Kraken (22 page)

Will closed his eyes and let his head fall backwards, floating in the slight current. The water buoyed him, supported him. He thought of Cyrus’s fluids inside him, changing him, as if they’d seep into his mitochondria and alter who he was. He didn’t know what he could do to make it stop, and instead he tried to lean back into the water, let it support him and comfort him. Will tried to find the calm, still place where his skin tingled and he felt at peace.

And Will felt the tiny fish around him, scuttling crabs below, a harmless jellyfish not ten feet away, making ripples not in the water, but directly against his skin; a soft, buffeting feeling, as if he’d waved a fan at them and the breeze had bounced off. He jerked his head up in shock, and his feet went down, treading water instinctively. Cyrus tightened an arm around him, and chuckled. “Your ass sore, my love? I’m sorry it had to hurt. Well, I’m a
little
sorry. But aspects of the experience were delightful.” An arm thrust between Will’s legs, and a suckered tip flicked Will’s soft cock back and forth. “And next time you might be a little more responsive.” The arm grasped and tightened, and Will flinched. Then Cyrus’s limbs were spinning Will away in the water. “But not today. I don’t want to cause any permanent damage, my love. Well, not there, anyway. We have such a long time ahead of us, after all.”

Will could sense something flat, immense.

“We’re going under the water now, lovely. You have to open your eyes.”

Cyrus jerked him downwards before he had a chance to take a preparing breath. He opened his eyes more in reflex than design. It took a few seconds to realize what he was looking at: underneath them, less than six feet down, a gigantic ray spread out on the floor of sand and mud. It was larger than Cyrus, larger than both of them together. Will struggled in fear, a bubble of water escaping his mouth as he opened it to cry out. Cyrus held him tight, pulling him down closer. The ray’s raised eyes swiveled to watch them, and Will felt curiosity wash across him. Cyrus grabbed Will’s arm and forced his fingers down against its flat body. It looked rubbery, but it felt like sandpaper.

Will looked around, seeing the sea floor stretching out in every direction. There was a moment of vertigo, and he had the uncanny sensation of not being underwater at all, but flying weightless over the surface of a great limitless plain, waiting for him to explore it. Cyrus pushed off against the bottom, and a second later they surfaced, Will crying out.

“Shh, lovely, shh. He won’t hurt you. He knows you’re of the sea now. He’s been coming here for decades. I don’t like the texture of ray. It’s like scallops. He’s too big now anyway – all tough and rubbery.” Cyrus ran his tongue up the side of Will’s face. “Not like you. You’re delicious.” He laughed and whirled Will around in the water. Will grimaced at the pain in his back.

“You feeling better? Time to go in now?”

“Yes, Cyrus.”

Cyrus gave him the last of the steak for dinner, with the remains of the salad. As they ate, Will could feel the same strange waves against his skin. He knew,
knew,
that there was a long shapes anchored far up the harbor, slapping gently up and down in the water with the incoming tide. Crabs and seaweed and branches adrift brushed his senses. Shoals of fish swam up and down his skin like an itch.

“Finish everything,” said Cyrus. “You need food to heal.”

“Yes, Cyrus.”

He sat still and quiet at the table, obediently putting forkful after forkful in his mouth, keeping his gaze fixed on his plate.

An invisible stroke on his skin told him, quite clearly, that someone was coming around the point and into the bay. And into the beach. The boat was small, 10 feet or so, and a churning sensation said it had an outboard.

Will was just putting his cutlery down when they heard the knock at the sliding door. Will didn’t know how Cyrus wanted him to react, so he didn’t glance behind him, but just sat and waited.

“Well, hello,” said Cyrus.

“Hi.”

Will was surprised to hear Sina’s voice.

“I just wanted to come up, talk to Will. I heard down at the store he was still here. I figured he would have left already.”

Cyrus smiled proudly. “He’s decided to stay here with me now.”

