Sorin yelled, throwing the goblet at the wall. The metal clanged on the blue-grey stone, but the loud noise did not satisfy him. Sera yelped, jumping in alarm as she ran for the door. Enraged, he tried to get out of bed, making it to his feet. The second he stood, his world spun in fast circles around him, and he felt himself falling backward as darkness consumed his mind.
* * * * *
The only advantage to being held against her will by a dimension obsessed with health was she’d never felt physically better in her life. They forced her to exercise for a precisely calculated amount of time. They took her “not optimal for total health” clothing to be destroyed, replacing the Starian outfit with a pair of slacks and loose long shirt in the red and blue facility colors. Every meal, though bland, was perfectly balanced with her body’s dietary needs for the day. And whenever her stomach started to churn with stress and worry, someone came to give her a shot in the neck to take the symptoms away. But no shot in all the worlds could end how she felt about Sorin.
Did he worsen? Had he awakened? Did he know she’d left? She could only imagine what everyone thought when she didn’t return.
“Sans Grian,” the automated voice said, “your lidic levels are rising again. A medic has been dispatched…”
“…to blah blah blah blah blah,” she mocked loudly, not stopping her restless pacing around the small room. White walls and metal accoutrements surrounded her—precise, clean and irritatingly lacking in craftsmanship. She missed her thick cushiony bed and the carved detail of her furniture. She missed banners and towering castles. She missed her warrior husband. “If you really want to cure me, robot, send me home.”
The automated voice didn’t answer.
The door slid open and Lilith didn’t bother looking to see who’d come to shoot her in the neck this time. She turned on her heels, walking away from the door.
Sorin, please be all right. I’m sorry I couldn’t get the handheld to you. I tried to escape. I tried to get back to you. I—
“Lilith, how surprising to see you here.”
Lilith stiffened. She knew that voice. “Director Carretta?”
“I admit to being a little stunned when the Medical Supreme contacted us as to your detainment, especially when you had no apparent injuries and thus no reason to seek this dimension,” the director answered. “I rather like to think there was a certain man friend you wanted to look up, but your profile doesn’t sustain the theory.”
“I didn’t realize I needed to be detained.” Lilith slowly turned, facing the woman.
Samanta Carretta smiled politely, but the look couldn’t be trusted. The mission director always wore that expression. Slim and gorgeous, with smooth dark skin and short black hair, Carretta could turn any man’s head. However, that gorgeous innocence was her most dangerous weapon. Carretta could kill a man twice her size in under three moves, before he even realized she planned to attack.
“Of course we put a detainment bulletin out for you. What did you think would happen when you disappeared with a sacred artifact from 228?” Carretta clicked her tongue, coming all the way into the room. The door slid shut behind her. “Very naughty, Miss Grian. I have to admit, we never suspected you for a thief. Had we known your predilection, we’d have put your talents to better use instead of having you waste away doing cultural analyses.”
“I didn’t take the book,” Lilith defended.
“Then how do you explain the traces of the text found in your crate. Your thumbprint was on the seal.”
“It’s a mistake,” Lilith said, defensively holding up her hands. “I packed that crate myself. I didn’t steal any sacred book. I only took the copies they said I could have for the Divinity archive. When I got back, I found the book stuffed in the bottom. The magistrate on 228 showed me the book when I took a tour of their archives. They had it locked up. There is no way I’d take it on accident.”
“Hm,” Carretta hummed thoughtfully. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a black box and fingered it gingerly. “So you admit you took it on purpose. Who did you sell it to?”
“I didn’t take it.” Lilith backed away from the box. Fear gripped her. The director didn’t believe her. “When I discovered what had happened, I followed protocol. I turned the item over to Director Tomes. He sent me home and said I’d be contacted after an investigation to give my report of the events. The next thing I know I’d been transported to an uncharted dimension filled with barbarians.”
