by HA Fortman
Elisa’s voice pitched higher and higher the more she talked. She was getting livid and wasn’t able to keep her voice leveled. As she glared down at him she realized that she probably should have asked all of this before, but with everything that had happened, and the pain medication the doctor’s insist she take, she hadn’t had the chance to ask and when she did have the chance something or someone was always distracting her. So she figured that now was as good a time as any.
“I put a cortex recorder in your lip when I kissed you.” Chase’s voice carried the hangdog and downtrodden expression she was sure was on his face.
“You mean when you kissed me and I felt that jab of pain?” At his nod, she tried to push him away from her, when that didn’t work she stood there stiffly and crossed her arms over her chest while refusing to look down at him. “Go on.”
“It records whatever is happening by sending what you would call nanobot through your body. While they can help Yannick heal you, they cannot do it at once and not completely, but they do help speed the healing. It is why Yannick’s hands were glowing when you were in the healing bay. I did it to protect you as well as to protect the information I had gathered from the other murder scenes. It let me know when you were in duress because it is able to monitor your life systems, your heartbeat and breathing rates.” Chase’s softly spoken words tore her apart but she refused to give in.
“While you were sleeping with Yannick I had him access the information on it and he transferred the connection to mine. Every Warrior for the UGS is tagged with one so we can keep in contact. Not only does it record everything that happens, but it allows us to communicate with each other. Although as my Anare, once we complete the bond we won’t need it for each other anymore.”
Elisa refused to look at him. Simply refused! She was livid that he would take such liberties without even asking her first.
“Elisa, you must understand. Now that Chase has found you he cannot… he cannot let anything happen to you. Should anything happen then he will die. I refuse to let that happen. Know that had he not placed the cortex recorder in you than I would have found a way to.” As Tracker spoke Elisa watched him from the corner of her eye.
She didn’t know what to think of the two alien men, but it was clear in their voices that they did not want to hurt her, just the opposite. They had done everything they could, in the short time they’d known her, to protect and comfort her while seeing to her safety and needs.
“Fine, but what exactly is annnaaa… Anar… what he keeps calling me!” She couldn’t bring herself to say it, as silly as it seemed she just couldn’t bring herself to use that word without knowing exactly what it meant.
She felt more than saw as Chase moved his hands, gliding them gently up the front of her body until he was able to pry her arms apart and hold onto hers tightly. “I told you it meant my heart and soul. It is more. If we do not complete the bond then I will wither and die from your rejection. My life meant nothing before you and if I do not have you in it now that I’ve found you it will mean even less.”
“What, exactly, has to happen for the bond to be complete?” Everyone had forgotten about David until he finally spoke up. Elisa turned to look at him over her shoulder, her brows jumping into her hairline as she regarded him with shock.
Elisa finally graced Chase with her full attention, not that she wasn’t paying attention before, but now she was looking at him directly instead of staring off into space and pretending she wasn’t.
She was just as curious as David was and wanted to hear this. Even more so when she flicked her eyes between Chase and Tracker over and over again because, really, it wasn’t that often that you saw men over six and a half feet turning as red as lobsters.
Slowly the truth began to sink in as she watched Chase duck his head down and peer at her between her legs and wrapped his arms around her waist. His eyes never leaving that are of her anatomy. With a sly grin that verged on shy and innocent, of which she didn’t believe for a minute, he bent slightly to gaze at the area covered by her robe, the area where her legs joined… and his hips started rocking… oh no way!
“I have to…?? We have to… I… We… We have to have… sex!?” Elisa had no idea her voice could reach that octave. So high she could have sworn she heard glass shatter all around her. It made all three men cringe and almost cover their ears. Almost, broke the sound barrier as it got higher and higher. “Are you serious!?”
Chase looked over his shoulder at Tracker, he was still kneeling at Elisa’s feet and she could tell he wanted nothing more than to crawl under a rock and hide. “Yes. It is not that I do not want to make love to you, but to complete the bond we must be joined intimately while…”
Elisa felt her eyes narrow as a fissure of anger shot up her spine. No wonder he didn’t want to tell her, it just kept getting better and better. “While you what?” His only response was to look back at her and smile. Really smile. Teeth bearing cross between a cringe and something a dog would do when scared and trying to make it appear even fiercer than they actually were. What shocked her, though? It might have been watching his canines, both top and bottom, become long daggers that would have been difficult to hide except for on Halloween. “Oh… oh my… You’re going… those are… are those real? Am I really seeing your teeth…? So you’re what? Are you a vampire and need to feed off of my blood or something?”
She couldn’t finish, at a complete loss for words, even more so when he began to nod at her stuttered words. When she looked over at David it was clear he was just as shocked as she was, only he was speechless with his mouth opening and closing as though he wanted to say something but just couldn’t bring himself to do so.
“Come Detective; let us leave these two to discuss this in private. We shall go into the food prep area and go over plans to catch a killer.” Tracker’s voice broke through Elisa’s shock enough that she was able to nod and try to silently implore David to follow him. This wasn’t something she wanted anyone else to hear about. “I have already wired…” Elisa watched as Tracker all but hauled the stunned detective out of his chair and marched him into the other room while muttering to him, as they moved off his words were lost to the blood pounding in her head.
