The Table Turns
Eric watched Mika look fearfully back at Eva’s cavern before a crinkling sound and movement in the woods caught his attention. The source was from a human.
Eric didn’t bother to go after him. Now that he’d sensed the intruder, he could easily track him. The man darted behind a huge rocky outcrop and, as Eric watched, peeked around the corner at him.
He’s on my land! Eric almost roared.
“Who is that?” Mika’s whisper mingled with the crinkling of the intruder’s hazmat suit.
Eric locked onto the human’s thoughts and then hissed at Mika, “He’s a Delegate. The Chamber must have detected that the system was down.”
He could read the man’s curiosity as easily as he read the rage in a killer chicken. The man jerked at Eric’s intrusion but still had no clue that the Bearer would wreck and disintegrate his thoughts like a colony of rabid bats would obliterate a human on a bad day. When Eric was finished, he implanted a suggestion . . .
RUN!
The man darted out from behind the rock. In his state of disorientation, he dropped his primitive weapon. In the Before, these metal toys were known as 'guns'. Eric watched him laboriously run back toward the Chamber, causing his hazmat suit to crinkle loudly.
Let them see a babbling idiot that does not even know his own name. You tell them that I will do this and more to the next one I see. No humans will harm us.
Eric walked over with Mika cradled against him. After retrieving the gun, he slung it over his shoulder.
"This is a very crude old weapon. It may not even work. Nonetheless, promise me you'll never touch it unless I tell you to."
Mika nodded in response. He would rather have her just remain silent and still. Human responses to him were just a show of independence. Questions were a sign of willfulness. He’d rather she took his word and blindly obeyed.
She will break under my rule . . . and enjoy every minute of it.
She licked at his neck, already hungry for his blood. He knew the feeling. His cock had been stiff all morning. He had fantasies of watching Mika resist him. Later, she would be required to bathe in water from the pool. He knew she wouldn’t like it but their time was running out.
She had drunk the moonshine. This was simply the next step. He could almost taste her fear-laced blood and feel the icy, tingly bite of the water.
He didn’t blame her. The water could feel like ten-thousand ants chewing on your flesh. But, when they drank their contaminated blood during sex, something incredible happened.
The pleasure blended everything perfectly. He could do anything he wanted to Mika, and she would scream for more. He remembered vampire lore from when he was human.
Maybe there was more to it than the ignorant humans could see.
She was developing fangs now so she could bite him. He grinned over the memory of her first official bite. She’d been so proud of herself.
When will her emotions calm? I grow tired of calming her. She will not woo me with her human smile.
A deer, enormous fangs curving under its snout, abruptly charged him from the side and crashed his thoughts. Eric’s hand swiped a dagger chipped from rock that was always tucked at his waist. He met the throat of the menacing animal as it charged. Its fangs barely grazed him but it was enough to send the beast’s venom searing through Eric’s blood.
A hot lance shot up his arm. To his surprise, Mika’s hot mouth surrounded the laceration and started to suck the venom. She spat and then sucked again.
“Little human, you should not . . .” A wave of emotion rocked through Eric.
What is this?! It's an invasion. I wasn't prepared for this.
The thought had barely crossed Eric’s mind when the protective feeling amplified, almost driving him to his knees. The flash of a woman he’d once loved skated through his mind.
He drove a hand into Mika’s hair and tugged but she was growing stronger by the minute. He grunted, trying to resist the urge to curl his body around her. He failed and ended up cradling her to his chest with Mika locked onto his arm.
The deer lay bleeding on its side at Eric’s feet. Mika sucked his arm and spat repeatedly. She began to moan and squirm against him.
He stumbled toward the cavern entrance. Since she didn’t have his level of immunity yet, he didn’t know how the deer’s venom would affect her.
He ran straight to the pool. Instead of ordering her to drink the water, he thrust her face in it. She screamed which helped clean the venom from her mouth. The water was tinged pink from Eric’s blood.
