by Cynthia Sax
“I don’t have to kill the innocent.” Her lips flattened. “There are plenty of evil beings for me to hunt on Carinae E.”
“Then you are better than me.” He made that admission. “I’ve killed plenty of beings whose only crime was fighting for the wrong leader.”
“That is the nature of war.” She shook her head, her short blonde hair catching the light. “It isn’t the same as this killing.”
“For that boy.” He glanced upward. “This is a war.”
“You don’t understand.” She sighed. “But you will soon…if you accompany me.”
“I’m accompanying you.” He would hunt bad beings by her side, would meet her monster, as she called it, and he would safeguard her, if that was necessary. No harm would come to his gerel.
He grasped her leather-clad hands, giving them both the physical contact they craved.
She gazed at him. Lines were etched between her eyebrows.
He held her gaze, not backing down, and he rubbed his thumbs over her palms, massaging her through the leather, intensifying the connection between them.
Spark touched Xareni also, plucking at his mistress’s short hair, cooing with happiness. The drakon no longer snapped at Ariq, seemed to accept him.
Ariq considered that to be progress.
“Once we exit the Refuge, you’re no longer Kralj’s guest.” His gerel finally spoke. “You won’t have his protection. You can be killed with no consequences. The Humanoid Alliance male’s buddies might fight at his side. You—”
“I’ll fight at your side.” Aria squeezed her fingers. If he hadn’t found her, if he hadn’t accompanied his Second to Carinae E, she would be facing those males alone. “I have skills, gerel. I can safeguard myself.” And he would safeguard her.
Her nod was curt. “The kid wants us to end the target’s lifespan slowly, make him feel pain before he dies, but if the choice is between killing him quickly or putting yourself in peril, you are to kill him quickly.”
Ariq dipped his head. “If you are in peril, he dies quickly also.”
Another moment stretched, meaning and emotion hanging between them. This wouldn’t be a training bout. This was a real battle with real consequences.
“Fuck it.” She lifted her chin. “This was going to end eventually.”
She stepped back from him. The resignation and sadness reflecting in her eyes, the finality in her voice pulled at his heart, driving him to take action.
“No.” He hooked his arms around her and drew her to him. “This will never end, Xareni.”
He captured her lips, the force of his embrace, the intensity of the passion inside him, forcing her head back. Cupping her skull, he held her still as he ravished her mouth.
Spark shrieked, beating them with his wings.
Ariq ignored the drakon, concentrating on his gerel. She resisted him for a moment, pressing her lips together, blocking his entry. He probed with his tongue, sucked on her lush flesh, tugging on it, elongating it, reveling in her resistance, in the challenge he suspected his human would always give him.
She exhaled raggedly, reached upward, linked her fingers at his nape, and opened to him. Their tongues tangled, twined. The heat, the taste of her, enthralled him.
Spark’s talons pierced his skin as the drakon exchanged Xareni’s shoulder for his much larger one. Pain coursed through Ariq’s form. The scent of blood meshed with the aroma of arousal, the combination thrilling him.
He staked his claim on his gerel’s mouth, seeking to bind them closer together, to defeat her sadness, replace it with faith in him, in their relationship, in their future. Nothing she could show him would ever end them. She was his and he was hers.
“Stars.” She tilted her head back, staring up at the sky. “I wish we had time for another good hard fuck.” The scent of her teased his nostrils, hardening his cock. “But we don’t have that luxury.”
She pushed away from him, and he allowed her to go, dropping his hands to his sides.
“You wanted to meet my monster, barbarian.” She turned and strode toward the gates, her hips swinging. “I’ll introduce her to you.”
Spark flew to his mistress, landed once more on her shoulder.
Ariq followed his gerel. He would meet his human’s monster, would kill with her, easing some of the os khonzon building within him, and they would fuck.
That plan for the rest of the planet rotation appealed to him. Greatly.
