Ultimate Passage: New Beginnings: Box Set ( Books 1-4) (25 page)

“I swear it.”

She handed him the key, then yanked free of his grasp and ran for the forest.

Finn unlocked the door, but had no idea where to go. He took off after her in a sprint. “Wait. Tell me which way is—” He grabbed her by the arm.

Behind him, in fluent Asazi a voice said, “Your uniform says Asazi Elite, but you have attacked a helpless female.”

Finn froze. It felt as though he’d been struck in the stomach. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. He didn’t want to look.

He had to be wrong about that voice. It couldn’t be... But he had to see for himself.

He turned around. “Par?”

His father.

M
arissa slept after the meal
. When she woke up, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and put weight on them. She stood. Her legs worked. She took a step. They still worked. She could leave. There was no cell, no locks, Saraz had told her so.

The voice in her head returned.
But it’s safe here. There’s food and water.
She couldn’t argue with that logic, but at the very least she could explore. Exploring was a good idea, for when she did decide to leave this place, at least she would have a general idea of the layout.

She slipped into a hallway, amazed at how this building reminded her of the medieval castles in the movies. Or maybe it was like the inside of temples. There were no windows. Was it underground? She shivered. It very well could be, for all that she couldn’t see outside.

She heard the sound of moans. Was someone in pain? Could Saraz be torturing someone? She suspected he had a cruel streak, and those eyes only went toward confirming that theory.
So you’re going to condemn him because of his eyes?
Jeez, when it was put that way, she had to wonder, especially when the Asazi had been willing to condemn her so easily. Hell, they had condemned her to a certain death. If Saraz hadn’t taken her away, out of the rain forest, she’d have been Kormic bait.

Oh, so now Saraz is your best friend?

The moans became louder, accompanied by whimpers. She followed the noise down the hallway, tiptoeing. The sounds increased in tempo and volume, becoming frenzied. She peeked in through a doorway.

The sight of tangled limbs greeted her. Two Asazi women, one a redhead, the other a blonde, were nude, interwoven with each other.

And with Saraz.

He was engaged in a threesome. He was behind one woman, who was on all fours, breasts bouncing, while the other one was semi-wrapped around both of them. Marissa clapped a hand over her mouth, catching her surprised gasp.

Saraz whipped his head her way, his eyes glowing with lust. He didn’t seem surprised to see her, not at all. He beckoned Marissa closer.

What for? Why would she want to get closer to
that
? She shook her head, denying his request. Her legs collapsed and Marissa landed on her hands and knees. She tried to stand but couldn’t. She was immobilized, her limbs boneless jelly.

She realized then that he was the reason she had lost control of her muscles.
Damn him.
Her legs were useless; she couldn’t get them to move. She ground her teeth in frustration.

Saraz smiled and beckoned her again, thrusting into the redhead, who gasped with every pumping action. The blonde held the first woman open, a hand on each of her butt cheeks, splaying her folds for his driving thrusts. Both women had rapt expressions on their faces.

He beckoned Marissa forward again. Sensation returned to her legs. She rose. “I don’t want to.”

‘I want you.’
He spoke in her mind, projecting the words, loudly and forcefully. ‘
Come to me.’

Even though she’d denied him, Marissa could not stop her forward approach, getting closer to the trio. He maintained a steady thrusting rhythm, his eyes seducing her.

‘I want you.’
He spoke in her mind again.

“I can’t,” she said. She belonged to Finn.

He grunted, threw his head back, and his wings erupted from his body. With a bone-creaking sound, he was shifting into his saural form.

Marissa was stunned and a bit horrified by how his wings and this shifting resembled her sex with Finn. Then she was furious with herself for comparing this with what she and Finn had. Although she was furious and repulsed, she felt the lower half of her body responding to the lust, the passion, and the raw sex of it all. The pulsing was insistent between her legs. She hated it, couldn’t control it.

The redhead’s scream pierced the air. Her head was thrown back, it had to come more from pain than pleasure.

The blonde brushed the hair back from the screaming girl’s face, cupped her cheeks, drew close to her, and whispered loudly enough for Marissa to hear. “You will be okay. You’ll get used to the size. It’s only like this at the end, when he changes form.”

Saraz pulled away from the girl slowly, changing, shifting back to his human form, but not before Marissa had witnessed his size.

She gasped.

