by Erin Raegan
Chyn looked at him as he held his own hand over the hollow bowl. “I can’t.”
“They are fighting him,” Vyr said. “Speaking is difficult. They will do everything they can to stop this from happening.” Vyr knelt beside me. “London, you owe him nothing.” He put his warm hand over my forearm, holding it steady, and grabbed the dagger in Chyn’s hand. Chyn held onto it tightly. Vyr had to pry his fingers from it. “The exchange of blood will cement the bond.”
“Blood?” I watched, sickened, as Vyr sliced open Chyn’s hand, allowing the blood to well up and spill over his palm, draining into the hollow bowl. Then Vyr turned to me. I gaped at him. “You’re going to cut me?”
Vyr nodded. “The offering.”
“You did this with Vivian?” My hand trembled as he cupped it as he had Chyn’s.
“No. It is not a Juldo custom but one of the Latari. I am not Latari.”
I looked back at Chyn, terrified. “I don’t want this.”
I really wanted to run. He was trembling, sweating so much it dripped down his face, and he was panting heavily, furious breaths jutting out of his nose.
“I know,” Vyr said. “But he won’t allow you to leave. He can find you anywhere.”
“I just want to go home,” I whispered. “He doesn’t even want this.”
Vyr shook his head. “It’s not about what he wants. He believes it will lay his brothers to rest if you can sever the bond they have to him.”
“Oh.” I breathed shakily. “Will it?”
Vyr gritted his teeth and looked at Chyn. “If he is the last Latari tied to them.”
Chyn glared at Vyr.
Vyr shook his head. “She deserves to know.”
Chyn growled, the promise of death in his eyes.
“Know what?” I asked, dreading the answer.
“There may be another.”
Chyn snarled, and little mists of shadow leaked from his eyes. Vyr had to grab me from scrambling away.
I cleared my throat of the lump restricting it. “I thought he was the last?”
Vyr shook his head. “There is another like us, but Chyn is unsure if he is Latari.”
“So changed like you maybe?”
Vyr sighed. “Yes, it is more likely, though I do not know how another human could have been changed without knowing where Latari is to access the original strain of the infection.”
I looked away from the both of them. “So all this could be for nothing?”
“Yes.”
“Vyr?” I looked at his knees. “Is he going to kill me?”
Vyr squeezed my hand gently. “If he does not bond with you, it is unlikely he will be able to hold them back much longer. He is struggling. If they take control, they will waste no time in eliminating you as a threat. You could end them.” Bending to catch my eyes he smiled gently. “I know this is frightening, but it will save you from them.”
I nodded, holding my hand over the bowl once more. I glared at Chyn. “I’ll do it. But after, we’re done. I want to go home.”
Vyr sighed as Chyn snarled again.
“I am sorry,” Vyr rumbled then carved the knife deep into my palm.
18
London
After Vyr sliced open my hand, I barely had a second to absorb the pain before Vyr was physically restraining Chyn from lunging at me. He held Chyn from behind and slammed our sliced palms together.
Chyn bucked and roared through it all. After he tore himself free, he had me on my back with his hand on my throat. I really thought I was going to die. I saw the murderous intent in his eyes. But just as quick as he’d grabbed me, his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell off and to the side, completely passed out. I’d never seen him so peaceful.
Now I roamed a new moon.
Vyr hadn’t wanted us to stay on Latari, so without much choice, I went with them. I couldn’t stay there alone, and even though I wanted to be as far from Chyn as physically possible, I was stuck. Vyr may be apologetic, but he had flat-out refused to take me home. His loyalty was to Chyn, not me.
This new moon was also barren, except it didn’t even have the dark Juldo vines. It looked a lot like how I imagined our moon at home looked. With one glaring difference. I could breathe. There was a shimmer high up above and circling the moon. I imagined that had a lot to do with its breathability, but Vyr was too busy guarding Chyn’s unconscious body to answer any of my questions. And when he wasn’t doing that, he was disappearing to check on Vivian and their daughter. Chyn hadn’t woken up at all.
