How long did he hold her prisoner? How long was she trapped under the gorgeous torment of his mouth as it delved into all her secrets, all her weaknesses? Jeannie had no idea, only that it felt like an eternity of blissful anguish. She was brought to dizzying heights again and again, only to be denied that final step that would plunge her into the best of agonies. She lay, unable to break free, forced into quaking surrender.
She begged him to finish her. She promised him anything and everything he could wish of her if he would grant her release. “All of me!” she swore, meaning it with her heart and soul. “Take it all! Please, Kren! Please!”
And at last, he gave her the absolution she craved. His mouth sealed over her raging clit one last time as he thrust two fingers inside her clutching sex. His tongue lolled silkily over the distended bundle of nerves. His flexible fingers, driving deep inside her, searched for and found the other nest of sensitivity at the front of her sheath.
Heat flared in a violent pulse, lighting Jeannie from within. Her shaking, overtaxed body could not contain the monstrous billow of feeling. Her body flung wide, the cataclysm upon her, demolishing all she was in a brilliant supernova of blinding white. After that came the aftershocks, fresh explosions of exquisite elation streaming from the remains of what she’d been.
Little by little, the pulses eased. Jeannie returned to herself. Her thoughts were misty and distant. Her body quivered in the aftermath, an exhausted survivor of an apocalypse. She gazed into silvery eyes that had ceased to be alien some time ago.
“All better,” Kren said. He kissed Jeannie, and she tasted herself on his lips. She blended well with his feral flavor.
“What about you?” She couldn’t have moved if her life depended on it, but Kren deserved his turn too.
“I had mine. I’ll have to clean up the floor,” he said with a laugh. He lay down next to her, looking contented.
“Still no real sex, though it felt better than any I’ve ever had. Come on, Kren, when is the next step in our torrid affair?”
Kren chuckled. “Always in such a rush. And it is real sex, though I know what you’re saying. We’ll get to all of it. I promise. Relax and let me learn about you, you frantic little Earthling.”
Jeannie sighed. She wanted sex all the way, but she couldn’t deny their latest exploration had been spectacular. She glowed with the happy warmth pulsing through her. “Tell me what you’ve learned so far.”
“That you’re quite the same as Risnarish females in what brings you physical pleasure. However, you are less reserved in expressing that pleasure.” He grinned, delighted about that.
Nope. She couldn’t imagine Risnarish women screaming at the top of their lungs for release. “I wish I could have been more involved in making you, ah, happy.”
“I’ve never been happier. To be in charge of your satisfaction, to make you feel good, for you to be so open and happy about it...it has been everything I’d thought it might be.”
Jeannie studied him. “You’ve found it disappointing with your own women.”
He nodded. “I don’t know how to explain what I’ve wanted all these years. I only know I cannot have it from Risnarish women. When it comes to mating, I have always wanted more. Not with the women I’ve been with, but with someone. Someone more like me.” Kren shook his head and grunted with disgust. “I cannot explain it right. It makes no sense when I try to put it into words.”
Jeannie gazed at him with warmth. “You want love, Kren. You want happily ever after.”
“Do you want love, Jeannie?”
“Everyone does. It’s finding it that is so difficult, if not flat-out impossible. At least finding love that doesn’t end up tearing you to pieces.”
Kren’s smile stretched wide across his striped face, making him almost too beautiful to look at. “I think you might understand what I’m trying to say. Is it wrong that I want to thank the Monsuda for bringing you to me?”
Jeannie laughed and hugged him close. The little flame of hope she’d discovered not so long ago burned brighter than before.
Not yet. I don’t know if I can trust him. Yet she inched ever closer to it.
It was time to change the subject. She didn’t want to examine her feelings for Kren too closely yet. “Any drone sightings today?”
Kren made a face. “A few showed up on the north barrier. Yet again, there was no sign of them when we went to investigate.”
Jeannie could hear his frustration. The enforcement team had gotten no further opportunities to engage the enemy. Kren was determined to capture one, render it helpless, and question it.
