FIC: Necessity (extended cut)
Title: Necessity (Extended Cut)
Author: Aerows
Pairing: Cara/Kahlan
Rating: M
Warnings: Contains sex
Length: 5,000
Disclaimer: Legend of the Seeker and The Sword of Truth do not belong to me, unfortunately. No profit is made from this work, it's just for fun and no infringement is intended.
Summary: Cara is stricken with a powerful spell, and Kahlan does what she must to save her
A/N: This is something I wrote a while ago for the "Powerful Magic" challenge. I decided to post it today just for fun. It's completely PWP, so don't expect much in the way of a storyline, other than our girls doing... non plot things.
A/N2 - after all of the comments left, I decided to put up yet another version of it that I had lurking that had more plot.
I had pared it down just to post it with fewer questions, but on second thought, maybe someone might like this one better.
***
Kahlan and Cara had been tracking Zedd for days, when everything went sour. How the pale thin man had managed to get the drop on the Mord-Sith near Fallow Ridge was anyone's guess, considering that no one had ever done so as far as Kahlan was aware. She hadn't been within sight; instead, she had heard Cara's shout of anger and then silence. Seeing the young man standing over the fallen Mord-Sith, Kahlan pulled a dagger.
Kahlan released the dagger, it's point hitting the chest of the young, pimply-face man. Wizard? He released his grip on the Mord-Sith, and she dragged him to the side, so that his body was not touching Cara's. She released her power into him.
“Command me, beloved.” He breathed. Kahlan didn't have time for that. He was about to die, and Cara was in agony. His breath was shallow and still carried its fetidness to her face. Anger flared in Kahlan like the sun across the horizon.
“What did you do to her!” Her eyes blazed like sapphires, and his, merely cringed at her displeasure, even as he lay dying. She had to seize his shoulders and shake him to keep from reaching out to strangle him. Releasing the power had made her weakened, but she was so overcome with fear and anger for Cara, that she was blazing with energy. She was the Mother Confessor. The strongest of all of them. She could contain it - her weakness.
“She is writhing in pleasure, my beloved.” At her continued grip and a shake he continued, “the way to control a Mord-Sith is not through pain or domination, but pleasure. She will pass, soon, from desire, and we will be together.” Kahlan absorbed that, but before she could ask more, Cara gasped. “I could give her release though, and that would save her.” He smiled slyly, “Or you could, because we are the same now that I used Widow's Weed.”
“How did you know that, who told you - taught you that?” She felt tendrils of fear creep into her soul. This man was dangerous, that knowledge was dangerous. Surprisingly, he looked chagrined.
“You know, Mother Confessor, what a Confessor's blood does to a man. You know what Widow's Weed does to a woman.” He frowned. He wasn't a wizard at all, then. Kahlan gasped. “I've hidden it my entire life. I am . . . I am the child of a Confessor.” He said it, with a hopefulness to his tone now. He had misinterpreted the relief in her face. “I'm not as strong as a true Confessor, Mother, but I have knowledge and aptitude.” He trailed off. “We could be fantastic together, rule the world even.”
Kahlan knew now what she needed to know. Clouting the hedge-wizard on the head, she asked again, tone hard “What do you mean, what does she need? How can I save her life?” She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer, given what he had just hinted at. She wasn't sure she wanted to face it.
He cringed under her fist as though it was the most agonizing blow he had ever received. It might have been. Kahlan was angry and knew full well how to make her fists cause pain. “It puts her body in a state of desire. Unless she comes at the touch of a Confessor,” Kahlan frowned at the vulgar term and the man grunted, blood flowing freely from the side of his mouth, “I'm sorry, but you know how Widow's Weed works as a catalyst.” his voice soft as she waved a hand indicating for him to continue.
“She must achieve orgasm or she will die.” He tried again, Kahlan flinching from the clinical term but nodding her head. She received the message. “That she hasn't completely succumbed means she is bound to a Confessor.” He shivered in fear when she turned her eyes upon him. She couldn't read her own feelings, her own heart, so there was no way they could reveal themselves to this man. She didn't need to know what her face looked like. She knew. It probably looked like a painful death in a lonely desert.
Her tone hardened at what he was insinuating. “I never Confessed her, and I certainly never did... that with her. She is my friend.” She bit off the words, waiting for him to continue. He didn't face her blazing blue eyes, he stared at the horizon as though it was the last time he would be seeing it. It was.
“She is connected to a Confessor. She need not be taken, she cannot be by,” the man almost sounded sad, “by the likes of me - even with an augment. We cannot turn those who are already in the grips of devotion.” He turned his face to her, though, a desire to please gracing his face, “But I can save her, Confessor. I can pleasure her and bring her back.” He looked both hopeful, and desiring to be helpful.
Thinking that he had just offered to do it somehow filled her with both rage and self-recrimination. How could she have stood before a male Confessor and not realized it? How could she have looked into his eyes, and taken him, without knowing what he was? How could she have allowed him to take Cara? It was a wonder the blond woman was not dead. The touch of a Confessor was death to a Mord-Sith. He was a male Confessor, though. This scrawny, pimpled heap was enough to turn a woman's desire in on herself. He was clearly not very powerful if he had been able to keep it hidden, but still - he had a grasp of the power.
What had saved Cara? Kahlan shoved that to the back of her mind, even as she stared down into black eyes and the hated face before her. "Who was your mother?" She snarled it. If the woman was alive and hiding her power, Kahlan would find her, and she would answer for releasing an abomination on the world.
"She is dead, Mother Confessor. I was raised an orphan." That might also explain why he was so weak, Kahlan thought, he had no training in the use of his power. He was extremely unattractive. It wasn't a wonder that he hadn't had many opportunities to use his powers.
