Chelen City: Chapter Ten, Part One

 Notes: Happy 4th for those who celebrate it! Have some sexy story on this independence day :)

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Ten, Part One

***

Chapter Ten, Part One

 

 

Elanus would be the last person to describe himself as a sex fiend, but there was something about Kieron that he just couldn’t resist. Maybe he’d had a few too many near-death experiences with the man and it triggered some primal hunger in him, but as soon as they were in their room again, Elanus couldn’t hold back. He grabbed Kieron under the thighs, picked him up, leaned against the wall and kissed him to within an inch of his life.

I saw you fall.

Logically he’d known that Kieron was roped, he’d seen it, he’d fucking felt it, but that knowledge hadn’t penetrated in the moment. All he’d seen was the drop, and the look of fear and surprise on Kieron’s face. He’d seen that, and every thought of his own safety had flown from his mind. All that had mattered was getting to Kieron, following him over, following him down—

Oh, that wasn’t healthy. That sort of devotion was not healthy, and he was going to have to rewrite his will to take into effect what might happen if he and Kieron died at the same time, because it was clear to him that this emotional affliction was a shared one.

And he didn’t fucking care.

Kieron kissed him back, fiercely, holding Elanus’s head still with his hands as he took control of the embrace. “I’m all right,” he whispered before biting Elanus’s lower lip and sucking it into his mouth for a moment. Elanus felt his brain begin to liquify—he loved being bitten, being pulled at and pushed and treated like he was smaller than he actually was. Every person of non-Ganian height he’d ever slept with had expected to be thrown around, held down, encompassed—everyone except Kieron, who gave as good as he got.

“You’re all right too,” Kieron added when he finally let Elanus come up for air, and Elanus shook his head.

“I don’t think so.”

“You are.”

“I’m fucked without you.”

Kieron smiled. “You’re just in love.”

“That’s not love, that’s obsession.”

“No, it really is love.” Kieron stroked Elanus’s temples, kissed the edge of his neatly-trimmed beard. “That’s how we love when we’re in the thick of it. You Ganians are just too removed from love and death and all the other big, scary emotions.”

“We…” Well, perhaps he had a point. But it still wasn’t healthy, wasn’t the sort of attitude that would be respected here. He was supposed to be above stupid things like risking his own death because his lover was in trouble, and yet…

“You can’t leave me.”

“I won’t.”

“No.” Elanus shook his head. “You can’t leave me. It will fuck me up, it will massively fuck me up, I don’t know that I’ll be able to survive it and what would that do to the girls? What would that do everything we’ve built, to our friends, to the people who depend on us?”

“The girls are smart,” Kieron said. “They’d be all right.”

“They—”

“You’re not going to scare me with this,” he interjected, turning Elanus’s head so he could mouth at his ear, pinching the lobe between his teeth until Elanus whined. “Obsession is the language I grew up with.”

“You grew up screwy.”

“Yeah,” Kieron purred. “I know.” He arched his back and rubbed the solid bulge of his cock against Elanus’s stomach. “Doesn’t it make you want to fuck some sense into me?”

It did was the terrible thing. It absolutely, completely did. Elanus growled and threw Kieron down onto the bed, then stripped out of his fancy suit as fast as he could.

“You look so pretty in that,” Kieron commented as he pulled off his own clothes, and Elanus’s mind sort of…blipped. Pretty. Pretty? What else could he wear that would get Kieron to call him pretty?

Wait, why do I want him to call me pretty?

“You’re thinking too hard. Come here.” Kieron reached out and grabbed Elanus’s wrist, pulled him down onto the bed, and flipped him over onto his back. “Here.” He put Elanus’s hands in his hair. “I’m going to suck you off. Feel free to get a good grip.”

