Hekate's Call, Chapter 31

It took begging Velia to create a bunch of work to keep Krystyn busy, and asking Morian to drag out Krystyn's weekly exams, for Ilina to get a whole twenty minutes alone with Manya. It was her only hope, and she felt so stupid the moment she got in the room to ask for what she was there for.

"Did you come here for candy?" Manya teased from one of the beds, spread out like a model at a photoshoot.

Oh. "No, actually," Ilina sat on one of the beds of Manya's room and scratched at the back of her neck. Manya was looking at her with those dreadful, vicious eyes of hers. "I wanted to ask some advice."

The lights went from daybright to a mood-setting dim red, like the emergency lights had flipped on. In almost a single bound, Manya sprung from her bed to beside Ilina, cozying up too close for comfort and wrapping an arm around her.

"Charlotte would be really mad if I gave you any candy," Manya's voice sounded light and playful, like a pleasant bell. "But advice I can do. What troubles you, my precious little hunter?"

The words caught in her throat. This really was the dumbest thing to ever get embarrassed over. Maybe she should just space herself instead. Or maybe it would have been easier to ask one of the mechanics. But Manya was the only person she knew would be able to help.

"It's for a surprise," she managed.

Manya paused, taking in Ilina for a moment. Surprisingly she made some space and sat herself cross-legged facing her. Ilina shifted to match. The embarrassment seemed silly now, compared to the sudden fear that was overtaking her as she watched the evil slide off Manya like water. She looked like a completely different person without any of those violent, predatory expressions, or that glint in her eyes.

The woman nodded at her. "Speak to me, girl." Like they were best friends, talking about stuff at a sleepover or something. The Butcher watched films like those too, but Ilina never connected with any of them.

She mumbled her question so quietly it didn't even come out as words.

Manya leaned forward and tilted an ear towards her. "You can whisper it to me if it's embarrassing."

Why was the devil-thing acting like such a caring friend now of all times? Why couldn't she just throw Ilina on her back and tell her to use her words like a good girl or something? It was making this so much harder.

Ilina leaned forwards and whispered it into Manya's ear before pulling back and hiding her face. Manya's face lit up with some goofy smile and she wrapped her arms around Ilina and squeezed her tightly.

"I am honored that you would come to me for this," Manya purred, nuzzling Ilina. "Now, take off your clothes."

The wait was the most agonizing thing. The longer the wait, the dumber the whole idea felt. Ilina watched herself move in the mirror, or more specifically watched the silicone cock strapped to her wiggle this way and that with every slight motion. She couldn't decide if she should take off her shirt or leave it on. For modesty?

Eventually the door hissed open without warning, sending a shock up Ilina's spine. Something compelled her to try to pull her shirt down in front as if she could hope to hide it at all.

"Manya said you had a surprise for me," Krystyn's smile looked vicious in the mirror. "Said you kicked her out..." Her voice trailed off as she came up behind Ilina and got a look at it in the mirror. It was a curious look, but not repellant. That was good at the very least.

Krystyn leaned her against the wall and braced herself with an arm. Ilina was blushing so hard she couldn't make eye contact, and that was before Krystyn's hand dipped down to stroke the underside of it. She let out the smallest of gasps, more in awe, at way it pushed back against her clit. It was more sensitive than she was prepared for. It was just a piece of silicone. No sense-sharing, neural-linking, translation or anything required. Just a textured base, well-positioned. Lubricated on Manya's suggestion.

"Who helped you fit it?" Krystyn asked, more breathily than she probably intended, as she dragged fingers along the edges of the harness, tugging it here and there to see if it would shift. It wouldn't. When Ilina let out a whine instead of words, Krystyn snorted, "Manya. Figured."

Her hand wandered back up Ilina's side and up to her chin. She had to admit when she was beat, and she was beat handily. The moment that thumb brushed her lips she could feel herself salivating. Preparing. But then Krystyn pulled her hand away, holding it open in front of her.

"Spit."

Ilina obeyed, thoughtlessly, and gathered all her saliva and put it in the middle of Krystyn's palm. Krystyn, with much more force and noise than Ilina, deposited her own spit and reached back down. As the hand wrapped around the shaft, pressing it into her before pulling back, Ilina moaned into her hand.

"Don't do that," Krystyn whispered.

Right. Right. The bedrooms were soundproofed, so they liked it loud. But it was embarrassing. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Nothing was going as planned. She was supposed to get Krystyn in the bed. Get her to take off her clothes. Touch her and make her feel good. Be on top or something. That was as far as her plan got.

She hooked her arm around Krystyn's neck and grabbed at her forearm needily. She could feel Krystyn flex and stroke just that little bit harder. To show she could. Fuck. It only took a few strokes for Ilina to start matching the pace with her hips. The pressure felt good. The way the base of the strap split her and how the shifting angle dragged it up and down across her clit.

