Crystal Fire (10 page)

"I've neither the time nor patience for your twisted sense of humor," he snapped. "Now, tell me the tale or I'll"

"Th-the Knowing Crystal was stolen by the criminal Ferox and hidden away on the planet Carcer until Queen Alia joined forces with Lord Ardane to rescue it. Lord Ardane was a criminal at the time, you know, condemned for an act"

"I know what his crime was," Brace was quick to silence him. "All I want to know is where is Teran Ardane now'? Here, on Bellator?"

"No," the man hurried to reply. "He's on Aranea. Once again Ferox has stolen the Crystal, leaving the Queen critically wounded. It all happened only a few sols ago. That's where you'll find Lord Ardane, attempting to set right the calamity." Teranalive and on Aranea. It was almost more than Brace could comprehend.

Then a sudden thought struck him.
It all happened only few sols ago
 . . .

What if it were a trap? The tale tied in nicely with the time of his escape, and Bellator might stoop to anything to recapture him. Even this.

Well, one way or another, he meant to transport to Aranea and ascertain the truth. He'd just have to take care in the process.

Gradually Brace became aware that all eyes were riveted on him. With a lopsided grin of apology, he released his captive and smoothed down the front of his tunic.

At that moment a string of curses, followed by a guttural growl, erupted from the corner booth. Rodac sprang across the table at two men, sending them tumbling to the floor. In a confusing melee of fur and clothed bodies the trio rolled across the tavern, fists pummeling, legs flailing.

Brace sighed and handed his mug to the nearest bystander. Rodac, even in his drunken state, could easily handle two men, but there was always the chance that others might decide to join in. Simians, thanks to their fabled mercenary habits, weren't all that popular in the Imperium. And the last thing Brace wanted was to get involved in a full-fledged brawl.

He strode to the tangle of bodies on the floor, pulling first one, then the other man off the alien. "Get out of here," he snarled when each made a threatening move toward him. "I'm saving both your scrawny necks, whether you've the sense to realize it or not."

Rodac climbed to his feet to glower behind Brace. The other two men pondered their options, then grinned drunkenly, shrugged, and backed away. Brace turned to Rodac.

"You need to sleep off that ale." He motioned toward the door. "Come on. Let's find you a nice tree to curl up in."

Two rows of sharp Simian teeth gleamed in the dimly lit tavern. Then, without protest Rodac strode off, Brace following. Into the dark coolness of a starlit nocte they went, Rodac listing at times but always managing to remain precariously upright. Neither spoke until they left the city and reached a dense stand of trees.

My thanks for your assistance back there
, the alien's hands motioned unsteadily, requiring all Brace's powers of concentration to interpret the message,
but I could have easily handled those two
.

"I know that," Brace replied. "But you're too valuable to risk injury in some petty fight. Besides," he drawled, a smile quirking his lips, "partners look out for each other."

The Simian scowled.
The only thing that binds us is money. Remember that, Bellatorian
.

Brace grinned. "That's a crock of barsa dung and you know it."

In his own way, Rodac hid his true feelings just as poorly as Marissa. But then, Brace reminded himself wryly, after several military tours on Arbor, he did know Simians better than most.

He gestured up at the trees. "Will you be safe up there, considering your, er, well-lubricated condition?"

Your concern is heart-warming
, Rodac's hands waved, making Brace a little dizzy keeping up with them,
but I'm as at home with heights as you are on the ground
.

With that, the big alien turned and made his unsteady way to a tall tree. Despite his inebriated state, he made the lower branches in one agile leap. Rodac climbed as far as the leafless limbs would bear his weight, then settled into a tight curl in the crook of two stout branches. Soon a sonorous snore drifted down to Brace's ears.

As he made his way back to the tavern, Brace mulled over the events of the past several sols. What had begun as a simple attempt to use Marissa to survive had quickly burgeoned into a complicated, emotion-fraught, commitment-laden undertaking. Now, not only did he have a disturbingly beautiful, man-hating little spitfire to deal with, but a money-grubbing suspicious, and smelly alien as well. What else could go wrong?

