Last Call (Stranded in the Stars Book 1)

by Naomi Lucas

  She’s going to lose her naive innocence to me. She’s going to lose her innocence to a Cyborg. The thought was erotic and wrong in his head as he dug his finger into her pussy. Hard enough to make her shiver but soft enough not to tear the flimsy, damp fabric of her clothing.

  “Trust me?” He ground out.

  “Y– yes.”

  “Good girl.” He slipped her covering to the side and slid his finger into her.

  Her hips flew upward and she shrieked. “Jack!” He laid his other arm across her stomach and pushed her back into the ground. Their eyes caught. He smirked at her uncertain expression as he began to thrum her secret spot.

  “Let go, Allie.” He pushed a second finger as he kept eye contact with her lust-clouded pupils.

  “I can’t.” She gasped.

  “You can.”

  Her legs bent up and widened around him as she struggled against his fingers. He noticed her nails scratching at the rock on either side as her body tried to retain the tension he was coaxing out.

  “I can’t, Jack.” Her gasp turned into a cry.

  “Trust me to pick up the pieces”

  The tremors from the mating beasts behind them became tremors of her own at his words. Her body followed his order and convulsed into his hand. Jack lifted his arm off her stomach as she undulated.

  “Good girl.” He whispered again as he held her and she writhed into him. “It’s not smart to tease me.”

  It was some time before the tension passed. He settled himself next to her and pulled her into his chest. He never once let her go as he ran his fingers back through her disheveled hair and put her back together.

  Chapter Eight:

  ---

  Jack held her for the rest of the night. Listening to her breathing, lulling him into a state of calm awareness as the night lightened into dawn. The wurms had ceased their interactions several hours prior.

  He was a tornado, a myriad of emotions, none of them easy to weather– or fun to deal with. His life had been straightforward a week ago, several days ago. His life had revolved around the missions he took up and the reputation he wanted to maintain. He was the best bounty hunter in this galaxy and many galaxies over and it had always been stiff competition to be so.

  Just two days ago, his thoughts were consumed with the capture of Pirate Captain Larik, of turning him in but also of his revenge; which now seemed petty. The pirate was wanted for crimes against humanity, against Earthians, and most of all against women. At least that was what the council argued.

  Jack knew that Larik only transported willing women, women who wanted a different life, women who specifically sought him out. It made him wonder about the man who had piloted the crashed transporter that Allie had been on many years ago.

  What was his reasons for helping the fleeing females from their fate? He knew he would never know. But boy did he love to speculate.

  The sun was beginning to crest but he was still lost in thought. Thoughts were like light and shadow, sunrise and sunset, always there, always eternal but fleeting. Yet his thoughts had yet to desist.

  He was a Cyborg. A bounty hunter. A hardened warrior created for a war that was not his own. Could he also be more? His logic felt uncomfortably silent with the question.

  The one thing he did know for certain was that he wanted to be off this planet. Whether it was with Allie or not, he was still unsure. He knew he couldn’t leave her here, not anymore. Not even if she begged.

  That fate would have been cruel especially when the universe held so much more. He was convinced that his strange need for her would come to an end, as all things did. That the insanity that had set in his mind would dissipate.

  Once he felt in control again and this situation became part of his past.

  Jack would get the parts he needed for his ship and he would keep his end of the bargain. He would also collect his bounty for Larik’s capture and then he would move on. He thought all of this as he looked down at the sleeping girl in his arms; giving her a small squeeze.

  He would take care of her as well.

  “Allie, wake up.” He gently squeezed her again as the sun detached itself from the horizon. She shifted in his arms at the prompt.

  He watched as her mind and body slowly awoke before his eyes. The rays of sun hitting her skin, making her glow like an ethereal jewel. He could sense her heart rate gradually increase as her awareness returned.

  Jack shifted upward as she pulled herself away from his chest and into a sitting position. Her fingers grasped the cloak over her breasts.

  “Good morning, Allie.”

  She looked at him with wide eyes. He watched as she replayed what had transpired between them last night.

  “Jack.” She said warily, sitting further back, creating more distance between them.

  “I meant what I said last night.” He stared at her, waiting on her next move. She seemed to either be at a loss for words or thinking about her response.

  After several more moments passed she said, “I meant it too.” The tension growing thick again with her response; his smile growing wider. Not only was his wild girl proud but she was also bold.

  He casually got up, feeling great all of the sudden. He reached down to pick up her top that he pulled off her last night and reluctantly handed it over.

  “I would prefer that you remain topless but since I’m such a gentleman, I’ll let you decide.” Jack watched, bemused as she snatched her top away and proceeded to tie it on under her cloak.

  She got up and rubbed the dirt off her skin. Realizing that she didn’t have any supplies with her but her food, he pulled out a nano-cybotic cleaning cloth from his pack and handed it to her. “Wipe this over your skin. It will clean you up better than soap and water. It just won't feel as good.”

  “Thank you.” She blushed, taking it from him. He turned to give her some privacy as she bent down to clean herself up. He strapped his weapons on instead and secured the pack to his back– ready to start the day.

