Xavier: An Omnes Videntes Novel Read online

  “I love your hair like this. It suits you,” Xavier said.

  He had brought his hands up and had begun washing her hair. She stared at the center of his chest. Unable to resist, she placed her hands there and prepared to tell him that she only did so in order to balance herself should he complain.

  “Tilt your head back,” he ordered.

  Sparrow closed her eyes and tilted her head back while he rinsed the shampoo from her hair. A fierce need was growing within her, but she didn’t know how to sate it. She wanted to press her front to Xavier and hold him, if only just once. Between them, Xavier’s additional appendage grew larger and stood straight. Her eyes widened.

  “Xavier, how did you do that? Was that on purpose?” Sparrow wanted to touch it.

  Having read her thoughts, gruffly Xavier said, “You can touch it all you want.”

  “You mean it?” Sparrow asked as she looked up at his face for confirmation. The ensuing stillness was broken only by the water spraying down upon them.

  “Yes,” was his answer.

  Tentatively, with just her fingertips, Sparrow touched his head. It jumped beneath her hand making her draw back. “Did I hurt you?”

  “No, you can squeeze it as hard as you want, and it won’t hurt me.”

  Again, she reached down with less fear. Sparrow ran her fingers over the soft tip and touched the small opening. Then, delicately, she traced around beneath its edge. “It’s kind of like a mushroom.” She moved her fingers along his shaft before gripping his length and squeezing. “Is there a bone inside?”

  Xavier could take no more of her innocent seduction. Surrounding her in his arms, he pulled her to his chest and gazed down into her brown eyes. He plundered her mouth with his tongue. Shutting off the spray, he grabbed a towel and careful dried her before drying himself. Then, he laced their fingers together and drew her along with him to his bed. He pulled back the covers, dropped his towel, and then tugged free the towel concealing her body from his sight. Finding her mouth once more with his, Xavier held her against himself before lowering her to the bed. His female was a bundle of need, nervousness, and curiosity. From her lips, he trailed kisses down her throat to her breasts that were like small ripe peaches and tasted just as sweet. Her only thoughts were of his mouth and tongue and the sensations he stirred within her.

  He held her soft hips in his hands as he moved down her body. Sparrow was mortified at the thought of spreading her legs but did so with some gentle coaxing. Her sweet hidden place had never been visited by anyone but him. Xavier licked at the moisture he found there that she had produced in response to him. Sparrow reared up from the bed with wide eyes from the intensity of his intimate kiss. Xavier lowered his chin to the hair above her sensitive bud and gazed into her eyes patiently until she stilled. He had made her nipples as painfully hard as she had made him. He knew she wanted him to return his mouth to her breasts, but she was curious about his attentions. When she settled back against the pillows, trusting him, he licked her again. At the same time that he delved between her delicate folds with his tongue, he delved into her mind with his own. When she liked something, he knew it and gave her more of what she wanted.

  When the sheets became fisted in her hands and she found her first release, he returned his attention to her breasts. Sparrow whimpered, needing and wanting but not knowing what. Xavier caressed his way down to her soft wet center and stroked her. Her trembling stilled as he slid his finger into her achingly tight sheath. Slowly, he moved his finger in and out of her hot squeezing tight body until she came. Then, he added a second finger to the first and spiraled pleasure through her while spiking her endorphins, a benefit of his Eriopis heritage. She screamed with the force of her release.

  “No,” she pleaded as he slipped his fingers from her. “Stay, please, Xavier,” she moaned.

  He positioned himself above her, took himself in his hand, and put his head at her entrance. She stilled beneath him, sensing the magnitude of what was about to occur. Sparrow’s eyes were clouded with pleasure as he looked into them. Xavier pushed until she surrounded his head. He held himself still for as long as he could but needed to feel her surrounding more of him. Unable and unwilling to stop, he pulled out a little before pushing more of himself in. His balls were tight and drawn up close to his body. He brought his mouth down to her sweet lips.

  “Mine,” he said.

