by Lisa Lace
“Feels good,” she murmured breathlessly, dragging her hands down his chest.
“I’m glad,” he replied, and when he bit her neck lightly, she gasped and shuddered. “Should we go back to the movie?”
Heather snorted. “I don’t think so,” she said. “After all, it’s really, really inaccurate.”
Sabin smiled, his hand working its way back down to her waist so his fingers could slip under the hem of her shirt. “Really?” he asked.
“Mmhmm,” Heather hummed. “Mm, that feels nice. Anyway, yeah. That chick, the main one? She has no idea how to swing a sword around.”
“You don’t say,” Sabin said, rewarding her by kissing his way back to her lips. “And you’d know that, would you?”
She nodded, breath mingling with his as their lips were just an inch away. “Oh, yeah. Her grip was all wrong.”
“Mmm,” he hummed back. “Shameful.”
“Completely. We deserve better.”
“I can think of a few ways to distract you from how bad it is.”
“Distractions are good.”
Chapter 10: A Reminder
Distractions were good. And more than that, they were easy. This wasn’t what he’d come here for. Like, at all. He’d never intended to find a beautiful woman who he could talk to and who made him laugh and end up in bed with her, but apparently that’s where he had ended up.
Heather’s head was tucked against his shoulder, her hair spilling over the pillow as she slept, and it was probably the cutest thing he’d seen in a long time.
It had been over two weeks since he’d gotten to Earth, and there were very few days that he’d spent out of Heather’s company. She worked, and he knew that he was supposed to be looking for the Nine or planning something, at the very least, but it was so easy to relax here.
Sabin had a routine down. He slept in, he watched TV, he ate, and he waited for Heather to get home. They ate again together when she did, and then they usually had sex.
It was probably the most peaceful his life had ever been, and it shocked him to find out that he enjoyed it. He was so used to fighting, to battle, sometimes for battle’s sake if not any other reason, and honestly Sabin was surprised that this peace didn’t have him bored to tears.
Maybe there was something to be said for rest and relaxation after losing everything that mattered to you, but all Sabin knew was that it no longer felt weird to not have his weapons with him. It just was something he was going to have to deal with now, and he was doing an admirable job, he thought.
Of course, in the back of his mind was his mission.
It was never far from his brain what he had come here to do, and it did make him feel bad that he hadn’t done anything much yet.
He watched what humans called the news every day, searching for evidence of attacks or the spread of madness, but there didn’t seem to be anything. Sabin didn’t know if that was because the Nine had taken a break after they’d gorged themselves of Samis or because the humans were just so used to sickness and violence that more of it wasn’t really newsworthy.
Sabin didn’t think it was the latter, really, and even if it was, there was no way for him to get to other places on this planet. It was much, much bigger than Samis, and there were many more people to account for.
But he had to do something. He hadn’t come here for some kind of vacation, after all, and no matter how tempting it was to just curl up with Heather and stay here, he knew that he had to actually do something.
But what? What could he do to track them down? The ruins had been the obvious place for them to hide on Samis, but there were a million different places around here that qualified as dark and remote.
The thing was, he needed to tell Heather what was really going on; but every time he tried, she just seemed to tune him out. He didn’t know if she thought he was crazy or if she just didn’t care what he was talking about, but he’d yet to make her understand that there was something serious going on here.
He’d expected her to do more to try and find out who he was. To interrogate him or ask where he came from or something. But she just seemed content to have him in her home. They’d gone out together and found clothes for him. On her days off so far they ended up at the grocery store, shopping for food and putting meals together. He asked her about the things he didn’t understand, and she explained with a bemused look on her face.
Sabin didn’t understand her to be honest, but he wondered if maybe she was just lonely, and she didn’t want to do anything to make him leave.
It was all a jumble in his head, and Sabin had no idea what he was meant to do. He wished that he could talk to someone about it, but he was very much alone here, no matter how close Heather was to him. He wasn’t human, and there were no others of his kind around.
He sighed and dragged fingers through his hair and then froze when Heather stirred. Usually her alarm went off in the mornings, and she’d groan and grumble herself out of bed and into the shower.
It was rare for her to wake up before it, but there she was, blinking green eyes up at him as she yawned and stretched.
“Time is it?” she mumbled, and Sabin smiled and stroked her hair, looking over at the clock.
“Seven,” he replied, voice soft.
She made a face. “Eight a.m. starts can just go straight to the darkest pits of hell,” she grumbled. “What’re you doing awake?”
“Thinking,” Sabin said. “Heather, I-”
He was cut off by her leaning up and pressing her mouth to his, lips warm and dry, and her breath slightly sour from sleep. “Shhh,” she breathed. “It’s too early for thinking.”
One of her hands disappeared under the covers, and Sabin groaned when her fingers wrapped around his cock, already half hard with the usual morning stiffness. “Heather,” he said, fingers of his free hand curling into a fist. “What are you doing?”
