"If Only For One Night"

Written by Sapphira and based on Earth: Final Conflict, Fifth Season

Prequel to "Black Fire"

Archives: You want it for public use, let me know where its going and you can take it…

Disclaimers: I do not own Earth: Final Conflict, I'm just borrowing the storyline and characters for a while. I am not gaining any profit by my actions.

AN – Both "If Only For One Night" and "Black Fire" have been moved  in their entirety to adultfanfiction.net  … you will still find the first few chapters to both stories here on ff.net, but they are only those first few chapters that didn't have any adult content in them. To find out what happens next when the rating goes up, you'll have to conclude your reading over there… or you can e-mail me a request and I'll send them to you.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Renee cautiously slid back into the warm, fizzing tub surrounding her after locking the door into the bathing chamber behind the dark headed woman, Sophie, the manager of Hidden Gate Spa. It was just as well. There was something about that woman that made Renee very uncomfortable, although she couldn't really pin-point just what exactly it was. There was just something there in that false sweetness that rubbed her the wrong way. But that wouldn't be the only thing that had set Renee's teeth on edge since arriving here at the Spa. It was like she couldn't even turn a corner without flinching at near nonexistent shadows.

Maybe Street was right. Maybe she really was in danger of losing her mind, if she couldn't even retreat to such a remote location as this, and be content with the knowledge that nothing harmful could reach her here, other than her own mindless fears.

She let out an exhausted sigh as she leaned her head back, allowing the rim of the tub to cradle her neck. Closing her eyes, she inhaled the intoxicating fragrance of Lavender and a few other scents she couldn't name. The flickering shadows from the candlelight danced under her eye-lids, as she tried to force her muscles to untwist and relax.

She hated what had been happening to her since she had tried to save that mother from falling to her death. She could still hear her screams, could still feel the slick slippery wetness of the woman's blood coating her hand, the snap of her beaded bracelet… And the sound of the baby crying against the cruel twist of fate that had taken its mother away from it forever.

Renee remembered carrying the child down those darkened flight of stairs. She wouldn't let Street even so much as touch it. The way it had clenched it's fists against Renee's clothing, it's mouth seeking the nourishment that she was incapable of providing for it…

Her heart bled for this child. And all the others that had been orphaned. Whether by the Atavus or other situations beyond anyone's control.

Renee had seen so much loss in the last few years, so much death. She didn't know how to stop it. If it could even be stopped. It was a constant battle. A riddle with no answer.

And she was so tired of playing a game she couldn't seem to win.

She could feel her shield starting to chip, to crack. And to know that her mind was in serious danger of shattering, shook her sense of self-preservation on an elemental level.

She couldn't afford that.

She had watched so many friends and fellow Resistance fighters fall before her. Her and Street were practically all that were left, and if Renee didn't keep it together, then everything would be lost. Ra-jel had told her that it was her destiny to lead Earth out of the darkness and into its golden era. But that wasn't going to happen if that dark abyss that she seemed to be staring into every minute of every waking moment didn't stop clawing at the edges of her fracturing sanity.

And that darkness had a name. Oh, did it ever have a name. It also possessed eyes of black fire, and a voice that resonated against Renee's soul.

Howlyn.

Everywhere she turned, he was there. Either in his actions or his form. It was hard enough fighting this war, without having him throwing her mind and body into erotic chaos every time she saw him. Every time she dreamed of him.

Every time he pursued her. Hunted her. Every time he touched her.

He was a relentless hunter, and she responded to that. And she hated him for it. Hated herself more for wanting him.

He was their dark Prince, who desired her, his species' number one enemy, as his Queen. She was light to his Darkness, and she fought him at every turn, but fought herself more.

"Can you look me in the eyes, and tell me that you don't desire me?"

Renee's eyes snapped open, as the unbidden memory of those words, spoken in a silken tongue wrapped in steel, rang true in her mind. She remembered that moment on the Mothership, when he had spoken those words to her, after she had adamantly refused their connection. That moment when she had almost gave in, would have given in, if Ra-jel hadn't saved her from him. And herself.

