The Tigrens' Glory (22 page)

“How will you attack the Xanti when Blind Sight makes them invisible?” Glory asked. 

“We have encryption codes for the newest Blind Sight system that will make any Xanti ship visible within a certain range,” Lariah said.  “Beyond that, we’ll rely on Faith.”

 “Faith?”

“She sees meta-space,” Lariah said.  “That means she can see jump points, and Xanti ships even if they’re using Blind Sight.  She can also see through jump points to the other side, so we’ll know what we have to face before we even jump.”

“That’s good news,” Glory said.  “So, all of you will work from here, as a team?”

“Yes, exactly,” Lariah said.  “It’ll be easier for us to figure out who needs to go after what if we’re together.  It’s what this room was designed for.  The Falcorans haven’t been linked with Faith for very long, so they haven’t had much time to practice their increased power.  So, the Falcorans will command the task force from here, and Faith will let us know what she can see that’s invisible to us.”

“It sounds very exciting,” Glory said as she looked out the viewport at the rest of the task force.  She’d never seen a Xanti ship before, but she imagined they were at least as big and formidable looking as those belonging to the Jasani.  “What sort of damage can you can do to a ship?”

“You’d be surprised,” Lariah said.  “Those with strength in Earth can actually peel the hull open.  Air can be solidified inside a ship, but that takes a long time.  It’s easier to superheat it, causing it to rapidly expand.  The pressure increases to the point where the ship bursts open like a balloon.  Fire in the fuel tanks causes quite an explosion, especially when it’s accompanied by another fire in ordinance storage.  You get the idea.”

“All of that and you never have to fire a weapon,” Glory said.  “I wondered how you thought to overpower the Xanti without fighting.  You can destroy all the technology on their world from this room, can’t you?”

“That’s our plan, yes,” Lariah said.  “We’re set to go through the jump point tomorrow evening. If you’d like to come watch, you’re welcome.”

“I’d love to,” Glory said.  “I promise to stay out of the way.”

“If I had the slightest worry that you’d be in the way I wouldn’t have invited you,” Lariah said with a laugh.  “Come on, I promised Saige we’d visit with her this morning.”

Glory took one last look around the room before following Lariah out.  She was looking forward to watching the Jasani use their powers against the Xanti.  The creepy little bugs wouldn’t know what hit them.

Chapter Nineteen

Glory opened her eyes, surprised to find herself in her valley.  She frowned in confusion, unable to remember why she’d come here.  In fact, she couldn’t remember coming here to begin with. 

She smiled.  She wasn’t meditating.  She was sleeping.  She remembered now.  She’d tried, and failed, to Dream Walk.  After a couple of hours she’d given up and gone to bed.  This was a true dream. 

She had a feeling she could call the Tigren into her dream if she wanted to, much the same as she did while meditating.  She was tempted.  But, she didn’t think she’d have the same kind of control in a dream as she did while meditating.  If she brought them in to her dream, knowing it was a dream might be too tempting for her.  She might let things happen that shouldn’t happen.  Things she’d never imagined before, but that she’d learned from the stories Lariah had given her.  No.  That wouldn’t be a good idea at all.

She shifted restlessly, the thick blue grass soft beneath her bare feet.  Bare feet?  She looked down to see that she was wearing the silky blue lounging pants and top that the Tigren had seemed to like.  She shrugged.  It didn’t matter what she was wearing since she was alone.

She heard the trickle of water and turned toward it.  Even though she’d created the valley, she’d never taken the time to explore it.  She was curious if the river would be as realistic as the grass and the sky.  It didn’t take long to climb the small rise that edged one side of the valley.  She smiled again, relaxed in her dream in a way she never was in the real world. 

The river was narrow, sparkling in the sun as it gurgled around rocks and bushes.  Small red and yellow fish leapt into the air, then splashed back into the water before leaping high again, chasing a cloud of midges that floated about the river.  She approached the water and knelt in the sand, watching the water and the fish, a sense of warm contentment washing through her.

After a few minutes she sensed that she was being watched.  She looked up, surprised to see Kyerion, Kirk, and Cade standing on the far side of the river, their eyes fixed unwaveringly on her.  Her body immediately reacted to them in ways she didn’t want to think about, and certainly didn’t want anyone to know about.   She was just thankful they were on the opposite side of the river. 

