The driver did not want to leave Brianne in what she termed a disreputable part of town, but Brianne overrode her. She punched up Harbourgh on the car’s console and told him what she wanted. Harbourgh was a hardcore bodyguard, but he had worked for Brianne long enough to trust her.
“Yes, my lady,” he said.
The driver was less enthusiastic, but obeyed orders. The hover car slid gently away as Brianne watched, the breeze of its wake stirring her hair.
Only a few moments after her driver disappeared, another transport slid to a halt in front of the building. A person emerged so swathed in cloths that it was hard to tell if it were male or female. The second person out of the hover car was Rees. Brianne hurried across the street to dive into the building just behind them.
Rees looked down at Brianne with the same suspicion as Calder, but with one difference: Rees’ expression told her that if Brianne tried to betray them, he’d take care of it. No need for threats, he’d just do it.
They entered the apartment, and Rees locked the door behind them. The doctor removed face cloths and outer robes, revealing a trim woman of about forty or so in a body-hugging pantsuit. She glanced at Brianne without interest, her gaze swiveling to Calder.
“Hello, Calder,” she said in some surprise.
Calder gave her a curt nod.
“He’s in here,” Aiden called.
The woman stepped calmly over the mess in the living room and entered the bedroom. “Oh dear.”
“Can you help him?” Brianne asked, following.
“That all depends.” The woman knelt by Ky and touched his face. “It’s Dr. Laas, Ky. They put nano-implants in you, didn’t they?”
Ky dragged his eyes open but didn’t focus on anything. “Yeah.”
“With a specific trigger. I remember those experiments. I thought they’d shut them down.”
“Specific trigger?” Aiden asked. “What do you mean, specific trigger?”
“Ky never told you? Experiments were run to discover whether unacceptable behavior could be eradicated from Shareem by embedding nano-computers inside them. Brain chemicals produced during the unacceptable behavior would trigger the implants to cause—oh, pain, nausea, shock—whatever the scientists wanted. They were questionable experiments, and I opposed them.” Dr. Lass shook her head. “Not that anyone listened to me.”
“So he did something unacceptable?” Calder asked.
She nodded. “I would guess that when Aiden and he began to make love, the nano-computers decided it was a step too far.”
Aiden’s face drained of color. “I did this to him?”
“I’m afraid so.” Dr. Laas put a kind hand on his shoulder. “You weren’t to know.”
Calder’s eyes flickered, but he said nothing. Rees remained stoic.
“It doesn’t matter how it happened,” Brianne broke in. “What matters is whether you can help him.”
Dr. Laas slanted her a grateful glance. “I will have to go in surgically. The question is whether I can remove the implants at all—they might have tied them to vital functions.”
A muscle in Aiden’s throat moved. “In other words, removing them could kill him.”
“Yes.” Dr. Laas’ eyes were somber.
“They’re killing him now,” Brianne said.
“So I’ll have to take the risk.” Dr. Laas got to her feet and pulled Aiden against her in a fond hug. “I’ll do my best, Aiden. Don’t you worry.”
Brianne’s concern ran to more practical matters. “Where will you do the surgery? You’ll need to take him somewhere, and I gather you’re not exactly free to come and go as you please.”
Dr. Laas focused on her. “My dear, I am outlawed. If anyone finds out I’m still alive and on Bor Narga, my termination will be immediate. The statute of limitations on me hasn’t run out yet.”
As Brianne absorbed this, Calder said, “She’s a d’Aroth.”
“Really?” Dr. Laas peered at Brianne as though she were a unique specimen. “A d’Aroth who likes Shareem. How interesting.” Brianne blushed, and Dr. Laas smiled. “Lucky you. I don’t have to take him anywhere; I can do the surgery right here. That’s what Baine and transport devices are for. That is, if I can find an uncluttered surface on which to lay him. The researchers never thought to breed tidiness into Shareem. Such an oversight.”