  Sparrow was his mate. Slowly, he pulled in and out going a little deeper each time. Then, when he felt her barrier against his tip, he paused. Sweat dampened each of them. Sparrow’s breathing was fast and hard. That was how he one day hoped to take her.

  “You will feel no pain, little bird. I will take it for you.”

  “No, feel it with me. Everything we do or feel from now on we experience together.”

  With their minds and emotions linked, Xavier pushed through her barrier. The force of it had him buried up to his balls. With her lips squeezing his base, he filled her with all of the cum he had within himself. His toes curled under, and he shivered up from his toes to his tip. Carefully, he rolled onto his back keeping Sparrow on top of him and impaled by his length. They remained that way until their breathing had calmed.

  “Take me as your husband, Sparrow. I would belong to you and only you for all of my days. All that I have or ever shall have, I lay at your feet.” Xavier knew he was being impulsive, but he didn’t care. In this moment, he allowed his emotions to guide him.

  Sparrow didn’t understand what he was asking. He chuckled and explained marriage to her as best as he was able. Sparrow considered his words carefully.

  Then, she said, “That seems like a logical arrangement. You want to solder us together, like metals at a molecular level.”

  “Yes.”

  “Alright,” Sparrow said.

  After placing their palms to a standard Parvacian marriage contract, his female became Sparrow Ponidi. Xavier had never before felt such pride or satisfaction. While his little weapons mastermind slept in his arms, he formulated his plan to free both her and Teagan from the danger that was Bishop.

  Chapter Seven

  Xavier sensed the bounty hunter’s mind a few hours later. Slipping from beneath Sparrow’s sleeping form, Xavier placed his mate into a mental construct. If she woke, she would return to sleep believing him still beside her. He was dressed by the time he exited the lift. Xavier slid from his ship and secured it before becoming a silent shadow. He had blatantly advertised his association with Sparrow by taking her to popular shops and traveling with her all over town. Xavier had made eye contact with each drone patrolling the streets. He and his brothers were well-known in dangerous criminal circles.

  At one time, the hybrid mercenaries had thought nothing of going up against the Parvac Empire and the Galaxic Militia because they had been confident that they would win. It hadn’t been elite soldiers or superior weapons that had defeated them, but the love of a tiny female and her acceptance that had brought about their complete and willing surrender.

  The bounty hunter had come alone and ordered the crew to remain onboard their ship.

  “You’ve got balls,” Xavier said from the shadows inches behind the lone, leather-clad figure.

  “Yes, and they’re huge. It’s a good thing they’re on my chest,” she said.

  “Did you come to collect Bishop’s bounty?” Xavier asked.

  Oona had worn a top-notch neural blocker to the party. She had thought it would be enough to protect her mind from his telepathic manipulations. He didn’t blame her for trying to be prepared. Her cold, dark eyes had seen too much, and the sights they had seen had dimmed her heart and put a heaviness within it.

  “Professionally, I thought we were on good terms, but for you to ask a question like that makes me sound stupid,” Oona said. “I know how to read and everything. In particular, I’m real proficient at reading messages like those you’ve been sending.” Oona leaned against a support under an illuminator that had ceased functioning immediately upon
her arrival. She lifted her right foot to balance against it, hoping to put him at ease.

  “Have you got something to hide?” Xavier asked with a gesture at the neural blocker.

  “Lots. Seems to me like you’ve got something to hide, too. Do you intend to keep it?” Oona asked.

  “I do. Permanently. What do you know about Bishop?” He walked from out of the darker shadows and into the lighter gloom surrounding her.

  Oona’s dark eyes met his. He swore he saw anger there. “Those who cross him die fast. He doesn’t enjoy the killing. If he decides someone is useless to him, they’re dead. Juju had a promising new hacker she added to her crew back on a jaunt to Aurilius. The kid went missing a few jobs later. You know how rumors are and how hard proof can be to come by.”

  Xavier quickly figured it out. Bishop was dipping into bounty hunter crews. He’d pissed them off. “No wonder he felt the need to offer such a large bounty,” he said.