Chapter Eight
Xareni had one great fuck with the Chamele. They had shared a couple of hot kisses. She touched her lips. They hummed from the ferocity of the last embrace.
She had to be satisfied with that.
Their fucking agreement, their temporary alignment, whatever it was, wouldn’t survive the upcoming hunt. She nodded to Balvan, the great green gatekeeper, as she passed him. Once she released the anger inside her, once she set free the violence-seeking rage, Ariq wouldn’t see her the same way.
He would view her as the monster she truly was, wouldn’t be able to banish that image from his brain.
Their relationship would be over.
But it would have ended eventually. Every relationship did.
She squared her shoulders. Spark shrieked his aggravation. The bond with the drakon, a fellow creature of death and destruction, was the only one she’d ever have.
There was no need to search for her target. He and four of his cronies found her.
“Hey there, female, are you looking for some of this?” One of the Humanoid Alliance males grabbed his groin. “I’ll give it to you.”
“We’ll all give it to you.” Another male leered at her.
A rumble rose behind her. Her barbarian was a possessive fucker…at the moment. That would change once he saw the true her.
“We don’t care about your face, do we, males?” Her target strolled forward. “We won’t be looking at it. You’ll be bent over a boulder, ass up.”
The males laughed. Their mirth had a hard edge to it.
“I’m killing them all.” Ariq’s words were meant for her ears alone.
“Not if I kill them first.” She left the main path into the settlement, moved to the right, maneuvering the action so the boys would have a clear view of it. Fires lit their surroundings. There were few shadows to hide in.
The damn Chamele followed her.
As did the Humanoid Alliance males. They called out crude comments, telling her how they planned to take turns, fucking all her holes, covering her with their cum. The males didn’t seem to notice Ariq.
She glanced over her free shoulder, looking at the spot where she sensed he was.
The space appeared devoid of life.
She’d heard Chameles could blend into their backgrounds. Her lips lifted. It appeared those rumors were true. She was envious of that ability. No one would gawk at her if they couldn’t see her.
An elderly couple hovered by a fire near the spot she’d chosen for the confrontation. They must have sought the same terrain—a quiet area where they wouldn’t be disturbed.
“Leave.” She waved her hands at them.
The couple looked at her. Their eyes widened. They hobbled away from her, relocating as quickly as they could manage.
Xareni circled the fire, giving them time to move a safe distance away from her.
Spark shifted on her shoulder, staring behind her.
“Your monster is extremely considerate of others.” Ariq’s voice originated close to her right ear.
The drakon must have sensed his presence. Yet he didn’t sound an alarm.
Spark had already accepted the damn Chamele as one of them.
She knew he wasn’t like them...at all. “Fuck you.” Her monster had four males plus her target to kill. She didn’t require any more deaths than that…for now.
“The cunt is scarred and crazy.” One of the males laughed. “She’s talking to herself.”
“She needs a cock in that mouth to shut her up.” Her target’s grin held
malice. “The male to catch her gets first choice of holes.”
The hunt had started. Xareni stealthily drew two daggers, hiding them against her form.
“That male will be me.” One of them surged forward.
She threw both of her weapons. A dagger struck the first male in the throat.
He gasped, clutched the hilt, fell over. His arms and legs shook.
The second dagger entered the gaping mouth of the male positioned behind him. He also fell, blood gurgling around the blade.
The other two males screamed. Their hands had been severed at the wrists. They waved them in the air. Arcs of crimson hit the pale sand.
“They aren’t to be tortured?” Ariq appeared, his form magnificently naked.
“That’s reserved for him.” She nodded toward the fleeing male. “Spark.” She pointed at their target.
The drakon batted his wings. His weight lifted from her shoulder. Her hunting partner screeched and flew toward the male.
“Oh fuck.” Their target must have heard his approach. He looked behind him, ran faster.
Spark grazed his talons over the back of the male’s head, leaving grooves of red in his greasy hair as he passed. The drakon circled, blowing fire.
