“Maybe I wanted to die? Maybe I thought the change of scenery, and attitude, would fix it? I don’t know, but now… I don’t care. As long as Belle doesn’t, neither do I.”
“Good for you, Brink,” she said, clapping him on the shoulder. “Good for you.”
With that, she walked off, trying to get the image of his limp dick out of her mind, but finding the whole scenario rather sweet.
It was upgrade time, and she couldn’t wait any longer.
A ship much larger than Ulric’s obliterated little ship descended from above and landed in the middle of the chaos and carnage. When the front hatch opened, an A.I. stepped out. It was Ulric’s replacement warden.
He appeared more human than Ulric had, and much more powerful. On his shoulders were grenade launchers, and on his forearms were blades.
Immediately he marched over to where Pierce was resting and looked down. “Agent Pierce,” the A.I. said.
“The one and only, Pierce answered.
“You are aware that Interstellar Agents do not have jurisdiction on Planet Kill?”
“Very aware. Why do you think I went undercover…”
“You prefer to be jocular,” the A.I. said. “Very well. I’ll communicate in a way that you’ll understand. If you fucking killed a warden without goddamn authorization or proof that he had broken the law, I’m going to bring the thunder down on your fucking face right now and smash it into the ground until it’s unrecognizable.”
Pierce chuckled. “Not bad,” he said. “You’re an improvement already. Got a name?”
“Mags,” he said, in his booming voice. “And that wasn’t an answer.”
“Oh, right.” Pierce sat up. “Here.” He reached into his cargo pocket and pulled out the hard drive. “I’d prefer to deliver it directly to my superiors, but it would appear I don’t have much of a choice.”
“It would appear not,” Mags said, snatching the hard drive. “Luckily for you, however, this was all broadcast across the galaxy, so if this is what I think it is, you’re in the clear.”
“Definitely an improvement,” Pierce said. “I mean, you’re a whole lot scarier and intimidating. Are you the latest model? Never mind. Doesn’t matter. All that matters is you’ll be pleased … or maybe not pleased with what you find on there. You’re welcome.”
“I’m welcome?”
“Yes. And a thank you would be nice right about now,” Pierce said. “We cleaned up your fucking mess.”
Mags gave the impression that he might bring the hammer down anyway, despite having received the evidence. Instead, he lifted Pierce off the ground and stood him upright. “I’m going to imagine, as well as artificial intelligence can imagine, that you’re not as foolish and irrational as your activities the past few days indicate, and give you the benefit of the doubt in regards to your disrespectful tone toward me.”
“Yeah,” Pierce said. “I’m fucking grateful. I should be bowing now and thanking you. You’re right. Thank you for giving me a mess to clean up. Thank you kindly.”
Mags smirked. “Are you staying or going?”
“Haven’t figured that out yet.”
“Decide fast. While you’re at it, I’ll need the coordinates to your stealth ship, or all your credits will be confiscated.”
“You trashcans are collecting credits now?” Pierce joked.
“You know what I… oh,” Mags said. “Funny. That joke stunk. It was garbage.”
“Yep,” Pierce said. “You’ll do.”
Mags ignored the snide remark and glanced at the gaggle of badly injured fighters. “It’s a heavy price to pay just to find out if your wife stopped loving you or not.”
Pierce narrowed his eyes. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“That’s the truth,” Mags said. “It’s no wonder we have to administer the system for you. Your little endeavor has proven to me that humans surpass even the most advanced predictive calculations regarding your capacity to act against your own best interests.”
“Thanks, bot-butt,” Pierce said.
“No. Thank you, idiot,” Mags replied. “Find out who’s taken control of your stealth ship and deliver it to me, or you’ll find out just how upgraded I am from Ulric’s model.”
The Dark Mark took Pierce’s left arm and helped him hobble down the embankment. Before he could even get ten feet, countless lone wolves and Letha’s followers swarmed around him, including Essie.
“Hey,” Pierce said, to her.
Essie smiled and knelt. She used her index finger to draw in the dirt. “You’re alive!” she wrote.
