Hunting Julian (The Gatherers) Page 4
Now he needed to evacuate, and the law demanded she be dealt with without delay.
Julian took advantage of her momentary shock to charge her. He snatched her up and then drove her down to the floor. He didn’t have time for grace or caution, though he tried to buffer her impact by cupping a protective hand around the back of her head. She hit hard, her breath jolting out of her like the explosion of a burst balloon. Then the drive of his weight on top of her hit her, preventing her from drawing in new oxygen. The advantage was all he needed to dive into the numbed aura radiating all around her lithe body. He could see the energy field surrounding her in vicious violets and furious reds, swelling in proportion to her anger and rage as she gave off the passionate power of her emotions. He could use them as the pathway into her, but he needed something quite different in order to open a pathway out of there.
Closing his eyes, a dangerous risk around his ferocious zini, he focused his mindheart on catching up the lighter tendrils of color around her. Few and far between though they were at the moment, he snared them nonetheless. Winding it around his mindheart like spun cotton sugar around a cone of paper, he gathered them more and more. When her breath came again, it was with a wide-eyed gasp. She was staring into the nothingness of her own personal energy as her anger was converted against her will to a completely different type of passion.
It was better when it was voluntary. It was so much more beautiful when the Chosen was open and willing, relaxed and ready to feel the pleasure transition could bring. She blindly reached for him, her hands fisting in his shirt as she fought his manipulation.
“Relax,” he whispered to her softly as her body arched and contorted in a combination of resistance and starting pleasure. “You cannot fight this, Asia. Humans do not have the power at first. Your psyche is strong, your will is a thing of sheer beauty. You could sate the appetites of a thousand needy souls. I sensed it from you the moment I saw you. But it will be so much more than that. So very much more.”
Once she was completely caught in his psychic webbing, he knew she would be helpless to resist or to physically fight him any more, despite her significant warrior skills. That had been a surprise, of course, but certainly made sense. The more aggressive and driven the personality, the more powerful the aura and all the energy it could exude. Julian pushed up away from her body a little, though he found himself loath to do so as his mental strokes along her essential energy translated in sensual writhing of her delectable form. His eyes drifted irresistibly down, over her chest where her nipples were poking out rigidly beneath the soft silvery fabric of her dress. The scent of her changed in strong degrees, and the arousal that had been missing from her “act” now permeated her skin and tissues with rich, musky intensity. It was positively delicious. So was the feel of her within his mindheart. His mindheart was the magnet, and her lust, need, and passion were the metals. His growing control over them began to manipulate them into amplifying the one thing he needed from her right then.
Pleasure.
Pure, anything but simple, and so very exquisite as it radiated stronger and stronger from her, it fed him until he was glutted with the delicacy of it. He became more than a little drunk with the incredible power of it. He was physically aching and blood flooded hard and hot into long-starved tissues. Julian sensed a certain measure of starvation from Asia as well. She fought her headlong tumble far better than any before her that he had ever seen. She was clearly used to powering through denial, to depriving herself of the pleasures of the body despite how she was so well made for it. The tragedy of that was in the fact that she was resonant with the raw talent for loving. Everything about her screamed a level of sensitivity and passion unlike anything he’d known before, and he craved intimate knowledge with that part of her. Not like this. Not with the forcible connection of minds, auras, and emotions where she had been given no choice, but with all the power of voluntary physical release and need that he sensed she was capable of.
“Oh God!”
She cried out and followed it up with a gasp as her knees blindly rose up on either side of Julian’s hips, cradling him in the amazing heat of her core when her sudden surrendering movement settled him deeply against her. She couldn’t know how very long it had been since he had known such carnal pleasure. Even so, this was like nothing he could remember. The sheer heat of her overwhelmed him and he was pulsing almost violently with need as her legs snaked around his and pinned him tightly to her while she began to cant her hips up against him. The searing heat of her sex burned through the fabric of his trousers. She rubbed against his turgid cock like a cat in heat, which, he supposed, she was. A heat of his making.
Not hers.
That was what made the bodily pleasure he felt so very wrong. There was an act in this society where one person forcibly used another for physical sex. A deviant act they called rape. This did not exist in his world. In truth, there were much worse things than such an extreme violation to be found within his world. Still, he was keenly aware that what he was doing could be construed as a mental form of rape, because she had not been willing when it had begun, but he’d had no choice, and the penalty for breaking certain laws would have been far harsher on her than this choice of the moment. At least this path would give her bliss unlike anything she would have ever felt in her human existence.
Julian moved to draw away from her grasp, but was surprised to realize just how strong she was. She clung tightly to him, dragging him back down until his nose was firmly burrowed between her breasts, his sense of smell overwhelmed by that heated aroma of pure, aroused woman. Her fingertips raked through his hair as she writhed harder and moaned in low, rich need.
God, he needed her to let go of him, Julian thought as his own arousal began to feed back into the draw of hers through his stimulated mindheart. He could not be this close to her when she broke. Even now she was reaching a fervor as she rubbed in frantic strokes all around his captured body. She would climax soon, opening the Gate. He wouldn’t allow her to be thrown into Justice Hall with her legs spread around him like some kind of nightfly. She deserved much more respect than that. From him. From those who forced him to steal her away like this.
