Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
“Yes, but please don’t worry,” Krynn said quickly. “I can’t infect either you or Sel, no matter what we do together. “I’m just a host—a Needer. Not a Spreader like Lady Elgiana.”
“And the fact that he’s a Sin Eater and can feel the emotions of those he’s close to doesn’t help one fucking bit,” Sel remarked. “It only makes the Needing worse.”
“But how…how did she infect you?” I asked, shaking my head.
“She fucked him,” Sel said roughly. “Over and over until she was sure he was infected. Then she reinforced the Needing over multiple cycles until it was too ingrained to break or to cure—even by magical means.”
“Reinforced it? But…how?” I asked. I was learning a lot here—none of it pleasant. But I felt like I needed to know about this disease that was hurting Krynn—or at least, making him need to be hurt.
The lighter Fae hung his head, looking ashamed, but he answered my question anyway.
“Most often she would make me kneel before her and stroke my cock while she caned me or whipped me. She…she wouldn’t let me come until she broke the skin,” he added in a low voice.
“The mixture of pain and pleasure ingrains the magic of the disease even more deeply,” Sel explained. “It’s actually a magical parasite that can only infect people with certain tendencies. Krynn being a Sin Eater is what allowed him to become infected,” he added. “The parasite gets hungry over time and demands to be fed with sexual pain and humiliation—that’s the peak of the cycle.”
“Which is nearly where I am now,” Krynn said, still hanging his head. “I’m sorry you had to see Sel helping me, my Lady. I know it’s a deeply disgusting and shameful thing. But my Needing was growing too great to bear.”
The pain and humiliation in his eyes was almost too much for me to stand. He looked so ashamed of himself—so saddened by his own behavior that I felt my heart go out to him.
“Oh, Krynn…please don’t be upset!” Standing on my tiptoes, I reached up and put my hands on the sides of his face. Looking into his lovely green eyes I said, “I want you to know this isn’t your fault and I don’t think any less of you for it. All right?”
His eyes widened in disbelief.
“Do you mean that? Truly, my Lady?”
“Truly,” I said. I gave him a soft kiss on the lips before letting him go. Then I looked at Sel. “I’m sorry I, er, zapped you,” I told him. “Though I’m not really sure how I did it.”
“I think I know—it’s because you took some of my blood last night and absorbed some of my Power.” He rubbed his arm again. “Don’t worry, Princess it only stung a little—I’m fine.”
“I just thought…” I trailed off.
“You thought I was hurting Krynn—which I was,” he said matter-of-factly. “But it was either whip him myself or send him back to Lady Elgiana and let her hurt and sexually humiliate him. I couldn’t fucking do that. I won’t fuck him, but I will give him what he needs any other way I can,” he added.
“You’re a good friend, Sel.” Krynn flexed his wings and winched. “I’d better get cleaned up—I don’t want my wings to stick to my back.”
“Let me help you.” Taking him by the hand, I led him over to the tub and had him sit on the broad marble lip. I ran some cool water and got one of the soft cloths wet. Gently, I cleaned the whip marks which were still fresh and raw.
“Thank you, my Lady—you’re too good to me.” Krynn’s voice was muffled and he was looking down—I sensed he was still ashamed of himself. How difficult must it be for him to have to ask his best friend to hurt him just to make it through his Needing Cycle? My estimation of Sel went up another notch when I thought of how he took Krynn’s requests in stride.
Sexuality is a sliding scale and if I had to characterize them, I would have said that Sel was all the way on the straight end, while Krynn was probably towards the middle—in other words, bi. A lot of straight guys that I knew in the human world wouldn’t want to have anything to do with a gay or bi guy. But Sel hadn’t abandoned Krynn—he gave him what he needed. Or he got as close to it as he could, anyway. Whipping the lighter Fae until he bled was a sign of true friendship on Seldarin’s part, as odd as that sounded, and I respected him for it.
After I finished cleaning up Krynn’s back, his cuts were still raw. I felt my fangs itch as I smelled the sweet, metallic scent of his blood—which was one of the things that had woken me up. But I wasn’t going to bite him. However, I could heal him, I reminded myself.