“I—you—”

The wet, searing heat of Kieron’s mouth on his cock cut off Elanus’s…whatever he was going to say. He felt dizzy, almost drunk from the whiplash he was going through with his lover, from fearing for his life to fucking his mouth in under ten minutes. Remembering the roof made him feel faintly sick, but then Kieron moaned with triumph as he worked the head of Elanus’s dick down his throat, and…

Elanus fucked him. He couldn’t not fuck him when he had him like this, when every noise Kieron made was a come-on, a come-hither, deliberately designed to drive him insane. Kieron knew exactly what he was doing, the obsession he was encouraging. He liked it, he wanted it, and right now Elanus couldn’t see a reason not to give him everything he wanted.

He came in record time, too worked up to hold back. He kind of hoped Kieron would climb up and straddle his face, but instead he sat back, got his hands under Elanus’s hips, and rolled him over onto his front. “I’m not done with you yet,” he said, spreading Elanus’s thighs apart. “Up.” Elanus dazedly lifted his hips, and Kieron chuckles and patted his ass with one hand. “Good boy.” Then he leaned in and spread his tongue across Elanus’s hole, and Elanus keened.

They didn’t…they’d never…had they? He couldn’t think, couldn’t remember, couldn’t do anything but let Kieron have his way with him, keeping his shaking thighs apart and spearing him with his tongue, licking in and over and around until Elanus was hard again. When Kieron stopped, Elanus actually reached out and grabbed at him. “No, stay, stay…”

“Oh, sweetheart.” Kieron laughed, low and dark. “I’m not going anywhere.” And then he began to press inside of Elanus, and…

It hurt, and it didn’t. It was a rougher slide than he was used to—had Kieron even used lube? Elanus didn’t know, and he honestly didn’t care because it felt like every nerve in his body was alight with pleasure, any pain turned into a glorious reminder that he was alive, that they both were, that they had this. They had it, he had Kieron, he hadn’t ruined everything. Elanus didn’t realize he was saying any of this until Kieron leaned over and kissed the center of his back.

“Yeah, we do,” he said, then pulled almost all the way out before thrusting back in. Elanus grabbed himself to keep from coming on the second stroke. “Good. Hold on.” And then…

He was fucked stupid. Fucked blind and deaf, fucked until his cock leaked over his fingertips and waiting for Kieron to come was painful but he did it because he wanted to wait, he’d already come and he wanted to feel it, wanted to be good, and then finally he was good, he could come, “come for me.”

And he blacked out.

He woke up to Kieron lying by his side, running a gentle hand over his chest. They were both clean, and lying on their backs in the bed. “I’m tempted to be very smug right now,” he said with a smile, “but given that I’ve also passed out with you inside of me, I’ll take the high road.”

“Do you really forgive me?” Elanus asked hoarsely.

The smile faded into a frown. “What is there to forgive?”

“What I said on that show—the things I revealed about you, the, the scrutiny I left you open to—”

Kieron shrugged. “It had to happen sooner or later. I would have preferred later, but it could have been worse. I didn’t…react all that well to it though, and I’m sorry for that.”

Elanus felt like he’d just been given a gift he wasn’t expecting and didn’t deserve. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m the one who—”

“You want to make it up to me?”

“Yes.” Whatever “it” was, as complicated or as simple as Kieron thought of “it,” Elanus wanted that.

“Then give me all the details you’ve been holding back lately,” Kieron said bluntly. “Everything about the people you’re working against, who you suspect of plotting against us, what this interview was really about, all of it. Make me a part of things, not just…another piece on the chessboard.”

Elanus swallowed. He opened his mouth to agree, but what came out instead was, “I play go, not chess.”

“Fine, then not just another stone on the go board.”

He nodded. “All right.” The thought of sharing everything he knew was actually quite…liberating. “All right.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “Let’s start with Fritz and work out from there.”

BIG POST, PLEASE READ! THE FUTURE OF THIS BLOG DEPENDS ON IT!

 Hi Darlins!

Okay, now that I've scared you (sorry!) let me assure you that I'm fine, my family is fine, we're all good. However, I'm reaching the breaking point with Blogger as a platform. It's losing functionality, won't let me respond easily to comments, and now people can put a second later of censoring over my content, which is already behind a wall, because they don't like sex. So. I think I've gotten to the point where I just need to say "fuck 'em" and go elsewhere.

