by Bertina Mars
That moment suspended in free fall was a shock; Lana didn’t even manage to scream before she crash-landed. This landing however, was much more comfortable than the one that had brought her to the mercies of Akketon.
Lana landed in thickly cushioned puddle of smooth, heavy silks. The man really was a Viking – all that was needed was a massive broad sword and furs instead of silk sheets.
Visigoth…
Suddenly, Akketon was stretching his body over hers and Lana found herself somewhere between nervous and the beginnings of arousal.
However, Akketon went no further than to frame her body beneath his; his arms were braced on either side of her head as he stared down into her eyes intently. As his large body rested over hers, Lana could feel a rigid, substantial length hidden.
Akketon watched as she licked her lips nervously. Leaning in close, Akketon whispered softly, his lips grazing her cheek, feathering over her creamy, soft skin, “I have never had a female drive me so completely out of my mind.”
He turned his face to nuzzle her jaw more obviously. Shadows were heavy in his chambers as there were storms brewing in the iridescent skies over the sprawling citadel he had claimed; the shifting, muted light played over Lana’s misleadingly delicate features. When he lifted away, just enough to stare down at her; Akketon found the woman’s eyes wide as she stared up at him.
“I want to truly touch you, feel your lips with mine,” his voice hung between them, soft as the misty haze that hung about the planet at twilight. Akketon was pleased with the interest he saw, glowing like star embers, behind the cautiousness he saw in her eyes.
He lowered his body, just enough so that Lana would feel the hint of heat radiating from his flesh – he had been burning for her, long before her small ship had been reduced to rubble in the valley below.
Akketon could see it, she could feel the heat rising between them – she was contributing to the heavy cloud of lust as much as he.
“I bet that your lips are as soft as these silks and sweeter than the nectars this planet brews into libations.” He was careful to move slowly as he lowered his mouth to hers.
“I want to taste you. To know for sure. To savor what I am sure will be the headiest taste I have ever put my tongue to. Will you let me?”
Before she could answer, Akketon stroked her lips with his tongue, barely touching the full curves of her lips. He heard her breath catch in her throat, and noticed the hue of her rounded cheeks warm beneath his gaze.
His sex strained – his shaft trusting hard against his belly within the confines of his leg-clothes, throbbing as he stalwartly kept his skin just far enough from hers that they only touched when they took a breath in unison.
He wanted her to admit her desire, for if he put his mouth to hers; he feared that he would not be able to stop until he had completely possessed Lana’s entire body.
So soft he almost missed it, her voice breezed between them. “Yes.” The instant the affirmation passed her lips, Lana’s hands lifted to his chest as though to fight against him once more.
Instead, her fingers fisted in the thin cloth of his tunic and her breasts began to heave more noticeably with the increased draw of her breath. A smile flitted across his face, an almost savage tilt of his lips.
“I bet that I could devour you, my little off-world captive,” he told her as his head lowered once more, allowing a modicum of hunger to taint the low cadence of his voice. “Touch you. I want to touch you. So much so that my body vibrates with the need.”
Akketon took the chance; he wanted her to think of him, to burn with him. He wanted the blaze between them to fully ignite and sear them both till there was nothing left but their fames.
His lips covered hers, doubtless bruising in the intensity; his tongue slipped between to tangle with her own, taking advantage of her gasp. He demanded she return the caress. He conquered – licking and stroking reveling in her hesitant, yet increasing response.
Lana was wary. Though Akketon could tell that she felt the heat pulsing between them, she wouldn’t yield. She was curious enough to permit the embers between them to smolder.
She shifted beneath him, arched almost imperceptibly, her body slowly tightening. Lana was trying to control the fire between them, to assess it before she might give in to him, to them.
Akketon struggled to convince himself that the fact he could sense the need within her would be enough for that instant. All the while he hoped that she would yield…soon.
His lips drifted from hers, stroked over her throat and his tongue danced over her tender skin, willing the heat to build between them. Akketon shifted his body over hers, allowing his weight to settle against her, to push the beautiful female deeper into the cushion of the silks.
Her breasts pressed into his chest, he could feel her nipples peaked through the layers of fabric between them. Balancing on one arm, Akketon slipped the other beneath Lana, lifting her and holding her to him.
Suddenly, the embers within her appeared to burst into a merry blaze. Her tongue tangled with his. Her hands grasped at him, sliding over his arms, his shoulders, his chest; they played over the edge of his tunic, where fabric met flesh.
Akketon knew he was losing his mind to the mating of their mouths – the fire soon to evolve into an inferno within him. The flames of sensation searing, ravaging his control with greedy lust until he heard the hard tattoo of boot heels on stone floor, the only warning before the door of his chamber crashed inward as a crowd of warriors flooded the doorway, laughing uproariously at some joke. Their presence effectively doused the lust that had been growing in the lovely female beneath him on the bed.
Frustrated, Akketon lifted his body from Lana’s before rising from the bed to stand between the now silent warriors and his lush captive, whose charms he would now have to wait to sample and savor.