Chapter 19
The only thing she could really relate to at the moment was the hands tugging at her own. Finally, in extremely slow motion, she was able to turn her head and look down at Chase once more. She could just imagine what her face looked like.
It was the warm hand moving up her arm to her shoulder, the fingers lightly tracing her bare flesh above the robe as it moved along her neck before finally pressing lightly to push her jaw closed, that brought her back to reality She had been so stunned that she hadn’t even noticed chance getting to his feet and standing before her instead of kneeling.
She didn’t care that when her knees gave out on her and she dropped that she didn’t exactly land on the couch. She didn’t notice that she bounced off of the very edge of the seat with a soft oof and promptly landed on her rear on the floor.
The sudden motion caused her to yank Chase down since she was clutching his hands like a lifeline in her turbulent mental storm. Rolling her head back on her shoulders, she eyed him through a haze of confusion. “We have to have sex. Why do we have to have sex Chase? Can’t… can’t we just say we did, but not actually do it? I mean… it’s not really necessary is it? And… are… are you going to have to suck my blood like some vampire or something? I mean, those things look sharp…”
A soft chuckle was his only answer for a moment as he chose instead to lift her up onto the seat properly before moving to kneel in front of her.
She didn’t really react until he wedged himself between her thighs, lightly rubbed his hands on top of them. Only then did she try to push him away a bit, just enough to ensure that the robe hadn’t opened indecently.
“You are nervous. I can smell your fear, but I also smell your excitement, at the idea of being in bed with me. Wonderin
g what it would be like, to be naked and writhing together until we’re both so sated and we can do nothing more than lay limply in each-other’s arms. Would it be so bad Anare? Being satisfied as we fulfill what the fates brought us together for; not just with our bodies but with our hearts and souls. Joining together as one forever more, never letting another doubt between us. Yes, my dear Elisa, it is very necessary and something I look forward to with the eagerness of a youngling. But no, I am unsure what a vampire is but I can assure you that there will be no blood exchanged unless you wish it.”
Elisa wanted to believe Chase, she really did, but to do that she would have to place her faith and delicate heart into the hands of someone she just met.
She needed to move, pacing always helped her gather her thoughts. Elisa pushed chance away and moved to the center of the room where she could finally move slowly back and forth as she listened to him.
“Why me, Chase, what makes me so special that you think I’m this Anare of yours?” As she asked this she let her gaze drop down to the floor, watching as each bare foot poked out from the long robe. She couldn’t look in his eyes, couldn’t let him see how scared she was, but stopping her head from shaking back and forth wasn’t something she could prevent.
Elisa watched from the corner of her eyes as a sigh heaved its way through his chest, expanding the muscles in a delicious way that made her long to run her hands over it. Instead of caving to the desire she clutched the edges of her robe, letting the terry cloth anchor her to the present. He hadn’t moved from his spot on the floor, still kneeling, although he had turned to watch her pacing.
“It is believed that each male of our species is created with one person that will heal the rift in their soul, one being. Although some are people blessed with two or more, but that is even rarer than finding your Anare. We know who this person is by the simple fact of their scent draws us in, their presence refuses to leave our minds and thoughts and even our dreams on occasion. Our skin itches, painfully so, to feel the touch of their caress.
“But the real key to knowing, the real sign that they are in fact ours? We are able to connect with our chosen on a level that normally would not be present. Our dreams are shared, both waking and sleeping, and our thoughts become one. In some aspects we grow stronger while at the same time we grow steadily weaker and weaker physically until we cannot survive another minute without completing the bond.”
“Not survive? I don’t understand Chase. I’m trying to, I really am trying to understand, but this just isn’t making any sense.” Elisa stopped her pacing, her eyes growing even wider as she tried to take in what all was being implied.
“I know Anare. It is difficult for me to explain to someone that is not from my world.” His hand was warm as it moved to cup her face, to draw her gaze up to his where Elisa could see the agony written clear as day when she finally convinced herself to look up at him. “Sit, please? I will try to make this make more sense, but it does no good if either of us is not comfortable, or at least as comfortable as we can be.”
Elisa nodded and turned to reclaim her seat on the couch, her body turned slightly to watch as Chase sat himself beside her. His body was warm; radiating a heat she desperately wanted to lean into to try and chase the icy tendrils of anxiety from her own.
“It is only the males that are affected like this, the females able to live free of the driving need to find their Anare. Although we are able to breed with others until we find that one soul that completes us. Some choose to spend their lives searching and never find them. Granted, many more give up ever finding them. Myself, and Tracker, both believed this to be nothing more than a tale told to children to keep them from wandering from bed to bed.
“As for my fangs, it is not necessary for me to take your life essence but many find it extremely enjoyable. Mostly they are a throwback from when our race was more… wild. We often have the urge to hold our mates in place by locking our teeth on them.” His shoulders lifted and dropped rapidly, the movement jerky and not as elegant as the man usually moved.
