WastelandRogue (21 page)

“Rye.” He touched her arm. “You’re not inferior. On the
contrary, I’m the one lacking.”

“How?”

“I can’t do most of what you do. I’ve never even taken the
time to learn about the recessive part of my genetic makeup. Not even that
saliva trick.”

“Is that why you didn’t tell me from the start that you were
a half-breed—afraid I’d judge you for your differences?”

“I don’t tell people because I don’t trust anyone to know
me.” His expression turned thoughtful. “With the exception of you.”

Rye put her hand on Sevrin’s cheek. “That you guard the
secret is very
lamian
of you.” She rubbed her fingers over his smiling
lips. She leaned in and kissed him. “I like you just the way you are.”

She slid her arms around his neck as he kissed her back. His
hold tightened around her waist, drawing her up against him. It was in his arms
that all her concerns about any ill intentions he might have for her fell away.

He raised one hand to her head. Burying his fingers in her
hair, he tilted her head back and laid a trail of kisses across her cheek.
Along her jaw, beneath her chin, his sucking kiss showered her with sparks of
affection. She trembled at the sheer power in his lips.

Lightning heat moved through her, weakening her to the point
she sagged against his solid frame. If not for his crushing embrace, she might
have slipped to the floor. His mouth captured hers. Their lips melded and then
he parted hers. His tongue thrusting against hers devoured her senses. She
couldn’t think with her emotions colliding. Desire, the strongest, became
overwhelmed by love—the deepest, longest, lasting kind.

When his hands roamed, never settling in one place, she
wanted to strip off her dirty clothes and feel his skin rubbing against hers.
Instead, a sliver of common sense crashed into their moment of pleasure. She
broke from the kiss and dropped her head down against his shoulder.

He pulled her head up with the fingers he had woven into her
hair. Strangely commanding, he kissed her again and she succumbed to his claim
on her without protest. She wanted to belong to him, as she’d never wanted
anything before.

In his zeal, he pushed her up against the door. Unlocked and
ajar, it swung open and they fell into the next room. The door slammed against
a wall behind it as they let go of each other in their stumbling entrance. A
partition of mortared brick that separated one area from another swayed
forward.

“Watch out!” Sevrin yelled, lunging for her.

She ducked into the doorway as the wall crashed on him.
“Sevrin?”

“Still here,” he announced.

She climbed out from behind the rubble and over the pile of
bricks to him. While kissing him was wonderful, they did have more important
things to do. “We had that coming.”

“Yeah. I guess we better keep our attention on where we’re
going.” He took her hand and got up from the floor.

She had taken pride in her independence, always the one
taking care of Shay and keeping them both alive. It felt especially nice to
come to Sevrin’s rescue, even if he didn’t need rescuing.

“Come on.” He led her across to yet another doorway. They
followed the corridor, went down some stairs and ended at a room with no other
exit.

“This is obviously not the right route.” He went back the
way they came but not as far as the door with the lock.

“How about we go to the left this time,” she said, looking
at another stairwell inside a room with a windowed door.

“Like there’s even another choice.” He let go of her hand
and moved on ahead. “Stay close this time.”

She walked behind him, not mentioning the room with the
staircase. If they found themselves at another dead end, she’d tell him then.

Sevrin faced the dead end with frustration. “I guess we
check each room.”

“Or we check the one with the staircase.”

“You saw a room with a staircase? Why didn’t you say
something before?”

“I thought you wanted to be in charge.” She flashed him a
wide grin. “Men always like to be in charge, even when they’re not big on
details.”

“Very funny.” He turned her around. “Lead the way.”

As Rye walked ahead, he looked at the placement of the holes
in her pants. Almost if purposely, strategically placed, they teased the
observer. One fell on the bottom curve of her ass, while another sat just to
the left of the upper area of her rear end. He liked the pronounced sway of her
hips with each step she took. Sexy. Alluring. Perfectly inviting.

Sometimes stubborn, sometimes sassy, she had an easy way
about her nature. Even when she showed her emotions, she kept them in check.

“Here, this room.” She went in and pointed to the spiraling
metal steps.

He went over and looked up. “Ready?” He glanced back at her.

She shrugged, and he accepted it as her yes.

