Chapter Nine

The Subject of This Study

~*~

After lunch, they returned to Kazia's room in awkward silence, wary of the guards who followed them everywhere. Kazia's silence persisted even behind closed doors, as she went immediately to the table and began unpacking the basket Kelvaran had brought from the lab and assembling the equipment for the blood draw.

After hanging his coat, Kelvaran joined her at the table, and she quickly discarded her bodice, draping it over the back of her chair before extending her arm across the tabletop. While tying the tourniquet above her elbow, he glanced apologetically at her cold face. She looked away, unwilling to meet his gaze.

“I don't want to go,” he said quietly. “I have never in my life been to one of those places.”

“I can't really advise you,” Kazia said dourly. “I haven't, either.”

Kelvaran gave a dismal chuckle. “I can find some excuse not to go...”

Kazia sighed softly as the sharp needle pierced her skin and slithered into her vein.

“No, you'll have to go,” she said, watching intently as her blood began to flow into the glass tube of the syringe. It was a large tube. It would take some time to fill slowly. She reached her free hand up to her head and began to pull the hairpins out of her hair. “Gorvan is giving you an alibi.”

Kelvaran frowned. “For what?”

“That, I don't know, but he'll be enacting some scheme tomorrow night that he doesn't want you or Zhen blamed for.”

“Is this a common occurrence, then?”

“A longstanding one, I think,” she said. “Have you ever wondered why Gorvan would send Abrizhen away to study in Caedra, given his usual tight rein on the family?”

Kelvaran's eyes narrowed in thought, then flashed suddenly. A twinge of pain went through Kazia's elbow as the needle shook, but she only placed her hand over his to steady him, then returned it to her hair, absentmindedly finger-combing the plaits away.

“That was when Halany took power,” he said grimly.

“Aided by Gorvan, and his talent for villainy,” Kazia agreed.

Kelvaran went silent in concentration until his task was complete. After finally withdrawing the needle, he drew a harsh breath through his teeth, and Kazia saw the slight tremor in his hands as he removed the needle from the syringe and capped the vial. Kazia pressed a cotton pad over the small wound and glanced at him.

“What are you thinking of?” she asked.

“Just before you came here,” he said hesitantly, “when I met with Master Vlais and his Alchemists and I fell ill... there was one among them I thought I recognized. He looked like a porter who worked at Meratha Manor when I was child.”

Kazia's brows lifted. “So... Gorvan had a spy in your house. And there's your arsonist, probably.”

“I only saw him for a moment. I can't be certain, but...”

She made herself look at him. She had hoped the blood draw would help clear the Off-Switch faster, but instead it had heightened her danger response, the chill now seeming to seep into her bones. Unable to read him, she could only wait for him to tell her what was on his mind.

Kelvaran pursed his lips and ground his jaw, but then shook his head as if to clear it and began to repack the basket. “Gorvan already got his preferred King,” he mused. “What could he need to do now?”

“I don't know, but keep your eyes open. What sense did you get from Zhen today?”

“I don't think he knows what this is about either. He's trying to work out what you're doing. Yilina does, though. I need to find out what she's been up to. Here-” He pulled a dish of candied fruits from the center of the table and raised one to Kazia's lips. “You should eat a few of these and then rest a while.”

She narrowed her eyes at his sudden diversion, but accepted the fruit into her mouth, the tartness beneath the sugar sending a shock through her tongue as she bit into it. Kelvaran licked the sugar crumbs from his own fingertips, then unexpectedly leaned forward and kissed her chewing lips, bringing Kazia yet another shock – despite her aversion to the feeling that he wasn't really in that handsome face just now, a sudden spark erupted deep within her, setting all her nerves quaking.

Curious.

She popped another bite of the candy into her mouth, then stood and took Kelvaran's hand.

“Come help me undress,” she said, her tone cool and commanding.

She led him to the dressing area, unbuttoning all the layers of her skirts and petticoats along the way. After he helped her step out of them, she dismissively kicked them all into a pile on the floor, then turned around.

Kelvaran swept her hair aside, laying it to the front over her shoulder, his fingers stroking through the soft tresses, luxuriously waved from the earlier braiding. His hand lingered over her bare shoulder beneath the ruffled strap of her camisole before trailing down her back to loosen the laces of her corset.

Kazia quickly unhooked the busk, breathing deeply as her torso found its freedom. Kelvaran tossed her corset onto the screen, then tugged the top of her camisole down to observe her wound. It was almost completely healed over now, only a thin pink line crossing her many old white scars. Kazia reached for her green satin dressing gown, throwing her arms through its sleeves and then pulling him toward the bed.

“I should take your sample to the lab,” he reminded her.

“Later,” she replied, pressing him down insistently. “Stay with me a while.”

Kelvaran sat on the bed and moved over. Leaning against the high headboard, he held his arms out to her, beckoning her into them. Instead, she sat on the edge of the bed facing him, a hand on either side of him. Leaning in, her eyes narrowed as she studied his face intently.

“What-?”

“Shh,” Kazia whispered. “Let me look at you.”

Kelvaran frowned in confusion. “I thought you didn't like looking at me when you use this tincture?”

“I don't,” she admitted, “but I'm curious. This is just how it is for everyone else, isn't it? Normal people can't feel others. You must have to observe carefully, and gauge reactions-”

She slid her hands up his chest and his posture shifted. He held his breath briefly, releasing it with a soft sigh.

“-like that.”

