Star warrior complete a.., p.34
Star Warrior Complete: A Scifi Alien Romance Bundle, page 34
“I know that this is all a bit irregular. The circumstances are very unusual her being an enemy combatant and all that, but it seems that Jorav has tamed her well enough that this seems safe.”
He chuckled. A few of the nobles near the front took their cue from him and chuckled just a little themselves. Not that I appreciated the idea that Jorav had tamed me. That was far from the truth, but if they thought I was a tame trained human and that let their guard down then I’d be happy to let them believe it.
They’d find out just how tame I was the hard way.
“This one killing Sorei in combat means that by the ancient traditions our ancestors and the spirits of the emperors past have judged her more worthy!”
He said that last bit about the spirits of emperors past with a small grimace. I guess he didn’t really like the idea of worshiping the ancestors of a man who had taken the real power from them at the point of a sword.
I felt something building in Jorav’s mind as well. Surprise. Now there was a… well, a surprise. I figure he’d be upset at this development, but he seemed shocked. I turned and was greeted with a look that I hadn’t seen since that fateful day on my ship when I’d bested him in one-on-one combat in my power suit. He was surprised to the very core of his sparkly blue being.
Okay. So I was no strange to weird rare things happening to me at this point, but I was starting to wish I could go to one party in this city without having some Livisk pull some ancient surprise on me. Was that too much to ask?
Ergohl pulled me out in front of him. “I present to you my new daughter! Talia of the Combined Interstellar Fleet, and battlemate to the greatest general our people know!”
The response was less than enthusiastic. Some Livisk let out cheers, but most of them seemed to have trouble believing this. Or they looked like Ergohl had gone completely off his rocker. I was almost inclined to agree with that assessment, but I kept my mouth shut.
He wasn’t trying to kill me, so whatever else might be going on here I’d take it. Then he pulled me into a bear hug that nearly cracked my ribs and I almost thought he was trying to kill me after all. I put a hand between us and pushed hard on his second heart which caused him to grunt and release me.
Ergohl smiled down at me. “Sorry. Sometimes I forget how strong we are compared to you humans.”
“Yeah, don’t mention it,” I said. “Just try to take it easy the next time you try to crush me.”
“But of course,” he said.
“So what the fuck does all this mean?”
Ergohl’s eyebrows climbed towards the ceiling. “What does it mean? I’d think that would be obvious. It means that I’ve adopted you as my daughter. If Jorav gives his permission, of course.”
“His permission? What about my permission?”
“You gave that when you killed my daughter in combat,” he said. “That invoked the ancient tradition and it’s my right to adopt if your battlemate agrees, being your closest relation on our world.”
He glanced over to Jorav who paused for a long moment. I could feel him mulling it over through the bond. The thoughts flashed through his mind faster than I would’ve thought possible. He wondered if this was some sort of trap. If it was some noble scheme or an attempt to get close to Jorav through me. Finally, though, he seemed to accept it for what it seemed to be.
I sent my agreement through the bond. If this was a scheme then it was a damned convoluted one. I couldn’t imagine someone sacrificing their daughter for a slight advantage in politics, but then again I didn’t know anything about how the Livisk nobility operated so who was I to make any judgment call on what they would or wouldn’t do?
“I accept,” Jorav said. “Of course that means you’ll need to present her at our bonding ceremony.”
“Of course,” Ergohl said. Then he leaned in closer to me and whispered something that was loud enough that everyone around us could easily hear it. “You really did me a favor by getting rid of Sorei, you know. She always was trouble, and I’m pretty sure she’s made a couple of clumsy attempts on my life.”
I blinked. Okay, so maybe he really wouldn’t mind sacrificing his daughter. I shook my head. I never ceased to be amazed at the Livisk and how well they seemed to take a death as long as it was a death that happened in at least semi-honorable combat.
“You’re crazy,” I said.
“Perhaps I am, my daughter,” Ergohl said. “But something tells me that crazy is exactly what you’ll need to survive on this world. Besides, it can’t hurt to have new friends in high places, now can it?”
I wasn’t sure what to make of that so I opted to keep my mouth shut instead. It had gotten me in enough trouble as it was tonight, and I figured I’d stop while I was ahead. With “ahead” being defined as not getting killed.
No, I was going to do something that was very out of character for me because I was completely out of my element now. I was going to sit down, shut up, and play along for now because I had no idea what the fuck any of this meant.
10: Hidden Dangers
Jorav:
“Something’s wrong,” Talia said.
I stared out at the lights of hover cars moving through the city around us. I wondered how many of those floating lights out there contained agents working on behalf of the emperor. I wondered if any of them contained assassins pointing their weapons at us and waiting for the word to blast the hover car out of the sky.
Not that I was too worried on that score. If the emperor was going to kill us that way then chances are he already would have done it. No, he was working on something. Something big. Bonding us hadn’t worked. Sending assassins after us hadn’t worked.
I almost wondered if the throne could somehow be behind everything that happened at that party this evening, but that seemed impossible. It all felt like a young noble who was trying to get out of her obligation during the Bloodying, but then again a well laid plot would look exactly like it wasn’t a well laid plot.