This is a big prospect, though. I've got over a decade worth of posts on this blog. I've got over five hundred thousand words of the Bonded universe on this blog, not even mentioning the other stories I've written here over the years. Where is it all going to go? Are you going to lose access to it forever?

No. Absolutely not. Some of that access will be changing, though, and this is where I need your help making some decisions.

First, let's talk the Bonded series. It's my epic, and it's all free. I don't plan on changing the free status, but the series has kind of stagnated over the years. I never edited/reworked the older stories, I just left them in a state of limbo to be found by whoever was brave enough to search for them. I tried to restart the series on Kindle Vella, but ran afoul of their "ONLY AMAZON FUCK YOU" censors. Fine, Vella isn't an option, but I need to do something with these books because a) they're awesome, and b) they're a ton of work just sitting there not helping me in any way. 

So, I want to start them up on a serial site...or two. I'm thinking two posts a week, maybe on Wattpad and Royal Road, and slowly work my way through the entire series so that I can gain new readers. For people who want to read ahead, I'll offer a week or two in advance on my Patreon (or wherever I end up running my subscription service) and they can get it that way.

I plan to edit them--not professionally, not yet, but a self edit to clean them up--and ensure consistency between books as best I can. I'll also keep posting Chelen City for you faithful darlins who have followed me through this whole, enormous series...probably not here for much longer, though, so hopefully you'll follow me wherever I end up. It'll be free, I promise you that!

So, my questions: where would you read the Bonded stories (soon to be known as the Liminal Space series) if I put them up on serial fiction sites? Do you have suggestions for a new home for the blog? Are any of you interested in getting in on my subscription, where I will be putting every single one of my *counts in head* FOUR running serial stories, good god. Or at least three--I have to make sure Vella won't break my back.

Please comment or email me! Find me at carizabeth@hotmail.com, I really want your feedback here, babes.

In other news, here's my writing partner taking up my entiiiire seat all by himself. Smug, isn't he?

Birthday and giving books away, yay!

 Hi darlins!

It's my birthday and I'm on vacation (such an amazing confluence of events) and as such avoiding my computer for the most part, but the Solstice Duology is free today and I wanted you to know about it :) So...hi! Here it is! Good fae, bad fae, and the changeling caught between them all.

 

Solstice Duology by Cari Z

Chelen City: Chapter Nine, Part Two

 Notes: Well, I don't have pink eye anymore, so that's nice. I do have a respiratory illness that's got me doubled over and hacking (not Covid according to two different tests, plus I'm vaxxed and boosted, but arggg) yet on we go. Meh. 

FYI, next week I'm on vacation, so probably no post then. We're going to do some camping, have a little road trip...should be fun! As long as I don't hack up a lung!

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Nine, Part Two

***

Chapter Nine, Part Two

 

The rest of the interview was as incisive as Elanus expected, but he was ready for it. Fritz could twist and turn all he liked; Elanus wasn’t going to be giving away anything he didn’t want to. At the end of their time together, he viewed the process as an unequivocal triumph. If the frown on Fritz’s face was anything to go by, he thought Elanus had done well for himself too.

“One more thing,” he said once the show had stopped recording. “I was asked to pass something on to you. Normally I’d tell anyone making a request like that of me to jump off a tube, but in this case I was willing to make an exception.” He passed a card over to Elanus like it was made of gold. “A reply was also requested, so if you don’t mind…”

“I’m sure I could reply on my own,” Elanus said, but he went ahead and opened the card. The moment he saw the writing, his air of blasé fell away. “Caria is hosting a party.”

“An extremely exclusive party,” Fritz confirmed. “And I believe I’m correct in thinking that you haven’t been invited to one of her soirees for…years now, am I right?”

Elanus didn’t reply—he didn’t need to. His break from Caria was well-known, after she came to the defense of her former protégé Deysan in a very loud, very public way when Elanus split paths from him. Caria had always been friendly to him before that, and was enormously influential. Staying on her good side would have been smart, but also impossible.

