Aubrey winced. “He probably has a copy, not that it will do him any good. The program is in my personal coding language.” He glanced away. “When I was a kid, I got hacked into at school.” He shook his head. “It was for some stupid homework assignment, but it pissed me off, so I invented a coding language of my own. I store everything in it. It switches to normal coding when it’s activated, but without the keys, it won’t activate. That’s what
Niobe
was doing. When she…” He took a breath and released it. “They mapped me and found where the keys were stored, but they couldn’t activate them. She would…make me cum, and it would trigger the keys.” He shrugged.
“I still don’t know why it worked, but it did.”
Seht nibbled on his full bottom lip. “Climax is a full-body release. It may be as simple as that. When your body released tension, so did your mind.”
Aubrey raised a brow. “How did you get so good at explaining stuff?”
Seht smiled. “When you are blamed for a great many things, you eventually learn how to rationalize just about everything.” He leaned closer. “My uncle claims that arguing with me is like arguing with a bulkhead.”
“I can see the similarities.” Aubrey smiled. “My dad used to tell me I was too smart for my own good.”
Seht snorted. “I can definitely see the similarities there.”
Aubrey sighed. “So, now what do we do?”
“Now?” Seht closed his arms around Aubrey and pulled him down onto his chest.
“Now, we sleep.” He pulled the blanket up over them. “Hopefully you will rest this time.”
Aubrey frowned at him. “You still want me to sleep on top of you?”
“Definitely.” He closed one arm around Aubrey’s waist and set the other under his head. “You may sleep under me next time.”
38
Morgan Hawke
Aubrey pulled his hands in. He was too exhausted to fight anymore. “If there is a next time.” He took a deep breath and coughed, and coughed. He leaned over Seht’s side to spit the blood from his mouth.
“Aubrey, do you wish to live?” Seht’s voice was very soft.
Aubrey stared at the blood on the ground. “I can’t afford to let Moribund get me again.”
“I have a way to save your life and keep Moribund from ever touching you again.
Do you want it?”
Aubrey settled against Seht’s heart. “What? A mind-wipe?” He considered it. It would stop Moribund from killing people, but everything he was would go with it. “I don’t want my mind wiped. Better to just kill me. I don’t think I could live with an empty head.”
Seht took a deep breath. “No, I will not wipe your mind. You could stay with my people, with me.”
Aubrey yawned. “As what? What could I do for your people? I don’t even know the language.”
Seht rubbed his palm across Aubrey’s back. “As my personal consort.”
Consort?
Aubrey frowned. “Is that like, your lover?”
“Yes, and my friend. You would be part of my household.”
Aubrey turned to look at Seht. “You’re serious?”
Seht winced. “Is the idea of being my lover so awful?”
Aubrey thought about it. Seht was certainly attractive enough. His dick was still hard. Seht seemed to genuinely like him, and he liked Seht… “I’d have no problems being your friend, but I have no idea how to be somebody’s lover.”
Seht smiled. “It will be my great pleasure to teach you pleasure.” He closed his arm around Aubrey’s back. “Sleep. I will ask you again in the morning.”
Seht’s friend and lover. Aubrey curled his hands between them, feeling Seht’s chest rise and fall under his palms and cheek. He smiled and took small, shallow breaths. It was a nice dream, but every breath he took was a knife blade sawing in his chest. He doubted he was going to be alive by morning. It was probably better this way anyway.
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His lungs stopped working.
Aubrey’s eyes flew open. He gasped for breath, and nothing entered. He couldn’t breathe. His body shuddered, then jerked violently. He couldn’t breathe! Wind roared in his ears. Within his chest, pain began to slam, one hammer blow after another.
Seht jerked awake, grabbed Aubrey’s shoulders, and sat up, shouting in Aubrey’s face.
Aubrey couldn’t hear him past the howling in his ears. Pain and panic squeezed his heart. He twisted sharply, falling from Seht’s body to sprawl on the floor, writhing and gagging for breath.
Seht rolled from the bed after him.
Gasping, Aubrey rolled onto his side. He wheezed a tiny breath of air into his lungs and choked. Hot, thick liquid exploded past his lips, and scarlet splattered the sand.
Seht jerked back, scrambled to his feet, and dashed off to his pack.
