Harness Read online

  “Please return to your natural state.”

  It took a bit of effort, but she forced herself to relax.

  When El-sur nodded, Quiel started up the scan again.

  Fire coated her feet and crawled up her body in a two-inch beam. She twitched, she shivered and her jaw ached from holding in the scream.

  Her body contorted in an arc as the beam continued its inexorable path. She kept that position while the beam finished its path and retreated to her feet.

  “Well done, Fred.”

  She let the scream out, over and over again until her throat was raw and she was sobbing in El-sur’s arms.

  Quiel was standing by with a hypo spray in his hand. “Do you need this?”

  She hiccupped and wiped her tears on the torn sleeve of her tunic. “No. I am good. I have just been holding that in for a very long time.”

  El-sur asked, “How long?”

  She chuckled and fought to sit up, but he wasn’t letting her. “All my life. Now, let me sit up.”

  Quiel smiled and reached for his med kit. “I hadn’t realised what a workout you had before we arrived. This should help.”

  He began round after round of hypos. Her muscles relaxed, and she sighed as some of the knots came undone.

  Yinoe cleared his throat. “If I may see your harness?”

  She looked around at the room full of men. “This is a little more risqué behaviour than I normally engage in.”

  “I am a doctor, Yinoe is looking at your tech and El-sur is your instructor. We all have a vested interest in making sure you are whole and functioning. We will keep our admiration to ourselves.”

  She laughed and slipped from the table, kicking off her boots, slipping out of her trousers and, finally, she opened her tunic. When you could shift your shape, underwear wasn’t necessary. You simply did away with the parts you didn’t need until you needed them again.

  With the tunic set aside, she was left wearing the harness and nothing else.

  Yinoe immediately took her hand and brought her to stand on a plate in a framework of silvery clamps.

  “What have you been doing to this unit? It is in shreds, and it is designed to take anything short of a direct nuclear strike.” Yinoe was looking at the harness and nothing else.

  Quiel was poring over the scan results, which left El-sur staring at her body.

  “El-sur, you have mentioned that you have met three other Sukra. Where are they?” She felt it was appropriate to strike up a conversation while she was nearly naked and being unwrapped.

  “You will meet one when the island arrives at its destination. Draycon. He enjoys using his shifter talents for seducing women.”

  “What was the noise you made on the com? It seemed to calm his ardour.”

  El-sur’s skin darkened. “Draycon knows what it meant. It was another level of instinct but one that remains on the male side of the Sukra. The other two Sukra are males as well, by the way.”

  She blinked. “That seems peculiar.”

  He sighed while Yinoe kept working to peel the last of the harness off her skin.

  “You have uncovered the reason why the Sukra died out. The females simply ceased to be born.” El-sur ran his hands through his hair.

  Yinoe turned her and used a palm scanner to take measurements.

  “That must have been traumatic. To see your people dying around you, your history passing with every generation. It must have been horrible.”

  “My father speaks of it. They wrote all of their histories down and developed a devotion to family that bordered on the obsessive.” He smiled. “Family lines were duly recorded, and we learned as much about modern descendants of the original scatter as we could.”

  “Scatter?”

  “When it was inevitable that we seek out new genetic lines, our people scattered from our home world in different directions.”

  “What happened to the home world?”

  El-sur chuckled. “I am guessing that we are standing on it.”

  Chapter Seven

  Fred wore a patient wrap back to her room and felt really peculiar. It was more than the feeling of having every cell in her body having been flash photographed; she was completely naked for the first time since she left earth, and her body wasn’t shifting randomly. This was definitely different.

  She pulled a bodysuit on to mimic the subtle pressure of her missing harness. She needed to feel secure even if her body was currently behaving.

  She stopped in the kitchen and got herself a meal. Fred was unsurprised when El-sur joined her.

  “So, that went well.”

  He smiled, “Beyond what I had hoped. You are holding your Sukra form without thinking about it. You have barely any fading on your features, and you came through the scans with enough data to keep Quiel busy for months.”

  “I am glad I could keep him and Yinoe busy.”

  She finished her first meal and went back to the dispenser for a second. “I am guessing that we were in that mirror room for longer than I thought.”

  “You had a lot of shapes to work through. You had to see each of them and recognise the parts that were and were not your own. It was an important step.”

  “It still aches.” She grimaced and returned to the table.

  “It was a workout. All the sub-dermal muscles were twitched and pulled. I have never seen such a variety. I have to say, I am both impressed and horrified.”

  “I had a life before you met me.” Fred dug into the fresh meal that the unit had selected for her. She had to admit that the dispenser was better than any other meal generator than she had experienced in the imperium.

  “Fair enough. You did have a very impressive operations record though. It was what caught the attention of the Guardian project.”

  “I went where I was told and create the contacts that they asked me to. I don’t know what was discussed, I just made my connections.”

  “That is a part of your talent that we are going to shut down. It isn’t safe for your mental health to have other thoughts rolling through your mind. While you might be able to compartmentalize, that particular talent can be shaped into something else.”

