Alaskan Fury (41 page)

“Just tell me what happened,”
Kaashifah said.  “Paraphrase.”

The djinni considered.  “In the
beginning, the female Furies fought alongside the males as equals.  They worked
together under the guidance of War, meting out justice upon those who broke the
Pact of the Realms.  Then, after many winters of mankind had passed, with
countless battles come and gone, a male Fury rose to power.  He was very charismatic,
very beautiful, and many flocked to him, from all the Realms.  He had many
followers, and he took his task as a peacemaker very literally.  He stopped the
fighting.  Completely.  Banned it, and killed anyone who was caught with a
sword.  Found the bloodshed unnecessary, and many agreed with him, for it was a
very dark time.  So, once he’d ended every war, bringing about the first Great
Peace, he sought to take over the Realm and ban the Lord of War from its doors,
so that War would never visit the world again.  And he succeeded, for a time.”

“Unfortunately, without War,
without that divine energy powering their people, the humans began doing other,
more disgusting things.  The corruption spread, debilitating the world, like a
rot within the flesh of one’s leg.  Societies began to collapse from the
inside, for, by banning the energy of War from the world, he had also banned
the energy of brotherhood, love of life, ambition, courage…”

Kaashifah interrupted.  “Love of
life.”

“Yes,” the djinni said, tracing a
finger around her navel.  “One of the aspects of your Lord that, I’m afraid,
you’ve been missing.”

She bit her lip and looked away
as tears stung her eyes.  “Go on.”

He shrugged.  “It went on like
this for some time.  There was peace, but the world was rotting, the energy
that usually helped it flourish cut off, people and plants withering and
dying.  A female Fury, one who had never given up her sword, one with similar
charisma and beauty as the great leader who had ended the wars, but a cunning mind
as sharp as her sword, saw this rot for what it was and rebelled.  Thus began a
war of Furies.  They began a great war that threw the world into darkness, the
only light those of the wings of the angels, as their swords clashed above the
land.”

“And we won,” Kaashifah
whispered, already knowing where the story went.

‘Aqrab kissed her belly down to
her thighs.  “One would assume.  The story says that the victors, mostly
female, brought the vanquished, mostly male, to a great mountain where all
could see, and cut their wings from them with the sword of War and cast them
down the mountainside as mortals.  As to what happened next…”  He shrugged. 
“From one extreme, they swung to another.  The female survivors, still stained
with the blood of their brethren, were distrustful of the male, and, as
tensions rose and it looked as if a number of them might lay down their arms
for the great Peacemaker, who still spread his word across the land in mortal
form, the new Fury leader eventually had all the males—and any other
sympathizers—executed in the night.  And from there, well…”  He shrugged.  “It
is history.”

Kaashifah frowned.  “The Sword of
War is a myth.”

The djinni kissed down the inside
of her leg.  “I’ll tell you of another myth.  It has to do with a djinni,
kindling the inner fire of a maiden…”

“I’m
thinking
, ‘Aqrab,”
she growled.  “Let me think.”

He heaved a huge, wistful sigh
and lowered his chin onto her leg.  Lazily, he began to trace circles with a
hot finger on the inner flesh of her thigh.

If the Furies once had males
amongst their ranks, with her Lord’s blessing, then was it that far a cry to
suggest that they had once
bred
each other?  And, if the great Fury
leader had killed off the males of her species, wouldn’t they have naturally
had to turn to human males as a suitable replacement for their numbers?  And if
they were afraid of another Peacemaker, then what was to stop them from leaving
their male babies in the nest of a Roc?  Or in the Void?  And, once that
precedent had been established, what was to keep them from making temples and
enlisting priestesses to do the unhappy work for them?  To bleed the babies in
the dark while the mothers were taken elsewhere to mourn?  And, to protect the
mothers’ hearts, how hard would it be to write new ‘Laws’ into stone?  To
alleviate the guilt?  To stop the questions?

‘Aqrab moved his attentions
upward, to the tiny birthmark above her navel, circling it languidly with his
index finger.

And, once the Laws had been
written, what was to say that her Sisters of so long ago, wrapped in fear of
losing a child to the Laws, had begun to shy away from the male touch?  Would
she not have begun to see that touch as a taint?  Something to be avoided? 
Something that, if it succeeded and a male child was born, would corrupt the
soul?