When he brought her face back up, it was very ugly and red. He carried her to the bed and curled around her body. To heal the deer bite, he knew that he would have to lick it.
Mika seemed insatiable, biting his shoulder to suck at his blood. He cupped her chin and nipped her bottom lip for a taste. He detected the noxious venom in her saliva and knew that her body was building immunity to what the deer had injected into his system. It would mutate into her unique poison, her signature as a Bearer. She would be okay. The transformation had moved faster than he had ever hoped or imagined it would.
Her face was already building a glistening layer of new skin while her eyes held a distinct searing heat that could only mean one thing. His changling was quickly Becoming. He grinned down at her.
She grinned back. Two slender fangs slowly emerged from the roof of her mouth. Eric had never seen a human transforming. The bearers had transformed together.
Fascinating!
“We must find out what your venom does, my Mika.”
She beamed at the use of her name. He arched a brow, wondering why he didn’t feel the need to rid that look from her face. The haunting memory of his lost love teased his mind once again.
“Master . . . Eric.”
He rolled and held her down against the bedding. “Do not call me that human name. I am Master to you.”
Her face was glowing with rebirth. For some reason, her heightened beauty angered him. It wasn't part of his plan to transform himself with the baggage of human emotion. Beauty was a proud Bearer, not a runtly little human whose neck he could snap like a twig.
Her blood was causing something so strange he had trouble putting a name to it. He vaguely remembered a word-feelings. That's what this was. Fucking feelings.
“Master,” she breathed. He suddenly couldn’t tear his eyes from her gaze. They too were slowly changing to look more like a Bearer’s. She blinked and large silver pupils with a wide black rim stared back at him.
She is ready to bear my child.
“Oh, my Mika, you will be a Queen,” he told her before his mouth closed over her lips. To his utter shock, she pushed at his chest. This was unacceptable.
His hand closed over her throat in a threatening manner but he didn’t apply enough pressure to shut her air off. He did break the kiss. Glaring down at her, he growled, “I must impregnate you, Little One.”
“Master, let me show you something. I promise that you will be pleased,” she begged him.
Impatient to fuck her, Eric reluctantly backed off and watched her lean down to his wounded arm. He’d forgotten all about the deer bite. She opened her mouth wide, releasing her snake-like fangs.
Eric had no idea what her venom would do to him. But, he instinctively knew that it wouldn’t kill him. He wondered if she would go directly to the deer wound and braced himself. Pain that he used to brush away as easily as a horsefly might not be so easy to ignore. Given his newly found weakness he didn't know what to expect.
Mika bit him on the arm just beside where the deer had bitten him. He grunted when her burning venom entered his system but his eyes widened when his wound closed over and healed.
She released his arm and sheathed her fangs before licking the little bit of blood she’d left behind. Something deep inside him, an urge as strong as the call of the air outside, made him kiss her deeply, to taste the mingling of their essence.
As tasted her, a slow realization dawned on Eric. Not only was Mika ready to conceive his child. She was one with nature. The birds would no longer trouble her and the beasts would respect her.
He could read nature’s essence in her blood. If she wanted to blend in outside, she would only need to alter her skin to suit. Bearers all bore chameleon qualities they kept well hidden from their minders. And their children would be the same way, possibly even more powerful than their parents.
The need to mate tore through him with overwhelming force. He shoved her down and ripped at the flimsy shirt she wore. She squirmed under him; raking long nails down his arms to only have them heal quicker than ever.
He arched a brow and growled her name, shoving a knee between her legs. Eric tore the remainder of her clothing off and almost ripped his own pants off. Her nails bloodied his thigh before he slammed her wrist to the bedding.
Eric had always enjoyed roughness with women. Mika let out a sigh and heaved her back off the bed. He nipped hard enough at her breast to draw a single scarlet drop and he followed the trail of crimson down the curve of her flesh.
