Gabe
Page 8
The pressure of his body against hers was intoxicating. After a moment, his tongue licked against her lips, and she parted them instinctively, not wanting to deny herself anything, any slightest pleasure he might give her. As she twined her arms around his neck, he explored her mouth in a sensual, slow moving fashion that left her holding him as close as she could. Tentatively, she allowed her tongue to play with his, and to explore the warmth of his mouth as she grew emboldened by his response. She felt his aroused cock pressing against her lower body even through the layers of their clothing and knew from the tightening of her nipples and the way her inner muscles pulsed that she wanted to do so much more with this human soldier.
The training modules had discussed physiological sexual responses of males and females in dry, clinical terms and Keshara was now learning how intoxicating reality could be.
But Gabe finished the kiss and raised his head, eyeing her with a rueful smile. “I’ve wanted to do that all day. You tempt me, lady, but we’d better dial the intensity back a few notches. We’ve got a lot of hard walking to do tomorrow and today was a bear, right?”
Keshara wanted more kisses and then to experience whatever would happen next, but she was taking her lead from him and shy about asking for more. Her body was tingling and aching in unfamiliar places she suspected he could satisfy but, if he didn’t want to proceed, or believed she was reluctant, she was unsure how to encourage him. She stepped away from him and fed a few more sticks into the fire, letting the flames’ radiance take credit for the flush on her face.
Apparently unaware of her emotions, her companion returned to the backpack and fished out one more ration bar, after checking how many were left. As he unwrapped it, he said, “About our earlier conversation, it doesn’t matter how you got here, it matters what you do with your life. Aydarr and his pack have chosen to fight the Khagrish and try to make this planet theirs. It’s not all war and fighting, though. Some members of the pack have found mates among the human women, and one couple is even expecting a baby the old fashioned way.”
“Truly? How joyous! I hope I get to meet this pack of yours.” Babies were so far removed from her experience, she couldn’t imagine what it would be like, but she could imagine the joy such a birth might bring to a Badari. And for the child to have actual, loving parents would be a blessing indeed from the Great Mother. Keshara loved her sisters but the thought of being held and comforted by a biologically related elder made her breath catch with longing. Certainly neither the Director nor Ashla was remotely motherly in their treatment of the Second Daughters.
“You’ll meet everyone, I promise. Once we get word to the pack about the situation at the Retreat, they’ll come help us rescue your friends and destroy whatever Farahnnim has going on.” Gabe’s voice rang with the conviction he always expressed when he discussed the end of the Khagrish lab.
“She’s a brilliant scientist, doing important research.” Even to her own ears Keshara sounded halfhearted but the message had been dinned into her ears her entire life, by Ashla and the Director herself. It was practically a programmed response for her now.
“So she says. I’m not a believer. Alleged research based on imprisoning and mistreating other sentients is abhorrent.” Gabe snorted and broke the ration bar in half, offering it to her. Her face must have reflected her distaste for more of the dry survival food because he said, “We’ve both got to fuel up for tomorrow’s hike.”
Swallowing the first bite, she said, “The Director doesn’t conduct any experiments on us.”
Gabe shook his head, brow furrowed. “Don’t be too sure. I saw disturbing stuff when I was roaming the deserted areas of the complex.”
Keshara couldn’t hold the question inside, compelled to face as much truth about the Retreat as he’d share. “Like what?”
The question he asked in return was a surprise. “Do you know a woman named Jezari?”
With a sinking feeling in her gut, tinged with excitement, she asked, “What do you know about her? Have you seen her? She and I had first awakening at the same time, she was one of my best friends.”
“She and two other Badari women are lying unconscious in pods in the place you called the lab annex. As far as I can tell, they’re being harvested in some weird fashion for an extract that goes into making the elixir.”
The cave spun around Keshara, and her knees buckled. Gabe was at her side in an instant, scooping her into his strong arms and carrying her to the spot where he’d set up the sleep mat. She clung to him, shaking so badly she could hardly breathe. Gabe swore and held her close, trying to quell her trembling.
