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“You thought I was hurting Krynn—which I was,” he said matter-of-factly. “But it was either whip him myself or send him back to Lady Elgiana and let her hurt and sexually humiliate him. I couldn’t fucking do that. I won’t fuck him, but I will give him what he needs any other way I can,” he added.
“You’re a good friend, Sel.” Krynn flexed his wings and winched. “I’d better get cleaned up—I don’t want my wings to stick to my back.”
“Let me help you.” Taking him by the hand, I led him over to the tub and had him sit on the broad marble lip. I ran some cool water and got one of the soft cloths wet. Gently, I cleaned the whip marks which were still fresh and raw.
“Thank you, my Lady—you’re too good to me.” Krynn’s voice was muffled and he was looking down—I sensed he was still ashamed of himself. How difficult must it be for him to have to ask his best friend to hurt him just to make it through his Needing Cycle? My estimation of Sel went up another notch when I thought of how he took Krynn’s requests in stride.
Sexuality is a sliding scale and if I had to characterize them, I would have said that Sel was all the way on the straight end, while Krynn was probably towards the middle—in other words, bi. A lot of straight guys that I knew in the human world wouldn’t want to have anything to do with a gay or bi guy. But Sel hadn’t abandoned Krynn—he gave him what he needed. Or he got as close to it as he could, anyway. Whipping the lighter Fae until he bled was a sign of true friendship on Seldarin’s part, as odd as that sounded, and I respected him for it.
After I finished cleaning up Krynn’s back, his cuts were still raw. I felt my fangs itch as I smelled the sweet, metallic scent of his blood—which was one of the things that had woken me up. But I wasn’t going to bite him. However, I could heal him, I reminded myself.
“Hold still,” I told Krynn, when he started to fold his wings back into place so they lay flat against his back. “Let me just…” And leaning forward, I traced one long whip mark with my tongue.
To my satisfaction, I saw that the long cut healed at once, the flesh knitting itself neatly together, just as Seldarin’s wrist had healed when I’d licked it the night before.
Krynn shivered as I licked him again.
“Oh…my Lady,” he said in a low, choked voice. “Please, you mustn’t debase yourself in this way.”
I pulled back for a moment.
“Debase myself? What do you mean?”
“Healing the wounds of a Needer is considered to be lowering yourself. None of the High Fae will do it,” Sel explained.
“Lady Elgiana would never heal my wounds,” Krynn told me. “Though it was well within her power to do so. She said the scars should stay there and serve as a reminder of my shame and my servitude to her.”
“That bitch!” I said indignantly. “How horrible! Infecting you with a disease and then refusing to help you with the complications of that same disease—it makes me want to slap her!”
“You must not, my Lady!” Krynn turned his head to look at me, his eyes wide with fear. “She is a poisoner—a very cunning one at that!”
“Krynn’s right—it’s better not to pick a fight with Lady Elgiana,” Sel said, frowning. “Princess, when you’re done healing him, I want to see if you can shock me again. I’d like to know the extent of your magic.”
“I still don’t know how I did it,” I said and then licked Krynn again, tracing another whip mark with my tongue. It was very satisfying to see his light platinum skin healing almost as soon as I licked it. Also, his blood tasted slightly different from Seldarin ’s, I thought. It was a bit sweeter.
“It must have been instinctive,” Krynn said softly. “You thought Sel was hurting me and you wanted to stop him.”
“Well, I was fucking hurting you,” Sel pointed out. He was standing to one side, watching as I healed Kyrnn. “It’s a good thing I refused to fuck you,” he remarked. “Imagine if the Princess had woken up to see that going on.”
I felt a deep shiver go through Krynn’s entire body and suddenly I felt a sense of longing so strong it nearly took my breath away—a desire so deep and desperate it made me want to ball my hands into fists and cry out.
I pulled back from Krynn…and the feeling stopped. I looked at him with wide eyes. That emotion I’d been feeling…it wasn’t mine.
“My Lady, are you all right?” Krynn turned his head to look at me again.
“Fine. I’m fine,” I said quickly. Maybe I had imagined the feeling. Leaning forward, I licked him again, tracing the last whip mark to close it.
Once again the emotion swept over me. The deep longing and need filled me like water fills a cup. Was this how Krynn felt all the time? Or was it just because this was the peak of his “Needing Cycle?” I didn’t know, but the desperation I felt from him was hard to bear.
I finished healing the lighter Fae’s back quickly and drew away once more. When I lost skin contact with Krynn, the longing vanished once more.
“What’s wrong, Princess?” Sel was studying my face with lowered brows and a frown at the corners of his mouth. “What just happened?”
“She healed me!” Krynn stood up and flexed his wings. “And not only the wounds you just made—she healed the scars!” he exclaimed. “The skin between my wings isn’t nearly as tight and painful now.” He flapped his wings again and I thought it looked like he was moving them more easily and with better range of motion than he had in the past.
“Yes, but something happened to her when she did it,” Seldarin said impatiently. “I could see it on her face. What was it, Princess?” he asked me.
I bit my lip.
