The Alien’s Stowaway Page 13

  That was... one of the coolest things I'd ever heard. I moved to sit close to him, suddenly feeling like a little kid learning something new. "Tell me more. How did you use the ability to steal money?"

  "My sister needed treatment, everything I said was true. I just didn't go physically to take money from somewhere. I used my ability unethically and transferred money from a government account into the research lab's account. I’m not the only one with this ability, though it is rather rare. I broke my people’s laws specifically put in place to keep people like me in check to steal that money. At the time I thought it was worth it, but she died anyway." That faraway, pained look spread across his face, and I wanted to reach out to him.

  I placed a hand on his cheek, “It sounds like you did all you could to save her. Breaking the law is no simple feat, and I’m proud of you for trying anyway.” Jarix met my gaze, his eyes sad. Then, something occurred to me. "Does this mean you could do it again? For us?" I asked. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I regretted them.

  Jarix's face fell. "I suppose so," he said. "Though I have no desire to steal anything ever again."

  I could've pointed out that he'd just stolen food and supplies from the TerraLink ship, but that would've been a little too on the nose. "Jarix, I didn't mean that. I don't want to be rich. All I want is to be free. I'd rather be on Haltrean with you and no technology than anywhere else in the universe with any amount of money." The worried expression on his face cleared and he got to his feet. He pulled me into his arms and I sighed as he pressed a kiss to my lips. "I'm glad to hear that," he said huskily. "That's all I want as well."

  Being in his arms reminded me of how much I enjoyed watching him fight. "You were amazing today." The compliment rolled off of my tongue easily because I meant it. "I thought you were being arrogant when you said you could take all of those soldiers, but you proved me wrong."

  He tightened his arms around me, grinning cockily. "Oh, really? Well maybe I should punish you a little for not believing in my abilities." His smile turned wicked and my body heated with desire. "I think I could handle a little punishment from you," I whispered, raking my nails down his back.

  “Oh, little human, you have no idea what I could do to you. For now, I think I shall take great pleasure in fucking you in celebration of our grand escape.”

  I laughed lightly, “Grand?”

  Jarix seemed affronted, “Do you not agree that defeating six trained soldiers, stealing their supplies, then flying away right under their noses is a grand escape?” His mouth was hard, but his golden eyes gave him away. He was flirting with me, and I loved it.

  I yanked him a little closer to me, defiance in my face. “Oh, I agree. Very grand. Especially the part where I got flipped off a man’s shoulders like I weighed no more than a sack of grain.”

  Jarix laughed heartily, “You fought bravely today, even though you do weigh only as much as a sack of grain.” He pulled my face up, slamming his mouth against my own.

  I groaned into his mouth as he claimed me wordlessly. The past few hours, days, even weeks, seemed to fall away. All the exhaustion, worry, and pain faded into desire as that goddamned mouth of his explored every inch of my own. His hands moved to cup my ass and he lifted me effortlessly into his arms. I continued to kiss him, running my hands through his incredible hair. I deserved this. I deserved to be happy.

  Dampness soaked my core as Jarix set me back down, then moved his hands to take off my layers. We didn't need to be fully naked, too desperate to waste the time removing everything. "I need you," I whispered into his neck. He grunted in response, now yanking his shirt over his head. I drank in the sight of his sculpted chest.

  Jarix stood back up and traced his fingers around my neck. "You're bruising. I should've killed him."

  "No, you did the right thing. Escaping was more important than taking out the grudge I know we both would’ve liked to. TerraLink deserves to lose a few soldiers, but it doesn’t matter now."

  His eyes heated and he slid his fingers away from my throat to grab my shoulders, whirling me around. I slapped my hands against the wall as I lowered, knowing exactly what he wanted. The position gave me an incredible view of the retreating Earth. Jarix leaned down to kiss my neck, dragging my layers fully down past my hips.

