by Renee Rose
“Pike! You are back! You came back!”
I pummeled the six-foot crimson-lit man in his hardened broad chest. I stared down at the thick red veins of light streaking down his forearms, and couldn’t wait to feel them wrapped around my body. I eyed Pike’s leather belt that held snug a small rusted-edged hatchet on his right side. He lowered his gun, adopting a stance of calm.
“We’ve got a ways to where Cross is with the ship, and these canaries aren’t going to just step out of our way. I’m worried about Cross. He isn’t going to be able to hold them off long by himself. This fucking planet is infested with them now.”
I let out a breath, said nothing more, and ran at Pike’s side. As we ran, he handed me the hatchet from his waist with a steely-eyed smile. Canaries looked upon us with wet gleaming eyes. Pike lifted up his gun in one motion. A chewed-faced canary bolted, wailing as it forged for us. Pike cocked his gun. The double-click of the forearm was like music to my ears. A volley of rotten skin and desiccated muscle erupted into oblivion.
Pike gripped my hand, as Canaries kept close on our heels, racing to get back to the ship.
I ran as fast as I could, my lungs burned. I ran without looking back, gasping sobs. If branches of trees and shrubs sliced the skin of my hands, and limbs struck at my face, it didn’t matter. It was nothing compared to the suffering I would experience if a canary got a hold of me. Pike and I had to get back to the ship. I jumped a fallen tree and landed in dark mud. My feet lost traction, and I slipped, falling hard onto hands and knees, tearing the thin fabric of my clothing. Bloody scrapes marred the skin of my palms, but I continued on with all the speed I could muster.
Canaries screeched, the high pitched fervor of that god awful teeting threatening to drive me insane. Both Pike and I ignored the fact that more came from all around as we ran. Canaries catapulted themselves in front of us only to be met with a shot from Pike’s gun.
Pike pointed in the direction of where Cross waited with the ship. “There. Run faster!” We both picked up speed seeing several canaries make their way toward Cross. He did his best shooting them as they came, but there were so many.
“Cross,” I called, but my breath was so short it barely made a sound. “Cross!” I tried again.
And then it happened…
I gasped in shock, watching the canary come from Cross’s right while he was reloading his gun. The bulging-eyed monster lunged for Cross, knocking him down to the ground.
“No!” I screamed as I ran as fast as I could behind Pike who was charging full speed toward the canaries and his fallen brother.
The canary hissed, thrashing Cross’s lumbering body along the panels of the ship. I panicked as bits of the man’s torn flesh flicked against the cargo hold.
As if Pike had suddenly possessed a superhuman power, he went charging toward the mass of canaries with bullets blazing. Over and over he shot, killing them all one by one. Still in mid run, he scooped down and picked up Cross’s limp body and ran into the cargo hold with me still running behind him. Within seconds, Pike had the door closed and the ship in the air, while I crouched down by Cross’s bloody body.
“I’m glad you are all right,” Cross said with his arm folded across a gash on his chest, shielding the wound from my prying eyes. His big muscled body now looked so frail and broken.
“Let me see it, Cross.” I looked at the wound, then to Cross’s fluttering eyes, and then back at the wound again. “We’ll get you fixed up. Just let Pike get us out of here,” I said as I watched the blood spurt from his wound with every beat of his heart. So much blood. So much fucking blood!
Cross swung his head left and coughed up blood. Then he gazed upon me with a wolfish smile. “It’s my time.” He coughed hard, cringing in pain. “Those bastards got me.”
“This is my fault. I’m why this happened,” I said, somehow physically incapable of shedding tears, but not feeling such agonizing pain since the death of Trinity.
“We should have never left you here,” Cross replied. He coughed again into his fist. “I want you to take care of my brother. Promise me.”
“Stop, Cross. You are going to be fine.” I screamed at Pike who was busy flying the ship to safety. “Pike! I need you!”
