Chapter 5
Rikki
My dreams were filled with home; my mom, my dad, and my siblings. In my dreams, I lived memories of birthday parties, family gatherings, and other good times I’d shared with them. Then the dreams morphed, turning into scenes of funerals, police visits, media talks, and flyers posted around the neighborhood. Scenes of what my family would have felt and done after they’d discovered I was missing.
I woke up with tears on my face, a sob stuck in my chest so tightly that I felt like I couldn’t breathe. They must have been devastated when I was just suddenly gone. I’d slept through all of that. For hundreds of years stuck in a stasis pod, if I were to believe the story of that creepy auction house alien. “Hush,” a deep voice murmured, deep sub-harmonics rumbling through my body and settling deep in my belly.
Warmth enveloped me, the surface I was lying on shifted, and then a large hand cupped my face. I opened my eyes to the sensation of a thumb brushing the tears from my cheek. Thar’oc’s bright azure eyes were right in front of mine, his expression gentle, the lightning lines on his face delicate and soft now that they weren’t glowing against his black skin.
I shuddered as memories crashed into me. That was right. They had abducted me and stuck me in a stasis pod. Then I’d been sold to an alien with a death mask for a face, and I’d managed to convince this man to rescue me. I thought I’d be made to pay him for the deed with my body, but he’d done it from the goodness of his heart; no payment required.
Before I could even contemplate my own impulsive actions, I leaned forward and pressed my mouth to his. This was a bad idea. I shouldn’t have kissed him when everything was this precarious; it was totally giving him the wrong idea. That he’d saved me with nothing to gain, and was going to take me to Strewn, made me want to do this though. I shouldn’t have thought of him as an immoral mercenary because he’d proven to me that he had a heart.
His hand against my face gripped me tighter, angling my head so he could deepen the kiss. His tongue flicked out against mine, slightly longer and with a more narrow tip. His taste was just like his scent, cardamon and lemon, sweet with a hint of spice. He kissed me like he owned me, his mouth conquering mine, his presence surrounding me. It was exactly what I needed to push away the dreams, the sadness, and the uncertainty that wanted to swamp me.
“Rikki,” he groaned, his chest vibrating against my body, the sound that rumbled from his chest like that of a cat purring, but deeper. “Tiny, sweet, little human,” he added, and I felt that. His body rolled on top of mine, pinning me to the bed. He was huge in all ways, but it was the shape of his erection pressing against my hip that daunted me.
Then his tail swept along my arm, curling and winding as it held me tight. I was in bed with an alien who looked a lot like a demon, a man almost a foot taller than the average human man. A part of my brain had a minor freak out about that, but mostly, I was just swept along by how he licked and kissed my mouth; his scent and his heat surrounding me.
He wasn’t taking what I hadn’t given in the first place; he was just kissing me. No, there was no ‘just’ about this kiss. I had never been swept along in this much sensation; pleasure skating up my spine and sparking through my veins like champagne. My body felt feverish, my skin too tight, while my belly clenched on nothing. Thar’oc kissed me like a master, playing me like he knew exactly what made me tick.
He moved his hand from my cheek, sliding it down over my throat. I arched, pleasure shooting through me wild and hot. That clasp around my neck was too sexy. I wanted him to hold me there, but I also wanted him to slide that palm lower and cup my needy breasts. His strange purr vibrated against my nipples in the most pleasurable of ways.
He yanked his head up so suddenly that it felt like I had whiplash from the move. His lips pulled back into an angry snarl that he directed at the door. “Company, get dressed, quick.” He was gone in a heartbeat, rising to his feet at the foot of the bed as he started pulling on his belt and boots with quick moves.
I had absolutely no idea what was going on, my head spinning from the sudden shift. Whatever was going on, it was making Thar’oc bristle with aggression, so it couldn’t be anything good. I rolled from the bed and located the stupid catsuit that I’d tossed on the floor last night. Even though it was much more comfortable to just wear his shirt and my panties, I didn’t fancy going anywhere without pants.