Besides, if he felt her come against him, he was quite certain he wouldn’t be able to hold back the urges surging through him to join her. He would waste himself like a lowlife residue rider, and that was simply unacceptable.
Julian’s powerful mind grabbed hold of her fatly woven pleasure, stalling it until frustration made her squirm and loosen her grip on him. Inevitably, she sought to touch herself, desperate to jolt forward what he held in abeyance. He surged back away from her, well aware of how his body ached so badly he could hardly see straight. But that was okay. There would be time for more after. After she learned to accept what would become of her. He watched, completely mesmerized, as her hands parted in opposite directions over her skin, one diving beneath her top to fondle a breast and the fat, thrusting nipple so easily seen under the silver. The other headed between her legs, scrabbling to get under her skirt and to touch herself all at the same time. Julian carefully resituated himself, ignoring his own discomfort so he could sit her up between his legs, his chest bracing against her back as her hair rained straight and black between their bodies. Grasping her wrists, he released his hold on her psychic pleasure. She began to build up again instantly, the sharp climb making her cry out as her hands left her body in order to crawl up his arms. She clung to his biceps as he smoothed her little dress back into place. The unbelievable beauty of her body would be his and his alone, he thought with determination. He needed her to be this way at this moment in order to make passage, but he would give them no other part of her unless she volunteered it. Even so, she would be his.
His.
Julian felt her reaching for the jolting crest of her orgasm, his mindheart overwhelmed with the rush of it. He gathered it all, channeled it into a hard, boring tunnel of energy, and then let her explode. Asia screamed as climax rippled in hard, senseless waves through her mind and body. But instead of the sharp high and dramatic drop she might be used to, this continued on and on, until she couldn’t even breathe anymore. Her nails gouged into Julian’s upper arms, but he bore it quietly as he guided them home.
Chapter 3
Julian reached to gently turn her raised knees to one side, protecting her from the eyes of the Ampliphi as they abruptly appeared before them, seated on the floor in the center of Justice Hall. The Gate was still brilliant around them, more so than usual as all the excess power of Asia’s energy spilled out in the form of an azure and lavender light. Smoke scudded out over the intricately tiled floor of the Ampliphi chamber. Then, with a last gasp for breath, Asia collapsed weakly against Julian, the energy that Gate travel had taken from her leaving her drained in spite of her plentiful resources. This was as much his fault as anything. She had so disrupted and disturbed his focus that he had not finessed the portal of travel so it wouldn’t burn her out so much. As it was, listening and feeling her reach that crest as she had undulated in beautiful, bursting pleasure had just about undone him. He had never seen anything like it in his entire career.
Not in his entire lifetime.
Considering he had conducted the sexual energy of a great many human women in that time, that was truly saying something.
The Gate resonate
d with one last glow around them and then disappeared with a hard, vibrating snap of cut-off energy. Julian turned up his eyes to the Ampliphi as he cradled his unwilling prize between his hands and thighs, holding her tightly against his chest.
“Julian, why have you returned?”
The six beings around him were always magnificent to see. Over time they had evolved so they could spend much of their time as pure psychic energy, even in spite of the energy crisis. It was such an amazing accomplishment that it deserved all of one’s respect and awe. Only the Ampliphi were this powerful, and only their advanced age, experience, and wisdom could have allowed for them to achieve such a grand state. They were proof of what miraculous things could be done with a minimum of energy.
However, the strain of starvation showed on them just as it did all of Julian’s people. At the moment, though, they were all glowing quite a bit more vigorously than usual because of the explosive flood of energy Asia had brought into the room. Their silvery auras were brilliant to look upon. Julian couldn’t help the flash of possessive jealousy that raced through him when he realized that they had been exposed to the fallout of Asia’s climax. No one had intended to steal from her, but her crest had been so powerful and effervescent that it must have been forced onto the unsuspecting Ampliphi. Julian struggled to keep from resenting their fully flushed appearances and silvery glow that nearly blinded him in that moment.
Energy was not to be hoarded selfishly, he knew. Still, he found himself strongly despising the idea of having to share any part of Asia with anyone else.
Julian tried to dismiss the possessive impulse. He focused on the Ampliphi who had spoken while pushing aside the telltale emotions spinning through him that he knew they could easily identify in his aura.
“Ampliphi Kloe.” He greeted his sponsor first, as respect and tradition demanded. Then he turned his attention to the leader of the Ampliphi. “Ampliphi Christophe,” he greeted with equal respect and a grave nod of his head. “I have conducted this woman across against her will.”
His announcement was greeted with one or two bright flashes of irritation. He had expected they wouldn’t be happy, but there was nothing he could do about that now.
“You have been compromised,” Ampliphi Rennin noted, disapproval sharp in his tone.
