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Not even locking her eyes on the moving mouth of the Quantum King helped Celeste focus. Everything was Kaphas. In her mind and body—even her spirit . The love and joy of it was just unfathomable . Surging and swirling ‘til she needed to run and scream from it.

But the meeting they were all in. It was vital. All the words the Quantum King spoke were critical to their very lives. She needed to stay focused. Again, she rooted her mind in the main hall of The Sanctuary. Their temporary home. Some five hundred acres north of the Creole King school, it was utterly heavenly. Quaint stone cottages scattered the swamp, and a large prayer facility and cafeteria sat in the middle of the natural forested wonders. A tranquil safe haven for their students to reboot and rejuvenate their minds and spirits, they were told. When her and the sisters moved to the Marsh Kings’ south swamp it would surely be missed. Or remembered as a fantastical dream.

Kaphas turned up her distractions, methodically tracing an infinity symbol in the palm of her hand. How could a thing be so… erotic ? Her heart pounced against her chest bone as she forced herself back to the facts she must remember. The South Swamp. The two-hundred sisters would all move there. One convent home per twenty of them. One home for each of the twelve hatches. And the Belle Eveque, she lived there. The queen of the South Swamp. They couldn’t wait to meet her along with the Hoard, as they referred to the swamp families. The sisters would care for them however they could, however was needed. Along with those that would be rescued from the coming devastation the Quantum King had predicted.

But…there were still so many other personal questions. Was Kaphas to be her soldier? He didn’t come about like the other soldiers, not entirely. Were they to be as a married couple? He said he’d never leave her again but...what did that mean to him? Exactly? He was still a new creation, still learning. They were sexually intimate only once, not counting the stolen kisses which felt… very sexual. But… he was holding himself back, she felt it. Why? Was it something she was doing? Was he still… evolving? What was happening with him? Was it her business to ask such a thing? As a… girlfriend? Wife? Friend? Surely, she was all of those.

The slow approach of Kaphas’ mouth to her ear put her heart right at heaven’s door. “My Angel is calling me. ”

Oh God, yes, he knew. He’d told her so. His powers were in her. Learning her every crack and crevice. Those were his words. He said them while… Mercy she couldn’t survive mentally reliving what he’d done while he’d helped her pack. And yet there she went, doing exactly that.

His hand clutched hers tighter under the table.

She was not well.

Kaphas suddenly stood. “Celeste needs air,” he announced, his words lifting her from the mental flames as he pulled her to her feet and led her out while she sputtered unintelligibly to the concerned onlookers.

He tugged her out into the night, and she wondered where he was taking her and how he even knew his way through these foreign surroundings. It was winter there, but the cold was nothing like up north. And yet, even though the temperature wasn’t anywhere near freezing, it somehow felt freezing, requiring her and the rest of the sisters to keep their wool cloaks on all day. The convent’s heating and cooling system was also very natural, with only a hearth, a very massive one in all the large rooms, big enough to walk in! But it wasn’t quick to warm the giant stone structures. Sister Maya—their very own little scientist—reminded them that once it heated up, the stones would act as a thermal heater and continue to heat long after the fire was out .

Celeste knew that already, being from Kentucky. When she was a little girl, they had those bed-irons they heated in the fire and wrapped in blankets to put their feet on at night. It was something she’d really missed when she went to live at the convent. Their rooms were freezing there. They were told to pray for the fire of the Holy Spirit which lights the heart, mind, and body. Before she knew the unspoken rules of the convent, she made the unholy mistake of mentioning it hadn’t worked, getting herself in the repentance chamber, praying and confessing sins while naked so the flesh would be cleansed for the passage of the Holy Spirit.

She spotted a covered structure of sorts ahead and the moment he led her up the three steps his glorious mouth was on hers, drawing forth all the shocking pleasure sounds he created in her. His own came next, a guttural heat filling her mouth and throat, adding to the fire already out of control.

His hands captured her face, the pace of his kiss picking up speed as did his breaths and hunger.

“You need me?” he gushed, imprisoning her entire neck and jaw in his greedy fingers. “I know you do but I crave to hear you say the words, I crave the power and hunger behind them.”

“I need you!”

