by Erin Raegan
Then he lightly rubbed the end of his nose down the side of mine. “Will you behave?”
I let out a loose breath against his mouth, closing my eyes. “I’m not very good at behaving.”
He chuckled against my mouth before nipping my bottom lip. “I want to watch you eat.”
Shocked, my wet eyes sprang open to his. His hand slid from my chin, then he was backing away. The tray slid down the table and stopped beside me. I swallowed thickly and looked from him to the tray.
He sat back, leaning against a chest, and crossed his arms. My hands shook as I grabbed a ball of fruit from the tray. Cheeks burning, I bit into the sweet skin and chewed, licking my lips.
He didn’t move as I went for the next piece. He watched my mouth with an intensity that rocked me until I couldn’t eat another bite. Then he handed me a crystal bowl full of a deep blue liquid. I took it from him and sipped it. It was sweet with a bit of a tang and I knew instantly it was fermented. It hit me so fast, the room spun. When I went to hand it back, he made a small sound of protest and nodded for me to sip again. He continued until the bowl was empty.
A warm wave spread through my limbs and my eyes hung heavy as I watched him resume cleaning and sharpening weapons. As the warmth spread, I felt the last few bricks of my walls crumble and I scooted closer to him, watching him caress every blade with love and care. My fingers eventually found their way to a blade on the table and ran over the engravings on it.
At some point, I moved to his lap and he guided my hands to the blade he was working on. Together we glided it against the whetstone. His nose found its way into my neck, caressing it as he breathed in, then to my hair. Eventually his hands left mine for me to sharpen the blade alone while his roamed my thighs and waist. The cool metal of his left hand curved under my top and around my belly, pulling me back against his chest until my head lolled on his shoulder. As he caressed every inch of bare skin his hands could reach, mine drooped until he took the blade from me and lifted me from the ground.
The next morning, I woke up in the bed—alone, fully dressed, and one hundred percent pissed off.
12
Chyn
Chyn watched the Dahk male slink through the camp from the comfort of the shadows.
He bit down his rage and disgust at seeing Vyr not far behind.
He followed the males to the tent, let them get feet from her before he had enough.
Vyr sighed as Chyn stepped out in front of them. “I was wondering if you would even care.”
“You know better,” Chyn scolded him.
“I had to see for myself,” Vyr growled in disgust.
Tohn looked at Vyr. “You knew he was following us?”
Vyr just looked at the male.
Chyn chuckled. “You cannot sneak upon me or what is mine.”
“He would have come on his own if I had not allowed him his chance to retrieve her and I could not let you kill him.” Vyr looked to the tent. “She would not forgive you.”
“You think that would soften me?” Chyn cast a scathing look upon his brother.
Vyr smirked grimly. “Not now, no. But when you accept her, you would regret it.”
Chyn looked to the confused Dahk. “What is he to her?”
“A friend,” the Dahk bit through fangs. “You can’t keep her.”
“Get him from my sight before I show him just what I am willing to do to keep her.”
Vyr sighed. “Come, I warned you it was a wasted effort.”
Tohn sneered at Vyr. “You are mated to a human, how can you allow this?”
Vyr then growled low in warning. “This had nothing to do with my mate and you know nothing of what you risk coming here.”
Tohn cursed. “I can’t just leave her here, I owe her father that much.”
Vyr pinched his brow. “I won’t let him harm her, but if you return, I won’t be able to keep the assassin from gutting you.”
Chyn chuckled. “Perhaps I will still come for him.” He looked at the Dahk. “I would think twice before closing your eyes this eve.”
Vyr cursed and glared at Chyn. “I’ve passed along what you said to Uthyf, but he still asks for your aid. The Kilbus Lord implied you would be willing.”
Chyn smirked. “Tell the allied kings to put their efforts elsewhere. I have given all that I’m willing.”