  When she was done he took the cloth back while she shyly grabbed his hand and led him away.

  Jack looked down at their joined hands. The connection was innocent but it burned a path as fast and as hot as wildfire to his robotic heart. He pushed the odd feeling away and disengaged himself.

  They were back on their way towards the shipwreck just as dawn transformed to day.

  The morning passed by in a companionable silence. The tension that lingered between them from the previous day gone for now. The sun had ascended above, raising the temperature to an uncomfortable itch. It wasn’t long before Allie shook the cloak off. He took it from her without a word and bundled it into his pack.

  The crags slowly turned into the base of the mountain, the jagged rocks now more of a dip into large rocky valleys. The trek became more of an upward crawl, climbing out of pits.

  At several points, he had to take out his rope and help her over the worst of the ledges. He didn’t need help himself, scaling the escarpment without a thought but always wary of his companion’s fragility.

  She had no armor, no protection but he could tell that she was used to the inhospitable environment. She never flinched when landing hard on her feet or gaining another unintended scratch. It was over the course of the morning that he noticed that she sported tiny, faded scars over her delicate skin, not unlike his own.

  She’s not afraid of pain. It was probably a common occurrence in her life.

  Good thing he had everything he would need to heal her wounds.

  They remained along the base of the mountain, following it as a guide. Jack knew that they were closing in on their destination; the dead structure becoming a prominent fixture in his mind as he surveyed their location. It was larger than he had originally thought but his most recent readings had been consistently muddied. It seemed that the closer they got to it the harder it was for him to focus on it.

  He didn’t like it but he could attribute
it to an unknown technology or mechanical structure– maybe radiation. Whatever it was he logged his readings away on his personal hard drive to upload it later to the central hub for research. Other Cyborgs may know why he was having such difficulties with it.

  At the pace he and Allie had been traveling, they wouldn’t arrive at their destination until after dark. He could have been there already and gone if it was just himself but that would have put a kink into his other, more personal mission. He turned his eyes to look at her.

  She wasn’t much of a talker but still… she hadn’t spoken in hours– and she must be getting hungry. Just as he was going to suggest taking a break, she reached into her threadbare pouch at her waist and pulled out roots to chew on, eating them while she walked.

  He waited and willed her to suggest taking a break but she just kept walking.

  Jack let her take the lead as he stewed. She barely speaks and isn’t making any inclination to stop and rest. How was he going to gain her trust if he couldn’t even talk to her? Being friendly and conversational were qualities that he did not have.

  If she could just pretend– for five minutes– that she needed him desperately, to save her from this place, to supply her protection, or even just wanted to talk to him, he could progress his side mission. But no, she kept walking forward in grim silence as if every step led her to an unwanted, inevitable end.

  Her thoughts were elsewhere and he didn’t like it.

  ***

  The day had started off nice. Allie woke up warm and relaxed in Jack’s arms. She still couldn’t believe what had transpired between them the night before and she only hoped that they would have the chance to touch each other like that again.

  But the morning had faded and so had her good mood. The once comfortable silence now felt like a void, making her ears want to pop under the pressure.

  She knew why she felt this way– she always did the closer she got to her past. But she had hoped that having a warrior, like the Cyborg next to her, would embolden her resolve enough to face what was ahead with courage. It’s not working.

  Every step felt like she was descending further into her own personal Hell. Glancing at the man next to her she could tell that his mood wasn’t holding up either.

  It was always like this. She could tell him but she was smart enough to know that he would find her warnings ridiculous, unbelievable. Anyone, anywhere would who had never seen the darkness like she had and not just any darkness, like the natural absence of light but a deeper, terrible darkness not of this world.

  That darkness was a part of her now and she tried hard to keep it buried deep– hiding it from herself and from the world. It fed off her guilt and her shame… and sometimes when the tremors stopped at night, when her fears became thick, it would seep into her cave, her thoughts, and tugged at her soul.

  She had seen the darkness blanket out the light around her until she was trapped in an endless abyss. The heavy press of it crushing. At the worst moments, she could hear distant screams, quiet cries sneaking up behind her.

  But it never lasted. It would vanish as quickly as it had appeared. Allie wasn’t sure it was just her sanity becoming unhinged or a waking nightmare.

  Allie hadn’t been back to the ship in what seemed like years. At first, after her arrival here she had stayed near it, hoping for rescue but as the days turned into weeks, the ship had begun to morph before her eyes.

  The smell of burnt flesh and cooked metal never fading away.

  During her time near the ship she had tried to bury as many bodies as possible but her strength gave out knowing there were parts of the ship she couldn’t access. Those bodies had been left to rot, to become bones, until even those bones disintegrated into dust.

  Unable to find her friend’s body amongst the dead still haunted her to this day. It was because of her that made Allie ultimately stop coming back to the ship.

  She had once crawled through the remains for supplies, for familiarity, and for the desperate hope of rescue. She had also stayed near it because she didn’t know how to survive and the monsters that came out at night frightened her.

