Chapter 20
Ember peered across the forearm where she rested her cheek. Baz was washing himself in the pool. Her hip was aching due to sleeping on something far less soft than a mattress – she was pretty sure she’d have leaves stuck to her side and butt when she rose. Hoss seemed content to wait for her to wake. His warm orc breath, wafting over the top of her head, made this almost seem comfy. It made her sleepy again.
Sleepy. Despite of all her aches and her scratches and bruises where the Xatar had whipped her. Wear and tear in her most intimate area too, probably. Without a mirror, who knew for certain. If she asked Hoss to check, she was sure he’d be doing something dirty to her.
A smile sneaked out without her asking for it.
Sex.
With two galumphing huge men. It was a page from her greatest erotic fantasy.
It was dreadful, surely? Surreal for sure. As likely as being spun out into space minus a spacesuit. Or...marrying an elephant from Old-Earth. It was so bizarre she couldn’t even think what to compare it with. She would never in a million light-years have done this of her own, normal volition. Normal...this was not that.
“You awake, Ember?” Hoss murmured.
“Mmm.”
“Getting up? We need to organize. Need to clean up. Specially you.” His other arm swept across her and drew her tightly against his chest. Then he kissed her back.
Her sigh would no doubt be mistaken for contentment.
And...she was – content.
Even though they were down in the middle of the worst place on this misbegotten planet. Worst excluding Verd, because that might really be a smoking hole in the ground by now. She sat up abruptly.
Hoss was right.
“How...how do I get clean?” She raised her eyebrows thinking of all the dangerous predators that might be in the pool where Baz bathed. “There?”
“Sure. Come. We’ll both guard you, in case the fish bite.”
“Hah!”
He took her hand in his. Such a gentle gesture and she couldn’t help smiling up at Hoss.
Fuck, what had she done? Some sort of induced sexual obsession all messed up with her original fetish. Unwinding this was going to be a bitch.
“Fish would be okay.” She looked into the slightly murky pool. Okay, it was clean except for floating bits. The water had cascaded down from the buildings above, pouring over the terraces of the stories, and it overflowed at the far end where the original pool wall was broken.
Baz stood grinning at her, naked, partly submerged but mostly not. His partially erect dick awed her. That had been in her. What the ever-loving hells?
“We need to find him some clothes,” she whispered to Hoss.
“If he’ll wear them.” Baz raised his voice. “If we get you some clothes, maybe from the dead Xatar, will you put them on?”
Baz nodded, raised his thumb.
“Good man.” Baz nodded back. “He understands more than he speaks.”
It did seem so. What would they do if Baz never spoke again, though?
“We need to get him talking somehow.” She crouched and slipped into the water. It was cool, and cooler at the bottom where her feet met a thin layer of grit. A few denuded twigs and branches swirled past. The water level came up to just above her knees.
“Yeah. Hard to do without a doctor looking into it. I mean, do you know why? What’s done this?”
Funny, but once she thought about it, maybe she did.
“The cybermonks is my first thought. Something they added has conflicted with his speech center. I’d need to do more analysis though...” And how to do that without her equipment? She sucked in air over her clenched teeth. This made her feel nakeder than naked. No tech stuff.
Eeee.
The twinge of fear faded. Silly. She could survive without her gear.
Baz though. What if he devolved? If this was a programming glitch, which seemed possible, he might get worse.
Some blood slipped away into the water from between her legs. She dipped her whole body deeper, went to her knees. The heat of her compulsion ebbed away. Nice.
Would this need for Baz and Hoss ever leave her entirely? She’d never tire of ogling big men like Hoss, but it’d be good to have it truly a choice. The blood vanished into the water. Her scratches ached, but wasn’t real hurt.
How could that sex they’d had be bad?
The memory of them both sticking her with their cocks, fucking her, treating her like she was theirs, it needed to be etched into the memory banks. She shivered.
Wrong, yes. If they reached civilization without being eaten by critters, she had to stop this dead. The three of them together – orc, cyborg, and her, it was deviant. Society would shun them.
