Fallen - 17. Chapter 17 - Ravaging

Star is my soul, my saviour, to think of him; battered and sick, abandoned and alone makes me shiver. I think of Sam and Alex and how the streets had ground them down and the thought of Star living like that makes me sick to my stomach. I want to take him in my arms and hold him. I want to make the pain go away, I want to make everything right. But he still hasn’t finished. He still needs to get it out.

“I made it on my own for over a year begging and then busking, but it all got too hard and there was no future in sight. What was the point going on from day to day struggling to make enough money to eat so that you can live another one just the same? I was cold, dirty, often sick and hopeless. Two days after I turned eighteen I decided that I had two choices – prostitution or death. I had nothing and no one so I would either make enough from selling myself to live some kind of a life or give up and die.

“That’s about where you found me. I’d tried to force myself to take a trick but when it came to it I just couldn’t. It’s not as if I haven’t had offers through the years and that’s what gave me the idea to do it in the first place but every time I tried I bottled out. That night at the bar was my second night trying, my second chance to myself. If I blew it then I would walk out of the bar and find somewhere to die. I hadn’t quite worked out how but I figured that it wouldn’t be that difficult.”

I stare at him as he looks up at me expectantly. My mind freezes and all I can think of to say is. “I thought you were older.”

At first he just stares at me incredulously and then a smile creeps over his face until he can’t help but laugh. “You’re insane.” Then he looks sad again. “I think she’s been trying to contact me, to tell me that you were you...” He shakes his head, grimacing. “That doesn’t make sense but... I think that part of the anger I have been feeling is with her. She abandoned me and now she’s trying to tell me that this sick freak is the hero I’ve been building up in my mind, pinning all my hopes on...”

“Sick freak is it?”

He looks up, alarmed then subsides and shakes his head. “I’m sorry Luma I... I’m just... lost.”

At last I let myself do what I have wanted to do all along. I slide off my seat and crawl over to him, pressing myself against him, between his knees. The silkiness of the robe is cool against my skin, the rest of him is hot. I lay my hand against the side of his face, gazing into his eyes.

“You’re not lost Star, you’ve never been less lost. I’m here now and I will be your anchor, your navigator, your guiding star.”

He smiles, looking down at me, his eyes twinkling. Slowly he bends his head and I raise mine. His lips are soft, so soft and they part sweetly, the tip of his tongue flicking out to tease my lips. I sigh and run my hands around his ribs under his robe. He shivers and slouches lower in the chair, rubbing himself against me.

“If you keep doing that I am going to have to ravish you.”

“Ravish? That’s a fabulous word. Show me what it means.”

I get to my feet so fast he doesn’t see it and before his mind processes the fact that I have moved I have him in my arms and I throw him on the bed.

“What...?” He says blinking, confused. He doesn’t have a chance to say another word because I’m on him, pinning him to the bed with my body. I kiss him roughly taking his breath away. His hands come up and hold me weakly. He’s still not quite sure what’s happening but he rolls with it and his grip tightens as he digs his fingers into my sides.

Releasing his lips so that he can gasp I kiss down his neck making him shudder, and over his collar bone to his nipples. I bite one and he squeaks. While I enthusiastically attack his nipple I let my hand slide down over his abs and start to massage his balls no less enthusiastically. There is nothing gentle about ravishing and he’s not having gentle now.

He tries to respond but every time he tries to raise his head or his hands I up the ante and send him moaning and shivering back to ground zero. When he is in a frenzy I kneel between his legs and start to kiss upwards from his belly button, nipping the skin as I go. When I get to his throat I lick and kiss, grazing his skin with my teeth, making him writhe beneath me.

If I had been feeling more clear headed I might have prolonged the experience but between the conversation we have just had and the rise in temperature my rough handling has achieved I am in no condition to take it slow. Raising myself I slide my hands under his buttocks and lift his hips until I can get into position to tease his entrance with the head of my cock. He responds instantly by wrapping his legs around me, raising himself and freeing me to firmly grasp my cock and guide it into him, inch by inch, past his barriers.

He gives a long shuddering moan and starts to thrust his hips, using his legs to raise himself higher. Wow. But this is my ravishing and, grabbing his hips, digging my fingers in I steady him to allow me to start pumping him. At first my movements are restricted by his legs but after the first few strokes he loosens them and I really start to thrust, entering him harder and faster.

Growling low in his throat, his teeth bared Star grasps the bedclothes in both hands and thrusts up into me, tilting his hips for deeper penetration. He throws his head from side to side and almost reminds me of Serif in his wildness. I tilt back my head and close my eyes revelling in the passion.

When I feel the tides rising I force myself to focus not only on what I am doing but on him too. I grasp his shaft and take him with me on the ride that sends us both to orgasm sobbing and gasping. Thank Hel I am not too consumed that I lose control. I could not go through what happened to Taz, with Star.

