Jaspar frowned in thought. “There are no other structures out there at all? A secret weapons stash, perhaps?”
Korl shook his head decisively. “No, none at all. We would have read their energy signatures.”
“Who owns that property?” Jaspar asked him.
“The mayor of North Pole and his wife.”
“Ah, Paul and Barbara,” Liza said. “Let me call them.”
She tapped her wrist-holo and tried to call Paul, but it went to a recording. Then she called Barbara and told her about the Harbingers being on her property.
“Do you know why they’re there?” Liza asked her.
“No idea.” In the background, Liza could hear a hum of voices. Barbara was at work at the post office.
“Well, there’s no reason for them to keep going back out there, so they must be up to something,” Liza said.
“Oh well,” Barbara said, her tone hopeless and sad. “What does it even matter? One clan or the other will own this entire planet soon enough. They can troop around there all day long for all I care.”
Liza rang off, shaking her head in puzzlement.
Jaspar snorted. “The Harbingers are nothing that we can’t handle. Korl, take half our clan and go investigate. Leave Sterran and the rest here, and stay in touch with them at all times. We’ll be back in a few hours.”
He, his clan mate Kyro, and Liza flew his hovercraft up to the Balthazar FTL Starliner, and then Kyro left that craft behind and flew another hovercraft back to the Christmas Colony so that Jaspar and Liza would have transport when they needed it.
Liza’s family’s hovercraft would have burned up if it had tried to leave their atmosphere.
The Starliner was equally impressive. It was enormous, and the interior was sleek and smooth, with an organic feel to the décor.
Doors were seven-foot-tall oval outlines in the walls. When Jaspar took her over to them, the doors melted away and they walked through.
One wall of the bridge was a viewscreen that showed a pitch-black sky splashed with millions of little sparkling stars. There were a dozen Drakken on the bridge, chatting with each other, drinking hot beverages, pressing buttons on their holoscreens. They leaped to their feet and saluted when Jaspar entered.
“Oh my God, this is amazing!” Liza’s wrist-holo vibrated, and Geneva appeared right next to her. “You are so lucky. I wish I had a giant, sexy, rich dragon boyfriend.”
“Geneva, could you be any more embarrassing?” Liza said, her face flaming red as the crew members snickered behind their hands.
“Giant, sexy, rich dragon boyfriend,” one of them whispered to the Drakken sitting next to him, and they howled with laughter.
“I will be your giant, sexy, rich dragon boyfriend!” another added to the hologram, waving at Geneva.
Geneva laughed as Liza glared at the Drakken. “I will consider that,” she said to him with a wink.
Jaspar bowed to the hologram. “Greetings, lovely sister of my heart-mate. Has Liza told you that we are getting married?”
“No, she has not,” Geneva said, her eyebrows shooting up. “Dang. I spend one week with my head buried in my holos for finals, and this happens? What the hell? I mean…congratulations!”
“I have not made any final decisions yet,” Liza said, then looked over at Jaspar in time to see him mouthing, “Yes she has.”
“Where will you live?” Geneva asked. “If you go live on his planet, I’ll never be able to afford to visit you.” She managed a wry smile. “I told my teachers that this would be my last semester here. No, don’t worry about it,” she said as Liza started to protest. “I’m a realist. And I’m determined. I will find a way to travel the galaxy no matter what.” Then she waved at Liza and winked out.
“But you will be wealthy when you are my wife, and so will your family.”
“I know how my family are,” Liza said, shaking her head. “They won’t take charity.”
“What if I were to help keep the planet open for you all?” Jaspar said.
“That is an incredibly generous offer, but the problem is that we depend on our trees. Apple trees, maple trees, pine trees…without them, we don’t have a business. And since we don’t know what caused the fungus, it wouldn’t be worth planting new forests that would just die again. Also, it would take decades for us to regrow all those forests, and there would be no way for us to make a living in the meantime.”
“Well, don’t abandon hope just yet.”