“Director Tomes? That’s an interesting story, Miss Grian, but there’s no need for you to explain. I think we’ll have our answers soon enough.” Carretta tapped the top and long thin blades shot out of both sides. Lilith flinched, her back hitting the wall. The director’s smile stayed perfectly intact. “Don’t look so worried. Over half the people we use this on survive without brain damage.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Show me what she did,” Sorin ordered, shoving the unresisting Rodrick at the control panel. It took two days for him to gather enough strength to walk down the stairs and, as sure as battles were bloody, he was not going to stop now. The castle didn’t stir at such a late hour, and he’d gotten no resistance from the sleeping guard who watched over Rodrick.
“My lord, your wounds,” Rodrick pleaded. “I know what you plan. The king ordered that none should go through the portal, but if you insist on following her, let me go in your stead.”
Sorin knew the man’s fear. It was an emotion they all shared. None of them liked the idea of traveling to different worlds, their bodies sucked into nothingness and disappearing into the unknown. The king had ordered they take their dealing with Divinity slowly and cautiously. Besides, none of them knew how to navigate the system. Divinity warned them that if they were to try, they might end up in the middle of some dark ocean a thousand feet down or worse.
“She is my wife. I will go.” Sorin gave him another shove. His limbs hurt but he’d bound them tightly. “Show me.”
“The dials have not been moved.” Rodrick flattened his hands to motion over the controls. “All she did was press this button and then walked there.” He pointed to the platform Divinity built them. “It carried her off her feet and swallowed her into the light.”
Sorin limped to the platform and stood in the center. He’d seen others leave and knew what he had to do. “If I do not return, tell Ronen the family honor rests with him. Tell him I do what duty demands I do.”
Rodrick nodded. “Fight well, my lord.”
Sorin touched the sword at his waist. It wasn’t his blade, but the weapon would work just as well. Inside he was bound into knots, knowing he might never see his homeland again. He got a sense of what Lilith must have felt, waking up in his world with no idea of how she got there. Part of him believed it to be the will of the gods. Why else would they bring her to him? The rest of him didn’t know what to believe.
“Press it.” The hard command sounded confident and brave, nothing like what he felt inside. Who knew what kind of place he’d find on the other end of this thing?
Rodrick pushed the button and the light began to change. Sorin stood at the ready, gripping the hilt of the sword. He ignored the weakness of his body as his limbs pulled toward the ground. The brightening light burned into his eyes, forcing them to close.
He tensed. The force against his body increased, pulling at his wounds until it felt as if they ripped open beneath the bandages. Sorin suppressed a scream of agony. Then it was over. The pain lessened and he stood, breathing heavily, covered in sweat and shaking like he’d just run from Battlewar to the borderlands.
Opening his eyes, he steeled his nerves. The strange silver box of a chamber appeared to be carved into metal. His nose wrinkled as he tasted the sickeningly sweet air. Stumbling forward, he tried to get his bearings. Metal room. Three doors painted with colored numbers. Portal. Loud buzzing. He flinched, cupping his ears.
“Sterilization commencing. Please remain away from the platform.”
Sorin
jolted, spinning in circles with his sword raised, as he looked for the owner of the docile male voice. A wall slid down from the ceiling, blocking the portal. Sorin charged it, banging his fist to the metal. The action jolted his arm, but he barely noticed. Lights began to flash all around him, disorienting him with their random pattern.
“Sterilization complete. Multiple unclosed injuries and fluid detected. Please state your clearance code.”
“I’m here for my wife,” Sorin yelled, menacingly. “Bring her to me.”
“Please repeat, clearance code not accepted.”
“I am Lord Sorin of Firewall and I demand you bring me my wife!” He lifted his sword, searching for the origin of the voice.
“Unauthorized entry detected.” The buzzing grew to an awful earsplitting pitch, pulsing rhythmically. The ceiling opened and an oblong sphere attached to a skinny pole lowered. “Containment orders commencing.”
