Lost Star

by Hawke, Morgan

  He was forced to release the man’s hair so he could clamp that arm around Seht’s body, trapping his arms and the sword and dagger he held.

  Seht’s foot slammed into the lift’s control panel, swinging them both into an inadvertent twist.

  Ravnos’s back slammed into the lift wall with a metallic crunch. His breath woofed from his lungs, but he held tight to the kicking and bucking Skeldhi prince.

  However, now that he had him, what in Bleeding Fate was he supposed to do with him?

  He eyed the open lift doors. I suppose I could just throw him back out…

  The doors closed, and the lift shuddered into movement.

  Ravnos winced. Or not.

  “Human, you will die for this!” Seht threw his head back, clearly attempting a headbutt.

  Ravnos dodged the headbutt and bared his teeth. Seht still didn’t know him. He should have felt relieved, but for some monumentally stupid reason that he just couldn’t fathom, it seriously pissed him off. He snarled right against Seht’s ear. “Pity I’m not human, eh?”

  Seht froze.

  Ravnos used that tiny pause to twist hard, turning them both completely around and smashing Seht into the wall.

  Seht turned his head to the right, barely in time to save his face, and choked. He sucked in a ragged breath. “What…?”

  Ravnos growled in frustration. He was pressed right up against the man, but he couldn’t feel a damned thing. The scarab’s deflection field wouldn’t let him actually make contact with Seht’s body. He released Seht’s throat to reach down to his belt and thumb the device off. Abruptly, his chest pressed into the man’s solidly armored back, but his pelvis and his cock made full and glorious contact with Seht’s firm backside.

  Erotic fire seared him all the way up the back of his skull. A soft gasp escaped him. Heat flooded him and raced downward, filling his cock at breathtaking speed. He groaned in sheer lust. Seht’s sleek, muscular ass felt so damned good. He nosed under Seht’s hair to breathe in the scent of his skin. Bloody Fate, he smells fantastic.

  Seht twisted hard and snapped at him, venomous saliva dripping from his bared fangs. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  Ravnos’s gaze locked on the exposed right side of Seht’s throat and the gentle pulse under the pale skin. “Here’s a clue.” He opened his mouth and clamped down hard on the side of Seht’s neck. His fangs had been filed down, but the force of his bite was more than strong enough to break the tender skin. Sweet copper slid across his tongue. He released his bite to lap at the tears his front teeth had left behind.

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  Seht shuddered in Ravnos’s arms, and his eyes widened. “Venom?” His dark pupils dilated wide, the blue pushed back to become little more than slender rings around pits of darkness. “Your scent…rehkyt?”

  He couldn’t help but grin. “Surprise.”

  “Who…?” Seht twisted hard to face Ravnos.

  Ravnos let him turn around but grabbed Seht’s wrists, pinning his hands above his head, the weapons splaying against the lift wall. He shoved a knee between Seht’s legs and pressed inward. The unmistakable bulge of Seht’s heavily aroused cocks pressed right up against his own erection. The raw pleasure forced a groan from his throat.

  Seht didn’t struggle, merely looked up at the taller and broader male. His gaze narrowed on Ravnos’s face, clearly searching for something. “You can’t be… But your scent…” His eyes widened, and his lips parted. His spoke in the softest of whispers.

  “Aubrey?”

  Ravnos smiled. “Long time no see.”

  “Mother Night…” Seht lunged up on his toes to press his mouth against Ravnos’s.

  Ravnos parted his lips to engage Seht in an eager and ferocious biting kiss, teeth clicking against teeth, tongue battling tongue. This… this was what he’d been waiting for. He angled his head, pressing Seht back against the wall, belly to belly, grinding his erection against Seht’s. The rich musk of lust filled the tiny space.

  Seht turned his head away, breaking the kiss and panting for breath. “I thought I was imagining it, your scent. I could only catch the smallest hint under the stink of humans.”

  Ravnos pressed his lips to Seht’s exposed jawline and swept his tongue along it.

  “Comes from living among them.”

  Seht snorted and tugged his wrists. “Release my hands.”

