Myths & Magic: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection

by Kerry Adrienne

  It was chilling to think that to the Surtu fleet, death was part of the standard issue outfit.

  Jidden didn’t have much in the way of possessions. I didn’t expect photos, not on a battleship, but maybe a trinket or two that revealed what his life was like on his home planet. There were only boots and uniforms and bed sheets.

  And then I remembered Jidden had grown up in the military after his parents died, each in their tragic way, and I found the emptiness in Jidden’s room terribly sad.

  He woke sooner than I expected. “What the hell did you do to me?” he demanded groggily.

  “Damn,” I muttered. “The amount of pest control I gave you would have knocked a human out all night.”

  “I was your test dummy!” He was equally outraged and intrigued. “What if your tea had killed me?”

  “I would have found another drug to try on someone else,” I said easily as I slid the door to his closet shut.

  He studied me carefully, mistrustful. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

  “I didn’t give you the tea to snoop. It was an experiment. You were out for over an hour, almost two. That’s how much time I have to get everyone where they need to be.”

  “You’re going to drug my soldiers,” he concluded. “How?”

  “As Gallia said, being in the kitchen has its advantages.”

  “But you’re not part of the kitchen staff anymore. Whether you accept it or not, you truly are the Commander of this space station.”

  “I accept it. That’s why I have to find a way to help the women escape.”

  “Where will you go?” he asked.

  “As close to Earth as we can get.”

  His face fell. “Maybe you shouldn’t give me the details. It’s better that I don’t know.”

  A knot formed in my stomach. It was my turn to study him. “Do you plan to betray me?” I asked.

  He was indignant. “No. Of course not.”

  “Then why aren’t you coming with us?”

  He was conflicted. It was funny how the war did that – caused people to confront themselves. “I’m not sure I can abandon my people,” he said truthfully. “Allowing you to leave is one thing, but leaving with you is another.”

  I sat on the bed next to him. “How long can you go on here, just watching? You despise your soldiers and think they are heathens, as we do. Is this a life you can continue to live? Is your promotion that important to you?”

  “No,” he determined, and he took my hand. “Not without you. I’ll leave with you. I’ll help ensure your women make it to safety. They will charge me with treason, but I have already acted against the Captain’s orders. If anybody finds out we have mated outside a light bond, I could be executed.”

  It was momentous to hear. I dropped my eyes and swept my hand over his. “I thought you were my destruction when all along I was yours.”

  “You are my salvation,” he said. “You are setting me free. But escaping does have its dangers. It’s possible we won’t survive this.”

  It was true. War did not guarantee life. “It’s possible none of us will,” I added, my heart heavy.

  “When a couple alters their state of being during a light bond, becoming light out of flesh, what do you feel like afterward?” I asked, curious to know.

  “From what they have told me, during the light bond, it’s like sharing one soul. You are completely exposed to each other. After, you feel connected with the person. Your instincts about them are heightened. If they are in pain, you know. If they are happy, you know. If they are making love to another person, you know. Distance does not matter.”

  “So the light bond connects you, but it doesn’t necessarily make you loyal to your mate?”

  “No. Sometimes, the soul you see in the other person can be repulsive. You gain an understanding or compassion for why they have become who they are, but it does not mean you can tolerate it. Your little blonde friend was right to try to kill Kalij, she would have been miserable.”

  “But it can also be an exhilarating experience,” I speculated. “Especially if two people love each other?”

  He squeezed my hand, his dark eyes serious, even as the flecks of light within them brightened. “Yes, it can.”

  “Then let’s do it,” I proposed. “I want to light bond with you.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked. “You have my loyalty regardless.”

  “Are you sure?” I returned, wondering if he had his doubts.

  In answer, he kissed me, powerful and hungry, causing me to fall across his bed. His weight on top of me was a comfort and my armor in this war. I moved my body beneath his muscles as he kissed me, grinding my hips to an internal rhythm. I ached for him, greater than I had before.

  I was his claimed. I was his destiny.