The male turned toward Xareni and Ariq, running back in their direction.
The drakon raked his natural weapons over the male again, circled, forced him to change his route once more. Spark, being a monster, like to play with his nourishment.
The boys, standing at the top of the wall, hooted and hollered. They lifted their arms in victory, cheering the drakon.
They were little monsters. All of them.
Xareni shook her head, shifted her attention to the two males her barbarian had maimed. They were attempting to flee also. The two of them ran away from the settlement, into the sand dunes.
That way led to death. The sun, when it rose, would scorch them, if other threats didn’t get them first.
Normally, she would let them go, allow their deaths to happen without her participation.
But the first two males had died too quickly, too easily for her monster. And she doubted her target would prove to be much more of a challenge. He was barely avoiding Spark’s attacks.
“Let’s have some fun.” She yanked her daggers out of the downed males’ corpses, wiped the blades on their skin, and sprinted after the fleeing males.
“I have the one on the right.” Ariq ran beside her, matching her stride. His long hair streamed behind him. His eyes gleamed.
The male enjoyed the hunt also.
That surprised her. “This isn’t noble like war.”
“There’s nothing noble about war.” His breathing was level, unlike hers. “It is gloriously violent and brutal.”
She threw her daggers. They pierced the back of her male’s knees, and he fell to sand with a scream. “You like battle.”
“I like it too much.” He raked his claws over his assigned male’s calves, cutting deep enough to sever tendons. His target dropped to the ground also. “I’ve been hunting creatures since we’ve been at peace, but it isn’t the same.”
It wasn’t the same. “It doesn’t appease the darkness.” She drew two more daggers, slashed the Humanoid Alliance male’s face as she circled him.
“I come from a small settlement.” Ariq carved his claws across his male’s chest, leaving gouges of red. The male screamed louder. “I tell others we have the best warriors. They think that claim is due to our natural abilities, our training, the expertise we hand down from generation to generation.” He removed the male’s ears. “It’s not the reason for the claim.”
Xareni whipped her blades over her male’s ears also. “You love to fight.”
“I love more than the fight.” The barbarian gazed down at his target. His expression was grave. “We call it the os khonzon, the vengeance.” He shaved the male’s skin off, layer by layer. “It is a desire in our soul to battle, to kill and…to do this.”
He bared his target’s flesh, peeling away portions of the male. It was a process derived from practice. This wasn’t Ariq’s first attempt at torture.
The Chamele was experienced at it, reveled in it, could teach her techniques.
“The modified humanoids call it the darkness.” She stabbed her target in the shoulder, twisted the blade in his flesh. The male bellowed. “They were designed to kill, feel driven to do so.”
“Understanding isn’t exclusive to Chameles.” Ariq frowned. “Kralj told me that when I arrived.”
“Kralj understands the darkness.” She nodded. “I believe he recognized it in me.” That was why he left the daggers for her. “I can’t not kill. If I go too long between ending lifespans, I—”
“You put your claws through a beautiful female’s form merely because she slammed into you.” Her barbarian’s expression was sheepish. He inflicted the same wounds on his target. Blood gushed.
“I attacked you.” And she wasn’t beautiful. Only he believed that. “Fuck. You do know.”
He nodded, circling his target.
“You’re like me.” She stared at him. He was a fellow monster.
“No one is like you, gerel.” His lips lifted. “You’re unique, the most exquisite being I’ve ever met. But I do understand the need for this.”
He carved a chunk of flesh off the Humanoid Alliance male.
The Chamele was right. Some of the foolish hope bubbling inside her dissipated. No one was like her. Her damage involved more than her desire to kill, to inflict pain on others.
But that he accepted her monster was a miracle in itself. Their alignment might extend past this hunt. She would touch, taste, fuck him, again.
Xareni attempted to duplicate Ariq’s process, shaving off her target’s skin. She didn’t have the Chamele’s precision. Her blades cut too deeply. Her assigned male lost consciousness.
