by Imogene Nix
“And you just let me.”
They stared at one another and all sorts of recriminations swarmed through her body. How could she kiss an alien? Betray her species? And how could she still crave his touch?
“Why did you stop?” she asked, biting her lip. She hated the fact she was so weak.
“Because you deserve something better than a bed of dirt.” He sighed and ran a hand through his mop of dark hair. “Besides, we just found each other again. It’s been thirteen years, Freya. We need to learn about each other again, not to mention the fact I want you to believe that I am Kory.”
Freya took a deep breath. “Then tell me what happened to you.”
He squeezed her hand. “Let’s get on the road. I can explain everything to you as we head back to the mountain.”
“The mountain. I don’t think I want to return to that desolate place.”
“Not anymore. My brothers and I staged a coup. We took the mountain and freed the people inside.”
It was more than her brain could assimilate, at least not until she had proper time to cool her libido and digest all of what he said. First, he wanted her to believe that Kory had been turned into some hybrid alien, that humans were fighting back against the TEV, and now, the mountain had been liberated?
“What happened to those warriors?” she asked.
“When the generator blew it destroyed the emitters.” He turned his head to look at her. “No more TEV, at least in this sector.”
“I don’t know what to think,” she admitted. “I don’t know what to believe.”
“Believe in me.”
“I want to.” Her gaze roved over his vastly changed features. “I just think it’s too good to be true.”
He gave her a sad little smile and tugged her to stand. “Come. I have two days to convince you.”
* * * *
Night had descended, and Freya shivered a little as the cool wind whipped through her thin clothes. Kory removed his tunic and draped it over her shoulders. She murmured “thanks” and pulled it close, wrapping it as tightly around herself as she could. It smelled like him, and her body reacted instantly. Her pussy became slick as her nipples hardened into pebbles.
At some point she just thought of him as Kory, partly because she had no other name to call him, but mainly because he was turning into Kory. Certainly not the boy she remembered, but maybe the boy from her memories had died to give her this Kory. It was all so confusing. Not too long ago she’d been contemplating ending it all, and suddenly the world seemed brighter. The future not so bleak.
As they moved through the darkness, she did her best to keep up with his longer strides. He seemed to know where they were headed and his sure-footedness helped ease her fears. A wolf howled far in the distance, and she shivered a little.
Every once in a while the moonlight filtered down through the canopy of trees, allowing her to study Kory. His biceps bulged with muscles, his back strong enough to carry the weight of the world, or so it seemed. His hips and waist were narrow, tapering to long legs.
He never slowed, moving tirelessly onward up the mountain. Little by little, Freya fell behind, unable to keep the relentless pace he set. She tripped several times over unseen roots or the uneven terrain, and each time he helped steady her. Boulders peeked up from nestled spots. Eventually, her sides cramped at the rigorous exercise and her lungs burned, so she stopped and called out his name.
“Kory,” she gasped as she bent over with her hands on her knees. “I can’t...”
“Freya,” he said, instantly bounding to her side. It annoyed her that he wasn’t even breathing heavy. “I’m sorry. I had forgotten how delicate a human’s cardiovascular system is.”
She dragged in a deep gulp of air and snorted at his words. “I’m not delicate.”
“Of course you are. The TEV have perfected the organic body, and although I’m a hybrid, I have far more endurance than the average man.” He looked around. “We shall rest here for the remainder of the night.”
“Here?” she questioned. “But we’re too exposed. What if a bear or a wolf comes across us?”
“I can handle a bear or a wolf,” he assured her.
Looking him over, she had no doubt he could indeed fell a vicious animal.
He cleared a small area for them to sit and rest, and she happily collapsed in a tired heap. From one of the pockets on his pants, he pulled out some type of pressed rectangular bar that didn’t look at all appetizing. Since she was too tired to be picky, she ate it. It had a chalky, unpalatable texture, but she needed food and had learned long ago not to be choosy. When she swallowed the last bite, she felt better since her belly was no longer complaining.