Hoss slid in next to her, camo suit and all. The suit was designed to be left on for days and would shed dirt and grime without being removed. Thankfully, he’d tucked away his cock. That’d be too distracting altogether with Baz already showing off his toolbox.
She smirked at her coyness in her thoughts. Swearing, saying dirty stuff, it was all fine. What gets done in the middle of nowhere, stays there.
“You look so good.” He and Baz were appraising her, and she realized there might be something about washing her boobs clean and making them shiny that attracted the guys. Like the birds that liked shiny things. Ember giggled then bit it off.
That male appraisal of a female they wanted. She knew it, recognized it. So did her body.
“Heyyy. You know we can’t do that again. You’d ummm...wear me out.”
Oh hells, Baz had a full erection.
“Not yet.” Hoss grinned toothily, leaned on the edge of the pool. Nonchalant bastard. “Besides, there’s things I want to see him do to you. Never knew I did but after seeing a man fuck you...”
She gulped – almost wanting to have whatever it was he was imagining done to her. Her legs had been wobbly as it was, walking over here.
“We won’t hurt you, Ember. You know I never would. Baz is the same, even if his brain is functioning on bug level right now.”
“I know. Good. Just –”
“When we fuck you again, we’ll be careful.”
“Oh.” She froze. When. Too much attention. It was getting her all horny again. She cleared her throat. “Ignore me while I wash, okay?”
“Sure.” To her relief he turned his back. “I figure we have to go salvage gear from the Xatar after this. I grabbed some stuff before tracking you here, but we need as much as we can get. Food, guns, clothes, battery packs. The helmets have those.”
Her stomach chose then to ache from hunger. The Xatar had fed her but not well.
“And my data knife and specs. Do you think we can get those? The specs were put into a big pack one of them carried. It was black. The Xatars have a thing for black.”
Hoss turned, distracted for a second by her breasts before he remembered to look at her face. As if he’d not seem her tits bared so many times now. “I have a pack. Black too. Got it off a Xatar.”
Hope flared. “That might be it.”
“Okay. It’s over there.” He indicated the place she’d seen him enter this area from. “Might be some goop there too. It’s where I stood wanking watching you two fucking. That was so hot.”
Goop. Her usual blush arrived and took over her face.
“You go so red, female.”
She let the female label slip by, preoccupied with yet another memory.
Hoss stalking in, his erection leading the way, waving about like it needed a flag attached, and such a baleful expression on his face that she almost feared what he might do to her.
His eyes had seemed bright. His horns and his bulk against the pale side of the building as he approached, that cock of his that she recalled from before, inside her. All this with Baz facefucking her already. To keep track of Hoss, she’d swiveled her eyes without turning her head – because Baz had fastened her in place. Captivated by the vison of being taken by both of them at once, she’d put out her hand and beckoned him over.
She...had asked him to join in.
Her doing.
Best decision everrrr.
“Are you okay, Ember?” Hoss was before her, lifting her chin with a finger, reminding her there was more to the world than screwing, even here. Especially here.
“Will we get out of this, Hoss? Alive?”
He glanced back at Baz. “Sure we will. You saw him take on all those Xatar?”
“Yes.” She was almost certain she’d seen him twist the head off one. “As long as he stays on our side.”
Baz must’ve heard because he locked his eyes to hers and nodded, rapped his chest with his fist.
“He is. Oh he is, Ember. I think Baz is still Baz in there. Just a little head fucked. We’ll get out of this. Get back to Verd.”
“And then I’m going to have a small chat with the monks.” She narrowed her eyes. The little fuckers.
Hoss smiled. “I bet you are. Now, you didn’t say where you left that data knife. You need it to look into Baz’s programming?”
She did. “I left it close to the fight. Where we fell.”
“They let you keep it?”
“Mmm.” How was she explaining this one?
