Trying to keep his focus, Jerno reached into his hip pouch and gingerly felt around. There. Three small vials. Good. The vials are still intact. It crossed Jerno’s mind what a lucky accident it had been that led to the discovery of the special relationship between human blood and Corgon biology.
Some months back, after Ashley and the others were discovered, the Lomarians were hit by a surprise Corgon attack as they prepared to move to the next star system. A lone Corgon scout ship crossed their path and the firefight that ensued resulted in the capture and interrogation of a Corgon soldier.
Several hours into the ordeal, the Corgon wrestled out of its bindings and took Ben as a human shield. In desperation, it threatened Ben’s life if they didn’t release it safely back to its ship.
The ultimatum didn’t have quite the effect the Corgon had hoped for, though. Jerno smiled wryly at the memory. The Lomarians couldn’t have cared less about Ben at that point. They were still unsure of their commitment to keeping the soft pink aliens aboard or alive for that matter.
Feeling options dwindling fast, the Corgon had raked its jagged talons down Ben’s chest in a show of bravado. But Ben’s screams did nothing to weaken the Lomarian’s resolve. Nor did the crimson blood that poured from his wounds and dripped from the Corgon’s claws.
Jerno could still see the Corgon as it greedily licked the blood from its claws and spat a curse. And he could still here its screams, its wails reverberating off the inner hull.
Jerno and his crew had watched, mesmerized, as wisps of smoke began rising from its fingers, lips and tongue. Terror burned in its wide yellow eyes. Releasing Ben, it dropped to its knees, writhing. Jerno finally put it out of its misery and sent for Doctor Fraiks.
To the doctor’s amazement, it was discovered that human blood had its uses—as a very effective weapon against the Corgons. And the debate about keeping the pink aliens was settled. Protocol now required small quantities of human blood to be freshly drawn, packaged in vials and carried on all away missions.
Jerno closed his pouch, patted its precious contents and gently reached up to grip Ashley’s hand again. He squeezed it softly as he brought her hand down to his side.
Comforted by the warmth of his large rough palm, Ashley squeezed back. An unexpected and unbidden shock pulsed in her core. Ashley hoped he didn’t notice and attempted to ignore it herself. It’s the adrenaline, the darkness. I’m just glad you’re here, Jerno.
Over the long months, the two of them had become close. Closer than either could have imagined in fact. Ashley grew to appreciate her bodyguard for more than his talent for protection.
As they picked their way downward, she enjoyed how strangely handsome he was—taller than any human she had ever met and muscular like an old-Earth Greek statue. The sheen of his deep maroon skin fascinated her and more than once he had caught her staring at him. Doesn’t hurt that he has such a tight body and that round ass….
The admiration seemed mutual. In fact, she probably would have been more embarrassed about being caught looking if she had not found him staring at her on several occasions as well.
Ashley held his hand tighter as the darkness of the cave tunnel continued to envelope them. Behind her, a voice whispered, “Where are we going?” It was Hunner.
“Shhh,” Jerno hissed. “Where the hell do you think we’re going? We have to find another way out of here, double back and take out those Corgon bastards.”
“We don’t need to go so fast,” Hunner said, his angry voice floating in the blackness. “We just need to turn around and shove our collective fists up their—”
“We can’t,” Jerno interrupted, impatience bleeding into his voice. “We don’t know how many there are, we don’t know for sure what kind of firepower they have, and there’s not enough of us to mount a full-on frontal assault.”
The sound of the sand as it crunched under foot lingered in the air between them a few moments before Jerno concluded, “We need a more clandestine approach to this. We need to sneak up and take them out quietly.”
“As long as I get dibs on the son of a bitch who shot Kando.”
Ben and the look on his face when the laser ripped through his spine flashed across Ashley’s tired mind. She shook off the tears threatening to fall. No time for that.
“Get in line.” Jerno sounded calmer now. Ashley could just see his other hand feeling the rough tunnel walls as they walked. “I think we all want a piece of that mother fu—” Jerno stopped walking, pulling Ashley to a stop beside him. “Shhh. Listen…”
Ashley listened. What the…
Soft droning rumbles were coming from somewhere straight ahead.
