– O –

Armored Media Corporation
Estrella City, Temperance Prime

Luxi smiled as the data, from the feed jacked into the base of her skull, flowed smoothly through her internal computational array. The upgrade had been well worth the credits. The department’s incoming and outgoing communications data was barely touching her conscious thoughts with not one trace of lag-time.

She turned her face to the tall windows right by her desk and peered out over the city’s vista. Sunlight gleamed on the towers and spires of Uppercity’s business district. Below her, two-man gliders and private sedan cruisers wove around massive freight hovers as they zipped along the traffic-filled airways.

Musing on the different levels of speeding air traffic, she ran her fingers lightly over her hair, making sure that the silver clip was still securely fastened. She didn’t need her rolled and coiled waist-length hair unraveling and getting caught on the data-jack. As curly as her hair was, the bright red strands had a nasty habit of wrapping tight around the feed wire. She utterly refused to cut it, not when it was her best feature, so keeping it tightly bound was her only option.

The entry door chimed gently then slid to the side, opening with a soft hiss. A tall business man stalked in from the outer hallway.

Luxi stared at the tall man filling her tiny receptionist alcove and felt every hair on her body rise. Her throat tightened for no good reason what so ever. “Welcome to Armored Media Corp.” Her voice came out breathless.

There was something terribly wrong with him.

He didn’t look odd, in fact he might have been considered handsome. He had strong clean-shaven features and his shoulder-length sable hair was neatly trimmed. Broad shoulders filled out his simple but sedately expensive fawn overcoat with no sign of the paunch that most upper-city businessmen carried. The single-button chocolate dress suit he wore under his long coat was also understated, but the super-fine material and the tailored cut reeked of money.

She’d seen lots of businessmen dressed like this and quite a few from off-world that were dressed far more exotically. None of them had ever given her a case of the chills…

He turned to Luxi and smiled. “I’m here to see Gentle-fem  Symposia?” He held out his data card.
And every instinct in Luxi’s body screamed that she was in danger.

Luxi took the card, very carefully so as not to make actual physical contact with his fingers. She swallowed. “One moment please.” She swiped it through the desktop scanner then routed his data to Gentle-fem  Symposia’s office. His information consisted of a single name, and that was it.

Vincent.

Luxi frowned. He must be some kind of private consultant. She handed the card back.

He turned away and stared at one of the tasteful, but boring prints on the cream wall by the inner door. Luxi was clearly beneath his notice, and that suited her just fine.

Mercy Symposia, Director of the Executables Department of Armored Media, strode briskly into the reception alcove from the inner door. As usual, she appeared conservatively professional with her dark blond hair in an elegant upsweep, yet sleek in her tailored black suit-dress. Chin up and smiling, she took Vincent’s outstretched hand. “I’m so glad you could see me on such short notice.”

Vincent bowed over Gentle-fem  Symposia’s hand then released it. “I found an opening in my schedule that permitted.”

Luxi transferred data while keeping half an eye on the pair. What was it that set her off? Very casually, she stood up to get a better look. She swept her hands down her sleek and less than expensive, but nicely tailored dove-gray business dress. She fiddled with a few folders on the upper ledge of her desk while trying not to look directly at either of them.

Mercy’s smile faded as she spoke with the gentleman. The conversation sounded like any other business discussion, and yet she seemed nervous.

Vincent stood with casual deference and nodded in complete understanding. He spoke in mild and polite tones, but his smile seemed a tad sharp and his eyes… His black eyes…

Luxi focused her quiescent mental talent on what she was feeling and it awakened within the deeps of her mind. Synchronicities, the lines of coincidence and possibility ruled by the decisions made in the here and now, clarified and stretched outward into bright skeins that created the warp and weft of potential futures. Her attention slid down the threads of prospect, decision and chance that the unnerving man shared with her boss, seeking the future they would create.

She cringed. This man was a con-artist that preyed on fear. If Gentle-fem  Symposia did business with him even once, her boss would never be rid of him.

Luxi turned away. If she said anything to her boss, she would have to tell Gentle-fem  Symposia how she knew. She had no doubts that she would be believed. Psi-talents were not unknown. Most people showed some trace of telepathy or telekinetic ability, but strong talents were rare. And her talent was very reliable.

That was the problem.

Exposing the existence of her particular talent would cost her, her job.  The ability to track potential futures was just too much for any company to deal with. No one wanted to know that someone else was privy to their business decisions before they even made them. It didn’t matter to them that she wouldn’t know if she didn’t actually look. They were all so busy angling for an advantage over the next company; it wouldn’t occur to them that she simply did not care.

