Experiment (Hybrid Book 2) (3 page)

“Where is she? Why were we separated?” she blurted out.

“I’m sorry Kittycat, she died soon after you were born, but she gave you your name if that helps, and she wanted you, loved you for the short time you had.”

Numbness was all she felt. Could she grieve for someone she’d never met?

“What was her name?”

“Panaya.” That one word changed so much. A feeling of connection bloomed within her. She’d always felt so alone, so different, and now she came from somewhere, from someone. Her one fear was that the details Connor held in his mind might be so sketchy, that she’d be left even more unfulfilled than when she’d known nothing. 

The sandy animal track they walked along faded into insignificance, as did the heat and her physical discomfort as Connor started speaking again.

“You don’t seem to be developing along human lines in terms of reproduction, despite having some human DNA. You don’t have a menstrual cycle, and the science bods think that’s because Dakarans may a have a modified oestrus cycle.”

She stopped in her tracks as she put two and two together, or rather his statement plus her recent nymphomaniac behaviour.

“You mean I’m going to go into heat like a bloody animal?”  She heard her voice rise in pitch. Strike one for cool, calm and collected.

“We truly don’t know. Your Mother was already expecting when we found her, and she wasn’t the most talkative person in the world. Her behaviour, and that of the people she came into contact with, when she was pregnant is what I was concerned about.”

“Well some women get cranky when they are pregnant...” Chesara started.

“She wasn’t just ‘cranky’ Kittycat. She tried to kill any female she came into contact with. After she gave birth, she became hostile to all staff, regardless of gender.”

“What was she like with men when she was pregnant?” Chesara got her answer when Connor’s face reddened.

“That bad huh?”

“She produced pheromones that apparently had an erm... stimulating effect on all nearby men, and she, well, shall we say took full advantage?”

“So you’re saying my Mother made all the men incredibly horny, and they all had a prolonged orgy? Didn’t they separate her from them? Surely that much sex when she was heavily pregnant wasn’t a good idea?”

“They tried that, and her health deteriorated rapidly.”

“So if I’m already pregnant, will I turn into a raging slut and turn all the men in the vicinity into mindless horny animals?”

Connor sighed. “The latest theory from the science bods is that Dakaran females have a different reproductive cycle to other species.

“Human females can be receptive to males at any time, and neither gender knows when she is ovulating. Other species only have sex at specific times when the female is ovulating and she produces pheromones to attract males to her at that time. They think Dakarans have a different system.

“The females give off pheromones at specific time, it attracts all nearby males. Unlike Terran animals, the mating pheromones continue after pregnancy is established. They theorized that this is either to ensure the female is protected, or that continuous ‘deposits’ are needed for a healthy pregnancy. After reading the files, I think it’s probably a little of both.” They walked in silence for a while.

“But, there’s no guarantee I’ll react like a full Dakaran is there? I’m a hybrid.” He blew out through his nose.

“I’m not a hybrid?”

“You are, and you aren’t.”

“Now that’s fucking helpful,” she said and directed a kick from her over-sized boots at an offending pebble in her way. Another exasperated sigh came from Connor. He was pissed off. He was? At least he knew what he was.

“DNA analysis shows you are almost eighty-five percent Dakaran, and your human DNA came from three different men.”

“Great, I’ve got a whole room full of fathers.” She shrugged. Her life was so strange right now, that yet another ludicrous fact, didn’t make much of difference. She put her ‘healer’ hat back on and assessed the information.

“So it’s likely I’ll react to pregnancy like my mother did, with the ultra horny pheromones?”

His eyes were riveted to the trail ahead of them but he gave her a slight nod. As a tech specialist, this was probably mortifyingly embarrassing for him, but she felt like spreading the pain a little more.

“Do you feel any uncontrollable urges to jump me at the moment?” and she sent him a winning smile. The coughing fit her words induced was most gratifying.

“Sorry, I can’t say that I do, but your mother was pregnant when we got her, so it’s not certain how early in pregnancy the ‘condition’ develops. Good news is I can’t see any changes from your implant yet, so I’m not even sure you’ve gone into heat. The business with Tenset might just be plain old fashioned human attraction.” She noted he didn’t mention the fact that she’d half ‘raped’ him when he’d been tied down to Tamas’ torture table.

