by Marie Dry
He leaned down and licked her bottom lip, and Rose had to tighten every muscle in her body not to grab him and kiss him. Her lip throbbed with the need for more of him.
He moved down, nipped her neck, the undersides of her breasts; he licked the swell of her stomach. Then lower still. He suddenly stilled, and she felt a finger touch the crisp hairs he found there. He looked up at her and she didn’t need to be a mind reader to know what he thought.
“No,” she said, not caring if he started the pleasure torture again.
“It would be―”
“No―”
His bottom lip pushed out a bit. “I could―”
Rose narrowed her eyes at him. “No, if I ever wake with funny-styled pubic hairs, I will shave it all off.”
“I will start over,” he said after they’d stared at each other for what felt like forever.
He used his tongue and teeth to lick and nip every inch of her skin until she was one giant arousal. Who knew a fierce-looking alien could be this tender and this passionate at the same time? She felt like the most desirable woman in the world, as if he was only aware of her, and it was balm for her starved soul. She couldn’t hold back anymore, and her body went taut, her toes pointed, and she came, shuddering in his arms. It went on and on until at last, he lay watching as she continued to tremble with aftershocks—gentle tremors that shook her body.
He arranged her again and she felt her eyes widen. “Again?”
“Quiet, my breeder, we have many hours left in the sleeping place.”
Rose didn’t know if she was aroused out of her mind, or ready to run screaming.
He traced her forehead with a gentle finger. Rose convulsed with pleasure again and again as he pleasured her with his fingers, and used his tongue to drive her out of her mind and into orgasm after orgasm. When at last he entered her, she was convinced her body was incapable of feeling any more pleasure.
She was wrong. When his body went taut with a mighty orgasm, she clung to him and touched and licked and bit him wherever she could reach.
Afterward, he lay down next to her, his massive body taking up a lot of space, and held out his arms. “I am ready to hold you now.” He said it as if he was doing her a huge favor. His eyes blazed fierce red and, where she was sated and limp from the hours he’d devoted to making love to her, he bristled with energy.
Rose scooted into his arms. Nothing would make her admit it out loud, but the way he’d claimed her, remained so focused on her, protected her, and his insistence that she sleep in his arms, completed her. She needed someone’s arms around her, to not feel alone. You’d think by now she’d be used to rejection, but if Zanr dismissed her in any way, she would expire from a broken heart. She wiggled closer. “Good night, my Komodo.” The corners of her lips pulled up.
“Good night, my breeder.” He tangled his hand in her hair. Who knows what hairstyle she’d wake up to? “You will sleep for nine hours.”
“What?” She’d been drowsy, ready to drift off, but now she was wide awake. She rose on her elbow and looked down at him. He had that look about him that she never knew if it was sheer stubbornness or his idea of caring.
“Viglar said your body needs nine hours of rest every day. Most humans need eight, but you need nine because of the months that woumber tortured you.”
“Whatever.” She closed her eyes. Didn’t want to acknowledge that she’d allowed herself to be tortured for almost a year. Of course, now she couldn’t sleep. After a while she asked. “How many hours do Zyrgins sleep?
“Three.”
That was disturbing. They were stronger and bigger than humans, had advanced technology, and on top of that, barely needed any sleep. How would humans ever defeat them? She decided to sleep because she wanted to get away from those awful thoughts. “Don’t mess with my hair,” she mumbled and fell asleep.
Rose woke alone, and shaking her head, she went to get up and then fell back with a moan. “Bet you the blasted alien didn’t have aches and pains from a night of being well loved.” Then she smiled and carefully got up and staggered to the bathroom. There were worse ways to wake up—in a tent that was big enough not to feel stifling, her body sore from a night of unbelievable pleasure.
There was no sign of Zanr. No wonder the Zyrgins conquered practically the whole universe and planned to conquer all of it. They never wasted time sleeping. But she wouldn’t complain about the hours he’d dedicated to give her pleasure.
She found the bathroom right off the bedroom, and of course, it was a fully equipped room the same as on the shuttle. No primitive facilities for the aliens. How on earth did he manage to have running water in here? She’d never admit it to him, but the alien technology was far superior. She needed to talk with Zanr, get more information about their history. “Know your enemy” seemed a very apt phrase right now.
She went to brush her teeth and stared at the wall of the bathroom. It didn’t look like any tent she’d ever imagined. When she finished brushing her teeth, she braced herself and said, “Mirror.” The wall became smooth and she stared at her hair. That crazy alien must’ve spent the whole night teasing her hair apart, and now it stood around her head like a giant furball or something equally hideous. It was going to take her ages to comb through.
“I’m gonna kill that alien.” With a sigh she stepped into the shower and washed her hair.
It took forever to get her hair tamed into a braid, but at last she finished dressing in the uniform that she was coming to prefer. She went to the living area and didn’t find Zanr there. She was about to try and figure out the machine that spat out their food when he entered.
“Good morning, my breeder.” He bent down and kissed her, a long, passionate kiss that put her on a slow simmer. Her skin prickled with remembered pleasure and her breasts suddenly felt swollen, the nipples tight.
