Degorsk's mouth opened, and she saw the thin, needle fangs descend from the roof of his mouth an instant before he buried them in her neck. Tranis held her wrists as the other man injected the intoxicant into her system.
After a few seconds euphoria chased her fear away, and she softened to the men's embrace. Degorsk released the bite and gently licked the wounds he'd made. She shivered to feel his hot, wet tongue slide against her skin.
Tranis smiled, his too-serious face handsomer for the expression. "You're feeling much better now, aren't you?" he asked.
"Yes," she purred. She wriggled her hips against his, delighting in the sensation of his turgid organs so close to her eager body. Her head still felt heavy from fatigue, but that discomfort was secondary to the promise of being filled with the flesh of her gorgeous companions.
Degorsk's deep rumble in her ear gave her gooseflesh. "You're ready for your husbands to pleasure you now."
The confidence in his tone gave her pause. "Are we really married?" Cassidy asked, wanting to believe him, wanting her primitive urges to have the freedom to be realized.
Wanting to belong to them in all ways.
Tranis kissed her before answering. "You are our Matara. That makes us married."
"Not in Earth's eyes."
"On Kalquor, it's a binding commitment that only death can break. Would you like to go to Kalquor?"
Cassidy's clouded senses embraced the notion, and not just because she'd be allowed to enjoy carnal delights with the clan. What possibilities awaited her free of Earth's and her grandfather's suffocating restrictions?
"Can I read what I want? Can I finish my schooling? Study what I want?"
"Of course, precious girl. We think it's important for you to expand your mind and realize your full potential."
To feed her starved brain again and enjoy the dictates of her sensual desires with Tranis' clan … could she really be granted such paradise?
"I'd have three husbands? You two and Lidon?"
"That's right," Degorsk affirmed.
A lifetime with the three men who made her feel so good despite her best efforts to deny her needs. "I'd love to go to Kalquor." An ocean of longing filled her words.
Tranis' face stretched into the first true smile she'd seen from him. His teeth were brilliant white in his dark face. "Once our business here is done, we'll put in for leave and take you there." He leaned down to kiss her deeply.
In her intoxicated stupor, Cassidy let go of all reservations. When Tranis rolled her on top of his body, it was her hands that positioned his penises to enter her. He growled deep in his throat as she enfolded him with her warmth. Bracing her palms
against his chest, she moved up and down, feeling his thicknesses slide in her tight sheaths. Her platinum hair fell around him in a curtain. The thick tresses swayed with her movements, allowing glimpses of Degorsk lying nearby, watching her make love to his clanmate. A sudden thought brought prickling heat to her womb.
"Both of you," she groaned. "I want you both at the same time."
Degorsk rose to position himself between Tranis' splayed legs and behind Cassidy. Tranis gripped her hips, holding her up as the Imdiko carefully slipped the Dramok's smaller member from her anus.
Degorsk's penetration of her tightest orifice made the overwhelming sensations even more delightful. The men matched her eagerness with their own, their strokes long and sure, driving her to orgasms of such intensity she sometimes forgot to breathe. The three plunged and bucked, a single beast of mindless sensation knowing only the rapacious appetite of lust. Growls, snarls and shrieks filled the cinnamon and sea-salt perfumed air.
At last the bestial cacophony quieted, leaving only heaving gasps of sweet completion in its wake. The three lay upon the rumpled bed in a sweaty, sticky heap of tangled limbs. Cassidy found herself in the middle of the pile, sandwiched between the solid mass of the Kalquorians. She savored the closeness of her lovers, the comfortable bulk of their muscular bodies. How could such joy be evil? She'd never known a more pure emotion.
"How do you feel?" Tranis asked, his hand possessively stroking her breast.
"Wonderful." The euphoria persisted, and she wished she could remain intoxicated, far from responsibility and guilt. She pushed away niggling concerns of loyalty to her race, to her religion. Only this warm enjoyment mattered right now.
"Have you ever heard of Armageddon?"
