Chapter 18 Clare
Clare
I woke with a start. I'd had a dream, something about curling around a tree like a snake while feeling the sun's soothing rays on my scales, before the forest had erupted into fire.
For a moment, I didn't know where I was.
Then I felt the scales against my cheek, the heavy tail wrapped around my legs, and I remembered.
Venom.
I had slept with Venom.
Fuck.
I didn’t move. I wasn’t sure I could move. His coils were heavy across my legs, not crushing but anchoring. His chest rose and fell steadily beneath my cheek, and the cave was still wrapped in that same hushed stillness as the night before.
I’d slept with him.
Not just shared heat. Not just survival huddling. I’d wanted it. Asked for it. Enjoyed it.
And now I was lying here, tangled up in a naga’s embrace, half-naked, on a hostile alien planet, wondering what the hell was wrong with me.
My stomach twisted with regret, but I didn’t quite know what I was regretting. Not the sex itself – that had been… gods, it had been good. Not just the physical part, either. The way he touched me, the way he’d held back. The way he’d looked at me.
His cock had been alien and yet perfect for me, like a key created to fit into my lock. It had been too dark to make out all the details, but there had been bulging rings around the shaft that had most definitely contributed to the best orgasm I’d ever experienced.
But still, the shame and regret didn’t disappear at the memory of how I’d come apart. Had it been too soon? Too reckless? Too much?
We'd met that day. Some time in the afternoon.
And I’d been ready to climb him like a tree by nightfall.
I closed my eyes and breathed through the knot in my chest. Who was going to judge me? My friends? My family? They were further away than I could even imagine.
No. This wasn’t about them. It was about Earth. About old rules and expectations that no longer applied to the person I was becoming.
Earth was far away. So were the people who’d raised me to believe love had a formula, that desire needed a waiting period, that you had to earn intimacy with time and social approval.
There was no approval to be found here. No society. No rules.
Just me. And Venom. And the wild beating of my own heart.
I shifted slightly, and his arm tightened instinctively around my waist. Not possessive. Just... responsive.
My guilt didn’t vanish, but it softened. I didn’t need to justify my choices to a world I no longer lived in.
I was allowed to want something – someone – for no other reason than that it felt right.
Especially in a place like this. Where every moment might be our last.
The air shifted. A faint clicking sound echoed near the cave entrance.
Venom stirred beneath me. His eyes opened – slitted, glowing faintly green in the dim light. “Clare?” he murmured.
“I’m awake.”
He tensed, not at my words but at something else. A vibration under the stone. A sound beyond what I could hear.
“Something’s wrong,” I said.
At the same time, Sa’quii’s voice rang in my head. From Venom’s expression I could tell that he was hearing the chii as well.
More drones have joined the first. They are watching all exits to the cave. Other chii have arrived with news. Big Ones are gathering in the valley below. And monsters. So many monsters.
She sounded worried.
Venom sat up at once, coils shifting beneath me. “How many drones?”
Six. Two look different than the rest.
She sent us a mental image. It didn’t mean anything to me, but Venom sucked in a sharp breath.
“Those are weaponised drones. They can injure or even kill. If I’m not mistaken, they’ll also have tranquiliser darts on board. The game makers sometimes use those on contestants if they’re in an area low on monsters. They then move the unconscious contestant to a place more suited for drama.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “Drama?” I asked.
“Violent death by monster.” Venom’s jaw clenched. “They’re forcing movement. Trying to flush us.”
I pulled the blanket tighter around my body, the chill of the cave suddenly far more noticeable. “Can we contact the Bloodstar? Or someone else?”
“I’d need a terminal, a computer to contact them. There are many layers of security wrapped around this planet, so to speak, and I don’t have access to the technology I’d need to hack them. I have called for help from the IA, but I don’t know if and when and even how they’ll reply.”
We have found many tools the Big Ones left behind, Sa’quii chimed in. Maybe you will find what you need in the cave. I can send some of my people through the hidden paths. They will not be spotted by the drones.
