Fuck no. This wasn’t happening. He was going into hunt mode.
All of her body cried out for him in response, but she pushed it down, drawing on inner strength forged over revolutions of battle. Her body was reacting to him, but her mind had the final say in the matter. The look on his face wasn’t the impassioned regard of a lover. No, she was looking into the eyes of something predatory that was driven to rut her. That was enough to cool her ardor. She had nothing against a good fuck, but she wanted a guy to mentally be there with her when he initiated. Not just reacting mindlessly to the demands of his instincts.
“Kaede?” Her voice tremored with uncertainty. “Kaede, are you okay?”
His pupils constricted and he closed his eyes, chest expanding as he took a deep breath. The bright color slowly leached out of his spines. After several steadying breaths, he opened his eyes again and glanced up at the darkening sky.
“Forgive me, Frahnkee. Come. Night falls. We must get onto the platform.” He stretched a hand toward her, and she stared at it warily. An anxious look passed over his face. “I must help you. Please.”
Frankie placed her hand in his and allowed him to draw her close to his body. She tucked her head against his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck as he gripped her close to him. Her feet left the ground and her body shifted and swayed with movement as they made their way up the tree. She squeezed her eyes shut and ignored the feel of his body pressed against hers, focusing on only the most revolting things she could conjure into her imagination.
When her feet at last touched the platform, she sighed with relief. Frankie unwound her arms from around his neck and hastily stepped away. They were a good fifteen or twenty feet off the ground. It was definitely not a height she wanted to fall from.
She settled on one side of the platform and wrapped her arms around herself as she eyed Kaede. He sat on the other side, looking no more comfortable than she felt. He didn’t look at her, however. His gaze was trained at some far-off point in the swamp forest. Frankie squinted at the swaying trees but had no idea what had caught his attention.
A shriek pierced the night as something large ran beneath them before disappearing once more into the brush. She hadn’t gotten a good look at it and was glad she didn’t. She doubted she’d be able to sleep if she’d seen what sort of creatures inhabited the swamp.
Clearing her throat, she stole a glance at Kaede.
“What... the hell... was that?”
One corner of his mouth kicked up.
“Do not fear. It was merely an avani. It is a small predator that prefers to prey on various rodents that live out here.”
Frankie scratched the back of her neck. That thing looked huge to her.
“Just how big do your rodents get.”
Kaede’s spines snapped lazily.
“About half the size of a grown Agraak.”
She swallowed against the lump that suddenly formed in her throat.
“That... that’s a pretty big rat.”
“Rat doesn’t translate. Our rodents are noisome and quite foul. They eat crops and unattended eggs. Before the domes were erected, females had to be extra vigilant with their eggs and youngest hatchlings that they not become an easy meal for the lek, one of the worst of the rodent species. They are true opportunists who will not only decimate crops and consume eggs but look for easy kills among smaller creatures.”
“And that thing eats them?”
“Yes.”
“Oh. Well, it can’t be too bad then,” she said as she lay back down and attempted to get comfortable on the hard platform.
Kaede’s chuckle that followed did things to her that she decided she would rather not acknowledge.
“The avani would consider you a pleasing meal. Not that I would blame him,” he teased quietly.
Frankie smiled in the dark.
“Goodnight, Kaede.”
“Gentle rest, Frahnkee.”
Chapter 13
It was early when they started out on their way again. Frankie still felt half-asleep, but Kaede’s assurance that they would soon reach the facility within another few hours had halted any protests before they had a chance to really form. She couldn’t object when she’d insisted that they go to the facility before heading further into the swamps.
A thin gray mist had settled over the ground sometime during the night, obscuring everything below Frankie’s knees. Not that she cared to see the mire she was walking through. Water ran everywhere, sometimes sinking her to her knees in damp sludge. Still, it unsettled her not be able to see where she stepped or what else may be crawling on the ground near her feet. She was distracted from worrying about it too much by the bloodthirsty menaces that hovered through the air around her.
Every now and then, one would land on her arm and try to take a donation until Frankie flattened it with the palm of her hand. She grimaced as she wiped off a particularly juicy one on her pant leg. It seemed there was no getting away from mosquitos. Not that they bore any true semblance—other than wanting to suck her blood. These were long and skinny that twisted through the air as they floated on silky threads. They were like giant gray silkworms.
She didn’t know what was worse: being eaten alive or the fact that they didn’t seem to bother Kaede at all. She swore as she slapped another bug.
“Okay, I give. What’s your secret?”
Kaede glanced back at her and lifted a brow.
“Why aren’t you getting eaten up? You’re wearing less than half of what I am, and yet they are all attracted to me like I have a huge sign saying ‘good eats’ hanging above my head. Why?”
His chuckle did not improve her mood any.
“My apologies, Frahnkee. I don’t mean to laugh at your predicament. I was wondering why you were striking at yourself. I see now that the blood vilks have taken a liking to you. They prey on a number of species, but do not care for Agraaks. The oils our skin secrete are toxic to them.”
“That’s pretty handy,” she muttered.