  Ravnos grinned against Seht’s throat. “But I kind of like you like this. I like the way feel against me.” He bit down lightly on the long muscle and massaged it with his tongue.

  Seht groaned and lifted his chin, exposing the length of his throat to Ravnos’s mouth. “I want to sheathe my weapons.”

  Ravnos snorted and ground his erection against Seht’s. “Is that what you’re calling them these days?”

  Seht groaned; then his lip curled in something close to a smile. “I was referring to my hands. They are going numb.” He licked his lips. “I wish to touch you. I need to touch you.”

  The lift pinged, warning that the doors were about to open.

  Sense splashed ice water through Ravnos’s veins. What the hell am I doing? He released Seht and jumped back.

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  The Skeldhi prince lifted a silver brow and slid his sword and dagger into their respective sheaths with near-blinding speed. “Still shy?”

  Ravnos kept a smile pasted to his lips. “Diplomatic courtesy.”

  Seht frowned.

  The doors parted, revealing a man in a plain black visor dressed in a severely understated black frockcoat and breeches tucked into flat black knee-high boots. His hands held no weapons with only a simple sword belted to his hip, but there was no mistaking the subtle scent of metal and hydraulic oils. The man was clearly a marine-class cyborg. Behind him stood six lightly armored men in dark blue fatigues emblazoned with the word “security” across their chests, bearing electro-spears.

  The cyborg lifted his chin slightly. “Gentlemen.”

  Ravnos forcibly kept his expression nonchalant but winced inwardly. Crap. It hadn’t even occurred to him to consider the security surveillance that had to have been in the lift. Fate only knew what kind of trouble he was in for his rather rash…conduct with the Skeldhi prince. He glanced over at Seht.

  Seht met his glance and gave the smallest of smiles.

  Ravnos stepped from the lift, followed closely by Seht.

  The six spearmen stepped past Ravnos and Seht to crowd into the lift, followed by the cyborg.

  Ravnos turned to stare in surprise. I’m not under arrest?

  The cyborg grinned, winked, and the doors closed.

  Seht snorted. “They are quite likely heading to the battle you just pulled me from, or did you forget?” His lips tilted upward with the hint of a smile.

  Ravnos stiffened. He had forgotten. He shot a glare at the amused prince.

  Seht’s brows lifted, and his lips curved upward into a definite smirk. “How nice to know that you find me so…distracting.” He took a step toward Ravnos.

  Ravnos stepped back. Seht was distracting, too distracting. His worst nightmare had come true; he’d been discovered. Yet instead of fear, excitement was racing through him. Instead of considering ways to escape, his gloved hands clenched with the urge to grab Seht, find the nearest dark corner, and take him down to the floor so he could peel off all that gleaming black armor to get to the porcelain-pale skin that was under it, and…

  Seht lunged forward lightning quick, grabbing Ravnos’s face with his hands. His mouth crashed onto Ravnos’s, and his tongue plunged past his parted lips.

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  Chapter Nineteen

  The flavor of Seht’s kiss bloomed on Ravnos’s tongue, triggering shudders of raw hunger. Practically devouring Seht’s lips and tongue, Ravnos caught the Skeldhi prince around the waist and crushed him to his chest, lifting the slighter man from his feet. He t
eetered slightly off balance and crashed backward into a wall. A quick twist and he was pressing Seht up against it, one knee jammed between the Skeldhi prince’s thighs.

  Using his tongue and teeth to answer Ravnos’s kiss, Seht growled into his mouth, a low and liquid rumble. His fingers slid from Ravnos’s face to his shoulders, the long fingers digging in with bruising force. He turned his head sharply, breaking their kiss.

  “I can’t feel a damned thing through this body armor.”

  Ravnos grinned. “Yours or mine?”

  Seht snorted. “Both.” The smile on his lips faded. “I searched everywhere for you.”

  Pain speared Ravnos through the heart. He released Seht and stepped back, forcing a smile onto his lips. “I was somewhat…preoccupied.”

  Seht’s brows rose. “Apparently so…Captain.” He nodded toward the silver braiding and the insignia on Ravnos’s coat and smiled. “So, what do you fly?”