  He trailed kisses down my back, ass, and legs as he stripped me. I knew we were headed in the direction of The Glass City, and I just prayed it would be a long enough journey that I’d be able to thoroughly enjoy this. I needed Jarix’s hands and mouth on me like I needed air. Or, more fittingly, needed water.

  As he moved to stand, Jarix ran a long finger between my ass cheeks. I twitched, smiling into the expanse of sky before me. He moved his left-hand underneath me to cup my breast, pulling me closer to him. Then he began stroking my pussy with the other hand, teasing me as I felt his hardness bump against my ass. Crying out, I knew how much I wanted the release when his hands nearly made me explode. "Hurry," I urged, pushing my hips into his erection.

  My first orgasm washed over me as soon as Jarix pushed inside. He wasted no time and began moving immediately, yanking my hips onto him with rough hands. The waves of pleasure had me panting, and he responded with his own ragged breathing. He hadn't prepared me enough, but the slight sting of pain that accompanied the quick acclimation of my body around his large cock only added fuel to the fire as another climax built on the back of the first.

  I clenched around him, making him groan and move faster. "Your pussy is tight enough to make me lose control," he said between thrusts.

  "Lose control," I urged, betraying my earlier desire to make this last. It was enough. He grabbed my hips and bucked wildly, in and out so fast I didn't have time to speak. It was all I could do to breathe as he practically lifted me off the floor of the pod. The wild noises that came out of both of us were primal and fierce.

  After a few more aggressive strokes, both of us clenching and quivering, we climaxed together, and Jarix pounded into me harder than he ever had before. I screamed his name as my body tightened around him, then relaxed, then clenched again as the orgasm exploded within. Jarix’s movements mirrored my own as we both screamed our triumph. He had been right, the exhilaration of battle, combined with finally escaping, was a heady feeling. I’d have to mark this down as one of the best fucks I’d ever received.

  When it was done, he straightened his legs and slid out of me. As I adjusted my clothing, I realized he'd had to lower himself greatly for the position to work. I was that much shorter than him, but I wasn’t worried. His strong legs had held both of us up while we became lost in each other. I knew that when we had a proper bed the position would be all that much more pleasurable for us both.

  He wrapped his arms around me, and we watched the world become smaller and smaller. We were high enough up now that I could see The Glass City in the far distance. "I'm so pleased," Jarix whispered into my ear. The feeling was mutual, even though I hadn’t fully grasped it yet.

  The ship suddenly lurched and took me off my feet. Jarix caught himself on the chair. "That was a shot," he whispered. "We're being fired at!"

  He sat with efficient movements, and put his hands on the console, using his strange alien ability to take stock of our situation. "Get to the guns!" he yelled.

  "Guns?" I asked in bewilderment. I'd worked all over this ship and hadn't seen any.

  He jumped up and pushed a panel in the wall behind his chair. A fancy eyepiece came out. "Put your face in here." He pushed another panel and a touchpad appeared. He put the touchpad in my hands. "Once you get it aimed properly, it will do the rest for you. Lock onto the target with this button," he pointed to a spot on the touchpad, which had lit up with a blue backlight. "Then press the red button to begin the assault." Why the pod had weapons was unclear to me, but I didn’t argue.

  I pressed my face into the eyepiece and latched it onto my head. My heart was thundering, but now was not the time to lose my cool. We were too close. Too goddamn close to our
beautiful, impossible future to let it go now. We wouldn’t go down without a fight.

  Through the eyepiece, I found a digital image of the sky outside the pod. I looked around until I found a lone ship flying toward us. I turned in that direction and waited until the red bullseye was in the middle of the ship, my hands shaking slightly. Then I used my left thumb to press down. The target locked. With my right thumb, I pushed down and the pod vibrated around us as I watched it shoot what seemed to be thick lasers at the Terran fighter ship.

  "It hit!" I yelled as the ship spun out of control in my vision. Ripping off the eyepiece, I peered out the window to watch the Terran ship begin to sink toward the Earth. "It's going down." Wow, that had been very quick. I wondered briefly why they hadn’t sent more after us, but was interrupted mid-thought.