To her surprise, Kaede smiled.
“The blood vilks are bad in the early hours of the day. We will soon arrive at the facility and you can escape them for a bit. Once the fog burns off midday, it will be easier.”
“And hotter than a marshmallow on a coal, I’d bet.”
“The heat on Agraadax can be intense,” Kaede said. “Not even our warriors wear as much as the Fleet does. All of that must make you quite uncomfortable. It would be better if you remove it.”
Frankie stared at him askance.
“And expose more skin to these flying vampires? No thanks. I would rather deal with heatstroke than a hundred bites.”
Kaede stepped in front of her, one hand stroking his apex spine thoughtfully.
“There is a way to deter them, but I am not sure you will be agreeable to it.”
Frankie swatted another bug and glanced up at him desperately.
“What is it? I’ll do anything.”
His spines snapped in an Agraak shrug and he raised his palms toward her.
“Agraak saliva has the same qualities as the excretions from our skin. It won’t hurt you at all, but it would keep them from biting.”
“Are you telling me that you want to spit on me?”
“Of course not,” he scoffed. “That would hardly be effective.”
“Thank goodness—”
“I would need to lick your exposed skin.”
She eyed him for a long moment, unable to determine whether or not he was joking. He stared right back at her, his arms folding over his chest with a patient air as he waited for her answer.
He was serious. He actually was willing to lick her. He was going to throw the no-touchy rule right out the window to slime her.
Frankie smiled up at him and made an effort not to scratch at the accumulating bites. Anything to deter him from thinking she needed a tongue bath.
“You know something? As generous as that offer is, I think I’ll have to pass. I’m really fin
e.”
He grunted, not believing it in the least.
“We probably should. The bites may carry illnesses from other creatures that live in the swamps.”
“Seriously, I’m good. See? They aren’t even bothering me,” she chirped with forced cheer.
He continued to look doubtful but snapped his spines and continued on a few steps ahead of her, right up until a particularly big bastard landed on her and tried to take a chunk of flesh with his bite. She yelped and slapped her arm.
Kaede was immediately at her side. He pulled her arm out to inspect the red welt developing where the pest nailed her.
“Enough of this,” he growled.
“Absolutely not...” she hissed as he drew in closer.
His hand tightened and tugged her against him. Frankie gasped as her breath rushed out of her lungs when her breasts collided with his upper abs. The soft parts of her body gave beneath his hard planes and it rekindled the need that had been churning inside of her since their last close encounter.
“You are not allowed to get sick,” Kaede growled.
She shivered as need clawed at her belly. This wasn’t about sex, she reminded herself. What he was offering was impersonal. It was merely a strange manner of delivering a useful preventative against becoming sick with whatever diseases would be carried by the bloodsuckers. If she got sick out here, it would be a disaster.
“Fine,” she gritted out thanklessly.
“Close your eyes,” he whispered.
She wanted to tell him to go to hell, but instead, to her surprise, she did as he directed. She felt his wet lips caress her eyelids, one at a time before his rough tongue swept over her brow. She shuddered. It felt far nicer than it should.
A rattling sound filled the air and she knew it was the vibration of his spines. She wasn’t naïve; she knew what the sound meant. He was getting as turned on by the ‘medicating’ as she was. She shivered as his tongue swept down the bridge of her nose, across one cheek and then the other. It wasn’t slobbery like the tongue of some but instead felt slightly raspy. It touched lightly over her lips and chin before dipping down to her neck.
He lifted one hand and then other, swiping his tongue over the small expanses of skin on her wrists that were exposed whenever her armor rode up. That it eased the terrible itching sting of the bites made her sigh with relief. His saliva was somewhat sticky and smelled strongly of him, but it felt good despite the embers that it stoked higher in her belly with each stroke of his tongue.
Her pussy was screaming with need by the time he finished and pulled back.
His face was close enough that Frankie could clearly see the now-familiar look of desire burning in his eyes. It was threatening to break its tethers and consume her. By some miracle, he was retaining control. He growled and pushed away from her. His body heaved with the effort to control his desire. It wasn’t until he turned and began to walk away from her that she fully realized that nothing more was going to happen.
For once, she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
Twenty minutes later, she followed behind Kaede, uncertain if she wanted to shoot him or strip naked and beg him to give her another tongue bath. The lust hadn’t waned in the slightest. Now she felt needy and empty. Every inch of her felt ultra-sensitized. Her armor and clothing rubbed uncomfortably against her skin.
“Kaede,” she groaned.
He looked over at her with concern and made his way back through the bushes toward her, water sloshing where he stepped off firm ground into water she’d been avoiding. Standing water was a haven for all kinds of parasites. She tried to concentrate on what manner of parasites could be crawling the gunk as she panted through another wave of desire.
He looked her over, his brow drawing low.
“Kaede, I don’t feel so well,” she whimpered.
“Do you feel sick?”
“No,” she said, “I need. Gods, Kaede, I ache so badly.”
