Eve was angry. Rodney-no, the human prisoner-refused to cooperate. He was the only one able to bring her plan to completion and she knew that her status as Queen depended on it. If she disappointed the Great Allegiance she would not only lose her throne, but very possibly her life as well. She had the duty to provide new feeding grounds. She had used her privilege as fore-barer to gain leadership. But she had to prove she deserved it, and the Wraith, as a species were not known for their keenness on second chances. This was her one and only one. She needed him to be fully functional, which meant she could not inflict physical or mental damage on him. But she had to convince him somehow. Would his threshold for pain be low enough for her to break him without impairing him? And worst of all, there was not enough time. Not to bring him under her charms again.
He was waiting for her, knees hugged tightly to his chest. When she entered he looked up. His blue eyes shot daggers at her. She advanced on him, holding his gaze and letting a lazy smile grace her features. She didn't stop until she was well inside his personal space. When she raised a hand above his head, he swallowed, eyes affixed to her intimidating talons. She caressed his cheek with enough pressure to make him feel just how sharp her claws really were. Her hand stopped over his neck, her touch light but threatening.
"Have you considered helping me?"
"For the intelligent creature you claim to be, you sure are slow in some respects." Rodney spoke in a quiet voice, swallowing as if to test her grip.
"You will address me as Queen, from now on, human," she hissed at him while tightening her fingers around his throat. "And you will help me. In fact, by the time I'll have finished with you, you'll beg me to let you help."
"Why? Why are doing this? You know I'll die before letting your kind find Earth."
"How many times are you prepared to die? Once? Twice? A hundred times? A thousand?" Eve punctuated her questions by letting her feeding spikes break his skin one at a time. She released the enzymatic fluid under the tender skin on the side of his neck then pulled her hand away. Rodney covered his bleeding wound with a gasp of pain. His pulse raced and he just wished he was dead already. The liquid spread through him slowly, painfully. He thought that it was replacing the blood in his veins, relentlessly pushing it to the surface.
"Eve! Please! Stop!"
"Queen! I am Queen, and you will address me as such!"
"Queen..." Rodney managed between clenched teeth. Her palm covered the wound again and the pain ebbed to endurable levels. His knees gave out and he fell to the floor with a grunt.
"I will return later, after you have recovered, and you will then show me the plans you made for the connection."
With that she left, grateful he could not see how her hands shook. It was anger, it had to be. There couldn't be any other emotions concerning the human. It was just frustration that she couldn't kill him, not even truly harm him because she needed his help. The anger and betrayal she saw in his eyes meant nothing to her. Nothing!
He lay on the floor until there was no more pain. He was terrified. What if he couldn't take it anymore and just give in to her? He would be responsible for the destruction of Earth and probably the entire Milky Way Galaxy. His thoughts drifted to Jeanine once again. He could actually see her, pretty and happy. She would be at her home, with her daughter, or cuddling with her husband (what was his name?) on the porch, sipping wine or coffee. And all hell would break loose. A hive ship would land, and in his despair-induced vision, it would land in his sister's back yard. Chaos. Fear. Pain, like no other. And then all of them would be dead. Jeanine's blond hair would turn grey as a pale green, hungry hand would suck the life from her chest. Madison would be transformed into a grotesque doll. He would be responsible fro the end of Earth.
He shook his head to rid himself of these visions. He couldn't allow this to happen. On the other hand, he knew he couldn't take the kind of pain that Eve would inflict. He had a taste of it and he was certain more was on the way. Maybe if he could stall her. Give her plans bit by bit and hope for rescue?
But her mind was sharp. Her intellect had been one of the major appeals for him. Even now, when he wasn't in an altered mental state, he still admired her. She was strong and smart and cunning in ways that he was certain humans could never achieve. And infinitely patient. If he gave her enough information, she might be able to figure things out on her own...
No. Not an option. But the pain! He never would have imagined that human nerves could take pain at those levels of intensity without breaking. He now suspected there was a lot he didn't know about human resilience and he felt a faint regret for not listening to Carson more often. How many times are you prepared to die? A hundred times? A thousand? Rodney shuddered as her words echoed in his mind. How many times indeed. Not enough, he feared. He wished he was dead. Death was less scary then the prospect of losing control. He would lose any dignity he had left at Eve's hands. He was certain of it.
McKay had fallen asleep. He never felt it happening, realizing it only hours later when he woke with a start trying to make out his surroundings. Eve was looming above him, wearing an unsettling smile.
"Have you slept well? Are you rested?"
"What..? Why?"
"So that we may begin. You are helping me with the plan to connect the energy module you call ZedPM to the Ring."
"Ergh, no I'm not."
"Ah, you wish to challenge me? Very well. I hoped this could be avoided, but if you insist, I will harm you."
"Why would you want to avoid harming me?"
"Inflicting pain and waiting for you to recover takes away precious time," she said, as she produced a knife that looked much like a surgical blade. "You seemed terribly affected when you witnessed one of these used on me. I wonder how you'll feel about it cutting into your own flesh?"