“Yay me.  Anything to drink?”

“Just wine, do you fancy stopping for a sip or two?” he asked.

“We shouldn’t really, it’ll just dehydrate us more, but what the hell, lets live a little.”

He looked around and finding a slightly larger bush, sat down in the shade, rummaging in his bucket for the bottle. Using one of Tamas’ torture implements he removed the cork, and offered it to her. After one swig, she pulled a face, sour, just like one of the wines Tenset had given her. She handed it back to Connor.

“Do you think he’s alright?”

Connor reached out a long arm and gave her a sideways hug.

“I honestly don’t know, but if anyone can talk himself out of a situation it’s him.”

She fixed him with a serious look as he took a swig from the bottle.

“Are you jealous of him?”

She didn’t know what answer she wanted. According to the entertainments, men in love were always jealous, if he was, it meant he was at least fond of her.  He said he’d leave the service, follow her anywhere, but he’d been almost the instigator of her passionate ‘goodbye’ to Tenset.

It took him awhile to answer. “No, I don’t believe I am.”

He held up a hand as the stab of disappointment had obviously showed on her face.

“I’m not sure why I feel that way. Seeing you with Tenset, seeing how happy you were, genuinely made me happy too. But I don’t feel the same as I before, I don’t think these are only ‘friend’ feelings. I certainly wouldn’t do what we did if I didn’t feel something more than friendship for you.”

“If I remember rightly, you didn’t a have a great deal of choice in the matter, you were shackled to that table at the time,” she grinned cheekily at him. His returning smile was brief.

“I’m not sure why you being with Tenset doesn’t upset me, but the thought of not being with you, loving you is very disturbing.”

She leaned in for a kiss, but he stopped her with his next question.

“Now I’ve spilled, it’s your turn. How do you feel about me and Tenset?” Now it was her turn to look troubled as she considered her feelings.

“Let’s get going,” she said, as a distraction. Wordlessly, Connor pushed the cork back in the bottle and helped her to her feet.

It was several minutes before she got her thoughts together, and she was grateful that he waited patiently. His steadiness was one of the things she loved about him, they were complete opposites, and she needed him to ground her sometimes.

“You’re my best friend Connor, I trust you more than I trust myself most of the time.”

“I can feel a bloody big But coming.” His arm round her, showing he had no ill feelings towards her if she was going to do the ‘let’s just be friends’ speech. It just made her heart ache even more.

She turned into his chest stopping their forward progress.

“I’m so confused, I can’t be feeling what I do for both of you at the same time, can I? It’s not right. If I think I love both of you, does that mean I don’t feel enough for either one of you?”

He just held her. ”Kittycat, you’re not human; so going by human morality isn’t fair. It may be that Dakarans have multiple partners, they may not experience love and jealousy in the same way humans do. The fact that I feel no jealously for you and Tenset may be a biological reaction to you. Either way, I can’t help the way I feel, any more than you do. I’m happy that he makes you happy.”

“Tenset said I was his, I’m not so sure he’s willing to share.”

“Tenset is an egotistical arsehole, but he knew what happened between us, and he was still happy to see you go with me, so what do you think?”

She pulled his head down for a kiss. His hands on the side of her face stopped her.

“You know where that’s going to lead, it’s not safe here, understand?  I think it’s best if we both ignore those sorts of feelings as much as possible for now, don’t you?”

Nodding, she stepped away from him. Connor seemed as reluctant as she was to lose the physical contact. Some small degree of satisfaction lightened her steps as she concluded that he was having at least as much trouble as she was being ‘sensible’.

They continued their walk until the sun began to set. At least a few trees appeared to break the monotony as it got darker. They’d walked trying not to touch each other, consciously not mentioning their hunger and thirst. Both knew the other wanted water, food and contact, but not talking about it let them both pretend they were suffering alone, that the other was fine.

A
grove of trees provided sufficient shelter to warrant stopping for the night, and after setting up the blankets Connor announced he was going to set a few snares with his bootlaces to see if he could catch them some breakfast.

