Don't Label Me! (23 page)

Em seemed to relax although concern etched
his brow when Roger mentioned Ang’s distress. “Why would you be
distressed my Angel? You intrigued me before. Now you are even more
wondrous to behold.” He stroked a finger on her cheek, wetting it
with the water that dripped from him. “We will need to find
something to protect your skin from drying out although it appears
more robust than mine. It would seem that you are blessed, being
able to live both in and out of water. Though not many of my kind
would see it as a benefit, as an ambassador I have sometimes wished
for its convenience.”

“
Maybe if you shared my essence.” Ang
mused.

Em pursed his lips while he considered that.
“That’s not a silly an idea.”

Roger wanted to make himself scarce before
any ‘sharing of essence’ went on but one thing concerned him. “She
can’t stay here Em. Someone will see her. You have no idea how bad
it can be for humans who are different from the norm let alone
someone who looks like they just fell to earth from some strange
planet where beings with the coloring of a dolphin can walk the
land. People would panic. The media would go ape shit. Scientists
would want to kill and autopsy her. Then there’s the government.
Any other arm of government other than Sentient Species Liaison
doesn’t know that there are any other sentient species on the
planet. They would see her as a threat to be eliminated.”

Frantically Ang looked around her beloved
home. “But, this is all I have. I can’t leave here. Then there’s my
garden and my work to consider.”

“
We’ll figure something out Ang. In
the meantime you need to be stashed somewhere.”

Em frowned. “I always knew your culture was
a threat.”

“
Not all Em, not all.” Roger
emphasised. Good grief, he didn’t want to be responsible for
further alienating the Delphines. He’d gathered from comments he’d
overheard at the pub that they could be prickly. The guy just
needed to know the risks to the girl. “Look, I’ll head back and see
what’s possible from our end. You take her somewhere safe for
now.”

“
That I will. Thank you Roger. Report
to Arion. I will look after my angel in the meantime.”

Outside Roger found an unremarkable cat
seemingly waiting for him. “Well hello puss. How are you?”

Roger was almost sure the cat smirked in
reply. Could cats smirk? It wandered over to him and brushed
against his legs. At the moment of contact his world went white.
The next he knew he was standing in Hideo’s lounge room. Roger
shook himself and watched the cat swagger off. Then he realised
where he’d seen it before. The night at the club. He found Sathi
sitting on the front porch, watching blue fairy wrens fossicking in
the garden. It was peaceful and grounding watching her watch them.
Eventually he brought himself to clearing his throat to interrupt
her focus. “I need to find someone called Arion, if you know where
I might look. I need to see Jnarn too.”

“
Arion will be up at the house by the
park but I think you should be able to call him to you. Worth a try
anyway. I’m curious to get a handle on this whole telepathy
thing.”

“
So, what? Visualise him or
something?”

“
Yeah that might work. Maybe also
mentally sounding a request for him to come.”

The sight of the man in question walking up
the front path to the house stopped their conversation dead. “You
don’t need to shout so loud you know. I picked it up the first time
when Roger said he needed to see me. So Ang has problems?” His
concern was written on his brow.

“
You could say that.” Roger brought
them both up to date with Ang’s changes.

Sathi’s eyes widened. “So let me get this
right? She’s lost every strand of hair on her body, the whites of
her eyes are no longer white and she now has blue grey skin on her
back, upper thighs, back of hands and that sort of thing?”

“
Yeah that about sums it up.” Roger
agreed.

Arion was more than mildly surprised. “Shit,
we were only thinking of her being able to shapeshift. This
complicates things.”

“
You don’t say.” Roger couldn’t help
sounding a tad sarcastic.
You’d think
these guys would have thought it through a bit
better
.

Arion glared at him. “I heard that thought.
Just because you can’t hear thoughts yet doesn't mean the rest of
us can’t. Okay, you might be right. You go see Jnarn and see if he
can come up with a hydrating formula for her skin. I’ll go and see
if George and Orea have surfaced yet. George might have recovered
enough from last night’s mating ritual. Seems they’re able to tap
into some earth energies a bit easier than the rest of us. With the
goddess’s help amplifying those energies it might be possible to
annex Ang’s place on to fairy. Simon was already thinking of asking
them to do just that for Sheila's club. You sure Ang is safe in the
meantime?”

“
Yeah, Em was pretty adamant that he
had that covered.”

Em held Ang’s hand as they waded, naked,
into the crystal clear sea. With Em’s encouragement Ang had tried
her hand at teleporting again, and succeeded. They’d come to the
same remote secluded cove where Arion had first introduced them.
When they reached water that was lapping Ang’s shoulders Em brought
them to a halt. “This is deep enough for us to try a few things.
First I’d like you to try holding your breath under water. See how
long you can hold it, just comfortably though, don’t force it.”

“
Okay. That doesn’t sound too tough.”
Ang talk a good lungful of air and then bent her knees to lower
herself beneath the surface. Not wanting to miss out on visually
savoring Em’s body she opened her eyes the same as she had the time
before. Dolphin eyesight might be limited but hers wasn’t. The
changes hadn’t altered that and she was glad. There were strands of
light shafting through the water that near dazzled her. Water of
subtly different shades flowed around Em’s body, rippling his
almost emerald colored blue-green aura. An aura that was also
splashed liberally with white and gold. She’d been so mesmerised by
him that until now she hadn’t really stopped to look at him deeply
in that way. What she saw pleased her. A tap on her shoulder
reminded her to surface. “That didn’t seem long.”

“
You were down for at least five
minutes as you measure time. With practice I’m sure you’ll have no
difficulty extending your time beneath the surface.”

“
What next? Do you want me to try a
full shapeshift? I have to say I haven’t a clue how.”

