Defying Death (19 page)

Her erotic humming hardened his cock.

“What is your female talking about?” Menace looked
at him.

Death said nothing. The warrior would learn soon
enough that his female questioned anything and everything in the
universe.

A stone skittered along the sand behind them. Menace
turned his head. “We’re being watched.” His hands lowered once more
to his guns.

“No killing,” Tifara yelled, emerging from her
medical stupor.

“It’s the clone female,” Death explained.

“There’s nothing to fear, Ada-971.” His female
communicated. “Death’s friend, Menace, has joined him in
exile.”

“The humanoid has a model number?” Menace lifted his
eyebrows. “How is—”

Ada-971 emerged from the shadows, her gun in her
hands, and the warrior stopped talking. His eyes rounded and his
jaw dropped.

Tifara held up her private viewscreen, scanning
first Menace and then the clone female. “Interesting.”

“You chose to join your friend in exile?” Ada-971
asked, respect in her expression.

Menace nodded excessively, his head bobbing like a
severed skull bouncing on hard rock.

The male was besotted.

“We need another cyborg or another female or
ideally, both, and I could test this theory,” Tifara mused.

Another cyborg. Fraggin’ hole. He was losing his
edge. “Are your transmission lines still open?” Death demanded. “If
they are, you’ll leave a trail for the council warriors.”

“I’m keeping them open for Mayhem.” Menace’s gaze
didn’t move from Ada-971. “He got himself abducted by a tiny
humanoid female.” He grinned. “Once he frees himself, he’ll join
us. I look forward to hearing
that
story.”

Mayhem would be ridiculed for the rest of his
lifespan. The two warriors were extremely competitive and didn’t
tolerate any weaknesses.

“Some humanoid females have trapping skills.”
Ada-971 frowned.

“I didn’t say they don’t have trapping skills,”
Menace rushed to assure her. “Humanoid females are wondrous beings,
tall and strong with white hair and eyes the color of an Aquilan
sky.”

“You’ve been to Aquila V?”

Fraggin’ hole. They were
both
besotted.

His female must have reached the same conclusion.
“The symptoms are very similar yet, again, confined to the two of
them.”

She held the private viewscreen at arm’s length and
pointed it at herself. Death watched her, bemused. His determined
human was scanning herself.

She studied the findings. “My body shows the
opposite reaction to the other male’s presence. The constant
arousal I experience around you, my new normal, has decreased in
his proximity.”

“Because he’s not your male,” Death explained yet
again. “You’re mine. Your body reacts only to my presence.”

Menace reached out to touch Ada-971’s hair.

“Don’t touch her.” Tifara barked.

“It’s forbidden,” the clone female murmured. “But
the rules no longer apply to us. We’re in exile.”

“We’re both in exile.” Menace’s voice was
ridiculously soft.

Death stared at him. Did
his
voice lower when
he spoke to Tifara also? Had he been unknowingly revealing his
caring, putting her at risk?

“No contact until I scan Ada-972 while Menace is in
her presence.” His medic didn’t care about rules. She was concerned
with her experiments.

“There will be no scanning of Ada-972.” Death
deactivated the sensors around the ship. “If Menace can track us
here, others will also. We should leave the planet
immediately.”

“We can’t leave until Mayhem arrives.” Menace winked
at Ada-971 and a flush of purple pigment swept over her face. “This
is our designated meeting location and he’ll have a challenge
reaching this point. He doesn’t have a ship.”

Death glanced at Tifara.

She gazed at him, not at her private viewscreen. “We
have to wait.” She read his processors. “He followed you, leaving
everything and everyone else he knew. We can’t leave him.”

He blew out his breath. She was right. “We’ll leave
the planet once Mayhem arrives.” It felt like yet another mistake
but he owed his brethren that consideration.

He owed his friend. Death caught Menace’s gaze. “You
could explore other parts of the planet while we wait. Standing by
my side might result in your death.” Everyone he cared for died. He
stepped closer to Tifara. “It’s dangerous being my…”

He paused, the word stuck in his throat.