“To what extent, I do not yet know,” he acknowledged. “But I suspect it to be only a minimal exposure of attention. She did not know I was not human. Cleaners will need to be sent behind me. Blood was shed.”
“We can see that,” Ampliphi Christophe noted, drawing Julian’s attention to the blood dripping heavily onto the floor beneath his leg. “This is very disappointing, Gatherer. Only seven months? You have never been discovered so quickly before. This is a setback we as a species cannot afford.”
“I am aware of that, Ampliphi. I beg your forgiveness. However, my circuit as Gatherer would have ended anyway. This woman is kindra to me.”
He felt the surprise that rippled through the august body of beings. He hardly faulted them for it. He was in just as much shock as they were over the development.
“Impossible!” Ampliphi Kloe swirled in angry violet. “Kindra,” she scoffed. “More likely you make excuses to drop your responsibilities.”
Julian bristled at the accusation. He was used to Kloe’s bitter ways, but she was calling him a liar and it would not be tolerated. He didn’t care who she was.
“How can you be certain?” Ampliphi Sydelle spoke up. There was movement to her right and Julian became aware of Gatherer Kine’s presence over her shoulder. He wondered why the Gatherer was home instead of in the field.
“This cannot be explained. It cannot be quantified,” Julian said carefully. “I know many believe the kind to be a myth, but anything written about so much cannot be make-believe.”
“She is human,” Sydelle countered dismissively, ever the arguer. But she did not argue to undermine so much as to test his faith in his position.
“Are humans not our salvation in every other way?” Julian demanded. “We are doomed to die without them. They were chosen because of how close they are to us in makeup, minds, and emotion. Why not a human? We rely on their spirits for everything else, why can there not be kind among them?”
Julian’s heart raced with fear as the Ampliphi exchanged lightning-sharp bolts of energy between them, debating back and forth in silence with each other. Then, with a bright emanation, Christophe ended the speculation.
“This you speak may be all true, but if she came over unwillingly I am going to guess she has not acknowledged this connection between you. We will let you acclimate her and guide her. We will let you woo her as you will. However, if she rejects you, then we know she is not kindra to you and she will go the way of the others who have come before her. Do you accept?”
“Yes,” Julian answered with quick and sure eagerness. Whatever doubts they might have, he knew the truth.
“Well, this is disappointing,” Ampliphi Kloe said with a frustrated emanation. “You are our best Gatherer, Julian. Also, this woman has enough energy to feed thousands of us.”
Julian was on his feet in an instant, his hands curling into fists as he stood over Asia, his feet braced on either side of her as she lay in an exhausted slump on the floor between them. His sudden aggression lashed out at the council of Ampliphi in streams of indigo, whipping energy he could not manage. He was so thoroughly juiced with Asia’s psychic plentitude that he was having trouble controlling the abundance of emotion it created.
“You’ll not deprive me of her,” he said soft and low, the furious threat behind the calm words quite evident on the basis of his energy alone. “Not even you can do that if she is truly kindra!”
“Easy, Gatherer.” Christophe tried to soothe him, tendrils of gentle pink power extending to touch Julian with a sense of fairness and compassionate understanding. “We have already given you our terms and we will hold up our end. If you are kind to one another, the residual of what will come between you as you live your daily lives will be enough to energize your entire colony. Believe us when we say we hope you are not wrong in your supposition. I think Kloe is merely disappointed that our best Gatherer is seemingly now defunct. She is rather proud of her most accomplished student, you know.”
Julian did know, and he felt quite foolish for reacting in such an openly hostile manner, but Kloe had a way of bringing that out in others. He understood it was also Asia’s influence that made it so, but that didn’t make him feel any better for treating a mentor in such a distrusting manner.
“I did not want this,” he said, meaning to speak to himself but finding the thought out in the open. He realized it was fear of the unknown and overwhelming future that prompted his impulse to reject. But even as he spoke, he knelt down beside the woman who had rent his life into shreds within the space of a human hour. She had sought him out for all the wrong reasons, believed all the worst of him, and would wake to a very different world than she had known. Julian supposed it was only fair that both their lives had to be destroyed in order to place them on an equal plane where they could rebuild something together. “She will not be easy. She did not volunteer in any fashion.”
“Just the act of bringing her around will feed thousands,” Kine mused wryly.
“You had best get on with it, then. It wouldn’t do for this to begin among us,” Ampliphi Greison said sagely. “In one cycle she will return to this chamber where I will make final judgment as to whether she is fit to stay among us or not. This lies on your shoulders, Gatherer. She must freely give what we need or she will be wiped and returned to her home.”
“You would destroy her entire mind,” Julian protested.
“Just her memories of who and what she is. Her memories of this place and of you. She will be a danger to us all if I did not. So I suggest you not fail in your endeavors to win her over.”
“No. Of course not.” Julian wasn’t certain if he felt sincerity or sarcasm behind Greison’s suggestion. He rarely found himself in agreement with Greison, but the Ampliphi was right: Asia had to come around or they would rob her of everything she was.
But he would be damned before he would tell her as much. If she came around it would be because she wanted to, not because she was being blackmailed into it.