Em’s eyes gleamed. “I have a theory on that.
I think it will be necessary for your rational human mind to get
out of the way and for that we will need to distract it. Come, just
swim with me for a bit.”

Em stayed in his humanoid form as they
headed out into deeper water. Ang had never gone out this deep
before except off the end of a jetty or off a boat. But with Em she
felt safe.

“
That’s right my angel. No harm will
come to you while I’m here. Now, if you do indeed trust me, let’s
try out your buoyancy. Like this.” He rolled on his back, lying on
the water as if it was a mattress. “You try.”

Ang was surprised at how easily the water
supported her. It was no effort to stay afloat.

“
Can you try turning to face me?” Em
coaxed her.

“
Floating on my side?”

“
Exactly”

Ang felt a warm rush of pleasure as she
rediscovered water as another medium to live and play in. It was
just like being on land but freer. She was able to maneuver her
body in ways that even a bird in flight might envy.

Em watched her with pride. Her childlike joy
was contagious. “Come to me my angel.”

Ang took a lungful of air and dived,
resurfacing against his chest, skin to skin. She smiled feigning
innocence.

“
You forget my Angel, I can read your
thoughts. Now what am I thinking.” He asked as his spare ‘hand’
stroked her inside leg.

Ang felt his foot long member and
momentarily blanched in fear. “It won’t fit Em.”

“
Remember how you were trusting me a
moment ago, trust me now. I will do nothing to hurt you. Let’s just
consider this a tentative exploration.”

“
But...how are we going to do
protection? I’m not on the pill and even if they made a condom big
enough for you I doubt it would work out here in the
ocean.”

“
A condom? I don’t understand this
word.” He looked at her curiously, not understanding her reticence.
He’d read her thoughts and her actions. He knew she desired
him.”

Ang tried sending him a mental picture of
what she meant.

He roared in laughter. “Such an awkward
contrivance, no it wouldn’t work. And anyway, you’re not
ovulating.”

Getting pregnant was only part of her worry
but she guessed his being an angel of a kind he couldn’t catch or
harbour disease.

“
No, you are right, disease is not a
problem. As for a calf, I would be proud to father one on you but I
can assure you that if you were ovulating I wouldn’t be the only
male delphine here.”

“
You can sense my
hormones?”

“
Your vibratory frequency would be
different.”

“
And the others, why would they
come?”

“
Because they would want you too. I
know it is yet new to you but I say again, we do not think or act
as individuals, we are a pod. Yes there are subtle differences
between us as there are between human beings but it is mostly in
our age and experience. The pod plays, hunts and is, how should I
say this, amorous together.”

“
So they won’t rape me on
mass?”

Em looked horrified when he read the full
extent of the worry in her mind. “All-spirit no. That we would
never do.” But hell, he had to be honest even while trying not to
scare her. “Some of the younger ones though, they can be pretty
pushy. I will lay down the law with them. You will have special
status being the Malakim’s chosen ambassador.”

“
You can do that?” Ang wondered if the
pod was so unitary how one delphine could tell another what to
do.

“
I am the oldest pod male. I have
their respect. They will see reason.”

“
How old exactly?”

“
Several millennia older than you.
Don’t let that intimidate you. I’m still a teenage Delphine at
heart. No different from the day I ascended from dolphin to
delphine. What is inside does not age. You see yourself as
chronologically younger but your soul is no younger than
mine.”

“
But the difference is I can’t
remember my previous lives so all that wisdom is lost.”

“
You are wrong my angel. It is written
here.” He placed his webbed hand over her heart. “I will teach you
how to access it. Now enough of worry. What do you say?”

That indeed was the question here mind was
musing on but her vagina heated at just the thought of taking him.
“I’m game but if I say stop, you have to promise you’ll stop.”

“
Hmm, my experience says ‘stop’ can
sometime mean the opposite. I believe you guys have a safeword
system for just such occasions. Choose one.”

“
Elephant. We are about as unlikely to
come across one of those out here in the ocean as we are to find
one flying.”

“
Elephant? I don’t know this creature
but I can see it in your mind. Okay, if either of us yells
‘elephant’ we stop this. The question is do you trust me to stop if
you use it.”

Ang thought on that a moment but it wasn’t a
question that needed long consideration. All his actions up until
now had spoken volumes of care and patience. “Yes, I trust
you.”

Those were the magic words Em had been
waiting to hear. Yet caution born of millenia warned him not to
spook her. As she floated on her side he approached her front.
Belly to belly their skin caressed skin.

He’d never had sex in humanoid form but knew
from his probe of Ang’s mind that showing sexual arousal in his
true form would be a step too far. Once he taught her to shift into
delphine form maybe it would be different. He could wait. He was a
patient Delphine.

His firm lips met hers, soft and pliant. He
pushed home his claim by stealing her breath. He felt her light
headedness as she yielded to him, cradled softly in his arms.

The prominent vein on her neck pulsed. Em
became acutely aware of her life essence pulsing through her. Her
blood was no different to his. Similar internal physiology powered
both their bodies. Her mind sparkled with a down to earth pragmatic
common sense that floored him. And yet she didn’t seem to think of
herself as particularly intelligent. She lacked either the guile or
the insecurities of so many humans he had met. She just was and she
was happy with it.

Tentatively his third hand caressed her
labia, seeking entry. It seemed small, tight from little use. He’d
work on that. For now he satisfied himself with merely nudging an
inch inside her entrance, testing her reaction.

A moan was his first indication that his
approach was welcomed, followed quickly by a an inviting thrust of
her hips coaxing him deeper.

He stilled, waiting for any tension that
would spell her fear. Instead he felt her purposely contracting,
teasing, making him oh so aware that she was an active player in
this most intimate of acts. “Can you take more my Angel?”