March of the Cybrids-27

A Time to Fight and a Time to Die

Vika watched the Dragons from the darkened apartment across the street through parted curtains. The Cybrid set the binoculars down on the nightstand and sat on the edge of the bed. Determined fingers with red nail polish typed a message and hit the send key to set her attack plan in motion. She pulled the covers back and slipped under the sheet. A pistol rested on her chest with hand on the grip, ever ready to point and shoot.

The Assassin looked up at the ceiling and thought of her little boy, Nuru. Nuru was the only living soul that could melt her icy heart. Kirill was good to his child and her. Vika was thankful for that. She stared up into the blackness and promised herself she would return to Kirill and spend more time with Nuru. She would teach him to fight Dragons. Someday he would follow his father and lead the revolution to find freedom and self determination for their people.

She looked over at the clock. In a few hours, the battle would begin. A low rumble of distant thunder in the mountains echoed across the neighborhood. Vika grimaced. “I hope they enjoy themselves. It’s their last piece of Dragon ass.”

* * *

Gloria reached for the cell phone just as day broke over the quiet neighborhood. Raul turned over to get away from the annoying sound. Someone sent them a message.

Cybrid team inbound to your location, ETA 10m.

Gloria shook Raul. “It’s on, let’s go.”

Raul and Gloria dressed. While Gloria put on her gauntlets and leggings, Raul grabbed the silenced pistol. Together, they headed to the first room on the first floor.

“This should surprise them if they had an expectation of us being on the third floor for some reason,” Raul laughed.

“Once we kill the lower lookouts, the team that goes up the stairs are trapped unless they are superb at jumping out of third story windows.” Gloria mused.

“I’ll suggest they dive head first to save themselves from a mauling.”  Raul’s eyes were beginning to transition to the Dragon as adrenaline flooded his body.

Gloria put her ear to the door and listened as Raul staged himself beside her.  The muffled slam of car doors sent arrival notices to the waiting Dragons. Gloria heard muffled voices and shuffling feet then the quick footsteps up the narrow stairs. It was show time. Gloria’s eyes opened wide in anticipation. Breaths came in short pants with a slack jaw. She licked her lips. Gloria tried to swallow, but her throat was too dry.

“There is one or two passing by the door. Probably lookouts.” Gloria warned.

“You open the door, and I’ll aim down the end of the hall, you come out behind me and go toward the stairs. On three, ready?” Raul spoke in a rapid cadence.

“One, two, three – Go!”

Gloria snatched the door open. Raul darted out. She jumped into the hall and went for the man two steps up from the landing as Raul’s pistol spit two shots into the face of a Cybrid soldier. Gloria’s target wheeled around, his startled face illuminated by the glow of the dull yellow hall light. He fell dead to the floor, the deep slash in his neck an obscene and bloody grin.

Raul Rushed up the stairs. Gloria followed watching behind them. At the second landing, Raul killed the next sentry. Gloria leaped over him, bounded down the hall, and severed another surprised Cybrid’s throat before he could scream a warning. She held him down as he writhed in her grip until she felt his body relax.

Slick with blood, Gloria slipped into the beast, her awareness only a thin thread keeping her from an all out attack mindless of any threat to her or Raul.

Raul talked in a firm voice to bring her back. “Now for the fun part, my love. We’ll take out the closest soldiers by hand then shoot the ones down the hall. We still have to find the Cybrid whore and kill her.”

“She won’t be far away,” Gloria replied.

“Don’t stop for any reason until they are all dead.” Raul’s words and fierce eyes turned Gloria’s killer instinct into a burning fire. She nodded, and they bound up the stairs to the third floor.

Raul put a bullet into the skull of the Cybrid guarding the third-floor landing. He eased the Cybrid down on the floor. Gloria leaped over Raul and hit the next one as four men rushed into the last room down the hall where they spent the night.

