I felt them lifting me again only this time it was Lucian carrying me. The shadows of the city gates fell over my face again, plunging me into darkness and I knew no more.
Chapter Sixteen
Rylee
My eyelids fluttered several times on the frantic trip to Lucian’s apartment. I had a blurred impression of my guys hustling me into some kind of hovering vehicle and a male voice asking where they wanted to go. Lucian gave instructions and we rose up into the sky.
Flying cars, I remember thinking hazily. Oh my God, they have flying cars, just like in the Jetsons. Which was my favorite vintage cartoon when I was a kid.
I blacked out again and the next thing I knew, Drace was holding me in his arms while Lucian pressed his palm flat to the surface of a door made of rich, dark blue wood and trimmed in gold leaf. His handprint lit up and the door clicked open.
“In here,” I heard him saying. “Put her on the couch—I’ll get the anti-venom injection.”
Drace settled on the couch across from the front door—a high-legged, plush affair with gold brocade fabric—still holding me. The pain was all gone from my leg now—in fact, I couldn’t feel much of anything at all in my right thigh where I’d been bitten. I just felt spacey and cold—really, really cold, despite the big, warm, male body cradling me.
“Drace?” I mumbled, trying to focus on his face. “What…where…?”
“Don’t worry, baby,” he murmured, though his own face looked terribly anxious. “Everything’s gonna be okay. Lucian has some medicine that will fix you right up.”
“Here!” Lucian was suddenly beside me holding a weird looking thing in one hand. It looked sort of like a hypodermic but instead of one long needle, it had dozens of tiny short ones. The liquid it was filled with was a bright, vivid blue.
“What’s that?” I asked groggily. “Looks like…you’re about to inject me with…with Windex.”
“Hold still,” was all Lucian said before ripping open one of my billowing sleeves and jabbing the multi-needle hypodermic against the skin of my arm.
The minute the needles bit into my flesh, I felt a flaring heat through my body. Then the pain in my leg returned, only a hundred times worse.
“Ah!” I shrieked, jack-knifing in Drace’s arms. “Lucian, that hurts! It burns!”
“That’s a good sign—it’s supposed to,” he said grimly. “I’m sorry, ma 'frela, but I’d be much more worried if it didn’t hurt.”
As he spoke, the burning agony in my leg suddenly disappeared as quickly as it had come.
“Whew…” I breathed a sigh of relief as my muscles unknotted. I collapsed against Drace’s broad chest.
“You okay, baby?” he asked anxiously.
“Yes. The pain is gone now.” I wiped an arm over my forehead. “Glad that’s over.”
Drace looked relieved too but Lucian looked more worried than ever. What was it about this awful venom that made pain a good sign?
“It shouldn’t be over this quickly,” Lucian said. “The anti-venom gives pain for hours as it’s neutralizing the poison infecting your system.”
“Hours?” I stared at him in horror. I couldn’t imagine experiencing that burning, stabbing agony for hours—I would go crazy.
“What does it mean that the pain faded so quickly?” Drace asked. “Come on, Lucian—what aren’t you telling us?”
The big green alien shook his head. “That the anti-venom isn’t working. Maybe because Rylee has different blood chemistry than a Denarin.”
“Well, what can you do about it?” Drace demanded.
“First I need to see where she was bitten.” Lucian looked at me questioningly.
“Here.” I pointed to the loose trousers made of silvery-tan linen. “My right inner thigh.”
Lucian didn’t even try to get the trousers off me, he just grabbed the fabric and ripped a huge, gaping hole in it.
“Lucian!” I started to protest, then I saw the place where the morata had bitten me and the protest died on my lips.
There, on my inner thigh, were two tiny blood red dots. Almost like a spider bite, I thought sickly. But unlike a spider bite, there were crooked black lines running from the red dots—black veins of pure corruption tracing over the smooth brown of my skin.
“Oh my God,” I whispered weakly. “That…doesn’t look so good.”
