• 21 •
Alerio walked into the Outpost infirmary, his steps heavy, his mind a stew of pain, anger, and confusion. Not to mention dread. He wasn’t looking forward to what he had to do, but he’d never ducked an unpleasant duty in his life, and he wasn’t about to start now. Which was why he was escorting Dona himself, rather than delegating the job.
The infirmary was dimly lit this time of day. A circular room ringed by medical offices, it took up one entire level of the Outpost. For once, there were only a couple of glowing patient domes arranged around the room. Each dome held a bed inside a sterile field designed to both protect the patient from infection and maintain privacy. Sensor data flickered across the fields—body temp, blood pressure, heart rate.
Dr. Sakari Chogan stepped out of one of the domes, the expression on her pretty face dispirited. Her iridescent green hair was gathered up into an untidy knot on top of her head, and her blue medical robes flared around her booted ankles.
“How is she?” Alerio said.
Chogan tucked a stylus into her hair in an absent gesture. “Considering Frieka tried to rip her throat out, pretty damn good. The damage to her wrist has regenerated nicely.” She shook her head. “But emotionally . . . Well, some things not even regen can cure.”
“Given that she’s a traitor, I don’t particularly care,” Alerio lied.
The doctor gave him a long, steady look that succeeded in making him feel even more like an idiot. “Anyway,” she said, “Enforcer Astryr is all yours. You can take her to the brig with a clear conscience.”
He set his teeth. “Thank you, Doctor.” Without another word, he stepped into the globe.
Dona looked up from sealing her bright yellow prisoner’s uniform. Her face was white and utterly expressionless, but her eyes . . . The devastation and silent accusation in that violet gaze felt like a blow to the center of his aching chest.
His hands curled into fists of angry frustration. Damn her for putting him in this position anyway. “Let’s go.”
Dona squared her shoulders and started past him, then paused and looked up into his eyes. Hers were steady, without any flicker of deception. “I didn’t do it, Chief. And considering how easy it would be to fake a recording like that, I can’t believe you bought it.”
“As I told you, I checked the image out thoroughly,” he gritted, goaded into a reply. “It tested as genuine.”
Dona curled a lip. “If you checked it with the Outpost computer, I’m not surprised. Corydon has been gunning for me since he arrived. Looks like he finally figured out how to get me.”
He snorted. “Alex Corydon doesn’t have the skills to fake a recording like that, much less make it appear genuine. I checked his personnel file. That man couldn’t hack a vendser into producing a cheese sandwich.”
“Then with all due respect, sir, how did he resurrect a recording he claims I erased? Do you really think I’m that incompetent?”
That was a damned good question. One that had been nagging at him like a sore tooth. “I don’t want to hear it, Astryr. Let’s go.” He reached for her elbow.
Ignoring his hand, she stalked out of the globe, her carriage erect as a queen’s. Grinding his teeth, Alerio followed.
Maybe he should have assigned a couple of Enforcers to escort duty after all.
Nick’s green eyes went narrow, and he started to turn away. “I have no intention of attempting a mind link at the moment.”
Fury stormed through Riane. She grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him around to face her again with the easy strength of a Warfem. “Wait just a damned minute. You demand I submit to some alien psychic procedure, then accuse me of being a bigot when I express doubts? Then get into a snit and stalk off when I do agree? I don’t think so!”
“I didn’t say we weren’t linking, period,” he said through gritted teeth, jerking free of her grip. “I said we’re not doing it now. I don’t want to try something that delicate involving your mind when I’m this pissed off.” He took a deep breath and blew it out, seeking control. “I need to calm down.”
“Yeah? I know just the thing.” Riane grabbed the back of his head, dragged it down, and took his mouth with all the fury storming through her. His mouth opened under the hard pressure of hers, with astonishment as much as anything else.
Then he started kissing her back.
It was a punishing kiss, just shy of savage on both sides, as much teeth as lip. Riane thrust her tongue into Nick’s mouth as he jerked her full against him. Even in her temper, she was aware of his sheer muscular strength, warm and firm.
