Precious Sacrifice (7 page)

Jonathan Two stood beside his car. Normally he’d leave them be. It was the woman he wanted. But for the first time in days, he heard the voice.
Follow, follow, follow.

It suited him. Perhaps the man would go. Perhaps he would kill him with the knife. Either way was fine. As long as he got her in the end. Where to do this? Her apartment was on the upper floor and at a corner and would have fewer people to hear any noises she might make. Good.

Was the killer drawn to his fatalistic thoughts? As Jadd slammed the car door with his boot, the man had stepped from his car. He’d parked behind them. They’d locked gazes for a second, before the man slid his downward to focus on Brittany where she lay quietly in Jadd’s arms.

He pulled her in closer.

Brazen.

What destruction he might smite this creature with. If only. If only he could.

He took a few deep inhalations and resisted pulling out a shotgun and blasting him away in the middle of this busy street.

With Brittany lapsing now and then into unconsciousness, he had to carry her up the stairs to her apartment. After rounding the first landing, he heard other footsteps below. The killer still followed.

As he used Brittany’s key to unlock her door, the man emerged from the stairwell.

Kak.
Possibilities gnawed at him. If he left her now, this thing would get her. If he did anything to him, he’d fail the mission. He’d be punished properly this time, as befitted a commander who had harmed one of his men. Execution or, if he was lucky, a decade as a worker on a prison planet far away from Earth.

He left the door of the apartment open. After laying Brittany out on her bed, he listened. His augmented hearing let him detect the smallest noises. Quiet footsteps came nearer, then the sound changed, echoing yet muffled, as the killer walked on the apartment’s carpeted hallway. Perhaps the killer was struck by how insane this was for Jadd heard him open the sliding doors and hide somewhere on the balcony.

He intended to kill her soon.

Jadd bowed his head. There were two roads he could take. And he’d decided already.

He left his weapons in their holsters and carefully buttoned his coat.

“Goodbye, sweet girl.” He bent over the bed and kissed her forehead, drawing one long breath to keep her scent in his memory forever. Though her eyelids flickered open and she smiled adorably, he straightened.

Then he walked out into the living room, turned on his heel, and headed for the balcony. The curtains furled and unfurled in the cool breeze. Brittany’s sparrow flitted past and did an acrobatic dive at the flapping cloth while madly cheeping. When he thrust back the curtains the man was revealed, alert face, and a hand with a knife already plunging toward his stomach. The blur of metal driven by strong muscles. The glee on the killer’s face.

Jadd let the shining sliver snap point-first into his coat. The blade turned on the armored material and slid. It clattered to the floor.

“Surprise!” By then, he had hold of the man and was forcing him back. He took two long strides toward the edge. When the killer’s back thudded into the railing, the metal rang.

Jadd welcomed the mutual grip on his coat. Four stories down. They’d both perish. Good. If he died, the partly forged bond would snap, she’d be free.

It could be his final gift to her.

The man said nothing, only grunting, with eyes wide and bright, as he wrestled. Hand met arm, smacked again in counter-strike. Kicks were blocked and re-attempted. His reactions were extremely fast for a human. Perhaps he was on drugs? On the verge of that last leap to take them both past the point of no return, Jadd heard a sound behind him. Her voice. Her tiny feet stumbling as they negotiated the rug. He chanced a sideways glance.

His marks on her and the fear showing on her face. It broke him. He couldn’t do this.

Jadd did a body twist and surged into full combat velocity. Hands blurring, he thumped up under both the killer’s arms to loosen the grip on his coat then tossed him over the railing. He sailed upward and out, arms flailing then fell. The building a few yards opposite had only five open windows. None had people in them. The creature plummeted headfirst into a shrubby poorly tended garden and vanished among the leaves. No screams.

He swallowed. If it wasn’t for the best, it was done. He’d use every influence, call in favors, whatever he could.
Anything.

Now to look after his girl.

She waited for him in the living room. As he came to her, she retreated a step or two. Intelligence filled her eyes. If she’d seen the killer go over, it hadn’t impacted on her yet.

“Do you know who that was?”

She blinked. “Was it him?”