A landing at the top opened into a corridor. Not many doors
lined the smooth metal walls. He turned into the first room. Since not seeing
the stairs before, he’d not let any area go unexamined. Rye must have had a
similar thought as he looked at her holding a knife perpendicular to the wall
and scoring the slick finish with three lines.

“Good idea, marking the rooms we’ve already searched,” he
said.

At the third room they walked in, a mechanical sound caught
his attention. He spun around to see the door quickly slam shut.

Rye was first at the steel barrier. “It’s inside a channel
in the wall. There’s no handle and no place to grab hold with my fingers.”

“Stand back.” He picked up a chair and hit the slab of metal
several times.

“It’s solid steel,” Rye said.

Before he even tried, he knew it was a waste of his strength
trying to break through.

“Not original to this old building, is it?” He flung the
chair aside. “I’d say we came the right direction this time.”

A shrill whistling overhead claimed their attention.

“I think we’ve set off an alarm,” he said.

“What?” Rye pulled her hands from her ears but still had a
grimace on her face.

“It’s an alarm,” he shouted.

“When is it going to stop?” She walked toward a metal grate
on the wall above her head where it seemed the sound originated.

The chair he had tossed aside became her club. She picked it
up and slammed it against the wall. The alarm suddenly stopped.

“Oh thank goodness. I thought I was going to go deaf.” She
sat the chair down and then lifted it again when an annoying crackling replaced
the blaring whistle.

“Wait.” He stopped her. “I’ve heard devices like these before.
They’re used for communication.”

He stared at the grate. They both waited for something to
happen.

“Maybe no one is one the other side,” Rye said.

“No, they don’t have to be that close. Some kind of sound
waves travel through wires. Zandt explained it to me once. He said the
technology used to be very popular several centuries ago. People talked long
distances through buildings. He read all about it in some historical government
archives my father took him to when he was studying to be a scientist. He even
said they talked on communicators that had no wiring. But I think he might have
been pulling my leg on that one.”

“Attention,” a voice said.

“Well apparently, he wasn’t joking about this thing.” Rye
moved next to him and stared up at the grate.

“You have entered a restricted area,” the voice explained.
“It is a violation of world law for you to enter private property. Those found
in violation may be immediately terminated under ordinance two five four of the
asset protection division of this company. You are instructed to wait for a
zone administrator to check your authorization credentials.”

“Time to go.” Sevrin grabbed Rye’s arm and pulled her toward
the door that had shut on them.

“You’ve already tried opening the door,” she reminded him.

“You have any suggestions?” He looked around the room for
another exit. “If we’re caught here, we may not live past the moment it takes
to explain why we don’t have authorization.”

“Surely they’re used to derelicts wandering in out of the
cold. I can’t believe they’d kill them for mistakenly using the place for
shelter.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Besides, we went
beyond the abandoned areas. We got inside their domain with a key.” He looked
up at the ceiling. “Bring that chair closer.”

“What are you thinking?” Rye picked up the chair and sat it
next to him.

“I’m going to go up and look around. You stay here and…”

“I’m going with you, Sevrin. I can take care of myself.”

“Hold up just moment.” He cupped her face and stroked her
cheek with his thumb as he talked. “I know you can take care of yourself,
probably better than I can do for you, but I need you to stay down here by the
door and listen for anyone coming.”

“Why?”

“I need to see if there is a way out before we both
disappear from this room. They have no reason to let us live if they think
we’re proving to be too much trouble to keep contained.”

“All right. I’ll stay.” She pulled his hand from her cheek.
“Be careful.”

“Don’t worry about me. I can handle myself.” He squeezed her
fingers and then turned to the opening in the ceiling. “Up seems our best
option of escaping this trap and if it is, I’ll let you know.” He climbed on
the chair and pressed his hands against the panel overhead. The lightweight,
aerated metal lifted. He slid it to the side.

“What do you see?” she asked.

“Not much.” He grabbed the steel grate rail the panel had
lain on and hoisted himself up. The metal wasn’t as rigid as he expected and
the rail bent under his weight.

“Don’t fall,” Rye instructed, as if he had such a plan.

He crawled over the rail and spread out on several of the
struts suspending everything. Carefully, he rose, getting his footing in secure
areas. Or so he thought before one panel fell and crashed to the floor.

“Sevrin?”

“I’m all right. Just stay back.”

