Iq'her

by Elin Wyn

  I lay the finger of my other hand over his lips. “Quiet, remember?”

  His eyes narrowed, and I smiled and began to stroke his cock faster.

  The tight band of muscle leading from his stomach to his cock twitched. With my two hands, I could bring a warrior such as him under my power. This was true power. Sure, he could destroy things. But only I could subdue him.

  And then I brought my mouth to his cock. I licked the tip.

  “Stasia,” he growled.

  I licked quickly again. He made a deep rumbling noise.

  Before I could do anything further, he grabbed my hips, pulling me back over his lap, straddling his hardness.

  I caught myself on his shoulders as he ground my slick core against his throbbing cock, back and forth, never actually entering my heat, just teasing at my clit with every bump and thrust as I slid against him, shuddering.

  “Quiet, remember,” he demanded, and I collapsed against him, biting at his shoulder in my need not to scream.

  Shuddering waves engulfed me, and I gave myself up to his controlling hands. One stayed, fingers kneading my ass, forcing me harder against his hard length, while the other caressed the back of my head, toying with my hair, brushing it away from my face.

  The contrast, the hard and the soft, the caring and the commanding, captivated me until I shattered, thrashing against his chest.

  Breath slowly returned as he stroked down the long lines of my back, heat following every movement of his fingers.

  “Ready, love?”

  Gently, as if I was made of glass, he rolled us until I lay beneath him, sprawled and dizzy.

  And wanting.

  I spread my legs wider, feet flat against the thin mattress, knees up, as the top of his broad cock inched its way into my slit.

  “Iq’her,” I gasped as tingles of pleasure shivered up my spine.

  He froze.

  “No, don’t stop,” I babbled, frantic.

  Those amazing eyes crinkled at the corners as he panted. “That’s good. I’m not sure if I could.”

  “Just don’t let me…”

  “How’s this?” He shifted, one hand on my hip, the other arm resting on an elbow to the side of my head.

  I turned my head slightly, into his broad palm.

  Then licked it.

  He drove into me, and I arched beneath him, pressing my mouth to his hand in earnest now as whatever control he’d maintained before broke.

  Clamping me in place beneath him, he thrust harder, claiming me with every spark he sent through my body.

  He leaned over me, breath hot in my ear, until there was nothing in the universe but him, my fingers clawing at his back, his cock pounding into my heat, his scent, his taste, his words in my ear, ringing through my mind.

  My mate.

  Mine.

  There was no warning this time, no gradual build of the pleasure that crashed over me.

  Just a shattering, a tearing apart of everything, until all I could do was cling to him, rocking with his pleasure and mine.

  And yet, he still was not done. He kept pistoning in and out of me, taking me to another orgasm on the heels of the first one.

  Delicious torment coursed through me as my fingers trembled and tears fell from my eyes. I lost the ability to breathe and think and just held on to Iq’her for safety as another orgasm ripped through me.

  Then he stiffened, plunged into me even harder, and I felt his shuddering release deep within me.

  Even when he was still, I lay trembling, body still wrapped in the aftershocks of what had passed between us.

  As Iq’her collapsed next to me, we lay in silence for a while as I cuddled up next to him, then he carefully cleaned me, tucking me into the small bed that for just a short time had been our haven.

  It was finally time for him to go.

  Iq'her took a deep breath, dressed, and reactivated his holobelt. He was already by the door when he stopped in his tracks.

  Looking back at me over his shoulder, he offered me a smile.

  “One day we won’t be hiding anything.”

  “That sounds wonderful.”

  A wicked grin lit his face.

  “Stasia, you’ll sound wonderful.”

  Iq’her

  I knew it was a nightmare, but I couldn’t wake up from it.

  I was picking my way over dead trees and plants everywhere; the entire planet was a wasteland. Animal bodies mixed with the vegetation. The sky was brown, the sun barely capable of sending its light through the miasma of smoke, dust, and death.

