by S. E. Smith
Chapter 19
The next morning, the shimmer of early morning light and the sound of birds chirping woke Melina from the first decent night's sleep that she’d had in years. She blinked several times as she stared up at the high ceiling before she remembered that she was home.
Her fingers ran along the silky covers as she turned her head to look out the window. She gasped when the covers moved under her fingers. Sitting up, she pushed her hair out of her eyes and gazed down at the thin layer of gold covering her. She twisted to see that the entire bed she was on was made up of the symbiot.
“What?!” She exclaimed.
“The bedding was not fit for sleeping on,” a voice said from the door. “You needed to be able to rest in comfort.”
Melina’s eyes swept upward to meet Calo’s dark gold eyes. A blush rose, turning her cheeks a light pink when she saw the flames burning in them. Pulling the thin veil of symbiot up, she drew her knees up and bit her lip.
“I thought you and Cree would have left by now,” Melina replied in a soft, husky voice. “You’ve brought me home. The longer you stay here, the more dangerous it is for you both.”
Calo stepped into the bedroom that was across the hall from Melina’s old room. A low rumble escaped him at her words. He curled his fingers into a fist before relaxing them as he slid onto the bed to sit next to her. Wrapping his hand around the back of her neck, he stopped her from pushing away from him.
“You are ours, Melina. You are our true mate. The one made for us,” Calo told her in a husky voice filled with need and longing. “We will give you this time to say goodbye, but know this you will not be staying here.”
“I…,” she started to protest, stopping as he leaned closer.
“You are ours to care for and protect,” he whispered, staring intently into her eyes. “We need you, Melina. We need you with a passion that burns through our blood to the very core of our soul. You complete us.”
Her eyes fluttered closed as he leaned in closer to press his lips against hers. This was her third kiss and the second in two days. Nothing prepared her for the rush of emotions that swamped her as his fingers threaded through her hair to hold her still. Her hands fluttered upward to his broad chest. A low moan escaped Calo at the feel of her hands against his body. He wanted to rip his shirt off so he could feel her fingers against his skin.
Calo, we have company, Cree called to him.
Calo pulled away with a curse. He knew his dragon was close to the surface when Melina jerked backwards as he released her. His eyes were not the only thing that has begun to change. He felt the scales as they rippled up his neck.
“You…,” she gasped.
“Cree says we have company,” Calo interrupted in a rough voice. “Stay here.”
“No,” Melina said, grabbing his hand as fear for both of men swept through her. “It… it would be better for me to go. Where is Cree?”
“He was in the building behind here where a transport was parked,” Calo said with a frown.
“Tell him to stay there,” Melina said, rolling off the bed. “Both of you stay hidden. I’ll take care of this.”
“Melina,” Calo started to say.
“This is my world now,” Melina said, shaking her head. “It is best if I take care of this.”
Melina wishes to take care of whoever is here, Calo growled in frustration. She says to remain hidden.
For now, Cree agreed reluctantly.
For now, Calo repeated, rising so he could remain close to Melina in case she needed him.
*.*.*
Harry Johnson stared through the dusty windshield of his truck as he pulled up in front of Cal Franklin’s house. His face tightened with concern when he noticed the light by the front door was off.
“Damn kids,” he cursed as he picked up his old baseball cap and put it over his bald head. “Always getting into stuff they shouldn’t.”
He had been taking care of the place ever since Cal and his granddaughter, Melina, disappeared almost five years ago. The police had searched high and low after he filed a missing person’s report on them after Cal failed to show up for their weekly card game.
It was as if the pair had just disappeared off the face of the Earth. Harry grunted as he pushed open the creaking door to his truck. He came over every other week to mow the grass and stopped by every few days to check on the place to make sure that no one broke into it.
He had caught two of the little snots that lived further down the road breaking the front window out a month ago. If he hadn’t come by that day they would have wrecked the place with the baseball bats and spray paint they had on them. One look at the wrong end of his shotgun had scared the shit out of the two and word had spread that he would shoot any bastard that came on the property.
