by Ella Maven
Engaging in the Drixonian battle stance, I crossed my arms at the wrists in front of my neck and met his gaze from between my fists.
Juster growled and leaped. I arched my back to avoid him, and his forearm machets missed me by inches. I ducked and swung my leg out, taking him off his feet. I brought my tail armor down, but he rolled, and I hit dirt.
Juster flipped back onto his feet and brought his head down. One of his scalp spikes slashed me in the neck, and I shuffled back.
“One more of those and you’ll bleed out.” Juster grinned, emboldened by his small victory.
It’d be his only one. I was done being cautious. I didn’t want to kill Juster, but it was clear he would kill me, given the chance. No way would I let him take me alive. With a warning growl, I advanced. Juster was ready for me to come at him, but he wasn’t ready for my speed. I slammed my fist into the side of his face, stunning him long enough to get him on his back with my machets at his throat. His eyes went wide, and he tried to roll. I held him in a firm grip. He wasn’t going anywhere.
I had to admit, even I was surprised at how quickly I’d beaten him. I felt stronger, faster, and I assumed it was because I had something to fight for. “I can just put you out,” I said. “We don’t have to kill each other.”
He struggled beneath me, but my weight on his chest held him in place. My knees pinned his arms so he couldn’t slash at me, but his efforts were digging his machets into my thighs, I gritted my teeth against the pain.
“You’re going to… have to… kill me.” His eyes burned into me, and his words soured my gut.
So I did the only thing I could do, the most humane way I could kill him in the situation. I snapped his neck. A crack echoed through the forest, and Juster’s body went still and lifeless. One of Enna’s soft sobs followed.
I stood slowly. Sorrow wracked my body as I stared down at the body of Juster. I hadn’t had a choice, but that didn’t make it any easier to terminate the life of one of my own, especially as none would be born to replace him.
I squeezed my eyes shut and turned to Enna. The reason I was sacrificing everything. She looked at me, horror and panic written all over her face. I glanced down at myself, brushing at a cut in my chest that still bled. My machets dripped with Juster’s blood. The life I’d taken. I couldn’t imagine how I looked to her. Would she ever see me the same? Had I lost her?
I wanted to reassure her that I was still me. Still Tark. But I didn’t have time. We had to get out of here as fast as we could. I lunged toward her, and she let out a short scream. I picked her up, cradled her in my arms, and took off into the forest at a dead sprint.
Anna
* * *
He ran so fast that the world was a blur of dark shapes. My tears dried as soon as they dropped from my eyes. I clung to him, stomach churning. The torment in his eyes—he hadn’t wanted to kill that other alien. Maybe I’d been interpreting it all wrong, but I assumed it all had to do with me. Tark was leaving with me, and he wasn’t allowed. He’d killed for me.
Since I’d walked in on him strapping a pack to his back, my life had been a roller coaster of emotions. I’d thought he was leaving me, sneaking out in the middle of the night. But then he’d taken me with him, only to shove me into a hole in the ground. I’d been elated at our escape, only to lose my freaking mind when that other alien had challenged Tark.
I wondered if Tark had planned to leave me out here on my own. As in, he would help me escape but then head back to his home. But he still wore the pack, and I couldn’t imagine he’d be welcomed back if he’d killed one of them. I’d caused that. Me. Or really, the Blow Hole jerks who’d started this whole thing. My anger at them roared to life again.
My head spun, and despite Tark’s smooth gait, the constant motion was making me sick. I smacked his chest to get his attention, and his gaze snapped to me. But he didn’t slow. I struggled in his arms and hit his arms with my fists. Finally, he drew to a stop. Carefully, he set me on my feet, and I stepped away.
The moonlight backlit him, and I couldn’t help but flinch at his wicked silhouette. His black blades, which moments ago had lifted from his scales like an enhanced Wolverine, were still on full display, their slick surfaces gleaming in the starlight. Their triangular points were bent like large shark’s teeth, jutting from his forearms, the center of his skull like a mohawk, and down his back to the base of his tail. I’d seen what those blades could do and how they could slice through his opponent’s scales like butter. I couldn’t imagine the damage he could do to human flesh.
