His Fire Maiden (9 page)

B
efore today
, Violette had only seen pictures of the Murkernal natives in her father’s archives. Part of her lessons had included alien cultures. She always had the impression he wanted her to be a Federation diplomat. Instead, she captained a crew and made space runs as an independent contractor. When the general had been in charge of Rifflen, she was also allowed certain privileges on the base that most civilians wouldn’t have access to. It was how Dev was able to obtain Federation records inside her pod about the planet that he might not otherwise have been able to see.

When they held still, the Murkernals looked like sticks in woven jumpsuits with a round ball for a head on top. They were a harmless, playful race on a planet that had no real value to anyone but them. They also had a fondness for any traveler bigger than they were. Dev, being of considerable size, naturally caught their eager attention. For a moment, she’d considered running off while he was swarmed. She suspected he wouldn’t hurt the locals. Despite his gruff manners, he was very gentle with them. It was his pleading, helpless eyes, in the midst of all their friendliness that had made her stay.

Earlier, she hadn’t stopped to wonder about how he stiffened for a fleeting second each time she touched him. Seeing his expression in light of the Murkernals playfulness, she felt sorry for him. He wasn’t used to receiving affection.

Even now, the natives followed him around their small village, gazing up at him, trying to hold onto his pant legs. They made it difficult for the big demon man to walk. Violette found it adorable.

Evening skies cast the planet in a red and orange light. Streaks of purple outlined the horizon. There were no homes, no buildings, no communication towers, only low-hung canopies that stretched over a clearing and inadequately hid a wooden door on the ground. Dev couldn’t have picked a more out of the way location to elude her crew. Who would think to look for them here?

“How exactly are we here to help?” Dev asked. Before she could answer, the natives ran to a large tree and lifted their arms, jumping excitedly. They were too short to reach the branches, and when they tried to climb the slick trunk, they slid down.

Violette exchanged a look with Dev before nodding toward the tree. He slowly approached, hesitated, and then gently grabbed a local with blue hair and lifted him up. The whistling became more pronounced as the Murkernal kicked his feet in excitement.

Violette stepped back from the gathering crowd, not taking her eyes off Dev. The local reached into the tree limbs to retrieve a large berry. He jerked impatiently as Dev lowered him back to the ground. Instead of lifting another one, Dev reached into the tree and began picking fruit. He handed the food down to his enthusiastic followers, who then ran away to eat. When everyone had been fed, she approached Dev.

“You’ve made the settlement very happy.” She reached into the tree and took a piece of fruit. She sniffed it but didn’t eat.

“This planet is…” Dev glanced to where the Murkernals scrambled under the canopy. They beat their feet against the ground, digging a hole straight down to bury their bodies until only their heads were above the earth. Cheeks moved as they sucked the fruit. Dev tilted his head to better see them. “I have seen many races, but these—”

“Murkernals,” Violette supplied.

“—Murkernals are very strange beings.”

“I think they’re cute.” Violette tossed the fruit into the air in front of him. Dev automatically caught it. “I’m not sure we should find food here. I’ll stick with the foil packs.”

“Scared?” He arched a brow and made a move to bring it to his mouth.

“Smart,” she corrected. “I’ve seen what the Da’Na virus in non-regulated food can do to a person. You might like liquefied insides, but this,” she gestured impishly to her face, “is too pretty for stink pustules.”

Dev grinned and placed the piece of fruit on the ground, leaving it uneaten.

“I’m going to the pod,” she said. “I’ll be back.”

“How about I go with you?”

It wasn’t a request. She chuckled. “Worried I’ll reset your communication signal?”

Violette had thought about trying. She might even succeed in doing so. However, she had an excellent reason not to. This adventure gave her the chance to find Josselyn when his crew came to retrieve him.

“No.” He nodded that she should walk.

“If I were going to try to fly the pod, I would have left earlier.” She leaned over to look under the canopy to the contented heads poking out of the ground. Violette took a deep breath. She envied the odd simplicity of the Murkernals. One visiting giant handed them pieces of fruit and they were ecstatic. She couldn’t imagine anything that would make her that happy. She looked up at Dev. Maybe he’d give her a slice of happy-fruit. “Would it be so bad if I stranded you here? You could live like a god.”

