by Sam Ryder
Shit. I’d lost her. I knew it as soon as I rounded the next boulder and had another choice to make—left or right—and didn’t see any sign of her.
She was gone.
I was alone again in an alien world infested with monsters.
FIVE
VRILL
I ground to a stop, breathing heavily and considering the situation. The sounds of demons in pursuit had fallen away, though the distant bellow of the troll still found its way through the boulder field every now and then. It was less of an angry sound, more anguished. Like it was in pain.
It was hard for me to fathom the giant beast losing a fight. Then again, I’d seen the way the demon horde attacked in swarms, like a hive of bees poked by a stick.
Trying to catch my breath, I leaned against a boulder. My energy flagged and I had the urged to slide down, curl up in the fetal position and get some rest.
Not here. It was my own voice of reason that spoke. This wasn’t a safe place. I needed somewhere with only one side to defend. Somewhere hidden and dark. The only place that came to mind was that viny gulch with the crystal-clear pond.
Is this what Stockholm Syndrome is like? I wondered. Why else would I be considering going back to the place I knew my abductors were waiting? Because they were better than demons and trolls, that’s why. But how could I find that place again? The boulder field was a maze, and if I wasn’t careful I’d end up right where I started, becoming dessert after the demons were done eating their troll sashimi.
One part of my mind continued to process the situation, even as the other part tried to reason that I was still dreaming or hallucinating. Anything but reality was preferable to this.
Really, Sam? Even a reality where your horrid boss fired you, someone slashed your tires and you live alone with nothing but your pointless video games to entertain you?
Hey, I like those games!
Oh gods, now I was talking to myself. Great. I was really losing it.
Despite my ripped body and newfound manliness, I squeaked as a hand shot out and grabbed me. The dark woman’s face appeared from the shadows a moment later. “Hurry. We don’t have long before the Black.”
The what now?
I didn’t have time to ask questions, because once more she was dragging me through the stone maze. At least I’d had time to catch my breath.
But why had she come back for me? Hell, why had she saved me in the first place? And who was she, and how had she come to live in this desolate place?
Those questions could all wait.
Her hand was warm in mine, and I could really feel her skin. It was incredibly smooth, like glass. Or marble. We rounded another boulder and she vanished.
There one second, gone the next.
And yet she was still holding my hand, because I could feel it. I followed her wrist into the shadows. It was like she’d walked through one of the boulders.
“Come on!” she hissed. Feeling my way forward with one hand, I stepped into the darkness. Nothing blocked my path forward.
A cave, I thought, with excitement. It was exactly the sort of place I’d contemplated for those few moments I’d had to think. Only one way in and out. A good place to hide. There was only one thing.
“What about our scent?” I asked. I’d watched enough bad movies to know the monsters always had a keen sense of smell. “Won’t they track us here?”
The woman offered a rough, deep-throated laugh. “This isn’t my first fight with the Maluk’ori. They will try to track us, but they will steer clear of this place.”
“Why?”
“I’ve smeared the ground with their blood. Lots of it. It took many months for me to return to battle sites to drag their filthy carcasses away and harvest their black blood. But they will not come here. To them, it is a place of fear and death, though they don’t understand why.”
Clever. This woman was clearly more than just a warrior. She was a survivor. Which meant I had a chance if I stuck with her. If she let me stick with her. So far, the prospects looked good. After all, she’d come back for me after I’d fallen behind. She’d literally pulled me to her safe place.
“Thank you,” I said. It was a weak way to show my gratitude, but it was all I had at this moment.
“You’re welcome,” she replied just as simply.
The way forward lightened as we emerged from the shadowy tunnel and into a broader cavern. Torches flickered from the walls, though the firelight was an unusual color. Redder than the fire I was used to, which had hues of orange and yellow in it. Something else was unusual about the fire, though it took me a moment to discern what. No smoke, I realized. Given the burning, this small space should be filled with smoke. There was no chimney, no flue, nowhere for it to go. I watched the dancing red flames, shaking my head.