The last person to enter the room looked down the hall and saw the Dragons ripping into the flesh of his Cybrid brothers. He shouted an alert to the others as he tried to assess the situation. It was a fatal pause. Raul moved up and shot him balanced on one knee.

Gloria raced down the hall. Raul was right behind her ready to leap as she took down the next Cybrid reaching the door. Her thrashing was like a lioness on a gazelle. Her powerful movements trapped the Cybrid and severed his spine leaving him bleating like a lamb in a wolf’s mouth. 

The barrel of an assault rifle sprayed Gloria at the same moment Raul killed the Cybrid behind the trigger. Blood splashed on Gloria’s back as bullets tore into her synthetic flesh. Gloria screamed from the hammering impacts and kicked away from the torrent of bullets.

Raul, shocked by the sight of his love gunned down in the hall disobeyed his orders and sealed their fate as he rushed to Gloria’s side. Gloria looked in his face with a dazed look as he knelt down. He lifted her shirt and turned his head at the sight of the purple and red bruises leaking blood down her back.

The last terrified Cybrid, hiding behind the bed, opened up on the two Dragons in a wild frenzy of fear and hatred. Bullets tore through the door jambs. A terrible cacophony of hammering violence sent splinters of wood and plaster across the narrow hall as more bullets impacted the far wall filling the confined space with dust and debris.

Raul grunted as a bullet tore into his left side and exited the lower right of his waist. Gloria fell to her side as another bullet slammed into her armored leggings. Raul’s automatic reflexes pointed the pistol and squeezed three rounds in rapid succession. The last Cybrid fell face first and lay still on the floor. Blood pooled around his head.

The dead Cybrid’s radio crackled. A woman’s harsh voice demanded a situation report. Raul picked himself up and helped Gloria sit up. Gloria’s eyes were filled with pain as she looked at her man. He was calm as if nothing had happened. In the back of her mind, she wanted to believe they were both okay.

“I believe our whore is calling us, Dear. I’m in the mood for love. Shall we go to her?” Raul’s joke in their dire circumstance lifted Gloria’s spirits.

“Only, if you promise to let me go first,” Gloria grinned, snapping her talons as she strained to stand up. She felt like she was drowning in the blood that welled up in her throat. Her body ached. She swallowed hard to keep from choking.

“Lady Dragons first,” Raul quipped as if going for ice cream on a Sunday stroll.

Vika ranted on the radio. Raul moved stiffly over to the Cybrid and lifted the radio.

“Wait one.”  His short reply was code for wait one minute. The quick response would signal the Cybrids were at a crucial moment and couldn’t talk. He hoped Vika would take the bait.

March of the Cybrids-26

Dance of the Dragons

Gloria looked down at the gauntlets in the drawer as Raul lifted out a pistol with a silencer. The talons were like nothing she’d seen before. They retracted over fingertips covered with what looked like black iridescent dragon scales. She slipped one on and splayed her fingers in attack mode. The talons snapped forward, and she felt a small ultrasonic vibration in her hand. The claws came to a needle-sharp point with serrated edges on the inside curve.

Gloria grabbed the bedpost and squeezed. The talons buzzed and sliced into the hardwood like butter.  She turned to the dresser mirror and dragged her claws across the mirror cutting deep grooves across the surface of her reflection as powdered glass cascaded to the dresser’s polished surface.

“These will do well, I believe,” Gloria said as she noticed the scales were lightweight but resisted penetration by the talon tips. “They’re armored too.”

Raul set the pistol and extra magazines down on the nightstand and picked up a pair of scaled leggings. “These must be for you,” he said, handing the micro-scaled pants to Gloria. She opened the top band and looked at the stamp on the inside.

“XM-58. These are experimental.” Gloria’s voice had an echo of concern. She hated testing some good idea fairy’s dream weapon in combat for the first time. Too much could go wrong.

