Hollow Space Read online

  “Is that what you really want?” he asked. His tone was as devoid of emotion as an empty grave. “Does the New Chastity Party terrify you so much?”

  “Yes. No.” She tossed her hands up in the air in a mixture of frustration and exasperation. Spinning around, she stared at the mussed jewel-tone coverlet draped across his bed. “I don’t know.”

  He had the unmitigated gall to chuckle at her. “You forget I am the Supreme Commander of a War Galley. My kind is a parent strain. The New Chastity Party has no power over me—us.”

  “But they have power over my people.” She felt him enter her three feet of personal space. He wrapped his arms around her waist. She knew he was trying to comfort her, but her duty had raised its ugly head.

  She took a deep breath and removed her gloves, ignoring the tiny sparks of energy shooting from him. How do I explain this to you? “If they denounce my kind for what they deem illicit sexual activity, it could mean the end of the Dareauxians’ ability to tend to the common crystals found in most technology.” Technology that was so prevalent across the galaxy that the ramifications of losing their only means of intergalactic space travel was nothing short of a nightmare. In the back of her head, she could hear thousands of common crystals shrieking in pain.

  Gentle kisses caressed her right shoulder blade. “Don’t overthink this.”

  It’s not like I have a choice. A haze flooded her mind, ripping the concerns from her psyche. It was a fog where she knew she was alive and her duty no longer existed. Goosebumps rose on her arms as his hands slid upward to weigh her breasts. Quick jolts of pain careened from his fingers pinching her breasts straight to her core.

  The music filtered in on her.

  “You make me so hard for you,” he admitted gravely. “If I could, I would keep you naked all our days together.”

  She opened her mouth to say if they were on Dareaux they could do whatever they wanted. The music and gloriously warm haze stole all her commonsense away.

  Her infanteum crystallae no longer mourned the end of a relationship not yet begun but instead urged her to follow the Dareauxian mating ritual. A soft sprinkling of dust patted down on her from the ceiling. A coil of heat took root in her belly and soon turned to an inferno when she dropped to her knees.

  Wrapping her fingers around his thick shaft, she blew out a breath. She licked away the tear of pre-cum pooling on the slit. With infinite care, she took the head into her mouth.

  “No, tesra. Stop.”

  Her libido went in to hyperdrive when she took more of his length down her throat. Every moan from her was like manna from the gods of old. She took him farther and farther down her throat before pulling back. Her tongue teased and taunted the sensitive underside of his penis.

  Don’t think, she ordered herself when he unceremoniously lifted her up and tossed her on the bed.

  She peeked at him through narrowed eyes to watch him rake his hand through his dark hair. Gods, you are handsome. His skin glistened like gold swirling around the common crystal clusters on her planet. Michaelerus was one-hundred-percent warrior.

  “Once we start this, we will be joined forever or until death separates us.”

  “Yes.” It was the same way for her kind.

  He shifted positions and spread her legs. From the first tentative stroke of his cockhead over her slick folds, she was lost to the sensations running rampant within her. “Fuck me.”

  His response was more a grunt than anything else.

  Sucking in a sharp gasp when he slowly entered her, she let it out slowly. He was huge inside her. Her walls stretched to the max. “By the Gods of Old.”

  “This is what you want. I sense your need.”

  “Yes.” She gripped his taut butt cheeks, pulling herself back on his cock when he began to thrust. The tune enveloped them. The music turned dramatic. It inspired her to meet his forceful plunges, to be his equal on the lustful plane they played on.

  Her next climax was right there. She closed her eyes, reaching for the bliss that would satisfy her mating hunger. “Harder. Give it to me harder.” Her fingernails dug into his butt cheeks. “Yes. Harder!”

  “Look at me!”

  She lifted her eyelids. “Give it to me, Michaelerus. Fuck me harder, my mate.”