A line of thought assaulted her. Thinking of this man's hands on Cara put a murderous rage in her. The woman had been violated enough. Clouting him again, harder, the back of her fist snapping his jaw with an audible crack, she turned to his pained face. “Look at me.” He did, eyes frightened and devoted. “Look at me. I am the Mother Confessor, and I pass sentence.” She thrust her dagger into his throat. “Die for what you did to her, and likely did to countless others.” She didn't continue the thought too completely. She had done enough of it, herself. Forcing people to love her.
* * *
Gathering the lean, red leather sheathed body to her, she sought to get her as far away from the dead man as she could, and back to their camp. Cara was tall, and solidly muscled, but Kahlan was solid, too. Kahlan was also determined. Cara was the only woman she had ever met that matched her in height; the Mother Confessor towered over all but above average men without straining for height.
Cara's writhing body was difficult to contain, with the moans, and the shudders, but Kahlan wasn't about to abandon her. The woman had saved her life too many times, and no matter what course of action was necessary, the Mother Confessor was not going to let her die. She blushed as she carried the woman, thinking as she did how she was going to have to save her. How had she, thinking back to the words of the male Confessor, 'put her in the grips of devotion'? She had never touched Cara.
Arriving at their camp, she placed Cara on the blankets, and whispered to her. “What can I do for you, Cara?” She forced herself to continue. “The wizard said,” she licked her lips as she reviewed her words. That he was a partial Confessor and used dire magic to make a transition would never pass her lips. Dare she tell the truth? Deciding that it didn't matter, and the choice of appellation was unimportant right now, she plowed on. Straightforward was always the way they had communicated. There was no use hedging or stepping back. Kahlan wanted to steel herself, but she couldn't, and wouldn't turn away from her own feelings in this matter.
Honesty.
She took a deep breath and continued again. “The man said that to save your life, you need intimacy.” Even thinking the word brought on a blush. Her imagination supplied the fuel for the flames burning in her cheeks, but her heart and her body banked them higher. "If Zedd or Richard were here, they might be able to do something," she blushed harder thinking about how that could be interpreted, but considering what she was about to suggest, "but they aren't - so that leaves me."
'Get a grip, Kahlan, Mother Confessor. You are needed, do what you must.' She gathered her courage, though it felt as though it were dandelion seeds blown upon the wind. Sadness gripped her as she thought of how many times this beautiful woman, a Protector, had been violated. She couldn't just do it again, in a business like manner, casually. No, not to Cara.
“Tell me if that is what you need, Cara.” She spoke, her voice shaky, forcing herself to look into the beautiful face of the Mord-Sith. "Tell me if you would accept that from me." The writing stopped, and sea-green eyes regarded her for a moment, piercing into her. So quickly that she would have missed it had she not been so focused on Cara, the sea-green eyes swept her body.
“I need … release, Mother Confessor.” Cara's words were choked and thick with desire. She writhed in the blankets. “Please, release me … it's agony.” With a surprising burst of lucidity, the Mord-Sith reached for the dagger in Kahlan's belt. Kahlan was horror stricken as she moved away, knocking the hand aside. She wouldn't give up on the woman. The woman was still trying to protect her, this time from embarrassment.
Kahlan felt a strange ache in her heart. There was no need for embarrassment. Not from the woman whom had seen her at her worst, at her most vulnerable, and had nearly given her own life to save her.
“That's not the kind of release you need Cara. I'll never give you that one if I can help it.” She bent close to the Mord-Sith, gripping a leather clad hand in her own. "Cara, will you accept," she stumbled unsure what it was she was offering exactly and then settled for simplicity. "Cara, will you accept me?" Open, naked desire bloomed on the Mord-Sith's face.
Decisively, Kahlan began stripping the leathers from her own body, throwing them, and her daggers as far from the woman resting in the blankets as she could. She was down to her shift. Cara's eyes raked her body appreciatively, then sea-green eyes turned away as though burned, the sight of it breaking Kahlan's heart. Kahlan had felt that look as surely as if it had been a caress. “Look at me, Cara.” She entreated.
Cara did. Sea-green eyes burned even hotter, were that possible, and Kahlan felt their pull. The hungry look she received told her all that she needed to know. She threw her shift above her head, baring herself completely to the woman in front of her. She knew her cheeks burned. She had never revealed herself so fully like this to another.
She knelt, naked, taking a gloved hand into her own as she began to strip it of the leather. She purposefully looked into the eyes of her best friend, her protector. “You've given your body to me countless times. I wouldn't be here if it were not for you.” She gentled her voice as she continued removing the other glove, and began undoing the laces that held the top of the Mord-Sith's red leather to her body. “You've given your body to me, let me give you mine.” Eyes burned into her, soft, golden skin burned into her fingers.
Cara's eyes squeezed shut as Kahlan pulled the leather away from her body, then fumbled with her boots. At the touch of her naked instep, Cara gasped, a ragged, clear sound of desire. Kahlan melted. As she pulled all the leather away, she surveyed the woman before her. She was beautiful. Scars traced her body, but muscle and curve made them enhancements to the fluid, deadly grace the woman possessed. Kahlan swallowed.
She eased forward, her own naked breasts going hard as she moved up the golden body to touch the beautiful face. “Let me give this to you, and ease your suffering.” She said it softly, stroking the woman's face. Lips turned inward to softly kiss her palm. It was an electric touch. Cara's body burned beneath her. Kahlan felt the warmth, driving her into desire, as well.
“I want to give you release, Cara, and for you to know just how much you mean to me.” She hoped that said enough so that the woman knew it wasn't to be an obligation. “I want to please you, please let me, and let me save you.”
