The Afflicted

In truth, where the children were raised didn't matter. Any member of the Seven could now deplace at will and would be able to visit the children at a moment's notice.

When the children turned a month old, goodbyes were said and tears were shed, but it felt right that their children were already spreading out into the world. Galen and company were there for the leave-taking and pronounced the babies stunningly healthy and in capable hands.

After they left, he did a cursory examination of the Seven. The young men didn't take long, but he did dwell a bit on the women, especially Frederique.

"So?" she asked, intrigued at how long he had taken.

He just chuckled in an almost evil laugh.

"Prepare yourself for some surprises."

"What does that mean?" asked Frederique.

"Let's just say that your new race perhaps isn't as 'civilized' as I initially thought."

"What does that mean?" she asked in an exasperated tone.

Galen would say no more and a moment later he winked out with Bullet, offering no further explanation.

* * * *

Three days passed in business-as-usual fashion. They made love often and continued exploring the world. For the five former Afflicted, it was especially wonderful since their new forms were no longer averse or harmed by sunlight. It was quite an adventure to be able to explore a world they had only known by moonlight.

Galen's cryptic comments hovered above them though, making them wonder at his meaning.

On the fourth day, the meaning became incredibly clear. Frederique had gone off to visit Monshellen and little 'Sunny' as they called him, when she got a rather fierce message from Aimée.

"Mother, stay away," growled her daughter's voice in her head.

"What do you mean? Are you in danger?"

"No danger," Aimée replied. "Not for me, but I can't vouch what I'll do to you if you interfere with what I'm going to do with Claude."

"Oh... very well, daughter," she said, perplexed.

Frederique reached out with her mind to try and contact her other mates and get some explanation. However, she was met with a wall of lusty obsession. Her mental connection was always a bit stronger with her 'sisters' as they called each other. So, she tried Glennis first.

"Just try and find me," was the topmost thought in Glennis's mind. The fair girl's emotions were a mix of challenge and longing. Challenge, because she didn't want this to be easy... longing, because she wanted something, or someone, very badly."

"Oh, I will," growled a voice that sounded like Martin's.

Next, Frederique reached out to Abby.

"You'll have to catch me first," snarled the redhead's inner voice. "And I'm not going to let you. I'll never forgive you for what you did with Jessamine."

Frederique contemplated what she was hearing. All three of her sisters were evading their prime mates and the boys' thoughts were so lustful, so one-dimensional, that she couldn't decipher much more than 'mine' as the primary thought in her male mates' minds.

She tried to get a fix on them, but it proved impossible. Between jumping, flying, and plain running, it seemed that the girls were hopping all over the planet to evade their partners.

She jumped back to the Governor's Chamber and was aware of a strange scent. She could not place it, but suddenly what she was witnessing called to mind a very familiar scenario. In her life she had witnessed many animals mating, and the emotions her mates were emitting was shockingly similar to the mating dance she had witnessed between Lions and Wolves. The male had to prove himself, either by fighting off a competitor, or by plain and simply catching her... if he could. Was this what Galen had meant?

At about the same moment that she realized this, a flurry of indescribable emotions suddenly took hold of her system.

"Damned right they should have to catch us," she cursed. "They think they're good enough for us. Fuck that. They'll never be good enough, those cheating bastards. You show them, sisters!"

In hindsight, she would realize it was the pheromones in their quarters that flipped her mind into an animal-like state. That didn't matter at the moment though, for the next hour she would find herself pacing back and forth in the Governor's Chamber, monitoring the events of her mates from afar as well as she could.

* * * *

Glennis had jumped to the valley, to Palo and Seiko's mansion, and to the mine at Seven Mile Canyon. Martin had been in hot pursuit but she had stayed a jump ahead of him.

This time, she materialized in the narrow cavern directly behind Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon. As soon as she did, she wiped her mind clean of any thoughts. She sensed Martin's arrival, but kept her mind as empty as she could. She knew he was standing in the water beyond the falls but did not try to find out any more. Because of the strong mineral content in the water, it shielded her from his detection.

