Page 184 of Interion

“Normal is having an orgasm and not wanting to continue anymore, or having to wait a while before you can.”

“Just once? That sounds boring.”

Hiro laughed cheerfully.

“There you go, now we know you have the Drute sexual nature. Drute women have a chain of five orgasms. How far have you gotten?”

“Up to the third,” I admitted, embarrassed. “I thought all women were like this, but if there are five, I don’t know how they reach the others. I’m already exhausted after three.”

“There are five, each one more intense than the last. The first comes very easily—it happens during foreplay. That’s why Drute women are known for their sexual appetite: any hint of arousal brings them to the edge of the first one, and it’s the lightest. The second is considered a normal orgasm. It requires more physical contact and its intensity is low, but it would normally satisfy a fae woman. The third is stronger—equivalent to an intense orgasm that normal women experience—and that’s when the electrical discharges begin. Your body starts sending uncontrolled electricity and pheromones so your partner won’t stop, because at this stage he would have already finished. The electricity acts like a delay, but it only works on men with Drute genetics.”

“Wait. Normal fae women don’t send electricity?” I made the house lights flicker when I reached the third.

“Of course not, Kay. That comes from the Goddess of War. When she lies with the God of Intelligence, storms happen here on earth. Haven’t you heard of this?”

“I’ve heard of it, but I didn’t take it seriously. To me, it was just a myth.”

“It’s not a myth. We inherited most of our genetics from her, like strength and endurance. You need to take the history of the Gods more seriously. Many things are true—they’re just told in a different way.”

Hiro was religious and took Drute culture seriously, but if I took everything I read literally, voracious and ghouls would be consuming our world.

“All right, I’m sorry. Continue,” I said, encouraging him.

“The fourth orgasm is normally the limit men can handle. The energy discharge is so great that even the surrounding electricity can be affected, depending on the woman’s power. The more power you have, the greater the discharge. It’s normal for your partner to stop there because it would be insane to continue. Men without the genetics usually pass out, but Drute men can handle it—only they can keep up with their females, despite the pheromone overload.”

“And the fifth?” I asked, incredulous at how little I knew about my own genetics.

“The fifth isn’t recommended.” He laughed, but it sounded nervous. “I’ve heard old reports of men who reached the fifth, and I think it’s insane to chase it. When the Drutes inhabited these walls, there was no electrical energy stored in sinil or alchemical globes. I think it would be risky to try with so much electricity around.”

I reflected on that. If the third already left me breathless, there was no reason to test the fifth, especially with my power level being so high.

“Zion told me that in the old days, Drute brothels were the most sought after. But if normal men can’t handle it, why did they go there?”

“Because the pheromones the women released drove them wild, elevated their arousal to insane levels, and it became an addiction. Plus, it was a competition to see who could handle up to the fifth. Masculinity was decided that way. If you called a man a number four, it was an honor. If you called him a number two, it was an insult.”

“Men have been idiots since the dawn of time.” I laughed, amused by the story. “Nothing new under the sun.”

Hiro laughed too, standing up and extending a hand to help me down.

“Nothing new, Kay, but don’t judge us. I believe the gods took part of our brain to make the dick. So, you know, the bigger the dick, the smaller the brain.”

I burst out laughing at that theory. It made total sense.

Chapter 47

It was the early hours of the morning and Zion had just returned from his trip. He sat at a table piled with papers in the military supplies depot—a shipment had arrived earlier and, without Kaori, no one really knew what to do, so he'd had to help sort things out.

As he finished logging the imported crates, giving instructions on where to store each item and who should receive it, a crease formed between his brows. The general was worried and trying in vain to get his thoughts in order. Strange things were happening beyond the walls and, to make matters worse, animal attacks had gone from rare to frequent. At least one soldier was taken each week, and it was keeping the squadrons on high alert around the clock. That night, Zion had returned from hunting the animals, but as always, they couldn’t find anything beyond a few tracks that vanished at the edge of the Emir River. It was frustrating.

Beyond the deaths, another matter was keeping Zion awake: the level of toxic elements in the water of the lakes and streams around Drutes city was rising every day. The humid air inside the forests carried the metallic odor of toxic algae, which had begun to spread uncontrollably throughout enemy territory. The army could no longer trust the old freshwater springs, and now, on top of fearing the supposed chimeras, the soldiers worried about accidentally drinking contaminated water and being caught by enemy squadrons while hallucinating.

All of this was suspicious, and he spent all day searching for answers to the sudden changes in the biome. The changes weren’t normal—he knew something was wrong and believed that, somehow, the chimeras had a direct connection to the water. Whenever they attacked, the metallic smell grew worse. Either way, he decided to intervene before the situation deteriorated further. He asked the king for water shipments to be delivered to the soldiers at the border and, for the first time, Elitium granted a request without stalling or making a scene. The army would receive bottled water arriving by electric truck, and the crates he had dispatched moments before were the first shipment.

On top of all the problems with the animals, Kaori wasn’t in the forests to organize the squadrons, and Zion had spent most of his days checking supplies, listening to complaints from the soldiers, and smoothing over disagreements between the Vinturis and Ampér squadrons. Sometimes Ampér annoyed the Vinturians with their loud, boisterous, laughing ways. Other times, it was Vinturis that annoyed Ampér with their rules, their discipline, and their speeches about honor. When it wasn’t one or the other, it was the gorgons, dissatisfied with the food, with the men, or with anything at all. And without Kaori leading them, they were always irritated. They didn’t take orders from the men—only from Zion, and that was more out of fear than obligation.

“The last delivery truck is heading out to the border, general! Do you have anything else to send?” Dante, the captain of the 3rd squadron, asked Zion, pulling him from his spiral of negative thoughts.

“No, Dante,” Zion said, stretching his tired back and gathering the paperwork into a thick stack. “We’re done for today.”