“We shall start searching,” Venom said. He was already scanning the cave walls, his coils loosening around me. I climbed off him, searching for the scarves I’d discarded last night to give me some more cover.
“Are you not too cold?” I asked Venom as a cool breeze made my gooseflesh rise.
“A little, but movement will help. The sun has risen and the cave is getting warmer already. However, I need to thank you for what you did for me last night. Without you… I would not be in the condition I am now. Thank you, from the bottom of my hearts.”
“Hearts?” I repeated weakly.
He grinned. “Two of them.”
“Two hearts, two cocks. Anything else you have two of?”
He flashed his fangs at me in reply, then rose to his full height in a smooth motion. He looked fully recovered, which reassured me massively. I’d really been worried last night.
While I got dressed – if you could call it that – he left the crate to examine the cave further. I packed up the blankets, stashing the remaining food rations in Venom’s bag. I wanted to be ready to leave if we had to make a quick exit.
“Clare?” Venom called from just outside the crate. “There might be a relay node buried in the bedrock. I think this was once a control chamber, before it was turned into storage. We’ll need to find old wiring. Something intact.”
“I’ll help,” I said, wrapping the scarf more tightly around my shoulders before stepping out of the crate.
The cavern stretched around us like the ribcage of some colossal beast, the black stone ceiling arched high above and glittering faintly where patches of diamond caught the filtered sunlight. The glowing orbs along the walls gave off a cold, bluish sheen that deepened every shadow.
Crates towered over us – some the size of kitchen cupboards, others large enough to house entire vehicles. I half expected one of them to start beeping or unfolding into a killer drone. Nothing moved. Yet.
Venom slithered toward the far side, his coils silent on the stone.
“The fact that these orbs still work means there is electricity routed through the stone. I assume they run on solar power, fully automated, but there still needs to be a control panel to adjust the lights. Help me look for embedded panels or wiring – anything out of place. Focus near the back wall. Control tech would have been placed away from obvious access points.”
We split up. I would have preferred to stay with him. This cave was giving me the creeps, especially knowing that we were surrounded by drones on the outside. But it made sense to cover two directions at once.
I skirted around the larger crates, brushing my fingers across the stone behind them. Nothing but cold rock at first. Then I found a section where the wall felt… wrong. Warmer. Smoother. As if it had been polished, once.
“Here,” I called, waving Venom over.
He reached me in seconds, inspecting the spot with narrowed eyes. “It’s not a seam, but it’s newer than the rest. Stand back.”
He grabbed a thin metal rod from a pile of discarded tools on the ground and scraped it along the smooth section. We waited.
Nothing.
Then he opened his palm and held it to my mouth.
“Breathe on it.”
I shot him a questioning look but then exhaled a slow breath. He pressed that hand to the wall, wriggling his fingers slightly.
Click.
A section of the black rock slid back with a hiss of pressure. Dust drifted down. Inside: wires, old data ports, and a glowing interface screen barely brighter than an ember. The symbols on the screen meant nothing to me, but Venom exhaled sharply. “By the stars… it's still live.”
I peered over his shoulder. “What now?”
“Now I patch in, break through any security they might have, strip the data load, and try to route a burst transmission through one of the ancient orbital relays. Nobody ever bothered to remove them. I’ve been telling the game makers for ages that they pose a security risk, but nobody listened to me.
Now we can make good use of them. If the Bloodstar is still watching this region, they might catch it. ”
“And if the game makers intercept it first?”
“Then they’ll come straight here. Harder. Faster. No more waiting outside the cave to flush us out. They will sacrifice the crowd’s entertainment to get their revenge on me.”
I swallowed. “No pressure then.”
He met my gaze. “We’ll send one signal. No fancy encryption, just coordinates and a distress call.”
“Just tell me where to run if this goes to hell.”
“You’ll be running with me.”