Chapter 4 #2
Hunt stepped closer, and she took a step backward.
He kept moving, backing her up against the wall.
“That’s not how it should be, Relda. It should be hard, a little rough, hot and sweaty.
It should be desire taking over, stripping away the control.
” He leaned down until his lips brushed the side of her neck, right below her ear.
“I’d touch you all over, until you were sobbing for my cock.
I’d lick you between your legs, lap up your sweet honey until you came on my tongue.
Then I’d slide my throbbing cock inside you and take you hard, my fingers digging into your hips.
It’d be skin slapping against skin, and your screams of pleasure filling the room, Relda, until we both exploded. ”
She was panting now, her eyes closed, a light sheen of perspiration on her forehead.
“Are you turned on right now?” he murmured.
Her eyes opened, shining a deep, vibrant green. “I thought you military guys were all strong and silent, and hopeless at stringing sentences together?”
He smiled. “I’m a simple man. I just say it as I see it.”
A small smile flirted around her lips. “Simple, my ass.”
“It’s a mighty fine ass.”
She laughed now. “True. And yes, I’m turned on.” Something wicked flashed in her eyes, and Hunt’s gut tightened. Uh oh, something told him Relda was about to flex her claws.
She pressed into him until he felt the hard nubs of her nipples against his chest. Gods, it felt good. She went up on her toes, her mouth brushing his jaw. “My panties are completely soaked because of you.”
Desire was like a hammer to the gut. His cock, already hard, got even harder and he groaned.
“Do you know that old Earth saying, Hunt? Tit for tat.”
It was his own fault. He couldn’t do anything right now, not with unknown assailants out there waiting to attack. Her safety came first, but once this was over…
“Yeah. And now I’ll suffer just as much as you.”
Her smile was satisfied. “Good.”
“I will keep you safe, but you have to help me.” He stared into the eyes of the woman he knew in his gut was his. He was planning to keep her, even if she fought him on it. “Where’s the Trojan Moon, Relda?”
She gripped her necklace and held up the jewel at the end. “Here.”
Relda’s blood was still pumping hard and fast from Hunt’s little seduction. She took him more for a man of action, not words, but his dirty talk…well it had worked, big time.
She watched him study the diamond. It was now pulsing in time with her heartbeat and almost all the blue was gone. The entire stone was now a rich red.
“Where did you get it?”
“It was passed down through my family. Yes, it’s fantastically valuable, but I’d never sell it. It’s a piece of history.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s a Terran diamond. The Trojan Moon was said to have been crafted from a large blue-gray diamond that once belonged to Terran kings.
It’s been known as the Hope Diamond, the King’s Jewel, and the Tavernier Blue.
It was revered for years by the people of Earth and kept in museums. Some legends said it was cursed, others that it was snatched from the forehead of a statue of some long-forgotten Terran goddess.
” Sometimes, in the dark of night, Relda wondered if the jewel was cursed, if it had been the reason all she’d loved had been destroyed.
His gaze met hers. “You wear it?”
“Sometimes.” She’d never again wear it in public. “I guess someone must have recognized it.”
“I couldn’t find an image of it, but maybe someone else did.”
“I think—” It was then she noticed the fog.
It was drifting into the room from the small cracks around the window. It looked like dark gray smoke.
“Hunt—”
“I see it.” He drew his laser pistol and pulled her back toward the doorway.
But from the gap beneath the door, more of the eerie gray fog was also drifting in.
“Poison?” she asked.
“Don’t think so. It doesn’t seem to be affecting us.”
The fog coalesced in the center of the room into a whirling mass. As it moved faster and faster, Relda frowned. “What’s it doing?”
It started taking on a vaguely humanoid shape.
Hunt swore.
“You know what it is?” She looked between the fog and him.
“I think it’s a nano-droid.”
A droid made up of tiny, microscopic droids. They could form into just about anything. “I thought only the Galactic Security Services had nano-droids?”