“I’m sorry I shouldn’t have been so blunt. I forget you aren’t used to the horrors I’ve seen and heard about in the other labs. But surely when she disappeared you must have suspected bad things had happened to her? I mean, you were the one who mentioned the annex to me the first time I saw you in the cell.” He smoothed her hair and rubbed her back gently.
Clenching her fists, stammering as she offered the only rebuttal she could to the story he’d told, Keshara recognized the untruths even as she spoke them. “The Director said—she told us and Ashla confirmed it—when a girl went into the annex there were tests for a few months, which could be grueling and arduous, but necessary for the research to continue and expand. Then, if the girl did well, she was set free as a reward, in a beautiful garden located in a vast cave inside the mountain, where she had no duties, no tasks, nothing to do but enjoy nature, read books on her handheld, dance, paint, whatever her heart called her to do for pleasure. Like the Preserve outdoors where we hunt game for the table, only more gardenlike, made tropical by the volcano’s heat. A paradise to be with her friends until she eventually died of old age. When Ashla comes to escort a girl to the annex, she always says it’s a time for rejoicing.”
Tears ran down her cheeks as she finished the final words in a whisper. We believed the lies because facing the truth was too horrifying. Faces rose in her mind’s eye, Badari women she’d known and been friends with, long gone now, not to paradise as Keshara’d been assured over and over, but to a ghastly fate at Farahnnim’s hands. If Gabe was to be believed and she had no doubt he was reciting the truth of what he’d seen in the annex.
“That’s the biggest set of lies I ever heard in my life,” Gabe said, his voice ice cold. “Trust me, based on what I observed, none of what you said is anywhere close to the truth of what Farahnnim does with your people. I’m not meaning to insult you for accepting it. I know what it’s like to be in a bad situation and cling to any reed of hope you can find. But, clearly, they told you this fairy tale to keep all of you docile and less likely to rebel. Maybe you didn’t outnumber them in the beginning, but you could probably take them now. Especially if the telepathic ability has appeared in this generation. Makes planning a rebellion a lot simpler. Did you ever try reaching out mentally to a woman who’d supposedly gone to the garden? Or even the annex?”
“I—I did try, a long time ago, with a woman who’d been kind to me. I missed her. It was like hitting a wall or a force barrier. And then later, when I tried again, there was nothing.” Horrified, Keshara hid her face in her hands. “I should have known she was dead.”
He hugged her. “Hey, from what you’ve told me, the telepathy is new to your people, a pretty untried ability. No one to mentor you on the use of the power. How would you have known? You’re the victims here, you and your sisters. Don’t take any guilt onto your shoulders. But I’m curious why none of you detected the lie when Ashla repeated it? The Badari I run with can smell a lie and certainly one as gigantic as this.”
A light dawned for Keshara as she said, “Ashla has her own perfume, one the Director created specifically for her. We thought it was an odd thing for a Khagrish to do, especially since Farahnnim regards us as animals but if the recipe includes certain flowers, those deaden our sense of smell to some extent. Probably enough for Ashla to be able to get away with these horrific lies and play her part in supporting F
Gabe shook his head. “They’re accomplished in carrying out evil, unfortunately.”
She sat and watched the fire dance, accompanied by the crackle and pop of resin pockets in the firewood. Keshara knew Gabe was giving her sideways glances but, for now, she was unable to talk any more, still absorbing the terrifying information he’d given her. Leaning against his sturdy frame, his strong arms locked around her gave comfort.
Finally, he asked, “I’ve been wondering, who’s your Alpha? Please don’t tell me it’s Ashla.”
