ACROSS STARS AND BLOOD (The Malaki Series Book 1)

by L. A. MARIE

“I think you know the answer to that.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Thane

  I flew across the city, looking for a specific building. The Malaki labs were all long and stretched out, flat buildings compared to the rest of the tall buildings we always created.

  I wasn’t sure why that was the case, but it made them easier to spot.

  When I finally found one, I lowered the craft into the parking area.

  “Stay here,” I ordered Emori.

  She frowned at me. She hated it when I ordered her around. Her feisty spirit was something I loved about her, but she had to stay out of sight.

  “Why can’t I come with you?”

  “Because I’m going to get what we need, and if any of the guards at the lab see that I have a human with me, they might be suspicious.”

  “Of what?”

  “Just stay in the ship, stay hidden, wait for me to get back.” God, she asked a hell of a lot of questions. Why did I have to explain everything in detail? I hoped that she would do what I said as I climbed out of the ship and walked toward the lab. I was still wearing the soldier’s uniform and I had arrived in a military ship. It all looked very official.

  “Can I help you, Sir?” the guard at the gate asked.

  “Yes, I am here to pick up the Noether prototype. I have orders to take it back to Enach, he requested it himself.”

  The guard frowned. “I have no knowledge of this.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Are you going to send me back empty handed and risk the wrath of Enach himself?”

  The guard hesitated before he shook his head and opened the gate. “Go ahead, I’m sure the lab technicians will point you in the right direction.”

  I nodded and walked down the corridors until I found lab technicians. I told them the same story, and they coughed up the Noether prototype, just as I had hoped.

  My father still hadn’t managed to replicate the one I had sold to Bratzek. But it looked like it was in a better condition than the one Emori had stolen and that was a good start. I still wasn’t sure it could do everything we needed it to, but I knew that the Malakus had perfected healing tech, and that was all we needed this one to do.

  If it wasn’t too late.

  I headed out of the lab, ready to get into the ship and leave, when the guard who had let me in stepped in front of me.

  “I called my superiors and it doesn’t seem like you have the authorization to come in here and take anything.”

  “Are you sure you want to walk this road?” I asked.

  The guard reached for his gun.

  Well, apparently, he did want to walk this road. Fine by me, I wasn’t in the mood to play games. When the guard drew his gun, I moved fast, twisting it out of his hand. I turned it around in a blink and shot the guard in the head. His limp body fell to the ground.

  “Hey!” someone shouted from inside, and another guard appeared. He had a gun trained on me, too. And he wasn’t close enough for me to do something about it.

  I put my hands up in the air.

  “You got me,” I said, taking one step after the other closer to the guard.

  “Don’t move, don’t come another step closer,” the guard said. But his hand trembled, and his voice sounded unstable. He had seen me kill the other guard and he was terrified of what I might do to him.

  Well, he should have been. I had no problem killing all the guards until I could get away. I had decided to turn over a new leaf when I created that bond with Emori, but I wasn’t planning on being captured again, and I wasn’t going to let them get their hands on her, either.

  I was glad she was in the ship, not seeing me do these things. It only took me a moment to knock out the guard. He hadn’t even known how to use his gun. Idiots, how could they put people like him in charge?

  Well, I was lucky that they didn’t have soldiers guarding the labs, with more skills and confidence. Otherwise, it would have been a bit more of a challenge. Not that I would have backed down, but it would have wasted time.

  When I was sure that there weren’t any other guards streaming out to try to stop me, I turned to the ship and walked through the gate. I stepped over the dead body of the first guard, opened the ship’s door, and climbed in.

  “Did you get it?” Emori asked.

  I nodded.

  “What did you get?” she asked.

  I chuckled. I held up the Noether and Emori gasped. “Are you being serious? Is that…”

  “We’re going to save your sister.”

  Emori’s face changed from surprise or shock to sadness.

  “It’s too late, Thane. Days too late. I’m pretty sure that she is dead already. I tried to contact her, but I couldn’t. Our link broke.”

  “That doesn’t mean she’s dead,” I said. “It could just be because the Noether we used to contact her was switched off.”

  Emori blinked at me. “What?”

  “Bratzek turned the device off when I sold it. They couldn’t track me. Anything that was linked through the device – telepathy and blood links – were switched off along with it.

  Emori shook her head, confused.

  “I thought your technology was so advanced.”

  “It is,” I said. “But it’s still just a device. And if you switch it off, it stops working. It’s like that with everything, even living beings.”

  “You don’t exactly switch them off,” she pointed out.

  I pulled up my shoulders and started the ship, lifting it into the air. Whatever, she could see it however she wanted, but I had just “switched off” two guards, and because of that, we were free to go to Emori’s sister and see what we could do about saving her.

  It wasn’t an argument I was willing to get into though.

  The trip to the area where Emori left was a quick one. There were small jump portals across the country, and she showed me where to find one. Getting the ship from here to what she called the Reservation was faster than I had expected.

  “How do you know about the jump spots?” I asked.

