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“Dan Heng, we need to send you out on urgent assignment to collect an important item. The Trailblazer requires it as soon as possible. Unfortunately, no one else is available.”
Taking the set of documents from Himeko, Dan Heng sifted through the information, confused. Sap? He wasn’t sure why the Trailblazer needed sap for, of all things, but he did not question it.
“Please take care, though. It appears the floral species on this planet, specifically the one that contains the sap we’re looking for, has manifested differently due to the presence of a nearby Stellaron.”
A Stellaron?
Then the Stellaron Hunters might follow. And that would mean…
But if the Trailblazer needed it post-haste, then he would not argue. The quicker he completed the task, the less likely he would bump into him. Nodding his head, Dan Heng accepted the assignment.
*
With a flick of his wrist, Blade sliced through the vines covering the entrance to the dark cave. Getting to this point on the map had been a bothersome trek, but from his understanding, the Stellaron ought to be close by. Monsters, too, although strangely enough, he had yet to pass by any. He wondered if another had slayed them first.
A pity, if so. Blade did enjoy throwing himself into the calamitous forefront of battle.
As Blade walked further into the dreary cave, the discomfort from the humidity increased with the lack of light. Only able to see a few steps ahead of him, his sharpened senses from being a master swordsman allowed him a wider perception of his dim surroundings: the repetitive pitter-patter of water droplets hitting the dirt floor, the sounds of creatures slithering around on the walls.
No, not creatures.
Vines.
Before he could cut through another group, the vines dispersed of their own accord, clearing the path spanning in front of him. Perhaps they were sentient, already wary of his deadly sword. Believing that they would lead him to the Stellaron, he followed after the eerie mass of vines even as they retreated through the maze of underground tunnels.
Where they stopped in a large dingy chamber, Blade stopped too, freezing in his tracks. In front of him was something he thought he would never set his sights on. Tightening his grip around the hilt of his sword, Blade stepped closer.
Before him, the man who had so far escaped his blade – Dan Heng – was naked, stripped bare and held upright by vine-like tentacles, his arms and legs restrained. A rosy blush coloured Dan Heng’s cheeks. Beads of sweat trailed down the vulnerable line of Dan Heng’s exposed neck.
Eyes closed, Dan Heng was barely cognisant of his surroundings, the tendrils having secured their way around every part of his body, a few tentacles squeezing at his chest. One tentacle was stuffed down Dan Heng’s throat, causing drool to leak out from Dan Heng’s pink mouth. Another tentacle was wrapped around Dan Heng’s hard, leaking cock, drinking up the pre-come running down from the slit. And the most disturbing and distracting was the largest tentacle vigorously plunging into Dan Heng’s asshole, squelching noises ringing in Blade’s ears as the tentacle released even more fluid to ease its slide.
Red.
Red flashed before Blade’s feral eyes. He would not continue to watch this. The last time he had seen Dan Heng – Dan Feng – like this, they had been in bed together. This was…
A fury he had never experienced before possessed Blade.
Charging forward, he sliced through the tendrils, not knowing if the monster would bleed and hoping that it would. The tentacles that tried to fight him, that tried to grab him too were batted away with ease. Blade hacked through the vines holding Dan Heng up, and the mutilated tentacles withdrew quickly behind the holes in the wall. As Dan Heng fell into Blade’s arms, he realised the curious structure of the caves system was probably how the monster had caught Dan Heng: it was impossible to see another glimpse of that tentacular monster through the web-like rocks.
Now, time was ticking, and Blade needed to decide if he should pursue the monster. Should he continue to chase after the monster and inevitably be led to the Stellaron? Or…
As he gazed at the ravaged man in front of him, he wondered how long Dan Heng had been held a prisoner and used. He could kill Dan Heng now. Dan Heng was in his hands. There was no escaping this time. Dan Heng didn’t even have Cloud-piercer with him. Wrapping a bandaged hand around Dan Heng’s throat, he peered at the damage that had already been done. A slight gash to Dan Heng’s cheek, a bruise at the corner of his lips, and his emerald eyes—
Dan Heng was looking at him, pupils dilated. “Yingxing,” he muttered, voice hoarse.