"Of course. It's not exactly a romantic subject though." Her tone was petulant. Why did Tranis want to talk about such things after what they'd shared? Especially things that reminded her of the sins she committed?
"I'm sorry. I simply wondered what it referred to."
"The final battle between good and evil in which the antichrist is sent packing once and for all. The evildoers too." She propped herself up on one elbow and looked at the men. "Do you think I'm going to Hell for what we just did? You know, I wonder about this stuff all the time. With all the bad things that happen like murders and abuse, does my having sex with aliens really matter that much to God? It doesn't hurt anyone."
Degorsk chuckled. "God would never send such a sweet, beautiful angel like you to that place."
Somehow he made the saccharine words sound sincere. Cassidy thought perhaps he meant them. The thought made her feel warm inside. "You're supposed to be monsters. That's what everyone says."
"Do you think we're monsters, precious girl?"
She thought, really thought about his question as much as the persistent exhaustion and intoxication allowed her to. "I know what my faith believes. You are not made in God's image as we are. You're emissaries of Satan, sent to foul God's greatest creation." Her brow wrinkled as she considered what she'd been taught compared to her own experience. "I know some of it is propaganda, but some of it has to be truth as well. You have taken the women of Europa prisoners. You're forcing us to do things we don't want to do."
"But?" Tranis prodded when she hesitated. He seemed genuinely interested in what her thoughts were, something she didn't experience often since her mother's death.
"But despite some very unsavory actions, you don't fit what I was told about you at all. You look like us, with only a few differences. So it's logical to assume you were made in God's image too."
"What else?"
"You two have been very nice to me, even when you make me do things I shouldn't. Lidon is usually nice too, but he scared me a little last time."
She looked around the room, making sure the imposing Nobek hadn't come in without her knowledge. Even after assuring herself he hadn't silently slipped into the room, she confided to the others in a whisper, "He spanked me."
Tranis bit his lower lip, as if to keep from laughing. Degorsk nodded with sympathetic understanding. "I know he did. Your backside was red from it, and I put a cream on it to make it feel better. Does it still hurt?"
"Not anymore. Why would he hit me like that?"
"Lidon's a disciplinarian but very fair. You must have been naughty for him to punish you."
Cassidy tried to think what she'd done to warrant punishment. All she could remember was the warmth of his hand on her buttocks, sending painful shocks of pleasure darting through her womb.
Tranis' expression was sober again. "If Lidon spanked you, it was only to correct your misbehavior. He cares deeply for you, Cassidy."
"Really?" The thought made her feel better. "But I'm an adult. I'm too old for spankings."
That earned a chuckle from Degorsk. "In Earth years, Lidon is 72 years old. You're still very much a little girl to him."
Cassidy's jaw dropped. Lidon was almost as old as her fiancée, Colonel Tucker. "That's old!"
Degorsk laughed out loud, and Tranis grinned fit to split his face. "I suppose for a girl your age, he would be…mature. Lidon is still quite young for a Kalquorian though. We live an average of 250 years."
"Wow." Enough of the intoxication had lifted for Cassidy to make the calculations. Lidon's life was still in the early stages at th
e same age most Earthers were planning their funerals.
"Cassidy, do you know anything about Earth's defense grid?"
She wondered how old Tranis and Degorsk were. They looked young too, certainly no older than their mid-twenties to early thirties, but now she realized she couldn't trust their appearances. "I don't know anything about the grid except it's two days' travel from here, and you have to know the code to get past it to reach the wormhole."
Degorsk's brows drew together in confusion while Tranis' eyes went wide. "Wormhole?" the medic asked.
Tranis answered him. "It's their word for a vortex gateway. An interdimensional portal, like the one near Sirius. Where is the wormhole that leads to Earth, Cassidy?"
"There are two, but the one I'm talking about comes out between Florida and the Bahamas. The portal is called the Bermuda Triangle. It's an unstable wormhole and terrible to navigate. Even with automatic gravity buffers, we have to strap down because it's such a bumpy ride. I hated going through it to get to Europa."