She smirked and laughed softly, the haze of tiredness fading away as heat replaced it. “Think that’s obvious,” she said.
And he was weak. Oh, Creators, was he weak. If he had been strong, then he would have pushed her hand away and told her that they needed to talk, but there he was, hips pushing up into the feeling of that warm hand around his sensitive flesh.
Heather hummed with pleasure and her smirk only grew. “Catching on now?” she teased.
Sabin rolled his eyes. “Don’t make me throw you down and have my way with you,” he said, one eyebrow arched. Human cockiness knew no bounds, he was learning. But he was also learning that he didn’t really have a problem with it.
If anything, it was just another attractive thing about Heather, and it was easy to see how someone might lose themselves among these people.
He was worried that it was already happening to him, after all.
But he didn’t have any more time to think about that. Because Heather was stroking his length in earnest now, her hand moving up and down the shaft with deliberate slowness that made him arch and moan for her, pressing into her hand. She could barely get her fingers all the way around, it and for some reason that just made it better.
“So big,” she murmured, and then she was dipping her head under the covers and Sabin was lost.
He was always lost when she put her mouth on him. That was something that happened very rarely on his planet for whatever reason, and it was a crying shame because it was good. Heather’s mouth was always warm and wet, and it was just as easy for him to lose himself there as it was for him to lose it other places.
Plus, there was just something about watching her struggling to fit it all in her mouth that turned him on even more.
So he pulled the covers down, flipping them back so he could watch.
Heather smiled up at him, and then kissed the head of his cock lightly. Her tongue slipped out of her mouth, and she licked around the head of him, sending sensation rocketing through him, and he swore under his breath.
She was talented when it came to this, following his reactions and i
mprovising some things of her own to keep him on his toes and have him coming hard for her.
He wondered if she got off on it as much as he did, and hoped the answer was yes.
That clever tongue swirled around his head and then slipped down lower, licking up his shaft like it was something particularly delicious. One of her hands came down to fondle his balls, and he groaned, toes curling under the covers.
“Heather,” he said, not for any particular reason, but mostly just to say it. He liked the way her name felt in his mouth, and the more times they did this, the less and less he felt compelled to compare her to Lilera.
They had their similarities of course, but Lilera was dead, and Heather was her own person. They were both fierce and fiery in their own ways, but Heather was softer around the edges in a way that Sabin very much liked. It made it harder to say no to this when he knew he had priorities other than losing control with this woman time and time again.
But it was hard to remember that when she was easing his cock into her mouth the way she was. She’d learned that it was best to take it slow, so she started out by sucking the head lightly in a warm up of sorts and then working her way down.
She couldn’t get all of him in her mouth, so her hand worked at the base and the rest of it, twisting and stroking, spreading the slickness from her mouth down.
Sabin decided to just enjoy it. It was rude not to, right? So he threaded fingers into her hair and let her have her way, head tipped back even though he had to keep looking down every few seconds to watch the inches of his cock disappear into her mouth.
He wasn’t going to last long, and from the way she was working him, he could tell that she didn’t want him to.
When he came, it was with a groan of her name and a rush of heat and fluid, most of which ended up in her mouth, though some spilled over her lips. Watching her swallow and lick her lips clean of his release made his just spent cock twitch in appreciation.
Heather grinned at him and crawled back up the bed to kiss him before she was slipping off to shower.
Sabin laid there in a daze for a moment, and then got up, deciding that this was not going to be one sided if he had anything to say about it.
Which, he actually did.
She was naked and wet by the time he got into the bathroom, and he pulled the shower curtain aside to step in with her.
“More?” she asked, pressing her wet and soapy chest against his. “Someone’s insatiable.”
Sabin snorted. “I think that would be you,” he pointed out and then dragged a hand down her body. She was beautiful like this, her hair dark with water and plastered to her back and shoulders.
He knew they didn’t have a lot of time, but he didn’t need much for what he had planned. Sabin grabbed her arm and turned her so that she was facing the wall of shower. She seemed to pick up on what he wanted pretty quickly, bracing her hands against the water slick tiles and pushing her bottom out for him.
It was pert and pretty, and he couldn’t resist palming it, squeezing the supple flesh in his hands.
Heather moaned for him and pressed back more as he slid one hand between her legs, finding her wet with more than just water.
He didn’t waste any time after that, going for it and finding her clit, teasing her until she spread her legs wider for him. His fingers were large enough that two of them filled her up, and he dragged them through all that wetness before he pressed them into her, working her clit with his thumb.
Her gasp was muffled by the sound of the shower going, but Sabin could feel her shaking and shuddering with pleasure and it made him smile.
His free hand came up to cup and stroke her breasts, teasing at her nipples until she was a gasping mess between him and the wall.
She was so beautiful when she was falling apart, and he loved having anything to do with it. Being the cause of it made his cock threaten to swell again, but they didn’t have time for that now. Heather had to be at work. But he watched as she shook her way through an orgasm, clenching around his fingers and making all manner of lovely sounds for him.