“It’s not so good,” Drace growled. “Look, Lucian, I know you want to keep a low profile but we need to get her to a house of healing now.”
“That won’t do any good.” Lucian snapped. He ran both hands through his hair in a gesture of pure agitation. “Don’t you think I’d sacrifice my social status in a heartbeat to save our female? But what I just gave Rylee is the strongest anti-venom available. They won’t be able to do anything for her in a healing house but make her comfortable.”
“Make me comfortable?” I was feeling more and more unreal. “You mean make me comfortable so I can die?”
“They don’t call the moratas ‘death goddesses’ for no reason,” Lucian said grimly. “Unless it’s treated quickly, their bite is invariably deadly to one who isn’t of the Fang Clan or mated to one of the Fang Clan.”
“Stop it, Lucian,” Drace said harshly. “You’re scaring Rylee.”
“She is right to be scared—we all are.” Lucian knelt in front of me, cupping my cheek. “Ma 'frela, this is on my head. I should have protected you better.”
“You tried,” I said numbly. “I was the one who didn’t want to wear the ugly-ass boots. I’m sorry, Lucian—I should have listened to you.”
“Stop it,” Drace barked. “Both of you stop talking like Rylee is going to…to die.” He coughed, as though the words choked him. “There must be something we can do—there has to be a solution!”
“But what can we do?” I asked. "Lucian said the bite of the moratas is fatal to anyone who isn’t Fang Clan or bonded to someone from the Fang Clan.”
“That’s it!” Lucian was suddenly on his feet again and pacing.
“What’s it?” Drace demanded. “If you have a solution, now’s the time to share bond-mate.”
“You said it—‘bond-mate’.” Lucian pointed at him. “I was thinking last night when the three of us were together that you and I aren’t the only temporary bond-mates in this equation—Rylee is too. She’s part of us, Drace, even if only temporarily.”
“Not enough to save her, apparently,” Drace said angrily. “You only have to look at her fucking leg to see that, Lucian. If I didn’t get any of your immunity, she sure as Hell didn’t.”
“It doesn’t matter if either of you have my immunity—the question is can I give it to you now?” Lucian said.
“What?” Drace frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Our tie to Rylee isn’t strong because we haven’t been physical with her—not really since every time we’ve touched her intimately we’ve been in the dream-realm.” Lucian was still pacing, thinking this out as he spoke.
“Are you suggesting we bond her to us right now? That we seal our bond?” Drace asked. “Because that would be permanent, Lucian. I’ll do it to save her life—I’ll do anything. But that means you and I will never be free of each other.”
“No,” I said quickly. “I don’t want you tying yourselves together permanently on my account.” Besides, I knew the bonding process was sexual and right at the moment, with my right leg looking like a roadmap of Hell, I was so not feeling sexy. I didn’t think I could handle the whole “two poles in one hole” thing even in the best of health, let alone when I was pumped full of deadly poison. “There has to be another way,” I said.
“There’s no time for further bonding now.” Lucian waved the suggestion away impatiently. “I’m just saying that there might be enough of a connection between us for me to transfer my immunity to you, Rylee.” He looked at Drace. “But you’ll have to help too.”
“Anything,” Drace said hoarsely. “Anything to save our female—you know that.”
> “I know.” Lucian gave him a grateful look and then turned to me. “I’m going to have to bite you, ma 'frela,” he said. “Bite you and inject you with my own essence which carries my personal antibodies against the morata venom.”
“Um, okay,” I said nervously, remembering how long and sharp his fangs could get. “Will it hurt?”
“As before, there will be a little pain at first when I penetrate your skin—then only pleasure,” he promised.
“What can I do?” Drace asked.
“Since the anti-venom didn’t work to neutralize it, you must suck the poison from her thigh,” Lucian told him. “Whatever you do, do not ingest it. It’s even more dangerous taken orally than injected into the flesh.”
“Got it.” Drace was already putting me down on the couch and crouching between my legs. He ripped at the desert trousers I was wearing, nearly tearing them all the way off me in his effort to get to the wound.