“What were the models we used on the beach?” Raul queried Gloria

“Ours were M-48’s. These are from the research lab on the west coast of America,” Gloria said. Gifts from Peter,” she added.

“What, my love?” Raul asked as he admired the sleek fit with clawed toes on Gloria’s legs.

“Nothing Dear, I was just admiring the leggings. They appear to be squat proof too, she added, playfully showing Raul. After we play a bit, what do you say we shower and call it a night. Tomorrow is a long day.” Gloria struck the headboard with her toe talons and ripped out a chunk of wood, scattering pieces across the bed.

Gloria removed her gauntlets and leggings as she looked at Raul, winked, and made a little alto growl that sounded somewhere between the deep hunger and insatiable lust of a Dragon predator. The pleasing sound caught Raul’s enamored attention.

They walked toward the bathroom. Gloria shed her top; her nakedness glowed in the dark room attracting Raul to her side. Raul threw his clothes in a wad on the bed, grabbed Gloria, lifted her in the air, and swung her around. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and her legs jutted out like the boom of a sailboat as they pretended to waltz their way to the shower. The door closed to muted laughter. Raul came back out, grabbed the pistol, and hurried back in.

* * *

The dark room was quiet as a crypt. An old street lamp created a soft yellow light that reached through the curtains, across the bed, illuminating sangria nipples perched on milk white breasts that rose and fell to quickened breaths. A stream of dust swirled in the light and danced over the sensuous curves animated below.

Gloria, unable to sleep, turned her head and looked at the dark figure that sat motionless in the chair across from her hidden in the shadows. She eased the sheet off her waist and drew her knees up and let them fall away from the sides of her hips like the wings of a butterfly. Restless boredom fluttered in the wings.

“Raul, Darling.”

The dark figure moved in the shadows; Gloria heard her lover speak in a whisper.

“Yes, my love.”

“Wouldn’t you be more comfortable watching the door from here?” Gloria ran her hands down the insides of her legs and up again to her breasts offering herself to her Dragon. Her skin pebbled in the pale light at the welcomed thought of his touch.

Raul sat down beside Gloria. His hand chased her fingers across inviting thighs to the manicured hair between her legs and further across her quivering stomach to firm breasts, then chin, her pouting lips, and flushed cheeks. He ventured his thumb between parted teeth and felt the light flicker of a tongue. Darkness emboldened his imagination.

He brushed a strand of hair from her face and kissed the warm mouth waiting in the dark. 

The swirling dust lifted like the smoke of incense, a Moroccan belly dancer writhed above their mingled bodies and mixed with the honeyed musk of Gloria’s tingling skin.

“Make love to me again.” Her entreaty for love was thick with desire, a divulgence with a hint of impatience and need. Perhaps it was their last night together. She hoped not.

“I adore how you always think of my comfort, Love,” came the reply that warmed the curve of her neck.

“Come to me and tell me about our upcoming cruise on that beautiful ship of yours.”

Gloria reached up and ran her fingers along Raul’s side as he loomed over her. Raul eased himself between her waiting legs. His enthrall was evident as he settled over her. She explored his chest with her erect nipples masquerading as sensitive fingertips seeking pleasure. The exhaust of his breath came quicker.

Her eyes shut tight as she felt the dense muscles of his chest play across her breasts.  She loved how he showed his desire for her. She reveled in her power to drive him to a frenzy with her body.  Gloria offered her neck as his lips sought her nape and shoulder.

Shifting in a game of hide and seek, Gloria arched her back with her head hanging over the edge of the bed, hair spilling like a waterfall toward the floor as the Dragon’s beard tickled her.  Eager lips rode on a warm blanket of breath. The Dragon played with the ridge of her collarbone and moved to the root of her breast. The fine hair on Gloria’s arms and neck lifted. Tiny cilia on her legs stiffened as she ran her fingertips across her man’s back.

“Tell me where we will go on this cruise.”  Gloria’s long fingers measured the ripples of his stomach, reaching lower and feeling him grow harder in her teasing fingers.

