pushing forward relentlessly through the darkening sky.
"There!" Caleb tried to reach the creature, who now shared
both his mind and his body, and guide it toward the flickering
light, but he got no response. Eventually he lost the battle to
keep his eyes open and he drifted off, lost in dreams of warm
water engulfing his aching limbs and an overwhelming desire
to sink down beneath the waves and sleep forever.
It seemed like only a second had passed before he woke
up, choking on salt water and tasting gritty sand. His eyes
seemed to be glued shut, and his body weighed a thousand
kilos.
He tried to push himself up, but apparently someone had
thrown a heavy blanket over his back. The damp covering
held him trapped against the ground. Its rough texture on his
back itched and irritated him. Who would have thought to put
something so uncomfortable on him?
Since he didn't posses the strength to sit up, he
concentrated on crawling out from under the sodden mass.
Clawing his hands into the sand, he threw every ounce of his
remaining strength into hauling his exhausted body across
the beach. He groaned with the effort but made no progress.
It almost seemed as if the blanket was secured to his body.
After several tries, he gave up and lay panting. Realization
came upon him slowly. Soaked from having landed in the
water, his wings held him pinned to the sand. He
remembered seeing the ocean racing toward him, his feet
hitting the ground, and then his body collapsing at the water's
edge.
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The first few waves had washed over his head, and he
recalled welcoming the momentary silence.
Fortunately, the tide had receded, and each subsequent
wave had swirled over less and less of his body. Now only his
toes felt wet. The breakers tickled them, or maybe it was a
legion of marauding sand crabs preparing to feast on his
flesh.
"Help me..." A surge of panic at the thought of being eaten
alive forced the words from his lungs, followed by an
explosive cough. At least he'd made it to the beach.
Someone would hear him eventually. Assuming of course
he'd managed, in his blind, delirious flight, to reach the island
he'd been trying to find.
Hours past, it seemed, while he lay contemplating his fate.
The symbion seemed to be dead. He sensed nothing from it,
only a dull pain at the nape of his neck told him the creature
was still connected to his body.
It would have to be surgically removed, a process that, at
best, would leave Caleb paralyzed. For all he knew, maybe he
already was.
"Cleb ... Calb..." A muffled voiced reached him before he
could sink further into despair. His ears must be full of water.
He didn't recognize the voice, but it sounded like a woman.
"Omigod ... are you ohh ... cleb ... can you heeeer meee?"
He opened his mouth to respond and sand showered
across his tongue. He sputtered, and the disembodied voice
shrieked.
"Omigodmsorry ... clebcanyooo ... hear meee?"
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"I ken ... I ken..." He spat out sand and cautiously pried
one eyelid open, fearing more sand would be kicked into his
face.
Cool hands brushed the crusted particles from his cheek
and forehead, and finally he caught a glimpse of his savior.
Zara!
Oh no. Why did it have to be her? Why did she have to be
the one to find him like this, helpless and broken, his useless
body imprisoned under the corpse of his symbion?
"Zara..."
"Lie still. I'll call for help."
"Noph ... no. Pleeeze..."
"Caleb, you've been gone for ten hours."
He wasn't sure why that mattered, but he knew he didn't
want everyone from the research station crowding around
him like they had during his disastrous joining ritual. The
embarrassment would kill him much faster than lying here
and rotting under the dead weight of his water-logged wings.
Zara seemed to be digging her way beneath his body,
scooping great armfuls of sand from under his left shoulder.
Maybe she was going to bury him. Smart girl. Hide the body
and spare him any further humiliation.
"Humph?"
She ignored his question and continued to dig while
muttering to herself or to him, he wasn't sure. "Dead ... no
one expected to find you alive." Rather than push him into
the hole she'd formed beneath his upper body, though, she
levered her own shoulder under his and with a mighty heave,
pushed him over onto his side.
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Now he remembered he was naked and cold, but at least it
was dark.
On her hands and knees before him, Zara peered into his
face. Finally a rush of hot water drained from his right ear
into the sand, and he shivered with the return of normal
sound. At least he was able to hear her next question clearly.
"Are you in pain?"
He nodded. He'd been mostly numb up until this minute.
Now his whole body ached, and the ache became fiery agony
as his raw, exhaustion-deadened nerve endings began to
wake up.
"Takemehome."