“Another use for demon blood,” the woman said, reading my mind. “It burns without smoke for eternity if it’s not extinguished.”
“Jesus Christ,” I said.
“Your earthly savior, right?”
I nodded. “The son of God. The cornerstone of one of the major religions where I’m from. Christianity. How do you know about that?”
She nodded. “I’ve met humans before. They’ve told me such things. They’ve told me other things, too, about a place of eternal fire and damnation. They thought this world might be that place. I haven’t found a reason to disagree.”
A chill ran through me, though the cavern was warm and cozy. “You mean…”
“Welcome to Hell, human,” the woman said.
~~~
Unfortunately, Hell didn’t stop my bodily functions from, well, functioning. Upon my request, the woman showed me where I could relieve myself. My urine was strong-smelling, a clear sign of dehydration.
Luckily, she also had two basins with water. She’d informed me the left was for washing, casually suggesting I might do with a good wash. There was no mirror, but I could feel the filth on me. The lion’s blood and fur. The dirt and rocks. The blood on my legs where the demons had clawed me. My knuckles, the skin ripped away by the force of the punch that had provided a reprieve long enough for the woman to save me. My feet were a mess too, the water stinging the cuts caused by claws and sharp stones.
Still, it felt good to be clean again.
The second basin was for drinking. I took full advantage, though it was a slow process lapping at it like a cat. Eventually, however, I felt hydrated. I was still hungry, but there was no sign of food and I wasn’t one to complain when I wasn’t dead.
When I returned to the main cave area, I said, “I’m Sam. Sam Ryder. What is your name?”
“Vrill,” she said simply. She was sitting with her back against one of the walls, red torchlight flickering across her dark features. Her eyes were as red as the flames, sitting beneath thin, angled brows that ended at sharp points in the middle. Each of her cheeks bore jagged scars, but they appeared too symmetrical to be an accident. Her nose was pierced on one side and fitted with a gold hoop.
She was stunningly beautiful and would have easily won a reality show like America’s Next Top Model.
And I was still staring at her. And she was staring right back. “Like what you see, human?” she said, her eyes narrowing.
“No,” I said quickly, averting my eyes. Just as quickly, I realized the rudeness of my response. “I mean, yes. You are very beautiful. Where I’m from, you would be on the cover of magazines.”
“Mag-a-zeens?” she said, trying out the word.
Contemplating how to explain what the word meant, I realized how silly magazines were. “Um, entertainment books? Stories about other people or topics of interest. And advertisements for products.” I frowned. “Come to think of it, they are mostly full of advertisements.”
She nodded, though I could tell she wasn’t following. “And it’s a good thing to be on the…cover?”
Oh yes. Very good. I nodded. “Where are you from?” I asked casually.
“Lri Ayem,” she said. “One of the Eight. Like
your Earth, but different.”
Now I was the one with a confused look on my face. “The Eight?”
She stood and reached around the side of her armor, searching for something. A clasp or buckle, perhaps. Oh gods, I thought, my heart beginning to gallop in my chest. In my stupid man-brain, I expected her to be wearing nothing underneath, but that would make little to no sense. Because of chafing. Unless, of course, the armor was so form-fitting that it hugged every curve perfectly. From the looks of the armor, it did.
“Can you help?” she asked, gesturing to where she’d been unsuccessful.
I’d never been asked to help a woman take off anything. Even the couple of times I’d gotten lucky, my female counterpart had insisted on undressing themselves. In the dark. While I faced the other direction. It’s just armor, I reminded myself.
“Sure,” I said with a shrug. Like it was nothing.
It was not nothing.
As I moved around her and leaned in to inspect the armor, she answered my question. “The Eight are the inhabitable planets in this part of the universe. Earth is one. Lri Ayem is another.”
