suspected she knew the answer.
"Weren't
dreams. They were our reality, Liv. You and me. Our chance to be. My chance to live. Each semen stain, each mine-mark represented one more step toward your
acceptance of me, of us. The sticking point is I am allowed only one year to
demonstrate to you what can be. Thirteen Devil moons, and then, we need to
show."
"Eh?" Did
he mean what she thought he meant? "Elucidate. Slowly."
Chapter Three
"Oh, come on,
Liv." His fangs ran out briefly before they retracted. "You know what
the fuck I mean."
"I'm scared I
do." Liv said faintly. Shit, what next? "Can we forget the Sir
stuff for a sec, and you spell it out for me anyway?"
His face closed up,
and he sighed. "Okay, you asked for it." He tightened his arms around
her. It was as if the very air was holding its breath. "Look at the
wall." He put his hands on her cheeks and directed her face in the
direction of the long wall.
"What do you
see?"
Livvy looked. It was
her wall. Prepared, primed, and painted all by her. But just
a plain, light grey wall, not even a picture on it. Hold on, there had been a picture. A scene of the mountains from her window. Where the hell was it?
"I took it down.
We need a blank canvas. Look." His arm tightened around her again, and
Livvy leaned back into his warmth. "Watch, and ask questions later."
The wall changed
color, and a flickering appeared, then slowly steadied.
Oh my God! Am I
really seeing this?
"You are," Sael
said. He hugged her closely to him. "Not us, but what is expected of us.
Can you? Will you?”
That was the
question. She closed her eyes for a second, and then looked away, to stare at
the carpet. The million dollar , over the top
question. "I don't know," she said shakily. "That's baring more than your soul. With a
vengeance."
She gulped as Sael
stroked her cheek, and lifted her head to look at the wall once more and watch
a story of sex, love, and acceptance unfold . In front of an audience. That might be all well and good
when it wasn't her in the spotlight, Livvy thought as she watched an unknown
woman accept a man in every way possible.
Well, actually, no,
it's not all well and good. It's not acceptable no matter who it is. Not to me,
anyway. I can't think of anything worse. Hell, I don't even like wearing a
bikini on the beach. And that woman is happy to let other people see her like
that. What is she, for God's sake?
"My
mother," Sael said softly. "She said if anyone had to do the 'how to'
video, it had to be her. Although she is not human, but a pure Saffaulian, she
said no human should go through what a Saffaulian had not experienced. She is
with my father, her love since she was but sixteen years of age."
"So, how come
some of you choose humans and others don't?" Livvy said, interested in his
explanation and trying not to look at the wall.
Sael smiled, flicked
his hand, and paused the video. "We do not
choose; you choose. Humans make their unconscious demand, and we are picked by
our council to be part of someone they think we fit. Then we appear to you, and
you have to decide what happens next."
Livvy was appalled.
"So in effect, they are maybe condemning you to death?"
He shook his head.
"No, our human is the one who does that. Now watch." The action on
the wall started again.
Livvy watched the
scenes unfold. How she wished she could turn away, demand it turned off. But
she knew she owed it to Sael to watch. Apart from the fact that with each scene,
each act, she felt herself grow hotter, wetter, and more ready. It both worried
her and embarrassed her.
What the hell does
that make me? Feeling like this as I watch something like that? I'm wet and
wanting, and not just Freddie either.
When the woman— shit,
that's his mother I'm looking at— opened her ass and welcomed a hot, hard
cock into it, Livvy winced. Never, never in a hundred years.
"Oh
yes, my love." Sael watched at her. "Many, many times. Give me leave to remind you, to show you."
Oh no, not now,