The blasted confession got her lifted off her feet and into his strong arms. He broke the kiss and looked all around, and she did too, wondering what was next.

He turned with her and sat her on a rail wide enough for her butt and began to fight with her skirts while his kiss returned hot and urgent.

She opened her legs as wide as she could and moved her panties aside right as his fingers sank into her body. His thick, delicious groan burst forth when he hit the very bottom of her, bringing her shock and pleasure as she latched on to his neck.

He broke the kiss again but kept his mouth right at hers as he fingered her with an eager, flicking rhythm, driving her moans higher and faster. He added to the fire with the lustiest sounds, all of them driving her crazy.

“Celeste,” he breathed as she raked her nails over the denim covering his cock. “You want me to fuck you,” he whispered right on her gasping, moaning mouth. “This is what it’s called. Fucking .” The ferocity in his words made her head spin as she fought to open his pants.

“And you love that term as much as I do.”

Oh, did she ever.

The head of his cock finally pressed at her opening, and he worked his hands under her butt. Poised at the threshold of ecstasy, her head fell back with one final cry and plea. “Kaphas!”

His cock plunged to the bottom, his power crashing into every part of her. His mouth caught her shocked scream, and that familiar hot energy soared into her cells, filling them with his power until she owned it.

Latching her legs around his waist, she took over and moved on his cock, faster and harder, the sound of his ecstasy becoming the very breath of life itself. She filled her fingers with his silky hair and made tight fists as she pounced on him, bringing them through that secret passage where the otherworldly moment exploded to life then went on and on without end even when it was over.

With much awe and wonder, she became aware of the rail under her butt again. His arms wrapped her in a hot, tight prison of safety as his breaths heaved through his hot body, the sound reminding her of an ebbing tide after a torrential storm.

His fingers snaked in her hair and tightened slowly until she gasped from the delicate pinch in her scalp as he tilted her head back and covered her face in delicate kisses.

She sat there, smiling as wonder and awe clenched her chest. “Feels like God has melted all the stars into hot silk, and they are falling in a shower right onto my face.”

She gasped when those tiny sparks gathered into one fiery power on her mouth, his tongue suddenly an angry serpent. The contrast made her giggle and then he was pecking delicately on her lips at many angles.

“I think you missed a spot,” she whispered, going on the offense, and kissing him back with fat, loud smacks that brought a smile to his beautiful mouth.

“My kitten is pouncy,” he mused.

His fingers tightened in her hair hard enough to draw a sharp gasp. “Except she’s not your kitten. She’s mine.”

Celeste jerked back at the sharp change in tone, struggling to get out of his arms.

“Leaving so soon?”

“What…Kaphas,” she gasped, watching his brows raise and head barely shake.

“Did you miss me?”

Handy!

Oh God!

Oh no!

She covered her mouth with a hand. Oh God!

“She’s speechless,” he muttered, finally releasing her, and stepping back with a cocked look on her.

“What’s….what’s happening?” The frail, gaspy words flew from her mouth.

“You want to tell her, or will I?”

Celeste watched his eyes close and face strain before his breath rushed from him. “Handy wants you.”

She covered her mouth with a hand again, then remembered. “But…you are Handy.”

“I am not,” he forced, a flash of light sparking in his gold eyes.

“He’s Kaphas,” the other voice informed with a hand over his chest before bowing slightly with a one-sided grin. “I’m Handy.” He fluttered his fingers, waving at her. “His... better half.”

“Why are you doing this?”

The question came from the same mouth, but it was Kaphas. Confused Kaphas, distraught Kaphas.

“No, boy . That’s the wrong question. The question is why not? You forget who this body belongs to, who orchestrated your very existence, who holds your fucking breath in my very own hands.” He raised all ten fingers, staring at them. “Hands plural, I have two now, not just one. So very… Handy.”

Images of Kaphas flashed through her mind, his body, dead on a table, his fear of being alone, his need for her, his agony. “I chose Kaphas!” she cried out, her chest heaving.

Those golden eyes slowly turned up and leveled right on her. The power in them shook her breath as she held on with both hands to the only truth there was, that could ever be.

