by Autumn Dawn
She glanced down at the gold ring. A diamond was set into the bottom of the circle. It winked wickedly at her. “Pretty.”
“Mm. I had fun picking it out.” He drew a tool from the box and placed the ring in the pinchers. “There will be a pinch.” He leaned down and lightly nipped her other nipple. “Like this.”
Her thighs twitched as a surge of moisture wet them. She liked it so much that he prepared to do it again as he positioned the tool over her left nipple. He grinned and nipped her as he pierced her skin. She moaned at the double simulation.
Azor drew back as he admired his work. His eyes hazed over as he stared at the ring. He wet his lips. “Let me get the paint,” he said thickly, fumbling a little as he traded the tool for a tiny stone jar of skin paint. Using his thumbs, he painted his name over her chest in swirling designs, up her neck, down her thighs. The jade cream left slick trails as he marked her as his in beautiful script. He even brushed it over her eyelids and lips, traced the rim of her ears with dark green.
He saved the smooth skin of her womanhood for last, smiling as he gave it the closest attention of all. “You anticipated this. Your women don’t normally remove their body hair.” He took a last scoop of cream and set the jar and box on the table next to the bed.
Feeling drugged, she smiled with her eyes closed. “Maybe. I don’t tell you everything I’m planning.” Her eyes flew open on a gasp as he guided his thumb deep into her damp heat. “Should you—”
“It’s harmless,” he assured her. He set his mouth to her, demonstrating what he meant. She jerked against his mouth. He growled and murmured against her, “You didn’t think I wouldn’t mark you here?” He sighed at her scent and set his mouth back to her, settling down for a lengthy stay.
Brandy grabbed the sheets. She grabbed his head. Finally, in desperation, she grabbed the pillow over her head and screamed into it. Jerking her legs might hurt, but holding still was torment, too.
Azor reluctantly took pity on her. “Years to play,” he muttered to himself as he climbed her body, kissing on his way. He paid special attention to her new ring. At last he settled over her. He smiled slightly and nudged between her thighs. They were welcoming and slick, but he kept them pinned down with his hands. “Once I’m inside, we’ll close your legs under me. No putting them around my waist, no spreading them wide, okay? I don’t want to hurt you.” His tone was solicitous, but the look in his eyes shown satisfaction as the explicit words aroused her.
She moaned in agreement. When he merely probed her lightly, teasing at her entrance, her eyes flashed open. She flashed her teeth at him in a hiss. “Get on with it!”
Azor smiled. And did.
CHAPTER 17
Brandy lay on her stomach, too drained to move. Her nipple smarted, probably because her lover couldn’t seem to resist toying with his ring. She thought about putting more medicine on it, then discarded the idea as too much effort. Besides, it matched the ache between her thighs.
Azor traced lazy circles on her backside, teased the skin on the back of her thighs. After a moment, his fingers wandered higher and dipped into the damp haven there.
She squirmed. “You just did that.”
“I want more.” He moved over her body and entered her in a thick slide, pinning her to the bed.
She didn’t mind a bit.
“You know, I’m finding these legs of yours sexy,” he murmured. “I’ve always liked the look of tall black boots.”
She grunted and tried to ignore him, a difficult thing to do in their current position. “Move faster.”
He stayed exactly as he was. He licked her spine, making her arch into the bed. Her nipple ring rubbed against the sheets, exciting her.
“If you’re adopting my culture,” he said as he reached beneath her to play, “You should know that we value marks of valor.”
“Azor,” she gasped. She wasn’t interested in his conversation, not if his fingers were doing that. “Not now!”
He chuckled, shaking inside her most deliciously. “I can’t help who I am. I like it. They turn me on.” He moved inside to demonstrate how very hard he was. He groaned. Muttering to himself, he said, “If I’d known how hot you’d make me, I would’ve seduced you years ago.”
She panted. She couldn’t imagine going in back in time, doing this with him. They’d had to take this road to end up here…. A surge of pleasure interrupted her train of thought. Quieting, her mind focused on the pulse of him moving in and out in a slow glide. The present consumed her.
