Deep Penetration; Alien Breeders I (4 page)

It was still much the same layout, she
saw, an apartment in the sense that it was divided between a
lounging area, a work area, and a rest area, but not spartanly
appointed.

He led her to a chair and gently
pushed her down on the seat. She stared at his back blankly as he
moved away. In a few moments, he returned, crouched in front of her
and held out a tiny vessel that looked more like a test tube than
anything else. Emerald stared blankly at it and then looked at
him.

“
Drink it.”

She took it like a sleepwalker, put
the edge against her lips, and tipped it up. The liquid that
spilled into her mouth burned like fire all the way down. She
coughed, struggling to catch her breath, but she felt the effects
almost instantly. The liquid hit her belly and started a blaze that
swept through her and wiped out her equilibrium even as it spread
warmth through her to chase the chill of fear.

She discovered he was smiling faintly
when she managed to open her eyes and blink the tears from them
enough to bring his face into focus.

“
Better?”

She blinked at him a little owlishly,
dismayed to realize she was tipsy with no more than a sip of the
stuff. “I don’t know.”

He studied her face for a
long moment, seemed to wrestle with himself and abruptly caught her
chin. She had no clue he meant to kiss her until her eyes lost
focus as he zoomed in. She tensed as his mouth settled over hers,
but it was as far from unpleasant as it was possible to be. More
heat poured through her as they connected and she felt his heat and
his taste invade her. He lifted his lips from hers after little
more than a brief connection, seemed to hesitate in debate as to
whether to pull away or sample more and then slipped his hand to
the base of her skull and pulled her close again, sealing his mouth
more firmly over hers and breaching the barrier of her lips with
his tongue in almost the same motion. The effects of the liquor
she’d gulped didn’t hold a candle to the affect
he
had on her.

She felt for several moments as if she
would either float away or melt into a puddle. It took a tremendous
effort to lift her eyelids when he broke the kiss and withdrew. She
saw when she had that he hadn’t withdrawn far. He was studying her
face with an intensity that made everything inside her go liquid
with want.

“
Not wise,” he said
distractedly, his voice husky in a way that sent a shiver through
her. “Not when I want you naked in my bed badly enough I can taste
it … and you’re already naked.”

It flickered through her
mind to wonder why he would even struggle with the desire. It
wasn’t as if she had a hope in hell of stopping him. She wasn’t
even certain at that moment that she would
want
to put up a fight with the lure
of promised pleasure was still pounding through her.

He straightened abruptly, placing her
eye to eye with as impressive an erection as she’d ever seen.
Before she could study it as thoroughly as she wanted to, he turned
away, surreptitiously adjusted himself, and disappeared into
another room off the main room. When he returned, he held out a
folded garment.

“
It won’t fit,” he
muttered when she took it, “but at least it won’t fall off if I
breathe on it.”

Emerald discovered the moment she’d
unfolded it that it wasn’t his. It was far too small, she was sure,
for him to get in to.

Smaller than Koryn.

Small enough the certainty settled
inside her that it belonged to a woman.

She didn’t want to examine the
unpleasant feeling that tightened her belly at the realization.
Instead, she focused on trying to figure out how to get it on. He
took it from her after a moment and showed her that the front
simply parted when he ran his hand down it. Curiosity flickered
through her, but she dismissed it, unwilling to emphasize her
ignorance. Discarding the sheet she’d been clinging to, she stood
up and stepped into it, pulling it up over her shoulders. He was
right. It was far too big.

Tariq turned her to face him when
she’d struggled with the front for a moment, sealing the edges, and
then rolled the sleeves up until her hands were free. He left again
when she sat down to roll a cuff along the bottom of the suit legs,
returning a moment later with a pair of boots.

The sick feeling tightened in
Emerald’s belly again, but she took the boots wordlessly and
slipped one on each foot, wondering even as she did if she’d be
able to walk in them without falling on her face. Especially since
she was still feeling the effects of the drink he’d given her … and
still weak from his kiss.

“
Where are we going?” she
asked when he’d led her out of his quarters and into the corridor
again.

“
Out,” he said
curtly.

Emerald’s belly immediately clenched
with reluctance. She didn’t know why he’d suddenly become
determined to take her outside, but if he meant to set her ‘free’
in that … jungle …. She didn’t know what she’d do. Scream? Beg?
Cling?

She didn’t want to go out at all! Not
after what she’d seen. She felt her throat close with emotion,
struggled with the urge to beg him to take her back to her quarters
as some unnamed terror clawed at the back of her mind. She was so
distressed, she didn’t realize they’d gone in an entirely different
direction than before until Tariq halted in front of what she could
see was a wide cargo door. He paused as he reached for the control,
studying her. “I’ll be with you, Emerald. I’ll keep you
safe.”

She searched his face and felt a
modicum of calm settle over her. Nodding a little jerkily, she
turned her head as the door began to open, staring at the view that
was slowly revealed. The door halted when it was barely high enough
for her to walk beneath it and she saw a gang plank extend toward
the ground.

Settling a hand along her waist, Tariq
urged her through the opening, bending to duck beneath it, and then
pausing to close it behind them before he walked her down. The
sights and sounds of a primitive world had pelted Emerald even as
the doors had opened. Smells joined the riot to her senses, the
musky smell of earth, and crushed and rotting vegetation. A wide
swath had been cut from the jungle at the foot of the
gangplank.

Emerald knew immediately that it led
to the crumbling ruins she’d seen from the port and the fear she’d
refused to acknowledge pumped her heart a little faster as Tariq
guided her along the rough path. It disturbed Emerald no end to
discover that much of the vegetation seemed familiar to her,
eliminating any comfort she might have felt that there was almost
as much that wasn’t.