Blade relaxed his hold, shocked. “What did you just call me?” Blade demanded, anger flourishing in his chest before he tightened his hold once more around Dan Heng’s neck. He had not heard that name since the curse of immortality was forced upon him, and it had been his beloved’s voice saying that name in that same dulcet timbre. “What. Did. You. Just. Fucking. Call. Me!”
Dan Heng clawed at Blade’s hands with his. A pathetic attempt. Dan Heng’s body was too fatigued to put up much of a fight, his eyelids drooping. He managed to open his mouth and plead, “Blade, help me. Please.”
It was no fun hurting Dan Heng when he was like this. He wanted to watch the life drain from Dan Heng’s eyes. He would kill Dan Heng when the time was right, and now was not it. He wanted Dan Heng to be fully aware that he had hunted him down from across the universe, that he was the only one who could kill him, that he was his – Blade’s.
Sweeping Dan Heng’s body up over his shoulder and steadying him with a hand to his back, Blade made his way out of the cave, carrying Dan Heng. “Help with what?”
“My body… It hurts.” With laboured breaths, Dan Heng’s voice was quiet as he spoke. His erection was still poking into Blade’s shoulder. “Please… Help me.”
“How?” Blade stopped in his path, arriving at his destination. They had exited the cave, the outside a lush woodland. Bathed in the warmth of the sunlight, he placed Dan Heng down on the grassy floor. He appraised the flush riding high on Dan Heng’s cheekbones. It was hard to look at, and even harder to look away from. He repeated, harsher now, “How?”
On his back, Dan Heng lifted his hips and legs into the air, exposing the sordid parts of him – his straining erection that had yet to find relief, the round buttocks that had maroon vine-shaped bruises, his swollen rim slick from the tentacle’s ministrations. In his shame, Dan Heng covered his eyes with an arm, not meeting Blade’s insistent stare. “You… have to finish… what it started.” Dan Heng paused, taking in a shaky breath. “Or I will… die.”
“Don’t be so dramatic.” Crossing his arms, Blade hated that his eyes kept flickering to Dan Heng’s exposed hole. It was a tantalising sight that he refused to acknowledge, in vain. “You won’t die—”
“The monster’s aphrodisiac… in its fluid… once it has been imbibed through the skin… requires me to expel it via ejaculation… or it will turn to poison...”
Blade frowned. He would not allow Dan Heng to perish to anyone’s hands but his own. “Then get off on your own,” but the fight in his words died in his throat, realising Dan Heng struggled to even move and would not have the energy to reach climax by himself. He would have to wrap his hand around Dan Heng’s length. “Fine. But I’m not fucking you.”
“Please…”
Crouching down, Blade examined Dan Heng’s body with an austere scan, realising the dangerous fluid was also on Dan Heng’s erection. There was no way to get Dan Heng off without putting himself at risk, and if he had to also ejaculate in order to cure himself, then… there was no other alternative.
“Fuck.” Blade gritted his teeth, trying not to think about what he was to do. Not because he didn’t want to hurt Dan Heng – he did not care about that. But because, it would remind him of memories long past, memories that he did not wish to reminisce. Stripping off his clothes, bracer too, and placing them by the side, he refused to look at the heat on Dan Heng’s too familiar face. He focused his gaze downwards.
Dan Heng’s asshole twitched. His thighs quivered. Droplets of pre-come leaked from his erection.
Blade stared, swallowing air. Blood rushed to his nether regions. Stroking his cock to hardness and brushing it between Dan Heng’s crevice, he hated this. Bracing himself as he lined his length up with Dan Heng’s rim, he hated this. Leaning over Dan Heng’s body and seeing his infuriating face looking at him with that expression, he hated this.
When he shoved in, it was with the prowess of a swordsman dealing a lethal blow, striking into the hot, tight cavity of Dan Heng’s asshole. The slick already there eased the slide, a pity – Blade wanted this to hurt Dan Heng. He wanted to hurt Dan Heng.
He wanted to hurt Dan Heng.
Dan Heng moaned at the intrusion, dark eyelashes fluttering. His deft hands grasped at Blade’s shoulders, pleading. Even when he was being fucked, Dan Heng was quiet, his lust-filled body clamouring for more and barely any of it vocalised. His pretty mouth opened in silent cries. His wide eyes shed no tears, staring into Blade’s eyes with a kindling ardour that inspired fear in Blade’s lawless heart.
