Page 78 of Taken to Voraxia
My xora does not agree with my words because it kicks against the xerbu cloth that covers it. It wants the one it thought it lost in the bowels of the Niahhorru pirate’s ship, so ancient that radar technology had not yet been installed and made it possible to remain just within my quadrant without my notice. Perhaps for weeks. Months.How long had that vile centag been plotting?
“Xoran?” She says again and this time she turns her face towards me and my ridges spill white light all over her when I register the expression on her face.
It is one of pleasure, her lips curved up at the corners. She blinks and her long lashes light gently upon her high cheeks before springing up towards her ridgeless brows.
“Xoran.” She beams.
I see her trying to shift and gently ease her onto her back. “Be careful,” I say, but my throat is choked with emotions and all of them are foreign to me but for the one. The strongest one. The one that rains over her in a solarverse of color.
Her gentle brown gaze flits to my brows and she releases the pleasure sound. “Kiss me, please.”
“You…you want me to deliver you the kiss?”
“Hexa.”
“But…you…” Never have I been less articulate. “I do not understand. I failed you.”
Now confusion becomes her. I am getting better at reading the human expressions she makes now. “How? Did you…” And then her eyes widen. She tenses and a ripple of pain rips across her cheeks. Her hand dives over the blanket and caresses her stomach. “Oh no…did we lose the baby?”
My stomach drops and an explosion of satisfaction prowls through me. “Nox,” I tell her, placing my hand over hers. “We did not.” It pleases me to no end that she sayswe.
“Oh okay, xhivey.” She settles again and the pleasure expression consumes her. It consumes us, I hope, equally. “Then why did you fail me?”
“I underestimated the cunning of Rhorkanterannu and allowed him to take you from me.From our own werro. It will not happen again. I just hope…that you can forgive me.” I wait, the breath held in my lungs.
She reaches up with her other hand, the one not trapped beneath mine against her belly. She traces the outline of my ridges, which are now certainly pink, then lets her hand fall to my cheek, to my nose, to my lips. I close my eyes, relishing in the pleasure that I feel at her touch, at her acceptance, at her Xanaxana. Dare I think,at her love?
“You did not fail me. You came for me. I’m just so sorry that so manydied.” Her voice breaks on the word and my heart breaks for her.
I take her palm and press it to my mouth.She still wants me. She is still mine.There has never been so cool a balm against so great a heat. “You are their Rakukanna. It was their honor.” I intend to leave it here, but she still looks so hurt…I cannot keep it from her.
“Rhorkanterannu used many non-lethal weapons, particularly against the female xcleranx. Some of the ones who guarded you in your lab were only stunned. Those that were attacked with lethal force have been, for the most part, restored in the merillian tanks, including Ixria. Only two of ours died in his attempt to steal you. Veto’Roth and Ser’Roth, two noble xcleranx whose deaths will be honored.”
Her eyes widen. “Really?”
“Truly.”
“I mean…that’s still awful. And so many of theirs died…and all for what? For nothing. Just to take me and Sv…Svera! Stars!” She lurches up, but I press just the tips of my fingers to her shoulders and keep her still. “Is she…how is…”
“She will live.”
“Did they…”
“Nox. It would appear that she was not…violated in that way. And the cuts on her face will fade. As will her bruises. She woke even before you did and declined to be placed in the merillian tank. She said there were others more needing of it.”
“Oh comets, Svera,” Miari curses.
I feel the pleasure expression light up my own face. It is a strange thing to feel after so many rotations of feeling nothing at all. This half-human hybrid has brought out more in me than I could have ever hoped for and dreamed of. So much goodness.
“Krisxox said much the same, in many more words. Many threats too. But Svera would not heed him.”
“Did he tell you that he…” She stops and I note the surprising shyness that seems to cross her face. With my hand on her chin, I draw her stolen attention back to me. I want her to stare into my eyes as I stare into hers — deeply enough to be lost.
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Miari,” I scowl, taking her hand in mine. I press it to my mouth, tongue snaking out to taste the back of her palm. The sweetness of ranxcera blossoms fires through me and my xora jumps greedily towards her.