“Fuck.” She grabbed his head, lifted it, slashed his throat, ending it.
“Human males are frail.” Her barbarian’s eyes twinkled as he dragged his claws over his target’s neck. The male’s head rolled along the sand.
“You decapitated him.” She cleaned her blades, impressed by that ability.
“He wanted to touch you.” Ariq shrugged. “No one touches you except me.” He met her gaze. “You’re mine.”
The possessiveness in his expression curled her boot-clad toes.
She wanted him. Again.
“We should give the boy what he paid for.” Her voice was gruff. She glanced at their true target.
The male staggered along the sand. Blood streamed down his form. Talon-shaped wounds decorated his skull, back, ass. His eyes were wide with fear. He stank of it.
Spark flew over the male’s head, blowing fire.
Xareni frowned. The flames were too fuckin’ close to him. “Spark, if you roast our target, I’ll be very upset with you.” She yelled that warning at the drakon.
Spark, being the contrary creature he was, spewed fire at the male’s head, blasting him with everything he had.
Fire engulfed the Humanoid Alliance male. He screamed, batting at his skull. His skin bubbled and popped. He toppled to the sand. The fire spread over his form. He kicked his feet and thrashed his arms.
Then he grew still, and the screaming stopped.
“Spark, you ass.” Xareni ran to the male.
The scent of scorched flesh and urine rose from him. There was nothing left of his head except melted bone and ash.
“Fuck.” She slammed her fists down on her hips. The male was dead, had died too fuckin’ quickly. “We agreed to torture him, Spark.”
The ass knew that, had willfully disobeyed her.
“Death by fire is torture.” Ariq strode to her side, his form appealing large and muscular. “Being burned to death would be painful.” He glanced upward, his gaze lifting to the top of the Refuge’s walls. “The boys seem happy with it.”
The little monsters cheered, raising their hands, slapping palms.
&nb
sp; Spark landed on his victim, nudged the male’s distorted skull, and looked at Xareni.
“There are no eyeballs for you to eat.” She shook her head, torn between exasperation and bemusement. “You dissolved them.”
The drakon tilted his head to the side, gazing up at her with pleading eyes.
“I shouldn’t reward you.” She stomped over to her first kill. “You’ve been a bad drakon. You know you’re only supposed to play with them, not kill them.” She carefully removed one of the dead male’s eyeballs. Balancing it on the blade, she held it out to him. “But I can’t say no to you, you terrible beast.”
Spark moved toward her in a procession of short flights resembling hops. He blew his fire over the eyeball, cooking it to his satisfaction, and gobbled it.
“Ahhh…that is the secret to winning his loyalty—eyeballs.” The Chamele removed the second eye, offered it to the drakon on one of his claws.
Spark, that traitorous creature, hesitated for a mere moment before transferring his affections to Ariq. The drakon roasted the eyeball and devoured the treat, crooning with happiness.
“He is easily bribed.” She sheathed her daggers, gazing at the drakon with affection.
Her barbarian fed him the eyeballs once belonging to the other dead male. Those second and third gifts solidified the bond between her drakon and her male.
That bond would be severed eventually also. Ariq would return to Chamele, to his battles, to his loved ones. He would find a mate he could hold and treasure and protect for a lifespan.
Spark and Xareni would return to the Carinae E desert, to killing and solitude.
She searched through the dead males’ pockets, emptying their holsters and sheaths of weapons, stripping them of anything of worth that was easy to convey.
“You raid the dead.” Ariq’s voice was flat.
She heard the judgment in it. “Fuck you, Chamele.” She found a bundle of credits, slipped them into a sheath on her ass coverings. “Nothing is wasted on Carinae E. Either I raid the dead or someone else does.”
Next to be claimed was a small gun. Off-planet weapons were coveted. She would trade them for items she and other beings needed.
“We will fuck…after this.” His eyes gleamed. The male was unapologetically naked.