Taking a deep breath, his violent gaze focusing on his closest companion, “Is there something that you need?” His voice was tight; he had a need of his own that was now beyond reach for the time being. “Something that required all of you storm my chambers?”
The eyes of all the interlopers went wide as the warriors desperately struggled to come up with an answer, all but Varan that is. Varan gave Akketon a smarmy smirk before his gaze drifted from Akketon’s face to just over his shoulder.
Akketon heard the faint click of the latch as the side door was shut. Lana had slipped from the room – his chance had slipped away like smoke. A snarl slipped past his lips, causing the men to hastily back up; he grimaced at the building desperation of his need. He was starving for more.
Lana felt her entire body heat; every inch of skin from her chest to her cheeks was flushed. Surely embarrassment, she tried to assure herself. However, the liquid heat gathered, pooling between her thighs, slick silky need, told her that that thought was a lie.
Her response to the arrogant, domineering, ‘gods-gift’ Akketon had been as hard and shocking as the rigid, large bulge of his erection that had been braced against her belly.
Now she was wandering through the halls of the fortress, looking for some sense of inner calm. As she wandered, she came across a group of strange looking beings – beings that she hadn’t seen before.
On a whim, she tried the language she had deciphered back on Earth through Pursad’s transmissions and found that it was the natural language of these beings.
“Hello, I’m Lana.”
“I am called Galta,” one of the strangely amphibious looking beings replied.
“So this is your language?” Lana asked.
“Yes. The warriors that conquered us a moon cycle ago can speak it well enough, though not as well as you.”
“Wait…the warriors, they conquered you?”
“Yes, they aren’t horrible though. Actually, they are in some ways more courteous to us than our own.”
“But you are the original race of this planet?” Lana asked once more, desperate to confirm before she freaked out.
“Yes.�
�� Galta affirmed once more.
“Then how can they understand what I say?”
“Because their race utilizes translation implants – it has proven convenient…Wait, where are you going?” Galta’s final question echoed through the hall as Lana fled.
Chapter 5
She had to get off the planet; even if it cost Lana her life, it was a price she was willing to pay to escape. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, she slipped past the guards at the gates leading out of the courtyard. Lana knew that her timing had to be spot on – if she didn’t slip away soon enough she would be missed at the evening gathering and wouldn’t have enough time before they caught up to her.
However, if she left too early someone would doubtless spot her. So she waited – internally feeling the time slip away. Finally, an opening came and she slipped into the demolished city that sat just outside the massive wall.
She kept off the stone pathways as much as possible – striving to stay as quiet as she could in the twilight. Raspett didn’t have a consistent lunar cycle, so while the previous night had been fairly well lit, whereas tonight was dark. Quiet.
Lana navigated the city like a shadow. It took her longer because she couldn’t take the most direct route, but she didn’t stray too far. It would be bad if she got lost.
When she was finally close enough – and out of alleyways – to the field on the outskirts of the city Lana stepped onto the wide path, this far from the wall the path was ‘paved’ with sand.
The instant her feet had touched the sand, Lana bolted. She took off running; she knew that every instant she was out in the open odds that she would be caught increased.
As she tore across to the ships, Lana realized that they were not parked on a field, but rather a tarmac. She considered the possibility that all of the ships would still be guarded or even worse impossible to access.
If anything, Lana hoped that the ships would only be monitored by guards. Faced with the possible need for a diversion, Lana plotted as she ran, occasionally feeling the sensation that time was out – she ignored it.
---
He had gone looking for her, but she was nowhere to be found. Akketon’s agitation grew, and was threatening to spill out; noticing the imminent threat when he had waked into the last room Akketon searched, Varan had dragged Akketon from the citadel to check the series of courtyards and gardens. Even Varan became concerned when after searching; Lana was still to be unfound.
Knowing that panic would not help him, Akketon tiled back his head. As he stared at the black sky that extra sense – the one that had forewarned Akketon of Lana’s arrival – tingled. Akketon closed his eyes and focused. He opened his mind and sent his senses flying beyond the wall surrounding the Citadel.
Varan knew that he was the only one that Akketon would abandon all of his defenses in front of in order to use the gift that the female who had born him had instilled in Akketon’s genetic makeup.
Because Akketon was always focused on his target, he had never realized that using his sweeping sensory powers had a physical manifestation. It was as if a net of innumerable threads burst from Akketon’s body. Feelers searching for answers.
When Akketon’s eyes suddenly opened, Varan knew that his friend had found the female. A female that Varan was starting to suspect to be Akketon’s mate.
“She is close to the Raspettian ship bay.” Varan stared at Akketon for an instant in just dumbfounded surprise.
“We better hurry. Those things are not to be played with.”
“I know – they’re as bad as their creators.”
---
The ships were guarded. Guards had clustered into groups around and in between the ships that were much more advanced than the one that had brought Lana to this planet.
However, there was one, set apart from the others that Lana felt confident she could sneak over to. Even better, that ship had an obviously visible access hatch.