  "Great job." Jarix sounded distracted. He had one hand on the console and the other flew across the keypad. "We're still in trouble."

  "Why?" I whispered, the high of taking the ship down quickly fading. What now?

  "They damaged the main thruster. We don't have enough power to get out of Earth's gravitational pull. We could travel around the Earth with the remaining smaller thrusters, but not away from it."

  "The only place that would have the parts for repair is The Glass City. They make sure all ships, transports, or any type of vehicle that could be turned into a way to get off the planet stay there in the city. It's a law punishable by death to build a vehicle outside of the city or use one not registered with them."

  "We have to go there," he replied. "We still have our stealth. It's working. We can land outside the city and sneak in to find what we need."

  I shook my head. "I don't know what stealth means on a ship like this but sneaking around The Glass City isn't easy. Everyone there is terrified of TerraLink. They'd turn you over in a heartbeat."

  "Could you get around by yourself?" he asked.

  I shrugged. I didn't know anyone there anymore, but I was a human woman. I could do it. "Yes, I believe so." An itch on my arm reminded me I still wore my ident band. “Wait. If we’re going to the City, they can track me with this. Can you disable it with your weird mind power?”

  With a laugh, Jarix put his hand on my ident band. “Yes, but couldn’t we just take it off?”

  “No, it’s implanted in the skin. Besides, it’s conspicuous to be in the city without one. You have long sleeves, so you’ll be okay for a while, but we need to get you one, too if you’re going to pass for human.”

  I watched him work with his eyes closed. “What are you doing?”

  “The band is connected to the network, but not consistently. I think it has the ability to communicate with the network as needed, but to have it constantly connected would be a problem for the power source. Should I disable it or turn it off?” he asked.

  “Disable it, as if it’s malfunctioning, but not off,” I suggested. “They might try to scan me and then we could get away while they figured out what was wrong with it.”

  “Good idea.” He touched it again, and a few seconds later smiled at me. “Done. I removed a few of the digits from your ID number. Anywhere it’s scanned will give an error. I considered changing them, but I might’ve accidentally duplicated a real number. That could trigger a warning on their system somehow.”

  “Wow.” I looked at the machinery I’d had all my life. They had special solar batteries that charged with a few seconds in the sun. I never had to think about it. Walking back and forth outside twice a day from the mines was plenty to keep it charged.

  “This is risky,” I whispered.

  He nodded. "We're going to have to risk it. Unless you know of somewhere else we can go?"

  Resignation filled me. We were jumping from the frying pan into a pot of boiling hot lava. Forget the fire. "No. The Glass City is our only option if we need to repair the ship."

  He turned the pod. "We're going into stealth mode," he said.

  "Why weren't we in it before?" I asked.

  Jarix blushed. I'd never seen his face flush before. "An oversight on my part."

  Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I forgave him instantly. He'd saved me and gotten me away from the camp, fought off six guards for me, with my help of course, and he was willing to do whatever it took to repair the ship and get me off of this planet. I couldn't be mad at him for a silly mistake. I wrapped my arms around him as he piloted the ship toward the city. "Thank you," I whispered.

  "For what?" he asked. "If I hadn't forgotten to turn that on, we would be out of the atmosphere by now."

  "Because I appreciate you. No matter what happens or how long it takes us to get out of here. I've never had anyone like you in my life before. Thank you."

  18

  Jarix

  A few seconds after I got the ship set on a course to the outskirts of the Glass City, another jolt knocked Evvie nearly off her feet. She grabbed the chair to hold on, then went to the guns again. I pressed my hand to the console and tried not to think about what she'd said. Even though I'd made a colossal mistake, she'd thanked me instead of telling me what an idiot I was. How had I gotten so lucky to find this woman?

  "It was the same ship, firing one last desperate time. They're hitting the ground now, hard." She put the headgear back in the alcove. "No need to return fire. Their ship exploded when it hit."