She brought her face nearer to his, and noted how he tilted minutely toward her, a bit of color rising in his cheeks as his lips parted as if to invite her. He sat still, though, allowing her to do as she wished, observing her in turn through his lowered eyelids.

Kazia could observe and recognize all of these reactions, but in the absence of her Empathic sense, it was all just data. Lying there so compliantly beneath her, he seemed to her like a life-sized doll, or some sort of automaton... an Artifact.

Ethereal energy was present in every living person, and some conjectured that it might be a spark of the divine nature of the universe. But if this was how normal people saw each other, Kazia thought... if they weren't able to recognize that divine potential in others, perhaps that is why so many were so willing to use others, to grind others into the mud, and throw them away.

Kazia made herself look into Kelvaran's eyes. They were darkened with the dilation of his pupils. This reaction would come with any strong emotional response. At this moment, though, she could only see his eyes as two empty windows – no one inside them. She shook her head and gently ran her splayed fingers down his forehead, sweeping them over his eyelids.

“I don't want to see your eyes now,” she muttered. He closed them obediently. Her fingers continued down his face, caressing the side of his nose, brushing over his lips and his smoothly shaven chin, coming to rest on the gray silk ascot he'd already loosened. She pulled it away, the silk sliding easily around his collar.

Then she laid it over his eyes.

He took a sharp breath, but then willingly lifted his head away from the headboard, allowing her to tie it behind him. Kazia felt a shudder go through him where she leaned against him, and a tremor coursed through her own body as well. He swallowed hard, then licked his open lips. Kazia darted forward to catch his tongue, bringing a soft, surprised whimper from him as she pressed him against the headboard to kiss him voraciously.

His hands moved up her arms, clutching to pull her more tightly against him, but she broke his hold and caught both his wrists in her hands. She had no intention of becoming the subject of this study, only its conductor. With a swift movement, she brought both of his hands up over his head, pulled the tasseled silken cord from the bedcurtains, and lashed him to the railing of the headboard.

Kelvaran gasped. Kazia dropped her lips to his ear.

“Do you mind?” she asked. Her voice was low and breathy, and seemed to hang in the air like smoke.

Kelvaran's lips, just kissed into a ruddy bloom, curved up. “What would I ever mind?” he murmured. “I've already agreed that I'm yours.”

Yes, Kazia thought. Mine.

But some dark corner of her mind whispered that she would have to fight to keep him. That there were too many lurking predators who might drag him away from her.

I would kill them first. Tear them apart...

She grasped the front of his shirt and impetuously wrenched it open, sending all the little carved shell buttons scattering across the green velvet bedcover. He made a small sound of protest, but it cut away as her lips fell onto one of his nipples.

“Ah!” Kelvaran's chest heaved, his breath rushing and his arms straining against the headboard to arch his body toward her. Kazia teased him with the tip of her tongue, her gaze transfixed on his skin as every pore rose, every fine hair standing as if he'd been shocked. She drew her hand along his bare abdomen, down to the adamantly solid distention in his trousers.

Along with his desperate moan came the sharp rap of a guard's gauntlet-clad fist on the door.

Kazia's hand shot to Kelvaran's mouth, her palm clapping over his lips even as his moan transformed into a petulant complaint. Her chest flushed with anger.

“Be quiet,” she admonished.

She rose from the bed, marched to the door, and jerked it open to find Yilina standing in the hall, flanked by Kazia's guards.

“Madame Vysda,” Kazia ground between her teeth, “what brings you here?”

“Your blood sample hasn't arrived,” Yilina answered.

“You needn't have come yourself,” Kazia said with mock concern. “You look dreadful. Shouldn't you be having a rest?”

“Only children need an afternoon nap,” Yilina sneered. She gave a scornfully appraising look over Kazia's state – the satin dressing gown slipping off of one shoulder and falling open to reveal her thin, white silk underthings that left little to the imagination.

“Wait here, I'll fetch it,” Kazia said. With a sly smile, she pulled the door open further, then walked swiftly to the breakfast table, her dressing gown fluttering behind her.

She turned back with the basket in hand to see Yilina standing inside the doorway, staring at Kelvaran in horror, her face bloodless, her open lips trembling with unspeakable fury.

“You...” Yilina growled, turning slowly to face Kazia. “You... vile creature!”

She started toward Kazia, but one of the guards moved quickly to pull her back, the lowered eyes in his reddened face comically uncertain of where to look. He coughed nervously.

“Madame Vysda, please calm yourself,” he choked out.

Kazia came forward and thrust the basket into her arms.

“Don't think I won't tell your father about this!” Yilina spat.

Kazia's eyes gleamed. “Can I come with you?” she laughed. “I would so love to see his face when you tell him.”

Yilina snarled.

“Please see Madame Vysda out,” Kazia said to the guard. “Unless...”

She sauntered forward and picked up a tress of Yilina's golden hair, running it slowly through her fingers.

“... you'd like to join us?”

“You...!” Yilina recoiled as if Kazia were a poisonous snake, crashing backward into the guard. She pushed him out of her way and, spitting a variety of curses, fled into the hallway.

Kazia laughed again and slammed the door shut.

~~~*~~~

avaseofpeonies

So, there's that. I am not at all certain that I'm satisfied with this, but lately writing has been like pulling my own wisdom teeth for some reason, so I'm just going to let this stand for now and maybe it will get an edit in the future.

That said, there are far worse ways to spend a Tuesday than cooking up some low-key femdom kink, right? (and this scene isn't even over yet. Back to the teeth-pulling.)