by Bailey Dark
I pulled up hard on the stick and swept the speeder around the low desert hills. I was in fairly constant telepathic communication with Commander Xane. I and three of the others from the Emerona Crew's transport had managed to steal a speeder to get out of Tarsine's territory. It was the Trio and Gabra, one of the other trusted Crew. The other five had been taken prisoner, which included Criper and Lyal, who Jase had kept alive during their transport crash free-fall, but who had been saved essentially into the hands of the Bordash. The two who had died in the crash, Helga and Honcho, had gone up in flames with the aircraft… and Jase and the Earthling were somewhere out there, unable to answer, hopefully alive, definitely not yet captured, but unable to be found. They would have headed to the caves, as planned. Turns out, these particular hills were high in salt content, which was likely why there was telepathic interference. But there was a soldier assigned a Code Blue alert and Jase would surely have picked up on it by now.
Code Blue meant I was in charge and it meant to follow a particular code structure. Code Red would have signified Cassala. Code Green would have indicated LeiLei and two entirely different codes, respectively. Now, we just needed to wait for Jase’s instruction.
I hadn’t alerted Kajo yet that Jase was lost in the Bordash wilderness. I didn’t think Jase would want to give up that control, yet. But if we didn’t find Jase within the next four hours, I was going to make that call. One of us Trio would make that call, that was.
I had, though, called for an advance searching party in our fastest Emerona vessels to seek out Jase and the Earthling, a total of about forty-eight highly skilled scouts and warriors from the Curan troops to seek out Jase, split into teams of 12, similar to our Crew. Special Operations troops. We had to find Jase. The Spec Ops were on their way now and would arrive within the hour. I was flying the Bordash speeder we had stolen to meet them, racing the storm that was brewing in the south. The storm was a good sign: the Bordash would remain in their camps while we searched. That might mean we could also sneak up and slaughter the Bordash camps…
That call would be Alpha Jase’s though. Finding him came first. He was trusting me to do just that.
Eight
Vania
I squinted in the dim light of the cave against the pain in my head. It was like fireworks were exploding inside my brain, making lights flash behind my eyes and setting the cerebral fluid on fire. I groaned as I sat up, because that made it ten times worse.
“You feeling okay?”
The voice came from the darkness to my right. I squinted again and saw just a blurry shadow making a smooth, even movement that sparked the practiced motion of rippling fire along a telekinetic row of geometric patterns in the air. It was beautiful and mesmerizing, but burned the shapes into my eyes, making me blink rapidly to clear them. When he saw my blinking, he quenched the flame quickly.
"Sorry, was just passing the time," Alpha Jase said, the smoke from the extinguished flame snuffing into our nostrils for a moment. I realized there was a wet smell to the air, and then a moment later heard the crack of thunder roar up the tunnel of the cave.
“Is it storming outside?”
Jase nodded.
“That’s fantastic! The Bordash will be pinned down!”
“You have learned a great deal about our cultures.”
I have learned Alpha Warlords can kiss like angels… I said and couldn’t help but touch my lips. But that hadn’t really happened… Had it…? I had been pretty out of it…
“You were pretty out of it there for a while. Are you feeling any better? How is your leg?”
I looked at the Warlord sharply. Had he read my thoughts just now? That’s just so unfair… He hadn't moved from his casually sprawled spot in the darkness, and I wondered where he had found a chair. I took a sharp breath in when I realized he was sitting on the body of the Bordash spy.
“Good God, Alpha!”
“Ah, yes,” Jase thumped the spy on his back. “You like my chair? I call him Lumpy. Man had a bit of good eating in his past. I imagine that’s why I heard him so easily in the tunnel; have to be fairly fit to tiptop through that tunnel on your hands and knees.”
I looked from the spy, glad his face was turned to the cave’s side and then pressed my hands to my head again. I rubbed at some crusted blood and remembered that I had hit my head twice on the pipe in the transport during the crash. Hadn’t even thought of that, so concerned about my leg, I’d been. I probably was concussed. I touched my leg. I flexed it, lifted it up, bent it, put pressure on it, tested it out. Jase watched from his dark seat.