His chest heaved, and his hands fisted at his sides. His eyes were impossibly black, and his body still shuddered with repressed anger. Did he resent me for making him kill one of his kind?
He took a step toward me, and while in the back of my mind I didn’t think he’d hurt me, I flinched again and stepped back. He froze, and the life seemed to drain from his eyes.
Maybe I was in shock, because I could do nothing but whisper, “I’m sorry.” I wasn’t even sure what I was sorry for. That he killed for me? That I’d flinched from him? That we were in this situation neither of us had asked for?
“Enna.” My name was a broken whisper. He looked up into the sky, closed his eyes, and then his big body jerked. His body buckled and he fell to his knees with a thud, his blades retreating back into his skin so he was once again the gentle Tark I had grown to care for.
I hated how defeated he looked. I didn’t really know what was going on, but I got the sense he was sacrificing a lot for me. His last exchange with Shep, where they’d clasped arms and murmured soft words to each other, couldn’t have been interpreted as anything but a goodbye.
Shaking myself out of my stupor, I stepped forward and slid my fingers into his damp hair. He was coated in sweat and dark blood, but I ignored it all. My big alien needed comfort, and I needed it too, so maybe we could lean on each other. He was so tall, his forehead rested between my breasts, and I cradled his head in my hands. His arms wrapped around my waist, holding onto me tightly, like he wished to never let me go.
“I’m sorry you had to kill one of yours, Tark. I don’t know why you’re doing this for me. You could have let Ponytail have me. You could have done so many other things, but instead you chose to escape with me.”
He tilted his head back and dark eyes met mine. They were firing now, streaks of lighter purple swirling around his iris. The heat from his body seeped into my muscles and heated my bones. I finally registered our positions, and what they meant. This big alien, this dangerous male with built-in weapons and arms bigger than my torso was on his knees. For me.
His hands began to move, squeezing my waist and slipping down to cup the cheeks of my ass. I squirmed under his touch, already growing wet between my legs at the intense look in his eyes and his wandering hands. His nostrils flared, and his lips parted, fangs gleaming in the moonlight.
“Tark,” I whispered.
He growled and my world spun. One minute I was standing, and the next I was on my back, my head cradled by soft moss. Tark slid my shoes off, and then my pants. I instinctively pressed my thighs together, but with his hands on my knees, he speared me with a heated look and murmured a few syllables. My core pulsed. I froze and then relaxed my muscles, spreading my legs wide. I bit my lip, wondering what he thought. Did I look like other females he’d seen?
He stared down at the space between my legs, his eyes wide, and his cheeks flushed. He still looked deadly with a scabbed-over cut on his chest and blood splattered on his scales. I couldn’t believe I wasn’t turned off by the sight of him. If anything, the evidence of how he fought for me turned me on even more.
His hands, with now-retracted claws, touched me. It was just a brush at first, and then he spread my folds. With his head cocked to the side, he studied me, and I forced myself not to move. This was hot, his intense perusal. He wanted to learn me, my body. And I was more than happy to let him.
He inhaled sharply, folded his big body in half, and l
atched his mouth directly onto my clit. He hollowed his cheeks and sucked. I screamed as my back bowed, and he held onto my bucking body, lips still firmly sealed over my skin. He lashed his pierced tongue back and forth across my clit, and the metal balls were like a massage to my engorged flesh. I writhed beneath him, and my fingers gripped his hair and tugged. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, he began to hum. He set a rhythm of suck, lick, swirl, suck, lick, swirl. He hummed through it all, and the steady vibrations echoed to each of my limbs, so I felt him everywhere.
Just as I felt the orgasm building, building, so big that I swore I’d combust, he pulled off my clit, twirled his tongue around my entrance, and speared me with that talented appendage.
I swore I levitated. His tongue reached all the way inside, to places I’d never been touched before. His hums turned into growls, and his lips worked alongside his tongue. As he ate at me, my cries and groans punctuated the still of the night.