But if she didn’t say anything, Luxi would lose her job anyway. The company would not take kindly to Gentle-fem  Symposia’s embezzlement to feed this man’s need for cash. The office would be closed for months during the investigation. Mercy would be indentured to the company for life and her staff disbanded, including the receptionist.

Luxi’s possible futures burned in the back of her mind. No matter what she chose, her future was no longer here in this office. There was nothing she could do to stem the tide. The real decisions were not in her hands. Once that man had entered Mercy’s life, Luxi’s future had been doomed. Keeping silent would not save her.

But Gentle-fem  Symposia’s gratitude might.

There was one slim chance that Luxi would not end up living in the under-city slums – but it was slim indeed.

Luxi shut down her holographic display, pulled out her data jack and set the communications switchboard on auto. Damn it, I really liked this job! She took a steadying breath and lifted her chin. “Ms Symposia, that man cannot be trusted.”

Mercy turned a sharp look Luxi’s way. “Luxi, you have no idea what you’re talking about, he’s a monk.”
A monk? Luxi swallowed but held her supervisor’s gaze steadily. “Gentle-fem  Symposia, with all due respect, he’s a blackmailing con-artist.”

Her supervisor frowned. “What?”

The man suddenly focused on Luxi. His black eyes narrowed. “Miss, do you know what you are saying?”

Luxi stared coldly into his eyes. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.” Abruptly her small and secondary talent stirred within her. She had no grasp on it or control over it, the talent came and it went as it pleased. It wasn’t particularly useful, all her little talent saw was the threads of the past –- and ghosts.
As she stared into Vincent’s black eyes, her second talent suddenly opened wide and showed her why her skin was crawling.

Vincent was possessed by a second soul. It was staring straight at her from within his eyes with malignant intent. It was very dead, and very hungry.

Vincent suddenly smiled. It wasn’t pretty.

Luxi literally felt the ground move under her feet as her future abruptly reshaped itself.

~ FS ~

Mercy Symposia’s office was not particularly large, but it boasted a full wall of solid windows that overlooked the heart of the corporate district of Estrella City. Her broad desk was an understated work of art made of real imported Blackwood. Mercy tapped at her keyboard and frowned thoughtfully at her holographic display.

Luxi sat in the elegant back-curved chair before the desk with her hands folded quietly in her lap. She had been right. Mercy had not had any difficulty believing once she understood Luxi’s odd talent. Fortune-tellers were a dime a dozen, but none of them in Estrella, upper-city or below, had the accuracy that Luxi possessed. It was not something she talked about.

The silence lay thick in the office.

Luxi swallowed hard. “I’m…I’m sorry Gentle-fem  Symposia.”

Mercy sighed and folded her hands on her desktop. “I have been having strange dreams and odd…occurrences, in my condo. I was led to believe that this man was an expert on such things.” She gazed at her hands rather than at Luxi.

Luxi turned to get her purse hanging on her chair’s slender arm. She pulled out a slim data card and set it on the desk. “This is a friend of mine. She’ll take care of that for you, and she won’t ask for more than she’s worth. If you have any other problems, she’ll tell you who you can trust.”

Mercy took the card. She glanced briefly at it then tapped the edge on her desk. “When you told me, what you told me… I was under the impression that there was a lot more that you…didn’t say.”

Luxi closed her purse and nodded. With the entire company hard-wired for surveillance, ‘embezzlement’ was the one word that never came out of your mouth.

Mercy hands clenched into fists. “You just saved my career, didn’t you?”

Luxi clutched her purse. “None of that will happen now. You’re safe. He’s not after you any more.” He’s after me.

Mercy pressed her fingers to her brow and released a breath. “Damn it, Luxi, you just saved my ass and I have to fire you!”

Luxi nodded miserably. She had done the right thing. She knew she’d done the right thing but, it still hurt like hell. “The company cannot afford to have me work in their offices.” She closed her eyes. “I’m a…an information leak.”

Mercy leaned back in her chair and glared at her closed office door. “It’s also company policy to report strong talents. Once it’s recorded on your personal essay, it goes on your resume. Not one company will hire you.”

Luxi stared at her purse. “I know.”

Mercy scowled at her hands. “You could have kept your mouth shut.”

I would have lost my job anyway. Luxi lifted her shoulder in a half-hearted shrug.  “I’m a nice girl. It’s what nice girls do.”

Mercy blinked then smiled bitterly. “Nice girls huh?” She stared at her holographic display and tapped her desktop with a manicured nail. “Loyalty should be rewarded—not punished!” Abruptly, she leaned forward. “Luxi, can you look for yourself? Can you see if there is any way I can help you? Any way at all?”

Luxi’s fingers tightened on her purse. Within her mind, her talent hummed and possibilities dropped into place. This was it. She had reached the juxtaposition moment she’d been waiting for, the turning point in her personal future where everything came together and hinged on a single decision. She glanced up at her former supervisor. “As a matter of fact, there is.”