“Has my grandmother gotten to you with her relentless Christmas spirit?” Liza asked with a smile. They paused in front of an oval door.
“Perhaps,” Jaspar said. “And now, let me show you my quarters. Shut up,” he added to his crew members as they exchanged glances and high fives. “You are most immature and making a terrible impression on my heart-mate.”
They walked through the door.
Jaspar’s quarters had the sleek lines of a state-of-the-art spaceship, and the sanodroids that whirred over the walls, floor and ceiling of the Starliner had kept it sparklingly clean – almost sterile. But his personality was still stamped on the space like a brand. The bed was draped with furs, typical of the Drakkens’ traditional outlook, but it was also piled with cushions in gold and silver velvet and brilliantly jewel-toned silks. It would be, she thought, like sleeping on a hoard of treasure. Not as lumpy, of course.
The door sealed shut behind them, leaving only a faint oval outline.
Jaspar showed Liza a small bar, with two seats that protruded from the floor like alien mushrooms. He fetched a bottle of liquor from a floating liquor cabinet and poured them each a drink in a heavy gold goblet encrusted with diamonds.
The drink burned deliciously, and had a sweet aftertaste.
“Yummy,” Liza said. “So, theoretically, if we were in that honeymoon hut you mentioned, would this stuff be there?”
“This stuff. Coffee. Anything you desire.” Jaspar sighed and set down the drink. “I would love to stay here with you for an eternity, but we should return to Far North and take my brother’s report, I suppose.”
When they tried to head back out, the door stayed stubbornly sealed.
“Door, open,” Jaspar said.
“I am sorry, but your mother has reprogrammed me. I am not allowed to let you leave here until she says that I may. However, she did ask that I play you this recording.”
Jaspar’s mother’s voice played, seemingly coming from everywhere. “You should not have banished me to the ship earlier, because it gave me time to reprogram your room. I will not be defeated,” she said. “This door has been programmed to stay shut until you contact me and tell me that you will abandon the idea of marrying the human. Your communicator has been reprogrammed also, so that you may only call me. All other forms of communication from this room are blocked now.”
Chapter Twelve
Jaspar threw back his head and roared with anger, and flames shot through the air. He glared at the door. “Ternamera, I will burn the door open if I need to.”
The door actually seemed to go pale.
Liza looked at him curiously. “Did you just call the ship by a name?”
“Yes, all the Drakken ships are sentient. They are run by an artificial intelligence that is mixed in with some of our DNA. This ensures that our ships always remain loyal to us.” He snorted. “The Harbinger ships are known to be quite nasty. They have started several wars on their own.”
“You and the Harbingers developed the same technology?”
He nodded impatiently, pacing back and forth. “We only split about five hundred years ago,” he said. “There was a falling out between two cousins who both thought they had the right to rule our home planet. The Drakken was the one who was in the right, of course.”
He returned his attention to the door. “If I burn a hole in you, it will hurt,” he said.
“But I cannot open the door – I am not capable!” the voice protested, sounding quavery and frightened.
“You
leave me no alternative.” Scales covered Jaspar’s body, and he began growing taller.
“Jaspar, don’t!” Liza cried, putting her hand on his arm.
Jaspar turned to look at her. “I am sorry, my heart. I must. She has it coming.”
“But it’s your mother’s fault, not hers.”
“Oh thank you, kind human,” the ship said, still speaking in a quavery voice.
Jaspar’s brows drew together in anger. “Oh, do not trouble yourself – my mother will also be most severely punished.”
“No, I do not want you to hurt or punish anyone on my behalf!” Liza insisted, stepping between him and the door. Of course, if he really wanted to, he could just blast the flame right over her head, but she suspected that he wouldn’t.
“But we obviously cannot to stay here forever.” Jaspar shook his head. “And I have no intention of abandoning my plans to marry you, father your children, and have deliciously excellent sex with you for the rest of your life.”
He had to mention sex.
Liza found herself stroking his arm, trying to calm him.
