by Marie Dry
He stared at her ears and she could see him trying to figure out what she couldn’t understand about her ears. How someone so brilliant could be so clueless she couldn’t figure out.
“So how come you do not kiss?”
“In our culture and the culture of the planets in our galaxy, kissing is not done.”
Madison wasn’t so sure about that. People of all cultures found ways to do the forbidden.
They continue kissing and he took off her blouse. She moved over him to take off his shirt. He put her back on the couch so fast she bounced.
“You are not behaving as a proper breeder should.”
“What?” She’d been having fun and thought that he was in on it.
“A breeder does not climb on top of her warrior. It is deviant behavior that will not be tolerated.”
Madison bit her lip, amused. If he thought her being on top was deviant behavior, wait till she showed him a few things she’d read about.
Madison straddled him again and kissed him. “Why don’t we run an experiment? See how deviant I can be?”
He put her firmly back on the couch. Keeping his hands on her hips. “I am not a deviant Zyrgin, I have honor.”
“Yeah, but sometimes it’s fun to buck the system.” She held up her hand when she saw him trying to figure it out. “Let’s move to our unpleasantly soft bed. This space is too small for what I want to do.”
They moved to the bedroom and he continued undressing her, stopping to play with her hair every now and then. “Would you refuse me sex if I won’t let you be on top.” He kept his gaze on the string of hair he held up to the light. Her fierce warrior, who never backed down or avoided anyone’s gaze studiously avoided hers.
She softened. “It’s not a deal breaker.”
“We won’t deviate from what is proper.”
Madison hid a smile against his chest. His earnestness was rather endearing. “I will seduce you to the dark side.”
“The force is strong in this one. You will not seduce him to the dark side.”
Madison nearly fell off the couch. She stared at him with her mouth inelegantly open. “How on earth do you know Star Wars?”
“When we first landed, we lived in the cave with Natalie, and she showed us the Star Wars movies. Many times.” He sounded as if Natalie had tortured him with the films.
Madison didn’t like the cosy picture he drew of their living with Natalie.
“So my warrior is strong of heart and resistant to the dark side,” she teased. She kissed her way down his chest, nibbled on the muscles he had even on his stomach. “And what if I did this?”
“I would stay strong.
She moved lower. “Take off your clothes.” She hadn’t yet figured out how to get them off him. They wouldn’t do their trick of coming apart for her.
He stepped out of his clothes then divested her off the last of hers in record time and sat down with her on his lap. She nibbled on his pecs. He was seriously ripped. She could do this forever and not get tired of it.
“You may try to seduce me to the dark side, and I will resist,” he said magnanimously.
She hid a smile against his warm skin and moved lower. She’d wanted to do this ever since he’d tortured her with pleasure during that first knowing. It was time he learned the meaning of the words sensual torture.
Madison licked and kissed her way down his body, taking small careful bites out of him. His skin was as tough as it looked, and she could easily break a tooth on him. He didn’t move, but she could feel small tremors under his skin. His penis was swollen and lay against his flat stomach. His unique exotic smell of strange worlds and medicine filled her nostrils.
She took the crown in her mouth and swirled her tongue, waiting until his hips jerked before she released him with a soft pop. “Are you ready to come over to the dark side yet?”
“No, you will have to try harder.” His voice was so gravelly she could barely make out the words.
Wily alien. Madison bent down over him and, this time, used her tongue to lick him from base to stem. She kept that up until he clenched his hand in her hair and tried to force her to take him into her mouth again. She pulled back. “Ready for the dark side yet?”
“No, try harder.”
This time, she took him into her mouth, relaxed her throat, and drove him out of his mind, the way she and Sally Mae had practiced on fruit on their sixteenth birthdays. She was determined to make him come like this, but he pulled her off him and, laying her down on the bed, entered her in one long thrust. She was ready for him, his entrance easy because pleasuring him had made her wet. He thrusted twice and on the third stroke they both came. She lost herself and heard him roar as if from a distance.
