by Carven, Anna
Fuck. Never before had a man left her so defenseless, so completely undone.
She opened her eyes again and saw him staring intently at her, his brow slightly furrowed. There was a dangerous glint in his eyes. “Still holding out on me? Suit yourself.”
He kissed her lips, her cheek, her neck, his fangs grazing her soft skin just above the place where her carotid artery pulsed.
Shick. There was a soft sound, a rip, a tear, and suddenly her top was being peeled away from her warm body, and the cool air hit her, making all the places he kissed feel like a trail of molten bliss, and still he kept kissing her, moving lower, his hot mouth sucking gently on her collarbone, her chest, her left nipple…
Ohh… How he caressed that stiff, warm, tender point with his lips, his tongue, awakening sensations in her body that set her on fire and made millions of tiny stars explode in her mind.
He went lower still, trailing kisses down her belly, lingering over the spot where she’d once sported terrible scars.
With every kiss, he erased memories of Kordolian cruelty.
He went down over her lower belly, over her thighs, reaching her slick entrance. She was ready for him… no, beyond ready. He inhaled deeply, a low growl emanating from his throat. His hands slid over her waist, her hips, her thighs, her ass…
Especially her ass.
He kissed her down there, dipping his tongue between the silken folds of her sex, teasing out the most delicious sensations.
She gasped, digging her fingers into the soft surface of the bed, arching her back.
Nythian went deeper, faster, his lips tender and firm.
It was pure magic.
He found her clit, sucked on it, toyed with it, ran the tip of his tongue over it, sending her into another stratosphere.
She wrapped her legs around him.
He took her higher.
It wouldn’t take much now to tip her over the edge. This was pure heaven.
“Oooh,” she gasped as the first ripples of climax coursed through her.
Ripples became waves. Waves turned into an earthquake.
She twisted and writhed, clenching her legs tighter, pushing against him with great force as she came, but he was immovable.
He simply held her until the orgasm ran its course, and when it was over and the tension was draining out of her body like an ebbing ocean tide, she finally opened her eyes and looked at him.
He was still… very still. His eyes burned in the shadows. The look on his face was a mixture of satisfaction and deep, deep hunger.
What the fuck just happened?
It was crazy. It was beautiful.
She lay back, trembling with the aftershocks of climax.
“I’m not done with you yet,” he rumbled. He rose up on his knees, treating her to the full, glorious sight of his chiseled torso.
His erection was massive. So Kordolian anatomy wasn’t too different from human, huh? Except there was one difference.
There it was… a raised ridge extended along his cock from tip to base, seemingly designed just for her. Before she realized what she was doing, her body moved of its own volition. She rose up on her knees and he pulled her toward him, his powerful arms locking around her waist, strong fingers running up her back, her neck, over her cropped hair…
His kisses were deep and wild.
His body molded against hers, and they were perfect together.
“I need you inside me,” she pleaded, her voice cracking.
Those simple words were enough to shatter his formidable self-control. A deep, primal growl escaped him, making the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Before she knew it, she was flat on her back, and Nythian was all around her, and suddenly he was inside her too, letting out a low cry as he entered her.
Tension, spilling over, breaking…
He was the fury, she the void. Each gave the other what they needed most.
Nythian took control of the rhythm, fucking her savagely then tenderly, riding the wave of her need. He was creative too, taking her up against the wall, against the edge of the bed, reversing their positions, showing her a dozen different ways their bodies could fit together.
Every inch the dominant male.
The feeling of having him inside her was pure bliss. The ridge on his cock crushed against her most sensitive organ, that tiny little nub that drove her so wild.
She lost all sense of time and space. She let him ride her into oblivion, until somehow…
She found herself on top of him.
His doing, all of it.
Flushed and breathless, she thrummed with a strange kind of energy. She ground her hips, watching in fascination as he closed his eyes and whispered something in his native Kordolian. His eyes were closed. He looked so fucking beautiful.
She moved faster, encouraged by his low moans of pleasure.
She put her obsidian hand on his chest. It felt strange, her Callidum-enhanced skin almost thrumming with energy.
Anuk’s words echoed through her mind.
I am energy.
Her obsidian right hand tingled. A strange kind of euphoria filled her, as if all their sexual energy had entered her veins and turned into wild magic.
Something unlocked in her mind, like a bolt sliding back. In that moment, there was only Nythian and her.
Nobody else.
Nothing else.
She surrendered completely, and her consciousness shattered into a million tiny fragments of light.
A strange sensation shot down her right arm—almost painful, but not quite—the exact same feeling she’d had when Anuk threatened to kill Zharek, but a hundred times stronger.
Nythian’s eyebrows knitted together. His cries became hoarse. All the tension flooded out of his body, and his hands fell away from her waist, becoming completely relaxed… with the exception of his raging erection.
Suddenly fearful, she pulled her cursed hand away.
Oh no! What have I done?
He was too still.
“Nythian,” she whispered, a feeling of horror stirring inside her chest. “Are you—”
But then a slow smile spread across his face, his fangs just peeking over his bottom lip. “Do that thing again,” he rumbled. “You can’t kill me, Alexis.”
