Quill Police Corporation was written on their bellies.
Two deviated to examine the molloks.
The one remaining with them played a deadpan message. “Due to snipercam recordings, you are cleared of legal implications. Your identities have been registered. Please deposit the weapon and go about your business. Our records show you are scheduled to leave this planet. Be there, or be arrested for loitering, or worse.”
Led lowered his gun to the ground then held up his hands. “Done. Let’s go get our stuff, Thorn.”
The molloks down the road had been sprayed with something by the drones and were looking unhappy, writhing about, screeching.
She pointed. “What are they –”
“Come! Ignore that unless you want us treated the same.”
What gear was there to rescue?
Her coat apparently. His jacket. A few smaller things like a bag he slung over his shoulder. Those were theirs?
She expected new transport but he took her hand after dressing her in the red coat and led her down the street then through a few others. Police flitters screamed overhead. By then her head was getting even less together. Places she looked at were smudging when she stared. Her feet were stumbling over things she couldn’t see.
Finally he turned toward an alleyway in the shadows behind a fountain – two tall stories of sculpture. Neck wobbling as she was towed past, Thorn studied the artistic installation. She was pretty sure a giant was portrayed in the stone and he was peeing to create the waterfall.
Led stopped between a pair of high, sky-clutching edifices of shininess and lit-up ads...evening was coming, and he gently set his hand against the side of her face.
“Are you okay?”
Thorn blinked at him, swaying, knowing she wasn’t normal. “What did you give me?”
“A dose of the agruth drug. One of them. One is left. It seemed wise. You were going into full on whatever it is you do, and I had no other choice.”
“Ahhh. So that’s why I could make the noodle ummm orgy thing.”
“Yes. I’m going to call a flitter cab, but first I need to take care of you – take care of things that won’t be possible in a cab.”
“Oh?”
His thumb wiped away a hint of tears at the corner of her eye, tears she hadn’t known she’d lost. “This drug, I don’t think Fiana even knows all about what it might do to you. Seems as if it gives you control, but for how long? And what side effects? It’s designed for a male siren. So... I’m worried.”
He lowered himself to his knees and, with his hand to her belly, pushed her back until she solidly bumped into the wall of the building.
She let out a soft oof. “Hey, hey, hey. What’s this?”
He wriggled her pants down to her ankles and beyond, pulling her legs out entirely after removing her boots. “What do you think? I’m finishing fucking you. If I don’t do this, bad things will happen. Your eyes have ruptured blood vessels. Some of your skin has too. I’m hoping this will calm you.”
Thorn giggled. Sex to calm her?
He laid his palm on her thigh. Far too near her pussy. Luscious, liquid heat spread from where his skin touched hers, and she squirmed, whimpering as she pushed herself forward, wanting that hand to move.
“You’re falling apart.”
“This isn’t the place for sex.” But her fingers weren’t in his hair or doing anything vaguely like stopping him; they were flat against the wall, trying to get a grip on the rocklike material, because her body wanted to stay right here. Because...sex.
She wanted it, wanted to jam him against her, make him fuck her, could imagine those double cocks pushing up into her, again and again.
Oh fuck, her mouth was open and she was moaning.
And yet, she shouldn’t want it because she was a good s’kar.
“No sex?” His hands ran all the long way up the outsides of her legs as he stood, so slow it was almost reverent and took her breath away as she waited for him to arrive at eye level. “You’re sure?”
But he was taller than her, and was looking down at her biting her lip. Not fair.
It was a little hard to talk. “Mm. That. Yes.” Had she just said yes or no to his question?
“But you’re all naked.” His deep male tone rumbled into her, into her muddled brain, stirring her pussy, and without pants on she wondered if he could see the glow down below. It felt as if she were glowing. No clothes and this guy looking at her like she was edible.
His pants were off too. When had he done that?
“That was a trick question.” Thorn swallowed. “Fuck.”
“Indeed, fuck.” He put his hands either side of her and somehow the big teeth seemed the lesser of his evils. This was Led, and at his core he was nothing but Led. The rest was costuming, not him. She liked him more than anyone, more than she should.
“I think,” she whispered. “My thinking is a little fucked right now.”
“You sound drunk. On that power of yours?”
“Mmm. Maybe.”
That he then lowered his head and managed to kiss her shoulder was remarkable. Dalks had hopeless mouths for kissing. Then he plain stopped.
She wriggled, found his leg between hers in just the wrong place since it squashed into her pussy, and she coiled her leg behind his, then her tail, and pressed onto him even firmer.
Words came out she hadn’t meant to say. “Oh. Ohhh. That’s...nice.”
Her eyes closed.
“So maybe if I torture you I can get an answer to this?” He crushed his thigh onto her clit, rhythmically. “Tell me. If we find this geneticist, what will you pick? S’kar or siren?”
“Unfair. So unfair.” The heaviness of his leg on her. Heat pulsed and pulsed, and wetness surely dripped from her.
He levered her up the wall and nuzzled her neck. “Tell me the truth. You know if you choose s’kar, I’m gone after? I can’t be there with you, if you’re s’kar.”