“We have no alpha, if I’m understanding the term the way you mean it. Ashla is a fervent supporter of the Director, fiercely loyal to her. I-I think she loves the Director more than she cares about any of us, her own people. She has the power to order the rest of us to obey or the Khagrish will punish us, if she doesn’t take retribution for wrongs into her own hands. But she isn’t loyal to us, and we’re not loyal to her the way the men you know seem to behave toward this Aydarr you speak of.” Keshara bit her lip not to add how much she wished Ashla had been a person the Daughters could rely on for comfort or questions.
“Aydarr’s a true alpha all right. He’s power personified, and no one says no to his orders. He’s tough but fair, and he’s more than extended himself and the pack to help the humans. His mate is a human.” Gabe rubbed his chin. “I’ve been told over and over alphas are born, not made. Maybe Farahnnim culled anyone who exhibited alpha tendencies in their DNA before the subjects had their—what did you call it?—first awakening. Sounds like a precautionary step she’d take.”
“The other girls look to me,” Keshara said, realizing for the first time how much they all turned to her to make decisions and interpret things the Khagrish said and did. Ashla relayed orders. Keshara tried to puzzle out the meaning behind the orders and see a bigger picture. Even design an alternate approach to propose if the command was distasteful. Maybe that was part of why Ashla disliked her so intensely. Did the First Daughter see her as a rival? “I assumed it was because I have a touch of the healing power, so I’m considered closer to the Great Mother. Ashla is quite devoted to the goddess but has no gift such as mine.”
“Healers are regarded as pretty special by the Badari,” he said. “I suppose a person could be a healer and an alpha. And we know from past experience if there isn’t an alpha-born, or the one who is abdicates responsibility, someone else will step up to lead. Your goddess works in mysterious ways, like any deity.” Gabe ran his hands through his hair. “I wish we knew what generation you are. If you’re earlier on the evolutionary scale than Aydarr and his men, you may be working with different parameters than they are. Just your growing up outside the lab structure the males endured produces differences, of course.”
“Will it make a difference to our acceptance by these other Badari?” Her heart ached, having previously adopted with enthusiasm the idea of the unknown pack becoming brothers for her and the others, for having a sort of family beyond the tight but small circle of Second Daughters. Any hint of rejection by these people she didn’t even know yet was frightening and hurtful.
“Hells no.” Gabe was emphatic. “The Badari are the most loyal bunch of guys I ever met, other than the Sectors Special Forces. A few bad apples, like any species, but the majority have proven to be standup warriors with honor. I told you before, Aydarr and the others committed to rescuing the humans from the Khagrish and creating a community where we all live together. I’m proud to stand beside them in battle.”
She patted his hand. “Which tells me much, because I know what kind of man you are.” She sat straighter and looked him in the eyes, ready to resume the previous difficult conversation because there was more she wanted to know in her desperate effort to understand the world she’d been living in and thought she knew. “You’re sure the girls you saw were being used for distillation of energy?”
“I watched the entire harvesting process, which was painless as far as I could tell, although your friend Jezari was crying in her sleep or coma. She didn’t seem to be in obvious pain though, which was a blessing.” He spread his hands wide. “There’s this giant, complicated machine and vapor and probes and the workings of it all are beyond me. I’m just a soldier. But I know what I saw. I heard Farahnnim and the others discuss the elixir, and she took the container of extract away to her private lab, to mix up a batch.” He shook his head. “Your friend was in the worst shape, but the other two aren’t far behind her. If I could have rescued them then and there, I would have. Tore me up to leave the three of them behind.” A muscle in his clenched jaw twitched as he apparently recalled the moment he had to force himself to exit the chamber. “My branch of the service never leaves people behind. But I had no choice.”
“The other two women were selected for the annex later, after Jezari, by maybe six months.” She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “I have to be sure you’re right and the Khagrish—and Ashla—are lying to us.”
Fortunately, Gabe didn’t appear to be taking her doubts and continued probing of his story personally. His face was set in lines of concern, and his voice was warm. “I understand. Ask me anything you want, and I’ll do my best to report my observations. When Aydarr does attack this place with the pack, he’ll make sure none of the wretched technology is left in one piece. If the women in the pods can be saved, we’ll give them our best effort.”
