He lifted her head. “Here, take this. It will help with the pain and symptoms. I want you to rest while I apply medicine to your skin.” He gave her a pill, followed by some water from a water bottle she kept on the nightstand.
Volund’s worried gaze almost made her smile, but she stopped herself as she watched him reach over to the side of the bench and pull out one of the small blue pouches he and Jaxxon always carried with them. Volund opened it and grabbed a long, black tube. He opened it and squeezed some goop onto one palm.
He slowly applied the green stuff to her stomach all the way up to her neck, the feel of his big, warm hands sensual over her tender body. Volund gently lifted one of her arms, covered it with the jelly, and then proceeded to repeat the process with her other arm.
“This will heal the blisters and repair the skin cells. I’m afraid it stinks, but in a little while we can wash it off.” Squeezing out more of the medicine, he cupped it in one hand, and then placed the tube back into his pouch with his other. Finally, he covered her face with the cream.
“God, that stuff smells horrible, but it feels so good on my skin.” Her skin cooled instantly, but her stomach chose that moment to heave. Venus jumped up and ran for the bathroom, swaying halfway there.
Somehow knowing she was going to vomit, Volund followed and swung her up into his arms to carry her to the toilet. He set her in front of the commode and then took a cloth from a cabinet, drenched it with water, and wiped the back of her neck as she hugged the plastic seat. “This will pass soon,” he soothed. “You did too much in the sun today. Your skin can’t take the sun. Neither can ours, but we use a natural seed to protect us from ultraviolet rays. Since you obviously fit the humanoid requirements for our treatments, I’ll have Jaxxon bring the seeds and an environite strip to help you heal. We have to protect your skin. That way, this condition will never happen again.”
His words and actions comforted Venus, and she relished the feeling. It had been so long since anyone had taken care of her. “Thank you, Volund.” Venus glanced back at him with a smile, her stomach settling. “I’m feeling a little better now.”
Jaxxon stepped into the bathroom carrying a long, foreign-looking syringe and a shiny foil pack. As he opened it, she cringed at the tiny needles on a strip of gel- like material no larger than a normal Band-Aid. Venus’s heart rate kicked up several notches.
“You know, now that I know what happened, I really don’t need anything to help me heal. I’ll just make sure I always carry a change of clothes should I need them and apply extra sunscreen.” She scooted back when Jaxxon knelt in front of her.
“Give me your arm, Venus. These needles are very tiny, and once this strip of environite barbs is embedded and the gel has blended into your system, the organisms it holds will repair your skin cells.”
Adrenaline whizzed through her body, and she shook her head. “No way! There must be twelve needles poking out of that thing! And I don’t want any weird life form swimming around in my body either!” She screeched as Volund picked her up and settled her on his lap.
“Stop being such a little girl. The organisms battle or repair whatever is wrong with the body they enter, and then once their work is done, they die and the body flushes them out as urine or excrement.” Volund stared at her, then laughed. “Where’d our hellion go? You’ll battle a Bone Eater, yet squeal like an infant at the sight of those minute barbs?”
“This—hellion—is deathly afraid of needles! I’m phobic about them, Volund, so let me up,” she yelled, trying to cover her upper arm with her other hand. Despite her efforts, Jaxxon held her one arm down as Volund gripped her other and placed the narrow gel pan on the inside of her upper arm.
“It will only sting for a minute. Hold still,” Jaxxon whispered.
Venus bit her lip as the tiny needles entered the soft inner muscle with a pinch from hell. “Damn it, that hurts,” she cried out. “Ow! And that stuff stings, too!”
The strip began to glow, and within seconds, it dissolved as if her skin were a sponge soaking up the environites. Glowering at Volund, she rubbed her arm.
Volund lifted her off his lap. “Come, let’s get you in bed, but first I’ll wash that stinky stuff off you. Afterward, I need to change into a clean tilk.” He laughed at the goop now smeared on his garment.
“I need to brush my teeth to get rid of the sour taste in my mouth,” Venus mumbled, still rubbing her butt. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
Both men grinned and left the bathroom. Although irritated with them over the barbed environite pad, Venus struggled to hold back her smile until they were out of sight. She had to admit, having both of them around felt right. It had been so long since she could talk to someone, and every time she glanced at Volund or Jaxxon, her body tingled from head to foot.
