by Carven, Anna
His mate’s strength and determination gave him life. It purged his darkness.
He dropped to a crouch in front of his enemy and stared into Rexu’s flat crimson eyes.
“The General has left your fate in my hands, and I have decided that you’re not worth killing.”
The Kordolian let out a soft grunt of surprise. In his world, such an admission could be seen as weakness.
Ikriss knew that very well.
In fact, he was counting on it.
“I know that you serve the eldest son of the Imperial Line,” he said softly. This self-styled Amun was more than likely an impostor—Xalikian’s brother had been declared dead many revolutions ago—but Ikriss carefully hid his skepticism.
Rexu’s eyes widened in surprise. “Emperor Amun,” he said reverently. “How did you know?”
Ikriss carefully concealed his disgust. He fought to keep the icy rage out of his voice. “That is not important now. Listen very carefully, Sagarath Rexu, because I am not going to speak to you again. You are being granted a reprieve from death. What you do with it is your decision alone.”
A glimmer of hope entered the Kordolian’s eyes as they widened even more. He opened his mouth to speak, but Ikriss was already rising to his feet.
The prisoner didn’t attempt to attack or follow him. He was too confused.
Good.
Without saying another word, Ikriss turned on his heel and left, and the Qualum fibers fused together behind him, sealing Rexu inside that small, lightless space.
Outside the cell, Ikriss rubbed his eyes and forehead and took a deep breath. His claws were out. The urge to kill was so powerful that he actually trembled.
In the past, he would have eliminated Rexu without a second thought, but now he was going to give his blood-revenge to another.
See, now Jeral had staked a claim on the bastard too.
And Ikriss was going to let a confused, disorientated Rexu loose on Zarhab Groht, and he would send Jeral of the First Division to hunt him from afar.
To follow him.
Because there was a very high chance that in his desperation and arrogance and stupidity, Rexu would lead them to their enemies, and that was far more important than some outdated Kordolian notion of revenge.
The General’s words rang through his mind.
Be patient.
So he would… for now. And once Sagarath Rexu had outlived his usefulness, Ikriss would order Jeral to castrate him and set him loose on Zarhab Groht… without any weapons or means of escape.
In a hive full of cutthroats and unscrupulous traders, it would be a fate worse than death.
It would be a suitable punishment for what Rexu had done to those females… and to Ikriss’s very own mate.
He was sure that Jeral would agree.
* * *
Shortly after, Sienna called to tell him they were ready, so he flew Sienna and her friend home, personally escorting them in the Crurix along with Rykal and Arin, who had hitched a ride back to Earth.
The female called Eva was no longer acting overtly hostile toward Ikriss and his men. From time to time, Ikriss would catch her staring at he and Rykal with barely disguised curiosity. And once they were comfortably in the depths of space, she slept most of the way, and every now and then Sienna would go sit beside her, watching over her, gently stroking her hair or her hand as if she were the Guardian Goddess herself.
Really, his mate was the most precious thing in existence.
They landed on the rooftop of Sienna’s building in the so-called Lower East Side, where Ikriss left the females under the capable watch of his Second Division and an amusingly cranky Kalan, who had just returned from a Xargek extermination mission in one of the infernally hot deserts of Earth.
The big guy did not appreciate having to wear the human-style glasses that transformed him from a formidable First Division warrior into a slightly less intimidating figure that, under the right light could almost pass for human.
At least the techs had installed a patch that concealed their pointed ears.
It was a pain-in-the-ass, but they had to go incognito on Earth now, thanks to the cursed manipulations of that infernal Sturmbruk Agelus.
After the Federation broadcast, they quickly disappeared from view, allowing life in Sienna’s district to return to normal. Ikriss had ordered his men to open up the secure zone to human traffic again. People had come flooding back.
They had started crowding around the entrance to her shop well before it was due to open, waiting impatiently for their morning fix of caffeine or sugar or whatever other strange human sustenance they required.
Sienna’s little empire was busy again.
The only difference was Ikriss’s men were still there, maintaining one of the tightest security presences in the Nine Galaxies.
The humans just didn’t know it.
Even Sienna did not understand the full extent of it.
But she wasn’t Kordolian, so she didn’t have to.
“I have some things to do,” he’d explained to her as he stole a moment alone with her in the cabin of the Crurix. “I will be back as soon as I am done.”
Her gentle smile was enough to make him want to conquer a thousand galaxies in her name. “I know, and I don’t want to know. Don’t rush on my account. I’ll be here. You know where to find me.”
“Always.” He’d sealed her contentment with a slow, searing kiss that had the added effect of stirring his ever-present arousal. He just couldn’t help himself. She was an addictive drug. “And when I come back, I will give you exactly what you deserve.”
A delicate pink flush appeared in her cheeks.
Her scent changed, becoming thick and musky.
Her heartbeat accelerated.
Oh, she was perfectly attuned to his whims now.
He’d softly nipped the delicate skin at the base of her neck with his fangs, playfully marking her as his, although he was careful not to break her skin.
“Later,” he’d whispered, leaving her wide-eyed and breathless as he stole another quick kiss.
