Venomous: Erotic Science Fiction Romance (Alien Warrior Book 1) (3 page)

Considered by me a far more dangerous kind of tension.

His jaw tensed and his nostrils flared. A slash of blue-black flickered past his lips too fast for me to see.

The manacles of energy holding me bound snapped open.

Weak in the knees, I tumbled forward into a solid wall of flesh.

My arms throbbed as blood rushed into my fingertips.

The shakes of my body were so violent I barely kept upright.

I looked up, and up, and up.

Obsidian eyes peered down at me.

The alien’s mouth parted as it let loose a throaty hissing-growl.

A strangled, “
Ugnh?
” gurgled from my throat.

Another snarling-rumble from the beast.

I helpfully translated it for him into an outburst that explained in excruciating detail my upcoming rape, torture and death.

Annoyed I didn’t respond with anything other than a strangled rasp, the alien bared twin rows of sharp teeth.

Oh Jesus, oh Lord, take me now.

I swayed on the brink of blacking out as I took in the lethal enormity of the elongated, curved fangs dripping with viscous fluid.

Again, the slash of black with a sheen of electric blue pushed past his lips.

I saw it this time.

A forked tongue flickered at the seam of his lips.

His angular face creased into a scowl, and a clawed hand shot out to grab me by the throat.

Another nabbed my arm as its twin took possession of my thigh.

The last clutched my waist, his hand span so large half my middle was engulfed.

The edges of my world turned dark.

Strength flowed from my limbs in a lingering tingle, and white noise roared in my ears.

Pungent sweat plugged my nose, and the macabre scene bleached into a colourless smudge as the floor rushed me.

Hot points of pressure burned my flesh where his hands held me.

He plucked me off the ground as if I weighed nothing.

Crushed to a hard chest, arms of steel banded about me.

Tight.

Too tightly.

Claws dragged down my back in a spine-chilling stroke.

The world rotated as I was slung over the hard round of a shoulder.

Sucking in a much-needed gulp of air that stuck in my throat, my self-preservation finished kicking in.

Lumen, you are utterly fucked.

I passed out.

I
woke to footsteps.

Hanging limp with rest of my body, my arms swayed in the snarled nest of my curly hair.

My hands bumped into the back of the alien that carried me, fingers grazing over scaled flesh.

Ropey lengths that grew from its head slithered along my naked skin.

Dread had me tensed into rigid, broken lines, and the arm hooped around my legs tightened its possessive clutch.

An acknowledgment of my waking.

Claws landed on my backside in a distracted pat as another hand stroked my calf.

Cold air stung my teeth as I inhaled in slow pulls, and I sucked up a lungful of woody aroma, smoky, spicy.

Rather than relax me, the exotic fragrance made it harder to shake off my disorientation.

The scent reminded me of hot days at the beach, lazing on sand dunes as warm breezes tugged my hair, and the underlying muskiness to the bouquet made me realise the snaking tunnel we haunted smelt as I remembered, dank and mouldy, overlaid with a chemical bite that stuck in my craw.

The heady scent came from the alien.

We forged deeper into the black.

The sound of sodden, guttural breathing.

Scuttling feet.

Decay.

Dozens of unblinking eyes stared from the shadows.

A shape darker than its surroundings emerged from an offshoot behind us.

It stopped in the middle of the passageway.

The alien halted, so I strained to see why, lifting and twisting my body to witness another large shadow blocking the path ahead.

Slumping over, I closed my eyes and waited to be savaged.

An alien was an alien was an alien.

It wouldn’t end well for me whatever happened next.

The being holding me tensed then jerked forward.

A shrill whine as scorching liquid slapped my thigh.

Mass hit the dirt with a flat thud.

The shadow behind took a hasty step back and melted into the darkness.

The one in front was gone, disembowelled judging by the waft of iron-rich blood and faeces, and we moved again, faster than before.

We made a number of turns, and there was no chance of me tracking his movements to plan an escape, even if I had somewhere to flee to.

He jumped, vaulted over something high then landed crouched.