“Yes. It was your stalker. He’s gone now. Dead.”

“Why? I thought you couldn’t interfere? I thought it meant you’d be punished. I don’t want that.” Her words sounded thick, as if pushed past tears. “And I thought you were going over too.” These last words wrenched out of her as violently as a hook pulled from flesh. “You scared me. And I don’t know why. But I don’t want to lose you. Jadd?”

“I know. I know” He gripped her arms, tightening and relaxing his circle of fingers then he pulled her in close. “I’m sorry. I almost did go over. I couldn’t. I saw you and I couldn’t do that to you.” Her heart thumped against his chest. “I couldn’t. Things…have changed.”

“You…almost killed yourself?”

He nodded.

“This is so screwed up.” When she drew her hand back and made as if to hit him, he caught her hand.

“Not wise.”

She made a disgusted sound. “Please, tell me you’ll be safe. Please.” Her furious blinking spoke of inner turmoil. “What do you mean? What’s changed?”

She cared for him as much as he did her. His balls tightened. His heart danced – if it got any bigger, it would burst. The marks on her body spoke truth. It mightn’t be enough to sway his superiors, but it had stopped him.

“I’m safe. For now. Your dress has fallen from your shoulder.” He put a hand to her waist, supporting her. He’d removed her bra at the park and the dress had fallen below her breast, so she was bare to him. With the fingertips of his free hand, he traced a slow curve beneath, smiling at the color of her areola. “Look.” He cupped her breast, lifting it to display her nipple.

Brittany looked down. “Ohmigod. Wow. I’m going red.
Really
red.” She glanced at his cheek grooves then back to herself and added in a whisper, “I’m…like you.”

“We’re matching up. This is a little early. I’m not sure why it’s happening. If you were given the last dose, it would all be red which would mean you were mine. My pet.” He lowered his head and kissed her lightly on the mouth. “Your lips are changing, Brittany. You’re probably matching me elsewhere too.”

It was sad but true.

The contact sent a mild thrill running through him all the way down to his balls. He swallowed. How right this seemed. Surely his commanders would see this was more than usual and let them remain together?

“I match you somewhere else? Where would that be? Oh.” She bit her lower lip. “I can guess.” A blush spread across her cheeks.

“Yes, down there.” His lips twitched as he held back a smirk.

“Oh my.” With her eyebrows slightly raised, she studied him. The budding amazement on her face mirrored his own. “Really?”

“Really.”

She was so perfect. He could imagine her with him, greeting him each day. Them making love, talking about so many things – their upbringings were worlds apart, and yet they matched each other. If only he could be certain of their future.

“Undo your coat? Please?” Brittany watched as he did so, then she wrapped both arms around him beneath the coat, her forearms bumping on the butts of the weapons at his waist. Just touching Jadd like this – with him all warm and big and masculine – it calmed her. Especially when he combed through her hair with his fingers, over and over. Her eyes would roll up any time soon and she’d turn into mush.

She could tell though, that he was worried. They were walking on quicksand. She’d never have contemplated anything like this a few days ago. Not surprising really – falling in love with an alien…an alien soldier man. The man part was obligatory, but he felt and smelled so good.

She sighed and held him tighter, snuggled in, his chin tucked on her head, them breathing together. Funny, but she was sure she could tell what part of her was responding to him due to this nano drug and what part of her simply loved him for who he was. Her eyes stung. Because, yes, she did. He was a good man, and for the first time in forever she saw herself for who she had been.

She’d been going nowhere for a long time. If only things were less…nasty. There was a man, dead, at the bottom of the building’s garden.

She scrunched her brow. “I wish you didn’t have to kill, and that he hadn’t wanted me dead.”

No point asking Jadd what to tell the cops. She’d work it out if they asked her, and her apartment would be straight up from where the body lay. Say he’d attacked her and she pushed him over? Wait. They’d want to know why she hadn’t called them. She squeezed her eyes shut.

There was an obvious solution, once she let herself go there. Everything seemed to click into place. She wanted this. Courage.

Her pulse upped, thumped.
Shut up, heart.