I kicked a moon rock with my sandaled foot, disappointed when it dropped right to the ground.
There was also gravity.
I’d been stuck here for at least three days. At least, it felt like that, but I had no way of telling on a moon that circled a rogue star so slowly, I’d yet to see it completely dark. I was bored.
I lay down in a mound of moon dust and made my very own space angel, snickering.
I hated traveling. My dad had always been trying to get me to visit new places and gain new experiences, but I doubted he’d had making space angels on alien moons in mind. Or bonding eternally to an alien. Hell, he would have been ecstatic if I’d just left the east coast.
Look at me now, Pop.
I fell asleep for a while then rolled to standing, shaking all the dust off my blue silk pants. It made my hair and back itch and I immediately wanted a shower.
Trudging back to the underground bunker, I had a good cry. My head was fuzzy by the time I climbed back down the rope ladder Vyr had hung for me. A two-story hole in the moon.
The halls were dark and endless. I wondered how Chyn had put this bunker here by himself. Vyr had told me it was Chyn’s top secret hideout. Or his “private home.” But still, how did he do it? Then again, maybe he’d found it. It was very old looking. Then again, Chyn was ancient, so I guessed he’d had a lot of time on his hands.
Most of the rooms were empty and dusty from the moon dust that drifted in through the hole. Vyr had a room that he’d been letting me use, so I didn’t have to go to Chyn’s. But when I walked into Vyr’s room, Chyn was sitting on the bed, his hands between his knees and his head bowed.
I made a surprised sound and his head shot up. He stood fast, frowning. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
I gawked at his mouth, my fingers tingling.
His lips quirked, but then he frowned again. He rubbed his throat nervously and looked over my shoulder at the wall. “I can barely hear them.”
I couldn’t tear my eyes from his mouth.
He shifted on his feet and turned away from me, lifting one of my silk tops from a tall chest. He rubbed it between his fingers. “They’re Latari.”
I cleared my throat roughly. “What?”
He nodded at the top, bringing it to his nose and holding it there. “They were my mother’s.”
“Wow,” I said quietly. “They look brand new.”
“Latari silk preserves well.”
I looked down at my top, picking at it. Why was I wearing his mother’s clothes? I shifted uncomfortably.
He turned around and faced me, crossing his arms across his bare chest. “They suit you.”
I blinked, looking away from him. I’d never seen this hesitant side of him. I didn’t know what to do with him. I didn’t know what to do with the new sound of his voice. It was singular. Normal, if not for the raspy quality of it. That must have been from the scar. I’d just never heard it because I’d never actually heard his voice.
By the way he kept rubbing his throat, I didn’t think he was comfortable with it either.
He snarled something beneath his breath and stalked to me, backing me against the wall. “They’re gone.” He bent toward my ear and I leaned back into the wall, away from him. “I can only hear them distantly. Like a low whisper.”
“That’s good,” I squeaked.
His hands rested on the wall on either side of my head. “You get your slaves. We’re even.”
“Is that supposed to be a
thank you?” I tilted my head away from him. “Because if it was, it was a bad one.”
He chuckled low, ducking to look into my eyes. “No? How should I give it to you?”
I took a deep breath, stiffening my shoulders and frowning. “You like games, trades. I want something more from you.”
He frowned back at me.
“I want to go home.”
“Try again.”
I gritted my teeth, hissing a sharp breath. “That’s what I want.”
He chuckled again. “You should have asked to make that deal before you held your hand out for offer.”
“You would have said no.”
He dipped his head, nodding. “There is no going home for you.”
“Asshole,” I hissed.
He grinned. “You want to see your father?”
I nodded. “I want to see him right now.”
“Hmmm,” he rumbled. “A trade.”
I gaped. “What? No! I get something more for helping you—that’s going home. This is my trade. You don’t get another.”
