CollectiveMemory (16 page)

He tipped his head to the side as he thought. “We could both
have her, could we not? That idea is most fascinating and it seems quite possible.”
His voice dropped to that low, husky rumble that told her he was no longer
thinking logically and was aroused. “I think I must explore this possibility.
We could—”

“Not discuss this anymore,” Devin blurted out. She pushed
her shoulders back and tried to find her center. It was her house and her body
dammit. Cayl was planning her sex life and Mace was just sitting there letting
him.

“Why? Does the idea not appeal to you?” Cayl stared at her,
his head cocked further to the side, waiting silently for an answer. Mace stood
beside him. He mirrored Cayl’s pose though there was a bit more humor in his
eyes.

Appeal to her? How could it not? Mace and Cayl. Together.
Naked. And her the center of their attention. The heat from her face faded and
rebounded in her core. Her pussy clenched. A little sore and sensitive from
last night, she still reacted, her body preparing to take them.

She forced a breath into her lungs. The brush of her nipples
against the lace bra made the fluttering sensations worse.

“Hum…”

“You find him attractive, do you not?” Cayl looked at Mace.
“I cannot imagine that he is not considered attractive by most humans.”

“Thank you,” Mace said modestly which Devin ignored.

“Yes, I find him attractive. That isn’t the problem.”

“Then what is?” Cayl pulled out his chair and sat down.
Devin watched as Mace followed suit. It seemed like a perfectly typical
breakfast scene…if they hadn’t been planning a three-way sex adventure. Cayl
grabbed the salt and his fork and started to eat. Every other bite he looked
up, encouraging her to answer.

Devin flipped through all the answers in her mind and none
of them were good reasons why she couldn’t sleep with them both except she
didn’t do that sort of thing.

“Well, I just can’t…”

Mace raised his eyebrows, challenging her. The arrogance
actually helped her. Gave her the strength to answer.

“Sex isn’t something that you just do casually. Or I don’t.
I don’t just hop into bed with men I don’t know well.”

Cayl swallowed then looked at her. And before he ever spoke
she winced.

“You did with me.” There was nothing smug or judgmental
about his tone. It was just an observation. Then he smiled. “And look how well
that turned out.” He nodded and took another bite. “I think we should try it
this night. It will further my education in human sensory receptions. You will
enjoy it.”

That seemed to settle the situation for Cayl.

Devin started to protest but she looked at Mace. Not really
sure why. She wasn’t expecting any support from him but she also wasn’t
expecting him to be laughing. It was silent but his head was down and his
shoulders were shaking. She stared daggers at his head until he finally looked
up. His lips were squeezed together to hide his smile.

But the look in his eyes was pure challenge and damn, she
could never resist a dare.

“Fine.”

Mace’s spine snapped straight and his eyes popped open.

“If we don’t find Harken tonight, we’ll do it tonight.” The
convulsive swallow in Mace’s throat sent a spike of confidence into her chest.
“I just hope you two can keep up with me.”

Cayl continued eating. Mace seemed unable to function. He
stared at her, eyes blinking, lips parted like he couldn’t quite catch his
breath.

“Eat up. We need to get going.” Feeling a boldness she never
would have expected, she winked. “And you’re going to need your strength.”

* * * * *

For a den of iniquity, it looks rather plain in daylight.

Devin shook her head and followed Cayl around the corner of
the building. Switch looked different in sunlight. Just a building. No
indication of what went on here each night. She felt her cheeks warm,
remembering what had happened to her in this building.

They’d gotten a later start than expected. Cayl’s “morning
kiss” from Mace had turned into what she was sure was fast, mutual jack-off
session. She’d just kept her head down and stayed at the other side of the
house. She didn’t need to hear or see them together. Hell, she’d already
committed to having sex with them later on. If they didn’t catch Harken.

She groaned at the thought. If Harken had returned to Switch
to hunt last night, they would most likely be able to track him, which would
mean he would be captured and Cayl would go home. There would be no night of
wild sex with two gorgeous men.

