Inferno Read online

  Lucie had survived the prison’s crash and stumbled immediately into the safe and loving arms of her three alien men.

  Three.

  Who needed three men? What could they even do?

  Okay, Amber had a few ideas, but still. It seemed like two dicks too many to her. Judging by the grin on Lucie's face and her ever-increasing pregnant belly, three dicks was just the right amount.

  How did that even work?

  Surely they had male parts that fit into, well… All the equipment had to be compatible. The valos hardly wore any clothes at all. When they did, it was the tiniest scrap of a loincloth made from the same sturdy material as her tunics that, miraculously, did not burn. The valos in the City in the Caldera spent plenty of time walking around completely nude. Amber had seen enough male parts to confirm that what they had was penis-shaped and would get the job done.

  While in the bathing pool, she had walked in on enough to confirm that the valos were completely unconcerned about her nudity and equally curious about her bits and bobs. Amber had no expectation of privacy in prison, and sharing close quarters with the other survivors meant that they had no secrets between them when it came to bodily functions, or whose butt was smooth as a baby or pimply.

  Not a shy person, she didn’t like being a spectacle. She needed to break free of the prison mindset, but her behaviors weren’t just habits, they were survival mechanisms. If Amber was anything, she was a survivor.

  She couldn’t even be sure that the valos found her human body attractive. She was the healthiest and fittest she had ever been in her life, but she had a lifetime of body issues to deal with. Back on Earth, in her pre-prison days, she struggled with her weight. A sedentary life spent in front of a computer and a craving for salty, fatty foods gave her a pear-shaped lower half. She lost a few pounds on the prison food, but nothing replaced fat with toned muscle like pure survivalism.

  The rapid weight loss due to starvation in the first weeks on the alien planet hadn’t been healthy. Now she had a steady diet of fresh fruit, veg, and lean meat. Zero junk. Plus, she never walked so much back on Earth. The extra weight in her stomach and hips had disappeared, leaving her with the body of a stranger.

  Sometimes she missed her chubby ass. Did she hate it at the time? Yes. But it was her.

  Everything happened so fast. One day she was on Earth, stealing rich people’s money—which they hardly even missed, really—and then she was in prison. Space prison. She had plenty of time to reflect on her crime then but she felt little remorse. She needed that money more than they did. If she felt anything, she felt angry that she got caught and sent to the Concord, which had been filled with the very worst that Earth had to offer.

  She wasn’t like those monsters. Right? She was just a thief and not a very good one at that.

  Before she had the opportunity to completely explore—or thoroughly wallow in—her existential crisis, the prison fell through a wormhole and crashed onto an alien planet. Then she and a group of survivors were running away from man-eating monsters. Then she tried to stay alive in the forest, hardly the ideal time or place to contemplate her rehabilitation as a member of society.

  Now she was here, safe in the too-warm City in the Caldera. She couldn’t just flick a switch and go from running-for-her-life survival mode to settling down and figuring out what to do with the rest of her life. She needed to ease into it, or whatever was coming up next for her.

  That hadn’t slowed down any of the other survivors. Evan hooked up with Crystal immediately. They didn’t seem to be having an existential crisis because they’d survived the shared trauma of prison, crash landing and surviving in the wilds of an alien planet. Then again, maybe that shared trauma bound them together. They were alive and wanted to enjoy that life. Together. Naked. Repeatedly.

  Evan and Crystal were loud. Amber spent many a night listening to them go at it, frustration aching between her thighs. She hadn’t had good sex in years. On the Concord, there had been a few encounters with a guard, but they had been fast, wham-bam deals; more to scratch an itch than experience any real pleasure.

  At least that’s what she told herself at the time. She craved intimacy and skin-to-skin contact with someone who cared for her, but what she got was a guard with his pants around his ankles, humping away as fast as possible to not get caught on camera. Sometimes he’d give her an extra ration or blanket, which made her feel cheap, because that wasn’t part of their deal. It was just sex. Not a transaction. She wasn’t selling anything.