“Come on.” His command jolted everyone into motion. Ashley felt him tug her hand and she followed, straining to better hear the sound.
Around the next bend, the sounds intensified in volume, echoing off the stone walls, swirling around their heads.
“Water.” Daniel broke the silence. “It’s water.”
Yes. The churning splash, the wet gurgle. Ashley was relieved and felt a second wind come on. They all moved more eagerly now, each step bringing them closer to the roiling sound.
One last corner and then they saw it. The tunnel suddenly opened on a cavernous chamber cut into the stone walls. In the center was a large pool of water fed by a small waterfall that poured from a gash in the ceiling of the rounded room. The pool drained away down a thin, deep stream worn into the rocky ground. The stream disappeared down a hole in the far side of the chamber.
“It’s…” Ashley was overcome by the unexpected beauty of the scene. In the shallower, calmer part of the pool, some species of luminescent creature cast a wobbling bluish glow, illuminating the soft powdery sand around the pool. The soft curve of the domed chamber and the half dozen stalactites dangling from the ceiling also basked in its pale light.
She let go of Jerno’s hand and stepped past him into the space. He touched her arm as she passed and whispered for her to wait but she ignored him. How can this be here?
She tiptoed to the edge of the pool and slowly knelt, leaning close to the fuzzy glowing substance. Algae. A smile of wonderment crossed her lips as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up at Jerno, Ashley whispered, “It’s beautiful.” She took his hand and felt that shock rising in her core. This time it felt right.
Chapter 3
“Done,” Hunner announced as he entered the chamber, his voice echoing faintly off the slick cold walls. “Motion sensors are set up at twenty, forty and sixty meters.” He set his pack down and flopped on the ground beside it. “I put a frag mine with the middle sensor. That should take a couple legs off if they trigger it.”
“Good job. Now grab some food.”
Ashley watched in amusement as Hunner wolfed down the thick Lamorian gruel. Even after a year of eating nothing but their rations, the pastes and chewy flat breads, she still wasn’t accustomed to the musky tastes.
“Are we moving forward,” Hunner asked between bites, “or are we holing up and hitting back?”
Jerno wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Both.”
Hunner didn’t hide his confusion. Jerno smiled and dredged a piece of bread through a brown lumpy paste. “Eat up. You’re gonna need your energy.”
Backpacks were slung over backs, weapons were drawn. Deener, Daniel, and Hunner were ready to go.
“I’m still not sure—”
“It’s all right, Daniel,” Ashley interrupted. “If anything happens, you can be back here in a couple minutes.”
Lowering his voice, Daniel leaned in close. “I don’t want to leave you alone.”
“I’m not alone. Jerno will watch out for me while I collect the algae samples.”
Jerno stepped close to her, shoulders back, chin up, his pulse staff clutched in his hands. “Don’t worry about us, Daniel. Just make sure you keep your comlinks open and tell me if you find anything interesting.”
Daniel knew it was pointless to argue. Besides, it wasn
’t necessarily Ashley he was frightened for. He was a pilot, not a military scout, and walking blindly through a dark tunnel, hunting for Cargons, was another unwelcome misadventure in his already taxing life.
Without a word, Daniel turned and followed Deener and Hunner into the tunnel snaking off the shadowed far side of the chamber. They disappeared from sight within a dozen steps. Only the soundtrack of their actions remained: whispered voices, heavy breaths, crunching footsteps.
Ashley returned to the blanket they had spread out earlier by the side of the pool. She sat down and busied herself by stacking the empty bowls and setting them to the side.
“How long do you think we have?” She thought one of them should break the deathly quiet that had fallen as the others trudged out of hearing range.
“Hard to say. It really depends on the tunnel. Maybe five minutes, maybe ten, if it keeps going, they know to turn back after thirty minutes. So…” Nervous rambling was uncharacteristic for Jerno and Ashley glanced up when he finally paused. As Jerno gazed at her, his hard eyes softened at the edges. “An hour at the most.”
