Starlight Complete

by Astrid Cooper

  In the distance, John heard his father’s voice. “Get rid of this feegling throne and bring me my cushion. And I want every mirror removed from this chamber right now.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “I am Duran, I am Herrall. If anyone ever uses ‘Your Majesty’ or ‘sire’ to me again, I will claw his ass. Now get moving!”

  Within thirty minutes, John had reached the sleek hunter ship parked in space dock. In that time, the two draconis on board had run through the flight checks. Lenar and Kareena took their seats in the passenger cubicle, while John and Taren strapped down in the cockpit seats.

  Clearance was given and the assassin’s ship streaked out of docking, earning a reprimand and a hefty fine for exceeding speed limits and safety protocols.

  “Eat my neutrinos,” Taren snapped back at the official and hit the hyper drive. “Which way?” he asked glancing at John sitting next to him in the flight deck.

  Kuno’s hand hovered over the onscreen star maps. He closed his eyes. Concentrated. Moments later, he felt Sam’s cry and his gut clenched. He snapped his lids open. “This way.” Even to his own ears, his voice sounded chillingly distant.

  “Right.” Taren shifted the drive beyond maximum. He caught sight of John’s frown. “Trust me.”

  “With my life. With my wife’s life. And my brother’s.”

  Starlight Madness

  “My name is Kuno, and I exist for you. Only for you.”

  Samantha caressed his cheek with her palm and in response, he rubbed his face against her hand and smiled. That gentle special smile, which turned her inside out. Oh, stars! How she loved this man!

  Tears stung the backs of her eyes. She stretched up on her toes and kissed him. As his arms enfolded her crushingly close, she felt his hard body ignite.

  He kissed her, his tongue sliding over her lips, a flick, a retreat, a dance of seduction, before darting inside her mouth to couple with her tongue. She tasted cat and musk and man-spice.

  He growled, long, low, and her body vibrated with the sound.

  The world sparkled with light. Opalescent, tear-shaped crystals rained down upon them, around the grove. The crystals merged with them, seeping into every pore, so that their skin waxed and waned with the colors of a Chizan rainbow—purple, green and silver.

  John raised her right leg and draped it across the small of his back. Sam crept higher, and he assisted her, cupping her bottom, guiding. She crossed her ankles at the base of his spine, pressing her heels against the special meridian point that drove him wild.

  “Ssssssssss,” the hiss was pure cat, as he nipped her lobe. His erection flexed against her, the head probing.

  Sam knotted her fingers in his hair and arched her back, bringing him deep within her.

  “Have I not taught you patience, kitten-mine? The greatest pleasure is from denial, to delay—”

  “I want you, and I want you now. My name is Samantha and I exist for you. Only for you, John-Kuno.”

  His eyes sparked with passion. He rested his chin on her shoulder and loved her, undulating his body. He sang. Sam recognized it as the felinus love song. She needed no interpretation. Her senses flared. The first ripple of ecstasy cramped her inner muscles. The tingling fanned outwards engulfing every nerve. As her nails raked across his back, he purred.

  “Yes, kitten-mine. Claw me, bite me, love me.” His tongue lathed her neck between the gentlest of bites. A sting to mark her as his. She bit, drawing him into her mouth. Against her, he shuddered.

  The starfire spread through her veins and opening her eyes she saw his skin glowing with starlight. Convergence beckoned. Her soul touched his, blending, becoming one, as their flesh bodies pulsed and joined.

  “Kuuuunnnnno.”

  That is my name, wife of mine. My beloved fe’ha tu. I’m glad you remember me. His fingers dipped between her ass cheeks, a gentle stroke along the crease.

  She shivered at this careful exploration of a new pleasure point and for a moment she forgot to breathe as he brought her to that peak, holding her there, motionless, silent. He pressed again and she exploded, crying his name, shuddering a release, bathing him with her honey.

  He came in that moment, his climax burning into her, a stream of light writhing around her, in her. Starfire. Convergence.

  His feena within her expanded, the felinus ridges teasing her inner muscles. He retreated, then plunged into her, provoking her to another orgasm.

