Lilith

“Good morning.”

I slowly open my eyes. I find myself laying in the hammock, swaying gently. Daruk is standing in a cone of sunlight, his golden body illuminated like he just descended from heaven.

“What is that?” he growls, pointing at the floor.

My cat hides underneath my hammock, hissing at the alien warrior.

“That’s Peanut,” I yawn.

I do not get a look of understanding from the gruff warrior.

“He’s a cat,” I explain. “An animal from Earth. He’s my friend.”

“Hm,” Daruk grunts.

I sit up straight — as best I can in a hammock — and rub the sleep from my eyes. Only now do I see that there is a carcass of a boar-like animal slung over Daruk’s naked shoulders, dripping blood onto the floor, contrasting greatly with the Zoran’s natural beauty.

“Wh-what’s that?!” I stammer.

“Breakfast,” he says. “You must be famished.”

The Zoran warrior sits down on the floor, pulls out a dagger, and starts skinning the alien animal. My stomach, barely awake, feels like it’s been turned upside down. With all the excitement, the drama and the horror of last night, food was the last thing on my mind… though now that I think about it, I do feel rather hungry.

However, watching Daruk skin this animal is not exactly whetting my appetite.

“I assume pancakes are off the table, huh?”

“Pahnkakes?”

“You don’t have pancakes?” I ask. “What kind of backwater planet is this? Next thing, you’ll tell me you guys don’t have whipped cream either.”

A smile forms on Daruk’s face. “You know nothing of our planet, do you?”

Well, I know there are spores in the air that make me super horny whenever I look at you, you smug alien, and despite the antidote the captain gave me, that aphrodisiac is still working its magic. In fact, if anything, the feeling is still growing in intensity, and watching you handle that blade, seeing your muscles bulge, is only making it worse and worse and…

“No,” I lie. “I know nothing except what I’ve seen in this cave, which is mostly… rocks.”

I gesture at the wall, but I stop when I see the beautiful murals carved into the very rock itself. The small fire was not enough to light them up properly, but now, with the cave bathed in sunlight, I can see them perfectly.

“Did you make these?” I ask. “They are beautiful!”

“They are, aren’t they? No, that is all my brother’s work. He is the artist of the family.”

“You have a brother?”

He nods as he continues skinning the beast. “His name is Yano. He’s young, impulsive, with much to learn, much growing to do still… but he has his head on straight.”

“Any other Zorans in your family I should know of?”

“No,” he says resolutely, his smile disappearing. Instantly I feel his mood change, as if a thundercloud has just passed before the sun.

“Tell me about your planet, then,” I say, changing the subject. “What do I need to know?”

“We have returned to the old ways,” he says. “We have built a new life here, on New Exon. No technology, no crutches. Just us and the wilderness. At least, that was the idea.”

“So… that explains the, uhh…”

My eyes are drawn to his loincloth. This time his hardness doesn’t threaten to burst out, and I almost feel sad because of it.

“My outfit?”

That thin cloth only counts as an outfit in the loosest of terms, but it’ll do.

“Yes, your outfit,” I say.

Daruk nods. “So, there are no pahnkakes here. We live on what this planet has to share with us, in harmony.”

“And you… like it that way?”

“I do.”

Harmony sounds great, in theory. But the more I think about it, the more it sounds like they’re living like barbarians. Daruk certainly looks like one, with his barely covered body, every muscle in his seven foot frame looking perfect, his hands covered in blood as he wields that knife of his.

I, on the other hand, am a 22^nd century woman. I’m used to certain comforts.

“There’s no running water?”

“No,” he says.

“Where do you bathe?”

“In the wild.”

“What about, you know, using the bathroom?”

“Also in the wild.”

See? This is why I don’t go out. Next thing you know, you find yourself stranded on an alien world that doesn’t believe in toilets.

“You look troubled.”

“I am,” I answer. “No pancakes for breakfast — okay. Disappointed, but okay. I can live with that. Barely. But I can. I’ll rise to the occasion. However, no shower, no toilet? That’s not something I can cope with.”

Daruk just shrugs. “You have no other choice, human.”

The alien warrior stars a small fire, runs a makeshift spear through the pieces of raw meats he cuts from the skinned beast, and roasts it over the fire. His hands and body are covered in blood. Without saying a word, he gets up, grabs the liana and climbs up the steep wall easily. Several moments later, he returns, his golden body dripping with water, the blood washed away. He sits back down across from me, turning the spear, roasting the meat, and when he notices me staring at the droplets of water dripping down his perfect washboard abs, he raises an eyebrow.

“What?” he asks.

“I… need a shower too.”

A very, very cold one.

“You can’t. Too dangerous.”

“Why? Where did you just go?”

“Does it matter?”

“It does to me!”

“Too dangerous.”