Vyr nodded. He knew not to push for more of the assassin. Their Dahk healer had already begun dissecting the Bour’s stem, which would lead them to the antidote of the Bour sickness. Freeing them from further manipulation. And winning them the war they feared so greatly.
“And Viytenus?” Vyr called as Chyn turned from them. “Have you found him?”
Chyn looked at Vyr in silence until he took the Dahk and left.
Chyn did not need to seek out the Bour leader. If Chyn’s suspicions were correct, he was already running from one assassin.
A Shadow Born Assassin Chyn had yet to officially meet. A Shadow Born, Chyn thought bleakly, that smelled distinctly Latari that day on Home World.
13
London
When I woke up after he got me drunk, it was still dark outside and twenty Juldo guards surrounded the tent. Not one of them spoke to me, but as the sun eventually rose Lyno stayed with me all day. He wasn’t so good with small talk, but he did feed me and send for hot water so I could wash and change into another silk outfit Chyn had left in the tent for me. This one was a bold red that nearly matched his skin tone. Not only was it skimpier, but it felt like one more game we were playing. A game I hadn’t signed up for but couldn’t see a way out of and fell deeper into every minute I spent here.
When Chyn finally returned, the sun was setting. Which meant it was probably early afternoon for them. For me, it just made me tired. Bored out of my mind and cooped up, I couldn’t shake my exhaustion.
He slapped his way into the tent and relieved Lyno with a chin jerk. Chyn was wearing the usual coat that bared his arms, but he wasn’t wearing a tunic underneath. His broad chest was on display, a perfect match to my attire. He looked me up and down with a satisfied smirk.
“What was that you gave me last night?” I demanded, following him when he walked around me to the jug of water on the table. That drink had been no mere wine. One small bowl of it had hit me like a dangerous amount of tequila would have. When he ignored me, I grabbed his arm, pulling him around to face me. “What the hell was that?”
He glared at me and leaned close. “Release me now.”
I ripped my hand from him, my cheeks flaming. I looked down, embarrassed as a weird, uncomfortable ice filled my fingers. My anger fought back to the front, but I couldn’t look him in the eye. “What did you give me?”
He gave me his back and walked to my sandals, which he tossed to me. “Let’s go.”
After my sandals were on, he grabbed my hand and pulled me to his chest.
“Deep breath,” he murmured in my ear.
I cursed and sucked in and then we were misting away.
We didn’t go far.
I opened my watering eyes to see the canyon again.
We stood on the platform from the day before but the others carved out spaces were completely empty all around the canyon. It was just an endless sea of rock as far as the eye could see.
Chyn set me down on the stone bench and stood straight looking over the canyon. I glared at him as I breathed through the nausea but my eyes were drawn to the center of the canyon.
Where just a day ago there was an enormous bloody battlefield, there was now an even larger group of Juldo.
I immediately sucked in a sharp breath but these Juldo were mulling around quietly, even some of them standing and watching Chyn above them silently.
They looked nothing like the blood-thirsty Juldo that had challenged him before.
“Why are we here?” I asked him quietly. I didn’t want to disturb the quiet space, weirdly worried my words would echo across the canyon.
Chyn looked at me over his shoulde
r. “Competition,” he said with a feral grin.
“Competition for what?” I narrowed my eyes on him and then the hundreds of Juldo below.
“My guard,” he said.
“Like, your bodyguards?”
A shout of humor left his mouth then and I gaped at him. He grinned at me. “You think me so weak I need a guard for my body?”
“Uh, no,” I drawled decisively. Not Chyn. “What do they guard then?”
Chyn flashed me another grin. “Whatever I need them for.”
I looked at him. He looked at me and then slowly down my body.
I blinked.
“Me?”
He chuckled. “I can’t have my little human running off.”
I snorted. “I haven’t even tried.” I widened my eyes at the ground. Not once had I tried. It seemed impossible and stupid. And weirdly hadn’t crossed my mind in the last few hours. Unless you count my cell, but he had set me up.