There was no kindness left in Blade’s being as he nursed his pathological desire to ruin Dan Heng. He told himself he did not do this for Dan Heng – he did this for himself. To take Dan Heng and humiliate him, to split Dan Heng apart on his cock. Dan Heng would not forget him. Blade desired to rip wanton whimpers from Dan Heng’s throat, to have Dan Heng crying and begging for forgiveness. Rocking into Dan Heng’s tight heat, Blade gripped Dan Heng’s thighs and pushed his legs further apart, spearing deeper into him.
Dan Heng felt the same as he remembered.
Blade could feel the aphrodisiac spreading through his body, igniting his body aflame with the carnal need to keep fucking Dan Heng. He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt like this, his mind a heady mess of wanting to breed Dan Heng. It wasn’t physically possible to breed Dan Heng, but it was all he could think about, all he knew, a single-minded drive in his desperate hold on Dan Heng’s hips as Blade fucked into him.
As Blade pushed into the soft insides of Dan Heng’s hole, he pressed again and again at the spot where he knew Dan Heng’s prostate was, earning himself a melodious moan from Dan Heng. As much as Dan Heng insisted he was not the same person Blade thought he was, his body said otherwise. He slammed into Dan Heng’s prostate the same way he wished he could stab his heart with the point of his blade, watching Dan Heng’s face contort in a myriad of aroused expressions at the overwhelming feeling.
Thick desire coursed through Blade’s veins. Balls heavy with seed slapped against Dan Heng’s ass as Blade bottomed out with every thrust. Leaning down, he licked along the curve of Dan Heng’s rounded ear, biting into the soft lobe and making him shiver. Even if Dan Heng wasn’t in his Vidyadhara form, his ear was still a sensitive, erogenous spot, and Blade remembered just the way he would melt from the sensation in the past.
From Dan Heng’s ear to the tender junction of his neck and shoulder, Blade left bruising kisses along his skin. He would claim all of Dan Heng, a fiery trail of hickeys demonstrating his determined resolve.
It was Dan Heng who outstretched his hand to cup Blade’s jaw, bringing him in for a sensual kiss. Swirling their tongues together and sucking on Blade’s lower lip, Dan Heng seemed to grow energised through their lewd ministrations.
With how intimate the kiss felt, Blade wanted to refuse Dan Heng’s insatiable mouth, knowing it would bring forth a plethora of unwanted memories, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t refuse Dan Heng. Where one rational thought existed, it was quickly replaced by the incessant need to fill Dan Heng’s hole with semen until he bloated.
Birds chirped. A zephyr tickled at Blade’s skin. A woodsy aroma surrounded them.
Blade found it impossible to focus on anything except Dan Heng. Impossible to do anything but continue driving into Dan Heng’s tight heat, a frantic urgency in the brutal snap of his hips. His loins felt like they were lit on fire unless he was inside Dan Heng. His skin burned unless he was touching Dan Heng. His traitorous body yearned for Dan Heng, a pathetic habit that he had tried to unlearn over the painful years without him.
Grabbing Dan Heng by his hair, Blade yanked hard while he drove his cock into the soft, warm insides of Dan Heng’s asshole. Dan Heng clenched tighter around him at the rough handling, whimpering. Those obscene noises shot straight to Blade’s throbbing erection, encouraging him to go faster, harder. Biting down on Dan Heng’s neck like a possessive beast, Blade slammed his cock in with all the longing he refused to let surface, wishing he could fuck Dan Heng into permanent submission, so that Dan Heng could never feasibly leave him again. So that Dan Heng would understand the reality he had forged.
Dan Heng came at the violent actions, crying and spilling his useless seed across his stomach. Tears welled in his resplendent jade eyes, trailing down his cheeks. “Blade,” Dan Heng called out, his quiet voice as loud as a discordant heartache in Blade’s ears.
“Stop saying my name,” Blade responded, earnest anger and solemn desire in equal amounts. Thrusting into Dan Heng’s oversensitive hole without a care for how fucked out Dan Heng looked, Blade chased his climax the same way he had hunted Dan Heng through the galaxies, relentless and ruthless. Tormented by a ghost of his past.
