Heart of Stone

by Regine Abel

  And now I would never have the chance to see them again.

  After an uneventful flight, I got off the plane, famished, itching for a shower, and a warm bed to cuddle in next to my man. But we weren’t there yet. To my relief, Mr. Murdock, the owner of the cabin we had reserved in the Nahanni National Park, was already there, waiting near the waterdrome, despite our slightly early arrival. He gave me a ride to the cabin located barely thirty minutes away by car.

  This area was unbelievable. Under different circumstances, I would have loved to spend some time hiking and camping here with Alkor. Mr. Murdock gave me a quick tour of the three bedroom cabin, its large wooden patio in the front overlooking the lake with an incredible view of the great outdoors.

  Naturally, he wondered at me being up here by myself in this big place, with no means of transportation. I pretended to be a writer in desperate need of isolation to finish a novel I’d been struggling with by the end of the month. As per my request, he’d filled the fridge and cupboards with enough food to last me a little over a week. We agreed he would return on the first of November for a tour of the premises and to take me back to the waterdrome. Despite his kindness, I couldn’t have been more relieved when he finally left.

  No sooner had his car started driving away than Alkor’s arms closed around me, and his camouflage deactivated.

  “We did it,” I whispered.

  “We did it,” he repeated, nuzzling my neck.

  “Did you see anyone?” I asked.

  “No. Nobody trailed us, and I found no agents lurking nearby. I will keep checking every day, but for now, we appear to be in the clear.”

  “From your lips to God’s ears,” I said, turning around in his embrace. “Seven days. Seven days and it will finally be over.”

  “Seven days and I will take you to your new home,” Alkor said before capturing my lips.

  15

  Alkor

  I watched Brianna taking a dip in the lake, my stomach twisting with anxiety. Khargals didn’t do well in the water; we sank like rocks. As she glided effortlessly through the water, images long buried in my memory came back to the surface. My crewmates bruised, battered, and those severely injured by the crash, fighting against the violent current attempting to drag us to our deaths. So many wasted lives.

  Five days had gone by since our arrival. Five days of peace. Five days of anxious waiting. My instincts had been growing increasingly unsettled, the sense of impending doom weighing heavily on me.

  The calm before the storm.

  However, I’d been saying that since our arrival, and nothing had happened. Maybe I was overthinking things, as always. And yet…

  I didn’t hide my relief when only a few seconds after going in—although they felt like forever—Brianna climbed out of the lake, like a water nymph. She strutted towards me, her dark hair plastered to her shoulders. I rushed to her with a towel, hating that she’d gone into such cold water, even for a second. But she had this thing about how Finnish people would go from the sauna into the cold, then back into the sauna. We didn’t have one of those here, just a hot tub on the far side of the patio from which she had just stepped out moments ago.

  Brianna gladly accepted the towel and smacked my behind before running back to the Jacuzzi. With the sun already setting on the horizon, I felt a little less worried about walking around without my disguise on, especially considering I’d done another perimeter patrol only moments prior. It still worried me that we were a relatively short driving distance from the waterdrome. But at least, any car driving up here would be easy to detect.

  I helped my female into the hot tub before joining her. Any doubt that my dassa had enhanced Brianna had vanished since our arrival in the Northwest Territories. Despite growing up in Montreal where winters could be fairly harsh, my woman had never been too keen on the cold, wearing layers upon layers of clothes at the first signs of a brisk wind. But now, like me, the cold barely seemed to bother her. That dip in the river should have had her turning blue within seconds, but the frozen water had barely nipped at her.

  Still, it had been enough for her nipples to harden, and her perky breasts to tighten. As I sat next to her in the Jacuzzi, my tail wrapped around her knee, spreading her leg wider before trailing a path up her inner thigh. Brianna’s lips parted. I chuckled at the way she eyed my tail warily.

  Up until now, I’d never brought it into play. But our conversation with her father, and the past five days together in what could have been deemed a lovers’ retreat, had built my confidence that she truly cared for me and wanted me with all my differences. Gratitude and hero worship didn’t drive her desire to be with me.