“Hello, Glory,” Kyerion said, his voice lower, deeper, and way more intimate than she was used to

“Hello,” she replied, shocked by the husky sound of her own voice.  She reminded herself that she was in a dream.  A real, normal, ordinary dream. 
Her
dream.  She focused, banishing the surprisingly intense arousal and all of its effects.  It was harder than she thought it should be, but it worked.  She breathed a deep sigh of relief.

“Come, join us,” Kyerion said, holding one hand out to her.  She yearned to place her hand in his, surprising herself. 

“That’s not a good idea,” she said.

“Because you think we already have a woman,” Kyerion said. 

“Yes,” she said, the thought making her sad.

“Come, we will discuss the matter with you, but we’d prefer not to have the river between us,” Kyerion said.

Glory looked at the water doubtfully.  She knew it was her dream, but nevertheless, the water looked cold and she didn’t really want to walk through it.  As she watched, a line of stepping stones appeared, one by one, crossing the river directly in front of her.  Had she done that?  She must have, she decided.  This was her dream, so the appearance of the stones must mean she really wanted to cross over.  Still she hesitated.

There were so many reasons this was not a good idea, and she ran through all of them in her mind.  When she was through, there was still one fact remaining.  This was a
dream
.  She could do what she wanted, with whomever she wanted, and no one would ever know save herself.  If she wanted the Tigren, and deep within her most secret self she admitted that she wanted them desperately, this was the only way she’d ever have them. 

Glory stood up and stepped onto the first stone.  When she reached the sand on the far side, Kyerion was there, his arms wide, waiting for her.  She walked straight into them, sighing as they closed around her, filling her with an inexplicable feeling that she couldn’t identify. 

She analyzed her feelings.  She was very aroused, in spite of her efforts to prevent it.  She felt wanted, which was new and very nice.  She felt safe, which was disturbing.  True safety was an illusion, a fact she’d learned long ago, and very well.  But there was something else.  Something so foreign to her, so outside anything in her experience, so
alien
, that she couldn’t identify it.

“We want you, Glory,” Kyerion said, his arms loosening as he stepped back, giving Cade and Kirk room to press their warm bodies against her so that she was surrounded by all three of them.  Glory stared up into Kyerion’s golden eyes, then lowered her gaze from the intense desire that blazed there.  Desire that matched, maybe even exceeded, her own.

“The very fact that we want you tells us that we have no Arima,” Kirk said as he ran his fingers lightly over her neck, causing her skin to pebble and her nipples to tighten. 

“I don’t understand,” she said, trying to focus through the intense sensations flooding her body and mind. 

“There is only one soul mate for each male-set,” Cade said.  “Just one.  The mere scent of that one special woman will cause our mating fangs to descend so that we can claim her as ours for all time.”

“That cannot have happened,” she pointed out. 

“That’s true,” he agreed.  “But we don’t need our bodies to know our feelings for you, and those feelings wouldn’t be possible if you weren’t ours.”

“Who is the tigrenca in the mosaic then?” she asked, wondering why she was asking.  This was a dream.  It didn’t matter.

“We don’t know,” Kirk said.  “Our last memory is of the battle between Tigren and Owlfen, and it’s a clear memory.  If we’d had an Arima, concern for her would have been foremost in all of our minds at that time.”

Glory opened her mouth, then shut it firmly.  The explanation made sense, which was no surprise since her own subconscious had created it.  This was her chance to explore the feelings that had been consuming her every waking moment for days now, and she was going to take it.

She looked up into Kyerion’s eyes, trying to tell him without words what she wanted because, even in a dream, she was afraid to say it.  His eyes flared with heat, the gold going molten. 

“You will let us have you?” he asked.

She swallowed hard and nodded.

“Say it,” Cade whispered into her ear, his hand running down the intricate braids that hung to the middle of her back.  “We need to hear it.”

“Yes,” she said, her voice hoarse.