Coming inside Dan Heng, Blade grunted, tempering his fluctuating emotions. It was the fault of the aphrodisiac that he even wanted this. As he finished ejaculating into Dan Heng’s tight, greedy hole, filling him to the brim, Blade watched as a dark mark coloured Dan Heng’s lower stomach, right above his pubic hair. A strange symbol that looked oddly familiar, but he did not think more of it.
Not when Dan Heng was pushing him to the floor now, swapping their positions. Where had Dan Heng’s strength come from? He had been too lethargic to even masturbate, and now, after being filled with come, he was sitting atop Blade’s lap.
“What do you think you’re doing?” But Blade already knew. He was still hard even after ejaculating, his erection pulsating. His balls still ached. He still wanted to keep fucking Dan Heng, and Dan Heng seemed to hold the same opinion.
Dan Heng rode Blade, head thrown back in ecstasy, thighs shaking as he bounced on Blade’s thick shaft, in his pursuit of squeezing out more of Blade’s seed.
Even in his human form, Dan Heng was an ethereal vision to cast his eyes upon. It didn’t matter if Blade believed his mind to be still clouded; the stark reality was that he could not have enough of Dan Heng. Blade pulled Dan Heng down for a filthy open-mouthed kiss, trying to shove his tongue down Dan Heng’s throat the way he wished he could with his dick. His appetite was voracious, as he thought up endless ways he wanted to break Dan Heng and fuck him until he babbled incoherently and begged for mercy.
Pinching Dan Heng’s pert nipples, the intrusive desire to see milk dripping out from those tits overcame Blade. Heat flushed through him at the thought. Alas, he would have to make do with sucking on them, wrapping his lips around one of Dan Heng’s nipples and licking at the pink areola. He watched Dan Heng fall apart, moaning like a whore riding on his cock, his voice getting louder as the reticence was fucked out of him.
After coming again, Blade pushed Dan Heng onto his knees to claim him once more, fucking into his sloppy, semen-filled hole. Every frenetic thrust caused come to ebb out and ease the slide of his length. Blade gripped a bruising hold on Dan Heng’s hips, intense in his onslaught, beckoning his climax once more while buried deep in Dan Heng’s asshole.
Only when the sun started setting did the torturous effects of the aphrodisiac wear off. They had fucked in every position possible, the moments passing in a haze of passionate need, and ended up on their sides, Blade hugging Dan Heng’s back as he pushed into him. Placing a hand on Dan Heng’s tummy, he touched the slight bump from where all the come and his cock had distended the area. Pleased by his efforts, he pressed down, making Dan Heng shudder and groan. Possessed by an irrational need to remind Dan Heng who he belonged to, Blade whispered, “You invited me to breed you, and now look at you, filled with my seed. You’ll never be able to come without my cock.”
“I don’t want to be without you, Blade,” Dan Heng replied, breathless, the poignant words a muted buzz to Blade’s ears, blocked out by the bittersweet memory that Dan Feng had said those exact words to him so long ago. And what had it mattered? Dan Feng had still turned him into an immortal monster and abandoned him. The Dan Heng before him now could never blot out the sins of his past.
In the end, when Blade pulled out, exhausted and weary, he watched his come dribble out of Dan Heng’s stretched-wide hole, down the thick of his pale thighs, stunned by how much spend he had released. It was an erotic view that would haunt him once he left, knowing this was the last time he would be with Dan Heng.
Blade held in a humourless laugh at how his one and only opportunity to bed Dan Heng had manifested like this. Getting to his feet, he donned his clothing, disregarding how unkempt he appeared. The Stellaron Hunters would not care.
Glancing at Dan Heng, Blade sighed. A pitiful sight. If anyone chanced upon them, they would have assumed Blade had forced himself upon Dan Heng and had his wicked way with him. At times, he wished he had the temerity to steal Dan Heng away from the Astral Express, kidnapping him and keeping him for himself somewhere no one else could venture; a senseless impulse, for Dan Heng would fight him every step of the way.
“Can you stand?” Blade asked, crossing his arms.
Dan Heng grunted an affirmative, gritting his teeth and trying to get up on shaky limbs. He failed. He had enough energy for sex, to grind his hips down on Blade’s lap, but not enough to arise?
Blade had no choice. He couldn’t leave him here. He would have to deliver him somewhere safe and of neutral territory, and anonymously ask someone from the Astral Express to retrieve him.