“Do you still think they’re trying the defenses?” Jeannie asked.
“Maybe. They show up at a different point on the barrier each time.” His hold on her tightened. “If it’s you they want, they will not get to you.”
“They wouldn’t even know where to look,” she agreed. “With that transmitter off me, they’d have to search the whole village. I’m worried about anyone they come across being hurt during the hunt.”
Guilt assaulted her. If the Monsudan drones gained access to the village, they might kill or capture whoever was unlucky enough to cross their path. If it was because they were determined to recapture her, she’d never live it down.
Kren kissed her forehead. “You’ve made many friends here. They see into your hearts—I mean, heart. The men would fight to defend you.”
“I don’t want them to have to. It’s too much to ask for.”
Her answer made him go quiet for a moment. Before she could ask him why he wore such a grave expression, he shook it off. “The drones cannot get in. That has been proven over and over. The only drone that will gain access to Hahz is the one I bring in when I capture it.” Kren jumped up and held his hand out to Jeannie. “It’s getting late and I’m ready to eat. Let’s go home.”
Jeannie dropped her arguments though she continued to worry. “Good idea. I’m starved. System, save reading and shut down.”
“Shutting down. Good night.” The document and picture of the caveman disappeared.
Jeannie followed Kren out of the dome, shivering in the night air. “I’m making that jacket tonight. It’s turning too cold to not have it.” She’d picked out the fabric, a length of pretty gold material with black chevrons decorating it.
“I enjoy keeping you warm,” Kren said, a wicked light coming into his eyes.
Jeannie laughed, her body heating despite the chill. “I’m going to make you prove that, big guy.”
“My pleasure.” His happy face made her laugh again.
Chapter Fifteen
Mekay and Gurnal, along with the rest of Hahz’s Elders Council, returned the next day. They did not come home alone. The full Assembly of Risnar arrived with them. They immediately convened in the temple and summoned Jeannie.
Though the conversation with Risnar’s leaders reminded Jeannie of her interview with the local council in many respects, there were a few differences. First of all, Kren was allowed to accompany her into the meeting chamber. She was grateful for his presence, because though she put on a brave face, she felt intimidated. Terrified. They were deciding whether she should be executed. Knowing that gave the proceedings a weird, surrealistic aura. She faced the Assembly, feeling her mortality close in tight around her.
There were nine members of the Assembly. The head of their number was a brown-and-gold woman named Notlin, with the rest of the group equally represented by men and women. Like Yees, Notlin wore a golden circlet over her brow. Hers was thicker, though the tranquil woman showed no signs that its weight bothered her. Notlin looked as if nothing had ever scratched the surface of her serenity in her life. Unlike Yees however, Jeannie fancied she saw more warmth in the Assembly head’s expression. At least, she hoped she did.
The large meeting room where Jeannie confronted the Assembly was not quite as futur
istic as the rest of the temple. It had the aura of an ancient place, perhaps the Roman Senate. The Assembly sat at a curved dais behind a carved stone table in the round room. It felt like facing a panel of judges as she stood in the middle of the space. It didn’t help that Hahz’s council lined up to her right, reminding her of a jury. Only Mekay was obviously friendly to her cause; each time she looked at him, he smiled with encouragement.
Kren stood behind her, slightly to her left. He hadn’t been forced to insist on staying with Jeannie, which he’d been prepared to do. “I refuse to leave you alone this time,” he’d vowed before escorting her into the temple.
Instead, Yees had invited him into the chamber before he could argue for it. “The Assembly is interested in your relationship to Jeannie,” she said in her even tone. “As long as you do not interrupt the proceedings, you are welcome to lend your support.”
Thinking of how he’d held her all night—after another round of oral pleasuring, the memory of which made Jeannie’s hair stand on end even now—she was grateful for his presence. Even though they didn’t touch as she answered the Assembly’s questions, Jeannie imagined she felt his warmth and strength.