He touched me everywhere inside, his piercings rippling down my inner walls and lighting my blood on fire. I scratched the ground, digging my fingers into dirt. Then I grasped at his hair. I raked my heels down his giant back, and marveled at the male on his knees, his lips locked onto my sex, servicing me.
His eyes, like purple lasers, met mine over the bucking of my body. His lips curled, and his tongue dipped farther. My orgasm barreled down my spine like a scorching flame, and I detonated. My vision whited out, my neck craned, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head while I shuddered. And shuddered. And shook, and whimpered.
When I came back to myself, I was still on my back, naked from the waist down, and Tark’s head was resting on my thigh. His tongue lapped at me lazily, cleaning my sex and my inner thighs, even dipping to sample the crack of my ass. His eyes were closed, his features relaxed with bliss.
I told myself to sit up, to say something, to reach into his pants and return the favor, but my eyelids were droopy. I yawned, and thought of a few things I wanted to say, but never got them out as I drifted off into a post-orgasmic nap.
Six
Tark
* * *
I felt reborn from one taste of Enna. She’d fallen asleep while I’d licked her, and I could have lain there forever between her legs, but we had to put more distance between us and Bult’s camp. I hadn’t meant to stop this long, but I’d been overwhelmed by the scent of her and that breathy way she’d said my name.
She was still asleep in my arms, and I kept a steady pace as I jogged through the forest toward the spaceship, careful not to jostle her too much. She’d given me the best gift I could ever receive in this life and continued to do so every time she smiled at me. Leaving all I’d known and killing Juster was worth it.
I ran for hours, Enna asleep in my arms. I’d never needed much sleep, but with Enna on my tongue, I felt like I could keep this pace for three straight rotations. I wanted to make it to the spaceship by the time the sun rose.
A warm glow peeked over the horizon, signaling oncoming dawn, when Enna woke. I crested a hill to see the spaceship wreck just ahead of us. She blinked her pretty eyes and furrowed her brow before patting my arm. I finally came to a stop and placed her on her feet. Her lips parted in wonder when she caught sight of the spaceship.
I didn’t bother to explain. I grabbed her hand and tugged her along after me. She followed, tripping over her feet before moving her legs faster to keep up. By the time we reached the hole in the hull, she was panting. She bent at the waist, hands on her knees and peered up at me through her hair.
“Dam ur faasd.” She squinted into the darkness of the ship. “Wut r we dooin heer?”
I pulled her inside and found a spot free from debris and hidden from outside view. I pushed on her shoulder until she plopped down on the floor. I held my hand up, palm out, gesturing for her to stay. Her eyes shifted and she crossed her arms over her chest. “I wull stae, not a doge.”
I handed her the solar light so she’d be able to keep track of where I was. When I was content she wouldn’t get in my way or hurt herself on any of the ship’s damaged parts, I got to work.
Back when we worked for the Uldani, our jobs were hired muscle—law enforcement and bodyguards. I’d accompanied the Uldani as protection on several Raghul ships, so I knew my way around the spacecraft. The Uldani thought we were only good for fighting and doubted our intelligence, but I had paid attention as I’d stood in the background. Always. I learned what powered the ships—special fuel the Raghul found on a distant planet. I knew what the control panels did, and, in a pinch, I’d probably be able to fly one of these things. That was how I knew there would be a QR chip on board. I’d have to dismantle the steering panel to get to it, and I hoped it wasn’t damaged.
Getting to the cockpit of the ship proved harder than I had thought. Most of the front section had been destroyed or buried from impact, and I began to worry this was fruitless. I could barely squeeze my body through the crumpled metal, and the cockpit chair was crushed across the entire control panel.
“Fleck,” I muttered, now on my hands and knees because there was no standing room. I pulled on the chair, and it came away in pieces to reveal a severely damaged control panel. A bloated Raghul body lay crushed under a panel. I wrinkled my nose at the smell and pushed on. A Raghul weapon, one of their turpins, was lodged into the right side where most of the engine controls were located. An indication of why the ship had crashed? I’d have to ask Enna later.