Hooking a leg over his hip, Riane ground against him. To her angry pleasure, she could feel him hardening against her belly.
Nick groaned, then pulled away to meet her glare with a snarl. “I know what you’re doing. You’re going to get me hard and leave me aching.”
Riane stiffened. “I don’t play games like that.”
He glared down into her face in hot accusation. Then his gaze softened. “No, you don’t play games.” A ghost of despair flickered in those forest green eyes. “But you will leave me aching.”
This time he went for the kiss. The anger was gone, but she could still taste the pain. Pain that leached her own guilty anger away.
He cupped her head between his broad, strong hands. His lips brushed hers, clung, tasted. Seduced. His tongue slid along the seam of her lips. She opened for him, let him thrust deep, slow. Sighed at the rise of desire through her dying anger, like a flower blooming in the barren expanse of a cooling lava field.
Nick reached for the hem of her T-shirt and stripped it over her head. Her hands dragged at the soft fabric of his shirt, tugged it upward, and tossed it aside. Her fingers found warm, smooth skin. He unfastened the front clasp of her bra, and she let it slide down her arms. His palms cupped her breasts in tender warmth. Her head fell back with a moan as his mouth found her nipples, hot and greedy.
And incredible.
Nick licked. First back and forth over the reddening point, then in slow circles. Finally he started to suck, deep and hard, until pleasure swirled through her in hot, creamy waves. With a soft growl, he went to work on her pants, unsnapping, unzipping, tugging them down her legs.
Riane threaded her hands into his long, dark hair, enjoying the silken texture against her fingers, pulling him even closer.
She rose up on her toes with a startled gasp when one long finger found its way into her sex. He pumped slowly, raking his thumb across her clit. The combined pleasure of his mouth and clever fingers made her writhe in delight.
Riane looked down to enjoy the lush sight of Nick making love to her breasts. He brought a kind of total attention to every flick of his tongue, as if he loved what he was doing for its own sake rather than as a necessary step to orgasm.
As Riane and Nick strained together, sparks poured from the Stone to swirl around them both. One flew into her side, and she gasped at the sudden hot delight. “Did you do that?”
He lifted his gaze to hers and managed a “Nope.” And immediately returned his mouth to her nipple, suckling with urgent hunger.
With every tug of his mouth, more sparks danced around them, zipped in and out, leaving hot, buzzing little points on her skin.
Nick dropped onto his heels, parted her sex with his fingers, and leaned in to lick. Riane moaned as his tongue danced, teasing her clit, thrusting between her lips. The whole time, he used the other hand to continue the long, spearing strokes of his fingers.
She closed her eyes, rolling her hips against his face, allowing herself to simply enjoy the sensation of his tongue, his hands, his mouth. The sparks circled them faster, zipping in and out.
Finally Nick drew away from her, his mouth wet from her juices, his eyes a glowing green. “Do you want me?”
“Mother Goddess, yes!” She bent over him as he knelt, diving for a deep, drawing kiss.
When he pulled away at last, he pushed her back to sit on the edge of the bed so he could untie her b
oots and pull off her leather pants. She watched him, her body buzzing with hunger. When he finally stood, she sat up fast, eager to free the thick ridge of his erection.
Nick was so hard, it was difficult to unfasten his jeans, but she was determined. Finally he spilled out into her hands, rosy, eager, and deliciously promising. She stroked him slowly, almost purring with anticipation, until he caught her wrists.
“Maybe . . . you might want to hold off on that.” He was breathing hard, his eyes glowing bright and green.
“Okay.” Grinning, Riane sprang off the bed and into his arms.
Nick caught her easily, laughing. “You don’t believe in playing hard to get, do you?”
“I don’t believe in playing, period.” She wrapped her long, bare legs around his waist as he positioned her over his cock. His hands felt big and warm on her backside.
