Page 30 of Doom Averted

“You are weak!” Allignon laughed, and his words sunk beneath my thin skin like barbs. I was weak, I wasn’t the same Da’vi Ertague I’d been during my time serving on the Balista. Another whack hit the small knife and it flung from my numb fingers, my grip no match for that kind of force. A small spark of fear wormed its way into my brain, was I going to lose?

Then my eyes spotted Or’tal who was standing right next to my mate, her face was pinched and pale as she listened to whatever he was whispering in her ear. It distracted me, enraged me, and Allignon managed to score his first true hit with his sword across my ribs. Blood welling along the narrow cut.

“Gotcha, one more slice and you’re mine,” Allignon said gleefully, but I saw the sheen of sweat on his brow, saw the way he was sparing one of his legs as we circled each other. He was already tired, and his knee was bothering him. He was old, it didn’t matter that my hands were useless, I could defeat him with my tail alone.

Then Arianna’s voice rose across the cheers and shouts of my brothers, clear as a bell she yelled, “You’re a coward Allignon! A bully! You have no honor!” She was no longer cheering, she was heckling my opponent. I loved this woman so much, and with her to fight for, I couldn’t possibly lose.

I curled my hands very deliberately behind my back, making it clear that I was fighting him without. It made the bio-luminescence flare brighter across my former Captain’s skin, his face tightening in anger. He didn’t like that, it made him look bad, and Arianna’s daring words were pissing him off, royally. When his eyes shifted from me to glare at my female, I feigned with my upper body one way and then sunk the tip of my tail into his wrist for a shallow cut.

“Now we’re even,” I growled, “One more cut decides it all. Where do you want it? Shall I avoid your face? So you won’t have to bear this shame publicly?” My grin made him pinch his lips, but he didn’t respond, it was getting easier to avoid his tail and sword slashes, he was tired, and he was angry. He was going to slip up, it was only a matter of time.

“Good job, baby!” Arianna shouted over the crowd, “Get him in the face! He deserves it!” She was almost making me laugh now, which was an experience I’d never had before during a fight. Face it was, for the lady.

It only took a bit more dodging to get under his guard, then I kicked the ankle of his bad leg and he crumbled. My tail caught him with the sharp point beneath his eye, carving out an inch-long gash. He howled, more from anger than pain I suspected, and the gladiators cheered. I didn’t trust him not to stab me in the back in a fit of rage, so I stepped back slowly, my eyes on my felled opponent.

Then Arianna thudded into my back, I knew it was her from her scent, her excited scream. I couldn’t catch her with my mangled hands, but she clung with her arms around my neck from behind, her legs wrapped around my middle. “You did it Da’vi! You were magnificent!” she crowed, her entire face wreathed in smiles.

Chapter 20

Arianna

Standing just inside the door to the engine room, I watched as Da’vi accepted the last piece of his engine upgrade from Babbit. Da’vi had expected those pieces to be lost to the Riho’s stash forever, the fluffy blue and black male had graciously dug them up from the bowels of the ship. After much debate, Da’vi had agreed with the rest of the gladiators to re-install the upgrade.

Eoin and he had already done much tweaking to the build of the engine to accommodate the extra power. It was starting to sound like he had found a stable way to give the Vagabond’s engine a little extra ‘oomph’ when in FTL.

I liked watching him work, and now that we were no longer avoiding each other, this had been my steady hangout since the moment the Kertinal ship had left. I’d sit here and crochet things for the ladies on the ship, especially that adorable baby of Tori. Da’vi would work on fixing the engine, then upgrading it while we crawled the last portion of the way to the Yengar Spacestation.

The Kertinals had left, with the understanding that the rotten Allignon was not allowed to approach Da’vi ever again. That didn’t mean that some other Kertinal General couldn’t get it in their head to come after him, but it was much less likely. Allignon had only known about what Da’vi had done and coveted it because it had happened right under his nose, on the ship he’d Captained. Only Or’tal had known why Allignon was after Da’vi, his own men hadn’t known a single thing.

Then Or’tal had done a very decent thing, reminding the General that he owed us reparations for the damage he’d caused to our ship. Suddenly all the spare parts from the Kertinal vessel had been handed over, including some raw materials, and a stack of credits to make up for the parts they didn’t have. Abigail had been extremely chuffed ever since, crowing that we could afford to go on a shopping spree at Yengar. I wasn’t the only one on the ship who was sorely missing some clothing staples, such as underwear.

