by Darcy Town
He ran after her, he couldn’t let her get out of his sight. Rake squinted in the darkness. “Ravil?”
She put a finger to his lips and pointed. They crouched at the lip of a depression, bushes between them and the workshop. Below, Danny and Oro searched through ships; the latter barely looking around, not caring to find Ravil or Rake. The pair swept through and left.
Rake looked down to see his fingers curled into claws, he’d been ready to attack. He tore his gaze away from his hands and looked into the workshop; it had grown a lot since he’d last seen it. Tasanee had complete planes, cabs, and a lot of spare parts. He forced a smile. “Rat’s been busy.”
Ravil slipped into the netting and dropped into the depression. She waved her hand at Rake and walked towards the area where the net hung low. She pushed some up and hooked her finger to him, but she didn’t need to. Rake was already at her side like a shadow. He pushed the netting out of his face. She threw back the material and pointed.
Rake’s mouth dropped open as he stared at the black surface of the US Defender. He dropped into a crouch. He spoke in an excited whisper, “Ravil, this is the kind of ship I flew!” He ran his hands over the hull. “Such good condition.”
Ravil nudged him with her foot. “Yeah, I know, Rat told me.” She put her fingers into a dip in the metal hull and pushed. The door slid open and a few lights turned on. She climbed in, leaving handprints in paint.
Rake followed her and looked around. “How did you know how to open it?”
“Rat showed me. Want to drive or shoot?” She climbed into the pilot’s chair and hit a button to close the door. Rake got comfortable, the synthetic material squeaked. He glanced at Ravil, her limbs pale in the darkness. His stomach clenched, there was plenty of room to—He shook his head. “I’m the pilot.”
Ravil shrugged and turned around. Rake held his breath as he crawled past her, their limbs touching, brushing. The pleasure was agonizing. Then he was through and into the pilot’s chair. He ran his hands over the controls, he was engaged and distracted. He looked over at her as she buckled herself in. He found the desire to rip her clothes off somewhat muted.
Ravil squeezed the triggers on the guns, the screen brightened. She watched his expression change from happy to overjoyed.
He strapped himself in. “Oh Rat, I love you forever.” His fingers moved on the controls, bringing up the training module. He scanned over his options. “Brilliant! This is exactly what I remember.”
Ravil smiled, pleased. “I thought you’d like it.”
He eyed Ravil. “Any good on the guns? I can control them from my seat too, that was my job.”
Ravil smirked at him. “I’m decent enough.”
“We’ll see.” He selected a training program. He started at the runway and grinned. “This is fucking amazing. She is going to have to tell me how she found this.” He maneuvered and flew without thinking, he interfaced with the controls; it was all muscle memory and second nature.
Blips popped onto Ravil’s screen. Rake flipped the ship until they were facing the dots. “Fire at will, gunner.”
“It’s Navigator.” Ravil destroyed all five in seconds. She grinned.
His eyes narrowed. “How many hours have you spent on this thing?”
“I’m a quick study.”
“Are you?” He fired the thrusters and the ship hit top speed. “Can you fire while we’re moving?”
Ravil concentrated as enemy craft appeared on her screen. She tracked their movement, calculated their speed and most likely course of action. She fired in short bursts, destroying three as they blew past. Rake kept going in a straight line. Ravil switched her screen to show the rearview. She fired and destroyed the ones that tailed them.
Rake’s lips twitched into a smile. He hit the controls and sent them upside down. He pointed. “The Red Space Blot.”
Ravil switched her screens to show a decrepit space station. “Russians?”
Rake nodded and buzzed the space station. “You can tell by the lack of any kind of style.”
Ravil pointed. “I can tell by the Russian writing all over the sides.”
Rake made a face. “Well, aren’t you just clever.”
“I am, thanks.”
He smirked. “You’ve gotten a bit mouthier I see.”
“You’ve gotten a bit...” Ravil gave him a once over. “Accessorized.”
He flew them in a circle. “What? You don’t like the boots?”