  Ravnos smiled broadly and tugged on his lapels to set his coat back in place. “A very big ship.” He nodded up the window-lined hallway before them and stepped toward it in silent inquiry.

  Seht snorted. “A very big ship.” He stepped alongside Ravnos, matching strides.

  “Why am I not surprised?”

  Ravnos kept his gaze forward, his mouth shut, and the smile on his lips by force of will alone. Every ounce of pride urged him to tell Seht that he’d done well enough to have earned the captaincy of a demon-class dreadnaught, but he really had no interest in having his ship hounded all over known space by Skeldhi hunters.

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  Seht’s brows rose. “You don’t intend to tell me.” It wasn’t a question.

  Ravnos’s smile faded. “No.”

  Seht nodded. “Wise decision.” His lips quirked into a sour smile. “You’re not as rash as you used to be.”

  Ravnos winced and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. “Oh, sure, if you don’t count charging into the middle of a battle to drag you into an elevator.”

  Stupid rehkyt instincts…

  Seht chuckled. “Well, some natural impulses are rather difficult to overcome.”

  Ravnos very nearly growled. “Fine, rub it in.”

  Seht tilted his head, and a small smile appeared. “Don’t mind if I do.” His smile faded, and he folded his hands behind him. “You have no idea how glad I am that you chose to remain among the living.” He closed his eyes briefly. “I could feel, in here”—

  he pressed a palm over his chest—“that you still existed.” He turned to face Ravnos.

  “But it is not the same as having you before my eyes.”

  For one entire breath, Ravnos stared at the man who haunted his dreams, the one man who could destroy him, who would destroy him and everything he’d worked so hard to gain…and seriously considered letting him do just that. He forced his gaze away. I can’t give in like this. I won’t!

  But he wanted to so badly, his entire body ached with the urge.

  Ravnos dropped his gaze to the floor before him. “I found a reason to keep breathing.” Moribund’s destruction…

  Seht’s voice dropped to a soft whisper. “Syrhus told me that too much time had passed, that if you still lived, you would be entirely feral.”

  Feral? Ravnos snorted. “That’s one way of putting it.” Especially when you consider my kill record of Moribund ships.

  At his back, Seht’s hands tightened into fists. “He told me that if I found you, you would not come back to me willingly.”

  Pain stabbed straight through Ravnos’s heart. He clenched his teeth, determined to ignore the savage ache from the gaping wound in his heart where his need for Seht continued to bleed. “Syrhus is right.” He looked Seht square in the eye and tightened his jaw. “I’m not a scrawny kid in need of rescue anymore.”

  Seht snorted and shook his head. “No, scrawny is not how I would describe you at the moment.”

  Ravnos smiled. “That’s nice to know.” The tiniest hint of crushingly expensive cologne and designer hydraulic fluid drifted to Ravnos’s nose. He stiffened, every hair on his body lifting in alarm. He took a deeper breath through his nose. The scent was unmistakable. Admiral Moraine—Moribund—was somewhere in the corridor ahead of them.

  Seht turned sharply to look at Ravnos. “What is it?”

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  Ravnos dropped his voice to a subvocal whisper. “Someone that does not need to see us together.” He grabbed Seht by the arm and dragged him to the right and the closest door. Reaching into the broad cuff of his coat sleeve, he pulled out a slender card and unwound the tiny wiretap. With the speed of long experience, he plugged the tap into the jack in the base of his skull, shoved the card into the door’s reader, and slammed his personal lock-break code into the card.

  Seht blinked, then smiled, showing a hint of his long fangs. “An electronic lockpick. Clever.”

  Ravnos flashed him a grin. “Merely practical.”

  The door clicked softly and slid to the right into the wall. Before them was a darkened room filled with long rows of electronic file stations. A broad smoked-glass desk occupied the back of the room under a tall window shielded from the sun by dark, reflective blinds.

  Ravnos’s brows lifted. Apparently, they were in some sort of records room. He pressed Seht before him and into the room, then turned and hit the door panel just inside to close the door and lock it.

