She entered the chamber. "PhaHks?"

It was empty.

Anger flared in her at his disobedience. She had specifically told him to remain in the next room and wait for her.

Foolish, insufferable creature! Veexow silently debated the possible punishments for this latest infringement.

She passed through to the next room. It contained no wayward human either.

Something, however, was there on the floor that shone dully in the low light. Stooping to examine it, it was wet and cool.

The tiniest black thread lay there as well, the tip of it stained red. Just as the sticky liquid was red.

There was also one small drop of purple.

Fear entered her. "PhaHks?" She called to him.

The red droplets made a broken line out the archway and into the night darkened hallway.

She walked faster. She ran. "PhaaauwH-kesss!"

**

DhrAH'Ken caught up with him around two more corners, where he'd watched the human disappear through the entryway to the Hall of Conquests.

Surrounded on all sides as they were with weapons of courage, each stained with the different lifeblood of a sworn enemy, DhrAH'Ken thought it the ideal setting for his task. The human's blood would decorate these walls.

He tackled PhaHks, sending both of them sprawling in a heap.

DhrAH'Ken managed the upper hand as the human twisted and turned, trying to buck him off.

Raising the Klingon blade in both hands over PhaHks' trapped body, he shouted triumph, bringing it down on him.

Once.

Blood spilled from PhaHk's upper thigh, the blade deflected there due to his desperate struggle to protect his vital organs.

DhrAH'Ken raised it again, tiny spatters of red arcing off the weapons tips, leaving little bloody sprays over the floor and nearby table leg. Brands of triumph. Red color of victory.

The knife was raised again.

Twice.

Two sounds, both of the slicing of meat and tissue, reached her ears two steps before PhaHks' weak cry of agony did.

She entered the room, racing, in time to see Kol's Sworn-One bury his blade to the hilt in the hollow of PhaHks' shoulder.

Veexow didn't even pause to check its setting as she brought up her particle weapon and watched its energy send DhrAH'Ken across the room, far away from PhaHks.

Though DhrAH'Ken moved mo more, she was disappointed to see that he still breathed.

Phahks! She scrambled to his side.

Checking him, he was conscious but not alert as his iron blood poured from the ragged wound. She gathered folds of her robe into her hands and pressed down on it, trying to retard the flow of life.

Knew from Rhengar's descriptions that vital blood vessels passed through this delicate area, main canals of precious fluid pumped by a heart only inches away.

He had other injuries. She didn't know how many, how serious.

Summoning Rhengar through her bracelet communicator, she waited, speaking to PhaHks. Whispered words in his ear. Meaningless sounds that were said only to keep him alive for another few seconds.

"PhaHks," she said, "Stay awake. Listen to me you stubborn human. You will live. You've proven to me that you can. Terrible things have happened yet you were not defeated. You must not follow death to its door. Refuse! Will you? Will you do this for me? Please? There, how's that? I have said please to you for a second time, that should give you reason for life, you have to respond to that. You must wake up and spit some ridiculous, insolent humanism."

PhaHks groaned under her touch and her voice. His skin cast was lifeless now as the blood left his body and filled her hands.

She was being coated in him.

"PhaHks?" No sound now. There was barely a flutter to his chest as his breathing shallowed out.

Under her probing fingers, his pulse, that curious, fascinating, alien second heart-beat at his throat

Stopped.

"PHAHKS!" She shouted at him. Screamed it directly into his ear.

He had bled to death under her helping hands.

Rhengar appeared in shimmering transporter waves, instant travel that to Veexow was taking infinitely too long.

"Rhengar!" she cried. He didn't need to be told the condition of the human. It was clear by the evidences of red blood on and around him and the stained hands of M'Lady.

He passed his instrument over the limp body, noting at once the absence of cardiac rhythm and respirations and that the creature's brain patterns were becoming erratic.