She put her boots up on the controls. “Nothing wrong with boots.” She reached for a pink barrette. “But these—”
Rake grabbed her wrist, their eyes met. He let go. “Sorry.” He reached into his hair and pulled the three barrettes out. He leaned over and put them in her hair. “Don’t lose those.”
Ravil patted her hair. “I won’t.” She pulled her necklace up. “Did you want this back?”
Rake looked over and reached for the chain. He stared at the pendant and rested his fingers on her neck. He let the metal slip through his fingers. He pulled his hand back until it rested on her shoulder. “Keep it for now.”
“You’re sure?”
“No.” He smiled, but her having it meant he had to keep her around. He gazed into her eyes, he could swear they were glowing in the cabin, but it was probably just the lights. He touched a painted lock of hair.
She blushed under his scrutiny and the touch of his hand. She didn’t want him to move away. Ravil leaned in. Rake did the same. He slipped his hand up through her hair to cup her head and bring her close. She closed her eyes.
The ship beeped and they came under fire. The lights in the cabin turned red. Rake and Ravil turned back to their controls. He rolled the ship; she fired at targets as they flashed past them. They laughed. Thoughts of tension forgotten. They focused on blowing shit up.
***
Kennedy, Lincoln, and Marx lay curled up on Betty’s bed. Lincoln threw off the covers. “Anything?”
Marx lifted his head. “Everything’s been cleaned, but the ankle strap still has blood.” He lifted it up and tossed it to Kennedy.
Kennedy let it hit him in the face. He smelled the pillows, following his nose. He lifted his head and coughed. “Lots of soaps! No prey smell.”
Marx cracked his jaw. “He was tied down. He stank.”
Lincoln picked up the ankle strap and shoved it into Kennedy’s mouth. He looked to Marx. “These visitors he had, did you ever follow them?”
Marx shook his head. “They did not fit the description.”
Kennedy spat out the strap. “Same problem, blood is different.” He arched his back and popped his shoulders. “But feeling is stronger, I can track to source.”
Lincoln frowned. “I don’t suppose we have another option.”
Marx yawned. “How close can you get?”
Kennedy closed his eyes. “I can tell direction, but not distance.”
Lincoln rolled to his feet. “Then we have no other options, we shall go for a walk. The sun is beginning to rise, the air will be…” he hesitated, he could not say clean. “Newer.”
***
Ravil spilled out of the US Defender in tears. She laughed and fell to her knees, holding her sides; she was red in the face. She rolled onto her back and laughed at the smog haze overhead. Her laughs tapered off. “Rake, the sun has come up.”
Rake glared at her from the doorway of the ship. “You cheated somehow.”
Ravil wiped her eyes. “Did not.”
Rake looked her over. “Rat then, she did something to the program.” He stood bare legged and barefoot, having discarded both boots and fishnets while they had spent hours on the simulator blowing things up and outpacing those that chased them.
Ravil sat up and ran her fingers through her hair. Dried paint puffed into the air. “No she didn’t, but she told me you’d be rusty at things.”
Rake grimaced. “Docking at the US Liberty, I should have known you’d—” he smiled at her. “Tricky.”
“I’m a new
Ravil.” She tried to stand, but her boot caught in netting. “Ouch.”
“Why’re you still wearing those?” Rake stepped out of the door. He dropped to a crouch and worked at the netting around her feet. In the silence, they both came back to reality. Rake fumbled with words in his head, finally spitting out softly, “Thank you for the various times you saved my ass. I should have said it earlier. I hadn’t forgotten, it just didn’t seem right. So thanks.”
“You saved mine a few times as well.”
Rake nodded. “Yeah, but you didn’t try and sell me or dump me off as a thank you.” His fingers slipped on a knot. He pulled a knife out of his belt and sliced her free. He stabbed the knife into the earth. “I’m sorry.”
Ravil sat up. This seemed like the time for disclosure. She opened her mouth then shut it. She had been attempting to work the whole ‘I’m an alien’ thing into the conversation the entire time in the US Defender, but she had come up short. There was just no way of elegantly doing it. Ravil sighed, she was going to have to zip him around and force him to see what she was. She reached for his arm and stopped. Her hand shook. She stared at them. Why was she afraid to let him know?
