(Anthology) Forever Read online

  “What?” I questioned, feeling like an idiot and following her. “Oof!”

  I narrowed my eyes and glared at her as the branch swung back, striking me a stinging blow to the chest. That would leave a welt.

  “You have to watch what you are doing,” She sniffed at me as she moved on. “And stop making so much noise. I want to surprise them and not have them surprise us.”

  “I’ll noise her,” I mumbled, rubbing my chest as I pressed onward. “Right on top of her blue head!”

  For a short time, we marched onward, Glimmer flinging bits of earth at me and me doing my best to dodge them and not kill her.

  By her actions, I knew that she had to want Luster. Too bad! He was mine, and I was not going to give him up for a spoiled little girl! But my animosity made the trip easier. I used my anger towards her to keep moving through the strange and foreign land that my home once resembled.

  Finally, we reached the sandy hillside where Luster, Glow, and I came under attack from the Tritons. All was quiet and that worried me.

  “Where are the animal sounds?” I whispered as the falling sun cast shadows across the land. I had become so used to the sound of birds and other small animals, that I instantly noticed their silence.

  “Hush!” she hissed.

  “But...”

  “They are near.”

  Deciding that it was prudent to listen to her, for now, I held my voice and waited.

  We didn’t have to wait long.

  There was a gravely sound, like metal on stone, and then deep voices.

  She pointed to the right, towards open land.

  I gasped as I tried to make sense of what my eyes were seeing! This couldn’t be right!

  I half rose to my feet, stopping only when Glimmer’s hand latched onto my arm, pulling me back into the hiding spot.

  “This can’t be right!” I whispered. “No!”

  But the truth was right before my eyes. I knew what the Tritons were!

  Chapter Fifteen

  “This is not right!” I breathed. “This is impossible!”

  The Tritons! They were wearing...

  “Get out there!”

  Before I could gather my wits, Glimmer shoved me out into the open.

  Stunned, I froze while the two men, dressed tunics, the male style of tunic, turned in my direction.

  Like a specimen caught in the high beam light of a microscope, I froze. The two men turned to me and one of them smiled.

  “Get her!” one shouted and my feet finally decided to take action.

  I turned away from the two and ran towards the trees. Glimmer, that traitor, was behind me and they were blocking the only way out!

  Almost screaming with frustration, I tried to dart past them. Remembering some old forgotten footage of some game played with a pig-skinned ball, I rushed the men, hoping to force a break in their duel barrier.

  It worked. For a minute, that is.

  Then they were both diving at me, driving me to the hard unforgiving ground.

  “Get off!” I bellowed, but my answer was a sharp prick in the neck and them the world began to swirl in a mass of pretty colors.

  “Why,” I whispered as the edges of my vision began to darken and my throat refused to work.

  But I didn’t know if I was asking Glimmer why she had done it, why the men were dressed in clothes from my world, or why my life had to be so damned hard.

  * * * * *

  I woke up, with my hands tied above me and a dull ache in my head.

  No, I was awakened. It was the voices that pulled me back from the black void and now my mind struggled to sort out what was being said.

  “I brought her, as promised.” Glimmer was saying. “Now release my man!”

  “We did have a deal,” the first man said. “So I guess it would be fair of me to actually own up to what I said.” The other man chuckled. “Okay, your man may go free, but it doesn’t matter. It’s only a matter of time before we have all of you...abominations back where you belong.”

  I had no idea how long I had been out, but it seemed that someone else was doing a bit of thinking while I had been trying to hatch a plan of my own. Glimmer, blue hair and all, proved to be more cunning than any thinker I had ever heard of.

  I slammed my eyes shut as I heard their steps approaching me.

  “Where are they?” Glimmer was sounding nervous. Good to be nervous when you made plans with the devil.

  “Let them go!” I heard someone call. “Because of this one, we will have the whole lot soon enough!”

  Then I heard a voice that I thought I would never hear again.

  “Glimmer!” it called and then the sound of rushed footsteps. “What did you do?”

  “I had to do it!” I heard her say. “The trees told me what happened, how you were ambushed. Then they told me of the ultimatum. Her for you! What else could I do? Without you, the resistance is at an end!”

  “But at what cost, Glimmer! What is the cost?”

  “I had to!” she cried desperately. “For our future, for our child.”

  That brought my eyes open. Glimmer was pregnant?

  “Oh, I see you are awake,” a voice said and I knew that I had given away my opportunity to gather more information. “Did the happy reunion wake you? We must teach them to be silent.”

  I glared at the man in the tunic as he continued to examine me.

  “What kind of creature are you? You don’t look like the others. You look...strange.”

  Well, you ain’t no picnic yourself, I thought! But I only snorted and turned my head so that I could see the two people lost in each other.

  Glow wore a shocked expression on his face as he stared at Glimmer who had tears running down her blue tinted cheeks.

  So that’s who Glimmer was in love with, and apparently the feelings were returned.

  A baby, I thought. Is there any justice in the world when a blue haired idiot like Glimmer got to be reunited with her love and have a baby? Probably not. Suddenly, the gods testing Luster was not such a farfetched idea after all.