Ember hunched her shoulders, lowered them – shrugging, sort of, then she climbed from the pool, dripping. She hissed at the muscle pains awakened. Lucky this place was warm, sheltered. On the other hand if they aimed to get back to the city, she was sure she’d seen the craft pass over a hill or two.
“I...” Did it matter if she said this?
Hoss had nearly explored her throat from the wrong end with his dick.
“The Xatar captain inserted into me, tied it in, as punishment for killing his men with a virus.” From the shock on Hoss’s face she figured she needed to explain more. “I sneaked a virus into their armor, one that’d spread through their comms. A few of them fell and died.”
He mouthed a wow, silently.
“Warrior girl! You...I am proud of you.” He hauled himself from the pool, went to one knee then reverently took her hand and kissed the back. “Respect earned. You have made your first kill of the enemy.”
Oh fuck. Blush time again. She shook off the homicidal compliment. “Not really my first. I killed a guy who tried to rape a friend, once, when a kid. Slipped a knife in him. Not proud of that, but I was on the streets.”
She’d always adapted, done what needed doing.
“Sometimes we have to do bad things to survive. Sounds like he deserved it.”
He had. Yeah. She gave Hoss a stiff smile then cast about for a distraction, realized she’d been forgetting something important.
“We need to look at the wounds on Baz.”
With the washing, he’d opened up his cuts and looked as if he was painted in red.
“Yes. Perhaps the cybermonks gave him accelerated healing?”
It didn’t look that way to her. “I’ll know when I get to look inside his specs, see the files.” Though she wasn’t certain this was going to be standardized. It might be a whole bucket of program worms.
“You know...Hoss, we don’t have recharge points out here. My knife can suck up power by induction from batteries, but what happens when it all runs out? How long will it take us to get back if we walk all the way?”
His face and that big orc monobrow went through a few subtle contortions while he pretended to be occupied with shaking off the water. She ducked away, suppressing the notion of mocking him for that.
And the urge to go snuggle up to him again to get a little warmer. A breeze had sprung up and she was naked if you excluded her well-ripped tights.
“I think, from what I saw flying in, it’ll take us a couple of weeks to get back. One at the least.”
Weeks. Stunned she tried to process that.
Weeks.
They’d run out of power before then. She doubted she could even get the starwebz out here.
“Gods. Can we survive?”
He shrugged. “It’ll be hard. This is a harsh and potentially deadly environment. We will need all our fighting skills and weapons. But we can do this.”
Weeks. She nodded. She had two big huge strong males to protect her. And she was no cute wilting flower either. “Let’s do this. Priority one, check Baz’s wounds. Two, go back and find clothes, weapons, food, and so on. Pants or maybe a set of armor that’ll fit at least the bottom half of Baz.” Because having that hanging out forever was not good for her health. “My gear too so I can look into fixing Baz.” She wouldn’t say it out loud, but she prayed she could figure out why he wasn’t talking. “And, we must get that DSU. I think it’s why the Xatar grabbed me.”
“I see. The cybermonks wanted it too. Coincidence?”
“I doubt it. It should be in the pack, if it is the right pack.”
“You need to find out what’s inside that DSU.”
“What? No.” She couldn’t do that. It was a violation of the worst sort. “No.”
“But it may tell us why all this happened.” He pointed overhead. “The attack. It may give us an advantage when we return.”
When. That was good positive thinking. She still wasn’t violating her employee contract. Not until it was the only way. Besides, it couldn’t possibly help them now. She brushed past Hoss.
“Come on. Let’s get Baz to sit still for this.”
“Female...” Hoss almost growled.
She couldn’t help it. A shiver ran down her spine, ice cold. That growl triggered something. Not fear. To her, it said he cared as well as that she annoyed him? Somehow, in an illogical way. She went back to him and wrapped both arms around Hoss at about chest level, which was as far as she could easily reach. He hugged her back.
“You okay, Ember?”
She sighed. She was when she could do this. “I just want you and Baz to know how grateful I am – that you came for me.”
“Huh.” He patted her. “It was a given.”
