by Aria Bell
“And you will return her to me?”
“She will be returned to you, yes.”
“Safely?”
“Yes. Don’t try finding us on your own. You cannot trace us. Not in time.”
“It doesn’t look as if I have any choice.”
“Very wise, Your Royal Highness. She will be returned to you after the trade agreement is signed.”
“Fine. Tell me, Ionas. When did you decide to betray me?”
Ionas smiled at me as if I were a misbehaving child. “Oh, come now, Prince Vorgyn. You must know Gotanz had been courting me for quite some time. But what sealed it was seeing your human whore raised to Banmoroh. Blood of the clan. That was the final straw.”
I did not respond, my anger boiling inside me.
“No threats?” he asked with a humorless smile. “I expected a great many.”
“I don’t waste my time with threats,” I said. Then I smashed the viewscreen into shards with my fist.
I ordered my men to use the fortress’s defense systems to track Ionas’s jumpship. The jumpship’s flight path curved around the mountain and disappeared from the tracking screens in a burst of EMF static and then stealthed. There was no way to know if they had landed in Syrelundra, on the slopes of Mt. Kluarmn, or if they’d headed into the upper atmosphere to rendezvous with a bigger ship.
I fought against my rage and my fear for her. Neither of those could help me. I couldn’t rely on my strength to brute force my way through this. If I tried that, it would lead me nowhere. And I would never see Melika again.
I had promised to keep her safe. She would’ve been safe if she had come with me and acted as my Ron-Zishu guardian, at my side, like she had wanted. Like she had begged.
Instead, I left her alone. Vulnerable. And now she needed me and I had no idea where to find her.
She’d lost her hand. Now she might lose her life.
Her hand… Then an idea exploded in my mind. I turned to my men. “Prep me a ship. Now.”
Hold on, Melika, I sent the thought out to wherever she might be, praying to Ungeni she might hear me somehow. Stay brave, mate of my heart. I have something I need to tell you and I’m coming to say it in person.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Melika Gendressa
“This will be over for you soon,” Ionas said to me. I didn’t like the cold in his voice. “Your fool prince has agreed to our demands. Once he makes good, we’ll no longer have need of you, will we?”
I decided I didn’t like his smile either. I just couldn’t decide what I wanted to use to wipe that smile off his face. One of my Ron-Zishu weapons? Or my boot.
Then I smiled. Maybe I’d finally get to break in the new hand.
I was leaning heavily toward the new hand.
Ionas and the other two traitor guards had flown me in a small jumpship around to the back slopes of Mt. Kluarmn. They’d hidden the ship in a series of caves deep in the crags and canyons. My hopes of the ship being traced by sensors were dashed when they activated the ship’s stealth tech. The fact that a dropship like this had this level of stealth tech at all indicated to me that these men had serious backers. I’d listened to Ionas’s transmission to my prince with my heart breaking in my chest. The pain and helpless fury in my prince’s voice had been so difficult to hear. I tried to call out to him, but they had gagged me too well.
Even though I was still strapped to their damn float stretcher, I was working on getting back my fine motor skills, concentrating on moving a finger at a time. So far I could twitch each finger on my biological hand. A little. I knew I wouldn’t be able to fight or run yet. But I intended to wait for my chance. If they made a mistake, I would make them regret it.
My kidnappers began unloading the ship shortly after landing. They guided me on the hover stretcher out into some kind of hidden encampment set up inside. There was a surprisingly big shelter building, lights along the cave walls and floor, cables and satellite terminals, and at least six active combat robots on patrol. The robots were guarding the cave, scanning for threats with their advanced sensors, powerful weapons ready to blast anything they found. I recognized the models. They were all top-of-the-line military grade and very tough. I could handle two, maybe three of them. But six at once would be a challenge.
Ionas and his men brought me into the shelter on the float stretcher. At least it was warmer than outside. The shelter was full of computer terminals and supplies, along with a back room with some chairs and unused cots. It looked like they were planning on staying here for a few days. That was good. I’d been afraid they would take me off world. Then my chances of ever seeing Vorgyn again would’ve been very, very small.