~ FS ~

– One –

Port Destiny Station
Imperial Space
Outbound Corridor

“We are approaching dock to Port Destiny spaceport,” the shuttle’s gentle voice announced. “Please secure all personal belonging in preparation for return to gravity.”

Luxi woke from her nap and stretched in her padded chair. The shuttle trip had taken nearly an hour to cross the distance from the star-liner to the spaceport. A zero-gravity nap had filled the time nicely.

She peered up over the heads of the other shuttle passengers. The yawning mouth of Port Destiny’s sixty-five meter wide docking bay door filled the forward view-screen. The cylindrical station slowly took on truly gigantic proportions. All of a sudden, Luxi had no trouble at all believing that the station employed over sixty-five hundred people

From the star liner’s stateroom view-screens the station had appeared small. Measured against the spaceport station she had transferred from, Port Destiny station was small. It was only a little over eight kilometers long and archaic in design. Rather than a modern docking ring around a habitat globe, Port Destiny was an old Terran-built station that was tubular in shape. The entire barrel-like body of the station turned, generating nearly normal gravity the old-fashioned way, by centrifugal rotation.

Luxi pursed her lips. Port Destiny was practical rather than aesthetically pleasing, but practicality had its advantages. Since the entire station turned, pocket regions of the station were less likely to lose gravity through unexpected power outages.

“Please remain in your seats until the shuttle has come to a complete stop,” the shuttle’s voice continued. “Please have your data cards ready for swift assessment through customs. Thank you for traveling with Imperial Princess Star-lines.”

Luxi reached into the zip-sealed breast pocket of her deep violet jumpsuit and pulled out her holographic data card. The card marked her identity, such as it was, the last of her personal credits and her passage through the corridors of space on her way to a new planet, a new job and a new life. A reward from Ms Symposia for her loyalty and the price she had paid for it.

The first moment she had touched the card, Luxi’s talent for reading the future betrayed that her arrival at the card’s final destination would mark the beginning of a long stable career marked by utter misery.

She was going to loathe her new life.

However, a crossing thread marking a single moment in time heavily weighted by chance, hinted that an opportunity for a better future could cross her path before she ever arrived. It was only a whisper among the tangled threads of synchronicity. A possible knot of juxtaposition whose threads were not yet in place. Others had yet to make decisions that would bring this moment of opportunity forth.

That slim possibility was enough to make Luxi sell every trace of her entire life. One hand-carry bag and the card were all she had left.

Luxi bit her lip as the view-screen filled with the interior lights of the station’s dock. She had traveled for sixteen days and eight jumps from star system to star system, on two different star-liners–to reach that moment. It was here, on Port Destiny station that the tangled threads of opportunity, chance and decision would cross. It was here that her last chance for happiness would occur. Her talent hummed actively within her. Possibility was coming closer to being opportunity with every breath she took.

Luxi hoped with everything in her that the opportunity presented itself soon, because yet another moment of synchronicity was actively chasing her with malevolent determination. 

The ghost-possessed monk Vincent was trailing her across the stars.

She could feel his vile intent crawling across the threads of possibility into her future. Her talent warned that no matter what course she charted, sooner or later he would catch up with her. From that meeting, all her lines into the future ended in a single moment marked by a single decision; a decision that was entirely in her own hands.

With not one hint of what that decision would bring – or cost.  ~ VS ~

Customs was a huge, well-lit and crowded hallway that curved to the right. Three lines of passengers moved at a crawl past plain and featureless cream walls painted with a broad band of bronze. The long lines ended in a wide doorway blocked by full-body scanners and armed guards in dark uniforms. Their snug, half-armored doublet coats were emblazoned with: Sojourn Corp. across their breast and swords graced their hips. In the sealed environment of a space station, where a pinhole could mean the deaths of thousands, energy weapons were tightly controlled. Even the state of the art live-steel blade worn by Imperial Officers could not cut through armored plating.

Luxi tucked an errant wave of her red mane behind her ear. The shuttle’s zero-g had really done a job on her hair. She was going to have to dig out her brush and re-braid the whole mess.

Boredom weighed heavily. It had been a long, dull flight, then a long dull wait, and then this long dull walk.

She arrived at the gate to enter the station proper, and had to force herself not to yawn in the guard’s face.

He winced. “Please don’t yawn,” he said softly. “I’ll start doing it, then the rest of the guys will do it, and it looks really bad on surveillance.”

Luxi smiled to cover the almost-yawn. “You? Yawn, when you have such an exciting job?” She turned over her data card for assessment.