They both sucked in a hard breath as he impaled her. “God, that feels good.” His head fell back, emerald eyes closing.
Riane growled in approval and leaned in to bite the strong cords of his throat in small, goading nibbles.
He chuckled. “Carnivore.”
She tightened the grip of her thighs and twined her arms around his neck, then used her strength to pump up and down on his cock.
Nick’s eyes widened. He tightened his grip on her butt and began to hunch back at her, matching her stroke for long, strong stroke.
Moaning in chorus, they worked his big erection in and out. Each thrust tugged and twisted her slick inner flesh, filling her, feeding the orgasm she could feel hovering just out of reach.
Riane breathed in hard, savoring the musk of male sweat and female arousal, enjoying the galloping erotic music of flesh slapping flesh, the mingled gasps and grunts and soft moans, the softly stinging whip of hair on bare skin. Hands that gripped her ass just shy of bruising, his hard, muscular shoulders going sweat-damp under her arms.
And the light of the Stone, glowing brighter and brighter, verdant sparks flying around them as if caught in a furious updraft, stinging, urging them on. Spiking the surging pleasure, building relentlessly.
His gaze met hers. The reflection of emerald sparks swirled in his eyes, catching her attention. Circling faster and faster, hypnotic. Her head grew light even as her orgasm gathered tighter and tighter.
Then, at last, it exploded.
His bellow echoed hers as they came together. Suddenly it seemed she could see herself out of his eyes, feel her own body gripping his cock, feel the hot spill of his climax.
And the spinning green light in his eyes dragged her in. Dimly, she felt him stagger, hit the edge of the bed with his thighs. His hands gripped, convulsively bracing her as they tumbled to the mattress.
The green blaze swirled their shared consciousness away.
Nick’s eyes were wide open, a solid sheet of green light, matching the emerald blaze of the Stone. Riane’s shone with the same pure blaze. Time ticked by with no movement except the synchronized rise and fall of their chests.
Finally, the nanobot unwrapped itself from the bead in Riane’s hair. Cautiously, it crept onto her face on its pseudopods, scanning them both with its microscopic sensors.
Neither so much as twitched.
Reassured, the nanobot turned and scuttled for the motel room window, moving with all the speed it could manage. The Xeran courier ’bot floated just outside, waiting to carry its message to the Victor.
• 22 •
Dona Astryr lay on the narrow bunk, staring sightlessly at the ceiling of her cell. It was a stark little chamber, so tiny its white walls seeming to crowd in on her. It held nothing more than the bunk, a sanitary unit, and the vendser that would produce food and water on a specific schedule.
There were no apparent bars across the empty doorway, but Dona knew better. An invisible repeller field would blow her across the room with a painful shock if she got too close to the opening.
As if that wasn’t enough, two Enforcers stood guard outside. One might think that was overkill, except somebody had broken Ivar out of the brig two weeks before. Agents had been injured in the raid, and the enemy’s self-destructing combots had blown craters in the floor. The damage had only just been repaired. So she supposed it was understandable that Chief Dyami would take precautions.
At the thought of the Chief, Dona’s chest ached with a deep, relentless throb. The really pitiful thing, she thought, was that the pain was not because she faced the likelihood of a long sentence in a penal colony if she was convicted of treason. It wasn’t even that her friends and coworkers thought she had betrayed them, risked their lives, and stranded her best friend in time.
No, she was hurt because Alerio Dyami thought she was a traitor. Alerio, who had been her obsession for entirely too damn long. She never would have gotten involved with Ivar to begin with if it hadn’t been for her commander.
There was no real question that he was as attracted to her as she was to him. That was just as obvious as his reluctance to get involved.
So in order to avoid yearning for a relationship that was obviously doomed, she’d ended up in one that had turned out to be downright toxic.
The question was, who had framed her? Normally she’d have assumed it was Corydon himself—he was fanatical enough to fake evidence if he couldn’t nail her any other way.