“Verdict?”
“Seems much better. How is that possible?”
“You don’t remember?”
“Don’t remember what?”
“The ring you’re wearing.”
I looked at my hands. I touched my left middle finger gently where Jase’s family ring gleamed. I swallowed deeply and took a deep breath.
“So, wait… then, I wasn’t just dreaming…”
“No, ma’am, you’ve made love with a true Alpha Warlord. The best, some might say, on Farian.”
“Wait! What?! We did not—I don’t remember—we kissed, and you helped me, and I remember crying, and I, but—we didn’t—” My cheeks were flushed so red I could feel the heat radiating. My heartbeat leaped into a high pace. I took two steps backward as Jase stood up, but then made myself stop. I checked through my memories. I really couldn’t remember… I couldn’t remember having sex with him. I couldn’t remember that… I would, wouldn’t I? I had lost a lot of blood… but, surely… and he wouldn’t have taken advantage of me in that state… right…? My fists clenched instinctively…
He walked up to me, the light geode finally revealing his face… and he was grinning. He moved in close to me, bending in so that his face was just inches from mine, his deep brown eyes laughing into my greens.
“No, Earthling, we haven’t done anything more than kiss…” I breathed out a huge sigh of relief. Jase tilted my chin up to him and my breath caught as he pressed his cheek into mine so that he could whisper into my ear. “Yet…”
For a few moments, I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. My mind was racing, but it was blank, just snowstorm, the fuzz of a disaster headed my way I couldn’t avoid, because it was freezing cold water I was ready to jump into in order to feel the jolt.
“Aren’t we at war? Aren’t we being searched for? By friends and enemies? I don’t think now is—”
“Let me see your hand,” Jase commanded, and his voice had that authoritative ring that I immediately rebelled against. He must have seen the immediate denial on my face because he softened and stepped back, holding out his hand, and touched me on the shoulder gently. “I’m sorry… habit… please, can I see your hand.”
He kept one hand on my shoulder as I offered him my hand that had the ring on it. He gently held my palm and brought my hand to his face. He placed my hand on his cheek so that the ring laid against his skin.
Lights unleashed through the cavern like lightning bolts had slipped through the tunnel into the inside, and the ring sizzled and sang again. Silver and blue ripples of light permeated through my hand and through Jase's skin, through his cheek, into his face, echoing through his eyes, making them glow and glitter different colors. They grew wide, in awe, staring at me in amazement. The tingles were stronger this time than the other two times, and shot through my entire body, as if every molecule was desiring to mold with his, wanting to enter into his, wanting to mold and bond and become one with him, like water droplets becoming one volume in a glass.
Slowly, Jase moved my hand toward his mouth, and he bit down on the nail of my middle finger. An electric shock of desire exploded, animalistic desire driving through me, and I pulled my hand away from his mouth so I could crush his lips with mine, pushing him back against the cave wall, nearly stumbling over the dead Bordash spy.
Jase picked me up and swung me up to his hips, holding me by my ass as my hands roamed
over his jawline, his head, pulled at his hair, clawed at his back, held tight to his head, gripped at his shoulders, and pulled at his shirt. He swung me around to hold me tight against the cave wall and I thudded back against it. I felt my quad stretching tight where the gash was just barely healed as my legs wrapped around his waist, but I didn’t care; and neither did he. His ring would just heal me again.
I managed to lift his shirt up over his shoulders, and my sharp intake of breath elicited a smile as a reward from him for my admiration. His body was just as fine as I imagined it would be; pecs and chest and shoulders divine and sculpted to perfection. I had wondered how far his tattoos went and they were asymmetrical, going across one half of his body, stretching around one side and across one of his pecs and down, the story of the moon and the sun chasing each other, demons and angels in the Farian Curan mythos. It was beautiful artistry, and I wanted to kiss every delicate ink curl.
I also wanted to tear the delicate designs apart with my nails and dig into him as he made me scream.