It was then that Renee had fully comprehended the danger she was in. Just in being around Howlyn affected her on a level she hadn't even known existed. It was the part of her that answered to the wildness in him, the desire to be his, even as she sought to destroy him.

It was dangerous and forbidden. She couldn't forget what he was doing to her people. And she could never be his. Ever.

"Be mine… Or die with the others!"

Renee winced slightly at the memory of her dream. The reason why her mind was in such a turmoil this late at night. It had become quite common for her to dream of Howlyn, as he damn well knew, but this seemed different than usual. More real. Like it had actually happened. She could still feel the hardness of the broken window seal pressed into her back. Howlyn's unyielding body imprinted upon the front of hers. The bruising strength of his hand clenched around her hip. At odds with the gentleness in his tapered fingertips as they brushed her face…the flames of desire flickering in his obsidian eyes.

"You can't save your species, Renee. You can't even save yourself."

Renee groaned slightly as she shut her eyes once again, willing her mind to shut down and forget the memories and images and sensations that thinking of Howlyn created. He knew the effect he had over her, and he gloried in that power. Reveled in it.

She tried to relax. To let the bath due its job as it bubbled and fizzed around her body. To feel each muscle unclench and loosen. She had finally succeeded, when she sensed rather than heard a noise coming from the door she had just locked. Someone was rattling it, trying to get in.

Renee sat up slowly and turned back the jets on the Jacuzzi, silencing their flow. She waited a few moments, and not hearing it again, ascertained that is was just her imagination playing tricks again, like it had all day.

She started to lean back when she heard the sound of someone's fist smashing through the door, and as she shot up, grabbing the sides of the tub in support, knocking over the crystal water glass to smash on the marble floor, she had one true moment of solid clarity that came rushing to her as fear mixed with heady adrenaline shot through her body...

Her dream hadn't been a dream after all. It was a mark of how foolish she had become if she had genuinely believed otherwise… and somehow, someway…Howlyn had found her, and had come on his own to take of this personally.

Once and for all.

~*~*~*~*~

She didn't know how she knew all that, but she did. Her body sensed he was near even if her mind didn't want to believe it. Her hand reached out to turn the spout on full. Maybe with any luck, he'd slip on the water. Not likely though. But the noise just might provide her with some cover as she moved.

Glancing into the shadowed corner behind the tub, she shot up and out of the tub, water cascaded off of her lithe body and onto the floor as she caught up her robe and threw it on. She shuddered to think what would have happened if she hadn't locked that door. Confronting Howlyn was never a good thing. Confronting him while naked…

Well, that brought up a whole bunch of very bad case scenarios.

Renee quickly looked around the room, and behind the curtain for another way out. A door, a window, a closet which might contain something she could use as a weapon. Nothing. She was very effectively snared and trapped. Renee pressed a trembling palm to her forehead. She didn't know what to do. She ducked behind the curtain in time to hear what was left of the door, slamming into pieces against the wall, and sat down in the wooden chair positioned there, her legs partially giving out.

She couldn't do anything but simply sit and wait. And see which card she was dealt.

She watched from the shadows as he walked in. Heard his familiar hiss as he yanked back the curtain to reveal the overflowing bath tub. Fully expecting her to still be sitting there. Not bloody likely.

She sensed his split second confusion when she wasn't there. Sensed him smile slowly as his senses pin-pointed her location in the room. She had no doubt that he could hear her heart pounding in her chest, as well as the smell of her rising fear… among other things.

Renee felt the weakness flood her limbs, her sense of balance altered, as her tunnel vision returned with a debilitating vengeance. Blurring her ability to focus, as Howlyn ripped the thin barrier of the curtain separating them away, his primal trademark Atavan hiss/shriek vocalization piercing the writhing steamed softness of the bathing chamber. Releasing his triumph in uncovering his prize.