The Assembly’s interview was much shorter than the interrogation the council had put her through. That questioning from Hahz’s elders was now a matter of record, which the nine Assembly members had reviewed. Jeannie was asked to expand on her previous answers. She did so readily. She also explained what she’d found the day before: that her ancestor, the Sisneg Man, had also been to Risnar.
It caused a sensation among the council and Assembly. “Wasn’t some genetic material of Sisneg Man preserved?” Mekay asked.
Notlin consulted with an aide, who scurried off to do her bidding. “It was. I am having it checked for comparisons to Jeannie’s genetic code.” She eyed Jeannie with interest. “You are quite sure of your connection to that ancient being?”
“He looked exactly like the men my people evolved from,” Jeannie said. Too bad she hadn’t paid more attention in science class. It would have been nice to be able to supply the Assembly with more evidence of her natural beginnings.
Another aide came in and bent to mutter in Notlin’s ear. She regarded him with the mild surprise that for Risnarish women was the equivalent of dropped-jaw shock. “That many? Well. Let them enter.” She considered Jeannie. “Members of the village have arrived to show their support of you. They insist on joining these proceedings.”
“Oh. Really?” Jeannie wasn’t sure if she should apologize or not. The rest of the Assembly registered varying degrees of disbelief that they would be interrupted. Fetla seemed scandalized. Even Yees appeared somewhat at a loss.
Jeannie looked to Kren. He shrugged, his expression confused and turned as the door opened to admit her supporters. As she waited to see who had come running to her defense, Jeannie felt a stab of gratitude that some had dared what was apparently an unheard-of show of support.
Arga came in first, followed by the rest of Kren’s enforcement company, with the exception of Pon. The youngest officer must have been left on duty at the enforcement dome. Then more people came in. A few of the women Jeannie had meditated with were among them, but it was overwhelmingly the men of Hahz who poured in through the door...and kept coming.
The weaver’s guild showed up in full force. All the men who Jeannie had sat around the nightly fires with, drinking ale and chewing broadleaf, talking and laughing with. And still more she’d met and gotten to know. Gurnal and Henis came in, as well, to stand on either side of Arga at the front of the group.
Jeannie blinked hard to keep tears at bay. All these people had come to champion her? It was no small thing for the Risnarish, who revered their elders and leaders, to have shown up to demonstrate they supported her.
Her heart was too full to admit fear now. Hahz had accepted her as one of their own.
Notlin looked over the crowd that filled half the room. She rose to her feet and touched her hand to her chest. “From my spirit to yours, I see you, Risnarish of Hahz. And you, Bonch,” she added, nodding with respect to Henis. “Do you have one who will speak for all of you?”
Arga took a step forward. “From my spirit to yours, Elder Notlin and respected members of the Assembly, I extend the wish of tranquility for all your lives. I, Arga Enrihahz Bolep, speak for the villagers of Hahz.”
“Speak on, Arga Enrihahz.”
“We extend our gratitude for your sufferance. Besides those you see here, there are many more whose duties do not allow them to come. They offer their names to our numbers.”
“This Assembly recognizes them all. Speak on, Arga Enrihahz.”
He took a deep breath, clearly overwhelmed to be addressing the Assembly. When he glanced at Jeannie, she gave him a trembling smile, overcome by his courage and friendship. Overcome by all of them, who dared to face their elders. Arga nodded to her and glanced again at Notlin. He spoke, his voice strong, carrying to be heard by all. “We have come to know the Earthling Jeannie, who was kidnapped by the Monsuda for horrible experimentation. In knowing her, in speaking with her every day, we are certain she is sentient. We believe she is a real being not created by our enemy.” He took another deep breath. “We know without a doubt that she is of the Spirit, made by that which created us all. We insist that Jeannie Gardner of Earth is no different from the Risnarish in the eyes of the All-Spirit.”
He stood still after his speech, anxious but defiant as he stared at the Assembly.
