Bodies of Light Read online

  Zed crooned some alien lullaby, close to her ear. Alyn feathered caresses over her skin, sparking pleasure everywhere he touched. Christine’s eyes met his. She caught her breath at the emotion she saw there. He might be some extraterrestrial monster, but he cared about her—in a way no one else ever had.

  When he saw that she was awake, he raised himself on his elbow, bringing his lips to within millimetres of her own, but not making contact. His gaze drilled into her, asking a wordless question.

  Christine tangled her fingers in his silver locks and pulled his mouth to hers. Yes, she answered silently. Yes! I want you. I need you. I forgive you. She thrust her bold tongue beyond his perfect white teeth, taking all that he offered, drinking in his sweetness and his passion. All the while his hands roamed over her body, teasing her taut nipples, circling her navel, playing in the humid forest of her pussy hair.

  She broke the kiss at last in order to face Zed and offer him her lips in turn. Fire burned in his bottomless eyes, raw and seductive, kindling a sympathetic blaze. As Zed probed her mouth, Alyn’s clever fingers found her clit, sending her soaring into bliss.

  The two men held her tight while her body shuddered in climax. Only when the echoes of pleasure died away did they begin again, stroking, kneading, suckling, playing her quickened body like some ethereal instrument. She opened herself completely to them, so hot, so human, wherever they came from. Again and again they eased her up to the pinnacle and cast her into the whirlwind of delight. She lost count of her orgasms, but each one was more intense than the last.

  They didn’t speak. There was no need. When she struggled onto her side, clasped and constrained by the safety net, and fondled Alyn’s rampant cock, he understood. He adjusted his hips to align himself with her soaked pussy and slipped inside. It was simple, easy, as natural as breathing. His length curved up into her belly; his pubis pressed deliciously against her clit. For a long time, he didn’t thrust, but she could feel him pulse inside her, making his slender cock swell to seemingly impossible dimensions.

  Behind her, Zed brushed her hair aside and nibbled the back of her neck. Shivers danced down her spine to lodge in her sex. He reached around to palm her breast, rolling the swollen bud of her nipple between his fingers. She arched back, nudging the slick bulb pressed against her buttocks. Zed responded as she’d hoped, parting her rear cheeks and wiggling a finger into her hole.

  Her excitement climbed to a whole new level as Zed played there, pushing deeper, stretching her little by little. The fluids from her many orgasms had left her well-lubricated. The intrusions were pure pleasure. Meanwhile, Alyn started to rock his pelvis, sliding his hardness in and out, as deeply as he could, given the safety web.

  Zed replaced his fingers with the head of his massive cock. Christine braced for the brief pain she had experienced when Alyn had entered her that way. Zed was thicker and nearly as long—he’d be more difficult to handle. She was shocked when his cock eased into her—shocked by the spike of pure pleasure. Despite the soreness she’d experienced after her first impaling, there was no pain at all.

  It was outrageous, glorious, completely unbelievable. They lay there, flesh commingled, bound together and barely moving, while waves of sensation rose, crested and died away. The slightest shift in position triggered a new avalanche of pleasure.

  Christine gasped and panted, clutching Alyn’s shoulders, clenching the hard flesh that filled her empty places. Zed clasped her hips, holding her, steady and safe, on the knife edge of climax. She could feel the way their two cocks rubbed together, separated only by a thin wall of muscle. She could sense their arousal building, despite their stillness.

  Taking the lead from her lovers, she tried to relax. She willed herself not to strain towards release. Her breathing slowed and synchronised with theirs. Gratitude swelled in her chest as the pleasure grew steadily more intense. She felt blessed. Cherished. For the first time in her life, Christine did not feel alone. Love held the three of them there, suspended, truly joined. She let go and let the quiet passion bear her away.

