The six women and I ran across the hold floor as Nikki lifted off the ground. We hit the bulkhead chairs a moment before Persephone’s thrusters engaged, and everyone but Kasta let out gasps of discomfort when the g-forces punched us in the stomach.
Persephone banked, and my heart flip-flopped in my chest. I couldn’t see any sort of screen display, and the sensation of not knowing where we were going or what Nikki was avoiding was causing my heart rate to soar. I opened my mouth to ask her for a status update, but then Persephone’s nose tipped up, and the g-forces threatened to turn my lungs into a pancake.
The sensation only lasted a few seconds, though, and then we all gasped with relief.
“Adam, we have reached orbit and evaded the four Jupiter Navy ships,” Nikki said. “Where do you want to go next?”
“Nordar - 13,” I replied.
“Hyperdrive is ready,” she replied.
“Engage,” I said, and then Persephone’s flight seemed to level.
“Ahhh,” I sighed as I looked at my friends. “Glad you all made it.”
“Uhhh, what happened to staying behind on the ship while we took care of this?” Zea asked as her mouth twisted to the side.
“I figured you were good enough to expunge my record before any of the cops got me.”
“Well, you were wrong,” she chuckled as got out of her chair.
“So you didn’t find anything on me?” I asked as we all finished standing.
“Oh, yeah, I did,” she said. “Then I deleted it all, but then every single video monitor lit up with the video of you and Sivaha shooting at the guards. Sooooo… yeah…”
“The good news is that I’ve got my mom,” I told them all. “She’s in the room with my sister.”
“What’s the bad news?” Kasta asked.
“Nothing,” I laughed as I turned to the silver-haired woman. “Sivaha and I had a good time, but now I’m tired. I want to talk to my mother, but I shifted back into my human shape almost an hour ago, and it is a struggle to keep my eyes open. Can you all go speak with her?” My eyes drifted to Eve as I asked the question, but they all nodded.
“We will make her feel welcome,” Eve said as she gifted me with her beautiful smile.
“Great. I’m heading to bed.” I handed the bazooka to Madalena and then I gave my friends a last smile before I made my way to the elevator.
It was difficult to walk, but I made it to the lift without stumbling. As soon as I pressed the button to go up to the bridge floor, Sivaha flowed through the closing doors and leaned up against the far wall. Her eyes met mine, but we didn’t say anything as we rode up the elevator.
Then the doors opened on the bridge level, and we walked down the hallway toward my room.
We still didn’t speak when we stepped into my suite, but her hands moved to my gunbelt, and she unfastened it with a quick movement.
The pieces of my new armor soon followed, and then I was standing in just my flight suit. Her eyes bore into mine as she unzipped it, and then I stepped free of the garment so that I was standing naked before her.
“Hmmm,” she sighed as she glanced up and down my body.
I reached for her dress, but the Nordar queen danced around my grasp like she was made of smoke, grabbed my arm, and then led me to my bed. A moment later she pushed me face down on the sheets, and then I felt her straddle my ass. I was about to ask what she was doing, but then I felt her fingers push into the tense muscles of my shoulders.
“Rest now, Husband,” she whispered as she massaged me. “We’ll be in hyperdrive for a few days.”
“Okay,” I murmured as my heavy eyelids closed.
“Did I please you today?” she asked as sleep began to grab ahold of my mind.
“Yessssss,” I whispered, but it felt more like I was talking to her in my dreams than real life.
“Good, then you will please me tomorrow.” Her voice was a purr in my ear, and I felt my body warm before it drifted away.
Chapter 11
“Ahhhhdeeeeemmm,” the feminine voice hissed in my ear, and I startled awake.
The last thing I remembered, Sivaha was giving me a backrub, but now I was laying on the cold metal of Persephone’s hold. I turned around to see who had spoken to me, but I didn’t see anyone else around. Nor did I see any of our usual drones, fighter craft, or storage crates that were usually neatly packed in the hold.
I shivered and realized I wasn’t wearing any clothes. How in the hell had I gotten out into the hold without any clothes and where was everyone?