Aubrey rolled over onto his stomach and pushed up on his hands. He coughed hard. More blood spattered the sandy floor. Too much blood.
Seht dropped to his knees at Aubrey’s side. He fumbled a smooth black case open on the floor and pulled out a long needle. In seconds he had a huge syringe filled with iridescent liquid ready in his hand. His mouth white and his eyes wide, he shoved Aubrey onto his back and straddled his hips. Holding Aubrey down with one hand on his shoulder, Seht shouted, “Do you want to live?”
Aubrey blinked up at Seht. His vision began to fade down a long, dark tunnel. He barely heard him.
Seht shook him hard. “Aubrey, stay with me! Do you want to live?”
40
Morgan Hawke
Aubrey groaned and struggled to hear what Seht was asking.
“Aubrey, damn you!” Moisture slid from one huge blue eye and trickled down a bone-pale cheek. “Do you want to live? Yes or no?”
What did Seht want? Moisture dropped from Seht’s chin onto Aubrey’s cheek.
Tears?
Aubrey felt a different pain grab his heart. Seht was weeping. Aubrey gathered what breath he could. “Seht…”
Seht wiped his wrist across his eyes and raised the syringe. “Aubrey, please!
You’re dying, right now!” His fingers dug sharply into Aubrey’s shoulder. “Do you want to live? Yes or no?”
Aubrey struggled to think. Did he want to live? He hadn’t had the chance yet.
He’d reached majority in a tank. He hadn’t even had his first real sex yet. Seht had promised he wouldn’t go back, that he wouldn’t let them take him. Tears streaked from his eyes. “Yes.” It came out as barely a whisper.
Seht’s jaw clenched. “Done.” He slammed the syringe straight into Aubrey’s chest.
Light exploded within Aubrey’s heart. He didn’t have the breath to scream.
* * * * *
A hand rubbed his back. “Relax. You are shedding your human teeth.”
Aubrey couldn’t think. “What?” Exhaustion washed Seht’s reply from his mind.
* * * * *
“Ah, awake?” Seht’s mouth was tight and his eyes red-rimmed above him. “You are certainly a mess, pet.”
Aubrey frowned.
What the…?
He was cradled against Seht’s right shoulder and sprawled across Seht’s folded knees. Seht’s wrist was in his mouth, and Seht’s blood was pouring down Aubrey’s throat from an open wound slashed in his wrist. Aubrey could feel it against his tongue. He could also feel that some of his teeth were a lot longer than they should be.
Trying not to swallow, Aubrey pushed at Seht’s chest and opened his mouth wide to pull his teeth from Seht’s arm. He had no interest in drinking anybody’s blood.
Seht pressed his wrist tighter to Aubrey’s mouth. “Aubrey, don’t fight. Drink.
Your body is starving for nutrients.”
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Aubrey swallowed to keep from choking, and warmth spread all through his body. An odd hunger bloomed. His lips closed on the open wound pressed to his mouth. He sucked.
Heat filled Aubrey’s belly and spilled through him, bringing in a wave of mild euphoria. A soft moan escaped. The hunger became demanding. He bit down on Seht’s arm and sucked harder. His thoughts pulled apart and sleep beckoned. His eyes drifted closed.
Seht sighed. “That’s it, drink. You’ll feel better very soon.”
* * * * *
Aubrey winced. If he stepped out there, he’d be soaked in seconds. But damn it, he didn’t want to piss in the cave… He scratched at his chest and looked down. He was covered in some kind of brown flakes. Blood. He was smeared with dried blood.
Needed nutrients or not, he still couldn’t believe Seht had insisted that Aubrey drink his blood. He shook his head, shying away from those thoughts. What he needed was a shower.
Aubrey looked at the falling rain, grinned, and dropped his suit, stepping from it.
He strode out into the rainfall naked. Icy chill sluiced down his skin and soaked him thoroughly. He gasped in shock. It was fucking cold! He stumbled to one side to use the wall of rock by the cave mouth to relieve himself. His skin raced with chill. He scrubbed at his chest in the frigid rain and ran his fingers through his hair for good measure to get the blood off as fast as he could. He dashed back into the cave and shook off some of the water.
