by Hana Starr
Suddenly, a bend in the tunnel revealed an actual door. It was heavy and actually resembled a boulder more than anything, but it was the first door she’d seen that wasn’t disguised as a wall. Two lights blasted onto it from either side, meeting at an angle to drip over the rough, carved surface.
Mariella studied the carvings but they weren’t pictures or even anything resembling a language –as far as she knew, anyway. If these Drones buzzed and hummed, who knew what symbols they would use to portray the sounds? She could very well be looking at an anthem, or a very important oath…
However, Dante said nothing to her and she kept her mouth shut. He motioned for her to stay back, and then approached the door with his arms outspread.
And he hummed.
Mariella clamped her hands to her ears. The sound was shatteringly loud, piercing straight through her ears and into the core of her brain. She closed her eyes to try and block it out, shoving her fingers in her ears harder, but nothing she did made any difference.
If any of the others had joined in, she thought she might have to bash her head against the wall until it ended. It was maddening, infuriating.
But, it only lasted for those few seconds before Dante clamped off the sound and backed up. His shoulders relaxed and he cleared his throat, then glanced shyly at her. “Sorry,” he murmured.
She said nothing, still shaken and with the sound still rattling in her skull. Obviously that had been their version of knocking, or some kind of formal request to enter what was a essentially a throne room. Damn, if only she had one of those bracelets…
The door opened, splitting in half with a horrendous sound as a man from inside shoved it open. She gasped, unable to help herself. Up until now, she hadn’t seen anything like him.
Even compared to Dante, this man was immense. He wore even brighter colors, and his clothes were strikingly clean. His hair was loose and untamed, longer even than hers, and his whole body bulged with an inordinate amount of muscle.
A guard, obviously. A real, true guard.
The guard grunted at Dante, his dark brown eyes sticky with flatness. Dante hummed back politely, gesturing around as he spoke. Explaining himself.
She thought about trying to hide, but that was probably the wrong thing to do. So, instead, she just lifted her chin and stared down the guard when he looked right at her. And, after a moment, he placed his hand on his chest and backed away from the entrance to allow them in.
For everything that she had seen so far, this throne room threw it all out of the water.
For one, it was not just a room. It was a hub, with dozens of thin tunnels all conjoining here.
At the same time, it was a treasure room.
She should have suspected it, due to Venus’s abundance of pressure and volcanic activity, but for some reason she was astonished at the diamonds. The walls were streaked with natural veins, and the throne itself was a single molded piece of shining glory. The steps too, were nearly pure diamond. The sconces on the wall, which held a great deal of burning light compared to what she’d seen thus far, were silver and studded with gems. Everywhere she looked, whether it was from the design on the floor, to meaningless inscriptions on the walls, to the frames of color around each tunnel mouth, there were diamonds and silver and gold, and very occasionally a scattering of more colorful stone.
And here too, were the people.
Like the clean-faced and well-dressed guard, these Drone women were far different from the others she’d seen on her way here. And they wore jewelry, the first sign of physical decoration that she’d seen. They lounged against the walls, or walked through the tunnels, or lay and sat upon silky cushions with weird rabbit animals in their laps. Here and there, a female child dressed in gold scampered around.
So, these must be the breeding stock, she thought. Obviously these people weren’t really bees. One woman couldn’t hope to provide enough progeny to keep her colony afloat, but these upper-class women certainly could.
And actually, she saw some slender men in their midst, too. Current favorites, she guessed.
Dante stood there, waiting for her to get her fill of the sights before he ushered her on. And it seemed like the Queen was doing the same, when Mariella finally looked at her.
She was slight and round, with her hair laced through strings of diamond bead. With her hands neatly holding a gemstone scepter in her lap, and her tiny body drowning in a silver gown, she would almost have been adorable if not for the chill in those amber eyes. Her face was stiff, impassive.
Oh!
But, there was a bracelet on her arm! Mariella’s hopes soared.
But, she was flanked on both sides by six of those burly guards. This could go very bad in a hurry, if she decided not to have patience today.
But, Mariella clung to her hope with both hands and stepped forward with Dante until there was room for the twenty-four crewmen to fill in behind them. And once the last man was through, the door was pushed shut by the guard who had allowed them to enter in the first place.
Silence fell, but for the curious hums of the royalty women, who had no idea what was going on.
Eventually, Dante spoke in English. “My Queen, I…”
“Bow,” the Queen replied shortly.
So, her bracelet was more than just decoration.
Without any hesitation at all, Dante bowed and lowered his head. His men did the same. Mariella was about to join them when the Queen hissed, catching her attention. “So,” she said in that crackling voice, static at the edge of her words, “my men risked their lives for you? And what are you, then?”
