Eban's Command: Scifi Alien Abduction Romance (Science Fiction Alien Romance) (Survival Wars Book 2) (9 page)

The last thing she saw was Tullia staring at her in horror,
arm uselessly outstretched.

The world started to spin crazily around her. Even with the
low gravity, there was nothing she could do. All she could see were flashing
colors. All she could feel was vertigo, her brain scrambling with dizziness,
and the friction of the air system scraping her skin. There was no telling how
fast she fell, how close the ground was. She couldn’t do anything, couldn’t
move on her own, though the wind flailed her limbs and her head suddenly
snapped back.

Her neck cracked suddenly, and everything came to a jarring
halt.

“Don’t worry,” Eban murmured. “I’ll always catch you when
you fall.”

It hurt right at the base of her skull when she moved her
head to look up. They were drifting now, pulled steadily downward, with half of
her body cradled against the Icari commander. Directly below, the attackers
were thumping their hammerlike fists on the ground and roaring.

Saffron tried to speak, but no words would come from her
struggling lungs. Nothing hurt, but everything ached from whiplash. Eban just
smiled down at her a little. “Don’t worry.” Then, he looked up at the ranks of
his people all crowded on the rafters. “Icari!” he called. “To me!”

In a rainbow cascade, the Icari dove directly for the
ground. Tullia was the fastest, wings pressed flat to her back as she dropped
into a hurtling fall that saw her crashing right into one of the invaders. They
fell to the ground and began to brawl, but the golem-like creature was too slow
compared to Tullia’s lightning-fast jabs. Light flashed across a paring knife,
the same one she always kept tucked into her harness. Blood spurted through the
air as she slammed it into every available weak point in the gaps of the
invader’s armor.

The fighting began in earnest as Eban came to a rest on the
ground behind a bench, one wing spread out to cover Saffron. The Icari were
small and slender, tossed around like mere ants, and only a few of them had any
weapons, but there was a strength in numbers that could not be denied. In only
a moment, she watched as Karree launched herself from a perch, slammed one into
the ground with her fists, and then leapt away again with blood seeping from
her hands; the moment the creature hit the floor, a swarm of children leapt
upon it, clawing and kicking. Here and there, she saw a broader pair of Icari who
had never spoken to her. They were obligatory guards, and they flashed their
weapons now, firing again and again. When they had to reload, one covered the
other.

And so it went on.

The fire at the front of the ship was spreading, smoke blown
closer and closer to the battlefield by the air currents. Most of it drifted up
due to the lack of gravity but some of it was far too close to the
delicate-bodies Icari. Saffron swallowed hard, already able to taste the acrid
tang of poison in the back of her throat. “Eban, the smoke…”

“I know,” he said tightly. “I dispatched the filtration
workers first thing. With any luck, they’ll…”

A peal of thunder sounded in her ears, so painful and
enormous she thought her ears might split and her brain would liquefy. Clamping
her hands to the side of her head, Saffron shut her eyes tight; nothing would
have been able to stop her from hearing Eban’s cry of pain, and a resounding
crash as his body was flung.

“Found…you,” a garbled voice groaned, sounding like an
earthquake. The sound of it thrummed in her chest like a bass drum beat. Hardly
daring to open her eyes, she saw a mountain standing over her. It was the
largest invader, the leader with jagged protrusions thrusting up from his back.
He wasn’t look at her, however.

Rolling her eyes, she saw Eban struggling to sit up. One of
his wings hung crooked and she had to strangle a gasp, forcing herself to
remember that the wings weren’t actually part of him.

“Nothing better to do, huh?” Eban grunted, reaching to the
floor and pushing himself up to his feet. “Must be really bad at your job.”

The mountain grunted, then flashed a mouthful of sharp
teeth. Lifting up one foot, it took an eternity to fall again before the next
could rise. He lumbered, but so steadily that Saffron had no idea how anyone
was managing to knock these creatures over at all. “I remember…you,” the
invader said. “You…ran away.”

Finally standing up, Eban shrugged out of his vest and his
wings crashed to the floor. “Yes. I ran away. But not this time.”

Just then, an enormous howl of wind, like a hurricane, swept
through the atrium. Icari everywhere went tumbling like drifting weeds in old
Western TV shows. Even Saffron was pushed across the floor, her back and neck
pressing painfully into the legs of the bench.

The mountainous invader turned his head nearly all the way
around to look over his shoulder. The fire was blazing as strong as ever, but
the smoke was being sucked rapidly into vents. Already, the burning in her
lungs faded.

The mechanics reached the filtration system,
she
thought.

It wasn’t enough to distract the invaders for long. Once
more, their leader turned to face Eban, but the commander was already there. He
held in his hand a slim piece of machinery with an open circular area at one
end, resembling a gun if not for the glowing coming from within.

“Don’t think I haven’t studied you,” Eban said grimly. “And
collected every bit of information I could find on you, from those you
terrorized. It ends today. Go back to where you came from.”

A clublike arm lifted into the air.