“Enjoy yourself?”
Aubrey looked over at Seht, folded his arms across his chest, and shivered hard.
“Oh, yeah, sure… In case you didn’t know, it’s fucking cold out there!” His words slurred just a bit. He explored with his tongue and discovered that his upper and lower canine teeth were longer than he remembered. A
lot
longer than he remembered. They felt like…fangs?
“Come here and get warm.” Seht smiled and pulled back the blanket, exposing his pale, muscular chest. “You could have used a wipe if all you wanted was to get clean.”
“I needed to, ah…” Aubrey felt heat spread across his cheeks. “I needed the facility.” He grabbed his suit and leaned back against the cave wall to get into it.
“I see.” Seht frowned. “You’re going to get your suit wet. Come. I have an extra blanket you may use to dry yourself.” He turned and leaned toward his pack by the fire, showing the long, graceful line of his spine and the curve of his bare backside.
42
Morgan Hawke
Aubrey’s brows lifted. Seht was naked? He spotted Seht’s black suit, folded neatly by his pack. Seht
was
naked, and he’d been sleeping on top of him. A coil of erotic heat spilled downward. His cock twitched.
Aubrey winced. Terrific, just what he needed—a hard-on. He positioned his suit to hide his growing erection and walked cautiously toward the fire and the bed. What was with him? He’d never had any real interest in guys before, but something about Seht was really getting to him.
Seht turned back over, leaning on his elbow as he held out a gray blanket. He smiled. “You are shivering.”
“Thanks.” Aubrey took the blanket from Seht’s fingers and turned his back, dropping his suit to the sand. He set the blanket over his head to towel his wet hair. It had gotten really long, and it was dripping everywhere.
“I’ll take that.” Seht flipped Aubrey’s suit over by the pack.
Aubrey froze.
Seht turned back over and smiled. “You won’t need it till we leave the cave.” The blanket slithered from Seht’s hips, revealing a pair of magnificently rigid erections, one right on top of the other.
Aubrey swallowed hard. Two, he had two…
Seht grinned. “You did not know?”
Aubrey sucked in a breath. “Um…no.” He couldn’t stop staring.
Seht rolled onto his back and gasped with laughter. “Chaos, you should see your face!”
Aubrey scowled. “Oh, yeah, very funny!” He turned his back and scrubbed his skin ferociously, staring at the rain falling past the cave mouth. Like, he was supposed to know everything about all the other races? He knew that some of them were…paired. He just hadn’t realized that Seht’s race was one of them.
“Aubrey.” Seht’s voice was soft, and right behind him, only inches away.
Aubrey froze. His breath stopped briefly. He hadn’t even heard Seht climb to his feet. Seht’s hand pressed against his right shoulder, and the sensation burned straight down his spine.
“Turn around. I want to see you.”
Aubrey turned, unable to resist the pressure on his shoulder. He faced the taller male and looked up.
Seht’s bright blue eyes were full of heated interest. His silver hair spilled free down his creamy shoulders to his back, and his smile was carnal. “Oh yes, you will do nicely. Sturdy frame, good bones…” His hands cupped Aubrey’s shoulders, then slid up into his hair, his fingers tangling in Aubrey’s dark waves. “Once you fill out, you will be quite magnificent.”
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Aubrey shivered, but not from chill, from heat. He could smell Seht’s skin, and his arousal. Aubrey was suddenly and painfully hard. He barely stopped himself from grabbing his aching cock. “Um, thanks, I guess.”
Seht’s brow rose, and his smile broadened. “Aubrey, are you afraid?”
Aubrey’s spine stiffened. “Who, me?”
Seht’s gaze heated to blue flame. “Good.” He leaned down and brushed his mouth against Aubrey’s.
A small sound of shock slipped from Aubrey.
He kissed me?
The warm dampness of Seht’s tongue swept across his parted lips. Curiosity overwhelmed surprise, and he reached out to taste Seht. He tasted of fresh water and something…else. Something feral, and interesting. He opened his mouth wider and sought Seht’s tongue, stroking boldly to explore that interesting flavor more thoroughly.
Seht moaned softly and reciprocated with a strong foray into Aubrey’s mouth. His hands slid down Aubrey’s arms, tugging him closer.