by Kayla Stonor
“Who says we’re gonna fall?” She smiled as his problem hit her. Aside from the ShiftLok cuffs preventing his shift to Qui—and what would be the useful addition of wings—Tierc was still getting used to the restrictions of his human body. “Pity we can’t fly.”
A growl rumbled from deep in his belly, a sound she hadn’t heard before and he cast Ahnna such a filthy look her smile switched to a grin, she couldn’t help it. Slowly, his eyes crinkled up and then a wry curl touched his lips. She liked that he had a sense of humor, a willingness to laugh at himself, but then his eyes sharpened on her, an intense magnetizing look that had her stomach flipping inside out. Her heart stumbled, skidded and crashed in a heap.
“Ahnna.”
His scent wafted around her and she couldn’t move, rooted to the spot. He stepped towards her, breaking the spell. A mental nudge and her nanos kicked in, metabolizing the foreign chemicals undermining her self-control. Living with Tierc had forced her to practice body control skills she’d first learned in childhood, but HD-X had no real experience of dealing with a Qui radiating genuine mating pheromones. Only since Tierc shielded her from the micro-meteorites had she started to believe he couldn’t help his body’s response to her presence. That hard cock filled his pants for her.
So hot.
Her desire rose and she constricted blood vessels to her skin.
His eyes flashed, irritated, and he abruptly turned, surprising the watching vid drone. It flew back several feet, Zeke deftly preventing an uncontrolled spin.
Disappointment flooded Ahnna. She could almost taste his lips on hers. Curiosity boiled inside her. That was the problem with the cuffs entrapping him in this form.
Made Tierc look human.
He swung back, raked fingers through his hair. “How can you hate so much? You’re too tiny to contain so much hate!”
She blinked, unnerved by the switch from magnetic charisma to infuriated exasperation.
His other hand shot towards her, the one holding the blaster. “You fight me constantly!”
She raised her hands. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Skal!” He directed the blaster away from her, his skin paling. “I didn’t mean to do that.”
Ahnna’s pulse raced. “I don’t fight you. I thought we’d been getting on. You saved my life.”
“No. You’re civil. You’re not relaxed. You won’t let go. I know you’re attracted to me, but you treat it like a curse.”
“You and I, we can’t be.”
“Why the fuck not?”
Ahnna glanced at the drone.
“Forget the damn audience. Be honest for once! They’ll like you better for it.”
Ahnna jerked back, her eyebrows rising to convey her derision for that last comment. “Me be honest?” She clamped her lips shut before she said something she couldn’t retract. Damn, if Tierc as a Qui was dangerous before, he was doubly dangerous now.
Thin-lipped, Tierc marched away, knelt by the climbing equipment, sorting through carabiners and quickdraws.
An old warning ran through her mind.
Once a Qui covets a human, they never let go. They will pursue their target. They will seduce, abduct and stalk. Whatever it takes to secure their prize. Keep your distance, children. Run at the first sign of Qui mating scent. It is your duty.
Duty. She grew up on duty and warnings. Entering the world at twenty-one had been a shock, city life another world, a Paragon on Earth. HD-X had both sheltered and terrified her. Her stomach flipped again watching the man—the Qui-human hybrid—who coveted her.
What was her duty now?
* * *
He hated this—Octiron, his treacherous body, Ahnna’s denial.
Tierc refused to hate Ahnna too.
Irritating his anger had provoked her to suggest he hid a secret, but… his decision. He could have come clean. Octiron would have forced Ahnna into revealing how these cuffs came off, assuming they did. Instead, he relied on her discretion, and her instinctive fear of his Qui, a fear he hated.
Skal. He needed this race over.
With that in mind, Tierc scanned the gorge, calculating the quickest, safest route down to the pool. Gathering his share of the equipment, he marched towards a spot he estimated to be two miles distant. Behind him, he heard Ahnna collecting her gear. Sensibly, she’d decided not to argue his decision. Better enjoy the novelty while it lasted.
His thoughts returned to his decision to hide.
Were his fears justified?