“Oh, yeah…” He rolled his eyes and grinned. “I’m so fulfilled.” He slid her card through his hand-held reader. The light over the doorway scanner went green. He returned her card and handed her a folded flyer emblazoned with the station’s logo. “Welcome to Port Destiny Station.” He leaned closer and added in a stage-whisper, “…where nothing ever happens.”

“Thank you.” She glanced at the station flyer. “Personally, I’ve had enough adventure already.”

The guard snorted. “Then you are going to love Port Destiny.”

“I certainly hope so!” Luxi grinned and stepped through the scanner towing her overstuffed hand-carry bag on its small wheels. No alarms went off. She released a small breath and continued on, grinning foolishly as she strode past another set of guards, and out of the customs ring. It was time to find her future.

The good news was that she didn’t have to worry about getting on the next flight for a whole thirty hours, so she had thirty hours to figure out where she needed to be—and be there.

The bad news was that she didn’t have the credits to get even a cheap room to rest in for any of those thirty hours. Her berths and meals were included on the star-liners, but the space-port stopovers had proved very expensive. According to her personal account, she had just enough credits left to get a cup of kaffa and a snack. If she wanted a decent meal before her next flight, she was going to have to do something to make the credits to buy it. Luckily there wasn’t a spaceport that didn’t have a kaffa shop and a kaffa shop that didn’t appreciate a good fortune-teller.

Letting the corporate office know that she could read the future could get her fired, but here in the middle of nowhere, it was a way to make a little cash.

Luxi held up the paper flyer the customs officer had handed her, reading as she walked. According to the flyer, there were seventeen kaffa shops in the station’s Garden District Concourse. And according to her talent, she definitely had an appointment with one of them.

Luxi approached the row of lifts that would drop her on the Garden District Concourse. Her talent shifted with in her.

Something didn’t feel right.

She stopped, letting the other shuttle passengers brush by her. Now what? She frowned in concentration, trying to get a better grasp of what she was feeling.

Synchronicity was out of place.  Taking the lift wouldn’t put her in the right place in the right moment in time, for the future she was chasing.

Luxi rolled her eyes in disgust. Great, a complication… Following the lines toward the future was proving to be a real pain in the ass. She glanced around.  Okay, so if I’m not supposed to go down the lift, where am I supposed to go? There was a small hallway off to her right. Something clicked into place. Ah…

Following the thread of synchronicity Luxi slipped through the line of passengers and into the small hallway.

The hall ended at a single lift access. According to the sign by the call button, this lift led to the cable-car tramway that traveled from one end of the station to the other, right through the station’s center. No one was waiting on the lift.

Luxi’s brow rose. Apparently it was not a popular mode of transportation. But this was where she was supposed to be, so… She pushed the call button.

~ FS ~

– Two –

Luxi stepped out on the tramway deck trailing her carry-bag and grabbed onto the rail that ran all the way around the tram station. Gravity was very minimal this close to the station’s center.

Not one person was waiting on the tram.

On the other side of the deep track where the cable-tram would pull in, was a huge window, and beyond it, the floor of world turned upward very slowly, meters and meters, and meters, away – all the way over head.  Oh Glory…

She suddenly felt as though she were falling, and falling, and falling…

Luxi had to consciously make an effort not to fall over. According to her sense of perspective, the entire world was revolving sideways at a dizzying distance. She tore her gaze away and turned her back to the window. Okay, let’s not look at that anymore. She swallowed, suddenly understanding why the tramway had few passengers.

According to the chrono on the wall between the two lifts, she had about five minutes to wait for the next tram. Once she was on it, the tram would reach a stop just short of every five minutes, and she had seven stops before she would reach the stop she wanted. That should be long enough to do something about my hair. Brushing her hair would also give her something to concentrate on, rather than the dizzying view. She knelt and dug into her bag to retrieve her brush.

Brush in hand, she stood to tug the elastic free from the end of her braid then dug her fingers into her thick mane to get it out of the braid. It took more effort than she thought it would to untangle the long curls enough to pull a brush through it. The bright copper of her waist-length mane blazed in a cloud of sunset waves against her deep violet suit. She winced. Her hair was beyond frizzy. The ship-board sonic projection vibro-showers and antibacterial lighting had not been good for it. Brushing it in low gravity did not help any. She shook her head and kept brushing. Well at least her mane wasn’t dry and crispy…

The lift door on her far left opened up and three laughing people came leaping out of the lift, floating on the light gravity. The tallest was a pale young male with a sleek blonde mane of rich cream that swept well past his shoulders. His charcoal gray silk formal frock coat flared open to his knees showing off the expanse of his gently defined bare chest. His trousers were skintight black velvet.