"Where are you my little whore?" he growled. Sweet, gentle, Martin who was the last to use such words was possibly the most effected by the mating stage the girls had passed into.

"You think you'll have Jacob, or Claude, well you're wrong. You're mine and if either of them tries to take you I'll stop every cell in their systems until I've had my way with you and your tight little cunt."

Glennis's breathing quickened at the hungry tone of his thoughts. She was the most 'saucy' of the group and to hear Martin going on like this... to claim his dominance and ownership of her... the juices in her pussy were practically flowing already.

She could just see his silhouette through the curtain of water she was hiding behind. She knew she shouldn't say anything if she wanted to evade him again... but did she really want to do that.

"What if I want Claude?" she teased. "He might be a much better father to my child."

She saw the shadow of Martin turn toward the falls. She sensed his rage and jealousy... and it made her glad. She wanted him angry... but she didn't want him quite yet.

Martin watched as her lithe figure suddenly ripped through the falling water and up into the air.

"Come down here!" he cried.

With a flip of his hand, he gestured for her to fall and she came splashing down into the deep pool beyond him.

"Fuck you!" she cried when she came up spluttering and treading water.

"Soon," growled Martin. "I will be fucking you soon."

"Not likely!" she yelled back.

At that moment, she envisioned the warehouse back in New York and prepared to jump. Yet, when she tried she suddenly found herself blocked.

"A little trick I learned from your kind," said Martin. "If you're going to get away from me now, it won't be by deplacing."

Glennis tried to fly, but was too bogged down by the water. Flying not being her primary gift, it was sometimes more difficult. So, she started swimming for the opposite shore in long strokes. She climbed out of the water and started walking up the bank. She knew she would soon be dry enough to fly.

Suddenly, everything slowed. As she tried to move her leg, she felt it suddenly go numb. It was something like when her leg fell asleep due to resting in an odd position. Then, her other leg froze and she found herself standing like a statue, absolutely paralyzed.

"You thought you would run, did you?" said Martin over the roar of the water.

She was frozen, turned away from him, but his voice was now at her ear. She thrilled at the feel of his nearness.

"Are you mine?" his voice rasped in her mind.

"Never."

His hand rubbed over her ass through her wet dress.

"I'll repeat the question," he said. "Are you mine?"

He lifted the wet fabric and caressed her cold buttocks. She would have moaned, had she any control of her body.

"Go fuck yourself!"

"Why would I do that, my mate, when I can do it to you?"

She would have protested, but could only stand in numb silence as her dress disappeared from her body, then reappeared to fall in a splat on the rocks beside them.

She felt his hands on her body... felt him spreading her legs apart and then bending her body over to place her hands on the bank above her. She might as well have been a store mannequin, the way he was manipulating her.

Her breathing quickened and her heart started beating strongly. Her eyes were the only things she could control and all she could see was his shadow. Slowly, she saw the motions of him removing his shirt and trousers, and saw them fall down beside her dress.

She breathed even more quickly on seeing him approach behind her.

His shadow turned and she would have swallowed if she could on seeing the added appendage in his silhouette.

She heard him step closer and would have whimpered if she could have. His warm, round head pressed up against her enflamed labia.

"Please," she moaned in his mind.

"Please, what?" he replied.

"Please, take me. Make me yours. Make me your mate, your lover, your whore. Fill me with your seed and make me with-child."

He pushed slowly into her; his cock intruded perhaps an inch into her already glistening tunnel.

Though there were no words, her moan of ecstasy reverberated in his head and her inner gasp at him stopping almost made him chuckle.

"Please, my Martin," she moaned. "You have caught me, now make me yours."

He released her head, but nothing more. He slid in another inch.

"Yesss..." she hissed at feeling him go further. She turned over her shoulder to see his lusty smile.

"Are you mine?" he asked.

"You know I am," she panted. "Now please, please, please, stick that cock in me all the way."

"Like this?" he asked as he thrust entirely within her.

"Oh God, yes!" she yelped. Even over the water, her voice echoed against the rocks.

Martin released her body and she pushed back into him. She bent her supple back and reached back over her shoulder to wrap a hand around his head.