Mariella stammered, suddenly aware of all the eyes on her. “I…” Her voice locked up, and she berated herself. This was no different from all the speeches she’d been giving lately!
So, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath to steady herself. When she opened them again, the Queen was still watching.
“My name is Mariella,” she said. “Dante came to Earth to get me.”
“No. What are you?”
“A human,” she said, confused. And then it clicked. Her stature. Of course. It was very important to them. “I am a scientist. I study forms of energy.” And though she never would have said such a thing at home, she continued with forced pride, “I am known all over Earth. I’ve changed everyone’s lives by revolutionizing the fuel industry.”
“Ah,” the Queen sighed appreciatively, the harshness fading from her voice. “An ambitious woman, then. Not royalty, but rather important, aren’t you? I see. Dante, stand and explain why you abducted this woman –this Mariella.”
He obeyed, standing but keeping his head low. “My Queen, I know it was an awful risk, but we had already been watching Earth because their people and planet are so similar. When I intercepted some broadcasts that spoke of Mariella, I had to do it. We are dying, and we all know it. She can help us prosper again.”
“And did you ask her if she wished to help?”
His fists tightened a little. “She accepted.”
“But, that is not quite what I asked.” The small Queen turned her gaze back to Mariella, eyes narrowing. “Did you wish to help us when Dante came for you?”
I’m going to have to lie with a truth.
“I want to do everything I can to assist you.”
The Queen nodded. “Very well. But, I must warn you that we will unfortunately not be able to offer you much in the way of comforts and safety. The Mites have been scanning our landscape, searching for us. Very soon, they may attack again.”
A quiver of fear ran through her stomach, but she pushed it down. There was no turning back. “I’m sure about this, my new Queen,” Mariella said softly. “I will do everything I can, but I’ll need accommodations.”
“Then, if you are able to accomplish this, we will be ever in your debt. Until then, I am certain that we can spare a lab for you.” The Queen lifted her scepter, and one of her guards loped past Dante and exited the throne room. “We do not have much in the way
of scientists of our own anymore, but I will see to it that you are assisted as you need.”
“Thank you. That’s very generous.”
And she would need as much help as she could get.
“Now, as you are an important member of our society for the moment, and the victim, what say you as for Dante? How might he be punished?”
Mariella was startled. “Why should he be punished?”
The Queen tapped her scepter on her knee as she listed out each point. “Abandoning his station. That is desertion and endangerment. He took you against your will, and that is unauthorized abduction. That is strictly against many laws that govern the galaxy, not just our planet. He wasted our fuel, and crashed our last vessel. So, what say you?”
She hesitated. Dante looked despondent, his head very low. Obviously, he thought that he deserved anything she could think of, but tenderness flooded her heart for him. For some reason, ever since she’d met him, all she felt was the urge to protect him, so she wracked her brains for a solution.
“I think Dante should be one of my assistants,” she said, glancing at him again. “That way, he can help give back what he took away.”
“And so it shall be,” the Queen declared, gesturing grandly. Her people buzzed excitedly and Dante lifted his head a little to look at her out of the corner of his eye. She quirked that side of her mouth in a smile, hoping he would understand.
And then, that was it. They were done. The Queen shooed them all away and they would up out in the hallway again.
Mariella waited while Dante dismissed his men. They all groaned, though some of them looked more thankful than grumpy. They filed down the tunnel, and she heard buzzing as they talked amongst themselves.
“Well,” Dante sighed, “that could have gone better.”
Mariella laughed a little, surprised. “Are you kidding me? All of us are still alive, aren’t we?”
He hesitated, and then nodded. “I suppose so. Are you truly going to punish me?”
Very lightly, she laid her hand on his shoulder. This time, he didn’t leap away from her. “No,” she murmured. “I’m not.” He sighed with relief and she continued. “Look, I’m exhausted. We all are, right? Is there somewhere to sleep and I’ll see my lab after a nap, or something?”
“Of course,” he murmured, and then seemed to think to himself for a moment before nodding. “As you are an important guest, we will house you as a moderate royalty. I feel the Queen would approve of this. Come.”
His voice was so low, so accidentally sultry, that it was all she could do to control herself. The fact that he seemed to have no idea what he was doing to her only made her even more excited.
Stop it, she scolded herself, but the motion of her thighs pressing together as she walked rubbed around her shy clit. Tingles formed in her lower stomach, trailing down even lower still.
Pretty soon, her thoughts were filled with a very different kind of buzzing. Her blood pumped harder, searing through her veins. Every step became a tortuous heaven, thighs sliding past each other with beautiful friction. Despite herself, she was starting to pant.
