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  She finished off the slice and began undressing. Her uniform shirt came off first, her skin sticky underneath where the soda had soaked through.

  Kicking off her shoes, she slid her dark blue slacks down, along with her purple cotton panties and socks. She reached back to unhook her bra, letting out a loud sigh of relief as she pulled it away from her body. “Oh God, I’ve been waiting all day to do that!” she groaned. Rubbing her now liberated breasts, she headed over to the tub in the far corner of the room. It appeared to be a large Jacuzzi. It had been so long since she’d enjoyed a soak in one of those.

  The water bubbled gently. Gingerly, Melinda proceeded down the steps. Tiny but powerful jets beckoned to her. She put her back up against them and sighed again. “Oh, that feels so good.”

  The Volosians saw her as beautiful and wanted to treat her like a queen. She would have access to a library that rivaled the one at Alexandria.

  Shit, she thought, for all you know, these people built the Library at Alexandria! All she had to do in exchange was save an entire race from extinction.

  “And they said I’d never amount to anything,” she said smugly.

  Chapter Five

  Luxuriating in the sunken tub, Melinda had time to reflect on everything that had happened to her over the past few hours.

  I wonder if Brandi’s worried about me? She brushed off the thought. Brandi had a new life ahead of her, soon to be married – even if he is a jerk – and a baby on the way. Melinda did not figure in that plan.

  She thought about her family and how much she would miss them over the next few years if she decided to stay on and do this. For them, they would never know she was gone because she would be returned to the moment in time that she had been taken, or at least that was her understanding. Her family had its problems, but so did everybody’s and they didn’t always agree with her decisions but she loved them all the same. Three years would be a long time to stay away from them, even if she was doing more important work than anyone could ever dream of and that she would never be able to tell anyone about unless she wanted to spend her days in the mental hospital. But that’s not true, she thought. According to Athan, I am special. I possess something no one else on Earth has, and with it I can grant people new life. She chuckled to herself. Careful, you don’t want to develop a God Complex. She lifted her foot out of the water and wriggled her toes. Although it might be nice to be able to smite someone once in a while…

  Reaching up, Melinda began unbraiding her hair. She combed her fingers through the tangles until it hung around her face and draped her shoulders in long, thick waves.

  Taking a deep breath, she held her nose and immersed herself completely in the water.

  When she surfaced again, she opened her eyes – and saw Roth standing beside the tub. “Fuck!” Melinda said, shrinking back in alarm. Instinctively, she crossed an arm over her chest and pulled her knees up to conceal her nakedness.

  “What are you doing in here?” she demanded angrily. “Get out!”

  Roth made no move to leave. He stood there, head tilted, staring down at her like a hawk watching a rabbit.

  “I mean it!” Melinda began to feel nervous. She chalked it up to being so exposed, even submerged up to her neck. And maybe because he’s intimidating and seems to think you’re worthless… “Get out of here, before I call Athan.”

  That got a reaction. Roth responded with a dry snort. “Athan,” he echoed. He smirked. “He has not told you everything.”

  Despite being shaken by the intrusion on her privacy, that got her attention. “What are you talking about?” Melinda asked, wary.

  “The ‘choice’ you have been given,” Roth said. “It is a lie. There is more to the ritual that is expected of you, more duties that you must perform as an Oracle of Life.”

  As he spoke, he took a step down into the tub, fully clothed. Melinda’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “In the ancient times, Volosian women were the Oracles of Life,” Roth continued.

  Another step down. “The Volosian males bred with them, to produce offspring and to maintain longevity.”

  His long coat began to float around him; he reached up to remove it, shrugging free and tossing it aside with a wet slap of leather on marble.

  The whole time, he stared into Melinda’s eyes. “That was before the Great Plague, a terrible sickness that affected only the females of our species. It killed some, but the ones who lived were left barren—without the ability to reproduce. We searched the galaxy for a cure to this as our numbers dwindled, but there is no cure. Until we stumbled onto the fact that certain human females possess the necessary qualities and special abilities to mate with members of our own species and reproduce offspring.”

  “Okay, Athan didn’t tell me that,” Melinda admitted. “What’s your point?”

  “As I said, we could find no other women in our planetary system compatible with us, and so we began to widen our search. When we reached your Earth, we found a select number of human females who possessed a particular genetic trait which made them partially compatible with our race. They became our new Oracles of Life, our companions, and our courtesans. However, not all Oracles gave of their power willingly. They had to be restrained. When the Time of Blessing neared, they would enter a trance, one which left them subdued for the duration of the ritual.”

  ‘Restrained?’ ‘Subdued?’ Melinda blinked. “Why are you telling me this?” she asked. “You were the one who abducted me – why would you suddenly warn me that I’m going to be tied down and forced to do this? Because I was told I do have a say in the matter.”

  “I am a Hunter-Warrior,” Roth said. “I was sent out to find you, and bring you back. That was my assignment.”

  Melinda snorted, keeping her arms folded over her breasts. “‘Hunter Warrior?’ Sounds more like a hunting dog. You’re a glorified retriever. A warrior keeps what he hunts, while a dog just serves his master.” She smirked, looking Roth over. “It’s pretty clear to me that Athan is the one in charge – so what does that make you?”