He took a Stimulater, after adjusting it to suit his best assessment of a humans need, and placed it over PhaHks' heart. Next, he injected his patient with a mix of drugs designed to increase the body's natural healers. It was meant for Romulans, but he had recently modified it. Did not know if it would work.

Rhengar touched a control on the heart stimulator. A tiny, guided current of electrons passed from it to the heart muscle, making PhaHks' body jerk slightly.

No other sign of life however. He placed a second Stimulator on PhaHks' forehead and synchronize them.

Veexow had rose and backed away from her doctor and his patient, to give them room.

It was an silent lie.

Meant for her.

PhaHks was dying.

PhaHks was dead.

Phahks' blood had spilled onto a stone floor in her world. It had been ushered forth from its host for her humiliation and punishment. She had murdered him and his blood clung to her hands like a second skin. It would never wash off.

"You must save him."

"I am not certain I can." Rhengar sensed something and turned to see M'Lady's personal blaster pointed at him.

"If you kill me, I can do nothing for him." He pointed out. He saw her face contort with her efforts to control what she was feeling.

*He* knew.

The blaster clattered to the floor. "I'll give you everything I have."

She whispered it but Rhengar had heard the wail of deprivation. The suddenly starving.

He turned back to his patient and increased the power from stimulators to heart and brain. The human's body jumped.

"What I need is help. Here." Rhengar held something out to M'Lady. "Take it. We must start artificial respiration."

She took the nose/mouth piece and its attached micro-oxygen-generator.

"We have little time to spare." Rhengar urged.

She quickly joined him and placed the device over PhaHks' nose and mouth, cradling his head in her other hand.

Rhengar increased the stimulators output by two more fold. If the setting didn't bring him back to life...he was dead anyway. That much power would begin to cook the organs if used a second time.

PhaHks' form jerked violently. Rhengar felt for a pulse and found it. He nodded to M'Lady.

Understanding dawned on her quickly as PhaHks' chest rose and fell, shallowly, on its own.

"We must get him to my chambers." Rhengar said.

Total control reined once again. "So he will be all right?" Her voice leveling like water.

He shook his head. "I have to prepare some synthetic plasma or he will not be alive for long."

"What are you all doing in my trophy room?" A drunken Kol had entered unnoticed and was taking in the scene. His "trophies" were in fact a collection, bought and paid for.

Veexow stood and spun around on him, enraged.

"Why didn't you tell me your Sworn One was DhrAH'Ken?! I demand that VAHROOL be executed!" Pointing to the still unconscious Klingon.

Kol's puzzled frown followed her finger. "And just why should I want to do that?"

"DhrAH'Ken tried to murder PhaHks." Rhengar explained, "and if we do not tend to him immediately, he will have succeeded.

Veexow turned her attention back to the doctor and the injured in question. She bit back the obscenities she wanted to sling Kol's way, instead, crouching and holding PhaHks' head in her lap. Rhengar touched his belt controls and all three transported away.

Kol nudged the Sworn-One with his boot. His Sworn didn't stir. "Strange, that my words should shout their fulfillment so quickly."

He gave up trying to rouse the unconscious Klingon and staggered out the door. When DhrAH'Ken awoke, Kol would find out what had happened.

For now, he wanted to go back to his wine barrel.

****

Rhengar had PhaHks on full oxygen and fluids replacement but he was grim. "He has lost much blood, M'Lady. If his body can produce enough iron rich cells quickly, he may survive."

Phahks lay on Rhengar's own bed (there were no hospital or nursing facilities on Kol-keK). He was a thin, pale rag under the thick coverlets.

"Can you not provide him with those?" Veexow urged.

"Of course. I have already administered the appropriate drugs to boost his immunities, bone- marrow cell production and the like. But there are other difficulties. His kidney functions have ceased. Possibly due to the physical shock."

"Well, start them again."

Rhengar sighed. "It is not that simple. I cannot risk them infecting, something which, at this point he will be prone. His state is critical. His body would not be able to fight it off, he is simply too weak. And there are other factors."