  I was yelling out for anyone, anyone at all, to answer me. I saw no one. There was no one around me. I knew that couldn’t have been right, there were people here, I just had to find them.

  Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw three people; Stasia, a smaller human, and Roddik.

  Roddik was smiling from ear-to-ear. “I told you this was all your fault. I told you that you were why we were dying.”

  Stasia was crying, and bleeding from a bad cut to her side. I yelled and ran to her, ripping my shirt off as I ran. I put the shirt against her to staunch the bleeding, but it didn’t work. The harder I pressed, the more she bled.

  “Why, Iq’her? Why? Why did you kill us?” she asked, her voice broken and hoarse.

  “I didn’t,” I said back, except it wasn’t my voice. My voice didn’t sound like a power-mad maniac. My voice didn’t sound like someone that had lost his mind.

  “You did, Iq’her. You killed me. You killed our child.” She looked down to the child whose hand she had been holding, and it was no longer a small human walking with her, but the body of a dead K’ver boy, his legs and feet dragging behind him.

  “I’m sorry,” I cried out. “I’m so sorry.”

  Their words kept repeating, over and over. “I told you this was your fault,” and “Why did you kill us?” “You killed us.” “Your fault.” “Killed Us.” “All your fault.”

  My dream-self screamed, a blood curdling scream that seemed to come more from a monster than it did from me.

  There was an unusual crackling sound, and some broken words. They weren’t part of my dream. I clung to those sounds, refusing to get sucked back into the whirlpool of nightmare.

  I snapped awake, jumping out of the bed that I had been allowed to borrow by one of the villagers. I was breathing hard, my eyes wide and my mind racing. The dream had been so real.

  There it was again, that crackling sound mixed with words.

  Then, in sudden remembrance, I jumped back towards the bed and reached into my pack. The comm unit! The unit that I had stolen and set on Vengeance’s frequency was going off.

  I snatched it from my pack and fumbled with it, trying to get the volume. I found the volume controls and turned the radio down, afraid that it would be overheard by the humans in the room next door.

  Forcing myself to calm down, I turned it up slightly and held it up to my ear.

  “…essage.” SHKRKK.“ound…eam. Repe…is…ouhr and I…ved message fro…nd tea…ike t…s on way to l…ion…nowle…”

  It was the general’s voice. I listened carefully, but the words never came through correctly.

  How was I going to…? I was interrupted mid-thought by shouts coming from outside. More shouts came, followed by some screams, and not just from outside. Someone, the lady of the house, shrieked an ear-splitting shriek that made me squint in pain.

  I looked out my window to see the villagers and Roddik’s crew racing around. It was chaotic outside. Then the house shook and something big and green blocked my window. Our old friend Puppet Master was back.

  I grabbed my pack, my weapons were inside, and raced down the stairs. Halfway down, a vine crashed through the wall, catching me in the side and sending me careening into the far wall. I bounced off the wall with a huge thud, the air knocked from my lungs. Little stars and bursts of color erupted in front of my eyes, giving me the most amazing display of fireworks I could have ever hoped for.

&n
bsp; Too bad the pain in my head and in my side ruined the whole moment. I grunted as I pushed myself to my knees. I could still hear shouting from upstairs, as well as from outside. The pain in my head would go away, but the pain in my side was constant, throbbing, a bit stabbing, actually.

  I looked down to see a splinter the length and width of my thumb sticking out of my left side, a small circle of blood slowly growing in size around it.

  I reached down and yanked it out, grunting loudly in pain as I did so. Not wanting to risk bleeding to death, I took out a small med kit I had hidden in the bottom of my bag. I wasn’t supposed to bring my tech with me, but I had risked this. I took out a small spray can, opened up the straw at the end of it, stuck it into my wound with a hiss, and pressed down on the nozzle.

  A gray foam came out of the canister and filled my wound, the tiny nano-mites inside the foam already starting on repairing any internal damage. This wasn’t a fix-all that would repair me completely, but it was enough to prevent me from bleeding to death.