And yet here she was, opening the door. Elanus had been planning to look into her anyway, but…even if this was a trap, he needed to consider it. Needed to take it.

“Your lover is invited too,” Fritz pointed out when he saw Elanus hesitate. “If that’s what stopping you. I’ve got to say, I learned more about him today than I thought I would. I’m looking forward to meeting such a paragon.”

“What do you mean?” Elanus asked, still distracted.

“Are you kidding me? The lovesick way you talk about him, how you phrase the things he did…it’s clear you’re head over heels for him.” Fritz smirked. “I only hope he’s as comfortable sharing these parts of his life as you seem to be. I don’t think it likely, but apparently he’d do anything for you, so…”

It took a second for what Fritz was saying to settle into Elanus’s head, but when it did it sank his mood like a lead weight. Shit. Oh, shit. He was so used to being open about himself, about almost every aspect of his life, that he didn’t even think to stop and consider how open he should be about Kieron’s. The man was already going through the wringer in therapy, being forced to share things with an outsider. How exposed was he going to feel after this interview aired?

Yet Elanus couldn’t take it back; he’d come here with the understanding that what he said was game. Everything that could have been negotiated should have been negotiated before it all started.

“Is this already live?” he asked.

“Sure is,” Fritz replied smugly. “Maybe your darling is watching it right now.”

Oh, he definitely is. Shit, shit, shit. Elanus didn’t say anything, just got up and turned on his heel, heading for the door.

“Caria wants an answer—will you two be there? Elanus. Elanus, I need an ans—”

The closing door cut off Fritz’s increasingly loud pleas. Ryu, for once having a sense of tact, just kept pace with Elanus to the tube, where they left without the assistance of Aloia, who was fluttering behind them like an anxious red piece of gauze.

The first half of the trip progressed in perfect silence before Ryu finally said, “It’s none of my business, but—”

“Then don’t bother talking about it.”

“But he might not be as angry as you think he’s going to be,” he went on. “I mean, he knew what he was getting into becoming your partner, didn’t he? It’s not like this level of scrutiny is unusual for you. Kieron needs to know this is going to be his life from here on out.”

“He’s going to hate it.” Elanus didn’t know why he was opening his heart up to Ryu, of all people—maybe it was just because he was there. But he needed to speak, to purge the worst of his guilt before he started trying to make it better. “He was used to almost total anonymity before we got together. Now he’s being pulled into a media storm that’s dredging up not just my past, but his as well. He’s going to fucking hate it.”

Ryu thought for a moment, then shrugged. “I guess the question is, will he hate it more than he loves you?”

No. Of course not. Elanus was sure of that. But that didn’t mean Kieron was going to feel good about it. It didn’t mean he was going to settle in better to Gania and its way of life by beginning his stay here utterly hounded. Elanus was going to have to do damage control…he just didn’t know what kind yet.

He could reach out with his implant to talk to Kieron, but that felt too impersonal. No, he needed to do this face to face.

When they got back to his house, Ryu immediately bolted to his room. Elanus reached out with his implant to check on the girls, who seemed to be putting together some sort of…symphony? They’d certainly gotten musical lately. And Kieron was…

Not in the house.

Wait.

Fuck.

Not in the house? How was that possible? He should have been informed the second Kieron got into a tube.

And that’s problematic too, isn’t it? Look at how closely you’re monitoring him. Doesn’t that seem excessive to you?

“Catie babe,” Elanus said, working hard to keep any negative emotion out of his voice, “where’s Kieron?”

“Hi, Daddeeeee!”

“Hi, Elanus,” Lizzie added.

Well, at least they seemed unperturbed. “Hi, girls. Where is Kieron?”

“He wantedddd to look at the rooooof!”

Elanus’s blood chilled. “The roof?” There was nothing to see on the roof, not a single fucking thing—it was cloudy almost all the time, especially this high up. All that was on the roof was cold and wind and a truly terrifying drop.

No. He wouldn’t.

He fucking well wouldn’t.

