by Jack Archer
“I think I will now,” he growled, hooking his right elbow under her knee. Before he could settle his other hand, Rystar grabbed it and brought it to her lips, tasting herself on his fingers. She sucked it down to the knuckle, watching his eyes narrow. He shuddered and stroked himself a few times before easing himself into her.
They both sighed with relief and stayed there for a moment, catching their breath. Sliding a hand down between them, Rystar hooked her fingers around the base of his cock, and when he began to move, she could feel him stroke against her. She groaned at how hard he was and the look on his face, heavy-lidded eyes regarding her like she was the only thing in the universe.
He sat up straight, and Rystar got a full view of his torso, white as a neutron star and twice as blinding. His hips moved in slow motion, and Rystar pulled hers up to push more of him into her, and it wasn’t enough. Sun-red hair fell into his face, and when their eyes met, he gave her a lopsided grin.
She came right there for the second time.
He pushed a hand down between them and thumbed at her clit, his mouth slightly open to reveal those fangs, and there she went a third time.
The fourth and fifth times were blurs, and by the sixth, she was a writhing mess on the bed.
“Oh my god, hold on Kyran, wait…” she finally gasped out, and he flicked some hair from his face and pulled her leg back into a proper position.
“You okay, nawekïm?” he asked breathlessly.
“Yes, you’re just a lot to handle,” Rystar chuckled and pulled her other leg to the side to crack her lower back while Kyran swung his legs off the bed and stood up to stretch. He was a lanky piece of work, but lithe muscles ran up and down his back and thighs as she caught his three-fourths profile, and suddenly she was ready for a seventh.
“Can’t be that good,” he grumbled and sauntered from the bed to the window, folding his arms and staring out of it again. Rystar rolled over and propped her head up on her hand, gazing down at her own body. She was thick compared to most women she met, curves and rolls everywhere, but Kyran had grabbed onto all of them and made her squirm in ecstasy. It had been a while since she’d been loved like that.
“For a cocky fellow, you sure can get down on yourself,” Rystar said, furrowing her brow and becoming more serious at the look on Kyran’s face. He turned and replaced his grimace with a dangerous grin, his fangs coming out and extending below his bottom lip. Her body hummed as he approached, already gearing up again since he looked ready.
“Ain’t down on myself,” he murmured, pushing her on her back by the hip and running his hands up her body. He kissed her neck with such softness, and his hands continued to stroke at her sides and breasts, squeezing gently and eventually hiking her leg up again.
“It’s like,” Rystar began but was cut off with a gentle kiss. She kissed back for a moment before he moved down to her neck again. “It’s like you believe you have to fake being that good, but you are that good.”
“If you say so, darlin’,” he muttered against her chest, “you ain’t so bad yourself, you know.” Down her stomach he went, licking here and there, until he reached her hips and parted her legs, hooking them over his shoulders and sinking down. His tongue moved languidly around her for what seemed like hours, and Rystar cried out so many times she was sure she woke up the entire galaxy.
“Stay with me tonight,” he whispered in her ear as they spooned in his bed, his ever-present erection still pressed against her, reminding her that he was ready to please her any time she wanted.
“Mmm, why’s that?” Rystar muttered, half in a doze. It had been a while since sex that good had put her ass to sleep so quickly.
“So I don’t have to rush across the ship with a raging erection when you wake up to fuck you again,” he breathed against her neck, hands running all over her body. The sheets felt like satin or silk and did nothing to warm her naked body, but with Kyran, there wasn’t much need for anything else to keep her warm.
“Are we that impersonal already?” Rystar chuckled and rolled over to his eager mouth, kissing him deeply.
“Fine,” he huffed and rolled his eyes, smiling against her lips, “so I don’t have to rush across the ship to make love to you first thing in the morning.”
She hummed and continued kissing him until she fell asleep in his arms.
But when she awoke in Kyran’s bed, tangled up in the black silk sheets, he was gone. Some gentleman he was.