Cara's breasts heaved, her face flushed, the nipples were pebbled to rock hard. She moaned at Kahlan's words, and all attempts to end her life came to a halt. She opened sea-green eyes, once again raking Kahlan's body, but then giving way to her. At a touch on her neck, Cara had moaned. Kahlan felt a rush of warmth, and wondered if what she was about to do would harm the woman. Not physically, she'd never harm her physically, Kahlan just didn't want to harm her mentally.
Pressing her hand to the other woman's heart, feeling it hammer in her chest, and the increased body temperature, she figured that it wasn't so far fetched that one could die from the condition, and the wizard wouldn't have lied to her. She looked into the beautiful, strong-boned face, straining with desire. It wasn't as though she hadn't wanted to touch the golden skin, or that it would be so abhorrent to bring this woman pleasure.
She leaned forward to kiss her, astonished when a gasped sounded and crushed her against the lean body. Long, supple fingers dug into her back, crossing over to her own chest to brush across her own breast. The warmth of Cara's palm burned into it, and Kahlan had to fight to keep from leaning into the touch. She couldn't afford to be distracted, and frankly, seeing the desire in her friend's face, she couldn't help but feel her own … needs surface.
“Shshsh... Cara,” she breathed, allowing her hands to steel, and push the Mord'Sith's above her head. It startled her, knowing she was about to take this woman the way she had taken other's in the past, the way both of them had taken others, she amended - unable to resist. Kahlan chose to banish that from her mind, though, and to remember not only how she was doing this, but to focus on why she was doing it.
She kissed her again, feeling impossibly hard nipples brand her own chest, and with her free hand, stroked up the woman's side to her breast even as she invaded her mouth with a warm kiss. With that kiss, she projected how much she cared for this woman who had saved her life, how much she respected her, and how tenderly she intended to... she intended to take her.
It dragged a breath from Kahlan thinking that she was going to take this woman. She brought her lips to a pink tipped nipple and the woman beneath her cried out, as though she were dying. She couldn't resist the ragged cry. Her own body was now aroused. She knew that Cara had to peak soon, the wizard had said it would kill her, but it didn't prevent Kahlan from wanting to at least familiarize herself with what she was doing first.
She let her fingers trail the firm abdomen, feeling it quiver as Cara shuddered beneath her. She moved to the other breast, even as her lips closed and nipped on the pebbled flesh beneath her. Cara's breasts were round, full and the woman was incredibly responsive. That was due to the hedge-wizard confessor, no doubt, but Kahlan couldn't help revel in touching another so fully, one that wanted her so utterly.
She moved down, kissing the abdomen, stroking the velvety smooth flesh even as she went. Cara was moaning in earnest, and Kahlan almost wondered if she had delayed too long. The woman sounded in … agony... with hunger. Cara lay beneath her, crisp blond curls glistened with wetness. She let her kiss trail downward, her dark hair curtaining across the smooth, firm stomach and let go, freeing the Mord-Sith's hands. The hands promptly buried themselves in her hair, pressing her lips to their desired location.
Kahlan blushed. She hadn't exactly expected to do it this way, but the moans and surging of the body below her made her rethink it. Cara was impossibly vulnerable, and though she was doing this to save her, it was a violation. She mights as well become just as vulnerable. She brought her trembling lips to the center of the blond's desire, and parted the folds. Cara cried out with obvious pleasure, and Kahlan gently placed her hands on the slender hips, willing the other woman to feel the reasons she was doing this, that she cared for her, and that she wanted not only to save her, but wanted her to enjoy it.
“Feel this Cara, please feel how much I love you.” She said.
She buried her tongue in softness, and smelled the fragrance of Cara's obvious desire. It tasted sweet, and like the earth. Long lean thighs parted, and trembled at the touch. The blond's hips rising to meet her tongue and her lips with a cry of obvious delight. Kahlan felt her own body responding to the lusty sounds, and the clenching of the Mord-Sith's body. She raised a hand, to take one of Cara's in her own.
With the other hand, she ghosted it from the Mord'Sith's hip to trace Cara's entrance with her thumb. Cara shuddered, nearly causing Kahlan to be flung off her hips. The Mother Confessor seized Cara by a thigh firmly in one clasp, the other hand in a death grip both of her own and the Mord'Sith's, while sliding two fingers into impossibly silky heat. Liquidy heat that made the blond cry out again, and she slid them out and then took her with a third. The blond's back arched into her hand, grinding into both her lips and the fullness of Kahlan's fingers inside of her. As she rhythmically brought them in and out, she continued to suckle the place that made the blond scream.
The blond surged forward, a plea and then wonder crossing her features. Kahlan's fingers were squeezed tightly as she felt tremors race through the muscular, long blond body beneath her. Strong arms pulled her shoulders forward, and crushed her to heaving breasts. Soft cries pierced her, as she felt hot breath on her neck. She kept her fingers inside the blond, feeling the rhythmic clenching.
"Mother Confessor." It was both an entreaty and a benediction. "I have never felt that before. Such a climax..." Cara's embrace became tender, and she threw her head back.
Kahlan felt her eyebrows go to her hair line. That she hadn't expected. The blond was certainly not unfamiliar with hands on her body, with lips caressing her breasts. Cara had been writhing with near pain of desire due to the wizard's touch. Surely she had felt such with her sisters, and would take it as a sisterly gesture to end her obvious ...
Then it hit her. This was no ordinary woman. This was a Mord'Sith. This was Cara.
"I've never felt completion before, unless from my own hand." The words were soft, husky and smoldering with ... affection... included in the satisfaction. "I never felt pleasure at the end of the wanting," the voice continued, choked by shyness, "and certainly not from one who sought to comfort or care or ... take pain from me. Your mouth...” The voice trailed off in disbelief, even as Kahlan's cheeks burned at her own boldness. “I've never been caressed with a mouth before...”