She opened her eyes at last and smiled at him, then she screamed and tried to scramble away from him. His incisors grew and his red eyes swirled red and black. Before she could get away, he was on her. He bit her neck and pain shot through her whole body, like bullets going for her nerve ends. He’d lied to her--they did eat people was her last thought before the world went black.
The moment she woke she knew something bothered her. There was danger. She should get away. She moaned, sat up, and looked around the apartment.
“You should rest,” Viglar said next to her.
Madison frowned down at him. “You bit me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It is our custom.”
She relaxed and laid down. She gingerly felt her neck, but couldn’t feel a wound. “Well, that was interesting. Talk about deviant behavior,” she told him.
“Do not lie, human, that was spectacular, better sex than a human has ever experienced. Being bitten by your warrior is not deviant. It is an honor.”
She dissolved into giggles.
Chapter 17
The hospital was finished with no ceremony or fanfare. Everyone received new work schedules. The doors opened to the public on a chilly Monday morning. Even with the medical units dealing with the less severe cases, they were inundated. Word had spread and people came from far and wide to be tended to.
“After all that hard work, we should’ve had a formal opening and a party,” Madison told Viglar. She’d called him to help with a patient she’d thought might have an abdominal aneurysm. A good thing she did, without Viglar’s magic box they might’ve had to operate and the operations were rarely successful.
“Why do you want a party? There is work to be done.”
With a sigh, she waved him off. “You aliens need to learn to relax sometimes. Geesh.”
He pressed his forehead against hers and turned on his heel with that precise military movement and left.
Madison shook her head after his departing figure. She’d given up trying to explain the concept to him. She’d learned over the last few months that Zyrgins worked or practiced with weapons or exercised all the time. Viglar seemed to function on two hours’ sleep. She still didn’t know if she was extremely lucky or should run screaming about the fact that he set aside five hours every day for lovemaking. And that, after she’d talked him down to three hours.
So after no celebration and no formal reopening of the hospital, it was business as usual, with Viglar grilling all the interns on their knowledge after their shifts ended. He’d made it clear that anyone not attending his grilling sessions would be summarily dismissed. Everyone complained, because he was scathing about their knowledge and didn’t hesitate to tell them they were not qualified to work in a hospital. He’d been known to offer positions in the morgue when they were unable to answer his questions, telling them they should go where they couldn’t do any harm with their dangerously medieval medical skills.
Madison enjoyed these sessions. She learned a lot and now that she’d been studying with him a while and seen his vast knowledge, she realized how little she knew. She tried not to think how brilliant he actually was, because his ego didn’t need her to be awestruck around him.
Between Viglar training
her, her long working hours, and the hours and hours of hot sex each night, she should’ve been lagging, but she never had so much energy before.
“You’re glowing,” Rachel said grudgingly. “With the hours you worked and study and the time you spend with that alien, you should be pale and thin.”
Madison didn’t like the way she said that alien. “Did he grill you hard last night?”
Rachel had been in the group designated the previous night to be interrogated. She shrugged. “Actually, he sort of ignores me. I don’t think he likes me.” A terrible, sad, almost desperate appeal flashed in her eyes. “Just like Joshua.”
Madison stopped walking and pulled Rachel to the side of the wide corridor. They were each on their way to different wards. “Rachel, I should’ve told you long ago. Joshua is...well, he recently became engaged, and--” Rachel swayed and Madison grabbed her. “Rachel, I didn’t realize you cared this much. You’ve only met him once.”
Would knowing that Joshua was gay help her or hurt her friend more?
Rachel’s smile was bitter. “Once is all it takes. Excuse me, I’m late.”