And another.
Then he donned his own pair of holo-glasses and took her down to her domain, which smelled of bitter coffee and spice and her.
Immediately, she was surrounded by her own people, who greeted her with questions and problems; with orders and requests.
With warm, loving chaos.
There was a buzzing, euphoric energy about the place that Ikriss had never witnessed anywhere before.
Only humans could do that.
Later. He’d given her a final lingering look and disappeared into the cold morning, content in the knowledge that she was safe.
* * *
Alone, he flew to some small fiefdom called Monaco, where his navigators had placed the location of a human called Luca Caselli, who was apparently some kind of prominent lordling.
It seemed humans had their noble houses too, although they were more symbolic than anything else. Compared to the wealth and power of the Kordolian Noble Houses, they were just subatomic specks in the wind.
But one of these lordlings just happened to be Sienna’s father.
This Luca Caselli was a somewhat wealthy man who had a roving eye for females. According to Ikriss’s intelligence, he had fathered at least a dozen illegitimate children.
And all of them carried this Royal Kordolian gene.
All of them were now being covertly watched by Darkstar soldiers.
Ikriss found Caselli lounging in the sun beside a shimmering blue pool surrounded by lush manicured gardens. His home was a grand, sprawling estate of arches and towers and angular tiled roofs and ostentatious stone carvings. The surrounding compound was vast and well maintained, and that suited Ikriss perfectly, because he simply landed the cloaked and sound-suppressed Crurix on a lawn beside the pool, stepped out, and walked over to the flat chair where the lordling lay, his pale body on full display. Ikriss could hardly believe that a creature as divine as Sienna could have come fr
om this male’s seed. He had thinning grey hair and a paunch that bulged over his overly tight red undergarment.
But if he looked closely, he could see some slight similarities, mostly in the bone structure of Caselli’s face.
His shadow fell over the man as he stood over him, waiting for some sort of realization…
But none came until Ikriss viciously kicked the long, flat recliner chair that Caselli was stretched out on.
“Wake up, Luca,” he said softly.
The man sat bolt upright and stared at Ikriss. His face started to turn red. He launched into angry rapid-fire speech in a language that Ikriss didn’t understand.
“Speak Universal,” Ikriss snapped.
“Who the fuck are you?” Caselli snapped, switching effortlessly to Universal. “How did you get in here?”
Ikriss simply lifted the arm of his holo-glasses, letting Caselli see his true form for just a split-second. The bright sun was irritating to his eyes, but he had covered his skin in a layer of nano UV protection so he wouldn’t get burned by the harsh Earth sun.
Caselli nearly fell off his chair. His voice dropped to a whisper. “I repeat, what the fuck are you doing here? I-I have no dealings with your kind.”
In the background, armed human security guards were approaching. “Call off your guards,” Ikriss ordered, “or they will all die.”
Caselli hastily signaled to his guards to back off.
“I am the one that is responsible for Sienna’s happiness,” Ikriss said quietly.
“S-Sienna? Y-you mean Stella’s kid?”
“Your child,” Ikriss corrected.
“I… I always paid the child support on time,” Caselli stammered. “I didn’t do anything wrong. If she wants to see me, then I can—”
“She does not want to see you,” Ikriss corrected. “I am simply here to tell you that if she ever changes her mind and decides to reach out and connect with you, you are to drop everything and answer to her call immediately, and you will do everything in your power to be warm and genuine and agreeable. Try to act like a father, even if you are not worthy of that title.”
“B-but…”
Ikriss didn’t give the human a chance to answer. He simply left him there, alone and terrified, floundering in the warm Earth sun.
* * *
He left Monaco and traveled to the secure Kordolian compound near Teluria, where he paid Kainan a visit. He found the human in his office, a light-filled, glass-walled structure that had been constructed to the former Syndicate member’s specifications.
The interior was filled with plants and light. In the far corner, a small fountain of water trickled out of a stone sculpture. The space was irritatingly bright, but least it was temperature controlled, much to Ikriss’s relief.
“Come in, Ikriss.” Kainan looked up from a row of holo-monitors as Ikriss entered. He put something down on his desk; an archaic device called a pen that he’d been using to write in human script on a piece of parchment.
This human male, who carried out his work with methodical precision, also had his quirks.
In some ways, he reminded Ikriss of a Kordolian.
“What can I do for you, boss?” Kai said with a wry twist of his lips. Ikriss understood the irony very well. In his past life as a high-up Syndicate gangster, Kainan had been accustomed to being treated as the ‘boss’.
Now he served the Darkstar Group, administering contracts and managing their finances on Earth.
Ikriss lowered himself into an elegant black and silver metal swivel chair that sat in front of Kainan’s desk.
He gave the human a long, hard look. “You know the Syndicate very well.”
Kai dipped his head in acknowledgement. “You know that already. But I renounced my sworn allegiance to the Syndicate when I made Zyara my mate.” Dark eyes narrowed. Black brows drew together. “What’s this about, Ikriss?”
“This organization… I thought about destroying it, but it appears to be too deeply embedded in human society for us to be able to kill it cleanly. There would be collateral damage.”