“Ah.” Elanus didn’t dare slam a query through his implant right now, not while the girls were so attuned to him. The knowledge didn’t stop his hands from shaking with unspent adrenaline. “I guess I should go say hi to him, then.”

“Okay, Daddeeee!”

Would they notice if he ran at this point?

It didn’t matter. Elanus sprinted for the stairs, gripped by a fear so primal that it radiated right down to the bone.

Be okay.

Kieron had to be okay.

Chelen City: Chapter Nine, Part One

 Notes: Ugh. My kidlet brought pink eye home on the last day of kindergarten, I've subsequently been infected myself, we both have colds, and to top it all of parts of my blog are being extra-censored thanks to someone reporting them for "content issues." So, basically, everything sucks and I'm going to get off this platform as soon as fucking possible, BUT! I do have more story for you today, so...enjoy.

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Nine, Part One

***

Chapter Nine, Part One

 

The studio was comfortable, once it was lit. There was a faint sound of water falling, and the light on them was a warm sunny yellow that made Elanus’s complexion look lively instead of sallow, like pure white light would. The chairs were soft but supportive, there was a place set aside for Ryu, Aloia did in fact provide him with a very excellent drink…it was a lovely buttering-up, and by the time he’d swallowed his first sip, Elanus was ready for the questions to begin.

After all, every question was a clue for him too.

“Elanus, I’m so pleased to see you again,” Fritz said, his professional façade going full-throttle. “It feels like it’s been forever since we talked.”

“Four and a half years,” Elanus said.

“That long?”

Elanus smiled. “Oh, I remember it well. It was at the launch event for my company. You were of the opinion that LifeShip Enterprises was an enormous waste of money and a poor investment, and you weren’t shy about spreading that impression around, either.”

Fritz’s smile didn’t waver. “How crass of me! And yet you have to admit, for a company that’s spent untold credits in development of these ‘sentient’ ships, the fact that you’ve yet to launch one to the public is telling.”

“And yet we’re still the most solvent company on the whole of Gania,” Elanus replied. “And trust me, there will be a launch soon. I’ve just got a few kinks to straighten out.”

“Not too straight, I hope.” Fritz pivoted before Elanus could go on. “Speaking of kinks, I daresay it was inconvenient when Mr. Moritz ran off with your prototype. You were gone for a long time, Elanus. Why did it take so long to enact your little rescue operation?”

Elanus took another drink. “How much time do you have for me to talk about quasars and asteroid fields?”

That burnished smile dropped for a moment. “None, I’m afraid. Although…insight into the mind of a criminal is never a thing to turn away. Why do you think your former partner decided to head to such a remote location, instead of going to a more populous place where he could get lost?”

“The more people are around you, the easier you are to track,” Elanus replied. “That’s the truth across any Federation system. They’re so interconnected that not even the stealthiest ship can escape notice, but a place like the Cloverleaf Quasar…with the right kind of ship, you can get lost there and never be noticed.”

“Hmm. And yet you managed to track Deysan down.”

He smiled. “He didn’t have the right kind of ship. But there’s a big different between knowing roughly where he was and actually being able to laser-point him.”

“Which brings up another intriguing topic.” Fritz practically purred. “You invested heavily in Cloverleaf Station before you made your way there. Why?”

“Because I needed a reason not to get kicked out before I’d recovered my ship.”

“How could the people in charge kick you out? And don’t quote regulation to me,” Fritz added. “There are ways around regulations that don’t involve buying an expensive, remote station’s operating contract for three years in advance. From what I understand, the station requires a caretaker at all times. Why not strike a deal?”

“That’s not the way you do things in the Fringe,” Elanus replied. “It’s deadly there.”

“It’s deadly here.”

“The danger is entirely different. Here, if you piss off the wrong person, you can expect to be visited by an assassin on their behalf. That’s considered the beginning of negotiations, though; if you survive, which any Ganian should, you have a starting point. Out there…” Elanus’s eyes went distant as he remembered seeing Cloverleaf Station for the first time. It had been the climax of a mad chase, pushing Lizzie back when she’d been The Lizzie so hard he was afraid he was going to burn out her engine only to find he was barely too late. He’d been on the verge of insanity, driven to the absolute brink—and he wouldn’t have turned around. If things had gone bad, if Kieron hadn’t let him in for some reason, he would have gone straight into the asteroid field looking for Catie and damn the consequences…which would have been his death, one way or another.