“Really? Oh, that’s— I mean, that’s great. Is this a good time?”

“We’re just finishing dinner, actually. We had a bit of a long day.”

“Oh, okay. I guess I’ll just be seeing you both around from now on then. Good. That’s good.”

Will kept his eyes on Cyrus.

Sina said, “Um, actually, it was a bit of a hike up here. D’ya mind if I get a glass of water before I go back?”

Cyrus’s face was passive for a split second, then he grinned genially. “Sure. Will, get Sina a glass of water, will you, my love?”

“Of course.”

Will slid carefully out of his seat and walked to the faucet, reaching slowly for a glass from the shelf above and filling it. He paused at the fridge, opening the freezer compartment.

“Would— “ Will coughed. “Would you like ice, Sina?

“Yes, please,” said Sina.

As she turned to him, he caught her eyes. “Help me,” Will mouthed.

Her eyes flicked from his face to Cyrus’s, a puzzled look in her eyes. Will shook his head almost imperceptibly. He fished a couple of cubes of ice out and plunked them in the glass, then closed the door. After he handed the glass to Sina he walked over stood behind Cyrus, resting his hands lightly on Cyrus’s shoulders.

“Yes, I’m very lucky to have found Cyrus,” he said, then repeated his silent words. “Help. Me.”

Too late, Will’s gaze went beyond Sina, to the sliding door behind her, and with horror he caught the reflection of Cyrus’s eyes, looking right at him. Cyrus said nothing, but Will’s guts clenched, his mouth instantly dry.

They watched as Sina finished her water, Cyrus making no effort to make small talk now. When she was done, Cyrus stood, opening the door for her. Sina paused on the doorstep. “Cyrus, could you come with me to the bottom of the cliff, maybe? It’s a very steep path.”

Cyrus chuckled. “Oh, no, I can’t do that right now. I’m afraid I have something rather urgent to take care of. Would you like to borrow a torch, Sina, to light your way home?”

“Thanks. That’d be lovely.”

Cyrus plucked a fat red torch from the top of the fridge and handed it to her. “No hurry to have it back. We’ll stop by in a few days, perhaps. When Will’s feeling up to it.”

With a hesitant wave Sina stepped into the darkness.

***

“I saw you, my love,” said Cyrus quietly, as they finished the dishes in the kitchen.

Will paused, the bowl in his hand forgotten.

“You know you’re going to have to be punished for that.”

It clearly wasn’t a question. Will’s eyes flickered towards the sliding door, but Cyrus was already extending an arm, curling it around Will’s leg. The touch was gentle, caressing, as it brushed back and forth, creeping up the inside of Will’s jeans. Will knew it would begin to hurt any time Cyrus wanted.

Cyrus turned around and looked affectionately at Will, as he dried his hands. “You’ll learn. You’ll learn that I know best, and I make the rules.”

More arms were growing now, and tips came up and played with the pattern of light and shade in the bruises across Will’s belly, as two flexible tentacle tips unfastened his jeans and pushed them to the floor, exposing Will’s cock where it hung limply on his balls. Cyrus gave him a considering look as he flicked his lifeless genitals back and forth. “Lie on the floor, Will.”

Will complied, gingerly, as Cyrus kept hold of his cock, lowering his arms along with Will as he settled back. Cyrus’s suckers caught hold of the foreskin and pulled it away from Will’s glans. With two arms he extended tiny hooks and pierced the delicate skin right through, on opposite sides, pulling and stretching the foreskin between them. Will hissed through his teeth, and then held completely still as a third arm wrapped itself around his balls and pull them down towards his toes. He felt the arm flex, and a prickle of heat told him Cyrus had extended just the very tips of his hooks. Cyrus pulled his foreskin up and down over the head of his cock.

“So fascinating, this. So lovely, and so strange.”

