Sacrifice to the Stars Read online

  "Only what I brought her in. The priests scrounged it up, I have no idea where." He grinned again.

  "What does your brother think of this?" She was afraid of the answer.

  "That he needs to resign from the priesthood for the remainder of the festival. She had him hard enough to rip his robes."

  Snickering at Morrer's discomfort was just part of their brotherly bond. What had she done to get two such different sons on the same day? Jenner was the warrior, Morrer the nurturer. One a General, the other a priest and healer.

  Aida sighed. "Are you going to try and hunt her?"

  What she hadn't told Tia was that men could wait on the grounds until women left the safety of the women's quarters. Sneak-attack seductions were popular and added a thrill to the chase of one's mate.

  Jenner grinned and took her hand for a quick kiss. "Of course, Mother. Today she needs to rest, but tomorrow is another matter entirely."

  * * * *

  Combing her hair when she woke was an endurance event. Tia was hungry by the time she finished. She knotted her hair at the base of her neck and knotted the rest in thirds to keep it out of her way.

  She put on the slip that had come with the dress, turning on the vid and waiting for food.

  The knock sounded just before she started to assess the furnishings for edibility. Tia rose to her feet and opened the door.

  Aida was standing there with a tray. A young woman stood behind her, smiling shyly. "Hello."

  Tia was practically chirpy. The sight of food did wonders for her mood. Aida placed the food in the entertainment area and sat across from her.

  "Starla is here to take your measurements. My son informs me that you only have the one dress. I know he likes to travel light, but there is no reason that you have to." Aida smiled.

  "Thank you."

  "Miss, please stand over here." Starla gestured for her to come into an open space.

  The young woman had the same dark skin as Aida and Jenner. The bronze-blue seemed to be endemic to the region. Tia had thought that all Hashka were the same. It seemed that genetic selection was proving her wrong.

  A palm scanner took her measurements with a precision that tailors back home would envy. When the unit chirped, Starla nodded happily. "I will have something basic worked up for you by this evening. I also have a few festival gowns that can be altered to fit if you will be attending…"

  Aida shook her head, "She will not. She does need a last day gown, but I will give you the order for that. Thank you, Starla."

  Tia blinked, "Yes, thank you, Starla. It has been weeks since I had clothing that fit me properly. Your work is appreciated."

  The woman blushed a dark purple and bowed before leaving. She left the door open.

  "Come, Tia, you must be hungry." Aida waved gracefully at the tray in front of her.

  "I am. Thank you. I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to rest

  without…"

  "Without the voices of men triggering your body's response? Yes. I know. It is why the clans created these quarters. To give you sanctuary once you can stand it no longer."

  Tia smiled and reached out for a slice of a fruit that was popular at the Orb. In Morvigeth fashion, she knelt next to the ottoman and ate her food with her fingers, ignoring the cutlery.

  She was halfway through the plate when she realized that Aida was staring at her. "I am sorry, is this not appropriate?"

  "No, it is fine. I have just never seen anyone eat that stew without getting some on them. The pods tend to explode when touched and you haven't crushed one."

  Tia blushed. "I am sorry. This is how we eat at home. Why wash cutlery when you have already washed your hands?"

  She kept eating, but some of her enjoyment was now diverted by self-consciousness.

  With her meal finished, she wiped the three fingers she had used to eat and took a seat across from Aida. "This is very nice of you, but I can't imagine that I am the only female in this wing at this time."

  "You are correct. But as the daughter-in-law of the Clan Leader, I have a certain position to maintain, as well as being responsible for extending hospitality to all visitors."

  "So, it has nothing to do with your sons…uh, son?"

  Aida caught the slip. "Morrer stirs you as well?"

  Tia blushed but only said, "Not as hot as Jenner but differently."

  The older woman changed the subject. "You have lovely hair. I had no idea it was so long."

  "At home, we grow it to our ankles as a sign of respect to the gods." She grimaced. "I am thinking of cutting it."

  That caused a raised eyebrow. "You would disrespect the gods?"

  "They have not protected the innocent on my world, just for being born with latent gifts. A female with psychic talents is ritually stabbed to death in the temple."

  A smirk caught Aida's lips.

  Tia got angry. "You find that funny?"

  "Were you told of this as a child? The ritual sacrifice here does involve impalement, but I can guarantee that the women are enthusiastic participants."

  Tia snarled and jumped to her feet. "I didn't hear about it, I saw it. The woman they killed was a year older than me, but her talents and body bloomed early. Each leg and arm were impaled with spikes to hold them in place, iron rods through her thighs and then she was impaled with a twelve-inch blade until she screamed to be killed. At that point, the priest walks through the blood and stabs her through the heart. All in the name of Lassing."

