“There’s a slightly stalkerish vibe there that might scare me.”
“No need, I’ll never hurt you.”
She wondered how many males had spoken those same words to the woman they hurt. Then there were the males who spoke those words who lived by them. She could be wrong, but she knew Lyrek would live by those words.
She snuggled up against his side her head on his chest listening to the thump. It was a steady beat. One thump a pause two rapid thumps a pause then one thump. It was different enough to draw her attention, but the same enough to be comforting.
“I know you need to open the door to your third form. Did we fail?”
“We’re not even at that point yet. The first stage was the two of us getting to know each other.”
“I liked that stage.” It involved a lot of messing around and teasing each other. It also left her sexually frustrated. Still, this was the best her sex life had ever been.
“I did too, but you pushed it last time.”
She did, and she didn’t know why. There was something inside of her egging her on. It was like she sensed a challenge and she needed to rise to the occasion or die trying.
“About that, see what had happened was… yeah, I have no idea. I can’t explain it I knew I should back down. There was a feeling inside of me that was pressing me forward. I had to keep going even if I died. Stupid, I know.”
“Maybe not. You’re still alive.” He ran his hand down her back. “Do you remember the bite?”
She opened her mouth to say no, but she remembered. They met midair. She would never be able to explain how she jumped like that. It was like being hit by a train when his body collided with hers. His mouth opened she thought to take off her head when his teeth sank deep into her shoulder. He took her down to the floor she was helplessly lying on her back with his teeth in her. Blackness assailed her before he ripped her shoulder apart.
“Yeah, I remember the bite.” Her hand went to his face. She could feel his sadness and trace his frown.
“I never meant to hurt you.”
“Was there an easier way to do it?”
“No.”
She nodded things weren’t as civil in his world as they were in hers. Was it amazing that she could live with it or was it just part of what was happening in the world around her?
“What next?”
“We wait for Rial. He’ll tell us what’s happening with your byema. Jade are you alright?”
Her hand was pressing urgently along her abdomen. “I’m not ready for this part. Did you ever see alien?”
“What’s that?”
“A movie I saw as a child. I’ll never forget, I had a big bucket of extra butter popcorn chewing back when all of a sudden, this man was on the table and his stomach was pulsing. This alien ripped out his stomach and shot across the room. My popcorn flew up in the air as I screamed. Now all I can think is something alien is going to rip out my stomach killing me before it eats the people around it.”
Good going jade now you get scared. She couldn’t help it that image was blasted into her mind as her heartbeat picked up.
“Katza,” Lyrek was gently shaking her. “Come back to me.”
“Sorry.”
“No need to apologize, that sounds horrendous. Nothing like that will happen to you.” The knock at the door stopped him.
“Can I come in?” Rial called.
“Come in.”
“Good, you haven’t messed with the bandage. How are you today my queen?”
“I am well considering I was out for three days. You didn’t happen to bring food, did you?”
“Once your examination is done, it will be brought up.”
“Thank you. When can I take this off my eyes?”
“Not until we are sure your byema has matured as much as possible.”
“I don’t understand. I thought it was on because I hit my head.”
“That was my initial reason for putting it on. The tests I have run show that your byema is reacting positively to being in darkness. Since a human has never been given the gift of a byema before I want to make sure we give you every possible advantage.”
How was she supposed to argue against that? She wanted to. There was something foreign growing inside of her. She wasn’t shocked Lyrek spent a good deal of time telling her about what would happen. A small part of her that she’d never admit to didn’t think she would survive to have to deal with this part.
“What now?”
“Now we wait, every day you stay unchanged is a day for your byema to mature.”
“Why does it have to mature?”
“Jade,” Lyrek spoke, “as a human you are considered grown. On my planet, you would still be considered young. Your byema may be a cullna.”
“What’s that?”
“An infant,” Rial told her. “She may also be a culg or cullga. A child or a teenager.”
“You believe she will be a baby.” It wasn’t a question, but a simple statement of fact. “How does this affect your plan to open the door?”
“Until your byema is cull or grown, the door will not be opened.”
She understood, he wouldn’t risk her or his people trying to force the process. It ate at her that she wasn’t going to be old enough to help in this other phase of her life.
Patience was a virtue that she was running out of. You listen to me; she told the beast growing inside of her. I am not a child and neither are you. We don’t have time to have our butts wiped or have someone feed us milk. There is a job to be done and it can’t get done without us, that means you along with me.
I’ve done the child stage where someone gets to dress me up and make me look cute. I would think it would be worse for you since you don’t have opposable thumbs. Now I will admit that being a teen can be fun depending on who your parents are but we don’t have five years to stew in angst.
We also have a male to claim and I have a feeling he’s not going to want to touch us if he thinks part of us are underage. Think about that.
Chapter Fourteen
“One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three.”
“What are you doing?” Lyrek walked into the room to hear Jade counting.