Something about the look the two men exchanged bothered Cassidy, but she couldn't quite put her finger on why her benumbed brain was clamoring warnings. She needed to think…
"What about the other wormhole? Tell me about that."
"Its access is in the Andromeda Galaxy and it comes out in the Dragon's Triangle, near Japan. There's another defense grid there to protect it from invasion. Oh!"
That's what her sense of unease had been trying to caution her about. She was divulging information to the enemy!
Tranis tried to keep his voice calm, but she heard the excitement underlying his composure. His sharp gaze betrayed him. "Where exactly is the entrance to the Bermuda Triangle portal?"
"I shouldn't have told you about that." Panic rose to beat back the effects of Degorsk's bite. "What have I done? Get away from me! Get away, demons!"
She flailed wildly, trying to escape the men who'd seduced her, duped her into revealing the wormhole's existence. Stupid! Evil! her mind screamed. And she was. Oh God help her, she was a wicked, horrible creature determined to bring about humanity's fall just as surely as Eve offering the serpent's fruit to Adam.
Even the Kalquorians' formidable strength couldn't bring her maddened thrashing under control. She clawed and hit herself as brutally as she did them, screaming her horror for what she'd done. Finally Degorsk shouted, "I have to sedate her again!"
"Do it!" Tranis roared.
He pinned her with his body, taking the brunt of her abuse as Degorsk sprang from the bed. Cassidy managed to sink her teeth into his shoulder in her struggle against him. His blood, strangely sweet on her tongue, flooded her mouth. Tranis hissed in pain, but kept hold of her until Degorsk returned, pressing a hypo against her throat. Cassidy's muscles went lax, and she released the vicious bite, leaving a perfect oval on his dark skin.
God help and forgive me, she thought as blackness washed over her.
?
Chapter Nine
Lidon stared at General Hamilton in the containment cell. The Earther was suspended in anti-grav shackles as Cassidy had been earlier. The sight wasn't nearly as pleasing. Pain inflictors were now imbedded in the most sensitive areas of his skin. The small, flat white ovals looked harmless, but Lidon knew from personal experience that while they caused no physical damage, the agony they discharged was terrible. He wondered if the general had been trained to withstand such pain as he had, or if it was sheer stubborn will that kept the Earther from spilling the secrets he knew.
Hamilton's spare frame had none of Cassidy's softness, none of her charm. Lidon was glad there was little resemblance between Hamilton and his granddaughter. It made causing the general discomfort easier.
The Nobek's feelings were mixed where Hamilton was concerned. Knowing the same blood flowed in his Matara's veins, that she was a descendent of this man, gave him pause. Still, General Hamilton was part of the government that terrorized Cassidy and other women like her. He was part of her pain. For that, Lidon wanted to beat the man bloody.
He contented himself with staring at the Earther, letting his silence eat at Hamilton's will. Lidon hadn't said a word since entering the cell. He'd easily subdued the flailing man, shackling and dangling him helplessly in the air. Then the Kalquorian stood back, folded his arms over his chest and glared. Hamilton was beginning to respond to the oppressive silence.
"Stop staring at me, Kalquorian demon!" he ranted. "Let me loose. I'll claw your eyes out and crush them beneath my feet! As God is my witness, I'll make you pay for your sins!"
Lidon stood absolutely still, not a twitch betraying his amusement at the empty threats. Hamilton's tongue was loosening quite well now, a welcome change from the stubborn silence he usually retreated behind.
From the corner of his eye, Lidon saw Tranis appear on the other side of the transparent field that made up one of the cell walls. Something in his young Dramok's carriage suggested he wasn't very happy. Lidon hoped it had nothing to do with Cassidy, but he welcomed the frustration in Tranis' attitude. That kind of anger, used in a controlled manner, could yield results with their prisoner.
The field became visible for a moment as Tranis opened a door in it to step through. Once he was inside the cell, the field disappeared once more, a brief buzz letting them know it was whole again.
Hamilton howled in mixed terror and fury, his verbal attacks turning to the captain. "The sodomizer! The man-lover! Rapist!"
