Redemption Ch. 05

I appreciate the votes and comments. Again, I understand that this story will not be overly popular due to its very unique theme. That's okay. Understand that in this life there are all types of people. In this universe I have created that is even more heightened. It takes place 1000 years from now so, really, the norms of society have changed considerably. Plus with the addition of alien races of all varied shapes and forms, life in this alternate universe is truly very different from our own here and now. Hopefully, those of you that read this can perhaps do so with an open mind and begin to understand that everyone is different. What works for you may not work for someone else, but we all should respect each other's preferences and try not to force others to live as we deem fit or right.

Hope you all enjoy the next chapter, LH.

*********

Lucien. Get up. Time to go—Seth growled in his mind.

His eyes flew open. It was still dark since he had his lights set to activate only on command. Hot breath fanned his chest and his legs were tangled with...

Oh, God.

He teleported himself in a surge of power into the hygiene room. His legs almost gave out beneath him making him need to clutch the entrance to the hygiene unit to steady himself. Everything around him seemed to swirl and distort. He closed his eyes with a groan and muttered a curse under his breath. Running a rough hand through his tangled locks, Lucien staggered into the glass cylindrical unit. He slapped a hand against the console to activate the cleansing rays.

Blue light engulfed him immediately, head to toe. His hair, now clean and tangle-free, slid forward as he stared at his feet.

The scent of sex no longer surrounded him.

He didn't want to think about last night. His head pounded with the familiar headache he usually experienced after getting shit faced.

He took a strand of his hair between two fingers and frowned. The ends were already curling softly. It was thick and heavy, the weight of it keeping everything but the last few inches almost straight. He hated it—made him look like a fucking Barbie doll from behind. He should cut it.

Women loved his hair, though.

The fuzzy memory of hands fisting in it as he ravished plump lips made him shake his head. He scrubbed his hands over his face, wiping the thoughts of the night before from his mind.

Looking into the mirrored control panel, he stared at his stubbly face. His beard was as pale as the hair on his head, its color making it barely noticeable. Huffing out an exasperated breath, he hit the correct symbols on the panel to rid himself of his facial and body hair. He felt cleaner that way.

Lucien decided to deal with his long hair later when he figured out what he wanted to do with it.

Teleporting one of his uniforms on, he concentrated on the hangar and willed himself there as well.

The hygiene room melted away until the familiar metal and rubber scent of the hangar surrounded him. It was a monstrosity of soaring ceilings webbed with metal, like being inside the belly of a mechanical beast. Beneath his booted feet, the soft rubbery texture of the flooring cushioned his steps as he walked forward within a lighted path.

There were hundreds of transports lined up in concentric circles almost as far as the eye could see.

From what Lucien knew, Alpha 7 had become home to thousands of fallen, homeless reapers. Every day there were more. He'd lost track of the many new faces and names.

There were two rules though. No one entered without Devon's permission, and no one revealed Alpha 7's position, so that meant no bringing booty calls to the station.

He walked past his old viper to where Seth, Devon, and Ashriel stood.

Devon smiled, Seth watched Lucien with a blank expression, and Ashriel, as usual, just frowned, his black wings ruffling.

Lucien smirked at Ash. He really didn't like the reaper. He was a stuck-up, goody-two-shoes, who acted like he was better than everybody else.

As he drew closer, however, his attention was arrested by two rusted heaps of metal behind the trio.

He narrowed his eyes, his brain recognizing the contours of two space transports. Better yet, a pair of death traps, not even safe enough to take a piss on.

"What the fuck is that?" he finally asked standing next to his brother.

"Our rides," Devon answered.

Lucien looked at Devon. His un-identical twin looked dead serious. His bewildered gaze went back to the pile of garbage. "Do those things even fly?" Lucien snorted.

Seth scowled. "Of course. Natanael and I flew them personally all the way here."

Lucien strode past Ashriel to inspect the crafts. They were too big to be personal transports, but not large enough to be starcruisers.

Stopping in front of a boxy one, he let out a snort of amusement. He turned back to Devon, Seth, and Ashriel.

"This piece of shit looks like an Earth camper with wings," Lucien laughed with a jerk of his thumb over one shoulder, indicating the decrepit transport.

"That piece of shit is yours," Ashriel grinned with smug superiority, as he folded his beefy arms over a ridiculously massive chest.