  I barely heard her. I was in the middle of handling the ship’s flight. No matter what I did or how I tried to use my ability to steer the pod, it wouldn't alter course. "I think they hit the steering column," I whispered. "I can't steer."

  The last thing I wanted to do was look at Evvie's face as the severity of the situation shone on mine. "What do we do?" she whispered.

  I looked around. "Okay. Wherever we crash, we might have to run. Pack as much of the provisions and first aid kits into the two bigger bags as we can." My brain whirred with possibilities. "I'm going to try to slow it down as much as I can."

  The brakes worked still, thankfully. I just couldn't alter the direction of the ship. "I set a course for the outskirts of the city." I glanced at Evvie as she stuffed the bags full. "But I think we're going in too high. Towards the center of the city."

  "Is there like an emergency brake or anything?" she asked. She had both bags filled to the brim and had managed to get all the food and most of the emergency kits in them.

  When I was sure there was nothing more I could do to stop the ship, I turned and pulled Evvie into my arms. "Here." I slipped out of the chair and set her in it, buckling her in. "Stay here."

  "What about you?" she cried out.

  "I'm hardier than you are. I think the brakes will bring us in pretty slowly, anyway. It won't be a big dramatic crash landing, but we can't prevent where it happens.

  She nodded but still looked terrified, so I dropped to my knees and put my arms around her as the city came ever closer. With one eye on the console, I watched it project our landing. I'd been right. We'd end up nearly in the center of the city. I showed the location to Evvie. "That's residential," she whispered. "I'm familiar with the area. I lived near there as a small child."

  Shit. I hadn’t anticipated the possibility of hurting innocents. However, now was not the time to worry about something I couldn’t prevent. As we descended, I tucked away what Evvie had said into my mind to ask her about later. I wanted to know everything about her, including her time in the last remaining habitable human city.

  As the buildings neared, I offered up a silent prayer that we'd land between them and not crash into one of them. When we neared impact, I braced myself with one hand on the ceiling of the small pod, while the other clutched Evvie's shoulders. "Hang on," I shouted.

  We came in slow but still glanced off the corner of a huge brick building, shattering a massive glass pane from one window. Evvie yelped, but her face remained hard, focused. We continued downward between the buildings until we slid onto the middle of a roadway as people scattered in all directions. The force of the impact knocked me backward, and then
forward. I ended up wrapped around Evvie's chair on the floor by the time we came to a full stop.

  Ugh. My head hurt. And my left arm. I mentally ran through my body, discovering that nearly everything hurt. Again, now was not the time, so I jumped to my feet and looked out the windows. People were standing around everywhere, staring at the smoking ship with shocked faces. Most of them were dirty and wore cheap, ill-kempt clothing. The Glass City was supposed to be the wealthiest part of their world, but by the looks of it, that wasn't saying much.

  "Evvie?" I turned from the window to see her slumped over the steering column. My heart leapt into my throat, imagining the worst. We had to get off this ship before the city guards got here. They would know about what we'd done out in the desert by now.

  She didn't stir at my voice, and I drunkenly stumbled to her. "Evvie!" I shouted. There was no time to wake her. I grabbed both bags, slinging them over my shoulder, then unbuckled the seatbelt that hadn't stopped her from hitting her head on the dash. Major design flaw. Kicking the door open, I rushed out into the street and away from the pod as fast as I could. People had begun gathering closer to the ship. Several people offered help, at least until someone shouted. "TerraLink’s coming!"

  In seconds, the street emptied of people. I took off running, darting away from the ship and down a side street. I'd only had one encounter with the Earthen organization so far, and I really wanted to keep it that way. I needed to find somewhere to get Evvie back on her feet.

  A deep alcove looked like a good place to try to blend in, but as soon as I tucked Evvie and I in there, the door opened. "Get away from here," a deep voice hissed. "Or I'll turn you in!" I didn't wait to argue. I just gritted my teeth and continued on down the street, blending into the crowd for now. Worry coursed through me. I hadn't covered my head and my purple hair would be visible to anyone that looked hard enough. Especially with my height.