“I’m as surprised as you,” Pierce said.
Essie traced more words. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Pierce guffawed. “I’m anything but,” he said, shifting around, feeling the various injuries all over his body. He paused and took in her beauty, then stole a quick glance at the Dark Mark. “Besides,” he continued, “I wasn’t done with you just yet.” He held his wristband next to hers and swiped at it.
Essie’s wristband lit up and displayed a holographic image. Pierce had transferred all his earned credits to her. Now her son could get the life-saving operation he needed.
She embraced him tightly. He felt her tears wetting his shoulder.
Pierce grimaced in pain, and Essie backed up with an expression of apology on her face. She covered her mouth.
“It’s fine,” Pierce said. “I’ll be fine. And so will your son.”
They exchanged smiles.
“Thank you,” Essie mouthed.
“Don’t mention it,” Pierce said. “What am I gonna do with it anyway? Buy more weapons? Like I want more weapons. What I need is a vacation.”
“Oh, really?” Mags inquired, watching from a short distance away.
Pierce noticed but didn’t make a big deal out of it. He just noted that Mags was someone he needed to talk with once the dust had cleared.
The Dark Mark gestured for Essie to take Pierce’s right arm and help him hobble. She obliged. The three of them sauntered into the growing crowd of admirers and disappeared under darkness.
Once Pierce saw that the others masked Mags’s view of him, he pulled up his viewer screen to check his bids. Apparently, it was Dregg’s way of communicating with him covertly. It only took a second before a message popped up. A bid. Dregg’s anonymous username requested that he unlock the navigation controls. It mentioned that he was only able to hack the weapons systems.
Pierce shook his head at that. He’d lose his badge, his creds, and his whole life back on Earth. This was no easy thing to do, even for the person who’d saved him on more than one occasion.
Dregg sent a second message. “So I can visit at my leisure, since you’re staying.”
Pierce just grunted noncommittally, without declining or accepting the bid. He simply stored it for later. “I’ll let you know in the morning.”
Out of curiosity, Pierce blinked twice to activate his AUG-I. His player profile now read that he was a Level 15 Fighter. Without all the help he’d received from his new allies he never would have leveled up to this point. At the same time, he felt a sense of pride that he was fitting in better than expected.
Letha found Pierce standing at the crest of a hill, staring up at the temple from which she had just emerged, having finished with her upgrades. He seemed to be considering life and the universe and all that, so for a moment she lingered, watching him. Then she noticed the way he licked his lips, and how his hand was adjusting his crotch.
“Oh, shit, did I catch you at a bad time?” she asked.
He put his hand in his pocket and frowned. “What? No.”
“You were about to touch yourself, weren’t you?” She grinned. “Come on, you like this place, admit it. It turns you on.”
He laughed. “It’s weird, you know? Being reunited with my wife, it’s… different. I thought I was getting it on with the others simply as a way to survive long enough to find her, then it turns out she’s into this place. Thinking ba
ck on it, maybe I am too…”
She nodded. “The whole Sodom and Gomorrah stuff, yeah. The killing I could honestly do without.”
“Don’t you, I don’t know… Aren’t you ever worried about rape and worse? I mean, as a woman—”
“As a woman, I have just as much of a chance of facing those types of situations as any man.” She scowled. “Do you think that precious asshole of yours is any more safe than the holes between my legs? Good luck there, big guy.” She shook her head. “You know the rules, that shit’s not allowed. It’s a thin line with what the bidders sometimes want, but you won’t see any rape here. If a situation’s getting out of hand, the wardens step in.”
“As much as we can trust them….”
She laughed and nodded. “True, true.” After a moment of thinking, she crept up next to him, cocking her head. “So you’re staying?”
“Looks that way.”
“I think I’d like that. In that case, I’d like us to make this official—alliance. You and me, permanent.”
He smiled, then pursed his lips. “Oh, so, yeah… What do we do to make that official? Do I go down on you, or do we fuck right here and now, with the cameras on us?”
She punched his shoulder. “Motherfucker, when I let you go down on me, it won’t be to form an alliance. What do you take me for?”
