“So, why are you here? Would you rather do the last leg dry?”
“No, and I didn’t come for dinner, either.”
“Or to say goodbye.”
“No. I’d like to talk to the Major about a mission. I came up with that idea on my way.”
“The idea for this mission?”
“No, the idea to involve the Major and his team.”
“And what’s it about?” He could read the denial from my face. “Secret?”
I nodded.
“He’ll surely be here soon. I had him awakened when you knocked.”
“Are you talking about me?” came from the door. There stood Major Stokes in his skin-tight armor suit—which spontaneously showed me my effect on men. His crotch was growing toward me before he had a chance to hide his understandable reaction.
His gorgeous erection also reminded me of how long it was since I had sex—and that I did care about it. My gaze rested on his cock longer than necessary and thus only made him more embarrassed.
Captain Gibbons cleared his throat. “Miss Meier talked about a secret mission for which she needs your support, Major. She wouldn’t tell me any details, so I’d better leave you alone now.”
Before Stokes could protest, Gibbons had moved past him outside. Now the poor bloke with his boner stood in the passage without clue.
“Come in before everyone has seen how much you like me, and close the door.”
He didn’t appear convinced, but entered anyway. Perhaps it helped that I backed to the opposite wall. He remained embarrassed and erected, though.
“Let me clarify a few things, Major. First, I’ve seen many naked men before. Second, I know about my effect on men. Third, I like if I can see that effect. Fourth, I like you. Fifth, I know that you’ve been in this tin can without woman for some weeks, and sixth, I’m hot myself.”
“What are you proposing?” he managed to get out, astonishingly business-like.
“Let’s follow nature’s call. Thereafter, we’ll both be able to talk about important business much more relaxed.”
“Are you serious?”
In lieu of an answer, I let my suit run down, stepped close to him, and gave him a kiss. A kiss of the sort that steals a man’s breath and will and delivers his cock to my mercy.
His suit was delivered to my mercy, too—his crotch opened under my searching hand and my nano-manipulators’ command, and his erection jumped up toward me. I didn’t need foreplay now, so I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his hips, put my wet labia on his boner, and commenced quick rhythmical movements.
He helped me a little by holding me, but now only his pumping cock in my pussy counted anyway, rhythmically supported by his heavy wheezing and my sighs of lust. Oh damn, why did I have to think of the battle at the palace right now? I could have died there several times, from a bullet, the heat of a run-off reactor, or the sharp and venomous claws of a Wyvern!
But I was still alive, and now that I felt this life inside me—yes, inside myself, not just in my pussy!—I also felt what I’d almost lost; I truly realized what risk I had taken. Only now that I granted myself real relaxation, totally let myself go, only now did the terror about Jana’s venom attack come through to me.
More precisely—it waited for me, waited for my tension to release in a fantastic super-orgasm, waited for satisfaction of my most immediate need.
The Major’s life-giving stream filled me, I cried out when I came myself, and then it came over me. My pelvic muscles’ convulsive contractions seamlessly merged into the shake of a crying fit.
Murderer! my subconscious yelled, and before my eyes, the fiery flowers of fusion reactors with failed envelope fields blossomed again.
My Analogy sent me questioning, worried signals—no, not now! Now I needed human warmth, the Major’s arms around me, his not yet shrunken member inside me, one hand gently caressing my head, and the reassuring noises he made, his words being basically irrelevant.
He held me like this for a long time. Finally, I found myself somewhat calmed down and released my legs around his hips. I’d have expected him to let me go, but his arms held me tight.
“What was that?” he asked.
“I must beg your pardon. I’ve taken advantage of the situation and seduced you.”
“Oh, that’s not what I meant. I didn’t fight it, so I could say the same. But that’s not what you’re crying about, are you?”
“No.”
“But for the fights, right?”
“Yes.”
“That’s okay. It would be bad if it didn’t touch you. You can’t talk to your Dragon about it, or can you? Would you like to talk about it now? With me?”
Would I like to? Open myself to a stranger? Show my weakness?
“We all have to go through that someday,” he explained. “There’s the moment of the first kill for every soldier. That’s not easy, for any of us—it irrevocably changes us. Thereafter, it’s important to talk to someone. I offer you to be this someone, and please don’t think it’s for sex.”
A smirk snuck on my face. “You didn’t like it?”
“Oh yes, I did—and I’d be always in for another go! You’re an elemental force, you know that? Oh yes, you know. But perhaps you’re willing to share a different kind of intimacy with me now? I’m sure it’d help you, and I’d treat anything you tell me as confidential.”
Sure.
“Major, you’ve sworn an oath of duty, and you’re not bound to professional discretion. Whatever I’d tell you, you’d have to pass on, to create a psychological profile and so on. I thank you for your honest offer, but I may not burden you with this conflict of interest. It has already helped me a lot that you confirmed I’m not alone with this problem. The rest I have to deal with differently.”
“Well.”
He wasn’t happy about it. I had the impression that he needed a distraction. He still held a naked woman firmly in his arms, and he pressed a limp, but still appetizingly large cock against my thigh. In any case, I owed him a compensation for the crying—a more positive memory. That was all I needed, his last impression of me being a crybaby!