He shook his head, still grinning. “You should have asked before. I’ll take you home for a trade.”
My shoulders dropped. “What do you want?”
“You’ll sleep beside me again.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I thought you were going to take me home right now.”
He frowned back. “To visit. You will return with me.”
I dropped my face into my hands, shaking it. “That’s not fair.”
“Fair?” He shook his head. “Nothing is given in this life. You want something, you take it.”
“Okay then.” I dropped my hands. “Fine. You want me to sleep beside you? Then you’ll take me to see my father every day.”
He snorted. “You do not like the way I travel.”
I sighed. “I’ll deal if I can see my father.”
“Once every ten of my days.”
I squawked. “That’s terrible negotiating!” Ten of his were like fifteen of mine!
“Seven.”
“Five.”
He grinned. “Agreed.”
“Really?” I asked, terrified to believe he might hold up his end of the bargain.
He nodded. “I vow it.”
“Okay,” I whispered shakily. Shocked, surprised, hopeful. All of the above.
He dropped his arm to my waist and pulled me to my chest. “And, London?”
I startled and looked at him. He’d never said my name before. “Yeah?”
“Thank you.” He dropped his lips to mine and pressed them there for one breathless second.
Chyn left me speechless in the bunker room so I could bathe. It took me several stunned moments to peel myself off the wall.
Reliving the feel of his soft lips over and over.
I took way too long in the shower just to gather myself than I should have. But when I got out, I pushed Chyn and his confusing appreciation out of my mind and decided to stress on my wardrobe choices. My Latari choices. I would have demanded Chyn get me something else to wear so I could save my father from seeing me so scantily dressed, but now that I knew they were his mother’s, I couldn’t imagine saying anything bad about the outfits.
It was weird, but also kind of sweet.
See—confusing.
I chose the black one I had worn that first morning on Juldoris and braided my hair. I might give Pop a heart attack, but I was hoping my dropping out of thin air might distract him enough not to notice all of his daughter’s skin on display.
Chyn was waiting outside Vyr’s door when I came out. He pulled me in his arms and I saw Vyr standing beside him.
“I must return to my Vivian.”
I frowned. “Bye.”
He looked at Chyn. “Consider what I said.”
Chyn nodded and turned back to me. Then Vyr was gone.
“Consider what?” I asked.
Chyn pinched the bridge of his nose. “War business.”
“The Dahk king?”
He nodded.
“Isn’t war, like, your thing?”
Chyn chuckled darkly. “The Dahk king wants to engage the Order and the Bour. This war can be won without risk. I am too old to waste my energy on a martinet that is too foolish to fathom the naiveté of his actions. The Bour are tricks and illusions. They cannot defeat the Dahk, Xixin, and Guhuvin armies. The Kilbus will have already decimated the Order’s militia before the Bour can gain a foothold on the defectors.”
“Why not tell the Dahk king what you know?”
Chyn shook his head. “He has not earned that information from me. He needs this conflict to earn his throne with his Dahk.”
I sighed. “You never make any sense.”
“Do not fear for the Dahk, human.” Great, I was back to being human. “Viytenus has already fled to the far corners of the stars, abandoning his militia to meet the Dahk without guidance. The Dahk king prepares his armies for a war in which he will triumph with ease.”
“How do you know that he ran?”
Chyn bent close to my ear, which I was learning he liked to do right before he said something particularly shocking. “Because he knows I’m coming for him.”
“Of course,” I muttered. “You say you’re too old for war, but you certainly feel fit enough to go hunting.”
“Deep breath,” he growled and dipped his head, taking my mouth with his.
This was no quick peck. He forced my mouth open with his, plunging his warm tongue inside. My shout was muffled and drowned out by him licking along the roof of my mouth. I pushed against his chest and he pulled me closer, wrapping one arm around my back. The other hand gripped the back of my head by my hair and forced it back so he could hunch over me, devouring my mouth.