Veexow payed little attention to Rhengars clinical details, taking PhaHks' limp, ghost-hand in her own. "Will he live?"

"He has a chance. I have done all I can, now the rest is up to him."

Veexow closed her eyes and the vision of a ruddy, panting PhaHks, hardened with lust and slaking himself in her body nearly made her cry out.

"PhaHks must live, Rhengar. You must make him live."

Rhengar put away his instruments. "You know I will do all I can."

Veexow, suddenly remembering her impulsive act of pointing her weapon at the doctor, looked back at him. "Forgive me!"

Rhengar had already done so. "You would not have harmed me, M'Lady. You never mean to harm."

She gazed at PhaHks' naked sickness. "But I have. I have."

******

Hands touched him without purpose.

That's what he hated the most: the touching, checking, pressing hands.

And the freezing wet water that smothered him in chills and aching fingers.

Even more despised, though, was the metal instrument that was shoved into his mouth with infuriating frequency. Rhythmic, vile proboscis, making him gag and choking off his air.

Veexow raised PhaHks' head from the pillow just enough to tip the ladle so the soup would pour between his lips. Cracked with fever, they would open just so far. She would then scoop it in.

"Just one more, PhaHks, and you can go back to dreaming about killing and eating some poor, little furry forest creature. That is what humans prefer, isn't it? Real, blooded fire-cooked meat?" She didn't repress her shudder. PhaHks was still too far gone to have noticed anyway.

Veexow had taken the habit of talking softly to him about things. She wanted his mind kept busy, even in its delirium, so he would fall down no farther into that long, dark sleep.

She spoke to him of her daily routines, Kol's drunken antics, Rhengars therapeutic plans for his recovery,...anything really, just to keep PhaHks thinking and maybe even goad him into sitting up and lashing out at the source of the noise in order to shut it up.

Veexow tilted the mushy stuff over his tongue again, gently manipulating his throat to encourage the swallow reflex. Her glassy-eyed patient obliged and the soup slid down his gullet.

Very, very slowly, each day, PhaHks' color was returning and his strength increasing. But it had been a slow and laborious journey back to relative health.

Veexow, to Rhengars open-faced shock, had insisted on attending to most of the patients nursing, including the feeding and bathing of him. Sometimes even the changing of PhaHks' bed linen and his anal and urethra drains.

He suffered bouts of terrible fevers and bone rattling chills in addition to his compromised general state. But the ragged wounds had healed well and he no longer required Rhengar's breathing apparatus.

Veexow knew for certain, however, that PhaHks was going to ultimately get well when one day, as she was lathering up and disinfecting his privates, he opened his eyes, looked down, reddened and spat at her:

"Fuck off!"

*****

Someone was chiming his door.

No one ever chimed his door.

Hell bitch, certainly not.

He would be in any stage of indignity; bare-assed and passed out, showering out his pits, crapping on the John, whatever. And through the door she'd steam like an out of control locomotive to run rough-shod over him for some rule or other of hers that he'd breached.

Or she'd slither in and start squeezing his cock like a Boa-Constrictor in a prelude to one of her fucking marathons.

Either way, no privacy.

But someone was *chiming* the door.

PhaHks opened it to find the Doctor waiting politely.

"She's not here." PhaHks told him, assuming Hell bitch to be the reason for the impromptu visit.

"I know." The therapist replied and walked in.

PhaHks hadn't invited him but in the Land of Pointed Ears good manners were a rare commodity.

He didn't really want the doc to stay because he had nothing to say to him. Never had. 'Get the fuck away from me!' could just about sum up his part in most of their conversations.

He was sure the feeling was mutual.

But it looked like Rhengar was here for some reason other than scouting around for Hell bitch.

And - what the hell - he'd been feeling lonely.

Hollow actually.