I got a funny, fluttery feeling in my stomach. The morata bite was very, very high on my thigh—so high that when Drace fastened his mouth over the two tiny wounds, his cheek was pressed against my panties. It made me feel nervous to have him down there—as I said, Phillip never had any interest in “going downtown” if you know what I mean.
But of course, there was nothing sexual about this situation. Drace was just trying to get the awful black venom out of my system. Right away, he started sucking and spitting like his life depended on it. Only it was my life that depended on it, I thought faintly. If this didn’t work, if Lucian couldn’t transfer his immunity to me…
Don’t think like that, I ordered myself. He’ll be able to do it. He has to be able to do it. This is not how I die—killed by my own stupid fashion sense because I refused to wear the butt-ugly boots that could have protected me. I’ll get another chance—won’t I?
I sure as hell hoped so. But before I could answer my own question, Lucian was standing behind me and leaning over the couch to whisper in my ear.
“Relax, ma 'frela,” he murmured, tilting my head back and turning it to one side to bare my throat. “A moment of pain and then all is pleasure.”
“All…all right,” I whispered, suddenly more frightened than I wanted to admit. It was one thing to let him poke my thumb with those razor sharp fangs I saw growing from his mouth—it was something else entirely to let him sink them into my vulnerable throat. But what choice did I have?
“Now,” Lucian whispered and then I felt the sharp double prick, like someone poking needles into my neck. Then his mouth latched onto me, just as Drace’s mouth was latched on below, and something warm flooded my system.
Not just warm—hot. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a CAT scan where they had to inject contrast into your veins but it was like that. A warm, flooding rush that swept over my entire body at once, making me gasp.
With the rush, came a pleasure like I had never known. It was as though a big, warm hand had somehow gotten beneath my skin and was stroking my entire body in all the right places, making me moan and arch my back because it felt so good.
“Lucian,” I moaned, reaching up to tangle a hand in his thick, black hair. “Lucian, what’s happening to me? I feel like…like I’m going to come.”
He withdrew for just a moment. “Come then, ma 'frela,” he murmured urgently. “The pleasure will help speed my essence through your body.”
Drace looked up from my thigh. “I think I’ve gotten it all out now—what else can I do?”
“Feed the pleasure,” Lucian urged him. “The more pleasure Rylee experiences, the more likely my immunity will take hold in her. Pleasure her, bond-mate—help her come.”
“I don’t—” I started to protest but Drace was already ripping my panties aside and pressing his mouth to my open pussy. At the same time, Lucian drove his fangs into my throat again, flooding me with more of his essence, more of the overwhelming pleasure.
I arched my back, thrusting my breasts up and Lucian tore at my blouse. Since we still hadn’t figured out how to make a bra with the clothing simulator, ripping open my blouse put my bare breasts on full display. Lucian cupped them as he continued to inject me, twisting and tugging at my sensitive nipples while Drace bathed my pussy with long, hot strokes of his tongue.
I moaned, writhing helplessly between them as my orgasm hit me like a crushing wave.
“Lucian!” I wailed, one hand buried in his black hair and the other reaching down to fist tight in Drace’s brown locks. “Drace! Oh my God, I’m coming! You’re making me come so hard!”
And then the front door clicked open and a light, refined female voice said, “Lucian darling? What’s all the fuss going on in here?”
Chapter Seventeen
Rylee
Have you ever been caught in the act of doing something either really wrong or really embarrassing or both? Like shoplifting or picking your nose or…I don’t know, having oral sex with two guys on a couch when one of their parents walks in?
Well, anyway, I was having oral sex with one of them—Drace. Or he was having it with me, however you wanted to look at it. And the fact that I was having a screaming orgasm didn’t help either.
The nice, refined-looking older lady with olive green skin a shade lighter than Lucian’s and black hair just like his stood rooted to the spot right in front of the couch where our little three-way healing session had somehow turned into a three-way sex show.
“Oh my God,” I gasped, when my brain registered that we were no longer alone in Lucian’s apartment. “Oh my God!”