Krystyn moved slightly, reaching for something on a shelf over the bed next to them. Ilina was just staring down, refusing to bring her eyes up. And then she was back to it and the movement was smoother. Lubricant for her hand.

"Most girls go bigger," Krystyn teased, "but this looks great on you."

Ilina had always been sensitive. Physically, at least. She preferred to think that she was a little thicker skinned than that. But was she really being teased about the size of her strap? As if she wasn't already embarrassed enough about the situation.

"You're such a natural too." Even without seeing it, she could hear the sneer in Krystyn's voice. It felt like an insult. This wasn't what she wanted in the first place. "You can tell me if you've done it with anyone else. Have you?"

Ilina shook her head emphatically. Krystyn continued to tease into her ear, alternating between those compliments and bragging about all the things Ilina had given to her and nobody else. She was a bit too busy focusing on the movement, making small adjustments for force or an angle she wanted, to pay that much attention.

How did orgasms sneak up on her so often? She was used to hovering at that edge for so long with Krystyn that she'd largely lost the sense of where the actual line would be. It's not like she ever came with Velia, but that was okay, that wasn't the point. Ilina's legs were always the first to go, buckling under her all at once.

Krystyn caught her before she slid to the ground, and lifted her up and put her on the bed. She seemed pleased with herself, wiping her hand off on some discarded laundry nearby and taking off her boots. And then their eyes met again and that smug, victorious look on her face dropped all at once.

"Hey, hey, are you okay?" She leaned over Ilina and pulled her up. "Did I hurt you?"

All the feelings in Ilina's chest must have boiled over when she came. Tears streaming down her face, and she started sobbing suddenly when she tried to open her mouth to say something. Humiliating and pathetic. After feeling all clever liked she'd finally found the answer, it ended up like this.

Krystyn sat on the edge of the bed and held Ilina tightly, trying to sooth her enough to get some words out of her. But what was she supposed to say? Was she supposed to pour her fragile little heart out to someone who assaulted her so freely not that long ago? There wasn't anything left in there.

"Can you tell me what did I do wrong?" Krystyn whispered once Ilina calmed down a little bit.

"You won't let me touch you." This conversation was ass. This sucked so much. "You touch me constantly and do whatever you want with me." Just like everyone else. Just like Velia. "But you never let me touch you back. What am I doing wrong?"

"Ah, shit." Krystyn stood up suddenly and started pacing. Scratching at the back of her neck like Morian did when she wasn't allowed to smoke. She cursed some more, quietly. Ilina didn't move by the time Krystyn had come and sat back down, this time with a little more space between them.

One false start. And then a second. And then finally she got her mouth to work, "I just don't like being touched." Krystyn suddenly got weirdly fidgety, as if she felt the need to explain why. It didn't really matter why. Ilina watched her steel herself and figure out how to approach the topic. But as Krystyn seemed to find her footing, Ilina was less interested in hearing some sob story about the woman's horrific past.

"That why you let Manya fuck you for what? Six years or something."

Krystyn let out a strange, forced laugh. What was going through her thick head? "Listen, you're the one who started fucking my hand. I was going to tease you a little bit and then get you on the bed, but you should have heard what you sounded like."

Ilina shifted and realized she still had the strap on. Silicone cock tucked between her thighs like she was trying to hide it. As she adjusted to take it off, Krystyn lifted her and put her on her back on the bed.

Krystyn was unbuckling her belt. She was conflicted, obviously, but trying her best to put on a brave front. "Are we still doing this? Or are you going to cry through the whole thing?" She was missing the edge, but Ilina appreciated the effort anyways.

"If that's what you need," Ilina crawled backward on the bed, as if she was about to make a break for it. Though she was just trying to find a better position. "You can hit me if you need that to get off. Like you do with her."

Ah. There it was. That awful snarling face. Krystyn was finally getting serious. "You really want to be treated like Manya?" She laughed darkly and reached back down to where her pants lay on the ground. "Don't go crying to Velia because I gave you what you asked for. Stupid fucking runt."

She stood up with her belt in one hand, tucking her gun into the back of her underwear. Ilina glanced from the belt to the now free hand. Oh. Oh, shit. Ilina tried to scramble away but it was too late, she hesitated. Krystyn had her by a leg at first and was on top of her the next instant. Pinning her to the bed with a fistful of hair and pulled the other hand back in a first, as a threat. The belt lay across Ilina's chest.

"Put that around your neck," Krystyn growled. Ilina wrapped the belt around her neck slowly. Terrified. Right, that's who Krystyn was. And who she'd been flirting with for so long. "I don't like being touched on anyone's terms but mine. Here's how this is going to go," she grabbed the loose of the belt and pulled lightly, a demonstration. Ilina's hands instantly reached for it to try to loosen it, but that only prompted another sharp tug.

