Page 26

Aurelius wakes us in the morning with a knock on the metal door.

Elix growls softly. “What?”

At some point in the night, he nestled himself beneath me and drew me into the cradle of his lap in the center of the nest. His long, strong fingers stroke my hair like I’m fragile. I’m definitely not as tough as him, and part of me is glad he respects that.

The door swishes open. Aurelius averts his eyes. “I apologize for intruding. Is that a nest?”

“Yeah,” Elix replies. “Do you not make one for your females?”

Aurelius’s face darkens. “No. But we haven’t lived on a planet in centuries. I just thought with as high-tech as you are—”

“We still gave our females the traditional comforts, honors, and protections they deserve. Mating is primal. Should we not honor our primal ways?”

Aurelius stills for a moment. “I hadn’t considered that. I wonder if that could be why our offspring numbers have dwindled in recent decades.”

Then he shakes his head and waves a hand dismissively. “Anyway, the Abr team wishes to know if you would participate in laser tag this morning. It is a team game. And apparently, there is a need for one more player. Rosy has agreed to let you two be a team.”

“I should not be on TV,” Elix states. “There are cameras everywhere.”

“Then either man up or I will,” Aurelius says. “And that rarely works because of this.” He wiggles his fingers, displaying static sparks. “These silly spark dampeners never work, but they make others feel safer.”

“You’re not playing. No one gets close to my mate but me.”

“I don’t care to go.” I offer, liking the defensive side of Elix. “Laser tag sounds fun, but I’m having quite a bit already.”

Elix’s cock swells, pressing into my ass. He looks down at me and smirks. “We are busy.”

Aurelius sighs. “I know you don’t know because you’ve been in here all night, but there are a lot of rumors circulating that you two might be the ones causing all this mayhem.

“Play the game and show everyone your good sides or run the risk of people believing all these disappearances and the SoulStealers are because of you.”

“But they’re not,” I say.

“We know that.” Aurelius runs a hand through his jet-black hair. “But they only know what they come up with in their minds to explain what they don’t have evidence for. We all look for patterns. When we can’t find them, we try to make them from pieces. You two need to play.”

Elix sighs. “How much time?”

“An hour.”

“You can’t be serious,” I whine, soaking in the feeling of his skin against mine. “I don’t want to.”

Elix sweeps his fingers over my cheek. “Do you remember what I said about protecting you? Sometimes, we have to leave the nest.”

I wrinkle my nose. “Fine. But I’m going to be thinking about this right here with you until we are back.”

A smile cracks on his face. “I don’t have a problem with that.”

Aurelius closes the door. “I’ll let them know you’ll join them.”

I reluctantly climb out of the soft pile of blankets and grimace at the stiffness in my body. “I need a shower.”

Elix is out of the nest in one move. He picks me up and carries me into his bathroom. Switching on the hot water, he picks me up by the hips and crushes me against the wall. Then he turns the water on us and says, with water running down his radiant face, “One more time before we go?”

Elix is insatiable.

I kiss him and dive my tongue deep into his mouth, stroking the velvet of his as he guides his engorged cock into me with force.

The strain of taking him again makes me weak. I’ve lost track of the times we’ve mated in the last twenty-four hours. When he said he healed fast, he wasn’t fucking kidding.

He thrusts into me fast and hard, thumbing my clit and making quick work of my climax.

He rasps as I tense around him in shuddering waves of bliss, and his hot nectar floods into me.

As I soften into his arms, he catches me and chuckles. “That may have been one too many for you.”

“Never,” I pant. “Again, please.”

Elix reaches out of the shower and into a cabinet. His fingerprints glow on the metal as he draws out a vial and closes the door again.

He sweeps my hair aside, connects the vial to my port, and a wave of hot strength returns to my body.

“Thanks. I do feel better, but it seems like we should save those. You use them a lot on me.”

“You have had a lot of healing to do,” Elix says as we wash up. “But I appreciate you respecting the precious nature of serum. Most do not. They want it to be everywhere so they can be reckless and stop thinking about protecting themselves.”

“You mean lazy people want it as a backup.”

He runs his fingers over my bottom lip, his body slowly pulsing with green light. “Black market organizations want to sell it. Enemies and the federation want it to enhance their forces’ capabilities. But it isn’t as effective if it isn’t tuned to the person. In fact, there are those who are allergic to it. It can kill people who cannot tolerate certain serum substrates. That’s why it must be biologically adapted first.”