None
of it should have familiar—and yet it was and she realized
that could only mean that she’d seen it before.

She struggled to search for another
explanation. Was it some sort of trick to make her feel as if she
was as mad as a hatter?

It seemed far too elaborate for
that—unless they’d found a world very similar to Earth?

It looked like Earth and at the same
time it didn’t seem familiar at all. What had he meant by saying
they’d regenerated her? What had he meant when he’d told her it
wasn’t the Earth she’d known?

She was very afraid she was beginning
to understand and yet she refused to allow the thoughts to take
hold of her, pushing them to the back of her mind.

She was developing blisters from the
slipping boots before the first crumbling wall came into view. She
halted abruptly, staring at the fading colors she could see where
climbing vines had been ripped away to reveal parts of what had
once been a building of some sort. Tariq stopped and turned to look
at her questioningly.

Swallowing a little convulsively when
she recognized the symbols on the wall, she looked at Tariq a
little beseechingly. “I don’t want to see this.”

His gaze moved over her face. “You
wanted to know.”

She swallowed with an effort around
the knot in her throat. “I don’t think I want to
anymore.”

He returned to her, settling his hands
lightly on her shoulders. “You’re strong, Emerald. You can do
this.”

She looked up at him mournfully. “Do
what?”

“
Face what you must to
learn the truth.”

“
I’m … afraid,” she
admitted.

He pulled her closer, settling his
arms lightly around her. “I know, child, but I also know that you
are brave and strong. If I didn’t believe you had the strength to
face it, I wouldn’t have brought you.”

Emerald settled her cheek against his
chest, feeling like the child he’d called her, and yet comforted by
his embrace. The sense of security vanished almost as soon as he
pulled away and doubts rose again, but she allowed him to lead her
deeper into what had once been a great city.

Emerald felt her flesh creep as they
walked, felt as if the gaping holes in the crumbling walls were
eyes staring down at her, almost as if they were accusing her.
After a few moments, they reached an intersection and she
discovered the source of some of the noises she’d been hearing
growing steadily louder.

Approximately a block from the
intersection, she saw people laboring. She glanced at Tariq
questioningly, but he was focused on the activity ahead of
them.

“
What are they doing?” she
asked curiously.

“
Excavating,” Tariq
responded shortly.

She could see that. She just didn’t
understand what they were looking for. “For what?”

His gaze flickered over her briefly
before he looked away again. “Answers.” He halted when they reached
the dig, looked around, and finally walked her to a low stone wall
and told her to sit. Abandoning her there, he strode purposefully
toward the hole in the ground and halted at the edge, his legs
slightly apart, his hands on his hips. In a few moments, Emerald
saw a figure she thought she recognized. As he neared Tariq, she
became certain it was Koryn.

“
We found two more!” he
said, excitement threading his voice. The look of pleasure vanished
and an expression of shock washed across his features as he glanced
in her direction and spied her. “What is she doing
here?”

Tariq turned to look at her. “She
decided to explore on her own and find her answers.”

“
So you brought her here?”
Koryn asked, his voice tight with angry disbelief.

Tariq’s expression tightened. He
didn’t say anything. His expression was sufficient to silence any
further objection Koryn might have made.

Koryn nodded stiffly, wrestled with
himself, and plunged onward. “You said she was too … important to
our mission to risk. Her mind is too fragile right now.”

“
I underestimated her
determination and her ingenuity,” Tariq responded coolly. “She
found her way to the observation deck—undeterred by the fact that
she had no clothing. So much for your certainty that she wasn’t
likely to attempt anything when she felt vulnerable and exposed!
She’d already seen the dig site by the time I located
her.”

“
She wasn’t under
guard?”

Tariq studied Koryn in stony silence
for a long moment. “You presume too much on our friendship, Koryn,”
he said coldly instead of reminding Koryn that the majority of the
ship’s personnel was at the dig.

Koryn reddened. “My apologies, my
lord! But the mission ….”

“
If we fail, it’s my ass,
not yours.”

Koryn wrestled with himself. “It isn’t
just the mission, Tariq! You know we’ve found damned little to go
on at all and half of that is useless! I thought we’d agreed that
she was far too … special to take unnecessary risks with
her!”

“
I do agree,” Tariq
responded grimly. “Completely. I would’ve prevented the situation
if I could have, but she was asleep the last I checked on her—She
should’ve slept a full cycle. She didn’t and she decided to test
her boundaries. Beyond that, as … keen as my interest in her is, I
have responsibilities that take precedence over my personal
desires. If she hadn’t forced my hand, I would’ve put this off as
long as possible, but she did. Now we have to deal with
it.”

Koryn swallowed his anger with an
effort and nodded. “How is she doing?”

“
Surprisingly well,
frightened, but that’s to be expected.”

Koryn relaxed fractionally. “How much
have you told her?”

Tariq shrugged. “Enough for her to
begin to understand.”

“
I’d like to assess her
mental state myself.”

Tariq nodded. “I thought you would.
Where did you locate the remains? I’m assuming from the way you
announced it that you feel like there’s a good chance of extracting
sufficient DNA for our needs?”

Koryn shifted uncomfortably. “I won’t
know until I get them back to the lab. I think so, though. They’re
remarkably well preserved.”

“
Male or
female?”

“
One of each,” Koryn said,
grinning abruptly.

“
Two females and three
males,” Tariq said dryly. “We make progress.”