"How about, come screaming with me?"
"Now you're talking."
* * * *
Frustration, Harimal thought, didn't do justice to what he felt.
If it wasn't so exasperating, the irony of his predicament would make him laugh.
His plans had been sabotaged. Well and truly.
Dragon-men instead of women and in place of the luxury liner in which he had booked a berth, the only transport available in the dock when he had arrived had been a star's awful automated cargo freighter. Either he took it as transport or wait another day for the next liner. One day with two annoyed and glamoured male draconis, who did not understand about delays and felinus humor... The freighter was the lesser of two evils.
Now, here he was--Harimal, san-duran, not feegling his brains with dragon-women, but sitting around a table playing--for the stars' sake--Martian poker. And he was losing.
The fact that the draconis were a mated pair only added to Hari's dilemma. A felinus could adapt to most tastes, but his dragon-guards were off-limits because they were a bonded couple.
Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to alter the listing of the liner's departure time on his computer, so he had arrived hours too late, to find two new draconis guards waiting for him. That someone who had done this to him had resources. Someone like a Director of Starwatch.
Fucking bloody Kuno!--who knew that Hari wouldn't compromise, in thought or deed, a mated couple, even if it meant denying his sexual needs.
Hari wanted to bed someone--badly!--but the droids on the ship were machines. He never feegled a machine, and the draconis were unreachable.
Kuno had set him up. Hari had to admit that his brother had been clever.
But two could play at sabotage. Hari smiled. Right about now, Kuno would be getting an email…pay-back time. He had felt John's Desire--was happy for him, but his brother needed a lesson taught him, he'd…
"Your call, felinus," Draxis hissed.
"And if you can't keep your mind on the game, you'd better fold now." Darvin sniffed theatrically. "What is that smell?"
"You don't recognize the piquancy of horny cat scent? Drax, I am surprised," Darvin said. "Harimal, san-duran, you really need to get mated."
"I'm trying," Harimal said, gazing at the silver-scaled male opposite him.
"There's trying and there's trying," Darvin growled, running a black talon over his mate's arm.
Hari snorted and set down two cards. "I call you."
"The cat's changed the subject." Draxis rumbled with laughter, his yellow eyes slitted. "Too hot for you, eh?"
"Nothing is too hot for me, I--"
The ship's proximity alarm sounded and as Draxis flung back his chair, the vessel shuddered from the unmistakable hit of a torpedo.
"What the--?" Darvin was on his feet and running to the flight deck, Hari and Draxis on his tail. Literally.
"Get that bloody tail out of my way, Dar!" Draxis shouted, leaping over the appendage as it swished from side to side along the floor.
Metal screamed around them and the ship bucked, and after a star's awful whine, the engines died. An explosion rocked the ship from fore to aft.
Hari and the dragons crashed hard against the bulkhead.
Hari recovered first, crawled on hands and knees to Darvin, who was cradling his bleeding head.
"I've had worse, felinus," the dragon said. Hari knew better. Knew pain when he saw it.
They heard the sound of the hull tearing open and voices.
Before Hari could react, he was pulled behind Draxis. Darvin struggled to his feet, the two draconis shielding Hari with their bodies. At the sound of feet crashing against the metal corridor, just out of view, the dragons went into a crouch, ready for the kill.
Moments later, six humo-droids, their human heads a mockery to the cyborg bodies of metal and plastic, skidded to a halt.
Shock flooded Hari. The manufacture of such creatures had been banned by every Star Court in the galaxy. Yet, here they were…
Hari stiffened, ready to spring, but with one outstretched arm, Draxis pinned him to the wall. He struggled. Stars curse draconis for their duty to protect. He began to morph into cat.
"No, you don't, felinus!" Draxis's talons bit into his flesh, distracting.
Then Hari heard the scream of a disruptor and Darvin went down, moaning.
Disruptors were banned, too. What in the Seven Systems was happening here?
Draxis moved, faster than even a felinus eye could follow and launched himself at the intruders. Hari followed, cat claws extended. He took down two humo-droids in the first leap.
Draxis tore one apart and was jumping on the next, when another disruptor beam took the silver dragon in the back. He crashed to the floor.
Darvin dragged his crippled body forward, reaching his mate's side.
Hari landed beside the two dragons, touching his nose to Draxis. The dragon was dead.
Darvin snarled, tears falling from his eyes. He stared at Hari. "Take my clan-song, Harimal."
Hari nodded acceptance and the Dragon-mind touched Felinus. The names of the dragon's sires was gifted to him. That meant only one thing…
Then the draconis pushed all thought to one side, save revenge. Hari shivered at the cold rage. Draconis revenge went beyond even anything an Assassin could imagine.
Darvin struggled to his feet and morphed to dragon. Talons extended to twelve inches and he launched himself at the creatures who had killed his mate.
Three blaster beams caught Darvin, slicing him through.
Hari snarled and leaped…
A stun-web tangled around him, bringing him down mid-air. Hari fought the confines, tearing with teeth and claws. The web's neural inhibitor zapped his mind, his power. He couldn't shift to man, nor could he call telepathically for help. He was blind for the first time in his life. It was terrifying.
Hari saw a man stride forward, dressed in a grey space suit and helmet, his blaster at the ready. Hari rolled around in the net, confronting his killer.
The man aimed his disruptor.
Hari tensed, waiting. An eternity spread before him, in reality just seconds.