Dante flashed her a worried look and then hurried the rest of the way, gesturing her down the mouth of a tunnel, which revealed itself to be actually a rather nice room. The bed was a rock shelf, but it was fully decked out with blankets and cushions, and there was a reflective diamond mirror over a counter sort of area. And there was light, controlled by a twistable knob set into the wall.
At any other time, this would be when she started pressing him for answers about their current power source. Unfortunately, all she could think of right now was something very unscientific indeed.
The alien man stayed in the entrance, his head lowered respectfully. “I wish very much that you will have a good rest,” he said softly. Was it just her, or was his dusky skin tinged just a bit darker with a blush? “When you wake, just walk until you find anyone. I will already have spread the word that I am to be your assistant. They will help you find me.”
Mariella took a step closer, sliding over the floor. “Why don’t you just tell me where you live?” she breathed. Her lips trembled with…something. Something so strange and warm.
He cleared his throat and looked away, twisting his lower body away from her. “You would get lost trying to find me. It will simply be easier if I come to you…Mariella? What are you?”
She couldn’t think. Her nostrils were full of the musk of his sweat, and the odor of something terribly sweet.
Closing the distance between them, she lifted up her head, grabbed his shoulders, and stood up on her toes to press her mouth to his.
Chapter Nine
He couldn’t deny how attracted he was to her. After spending so much time with her, how could he not be? She was brilliant and strange and a pure delight, with that odd human sense of humor.
Her honey-colored hair was merely a bonus on top of that, as was the curves of her form which he thought might cradle him much better than the comparative flatness of his people. So many nights recently, he wrestled with himself while trying to sleep in his captain’s chair. She excited him so much throughout the day but at least he could distract himself with his men and his duties, but at night? She filled his mind, so exotic with that light skin and those unnatural eyes…
But, he was a male. He did not have the breeding privileges that females had. He could not simply choose his own mate. He had to be chosen. And as a lowly male, the lowest of the low who was now in a position of punishment, his likelihood of ever being chosen to mate with anyone was astonishingly low. Though he was aware of the difference in parts between him and a female, and the essential basics, he had never even touched a female before meeting her.
And now she was here, her body pressed close to his, her mouth on his. Her lips were so hot compared to his, although he certainly felt a great deal of heat gathering in his member. He was throbbing, so hard he feared she could feel it, so hard that he worried he would burst straight through his clothes.
“Mariella,” he tried to say, weakly, but his lips only moved soundlessly against hers. She took the encouragement, and gripped his shoulders harder. He very nearly lost control of himself, his hips trembling on the very edge of bucking himself against her….against her…
This temptation went against everything he had ever known to be good and right. But, neither could he shove away the advances of a female. Females were everything, were the future of his kind, and no woman had ever been more key to that future than Mariella. He dared not offend her. He dared not resist.
And she felt so nice…
His control weakened. But he didn’t know what to do, reaching weakly out to her, but not knowing where to grab. He couldn’t think, not through the magic of what her silky-wet lips were doing against his. All he could do was shudder.
After an excruciating eternity, she stopped and looked up into his eyes. Rather, she tried to. He closed them immediately. The sight of those gorgeous blue jewels would surely make him…
“Dante? What’s going on? Don’t you…Oh. You don’t like me, do you?”
He opened his eyes then, just in time to see rejection flood across her face. Her grip on him loosened and she was about to step away, clearly hurt and disappointed.
“No!” he burst out, and grabbed her wrist so she couldn’t leave. It was the first time he’d grabbed someone, and he was terrified of hurting her but he couldn’t let her leave like this. “Mariella, no! I do like you! I like you very much! I just don’t…know what to do.”
“What do you mean?” she asked. He saw some of her curiosity return, and took a deep breath to try and combat the pang of sexual attraction deep in his loins. “I mean that you…That I…This isn’t how we do things!” He struggled to explain. “The female chooses a male who is worthy. I am not.”
She just looked at him. “But, I’m choosing you!”
“But I’m not worth it!” he pleaded, so embarrassed and confused.
And then he was not
hing but surprised, her finger pressing against his lips. “Isn’t that for me to decide?”
And then, there was nothing else to say as she replaced her finger with her lips again. He held still, shaking and about to shatter apart, as her lips moved over his, rubbing and caressing. Her breasts pressed to his chest, and he felt hard points dragging friction against his clothes. Hands roamed, touching all over him, from down between his legs, around to his butt, caressing up his back muscles…
Parting his lips to gasp, Mariella took advantage of it and slid her tongue into his mouth. Her tongue burned, filling his mouth, so strange and so moist. And when she found his, he couldn’t help but to moan. Something was happening inside him, his mouth moving of its own accord. Frustration filled him as he struggled to keep up with her motions, everything going too fast and yet not nearly fast enough.