Telling herself she was relieved, because really she didn’t
want to have sex with both of them…she paused. No, that wasn’t true. She
did
want to have sex with them but it wasn’t right. Real women didn’t do that sort
of thing.

Or maybe they didn’t do that sort of thing because they
didn’t get a chance.

And she had the chance. A really good chance. Except they
would probably find Harken and then Cayl would leave.

“Agent Denning, are you listening?”

“I’m sorry, what? No. I wasn’t.” She blinked and looked up.

“We must proceed to the west. That is where his trace
elements lead.”

“You found him? I mean, his elements?” Her heart started to
pound and disappointment nudged at her heart. If they found Harken today, not
only would she lose her one chance to be part of a three-way…she would never
see Cayl again. And in the past two days she’d become fond of him.

“As I have said.” His lips squished together in irritation.
He didn’t like to be questioned. “We must proceed west.”

She nodded and grabbed a hold of her waning professionalism.
She was going to help Cayl find Harken.

It was too bad she had to choose between saving the world
and having great sex.

“If you will get your conveyance, I will follow the trail.”
He pointed toward the mountains and started walking.

With a sigh, she turned and walked around the building and
back to her car. The sun was getting warm. After Mace had finally left—an air
of satisfaction clinging to him and a smug grin on his face—she and Cayl had
stopped by the office.

His bosses and hers had demanded an update. They would have
been trapped there even longer if Cayl hadn’t finally announced that instead of
talking about finding Harken, he was going to go
find
Harken. He’d
nodded to her boss then walked out of the room, leaving her no choice but to
follow. As dramatic exits go, it had been quite lovely.

Now, they just had to find Harken or they’d both be back in
that tiny little room. It had given her a chance to see one of Cayl’s kind in
his natural form…which was nothing. An amorphous blob that glittered red and
black. The voice didn’t speak so much as transmit directly into her brain. She
shuddered. The sensation beyond creepy. They had to find Harken.

She drove around and picked up Cayl at the corner. He nodded
forward and she hit the gas, easing the car down the road. The drive was mostly
silent with Cayl concentrating on the invisible “traces” outside the car. He
gave directions but didn’t elaborate, leading her through town to a section of
abandoned buildings.

It looked like a scene in a movie. Or an episode of
Law
and Order
. Bad guys always ended up in abandoned warehouses. Damn, she
hadn’t even known this place existed.

“Here?”

“Yes.” Cayl reached for the door handle before she’d stopped
the car.

“Wait.” She slapped her hand on his chest and slammed on the
brakes. “Now…now you can get out.”

Cayl looked at the hand on his chest then up to Devin’s
face. The realization that he’d been ready to jump out of the moving vehicle
had barely registered. He blinked to clear his vision. He’d been looking
through a different color spectrum, tracking Harken’s trace elements. She had
saved him from sure pain and damage to his form.

“Thank you.”

She smiled and he was again surprised at how much value
humans placed on simple words. “Thank you” and “please” seemed to make things
much easier.

He climbed out of the car, startled when Agent Denning
exited as well.

“Where are you going?”

“With you.”

A foreign ache swelled in his chest translating into
thoughts in his head. She couldn’t go. There might be danger. Harken was
dangerous.

Odd. There was no reason to presume that she was not as
capable as he was yet he felt the unusual urge to protect her. He shook off the
sensation. It wasn’t logical. And having two against Harken could only be a
good thing.

Still, as they started toward the building, he made sure she
walked near him and he put himself at the entrance first.

Harken’s trace elements were dominant here. As if Harken had
walked this path many times. There was no way to tell if he was inside but Cayl
wasn’t afraid. Harken was a coward at heart.

When Cayl thought back on his interactions with the Harken
being, he realized there had been signs that the being wasn’t dedicated solely
to the intellectual pursuits. But as they said, “past knowledge is obvious to
all.”

He pushed open the door and stepped inside. He shifted
senses once again. The human faculties blurred as he listened for Harken’s
presence. Despite being in a human form, there was no way to hide his being,
his
spirit
for lack of a better word.

