Christmas in Zonei - 12. Lizard-man to the rescue

Raeden could tell Kim was looking for him—calling him. He hurried in the direction from which the telepathic signal was coming, limping as fast and he could and cursing himself for causing Kim so much grief.

Without warning, Kim’s anxiety became sheer terror. Raeden knew instantly that Kim was in physical danger. Without any direction from his brain, his body started to morf.

When he was fully morfed, his mind was ruled mainly by instinct. Raeden knew he had just moments before he was no longer himself. One of the imperatives that had been drilled into him from an early age was to hide his morfing abilities in public. In circumstances like this, it couldn’t be helped. He could not stop himself from morfing, nor did he want to. He needed to get to Kim as quickly as possible, and in lizard form he was extremely fast.

He focused on slowing down the transformation as he dashed into the nearest alley. Thankfully, it was deserted. Kim’s hotdog was still in his hand. He ripped the packaging off and shoved it into his mouth whole, then he began to strip off his clothes as quickly as he could. They would be much too tight when he was fully morfed, constricting his movements, and the pants would not accommodate his tail. Temperature was not a concern. In lizard form, he could withstand extremes of heat and cold for hours, if not days, before he noticed any discomfort.

The clothes would also have hidden his camouflage. He had chameleon DNA in his genetic modifications, and when he was fully morfed his scales would take on the color of his surroundings, shifting instantaneously as he moved. In lizard form, he was almost impossible to see if he were moving quickly. People might notice a blur of motion, but they would have no idea what it was. Even stationary he was difficult to make out unless you were quite close to him.

Raeden’s body transformed, growing taller and wider, his muscles taking on huge proportions. His scale patterns quickly turned into real scales, hard and shiny, and currently mostly asphalt gray. He felt his head elongating and ridges forming over his eyes and down the center of his face. His hands and feet lengthened and his fingers and toes became razor-sharp claws. He used these to shred the final vestiges of clothing off his body, lastly ripping through the sweaters and tape that protected his feet. With hard scales covering him entirely, he didn’t need the protection of any type of clothing or footwear. His tail emerged and he swished its thick length back and forth, reveling in the feel of the unaccustomed appendage.

He could feel his heart rate speeding up. His sense of smell heightened and his mind’s reaction to the ten thousand scents around him was altered. In human form, he would have wrinkled his nose at the stench of rat dung and human urine, the predominate smells in the alley, but his lizard mind didn’t care about smells. His mate was in danger and he had only one thought in his head: destroy the threat.

He took off at a blinding pace, an invisible force, bent on annihilation.

*****

Kim’s eyes were squeezed tightly shut. He was trying to keep his mind shielded, trying to hide in a dark corner of his brain, to remain oblivious to anything that happened to his body. He tried to shut down all thought.

But he could hear the quents yammering with excitement, both in the real world and in his head. He could feel their emotions. The leader, Conrad, who was carrying him, anticipated slaking his lust. Kim mentally cringed when he realized Conrad’s cock was already hard. But there were other voices as well, crowding his mind. Jim—somehow Kim’s addled brain assigned him a name—was afraid. He didn’t want to participate, didn’t even want to watch. He didn’t want sex with a male and didn’t enjoy inflicting pain. He was afraid the other boys would find out and think him weak. Bill, the boy who had dumped water on him, was looking forward to hearing him scream. He was imagining doing things to him—Kim opened his eyes wide, gasping for air in an effort to shut down those images.

My imagination has gone wild. Where are these thoughts coming from?

Conrad was carrying him up a set of wooden stairs, dingy walls looming close on either side. One of the quents behind them must have been holding a flashlight; a small round pool of light on the stairs in front of them was the only illumination.

Get a hold of yourself, he told himself sternly. Look for an escape.

Conrad had a strong arm around his chest and another around Kim’s legs. He was facing forward, away from his abductor. Kim stayed limp in his arms until they neared the landing, then gathering his resolve, he twisted with all his might, pushing away from Conrad with his hands and scissoring his legs wildly.

“Hey, you fucker!” Conrad cried. He lost his grip momentarily and Kim started to fall, but before he even touched the floor Conrad had regrouped, grabbing him by an arm and a leg. They had reached the landing and Conrad swung him around, slamming his head into the wall.

Blinding pain shattered his thoughts and his vision dimmed. Kim went limp, fighting to stay conscious.

He sensed a roar of fury from some distant animal.

What the hell?

“I told you, you aren’t getting away this time.” Conrad sounded angry. “I’ll fuck you up good if you try.”

I’m gonna fuck you good anyway. That thought emanated from Conrad and Kim knew he was smirking, although in his present position he couldn’t see his face.