  But during her last visit to the ship she had been looking for supplies that she may have missed from previous scavenging sessions and that she may have overlooked.

  She had been deep within the confines of the wreckage when she had heard a faint scratching noise behind her. When she had turned to look at what may have caused it, there was nothing there and the scratching had stopped.

  At the time she had thought little of it– attributing it to critters or even the ship itself. But as she continued searching the rubble, the light, long scratches followed her. The longer she stayed in one area, the louder and closer it got.

  Allie shivered from the memory.

  She had stopped looking for materials at that point to in turn to listen to the scratches, trying to make sense of them. Testing them, they followed her from room to room.

  The moment when her curiosity turned to terror with the realization that the noises were not from this world– that they were following her deliberately nearly broke her mind. As a breathless wail rose up behind her.

  Her friend’s face appeared before her, moving from the shadows as if it was drenched in sludge. She had been screaming and crying. Her long black hair losing itself in the ominous haze behind her, looming over her shoulders.

  Allie ran.

  She ran and hadn’t stopped for days. She didn’t stop until she stumbled past the crags and into the desert where she found her cave; staying there ever since.

  Now she was going back and Allie couldn’t decide if it was her need for companionship, her need to face her nightmares and make sense of them, or the thought of leaving Jack to face the ruins of the ship alone that had brought her on this path. Maybe it was all three.

  Still, every step closer scared her. She glanced at Jack behind her and she knew she wouldn’t let him go alone.

  At that moment he lifted his eyes and looked back at her. The day was half over now and if they kept walking they would reach their destination sometime after nightfall.

  Allie couldn’t face that place in the dark especially when it would be at its most powerful.

  They looked at each other silently for a moment and she could tell he was assessing her. She had only been in his presence for several days but she was already used to the assessments. When his Cyborg self came out and his human side receded into the background.

  She still felt uneasy but now oddly reassured that he was there with her and that neither of them would have to face the darkness alone.

  Still watching his eyes, it looked as if he was about to speak but stopped when she walked over to him and burrowed into his chest. She liked that he smelled of sweat and of heated metal but also the very human scent of soap. She couldn’t name the scent, she only knew that she liked it.

  ***

  Jack hadn’t been expecting Allie’s sudden change in mood. He instinctively put his arms around her, unsure of what else he could do. She was rigid in his arms.

  As the day had gone on, he knew that something was up with her. Her demeanor had noticeably withered the closer they got to the wreckage. She must be afraid of the memories that it was dredging up. That was natural after all– going through something traumatic and having to be reminded of it in such a harsh way would be difficult for even the bravest of men.

  He tightened his hold on her, lifting her up slightly from the ground. “Allie, lift your legs up and hook them around my waist.” He was going to carry her for now, she needed comfort and he was willing to oblige. She wrapped her legs around him with little hesitation.

  With her in his arms, he set about looking for a place for them to camp for the night. It was still early in the evening but they had walked all day without stop and had made good time.

  It wasn’t long before he found a small alcove, that resembled a shallow cave. The entrance was partially obscured by a
large rock, leaving them with protection from every side but the opening. There was enough space inside to accommodate their sleeping forms, a fire, and still have room to spare. He was pleased.

  The girl hadn’t lifted her head from the crook of his neck the entire time he scouted, trusting him to take care of her– or maybe she was so out of sorts that she didn’t care.

  Jack liked her there and he didn’t want to disturb her; she was as much a comfort to him as he was to her at the moment. He gingerly shouldered off his pack to drop on the ground of their camp while holding her up with one arm. Once it was off, he sat with her against the wall, her legs straddling him. He synchronized his breathing to match hers.

  They stayed like that for a short time. He took the much needed break to run his fingers through her long hair, enjoying the feel of the silky strands, like water gliding over his skin.

  She smelled like fear now, adding to her already enticing scent of woman, sweat, and sex. She perfumed the air around them and he couldn’t get enough of it. He grabbed a handful of her hair and buried his face into it.

  It was then that she looked up at him. “Jack. I’m afraid.” She said, letting out a long breath.

  “I know. You have been most of the day.”

  “Will you stay with me tomorrow?” She asked.

  “I won't leave your side but... I need to retrieve the parts. It means you’ll have to enter the place. Unless you would like to stay here, I’ll go ahead alone.” He suggested, nuzzling her hair.

  She shook her head, leaning back into him. “I know. I knew from the beginning I would have to go back there and enter. With you, I won't be alone, and neither will you.”

  “Gonna protect me from the ghosts?” He asked, trying to keep the amusement from his voice.

  “You don’t believe they exist. Hopefully you’re right and I’m just crazy.” She sighed.

  “I’ll give you this, there is something strange with the wreckage. I have been monitoring it throughout the day and I have yet to get an accurate reading on it. I can’t even tell the mechanical makeup of the vessel.” He continued, “you may not understand but that is very odd and rather unsettling for me. I can connect to machines, cybernetic engines, robotic networks and I cannot connect to this one, whatever it is.”