He lifted his head and stared down at her. “I will do your hair in a better style.”
Unexpected happiness bubbled through her bloodstream. She loved starting the day like this. At the moment, even the little killers swimming in her blood couldn’t ruin her mood.
“Good morning, my Komodo.” She loved calling him that, seeing the small flares of red in his amazing eyes when she did. She kissed him back, going on her toes so that she could put her hands on his shoulders.
He kissed her again, as if her lips were too tempting to resist, taking his time, his hands caressing all the sensitive places he’d found last night, and she moaned. At last he lifted his head and took her hand and led her to the table where he’d put a brown paper bag with a familiar logo on. “I have brought authentic human food. It is safe for you to eat; I have scanned it for contaminants.” He carefully led her to the chair.
Rose sat down. Carefully. Certain parts of her anatomy were rather tender. “You do know that you’re missing out on morning sex when you get up so early, don’t you?”
He paused with his spoon halfway to his mouth, then slowly put it down and leaned toward her, his eyes blazing red. “There is morning sex?” He said it as if he’d made an amazing discovery.
“Yeah, humans have sex first thing every morning. Didn’t anyone tell you?” she teased.
“No, this information has been withheld from me.” His eyes gleamed. “None of the other warriors know about it.”
She had a strong impression he was going to keep this ‘information’ to himself. If the other warriors insisted on hours of lovemaking, their women were probably grateful for some respite the next morning.
She casually broke off a piece of bagel. “Of course, only those who wake at a decent hour get to do morning sex.” She looked down at her plate to hide her smile. Take that Mr. I Have To Be Up Before the Crack of Dawn. She took a sip of strong coffee, savoring the taste. She didn’t know how his machine managed it, but it made the best coffee she’d ever tasted. She wasn’t surprised he didn’t bring coffee along with the ‘authentic’ breakfast. These days coffee was scarce, and even the most expensive brands
she’d bought weren’t as good as the coffee his machine produced.
He’d lost all interest in the slop on the plate in front of him. Those eyes that reminded her of the darkest night, filled with red. “How many hours?”
Rose almost moaned. That will teach her to tease the alien. She might as well tug on a tiger’s tail. She might just get eaten. Or made love to most of the night and morning. Hmm, maybe it would be like the interesting things he’d done with his tongue last night. She squeezed her thighs together, remembered pleasure heating her cheeks.
“One hour exactly.” With his literal mind, he’d hopefully stick to one hour exactly, because she was reasonably sure she wasn’t going to get him off the idea of morning sex. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to anyway. On the other hand, her body could handle only that amount of pleasure. So one hour it was.
He flashed that awful grin at her, all teeth and glowing eyes. “Tomorrow we will do an hour morning sex.”
Her skin tingled in anticipation of the pleasure to come. Yip, Mr. Literal fell for it, she thought, amused.
“All right, but remember, morning sex is only one hour long.” She searched for a logical reason for that. “Female bodies are fragile in the morning and can only take one hour of pleasure that early.” She wasn’t awake enough yet to come up with anything better.
He nodded. “You are merely human, that is understandable.”
And aliens are easily duped, she thought, but kept it to herself. Rose resisted the urge to roll her eyes and instead asked, “So what are we doing today?”
“First, I will scan you and send the results to Viglar, then we will walk to the farthest edge of the city. Where the buildings are mostly under water.”
All the warm tingles racing through her body disappeared and were replaced by bone-chilling fear. For a moment she’d forgotten about the little killers running around in her body.
“Why there?”
“The probe picked up humans furtively coming and going. The probes also recorded screams.”
Rose frowned. “I thought you said your probes are blocked from finding the scientists.”
“These may be lesser conspirators or humans involved in other illegal activities.”
She nodded. Screams didn’t sound good at all. She could think of all kinds of reasons for those. Tattoo parlors were notorious for the agonised screaming coming from them.
He finished his breakfast and stood, and came around to stand behind her chair. “Drink your coffee, my breeder, I will improve your hair.” He started to loosen the braids she’d put in her hair.
“What is it with you and hair? Did you secretly want to be a hairdresser?”
He snorted and there was no misinterpreting the contempt in that noise. “I do not wish to do the inferior hair of other humans. I have great pride that I have a breeder with such magnificent hair. It is truly superior.”
Rose took a drink to hide how his words affected her. He made her feel like the most precious woman on Earth. She deliberately didn’t think about the little machines in her blood; instead she leaned back and enjoyed him fussing with her hair while she slowly drank her coffee.
He held up a shiny piece of metal in front of her that turned into a mirror. “It is done, my breeder. I have managed a superior style of braid,” he said with obvious pride.
“It is lovely and functional, thank you,” she said. He’d started out with several braids and combined them until one thick braid hung down her back.
“I will scan you before we go.” He scanned her thoroughly and grunted.
“When you grunt like that, are you talking to the doctor?”
“Yes, my breeder. But it is not grunting. It is superior talking that your badly developed ears cannot process.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” As usual her sarcasm went right over his head. “Viglar said he detected a slight change in the nanos. But the change is so slight, it shouldn’t affect you yet.” He sounded angry as if he felt as afraid and helpless as she did.