So saying, Dr. Laas hauled open the bag she’d brought with her and removed a small rectangular pad about two feet square. She set this the middle of the room and pulled out a handheld. “Orient on me, please, Baine. I’ll need …”
She trailed off into technical jargon and soon had a pile of accoutrements glittering on the transport pad. She sorted through these while Calder and Rees cleared off Ky’s bed and Aiden lifted him gently onto it.
Ky moaned as Aiden laid him down and the sheets were quickly soaked with his blood. Ky reached up and touched Aiden’s lips. “Not your fault.”
“You should have told me,” Aiden said.
“Thought it didn’t matter anymore. I guess my statute of limitations … didn’t run out.” Ky tried to grin then drifted into unconsciousness.
“Good,” Dr. Laas said briskly. “Easier if he’s already out. The rest of you clear off. I don’t need Shareem falling over in faints when I start digging into him. The room is too small.”
*** *** ***
For three hours, Brianne and Aiden waited in the living room while Dr. Laas worked behind Ky’s closed bedroom door. They heard no noise from the bedroom, no indication whether the surgery was working or if Ky lay dying even now.
Calder waited with them, a silent hulk of a man sitting in a chair, long legs stretched out in front of him. He never removed his face covering.
Rees paced for a time, then moved to the tiny window in the back, leaning against the frame.
At first Brianne absently began to tidy the living room, putting away the lube and rearranging the pillows, but after the first half hour, she gave up and came to sit beside Aiden on the couch. Aiden sat as one stunned, his Shareem blue eyes fixed, his mouth twisted in worry.
By the end of the second hour, Aiden had gathered Brianne into his lap to hold her close. He buried his face in her neck, his hot tears dripping onto her skin. Brianne rested against him, trying to comfort him, but she was as grief-stricken as he was.
When the door finally slid back Brianne sprang to her feet and Rees turned. Aiden stood up behind Brianne, his hands moving to her waist. Calder rose more slowly, but his gaze fastened to Dr. Laas.
Dr. Laas sighed and scrubbed her hand through her hair. The skin around her eyes was tight, and her mouth drooped in exhaustion.
“Well,” she said. “It was tough, but I got ’em.”
Brianne let out the breath she was holding and heard Aiden’s loud exhale of relief. She turned and hugged Aiden, Aiden’s strong arms going around her.
Dr. Laas sank into the chair Calder had vacated and sighed again. “I forget I’m such a genius until a real challenge comes along. The little buggers were built with defenses and the ability to lie dormant for decades. But I found them all. Takes more than microscopic computers to get the better of me.”
She spoke brightly, but her eyelids drooped, and Brianne sensed her tension. She’d been scared she wouldn’t succeed.
“Thank you,” Brianne said, heartfelt.
“You’re welcome, my dear.”
Aiden rose in silence and went into the bedroom, the door shutting behind him.
“Ky’s all right now?” Rees asked.
“He will be. Back to normal. Well, as normal as a Shareem can be.”
Calder shot another suspicious glance at Brianne and wouldn’t look at Dr. Laas at all. “If he’s all right, I’ll go. I have an appointment.”
Brianne rose. “Thank you for your help, Calder.” She stuck out her hand.
Calder gave her offered hand a bemused glance then clasped it in silence, his grip strong.
He walked out of the apartment without a backward glanc
e, hot air from the hall whooshing in before the door closed again.
Rees’s lips quirked in a half-smile. “He’s softening toward you.”
“That was softening?” Brianne asked.
“Yes. But I meant toward Dr. Laas.”
Brianne gave Dr. Laas a puzzled look. “My question stands. That was softening?”
Dr. Laas smiled tiredly. “Calder is the way he is because of me. Oh, not because I pushed him into the plasma fire that burned him or anything. Because I saved his life. I couldn’t save him all the way, and that makes him angry.”
“Why? You could have let him die.”
“At first he fought to live. He was so strong, I couldn’t believe he survived at all. But once he saw what I’d done to him, he wished I’d let him die. Twenty years and he still hasn’t forgiven me.”
Brianne glanced at the door through which Calder had just departed. “Is it that bad?”
“He was burned to the bone,” Dr Laas said. “I had to practically rebuild him—insert robotic parts in places and grow new skin for him and things like that.”