The Central Alliance wasn’t an authority to be crossed lightly—worlds bent to its will—and yet everything he read suggested the Alliance picked its battles. Would it consider a creature capable of assuming any form an opportunity, an eccentricity in a galaxy of curiosities, or a threat?
Instinct insisted they would recognize a threat.
Why?
The Qui Empire was full of well… Qui, but they detected one another, shifted or not. Decorum, culture, and tradition curtailed the potential for chaos. In Paragon, a Qui represented the unknown. The unknown invoked fear. Fear turned a harmless spider into a terrifying threat. For Tierc, Paragon was the unknown and Octiron its face. Experience gave him no cause to trust Paragon, but what bothered him more, despite his saving her life, Ahnna still saw no reason to trust him.
He turned to Ahnna trailing behind him, waited until she caught up. Her eye followed his pointed finger down the path he’d worked out, her attitude all business, no reference to their spat of minutes ago. At least she let the little things go.
They spent the rest of the walk identifying geological features that might be helpful.
“See that?” Ahnna’s hand gestured to a slight furrowing of the desert leading west based on the sun’s path. “I think that’s an underground river. Waterfall’s got to come from somewhere.”
“You climbed before?” Tierc asked.
“Standard HD-X training.”
“Good. You’re in charge of the rope.”
Surprise flashed in her eyes and then Ahnna chuckled. She nodded. “Sure.”
Tierc smiled. Neither bothered to voice why he’d never learned basic climbing skills and it wasn’t just an ability to fly. Qui climbed naturally, possessed of enormous strength and talons able to dig into the tiniest pocket, but they also enjoyed the balance of a mountain goat and the sticking power of a lizard. Tierc usually climbed barefoot. Press into the greater mass of a rock mountain and gravity tilted in your favor. So he’d never bothered with ropes, simply waited for his human friends to catch up.
But for humans, one fall could be fatal.
They reached his target route down and Ahnna inspected the equipment. “Problem. We’ve a limited number of bolts,” but then she started to play with one. Lying flat on her stomach she leant over the edge of the cliff and hammered the bolt in, pressed the button on its head. Tierc got down beside her, his shoulder touching hers and she stiffened. He listened to her body settle as she focused on the bolt expanding into its home before hardening. Ahnna reached beneath the bolt and pressed a remote device. The bolt contracted and sprang free so fast she nearly didn’t catch it.
“Damn,” she said.
“But that’s good, isn’t it?”
“So long as I don’t press that remote by accident. Means we’ve plenty of bolts. We use what we need to down climb, retrieve the bolts and the rest with one press of the button. Just don’t forget to duck.”
She hammered in two new anchors, set them in place and had Tierc stress test them. Satisfied, she threaded their longest rope through to create a double rope and tied a convoluted knot as a stop. He enjoyed watching her thorough efficiency but then she selected a shorter rope and eyed his waist.
The air turned electric. A fearsome blush kissed Ahnna’s cheeks and panic hit her eyes. Tierc resisted the urge to pull her close. He needed a counter-pressure against the swelling in his groin.
Ahnna grabbed another rope and thrust it at him. “Copy me,” she ordered, wrapping h
er rope around her waist.
Tierc shook his head slowly. Her movements slowed, she watched him as if hypnotized and he longed to know what went through her head. His mind tingled, a connection that suggested a crack in Ahnna’s emotional barriers, and the sensation jolted his lust to a new dimension. He had dismissed culmination as impossible, Ahnna’s conditioning seemed to eliminate the depth of psy connection required for intercourse of body and mind.
Her mouth parted in surprise, the rope around her fell to the ground as she tapped her head. “Do you feel that?” She looked around them, nervous, skittish as a wild creature.
“Yes.”
Her attention returned to him and Tierc stepped forward. The scent of his mate called him, fired his blood. He absorbed the physical pain of his erection and his body’s attempts to shift more Qui. Wrapping the rope around his waist, he offered her both ends. “You do it.”