Suddenly two things crossed Kahlan's mind. One was concern that the action she had taken to correct the obvious discomfort that had been tormenting the blond woman's body to an end was inappropriate, the other was a rush of ... love, and satisfaction that she had not only soothed the beautiful woman's pain, but had been the first to grant it.
Cara began licking at Kahlan's mouth, as though cleaning herself away from the lips that had pleasured her. When Kahlan pulled away, she felt fingers drug into the other woman's mouth, cleaning them, her eyes closed. Kahlan felt a rush of gentleness. She smiled, pulled the fingers from the other woman's mouth, and covered it with her own. She let her eyes convey the warmth she had felt, and hugged Cara gently even as she kissed her.
She brushed the hair from the golden neck and stared into the green eyes, pulling the bare body close to her. She kissed the temple, embracing the lean body fully to her, whispering softly to her as the pleasure continued to cascade, then subside from the woman beneath her. It might have not been entirely appropriate, but it hadn't been inappropriate, either. It had been necessary, needed, and deeply desired. Something warm touched her when she realized that it was herself that felt those things, too, not just the Mord-Sith writhing in pleasure beneath her hands.
"Promise me something, Cara." She kissed the temple again, and sought the sea-green eyes. "Promise me that you will always remember to find pleasure. Life is too short to seek pain only," she burned her eyes into the other woman's, "remember that pleasure and love are worth having as well, and you are worthy of both."
A tear leaked down a chiseled cheekbone, falling into the blond hair covering the blankets beneath them. Strong, tanned hands grasped hers, and pulled her, inexorably into firm, full, determined lips. For a moment, Kahlan was almost afraid, until she realized that the devotion radiating from those eyes was not those of a confessed, but those of one who adored her for who she was. One who would never fear her touch, and one who had been pleasured by it.
"Mother Confessor," Cara began, voice husky, "Kahlan" she breathed, as though uncertain to use her name. Kahlan smiled affectionately at her.
"Kahlan, they say that a Mother Confessor's touch is death to a Mord'Sith." She let it hang there, that sentence, with wonder in her voice. Before fear could surge that she had harmed her friend could completely claim her heart, Cara continued with a throaty voice and a pleased smile.
"It is true. It is death to a Mord-Sith." Sea green eyes regarded her, staring deeply into her own, as though piercing her soul. "I can no longer be merely Mord'Sith as I lay feeling such emotion and pleasure." An uncharacteristic smile bloomed on her face, and sea-green eyes closed. "I am Cara. A woman worthy of a gift I'd never expected to receive, from one I so deeply respect, and deeply desired such … regard from."
"Thank you Kahlan. Rest with me, please." With that, Kahlan felt herself gathered together against incredibly strong, lean flesh. Kahlan attempted to settle herself quietly, but her own heart was still beating quickly. She nearly groaned as a finger traced her collar bone. She tried to hold her reaction in, but Cara's flesh against her back, so warm, was inflaming her. She
tried out her voice, “Let's rest, Cara.”
The chuckle behind her caused her to bite her own lip as a hand stroked up her thigh.
“A Mord-Sith always knows, Kahlan.” The voice was low, and husky. A hand stroked her waist, and then floated up to her breast. Her gasp and the slight rotating of her hips caused a low, knowing chuckle. “I know the giving of pain, and I know the giving of pleasure, despite this being the first time I've received it.” Warmth suffused Kahlan's heart, clenching with emotion somewhere in the pit of her stomach.
“Would you make me be vulnerable to wanting,” Cara's voice deepened as her caresses deepened on the curve of Kahlan's hip. “and not allow yourself to feel it also?” It was a challenge. Kahlan moaned, and her hip involuntarily jerked toward the fingers tracing the hair near her need. It was need.
“Let's not rest, not yet.” Came a husky reply as she felt Kahlan's twitch. “I know you released your power, and it has not been so soon that you can release it again.” She turned Kahlan to her, and Kahlan felt snared by the sea-green eyes, the palm stroking her breast. Kahlan felt her cheeks burn, her eyes burn. Her body caught fire, but she couldn't feel the magic straining in her, yet. It was too soon, she had an hour before it overcame her. There were no excuses. “You took me, and clearly you enjoyed it more than just medically necessary.” Oh, there was the Mord-Sith knowing hiss, and it rocked Kahlan to her core. She felt herself going completely liquid. “So did I.” Pleasure, affection and satisfaction all combined with a Mord-Sith's commanding, sensual tone.
“You told me to find pleasure.” She gave Kahlan a kiss that melted away everything, made her head swirl, and her thighs clench around the other woman's leg. “It would please me to give you what you just gave me, Kahlan.” At the smoldering in the green eyes, Kalahn melted. As long, strong, golden fingers touched her, and firm full lips carressed her own, Kahlan surrendered. “It appears that you need some comfort as well, Mother Confessor. Take it from one who regards you and cares for you.”
“Let me give you my mouth.” Cara kissed her, tongue promising what it would do to Kahlan's other parts. She hadn't needed to hear it. Cara's sheer physicality promised it. Cara spoke with her body and her actions. Kahlan understood the message, and was helpless to prevent it. Perhaps the vulnerability she had feared, the violation, was her own. As fingers softly closed over her over-heated nipple, Kahlan, surrendered. Had it been any other time, the surrendering would have released her power, but her power was spent. Instead, another power surged within her. Desire.
With her own passion flaring out of reach, Kahlan Amnell gave herself to the most unlikely of women, but her most challenging of opponents. Challenge danced in green eyes, and the Mother Confessor of the Midlands submitted to that fire. If thunder without sound reverberated through the air much later, it was only accompanied by the moans of satiation, and not of pain.