He searched the area and found the ceiling was a dummy one
beneath another, more solid one. As far as he could tell, there wasn’t any
access to anywhere other than back down. He made his way to the hole he’d come
up through and worked himself over the edge. Hanging over the chair, he
dropped.

“No place to go. This ceiling is suspended between walls and
above it is the floor to the next level.”

He turned at the sound of the door opening. Two men dressed
in dark gray stood outside in the corridor.

“I’m Sevrin Renault and I’m here to see my brother, Dr.
Zandt Renault,” he informed them quickly.

The men remained silent statues.

“Maybe they didn’t understand you.” Rye stepped forward.

The men parted and another man, much shorter, moved between
them. He had short white hair and an expressionless face. “They understand but
it’s not up to them to make decisions.” His gaze went from Rye to him. “If
you’ll follow me, please.”

“I’m Dr. Renault’s brother,” Sevrin said, not liking the
man’s cold stare.

“So I heard you tell the guards. I’m Dr. Creswell. Now
please come with me.”

“Are you taking us to Zandt?” Sevrin asked.

“No. Because of security reasons, he’ll have to come to you.
His department is in lockdown due to a chemical leak. I’m going to take you to
a visitors room where you can wait for him.”

“Is this chemical leak serious?” Sevrin asked.

“They have it contained. Dr. Renault isn’t in any danger.
However, they must clean up so that their spill doesn’t leave their area and
contaminate other labs.”

Sevrin thought about years ago, his mother getting sick and
dying. His father never said but he had a feeling she contracted some disease
from what she worked on for the Wickstrom Group.

Sevrin didn’t trust the little man but then he didn’t have a
choice. They walked out of the room and passed between the two goons. He felt
Rye close, obviously nervous.

At the end of the corridor, he waited for Dr. Creswell to
pass them and lead the way. He took them through a door they had not gone
through because they didn’t have a key. The goons marched in a straight-line
formation at the rear. With a starched, stiff appearance and weapons at their
sides, they had an air of elite training in their background—government
conditioning. He recognized it from his youth and the way his grandfather
carried himself.

“I hope you find our accommodations comfortable.” Dr.
Creswell waved them into the spacious room.

Sevrin glanced around at the sterile-looking room.

“You’ll understand that we must lock you in here, for your
own safety.”

“How long?” Sevrin asked.

“I’d say by morning they’ll have everything cleaned up.”

Sevrin nodded, letting the man leave.

“You let him
lock
us in here?” Rye questioned his
decision.

“I don’t think we have much choice at this point. Besides,
this room is probably easy to get out of.” He ran a hand over the white plastic
wall. “This flimsy stuff is for show, not security. We’ll wait until morning
and then decide whether we should be concerned.”

Rye rubbed the kink in her neck. A confining space was
always a suitable sleeping place. She didn’t mind the dark or a small cramped
space. However, the large, pristine room made her uncomfortable. This was out
of her comfort zone, especially since she wasn’t able to leave. That trapped
feeling put her on edge. She had no say in when or if she left the enclosure.

She searched the walls for weak points.

Sevrin slid his hands over his head, tunneling his fingers
through his wavy hair. “I’ve already checked those. Looks flimsy but it’s not.
This isn’t a room someone simply made secure, it was built to hold prisoners.”

His observation made her even more determined to find a way
out. She walked around and looked at everything. Windows high up had the most
promise.

Sevrin startled her by placing his hands on her shoulders.
“Relax,” he said, kneading the taut cord of muscle running up the side of her
neck. “Someone will come along eventually.”

Her regenerative body had no chance to relieve the ache
because the stress kept her tense.

“Why leave us here?” She shifted around, sitting on the
chair to encourage him to use two hands to relieve the ache in her shoulders.

“Maybe they don’t know what to do with us.” He leaned
forward and rested his chin on her shoulder. “Or it could be this is a jail
punishment and they’ll let us go when they think we’ve learned our lesson for
trespassing.”

“Or they’re planning evil ways in which to torture and kill
us.” She pulled from Sevrin and got to her feet. “I can’t help thinking this
can’t turn out well. If they’re hiring humans to capture
lamians
, then
what will stop them from—”

“We don’t know that’s what they’re doing,” he interrupted.

Suddenly, the only light in the room went out.

“Great, now we can’t even see.” Rye paced the small area,
using both her feet and her hands to search out obstacles.

