Ultimate Warriors (40 page)

     
"Ah,
faster," he begged her, breathless and gasping for air.
"Harder."

     
Quinlan
began to move faster, instantly discovering the delight of claiming him hard.

     
"Harder,"
he growled, pumping up into her, his whole body tensing and flexing.

     
She
could not deny him. Watching his face, contorted in what seemed like agony, she
gave him what he begged for. Her body squeezed him, colliding against him,
forcing him to come inside her as she rode him hard. Her body began to peak
with desire. Sweat glistened on their skin. She tried to hold back from her
climax, wanting to give him his first.

     
"Oh,
yeah, sweetheart," he implored demandingly. "That’s it. Ah, that’s
it. Don’t stop. Just ... like ... that, darling. Don’t stop ... ah. Keep it
hard. Oh, you feel so good on me."

     
Quinlan
couldn’t deny herself any longer as his words washed over her. She pushed him
back. She braced her hands onto his chest as he fell over in surprise. Her
fingers dug into his nipples. She circled her hips while still pounding into
his flesh. Her body began to tense, she could feel it coming, she needed it to
come,
she
needed him to release her....

     
"Aahh!"
she screamed, shaking ferociously as she peaked. Her hands clawed viciously
into him.

     
Nikandros’
head fell back as he arched into her. He never felt anything like it. It was as
if her body sucked the life out of him and he willingly gave it to her. His
mouth opened, his eyes sought to look at her, wanting the memory of her
climaxing pose to forever be with him. He was stunned to see her eyes shifted
to the subtlest purple.

     
"Silk,"
he whispered.

     
Quinlan collapsed
on top of him, breathless. She couldn’t move. "What did you say?"

     
"I
said you feel like silk," he murmured into her hair. She was too spent to
move. His lips trailed to her temple to give her a gentle kiss. She fell asleep
on his body, his member still embedded within her.

* * * *

     
Nikandros
didn’t know how long he dozed, but sometime during his rest, Quinlan had slid
off to his side and now lay nestled next to him on the bed. She was achingly
beautiful in her nakedness and his body stirred, wanting to take possession of
her again. Her lips parted and she moaned in her sleep, tempting him to a kiss.
He held back. He didn’t dare wake her.

     
Thinking
of her shifting eyes, he slowly stood and went to look for the formula he’d
stolen from her father’s laboratory. It angered him slightly that she would
just leave it lying out like that. He didn’t dream for a moment that a
scientist’s daughter wouldn’t know what it was--especially William’s daughter.

     
Guilt
overwhelmed him as he pulled the paper out. Slowly, he read over the encoded
documentation. It was part of William’s research. He knew because William had
used part of his DNA coding in his research and Nikandros recognized the
sequencing.

     
Getting
to the end, he frowned. The work was incomplete and, in the corner, in a tight
script that looked just like William’s, it read,
All
attempts to produce genetic enhancements a complete failure. All subjects
unstable and die within twelve hours before any genetic altering can even take
hold.
Am regretfully calling an end to the project.

     
It was
dated the day before William died.

     
Nikandros
glanced at the bed to the sleeping woman. The smooth curve of her backside was
to him. The documents were fakes--good fakes, but fakes nonetheless. He knew
because he had seen the real research. Where this paper claimed to hit a dead
end, they had surpassed by leaps and bounds.

     
He
sighed, knowing he would be expected to report in. Taking a leap of faith, he
grabbed a pen from his pocket and scrolled quick note onto the back of the
page. Then, laying it by her head, he placed the rose from his lapel on top of
it. He wanted to kiss her again, but didn’t dare until this nasty business was
done for good.

     
Quietly,
he dressed and snuck from her bedroom window, leaping down the way he’d gotten
in. His body blended completely with the darkness, blurring as he moved,
turning into a fine, undetectable mist as he went easily past her security.

* * * *

     
Quinlan
awoke the next morning with a smile forming on her lips before she even opened
her eyes. She was thoroughly rested. Yawning, she reached across her large bed,
searching for Nikandros. To her disappointment, he wasn’t there. Still grinning
like a fool, her fingers hit a flower. She grabbed the bud, sitting up to look
around. The fire still burned golden. Save for her, the room was empty.

     
"Nick?"
she called lightly, her head leaning over to look into the bathroom as she
smelled the red rose. There was no answer. She frowned in disappointment. Then,
seeing a white piece of paper on her pillow, she picked it up.

     
I know
the truth about your father’s formula. Meet me tonight.
Pierson
Park.
Midnight.
Nikandros.

     
Quinlan’s
hand trembled as she turned the paper over. It was the fake sheet she’d put in
her father’s office and carefully sprinkled with dust to make it look like an
original. Her hands trembled and a tear slid down her face. If Nikandros knew
the truth, then others might know it as well. She couldn’t let the secret out.
She couldn’t let them make more like her. She had to stop him.

     
"No,"
she whispered, looking down at her naked body in bittersweet dejection.
"Silk has to stop him."

* * * *

     
Nikandros
frowned into the video phone. "I don’t think she is trying to sell the
formula."

     
Korbin’s
eyes narrowed. "What makes you think that?"

