Agent

by Lexxie Couper

  Her pulse a sledgehammer in her temple and neck, Jaienna stared after it. Tears of Druentia. What had she done? The gun in her hand thrummed with warm energy, sending a sickening reminder up her arm and into her heart. Gods, She’d shot Zeric. She dropped the weapon, throat slamming shut as she saw her worst nightmare glistening bright red on the grimy floor, staining the shredded remains of Zeric’s clothes. Blood. Pools of fresh blood.

  Tornada’s fingers sank into Jaienna’s arm, strong and commanding. “What’s going on, Jia? Who… what the fuck was that thing?”

  She shot Tornada a look over her shoulder, heart a numb ball of guilt in her chest. “The man I love,” she said, and smashed her clenched fist against his jaw, sending him crashing to the floor in a crumpled heap.

  Snatching up her and Zeric’s blasters, Jaienna took off down the corridor. After the werewolf. After Zeric.

  Without a backward glance at her unconscious ex-partner.

  Chapter 6

  “He’s here.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. My sister’s here, which means he is too.”

  A pause emanated from the com-link, filling Cell 42 with the slight crackle of deep space. Bhelais chewed on her thumbnail, waiting for a response. Who knew how long Jak would be out of their cell hunting down Jaienna? She didn’t have much time.

  A slight buzz vibrated from the com, followed by Hrung Crortek’s low, almost dead rasp. “Have you seen him?”

  Bhelais’ pussy fluttered at the dominating power in her master’s voice and she rubbed her thighs together, clit a throbbing button of insatiable need. “No. But he’s here. I am sure of it.”

  “How sure, slave?”

  “If I’m mistaken may you whip me until I cannot stand and tie me to the tower in the center dais for anyone to use.”

  Crortek chuckled. “I’m happy to hear the Yrathian has not tainted your perversity, slave. It would be a shame after all my hard work and training.”

  Bhelais lightly touched her fingertips to the thin bio-metal collar around her throat and for a moment the thought of Jak holding her in his arms became almost palpable. Holding her, caring for her. Doing everything he must to keep her alive… “He has not tainted me, Master,” she answered, each word on her tongue as slicing as the bite of Crortek’s whip. “I am still your willing servant.”

  Crortek’s chuckle vibrated from the com again, smug and conceited. “As you always will be, Bhelais. I shall be there within two clicks. Do not let the Terran leave the station. Do whatever you must to keep him there.”

  “Yes, Master.”

  Another pause. Then, “Oh, and Bhelais? I want your sister, too. Do you understand?”

  Cold misery stabbed at Bhelais’ heart, even as salacious tension unfurled in her sex. “Yes, Master,” she answered. “I understand.”

  Crortek’s chuckle bubbled into a full, fertile laugh. “Good. Very, very good.”

  * * * *

  Tracking Zeric was easy. Jaienna just followed the trail of blood.

  His path led deeper down the service corridor, heading into the guts of the space station. The damp smell of disuse and neglect threaded through her breath, cut by a musky scent she knew leeched from the werewolf. It sliced at her being. If the ever-growing splatters of blood on the floor didn’t speak of Zeric’s condition, the smell of it on the air did. Druentia wept. She’d done that to him. She’d shot him.

  And if you hadn’t? Would you be dead? Tornada too? Or would Raq have killed Zeric as Zeric tore your Bliss-fueled flesh apart?

  She didn’t have an answer.

  Shoving Zeric’s blaster into her trousers at the small of her back, her own tucked away in its holster on her thigh, Jaienna continued along the dim passageway, peering into the reaching shadows. When she found him—whether man or beast—she wanted him to see she meant him no harm.

  What? Apart from shooting him already, you mean?

  Jaienna scowled at the thought. Gods, let her find him alive.

  All around her, the shadows of the passageway loomed and stretched, as though to strangle the dim glow cast from the grime-covered lights. It made seeing any more than four steps ahead almost impossible. All she had to go on was Zeric’s blood, and like a double-edged sword, there was plenty of that to see.

  A chill rippled up her spine and over her scalp, making her hair feel alive and she sped up, heart thumping so hard in her chest she swore the space station shuddered with its force. If she found Zeric dead…

  A growl sounded before her in the dark—so low she almost missed it. By the gods, thank y—

  A black shape stirred in the gloom and suddenly the werewolf stepped toward her.

