Free Shepherd by Piers Anthony Page B

would soon be coming. They merely embraced and slept, resting before the siege.
    It came a few hours later. Deep, rutting, sexual urgency overwhelmed them both, as the telepathy of the conjoining rams and ewes intensified to the point of no denial. They yielded to it, letting it take them on waves of desire so intense that it became painful rather than pleasurable. To resist it would have been agony.
    Indeed, when the first wave abated with temporary satiation, they got up and walked around the cabin, and saw Vulture and Python in sad state. They had had no partners, so had had to suffer through it.
    Within an hour the second wave came, and they clutched each other on the bed, locked in seemingly endless orgasm. Its passing left them gasping.
    “We have two weeks of this?” Shep asked.
    “Two weeks,” she agreed wearily. “Unless--”
    “Unless?”
    “Unless I am already pregnant. When my body knows it, the sexual urgency will abate, because I have been bred.”
    “And what of my body?”
    She smiled. “It will continue. But do not be alarmed; I will continue to accommodate you.”
    “Even when your desire has cooled?”
    “Yes. I do not want you to suffer.”
    “Thank you,” he said wryly.
    And by the end of the day she knew. “It has taken. I have been bred.”
    “You're pregnant!”
    “Yes. I am with child.” She smiled. “I hope you do not change your mind now.”
    “Never,” he said, kissing her. But he feared the obstacles they would have to navigate.

Chapter 7:
    Return
    Two weeks passed, and the ewes were finally bred. The mating urge, satisfied, faded. It was time to return to their normal pasture.
    Python, Vulture, and Shep were bedraggled, albeit it for different reasons. Elen was fine. They went to the boat.
    But the sheep were not there. So Shep and Elen went looking for them. They were placidly grazing. The rams were not far off, watching them. They would move in if there were any sign of interest by a ewe. In fact every so often one would approach, only to be bleated off. The ewes had no further use for them. So why were they remaining here, instead of traveling? They were well fed and ready.
    There was a rumble, then an explosion. Shep saw a column of smoke rise into the air. A small volcano was erupting, from the direction they had come here.
    Now the sheep walked toward the boat. They must have been waiting for that. Maybe it would have been dangerous, had they been near when it happened.
    But when they assembled by the boat, Shep got another feeling. “We can't go back the way we came here,” he said.
    “I know it,” Elen agreed. “That route has been blocked. That's bad, because it was the only route I really knew. Now we'll have to travel cross-country.”
    As if they had been on a clear highway coming in. Shep was not comfortable with this. But what alternative was there? “We'll cross the water, then circle the lake until the sheep indicate the way to go.”
    They boarded, all ten of them. Shep and Elen stripped, and took their places at the paddle pedals and the seat before it. He fitted himself into her, knowing how much he would need her shielding. Sexually sated or not, he would respond to the massive pheromone assault of the vamps.
    “The song!” she said, remembering. “We'll sing it again.”
    “Yes! But let's hold our places here, just in case.”
    “Of course.” She clasped him tightly, outside and inside.
    He started pedaling, and the craft moved out into the lake.
    The vampires came. “Come join us, virile man!” Lova called. “We hunger for your penetration!” She hovered, spreading her arms and legs wide to display her breasts and open cleft. “We have so much to offer!”
    “I am already committed,” he called back.
    Then they swarmed in close. Shep barely got his mouth on Elen's before a vamp could kiss him. Their hands and bodies touched him everywhere as they pressed their breasts against the back of his head and neck, and stroked his buttocks and