She was obligated to distract him, wasn’t she? After all, if she didn’t, he would hurt the ship. The ship was frightened.
Basically, she had no choice but to seduce Jaspar. It was the only decent thing to do.
“Tell me about this deliciously excellent sex that we’ll have,” she said, tipping her head back.
Jaspar’s scales receded, leaving smooth skin, and he stared down at her. “What would you like to know?” he said, his voice gone hoarse.
“Well, actually, it might be more effective if you showed me. We humans have a saying that actions speak louder than words.”
“You humans are quite wise,” Jaspar said, and he scooped her up in his arms and strode over to the bed, all thoughts of leaving temporarily abandoned.
This time she undressed for him, slowly peeling away her clothes in a strip-tease. His eyes never left her body, drinking in the sight of each curve, every inch of skin she revealed.
But he was too impatient to have her. When she was down to her panties, he hauled her against him, bunching the delicate fabric in one big hand and tearing it away from her body.
She gave a squeak of aroused surprise, but it was smothered when he pressed his mouth against hers in a burning kiss. His lips moved against hers with firm assurance, plucking and pressing and teasing. And when she opened her mouth on a sigh, he teased her with darting, sliding motions of his tongue.
He pressed her back against the bed, drawing her arms together over her head so her breasts were pushed towards him. He held her wrists in one large hand as he bent his head to suckle on the rosy tips, tugging on a silver thread of sensation that ran directly to her clit.
Liza gasped and squirmed against him, then shivered as he moved down her body, kissing her breastbone, lapping at the dip of her navel with his tongue, grazing her hipbone with his teeth. His breath was hot against her skin. Her hands went to his head, her fingers winding into his ebony tresses as he stroked and kissed every inch of her.
As he pressed her thighs apart, her heart tripped a staccato rhythm in her chest. He parted the slick folds of her pussy with his fingers, exposing her clit, then bent his head to suckle on the sensitive nub.
Supernovae burst behind her eyes, and she cried out helplessly, pushing her hips against his face as he repeated the erotic torment again and again. He pulled away and blew cool air on the heated flesh, making her shiver, then returned to French-kiss her pussy, strumming her clit with his fingers until she flexed her hips against his mouth, gasping and moaning as she rode the spasms of her orgasm.
She’d barely regained her senses before he crawled back up her body, grinning with fierce satisfaction. His tongue flicked out to swipe her slickness from his lower lip. He pressed a brief kiss to her mouth, leaving the taste of her own arousal lingering on her lips, then flipped her onto her belly, drawing her hips back so she was on hands and knees, the glistening pink folds of her sex exposed to him.
He gave a primal growl of arousal and bent his head to lick her clit again, lapping it with smooth, rhythmic strokes until the tension built inside her and she was trembling on the verge of orgasm.
When he pulled away, she would have protested, if she’d had the breath.
But then she felt the heat of his muscular body pressed again her spine, and his strong forearm looping around her belly as he used his other hand to brace himself above her.
She felt the blunt head of his big cock nudging her entrance, and pressed back against him, urging him to thrust inside her. She didn’t want him to be slow and careful – she wanted him inside her now, thrusting into her willing body and stroking her towards toe-curling, teeth-clenching, pussy-pulsing bliss. She thought that if he made her wait she might go mad. Her body was hungry for him. Ravenous.
Jaspar knew exactly what she needed, and he pushed inside her in a single swift, sure stroke, plunging in to the hilt. His hips pistoned as he thrust in and out, hitting her G-spot with each powerful stroke. She hung her head and panted, trying to catch her breath as unbearably sweet sensation spiraled through her body.
Jaspar’s hand moved from her waist to her slick folds, and he rubbed her clit as he pushed into her again and again, applying just the right amount of pressure.