When it is done I collapse onto the bed and lie with my eyes closed waiting for my breathing to slow and my heart to stop racing.

I feel something tickling my chest and open my eyes to find Star propped up on one elbow stroking me with the tip of his fingers.

“So that was ravishing?”

“Pretty much.”

“I like it. Next time I am going to ravish you.”

“I think you did that already.”

There was a hesitant knock on the door and Sacha comes in, smiling to see us. “I checked in on Bridge but he’s fast asleep and I wondered where you were and...” He tapers off uncertainly as we turn blazing eyes on each other and grin.

“Ever been ravished Sacha?” Star purrs. As Sacha’s eyes widen I shoot off the bed and grab him from behind. As with Star it takes him some time to process what is happening and, by the time he does he is flat on his back on the bed with Star’s mouth pressed firmly over his, cutting off any chance of complaint which from the signs I am getting from his body language, there wouldn’t have been anyway.

Leaving Star to take care of ravishing the top half of his body... and I notice that he is going to town on Sacha’s nipples even harder than I did his, I take control of the lower half and have him turned into a bowl of sex flavoured jelly in no time. I deliberately refrained from using my venom on Star but not so with Sacha.

I raise him up and crash him so many times I would be really surprised if he knows his own name right now. Star is excited by it too, I can see. He has watched in curiosity and amazement as Sacha loses himself more and more in what I am doing to him. He’s played to it too, adding to the experience as much as he can.

Sacha is starting to get exhausted and I am going to have to end it soon. He’s approaching the limit of what he can take. Almost as if he can read my mind... or maybe he is just good at reading the signs... Star slides himself down the bed. Winking at me he turns Sacha’s leaden body onto its stomach. Sacha is unable to move and I think he is actually glad of the reprieve. He lies panting as Star lifts his hips and I slide under him as he had done with Bridge.

He tastes hot and sweet and I close my eyes and savour him as I suck with long smooth strokes letting my teeth graze him but keeping my venom to myself. Gradually some strength returns to him and he moans with ecstasy. I know by the movement of his body that Star is being gentle with him, moving in and out slowly. After the passion he showed with me it is good to see that he has a gentler side too.

I feel Sacha’s climax approaching and I so want to sink my teeth into a vein and taste it but that would not be the right thing to do, not now. Star is gripping his hips hard, although he is steadier on his legs now, and he is speeding up. He knows the end is approaching too.

Sacha lets out a series of guttural moans and then shudders and expels. Hel he tastes good, he tastes so good.

I slide out to find Star with his head bent, kissing Sacha’s back, still inside him. Sacha is trembling all over but has managed not to collapse forwards. Star raises his head and meets my eyes, his are wide and sparkling.

Together we turn Sacha over and lie down, one on each side of him. Star kisses him gently, propped and smiling lovingly down into the dazed eyes while he runs his fingers lightly over his sweating chest. I stroke his hair.

As Sacha comes down, his shivering eases and his breathing deepens. Eventually he becomes more aware of his surroundings. He has experienced me before and it is not such a shock for him any more, but he will never completely get used to it, how could he. I am like a drug... the more you have the more you crave.

“What was that all about?” He asks with a huge smile on his face when he is able to speak again.

“I was having a lesson in ravishing. Luma showed me what it meant but I needed to practice on someone myself and you were it.”

For a moment Sacha smiles fondly up at him and even reaches up to touch his face. Then he frowns. “Luma?” He asks puzzled. “I thought your name was Radu but it seems to have changed.”

Star bites his lip and looks at me anxiously. I smile reassuringly. “It’s a name Sacha, just like any other name, a name I was called a long time ago and don’t use any more. It is a name I would prefer not to hear outside these apartments. I suppose it is going to be asking too much of Star to stop him speaking that name to me as it’s the only name he has known me by for a long time, but I need to get used to it some more before I can handle hearing it on anyone else’s lips.”

“Of course. I wouldn’t...”

“I didn’t mean you Sacha.” He has turned his head to face me, his eyes anxious. Do I do this to everyone, even those who love me? Am I such a monster that everyone walks on eggshells, desperate to please me? I smile as gently and tenderly as I can and stroke the damp hair out of his face. “Any name you choose to call me would sound sweet from your lips.”

It almost hurts me the way he lights up, the look of love that shines from his eyes. If only I could love him back. I pause for a moment, a strange thought popping into my head. I look again into those melting brown eyes and wonder why I had felt so badly about the expression they had held before. Why had it upset me to see him anxious because of my words? I think of Bridge; I think of Star. The way I feel about them is very different, very different from each other too, but...