I struggled to get away but Lucian still had his head down with his fangs buried in my throat and Drace had his face pressed between my thighs and he did not want to stop licking. I don’t even think either of them realized anyone else was in the room—they were that into healing and tasting me. It would have been amazingly hot if it wasn’t so damn embarrassing.
The way they were focused on me and me alone presented a huge problem—as long as Lucian kept injecting me with his essence and Drace kept licking me like his favorite flavor of ice cream, I couldn’t stop coming. And the woman—who I assumed must be Lucian’s mom—just stood there, frozen to the spot, watching with a look of dawning horror spreading over her refined features.
“Lucian!” I gasped desperately as the waves of pleasure continued to roll over me. “Drace! Guys, stop—stop!”
“Don’t wanna stop,” Drace looked up, his mouth and chin all shiny with my juices. “Gods, you taste amazing, baby—I could eat your sweet pussy all night.”
“Stop it—stop talking like that!” I begged him. “We…we have company.”
“Company?” He frowned and looked around. “Where?”
“Behind you—in front of me,” I panted. “I think…think it’s Lucian’s mother!”
“Mother?” Lucian must have finally heard me because he withdrew his fangs at once and stood up quickly. “Mother?” he said again, speaking to the woman who was still standing rooted to the spot with a look of horror on her face. “What are you doing here?”
“I might ask you the same thing!” Her voice trembled. “Lucian, your fathers and I have been missing you and you haven’t been returning calls so I came to check on you and I find…find this.”
She gestured with one bejeweled hand—(Did I mention she had on enough rich and stylish jewelry to choke a horse?)—at Drace and me as though we were some disgusting, dirty garbage that had gotten into her son’s tastefully appointed apartment by some dreadful accident.
“Mother—” Lucian began.
“I mean, who are these people? Did you go off planet to pick up some…” She pointed at me. “Some trollop?”
Drace growled and Lucian frowned.
“Don’t speak that way about Rylee. She’s a lady—you just happened to catch us in a, ahem, compromising position because you walked in without announcing yourself.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, sitting up and drawing the tattered remains of my desert clothing around me. It wasn’t easy
to cover myself since the guys had torn huge holes in both my trousers and blouse but I tried.
“And where and when did you find yourself a Beta?” Lucian’s mother went on, as though he hadn’t spoken. “I mean, we’ve discussed this ad nauseam, darling—there are simply no suitable Betas in our social class for you to bond with. So I thought we decided that you just simply wouldn’t bond.”
“No, you decided that, Mother. You and my fathers.” Lucian’s voice was ice cold. “You decided that I should never have mates or a family of my own because none of my choices pleased you.”
“And I’m not a Beta,” Drace growled, standing up and turning around. “I’m an Alpha, the same as your son.”
“You’re a…a…what?” Lucian’s mother got that shocked, horrified look on her face all over again. “Surely…surely not,” she whispered, looking positively faint.
“Smell for yourself.” Drace took a step towards her.
I saw her lady-like nostrils wrinkle and she made a face as though she’d just smelled dog-shit.
“You are an Alpha!” she exclaimed, fresh horror suffusing her face. “But why…how…?” Clearly she couldn’t bring herself to finish the question. She just shook her head and looked at her son mutely for an explanation.
For a moment a look of pure misery passed over Lucian’s sharp features. Then he took a deep breath and lifted his chin.
“Mother,” he said calmly. “Meet my temporary bond-mates. This is Drace, an Alpha of the Claw Clan. We were accidentally bonded at a Clan gathering two months ago.”
“The Claw Clan?” Lucian’s mother looked like she might faint. “Lucian, are you trying to kill me?”
“And this is Rylee, the female who’s helping us break our bond,” Lucian went on flatly, ignoring her dramatic words. “She’s a Pure One and a La-ti-zal so you might want to apologize for calling her a trollop.”
“A Pure One you say? From a closed planet?” She turned to me with renewed interest, though I noticed she didn’t apologize for the name calling.