  His thrusts turned rampant, frantic. Every downward glide brought the base of his cock into intimate contact with her clit. The warm glow of golden light she’d basked in turned dark. Only the light given off by her infanteum crystallae dented the nothingness that chilled her to the pits of her soul. It wasn’t a mist or a fog but more like an oozing darkness. It was frightening.

  “Come into the darkness of oblivion,” he whispered. Sweat dotted his brow. “Please, tesra. Join me there.”

  She pulled back on her own protective instincts and assured her crystal that all would be well. With her capitulation, her orgasm broke free. She shouted his name as driving contractions rifled through her body and the nothingness consumed her.

  Her clenching feminine muscles milked the cum right out of him. He whispered her name on his climax even though his hips kept plunging. He joined her in the starless, matterless place she recognized had a fitting name.

  Oblivion.

  Chapter Three

  Beware a warrior on a mission.

  Michaelerus was fit to be tied.

  She’d left him. Slunk away like a Tradorian thief in the middle of the night. Dammit.

  He sighed long and hard, trying to get the image of her face caught in that moment when she surrendered to Oblivion out of his mind. She was so beautiful. Exquisite.

  Then she went and did something like this. She ought to count herself lucky if he didn’t put her over his knee and spank some sense into her for leaving their bedroom. He raked his hand through his hair as he followed her trail to another dead end.

  He wasn’t surprised that she’d gotten lost on the massive ship. Hell, he had crew stationed on the ship who still couldn’t navigate some of the areas without precise instructions.

  “Computer, please check for the location of Princess Jada.” He didn’t even know why he bothered. The supposedly “all knowing” and “all seeing” computer couldn’t find her either. It was as if she’d disappeared.

  “No location found for Princess Jada.” The voice sounded in his head.

  “Location of her counselor, Mr. Amanassa.” It was a shot in the dark, but he doubted Jada would seek out her advisor after the mating. She was already worried that the New Chastity Party would deny their mating, and from everything he’d discerned about Amanassa, he wouldn’t approve either.

  “Special Counselor Amanassa is in the forward observatory,” the computer responded. “He is not alone, but the person he is with is unidentifiable.”

  Spinning around, Michaelerus made his way to the location. He punched in the code to open the door. About ready to blow a warp core, he stepped into the room. The sight that greeted him nearly threw him over the edge. “What the hell?”

  Amanassa laid his hand on Jada’s bent head. He nodded and then walked to where Michaelerus stood. “We located a piece of contraband D-quarterline Crystal technology aboard the Vor Marren. Jada is attempting to heal the common crystal. It is in extreme pain.”

  “Is she all right?” Michaelerus took in the broken vidi-tuner then his mate. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she held a six-inch long piece of crystal. Even from where he stood, he could see the crystal was damaged. Unlike the pure white glow of the crystal she wore around her neck, this finger of quartz was smoke gray and barely pulsed with energy.

  “Jada is a conduit. Many of the common crystals would consider her their confessor. Because of her unusually strong emotional ties to the common crystals, she feels their pain more than those of my sect—the energizers. Though if we are around a crystal that is truly dying, we are as aware of it as she is. They just wouldn’t tell their story to us. They would imbibe the most basic of information to us so that we may report the mode and/or method o
f their demise.”

  “Where did this piece of technology come from? Whose quarters did you find it in?”

  Amanassa shrugged. “A note was slipped beneath the door of your quarters early this morning informing her of where to find the vidi-tuner.” Amanassa shook his head. “At least she had the intelligence to come to me and not try to ease the crystal’s pain on her own. As if that was a possibility.” Anger etched the last part of Amanassa’s statement.

  Michaelerus wished he could get one break—just one clue as to how the Dareauxians actually operated. Hopefully, if he could get just a little more insight, he could figure out how to continue with the mating and give his tesra peace.

  “She is rarely at peace.” Amanassa clapped Michaelerus on the shoulder and reminded the supreme commander of his guest’s telepathic ability. “She takes her duty very seriously.”