  She still took the gifts, though. It was prison, after all. Amber had to be smart and not let an uptight sense of morality get in the way of her survival.

  Other than the quick, business-like exchanges in prison, she hadn’t made love in years. That’s what she wanted. Not just sex. She wanted more than grunts and quick release. She wanted tenderness, dammit. She wanted to be loved.

  She might be a convict and an ex-thief, but even she deserved… Something.

  Her options were limited. The only human guy had been claimed, and Amber wasn’t interested in sharing. That left the valo men. They were so different than, well, human men. Not unattractive but different. There was only one human-valo relationship going on at the moment and she heard that the valos had some sort of brother-husband relationship. They came in multiples.

  The corner of her mouth quirked up at the thought. Came in multiples. So her sense of humor wasn’t exactly refined. Big deal.

  The issue remained the same. If she wanted to get laid, she’d have to get over herself and get with a valo or two.

  They weren’t hideous. On the contrary, she found their appearance oddly intriguing. The valos weren't human, without a doubt. Once you got past the obvious smoldering-charcoal exterior, their proportions were just off, arms too long, and their build too heavy. The brow on their faces and their jaws seemed wrong. Their eyes glowed and flickered like flame.

  The hands really freaked her out. Their fingers were long; too long, almost spidery. Amber shivered as she imagined them skittering across her skin.

  “You are cold,” Asche said in response to her shiver. He crouched down on the ground next to Tonai, a female valo. Manipulating the dirt, they constructed a model of the village. They spoke rapid-fire in their language. Her in-ear translator had learned their language, but Amber found she had to pay attention to follow when they spoke quickly. She wasn’t paying attention to their words at the moment.

  Asche wore only a loincloth which displayed everything.

  Everything.

  Amber kept her eyes above the waist because Asche was essentially a married man and she should avoid ogling his man-bits to keep the peace with Lucie.

  “I’m fine. Just the wind,” she said. With winter nearly finished, she itched to get back out to the small village at the foot of the mountain, but the village needed several improvements before she and her group of people could settle there. Roofs, for one thing. The stone huts needed roofs. Asche and Tonai did not have to make the modifications at all, and Amber didn’t want to give them any distractions.

  “Humans are more sensitive to temperature. We should return to the City.”

  "No!" Amber forced herself to give a little smile and calm her voice. "No, please. It's nice to feel the cold again. The City is always so hot."

  “I believe she objects to seeing your cock,” Tonai said, an easygoing grin spreading across her face.

  “It’s a nice one. Why would she object?” He tilted his head to one side. “Do you object to viewing my cock?”

  Amber closed her eyes and wished she could be invisible. Alien or not, men were all the same. “Can we not talk about dicks right now? How about plumbing? Have you figured out a way to get toilets into the buildings?”

  Asche gestured to the model village on the ground. A layer of dirt swept away to reveal a network of pipes. “Yes. I believe we can siphon off enough water from the springs to keep the lines clear. However, each building will have to be modified and expa
nded. I understand that humans prefer to keep various functions confined to separate areas.”

  “So we don’t shit where we eat? Yeah, we’re weird like that.”

  No freestanding toilet in the middle of the huts, please.

  “I still do not know why you object to the placement of the old latrines.” Asche waved a hand to the far side of the village, where the original inhabitants took care of their bodily necessities.

  “We can make do with that for now.” She didn’t look forward to hustling across the village in the dark every time she had to pee in the middle of the night, but it was what it was.

  Asche waved his hand. The village dissolved and reformed into a single building. The back wall vanished, offering a view much like a doll’s house. “Humans also require a source of heat.” A fire pit appeared in the center. “But the smoke must be vented.” A hole opened in the ceiling. Then a rough chimney came down. It stopped over the fire pit, which transformed into a hearth complete with wide, flat bricks forming a circle around it.

