Kagan wagged his dark brows at him provokingly. “Till tomorrow, then,” he said and got up and sauntered off.
“I knew it was a mistake to consider sharing with that duo,” Jurik said tightly.
“I did not consider it,” Taurin responded tartly. “Or welcome them ... in particular. But we cannot afford to have our men fighting among themselves over the women—no one would be safe. And I could not refuse to share Ni-cole … Ni-ki when I had told all of the others that we must accept that there are not enough women for all and that means we will have to share.”
“Perhaps that was Muck’s plot?” Jurik said thoughtfully.
Taurin shrugged. “Mayhap—it was almost guaranteed to create discord and turn us against one another—if we wanted to claim them as mates as he suggested. And that is why I said we would have to share and accept that that was not something that could be ‘settled’ with a battle as it would have been on Eos.”
“And yet … you challenged Kagan,” Jurik said coolly.
Again, Taurin shrugged. “It is not to the death.”
“I hope that Kagan knows that,” Jurik said dryly.
The discipline Taurin had expected arrived sooner than he had anticipated. He was approached by a delizo soldier and ordered to report for conditioning shortly after they had finished the noon meal. He nodded stonily and glanced at Jurik. “Tell Kagan we will have to save our dance for later.”
* * * *
If Niki hadn’t looked directly at Taurin when the lizard man approached him and spoke to him, she wouldn’t have seen his reaction to whatever was said to him. He turned pale, but he got up as if there was nothing of any consequence going on and spoke coolly and evenly to Jurik.
She did look at him, though, and his reaction unnerved her.
Because nothing she’d learned about him in their admittedly very brief acquaintance had led her to think that there was much in all the universe that ruffled him at all.
She glanced at Jurik, feeling the blood leave her own face at the unknown fear that seized her. The two of them, as far as she could see, were all that had kept her from harm since they took her. It was amazing how quickly one could become deeply attached to the person they thought stood between them and death. “What is it?” she whispered to Jurik.
He shook his head, but she didn’t know if that was just because he couldn’t understand her question or because he couldn’t talk about what was going on—either at all or to her—but he certainly ought to have known what she was talking about and he made no attempt to enlighten her or allay her fears.
Shortly after Taurin had left, though, Jurik got up and went over to speak to the two men who’d joined them earlier, Kagan and Goran, and then returned and summoned her and then they left the common room and returned to the quarters they shared.
Jurik didn’t stay. He spoke to her, pointed to the bunk, and then left.
Niki was sorry he’d taken her back under the circumstances. She could’ve used a little moral support from the crew—not that she was allowed, as the commander, ever to act like she didn’t have all of the answers, but even listening to complaints would have been a welcome distraction to her own thoughts.
He had done something he ought not, she decided. Or he had not done something he should have. He didn’t strike her as the type of person that typically failed to carry out any order issued so she decided the former must the case. And it didn’t actually take a long search to arrive at a conclusion.
Something had passed between him and the reptilian commander when they’d been brought from their ship and quartered in what looked like a storage bay in the hold.
And, on even less of an acquaintance, she judged the frog man to be someone that was very touchy about their position. He didn’t look/seem like the type that would allow even a hint of insubordination to pass unpunished.
She thought it was the body language and the tones of their voices.
Taurin had kept his voice cool and even.
The frog man had gotten right in his face and bellowed loud enough to deafen him.
She thought Taurin’s tolerance of it not only meant that he could not do anything about it and prosper or maybe even live, but that it was common enough he’d seen it coming.
And he’d still done it.
Because she was cold and she had seen he was angry that they’d been moved there.
So, basically, it was her fault.
Whatever happened to him.
She really wanted to find a logical argument for why that just couldn’t be the case.
She hadn’t been around the reptile that long, and she knew that incident might not be what had set his commander off, but he didn’t seem the type to wait around when he wanted to punish somebody.
Truthfully, she’d more than half expected him to strike Taurin down right then and there.
She got up and paced for a while, but that did nothing to calm her or divert her mind.
Eventually, her thoughts switched from the incident that might have caused Taurin to be punished to the look in his eyes when he had decided …. What? Exactly?
Maybe he’d just thought she’d lied to him? She knew that Niki was short for Nicole, but he had no way of knowing that. And, yes, it sounded close, but so did a lot of names that were different names.
She’d had the feeling that there was more to it than that and, given plenty of time to think about it and not a damned thing to do but worry, it actually dawned on her fairly quickly.
Because she’d suspected at the time that they must be able to detect the chemical changes in her when she was aroused. Because she’d reacted to Kagan. And he had known it.
And Taurin had, too, she realized.
She’d forgotten all about the way that Taurin had looked at her that had so unnerved her.
Because she’d been too worried about Taurin since to worry about her own ass.
Progress!
She’d so worn herself out with worrying and pacing that she was on the verge of passing out from emotional exhaustion when she heard someone at the door.
