Page 21 of Indentured Companion
Vrajan.
This is it. This is the moment I’ve been rehearsing in my mind since my Mother and Queen gave me permission to make Valerie this offer. I had hoped I would settle her first with lighter conversation, but I should have known better. She is not one to skirt the issue, or shy away from it. Even now, she’s asking me directly for the truth. So I will give it to her.
“Do you remember that I told you that the relationship between a Korvian and their feeding companion is a precious and intimate one?”
“Yeah, I’m not just food to you. I know that, Vrajan.” A smile tugs at the corner of her mouth with sympathy. “You care about my wellbeing. I can see you are upset about hurting me, and if that’s why you’re hesitating then-”
“Please allow me to finish?” I can’t bear to hear her say she understands I can’t help it one more time. Valerie nods and listens carefully as I continue. “The secondary ducts deliver what we refer to as the Bonding Succour.” I tuck my white and black hair behind my pointed and ridged ears and wade onward. Valerie is listening intently and her expression doesn’t afford me any clue as to what she’s thinking. Perhaps she is reserving her reaction until I have finished? Regardless, I am eager to present her with all the facts so she might make her choice. “From even the first bite, the feeding companion receives a dose of Bonding Succour. The effects of which are as follows.” She cants her head to one side and is hooked on my every word. “First and foremost, it has a potent anaesthetic property that numbs the area of pain, but also further promotes the recovery of the feeding companion between feeds.”
“You fucking what?!” Her nostrils flare and outrage spreads across her face. I was afraid of this reaction, and must finish before she acts rashly.
“However!” I cut in, and whatever she was about to assault me with is paused on her tongue. “It is not theonlyeffect of the Bonding Succour. “ She closes her mouth and raises a brow as she reserves her judgement until I have finished. Thank the stars. “We have experimented thoroughly, and there is no way to effectively or safely, secrete or produce, a version of the Bonding Succour that does not have the effect that gave it its namesake.” I gulp, knowing this was the moment that would either make or break Valerie’s resolve. “You see, from an evolutionary point of view, if the feeding companion was in pain…like you are…from each feed…then the feeding companion would bereluctantto allow the feed. They would flee, and the Korvis would starve. However, it arose in a particular ancestral line to the Korvis, a trait that caused the bonding of the Korvian to the feeding companion.” I cleared my throat, going for the kill, so to speak. “It was this evolutionary trait that moved our species from, for want of a better word, parasitical, to symbiotic in nature.” I pause to give her time to process what I’ve just said. She seems to appreciate it, and nods when she’s ready for me to continue. “In essence, the secondary duct and the Bonding Succour caused not only the anaesthetic effects I have already described, but also an…intoxication as well.”
“Intoxication?” She furrowed her brow. “You mean like, alcohol or drugs or something?”
“Or something.” I chuckle nervously. How will she take this? How do Iwanther to take this news?
“Stop beating around the bush already, and tell me.” She thrusts her hands up as if to receive a very real answer across her palms. “What effect does this secondary venom have that’sso bad, that the Theskian council made you have your ducts blocked?”
“You have to understand, that in telling you this, I am in no way expecting you to-”
“Vrajan!” She cups either side of my face to hold me as she gives me a highly strung and frustrated smile. “I am in agony when you bite me, and it’s getting worse in between each feed. Since I can’t takeanymedication without making you sick. As you seem to produce a natural pain killer you’ve been keeping from me, you hadbettergive me areallygood reason why you’ve been holding out on me for a fucking month!” I gulp. As I expected, she’s angry, but I don’t sense she’s angrywith me. Not yet, anyway.
“Because it’s also averypotent aphrodisiac, and results in the mating of the Korvian and feeding companion.”
She blinks slowly.
Shock spreads across Valerie’s face.
She takes her hands back.
Her mouth hangs open for a moment, before she finds her voice.
“Aphro…aphrodisiac?”
“Yes.” I nod and wait patiently for her reaction. All the while I resist the urge to audibly gulp and pick at my nails. Any moment I will find out just how much Valerie wants to be pain free. I am a wreck on the inside as I portray patience and calm on the outside. Or at least, I hope that’s how I appear to her. She can’t tell how my heart races or how my palms sweat.
“Meaning…?” Both her eyebrows raise and she slowly brings her hands together to mime her finger going into the ring she forms with her thumb and finger on her other hand. “We would…?”
“Yes.” I clear my throat. “And, well, the Bonding Succour is injected into you during the bite, and I would also ingest it in your blood so it…has the same affect onmeas it would onyou.” She seems frozen in surprise. “It’s why it’s called the Bonding Succour. It gives relief from pain, but also…causesbonding.”
“Oh.” Valerie’s blush spreads across her face, and she tenses on my lap. She suddenly doesn’t seem as comfortable straddling me as she once was.
“It also-”
“Fuck, there’smore?!” I can’t help but chuckle. She’s so funny when flustered, and I am reassured by the fact she isn’t horrified. I thought she would be appalled at the mere mention of mating, but she seems to be embarrassed rather than disgusted. She hasn’t scrambled off my lap either.
“Yes. You see, it’s addictive in nature, the Bonding Succour. As long as you have it three times a day, with each feed, a full symbiosis is achieved and the feeding companion is very healthy. As is the Korvian. However, your body would go into withdrawal if you were without my bite for a prolonged period of time, and you would, well?” I shrug. “You wouldliterallycrave me. M-my bite, I mean.” Now I’m also blushing. “As you can imagine? The Theskian Empire were not willing to allow any Korvian into their territory, when they couldin theorybiteanyone,and that individual would become addicted to the Korvian. Ithereforehad to have my secondary ducts blocked before permitted entry.”
“Y-yeah I guess theywouldhave something to say about…that.” Valerie shrugged and winced at her sore neck. She touched it and I frowned at the discolouration there.
“Your recovery would be more efficient with my Bonding Succour. Even your bruising would be gone before the next feed.” I reach to touch her sore skin over her jugular, and I hate that I’m the cause of her suffering. “You wouldn’t be in pain anymore. I…could take it all away.”
“Wait?” She takes my hand away from her neck and looks me in the eye. “Are you telling me this so I’maware,or…are you…offeringthis to me?” I take a deep breath and nod
“I want you to read the amendment and feeding file I have brought you first, but…yes.” My heart is galloping in my chest and my blood is flowing in all sorts of directions at the thought of what I’m proposing. I’m also anxious she will turn my offer down. “I have come to like you a great deal, Valerie.” I gulp and pluck up my courage. “I despise seeing you in pain. Especially as I am the cause. If you consent, and sign the amendment, then I will take a pill that will dissolve the blockers in my secondary ducts. I can feed from youpainlessly,and you will heal much faster in between feeds.”
“I mean…thatall sounds great.” I sensed the ‘but’ before she even said it. “…but I would also become addicted to this Bonding Succour,andwe would fuck?”