Heart breaking, Keshara was compelled to press Gabe yet again on what he was claiming. She had to swallow hard past a huge lump in her throat as she shared a further belief she and the others had relied upon for comfort in their bleak existence at the Retreat. “Ashla told us she was selected for the annex in due time, before any of us were given first awakening, while other First Daughters still remained. She claimed she endured the testing and, although there was pain and things she’d rather not have been forced to undergo, she passed through to the garden and was reunited with the other First Daughters. In the garden, she said specifically. But she was lonely for the Director, with whom she was so close, and so she petitioned Farahnnim to allow her to come back to the Retreat, to help with the future generations. To be a guide and a guard for us. She vouched for the truth of the garden many times.”
Gabe frowned and shook his head. “Nope. I’m not buying any of it. I’m sorry, sweetheart, it’s hard to think of one of your own people betraying you, but she lied. Those women I saw were dying as a result of whatever Farahnnim does to them. Jezari was the worst, gaunt and practically skin and bones, but the other two showed progression of the deterioration. Ashla’s complicit in their deaths, and the murder of all the others who came before. There’s no magic garden paradise waiting inside the mountain somewhere, not in this life, and she knows it.”
“Maybe Ashla bought her life by promising to help Farahnnim,” Keshara said, the words hard to utter. “Although by all appearances she genuinely loves the Director. None of us can understand her devotion.”
Gabe held her close, rubbing her arm. “There’s a thing I’ve heard of, a strange syndrome where a prisoner may eventually take the side of their jailer, even help them oppress others. Our human doctor explained it to me once. It’s a self-protection mechanism, she said, a trick the mind plays. If Ashla is the only surviving member of the first generation, maybe she’s succumbed to mental pressure of that nature as a way to cope with the horror.”
Keshara wanted to clutch at the concept he was offering, as a way to excuse and understand how one Badari could betray the others, but she perceived a hole in the theory. “How did the Badari you met stay sane for so many hundreds of years? Surely they didn’t take the Khagrish side against their own kind.”
“I don’t know that they all did keep their sanity. I’m guessing it has to do with the pack structure. The men have absolute loyalty to each other and to their Alpha. And total hatred for the Khagrish. Hate is a powerful unifying emotion. The Badari supported each other during torture with the telepathic gift. Aydarr can give power to others in times of dire need. Maybe Alphas in the past had the same ability. We just don’t know.” Gabe rubbed her shoulders gently, and Keshara realized how tense she’d gotten during the difficult conversation. “I’m not a member of the pack so I’m not privy to all the secrets. When we eventually make it to the sanctuary valley, you can discuss it with Aydarr and our healer, Timtur.”
She rolled her head, astonished at how relaxed she was feeling under his massage. Blushing, glad he lacked her enhanced senses and was therefore oblivious to her rising arousal, Keshara stretched her arms and rotated her shoulders. “Thank you for working out the knots and cramped muscles.”
“Digging me out of the avalanche must have been quite a chore. Your shoulders and upper back were incredibly tight.” He left his hands on her shoulders as if hesitating before making another move.
Keshara held her breath, filled with desire to claim another of those fiery kisses, but, when he made no move, she sighed. “We should probably turn in now.”
“Good thought. I hope you don’t mind sharing the one foldout I managed to find. At least it’ll be warmer than sleeping on the hard ground, and I promise to be a total gentleman.” He gave her a bow.
You could be a lot less of a principled guy, and I’d be happier. Biting her lip, she moved to the deceptively thin mattress, which had the capability of acting like a regular mattress, as far as protecting the occupant from the cold bumpy stone underneath them. He curled up behind her, one arm over her waist to hold her close so neither of them rolled off the narrow pad, and she drifted off to sleep despite the many troubling worries crowding her mind.
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