Suddenly the door chimed. They froze, panting with delayed desire.
“Azor, it’s important,” Ryven’s voice came, calm, yet urgent.
Azor snarled silently. “Five minutes,” he finally called. He didn’t wait for an answer, just picked up his rhythm and finished her off, biting her neck as he came in a violent burst.
She lay there trembling, too weak to move as he slid off the bed and drew on his pants.
“This better be good,” he muttered as he yanked his shirt on. He gave her a fast kiss and tossed a blanket over her as he went to the door. He stepped outside.
She closed her eyes and groaned. She didn’t want to disturb the feeling of drugging bliss, but acknowledged the necessity. Reluctantly, she slid from the bed and cleaned up. Whatever the emergency was, it probably involved her, too. Trust her to have some kind of disaster strike on her wedding night.
Azor came in as she was clumsily sliding into her pants. He helped, though he looked a little distracted by all her bare skin. “If I already didn’t have to kill him, I’d kill him.”
“What?” she asked, distracted as she watched him fasten her pants.
He groaned at the sight of her bare chest and quickly drew a shirt over her head. “Our navigator has gone rogue. The found a dead body in a storage locker. He’d been gutted.”
Her eyes widened. “Dead? I thought you had a watch on the ship. You were thawing him to collect evidence, right?”
“He came awake much faster than expected, and in a nasty mood. The assassin’s good,” he said grimly. “Now we hunt him.”
She drew a breath and retrieved her fighting sticks. Her balance might be rather clumsy, but she could still do some damage with a pair of clubs. “How do we know he’s an assassin?”
“Circumstance,” he admitted. “We got word some time ago of a threat against you. We’ve been keeping watch on Kikin since we got here, since he is the only one who Vio would have been able to bribe.”
She blinked. “Vio! Vio Srie? Why would he want to harm me?”
“Xera can fill you in,” he assured her as they hurried through the hall and into Xera’s suite. There were six guards outside her door. Brandy spared them a passing glance as they went inside. Her impression was of charcoal uniforms, red eyes and lots of guns.
“Brandy!” Xera said as she came in the door. “The kids are in the next room with their nanny and a guard. Come with me. We should stay together.”
“What are we dealing with?” Brandy looked at Azor, ignoring her sister for now. “No knows more about shifters than you do.”
He shook his head. “He’s not my kind. I’m laying odds it’s Hatir; there aren’t many other likely candidates. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a DNA analysis. They don’t work on an assumed form.”
“And we’ll know he’s assumed the form of a Scorpio…how?” she asked. “If DNA doesn’t work, do you have some other form of identification?” She could easily imagine the havoc an assumed face could cause.
There was a beat of silence. “Questions work. There are things the Hatir couldn’t know,” Ryven said grimly. “Meanwhile, none of these guards will leave their posts until we’ve caught the creature. I can vouch for all of their identities.”
“Why now? If he really has been traveling with us this whole time….” She glanced at Azor.
It was Ryven who answered. “There was no reason for the assassin to wait until you reached here to kill you. He had the opportunity before,
and was far more likely to escape retribution. The most likely explanation is that someone—this Vio Srie—has a vendetta against your family. He hired assassins to kill both you and your sister.” He glanced at Xera. His eyes were cold. “He was told to kill Xera first, to make you watch and suffer. Perhaps the children, if he could get to them.”
A chill made Brandy stiffen in her chair. Protective fury for her family made her voice wintry, too. “Kill him.” She raised her eyes to Ryven, then Azor. “You do what you have to. Make him stop.” The last word was low, vibrating with rage. No one threatened her family.
Ryven actually smiled at her. “My pleasure.”
Azor kissed her quickly. “Trust your instincts. You can apologize later for hitting someone.”
She grinned at him. “I’ll remind you that you gave me permission.”
He smiled, then stood back and glanced at Xera. “If you’re offended by nakedness, turn around. I need to change.”