Then he made a make-shift bed out of grass and leaves. He lay down and opened his arms for her to join him. He might be her Kory, but she still hesitated for a moment before snuggling up to him. She wasn’t used to sleeping with men, even if it was to keep warm and protected.
A sliver of moonlight touched through the trees, and gradually she relaxed into Kory. As she stared up at the night sky, awareness of how big and strong he was seeped into her consciousness.
“Can you now tell me what happened to you?” she asked, breaking the quietness.
“After you left, I was recruited for the mines,” he replied. “For ten years, day in and day out, I pulled out the minerals the TEV wanted. My father got sick and died, leaving my mother alone. She was working in the processing rooms, refining the stuff the miners dug out, but she was getting slower with age. Her production rate was dropping. So I went to the scientists and made a deal—her exemption from work and penalties if I donated myself to them. They accepted.”
Freya bit her lip. The mines were horrible, but the scientists were the tales parents told children to scare them into being good. They were the boogeyman come to life.
“I remember being in a room, being terrified,” he said. “They assured me it wouldn’t hurt, but I didn’t believe them. They gave my body a virus, one that changed my genetic structure, but for it to take effect, I had to die.”
His words hurt her heart. She wanted to weep for the pain he must have went through.
“My leader, Niah, was the first the procedure succeeded on. He had something in his blood that helped the reanimation process, although I don’t know what. I understand the underlying genetics information, but my real skill lies with weapons technology.”
“Is that how you brought down the generator force field?”
“Yes. I hacked the system and shut it down.”
“I’m surprised there weren’t guards,” she murmured.
“Because of the force field, the TEV didn’t feel guards were necessary.” He snorted. “They will soon learn that their hybrid experimentation did not give them the results they hoped for. We have managed to secure the mountain and bring down this generator. Soon, we take back our planet, one sector at a time.”
Freya thought that was slightly ambitious, but his steely determination was infectious. She was willing to join the resistance, to help rescue her home planet.
Suddenly, he tensed. He put a hand over her mouth and held perfectly still. She breathed through her nose, her heart thundering in fright, because whatever had Kory on edge definitely terrified her.
He leaned down to her ear. “There’s someone in the woods. Stay here.”
He rolled away from her and, in the blink of an eye, disappeared into the dark forest. She stayed perfectly still for a long while and noticed the complete absence of sound. The air clogged her throat, the tension wringing her so tight a headache pounded through her head. Slowly, she sat up, straining to look through the night, hoping to see Kory’s muscular body.
“Get down!” Kory shouted, once again rolling with her until he lay over her. A blaster shot right where she’d been sitting. Thanks to Kory, it had missed her by inches.
“I thought all the holo-solids were gone,” she whispered shakily.
“They are,” Kory replied grim
ly. “This is a real TEV warrior. He’s hunting us.”
Chapter 5
Kory released Freya, and as they stood up, he angled his body in front of hers. He flexed his shoulders and stared into the darkness. The TEV warrior was out there. He could feel him. All the TEV were linked through a neural net, and while he wasn’t connected to the hive, Kory’s senses had been over developed. Rewriting his DNA had gifted him with superior intelligence as well as provided him an innate ability to locate his own kind.
He had dealt with life as it had been given to him. He’d done what he had to in order to save his mother, knowing that the scientists never kept their specimens for too long. His only regret had been not seeing Freya once more to tell her of his boyhood crush. How he wished he’d gone with her, although deep in his heart he knew he probably could never leave his parents behind. They had chosen the path they had thought was best, staying in the mountain and working in the mines. A slave to the TEV.
The path. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, fault his mother and father for their fear. They were both dead, so what did anger or recriminations matter now?
“The generator needs to be destroyed. Do I have any volunteers?”