“You can acquire anything if you have enough e-creds. Whoever wants the Moon has some serious money.”
The fog merged together to form an all-gray droid. It looked like someone wearing light body armor—except the face was smooth with no features. The effect was downright eerie.
“Stay back.” Hunt’s gaze never left the nano-droid. “When you get the chance, get out.”
Right. Like she’d just leave him to fight that thing. She grabbed the baton clipped to his belt. She gave it a shake, and the baton extended to a lethal length.
Hunt shot her a dark look before taking a step forward. “I’m Marshal Calder, you’ve illegally entered—”
The nano-droid moved so fast Relda only saw a blur. It was suddenly in front of Hunt, swinging at him.
He held up an arm to block the droid’s hit. She saw him grimace, but then he was punching at it with his other arm.
His hand passed straight through the droid. Its body separated and once his hand pulled back, the droid re-coalesced.
Relda darted forward and swung the baton at the droid’s head. Again, it passed right through, the droid’s head dissolving into mist. She almost lost her balance, but Hunt grabbed her and dragged her back.
“I said to stay behind me.” His tone was hard and biting.
She ignored him. “What do we do? It can hit us, but it’s impossible for us to hit it.”
Hunt lifted his weapon. She saw the silver-blue glow in the barrel of the laser pistol.
Holding the weapon with both hands, he was all cool composure as he shot at the droid. The whine of the laser was loud in the confines of the room.
The laser hit the droid, and she saw it glow silver-blue with each impact.
Then it moved toward them again. Unaffected.
It aimed at Hunt, a fast chop and two kicks. He blocked the first blow, shuddered under the impact of the second, and the third sent him flying back, hitting the wall hard.
“Hunt!” She raced to him. By the time she reached him, he was on his feet.
“You need to get out of here, Relda.”
“We need to get out of here.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked but he nodded. Together, they inched toward the door.
The droid moved, blocking their way.
Hunt ran at the droid, tackling it to the ground. It broke apart into maybe twenty smaller droids with armored, lizard-like forms. They had large, curved claws and slashed at Hunt, over and over.
Her chest locked. No.
“Relda!” he yelled. “Go!”
He was struggling, bleeding from a thousand cuts, blood soaking into his clothes.
If she didn’t help, he was going to die. They’d both die, and someone would take the Trojan Moon.
The thought of Hunt lying dead, all his beautiful clean, pure energy gone, was intolerable.
Relda squeezed her eyes closed for a brief second. She knew she had to do this, but she also knew Hunt wouldn’t look at her the same afterward.
That hungry desire would turn to wariness and fear, or worse, awe.
But her choice was to reveal herself or let him die. It wasn’t really a choice at all.
She opened her eyes.
The Trojan Moon changed colors, the red brightening until it filled the room. It amplified her powers, and she felt the sweet sing of fire through her veins, energy pouring into her in a rush.
Damn, she’d missed this.
Now, she just had to control it long enough to save Hunt and not destroy the entire planet in the process.
She raised her hands. She felt the energy all around her—powering the equipment, lights, and homes of Medina, the neighboring towns, the entire world.
She felt it in the deep molten heart of the planet.
In the gravitational pull keeping Souk in orbit around its sun.
In the solar flares on the sun. In all the spaces of the cosmos.
All of it was hers to command.
Her sense of being Relda flowed away. She was part of the flow of energy in the galaxy. The small lives of people mattered little. Life or death mattered little. Everyone returned to the flow of energy.
Her gaze fell on the man bleeding on the floor and the machines hovering over him.
“Relda.” The human male looked at her. Such a fierce look in his blue eyes.
She pushed her hands out.
The machines started to writhe, the smaller parts moving in an agitated swirl. With her power, she lifted them up.
Then she clapped her hands together.
The nano-droids slammed together into a twisted metal ball.
She jerked her hands, and the metal fell harmlessly to the floor.