She remembered the chairs, the small tables and the
single-sized beds hanging on the wall, one above the other. The metal basin
with a spigot in the corner had reminded her of how thirsty she was, but she
wasn’t about to put anything in her mouth in that place.

“You’re going to trip and fall.” Sevrin placed his hands on
her hips and stopped her. “How about you sit and get some sleep.”

“I can’t sleep. We need to figure out how to get out of
here.” She took a deep breath as he pulled her back against him.

“We can’t see. When there’s light, we’ll try to get out of
here again.” He slid his hands around her waist. “I know something to take your
mind off our situation.”

“I don’t know that sex will make me forget we’re someone’s
prisoner.” She rested her head against his shoulder, enjoying his attempt to
calm her.

His caresses circled her belly. She raised her arms and let
him slip her shirt over her head. He cupped her breasts and squeezed gently,
massaging firmly with his palms and fingers. Her nipples swelled and hardened
against the grating swirls. She wanted his mouth on them but she settled for
the direction he chose.

“Do you think they’re listening to us?” She wiggled her
bottom against his crotch, turned-on by his patient petting.

“Don’t know, don’t care.” He rubbed her belly again.

“I don’t know that I’d want anyone watching.” She moaned as
his hands dipped beneath the waistband of her pants.

“Let’s not think about the voyeuristic pleasures of some
creepy little man in a lab coat, all right?” He unfastened her pants and pushed
them from her hips.

“You really think Dr. Creswell would do that?” She whimpered
at the touch of his fingers between her legs.

“I told you, I don’t care.” He curled a finger and stroked
her sensitive clit.

She reached back and grabbed the sides of his legs. Even as
he aroused her with proficient fondling, her thoughts kept hovering around the
idea of spies. Why did Sevrin have to suggest a creepy little man in a lab
coat? She didn’t want the vision of a body attached to the potential listener.

“You’re still tense,” he whispered against her ear.

“You’re not doing something that exactly relaxes a body.”
She turned, stepping from her pants.

In the dark, she undressed him. She circled, feeling her way
around as she pulled his shirt off, pushed his pants down and caressed his
back. He stepped in place, bending and kicking off his boots and his pants.

She glided around to the front of him. Holding her hand up
and touching his face, she dragged her fingers around his lips, over his nose
and along his brow. “It’s as if you’re a stranger all over again,” she said.

“We can never be strangers to one another, Rye.” He kissed
her fingertips. “You’ve left an imprint on my soul.”

She took a deep breath and swung her arms around his neck.
Naked, they came together, embracing and kissing.

Sevrin’s hands on the back of her thighs encouraged her to
hop up and wrap her legs around his waist. He maneuvered her onto his thick,
stiff erection. His fingers dug into the cheeks of her bottom, jerking her to
him. He moved forward. Was it memory or instinct that guided him to where the
empty wall was beneath the windows and near that spigot?

His erratic kisses skipped back and forth from one side of
her neck to the other. A few times, his lips touched hers, briefly landing and
then leaving. He thrust harder, driving his cock deeper. Friction from his
back-and-forth motions stimulated her core. She clawed at his back, digging her
fingers into his flesh at the first twinges of her orgasm.

While flattened against the cold unyielding surface, a burst
of heat roiled through her. She bit her bottom lip and hugged Sevrin tighter.
His hot breath dampened her neck.

Then he lifted his head and found her mouth with his. An
enormous amount of energy flowed through her. It left her euphorically floating
on the fringes of something too wonderful to describe. And then she was
falling—her regenerative forces at work.

Sevrin didn’t ease up, lunging into her with hard succinct
moves. His breathing heavy, his vigor immeasurable, he planted his mouth over
hers at the same time she cried out with a welcomed, joyous release. Tense and
shaking, she clung to him. He filled her with the wet warmth of his semen.

“Nothing is ever the same with you.” He panted, nuzzling his
nose against hers. The bristles of his unshaven face scratched lightly against
her cheek.

“Is that good or bad?” she asked, although she suspected it
was good, judging by his reluctance to let her go.

“Extremely good, sunshine.” He kissed her lightly.

Excitement rippled from her toes into her chest, tightening
the air in her lungs. She wasn’t one to be overly sentimental but his use of
the endearment again, grabbed her heart. Did she dare risk believing they had
something stronger between them than the desire to fuck?