  Seht strolled farther into the room and looked about. “Who is it we are avoiding?”

  Ravnos extracted the jack and rolled it up with card. “Admiral Moraine of the Imperial fleet.”

  Seht turned to lean back against the desk and frowned at him. “So?”

  Ravnos’s jaw tightened, and he spoke in a subvocal whisper. “Also known as Moribund.”

  Seht’s eyes widened. “Blood and Night…”

  The sound of multiple heavy footsteps carried through the door.

  Ravnos stiffened. What? Did he bring a small army or something? Stepping as lightly as possible, he backed away from the door, moving deeper into the shadowed room.

  The backs of his knees came in contact with the smoked-glass desk.

  Seht’s hand closed on his shoulder.

  Ravnos turned and eyed the prince. He didn’t know what kind of detection equipment Moraine had with him, but the most basic of marine-class cyborg sensors could read how many people occupied a room that wasn’t shielded against them. There was no way in hell that even the lowest-ranking cyborg out there wouldn’t detect them; anything less would be than highly suspicious.

  The corners of Seht’s mouth lifted into a thoroughly lascivious smile. He took a step forward from the desk and pressed the ornate clasp of his fur-collared cloak. It opened under his fingers, letting the shimmering, dark material fall to his ankles. He reached for the gleaming sword-belt around his hips and unbuckled it. The belt and sword joined the cloak on the floor. He grabbed the wrist clasps of his gauntlets, unfastened them, then yanked the gloves off, letting them fall to the pool of fabric at his feet.

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  Ravnos stared, wide-eyed. For all intents and purposes, it looked as though Seht was getting undressed.

  Seht winked and spoke on the subvocal level. “Clearly we are being spied upon.

  Shall we give them something worth observing?” He unfastened the shoulder clasps of his shimmering black body armor, letting the upper arm rerebraces and the attached lower arm vambraces fall away. He lifted his fingers to his neck and released the fastenings down the side of his chest armor one by one. The armor opened, revealing a skintight, semitransparent shirt of iridescent black that did nothing to hide the rippling muscles beneath it. He peeled his chest armor away and dropped it. The musky perfume of raw lust rolled from his body.

  The sight and scent went straight to Ravnos’s already straining groin. He tugged his sword-belt open, practi
cally throwing it from him, yanked off his belt sash, and jerked at his coat buttons, ripping a few off in his haste. His armored coat dropped to the floor with a heavy thump. He yanked at the bow on his cravat, practically shredding the material from his throat. His didn’t bother to unbutton his waistcoat; he ripped it apart, the silver buttons flying everywhere.

  Seht grinned openly, baring his long fangs, and clawed the front of his shirt, shredding it to reveal moon-pale skin over whipcord muscle.

  Ravnos followed suit, tearing his silk shirt apart as well, to bare his broad chest.

  He bared his teeth in a grin and threw the rags of silk, which had once been a shirt, on the floor.

  Seht’s brows rose. “My, you certainly have grown.”

  Ravnos snorted. “Good genes.”

  Seht’s grin widened. “You’re welcome.”

  Ravnos blinked. “Eh?” He’d been referring to his father. Oh wait… Seht had donated his DNA when he’d made him rehkyt. He rolled his eyes. “Proud of yourself?”

  Seht lunged forward to grab Ravnos’s face. “Very.” He pressed an openmouthed kiss to his lips.

  Ravnos’s mind emptied of everything but the warm, muscular body in his arms, pressing against his chest and belly, the smooth skin under his fingers, and the heated mouth attempting to devour him. The burning hunger that had always simmered within him and remained unsatisfied no matter how many lovers he’d taken ignited in a firestorm of virulent and violent lust. He grabbed Seht by the shoulders and slammed him backward down on the desk.

  Seht grunted but reached up with both hands to grab Ravnos’s dark red braid and yanked, pulling Ravnos’s mouth from his. Seht’s eyes narrowed to electric blue slits. He bared his fangs and spoke in a soft but harsh whisper. “I should never have left you to suffer in isolation this long.”

  Ravnos stared. What…?

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