Alkard

ALKARD

I curled my body around Tessi's back as she relaxed, her cheek resting on my bicep. Her exhausted human body, so soft, so delicate, still quivered as light strokes of my fingers caressed her black mane and I basked in her scent.

She stirred, her breathing changing enough to let me know she was drifting closer to the surface and I clasped her to my chest.

In response, she wriggled against me, the lush curves of her ass calling an instant response from my cock.

"Do you want more, my sweet?" I murmured into her ear. "You have to tell me, remember?"

A glance over her shoulder at me, heavy lids almost masking her eyes, nearly pushed me over the edge again, but carefully, painfully, I forced myself to stay still.

"Yes," she whispered. "Please."

"Tell me what you want." The teasing was cruel, I knew, but I couldn't help it. I needed to hear her say the words.

"More." The word was somewhere between a plea and a prayer, and I was happy to answer it.

Sliding my hand over her hip, I grazed her swollen mound with my fingers, then slipped them inside of her, curling and flexing them as she gasped.

"Oh!"

"Just like that," I purred. "I'll give you more. I'll give you everything."

The sound faded into the place between a groan and a whimper as I gripped my shaft and guided the head of my cock between her soaked pussy lips.

We both cried out as I slid inside of her. She felt so perfect, slippery and warm as she instantly clamped down on me with powerful contractions. I adjusted my thrusts accordingly, grinding my body into her own as her cries grew louder and more urgent.

I rolled her onto her belly, my cock still buried deep inside of her, then lifted her hips up while my hand went to the back of her head, pinning her cheek to the bed. I thrust from the new position and a sharp moan roared out of her mouth as her eyes went glassy.

"Oh god," she cried, "yes, yes, yes, please…"

I pushed her head more firmly into the mattress, twisting her left arm behind her back as I did so. I leaned into my thrusts, using my body weight to get that much deeper. Tessi writhed and wriggled, but I held her fast as she hollered her way through one climax after another, after another.

Finally, I sensed her body had hit its limit, and I came inside of her, then gently I eased us both back onto our sides, my cock remaining inside of her as I held her to me, one hand resting lightly on her throat, the other clasping her belly.

She jerked about a bit more, hissing out a moan as she finished orgasming at last. She fell limply against me, her breathing growing ever slower until it reached a normal rhythm.

"You are like a drug to me, Tessi," I whispered in her ear. "Too much of you does not seem like enough. I am so enamored of you, I'm not sure what to make of myself."

"I'm not so sure what to make of you, either."

I felt a flash of anger, but it faded quickly. Does one hate the scorpion for its sting, or the rose for its thorn?

I squeezed a bit harder on her throat until she squeaked.

"Your tongue is as sharp as ever, my sweet, Tessi."

I bit her earlobe and she groaned. "You should be careful. It only makes me want you more."

Eventually, slumber found us both still entangled in each other's arms.

I had seldom slept so well, not in many years.

Perhaps not since before the war.

Hours later, a soft chime woke me. I took care to disentangle myself from her soft, silken limbs and slid out of her bed. I went to retrieve my percomm, still in the pocket of my vest.

The message was from Havek.

We found everything on the grocery list. Get the family together for lunch?

I checked the time. Lunch? To my surprise, it was indeed midday.

Yes.

I put the unit away and gently kissed Tessi on her cheek, then dressed and left orders with Nayal to see to her while I was away.

I walked slowly across the station, trying to size up the general feel of its avenues and alleyways. It seemed to me as if the entire station were balanced on the edge of a blade. On the verge of exploding into violence, given the chance of a war between the Fanaith and the Vinduthi…or the Zequinids and the Vinduthi.

Then there were the ‘Zoks.

Not all of them worked for Conii's group, but enough of them did that one had to wonder. The Nazoks were building up quite the network. So far they'd mostly limited themselves to information brokering, but they were always looking for a foothold toward the type of power the Vinduthi wielded.

Everyone was.

Everyone on the streets knew about the theft of the weapons shipment, and that the Zequinids felt their honor had been slighted. Everyone knew the Fanaith had stolen the guns, perhaps to prove that they were a power on the station as well.

No one seemed to know where the actual fucking guns were, however, and that made me increasingly angry.

I stormed into the Fallen Star, not even glancing at anyone until I reached the sealed-off meeting chamber below the ground floor.

I stepped up to the table as Tazhr and Razov engaged in an arm wrestling match. It looked like a pretty even fight, and under normal circumstances, I would have let the match continue until a decisive winner had been chosen.

Not today, though.

Today, I seethed with anger. Not because the Voleks had tried to kill me. I expected people to try and kill me.

No, I was angry because Tessi had been put in danger.

Because Tessi had been hurt, her bones broken. For that, I took the whole affair quite personally.

"Knock it off," I snapped, kicking the table and ending the arm wrestling match. My inner circle switched gears, their jovial nature dropping off to adopt something more serious. Well most of them, anyway.

Kovas was never jovial.

"All right," I growled, taking them each in with my gaze. "The fucking Voleks took a shot at me in my favorite restaurant."

I almost blurted out that they had nearly killed my Tessi, but I held myself back.

"I want to know every fucking person who was in and out of that restaurant in the last week before the attack."

Everyone turned to look at Havek, our resident tech expert. He sighed because he hated to be the one to handle all of that.

It wasn't that I thought Havek incapable of dispensing violence and mayhem. He'd proven that he was repeatedly. It was more of a matter that he was just so damn good at handling our computer and technology concerns, it wasn't worth the risk to put him in the line of fire.

"We have in fact gone through every single individual, and identified them." Havek tapped on the screen of his percomm, sending a data package to mine. "Here's their names and where they reside. Unfortunately, nothing stands out."

"What about that ‘Zok runner?" I scowled. "I didn't recognize him. Was he one we'd used before?"

"Of course he was…" Havek looked over to Makar, who had arranged things. "Wasn't he?"

Makar's face grew troubled.

"What is it?" I prompted when he continued to sit there in silence.

"It's probably nothing, but our usual runner, Kiph, said that he had another task, but said his cousin, Phik, would handle it. Kiph vouched for him and everything."

I drummed fingers on the table. Maybe there was a connection, and maybe it was not. The truth was, there might turn out to be no way of really knowing who had hired the Voleks. But that didn't mean I didn't intend to use every resource at my disposal to try and find out.

I looked over at Havek.

"I want to know everything about this Phik," I said. "I want to know his family, his friends, how much debt he has and to whom. I want to know where he goes, and how he spends his money. And most of all, I want to know what he was up to both before and after the attack."

Havek nodded. "I'll try working my way through the station camera database. They stored the video in there for thirty days before deletion, so unless he was hired before then…"

I nodded.

"There's another matter, too," Kovas said, drawing everyone's attention. "The data disc we found on the Voleks we killed at the Nova. It turns out it's encrypted."

I turned to Havek, who sighed.

"Okay, fine. Hand it over, Kovas. I have to do everything around here."

"Not everything," Makar said. "At least Alkard has found someone to take to dinner and listen to his jokes."

It would have been funnier if I was actually in the habit of making jokes.

"All right," I said, drawing their gazes at me once more. "Listen up. Someone is trying to take us down. This isn't just a matter of the Fanaith's balls dropping out of nowhere. The theft, the attempt on my life, it all could be connected. So everyone is to be on guard. Nobody goes out alone. Spread the word to our soldiers on the streets. As of right now, the Vinduthi are at war."

The solemn declaration caused everyone to lapse into thoughtful silence. At length, Makar spoke.

"We're at war, but with who?"

I didn't have to answer.

Until proven otherwise, we were at war with everyone.