She grew even wilder beneath him. He wrestled her onto her stomach and pulled her ass off the bed so she’d settle onto her knees. Mika continued to inflict wounds with her hands and her newly sprouted fangs. Watching them heal nearly instantly aroused but didn't surprise her. She was beginning to see and feel things in a world beyond the reality that had been her entire life.
Eric didn’t bother to see if Mika was wet. He grabbed her hips and thrust hard enough to drive her face to the pillows without altering the size of his cock. Her pussy stretched around him in a snug embrace.
He grabbed the back of her neck, held her to the bedding, and fucked her harder and harder. His teeth marked her shoulder, leaving a trail down her back. Her hips ground against his while Mika uttered heated grunting sounds with every harsh thrust.
She slapped backward at his leg and squeaked when Eric pushed her face into the bedding. Their coupling was violent and often drew blood, but neither stayed harmed. Both healed very quickly.
Her venom sang through Eric’s blood, acting as an additional mutating factor. In response, his cock elongated to seek an egg. Mika twisted as her body welcomed this invasion. Eric growled. The Bearer in him was still very much alive.
Mika’s pussy accepted Eric’s newly changed cock while she wriggled wildly against him. She screamed when her egg was captured. Eric received a flash of precognition; Mika must die after conception.
Beneath him, Mika screamed, “Master, now!”
Eric grunted when his cock began devouring her egg. Another precognition flash showed him that he would carry their child. Eric suddenly knew what to do.
He grabbed Mika’s head in his hands and promptly snapped her neck. Without a beat, he pulled her head back by her hair and bit her. His venom shot through her vain, healing her broken neck almost instantly.
She gasped. Eric felt the blast of energy all the way to his balls. He climaxed, tripping her into an orgasm as well. The jolt of energy fertilized Mika’s egg which had already nestled in a pocket within Eric’s lower belly.
His cock had already shrunk down to normal size. He pulled out of Mika and rolled her over. Gazing down at her, Eric no longer needed to speak. She could read his mind and he could read hers.
“You hold our babe, not I, Master,” she thought.
“You can feel the babe, though, at all times. Right, my Queen?”
“Yes, Master. The heart already beats.”
The tiny creature was already the size of Eric’s large fist. It would grow and become a force very swiftly. This one would live. This one would be something new, something that neither had ever seen before.
“We must eat part of nature. The babe needs deer meat. We should hunt.” In his new found concern for Mika, he had left the bleeding deer outside. By this time, animals of prey would have left nothing. He would find not even a bone to attest to the fight with the vicious brute.
Eric stooped to gather some water and clean himself. He handed her a cloth dipped in the contaminated water. She readily accepted it and began to clean herself. She knew there was no harm left for her in the water. From that moment on, it would be an elixir that only made her stronger.
Afterward, he grabbed the crossbow instead of the gun which he’d taken from the stranger. He didn't trust the gun, but his bow was true. He led with him out of the cavern. He expected the stranger to return to the Chamber and deliver the message that much was amiss in their sector E1.
Attempt us harm and you will also pay. Eric the Bearer was too close to his goal. Human weakness would not diminish his resolve. Human attempts to thwart him would be swiftly rebuffed.
They hadn’t been out of the cavern long when Mika got too close to one of the volatile chickens. When it charged her, she grabbed its neck and snapped it. All the while, a menacing little smile was on her lips.
After moving a small distance through the unyielding landscape of rock and sand and desolation, Eric spotted a deer. He reached for his bow but Mika’s nimble petite form shot forward. The deer spooked but didn’t run for long. Mika had disappeared. Eric suspected that he was the only one who could see her. As he watched, Mika blended with nature, becoming the bark of a tree before reducing down to a sly snake to slither through the grass.
Her form brought an old human phrase to mind-she’s poetry in motion.
When the deer’s pointed ear flickered and it froze, Mika’s snake-form transformed into a blanket of grass and slowly glided across the ground. The deer resumed chewing the real grass until Mika jerked its hoofs toward her.
