Jex

by Maia Starr

  She was so damn sexy, and it was everything that I had hoped it would be. But I was surprised by her actions. When I kissed her, I thought that she would push me away, but she did not. I knew deep inside that this was more than just the agreement for me as well. When I saw the beast that she called a tiger coming toward her, a rage came out of me. I could not think of anything else but saving her life. The small human female had grown on me more than I had expected. I had only wanted to use her for sex, but somehow, she had dug her way into my heart. I thought highly of her. She was brave. She was a soldier, even though she was not trained as one. She had courage and strength, and of course, I could not take my eyes off of her because of her astounding beauty.

  But now there was a problem. I cared for her deeply, and because of that I did not want to put her in any danger, but I was going to help find her sister as I had promised. Now I wanted to do it for her more than ever; I wanted to make her just as happy as she had made me.

  I turned on my side to look at her sleeping. Her long brown hair was loose and spread around her face. It was the first time I had seen her hair down. I liked it. She was beautiful even when she was sleeping. I ran my hand across her small belly. Her skin felt like soft fabric. It was smooth and perfect. I liked seeing the sun on her small petite frame. She was not what I was used to. She was the complete opposite of a Veruka female. This was something different and extraordinary. I could not put this small, fragile human in any more danger. So I quietly got up from her side and put on my clothes. I grabbed my belt and gun and left before she was awake.

  I left her inside the ship. Now that the sun was coming up, I needed to scout alone to find the cyborg encampment. I knew what to look for. It would be faster if I went alone. I could scout without being seen. This way I would not put Helen in danger. I could find out where the encampment was, and we could make a plan.

  I flew high into the sky, as high as I could go as a weredragon. I flapped my wings higher into the sky. The sun hitting my skin felt glorious. I knew it was from the euphoria that I was feeling from being with Helen. It even made the sun of the Earth feel better than it had before. I flew back and forth, zigzagging over the area of the island that I thought the cyborgs had moved to after the raid on the humans.

  As I flew, I started to think about what having sex with a human female really meant. Her DNA would be bonded to mine, and I would now be immune to the blackness plague that was overcoming the population of Veruka. Being with Helen was a gift that kept on giving. I was lucky. I had bonded with someone that I cared deeply for and wanted to know more about. I was looking forward to the day that this ordeal was over, and I could take her back to Willow Springs and see her happy with her sister and as my mate.

  As I was thinking about this, a shiny glare caught the corner of my eye. It brought me out of my distraction of thinking about Helen. I looked down to the left to see the cyborg encampment. There were about twenty to thirty of them. I flew further down to get a better look. They were around a couple of houses. They did not seem to be moving. They were stationary and not marching toward a new location. This was good news.

  Bam! I felt a blow hit my left wing. I started to spiral as I felt toward the Earth. I quickly recovered and flew away from the cyborg camp as much as I could, low between the trees. I knew that I had been shot. I didn't even see it coming. I was still falling, but it was a controlled fall with my right wing still flapping. It was getting me a good mile or two away from the cyborgs before I crashed into the dirt and rolled.

  “Shit.” I looked at my wing. There was a sizable hole right in the middle. Now I would never make it back to Helen. Judging from my distance, it would take me an entire day to walk back to her on foot. I didn't want her to be alone for that long. I had planned to go on the scout and get back to her before she was even awake. But now that plan had gone straight to hell. I stood up and looked at my surroundings. I grabbed my blaster gun from my holster and began to walk.

  But as I walked, I felt something extraordinary happen. I stopped. I extended my wing out and looked at it. The hole was slowly closing. My wing was healing at self.

  “Holy shit,” I said as I watched it. I had never seen anything like it before. This was new. I watched in shock as it grew smaller and smaller until it was completely healed. This had to be because of Helen. Being with her had bonded her DNA to mine. Not only did the human female DNA protect us from the blackness plague but it also seemed to give us some healing powers as well. This was miraculous.

  I stretched my wing out and tested it. It was just as good as new. I flew into the air, keeping low between the trees so as not to be spotted by the cyborgs again. I was glad to be able to get back to Helen. But I had to go a different way. This was going to take longer than I had planned. But I could not go in the direction that led to her. If I was being tracked by the cyborgs, they would follow whatever direction I flew off in. So I had to create a diversion and go the opposite direction. Then I would circle around and head back down the shoreline. It was going to take longer, and I hoped that she would still be sleeping. I had exhausted her enough throughout the night with a lot of sex, so it was possible.

  Chapter 10

  Helen Maven

  I stretched my arms over my head in the small hallway area of the ship where I laid on the floor on thick blankets. I moaned as a smile came across my face. I had just had the best sex of my life with an alien weredragon. It was better than anything I had ever experienced before, and I was still having an intense amount of afterglow from it. I rolled over onto my back and turned to look for Jex. He wasn't there. I sat up and grabbed a blanket around my chest.