“Oh!” he said when my finger found his member. “Oh!” he repeated when I began my massage.
“You’re always in for another go,” I reminded him.
Chapter Seven
Deep below me, the rain-soaked asphalt glistened in the light of the street lanterns. Above me, the clouds still held tight, and I was grateful about it. Again, I tested my left hand’s grip in the wall groove.
The time for velvet gloves was over. Velvet betrayed her name and forced her way in. With one claw, I cut a fist-sized hole in the window, reached through, and opened the bolt.
There were no electronic safeties against it—who’d enter through a window on the twelfth floor? Everything important was in the safe anyway. Its lock still couldn’t stop me.
What was there this time? No paper records, but a memory card, plus a big pile of cash. That’s what I needed now—budget for my plans. Under my nano suit, it was safe and invisible.
So it had proven useful to not blow the unofficial San Francisco Bay area Cartel lead’s cover during my last visit to the city. But this grace period was over now. Probably the chip would ultimately cost him his job. Jana could no longer protect him.
Carefully, I closed the safe again and left his office the same way I had come, through the window. Camouflaged, I crawled down the façade, carried by my claws, and disappeared into a narrow alley before I became visible again. My black, skintight suit was camouflage enough.
I felt safe. This didn’t change even when I met a group of five youngsters three blocks later, one of who coolly played with a butterfly knife.
“Hey, sweetie,” he began.
I leaped toward him, took the knife from his hand while throwing him over my head to the floor, and had already passed the group before any of them were able to react. Only then did I turn around and hold up the knife be
tween two fingers. “I’m Velvet and not sweetie, and I don’t want to play with you. Piss off.”
“Velvet?” one of them echoed. “Oh crap!”
He was running already. The others didn’t hesitate long and followed him. My reputation had reached San Francisco’s underworld? Good! That’s why I had decided to assume this name for now again—Velvet was known, but Johanna Meier was nobody outside adept circles.
My next target was a dealer for used cars. In the middle of the night, there was only one selection criterion—he had to live in his shop, so that I could wake him up. For a change, I would buy my transportation and not steal it.
The search turned out to be short. As if it’d be usual not to let one’s goods alone, the owner had obviously made his office pavilion his place. The crammed space around was fenced in and secured with barbed wire and a few spot lights—of which two were broken—and above that, guarded by three ugly dogs.
I picked one car by practical considerations—only two could leave the grounds through the gate if it was opened, and of those only one had a charged battery, more or less intact suspension and a little tread.
The dogs couldn’t see or hear me while I snuck into the office. The safe was no obstacle, so I quickly found the key and papers. I placed both next to the price tag of the car of my choice and placed the respective number of notes next to it.
Only now did I enter the owner’s bedroom. For safety, I removed the shotgun next to his bed first, and then I awoke him with a gentle push.
“Hey! What?”
My sight had to calm him down—there were surely worse things than being torn from sleep by a woman like me, even more as I didn’t threaten him directly.
“Sorry to disturb you, sweetheart. I want to buy a car.”
“Closed,” he grumbled. “Come back tomorrow.” Then he blinked and tried to recognize more of me in the little light from the street lanterns that passed his curtains. Moreover, his brain slowly started working. “How did you get in, actually? What about the dogs?”
“Your dogs are fine. They ignored me, and I ignored them. Then I opened your door and simply came in.”
“Simply came in, so. Who are you, what do you want?”
“I want to buy a car, as I already told you. You can call me Velvet.”
He jerked up. “Velvet?”
“Does that name ring a bell?”
“You could say so, yes. Who wouldn’t know it?”
“And why?”
“There is a price on your head—ten million dollars. Rumors have it some important people are massively pissed for a Velvet spoiling their show. The—um—Corporate Sponsoring lost an armor suit plant in southern California, as I’ve heard.”
“So, that’s what people say?”
“Damn it, yes. After years, there’s finally hope that someone will clean up this mess and bring back order. The cops who so far held out their hands for any crap have become cautious. They don’t dare everything, you know?” He waved his arms. “Is there something to it?”
“What do you mean?”
His gaze came to rest on my eyes. “Do you fight the Cartel?”
I smiled. “Perhaps you’ll pay some attention to the news for the next days.”
He slowly nodded. “Okay. And you need a car for that. Which one do you want?”
“The blue one at the front. It looks drivable. I’ve put the money on your counter.”
“And taken the key from my safe.”
“Yes.” How did he know?
He grinned. “Got you. That’s what I expect from Velvet, by all I hear. What did you have to wake me up for?”
“When I open the gate, your dogs are gone.”
“Oh. Sure.” He hesitated for a moment, and then he tossed the cover away and showed me his nude body. I didn’t take my gaze away while he rose and fetched his bathrobe. “It’s very kind that you thought of that.”
Chapter Eight
I didn’t expect problems on my way, either. Nevertheless, I remained alert, most importantly during the occasional comfort stops. As a rule, a grim glance or a clear No sufficed to dissuade the men from bad ideas. Perhaps the skull on my belt helped, too.