His two companions were slender black-haired fems dressed in snug and aggressive black leather trousers and tall boots. They were nearly masculine in build with only the gentle flare of hips and the slight curve of breasts under their cropped halter tops defining their gender. They were also armed with long and short blades, where the male was not. Their bare arms and bellies proudly displayed sword-cut scars across their light golden skin. Their mouths were wide and their up-tilted black eyes flashed with humor as they towed their beautiful companion toward the tram-track.

Luxi watched them avidly as she pulled her brush through her long mane. From the looks of the sword scars, the fems were a lot older than their youthful forms. It was entirely possible that the male was also far older than he appeared. Clearly she was looking at an Imperial lord and his two body-guards.

The young male turned to look at Luxi with violet eyes set in an exquisitely perfect face. His glossed pink lips opened on a spectacular smile.

Luxi froze. Wow…pretty.

Another man came out of the lift. His strongly masculine face was pale as marble, without a trace of blush. His metallic-silver mane was drawn back and fastened in a smooth straight tail that fell just past his shoulders. His full-body, high-collared jumpsuit was of deepest black yet it shimmered with rainbows. Absolutely comfortable in the light gravity, he moved with the inhumanly effortless grace of the mechanically enhanced. He was simply gorgeous in motion. He stalked around the incredible trio with the careful inattention of a predator trying not to startle his prey.

Luxi blinked. There was something odd about him… His hair was true metallic silver, a color no living hair could possibly emulate. Her mouth fell open. He was a cyborg — the most perfectly crafted, utterly human-looking cyborg she had ever seen.

He lifted his chin as though scenting something interesting and turned to look at Luxi with eyes the color of steel—and shadow.

Luxi’s talent jolted hard. Good Glory…

The cyborg was animate and conscious, but he wasn’t alive. The spirit of the living man he had once been burned in the depths of his gaze, a spirit that had not fled with the loss of his living body; a ghost perfectly contained in fully robotic flesh.

Within her, synchronicity suddenly dropped into place.

The cyborg was a key to the future she was looking for.

Luxi jerked her gaze away from the stunning ghost. A haunted cyborg? Life was getting stranger by the second. She lifted the brush to her hair, to do something rather than turn back to stare at him. Her talent for sensing synchronicity shimmered within her. Apparently she was supposed to see him, and he was supposed to see her, so he had something to do with her new future, but what?

She scowled, trying to read the lines, but just could not see what was supposed to happen next. The future was still too vague. Apparently the decision to set things in motion was not hers…

Someone spoke at her elbow.

“Huh?” Luxi turned.

The beautiful young lord and his two dark-eyed companions stood only inches away. Luxi’s eyes opened wide. This close the young lord was breathtaking. His face had only the slightest touches of cosmetics outlining his impossibly violet eyes. Even his perfume was gorgeous.

He asked her a question.

She had no clue what he said. Luxi bit her lip and lifted her shoulder in a small shrug. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand?” She really, really needed to get an upgrade for her internal translator.

“He says that you have hair like living flame. He’d like to know if you would care to join him for sex.”

Luxi started and turned her head to find the cyborg standing by her left elbow. She hadn’t even seen him approach. She was forced to look up. He was head and shoulders taller than she was. And this close, he was absolutely stunning. The lord was lovely but the cyborg’s arresting face was utterly, powerfully masculine. Something in her stilled, as though holding its breath.

His dark silver brows rose. “Are you all right?”

Luxi released her breath and felt her cheeks heat. She’d been staring. “Sorry… I…” What had she been thinking? She didn’t have a clue. Her mind had utterly blanked. “I don’t know your name?”

“I’m Leto.” He smiled.

“I’m Luxi.” Her voice came out breathless. Glory above, his smile! She felt the listening stillness wash through her again.

Leto tilted his head toward the lord and his two fems. “He’s waiting to know if you want to have sex.”
Luxi blinked alert. “He wants…what?”

Leto lifted a pale hand to cover his chuckle. “Sex. He wants to know if you want to have sex with him and his fems.”

Luxi glanced over at the beautiful lord then bit her lip. “Could you tell him, I’m flattered, but I don’t normally have…?” She winced. “Relations, with people I don’t know?”

Leto lifted his chin and replied to the lord.

The lord rolled his eyes in obvious amusement. His two companions dissolved into giggles. The lord glanced at the cyborg and asked a question.

Leto raised his chin and turned away.

The lord watched Luxi expectantly and smiled.

Luxi peered up at the cyborg. “Leto, what did he say?”

Leto folded his arms across his chest and glanced down at the deck. “Tell you what; I’ll translate what he said for the price of…” He turned to Luxi and lifted a silver brow. “A kiss.”

“A kiss?” Luxi’s breath caught. This spectacular man wanted to kiss her?