Renee started and a small startled gasp escaped her lips at the sight of him within her unfocused and glazed eyes.

Howlyn became suddenly very still and serious as he studied this human female he had come to prize. He had seen her anger, her fire, her passion. Her desire. And he responded to her on so many different levels, that it confused even him sometimes. And his was a species that prided itself in living instinctively.

His obsession with her had start over 3 million years ago, when she had stood bravely in front of him and Nahima. He had never met her before then, but his senses ascertained that she had recognized him. And had responded to him. He saw the recognition flair up when he had walked into the throne, momentarily distracted with his anger at Nahima for returning. Sensing the instant desire shoot through her. Watched her out of the corner of his eyes as her pupils dilated and her lips parted.

But he also watched her shift her body into a fighter's stance, and her hand clench tightly around her energy blade.

It was an intriguing contradiction… And she had fascinated him from the beginning.

"And What …are these?" he remembered the question he had voiced to Nahima. Nahima's exotic beauty had caught his attention in the beginning, but she was a dangerous and sly Atavan female, who would just as soon kill him and rise as the ruler of the Atavus, then to become his mate and subjected to bearing his young. That is why he had banished her from his bed, as well as his palace. And why he had been so furious at her return.

But now, she had brought him this…interesting specimen from the future.

"Intelligent Livestock. Remarkable."

He remembered the sudden glint of anger in the human female's eyes when he had referred to her as livestock. He had smiled slightly at her, mocking her, letting her know that he knew he had rubbed her the wrong way, and that he had found it delicious. He watched that intoxicating spirit behind those eyes silently challenge him, and knew that he liked her very, very much.

But he was also aware that this warning that Nahima had brought him, meant that, despite her nonchalant attitude towards the female, that Nahima considered her a threat. This human female had an intense fire about her that Nahima had already experienced… Enough so, that she considered the entire human race was a danger. Destroying all of their human livestock was no small thing. It could very well destroy their own race.

But still, he had to stir the embers some, just to see what result would occur. Just how far would this new female go?

"These creatures don't look dangerous," he taunted Nahima, eyes never leaving the object of his newly discovered but increasing desire. "On the contrary. Rather desirable."

He had accomplished his goal when he watched Nahima's face twist with jealousy and she had hissed at him, "Allow me to demonstrate!"

Nahima had taunted Renee into attacking, but Howlyn sensed immediately with a measure of confusion that the human female wasn't even trying. She was allowing Nahima to think she was winning. Allowing her to knock Renee around. His interest peaked as he watched this from his throne. Enjoying the show. He was intrigued. What was that strange but beautiful female up to?

When Nahima was preparing to kill her, Howlyn shot up from his throne, all amusement fading. He wasn't going to let her be harmed because of Nahima's vindictiveness. Not yet anyway. Not until he had satisfied his curiosity.

Somehow he sensed that this is was something the female had expected. She was actually pleased at his interference, but not necessarily because she feared Nahima. Part of him wondered if maybe this unique creature was testing him.

"Nahima! No… I wish to examine her." His heated sentence had been enough to make Renee's heart slam up into her throat.

Howlyn realized a moment too late his error by giving away more than he intended Nahima to know, by letting his simple curiosity fall away. Revealing what he really thought of the human.

Nahima became infuriated, her body tightening, ready to rip the human female apart to defend her believed claim to Howlyn. Such was the Atavan way.

"He desires You?!" the boiling Atavus hissed in disbelief, her eyes flaming venomously.

Howlyn moved to intercept and distract Nahima, but pulled up short, when he saw the strange dark skinned male had made use of his energy blade, by plunging it into Nahima's stomach.

Pity he missed her heart. He might then have lived.

Temporarily distracted from Renee, Nahima went over to Howlyn, where his intention was to do some distracting of his own, long enough for the female to take the chance and slink off to some corner out of Nahima's way. Long enough for him to satisfy Nahima's lust, get rid of her, and then precede with his own…examination of the strange female from the future.