She stared into the mirror and laughed at her reflection. Snarls and knots tangled her hair, and not only was she covered in dirt and slimed with the salve, but she also got an occasional whiff of perspiration. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. She needed a shower, not a sponge bath. Quickly brushing her teeth, she finished, turned, and walked into the small shower stall, flipping on the spigot.
The cool water covered her heated skin. Venus sighed. “Now this is heaven.” She reached for the soap, but her hand met a larger one. She let out a startled squeak.
“Hey, it’s just me.” Volund lathered the soap in his hands and then turned her to face him. He crouched over her body, his larger frame too big for the small cubicle. “I needed to bathe too, so I thought we could share a quick…shower, is it? Let’s get your beautiful body washed, shall we?”
Starting with her face, Volund gently scrubbed off all the ointment, kissing every part he washed clean. “You’re so beautiful. I don’t think I’m ever going to let you out of my sight. If anything ever happened to you, I don’t know what I’d do.” He slid his soapy hands down her neck, massaging her everywhere he touched.
“Nothing is going to happen to me, Volund. I’ve survived this long alone. With you and your brother here now, I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Venus kissed his chest while he played with her breasts, stroking the nipples with the pads of his thumbs. “I know we’re compatible both physically and mentally, but I’m curious about something. What is your life span compared to mine?”
Volund palmed her breasts and glanced down into her eyes. “We can live as long as we choose.”
Venus took the soap from Volund. She turned away from him, cleaning the medicine from her arms. “That’s why you stop aging at twenty-five?”
He nodded.
“So you’re going to outlive me?” A heavy sensation she couldn’t identify settled over her heart. “You’ll be able to bring back your other mate when I’m dead.” She rinsed herself, evading Volund’s hands, stepped out of the shower, and grabbed a towel. “At least I won’t have to worry about you being alone.” Venus smiled back at him, but inside she wanted to scream and cry. These two men had already stolen her heart. The thought of Volund’s other mate coming back years from now brought out a sense of jealousy Venus had never experienced before.
She wrapped the towel around her body and made her way into the main room.
Jaxxon sat on a stool busily working on the security system. He looked up and smiled at her. “Why the sad eyes, Venus?”
“Venus asked about our life span,” Volund said. “She thinks I’ll bring back Zi- Ahda after she dies.” He gripped the towel around his waist. “I’m going to our camp in the steel room to get fresh clothes but I’ll be right back.”
She turned and glared at Volund. “Well, at least you wouldn’t be alone, and she is one of your kind. You two could have kids together here on Earth.” She put her hands on her hips. “Wouldn’t it be better that some of your race survives, even if it’s not on your planet?”
Jaxxon’s warm body pressed up against her backside. “There is a problem with that idea, Venus. You’re also my mate. We’re not letting you go. You’ll be right beside us, how
ever long we decide to live, and I for one, plan to live a long, long time. I think it could take centuries before I get done exploring your body.” Jaxxon removed her towel and squeezed her breasts. His touch prompted a tingling sensation and heaviness within each mound. She gulped, trying to ignore the feelings and think straight. “Did you know there are many ways to bring the human female body to a peak by just touching these?”
Volund appeared seconds later wearing a clean tilk. He knelt in front of Venus and cupped her pussy. “Look at me, Venus.”
Her body burned beneath their fingertips, but as she battled the desire building within her, she glanced into Volund’s eyes only to see the fiery need in them.
“I loved Zi-Ahda and I’ll always have a special place in my heart for her, but now there is much room,” he placed his hand over his chest, “for you here, too. I know it has happened quickly, but the thought of life without you frightens me.” A single tear rolled down his cheek.
Tears swelled up in Venus’s eyes, but just as she was about to succumb to the pleasures her men offered her, alarms from the first floor rang loudly throughout the building. She jumped away from her mates, rushed over to the hide-a-bed, and grabbed her M-16. Randle had reached her building! Who else could have breached the first floor except for him?