“I can’t stop thinking of everything that happened tonight. Something feels off about it,” I finally said.
“Are you kidding? I think the evening went pretty damn well. We’re still alive, aren’t we?”
I shook my head. “You don’t understand. No member of a noble family has invoked family by right of battle in ages. It’s been centuries as you humans reckon your time.”
Talia shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened to me since arriving on this world. After all, I am the only human to successfully be bonded to a Livisk, right? Maybe I’m just a magnet for impossible things.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Or maybe that whole thing was a setup tonight.”
“I did think of that,” Talia said. “It makes sense when you think about it. Ergohl loses a foolhardy heir, his eldest son who does seem to have a more level head on him gets to take over, and he has a link to you now for whatever that’s worth. I’m not sure having a link to a man who has a big bullseye on his forehead is worth much of anything.”
I looked at her in amazement. It was an exact echo of where my thoughts had taken me this evening, and she’d been so preoccupied with the whirlwind of being introduced to everyone in Ergohl’s house that I was pretty sure she hadn’t had time to go sifting through my thoughts this evening.
“How did you determine all that?”
“Are you kidding? I went through all of that in the first thirty seconds after he started introducing me to everyone. I agree with you that there’s something fishy going on there, but I don’t know what it is so I figured it was safer to play along.”
“I fail to see what warm-blooded aquatic creatures have to do with anything,” I said.
Talia reached out and patted my cheek. Again I was consumed by a fire at her touch. It amazed me how a simple touch was enough to set my body ablaze as I thought of all the things I would like to do to her. All the things that were forbidden until we went through with our official bonding. It was enough to make me want to violate those ancient rules. The hardness between my legs was certainly proof of how much I needed her.
“It was a turn of phrase from earth,” she said. “You should know that by now.”
Her eyes darted down, and if anything that only served to further fan the flames of desire roaring inside me.
“Oh, and if you really do want to violate some of those rules around the bonding ceremony I’m more than willing to help you break some traditions.”
I took in a deep breath and let it out long and slow. I took several more breaths to try and bring my body under control. When I thought I had things well in hand I locked eyes with Talia.
“As tempting as that is…”
“I know, I know,” she said. “You’re not going to violate ancient tradition just because everyone else on this world does. You’re better than that and blah blah blah.”
Her hand darted out and grabbed my manhood. I groaned and my eyes rolled into the back of my head as her hand deftly moved up and down the length of my shaft. Meanwhile another of her hands moved up to trace along my tattoos on my chest. She paid particular attention to the swirl of ink that marked me as a general in the Imperial forces.
“Just remember that sometimes rules are there to be broken, my dear sparkly blue lawful good sex machine,” she whispered. “And boy are you going to love breaking them if you ever decide to get over yourself and give into temptation.”
She pulled her hand away. It took every bit of training and control I’d learned over a lifetime of combat to keep from whimpering. It was amazing that she could have so much control with a simple gesture. It was a strange an awesome power that she had over me.
“Oh I know,” she said, doing that irritating thing where she spoke out loud to a thought drifting across the bond. “Guess I’m not powerful enough to get you to break with tradition though. Which is a damn shame.”
I shook my head. “Back to all that business with Ergohl. You figured all that out right after he started introducing you to people?”
“Of course,” Talia said, turning to look out over the city. We were approaching my tower and would be home soon. I felt a small sense of relief that brought shame to me. Being close to home meant we were close to safety, but of course as a true warrior I shouldn’t care about being close to safety.
Even if it was safety for Talia that I worried about.
“It took me the better part of the evening to work all that out,” I said. “How did you come to those conclusions so quickly?”
Talia shrugged. “You have to be good at politics if you’re going to make it in the Fleet. That sort of thing is second nature to me. Right up there with knowing when to fire energy weapons versus torpedoes.”
“I was never good at the political side of things,” I said. “For us it’s much simpler. If you are a warrior then you fight. Politics are left to the people interested in that sort of thing. The ones without honor.”
Talia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and look how well that’s worked out for your people so far. Great system you have going here.”
“There is a reason I preferred battle. Simpler to go off world and fight humans than to stay here fighting Livisk with words on our world.”
“Did you ever stop to think that maybe it’s time you fought the Livisk here on this world with more than your words?” Talia asked.
“I know what you want to do, Talia,” I said. “And I’ve said I’ll go along with it to a point, but I don’t see how we can stand against the emperor.”
“We find allies,” Talia said. “Like Ergohl tonight. He just adopted me as his daughter. That has to be good for something, doesn’t it?”
“I still don’t know why he did that. I wouldn’t feel safe relying on him for anything as drastic as trying to topple the emperor.”
“Oh come on,” Talia said. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe he was sincere tonight? It’s just another example of a crazy Livisk tradition that I happened to stumble into. Now why don’t we use this to our advantage?”
