StarlightComplete

by Astrid Cooper

  “Your call, felinus,” Draxis hissed.

  “And if you can’t keep your mind on the game, you’d better fold now.” Darvin sniffed theatrically. “What is that smell?”

  “You don’t recognize the piquancy of horny cat scent? Drax, I’m surprised,” Darvin said. “Harimal, san-Duran, you really need to get mated.”

  “I’m trying,” Harimal said, gazing at the silver-scaled male opposite him.

  “There’s trying and there’s trying,” Darvin growled, running a black talon over his mate’s arm.

  Hari snorted and set down two cards. “I call you.”

  “The cat’s changed the subject.” Draxis rumbled with laughter, his yellow eyes slitted. “Too hot for you, eh?”

  “Nothing is too hot for me, I—”

  The ship’s proximity alarm sounded and as Draxis flung back his chair, the vessel shuddered from the unmistakable hit of a torpedo.

  “What the—?” Darvin was on his feet and running to the flight deck, Hari and Draxis on his tail. Literally.

  “Get that bloody tail out of my way, Dar!” Draxis shouted, leaping over the appendage as it swished from side to side along the floor.

  Metal screamed around them and the ship bucked, and after a star’s awful whine, the engines died. An explosion rocked the ship from fore to aft.

  Hari and the dragons crashed hard against the bulkhead.

  Hari recovered first, crawled on hands and knees to Darvin, who was cradling his bleeding head.

  “I’ve had worse, felinus,” the dragon said. Hari knew better. Knew pain when he saw it.

  They heard the sound of the hull tearing open and seconds later, human voices.

  Before Hari could react, he was pulled behind Draxis. Darvin struggled to his feet, the two draconis shielding Hari with their bodies. At the sound of feet crashing against the metal corridor, just out of view, the dragons went into a crouch, ready for the kill.

  Moments later, six humodroids, their human heads a terrible mockery to the cyborg bodies of metal and plastic, skidded to a halt.

  Shock flooded Hari. The manufacture of such creatures had been banned by every Star Court in the galaxy. Yet, here they were…

  Hari tensed, ready to spring, but with one outstretched arm, Draxis pinned him to the wall. He struggled. Stars curse draconis for their duty to protect. He began to morph into cat.

  “No, you don’t, felinus!” Draxis’s talons bit into his flesh, distracting.

  Then Hari heard the scream of a disruptor and Darvin went down, moaning.

  Disruptors were banned, too. What the feegling hell was happening here?

  Draxis moved, faster than even a felinus eye could follow and launched himself at the intruders. Hari followed, morphing, cat claws extended. He took down two humodroids in the first leap.

  Draxis tore one apart and was jumping on the next, when another disruptor beam took the silver dragon in the back. He crashed to the floor.

  Darvin dragged his crippled body forward, reaching his mate’s side.

  Hari landed beside the two dragons, touching his nose to Draxis. The dragon was dead.

  Darvin snarled, tears falling from his eyes. He stared at Hari. “Take my clan-song, san-Duran.”

  Hari nodded acceptance and the Dragon mind touched Felinus. The names of the dragon’s sires was gifted to him. That meant only one thing…

  Then the draconis pushed all thought to one side, save revenge. Hari shivered at the cold rage. Draconis revenge went beyond even anything an Assassin could imagine.

  Darvin struggled to his feet and morphed to full dragon. Talons extended to thirty centimeters and he launched himself at the creatures who had killed his mate.

  Three blaster beams caught Darvin, slicing him through.

  Hari snarled and leaped…

  A stun-web tangled around him, bringing him down mid-air. Hari fought the confines, tearing with teeth and claws. The web’s neural inhibitor zapped his mind, his power. He couldn’t shift to man, nor could he call telepathically for help. Mind-blind for the first time in his life, he was terrified.

  Hari saw a man stride forward, dressed in a grey space suit and helmet, his blaster at the ready. Hari rolled around in the net, confronting his killer. The man aimed his disruptor.

  Hari tensed, waiting. An eternity spread before him, in reality just seconds.

