“What would Aleena say if she knew you were trying to seduce me?” Her breath was ragged. Alex dared to reach out, running her fingers over his smooth cheek. Her fingertips heated at the barest touch of his caramel skin. It excited her, encouraging her to give in to the undeniable rush of attraction she’d experienced since falling on this man. She might not believe in magic, but she believed in lust.
He shook his head, making the dreadlocks sway in front of his face. “I’m not trying to seduce you.”
“Why did you kiss me, then?” She wiped the strands of hair away from his face.
“Why did you kiss me back?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. It just felt like the right thing to do.”
His eyes lit up. “So you do feel it, then? The magic flowing between us is affecting you, too?”
“How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t—”
“Do you believe in the magic of two bodies drawn to each other?” His voice was low and husky, more like a rumble.
She nodded. “Now, you’re starting to make sense. I definitely believe in that.”
The smile on his lips widened. The desire darkened his eyes. “Would you accept my advances if I pursued them further?”
Alex nodded. What was the point of lying to him? She wanted him as much as he obviously wanted her. After all this time of staying away from other men—the thought of eventually returning to Ulric’s bed had kept her company even during the loneliest of times—Alex felt it all slip away. The only thing that mattered now was being with Damon, with this stranger. She was prepared to throw caution to the wind, just like she used to, instead of dwelling on the fact she didn’t know a single thing about Damon or that they’d only met hours ago.
None of it mattered to her before Ulric, and it didn’t matter now.
Something she couldn’t even begin to put into words had taken over—a desire so strong and feral, she couldn’t wait to enjoy Damon’s body.
Damon pushed off the stool, kneeling in front of her. He lowered his eyes, staring at her chest while he licked his lips. He gripped her thighs and slowly spread them. She wasn’t sure what he was going to do next, but when he moved in closer, she wrapped her arms around his neck.
She was glad she’d unstrapped her thigh holster and left it on the bedside table. She wouldn’t need her blaster right now.
Damon clamped his mouth over hers. He ran his fingers up and down her bare arms, stirring her into a fevered frenzy. The warmth she’d felt near the wall—when she first thought he was going to kiss her—seeped from his skin and into hers. He kissed her soft and slow, and she couldn’t tear her mouth away. The buzz of pleasure swelled up inside her, as if he were caressing her into climax but hadn’t touched her intimately, yet.
“I want to pleasure you,” he whispered in her ear. His mouth closed around her earlobe. “I’m going to do it by using magic.”
This time, she didn’t bother correcting him.
Damon’s fingers were now running down her sides and had reached her waist. He gathered the fabric of her tank top enough to slip his warm fingers underneath.
She squirmed at his touch, pressing her breasts against him and trying not to let the discomfort of her hurt ribs show.
“I want to heal you, too,” he said, slowly kissing his way down her neck, shoulders, and arms. He lifted her tank top, and she leaned back into the armchair. His lips were now hovering above her abdomen. “Your ribs are bruised.”
She lifted her hips and rubbed up against him. Her breath quickened, but he shook his head.
“Not like this. Not yet.”
She stilled, wanting to know what he had in mind. He was driving her crazy with those expert fingers of his. If he started using his mouth, she doubted she’d be able to stand it.
“What are you going to do, then?”
“This.” He leaned over, his lips just a centimeter away from her burning skin, and blew a line of hot breath over her.
She squirmed again, feeling heady and so desperate to reach climax, she felt like she would melt into a puddle at any moment. “Damn it, Damon. You’re driving me crazy.”
“I hope so.” He kissed her ribs, and a zing rocked her body.
“What the hell was that?” She was so hot and ready for him.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he kissed her skin again, slowly leaving a line of kisses over her ribcage and following it down to her lower abdomen. When he reached the waistband of her pants, he paused. Lifting his face to look at her, he kept his eyes pinned on hers as he pressed his hand to her bare skin.
“This is magic I’m sure you’ve never felt before.”
Alex was about to respond, but her breath caught in her throat. He’d flattened his palm over the skin below her bellybutton, and her body convulsed. The heat of his skin pierced through hers in a sudden explosion, erupting between her legs. An orgasm teased her into submission. It was so gradual, she couldn’t help but moan and groan, biting down on her bottom lip to keep from screaming.
She’d experienced plenty of different ways to climax before, but nothing quite like this. When it should have been over, and she felt spent, another orgasm shook her to the core. She arched her back and whimpered, wishing he would stop torturing her with this endless pleasure yet hoping it would never end.
The door on the other side of the room was suddenly pushed open. “Damon. Damon, you must hurry. We need you down in the courtyard. Something has…oh, my apologies.”
Damon removed his hand from her lower abdomen and looked over his shoulder. “What do you want, Levi?”
The orgasm’s intensity slowed but didn’t completely fade.
She looked across the room—feeling a little hazy—meeting the teenager’s wide eyes. He was staring right at her, but when she caught his eye, he looked away. His gaze roamed around the room, but he couldn’t hide the red darkening his cheeks with embarrassment. If the tendrils of orgasm weren’t still chasing pins and needles of ecstasy beneath her skin, maybe she would’ve felt a slight tug of embarrassment, too. Then again, maybe not. Alex never apologized for an orgasm, especially one this miraculous. Why should she? How the hell had Damon made her come without even touching her where she’d experienced the full brunt of pleasure?
