She slid down it and Ig landed on her lap.
“Hi, little guy.”
Here was someone who could leave, if he wished to. What would happen to Ig if he stayed and she died? The thought worried her.
Sometimes he obeyed her but where could she send him?
To Baz and Hoss, of course.
“Go back, Ig. Find Baz and Hoss. Go. Please.” He stayed. “Hey! Go find me some pretty data! Stuff I’ll like.” She tickled him again and he made a sound.
The first sound he’d ever made. A chirrup. Tiny but distinct.
“Wow. You sure picked your –”
He was gone.
Well then.
The realization of what she’d achieved blossomed, and for a while it overwhelmed. She’d done what she needed to do and in the process shafted her life, maybe theirs too – Baz and Hoss.
She’d said she’d come back to them but maybe she couldn’t.
What were they doing right now? She needed them...
Ember sighed.
She was still sitting with her forehead on her clasped hands, her fingers cold and growing colder, sifting through data and trying to construct some way of making a system-spanning comm device from what still functioned here, when the metal at her back vibrated.
Thumm.
Something had arrived, docked. Someone was coming.
Enemy or friend? She stood and backed away, bottom lip caught in her teeth. If she was the sort to pray to the gods, this was a good time to begin.
The hatch opened, and Hoss and Baz walked through, wary and bedecked in weapons, with rifles in hand. A squad of Baz’s crew followed them, also ready for a fight.
The bottom fell out of her dismal world and a spark of joy floated, bobbed. But would they forgive her?
They were here, weren’t they? She swallowed her fear of rejection, ignored the writhing ache in her temples, her chest, stomach. Okay she was going to throw up if she held off talking to them any longer.
She grinned, raised a hand, and waved. “Hi. It’s okay! I’m the only one left!” It was a miniscule wave, one that a person might do when they were a little afraid of what was coming. “Read my note?”
At a word and gesture from Baz, his men withdrew, except for two who stayed guarding the airlock. Baz and Hoss stalked toward her, grim and silent.
Oops.
Chapter 29
“Our information confirms she has done it – destroyed CESS.” Lightnyng nodded, gold eyes staring upward at the low ceiling of this vault. Two klicks down, so they were safe from most explosions. It was time to emerge onto the surface. The little war was over.
“The Prediction came true!” Stryng bounced up and down, clapping his hands rapidly while jumping off the stone floor. His braids flopped as he bounced. He smacked his new lips together. He’d decided being a flighty, flirty AI was his persona for the year.
“Except,” Erroar pointed out, as they strolled toward the lift doors. “For her small deviations. We still have not seen inside the DSU, and I suspect it’s now destroyed. Her dismantlement of CESS was thorough. I would’ve liked to dissect her and examine her psyche more closely.”
“It may not be her.” Styng calmed himself and joined the small parade heading for the lifts that would take them to the surface. “That creature, that anomaly, I detected in our database stacks is with her. I think.”
“Hmmm,” Erroar and Lightnyng expressed disbelief in their noise.
“You don’t concur?”
“We never saw this thing you saw.” Erroar pursed his toothy mouth, stepped into the broad lift. It was designed to take quite massive equipment and echoed with their steps and voices.
With Omm so utterly devastated, they’d be rebuilding for a few years before they could summon more devotees.
The lift closed and shot upward.
“No. That is odd. Anyway!” Stryng added brightly, resisting the impulse to suck on a braid with his bright red and luscious mouth. “We should have a feed from the Leaf soon, and can watch them mate. The fertility drug the males will pass to her should make for an interesting year. If she becomes pregnant to the shag cross orc and the cyborg also.”
“Human, orc and shag, yes, in one embryo.” Lightnyng folded his spindly arms but sounded happy.
The lift doors opened and they looked ahead at a passageway blocked by rubble. The sky could be seen, however, bright sunlight shafted in, and several mechs and roach bots were already dismantling the blockage.
Erroar nodded. “And the cyborg was a success. We will need some humans to create more of those. Our devotees will volunteer. I will go help clear this.”