  “Who would be stupid enough to try and collect it? He’ll kill the hunter and keep the delivery,” she said with certainty. Xavier grinned at her. “No,” Oona said.

  “Come on. It will be fun. Haven’t you ever wanted to see how the big boys play?”

  “You hybrids may have a reputation, but this dealer won’t think twice about wiping out my ship and crew.”

  “Get me close enough, and he won’t be able to think,” Xavier said.

  Oona sneered at him. “You’re close to me right now.”

  Xavier smiled menacingly. “Nice neural blocker.”

  “The best. I bought it special just for our date tonight.”

  Xavier wasn’t in the midst of a fight. There were no distractions. It was just the two of them. Oona was sure of herself in a fight. She thought the neural blocker put the two of them on relatively equal footing. While leaving her mind free to think, he took control of her responses. Slowly, Oona’s hands lifted up above her head. He watched as fear entered her eyes.

  “Bishop kept my wife as a tech slave. His production will come to a halt without her. His buyer is going to get jumpy. That’s the one I want. The Militia would pay you a hefty bounty for Bishop. As an added bonus if Juju’s little hacker still lives, returning him or her would create less hostility between the two of you.”

  Xavier released his control of the bounty hunter. He had seen into her mind and found the desires that would motivate her. Oona and Juju had been lovers but had had a falling out over a bounty.

  “Do you have quarters for us or not?” he asked.

  “What’s your plan?”

  “You contact Bishop. Tell him you have his package and are ready for payment and delivery. Leave the rest to me.”

  Oona glared at him. “Nothing is that easy.”

  “Scared?”

  She met his eyes, and he knew she was. Oona and her crew weren’t the types to back down from a fight. They were the mercenaries who were called on to bring in the deadliest fugitives the Galaxic Expanse had to offer. She didn’t disappoint him. She said, “Berth….”

  “248,” Xavier finished for her. He didn’t need her to give him directions to her ship. He grinned at her. “We’ll be there.”

  Oona strode away while trying to act like he hadn’t rattled her.

  Xavier returned to his vessel. He laid down beside Sparrow and brushed her curls from her face with his fingers, releasing her as he did from the mental construct in which he had placed her. She smiled up at him with eyes that sparkled before she blushed from their remembered intimacy.

  “We have to go. Take a quick shower and get dressed.”

  Her fear of the AIs got her moving. Xavier quickly calmed her mind. A slow smile spread across his face as he watched the awkward way his wife walked to the bathroom. She could still feel him within her. Xavier tossed their sheets into the cleaning unit, remade the bed, and had her bag packed by the time she was dressed. Sparrow smiled and blushed up at him again. She grabbed her goggles and filled her messenger bag with supplies. Then, they shouldered their packs and rode off to Berth 248 on his hover bike. Sparrow’s arms were around his chest, and the happy smile didn’t want to leave his face.

  A few of Oona’s crew loitered around the ship’s ramp waiting for them. Lately, business hadn’t been good. They had the look of hungry wolves about them. A few of them looked at Sparrow as they might a future conquest. Xavier demonstrated with his protective and loving behavior that Sparrow was his bone to chew. More unnerving to them than either his eyes or his reputation was the happy smile on his lips which seemed to terrify them even more. Oona’s ship was fast and tough but required constant maintenance to stay that way. From the dock, the ship resembled a junked together space pirate’s vessel, but at least she had blaster cannons.

  “Welcome aboard, hybrid,” Oona said with a grand bow and a smirk.

  “Thank you,” Xavier said as he powered down his bike and helped Sparrow to dismount. The metal decking clanked under their feet.

  Oona said, “Well, well, well. Who do we have here?”

  Sparrow didn’t respond or even look at Oona. Instead, she looked over at the crates that were secured behind some mesh netting on the other side of the deck.

  “Sparrow, this is Oona. Oona, this is my wife, Sparrow.” Pride surged through Xavier.

  “What’s wrong? Are you shy?” the bounty hunter asked. “Or are you afraid of little old me?”