  The Fortuna trembled, announcing yet another ship landing within the docking bay, but it did not halt our passion. If anything, it made us more hot-blooded than before.

  He kissed me harder. His desire was uncontrollable.

  Somewhere between our kisses, he managed to unzip my jumpsuit in the back. Gently but swiftly, he pulled it off my arms and down my waist, leaving me topless. Tossing my bra aside, he took my breast into his mouth and flicked his tongue over the soft skin of my nipple as he began to grind against me.

  Feeling the hardness of his large cock through our uniforms and the pleasure of his warm tongue on my nipple caused my sex to soak. He continued to awaken my body with his mouth as he pulled off the rest of my jumpsuit, leaving tender, desperate kisses down my stomach and my thigh. He stopped only to remove his uniform, leaving us both naked across the bed.

  No longer were we human and Surtu, defined by the uniforms we wore. We were just Jidden and Terra, undefined lovers.

  “You are my light,” Jidden whispered to me, cupping my head in his hands. The flesh of his body was hot on my own. “You will always be my light.”

  He entered me, his cock sliding into my wetness. I moaned loudly, enjoying the pain of his largeness, and I spread my legs open wider, inviting him to fill me completely, to make me whole.

  Normally, fucking Jidden had an edge to it. That wasn’t necessary tonight. His hips grating against mine was enough. Feeling him thrust in and out of me was enough. It was all more than enough. As his cock massaged the inside of me, I felt a wave of euphoria build within me. My body felt numb with pleasure, then jolted with ecstasy that increased with every thrust of Jidden’s cock.

  I could feel myself starting to come, a wave of bliss shaking me down to my soul.

  And then it happened.

  Plunging himself deep within me, Jidden grabbed my hands, pinning them to the mattress above my head, a look of complete bliss about him, and my body altered. I was pure light, as was he, two beacons shining brightly amongst the stars. I could feel Jidden as if he were a part of me. I knew his pain from losing his parents, his need to impress his superiors because they were the only family he had, and his rejection of what the new generation of Surtu soldiers had become.

  More than anything, I felt his absolute need to protect me.

  Together, we shined bright, embracing our flaws and our strengths, finding compassion in each other. And love.

  I was light, but it was a love that left me breathless.

  I slept beside Jidden for as long as I could, refusing to leave his side. I was content within his arms.

  I knew the Surtu invasion had changed me, but when my being altered into light, not only did I see Jidden’s soul, but I saw my own. It was only for a brief moment of timelessness, but there was a complexity to me. I was neither light nor dark, good nor bad. Outside the light, it was hard to understand, but it lingered in my memory, like wisps of a ruined dream.

  When the moonlight disappeared from the room, I had to leave. Lucina needed me much more than my mate. Slipping out of Jidden’s shielding arms, I left his ship and returned to the Fortuna, watching the docking bay and looking for weaknesses in the patrol that guarded it.
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br />   In my quarters, Lucina continued to sleep. Her pale blonde hair matted against my pillow as her body trembled with heartache. She still wore the Surtu uniform forced on her before her ill-fated light bonding ceremony. The uniform caged her to her terror.

  I would have removed it, but I did not want to wake her. Whatever horrors she faced in her dreams would multiply when she woke.

  Moving quietly, I grabbed the perse-thistle from my dresser. The herb-stained my hands blood-red as I carried it into the bathroom.

  Later, when I emerged from a long shower, I stripped out of my white jumpsuit, and I put on the black Roman-inspired dress that lay across my desk chair. I had worn it previously to the Surtu remembrance of their fallen soldiers, but I had not wanted to put the dress back into my closet.

  Now I knew why.

  Leaving Lucina, I went to the temple, the dress billowing behind me. I walked through the gardens past the wildflowers and into the shelter of the woods where the temple was.

  Bellona was inside, still keeping Gallia company. When she saw me, her eyes opened wide in surprise. That said a lot. It was hard to surprise an assassin. She no longer saw the Terra Lynch she had earlier that day. She saw a woman with auburn hair dressed in black – a warrior goddess. A Commander.

