Page 63 of No Strings Attached

She handed him the daggers back. “Put these on your arm just a little diagonally, enough so they don’t slide out.” He did so and she stood back to take him in. “Yes, that’s perfect.” She put her hands on her bare hips, then looked back up into his face. His gaze took a little longer to follow, as he was fixated on the way her gold-tipped breasts had bounced when she changed postures. “No. We need to come out swinging. Our message needs to be loud and proud from the first instant, and never let up.”

He nodded, not wanting to push the issue, and she smiled. “Now, shut up and kiss me, since we’re walking into what could very likely be our doom.”

He wrapped his arms around her and looked down into her face, “Everyone has to die, Vi. Only a few of us can be lucky enough to do it by your side. Why’d you change my belt?”

She snorted out a laugh before saying, “Because I need you to stand out so I can easily find you, even across a big room. Also, this way looks sexier.” She pointed to the daggers strapped to his bicep, waggled her eyebrows, and grinned.

“Only to you,” he grinned back. “You’re the only person in the universe who’ll ever use the term ‘sexy’ to refer to me, no matter how many daggers I’m wearing or what part of my body they’re strapped to.” Before she could protest, he leaned down and kissed her, briefly. “On the other hand, you’re going to draw the looks of every living male on the station walking out there like this, and I’m going to wish I had a hundred daggers strapped to me so I could take out all of their eyes.”

Everyone looked amazing in their gold and emerald Oz starbursts, belts, and daggers, but Bahbi felt himself bursting with pride at how Vi and Caussus looked as he turned on the light sources within the crowns’ emeralds. Then he surprised everyone by turning on a light source within each starburst’s emerald. They were all smaller than the ones in the crowns, but they looked magnificent together and provided another layer of visual unity to the group.

Caussus asked, “How did you come up with this idea of interior illumination, Master Bahbi?”

“I wanted to honor Malachite, since it’s him we’re wearing, and I thought of his method of communication with us. I thought it would make it feel like the gems were still a part of him. A living part. Or a part that lives on. I’m not sure which makes the most sense. Do you know what I mean?”

He had answered Caussus, but now saw that everyone was nodding and regarding him with a strange look. Admiration? Respect? He wasn’t sure. Vi wrapped her arms around his right bicep—the one without daggers—and rested her head on his shoulder.

She said, quietly, “I think it’s a wonderful way to honor him. I hope he sees us like this, somehow.”

Acken clapped his hands once, very loudly, and everyone jumped. “OK everyone, let’s practice our placement. Caussus, you stand there and Vi, you stand on his right. That’s right, Vi, take his arm. I will be forward of Caussus and to his left. Mister Beastly, you stand forward of Vi and to her right.” Mister Beastly took his place.

“Friend, you will walk in front of Caussus and Vi, in the middle.” Friend went to the front and sat down.

“Trak, directly behind Caussus. Bahbi, behind Vi. You will guard their asses.” Vi looked back at Bahbi and waggled her eyebrows again, before shaking her bare ass at him.

“Steev, I’d like your place to be slightly behind Bahbi and Trak, in the exact middle of the group, but higher above them. There, that’s the right place for your body, but raise up and loom forward, so that it seems you are guarding the entire party from that height.” Bahbi had to tilt his head all the way back to see Steev’s face.

“Perfect, Steev. Can you stay raised up that high until we reach your King and Queen?”

“Yes.”

Acken clapped again, causing his massive cock to swing. Bahbi thought that he should have made Acken’s daggers bigger, since they were dwarfed by his cock.

“Excellent. Now I will take my place in front of Caussus. Now, everyone look around you. Do you see any weak spots for protecting Vi and Caussus?” They didn’t.

Vi said, “I just…I just need to see how the group looks. Everyone hold still for a minute.”

She slipped her arm out of Caussus’s and skirted around Mister Beastly to stand before them. With her glowing crown floating above her head, her golden nipples, golden pussy, and curved daggers connected to the bands around her thighs, Bahbi thought she looked like the goddess of love and death. And though she had always been a goddess in his eyes, he was feeling a little regret at having played a primary role in transforming her into such an otherworldly beauty for the eyes of everyone else. He had joked about it with her in the hold, but he was starting to have some real anxiety about all of the males that might try to get close to her tonight. Would she find someone she thought sexier? It wouldn’t be difficult.

He watched her taking everyone in, admiring their glowing adornments and weapons, her green eyes shining with the reflection of everyone’s illuminated emeralds. Her voice didn’t sound steady when she spoke, and Bahbi could feel the weight of her emotion as strongly as if they were two halves of the same person.

“I just…I just want to thank each of you for joining with me in this fight. I don’t know what the future holds for us, but there have never been people I’ve been prouder to stand with than all of you. I love all of you—”

All of us?!

“—and I would proudly fight and die alongside any one of you.” She smiled, “But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Andlet’s all thank Bahbi for making us look so…fucking…good!” She threw a hip out at an extreme angle and held her arms out, as if to show just how fucking good she looked. As if every male in front of her didn’t already know.

Bahbi was enveloped in praise and congratulations from all sides as Vi walked back to stand in front of him. She reached her right hand back, the one that wasn’t linked in Caussus’s arm, and took his, just holding it for a few moments while Acken stepped out of their formation and inspected the group’s coverage.

Unable to help himself, he leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “You loveallof us?” He knew that he certainly loved her, completely and unequivocally. He had consulted Acken to figure out why he was experiencing pain—actual physical pain—when he was separated from Vi for any length of time. Acken had looked at him like he was a fool, at first, but then softened when he realized that Trallians didn’t form the type of bond that he had developed with Vi. It had been an awkward conversation, but Bahbi had left it with a better understanding of the emotions he was feeling.

She squeezed his hand and whispered, “Later,” as Acken passed by them in his review.

They made their way, in formation, down the ramp, and it began to retract as soon as they’d cleared it. Bahbi knew that the Trallian crew remaining behind would be listening in to the transmitter Acken still wore and ready to prepare for a hasty departure at a moment’s notice. They weren’t more than 20 feet away from the ship, door closed and ramp fully retracted, when Bahbi heard someone shout “Now!” and the party wassurrounded by a Trallian guard force of at least 25. Bahbi felt something press into his temple and saw the same action being repeated with every member of their party except for Vi. Every male with Vi had a blaster pressed into the side of his head, except for Steev, who had one somewhere in his midsection. Another ring of Trallians surrounded them a few feet away, blasters drawn and aimed loosely at the group.

Vi looked around, taking in the Trallians and the sole non-Trallian male standing with them. She put her hands on her hips and said, “Honorable Jarxtan Prag, just what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

He sneered at her. Vi had described Jarxtan Prag to Bahbi earlier, and seeing him now, Bahbi thought he was an Olferian. His skin was grey-toned and a little scaly, and he had piercing red eyes and pointed ears. He wore a meticulously tailored, floor-length, blue robe that just showed the talons on his three, wide-spaced toes.

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