  Jaienna’s breath caught. “Zeric, it’s me.” She held out her hands, wanting him to see them empty. “I’m alone.”

  The werewolf stared at her, muzzle creasing as it bared teeth long and sharp.

  “I didn’t want to shoot you, Zeric,” she said, her heart trying to pound its way out of her chest. “But if I didn’t, Tornada would have.”

  The werewolf growled again, bristles raised.

  Jaienna took a step forward, smelling the coppery tang of blood in the air. “If Tornada shot you, you’d be dead now. I couldn’t let that happen.” She gave a short little laugh, mouth dry. “I kinda like the idea of you being alive.”

  The beast stared at her, motionless. She took another step forward, right hand extended, fingertips almost brushing the stiff white whiskers of the animal’s muzzle. A deep gnarr rumbled in its chest and it took a step backward, shoulders bunched, haunches dropping.

  Jaienna’s throat slammed shut. “Zeric?”

  For a moment, it didn’t move. Its golden eyes held hers. And then, neck arching into a savage bow, it threw back its head and howled.

  Tormented grief drilled into Jaienna’s head. Loud. Agonizing. Eyes squeezed shut, she fell to her knees, slapping her hands to her ears. “Merciful Goddess.” she cried. “Zeric, I’m sorry.”

  The howl continued. Louder. Louder. Louder. Until it was Zeric’s scream that filled the passageway. Zeric’s tortured, horrified scream. Not the beast’s.

  Naked, trembling and drenched in sweat, he stared down at her, chest heaving, nostrils flaring. “You bring out the worst in me, Jaienna Ti. And the worst is a killer.”

  Jaienna climbed to her feet, refusing to look away. “I’ve known more than one killer in my life, Zeric Artos, and I’ve never counted you as—”

  Ripping agony suddenly etched Zeric’s face, killing Jaienna’s words. A shudder wracked his body and, bright red blood bursting from a hideous wound low in his stomach, he pitched forward and collapsed to the floor. As still as death.

  She dropped to the passageway’s filthy floor, staring at his motionless form. Druentia wept, was he breathing?

  Limbs askew, he lay sideways, matted hair hiding his face, the oozing wound on his side red, violent and angry. “Curse you, Zeric,” she whispered, touching his shoulder with trembling fingers. “Please be alive.”

  A soft, almost inaudible moan answered her and she choked back a sob of relief. “Oh, thank you, Druentia. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” With infinite care, she rolled him to his back, worry pressing on her chest. Another moan slipped from his lips and she flinched, guilt stabbing into her gut.

  She ran a worried inspection over his body, hissing in a sharp breath when she reached his stomach. The pulse-pistol’s charge had struck him just above his right hip, an ugly wound larger than her fist now eating at his side. Swollen and raw, it leaked blood and pus, staining the scorched flesh surrounding it, flesh still covered in fine, gray fur. Guilt stung her again and she reached out, touching the blistered skin. “I need to get you to a doctor,” she muttered, looking around the dim corridor for something, anything, to dress the wound with.

  Nothing. Just grime-coated, neglected equipment and forgotten components.

  “Shit.”

  They were in the guts of the space station, and she knew
nothing about Terran anatomy. Even less about the anatomy of the beast Zeric became. Who would know that? Worry gnawed at her, a ravenous creature starved of sustenance. What was she going to do?

  Sliding one heavy, muscled arm around her shoulder, she stood, pulling Zeric’s limp body with her. She had to move him. Get him somewhere clean and bright so she could see the Jjor pistol’s devastation more clearly. She had to get him someplace safe before Tornada regained consciousness and came after her. If he found her—if he found Zeric—who knew what he ex-partner and one-time lover would do? After seeing Zeric change into a animal unlike any in the two Boundaries, after being attacked by it… A shiver raced up Jaienna’s spine. Tornada would not let Zeric walk away. It wasn’t in his nature.

  Just as it isn’t in his nature to lie, no matter how much you wished it were. He told you the truth back there. That he was going to renounce his title for you. What are you going to do about it?