What if, to ease this dilemma
over the old Laws, newer ones had been made?  What if males were to be avoided
at all costs, and that their touch itself was impure?  What if breeding became
solely a means of reproduction, something to be loathed and dreaded?

Then something else occurred to
her, as the djinni entertained himself with the hair between her legs.  The
priestess who had saved her.  Amongst her many ramblings, the woman had spoken
of ancient times, of divine matches being blessed by the gods, of tempering the
light of the Furies’ sword with the love of their hearts.  Kaashifah, grateful
for the fact that the woman had saved her life, had never given her over to her
Sisters for the blasphemy.  Now, she began to wonder…

What if Furies were not only
allowed
to make matches, but
expected
to? 

“I’ve heard…rumors,” Kaashifah
began, “that Furies can be granted a mate by our Lord.”

The djinni’s finger froze.  Clearing
his throat, he said, “Ah, yes, I believe I’ve heard such in the stories, yes.”

“And that it used to be common.”

Slowly, his finger began to work
again, tracing the tender lines of her stomach.  “Before the temples, I believe
it was.”

The temples.
  Kaashifah
frowned.  She remembered the priestesses well.  Mortals, but with hard, work-lined
faces, utterly emotionless in their daily life.  They had been their
caretakers…and confessors.  What if the words a Fury received in the privacy of
her own mind, when spoken in hushed tones to those caretakers, began to be
twisted by the very priestesses who tended them?  What if, when a Fury received
the call to mate, it was translated by the priestesses as an order to breed, a
general command rather than as a specific person?

And if a Fury could breed with a
male, why not a djinni?

Then the reality hit home for her
as she remembered her Lord’s command. 
Kaashifah, Maiden of the Sword, you
shall conquer the djinni of Ji’fah, spread his blood across the land, and bring
his heart back for my perusal.

Her Lord wanted him dead.  He
wanted her to cut out his heart.

“What are you thinking?” the
djinni asked softly, tracing a knee.

She made a disgusted noise.  “How
I must kill you, in the end.”

The djinni cleared his throat
nervously and sat up on his elbow to get a better look at her.  “Well, uh, mon
Dhi’b, I’ve been thinking about that, and seeing how a djinni doesn’t really
bleed
,
I was thinking perhaps the meaning was more metaphorical.”

Kaashifah snorted.  “You will not
word-twist your way out of this one, ‘Aqrab.  It is the last clear message I
received from my liege.  I
will
obey it.”

‘Aqrab opened his mouth like he
wanted to argue, then heaved another huge sigh and slumped back to busy himself
between her legs.

But still, Kaashifah was torn. 
She was her Lord’s Blade of Morning.  His greatest warrior, cast down by her
own Sisters because of her Lord’s favor.  And yet, this djinni had begun to
open her eyes to the world, and her soul had been drinking it up like a
starving thing.

Why
did she have to kill
him?  It didn’t seem
fair
.

And it
wasn’t
fair, she realized. 
Nothing
that had happened to her throughout her life had been fair.  It
had been a slew of disappointments, despair, and loneliness.  Now that she
finally had
company
, now that she finally had some
happiness
, her
Lord was going to take it away?

No.
  She felt her Fury
rising, felt her anger coming to a head.  It was not going to happen.  She
wouldn’t
let
it happen.  Not again.

“I surrender, djinni,” she
whispered.

Still intent on the surface of
her knee, ‘Aqrab’s violet eyes went wide.  Slowly, he lifted his startled gaze
to meet hers, and she began to hear his heart pounding even as the pleasant
heat his body cast off began to increase. 

She knew that ignoring her Lord’s
call would only be the first of her problems.  She knew that, by accepting the
djinni, by letting herself be conquered by a man, her sisters would kill him. 
They would rip his manhood from his body while he still breathed, then cut out
his heart and make her eat it.

Let them try
, a deep and
powerful part of her rumbled, a part that had been too long dormant.  Like a
mountain sitting up within, it said,
I’ll carve their wings from their
shoulders and cast them into the Third Realm as food for the barghests.

And Kaashifah had a startled
realization.  By taking up that mantle, she had
become
Fury.  Her sword,
when she wielded it, was unstoppable.  If she chose to protect the djinni, her
Sisters would fall in droves under her blade.