“You speak my language,” I pointed out. “Even on Earth not everyone speaks English.”
“I’m speaking my own language,” Vrill said. “Your ears are just hearing it as your own language.”
Freaky. I remembered how the tall aquatic warrior had spoken in a strange tongue. My ears definitely hadn’t heard that as English. “Why don’t my ears work like that for all other languages?”
“They do. They will. Sometimes it takes them time to adapt. If you are hearing my words in your language, you should be fine now.”
Double freaky.
I ran my fingers along the pristine armor, feeling for anything that might be used to unstrap it. “What about the others that came from the cocoons? The ones who…” I swallowed. “…died? Are they from one of the Eight, too?”
“Yes. The tall green one was from Oceania. His kind are great warriors. I was hoping to save him, but he drew too much attention to himself. The Maluk’ori always go for the strongest foe first.”
I chuckled slightly. “I guess it pays to be the weak one,” I said. It felt natural to mock myself. Self-deprecating humor had always been a defense mechanism for my insecurities.
“You are not weak, human. Not anymore, at least. You just don’t know how to use your body in the right ways.”
The way she said ‘body’ sent my heart a-racing again. She almost purred the word, like she was flirting. Which was ridiculous. Still, my fingers moved faster across the armor, searching for…something, anything to get it off. There was a groove between the front and back, just under her arm. Part of my arm brushed hers and I felt movement under my loincloth. My instinct was to go to ground, to try to hide my arousal from this stunning creature.
“I can’t find…” I started to say, but then my forefinger located an indentation in the metal.
“Yes,” she said, once more purring. “Lift the cover and press the button.”
I obeyed. Because I wasn’t an idiot. She could tell me to squawk like a chicken and I’d have given an Oscar-winning performance.
As I lifted the metal flap, I realized something. The spot wasn’t very far around her at all. She could’ve easily reached it herself. I swallowed, trying to keep my cool.
When I pressed the small button, there was a hydraulic hissing sound and the front plate separated from the back plate with a click. I pulled the back plate away while she removed the front.
There was nothing beneath but an endless expanse of smooth, dark skin.
Holyholyholy…
I was tired and hungry, but all that vanished in a burst of adrenaline and testosterone as she placed the armor on the floor and turned to face me. Her arms were at her sides, leaving the rest of her available to be devoured by my eyes.
Her breasts were voluminous and firm, her nipples round and a slightly lighter color. A trickle of sweat ran between them, presumably from the exertion of our flight through the boulder field. It had probably pooled between her skin and armor, only to be released now.
Only the smallest part of her body was hidden to me, by the small armored skirt she wore.
My loincloth was being pushed out bit by bit by my untamed arousal.
She took a step forward and reached down to touch me through the cloth. “Where I’m from, skin to skin contact is how we rejuvenate ourselves,” she said. “It has been a long time since I’ve managed to save someone from the Circle.”
Though that last word piqued my curiosity and elicited a dozen new questions, they disappeared just as quickly as she slid her hand down, slipping beneath the loincloth. Her claws were gone, thankfully, apparently able to retract upon command.
If I was dreaming, I never wanted to wake up.
She touched me and I could no longer resist reaching up to cup her magnificent breasts. I was…inexperienced in sex, but I understood the basics. I played with her nipples and she purred, leaning closer as she began to rub her hand up and down my shaft.
I was surprised I didn’t immediately come. Back on Earth, in my old body, I wouldn’t have lasted three seconds under the touch and sight of this sexy woman. But I’d been changed in more ways than one, and I managed to press myself against her, my lips finding hers. Her soft lips parted for mine, and our tongues met in a silky embrace. Hers was wet and warm, sending fire through me as she continued to play with my manhood.
Despite my newfound confidence, she was still in charge, which was fine by me. “Lie back,” she said, cupping her other hand behind me, in the small of my back, and guiding me to the ground. It wasn’t particularly soft, but I didn’t particularly care about comfort at present.