I stood as my mind grappled with the question, but an answer soon came to my head. As much as this didn’t feel like a dream, it must have been one. I was probably still sleeping on my bed in Persephone.
And the SAVO were trying to attack me again.
I wondered how their powers worked as I moved toward where I thought the armory would be. These fuckers weren’t even in the same solar system. Hell, they were on the other side of the galaxy, but they were somehow able to infiltrate my dreams from over nine hundred thousand light years away. I felt a bit of frustration when I thought about fighting them. How could I win against beings with the power to attack me from that far away?
Then I remembered Madalena’s words when I had told her about my dream. The Prime Valkyrie had said they were afraid of me.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have cared.
I reached one of the doors leading to the hallways of the ship and carefully opened it. The view confirmed that this wasn’t Persephone, since the walls were colored a light gray, and there were magenta lights on the walls instead of red ones. It was possible there wasn’t an armory in the direction I was walking, or even a place to get clothes, but I figured it would be worth investigating.
I tried to replay the various dreams in my head while I walked down the silent hallways, but my mind strained with the effort of thinking about other dreams while I was in a dream that I knew was a dream. Fortunately, the first few rooms I checked didn’t have anything in them, so my mind had plenty of time to chew on my distant memories.
It seemed most of my dreams happened on a ship that looked like Persephone.
Granted, not all of them did, but a good chunk seemed to put me on some sort of starship that was a close sister to my own vessel. I even recalled a dream where there was another winged woman with red hair, and I felt my penis harden when I thought about kissing both her and Persephone together.
“Now I’m getting turned on in a dream. Focus Adam.” I spoke the words out loud just to hear myself talk, and my voice bounced off the empty hallway walls, ceilings, and floors like the echo off a distant mountainside.
Was there a way I could will myself out of the dream? I’d tried that before when I fought against the disgusting vampire minions, but I had also been preoccupied with saving Persephone. I didn’t see the winged angel-woman now, so there was a possibility that she wouldn’t make a showing in this dreamscape.
Even though she had been in almost all of my other dreams.
I thought about waking up as I looked inside of another room, but that didn’t instantly transport me back home. Then I tried pinching myself. It didn’t work either, but I would have felt kind of dumb if it had. I tried laying down quickly and then forcing my eyes open and closed to try and jumpstart me in my real sleeping body, but that didn’t work either, so I sprang up from the floor and continued searching the rooms.
I found the armory, but its weapon hangers and shelves were empty except for a single longsword balanced on a pedestal in the middle of the room.
I didn’t know much about swords, but this weapon looked to have been crafted by a master. The blade was made from a strange looking metal that bent and curved the light so that red, gray, and black colors reflected off the edge. The grip was wrapped in thick leather. The guard and pommel of the blade had tigers etched across the surface, but when I walked around to the back of the stand, I saw the other side had dragon etchings.
The blade itself was
a little over a meter long, and I guessed that I could easily wield it with one hand, but the grip was long enough to use two without much of a problem.
“Now I just need armor, and I’d be some sort of knight,” I said as I reached for the leather handle.
“Eyyee yahh,” a voice behind me said, and I spun around to see Persephone standing in the doorway of the room.
She wore her usual tight lingerie bodysuit, and her white skin seemed to glow in the places where it peeked through the lace. Her platinum hair was a few shades lighter than Sivaha’s, but it was about the same length, and it flowed over her shoulders and black wings like a halo of expensive metal. Our eyes met as she stepped into the armory, and I opened my arms so that she would be encouraged to embrace me. Persephone rushed the last few steps between us, and our lips devoured each other’s when her body pressed against mine.
It could have been the dream state, but the alien being’s kisses always made me lose myself. My head spun and my muscles seemed to melt while our tongues battled, and I wanted nothing more than to devour her beautiful body, immediately.
“Eyyyyeee,” she whispered as our lips parted. Her eyes darted to the sword, but I gently pulled her hair back so her chin would raise. Then I pressed my mouth against her neck so that I could kiss her throat. The winged woman rewarded me with a long moan, but she stepped away from me before I could continue rolling my tongue down to her chest.