Ravil propped herself up and stared at his bare chest, unable to meet his eyes. She wanted him to want to be with her just for her, not because of what she was. She wanted him to be her friend. She remembered the closeness of earlier, the way it had felt. She wanted something more than friendship as well. She wanted him to hold her; she wanted that feeling of safety, the feeling of being home. She wanted to feel him next to her, skin to skin. She blushed.
Rake sat by her side. He could tell she’d been trying to tell him something all the time they were together, but she couldn’t quite spit it out, even now. He stayed quiet to give her a chance to formulate the words.
He closed his eyes and waited. He could smell her, his fingers twitched. In the closeness of the cockpit, he’d been able to focus on flying. Even if not really in space, it was the closest he had gotten in years. He opened one eye to look down at her. They were alone again with nothing to distract him.
Rake and Ravil gulped at the same time. They fidgeted and their arms brushed up against one another. The ember that had sat in Rake’s stomach turned into a flame and caught on his nerves. He stared at the world around him as it narrowed, darkened, and became her. His breaths came short and fast. He tried to hold onto his thoughts but they slipped away.
He stood up. His vision spun and he fell. Numb to everything else; he did not feel his body hit the ground.
Ravil turned to him in concern. She put her hands on either side of his face. “Rake? Rake, what’s wrong?”
She burned like ice against his skin, throbbing, invigorating, inviting. He grabbed her wrists. She had to stop touching him, it was maddening. He pried her hands off, but he couldn’t let go of her hands; he could only stare at them.
Ravil leaned in to look into his eyes. “Rake?”
He sat up and pulled her with him until they were inches apart, a distance he could close in an instant. He adjusted his grip on her wrists, tighter, more secure. They stared into each other’s eyes. Hers did not hold any fear, just concern. She didn’t fight. She cocked her head. “Rake, what is wrong with you?”
Rake took a deep breath. He might as well be honest and warn her. He spoke slowly as if reciting something he’d heard before, “I can only see you, Ravil, and I can’t…I can’t feel anything else. I can’t hear anything else. You’re bright and I can’t stop looking, touching, wanting to be near you. I feel attached and I can’t leave because nothing else is here. It’s just you, only you.”
Ravil’s mouth formed an O. She’d heard these words before. She’d witnessed males of her kind under thrall, calling to their female Navigators. Nervous electricity raced through her skin. His touch became a flame, a pleasing warmth, addictive. She tried to understand this, it didn’t make sense. He wasn’t a Navigator, but she didn’t care anymore. She wanted him too. “Rake.”
He gasped. “I think…I think you should…run.”
Ravil stared at her wrists, still bound by his hands. “Is that an order?”
Rake trembled; he drew her into his lap. He put his forehead against hers and let her wrists go. His lips brushed hers. “Yes.”
Ravil leapt out of his lap and took off. She really didn’t want to go away and he didn’t say how fast, so she ran slowly. Rake tackled her within two meters of where they had been sitting. Expecting it, Ravil rolled when he caught her and cushioned her own fall.
He grabbed her ankles and pulled her along the ground. He crouched over her, ready to pounce if she tried to flee, but she didn’t move. She made it easy, practically inviting him to let out the demon inside. His body trembled, aching. He pressed one of his hands into his eyes; the other kept her wrist pinned.
She noticed a tear rolling down his cheek. “Rake? Why are you crying?”
“Why aren’t you screaming?” He struggled to control the volume of his voice, he was angry. Angry with her for not going, angry with himself for not being able to stop. “Scream for someone damn it! Fight me!”
Ravil reached up and touched his cheek. She put her hand to his shoulder and pushed up until she was sitting; her legs were trapped under him. “Rake, I have no reason to scream.”
“Yes you do!” Rake looked at her. His skin was on fire and she was cold, chill, an icy star. He took her hand and brought it to his lips. He kissed her fingers. “Ravil, you do.”
“No, I don’t.” Ravil hugged him and rested her cheek on his chest.