“We’ll cruise across the Black Sea and back through the Bosphorus Strait to the sunny islands of Southern Greece.” He kissed her breast to punctuate his baritone soliloquy. She pressed herself to his mouth, held his head to her, and sighed as he sought to please her.

“We’ll swim in the clear blue waters during the day, drink our coffee at sunset on the aft deck, and make love on a rocking sea until sleep robs us of further sin.”

Gloria lifted her head and shoulders, gripping the back of his arms as his kisses moved down from her breasts to her stomach in a meandering stroll. Her knees lifted and separated wider to engulf her Dragon, a sacred offering without provocation of thought.

“Oh, baby, where will we go next?” Gloria’s husky intonation quickened Raul’s heart beat.

“Next is Malta, my dear; off the coast of Sicily where we’ll resupply and eat fresh seafood outside at the shoreline cafes and drink sweet wine between walks on the beach. We’ll make love in the warm sugar sand and let the slack tide waters cleanse the dirt from our soul.” His deep voice held a soft, reverent tone; a susurration of voices in a cathedral. He spoke like reciting poetry, interpreting their shared dream of getting away from the deprivation of duty and war.

Raul’s hands moved across her body like a island breeze creating waves of pleasure that mingled with Goria’s vision of her and Raul entwined on the sunny beach.

“Go on, please go on,” Gloria now pleaded with her Dragon lover.

Raul spoke in hushed, halting words as he drew invisible messages of adoration on the inside of Gloria’s thighs continuing his tale of their future.

“I think we’ll sail to the south of France, to Monaco and take in the sights there. We’ll dress up; you in your red silk evening dress with Dragon Brocade flowing in the offshore breeze at night and me in my black tuxedo with long tails and satin lapel. We’ll dine in fine restaurants on French cuisine and attend the theater. I want you to pleasure me in the dark of the theater, and later, I’ll punish your lack of public decorum with my wild passion. I’m afraid I may ruin your dress. An afterthought followed. Best you make sure it comes off easily in case we don’t make it back to the hotel.”

Gloria placed her hands on his head, lifted her hips and impatiently urged him to her. He tortured her with his slow and gentle caress as he filled her mind with dreams she couldn’t wait to live out. “Oh!” She exclaimed as the broad flat of his tongue found her on the way up and over. 

“Yes there, stay please, stay there.”

“In Monaco, my dear?”

“Yes. Stay,” Gloria commanded in a way that sounded more like a plea.

He soothed her need and placated her want. Gloria felt herself coming apart against his relentless legato search across her body with his love making.

An enlivened Gloria wound her fingers in his hair and pulled him to her. Every muscle in her body tensed drawing her into a knot. She guided him, held him there, right there, that spot that made her thighs tremble, and her throat lock tight against the strained breath rushing from her lungs. 

Toes, of their own accord, contracted like clenched fists as she let go in a fit of tortured gratification. Gloria heard the sound of her breath rushing out through her mouth in a staccato hum. She was drowning in the waves that washed her away from the steel moorings of her emotions.

Gloria awakened from the exodus of release, her eyes and mouth opened wide and choked a cry in her throat as she felt him enter her. A gasp escaped her lips. Her hips moved to better accommodate her Dragon’s probing advance.

Raul covered Gloria’s lips, her neck, the ear, a shoulder, and back to the neck with growing passion. Eye to eye, mouth to mouth, a sweet musk filled the air. Sweat glistening in the pale light increased the drug of indulgence as skin and rippled muscle slipped recklessly across undulating curves and bone.

The ship’s Captain groaned as Gloria’s thighs tightened around his waist. She purred a gritty murmur as he forced her back down on the scattered sheets. Large hands grabbed Gloria with frantic intent behind the knees, and pressed her legs back toward her head. Pinned under her Dragon, Gloria surrendered to his overpowering drive toward their shared ecstasy. 