  The man laughed. “Yeah, I’d kill you, kitty-cat, but Master has plans for you.” The man notched his disruptor and fired and a pellet struck Hari’s neck.

  Screaming with rage, tearing at the wound with his claws, Hari twisted in the net and then the full horror hit him as the drug spread through his veins, slowing his reflexes, blinding him…

  Sam frowned. “John-Kuno! I only agreed to do this portrait to distract you while we wait for passage to Chizan. So, stop doing that, cat-boy!”

  Lying face down on the bed, his chin resting on his crossed arms, his gaze was lambent, his smile sexy.

  “What am I doing, honey-cat?” All innocence in his voice, but seduction and games were on his mind, Samantha was under no illusions.

  “Growling and distracting me.” She stabbed her paint brush on the palette, carefully lifting a drop of black, mixing it with gold. “It’s hard enough to get your hair color right as it is.” She frowned at the canvas and her attempts to capture John-Kuno’s likeness.

  “How do you know what’s hard, kitten?” He laughed.

  She lifted a brow. “I can guess.”

  “Only guess?” He rolled to the side revealing his magnificent erection.

  “Just go back to that pose, John-Kuno. You haven’t finished—”

  “Damn right,” he said, standing and padding towards her. “Because I haven’t even started.”

  He reached for her and Sam waved her brush in front of her to fend him off, leaving a smear of black paint across his chest.

  “Ah.” John exhaled, slowly. “Ah, do that again. The bristles feel so good…”

  “This?” Sam questioned, stroking his nipples with the tip of her brush. “Or this?” She directed the bristles sideways.

  John’s body trembled from head to heels.

  Uh-oh! That look, that reaction—knew them only too well. She dropped her palette as he pulled her to him, lifting her against his taut body. He dipped his head and kissed her, his tongue…

  The digi-com made the weirdest sound—a mixture of a ping and a screech. In a blur of speed John was across the room, leaning over the console.

  “Yes. Ronsevaal-Kuno,” he said.

  “Kuno…zan-m’trl.” The voice emanating from the machine was devoid of emotion.

  zan-m’trl—Sam mouthed the strange word. What did it mean? John talked rapidly in felinus, and another through the com-link responded.

  As the conversation swept back and forth, staccato, John’s voice became cold, remote—not from anger, but horror. Terror.

  Samantha crossed the room and stood beside him, touching his arm. Beneath her fingers, his flesh was cold and shivering.

  The com-link severed and silence descended, the intense quiet pounding in her ears.

  As he turned from her, she saw the tears on his cheeks.

  “John, what’s wrong?”

  “Harimal’s ship is missing.” He shook his head at her unasked question. “No trace.”

  John strode to the conservatory and leaned against the balustrade, his forehead against the glass. His stance was similar to the one days ago—only days—but so much had happened, then there had been so much promise and now…

  Samantha ran across the room and pressed herself against John’s back, her arms around him, holding him close.

  “But you’d know if Hari was dead, John. You told me about the bond between you, so if he died you’d feel it. Wouldn’t you?”

  “Maybe.” He drew in a shuddering breath. “I’ve been focused on you, on the Desire. Hari—”

  “I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it. I won’t! Your felinus name means Seek
er. So that’s what we’ll do, Kuno, we’ll look for Hari. No matter how far, how long, we’ll find him. I promise you!”

  Starlight Passion

  “And just when exactly, John-Kuno, were you going to tell me?” Sam glared at him, her hands on her hips. His gaze matched hers, coldly furious.

  “On a needs to know, Samantha,” he snapped.

  “Well, cat-boy, I needs to know!”

  “And damn you, too, Taren!” John rounded on his wing-brother. “Stop laughing. Now is not the time.”

  The Avenor spread his hands, palms open to John. “You know your kitten has the right of it, that’s why you’re so angry. That and your hormones!” He strode towards the door and turned. “Bite him on the bum, Samantha, then feegle him.”

  She tossed her head. “I’m not going to do either.”

  Taren’s black brows lifted. “Truly?” The door slid closed against his smirk.

