Firefly.

"You took me only from pity," she said. "You do not need to pretend I am more than I am."

"Oh, my dear-what is your name?"

"Kim," she murmured apologetically.

"My dear Kim, I did take you from pity. I could not stand by and watch an innocent girl be beaten! But you have surprised me with your loveliness. I would like to hold you."

"It is your duty," she said. "You bought me to be your mistress."

"It is my duty that threatens to become my pleasure," he said gallantly, taking her in his arms. She was remarkably supple and soft.

"You are cruelly teasing me." Her long eyelashes flickered.

He realized that the lack of confidence of a lifetime could not be banished by a few kind words. "My dear, I will demonstrate."

Forthwith he stripped away her clothes and his own, threw her on the bed, and proceeded to the most thorough bout of lovemaking. At first she seemed duly reticent, but then she became interested, and finally she screamed with pa.s.sion and fulfillment.

"Have you any remaining doubt?" he inquired as they lay panting, side by side.

"None, sir!" she responded. "You have thrust me from h.e.l.l to heaven."

Thrust-was that a conscious pun? He had certainly done enough of it, in the course of putting his seed into her twice within the half hour. She had been so delectable and cooperative in her naivete, and so in need of rea.s.surance, that he had been unable to stop after the first event, and had kissed her all over and spoken words of pa.s.sion and love to her as he built up to the second. If his first spending had been in a virgin, his second had been in an experienced lover. How quickly she had learned!

"So it will continue," he a.s.sured her. "Now we must dress you again, and show you off to my wife and the town, for in my effort to spare a waif pain, I discovered a woman to love." Oh, it was true she was young, barely half Yvonne"s age, but somehow the words did not seem to be exaggerated.

"It is all your doing," she said gratefully. "I was nothing before you rescued me and made me yours."

Pleased, he had the maids dress her again and put fine jewelry on her, so that she sparkled like a princess. Then he brought her to his wife, and there was no need to say anything, as it was obvious that Kim was, if anything, more lovely even than Yvonne, if youth was considered, and every inch a woman a man could call a mistress.

Yvonne watched them depart. Then she put in a call to the man who had claimed to be Kim"s father. "It worked perfectly," she said. "The girl is now firmly entrenched. I thank you most sincerely for your device."

"Anytime, lovely woman," he replied. "I"m always glad to render good service for a friend, especially when I can benefit myself in the process. When will I see you again?"

"You may come over now," she said. "My husband will not be home for some hours, while he shows off the lovely wench."

"No sooner said than done! Make yourself ready, woman, for you are about to receive the plumbing of your life!"

Yvonne smiled in antic.i.p.ation. Now that her husband had his mistress, she was free to disport herself as she might, and she expected to enjoy the affair. Extramarital s.e.x was always so much more pleasurable than marital s.e.x, she understood. She was doubly fortunate in the fact that the man she had hankered for was clever enough to play the required part, so that the girl Yvonne had chosen for the sake of appearances, the most beautiful and accomplished of her generation, was able to win Donald"s interest. Kim, of course, would never tell; she knew what was what. She was, after all, a woman.

* 42 - NONE COMPLETED THE story. It was still dark, but soon dawn would come, and the ch.o.r.es of the day. She feared the day because she knew she had to tell Geode what she had concluded. "Are you satisfied?" she inquired.

"I am satisfied that I can not dream of you half as well as the reality of you," he said. "My dream was just not you; it was disjointed and different. I must have the real you."

"I fear I must tell you something you will not like," she said, inwardly trembling. "I would like to love you ultimately before I do."

He was suddenly alert. "none, you haven"t tired of me?"

"No, Geode, no! I love you! I will love you till I die, and beyond. You are my dream man. But I fear you will not want me after I tell you my secret."

"Tell it to me, and I will prove I love you still!"

But she was not rea.s.sured. "Let me love you first."

"Yes! Love me and tell me, and love me again!"

"I want to love you as Nymph."

"Any way you want."

She wished she could believe that he would feel that way after she told him. But first she would play out her dream. "Will you speak what needs to be spoken?"

"Yes!"