He reached inside for the gun hanging from the gun rack behind the seat when the door opened and a slender figure stepped out of the house and onto the front porch. His hand shook as he slowly straightened. Disbelief swept across his face as the familiar figure, definitely more filled out than what he remembered, hesitated at the edge of the stairs.
“Mel? Melina?” Harry called out hoarsely. “Melina?”
“Hi Uncle Harry,” Melina responded with an uncertain smile.
“I’ll be damned. Where’s Cal?” Harry demanded, slamming the door to the truck. “And where in the hell have you been all these years?”
*.*.*
Melina shook her head and stepped down the steps. She rushed forward, winding her arms around her grandfather’s best friend. She had known Harry all her life. He was the same age as her grandfather had been.
“Hush, child,” Harry said soothingly as he stroked Melina’s back as she weep. “Where’s Cal, sweetheart? What happened to you?”
Melina pulled back and wiped at her wet cheeks. “I’m sorry,” she said, giving a self-conscious laugh. “I can’t seem to quit doing this. I would have thought I didn’t have any more tears left in me.”
“Melina,” Harry said, gripping her forearms. “Where’s your grandfather?”
Melina gave Harry a sad look and shook her head. “He’s… gone.”
“Oh child,” Harry said as her eyes filled with tears again. “What happened? Where did you go? The police looked and there was nothing? It was as if you disappeared off the face of the planet. I even had my son looking for you.”
Melina glanced back at the house. Her face a mask of uncertainty. She knew Harry deserved the truth, but she couldn’t risk Cree and Calo’s lives.
Both men took the decision out of her hands. Calo stepped out onto the front porch at the same time as Cree walked around the side of it. Melina, seeing them in the light of the morning and in a setting that was both strange and familiar, knew immediately that Harry would recognize that neither male belonged on Earth.
“What the fuck?” Harry breathed as he stared at the two men in shock.
*.*.*
Harry grunted his thanks as he accepted a cup of hot tea. It was one of the few things that Melina found in a tin in the kitchen cabinet. She decided not to trust any of the other things. Tea didn’t expire, or at least she didn’t think so.
She blushed as Calo pulled out a chair at the dining room table for her. Cree was silently standing to the side with his arms folded across his chest. His eyes never left Harry’s face. She could have told Cree that if he was trying to intimidate Harry, it wouldn’t work. Harry didn’t give a rat’s behind about what anyone thought or expected of him unless he wanted to.
“Where’s your grandfather, Melina?” Harry demanded.
Melina’s eyes flickered to the square urn on the shelf behind Harry. For once, a sense of calm swept over her as she looked at it. Her grandfather was no longer here, but with her mom, dad and grandmother. At last, the tears didn’t come again.
Harry turned to see what she glanced at and blanched. His eyes moved from the Urn to Melina before moving to the two men standing silently behind her. Neither one of them had spo
ken yet.
“Did they kill him?” Harry asked bluntly.
“No!” Melina gasped in horror. “Calo and Cree had nothing to do with Gramps’ death. It was a heart attack. He just collapsed. There was nothing that could be done. If it had been possible to save him, they would have. Their technology is so much…” Melina bit her lip, afraid she had said too much.
“So much more?” Harry asked, sitting forward and folding his hands in front of him on the table. “Where were you?”
“You can trust this human?” Calo asked from behind her.
Melina turned slightly in her chair and nodded. “Yes, he is like family. I’ve known him all my life and he was Gramps’ best friend.”
Harry scowled as he listened to Melina speak in English to the male behind while the male spoke in a dialect he had never heard before. He shifted in his seat and glared back at the man on the right. The man kept playing with the knife at his side while his eyes never left Harry’s face, a dark warning burned in his eyes cautioning Harry to be careful about upsetting Melina. If he thought he could make it, he’d have scooped Melina into his truck and hauled ass as fast as his old truck could go.