“Being your friend.” Menace completed the sentence
for him. “We’ve been friends for many human lifespans, Death.
Saying the words isn’t necessary. Mayhem and I feel it in your
actions.”

Tifara slid her palm in his.

“Only a friend would have acted like such a stubborn
ass and stunned me when I tried to help him.” Menace’s teeth
flashed, the male rarely serious. “If you hadn’t cared for me, you
would have seen the logic in my offer and accepted my
assistance.”

“Ada-972 tried to stop me from joining her in exile
also.” The clone female looked at the warrior with open
admiration.

“But you are a brave, loyal, caring female and you
followed her.” Menace beamed with approval and pride. “And that led
you here, to me.”

“She knows what you are.” Death interrupted the
cooing. “She can never again communicate with others. It would put
our cyborg brethren in jeopardy.”

“Who would I communicate with?” Ada-971 muttered.
“I’m exiled.”

“I’ll stay with her at all times.” Menace put his
arm around her waist. The female jerked, her eyes widening.

“So much for no contact,” Tifara muttered. She held
up her private viewscreen. “Arousal has increased but there’s been
no transfer of nanocybotics. She’s not yet infected.”

“Infected?” Menace repeated.

“Arousal?” Ada-971 squeaked.

“Your theory appears to be correct.” His little
medic didn’t sound pleased about that. “The infection must be
spread solely by exchange of fluids—saliva and cum.”

Ada-971’s face turned bright purple. Menace’s eyes
gleamed.

Death was interested in exchanging fluids with his
own female. “You don’t need to be present for that.” He led Tifara
up the ramp, into the ship.

“But—”

“You just scanned them. You can scan them after they
breed.” If that happened. According to Ada-972, fornication, the
humanoid’s fancy word for breeding, was forbidden.

His lips twitched. His friend had a challenge ahead
of him.

“We
could
do that. I suppose.”

“Yes,
we
could do that.” Death liked that she
referred to them as a couple, a team, a family. He had a family, a
female to care for and breed with, and he had friends. Two warriors
who chose to follow him into exile and a small clone female who
would soon be claimed by one of them.

His tread lightened.

“I scanned Ada-972 this planet rotation. It would be
very interesting to see what her reaction is to your friend’s
presence. Her genetic code should be identical to Ada-971’s.”

“Unless there’s an abnormality.” Death lifted Tifara
onto the sleeping support.

“Unless there’s an abnormality.” Her eyes shone with
respect. “What if she has the same genetic defect as I do?”

“That’s impossible.” He brushed her out-of-control
curls away from her pale face.

“Why?” Lines formed between her eyebrows.

“Because there’s nothing defective about you.” Death
kissed those tiny indents. “You’re perfect.”

“No being is perfect, Death.” Her eyes softened with
desire.

“You are.” He took the private viewscreen from her
hands and placed it to the side. “You’re perfect in every way.”

Her lips moved but she didn’t speak.

He’d rendered his normally talkative human
silent.

He opened his mouth.

“No, don’t.” She covered his lips with her fingers.
“Don’t ruin the moment by asking me to suck your cock.”

Death grinned. He
was
going to ask her
that.

At sunrise,
Tifara found herself positioned between Death’s bare legs, his hard
shaft in her wet mouth. She had no objections to sucking his cock.
She enjoyed it tremendously, loved how powerful it made her feel,
holding one of her male’s few areas of vulnerability between her
lip-covered teeth.

But she fought his constant requests out of
principle. She was a medic, not a brainless breeding female,
existing solely for his pleasure.

Death watched her as she bobbed over him. His arms
were folded behind his head. His eyes were dark with passion. He
was a magnificent male, dominant. Even his cyborg friend, Menace,
recognized his authority.

Tifara inhaled Death’s shaft, relishing the
unrelenting rigidity of his shaft against her tongue, his skin
merely a thin veneer of softness. She had a superior warrior, a
male who weighed his words before speaking, one who didn’t take his
lifespan or happiness for granted.

He groaned as she released him. The sound rolled
along her spine, spreading need and want to every curve. Their
attraction had a biological base. His nanocybotics fizzed and
popped inside her. Yet it had surpassed that.