It opened, and Jurik and Taurin blocked the entire opening because Jurik was half carrying Taurin.
“Oh my god! What happened?” she gasped, leaping off of Taurin’s bunk and rushing to help.
Jurik and Taurin both looked at her like she’d lost her mind when she tried to help support Taurin by putting her arm around his waist and dragging his tree trunk arm across her shoulders.
Jurik leaned Taurin against the doorframe, released him, grabbed her and plunked her down on the easy chair, shaking his finger in her face and … well, cussing her, she thought.
When he’d finished dressing her down, he went back and helped Taurin to his bunk.
Niki felt her chin wobble with the threat of tears, although she wasn’t entirely certain of why she felt like she was going to burst into tears.
The shock of seeing Taurin in such a horrible condition when he’d been the picture of superman when he’d left?
Fear?
Because if the reptiles could do this to their allies, what would happen to them?
Because there wasn’t a sign of injury that she could see—or bandaging to indicate a wound that had been covered? And it boggled the mind even to contemplate what could have done this to him with no outward sign of injury.
He caught his head between his palms when he had settled, squeezing it hard enough his knuckles whitened.
Jurik peeled his hands loose and Taurin punched him to free himself.
Niki bailed out of the chair again and grabbed Taurin’s hand with both of hers when Jurik grabbed his hands and struggled to pull them away a second time.
Taurin opened his eyes and stared at her, but he subsided, allowing her to hold his hand between hers. Jurik had given her an angry look, but he dismissed his qualms when he saw Taurin wasn’t inclined to fight her.
To her surprise, Jurik reached to clamp his own hands where Taurin had been holding his head, pressin
g as hard, from what she could see, as Taurin had.
She had no idea what he thought he was doing, or was doing.
But he was doing something, she discovered, because after a few moments Taurin seemed to relax fractionally.
Jurik released him abruptly and sucked in a harsh breath, clasping his own head.
Niki stared at him blankly for several moments, trying to figure out what she’d just witnessed.
It almost looked like Jurik had … absorbed Taurin’s pain.
For several moments more, Jurik clenched his own head and then slowly relaxed, released, slumped where he sat beside Taurin’s bunk.
Both men, she discovered, were unconscious.
Chill bumps erupted all over her.
If anyone had told her something like this—some tale about a person being able to take someone else’s pain—she would never have believed it in a million years.
But she knew, absolutely, that Jurik had been fine before.
Feeling the strain of crouching to hold Taurin’s hand, but unwilling to let go—even though she wasn’t entirely sure why—and shifted into a little more comfortable position and examined his hand.
There were a couple of gouges—closed—and bruises, she saw, and decided it must be from the fight earlier—or practice—or war game—whatever they called that violent mob scene that had sent all of the women, including her, running. She rubbed them, lightly, soothingly, with a fingertip.
It was a very nicely shaped hand, she thought—considering it was super sized. He had long, tapered fingers and a broad palm that swallowed her hand whole.
It was … unnerving.
All in all, he was a terrifying being.
And yet ….
The human mind was a wonderful thing, but it was inclined toward self-deception, preconceived notions, confused by patterns—and inclined toward judgment with only one yardstick—the person trying to judge.
She knew he was an alien.
But he looked human and her mind said ‘human’ every time she didn’t remind herself that he wasn’t.
She knew he was barbaric and probably a monster.
But he was beautiful to look at and her mind said ‘good’. Only ugly could be evil, because evil was an ugly thing.
He had led the men that had taken her ship.
But he hadn’t hurt her—beyond that, she’d felt as if he was protecting her—right or wrong, and that was probably dead wrong.
But what else did she have to cling to?
They had no hope at all of surviving if they had no one willing to keep them alive. They were outnumbered, outsized, not armed—and in space, so they had no place to flee to.
That left them with no options that she could see.
The hand she had been absently stroking twisted and caught hers, jerking her abruptly back to reality. She sent a wide eyed look in his direction and discovered Taurin was staring at her.
She couldn’t quite interpret the look, but then again, she usually couldn’t. He was a master at hiding his thoughts and his feelings.
When she looked away, she discovered Jurik was watching her, as well. Embarrassed to be caught fondling his hand like an idiot she struggled to divert both of them. “Ok now?”
Nothing but a blank stare—from both. She touched her head. “Head ok now?”
“Yes,” Taurin responded after a long pause.
It jolted her. “You understand?”
He frowned. After a moment, he touched the thing on his head and then took it off and pushed himself up so that he could place it on her head. Then he said, “Yes, head ok.”
And she heard it in his language—she supposed. Her eyes widened. “It’s a … translator? Not just a communicator?”
He shook his head, but she hadn’t really expected him to understand. Clearly, they had some sort of AI and it was collecting the sounds she and the other women made and trying to interpret. Pleasure wafted through her, followed closely by a wave of uneasiness.
If the aliens were already cracking their language, it wouldn’t be long at all before they understand absolutely everything they said.