Rodney couldn't help a shiver. He looked into her eyes as she lowered the blade to his chest. Green and blue caught in a battle of wills. They kept staring into each other's eyes, into each other's souls. He could still feel a connection to her. She couldn't control his thoughts from the inside anymore, but she could hear them if he wasn't careful.
As his blood was spilled he found he could read her mind, too. It was strange and it seemed twisted and illogical to him. Yet he felt he could easily lose himself in the maze of her mind. He kept looking at her, throughout his ordeal. He looked into her eyes trying to convey his despair, hoping against all hope she would be moved.
The cuts she made were shallow enough not to cost him precious life-blood. It was painful, but not painful enough. He could take this. He could get used to the rhythm she used to deliver the cuts and use that to keep his mind off the blood spilling over her hands with every new one.
But then she used the link. She opened her mind to him, pulling him in and poring into him every emotion she had ever felt. All at once. He screamed, overwhelmed. Millennia of agony spent in a cage... Hunger so frightening it took his breath away... He felt the weight of her long life crushing him, his own screams filled his ears just like hers had, so long ago.
Eve made her way carefully through her own memories, selecting the ones she thought he could endure without losing his mind. She didn't want to drive him insane. At first he tried to resist her intrusion, but then, as she started pushing harder, he simply yielded to her will, inviting her to fill him with her presence. His mind proved stronger than she would have imagined. Could she have judged him so poorly? She had underestimated his resources.
Despair filled her soul as she realized he would not be broken. After all her struggles and after surviving for so long, to lose everything was unthinkable. She had to have the connection and the Ring active by the next rise of the twin suns.
She withdrew enough to stop her memories from reaching him.
"You are obstinate. But you will find that I am more so."
One of her hands covered his right ankle as her other went to his knee. She held his leg down and with a twist dislodged his anklebones. Rodney screamed. She pulled the bones back into their proper sockets and twisted them out again. He struggled against restrains he hadn't even noticed before, as his breath came in agonizing short pants between clenched teeth.
"God! Stop! Jesus! Fuck!"
She kept on toying with his abused ligaments, ignoring his screams and panting. He wished he would just pass out-hell even fainting sounded like heaven at this point. But she was careful not to cross that line, making it clear she wanted him alert and feeling every motion of her hand. His vision started to blur around the edges. His breathing was uneven enough so that the amount of oxygen to reach his brain was limited. Then she stopped.
Rodney lay on his back, eyes closed, expecting the agony to start over again any minute. His ankle throbbed and he was sure he would not be able to put weight on that foot ever again.
"Are you now willing to help me?"
He desperately wanted to say yes. Yes to anything, to any request, any command, just to make this stop. He wanted to fall to her feet and beg, just like she promised him he would. Instead he heard himself saying "Not really," in a ragged voice.
She screamed in frustration.
And he woke up. He was not tied down and the pain in his leg was just a very vivid memory. Eve, however, was a very real presence, staring down at him with a grim expression in her eyes. His mouth felt dry.
She wanted to hurt him, to break his bones for real this time, just for the pleasure of hearing them crack in her hands. She wanted to hear him scream her borrowed name and for his mind to be opened and prey to her own. She wanted to feel his sweat on her skin, his blood on her palm, his mouth on hers. She wanted to have him like she had before, when his every breath was hers.
"Just kill me already," he whispered when he found his voice again.
"After you've helped me, I'll do as you wish." As she spoke the words she knew them for the lies they were. She would not kill him. Never. She moved her long slim fingers over his face, loving the way his eyes rolled back in his head at her touch. "I wish I could keep you. You are useful. Strong and intelligent."
"Gee," he whispered, somehow still managing the sarcasm. "Thanks."
"You wanted to stay with me, you wanted to come away."
"Yeah, when I was drugged out of my mind. Now I know better."
"Your kindness was true even then. Why?"
"This conversation is useless and boring. I won't help you no matter what you say or do, so just get it over with and kill me!" Rodney yelled, suddenly losing his temper. He batted her hand away and took a step back. It was too much: The pain that wasn't real, but that he could still taste sharp and putrid on his tongue; her soft voice and slow caress; the way she seamed to find it normal to have casual conversations between torture sessions... It was all just too much for Rodney.
The smile that grew on her face at his outburst almost undid him.
"Perhaps you want pleasure, instead? Maybe I misjudged you. Maybe pain is not the answer. Should I give you pleasure like I have before?"
"What? NO!" Rodney backed up against the nearest wall, feeling it warm and alive against his back. She advanced on him, still smiling. "Please, don't do this..."
Rodney turned his face, trying to avoid her lips. He felt them on the side of his neck, her tongue lapping at the wound she had left there earlier. Her hands roamed over his shoulders and down his chest, under his shirt. She pushed his shirt upward until she exposed the faint scar tissue her feeding sessions had left between his pectorals. She covered it with her palm, pushing him tighter against the wall. His eyes closed and his head rolled back with a dull thump.