Lucien's laughter stopped abruptly as he turned with a scowl to look at the battered hunk of junk again. He planted his fists on his hips and walked around it one more time.

At some point, the thing must've been a shiny silver. Now, it was dull grey, scored over with dents and scratches. It had rear rocket cones that were black, burnt to a crisp.

Lucien snorted. "Shit. What the fuck does this thing run on? Fuel?"

"You guessed it," Devon replied.

"Are you fucking kidding?" Lucien laughed again.

Seth rolled his eyes and huffed, "Look, it's a hybrid, and the guy that sold it to me told me he only fills the tank like once an Earth year."

"It runs on what kind of fuel?" Lucien demanded.

"Fossil," Ashriel informed with a little grimace. "Damned thing stinks like Lucifer's testicles."

Lucien rubbed his jaw. Maybe he could use his power to lift the rust off and restore the metal back to its original luster.

Remi suddenly appeared before him, holding his twins, one in each arm. "Say hello to Uncle Luke, boys."

The twins looked mostly like Rowie, down to the gleaming, bottomless black eyes. Their hair, on the other hand, was as deep blood-red as their father's—hair that stuck out of their heads like the corona of a sun.

"Well, if it isn't thing one and two," Lucien smirked.

One of them smiled at Lucien, the other sniffed at him and blurted, "hungry."

That made Lucien frown in confusion.

"Uncle Lucien isn't on the menu, Ky."

Lucien felt his eyebrows shoot to his hairline. "Menu?"

Remi grinned. "Row and I are weaning them off the vein juice."

As in blood—Lucien thought internally, staring warily at the little crimson-haired boy.

The child gave him a wolfish grin.

Well, hell. Two could play at that game.

Lucien bared his own fangs at the little brat and gave a low growl.

Ky's eyes went round as he threw his arms around his daddy's neck. The other twin scowled at Lucien and gave a little growl of his own.

Interesting.

"Simmer down," Remi ordered them.

Natanael, Abdiel, and Eriel arrived, talking and laughing boisterously.

Today Natanael's hair was deep purple at the roots and the rest red-orange.

All three reapers had the same black pants, knee-high boots and vest Ashriel wore. There were openings in the back for their wings.

Lucien turned away to investigate what would soon be his new home for the next day or so.

As far as he could tell, there were three hatches to gain entrance inside. Three ways in and out. Three hatches to guard if they needed to land in hostile territory.

He approached the hatch door on the right side of the craft and frowned at it, wondering how it activated.

Seth stepped up next to him with a pad small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.

"You can open it with this. It's like a master key." Seth stroked a finger over the blank screen and it lit up blue. Lucien recognized Gruesh symbols. Good thing he knew Gruesh.

Seth tapped the pad a few times, entering a series of directives. "Here," he said holding the pad out for Lucien. "Take it."

Lucien took the pad, looking down at the screen that was pulsing red now. A beam of light flashed from the screen, even as it vibrated in his palm. "What the hell is it do—fuck," Lucien yelped when he felt something jab him between his thumb and forefinger.

He dropped the pad and stared at his bloodied hand. "What the fuck, Seth. That thing cut me."

Seth bent to retrieve the pad. "It was just registering you as a new user."

"How about giving me a heads up next time," he snapped.

"To get it to open you have to address it by its name." Seth's lips twitched, as if trying not to smile. "It's name is Sugar."

Lucien snorted, shaking his head. "Open up for your new daddy, Sugar."

Seth's eyes widened as the hatch slid open with a hiss.

"You shouldn't have identified yourself as daddy," he said as Lucien stepped inside the dimly lit craft.

About to ask why, his answer came in the form of a seductive feminine voice. "Welcome, daddy."

Lucien began to chuckle.

Lights came on, not very bright, but soft, homey. The air inside was cool, but not cold, and everything smelled clean. At least the interior was better than the exterior.

The inside was in tones of grey, from the very pale to almost black. Just like an Earth camper, it had a lounge area with charcoal-colored plush seats.

"These recline," Seth said sitting in one of them to demonstrate. The seat moved around him, fitting itself to his body. "Back, Sugar."

"Yes, Sethaliel," the disembodied female voice purred sexily.

Lucien smirked and watched the seat lower Seth back until he told it to stop. After a few more directives his feet went up and then down until he was finally sitting upright again.

Each seat had interface ability with the craft and other passengers. It even had a hood that gave any passenger the holographic experience of his or her choice.