“Can I come with you to wherever you go? Now that he’s gone?” Her fingers clenched just a little, holding onto his shirt.

His reply was soft. She felt his chin move on her hair. “Brittany. I wish I could say yes. It’s not for me to decide.”

“To hell with punishment.” She sniffed. “I want to be with you. It’s insane but I do.”

No matter how dumb it seemed, she was like a dog who’d found its master, like a butterfly alighting on that perfect flower…like a woman with a world of grief inside her who’d at last found sanctuary. If it was the drug, damn, she still wanted it so much it hurt to think of being parted from him.

“I need you,” she whispered, attempting to graft herself onto him. But he only breathed with her some more. She heard his throat working as if he didn’t know what to say.

“There’s a chance, a small one, if I put my case right. Bonding, even with a pet, is revered among my people. If you were fully mine, it would mean more.”

She angled up her head to see his face. “You can’t make that happen?”

“No. I can’t change chemistry. Though you’re already becoming my pet.” That measured reply, the sorrow in his eyes, made her hurt for him more than herself. He played with her hair.

After letting him go and taking step back, she tugged the other strap off her shoulder and let the dress slither to the floor. She slipped off her panties.

He cocked his head.

“You need to look at me. Down there. Maybe the change shows more there? I mean the more I’ve changed, the better?” She raised her eyebrows. His only reply was a twitch of his lips. To check he followed her, she walked backward for a moment then she padded across the soft carpet to her bedroom. She climbed up and lay on her back on the bed with her knees bent and her feet on the edge. Waiting for him to look.

He drew closer, his expression guarded for once. What was wrong? Lips trembling, worried she’d done some major mistake in etiquette, she opened her legs.

“Please?”

The rapt look that swept his face settled her fears. He wanted her still.

“Why were you afraid to look, Jadd?”

“Afraid?” he growled out. “That’s not a word in an Igrakk warrior’s vocabulary. But…” He grunted. “Maybe I was. I was afraid you wouldn’t be marked.”

“And I am?”
Wow.

He placed his hands on her knees, looking down at her, his lips curving upward triumphantly. “Yes. You are. Brittany, the more you have changed, the better the chance that your people can adapt to the starfaring virus, and the less chance Earth will be demolished. But it also means it’ll become a Hunting Ground for some years.”

He waited as if to let her think.

She swallowed and made a desperate search for some functioning brain cells.
Shit, shit, shit.

He was being so understanding. She raged against her mad need to fuck and thought. He was an alien.
Check.
Did not care. He had so far not grown eight legs. Big plus. And he was so nice, sexy, so right for her. Next point? Earth was going to be demolished if she didn’t become, like, his pet? Ugh. She ran her tongue over her lips. And that was a problem? How?

“I got all that. None of it bothers me.”

Jadd rocked her knees with his hands, grinned. “I should take a closer look.”

“Mmm.” Riveted by what he was doing, she barely understood the meaning of his words.

He went to his knees, never wavering in his focus on her intimate female anatomy. A tingle of desire electrified her body. It plumped her lower lips, made her nipples ache and tighten to hard points, made her quiver to feel him touch her.
Fuck.
Yes.
She huffed and tensed. Even his breath galvanized her.

He placed his palms on her inner thighs to push her open.

Oh.
She let her legs fall open as far as they would go.

“Good, pet,” he murmured distractedly.

Tears leaked and she shivered. The word “pet” had shuddered into her very bones, occupying every romantic cell in her body.

She shifted her heels a miniscule amount, getting used to the throb in her pussy he’d conjured. “I want…I want to be yours, always, Jadd.”

He glanced up. His eyes tightened to a predator’s demeanor. “Master. Say Master.”

What was this? Before her mind could trip her up she said it. “I want to be yours, Master.”

What the hell?

For a few seconds, his chest heaved, he breathed so deeply. “I’m going to try hard to make it so. You’re so close.” He let go of one thigh so he could trace along her slit. “So close to being fully red.”

“Oh fuck.” Gasping, she arched up her pelvis, so her pussy rose and his finger slipped a little inside her. At that exquisite sensation, she couldn’t help tilting her head back.

That moan was surely not her?