“Give me my wife!” Sorin glared at the speaking sphere as it tried to blind him with a flash. He growled, swinging at with his sword. The weapon sliced through the pole, killing the talking orb with a giant, showering spark.
He rushed the door with green writing. Not finding a handle, he thrust his sword along the edge to open it. Within he found an open area with several tiny beds spread out before him. Each bed held a sleeping person while people in blue and red uniforms walked around them. At the sound of the crashing door, eyes widened in panic as several faces turned to him.
What in all the burning forests is this place?
A nearby woman screamed, nearly tripping over a bed to get away from him. When several of the males charged forward, Sorin slammed the door and ran to open the orange one. He kicked the dead sphere out of his way so he could thrust his sword along the edge.
“Unauthorized entry orange hall. Please cease your progress. Sealing for detainment.” The voice was back.
Sorin searched the metal corridor for the sphere, expecting it to be on the floor, rolling after him. His heart beat heavily in his chest. This was nothing like he’d imagined. How could this world be a version of his? He stumbled on the smoothed floor, tripping through the endless tunnel, unable to see aught by walls that wound around forever.
Lilith, where are you?
Was this her world? No wonder she felt so out of place in his.
“Lilith!” he yelled, quickening his pace. “Bring me Lilith!”
* * * * *
“Hmm, interesting.” Director Carretta stared at the medical clipboard she held. Lilith heard and saw everything, but she couldn’t react. The truth box had been fastened to her head. It projected her memories in painful reality as a holographic image and forced the truth from her mouth. She’d heard the devices hurt, but nothing could prepare her for the slow, agonizing sensation of her brain being stabbed and probed without numbing. “It seems we have a visitor.”
Lilith tried to moan, but only a trickle of drool made its way over her chin. Her body stayed slumped against the wall. Internally connected to the machine on her head, she knew exactly which images it pried from her thoughts. A picture of Director Tomes appeared.
“No, not Tomes. I’ve already contacted headquarters about him. It seems you’ve been telling the truth.” Carretta knelt on the floor and held up her clipboard in front of Lilith’s face. “Recognize this man?”
Sorin!
He charged though the halls, screaming like a crazed warrior and brandishing a sword. Her heart filled with longing and surprise. What was he doing on 187? How? Why? Thoughts of him were forced from her mind and a rush of images flashed overhead. Carretta stood up in surprise, her eyes rounding as she watched incredibly intimate memories.
“Stop there,” Carretta commanded. The memory of holding down Sorin’s arms as she rode him came to the forefront of her thoughts. Firelight illuminated his thick muscles and shone on her bouncing breasts. The director’s breathing deepened and she slammed the clipboard face down, shutting it off. “I had no idea you were so…”
Lilith tried to think of something else, but she couldn’t. The memory aroused her, as real as if she still lived it. Her pussy moistened and she wanted to feel the thick length of her husband conquering her.
Carretta leaned closer, staring above Lilith’s head to the projection. Whispering, she ordered, “Show me his cock.” The scene changed to one of Lilith about to take him into her mouth, freezing like a snapshot. Carretta licked her lips. “He’s huge. I’ll bet he knows how to take a woman.”
“Yes,” Lilith answered, unable to control it.
Carretta’s hand brushed her thigh and she leaned into Lilith’s ear. “Show me. I want to watch him come.”
The scene played in all its realistic detail. Lilith tasted his flesh, felt the probe of his cock as it pushed past her teeth.
Carretta walked out of her eye line. “I’ll bet he tastes good.”
“Yes,” Lilith answered. “Unlike anything you’ve ever savored.”
“Will you let me taste him?” Carretta’s breathing had become ragged and harsh. “I don’t care if you watch. I just want that cock in my mouth.”
“You touch him and I’ll rip out your heart, you fucking cunt bitch,” Lilith threatened, though she was in no position to follow through with it.
