Sienna, page 6
For a moment his heart stopped beating. Was she dead? Then he realized, she was either asleep or on the verge of sleeping, resting in the watery depths while her body absorbed any nutrients it needed.
Gods she was beautiful. Like an ethereal mermaid, except without the tail. That she sported an iridescent green back fin that matched her gorgeous scales, her hair streaked with the same green, made his chest tighten. Even the shells that encased her breasts looked perfect on her, kick-starting far too many fantasies into his sex-deprived mind.
Bad enough he’d had trouble keeping his hands off her while she was in her human form, seeing her in her natural state left him too close to coming undone, his whole mission in jeopardy.
He shook off thoughts of the woman who was fast becoming his addiction, regaining his laser focus for the task ahead. His people were in serious danger. He could not afford to get careless. His whole world was on the line.
He swished his wings in one last final surge. Her eyes flicked open, her pupils constricting as he propelled toward her. With one last, desperate flip of her fin and kick of her webbed feet, she tried, in vain, to evade him.
He wrapped his wings around her writhing body, effectively trapping her before he used his legs and arms to push their combined bodyweight to the surface of the water. Though she was stronger now, especially in her Strazanian form, she was no match for the death grip of his wings around her.
He broke free of the water and dragged oxygen into his burning lungs. Had air, even this polluted Earth air, ever tasted sweeter?
Her breath hissed out, her gills still clearly doing all her breathing. “You bastard! Why can’t you just leave me alone?” Even if he didn’t have exceptional vision in the dark, her green talk-stone along with the glow of her green eyes enabled him to easily see the wet glint of her stricken gaze. “When are you going to realize I don’t have any information about the Dronians?”
For a moment he almost believed her. Almost. But one didn’t fight a battle against an enemy without gaining any intel. She knew a whole lot more than she pretended. He just had to find a way to extract it from her, and fast.
It wasn’t easy swimming back toward the bank while she struggled in his arms. Even worse was the fact his dick had taken a life of its own, making it known he was as attracted to her in this form as her human one. That his arousal bordered on painful didn’t help his swimming technique. It was only thanks to Bongo’s excited yips that he managed to find his way back.
His jaw tightened. Bongo might trust fully in her, but he sure as shit didn’t.
Up until this point he’d been a gentleman. He’d tried to be polite, civil and courteous, and look where that had got him.
Nowhere.
He was half-carrying, half-dragging her out of the now knee-deep water, her huffing breaths showcasing her fear as well as some dangerous level of excitement, when a far off light grew larger in the sky as it sped toward them. His whole body tensed, and Sienna froze, her gaze drawn to the same light he’d noticed.
“They’re back,” she whispered starkly.
Chapter Ten
Sienna wanted to strangle the Gorema male. He’d put her in danger by recapturing her. She’d been free at last and regaining strength quickly thanks to the river. Now she was back to square one and made helpless by the ferocious strength of his wings.
She could, of course, implode him from the inside out, but with a whole army of Dronians no doubt about to crash their little party, she’d save that little trick for when it was needed most. Right now she just needed to plead with his logic, his better judgement.
She looked up at him as he towered her over, the green light of her talk-stone making his eyes shimmer a weird gold-brown color, while his features appeared even more otherworldly. Her breath caught in her throat when her gaze slipped low, to where his erection stood to attention. She swallowed hard. He was frigging huge, the markings only highlighting that fact.
She forced her stare up to meet his. “I can’t be in this form out of the water. It’s how the Dronians found us.”
His expression looked bland, bored even. “Then change back.”
Her every muscle clenched with outrage. “Even if I do it’s too late, the Dronians have a fix on us now.”
“Then you’d better hurry.”
His voice was so dispassionate, so selfish. Her pulse beat like drums in her ears. Holy shit. Where was the man who’d been halfway nice to her? What had happened to her captor to make him so careless of her very life? Of his own life?
“Fine,” she snapped. It wasn’t like she had a choice. “At least let me keep my feet in the water so that it lends me the strength I need to shift quickly.”
His grip tightened before he reluctantly nodded. “Do what you have to do.” He glanced up at the approaching light. “But hurry, we’re running out of time.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” she said savagely, even as she concentrated on changing back to her human form.
She was used to the pain of shifting shape. The only problem was that when she forced the process and hurried it along, the pain was far sharper and intense. It would be all too easy to pass out from the trauma and suffering.
If only every rare had Nero’s ability to shift with barely a grimace.
There was no time to gradually ease into it. Her muscles didn’t stretch and reform back into shape, they snapped into place. Her bones didn’t break one after the other, they all but shattered simultaneously. She withheld a howl, thankful that Gray at least kept her upright. Her fin retracted sharply, her scales disappearing as her skin emerged. Her talk-stone became no more, her hair reverting back to its dark coloring and her webbing fading away to reveal her human fingers and toes.
“Satisfied?” she asked hoarsely, so close to giving into the urge to sink into oblivion it took everything she had just to stay conscious.
“Nothing about this is satisfying,” he grated. “But let’s not argue about it now. Let’s just focus on surviving the next few hours.”