Cross coughed again, gagging on the bubbling blood filling his airway. “He’ll need you. Do not let him push you away. Do not. There is love there. There is good inside of him. My lifeblood just stole it all. But I’ll soon be gone. I won’t be able to steal all the virtue any longer. He will be able to have it all. Pike may just need your help to find it.” He coughed again, and his eyes began to fade. “Promise me, Truth. Promise me you will help Pike find my gold light.”
“I promise.”
“He was the one, Truth. He was the one who said we had to come back and get you. It was he who didn’t want to live without you.”
I nodded with my eyes clenched shut.
Now Pike would have to live without his Lifeblood Twin.
I opened my eyes when I heard Cross gasp for air as his body slowly died. Gold. The color of life. Of beauty. Of warmth. A color that faded away completely as Cross took his last breath.
Cross! Cross! Cross!
I swam my fingers in the pool of his blood, taking in the last of his warmth. Cross! Cross was dead. Dead! My head spun, and all I could hear was a high, blood-curdling scream. Someone was screaming. I was screaming. It was me.
Cross! No! No, please! Don’t leave me!
I screamed over and over until there was nothing. Darkness. My body finally decided it was time to shut down. Nothing but darkness as I collapsed upon Cross’s blood.
Chapter Ten
I woke up in my old bed, my old room, alone. I was clean, bandaged, and in fresh clothes. Pike must have done it because…Cross was dead. Gone.
Fresh tears filled my eyes at the thought. I had lost Trinity. I had lost Cross. How much pain could one person endure in a lifetime?
I sat up having no sense of time. I wondered how long I had been unconscious. Hours? Days? Where was Pike? Standing up and grimacing when my feet hit the floor, it dawned on me that I had run at full speed barefoot. Looking down at the bandages, and feeling the throbbing pain let me know I must have shredded the soles of my feet. Limping over to the intercom, I hit the button.
“Pike? Are you there?”
I waited. Silence.
“Pike?”
I waited.
The door to my room slid open before I could call him again. There before me was Pike. Colorless. Void of any red that once illuminated through his large frame. All that remained was a pallid silhouette such as myself. His opaque figure was a painful reminder that his Lifeblood Twin was dead.
I burst into tears. “Oh, Pike,” I cried. “I’m so sorry. So sorry.”
To my surprise, Pike took me in his arms and held me close. He held me while I sobbed, stroked my back while my body shook with my misery. He kissed the top of my head as I apologized over and over again. Never once did he speak. Never once did he stop showing me love, kindness, and comfort. Pike. It was Pike who blanketed me in his white when the black wanted to blanket me completely.
I’m not sure how long I cried against his chest, but eventually Pike pulled me back so he could look me in the eyes. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. I could see his pain. I could see that his entire soul crumbling to pieces inside.
Stroking his pale face with my pale palms, I whispered, “Are you all right?” My white on his white, my pain touching his. Two Lifeblood Twins without the other half.
He nodded. “I will be.” Taking me by the hand, he led me back to the bed. “You need to rest. You’ve been through an awful ordeal.”
I shook my head. “No. I want to stay with you.” The thought of being alone for another second sent a panic through me. I never wanted to be alone again.
“I won’t leave you,” he reassured. He laid me down and crawled in bed beside me. “I made the biggest mistake of my life leaving you once before.
I will never leave you again. Never.”
I curled up next to him and pressed my cheek to his chest as he hugged me tight. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”
“He is. Cross is gone.”
“What do we do now?”
“Nothing. We do nothing right now.”
I nodded, feeling my eyes grow heavy. The heavy beat of his heart acted like a lullaby as I allowed sleep to take over and hopefully begin to heal my broken soul.
***
Days of deep melancholy passed. Pain every waking moment as Pike and I tried to take life one day at a time. White. We were white, and the constant reminder of our loss made me hate the lack of color more than ever before. I had never seen a man float through life, but that was exactly what Pike was doing. Floating in a thick haze of grief. He became lifeless along with colorless. And as much as I wanted to take away his pain, I had no way of doing so. Everywhere we looked, we saw a reminder of Cross. And every time I looked at his twin brother, a sharp pang would nearly knock the air out of me.