She sat up, rubbing her eyes and keeping the sheets wrapped up around the top of her body. Looking around, she noticed the bathroom and pursed her lips before wrapping the sheet fully around her and stumbling towards the smaller door. Inside was Kyran, brushing his teeth at the sink. He spat and looked at her in the mirror, smiling brightly.
“Mornin’ princess,” he greeted and took a mouthful of water to rinse and spit again.
“Good to know you have the same hygiene customs we do,” Rystar chuckled and let the sheet drop to the floor, drawing a disgusted gasp from Kyran.
“What, were you raised in a barn?” he scoffed, picking up the sheet and draping it across the back of the toilet.
“You should know what kind of uncivilized mess you’re getting yourself into with me,” she said, turning the shower on and twisting to face him. She tried to look as appealing as possible but apparently didn’t need it as Kyran growled at the sight and shot forward. He grabbed her hips and pushed her against the tile wall of the shower, letting the hot water spray down on them.
He was even better in the morning.
Emerging from the elevator together didn’t garner the reaction Rystar thought they’d get, especially since she was in the same clothes as the night before. Lupe was cooking in the kitchen and the rest of the crew sat around the table, swiping through vids or sipping on coffee.
“What’s on the menu this morning, Lupe?” Kyran said, stretching as he threw himself in a chair with the biggest smile in the galaxy on his face.
“Tuny wir ïh, tuny wir rïr,” Lupe responded, flipping a pan expertly around a blaze of flame.
“We were just discussing our next series of jumps,” Na’gya said, looking up from his coffee at Kyran with a glint in his eye. Kyran must have missed it, but Rystar narrowed her eyes at Na’gya, who merely shrugged his giant set of wings.
Kyran nodded as Enzo passed him a cup of coffee. “Seems like a good idea. Anywhere around us good right now? We should only take 2 jumps this time, 3 if you think we can handle it, Enz.” He raised his eyebrows at Enzo, and Enzo tilted his head, pursing his lips in thought.
“Three I could deal with,” he agreed. Rystar hummed to herself at the apparent master of diplomacy.
“There’s a port four jumps away, but it’s old, and I’m not sure it could house a Mach IV,” Lupe said, taking a spatula and separating whatever he was cooking onto plates for them all.
“What’s the fastest way to the Hoop?” Kyran asked, digging into his own food.
“There’s not, really,” Lupe said with a shrug. “It’s so far out in the Outer Bands, we’ll have to manually plot out jumps since there are very few border gates out there.”
“You’re not telling me we’ll have to fly between systems?” Kyran asked, eyes wide.
“That’d be impossible, even in a ship like this,” Lupe chuckled.
“Let’s focus on what we can do now,”
“There’s another option, but it takes us a little out of the way,” Lupe continued around a mouthful of food, “three jumps away there’s a planet that’s rumored to house other Ya’ados. I thought that might be a good place to check out, see if we can garner more support for the cause.”
All eyes went to Na’gya, who looked around at them all and sat up a little, folding his arms across his broad chest. After a moment, he nodded, wiping at his nose and setting his palms on the table. “Let’s do it.”
Chapter Twelve
Rystar Umara: DSV Firehawk, Gliese 581
The repairs had run late,
and Rystar found herself pacing her small room the whole morning, puffing furiously on her Cortijet. When it was finally ready, she stood in the hangar and gazed at it longingly, wanting nothing more than to take it out for a ride.
“Happy she’s back?” Kyran said, coming to stand next to her in the hangar. She tore her eyes away from it to study his face and nodded.
“Thanks again,” she said, “not only for fixing it but paying for it, as well.”
He turned away from her and stood up straight, taking in the Mach III in front of him. “I hope you can feel free now. You’re not my prisoner. You never were.”
“I understand,” she said with a grin and took his hand, pulling them to face each other. She pushed forward to kiss him lightly on his bottom lip, and they stayed there for a moment, savoring how well things had fallen into place around them.