“You took those odds away from me the moment you caught me in the river and forced me back out of it.”
“No. You took those odds away when you escaped from the house I’d set up to be safe and secure.”
Her heart thumped in her chest. The Dronian mothership was already close enough to reveal its shadowy undercarriage. And yet still she felt compelled to make him see reason. “Why can’t you just admit this is your fault?”
“Maybe I am at fault,” he conceded softly. “But you can’t blame me for doing anything possible to keep my world safe.”
That he’d finally admitted his part in this mess didn’t make her feel any better. Not with the underside of the mothership flashing briefly in a multitude of lights before it darkened suddenly and a hatch slid open, revealing some of the illuminated pink-colored interior of the ship.
She swallowed hard. She’d bet there was a multitude of Dronians standing around the opening, ready to jump and land on their powerful hind legs, her enemy now salivating to kill both her and Gray. Even if he hadn’t defeated any of their former comrades, he would be considered guilty by association.
Though she didn’t take her eyes away from the mothership, she was suddenly glad she couldn’t see the sadistic motherfuckers inside it. She could almost believe the mothership really was empty, almost believe they were safe even while one question filled her head. “Why have they brought the mothership back into Earth’s atmosphere?”
Gray’s breath hitched, his attention on her absolute with his eerie yellow eyes glowing and his wings tightening around her. “What do you mean?”
“Never mind,” she said tightly. He wasn’t going to get anything else from her. That she’d slipped up at all and given him even a skerrick of information shamed her deeply.
He released his wings from around her, her naked human form then exposed to the elements. She shivered. Though she might despise him and his wings, there had been security having them encase her. That the leathery appendages had as much caressed and stimulated her as they’d kept her prisoner was something she’d have to examine later.
For now they had Dronians to fight and to kill.
He nodded for her to climb the riverbank. “After you.”
“This is a mistake,” she said, even as she began the muddy ascent, tufts of grass her handholds. Even if she couldn’t see the Dronians, at least her residual sight meant she’d see better in the darkness, at least for a little while. “I mean, do you even have any weapons?”
“Guess I was too busy trying to come after you through the window of the bedroom you locked me inside.”
She glanced back at him. “How did you manage to undo the screws?”
He pushed the tip of one of his wings forward. “See these prongs on the ends of my wings?” She nodded, and he added, “They’re the one and only thing on my body that I can adapt to almost any shape.”
“So, what? You turned your prongs into a star screwdriver?” she asked faintly, impressed despite the fact she could shift her whole body into a secondary human shape. What he probably didn’t know was that her kind was only able to shift into a shape that was similar to their primary form. She’d never be able to become a cat or a dog or bird. It was yet another reason why Earth had been the perfect place to hide out and become human.
Even rares were unlikely to shift into another species. Only Epello had been able to access that unique power, though she had no idea whether he was still able to do that little trick on Earth. Everyone’s powers were unstable here, some growing stronger, some weaker and more unpredictable.
Gray swiped up his pants and pulled them on, covering his overly generous cock. She released a pent up breath. Phew. Out of sight, out of mind. That was one motto she could learn to appreciate. No matter how sex-deprived she might be she’d never be with Gray. She hated the man.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
She whirled around, her whole body tensing as Dronians landed on the ground close by. Too close. More thumps sounded then, her enemy’s strong, decaying scent filling the air.
Was it possible the Earth’s atmosphere had made them smell more rotten because they were slowly dying?
The mothership’s hatch slid closed, its undercarriage lighting up briefly before the craft took off into the heavens, disappearing from sight within seconds. It was clear the soldiers that had been left here on Earth were willing to die for their cause, while the rest of the occupants onboard had escaped.
Bongo came running from out of the shadows, his coat bristling as he stood in front of her and growled viciously. She blinked. Could he see the Dronians?
Before she could mull it over, Gray leaped forward at least ten feet, his wings spreading out before he spun. The prongs on his wingtips hit wetly against invisible flesh, the Dronian stench suddenly a whole lot more rotten. She shivered. He must have done a lot of killing in the past if his own body parts killed a Dronian so easily.
He stepped back, but not before a deep slash appeared on his chest, blood freely flowing. He kicked up high, then dropped low and kicked again. Thump. Crunch. She couldn’t see the damage, but she heard it well enough. He was doing everything he could to keep the Dronians away from her.
He stumbled back, a deep cut now glistening on his brow. She narrowed her eyes, trying to see if Gray was hurt anywhere else, but her residual Strazanian vision was already fading. She knew he healed fast though; he’d survive as long as she intervened.
“How many are there?” she asked, her voice shrill. If it was bad enough her vision was becoming as crap as any humans, she hated even more that she couldn’t see her enemy. At least Gray was visible. That he was like some avenging angel didn’t escape her. He was...impressive, to say the least.
Gray unfurled his wing with a snap, the prong on the end narrowing like a dagger before he thrust it hard and fast. Splat. He’d clearly made another kill, thanks to a fatal stab wound in one of the few places a Dronian wasn’t protected by its natural armor. He withdrew his wing and gave it a flap before focusing on an area in front of him. “There are at least another twenty of them.”