  “You’re like nightshade,” she commented, but there was a mistrust about her. She looked at me as if I were of the Surtu.

  “We have a war to fight,” I told her. “It’s time I accepted that.”

  Her eyes burned. “And what side will you be fighting on?”

  I didn’t understand. “The side of the Fortuna,” I answered.

  “Yes, but for the women or the men?”

  I was offended and confused. I watched Bellona move around Gallia, a snake about to strike. “I don’t believe I have to answer that question.”

  “I think you do. I saw you by the wildflowers with your Surtu man. You seemed to be enjoying yourself on today.” With sorrow, she touched Gallia’s hand.

  “If you were playing spy, you should have opened your ears,” I chided. “Then you would know that he is on our side.”

  “I heard everything you said, but we can’t trust the Surtu. They use us. Was your Surtu lover truthful when he claimed to be the Lead Officer of an envoy ship? Was he truthful when brought you out into the gardens to negotiate the terms of our surrender while his men took our weapons? Don’t be weak, Nightshade. He’s using you by filling your heart with false promises.”

  Her fears were valid, but I knew the truth. “Except that we mated before we were light bonded. He risked death to be with me. He still does.”

  She stopped cold. “You are light bonded?”

  I lifted my chin. I was not ashamed. “Willingly, but without his Captain’s approval. His sentence will be death for disobeying his Captain.”

  Her mistrust turned to pity. “And what if his Captain knows already? What if this is all part of their game?”

  It was impossible to explain the light bond to Bellona. I had seen Jidden’s soul. I knew he was truthful. She wouldn’t understand without experiencing it, so I appealed to her reason. “What would he have to gain? The Surtu already have control of the Fortuna. They have moved their efforts to Earth. The light that blinded us earlier – that was their attack. They have invaded.”

  “I know. I heard you speak,” she reminded me.

  “Then you know he spoke the truth.”

  “I refuse to trust him,” she asserted. “But I will trust you. The Fortuna is our home no longer. More ships land. Apparently, the Fortuna will become a center for their command. Get us off this space station, and I’ll follow you wherever you go.”

  Her loyalty meant everything to me. “I’ve found a way to distract the soldiers,” I informed her. And I filled her in on my plan. The longer I spoke, the more she smiled, her humor cold and lethal.

  “It’s good,” Bellona said. “We have to do it soon. Tomorrow, if possible, before more ships land.”

  “Yes,” I agreed. “Tomorrow. And we’ll bring our Commander with us,” I said, indicating Gallia. “She will have the Earth burial she deserves.”

  Bellona could be wise and compassionate, but right now she was only vengeance. “The Surtu should get ready. They’re about to see what happens when you mix a Red Assassin with Nightshade.”

  In the underground tunnels of the Fortuna, at the intersection where all three tunnels met, I aimed my mini-crossbow at the target I had created out of pillow shams and weeds. The target was named Kalij.

  Like many of the women on the Fortuna, I had hidden weapons where no one could find them. My cache was in a trick panel on my bookshelf. We were all one big trick, a trick that failed.

  Not anymore. Failure was no longer an option. This time, if we failed, we died. Or worse, we would be mated to those we despised.

  Imagining that Kalij stood in front of me with his grotesque smile, I pulled the trigger of my crossbow. The arrow landed deep within what would have been his heart.

  Damn it.

  Then I shot again, this time hitting his groin.

  If only he stood before me in real life, and I was not practicing on a makeshift target. I had never killed someone before. I was not capable of it before, but I would gladly kill Kalij and his friends. I would kill every single soldier that stood and did nothing while Kalij plunged the dagger into Gallia’s heart. Not only did they fail to stop him, but they refused to heal Gallia afterward. Her blood was as much on their hands as the target before me.

  All of their names were on my hit list.

  Unable to sleep, I spent the remainder of the night in the tunnels, practicing my aim with the crossbow. I was satisfied every time the arrow met the target. I barely missed. I had always been skilled. Now the Surtu would see how skilled I was.