But when he saw her heading back to the portal with the older male in tow, he didn't very much like that plan of hers at all.

"The human female wishes to leave." He tauntingly informed Nahima. Knowing she wouldn't be able to deny her instincts of the hunt to remove a potential rival.

Nahima gave chase, and Howlyn's suspicions on whether or not the human female had had something up her sleeve were confirmed.

His hunger intensified, as he watched her plan unfold, and as she defeated one of the most deadliest Atavus female's within his kingdom, present and future, he knew then she was the only one who he would be satisfied with to have at his side as his queen.

You're an intriguing creature." Howlyn studied her form through shadowed eyes, a smile flitting across his mouth. "As it happens, I'm looking for a mate." His hand gestured to the fossilized Nahima. "And as you defeated the only competition… I'm yours."

She had turned to face him, a wicked smile crossing her face as her eyes slide down his body and back up again.

"As I'd hoped." She toned out in a primal way that made his blood boil.

"Then I suggest we consummate this marriage immediately." Howlyn growled out. A similar smile crossing his face at her apparent acceptance of his proposal.

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye coyly, "If you wipe out your entire livestock now, there might not be a second date." She slowly stepped backward into the portal, and attached a strange device that he had never seen to its side. "In the meantime, I'm an old fashioned girl. You'll just have to wait a few million years."

And like that, she was gone. The portal behind her destroyed so there was no way he could follow her.

But it didn't matter. He would find her again. Nahima had said he was in her time, so he would hunt her, fight for her, consume her.

She would be in his possession again…One way or another.

And now, here they both were yet again. They had danced around each other for months. He had hunted her. She had hunted him. The had confronted each other, fought, only to fall away from each other, run, and start the game all over again at the next rising.

And his need had only become greater. But the time for the hunt to end was near.

Despite Sandoval's use of words, when he said he could take her now, and break her… Surprisingly enough, that wasn't what he wanted to do. For what would be the point to a broken mate?

He wanted to conquer her. Sway her to his side. Heal her. Help her discover her abilities and achieve her full strength and capable spirit as an Atavus' mate.

His.

But first off he had to reach through this trauma she had brought upon herself, and drag the real Renee, kicking and screaming if necessary, to the forefront.

And he so loved a good fight.

~*~*~*~*~

Howlyn studied Renee for a split second before speaking. Trying to understand what had happened to her. Sandoval had tried to explain it to him, but it hadn't made any sense… till now.

She was paler than normal. Drawn. Tiny lines of stress were visible around her mouth and eyes. And those eyes…

They were wide open, but unfixed. They blinked rapidly, unable to focus.

"Look at you." He murmured softly. "Is this what its come down to? You can't save your species, Renee." He repeated the words from their shared dream. Confirming what Renee had already known about the so-called dream not really being a dream at all. "You can't even save yourself."

Howlyn watched as her eyes closed, and she shook her head slightly. Her body slightly rocking where it sat curled up on the chair. Her bare knees pressed into her chest. A considerable length of leg revealed to him. He studied her body language and despite his need to dominate her, he didn't want her like this. Never like this. He wanted her alive and fighting. Her spirit crossed with his. He felt a painful tightening in his chest that he was not familiar with. Not sure if he wanted to be.

"You, who have achieved such heights." He was mocking her now. Taunting her on purpose with his dark laugh. Desiring some response to show him that she was still there. Trapped within that shell-shocked mind that he had come to love... and hate.

He was rewarded when he saw that familiar flash of anger kindle in her eyes. Ah, there she was.

You take things far too personally, Renee." He gently chided her. The sound of her name wrapping itself so slowly around his tongue. He'd have given just about anything to know what was going through her mind right about now.