“Then, tell him,” Calo said quietly. “But warn him that you will not be staying.”
“I haven’t said I was going either,” Melina said in exasperation.
“You are,” Cree growled in a low tone.
Harry watched as Melina rolled her eyes at the other male. He didn’t know what the hell they were saying, well, except for Melina, but it sounded like they planned on taking her with them somewhere. His eyes narrowed on them. In truth, he couldn’t tell which one was the more dangerous. He had a feeling either of them could snap him in half if they had a mind to.
“I can’t handle this right now,” Melina said in a low voice, tiredly rubbing her forehead. “Just, let me think.”
“Melina, are you in trouble? You know I’ll do whatever I can to help you,” Harry said, reaching out to grasp her hand.
He didn’t let go even when the man fingering the knife straightened from where he had been leaning against the wall. Harry shot the man a dirty look. Knife or not, he wasn’t going to let the light of his best friend’s life be taken against her will.
“No, I’m not in trouble,” Melina said with a sigh as she gripped Harry’s hand in reassurance. “Harry, what I’m about to tell you is going to be unbelievable. Gramps and I… well, we decided that maybe we shouldn’t tell anyone about what happened. I knew he would tell you eventually if he was here. You were not only his best friend, but family to us.”
Harry didn’t know what to say so he just squeezed Melina’s slender hand in his. He waited as she drew in an unsteady breath. Her eyes flickered to the window and she gazed outside, as if she was lost in thought before she began speaking.
“Remember the night we met you in town to have dinner at the diner?” Melina began, turning to study Harry’s face as she spoke. She smiled when he nodded. “That is the night Gramps and I were taken. We had arrived home a little after nine that night. It was a beautiful night, cold though…”
*.*.*
Cree and Calo listened intently as Melina described how she and her grandfather had arrived home late that night so long ago. She had jumped out of the truck and opened the doors to the old garage so her grandfather could drive the truck in.
She had waited for several minutes before she went inside to see why it was taking her grandfather so long to come out of the garage. When she entered, the door had closed behind her, blocking out the little light that had been cast from the light above the door. She moved to turn on the lights on the inside the garage, but before she could a sharp shock had struck her.
The next time she woke, she and her Grandfather had been placed in a small room with several other creatures. For the next two months, they had barely survived the conditions on board the trader’s transport.
The lack of privacy was the least of their concerns. It was the lack of food, the cold, and the fear that they would be killed at any moment that prevented them from getting very much rest. She and her Grandfather took turns keeping watch after Melina was attacked.
We will find and kill this trader, Cree told his brother. I want to hear him beg for his life before I kill him.
You are not the only one, Calo replied. I wonder if this is the same one that took Vox’s mate?
Cree’s dragon chuckled. Kitty eat trader.
Yes, if there is anything left of him after Riley gets done with him, Calo laughed. Perhaps that would be more rewarding.
“Gramps had his knife with him,” Melina murmured. “He killed the creature. After that, the others stayed away from us.”
“What happened? How did you survive?” Harry asked, oblivious to the conversation that Cree and Calo were having between them. “Did you have to live like that all this time?”
“No,” Melina said, pulling her hand out of Harry’s and folding them in her lap. She silently wished she had the Teddy Bear to hold onto as she remembered everything that happened. “No, the trader sold us to an insect like species called the Antrox that ran a mining operation on an asteroid. We were there until the mine was abandoned.”
Harry jumped when a set of large golden creatures suddenly walked into the room. One of them was carrying something in its mouth. He froze when one of the creatures turned to gaze silently at him. It opened its mouth and yawned.
“What the fuck?!” Harry hissed out in a hoarse voice.
Melina giggled as Cree’s symbiot dropped the Teddy Bear on the table next to her. She couldn’t resist turning and wrapping her arms around it. She buried her face against the golden symbiot for several seconds as warmth flowed through her.
