Skedaddle

[Soran Nightblade]

Telanis breathed carefully, the choppiness in his stomach reduced to a tight swarm of feathers. "I don't believe it was wrong," he grinned, thinking her question was strange. Nothing could feel this way and be wrong. He wanted to remake the contact from a moment ago, to hold it and feel it grow. He propped himself up on one arm and studied her for a few moments. Slowly, he arched his neck until his lips pressed to hers. It was relatively innocent, but tantalizingly slow, like he might just stay with his mouth over hers, kissing her until his abs got tired of holding him up.

[Emora Deen]

Laya felt faint the moment his lips touched hers. Her head swam with the contact of his skin. Her hands slid over his shoulders, her arms behind his neck until she was drawing herself against him. Her lips worked against his slowly, and growing more needful with each passing second until she thought if she pulled away she might die.

She knew that was a silly thing to think.

Suddenly she wanted him. She needed him. She couldn’t explain it, but the feeling swept through and took hold of her. She drew back only far enough to look into his eyes. Her gaze was a storm, the gray swirling like clouds.

“Adonis will kill me,” she muttered barely audible.

[Soran Nightblade]

"I won't let him kiss-...kill anyone," Telanis murmured, his lips brushing hers as he spoke. The feeling inside her took root in him as well, rising up through the contact between them. Answering the feeling, he touched the side of her neck with his free arm, brushing against the heat of her skin as his mouth melded against hers. His heart leapt into his throat, his nerves aching for her. *Laya,* he whispered with his mind, because he was beyond speech.

[Emora Deen]

She heard his voice in her head. It could have been her imagination, but it was almost pleading. She knew she would have no control after that. The need to have him was more than she could tolerate any longer. It burned through her like fire.

Laya couldn’t stand it. She shifted in the bunk, gathering up the skirt of her dress so it was easy enough for her leg to shift. She straddled his legs, her arms still woven around his neck while she kissed him. At the moment, she could care less if Adonis wanted her dead for this. How could something so wonderful be so bad?

[Soran Nightblade]

Telanis moaned softly at her contact over him, at her feelings wrapped like a hot blanket around his soul. To be needed this way, and to feel these things through her and with her, was almost more than he could take. He drew his free arm around her waist, drawing her forward against him and kissing tenderly along her collarbone, following the instincts that guided him when and where to touch. He pulled away long enough to look at her. His brown eyes were once again lit from within with a glow that made them look almost golden. He smiled at her, a look strangely both erotic and gentle.

That was about when a knock sounded at the door.

[Emora Deen]

Laya knew she was lost the moment she saw that look on his face, that smile that made her want strip him of what clothing he had.

Then, the knock sounded, and it echoed through her. Like cold water was splashed over her, she took a deep mind-clearing breath.

She stared at him a moment longer before drawing away. “We can’t do this here…” she whispered. “Adonis will kill me.” She knew that. She knew that without a shadow of a doubt.

She was human, and Adonis loathed her. He would see the act as corrupt, not an act of love, and she did love Telanis. She quickly moved to where she wasn’t straddling him. She clumsily sat on the edge of the bed, trying to sort out her clothing.

She swallowed, knowing she couldn’t face Adonis after that. She was flushed and… disheveled. She wondered if she could exit while he entered without him noticing…

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis wasn't in a great mood when he returned from the mess hall. He was carrying a bucket in his left hand - a resource the men had sent with him for Telanis. The psychic scent of the men in the other room was still inside his mind. Although their souls were tolerable as humans went, there was one, too blurred in the sea of minds to pinpoint, that had made him want to heave. One mind that carried the stench of hatred and lust and betrayal. It was a familiar scent to him, and he was used to it from humans, but that didn't mean he wanted to be trapped on a boat with it for three days.

He knocked on the door, old human habit, and then let himself in without waiting for a response. He inwardly hoped Telanis wouldn't even be here. He felt it before he even saw it; the wash of sensual emotion, barely snuffing itself out as he entered the room. He froze in the doorway and looked to his brother and the human girl, sitting on the cot staring back at him. Telanis looked confused; Laya looked stunned. It took several seconds to grasp what he saw. Laya's clothing was only slightly messed... he could have believed it was his imagination. But then he saw his brother's eyes.

Horror threw itself into the pit of his stomach like a club. His brother...his brother was... "Get away from him," he said so low that it was only a trembling whisper.