How can I know what he’s thinking? Why is my mind making up these weird thoughts? Kim was dizzy and nauseous and in pain. He couldn’t analyze the strange words in his mind with all that hammering in his head.

Conrad pushed through a doorway into a dark hall. The flashlight beam illuminated the filthy floor before them and doors to either side. One of the boys—Brian, his mind told him—passed by Conrad, bounding up to one of the doors. They all stopped and waited, anticipation running high, while he opened it with an old-fashioned key.

Brian stepped aside and let Conrad go in first. Kim felt the young quent’s eyes on him when they stepped past, and he felt his lust. He sensed Brian adjusting his hardening cock in his pants although he couldn’t see him anymore.

Kim fought against the terror that threatened to consume him. He considered struggling to get away again, but Conrad’s firm grip and his own splitting headache dissuaded him. He glanced around the room instead, moving only his eyes.

Tall windows along two walls of the large open space let in the last of the waning daylight. The building had been built in the early part of the twentieth century and Kim guessed its original use had been for offices. Indeed, there were several large metal desks that had been pushed against one wall. A couple of stained, dilapidated couches took up the center of the room and along another wall were some dirty mattresses. Piles of clothing and bags of who-knew-what were strewn about the filthy, gray carpet that covered the floor.

Conrad carried him over to the wall of desks and pushed him facedown onto one of them. “Yeah. Party time! Your ma works ‘til eight, right Brian?” Conrad verified.

“Yeah. My old man is off now, but he’ll stay out drinking until probably midnight. We have at least a couple of hours to play with him.”

Kim could not help the full body shudder that racked him at those words.

“I’ll hold him down. You guys strip him.”

Kim’s face was pressed firmly into the cold metal of the desk. It smelled of dust and old ink. When he felt hands on him, many hands, pulling at his clothing and removing his shoes, memories of the first time he’d been raped by a gang of quents assailed him.

He began to fight as hard as he could, lashing out with hands and feet, struggling to lift his head from the desk.

“Hoi!” Kim could feel Conrad grinning. “This one’s a little fighter.” He grabbed Kim’s ear and twisted. Pain shrieked through Kim, but he didn’t stop fighting. There were too many of them though, and they held him fast. After several minutes of hard struggle, Kim was completely out of breath. He was also, to his horror, completely naked. He still fought to get away with everything he had in himself.

Then someone grabbed one of his balls and squeezed hard.

Kim let out a howl as his body went rigid and his mind went white with pain. He heard an answering roar of fury from somewhere close by.

“What’s that?” Brian asked.

Kim wondered the same thing briefly, but then he heard Conrad opening the clasp on his pants and his mind was overwhelmed with panic. He started struggling again in earnest, in spite of the threat of having his balls squashed.

“Hold him still, would you?” Conrad said. “You’ll all get your turn, but I’m first.”

More hands were on him then, holding his arms out spread eagle, pinning them down. Conrad’s hands left his head, but they were immediately replaced by someone else’s, keeping his face pressed against the desk. He felt Conrad’s hands on his butt, parting his cheeks.

That’s when he finally started to beg. “No, please. Please don’t.” His voice sounded broken.

His pleas were drowned out by a terrific roar as the door to the room exploded inwards in a shower of splintered wood. Then all hell broke loose.

*****

Everything happened so fast and was so unexpected and shocking it took several seconds for Kim to realize what had happened, even after it was over.

Conrad pulled away from Kim, whirling around. The cry of surprise on his lips was the last noise he ever uttered. A whirlwind of motion attacked him and his head and body went in two different directions, showering the room in bright red blood.

Inhuman shrieks of anger filled the air, savage and thunderous, but Kim’s eyes had trouble tracking the creature—it was made of shadow and light rather than form. It picked up Bill and swung him around, bashing his head against the side of one of the sturdy metal desks. Bill’s skull cracked like an eggshell and the monster tossed him aside.

The other quents were in motion now, all heading for the exit. With a roar, the creature grabbed Brian by the leg and flung him across the room. His scream was cut off as he hit the wall with a sickening thud. He ended up in a crumpled heap on the floor.

The last two quents had made it to the door and the creature leapt after them.

Not Jim! Kim’s thought caught him by surprise. He didn’t think he could spare concern at the moment for anything except his own self-preservation. He hated those quents who may well have killed him after they were done “playing” with him, but he still didn’t want them dead.

The creature stopped suddenly and turned toward him.

Kim swallowed. He could hear his blood rushing through his ears. He had time to think, at least this will be a quicker death than what the quents had planned.