  Nothing. Not yet. She pushed deeper down the corridor, the heat from Zeric’s body wrapping around her like a suffocating blanket, his massive weight almost too heavy to bear. Her muscles screamed in protest but she ignored them. She had to get him somewhere safe. Her muscles could just shut the fuck up and deal with it.

  Five steps later she found a room.

  Small and cluttered with outmoded equipment, it was far from perfect. But it had a door, a light and a bench, and—if she could access its data-terminal—an internal com-link. As soon as she knew Zeric was stable, she’d hot-wire the thing and get a doctor down here.

  She crossed the threshold and lowered Zeric to the bench, relief sweeping through her limbs the moment his weight left her body. She straightened, fists pushed to the small of her back as she looked around the little room. What she needed first was something to stop the blood.

  A sharp groan jerked her attention back to Zeric and she dropped to her knees, shooting a worried look at the—

  Stunned disbelief shot through her.

  The wound was gone. Completely. Replaced by a dull red smudge, as if someone had painted Zeric’s flesh with red dye and then partially rubbed the liquid away, and even that mark seemed to fading as she stared at it.

  Jaienna’s pulse pounded and she gave her head a slight shake, unable to believe what she saw.

  “Jaienna?”

  Zeric’s voice—wavering and etched in pain—jerked her attention back to his face and she found him gazing at her with that almost hypnotic gold stare. Relief and joy flooded through her. “Damn you, Arctos.” She reached up, brushing a strand of sweat dampened hair from his forehead. “Don’t scare me like that.”

  He snatched her wrist in a tight fist, removing her hand from his hair before climbing to his feet, eyes flinty and cold as he yanked her upright. “Since when have you been a Bliss user, Jaienna?”

  The question—both blunt and unexpected—surprised her. A numb beat thumped in her temple and she stared up at him, the warm joy in her heart chilled. “I’m glad you’re still alive too, Zeric,” she said, chin tilted.

  Anger flared across his face. “Answer the question.”

  Jaienna straightened her shoulders, meeting his glare. “Bhelais injected it into my neck.”

  Zeric’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

  She shook her head, numb grief twisting through her. “I don’t know, but if it means anything at all, I didn’t want her to do so.”

  “Unlike the Jjor finger-fucking you in the corridor.”

  The cold statement cut deep into her soul, but she refused to flinch. “Yes. Unlike that.”

  Contempt flared in Zeric’s eyes. “Who is he?”

  Jaienna stomach churned but she refused to look away. “Raq Tornada. My ex Intel-Patrol Corp partner.”

  Zeric shook his head. “He’s more than that, Jaienna. The fear in his eyes when I held a gun to his head wasn’t for himself, but for you. Fear for your life, not his.”

  Jaienna pulled a silent breath, chest constricted. “He was also my lover. For three months.”

  A visible wave of tension rippled through Zeric’s body. “How is he here now?”

  “The head of the agency sent him after me.”

  “And that’s why his finger was buried between your thighs?”

  The question stung but Jaienna ignored the pain. “No, his finger was buried between my thighs because my sister pumped me full of Bliss.”

  Zeric’s eyes narrowed again. “So, apart from being in love with you, what does he want?”

  Jaienna clenched her teeth. “He’s not in love with me.”

  “I’m not stupid, Jaienna. I know you can somehow get into a person’s mind while fucking them and make them do what you want—I witnessed you do it to Jak twice—but what I saw in the Jjor’s eyes was truer and more clear than the Picillian sky. He’s in love with you. Would kill for you.”

  Jaienna’s blood roared in her ears and she stared at Zeric’s scowling face. She didn’t want to think about the implication behind his observation. She couldn’t think about Raq Tornada’s feelings for her. She wouldn’t. There were more important things to consider. Like how Zeric knew about her planted suggestions? She’d never explained to him what she could do to someone in the throes of an orgasm. It wasn’t the easiest thing to explain, especially not when she’d tried to do it to him. But here he was, throwing it in her face as if it was a contemptuous thing.

  Isn’t it?

  No. It was a life-saving thing. Hers and her sister’s. They’d both be dead if it wasn’t for her unique ability. Or worse—slaves. Fucked for someone else’s pleasure.