  He watched her lean over the damaged piece of quartz. Through his own empathic connection, he felt her sorrow. Reaching out with the telepathy wrought from the mating, all he heard was chanting in a language unknown to the intergalactic translator. It was lovely, yet so morose, it knifed through him. It wasn’t just one voice singing a song so sad it broke his heart, though. There were three. One was Jada’s. Another was Amanassa’s. The third he didn’t recognize.

  Michaelerus slashed his gaze to Amanassa’s face. “The crystals are truly living entities.” Some would say the sand of Lazarus Seven was too. In many ways it was, but it wasn’t essential to his life and that of all the Navorains. Many a Navorain had gone without ever being touched by the glittering dust. Those were mostly half-castes and those born from rogue groups who resided on other planets. A few were warriors who were being punished for some crime.

  The crystals were different for the Dareauxians. They weren’t just empathetic—their main purpose wasn’t to bring solace to a warrior or mate a Navorain. They were truly two parts of a whole that made up their civilization.

  “Your sand is amazing, but it is true. The sand is a part of your world but is neutral. It does not make decisions for you except when you mate, and then, it is only telling you that you are compatible with the person you have come into contact with.” Amanassa’s hand dropped back to his side. “The crystals really are a part of us.”

  “Is there anything we could do for it?” He meant to include his doctor or crew but missed the mark. This is a lot to take on.

  “No.” Amanassa sighed. His expression turned grim. “This crystal is at the end of its life. Once we are done at Community Headquarters, we’ll transport it back to Dareaux where it can be buried amongst its relatives and friends.”

  Standing beside the counselor, Michaelerus watched the glow from the crystal pulse slower and slower until it gave one last faint beat and then grow dark. Jada broke down in sobs. She hugged the stone to her chest. The chant he’d been listening to became a long, low drone of a single person—Amanassa.

  It was a requiem.

  “Take her to your room. I’ll see the crystal is prepared for burial.” Amanassa took a single step away from Michaelerus. “Congratulations on your mating.” The counselor clenched his jaw for a moment but then physically relaxed his stance. “The New Chastity Party is a major concern for our kind, but we will somehow find a way around all the nonsense of it.” His gaze slid to Michaelerus’s face. “She worries she’s done irreparable damage to the alliance we need to forge with your species.”

  “She’s not thinking straight.” Their alliance was a guarantee. He was a Supreme Commander—all the other leaders of the War Galleys would follow his instructions when it came to deciding on the legislative stupidity spewed by the New Chastity Party.

  “How can she?” Amanassa asked. “She will never be your first wife.” He looked away. “She knows about how much you loved your last mate, but she isn’t deceiving herself either. Jada will eventually come to grips with the fact that it is unlikely she will ever earn all your love.”

  Michaelerus followed him. He waited for Amanassa to pry the crystal from Jada’s death grip before he hugged her tight. “There. There, my tesra. It’s at peace.”

  She turned her torso to hug him back. “It was in so much agony.”

  “I’ll be around in a little while to let her feed,” Amanassa stated as he gingerly wrapped the dead crystal in a piece of crimson velvet. When the man Michaelerus considered a hard-ass lifted his face, a tear cut a slow path down his cheek. “To a certain degree, we’re both just overtired and hungry.”

  “I know.” Michaelerus ground that out. Holding Jada to him with one arm, he hit the communicator imbedded in the tattoo gracing his upper arm. “Captain on duty, come to the forward observation deck, level 131. We have a situation.”

  “At once, Supreme Commander.”

  Michaelerus recognized the voice of one of his closest confidants. He sat back and rocked Jada gently, trying without much success to ease her internal pain. “Shh. Let it go.” He wanted to order her to give the sorrow up to him. To demand she let the sand soothe her.

  You’re one to talk. Fifteen years of self-torment, self-torture—was it enough? He didn’t have a firm answer.

  The door slid open. “Locate the owner of this piece of contraband. I want them in my office before seven bells.” He meant every word. His men suddenly were all action. They began to look over the vidi-tuner. “Come along, sweetheart. Let’s get you out of here.”