“Mmm.” Stryng toddled after Erroar. “And...do we then aim to take over the galaxy?”
“What? No! We do not. We watch and play. We have fun. As we always have. Remember?” Erroar eyed the other cybermonk. “Where did you find that assumption? We need to check you for loose logic strings. This thing you have seen may be a sign of that.”
“Oh. Oh. I suppose I will submit to this. I feel a little miffed however.” Poor Stryng flapped his hands then followed after the other two. “I am sure I am functioning normally...”
Lightnyng halted and waited, speaking to Stryng and resting a hand on his shoulder. “We will inject some subprograms into you when next we watch some orc-human-cyborg porn. Tonight.”
Chapter 30
Baz waited to see what Hoss would do, what Ember would do too. Though he felt the need for a little more confirmation of their security. She’d said the sphere was safe and deserted, but was she correct?
The girl lived. He shook his head, almost disbelieving that she stood before them. Her lip was quivering, she was quivering. Poor thing. How could he want to both kiss her better and punish her?
Because she’d ignored this fledgling relationship of theirs in favor of possibly killing herself over past wrongs, was how, and why.
Hoss was fucking quivering too. Wasn’t rage. He knew the fool too well. Baz smacked him on the shoulder. “Go get her!”
Hoss took a single step, then Ember creeped forward with several small hesitant steps. After Hoss sighed loud enough to echo and crooked a finger, she ran to them and threw herself at Hoss.
The humphff Hoss gave out as she collided with the half-orc was formidable.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Forgive me, please, please forgive me?” Eyes shining with tears, she peered up at Hoss then at him from under Hoss’s arm where he’d held it high – as if she were radioactive and untouchable.
The orc wasn’t hugging her and she clearly needed it. Baz wanted to nudge him again, but figured it’d get him glared at or punched. Not that he couldn’t dodge but he was the latecomer to these two, this relationship. It seemed best to let Hoss find his way.
Slowly the orc lowered his arms and hugged her, squeezed her so hard she squeaked and flailed.
“Hoss!”
“Shut up. You want a hug from me, you got one. Baz wants to spank your ass. And other stuff.”
“Oh.” She frowned at Baz, and he grinned, shrugged, then stepped around Hoss to grab a handful of her hair. He pulled her head back, looked down at her.
Pouting, she stared at him.
“You deserve it. Running off like that. Not trusting us.”
“You’d never have agreed with me doing this.”
“Uh –”
“Not in a million years.”
Hoss squeezed her harder and she squeaked and looked uncomfortable.
He thought some more. No, he wouldn’t have. One point in her favor, and he still wasn’t happy.
“Tell us next time,” Hoss said sternly before he went back to hugging.
“Gotcha,” Ember whispered. “Not that there’s likely to be another time for taking down a galaxy-wide corrupt corporation.”
“Your mouth...” Hoss sighed.
“You like it,” she said, still quiet.
“I do.”
“Phew.” She wriggled in closer to Hoss
and winked at Baz.
He grinned. “However...” He glanced down the corridor. Important things needed verifying. “I need to be sure of our safety now. More than sure – certain.”
“Okay.” She shut her eyes. “There’s no one here. I have looked. I also have the data on everyone leaving. The higher-ups took their pods. The lesser employees went off on a small ship. My cataclysm virus will be dismantling CESS across the galaxy. No starship of theirs will escape, no city installation, no anything.” She opened her eyes and looked straight at him again. “My only iffy unknown today is what those colliding ships out there are doing.”
Baz shared a look of astonishment with Hoss then shook his head, as if that’d let what she’d rattled off become more understandable. What she’d done was going to make him wonder about the consequences, for a long while.
However, the here and now was more urgent. “We’re monitoring the debris, Ember. They were gearing up to move away at low velocity. All the debris is spreading outward. What about the life support here?”
“Fine, for a few days. Maybe up to a week since there’s not a lot of living things left sucking up oxygen.” She frowned. “Fish. Some cute deer-things. There’s a real pretty beach area.”