“I chose Kaphas,” she repeated, boldly moving closer. “And I am not sorry that I did. I am… only sorry that I had to choose at all, but I will surely ne ver be sorry that I chose him! What is happening?” Her head shook. “I thought… I know you said you weren’t the same, but… I thought…”

“It was metaphorical,” the Handy voice answered. It wasn’t soft like she thought. It was exactly measured and controlled.

She nodded. And swallowed. And whispered, “Yes.”

“What a human.”

The disgust in his tone reminded her of things she’d forgotten. Namely what Kaphas was. Not human.

A bucket load of fear poured in at what that meant, what it could mean. Was he malfunctioning?

“Well… that’s a problem,” Handy said. No, warned.

She fought back her rising panic. “What is?”

He twirled a pointer finger at her body. “The whole you not wanting me. ”

She could only nod. “It surely is.” She forced herself to recall her early days with Handy, all the time they shared, how she’d befriended him and him her. “I said I would help you get a body. And… well, I meant it and still mean it.”

“ This is my body.”

Her head shook as she gathered herself to right this. “But it is not,” she argued, firmly. “It’s Kaphas’ body. Surely at least part his,” she added at the stubborn look he wore. “You said yourself, you are not the same and that means both of you are in one body. You will need another body,” she reasoned as kindly as she could. “One all for yourself, that you won’t have to share. To be your own soldier, just like you said, like you wanted.”

“ This is my body!” he again warned, his words coming through gritted teeth.

A foolish courage lit up her anger and she leaned right in his face. “I am not scared of you and do you know why that is?”

The hard edge in his gaze and face gradually softened. “Why?” he wondered, that softness in his voice still exactly measured.

“Because I am your friend . And I will always be your friend. And just like before, I will see that you have exactly what you need and want.”

“What if I want you?” he tested.

She gave him exasperated eyes. “I can't give you what no longer belongs to me, Handy. I gave myself to Kaphas. I became one with him. This can’t be undone any more than you can change who Handy is.” She drew back a little at seeing the anger in his gaze. “Don’t be mad at me over it,” she lightly scolded. “I’m just a human girl, doing what a human girl is meant to do. If I was meant to be with you, it would be Kaphas I’m talking to right now. I will speak to Mr. Quantum King, and he will give you a soldier’s body,” she said with several firm nods. “If it was possible once, then surely it’s possible again. ”

“And what if it isn’t possible? What if I married Kaphas along with all the demons inside us? Fused us together. Meshed . One. As you call it,” he said, his smile slowly spreading dread through her. “Then what happens? Our decadent Angel ?”

****

Kaphas watched Celeste run back to the building, his limbs locked down by the iron will of Handy. There was no enemy he could not defeat, he could not protect her from, other than himself. And though Handy was not him, he was surely in him and stronger. For now.

Reason was all he had. Again, for now .

Why are you doing this to her? he asked, launching that war. Kaphas waited in silence, prepared to suffer whatever came until he got an answer.

Testing.

Kaphas paused his mental warfare. Testing what?

Her.

For what?

To be sure.

Of what???

“Of her loyalty.”

Hearing the words out loud again halted everything in him. “Her loyalty to who ?”

Their knees buckled with Handy’s indignance. “Who do you think ?” he lightly cried.

Kaphas had to be sure, he wouldn’t leave it to assumption. “Me?”

Handy patted him roughly on the shoulder. “Ding fucking ding-ding. If you recall I had a plan. That she fucked up. Royally. But… in the process ,” he begrudged. Something… unexpected happened.”

“What happened?” he finally asked when his brain came up clueless.

“So, you no longer have it.”

“Have what?”

“The ability to Fetch and Fathom and Finish,” he said, like that should be painfully obvious.

“Did I have it before?”

“ Right up until you fucked her,” he said, zipping a hand through the air. “Then… it went every which kind of way it could.”

Kaphas considered what he was saying or not saying about it.

“She split us, bruv, ” he finally said. “Officially and literally . The problem is, you still have demons in this vessel. And without me helping you control them, they will utterly wreck you. And her.”

Kaphas’ Kevlar spiked with his sudden panic.

“Calm down, lil’ bruv ,” Handy said quietly. “I got this.”