Author: Aerows
Pairing: Cara/Kahlan
Rating: M
Warnings: Contains sex
Length: 5,000
Disclaimer: Legend of the Seeker and The Sword of Truth do not belong to me, unfortunately. No profit is made from this work, it's just for fun and no infringement is intended.
Summary: Cara is stricken with a powerful spell, and Kahlan does what she must to save her
A/N: This is something I wrote a while ago for the "Powerful Magic" challenge. I decided to post it today just for fun. It's completely PWP, so don't expect much in the way of a storyline, other than our girls doing... non plot things.
A/N2 - after all of the comments left, I decided to put up yet another version of it that I had lurking that had more plot.
I had pared it down just to post it with fewer questions, but on second thought, maybe someone might like this one better.
***
Kahlan and Cara had been tracking Zedd for days, when everything went sour. How the pale thin man had managed to get the drop on the Mord-Sith near Fallow Ridge was anyone's guess, considering that no one had ever done so as far as Kahlan was aware. She hadn't been within sight; instead, she had heard Cara's shout of anger and then silence. Seeing the young man standing over the fallen Mord-Sith, Kahlan pulled a dagger.
Kahlan released the dagger, it's point hitting the chest of the young, pimply-face man. Wizard? He released his grip on the Mord-Sith, and she dragged him to the side, so that his body was not touching Cara's. She released her power into him.
“Command me, beloved.” He breathed. Kahlan didn't have time for that. He was about to die, and Cara was in agony. His breath was shallow and still carried its fetidness to her face. Anger flared in Kahlan like the sun across the horizon.
“What did you do to her!” Her eyes blazed like sapphires, and his, merely cringed at her displeasure, even as he lay dying. She had to seize his shoulders and shake him to keep from reaching out to strangle him. Releasing the power had made her weakened, but she was so overcome with fear and anger for Cara, that she was blazing with energy. She was the Mother Confessor. The strongest of all of them. She could contain it - her weakness.
“She is writhing in pleasure, my beloved.” At her continued grip and a shake he continued, “the way to control a Mord-Sith is not through pain or domination, but pleasure. She will pass, soon, from desire, and we will be together.” Kahlan absorbed that, but before she could ask more, Cara gasped. “I could give her release though, and that would save her.” He smiled slyly, “Or you could, because we are the same now that I used Widow's Weed.”
“How did you know that, who told you - taught you that?” She felt tendrils of fear creep into her soul. This man was dangerous, that knowledge was dangerous. Surprisingly, he looked chagrined.
“You know, Mother Confessor, what a Confessor's blood does to a man. You know what Widow's Weed does to a woman.” He frowned. He wasn't a wizard at all, then. Kahlan gasped. “I've hidden it my entire life. I am . . . I am the child of a Confessor.” He said it, with a hopefulness to his tone now. He had misinterpreted the relief in her face. “I'm not as strong as a true Confessor, Mother, but I have knowledge and aptitude.” He trailed off. “We could be fantastic together, rule the world even.”
Kahlan knew now what she needed to know. Clouting the hedge-wizard on the head, she asked again, tone hard “What do you mean, what does she need? How can I save her life?” She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer, given what he had just hinted at. She wasn't sure she wanted to face it.
He cringed under her fist as though it was the most agonizing blow he had ever received. It might have been. Kahlan was angry and knew full well how to make her fists cause pain. “It puts her body in a state of desire. Unless she comes at the touch of a Confessor,” Kahlan frowned at the vulgar term and the man grunted, blood flowing freely from the side of his mouth, “I'm sorry, but you know how Widow's Weed works as a catalyst.” his voice soft as she waved a hand indicating for him to continue.
“She must achieve orgasm or she will die.” He tried again, Kahlan flinching from the clinical term but nodding her head. She received the message. “That she hasn't completely succumbed means she is bound to a Confessor.” He shivered in fear when she turned her eyes upon him. She couldn't read her own feelings, her own heart, so there was no way they could reveal themselves to this man. She didn't need to know what her face looked like. She knew. It probably looked like a painful death in a lonely desert.
Her tone hardened at what he was insinuating. “I never Confessed her, and I certainly never did... that with her. She is my friend.” She bit off the words, waiting for him to continue. He didn't face her blazing blue eyes, he stared at the horizon as though it was the last time he would be seeing it. It was.
“She is connected to a Confessor. She need not be taken, she cannot be by,” the man almost sounded sad, “by the likes of me - even with an augment. We cannot turn those who are already in the grips of devotion.” He turned his face to her, though, a desire to please gracing his face, “But I can save her, Confessor. I can pleasure her and bring her back.” He looked both hopeful, and desiring to be helpful.
Thinking that he had just offered to do it somehow filled her with both rage and self-recrimination. How could she have stood before a male Confessor and not realized it? How could she have looked into his eyes, and taken him, without knowing what he was? How could she have allowed him to take Cara? It was a wonder the blond woman was not dead. The touch of a Confessor was death to a Mord-Sith. He was a male Confessor, though. This scrawny, pimpled heap was enough to turn a woman's desire in on herself. He was clearly not very powerful if he had been able to keep it hidden, but still - he had a grasp of the power.
What had saved Cara? Kahlan shoved that to the back of her mind, even as she stared down into black eyes and the hated face before her. "Who was your mother?" She snarled it. If the woman was alive and hiding her power, Kahlan would find her, and she would answer for releasing an abomination on the world.
"She is dead, Mother Confessor. I was raised an orphan." That might also explain why he was so weak, Kahlan thought, he had no training in the use of his power. He was extremely unattractive. It wasn't a wonder that he hadn't had many opportunities to use his powers.