Understanding lit his eyes and his brows flew up in surprise. He pressed one cool hand against her cheek. She nuzzled into it gratefully. Last time he touched her, he’d felt quite warm. This was a pleasant change.
“You are overheated,” he said. “The ormar is bad enough, but because of your armor you are overheating, which is agitating the ormar into unnatural levels. We need to cool you off.” His head snapped around. “We are close to the facility. Once we are inside, we will peel you out of this metal and cloth, and I will see about giving you some relief.”
“This armor is supposed to be the best.”
“I am certain it is adequate for protecting your delicate flesh, but it won’t do you any good against Agraadax heat killing you,” he stated calmly.
She groaned. “I hate this fucking planet. Everything does its damnedest to eat me, fuck me, or kill me.”
“Two out of three are not entirely bad.”
Frankie blinked up at him.
“Did you just unbend enough to tell a joke?”
Kaede chuckled and picked her up off her feet, settling her easily against his chest as he strode through the forest. Frankie knew she really should protest being carried like a baby. She was a soldier with two perfectly good legs. Yet it felt so good being in his arms like that.
“I would strip you now if I could risk it, but with your body exposed I would have to coat you with more of my saliva. If I did that, I don’t think either of us would be able to call back the instinctive need of our bodies.”
Frankie was dangerously close to telling him to quit worrying about it and just fuck her. She just needed one quick fuck and then she’d be okay.
“Kaede...”
“No, Frahnkee. You are not yourself. I will not.”
She whimpered and pressed her thighs together, trying to give her some relief as Kaede ran through the forest. She wasn’t entirely sure if she was going to make it to the facility. One of her hands slipped between her thighs. The so-called micro-pore fiber of her armor was drenched with a combination of sweat and slick as she pressed down on her quim. Tilting her head back, she groaned with need. Kaede’s spines buzzed gently, soothingly, but nothing could cool the inferno licking through her.
She was more than a little aware when Kaede dropped his nose and began to sniff at her. The calm buzzing was replaced with the vibration of his arousal. She blinked up at him through the sweat that gathered on her scalp and dripped into her eyes, making them blur and sting.
“Kaede?”
He pressed her closer to him with his hand and quickened his pace.
“We are almost there,” he whispered.
Frankie cried out as they broke free of the trees, her entire body shuddering with relief. She blinked at the building shrouded by trees and frowned. There was no barrier wall. It looked completely deserted.
“There’s no one there,” she stated despondently.
“No,” he agreed. “There would not be. Recall, they shut down the breeding facility cycles ago.”
“Yes,” she whispered as she leaned back into him. “But I’d hoped there would possibly be at least someone employed there, even a guard, who I could question.”
Kaede shifted her weight in his arms and snapped his spines. “I warned you not to hope for much. At least the barrier is down. If that is the case, they likely left little to nothing behind.”
She stared dismally at the dull-colored building as they approached it. When they arrived at the gate, Kaede set her on her feet and, putting both hands against the seam of the door, pulled it open. His muscles bulged and the door protested with a squeal, but inch by inch it opened to them. The air that wafted out from the dark interior felt mercifully cool against her skin.
Frankie made her way into the door corridor, tears of relief streaming down her face. With sweat-slick fingers, she fumbled with the latches of her armor. She was so focused on her task she was caught entirely unaware when Kaede stepped behind her and took her swiftly to the ground.
A cry escaped her, and his deft fingers
turned her over onto her back. His face was a mask of concern warring with desire as he loosened the fastenings that ran from her shoulder to her crotch in a diagonal seam. He peeled it off her without hesitating, leaving her in nothing more than her underwear and the bandage binding her breasts. He gave the latter one startled look before quickly shredding it beneath his claws.
Sucking in a huge breath of air, her chest expanded free of the bindings, her breasts quivering and nipples puckering in the cool air. He focused on them for a long moment before tearing his gaze reluctantly away as he peeled her uniform down her body.
She wiggled her hips and lifted them, silently urging him to hurry. The uniform slipped off her hips before he released it. She let out a frustrated noise but noticed he’d stopped only so that he could unfasten and slide off her boots. There was no way her armor was coming off any other way.
Each boot hit the floor with a thunk, followed by her discarded armor. Her breath wheezed out of her in surprise as she felt his rough palms slide up her inner thigh, the buzz of his spines increasing into a feverish tempo.
“Control,” he breathed.
Frankie suspected that he spoke to himself in that moment, but she wondered if he was speaking in truth to both of them. At that moment, she felt like she was spinning away from the iron discipline she’d honed. Her mind felt as if it were being assaulted from the fever that dug into the marrow of her being.
His claws grazed the swollen lips of her pussy and Frankie nearly came up off the floor. If it hadn’t been for his weight holding her in place, she could have jumped straight out of her body and into the next world with the way she was feeling.
Again, and again his fingers caressed, his claws barely scraping with each pass as he carefully kept them as far as possible from her tender flesh. She arched into his ministrations as she whimpered and moaned beneath him.
“Kaede, what are you doing to me?”
“Assisting you to find your relief,” he whispered. “What do you need?”
Heart of the Agraak Page 9