Madison watched her go, troubled for her friend. Sighing, she walked to the woman’s ward and stopped at the counter to talk to the nurse on duty. Several interns stood talking to her, but they all went quiet when they saw Madison. She smoothed out her expression. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of showing them how much their attitudes hurt. It happened a lot these days. All her friends and colleagues now watched what they said in her presence. As if they were afraid she’d run to Viglar and report everything to him.
Madison finished her business in the ward and then went to the next ward and the next, and each time she was met with the same reserve. Her colleagues had never treated her this way before. Desperate for caffeine, she went to the cafeteria four hours later. With Viglar gone for the day, the cafeteria would be packed. It was only sheer stubbornness that made her go. Most times when she sat down at a table, some of the others left, or an uneasy silence suddenly descended on them. She could’ve gone to Viglar’s office to get some coffee, but she wouldn’t let anyone push her around like that. Truth be told, she could do with the short break from Viglar’s relentless intensity.
Word had spread. Viglar had left the hospital for the day. The rumor and excitement had reached Madison about five minutes after she walked into the hospital. She entered the cafeteria to find it filled with doctors, nurses, and administrative staff taking what they considered well-deserved breaks. She could’ve told them it was dangerous to assume where Viglar was at any given time. The shuttles traveled at speeds which made her stomach churn just thinking about it.
Rachel and Viktor and, unfortunately, Sandra, sat around a small table in the corner. Madison went to join them, hoping her suspicions about Sandra were wrong. If she’d helped the resistance to bring down the shuttle, Viglar would have no mercy. Even though they never got along, Madison hated to think that Sandra would use her to set off a bomb that could’ve killed her. When the first bomb went off in the hospital, Sandra had disappeared shortly before it detonated. Madison’s heart ached when the same uncomfortable silence she’d dealt with all day fell over the table when she sat down.
“I can’t believe we’ve finished building and did that endless painting in six months,” Madison told them. It had been backbreaking work, but every time she walked into the hospital, when the doors that had been stuck open smoothly slid apart, she felt a sense of accomplishment. A strong pride in the hospital she’d helped build. She wouldn’t necessarily volunteer to ever again do that amount--or, for that matter, any amount of painting--but she couldn’t deny the sense of accomplishment all of them had.
“Yeah, I thought for sure that alien was going to work us all to death.” Viktor sounded friendly, but avoided looking at Madison and inched his chair away. He held no obvious animosity toward Viglar, but she knew he didn’t approve of their relationship. The way they all treated her hurt. She worked just as hard, if not harder than them. Her relationship with Viglar didn’t afford her any privileges. He was protective of her, but once she convinced him that she needed to work and keep her promise to her sister, he’d treated her like any other intern. Though she had to be careful about physical touch. A few times when she’d stood close to her male colleagues she’d noticed a vicious red glare directed at them. Everyone else had noticed as well and now everyone was careful not to get too close to her. She suspected he might kill any man she touched, even if it was innocent.
“Of course, some of us didn’t have to work all that hard.” Sandra studied her nails with fake interest. “Well, not at painting and building and doctoring anyway.” She giggled in a manner that made Madison’s palms itch.
Madison glared at her. “That’s rich, coming from someone swappin spit with old steto.”
How was it wrong for her to be with Viglar, who built hospitals and helped orphans and abused women, but all right for Sandra, who dated a crooked administrator? Though ever since the beheading, he’d been treading very carefully. Viglar was aware of every single detail happening in the hospital.
Sandra jerked and sat straight on the tip of her chair. “I’m in a committed relationship.”
“Well, so am I and let me tell you, I worked twice as hard as you did. I painted exactly the same hours and spent more time studying than I care to think about.” Not to mention braving Viglar in his office and begging him to let the others continue as doctors.
Sandra’s lips pulled down and her nose wrinkled. “You’re an alien lover, Nothing more than an alien whore.” She jumped out of her chair. “You might think it’s all right to sleep with your alien in an office that doesn’t belong to him, but you’ll soon realize your mistake.”
Madison jumped to her feet. “Are you threatening me?”