Niah’s words had been a request, not a demand. Kory had known it was a quick, solitary mission and he was the best with hacking the TEV technology. Each man had their own specialty. Niah had tactical calculation. Nix had brute strength. Kory knew computers. So he’d volunteered.
He’d found Freya. That revelation itself had surprised him. Scared him. He knew without a doubt that if it came to defending one of his brothers, defending his mission, or protecting Freya, he would choose her. He had lost her once, and he’d be damned if he’d lose her again.
“Freya, go to that tree and stay behind it,” he said, pointing to a huge oak not too far away. Without hesitation, she obeyed his command.
Something shifted, the barest hint of a disturbed leaf, but it was enough for him to take heed and track. It led him near a pile of boulders ringed in a half circle. The warrior waited for him.
“You have betrayed us,” the TEV warrior said, speaking in his native tongue.
Kory pulled his blaster from his belt and answered in the same language. “You sound surprised.”
“I do not understand. The TEV are superior in every way. Why would you help the weak?”
“Humans are not weak.”
“They are no match for the TEV.”
Kory faced the warrior and fired a shot, but the energy blast was absorbed by the force field that encircled the warrior’s body. Kory dove to the side as the TEV leveled his gun and deployed a returning bolt.
Hoping Freya kept away, Kory put his blaster back. It would be useless at this point. Instead, he turned on the small computer console on his wrist and began searching for the processor that generated the field. The warrior wasn’t connected to the TEV since the generator had blown, which meant he’d been out there on a separate mission, and if there was one warrior there might be others. The main body of the TEV armada had already moved on to conquer the next world, leaving behind a small contingent. They relied heavily on the holo-solids to hold their vanquished planets, but that didn’t mean there weren’t real warriors scattered about.
Another blast came and Kory ducked. He only needed another moment. Then, with the sound of a computer powering down, the force field broke. The warrior looked at his own computer armband and tried to counteract Kory’s hack. He frowned when he failed to resurrect the field, and then he raised his blaster to fire. Kory had already moved, running and tackling the TEV to the ground. He might have muscles and strength, but the warrior had been fighting all his life. Kory tried to grab the blaster out of his hand, but all he managed to do was knock it away. As they rolled to their feet, both were weaponless.
Or, not precisely weaponless. The warrior brought forth a knife, so Kory grabbed the two that hung on his belt and twirled them around his hands as he crouched into a fighting stance.
“I am confused as to why you would choose the humans,” the TEV warrior told him.
“You’re not programmed to be confused,” Kory replied.
“I am a cyborg. I can feel confusion.”
Kory wasn’t interested in talking. He attacked, but the warrior knocked his thrust aside and swung out with his other fist. It hit Kory squarely on the jaw, and he stumbled back. The warrior took a downward swipe. Kory flipped his left knife around to catch the attack against the steel of his blade. The blade skittered off the other, allowing Kory a few seconds to regain his footing.
Still with the left one flipped, he used the end of the hilt to strike. The jab hit the warrior in the face, which caused him to stumble back. Blindly, he swung his knife up in a defensive move.
Kory fell back and took a deep, settling breath. The warrior spat blood and charged straight at him, swinging hard and fast. He was angry, the rage clear in his eyes. Over and over he pounded Kory until he had to fall back even more. Kory ducked and threw a stone that rested nearby. The warrior swatted it aside and retaliated by flicking his wrist. The sharp blade danced across Kory’s face, and a thin line of blood beaded and slid down his cheek.
Kory blinked and brought his hand up to wipe the blood, smearing it around his fingertips. His heart pounded at the thought that if he failed, if he died at the hands of this warrior, Freya would also die. And that he could not allow.
Wiping his blood on his shirt, he crouched and again circled both knives to flex his wrists. The TEV dashed forward, and Kory caught the arm as it arched toward him. He twisted his wrist to keep the blade immobile then used his fist to knock the warrior off balance. He stumbled back and Kory followed, relentless. He kept on the attack, stabbing his blades as a series of jabs and punches. The warrior returned each measure with a strong one of his own.