Tifara liked his mind, not merely his fit physique.
She slid her lips up and down his cock. More and more, she found
herself waiting for his few words, his rare input. She felt safe
around him. He protected both her body and her thoughts.

He didn’t see her inability to save beings as a
failure but as a triumph. She extended the lifespans of beings,
granting them more moments with their loved ones. No one had ever
given her that gift, the ability to forgive herself.

And he did that because he understood her. He cared.
He might not love her, not yet, but he valued her, cherished her,
made her feel desired and wanted.

That realization had changed the purpose of her
experiments. She no longer searched for a cure. Instead, she sought
to understand the virus, the bonding they’d experienced.

Tifara licked around his rim, flicked her tongue
over his tip, and he rumbled, the muscles in his upper thighs
flexing. Pre-cum flavored his skin, decadent, delicious. Tifara
nuzzled against him.

“Don’t tease me, my female.” His eyes blazed.

“Or what?” She nipped his shaft.

“Or I’ll take what I want.” He surged forward, sank
his fingers into her hair and pushed her down, forcing her to
inhale him.

She accepted everything he gave her, with a smile.
Her lips curled around his shaft. She loved it when her cyborg lost
patience, when he needed her too much to wait.

He guided her up and down, his pace fast and hard.
She wrapped her fingers around his base and sucked, working his
cock, murmuring words of appeasement against his flesh.

He was too far gone for her apologies. Death was in
control, never pushing her too deep, careful not to hurt her, but
he knew what he wanted, his focus on his satisfaction, a
satisfaction only she could grant him.

He wouldn’t last long. His cock swelled in her
mouth. His balls hugged his base.

He’d fucked her twice during the rest cycle. She’d
fallen asleep and woken up with him inside her. Yet his desire for
her didn’t wane.

Her passion for him was as strong. Her nipples were
tight. Her pussy was wet. When he came, she would too, that
phenomenon always taking her by surprise.

She wiggled her ass, anticipating that pleasure.

“You’re so soft and full and beautiful, female.”
Death’s voice was as deep as space. “My cock is between your pink
lips. I feel your heat, your wetness around me, yet I can’t process
that you’re mine. How can this much joy be possible?”

He didn’t say much, but when he did speak, he ripped
her heart into pieces. She mumbled that he was worthy of such joy,
that he deserved every moment of it and more, that she was his in
every way. Her words were muffled by his shaft but she let the
emotion shine from her eyes.

“Frag, female.” A tremor shook him. “Frag.” His
fingers closed and opened, closed and opened in her hair.

Tifara wouldn’t make him beg. She sank down on him,
cupped his balls and squeezed.

“My female,” he roared, thrusting upward. She moved
with him, sealing her lips around his base. Hot jets of cum
splattered against her throat. She swallowed, pleasure raged over
her, tearing her to strips, and she screamed.

This repeated again and again. He came. She
swallowed. She screamed. He came. She swallowed. She screamed. Her
voice faded before he stopped coming.

The bliss destroyed her. She licked the last drops
from his skin and slumped against him, her brain fried, her limbs
limp.

“My Tifara.” He pulled her lifeless body upward and
placed her head on his heaving chest. “You are skilled at sucking
my cock.”

“Thank you.” Her voice lilted with humor. “It’s good
to know my solar cycles at the Academy honing my intelligence were
useful.”

His lips twitched. Making her grim cyborg smile had
become a personal quest of hers.

He brushed his fingers through her hair, curled a
strand around a fingertip. “You were in many of your friend
Safyre’s recordings and you were always smiling, so open with your
joy, with your caring.”

She had that luxury. Tifara gazed at his solemn
face. She hadn’t been punished for expressing her happiness. She
hadn’t killed a child because she’d smiled at her.

“Before I was able to retrieve you, I spent many
moments thinking of your smile, imagining that it was for me, that
the caring in your eyes was directed my way.”

“Did you?” A ball of fierce emotion formed in her
throat. Her dour warrior had spent the precious time between
battles imagining a female he’d never met was smiling at him.

“I did.” Death nodded. “When you suck my cock, I
know I’m in your thoughts. And when you smile around me, I—” His
voice broke.