Yolanda Sfetsos - Alex Wales - Promise

She’d experienced plenty of different ways to climax before, but nothing quite like this. When it should have been over, and she felt spent, another orgasm shook her to the core. She arched her back and whimpered, wishing he would stop torturing her with this endless pleasure yet hoping it would never end.

The door on the other side of the room was suddenly pushed open. “Damon. Damon, you must hurry. We need you down in the courtyard. Something has…oh, my apologies.”

Damon removed his hand from her lower abdomen and looked over his shoulder. “What do you want, Levi?”

The orgasm’s intensity slowed but didn’t completely fade.

She looked across the room-feeling a little hazy-meeting the teenager’s wide eyes. He was staring right at her, but when she caught his eye, he looked away. His gaze roamed around the room, but he couldn’t hide the red darkening his cheeks with embarrassment. If the tendrils of orgasm weren’t still chasing pins and needles of ecstasy beneath her skin, maybe she would’ve felt a slight tug of embarrassment, too. Then again, maybe not. Alex never apologized for an orgasm, especially one this miraculous. Why should she? How the hell had Damon made her come without even touching her where she’d experienced the full brunt of pleasure?

“Levi, what’s wrong?”

“I’m so sorry, Damon. Ah, we’ve found a dead body in the gardens, and the Priestess would like you to come down to the courtyard.”

Damon frowned. “What do you mean by a dead body?”

“A body was found mutilated along a garden path,” Levi answered in a low voice.

“That’s impossible.”

“It’s why she needs you to take a look. Priestess would like to know if you can read anything that’ll tell us what happened.”

Damon nodded. “Okay. I’ll be there right away.”

Levi hesitated for a few heartbeats before he nodded. “I’ll tell her you’re on your way.” He turned around, left, and closed the door behind him with a small thump.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Damon whispered more to himself than to her. His eyebrows were furrowed, knotted in a look she hadn’t seen on him since they’d met. Not even the birds had seemed to affect him this much.

She touched his face. “What’s wrong?”

“Murder doesn’t happen in our society.”

“Crime exists in every society.”

“Not in ours,” he whispered. Damon refused to meet her eyes. “I’ve never seen any evidence of murder within these walls.”

She sat up straight, enjoying the last of the pleasurable aftershocks. “What about those bird creatures? Haven’t they killed some of your people? You mentioned the lake with the worms, too.” She cringed at the reminder, but when she looked at her arm, all evidence was gone. Too bad the cut on her hand remained. What the hell had Sackor done to her?

“Yes, I’ve seen the birds kill some of our people, and the lake too, but that always takes place outside the walls. Harm is never inflicted by one of our own.”

“That doesn’t sound right.” She’d never heard of such a thing. Violence, abuse, and murder occurred all over the galaxy.

“We live in Eden.”

Alex was confused. If they lived in such a wonderful world, with absolutely no violence, why was she needed to seal their utopian society? “Okay, so if everything’s so perfect here, why do you need me?” She’d just had her first Damon-induced orgasm, and whatever unfamiliarity had existed between them before had diminished. The warmth of his body remaining close to hers was comforting.

She couldn’t explain it and didn’t particularly like to admit it, but there was something flowing between them. She refused to refer to it as magic, though. It was more like raw and passionate lust. If Levi hadn’t charged into the room, she knew what would’ve followed. At the thought, a few things she wanted to do to Damon raced through her mind.

“Alex,” Damon began, pushing a few stray curls away from her forehead. His eyes were shiny and filled with knowledge. She wondered if he would ever share any of it with her. “We need you, because the prophecy states that once the space traveler is amongst us, a chain of events will begin. Events which will help us become forever segregated from the dangers beyond our boundaries. Without the lakes, birds, and other predators out in the jungle, my people will be able to live in eternal harmony. All thanks to you.”

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to do all of that. Besides, aren’t you already segregated by those tall walls?”

Damon shook his head. “Those walls are secure for the moment, but it’s only a matter of time before the barrier starts to slip.”

“So, you’re saying this dead person is the start of these events?”

“Maybe.”

The thought made her uncomfortable. “I hope no one blames me for this.” If they all knew about this bizarre prophecy and she’d been unwillingly cast in the lead role, would these people eventually turn on her? She looked at Damon and didn’t think he would, but she couldn’t be sure about the others.

“I won’t let anyone accuse you of killing, or of any other wrongdoing. I’m going to protect you.” Damon pressed his hands against her upper arms, glaring into her eyes. “Will you come with me, so we can see what’s happened?”

She’d much rather strip her dirty clothes and see what he had to offer once he took his off, but he seemed too distracted. Besides, after the overload of satisfaction he’d unleashed on her, she wasn’t sure she was up to more at the moment.

“Sure, let’s go.” Let’s see what other freaky things this place has to offer. This planet was starting to feel more like hell than Eden. “I’m not going anywhere without my blaster, though.”

Alex had seen more than one corpse before. Some of the shitty places she’d travelled during her long stint as a courier were so crime-infested that anyone could be shot dead in a crowded spot. She was usually good at looking the other way, but sometimes it was hard not to stare. As a result, she’d seen plenty of humans and aliens left to die on the sidewalk, in alleys, motel corridors, and bars. It was never a pretty sight, but it was something she’d mostly become desensitized to.

As a kid, dead bodies had been a frequent occurrence, too. Wherever her father went, he always seemed to attract the wrong kind of attention. Fortunately for him, he’d gotten shot a lot, but never killed. Some of the people who shot at him hadn’t been so lucky. Louis Wales had a steady hand and spot-on accuracy.

On her tenth birthday, he’d stuck a blaster in her hand to teach her how to aim and shoot-both to injure and kill. She’d gotten so good at it so quickly, he beamed with pride. Alex could still remember how happy it made him to know that she could take care of herself if he wasn’t around. He’d said it a lot, but she’d been too young to suspect he actually meant it.

Still, she’d never killed anyone. She had no problem shooting someone’s hand off or disabling them by blowing out their knee, but she was glad she hadn’t had to kill. Yet.

She blinked as she stared at the corpse Damon had led her to. It had been dumped inside the garden labyrinth, and he’d had no trouble finding it.

I’ve never seen anything like this before.

The dead body didn’t have a clean bullet or laser wound anywhere. It no longer looked human, resembling a lump of meat with various open sections, several limbs missing, and the head left twisted at a sickening angle. It was completely covered in blood, with deep-etched claw marks wherever there wasn’t a limb missing. A pool of crimson spread out below the remains, with other darker stuff. It reeked of feces and death.