A heavy sense of foreboding settled over him. He had to get to Teran. Somehow, someway, Brace sensed that the theft of the Knowing Crystal and Marissa's quest were closely entwined. And only his brother would have the answers. But how, by the five moons, could he convince Marissa to come along? The sudden realization that he even cared if she came with him drew Brace up short. He'd already informed her their former agreement was severed. He didn't
need
to take her with him to Aranea. And yet . . .

With an angry shake of his head, Brace once more strode toward the tavern, no longer quite so certain what he'd do when he once again confronted Marissa.

Marissa paced the confines of the small room, the shouts and bursts of raucous laughter from the tavern below doing little to calm her ragged nerves. What, by all that was sacred, was she to do about Brace Ardane? She
had
to get him to Feroxthat much was clear. But must she now find a way to force him, and if so, how?

She had money aplenty, thanks to the first bag of Repository booty she'd cashed in earlier that sol. Surely a burly male or two could be bribed to drag the treacherous Bellatorian along. And it would certainly eliminate the need to consider his earlier offerthat loathsome suggestion to buy his services by mating with him.

Yet, as revolting as it had first appeared, she was tempted, nonetheless, to take him up on the offer. A perverse part of her wanted to call his bluff and watch him back away, while another secret part hoped he wouldn't. But that was only her foolish heart slipping past the cycles of hardened logic, Marissa reminded herself angrily.

No male would ever want her for herself. She was an outcast. The rejected half of a twin birth. A freak of nature.

He wanted only to enslave her body. And wasn't that exactly why she'd made the decision to join the Sodalitasbecause they'd always known the truth about males and had sworn never to allow them that opportunity?

But why not use Ardane as well? Marissa asked herself, struggling past her innate fears to force a more practical bent to her thoughts. For all his underhanded ways, he was a physically attractive male, far more so than most she'd encountered.

And the mating urge, that curse of all Moracans, called stronger every sol, heating Marissa's blood, clouding her mind. Why not experience the act for once in her life? Why not have one nocte of sheer physical pleasure?

She wanted no child from the joining, though Sodalitan law allowed children as the ultimate motive. She'd
never
bear children. But if she were the one to use
him,
and kept her head while he was losing his, she'd be the one in control, not he. There was no submission in that.

Yes, Marissa resolved, her mind made up at last. All this unrequited desire on both their parts was muddying the waters. Better to have the physical release behind them and get on with the quest.

But could she trust Ardane to keep his word, once he'd had her body? In the end,
that
was the true issue, not her loss of maidenhood, nor fear of domination. Males were the ones who had traditionally placed such value upon virginity in yet another of their ploys to control women. That motive, in itself, lessened any worth it might ever have had for Marissa.

But Ardane had already broken his word once. What was to stop him from doing it again? All considerations of the mating urge aside, there was far, far too much at stake for her to fail in her rescue of Candra.

Marissa paused, her mouth twisting in a wry grimace. Indeed, what
would
Ardane do if he knew
all
the reasons for her quest?

Footsteps echoed down the hall, moving closer until they halted outside her door. In a rush of fearful anticipation, Marissa brushed the question aside. An issue of more immediate concern rose to confront her in that instant of decision. She had no choice. She must give Ardane what he asked and take the chance that he'd keep his end of the bargain. But how, by all that was sacred, did one seduce a male?

Recalling the actions of the alley walkers who frequented all towns and cities, Marissa quickly fluffed her hair, pinched her cheeks, and wet her lips. Mating was but a battle of a different sort, with the body as weapon, and the ultimate goal to conquer with pleasure rather than pain.

Pleasure
, Marissa repeated to herself. Make Ardane feel pleasure. Drive him mad with desire until he cannot think straight. Then the battle will be won . . .

Ever so cautiously, Brace pushed open the door and peered around it, half expecting the dagger to again come hurtling at him. The room was dark, the only light that of the five moons spreading a large circle of illumination on the floor directly inside the window. Marissa stood there, her face in shadow.

"Come in, Ardane," she beckoned softly. "There's still the matter of a quest to be settled."