She smiled up at him. Maybe this was wrong, socially unacceptable, and likely to get them stoned on some planets, but here? She looked past him. Here was now. Here nobody cared if she let them both do deplorable, amazing things to her.
Maybe this journey back could be more than hardship. It could be very interesting. She could have all the sex she could beg from them both, and so long as it didn’t hurt...too much, it was all good. This wasn’t something she should jump into, though. Say no until she sorted out her head properly?
“Let’s go look at Baz.”
“Sure thing. And Ember.” He kissed her hand again. “Make all the lists you want to. It’s damn sexy.”
Sexy? Lists were? She was amused. Orcs definitely were perverted brutes.
“What if...” Oh gods was she going to say this? “What if I add more sex to that list?”
Hoss looked as if he’d swallow his tongue. “That would be uhhh nice.”
“Good.” She turned and approached Baz.
Hoss sang out from behind her. “Ahhh, girl. When?”
She grinned. “When I want.”
Kneeling before Baz, ignoring the proximity of his genitals because duh at some stage she had to, she began to check his wounds, pretending Hoss did not exist.
Hoss laughed and laughed then she heard him walk up behind her. He fisted her hair, tilted her head back and kissed her, hard, until she sighed and answered his kiss with her mouth, melting, sighing into his mouth, turning her head as he bit down her neck. Then he stopped.
No words were said but she gazed after him as he walked away.
By the time he’d come back with the pack, her brain was ticking over again.
The pack dropped beside them. “How is he?”
“Better than you’d think after what he did for me.” She smiled up at the unemotional Baz who’d been watching her as she looked at the wounds. She’d circled him, seen them all. “A few could do with being closed but we’d need a doctor to do that.”
“This pack has the DSU, your data specs, your dress, a first aid kit with some anti-germ medications, a wound stapling gun – I looked. Dry rations. Batteries. We could do with more of everything but first...” He kneeled and rummaged then pulled out the stapling gun. “Want me to do it?”
“Have you done it before?”
“No.”
Then she may as well. Ember put her hand out, peered up at Baz. “You have three places I want to staple together. It’ll help them heal better.”
Baz shrugged.
“Don’t move, okay? Hoss can you try to see he stays put?”
They managed. She stapled. At first the ka-thunk scared her, especially if he flinched. It wasn’t perfect, some of the cuts didn’t align well, but she improved as she used the thing.
After a few winces, Baz stayed perfectly still, only making the occasional sound, as if perhaps his pain receptors had been dulled. She was dying to do some deep examination of his cybersystems. Not yet, though.
“You okay?” Worried, she placed her hand on his abdomen, where his midsection merged from cyborg to man. She felt the warmth of blood and also the slightly colder temperature of his living metal parts. He breathed calmly, looked down at her. Then he covered her hand with his and squeezed. She saw gratitude in the brimming of his eyes.
Odd how close she felt to him in this moment – as if the lack of words allowed purer communication.
What must it be like to be him, trapped in his head? Somehow, she believed what Hoss did – that Baz was aware and maybe muddled, but still knew himself, knew right from wrong.
“We’re a team, man.”
He nodded and gave a grunt of agreement. The staples marched across the wounds she’d repaired. A little serum and blood seeped. The cuts looked good, clean really, but some antigerm meds were best too. Anything might grow in wounds here – bacteria, fungi, creepy crawly things with tentacles.
She shuddered. A broad antigermer would take care of all those.
She pulled herself upright, brushed leaves from her knees. Then she took her dress from Hoss and pulled it on. Getting it cleaner would wait. If she made it wet, like her tights were now, it’d possibly grow mold down here before it dried. Fashion was going to suffer for a while.
Her data specs and the DSU were in the pack also. Though squashed out of shape, the specs seemed fine. Without the knife, there were severe limitations as to what she could achieve with them.
The men looked at her.
“We ready?” Hoss asked.
“Yes. I’m ready.”
“Then let’s go do this grim harvest.”