Renee willed her eyes to focus. She was in deep trouble here, and if she didn't figure out some way to get out of it, then this whole thing was going to get out of hand. She couldn't trust herself with him. Not in her present condition. Not with her shields so effectively shattered, and her mind so vulnerable. Her pulse was throbbing hard enough in her throat to make it visible to Howlyn. She was uncomfortably aware of the drops of scented water trickling down her nape, her lower back. Between her breasts. Cooling on her exposed thighs.

She felt the familiar desire kindle in her nerve endings as it settled low in her abdomen. Fire was slowly starting to lick along her veins. How could he accomplish this, when he wasn't even touching her yet?

Why did she have to want him so much? Why couldn't she desire someone who was safe, and not this exotic alien standing in front of her? Why him? He was only trying to destroy her race and everyone she cared for. Was this what Liam had died for?

Why did her entire being seemed totally focused on him every time they were together?

Every time she encountered him, she barely managed to escape with her life, while everyone else around her was dying. How could she let herself feel this towards a monster? What did that say about her?

She didn't want this, she didn't want to want him so much that she trembled and vibrated with his every innuendo. But she couldn't stop it. She couldn't push him away. He completely overwhelmed her. She didn't want to feel his cleaves run down her body to wrap around her hips. Didn't want his mouth upon hers. His teeth in her shoulder. His body in hers. She didn't want any of it.

But she needed him nonetheless. So much so that she thought the pressure would send her into flames at his slightest touch. She couldn't fight her desire. It was a living, breathing, pulsing thing, threatening to destroy her if she didn't give into its voice. It was nothing like what she had felt in the past. The desires she had felt within her body then, paled in comparison to what she was feeling now with him only a single touch away.

She felt the heated liquid pooling between her thighs. Knew he could smell it. She felt like her mind was in an inferno. It was primal, begging to be unleashed. Begging for the release only he could give her.

What had he done to her? What had she done to herself?

"Surrender yourself, Renee. All resistance."

Renee felt a silent whimper claw at her throat at the sound of his softly spoken words. Howlyn knew she was fighting herself. Knew she was fighting the intense Atavan mating heat that his species felt towards their perfect match. It never took no for an answer, and within his species, it was never fought. It was natural for his kind. But this human woman had fought it for so long and so hard.

And it was starting to break her. And that probably had more to do with her current predicament than anything else that this war could have thrown at her.

And it was most definitely something he knew how to fix. And would… one way of another.

Renee felt those embers under her skin catch fire. She was burning for him, her entire body shaking from it. And damn it if he didn't know it.

"It's time." He whispered seductively. Willing her to meet his eyes. To accept what he was offering her.

She looked at him, tears of frustration and anger burning in her eyes. She had never asked for this. Never been prepared for him. She had released him from his underwater prison, and had unwittingly become a part of him. She hated him, wanted to kill him. Wanted to kill his entire species. Wanted them to burn in hell for what they had done to her people.

But she needed him like she needed air, and right now, she was drowning. And he was offering her a lifeline.

Granted, it came from the enemy, but it was a lifeline nonetheless.

Renee didn't know what was going to happen if she gave into him, but she knew that she couldn't fight it anymore. Fighting what she was feeling was killing her slowly. She had to fight back now in the only way she could. She had to give in to this long enough to get away from him to fight another day.

And right now, that kind twisted logic was making a hell of a lot of sense to her.

Fine then. She'd give into it. She'd let it all go, and allow herself the luxury to forget. She would set fire to the night with him at her side. Whether that fire would set her free, once and for all, from him, or enslave her further, she didn't know. But it was her only chance to destroy this primal, instinctive need to mate with him, and the option was here. In this place, Now. While she was still on her turf. What other choice did she have? If she fought, he would just cart her back to the Mothership, kicking and screaming.

And if that happened, she'd never be able to escape him.

As her tunnel vision disappeared in a sudden flash at her decision, she focused her eyes on his strikingly alien ones. Something finally clicking into place as she acknowledged that she was really going to do this. That there really was no going back. No chickening out. This was really going to happen.

And something wild within her lifted its head to the stars in triumph.

~*~*~*~*~