  “You’ve changed,” Jidden remarked, joining me from the tunnel that led to the docking bay. “You’re more you.”

  He presented the key I had left him. It was Gallia’s key. I hope she understood my decision, wherever she was.

  I didn’t take the key back. Instead, I crouched low and swept my leg out, trying to force him down by attacking his knees. My dress caught on my foot, and I slipped.

  “You can’t wear that tomorrow,” he said, holding a hand out to help me up.

  “It shouldn’t matter,” I declared, taking his hand and pulling him to the ground. He stumbled, but he did not fall. He was too tall and strong, much larger than an average human man. “My ability to fight shouldn’t depend on what clothes I wear.”

  He held his hand out again, and this time I let him help me up. “Let me show you how to strike a Surtu soldier.”

  I could hear the pain in his voice as he spoke. Jidden was taking a difficult path. He would not betray me, but he had betrayed his people. While justified, it ate at him like an infection.

  He lifted the top of his uniform, revealing his hard abs beneath. “We are flesh, like you. Remember that. You won’t be able to knock us down, so you’ll have to strike while we stand. Aim here, between the ribs.” He pointed to where his muscles covered his rib cage. “If you hit here, you’ll knock the air out of us. That’s how you can hinder us.”

  I attempted to punch him in the gut where he pointed, but his reflexes were fast. He grabbed my fist, stopping me. “Nice try.”

  I smiled. “If I had you on the ground, you wouldn’t be complaining about what I’d be doing to you.”

  Immediately, he dropped my fist. “Be my guest.”

  I was all talk, but he wasn’t. Before I could step away, he grabbed me and held me close. “Hello, my light bonded,” he said before kissing me, harder than he ever had before. His lips left bruises on my own. I liked it.

  A reckless urge ripped through me. The light between us had brought peace, but it wasn’t dormant. It was wild and overpowering. Jidden felt it too.

  Roughly, he spun me around and bent me over. There was no time to remove our clothes. Our desire for each other was too strong. He flipped
my black dress up and grabbed the ends of my now auburn hair, forcing my head back as he unzipped his uniform and drove his cock straight into me.

  It hurt, but I liked that as well. I opened my legs wider and arched my back, allowing him to penetrate deeper inside. My body shook as he pounded me, his love excruciating. I rocked with him, breathing hard as the pain turned to pleasure. I soaked his cock with my wetness as I began to climax. He grabbed my hips and drove into me harder, unrelenting, until we came together, our puddles of love blending into a hot, sticky mess.

  As we came, he pulled my head back further, and then he turned me back around and kissed me, breaking my soul completely.

  “I love you,” I told him. “I always will.”

  “I love you too,” he proclaimed, his inner depth finally winning over his flawed ego.

  I was full of bliss, but there was a weight to our confessions. With our escape only hours away, it felt as if we were saying goodbye.

  “What about Lucina?” Bellona asked me as we covered Gallia’s body in the temple with a white lace cloth. “She’s not fit to fight.”

  “I gave her some tea,” I revealed. “She’ll continue to sleep. Jidden will take her to the ship as soon as the soldiers are in the dining hall.”

  “Why him?” she snapped.

  “Because when the fight begins, he is the only one who can carry her past the soldiers without her being harmed.”

  Bellona couldn’t argue with my logic, so she said nothing.

  “Trust me, Jidden won’t betray us.”

  “He won’t reveal you,” she said. “We are another story.”

  “I thought you were going to trust my decision.”

  She sighed, wrapping the final corner of lace around Gallia. “I do trust you. That doesn’t mean I like it.”

  It was morning on the Fortuna. It was hard to tell with the stars still shining through the entrance of the temple. In the starlight, we lifted Gallia off the altar. With a quick look behind us to make sure no guards were checking in, we pushed the stone slab of the altar back, revealing a flat wooden doorway beneath – the entrance to the tunnels. One of three, including the docking bay and the bread oven in the kitchen. I used my key to open the door.