"Dr. Danson's waiting at the station. He'll have everything
ready to help you."
Danson. Oh shit. He was in trouble. The worst had
happened, and it was Caleb's fault for not telling Danson the
whole truth.
"No!" His shout startled Zara. She slid an arm under his
and lifted his upper body onto her lap.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
"No Danson ... not yet. I need..."
"What? What do you need?"
"Female?"
His symbion woke then, and the nearly instantaneous
transition from lifelessness to full sexual awareness left Caleb
shaking. Behind him, his wings began to fold of their own
accord, dragging furrows of wet sand with them.
Strength surged through every muscle in his body,
including a few he wished would remain asleep. Undone by
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the wave of emotions building in his brain, Caleb pushed
himself out of Zara's embrace and scrambled into a crouch on
the sand. His wings quivered, casting drops of water and grit
everywhere before settling themselves against his back.
Confused, he stared at her, and she stared back.
"Caleb—"
"I feel better. I'm all right."
Her gazed dipped to the massive erection now rising
between his legs, and she blushed. He wondered how he
could see the increased color of her cheeks so well in the dim
starlight. He hadn't expected to acquire Icarian night vision
along with his wings—that was a trait native to the dominant
race, not the symbions. Yet as Caleb's glance darted around
&n
bsp; to the narrow strip of sand beneath the lighthouse station, he
realized the silvery light from above was more than adequate
for him to see every detail of the scene.
Ocean spray glittered on the nearby jetty rocks like a net
of diamonds. At the edge of the water, tiny crabs worked
their claws into the damp sand, digging up the minute
shellfish roe that lay a few centimeters beneath the
constantly shifting surface.
Zara's hazel eyes were dilated into wide pools of curious
black rimmed by thin rings of green—the same color as the
sand. Her sleeveless shirt was wet and clung to her breasts.
Under his brash scrutiny, her nipples began to harden.
Motivated by this sudden, uncontrolled rush of desire,
Caleb forced himself to look away. "I need to be alone," he
said. "I'm not ready to go back to the station."
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"But everyone's looking for you. Jidar has been in the air
all day."
On the heels of his arousal, anger boiled up, laced with an
unnatural fear that he knew came from the symbion. This
particular one had been captured once and examined by
Danson. The geneticist had done his best to cause as little
pain as possible while collecting blood and DNA samples from
the terrified creature, but still it recalled the discomfort and
uncertainty of its brief captivity at the research station along
with the somewhat forced nature of its bonding. Caleb
suspected it would balk at returning to the lab now while it
was still recovering from their manic virgin flight.
"I can't now, Zara. I need time."
"Female?" The symbion wanted Zara, almost as much as
Caleb did. It craved release too as an outlet for the
unregulated flow of unfamiliar hormones from its new host
body.
Caleb fought the urge to lunge across the beach and tackle
her.
"Okay." Zara put her hands up in a calming gesture. "We
can rest here for a little while, and when you're ready to go
back—"
"No!" He straightened to his full height, his wings sweeping
out to the side. All he needed to do was jump into the air, and
his symbion would take him far away again where no one
could hurt either of them.
Zara backed away a step, which put her foot right into the
depression she'd dug in the sand. With a gasp, she toppled
backward.
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Caleb's human instinct was to reach for her and break her
fall, but his reflexes worked too fast for his brain. His wings
flapped once, propelling him forward. Instinctively, he
scooped Zara up under her arms and lifted her off the ground
before she could fall.
Two more strokes and they rose above the beach, clearing
ten meters in the blink of an eye.
Triumph washed through Caleb's brain. The symbion had
proudly captured a mate and was now searching for a quiet,
secluded place to claim its prize.
[Back to Table of Contents]
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Chapter Five
Zara's heart leapt into her throat the moment her feet left
the ground. One minute she'd been tumbling backward in the
uneven sand, and the next she found herself careening over
the dark beach, suspended in Caleb's arms.
For a moment she couldn't speak. Fear of plummeting to
the jagged rocks of the jetty held her mute. How did Caleb
have the strength to lift himself, let alone her, into the air
after a ten-hour flight?
She didn't dare struggle for fear he'd lose his grip, so she
held her breath and tensed all her muscles, hoping to make
herself a little bit lighter, at least until he cleared the rocks.
