Elaina M. Roberts's Blog: News from the Between, page 12

The Dance

Once more I have succumbed to the lure of Nulli Para Ora‘s Musings. Today’s picture was what appeared to be a pile of silk scarves in a variety of bold colors and prints. Immediately, the slinky, sexy twins – Zoya and Svetlana Ivanova – came to mind and demanded a bit of play time. The twins, introduced about midway through The Fox Hunt, are ermine shifters, exotic dancers, and skilled assassins. Check out Nulli’s post on her site, it’s much sweeter than mine, then come back and enjoy the twins!

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The sultry strains of Loreena McKennitt’s “Marco Polo” wove through the smoky haze and rowdy laughter of the small club. As the lights dimmed, a hush fell over the crowd. They knew who danced to that rhythmic music.

The first scarf drifted from the rafters, twisting in the circulating air as a prelude to the coming dance. Those few who kept their eyes glued to the ceiling were greeted with the sight of first one, and then the second, elegant limb wrapped around the sturdy pole on the stage. Zoya, the dark haired seductress, slithered down the metal post. Her hair, a slave to gravity, hid both her intense concentration as well as her lusty smile. She soaked up the pheromones in the crowd as a desert might the first rain of the season. It fueled her dance, and fed her ego.

Wrapping her arms around the pole, she slowly unwound her legs. With strength born of years of training, Zoya eased the pole against her shoulder as she slowly rolled upright. She gripped the post tight with her legs as the second silk scarf fluttered from above. It draped over her breasts, slithered across her sculpted abdomen, and teased between her legs before drifting to the floor. The crowd groaned as one, jealous of the scrap of silk and its light caresses.

Svetlana followed the path of the second silken scarf, a third clenched between her delicate teeth. Like her sister, she descended upside-down, using her powerful legs to support her. Only she slid on her back, facing the crowd wearing nothing but a metallic silver G-string with bell-lined scarves looped through the band to drape across her otherwise bare breasts. Their roar of approval hit the twins like a wave, hiding their hiss of pleasure.

As the drums continued their seductive beat, she mimicked her sister’s earlier roll down the post. Stretching her legs into a wide split, Svetlana placed the pole against her shoulder, tightened her abdominals, and smoothly rolled. At the end of the roll, she wrapped her legs around her twin’s waist, generating another round of catcalls and shouts of approval. She kept going, bending backwards until her palms touched the floor.

With Svetlana pinning her to the post, Zoya plucked first one, then another of the scarves from her sister’s belt. She drew them along her sister’s bowed body, between her legs, and then tossed them into the salivating crowd. Svetlana blew a kiss to the man who successfully held on to his prize. When the last scarf disappeared into the audience, Svetlana completed the walkover. There was a ripple of frustration that the scarf still dangling from her teeth again hid her perfect breasts from their view. Zoya reached the floor and danced around her sister who tugged at the strings holding her bikini top in place. As the pair twisted and bent to the music, they shared the remaining scarf – sometimes hiding their bodies with it or each other, other times using it to accentuate their voluptuous curves.

The sultry song faded into silence, and they ended their dance with the silk binding their hands together. Their breasts heaved from exertion and excitement as they soaked up the crowd’s approval. The twin’s eyes scanned the crowd, meeting the lustful gazes of both men and women, and they shivered in anticipation. Tonight, they would entertain in the private rooms with more than just a dance.

The Tsuchigumo

After passing on the last two weeks of Chuck Wendig‘s Flash Fiction Fridays on his website, I decided to give it a shot. For this FFF Challenge, we were told to use the Secret Door website and write a story about wherever it took us. My door took me to Gyokusendo Cave in Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan (picture at end of story). This is what I came up with:

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The Tsuchigumo - 936 words

She watched the tourists from beneath the turquoise pool. Something in the screen translated their words, or perhaps she, herself, had changed? Any language, any dialect – they were all as plain as her own native tongue and as clear as if she stood beside them. Their complements on her home warmed her while the dismissive arrogance of the ignorant irritated her. If she heard one more person declare that the colors had to be man-made, or that it looked like the set for a Science Fiction movie, she was going to scream.

