Each Step Like Knives

Each Step Like
Knives

Each
Step Like Knives

Megan Hart

Chaos Edition.

Copyright 2010 Megan Hart

Chaos Edition, License
Notes

This ebook is licensed for your
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Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

***THIS WORK WAS PREVIOUSLY
PUBLISHED AS WITH STEPS LIKE KNIVES***

Through
the darkness, he rose. His body moved the way it was meant to, with
sleek and powerful precision. With a final burst of exertion, he
broke the water's surface. The...air?
Is that what it was
called?
The air burned his lungs, but he braved the sting
without a sound.

He saw her.

Helena
loved the ocean at night. Every star seemed reflected in the black
waters until both the sky and sea seemed to stretch on forever. The
night breeze lifted her hair off her shoulders, and she shivered.
Though the July days had been sweltering, the nights were downright
cold. She'd thrown on a heavy sweatshirt, but her legs were still
bare, and now, splattered with chilly seawater. She should head
back.

Helena glanced back up at the sky. No moon tonight.
The ocean itself was peaceful, the tide low, the waves gentle on
her toes as she walked. The hum and moan of the water was sweeter
on her ears than anything else could be. It was better even than
silence.

She pulled the sleeves of her sweatshirt down over
her fingers and hugged herself before reluctantly turning back the
way she had come. The morning sun rose early, and though she had no
real reason to get up with it, she knew from long experience she
would.

She didn't mind being alone during the day. In fact,
she'd come to enjoy her solitude. At night, though, the double bed
became a vast and lumpy wasteland in which she tossed and turned
for hours without relief. She was lucky if she got three or four
good hours of sleep at night.

She might have stumbled with only the starlight to
guide her, but she made her way back to her house without incident.
There she turned and looked back toward the black water, sprinkled
with the reflection of a million different worlds.

"Good night!" she called, and laughed at her
foolishness.
There's nobody out there
.

"Where've you
been?" Krall's hands moved in speech as he swam into the arched
doorway to block Jeenai's passage.

Jeenai patiently waited until his older brother
moved aside, then swam through to the chamber beyond. "None of your
business."

"You've been to the surface again." Krall gestured
triumphantly. He swam after Jeenai and caught him by the arm, a
grasp Jeenai could have easily thrown off but suffered because his
brother ranked higher than he did.

"It's not your business, Krall."

Krall dropped his hand. "What were you doing there?
Watching for your split-tail again? When are you going to stop
wasting your time?"

Jeenai knew his fascination with the human's world
was considered poor taste by many, and outright perversion by
others. He did not lose his temper. Krall was obviously itching for
a fight Jeenai didn't want to give.

"I'm not accountable to you," he replied evenly. He
added the sweeping motion that indicated respect to placate his
brother. "Now, I'm hungry and weary. I'm going to eat and refresh
myself."

Krall slid backward through the water with a push of
his muscular tail. He fixed Jeenai with a fierce glare.

"We're just concerned about you, that's all."
Krall's normally boisterous gestures were smoother. "You don't join
in the revels any longer. We never see you laugh. You don't even
show an interest in the competitions any longer."

Jeenai thought of the human woman. Krall was right.
Jeenai didn't take part in the nightly revels or competitions any
more. They held no appeal for him. Still, the concern in his
brother's face made him pause.

"All right," Jeenai said. "I'll go with you."

Krall grinned and churned the water with his tail.
"What are you waiting for? The fems await, oh, my brother!"

Jeenai's stomach protested its emptiness again. "I
need food first."

"At the revel, you'll fill every appetite."

Jeenai shook his head, but followed his brother back
through the arched doorway and into a courtyard. The palace walls
rose above them, almost higher than he could see. The shadow of a
whale or some other large beast passed overhead, darkening the sand
for a moment as the brothers swam toward the courtyard's other
side.

Already, Jeenai could sense the commotion and noise
of the revel. They swam through another arched doorway into a
larger room. The floor of this room was fine, soft sand. The walls,
as with most of the rest of the city, had been carved from coral
and stone. Along the far wall, a cage teemed with what the hunters
had brought in that day, while a low bench held carved shell bowls
of seaweed and other delicacies.

Again, Jeenai's stomach grumbled and he headed for
the feast.

"Fill your belly later!" Krall said, but Jeenai
ignored him.

Jeenai saw a young fem wrap her arms around Krall's
waist and distract him with her kisses. Shaking his head, Jeenai
continued toward the food. Swimming to the surface and back had
made him hungry.

The fem hovering close to the goblets of fresh squid
ink gave him a smile that clearly showed every one of her pointed
teeth. She was a blue, and Jeenai admired the shimmering colors of
her skin as he approached. Her sleek, triangular fin was nearly
pure white at the tip, with bands of color growing progressively
darker as they traveled toward her torso, until they reached a line
of pure indigo at her waist. She had attractive markings, and she
knew it.

Without speaking, she handed him one of the goblets,
which Jeenai quaffed immediately. She scooped a handful of soft
seaweed into her palm and offered that to him next.