Her eyes briefly closed, he braced for a refusal, but then she tied a knot, looped the rope around him a second time. Tierc lifted his arms clear, fought hard not to touch her as, cheeks aflame, she threaded the rope through the knot and then dipped down to loop the rope around his leg careful to avoid his balls. Every movement, each accidental touch, seared him—Ahnna transmuted frustrated desire to exquisite torture.
He sensed frustration on her part, and curiosity, a temptation she resisted.
She tightened the rope harness and shot back three feet. “Was that you?”
Tierc glanced down at his bulging cock and raised an eyebrow.
“I mean,” she tapped her temple. She suddenly started shaking, real distress now.
“Yes.”
“Oh my god.”
“You want this as much as I do.” Tierc swatted the drone buzzing them for a close up.
The drone circuited for a long-distance shot. Ahnna barely noticed Zeke’s virtual presence, a timely reminder that their every word could end up in the public domain. Tierc backed off, giving Ahnna space to counter his effect on her. A musky spice dominated the air. His pheromones mixed with Ahnna’s intoxicating desire. At least the audience couldn’t scent and taste what they could. She blinked slowly, the warmth in her cheeks cooling. She concocted her own rope harness with jerky movements that calmed with her heartbeat, but she continued to evade his eyes.
They scaled the first pillar in silence except for Ahnna’s terse directions. The rope ran out fifty feet short forcing Ahnna to set up a new anchor position.
They landed and Ahnna had begun to draw rope through a second set of anchors when Tierc caught a low growl. He pulled his blaster out, turned and fired plasma fire at a snarling attack of claws and teeth flying at them. A leathery cat-like creature landed ten feet away, twitched and fell still.
“I’ll keep watch,” Tierc said.
A little pale, Ahnna sped up her clean up. “Watch above,” she whispered before hitting the remote. They pressed against the rock face as a momentary bolt storm pelted the ground. Ahnna stuffed them in her bag and handed Tierc the rope. Now she stood watch, taking stock as he coiled the rope and clipped it to his backpack. They stood in a humming jungle-like environment with tropical plants and tall palm-like trees colored blue and lilac.
“Sounds like a beehive,” Ahnna said softly.
“How do you know that?”
“One of those virtual experiences.”
“Really? What else have you done?”
They scanned the area as they talked, Tierc moving closer to kick the unmoving predator on the ground; his boot hit a hard three-toed hoof topped by vicious claws. No response.
“I’ve swum with dolphins,” Ahnna said. “They make a high-pitched chirping and whistling sound, almost like birdsong.”
He squatted down and touched the strange leathery hide. The skin exploded toxic-smelling smoke and he jumped back. “Skal!”
“Try and remember we’re on an alien planet.”
Ahnna’s tone was dry and Tierc flicked a casual salute. “Yes, ma’am.”
In truth, he should have known better. Ahnna was the one who’d never left Earth. She tapped her comms-link with the Great Space Race logo. “Axo. Any information on this life-form? It expelled a yellowish gas.”
“This life-form has not been documented,” the AI replied.
“Are you okay?” Ahnna asked. “Any stinging?”
“Burning.” Tierc avoided rubbing his eyes. Stupid!
Concern furrowed her brow. “We should get to the waterfall. Wash it out.”
Tierc consulted his mental plan to get down. “This way.”
The pillar had its own topography with steep drops and climbs to negotiate. Twenty minutes later they reached the precipitous drop and Ahnna repeated her preparations from before.
Half way down, she cried out. “Shit!” She swung two meters to her right, bracing herself in position with one foot, favoring her left arm. “Don’t go near that red clump.”
Heart elevated, Tierc rappelled down to reach her, avoiding a bulbous outgrowth of mushrooms. He took her hand twisted her arm gently to inspect several two-inch spikes embedded in her forearm. He tapped his comms. “Axo, run a search on these mushrooms.”
“Fuck, they hurt,” Ahnna’s eyes creased up and she bit into her lip. “Get them out!” Her body tensed.
Tierc grimaced. “They’re barbed.” He focused his sight, tracing the indentation of the spike’s head, worried about toxins entering her bloodstream. “I think my nanos have dealt with that gas. Hopefully yours will manage this.” Reaching into her pack he extracted the med kit and found a tool that looked suitable. “Axo!”