But with each day, and with each hour, Pike and I slowly regained our strength. The deep fog we both moved through slowly began to lift. Conversations occurred between us, ones that didn’t have the name Cross in them. Inch by inch a sense of calm, contentment, and acceptance began to seep into our waking hours. We were healing. Slowly.
We sat across from each other, like so many other times before, but today was different. Pike seemed like he was contemplating, heavy in thought. I decided to see if I could maybe get him to open up a little.
“Pike? You seem like you have been thinking pretty hard today.”
“I have.” He looked up at me and made eye contact. His expression gave nothing away.
“What about?”
“About us. About what our next step is. My brother and I were Pallid Slave transporters, but that has to change now. Now that I’m a Pallid as well. Plus,” he said as he studied me watching him, “that is no life for you anyway. I’ve heard of a small planet in the Zolar universe that is taking in Unins. It’s supposed to be a safe haven, but at the same time, there is talk that the outcast Unins are preparing for war against the Drenkens. Maybe it is time for you and me to join them. I’m sure if I study the star charts, I can find this planet, and you are a trained soldier so—”
My heart skipped a beat knowing that Pike was considering me in his future plans. “What are you saying?” I interrupted, needing more clarification. “Are you wanting a future with me in it?”
He smiled. The first genuine smile I had ever seen from him. It reminded me of Cross, but did not bring me sadness, but rather a happiness that filled my aching spirit. “Of course you are in it. When Cross and I went back to Canary, it was to claim you as ours. We had been damn fools to let you go, and we realized that…sadly too late.” He swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “But I will never make that mistake again. I want you. You are mine.”
“Yours?”
“Mine.” He stood up and pulled me from my chair. He wrapped his arms around me, trapping me against his body. “I have no lifeblood, but with the loss of it, I gained something I have never had before. I feel. I feel so much more than the dark, angry emotions of before. It’s as if my heart has grown. My entire being has changed. I feel pain, I feel the loss of my brother, and yet I feel emotions such as hope, and love. Love for you.”
I looked up into his eyes and allowed the tears to fall. His confession was all I had ever wanted to hear. He loved me. He openly admitted his feelings for me. Cross had given him the gift of love with his tragic death. Cross had given me the possibility of being loved.
“I don’t deserve your love in return,” he said. “I have done nothing but hurt you both physically and emotionally. But I want to earn it. I want to prove to you that I can give you what you need. I can honor the memory of Cross by protecting and caring for you like he would have done. I will try to be everything he was.”
“You will be more.” I stroked his face and gave him a soft kiss before adding, “You have all that Cross was, as well as what made you who you were. You and Cross both had parts of everything I ever wanted. But now you have it all. You have everything inside of you. Everything that made the both of you, has now joined together inside of only you.”
“What part of me could you have wanted? I was nothing but cruel to you.”
“Dominance,” I admitted. “Power. Control. You say all you did was cause me pain, but the pain caused me pleasure. You lit my body aflame with every touch you gave me, no matter how harsh it may have been.”
His eyebrow rose up, and a devilish grin spread across his face. “I see…”
“I loved Cross. God, how I loved him. But he couldn’t give me the strength I needed. You could…you did.”
He lightly placed his palm at my neck. “And when I choked you?”
“I haven’t felt claustrophobia since.”
“And when I spanked you?” He swatted my behind, causing me to flinch and gasp at the same time.
“I melted inside. My pussy throbbed.”
“And when I fucked you?” He dipped his hand past the waistband of my pants and toyed with the curls on my mound.
“I never felt more alive.”
He put his lips so close to mine that I could feel his heavy breath. “And if I told you I wanted to fuck you right now, what would you say?”
“I would say no. Just so you can fucking take me anyway.”
I smiled up at Pike, and we both knew the time had come. When I tried to offer assistance in shedding my clothing, he slapped my hands away, lowering me to the floor of the galley. Effortlessly, he shed me of my clothing, never breaking his stare with mine. When he removed his own clothing and stood before me in all his nude glory, I couldn’t help but moan in anticipation.