Only once it didn’t stop at a brief test of glances. During my lunch break—T-bone steak with potato wedges, beans, onions, and salad—several truckers were whispering behind my back. Did they believe I wouldn’t hear them?
“That must be her.”
“Who?”
“The Velvet. Short, black hair, black leather, mercilessly sexy. And dangerous.”
“And valuable.”
“What do you mean?”
“The bounty. Ten grand.”
“No—ten million. A lot of dough.”
“And? Want to earn it?”
“No, never.”
“Why? It’s worthwhile.”
“First, I don’t believe that you can keep the money for long. They don’t like witnesses. And second, I don’t want to be close when it comes to a confrontation.”
“Mmm—I think I’d like to confront her one day.”
“Do you think you can score with her?”
“If I show her my bone, she’ll be mine.”
“You’re dreaming.”
At this point, I sadly had to direct my concentration on another piece of noise near the entrance door.
“…roadhouse, yeah exactly. No, her plate’s still full, she’ll stay for another while. If you hurry up, you can get her—me? No, I stay out of it. That’s not my pay grade, honestly—yesyes, I’ll keep an eye on her—I’ll see that she won’t notice. Just hurry up, yes?”
I turned my knife so that I could see the mirrored door on the blade. Ah, there was the guy with the mobile phone. A smart, twentyish snot with ducktail and golden chain, pale leggings without proper content, and a leather jacket on top. He probably considered himself cool.
How much time did I have left, what did I have to expect, what should I do?
There were surely a few minutes left, as the Cartel couldn’t have anyone ready so close by—and if so, they’d be Tom, Dick, and Harry and not specialists. So I could hope they wouldn’t arrive with missiles or poison darts.
Not that it would improve the situation. They’d probably encircle the roadhouse and then shoot at anything that moved. Bad luck for my little traitor, bad luck for the innocents who hadn’t given me away.
Bad luck for me if I was still close. Wasn’t it?
Somewhat sad, I eyed my plate. I felt sorry for the food, as it tasted really good after all the raw fish. But I had to use the remaining time well.
“What’s with her?” I heard from my unknown admirers when I rose. With feigned easiness, I ambled to the counter, targeting another plastic tomato ketchup bottle. The smart snot near the door strove for inconspicuousness in vain, but he didn’t expect me to suddenly turn toward him—until it was too late. Only two steps, and I had him by the balls. He squealed, and when I pressed, he went down on his knees. This way I had gained the attention of all present.
“Listen, all!” I called out aloud. “This little rat here just told the Cartel that Velvet is in this roadhouse. These people will be so eager to catch the girl that they’ll probably shoot everyone down first and then check whether they’ve got the right corpse. Bad luck for all who get in their way. So I urgently advise you to leave here. In any case, I won’t waste my time here and now with some cheap thugs, the days of whom are numbered. Goodbye!”
Next, I pushed snot into a group of men near me and slipped out of the door.
While I was still entering my car, the first people spilled out of the venue and toward their own cars. Some waved, some showed me their thumbs-up, and some tried to not meet my gaze.
“Show them!” one called. Several others joined. Under applause, I drove away and on the highway. Damn!
Chapter Nine
The time window closed quickly. Velvet had been spotted. Soon the Cartel would put the first specialists on her heels, then they�
�d tighten the noose, and I’d be doomed.
That’s how they’d imagine the outcome. I had different plans.
A short time after Barstow, I granted myself a quick comfort stop. With a little support by my nanos, I redesigned the license plate. Now it showed VELVET. Cocky, I thought, and so it was perfect.
In the late afternoon, I reached my destination. Black and threatening, the copied invader landing ship’s gigantic ball rested in the desert sand, a stark contrast to the neighboring filigree hanging gardens.
Would the cameras that were omnipresent along the strip evaluate license plates, too? And if so, would they search for specified patterns, or relay my message?
Vegas, here comes Velvet!
The Invasion’s valet was still smiling when he spotted my license plate. The nondescript car didn’t seem to match it. But his smile froze when I left the car and gave him a one-hundred-dollar note. In my black suit, I was Velvet all over—if he had heard of me at all, his bell had to ring now.
And once he passed his insights on, this place would swarm with security.
But I only made a turn around one of the large palms—and disappeared. Without waiting to see how soon they’d snatch at my bait, I dashed across the street to the Inferno. That was a challenge, as the cars on the strip couldn’t and shouldn’t see me. But in the end, I only had to be quick enough that a surprising lane change couldn’t get me into trouble.
Security stood at the entrance and listened. They’d probably just heard what had happened at the opposite casino. I snuck past them unchallenged.
I knew the ways inside by heart. First, I had to get down to the sixth level. This time, I ignored the disrobing regulations and kept my armor suit, which also shielded me against the infernal heat and regulated my sweat.
The suit had to help me inside the damned flue again. For this mission, I’d brought a better heat insulation for fingers and toes, and could hold on to the even wall relatively relaxed.
Had they installed new tricks?
No—as they didn’t suspect having had an uninvited visitor before, they relied on the existing installations’ effectiveness. Who would be able to get around laser beams outside the humans’ visible spectrum without triggering a metal detector? Velvet could, but nobody knew about it.
Lioness’ Legacy IV—Torment Page 3
