by T. S. Ryder
Lisa hesitated, contemplating her own senses and body for a moment. Was it possible that what he was saying was right? "Maybe a little," she admitted. "But it's not like I'm so drunk on you that I can't think about it. I want you. And you need this. I know what I'm getting myself into, so no harm, right? Besides, I'm a scientist. I need to learn how similar our biology is. Unless you don't want me."
"That is not an issue, I assure you."
"But if you're in musth—"
He barked out a laugh. "I wasn't in musth when I first saw you. The pictures of you that the auction house spread… I came to that auction for you. I wanted you from the first moment I saw your image. It has nothing to do with musth."
His words turned her insides to jelly. "Then you want me and I want you. What's the problem?"
Zon groaned, and she could see she was winning him over. "I don't want to hurt you."
"You won't."
"Get back to the hotel," he rumbled, his eyes dark with lust. "Be ready for me."
She had completely forgotten that she was in the bar bathroom. The holographic image of Zon disappeared and Lisa raced out of the bar, leaving the drink she had been nursing behind. Her heart pounded in excitement as she ran back to the hotel.
Zon couldn't have been very far away, because by the time she had run her fingers through her hair and stripped off the armor plating covering her body, he was there. The full force of his pheromones hit her and Lisa was on him before she could think, dragging her fingers through his hair, thrusting her tongue into his mouth the way she wanted him to thrust into her.
"You smell so good," he moaned, responding to her fervor by gripping her thighs, spreading them over his hips.
Lisa flushed. "I haven't figured out how to use the shower."
"I'll show you how to use it–after."
His mouth caught hers again as he walked towards the bed. His grip was so tight on her legs she knew it would bruise, but that only made it more exciting. She'd experimented with BDSM a little in the past, but her boyfriend hadn't been up to it. Maybe it was time for those fantasies to re-emerge.
Zon tossed her onto the bed, caging her with his body as he followed her down. His skin was burning, as hot as flame, and that heat built inside of Lisa's stomach as he moved down her body, focusing on one breast than the other, making her nipples harden and her core tighten. He tested her with a finger and growled.
"So ready."
His skirt was tenting and Lisa found herself growling as well. "So are you."
"Musth," he panted, sliding a finger in and out of her while he worked her sweet spot. Lisa clutched the bedding beneath her, arching her back to him. "No foreplay necessary when you've got hormones pounding through your blood."
"Pounding," Lisa moaned, unable to think straight as her body writhed just from his touch. "Oh, god…"
A moan answered her. Neither of them could take it another moment and he entered with a single thrust, beginning a deep, fast rhythm at once. His thick, strong body rocked over her, his elbows resting on either side of her head. Lisa couldn't think as her body jerked in time with his thrusts, and she grasped his arms to anchor herself. Every time he drove into her stung a little, but she didn't care about the pain as the tightness built until she was so full and ready that it was agonizing to sit at the edge.
"Zon!" she screamed, half-begging, her fingernails clawing at his back. She clamped her teeth down on his shoulder, her jaw clenching, as he took her over the edge.
She didn't know if it lasted hours or days, but when Zon stopped moving, she couldn't breathe. He collapsed over her, only just not crushing her with his bulk. They gasped together, both clinging to the other, neither moving.
Eventually, Zon raised himself onto his elbows again. His eyes were wide and worried as he stroked her hair back from her face. "Did I hurt you?"
Lisa moaned, not knowing how to answer. Yes, there had been some pain, but that had made it all the better. "You were amazing," she whispered. Her throat was hoarse, probably from her screaming. "That was amazing."
Relief washed over Zon's face and he pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. "Was it?"
She nodded, her eyes drifting shut. Every muscle in her body was beginning to ache with weariness. She smiled. "So amazing. I've never had it that good before."
"Me neither," Zon admitted, his voice growing husky. He nibbled at her collarbone. She didn't think it was possible, but the heat began to build again at once. "Do you need a rest?"