Chesara sat on the blanket, and opened the bottle of wine, knowing it wouldn’t help but she was desperate for the moisture all the same. The day had been hot, and she felt hot, grubby, tired, thirsty and hungry. The only silver lining was that she no longer felt horny. Her feet hurt, so she pulled off Tenset’s boots, and groaned in relief. She’d put them back on in a few minutes. The heat, the lack of movement and her weakness, plus the gentle buzzing of insects, soon had her dozing.

She jerked awake, heart pounding as the near darkness showed she’d slept for a while. She scanned for what had disturbed her, expecting Connor to be coming back. He should have been back already, but no tall dark figure emerged from the gloom.

“Connor?”

“Has your boyfriend abandoned you Madam Envoy?” Tamas’ voice sent chills down her spine and a huge shot of adrenaline into her system. His voice came from around twenty feet to her right, and she jumped to her feet, whirling to face him.

“We got separated; I don’t know where he is.” At least they didn’t have him.

Tamas emerged from the gloom, Baxter and another young guard she didn’t know beside him. The men started to spread out, trying to get around her.

“Where’s Tenset? Creeping around behind me?” she said, but he didn’t take her eyes of the men trying to encircle her.

Tamas snorted. “You know as well as I do that he was in on your little trip. He really was a good nephew before you came along, very compliant, and especially good at persuading ladies to do things they otherwise wouldn’t do. It really is such a waste.” He shook his head sadly.

“What did you do to him, you fucking evil bastard?” She saw that Baxter and the other guard were now level with her. Her escape route was slowly closing, but she needed to know Tenset was all right.

“Sorry to say I don’t think he’ll impress too many more ladies. Hopefully I’ve persuaded him that men can be fun, but one pretty blue eye just isn’t as attractive as a pair.”

Chesara exploded towards him, reaching him almost immediately, she avoiding his grasping hand by kicking him in the groin, hard, and carried on running. Although not trained in self defence, she’d always been bloody fast and she fervently hoped the ability still worked. Her ribs would be slowing her down a little, but the men wore heavy hide armour and carried archaic weapons, swords and crossbows, high five for stupid planetary rules.

She didn’t plan to get close enough to Baxter for him to use his stun baton. She had quickly gained a significant lead, when she felt a tremendous thump like a fist hitting deep into her right shoulder. She was surprised when the ground also tried to assault her, as it rose up to hit her in the face.

Chesara struggled to her feet. Shoulder burning and ribs protesting, she heading for a group of trees, hoping to lose her pursuers in the wood, but she’d lost a lot of ground. Her shoulder burned, and someone had added concrete to her feet, but she forced herself on.

“Chesara,” Tamas called. “Are you hurt dear? Please don’t stop. I love a decent hunt almost as much as I enjoyed playing with Tenset, he truly is a feisty young man, but you know that already. By the way, the rules of the game have changed, your Federation ‘friends’ decided they wanted to visit. I won’t let you harm our cause, you won’t be talking to them, so your choice is death, or to come quietly with me. I might even let you room with Tenset occasionally, when he’s up to it of course. But that might be a while, unless you heal him.”

Her heart was pounding, and something warm and sticky was running down her back. From the dragging sensation in her shoulder, she guessed that some sort of arrow had hit her. She continued to run, but it was so slowly that she could hear them getting closer. She could probably see better than they could, but that was her only advantage.

Her breath was starting to come in gasps as a detached portion of her mind diagnosed shock due to blood loss. Her mind automatically went through the steps needed to seal the blood vessels on a wound, as if the injury had happened to a patient.

Where the hell are you Connor? she thought as she slowed further. The forest around her seemed to be dark far too quickly, and some bastard had added lead to the concrete on her feet. She stumbled on, holding her injured arm against her body.

––––––––

A
s night fell the day after she’d been shot, Chesara decided to rest the night beside the stream she’d been following. The dense thicket of bushes beside her looked as appealing as her bed on Apollo. Finding the stream had probably saved her life. A body could life without food for quite a while, but she had been verging on passing out from dehydration.