  Aida was almost as pale as Tia by the end of the telling. "That is an abomination." The older woman stood and hugged Tia. "This is the reason for delaying your time?"

  "It is."

  "Come with me."

  They walked the halls with Aida's arm over Tia's shoulder. The arch of the library beckoned.

  Aida walked to a podium and opened a great book. She started reading.

  "A woman of power beyond normal women shall be born. When her body is ripe, she shall be taken to the temple and prepared for sacrifice. With her body prepared, she shall be brought to the altar. First, shall she be bound to the cross, which graces the temple of Lassing. Her arms and legs shall be fastened so she cannot move, for she is the vessel in which the sacrifice will be made. Her thighs shall be fixed in place to ease the entry of the god. Lassing shall enter her womanhood with the dagger of his lust and his use shall touch her heart. The woman's release shall bring joy and fertility to the land and Lassing shall be pleased with his vessels.

  "Your priests are some really twisted fucks." To hear Aida use that direct terminology forced a startled giggle from Tia.

  "I have always thought so. They have been watching me like raptors since I was ten, waiting for the moment I went into heat. My parents are herbalists and they fought like hell for me to live a normal life. It was they who arranged the shuttle that brought me here and if a meteor had not pierced one of my engines, I would have sailed right past this world." She laughed. "It is ironic that I cross the stars and still end up on a world with a Lassing temple." She laughed, hearing the touch of hysteria in her own voice.

  Aida hugged her again. "I was sacrificed to Lassing when I was a young woman. It is harmless. Women here vie for the privilege. It vastly increases your value to a suitor."

  "I don't know if I want a suitor. It has never been an option for

  me, I have never thought beyond the temple."

  Aida nodded. "I understand. Jenner has been called to the city. With everyone on festival rounds, he chooses to fill in for the missing personnel."

  Tia's heart dipped in disappointment, but for the first time in months, her body cooled. It left her with a question. If there was no man to set the woman off, did she still go into heat?

  Chapter Five

  The week flew by. Oritia watched vids, read the holy books and began to understand that the god Lassing was not the horrid beast that the priests had created back home. He was a god who had lost his wife and was spending eternity to find her again.


  Tia also learned to open her mind and seek out others in the house. First, just the women's quarters came under her nosy inspection, but by the end of the week, her mind was examining the far reaches of the compound.

  Aida was currently happy in the arms of her mate. Borrer Mathwin was the base commander of the orbital station and he was home for the holiday. His mind resembled those of his sons', but he was completely focussed on his wife. Tia pulled away from the couple before they joined their bodies and sat panting and shivering at the passion she just witnessed.

  Her psychic skills surprised her. The senses that developed were the perfect distraction from the near-constant hum in her bloodstream. With the drugs out of her body, she was finally feeling the drive that other women took for granted.

  It was a good thing that men were not allowed in the women's quarters. She would have had Jenner flat on his back with his trousers open in seconds.

  Starla came to visit her for a few hours a day. The young woman had not reached her first time yet and was violently curious about the sensations Tia was feeling.

  "Don't you have anyone to ask about this?"

  Starla sighed. "No, my mother passed on at my birthing and I have no female relatives. It isn't appropriate to ask the clan head's woman, so I am rather stuck."

  Tia sipped at her tea and smiled. "Thank you."

  "Oh, I didn't mean that. I just meant I had no one to ask. My family peaks late, so it hasn't been a matter of urgency, but lately, I

  have been seeing the signs in my own body."

  "Like…"

  "The dampness between my thighs when Soralic speaks to me. The tremor in my hands and the flush across my chest. I think it may come to me in the next month or so."

  "Your nipples tighten and scratch against your gowns?"

  "Sometimes." Starla's dark gold hair slid forward over her shoulders.

  Tia leaned forward and put her teacup on the table. "May I touch your mind?"

  "What?"

  "May I touch your mind?"

  "Um. Sure."

  Starla sat still as Tia looked at her and she blinked in surprise when Tia smiled at her. "Thank you. You have about five weeks before you are in full heat, but you are already in early onset."

  "How…how do you know that?"

  "There are markers in your mind. My mother once told me that there had been studies done to determine the markers of Hashka development. Since coming here, I have been doing research on it. I found the markers in your mind that occur at the onset."

  A thunderclap rang through the room and Tia immediately rushed to the long window and watched rain fall from the sky. "Can I go outside?"

  "Of course. You can do and go wherever you wish."

  Tia couldn't help the grin that bloomed on her face. "Please excuse me."

  Her hands shook as she unbuttoned her gown and, when she slipped it off her shoulders, her friend asked in a strangled tone, "What are you doing?"

  "I am going to have a shower. Haven't you ever danced in the rain before?" Laughing, she opened the sliding glass, passed through the chromosome barrier and boosted herself over the waist-high wall that formed her ground-floor balcony.

