Tessoul
I walked the redheaded female to our barracks in secrecy. It wasn’t hard to hide her, as the Vithohn slept hard, and those who didn’t preferred to prowl the other wings of the space station once night fell.
The girl, Sidney, had long tousled hair and a heart-shaped face: inviting and impish. Childlike, somehow.
A sickness swelled in my stomach, wondering what she’d done to me back in the mountains: why she’d made contact. Was this what happened to Araxis, as well? Bewitched by calculated actions?
“So,” I breathed out, finally speaking after our long walk back to the barracks.
Sidney had left her mechanical servant behind, which I wasn’t sure whether I should protest or not. I’d had a firm hold of her arm for a long while on our journey back, but after some time, I’d let her go and half expected her to run. She didn’t.
Instead, she stayed close by me and offered me bewildered stares every so often. If she was afraid, she didn’t act like it.
“So,” she repeated, and I’d nearly forgotten that I’d started speaking to her. “I’m putting my faith in you now, and I hope you’re willing to do the same.”
“You still haven’t given me a compelling reason to do so,” I snipped.
Besides that kiss.
She set her jaw at that, her eyes roving about the space station with wonder and coming to a chilling pale blue as we approached the door to my barracks. Standard room: bed and table, loose lock on the door that none of us ever bothered with.
“What if I said no one had to die?” she asked in a scratchy tone that sounded like she needed water.
My eyes perked at this, and I wanted to laugh. Did she think I cared about killing humans?
“None of the hostages, none of my people, none of yours…” she breathed, taking a seat in the oversized chair that sat cornered in my room without my offering. She crossed her legs and smoothed her hands down the arms of the chair. “That everything between our races can be solved without one drop of blood?”
She watched me, ticking up a perfectly arched brow and then cocked her head to me as she realized the offer wasn’t exactly my style. A half smile formed and her mouth went ajar, revealing white teeth and a crooked fang. She looked amused by me.
“I know,” she scoffed, throwing her head back and snapping her fingers together. “Where’s the fun in that, right?”
“I suppose you have my attention,” I offered finally.
I leaned against the wall directly across from her, using my spire to balance myself.
“What am I getting in return for a bloodless engagement, besides a bore?” I asked.
She swallowed hard at that and said, “Half an hour. That’s what you’re here for anyway, isn’t it? You’re some kind of negotiator?”
I paused and smirked. “We both know I’m not a negotiator.”
“Of course,” she said quickly, drumming her fingers on the armchair’s quilted sides.
“On with it,” I demanded, growing tired.
“I want to show you something,” she said unsurely: her eyes finally meeting mine. “On the bed.”
I exhaled and glanced over to the bed before shaking my head slowly in decline. “Alright,” she huffed and pounced up from her chair. She walked up to me and went to touch my face, but I grabbed her hand gruffly in mine.
“I have it on good authority that you… respond to human touch,” she said brazenly.
I pushed myself off the wall and towered over her, staring down at her small frame with dwindling patience. I could feel the aggression building up in me again: a fire that reignited somewhere from the mountains to my room.
“You need to give me one reason not to rip you apart,” I seethed.
“Well, I’m trying to do that as we speak,” she snapped back, whipping her hand out from my grasp and sending herself back two steps. “When I kissed you, didn’t you feel something?”
We had a standoff then, watching one another coolly until I finally mumbled, “It felt unpleasant.”
“That’s funny,” she gave a small laugh, “I thought that was some of my best work.”
“With your friend watching it was a little strange,” I argued petulantly.
She blinked and smiled just enough for her fang to make itself visible on her bottom lip.
“How about now?” she said lowly, walking back up to me and kissing me.
Her tongue went searching the recesses of my mouth and all at once I felt warm and animal, but now in the strong way I did before. Now it felt like… an indescribable want.
I moved my lips against hers, meeting her tongue and exploring it with my own before pulling away and staring wildly at her.
“Admit it,” she said triumphantly.
I set my jaw, disturbed by the overwhelming sense of calm that washed over me. “You humans bewitch us,” I finally said. “I’ve seen it.”
“We don’t bewitch you,” she mocked, sounding offended. “We calm you down.”
Before I had the chance to respond, the small creature before me began undressing, removing one article of clothing after another so that a nervous energy boiled in the pit of my stomach.
She threw a heavy jacket to the chair behind her and then a sweater and a t-shirt followed until she was standing in her armored pants and boots with her breasts bared.
They were small mounds that pointed at the tip, cold from the sale air of the barracks. She swallowed, nervous for the first time, and then reached up until her fingers were pinching her nipples unsurely as she looked up at me.
I traced my tongue across my teeth and let out a long breath.
Sidney walked up to me, taking a hand from her breast and reaching over to my pants, splaying her hands against the hard length that had appeared when she began to strip.
“When you…” she began in a whisper, raising herself to her tip-toes and nearing my face. “When you mate with us, something changes you.”
“And why would I want that?” I said tersely, never moving her hand.