  Still, my shoulders tensed as I spied her reaction while my tail wormed its way to the seam of her pussy, the rounded tip caressing her slit in a slow up and down motion. She inhaled a sharp breath, the muscles of her stomach contracting. Her blue eyes darkened as I accelerated the motion of my tail, and my right palm closed around the perky globe of her left breast. Drawing her face to mine with my free hand on her nape, I captured her lips in a passionate kiss. She moaned, her legs parting wider to grant me greater access.

  Gladly accepting the underlying invitation, I pushed the tip of my tail inside her. Although of a smaller girth than my cock, I penetrated Brianna carefully to avoid hurting her. She gasped, and I swallowed her next moan only to utter one of my own when her dainty fingers wrapped around my shaft. Breaking the kiss, my lips trailed along her jawline to that delectable little earlobe, which I greedily sucked on. I accelerated the movement of my tail inside my woman, trying to ignore the fire in my groin growing with each stroke of her hand on my cock.

  Letting go of her breast, I reached between her legs, my fingers rubbing her engorged clitoris. She cried out, her back arching against the side of the Jacuzzi. My mating glands swelled, and I didn’t hold back, gladly welcoming the burning flow of my dassa spreading through me.

  My fangs ached with the need to inject my female with my essence. Biting wasn’t necessary to bond our mates. My dassa mingled with all my body fluids. But the urge to bite had been a hereditary trait in my family and not an uncommon one with many other bloodlines. And now, as my mate neared the edge, I sank my fangs into the tender flesh of her shoulder, injecting her with my dassa in its purest form, sending her tumbling over in a whirlwind of ecstasy. Even as she cried out my name, her body shaking with spasms of pleasure, I reveled in the blissful pleasure of the bite.

  As Brianna started to come down from her high, I pulled out my tail and, drawing my woman onto my lap, I impaled her on my cock. Clenching my teeth at the exquisite tightness of her sheath squeezing me from all sides, I pressed her slender body to mine, caressing her soft skin while she adjusted to my girth. Our lips met again, and she shuddered as the tingling heat of my dassa invaded her mouth. I intended to renew that bond often, to strengthen her and extend my mate’s life to match the 1600 years that still remained to my own lifespan.

  I started pumping in and out of her, hissing with pleasure as my mate clawed my back and nipped at my chest and shoulders. Each of her gentle bites sent bolts of lust straight to my groin. Brianna had begun doing that since we’d bonded. I didn’t think she realized it, no doubt acting on an instinct she’d inherited from me. I wanted her to sink her teeth harder, which she’d subconsciously started doing as well. Her nails had hardened, giving me a most delicious burn every time she raked them alongside my spine. In time, I believed she’d develop retractable claws like mine.

  Water bubbled and splashed around us as I increased the pace. Her burning skin rubbing against mine also hardened ever so slightly, enhancing the sensation on each of my nerve endings. Brianna would never fully develop stone skin like mine, but I could already see she’d achieve partial levels for both defensive and pleasurable purposes. A few more pumps later, my mate fell apart, swept away by another orgasm. My release crashed over me as her inner walls clamped down on my cock. My seed erupted, the searing bliss of my dassa pouring
out into my woman, enhancing her climax, and bonding with her DNA. Soon, Brianna would be completely compatible with me.

  And, Lar willing, soon my seed would take root.

  My eyes snapped open seconds before the proximity alarm of my perimeter surveillance system went off. The sense of impending doom had stirred me out of my duramna. Shifting out of stone form, I reached for Brianna, still deeply asleep in the bed next to me. She startled awake, and I gestured for her to be quiet and to get dressed. Eyes widened with fear, she nodded and swiftly got out of bed. Despite my worry, I smiled internally, watching her move around the room quietly and efficiently, not realizing she hadn’t turned on the light; my mate no longer needed it.

  Having taken the habit of sleeping in full armor, I shoved my feet into my boots, a gift from Lana who had them specially made to replicate my former ones, which had fallen to pieces after decades of use. While Khargal feet didn’t look radically different from a human’s, normal shoes didn’t really fit our greater width.