Elisa could tell he was extremely uncomfortable talking about this part and wanted to do something to put him at ease. The small smile he graced her with when she lightly pressed one hand against his arm was reward enough, especially when it spread to show the dimple on his left cheek.
“When I saw you standing there arguing with the man behind the podium I was entranced. If the other police officers were not pushing me to enter the building I would have stayed and stared at you, drowning in the sound of your voice as it washed over me.
“Because of being a twin there was nothing I could do to keep Mestrock from feeling it as that connection snapped instantly into place. I knew he would feel it and decided instantly that I had to do something to protect you. That is when I decided to risk knocking you down and finding a way to give you my cortex recorder. So I would never have to worry about where you were or what was happening to you. And I will be forever thankful that I was able to.” As he spoke Chase’s voice became harder and Elisa could tell he was getting angrier with what his brother had done.
“We’ll talk about that in a moment, OK? Right now I can’t focus on more than one thing at a time. And I need to know more about this bonding thing. You said we… we had to have sex. Then… then what happens? Why do we have to have sex Chase?”
She could see that Chase was debating telling her the rest. The worry lines bracketing his eyes deepened and when he rested his hand against the one she still had against his arm Elisa could feel the slight shaking he tried so hard to hide from her. “There is a… I am uncertain how to describe it. In my world we call it Fazeem. It has to be released into the Anare’s body at the peak of release along with the semen. If we do not share it in a certain amount of time after meeting them, then it rapidly starts to break down in our systems and will…” Chase paused to take a deep breath. Elisa was concerned that he still refused to look at her, to allow her to see into his eyes.
“What will happen to you Chase? What does it do? And how long do you have to… um… to release it?”
Finally, he looked at her, his eyes sad and loving at the same time, “It will kill us. It builds up in our systems and acts like a poison. If it is not released in fourteen days’ time, then we die a painful death.”
Elisa gasped at this, she didn’t want to have sex… ok, she did want to but not because he had to or he’d die. She wanted to because; well… the man did something to her! She wanted to know what it would be like to make love to him. “You’ll die in fourteen days? Are these my days or your days Chase?” She stopped and did a mental round of math.
“I will not force you Elisa. I would not have even talked about this, but for the need to stop my brother. The Fazeem only need be released once inside your body and then you are free to go about your life. You are not tied to me forever.” He was saddened as he said this. Elisa saw in the way his hand dropped off of hers, the way his body seemed to deflate before her.
“What happens if we’re not together every day, Chase?”
“Nothing happens to you.”
“Chase, don’t shut me out. What happens to you if we’re not together every day after we complete this bond thing?” Elisa wasn’t going to allow him to hide; she had a feeling that it wasn’t as simple as making love to this man and then moving on with her life.
Before she could get an answer from him, another voice from the kitchen broke into the quiet discussion. Tracker had stepped out long enough to hear where they were in their talk, “Chase is not telling you all of the truth, Elisa, he is trying to protect you. As a matter of fact, he will still die. Our kind feeds off of the emotions of our partners, sharing their happiness and fear, anger and concern. We stop eating, physical food when we are mated and as such we will starve to death. The only time we are able to be separated is when we are on a mission, there are medicines that can be given to allow our bodies to replace this physic energy with actual food for a few of your months. To better un
derstand you must realize that we can manipulate energies around us Elisa, your kind calls in telekinesis and other names, but it is much more than that. What you would call magic and parlor tricks, our kind calls everyday life.”
Chase’s hand flew outward, the long fingers curling as though he grabbed his friend. She watched in amazement as the fabric of his black shirt bunched in the front as though someone had grabbed it. Elisa gasped as Tracker was lifted a foot off of the ground before being flung back into the kitchen. “Stay out Tracker!”
Eyes wide as saucers turned back to Chase before fluttering back to the doorway where she could hear Tracker cursing after landing with a rather resounding thud against her cupboards. “That… what… holy cow Chase! What did you do that for!? That was you, right? I didn’t just imagine your friend flying through the air like a circus act? Is it true? Will you still die even if we do this bonding thing and I don’t go with you or you stay here? How is that possible? Will you answer me already!?”
Chase chuckled as the questions bombarded him, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop them long enough to let him answer. At least, not until that same hand that was lifted, turned and gently laid itself across her lips. “I cannot answer if you do not give me the chance to Anare.” Slowly that cupped hand traced to the side until Elisa felt it holding her cheek. The thumb Chase dragged across her lower lip made her tremble. “Yes, sadly it is true. I will perish without you there and no it is not just because I need to share energies with you. I would expire without being able to see you, hear you… taste you every day of our lives.”
Slowly his hand moved behind her neck, the fingers getting tangled in her loose hair, and he pulled her in closer. She had plenty of time to move away and deny Chase as his lips brushed softly against hers but she couldn’t. She wanted this press of lips more than she could deny her next breath. Without conscious thought her arms lifted to caress his chest over the soft shirt, itched to delve over the hard press of muscle beneath satin skin. A soft whimper escaped her lips when his tongue glided across her lower lip before gliding in on the sigh she gifted him with.