  “What?”

  “That is up to you.” El-sur smiled. “I have a broad-spectrum sense. It came from having several brothers who needed looking after. I am sensitive to Sukra frequencies.”

  She blinked. “Sensitive?”

  “I can read minds. Sukra minds only. It is how I am sure that you were what I thought you were.”

  She winced. She had been having a plethora of thoughts since she met him, including admiring the fit of his uniform and his butt when he bent over. Fred wasn’t worried about her past, but her mental reminiscence of her previous lovers had caused his little temper tantrum. To her, that indicated that he was more than casually interested in her, and she couldn’t be more delighted.

  His eyes flicked to her. “What was that? It was so fast that I couldn’t untangle it.”

  Fred smiled brightly. “Ask me under the moonlight one day and I might tell you.”

  He jerked in surprise and grinned, his dark hair sliding over one shoulder. “The moon is rising now.”

  She blinked and looked around. Sure enough, darkness was pressing in on them. “Can we find a coastline? If the island is moving, I would like to see it.”

  “Of course. It is this way. We can see it from the tower. I have not yet shown it to you.”

  Fred finished her meal and cleared her tray. “Whenever you are ready.”

  “I am more than eager to show you the remainder of your new home. Shall we start with the greenhouse? It is the origin point for many of the foods that the dispenser crafts for you.”

  She smiled and took his arm. “Show me my new home.”

  He began the in-depth tour of the facility that showed her the levels from the power systems, the green houses, the exercise areas and, finally, the observation tower.

  “All Guardian facilities have some kind of observation tower. The Guardian stone-shaper was the officer who did this.”

  Fred stepped out of the stairwell and up into the evening air. The sky was clear, and the view was extraordinary. “Oh, my.”

  She stepped to the edge of the deck and leaned against the railing. She could see kilometres into the distance, and she definitely confirmed that they were on an island that was cruising through the ocean. “What is propelling us?”

  El-sur leaned against the railing next to her. “We have no idea. I am guessing that your arrival here woke the world under us.”

  “Why me?”

  He sighed as if he was struggling with something. “Do not mistake me in this, but for a Sukra, your mind is that of a child. The way it functions is similar to someone who doesn’t even have their permanent teeth yet. My guess is that Arxuxsa was waiting for one of our kind to return in that state. My father told me tales of the world’s consul. It was always a woman and always trained by the world itself.”

  She looked out at the green and purple of the island and beyond it to the ocean. “How is it that I ended up here after all this time?”

  “Perhaps you were meant to, but we are always looking for Sukra, and since you were assigned to this area, it was likely I would stumble across you sooner rather than later.” He smiled.

  “You said you have a big family?”

  El-sur nodded. “Eight brothers.”

  “That is a lot of brothers.”

  “It really is. That many shapeshifters in one place can be confusing if you can’t tell them apart. I believe that is why my mental skills developed along the lines that they did.”

  “How did your parents cope?”

  “They went out for a lot of personal nights.” He smiled. “It was fun to watch over them. I am guessing that it started my urge to tutor other Sukra.”

  Fred looked out over the forest, and lights came out of the woods. “Can you see that?”

  “I can. What is it?”

  She smiled. “Arxuxsa is coming to say hello.”

  He seemed wary, but he stood strong and let the light join them.

  The lights gathered and kept coursing from the forest until a solid being of light stood in front of them.

  Fred bowed. Good evening.

  El-sur followed her example. Good evening, Arxuxsa.

  Good evening, daughter. Good evening, tutor.

  Why are you calling me daughter?

  I was unable to explain earlier. I summoned your father to me two hundred years ago. I told him what I needed and sent him out to bring you to me.

  Wait, you ordered my father to rape my mother?

  Of course not. He was merely to seek out a woman who met the criteria and set in motion actions that would bring you to me. He succeeded.

  Fred reeled back in shock. El-sur grabbed her arm and pulled her against him.

  She felt a touch on her mind, and she rejected it, shattering the light structure that was the soul of the world.

  It reformed and stepped toward her again.

  She flinched away and turned her face from the light. El-sur reached out, and she felt the shiver run through him.

  I will explain it all when you make landfall. The tale of your parents is more complicated than you can imagine. It isn’t what you think, and when you are in the temple, I can explain it to you in detail. Wait another day and you will have your answers.

  The lights shattered and blew away, returning to the forest.

  Fred was shaking with shock.

  El-sur didn’t speak; he helped her back down the stairwell and into the greenhouse. He settled her in the green space and simply sat with her on the green loam.

  “It planned me. This whole time, I thought I was here by accident, and the whole time, it was a plan.”

  “I was not part of it.” He was close to her, and he nudged her shoulder.

  “I know. Your expressions give you away. You were more shocked than I was.” Fred chuckled and leaned her head against his shoulder. She seemed to be doing that a lot.

  “Yinoe will have your new harness ready in a few days. They are at the main base for the rest of the day.”