  “How can he laugh at a time like this?” Samantha wanted to pitch a cushion after him. Or something that broke. Breaking things would be good. Maybe John’s neck for starters.

  “He’s just a bird-brain!” John stalked across the room, heading for the glass atrium.

  “Well, at least he has one, and thinks with it!” Sam’s cutting retort halted him mid-stride. His naked back was rigid.

  Uh-oh. She’d done it this time and held her breath waiting for his explosion.

  He spun to face her and Sam gasped to see tears glistening in his eyes. She ran to him, flinging herself against his chest, holding him hard.

  “Kitten-mine,” John whispered. “I’m sorry, I should have told you, but I wanted to spare you further pain.”

  John’s shiver swept the length of his body. His inner chill seeped into her.

  “Well, I’m not spared. Being unprepared is worse. Hurts worse.” She lifted her chin and John’s mouth touched hers. A fleeting kiss full of regrets and apologies. “So someone is collecting and killing shifters? Who—someone?”

  “If I knew that, I’d be on his trail not standing here arguing with you.”

  “I’m not arguing.” Sam’s hands slipped between the folds of John’s sarong. She heard his breath catch in his throat as her fingers fastened around his hot, hard length. The ridges were splayed, flesh straining. Even the slightest touch caused him to tremble. She glanced up at him. “Does this hurt?”

  “The worst pain,” he whispered. “Ahhh, the best.”

  “Then let me help you.”

  John edged away, shaking his head. “If I do what I want to do, here and now, I’ll lose control. I have to reach Chizan and then…”

  “That mutatis thing.”

  His smile almost reached his eyes. Eyes, as cold and harsh as the deepest reaches of space. “Yes, that bloody thing.” He retreated a few steps and held out his hand, palm down, fingers spread in the felinus gesture to appease. “I know it’s hurting you and I can’t do a damn thing about it. I can’t. But honey-cat, another could.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You need to be loved. Taren is my clan-brother. I trust him. He would be gentle.”

  “No.”

  “Sam—”

  “I like Taren, but I could never…not with him.”

  “Then another? Someone who has taken your fancy?” The edge to his voice told her exactly how much it cost him to suggest she seek her release with another.

  There was no one. The closest she had ever come to contemplating a lover besides John was Hari. Her chest tightened. Hari she loved, but not in that way.

  “I’ll manage, John-Kuno. I’m not interested in feegling anyone.” She held up her finger for silence. “Not another word, or I’ll bite you on the bum.” To give emphasis to her words, she used the assassin hand-signal.

  John’s cheeks reddened. “Where’d you learn to swear like that?”

  “Taren taught me, when you were busy arranging the flight plan to Chizan. When are we leaving? I need to pack.”

  “Soon. The least anyone knows the better for us all.”

  “You think there are spies around?”

  “Outside this apartment, I’m always under surveillance by GTC. But inside we’re safe enough with the security shields.”

  “That’s all I need to know.” Sam shrugged off her robe. “Stay just where you are.”

  “I told you, Sammi, I can’t. I must not.”

  As she wrapped her arms around him, pressing her cheek against his chest, she heard his heart pounding, felt its vibrations through her skin. She twirled her tongue across his taut nipple, biting gently. His fingers splayed across the back of her head, holding her still.

  “Noooo…”

  The ties of his sarong unraveled, the material sliding down his legs to pool at his feet. Sam pressed her body against his, the burning length of him hard against her stomach. “Let me ease your pain, John.”

  He gently guided her backwards. With a sweep of his hand, he cleared the table of papers and discs and nudged her down with his thighs.

  Holding her gaze with his, he teased her curls, parting her nether lips with a finger. She shuddered. Just one finger and she was at his mercy. The thought made her smile. He angled each finger stroke, deliberately finding the hidden pleasure centers. He leaned over her and she folded her legs around his waist, crossing her ankles at the small of his back. Her heels pressed against the base of his spine. It was John’s favorite—of those she had so far discovered—and she teased him mercilessly.