Lidon finally looked away from Hamilton to cock an eyebrow at Tranis. "Did you?" he asked in their language.
Tranis' glare skewered him with seldom-seen anger. "Give me credit for having some taste. How could you ask such a thing?"
Over his infuriated hiss, Hamilton continued to scream. "Have you returned to torture me more? Do you think your devil flesh tempts me?"
Lidon ignored him. "I read Degorsk's report. I didn't know if you'd capitalized on what he found during his examination." He twitched an apologetic smile. "You've made extreme sacrifices before to carry out missions."
Some of the tension went out of Tranis' body. "The general seemed to believe the colonic probe was a sexual encounter. Though it was Degorsk who 'violated' him, Hamilton blamed us equally."
"Do your worst, you alien devils! I won't be persuaded!"
"You should have told him Degorsk is much more enjoyable than that." Lidon switched subjects. He needed to know where Tranis' thoughts were. "You look upset."
"Our Matara gave up information she regretted. She became very distressed."
Lidon frowned. He hadn't considered Cassidy might have information that could help their mission. A flicker of self-disgust made him tense. He'd underestimated her, like an Earther man would have. It wouldn't happen again.
To Tranis he said, "It is hard to be disloyal to your own kind, even when you've been ill-used by them."
"I'm talking to you!" Hamilton screamed. "Don't think ignoring me will keep me silent!"
Tranis glanced at the Earther. "At least you've got him speaking again. Has he told you anything of interest?"
"I haven't begun the interrogation. I've just stood here staring at him. It seems to be having an effect."
Hamilton grinned as they turned their attention to him. It wasn't a pleasant sight. "Are you afraid to talk?" he asked, his voice hoarse from shouting. "You should be. Your tongues will be cut out by the swords of God's righteous armies."
"Charming," Tranis muttered. "He seems in the mood to share a few thoughts. Let's see what we can get from him."
The Kalquorians walked up to the suspended Earther. Lidon grasped Hamilton's shoulder, adjusting him so he hung slightly lower than eye level, keeping him in a humbled position. The general shuddered at his touch, and Lidon felt a twinge of mean triumph. The Earther wouldn't cave in from fear, but fear was good just the same. It meant the Nobek had the upper hand.
"Back to humiliate me? To defile me with your demon lusts?"
Tranis had swept all emotion from his face. His voice flat, he said
, "Armageddon. What is it?"
Hamilton's grin returned, a hectic light in his eyes. "The end of the world. The righteous will be uplifted and the damned annihilated in a wave of fire."
Lidon restrained the urge to quote one of his favorite passages from the Book of Life: Belief is the heart's staunch protector, zealotry the world's deadly assailant.
Instead he asked, "Why is that word encoded in your ship's database?"
Hamilton's reply made no sense. "'But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet. They had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.'"
Tranis tried a different tact. "What kind of defenses will we encounter at the Bermuda Triangle when we emerge from the wormhole?"
Lidon was hard pressed to contain his excitement. A portal? One that led directly to Earth, cutting days of travel to mere minutes? Cassidy had indeed let slip important information.
Hamilton's eyes widened an instant before his face took on that closed expression that let them know he would soon go silent again. "'Out of this mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.'" A tear rolled from one eye to slip down the general's cheek. "Our defense is the embrace of God. We will not be taken."
They were losing their opportunity. It was desperation that prodded Lidon to his next action.
He stepped behind Hamilton and ran his hand over the Earther's hairy inner thigh. "You can do better than that, General."
Hamilton jerked at Lidon's touch. His voice pitched high in panic. "Dear Father in Heaven, grant me the strength to overcome these agents of Hell."
Lidon's hand stroked upward to clutch a skinny buttock. He pulled a grimace and saw his young Dramok bite his lips in the effort to hold back laughter. Well, at least someone was enjoying this.
"I think Lidon likes you," Tranis whispered to the trembling Earther. "Armageddon, General. I want a clear answer."
Despite his sobs, Hamilton's voice filled with venom. "You will not have my world. I guarantee you that."
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