When Kyran pulled away, his brow was furrowed, and Rystar mirrored him, holding his hand tighter and tilting her head. “What’s wrong?”
Kyran bit his lip and took his free hand to scratch at his eyebrow for a moment. When he looked back up again, Rystar noticed the shine in his eyes and sucked in a breath, wondering what in the hell would make someone like Kyran tear up.
“I did find something in your file,” he said after a moment and pulled his hands away, leaving Rystar’s empty. She balled them up next to her sides.
“What did you find?” Rystar asked, going over her entire life and not finding anything in it that would alarm Kyran.
He didn’t say anything for a few moments as he turned his back to her to gaze at the Krimson Princess across the hangar.
“Did your mom ever talk about your grandfather?” Kyran asked in a low voice, one full of 500 years of grieving. Rystar blanched. It definitely wasn’t a question she had been ready for.
“She said he served as a LASSO pilot on Earth and Aurum. He died long before I was born, though,” she said, shaking her head. A weight seemed to settle in her stomach. “Did you know them?”
“I didn’t know your mother,” Kyran said, turning just slightly to look at her for a moment. “But you asked me what the Krimson Princess meant.”
It was hard for him to get the words out, and Rystar waited, taking a couple steps closer to him.
When Kyran spoke again, she could hear the tears. “It’s a type of plant that grows back on Earth. Your grandfather, Ephrem, had one that his mother passed on to him before she died. He loved it so much, he named his own LASSO after it.”
Rystar gulped, tearing her gaze away from Kyran to look at the Mach II in front of them, bright green and gold and the words Krimson Princess emblazoned across the back. The sight hit her differently now, and her mind went blank. She never knew her grandfather, had no stake in his life. But his death had been hard on her mother, its effects lingering long after Rystar was born.
Gloria Umara did everything she could to follow in her father’s footsteps, even going so far as to push Rystar in the same direction. Never knowing her own father, Rystar took solace in the fact that her grandfather would be proud of the things she did, that he would be proud of Gloria.
“Why do you have his ship?” Rystar asked, her heart hammering and fingers going cold. Kyran spun to face her now, a single tear running down his cheek, and Rystar knew exactly why Kyran had the Krimson Princess but needed to hear it from him.
“He passed it on to me,” Kyran said with a shrug, clasping his hands behind his back after wiping the tear away.
“Why would he do that?” Rystar asked, taking a single step back.
“Ephrem suffered from ACCF, just like you do,” Kyran explained. “I was his nurse and took care of him for the last few years of his life. We fell in love. They sent him away. Long story short, he died on Earth and left me his LASSO.”
Rystar didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know how to feel. There was nothing in her heart at the moment. This should have been some huge, eye-opening realization, but all she experienced was a dull buzz in her bones and a high-pitched ringing in her ear.
“Why didn’t you tell me this?” Rystar asked, shifting her weight to one leg and placing a hand on her hip.
“I don’t know,” Kyran said, taking a step towards her and shaking his head.
She took a step back, and Kyran stopped, a flash of pain shooting through his face.
“So, do you like me for who I am or because of my grandfather?” she asked, her breath quickening. Kyran shook, trying to take a step closer to her but stopping. His eyes pleaded with her, and the familiar sting of tears hit her eyes. The fight or flight response loomed like a dark cloud in her head.
“You,” he replied. “You’re absolutely Ephrem’s granddaughter, which is amazing considering you two never met.” He stopped for a moment and smiled, but Rystar did not return it. “And there are parts of you that are wholly you and no one else. That’s what I… those are the things I love most about you.”
At the word ‘love,’ Rystar exploded into a million pieces, the threatening tears making good on their promise and pouring down her face. She wiped at them quickly and shook her head, stepping backward. “I need to go. I need to be alone.”
“Rystar, wait,” Kyran said, holding out his hand as she spun around and walked towards the elevators, pressing the button that would take her to her quarters. She got to her room as fast as she could, packing a few shirts and pants into a bag and opening her door again to face Shea. She couldn’t deal with this.