Eric watched the blanket of lush green grass rush over the deer’s head. Even though Eric heard the crunch, he saw the throb of the deer’s heart stop after Mika snapped its neck.
Eric didn’t realize that he was grinning until Mika stood before him and said, “Master, you’re smiling.”
He sobered quickly and barked, “It was a pleasure to watch my Queen kill such a fine meal. The babe is happy . . . and hungry. Bring the meat.”
Even though the animal was larger than Mika, she hefted its front hooves over her shoulder and dragged it to the cavern. Reading her mind clearly, Eric remembered the history lessons of men being the hunter-gatherers that invaded Mika’s thoughts.
He said aloud, “We adjust to our mutations.”
Surprise flitted over Mika’s face. Eric knew that her attitude toward the Bearers had changed. All the humans had thought the Bearers were beneath them. The truth was, Charles made their status lower and had chemically controlled all of them. The old preacher was crafty and self-serving. He was not to be trusted.
If Eric hadn’t been able to read Mika’s thoughts, he wouldn’t trust her fully either. After all, she had been Charles’ assistant. She’d knowingly allowed the Bearers’ hormones to be manipulated. That was before her Becoming. That was long before she tasted the salt sea of his blood, drank the transforming water and grew to be more than she could have ever thought she would become.
A sharp burst of anger made him reach out and grab her arm. He had no idea that the babe was in control of his actions. The babe-an unschooled bundle of-what? Eric hadn't considered that their offspring would share their characteristics. He assumed Mika would become one of his own and she had. But inside her and now inside the babe? There was so much he didn't know.
“Why did you go along with the Magic Man, Mika?”
Her eyes widened, “I had no other choice. You survived by fighting the system. I survived by working with it.”
He knew she was telling the truth. The babe was hungrier than ever though. After releasing her arm, Eric went inside the cavern and pulled the deer up to the pool of water.
After cleaning it and washing it with water from the pool, he told Mika to secure it to a stake while he started a fire. Within minutes, a nice blaze was crackling.
Mika had rubbed the deer down with salts from the scorched flats and tied it to the stake. Eric only had to think, the babe will grow quickly after I eat and Mika heard him.
She nodded and thought back, he will be a fine boy child.
Eric went to the fire and turned the meat. He saw the truth of what she claimed. As the delicious aromas of cooked deer filled the cavern, Eric thought he would faint from hunger.
Even though it wasn’t cooked thoroughly, he pulled it from the fire. Thinking back on their mating, he glanced at Mika and asked, “Why do you shield your thoughts?”
“Because they are of my death, Master.”
“What happened?”
“Deep darkness. Cold and lonely,” she breathed.
“It was necessary to give the babe an energy source.”
She studied his face so intensely that Eric frowned at her. “Stop shielding your mind, my Little Human.”
“You must know that you cannot kill me again without my permission.”
“Yes, I know that. I don’t want you dead at the moment, my Mika.”
“Of course not. You must build your army first. Right, Master?” Her tone was overly sad.
His head tilted. “That is correct. Why the sorrow?”
“I remember.”
He suddenly received a flash of very human emotion. The yearning slammed him and he glared at her. “Those are the daydreamed fluff of a romantic human female. Put them out of your thoughts.”
Remorse flitted over her face. He shook his head. “You will not pull me into your fantasies, Little Human. As a Queen Bearer, you may feel. As a King Bearer, I will act.”
“Why do I still have the capacity to feel?” she asked him
He shrugged. “Because you are not suppressing it? Because that part of you will always and forever stay with you? Who knows.” He shielded his fear of his own transformation.
“Do you care that I died?” she bluntly asked.
“I knew that I would bring you back.”
“Master, I will not die every time we procreate.” She wore a sly expression and was shielding her thoughts again.
“Stop blocking me!” he barked at her.
Eric was blasted with a precognition. In the flash, Mika looked down on his still form. Her face twisted as she sneered, “Remember, Master, that I don’t have to bring you back.”