He pulled the headpiece off again and tossed it. He looked like he was going to sit up. Instead, he fell back again and started massaging his temples.
“Head ok?” Jurik asked in their language.
Irritation flickered through Taurin but a reluctant grin curled his lips. “Shut up,” he growled.
Jurik chuckled and got up. “Do you want me to bring you something to eat?”
“Not sure I could eat without puking,” Taurin muttered.
“Well, something that will not taste too bad coming back the other way?”
Taurin chuckled and then groaned. “Quit it!”
“All joking aside, I do not feel that it would be a good thing to take her to the hall to eat when you are down.
Taurin opened his eyes and studied her for a moment. “No. Bring food. We will eat here tonight.”
Niki stared at first one and then the other during the exchange, both stunned and charmed by the way they … bantered with one another.
Not that she understood a word, but she could tell from the swift back and forth and the chuckles that they were … interacting in just the way she had seen men of Earth do with their good friends.
She’d always yearned to have some part in something like that—not just to be a bystander, an onlooker.
Chapter Seven
It was the first time since they’d begun their journey to a new world to establish a colony that Niki had allowed herself to think about what they were leaving behind—any chance at all of love or companionship—with men. They would have had sons if they had managed to reach the colony world as planned. They had brought frozen eggs and embryos, and sperm donations from as diverse and genetically superior a group of men as they could obtain—enough for several generations.
So—sons for their daughters and future generations, but no one for themselves.
They would not even get the chance to watch men, listen to their deep voices when they interacted with each other—not for a generation, at least. They had left that behind forever.
She hadn’t thought she’d given up much.
Well, fast food restaurants and all the modern conveniences—along with the choking smog and contamination that came with those things.
But people—no.
She’d had no one.
She’d been adopted by elderly parents and had lost them both before she’d graduated from college.
She’d had what she’d considered almost a dozen ‘serious’ relationships, but none of them had seemed to see it that way. Her adoptive father had been a good man and she’d been convinced he wasn’t the only one, but if there were more, they’d already been claimed or she’d missed them in her search. She’d soured on relationships in general and men in particular even before she’d turned her entire focus, all of her energies, on the new colony.
And not once had she considered that there would be no going back once the decision was made, no turning around, no ‘just one more chance’.
If she had, she’d dismissed it as a waste of time and emotion.
She’d all but forgotten that Taurin retained her hand—or at least thought he had—until he began, almost absently, examining her hand as she had his.
Slipping his hand to her wrist, he stroked the fingers of his other hand across her palm and the bottoms of her fingers to uncurl her hand. And then he stroked his thumb and index pads along each finger—as if measuring them, or counting, one by one.
Niki felt her belly tense and then begin to shimmy.
He flicked an assessing look at her and then tugged at her arm until she had, perforce, to get up. Grasping her hips, he guided her to settle on the edge of his bunk and drew her hand up to place it on his cheek.
Her heart and her kegels, fluttering excitedly from the moment he drew her off the floor, went wild even before she met his gaze. It wasn’t fear, though, that threw h
er entire system into pandemonium. Heat swept over her like a tidal wave when she looked into his eyes.
He held her gaze—as surely as if he had tethered it—and slowly drew her hand to his mouth.
Her gaze flickered to that hard mouth and she watched, her breath trapped in her chest, as his lips parted, revealing even white teeth. She didn’t consciously resist, but she saw it wouldn’t have mattered if she had. He drew her first finger into his mouth as if he was completely unaware of any resistance and he sucked it.
When she felt his tongue curl around the digit, felt the suction and heat of his mouth, her heart seemed to screech to a halt in her chest for several dizzying moments and then to thunder like a galloping horse. Heated moisture bathed her channel, dampened her panties, and she squeezed her legs tightly together.
He withdrew that finger and took her index finger into his mouth, sucking it as he had the first and she thought for several panicked moments that she would pass out.
He had taken her third finger into his mouth and Niki felt within a heartbeat of total meltdown when Jurik returned.
With obvious reluctance, he released the hand he had taken captive and tortured.
Niki bounded off the bunk as if she’d been catapulted.
Jurik, she saw when she glanced wildly around, had halted just inside the cabin as if he’d hit an invisible wall.
Still in total disorder and so weak in the aftermath she thought she still might faint, Niki scurried toward the chair and scrambled into it with an effort.
It was designed for the giants and she was so weak she could barely haul her ass into it.
By the time she had, Jurik had regained mobility.
“Jebel, Taurin!” he growled. “If you are well enough to fuck I have no idea why I brought the food here. Could you not keep your hands off of her?”
Taurin’s lips quirked. “She touched me first.”
“Juvenile excuse,” Jurik growled, moving to the only table the room boasted to set his burden down.
Taurin uttered a choked laugh and made pretense it was a cough. He sobered almost at once, however. “My only thought was to distract myself from the pain,” he muttered.
Alien Warriors: Invasion Page 6