His tongue licked between my upper lip and teeth, and I shuddered, fisting his sleeveless coat. His tongue curled under to tickle my frenulum and I gasped, arching into his chest. He groaned low and moved his hand down to my ass, curling his fingers around it. I sighed into his mouth, pulling him closer, and his hand left my hair then curled around my neck, putting pressure under my chin.
Mouth open wide, I twirled my tongue with his, relishing the growly sound of satisfaction he poured down my throat.
“Found her,” someone drawled, startling me.
I jumped, my head shooting to the side. Panting, I blinked at Kil as he sat on my dad’s desk, grinning.
Kil—or as he liked to remind everyone, “Lord Kilbus, don’t forget the Lord”—shook his head, a laugh roaring through his fangs. He slapped his thick thighs and pointed between Chyn and me. “Had I known you’d found your way to the assassin, I wouldn’t have bothered looking.”
My dad sat at his desk, pale and trembling. His face was a mess of scruff, and the bags under his aging eyes indicated he hadn’t been sleeping well.
“Pop?”
He jolted, jumping to his feet and tripping to rush to me. Chyn let go of my throat just in time to absorb my weight as my dad barreled into me. Pop squeezed me tight, not even acknowledging Chyn or his arm caught between us.
“I was so afraid,” he whispered in my ear.
I blinked away tears. “I’m sorry.”
“No, no, don’t apologize, bunny. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have let you go on that raid.”
I sighed. “I would have gone anyway.” We were always needing supplies and I was too stubborn to sit on my ass and let everyone around me endanger themselves. My dad had no hope of locking me away like he wanted to.
“You’re okay?” He leaned away, his eyes roaming me up and down. “What’s this?” He carefully held my injured arm and glared at it before turning his glare on Chyn. “What did you do to my daughter?”
Chyn frowned. Kil snickered.
Pop clutched my shoulders. “Who is this, bunny?”
“Um, this is Chyn.”
Pop looked Chyn up and down. “Why were you kissing him?”
I blushed, glaring at Chyn. “It’s a long story.”
Dad stiffened and stepped back. “I have time.”
I smiled warily then looked away.
“I have been worried sick, young lady! Searching all over for you and you’re off cavorting with this alien? Did you enjoy yourself?”
I snorted. “Hardly. He’s not a very good kisser.”
Chyn glared at me, and Kil roared with laughter once more.
19
London
Jokes aside, it wasn’t easy telling my dad everything that had happened. He wanted to shoot Chyn. Kil got far too much enjoyment out of the whole encounter.
I had to push Pop past a lot of it just to get to the end. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to let go of Chyn locking me up in a cell and nearly starving me. Though I was a bit over the top about that. He had given me food, just not very good food. And I had maybe lost five pounds.
When we got to the pair-bonding stuff, I could feel Chyn’s discomfort. Out of instinct and intuition, I skirted around our visit to Latari and gave Pop the Cliff’s Notes version. I also omitted a lot of Chyn’s abilities and his inner battle just to save my pop the disbelief and crisis of trying to comprehend most of it.
After a lot of cursing and a few sniffles, it was my dad’s turn to share. Not much had changed since I’d left. We were still hunting the Vitat, alongside the Dahk and the Kilbus. Kil was still tearing apart every government bunker he could find, looking for something he refused to talk about. But the Galactic Order ships invading our galaxy were a pretty big new development.
“Kil has it handled,” my father said dismissively.
I gawked at him. “He has it handled?”
Kil huffed. “Honestly, fuzzy bunny rabbit”—Kil had adopted my dad’s nickname for me and embellished it on occasion— “do you doubt me?”
“I doubt your focus,” I told him.
The last time I was on Earth, Kil had really been unraveling. He wasn’t finding what he was looking for, and though he had a few right-hand buddies who were great at taking over for him, Kil had been having a lot of trouble focusing. He looked much worse now than he did a few weeks ago. The strain around his eyes gave him away. He was looking a little crazier than normal.
