How to Train Your Channeler

[Oriena]

He looked terrified, the white-eyed primal kind, but frankly Ori didn’t care what worked. She just needed to keep up her end of the bargain. Sasha practically sobbed, though – there was no sign of the anger she wanted from him, no volatile spark which should have made him burn them both to cinders in retribution for the way the snake had treated him. He didn’t even fight back physically, just accepted with a chilling sort of finality that he was fucked. It twitched the corners of her mouth down, not because he was afraid, but because that fear was aimed at her. Most people found her terrifying, that wasn’t new. But in this situation it bothered her more than she let on.

“You will,” she told him. Her grip tightened, but her jaw tensed too. Thinking.

But the ijiraq were hunters, and maybe they knew better than she did what he needed so they could feed. She felt their movement above her like a pull in the back of her mind, and she knew when it worked because they descended in a blink. Sasha screamed underneath her. Ori didn’t move beyond giving them the space they needed, though Sasha clearly didn’t need the restraint. From the rictus of his body between her thighs she doubted he could even move beyond the pain.

It was over fast. Though maybe it didn’t feel that way to him. She felt the pulse of satiation from the three minds tethered to hers, and a warm cascade of thank yous like the resonant purrs from satisfied cats. They dissolved into mist, though in the dark even their solid forms had been little more than patches of cowled shadow.

Ori looked down at the wreckage of a man left behind. She wasn’t sure what the fuck she’d have done if the ijiraq hadn’t kept their word, but they did. Sasha was still breathing at least, though she doubted he was going to be happy about the compromise which released the device from his skull. “Now, you can thank me,” she said. The smirk made a curved dagger at the curve of her mouth, but the words were arid. She didn’t hold any expectation that he’d understand what she’d done. And she didn’t care to exonerate herself. He could believe what he wanted. She patted his cheek, not exactly kindly, and then she slid off.

It was only to lay beside him while he whimpered. The inside of her head was a mess, and she tried to capture some of the remaining fragments, but it only made her heartbeat pound behind her eyes when she tried. The three drones were still there, but not in the same way the queen had been. It was quiet. Beautifully so. Her eyes half closed. She expected Sasha would run the moment he felt the predator relax beside him, which was fine by her. It was probably the sane thing to do. For her part, she just breathed. Flicking the drugs back at him would have to wait, and it might have annoyed her under normal circumstances to have to wait, but there was still a lightness in her chest. Her mood was the best it had been in a long time.