“You wanted to play games?”
“Playing with Lataka is . . . tiresome. I thought to amuse myself while I hid.”
The guard raised his hand to strike again. Kirek’s cheeks burned, but he was determined not to reveal any of his fighting skills.
“Stop.” Drik regarded Kirek with amusement.
“Sir, his story’s ridiculous.”
“How long was he inside my office?” Drik asked.
“Less than a Federation minute.”
“You think he could have gotten past our encryption and found anything in a minute?”
“No, sir. Our security is too good for that.”
“But you don’t believe his story?”
“A few jolts of electricity through his body would—”
Kirek put a quiver in his voice and hoped he wasn’t going too far. “Please, no. Don’t hurt me. I meant no harm. I just wanted to play some games.”
Drik shook his head. “If we torture the hostage, we cannot give him back to his people without causing an interplanetary incident.”
“What do you want me to do with him, sir?”
“Lataka obviously can’t control him. Take him to Vansek. She knows how to punish bad boys.”
“Yes, sir.” As the chief guard roughly grabbed him, the other guards broke into loud guffaws.
Punish? At hearing that Drik was turning over his punishment to a woman, Kirek figured he’d gotten off lightly—but then, he had yet to meet Vansek.
14
“CLARIE, WHAT DO I do first?” Xander asked. At least if he failed to astrally extend his mind from their hidden position inside the shed, no one could witness their odd behavior.
“Close eyes,” Clarie instructed, petting Delo on his shoulder, the animal’s bushy tail waving back and forth.
Once Clarie had entered the shed, Delo had changed color from his usual brown to a glowing orange that gave off enough light for Xander to see that Clarie’s antennae seemed to have grown longer.
“Close eyes and concentrate,” Clarie insisted.
Knowing Vax had his back, Xander did as the tiny alien instructed. “Now what?”
“Relax all muscles. Begin with face. Let tension flow from body. Picture stream of energy leaving mouth, cheeks, and forehead. Head is light on shoulders. Body is like water flowing in gentle river.”
Xander used his psi to float his body, then concentrated on Clarie’s words. He relaxed his jaw, his mouth, and his eyes by imagining Alara running her fingers over his skin and smoothing out frown lines. He envisioned her lips skimming along his neck. Ever so slowly, he allowed the tension to drain from him as he visualized Alara next to him, her hands finding every knot and soothing his taut muscles.
“Good. Keep head and neck relaxed. Focus on chest and breathing. Breathe in. Breathe out.”
Xander felt light, comfortable. He imagined the tension as purple, the color of alarm. Stress streamed out of him, leaving him suffused with a golden glow that matched Alara’s soft skin. He took her golden color and wrapped it around him, like a soothing blanket made of her true spirit.
“Hips and buttocks—relax them. Float in river. Allow river to carry you to warm, welcoming sea where all life thrives.” Clarie’s tone droned in a tranquilizing monotone that helped Xander loosen his muscles and calm his soul. “Relax down body to calves, ankles, toes. Body is now one with river.”
In a cocoon of warm water, Xander floated. He could no longer tell where his body ended and the water began. So peaceful.
“Body is safe. Water will protect it. Let mind lift and go free.”
At Clarie’s words, Xander soared out of his flesh. As he’d done once before, he could see his body beneath him with Vax and Clarie in the shed. But the shed was too tiny to contain his elation.
He’d done it. He’d left his body. He was free to search for Alara and without his body, he could travel at the speed of thought. His energy seemed limitless. He rocketed into the building, his hopes rising.
I’m coming, Alara.
Hold tight, Shannon.
Xander flew right through the exterior walls, into a huge reception area. Dozens of women with apprehensive expressions milled around listlessly. But he saw no Terran and no Endekian woman with golden skin, so in a flash of thought, he moved on. Although he could travel at unbelievable speed, he couldn’t process information as quickly as he visualized his surroundings. After entering each room, he had to slow to search before moving on.
There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of rooms. Tiny cubicles where women gave up their ova to the Saj. The sight depressed him but he determinedly kept on, all locked rooms accessible to his mind. He explored offices, a cafeteria, a place where the ova were stored at critical temperatures for a reason he couldn’t determine. He flew past barred cells—all empty except one where a guard was locked inside. Pausing, he wondered if Alara and Shannon could have been there and escaped, locking the guard in their place.
Finally, in almost the center of the complex, he found them in a janitorial closet. Relief and elation filled him. They’d obviously escaped and now were hiding out.
Neither woman appeared harmed.
Light filtered in under the door, allowing him to make out their shapes. Shannon slept soundly, her back to him. As always, Alara looked beautiful, perhaps more beautiful than he remembered. Her hair floated around her head, framing her high cheekbones and lush mouth. He’d been so frightened of losing her that he’d spoken to Vax about the. shame that had haunted him, a shame that was now gone. He had yet to deal with his growing feelings for the Endekian—but now was not the time.
Seeing them, being unable to speak to them, was both comforting and infuriating. Shannon’s deep snores indicated exhaustion, and he wondered how much this adventure had taxed her remaining strength and shortened her life. And Alara—by the stars! He could tell from her irregular breathing pattern that she was far from asleep. In fact, he was almost certain from her tension that she was entering Boktai.