And they’d abandoned her for
three thousand years, bound to a man she could not kill, banished for letting
him brush his fingers across her leg.  She owed them, she realized with a
sudden jolt, nothing.

The djinni took her hand, kissed
it, watching her face carefully.  “Are you sure?”  He trailed his lips across
her knuckles, waiting.

The temples were gone, the Laws
shattered, the priestesses dead.  Whatever Sisters were left had spread to the
furthest reaches of the land.  Her Sisterhood—if it could still be called
that—had no more dominion over her.  Until her Lord decided to make his
appearance in the world once more, Kaashifah was alone.

Alone…but for a djinni.  A djinni
who, by his own admission, desperately wanted her love.

“I’m sure,” she whispered,
immediately losing control of her pulse to the thrill of nerves and excitement. 
“Please, ‘Aqrab.  Show me.”  She felt so vulnerable saying it, opening her
heart to him. 

‘Aqrab’s breath caught and she
felt the heat rolling off of him increase, and for a long moment, he just stared
over her stomach at her, his violet eyes showing shock.  It seemed an eternity
before he said, “Please.”

She blushed, feeling the wave of
crimson heat her face.  “That’s what I said.” 

‘Aqrab started tracing her thigh
with a finger.  “Is that your wish?”

Her mouth fell open.  Her
wish
? 
Somehow, his audacity gave her the courage to blurt out, “It’s a mutually
beneficial arrangement.  You hunger for the act of union and I desire to know
what I’ve been missing.  I know you’re an expert in such matters, and we
both
know I’m…”  She bit her lip, blushing, and managed, “Inexperienced.”

“Ah.”  The djinni traced her
thigh a moment longer, dropping his gaze back to her leg in thought.  Then, slowly,
‘Aqrab lowered his hand and eased himself back up her body with the smooth
power of a stalking leopard, until the length of him was once more pinning her
to the stone.  He held himself above her a moment, meeting her eyes with a look
of raw passion that left her heart hammering.  Then she felt his hardness
settle against her core, felt the heat of him envelop her as he lowered his
hips to hers…  Kaashifah felt herself cringing into the stone, her whole body
shaking with mingled terror and anticipation.  Somehow, she kept her legs open
to him, waiting.

His heat still touching her core,
the djinni dropped his face to nibble her earlobe.  “All that time you spent
thinking, little wolf,” ‘Aqrab whispered into her ear, his breath hot against
her neck, “gave me some time to think, too.”  He kissed her throat, her jaw… 
“And I think I can find a better place than the floor of a filthy cave.” 

All of her anxious,
heart-fluttering expectations came to a sudden screeching halt, and Kaashifah
had to rewind his words in her mind to confirm to herself that he had actually
spoken them.

He’s turning me down.

Kaashifah blinked at him, utterly
unable to believe what she had heard.  After all this time, after so many
bargains and word-weavings with this very moment in mind, he was turning her
down
? 
She had finally, after so many millennia, offered herself to him and he was
turning her
down
?  After three thousand years of innuendo, of overtures,
of hints and suggestions?  She had
seen
the desire in his eyes.  From
the first moment she’d let him touch her hand.  The djinni
lived
for
passion.  And he was turning her
down
?

She was so totally flabbergasted
that, for long moments, she couldn’t speak.  “I thought you wanted…” she began.

“I do,” the djinni said, nuzzling
a hot breath against her ear.  “Oh, don’t mistake me, mon Dhi’b.  I do.”  Lifting
his head, ‘Aqrab slid his big fingers through her hair and kissed her passionately
upon lips, stealing her breath away.  Kaashifah gasped and swallowed a moan as
he began to explore her tongue with his own.  When he eventually lifted his
head to let her breathe, his violet eyes were tender when he kissed her
forehead and said, “But I have waited this long.  We will make it special.”

Special
?  What was more
special than right now, when she was
naked
beneath him?  When their skin
was touching, down there?  When she’d offered him her Fury, finally and
completely giving in to his passion?  Frustrated, dismayed, she nonetheless
wasn’t given time to argue, or even think about it, for the djinni dropped his
head and began to suckle her sensitive nipple in his sizzling mouth, once more teasing
her body into those unstoppable pangs of pleasure.  Within moments, he had her
mindlessly riding that overwhelming tide of ecstasy, clinging to him in total
surrender as he expertly caressed her with his hands and tongue.