He gawked at her, totally caught off-guard. “I’m sorry, I just thought that’s how it worked.”
Laughing, she shook her head and stuck out her hand. “How about we shake on it. Maybe someday you and the Dark Mark can earn your way into my bed, but until then, this’ll do.”
He grinned and shook her hand. “I may or may not be opposed to that idea. No comment.”
“Righhht,” she replied, moving her finger along the inside of his wrist, gently, and watching his eyes flick down to her chest. She had no doubt he’d tear his clothes off in a second if she asked. Hell, if she were a guy, she’d be begging to sleep with herself. She had no doubts about her sexiness, and no doubts that this alliance was going to be good for her continued rise on PK.
“I look forward to hunting down bad guys with you,” he finally said, pulling his hand back and adjusting his pants line.
“You have your boner tucked into your belt, don’t you?” she asked with a wink. When he started to protest, she held up her hands. “No, no, that’s cool. I understand how those things work. The first time I learned that was when I was flirting with this boy. He lifted his shirt to show me his abs, and there was his penis head, just sticking up like a groundhog peeking out for its shadow. This isn’t my first rodeo, cowboy.”
“Crass… I still need to get used to that.”
“Want to show me your abs and prove I’m wrong?” she challenged.
He shook his head and studied the floor.
“That’s what I thought.” She glanced down, curious, thinking back to the times she’d seen him fucking some of the others. She let her mind wander back to her generals, and most of all, to Trunk.
Where was that son of a bitch? He had a habit of running off and leaving her worried. When he returned, she’d have to have a little chat with him about that. Feeling herself get warm and slick, she decided it best to head back to camp.
“All joking aside, I’m serious about this alliance,” Letha said. “The fortress Fireshot was using is yours, if you accept. Also, if you’re going to continue your work to get forced volunteers off of this planet, count on me. I’ll be right there, at your side.”
His expression became serious too, and he nodded. “We’ll find them, and we’ll get them to safety. At least, those who want to get out.”
Letha allowed her smile to return, then walked off, leaving him there to touch himself or go find his wife or whatever the hell he wanted to do. Right now, she just needed a fucking bath.
A while later, Pierce sat with his legs crossed on the floor of a tent as the Dark Mark, formerly his wife, pressed a grape to her lips and savored it before swallowing.
“So?” Pierce said, breaking their silence.
“Not leaving,” the Dark Mark said.
“I’ve gathered as much,” Pierce said, attempting to reach for a grape, but unable. His injuries were still healing, despite the best meds available. He stretched out with his right arm, but the Dark Mark intervened and grabbed it for him. Slowly and sensually, she slipped it between his lips. He gasped involuntarily.
She shrugged and picked up another grape for herself.
“I’m not either,” Pierce continued.
The woman paused as the grape was about to touch her lips. “I’m not sure how I feel about that.”
“That’s fine with me. Really,” Pierce said. “We agreed when we met that we wouldn’t let our feelings for each other get in the way of the lives we wanted to live. I’m sticking by that promise. But… it would be nice to see you now and again.”
“We’ll be together, yet apart?” the Dark Mark asked.
“Apart but together,” Pierce replied. “As long as you’re cool with me building a harem of my own, a clan, a base of power, and moving up the ladder on Planet Kill.”
She smiled and kissed him passionately. Pierce lost himself in the moment, thinking back to the day they’d first met, in that book club. How far they’d come.
An alert popped up on his viewer screen, interrupting their bliss. “What about it?” was all it read.
Pierce pressed accept on the projected screen. He was staying. Besides, Dregg had earned a favor at this point. And fuck Mags. Who knew if he was any better than Ulric. Pierce could handle him, he hoped. Maybe. Whatever. At least, in the present, it felt like the right decision.
Before he had time to go further down the rabbit hole of self-doubt, Essie intruded into the tent that Letha had set up for them. In Essie’s wake, Aisha entered. Her eyes flitted to the Dark Mark, hesitating, but at a nod began to undress. The Dark Mark went to Essie, glanced back at Pierce, and lowered the woman’s shirt so that her breasts were exposed.