  The pleasure pulsed and glowed, scarlet, fuscia, violet and lavender swirling around her like the aurora borealis. Zed and Alyn sang to her, tenor and baritone entwining in harmonies almost too lovely to bear. She added her voice, reaching the high notes without effort. Blackness cradled her, velvety and warm, shot with brilliant streaks of teal and silver. It was the blackness of space, the emptiness of time. Somehow that did not frighten her. She knew the blackness was saturated with boundless love.

  Her climax had no beginning. It just was, an outpouring of bliss that had always been and that would go on forever. Great chords of pleasure thundered through the universe, tearing her apart, remaking her. Zed and Alyn were there with her, their coming indistinguishable from her own, their voices rising in one pure note of perfection.

  As the note died away and her body reclaimed her, Christine really understood, for the first time. Zed and Alyn were completely alien. There was nothing human about them at all.

  Chapter Five

  The universe spread out before Christine’s eyes, vanishing into distances even she could scarcely grasp, physicist though she was. Blinking plasma displays on the control panel provided the only light on the bridge. In the dimness, stars scattered across the hemispheric viewport glittered like chips of diamond. The Archimedes continued its blind progress towards a destination it would never reach, at a speed that would have taken it from Earth to the Sun in less than fifteen minutes. But the stars did not move.

  It was difficult to believe those bright, cold points of light were really raging infernos—almost as difficult as believing her two lovers were not beautiful, virile men but something…other.

  She sat in Sven’s chair, staring into the gem-studded blackness. Zed lounged in the co-pilot’s seat to her left. Alyn had taken the navigator’s place on her right. All three of them were naked. It had seemed ridiculous to put on clothing after the intimacy of their most recent coupling.

  Christine had ordered an increase in the ambient temperature then switched off the computer’s cameras and voice. Belatedly, she realised she didn’t like the notion of their three-way lust being observed, even by a machine. She knew she was being silly, that ultimately it didn’t matter since no one would ever replay the recordings from the ship’s memory. She’d always been a private person, however. Somehow, the more deeply she and her companions connected during sex, the more uncomfortable she found the thought of surveillance.

  She glanced over at Alyn. For once, he was not staring at her. He appeared riveted by the immensity of space stretched out before him, just as she had been. His long fingers clasped the arms of his seat. His androgynous features had a sombre cast, with his brows drawn together and his full lips pressed into a thin line. His flaccid penis lay draped between his legs, looking pale, smooth and vulnerable.

  Zed was peering down at his hands, as though he was searching there for some revelation. When he felt the weight of her scrutiny, he favoured her with his typical mischievous grin, but his eyes were dark pools, without their usual sparkle. He too was flaccid. It appeared that their last encounter had finally sated their physical desire, at least for a while.

  Love and sympathy warred with indignation in Christine’s heart. She hated dishonesty.

  “You lied to me,” she said finally, her voice quiet and controlled. “There was no ship. You don’t need a ship to travel through space, do you?”

  “Not a lie, sweet,” said Zed. “Just a simplification of the truth. We weren’t sure that you would understand, or believe…that you could imagine…”

  “I’m a theoretical physicist. I’m trained to visualise the unimaginable. So tell me now who, or what you really are. The whole story. Do you really come from Alpha Cygni?”

  “Yes,” Alyn replied. “That was our home. A long time ago.”

  “How long?”

  “Centuries. Millennia. Does it matter?” Zed picked up the thread. “Time doesn’t flow in
the same way for us as it does for you.”

  “Long enough for us to appreciate what we lost,” said Alyn. His violet eyes glistened. Was he holding back tears? Pity drowned out the last remnants of Christine’s anger. She stroked Alyn’s arm in comfort as Zed continued the narrative.

  “Our planet was quite a bit like Earth. Carbon- and water-based life forms, photosynthesis, single and multi-cellular organisms… Our race was bipedal, not so different from humans really. Like humans, we were at the top of the food chain. And like you, we used our dominance over the other species on our planet unwisely. Our population grew. Our resources shrank. We thought that with our advanced technology we could solve any problem. We were wrong.