  “Heat and food preparation,” Tonai said in an excited voice. “Human needs are not different than a Creator, just smaller.”

  Right. The valos didn’t eat or drink. Apparently, they took what they needed from the air. If they claimed that they ate sunshine and farted rainbows, Amber would believe it. They were strange, not-wholly-natural beings.

  Again, they were made of fire and lava. Not a metaphor.

  The fact that a fair amount of the recently freed valos wanted to leave the City in the Caldera for the abandoned village was far more surprising to Amber. That’s why Asche and Tonai were shaping a model village in the dirt. The humans needed relief from the heat of the volcano. Whatever serum Lucie got jabbed with on the Concord made her happy as a clam with the heat. The rest of them, though, were melting.

  Especially Kira. Poor woman.

  She had been the victim of one of the many Concord experiments. Brandi, Crystal, Evan—they all bore scars. Except where Lucie benefited from her happy little lab accident, they just had painful memories and scars.

  From what Kira had explained, the doctor tried to give her ice powers, like a super powered comic book hero. Ultimately it didn’t work out like that. She craved the cold, the heat made her sick, but she hadn’t demonstrated any actual abilities. Basically, Kira had all the side effects, none of the super powers.

  “Amber!” The shout pulled her out of her thoughts. Denise trotted up, bundled up under layers like she was in the midst of a snowstorm. “We need to decide—” She looked from the valos crouched on the ground to Amber. “Is this a bad time?”

  “No,” she said. “We’re here to talk about the village. Let’s talk about the village.”

  “Great. Crystal wants to make floor to ceiling shelving in the food storage hut,” Denise said in an excited rush.

  Amber pinched the bridge of her nose. Everyone needed her to make decisions lately. When they were living hand-to-mouth in the forest, the decisions were easy. Make a fire. Don’t eat the red berries. Don’t touch the plants. Now that life was easy, her little group of survivors didn’t seem to be able to find their butts with both hands without Amber.

  “What’s wrong with shelves?” Amber asked.

  “We need some to keep stuff off the ground, but we should also have room for containers, bins, and pots.”

  Right. Like Denise and Crystal couldn't have worked that out between themselves. “Make the bottom shelf high enough for a bin to fit under.”

  “Great. I knew you’d know what to do.” Denise stood with her hands on his hips, expectantly. “Well, are you going to come and look for yourself?”

  Amber sighed. “Sure. Let’s go have a look.”

  Chapter Three

  Pel

  He heard them babbling in a strange language before he saw them.

  Humans.

  Whether they truly came from the stars or not, Pel did not know, but they now teemed across the surface of Sonhadra. During their long journey to the Ventos territory, he and Mishal had found the wreckage of a great craft, resting lifeless and empty. The wreckage could be the origin of the humans. Their trails through the forest as they scattered had been unmissable. They were not a subtle people, leaving behind cold campfires and tracks obvious enough even a half-blind Builder like Mishal could follow.

  Pel had not bothered tracking the humans then, despite his interest. The need to retrieve Flin superseded his curiosity. Now, at his journey’s end, a cluster of humans milled about the tribe’s abandoned village, side by side with the Fire Valos.

  Much had changed since Pel and Mishal left the City in the Caldera on their mission.

  He made the decision quickly to deviate from the stone road and head to the village, rather than immediately continue on to the City.

  “The City in the Caldera is that way,” Mishal said, following.

  “This is only a small detour.”

  “You said every moment was vital. We could not afford delays.” Mishal frowned as he spoke. If the male had a lighter disposition, Pel would suspect that Mishal was teasing him. After knowing the male for many long years, Pel knew Mishal did not have the capacity to tease. Flin, however, always had an easy smile and quick wit. He would have loved to roast Pel for letting curiosity sidetrack him from his mission.

  “A moment’s delay will make no difference,” Pel said. “We will require Sarsen and Asche to assist us. They may be in the village with the humans.”