Volund threw a garment at her. “Get dressed and stay here,” he ordered as his metal armor activated and covered his body in a flash of silver.
Jaxxon pointed to the security system. “Turn this on when we trans-shift to the ground floor. No matter what you hear, do not come downstairs.”
In an instant, Venus’s mates vanished.
Venus set her rifle down. She slipped on the overly large, thick, and itchy top, its hem nearly reaching her knees. She ran over to the security box. About to flip the switch, she heard the outer door to her quarters open. She dropped to the ground and rolled toward her weapon just as Randle stepped into the room with two Bone Eaters at his side.
“I’m home, sweetheart,” he called. “Let’s play.”
Chapter Ten
Jaxxon materialized next to his brother in the center of the bank’s lowest floor. Six Bone Eaters, all female, stood just inside the entrance, their attention on the jumble of boxes. Immediately, Jaxxon and Volund dropped into a squatting position behind a low wall with strange box-shaped cutouts where writing implements gathered dust.
Volund tugged his Slicer from its holster and pointed to the circular setting on the weapon. Understanding his idea, Jaxxon did the same.
Ready? Volund mouthed to him. Jaxxon nodded.
One, Volund mouthed.
“Two, three!” Jumping to his feet, Jaxxon fired his slicer the same instant Volund’s discharged.
Two bright balls of light zipped across the lobby, spinning at high speed. Each one flattened into a thin, glowing band and issued a low hum. Volund’s shot detected the Bone Eaters to the right and turned, splitting all six creatures’ heads from their shoulders as Jaxxon’s energy bolt circled to the left and sliced through the monsters just above their crotches.
Both shots speared through the Bone Eaters as if they were no more than jelly. The severed bodies and heads collapsed onto the hard, shiny floor in a shower of spurting blood and ichor. The sound of the body parts splatting against the stone tile sickened Jaxxon. As he stared at the pool of fluids spreading to the door, he didn’t know how Venus could stand fighting and killing such foul beasts on a regular basis. The revelation gave him a new respect for their little warrior.
The aroma of the kills reached Jaxxon, twisting his stomach yet again. “By the Twelve Galaxies, those things reek!”
A distasteful expression swept over Volund’s face. “The clean-up is going to be disgusting, that’s for certain.”
“I’m sure more of those things will be on their way, so we better head back upstairs and check on Venus.”
“Agreed.” Holstering his Slicer, Volund looked at Jaxxon. “I have an uneasy feeling.”
“I do, too.”
Thinking of their mate, Jaxxon concentrated on Venus’s quarters. In moments, his equilibrium turned upside down and then righted again, the sensation of time and space displacement skewering his guts. He opened his eyes only to stare in horror at a man about Venus’s size holding a huge knife to her throat. Behind him, two female Bone Eaters guarded the door.
Fury and protectiveness blasted through Jaxxon. How dare he put his hands on Venus! He wanted to rip the stranger’s throat out, but he had to be cautious. One wrong move could cost them their mate’s life. Next to him, he sensed the anger and tension rolling off Volund.
“Ah, the cavalry has finally come home,” the man stated with sarcasm. He stared back at them from beneath a disheveled mop of sun-streaked, chocolate brown hair. His eyes, black as the hearth fuel stone used on Azutu, met Jaxxon’s with assurance. He kept one sinewy arm across Venus’s breasts. “So you two are the warriors my servants have been talking about.”
“Randle, I presume?” Jaxxon gauged his chances of rushing the fiend before he could hurt Venus.
The man offered him a wide, somewhat maniacal smile. “Maybe you do have feelings for me after all, my sweet.” He kept his voice smooth and even. No hint of wariness or tension resided in it. He nuzzled Venus’s ear, who grimaced as if she were about to vomit. “You must think about me often if you’ve told your friends about me.”
“Let go of her,” growled Volund, his voice full of menace. “Don’t make us kill you.”
Randle burst out laughing, the sound deep and genuinely amused. Crow’s feet deepened around his eyes. “You? Kill me? I don’t think so, especially not with a razor-sharp blade to your lover’s throat and two Bone Eaters at my back.”