“Wait, you don’t . . . have one? As a cephalopod, I mean ? “

Cyrus laughed. “It’s only
now
you think to ask? No, I do, but it’s not like a human one. It doesn’t ejaculate. And it doesn’t feel particularly good. It’s more like . . . one of your arms. Hold your arms out, Will.”

Will hesitated, and the grip around his balls bit down in warning. Will opened his arms wide, lying spread-eagled on the kitchen floor. Cyrus released his foreskin, and slid up Will’s body. He leaned over and kissed his lips, running his tongue along the seam of Will’s lips and then pushing gently into his mouth. “Good boy, Will. You’re so good for me. We’re so good together.”

Will felt the arm holding his sac release, and entwine around his leg, pulling his jeans completely away from his body, then returning to hold his ankles together.

“See how you’re rewarded when you’re good, my love? I want to be good to you. I don’t understand why you want to make me hurt you. So let’s only do this once, all right?”

Cyrus placed two velvet arms on Will’s shoulder joints, then flexed, extending his suckerhooks, then lightly dragged each spiky arm along the inside of Will’s pale ones, from underarm to wrist, drawing behind them delicate parallel traceries of white scratched skin.

“Now how did that feel, my love? Not arousing at all, is it?”

Cyrus replaced his arms at the top of Will’s then drew them along the surface again, a little deeper this time. Will felt a hook snag in the skin on his right arm, then rip away, leaving a thin, shallow trail of blood.

“And how about that?”

Cyrus replaced his arms on top of Will’s, and Will looked up into his cool green eyes, uncertain if begging would help or hinder. Cyrus ran his hooks down Will’s arms again, much deeper now, and Will blanched and screamed, as his eyes rolled up in his head. Cyrus’s arms flowed along his skin, encompassing his hands and holding them firmly as an involuntary nervous reaction made Will jerk and twist. His eyes fluttered open, and he turned his head limply to the side, to see deep parallel scores running the length of his arms, blood trickling at right angles to Cyrus’s marks, as it ran to pool on the white linoleum.

“This is nothing, Will. I can hurt you; really hurt you. I can run my hooks through your muscle fiber again and again until your arms are worthless limp noodles.” Cyrus leaned forward and pushed each of Will’s eyelids closed with his tongue, kissing them once Will complied. Liquid dripped from Cyrus’s tendrils as they tapped lightly across Will’s face and neck, leaving cool trails behind them. Will felt Cyrus’s breath against his ear.

“I won’t mind doing everything for you, my love. I’ll feed you, and bathe you. I’ll play with you and fuck you and hold you. You don’t need arms for any of that, my love. I have more than enough for both of us.” Cyrus chuckled, with a wet bubbling sound that told Will Cyrus was close to losing control. “I can make you want it. You’ll be deliriously happy. And when I’m tired of that, I can let you hate it again.”

Will’s harsh, inarticulate sob sounded more like a bark.

Cyrus finally let Will’s arms lie limply on the floor, in a slowly spreading pool of blood, and with one gentle arm he re-extended his hooks, and started scraping, delicately, lightly, across Will’s nipples, again and again and again and again until they were red and raw, weeping clear liquid. Will flinched and twitched, until a delicate tentacle tip grabbed hold of his sac again, and with hooks extended, pulled downwards with a sharp jerk, until he feared he skin would rip right through. He lay in still despair and let Cyrus finish his game, until beads of blood welled to the surface for Cyrus to smear over Will’s skin.

Cyrus stood and grabbed the roll of paper towels, ripping handfuls off and folding them to blot the blood flowing freely now from Will. He lifted a tentacle, and closed his eyes for a second, making a long string of slippery jelly extrude, drizzling it over Will’s belly and tender cock. He used his broad pod as a palette knife, and smoothed the gel over Will’s chest, his arms, then massaged it into his balls with the tips of several arms. Where it touched a cut there was burning pain, and a stinging that seemed to thrust inside Will, like tiny threads of fire burrowing inside him to the very marrow. Will couldn’t keep a whimper breaking free from his mouth.