  “Jex?” I said. There was no response. I looked around the ship, and I could see every bit of space where I sat except for the small washroom. I stood up and wrapped the blanket around me and went to the wall that slid open. It was open, and there was no one inside. Maybe he was outside the ship making breakfast and getting a start on the day. Then I remembered… Hannah. I had been so caught up in the glow of the epic night of sex that I forgot we were on a mission to find my sister.

  I quickly put on my clothes and then opened the door of the ship the way he had shown me. I walked outside, and the sun was barely coming up on the horizon.

  “Jex?” I said louder. There was no response.

  I walked around the ship remembering the tiger that was there before. I didn't want to call too much attention even though that tiger was probably injured and knew not to come back to the fire. Jex was nowhere in sight. Perhaps he just went to go get some water or something else, I thought to myself trying to make sense of his absence.

  I walked back into the ship and closed the door. I sat down in the pilots’ chair looking out the windshield waiting for him to come at any moment. I looked up into the sky to see if I could see him flying toward me.

  An hour passed. I began to grow paranoid and angry. Could he have a Bandan to me here? He got what he wanted after all. He didn't even have to wait to hold up his end of the agreement before I gave in on my side. How pathetic was that?

  He could have easily flown back to Willow Springs using his wings, or called for a ship to pick him up the way he had picked up Jared and the others. Dammit. How stupid was I to think that he really wanted to help me? That maybe the over-sexualized brute had changed. But he had not. It was all just a ploy to get me in bed. I felt stupid. I stood up and opened the door.

  I stomped out onto the grass and out to the shoreline. I stood looking at the water. I had a mission to do, and I wasn't going to stop until I found my sister. Sure, I had made a big mistake by trusting Jex, but it was a setback that I was going to have to deal with. I was on my own. Time was wasting.

  I looked down the shoreline and saw a small private pier in the distance. There looked to be a small rowboat tied to it. I knew that I had to get down the shoreline in order to get to the point that Jex thought the cyborg encampment would be. If I took off walking to find it, I wouldn't get there until nightfa
ll, but the boat would get me there faster if the current was on my side. I had to do it. I turned and looked at the large amount of trees separating the estate homes. They were all overgrown and could hide anything: a tiger, hostile humans, or even cyborgs. But what choice did I have?

  I went into the ship and grabbed my gear. I put my backpack on and draped the blaster gun across my body. “You are on your own, Helen. You owe it to Hannah to at least try,” I said to myself.

  Then I left the safety of the ship and walked to the shore, then I turned and jogged along the shoreline toward the private pier. I looked over to my left into the gardens and forest of the estates. I was watching for any movement. I hoped the tiger was not living in one of these homes. Seeing me run would make me look like prey.

  Finally, I reached the pier. I was glad to hear the sound of my boots on the wooden boards. It was a relief. I untied the rope of the rowboat from the post and jumped in. Within minutes, I was out on the water rowing down the shore.

  Suddenly a large shadow cast itself over me. I looked up into the sky to see Jex circling around me. “What the hell?”

  He came in low and hovered directly in front of me. His majestic emerald wings sparkled. His skin glittered in the sun. He softly landed on the boat.

  “Helen, what the hell are you doing?” he said.

  “Me? What the hell are you doing? I waited and waited for you. You left me there,” I said angrily.

  “I went on a scout to find the cyborg encampment. I did not leave you. I was coming back,” he said.

  “You were gone for hours,” I said.

  “I ran into some trouble. I found the encampment, and I got shot. I got shot in my wing and could not fly,” he said.

  “What? You were hurt! Oh my God!” I said suddenly feeling guilty about my behavior. I did not want him to be hurt.

  “I was. I couldn't fly for some time, but my wing began to heal,” he said.

  “What? You Veruka can heal yourselves?” I asked in shock.

  “No. We do not have that ability. It must be from mating with you,” he said.

  “What? What do you mean from mating with me? That does not make sense,” I said.

  He looked down and then looked up at me. He folded his wings behind him and sat down on the board across the boat. “I have not been completely honest with you. Having sex with a human female gives a Veruka some of her DNA. Through this DNA, we become immune to a certain illness that the Veruka deal with. It is called the blackness. If a weredragon becomes ill with this sickness, all he has to do is have sex with a human female, and he will be cured. I wanted to mate with a human female in order to become immune before the blackness could get to me. But I think a side effect has been that I am able to heal myself,” he said.

  “What? You used me? You are a pig. I knew that I should not trust you. You were using me the whole time,” I said, feeling so angry with him, and feeling stupid for thinking otherwise.

  “You are using me as well. You only want me for my strength to help find your sister. Do not pretend that you are innocent in this agreement,” he said.