Once I was on my back, her lips became more urgent, her tongue whipping around like a tornado. She nipped at my lips with her teeth a few times and I groaned. Her hands were on my chest now, that soft, glassy touch seeming to roll through me. She was still wearing the armored skirt, but I understood the concept now, and I didn’t need her to tell me what to do next. My hands wrapped around the curve of her hips, searching for the seam. One hand found it, tracing the line to the cover, which I flipped open hurriedly, jamming an urgent finger down on the button beneath.
There was another hiss and the armor released.
Despite my new body, I was running out of time. Her tongue was in my ear now, her teeth playing with the lobe. I swore she had a dozen hands and not two, as they found every part of me, returning to my loincloth again and again, until finally they simply ripped it away. At almost the same moment, I managed to pull the back part of her armored skirt away, ignoring its clank as it hit the ground. While one hand roamed across the perfect curve of her ass, the other slipped between us and pulled at the front part of the skirt.
One problem: we were pressed together so tightly it was stuck.
Vrill realized the same thing and left out a slight laugh. She lifted herself—oh gods, every movement she made was so, so hot—and helped me remove the plate.
And then the fantasy became reality.
She reached down and guided me inside her, simultaneously dipping her head to kiss and lick my neck.
My hands settled on either side of her hips, pumping them even as I lifted my own abdomen to slide further inside. It was wet and moist in there, and we moved as one, slowly at first, but then faster and faster.
She reared up like a snake about to strike, releasing a powerful blast of air as she threw back her head, her hair whipping around her model face.
I followed her up, my lips finding her breasts, kissing that perfect skin, licking her nipples and tasting the salt created by our miraculous escape from death.
It went on forever, my stamina at a level I could never have imagined before. My new body was my new best friend.
In a final moment of ecstasy, I groaned as she screamed and then she collapsed on top of me. Spent.
As I was.
I was speechless and blown away. T
he sex I’d had before was, well, nothing. Not compared to this. This was…mind-shattering, memory-erasing, nirvana-reaching.
Lying on my chest, she lifted her face to look into my eyes. She kissed me and said, “Stay with me.”
Fuck. Like I would ever leave her. Not ever. “It just so happens I have nowhere else to go,” I said, playing it cool like an idiot. A very happy, satisfied idiot.
It turned out it was a lie, both to her and myself.
SIX
LEAFRAT KABOB
At some point we fell asleep, kept warm by our shared body heat, the torches and the walls of rock around us.
I dreamed of her. Vrill. I was climbing the rope toward her, trying to escape the demon horde. I could feel them clawing at my feet and I glanced back, trying to kick free. I managed to gain enough distance to keep climbing.
I was so close now. I could make it. All I had to do was reach for Vrill, who was reaching for me. Instead of grabbing her warm, smooth hand, I grasped a gnarled, scaled appendage bristling with claws that cut into my palm. Beyond the claws was a monster, it’s red eyes shining in the dark.
I awoke to tortured screams. I sat up rapidly, blinking away the nightmare. The screams faded. Just a dream. It was just a bad—
Screams lit up the night, slightly muffled by the rock walls of our cave, but close enough to raise the tiny hairs on the back of my neck.
Vrill, still as naked as me, rolled over and said, “It’s just the Black. Go back to sleep.”
I remembered that word from before, when she’d urged me to hurry. More screams. Some anguished. Some violent. All scary as hell. Sleep was the last thing on my mind.
“What is the Black?” I asked. I felt bad disturbing her beauty rest—not that she needed it—but sitting there listening to otherworldly shrieks and screams without anyone to talk to was not going to happen.
“The Black is nighttime,” she murmured, eyes still closed. “In this place, it’s short. About an hour by your human way of keeping time. Tor has two suns and no moons. The suns avoid each other, lighting opposite halves of the planet before switching places. Silver and bronze. But there is always a period of complete darkness—the Black.”