There were a number of small metal tubes spearing out of the ground around the ships. Lana silently approached one such tube and discovered it was a ship as well – a single person vessel.
While Lana had no idea how to pilot the small ship, she didn’t dare think of facing a trek back to Earth in such a small craft. However, Lana could make use of the pod-like ship. It would provide a diversion, so that she could sneak close enough to find a way onto the larger ship.
As she stood there formulating a plan, Lana found the release to open the hatch of the small ship. She looked around and saw a button that had a marking on it that looked remarkably like fire, so Lana figured that it would do something obvious when pressed.
Lana glanced over her shoulder at the ship she was targeting, gauging the distance between it and her present position. Taking a deep breath, Lana reached out and depressed the fire emblem. She had been right – there was an immediate result.
The small ship suddenly started to vibrate violently – it vibrated itself free of the ground that held it and fell into three others. The loud clanging jolted Lana into action and she hauled over to the ship she hoped to commandeer.
Lana counted down the seconds, one…two…three – there they are. The guards had arrived to investigate. Their yelling afforded Lana the cover to fumble with the access panel into the larger ship.
It didn’t take Lana long to figure out how to open the access panel and pull herself through it into the belly of the ship. She wiggled between pipes and hoses until she found a section of what she assumed to be flooring that would lift free.
Feeling like an earthworm, Lana maneuvered her body through the gap of the floor paneling, finding herself in what could only be described as a cargo hold in the small ship.
She spun in a circle and saw a doorway that led deeper into the ship.
---
Akketon was running. He was fast too – it hadn’t taken him long to tear through the decimated city. He had nearly reached the collection of ships and already he could hear the happenings of a commotion.
He saw a number of warriors gathered around a grouping of terrestrial pods that had fallen over, but he never made it over to them to see if Lana had attempted to take of the small pods for her escape.
The Raspettian ship actually capable of travel beyond the confines of the planet closest to the collapsed pods suddenly came to life. Flames of launch appeared, and the ship jerked. It was still locked in place.
Lana hadn’t realized that the ship was practically bolted down. The Raspettian creators had loved playing with mechanical intelligence, but there were times that the amphibians had gone too far with their creations. Such had happened with their ships. If the crafts were not locked in place when not in use, they would disappear.
Lana again tried to launch the ship causing the hull to begin to crack as the vice dug in, forcing it to remain on the ground. The ship whined and ground against the clamps, but it didn’t move.
Many of the men whose attentions were now focused on the ship fighting to launch would say that Akketon flew, that his feet didn’t touch the ground as he raced over to the now damaged ship. He was afraid that it would incur too much damage and catch ablaze
---
It worked! Lana was ecstatic at the success of her diversion. Lana found the controls of the ship and threw herself into the chair before the controls, and took a deep breath. As she willed her heart to slow, Lana started hitting the most logical seeming buttons, hoping to bring the ship to life. After a few minutes of fumbling, it appeared that she had succeeded.
Lana heard the engines heat up. Grasping the steering controls, Lana pulled back on them, hoping that such an action would point the nose of the ship skyward and ultimately launch the vessel to the stars. But when the ship shifted, she heard an odd sound.
Lana turned in the seat, but couldn’t figure out where the new, low whine was coming from. She tried pulling back on the steering and this time the noise was much louder – no longer a whine but the unmistakable grind of metal shearing against meta
l.
Fuck! Lana struggled to control her scream as her failure became apparent. Then there was another shearing sound. This one came from behind her, from what Lana had realized was the actual access into the ship. As she considered pressing her body into the space beneath the controls console, the ship’s door was ripped away.
What the… Lana stared at the now gaping hole and Akketon, his body framed by the jaggedly ripped metal. She heard a clank and realized he had dropped the metal door to the ground.
Though the logical part of her brain tried to reject the suggestion, Lana knew that Akketon had just ripped the door and part of its framing from the body of the hull of the ship – with his bare hands.
Akketon stepped in through the gaping hole and straightened, rose to his full height. He stared down at Lana, anger swirling violently in his eyes; she remained frozen to the spot. His gaze bore into her own as he strode forward. His face was hard; the cerulean eyes practically glowed with his fury.
Generally, Lana had a normal, healthy flight or fight response; unfortunately, fleeing wasn’t an option, so she lashed out at the man she blamed for her circumstances, reaching for anything she might be able to use to inflict injury.
Akketon was suddenly in front of her, so close that she could feel the angry heat emanating off his skin. He seized her in his arms and she struggled.
---
Lana was wild as she fought, she reached out and using unexpected strength, managed to swing one of the auxiliary control panels – apparently one of the scientists that had built the ship forgot to firmly fix it in its moorings – at his head. She missed, and instead the equipment bounced off his shoulder.
Akketon could take the abuse and did so; he wouldn’t hurt her. But she was mad and was posing a challenge as he worked to restrain her. Akketon minded his strength as he grasped her wrists in his hands and worked to pin her ankles to the control panel with his thighs.