Cade traced the delicate whorls of her ear with the tip of his tongue while Kirk began kissing her neck.  She was instantly immersed in pleasure unlike anything she’d ever imagined.  Then Kyerion lowered his mouth to hers in a kiss that was nothing like that first kiss.  This time he pressed his tongue firmly between her lips, demanding entrance.  She gave way immediately, her mouth opening to accept him.  He groaned as his tongue claimed her, stroking and tasting every inch of her.  By the time he broke the kiss they were both panting for air.

“By the stars, Kyerion, she has the most erotic breasts in creation,” Kirk said, his voice a deep, rumbling purr. 

Shocked, Glory glanced down to see that her camisole was bunched up above her breasts.  Kirk and Cade were holding it there, baring her breasts to their eyes.  She felt her face heat and started to raise her hands to lower the camisole when Kirk and Cade suddenly pulled it up higher.  Startled, she looked up and saw Kyerion’s eyes as he stared at her breasts.  They were so hot she thought it was a wonder she didn’t feel their burn against her flesh. 

She raised her arms so that Cade and Kirk could slip the camisole off.  Kirk dropped it to the grass while Cade pulled the tie at the waist of her pajama bottoms and pushed them down, leaving her naked before them.  The hunger in their eyes as they stared at her kept her arms at her sides, though she knew that if this weren’t a dream, she’d be so red she’d probably glow.

“You are magnificent,” Kyerion said, his voice hoarse as he reached out with both hands to run his fingers over her breasts. 

Glory had always been embarrassed by her breasts.  Not because of their size.  They were small, true, but since she was a warrior, she considered that a good thing.  She’d known several women who had difficulty wielding a blade to full effect because their breasts were too large.  They had to bind them tightly beneath their leather vests which was, from what she’d heard, quite painful after a while.  She was glad she didn’t have to go through that.  What was embarrassing about her breasts were her nipples.  They were disproportionately large, and when she got cold, or (as she recently discovered) aroused, they hardened into ridiculously long nubs that were blatantly sexual, and far too sensitive.

Kyerion cupped one breast in his large palm, then leaned down to wrap his hot, rough tongue around the chocolate brown nipple.  Glory shuddered, her hands going to Kyerion’s head of their own accord, her fingers sinking into his silky hair.  When he closed his lips around the nipple and sucked it into the heat of his mouth, she moaned helplessly.  Never in her life had she felt such pleasure.  When Kirk leaned down and took her other nipple into his mouth, her knees buckled.  Kirk and Kyerion immediately caught her, their mouths still at her breasts while they held her up.  She barely noticed Cade behind her, removing the bindings from her hair.

Kyerion and Kirk ran their free hands down her torso, across her taut, flat belly, over the curves of her hips, their hands tracing the same path on each side of her body as though they’d choreographed it.  When they reached the soft, silky curls guarding her mound they both groaned deeply before releasing her nipples.

They stepped back, their eyes caressing her naked body from head to toe.  Uncertainty rose in Glory as they continued to stare at her.  Then both men shuddered.  “You’re so sexy, and so beautiful,” Kirk said, lowering himself to his knees while running his fingers from her curls to her thigh, then down her calf to her ankle, his mouth tracing a hot line of wet kisses in the wake of his hand.  She shivered, her teeth clenched with the intensity of pleasure caused by nothing more than his fingertips brushing the bare skin of her leg. 

“Your body is a fantasy,” Kyerion said, his fingers delving between her thighs. 

“Spread your legs for us,
Zeta,
so we can discover what other delicious surprises you have in store for us,” Kirk said.  Glory’s face heated when he called her
silky
as though it were an endearment.  When she didn’t immediately spread her legs as he’d asked, Kyerion knelt on the grass at her feet beside Kirk and they each wrapped a hand around an ankle and tugged gently. 

“Open for them,
Aintza
,” Cade urged, his breath hot on her neck, his fingers stroking and tugging her nipples.  “Let them explore you.”

“
Aintza
?” Glory asked even as she let Kirk and Kyerion widen her stance.  She’d understood
Zeta
, but not
Aintza
.

“It means
Glory
,” Cade said before nipping her earlobe, the erotic pain sending a sharp spike of pleasure racing through her body.  Kirk kept one hand on her hip to help support her, and used the other to spread her outer labia, exposing her tender pink flesh to their eyes.