  I fetched my tablet linked to the motion detectors, which I’d configured to ignore the occasional wildlife that lurked in the vicinity of the cabin. A quick look at my screen showed five intruders. They’d believed themselves cunning by sneaking up from the woods behind the house rather than coming up the road.

  “Stay inside,” I whispered to Brianna in that sub-human hearing voice, more grateful than ever that she could perceive it. Although the men were still one hundred meters away from the house, they could have some long-range listening device.

  “Alkor, don’t go out!” she pleaded.

  “It is better I take out the ones that are isolated rather than have to deal with all five together,” I said in a pressing tone, eager to get to them before they got to us. “They will have weapons and possibly those sleeping darts again. If they get me, we’re both done for.” I kissed her, silencing the arguments rising on her lips. “I promise to return,” I said before going into stealth mode and making a swift exit through the patio door.

  Closing the door behind me, I turned the outer layers of my skin to stone, both as extra protection against projectiles, but also to make myself invisible to infrared in case they used it. The extra weight immediately affected my dexterity and speed. Flying around the side of the house and into the woods, my enhanced vision allowed me to zero in on one of the two, somewhat isolated men. Among the five, I recognized Stephen and Daniel with a third man I didn’t know. The other two men flanking the sides were also unfamiliar to me.

  Like a bird of prey, I swooped down on the man on the left, snapping his neck in a fly-by. He collapsed to the ground, dead, never realizing what had befallen him. Gliding around to the opposite side, I intended to repeat the same tactic with the other isolated man, but some kind of bird, also swooping down straight in my path, bumped against my wing. Its panicked cry drew the attention of my intended prey who saw the bird tumbling over the invisible platform of my spread wings. On instinct, the human ducked, moments before my hands could reach for him. Frustrated, I shed my stone skin for speed, then flew a short distance before circling back. Still a bit stunned, the bird recovered and flew off just as my target started running towards his companions, raising the alarm.

  Flapping my wings with a vengeance, I dipped down and spread them wide. Adjusting to his height, I flew past him, the sharp edge at the top of my wing neatly beheading him. With an enraged cry at the sight of their fallen comrade, Stephen and Daniel dashed towards the cabin while their remaining acolyte fired darts at me. I rolled out of its path, raising my wrist in front of me, the rectangular energy shield forming just in time to block the next ones he shot in a continuous barrage, dart guns in both hands. My shield flickered, the darts’ devastating effects against it quickly unraveling it.

  Still flying, I shot towards him, smashing the weapons out of his hands with my shield. Without slowing down, I snagged him by the back of his shirt. Despite the pain he no doubt felt in his hand—that could be broken for all I knew considering the strength of the blow—he tried to hang on to my forearm, screaming as I gained height and circled back around the cabin. My shield fully collapsed as I closed in on the cabin. Blind fury descended over me as Daniel used a patio chair to smash through the French doors, while Stephen was forcing the lock on the front door with some kind of special tool.

  With a roar, I hurled the man with all my strength in the general direction of the river and dove towards the house, as both men charged inside. Brianna’s half-frightened, half-enraged scream chilled me to the bone. I landed on the porch just in time to see my mate swinging a long, wooden staff at Stephen with a superhuman speed and strength that forced him to back away as he tried to shelter himself from the relentless blows.

  Daniel ran towards her, dart gun raised with his left hand, his right one rendered useless by a finger splint—the fracture no doubt resulting from our encounter at the Belvedere. I charged, slamming him into the wall. Seizing the opportunity off Brianna’s momentary distraction upon seeing me, Stephen disarmed my mate before backhanding her. I roared once again, and raised my fist to crush Daniel’s face just as something sharp stung my left side. My fist punched a hole through the brick wall by the fireplace as Daniel ducked, readying to shoot me again. I slammed my fist on his wrist, breaking it, and yanked out the dart embedded right above my hip. I cursed myself for not having turned my skin to stone again, but it would have made me too slow.