He smiled, almost shyly. “It only hurts them when—”

“You do that? It happens, every time?”

“Only as I climax. My saurus takes over, including...” He pointed. “There. The change is sudden, filling them, stretching them. Some enjoy it. Immensely.”

Marissa found her body responding to him. A wetness formed, and a thrum radiated from the center of her sex.
What the hell is this about?
She was furious at her body’s betrayal of Finn.

Saraz smiled a soft smile, conciliatory. “Do not be angry at yourself. All females respond.”

She fumed at his arrogance.

Saraz gestured to the two women. “Our guest needs a bath.”

“No, I don’t.” Marissa didn’t want to spend another moment with him. He confused her. Her legs. God, they were getting that jelly-like feeling again. “Stop. Don’t do that to me.”

‘Stop being so argumentative.’

He’s in my head. Shit.
“Fine, I need a bath. I’d rather not have you there while I bathe.”

He flashed a smile and strode from the room, ass flexing, his muscled back now wingless.

The two women led Marissa to a bathroom the size of a locker room. The tub was half the size of the room. A flowery smell wafted from the swirling, steamy water. Candles lit the entire room, casting shadows that flickered and moved with the three women’s every motion. The water threw the reflection of surreal waves on the walls.

“You will bathe,” the redhead said. She reached for Marissa’s top and pulled it over her head.

The blonde tugged on her jeans.

“I’ll do it.” Marissa pushed her hands away, ill at ease with their comfort level with each other and her own body, then rushed into the water. She wasn’t a prude by nature. Hell, she’d gone skinny-dipping before, but this... There was too much sexuality. Too much... just too much. She turned to face the women as she sank into the water, covering her breasts. They slipped into the water behind her.

“What are you doing here?” the blonde asked, reaching for a cloth and a jar with a rose-colored, gooey concoction in it. She dipped the cloth in the jar, then rubbed it between her hands.

“I’m not sure what you mean.” Marissa stared at her, transfixed. The blonde came closer, almost within touching distance.

The red-haired one sidled up next to Marissa. “We aren’t sure how you came to be here. A human. On Kormia, and now with Saraz.” Her face had a sneer when she said the last part, as if the
with Saraz
bit bothered her the most.

“I’m not with Saraz. I didn’t come here to see him. I was ejected from the Asazi town, banished, cast out into Midland.” Marissa lowered her voice. “Truth be told, I would rather be home.”

The blonde reached out, put her hand under the water, and moved it. Marissa flinched when the blonde ran her hand across her ribcage, but forced herself to be still. The blonde’s hand kept moving. Finding Marissa’s hand, she pulled her up, so she was standing in the water up to her hips. Then she moved the flowery-scented cloth over Marissa’s shoulder in slow, circular waves.

The redhead reached for Marissa, put her hands on her shoulders and pulled Marissa back into a semi-recline against her torso, then moved her hands to the nape of Marissa’s neck and started a mesmerizing massage.

Marissa closed her eyes. Why was she so relaxed? Was this the effects of Saraz? Was she hypnotized?

The redhead’s breath was warm on the side of Marissa’s neck. “You know, we can help you leave.” Her voice was a low, seductive whisper.

“Why would you do that?” She barely recognized her own voice. She sounded drugged, spaced out, in a trance.

The blonde moved the cloth across Marissa’s abdomen, then raised it, tracing her ribs, moving from there underneath her breasts. Then she slid the cloth over one breast.

Marissa shivered, trying to fight the desire that crossed the threshold she thought she’d put into place. Saraz—he must have done something to her to make her susceptible.

“We love Saraz. We think that you will bring about a change we do not want.”

The blonde drifted closer in the haze of Marissa’s consciousness. She put her lips on Marissa’s and traced them with her tongue.

Marissa pulled back, but her egress was blocked by the redhead’s embrace. Although Marissa knew she was pulling back, she felt like she was moving at a sloth’s pace.

The blonde put a hand on Marissa’s abdomen. “This baby. You cannot give birth to it.”

The tone of her voice lulled Marissa away from the threat in her words, even though Marissa felt like she should react. She tried to shake her head, but nothing happened; it was as if she was encased in quicksand.

The blonde’s hand went lower, touching the strip of hair Marissa had sculpted for Finn, then lower still, grazing her clit. She slipped a finger toward Marissa’s entrance. “Saraz wants us to prepare you for him. Ready you for him.”