  “Our planet began to die. The land became infertile. Water was scarce. Fumes from our mines and factories shut out the sun. The temperature dropped and our world froze. Most plant and animal species became extinct. We retreated into underground burrows and tried to tap the heat at the planet’s molten core. Instead we triggered huge earthquakes that buried most of our subterranean settlements.”

  Zed’s fluid baritone cracked. He seemed unable to go on. Alyn reached across Christine’s body to squeeze Zed’s hand. Christine could hardly bear to look at the bronzed god’s pain-racked face.

  The silver-haired alien resumed the tale where Zed had left off. “We realised our mistakes far too late. We had developed interstellar travel, but pushing matter through hyperspace requires vast amounts of energy. Our supplies of the mineral we used for fuel had dwindled. The quakes destroyed the few mines that remained. Our star ships offered no hope of escape. Finally, we had no choice but to slough off our material bodies and become pure energy ourselves.”

  “What? What are you talking about?” Christine swivelled her seat around to face Alyn. But it was Zed who answered, after sliding off of his chair to sit cross-legged at her feet. He gazed up at her, gauging her reactions to the fantastic tale.

  “Intelligent beings are an amalgam of matter and energy. Consciousness, spirit, soul, astral body—there are many terms—is the energic component. Normally that component is tightly bound to the material body. But it’s possible to set the spirit-energy free. Earth’s mystics have always known of this. Meditation, drugs, sex—there are various techniques for loosening the bonds that trap the astral self in the physical body.”

  “Sex?” Christine’s pussy dampened as she recalled the strange, unending bliss of her last orgasm.

  Alyn nodded. “Deep emotion, intense concentration, great pain or great pleasure all have the potential to temporarily release the energic self from its material bonds.”

  “But those effects are only temporary,” added Zed. “In our case, we had to permanently leave our bodies behind. Our material selves perished with our poor, abused planet. Now we are bodies of light, free to travel the universe at will.”

  There was a tinge of irony in his voice that Christine didn’t completely understand. “So, you can fold space?” she asked, not even trying to hide her eagerness. “You can move faster than light?”

  “We are light. But yes, as your people have hypothesised, the venerable constant c is not the fixed limit it seems to be. And the equations that permit faster-than-light travel simplify dramatically when there is no matter involved.”

  “Show me,” she demanded, starting to rise. “Teach me.”

  Zed caught her hand and pulled her back down into her seat. “Patience, darling. You said you wanted the whole story. We’re not quite done.”

  “Okay, okay. So all the inhabitants of your planet turned themselves into beings of pure energy and flew away?”

  “There weren’t all that many of us remaining. And we couldn’t bear to leave, not at first. We watched from space as our planet tore itself apart. Our meddling at the core had started a chain reaction. In a matter of a few months, our home was transformed into a vast belt of rubble orbiting our star.”

  “It was terrible,” whispered Alyn.

  “After that—well, the death of the planet killed something in our spirits, too.” Zed released a deep sigh, as though it was difficult for him to go on. “Shame and grief ripped us apart as thoroughly as our world. We all dispersed in different directions, fleeing to the far ends of the universe. Now each of us wanders the reaches of space, eternally alone, haunted by the loss of our home. Free, yes. Alive, in a sense. But broken.”

  “But you and Alyn…”

  “A stroke of blind luck that we found each other.” Zed leant back to smile up at his lithe companion. “Somehow our mutual loneliness drew us together. He has done much to heal my spirit. We’ve been travelling together since.”

  “Then we emerged from hyperspace at the same coordinates as your ship.” Alyn shook his head. “It is surprising that your vessel survived at all. The gravitational forces resulting from that energy/matter co-location should have done much more damage. Nevertheless, we managed to kill your crewmates.”

  “But we found you. We probed your mind while you were in suspension. We learned your history. We sensed how lost and alone you were, so much like us.” Zed rose to his feet in one fluid motion and pulled Christine into his arms. “We came to love you. Now we understand why, even together, Alyn and I felt incomplete.” His strength surrounded her. His resurgent cock prodded her belly. She wanted nothing more than to melt into his embrace, but she forced herself to resist the temptation.