She curled her fingers into the furs on the bed, bracing her knees farther apart on the jewel-toned silks, and all but shrieked with physical bliss as her orgasm rolled over and through her. Her pussy clutched greedily around Jaspar’s still-thrusting cock. As she moaned through each spasm of pleasure, she could hear his harsh grunts of effort as he pounded into her. The knowledge of his arousal, the sensation of how thick and impossibly rock-hard his cock was inside her, made her clench around him and cry out again.
Her orgasm broke his control. She felt him shuddering with effort against her back, and then he was groaning helplessly against her ear as he spilled himself inside her, his cock twitching and jerking, his hand fisted in the bedclothes.
He rocked against her, his movements slowing as they wrung the last of the pleasure from their orgasms, shuddered and moaned through the last of the spasms.
She was pleasantly sore and still pulsing as he withdrew from her, still half hard.
He rolled onto his side, his magnificent body sheened with sweat and glistening faintly silver in the overhead lights. His beautiful inky hair was tousled, strands sticking to his damp temples, and his chest heaved with exertion. He reached out lazily and pulled Liza against his body, drawing her head against his chest and tangling his fingers in her hair.
Liza lay on the bed, basking in the warm afterglow of their lovemaking.
“You were quite right,” she said, stretching and arching her back. “That was some excellent sex.”
Suddenly a portion of the wall turned into a holoscreen, and his mother’s face appeared.
Liza let out a shriek and pulled the blanket over her head.
“Are you having intimate relations with the human?” Karmelite’s voice rang through the air. That was not part of my plan.”
“Good. That is yet another reason that I am glad we did it. I don’t know what it’s going to take to prove to you that you cannot stop this match.” Jaspar glared at the screen. “And you had better open that door now, or you will be very, very sorry.”
His mother waved her hand impatiently. “We have an emergency down here. While you were dilly-dallying on your ship, our crew was exploring and all of their communicators suddenly died. The human’s friend Marjan went with them, and she has vanished along with them. We cannot track them at all. You must return immediately.”
Chapter Thirteen
The group of them seemed to have vanished from the planet completely. Jaspar’s crew used their technology to scan for their vital signs, for their communicators, for anything that would indicate where they were.
The Harbingers refused all messages from Jaspar and his clan. Jaspar contacted Orion the Ar
bitrator and demanded that he force the Harbinger clan to admit to what they’d done.
A couple of days went by as they frantically continued searching, flying their craft over the area where the group had last been seen.
Liza tried to call Marjan dozens of times, and every time the call went straight to her recorded message.
“Hello, this is Marjan of the Silver-Fur Clan. If you do not leave a message, or if your message offends me, I will eviscerate you. Have a pleasant solar cycle.”
“Well, I will eviscerate you for getting kidnapped! Damn it! I’m really worried!” Liza yelled, and hung up.
It made no sense. The Christmas Colony was tiny. There was only one habitable continent. Even if they’d all been killed – Liza shuddered at the thought – the Balthazar Clan’s technology would have been able to trace them.
All the while, there was a steady stream of customers, and Liza and her family put on their happy faces, but inside they were sick with worry. La La slumped around glumly, and the other Srilaa patted her and tried to comfort her and cried out shrilly in their odd language.
On the morning of the third day, Fabian sent them a recorded statement, which they received on the Drakkens’ holoscreen in the middle of the living room.
“Your crew is not on our ship. I do not know where they are located.” Fabian’s lips were twisted in a hateful smirk as he signed off.
Liza looked up from a holographic map that she and Sterran had been studying.
“Bullpucky. He’s hiding something,” she said.
“I know.”
Jaspar angrily called up the Arbitrator, who appeared in hologram form, wearing a loincloth wrapped around his waist, holding a drink in his hand, and looking annoyed. There were what appeared to be several love bites on his neck, of different sizes and shapes. Apparently he was on vacation with females of more than one species.
“You should have let me interrogate him directly!” Jaspar snapped. “It is far too easy for him to get away with hiding the truth in a recorded statement. The fact that he doesn’t know where they are right now doesn’t mean that he didn’t take them.”
The Dragon's Christmas Wish Page 8