Chapter 23
One second, I’m about to be devoured by Zorin. The next, I’m being dragged into a pink cloud by human hands.
He grabs me by the back of the neck and walks me away from sunlight into a candlelit underground passage. But I’ve been in this position before.
I grab his wrist, snap myself forward, jabbing my hip into his crotch, then peel back a finger on his hand. He swears and releases me. But just as I’m about to run, he blazes to life in front of me, like his entire armored body is a cloak. And I immediately know who it is.
“Geist.”
“Don’t make this harder than it already is,” he says behind his mask as he steps in front of me with a gun. “I’m only tasked with bringing you in alive.”
“To who and for what?”
“Nebs, and I don’t know what they’re going to do to you. Probably kill you like the others.”
The others? He’s been at this a while. “So you’re the reason they die.”
“I’m the reason I live.”
I’m not sticking around to find out what the Nebs want to kill me for and dart down an adjacent passageway. Geist appears before me in a puff of light. He reaches out to grab me, but I duck and take another rocky tunnel.
Again and again he tries. I keep running, but I can’t do it forever. I try to call over my wristband for Zorin or Abr or someone. Anyone!
“That won’t work, Tessi,” Geist calls after me, his voice echoing through the passages. “Coms are down. There might’ve been a tiny explosion in the junction box for the labyrinth.”
Geist picks up on my game. I know he does because he starts smiling when he steps out.
And soon, he’s boxed me into a room filled with light and shiny red objects—a treasure room filled with gems and gold coins, like something out of a pirate movie on the holovids that students often watched in the dorms on campus.
The ruby egg is probably in here somewhere, but it’s no longer my concern as I back into the chamber and Geist stalks after me. His armor gleams in the bright room. His pale gray eyes cut into me.
“Why are you doing this?” I ask, my voice shaking. I scramble through the stuff, trying to find a way around him, some way I can escape and run back through the maze. “Money?”
“Credits mean food and supplies, ships and power, Tessi. You know the desperation.” He grabs me and jerks me back to him. Then he takes my wrists with painful force and pins them over my head, against the wall. Geist leans close to my face.
“But I’d never compromise my morals and hurt others just to survive.”
He tilts his head and gives me a dark smirk. “That’s why you never thrived in our world. You wouldn’t do what was necessary. But I see you’ve filled out nicely. Abr has been feeding you well.”
He licks his bottom lip as he slides his other hand up and around my throat. “Caden would be jealous if he knew.”
I scoff and rasp through his grip on my neck, “Of what, you?”
“I’m surrounded by high-ticket prizes. I’ve got you. I have the Myndrous’ balls in a vice. And I’ve got the ability to go anywhere in the literal universe with just a tap on my controls.”
I strain to look away. “You didn’t know Caden like I did. He wasn’t like that.”
“I know he chose to be a good boy and enlist because of you. He left our kind of life behind because he wanted to give you a better life, whatever that means.” Geist runs his mouth over my neck with sickening lust and draws in a deep breath. “It’s too bad he isn’t here to defend you.”
I close my eyes, exhausted from running from him and not getting enough air with his hand tightening around my windpipe. My body sloshes with heaviness, and my vision dims.
Deep thunder fills the cavern.
Geist looks back and around at the darkening room.
A shadow moves behind him.
Claws snake with eerie slowness around Geist’s throat.
His eyes fill with fear.
“Maybe Caden isn’t here. But I am.”
Geist scrambles for the portal generator in his armor. Before he can reach it, he is pulled into a cloud of smoke.
I slump to my knees and gasp in air. The lights gradually come back to full luminosity, and the candles flicker once again down the passageways. For a moment, I just catch my breath.
“Zorin?”
I don’t get a response. Crossing the room, I peer down the nearest tunnel. I inch deeper into the labyrinth and look down at the scuffling tracks. They lead on for several turns before they simply vanish.
Hot breath falls over my neck.
I whip around and find Zorin standing behind me, in mid-shift form.
“Tessi…” he rasps like he’s in pain.
“Are you hurt?” I ask. “What happened to Geist?”
He collects me in a rush, carries me into a different passage and then a small room filled with blankets and candles, made up like a little den.
“Geist is not an apparition.” Zorin rumbles a hungry note. “He does in fact bleed.”
The lights dim until we’re left in the dark. Soft blankets grace my back as Zorin lays me down. Teeth rake over my neck, and claws free the suit from my body. Zorin’s tongue is everywhere just like he promised.
