James Axler – Starfall

You’re so sure.

“Cold?” Ryan asked.

“Just a chill, lover,” Krysty said. “Somebody walking over my grave, like Doc would say.”

“Wrap up in your blanket.”

“Rather wrap up in you.”

“I’m on watch.”

“I promise not to be too distracting.” Krysty’s fingers unbuttoned the front of his trousers, feeling Phlorin retreat in the back of her mind. Why don’t you stay and play? She had Ryan’s cock in her hand, feeling the way it stiffened at her touch.

You’re an abomination, Phlorin stated.

Krysty didn’t argue, but took Ryan into her mouth, bath­ing his hot flesh in the heated caress of her kiss. Ryan kept his hand twisted in her hair but he quickly gave himself over to her touch. And for the first time in hours, Krysty felt truly at peace.

RYAN OPENED HIS EYE and stared up through the canopy of branches overhead. Dawn streaked the sky, threading it with orange and gold that slashed through the retreating purple.

He heard Jak walk over to him before he saw the albino.

“Time move,” Jak said. “Wasting daylight.”

Ryan nodded, then shifted gently to extricate himself from the arm and leg Krysty had draped over him in the night. She hadn’t slept well, and he was surprised to find her asleep now. Cold fear touched him briefly when he thought her slumber might be something else. He placed his fingers against the side of her neck, and relaxed when he felt the thumping of her carotid artery.

He shook her slightly, watching her sentient hair pull back tightly against her scalp. As her eyelids flickered and she fought her way to sleep, he slid the SIG-Sauer from under his thigh and holstered it He’d kept it in his hand the whole night against the possibility that Krysty might have lost herself in her slumber. He wouldn’t have killed her, but the old woman trying to take over her mind might not have known that.

“Morning, lover,” Krysty said in a tired voice. Her eyes cracked open reluctantly, exposing the bloodshot lines threading through them.

“Get much sleep?” Ryan asked.

“Some. I don’t know.” Still, she forced herself to her feet with effort and helped him gather the bedding they’d shared during the night. “Sorry. I know I kept you up.”

That had been the truth in more ways than one. After she’d finished getting him off and he’d finished his turn at watch, she’d taken him to bed and had sex with him twice more.

Ryan hadn’t thought she’d gotten much pleasure from the encounters herself. But she’d been driven, giving her all each time with a fierce abandon that had exhausted them both.

“Sore?” she asked.

“Feels like I spent the night in a rough-riding wag with busted shocks,” Ryan admitted. His groin was tender to the pressure even from the weight of her leg lying across him. Her own passion had sparked his, and the anxiety filling both of them had found release.

She smiled, pleased with his answer. Some of the haunted look left her eyes for a moment. “Makes me feel good to hear you say that, lover. Been a while since we’ve had something like that.”

Ryan rolled up the bedding and tied the restraining straps. “Made things better for you?” He hoisted the load to his shoulder.

“Gave me a little more control,” Krysty admitted. “Phlorin doesn’t care much for the sex. She’s never had it.”

“I guess she can’t say that now.”

“She still doesn’t care for the idea of having shared it.”

Ryan shook his head. “She’s less than a fucking ghost. Whatever you think she shared, she won’t be keeping that.”

“Mebbe, lover. I hope so. But I also know that whatever she is inside my head, she’s capable of taking my life away unless we do something about it.”

“We’re going to,” Ryan promised.

Krysty knew she’d drawn the promise from him again in spite of the fact he’d already given it. He saw her brow wrinkle in displeasure, disappointed in her own weakness.

He reached out and touched her face. “It’s going to be okay,” he told her. Red clouded his vision as the anger at his own inability to fix the problem now hit him for a mo­ment.