by Eve Langlais
She pulled it tight to her body as if burned.
“Are you hurt?” Zak tugged at her hand to look.
“No.” But inside her, the Lake’s presence huddled.
“Did you see something?” Ray asked.
She shook her head, unable to speak. How to explain that she’d found the evil that threatened Avhallonn. Its insidious touch enough to make her want to hightail it and blow this planet to pieces.
But she’d promised them she’d at least look at one of their wretched temples. For them, she would swallow her fear and explore. She needed to know more about the mecha origin. Understand why it posed a danger.
“It’s not sucking us through,” Zak observed.
“What should we do?” The Lake inside her remained quiet with no suggestion.
With a shrug, Ray said, “Guess we keep looking for a way out.”
A quest that led to frustration as they searched every inch of space. Even putting her on Ray’s shoulder to feel higher than they could reach.
To no avail.
They set some charges to try and blow a hole. The only thing they managed to knock down was themselves with the impact as it blew backwards.
They were trapped. Her mission failed. Their lives probably forfeit. It was enough to send her slumping to the floor.
“It’s useless. There is no escape.”
Ray joined her. “Giving up so easily?”
She cast him a glance. “We’ve been over every single block. None of them move. Tingle. Nothing. We’re stuck.” And the Lake’s presence had gone silent.
“Or we’re being kept waiting.” Zak the optimist shrugged. He’d shed his suit and wore only a shirt and pants. He’d removed his boots that his toes might make contact with the floor in case it made a difference.
“I hate waiting,” she grumbled.
“Don’t we all,” Ray drawled.
“Good news is we’ve got rations”—Zak shook his pack—“and each other.”
“Is he always this way?” she asked Ray.
“Yes,” he grumbled, and yet said it playfully as well.
“I guess we might as well try and get some sleep.” She pulled her things into a pile, forming a nest and a pillow with her pack. The thin blanket she pulled from it spread over the pile and over her.
“Sleep? When this might be our last chance?” Zak exclaimed.
“Last chance for what?” Ray questioned, but her heart beat faster. Surely, he didn’t mean…
“We got interrupted before we were done last time.” Zak made his intent clear by stripping off his shirt, revealing his toned chest. She wasn’t even thrown any more by the gear she could see moving under the skin.
“Now might not be the best time,” Ray argued. “If someone comes…”
“If they come, then we’ll deal with it. If they don’t…” Zak smiled as his thumbs tugged at the waistband of his pants.
“He’s got a point,” Ray said, looking at her.
He did have a point, and she had an ache. A need. A curiosity.
“Both of you? Is that even possible?”
That brought even wider grins.
“Oh, baby,” Zak purred, “we have so much to show you.”
It didn’t take long to get naked. It wasn’t as if they were cold. On the contrary, she flushed with heat as they gazed upon her. Gasped and tingled with pleasure as their hands touched. Caressed.
They lay her down on the bed she’d built, and then each took a side, propped on one arm, taking turns kissing her, biting her neck, sliding soft embraces over sensitive skin.
She felt their warm breath fluttering against her aching buds and opened her eyes to see them hovering, blowing hotly. And when she trembled, masculine chuckles followed.
They latched on simultaneously, tugging at her nipples, each with his own technique, both drawing sharp cries from her.
They held her down, one leg each thrown over a thigh. Mouths latched and sucking her nipples. A hand skimming her flesh, squeezing her breasts. Another hand slipped between her thighs, touching the moist flesh, parting her nether lips, teasing her with a fingertip that dipped inside her.
She moaned. “Yes. Oh yes.”
Only instead of deepening their touch, everything stopped. In shock, and mewling displeasure, she opened her eyes to find herself in a flurry of motion as she was flipped onto her stomach and pulled up onto her hands and knees.
Ray knelt before her, erection bobbing, so thick and hard.
“Suck him,” was Zak’s command, the sternest she’d ever heard him speak.
“Make me,” she panted, liking this new side of him. “Make me suck him.” While he watched.
A quiver went through her and then a long moan as fingers gripped her hair, not enough to hurt but enough to control her. Zak guided her mouth to the bobbing shaft, and Ray whispered, “Frukx me, yes.”
She didn’t need to ask if he liked it. She could tell by the way his hips thrust and he threw his head back. She took his thick shaft into her mouth, sucking at the silken skin, vibrating with sound around his flesh as Zak stroked the damp spot between her thighs.
Did he enjoy watching?
She had little time to wonder as he replaced his fingers with his mouth. The shock of his caress had her moaning and pausing in her oral suction. Ray was the one to help her resume her course, his hands cupping her head, helping her to bob, a non-stop moan rolling from her as Zak continued to lick.
And flick.
And penetrate with fingers.
Both mouth and hand disappeared, which might have been disappointing if it weren’t replaced with the tip of a hard rod.
Oh yes.
She didn’t know if she said it aloud. Didn’t care as he slid into her. Thick. Stretching. Slowly easing.
She trembled at the slow torture. And then cried out as he slammed all the way to the hilt.
Poor Ray almost got bitten, not that he seemed to mind. He hissed as he said, “Careful or you’ll get a mouthful.”