Xera frowned as he took off his shirt, and then blinked in sudden comprehension. She looked to the side, away from anything incriminating, but did not leave. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to see you change forms. I’ve never had the opportunity.”
He shrugged. “All in the family.” He glanced at Ryven. “I’m going to track him by smell and mind trace. I’ll be able to talk—barely. Listen close. It takes energy to shift.” As he finished speaking, his form began to blur. The change took less than a minute and didn’t seem to pain him, but there were sounds. Bones popped, joints creaked. There was a soft shushing sound as muscles contracted and adapted to his new bone structure. He hands became huge clawed paws as he dropped down into the form of a predator. Covered in short gray hair, his hind legs were improbably short, the haunches powerful, built for leaping and springing. His forequarters were muscled, outsized on his lean, bony body. His ribs were defined, as if he were a half-starved, mad dog. The face was lupine, with massive jaws and small ears. His eyes glinted green.
“Impressive,” Ryven said. He carefully admired the form. “Useful.”
Brandy, who had an idea just how talented he was to be able to assume that form, smiled. Even knowing him, she couldn’t prevent a tiny thrill of fear. He was terrifyingly ugly. “As long as you change back by bedtime. I’d wake up at night and think I was about to be eaten.”
Azor uttered a coughing growl that might have been a laugh. “Go,” he said to Ryven, and headed toward the door.
There was a minor commotion as they exited. Ryven had to place his hand on Azor’s head to assure his men that the beast was working with them. It was a testament to their training that they were quickly calmed. The beast was not a reassuring sight.
Xera sighed once they had gone. “You chose an interesting man, sis.” She glanced at Brandy’s face and grimaced. “Tell me that stuff washes off. You look like you’re covered in war paint.” She headed for the room with her children.
“It wears off…eventually,” Brandy said, unperturbed. “It gives the community time to greet me as Azor’s bride.”
“Believe me, the community already knows,” Xera muttered. “They’ve heard as far as Rsik and Polaris. I think Ryven’s relieved that his brother got hitched before he could ever meet you. A connection by his brother and his wife might have been too much for him.”
“I doubt he needed to worry. Not all of us are attracted to ice pops,” she said under her breath, and she dropped the subject as the kids came into view. Embri was too young to understand, but Ami didn’t need to know that Brandy begrudged her father.
She switched languages and said, “Fill me in on the details, would you? I still don’t understand why Vio would want to assassinate me.” She listened as Xera obliged, astonished to hear of Dr. Vhanee’s death. His illegal drug experiments floored her. “He arranged to dose me? What….” When words failed, she shook her head. “All these hallucinations I’ve been having are his fault?”
Xera looked at her sharply. “What hallucinations?”
Brandy abruptly shut her mouth. She colored, embarrassed. “It’s nothing. They’re just distracting, that’s all.”
Xera sat on the edge of the bed and stared at her with determination. “Tell me. If that monster did something to you, we need to see what we can do to reverse it. I can’t believe you haven’t even told Azor! Didn’t he notice?”
Brandy shifted in her chair. “It’s not as if he could see what goes on in my head. I didn’t want him to think I was nuts.” When Xera just looked at her, she reluctantly added, “They were mostly visions of your husband, anyway.” A strange look crossed Xera’s face, and Brandy added sheepishly, “He was trying to kill you.”
Xera frowned. “Is this why you dislike him so much?”
“Well, no. I think I would have hated him regardless.” She offered a weak smile at Xera’s disapproval. “You can’t make me like him, you know.”
Xera huffed. “I’ll set him to it, then. Stubborn brat.”
Brandy smiled and turned to Ami, who was watching them solemnly. She didn’t like the worry she saw there, so she moved from her chair to the bed and patted the place beside her. “Come, Ami. Story time! Pick out a favorite and sit with me. I’ll practice reading in your language. You can help me when I say the words wrong.”
Ami looked relieved at the distraction and quickly got a reader. So Brandy settled in to entertain the children, all the while wondering what the men might be doing.