Then he had time to think some more. Time to notice the coppery smell of blood that permeated the room. Time for his eyes to be drawn to Conrad’s severed head where it lay, snugged up against the side of one of the couches, nose down, pooling blood onto the wooden floor. He quickly looked away, sickened, and found himself eye to eye with the monster. It was standing perfectly still, staring at him with huge golden eyes.

He could make out details of the creature now that he wasn’t moving. He was huge; his head almost reached the ceiling. His body was covered in shiny scales of varying hues. His hands and feet ended with long sharp claws and a thick tail hung low behind him, not quite touching the floor. His body resembled a human male in shape, although he was obscenely muscled. He appeared to have no penis at all. His head was reptilian: he had a long snout with small holes for his nose and a wide, wide mouth that wrapped around his lower face. Ridges over his eyes gave him a fierce look and his unblinking, intelligent stare was decidedly predatory.

A whimper of terror came out of Kim’s mouth. He was going to be this creature’s next meal.

Then a thought popped into his mind that wasn’t his. It’s me. Raeden.

Before he had a chance to assimilate that, the creature changed. His body and face shifted and contorted, shrinking and transforming. Within a few seconds Raeden stood before him, stark naked and breathing heavily. He had blood all over his hands.

“Kim, are you alright?” he asked, striding quickly toward him.

Kim pulled himself onto the metal desk and scrambled backwards until his back hit the wall. He’d never heard himself make a noise like the one that came out of his throat just then. It was a sound of sheer terror.

Raeden stopped in his tracks. Kim felt the mod’s hurt in his mind at the same time he saw it on his face. “I would never hurt you, Kim,” he said gently.

Kim pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. His brain was finally catching up to the events of the last few moments. Raeden had fully morfed and had rescued him from the quents. But how terrifying and deadly he was in his lizard form! Kim could never have imagined it. Even now he was having trouble conceiving that Raeden was the whirlwind of shadow and light that had ruthlessly killed three kids in less than ten seconds.

“Raeden?” he gasped out.

“Yes, Little One, it’s me. I won’t hurt you. I promise.” Raeden moved toward him slowly.

Kim sat frozen, trying to untangle the confusing barrage of emotions he was feeling. Raeden stopped in front of the desk and reached for him.

Kim saw those huge bloody hands coming toward him and he shrieked in terror.

Raeden stepped back, emanating consternation. Looking down at his hands, he grimaced. “Sorry,” he said. He glanced around and then moved over to pick up a shirt that was lying on the floor. He spent a few moments wiping his hands off, even taking care to clean under his fingernails.

That small detail did much to reassure Kim that he was human again.

“That’s the best I can do right now,” Raeden said. “I’m sorry about the…” He made a motion with his head that encompassed the gory devastation around them. “—mess.” His eyes caught Kim’s. “I can’t say I didn’t mean to kill them, because I most certainly did.”

Kim made another sound—a whimper this time. He seemed to have lost his ability to speak and had no control over the noises that did come out of his mouth. His body began to shiver violently. He thought that was likely due to the aftermath of having so much adrenalin pumping through his bloodstream, but it could also be from the cold. Like most buildings in Zonei, this one had no heat, and the chill from the metal desk he was sitting on radiated into his naked body, stealing his warmth.

Raeden stood once more before him. “Can I hold you, Kim?” he asked in a quiet voice. “Please?” He was looking at him with that intense, concerned look which Kim had seen so many times, and when Kim caught his scent, Raeden’s unique brand of masculinity, familiar and comforting, Kim launched himself into Raeden’s arms.

Raeden pulled Kim tightly to his chest, wrapping his huge arms around him protectively. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It’s okay, Little One. It will be alright, he crooned, stroking the back of Kim’s head.

Kim buried his face in Raeden’s shoulder, shuddering, allowing himself to steep in the big mod’s warmth and comfort. His heart rate started to slow and the chaos in his mind began to sort itself into some semblance of rational thought.

Finally he realized that the words of comfort Raeden was giving him weren’t spoken. He could hear them clearly in his mind, but the room was silent.

“How can I hear you?” he asked.

I don’t know, Raeden replied, still not speaking. I could communicate with Lyzel like this—she’s the only other one I’ve ever been able to talk to with my mind.

But … I’m not a mod, Kim thought at him, trying out the strange new method of communication.

I know, but you must have some natural telepathic abilities.

I’ve never noticed before. I’ve always been intuitive, but … I could actually hear some of their thoughts! The quents, I mean.

You heard their thoughts? Are you sure?

Well, no, but I knew their names. How could I know their names? And it seemed like I could hear their thoughts.