Krystyn pulled her gun from the back of her underwear. With one hand she manipulated it, like she'd done this many times before, to pull back the slide and check that a round was chambered, and dropping the magazine most of the way out against her side to check it was loaded. The taste of steel and grease and unburned powder filled Ilina's mouth, flooding in from the memory of her capture. And yet she couldn't help but salivate at it.

"We're going to switch positions," Krystyn explained. "This," a tug on the belt, "is just to keep you from running away while you're on top. And this is because unlike most of those boys back home, there's still plenty of fight in you."

The shift was more violent than she expected. A demonstration of how much the belt would hurt if she tried to bolt. Krystyn on her back, Ilina hunched over her. The slight sadistic grin from the woman when she made Ilina reach for the lube, just out of reach, choking herself to get it.

It was... hot.

It wasn't the first time someone had wrapped a belt around her neck. It wasn't the first time she'd fucked at gunpoint either. Even through the surge of adrenaline, Ilina could feel Krystyn's practice. The gun was always in sight, always in hand, but never cocked or pointed at her. If she moved a little to far away, the belt would tighten but Krystyn would follow to keep it from getting really bad. A scene designed to be scary, but not actually dangerous. Ilina was the one who decided how much this was going to hurt.

At the same time, Ilina was learning why Velia only did her from behind. It was way more practical then trying to get the angle just right. She had one hand bracing herself on Krystyn's abs, and the other one she'd instinctively moved down to tease the woman's clit while she thrusted. Nobody had ever done that for her, but with Krystyn in this position Ilina realized how simple that would be.

Adjustment after adjustment, each one so slight but deliberate. Guided by the twitching of Krystyn's muscles, the pitch of her moans, and the feedback from the strap. One of the human brain's greatest feats was how quickly it could incorporate tools into the body. Ilina could feel the shape of it inside Krystyn from the base and the harness, and where Krystyn's response was the strongest. There was joy to be found in it, and every piece of joy Ilina could find was magical.

But it was starting to hurt. Between the occasional tugs on the belt and trying to match the pace Krystyn was demanding, she was coming up on the end of her runway really quick. She really didn't expect a round two to be so demanding. Finally Ilina just dug her fingers into the woman's hips and leaned back, asphyxiating herself briefly. She was done. No more. It was all too sensitive and overstimulated.

Somewhere in that momentary Haze, Krystyn had switched them again, pushing Ilina onto her back and crawling over the strap.

Wait. Please. Wait. I can't. "Wait."

Her voice slipped out at the end of her panic, just barely forming the word. Krystyn froze, the tip brushing against her entrance. They locked eyes for a second and there was a new expression in Krystyn's eyes. Wild, but not violent. What was going through her head?

"I'll stop if you really need to, but I'm so close," she begged, "Please let me finish. I need it to be you. Please."

She was actually going to stop? Some defiant little swell wanted to say no just to see if it would actually work, but Ilina nodded anyways. When was the last time she'd said no? She said it to Velia, but that was different. Krystyn wouldn't break eye contact, with that weird look on her face, and it felt like someone put a blender inside her chest and hit puree.

Despite being overstimulated and in a growing amount of pain, Ilina braced herself and matched Krystyn's pace. The gun was on the bed near Ilina's head and she'd even let go of the belt. If she had strength to do anything else, she might have tried something for fun with the pistol. But the thought was dashed when Krystyn crashed on top of her, panting and shuddering with excitement.

Krystyn pulled the belt off of Ilina, and helped her undo the little contraption on the back of the strap that held it in place. And then pulled her close and squeezed her like a teddy bear. Giggling and cooing and planting kisses into the back of Ilina's neck. It was probably necessary for her. Ilina just wanted to close her eyes and fall asleep, but she kept having to answer inane questions.

Are you okay? I wasn't too rough, was I? Did you like it?

Shut uppp. Ilina let out a small groan and found herself on her back suddenly. Krystyn hovered over her. What now?

"You told Vigil you wanted a dog. Is that like, a thing you're into?"

"I was just flirting." Ilina was having a hard time keeping her eyes open. "Why, are you jealous?"

"Yeah. I am."

Ilina woke up in an instant like someone had just poured cold water on her. She forced herself to sit back up and look at Krystyn's face. It looked weird. Oh. Oh, gods below, was that the kind of face she'd been making at Velia all this time? No wonder she kept getting called stupid for it. It was deeply uncomfortable.

Krystyn's lips twitched. Oh. Please don't. Please. She started laughing nervously again and looked away. Ilina let out a held breath. What was she afraid of? Krystyn saying something truly stupid like–

"I love you."

Ilina was out the door faster than she'd ever moved at a level one battlestations call. Faster than she'd moved at the sound of artillery shells whistling through the air towards her. She'd grabbed her pants but hadn't bothered to put them on. She ran right by the door to her own room and kept sprinting as fast as she could to the only room on the Gestalt she knew to be truly safe.

Morian's room.