He reached for it, but she pulled it back coyly. She
lifted the trailing vegetation toward her full breasts. Her nipples
were tight and red with arousal.

"Come closer," she said.

Jeenai turned toward the table and chose another
bowl from which to eat. "Find another lover. I'm hungry."

The fem pouted and tossed down the seaweed, but she
didn't give up. She swam up behind him and put her hands on his
waist. Jeenai could feel the pebbly points of her nipples against
his back.

His cock rose despite himself and the fem slid her
hand around to caress it. She grasped it firmly and stroked
downward, all the way to the base of Jeenai's ventral slit, and
then she slid her fingers inside to stroke the round stones of his
testicles within. They pulsed in her hand, and Jeenai let the bowl
drop.

He twisted in the water and gathered her into his
arms. The human woman's face filled his mind as he pushed the fem
toward one of the private niches set into the walls. The human
woman had firm, full breasts, too, just like these.

Food forgotten in the lust of mating, Jeenai pulled
one of the fem's nipples into his mouth and suckled. She thrashed
beneath him, back arched upward to press herself harder against
him.

She was already fully aroused. Her slit opened to
reveal the perfect opening and small, hooded pearl just above. She
touched herself there and made her fingers dance on the pleasure
spot. The water was already full of the odors of many fems and mals
engaged in mating, but now Jeenai could smell this one. Her
pheromones filled his nostrils and sent another bolt of pure lust
through his body.

Her body spasmed in its first climax as she
pleasured herself. Her nipples released a succulent nectar with
each twitch of her body. Jeenai drank it and felt his cock swell
even harder from his body. She stroked him again then brought him
to her slit. He slid inside her all the way.

The blue put her arms around him and held him tight
while his penis thrust in and out. Her mouth came down on his
shoulder and left a perfect half-circle of marks from her teeth.
Swept up in the frenzy of the fuck, Jeenai barely noticed.

She shuddered again. Her conch clamped down around
him and rippled along his cock. The pressure in his balls built, up
and up, not allowing conscious thought, only action. Jeenai humped
against the fem harder. They turned over and over in the water. He
closed his eyes against the blur as they moved faster.

She pumped him. Her inner muscles moved along his
cock as firmly and easily as her fingers had, and he approached his
own first climax in moments. It tore out of him. His entire body
suffused with pleasure.

The fem loosened her grip a little before she bore
down on him again. In another moment, he was on the edge of his
second orgasm. Though smaller than the first, it was no less
pleasurable.

Their third climax came at the same time. The fem
thrashed and jerked in Jeenai's embrace before quieting. Her gill
slits fluttered from her exertion.

She pulled away from him, her nipples already
returning to their non-aroused color of dusky beige. She smiled.
"You are accomplished in the fuck."

"And you," Jeenai replied.

She looked back at the table of food, now mostly
empty after the revelers had feasted while Jeenai mated with the
blue. "You'd better hurry before it's all gone."

Then with a flip of her tail, she pushed off into
the crowd. Jeenai stared after her. His cock shrank back into his
body and the opening at the front of his tail closed to conceal it.
He couldn't deny the pleasure he'd just taken with that fem--a
stranger to him--but though his body had been satisfied, his mind
had not. Something was missing from that joining, and it had
nothing to do with sexual completion.

He went to the cage and reached for one of the fish
inside. It swam frantically away from him, but he caught it easily
and tore into its flesh. The blood slid down his throat, assuaging
his hunger. He spat the bones aside, where they'd be eaten or
gathered up by the crabs and bottom-feeders. He took another, and
another, before his stomach stopped its muttering. Then he drank
another goblet of ink and turned to face the room again.

The revel hadn't ended, and probably wouldn't until
the next change of the tide. Those who tired of it would leave for
rest and food, only to return for more sex play. Partners joined
and shared their climaxes, then parted to experience the next with
a different partner. The water became cloudy with churned up sand
and air bubbles from the thrashing.

All at once, the sight and smells made Jeenai's
gorge rise. This was not what he wanted. He'd been tempted into it
by his desire to placate his brother and the undeniable attraction
of the blue, but now, even though his cock twitched and began to
rise from his ventral slit again, Jeenai left the hall and sought
the peace of the garden.

There he floated on his back and stared up through
the darkness, imagining the surface and the lights they called
stars.

"You're crazy, staying out here all by yourself." Francine poured
herself another mug of bad coffee and sat down at the kitchen
table. "Helena, this is nuts."

Helena didn't take offense. "How can you say that?
It's beautiful here."

Francine cast a disapproving eye around the small
but tidy kitchen, then rubbed her shoe on the floor. It gritted in
the sand that, no matter how often Helena swept, still managed to
creep in. "Why not come home?"

"To New York?" Helena shook her head. "No, thanks. I
like it here. Sure, it's a bit ramshackle..."

"That's an understatement." Francine snorted. "This
place should be condemned. I can't believe you didn't just sell
it."

"I know I could get a lot of money for the land."
Helena got up and went to the window, looked out to the dunes, then
turned to her friend. "But I have enough money. I like it here.
It's quiet."