It didn’t take Azor long to adapt to his new form. He’d often tracked as a jaqki, had more than once used the form to track shape shifters. The creature’s unique senses were superb at tracking his kind, and its quick intelligence had made it a fearsome predator on his native planet. Now extinct in the wild, a handful had been preserved by the Kiuyians to serve as models for those few shape shifters with the talent to assume the form.
“Hatir,” he growled as he caught the scent, looking at Ryven to see if he comprehended. At his nod, Azor lowered his head. He wasn’t surprised to scent the Hatir so close to their quarters. He would have scouted the area before he struck.
The trouble with tracking a shifter was their ability to travel unusual pathways. They could slither through vents and ooze under doorways. Hatir also had the ability to shift more often than a Kiuyian, and to maintain their chosen shape indefinitely. Though Azure couldn’t follow him in his present form, he could trace the unique signature of the Hatir’s mind. As distinct as scent, he could follow it with his thoughts, detecting the looping trails the Hatir made through the ship.
It took him a good twenty minutes, but soon he could feel the Hatir’s signature growing stronger, white-hot in his mind. It was a struggle to contain the instincts of the jaqki. The predator in him felt hunger.
He looked up at Ryven and growled softly.
Ryven stared back at him, his eyes canny. “He is close?”
Reminded of his goal, Azure returned to the scent of his true prey.
Distracted by hunger, it was a while before Azor realized where he was and where the Hatir’s scent was going. The shape shifter had made a neat loop and was headed back toward their quarters. His eyes widened as a thought occurred to him and he glanced at Ryven. In spite of all their precautions, there was one form the assassin could take. “Warn them,” he said hoarsely through thickened vocal cords. “The assassin is you.”
Ryven’s eyes flared, and he was speaking on the com net even as he broke into a sprint. The man was fast, but not four legged. Azor didn’t dare leave his side for fear he’d be shot at first sight. Together they were recognizable, apart….
But they were too late. He could hear the chaos erupt as he closed in on the hall leading to their rooms. The assassin had already gotten through.
Brandy looked up as Ryven came in. For a moment she thought she was having a vision. It was those eyes—flat cold, blood hungry. Only this time she understood what she was seeing. Their guard did not know, and her hesitation cost him his life. He died with a greeting on his lips and a knife
through his throat.
When the assassin turned to them, Brandy was ready. She met the downward thrust of his bloody knife with her crossed batons, saving Xera’s life. “Assassin!” she yelled, spurring Xera to action. “The kids!”
Xera leapt in front of her kids and their terrified nurse. She hoped Xera would have the sense to lead them out the door if she could edge the assassin away from it. She could hear pounding on the door, then ominous quiet. She hoped they were going to blow it open. They didn’t have time for delays.
The assassin was fast. Her legs wobbled under her, barely able to withstand the strain as she ducked and parried. She had seconds, and there was nothing she could do. At best she could buy them time to save the children. She couldn’t see what the others were doing, completely focused on blocking one more cut, one more slash of death.
And then it was over. His knife connected, a sharp, piecing pain though her left breast. A little high for instant death, but close enough. She was finished.
She collapsed, one baton caught under her bleeding torso. She heard Xera’s cry of rage, saw her raise a gun…
It got dark. She was aware of an odd warmth where the pain had been, a surge of energy that flowed into the fire that was her heart. Quick as thought, the healing surge sealed the cuts, washed away the blood. Breath returned, and rational thought. Her mind felt crisp and clear as she slowly got to her feet. The energy spread, washed through her legs, steadied what was unstable, mended what was torn.
She picked up her batons. Xera was fighting one-handed, her right hand dangling uselessly by her side. She was one blow away from disaster.
Grinning with savage fury, Brandy drove her baton into the back of the killer’s knees, driving him to the ground. He roared in surprise, then rolled and tried to kick her feet out from under her. Xera kicked at his head, and he grabbed her foot and tossed her across the room. She crashed against a small shelf, sending a computer sprawling.