"Give in to me. I can feel you need this. I know your words were true when you said you loved me. You can be free like you were then. I can give that to you."
"I don't want... Stop reading my mind." Then he stopped speaking as her mouth covered his. Her feeding spikes shoved under his skin and he let it happen. His arms went around her, his hands catching in her long soft hair. He was tired of fighting it. Of fighting himself.
He groaned as their kiss deepened and she moved languidly against him. He hated himself for needing the comfort her body provided. He felt weak and inadequate as he returned her caress. He could remember now that she had forced herself to let him fuck her that first and last time on Atlantis. He had first remembered it as he was coming down from the enzyme. He wondered if it was the case now, if she was trying to use sex to lure him to her again. The fact that she would endure such pain and pretend it was pleasure had amazed him ever since his mind was free enough to realize what she had done. He could understand why she did it. Freedom would be worth anything. And he admired her strength, wondering if he could ever do something similar.
Would she let him hurt her again just to convince him to help her? He needed to know. He started kissing her back.
"I do. I really do," he whispered, as if asking for forgiveness. "Can you?"
"I am in your arms. This should be answer enough."
"It's not." Rodney pulled the fine straps of her dress off her shoulders. He looked into her eyes as he undressed her. It didn't take long-the silk-like materiel being the only obstacle between her skin and his hands. He held her at arm's length and took in the view. Her body was willowy and slim, yet strangely feminine. Her skin seemed made of alabaster in the dimming light. Her breasts were nicely rounded and her waist small, curving out in luscious hips. He swallowed a lump in his throat when he took in her hairless pubis and long beautiful legs.
"Did I hurt you last time? Don't lie." His voice came as a hoarse whisper.
"Yes."
"Show me how to do it so that it doesn't hurt." He surprised himself and her with that, but he really wanted to make the encounter a mutual pleasure. Since he was going to die at the hands of this beautiful creature that no doubt he loved, the least he could do would be to enjoy her company while she allowed him to.
Her eyes narrowed and she studied him for a moment.
"Please." He said when the silence proved unbearable.
Eve helped him out of his clothes, took him by the hand and led him to the web hammock. She knew she could not break his resolve any more. He had cured himself of her intrusion and became immune. It would take ages to subdue him again, and she had only until next sunrise. Then they would both be killed. She would be executed for deceit and treason and he would be fed upon by the first hungry wraith. Then her kind would try and take over Atlantis once again.
She doubted they would succeed. It seemed that humans outdid Lanteans in terms of resolve. Maybe it was because they were more prone to desperate acts of self sacrifice—either because they didn't know any better, or because it was in their nature to seek death. The human in front of her was the embodiment of his kind's best and worst.
She guided him to rest on top of her as she had done the first time. Only now her thighs remained closed and she hooked her ankles together. She smoothed her hand over his bare back, feeling the sweat that gathered between his shoulder blades. Rodney held his weight balanced on extended arms and rested his head in the crook of her neck. He barely resisted the urge to penetrate her or at least just rub against her-something, anything to alleviate the ache building in his groin.
"Rodney, look at me. I want to see your eyes change as you find your pleasure."
He looked up and felt the icy green of her eyes piercing his very core. Their lips met and it was a slow and sensuous glide of tongue against tongue. He couldn't keep his hips still and started moving against her, building up the friction. She tilted her own hips and used a hand to guide his erection between her thighs. He broke the kiss at her touch and started to protest. He didn't want to reenact what happened in Atlantis. More than anything he wanted to hear her pant with pleasure.
"I will show you only if you let me," She reassured him with a smile. It was the first genuine smile of affection he had ever seen on her face, and he wondered if it would be the last.
He stopped fighting her ministrations and finally she closed her thighs around him, tight enough to make stars explode behind his eyes.
"Oh, God... Eve, I... I'm so close..." he groaned, trying desperately to hold back his release.
Her hand covered his mouth and he instinctively licked the deadly slit in her palm. It was her turn to gasp. Her pupils dilated, matching his, and he smiled into her skin. He understood. He was a genius in two galaxies after all, and for good reason.
"I do," she said in response to his unasked question as he started moving, tongue dipping into her slit and lapping around it. Her other hand found its way to his ass, pulling him tighter against her. Friction was sweet and his sweat seemed to provide enough lubrication to prevent him from rubbing himself raw as her hips played a counterpoint to his.
She moved her hand to the back of his neck suddenly and pulled him in for a kiss. Her long legs came around his waist and she met his thrust openly. Her other hand pushed his ass, angling him, and he was enveloped in slick heat. His eyes were huge with astonishment and realization. She arched her back, pushing her breasts against him as she came, holding him tight. He felt her feeding spikes break the skin on his back and her inner muscles clench around him and lost control.
She felt him shift their position to bring her on top as he regained command over his muscles. Her hair caressed his face soothingly as he breathed deeply. She remained in his arms until his breath became even with sleep. She left in silence. She knew what she had to do.