As Jaxxon studied his opponent, he noticed the top of a strangely shaped pack on the man’s back. Is that another weapon? Slowly, Jaxxon lowered his hand to the Slicer at his hip and assessed every article of clothing Randle wore for hidden weapons. Dirty blue pants clung to the man’s slim hips and lean legs. If he possessed a weapon, he had to have it hidden in the back pockets, or possibly the inner compartments of the leather vest he wore over his mostly bare torso.
“I wouldn’t try for your weapon, if I were you.” Randle pushed the blade tighter to Venus’s throat, and a couple beads of blood slipped down her skin. Her eyes widened and her expression of disgust and anger changed to one of fear and anxiety. “Besides,” Randle continued like he was talking to his best friend, “from what I understand, those energy pulses slice through everything they’re aimed at so you wouldn’t want to take the chance of hurting Venus too, would you?”
Frantic to free Venus from the fiend’s hold, Jaxxon swept his gaze over the room, looking for any ideas that might jump out at him. He could take out the Bone Eaters, which would give them a better chance of fighting Randle and freeing their mate.
Although it wasn’t a solution to the problem, an idea of how to turn things to their advantage formed in Jaxxon’s mind. Standing so closely to Volund allowed Jaxxon to push his elbow into his brother’s ribs. Volund looked askance at him, and Jaxxon nudged him again, signaling he was about to try something. Volund quickly shut both eyes at once to confirm he understood.
“Now, let’s discuss my terms.” Randle sneered at them. The confidence in his voice infuriated Jaxxon even more.
“We will not discuss anything with you,” Volund snapped. “Release Venus now.”
“If you don’t want me to hurt Venus, you’ll discuss what I want.” A black look spread across Randle’s face, his eyes aflame with indignation. “I want Venus as my woman, I want control of this building, and I want you two to go back to whatever planet you came from.”
Quickly, Volund drew his Slicer and aimed it at Randle and Venus the same instant Jaxxon dropped to one knee, jerked his weapon from the holster, and fired an energy ball at the Bone Eaters by the door. The ball flattened and cut through the monsters in two seconds. Their torsos slid off from their waists and plopped onto the fl
oor with a wet sound, followed by their hips and legs toppling forward across each other. Fluids flowed across the carpet, saturating it.
“You bastards!” Randle hissed, his face contorting into a mask of pure evil, his black eyes afire with insanity. Venus started to struggle against him, but more pressure on her throat with the knife knocked the fight out of her. Randle peeled his lips back, baring his teeth in a grotesque leer. “Do you really want me to kill this delicious woman? Do you have any idea how few human women are left on this planet?” As he talked, his voice grew louder, his tone more desperate.
“Yes, we actually are aware of the numbers,” said Jaxxon. He slowly rose to his feet and advanced on Randle. He had to keep his temper in check and think clearly. “That’s why we’re here, and within the hour, more like me and my brother will arrive on Earth, but they’re bounty hunters who will be given the duty of finding and killing you. If you give up now, we’ll allow you to live the rest of your days in a prison instead of ending your life.”
“Sorry, guys.” Randle looked from Jaxxon to Volund and flashed them a white, toothy smile. “That’s not an option for me either. I prefer a quick exit instead.” With that, he sheathed the big knife through his belt, spun on his heel with Venus tightly in his arms, and propelled her toward the big window a few feet away.
“Stop!” Volund shouted as he moved in unison with Jaxxon.
With Volund at his side, Jaxxon lunged after Randle and Venus. The moment Randle reached the window, he leapt against it with Venus still in his arms. She let out a scream that rivaled that of any banshee as the glass shattered and they plummeted over the window ledge.
“No!” screamed Jaxxon. Fear unlike anything he’d ever felt before forced him to the windowsill. He didn’t want to see his mate’s broken body, but he peered down anyway.
The odd pack on Randle’s back shot a wad of something white into the air.
Attached to ropes, the shiny cloth opened, caught the wind, and floated them to and fro along the streets between the building. Relief nearly knocked Jaxxon off his feet.
Lovers of the Galaxy: Book One: Invasion of Her Heart Page 8