“Deer things and a beach? So this is a resort? Maybe we could go see it?”
“It’s a really high-echelon resort. Go straight ahead and this will go up some stairs to a shoot-rail. Gravity gets weird but we come out on the inner crust. That’s where it all is. Messy, though. I switched off gravity for a while.”
“Show us.” Hoss hoisted her with his hands beneath her arms then turned her and draped her over his shoulder as if she were prey caught in a hunt – legs in front, head at the back. With a hand on her ass, he marched forward.
“Hey!” Ember protested, squeaking when Hoss smacked her ass. “Guys!”
“No guys here. Me, orc. Him?” Hoss turned to Baz, quirked his mouth. “Some lame-ass cyborg who wants to fuck you badly.”
He did. He did. Upside-down, with her skirt flipped and butt upward, she looked even more fuckable. When he caught up to them, Baz had an idea. “Any clothes shops for females here, Ember?”
She screwed her body around to see him. “Yes. Can you get Hoss to let me walk?”
“Big nope. Those clothes of yours look like they’re ready to be tossed out.”
“They are. Some of the buildings are okay. We can look?”
“Okay. In that case...” He reached and yanked down her tights to reveal bare ass. “Get those off her. I’ll do the front bits.”
Ember wriggled but barely cursed at them. The boots and tights were thrown to the side, then he dragged the dress off her, dropped it.
When Hoss’s hand slipped between her legs to stroke her there, Ember fell silent and kept her head down, hiding her face. Her hands gripped Hoss’s butt and back. Baz moved in close and bit all down her butt and side.
“Hey. Wait. Wait.” Breathless, Ember twisted her fingers in Hoss’s camo suit.
“Might take us a while to find that shop, hey Hoss?”
“Might indeed. Think I like this female naked for the time being. She’ll definitely get in less trouble.”
* * * * *
Once on the inner crust, they walked through a small copse of trees, past a tangled mess of towels and sun bathing lounges, and there it was – a perfect blue sea. A few fish had washed up and some deer that must’ve been dumped in the water had gathered into a herd on the sand.
A jetty led out over the water, though judging by the ripples of light reflecting off the bottom, the water wasn’t deep. At the end of the timber jetty was a bar and a seating area. Everything was white, so white it seemed surreal, out here above a sea that had few waves, with a ceiling above that was more land, sea, forests, and a few buildings. It’d take a day or two to walk the circumference to up there. They could do it.
Maybe he would.
All the furniture atop the jetty was attached to the structure, so they’d stayed in place when gravity failed. Hoss sat Ember atop the white-painted bar, stripped off his suit, then he kissed her, leaning in to do it thoroughly.
The breathy sighs, her naked and with Hoss caressing her, it gave his dick plenty of ideas but even so he was distracted.
Baz turned in place, looking at everything. Everything. He wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d stocked the ocean with kraken just so the people here could say they’d hunted one, could stick its head on the front of their private star yacht. The money needed to create this would feed a planet for a year or two.
It had hit him suddenly that this world was owned by CESS. Had been, past tense, owned.
“Are you okay?” Ember was asking.
They’d stopped kissing to check him out.
“This was CESS. You’ve killed off the company that almost killed me. They are why I’m a cyborg, why I nearly died that day after I pulled over to find out why a road was full of corpses. Fuck. I’d sort of forgotten. Let it fall to the back of my mind, but I shouldn’t have. It made me angry and crazy for a while.” He swallowed and turned to her then padded over to them. “You did good. You may have given me and Hoss major heart attacks, but you did good.”
Hoss stepped aside and he went to Ember where she sat on the bar top and he too kissed her – on her forehead, on her cheek, neck, and finally, tenderly, on her mouth.
“You know.” He kissed her in-between the words. “I never did show you my demon cock mode.”
“What is that?” she asked, wide-eyed.
“Bad. It makes women desperate to come but stops them doing it. Lets me drive you wild and will make you beg sooo hard.”