The engine controls were not my goal, so I focused on the steering mechanism. The panel’s cover was dented, and I hoped all the precious parts beneath it weren’t damaged. That was my only hope to make this implant work. Now I just needed the correct tools to dismantle the panel. Because of course the flecking Raghul had special tools for just about every part on this ship.
I wrenched open the melted cabinet door above the driver’s seat. Tools rained down on my head, pinging off my horns and clattering to the floor. Enna’s solar light waved wildly, and I reassured her by saying her name softly and telling her I was okay. That seemed to settle her, and her light retreated. I dug around in the cabinet, feeling for the three-prong rod that I needed. “Thank Fatas,” I said when my fingers closed around it.
The panel had four layers with intricate connectors I had to unscrew and carefully lift so I didn’t damage what was beneath. I put Enna out of my mind so I could concentrate.
By the time I reached the bottom level, I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. I wiped my brow as sweat dripped into my eyes. The sun had just begun to rise, its rays heating up the dark metal of the ship so the inside felt like a boiling pot. I ran my finger over all the wires, chips, and censors. When I saw the familiar circle shape and light yellow of the QR chip, I tilted my head back and shouted with victory.
“Tark?” I heard Enna call. I plucked the QR chip from its spot and turned to crawl out of the cockpit. I emerged to see Enna sitting just where I’d left her, the sun glinting off her pretty red hair. Her big eyes took me in as I scrambled around the ship, looking for the next object I needed. Providing her with a translator wasn’t enough. I had to upload her language onto the device so I’d hear her words in my language, and she’d hear mine in hers.
A translator updater had to be somewhere on this ship. I knew the Raghul always traveled with one. If they traveled to Earth, then Earth languages had to be on it. The site of the cabinet Enna had hid in when we found her caught my eye. The door hung ajar where Juster had ripped it open. I tore it off the rest of the way and clawed at the tangle of wires until my hands closed over a familiar handle. I held it up and flicked it on, hoping it was charged. It beeped weakly, and I blew out my breath, knowing I didn’t have much time before it died. On the screen was the language it had updated for its last user. I squinted at the words. “Anglish.”
“English?” Anna said. “Did u sae English?”
I didn’t bother to respond. I was going to take my gamble on this language. I held the updater to my right ear an
d pressed the trigger as the updater’s signal connected with my implant. A warmth spread throughout my skull and then the updater beeped, signaling it was done.
I set it down gently, just in case I’d need it again, and dropped to my knees in front of Enna. I tugged the small translator chip out of my belt pouch and pulled off the back. After slipping the QR chip into place and hearing a small activation chime, I nearly wept.
Enna watched me silently, and I rubbed my damp palms on my knees. I’d only seen a translator implant installed once. I knew it would hurt Enna, but only for a brief moment. I held up the chip and pointed to the spot behind her ear. Then I gestured between our mouths.
She frowned, and I didn’t think she understood. She brushed her fingers over the implant and cocked her head. “Will this help us talk?”
Her voice. Oh Fatas, her voice. I could understand her! Nearly giddy, I focused on the next step. I held up the implant again. “I need to place this—” I touched it to the skin behind her ear. “—right here.”
I didn’t think she quite understood yet, but she swallowed and looked at me with so much trust in her eyes, it took my breath away. She nodded and said, “I trust you.”
My sweet Enna. She trusted me. I would spend my entire life keeping that trust.
I willed my hands not to shake. I pressed the small button on the side of her implant to turn on the implantation sequence. The implant vibrated and a few sharp needles descended. “Planet Torin, Drixonian,” I spoke against it to set the correct language. The button flashed a yellow light to signal it was ready. I met Enna’s eyes, held her chin, and with a quick jerk of my palm, shoved the implant against her skin. Her mouth dropped open, her skin paled, and as the needles sunk into her skin and curved to cement their place, she opened her mouth and screamed.