"Take me, Martin," she moaned. "You've caught me, now take what's yours."

Their bodies began a slow, insistent rhythm and she yelped as his cock expanded within her.

* * * *

Aimée was livid.

She had awoken from their nap to the feeling of Claude nuzzling her neck, his cock nestled between her ass cheeks and pushing insistently.

How dare he?

This... this bastard who had gotten Brana with child.

This Oedipus who had slept with their mother... who had let their mother service him before turning to Aimée.

"Get away from me, Claude," she growled angrily.

"Come on, Aimée," he insisted.

"No, I'm not in the mood."

"Since when are you not in the mood?" she said, teasingly.

It was true, she had never denied him, not in their time on the Siren, and certainly not since they were mated. He flipped her around and pinned her playfully to the mattress.

"Since, right now!"

Her hand escaped his grasp and he was met with a stinging slap to his face.

The next thing he knew he was grappling with empty air.

"You'll need to catch me to prove you deserve me."

These words sounded in his mind. The voice definitely belonged to Aimée, but he could not tell where she was. This was unusual in itself. Generally, the Seven were aware of every other partner's location regardless of distance. For Aimée to be so hidden meant that she was intentionally blocking them.

Claude was off on his search. The dorms, the fort, Seven Mile Canyon, and so on.

It was during his search that Aimée warned her mother off.

After searching in perhaps twenty places, Claude had a sudden moment of inspiration.

He knew where he could find her, and how he was going to make her pay. Her slap had awakened something in him. She was no longer his mate, she was his prey, and his goal was to dominate her in ways she would never forget.

* * * *

Aimée was hovering. She was high over the Atlantic as near to the spot as she could possibly get. It was where she and Claude had almost taken each other. There were few clouds this day, and she hovered there in the sunlight, looking down at relatively calm ocean.

She could not explain her emotions, other than that she was livid with Claude. Yes, Brana was part of the picture, but for the most part she had this odd primal anger that he would assume she was his.

Illogical, yes. She was arguably the more randy of the two. But something had snapped in her mind that morning and it was something that she could not seem to reason with. She would

This was what Galen had sensed. When he had last looked into Frederique's system, he had noticed some profound changes. Yes, their bodies were the most sophisticated, efficient and amazing organisms he had ever examined. When viewed in terms of technology, it was like the human body was the stone wheel, the Afflicted body was a horse drawn cart, and the Seven were flying machines which were yet to be invented. However, when he looked into Frederique he saw marvelous cocktail of hormones. As sophisticated as they were, there was a mating cycle coming upon the seven that was not that different from a cat or dog in heat, or another wild animal. He wasn't sure how the mating frenzy would manifest itself, but he was certain it wouldn't be civilized.

That was exactly what was happening to the first pair. Like a lioness or a she-wolf, both Glennis and Aimée were determined that their mate should have to fight to claim their bodies.

Aimée remained suspended in the air. Though she was angry, she was also aroused in ways she'd never felt. Her pussy was practically dripping with lubrication and her breasts felt like they were on fire from the need to have a man's lips upon them.

She heard a whistle and couldn't quite pinpoint it. She turned to the West... and it was too late. Claude came ripping through the air with the speed of a falcon and collided with her before she could deplace.

"Let me go," she growled between her teeth as the two of them began plummeting toward the ocean.

Her hand lashed out and swiped at his cheek. Four angry trails of blood followed where she scratched him, but rather than drive him away it only served to make him more angry.

"What right have you?" he growled back. "We are mated, this is my right!"

They continued tumbling.

"What right? You don't deserve anything, yet. Do you think because you can pour your seed into the belly of someone of another kind that gives you the right to take me?"

Still, they were falling. Claude was blocking her from deplacing and had her hands pulled tightly into his. Though she tried kicking, he pulled her in tight to him. She could feel his enflamed, angry cock pushing into her hip.

"I have every right," he snarled.

"No, you don't!"

The ocean approached at an alarming rate.

He pulled her into a rough kiss and cursed when he came away with a bleeding lip from where she bit him.

Though she was strong, she could only keep him from her. She knew she couldn't escape.

