Alien Caller (31 page)

Instead he just
enjoyed her attentions, thankful that he could. When he thought of
how close he had come to losing her, everything else seemed
unimportant. Everything. All the while his confusion receded into
the background and his hunger grew. As did hers. Exactly as she’d
intended. It gave her time to say what she had to say.

“Love. Bad
things happened yesterday, and I knew nothing about them. Neither
did any of my people, bar one, and he will be punished, severely,
this afternoon.” She squeezed the words out between kisses, making
sure he heard but giving him no chance to respond. She wanted him
to hear, not try and deny her words.

He believed
her. Perhaps it was naïve or foolish, but he did. He wanted to
believe her, he needed to, and so he let her words become his
truth. Maybe later he would start to question, maybe not. But for
that moment he simply had to love her unconditionally and know she
returned it.

“For now I need
you to know you can trust me. I need you to know that I love you. I
need you to know that even Dr. Roze didn’t really mean you as much
harm as he pretended. But I need to know you won’t hurt anyone.
People are scared.”

“Scared? Of
me?” The thought surprised and saddened him, and for a brief moment
stopped his passion in its tracks. He didn’t want anybody to be
afraid of him. But Cyrea wouldn’t allow that, and used her own body
to fire his back into life. Then he remembered some more of the
previous day, fighting like a lunatic, running like a wild man,
covered in blood. They must have thought him insane, and he seemed
to recall having flung a few aside more than just roughly. He
remembered their bodies bouncing off walls.

“Ohh Lord. Is
anyone hurt?” She shook her head, smiling for the first time.

“Not seriously,
and it's not your fault. No-one blames you. They blame Dr. Roze,
and he will be tried for his crime this morning. They just fear
you. They don’t know how you’ll react, and they’re frightened.” He
looked into her eyes and saw the truth, and something much worse.
Cold fingers clutched at his heart.

“Are you afraid
of me?” He suddenly had to ask, understanding that it would be his
worst nightmare if she was.

“Maybe a
little, Or I was.” She whispered it at him, telling him the truth
even though it hurt him. He looked at her, terrified, waiting to
hear the full horror, even though he didn’t want to. He had to
know.

“You were so
wild, like nothing I’ve ever even imagined, and so very very
deadly. If the machines had been Leinians you would have killed
hundreds last night. No one could have stood against you. I’ve seen
the recording. So have all of my people, and they are frightened.
Terrified would be more truthful. To know that none of us, maybe
even all of us together, could stand against you in a ring.” He
wanted to hold her tight, wanted desperately to tell her that he
would never hurt her, that he loved her, but she still wouldn’t let
him.

“You are a
master.” Every word was emphasized, as if she had just discovered
it. No doubt she had. But then he also knew it was all wrong. He
hadn’t gotten out of there by training and skill. It was all pure
adrenaline and luck. He tried to deny it, but she wouldn’t let
him.

“Your every
punch, every kick, every move was simply lethal. With the power you
used each punch, each kick would have crushed bone and tissue. It
shattered metal. The strikes were faster than those of our finest
martial artists, and you used moves we’ve never seen before. Moves
we’d have to call illegal.” For a brief moment he almost smiled as
he remembered some of them. Illegal, probably, crazy, definitely,
but suicidal was a better description. Only luck and incredible
desperation had allowed him to pull them off. Yet he had, and that
impressed even him. Fortune had favoured him beyond even the
bold.

“You’re also
unbelievably tough. You took some terrible injuries, and yet with
each one, you just hit back harder and faster. But most frightening
of all, every attack was directed to do the most terrible damage.
So many different killing blows. And you never missed.” She
whispered it at him, almost as though what he had done was somehow
wrong, and yet, at that moment he almost agreed with her. He had
done what he had done out of need, and he had no regrets, but he
could also see that it was wrong for anyone to have such deadly
ability. There should be no need, no want for such a thing.

“You told me
all about your training but I never truly believed, for which I'm
sorry. I never understood that anyone could fight like that.” She
spoke the absolute truth, and it wounded him. But Cyrea wouldn’t
let him suffer too much. She wouldn’t even let him speak.

“But I also
know you’d never deliberately hurt anyone, unless you were really
pushed into it as that bastard did to you. He did some terrible
things to you. More than you even know, yet. Anything to make you
even more frightened or angry. To stop you being able to reason.
Things which he will pay for.” There was anger in her voice, barely
contained, and yet David himself could feel nothing for his
tormentor. Perhaps he was still too close to it, still in shock. Or
perhaps in her arms it was simply unimportant.

“You are a very
gentle and caring man which is why I love you. I would never do
something like that to you. Nor will my people. I promise that I
won’t hurt you. That I will never betray you. You are my mate and I
love you.” She kissed him again, passionately. He kissed her back,
understanding nothing, but at that point not really caring. He
remembered the pain he had felt at her suffering, the fear he had
had at her loss, and knew that even while he might not understand
everything, he was a lucky man to be with her then. And he wanted
to be with her, immediately.

“I also know
that if you’d suffer all that and still come hunting for me, you
are my greatest defender.” It was becoming difficult to talk by
then as he had too much else he needed to concentrate on, but he
knew she understood. He had gone berserk for her, and he was glad
she knew that. Infinitely glad.

“I can speak
again?” Which wasn’t actually correct. He was fast running out of
the ability to do anything but respond to her as a man. But his jaw
seemed to be working.

“We had you on
the surgery table for nearly twelve hours.” She was gasping it out
by then, in between kissing him and breathing. “And that’s the
longest surgery we’ve done since we’ve been here. A whole team
working solidly.”

“How bad?”
Though he really didn’t care. He felt good enough to do what he
needed to do. And even if he wasn’t he was still going to. But he
was curious.