“Oh.” Understanding dawned on her. “Oh.”
Whatever this thing was… this insane death-touch ability left to her by Anuk… he actually liked it.
Crazy Kordolian.
She understood how to do it now. Zharek was right. It was an intuitive thing, a reflex, like blinking or swallowing.
She put his hand on his chest again. Unlocked the reflex again. An electric sensation danced along her arm.
Nythian’s smile grew wider. “Fuck me, Alexis.”
She unleashed her power on him, and impossibly, he became harder.
His head tipped back. His lips parted. A great shudder coursed through his body. Her fingernails dug into the broad muscles of his chest, drawing blood.
She ground her hips against him, her body moving of its own volition, desperately seeking climax.
“Ahh…” A low growl erupted from his throat, and suddenly he rose up, wrapping his arms around her, tipping her over onto her back, pushing inside her, thrusting harder, harder, until…
They came.
Sweet fucking stars.
This climax was even more intense than the first. She collapsed in a satisfied, boneless mess as Nythian’s warm seed filled her, and he wrapped her in his powerful arms, and nothing in the Universe could touch her now.
Nothing.
Afterwards, he held her tightly for a long, long time, caressing her face, whispering strange, lyrical alien things in ears, running his hands over her body. “You’re mine, Alexis of Earth. You can’t go anywhere else now.”
“Goddamn it, Nythian.” She leaned into him, reveling in his warmth, his scent. “How did you do this to me? I was—”
He put a finger to her lips. “Shush, yo
u.” He picked up her transformed hand and kissed it, finger by finger. “Turn off that analytical head of yours for just a little while. This is not something you should try and question. It just is.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, nuzzling the hollow of his neck, breathing in his essence, wanting this feeling to last forever. “I know that. It’s just so…”
Impossible.
“Perfect,” he said.
“Yeah.” She closed her eyes and drifted, warm and safe in his embrace.
Eighteen
“The Silent One’s just entered the Sixth,” Nythian said casually between mouthfuls of raw, bloody meat. Apparently, it was from an animal called an ompaka, sourced from an ice-planet in the nearby Tarkenian Belt.
Kordolians liked their meat, it seemed. “They’re carnivores,” Abbey had told her.
He’d offered Alexis a bite. No thanks, she’d said, preferring to stick to her scrambled eggs and avocado on toast.
This was breakfast, apparently. They ate in what she assumed was the mess hall, a large, cavernous space with floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out onto the stars. Several other Kordolians occupied the sleek black tables that lined the walls, and they nodded respectfully at Nythian as they passed. A pair of lithe, dark-uniformed males actually stood, giving up the best spot right by the window so Nythian and Alexis could sit there.
At first, Nythian gruffly declined, but the two politely insisted that they’d finished eating and it was no trouble at all. They both gave Alexis a curious look but said nothing to her. A chute opened in the center of the table and their plates and cups and strange alien cutlery disappeared, sucked away to some mysterious portal for cleaning, she assumed.
Soon, they would be boarding a fast Kordolian destroyer and speeding toward the planet Tharos, where she would deliver Anuk into this Eternal Portal.
How the hell she was going to do that, she didn’t know. She assumed it would just happen, like the thing with the hand.
“Who or what is a Silent One?” Alexis asked cautiously, sipping her black coffee. What wonders a pot of steaming Joe did for the soul. Coffee and mind-blowing sex and the glorious sight of a big silver-skinned Kordolian male… her Kordolian male.
She could hardly believe it.
She almost—almost!—felt normal again, as if death had never stretched its cold hand across her heart.
“He’s called Ashrael. Ash for short, although only his mate calls him that. And he’s not so silent anymore. Silent One is just what we’re used to calling him. Used to be stuck in a mindbond. They took away his ability to speak, but he’s broken out of that now.”
“They?”
“Empire. Secret psychic assassin training and control program. It’s mostly destroyed now. Ashrael was the worst of them, but we—no, she—turned him. He’s on our side now… well, most of the time. ”
“O-kay… You know, sometimes it’s easy to forget that you people were once part of an Evil Empire… the Evil Empire.”
“Yes.” He opened his mouth and popped in another cube of dark red meat, flashing those devilish fangs.
She suppressed a smile. Well, maybe not so much. “So this Ashrael… I take it he’s as dangerous as the rest of you, but what’s so special about him that we had to wait all this time for him to get here?”
“He’s got the gift.” Nythian tapped the side of his head. “He does the ka’qui thing, the mindspeech thing. He’s had endless cycles of training… and he’s been doing his research lately. Should be able to teach you a thing or two about mindspeech and control. He’ll be part of the team that goes after our enemies.” His brilliant red eyes narrowed. “Something’s off about this whole thing. There’s a reason these Kordolians are targeting Tharos. Boss doesn’t like it. I don’t like it. Hate to say it, but on a planet full of hungry ghosts, the Silent One's unique set of skills might come in handy.”
Not really comprehending the complexity of it all, Alexis shook her head in wonder. Before she left Earth, she would’ve scoffed at the idea that there were things like psychics and symbiotes and semi-sentient nano-particles.