His shadow-filled eyes focused on her. “Will you kiss me?”

Glory yes! Luxi licked her lips. “Okay.”

Leto’s eyes widened just a hair. He leaned downward, very slowly.

Luxi tilted her chin up to meet him. His lips brushed hers. Warmth, breath… He was warm, he breathed. Her eyes drifted closed and her lips parted under his. Their tongues met, explored, parried. He tasted like fresh clean water. He smelled of rich leather. 

He cupped her shoulders in his strong hands.

She reached for him and her hands settled on his hips. His shimmering suit was warm under her palms and felt like exotic leather. Vibrancy and darkness pulsed in a delicious yet shivery combination under her fingertips.  She spread her fingers and pressed her palms against him to feel more of it.

His hands slid up her neck, drawing tiny shivers, and his fingers slid under her mane. He cupped her head and angled her mouth to deepen the kiss, stroking her tongue, tasting her, encouraging her to kiss him back.

Heat, hunger, urgency… A small moan escaped her throat. Her hands slid around his waist, pulling him closer.

His arm closed around her waist, pulling her tight against his body.

He was warm, and excited. She could feel the hard length of his erection against her belly. Moisture dampened her panties. The simmering dark within him brushed against her heart with unexpected fire. Her talent awoke in a searing rush and suddenly she could feel his bare skin under her palms – and along her entire body where they touched.

Leto abruptly pulled away, blinking, clearly startled.

Luxi grabbed onto his belt, refusing to let him go. “Did I do something wrong?”

He frowned down at her. “I ‘felt’ you.” He licked his lips “You’re vitae sensitive? You can feel life forces?”

“Not exactly…” She blushed. There was just no way to say this gracefully. “I feel…ghosts. I’m necro-sensitive.”

“I see.” Leto’s brows lowered and his eyes narrowed. “Did you know that I was…?” He took a breath and his jaw tightened. “Dead, before you kissed me?”

She nibbled on her bottom lip.  “I knew that you were a cyborg with a…ghost.”

He stilled then his eyes narrowed. “And you kissed me anyway?”

She frowned up at him. “Is there a reason I shouldn’t?”

He blinked and gave her a sour smile. “About a million of them; all religious and having to do with necrophilia.”

She raised a sarcastic brow. “Funny, you don’t kiss like a corpse. You’re warm, you breathe.”

He barked out a laugh and stared downward. “I didn’t think so either, but some people seem to have a problem with it.” He shook his head and folded his hands slid behind him. “I was originally a nano-based cyborg. Biological machines replaced my body cell by cell. I’m not living tissue anymore, but I’m still me and perfectly functional; just not, biological, so to speak.”

Luxi snorted and glanced down at the heavy line of his erection straining against the seam of his suit. “You felt awfully biological to me.” Her fingers tightened on his belt. She had the most incredible urge to pull him close and ‘touch’ him again.

Trilling laughter reminded Luxi sharply that they were not alone. She turned to face the grinning lord and his dark-eyed and aggressive companions.

The lord gestured and shot out a rapid fire list of incomprehensible statements at Leto and glanced at Luxi briefly. He watched the cyborg expectantly.

A windy roar announced the sudden arrival of the tram.

Leto nodded at the lord.

The lord grinned then turned to his two fems and they all moved toward the tram through the tram-station’s low gravity like swimmers through water.

Leto tilted his head at Luxi. “Is that your bag?”

Luxi frowned at the tram. It was going in the wrong direction. “Yes, but that’s not my tram.”

Leto snatched for the handle of her bag and caught her around the waist. “It is now.” He jumped.

~ FS ~

– Three –

Luxi grabbed onto Leto’s arm as their feet left the deck in a spectacular leap boosted by the weak gravity. She gasped as Leto carried her clear across to the tram’s open door.

“In you go!” He shoved her onto the tram, right behind the youthful trio.

Just outside the tram’s outward facing windows the floor of world turned upward very slowly, kilometers and kilometers, and kilometers, away.

Luxi gasped and turned away from the rolling view. Her sense of perspective and balance, simply could not deal with it. The tram was windowed on both sides with long cushioned benches running lengthwise under the windows. Once the tram left the small station, the world would revolve all the way around with the tram moving through the very center. It was going to be impossible to avoid the stomach-churning view.

Leto was the only thing to look at besides the floor. He was also the only thing to hold on to. She grabbed his belt. “Leto, what are you doing?”

Leto grinned at her and turned her to face the tram’s interior. “We are going to provide them with some entertainment.” He pushed her deeper into the tram, aiming for the cushioned bench along the left.

On the opposite side, the pale lord stretched his arms out across the back of the bench, relaxing as his fems stripped off their weapons with astonishing speed. He smiled and licked his lips, staring hard at Luxi and the cyborg pushing her down the aisle.