“Pike—”
“Don’t talk,” he interrupted and climbed on top of me, lowering his mouth to mine. “Do only what I say.” He kissed me long and deep. He tasted of life, and hope, and sweetness. He stroked his hands up and down my body, batting away my hands every time I reached for him.
“Don’t make me tie you,” he hissed. “Only move when I tell you.”
Moving lower down my body, he cupped my hot-skinned mound in his hands, clearly pleased to find me wet with my legs spread wide. I was always ready for him. I would never have denied him. Never turn him away. I would never truly say no.
Breaking his rule, I reached for him, he was thick and hard, the massive girth of his cock swollen and leaking. Just for me.
“Let me suck on you,” I pleaded. “I want to taste you again.”
Pike granted me my wish and straddled my neck so his cock rested in front of my face. Moving fast, I sucked him deeply into my mouth, running my tongue along the tip, luxuriating in the heady taste of him. I wanted more.
I raked my nails down his chest and pulled him into my throat until he bottomed out, delightfully gagging me with his size. Still, I tried to take more, until I gagged again, and my mouth salivated. My lips spread wide, he was too big. I’d never get enough of him. His smell and taste were drugs working on my system. The heat of his body, the comfort of his solidity, a balm to an existence that had become fraught, rocky, and confusing.
Pike stood at the center of my universe, rigid and impregnable. Constant. Reliable.
“Come for me, Pike,” I mumbled around his hard flesh, anxious for the flavor of his release. He groaned when I palmed his sack, squeezing gently. “Give me your come. I need to taste you.”
He thrust against my throat, his hips working, pushing deeper.
“I need you.” I tried to say it, but it came out muffled. He didn’t care, and neither did I.
His fingers dug into my scalp as he pulled my face tighter against his groin, and speech was impossible, so I just hummed around him.
The pre-cum of his desire coated my tongue, thick, heavy, and sweet. I moaned as the serum’s aphrodisiac worked through my body, setting nerves tingling. I swallowed hi
m down, sucking until he would have no choice but to release fully into the back of my throat, but he resisted.
“No, I want to fill your pussy with my seed.”
Frantically, he lowered himself down and reached for his cock to guide the brutal length of him between my thighs, pressing past my slick folds, claiming me once again. He rose up his hips and slammed back down, pounding into me with everything he had.
One of his hands closed over my breast, fingers strumming my nipple. I groaned as I arched my back, silently begging for more. I wanted him deeper. I wanted to feel his possession so deep that I would truly feel as if we blended as one. I couldn’t get enough of him. It was as if my body was starved and it was Pike who gave me life.
“Deeper,” I moaned.
He groaned out a wordless answer, deep in his throat and my stomach coiled tight at the rasping sound. Flipping us over, he lay on his back and had me straddle him, riding his cock. I bobbed up and down as his eyes watched my tits bounce. I liked having the power to give him pleasure. I could see it in his black eyes. I could feel it coming from his white flesh. I pleased him and that very knowledge brought on a wave of euphoria as a tidal wave came crashing down.
I arched my back as his cock drove deep inside and screamed out his name. Over and over again. Pike. Pike. Pike.
He grabbed me, with a rough hand to the neck, pulling me face down. He sucked at my tongue, swallowing my orgasmic groans. I bit his lip, tasting his blood and bucked my hips, milking the last wave of my release.
I reared up, gasping, reveling in the big cock that slammed deep inside of me with every thrust of his hips. Pike looked wild, the thick muscles of his abdomen and chest rippling, his hair curling white around his ears. I had never seen a more beautiful species. My species.
I dug my fingers into his chest and he groaned again. My thighs burned. I didn’t care. None of it mattered. All that mattered was giving Pike the pleasure I so desperately wanted to give him.
I leaned back, resting my hands on his corded, muscled thighs so I could get a better angle. His eyes burned into me, dark and probing, hard and hot, as if he saw into my soul. Every time he looked at me, I felt our bond grow stronger and stronger. There was no more lifeblood for Pike to give me, and yet I felt the powerful pull all the same.