Of all the bad timing . . . she had enough to deal with as she hid from the Lapautee without fighting her hormones, too.
Recalling how strong her need would grow, knowing that she would require sex to regenerate, the urges so strong that lust would overcome her need to hide, elevated his frustration. They didn’t have much time before she would be forced to approach a man—and as much as he hated the idea, he understood she would hate it more. The only men inside were guards. Approaching one meant recapture. Stars, with them hiding almost dead center in the middle of the complex, they couldn’t have been in a worse position for extraction.
While he shouldn’t stay long, he nevertheless tarried, wishing for a way to communicate. He couldn’t shake Shannon awake without hands or speak without a mouth, couldn’t so much as whisper a sound. Desperate to do something, he prayed.
Hold on.
We’re coming to get you out.
Now that he was with them in spirit, he didn’t want to leave, but he had to find the best way to come back and physically reach them. He flew through air ducts and heating systems to the roof. If they could borrow a skimmer and land on the roof, an extraction might be doable.
Once he mapped the likeliest place to land a skimmer and branded it into his mind, he visited the women one more time. Without knowing if they could receive his message, he focused hard on one thought.
Climb to the roof.
Up.
Go up.
Up to the roof.
Xander had no idea if his thoughts could reach them; he wasn’t telepathic. But perhaps in his astral state he might have abilities he didn’t normally have.
Even if the women stayed put, and he and Vax landed the skimmer on the roof, he would know where to find them—unless in the meantime, they left the closet and tried to wa
lk in another direction. The urge to stay and watch over them was almost overwhelming, but he couldn’t help them from here. Thoughts heavy, he forced himself to leave.
His mission done, he snapped through space in a flash, reconnected with his body, the physical merging smooth, the mental adjustment jarring. It took all his strength to open his eyes. Delo no longer glowed bright orange but emitted a dull blush—barely enough to see by.
The shock of reentering surprised him—especially since leaving had been so easy. Xander couldn’t move his arms or legs or even turn his head. His psi was so weak, he couldn’t maintain his null grav. He fell from where he’d been floating, but Vax cushioned the blow, breaking his fall.
“I found them.” Xander ignored the pain of landing on the shed’s floor. Speaking took almost more energy than he had. But he forced his mouth to work, his tongue to wrap around the words. “Find us a skimmer.”
“Slow down.” Vax peered at him, worry in his eyes. “Are you all right?”
“Okay. Weak.” The out-of-body flying had given him awesome energy during that time, but apparently the strength he’d used tapped his physical body to the max. If he hadn’t returned when he had, he might not have been conscious right now. “You may have to . . . carry me. Can’t . . . wait. I know where the women are now. If they leave . . . then everything we did—”
“Rest. I understand.”
“Go. Hurry.”
Vax squeezed Xander’s arm. “I’ll find us a skimmer. Clarie, stay with him.”
“Clarie stay. Delo stay.”
KNOWING THE TERRAN desperately required rest, Alara allowed Shannon to sleep for four hours, as long as she could bear to remain confined in the dark closet. Alara’s physical reaction to danger seemed to have instigated a need for cell regeneration. Feeling as though fingertips trailed over her flesh and incited her nerve endings, Alara required a distraction from her budding lust. She needed Xander.
Oddly, she could have sworn his presence touched her, reassured her that he was coming to get her. Alara wasn’t given to flights of fancy and wondered if the combination of stress and biological need had caused her to dream for a few minutes, yet she hadn’t shut her eyes or fallen asleep.
“Shannon, wake up.”
“What’s wrong?” Shannon stretched.
The Terran appeared to have awakened fully and had obviously picked up the concern in Alara’s tone. Alara tried to make light of her unease. “What could possibly be wrong? You’re sick, and we’re sleeping in the middle of the Lapautee, who want to steal our ova.”
“You haven’t slept, have you?” Shannon guessed.
Alara ignored the question because if she answered it, she might have to lie about why she couldn’t sleep, and talking about Boktai would only make her problem worse. Yet if they ran into a male, Alara needed to strengthen her psi shields and avoid his scent and his touch, and realizing she might not have time to fill Shannon in later, she changed her mind about confiding.
“At certain times, Endekian women lose control over their psi and our suits’ shielding fails. We become very susceptible to male touch and scent. Even seeing a man right now could cause my thinking to muddy.”
“So we avoid the guards.” Shannon accepted her statement and didn’t ask questions, treating Alara’s condition much like she did her own illness—with quiet dignity.
Alara had the strongest urge to hug her. She didn’t. Instead, she cracked open the door. “No one’s there. Let’s move.”
Shannon followed Alara into the hallway and stepped beside her. “You have a preference which way we should go?”
“Not really. Why?” Alara glanced at her. She’d gotten to know Shannon fairly well during the last day, and she’d never seen her so hesitant.
“I have the strongest urge to go . . . up.”
“Up?”
“To the roof. Maybe if we go outside, we’ll see the best way out of this complex.”
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
Alara and Shannon had strolled through the corridor for no more than four minutes when several guards headed straight for them. Turning around would have made them conspicuous, so instead, they kept their eyes downcast, held their tummies, and feigned sadness.