"No," she blurted, although her body was trying to tell her yes. "I don't need to rest."
Zon grinned at her and began rocking his hips again. Lisa stared into his eyes, grinning. Who knew that an alien species would be so compatible with human biology?
Chapter Five
Lisa flinched as she dabbed a milk-colored cream onto Zon's back. It fizzled over the deep scratches there, bubbling like hydrogen peroxide before smoothing out into a sheet of flexible material that was almost the same shade as his skin. It was a fascinating compound called fleshseal, made from synthesized stem cells that adapted themselves to whatever wound it was put against to help heal. Lisa had already put a little capsule of it in the satchel she had bought, with the rest of the samples she was taking back to Earth with her.
"And you were worried about hurting me," she muttered, shaking her head. "Why didn't you tell me I was hurting you?"
"You weren't," Zon chuckled. "Not any more than those bruises on your hips hurt you."
Lisa glanced down to where two perfect impressions of Zon's hands were visible. A quick pass with a laser had turned the dark purple to a mottled green, and the bruises would be gone in a few hours. She had to admit that she hadn't realized that he was holding her that tightly the previous night, any more than she had realized she was scratching deep welts onto his back. Not that she minded.
It had been some night.
"So is your musth over, then?" she asked, trying to sound casual.
"More or less," Zon said. "But I hope that doesn't mean that we won't have more nights like that in the future."
Blood rushed to places Lisa would rather not think about at the moment. She throbbed, both with the aftereffects of the previous night and this new rush of desire. She continued to dab the fleshseal onto his back.
"Yeah. That would be fun." It was only sex, after all. Lisa cleared her throat. "So…"
"So?" Zon pressed.
Lisa hesitated. She wanted to ask him whether he would take her home, but now seemed like the wrong time for it. She didn't want him to think the only reason she had slept with him was to make him more open to taking her back to Earth. But she had to go home. Her brother would be worried sick!
Before she could make up her mind one way or another, an explosion rocked the hotel. She was thrown back onto the bed as the door burst open. There was the zing of a weapon. A flash of light. Zon crumpled.
"Zon!" Lisa reached for him as his eyes rolled wildly, but hands grabbed her and yanked her back.
Lisa kicked back at whatever was holding her, screaming. Something was clamped around her neck. Electric jolts went through her with every movement she made; she kept fighting until her eyes streamed with pain and her head was pounding so hard she couldn't see. She felt a pointed shoulder dig into her stomach and she hung limply. She had the sensation of being carried, and then a smooth lifting, like she was in an elevator.
"Did you make sure the T'Shav was dead?" a voice asked.
"I shot him in the chest. No way he can survive that."
Lisa whimpered, earning herself another blinding shock.
"Idiot. T'Shav's can survive almost anything besides getting their heads blown off." A pause. "Level the outpost. The last thing I want is a warlord like Zon to come after us."
Warlord?
There were the sounds of distant explosions as Lisa was dropped to the floor. She blinked, trying to clear the bleariness from her eyes. Figures loomed in front of her.
The outpost was being
leveled. The bartender, the strange aliens who would patiently answer all her questions… Zon. Lisa whimpered again. They were all being killed. Why? What did these aliens want? Why had they taken her?
She pushed herself up, trying to draw the strength to demand answers. A blinding pulse shot through her spine. She slumped as blackness closed in around her.
***
Lisa's head pounded when she woke. At first, she couldn't remember why she felt like she had been hit by a truck. Then it all came rushing back to her and she jerked upright, gasping. A soft white dress covered her, but other than the thin cot she lay on, the stainless steel room she was in was utterly empty.
She got to her feet shakily, feeling her neck. The collar was no longer there. Panic threatened to overwhelm her–what was she going to do without Zon? He had said there were plenty of people out there who would be worse owners than him, and she believed him. Were those the kind of people who had taken her? It couldn't be coincidence, they had specifically targeted her to take. Word of her had spread. Zon had been afraid someone would try to steal her. Was it because she was from an undiscovered species? Did they want her to take them back to Earth to strip it of its resources?
