The whole Luxen/human/Arum politics fascinated me. “And they’re not? Being a senator is a pretty powerful gig.”
“Being a senator is nothing to a race of aliens that ruled their galaxy for thousands of years.” He reached out, spreading his large hand along my shoulder. “But humans—
no offense—still think they’re top of the food chain. Just like the Luxen did when we first came along. It’s their ignorance that has blinded them to what the Luxen are truly capable of.”
I shivered, partly due to what he said and partly due to the skimming of his hand down my arm. The back of his knuckles brushed my breasts and I wiggled closer. His sex was hard again or maybe it had never softened. A thick and demanding proud length that jutted between us.
Oh wow.
Refocusing on his face, I flushed when I saw his knowing smirk. “What are the Luxen truly capable of?”
“Anything. Everything.” His hand drifted over my thigh. “If they wanted to take over Earth, they could.”
“Would they?” When he tugged me against him, I let out a little gasp. “Would they do that?”
Hunter gave a lopsided shrug. “I don’t know, but one day the Luxen population will grow. They could outnumber the humans.”
His hand had slid around the curve of my rear, his finger slipping dangerously close. “What about the Arum?”
“Do we want to rule Earth?” His other arm, the one I’d been lying on, tightened around me. “Arum care very little to rule an entire species. We’re much more concerned about things that pleasure us.”
My brows rose at that.
“We need to get on the road soon,” he said. “There’s a place I need to go.”
“Okay.”
“But we have a couple more minutes.”
Heat flowed through my body. “For…?”
Another smile tipped his lips, and then he rolled me on top of him in one fluid motion, seating himself in one hard thrust. “This.”
Arching my back, I placed my hands on his shoulders to steady myself as he grasped my hips. Through half open eyes, I saw him watch where we were joined as he lifted me up and slid me back down. Then his eyes flicked up, meeting mine. In that moment, the world seemed to stop, as cheesy as that sounded— it was just us.
There was nothing else, and I was lost in him.
…
Sex had never felt like this before. Instead of being all about satisfying an urge and getting off, it became about completion of a different sort. Even in those moments while I held her after the first time, I knew how unalike this was from my previous exploits. And after the second time, I wanted her close…and I wanted her again.
Hell, I wanted her about a hundred times more.
As I watched her change into a pair of jeans and a plain shirt, I wanted to take her again. From behind. Against the wall. On the floor. Wherever.
If I kept thinking like this, we’d never get on the road and I needed to badly. I’d come close to feeding off her earlier. How I didn’t was beyond me, but I wasn’t pushing my luck.
“You ready?” I asked, voice coming off a little gruff.
She glanced at me and nodded. “Ready when you are.”
It was late afternoon, but the heat was picking up, promising there’d be a long and hot summer ahead. She was buckling herself in when I climbed into the Porsche.
Sitting back, she turned to me. “Where are we going?”
“To a place outside of Martinsburg,” I answered, scanning the front of the motel before pulling out. “We’re a couple hours out from there.”
“Martinsburg?” She frowned. “What’s there?”
“Someone who can give me what I need.”
“Really?” She folded her arms, and a cute expression pinched her face. “Do tell.”
I chuckled. “Opal.”
Confusion swept across her face. “Opal? Like in the gemstone opal or some old lady named Opal?”
“Gemstones have a weird effect on us and the Luxen. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. It has to do with the refracting and absorption of light.”
Serena stared at me like I had started speaking in a different language.
A smile pulled at my lips. “Obsidian is deadly to the Arum. I carry one, but I have to be careful with it. The gemstone fractures lights and shadows and it cuts through us like nothing else. One good swipe and that’s all you need.”
“And you carry one?” She looked at me like I was insane. “Does it affect the Luxen the same?”
“Nope, but onyx—another type of gemstone—really messes them up. In large quantities it could probably put them down or make them wish they were dead, but opal is different.” I had to admit; it felt strange talking about these things with a human. “Opal is a whole different story.”
“How?” she asked.
Taking the exit to the main highway heading east, the tires of the Porsche smoothly ate away the miles as I explained exactly what a piece, even the tiniest, could do.
“Opal has the ability to refract and reflect specific wavelengths of light, changing the speed and direction. For the Luxen, it’s like a power booster. Even for a hybrid, because their human DNA is now encased in wavelengths of light.” I paused, glancing at Serena.
She looked absolutely dumbfounded.
I smiled. “It enhances their ability to refract light and also to reflect. For example, if a Luxen is wearing a piece of opal, they can use it to mirror things around them, like a one-way window.”
Her brows pinched. “So they could become invisible in a way, since they’d be mirroring what’s around them?”
“Correct. They can also move faster and create stronger blasts of energy.”
She let out a low whistle. “Okay. Assuming that I totally understand the whole alien gemstone stuff, I don’t get how a piece of opal works on the Arum. You’re not like the Luxen.”
I opened my mouth, but closed it. Eyes narrowing on the road, I realized I wanted to lie to her. To make up some cockamamie tale about how it worked for the Arum instead of telling her that when we drained the Luxen, in most cases, we killed them. I never lied about it before, but I never had a reason to lie.
And now it seemed that I did have a reason, but I couldn’t bring myself to lie to her.
My hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Opal can enhance an Arum’s abilities, too.
Making us faster and stronger, but we have to do something first. We have to feed on a Luxen or a hybrid. When we do that, we take in their essence. That part reacts to the opal.”
She nodded slowly, looking away. “The whole incubuslike thing?”
“Yeah,” I said, clearing my throat. “Opal can also maintain our energy levels.”
There was a pregnant pause and then I felt her eyes on me again. “With opal, we don’t have to feed that much,” I said, feeling itchy. All the talk of feeding was making me hungry. “The DOD outfits their Arum with the opal. Helps keep us better under control when we aren’t running amuck, draining unsuspecting Luxen.”
“That’s good, I guess.” She stretched out her legs, then tipped her head back. I didn’t have to look at her to tell that she was anxious. “Do you kill the Luxen when you feed off them?” she asked.
“Not always, but most Arum do because they want to kill them. But we can feed without killing.”
“And you’re going to have to feed for this opal to work, aren’t you?”
“If I don’t feed soon, I won’t be safe. Around anyone.” I glanced at Serena. Her face was pale but her gaze steady. I didn’t lie. “So yes, I will need to feed.”
Chapter 22
I will need to feed.
I wasn’t sure how to really deal with that. How he said it, so dead-on and unapologetic, was unnerving. And he hadn’t clarified if he would kill or not. The whole feeding thing was hard to swallow. It was like sitting next to a vampire or something. He’d already fed from me before—twice—but he hadn’t since I’d asked him not to do it again. He stopped himself, and I believed he could stop himself again.