For weeks and weeks since his memorable tangle with DhraH'Ken and all his "fun" at Doc's "Palace of Probes", he'd craved company but hadn't got it.

Hell bitch was treating him like a china cup.

Display, admire, but don't touch or even breath on it!

Rhengar circled the room and then came to stand before PhaHks. Right in front of him.

"Veexow,..."

PhaHks had never heard the Doctor utter her name before.

"...is obsessed with you."

It was suddenly feeling very weird in the room. Weird being a relative term.

Rhengar leaned in, closer, but PhaHks felt un- threatened. It was just...weird. Then the one- sided conversation got stranger.

"I don't know why. Perhaps it is because you are exotic and I am common,..."

The Romulans voice had dropped to a throaty whisper that forced PhaHks to lean in to hear.

"...perhaps because you are beautiful and I am plain."

The doctor had come to see him. PhaHks.

Rhengar was not one for socializing, not even in Hell bitch's chamber as far as he knew. Were they fucking each other? He didn't know.

But she hadn't touched him in weeks.

Rhengar was so close he could read the humans thoughts.

"I think she is afraid that you have been damaged..."

Rhengar stood mere inches away. PhaHks could see the black irises below fine, white up sloped brows and blonde hair. Such a contrast to Hell bitch's dark looks. And Rhengar was younger.

He touched PhaHks' chest with the tips of four fingers.

"..In here. I think she is afraid that if she touches you, you will die."

PhaHks frowned, puzzled. Nervous. Curious.

"Will you die, PhaHks?"

The doctor placed his palm flat against PhaHks' chest and left it there.

"Will you die, PhaHks, if you are touched?"

Rhengar slid his hands beneath PhaHks' shirt and up his chest. The quick caress made PhaHks inhale quickly and breath quicker afterward. It was scary and alien and sensual. He was not calm but he did not run.

The first gentle touch since DhraH'Ken's cruelties. The first indication in two months that he was not something sickening to look upon. That he wouldn't crumble into a stink of alien parts (that would have to be disposed of) if they got too close to him.

Someone actually wanted to be near him.

Rhengar whispered, his lips hovering near PhaHks'.

"I wonder if her flavor is still on you? I can smell her skin on you, did you know that? After you have made love to her, you carry her perfume for days."

Rhengar kissed him once. A soft touching of open lips. "Washing does not remove it."

PhaHks felt Rhengars wide hands move up his sides and the hairless, muscled arms around to his back.

Rhengar was solid, healing heat.

Rhengar encircled PhaHks' body as far as his own would allow and kissed him, not stopping now. Teased open red lips, inserted slippery tongue and tasted him fully.

PhaHks relaxed completely under the Romulans sexual machinations.

The seduction had been so tender, so conscious of PhaHks' frail emotional, physical and mental state, so beautifully executed, that he gave in to it absolutely. Total surrender.

It was so comforting to be wrapped in anothers warmth and strength that he didn't want it to end. Ever.

The overwhelming experiences of late, the brutal attack, his near death and the long bed-ridden weeks had left him so vulnerable and his senses so raped that, without warning, PhaHks started crying right there in Rhengars arms.

He tried to pull away, then, placing his hands on the doctors shoulders to facilitate. To push.

But Rhengar would not let him go.

Would not acknowledge the embarrassment PhaHks was feeling for his other world display.

Refusing to give the shame any life, Rhengar held him tighter. Kissed his hair as PhaHks, head bowed but not touching, wept silently, his shoulders shaking from its power.

"Come here."

Rhengar walked PhaHks, in little steps, backward toward the bed and gently, gently lowered him down onto it, never letting his body separate from the humans.

Laying on top of him, full weight, he so, so tenderly removed PhaHks' clothing until he was exposed naked beneath him, the pink flushed gold of PhaHks' skin was so far removed from his own yellow flesh.

Rhengar shed his own layers quickly and kissed him.