She turned away from the watery monitors and paced the small chamber. She had once been like them, awed by the beauty of Gyokusendo Cave, but without understanding of its true majesty. She, too, had exclaimed over the impressive stalactites and waxed poetic over the glorious colors of the underground lakes. And then she had promptly moved on to the next bend in the walkway; to the next beautiful feature, to the next photo opportunity.

That is, until her Prince had claimed her.

She rubbed her distended stomach with a smile. Yes, her Prince had definitely been a surprise. He had introduced himself after the tour as a member of the administration. Though he claimed he wanted only her opinion of the tour and cavern, by the end of the night he had claimed so much more. By the end of the week, she had taken the tour a total of twenty-five times in order to meet with him. By the end of the month, she had cancelled her tickets home and joined him in his palace beneath the lakes.

Warm arms surrounded her from behind and she leaned into his embrace. He covered her hands with his and caressed the evidence of their love.

“Do you miss being in the world above, My Queen?”

“Sometimes.” She tilted her head and shivered as his lips played over her bare neck and shoulder. “As much as I adore you, I sometimes miss the sun on my face. My family.”

“It won’t be long now and you’ll see it again. I would not want you traveling in your condition.”

“Of course not, my love. I wouldn’t put our child at risk for anything, but once he’s born…?”

“You are so certain the child is a boy?” He guided her around the room in a gentle, swaying dance. One hand supported her large stomach while the other roamed over her skin in an erotic tease. “Perhaps she will be a girl with her mother’s green eyes?”

“I want to give you a son, My Prince. An heir to be proud of.”

“You will give me many children, My Queen, and they shall need you as I have needed you. They will hunger for you, for your attention. It shall be beautiful.”

“If they are half as demanding as you, my love, then I shall have little time left.” She pouted, tilting her head back to gaze into his dark brown eyes. “I have missed you these last months, missed your touch.”

“I know, My Queen. It won’t be long now.” The main lights in the cavern flickered off, signaling the end of the day’s tours. “Can’t you feel it? They are quickening. They wish to be free.”

“What do you mean? Are you saying I’m going to have twins?”

“My children are ready. It is time.”

He guided her into the nursery, only it no longer contained the soft pastel blankets and baby animals that she had chosen. Gone was the crib painted in the palest yellow. Gone was rocking chair where she had planned to sing her precious bundle to sleep each night. Red light emitted from a sphere in the center of room highlighted the only remaining item: a giant web. As her Prince pulled her towards the center of the terrifying structure, she felt the first labor pain.

“Yes, My Queen, they come! Aren’t you excited?” He pressed her against the web and bound her wrists and ankles with its sticky strands. “They hunger for you.”

“Oh my God, what’s happening?” She screamed as the pain in her stomach grew in intensity. “Save the child! Please!”

“My children will be saved, never fear. They are working their way out even as we speak. Can’t you feel them, My Queen? Feel their many legs clawing for freedom? Feel their mandibles gnawing at your flesh as you give them life? It is a glorious day, and all thanks to you.”

“Wh-what do you mean? They’re going to eat their way out?” Hysteria wrapped its cold hands around her throat and lent desperation to her struggles. “What the hell are you?”

“You should have asked that long ago, My Queen, though the end would have been the same.” Suddenly his face lit up with unholy glee, and he moved towards her. His hand transformed into a hairy, claw-tipped leg, and she shrieked as he enlarged the small tear forming in her stomach. “Yes, my children. Come to me. Feast upon your Queen and grow strong. Show your mother your hunger for her love.”

Her agonized screams echoed in the small chamber as a swarm of tiny spider-like creatures clawed and climbed their way from the gaping hole in her stomach. They rubbed their heads against her cheek adoringly even as they snapped off bites of flesh with their sharp mandibles. As they gorged on her dying body, she swore she could feel the warmth of the sun on her face once more. With an eager smile, she turned towards the brilliant light and began her journey home.

** The End **

I took artistic license with the tsuchigumo, or male spider demon, in order to make this story work.

Gyokusendo Cave, Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture

And so it begins…

With my other projects wrapped up and stamped with a big ol’ DONE sticker, I’ve finally gotten the opportunity to focus all my efforts on the Jarilo series. The outline for the plot arc that spans all three novels has been completed for several months as has the general outline for two of the three books. Outlines, however, are not completed stories and so I was overjoyed to finally begin setting words to file.