Jase seemed to have the same idea, and he grabbed my hair, jerking it back so he could devour my neck with kisses as he gripped my ribs with his other hand and pressed into my body. Then he began to choke me and make thrusting motions against my body as he held me pinned to the wall, raking his nails down my other arm, hand coming to a stop at my belt, starting to unbuckle it…
“Shit, you’re bleeding again,” Jase said, hand stopping its movements. He held me tight, carrying me instead over to where his cloak had been my bedroll and lay me down. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."
“You didn’t hurt me. You’re healing me, Jase… You’re healing me.”
“It’s just my family’s magic…”
“That’s not… that’s not what I…” I blushed. That wasn’t what I meant… there was so much more to it than that… I looked at him silently and pulled him down to me to kiss him hard and long, reveling in the pressure of his lips. I finally let him go and we both took deep breaths of air as thunder echoed down the tunnel. He sat back from me, and we were silent for a moment. Finally, I coughed and laughed a little, brushing back my messy hair. "Don't you have a code or something you must send?"
“I already sent it. Spec Ops should be on their way. I need to do some scouting to help them find us, and perhaps to go out against the Bordash troops once they get here. And you need to let the ring help you heal for a little while longer. Can you do that?”
“Yes. I can do that.”
“Ok. Stay here. Stay safe…” He held up his finger as if making sure he knew I was serious about staying in the cave.
“I will. You be careful.”
“What Curan warriors say to each other is be brave.”
“Ok. Then, be brave…”
Jase winked at me, then disappeared down the tunnel.
Fuck… I laid back against his cloak and looked at the bat guano stars above my head in the cavern, trying to catch my breath. Some of the bats had returned due to the storm. That was amazing. That was literally breathtaking… He had better come back. I wanted more of that.
Nine
Tarsine
“It’s true. Alpha Warlord Jase and his Trios, and perhaps a few other Commanders are still in the Salt Hill's near the Wazuun River. We intercepted the telepathic message they have been broadcasting to him for over seven hours now, but just twenty minutes ago, he sent out one, as well. It was in code, clearly. But we have our spies helping on it, now. We also have the five members of his Crew we captured from the downed transport.”
The reader speaking took a deep breath and continued on, “We know that they always carry their teams in 12. We only captured 5, so we are missing 7, including Jase. Now, we found the remnants of at least four bodies, but maybe there were more killed in the craft, but there’s no way that transport carried more than twenty people, including the two pilots, who were two of the four killed. But the message we intercepted was clearly from Jase, intended for one of his Trio, so one of them, at least, must still be alive, close, and in command of some type of electronic equipment that can get signals back to his troops in Emerona. We are missing a speeder, stolen probably by Aimer, the best Trio pilot.”
I looked at my Reader as he reported in. He was a jumpy son-of-a-bitch, and not much of a fighter, but he was the best Reader in my fleet. I could trust his intuition on this. If he said it was Jase on the telepathy reading, I would believe him. My telepathy skills were only so-so. I much preferred flying, killing people with thrown swords, slinging knives like razor blades fired from a gun. Brawn over brain never bothered me. I was never one of those Bordash who tried to be as good as the Curans with all that mental talking stuff. I didn't much care for talking out loud, neither.
“Fine.” I downed the rest of my beer and slid the stein across the table to Rotcher to fill again. Rotcher was my Second, and he knew when I needed another, usually before I did. He helped me keep my head on straight; sometimes burns beer helped with that. It had a stimulant in it, too. It was good to keep the nerves down, but the mind straight. “I want to unleash the Ten Sevens, then. Let’s comb these Hills. Let’s find them. We must know that they are getting reinforcements from Emerona, and likely from Kajo. Or, at least eventually from Kajo. If we can kidnap Jase, we will have a bargaining chip, or maybe even a checkmate. A cut the head off of the snake situation.”
“His Empire is loyal to him. I have never seen a more benevolent tyrant. He may be an Alpha Warlord, m’Lord, but his people love him,” Rotcher said.