“The essentials seem to work,” Rees said in a dry voice.
“Oh yes. So now he calls himself The Beast and women pay a fortune to be with him.” Dr. Laas sighed and ran her hands through her hair. “He’s lonely, like the rest of them. I’m glad Aiden and Ky have found each other.”
Brianne was too, but she would miss them. She’d return to her board meetings and her causes, and this week would become a distant but pleasant memory.
The bedroom door slid open. Aiden stood in it, his eyes soft. “Brianne,” he said. “He’s asking for you.”
Brianne was across the room and through the door so fast that she heard Dr. Laas chuckle behind her.
Ky lay on his back, his breathing rapid but better than it had been. His hair had been pulled into a loose tail that lay across his torso, and his eyes were calm and clear. Dr. Laas had cleaned the blood from him, but his body bore small pink scars where she’d cut into him.
When Ky saw Brianne, he smiled tiredly and held out his hand. “There’s my girl.”
Brianne clasped his fingers. “I thought we’d lost you.”
“I’m right here, darling. And I’ll be up spanking you soon, don’t worry.”
“After he rests,” Aiden said sternly.
“I heal fast, and I’m not going anywhere. I have all I need right here.” He squeezed Brianne’s hand.
“Will you tell us what happened?” Brianne asked. “Why they put those things in you, those nano-computers?”
“Yeah, I’d like to know that too,” Aiden said. He sounded angry under his relief. “And why you never bothered to mention it before.”
Ky hesitated. “Dr. Laas didn’t tell you what happened?”
“No.” Brianne kissed Ky’s fingers, so happy that they were still warm and strong. “I don’t think she knows the whole story herself.”
Ky closed his eyes a moment and drew a breath. The sheet covering his naked body rose and fell, and when he looked at them again, his eyes held vast sadness.
“I’ll tell you. I’ve never wanted to talk about it—the pain would start when I even thought about talking about it—but you should know.”
Chapter Thirteen
Ky’s Story
“Do you remember a Shareem called Meyet?”
Ky had propped himself up on pillows, his Shareem strength already beginning to heal him. Brianne snuggled against him, loving his warmth, while Aiden sat across the foot of his bed, back to the wall.
Ky had invited the others in to hear the tale. Dr. Laas had made herself comfortable on the only chair, and Rees leaned against the doorframe. The room smelled a bit of disinfectant, and Brianne itched to grab one of Aiden’s bottles of oil and open it to scent the air.
Rees nodded briefly, and so did Dr. Laas. Aiden said, “He was a friend of yours at DNAmo, right? He got auctioned off and went off-planet.”
“He didn’t go off-planet,” Ky said. “He died. Because of me.”
Aiden shot him a look. “What are you talking about?”
Rees said, “DNAmo’s experiments weren’t your fault, Ky. Trust me, I know all about their experiments.”
Ky shook his head. “No, I knew how dangerous it was. I tried to warn him, but I was in love with him—no, I’ll face it, I was in lust with him. I know the difference now. He was a level one.”
Aiden smiled, his eyes haunted. “You have a thing for level ones?”
“I didn’t have a thing for any Shareem,” Ky said in a hard voice. “Until one day a couple of scientists got the great idea to see if two male Shareem would interact sexually. Meyet and I didn’t really know each other, and we didn’t know what the experiment was going to be. The researchers put us in a room together, supplying food and water and a comfortable bed, and left us alone for two weeks. I mean totally alone. We didn’t see anyone but each other.”
“They imprisoned you?” Brianne asked. “Why?”
“To see what we’d do.”
Aiden broke in. “Shareem have to release sexually every day or we die. Our bodies heat up—and heat up—until we release, either with full-blown sex or sexual play. DNAmo hired women to help out with that in the name of science. But if we formed attachments to any of the ladies, they disappeared and we never saw them again. DNAmo wanted us to keep everything distant and casual.”
“That’s cruel,” Brianne flared.
“Well, yeah,” Aiden said. “But we’re only Shareem, right?”
Brianne quieted, more determined than ever to put everything right for them.