“Are you my savior or my jailor?” I ask. “When are you going to tell me what happened to my crew? What if you’re in league with whoever attacked the ship? For that matter, why do I even trust you?!”

Daruk looks up. “Yes, why do you trust me?” he asks.

I want to scowl, to look away, to curse, but his radiant eyes, as beautiful as jewels, capture all of my attention. I trust him because of the way he looks at me. A way no man has ever looked at me. Filled with compassion, care… and the slightest hint of lust, lurking just beneath the surface.

“Just… please. Tell me what’s going on.”

He hands me a piece of roasted meat. The smell hits me like a ton of bricks, and I realize that I’m not just hungry — I’m famished.

“Eat up, and I’ll answer your questions… but I warn you, you won’t like the answers.”

* * *

Daruk

I watch Lilith devour the strip of boar like a woman possessed. For a woman who claimed to only eat pahnkakes, she knows how to handle meat. Juice runs down her chin, and instinctively I reach out and wipe it off with my thumb.

She pulls back from me the moment I touch her like I poked her with a hot iron. Her brown eyes are opened wide, filled with shock… and a hint of arousal.

“You had a… never mind. Your questions.”

I turn my eyes to the crackling fire, searching for the right words.

She deserves to know the truth — but can she handle it? I sense great strength in her, determination, righteousness. If she finds out her people, her friends, are being held captive by my own kind, by my own father even… would she still trust me?

Would she try to escape, to rescue them, and in turn endanger her own life?

I can’t risk that. I don’t want her to turn away from me.

Simply being in her presence fills me with joy. Simply talking to her makes me feel warm inside… and that’s without making her body mine, making her scream and moan and thrash with pleasure.

If just conversation feels this pleasant, then mating must be out of this world.

“Who attacked the ship?” she asks.

“My people,” I answer truthfully. “Assisted by aliens I haven’t seen before. I do not know why. I promise you that I had nothing to do with it.”

“And you expect me to believe you on your word?”

“I do.”

“Where is the crew now? Are they… are they dead?”

“No, they’re not. They’ve been taken prisoners. Where, or why… I do not know.”

“What do you know?” Lilith asks. “When can I just… go home?”

I glance up. Her arms are crossed as she frowns at me. I understand her frustration, but there is nothing I can do about it.

And if it was up to me, she’s never going home.

“Do you think I like this?” I say. “Finding out all of the teachings I’ve lived my life by have been a lie? Discovering that the men I look up, the men I’ve pledged my life to, are schemers? Slavers? I’m risking my life for you, human. If they find out I’m harboring you, it’s not just your life that’s on the line. It’s my own as well.”

My angry outburst doesn’t have the reaction I imagined it would have. Lilith doesn’t cower, doesn’t hide. Instead, she stands up, fists planted in her side, a furious look on that pretty face of hers. She is fuming.

“Do you want my pity?” she says. “Do you expect me to feel sorry for you?! I’m lightyears from home, your prisoner, my friends are captured or dead, and I’m not even sure which is worse for them right now — I’m not feeling very empathetic, if you don’t mind.”

I rise to my feet and take a step forward, my chest pressing against hers. I look down at her, my eyes narrowed. Our foreheads are an inch away from touching.

“You should be thankful,” I grit with a clenched jaw.

“For what?” she says, not backing down in the slightest. “For keeping me locked up in your cave?”

I’ve never met anyone as fiery, as passionate as her. She is impossible — and that only makes me want her more.

“It’s not safe for you out there!”

“So I should stay here? Forever?”

“No — why won’t you listen to reason?!”

“Why won’t you let me take a damn shower?!”

Our foreheads press against each other. I’m leaning forward, towering over the human female, and she stares right into my eyes, those big brown eyes of her filled with a warrior’s fury. I have the overwhelming urge to crush her lips with mine, to throw her against the wall and hold her in place, to punish her for her insolence, her ungratefulness, yet I resist…

But only barely.

“Is that what this is all about? You want a shower?”

“It’s not just that, you big dumb alien,” she says, simmering with rage. “It’s everything. All I know is that I was attacked, and you took me here! All I have to go in is your word. And I believe you. Or I want to, as crazy as that may be. But if what you say is true, and you really want to help me, then help me. Don’t treat me like your prisoner. Treat me like a human being.”

“What I say is true,” I growl. “Every word of it.”

“Then let me out of here,” she says, poking me in the chest.

I grab her wrist, and a jolt of electricity courses through my veins the moment we touch. Instantly, I am hard.

We both hold our breath for a moment, and the world around us disappears. There’s only me and her, our lips only inches apart, my body yearning for her touch…

I back away.

“Let’s go then,” I say, offering the liana to her.

“Are you… are you sure?”

“Go, before I change my mind,” I say. “And if we both get killed, it’s your fault.”