“Levi, what’s wrong?”
“I’m so sorry, Damon. Ah, we’ve found a dead body in the gardens, and the Priestess would like you to come down to the courtyard.”
Damon frowned. “What do you mean by a dead body?”
“A body was found mutilated along a garden path,” Levi answered in a low voice.
“That’s impossible.”
“It’s why she needs you to take a look. Priestess would like to know if you can read anything that’ll tell us what happened.”
Damon nodded. “Okay. I’ll be there right away.”
Levi hesitated for a few heartbeats before he nodded. “I’ll tell her you’re on your way.” He turned around, left, and closed the door behind him with a small thump.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Damon whispered more to himself than to her. His eyebrows were furrowed, knotted in a look she hadn’t seen on him since they’d met. Not even the birds had seemed to affect him this much.
She touched his face. “What’s wrong?”
“Murder doesn’t happen in our society.”
“Crime exists in every society.”
“Not in ours,” he whispered. Damon refused to meet her eyes. “I’ve never seen any evidence of murder within these walls.”
She sat up straight, enjoying the last of the pleasurable aftershocks. “What about those bird creatures? Haven’t they killed some of your people? You mentioned the lake with the worms, too.” She cringed at the reminder, but when she looked at her arm, all evidence was gone. Too bad the cut on her hand remained. What the hell had Sackor done to her?
“Yes, I’ve seen the birds kill some of our people, and the lake too, but that always takes place outside the walls. Harm is never infli
cted by one of our own.”
“That doesn’t sound right.” She’d never heard of such a thing. Violence, abuse, and murder occurred all over the galaxy.
“We live in Eden.”
Alex was confused. If they lived in such a wonderful world, with absolutely no violence, why was she needed to seal their utopian society? “Okay, so if everything’s so perfect here, why do you need me?” She’d just had her first Damon-induced orgasm, and whatever unfamiliarity had existed between them before had diminished. The warmth of his body remaining close to hers was comforting.
She couldn’t explain it and didn’t particularly like to admit it, but there was something flowing between them. She refused to refer to it as magic, though. It was more like raw and passionate lust. If Levi hadn’t charged into the room, she knew what would’ve followed. At the thought, a few things she wanted to do to Damon raced through her mind.
“Alex,” Damon began, pushing a few stray curls away from her forehead. His eyes were shiny and filled with knowledge. She wondered if he would ever share any of it with her. “We need you, because the prophecy states that once the space traveler is amongst us, a chain of events will begin. Events which will help us become forever segregated from the dangers beyond our boundaries. Without the lakes, birds, and other predators out in the jungle, my people will be able to live in eternal harmony. All thanks to you.”
“I don’t know how I’m supposed to do all of that. Besides, aren’t you already segregated by those tall walls?”
Damon shook his head. “Those walls are secure for the moment, but it’s only a matter of time before the barrier starts to slip.”
“So, you’re saying this dead person is the start of these events?”
“Maybe.”
The thought made her uncomfortable. “I hope no one blames me for this.” If they all knew about this bizarre prophecy and she’d been unwillingly cast in the lead role, would these people eventually turn on her? She looked at Damon and didn’t think he would, but she couldn’t be sure about the others.
“I won’t let anyone accuse you of killing, or of any other wrongdoing. I’m going to protect you.” Damon pressed his hands against her upper arms, glaring into her eyes. “Will you come with me, so we can see what’s happened?”
She’d much rather strip her dirty clothes and see what he had to offer once he took his off, but he seemed too distracted. Besides, after the overload of satisfaction he’d unleashed on her, she wasn’t sure she was up to more at the moment.
“Sure, let’s go.” Let’s see what other freaky things this place has to offer. This planet was starting to feel more like hell than Eden. “I’m not going anywhere without my blaster, though.”
Chapter Eleven
Alex had seen more than one corpse before. Some of the shitty places she’d travelled during her long stint as a courier were so crime-infested that anyone could be shot dead in a crowded spot. She was usually good at looking the other way, but sometimes it was hard not to stare. As a result, she’d seen plenty of humans and aliens left to die on the sidewalk, in alleys, motel corridors, and bars. It was never a pretty sight, but it was something she’d mostly become desensitized to.
As a kid, dead bodies had been a frequent occurrence, too. Wherever her father went, he always seemed to attract the wrong kind of attention. Fortunately for him, he’d gotten shot a lot, but never killed. Some of the people who shot at him hadn’t been so lucky. Louis Wales had a steady hand and spot-on accuracy.
On her tenth birthday, he’d stuck a blaster in her hand to teach her how to aim and shoot—both to injure and kill. She’d gotten so good at it so quickly, he beamed with pride. Alex could still remember how happy it made him to know that she could take care of herself if he wasn’t around. He’d said it a lot, but she’d been too young to suspect he actually meant it.