  She watched as Roth’s nostrils flared and his iridescent eyes sparked with blue fire.

  “I am no one’s dog,” he said, proud and indignant. “If I want something, I take it.”

  Without warning, he reached out with one hand and hooked Melinda around the back of her neck, strong fingers knotting in her thick, wet hair. She let out another startled gasp before he hauled her in and crushed his lips to hers in a hard kiss.

  At first, Melinda tensed, afraid – but the instant their mouths locked together, that fear melted away. Her arms, braced against his broad chest to hold him off, began to relax. She could feel something deep inside her stirring, a heavy beating like a drum but it was not her heart. Her eyes drifted shut…

  She saw herself standing at the base of a huge, stone temple painted bright blue and adorned with white seashells and serpent heads wreathed in red feathers.

  The temple sat within the walls of a large courtyard and served as home to thousands of people in the heart of a lush, green jungle. The sound of ocarinas and drums filled the air.

  She looked up. The sun hung high overhead, its bright light gleaming off the gold jewelry adorning her neck, wrists, and ankles.

  Two handmaidens approached and draped a cloak of colorful feathers over her shoulders, while a third placed a crown of jade upon her head. They took her hands and began to guide her on the long climb up the steep staircase.

  As she reached the top, a man ducked out of the doorway to the ritual chamber that stood at the top of the pyramid. Like her, he wore a feathered cloak and headdress of red and gold plumage. At his throat hung a necklace, the spiral cross-section of a white shell. He smiled at her, and when she looked into his iridescent blue eyes, she knew him.

  Roth?

  With great reverence, he offered his hand to her. She took it, and he led her inside. At the chamber’s center, beneath a shaft of bright sunlight streaming down thro
ugh a hole in the ceiling, stood a raised platform covered in flowers and jaguar pelts.

  He shrugged off his cape and removed his crown of feathers, shaking his head briskly to let his white-blond hair fall about his muscular shoulders. He reached for her and gently lifted her cloak, letting it slide off down her arms.

  He leaned in to kiss her lips. She tilted her head back and sighed. As he kissed her, his hands drifted down to tug away the breechcloths covering their lower bodies, leaving them in only their gold adornments. He stroked her voluptuous curves, captivated by the softness of her flesh. Her breasts filled his hands with more to spare. He bent his head to nuzzle their dark brown peaks. She gasped. When he went to his knees before her, she shook her head.

  “No,” she said. “You are a god.”

  “And today you become my goddess,” he replied, smiling up at her before burying his face between her soft thighs and breathing in her scent.

  A moment later, he used his superior strength to lift her up off her feet and deposit her onto the table.

  He climbed up over her and positioned himself. She gazed up into his eyes, the sunlight behind him creating an aura around his head, his fair hair and skin glowing bright white.

  She smiled and wrapped her arms and legs around him. Her body welcomed him that first thrust driving a cry of delight from her lips. She felt connected to him in every way – body and mind, heart and soul.

  He leaned down and whispered something to her in his language, and she responded, eyes fluttering in ecstasy with every deep stroke driving into her…

  Melinda blinked, coming back to the present. She found herself out of the tub and on her back, legs spread apart. Roth, still in the water, had a hand up under each of her knees to open her up.

  “What…what’s going on?” Melinda lifted her head. She looked down and saw Roth with his face pressed into her pussy. She could feel his tongue, hot and agile, dancing around her clit.

  She had no idea how she wound up in this position, and while a voice somewhere in the recesses of her arousal-fogged brain shouted at her to make him stop, the humming of her body drowned it out. She quivered, hips jerking. “Oh God,” she whined.

  Abruptly, Roth stopped and pulled away from her. Melinda felt a moment of confusion followed by frustration and abandonment.

  She looked up to see Roth stripping off the rest of his clothes. The next thing she knew, he had her legs over his shoulders.

  Strong hands grasped her fleshy hips and jerked her closer to the edge of the tub. She yelped. Then she felt it – his hard, hot length pushing into her, thick and powerful.

  “Oh shit!” She stared up at Roth as he proceeded to clutch her ass with both hands and drive his cock into her at a rapid clip. Melinda caught her lower lip between her teeth to keep herself from wailing.

  Melinda’s love life had been a very rocky road indeed and she was not what she would have called well-experienced when it came to sexual activity. Random sex with someone she had met had never really been her style, not to say it had not happened. She had lost her virginity during her senior year of high school to some guy she had met at her cousin’s quinceanera, and a year after that she had hooked up with a man she met through a dating website who, after they had fucked, confessed to being married. That had been right after she moved in with Brandi.

  She finally had her first steady boyfriend with Roy Banning, a musician who played in a local pop/rock band that was making the circuits around all of the clubs in the area. She had met him at a gig his band was performing at; Brandi had drug her out of the house away from her precious movies one Friday night and Melinda had to admit she was very glad that she ended up going.