[Emora Deen]

Laya lowered her head. She shifted up away from the bed. The room was too small, and she had nowhere to go but out and to get out… she had to go by Adonis. She wanted to run, feeling suddenly so ashamed, even if she felt she had nothing to be ashamed about.

Laya moved towards the door, wanting to brush past Adonis, but he seemed like such a solid thing in her way. He would surely kill her for this…

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis's hand clenched around the bucket he was holding, his knuckles shaking white around the metal handle. He wanted to throw it at someone's head, but couldn't decide who.

"Adonis?" Telanis asked, as usual getting nothing but blank static from his brother's closed-off mind. He didn't understand what was happening...why Laya was suddenly so afraid and guilty.

The black unicorn was blocking the doorway, more because he couldn't move than because he was necessarily trapping the girl. His brother was being corrupted by this worthless human! And all he could think, all he could possibly register at the moment was that it must be on purpose, that she was deliberately confusing and misleading him, sucking him in enough to trust her so she could break his world into pieces and laugh at the wreckage of a proud, pure thing destroyed. The same thing that had been done to him. Thinking of that happening to Telanis....to the last pure thing that still existed...

Pressure built up inside him, and he didn't know if he was going to lash out or just scream. He was too late. He'd done everything he could think of to save him, and it was still too late. Black magic swarmed into his clenched fist like an evil fog, stretching to be released on the target of his anger.

"Adonis, don't!" Telanis growled as he realized what his brother was thinking about doing.

The black unicorn shuddered with helpless rage and threw the bucket against the wall. It crashed against the wood and clattered to the ground. "I warned you! You don't listen, you stupid-" He choked off and took a step back toward the hallway, to get away from the sight of his brother's eyes seduced by the enemy.

[Emora Deen]

Laya jumped when the bucket slammed into the wall. Fear leaped up in her, and the sound was enough to scare tears from her. “I’m sorry…. I love him,” she breathed, running from the room. She ran to the steps, and instead of going up to the deck, she went down bellow towards the cargo hold. People were on deck, hopefully no one would be down below.

[Soran Nightblade]

Telanis half-extended his arm to stop Laya, watching in shock as she left in a flurry of pain. His eyes rose to his brother's, fading back to their normal vibrant brown. "Why did you do that?" he demanded.

Adonis stepped into the room, carefully, like he was surrounded by wolves. "She was seducing you. Tainting you!"

"She was happy. It made me happy as well."

"It was unnatural!"

"It was wonderful!" Telanis said, his tone hardened. "It was the most amazing thing I've ever felt." He narrowed his eyes at the skeptical glare his brother cast him. "She's been mistreated. It took immense courage for her to share it with me. Why did you punish her?"

"The only purpose of that act is to use and degrade. You don't know better, because you're not human. You don't know what she will do to you," Adonis snarled.

Telanis straightened slowly upright on the bed and stared at Adonis, suddenly realizing that his brother was frightened. He didn't need to be let through the black unicorn's barriers to know it. "Adonis...I'm fine," he murmured, upset and baffled by his brother's response to what he'd shared with Laya.

Adonis grimaced. He was too furious and horrified to speak. His life had fallen apart and it still wasn't enough proof for Telanis to understand the truth.

"Adonis... I need to go to her." The white unicorn regarded his brother worriedly.

"I know," he muttered, knowing it because it was all he could do not to run after her himself after she'd left feeling that way. He cursed his instincts that forced him to feel protective of the creatures that felt no remorse for what they did to him.

Telanis frowned, stood up carefully as he caught balance with the swing of the ship's movements, and left the room. He felt no sign of her in the hall, so he turned toward the deck and started walking. Al passed him, carrying a huge pile of line.

"Feeling better already?" the man asked.

"Looking for Laya," Telanis said, touching the wall to ensure his balance.

"Hm. Didn't see her on the deck."

"Thanks," he grinned as he spun to follow the corridor in the opposite direction.

[Emora Deen]

Laya didn’t want to face Adonis again. She didn’t think she could. She wasn’t sure it was good if she saw Telanis. By now Adonis could have told him how terrible it was for a human to do something like that.

She wiped her eyes, unable to stop crying no matter how hard she tried.

Before her actions with Telanis she could have agreed. Before Telanis the only experience she had with intimacy was pressure, pain, fear. What if she had tricked him into it? What if she had done something terrible without realizing it? What if she had become the very thing she had feared for so long?

