Dar and Kael returned just as she squatted to set the vessel down and try to warm her hands. Both were laden with an assortment of things that made it clear they’d been looking for anything that might be useful.
Dar’s gaze went from her to the mug and then to the entrance. He frowned fiercely. “No go out by only!”
Monica gaped at him but as garbled as his attempt at English was, she realized fairly quickly that he was ordering her not to go out alone.
She had mixed feelings about that.
It did warm her that he seemed to be worried about her, but how dare he order her around!
She ground her teeth, struggling with her temper. “I was thirsty. I figured y’all would be too,” she finally managed to say in a fairly even tone.
“Tings dare! Eat Meeka,” Kael growled.
The comment caused a flash freeze of the blood in her veins and then a flash thaw as discomfort followed. “I’m not helpless,” she muttered.
Kael dropped his load and stalked toward her.
Unnerved by the intent in his eyes, Monica shot to her feet.
She was never afterwards certain of what possessed her, but there was that in his attitude, she supposed, that triggered her self-defense training. When Kael reached out to grasp her arm, she used a karate move to take advantage of his imbalanced stance and lack of preparedness to put him on the floor. And then, as quick as lightning, she leapt to straddle his chest, scooping up a rock as a weapon and planting her knees on his upper arms to pin him down.
She hadn’t actually intended to use it on him. By that time, she was more intent on proving her capabilities, just showing both of them what she could do.
Her triumph lasted no more than a handful of seconds. He caught her knees and lifted her almost straight up. Tipping her backwards, he sort of rolled over her and crawled up her as she tumbled onto her back, wedging his hips between her thighs and pinning her far more effectively with his surprisingly heavy form than she’d trapped him.
It happened so fast, she could do nothing but suck in a gasp of surprise.
He dropped his chest to hers and covered her mouth with his own with an aggressiveness just shy of violence.
Monica stiffened, uncertain of whether this was an actual assault in retaliation of her hostile behavior or an alien invasion of a sexual kind.
Fortunately, she wasn’t in doubt long. Despite the roughness of his initial caress, he didn’t hurt her tender mouth or crush her beneath him in a painful way.
He did lodge a very erect, very hard rod between them as he explored her mouth with dizzying thoroughness.
She felt as if she’d been infused with a euphoric drug with the first sweep of his tongue along hers, the faintly rough stroke along her cheeks.
He sucked at her lips hungrily, coaxed her with the dance of his tongue to allow him to draw her tongue into his mouth. And the moment she yielded, he suckled her tongue in a way that sent shivers of delight through her.
She felt as if she would melt and form a puddle beneath him—as insubstantial as molten liquid.
Hot.
Restless.
Needy.
Disappointment flooded her when he broke the kiss and lifted his head to look down at her.
That lasted about a millisecond.
Because Dar was crouched between the two of them, waiting. The moment Kael broke the kiss and released Monica, Dar punched him on the side of his head hard enough to wrench him off of her. His head flew sideways and his body followed.
Surging to his feet, Dar stalked toward the opening and disappeared.
Monica stared after him with her jaw at half-cock.
Kael seemed equally stunned about what had transpired but he recovered faster. Surging upward and stalking toward the opening, he disappeared, as well.
Monica heard the first meaty thud before she’d managed to get to her feet.
Despite the fact that she wasn’t accustomed to such displays of male aggression, she knew instantly what it was and what it meant.
And she still struggled up and rushed to the opening to look for them.
She almost caught Dar as he flew backward and slammed into the edge of the door.
It was a close enough call to convince her she just needed to stay out of it and as far from harm’s way as possible.
She’d verified that, yes, they were fighting.
She wasn’t altogether certain of why beyond the fact that Dar had decided to punch Kael.
She didn’t know why Dar had decided to punch Kael.
True, on the surface, it almost looked as if it was because Kael was kissing her, but she thought it was probably ludicrous and conceited to consider that the reason.
Besides, it made no sense, really.
Dar had kissed her the once by the lake, but he’d acted ever since as if it hadn’t happened.
Which meant it was completely forgettable or he was sorry he’d done it. It didn’t make sense that he would be angry that Kael had kissed her.
They had both taken care of her since she’d been stranded on their world but neither of them had behaved the least bit sexual toward her and certainly not romantic—or possessive.
Except for the kiss.
After listening to them punching one another for several minutes, Monica decided that it wouldn’t be safe to just assume the argument had nothing to do with her. She searched through the stuff they’d found deeper inside the structure and finally found something that looked very reminiscent of a golf club—maybe a cross between the club and a baseball bat? Either way, it wasn’t the handiest looking weapon for self-defense, but she thought it would work.
Settling by the fire again, she studied the piece of meat and decided it needed to be turned.
* * * *
Kael was still pissed off even when he was too weary to sling his fist anymore.
He was glad when Dar decided he had had enough and settled to catch his breath.
“What the fuck was that about?” Kael growled.