He stepped into the room and shut the door. "Yes, I've news"

"Not now."

Marissa strode across the room to stand before him. Her arms lifted to entwine behind his neck and she stretched on tiptoe to press close.

"I've decided to accept your offer."

For the longest moment Brace couldn't breathe, the air trapped in the sudden constriction of his chest. The scent of Marissa, fresh and clean as a rain-washed meadow, filled his nostrils, befuddling his mind. She moved even nearer, flattening the soft mounds of her breasts into his body.

Desire, hot and sudden, tore through Brace like a raging conflagration. Everything nar- rowed to this moment and the tantalizing woman pressed so close.

With a tormented groan, Brace captured Marissa's lithe young body, pulling her yet tighter to him. His head lowered and his mouth opened hungrily over hers, moving with fierce, wild abandon. He touched his tongue to her lips, coaxing them apart, and was inordinately gratified when they did. His tongue plunged between them in one bold thrust, to entwine with hers in a sweetly primitive dance. Ah, Gods, she tasted so good!

As her quivering lips parted for his probing tongue, a knot of pure sensation exploded in Marissa's belly. She'd been ready for the touch of his body when she'd first approached him, but nothing had prepared her for the riot of emotions his mouth and tongue now worked upon her. She gasped with startled pleasure and pulled back, gazing up into smoldering eyes.

"Ardane," she whispered. "I"

"Brace. Call me Brace," he coaxed, his voice deep and husky. "We're far past the point of formality."

"Brace, please," Marissa breathed. "I'm not so sure"

"That this is right?" he finished for her. "I'm not, either, but then again, I'm not so certain I care. I need you, sweet femina. Let me love you."

Before she could reply, Brace covered her mouth with his, moving with fiercely seductive tenderness, shaping and fitting her lips to his. He deepened the kiss with consummate skill until Marissa's body quivered with a pleasure so exquisite it was almost painful. By the Crystal Fires, never had she imagined the mating urge to be so powerful! She felt like tinder consumed in a blazing inferno, with Brace Ardane's powerful body the flame, kindling hers to a rising frenzy.

His hands roved over her, gliding down her torso to clasp her slender waist, then lower to pull her hips more fully into his. He pressed against her belly, his shaft thick and hard. It stirred something deep inside Marissa, something hot, primal. She ground her hips into his and heard him groan, long and low and so very male in his need.

"M-Marissa. Femina, if you only knew what you do to me!"

"Don't talk," she whispered. "Show me. Touch me."

It wasn't her speaking, she thought from some distant corner of her mind as Brace's head lowered to the full swell of her breasts. This was some other woman, wild and wanton, controlled totally by the man before her. She whimpered when his mouth captured her nipple through the fabric of her tunic and suckled it. She clutched his head to her breast, threading her fingers through his dark, shaggy mane, unthinking, uncaring, surrendering . . .

Surrendering!

Fear, like an onrushing surge tide, shot through her. It couldn't be happening! It couldn'tbut it was! All the former, most logical reasons for permitting this act were swept away in the reality of the moment.

She was allowing herself to be shackled to a male, accepting, nay,
begging
for dominationjust as eagerly, as mindlessly as the other females of her planet. She who'd been taken into the Sodalitas and taught the ways to avoid that ultimate humiliation, including the surest way of all: to renounce the joining of flesh!

Yet the hot, agonizing pleasure he wrought with his mouth upon her breast, his teeth gently working her nipple, was hard to deny. She wanted him.

The mental anguish swelled to excruciating proportions, until Marissa thought her mind was being torn from her body. She was a coward, a disgrace to her sisters, for she hadn't the strength, the courage to fight past this aching, unbearable heat.

From somewhere deep within a cry rose, spiraling past her constricted throat to find voice in a sob, then another and another. Like waves crashing upon the shore to die in the ebbtide, the force of Marissa's battle pounded through her, a battle she won in her emotional withdrawal, and lost, in the fear that kept her from discovering a new freedom in surrendering her heart.

The tears began to pour, hot and humiliat- ing, from her eyes. Though she tried to turn, to hide them, Brace wouldn't allow it.