We travelled the labyrinth until we exited from splinter in a mountainside boarded by jungle.

With a silky hiss the alien plunged into the bush.

We moved with such speed leather like leaves and hairy twigs stung like lashes from a whip.

My eyes rounded as I walked my hands up the creature’s back to lift my torso and take in the strange natural world.

Twin moons hung in a starry sky.

Fog hugged the ground, and the lush vegetation pressing in on us was a luminous riot of colour searing my eyes after the empty void of the tunnels.

The mournful howl of a hunting beast soared over the canopy to blend with the screech of a nocturnal raptor that dived into the undergrowth.

Underlying it all, a hushed song akin to crickets chirruping.

The scent of wet soil and green things was cleansing to my palate, welcome after the dank musk I’d grown accustomed to.

The grind of stone moving against stone startled me into again using his lower back to push up.

The alien ducked, stood, and then turned.

Moonlight faded.

The scraping noise returned then silence and artificial light.

Frightened, I dropped to hang lifeless over his shoulder, forcing my mind not to dwell on what was about to happen.

Gruesome images slid in regardless.

The alien bent near double to set me on my feet then straightened in a fast jerk.

The rough floor was cold.

I hopped from foot to foot at the sudden tepid to freezing transition and held out my hands to keep him at bay.

We stared at each other.

The alien hadn’t been the biggest of the males but he may as well have been.

His aggressive posture obliterated the meagre courage I had left.

Musky and humid, the den he brought us to was dimly lit by a stark light wrapped in rusted wire.

It was precariously secured to the curve where wall met domed ceiling.

My gaze whipped around.

Oblong, the space was no more than fifteen feet across and twenty feet deep, a sad bundle of blankets shoved into a corner.

A stone worktable lined the straightest wall holding a chaotic assortment of hooked screws, bolts, a jumble of cords, and a snarl of corkscrewed wires.

The reddish-grey clay walls were covered in junk.

At a longer, less harried look, I recognised circuit boards and random pieces of electrical mishmash.

Wedged into another corner was a blackened mesh shelf fastened to the wall above a ring of glowing pebbles.

That was all there was inside the pitiable hole the creature surely lived.

Piteous or not, it’s more than I have to my name.

Chest tightening, I remembered to inhale, and hints of damp rock and smooth chalk flooded my nose.

My attention snapped to the alien when he shifted.

Menacing to behold.

I shuffled backwards until my shoulder blades bumped metal nailed to the wall.

Panting fright, I sank until my bottom hit the floor.

Even motionless he looked fierce.

He was shaped human.

My gaze scudded over his immense frame and my pulse froze.

A bestial countenance bore equivalent features in the right places, but beyond that I failed to comprehend his
differences
.

The most noteworthy being he possessed six limbs instead of four.

Strange as he appeared he’d yet to make a violent move toward me.

Despite the life forms I’d encountered inflicting nothing but pain, hope kindled in my breast the creature was kinder than its predecessors.

It must be said, and even though his dealings with me were passive, his glare screamed black, painful death.

I was a firm believer actions spoke louder than words though.

Swallowing to ease a dry mouth, I croaked, “Hi.”

An ebon stare.

Intimidated by his hulking size, my gaze skimmed his face as I tried to humanise him, make him less imposing.

There was no hair as I knew it anywhere on his body, and against the rock walls that lack of softness gave him a mean, hard appearance.

Ropey braiding from his skull seemed textured like dreadlocks and could be considered hair, I supposed.

Pierced with golden rings, medallions and intricately knotted thread wreathed the onyx mane, yet the sides of his scalp were smooth.

Slinky cords grew in a strip down the middle of his head, hung to mid back and cascaded across his shoulders.

His skin, if you could call it that, was a sheathe of serpentine scales plating his epidermis.

The armoured shell lay as an intricately interlocking pattern that grew in dimension to protect his joints and overlapped vulnerable areas such as his throat and groin.

Mottled bronze, mixed with shades of olive and yellowish-brown, they had a faded lustre, as if supple, or slicked with the barest misting of mica.

