Forest Whispers (9 page)

She felt the rise of the titan along her leg
and parted her thighs until he’d pushed his cock between them.
Sandwiching his engorged flesh tightly between her legs, she moved
against him until he was rock hard and throbbing once more with his
own need.

Drawing away from her, he grasped her knees,
pushing them up and parting her thighs wide as he probed the tender
flesh of her pussy with his cock head, forcing the mouth of her sex
open and penetrating her. Lana gasped as she felt his turgid flesh
sinking deeper inside of her, felt her flesh fisting around
his.

She didn’t protest or make any attempt to
rush him as he possessed her fully and began a lazy rhythm of
thrust and retreat that teased as much as it pleased. Instead, she
stroked his muscular body appreciatively with her hands, savored
the feel of their joined bodies, the slowly mounting pleasure, his
heat and weight and scent as he engulfed her in a haze of welcome
longing. In time they reached a point where neither could bear to
wait longer, however, and he began to thrust faster and harder,
bringing them both to a shattering climax.

He sprawled weakly atop her as the
pleasurable tension was swept away by release, leeching the
strength from his body. With an effort, he gathered his strength
and levered himself off of her after several moments, collapsing
beside her on her bunk.

Lana was more than half asleep when she felt
his lips along her neck. “Insatiable brute,” she muttered with
amusement.

She felt him smile against her throat. “Do
you yield, woman?”

“
Mmm,” she murmured, lifting a hand to
stroke his hair. “Absolutely … but just once more … for
now.”

Chapter Eight

Lana left her locator when she set out the
following morning. Sadin had crossed and re-crossed the trail she
followed until it was virtually useless to her. She’d packed for
three days. She didn’t know if she’d begun to hope that it would
take her that long to conclude her business on Ata Prime or if it
was merely common sense to expect that it was bound to take her
several days to find his lair.

Her reluctance deeply disturbed her,
however, for many reasons.

The first, of course, was that the longer
Sadin remained at large, the more danger he presented to everyone.
She was anxious to catch him before he killed again. She was fairly
certain that she’d correctly assessed the situation and that she
was his prime target now and he would not be seeking another
helpless female to target. She could not be completely certain that
he wouldn’t, though, and that made it of prime importance to catch
up to him as quickly as humanly possible.

She had no intention of doing less than her
best regardless of her mixed feelings about leaving Ata Prime.

She didn’t know whether she was more glad,
or more sorry, that she’d allowed herself to become so deeply
involved with Corin.

Leaving was going to be one of the hardest
things she’d ever done.

It was mid day before she managed to thrust
Corin sufficiently toward the back of her mind to focus on her
task. Wryly, she realized that she’d probably done more to endanger
herself and help Sadin than he could’ve possibly imagined.
Fortunately for her, she hadn’t run into him while she was
wandering along the trail thinking about Corin instead of catching
a killer.

She took herself to task as she glanced
toward the forest again, wondering if Corin was close by.

Taking her map from her pack, she studied it
once more, trying to decide if the cabin she’d targeted actually
was the one most likely to appeal to him or if she’d lost her edge
entirely. Everything about the cabin’s location spoke to her,
however, and she finally decided to stop worrying over it. If she’d
guessed wrong, they would try again, but the likelihood was strong
that she would spring Sadin’s trap soon.

As the first cabin came into view in the
afternoon, her adrenaline began pumping through her system and, to
her relief, her training kicked in. She was completely focused as
she drew her weapon and approached the cabin cautiously, studying
the area around it with a practiced eye for anything that looked
out of place.

The cabin was empty and showed no signs of
recent habitation.

Relaxing, she holstered her pistol and moved
on.

It was late in the afternoon and the day was
already dying slowly into night before she reached the cabin that
was her prime target. She stopped before the cabin came into view,
studying the woods that crowded closely along either side of the
trail. The air seemed to hum with energy, but she wasn’t certain
whether it was her sixth sense or nothing more than the adrenaline
that began to pump through her system the moment she realized she
was nearing the cabin.