The man laughed. "Yeah, I'd kill you, kitty-cat, but Master has plans for you." The man notched his disruptor and fired and a pellet struck Hari's neck.
Screaming with rage, tearing at the wound with his claws, Hari twisted in the net and then the full horror intruded as the drug spread through his veins, slowing his reflexes, blinding him…
* * * *
Sam ran a tongue over her dry lips and frowned. "John-Kuno! I only agreed to do this portrait to distract you while we wait for passage to Chizan. So, stop doing that, cat-boy!"
Lying face down on the bed, his chin resting on his crossed arms, his gaze was lambent, his smile sexy.
"What am I doing, honey-cat?" All innocence in his voice, but seduction and games were on his mind, Samantha was under no illusions.
"Growling and distracting me." She stabbed her paint brush on the palette, carefully lifting a drop of black, mixing it with gold. "It's hard enough to get your hair color right as it is." She frowned at the canvas and her attempts to capture John-Kuno's likeness.
"How do you know what's hard, kitten?" He laughed.
She lifted a brow. "I can guess."
"Only guess?" He rolled to the side revealing his magnificent erection.
"Just go back to that pose, John-Kuno. You haven't finished--"
"Damn right," he said, padding towards her. "Because I haven't even started."
He reached for her and Sam waved her brush in front of her to fend him off, leaving a smear of black paint across his chest.
"Ah." John exhaled, slowly. "Ah, do that again. The bristles feel so good…"
"This?" Sam questioned, stroking his nipples with the tip of her brush. "Or this?" She directed the bristles sideways.
John's body trembled from head to heels.
Uh-oh! Sam knew that look. That reaction. She dr
opped her palette as he pulled her to him, lifting her against his taut body. He dipped his head and kissed her, his tongue…
The digi-com made the weirdest sound--a mixture of a ping and a screech. In a blur of speed John was across the room, leaning over the console.
"Kuno…zan-m'trl." His voice was devoid of emotion as he spoke into the com-link.
zan-m'trl--Sam mouthed the strange word. What did it mean? John talked rapidly in felinus, and another through the com-link responded.
As the conversation swept back and forth, staccato, John's voice became cold, remote--not from anger, but horror. Terror.
Samantha crossed the room and stood beside him, touching his arm. Beneath her fingers, his flesh was cold and shivering.
The com-link severed and silence descended, the intense quiet pounding in her ears.
As he turned from her, she saw the tears on his cheeks.
"John, what's wrong?"
"Harimal's ship is missing." He shook his head at her unasked question. "No trace."
John strode to the conservatory and leaned against the balustrade, his forehead against the glass. His stance was similar to the one days ago--only days--but so much had happened, then there had been so much promise and now…
Samantha ran across the room and pressed herself against John's back, her arms around him, holding him close.
"But you'd know if Hari was dead, John. You told me the bond between you…if he died you'd feel it. Wouldn't you?"
"Maybe." He drew in a shuddering breath. "I've been focused on you, on the Desire. Hari--"
"I don't believe it. I won't believe it. I won't! Your felinus name means seeker. So that's what we'll do, Kuno, we'll look for Hari. No matter how far, how long. We'll find him. I promise you!"
To be continued…
The journey continues in:
STARLIGHT PASSION
Starlight Desire has left its mark on John and Samantha. They must travel to the shifter home-world so that the final rite of Desire is consummated. For John, he has no choice: he must enter the ritual of mutatis--but will Sam take that final step with him? Can she be survive the moment when John's true nature is unleashed? She has glimpsed the cat in the man, but now it is the cat who must dominate… Amid the Passion, there is pain: Harimal is missing and since John can't reach his brother telepathically, it is assumed that Hari is dead. And as a consequence, John will be forced to make a decision: reject his people, his heritage, or reject Samantha. Passion and duty are words that will cut his heart in two…
Readers of the Starlight series will have more treats in store for them in the months ahead. Not only more instalments in the series, but Astrid's website will be expanded to have "dedicated" pages for the Starlight characters and worlds. You can meet your favorite characters in cyber flesh and learn more about them than can ever be included in any book.
There will also be a free story available for readers in a few months.
Due to reader demand for more about "Hari", in 2009 a full-length novel about him will be published.
But wait--there's more.
Later this year, Astrid will be running a special competition where one reader will have a Starlight story written exclusively for them.
And this is just for "starters".
About the Author
Astrid has been writing since she was five years old and even then her stories were of the "fantastic": aliens, spaceships, knights on magical quests. Astrid is an award-winning, best-selling author whose works encompass many genres and many formats (traditional print, electronic and POD). Active in s.f. fandom, she has organized s.f./fantasy conventions, edited over 100 fanzines, and run several fantasy 'fan' groups. When not writing, Astrid works in her two and a half acre 'garden' in rural South Australia.
She has other speculative fiction and paranormal erotica with Extasy Books (Pride's Passion, Forbidden Nights and For Eternity and 3 stories in the "Violet Visions" anthology) and is working on a five-book mainstream fantasy series of "epic proportions". She is contracted to edit an anthology ("Fabled Towers") featuring stories about the Arthurian myth. Astrid is a freelance editor and is contracted by an agency to assess and edit manuscripts.
Astrid invites all readers to her website: www.astridcooper.com and maybe sign her guestbook and/or email her, as she enjoys hearing from readers and other writers!
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