“Fifteen broken
bones, three ribs, four finger bones, two wrist bones, your pelvis,
a couple of ankle bones, your jaw, nose and shoulder. Fractures to
both femurs, stress fractures in your back, and you left seven
teeth on the gym floor, and another half dozen around the rest of
the ship. We couldn't find one of them by the way, so the doctors
replaced it with a cloned tooth.”

“They were
gluing for hours, three teams of doctors. Both your kidneys were
pasted, and the micro-surgeons had to stitch them back together bit
by bit, your spleen had seen better days, one lung was punctured,
both eyes were filled with burst blood vessels, you had a major
skull fracture where your ear had been, they had to give you a new
cloned ear and cheek as well, you lost nearly two litres of blood,
and the bone bruises will still take weeks to come out. If you had
escaped, you would have died.” Which about matched his own
recollections. He’d known it was bad, even if he hadn’t admitted
it.

“But it’s all
fixed now, everything. And we took out the old bullets, repaired
the arthritis and muscle tears, and gave your body a total cleanse.
When you’re fully recovered in a few days, you should be in better
shape than before. Much better. It was the least we could do
considering.”

“You finally
got the bullets, huh!” Cyrea smiled like the Cheshire cat. She’d
tried for weeks to get him to come in and have his leg repaired,
and he’d resisted firmly, as much lately out of stubborn pride as a
sense of duty. But in the end she had won. He just hoped they’d
left the scar, so at least it would look like they were still
there. Otherwise it was going to be difficult to explain their
absence.

He filed her
words away for later, but couldn’t really concentrate on them. He
was alive, and in good enough shape that he would survive. More
importantly Cyrea still loved him. That was enough, when he had so
much more urgent work to do. Instead he let his mouth wander down
her body, finding her breasts, and kissed her some more, a lot
more. In response she mewled, unable to contain herself, and let
his wrists go so she could get closer. Immediately his hands sprang
to her side, holding her tight, so he could kiss her more, much
more. And then they explored her as they both wanted, playing with
her, teasing her, preparing her.

Their desires
became much more urgent. He had come so close to losing her, and
now here she was in his arms, warm and loving. He had to have her,
immediately, to know she was safe, that she was real. To know that
she was still his.

He flung the
sheets off, too hot and wanting nothing to get tangled between them
as they usually did. Besides they just prevented him from seeing
what he wanted to see. Cyrea gasped and for a second looked
worried, but then she forgot it and returned to their joy. When he
asked she just smiled and told him ‘later’. It could wait.
Everything could wait.

Finally, unable
to contain herself her feet unlooped around his and he took the
opportunity to close his legs, so he could roll them over, on to
her back. She yielded immediately to him, letting him do whatever
he wanted, not because she had to but because she wanted to. He
knew she'd pinned him at the beginning, because he was confused and
possibly dangerous. But that threat was gone. And Cyrea knew that
too.

“I love you.”
He whispered it softly in each of her ears, as he took her, and she
cried with startled pleasure and happiness. It was the first time
he had admitted it to her, and it was long overdue. He only
regretted that it had taken him so long to say something so simple.
Her soft cry was a sound he loved to hear and he promised himself
he would tell her that a lot more, if only to hear it a lot
more.

“Good. I’m
going to hold you to that. And I love you too.” Her words were
coming out in fits and starts as she had to breathe in more and
more hurried gasps, but they both enjoyed them.

The time for
words had passed. Neither had the breath or the intellect
remaining, and instead they both concentrated on reaching paradise.
For some reason it was slower to arrive than usual, as they found
themselves working longer and harder to get there. But it was still
always in sight, and they were never going to give up until they
reached it. When they finally arrived they discovered it had been
well worth the wait.

It was as
though a bomb had gone off somewhere inside them both. The room
went incandescent for David, as without warning he climaxed, and he
felt his seed being deposited deep within her in waves of savage
delight. With each frenzied surge he cried out wildly, unable to
hold back. Cyrea too was ecstatic, crying her joy directly into his
flesh as she crushed him in a rigid bear hug that sucked the breath
out of him. She wasn’t the only one crying he realised. And it
didn’t stop. The orgasm just continued like some insane fairground
ride, while their screams became ever louder and more frenzied. For
a while they both wondered if they were going to die of too much
pleasure.

After, it was
as though he had been run over by a steam roller, but a very
wonderful one. He couldn’t move, he didn’t have the strength as he
lay on top of her and was barely able to even support a fraction of
his weight. He ached all over, a mix of recovering injuries and
exhaustion, tears ran freely down his cheeks for no reason, and he
had a terrible need to collapse, which he somehow resisted. He had
already slept enough. Besides he wanted to be with Cyrea.

“Oh my God.
What was that?” He could barely find enough breath to stagger the
words out one by one, but he had to ask. Not because he thought she
knew, but because he wanted to know she had felt it too.

“I don’t know.
But it was fantastic.” Cyrea was in no better shape than him and
was still trying to take in enough air to breathe. They were both
sweating as though they had sprinted a marathon, while their hearts
were beating triple time in their ears. They kissed, but hurriedly,
as they had to breathe. Then they had to kiss again. After a few
minutes of recovery, they suddenly found that they had to laugh as
well. It was the relief of being alive and together, the love and
the orgasm all rolled into one incredible high, and they couldn’t
stop.

Finally David
made to roll off her, but Cyrea refused him point blank. It might
be over for the moment, but they were still one and there was no
way she was going to let him separate. Not this year, maybe never.
Instead they just lay there, recovering, laughing and celebrating.
In a while, perhaps a long while, they would make for the shower
and start asking the questions they each needed answers to, but for
the moment they just needed to be together.