Stalking closer with predatory grace, he knelt.

Two of his hands pressed to the ground for balance, the other two hovering in the air before me mere inches from touching.

He released a string of growling hisses then he cocked his head, expectant, waiting.

Expecting
what
exactly?

Me to respond in kind?

My nostrils flared as my breathing quickened.

Was I supposed to prostrate myself and beg for his beastly compassion?

“I....” Stalling, hoping I didn’t court death attempting to communicate, I licked my lips. “I can’t understand you.”

He snarled and glared.

Blanching, I whispered, “
How am I to know what you want
?” Fierce was my need to survive. “Am I to be quiet? Submissive? Prove myself by being aggressive? Keep spitting nonsense until you get me?” In a moment of madness, I thrust my face forward to get in his. “
I don’t know what to do
.”

Raising his lower fists from the floor to rest on the wall either side of my head, he reached out.

To
touch
me.

Touch me with those horrible, bloody talons.

Cry for help strangled by fear, I jerked my knees to my chest and reared back so fast I bashed the back of the skull against the rock.

A burst of pain exploded from the impact and radiated across my cranium.

Hissing, angrier, he moved with inhuman speed to grab my chin.

He twisted my head to the side and his other, bloodier, hand lifted.

Scrunching my eyes shut, I braced for pain.

A heartbeat later my eyes popped open. I stared at the grubby bedding in shock.

A gentle trace of claws on skin.

Out of the corner of my eye, I studied his other hand resting on the apple of my cheek.

Claws were the same shade as his scales, but lustreless, and his fingers seemed dexterous, his thumb as long as his fingers.

During the brawl he’d used his talons to rend, hack and sever.

He could shred my flesh to ribbons with a flick of the wrist yet he rubbed the skin behind my ear with the lightest of pressure.

The juxtaposition of claws and tenderness baffled me.

It also gave me hope.

Had I met my first civil extraterrestrial?

He looked like a barbarian, fought like a demon, but first impressions could be deceptive, couldn’t they?

I mumbled, “They put a translator there so I could understand them,” as said machine shifted under his touch. I again braved his wrath to communicate. “They had questions about me. Well, about my species. Humans.” My hands lifted to push him away. I dithered, not wanting to touch him and make him cross when his claws were on me. Heat from his chest beat against my palms. “I can’t understand you though,” I finished on a whisper as my gaze wandered up to his face.

Darker scales underlining a sloped forehead implied slashing eyebrows and the curvature of a flattened nose bridge.

High cheekbones lent his rugged features an arrogant cast and just softened a feral visage all too predatory.

His lips had a leathery look, as did the pale spaces between his scales.

Though unlike mine, his mouth was sensual with a spiky cupid’s bow, the crease on the bottom lip shallow enough so as to suggest softness yet not be pouty.

Afraid he’d be offended by my blatant stare, I licked my own lips, gaze darting away only to be drawn back as if to a loadstone.

Lying almost flat to his head, he had external ears, pointed at the helix and serrated around their curve.

Lobes connected to the upper camber of a rough-hewed jaw gave him an appearance of stealth.

Gold studs lined both pinnae, and the ivory tooth of an animal etched with glyphs speared through his left tragus.

His forked tongue flickered as he ‘spoke’ again and my gaze zeroed in on the ball piercing just before the split in the thick muscle.

I ogled it with wide eyes.

He shook his head in apparent irritation.

Thick dreadlocks tumbled over his shoulder as he did, a grouping of burnished beads and gold clinking and glinting in the light.

Releasing me, he leaned back and swept his gaze over me again.

The distance gave me the opportunity to take in more of him in scattered, twitchy glances.

Wide shoulders cut a sharp line under his thick neck, no weak slope to their structure, and supported upper arms roped with adamantine muscle.

After the winding journey, I knew the rugged dimensions of those shoulders well.

Magnificently crafted, a band of gold curled below bulging triceps and above an iron-hard bicep and was engraved with a language I couldn’t read.