A line of thought assaulted her. Thinking of this man's hands on Cara put a murderous rage in her. The woman had been violated enough. Clouting him again, harder, the back of her fist snapping his jaw with an audible crack, she turned to his pained face. “Look at me.” He did, eyes frightened and devoted. “Look at me. I am the Mother Confessor, and I pass sentence.” She thrust her dagger into his throat. “Die for what you did to her, and likely did to countless others.” She didn't continue the thought too completely. She had done enough of it, herself. Forcing people to love her.
* * *
Gathering the lean, red leather sheathed body to her, she sought to get her as far away from the dead man as she could, and back to their camp. Cara was tall, and solidly muscled, but Kahlan was solid, too. Kahlan was also determined. Cara was the only woman she had ever met that matched her in height; the Mother Confessor towered over all but above average men without straining for height.
Cara's writhing body was difficult to contain, with the moans, and the shudders, but Kahlan wasn't about to abandon her. The woman had saved her life too many times, and no matter what course of action was necessary, the Mother Confessor was not going to let her die. She blushed as she carried the woman, thinking as she did how she was going to have to save her. How had she, thinking back to the words of the male Confessor, 'put her in the grips of devotion'? She had never touched Cara.
Arriving at their camp, she placed Cara on the blankets, and whispered to her. “What can I do for you, Cara?” She forced herself to continue. “The wizard said,” she licked her lips as she reviewed her words. That he was a partial Confessor and used dire magic to make a transition would never pass her lips. Dare she tell the truth? Deciding that it didn't matter, and the choice of appellation was unimportant right now, she plowed on. Straightforward was always the way they had communicated. There was no use hedging or stepping back. Kahlan wanted to steel herself, but she couldn't, and wouldn't turn away from her own feelings in this matter.
Honesty.
She took a deep breath and continued again. “The man said that to save your life, you need intimacy.” Even thinking the word brought on a blush. Her imagination supplied the fuel for the flames burning in her cheeks, but her heart and her body banked them higher. "If Zedd or Richard were here, they might be able to do something," she blushed harder thinking about how that could be interpreted, but considering what she was about to suggest, "but they aren't - so that leaves me."
'Get a grip, Kahlan, Mother Confessor. You are needed, do what you must.' She gathered her courage, though it felt as though it were dandelion seeds blown upon the wind. Sadness gripped her as she thought of how many times this beautiful woman, a Protector, had been violated. She couldn't just do it again, in a business like manner, casually. No, not to Cara.
“Tell me if that is what you need, Cara.” She spoke, her voice shaky, forcing herself to look into the beautiful face of the Mord-Sith. "Tell me if you would accept that from me." The writing stopped, and sea-green eyes regarded her for a moment, piercing into her. So quickly that she would have missed it had she not been so focused on Cara, the sea-green eyes swept her body.
“I need … release, Mother Confessor.” Cara's words were choked and thick with desire. She writhed in the blankets. “Please, release me … it's agony.” With a surprising burst of lucidity, the Mord-Sith reached for the dagger in Kahlan's belt. Kahlan was horror stricken as she moved away, knocking the hand aside. She wouldn't give up on the woman. The woman was still trying to protect her, this time from embarrassment.
Kahlan felt a strange ache in her heart. There was no need for embarrassment. Not from the woman whom had seen her at her worst, at her most vulnerable, and had nearly given her own life to save her.
“That's not the kind of release you need Cara. I'll never give you that one if I can help it.” She bent close to the Mord-Sith, gripping a leather clad hand in her own. "Cara, will you accept," she stumbled unsure what it was she was offering exactly and then settled for simplicity. "Cara, will you accept me?" Open, naked desire bloomed on the Mord-Sith's face.
Decisively, Kahlan began stripping the leathers from her own body, throwing them, and her daggers as far from the woman resting in the blankets as she could. She was down to her shift. Cara's eyes raked her body appreciatively, then sea-green eyes turned away as though burned, the sight of it breaking Kahlan's heart. Kahlan had felt that look as surely as if it had been a caress. “Look at me, Cara.” She entreated.
Cara did. Sea-green eyes burned even hotter, were that possible, and Kahlan felt their pull. The hungry look she received told her all that she needed to know. She threw her shift above her head, baring herself completely to the woman in front of her. She knew her cheeks burned. She had never revealed herself so fully like this to another.
She knelt, naked, taking a gloved hand into her own as she began to strip it of the leather. She purposefully looked into the eyes of her best friend, her protector. “You've given your body to me countless times. I wouldn't be here if it were not for you.” She gentled her voice as she continued removing the other glove, and began undoing the laces that held the top of the Mord-Sith's red leather to her body. “You've given your body to me, let me give you mine.” Eyes burned into her, soft, golden skin burned into her fingers.
Cara's eyes squeezed shut as Kahlan pulled the leather away from her body, then fumbled with her boots. At the touch of her naked instep, Cara gasped, a ragged, clear sound of desire. Kahlan melted. As she pulled all the leather away, she surveyed the woman before her. She was beautiful. Scars traced her body, but muscle and curve made them enhancements to the fluid, deadly grace the woman possessed. Kahlan swallowed.
She eased forward, her own naked breasts going hard as she moved up the golden body to touch the beautiful face. “Let me give this to you, and ease your suffering.” She said it softly, stroking the woman's face. Lips turned inward to softly kiss her palm. It was an electric touch. Cara's body burned beneath her. Kahlan felt the warmth, driving her into desire, as well.
“I want to give you release, Cara, and for you to know just how much you mean to me.” She hoped that said enough so that the woman knew it wasn't to be an obligation. “I want to please you, please let me, and let me save you.”