The thought he might lose control with her brought another shudder, which clenched the rod inside her.
Zak’s turn to hiss and dig his fingers into her hips. “That’s it, baby. Come for me. Come on my cock.”
It wasn’t just Zak chanting it. Ray did, too. “Come. Let me watch as you cream him. And then while you’re still trembling, it will be my turn. My turn to sink into you.”
The erotic words sent her into overdrive, and she bounced her body, slamming back against Zak as he thrust, driving him deep. So deep.
She started to spasm, her sex clenching and then freezing as she came, and Zak yelled, “Yes. Frukx.”
He orgasmed with her, the pleasure intense. So intense she barely realized when Ray moved behind her and nudged her quivering sex.
“You still good?” he asked, toying with her slippery clit.
“Again? Make me come again.” Because she could feel a second climax inside her. All it needed was Ray.
He didn’t wait for another invitation. He slammed himself in, not as thick as Zak but longer. Long enough that he hit a sweet spot inside.
She groaned loud and hard. He pulled out and slammed back in. She savored the jolting pleasure.
In and out. Ray thrust deep into her, his arm around her waist keeping her propped up on hands and knees, which proved to give enough clearance to Zak.
He slid under her and applied his tongue to her clit. A shudder went through her. Zak lapped at her again, and each time he touched, she cried out and her channel spasmed.
The deft strokes of Ray’s shaft and the hot darts of Zak’s tongue pushed her over the edge once more. She screamed as she climaxed and felt Ray coming with her, too. His body rigid with one last thrust.
An experience that left her flushed. Panting. Satisfied. And still…
“Anyone hungry for more?” she purred.
She couldn’t think of a better way to spend the last moments of her life than having another orgasm with the men with whom she
’d fallen in love.
17
Zak had a dream. Not an erotic one, either. Why imagine when he could experience? Being with Nema exceeded his wildest expectations. She was the missing wheel in his existence. And oddly enough, having Ray as part of it only seemed right. They’d shared so much already, why not a woman, too?
But the future wasn’t what he dreamed of. Rather, Zak imagined himself as the mighty explorer, Jool Ius’verrn, only better dressed.
As a child, Zak had seen the documentary detailing the journey and discovery by the first Mecha Prophet. Watched it over and over, noting how the intrepid archeologist ignored the naysayers and went exploring. Fighting off wild beasts. Enduring extreme cold. Even falling into a chasm. Injured and alone, he didn’t give up. He explored the network of caves until he emerged in a hidden valley, nestled in the bowl of a mountain. There, amidst the towering trees, and after the fight for his life with strange creatures, he located the first mecha temple.
The ancient structure wouldn’t yield entry. Grievously injured, Jool was ready to give up when he laid his hand upon the seal on the door, an intricate carving of a cog. The temple decided to bless the intrepid explorer and opened its door, revealed to him the mighty wonders. And when Jool Ius’verrn spilled blood and took unto himself the first gear—
Zak sat bolt upright, eyes wide, and exclaimed, “We need blood.”
“Gross,” Nema mumbled, eyes closed, squirming to snuggle deeper against Ray, who still slept.
“Wake up,” Zak yelled, bouncing to his feet. “I know how we unlock the door.”
“Door? What frukxing door? The whole problem is the lack of door,” Ray grumbled, stretching, his torso bare but the rest of him partially dressed. They’d maintained enough sense after their epic sex-capade to at least put a semblance of clothing on, just in case.
“We can’t find the door because we haven’t used the proper key.” Zak paced in front of them, and while they moved slowly, Ray did sit up, and Nema rolled to her back, arm tucked under her head.
“When did we find a key?”
“We are the key.”
Ray snorted. “We tried that, remember? Touching. All of us. Nothing happened.”
“Because we did it wrong. That block is made of latmevilium, and what’s the one thing that activates it?”
“Blood, but that only works with the living kind. This stuff is dead.” Ray rapped on the metal.
“Not dead, more like dormant,” Nema murmured.
“Sleeping or not, I, for one, am not keen on bleeding on it and then having it attach itself to me.”
Zak snickered. “It might be kind of hard to hold your rod.”
Ray glared.
Nema stood and stared at the block. “What gave you that idea? Was it a voice that whispered?” she asked, hugging herself tight.
“More like a dream about Jool Ius’verrn.”
“Not again,” Ray groaned. “I thought you got over that infatuation for him.”
Zak shook his head. “This wasn’t a sex dream. Remember in the Mecha Bible when it talks about the temple Jool opened? It also very clearly mentions he was injured.”
“We don’t know if he used blood. And it’s also just a story.”
“Of something that happened.”
“Probably embellished over time,” Ray countered.
“Do you have any other ideas?” Zak snapped.
“Actually, I do.” For a moment their roles reversed with Ray winking at Nema while Zak tried to get them out of trouble.
“If it doesn’t work, we’ll have sex again. But it won’t hurt to try.” Not entirely true given Zak pulled a knife from a sheath and sliced it across his palm.
“Zak!” Nema cried out.
“It doesn’t hurt.” Lie. It stung, but he bore the pain and slapped his bloody hand on the seal. He grinned as he waited to be shown correct.