A door slid open and a man stepped into the room. He held a bowl, and the smell of freshly cooked meat made Lisa's stomach rumble. Still, she drew away from him, eyeing the man warily. They had leveled an entire outpost to kill Zon.
Zon.
Lisa's hands clenched. "You are going to take me back to where you got me right now."
The man's brow arched. Other than the thick, protruding brow and extra arm sticking out of his back, he looked human. "You are in no position to make demands. You should eat. You'll need your strength."
"For what? What do you plan to do with me? Why did you take me?"
"Why did I take you?" A smile twisted his lips. "You really don't understand how valuable you are, do you? The only reason Zon got you for as cheaply as he did was because everybody was too afraid of him to challenge him. Didn't you wonder why you were attacked in the forest?"
"You sent them?" Lisa's eyes widened. "After me?"
The man shrugged. "Not me, but people in my line of work."
"We thought that they attacked because of Zon," Lisa mumbled, drawing back as the man came forward. "But me? Why? What… Are you going to put me in some rare zoological collection? Do you want to return to my home planet to strip our resources?"
"Mining asteroids is easier than dealing with an inhabited planet." The man shook his head. "No. We're not after your planet or your people, or to put you in a zoo. It's you. Do you have any idea how rare universal DNA is?"
Lisa remembered the auctioneer saying something about her universal DNA. "What is that? It doesn't make any sense, every species has its own DNA—"
"With shared traits. Universal DNA is when an individual, such as yourself, shares all of its base pairs with other species." The man paused. "For instance, you share 100% of your DNA with my species, with most species, in fact. All of your base pairs are present in my DNA, but not all of my base pairs of present in your DNA. Universal. You… you are more than a rarity. You are an impossibility. It's almost as if… almost as if you were human."
The bottom of Lisa's stomach dropped out. Almost as if she was human? What was that supposed to mean? What he was saying… it was impossible. Genetics simply didn't work that way. His species couldn't have extra DNA that she didn't have, it had to be different. How could they share any DNA in the first place? He was from another planet!
Lisa swallowed dryly. "And what do you want with my universal DNA?"
"It can be used for many things. Cures for genetic diseases, reversing infertility. Proving religious dogma. But all I'm going to do is sell you. You are going to make me a very rich man." He set the bowl down on the ground and smiled. "Try to eat."
He left without another word. Lisa pressed herself against the far wall, shivering. Her brain skittered around, finally settling on one thought. Zon was dead. She had nothing left out here to stay for. And so she was going to return to Earth or die trying.
Chapter Six
The next time the alien came to give her food (vegetables this time), Lisa was able to learn that they were still orbiting Senett. Since she was an exotic species, they had to find the right security personnel to bribe into letting them go without putting her in quarantine, which could end in her death. Knowing that they were still near the planet gave her hope. Even though every time she fell asleep she woke sobbing, either because she dreamt of being home or with Zon, she knew that if she could only find a way off this ship, then perhaps she could make her way back to Earth.
She was sitting on the floor, sharpening the edge of a spoon into a shiv so she could at least have a weapon, when she heard the screams.
Her head jerked up, her heart stilling. The low zings and loud explosions of weapons echoed around her small room. Screams of pain and shouts for backup rang over the din and Lisa jumped to her feet. Was it another group coming to steal her? She gripped her spoon-shiv tightly. Whoever it was, if they made it to her room, she would be ready for them.
Stab and run, she told herself, her grip tightening. Stab and run.
The door opened. Lisa's shiv clattered to the floor. Her eyes widened, her heart stopped. Disbelief flowed through her, and the next second she ran forward, crying out with joy. Zon stumbled as he caught her. He leaned against his sword, clearly worse for wear.
