Page 58 of Dark Space
The cell door made its quiet sliding sound; I didn’t bother to look up.
‘If you’re here because Anna is with the King and you’re bored, turn back around, Callan. My schedule is full today.’
‘It’s me, Vesper.’
My nostrils flared.
Anna’s springtime scent hit the back of my tongue, but it was different. She smelled like –
‘Roth,’ I snarled, looking up. She stared at me, her lovely blue eyes going wide. I dragged in another breath. ‘Your scent. You’re covered inRoth.’
She flushed a beautiful pink. ‘I –’
I stood up.
I hadn’t been upright very often in the last few months, and not while Anna could see. She took a step back, her lips parting. It was the first time I really noticed how small she was: her head would rest squarely on my chest. I noted it, but it wasn’t my pressing concern.
‘Come here,’ I said quietly.
Starlings didn’t have senses as strong as the Lupine, or cephalopods, or Kjidja, but our noses were better than most species. Anna was covered with a scent that was not unpleasant – some kind of masculine spice – but that wasn’t important: the important thing was thatthe scent wasn’t mine. I breathed in again; it didn’t have Callan’s musk.
‘Alcide,’ I growled, reaching out to her. ‘Anna,come here.’
She stepped forward tentatively, her brow creased, the brightness beneath her skin wavering, unsure. I realised I was scaring her and lowered my hands to my sides. I waited until she was within arm’s reach, then took her by the waist, pulling her against me. She gave a squeak of surprise as I lowered my head.
Then trembled as I rubbed my cheek against hers.
In our trueforms, starlings had no need to scent mark. When two starlings paired, their stars intertwined and shone only for each other; it was like seeing two brilliantly bright magnets cometogether, the force pushing everything – and everyone– else far, far away, until there was nothing left between them. But Anna wasn’t a starling, and I was wearing an inconvenient flesh suit, so I didn’t have any other choice. I had to let Alcide know that he wasn’t the only one staking a claim.
His scent waseverywhere.
She stood still as I ran my nose down the column of her neck, following the trail. He’d kissed her soft skin, tasted it with his tongue, so I brushed my lips over Alcide’s scent and nuzzled over her pulse, which beat frantically as my hands skimmed her shoulders.
‘Vesper,’ she said weakly.
‘Shh, little lodestar,’ I purred against her collarbone. ‘I need to fix this.’
Her breath caught as I fell to my knees, reaching for her zipper. The strongest scent wasn’t on the garment, so it became irrelevant; I pulled the zip down slowly, waiting for her to protest, waiting for her to stop me.
She didn’t.
Heat flared through me as my movements revealed a triangle of smooth skin. Anna was careful about the way she moved around our small, shared space; the screen was always in place when she showered, and apart from when she was sick, I’d never seen more of her than a graceful bare arm. I’d tried not to imagine it, both because I had no interest in torturing myself and through a vague sense of respect, but I regretted that now: the sight of her skin made my mind blank and every nerve in the body I wore fire to attention.
Scent, I reminded myself.
I pushed the uniform over her shoulders, stifling a groan.
Anna was beautiful.
I could see why Alcide had touched hereverywhere. Her collarbones and hips made intriguing angles under her skin. Herstomach stretched in a smooth arch, bracketed by the equally lovely curves of her waist. She had a constellation of sun kisses just below her collarbone and I bent to kiss her there, following the path of those freckles to the rise of her breasts. Alcide’s scent was strong; he’d clearly spent some time paying attention to her nipples, so I did, too. Her nipple was an intriguing counterpoint to the smoothness of her skin elsewhere, pebbling with one pass of my tongue, peaking with another, then hardening as my mouth fastened over it and I sucked.
Anna moaned.
The sound caused my skin to heat further, so I did it again, then swapped to the other one, making sure to trail my cheek over every inch of her skin along the way.
‘Vesper,’ she panted, when my tongue stroked her. ‘Vesper, if you stop now, we can pretend this never happened. If you’re only doing this because of Alcide –’
I stilled. ‘If you want to stop, then say so, Anna.’ My hands spanned her waist, then tugged down her uniform until it pooled at her feet and she was entirely and gloriously naked. ‘But I haven’t fixed it yet.’