  “Answer my question, Jaienna.” Zeric’s voice was cold, his eyes colder. “Why is he here?”

  “My boss wants me brought in for debriefing.”

  “Are you going?”

  Jaienna straightened. “That depends on you, Zeric Arctos. You told me half a day ago you wanted me to go away.” She lifted her chin. “Do you still want that? Now that you’ve seen another man’s hands on my body? In my body?”

  With a sharp snarl, Zeric closed the distance between them, his hard thighs brushing hers as he gazed down into her face, as if searching her soul for something. She stared back at him, wanting him to find what he looked for—what she knew was in her heart and his. Love. “No, Jaienna,” he said finally, his deep voice like the caress of smoke. “I don’t.” And with those four simple words, he folded his arms around her waist and yanked her to his sweat-slicked body. “I don’t want another man ever touching you, and I don’t ever want you to go away.”

  Strong and desperate fingers sank into her ass cheeks, the long, thick shaft of his cock already a rigid pole against her belly.

  Her pussy flooded with moisture and she slid her palms up Zeric’s torso, across the hard curves of his chest and into the tangle of his hair. “Then I guess I just quit the agency.”

  Sheer joy flashed through Zeric’s eyes and he kissed her.

  His tongue delved into her mouth, battled with her own. He dragged his hands up her back, cupping her face in his large hands as he drank from her lips. Their teeth clicked, their tongues mated. Ribbons of concentrated pleasure unfurled in Jaienna’s center, making her pussy contract. She pushed her hips to his, wanting his cock in a way she could not fathom. It wasn’t just sex. Bliss no longer ruled her desire. It was the act of connecting with him—of their two bodies becoming one—joined on an elemental level.

  A soft whimper sounded in her throat, and she pulled his head harder to hers. He took her tongue deeper into his mouth, his body a warm wall of solid heat against hers. It seeped into her bones, made her pussy flood with moisture. She lifted one leg and wrapped it around his, her cunt aligned with his cock denied contact by the cursed material of her trousers.

  Zeric dropped his hand to the back of her thigh and slid a scorching path up to the curve of her ass. He yanked her closer, his cock grinding to her sex, branding it his own even through her clothes. With a growl he lifted his head, golden eyes boring down into hers as he sucke
d in a ragged breath. “This is not the place to make love to you, Jaienna,” he ground out. “Not here in this dank room surrounded by dust and derelict equipment.”

  The hoarse confession sent wet pleasure gushing into Jaienna’s pussy. She rubbed her sex up the length of his turgid shaft, knotting her hands in his hair tighter. “If you think you can stop what you’re doing right now, Zeric Arctos… after all these days without you…”

  He chuckled, the sound both dirty and resolute. “Are you threatening me, ex-Intel-Patrol Corp Agent?”

  She arched an eyebrow. “You’d better believe it, Boundary Guardian.”

  He chuckled again and—before she could move—pulled his blaster from the small of her back, threw it to the floor and grabbed her ass with both hands, hauling her off her feet. “We Boundary Guardians don’t take threats lightly,” he snarled, the smoldering rod of his cock pressed hard to her sodden sex. “I’ll have to reprimand you.”

  Jaienna laughed, curling her arms around his neck and pressing her forehead to his. “Oh, reprimand me, Guardian. Reprimand me.”

  He spun around, ramming her back to the wall and taking her mouth with his again. His tongue punished her, a wicked assault that made her blood sing and her heart hammer. He raked a hand up her ribcage and under her vest, greedy fingers finding one passion-heavy breast, squeezing its swollen weight until she cried into his mouth. Her pussy throbbed, eager to be fed. She arched into his body, the musky scent of his sweat—so uniquely his—threading through each breath she took. It drove her wild. Gods, he was here.

  “Jezu, Jaienna,” he growled into her mouth, hands squeezing her ass and breast with barely controlled frenzy. “How did I keep away from you?”

  “Strong-willed?” Jaienna offered, feeling her temperature rise as he pinched at her nipple.

  Zeric shook his head, rolling the tight peak of her puckered nipple between thumb and fingers. “Stupidity.”

  Currents of wet electricity shot through her, from her breast to her very core. “Well, there is that,” she moaned, bowing her back so his hand pushed harder to her flesh.