  Sparrow took the woman in from her shaved head, to her tight black shirt, black leather pants, and boots. Oona was free of tattoos and piercings but had a brutal hardness to her that went bone deep. “You appear to be able to handle yourself in a fight. Those blasters of yours are clean and in good condition. There are long, thin blades hidden within the seams of your boots. It is good that you are somewhat prepared. However, those weapons will be ineffectual against AI soldiers. They frighten me far more than you do with your attempts at intimidation. Do you have any weapons I can modify?” Sparrow asked in an attempt to be polite and friendly.

  Oona and her crew stared at Sparrow. Then, Oona expelled air that sounded like a dead laugh. “Are you for real?” she asked.

  Xavier knew that Sparrow didn’t understand the question. Into Oona’s mind, he said, “Lay off. Bishop has forced her to work in his labs with robots for company since she was a child.”

  Oona looked Sparrow up and down. “I’ll show you to your quarters. Follow me.” She turned and climbed a flex ladder up to the next deck. “The damn lift broke. Something’s always broken,” Oona complained. “Lucky for you and Mrs. Hybrid, I have a lovely suite available.” She gestured down a narrow corridor to a room with a set of bunks that were bolted to the wall. It had a small table with two chairs and a bathroom with a waste unit, sink, and mirror. “Showers are across the corridor. Females only in the mornings, and males only in the evenings.”

  Sparrow sat at the table and began laying out her tools. She put on her goggles and brought out her containers of nanites and enzymes. Soon, she was oblivious to everything but her work.

  “What’s that?” Oona asked.

  “Something that eats AIs down to their wiring. Are we doing this?” Xavier asked.

  “Yeah, I’ll take us up.”

  Xavier secured the door behind him, sealing Sparrow safely inside, and followed Oona up another flex ladder to the bridge. “Here,” he said.

  “What’s this?” Oona asked as she took the chip from him.

  “Think of it as a down payment for your assistance.”

  Oona slipped the chip into the reader of her pocket-sized vid-screen and let out a low whistle. “That’s a hefty down payment, twice what we got from our last bounty.”

  “If we are successful, I’ll double it and pay for any damages incurred upon your ship,” Xavier said. Oona’s first mate leaned back in his chair on their compact bridge and observed the two of them. The man was cocky and arrogant. Xavier smiled at the brute and said, “You pay for your own medical assistance.”

  Oona laughed. “Take us up, Paco.
You’ll have to forgive Paco. He’s full of himself because he is one of the best pilots in the Galaxic Expanse. He began flying for his father as soon as he could reach the controls.”

  “What did your father do?” Xavier asked.

  “Smuggling,” Paco answered.

  Oona dumped ten thousand of Xavier’s credits into each of her crew’s accounts.

  An enthusiastic “Whoop” reached their ears on the bridge from another section of the ship.

  Paco snorted. “She’ll spend it all on whores and booze.”

  Oona replied, “At least Davalynn has a hobby.” She monitored her console. “Bishop doesn’t want his communications being traced.” Her message bounced to several hundred different relays before she got a response.

  Xavier was careful to remain out of sight.

  Eventually, a male voice responded, and in a tone empty of all emotion asked, “How may I be of service?” It was Bishop. Xavier was certain of it.

  “I have a delivery,” Oona said.

  “Is my merchandise in good condition?” Bishop asked.

  “Yes, request coordinates.” Numbers appeared on her command console. Oona gave a clipped nod to Paco who entered them in for their course heading. “I want an upfront payment for my troubles. Your merchandise came along with some cumbersome packaging.”

  Bishop was silent for a long moment. Xavier observed him through Oona’s eyes. “Very well. Give me visual confirmation of my property,” Bishop responded.

  Silently, Xavier seethed with a jealous, possessive rage. Oona pressed a few commands, and then a visual of Sparrow as she sat patiently refilling nanites appeared on the vid-screen.

  Bishop said, “Very good. You will receive partial payment. Signal once you are within visual range of the coordinates.” The screen went black.

  Oona nodded to Paco, and the bounty ship darted through space. Another “Whoop!” from the same hunter as before sounded when Oona dumped an additional twenty thousand credits each into her crew’s accounts.