“I love you Sacha. You are beautiful and soft and sweet and gentle. You care about things so deeply, you seek to please me with no hope of return. You are honest and loyal and open and... and I don’t know when it happened, or how... but I love you.”

Tears spring to his eyes and for a moment he simply stares at me as they overflow and trickle down into his hair. His lip trembles and he catches it between his teeth to stop it. He looks as if he wants to speak but he can’t. I can’t bear it and I take him into my arms. He throws his around me and clings to me silently weeping. Star comes up close behind him and wraps his arms around him too.

“I love you too Sacha. For all the same reasons and because you were kind to me when I was too lost and angry to see what was in front of my face. I will never forget the night we spent together, the things you said to me, the way you made me feel. That will always be ours, and just ours; but we will make more nights, many more nights that will belong to us all, Bridge too.”

Sacha sighs deeply and leans back, resting his head on Star’s shoulder and looking up into his face. “You are beautiful.” He whispers. “I adore you.” Star kisses him gently and suddenly we are... we are... different. We are whole... almost.

“We need Bridge.”

“Soon. At the moment he needs to rest.”

“He’s still asleep. Is that right? He’s slept all day.”

“It’s Mario’s concoction. It knocked him out. He seems to be looking better for it though, not so... haunted.”

“Yes. He was smiling in his sleep when I looked in on him. That’s why I worked out you were in here... because I thought you would probably have wanted to not disturb him.”

“He hasn’t eaten much though, and that worries me. I think we will have dinner on the terrace tonight, all four of us. It’s going to be a lovely warm evening and maybe a bit of fresh air will do him good. I’ll ask Chancey to get the cook to make something light but appetising and maybe Mario can make him something that isn’t going to knock him out quite as much.”

“How long do you think it will be before you can stop draining him so much?”

“I’m not draining him.” I snap defensively and mentally kick myself at the flinch. I take a deep breath and consider, saying more calmly. “I have to admit though that what I do is draining him, his strength that is. I can't give the healing without exchanging it for blood. I can only release that kind of venom when I’m feeding. If I could do it another way I would but it’s not that which is draining him.

“My venom is drawing the sickness out of him. You may as well know, he has cancer, a very virulent form and it had all but consumed him. His body was riddled with it and it was on the point of giving up.” The shocked intakes of breath and wide eyes hurt me but it’s best they know. “I have already drawn much of the cancer from him. His blood is so much cleaner that it was and in a few days it will be gone.

“It hasn’t been easy because the cancer wasn’t the only thing he had. He has been used and abused by men for so long he was infected with the diseases they carried and gave to him. He was very, very sick and would have died in a day or so.”

“I... I didn’t think it was that bad.” Sacha stutters.

“It isn’t, not any more. As I said he is almost clean. Another few days and it will be gone; he’ll be well and can start getting strong again. But now... at the moment...” I sigh and shrug. “He’s balanced on the edge. I give him as much as I can but his body is exhausted from fighting off all the diseases for so long. Every treatment I give him weakens him even more because now that his body is able to fight it is fighting but doesn’t have the strength to do it. I am worried about him, very worried.”

“Why can’t you give him energy like you do with us? I know you can do it, I’ve felt you.”

“There are lots of reasons Sacha. The main one is because a body, any body, can only take so much of my energy in one day or it will burn out. I have to concentrate all of my energy on drawing the sickness from his body. Whatever the reasons the facts are simple. I can’t do it. I can’t give him energy. I can only take away the sickness and I can’t do it all at once. Every day he gets better but he also gets weaker.”

“So what does that mean?”

“It means that in another few days he’ll be free of sickness and I can give energy to him to help build him up again. In a week he’ll be better than ever before but until then, until I can start building him up every time I treat him I’m sending him further down and I’m scared that I won’t get him clean before I push him beyond endurance and... and...”

I swallow, tears in my eyes. Somehow saying it, getting it out in the open just makes it worse, so much worse. No it is my turn to be sandwiched between them and we are all crying.

We are so lost in each other and our grief that no one hears the door open... not that I am entirely sure we would have heard it even if we had been listening for it. The first thing we are aware of is another pair of arms wrapping us and a soft voice saying. “It’s okay. Whatever’s wrong we can fix it.”

We freeze. Not one of us wants to move. Not one of us wants to look up into those emerald eyes and admit what we are upset about.

“Nothing’s wrong honey.” Of course it was Star. He’s the strong one. “We’re just emotional that’s all.”

“Is it because you’ve finally admitted how much you love him?”

My head snaps up and I stare at him incredulously. Star is smiling though and he hugs Bridge gently. “Yes Bridge. I’ve finally admitted it.”

“Good. Maybe now we can settle down without all the drama.”

Star starts to giggle, then Sacha joins in and suddenly we collapse in a tangle of arms and legs and laugh like fools.