“We only have to wait,” Ionas said. “Not for long. The guild envoy is at the fortress. The trade agreement can be signed and in force within a few days.”
I only looked at him, unable to reply because I was still gagged. The paralyzing agent in my system was being broken down more rapidly now though. I could flex my thigh muscles again, although I took care that he didn’t notice. They’d left me in my kenvo suit too, so even though they’d taken my weapons, the suit made me a weapon all by myself. I only needed a little more time. And then, I needed to get free.
Time seemed to drag on forever. The two traitor guards waited tensely, watching the computer screens. Ionas seemed more confident. He moved to my side and peered down at me as if I were some kind of stain on his clothes. With one finger, he touched my face, drawing his finger down my cheek then back up to my eye. Lucky for him, he didn’t get close to my mouth or—paralyzing agent or no—I would’ve bitten that finger off.
“I don’t understand what a warrior like Vorgyn sees in a human female,” Ionas said. “You are small and weak. Emotional. Needy.” He shook his head. “Perhaps it is only another flaw in the primitive mind of a warrior.” He snorted. “You don’t know how hard it is to take orders from your intellectual inferior just because he can swing around a piece of sharpened metal. Our empire should’ve evolved away from this kind of thing millennia ago. But now we have a new beginning. A new dawn for the Jardan Empire, controlled not by the strongest, but by the most brilliant.”
The other two Jardan threw dark glances his way at those words…but they didn’t say anything. Clearly Ionas was in control here. But who in the Gotanz Guild was controlling Ionas?
I made a grunting sound. It was the best sound I could make while still restrained by the gag.
Ionas grinned and pulled the gag down so I could talk. “Speak your small mind, human,” he said.
“You won’t win,” I told him. My voice was rough and raspy but grew stronger with each word. “He’ll stop you. And if you hurt me, there is nowhere in the galaxy you’ll be safe from his vengeance.”
“Bold words. And sadly, you are correct. I find it dismaying how much value a warrior places on something so easily acquired as a piece of pussy. Until the next one spreads her legs for him. He’ll find another little whore, and you’ll be forgotten—”
“There’s a ship on the sensors,” one of the traitor guards interrupted. He was watching a computer viewscreen, alarm clearly written on his face.
“Just one?” Ionas demanded.
“Just one. But it’s coming right for us.” Then the guard’s voice grew even more panicked. “It’s a royal fighter. A Zeross class. It’s Prince Vorgyn’s personal fighter!”
My heart leaped in my chest. Relief swept through me. Relief and fear for Vorgyn. He was a mighty warrior, but there were six combat robots and three enemies in here. I didn’t know if my prince, even as strong as he was, could take that many.
“Vorgyn’s fighter?” Ionas snapped. “That’s impossible. He can’t know where we are. This place is hidden.”
“Shields are all up and running,” the guard said. “I have green across the board.”
“Then how is he tracking us, you fool?”
“I don’t know! But I have green across the board and he’s still coming right for us!”<
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“How?” Ionas demanded, grabbing a blaster from one of the supply racks and moving to one of the viewscreens. “It doesn’t matter. The fool can’t handle six attack robots. He’s as good as dead. It will be a lesson to his successor.” He paced frantically around the shelter. “But how is this happening? Even the prince’s fighter doesn’t have the ability to track us. It’s impossible. Unless there’s a tracking device…”
He froze and turned slowly to me. His gaze went from my eyes down to my too-big robotic hand. The one I could use to interact with computers. The one that sent a digital signal indicating its status to the med lab if it ever malfunctioned.
I looked down at the beautiful hunk of metal. I wasn’t aware that it had malfunctioned, but maybe the drugs that had paralyzed my system had also paralyzed it?
I smiled at him. I had regained a little control of my limbs by now. I held up my big metal hand as much as I could with the straps and slowly raised my middle finger at him.