  “Wait—please! What about these bodies? They’re obviously not made of light.” She reached between them to squeeze Zed’s hefty erection, making him moan. “This cock is definitely real. And if you’re creatures of spirit, why are you always so horny?”

  Alyn circled behind her and clasped her waist. He licked her earlobe, sending a jolt of electricity straight to her sex. “Energy and matter are inter-convertible. You know that. We fashioned these bodies out of our intrinsic energy so that we could communicate with you—and touch you—without frightening you.” He slid his hands up her ribcage to her breasts. Her nipples tightened, aching for stimulation. Alyn rocked them back and forth with the pads of his thumbs, like tiny joysticks. “Once we created them, we remembered the joys of physical intimacy. You reminded us…”

  Meanwhile, Zed’s big hands were on her hips. He sank to his knees in front of her and dipped his tongue into her moist cleft. The ocean smell of her pussy filled her nostrils.

  Christine was on the verge of surrender, but curiosity still gnawed at her. “If you can materialise yourselves this way,” she said, gasping as Zed grazed her clit, “why wander? Why not settle on some new planet, in new bodies? Why not people a new world?”

  Zed ceased his ministrations and gazed up at her, his face shiny with her juices. “You don’t understand, sweet. As wonderful as it is to sink ourselves into you, to tease you and to make you come, these bodies limit us. Human eyes sense only a narrow slice of the electromagnetic spectrum. Human ears are tuned to only the grossest vibrations. We are used to full awareness, total sensation. Living in these bodies, for us, is like you wearing that bulky pressure suit. Every stimulus is muted by layers of matter.”

  “Even sex in these bodies is limiting,” Alyn added. “If we could make love to you without the encumbrance of these flesh and blood shells—oh, you have no idea of the ecstasy we could experience together!”

  “Maybe I do have some idea.” Christine turned to face him. “The last time we were together, I felt something—different. It’s hard to bring it back, now, but it felt as though we were floating in space. I wasn’t really aware of my pussy, my clit, my breasts, yet everything felt incredibly good. It was like I was inside my orgasm. But I wasn’t alone—I knew you were there, both of you. I could touch you, somehow, even though I had no hands. I could feel you, around me, inside me… That’s when I understood that you were something far beyond human…”

  She broke off, noticing that Alyn was staring at her in amazement.

  “I knew something special had happened but I didn’t realise…” Zed murmured be
hind her.

  “You slipped free!” Alyn spoke slowly, his voice full of wonder. “Oh, Christine!” He released her and sank back into his chair.

  Christine looked from one of her lovers to the other. “If I did it once… Zed, Alyn—you left your bodies behind eons ago. Can you teach me how?”

  Zed’s face darkened. “There’s some danger, sweet. If you leave your corporeal form, setting your astral self loose, there’s always a chance that you won’t be able to return.”

  She offered them her hands. Alyn and Zed took firm hold. Their eyes, amethyst and jet, sparkled with excitement. She kissed one, then the other, long and deep.

  “To be with you—truly with you—that’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

  Chapter Six

  Christine lay on the table in the mess hall, feeling silly. Zed had piled mattresses from several of the cabins on the hard surface, then arranged her on top of the heap like a sacrificial lamb on an altar.

  “Are you comfortable?” he asked.

  “I’m great. But what difference does it make? I thought the goal was for me to leave this body behind.”

  “We want you to relax completely—to stop thinking about your body. Last time it was extreme pleasure that pulled you out, but this time we want to try another method. Meditation is more predictable and easier to control.”

  “Are you ready?” asked Alyn, peering into her face.

  “As much as I’ll ever be,” she answered, resolutely ignoring her twinge of fear. So what if she couldn’t return to her body. This body didn’t have much of a future anyway.

  Zed clambered on to the table and straddled her torso just below her breasts. His cock, rigid once again, nestled in the valley between them. She licked her lips at the sight. Moisture trickled out from her sex, dampening the mattress.