By the time I’d shimmied into the skintight black fabric, I could hear what my mercenary had. Voices outside our door, and then a fist pounding loudly on the panel. I didn’t know who or what that was, but it had to be bad news in a place like this. I didn’t think we could hope for a visit from some of Thar’oc’s mercenary friends.
I yanked the shirt I’d worn all night back over my head to cover up the skintight suit at least a little. Wriggling my toes in the tight pair of high-heeled boots that went with the outfit. My mercenary looked exactly like he had last night, not a hair out of place, his body moving with confidence as he pulled things from the large duffel bag that had been in the room already.
“Put this on, tiny Rikki,” he said, his hands moving quickly to tuck a pair of dark glasses over my eyes. His fingers brushed gently along my cheeks, his eyes serious. I thought that maybe he wanted to lean in and kiss me again, but more pounding from the door stopped him. He turned, a round device clutched in his fingers. “Cover your ears, and count to ten.”
His tail swished behind his back, the knife at the tip back in place, and a wild grin split his face. I ducked into the corner and started counting. He looked like he was having a great time, while fear practically paralyzed me. His hand moved, opening the door to our room, and at the same time, he tossed something and a bang went off, accompanied by a light show that dazzled me.
Even with the big sunglasses on my face and my hands clutched over my ears, it affected me. My head spun, and my ears were ringing, but I could still focus enough to see what happened next. My heart racing at the sight of the big rhino guy barging through the door like a charging bull. How Thar’oc just danced around him on light feet and used his alien, high-tech pistol to shoot the invader in the back of his head.
As the first body went down, more stumbled inside, urged on by the guy who’d bought me at that auction. I recognized that white-marked face, so similar to a skull drawn on his flesh. How had he found me? I counted at least five more men with weapons, but my mercenary didn’t seem bothered by this. The weird flashbang he’d used had disoriented them, but they recovered faster than I did.
“Where is she? Give her back!” a male shouted petulantly. Nobody paid any attention to that, a full-on brawl raging through the room as the five remaining intruders tried to take care of my mercenary. It was a good thing I’d tucked myself into that corner. In minutes, the bed was a broken crater, the one chair splintered to pieces as Thar’oc threw it into someone, and blood had sprayed across the ceiling and walls.
It looked at first like, even disoriented, five against one was no fair battle. Then the tide changed so suddenly that it took my breath away. My grinning mercenary ducked beneath an arm, his tail slashing, and three of the five just went down. I couldn’t even tell how he’d done that, but it scared the remaining aliens, a purple one and a gray one with wings. They backed off and stumbled out of the room, chasing after their fleeing boss without a backward glance.
Thar’oc stood victorious over four bodies, blood dripping from a knife in his hand and the tip of his tail. I wasn’t sure what to think of that tail now. It had turned so deadly, but last night it had been so sweet, and so unruly that it had embarrassed the mercenary it was attached to.
“You okay?” he asked, right as I was about to ask him the same thing. There was blood splattered on his arms and probably his armor too, but it was hard to tell because his skin and suit were both black. He shook his head, horns dipping a little as he glanced around at the carnage. I didn’t want to know if he’d just killed four aliens or simply disabled them. A shot to the back of the head had to be fatal, right? But who knew when the alien that received that shot was a giant, two-legged rhinoceros?
“Fine, but we’ve got to go before that douche gets back here with reinforcements.” He picked up his duffel, chucked that weird flashbang thing inside it, and then he held out a hand toward me. His blue eyes glowed, and the longer I hesitated to grab his fingers, the brighter the lines on his skin glowed.
“Where are we going? Police?” I asked. Gingerly, I stepped over a sprawled-out arm, which was disturbingly human-looking. A nice honey tan, five fingers, but the shoulder was dotted with golden swirls. When I took Thar’oc’s hand, his tail curled around my hips, tugging me closer.
He had such a proud, handsome face, his expression a little broody and dark. His hair was wild, streaked with blue, his horns tall and fierce. The thick spirals had been carved with notches rising along the side I noticed; at least a dozen on each horn. “Somewhere safe,” was all he promised me, and I found myself thinking that was good enough. I trusted him to keep his word.