  I put the canister back into my pack, retrieved the small handgun I had packed, and grabbed my knife. I ran outside to see vines sprouting out of the ground everywhere. I couldn’t count how many vines there were, but there were only three of them that were large enough to take buildings down.

  Everyone was outside, or almost everyone. I could still hear some shouts from behind me, back inside the house. Anyone with a weapon was attacking, trying to fight the vines, but whenever they attacked a vine, it turned its attention on them, swatting them away like tiny insects.

  There were a few bodies on the ground, crumpled in unnatural positions. Even more were lying still on the ground or trying to slink away, moaning in pain. One of Roddik’s main men was dragging himself away from an attacking vine, his right leg completely twisted backwards.

  I rushed the vine, firing off a few shots before I stabbed down at it with my knife. My attack was about as successful as poking someone with a needle. I irritated the thing, possibly gave it a painful itch where my knife had stabbed it. My bullets had done more damage than my knife, they had given the thing something like an uncomfortable rash.

  I was a warrior, damn it!

  And I was in over my head. I dodged the vine as it swatted at me and cut at it again, this time using the cutting edge instead of the point. I cut into the vine.

  By the stars, I finally cut into the vine! It—bled? secreted?—a pungent black liquid from the cut. It jerked back, then retreated back into the ground, only to be replaced by another vine. This one was smaller, but much faster.

  By the time I managed to cut this one, I already had six welts and two cuts to my legs from it whipping me.

  Then, there was a sudden rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire, much more gunfire than what this group had. Five transports landed in and around the village, all three strike teams, some human soldiers, and maybe a dozen members of various ground teams jumping out, weapons hot.

  I was surprised to see General Rouhr leading the troops into battle. Vidia wouldn’t be pleased.

  However, I didn’t have much time to celebrate their arrival as my little whipping friend snapped across my back, the pain intense. I swiped at it, cutting off the top three feet of vine.

  It retreated. I took a moment to breathe before jumping back into the fray.

  Stasia

  I was still asleep when the screaming started.

  Opening my eyes, I jumped out of bed fast. I rushed out of the bedroom, only to almost crash against Evna. The old woman was still bleary-eyed, but she didn’t even pause as I stepped out of her way. She simply dashed toward the door and yanked it back.

  “You’ve heard it, too, haven’t ya?” she asked me, strain in her voice. The wrinkles in her face were now deeper with worry, and I could almost feel her frustration. Frail as she was, there was no way she’d be able to help if we were under attack.

  “Yes, I’ve heard it,” I replied, stepping outside and joining her by the garden. I had barely finished speaking when more screams echoed through the small town. “Go inside, Evna. And lock the doors. I’m going to see what’s happening.”

  With a quiet nod, she did as I told her, but not before telling me to be careful. Even though she barely knew me, she seemed as if she was worried about me. As for me, I was worried about the whole town. Screams were never a good thing, no matter the situation, and with Roddik in town...who knew what could be happening?

  The strike teams could be attacking, or Roddik could simply have gone ballistic and started shooting down civilians. Worse...the Xathi could be back.

  Worst of all, Iq’her could be in trouble. Was he safe? He could take care of himself. I knew it, rationally.

  “Keep it together, Stasia,” I told myself as I ran down the street, hoping that I’d find the source of all the screaming. It was impossible—the moment I noticed panic on the other side of the street, more yells came from the other end of the settlement. In just a few seconds, it seemed as if everyone in town was screaming.

  I froze in my tracks then, not knowing what to do, and that was when I felt the ground shift under my feet. There was a rumbling sound, one that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and then a vine as thick as a tree trunk erupted from the earth. It reached higher and higher, and then it simply fell back down like a whip, cutting through the air as it went for one of the houses. It crashed against the roof with a loud noise, and only then did I realize who that house belonged to.

  Alena and Uther.