The shot was soundless but glaringly blue, not at all like
the soothing interior lights. It burned her eyes, and a much cleaner scent of
burning caught in her nostrils as the invading leader reeled back, a hole burnt
so severely into his upper arm that she could see…

She didn’t want to see, and looked away.

The end came quickly, after that. Injured and warned, the
invader retreated and gathered his people to him with a long, drawn-out call.
They returned to him like dogs, and wandered back the way they came without so
much as another word.

That’s impossible!

“Not quite,” Eban grunted, leaning down over her. She hadn’t
been quite aware that she’d spoken aloud, but it didn’t matter because he was
holding her, cradling the back of her head firmly in one hand, and her neck
with the other. “They’re just like any other bully. Took them twenty years to
try and come back for more, but when the victim pushes back, they scurry away
like that. So it is with anything else. But, they won’t be bothering us ever
again.”

Nothing he said in that moment would have really convinced
her of that fact, but it didn’t matter. His hands on her body, cradling the
part of her that hurt the most, felt almost heavenly. And she was so, so tired,
her body slumping against his.

“I cannot stay,” he confessed softly. “My people need me
now. But I swear to you that I will return.”

“I believe you,” she sighed, and the last thing she saw
before another Icari bent over her to take his place was the promise in his
eyes.

The damage was extensive but not nearly as bad as it could
have been. That was what Saffron would say, wasn’t it? He tried to believe it
because he knew it was his job to find a way to bolster his people, but they
hadn’t even had time to recover from the last letdown and now this! Would he
never see peace?

He sighed, and lightly stroked the smoke-smeared surface of
his command console. Poison buzzed unpleasantly at his skin, but it would do no
harm unless he decided to lick it for some reason. Really, nothing was ever
really as bad as it could have been but that didn’t lessen the reality that
they had taken some very heavy blows. The explosions had broken screens and
scrambled equipment, though the resulting fires and smoke had only clogged and
overheated other assorted machinery. With the dust all settled now, and with
everyone having removed their wings before entering to avoid stirring anything
up, eventually it would be cleaned enough to the point where they could start checking
and repairing systems. As it turned out, metal was much more resistant to
burning than simple homes.

Unfortunately, not everything could be so easily fixed as
computers.

Fourteen were dead, Tullia amongst them. Two were children,
and five were elders. He knew every single one of them and their families, and
had personally overseen every ingle funeral as the bodies were placed into the
earth. No condolences were given, because that wasn’t their way. He wasn’t
going to lie to someone about something being okay when he knew it never would
be. Long after everything else was fixed, those fourteen would still be gone
and buried.

It was two days before he could even manage to take a break
like this, to simply breathe and stay in one place. He hadn’t had a chance to
check on Saffron and hoped she would understand. Even with her strained neck,
he had heard that she was out amongst the general populace and helping them
with anything they might need.

Deep affection for her filled his chest. She was exactly the
sort of person he needed at his side. Not just as a companion or lover, or a
friend, but as his true mate.

His gaze slid across the command room to where Karree was
watching him. That was a little bit odd, but now that their eyes met, she
started to wander over under the pretense of checking out the rest of the row
ahead of her. He tried to smile for her, but he knew from her expression that
this was going to be trouble.

“Sir,” she said, coming to stand silently at his side.

The last thing I want to do is explain to her that
there’s someone else in my life but I’m going to have to sooner or later.
Sooner, probably.

“Yes, first mate?” he asked, trying to make his voice sound
light and keep this thoughts from breaking in. “What are you thinking about?”

She hesitated, looking down at the tiles beneath her feet.
“Times like this make me think that merely having a commander to keep them
hopeful isn’t enough. They need specific events for that.”

Eban snorted a little, hoping that he could head this off at
the pass. “I already tried that, remember? Yesterday was supposed to be a day
of feasting but who wants to eat when the whole ship smells of fire and death?”

“Something more concrete than that,” she insisted, and then
looked up at him. Her eyes were shining with the same sort of emotion that he
felt inside himself when he thought about Saffron. “Maybe it’s time that our
beloved commander started a family.”

Her hand slid into his. It was warm, practically burning
with heat, and utterly soft. It was also so terribly wrong that he jerked away
without meaning to.

The softness with which she looked at him rapidly
evaporated. “By the flight,” she swore, her face darkening with anger. “I can’t
believe you! You would rather mess with that pitiable human than one of your
own kind?”

Stiffening with anger, Eban glared at her. “It is not for
you to decide my future.”

“I trusted you,” she choked out.

“And I will always trust
you
,” he said pointedly.
“This has nothing to do with trust because I have betrayed nothing. I never
once hinted to you that I wanted to be your mate.”

It didn’t matter what he said, which he knew. She turned
away from him and went away, her shoulders tensed up as if she was trying to
shield herself. He turned away too and went back to examining his monitors.
This was exactly what he’d needed, a sideways sort of validation for his own
feelings.