“Thanks for the two cents, Second," I said, rolling my eyes and tossing one of my knives over his head. He didn't even duck. He knew I wouldn't hit him—unless I wanted to. And if I wanted to—I would. I did what I wanted. That's why I was the leader, and he would always be my Second.
“The Ten teams of Seven are ready. Your Generals are at your command, sir. They can redirect. They are gathered near the Wazuun already.”
“But—” The Reader looked alarmed that he had even said the word.
"But what?" I had another knife in my hand, and the Reader knew better than to finish his sentence. I already knew what he was going to say, and he knew that it was above his pay grade to bring up the weather and superstition.
“Nothing, sir. Thank you.” The Reader backed out of the tent.
I threw the knife at his retreating back anyway, but the tent flap slipped down just in time, and the razor-sharp knife slipped in and slipped down, making a slit in the side canvas. I frowned at it, retrieving it with an easy recall telekinetic Will.
“Think the Ten Sevens will have a problem going out in the thunder and lightning?” My question was punctuated by a particularly loud burst of thunder and a new dash of driving rain that bent the tent sheets up on one side.
“Not if you give them enough burns beer first.” Rotcher had to shout over the rain onslaught. It did make me shiver a little. It was amazing the things we were engrained with from such a young age. Why should we be afraid of a few tiny forces of nature? They weren’t there to smash us, they were there to ripen the earth, help the crops prosper, make our lands grow, not annihilate our troops. The fables were false…
“All right, then load them up on the burns and promise them triple wages for all those who return. Tell them we burned such-and-such ceremonial thing for such-and-such days. Bring out a priest and do whatever you want. Just find Jase and his Trios.”
“Will do.”
“Rotcher. I want them alive. The women will be good to add to my collection and Jase I need alive. You understand that right, Rotcher? Make sure the soldiers understand, that, too. There will be consequences for anyone who forgets my orders under the pressure of the moment. If Jase isn’t kept alive, then my plans fall through. Make sure the Generals convey that to all their men and women. Not just the Ten Sevens, but all the troops.”
“Absolutely, m’Lord.”
I watched Rotcher leave and played with the flame of the candle on my desk. Going out in the sto
rm was our best bet at finding them. They likely had a sense of security, thinking we would be holed up. They would probably be active and not holed up themselves, waiting for their reinforcements in hiding, like they should be…
This was my chance to capture the Alpha Warlord of Emerona. I could almost taste his blood on my fists. The best thing about capturing an enemy was demoralizing them in front of the people that held them so dear. It would be the only way I could successfully take over his Empire, would be to so humiliate Jase that the people would have no choice but to turn to another, stronger, better leader: me.
Ten
Jase
I hadn't been able to skip through the tunnel since I had to crawl on my hands and knees, but I felt like skipping down the salt hill. I certainly felt like I was dodging raindrops in a much happier fashion than I might have been if my heart hadn't been thrilling about what had just happened with Vania.
She is amazing… That body, those hands, those eyes… That passion… I remembered the taste of her lips on mine, the way her tongue put just the right amount of pressure, the sensation of her hands in my hair, the way she grabbed at my shirt, and her sharp gasp when she saw my chest.
She better still be there when I get back. I want more of that. She is amazing…
The lightning lit up the valley with flashes that revealed craggy termite mounds, shadows of the salt hills, and huge boulders set to tip on their sides. The flames at the crash site of our transport had been entirely extinguished by the rain. I could hardly see where it was anymore, just the general direction. The camps where Tarsine's soldiers were camped had slight flickers of light from parked aircraft and fires protected from the rain.
I rubbed my shoulder as I looked at the crash site. I had been so concerned about stopping Vania’s bleeding, first out of annoyance and necessity, and now, suddenly, out of earnest care… that I had forgotten how much my shoulder hurt. I had banged it up pretty good in the crash, too. I whirled my arm around and around and grimaced. I had full extension, so nothing was pulled or broken or out of its socket, but it was bruised rather substantially. Oh well… I didn’t want to think about the members of my Crew I had lost entirely… I didn’t have time to think about Helga and Honcho right now… They had been with me for so many years…