“It’s done,” Da’vi announced gruffly, standing with his hands on his hips in front of the softly glowing and humming engine. He turned his head to look at me over his shoulder and I smiled, adoring the way he looked like that. Slightly dirty overalls, his sleeves rolled up to his biceps, the glimmer of his metal hands. Then there was that heated look in his glowing amethyst eyes. He’d gifted me with that look every night since we’d made up, every morning too, and it made my toes curl with desire.

“That’s awesome, does that mean we get to celebrate with sex?” I asked hopefully, waggling my eyebrows when he grinned. He started to stalk me across the room, his leanly muscled body that of a panther on the prowl. All the lines on his skin lit up with his desire. He was never shy about anything, always bossy and confident, which made my body melt. It promised me he’d take good care of my body and my heart.

“Oh yeah, it definitely does, my Sunshine,” he said, but he flicked the coms open on his wrist while he stalked me. It made my skin tingle and a little uncertainty danced in my belly. Why was he calling someone if he intended to have his way with me? “Yeah, Kitan, just updating you, engine upgrades are live. You can jump to FTL whenever you want.”

I didn’t hear what Kitan said in turn, he’d reached me, and folded a cool, metal hand around my throat, forcing me to back up against the nearest wall. My body tightened like a coil, each hard plane of his body pressing each soft curve of mine. “I’m going to fuck you right against this wall, just nod if you understand,” he said, his voice dropping down into the deep registers, vibrating against my chest, making my sensitive nipples ache.

Swallowing to make my mouth work, I licked at my lips and watched how his eyes tracked the movement. Dipping my chin, I nodded once, twice. A growl erupted from his chest and then I was hoisted in the air, his palms on my ass, pushing my long skirt up. There was no foreplay, but I was already soaking wet from the anticipation.

He yanked open his pants and I felt the blunt, thick head of his cock press against my soaked folds. Its arrow-like head helped him sink into me the first few inches, then the bars of his piercings scraped along my passage, and my back bowed. I scraped my nails down his back in return and his hips jerked forward, impaling me on his erection. I may have screamed at that point, his name, just some kind of indecipherable noise, I didn’t care.

“That’s it, you can take me like this, I know you can, Arianna,” Da’vi said in my ear. His deep voice calmed any worry I had that he was too big this way. I trusted him, I’d made that step, first with my body, and then with my heart. I would follow where he led, and he always led me to some place amazing.

I relaxed my internal muscles, letting him carry my weight, my legs hooked around his hips. Then I closed my eyes and just felt. Feeling the way he stretched me wide, the ridges above his cock that rubbed against my clit. The piercings as they provided amazing friction against my g-spot, and the thick veins that covered him for even more texture. This was heaven and in less than a minute I was coming apart in his arms.

The world shifted around me, fracturing, elongating, my hair raising around my head with static, my orgasm felt like it lasted forever, a lifetime. His cocked kicked hard inside of me and then I felt the hot wash of his seed spray my insides, his chest shuddering as he groaned. “Fuck that FTL leap… That was good, it was good, right, Sunshine?”

He held me pinned against the wall for a little longer, his cock twitching inside my passage while we caught our breaths. At first, I could only nod to let him know I was alright, then I started to laugh. “That was an orgasm during FTL! Chloe would be so freaking jealous…” Not that I was going to tell her about it, that hardly seemed fair, she had to navigate during the jumps after all.

Da’vi was still shaking his head and chuckling about it after we’d straightened our clothing and started making our way toward the medical bay. We were supposed to meet the Doc once the engines were fixed, to see what Da’vi and he could do about the stasis pod.

After the power overload had hit Eoin and knocked him unconscious, it had hit the stasis pod as well since it had been hooked up in the engine room. They no longer had any hope that they could retrieve the occupant alive, the pod had cracked across the plex glass shield, and all systems had completely fried.

Just as we arrived at the med bay, Ziame spoke over the ship’s intercom. “We have arrived at the Yengar Spacestation. Be warned for a quick departure, the mercenary vessel the Varakartoom is in the docks. Boarding party assemble at the airlock.” That wasn’t us at least, I was extremely grateful that Da’vi had no inclination to leave the ship right now. Maybe later I’d want to explore other places, but this one I’d skip, I’d heard it was a crime-infested place anyway.

Eoin was inside the med bay, bent over the stasis pod with his hands on the seam where it was supposed to open. “Oh shit, that’s me,” he exclaimed, “Sorry Doc. You got this, right Da’vi?” Of course my mate had this, Da’vi didn’t even deign to answer, just stalked over to trade places so that the younger male could jog away.