  Ignoring the tingle slowly spreading through my right side, I bashed Daniel’s head against the half-broken wall, cracking the back of his skull open. His eyes rolled back as he collapsed to the ground. Stephen’s grunt of pain had my head snapping towards them. He shook his hand as if he’d hurt himself. Brianna threw a punch in his direction. He dodged and instinctively punched back, connecting solidly with her left cheek. The agent cried out and stumbled back, holding his wrist to his chest. My woman’s head had barely jerked under the impact, her soft skin having taken the greyish tinge of stone, although not the full texture.

  My beautiful mate!

  With an angry scream akin to a war cry, Brianna threw herself at Stephen. He tried to push her away, but she swiped her hand towards his face. Instead of the retaliation I’d expected and had intended to intercept, Stephen stumbled back, his good hand flying to his neck. I watched with morbid fascination as his life’s blood poured out of him. Snarling, Brianna leveled him with a hard, vicious stare. In that instant, she could have been channeling my dam—a true warrior goddess the enemy had been foolish to underestimate.

  His eyes glazing over, Stephen fell to his knees before toppling to the side. As her adrenalin levels dropped, and the battle rage drained from her system, Brianna blinked and took a couple of steps away from her victim. Horror descended upon her features as she realized the finality of what she had done.

  “You defended yourself, my mate,” I said, fighting the fatigue which threatened to settle over me. “It was you or him. You didn’t cause this. He did.”

  I came to stand in front of Stephen’s corpse, breaking her line of sight. Brianna looked up at me, her body shaking. Drawing her into my embrace, I caressed my mate’s hair, the soft skin of her cheeks—now back to normal—pressing against my chest.

  “We must leave, my love,” I said, my foggy mind racing as to where we could go. It would be another day before October 31st, but we couldn’t stay here.

  “They will send backup when they don’t hear from them,” she whispered.

  “Yes.”

  Something in my voice had given me away. Brianna’s head jerked up, and she studied my face, a frown giving her gentle features a sterner expression.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked. Pulling away from me, she examined me from head to toe. “Are you hurt?”

  “Not hurt, but one of the darts got me,” I admitted reluctantly. “I don’t know how long I can stay awake. I’m losing the battle. We need to get as far away from here as possible before I collapse.”

  Without a word, Brianna
turned around and hurried to grab her bag, shoving into it what few items still mattered, mainly Khargal technology.

  “They must have come by car,” she said, running to the kitchen, pretending not to see the two corpses on the ground. “I can drive while you recover.”

  Brianna quickly packed a few things to eat while I rummaged through the men’s pockets for the keys. Neither had them. I prayed to Lar that the man I’d tossed into the river didn’t have them. Even if he’d landed in the water, the force of the impact would have likely knocked him out if not flat-out broken his bones. By now, he would have either sunk to the depths, or more likely been carried away by the current.

  Our only hope rested on the two other men in the woods. As soon as Brianna finished donning her coat, I picked her up in my arms and flew to the first man I had slain. His broken neck would make for a far less gruesome sight than the one I had beheaded. To my relief, he had the keys. Considering the coldness of the night, the men wouldn’t have parked too far away. Flying in the direction of the motion detector they had triggered, I surveyed the land, not daring to fly too high in case I crashed. The drug was weakening me way too quickly, and while I would survive the fall, my mate might not.

  “There,” Brianna said, after a minute airborne.

  I didn’t see it at first, my vision blurred from the effects of the drug, but flew blindly in the direction she pointed. As I closed the distance, I finally made out the outline of the dark vehicle. I’d never felt so vulnerable and useless, relying on my mate to look out for other potential enemies lurking nearby.

  Just like all those years ago during my first flight, my wings suddenly gave up, wariness overwhelming me. Brianna screamed as we plummeted towards the ground. Holding on to her tightly, I managed to turn us around, landing on my back with a heavy thud, but transferring some of the momentum into a roll. We stopped less than gracefully nearly ten meters from the vehicle—which turned out to be some kind of minivan.