And then Kieron had let him in, thrown him a lifeline, and at the same time loathed him so completely that Elanus had been distracted from his blind rage by the sheer strangeness of it. Kieron, with his handy research and his dogged personality and his intense loneliness that he was able to ignore, somehow, had been the difference between success and failure, life and death. Elanus owed him more than he’d ever be able to repay.

Good thing he loved him enough to try for the rest of their lives.

“Out there?” Fritz prompted.

Elanus cleared his throat. “Out there, there are no backups,” he said. “No secondary or tertiary safety measures. Just a hell of a lot of radiation shielding, some experimental tech, and whoever else is crazy enough to endure a life in the range of one of the deadliest phenomena in the universe. That Deysan went there to escape speaks to his confidence in our LifeShip’s capacity.” Elanus shrugged. “That I was able to find him and recover the ship speaks to my dedication to the project, and the wealth of other technologies that my company is responsible for.”

“Perhaps it speaks to the wealth of experience your companion at that station possessed as well, hmm?” Fritz pivoted again, clearly testing all his avenues before deciding to go deep. “You spent months together in Cloverleaf Station and managed to retrieve your ship, which is impressive enough, but you also managed to convince the man to come to Gania…after he went to Trakta and intercepted a derelict vessel full of political refugees to bring along with him.” Fritz’s eyes glittered with intrigue. “Just what kind of person is Kieron Carr?”

“He’s someone who’s obviously got a very low sense of self-preservation,” Elanus said immediately. “Otherwise he would know better than to get involved with me.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ve got your charms,” Fritz said coyly. “One of the refugees on the ship he brought to Gania is none other than the wife of his former research partner. I’m sure it’s occurred to you that to a man with ulterior motives, you must have seemed like a godsend.”

Elanus laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Are you—are you really being serious?” he asked. “Is that the angle you’re going with? Oh, my lord…”

“Tell me how I’m wrong,” Fritz challenged. “There’s very little recorded about Kieron Carr, but he himself was once a refugee from a place called Hadrian’s Colony. It was a militaristic cult and haven for anti-Federation sympathizers.”

“He left that place as a child.”

“He would have had to, since it was the site of a mass suicide twenty years ago, orchestrated by none other than Mr. Carr’s grandfather,” Fritz went on. “I’m not calling him equally insane, but I am saying that early training leaves a mark. Gania is a wealthy world, equal to any in the Central System, and you’re one of our brightest stars. These things make you a very choice mark for the right people, and it’s plain he had an ulterior motive in coming here.”

Elanus wasn’t laughing anymore. Doubling down on immigration fearmongering. Fine. “Kieron likes to do things by the books,” he said after a moment. “It was a point of contention between us while we were on the station. If you bothered to request a copy of the station’s incident log, which I’m sure you did since you’re so thorough—” there was movement off to his left, Aloia shifting uncomfortably—“then you probably saw the extensive Regen use that Kieron required after the recovery of my ship.”

“I…noted that.”

“Good. Then you’ll also have noted that the amount of radiation absorbed by that Regen machine, and the amount of damage that was repaired, was nearly too much to handle. He was on the verge of death,” Elanus emphasized. “And I am not and never have been a particularly compassionate person. I had what I needed by that point.” Mostly. Kind of. “I could have let him die and no one would have ever questioned it. I’m also not blind—I know what kind of mark I am. I’ve been targeted for most of my life.” Including by people like you. Whatever Fritz was seeing in Elanus’s expression, it seemed to be unnerving him.

“He risked his life to help me because he fell in love with me. I saved his life for the same reason. Everything that’s happened since then, including him rescuing over a hundred individuals declared outcasts by their own breaking society and left to die alone, in space?” Elanus grinned, shark-like. “That’s all just a bonus.”