The trouble with that theory was that Alerio was right. Corydon simply didn’t have the ability to construct a frame tight enough to defeat the Chief’s ability to pull it apart.
There had to be another mole somewhere in the organization.
But how could she prove it? Alerio had ordered her comp to shut itself down when he’d locked her in here. He’d even powered down her nanobot enhancements. She had no doubt the Chief had also pulled her permissions to access the Outpost comp for anything but ordering food from the vendser. Which meant she couldn’t hack her way into the system to discover who had done this to her.
Dona rolled to her feet and began to pace in long, restless strides. Even as she strode back and forth, she kept a careful distance from the cell doorway. She had no desire to get hit by that repeller field.
Well, at least her incarceration had accomplished one thing. It had killed off the last of her inappropriate attraction to Chief Alerio Dyami.
There was no way in the Seven Hells she could love a man who could believe she’d work for the Xerans. Not after everything those monsters had done to her home world.
She was finally free of Alerio Dyami.
Nick opened his eyes to find a brilliant violet sky. Disoriented, he squinted up at the red sun riding high overhead.
A red sun in a violet sky? What the fuck?
He turned his head and saw a tumble of brilliant copper hair beside him. “Riane?”
“Hmm?” She stirred sleepily, then sat up abruptly to stare around them in astonishment. “How the fuck did we get to another planet?” She aimed a sharp look at him. “Did you do this? Where are we?”
He rose on one elbow and scrubbed a hand over his face. “We’re on another planet?”
“Well, this sure as hell ain’t Earth.” She looked down at herself, registering the black leather pants and T-shirt she wore. “Huh. I’m dressed again.” She eyed him. “So are you. When did that happen?”
She was right. He wore the same jeans and T-shirt he’d had on before. “I have no idea.” Nick eyed her. “Does that computer of yours have any clue where we are?”
Riane cocked her head, as if listening to some voice he couldn’t hear. “I’m not detecting any electromagnetic communication. At all.” She frowned deeply, examining the sky. “Violet sky, red sun, no advanced civilization. Could be any number of worlds.” She rolled easily to her feet, then aimed a look at him. “You sense anything?”
He, too, stood, peering around them. Underfoot lay a carpet of thick green growth that reminded him of moss, though it was dotted here and there with colorful feathery structures similar to flowers.
Immense blue . . . things rose all
around them, spearing toward the sky. He’d have called them trees, but they had no leaves. Instead, each branch ended in a big cluster of hard, glossy bulbs. Faint clicks and scrabbling noises sounded from the strange vegetation, suggesting some kind of life, though it was impossible to tell whether it was insects, animals, or birds. Or something else altogether.
Nick tried reaching out with his powers, searching for other intelligent minds. Riane was a strong, vivid presence next to him, but that was all. “Not sensing anything. Nothing sentient anyway. Lots of little . . . creatures, though.”
“And some that are not so little.” Riane nodded thoughtfully. “Nothing I recognize.”
He blew out a worried breath. “Riane, how the hell are we going to get home?”
She looked around them again, pursing her lips as she fisted her hands on her hips. “That’s a good question. I don’t think we can get home, unless you can figure out a way to Jump us there.”
“Even if I could, I need to know where the fuck we are before I can get us back.”
Riane nodded, her gaze shrewd, decisive. “The first order of business is to figure out how we got here. If you didn’t do it . . .”
“. . . Somebody had to.” Nick straightened his shoulders. “Maybe we should take a walk and see what we can see.”
She shot him a look, lifting a red brow. “What, just wander around and hope we stumble on some form of transportation?”
“Got a better idea?”
Riane sighed. “Let’s go.”
Frieka trotted back into the suite of rooms he and Riane shared. Despite the clawing urgency he’d felt, he’d forced himself to head to the Outpost mess for food and water. He knew from experience that hacking a system could take hours of careful work. You’d have to be an idiot to attempt it on an empty stomach—or for that matter, without a bathroom break. He’d already taken care of both.
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