  “Jealous?” the guard asked, and I had to turn again to look at his ugly face. “No matter, you will soon be reunited with that freak of yours. We have been waiting a long time for this.”

  “Sinopee,” Glow spoke, his voice raspy. “We will succeed.”

  He had Glimmer under on arm, placing her body behind his, as he stared at me, helplessness in his eyes.

  “I had to!” Glimmer tried to explain, her body shaking with sobs that she tried to hold in. “I had to! We are going to have a baby! I just had to save him!”

  I understood, but I was still pissed.

  I stared at her and then at Glow, then made a gesture I was extremely proud of.

  I wiggled my wrists until I could get my right hand forward, then I shot her the bird.

  Immature, I know, but my head was aching, my arms were going numb, and I was trapped with no way of saving my man!

  All things considered, I was pretty eloquent.

  Glow snickered and Glimmer gasped, but then Glow turned and pulled her out of the clearing. Almost instantly, it seemed that they disappeared into the growing shadows.

  And growing, the shadows were! The sun had set while I was out and torches were now lighting the area. The day, and my time, were almost up.

  Chapter Sixteen

  They carried me over bare ground and soft grass. It seemed like hours, they carried me, but never complaining about the distance or the journey.

  I now sat in a cage, my hands tied above me, as I swung in rhythm to their walking.

  It was a good time to think.

  Part one of my original plan was in effect. Now I had to quickly come up with part two.

  I was knocked out of my reverie by the sound of raised voices.

  I sat paying attention now, as I was taken to a huge building hidden in some trees.

  Camouflage! That is how the Tritons survived, but it was also how the rebels outsmarted them fo
r years!

  As we drew closer, I saw several more men and women, all dressed in tunics and carrying of all things, lab equipment.

  One woman held a radiation guide and another had a doctor’s kit. Several carried small weapons strapped to their belts, the source of the Triton lighting. They were using laser guns, the very same guns that were outlawed several years ago.

  It seemed that I was not the first of my world to invade paradise! Like the serpents, they despoiled paradise and it seemed they were determined to make a mark here.

  “Very interesting,” a voice said in front of me, and drew my attention. “She is not like the others. The board will be intrigued.”

  The board? What the hell was going on?

  Before I could formulate a response, I was carried into a large building and my cage placed beside a large examining table.

  More people swarmed into the room and I found myself pulled from my cage, hands still bound, and placed on the table.

  I tried to struggle free, but before I could even move, hands were strapping both legs and down and my arms above my head.

  I gasped as my eyelids were peeled back and a bright light shined in.

  “Hey!” I protested, but the person spoke out loud to the room at large.

  “Brown eyes. This is a variant. Must be a genetic throw back.”

  “Throwback? Ouch!”

  I felt a syringe plunge into my arm, drawing blood.

  “No phosphoresce in the skin. Plain brown. Possibly lacking in the mutated traits and heightened abilities?”

  “Are you sure that this is his mate?” This voice boomed from behind me. I twisted to get a good look, but I could only move a few inches. I saw the hem of another tunic, but the voice spoke with authority.

  “The other would not lie. She wanted her mate back too badly. You know that the control alteration malfunctioned with that one. Instead of making them easier to control, it made them more aggressive. The only good thing about that little mistake is that we can use it against them if we can catch one of a matched pair.”

  “What is going on?” I finally managed. What were they talking about? Mutations and alterations! Who were these people?

  “I suppose we should show the male that we have his mate. That may make him speak up about where he found the box and the words for the voice command.”

  Voice command?

  I struggled to look around, to see who these people were, but I had no luck. All my wiggling did was earn me extra tight restraints and more attention.

  “Run the DNA tests,” the large voice mused. “That will show us where we stand. If this creature is a throw back, we may have a weapon against the fugitives.”

  Fugitives?

  “Ah, good! Bring him over.”

  Him? Then I felt his presence! They were bringing me my Lust!

  “Luster!” I gasped feeling his presence ever stronger as he drew closer.

  They turned the table, and them I could see him! My Luster!

  He was hanging from his arms, his hands encased in some material, his ankles strapped to the sides of the large square frame on wheels. He was completely naked and hung limply, but his eyes when he raised his head, were full of defiance and anger.

  “Now, Luster, will you cooperate? We have your mate and you know that we take no pity on those who defy us.”

  “She is not my mate,” he said, his eyes warning me before he dropped his head again.

  At first my stomach plunged into my feet as I took in his words, then my mind began to work. Of course he would deny me. If he reacted in any way, it would prove that I was his mate and they would have power over us both.

  “Why do I not believe that?” the voice said.

  “Maybe because not only do you lack magic,” Luster sneered, “you lack eyesight as well. I have no mate. You knew that when you had my people imprisoned. The same holds true this day.”

  “Luster,” laughed the man. “You were always the clever one, more Thinker than the rest. But I believe science will prevail.”

  “Damn your science!” he snarled.