No!
She screamed in her mind, but her lips didn’t obey, and no sound came out. She thought of Finn, somewhere. He had to be out there somewhere, looking for her. She wouldn’t do this.
No!
She moved her lips. “Help me escape.”

“We will, but only when the time is right.” The blonde slipped her finger into Marissa, stroking, caressing.

In her mind, Marissa closed her legs, but she could tell that they weren’t moving. At the same time, though, things she didn’t want to happen were happening. They were happening to her body, and her body was responding. The finger was moving in and out, slowly, then a bit faster, testing Marissa’s control, her reactions.

When Marissa’s hips began to move, she was pissed. She turned to the redhead, and found her face only inches away. “Tell her to stop.”

‘Saraz. I know you’re listening, maybe even watching. Make them stop right now.’
She screamed that at him, in her mind, hoping he could hear her.

He stepped out of the shadows. “Get her out, then go.”

The women froze, their hands and mouths stilled. They helped Marissa out of the water, laid her on the side of the oversized bathtub and slipped out of the room without putting any clothing on.

Slowly, her faculties returned. “You heard me, when I called for you.”

“I did.”

“What they said about you, readying me for you, then...”

“Do not worry. I will not mate with you. I cannot risk hurting Bearer.”

Thank God.
She lay on the side of the bath, her mind raging, but tired of the fight, and confused by her emotions. “Tell me about your people, your kind. Tell me where on Earth they are.”

“That does not matter.”

“But your goal is to return?”

“Of course. I have a debt to repay to those who have trapped me here. Those who made a mockery of my descendants.”

“How did they do that? How did they make a mockery of your descendants?”

“The Kormic.”

“I don’t understand.”

He lay on the side of the pool next to her and ran his finger along her spine. “They cursed the women.”

“Start from the beginning.”

“It had long been a tenet among us to not become involved with humans.”

“Wait. Back up. Who is ‘us’?”

“We are the Brethren.” He looked at her as if that should answer the question.

She didn’t want to argue, didn’t get it, and she wanted to get to the rest of the story, so she nodded.

“I broke the tenet. I fell in love with a human. We kept it a secret. Had a relationship. I would visit her in her isolated village in the mountains. We had children. She thought I was a god. All of the villagers thought I was their own god. Of course she was not immortal, and one day she died. But our children had children and so on. I managed to keep the secret for centuries. I would on occasion visit the village to see them. Their isolation meant their genetic pool was concentrated.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “The Brethren learned of these people, with their wings, their skin.”

Marissa sucked in a breath. “Oh, wow. The Asazi.”

He nodded.

“The Asazi are your descendants.” Sadly, she found herself believing this whack job. “How do the Kormic fit in?”

“The Brethren were not content to merely ban me—and mine—away. They cursed the women. All the babies born from their wombs have been monsters. Kormic. It didn’t take long to discover their curse. Babies were born without wings, and with scales, and were a horrible blend of our traits. And like reptiles, they emerged almost ready to fend for themselves. The Asazi took these little monsters to the edge of Midland, into the Farlands, and left them there. When the Kormic made their way back, the Asazi would attack them, drive them away.”

“The Asazi left their own babies? Out to die? That’s as bad as the Spartans.” No wonder the Kormic hated them.

He frowned.

“What? They put their helpless newborn baby girls out to be killed by the elements.” Marissa found herself siding with the Kormic. “And somehow the unborn child of my unborn daughter will help you. And you know this how?”

“It’s part of the prophecy.”

Right. Sure. Whatever.
She wanted to say all of that, but figured it would set Saraz off. “I would like to know your intentions for me, in terms of my daughter.” Not to mention, he had a harem, and seemed to think that she was part of it.

“You are her mother. I would be hopeful that you would raise her favorably, to be mindful of the prophecy and the Sacred Writings.” He made it sound like a threat.

“You don’t have to worry about that.” She’d say whatever she had to say to pacify him. Then something occurred to her. “So the women couldn’t have babies that weren’t monsters. Is that when human women became a part of the formula?”

“Oh, yes. I have been very creative over the centuries in getting women here. Not always with favorable results. The women died during delivery. More women were needed. That would attract the attention of the Brethren, I feared, so I had to become even more creative. And then more sophisticated means were needed.”