Chapter Nine
Vyken
I continue to be impressed by the small human woman, more and more so every time she opens her pretty little mouth, in fact.
She is fed and watered and she has given me her word that she will aid me in my quest -- presumably in return for rescuing her from imprisonment. She dodged the Mahdfel DNA Lottery, a crime on Earth punishable by up to 75 years in prison, or simply by sending them to their mate regardless, if they have one. Chances are, though, that this woman does not have a Mahdfel mate. Which makes her punishment all the sadder. These Earth women who dodge the Lottery, I just don’t understand it. Why choose the potential of a life in prison over a life being loved fiercely and protected by a warrior?
This woman beside me is very curious for taking this path. She did not even get tested to see if she had a match. So she chose life in jail over the remote possibility of leaving planet Earth with a Mahdfel. And I, a Mahdfel, snatched her from the face of the Earth regardless. It’s almost ironic.
I wonder if she regrets her choice. I glance over at her and decide against asking. She has been through a lot in a very short time, and she is now sitting in a spaceship wearing a robe that is maybe six sizes too large for her, having agreed to figure out the mystery behind a genocide of a species she has probably never even heard of.
“Do you know about the Ferathorns?” I ask her as we shoot through the void.
“Who?”
She looks so perplexed suddenly, the pretty features on her face twist and it makes me shift in my chair, suddenly uncomfortable. I look away to answer. “The species I am accused of wiping out. They live on Fera, a race of plantlike people who travel the surface of their planet searching for sunlight. They are peaceful but they wish to eradicate the Suhlik threat. To this end, they have allied with my people: the Firosan Mahdfel of Paxia.”
Out of the corner of my eye I see that she still looks completely bemused. I continue anyway.
“I have been accused of wiping their species out, but I believe that it was the Suhlik.”
“I got that bit,” she says, waving her hands through the air. “All of them? Like, as in, there’s no more left?”
I remember how desolate and broken and dry everything on Fera looked when I had been there a few days ago. I swallow bitterly. “I believe so,” I admit. “But it wasn’t me.”
She looks at me for a little while. “I think I believe you,” she says. “I don’t know why, but I think I do. You’re going to some pretty ludicrous lengths to prove your innocence, like follow some mushroom’s instructions and kidnapping a woman from a different planet…”
“Who turned out to be a fugitive, same as me,” I mutter. “And … the Oracle is not a mushroom. Please don’t say that once we land on Fera.” I flick my eyes upwards in irritation. “It doesn’t matter, anyway; the Oracle sees all.”
She giggles a little. “Sorry, Oracle.”
“This is all getting more and more confusing,” I say. She nods a couple of times, flushed with excitement and focusing on what lies ahead, through the glass screen in front of her, rather than what lies behind.
It is refreshing, this attitude, and I find it to be contagious.
“We can figure it out,” she says after a moment. “I think we’re meant to figure this out.”
Meant to? “I wasn’t aware that humans were believers in fate or destiny like that.”
She smiles a little, settling her gaze on me. “Humans are all very different from each other. I never really thought I was into fate or destiny before, but you have to admit … this is all really strange. You saved my life without even meaning to, the very minute you had to. Now some psychic plant brain thinks I’m the key to clearing your name?”
The more she speaks, the more two things happen: I realize that she is right, and it seems that we are currently subject to something larger than ourselves here, and we must play the rest of this situation correctly … but also, I realize how intensely interested I am in what she has to say about all of this.
I have never felt this way about anyone, especially not somebody with less combat training than myself.
“Did we lose your friend or what?” she asks, jerking me from my thoughts.
Tyr. “Yes,” I say with confidence. “There are no ships in the Firosan system or in your solar system that can keep up with the ship you are in right now.”
She laughs. “An hour ago I would have found that ominous.”
I turn to look at her, sitting next to me in my robe, leaning forward to gaze with excitement at the ship’s controls, her cheeks pink and her hair messed up from the day’s events. I find myself longing, perhaps more than I’ve ever longed for anything before, to take her cheek in my hand and press my lips against hers. To feel the softness of her skin with my firm, demanding mouth.
I find myself needing to know if she -- this small yet confident, brave and impressive human -- could ever keep up with me; if she could handle the things I need to give to her.
The thought makes my cock stir underneath my armor and before I can turn to hide my sudden stiffness, I see Roxie’s gaze drop to my lap and then widen. I can’t help but smile slightly at her surprised reaction.
I no longer want to hide myself. Instead I remain seated, confidently, facing her, waiting to see what she will say, or whether she will hide her face from embarrassment.
But she doesn’t. She looks back up at me and raises her eyebrow.
“What are you planning on doing with that?” she asks dryly, and I can’t help it, I burst out laughing.
“You are a very unafraid woman,” I tell her. “You just speak your thoughts.”
“Is that strange to you?”
I look into her beautiful eyes and let out a breath. I want to lean in, but that would be wrong. I kidnapped her, after all. Driven mad by the desire to get to the bottom of this, and assuming that she was working with the Suhlik, I kidnapped her. The thought is sinking in now. I swore a long time ago to protect others, especially those who found it harder to protect themselves. And I have failed that vow.
Although … I did save her. Even if it was by accident.
I am struggling with the morality of my decisions for the last few days enough as it is; far too much to add the confusion that would arise from my sinking deep inside of this wonderfully sweet-smelling creature.
Paxia help me, though, I want to. I can’t think about anything but spreading her creamy thighs and massaging between her legs until she is slick enough that I can slide right in…
“Are you alright, Vyken?” she asks, grazing her lower lip with her teeth as she watches me stare at her with intent.
“I am,” I tell her, and turn back to the controls. “And we are nearly on Fera. Are you ready?”
“Ready for what, exactly?”
It’s a good question.
“Roxie,” I admit, “I have no idea.”