  Her room looked out over a private garden. Tall hedges formed a border that blocked a view of her from the main house.

  Tia twirled and laughed in the rain, sipping the water that fell from the sky and lifting her arms so that the lashing drops could caress her from head to toe.

  She had missed the sky dancing for the last year. It used to be a tradition for the women of the clan to run into a solid rainstorm and embrace the cleansing water given by the gods. Tia laughed and enjoyed the stroking of the warm water against her body, lightning flashing miles away, her private moment of memory for her family tradition lightening her heart.

  * * * *

  A flash of gold caught Jenner's eye. He turned his head to look out the window and his jaw opened in surprise an instant before his cock hardened.

  His grandfather was scowling at him, "Did you hear what I just said?"

  "Yes. The priests are on the station looking for her. Excuse me, Clan Leader. I have a matter I need to attend to."

  With a quick nod to his grandfather, he opened the glass door and took off across the lawn, crouching low and keeping his mind quiet. Aida had told him of Tia's growing psychic talents. He had no urge to startle his prey.

  Tia was dancing behind the dubious cover of the hedges that formed a wide box for those who enjoyed some peace and quiet on the grounds.

  He swallowed hard as he took in the high lavender tips of her breasts and the lush waves of hair confined in knots down her back. Jenner was almost positive that her hair reached to the floor and wanted to see it spread out on his pillow, draped over his body and sliding over his cock.

  He shifted so that a sculpture was between them and opened the flap of his uniform tunic.

  His last week had been a nightmare of paperwork and trying to keep Tia from the prying inquiries of the Morvigeth priests. They would finish the quarantine he arranged for them in two days and then they would be attending the festivities at the temple. Until then, Tia was safe.

  Well, she was safe from them—he was another matter entirely. The wet fabric of the tunic fought him, but finally he had it open. Tia was still twirling when he slid up behind her and cupped her breasts, drawing her tightly against him. The pressure of the curves of her ass against his erection caused a throbbing tension he had not experienced since early manhood.

  Her eyes were wide as she turned to look up at him. "Jenner?"

  "Yes, Oritia. You left the women's quarters." He leaned down to murmur it in her ear and he smiled at the shiver that ran through her.

  The rain ran across her face, giving a brightness to her eyes and a shine to her lips that he found irresistible. He released her breasts, slid a hand to the back of her neck and held her still for his kiss.

  * * * *

  Tia wallowed in his kiss, mimicking the stroke of his tongue timidly and then with more boldness as his hands roamed over her skin, learning her textures. Heat was flaring, but it was not the internal fury of her heat. With the rain beating down, his voice was muffled as was her scent. Jenner genuinely wanted her outside of the bounds of Hashka genetics. It was a heady thing.

  "You are not a virgin." Jenner kissed his way down her neck and licked the water off her shoulder.

  "No. It isn't a requirement for being eviscerated." She smiled sadly, then gasped as he took one nipple into his mouth, engulfing it in wet heat. Her moan was lost in the patter of rain.

  She stroked his hair as he switched to the other breast, shivering at the hard pulse of wet heat that was starting between her thighs.

  The stone table in the picnic area pressed against her back and she stared up at the storming sky as he fed at her with lips and fingers. Two fingers pressed into her, coated with her juices, they moved easily in a slow beat while his tongue and lips plucked at her clit. Her release came hard and fast, her scream heralded a thunderclap that shook the stone she was laid on.

  Lights danced behind her eyes and she gasped in shock as Jenner's cock thrust into her deep and hard. She moaned and arched toward him, reaching around, gripping his back, her fingers digging into the vee of muscle and bone. Each thrust burned along her channel, the contractions of her release still rippled through her and around him, dragging groans from his chest.

  Jenner moved faster, harder and deeper until she felt a deep throbbing inside. A flash of lightning accompanied his shout of triumph and as he rubbed his thumb across her clit again, she

  screamed in time to the matching thunder.

  Jenner stayed inside her until her body stopped twitching around his. He moved slightly every few seconds to keep her release going until she was limp and exhausted under him.

  The sky cleared and a bolt of sun danced behind Jenner's head, giving him a halo of sparkling brilliance. He leaned down to kiss her, slow and deep. "You are mine now, Tia."


  She smiled softly, "Until the day of the sacrifice or until my shuttle is repaired."

  Strands of hair fell across one of his eyes and he frowned. "We will discuss this further."

  "We will." She shifted and gasped as he moved inside her. "The rain has stopped. I should get back to the women's quarters."

  He chuckled and stroked slowly out of her, surging forward in a sudden rush, their previous activity giving him all the lubrication he needed. "I don't think you will be returning there. I have caught you, pet. You will be staying in my rooms until we return to the city."