  He sang and with each word he slid into her, opening her, resting deeper. She arched her back, allowing him to enter to his full length, touching the places that no human male could ever reach.

  The world around her shimmered with color, then exploded, a golden supernova, red-threaded, like veins.

  “My name is Kuno and I exist for you, only for you, fe’ha tu. For you, only for you, forever.”

  “My name is Samantha-Sharille. You are Kuno and you are my faeth-tul-san. I exist for you, only for you, now, forever.”

  The words passed between them. Husband. Wife. Forever. Soul-mates.

  Minds, bodies, souls danced. They sang as the crystals rained down upon them, the gift of Chizan, the gift of mutatis. They became one.

  “Sing again.”

  John smiled. “If this is your desire?”

  “It is my passion.”

  His baritone was sultry, slow. With each word he emphasized his love with the gentle rhythm of his body.

  Again, the world around her sparked with color and then a dark cloud draped about her. She struggled against the suffocating mantle. She was torn from John and as her fingers stretched out to him, he retreated, vanishing into the dark. Robot-monsters held her, their metal fingers biting into her skin. She screamed, fighting to escape, to live.

  An unknown song sifted into her, soothing, calming. What’s to soothe, to calm? Sam wondered, hovering on the border of sleep. She moved and a pain sliced up her side.

  Who was that singing? The voice must belong to angel. Slowly, recognition dawned. It was Harimal.

  But Hari was missing.

  “I assure you, kitten, I am not missing. I know exactly where I am. Here. Wherever here is.”

  With a mind-twisting lurch, her memory slammed back. She snapped her eyelids open. Strong arms held her. Her cheek lay against a man’s naked chest. With a cry she reared away, scratching to be free.

  Suddenly released, she skidded backward on her bare ass across a metal floor. She stared.

  “Hari!” Sam crawled to him and fell sobbing into his embrace. He rocked her, like a child, soothing, weeping with her, while his hands skimmed over her skin. Gentle strokes to console, to find a pressure point that would relieve her pain and fear.

  It didn’t work. Her gut cramped with terror and she shuddered, fighting back the nausea.

  Lifting her head, she studied him. Saw his fatigue and the shadows beneath his eyes. Haunted eyes, dark, and full of pain. And beneath the surface of his mind, she caught his lurking horror, even as he desperately tried to conceal it from her.

  His body was laced with bruises and scratches. A bruise on his temple was old, fading to yellow. The other injuries were fresh.

  “Where am I?” she demanded.

  “Hell, Sammi.”

  “There’s no such place.”

  He smiled bleakly. “Unfortunately there is. We’re prisoners of a demented monster.”

  Hari’s mind-images flashed through her consciousness. “We’re prisoners of the collector?” She paused, her gaze searching. “Why?”

  “Later. Let me soothe you. You’ve been hurt. Fought them did you?”

  “They killed John.”

  Harimal’s eyes glittered with rage, before tears extinguished the anger. “I know. In your delirium, you opened your mind and I saw. You are certain of this? Were there no felinus with you?”

  “No. But what difference would it have made?”

  “Sometimes a felinus can Initiate another, save them from death, turn them into felinus. John was hyb
rid, but his blood was as strong as any other, he—”

  “He died, Hari. And whoever did it, I’ll make them pay!”

  Laughter echoed around them. “That’s the spirit, human. If your passion matches your anger, then fine sport I’ll have.”

  Sam forced herself to her feet, fists clenched, facing the source of the voice—the VDU on the wall. “Go to hell, whatever you are. I’m not sport for you or anyone.”

  “No? Tell her, Harimal, explain to her the nature of her existence. You understand.”

  “Tell her yourself, you goddamn coward. Too scared to face her?”

  Hari gasped and pitched forward on his knees, clutching the collar around his throat. Sam crouched beside him, tugging at the thing as he choked. Her fingers tingled with the electrical current pulsing through the collar.

  “Don’t, Sam.” Hari gasped. “Makes it worse. Trust me. I tried to remove it…once.”

