Page 60 of Souls of Steel
And yet, when I stepped outside, I didn’t feel in any way off. I could still breathe normally. I didn’t feel any difference in temperature. When I took a step forward, I felt as if I was back on Earth, on recently terra-formed territory.
Somewhere in the distance, beyond the asteroid belt, the Sun burned brightly, solar explosions still flashing over its surface. There was no atmosphere on Mercury, nothing that could form a barrier between me and the radiations. And yet, nothing in space—not even the Sun—could touch me.
It was comforting, or it would’ve been had I not realized I was still in a lot of trouble. The apsid was protecting me from possible environmental damage, but that didn’t mean he was my friend. The strange hold he had on my mind told me that much, and a part of me would’ve preferred burning alive than being controlled in such a horrible way.
To my left, I could see the Cerberus struggling to escape. Another apsid approached his invisible cage and said, “Remain calm, Knox Alexander. We’ve only come to pick something up. Once we do that, we’ll leave.”
The alien’s voice sounded female, but it made no difference to Knox. “Over my dead body,” he bellowed. “You won’t take her.”
The terror and anguish in his voice gave me strength and I started to struggle against the strange hold the apsid had on me. “Don’t,” he hissed. “You’ll just hurt yourself. This will just take a moment. We will complete our mission and then we will depart.”
Mission. The word flowed over me with the potency of a chimera tachyon blast. All of a sudden, I was in the labyrinth again, with Jared Glass clinging to me and whispering a cryptic request.
Mission.Had Jared been connected to the apsids? But why would a chimera pilot be involved with our enemies? It made no sense. Had he been a traitor? But why?
I had no idea and my uncertainty and confusion kept me from fighting off the apsid’s odd power. My feet carried me to the group of waiting aliens. I half-expected their glow to burn me, but it didn’t. Instead, it mingled with whatever power was protecting me, allowing me to get a good look at them.
The first thing that struck me about them was the fact that they didn’t all look alike. Oddly, their leader reminded me of a human being. He had the regular number of hands and legs, and even a penis. I didn’t have enough control over my body to analyze him too closely, but it was just as well. The only guys I wanted to see naked were August, Pollux, Brendan, and Knox.
Ignoring the humanoid leader, I tried to focus on the others. Some of the remaining apsids were beast-like in nature. A creature that looked like a cross between a cockroach and a cat eyed me with an unblinking, golden gaze. A bipedal reptile tilted his head at me, his tail swaying back and forth at a hypnotic pace. The female creature next to Knox turned out to be a huge mass of volcanic rock. She waved at me with a hand that was as big as my head. A cluster of wriggling tentacles wriggled its way toward me. One of the strange limbs even curled around my leg. The leader stepped on it, making the mass of tentacles screech and withdraw. “Not now. We don’t have time for games. You know that.”
The creature let out a gurgling sound, as if it was sighing. The reptilian male rolled his eyes. “Spoiled brat.”
Everything about this whole exchange befuddled me. As a human being, I shouldn’t have been able to understand them. Apsids had their own language and no one on Earth had ever been able to decipher it. They had no reason to talk in English in my presence.
Their different forms and demeanor suggested an almost casual relationship of companions. If I’d been in the presence of a foe, I wouldn’t have displayed something like that. But I didn’t have time to question them any further. The apsid leader grabbed my arm and pulled me into his embrace. “I really am sorry about this,” he whispered. “It’s not my style to steal kisses from unwilling women. But we have no other choice.”
I gaped in shock at the unexpected warning. “Wait, you—”
Before I could finish my sentence, he crushed his lips to mine in a devastating, mind-melting kiss. As he thrust his tongue into my mouth, my brain screamed at me to free myself, to pull away and stop this. He was only a stranger and my enemy. But my body refused to obey and I found myself melting against his naked chest.
Heat flowed over me like a physical caress, pooling into my belly, making my breasts heavy and my nipples tighten. As he bit on my lower lip, I clutched his shoulders and let out a muffled moan.
He held me tighter, his erection nudging my hip. His voice drifted into my head in an intimate, gentle whisper.“You’re too beautiful for your own good, Selene Renard. I wish things were different.”
A million questions were on my mind, but I didn’t have the time or focus to ask them. His kiss changed and his teeth grew sharper. His embrace became painful, too tight, and I started having trouble drawing breath.
I should’ve struggled, but I didn’t. My knees went weak and I collapsed against him, completely at his mercy. It would’ve been so easy for him to destroy me on the spot.
I despised myself for my weakness, for feeling this strange want even if it made no sense. It felt like a betrayal, like I was spitting in the face of everything I’d shared with my lovers. But even knowing that, I couldn’t stop this.
An invisible, intangible claw reached into me, detaching something I hadn’t even known was there. It only took a moment and although it hurt, it wasn’t a pain I wanted to reject. It was almost as intimate as sex and my body responded to it in a way it had only responded to my lovers.
I wanted to cling to him and ask for more. I wanted to cry and scream. I wanted to hide. I did none of these things, because I didn’t have to.
He tore his mouth away from mine and stepped back. For a few seconds, he stared at me, scrutinizing my face with his glowing, golden eyes. If he was searching for answers, I couldn’t hear his questions.
“Thank you for your assistance, Ms. Renard. I hope I didn’t inconvenience you too much.”
My head cleared and I realized that at one point, I’d regained my ability to move on my own. “Somehow, I doubt you care about my feelings.”
“You’d be surprised,” he answered.
In the Cerberus, Knox let out a roar. “You’ll die for this! I’ll hunt you down and feed you to my chimera, piece by piece.”
The apsid leader shook his head, as if physically pushing aside a thought. “I find that very hard to believe, Flight Lieutenant Alexander, but by all means, I invite you to try. In the meantime, my companions and I will take my leave.”
He took my hand and kissed it in a strangely old-fashioned gesture. “Your Chimera Warriors are lucky to have you, Ms. Renard,” he said. “Good bye and good luck. I’m sure you’ll be able to accomplish whatever goals you set your mind to, no matter how grand they might be.”
