by E. A. James
Step by step she went down, dragging Bane with her. They fell down the last four steps, Hannah unable to bear his weight any longer. She hoped she hadn’t caused more damage. At least here in the underground bunker – built for alien invasions like this – they would be safe.
CHAPTER TEN
The war was in full swing up above. The muffled sounds of explosions and roars penetrated the thick ceiling of the bunker every now and then. Hannah and Bane were safe for now but she didn’t know how long it would be before the authorities came to search the bunkers as well.
There were more dragons. A lot more. It wasn’t just one dragon that she heard now. She suspected that many of the soldiers from Bane’s planet had the ability to shift. Hell, for all she knew they all had the ability to shift into monsters of some kind. After the few short weeks of research Hannah only learned one thing: there was so much out there that they didn’t know anything about.
Humans had been arrogant, thinking that theirs was the only planet with life on it. Humans were arrogant to think they could beat the aliens with weapons when their personal skill was next to nothing.
Hannah swallowed, tried to shut out the sounds of war and turned her attention to Bane. It had been almost ten minutes and he hadn’t come to yet. What if the injuries were worse than she’d thought? What if it was her fault? What if she lost him?
Think positive. She had to stay positive if she wanted to get out of there. There was no turning back after she’d made her choice to help Bane. It was do or die. Literally.
Bane’s eyes fluttered and then opened, the diamond irises focusing on nothing in particular. Hannah was at his side immediately, leaning over him so that he could see her face. His eyes focused on her and there was a flicker of recognition.
The bleeding in his neck had stopped but there was dried blood all over his neck and chest and when he’d been unconscious he’d looked like a casualty.
“Are you alright?” she asked. Stupid question. He didn’t look alright at all.
“Where are we?” His voice was hoarse and when he swallowed he grimaced like it hurt him.
“In an underground bunker. When the war broke loose I brought you down here. I didn’t know if you were…”
She stopped, her voice catching in her throat. Bane’s face softened and he lifted a hand to her cheek. His touch was warm despite his pale features and she leaned her cheek into his hand, grateful for the fact that he hadn’t died.
“It takes a lot more to get rid of me.”
She sat back onto the cold floor just as another explosion shuddered through the ground.
“It sounds terrible up there,” she said. Bane nodded, closing his eyes.
“This is what I was afraid of. We were too late. There is death and destruction everywhere, innocents that are getting hurt for someone else’s war.”
Hannah nodded. She could hear the sorrow in Bane’s voice, see the pain in his face that was caused by what was happening up above and not by his injury.
“What can I do to help?” Hannah asked. She was at a loss. She felt like she was a failure. Her attempts to fix everything had resulted in a war that was going to kill so many, if not all of the soldiers.
“The war is dying down,” Bane said. His eyes were still closed. Hannah listened. The explosions were fewer and there was more time between bombs. The roars were halfhearted when they took place.
“Many are wounded. On both sides. Many have died.”
The words sliced through Hannah. Many have died.
“The rest of my people are waiting for me,” he said. “They’re in a place called Virginia. I can see the map in my mind’s eye. I will show you.”
Bane pushed himself up. He grimaced again but waved Hannah off when she wanted to help him. “I will be alright.”
He found paper and pens on a desk in the far corner and limped a little when he walked back to her. He sat down on the cold floor next to Hannah and drew what he saw. Hannah stared at the map as he drew, and a few moments later she recognized it. It was indeed Virginia, and the point that he drew was in a rural area.
“I know where this is. I can take you there.”
How she was going to do was a different story, but where there was a will… right?
“When I meet my people I will have to leave,” Bane said in a quiet voice. Hannah stilled She hadn’t thought about that – she hadn’t once considered losing him. She’d pushed it away because she hadn’t wanted to think about it.
“I’ll never see you again?”
He shook his head. She looked into his eyes, and her heart broke.
Bane touched her cheek again, ran his fingers into her hair.
“I know what you feel.” He clutched his hand to his heart. “I feel it too.” He breathed deep. “My people aren’t like yours. If you come with me, they will accept you.”
Hannah frowned. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I want you to come with me.”
He was asking her to give up everything she knew – her life, her family, her world. Her planet. Was that something she was willing to sacrifice for him? How much did she have here on Earth to live for? She had a father she would never be able to please, a mother that was long dead, no friends and other family she was really attached to, a job that was a disaster.
“Okay,” she said. She closed her eyes and jumped. Why not?
“Hannah,” Bane said, and his eyes were diluted again, his face had that sexual quality that turned her body into heat and want in an instant. There was war raging above, they were running for their lives, Hannah had just chosen to give up everything she knew. And she wanted him. Badly.