Rake gasped and locked his arms around her. He fought with his fingers, they wanted to tear her clothes and grip her skin, but he kept them rigid. She held onto him tighter, pressing her breasts and stomach against him. He shuddered.
He pushed them into the dirt, propping himself up on his elbows. He pulled his hands away from her body and wound his fingers in her hair. He lifted his face away from her neck and stared at the necklace she wore, trying to retain self-control. “I want to do terrible things to you, Ravil.” He looked into her eyes. “Vile, unforgivable things.”
Ravil placed her hand on his heart, feeling for his heartbeat. She kissed his cheek. “This is not vile or unwanted.”
Rake shuddered. He moved his hips, pressing his pelvis into the dirt, sending waves of pain and pleasure through his limbs. He swallowed and shook his head. “Please scream for someone, Ravil. I can’t get back. I’m trying, but I can’t! I can’t let you go!”
Ravil ignored his plea. Male Navigators were homicidal when it came to their mates, calling for someone would turn to this to bloodshed. She kissed his neck, slowly, softly. “You don’t need to stop.”
Rake ground his teeth. “Ravil, please!” His hands clenched and unclenched in her hair, his chest pressed up against hers. His toes twitched, his legs spasmed, he wanted, no needed release. His hips moved against the ground in a steady rhythm, building pleasure with each move back and forth. He was thankful she was short and he was tall. Their hips were unmatched; at least he was not thrusting against her like some disgusting animal.
She ran her fingers through his hair; paint flaked off at her touch. His heartbeat raced and so hers matched his; his feverish breath burned her throat. A small fire lit inside her in response to Rake’s inferno. She wanted him, she wanted this. She brought her hand to his neck. She wrapped a leg around him and planted her lips on his. She pressed her body into his and her hips moved against him, her desire clear. She let a moan escape her lips into his mouth.
The conscience he had, fled. Rake covered her mouth with his; his lips and tongue taking and controlling hers, making them his. She was his. He grabbed her hip with one hand and the other held her head. He moved against the earth, thrusting as if inside her. Rake could not think, only feel. The orgasm grew from the base of his spine to the crown of his head. His world became a whitewash of euphoria. He broke the kiss and cried out into her hair, “Ra—Ravil!”
He shuddered, fe
et scraped the earth as his body shook against hers. He pressed his forehead into the ground, his gasps a mixture of painful sobs and low moans of pleasure. His hips jerked back and forth in aftershocks.
Rake struggled to breathe. His fire temporarily put out, lethargy and revulsion replaced it. Ravil stayed beneath him, in his arms, still intact, but what had he done? His world spun as he forgot to breathe. He regained himself. What had he done?
Rake threw himself backwards. He kicked the earth to get away from her. He turned away. He did not want to see the look of disgust that must be on her face, or worse the look of empty horror. He’d violated her trust and nearly violated her. He cupped his hand over his mouth. He’d turned into everything he hated.
He hoped, if only for an instant, that this had been a hallucination, some kind of drug-induced dream. He reached down and touched his boxers. He cringed, he hadn’t been imagining anything. He was obscene. She was a child and he had become her predator. He threw up behind an upturned piece of scrap metal.
Ravil sat up, unperturbed and still aroused. She cocked her head at his behavior, frowning. Her happiness at him accepting her non-kid status slipped aside as she heard him throw up. She grimaced. “Rake, I’m fine.”
Rake plugged his ears.
She crawled to his side. She put her arms around him. “Rake, stop that. Don’t be stupid, look—”
“No!” Rake shook his head. “Get away, Ravil! Get away from me before I do something worse! Protect yourself! Run!”
She sighed. “Rake, stop being a stupid idiot.” She tugged on his arm. “Come on, look at me. I’m fine and actually I’m still pretty, uhm, what is your word for when you feel good—”
“Get out of here Ravil, now!” He remembered what she’d said earlier. “That’s an order!”
Ravil jumped to her feet. She took a step back, fighting the compulsion. “Rake, don’t!”
“Leave!”
“Rake, please take it back! Rake, don’t do this to me, you don’t know what you’re doing!”
“Never let me see you again!” He threw his hand out, unable to look at her. “Don’t get within my sight!”