  She chuckled. “So we are all alone?”

  “We are. Are you ready to get some sleep? You have had a rough day.”

  Fred went out on a limb. “Can I share a bed with you? I don’t want to be alone.”

  Rocks could take lessons from El-sur. He froze in place. “I am not sure what you are asking.”

  “Physical sleeping companion, nothing more.”

  He exhaled slowly. “That I can do.”

  She smiled and mentally rubbed her hands together. Her own plan was making headway.

  Chapter Eight

  Fred held onto El-sur with everything in her. The feel of his skin against hers was the most intoxicating thing she had ever felt. His tight hands on her back gave her a clue that he was feeling the same.

  She was sure that she slept at some point, but her body was too delighted to care. She had over a dozen lovers in her life and none of them made her feel like this. She had a basis for comparison, and there was none; El-sur was the best thing she had ever been pressed to.

  “Thank you.” He nuzzled at her ear.

  “What?”

  “At this proximity, I can hear your thoughts quite clearly. I am flattered.”

  She blushed and hid her face against his chest. “Apologies.”

  “No need. I am having similar thoughts, but you can’t hear them yet.”

  “Ah. I think I should get up and get dressed.”

  He flared his hand at the base of her spine. “Not quite yet. The feel of you against me is intoxicating.”

  She sighed in relief. “It is so strange; the texture of your skin makes me want to keep touching.”

  “Not strange at all. Our records indicate that we were altered to have this reaction. It was supposed to keep us breeding, but it didn’t work out the way that it was planned. With so few women available, the men began to leave home in search of a similar sensation with another race. As far as we know, none found it.”

  She slowly stroked her hand down his chest. “That is too bad. The thought of what they must have been missing may have driven them insane.”

  “It was certainly a possibility.” His own hands began to wander. “I thought we were only sleeping together.”

  “I am awake; how about you?”

  He chuckled and pressed his lips to her shoulder. “You taste better than you feel.”

  She leaned her head to one side and smiled while she stroked her hand down his chest, over his belly and to the throbbing column of his erection. Slick fluid coated her hand, and she inhaled as a heady scent filled his room.

  He groaned and shifted her until she was on her back. “My apologies for my haste.” El-sur parted her thighs and slid into her.

  Her body had been ready since five minutes after they had gone to bed. She gasped with relief and spread her thighs to take him deeper.

  The fit was as if he had been designed for her. His body provided plenty of lube, and they rocked together, filling the air with musk and groans.

  El-sur moved into her harder and faster.

  She lifted her hips to his and pulled his mouth down to hers. She kissed him ravenously, and to her surprise, she felt his teeth lengthen and sharpen against her tongue.

  He broke the kiss and jerked his head to one side, biting her savagely on the neck.

  Her orgasm blazed through her, and she screamed as every cell in her body went nova.

  Her neck muffled his own shout, but there was no mistaking the flex of his cock inside her. El-sur released his grip on her neck, and he kissed her, his teeth retracting as his body relaxed.

  He withdrew from her but remained on top of her; his kisses went from passionate to slow nips on her lips. When he lifted his head, his gaze burned into hers. “Thank you.”

  She blushed. “I believe that is my line. Do Sukra always bite?”

  He nodded. “The males. Our teeth only extend when we are close to cumming.”

  She extended her hand to his lips and stroked across his teeth. “Thanks for that information. It does solve a problem.”

  “What problem?”

  “This isn’t the time or place for it. If Arxuxsa does tell me everything, I will have the answer I need.” She kept the images of the files from him.

  “How did you do that?”

  Fred grinned. “I realised where you were getting my conscious thoughts and just went around it.”

  “You are learning fast.”

  “You are an excellent teacher.” She stroked his jaw, still enamoured with the touch of him.

  The ground shuddered.

  Fred asked, “What was that?”

  “I believe we have just made landfall.”

  She looked toward the window and blinked at the brighter sun. “How long were we…”

  “A few hours.” He grinned. “I tried to take my time.”

  Fred slapped his arm. “Up. I want to see the temple that the lights have been taunting me with.”

  He grunted and shifted to his hip, freeing her up.

  She slid out from under him and paused to stretch, putting her muscles back in their proper order. “You know, aside from the wear and tear, I think that you are the only one for me from now on.”

  He blinked in surprise. “Really?”

  She leaned down and pressed a quick kiss on his lips. “Really. I am pretty sure that you are the only one who fits me perfectly.”

  “I am going to make sure that I am. Now, take a shower before I join you.” He winked and sat up, the pearly stalk of his erection flushed and rigid.

  Though it was quite the enticement, Fred headed for the shower. It was time to find the temple and learn what all the fuss was about.

  She had some questions about her parents that needed to be answered.

  The bodysuit was still snug, and it gave her the reinforcement that she still needed. The island was firmly wedged against the shoreline, and on a nearby peak, the temple had been reset into its original position. With El-sur at her side, they shifted into faster alignments, and they sprinted up the shore and onto the embankment, heading for the peak.

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