Rage twisted his features. He raised the blaster pistol and aimed at my head, but the silence was broken by the roar of ship engines. The rumbling roar echoed through the caves, shaking the shelter walls.
Ionas turned back to face the front of the shelter. “Raise the blast shields, you fools!”
One of the traitor guards scrambled to obey. The other grabbed a blaster and stood uncertainly by the door. I could see their fear. The armor shields were coming up over the shelter’s windows blocking the view of the cave, but before they were completely in place, I caught a glimpse of my prince’s sleek starfighter flying into the cave.
Ionas dragged the second guard away from the computer terminal. “Get a weapon and stop him.”
But the most the two traitor guards would do was stand facing the shelter’s door with their blasters raised. They refused to go outside to face Vorgyn blade to blade.
I silently cursed the armor shields on the windows because I couldn’t see what was happening. The ship engines cut out. For a moment everything was still. I held my breath, praying he would be okay, as I twisted against the straps that bound me to the hover stretcher. I managed to get my arm with my robotic hand down enough to brush the sensor pads on the fingers against the heavy strap.
Blaster shots sounded outside, frightening in their intensity. Then explosions. Then the rending crunch of metal being ripped apart.
“One of you go out and see what’s going on,” Ionas commanded. The two guards looked at each other and ignored him.
I slowly forced the air out of my lungs with a long exhale, then used all my strength to force my arm downward to the strap binding my thighs to the stretcher. My robotic fingers closed around the strap.
Suddenly, the shelter door burst inward as the big frame of a combat robot smashed through it. The sparking wreckage partially blocked the entrance. Smoke swirled through the gap.
“See what’s going on!” Ionas ordered, turning his blaster on the guard to the right. “Obey me or I’ll shoot you.”
The guard reluctantly obeyed. He edged around the smoking robot frame with his blaster raised.
A sword blade sliced out of the smoke and cut the guard down. Adrenaline shot through me. This was the time to make my move. I seized the strap binding my legs to the float stretcher and used the force-enhancement of my kenvo suit to rip it off. Then I shimmied up and grabbed the strap binding my chest and tore that away too.
Everything seemed to happen at once. Vorgyn charged through the door, vaulting past the wreckage toward the second guard. He cut him down in the span of a heartbeat. Then he found Ionas.
Ionas had his blaster pistol raised at Vorgyn. I came up behind him and swung my robotic hand as hard as I could, smacking the blaster aside the instant he pulled the trigger. I watched as most of my metal fingers disappeared in a flash of plasma bolt. But at least he had missed Vorgyn.
And Vorgyn did not give him another chance to shoot. His blade hissed through the air and cut off the traitor’s head in one clean slice. Ionas’s body crumpled. Then Vorgyn darted fast as a serpent toward me, sheathing his blade with one hand and wrapping me with the other in an embrace so tight it nearly squeezed the breath out of me. He kissed me so deeply my core threatened to melt down.
“I’m sorry they got the drop on me,” I whispered in his ear as he held me against him, feeling tears pressing against the back of my eyes, a post-fight reaction to the adrenaline. Or maybe just tears because I’d had been afraid I’d never see him again, and here he was.
His deep laughter lifted my heart. “You helped more than enough. If you hadn’t thrown off his aim when you did, things might have been different. My chest doesn’t need any permanent holes.”
I held up my damaged metal hand, now missing most of the fingers, except for a few charred, twisted stumps. At least I’d flipped Ionas off while I still had the chance. “And I’d thought this thing couldn’t get any uglier.”
He nodded solemnly, then took my hand and stared at the metal stumps. “I almost lost you. I almost lost you because I wouldn’t let you stay at my side, where you belong. I am sorry, Melika Gendressa, my mate. That will never happen again.”
Before I could reply, he captured my mouth in another soul-searing kiss. Then he touched my face gently and looked deep into my eyes. “I love you, my courtezhana.” He closed his eyes, chuckled, and shook his head. “No. You are no longer my courtezhana. You will be my wife. You will become a princess of the Mar’Don. I will have no one else.”