Now, they were part of her reality.
“What in the Universe is more unique than your particular set of skills, Nythian?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Nythian said gently, giving her a searing look. “Finish your food. We’ll be boarding soon.”
Nineteen
They stood in one of the lower docking bays, waiting to board the medium-sized stealth-cruiser Mhyndin. The dark, cavernous ceilings of the bay soared above their heads. All around them was a flurry of silent activity—techs, engineers, maintenance and logistics crew moving quickly and unobtrusively amongst the small fleet, carrying out last moment preparations.
Nythian didn’t pay much attention to the warriors that were quietly assembling at their rear. Tarak had given him what amounted to around half an ordinary Division in Imperial terms—twenty-four battle-hardened Kordolians who’d been cooped up on the Fleet Station for far too long.
They were itching for action. He could sense the tension radiating from them. He felt the same, the beast in him thirsting for a fight… especially with traitorous Kordolians.
But then there was Alexis to consider.
She was the only reason he would back away from a fight with his sworn enemies.
To think there was a time when he’d thought of her as just another weak, senseless human; when he’d felt annoyed at the prospect of being her minder.
How wrong he’d been.
These past few revolutions had revealed many different sides to Alexis.
His mate. The wild, sensual creature he’d so thoroughly pleasured… and received so much pleasure from in return.
His mate. Stoic and tough, burying her pain beneath layers of humanness.
He’d watched as she said her goodbyes to Abbey and Layla, becoming determined and businesslike. There was a tightly controlled sense of urgency about her, but she didn’t betray even the slightest hint of fear to the other humans, didn’t try and elicit any kind of sympathy.
A warrior’s attitude to life.
Once again, she surprised him.
This mission seemed to give her something to latch onto; a sense of purpose that chased the shadows from her gaze and burned away her sadness.
Quickly, efficiently, she packed various items of clothing and weapons that had been given to her by one of the Fleet Station’s weaponsmasters, a grumpy old bastard called Kikut.
One of the items was a modified plasma gun, a new model the techs had been trialling of late.
A weapon designed specifically for humans. By stripping down the power and reducing the size, she had a plasma gun that could be fired without creating massive recoil.
It occurred to Nythian that he hadn’t finished teaching her how to use it yet, not to his satisfaction anyway.
Through a half-lidded gaze, he quietly observed his mate.
Mate. Just the very thought was enough to fill him with immense pride. He had no qualms about taking her down to Tharos, because he would protect her with every fiber of his being, and when he was in this kind of mood, nothing would touch her.
She wouldn’t need to fight. He’d make certain of it.
“You look good,” he said softly, admiring the way her light Callidum nanomesh armor molded against her curves. The obsidian suit was custom-designed; it was part of a secret program Tarak had developed to adapt Kordolian technology for human use.
For very exclusive human use.
Pride surged through him.
Alexis was the very first human to be fitted with her very own Kordolian-made armor and weapons.
Amongst the human mates, there were several who could fight. Rykal’s mate, Arin the former Enforcer, was one of them. Then there was Kainan, the ex-gangster who had caught Zyara’s attention. As far as humans went, Kai’s skills were up there.
The ink-skinned human was shockingly good with numbers and credits too. So much so that he’d been
appointed Darkstar Corporation’s official fixer, the one who handled the jobs and contracts and payment.
But even Kai’s job could turn messy sometimes.
The Universe was a dangerous place. There were times when they would need to fight. Their humans needed better technology. Kordolian weapons were more powerful, more deadly… although if Nythian had his way, Alexis would never need to use hers.
He would protect her, always. That was how it should be.
“You look good too,” she smirked, her gaze tuning almost lewd as it traveled over his body. She was bold, this female.
“What?” Nythian shrugged, liking the attention. He was becoming hard again. “This is my working uniform.” He wore his exo-armor of course; it was a second skin to him, and he rarely had need for any other sort of garment.
“What, you never heard the saying about a man in uniform?”
“No. Is that a human thing? Care to enlighten me?”
“Some people have fetishes for that sort of thing.”
“And are you one of them?” The thought of her hiding some secret fetish… some dark sexual desire…
Now he was properly aroused.
“Nope. I like your body in any outfit.”
“Apparently, I’m even better without clothes.”
“I shouldn’t feed you too many compliments. Not very modest, are you, Kordolian?”
“We rarely are.” He grinned.
She leaned in close, her voice dropping to less-than a whisper. “So tell me, what was it about this,” she held up her obsidian right hand, “that got you so damn excited last night?”
Nythian put his lips close to her ear, cupping his mouth so none of the warriors behind them would hear.
“I’ll tell you a secret,” he whispered, his lower lip grazing her earlobe. “It was the way you did it to me. That Tharian venom... Kaiin almighty, it was the most painful, most intense thing. I was paralyzed for a few heartbeats… helpless beneath you. Then my heart… it stopped… and started beating again.”
“You were paralyzed?”
“Oh, don’t worry, sweet thing. It was glorious. I enjoyed being completely under your power for those precious few heartbeats.”