“Well, at least I know you’re not lying,” Carretta chuckled. “I don’t blame you. I’d be possessive too.”
Sorin’s body tensed in the memory, becoming tight as he jerked his release into her mouth. She tasted his cum. Carretta moaned softly, making a strange noise.
After a moment, the woman asked, “Are all these Starians like that? When you said primitive, I didn’t think to look at them. I thought cavemen, or dirty barbaric…” A scene of the main hall, of the first time Lilith had walked into the crowd of lusty knights, formed.
“Yes, they are all well formed.”
“Tell me about them,” she ordered.
“They lack inhibitions and women,” Lilith began, before going into a detailed analysis of Starian culture. By the time she’d finished, Carretta was sitting in front of her with sparkling eyes.
“I must have one for my collection,” she said. “Tell me, do you want to go back there?”
“Yes, with all my heart.”
“Even though they don’t fall in love?”
The fact hurt, but she answered, “Yes. I love him.”
“Here’s where we stand, Miss Grian. Director Tomes will be arrested and tried for the theft of the sacred text. I’m supposed to bring you back to headquarters for reassignment,” Carretta scratched her manicured nails against her palm. “But clearly there’s some explaining to be done to the Starian government, and we’re going to need someone to mediate this mess he made. I didn’t know about Tomes’ trade agreement. Kidnapped women are bad business, but we can’t very well go back on a deal, can we? I swear, for a smart man, Tomes is an idiot. If he needed volunteers all he had to do was market the product. Plenty of women would sign on to be the wife of such virile specimens.”
Lilith couldn’t move or speak.
“Besides, that blue water you brought does show potential. The doctors thought the vial was our stolen artifact and they’re salivating to get their hands on it. There’s some trade to be done here.” Carretta glanced at the hall filled with warriors. “I also have a personal interest in assuring trades continue. Someone’s going to have to go to Staria as an ambassador and such trips do have their perks.” Her catlike smile gave full meaning to the perks she planned on partaking in. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll send you back with lover boy and instate you as our official liaison with the Starian people. You’ll integrate yourself into their customs, live there, become an expert in Starian politics and in return we’ll continue the trade—only this time with willing women. I’ll also expect there to be a plethora of willing men of a certain stamina to choose from when I arrive. I have appetites, but I’m not a monster. I like my participants enthusiastic.”
“Yes,” Lilith agreed. Sh
e highly doubted finding lonely men eager for a romp would be hard. “Deal.”
“Oh, but there’s one last thing. You are never, ever, not under pain of torture, allowed to tell the folks at headquarters about the nature of my visits. Who I plan to fuck or how many at one time is none of their business. You keep my secret and I’ll make sure your dimension is listed as an uninteresting trade plane and buried in a back file.”
“Deal,” Lilith repeated. Her heart began to race.
“Let’s get this off you.” Carretta tapped the box once. The thin blades retracted. “I believe there’s a crazed maniac on the loose screaming your name, and the good doctors are frantic that he needs medical attention. Apparently, he’s dripping blood all over their halls.” She picked up her clipboard, the motion turning it back on. “The man looks fine to me.”
As soon as the box released control, Lilith screamed, gripping her head.
Carretta flinched at the sound. “Yeah, sorry about the inconvenience, but we had to know the truth. Dimensional harmony is a delicate thing.”
* * * * *
Lilith!
Her scream echoed all around him and Sorin pressed on through the endless maze of halls. They didn’t go anywhere, just looped around. His drops of blood marked his fruitless path. He couldn’t find a door and, except for the occasionally annoying male voice announcing a “lock down”, he didn’t hear anything.
Until now.
Lilith’s screams propelled him on. He grabbed his thigh, pressing into a bite wound. Sweat beaded his brow at the effort it took to move. His strength depleted fast and he hadn’t even fought. But he couldn’t stop. Not now. Lilith needed him.
Lilith Enraptured (Divinity Warriors 1) Page 17