  “That is different. You are a soldier. Rescuing others is what you do anyway. You came to us letting us know that you wanted to help the humans fight the cyborgs; that is exactly what I ask of you,” I said standing up in anger. The boat rocked a little.

  “No, it is not what you asked. We merely mean to help defend human colonies, not go off on individual missions to help one human,” he said angrily.

  “You are a brute and a pig. I never want to see you again. I will find my sister by myself!” I said.

  He starred up. “You want me to leave you out here in the middle of nowhere on this small boat? Fine,” he said. He spread his emerald wings wide and flew into the air.

  I realized that it didn't matter if he was using me or if I was using him. The only thing that mattered was getting Hannah. He did not abandon me; he was here now, and I needed him to find her. “No! Wait!” I shouted.

  I watched him gracefully turn and pivot in the sky and come toward me. He scooped me up into his arms and pulled me off the boat. He flew low along the water. Being this close to him again, I could smell his manly scent and feel his hard body against mine. A flash of everything he did to me overnight came to my mind.

  He looked down at me with his gorgeous sparkling eyes. “Why do you have to be so stubborn, human female?” he said.

  “Why do you have to be my only hope in finding my sister,” I said back to him.

  “because I am a soldier and that is what a soldier does,” he said.

  “This doesn't mean that I forgive you. You lied to me about why you wanted to have sex with me. I don't forgive you for that. But for now, I need to find Hannah, and that’s all that matters,” I said.

  “I didn't lie to you; I just didn't give you all the information. I didn't have to. I didn't owe that to you. We had an agreement, and it doesn't matter if you knew the details of why I wanted my part of the agreement.”

  “It is still shady as fuck,” I shouted at him even though my face was only inches from him as he carried me flying over the water back towards the ship.

  “And yet I am still here even though you gave me your end of the agreement last night!” he shouted back.

  I was silent. I didn't have anything to say to that. He landed on the grass outside the ship and put me on my feet. He stomped away from me and inside the ship. He was pissed. I was pissed. But it didn't matter. I needed to get back on track to finding Hannah.

  Chapter 11

  Captain Jex Kailen

  This human female was unbelievable. She was the most stubborn creature I had ever met. I could not seem to please her. I went on a scout to get a handle on what the cyborgs were up to so that we could rescue her sister and she paid me back by fleeing the ship. I could not win with her no matter what I did. She was frustrating me to no end. Yet my desire for her only grew with each moment that she defied me.

  I opened the wall inside the ship and began to grab supplies for the rescue mission. I grabbed a few more bombs to put into my belt. I connected my blaster gun and charged it to a full charge. I did all this as I thought about how angry Helen made me. She accused me of using her for sex, but she was using me to find her sister. In my eyes, that made us even. But she was not looking past the fact that I got what I wanted out of our agreement, and yet I was still there. I was still there to help her find her sister. I didn't have to do that; I got what I wanted, as she said. But I wanted to make her happy. I wanted to find Hannah to make Helen happy. I wanted her to be happy and safe. Why couldn't she see that, dammit?

  “So what's the plan?” she said that she walked into the ship.

  “Same as before. We will use the same plan that we used to rescue the humans from the hostile human colony. We will set to bomb us as a diversion while I go in and get your sister. She is your twin; I assume she looks like you?”

  “Yes, she does; identical twins,” she said.

  “That makes it easier. But I worry to let you set the bombs alone. Last time Jared was there to help you,” I said.

  “No, he was not,” she said. I stopped what I was doing and turned to look at her.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “He couldn't do it. He was too shaken up by the whole thing. He didn't want to get caught again. I did it all on my own, and it wasn't easy. I came across the hostile humans; that was why I had to set the bombs off out of the order that we wanted. I needed the diversion to get myself out of there,” she said.

  I looked at her surprised. She had done it all on her own. I was impressed. But I was pissed off at her cowardly companion. How dare he make her, the one I care for so much, do it all on her own. What a coward. A Veruka would never do that.

  “You did it on your own?”

  “Yes, I did what had to be done,” she said.

  I couldn't hold back. I took two long strides and put her face in my hands and pressed my lips against hers. I had to kiss
this brave woman. She moaned as I kissed her, but then she pushed me away.

  “No, no more of that. You betrayed me; I am not going to forget that,” she said.

  “If that's how you feel. We should get going,” I said angrily that she pushed me away. I only craved her even more.

  “Let's go,” she said.

  I walked out of the ship, following her. I squatted down in the dirt and drew the cyborg encampment by just drawing a circle.

  “This is going to be tricky because I don't know where your sister is being held. But I did see a group of houses here; there seemed to be more cyborgs around them, and I assume that your sister is in one of those houses. But it is going to take me some time to search each one. That is why I will need you to set a line of bombs drawing them in this direction,” I said as I wrote an x in the sand to represent the houses, and on the opposite side of the circle, I drew a line leading out from the circle into the trees.