  She pulled up her shoulders. “I see you guys use them all the time. Besides, we were all supposed to work together, right?”

  I nodded. That was true, although it was all a lie that my father had spread to make the humans think that we were all in this together.

  But Emori knew it, now. I knew it in my bones, I could sense it, knowing what she thought and felt without her saying it. That was the nature of the imprint that we had made on each other.

  The closer we got to her place, the more I could feel her anxiety. And I added onto it with my own. We were both worried about her sister. She was terrified, and I panicked that we wouldn’t be able to help her. What if we got there and it really was too late? I would blame myself for it – I had kept her away from her sister, after all. Everything I had done until now was to work against her. And if it meant that she had lost her sister…

  The pain of losing my mother suddenly came crashing down on me so hard, I gasped for breath.

  Emori glanced at me, reached out for me, took my hand in hers.

  “It’s going to be okay,” she said. And somehow, I knew that she wasn’t talking about her sister and what we were about to discover. She was talking about me and how I felt.

  This was different. Being so connected to someone was something I had always told myself I didn’t need. But now that I had it, I didn’t know how I had gone without it. It really was incredible to be so in touch with someone.

  “There,” Emori said, pointing to a small house in the middle of a dried-out property. I landed the ship and we climbed out, rushing to the house. When Emori threw the door open, an old lady came to her.

  “Where have you been, child?” she asked. She seemed old and frail but there was a strength that radiated from her that I hadn’t experienced from anyone before.

  “It’s a long story,” Emori said. “Is she…”

  “She’s still with us, but we’re running out of time.”

  Re
lief washed through Emori and into me as we rushed into the house. Her sister was still alive.

  When we entered the room where she lay, death was everywhere. She may still be alive, but it wouldn’t be for very long.

  “How do you use this thing?” Emori asked, grabbing the Noether from me.

  “You have to push it against her chest, let the hooks get into her skin.”

  “Do you know what you’re doing, Emori?” The old woman asked.

  “Everything I can, Lena,” Emori said, and the old woman nodded and stepped back. Emori did what I had said, pulling the younger girl’s shirt down enough to expose her chest. She pressed the Noether against her sternum and we all heard clicks as the hooks shot into her skin. The girl’s brow knitted together, feeling the pain.

  “That’s a good sign,” I said.

  “What?”

  “She is still responsive to pain.”

  Emori only shook her head and stared at her sister.

  “Come on, Naira,” she whispered.

  “She is very sick; it’s not going to happen straight away. And that is if it works at all.”

  “Is there a chance it won’t?” Emori asked, still looking at her sister.

  “She is very far gone.”

  I wished that I could give Emori a different answer, but these were the facts. “We will know by the morning.”

  Emori nodded. After a while, she stood. “We need to find something to eat, and we need to rest,” she said. She turned to the old woman. “Thank you so much for watching over her, Lena.”

  Lena shook her head. “I didn’t do enough. I wish I could have done more.”

  “You did everything, and for that I will always be grateful. I owe you.”

  “No, Emori, I will never stop owing you.”

  Emori shook her head. “We are past that, Lena. Now, go home, rest. I will tell you in the morning if our plan has worked.”

  Lena took a shuddering breath, nodded, and took her leave.

  When she was gone and it was just the two of us, Emori collapsed on the couch. I walked to her and sat down next other. She cuddled against me, and I lifted my arm. She fit underneath it so perfectly. She buried her face against my chest, and I couldn’t believe she was so comfortable being so close to me. After everything I had done, both to her and in general, I hadn’t thought anyone would find it in themselves to accept me. Let alone show as much affection as she did.

  “There is a chance, right?” she asked softly.

  I nodded. “There is always a chance.”

  She let out a shaky breath. I tipped her head up to me and kissed her. It wasn’t about sexual attraction, although I had that around her all the time. I just wished I could help her feel better, and I wasn’t sure how to do it.

  Emori was the one who started it, sliding her hands over my body, pressing herself against me in a way that made me realize she wanted more. Slowly, I started undressing her. I met her eyes, looking for a sign that she wanted me to stop. But her eyes were hungry. She needed me just as badly as I needed her.

  When she was naked, I laid her down on the couch. I ran my hands over her body, committing the look and feel of her to memory. When I pushed into her, she cried out. In that cry was the sexual bliss that came with being together, the strengthening of our connection, but also the pain and the sorrow that came with the uncertainty of what the morning light would bring. Together, we rode out the storm. We explored each other, touching, tasting, feeling. And I knew that this was it, this was what my mother had always wanted for me. It wasn’t about finding pleasure. It was about finding a safe place in the storm, a light in the darkness.

  Hope when otherwise it all seemed lost.

  As Emori and I made love, we didn’t only find each other, but we found solace in each other, too.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Emori

  I opened my eyes and blinked. It had been a while since I had been home and for a moment, I wasn’t quite sure exactly where I was.

  But I was in the living room, tangled together with Thane on the couch. A blanket was half-thrown over us and we were both naked. I blushed when I realized it and pushed up, trying to get away from him. Trying to reach for my clothes.