Eyelids, the still wet face. The lips a long time. Soon a little harder, more insistent as his desire burned hotter.

Rhengar covered PhaHks' body, pressing his swollen penis into his patient's groin, rocking his hips in circles, until he felt PhaHks' shaft harden equally.

Rhengar kissed those lips that had kissed hers. He imagined round excited breasts jiggling under his movements.

"She loves you." He spoke in PhaHks' ear soft, sexy whispers that told all. "I love her, but I am not allowed. She doesn't want me." The last word was drawn out into a sigh of something dying.

Rhengar wanted her. Would take PhaHks instead. Perhaps he would know her through him. Perhaps he would get a hint of her flavor and feel.

Perhaps...

Rhengar turned PhaHks over and lay on him, whole surface to whole surface. By now he was so hard, it was painful.

Reaching around, he lifted PhaHks' hips off the bed by a few inches. By comparison to his own thickly muscled form, the human was so light that he could toss and turn him at will.

Rhengar took the hard PhaHks penis in one spitted palm, stroking it. Varied the intensity because he wanted to hear all the noises humans made. PhaHks was panting, but even that made Rhengar moan in anticipation of an unexplored sex and the poor creature who was giving it up to him.

He stroked PhaHks, up and down, harder and faster, the sex organ felt alien silky and almost as warm as he was. He slid his hand over it until PhaHks cried out, bucking his hips under him and shooting his human cum into Rhengars ready hand.

Rhengar gathered it up and spread the tacky substance between the fuzzy pillows of PhaHks' buttocks.

He raised PhaHks' hips a little more and lined up with that inviting entrance.

Rhengar imagined his penis driving into Veexow as he inserted one finger into the humans hole and then plunged his wet-tipped cock deep into that velvet cavern in one delicious thrust.

Rhengar fucked him slowly, luxuriously at first...

...and then slammed home harder and harder, his Romulan blood driving him. PhaHks' ooohhh-ing and aaahhh-ing made Rhengar's desire flame into a lust that was tenfold to its ignition.

Mindless now, Rhengar shoved it in him to the hilt and out again, faster and harder until PhaHks' body was thrown forward and back, forward and back,..

...and when he heard PhaHks whimper from the might of his slippery sex plugging the holes in the captives body and soul, Rhengar slammed harder, thrusting violently until he was body surfing PhaHks as he would a tidal wave.

Rhengar fucked the human madly, sightlessly, until neither could stand the urgent sweetness of it.

Rhengar imagined Veexow, her smooth ass offered up to him the same way, her gasps and moans, her movements and begging of him.

Then he thought of PhaHks' own surrender and beauty and his virginal part in their sexual collision as he rammed his penis deeper and harder into the welcoming squeeze.

Physical laws were broken, time stopped and he was fucking them both!

The power of it was slick and intoxicating.

Using the human's words so PhaHks would understand and remember, "I am going to fill you so full of my fuck, you will carry it with you forever." Ragged grunts. "Someday, she will have this as well."

Rhengar came, moaning like a Alpha wolf, and gasping open-mouthed as he shot and shot into PhaHks, grinding his balls against the exhausted human's quivering hips.

Rhengar shuddered. Softened.

Released him.

PhaHks lay falling asleep.

Rhengar had kissed him a long time at the beginning. At the end just as tenderly but in an anxiety to leave.

PhaHks knew why of course.

Hell bitch would kill even the good doctor if she ever found out about their erotic interlude. And maybe him too.

Visions of Rhengars thick shaft pumping him and teasing his gland, the round chock-full balls slapping his ass and touching, invading hands and lips and fingers...

...replayed in PhaHks' mind as he dozed to sleep.

The fact that he had done something that would unequivocally infuriate her (whether she ever learned of it or not), was very satisfying.

It compensated, somehow, for a lot of things.

He had in every way disobeyed his Keeper and that thought took him to restful, dreamless sleep,

****