  “Very good, Luster. Damn us all. But I know something that you do not. When in the presence of your true mate, you will have an incredible urge to bond. All I have to do is leave you in the room and your body will tell me the truth.”

  Damn! That was why Glow was sporting a very good hard-on when he returned from the shadows after warning Glimmer! His body was not reacting to the erotic things that Lust and I were doing. He had been in contact with his mate!

  As I stared wordlessly at Lust, I knew that we were in deep trouble. There was no way to keep his body from reacting.

  “Put them in the cage.”

  “No!” I screamed as I was wheeled into another room. I could hear the wheels of Luster’s frame following.

  I felt the bindings on my ankles release and the ones holding my wrists above my head.

  I heard Luster grunt and knew that they had let him out of the platform. Then I heard the rapid retreat of footsteps and the closing of a door. We were alone, yet being observed.

  I raised my head off of the table to stare at this new cage. Three solid walls and one made of glass. I would bet my last hour here that it was a two-way mirror. Science, at its observant best.

  “What are we going to do?” I whimpered as I turned to face my man.

  But it was too late. He knelt on the floor, where they left him, his cock raising and throbbing with his every breath.

  “Give them a fucking show,” he growled.

  I gasped and shook my head, even as my body reacted to the sight of his.

  “They want to observe us, Sinopee. This is what your science does. So we are going to show the sexless band of love starved bastards just what they are missing. Come to me!”

  I shook my head and tired to back away.

  “Come to me!”

  I whimpered as I felt my body clench and start to grow wet. The idea of being observed was starting to turn me on.

  Why shouldn’t we give them a show? Soon we would both be dead and why should I deny myself this last chance to have Lust?

  “Come to me!”

  I took my first step towards him.

  Chapter Seventeen

  As I drew close, Lust raised his hands up and wrapped them around my waist, burying his face in my stomach.

  I wrapped my bound hands around his head, tangling my fingers in his hair, holding him close to me.

  I could feel his breath waft against the naked skin of my stomach.

  Silently, he rose to his feet, keeping my arms locked around his neck as he easily lifted my weight.

  He carried me as if I weighted less that a moment, less than a memory, over to the table that I had been strapped to.

  As he placed me on my back, he shot one look at that the glass window, knowing that their eyes were on us.

  Grasping my hands, he pulled my arms from around his neck, but held them over my head. Silently he looked into my eyes, his glance saying more than mere words ever could.

  Lowering his head, he closed those magnificent lavender eyes as his lips brushed against mine. There was tenderness in his touch, tenderness and love.

  I arched my body up against his automatically. It was like my body knew where it belonged. Sighing deeply, he pressed me against the table while using his thigh to spread my legs.

  Once settled on his knees between my thighs, he held my hands down with one hand while the other slowly began to explore my body.

  I knew that they were watching, and I felt a blush turn my face red, but the feel of his hand caressing my cheek, my neck, and trailing across my breasts made me disregard them as unimportant.

  I raised my knees, exposing my woman’s center to his touch and he smiled at me.

  We both knew that it was a matter of trust for me to open myself for him while others were watching, but as his nearness increased my arousal, I found that I could deny him nothing.

  I made a mewling sound as his fi
ngers trailed across my stomach, gently circling my navel before stopping just at the top of my mound.

  I saw him look over his shoulder, glare at the glass, then turned the fierce expression to me.

  He rose up as his hands spread my thighs wider. He looked down and leered. I knew the pearly drops of my essence already coated my flesh, and I only needed his touch to start that trip to the stars.

  His fingers, hard and blunt, invaded me, ran across my swollen lips, spread my moisture around.

  I cried out, I couldn’t hold it the sound in, and arched into him.

  Taking this opportunity to reposition me, Lust pulled both of my legs high on his thighs before his hands gripped my waist and pulled me into an upright position.

  My bound hands went over his head and around his neck as I tried to gain my balance. This new position placed his swollen cock right at entrance to my womanhood.

  But instead of plunging home, he again lowered his face to mine.

  “I love you,” I whispered, my eyes staring intently into his.

  “I know, lover,” he whispered as he placed gentle kisses on my eyelids, the tip of my nose, my chin.

  I felt a warmth sweep over my body that had little to do with arousal or embarrassment. Luster was showing me how much he loved me, showing them, defying them, and taunting them with what they would never have.

  I tighten my grip on him as he lowered his head to mine.

  His tongue gently lapped at my lips, tracing the outline before running along the crease.

  Automatically, I opened, inviting him inside, wanting to taste him as he was tasting me.

  One of his hands reached up to cup my cheek as he gently invaded my mouth, running his tongue along my teeth and the roof of my mouth, gently exploring what I so eagerly offered.

  I felt his moan more that heard it, and the sound reverberated through my body.

  I tightened my legs around his waist. I urged him closer, flattening my breasts against his chest, feeling his hardness press against my softness.

  His skin was hot and moist. I realized that passion was slowly taking over, that soon he would join with me, complete me, make me whole again.

  “Sinopee,” he breathed, “Hold on.”