Eventually, the lovers collapsed on one another and held on unable to speak and unwilling to let go as they drifted in their mutual fugue of lust and love. The sounds of felicity, her alto and his bass, settled under lips teasing damp skin. The writhing grind of bodies stilled. 

Headlights from a distance reached through the curtains illuminating the smoky dust in the room. The tiny particles of light sailed in the unseen currents of past movement and body heat. Stillness below collapsed the meandering ghost of light and the spirit of the room cascaded down like the last shuddering breath of a dying gazelle frozen in the lion’s maw. Gloria slept like dead. Raul panted at her side, the lion fully sated.

INFJ CAFE Update

If at first you don’t succeed, blame WordPress. They can screw up a steel ball bearing.

Hyperion Sturm

Where upon Jeffrey the Otter flubs it.

INFJ CAFE retake

Update to the Update! I think I fixed the problem so please, if you have the patience, try again. The link should work Now – Daniel (10:23 CST 22 March)

Dear readers, please allow me to rescue myself by offering yet another mystery link to the new INFJ CAFE website. It seems the previous links were mysteriously sent to the Internet byte bucket. Of course, the links work fine for me because the site is nestled safely in my WP Harem and to please me, one click is all it takes. Not so for my invited guests.

Let’s try again, shall we?

https://wp.me/PbOqkT-5

Please chastise me profusely if this new short link also fails to deliver the promised goods.

INFJ Cafe

Image Source: Pinterest

A Place for all of us

Hi dear readers, I wanted to let you know I’ve started a new website with some special friends at The INFJ CAFE. <- (I want you to click it. I really want you to click it)

For many years I lived in my INFJ skin with an internal universe vast and energetic. I was masquerading as a normal (well, not entirely normal) ISTJ until I began to lower my protective curtain and that is when my true Dragons roared to life. Then, a few years ago, I met Kymber Hawke at Booomcha. Kymber is also an INFJ and from then on, I was no longer alone in the world. Now, I’ve met another INFJ, Dot from DotandLines. By golly, my INFJ world is expanding.

Kymber and I thought it would be cool to create a web site for other INFJs and all you normal lovely folks that INFJs love to love can visit us in a safe public place. Its a place where introverts can go to meet vampires. I’m sure you’ll Like it…eventually. You see, there isn’t much there, just a couple of posts to get it started. More on the way as we seek out the Bohemian culture of INFJ and bring it to you. Old and Artful Souls welcome.

Drop by anytime. The drinks are free and the vampires are plentiful.

INFJ cafe

March of the Cybrids-25

The Road To Oblivion-Part II

Gloria looked up and caught Val’s eyes looking at them in the rear-view mirror. For a brief moment, they assessed each other before Val returned her gaze to the twisting road ahead. Val gave her an uneasy feeling. Was she loyal to the Dragons or was she setting them up for ambush? She could only ride along and see what comes next.

They continued to discuss the details of the mission as they traveled southeast to ever lower altitudes. More villages came up on the road ever closer together. They would enter Tbilisi in a few hours.

“What about our primary target, the Cybrid leader in Astana? Gloria asked. How will we take out Vika, her men, and still move across borders to get the target? He will be alerted long before we can get there.”

“While Vika is busy with you, I will go back to Kirill’s headquarters and take care of him and his staff. They only communicate via couriers for obvious security reasons so we will have a window of opportunity to synchronize our attacks. Tesli will take over-watch nearby but she can’t afford to get ahead of you during the attack or Vika will realize she is trapped and try to escape,” Val explained in that monotone voice of Dragon Sister Warriors as they explain the coordinating efforts of a combined arms attack.

When things settled down, Gloria returned her attention to Raul. He put his arm around her shoulder and held her to him. He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her arm.

“We’ll sleep in shifts. One of us must remain awake at all times.” Raul whispered. Gloria looked up into his tired face. She kissed him and whispered back.