As Blade picked Dan Heng up and carried him in his arms, Dan Heng rested his head on Blade’s chest and closed his eyes.
Huffing in bemusement, Blade wondered when he had tricked himself into allowing this to happen.
*
Weeks had passed since the incident.
Dan Heng still remembered everything that had happened in lucid quality although he had not explained what had happened to anyone. Not even Welt who had apparently been the one to retrieve him from a bedroom at the Goethe Hotel. Perhaps it was obvious to the Express crew, but he chose not to ask if they were aware. The Trailblazer apologised for requesting his help and with a team had recovered the items he had lost.
The mark, shaped like a lotus flower’s silhouette, was ever present on the skin of his pelvis. Initially, he thought it would fade after showering away the grime of the day, but as time passed and it remained inky black and brazen on his skin, he worried if it was something sinister. A curse from the Stellaron-afflicted monster?
He hadn’t heard from Blade. The telepathic connection from his bracer did not provide any further hints of Blade’s whereabouts, and he wondered if Blade had possibly decided to no longer hunt him down. He had assumed that after making Blade fuck him like that, Blade’s murderous instincts towards him would have skyrocketed.
Weeks turned into a month. The daily humdrum of an archivist and guard of the Express returned.
At one point, when Dan Heng found himself waking up with the need to empty the contents of his stomach into a toilet bowl, he knew something was wrong.
Consulting Himeko, he relayed his strange symptoms. Nausea, fatigue, feeling overheated. His belly distended and bloated. Even after tiring battles or eating strange combinations of food, he had never experienced anything to this extent.
“It sounds like you might be pregnant,” Himeko commented, raising an eyebrow. “But that should be impossible.”
“It is impossible. Vidyadharas are infertile.” Dan Heng didn’t even want to think about a reality where this wasn’t true. He could still change into his Vidyadhara form, pointed ears and draconic horns, without a problem. However, he could not deny that his symptoms were in line with what one might expect from a human pregnancy. “But… I cannot make sense of this symbol on my pelvis. I believe it might have been left there by the monster I fought.”
Drawing the symbol for Himeko to see, he didn’t expect a shocked gasp from someone so usually put-together.
“It’s a magic seal, a womb tattoo, the lotus being an ancient symbol of fertility. A rare species of plants affected by Stellarons have been reported to reproduce with unwilling fauna in this manner,” Himeko said, glancing at Dan Heng’s abdomen. “Did the monster complete its ritual? Did it fertilise you?”
Dan Heng cringed at the terminology. Surely Himeko was not suggesting… “No.”
“Then whose semen was spilled? Because the womb tattoo only becomes imprinted on the skin after the victim develops a way to carry a child and the ritual is completed, whether it be in the shape of a womb and the ability to produce an egg or otherwise.”
“No, no, no, Himeko. This is not possible. I am a Vidyadhara. We are not capable of reproducing. It is physically impossible. I cannot be with child.”
“Dan Heng. I’m sorry, but…” Himeko sighed. “It’s best you rest and not stress yourself out. I am not sure whether or not you will have a human or draconic pregnancy, but there have been incidences of this occurring in the past – a human was once told she was barren; she sought out this monster and was able to return with a child in her uterus. If you do not wish to rear a child, then you have the option of aborting. I will have to consult with a few others in order to determine a safe way to do this, but I want to reassure you that we will help you in any way we can.”
Usually stoic, hearing those words had Dan Heng crumbling, head in his hands and disbelieving. If he had known, he never would have asked Blade to help him. His heart ached, and he wondered if Blade would care. If Blade would hate him even more. If Blade would choose him instead of his new family of outlaws.
Not a chance in hell.
Throat dry, Dan Heng swallowed, remembering his bracer could connect to Blade. Better not to think about him, lest he become aware.
“How do I get rid of it?” Dan Heng asked, sick to his stomach. Being a Vidyadhara meant childbirth and fertility were never a concern, with the ideal of a family not being privy to them. But being a Vidyadhara also meant respecting life as few ever died, for the Vidyadhara were eternal, moulting when their time came and being reborn in a Vidyadhara egg. With no means to reproduce, their population was sparse, and any death, albeit rare, was immensely detrimental to their species.