  Activity and life filled the village in a way unseen for a thousand years, since his tribe had been captured by the Creators. Humans scrambled in and out of the old stone buildings, waving their hands in a manner that must communicate some meaning. The humans nodded to each other. Some spoke to the Fire Valos in their own language.

  Pel’s heartstone nearly stopped.

  The humans spoke their language.

  The Creators, in their arrogance and tyranny, forced their own tongue upon the valos. The original language had faded into something that was whispered in secret, not quite dead, but not alive. Like the Fire Valos themselves.

  “They’re rebuilding the village,” Mishal said.

  Pel studied the scene. Construction had yet to start, but clearly, that was the goal. The humans walked from building to building, shouting what could be measurements or needed supplies. Asche crouched on the ground, a map of a village constructed from the dirt. A female human, hair the color of sand on the riverbank, stood next to him. The humans communicated with her and awaited her response before wandering off again. Clearly, she was their commander.

  He contemplated the human female. Smaller in stature than the valos, and considerably smaller than the Creators, almost childlike, the human’s diminutive form was laughable against the harsh realities of life on Sonhadra. Yet the one with the river-sand hair stood proud. Unafraid. Her soft, curving form pleased him, tiny as she was. He couldn’t help but wonder if she had a mate. Surely such a female had a gaggle of males competing to be her mate.

  As if sensing the burn of his gaze, she turned in his direction. With a hand on a hip, a smile played at her lips. Pel smiled in return.

  This was his moment. He had her attention and should not squander it. His blood heated and his fires responded with a surge. He would go to her, demand to know human courting rituals, demonstrate his superior skill as a warrior and as a potential mate, and destroy the competition.

  No. That would take too long. He could not let the competition gain an advantage. He’d walk over, state his name and his intention to mate her, and then kiss her soundly so she would have no doubt of his sincerity.

  No. Even that wasted too much time, he feared. He should just go to her and kiss her until she begged to be his mate.

  His heartstone pulsed with appreciation for the idea. She’d call his name in the throes of passion, shouting it for all of Sonhadra to know who claimed such a fierce female, and he’d shout her name in return.

  He really needed to know her name.
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  Another human, a male, touched her briefly on the arm, snagging her attention. A warning rumbled in this throat. How dared another male touch such a superior female.

  Mishal nudged him with an elbow. “Do not think it.”

  “Can you divine thoughts now, brother?”

  “Your thoughts are obvious.”

  Pel rubbed at the heartstone pulsing in his chest. “She calls to me. Do you not feel it?”

  Mishal snorted. “Of course. I am not dead.” He then rubbed his own heartstone. “Do not woo a mate over the body of our brother. Flin is our priority.”

  He nodded, shamed at his brother’s words. Of course. Flin was their priority. With only themselves awake, they were an incomplete triad. What could they offer a mate? Another triad would win the human commander’s favor.

  Pel lifted his chin. He had not trekked across Sonhadra to retrieve his trapped brother, bargain for his release, and carry him back only to abandon him now. “You are correct.”

  “As always.”

  Pel tossed his brother a sharp glance. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

  Asche finally noticed that he no longer held the attention of the female. He smiled warmly as he made his way to them. “The travelers return! With good news, I hope.” He peered cautiously into the cart. Flin rested, as still and cold as ever. Mishal cleverly used palm fronds to pack around his form, to prevent injury during transit.

  “His fires have grown cold, but he is undamaged,” Mishal said. Carefully, he adjusted the palm fronds, like a mother fussing over an infant.

  The female approached the cart with hesitant steps. “Was someone hurt?”

  Pel nearly fell to the ground.

  Concern.

  From a Creator.

  At that moment, his fires belonged to the female. “Our brother fell in battle,” Pel said, voice soft.

  “He doesn’t look so bad.” She leaned over the side, having to stretch up on the tip of her tiny human feet. She cupped Flin’s head with one hand before sliding it down to rest over his empty heartstone socket.