That would be bad, yet... “You’re a loaner. You sold yourself.” She grunted and her eyes rolled back as his dicks almost...almost slid inside her.
“I am. For now. I sold myself but I was wrong.” He humped her slowly, poking between her legs while watching her eyes.
The huge screens of ads far above painted them with pinks, greens, blues as they rolled through the scheduled selections. Prettying this up. As if sex wasn’t a basic, primitive, disgusting thing.
“Tell me what you’ll choose. Because if you say s’kar, know this – I intend to change your mind, girl. I don’t exist without you.”
Really? She didn’t know what to say, partly because she’d lost all the words somewhere.
Led chuckled then he drew back, just when she needed him because she was lost. Where had the words gone?
“I just remembered. I’m going back there to wash. Had my dicks in the reverse position before, in the coach. The logistics of these two dicks. This’d be like trying to cram a grenade into a launcher that’s meant for flowers? That’s bad, right? Two of these has got to be a pain if you have them all your life.”
She blinked at him. What?
“Never mind.” Led let her go and backed off, hand out. “Stay there.” Then he jogged to the fountain.
Thorn slowly slid down the wall. Lower down, the wall was cold and she started to wonder why she was here. What was the reason? The air shuddered with repeated blows. Colors receded and flowed. Dust specks rose then shook with those blows. Her heart was doing that. It was the beat of her blood. She stared past the jiggling motes into the shadows on the opposite building.
Crawling hurt her hands because there were bumpy bits on the ground. It was almost a relief when someone grabbed her tail and halted her, then hauled her upright by her hair.
“Where are you going?”
It was Led and he was naked and dripping, and rippling with shiny muscles. She pressed her hand over his chest area and hummed at the warmth. Cold water, warm male. She knew him, and he was good and nice to touch.<
br />
“Not getting an answer am I? At least you crawl slowly. Say, your hair has grown since BART, a lot.”
She shrugged at that, purring a little as he tilted her head using her hair and studied her face, her throat, then lower down.
“Not that it matters,” he said quietly. “Must be a siren thing. This, though...”
He ran his big finger from her lips – she tried to bite it – and down her neck until she felt him reach her top, and he pulled that down. The air was cool on her freed breasts. She waggled her ass, lashing her tail too.
Leaves circled her, rattling on the ground, stinging her bare feet.
He ducked below her sight and she felt him suckle and lick first one nipple then the other while holding her hair. Her sighs were low and agonized – she wanted more than this. Needed. Her breathing became labored. Then his hand pushed between her legs and he grunted, licked there too, as he slowly penetrated her and fingerfucked her while she babbled some begging words. The night grew darker, warmer, more scintillating on her skin, his fingers inside her seemed to expand.
“You’re liking it so much,” he mused. “And things are scattering about below. Your powers are doing weird stuff to you.”
Without saying more, he took her to a wall then eyed her while he dried himself using clothes.
Then he bit her neck as he found her entrances with each cock, and shunted in, fucking her against the wall until she was gasping and crying and screaming all at once.
Each time he rammed into her the wall at her back seemed to crumble, pieces flaking off, brushing her legs as they fell.
The world...the world blew out then settled as she came. Muscles straining, she clamped onto his two cocks, nailed to that wall by extreme force, with his hand about her throat to keep her in place while he poured a double dose of come into her.
That wave of swelling pressure inside her...
She shuddered into another orgasm with her hand strangling his hand where he held her, her other hand clutching his side, pulling him deep.
There was a boom and the building shuddered. Something shattered far above. She looked up to see the glittering rain coming down.
“Led! Look out! Glass!” He swore and covered her as fragments rained onto the ground, smashing and tinkling in musical death.
“Oh fuck! Oh fuck!” When it was done she scrambled upright and had to check his back.
“I’m okay.”
But she found tiny pieces all over him. Powdered pieces of glassomer. A balcony above had deflected the worst of it.
It could’ve been far worse.
She bit her hand, realizing how she was back now, in her head properly when before she’d just...been...gone. The dust had stopped rising and the leaves were still and silent.
Good. Panting, she eyed Led, raised her brows. “Wow.”
“The law will be here soon. We have to get to the spaceport.”
“Yes. Give me a second.” She staggered and lay with her back propped on the wall, letting her respiration subside to normal or thereabouts. A shallow indentation, just her size, beside her on the wall, told her she hadn’t dreamed this.
He grinned and found his pants, shook off the glass powder. “Lucky dalks are tough all over.”
“Did the earth move for you?” She smirked as sweat ran down the side of her face.
“Funny girl. We have to run.”
“What’ll you do, Led, if I become full s’kar?” She raised a brow. “Cut my throat?”
“What the? No! Get dressed.”
“Soon. My eyes are a little wonky, and my legs.”
He kneeled before her and wiped away mess from her trembling legs with the dress she’d brought, which freaked her a little, then stuffed it into the bag all wet, then he helped her wriggle her pants back into place to knee level. With her boots on, he rose and considered her.
“You want my answer, Thorn Ironside?”