  The movement woke him up and his arms closed around me, holding me down.

  “Morning,” he said in a gruff voice.

  He was smiling and that made everything better. It wiped away the awkwardness and I smiled up at him when he peeked at me through one eye.

  “It’s morning,” I said. “This is it; this is the moment of truth.”

  His eyes shot open as if he suddenly remembered what this was all about. He jumped up, pulling on his stolen soldier’s uniform. I grabbed something to wear, too. Together, we rushed to Naira’s room.

  She looked so much better; it was incredible. The dark circles underneath her eyes were gone and she didn’t look like a skeleton, her skin had a healthy color, her cheeks were slightly flushed.

  “Naira?” I asked, carefully stepping closer. I reached for her, running my fingers through her hair.

  Her eyes fluttered open.

  “Emori?” She asked. Her voice was husky, and she looked exhausted, but she was alive, and she was recovering.

  “You came back,” she said.

  I fell into her arms and cried.

  “I will always come back for you,” I said.

  When I looked at my sister, she was crying, too.

  “What did you do?” She frowned at Thane who stood in the door, looking like he wasn’t sure he belonged. “Who is that?”

  I smiled at my sister. “It’s a long story, but I did exactly what I promised you I wouldn’t do.”

  Naira frowned. “You went to steal the technology, didn’t you?”

  I nodded. “We can sort that out, later. You can be angry at me all you like, as long as it’s healthy angry. You’re alive, that’s really all I care about.”

  Naira ran her fingers over her chest, feeling the Noether, and frowned.

  “It’s still on me. It hurts.”

  “We can take it off as soon as you’re better,” I said. “We’ll make sure you’re okay, first.”

  “I don’t mean to interrupt this moment,” Thane said from the door, “but we need to get out of here. They are going to come for us, soon.”

  I frowned at him. “Why? Why now?”

  “I bought us a bit of time, but the ship should have arrived at its destination by now, and obviously, it didn’t. They are going to start asking questions. And then they are going to track that device.” He pointed to my sister. “We need to get away before that happens.”

  I nodded. “Naira,” I said, turning back to my sister. “We have to get out of here, we have to leave it all behind.”

  “Forever?” Naira asked, a look of shock on her face. “But this is mom and dad’s house.”

  “I know,” I said. “And maybe we can come back at some point. But we can’t do that, not now. We have to leave until we are safe. It’s the only way we will stay alive.”

  Naira narrowed her eyes at me.

  “What did you do, Emori?” she asked. “And who is the alien?

  “Thane,” I said. “He’s my soulmate. And we saved your life.”

  Naira blinked at me. “Soulmate?”

  “We have to leave now. I’ll tell you once we are on the way.”

  My sister finally seemed to agree with that, and we left her room. I ran to the main bedroom to pack. I grabbed the bag and threw in a couple of pieces of clothing, a few pictures of my parents, and a hairbrush. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed some food from the fridge. It wasn’t enough, but it was a start.

  “You don’t have anything to wear. Are we going to stop by your place and get something?”

  Thane shook his head. “No time, we will make it work when we get there.”

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “Somewhere else, to a different House.”

  I didn’t need any more explanat
ion than that. All I needed was for us to get away as quickly as possible.

  We were barely ready to run to the ship when a formation of crafts circled the house.

  “They already found us!” I cried out. “What now?”

  “Get in, strap yourselves down.”

  I knew exactly what that meant and this time, I didn’t argue. I made sure my sister was safe, first. When I was sure that she was okay, I strapped myself in, too. Naira was still very weak. She would take a while to recover. But as long as we could get her away from here, we could take that time.

  I half-expected Thane to fight the ships, to try to shoot then down. It was what he always did. And, just as I thought it, Thane maneuvered the ship so that the blaster cannons pointed in their direction. He started firing.

  Every time he fired, Naira let out a squeal.

  Two ships went down, three, four. But there were more and more coming. In one of the front ships, I could make out Enach. He had come to us personally. Well, that didn’t happen every day, did it?

  I watched Thane, saw him baring his teeth like an animal. It was clear that he hated his dad now more than ever. He aimed the blaster cannon at his father, and I watched the battle on his face, saw him trying to decide if he should pull the trigger.

  Eventually, he swung the ship around and floored it.

  He couldn’t kill his father. There was still something good in him, and that gave me hope.

  “Are we going to get away?” I asked.

  “We don’t have a choice,” Thane said.

  I nodded. I hoped that Thane knew what he was doing, because right now, we were in his hands.

  Somehow, he managed to evade the other ships. They fell back one by one, until, eventually, there was only one left. And then, as we reached the ocean, his dad turned back, too.

  “Where is he going?”

  “He isn’t allowed to leave his jurisdiction,” Thane said. “The Elders aren’t allowed to abandon their areas, not unless there is war. That is why we are going across the ocean. We are going to one of the other houses, to start a new life.

  A new life, overseas? I couldn’t imagine it. I had grown up in the Navajo Reservation. The life there was all my sister and I had ever known.