By this time it was clear to Kory that they were evenly matched in tactics, so the fight became more of a punching and kicking match than knife play. The warrior spun under one of Kory’s solid punches and managed to kick out with a leg. The shot caught Kory sideways in his ribs and sent him to the ground in a groan of pain. He rolled inward, putting one arm around his middle to protect his injured side.
But the warrior didn’t go in for the kill. He stood looking down at him.
“My orders are not to kill you. I am to capture you for deprograming.”
Kory looked up, his face twisted with pain. “Go to hell,” he spat.
The skittering of rocks had them both turning to the outcropping of boulders. Kory pushed himself up on one elbow and followed the TEV’s line of vision. Freya stood there, brandishing the warrior’s discarded blaster. Even in the moonlight he could see she was terrified. The weapon wobbled in her hand.
“No,” Kory whispered. His heart sunk. Why didn’t she stay hidden? Stay safe? “Get down, Freya!”
The warrior looked back at him and cocked his head. Kory was afraid of what the TEV warrior saw in his face in that instant. In the blink of an eye, the TEV warrior brought his knife back and let it fly. Freya fell out of sight with a cry of pain.
Kory let out a bellow of rage and sank both his knives into the warrior’s stomach. The TEV gasped and collapsed. Kory scrambled to his feet, ignoring the bruised twinge in his ribs, and hurried over to Freya. Fear and rage poured through him, and his heart almost stopped as he saw her supine body lying completely still.
“No,” he muttered. “No! Freya!”
As soon as he reached her side, she sat up.
“Did you get him?”
Kory had the distinct feeling of his jaw dropping, but all his thoughts scattered in the wind. All he could do was look at her, check her over to make sure she wasn’t hurt, and then haul her into his arms to crush her to his chest.
“Kory, I’m fine,” she said in a muffled voice.
“I thought his blade had hurt you.”
“You don’t live as long as I have in this world without learning how to duck,” she replied as she pushed away from him.
“Is he dead?”
“Very soon he will be,” Kory promised. “The TEV have cybernetic brains, but the rest of them is organic.”
“Let’s make sure. I don’t relish the thought of having him survive to hunt us again.”
Kory helped her up but kept her hand firmly entrenched in his. They made their way back to the fallen TEV warrior who stared at them in a mixture of pain and confusion.
“I knew she was your reason,” the warrior whispered. Blood poured from his wounds like an inky black river.
“She is my woman,” Kory told him coldly. “I will always fight for her.”
The warrior tried to nod, but it seemed the effort was too much. He stared at them until the life in his eyes faded. Kory bent, removed his knives, and wiped them clean on the dead warrior’s clothing before he sheathed them.
“I know you’re probably tired,” Kory said. “But we should get as far away from here as possible.”
“I couldn’t sleep now if my life depended on it,” Freya murmured. “You lead, and I’ll follow.”
Chapter 6
They walked through the night, not stopping even though Freya’s feet ached and she desperately needed to sit down. The TEV warrior had scared her. Not for herself, but for Kory.
Watching them battle, despair had sliced through her when she saw the warrior standing over Kory and she thought he was ready for the kill. She had been desperate to help Kory. In that moment she had realized her need to fight back, so she’d picked up the blaster and had stared down the warrior who could end her in the blink of an eye.
The knife had missed her by a hair, and she’d stared up at the star-filled night, heart thundering in relief. When Kory had cried her name, full of pain and despair, something clicked in her heart, as if it recognized the person who held the other half. It was tremendously stupid to believe the alien, to get her hopes up that Kory had somehow found his way back to her side, but all her hesitation and disbelief abruptly melted away. The revelation startled her.
Freya hadn’t said anything to him. She simply pushed on, once again following him, and took comfort in the fact that they were together. As dawn crested the horizon and strands of gold bathed over the land, Kory halted. He pointed to a cave that sat back a distance.