Rose swallowed and nodded. What could she say? They both knew what would happen if they couldn’t find the shutdown codes when they found the bombs.
“We will go to the hoverbike now,” he said and they went outside to where the hoverbike already stood. He must’ve prepared it, or whatever he did to get it ready to fly. He lifted her and placed her on the seat as if she weighed nothing. “We will fly closer and then walk the last few blocks to where the activity was spotted.” He got on in front of her.
“All right.” She put her arms around him and held on tight.
He parked the hoverbike on top of a building, helped her off, grunted, and it became invisible.
Rose stood back from him. “Why have we parked up here?”
“This area is flooded. I do not wish to keep the hoverbike down there.”
“Okay, but let’s take the stairs, eeeeee.” He grabbed her and ran down the building while she tried her best not to scream. Now that she had little killer robots floating in her bloodstream, doing who knows what, running down a building didn’t seem as frightening. But it still wasn’t a good experience.
She was glad for the uniform and boots she wore when they started to slog through water that came to her knees. A strange hierarchy had developed in the city. The less flooded the neighborhood, the more upscale it was. This area was mostly abandoned, but here and there she’d see furtive movement. It stank to high heaven, and she had visions of being back in the tent and taking a very long, hot shower.
“It’s horrific that some people have to live like this,” she muttered.
“We will improve conditions when Zacar appoints a warrior to oversee New York.”
Rose balled her fists. Even the prospect of the city restored and people having better living conditions didn’t reconcile her to the idea of ‘a warrior overseeing New York’. This was a human problem.
Just when she thought they’d spend another fruitless day, while the nanos attacked her body and the scientists worked on detonating bombs in the city where she’d been born, Zanr abruptly stopped walking. He cocked his head in that reptilian fashion.
“What’s wrong? Is this the place?”
“Yes.” He stared over her shoulder, unblinking. If she’d ever doubted that he was pure predator, that look put it to rest. “Disturbing noises,” he said. He suddenly stiffened, dropped his disguise, his skin changing to green and copper and his eyes flashing red. “They are torturing females.”
She heard nothing except the surging water that would’ve pushed her over a few times if he didn’t keep a secure grip on her. That and the faint sound of a TC playing in the building in front of them. With his ‘superior’ hearing, he could hear things coming from miles off. It always amazed her how strong his senses were.
He grabbed her, lifting her above the water, and ran across the road, her arms and legs flailing. “Hey.”
He kept running until they reached a building where the water streamed into a building whose apartments must’ve been sought after a century or more ago. Now it was a dark, dank building she would’ve preferred not to enter. Zanr set her down gently.
“I hate the water and wetness and moldy smell,” she muttered.
Zanr kept a firm hold on her and they entered the building. He managed to cross the lobby without disturbing the water that came to his calves. Unfortunately, it reached her knees and her progress wasn’t as smooth. Without making a sound, he went up the stairs leading to the first floor.
“Quiet,” he breathed into her ears.
Rose shivered from his breath wafting over her sensitive skin and nodded. Zanr turned to the left, and a beefy man, dressed in black leather, with tough-looking boots and chains around his neck, glared at them. He didn’t show any reaction to the fact that a green-and-copper alien, with a ridged head and silver-metal uniform, stood before him. Her own uniform looked like jeans and a sweater. How many Zyrgins were there walking around among the humans?
“Invitation
only. Show it or bugger off,” the man said in a deep baritone.
Zanr drew himself up. “I do not have to show any invitation.”
“Yeah yeah, I heard it all before. I don’t care if you’re alien or human, you want in, you show me an invitation.”
A shrill scream came from somewhere inside the building, and Rose nearly jumped out of her skin. It did sound as if someone tortured a woman.
Zanr knocked the doorman aside as if he swatted a fly, and grabbing Rose and half carrying her, ran deeper into the building. His hearing must be phenomenal because he ran with intent through the maze-like corridors and shunned certain hallways for others. At last they reached a steel door, and he put her carefully on her feet, put his shoulder against the door, and broke it open.
The smell hit her first—blood and sweat, mold, and sex. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkened room. At first she didn’t understand. A woman hung tied to a cross, and a small, emaciated-looking man with a whip in his hand turned to face them. He’d obviously been whipping the woman.
Religious groups and churches had gained a lot of ground these last few decades. Poverty and a feeling of hopelessness had driven people to churches that sometimes cared for their flock and sometimes shamelessly exploited them. In Rose’s opinion, most of the so-called ministers were conmen. Most churches spouted ideals of piety and conservative behavior, but in her job, she’d seen what they were capable of behind closed doors.
The churches had driven people with different appetites underground. It suddenly clicked—what they dealt with here, and she grabbed hold of the enraged alien next to her.
“Don’t kill them,” she squeaked when Zanr went for the man with the whip.
“You dare to whip a female of your species?” he snarled in the man’s terrified face.
Holding her close in one arm, he lifted the man until he dangled a good few inches off the ground.