He again gestured that she walk with him. “I already have a job.”

For a moment, she had forgotten who they were. Her smile fell some, and they walked I silence over the path to the field of orange grasses. The pod was just as they’d left it. Violette grabbed foil packs out of a side compartment. Dev took the emergency kit.

“There has to be something we can eat besides sludge,” Dev muttered, eyeing the packs. “I never thought I’d say I miss a food simulator.”

“At least, these have nutrients. Simulated food. The name says it all.” Violette wasn’t sure why she was defending the foil pack of all things.

“Forgive me. I did not mean to insult your childhood traditions.” Dev swept his feet as he walked, looking through the grass as they made their way back to the darkening path.

“That’s very kind of you.” The words sounded sarcastic, even though she didn’t mean them to. Violette wanted to say more but over-thought every word before it made its way out of her mouth. She was used to conversations where she either gave orders or argued a point. “Back on the ship, you said something about your father not being anyone to grieve over. Why is that? Was he a bad man?”

“He was a full-blooded Bevlon.” The statement was simple as if that should fully explain his past.

“And your mother?” He’d called himself humanoid when he was trapped in the crate, but Violette wanted to know more. The man kept his emotions close, but she saw the pain in his eyes.

“Human.”

“I guess I don’t understand. So, being Bevlon means you don’t mourn the dead?” Violette couldn’t imagine. She missed her father every day.

He sighed heavily and studied her. “What are you asking?”

“I’m trying to…” Violette gave a helpless gesture. She was about as good at these get-to-know-you conversations as he was. “I don’t know. I’m trying to make conversation, trying to understand why you are the way you are. Were you close to your parents? Were you happy as a child? Are they alive?”

“Oh.” That seemed to surprise him, as if no one had ever asked him such questions before. She found that sad. “My, ah, mother’s people, humans, they tend to think I am too fierce, a spawn of the devil, the reincarnation of Ancient Old Earth’s demons, that kind of thing. So they really don’t have much to do with me.”

“That doesn’t make sense to me,” she answered. “It isn’t as if aliens are a foreign concept in the universe.”

“True, but Bevlons just happen to look like the old earthling version of pure evil, and it doesn’t help that my paternal race as a whole are self-serving and cruel.”

“But surely your mother didn’t feel that way. I mean, she had you, so that means she had to accept who your father was.”

“I’m unclear how it happened. After my birth, my mother wanted nothing to do with her demon baby. The last I heard she’d wed a human charm-preacher and settled on some remote planet. I have no memory of what my mother looks like, and my father refuses to give me so much as her name. For all I know, she is married to the Data Moon Brimstoneman who tried to have me sacrificed several years back.”

She started to laugh at the obvious exaggeration, but then stopped. “You’re not kidding, are you?”

He shook his head. “No. It’s how I came to be with my current crew. They saved me from the fire.”

“Fire? I thought Bevlons liked the fire.”

“Fire hurts, but it won’t kill me directly. Intense heat will dehydrate me over a period of several agonizingly painful days. Accounting for that fact, the Brimstoneman had me dragged over sharp rocks to tear my flesh. A Bevlon’s skin can survive flames, but our insides cannot. If the zealots had any kindness, they would have tried to drop me into freezing temperatures so that death would come swiftly.”

“So then you were raised by your father, like me,” she said.

“Yes, I was, but not like you. Because of my mixed heritage and lack of hooves and horns, the Bevlons thought I wasn’t demonic enough. They accused me of being too tame and put me through trials to toughen me. When I was of age to do so, I left.”

Violette wanted to reach out to him, to pull him into her arms, but refrained. Dev clearly had no place in either culture. She couldn’t imagine such a life. No wonder he was so close to his crew.

The sun had almost set behind the horizon. Bright stars gave light to see by. Once at the settlement, Dev put the kit on the ground and pulled out a collapsible emergency ladder. She watched as he secured it to a fruit tree branch.

Soft, steady whistles came from under the canopy as if the creatures slept. “Do you think they wait around for tall visitors to feed them?”