“Is it me, or is nothing happening?” Ray retorted.
“I don’t understand. It should work.” Zak moved and smeared his blood more thoroughly over the symbol then the brick of metal itself. Even painted the stone block beside it.
No secret door opened, and he wasn’t sucked into another room.
“Either you’re wrong or you don’t have the right kind of blood,” Ray drawled. “You aren’t the only one to have read the bible. My understanding is only certain people are chosen to be priests, and the test involved them activating the machines left behind.”
Zak frowned. “That’s disappointing.”
“You should be glad you’re not high priest material, or you’d be stuck at home.”
Handing over the knife, Zak said, “You’d better hope you have the right kind then, or we’ll die here.”
“Me?” Ray stared at the sharp edge of the weapon.
“It can’t hurt to try,” Nema said.
But despite the fact that Ray smeared a thick amount of blood on the metal, nothing happened. He even tried pressing a bloody cog against the wall.
They remained just as penned as before.
Zak paced and cursed. It should have worked. With the right person.
Hands tucked behind her back, Nema stared at the wall with its bloody handprints. “Those you call priests, the ones called to serve your temples, has anyone ever traced their lineage?”
“I don’t know.” Zak glanced at her. “You think they have a common ancestor?”
“If only some of your population have the right kind of activating factor in their blood, then I’d say that’s a strong possibility. Whoever built that temple on your world obviously lived there. Could be they left behind heirs.”
“Of which we’re obviously not related,” Ray grumbled. “How does that help us?”
“Because I have a theory about where the sentience came from,” she murmured. Nema snared the abandoned knife from the floor, and before anyone could protest, she sliced her palm.
The blood welled thick and red. She placed her hand on the wall, and immediately part of it melted into an archway.
Zak wondered if his jaw dropped as far as Ray’s. “How?” he asked.
“I told you once before that our people were possibly related. Apparently even more than we suspected.”
“Let’s grab all our stuff, just in case we can’t come back.” Ray scooped their loose items into his pack and then checked that his gun was primed in the holster.
Doing the same thing, Zak couldn’t help but ask questions that had no replies. “What do you think we’ll find? Are we the first to make it out of this room?”
“Guess we’ll find out. Are you coming?” She cast a glance over her shoulder before stepping into the doorway.
Worried it might close behind her, Zak and Ray huddled close and then passed her as she paused, letting them step into the corridor before she did. A good thing, too, because the moment she moved out of the door, it sealed shut behind her.
“Seems like we’re in the company of a Mecha Priest,” Ray intoned.
She snorted. “A priest with no spare metal parts.”
Zak pursed his lips. “The first prophet was simple flesh, too.”
“Let’s see where this goes. Maybe we’ll find a way out. I don’t like this place.” Nema continued to hug herself, her gaze darting around the tunnel they were in.
Made of more interlocked stone blocks. No metal on any of them. They marched off into darkness, and Zak remarked on it. “Is it me, or does light just appear as we move?”
“I see it.” Ray’s grim reply.
“Motion activated?” Nema mused aloud.
“Motion, heat, life. Something knows we’re here.” An ominous statement that caused Ray and Nema to glance at him sharply.
He didn’t need to say anything to know they felt it, too.
Ray?
For the umpteenth time since the wall swallowed them, Zak tried to use his wireless cog to contact his friend. But only staticky silence met him. Something in this place muffled the signal. Weighed on him. Even his
cogs slowed, turning sluggishly inside.
Everything in him wanted to turn around and go back. Yet he kept moving forward.
The straight hall led to an arch, the keystone at the top of it carved with a set of gears.
“Do you think that’s the entrance to a Mecha temple?” Zak breathed.
“Not quite,” Nema replied.
In that she was correct. Crowding through, they stood on a ledge with a long stairway going down and, at the bottom, a maze.
“Hold on. I’ll take a picture of it so that we’ll have a map,” Ray declared, dragging his goggles up from around his neck.
Click. Click. Zak frowned. Surely it wouldn’t be that easy.
He took a step, his foot firmly landing on a stair. Not a single tremor.
“Standing around won’t get us out of here.” Nema skipped past him. “Let’s go see what’s at the center.”
The maze appeared still and silent, yet something nagged at him. Tickled him with warning. He almost felt relief when they hit the bottom step and found themselves standing on a floor carved in the shape of a machine, the intricate detail of interconnecting gears so realistic he almost expected it to start moving.
Crouching down, he ran a hand over the etched surface. “None of the other temples had anything like this.”
“Then this one must hide something extra special.” Ray strode past him to the entrance of the maze. “Follow me. I’ve got a map.”
A map that proved useless because the moment they stepped past the entrance, there was a clang as a gate dropped behind them, sealing the way out, and then a grumbled grinding of gears as a machine came to life.
Not just any machine.
A labyrinth, which wasn’t a maze after all but some kind of mecha device.
And as the first blades came spinning out of nowhere, he realized they had to solve it—or die.
18
A blade spun overhead, and Nema ducked, heart pounding. Not just in fear but exhilaration, and even relief.