Raeden was silent for a few moments. Kim could feel his concern, could tell he was muddling over what Kim had just said, but he couldn’t hear his thoughts.

I can’t tell what you’re thinking, Kim said. I can only hear you when you project, I guess.

I shield my thoughts. We are trained to do that so that enemies can’t take over our minds.

Kim, whose trembling had almost stopped, shuddered at the thought of someone invading his mind. Raeden rubbed his back soothingly as Kim calmed himself again.

After a few moments, Raeden said, You are my mate now. I have rebonded. He seemed very pleased with himself.

Kim pulled back to stare at Raeden in shock. “Mate? Rebonded?”

“Yes. I am now fully functional again.” Raeden grinned and moved Kim to the side, shifting him onto his hip and glancing down at himself. Kim looked down too and was appalled to see that Raeden’s cock was huge and steel-hard, pointing up at the ceiling. “I’m always horny after a fight,” Raeden said gleefully.

Terror streaked through Kim at the sight of the huge penis just inches from his bare ass. He shrieked in panic and squirmed desperately, trying to get away.

Stop Kim! Raeden commanded, stern and strong, holding Kim firmly. I won’t hurt you—ever, he said soothingly, using their mindlink. But it was the emotion emanating from Raeden that calmed Kim. In addition to the lust, which was definitely present, there were feelings of protectiveness and love woven through Raeden’s emotions.

I won’t ever take you in pain and fear, Little One, Raeden assured him. When we make love, it will be the most wonderful experience of your life.

Kim believed him and his fear dissipated. Then, in the quiet moment that followed, they heard a low moan. Kim’s head snapped up and he became aware of his surroundings again. The coppery smell of blood still permeated the air and the bodies of the mangled quents still lay in grotesque disarray about the room. The moan had come from Brian, the quent who Raeden’s lizard-monster—Kim could not think of the creature as Raeden himself—had thrown against the wall.

“I guess he’s not dead,” Kim said, his voice tight with emotion.

Raeden let out a low growl and Kim tensed as another frisson of fear ran through him.

“He doesn’t deserve to live,” Raeden said, “but I won’t kill him now.”

“We need to get out of here.” Kim was suddenly panicked. “We … you’ve killed two people. If they find out, they’ll … well, I don’t know what will happen, but we need to go. Now!”

“No,” Raeden said calmly. “It’s already too late.”

“Too late? What do you mean?”

Raeden nodded toward the window. Outside the last vestiges of twilight were fading from the sky. In the silence that permeated the room, Kim heard the distinctive drone of a flyer engine. Multiple flyer engines. It was rare to see the vehicles in Zonei. They were used by the wealthy for transportation in the upper zones and by CorpSec when they were closing in on a criminal.

Kim’s heart jumped into his mouth. “Morf!” he cried. “Raeden, morf and run. They won’t be able to catch you.”

“Oh, yes they will,” Raeden said. “How do you think they found me? They must have implanted a tracking devise. And they know about you too by now,” he added. “They’ll have already scanned the building and taken note of your heat signature. They’ve probably already locked onto your intel and know who you are. Neither one of us can get away. It’s best if we face this together.”

“But, Raeden! They’ll kill you.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

Kim didn’t understand how Raeden could be so calm when his own chest felt ready to explode.

Then one of the windows on the far end of the room shattered inward, glass flying.

Get on my back, Raeden ordered. When Kim hesitated, he added, Now!

With Raeden’s help, Kim shifted around so that he clung to Raeden’s broad back, wrapping his legs around the mod’s torso.

Raeden stood tall and still. Kim watched with horror, peeking over Raeden’s shoulder, as a small drone flew into the room and approached them.

Raeden spoke to it. “I’m sure you already know that I’m Raeden Dearborn, 874928634. I have rebonded and—”

Raeden stopped speaking when a small projectile shot from the drone and buried itself in his neck. Kim felt the body beneath him growing and shifting, felt the warm flesh give way to hard scales, and then they were falling.

Raeden crashed forward onto the floor and Kim rode him down, pulling his feet out of the way so they wouldn’t get crushed by Raeden’s weight when he landed. Kim found himself crouched on the floor next to his unconscious protector. The scales melted back into Raeden’s flesh as he returned to his normal state. Kim was relieved to see that he was still breathing.

The drone hovered, whirring quietly. Kim cowered behind Raeden’s still form, staring at it fearfully, trying to figure a way out of their current situation.

Then he heard the clamor of many booted feet running on wood. His gaze shifted to the door in time to see a troop of heavily armed men in full riot gear pour into the room.

One of the foremost men raised his weapon and fired. Kim felt a sting in his neck and the world disappeared into darkness.