"How did you—"
"No time," he grunted, wrapping an arm around her. He pushed his sword into her hands; it was heavier than she expected, and she could hardly keep a grip on it. Zon slapped his thigh–his robotic thigh–and cursed. A panel shot from it, revealing a glowing screen that showed a red dot on an orb. Before Lisa could take a closer look at it, Zon had pressed a few buttons and the sound of a tornado filled her ears.
She felt like she was going to die. Her body was being ripped apart, turned inside out. All her memories flashed before her eyes. She screamed.
"Quiet!" Zon slapped a hand over her mouth.
Lisa blinked. The agony was gone, just the ghost of memory. They were laying on the ground, staring up at leaves in shades of red and orange.
"Teleportation," she mumbled. "Wow… I always ascribed to the belief that it would be theoretically possible, but that it would scramble the body too much to ever work in practice."
Zon grunted as he got to his feet. His leg was blackened and there appeared to be chunks missing, revealing shiny machinery inside. "Teleportation takes a serious toll on the body, yes. But it was the only way we were getting off that ship."
Lisa scrambled to her feet. Blisters were rising over his shoulders and down his side. His hair was shorter, with that distinctive ragged, rough texture that came from being singed. A large, black circle was burnt into his skin directly over his heart, scorching away the tattoos that had been there. Her fingers trembling, Lisa touched it.
"How did you survive?"
"I'm trained to take a blast or two and keep going."
"But they leveled the outpost."
Zon nodded, anger flashing over his face. His normally devil-red skin was pale; any paler and he would turn pink. "I knew they would, so as soon as I could move, I got out. There wasn't time to calculate the transporter to get to you right away."
Did he feel guilty? Lisa ducked under his arm, trying to help support him even though she knew that she wasn't strong enough for that. He was massive, and it was like trying to hold a rhinoceros up. "What are we going to do now?"
"There's a place where my family used to go in emergencies. I restocked the supplies and defenses before I found you."
"Bought me," Lisa shot back.
"More like rescued you."
She hesitated. "Maybe."
Zon shot her a crooked grin and chuckled. "You sounded like your teeth were getting pulled there."
"I don't like admitting that I'm helpless. Now let's get to this emergency shelter before th
ey find us."
Zon nodded. They made their way through the jungle, the massive T'Shav warrior leaning on her and his sword for support. Fortunately, they didn't come across any of the local fauna, although there were times when Zon had to slice a flower in two because it was a dangerous mammal-eating plant.
If I had my lab equipment… Lisa though sadly. And there wasn't anybody after us.
Hours later, they reached the shelter, a tunnel with a tiny opening that wound deep into the ground. Eventually, they were in a large room with two dusty beds. Shelves of preserved foods lined the walls, and there were thankfully two vats of water, purifiers humming beneath them.
"Did you spend a lot of time here?" Lisa asked, retrieving the supplies she recognized as a first aid kit. "As a child, I mean."
"Yeah." Zon lay down on the bed, groaning. "T'Shav are not welcome most places in the galaxy. We had drills, every month, where my father would separate the three of us and we would have to find our way here."
"You had to face the jungle on your own as a child?"
"It made me strong." He yanked his robotic leg onto the bed, grunting. "I'm going to need this repaired."
Lisa moved over to sit beside him, first cleaning the blast mark on his chest. The black flesh smelled like burnt hamburger and had a similar texture as well. Choking down her gag reflex was difficult, but Lisa cleaned it up the best she could. Upon Zon's insistence, she scraped off the dead skin until the tender flesh beneath oozed, then slathered it with fleshseal.
Through it all, Zon didn't move. His breathing didn't hitch. He must have been in great pain, but he didn't show it. It was the only way she could get through it.
Eventually, though, all his injuries were tended to. Lisa had to admit that he looked far better than he had. The red color of his skin was returning, and he even sat up to take off his robotic leg and fiddle with it, repairing what damage he could.
To her surprise, Lisa felt heat pooling in her as she watched him. A flush rose in her cheeks and she turned away. This was hardly the most appropriate time for sex! They had just escaped people who wanted to kill Zon and sell her; even if Zon wasn't injured…