“I haven’t seen you dressed since you arrived,” Hannah said. Her voice was husky.
“You prefer me naked.” A statement, not a question. And with the heat in the room, the truth. “We can fix it.”
Bane unzipped his coveralls and let them fall to the floor. He stood before Hannah in all his naked glory, his body taut and muscular and ready. He wanted her. She could see it by every hard muscle in his body, his parted lips, and his erect sex.
Hannah did the undressing herself. She peeled off her own clothes and stepped out of them, leaving it all in a bundle on the floor. She took a step to Bane so that their bodies were pressed against each other.
Bane ran his hands down her naked back and she shivered. His body was warm, such a contrast to the cold, stale air in the bunker. He kissed her and everything fell away. Her botched up life, the war raging, the bunker all around them, her unsure future. Bane’s mouth on hers was electric. He slid his hands down her back, over her ass, and onto her thighs. He picked her up like she weighed nothing.
She wrapped her legs around his waist. He walked her over to the wall. She gasped when the cold wall pressed against her back, but then Bane was against her, pushing inside of her, and she forgot all about it.
He held her up, balancing her between the wall and his body, and moved in and out of her. She closed her eyes, opened her mouth, and let the sensations take her.
Their bodies were slick with sweat where their skins touch and the sounds of sex filled the bunker, moaning and gasping. A moment later an orgasm rocked through her, coming out of nothing and hitting her full force. Her body contracted and released and she curled around Bane, digging her nails into his shoulders.
Just as her orgasm faded his overtook him. She felt him spasm inside of her and then he pumped hot liquid into her, filling her up even more than he already did. She gasped again, feeling every tiny movement until it was all over. It all ended with a shudder that traveled from his body to hers.
“I love you,” she said. It was the first time she’d voiced it, but if they were going out there and something happened, she wanted him to know. His eyes were soft and gentle when he looked at her, the sex draining out of them.
“We don’t give emotions as strong as this a word for fear of toning it down, but I have learned that what I feel is called love here. And
I feel it for you, too. I love you.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Bane slipped into the coveralls and watched Hannah dress herself. It was like a dance, even when she was in a hurry. The way she took care of herself was fascinating and Bane felt like he could watch her all day.
When she was dressed she looked at him and her cheeks were flush. It wasn’t just because of the speed she’d used to get ready. Sex looked good on her.
“We have to see if we can get to my car,” Hannah said. “As soon as we’re away from the facility we can go to Virginia and we’ll be okay. I think it will be about three hours’ drive.”
Bane nodded. He was skilled as a soldier but he knew little of this world and even though he would be able to find it – his mind was powerful after all – it was easier when Hannah helped him. He was amazed that she was willing to do so even though he was alien to her. He was amazed that she’d developed feelings for him. He was amazed that he felt the same about her. He’d searched for a mate for years, and now he’d found one a foreign life form.
They climbed the stairs. Hannah paused at the door, listening. The war was over. Bane could feel it in his bones. There were many humans out there but none were fighting.
He nodded at Hannah who typed in a code and the door clicked open. They emerged in the same loading dock where they’d been when the war had broken loose, and they crept to the small door once again. Bane wasn’t nervous but his heart fluttered in his chest nevertheless. He was feeling Hannah’s emotions and her nervousness bordered on fear.
“We will be alright,” he said to reassure her. The nervousness lifted slightly. Not a lot but it was something.
She led the way around the side of the facility. Rubbish bins lined the wall and the stench was overpowering. A moment later they were in a parking lot and Hannah walked toward a black car that looked a lot like the machine that had nearly run Bane over when he’d arrived on the planet.
“Get in,” she ordered and Bane complied. He opened the door on the other side she got in and slid into the leather seat. The inside of the vehicle looked a little like a space ship. There were controls everywhere.
“Does this fly?” he asked.
Hannah shook her head, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “We’ll drive there, but we can make good time. A lot of it is open road.”
She started the car and turned into the road. There were people everywhere, bright lights flooding the war scene. Bodies were littered across the grounds, humans and his own people alike. Dragons were twisted in unnatural ways, and scorched patches of land showed where there had been fire from a dragon’s mouth.
Sorrow grabbed a hold of Bane when he saw his people slaughtered. The humans had reached a similar fate but somehow death was too final for the destruction and pain they had caused.
“We have lost so many,” he said. His voice sounded hoarse. Emotion flooded him and pricked his eyes. He felt the war inside Hannah, how she fought to find the right words. Eventually, she spoke.