“Yaaah,” she sighed as she pointed to the longsword.
“Yeah,” I grunted. “Assholes to kill. Got it.” My hand closed around the hilt of the weapon, and I turned to face her. “Do you know where I can get some clothes?”
Persephone pointed back to the doorway, and we walked out of the room together, down the hallway, and into another room that looked of similar size to the armory I had just left. Hanging in the middle of this room was a familiar looking flight suit and boots, but the trim colors were gray and burgundy instead of black and gray. I moved to hand Persephone the longsword so I could put the uniform on, but she waved her hands and then indicated that I should just set it down.
Half a minute later and I had the suit on, and then I put on the socks and boots. Everything fit perfectly, and I grabbed the sword before we left the room.
“I’m guessing you know where to take me?” I asked as we entered the hallway again.
“Eye yah,” she said as she gestured back to the hold. “Yah naaa ahhh. Ohh eyyyyeee yyaaa. Ohnnn haaa eye yah.”
“I have no idea what you just said, but I’m going to guess that these fuckers are trying to kill me again, and you are here to protect me?”
“Yay!” She nodded, but then she gestured to her chest, hugged herself, and shook her head.
“You are worried?” I asked.
“Yaaahh,” she sighed.
“Don’t be,” I growled. “I know this is a dream. I know I can beat these fuckers. I’m going to hunt all of them down and kill them. Don’t worry.”
“Eye yah.” She smiled at me, and then we arrived back in the hold.
I expected us to take the hallways back toward the interior of the ship, but Persephone instead pointed to the bay doors, and we both moved toward them. As we approached, the hatch spiraled open, and the ramp extended down to a grassy field beyond. It was night time outside, but there seemed to be more stars than black space in the sky, and the endless rolling hills of grass swayed like a dark ocean.
“Ahhhdeeeemmm,” a voice called to me from the distance, and Persephone stepped closer to me so she could take my hand in hers.
I walked down the ramp toward the sound of the voice, but then I stopped my descent midway when I saw what waited for me at the bottom of the ramp: Zea, Eve, Madalena, Sivaha, Paula, Kasta, and Juliette all knelt on the grass. Their heads were bowed, and they wore tight flight suits that matched mine.
Standing behind them was the SAVO woman I seemed to find in every one of my dreams. She looked a bit like Eve, but now that the two of them were standing beside each other, their differences were more obvious. The SAVO bitch’s face was more angular, hawkish, and her body lacked a bit of the feminine curves that Eve’s had.
Still, the two women could possibly be sisters, and their pale skin, black hair, and red eyes enhanced their already similar features.
“I haavv yuuurrrahhh weeemmmannn,” the SAVO hissed as she stepped behind Eve and placed her hand on my lover’s shoulder.
“Back away from them,” I said as I let go of Persephone’s hand.
“Naaaaoo,” the SAVO growled, and an evil grin spread over her face. “I havvee taken them.”
“This is just a dream,” I growled as I held up my sword. “Remember how your last few attempts have ended? I beat you every time, and when you get here, I’m going to kill you.”
“Awww,” her mouth actually formed an “O” shape, and it looked like the monster was pouting. “Soooo aaaangry.” She moved her fingers to stroke Eve’s face, but my lover still didn’t open her eyes.
The sight made my vision turn red at the edges, and I took a deep breath to calm myself.
“Leave. Them. Alone.” I moved down the ramp as I spoke, and my fingers squeezed the grip of the sword as if I was strangling her neck.
“Joinn meeee, Adhaammm,” the SAVO hissed. “I willl givveee yooouuu all the women you waaaaant.”
“That’s your game,” I laughed. “You know you can’t beat me. You keep trying, and I keep winning. You are terrified of me, and you should be. I’m going to find you, and then I’m going to bite your fucking head off. I’ve already had a dream. Did you see that one?”
The SAVO’s eyes narrowed dangerously, and she opened her mouth slightly to show her fangs. Perhaps it was meant to be intimidating, but I remembered tearing her throat out in my last dream, so I continued my walk down the ramp.