“Counting the cracks in the ceiling.”
“There are no cracks in the ceiling.”
“How do you know? Have you ever looked at the ceiling?” His heartbeat sped up making her smile. She shouldn’t be able to hear it, but it was one of the things that had changed about her. Super sensitive hearing it could come in handy but it wasn’t the superpower she would have asked for. Now invisibility would be great. She also wanted Wonder Woman’s invisible plane with a hot pilot.
“Jade?” He was giving her his reasonable voice, she almost yawned. Since she was confined to bed, he had tried to be patient. She, on the other hand, had tried to push every button he had as well as find buttons he didn’t know he had.
The one thing she had learned from his duress was that he was the man he claimed to be. More so actually.
“Katza there are no cracks in the ceiling.”
“Argh,” she yelled at him. “Look up! Don’t you see all those cracks, they are spreading as we speak.”
“Baby, you have a blindfold over your eyes you can’t see the ceiling.”
“Good point,” she calmed down and tried to hide her laugh.
“You’re doing it on purpose aren’t you?”
“Doing what?” She looked in his direction giving him the smile of the innocent.
“Driving me crazy.”
“Why would I do that? I’ve only been lying in this bed for the last eight days as my byema, some beast inside of me, grows. Why? So, it can take over my body and make me a monster that the military will have to hunt down.”
She felt the bed depress when Lyrek put his weight on his knees. He crossed until his body was pressing against hers. Then he leaned down, and he whispered a name in her ear.
“Serial killer.” He whisper
ed again. “Pedophile, rapist, cannibal, Politician.” He kept whispering, and she kept telling him who was who.
“Monsters.”
“What?” She was confused. His arms went around her and he pulled her up so that her back was against his chest.
“Every name mentioned and every title you called out was monster. Humans think being a monster means to change your skin, it doesn’t. Each of these people are the real monsters their skin looks the same but their brains, who they fundamentally are changed. They embraced something the majority of your world could never look in the eyes.
“Your race is not shifters, but you have the potential to be. You can be more than you thought but you will still be you. That means you can take on any shape in the universe Jade and I will still know you because you will be the same. I know you think that you are going to become a monster, but you’re not. I also know you don’t think me or my people are monsters or you wouldn’t be willing to help us. Trust me a little longer.”
“I can never go back.”
“No katza you can’t.”
That was the part that got her. She walked into this knowing her only exit strategy was death. Now she was so close to knowing what was going to happen to her and she didn’t want to die. This journey was supposed to be about her giving up her life to spend time with Lyrek. Instead, she found her guards and the others here. Turned out that they made her laugh and smile and then, of course, there was Lyrek who made every day brighter even when she was upset.
She wanted to one day earn the right to sit on the throne with her mate by her side. She wanted to see them regain their third form and keep the earth safe from the pestilence coming its way. She was selfish she owned that fact, but this was more than just her. Her planet, her people their way of life was being put at risk simply by existing. There was no way she was going to allow an alien race to kill them if she could help stop it.
In bright lights, she could see her name lit up. JADE STEELE! It was the latest movie of her life. She was a simple peasant looking to make ends meet, working in the garden when she first came across the alien.
“My sir, I do declare you look different. Are you one of those aliens?” Her big brown eyes inquired.
“Why aren’t you just a beautiful little thing?”
“Who me?” She pointed at herself and blinked her incredibly long lashes. “I’m just a maiden trying to make some money with her ol’ vegetable garden.”
“Quick I need you; the safety of the world is at stake and only you can save it.”
“I must save the world.” She threw off her red riding hood cape and stood up to the challenge.
“Jade? Jade?” A hand was shaking her shoulder. “If you don’t stop laughing like that, I’m going to think something is wrong.”
“What? OMG, I was having this daydream that I was a poor peasant and the world needed me to be a hero and… never mind you had to be there. It was funny though.”
“The world be damned Jade, I need you. You don’t have to be a hero, you don’t even have to embrace your byema, just don’t leave me.”
That was what held her to him. This understanding that the only thing he wanted from her was her. It was new and amazing to be wanted only for herself. She wasn’t an ornament on his arm and he didn’t need to show her off to feel like he was someone.
“The world be damned,” she agreed.
“If we are all on one accord, maybe we could get on to the next order of business.” Rial’s voice was dry but to be fair to him, he was watching two people kiss while he had no one and still didn’t know if there was a chance of any of them mating with a human female.
“By all means let’s rush to my possible demise.” She ground out pushing herself to a sitting position. “Rial, did you just roll your eyes at me?”
“I swear she doesn’t know the meaning of blindfold,” Rial muttered just loud enough for her to hear him. “I’m going to take the blindfold off first, you need to keep your eyes closed. After that, I’m going to remove the bandage on your shoulder. I’ll leave the room, Lyrek will take the form of his byema. When you hear him roar open your eyes if you're going to change it will happen then.”