  “That’s for your defiance, felinus. Now, tell the woman.”

  “No!” Harimal drew in a shuddering breath. Another.

  Sam stroked his temple. “You don’t have to say a bloody thing, Hari. Something is collecting felinus and other shifters. John told me and Taren. Why?”

  “Convergence, Sam. It wants convergence.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “Nothing is impossible, human, given the right circumstances.”

  Sam tossed her head. “I will not.”

  Harimal moaned, clutching at the collar.

  “So that’s how we play it, you freakin’ monster? I behave and Hari doesn’t get hurt—”

  “A fast learner. I like that, human-mine. I hope you prove to be similarly expeditious in other areas.”

  “In your dreams, monster.”

  The creature laughed, followed by a growl. “Especially in your dreams, human.”

  “What…?” Sam waited minutes for another response, but the thing on the other end of the intercom seemed to have gone. She knelt beside Hari and helped him to stand. Leaning on her, he shuffled back to the cot at the far end of the room and sank down onto the mattress

  “So this is it?” Sam demanded, studying the room. “I wouldn’t even give this a one star rating.”

  “You’re so irrepressible, Sam.”

  “Don’t you believe it.” I’m as scared as hell.

  So am I. The monster can hear our thoughts, so be careful.

  If he can hear my thoughts, I’d be fried where I stand.

  “Ah human, not today, because I am being indulgent to my latest acquisition.”

  “How kind,” she retorted.

  “I can be kind to those who please me. You have already seen how I deal with insubordination.”

  “If we behave, we earn rewards, Sam. I have not been behaving.” Hari’s smile was more a grimace.

  “I can see that. Stubborn.”

  “Yep.”

  She sat on the edge of the cot, shivering. Not with cold, the room was heated, almost unbearably so. The chill came from inside, from her own emptiness. She was beyond tears. John had been murdered.

  His mutatis touch no longer existed within her. In its place was a dull ache, a hollowness that nothing could assuage. If only she had died, too. If only… But then Hari would be alone, at least together they had a chance. She sighed, struggled for control.

  “If there’s life, there’s hope, Samantha,” Harimal whispered against her temple.

  She smiled bleakly. “Spare me your counseling. No need for brave faces between us, Hari. I know how you truly feel. You tried to die, didn’t you?”

  He was silent for such a long time, she thought he might not answer. “Yes, but my intent was intercepted.” The subtle tightening of his body against hers was an explanation in itself. “I tried to shift to cat. The collar inhibits morphing. I thought it would kill me. I wish!”

  Sam kissed his chest. Then it was her turn for horror to course through her as she remembered Sinclair.

  What had been done to her while unconscious? She had no illusions. Andy would have… Her stomach heaved.

  “I’m sorry,” Sam said as Hari stroked her cheek, holding a cup of water to her lips.

  “Takes more than that to turn my gut, kitten.” He tried another smile. “Besides, when I woke, I was sick to my stomach. It’s the drugs they used.”

  “Hari, I need to know. I want the truth.” She held his gaze. “Was I … interfered with?”

  “No.”

  “Harimal!”

  “I’m telling you the truth. On my honor. There’s no essence inside you, save John’s and a memory of another. Taren.” He smiled.

  “Andy murdered John. I saw him. He probably brought me here.”

  Hari frowned. “There is a human minion, here, called Andy, who takes great pleasure in inflicting pain.”

  “That’d be right. It has to be Tony Sinclair, alias Andy.”

  “That skinny, drug-sodden feegler is Tony Sinclair? Your ex? I can’t believe it. But he died, years ago, that’s what John told me.”

  Sam smiled bitterly. “Apparently not and he’s still doing what he does best. If there’s a scam operating, you can bet Sinclair’d be involved. He’s moved down a few notches in the scum rating. He always had a poor taste in friends.”

  “But an excellence choice in…” Harimal bit his lip.

  “Wife?” She laughed without humor. “Every part of me belongs to John. No other.”

  “Yes and that’s what will make it so hard for you, Samantha. I know you’ll fight the starlord.”

  “The—who?”