Cara's breasts heaved, her face flushed, the nipples were pebbled to rock hard. She moaned at Kahlan's words, and all attempts to end her life came to a halt. She opened sea-green eyes, once again raking Kahlan's body, but then giving way to her. At a touch on her neck, Cara had moaned. Kahlan felt a rush of warmth, and wondered if what she was about to do would harm the woman. Not physically, she'd never harm her physically, Kahlan just didn't want to harm her mentally.
Pressing her hand to the other woman's heart, feeling it hammer in her chest, and the increased body temperature, she figured that it wasn't so far fetched that one could die from the condition, and the wizard wouldn't have lied to her. She looked into the beautiful, strong-boned face, straining with desire. It wasn't as though she hadn't wanted to touch the golden skin, or that it would be so abhorrent to bring this woman pleasure.
She leaned forward to kiss her, astonished when a gasped sounded and crushed her against the lean body. Long, supple fingers dug into her back, crossing over to her own chest to brush across her own breast. The warmth of Cara's palm burned into it, and Kahlan had to fight to keep from leaning into the touch. She couldn't afford to be distracted, and frankly, seeing the desire in her friend's face, she couldn't help but feel her own … needs surface.
“Shshsh... Cara,” she breathed, allowing her hands to steel, and push the Mord'Sith's above her head. It startled her, knowing she was about to take this woman the way she had taken other's in the past, the way both of them had taken others, she amended - unable to resist. Kahlan chose to banish that from her mind, though, and to remember not only how she was doing this, but to focus on why she was doing it.
She kissed her again, feeling impossibly hard nipples brand her own chest, and with her free hand, stroked up the woman's side to her breast even as she invaded her mouth with a warm kiss. With that kiss, she projected how much she cared for this woman who had saved her life, how much she respected her, and how tenderly she intended to... she intended to take her.
It dragged a breath from Kahlan thinking that she was going to take this woman. She brought her lips to a pink tipped nipple and the woman beneath her cried out, as though she were dying. She couldn't resist the ragged cry. Her own body was now aroused. She knew that Cara had to peak soon, the wizard had said it would kill her, but it didn't prevent Kahlan from wanting to at least familiarize herself with what she was doing first.
She let her fingers trail the firm abdomen, feeling it quiver as Cara shuddered beneath her. She moved to the other breast, even as her lips closed and nipped on the pebbled flesh beneath her. Cara's breasts were round, full and the woman was incredibly responsive. That was due to the hedge-wizard confessor, no doubt, but Kahlan couldn't help revel in touching another so fully, one that wanted her so utterly.
She moved down, kissing the abdomen, stroking the velvety smooth flesh even as she went. Cara was moaning in earnest, and Kahlan almost wondered if she had delayed too long. The woman sounded in … agony... with hunger. Cara lay beneath her, crisp blond curls glistened with wetness. She let her kiss trail downward, her dark hair curtaining across the smooth, firm stomach and let go, freeing the Mord-Sith's hands. The hands promptly buried themselves in her hair, pressing her lips to their desired location.
Kahlan blushed. She hadn't exactly expected to do it this way, but the moans and surging of the body below her made her rethink it. Cara was impossibly vulnerable, and though she was doing this to save her, it was a violation. She mights as well become just as vulnerable. She brought her trembling lips to the center of the blond's desire, and parted the folds. Cara cried out with obvious pleasure, and Kahlan gently placed her hands on the slender hips, willing the other woman to feel the reasons she was doing this, that she cared for her, and that she wanted not only to save her, but wanted her to enjoy it.
“Feel this Cara, please feel how much I love you.” She said.
She buried her tongue in softness, and smelled the fragrance of Cara's obvious desire. It tasted sweet, and like the earth. Long lean thighs parted, and trembled at the touch. The blond's hips rising to meet her tongue and her lips with a cry of obvious delight. Kahlan felt her own body responding to the lusty sounds, and the clenching of the Mord-Sith's body. She raised a hand, to take one of Cara's in her own.
With the other hand, she ghosted it from the Mord'Sith's hip to trace Cara's entrance with her thumb. Cara shuddered, nearly causing Kahlan to be flung off her hips. The Mother Confessor seized Cara by a thigh firmly in one clasp, the other hand in a death grip both of her own and the Mord'Sith's, while sliding two fingers into impossibly silky heat. Liquidy heat that made the blond cry out again, and she slid them out and then took her with a third. The blond's back arched into her hand, grinding into both her lips and the fullness of Kahlan's fingers inside of her. As she rhythmically brought them in and out, she continued to suckle the place that made the blond scream.
The blond surged forward, a plea and then wonder crossing her features. Kahlan's fingers were squeezed tightly as she felt tremors race through the muscular, long blond body beneath her. Strong arms pulled her shoulders forward, and crushed her to heaving breasts. Soft cries pierced her, as she felt hot breath on her neck. She kept her fingers inside the blond, feeling the rhythmic clenching.
"Mother Confessor." It was both an entreaty and a benediction. "I have never felt that before. Such a climax..." Cara's embrace became tender, and she threw her head back.
Kahlan felt her eyebrows go to her hair line. That she hadn't expected. The blond was certainly not unfamiliar with hands on her body, with lips caressing her breasts. Cara had been writhing with near pain of desire due to the wizard's touch. Surely she had felt such with her sisters, and would take it as a sisterly gesture to end her obvious ...
Then it hit her. This was no ordinary woman. This was a Mord'Sith. This was Cara.
"I've never felt completion before, unless from my own hand." The words were soft, husky and smoldering with ... affection... included in the satisfaction. "I never felt pleasure at the end of the wanting," the voice continued, choked by shyness, "and certainly not from one who sought to comfort or care or ... take pain from me. Your mouth...” The voice trailed off in disbelief, even as Kahlan's cheeks burned at her own boldness. “I've never been caressed with a mouth before...”