Yet even so, knowing he was denying a means of birthing a Vidyadhara, he could not fathom raising a child, and least of all, with Blade as an absent and murderous father. Dan Heng was no longer a High Elder of the Xianzhou Luofu. This responsibility should not be his burden to bear.
“We will figure out a means,” Himeko said, placing a hand on his shoulder, “if that is what you wish for, Dan Heng.”
Dan Heng had no immediate reply, contemplative.
When Dan Heng fell asleep that night, he dreamt of ancient sea waves and shimmering starry skies. Emotional memories and mortal injuries cleansed within a Vidyadhara egg; the deafening emptiness of rebirth into a universe without loved ones. Amidst the darkness echoed a heartbeat as powerful as a dragon’s roar, the stirring sound flooding away his fears.
*
Today was the day.
Today was the day Blade would exact his vengeance and enact suffering upon Dan Heng. Months, almost a year, had passed since he last gazed upon Dan Heng, and finally Dan Heng would pay for the sins of his past. Blade’s own cowardice over what had happened last time they had met had made it difficult to visit him – in order to kill him, of course. Their endless spats often resulted in Cloud-piercer through his chest due to his own recklessness, but this time would be different. He had the upper hand.
“Security systems are down,” Silver Wolf reported. “Where are you going?”
“Bladie is going to pay his ex-lover a visit first,” Kafka replied in his stead, an infuriating smirk on her lips. She was the only one who knew what had happened on that planet. Blade hadn’t informed her but one look at his ruffled-up clothes and his pained countenance that day, and she had figured it out. Only one person could affect Blade so severely.
“Not my ex,” Blade retorted, irritation clear in his scowl.
“There won’t be a lot of time. Most of the Express crew will probably have left to see what’s going on here. You’ll be lucky if you catch him on time, without the rest of his friends there.” Silver Wolf pressed a few buttons on the terminal, causing all the lights in the space station to shut down.
As expected, the Astral Express was easy to sneak aboard, the majority of the crew having disembarked. Stealth was not his forte, but Blade was not interested in making a scene as much as he enjoyed slicing enemies with his sword. He had one goal: find Dan Heng and kill him.
The first room in the passenger cabin proved to be Dan Heng’s room. Sliding open the door, Blade prepared his hold on the hilt of his weapon, readying to aim it at Dan Heng.
Standing by the entrance, Blade halted. In his surprise, his grip faltered. His sword dropped to the floor.
Dan Heng was in his Vidyadhara form, pointed ears and long dark hair. Draconic jade horns curved majestically from his head. He was dressed in the garb of the Yinyue, in a regal set of white and green clothes. His white upper garment was unclasped, revealing his naked upper torso, where a newborn was suckling at one of his teats. Dan Heng held the babe in his arms while he peered at the archives of the data bank.
At the sound of Blade arriving at his destination, Dan Heng turned to him, shock flowing into his luminous green eyes. His mouth dropped open, saying nothing. He cradled the newborn closer to his chest, nursing him, in no hurry to cover up his actions.
“What the fuck?” Blade interrupted, stepping closer. The room smelled of brine and seaweed, like he had been transported to a waterscape. A glowing aqua-coloured dragon scale, its large shape similar to a cracked Vidyadhara eggshell, was in the corner in the child’s cot. Instead of staring at Dan Heng’s face or his bare chest, he examined the baby properly this time.
Dark hair with a strand of red; short draconic jade horns; small, pointed ears. A Vidyadhara newborn. The baby turned to glance at the source of the disturbance, finished with her feeding, and Blade was caught off guard by the colour of the child’s eyes: ruby red, like blood coalescing from a wound. It was akin to looking in a mirror, seeing a tiny, innocent version of himself with Vidyadhara horns and ears.
“Don’t swear in front of our child,” Dan Heng replied, sighing. He rubbed at the baby’s back until the baby burped and then placed her into the cot.
“Our child?” Blade processed the words for what felt like an eternity, his life flashing before his eyes. The last time he had seen Dan Heng was when they had… “Oh fuck.”
Dan Heng glared at him.
Heart in his throat, Blade stepped up towards Dan Heng and assessed him. He looked so much like Dan Feng; it pained him to think of all the promises they had made together once upon a time. But Dan Feng and Dan Heng weren’t the same people, as Dan Heng always said. Dan Heng had forgotten those memories, forgotten him. Dan Heng had his own family in the form of the Astral Express crew, and now this little one too. “Tell me,” Blade said, wanting to hear it without a shred of doubt from Dan Heng, “is this child mine?”