He closed his eyes to block one human sense and listened.
Harken was not near.

“He is not here.”

“Are you sure?”

“As I have said.” He didn’t understand the human need to
question a statement.

He walked forward. The traces of Harken’s spirit swelled
toward the back of the room, behind a half constructed wall. Something
important lay back there. He followed the glowing path of Harken’s elements,
conscious that Agent Denning—Devin, he corrected himself—came with him.

They moved around the wall and her gasp was only seconds
behind his. He stared at the equipment. Harken had a full laboratory set up.
Complete with a digitizing Bromin-Markus Manipulator and a Partial-Particle
Compositer. Cayl could barely believe Harken had been able to build the
sophisticated equipment. And how had he generated the correct power structure
for something like this? Human electricity didn’t carry the right signal,
couldn’t energize something this complex.

“Oh my God.”

“Yes, I believe now is the time to call on your deity.
Harken is much further along than I would have imagined.”

“We have to help her.”

He looked up and discovered that Devin was not at his side.
Instead, she had moved across the room, toward a large table. And she was not
alone. There was a human on the table. A human female. Naked and strapped down,
with clamps and wires attached at various points. He knew from his recent
experiments with Mace and Devin that the locations of his clamps were
particularly sensitive. Harken had done his research.

“That’s how he’s done it.” He’d used the minute pulses in
the human body, millions of interactions between cells, captured and collected.
It would still take a huge amount of energy to operate his equipment but this
human organic power would carry the right signal.

The woman started to squirm, her hands curling up, arms
fighting the ropes that held her. A slow whirring reverberated from the end of
the table. The strange sound stopped Cayl in his tracks. He took a breath and
felt the strange sensations moments before the energy erupted. Electricity
crackled through the air and obviously traveled through the wires connected to
her human body. The woman tensed. A scream vibrated around the gag that filled
her mouth.

A strangely sympathetic pain lodged in his chest as he
watched. The poor woman’s body strained, her back arching, straining as the
shock ripped through her. The jolt lasted only seconds and she collapsed on the
table. A tear leaked from the corner of her eye.

“We’re here to help you,” Devin announced reaching for the
woman’s hands.

The wrongness of the situation flared in both his human and
original form instincts.

“No! Don’t touch her.”

“What? We can’t leave her like this.” Devin protested but
she froze.

“We won’t but let me look at it first. I want to make sure
he hasn’t hidden any traps around her.”

The woman moaned and fought the bonds that held her hands
over her head. Her legs were tied down but her struggles were weak.

“See if you can calm her. Tell her we will free her. I just
want to…” His voice trailed away as he lost his thought. He walked around the
table. Devin’s voice murmured in the background. The sound was soothing to him
and it seemed to work on the woman. It only took him moments before he traced
the flow of the energy.

Harken had attached clamps and nodes to the sensitive
portions of her body—nipples, clit, the space between her toes—and seemed to be
sending random electrical shocks through them. The pain no doubt triggered the
emotional fear response that he needed. That was the kind of intense energy
that would power his equipment.

It was quite ingenious though a bit brutal. He couldn’t
imagine torturing Agent Denning’s tits in such a painful way. A woman at Switch
had worn clamps on her nipples but she seemed to find pleasure in the pain.
This seemed all pain with none of the pleasure.

“Give me a moment to figure it out.” He scanned the pattern
of the wires. If he were going to design such a device, he would create it to
transfer the power of each anode from one to the next so if one were removed,
the others would take over its position. The more clips they removed, the more
energy that would flow the remaining points causing intense pain and possible
permanent damage.

“Can’t you just unplug it?” Devin asked.

“What?”

She pointed to the extension cord plugged into the wall and
Cayl realized he’d been speaking aloud. “Oh, that might work.” He did a quick
inspection to make sure there wasn’t a back up battery that would surge
electricity through the woman. It looked like a simple rheostat. Five different
knobs connected to the wires that controlled the energy into each clamp. No
backup, no power surge feature.