We dry off, and I climb into my race suit, all the while admiring him for what he’s capable of but more so what he put up with without turning vengeful and hateful like my father. “How long does it take for you to adapt and switch if there are multiple patients?”

“When I was doing it on a daily basis, I could adapt it in under a minute. But that is a less effective solution than one where I’ve had days to absorb DNA and fine-tune the serum. I can taste it, the changes, the subtle flavors.” Elix gets dressed in his tactical pants and motions me into the fuselage, where Aurelius has gathered some items for us.

Elix picks up an Abr t-shirt with the logo stitched into the chest.

“Rosy insisted.” Aurelius sighs. “You can keep your wristband, but no weapons are allowed inside the laser tag arena. They will pat you down.”

“I don’t understand why Elix can play,” I say. “He’s not a racer.”

“No one was willing to pair with you,” Aurelius clarifies.

I shake my head, realizing I’m still an outcast in society. But I guess that’s a good thing in my line of work. The fewer people that want to mess with me, the better. It’s easier to keep secrets when you have no friends.

Teol is probably just with Gashnaar. Can’t blame her for that.

When Elix and I are in the appropriate gear, his human concealer hiding his true color, we leave the ship behind with Aurelius trailing us.

An Abr official waves us on. “Why were you not in your room?”

A camera drone hovers down the hallway, no doubt listening.

“My room was broken into and ransacked. If that had happened to you, would you trust it?”

The drone speaks to me. “What were you hiding in there that made someone want to break in?”

The Abr official pauses. “You are not permitted to talk to the racers.”

“Someone has to do some investigating.”

“Who is that?” Elix asks.

The man shakes his head. “I don’t know. A few drones have started to communicate with racers. We’re trying to get control of it. But until the race is over, we don’t have time to sort out replacements.

The drone asks me the question again.

I glare into the camera lens as we pass. “I arrived here with a leather jacket, the clothes on my back, and a ticket from my mother. That’s it. So you tell me.”

Elix and I line up with the other racers, who mostly avoid us. Teol waves as Gashnaar straps her laser target harness on.

An Abr officer hands Elix and me a pack of gear including hover boots, chest and body armored detectors, special protective helmets, and gloves.

I help Elix clip into his armor while he puts on his boots, and then he does the same for me.

An announcer hovers up onto a floating, translucent cube. “This game of Low-gravity Laser Tag has one goal: survive and get to the ribbon at the other end. If you’re the last pair standing, you get a pair of complimentary hoverboots as a souvenir. If you make it to the other end and pass through the ribbon without being tagged, you get a week’s paid vacation on the Pearl of Gaia.”

“And bragging rights,” Teol cheers. She extends a fist to me and gives me a happy nod. I bump her fist. “Team effort. It’s either you or us going across that line. I just want a piece of the glory, ya feel me?”

“I feel you.”

Gashnaar’s brows quirk. He cants toward Elix. “What doesss that mean?”

Elix nods. “They have agreed.”

Teol giggles. “They’re silly sometimes. Not great with emotions. But they’re good at other things, yeah?”

I blush.

Teol’s eyes widen in excitement. “You too?”

I bite a lip and tilt my head toward Elix. “Had to get special permission since he’s not supposed to be in the race.”

We form up in lines to get our laser rifles.

Teol glances back at me. “Because he’s an alien?”

I pause as I reach for the rifle they hand me. The officer shoves it in my hand, and I keep walking. “How did you know?”

“Oh, come on girl. His eyes are glowing. You think we haven’t studied stealth tech in MAMA?” She clicks her tongue as she steps up beside her mate. “Can’t hide those eyes, even if the dermal shield paints over his natural hue. It’s all over social anyway. Forums are blowing up about you two.”

“How do you know?”

“Researched everything I could when we were stuck on the blimp for two days.” Teol stands ready as the announcer gives us directions on how to use the weapon. “But don’t worry. I’m on your side.”

“Why?” I finally ask. “I’ve not done anything for you.”

Her jaw slacks and her eyes take on a sadness that grips my heart. “Teol?”

“I had a little sister. I was left in charge of her when Keo was off to war. Father died in the war years before, so it was just us and our mother. Nebs raided our ship. I was the only one from our family that made it out. It’s why Keo and I are so close now. We’re it. But I make it a point to form a team wherever I go. That gives us the best odds of making it out alive.”