“What’s going on?” Shea asked, noticing her bag and furrowing his brow.
“I’m going solo for a bit,” she muttered, pushing past him and back to the elevators. Picking up her comms tablet, she punched in Lupe’s number and waited for them to pick up. Shea had followed her into the elevator, and she rolled her eyes.
“What’s up, Rystar?” they asked through the receiver.
“I need you to send me the coordinates to wherever we’re jumping next,” she said, waiting for the elevator doors to open again and ignoring Shea’s questioning look.
“Sure thing, why?” Lupe asked.
“I’ll be following you all in the Gloriosum for a bit,” she said, hanging up and shoving herself out of the elevator before the doors opened up fully. Shea followed her through the hangar, and Rystar sighed when she noticed Kyran hadn’t moved from their talk earlier.
“You can’t leave,” he said, rushing up to her. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, but we need you here on the crew.”
“I’m not leaving,” she said, placing her foot on the bottom of the ladder and turning to face the two men. “I just need to be alone for a while. I’ll follow you through the border gates to the next system. We can talk later.”
Kyran said nothing but nodded, taking a few steps back to give her space. Shea, however, grabbed her hand and lowered his voice. “Please, let me come with you.”
“You’ll be fine here,” Rystar said, pulling her hand away and climbing up the ladder. Guilt gnawed at her, knowing Shea was the least liked on the ship right now, but she had to worry about herself.
With the door closed and everyone leaving her alone finally, she looked down to her comms tablet and noticed the coordinates. She powered up her LASSO and asked Lupe to open the hangar door for her when it was clear. Setting it to space mode, she waited for the doors to open before pushing the throttle and leaving the Firehawk.
Once clear from the port, she headed towards the border gate queue, half an hour away. Her radar lit up after a moment, and she saw the Firehawk close behind her.
Damn, that thing was quick.
She stewed in silence for a while, trying to pinpoint exactly what was bothering her. Was she mad Kyran didn’t tell her immediately? Was she pissed off Kyran might only like her for who her grandfather was?
No, none of those things bothered her.
Before she could really pin it down, a warning alarm sounded somewhere to her right, and she jumped, looking down at the radar and realizing with horror that some kind o
f ship was racing towards her from the border gate queue. It shot past her vision so quickly she didn’t get a chance to see what it was, but it had looked like a smaller version of the Mach IV.
“Impossible,” she whispered to herself, watching the tiny blip swing around and begin to follow her.
“Firehawk to Gloriosum, come in ehi,” the comms receiver buzzed, and she slapped a button to respond to Lupe.
“What the hell is that thing?” she cried, punching forward faster towards the gates, which were much further away than Rystar liked.
“Can’t identify, looks like a LASSO, but not one I’ve ever seen,” Lupe responded. “Be careful. The thing is about to fly right up your engines.”
Indeed, the blip zoomed on her radar, and the ship shuddered as a flash of bright light blinded Rystar for a second. She cried out. The Gloriosum lurched to the left, sending Rystar flying out of her seat and into the wall next to her.
“…ming around for a second time, come in, Rystar! Rystar, where the hell are you?”
She came to after a few moments, her vision swirling in front of her as lights and alarms blared around her. Wiping blood from her face, she grabbed onto the console and pulled herself up. Lupe was screaming at her from the console, but she ignored them, heading to her locker to don a spacesuit and helmet.
From the console, she could tell there was nothing left to save.
She snapped her helmet in place and placed two fingers on her mouth, pressing them to the little ship’s console before turning to the door and opening it. The space outside was frightening, and she threw herself into it, hoping the momentum would carry her far from her dying ship.
She turned around in the zero-gravity to face the Gloriosum one last time. The engines had all been blown away, and its entire back half was gone. Whatever that tiny ship was, it could tear hers apart in one shot. Looking to her right, she saw the tiny thing zip by, letting loose another shot, and it hit the Gloriosum home, exploding like stars in the space around it.