So they played it out. She bent her knees and spread her legs, bestriding him, as he told her how a real man made love to a real woman. She took his erect member and wedged it slowly in her, clenching her muscles so that it could not penetrate far, squeezing it until it jetted at the verge. Then she sat down all the way, holding the softening member, and kept it in her as she rubbed her finger near her c.l.i.toris, bringing herself slowly to a climax. She felt his erection returning, and moved herself on him so that his member went in and out, in and out, and finally spouted again as she had her own o.r.g.a.s.m. Then she lay on him, still connected, and kissed him pa.s.sionately. Nymph had loved again, her way.

"My life is now complete," she said.

"So is mine-when I am with you."

"I must tell you what I fear. Then you must do what you must do."

"Tell me."

"Have you noticed how I am always near when the firefly strikes?"

"I won"t let it get you!"

In the dark she put her finger against his lips. "No one has seen it, but it took a hunter who was alone. Then it took my son. Then it took my husband. Then May"s cruel husband. Then Cyrano. I have always been close."

"You"re lucky it didn"t get you, before. But now you are safe here. The alarm system-"

"And a few small animals, and my dog, as if practicing-and I was near those too. Because of the firefly, I am free of my dreary family, and here in love with you."

"Yes. The firefly did us a favor."

"Doesn"t it seem like a great coincidence, the firefly appearing right where I am, and making it possible for me to live my dream?"

He shrugged. "Everything is coincidence. I"m just glad it happened."

She nerved herself, then said it. "Geode, I am afraid I am the firefly."

He laughed. "No way! It"s a monster!"

"Can you prove I"m not?"

"It sucks all the flesh out! How could you do that?"

"With a big needle, maybe. Inject something that dissolves flesh, the way fireflies do, then suck it all out as liquid, leaving only what won"t dissolve in a few hours. The bones."

"But you don"t have anything like that! n.o.body does! It"s impossible!"

"The firefly does."

He shook his head; she saw the motion in the first wan light of dawn. "How could you have it when n.o.body else does?"

"Maybe I found it-some chemical that does it. And instead of telling the world, I kept it secret, and tried it out on animals, and then on a hunter alone in the forest. Just snuck up and injected him before he knew, and he fell down and dissolved. Then used a big needle to suck it all out, and took it somewhere, and dumped it, maybe in the river. And it worked so well I knew I could get away with it, and used it on my son when he slept, and then on my husband. When that awful Bull Shauer beat up May, and came for her, and was lying there unable to move, I came and used it on him. Then Cyrano was going to find me out, so I got him too."

"But even if you had something like that, you wouldn"t use it!" Geode protested. "You"re way too nice."

"Am I, Geode? Here I am living my fantasy. You know I have different personalities. Nymph, the child seductress who killed her lover. none, who killed her husband. Why not also the firefly?"

"But none of yours are mean!"

"None of the ones I show to you, Geode. Because I love you. But what of those I hate, or who get in my way? What of you, my love, when something changes? Do you see what frightens me? I kill those I am with, sooner or later."

He didn"t answer for a moment, and she knew he was starting to consider it seriously.

"No. You forgot one thing. The pheromones. They show when the firefly is near. You don"t have those."

"Suppose I found them too? Some acid that dissolves flesh but not skin, and a vial of pheromones? I could sneak close and let out some of the vial, then when the victim is thinking of s.e.x, sneak up and inject him."

"But he"d see you!"

"He"d see mousy little Jade Brown. No need to fear her! He might even want her to get close, because he"s alone and those pheromones are driving him crazy with s.e.xual desire, so he wants to take her and screw her even if she isn"t much, because at least she"s a woman. And while he"s trying to do that, intent only on s.e.x, she injects him. How will anyone else know? He"s dead, and no one else sees her."

Geode retrenched. "If you had those things, why didn"t you do it to me? I"ve been with you all the time!"

"Because I love you, and it wasn"t finished with you. You weren"t reacting s.e.xually, so I couldn"t take you. But now that you have learned to do it, and I have had you-"

"And if you were with me all night, how could you go out to do it to anyone else?"

"I could start the night with you, and give you something to make you sleep, then go out, and come back before you wake."

"No! I woke last night, after my dream, and you were right there sleeping."

"But that wasn"t a firefly night. Can you say the same for the nights the victims have been taken?"