Now she motioned him over as she cupped one of Essie’s breasts. Without another word, the four of them locked lips, swapping back and forth as their desires shifted.
Pierce realized he’d finally earned this. The most thrilling part of it, to his surprise, was how each of them was fierce in her own right. Aisha could hardwire, hack, and reconfigure all kinds of weapons and shields to fit their needs. The Dark Mark had developed assassin-level skills and a reputation for ensuring death one way or another. Essie had already saved Pierce’s life within a day of meeting him. He wasn’t just providing for them. They were pooling their strengths together. He knew this was going to be valuable in the coming battles.
But in the moment, this moment, they were pooling their sexual desires and moved together as their bodies intertwined. Pierce was a little surprised to realize that he was aroused by the sight of his former wife practically devouring every inch of Essie, while Aisha began riding him like there was no tomorrow. Yeah, he thought, I’m going to like it here.
Letha gazed into the steaming water, images of death and destruction flashing before her eyes. Her grudge against Fireshot was finally resolved. Finally. Pierce had his wife, in a sense, and had taken care of Ulric. Everything was working out as it needed to.
She could relax. She could scrub this whole experience from her mind and body, to start again the next day. She unhooked her armor and set aside her weapons. Then Letha began to pull off her clothing.
Just then, the door opened. From the darkness came Trunk, all beat to shit. He had cuts on his chest and arms, a black eye, and a tourniquet around one arm, but he smiled. It wasn’t just a cheerful smile of a friend returning, but a smile of victory, of sexual excitement.
“You did it, didn’t you?” she asked.
He nodded. “Her head’s just outside. Grinder was a bitch, but in the end, a dead bitch.”
“And what, you want me to keep up my end of the bargain?”
“I wanted her dead, and I achieved my goa
l. Anything on top of that would be icing on the cake.”
“Is that so? You’re telling me you didn’t come in here hoping to find me in the baths, hoping I would do what I said I’d do if you brought me Grinder’s head?”
He grinned even wider, and the bulge behind his loincloth twitched, growing larger, if that was even possible. “Hope is different from expectation.”
She laughed, shaking her head. Turning away from him, she continued to undress, not saying another word. As she dropped her shirt to the floor, she peeked back and turned, just enough to give him a view of her side-boob, nothing more. His eyes were ravenous. Next, she stripped off her pants and panties at the same time, very aware of his eyes on her ass as it became exposed.
She stepped into the water, slowly, deliberately, letting him watch. When she was up to her waist, she turned to face him, rubbing the steaming hot water onto her breasts. She glanced at him, cocked an eyebrow, and invited him over.
“Let’s see,” she said as he approached. He’d climbed down to the middle of the stairs before she stopped him. “I already promoted you to general, so we’ll have to be creative with how I reward you.”
He opened his mouth to answer, but she held a finger to her lips. The loincloth was at chest level, the beast beneath it pushing it up so that it was about to burst. She slid her hands along his abs, traced his hip bones with her fingers, and then undid the cloth and tossed it aside.
Cupping hot water in her hands, she took his humongous cock and began cleaning it, stroking it, eyes fixated on it. She had never been so close to it, and only now realized how huge it was. The head reminded her of a delicious plum, the base like a mighty sausage begging her to have a taste.
“I’m sure you hear this all the time,” she said, looking up at him with mock submissiveness in her eyes, “but it really is beautiful.”
His eyes were closed. He moaned, his hands grasping her shoulders, but she moved his hands to her hair, letting him grip it and control her head.
This wasn’t about really being submissive, it was about doing what she wanted, what she’d wanted to do for so long. It just so happened that he deserved it. Again she took water, placing first her wet thumb along the base of his cock, tracing the skin there, and then moving in with her tongue. She held it up and went for the seam that started at his balls and went up to the head. Letha flicked her tongue across the point of intersection, and then worked the head as if it were the plum she’d imagined, as if she had to taste every inch of it before relishing in its sweet juice.
Planet Kill Page 29
