Out of Mind

Chapter 17

“I know who you are,” he said. “The blindfold is senseless. And it’s irritating.”

Best ignore him, she thought. Breaking him might take time, but break him, she would.

“My name is One. Say it,” she told him. One suited her well, for that’s what she was, the first one, the most important one. “Say it.” This time she raised her voice.

“One.”

Sullen. Why must these underlings always become sullen? She knew the answer. He was male and chafed against not being able to control her. But she had brought him with her and he would share in her success.

“You are…” She thought about it. “Servant,” she said with satisfaction.

“Damn you—”

“Damn you, One.” She cut him off.

“I am no woman’s servant.”

“You are my Servant for as long as I want to play with you. You are such fun to play with, but I have some lessons to teach you first. I have a purpose to fulfill and I do what I set out to do. Your future depends on my success, but it won’t be easy.”

Sunlight slanted through a window high in one white wall, slanted across his naked body. She stood before him, glad of her height, and stroked him until he tried to catch her hands.

One laughed and slapped his face.

He bared his teeth, made fists at his sides. He knew better than to strike out at her, even if he didn’t quite mask the brief start of what would have been his transmutation. The forked tongue actually flashed from his blackening lips, but he collected himself quickly enough to show only what he wanted humans to see in the two male images he had perfected.

“This is a very important day,” she said, lowering her voice to a warm, whispering, soothing hum. “The most important day of your life. Do you want to know why?”

He breathed heavily.

“Because if you don’t do exactly as I tell you, it will be your last day.”

“I don’t have to take this.”

“But you do,” One said, still all but purring at him. “You made a mistake. You acted on your own. You decided to make your mark by doing something I hadn’t told you to do. That was a mistake…Servant.”

Power thrilled her—and fear. This man longed to dominate her, but did not dare to as much as try.

“What I did will help us,” he said. “It will save time. You need what I brought you.”

“You took a risk. I knew nothing about this…Caroline. If you have made a mistake, you’ll suffer. I will report you to the Embran Council and their judgment will be swift—and final.”

“I made no mistake,” he said. “What I did was to help you. The woman, Caroline, she has no family. No one will look for her. I made sure.”

“No one has looked for her yet,” she pointed out. “If they do, you will join our research into saving our kind—as a subject.”

He laughed and relaxed for the first time since she’d called him in. “I’m not the right makeup, One. I don’t think I’d serve your purpose.”

“We will need host Embrans,” she told him. “Didn’t you think of that? Hosts to test our findings on. This could be a good thing. If our experiments go well, whatever we implant in you could make you live forever as we all used to. If not…” She let him consider what she had not quite said.

As with his other human manifestation, he was beautiful, an outstanding specimen, one of very few of his kind in their world.

“I have a question for you,” he said. “This plan of yours—your backup plan. Did you clear it with the Council? All they sent you here for was to make sure the work got done and the Millet specimen they selected is captured and taken to Home Place—by the one who thinks he is here alone to complete the task.”

Anger tightened her. “You know better than to question me.”

“My only purpose is to serve you, One. I live to serve you. My fate depends upon you. It wouldn’t help my career if something went wrong because you decided to become the big hero by charting your own course. Is this sexy little sideline you’ve come up with, this secret collection of shrunken specimens, in keeping with the Council’s wishes?”

“You’re beginning to bore me.” In fact, he caused her to question her own decision, which she would not tolerate. To question was to risk doubt—doubt could cause careless mistakes, or complete disaster.

“Why am I here now?” he asked, but she saw how he braced his feet apart, flexed the heavy muscles in his arms and his thighs, and aimed his hips in her direction.

“That’s why,” she said, and almost wished she could really purr—like a panther with huge, lethal teeth.

He made sure his subtle movements showed everything off to best advantage. “I’d like to see you,” he said, managing to make a simple request sound suggestive.

“I can see you. That’s all that matters—I’ll make sure everything goes where it needs to go.”

He trembled. His color heightened with excitement. “Whatever you want,” he said.

“First, what I want you to do—later. You took matters into your own hands. I didn’t like that, but you accomplished the task well. I have a list of names with information about where they can be found. There are many names, men and women. Amazing how many loners there are among these humans. All these people with pasts to hide—and they have hidden them well. You will deal with the women. We will gather as many as we can before we must return to the Home Place.”

He laughed.

“Make it fast,” she told him coldly. “Don’t waste time prolonging your own pleasure. The men are mine.” She smiled at that.

“This has become a competition,” he stated flatly.

“Not for you,” she reminded him. “But I will win. I will accomplish everything our friend was supposed to do for the Council, only so much better, and return to Embran before he even realizes he has failed. They will recall him in shame.”

“He thinks he is here alone. You were not supposed to come…One.”

“I got permission to watch him and make sure the mistakes of his predecessor are not repeated. It isn’t my fault if he thinks he can take his time, enjoy himself among the humans. When he gets back to the Home Place with one of the Millets—if he manages to catch one—we will be well on our way to curing the sickness these creatures caused us. And I will have proved that our plague could have started with the introduction of any human elements, not exclusively a Millet.

“True, the woman who married Jude Millet and then returned to Home Place got there at the same time as the first cases of the Torturous Death. It is likely she introduced the disease through her resumed contacts with her own kind, and they began to die. But I believe that if each Embran were what these creatures call vaccinated with the essence of the human, we would become immune to them and be saved. My goal is to find that essence from the human specimens I take back.”

“You are brilliant,” he said.

“Yes,” she agreed. “My way is so much more efficient. We must move quickly.”

“I’m ready,” he said.

“You are indeed. Have you heard about the bats that are attacking the citizens of New Orleans?”

He laughed. “Amazing how many they have seen—and how many people are demanding rabies shots.”

“Without seeing these bats, let alone being bitten by them.” One snorted.

“Do it.” His voice changed at once, sounding not just eager, but demanding.

For her the change was simple. She could accomplish her transmutation at will and smoothly—that was her greatest accomplishment and, added to her enhanced intellect, it made her formidable. Too bad the Council continued to prize man-Embrans above the females of their species.

Lacing her hands across her breasts, she angled her elbows upward, bowed her head and sank into a crouch, grew smaller while thin membranes formed over the bones of her arms, turning them into vibrating black wings. She drew them rapidly through the air, reveling in the beating sound. The folding and reshaping of her transmutation happened rapidly. She had been told how graceful her change appeared. Graceful and potentially deadly.

A moment of discomfort came with the sprouting of short, tight fur all over her newly forming body. Sharp, quill-like hairs dug at her enlarging eyes until they protruded enough to be free. She felt her mouth stretch wide and heard the popping that came with erupting teeth, and fangs she could extend or retract. The slime that dripped from her lips would burn like acid if she willed it. Her size could change, depending upon her needs. At the moment she needed no more than a few inches of girth and less of height. She tucked the fangs away but let her softer teeth remain extended—they were so useful in these moments.

Servant panted with anticipation.

She hovered above the floor, rose to just the right height and set herself spinning. Closer and closer she drew to him until she fastened onto his groin, slid those softer teeth along until they pressed into his tensed body.

Her Servant screamed, shuddered and clutched air. He gave himself to her.

One was nothing but clear mind, and exquisite release.

This was the prize she won for superiority. She could kill, or she could become the giver and receiver of cataclysmic orgasm.