He paused again. "I just don"t believe it," he said at last. "Everything I know about you-you"re not like that!"

"And there is a perfect alibi," she continued. "You will swear I was with you, and you think I was-but maybe I wasn"t. So the firefly keeps striking. It will take anyone who is any kind of a threat to it-or to me. So it won"t take you, or May, and maybe not Frank Tishner. Not yet. Not while we cover for it. But it will be out there, catching anyone who may be snooping around."

He shook his head determinedly. "That"s crazy!"

"Multiple personalities is a form of insanity. Maybe I lost my sanity when I lost my lover as a child. Maybe I had to, to survive in that family, where I was the s.e.xual target of those who I thought loved me, and society and the law were blind to the truth. I may be crazy-but that doesn"t absolve me, that indicates my guilt."

"No," he said, holding on to that.

"Let"s a.s.sume that this is true. That I am a crazy killer, every third night. Now can you love me?"

"I love you no matter what!" he said without hesitation. "But I don"t believe you are the firefly!"

"But if I am, I should be killed."

"No!"

"Yes. The firefly is a killer. It can"t be allowed to go on sucking human beings dry. I suck out your water of love, through your dear warm p.e.n.i.s, but it doesn"t stop there, it sucks out the whole of you.

The firefly has to be stopped. And if you can stop it by stopping me-"

"I"ll stay up with you, the next victim night! Then I"ll prove it isn"t you!"

"But if it is me, what will happen to you?"

"You love me! You won"t hurt me!"

"Yes. But if my firefly-alternate has the urge to kill again, and you stand in its way, will it be bound? Geode, I"m not sure it would. I fear the greatness of its hunger."

"I"ll be awake! Watching! So it couldn"t do anything to me anyway!"

"Would you? Suppose I do this to you?" She lifted herself and reached for his p.e.n.i.s, kneading it gently between her fingers. It began to harden. She put her mouth on it, stroking it with her tongue. It hardened further.

"You see?" she asked after a moment. "You didn"t try to stop me. I could have stabbed you with a concealed needle. That may be why none of those men resisted. What man would, when offered this?" She put her mouth down again, sliding it far onto the shaft, ma.s.saging him moistly. "Or this?" She got up and set her slick open cleft on him, absorbing his member. "Twice you gave me your dear elixir, as we reenacted Nymph, and this is not long after, but you remain ready for love and for s.e.x. Even without the pheromones, you react and you hold still. Would you be any different then?"

Geode didn"t answer.

She had made her point, but in the process had gotten herself interested again. So she spread herself down on him, and kissed him, and clenched her internal muscles in a peristaltic sequence, milking him for all he had left, until he erupted once more.

"Geode, we must tell the others. May and Frank. We don"t want anything to happen to them."

"They"ll think you"re crazy! They already think I"m crazy!"

He was starting to believe; she could tell by the way he was reacting. "Then maybe we can find some other way; it"s not till tomorrow night."

"Yes."

They treated the day as routine, going out on the rounds, this time carrying carrots and making the acquaintance of the three half-wild burros, Burrito, Frito, and Dorito. Burrito got very friendly, but the other two remained wary. They went on, pausing to make love near the cabin where a trace of the scent of pheromones lingered. none told a story along the way, because if there was one thing Geode liked better than s.e.x with her, it was listening to her stories. She loved him for that too! They did not talk of the firefly again, but it was on her mind, and she knew it was on his mind. They returned, and ate, and talked, and kissed, but the consciousness of the firefly remained with them.

May Flowers came by again, and Frank Tishner showed up before she left. The two no longer bothered to try to conceal their interest in each other.

"We have to stop the firefly," May said. "Without Cyrano, we"ll have to do it ourselves. That will be clumsy, but if we can catch it tomorrow night, we can still get through. It has never taken a person in company."

"Which means we have to lay another trap at the cabin," Frank said. "One person as decoy, another to nab the firefly when it comes."

"You and I will do it," May said. She looked drawn but determined.

"But if the two of us wait there, you know what we"ll be doing," Frank said. "Those pheromones-"

"They are strong," none said. "When we went there, we were affected similarly." In this manner she let them know that it had come to love between herself and Geode; there seemed no reason to conceal it.