Instead of walking by, two guards halted in front of them, causing Alara’s pulse to jump into hyperdrive. Their musky male scent taunted her, and she barely controlled her trembling. Allowing her eyes to take in their male shapes added a new sensory stimulation to the mix, but Alara also sensed their watchfulness.
When they’d escaped from the cell, they’d attached themselves to groups of other women, and no one had bothered to notice that they didn’t have the bluish skin tone of the Lapautee women. But these guards were staring at them with suspicion. Alara tensed. Either these men were more alert than the others, or word of their escape had gone out.
“Halt,” a guard ordered.
Looking frail and helpless, Shannon stumbled forward, hooked her leg behind one guard’s knee. As they went down, she grabbed his weapon. Alara didn’t wait to see more. When the second guard reached for his own weapon, Alara ducked her head and rammed it right into his gut. All four of them went down in a jumble of knees and elbows.
Male scents inundated her. Alara raised her psi shields against the male flesh touching hers, but she required her sight to fight. Even as she damned her biology, her lust escalated, and she feared that soon she might lose control of her psi and her suit might again go transparent. However, that didn’t stop her from jamming an elbow into the guard’s neck and kicking his weapon across the hall.
He rolled on top of her, placed his hands around her neck, and began to squeeze. She couldn’t draw a breath, but didn’t panic. Alara grabbed his pinky finger and pulled it back until the bone snapped. With a howl, he released his grip on her throat, and precious air filled her lungs. Air filled with male scent. Even as she battled for life, she realized the irony that her body would rather mate with her killer than fight him.
Still, lucid, she knew she couldn’t take much more stimulation. Lust wasn’t creeping over her, but barreling down.
Shannon, bless her fighting soul, came up with a weapon and blasted both men twice. They twitched but didn’t stir. Shaky, Alara rose to her feet, gasping for air and fighting the lust and adrenaline coursing through her.
Shannon didn’t ask questions. She grabbed Alara’s arm and yanked her from the men. “Come on.”
Alara couldn’t move. She needed regeneration so badly her brain couldn’t make her legs take a step. Her biology seemed to have speeded up her normal timetable, and she had no doubt it was her constant proximity to the virile captain over the last few days that had accelerated this phase of Boktai. “Go without me.”
Shannon pointed the blaster at her. “Either I shoot you and carry you, or you walk with me.”
Alara bit her lip. The image of the tiny, sick woman carrying her would have brought a smile to her face at any other time. “Does that blaster have a pain setting?”
“Yeah.”
“Use it.”
“On you?” Shannon’s eyes filled with questions, but she pointed the weapon at Alara.
“Pain will make the lust go away for a little longer.” Alara nodded her readiness and closed her eyes. Nothing could be more demeaning than mating with a man who’d just tried to kill her. Not even agonizing pain.
“SHANNON. HOLD your fire,” Xander shouted, skidding to a halt at the end of the corridor. He’d never seen anyone so brave as Alara. She was willing to endure tremendous pain in order to prevent her hormones from taking over. With her eyes closed, her entire body trembling, her chin high—she looked like a star princess out of a fairy tale.
Relief on her wizened face, Shannon lowered her weapon. “About damn time you showed up.”
As Xander and Vax hur
ried to the women, Xander didn’t know which of them was in worse shape: Alara in Boktai, Shannon who looked very ill, or him—still in recovery from his out-of-body exploration that had left his psi almost tapped out, his body weak as a boy’s.
But there was no possibility of him allowing Vax to carry an aroused Alara. She wouldn’t be able to stop her response to his first officer, embarrassing Vax and humiliating herself. That she’d been willing to go to such an extreme as to ask Shannon to stun her to maintain control had made him realize her immense inner fortitude.
Alara might look as soft and sensuous as a monarch’s mistress, but her core was pure bendar. If he hadn’t found a way inside the complex, they might have made it out by themselves. But he’d promised to protect her. He’d given his word. So he used what was left of his psi to gather her into his arms, unsurprised to feel her trembling as she wound her arms around his head and buried her neck in his shoulder.
“I’m almost gone.”
“Hang on,” Xander muttered.
He never knew where he found the strength to carry Alara to the roof where they’d left Clarie and the skimmer. The ride back to the building Lithdar had assigned to the men passed in a blur as Shannon filled him in on what had happened. Although returning where the authorities might find them might not be a good idea, they had to remain where Lithdar could contact them. With the last of his reserves, Xander carried Alara to their quarters while his crew rejoined Cyn and returned the “borrowed” skimmer.
When he sank with Alara to the floor, she planted kisses over his brow, his nose, his mouth, and slowly he revived, but she was having such a good time taking charge, he pretended otherwise.
“I don’t know how you found us, but thank you.”
“I’m totally spent,” he exaggerated, wondering if any man had ever given her control, wondering if he could feign exhaustion when he wanted her so badly. “I’m afraid I don’t have enough psi left to—”
“You rescued me. Now I’ll take care of you.” Her voice was soft, seductive, sexy as spun siltie thread as she floated them both into the center of room.
The Ultimatum Page 20