  “Crap,” I muttered and, before I could even think twice about what I was about to do, I simply kicked the door open and rushed into the house. There was dust everywhere, and a lot of roof tiles had fallen on the kitchen counters and table. The beams that supported the roof were all starting to crack under the vine’s weight, though, and it was only a matter of time before the whole house came crashing down.

  “Stasia!” Alena cried out, coughing as she stumbled out of her bedroom. I went toward her right away and, grasping her waist with one hand, helped her get out of the house.

  “Where’s Uther?”

  “He...he ran out the moment he heard the screams,” she stammered, confusion stamped on her face. “He went to see what was going on, and that was when I heard a loud sound and then...the whole house shook…what is going on, Stasia?”

  “It seems the vines are attacking us,” I explained, even though I didn’t know what any of it meant. “It happened before, in Nyheim.” Still supporting her, I helped her walk down the street, guiding her toward Evna’s house. I wasn’t sure if she would be safe there, but at least the two of them would be able to help each other if needed.

  “Uther...I…I need to go see if he’s fine,” she tried to say, but I would have none of it.

  “I’ll go look for him,” I promised her. “But right now, your baby is the priority, alright?”

  She nodded at that, draping one protective arm over her large belly, and I breathed out with relief. It seemed like I wouldn’t have to drag her toward Evna’s, after all. Of course, getting her there wouldn’t be easy.

  Vines were sprouting from the ground every few feet or so, some of them moving as fast as whips and attacking everyone who dared stand in their way. Men were handled like ragdolls, thrown easily against the walls, and blades seemed to have little to no effect on the damn vines. That didn’t surprise me—if the vines were strong enough to tear down walls, it was only obvious that they’d be hard to cut down. I just hoped these vines wouldn’t be as hard as the ones that had entombed Nyheim...if that was the case, we’d be pretty screwed.

  “We’re almost there,” I said, upping my pace as I saw Evna’s house through the dust. Then, completely out of nowhere, the ground before us gave way and a vine jumped up in the air. It cracked like a whip before honing in on us, and I immediately pulled Alena back.

  Gritting my teeth, I grabbed the hunting knife that hung from my belt and held my breath. No way in hell would I allow this stupid plant to hurt an innocent
person. Only over my dead body would that happen.

  Instead of striking right away, though, the vine simply hovered right in front of me. I was expecting it to attack me like a vicious predator, but its movements were elegant...almost as if there was some kind of intelligence at work. It was as if the vines were examining us, as crazy as that sounded.

  I stood there completely still, not even daring to breathe, and then something crazy happened: just as quickly has it had sprouted, the vine slithered back to its hole in the ground. It reappeared behind us, but now much closer to the fight.

  “Let’s go!” I cried out, grabbing Alena’s arm and dragging her after me. Neither of us said a word as we closed in on Evna’s house, and I breathed out with relief as I saw that the vines had stayed clear of the old woman’s place. Breathing hard, I hit the door with my fist repeatedly.

  “Stasia?”

  “Please, look after Alena,” I said. Evna merely nodded, looking determined, and that was enough for me. I turned on my heels and returned to the center of the settlement, my fingers gripping the handle of my knife tightly.

  It was chaos everywhere.

  The vines were striking all men in a vicious manner, and there were a lot of unconscious bodies strewn across the small square. Iq'her was right in the thick of it, a gun in one hand and a knife in the other.

  I called out his name, but the sound of my voice was drowned by the roar of loud engines. The wind whipped at my hair and, at the same time, large shadows covered the entirety of the square. I looked up to see five transport shuttles hovering over the settlement, their doors open as dozens of aliens clad in tactical gear rappelled down to the ground. They were frighteningly accurate, each shot they took hitting its target.

  So, this was it.

  Iq'her’s endgame.

  Not only had he managed to bring the strike teams, but there were also human soldiers in the fray. This time, Roddik wouldn’t stand a chance. Of course, none of the newcomers seemed concerned with Roddik and his goons...their only concerns were the vines.