Dar spat blood and turned to give him a narrow eyed glare. “Do not play stupid.”
That pissed Kael off all over again. “Because I kissed her? Loka’s balls! You kissed her first!” he snarled. “That was no breach of protocol.” He thought about that for several moments. “Besides, it was impulse. Did you see the way she took me down? She is amazing.” He grinned.
Dar dredged up the memory and released a reluctant chuckle. “That was a sight, granted.”
Kael shifted uncomfortably. “She caught me off-guard and off-balance.”
Dar shrugged. “My guess is that is what that move is designed for—to take advantage of surprise.”
Kael relaxed fractionally. “I still do not get why you were so pissed off.”
Dar scrubbed a hand over his face, stared at the blood for a long moment and then began using the snow to clean his bloodied face and hands.
Kael looked at the snow reluctantly, but he had a feeling he looked worse than Dar and he took the plunge to clean up with the ice, too.
“There will be no future, I am thinking,” Dar said after a few moments. “It would be dangerous for her to become pregnant and wrong to bring a little one into this world.”
Kael merely stared at his bond brother for many moments, too stunned by his comments to respond at all.
Guilt crept in as the words tumbled around and around in his mind.
It had not occurred to him, at all, to consider the possibility that Meeka might get pregnant, or what that would mean to her and to them.
Dar was right. It would be dangerous for her to become pregnant.
It would be dangerous for them as a group, but far more so for her.
And a small child, an infant ….
His belly went weightless at that thought, but he tamped it ruthlessly.
It would be nearly impossible for an infant to survive the harsh conditions of the world as it was now.
But to say they had no future?
“You ar
e saying that we should simply find a cliff and leap off?”
Dar, who had dragged up the skin of the beast he had killed and was using a sharp rock to scrape the flesh that still clung to it off, sent him a sharp look. “I am not saying that. I had no mind even to suggest such a thing! That is the coward’s way,” he growled.
“Then you are accepting that the life ahead will be nothing but survival and should only be about survival?”
Dar glared at him. “Your point?”
“Granted I have seen nothing to suggest that we are likely to find an easy life in our situation, but I also see no reason to give up the pursuit of comfort and joy in anything that might provide it. Meeka does not seem … reluctant to accept us even if she also does not seem particularly interested.”
“You are willing to risk her life to take comfort from her?” Dar said tightly.
Anger flickered through Kael. “You are assuming that we could get a child on her,” he snapped. “But she is in her woman’s infertile time. Even if it was possible at all, it will certainly not be possible now.”
Dar stared at him in shock, struggling with a dawning excitement. “And you know this how?”
Kael rolled his eyes, but reddened faintly. “I was not just stunned by the assault she launched against me,” he said dryly. “I had the opportunity to examine her woman’s place very thoroughly when she was crouched over me. Why do you think that I lost my head?”
Chapter Ten
Monica was relieved when the sound of meaty thuds and grunts of exertion outside finally ceased, but it was short lived.
It was eerily quiet in the aftermath.
Just when she was debating whether to go out to check to be sure they hadn’t killed one another, she heard an exchange of words in their tongue that made her wonder if they would begin to fight again.
They sounded angry—almost accusing.
Whatever was said, though, it didn’t bring them to blows again. Instead, after a little bit, Kael reappeared bearing an armload of fuel for the fire—an assortment of broken sticks, dung, and what looked like charcoal. He dropped his burden beside the makeshift hearth and went out again.
After a bit, Dar came in dragging the hide, no doubt, of the animal cooking on the campfire.
Monica felt him flick a long, thoughtful look in her direction, but she didn’t acknowledge him and he focused on hanging the hide over the opening.
Almost the moment he cut off the constant flow of air, the smoke thickened inside and the area around the fire warmed significantly.
Monica wasn’t certain it was going to be an improvement considering the smoke.
Coughing, Dar lifted one edge of the hide and went out again.
Gee thanks! Monica thought. It’s so much more comfortable.
Kael reappeared, dropped another load of fuel for the fire and then went to examine the things he and Dar had brought from the depths earlier. Unearthing something that looked like a tube of some material, he began pacing the room, staring up at the ceiling until he apparently found what he was looking for.
He went out again.
A few minutes later Monica heard sounds above her head and then dirt and ash began to rain down from the ceiling a yard or so to her left. She was on the point of surging to her feet and dashing outside when the tube appeared.
Almost immediately, tendrils of smoke began to gravitate in that direction.
Monica stared at it for several moments, torn between surprise and gratitude that he’d made a chimney of sorts, and irritation that he hadn’t bothered to warn her he was going to be poking holes in the dirt above her head.
She’d thought the damn thing was about to collapse!
The sound of stones striking stones caught her attention and she whipped a look toward the entrance.
She couldn’t see who was on the other side because of the hide over the opening, but whoever it was was stacking stones in the entrance.
To make the opening smaller?
Because the hide didn’t completely cover the hole at the moment.