“And if I don’t change?”
“You may have an inner animal who chooses never to show itself.”
“Or?”
“Or your race may not be able to handle the gift.”
“Will I live through the process?”
“I don’t know, no one knows.”
She nodded but stayed quiet. It was what she expected. There was no way of knowing what would happen to her. She went into this knowing her chances of death were high. The real surprise was that she got this far in the process.
“I’m ready,” she took a deep breath and centered herself.
“I’m not,” Lyrek told them before he got off the bed.
Jade felt the wrap on her eyes come off piece by piece until the darkness was a little lighter.
“Now your shoulder. The test shows that all the venom has been absorbed and used by your body.”
“Will I turn into evil Spiderman?”
“Who is Spiderman?” Lyrek asked her.
“That’s it, why we will be having a movie marathon your motion picture knowledge is woefully lacking?”
She stuck her hand out and Lyrek took it.
“I’m not leaving your side.”
“Unless I don’t make it.”
“I’m still not leaving. It is you and I.”
A small smile tugged at her lips. “When I was younger that was my dream. To meet someone or to have a friend or sibling who would say it’s you and me against the world and then mean it.”
“I mean it.” He held her hand tighter.
“Everything looks good, I’m going to leave the room.”
“I won’t change until you’re ready.”
“We may be sitting here for a few years.” She gave a self-deprecating laugh. “I agreed to this we can’t stop now.”
“You agreed to be my abraza, my melody, my heart song, the rest was a surprise you weren’t ready for.”
“I know enough to read the fine print. I’ve been handling contracts all my adult life. The fact that I was willing to blindly follow you means one of two things.”
“I’m devastatingly good looking? Or my personality is ridiculously spot on?” Her lips twitched as she tried to hold back her laughter.
“How about you either brainwashed me or some part of me saw something it couldn’t turn down. The ultimate deal.”
“So, you do find me devastatingly handsome.”
“I do” The smile came, and she didn’t fight it. Five minutes from now she could be roadkill on the floor her body turned inside out like a gross reminder not to go outside on Halloween. Right now, she was alive, and she was going to enjoy it. “I’m ready.”
“Jade…”
“Please, let’s do it now.”
“Alright.” He let go of her hand and stood back. The male took a few steps back and changed with a blink of an eye going down on all fours. He sat there watching the female he claimed. He tilted his head taking in the scent of the room before walking over to her.
“Hey scary, how are you today? I can’t open my eyes yet but I know you're in the room with me. You bit the shit out of me. I’m not happy about that, but I’ll take it over ripping my throat out. Just saying. I’m waiting for you to roar, I guess in your language that will be enough to call the byema in me out. If I really have another entity living in me. I swear the next time I’m reading or watching sci-fi or paranormal I’m going to take notes.” She got quiet; the next move belonged to Lyrek no matter what form he was in.
When the call came it shot through her body with the precision of a laser. Every part of her was touched. It divided cells and dissolved muscle. It grabbed her throat cutting off the call for help that rose unbidden to her lips. She fell all arms and legs to the floor as her body struggled to rise. Inside of her was a burning sensation
one she fought with every bit of who she was.
Something wanted to possess her to take her over and then destroy her and everything she ever loved. She fought even harder realizing that she wasn’t the salvation of a race but the thing that would destroy them.
“You can’t fight me.” The voice purred in her head like a seductress waiting to take over.
“Bitch please, you are some deranged part of me that doesn’t have my permission to live.”
“I’m the strong part of you, not the whiney out of shape part that sits in an office and pushes papers all day.”
“When I’m done with you, you’ll wish you pushed papers.”
“Then come find me.”
“On it.”
Chapter Fifteen
The landscape was as beautiful as it was unrecognizable.
“This is Porakay long before it was developed and civilized.” Jade the sabretooth filled in the blanks.
They were standing on a bed of grass that ran the gamut from reds to purples. The sky overhead was more of a lavender. In the background, she could see a waterfall of pristine greenish water. It smelled sweet enough for her to want to drink.
“It’s beautiful here.”
“It was, this place, this world, and this time no longer exists.”
“It’s not just your planet. I watch my planet every day. The news shows me pictures of places that will never be the same. I wonder at times what people, what race of humans will we wipe out never to see in your DNA strands again, and at what cost.”
“You might have been a worthy adversary for a human.”
“Don’t hurt yourself by tripping over the word human,” Jade told her with a droll sound to her voice.
“I can’t allow you to live or others like you,” Jade the sabretooth gave her look of pure disdain. “Will they make the transition and live too? Imagine if others in the universe knew there could be a way to a byema of their own?”
“They don’t seem to be lining up at your front door.”
“They’re not compatible with me. Most of them will die horrible deaths if they try.”
“Not seeing the problem here.”
Melody Embraced Page 9