The two fems climbed up on the bench and knelt on either side of the pale lord, framing him. They glanced at each other and licked their lips, then leaned close to pull his coat open baring his pale chest. They pressed and rubbed their lithe golden bodies against his creamy skin, spreading their slender fingers wide to caress his gently defined chest and smooth belly.

He groaned and shifted under them, rubbing up against them.

They pushed his creamy mane back from his neck and pink tongues flashed as they licked his throat.

He raised his chin and tipped his head back with an open-mouthed sigh, but kept his violet gaze locked on Luxi and the cyborg. 

Leto’s lips brushed her ear. “Just so you know, the blonde is Bel, the fem on his right is Orah, and the fem on his left is Faro.”

Luxi tried to stop but Leto was impossible to halt. The light gravity gave her feet no purchase what so ever on the floor.  “Leto, I am not going to have sex with them!”

“No, they are going to have sex.” He shoved her bag under the bench “But they want to do it while watching us kiss.” He caught her around the waist and dropped onto the broad seat, tugging her down across his lap. 

Luxi’s butt landed on the seat between Leto’s thighs. She grabbed for his shoulders. “Wait a minute; they’re having sex on the tramway?”

Leto shook his head and cradled her in his arms. “Haven’t you ever had sex on a tramway before?”

Luxi shifted on his lap. “No! And I’m not having it now!”

Leto tightened his hold, settling her across his thighs. “Relax. They are having sex, we are just kissing.”

Orah caught a fist full of her lord’s silky mane at the base of his neck, opened her mouth wide on his throat, and bit down on the long muscle.

He gasped and smiled.

Faro licked her way down Bel’s throat to his pale pink nipple and stroked it with an outstretched tongue. She locked her lips around the pale flesh and sucked, her mouth making wet sounds as she moaned her delight.

Bel writhed and a soft moan escaped. He wrapped his arm around Faro and pulled her tighter against his chest. He reached out and wrapped his arm around Orah as she bit down on his neck. He whispered to them, but his gaze remained on Luxi and Leto.

Orah released her lord’s throat from her teeth and leaned back to pull her top off revealing the gentle curves of her breasts and her tightly pointed caramel nipples.

Bel pulled her tight against him and turned his head to capture her proud nipple in his mouth, but his eyes never left Luxi and Leto. His tongue flashed as he licked first one nipple than the other, then his teeth as he bit down.

Orah arched, throwing her head back and moaning, tugging his hair to encourage him.

Bel reached up to catch Faro’s cropped black hair in his fist and pushed her head from his nipple down toward his lap.

Faro spilled across Bel’s lap and stretched out on the bench, kicking her feet up. She tugged Bel’s belt open and unfastened his pants. Her hand slipped within. Her fingers were plainly defined by the elastic velvet of his trousers as she wrapped her hand around his cock and then pushed deeper to cup his balls.

Bel gasped and arched, bringing his hips up from the bench.

 Luxi swallowed as wet heat pulsed in her core from the inciting view. “Just kissing?”

Leto’s breath caressed her ear. “I swear I will not go any further than you want to go.”

Luxi shivered and bit her lip. That’s I’m afraid of. She was already more excited than she had ever been with anyone else. Her talent hummed within her. She was still in the right place, occupying the right moment in time. She was supposed to be here, doing this. “Okay…”

Leto gave her a heart-stopping if sly smile. “Good.” He leaned closer and took her mouth, pressing her back against his arm as the tram began to move through the heart of the turning station.  

Leto’s taste, clean and fresh, his scent, tinged with leather, and the determined pursuit of his tongue against hers combined into a drugging euphoria that cleared Luxi’s mind of thought while crowding her body with restless yearning.

His mouth encouraged her to arch further back. “Look,” he whispered. “Look at them.”

Luxi turned to look at the pale lord and his fems across the aisle.

Faro, sprawled across Bel’s lap, grinned as she pulled his cock free of his trousers. The pale column of his hardening length curved upward from the black velvet, fully two of her hand-widths in length. She tightened her fingers around him and stroked upward then down. The deep rose cock head darkened to plum. She stretched out her tongue and licked the column of pale flesh in her hand. Her tongue lashed the flared edge of his darkening cock-head.

Bel’s eyes closed briefly and he released Orah’s nipple to gasp out a short phrase.

Orah pulled back from Bel’s arm to stand up on the bench, her nipples wet from his mouth. She grabbed the overhead safety bar with one hand and jerked her leather pants down with her other. Her pants slid past her hips baring the muscular curve of her ass and her neatly trimmed black mons.