“Negative results. This area has not been documented.”
“Not even from previous challenges?”
“No challenge is ever repeated on Altaira,” Ahnna reminded him with gritted teeth.
“Doesn’t mean this stuff isn’t elsewhere on the planet.”
Tierc put more weight on the friction hitch Ahnna had constructed and assured he wasn’t about to slip, pressed the grooved head of the tool around the barb and pressed down on the skin around the entry site. Ahnna hissed and looked away. Her skin wasn’t reacting, so he gripped the barb carefully and eased it forward and then up on a curve. The barb slipped out.
Ahnna looked back, surprise in her eyes. “How d’you do that?” Tierc held the barb up so they could both see its curving point. “No sign of an injection mechanism. A creature on Katar has spines like this. The inner core snaps under impact causing the barbed curvature, tears the skin if you rip it out.” Tierc pressed the tool against a second spine. “Keep a watch out for anything suspicious while I get the rest. This planet could conjure up a T-Rex for all we know.”
Ahnna held her breath as he worked, even as she scanned for threats, the distraction not as total as he’d hoped. “Thank you,” she whispered as he teased free the last spine.
Relief flooded him, a rigid tension in his shoulders easing. A stomach churning panic had gate-crashed his focus and although he’d accepted his Qui considered Ahnna his mate, Tierc now needed to absorb the emotional turmoil he faced if he lost her.
“Still hurts?” he asked.
Her grimace said it all. “I’ll be fine.”
“Keep an eye on it. Let me know if the pain gets worse or it looks infected, or you feel hot…” He ground to a halt before her stunned expression, busied himself putting the med kit back in her pack.
His thoughts still dwelled on the intensity of his reaction to Ahnna’s brush with the mushrooms as they reached the next plateau. Ahnna had fallen silent, but she started to work her arm with increasing confidence so perhaps she was busy thinking too. Luckily they had little distance to travel before the next descent and they reached the waterfall within the hour.
“Wait,” Tierc ordered when Ahnna looked about to thrust her arm in the water.
He lay down and sniffed the thrashing water carefully, separating out minerals into calcium and magnesium, plus a hint of sulphur. He dipped a finger and tasted the smear of
water on his tongue.
“We should boil it,” Ahnna suggested. “The water container’s metal. Maybe they expect us to take precautions.”
“I think we’re good, but makes sense to kill off any alien microbes.”
They might be worrying unnecessarily, but he had no reason to believe Octiron had sent them into an environment where they could trust even the necessities of life to be safe.
* * *
No one had looked after her this way.
Ahnna deposited kindling next to the fire ignited with a blast of plasma from Tierc’s weapon. She exhaled a sigh. Maybe HD-X exaggerated the evil alien overlord rhetoric. A small voice inside her admitted she could probably reveal Tierc’s true nature, expose him to the whims of Paragon officials, and walk away confident he wouldn’t kill her. Her growing conviction came from gut instinct and his obvious sexual attraction to her. That gentle softening of his voice when he’d mentioned her son, the tender concern in his eyes when she was hurt… his endless patience when she threw his overtures in his face.
Her cheeks flamed and from his sentry post atop a rock, Tierc raised a questioning eyebrow. Shit. Could he read her mind now? She didn’t feel that strange awareness in her head from earlier. No, she was too close to the fire. She knelt and blew on the flames until the container base flared red and then backed away, keeping her eyes averted. She probably looked childish, but she couldn’t risk a conversation.
She might soften. Start to think of Tierc as human.
A slippery road, for the moment she did that, her whole life became subject to question.
Suppose a portal to another universe hadn’t opened that night? Drugged and his Qui restrained, Tierc had been vulnerable. She’d had the opportunity, the means, and the will.
Ahnna spun around and faced him.
A wary expression stole across his face and his fists curled ready for a fight. Strangely she didn’t feel threatened. She needed to feel threatened or nothing made sense anymore.
“I could have killed you!”
Tierc’s jaw tightened. “When? Let’s make sure we’re talking the same thing.”