It was a good start to the day.
Sabin watched as Heather got dressed, keeping his hands to himself so he wouldn’t make her late, even though that wasn’t the easiest task when she looked as good as she did.
“I hope you have a good day,” he said, voice warm with fondness.
She smiled at him in the mirror. “Thanks. Hopefully things won’t be too hectic. There’ve been a lot of weird cases of mysterious illnesses lately, so we’ve been a little rushed. But maybe everyone will decide to be healthy today.”
Sabin blinked. “What kind of mysterious illnesses?”
“You know, fever, rashes. That kind of thing. Some new strain of the flu, I think is the official diagnosis.”
“Of course,” he murmured, anxiety twisting in his stomach.
“What’s with you?” she asked.
He looked at her seriously. “This is...similar to something terrible that happened on my...where I’m from,” he said. “Please be careful.”
He waited until she’d gone for the day to get up and get dressed himself.
Enough time had been wasted while he enjoyed himself. If he didn’t do something then the Earth was likely to end up just like Samis, and then the Nine would move on to another planet and do the same thing there. Sabin had to stop them.
But first he had to find them.
From what he’d learned from the news and listening to Heather talk about work, what was happening here wasn’t isolated, it was happening all over the world, much to the humans’ confusion, and Sabin wondered himself how the Nine had spread that far. There was more than enough of them to cover each section of the planet, but he’d always been under the impression that they moved together, as one.
If he could get one of them alone, then it would drastically alter the odds in his favor, but that didn’t mean it would be over. He would still have to hunt down each and every one of them and try to keep them from taking revenge or whatever it was they would do.
It was definitely one of those easier said than done sort of situations, and it wasn’t so easily said in the first place.
But he wasn’t going to accomplish anything by hiding in Heather’s house, so he set out, keeping his eyes open.
The first thing he did was check all the darkened corners around where he was walking. It was a bit obvious, and Earth was much busier than Samis had ever been, but they had to be hiding somewhere, and it was best to look everywhere.
He walked for miles, checking under bridges and in alleys, looking for those undulating shadows and red eyes that he didn’t think he’d ever really forget as long as he lived. The image was right up there with the one of his mother, still and cold on the floor; and the way Lilera’s eyes had just dimmed as all the light drained out of them right in front of him.
Luckily, his grief didn’t mire him now, and instead it drove him to find something, anything that would help in this.
“You’re looking for something.”
Sabin jumped and reached for his sword on instinct, realizing, when his hand met empty air, that it was still not in his possession. Earth wasn’t supposed to be as dangerous as Samis in some ways, and he knew the rules were different; but people sneaking up on him was always going to make him nervous.
He turned around slowly, and there in the shadows of the abandoned building he was looking around outside of was a man.
At first glance, there seemed to be something reptilian about him, but when he blinked and looked closer, he was just a human man, nondescript, brown hair, brown eyes, an average looking face.
Those eyes were watching him intently, though, and Sabin was on his guard.
“Perhaps,” he allowed.
The man inclined his head, whether to acknowledge that Sabin was being cautious or just in acknowledgement of his statement, Sabin didn’t know. “These are troubled times,” the man said, eyes never wavering from Sabin’s face.
&nb
sp; “You could say that,” Sabin replied.
Something told him that there was something odd about this man. Of course, Sabin hadn’t met enough humans to know the difference between the strange ones and the not so strange, but this man made him feel like he was back on Samis. He had the bearing of someone hiding something or hiding from something, and Sabin couldn’t tell which one.
That alone was enough to set him on edge.
For a long moment they just stood there, looking at each other, and Sabin was about to go back to his searching when the man spoke again. “Things that hide in the dark aren’t things you want to find.”
Sabin snorted, only a little bit amused. “You mean like yourself,” he pointed out, gesturing to how he was half hidden.
Something like surprise flitted over the man’s face. “Touché,” he said. “You won’t find anything here. These are odd times, dark times, but the darkness isn’t here.”
“It’s on this planet for sure,” Sabin said, not caring if he was giving something away. This was more important than trying to pretend like everything was fine or hiding who he was and the fact that he wasn’t from around here.
“Yes,” the man agreed. “But it’s not here.” He gestured around at the building.
Sabin narrowed his eyes. “You know what I’m looking for?” he asked.
The man’s eyes widened and he shook his head, stepping further back into the shadows. “I don’t know anything,” he said. “I only watch. And wait. That’s all you can do.”
“No, there are many other options,” Sabin pointed out. “Like action.”
The headshaking grew more frantic. “No. No no no. Not this. Never with this. Watch. Wait. Hide. Run. That’s it. That’s all there is.”
“Are you-”
Before he could get his question out, the man was turning and fleeing into the building. For a second Sabin considered going after him, but it was clear that he wasn’t going to get anything out of him that was helpful, and there were more important things to be done at the moment. Searching took precedence over finding out if that man was another refugee from another planet.
Sabin was almost certain he was, but there wasn’t time for that now.