She saw the door. The cargo hold…

She was afraid to go there. Kron had taken her there on their voyage… When he was bored with their room that’s where he…

But, Kron was not here. He was dead. She had killed him, or at least she thought she had, so the cargo hold was safe.

There was a short hall, and just when she was about to enter she changed her mind. She opened the door and peered in. It was pitch black inside save for a small bit of light coming from a porthole close to the top of the ceiling. She couldn’t sleep down here. There was no telling what would happen to her in there. What if the ship sank? What if Adonis came here to kill her? No one would hear her scream; at least she didn’t think they could.

“Hello?” she asked softly. Something shifted in the darkness, but no one said a word. She swallowed.

She stepped inside slowly, reluctant to close the door. She did, however, after spotting a pile of sails in the corner of the room. The walls were curved like the sides of the ship. She fell into the sales. They smelled musty, but she felt comforted by them as they cradled her.

Laya curled onto her side, wrapping and arm around her waist and using the other to lay the side of her face on. She felt terrible. She felt the same as she had when Kron was around and she couldn’t put her finger on why.

She felt dirty, like she had done something terrible, much like how she felt when he took her. But, why?

She loved Telanis and didn’t want to hurt him. Was it so wrong for them to be together?

It was so dark, she couldn’t see much of anything in front of her. But she could see a little where the light from outside came through a single porthole. She saw something moving in front of that light, and her heart stopped.

“H-hello?” she asked slowly, sitting up. She inched herself further into the corner. “Who is there?” She wiped her eyes, looking around wildly at blackness. No one was there, she told herself, it was the fear talking.

[Soran Nightblade]

Out of the corner of the room came a large black stray, poking its head out from behind a pile of boxes and regarding Laya with large yellow eyes. In its mouth was a rat it had just caught. It clutched its prize and eyed her warily, trying to decide if she was competition or company.

Telanis made his way down a small flight of narrow stairs at the end of the hall. A wave rocked the ship, and he leaned into the movement to avoid thudding into the close walls. Maybe he was getting the hang of it. His stomach churned in the background of his thoughts, but it didn't bother him much now that he was focused on finding Laya.

[Emora Deen]

Oh!" Laya yelped, and settled back against the creaking wood. It was just a cat. She laughed softly, a ting of sadness in it, as she realized how silly she'd been. "You’re a cat." She shifted to her feet, stumbling as the boat tilted sideways. She walked towards the cat.

She knelt down slowly, extending her hand to pet it, despite the dead mouse in its mouth. “Here kitty…” she muttered. She couldn’t explain it, but she had the undeniable urge to hold it.

A movement came from behind. “What are you doing down here?” a deep gruff voice asked her.

Laya screamed, and the cat scurried away. She whirled, falling over onto her side as she searched for the voice.

“I…” How long had he been there? Had he watched her display of misery quietly until now? She felt embarrassed, and fearful. “I just wanted someplace quiet for a little while. There wasn’t any sign on the door that said keep out, and it wasn’t in any of the rules told to us before boarding.”

She knew he was standing right in front of her, she could see the way the light played across his clothing, and she could see the glint of his eyes. She could not see his face. He took a step forward, the light catching his eyes more now.

“I’ll leave,” Laya said quickly, standing up. She lost her balance as the boat tilted and she fell forward into him.

He caught her, an arm going around her waist. She froze, trying to fight back all the protest and fearfulness that welled in her at this man touching her. She told herself he wouldn’t hurt her, but then again she didn’t know who he was. She told herself not every man was like that. Telanis was proof… then again… Telanis was not a man.

“Where are your friends?” he asked her as he leaned her towards a pile of crates for balance.

“They are in the room. It was small, not much privacy. I decided to come down here,” she replied as she touched the crate. He moved his arm from her waist, but kept his hand on her hip.

“Do they know you’re down here?” he asked her curiously, his voice going a different octave. She didn’t like that. It made him sound excited.

Laya swallowed as she tried to control the way her body started to shake as her pulse quickened. “Yes,” she lied.

[Soran Nightblade]

Telanis climbed down a narrow staircase, his keen eyes guiding him in the dim light. This seemed like a very strange place for Laya to have gone. He was considering turning back when a wall of fear and a distinct, but separate wave of need pulled through his senses. One soul pure, the other...tainted. He gritted his teeth and let instinct pull him immediately forward, navigating the staircase as gracefully as possible until he came to a door. He pushed it open and breathed in the dusty air of the cargo hold. For a moment, nothing moved in the room as he sought a bearing on what was happening. "Laya?" he called out.