Ashley nodded, saying nothing. An hour? Her mind started to imagine what could be done in that time. She felt her cheeks warm and hoped Jerno couldn’t see in the blue light.
His eyes…. She was suddenly unsure where to look. His lips…. She tried to lower her eyes but it only resulted in being led to his broad chest, his sculpted abs like a six-pack arrow drawing her down… I wonder if his…
“Do you need to collect your samples?”
Wrenched from her daydream by his voice, Ashley blinked the images away and shivered as he looked at her quizzically. “Y-yes, I do, but…” She took a deep breath and plunged in, hoping she hadn’t misjudged the depth. “We can just stay here for a minute, if you want….” She closed her eyes, letting the words hang between them.
He did—want that is. Ashley opened her eyes when she heard the sound of Jerno laying his repulsor staff on the stone floor. As he joined her on the blanket, their shoulders brushed. Electricity coursed through her. She moved her thighs restlessly.
What now? Caught off guard, Ashley stuttered a bit before finally managing to speak. “So, back on Lomara, what do you do when you’re not…?” She pantomimed shooting guns and bombs exploding.
Jerno wrapped his arms around his legs and rocked, thinking. “It’s been so long, I…” He fell silent as if having trouble picturing life as it had been. “There’s a place a few hours outside of my city, a nature preserve. There’s a waterfall there, big and wide, we used to go there when we were children. It was…” His voice drifted, his eyes closed. She could tell he was there in his mind, there at the waterfall, maybe he was even a child again.
When he opened his eyes, there was a split second of warmth and sparkle she had not seen before. As quickly as it appeared, it was gone, replaced by the sadness she had seen all too often. “The Corgons invaded our planet when I was fifteen. I was drafted into the army immediately and left Lomara a few years later.”
Ashley wiggled over closer to him, their legs now touching. “Is that how you came to be on this scouting mission?”
He nodded and she couldn’t help noticing his deep burnished hair moving like liquid. His voice brought her back to the moment. “A few years later—I left on this mission a few years after the war started.”
“Do you ever—”
Shrill beeping interrupted her.
“The motion sensor.” Jerno deftly leapt to his feet. “Come on.”
“Sixty meters out,” she said, grabbing the blast pistol Deener left for her.
Jerno halted just outside the tunnel opening. He drew his sidearm and swept Ashley behind him, against the wall. “I need you to stand back. Get back over by the other tunnel entrance and stay there. As soon as the others get back, you and Daniel run as fast as you can down that tunnel and hide.”
He paused, nervous fire in his eyes. Without warning or explanation, he grabbed her by the back of her head and pulled her into a deep kiss, hard and urgent. Their tongues entwined, he pulled her body against his and she willingly melted into him. Oh my god… She kissed him harder, as if her life depended on it.
He jerked away from her. “Go. Those Corgon scum are going to hit the frag mine any sec—”
BOOM!
The chamber rocked from the explosion. Rocks and dirt cascaded from the ceiling. Ashley instinctively dove to the ground and covered her head. Rumbling thunder roared down the tunnel, growing louder by the split second.
Oh shit. Ashley knew what it was. She had barely rolled out of the way when a six-foot stalactite fell from the ceiling and crashed to the ground, throwing off shards and kicking up sand.
A massive blast of rock-filled dust shot from the tunnel. The rumbling intensified. Ashley began choking in the dusty air.
“Get back,” Jerno yelled. He jumped to his feet and grabbed her arm. “We have to get back.”
The chamber heaved again and huge chunks of rock loosened by the initial blast finally fell. It’s collapsing, the whole thing is collapsing.
Jerno tried to maneuver them toward a small alcove in the wall but a slab crashed in front of him, narrowly missing his head. The heavy dust made it nearly impossible to see and he frantically looked around for another way out.
Ashley yanked him down and rolled with him under the edge of a nine-foot rock outcropping just in time. On the other side was a bowled indention in the chamber wall. If they pressed into it, they would be safe enough.