He picked an orange seed off his pant leg. “I think they eat grass and probably wait for food to fall on the ground. If they were gluttonous, the one I put into the tree would have taken more than his fill, so I think there is no harm in giving them better access to—”

Her lips cut off his words. Violette wasn’t sure what prompted her to act, but she kissed him.

Dev pulled back in question.

“Come closer,” she whispered.

“There are rules about prisoners.” He glanced to the sleeping aliens.

“Just a little bit closer,” she insisted. “The night is cool, and you are warm.”

“I am trying very hard to resist you.” He swayed in her direction.

“I wish you wouldn’t.” She licked her lips, noticing how his eyes kept dipping down to look at them. “You’re a very rules kind of man, aren’t you, Dev?”

He nodded. “I have certain codes I live by.”

“Closer.” She kept her voice soft as she leaned into him. “We all have codes, rules, duties.”

“We are on opposite sides of—”

“Of?” She touched his chest, sliding her fingers over the hard ridges of his muscles.

“Of…” He glanced down, and she drew her hands up to cup his face and turn his gaze back to hers.

“Come closer.” The more he tried to resist, the more she wanted him. She saw the struggling in his expression, knew that he wanted to deny himself the pleasure they shared.

Violette gripped his face tighter. The heat of him drew her to lean fully against his body. This made more sense to her than conversation. What could she say that wasn’t already said? He wanted to protect Josselyn. She needed to honor her father with revenge. This was not a point on which they would meet. Even so, take away that fact, and she was left with wanting to kiss him.

Rigid control over her emotions only kept her desire for him at bay for so long. In that they were the same. But, there were no eyes on them here, not that she cared if people found out she’d had sex with a Bevlon. She did care about her crew thinking she was going soft.

“Closer,” she demanded in a part growl.

Dev finally returned her kiss. He cupped her ass and lifted her off the ground in one swift movement. Her nerves tingled where they touched and ached where they didn’t. She wrapped her legs around his hips. He walked her away from the canopy, only to go to his knees when they were hidden from view behind the fruit tree.

Firm ground pressed against her back, and she unwrapped her legs. The hunger grew. With every brush of his clothing, the frenzy inside of her built. When she touched him, she felt alive. Her breath quickened. She clawed at his pants to strip the material off him before moving to wiggle out of her own. No man had ever driven her to such a chaotic need. This was a primal dance they both understood.

He pushed the back of her leg, lifting her thigh to kiss the sensitive flesh leading from her knee to her sex. She ran her fingers through his dark hair. The natural heat made the trail of his mouth unmistakable, and with each kiss, she tensed with growing need. Moisture gathered in her pussy. Her toes curled in anticipation. She tried to force his head to her sex, but she could no longer move him than she could change the rotation of a planet.

Violette bit her lip to keep quiet. She doubted the natives would be moving around anytime soon, but this is not how she wanted to be caught. Her hips lifted and gyrated as if with a mind of their own. Her legs worked against his shoulders, hooking him the best she could manage to urge him closer.

Lips finally met the sensitive flesh of her sex, and she inhaled a sharp breath. Intense heat added to the pleasure of his wet kisses. Her heels dug into the ground. Hands roamed her thighs and stomach. She was aware of him and only him. An ache built inside her, centering on his mouth.

Violette pulled his hair. Dev obeyed her plea and crawled over her body. His handsome face hovered over hers. She ran her hand under his shirt to his back. His muscles shifted. The pant of his breath tickled her cheek. The depths of his dark eyes bore into hers. Deep emotions were buried there.

Slowly he entered her, each second filled with the promise of completion. She lifted to kiss him, but he drew his lips beyond her reach and continued to stare into eyes. In that moment, she understood what he sought. He wanted her to know who she was with, who was giving her pleasure. It was a desperate need that she should see him for what he was—a self-proclaimed demon.

But Violette did not see a demon when she looked at Dev. She wasn’t frightened by him, or repulsed. In fact, it was quiet the opposite. She was attracted to him on a primordial level. He was gravity, and she was a helpless meteor being drawn into his orbit. They crashed together as he slid fully into her depths. She gasped as he rocked his hips into her. The stars danced behind his head, framing his dark hair with their bright light. Rarely had she seen stars so big from the surface of a planet.