Fuck this bitch. Time to show her who the real monster was.
In unison, my friends all turned their heads up to face me and opened their eyes. The orbs all glowed red, and I actually did skid to a halt. I knew this was a dream, but I hadn’t expected to see them like that, and the seven women all jumped to their feet.
Their mouths opened to reveal long fangs and even longer tongues, and my heart leapt in my chest. Without a second of hesitation, the women sprinted up the ramp toward me, and I felt my grip on my sword slacken.
Shit. This was just a dream, but I hated to kill images of the women I loved.
“Eye yahh!” Persephone shouted, and I felt her hit me lightly in the shoulder. Her punch jarred my senses, and I cocked my longsword to the side as the monster who looked like Zea jumped at me.
The creature looked almost exactly like my lover, except for her red eyes, fangs, and tongue. In any other situation, I might have hesitated with my swing, but I knew these were just manifestations of the SAVO’s power, and I had no problem cutting the thing in half as it leapt.
Blood sprayed all over my face, and Zea’s body split into two pieces at her stomach. I danced to the side to avoid Paula’s clawed attack, and I pivoted on my feet as I swung my blade at monster-Madalena’s head. The longsword cleaved her skull into two pieces, and I stepped through my attack to shoulder check Kasta before she could bite me.
“Yahh!” Persephone screamed as Juliette grabbed her, but I dashed toward the winged woman and speared the point of my sword through the monster’s head.
Sivaha grabbed on to my arms before I could pull my sword out of Juliette’s skull, but I headbutted the silver-haired woman and then kicked my boot out to break her knee. As she stumbled away, I tore my weapon free of the redhead’s skull with a spray of blood and then ran it through Sivaha’s chest.
Eve, Paula, and Kasta came at me simultaneously, but I made a broad swing with my sword and all three of their heads flew off their necks. I was already moving down the ramp as their bodies fell, and the black-haired SAVO’s eyes opened wide when she realized that I’d killed her minions.
She turned away from me as if to run, but I had a
lready closed the gap between us.
“Where do you think you are going?” I asked as I grabbed the back of her neck with my left hand.
She turned inward against my thumb quicker than I expected, tore out of my grip, and then opened her mouth to bite me in the neck. I was just a hair faster though, and even though she had surprised me, I was already bringing the pommel of my sword down, and it cracked her in the head like a hammer.
“You keep trying to kill me here, but you keep losing,” I growled as I grabbed onto her neck again. “I wonder what would happen if you actually killed me here. Would I die in real life?”
“Uhhh gawwww,” she hissed as she scratched against my chest with her claws. My suit tore open, and blood poured out of my cuts, but I didn’t even feel the wounds.
“What happens if I kill you here?” I asked. “Does it work both ways?”
“Youuuu cannnooottt killl--”
I was suddenly in my tiger-man form. I hadn’t even thought about changing. I just instantly became one in the blink of an eye. The SAVO woman’s body looked tiny in my massive grip now, and her attempts to escape my grasp grew more urgent.
“You don’t kill me,” I growled. “I kill you. There is nowhere you can run. Nowhere you can hide. If you don’t come to Uraniel, I’ll find you in your home system and tear you to pieces. You made a mistake fucking with my women and me, and now you will pay.”
“Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.” Her laughter was a dry chuckle, and her fanged mouth curled up into a shark’s smile. “Weeee are older than time, Adaammm. Weee have already woooon. I will killlll yourrrr women and take you as my slaveeee. Youuuu are mineeee.”
“Your face is mine,” I growled, and then I opened up my maw and snapped my teeth closed over the front of her skull.
She reached her hands up to try to cut me with her nails, but I crunched down harder with my teeth as I pushed her neck forward. Her skull popped in my mouth like a grape, and thick blood sprayed out of my teeth and down my throat.
I spit out her face and skull, coughed what felt like a liter of blood out of my mouth, and then stared at her corpse. It thrashed a bit on the grass like a dying fish, but then it went still, and I turned back to Persephone.
Queen of Hearts Page 20