That night, he crept through the sleeping quarters and
knocked very lightly on Saffron’s door. With the lights so fully dark, he
expected her to be asleep but her soft voice came to him through the walls.
“I’m coming.”

Then, she was standing before him in only her underclothes.
His member hardened in his trousers, pressing his sensitive, swollen tip
against the rough fabric. She was just as beautiful as he thought she would be,
even with the slight bruising on her arms where she’d collided with a flight
hoop on her way down. Her breasts were perfect handfuls, barely held in check.
And her legs were smooth and supple, and he couldn’t help but to imagine how
they would look wrapped around his waist.

“Were you expecting someone else?” he asked blandly.

She looked away and blushed, which he loved. “No, you’re
exactly the man I was looking for. Do you…want to come in? Can you come in?”

Eban didn’t answer, instead choosing to just walk inside.
Saffron shut the door behind them, and then looked up into his eyes. “You have
no idea how often I daydreamed about this,” she whispered. “And yet here you
are. Finally for real.”

He stepped closer to her, so close that their thighs
touched. They were very nearly the same height and shape, which meant that he
could look right into her eyes when he kissed her. Their lips met, softly,
sweetly. He savored it, feeling the hardship of the day slowly melt away as his
whole world narrowed down to only one person.

“You’re so wonderful,” he whispered, his lips rubbing
against hers as he spoke. She replied by sliding her tongue into his mouth, and
the taste of her was sweeter than even his favorite fruit. His dick throbbed
harder for attention and he nudged his hips toward her, trying to grind them
together; her legs spread, she reached around and wrapped her hands around his
butt to pull him against her so that his engorged member rubbed right against
her pussy.

They stayed like that for an eternity, staring into each
other’s eyes as they ground their bodies together and shared a gasping breath
or two between hungry, needy kisses. Eban felt so wonderful, like he was
flying. He felt so far away from everything else but this woman in his arms,
digging her nails into his butt and clawing at the fabric like she might rip
through.

When he could stand it no longer, he moved her back step by
step to the edge of the bed. Smiling mischievously, she kept holding onto him
and fell abruptly back against the mattress; Eban broke the fall with his hands
and then looked down at her. Her hair was spread out everywhere, and her eyes
glowed with magic before she closed them.

“Please take me?” she begged. “I’ve waited so long for this.
I don’t know how much longer I can…”

He shushed her with a finger stroking over her soft lips.
“You won’t have to wait any longer,” he said breathlessly. “Just stay right
where you are.”

With that, he slid off the edge of the bed onto his knees.
Grabbing her thighs and spreading them gently, he breathed in her beautiful
scent of musk and desire; swallowing hard, he started trembling and realized
that he wanted to eat her, to devour her, to suck her juices and savor her like
he would his favorite treat.

You will be my favorite treat now,
he thought, and
slid one hand up from her thigh to her pussy. Her juices had soaked down all
the way through her panties and were trickling down her soft inner legs.
Reverently, he slid her panties all the way down so they puddled down onto the
floor. Tossing them away, he kissed his way from her knee and all the way up.

Her pussy was so pretty and swollen-pink, and her clit was
just begging to be sucked on. He wanted every single bit of her all at once, so
he opened his mouth as wide as he could and took in as much as he could.
Immediately, Saffron grabbed at his hair and started to whimper, begging him on
wordlessly. A wicked smile curled on his mouth, and he started to suck on her
noisily, pulling as much of her juices into his mouth as he could.

She started to moan in earnest, and he flicked his long
tongue out to lavish attention on her clit. Her hips started to raise up, her
butt shaking with tension as she pressed herself against his mouth as hard as
she could. His own excitement grew and grew, an he felt his seed start to climb
up his shaft in a burning wave of heat. His own body shook in unison with hers,
his heartbeat so loud he knew she could hear it, and he moved his mouth to wrap
around just her clit while his finger slid deep between her hot pussy lips.

“Eban!” she cried out, completely abandoning the need for
silence. And he let her, joyfully sucking on her needy clit while fucking her
roughly with his finger as deeply as he could reach.

Very quickly though, he couldn’t stand anymore of that. He
was throbbing, about to burst, and he wasn’t about to let it go to waste.

Quickly, he released her clit and yanked down his pants. Her
mouth opened in a cry of disappointment as he pulled away, but it quickly
changed to one of pure pleasure as he leapt back on top of her and slammed the
full length of his shaft right inside her. There was no teasing, and no drawing
it out. He took her mouth with his and adjusted his angle as he thrust in
again, the swollen and gleaming tip of his cock ramming right against her
g-spot.

Her pussy tightened around his shaft, her muscles gripping
him as her body shook and bucked in orgasm. The sensation of being squeezed was
so glorious that he cried out with her, begging and moaning soundlessly into her
mouth as his seed filled her and began to overflow. There was nothing in his
mind but light and freefall, his every sense strained to perfection.

When it was over, Saffron slid out from underneath him. Eban
glanced at his new mate. “What are you doing?”

In answer, she reached for his spent member. Already, he
started to harden again and knew that their night together was far from over.