Leto fingers tugged at the throat fastenings of Luxi’s suit. Slowly, carefully he opened her suit to her heart. His hot wet mouth closed on her throat and he licked. His teeth raked the long muscle and over her pulse.

Luxi shivered and her mouth opened on a gasp but she kept her eyes on the pale young lord and his two fems.

Bel wrapped his arm around Orah’s hips and pulled her toward his mouth. He stretched out his tongue and licked the plump lips of her exposed pussy. He tightened his hold and thrust his tongue deeper, licking with audible wet enthusiasm.

Orah whimpered, her hips rolling against his mouth and lifted her booted foot to step over his lap.

Bel released Faro’s hair and shoved the nearly naked Orah back to his side. He clearly did not want his view of Luxi and Leto blocked.

Faro, in his lap, opened her mouth and took the plum head within. Her lips tightened around Bel’s cock and her head plunged, taking him deep in her mouth, and into her throat. Her head rose and fell, her cheeks hollowing as she sucked with wet enthusiasm.

Leto slid his hand down Luxi’s suited hip. He cupped then caressed her butt cheek.

Shivers trailed across her skin, followed by sudden heat. Luxi shifted against him releasing a small moan. She could feel his palm as though he stroked her bare skin. It was his ghost. She was feeling the phantom within his cybernetic hand touching her, right through her clothes.

 “Blood and Fate, I can feel you,” Leto whispered against Luxi’s throat. “I’ve never felt anyone with my…”He hesitated for a breath. “That part of me, before.”

“Your spirit?” Luxi flashed him a quick smile.

He bit his lip. “Yeah, my spirit, sure.”

“Can you feel me?” She leaned back to press her palm to his heart.

“Here.” He moved her hand over to the right and a little low on his chest. He closed his eyes and drew in a breath. “Oh yeah, right on the nipple.”

Luxi shifted her fingers. She could actually feel the hard nub right through his suit. She could feel his leather suit too, but the suit didn’t seem to feel quite as real as the tight nipple under her fingers. She rubbed her thumb across it.

He pressed her palm tight, stilling her hand. “It feels as though you’re touching my bare nipple, but deeper.”

Luxi peered up at him. “That’s what it feels like to me.”

His brows shot up. “Really? How about this?” His fingers slid across her hip and over her belly, tracing very lightly over her suit.

She shivered. It was the most incredibly exciting thing she’d ever felt. “It’s like… I’m naked.”

His eyes narrowed and his lips curved up in a sly smile. “Is that so?”

Her pulse suddenly beat in her throat. Perhaps that had not been a good thing to say. “Wait…”

“Oh no, you can’t take it back now!” He pressed her back onto the bench pinning her shoulders with his hands. Her long red mane spilled over the seat and onto the floor.

“Leto!” She shoved her hands up against his chest. “What are you doing?”

He licked his lips and chuckled softly. “What do you think?” He came up on one knee and threw his leg over her hips, dropping a booted foot to the floor to straddle her. “I want to see just how naked you feel!”

“Leto please!” She could barely speak past the pulse in her throat. She desperately wanted to feel his skin against hers. The thought of it was seriously soaking her panties. She didn’t think she’d ever wanted to feel anyone more. But if he actually did it, she didn’t think he would stop there. Worse, she didn’t think she would want him to stop there.

“Luxi…” He lowered his mouth and his lips brushed hers.

She moaned and opened to receive his kiss.

He turned his head to take her mouth more fully, his tongue making deep slow sweeps as he slowly dropped to his elbows. His chest brushed her breasts. His warm skin swept across her hardened nipples as though nothing lay between them.

She couldn’t stop her moan any more than she could stop herself from arching to press her breasts more fully against him.

His hand slid between the seat’s back and her hip to cup her thigh. He pulled and her knee rose. He set his knee on the seat between her thighs and shifted his weight onto the seat. His other hand pushed her leg from the seat to get both his knees up on the seat.

And between her thighs.

Alarm washed through Luxi. Glory and Mercy! Fully dressed, this was a perfectly harmless position, but for some reason, their clothes weren’t any kind of a barrier between them.

She jerked her mouth from his, but he pursed her, capturing her lips and then her hands, pulling them up over her head. Stretched out and spread, she moaned into his mouth.

He lowered his hips against hers, groaned and arched. 

Luxi sucked in a sharp breath. She could feel him. Feel his skin sliding against her skin, and his rigid cock rubbing with intimate warmth against her belly.

He released her hands and slid his arms under and around her shoulders, pulling her tight against him. “Blood and hell you feel damned good!”

She groaned in reply. He felt damned good too. The urge to feel more of him brought her arms up to press her hands against his back. She could feel the ridges of his muscular form under her palms. He was fully dressed, but he felt utterly and excitingly naked.

~ FS ~