  His gaze held hers. “Yes, kitten, one survived the wars. He’s here, somewhere. Watching, feeding, waiting for us. For convergence.”

  “He’ll wait a long time.” Sam stroked his wrist. “I won’t let another touch me. Ever.”

  “What about me?”

  “What about you?” Sam stared at him. A sudden flush of understanding raced through her. “It wants convergence. Our convergence? Oh, Hari, no!”

  Harimal took her hand between his. “We can resist. For a time.”

  Sam swallowed. “But not for long. He’s going to fry you every time I say no.” Again, his silence was her answer.

  She flung herself to her feet and paced the confines of the prison. There wasn’t much to see: steel walls and a floor, stark and functional, an alcove led off the main room containing a basic bathroom and toilet cubicle.

  Sam knew the sterile room would be anathema to Hari. Every felinus needed stimulation of all the senses—that’s why they surrounded themselves with texture of fabrics and flowers and crystals and essential oils, the tinkling of fountains, or the ring of wind chimes. To have any sense deprived would be like death, one layer at a time. To live in a place without them all—how had Hari survived this long?

  “I’ve used diversions. Singing and working on my opera.”

  “Your opera?”

  He smiled. For a moment it was the Harimal she remembered, before the pain. “I was going to have it ready to perform for the Ortelan fundraiser. I call the work canzone felinallinus d’amore di stele.”

  “The love song of the stars. What a beautiful name. When we get out of here, Hari, you’re going to perform that opera for me.”

  He lifted a brow. “I’ve written an aria for you and John to sing. Ah…” His eyes filled with tears, as memory returned.

  “I’ll sing it for us both,” Sam said. “I promise you.”

  Hari inclined his head.

  “But in between you’ve been resisting him, brother-mine?”

  He smiled tightly. “I’ve been a bad boy.”

  “A stubborn boy.” She lifted her chin, her eyes narrowed. “Brother-mine!” Her fingers flicked the side of her face, as if she was scratching—for any who observed and she had no doubt they were under surveillance. The secret assassin hand language was unknown to anyone outside certain shifter circles. She hoped the starlord would be ignorant. Because if she and Hari were to survive, they had to find a way
to communicate. Sign language was such a small thing on which to pin their hopes, but maybe that might be all it would take to escape the nightmare.

  She scratched again. We talk?

  Hari inclined his head, returning a scratch signal—understand!—two fingers to his temple.

  Sam paced the prison. Had to think straight. Had to survive. Had to get out of this room and tear the starlord and every other conspirator to pieces. Starting with Andy. She’d fillet him for killing John. If only she had the knife Taren had given her.

  She was naked, as Harimal. But that didn’t matter. Immersed within the felinus world she had been nude more often than clothed—John had seen to that. She wrapped her arms around her body, shivering. The crystal on the chain cut into her chest. Strange they had removed her two bracelets, but left the necklace.

  “I left it as a token, human. I will allow concessions. You have but to please me. Simple.”

  “Pleasure isn’t simple,” Sam retorted.

  “Clever girl. I have permitted you to keep the crystal, so what will you do for me in exchange?”

  “Not kill you quickly. I’ll strip flesh off your bones, like I’d peel an apple.”

  The starlord laughed. “How charming.”

  “I can be charming given the right circumstances.”

  “Or made to, human.”

  “Just go to feegling hell.”

  “Thank you, I hope to—with your help.”

  “Come here, Sam, please.” Hari held out his hand and she went to him. His arms wrapped around her

  “I’m sorry, Samantha.”

  “For what?”

  “For this. For everything.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “If I hadn’t touched you in the holo-room, ignited that response, you might have been overlooked.”

  “But you’d still be here, maybe with a stranger.”

  Harimal stroked her cheek. “Sam…”

  “Thank the stars John was spared this.” She touched Hari’s wrist and pressured his inner wrist, undulations of fingers over his flesh. Survival. Promise. Trust. Love.

  For a moment Hari was still, then his fingers pressured a return message. Love. Trust. Taren?

  Yes. Taught. Little.