Taking a deep breath to slow her pounding
heart, she listened.

She realized then that the forest was
perfectly still.

Had it gone quiet because of Corin’s
approach? Or was Sadin lying in wait for her as he had before when
he’d slipped up behind her?

The hair on the back of her neck prickled at
that thought. Glancing around, she checked the knife in her boot to
make sure it was positioned correctly for easy reach, then pulled
her pistol from its holster. Stepping onto the vegetation that grew
in the center of the track, she moved forward slowly, scanning the
forest ahead of her.

The gathering darkness made it difficult to
penetrate the thick growth for any distance and her skin began to
prickle, the fine hairs all over her body standing alert, straining
to catch some sense of danger.

The cart trail curved sharply in front of
her, disappearing behind a wall of foliage. Lana stopped, drying
her sweating palms on her breeches. Gripping her pistol more
firmly, she started forward again, leaning slightly to see around
the curve. The darkened shape of the cabin came into view as she
rounded the bend.

As were most of the cabins that had been
empty for some time, this one was heavily shrouded in a tangle of
vines. Slowing her steps, Lana studied the cabin for any sign of
movement then peered around the perimeter of the cabin. Her heart
jolted painfully in her chest when she noticed the brush near the
front of the cabin looked as if it had been breached recently.
Bringing her pistol up, she moved closer to make certain it wasn’t
a trick of the failing light.

As she reached the edge of the trail where
it fronted the cabin, Corin stepped through the door, pausing on
the threshold.

Lana’s heart stood perfectly still in
her chest, forcing the breath from her lungs. “You scared
the
shit
out of me, damn it!”
she hissed when she managed to get her heart going
again.

He grinned. “It’s almost dark. We’ll stop
here for the night.”

Warning bells went off in Lana’s head
instantly. “I thought you were going to check the cabin to the west
of this one,” she said slowly, lowering her pistol.

He shrugged, striding toward her. “I did. He
wasn’t there. Hopefully we’ll have better luck tomorrow.”

Lana raised the pistol again. “That’s close
enough, Sadin.”

He halted in his tracks only a couple of
yards from her, his brows lifting in surprise for a moment before
his face went taut with anger. “You don’t recognize me, Ranger
Eloy?”

“
I do. I definitely do, Sadin. Get
down on the ground. Now!”

He glared at her for several moments and
finally bent down, as if he meant to comply. Before Lana could
blink, he morphed into an enormous cat-like beast, springing
forward.

Lana fired and dove to one side. She heard
Sadin land solidly on the ground not far from where she’d been
standing even as she rolled from her side to her back, trying to
bring her weapon up to fire again. She managed to get off another
shot as he leapt at her again, but the laser blast barely grazed
him. It didn’t slow him. The pain seemed to have no effect other
than to enrage him.

She rolled the moment she’d fired, trying to
come to her feet, but she’d managed to do no more than push herself
upright when Sadin landed directly beside her. Morphing as he
landed, he drew back one leg and slammed it into her ribs hard
enough it lifted her from the ground and rolled her several times
before she came to a stop. As she was flipped over, her elbow
slammed into the ground, sending a paralyzing jolt through her arm.
She lost her grip on her pistol as she continued to tumble. When
she came to a halt at last, she rolled up onto her knees, holding
her ribs as she glanced around for the weapon she’d dropped.

Sadin bent and scooped it up even as she
spotted the pistol. Grinning broadly, he aimed the pistol at her.
“Where do you want it? The chest or the head?”

Lana swallowed with an effort, glancing from
the barrel of the pistol to Sadin’s face, gauging the distance
between them and wondering if she could reach him before he could
fire.

Sadin chuckled. “I cracked a rib when I
kicked you. I felt it. You’ll never make it.”

Before Lana could think of a response, a
high, keening whistle distracted her. She glanced toward the sound
instinctively. Sadin, drawn by the strange noise, turned, as
well.