Finally, when he swooped lower toward the sand, she was
able to squeak out her demands. "Put me ... Caleb! Put me
down."
Some of the other research-station staff had flown with
Icarians on occasion, but she'd never accepted an invitation
to soar over the ocean. Now, looking down at the undulating
waves, she understood the awe her colleagues had felt, yet
she still clung to her belief that this was not a safe or
effective way to travel. For humans, at least.
"Caleb! Please."
In response, he banked to the south, carrying them once
again over the jetty and passing the spot where she'd found
him washed ashore. The tiny, little-used southeastern beach
fell away as Caleb climbed higher into the air. Low scrub
replaced soft sand, and Zara tensed again. A patch of
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brambles half a kilometer wide separated the beach from the
southern living quarters. Half a dozen individual bungalows
provided private and shared living space for members of the
station staff. Another dozen small buildings took up the
northern side of the island running along the station's only
paved road.
Don't drop me now, she prayed as the scraggly foliage
loomed beneath her bare feet. Her shoes had fallen off when
they'd first left the ground. If she fell now, not only would the
stiff, sharp-edged leaves of the brambles cut her skin to
ribbons, their gnarled roots would be impossible to walk over
without protection.
"Caleb!"
The first of the bungalows came into view, a pale, boxy
shape against the blue-green sea grass that took over where
the bramble patch ended.
This was Caleb's home and he was heading toward it.
Zara tightened her grip on Caleb's arms. Did he know how
to land while carrying someone? If she called out for help
would anyone hear her? All the bungalows stretching west in
the line along the island's rugged southern coast were dark.
No lights blazed from within any of the cubical structures. Not
surprising. Everyone was probably at the lab complex, waiting
anxiously for news from the Icarian search parties.
It didn't matter. Once Caleb set her down, if that was his
intention, she could run inside his hut and use the radio to
call the lab.
Again, Caleb banked, circling above his quarters. Once he
came around the small square of asphalt in front of the
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bungalow, he dropped quickly and set Zara down. Her feet
touched the ground with no greater impact than if she'd
simply taken a step, and Caleb slipped his arms from beneath
hers. He soared over her head and landed himself a few feet
in front of her.
Awed by his instinctive skill, she gawked at the sight he
made. A magnificent winged man, naked and muscular—he
looked like an angel.
During her tenure at the station, Zara had grown
accustomed to the spectacle of winged humanoids, but now,
staring at Caleb, she had a new appreciation for the exotic
beauty of this race.
Her heart thundered, and something warm stirred in her
belly when he turned to face her. She licked her lips
involuntarily at the sight of his still semi-erect cock.
Unbidden, her thoughts returned to those few chaotic
moments of his joining when, at the mercy of a wave of alien
biochemistry, he'd experienced a violent orgasm under her
touch.
Her face heated, and she looked away. "That was ...
amazing, but please, don't do it again."
He took one step toward her then stopped, seeming to
battle with himself over whether he wanted to come any
closer. "I'm sorry. It was a reflex. My symbion took over."
She nodded and wondered who was in charge of his
actions now. How much of Caleb's will remained, and how
much influence did the alien now fused to his body have over
his actions?
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"Let's go inside," he said. "I don't want them to find me."
He didn't wait for her response, just whirled around and
stalked toward the entrance of his bungalow.
Zara watched his strong, confident strides. Minutes ago
he'd been unconscious, lying face down in the sand. When
she'd first realized the dark form sprawled on the beach was
him, she'd been certain he was dead. His body had been ice
cold to the touch and eerily still before he'd taken one
convulsive breath and miraculously come back to life.
Now he seemed completely recovered, physically hale and
mentally in command. If only she could believe it was true.
She'd witnessed his disastrous joining, and she believed, just
as Ray Danson did, that Caleb's ordeal was far from over.
She could have run now to the next bungalow. It would be
open since no one used locks on the island. She could call the
lab with the radio there, or she could merely take off on her
still-trembling legs and head down the paved road toward the
bulbous western end of the island where the lab buildings lay.
Instead she bowed her head and resolutely followed Caleb
into the hut.
Her first obligation was to him as her patient. He wanted
privacy and a reprieve from the questions and tests that
awaited him once Danson found out he'd returned. She had a
duty to give him what he wanted, what he needed, no matter
what the consequences for anyone else.
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