He let her down one leg at a time and then stepped back. The
separation ended her heightened emotional dependency.

“It’s going to be impossible to find our clothes,” she said,
not sure where to start hunting for them on the floor.

Sevrin’s hand landed on her arm. “We don’t need them…yet.”
He pulled her forward and kissed her deeply.

In his embrace, she let the dreams of love invade her
senses. His strokes over her body touched more than her skin, they heated her
soul. She heard sweet nothings in his hushed tone and saw his smile in visions
her mind conjured.

“Sevrin,” she murmured, enchanted by the way his name made
her feel safe. “Don’t let me go.”

He kissed her harder. His lip caught one of her fangs and he
let out a groan but didn’t pull away. She sucked at the blood, savoring the
sweet taste of his vitality.

Then Sevrin pulled her head to the side. He guided her face
beneath his jaw and pressed her mouth against his neck. The unexpected,
selfless offering spun her thoughts out of control.

Rye bit into his flesh with a need to quench her blood
thirst. The creamy liquid flowed onto her taste buds. That first sample
escalated her assertive senses. She swallowed repeatedly with ardent greed.

Sevrin’s low moans expressed his increased desires just as
they had their first time in the steam-trekker. His grip on her head tightened.

Twinges of heat shot like sparks through her veins. She
sucked harder on the throbbing vein. His energy filled her. The prickling
sensations to her nerves increased, searing her insides with white-hot lust.

Sevrin’s violent shudder made her break free.

Before the words
I’m sorry
rolled off her tongue,
Sevrin spun her around. He kissed her shoulder as he ran his hands up and down
her body. When he slipped his fingers into her soaked cunt, she leaned her head
back against his shoulder. He used his other hand to grasp her breast. His
rough touch aroused her. The twists and tugs to her nipple created threads of
pain and twinges of pleasure. When the piercing ring came free, it tore her
skin and she let out a whimper.

Sevrin turned her about face and bent to capture her sore
nipple in his mouth. He sucked the blood, using intermittent squeezes to
produce more. His hungry suckling continued until the flesh mended.

Then he maneuvered her into a bent-over position. The bottom
bunk of a bed became her support as he gripped her by the fold at her hip
joints and thrust between her quivering cunt lips. His aim had the accuracy of
someone skilled in such an arrangement.

It took him longer to climax than the first time. His grunts
gave off a tone of exhaustion. She trembled from one orgasm to the next. Then
Sevrin stopped. His hold tightened and the liquid heat spread.

He pulled her upright and held her against his chest, not
pulling out but rather dropping free.

“I hurt you,” he said, rubbing her breast, fondling her
healed nipple.

“Without the gateway of pain we would never find the purest
of pleasures.” She turned in his embrace. “Isn’t that why you wanted me to bite
you?”

“I don’t know why I did that. It’s not rational. But something
about you compelled me to give myself fully to you. Then once you were drinking
my blood, I wanted yours. I wanted you like I was some primeval beast.”

“Our blood, the
lamian
part, flows with a chemical
for bonding. When I drink yours, you feel the rush of that energy. Giving into
it takes you to a place in yourself that may seem foreign but is very natural.”

“When I fed you in the steam-trekker that first time, why
did you stop me? I couldn’t stop myself.”

“As much as it seems to be a beastly act to you, it’s an
intimate act between
lamians
and I was embarrassed. I thought you were
human.”

“So a human gets the same feelings?”

“Not exactly.” How did she explain the bonding with a human
was sexual, where the bonding with a
lamian
was more a soul mating? “We
should get dressed.”

“Rye?” His hold prevented her from moving. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She caressed his cheek.

He let go and she searched the floor for her clothing and
found his first.

“These are yours,” she said into the dark, holding them out.
His hands covered hers briefly as he took the clothing. Farther along, she
found her shirt and pants and dressed.

The lights suddenly came on and light filled the room.

“You’re sure you’re all right?” he asked.

She pulled her shirt open to show him. He touched her breast
and fingered her nipple. His expression showed his relief that he hadn’t left a
mark on her.

When the door swung open, she snatched up the broken pipe
she had already decided to use as a weapon. The man in the opening, showing
quick reflexes, grabbed her upraised arm. Her prior fears of a plot to trap her
rushed back into her thoughts when Sevrin seized her around the waist.