“You sleep now. I’ll wake you when we get into Tbilisi.”

Raul closed his eyes as Val went through the S10 to E60 exchange and once on the main highway, she accelerated toward Tbilisi.

Gloria rested on Raul’s shoulder. She couldn’t wait to get him in a clean bed for the night. They had much to do to get ready, but nothing would keep her from enjoying her man. The thought of finishing this mission and the two of them disappearing on Raul’s ship to sail the oceans and live like they wanted, free of the world’s encumbrances, made the pit of her stomach tingle and her body burn to feel Raul’s love again.

They entered Tbilisi in the early evening. Gloria woke Raul, and they both began to watch as they drove south on Skhvitori bridge across the Mtkvari River past the huge Tbilisi shopping mall. Raul noticed the American Embassy compound where they turned west beside the Ristorante Fortuna to the end of 66th Street next to a large complex of warehouses. Gloria noted the signs that pointed south to the Security Police headquarters and east, the National Bureau of Enforcement.

“You picked a hell of a place to have a battle with the Cybrids.” Gloria broke the silence in the dark cabin of the car.

“It will force Vika to plan on a quick mission knowing the security police can respond in minutes to a full battle. The proximity of police gives you the advantage because they will try to come in light and fast to get away.”  Val always seemed confident in the outcome.

“Will you be leaving after you drop us off?” Raul asked Val.

“Yes, I’ll head back to Astana to meet Kirill. You kill Vika, and I take out Kirill leaving the Cybrids leaderless. The Dragons will see that as the pre-arranged sign to begin their counter-attack. We’ll end the resistance once the Cybrids learn of the defeat of their leaders. This battle will break their will.”

“And if we fail?”  Gloria grilled Val.

“If we fail, the war will continue, and the Cybrids will eventually develop the skill and weaponry to meet the Dragons on the battlefield with parity if not superiority.”

“Then we won’t fail,” Gloria spoke with an even tone as they exited the car and began walking toward the dark three-story apartment.

They walked in silence to the third floor stopping at the last apartment at the end of the hall. Val opened the door with a key and gave it to Raul. Tesli stayed at the head of the stairs at the opposite end to watch for anyone coming in.

“There is no one else in the building. Anyone you see or hear after Tesli and I leave won’t be friends,” Val cautioned.

Raul walked inside, turned the living room lights on and began to check out the small apartment. Gloria remained by the door talking to Val. When Raul returned, Gloria looked at him; he nodded to signal everything looked in order.

Gloria smiled and reached for Val giving her the customary Dragon Sister farewell. She held Val tight against her. She placed her cheek against Val’s and spoke to her.

“Tell your mother I am sorry for what I did and if I had my life over again, I would obey my masters and leave her in peace. I promise after this is over, Raul and I will seek our lives together as far from war and the past as possible.”

Gloria looked into the stunned face of Mariah and Peter’s daughter. There was no malice in her eyes. Gloria was letting go of her last bit of guilt and preparing to face her final battle with a pure heart.

Val’s mouth moved and an utterance caught in her throat. It was too late to turn back the clock. Fate would decide the outcome, and they would live or die according to their fate.

Gloria felt Val hug her in return. The flow of energy between them was a balm that temporarily soothed years of pain and self-hate that haunted Gloria in every quiet moment of her life.

Val squeezed Gloria’s hand.

“To victory,” Val whispered.

“To victory,” Gloria repeated in a quiet, detached voice.

Val turned and walked down the hall. The echo of her steps matched the emptiness Gloria felt in her heart. To see Mariah and Peter’s daughter reminded her of the life she dreamed of in Peter’s arms years ago. Now, childless and infertile, she clung to Raul for comfort.

Tesli and Val turned to look at the Dragons standing in the corridor, arm in arm. They paused to burn the memory of the Dragons in their minds. No one expected to see each other again in this world.