Did Sandra just admit that she worked with the resistance and would try to kill them again?
“Oh, I wouldn’t dare. I might find myself without a head.” Tears suddenly spilled from her eyes. “It’s not fair that a savage can rule while a good man, a man who works so hard is treated like dirt.” She swiped at her eyes with an angry gesture. “Just because that stupid alien made the hospital big and important, everybody forgets how hard Jason worked to keep this hospital going.” Sobbing, she ran to the door.
“She loves him,” Madison said quietly. She had assumed, like everyone else, that she had the relationship with Jacobson because she saw a way to advance more quickly. Madison was ashamed that she didn’t look a little deeper. She knew what it was to be judged like that, and she’d done exactly the same.
“If you can love an alien, why can’t she love Jacobson?” Rachel asked quietly.
Viktor sighed and got up. “I miss the days we could have a break and discuss our cases.” He frowned at Madison and followed Sandra.
Madison scowled after them. “Piss on ’em.” It was thanks to her that everybody was allowed to be doctors. And not because she slept with Viglar, but because she went toe to toe with him. Sandra was the one that kept making nasty remarks, so how come Madison was the one in the wrong?
“Be careful, Madison. Not everyone likes your alien as much as you,” Rachel said still in that quiet voice that made Madison’s hair stand on end.
“Please not you too,” Madison begged.
Through all this, Rachel had been the one person who didn’t make any snide remarks. In spite of Viglar’s warning, Madison knew Rachel was a true friend.
Rachel rubbed a speck of dirt off the table. “Just be careful is all I’m saying.” She got up and walked away as suddenly as Sandra had, leaving Madison sitting alone at the table, on the one day they were supposed to be able to relax for a few minutes.
With a sigh, she got up and went to finish her rounds. She always looked forward to it, but today she didn’t want to walk into any more of her friends. Could she still call them friends? They didn’t want her around anymore. Even Rachel had been distant and disapproving. Though that wa
s probably because of Joshua.
Madison had started to notice little things about Rachel--questions she’d asked, her interest in Viglar--ever since Madison moved in with him. Madison wanted to believe it was her imagination, but Rachel’s attitude had changed subtly. Sometimes Madison thought she saw thinly veiled disgust in the woman who’d been her best friend since college. It had to be her imagination. She couldn’t bear it if Rachel treated her the way all her colleagues treated her now.
Madison did her rounds and spent some time in Viglar’s office working through the notes he’d left her. It never ceased to amaze her that the doors would open for her, but if she had Rachel or anyone else with her, they remained closed. In the movies on the TC they frequently showed houses and offices with automatic doors, lifts that worked. It worried her that she suspected their hospital was one of the few buildings where the automatic doors and lifts actually worked. This was the modern age. Shouldn’t they have all kinds of technological marvels? Marvels that actually worked?
Afterward, she went to Viglar’s apartment. It didn’t feel quite like her home yet. She called her mother and that left her even more depressed. Her mother and father had been stilted on the phone. The only bright moment was when her brothers asked her to get Viglar to take them on his space ship. They’d been nagging her about it non-stop.
She obsessively studied the DNA she’d taken from Viglar while he slept. It had been a nerve wracking experience. Sometimes in her more paranoid moments, she believed he’d allowed her to get her hands on it to test her. Other times, she agonised over whether she had the right not to hand over Viglar’s DNA to the resistance. Shouldn’t it be her duty as a human toward her fellow human beings? Except, she couldn’t make herself do something that would leave him so vulnerable.
Glad to get away from her own obsessive thoughts, she went back to doing rounds, smiling at her patients, even though some of them had heard about her and Viglar as well. She smiled at the asthma patient, making a note on her chart, and left the ward. She had to meet with Viglar in an hour to go over the previous day’s notes. Everyone who thought she had a free pass should sit in on their session. He was worse than Frankenstein’s monster when he grilled her.