Lucien tried a few out. He set himself at a beach, complete with a setting sun and tropical palms swaying in the warm breeze off a foaming ocean. He joined Seth in a verdant forest, where they both ran naked, laughing, until they took a plunge off a high cliff into a river of foaming jade. It was exhilarating.

Lucien stood, his heart still beating from the holographic experience.

"I'm beginning to like this bucket of bolts," He admitted with a grin aimed at Seth.

The weretigri nodded. They both strode toward the back. Seth pointed out the eating area.

"Each seat in the lounge has a compartment that reproduces a wide variety of foods, but if anyone wants to share a meal with someone else, at least three people can eat from a table and chairs that comes out in this spot.

Lucien nodded and turned to walk through a narrow hallway with four metal doors, two to each side. Opening one, he saw it was a hygiene unit, and an old fashioned metal commode. Seth explained that any bodily waste was analyzed to monitor the crew's health status, and was also a source of fuel for the craft.

Lucien wrinkled his nose at that bit of information. No wonder Ashriel found the exhaust from the craft offensive.

At the end of the short corridor were two narrow doors. Opening one of them, he found a tiny cabin with a bed just barely big enough for two.

"Down below us is a storage area that almost runs the entire length of the ship and there's a decompression airlock chamber in case we need to go outside the craft during space navigation."

Lucien nodded. "Okay. Now...how fast can this thing go?"

"It should take us just two days to get to Earth, and that includes a stop for replenishing supplies. We're going to use our combined powers at least until we get to Crimbregeere Six. We'll spend the night there. Afterwards, we'll head out to the Edenian Solar system and Earth."

Lucien nodded. "And how will we avoid being recognized?"

Seth stuck his hands in the pockets of his black Alpha Angels uniform. "I accessed, with the help of a few good contacts, the universal data base and..." he grinned then, "I kind-of tweaked our images. By the time anyone figures it out, we should have found out what we need to know." His smile vanished, his gaze became intense as he just looked into Lucien's eyes.

Earth. It'd been like forever...and everything that had happened since.

Lucien remembered standing on the surface of Megdoluc...standing before Angel. He'd just run Devon through with Lucifer's sword. He'd thought he would enjoy finally slaying his brother, but it felt as though he pushed the sword through his own gut. His twin had fallen to the ground, black demon's blood spewing from him as he tumbled down in a lifeless heap. Lucien had been so crazed. He'd wanted Angel, his brother's woman, for himself and would have taken her, forcefully even, if it hadn't been for Seth.

Seth had given him a rude awakening.

"I had to do it," Seth said, his face a cold emotionless mask. His eyes, though...the pale blue eyes held a wealth of torment.

Lucien turned away, not wanting to relive the horror of the days that followed. He'd been gone only a few years, but it had seemed like an eternity. Every time he escaped, the Demons would find him and take him back to the anteroom to Hell. They seeped out of dark corners, dark reflective surfaces. They were the monsters beneath beds at night, or in closets, those shadows that slithered around in the darkest recesses.

He pushed past Seth and walked through the craft to the front, into the navigational cabin. The seats there were similar to the ones in the lounge. There was a pilot's chair, a navigators chair and two other chairs he guessed belong to gunmen's positions from the amount of symbols depicting the different array of laser cannons and pulsers.

The entire front of the navigational cabin was glass instead of a screen to look out. He noted that there were retracted shields to cover the glass, he guessed, in the case they encountered space debris. He shook his head, thinking how archaic.

Soft footfalls stopped behind him.

"It needs allot of work, but I guess it'll do," he sighed turning to look at Seth.

It wasn't Seth. It was Ky.

"What are you doing in here?" he asked the toddler.

The kid pouted and whined, "hungry."

Lucien frowned. "Didn't your mama give you anything to eat?"

The baby boy wrinkled his nose. "I don't like prinut."

"You don't?" Lucien asked, brows raised. He had to grudgingly admit the little bastard was adorable as fuck.

"It tastes like shit," the kid grumbled causing a snort of laughter to burst from Lucien.

"Do your parents know you talk like that?"

Ky didn't answer, but stared at Lucien with those huge obsidian eyes through the strands of thick crimson hair that fell over his cherubic face. His lower lip jutted out and trembled, completely melting Lucien's heart.

Lucien sighed, rubbing the side of his neck. "If you promise not to kill me, I'll let you open a vein."