He watched the Juldo silently as they began to puff their chests and posture for him. Several of them stepped forward without weapons and danced around each other.
“What are they really for?” I asked suspiciously.
Chyn just looked at me.
I sighed. “I wouldn’t get very far.”
“You had a visitor last eve,” he said deceptively quiet.
My brows scrunched in confusion. “What visitor?” I didn’t remember much of anything. “I was out after you drugged me.”
“The Dahk,” he suddenly spit, “What is he to you?”
“What Dahk?” I asked, confused.
Chyn’s lip curled. “Tohn.”
“He didn’t leave with Vyr?” I asked in surprise. I had seen all three of them leave.
I swallowed heavily. “What did you do to him?” If he had hurt him—
“What is he to you?”
“A friend,” I grated. “Did you hurt him?”
“No, Vyr returned him to his home,” Chyn looked away in disgust. “You do not belong to him.”
I scoffed. “I don’t belong to anyone.”
Chyn stalked to me and placed his hands on either side of my hips. “You belong to me.”
“You don’t even want me.” I backed away and pressed my lips tight. That sounded a little too petulant.
“You were given to me,” he licked his lips and watched mine. “That old fool stole you away from your Earth to use you in his pointless war, you’re lucky it was I that received you.”
I looked down. I was beginning to see that. I didn’t know a whole lot about the Juldo Master that Chyn had supposedly recently killed, but through Kil and the Dahk I got the gist of it. He had been the one to start this entire war. He had also been the one to sick the Vitat on Earth. The Vitat had killed my mother, I had seen the monsters do it, but they wouldn’t have even been there if not for the Juldo Master Chyn had killed. And if that guy was the one to kidnap all those human women and do those horrible things to them, I had been lucky not to meet him. Chyn had thrown me into a cell, but he hadn’t laid a hand on me. Not to hurt me.
I did not like what he was insinuating, at all. What he was making me feel. “You’re telling me I should be grateful?”
He hummed in the back of his throat and tugged on a fly-away hair from my temple. “If you knew what he had truly planned to do with your planet, you would be.”
I looked away from him in disgust. “If you’re looking for a thanks, you won’t get it from me.” Not easily.
“Watch,” he suddenly whispered, pulling me up and to the edge of the platform. He stood behind me with his arm around my waist as we looked down on the fighting below. There wasn’t any death. Very little blood, compared to the day before. It was like a wrestling match back home, except with aliens and no referees. “They fight for the honor to be at my side. In turn, they will be at yours when I cannot be. They are your armor.”
“Why do I need a guard?” I whispered back. “I thought I was your prisoner.” But those two Juldo that attacked me in his room came to my mind. Chyn hadn’t liked that. They had died for it. Why would he want anyone to protect me?
“Though you are not ready to submit to me, you are mine to protect.”
Chills moved through my fingers as his lips pressed to my bare neck. “No Dahk, or any male, will take you from me.”
Chyn let the Juldo compete for hours while I sat on his lap. He fed me by hand, growling irritably if I tried to reach for the food myself. By the time the sun went down, I was lying against him and blearily watching the battles with my head on his shoulder.
His fingers would occasionally play with my hair or run down my spine.
In the end, fifty Juldo were chosen. Chyn nodded to them from his seat high above them and the rest of them dispersed silently. If I thought some grand ceremony would take place, I would be wrong.
The chosen fifty knelt below us and then waited for Chyn to dismiss them. They didn’t follow us back to the tent. They didn’t suddenly surround me from all sides, lording their bulk and weapons around me for protection. They just left.
The entire thing seemed a little pointless but Chyn seemed relaxed. So much so, he gave me more freedom.
I asked a million and one questions—none of which were answered—but the entire walk back to the tent, he let me ramble anxiously without so much as one irritated scowl.
I was so tired and pleasantly full, I found my defenses slipping. My mouth was moving a mile a minute but my eyes were drooping and my body so heavy I allowed Chyn to maneuver me into the bed.