He rumbles softly as he licks my throat and travels lower to my breasts, peeling my bra down to savor each globe completely. His teeth nip at my sides, travel up to my neck, and down to my buds again until I am sweating with anticipation on the bed.
“Zorin, please…”
“Please, what?” he simpers as he climbs up to me, kisses me, and rests the weight of his body over mine. His erect cock grinds into my hips.
“Don’t let them stop you. Nebs will probably kill me, anyway.”
“No, they won’t. And don’t say that.” He binds me to him and kisses me deeply. “Not as long as there is breath in my body.”
He eases himself lower again. His claws lightly rake over my hips as he frees my suit and panties. Every inch he exposes, he warms with his tongue. He savors every curve, then nuzzles into my pussy, frees my suit down to my ankles, spreads my knees, and growls with lust.
His hot, wet mouth bonds to my delicate flesh with hunger, ravaging my pussy with deep licks and feral need. When the sharp points of his teeth graze me, it sends a new kind of scintillating rush through my hips and into my bones.
“Zorin…”
He buries his scorching tongue in me, deeply, with force. His hum of satisfaction vibrates my nub and sends a delightful wave of euphoria through my core.
He’s too good, and it’s too fast and rough the way he penetrates me and clutches me like I’m his last meal.
I’m tipping over the edge. The first tremors of my climax grip his tongue.
“That’s it,” he encourages me as he licks me from the inside out again.
Zorin swears and moans like he’s getting off on pleasuring me. His rumbling as he sucks on my clit launches my thoughts into a realm of light and sends my body into a scalding bliss.
I brace his head as he binds me to his face. He can’t get enough. Zorin’s desperately trying to soothe his need for me. But I’m already falling from my high, and his aggressive touch is becoming too much.
“Zorin…” I gasp as his teeth nip at my opening, sending fiery jolts through my legs. “Oh!”
“Hush, female. Carnas and Spike search below for you.” He growls softly and dips his searing tongue into my opening again.
I squirm away from him. “You’re too much. I need recovery time.”
“Oh, sorry.” He pants when he picks his head up. “Got lost, enjoying you.”
When my body finally starts to calm, Zorin cleans me with his tongue and helps me back into my race suit.
The lights brighten again, and I notice Zorin on his knees, stretching his back with his eyes closed. The shadows slip from the cave and soak back into him.
So that’s what he meant when he said he could create darkness.
He helps me to my feet, and I want to return his favor. I reach down to stroke his swollen shaft.
He jerks away from me. “I…uh… I’m good.”
“You…”
He hangs his head and laughs bashfully. “You arching and moaning like that…fuck. I’m going to need a bath.”
“But you didn’t stop when you were done?” I ask.
“Mindorans can go back to back during a rut. Now, you need the ruby egg.”
Zorin takes me by the hand and leads me to a passageway that circles behind the treasure room. “I saw it back here.”
He guides me to a platform of rock and points up at the ceiling.
I read the inscription. “In honor of Ruby, who founded this race. Not all can look to the stars for hope. Some look up and see only a hull or a mountain of rock. To some, the stars are myths, hidden beyond bars of metal. For her Larisien mate, for the blood spilled trying to save the last of their kind, the Alien Bride Race will donate 100,000 credits to endangered species outreach when this egg is captured. Just answer one question.”
Zorin studies the question. “I know.”
“What the purpose of life is?” I ask.
“My purpose is love. To love my family, my pack, my mate. It is what carries us through hard times, makes us able to endure insane things. The purpose of life is love.”
The egg descends from the ceiling on a platform.
“Congratulations, Zorin Aegeris, for understanding the purpose of life.”
We turn to look at the voice. A glowing gold silhouette of an older woman in long robes sways across the floor.
“Oh, don’t look so freaked out. I’m just a synthetic projection, a replication of my former self. I’m stored in a server inside the complex.
“You two have been through a lot. I have been watching you. Just promise me that you will use your powers for good.”
“Always,” Zorin replies.
“Even when that Shifter takes over,” she gently warns. “I know he’s everything violent you don’t let yourself be in upright form.”
She turns to me. “As for you, Tessi. You have an ancient gift, an ability to share how two people feel without words. You transfer the energy, emotions, souls, and expose the truth with a simple touch.”
“How do you know?”