"I'll fuck you right here," he cursed. "I'll take you in the air, as I did so long ago."

"You will never do that!" she retorted between clenched teeth.

The ocean was almost there. Though they were invincible, they would doubtless be injured when they hit.

"Claude!" she suddenly cried out, seeing that they were within moments of smacking into the salty water.

SPLASH!

The world went dark and they did crash into water, but it wasn't salty.

Aimée came spluttering up from the foamy bubbles and took in her surroundings. It was their pool back in Morocco. It was the place they had spent countless hours in, in the innocence of their youth. Claude was sitting at the edge of the pool with an angry look on his face. The scratches she had left were nearly healed over.

"How did we get here?" she gasped, momentarily forgetting her anger because of the sudden shock.

"I took us here," he said in calm but menacing tones. "And don't try to deplace. I switched on a dampener that Martin installed last week."

He dropped into the water and started wading toward her.

"Now Claude," she said, softly in a tone she hoped would soothe him. "You seem upset. Let's talk through this."

"There's nothing to talk about," he said. "There's no sort of talk that can solve this problem."

He had reached her and he yanked her to him. His arms felt like iron as he crushed her body to his and pulled her into a lip-bruising kiss.

"Why here?" she murmured. The fight had gone out of her.

"I've been thinking," he said. "All of that wasted time. Why did it take awakening on the Siren for me to take you? Mother and father were often busy with their own diversions when we lived here. How many times could I have taken you in this very pool?"

"Father would have known," she whispered. "And this was before, remember? This was before he was accepting of the needs of The Afflicted."

Claude's massive member was poised at her entrance. She couldn't deny him any longer.

"But who would have told him?" Claude whispered in her ear. "He would have only known if we'd have told him. Would you have told him, sister?"

He pushed into her. She whimpered from pleasure.

"I..." started Aimée.

"Would you?"

He slid another three inches in. Aimée felt as though her entire body was being filled with his cock.

"No, brother," she mewed. "I wish... I wish we would have known how beautiful this was. I would have let you take me every... mmmfff... every day. Every night... every time father's back was turned, I would have given myself to you."

"That's better," said Claude, burying himself entirely in her hungry cunt. "You do need me, don't you?"

"So... much," she purred.

The slowly raised up out of the water and he slid in even deeper. Then, with his masterful control over his body, he let loose one long, steaming burst of cum into her inner chamber.

The energy and pleasure that shot through her body caused her eyes to roll back in her head and a desperate moan to bubble from her throat.

"What are you?" he growled.

"Your cumslut," she purred. "I'm your horny, desperate, slutty, cumslut of a sister."

"What else are you?" he rumbled into her ear.

"I'm... I'm the mother of your future child."

"That's right!" he roared.

His cock slammed into her so hard she saw stars. Her hips reacted in kind and they began to fuck in earnest.

* * * *

Abby awoke and sensed that something was amiss with her bloodsisters, but she was too preoccupied with her own worries to pay attention.

Jacob was awoken by a tearful Abby.

"Jacob, don't you love me?" she whispered.

"I... what?" he asked. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked at her in confusion. "Abby, of course I do. How can you ask that?"

"If you really love me, why didn't you take me back in the mountain?"

"Because it was against the law," said Jacob. "We were already playing with fire. If we had taken each other as mates before they found us, we could have been executed by the Council."

"Excuses, excuses," she said. "I just don't understand. You're my brother and my mate. We wasted all of that time when we could have been mates."

"But, even beyond the Council, we wouldn't have our other mates now if we had... and we would have lost the war against Arnet and the Elders would have eradicated the Afflicted. Do you need more reasons?"

"Those reasons don't matter. We also wouldn't have had your damned bastard girl by Jessamine if we'd have been mated."

"Please don't speak of Tara that way," said Jacob. "She's the most beautiful child you could ever see, you say so yourself."

"I... I still just don't understand. That day, you had me captive. You could have tied me to that wonderful chair and had your way with me in every way imaginable. You could have placed your teeth to my neck, or my breasts, and known me as a mate forever. You must not love me, or you would have."