But it was going to be dark as hell when they closed that off completely.
Warmer.
Smokier.
Darker.
As the pile grew and the area dimmed in spite of the fire, Monica began to notice tiny shafts of light from small crevices.
Kael returned after a while, climbing through the small hole with an armload of what looked like colored glass. She studied it when he carefully made a pile on the floor and realized it must be shards of vitrified sand from the heated blast of the impact. He wedged pieces in the larger holes and then made mud and poked it into the smaller ones until the majority of crevices were filled with glass or mud.
He went outside and came back clean or at least cleaner and squatted opposite her to warm and dry his wet hands.
Dar came in with what looked like a small cook pot. When he set it in the edge of the fire, she saw it contained ice and tiny bits of flesh—very likely what he’d scraped from the hide now being used as a door.
Noticing that both men were staring at her man beater stick, as nonchalantly as possible, Monica picked it up and used it to peel the meat loose and flip it over.
Dar and Kael exchanged an ironic glance that she pretended she didn’t catch.
Then Kael’s look turned accusing as if to say ‘see what you did!’
But neither one directed anger toward her and that was a huge relief. She relaxed fractionally.
She asked Dar to check the meat for doneness and when she saw it looked done enough to eat, to cut it in to bite sized portions.
There were no plates, of course, and she didn’t even have a knife. Everything was finger food. The meat burned her fingers, but it was welcome in the vast cavern of emptiness that was her stomach. It warmed her from the inside out, made her feel rested if it didn’t actually energize her, and it helped her to relax more. The comfort of food and warm shelter gave rise to something approaching appreciation, a sense of wellness if not actual happiness.
The ice in the pot Dar had found melted and then began to steam as the last light of day faded and as it did, the area warmed and seemed a little less humid.
Or at least it was warm damp rather than bone chilling damp from the snow.
She realized she’d grown comfortable enough that she could only face visiting the ‘privy’ for a nature call with great dread, but there was no denying the call and, if she had to go, she damn sure didn’t want to wait until it was totally dark.
Part of the dread, she knew, stemmed from Dar and Kael’s reaction to her going outside alone earlier and part of that was the fear that there was a specific reason, a danger they were aware of that she wasn’t.
The other part was her business.
It wasn’t that she was particularly uncomfortable about bodily functions—her own or anyone else’s—but she was used to having at least a little privacy for such personal matters.
She probably wasn’t going to get it now, maybe not anymore at all, but she certainly wasn’t looking forward to asking.
Deciding she might as well get it over with, she braced herself and stood. “I have to go,” she announced to no one particular.
Both men rose.
Surely to god one would be enough? But did she actually want to pick an escort?
And maybe they had to go, too, and had just been waiting on her?
They guided her to a spot that someone had thoughtfully worked on. Snow had been packed around the spot almost like an igloo except, of course, no roof.
It was almost embarrassingly decadent considering their situation—that one or both had put so much work into producing a tiny piece of civilization—an outhouse!
And ridiculous to feel so thrilled about it, but she was.
She actually chuckled and turned to grin at both men. “This is great!”
Both of them looked a little disconcerted but they grinned back, clearly pleased that she appreciated their efforts.
&nb
sp; The wind wasn’t gusting as it had been, but it was still nice to have a sheltered place because she had to virtually strip naked to do any of her business—unlike the men on the mission who wore the same flight suits as she was wearing and could just whip the dick out at least half the time. There was a seam that opened from ankle to ankle, but she had to open it completely or risk wearing a mess.
And her situation was bad enough without risking worse.
Dismissing it, she struggled to hurry to finish and get back into the warmth of the cave and it still took long enough she was starting to shiver, her teeth threatening to chatter by the time she was finished.
And then she had nothing to clean up with but snow.
It was all she could do to bring herself to put personal hygiene above comfort and she had a bad feeling it was a haphazard effort at best, but she ignored the misery and tried.
Her lower extremities felt totally frozen from her crotch down by the time she’d done all she could bear doing and her hands and fingers, as well, from digging in the snow.
Without bothering to secure the inner seam again, she made a dash for the relative warmth of the cave and crouched down by the smoldering campfire, rubbing her hands together frantically to stir up some warmth.
Dar settled beside her after a few moments and pulled her into the V of his legs. Grasping her wrists, he brought her hands together, covered them with his own and began to blow his warm breath into the ‘pocket’ he’d made.
Monica sighed ecstatically at the instant warmth, relaxing back against his chest.
Despite the fact that he’d been outside with her—in nothing but ragged pants, and a ‘cape and boots’ made from the hide of one of the beasts he’d killed, he was warm enough that she felt her own body begin to thaw from the heat he was generating.
“Better?” he asked after a few moments when she could feel her fingertips again.
Monica nodded. “Yes, thank you.”
There was enough heat in the look Dar gave her to curl her toes even before he leaned forward and began to stroke her knees and bare thighs.
Exodus: Extinction Event Page 9