I shook my head. “Because that’s a dangerous line of thinking. The nobility don’t like me. They never have. It was only…”
I paused and turned away for a moment. I’d been very close to bringing up my former wife in front of Talia. Something I tried very hard not to do. I didn’t want her to think there were still feelings there when nothing could be farther from the truth.
“It’s okay,” Talia said. “I can hear your thoughts, you know. Besides, she’s dead and I’m here. I’m not going to get pissed off over being in some fucked up competition with a dead woman.”
“She was the one who kept the peace between me and the nobles, but they didn’t care for me. Sure they’re always upset with the emperor, but that’s the natural order of things. None of them have tried to move against the emperor even when he was at his weakest, so I don’t see them turning on him now because we ask nicely.”
Talia shrugged. It was a fatalistic gesture. Meanwhile in her thoughts it was obvious that she figured if we were going to die anyways then we might as well die doing our best to take the emperor with us. It was a bleak way of looking at the world, but one that I was more and more inclined to agree with the more we tried to think of ways to topple the regime.
Talia turned back to me and smiled. “If they’re upset with the emperor then we’ll just have to figure out a way to make them more than upset. We’ll find a way to make them so pissed off that they have no choice but to rebel.”
“Yes, because that will be simple enough to convince them to do that when they’ve had a couple of generations to do exactly that but hold back,” I said. I hoped my dry tone would convey exactly how I felt about that.
“Well I think it’s a great idea. If you have an emperor you want to get rid of then the first order of business is finding a bunch of people who don’t like that emperor and using them to get rid of him.”
I peered down at her in the darkness. Lights from hovercars and buildings outside reflected on her showing the beautiful contours of her features. Even without a hint of blue she was gorgeous, and when I looked at her I found myself completely forgetting about how improbably dangerous all her plans for overthrowing the emperor were.
“Aww shucks,” she said, walking towards me. Slinking across the small space of the hover car would be more like it, actually. Mine was large enough and expensive enough that you could walk around in it, but only just. She reached up and ran a hand along my cheek. At least she wasn’t running it along my chest tattoos. “You really know how to sweet talk a girl. You know that? Thinking I’m hot enough to risk execution over.”
I cleared my throat. “Yes, well, that’s not the only reason I’m going along with these crazy plans of yours. To a point.”
“Well think of it this way, Jorav,” she said, her hand moving down my cheek and along my neck. Down to trace along my rank tattoos. Oh yes, there it was. My cock stirred between my legs and it was all I could do to keep my attention on whatever it was she was saying. She leaned in closer until she was whispering in my ear and it sent a chill running through me that was so much better than any chill I got from combat.
“The sooner we get done with this whole overthrowing the emperor thing the sooner we can settle down and focus on what really matters. You. Me. A nice little palace somewhere that isn’t this damned city that gets blown up every hundred years. How does that sound?”
I thought that might be the extent of her teasing. How wrong I was. Before I could react I felt a mischievous line of thought run through her head and then a moment later she’d wrapped her legs around me and plopped down in my lap. I felt the heat of her arousal through her pants and it drove me wild. And that was before she started a subtle back and forth grinding motion that drove me even more wild.
“Just think Jorav,” she said. “The two of us free to have whatever fun we want together without worrying about someone trying to kill us. Sounds like a nice way to live, doesn’t it?”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that no matter what we did there would likely always be someone out there trying to kill us. That was the nature of Livisk politics. If anything overthrowing the emperor and replacing him with someone else was likely to paint a bigger target on our backs than we had now.
Talia’s face turned to a pout. “Come on. You’re supposed to indulge me in my little fantasy right now, not fill your head with all those depressing realistic thoughts. Besides, you indulge my fantasy and I might just indulge you in one of yours.”
The grinding grew more intense. Without thinking I moved my hands up and wrapped them around her waist. It always amazed me that I was able to wrap my hands almost completely around her without any trouble. Nothing like the Livisk women I’d been with. They were all more substantial, but at the same time they were all far less strong than Talia.
“Aw shucks,” she said. “You keep thinking nice things like that and you’re going to make a girl blush Jorav!”
“I’m… sorry?” I asked. I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. It was difficult to understand exactly what she meant when she slipped into possibly sarcastic Terran vernacular like that.
Talia’s grinding picked up and she leaned forward again so that she was whispering in my ear. Almost as though she was worried her words might be picked up by a listening device, though of course that was impossible.
“You know it’s just the two of us here in this hover car,” she whispered. “No one would know what’s going on in here. You could violate a few traditions and be perfectly fine.”
I looked up at her and it was so difficult not to take her up on that heavily implied offer. The look on her face was pure bliss. She was so far gone and a lot of that feeling was feeding through the bond and causing my own passion to roar like a bonfire. I knew if I let this go on much longer that it would be too late. I’d be too far gone, yet at the same time I couldn’t bring myself to let her stop. It felt too damn good.
“I…”
Talia put a finger to my lips to stop me from talking. I’m sure she had a pretty good idea that I’d just tell her why we couldn’t do this. She’d certainly know that was what I was going to say as soon as that thought entered my mind. The downside of the bond and all that.