I shouldn’t have been so tired. It could have only been midday, but the dark sky was deceiving and my body was calling for sleep. In the back of my mind, I knew my exhaustion was from whatever he had me drink the night before, but I couldn’t seem to muster up any concern.
“So, I’m your prisoner,” I murmured sleepily as he pulled the sheet over my chilled legs. “But I also have a team of badass alien bodyguards.” I rubbed my eyes and shoved my face into a pillow. “You won’t take me home, but you won’t say why.” I yawned big and wide and curled my legs to my chest. I felt his heat at my back and tiredly batted away the hands that curled around me from behind. “You’re like this crazy assassin that everyone is afraid of, but you haven’t hurt me.” I sighed and gave up, allowing him to pull me back into his chest. “I don’t understand you.”
Chyn sighed in my ear in return. “Sleep, milvira.”
“What’s that mean?” I murmured.
“Mine.”
14
London
“Where are we going?” I asked quietly, bending to lace up my sandals.
Chyn woke up in a bad mood. Either I somehow managed to piss him off in my sleep every night, or he just wasn’t a morning person—alien.
I had felt him leave the bed at some point but he was back in it with me when the sun came up. I had rolled over to catch him watching me. And lulled into that weird deceptive calm he managed to coax me into, I had watched him back. His eyes had been narrowed on me but I used his closeness to study every scar on his body like it was a map of understanding.
Only it got me nowhere. My fingers itched to touch the scar on his neck but my mind rebelled the idea.
His abrupt departure from the bed had saved me from embarrassing myself.
“Chyn?” I blinked as he closely watched my fingers curl around my calves with a strange light in his eyes.
He clenched his jaw and turned away, ignoring me, and walked out of the tent.
Sighing, I rushed to catch up with him, a bizarre fear of being left behind moving my feet. But he was speaking to Lyno, and when I exited the tent, Chyn started walking through the camp. About twenty of my brand-new Juldo guards surprised me by silently following us, but as we weaved around the tents, one by one, they peeled off, disappearing into the crowd. Lyno was the last to split off.
Chyn walked so fast I was running to catch up to him, tripping over the hot, clumpy sand. As we came to the endless rows of cages, my chest
grew tight and my palms grew damp. I couldn’t keep my eyes focused on Chyn’s back anymore. The despondent and frightened faces of all the different aliens slowed me until I was stumbling through them, their wails and cries of pain slicing me open.
A female caught my attention. She was amphibious in nature, and her scaly skin was dry and cracked, bleeding. She clutched the bars with her webbed hands, her mouth open in a wail, revealing several rows of sharp teeth. She had golf-ball sized eyes on either side of her face, and they were just as dry as the rest of her. My feet carried me to her cell until my hands were wrapping around hers, desperate to comfort her.
My wet eyes met her dry ones and I whispered useless apologies. But she didn’t hear me. Instead she ripped my arm through the bars and sank her teeth deep into the meat behind my elbow. I screamed, my legs dropping. I beat at her through the bars with my free arm, but she wouldn’t release me.
Black mist shot out at her and she snapped away on a high wail, curling up in the corner of her cage. I fell back in the sand as Chyn knelt, ripping my sheer leg covering and wrapping it around my elbow tightly. I screamed again as he tied it off, and I choked on a wet breath as he lifted me from the ground.
“Reckless human,” he snarled.
As he moved through the rest of the cages, I curled into his chest and bit my bicep, desperate to ease the sharp sting all along my elbow. Nothing was helping. Chyn climbed into something dark, the thump of his boots on metal echoing over my whimpers. He laid me down on a flat surface and untied the makeshift bandage. I gaped at the ravaged skin of my arm as he tore through a cabinet beside my head. He tossed things all over the floor until he found what he was looking for.
“Hold still.”
But I wasn’t hearing him. It felt like my arm was on fire.