He’d know that name was going to make her ache and she glared at him. “Why’d –”
“You want to be what you’re not? An Ironside?” He came up to her face. “Then make it your name. I told you, I’m changing your mind. Before I had cocks, I watched people, watched them fuck. I saw how sex rules the humanoids. Without it we’re hollow people running hollow lives. It’s an essential part of us and I missed out for most of my life.
“I’ve seen things you’d not believe. Brothels on fire off the far side of dying suns. Glitter sparkling in space after orgies went wrong and blew out the walls of an orbital. Whores have more power than a fleet of s’kar ships when they want to.
“Be a siren. Be a siren outside an enclave. Be what you want to be, before it’s lost in time. Tears will never replace what could have been.”
She hitched up her pants, fastened them. “You made that up – the glitter part.”
“I exaggerated the glitter but... Okay, I made up that whole part. But I meant what I said.” Led held out his hand and she took it, let him lever her off the wall, steady her.
“Why are you so good to me? Apart from using that dress how you did, now that is ick.”
“I told you. I needed a purpose, and you’re it. I suppose it’s more than that but I’m not good at explaining.”
This was probably the wrong time for deep meaningful discussion.
Thorn stared upward, wondering how much damage had been done there. “We should get to the spaceport before they arrest us for what that drone said – loitering or something.”
He acquired the expression that said he was messaging. “I’ve ordered a flitter cab.”
They strolled hand in hand toward the fountain and she couldn’t help noticing how his hand felt in hers. Such an odd feeling. It was nice. “You are good to me.”
“Yeah... For a killer I’m doing well. This is bad for my image though – holding hands.”
A grin took over and wouldn’t go away. Cute – he was being cute.
“Only way to be sure you won’t run off again.”
Oh. Not so cute.
There was a soft squishy noise behind them. They both turned. A body had splatted to the ground and clearly it’d fallen from above.
“Do you think –” she began. “That...is that a sentient being? Is it dead?”
A flitter cab descended before them, lights blinking as it swiveled to land.
Led cleared his throat. “We should go. Loitering and all that.”
“Mmm.”
They hurried to the flitter cab.
Chapter 19
At the Quill spaceport, they met up with Jocelyn and Smorg. The strangenesses kept multiplying. Led’s words made her wonder about what she regarded as important, and among the many things she had to consider today, he was dead center in the very middle.
Though dead was not a good word – not after that body had fallen from a window she’d likely broken with her psionic powers.
Thorn stared into the restroom mirror, then cupped her hands under the stream and buried her face in more water. Splinters of glassomer sparkled in her white hair. It was indeed much longer than when on BART, and strands curled down to her shoulders. So, was rapid hair growth another siren effect?
Led was correct about the blood vessels in her eyes, though once she’d stopped cycling, the agruth drug seemed to stop affecting her.
She looked as if she’d emerged from a small war.
What was she up to? Oh yes, her orgasms were getting dangerous.
She blinked. COG 101 was her best answer there. Find Doctor S then find the genetic surgeon. She couldn’t predict what might come next...next time she came, but she could go to the next place to figure out how to become someone better.
Someone less likely to exterminate people when she O’d.
Moving on.
She planted her hands on the sink, watched the water dribble down her face.
Then there were Smorg and Jocelyn, who seemed altogether too cozy after wandering about Quill by themselves, looking for the drug they’d not found
. From Smorg’s tales they had found a few drug sellers of degenerate sorts.
Trust that sword to do that. It was probably corrupting Jocelyn.
“That it?” she asked herself. “Oh. Forgot. My mother has rejected me but in compensation gave me some money and a fancy drug?” Everyone gave her money to get rid of her. Not that she’d even known Fiana existed before this. “And Led is not the mercenary opportunistic bastard I first thought he was. I think. Maybe.”
Onward to COG 101. More sleep stasis to get there. Her head was whirling with all the facts, all the terrible things that might happen, all the glittery stuff.
Maybe when she arrived there, things would have arranged themselves neatly in her memories?
But...what did one do when the reason for your life no longer existed? She always been s’kar but if not s’kar, what else could she be?
Led was using her for his purpose but she, herself, had none. As the ancient sailors would have said, she’d lost her navigational beacon and was adrift on a sea...and there were unknown hazards beneath the waters.
She could always hire herself out as a building demolisher?
Chapter 20
COG 101 was not a planet any organic sentient being would visit for a holiday, Led decided. Especially not if you were a thwibble which, unfortunately, was his current loaner.
Small and furry. Blech.
He was a tough ex-cyborg; he could take it for a few days...maybe.
Smoke trails curled into the gray-gray sky from far-off fires. The landscape ahead was pocked with craters and small ponds of sludge. Bots from large to small in size trudged about scavenging. A few had erected huts made from left-behind sheeting or sat around in circles sharing stories and swapping power via cables. He’d listened in on some. The few tree-like structures were leafless. This planet used to be covered in chlorophyll-based forests – green enough to see from orbit – sparkling seas, mountains with crystalline peaks, and deserts surfaced by various rare metal ores. It was the sparkly bits and the ores that’d undone her.
For several decades, people had come and mined and ripped apart the surface, as well as a few klicks below it, looking for the precious things, then they’d left, climbing on their engines into the void.
Blade (Dark Monster Fantasy Book 3) Page 12