Suddenly two things crossed Kahlan's mind. One was concern that the action she had taken to correct the obvious discomfort that had been tormenting the blond woman's body to an end was inappropriate, the other was a rush of ... love, and satisfaction that she had not only soothed the beautiful woman's pain, but had been the first to grant it.
Cara began licking at Kahlan's mouth, as though cleaning herself away from the lips that had pleasured her. When Kahlan pulled away, she felt fingers drug into the other woman's mouth, cleaning them, her eyes closed. Kahlan felt a rush of gentleness. She smiled, pulled the fingers from the other woman's mouth, and covered it with her own. She let her eyes convey the warmth she had felt, and hugged Cara gently even as she kissed her.
She brushed the hair from the golden neck and stared into the green eyes, pulling the bare body close to her. She kissed the temple, embracing the lean body fully to her, whispering softly to her as the pleasure continued to cascade, then subside from the woman beneath her. It might have not been entirely appropriate, but it hadn't been inappropriate, either. It had been necessary, needed, and deeply desired. Something warm touched her when she realized that it was herself that felt those things, too, not just the Mord-Sith writhing in pleasure beneath her hands.
"Promise me something, Cara." She kissed the temple again, and sought the sea-green eyes. "Promise me that you will always remember to find pleasure. Life is too short to seek pain only," she burned her eyes into the other woman's, "remember that pleasure and love are worth having as well, and you are worthy of both."
A tear leaked down a chiseled cheekbone, falling into the blond hair covering the blankets beneath them. Strong, tanned hands grasped hers, and pulled her, inexorably into firm, full, determined lips. For a moment, Kahlan was almost afraid, until she realized that the devotion radiating from those eyes was not those of a confessed, but those of one who adored her for who she was. One who would never fear her touch, and one who had been pleasured by it.
"Mother Confessor," Cara began, voice husky, "Kahlan" she breathed, as though uncertain to use her name. Kahlan smiled affectionately at her.
"Kahlan, they say that a Mother Confessor's touch is death to a Mord'Sith." She let it hang there, that sentence, with wonder in her voice. Before fear could surge that she had harmed her friend could completely claim her heart, Cara continued with a throaty voice and a pleased smile.
"It is true. It is death to a Mord-Sith." Sea green eyes regarded her, staring deeply into her own, as though piercing her soul. "I can no longer be merely Mord'Sith as I lay feeling such emotion and pleasure." An uncharacteristic smile bloomed on her face, and sea-green eyes closed. "I am Cara. A woman worthy of a gift I'd never expected to receive, from one I so deeply respect, and deeply desired such … regard from."
"Thank you Kahlan. Rest with me, please." With that, Kahlan felt herself gathered together against incredibly strong, lean flesh. Kahlan attempted to settle herself quietly, but her own heart was still beating quickly. She nearly groaned as a finger traced her collar bone. She tried to hold her reaction in, but Cara's flesh against her back, so warm, was inflaming her. She
tried out her voice, “Let's rest, Cara.”
The chuckle behind her caused her to bite her own lip as a hand stroked up her thigh.
“A Mord-Sith always knows, Kahlan.” The voice was low, and husky. A hand stroked her waist, and then floated up to her breast. Her gasp and the slight rotating of her hips caused a low, knowing chuckle. “I know the giving of pain, and I know the giving of pleasure, despite this being the first time I've received it.” Warmth suffused Kahlan's heart, clenching with emotion somewhere in the pit of her stomach.
“Would you make me be vulnerable to wanting,” Cara's voice deepened as her caresses deepened on the curve of Kahlan's hip. “and not allow yourself to feel it also?” It was a challenge. Kahlan moaned, and her hip involuntarily jerked toward the fingers tracing the hair near her need. It was need.
“Let's not rest, not yet.” Came a husky reply as she felt Kahlan's twitch. “I know you released your power, and it has not been so soon that you can release it again.” She turned Kahlan to her, and Kahlan felt snared by the sea-green eyes, the palm stroking her breast. Kahlan felt her cheeks burn, her eyes burn. Her body caught fire, but she couldn't feel the magic straining in her, yet. It was too soon, she had an hour before it overcame her. There were no excuses. “You took me, and clearly you enjoyed it more than just medically necessary.” Oh, there was the Mord-Sith knowing hiss, and it rocked Kahlan to her core. She felt herself going completely liquid. “So did I.” Pleasure, affection and satisfaction all combined with a Mord-Sith's commanding, sensual tone.
“You told me to find pleasure.” She gave Kahlan a kiss that melted away everything, made her head swirl, and her thighs clench around the other woman's leg. “It would please me to give you what you just gave me, Kahlan.” At the smoldering in the green eyes, Kalahn melted. As long, strong, golden fingers touched her, and firm full lips carressed her own, Kahlan surrendered. “It appears that you need some comfort as well, Mother Confessor. Take it from one who regards you and cares for you.”
“Let me give you my mouth.” Cara kissed her, tongue promising what it would do to Kahlan's other parts. She hadn't needed to hear it. Cara's sheer physicality promised it. Cara spoke with her body and her actions. Kahlan understood the message, and was helpless to prevent it. Perhaps the vulnerability she had feared, the violation, was her own. As fingers softly closed over her over-heated nipple, Kahlan, surrendered. Had it been any other time, the surrendering would have released her power, but her power was spent. Instead, another power surged within her. Desire.
With her own passion flaring out of reach, Kahlan Amnell gave herself to the most unlikely of women, but her most challenging of opponents. Challenge danced in green eyes, and the Mother Confessor of the Midlands submitted to that fire. If thunder without sound reverberated through the air much later, it was only accompanied by the moans of satiation, and not of pain.