“So you can see why being stuck in a room alone for two weeks was dangerous,” Ky went on. “We could release using our hands, but that got old fast. So one day when we were looking at each other we started wondering what it would be like. We talked about what we could do then we started doing it.
“At first it was little things like touching each other and helping bring each other off, then we tried going down on each other. We liked that, and we went on from there to full sex. We figured if we had to be stuck in that boring room forever, we might as well enjoy ourselves.
“The researchers watched us. We knew that, but it’s easy to forget when you never see or hear the watchers. Pretty soon we were having some pretty magnificent sex. Meyet was a master with his tongue, and I could see why women adored being with him.
“We started to enjoy it. We’d wake up planning what we’d try that day. Or Meyet would take over for the whole day and massage me and touch me with his level-one hands. It felt damn good. Or I’d take over and make him my sub. Trust me, I made him do everything you can imagine.”
Brianne pictured the two of them locked in the small room, meeting in the middle, their eyes blue with arousal. The two men kissing, as she’d seen Aiden and Ky do, their lips and tongues tangling, hands moving on each other’s bodies. Ky spreading his legs and ordering Meyet to kneel behind him, part his cheeks and lick …
He was a master with his tongue.
And then she saw Ky lying on the bed while Meyet ran his palms all over Ky’s skin, massaging and stroking as Aiden had done to her. Her next vision put Ky with a strap in his hand, kneeling over Meyet, who was on all fours on the bed, Ky’s cock gleaming with lube as he pressed it into Meyet’s ass.
The researchers had watched all this, through hidden cameras most likely, their Shareem performing for them.
“What did Meyet look like?” Brianne asked suddenly.
She tried to sound innocent, but Aiden grinned. “I think your story is heating her up.”
Ky stirred, and Aiden shifted position. Even Rees looked uncomfortable. Brianne realized that the conversation had triggered her pheromones, which triggered Ky’s, touched Aiden, then Rees.
“He had dark red hair,” Ky said. “Fairly dark skin. A little shorter than me and not so big. Much better looking than me. He was … nice.”
“I’m sorry,” Brianne said quickly. “I shouldn�
��t have asked.”
Ky shook his head. “I think he’d like knowing we still got turned on thinking about him. He was damned good at sex. We weren’t sure whether—if we ever got out of there—we’d keep our discovery of each other a secret or tell other Shareem and get them interested too. An all-Shareem orgy was tempting. We decided to keep it to ourselves for a while and tell others gradually—maybe we’d seduce them one at a time.”
“You sure did keep it to yourself,” Aiden said.
“This was before you and I became friends,” Ky said. “Although I had my eye on you as one to seduce.”
“Really?” Aiden laughed. “Couldn’t resist me even then, could you?”
Rees eyed Ky curiously. “What did you think about me?”
Ky shook his head. “Sorry. I didn’t know you existed then. They kept you behind closed doors.”
“True. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t try the experiment on me. They tried so many others.”
“It wouldn’t have worked,” Ky said. “I heard about some of the things you did. You’d probably have ended up with five women locked in with you willing to do anything you and the other Shareem required.”
Rees smiled tightly. “You’re probably right.”
“One day you’ll have to tell me how you did all those things,” Ky said.
The smile turned mysterious. “One day.”
“What happened next?” Brianne prompted, snaking her hand down to clasp Ky’s. “They let you out, presumably.”
Ky’s expression went bleak. “You bet they did. Just about the time Meyet and I were really enjoying ourselves, they rolled back the doors and kicked us out without a word of explanation. Experiment done.
“We went back to our usual routine, but we couldn’t keep away from each other. We found we liked to keep our encounters secret. It was fun to haul his butt into a closet or an empty lab room and have wild sex before we strolled away oh-so casually.
“We’d meet in the middle of the night or the middle of the afternoon—in the middle of just about anything. We were crazy about each other. Because we were both strong Shareem we could be rougher than we could with women, and we liked that too. You name it, we did it to each other. It almost made living at DNAmo worth it.”
Tales of the Shareem, Volume 1 Page 51