“Thank you,” she whispered, tenderly stroking the smooth surface before pressing a gentle kiss between its eyes. “I love you, too.”
The symbiot rubbed against Melina before settling down to lie on the floor next to her chair. She turned and whispered to Calo’s symbiot when it nudged her. She stroked her fingers through the wavy mane before she turned back to look at Harry, who was sitting across from her with his mouth hanging open.
“They really are sweethearts,” she said, pulling the Teddy Bear into her arms.
“Yeah, I can see that,” Harry muttered as Cree’s symbiot gave him a sharp-tooth grin. “Just another farm animal. How long were you on that mining asteroid?”
“Four years,” Melina replied. “Gramps and I were the only ones left. Well, except for a baby Pactor I named Hobbler because she was born with a deformed front foot. They used Pactors to pull the mining carts. I guess it was easier to use them than to use machinery for some reason. I never understood why. Gramps convinced the trader, then the Antrox that I was a crazy boy who wasn’t right in the head. The fact that I was good with the Pactors was a bonus. No one wanted to mess with them because they can be as difficult as Bruno, your old mule, could be and they aren’t the most pleasant smelling creatures either.”
“So, how the hell did you end up with them?” Harry asked, jerking his head toward where Cree and Calo stood. “And how long has Cal been gone?”
Harry felt like kicking his own ass when he saw tears fill Melina’s eyes. The twin growls of disapproval coming from the two men behind her made him wonder if they were going to save him the opportunity.
It amazed him when Melina glanced over her shoulder and shook her head at the two men. As if a light switch had been turned from on to off, their posture changed from one of ready to kill to concern. He swallowed at the tender look in both their eyes. There was some serious chemistry going on between the three of them.
“We were down to the last few days of food and water. The replicator I had found had finally died, as well. Gramps didn’t say anything, but I knew by the sections that he had closed off that the air was slowly becoming contaminated. We were about to search the mines for left over materials again when the alarms sounded and warriors from the Horizon landed. Prince Creon Reykill, of
the Valdier, is married to a human woman. He promised to return Gramps and me, only… only Gramps… Gramps didn’t make it. He died a little over a week ago. He hadn’t… hadn’t been feeling good. He refused to see the Doctor on board. I think because of me. He was afraid that they would find out I was a woman and… Harry, it’s all my fault! Gramps wouldn’t seek help because of me, I just know it.”
Melina buried her face in the Teddy Bear as soft sobs escaped her. He watched as both men immediately went to her. The one that had been fingering the knife was like a different man as he tenderly picked Melina up in his arms as if she weighed no more than the Teddy Bear she was clutching. His heart swelled with love as she turned her face into the male who was cradling her against his heart.
Chapter 20
Harry stood on the front porch looking out over the long drive leading to the main road. He rubbed his hand tiredly over his face. Sorrow pulled on him as he thought of what his friend and Melina must have gone through the last few years. Their life had never been easy. Hell, both he and Cal had been in a damn war, but this was beyond anything they had been trained to handle.
He turned when the front door opened and one of the men stepped out. He turned back to look back over the yard. He had an alien at his back and a… WTF in front of him making sure he didn’t go anywhere. Since he didn’t know what the golden creatures were called, he decided WTF pretty much was the perfect description of them.
There were times in life when he really missed the fact that he had quit smoking and this was one of them. Hell, pipes weren’t all that bad. Not when you compared them to things like aliens, traders, Antrox… a shiver ran down his spine. He didn’t have a clue what half the aliens might have looked like, but he had seen a few documentaries about them. That was close enough for him.
He jerked in surprise when one of the creatures that had been lying in front of him suddenly stood up and moved a short distance away. He rubbed his eyes when the thing changed shape right in front of him. A startled curse escaped him when a hand wrapped around his upper arm and he found himself being propelled toward the beast.