The Nine stared at him, at the gathered villagers, at Kren, who had stepped close to her, then at Jeannie herself. They glanced at each other. At last Notlin addressed the crowd, her lips curled in a soft smile.
“The Assembly hears you, Risnarish of Hahz. Your words as spoken by Arga Enrihahz have reached our ears, and we thank you for sharing your counsel. All you have said will be considered with the other evidence gathered.”
She addressed Jeannie. “You have won the friendship of many. Do you know what a gift this is, Earthling?”
The tears Jeannie had held back escaped and spilled down her cheeks. She beamed through the emotion and managed to answer. “The greatest gift I’ve ever been given, Elder Notlin. One I cannot express enough gratitude to the Risnarish of Hahz for.”
Notlin gazed at her for a moment longer, a hint of wonder on her otherwise tranquil expression. Then she addressed everyone. “We will deliver our decision when all medical results have been received.”
With that, the examination was adjourned.
* * *
“Do you want to visit with Mekay and Gurnal?” Kren asked Jeannie as they left the temple, stepping out into the cool but comfortable sunshine. “Or go to my dome?”
“I’m too tired for studying at Mekay’s and too wound up to hang out alone at your place,” Jeannie said after considering the matter. “Can I go to the enforcement dome with you? I’ll stay out of the way.”
Kren lifted her into his dartwing. “You’re never in the way. I can’t say you won’t be bored there too, but you’re welcome.”
Jeannie was glad to stay with him. Being in Kren’s presence soothed her after the emotional upheaval of the questioning. Even with all the villagers showing up in support, she felt vulnerable.
Once they reached the enforcement dome, the other officers greeted Jeannie with cheers. “Can you believe it?” asked Chal, his grin bright. “The Assembly let us speak on your behalf. They listened.”
“Leaders who don’t listen are not leaders for long,” Kren said. “Mekay told me that some time ago.”
Arga’s expression showed his relief. “Still, it’s no small thing to confront them. I wasn’t disrespectful, was I?”
“You were assertive but proper,” Kren assured him. He regarded Arga with a strange expression. Kren looked grateful to his partner, but she detected concern as well. “May we speak alone for a moment?” he asked Arga.
“Of course.”
Kren smiled a Jeannie. “I’ll be right back. No doubt Nex has a dozen more questions to ask you since the last time you two spoke.” He tipped his ear to the eagerly waiting officer who could never rein in his scientific curiosity.
Jeannie grinned at the olive man with brown stripes. “I always have time for Nex. His interrogations are far less stressful than the Assembly’s.”
However, she glanced at Kren and Arga as they retreated to a quiet area to talk with whispered intensity. To be a fly on the wall for that conversation.
* * *
“Speaking to the Assembly on Jeannie’s behalf as you did was amazing,” Kren told his friend. “And brave.”
“It had to be done. I won’t pretend I wasn’t shaking on the inside, though. I can come on strong, and I worried I would show disrespect I didn’t feel.” Arga heaved a breath and offered a weak laugh.
“You did wonderfully. As always, you sell yourself short when it comes to your abilities. From my spirit to yours, thank you.”
Arga looked at him knowingly. “You didn’t bring me over here just to offer gratitude.”
“But I did. If the Assembly finds for Jeannie’s spirit, we won’t be in so much of a rush to attack the hive. You put her ahead of your campaign to recover Retav. Are you really so intent on going in there alone?”
His friend’s expression turned level. “I told you, I won’t chance the lives of others on what’s probably a fool’s mission. Including our Earthling friend.”
“If it’s a fool’s mission, you shouldn’t chance it. Retav would not approve.”
“Kren—” Arga held his arms out, as if he would gather the answers from the air. “I have lost the first person who meant anything to me. Retav guided me through all my years. If I had a Gurnal as Mekay does, or a Jeannie as you do, perhaps I would have something to fill the hole he left behind.”
“You have your friends. You have me. Are we not brothers in our hearts and Spirit?” It was a losing argument, yet Kren couldn’t keep from trying.
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