Still, she’d never killed anyone. She had no problem shooting someone’s hand off or disabling them by blowing out their knee, but she was glad she hadn’t had to kill. Yet.
She blinked as she stared at the corpse Damon had led her to. It had been dumped inside the garden labyrinth, and he’d had no trouble finding it.
I’ve never seen anything like this before.
The dead body didn’t have a clean bullet or laser wound anywhere. It no longer looked human, resembling a lump of meat with various open sections, several limbs missing, and the head left twisted at a sickening angle. It was completely covered in blood, with deep-etched claw marks wherever there wasn’t a limb missing. A pool of crimson spread out below the remains, with other darker stuff. It reeked of feces and death.
Alex took another step back, disgusted. For once, she was actually glad she’d spent so much time amongst degenerates and criminals. Otherwise, she’d have already thrown up.
Damon stepped forward, and his fingers slid away from hers. He’d held her hand since the moment they’d left the room and continued to hold it even after they met up with the others. She hadn’t resisted his touchy-feely action, because his warm skin made her feel good. It kept reminding her of what he’d done to her.
If that’s how he heals all the time, there must be some really sick women around Eden.
When his bare toes dipped into the edge of the blood puddle, she cringed. How could he act so natural around something he claimed never happened around here?
She reluctantly turned her gaze back to the corpse and caught sight of a shiny bone peeking through a particularly nasty wound, in what had to have been the chest. Was that a rib? The way the moonlight glistened on the sharp end only added to her revulsion. She wondered if this had been a woman or a man.
Priestess Aleena stood across from them, on the other side of the corpse. She stepped forward, and the hem of her long, white dress almost dipped into the blood. “Do you know what happened to him, Damon?” The blonde stood with people on both sides. The grim-looking man who kept glaring at Alex with a sour expression on his face had taken a step at the same time as Aleena.
Shrubs lined the expanse of wall behind them, and blood was splattered on some of the leaves.
There seemed to be a lot of walls around here. Damon kept referring to this place as a village, but it looked more like a castle or a fortress.
Alex wondered if the population built as many walls around themselves as they did in this seemingly safe haven. For crime not to exist, something strange had to be going on behind the scenes. To not have crime while living in such a concentrated population didn’t sound realistic. It wasn’t how humans behaved, and since she’d only seen bare-footed, blue-eyed, and blonde humans walking around so far, she assumed the population was all human.
She stared at Damon, with his beautiful, caramel skin and black hair. He might have light eyes, but his pallor wasn’t the same as everyone else’s. Why?
“Well, Damon. What do you see? Anything that can help us figure out what happened?” Aleena asked again.
He squatted a little closer and narrowed his eyes, as if he were scanning the corpse and the area. “He was definitely murdered.”
A chorus of gasps sounded around Alex. She looked up.
Aleena lifted a pale hand in front of her mouth. Levi’s eyes were so wide, they looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets. Another man gasped in horror beside him. The tall, skinny one with the constant scowl glared at Alex. What the hell is his problem?
“I think whoever killed him took several bites first,” Damon added with a small shake of his head. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“What?”Aleena’s complexion turned waxy, as if she were getting sicker by the minute. “Could it be one of the birds?” She looked up at the dark sky, as if checking to see if she could find the answer written above.
“I doubt it,” Damon said. “They usually peck at their prey. This isn’t pecking. Someone tore him apart, and it looks like he was feasted on, but not the same way a bird would.”
“Speaking of feasts,” Aleena said, turning her
attention to Alex. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to postpone the celebratory feast in your honor. For the moment, at least...I hope that’s not a problem, Alex.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I understand.” Not that she’d wanted to partake in any sort of feast about a hocus-pocus solution to whatever imaginary problems these people had. After seeing this dead body, maybe she’d been too quick to judge their utopian society.
“How could this have happened?” the nameless, angry man asked.
“If not the birds, then what did this? We don’t have any wild beasts within the village walls.” Levi’s voice was low, barely more than a whisper.
Alex wasn’t sure it was a good idea to have a teenage boy witness such a barbaric act. Then again, he seemed to be Damon’s assistant or something.
“You have wild beasts outside,” Alex observed. “I heard one roar earlier.”
Aleena’s brow furrowed, but she didn’t say anything.
“I think you’re mistaken,” the sour-looking man said, with a stern shake of his head. “There are no roaring beasts in the jungle.”
“I’m sorry, but who are you? I didn’t catch your name.” Alex crossed her arms. This man definitely had some kind of problem with her, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it. The last thing she needed was someone with an agenda against the ‘space traveler’.
The man lowered his gaze, sweeping over her cleavage with obvious disapproval. When he met her eyes again, a smirk curved his lips. “My name is Elroy. I am the consort of our Priestess and head of security.”
Alex had to admit that she was curious. She found it strange how they all referred to their obvious matriarch as a Priestess, but she hadn’t seen any statues or chapels so far. To hold the title, one had to somehow be connected to a deity. So who did Priestess Aleena worship? What deity did she preach about to the population of Eden?
The more she learned about these people, the less she liked being stranded here. There was something very odd about them, and she had no intention of getting caught up in their insanity.
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