Лорен Донер - Smiley

“We have many agencies working on this. Our teams at the hotel are attempting to identify the female. No one with the name Vanni was registered there.”

“Her full name is Travanni.” Smiley regretted not asking for her last name. Humans had those.

Rusty walked into the room and stared at Smiley. “I heard you were given the breeding drug.” She stepped closer. “What happened to your jaw?”

“Brass put him out,” Midnight answered. “He seems to be doing okay now.”

“Leave us alone.” Rusty unfastened the straps securing her vest over her uniform.

Smiley was grateful to have so many friends and he understood and appreciated Rusty’s offer, but he just wasn’t interested. “I’m fine.”

Her fingers froze and she frowned. “You don’t want to share sex?” Her gaze lowered to the front of his pants. “You’re hard.”

Vanni’s face flashed in his thoughts, the image crystal clear. He wanted to have sex but not with Rusty. It made him feel a little guilty since he liked her and they’d shared sex in the past. He couldn’t deny some of the drug was still in his system, enough so to keep his dick erect.

“You need me.” Rusty’s husky tone and the way she kept staring at his pants made her intent clear. “I’ll take care of you.”

“I can’t.” He didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

“You don’t have to do anything to me with your mouth if your jaw hurts.” She dropped the vest on a chair and reached for the waist of her shirt.

“Stop!” Smiley inwardly winced. “I appreciate that you came here but I have another female’s scent all over me.” That was true. He could smell Vanni on him. They’d rubbed together, skin to skin, covered in sweat and he’d touched her all over. His dick hardened even more, a painful throb in his jeans. Someone had fastened them when he’d been out but he still wore the same pants. “It wouldn’t be right.”

“I know. I could give you a sponge bath or we could shower together. Poor Smiley. Was it horrible having to touch a human against your will? I’ll make you forget about her.”

Horrible? Hell no. Smiley wanted to put his hands on Vanni again. She wasn’t the female standing feet from him, offering to get naked though. That was the problem. Forget Vanni? Never. I want her found and brought to me.

Midnight snagged the discarded vest and stepped between him and Rusty, her back to Smiley. “He’s in pain and agitated. We have to run X-rays on his jaw to make certain Brass didn’t fracture it. You know how tough our males are. They’d never complain. Why don’t you return to the women’s dorm? I’ll call you if you’re needed.”

“He’s my friend and I’m not leaving him in this condition,” Rusty protested.

Midnight growled. “Let me rephrase that. Go to the women’s dorm, or wherever you were when you heard the news, but get out of Medical. I’m running X-rays on his jaw. He isn’t permitted to share sex until he’s cleared.”

“He needs me.” Rusty wasn’t willing to give up yet.

“You stay and you’ll need your own room.” Midnight stepped forward, bumped into the other female and pushed her back. “Do you want to test who is more dominant? I’ll kick your ass.”

“Why are you being this way?” Rusty sounded confused.

“We’re in a crisis and you need to leave. I’ll call you if things change. Go.” She handed the vest to Rusty.

Smiley relaxed a little when Rusty spun on her heel and stomped out of his room. Midnight turned and sighed. Her expression softened when she said, “You’re too nice.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You have an expressive face, Smiley. She was too busy staring at your lower half to see your dismayed reaction when she offered to share sex. She was pretty hot to get you out of those pants. A primate Species on a breeding drug probably is an experience she either wanted to try out or perhaps missed from Mercile days. Would you have agreed to it if I hadn’t made her leave, just to avoid hurting her feelings?”

“No. Maybe.”

“That’s what I figured. Now it’s not an issue.” She put her hands on her hips. “My work here is done. I’ll let you males argue. I have some calls to make so I’ll be in my office.” She left.

Fury’s phone beeped and he withdrew it, reading the screen.

“Is it about Vanni? Has she been found? Is she safe?” Smiley hoped so.

Fury’s lips compressed into a tight light and he looked up. “That was Brass. The news isn’t good.”

Smiley sat hard on the bed, gripping the edges of the mattress. “She’s dead?” Just saying the words hurt. He didn’t want to believe it.

Fury put his phone back in his pocket and approached. “Her name is Travanni Abris. She wasn’t registered at the hotel because she was a guest of a group that booked an entire floor of rooms.”

“Is she dead?” he repeated, not sure what he’d do if Fury said yes. The meal he’d eaten early in the evening threatened to come up.

“We haven’t located her yet.” Fury paused. “She was with the Woods Church, Smiley.”

He’d heard that name before. It took him a moment to remember where. “The church that came to protest our presence at the conference?”

“Yes. Gregory Woods is a preacher or something, who heads that church. He’s been very vocal in the news concerning his belief that we should never have been created and insists our existence is an insult to his god. He wants Homeland and Reservation shut down and all of us returned to our cells. He refers to Homeland and Reservation as zoos.”

Smiley let the information sink in. “Why would he say that?”

Fury shrugged. “He’s an asshole. I had to watch some of his televised sermons for research purposes. Know your enemies. He compared us to animals that have been trained to talk and dress as if we are humans. He states that wild animals shouldn’t be domesticated and it is a disaster about to happen. He even referenced a few horror movies for what could happen if we aren’t put back in cages and kept in our place. His tactics are to use fear to frighten humans into believing we’ll take over the world and put them in cages instead.”

“He sounds like someone I’d like to lock up.”

Fury flashed a grin. “Exactly.”

Smiley couldn’t find the humor in their exchange. Vanni obviously belonged to a church that hated Species. He reviewed every moment they’d shared. “She didn’t treat me the way humans who think we’re dangerous do. You know how they act as if we’re going to bite them or they talk slowly as if we can’t understand what they say?”

Fury nodded.

“I liked her,” he admitted.

“She drugged you. At least now we know who Drackwood Research sold the formula to. The Woods Church obviously bought the human version of our breeding drug.”

Dr. Harris walked in. “How are you feeling, Smiley?”

“I’m okay. The pain is gone.”

“I see you’re still suffering an erection. I’m going to have to drain the blood if that side effect doesn’t go away within a few hours.”

Smiley reached down and protected his crotch with one hand. “No. I told you that already when you mentioned it the first time.”

“Priapism can cause you to suffer erectile dysfunction in the future, Smiley.”

“What is that?”

“Priapism means long-term erections. Can you ejaculate?”

The memory of being on top of Vanni, inside her and coming flashed through Smiley’s mind. “Yes.”

“We’re not like you,” Fury reminded the younger of the two Harris doctors who worked for the NSO—father and son. “None of us who have taken the breeding drug have trouble getting hard afterward. That was the point when Mercile created it. They wanted to make sure we had sex often when they were attempting to impregnate our females.”