoice. The clot fell on the floor as the entity retreated inside Honda. This time, he gasped in shock and let out a strangled cry of pain. Like a stringless doll, his body fell on her, lifeless, eyes rolled back.
“Goshujin sama!” Lana shrieked in terror. She pulled uselessly at her wrists. “Naruhito! Talk to me! Come back to me! You! Leave him alone! What are you doing to him? Please, stop! Oh please…”
Eyes blurred by tears, she gasped at the sight of the smoke leaving his body from his neck. Something warm and liquid fell on her face, running from his nose and mouth. Blood. His body began to shake, and he slid off her, as the last grey tendril left him and retreated in the back of the shrine, out of sight.
There was only panic and terror filling Lana’s mind now, at even higher levels than when she had confronted the changeling fox.
No no no no, he can’t die, don’t die, please don’t die, why, why is this happening to us, what did we do?
Still unable to move, Lana tried to check whether he was breathing, but her distended belly didn’t allow it.
“Help! Honda sama, Yuki sama! Anyone! Please come here! Somebody, help us!” But the lamp by the window was turned off, and nobody would dare come close to the shrine as long as it wasn’t on.
Suffocated by despair and grief, she burst into tears. The walls of the dark room seem to close on her. Her vision swam, and memories of that fateful day so long ago when Paolo had died in front of her merged with the awful sight of a lifeless Honda lying at her side. Both had died because of her, at arm’s length but hopelessly out of reach.
I’m doomed! I am the real curse here! Everyone I love dies! Why? What did I do? And why save me and not him? I don’t deserve to live!