A lovely person, and author for Liquid Silver Press, Nulli Para Ora has a feature on her site called Musings.Similar to Flash Fiction but without the word count restraints, she posts a picture and asks for whatever the muse gives you. Check her out, read through the various offerings, and buy her books! They’re really good.

Back on the 14th of February, she posted a picture of a brooch which inspired the following short. This scene is from the background of one of the major characters in the Children of Jarilo story arc. He isn’t mentioned by name, but his identity will become evident by the end of the series.

### Caroline’s Nightmare ###

“I’ve watched you for years, you know.”

Caroline mewled as her sandy-haired captor entered her dimly lit prison, locking the heavy iron door behind him. Nothing about the slender young man should have inspired terror. His voice, like his appearance, was so… normal. Average height, average looks, average build – he was no different from every other student on their college campus except for a fiercely disturbed intelligence that was backed by wild and untrained magic. How could such a monster be so unassuming?

“You were a charming little kitten at seven. You were sweet, playful, a joy to be around even if you were a bit vain and flighty.” He slipped the skeleton key into his pocket as his eyes devoured her naked body. With her wrists and ankles strapped to a large, iron X, she was open and vulnerable to anything he chose to do to her. His choices thus far had given her such nightmares that she’d screamed her throat raw over the past two weeks. She barely managed a pained whimper when he began to undress.

“By sixteen, you’d embraced your whorish cat nature with alacrity, lifting your tail for any male who came sniffing around. As long as they were an animal like you, that is. Normal men had no chance with you, did they, Caroline?”

“Is that what this is about?” Pale yellow fur sprouted along her arms and legs as she struggled against her restraints. She knew what happened next; she wasn’t sure she could endure it again. “You kidnapped me and stuffed me in a basement because I turned you down for a date?” Her ears lengthened and grew matching fur as she relied more and more on her cat for strength.

“Oh, Caroline, I thought you were smarter than that. It was never about you.” He placed his clothing on the only other piece of furniture in the room, a rusty metal table by the door, but kept a small item hidden in his hand. As he approached, he turned the elegant brooch so that the faint light in the room glinted off the metal. She gasped in surprise. “Ah, I see you recognize this. Can you imagine my shock when I found it at the bus stop?”

“It… it fell out of my pocket. I swear!” Her eyes followed his fingers as they lovingly traced each golden swirl and caressed the flawless pearl cabochon. Dear God, how long had he planned this?

“I see you recognize my little gift, Caroline.” Power swirled around his slim figure, making it glow in the faint light as he paced. Her eyes followed him nervously, for each pass brought him closer to her. “Too bad you didn’t recognize its value six years ago. It wasn’t from a discount chain like your little pride of vicious cunts claimed; I’d had it made just for you in the finest jeweler in the country. I demanded 18k gold because anything less was an insult to your beauty. I even imported the finest natural pearl from Venezuela because cultured pearls weren’t good enough for you! And how did you repay me? Hmmm? How?”

Caroline hissed and pressed against the cold metal at her back as he brought his face inches from hers. When she turned her head from the fury in his swirling eyes, his fingers dug painfully into her cheeks as he forced her to look at him. Blood coated her tongue as her fangs cut into the tender flesh inside her mouth. Her captor’s eyes shone with corrupted power; fathomless pools of pure silver tainted with jet black streaks of pure evil.

“Answer me, Caroline.”

“I… um, I dropped it.” Her voice trembled from between her pursed lips and blood dribbled onto her chin to mix with the unending stream of tears she thought long exhausted.

“Did you want to try that again, kitty?” His eyes flared as he dragged the sharp pin of the brooch along her cheek, cutting deeply into her flawless skin. He grinned when her screech of pain echoed in the small room.

“Okay, God! I threw it away! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, I’m sure you are now, Caroline.” She released another agonizing scream as the brooch dug a matching furrow in her other cheek. Her claws bit into her palms as she struggled to escape the bands around her wrists. “I’m sure you’re very sorry.” His eyes flashed as he pressed the pin of the brooch deep into her shoulder. “I’m sure you’re going to be even sorrier by the time I’m finished with you.”