The move probably saved his life. Corin’s
trident caught him mid-arm instead of in the chest, cleaving his
arm in two. Almost as if time had suddenly slowed to a virtual
halt, Lana followed the path of the trident, watching as Sadin’s
arm separated from his body and began to fall toward the ground. As
it did, she dove to one side, knowing the reflexive twitch of his
hand and fingers might fire the weapon, but she found she was
moving in slow motion, as well.

As she flew through the air, she saw the
stunned look on Sadin’s face slowly turning to horror as he watched
his arm drop away. She saw the flash of blinding light as his
dismembered arm twitched and the laser erupted from the barrel.
Fire scorched her hip even as she began to settle slowly toward the
ground once more.

Abruptly, time reasserted itself and sped
forward so that everything seemed to happen at high velocity. Corin
appeared in a blur of motion, slamming into Sadin and carrying him
to the ground.

“
Don’t kill him,” she screamed as she
saw the glint of a blade in Corin’s hand.

His head whipped toward her for a split
second. In the next, he slammed his fist against the side of
Sadin’s head and Sadin went limp.

Holding her ribs, Lana pushed herself
upright with an effort as Corin stood, one leg on either side of
Sadin’s limp form as he stared down at him.

“
Is he dead?”

Apparently satisfied that Sadin wouldn’t be
getting up anytime soon, Corin stepped away from him and strode
toward her. “Not yet,” he said grimly.

Squatting beside her, he examined her for
injuries and finally touched the burned fabric of her breeches.
Lana sucked in a sharp breath, glancing down. “He barely grazed
me,” she said a little breathlessly. It burned like hell, though,
and rivaled her cracked rib in pain output.

When she met his gaze, she saw that he was
glaring at her. “You were supposed to call out if you needed me. I
only agreed to follow at a distance because you gave me your word
you would,” he ground out furiously.

Lana looked at him uncomfortably. “I didn’t
get the chance.”

Some of the anger seemed to leave him. “He
jumped you?”

She blushed. “He looked like you. I was …
caught off guard. He’d already started toward me before it clicked
in my mind that it wasn’t you. I thought I had control of the
situation, but I’d let him get too close.”

His face was grim as he turned to study
Sadin’s still form. After a moment, he turned to look at her again.
“Stay put. I will get your pack so that you can summon your craft.
You need medical.” He glanced at the still man again. “Him also if
you want him to live.”

When he’d dropped her pack within reach, he
pulled his own pack from his shoulder and dug through it, producing
a coil of rope. Bending over Sadin, he looped the rope around his
ankles, binding his feet together, then pulled the rope up and
bound one wrist and the stub of his arm.

Lana watched as she hailed the computer and
summoned the ship. “You really think that’s necessary?” she asked a
little doubtfully when she saw him tightening the rope around the
bleeding stump.

Corin sent her a wry smile. “This is to slow
the bleeding.”

“
Oh.” She wasn’t accustomed to that
sort of wound. She had a knife, but she only used it on very rare
occasions, and she’d never lobbed any part of anyone’s anatomy off
with it. Queasiness washed over her as she stared at the widening
puddle of blood and the occasional twitch of the disembodied
arm.

She looked away, surveying the area
critically. “I don’t think Louise will have enough room to land
here. Is there a clearing close by?”

Corin leaned down and pulled the pistol from
the hand lying on the ground. When he straightened, he strode
toward her. “Four parsects.”

A parsect, as nearly as she could tell, was
roughly three quarters of a mile. She wasn’t sure she was in any
shape to walk so far, but there didn’t seem to be an alternative.
“We’ll have to meet the ship there. Do you think you can carry
Sadin that far?”

“
I will carry you and return for him,”
he said, leaning down to push her pistol into her holster and then
helping her to her feet.

Lana felt lightheaded when she stood. She
knew it was a combination of not being able to breathe deeply and
the system shock of the laser burn on her hip, though, not anything
more serious. “I can make it,” she said tightly. “Sadin won’t if we
don’t do something for him pretty quickly.”