Bongo advanced another step, growling menacingly. Then he ran forward and leapt into the air, biting into the invisible flesh of a Dronian and shaking his head with a fierce growl. When he was thrown clear with a yelp, Sienna sucked in an infuriated breath before she closed her eyes, sensing her advancing enemy.
Pushing her fingertips into her brow, she uncapped the surge of dark energy inside her. It built to almost unbearable proportions, before she opened her mouth and screamed, releasing the pressure out of her and into the Dronians.
She couldn’t see them, but she heard the icky pop of one of them exploding, and then another. When a whole lot of explosions happened simultaneously, Gray pivoted to openly stare at her.
“You did that?” he asked, his voice caught somewhere between disbelief and awe.
She nodded. “I did.”
“Are you okay?”
She inhaled slowly, steadily. Using her rare power had sucked all the energy back out of her, but it wasn’t something she cared to explain. “I’ll live.”
She looked over at Bongo, and in mutual accord, she and Gray went to the dog to check he was okay. The pressure in her chest eased the smallest bit when Bongo pushed onto his paws somewhat unsteadily, then whined and licked their faces and hands.
This once she didn’t mind the germs, she was simply thankful he was alive and unhurt. “Good boy!”
That Gray had put his own body on the line went without saying. He might have died trying to protect her if it hadn’t been for her rare ability. She couldn’t put into words how much that meant to her.
Instead she said, “I need the river.”
He nodded slowly as he straightened and scanned the splattered remains of the Dronian bodies. “Of course.”
She was so relieved she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. All she knew for sure was that she was going to sink deep into the river and absorb every nutrient she could possibly obtain.
Bongo whined and shook his whole body, as though trying to rid himself of the Dronians gross smell. She could only imagine how rank the decaying scent must be to a dog.
“On one condition,” Gray added as he began walking beside her, Bongo trotting behind them. She swallowed hard, her every muscle tensing. But he didn’t wait for her to question him or skewer him alive with hate-filled eyes, instead he smiled and said, “You have to stay in your human form.”
“I don’t recall you being in charge.”
He tucked his wings behind his back, then clasped her forearm as he helped her down the riverbank. “You’re still my prisoner, Sienna.”
Her shoulders tensed harder still. “If it wasn’t for me you’d be dead.”
He nodded. “And if you hadn’t escaped my house earlier we’d both be safe right now and probably sleeping in our beds.”
She gritted her teeth. “We’ve already gone over this! You’re holding me prisoner against my will! I didn’t travel all the way to Earth just for you take my freedom away from me.”
He sighed heavily as he escorted her down the slippery bank, her feet then splashing into the shallow edge of the river. He drew her to a stop and said, “I promised you’d have your freedom back as soon as you tell me any information about the Dronians. I don’t break my promises.”
She didn’t reply. She was too busy shuddering with relief as nutrients absorbed through her pores and into her skin under her feet. Though in her human form the process wasn’t anywhere near as effective as her scales and gills, which all but sucked in any goodness, she was still capable of reenergizing much of what she’d depleted.
It wasn’t until Bongo whined and yipped nervously, that Gray decided she’d had enough therapeutic recovery and guided her back out of the river and up its bank. He bent and picked up the T-shirt she’d stolen from out of his closet.
“You might want to put this back on,” he said in a constricted voice.
She blinked at him. She’d been so busy wanting to replete her body she hadn’t noticed his interest. But now awareness fairly throbbed in the air between them.
She drew the T-shirt over her body, waiting until it settled over her before she sucked some air between her clenched teeth. She needed to deflect their sexual tension before it grew even further. “You shouldn’t have forced me leave the river so soon. I didn’t get a chance to properly replete my body.”
He took her arm, leading her around the battleground where bits of Dronian bodies would be splattered on the ground and trees “Too bad,” he grunted, immune to her complaint. “We need to get back before anymore soldiers return.”
“Not to mention their cleanup crew.”
He swung a look her way, his yellow eyes gleaming in the darkness. “They send a crew to clean up any bodies?”
For fuck’s sake. How much more was she going to inadvertently tell him? “I wouldn’t know,” she said flatly. “I’m just guessing. I’m sure they wouldn’t want any humans to slip on any remains and realize there was something invisible to investigate.”
Once they were at the fence, he pulled two strands of the barbed wire apart, and she crouched and carefully slid through the opening. She didn’t need to reciprocate. Retreating a few steps, Gray jumped, his wings coming out so that he easily sailed over the fence and landed on the other side. Bongo slipped under the bottom barbed wire strand to stand beside Sienna.
“Show off,” she said to Gray with a toss of her head.
He chuckled. “I mightn’t have powers like yours to rely on, but at least I can rely on my wings.”
He picked up the pushbike she’d left lying on its side in the long grass. Then wheeling it out to the side of the road, he whistled to Bongo. The dog happily jumped into the basket on the back. Then Gray mounted the seat before he patted the handlebars on front. “Get on.”
She pulled a face, hoping the dark at least partially hid her reaction. She didn’t have a lot of fears, but she wasn’t putting her trust in Gray’s bike riding skills. “You’re joking, right?”