  During a break in their set, she met Roy when he went to the bar to get a drink. To Melinda’s surprise, he started to talk to her and asked her how she liked the band. They ended up talking the rest of that break and every break he had for the rest of the night. After the show, she gave him her number and the two had dated fairly seriously for six months until she found out he was cheating on her when his band went on the road to gigs out of town. One of the other band members wives told her about it because they thought she should know.

  Melinda was devastated; she thought that Roy and she would end up getting married eventually. But she was glad to move on and find out what kind of man he really was before things went too far.

  Melinda had stayed out of the dating scene for the most part for about a year after that, eventually dating casually for a while and until she met Brent Way. He was a traveling pharmaceutical rep who made a point to spend as much time with her when he was in town as he could. The relationship started slow, Melinda wanting to take things cautiously, but ended up being the most fulfilling relationship she’d had to date. But eventually, the fact that Brent was not home enough because of his job ended the relationship. So it was back to the drawing board. Not that Melinda was that focused on a love life; she had other dreams to work on that mattered much more to her right now. But still, she was not getting any younger.

  Since then, she had relied on toys to pleasure herself. She knew what she liked, though, and somehow Roth knew it, too – he was hitting all the right spots, and at the speed she enjoyed. Melinda gave herself over to it completely.

  She felt her thighs quivering again, and she tried to clamp them shut but Roth jerked her into his thrust. Melinda looked up at him, and the moment their eyes met her body quaked and she came. “Yes!” she cried out, arching her back and thrashing. “Fuck, yes!”

  Roth kept going, just a few more strokes, before hissing something between clenched teeth. He planted himself deep inside Melinda, his cock sputtering with vibration as he emptied out.

  Melinda could feel the heat of it. For an instant, it crossed her mind that they had just engaged in unprotected sex. You’re two different species, she reminded herself. It’s not like he can get you pregnant.

  After Roth pulled out, Melinda pushed herself upright, supported on her arms. “Whoa.” She sat on the edge of the tub, still dazed and breathless, and watched him gather together his discarded clothing floating in the water around him.

  “What the hell just happened?” she asked. “One minute I’m in the water and you’re kissing me, the next I’m on my back and you’re eating me out. It’s like I blacked out, only I didn’t…it was…like a dream or something.”

  He started for the steps leading out of the bath but paused. Without looking at her, he asked, “What did you see?”

  “Us – you and me – but we were in another place.” She swirled the water with her feet. “It looked like ancient Aztec…”

  She saw him tense, his head lifting and muscular back going rigid.

  “You entered the trance state,” he said. Dropping his wet clothes outside the tub, Roth turned to face her. “It ties into your genetic compatibility with my people. The women would enter a dream state. During this time, the transference of energy is made.”

  “Wait,” she said. “‘Energy transference?’ Is that what happens during these ‘blessings?’”

  “Yes.”

  “So you guys aren’t just dragons – you’re some kind of energy vampire!”

  “I assure you, we are not. It is not energy as you would perceive it. You are not being depleted of your life force. What you are doing is helping to activate dormant genes within us, which allows us to rejuvenate.”

  “I was told that it was all spiritual; not physical.”

  Roth looked at her blankly. “Like I said, you were not given the whole story.”

  She stared at him. “I don’t believe this. Transference of energy--so, basically, I just gave you a jump-start energy thing plus, a little bit extra?” Melanie put the last words in finger quotes in the air as she mocked the situation. She was really trying to come to terms with all of this, but it was just not happening. She was going to have to find out a lot more before she committed to anything.

  Roth considered this a moment before nodding. “Yes.”
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br />   “And this is what I can expect if I agree to be the Oracle of Life?” Melinda asked. “I go into a trance, you get your genes pumped up, and that’s it.”

  “You are leaving out one very vital element to the procedure,” Roth told her. He climbed out of the tub, the water running off his flawless skin, following every contour of his rock-hard body.

  Turning around, Melinda got to see him in all his naked glory, his gorgeous torso completely hairless and his now spent cock hanging between his legs, thick and uncut. “You must copulate with every Volosian male in order to attain the trance level.”

  Melinda felt a chill creep up her spine, making her shiver. “Okay, time out,” she said. She jumped into the tub and waded over to the steps. “I don’t care if I zone out while it’s happening – that was some pretty trippy stuff I saw during it – but I don’t want to be gang-banged by a bunch of alien dragons. Nobody ever said anything about that.”

  “As I said, Athan did not explain all that would be required.”

  “Yeah, I get that.” Melinda threw up her hands and shook her head. “Okay, you know what? That’s it. I’m done. Turn this ship around and take me back to Earth. You guys are going to have to find someone else to be your ‘Oracle of Life.’ I’m out.”

  Roth rumbled in amusement. “You never had a choice in this matter; therefore, what you want does not matter. Athan misled you. He has no intention of letting you go of your own free will.” He treated her to a salacious smile. “Which is why I will be abducting you again.”

  She frowned at both his choice of words and the ominous manner in which he said them. “What do you mean?”

  “I want you for myself,” he answered simply. “What was it you said? ‘A hunter keeps his prize.’ I found you, so you belong to me.”

  “The only person I belong to is myself,” Melinda back in defiance.