  * * * * *

  Jada wanted to blame herself for not finding the common crystal sooner but just couldn’t. She wasn’t at fault. “Damn the black market and privateers,” she whispered bitterly. The urge to slam her fist into the closest hard object struck her. “No crystal should have to die like that one did.”

  In her mind, the abuse suffered by the common D-quarterline, and then added to how she’d found the device, was nothing short of murder. But who would have this knowledge? Nobody aboard this ship would understand that the crystal could take a lot, but it had been beaten until it cracked. That was a point of no return once it was energized. The poor crystal was damaged beyond repair.

  “Come here, princess.” Michaelerus held out his hand to her. He’d been sitting behind his desk for the better part of an hour, letting her vent, not interfering with her indignation.

  Capitulating easily, she strode to where he sat. “Sorry.”

  “Why?” He pulled her into his lap. “You are allowed to be angry over what has happened.”

  “Are you now telepathic?”

  “Only with you.” He kissed her cheek. “The sand’s binding ties are strong, and they give a warrior in-depth insight into their mate’s thoughts.”

  Really? How odd. “I can’t imagine being attached to just one person that way.”

  “Why not?”

  “I mean I can read anybody’s thoughts—feel their emotions all the time. It would feel invasive to only be attached to a single psyche.” She shrugged. A long sigh broke from her throat when he nuzzled her neck. His tongue licked the sensitive area at the juncture of her ear and jaw. Delicious tingles raced down her back and raised goose bumps on her arms. “That feels wonderful.”

  “If you ever leave my bed again without waking me, I’ll paddle your behind.” His hand came up and massaged her tit through her shirt. “Am I understood?”

  “Yes.” The single word came out as a long low moan. She pulled away from him when he tried to hike her skirts up. “So, what have you been doing while I’ve stewed?” Granted, she’d been justified in her tirade, but it wasn’t very Dareauxian of her to let her full scope of emotions out there.

  “Informing the Navorain liaison to the Community that the Navorains do not agree with the ridiculous rules proposed by the New Chastity Party.” He smiled at her and hauled her back onto his lap. “Larsus stated that he doubted they would be passed. It was facing strong opposition from not only the Dareauxians but also the Deltains and Perseysians.”

  “That’s not that many members of the Community.” She didn’t really wa
nt to discuss the New Chastity Party or their platform. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed his cheek.

  “Ah, it may not seem so, but the Navorains are a parent strain. Our allies will rally to the commonsense response that we cannot deny the mating rites of several of the core members.”

  “I’m not following you.”

  “The Navorains also signed the pledge to not take advantage of a sexually repressed kind.” He chuckled when she slapped his shoulder. “Tsk. Tsk. My tesra needs to learn her place.”

  “What does that word mean?”

  “Wife.”

  She laughed when he tickled her. After jerking out of his embrace, she ran across the room and nearly collided with Amanassa. His firm grip on her upper arms brought her to a dead stop. “Forgive me, counselor. My mate and I were…” She let her sentence fall off, knowing Amanassa could fill in the blanks.

  “I see your mood has improved, princess.” There wasn’t a note of condemnation in her counselor’s voice. “This bodes well for you and your mate.”

  “Has the crystal been prepared for transport to Dareaux?”

  “As best it can be, Your Highness. It was badly damaged.”

  “I’m aware.” Her emotions dipped. “It is regrettable.”

  Amanassa lifted the infanteum crystallae from where it lay. “This belongs to another now.”

  “I haven’t gotten that far,” she muttered.

  “There is no time like the present.” He released the gem. A small smile lit across his face when he steered his gaze to Michaelerus “If you would start the play, Supreme Commander.” He brushed his hand down Jada’s long hair. “It’s time for our princess to feed.”

  “I can wait. I know you must be half-starved, though.” She blushed. She was hungry. It wasn’t because Michaelerus hadn’t fulfilled her lust last night or sated her mating hunger but because she’d expelled so much of her energy trying to keep the common crystal alive so it could deliver its final report.