“If there was any way I could make this right…”
Bane nodded. So pure of heart was his Hannah. She had lost as many of her race as Bane had lost of his, and still, justice was important to her. His affection for her only grew the more he got to know her.
“You already are.”
She looked at him and smiled. He reached to her hand on the stick she kept shifting and held it. She made her way through three gates, holding her breath every time, and then she turned into a road that seemed to stretch to the horizon both ways.
“We’re out,” she breathed and I felt the relief coursing through her veins. “Three hours and we’ll get you home.”
Bane looked out the window. The night was completely dark, pin pricks of light stretching across the vast span of darkness above them. This world was beautiful. It was difficult to see how the creatures that lived here could take it for granted. It was impossible to know how much cruelty existed here, side by side with the beauty and the harmony.
“I don’t understand your race,” he said after they’d driven in silence for a while, linked by their hands.
“To be honest with you, very few people understand. They’re always talking about peace and they’re always finding new ways to kill each other. We’re a walking contradiction.”
Bane nodded and looked back out of the window to his side. She was right. The fact that she agreed with him made him warm inside. They were of different species, but they spanned the universe by agreeing and he knew that if she came with him she would fit into his world. She wasn’t like the rest of them.
“Tell me about your life,” he said. He knew so little about her and her life, about the world that she grew up in. He was leaving soon, and he found he wished he knew more about what she was leaving behind. About what she was choosing to leave behind for him.
She took a deep breath and once again her emotions were conflicted. There was passion, nostalgia, but also pain and regret.
“My father is very strict. He has very high standards and it’s impossible to please him.”
“But still, you try?”
Hannah shrugged. “Being a disappointment seems so much worse. I lost my mother when I was very young and my father makes it clear that I will never be like her. The alternative is to be like him. Apparently, I failed at that as well.”
Bane frowned. She seemed to regret her inability to please her father.
“Being your own version of yourself is not an option?”
She chuckled but there was no humor, only sadness. “You make it seem so simple. It’s hard to be yourself when no one wants you to be.”
Bane thought for a moment.
“I want you to be yourself.”
He looked at her. She glanced at him before she turned her eyes back to the stretch of road they drove on and her mouth curled up in a smile. “It’s all I want you to bring with you when we leave. Yourself. Nothing else. No expectations.”
Hannah nodded. The thought of leaving brought on a spike of sadness, a touch of fear, and something else that felt a lot like excitement. Bane focused on the first two.
“Do you want to stay?”
He would respect her wishes to stay behind if he left. It would tear him apart to leave her behind and he doubted he would ever heal from such a wound, but if that was what she wanted she deserved it.
Hannah hesitated. “No, I don’t think so. This world is all I know but life here hasn’t exactly been fun. It’s been hell, actually, until I met you. How much worse can it really be?”
Her last sentence was meant to be humorous, but it sounded grave.
“If you’re unhappy I promise to return you to your home.”
Another side glance from her. She nodded.
When they were close Bane felt it.
“We’re here, aren’t we?” he asked. Hannah nodded and turned off the road. They were in the middle of nowhere, but his people were here. He felt alive again. She parked the car and got out. He followed. She turned in a circle, looking.
“There’s nothing here.”
“Wait.”
As he spoke the place lit up. A wind started blowing, whipping her hair, and then his ship appeared. It had been cloaked until his arrival.
Hannah gasped.
“That’s it?”
He looked at the ship as if it were strange, from another world. It was spectacular. Smooth metal, oval shaped and larger than the facilities where he’d been held.
“It’s amazing,” she breathed. It really was. The door opened with a swish and Mage stepped out. Her hair hung loose over her shoulders.
“Bane, it has been too long. We feared you were dead.”
“I’m alive.”
Her eyes slid to Hannah. She opened her mouth to say something, but she didn’t have a chance to speak. Light flashed and the roaring sound of a helicopter cut her off. There were spotlights on both of them. Lines and lines of trucks and cars pulled into the field.
“Oh, no,” Ha
nnah said and there was genuine fear. It was like a cold rush. Bane followed her eyes and saw them trained on a man in the front vehicle. The man who had ordered them to stop in the cell when he was beaten. Her father, he realized. Her fear of him was painful. No one should feel that way about the person that raised you.
“He’s brought the entire army,” she said. Her voice was high pitched.
“We will make sure you are free,” Bane said. He looked at Mage who nodded. She was on his side, less suspicious than Hocus had been. Was his friend alive? He didn’t know yet.
“Stay behind me,” Bane said. Hannah stepped onto the ramp that led to the ship. Mage stepped forward so that she was in line with Bane.