“You don’t,” she smiled; a glazed look in her eyes. “And neither do I, but we can’t keep trying to kill each other here.”
“I’ve actually felt very comfortable with that arrangement. Though, there certainly have been more of you than I ever thought were left.”
She began moving her hand up and down my length, varying her pressure and watching my eyes for any sign of approval.
“I want to help you,” she said.
I was instantly annoyed.
“You want to help me?” I repeated, laughing in disgust.
“I want to…” Her eyes flicked back and forth, searching for the right word, “show you, how much better our lives, both of our lives could be if we just… well…” She shrugged. “Don’t you want me?”
I exhaled unsurely and lowered a brow, leaning down to her and watching her small body move. There was something intensely alluring about her: something sexual and wild. I wasn’t sure what was turning me on more: her hand on me, the sight of her breasts, or the bravery it took to try and ambush me in the mountains.
Sidney grabbed my hand, and I let her lead it to her left breast. Despite the goosebumps that trickled across her skin, she felt amazingly warm under my palm.
“What do you feel now?” she asked.
I blinked. “It’s lumpy.”
She rolled her eyes and pushed my hand harder against her. “It’s smooth and fantastic,” she instructed. “Try again.”
“It’s smooth and fantastic,” I repeated sarcastically. But it was.
“You’re not even trying,” she argued and dropped her hand from my pants.
It was then I realized I wasn’t trying at all… but I was trying to talk to her. A human, of all things. I was, in my own way, trying to be playful with her. The fact that she wasn’t dead in the forest at my hand was already an improvement over what I would have done to her had I met her yesterday.
“It feels… different,” I offered lamely, squeezing the mound in my hand and tracing my finger down the center of her chest.
“Your species is raised on aggression,” she said.
“We’re a warrior race. That is our right.”
The skin around the corners of her eyes tightened, and she scolded, “Yet you waste so much time and energy on it that it's almost silly. Think of all you could accomplish if you could stop and think for a change.”
I shook my head. “I find this whole conversation highly offensive.”
“Yet, you’re not ripping my head off, are you? In fact,” she grinned, “I think you actually like being here with me.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I said, offering a reluctant smile. “What’s the thinking here, girl? You want me to be like my Voth? A slave to the humans?”
“I want you to be capable of more. You took over our planet, didn’t you? Yet you can't even seem to cultivate it properly! Look at what we, the humans, did with Earth compared to how you've wasted its resources? If you're stealing out planet out from under us, you may as well use it to its full potential.”
I thought about it and set my jaw. She was right. Jareth was the only one who seemed to have figured out how to live on this planet. We’d been too busy killing and fighting to conquer it, we had no idea what to do if we actually won.
My fingers traced down to her pants, and I began pulling her belt, listening as it gave off a loud cracking sound as I ripped it with haste from its loops.
“You have my attention,” I said evenly, never breaking eye-contact with her.
“Just, trust me,” she said, slipping out of her boots and pulling at my armor.
“I don’t,” I said.
She gave a small ‘humph’ and said, “Then just shut up.”
I couldn’t take it anymore: the urgency I felt in my gut. I pushed her onto the bed and hovered over her body, and she reached down, grabbing me and guiding me inside her with a loud gasp as I attempted to fit. It was warm and tight, like nothing I’d ever experienced before.
After a few slow and heavy thrusts, she whispered, “On your back,” and I followed her lead.
It was the first, and likely last, time I’d ever followed a human’s orders, but I figured now was a good a time as any.
She lowered herself onto me, and I grabbed her hips, moving with her as she rocked her hips against me and then began to move her body and down, bouncing in a quick rhythm.
I reached up and grabbed her breasts, taut yet milky as they rippled against my movements.
I felt caked with lust; my eyes were nearly unable to focus on the vision of her body. Small waist and thick hips: bottom-heavy with small breasts.
Sidney’s hair had turned wet and had sweated to her forehead. She went back to rocking on top of me as she brushed the long strands backward with his fingers.
“Do you feel anything?” she asked, almost sounding frustrated with me as she began to tire.
I reached up and pulled her face down to mine. I felt her tongue searching for mine and matched it quickly. Her mouth was sticky and sweet. Her hot breath tickled my skin, and I grabbed her then, overcome with ripples and waves of lust. I dug my fingers into her hips and held her still, bucking into her from beneath while we kissed until it was just too much.
My body shook as I climaxed, a long, noisy breath escaping me without my consent. My eyes had clenched shut and when I opened them, I saw her pale blues staring right back at me.
I shivered and looked up at her, feeling absolutely devastated in a way I couldn’t explain. Like a weight had been lifted, or a veil.
Sidney smiled at my expression and let out a bashful laugh as she dismounted and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching for her clothes.
I grabbed her arm and pulled her back toward me, whispering, “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m just cold,” she said, dressing and looking entirely proud of herself as she crawled back onto the bed.
“What now?” I asked, and she thinned her lips, shrugging.
“Do you feel any different?” she asked.
I steadied my breath and laid back on my pillow. I felt very, very different.