Dan Heng nodded. “Yes, but what does it matter? I know you don’t want her.” Dan Heng rubbed his face in his hands. There were no tears, but he seemed to be pleading. “I know you want to kill me, but don’t hurt her. Please don’t kill her.”
Heart beating rapidly, Blade wanted to reach for Dan Heng but knew it was a futile attempt to reassure Dan Heng when he, himself, was growing uncertain of his goals. He would never forgive Dan Heng – Dan Feng – for gifting him immortality. Being struck by the mara was akin to being forever haunted by demons. He wanted to hurt Dan Heng and demand he right his wrongs, but… they had a daughter now.
Conflicted, Blade focused on the one thing that eased his suffering: enjoying the pleasures derived from Dan Heng’s body. He pressed a palm to Dan Heng’s chest, flicking a finger over the swollen, perky nipple. A bead of pearly milk dribbled out. He brought the tip of his finger to his lips, licking and tasting the sweet nectar. The mara within him calmed. An oddity – it was rare to find something able to restrain the madness of the curse.
“What are you doing, Blade?” Dan Heng stood frozen in his spot, eyes wide, pupils dilated.
“If you’re done feeding our child, will you let me drink from you too?” Blade requested, embracing Dan Heng, careful not to jostle him. He sniffed at the fragrant floral scent on Dan Heng’s skin.
“Or what? You’ll stab me?” Dan Heng sounded unamused, looking away.
“No. I’ll leave you and the child alone if that’s what you want.” Blade hoped otherwise, barely holding back the possessive greed suffocating him.
“You know nothing of the arduous journey I undertook in order to birth her, and now you want to drink from me?” Dan Heng chided, annoyance blossoming on his striking features. “You… Would you have even searched for me if you didn’t want to kill me? Would you have realised you had a child if not for that? Is that truly all that has driven you?”
“So, you want me to leave?” Blade frowned, unsure of how to answer Dan Heng. It would be out of his nature to apologise even if he knew it was the right thing to do. There was nothing he could say that would explain the longings of his heart, if he still had a heart.
“No.” Dan Heng’s response was immediate. He sighed, breath ragged, and guided Blade’s head downwards to his chest. “Have at it but don’t be too rough. I still need to feed her later.”
Blade wrapped his lips around a swollen teat and licked at the softness, making Dan Heng shiver. Sucking and teasing the pert bud, he drank the honey-sweet creamy liquid that burst into his mouth. He had never tasted such a delectable profile of flavours. The mara within him had never been quietened in such a manner. Swallowing down the breast milk, Blade squeezed and massaged at Dan Heng’s chest, growing aroused, cock rising from hearing Dan Heng’s keening whimpers.
After having his share and giving a final lick to Dan Heng’s nipple, Blade sucked hickeys onto Dan Heng’s supple neck. Then he surged forward, his mouth against Dan Heng’s, kissing him deep and frenzied. Blade pressed his erection against Dan Heng’s clothed thigh, aching for more. Brushing a curious hand along the horn atop Dan Heng’s head, Blade rubbed the smooth, warm surface with his thumb.
A blush bloomed across Dan Heng’s cheeks, and the modicum of self-control Blade clutched onto under the pretence of pride snapped. Pushing Dan Heng against the bookshelves, Blade breathed him in and declared, “I want to fuck you.”
Dan Heng’s allure was undeniable, even without the guise of an aphrodisiac.
“You will be the death of me,” Dan Heng moaned, allowing Blade to strip him of his attire and speaking a truth that they both knew. He hefted his lithe legs up to wrap around Blade’s hips.
Blade rocked against Dan Heng, ready to sheathe his cock into him. He would slam his shaft into Dan Heng and make him remember all the ways he had devoured him, all the ways he had Dan Heng falling apart on his length. If he could breed Dan Heng again, he would.
As Blade held Dan Heng in his arms, it was no longer the eternal cold embrace of death that he craved. The trembling beat of his heart revealed wounds yet unhealed, a fear he had thought conquered long ago: Dan Heng’s presence was a solace he could not live without.
*