     
"I
just do," Nikandros said. He rolled a little piece of silk residue in his
fingers. He’d found it on his chest when he got back to his hotel room, next to
the scratch marks from Quinlan’s fingers. He’d also seen the way her eyes
changed to a most familiar purple.

     
"Are
you sure you’re not thinking with your--" began Korbin.

     
"William
figured out the formula," Nikandros broke in. "It’s complete."

     
"No,"
Korbin whispered, with an expression akin to horror. "Then you know what
we must do. We have to get that formula. If it fell into the wrong hands, just
imagine the evil we’d be dealing with."

     
"I
don’t think she’s going to give it out," Nikandros said, wondering what
made him so sure of that fact.

     
"You’re
not thinking straight," Korbin said. "I know you like her,
but--"

     
"I
think I love her," Nikandros said. Korbin paled. He knew his friend would
never say anything like that lightly.

     
"Nick,"
Korbin began, almost mournful.

     
"All
I ask is that you give me time to talk to her before you send in the other
Protectors. If she is trying to give out the formula, I’ll take her down
myself--on my honor." Nikandros stared boldly in the phone.

     
"All
right," Korbin said. After hundreds of years of working together, he knew
to take Nikandros at his word. But, from experience, he also knew that love
clouded the mind. He didn’t know what was going on down in Pierson City, but he
was sure he didn’t like it. "I’ll give you till tomorrow. But if the
formula’s completed, she could already have a buyer lined up for it. I can’t
think of a single man at that party I would want to have it."

     
"I
know," Nikandros said. "I won’t let you down. Trust me."

     
"I
do, old friend," Korbin said. "Just don’t forget who you are ... what
we are. We are the Protectors and we must do just that."

     
Nikandros
nodded, switching off the phone. His eyes drifted down to the silk ball he had
rolled in his hands. Slowly, he lifted his fingers and threw it at the
trashcan. It was time to end this.

     
It was a
half an hour until midnight and Silk wasn’t sure what made her go to her
father’s laboratory instead of straight to Pierson Park. The tight, familiar
fit of her clothes was comforting to her skin as she walked silently through
the secret passageways.

     
Henry
Thompson had sent a crew to pick up her father’s collection earlier in the day
and she was a little sad to see the big portrait go. With it there, so big and
commanding, she had felt like he was with her again, watching over her. Then
Nikandros had come and she felt the loneliness leaving her for a sweet moment
of ecstasy.

     
It had
been so hard the last ten years--alone and isolated from the world. No one had
been there to help her understand her new powers. She couldn’t let anyone in,
lest they discover her secret. She would not be exposed for a freak--prodded
and tested and torn apart until there was nothing left. And, most importantly,
she would not see anyone else burdened with her curse.

     
Taking a
deep breath, she pushed open the secret door to the laboratory. For a moment,
she let herself remember what it was like to be a young girl, sneaking away
from her nanny to go to her father’s lab. He’d always scold her, but never once
did he send her away.

     
Clutching
her teddy bear, she’d watch him look into his microscope. He always took the
time to show her what he worked on, doing his best to explain complex concepts
to a young daughter who didn’t understand them. All Quinlan had known at the
time was that her father was a good man and he was trying to save and improve
lives. Dr. William St. James had done just that time and time again. But the
two lives he couldn’t save, were his own and his daughter’s.

     
"I’m
sorry, Dad," she whispered, feeling like a failure. All she ever wanted
was to avenge him and put an end to the reality of his formula.

     
Suddenly,
two strong arms clamped around her from behind. Silk had been so lost in
thought, that she didn’t hear anyone else in the room. Glancing down through
the red fog of the security lights, she saw two very strong, pale masculine
hands on her arms.

     
Silk
didn’t scream, biding her time.

     
"I’m
sorry, Daddy," came a mocking feminine whine.

     
Silk
blinked, narrowing her eyes through the mask as she peered out into the
darkness. To her amazement, Mrs. Nathaniel walked out from behind her father’s
antique filing cabinet.

     
"Ah,
great," Silk said, giving a heavy sigh of frustration. "You’re not
trying to seduce the robotic help again are you?"

     
Mrs.
Nathaniel grimaced, storming forward to slap Silk across the face with the flat
of her palm. "Shut up! I was rewiring to listen to your messages."

     
Silk
just laughed. It occurred to her that the hands on her arms more than likely
belonged to the Adonis model pleasure droid.

     
"Uh-huh," chuckled Silk, mocking.
"The last
time I checked, robotic droids didn’t store their message files in their
erections."

     
"Hurt
her, Adonis," cried Mrs. Nathaniel, pulling at her blonde hair.

     
The
pleasure droid squeezed ever so slightly, but didn’t really do her skin any
harm. Pleasure droids were not programmed for pain. They were like any other
droid. If they tried to really hurt a human, they would self-destruct
instantly. Silk, an idea forming in her head, gritted her teeth as if she were
in pain.

     
"That’s
better," said Mrs. Nathaniel. "Now, tell me where you’ve hidden your
father’s formula."

     
"Formula?"
spat Silk, giving a pretend jerk in the android’s arms. "What
formula?"

     
"Argh!"
the woman screeched, slapping Silk again.

     
Silk
frowned. This was quickly getting old.

     
"Did
your husband send you here?" Silk asked.