I gaped up at him. “I thought you said you’d never marry a puny human runt.”
He grinned a little, chagrinned. “I changed my mind.”
My heart leaped in my chest as joy broke through me like a wave. A big grin appeared on my face. “So is this a proposal?”
“You will say yes,” he commanded, scowling.
I smiled at him, realizing I had control of the situation. “I’m sorry, I’d like a real proposal.”
“And you think to command me? To command your prince?”
I raised my stumpy hand in his face and waggled the charred stumps. They made a strange, screechy noise. “Of course. I clearly have the upper hand.”
He tried to smother the smile by forcing his eyebrows down. It didn’t work.
He reached out and took my metal stumps. “Melika Gendressa…” He hesitated and looked down at the hunk of metal. “Will you give me your hand in marriage?”
“Gladly,” I said. “As long as you order me a new one before the honeymoon.”
He laughed. I gave a delighted squeal as he gathered me in his arms and carried me to one of the cots in the room in the back of the shelter. He kicked the door shut and locked it.
He threw me down on the cot after kicking a few pieces of rubble out of the way.
“What are you doing?” I asked him, looking up at him as he unbuckled his sword and placed it down on the floor beside the cot.
“What does it look like, human? I’m preparing to take you.”
The thought crossed my mind to resist him, to argue that I was Ron-Zishu first, but it all seemed so pointless to protest something I wanted so badly. Instead I sat up and reached for his trousers. “Here, let me give you a hand with that.”
He groaned and shook his head at me as I placed my broken hand on his hip and reached for the fastening with my good hand. I slipped the catch and let his pants fall to the floor. Then I reached out with my good hand and gripped his long, thick cock, which leaped in my hand when I touched it.
I pulled him toward me and got to my knees on the cot. Then I pressed my lips to the wide head.
I heard his sharp intake of breath, and I glanced up at him. He stood before me, looking down at me, with an expression of pure joy on his face.
I ran my tongue along the ridge of his head, then swooped it upward to claim the drop of precum that was forming on its tip. The flavor of him exploded on my tongue, and my body shuddered with the first ripple of desire. I opened my mouth wider and took his cock inside, feeli
ng a rush of moisture dampen my pussy. He reached down and unclasped the top of my kenvo suit, throwing me off my rhythm. So I let go of him and peeled my clothes off with the desperation of a drowning woman rushing to take in air. My breasts felt heavy with the sudden lack of pressure against them from the suit, and zings of desire pooled in my nipples.
He climbed onto the cot with me and took one nipple in his mouth, pressing me back to the thin padding. He slipped his hands over my body, and my pussy throbbed with excitement. It didn’t take him long to go right for my clit. The sensation hit me like a rock, and the pull of his mouth on my nipple made my hips jerk and my back arch as the sensations consumed me.
I opened my legs for him, and he smiled down at me. “That’s what I like to see. You begging me to fuck you.”
I tried to laugh, but it came out a moan as his fingers circled my clit, then pressed inside. “I didn’t say a word,” I breathed.
“Body language,” he said, then pressed his lips around my other nipple. Then he slid down and trailed his tongue to my clit, lapping at it, laving my entire pussy with it. Sliding it in and out of my heat, fucking me with it.
“Ohhhh…” I said.
His hand slid down, sliding into my pussy, collecting my juices. Then a finger slid back to my other hole. I stopped moving for a moment, wondering what that was going to feel like.
Then the tip of his finger pressed inside, just a little. A little more.
“Press back against me,” he murmured, then his tongue flicked my clit once more, before his lips closed around it, engulfing me in sensation. At that moment, his finger slipped inside my anus, and after a brief moment, he moved it back and forth, slowly, gently. His tongue made love to my clit again, and with his other hand, he pressed two fingers into my pussy. The sensation of so many motions at once—the tongue and teeth laving my clit, the finger in my ass, the other fingers stroking my G-spot, all moving together at once, building to a rhythm, began to surround me, and I couldn’t do anything but surrender to it as the orgasm built and consumed me from every direction.