“Hey. No fair. You wouldn’t?” She pouted and tried to look so cute and innocent with her soft mouth and little frown that he laughed.
“Hoss? What’ll we do? Vote?”
“It’s a no,” Ember blurted.
He put his hand over her mouth to quieten her, watched her lick his palm, and that seriously upped the ante. “Going to fuck you so hard,” he whispered.
“Oh my.” She squirmed. “Please?”
“I have to see this.” Hoss hoisted himself onto the bar, making it creak under his weight.
Baz didn’t remove his eye-lock from the girl. “My demon cock is big and red and I swear might just make your cunt turn itself inside out.”
Ember snorted then rolled her eyes. “Oh for f –” Hoss had grabbed her and hauled her to his lap.
He held her high above with her legs over his shoulders, licking at her and making her splutter.
“Little frustrating there, man. My dick doesn’t go that high.”
Hoss chuckled and lowered her to his lap again, kissing her and fondling her breasts. “I want to see him use one of his fancy cocks on you, female, while I lick you, suck you. But this here is the wrong height.”
When he bit the tip of her breast then sucked, she whimpered. Even the sounds were making Baz’s cock harder than metal, or close to it. He moved in and kissed down her spine then felt her hand clutching him. She’d reached back and pulled at his side, as if he could get closer, do something better.
“Want me in you?”
She drew a breath, swallowing as he kissed the outer swell of her breast. “Yes.”
“Let’s try somewhere else.” Baz took one last bite of her neck, then made her twist so he could get properly at her breast. While he licked and sucked on one nipple, Hoss was doing the same. Their hands roved and Ember sobbed and wriggled, her hands going from one of them to the other trying to make them do more, lick more.
“Want me in you, Ember?” he asked again, just to hear her beg.
“Yes! Please,” she added, quieter. “I need you both. A lot.”
“Mmm.” He kissed her mouth, her jaw. “Let me think about it.”
“Oh, you bastard. Where’s my data knife?”
“Bad girl!” he said amused even so. “Come here.” He dragged her off Hoss to the lounge and sat with her belly down over
him in spite of her hurried apologies. “I did say I wanted to spank you.”
Wasn’t going to be for long. Not here, not this time. He was aching to fuck her.
He landed some good ones on her butt, left a handprint or two that he bit, then he gave the panting girl back to Hoss, who’d sat down beside him.
“Up here again.” Now Hoss looked determined to do more than mess around. He let her sit over his shoulders. With her hands in his hair and her pussy at his mouth, Ember watched him tease her clit with his tongue.
“Fuck.” Baz murmured. He coaxed his dick into split mode, as well as steel and black colored, watched it do the trick with a bit of amazement on his own part. The ache building was going to make him fuck her too hard, unless he really overrode his instincts.
Had to get her ready too. Without making her come? Oh hells, who cared.
He walked up behind her, close enough to put his hand to her hip, watched her writhe and gasp against Hoss’s mouth. “I’ve got to open you for me. Slow. Going to fuck you in both holes.”
Ember turned to him for a few seconds, and he sloppy kissed her. Neither of them cared that tongues got in the way, and moans, and that he bit her jaw, her nose, kissed above her eye.
She was riding Hoss’s mouth the whole time.
With a foot up on the lounge next to where Hoss sat, he worked on her while Hoss did his own thing with his big orc tongue. Man, even the guy’s tongue was huge. But his cocks, the two of them, one above the other, were bigger. One was a pretty blue, the other shiny black and steel.
“Fitting these in you...but going slow.” He brought them up, aiming, watching the wink of her ass and feeling for her slippery cunt at the same moment. The tip slid into her asshole first, then the other cock touched and slid into her cunt.
The grip of her on him, where it seemed as if everywhere that mattered had been sucked inside her...
“Fuck. Awesome.”
She bowed over Hoss, clutching shoulders, his horns, his hair.
“Wait. Wait. You said slow. That hurts...and feels great and hurts. Ohmigod!”
Steel (Dark Monster Fantasy Book 2) Page 16