“It’s… complicated,” Kainan agreed. “But now they’re fucking around with human trafficking. That’s something the old-school bosses wouldn’t have approved of, but hey, the new gen are mostly in charge now. They have different scruples.” He leaned back in his chair and gave Ikriss an appraising look. “So what are you going to do, boss?”
Ikriss inclined his head. “This is why I have come to consult with you. I want to know how we can control the entire organization… from the top down.”
Kainan’s eyes narrowed. He stared long and hard at Ikriss, his expression perfectly hard and inscrutable.
Then all of a sudden, his face split into a cold, glittering smile. “I’ve been waiting for you aliens to say something like that. In fact, I’m surprised you didn’t approach me earlier. It is definitely something I can help you with.”
“Good,” Ikriss returned Kai’s smile with a flash of his fangs. “Then tell me what I need to do. Who do I need to threaten, and who do I need to kill?”
Kai laughed; a deep, hearty sound. “Hold on a minute. Let me go and find my list.”
* * *
After his meeting with Kai, Ikriss flew back to New York to carry out his final task. He landed the Crurix on the roof of Sienna’s building and donned his holo-glasses and human-style attire, wearing the guise of a human as he navigated the bustling streets of this dense, chaotic human metropolis.
He found himself enjoying the freedom of anonymity. Although he attracted the occasional odd look from time to time, most humans were so busy and preoccupied that they barely noticed him.
He strolled all the way to his target destination—a residential tower owned by the family called the Ryans. Built in the glass-walled style that humans preferred, it rose above the surrounding ancient looking buildings, its shiny windows reflecting glowing light-signs and the dense traffic and the cloudy skies above.
He’d had this place under surveillance for several rotations now. Connor Ryan occupied a palatial suite on the uppermost floor. He knew the human’s exact movements, right down to when he ate and slept and took a shit.
Every single being on this planet that he thought might pose even the slightest threat to Sienna was under his surveillance now.
As he approached the building, Ikriss activated a tiny device in his pocket that scrambled all human electronic surveillance, rendering him invisible to any recording device.
He walked up to the secure sliding doors at the front and waited. A human guard was stationed there, alongside some sort of primitive looking guard drone. The robot’s slender tubelike head swiveled left and right, its tiny flashing indicator light turning from green to red as he approached.
Sure enough, just as Ikriss reached the entrance, the doors opened and Conor and his small entourage of three suit-wearing thugs walked out and onto the street, where a black car was waiting for them.
The rear door slid upwards, and Conor slipped into the back seat. His men waited outside until he was comfortably seated.
“I’m tired of all this fuckin’ snow, Sven,” one of the men said to the other.
“Quit whinin’, idiot. It’ll be summer before you know it, and then I’ll have to listen to you bitching about the humidity for three months.”
They were distracted; complacent.
Clearly, they were not used to encountering threats in their own domain.
As the vehicle’s door began to close, Ikriss moved extremely fast; faster than any human could. He darted past the guards and slid into the seat beside Connor. The guards whirled and reached for their weapons, but it was too late.
Ikriss pulled the door shut, slamming it with a thud.
Connor drew a gun from inside his jacket and pointed it at Ikriss’s face. “What the fuck? You? You’re th-that guy… Sienna’s…”
“If you fire that gun at me,” Ikriss said mildly, “you will have the entire fleet of the former Kordolian
Imperial Military raining plasma death upon your pathetic existence.” He removed his glasses.
The color drained from Connor’s face. “Kordolian?”
One of the guards was frantically banging on the side window. The one called Sven came around to the pilot’s seat and started to open the door.
Ikriss pulled his plasma gun from the holster against his ribs and pointed it at the guard. “Get out.”
“Jesus, just do what he fucking says,” Connor blurted. “I don’t want to be cleaning your brains off my goddamn Italian leather.”
Sven quickly pulled his head out of the door and slammed it shut, sealing Ikriss and Connor inside.
“If this is about the abductions, believe me, I had nothing to do with them. Your guy already came and interrogated me. I told him everything, I swear. I thought there would be no more trouble from you people as long as we stayed the fuck out of it.”
“I know you had nothing to do with the abductions. I’m not here for that.”
“Then what do you want?”
Ikriss calmly lowered his gun. The boy was a fool, but he wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t going to put up a fight. “The structure that houses Sienna’s establishment. You purchased it.”
“I just signed the contract, a few hours ago. How the hell did you know I bought it?”
“That is none of your concern.” With the help of Riana, Ikriss had been keeping an eye on the owner of Sienna’s building for the past few rotations. He was just about reach out to the previous owner—an elderly woman living on an island called Taiwan—when Riana informed him that it had changed hands.
That made his life easier. An elder human would need convincing. With this would-be princeling, he could simply threaten.
“That building’s earmarked for development,” Conor said quietly; the last gasp of a dying fish. “Plans have been approved by the City Council. You can’t do anything to stop that proc—”
“You will sell it,” Ikriss said simply.
“You can’t just—”
“I do not wish to waste my time and energy trying to convince you of the inevitable. This is your last chance to make a decision that will be in your best interests.”