The baby boy gasped and rushed to hug Lucien's legs. Huge black eyes stared up at him in gratitude. The baby grinned, sharp little fangs gleaming in the dim light of the pilot's cabin. "I wuv you, Uncle Luke."

"Yeah-yeah. I'm only letting you do this once," he told the child as he hefted him up into his arms. He shook his blond hair back and tipped his neck. "Your mama and pops want you to be a big boy now and start eating real food."

Lucien shivered as the baby petted the side of his neck. He wasn't even sure the kid heard a word he said. Ky was staring at his pulsing jugular with something akin to ecstasy.

His black eyes looked at Lucien's briefly and he smiled, little dimples bracketing the sweet rosebud mouth. Lucien felt his whole body go lax.

He was experienced enough to know the kid was using power to lull him. Being just a baby, the realization surprised Lucien.

As Ky kissed his cheek and sniffed along his neck, Lucien wondered what other abilities the little weredragon twins had.

Teeth sank into his flesh and the sensation of bliss took him by surprise. It felt so good, he could just sit and let the baby drink his fill.

"Stop trying to roll my mind, Ky," Lucien demanded. The little fucker was sneaky, but Lucien was over three hundred years old, had already been around the block a few times. He knew when a vampyric creature was trying to fuck him over.

Lucien grinned when the bite took on a more piercing sting. Patting the toddler indulgently on his back, Lucien decided he kind of liked Remi's kids.

A little gasp snapped Lucien's attention to the entrance to the cabin.

Kaden stood there, eyes and mouth gaping.

"Hungwee too," the other twin blurted.

In a blink, the second baby weredragon was feeding at Lucien's neck. Lucien hadn't even seen him move. Kaden wrapped his arms around Lucien's neck, overlapping his brother and sank his fangs deep. Lucien immediately felt the pull. His knees gave out beneath him and he fell into one of the seats behind him.

"Wait-no," he commanded, his voice, surprisingly already sounding weak, "Not at the same time. F-fffu—"

*******

"I think he's starting to wake up," a woman's voice informed.

Rowie?

"Oh, wait, I missed a spot."

That had definitely been Remi.

Warmth suffused Lucien and a hot wet tongue laved at his neck, giving him goose bumps.

Lucien cracked his eyes open a sliver to see himself engulfed in Remi's healing fire...and the bastard was licking his neck.

Lucien acted without thinking, kneeing Remi in the balls and shoving him back with a disgusted snarl.

Remi went down moaning, curling into a ball of misery as he cupped his bruised nuts.

"Baby," Rowie wailed rushing to her lover. "God-damn-it, Luke. He was only trying to help you."

"I thought the asshole liked pain. I was showing him my gratitude," Lucien spat, rubbing his neck. He was a little surprised he hadn't broken out in a cold sweat upon awakening to a male plastered against him, licking his neck.

Amadashiel and Natanael were standing in the doorway to the pilot's cabin chuckling.

"Is everybody ready?" Seth called out from behind them. "Time to haul out."

The reapers moved away from the doorway and Seth stepped in. "Luke, time to change the uniform." He walked in and set down a bundle of clothing in Lucien's lap. "Use these for now and send your uniform back to your quarters. There can't be anything that identifies us as Alpha Angels onboard."

The memory of Rayne up in her glass stasis unit filtered through his mind. She wouldn't remember him when she was awakened. He'd be a total stranger to her.

Unable to help himself, he teleported into her room.

Cyneolle and Chameleon stood to either side of the glass unit.

"She's not awake yet, is she?" he asked even though he knew they'd wait until he was no longer aboard Alpha 7.

"No," Cyneolle replied.

"Could I have a few seconds with her...alone?"

The cyborgs turned on their heel and walked out without questioning his motives.

When the door to the small room closed, Lucien turned back to the glass stasis unit.

They had opened the top cover, but Rayne still slumbered peacefully.

"My sleeping beauty," he whispered.

He traced the soft curve of her cheek with his finger, the delicate bow of her lips. She sighed and her sweet lips twitched as if she wanted to smile.

She was so tiny, so delicate, and sweet.

"My angel," he groaned, dipping down to kiss her one last time. She moaned, giving him access to the hot moistness of her mouth. He devoured her, savoring the sweet innocence of her.

When her arms reached for him, he teleported out, back to the awaiting transport, the taste of her still in his mouth.

Seth was scowling when he flashed his clothing off and began pulling on his new flight suit.