Chapter 4
“Dammit.”
Ashley stuck her fingers in her mouth, sucking the blood from the grated tips. Removing them and holding them up for Jerno to see, Ashley moaned, “My fingers are shredded.”
He stopped digging and took her hands in his, wincing at the torn and bleeding fingertips. Ashley looked to him for direction.
Climbing to his feet and stretching, Jerno seemed to become resigned. “No one’s getting in or out of here for the foreseeable future.” He touched his feet with his balled fists and let out a long sigh, releasing into the stretch. “We might as well eat something. Gotta to keep up our strength even though we’re not going anywhere.”
They sat and shared a Lomarian apple, Jerno slicing it in half with his razor-edged battle knife.
Ashley chewed the spicy sweet flesh, staring blankly at the collapsed tunnels. Neither spoke for some time. Once rested, all they could do was dig.
Ashley sat back and wiped the sweat from her brow, surveying the scene. They had been digging for hours yet they had made little more than a dent in the rubble. Massive rocks covered both tunnel entrances. Even the pool was coated in dust, dimming the light in the chamber to a low shimmer.
She did her best to keep her spirits up, to not give into the despair berating the back of her mind. It was getting hard to do.
“Do you think…” She stopped, thinking it better not to ask her question. Instead she stood and began pacing. She paused near the back tunnel where their comrades left them. “We should keep at it I guess.” She looked to Jerno for confirmation.
He stared across the chamber at her. She is so beautiful. Even like this, dirty, frazzled, tired, and afraid. Her small, tightly muscled body made him think of a wild cat that lived on his home world. Lithe and powerful. And her long mahogany hair, disheveled and coated in a fine dust still made him want to plunge his hands in it. He thought of their kiss as he watched her begin digging into the barricade, her pain visible in every motion and expression. “Ashley.” It was a whisper, an invitation.
She stopped digging. “What?”
He was behind her now and he tentatively placed his hand on her shoulder. “You need to stop. You need to rest.”
She pulled away from him. “We can’t rest, we need to get out of here, find our people, and leave this godforsaken planet.”
“I know.” Jerno tried to remain calm as her ire grew. “But we need to rest. You need to eat. Look at you…” He grabbed her wrists and forc
ed her to look at the damage on them. “You can’t even make a fist, you’re swollen and bleeding and…”
She angrily yanked her arms away from him. “We need to find our—”
“We need to rest,” Jerno’s voice had become forceful, commanding, as he puffed out his chest. “You need to sit down and rest before you…”
“I can’t rest.” Ashley’s tone betrayed the fatigue and desperation she was feeling all too clearly.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to die here.” Having finally admitted the truth, she burst into tears at the naming of her true fear.
Jerno immediately took her in his arms and she collapsed into him, nestling into his immense body. He enveloped her, cradled her, stroking her hair and whispering soothing words.
She pressed harder into his chest, brought her hand to his bicep and rested it on the bulge of his toned arm. Her other hand moved to his torso, and she ran it up the sculpture of his abs to his chest, to his neck and the back of his head. I don’t want to think about it any more. She wrapped her fingers in his thick hair. I want to forget about it. She felt him tighten his arms around her, forcing her breasts into him.
No longer able to resist, Ashley reached her face up and kissed his neck, bit it, pulling him down to her by the back of his neck. He gave into her guiding hand and she nipped his lower lip. She felt his hands find her ass, his big palms engulfing it as he squeezed it tight, pulling her pelvis against his.
Oh my god… The hard bulge pressing against her was long, hot. It’s huge… she kissed him deeply, tangling their tongues in wet, raw passion.
She felt the bulge in his pants twitch and her tensions released. Her underwear wet, her senses all heightened, she pulled him against her as if trying to melt into him. Jerno stopped her suddenly. Leaning her head back so that he could look into her eyes he tried to focus.
Romance: Alien Romance: Simply Aliens: A Ten Book Alien Romance Collection (Paranormal Scifi Interracial Romance) (Fantasy New Adult Alpha Short Stories) Page 4