  “Sharille,” he whispered her felinus name, given to her only days ago. It was a part of her, as much as breathing, which, at the moment, was very hard to do. John’s finger worked miracles, sending ripples of pleasure to every part of her.

  “Please, Kuno.”

  He leaned forward, the tip of his erection touching her. “Please, what, kitten?” Slowly, deliberately, he entered her, his gaze holding hers, his hands on either side of her head. Intimately joined, he rested there, filling her completely, teasing apart her muscles. The felinus ridges of his sex rippled, stroking her, sending a frisson of pleasure racing from her core to her every cell. He continued to stimulate her with his phallus, while his body remained immobile.

  This was another loving, a new strategy, aimed solely for her satisfaction.

  “My name is Kuno and I exist for you. Your pleasure is mine.” As he spoke, he gave added emphasis by the subtle ripple of his flesh inside her, while his mind touched hers, a loving caress. Their thoughts entwined in the beginnings of Convergence.

  The starfire traveled her body, from inside to out, engulfing her, lapping her skin with sultry light kisses. John followed the swirling trails of light, lips kissing, tongue laving, teeth nipping.

  “The…ahh…”

  “What, honey-cat?”

  “Would you do the pleasure point to the right?”

  He pulled back slightly inside her, the friction of the movement deliciously slow before reverting to complete possession.

  Sam lifted off the table as his hard length quivered against the pleasure zone which no human male could ever reach. Stars erupted behind her eyes and a scalding flush raced through her body.

  John withdrew, to return in slow languid thrusts, tormenting her gently, thoroughly.

  “My name is Samantha-Sharille and I exist for you. Only for you,” she whispered the felinus pledge.

  “You just love me for my body, honey-cat.”

  She snapped open her eyelids and saw his teasing grin. Smiling, she tightened her legs around him, holding him tightly. She slapped his ass. His grin deepened.

  He aimed for the central pleasure point and Sam writhed beneath him, her thighs quivering against his hips.

  “You wanna hit me again?” He aimed for the left point.

  “Kuno…”

  “That is my name.” He pulled back to her entrance and bore down, a thrust taking him all the way to her core.

  He repeated the motion again and again.

  Sam squeezed her legs, holding him, s
avoring the moment, savoring the climax as it engulfed her. She channeled the pleasure as he had taught her, heightening it, then casting it over them both.

  Starlight flowed between them, then Convergence.

  Hari woke slowly, lethargically, his mouth bitter and dry. He had been drugged…when, by whom? He struggled to remember.

  His felinus senses kicked in. He was lying in a room, naked, cold, hurting. There was a tight band around his throat. His right hand was manacled. Both his ankles were shackled.

  He cast out his senses, frustrated that the drugs inhibited his mental probe.

  “I know you are awake, felinus, so do not play games. Games will come later. For now, I want to talk to you.”

  Hari snapped his lids open. He was in a room bare of all adornment, the walls white, the bright light coming from one aperture in the ceiling. A video screen hung in the middle of the far wall and beneath it was a dispenser.

  He managed to raise himself on an elbow, groaning against the weakness, the pain. He glanced down at his body, noted the bruises and scratches. How had that happened? When? It was obvious that days had passed…

  Harimal struggled to remember. The restraints were attached to a ring on the wall and he tested the strength of each. Odd to be chained like something out of the dark ages, when the room was modern. Someone was making a statement.

  Part of the wall opposite him slid open and an electric chair powered in. Harimal stared.

  The grey-skinned creature in the chair, affixed to numerous devices had a human body, but the face was a mix of human, cat and lizard. Its talons were similar to a draconis. Black eyes, yellow-slitted studied him dispassionately.

  Hari’s blood ran cold as memory returned. The ship intercepted, the draconis and he fighting side by side against the pirates. The draconis going down protecting him, dying for him; the disruptor beam fired at him, the terrible tingling paralysis rendering him immobile, but not unconscious…not enough mercy for that to be done to him.

  He started to push himself to his feet. The collar about his throat tightened and pulsed. He stifled a cry.

  “Felinus, remain on the floor, until I order otherwise. Welcome to your reality.” The creature smiled mockingly.