Reign: A Space Fantasy Romance (Strands of Starfire Book 1)

by May Sage

  Kai rarely danced, but tonight he was almost tempted. The enthralling beat resonated in his very heart. He felt the energy vibrate, calling to him in a strange way.

  A few males and females came to attempt to coax him into joining them, but he remained seated in front of the main residence, deflecting their invitations as best he could.

  “I wondered when it’d happen,” said Krane, after observing him in silence for a good half hour.

  “Finally saying whatever you have in mind?”

  A good thing, too. The staring had been annoying.

  “Aye. You depleted your energy. You need to recharge.”

  Kai tensed, neither denying nor confirming it.

  “For most people, that would happen practically every day, after so much as using their mind to heat up a cup of tea,” the know-it-all explained. “But the amount of power you have? Well, takes a lot to zap you.”

  It made an awful lot of sense, and, yet again, Kai wondered how Krane always had all the answers. It killed him, but he asked, “Recharge?”

  The male standing to his left waved toward the crowd before them. “You see them do it. Now, and behind closed doors. Your power is molding energy as you see fit and releasing it into the world. Recharging it is harnessing it back in.”

  Kai frowned, not understanding Krane’s meaning.

  “Have you ever caused terror, pure terror, and enjoyed it?” asked the old male.

  He remained silent. He caused terror every time he appeared in front of his enemy. And yes, a part of him enjoyed it, basked in it.

  “Feelings are a powerful thing. They create an energy that stays right there, floating in the air. Unless it’s harnessed, of course. Consciously or not, mages absorb it. Feed on it.”

  Now that the male put it into words, Kai knew what he meant. When his enemies trembled before him, it enthused him, increasing his reach through their mind, his power over them. He’d had no idea why, until now.

  “’Course, you don’t need to stick to horror and doom.” Krane tilted his chin toward a female who had been attempting to catch Kai’s eye for a while now. He’d thoroughly ignored her. “Fucking someone senseless does the trick, too. Pleasure is a feeling. A powerful one. The most powerful one, some might argue.”

  Kai snorted.

  He hadn’t touched a female in a long time. He didn’t have the time for a casual partner. When his body desired release, he took matters in his own hand, always visualizing one face; that of the female he’d long ago seen himself standing next to. Stupid, but touching anyone else almost felt like a betrayal to a female he didn’t yet know.

  “Suit yourself.” Krane shrugged. “But there’s no one for you to torture right now, and you won’t get better quickly without harnessing. Bet the headaches are a killer.” They were, but Kai said nothing. Krane wasn’t done talking. “Simple, ordinary feelings, they’ll feed you over time. You’ll be just fine in a week or so. Or, you could give a pretty thing one orgasm, and boom. Healed. Just like that.”

  More silence. Krane wasn’t one to give up.

  “Just saying, Kai. Today, you’re just a little out of sorts, but there could come a time when you’re completely depleted. When ninety-nine percent of your power is used up. You need to get used to this. It’s part of what you are.”

  Kai finally spoke. “Stay out of my business.”

  The old male never would.

  “You know, considering the way you scan faces through the crowd, I guessed you’re waiting for someone. Anyone can see it.”

  The male always saw too much. Damn him.

  “Whoever you’re waiting for, she isn’t here. She could be getting fucked herself right now, as we speak.”

  Kai was on his feet, facing Krane, looking at him in a way that would have made most tremble. The male smiled, glad he’d managed to get under Kai’s skin. Dick.

  “And I’d wager she wouldn’t want you to suffer, or put yourself in danger by remaining weak.”

  Those words echoed through him, sounding true.

  If the female was a mage, and she was feeling like this right now—heavy, nauseous, with a throbbing, lingering headache that wouldn’t quit—he’d want it to stop. He’d want her to get better right then.

  “You’re turning into a good man, Kai. This won’t change it. Sex is as casual as you make it. Tell her what you want from the very start, explicitly. Always pick a regular. A mage will take your energy, too—and that’s intimate. Give her pleasures. You don’t have to let her return the favor.” Krane explained the rules Kai would live by for over a decade. Then, he cracked a smile. “And who knows? Maybe by the time you find that person you’re looking for, you’ll know your way around a clit. Might come in handy.” He winked before walking back into the darkness of the residence.

  Kai watched him leave, yet again wondering how the male appeared to know almost everything.

  Krane could be mistaken, of course, but the old male had never said a thing that hadn’t turned out to be true since the day they met.

  He turned to the female who was still looking at him purposefully, playing with her hair. She was confident in her sexuality, and quite beautiful, too. Kai couldn’t find it in himself to desire her. But for this experiment, she’d do.

  He crossed the street, and, as he advanced, her teasing smile disappeared; she took a step back, as though suddenly questioning her resolve now that he was closer. Her back hit a marble column. Kai reached her and bent forward.

  “Your name?” he asked.

  “Bettra,” she whispered, her bottom lip trembling.

  Kai scanned her mind without being intrusive, just glancing at the surface through her eyes. “You’re no mage.”

  She shook her pretty curls. “No, my sister’s one of you. My whole family came two weeks ago.”

  Kai wondered if Krane had been able to tell somehow.

  “You wanted my attention, Bettra. Now you have it.”

  She breathed in sharply, but despite the small spike of fear, Kai felt, and smelled, her arousal.

  “I’m not going to want more than one night,” he told her softly. “You understand?”

  She nodded, her curls bouncing.

  “Well then.”

  He had her curls bouncing again soon.

  Kai hadn’t been certain he’d actually take her. He hadn’t wanted it, not really. Krane had prescribed an orgasm, and he’d planned on administering one before walking away, but after making the girl scream at the top of her voice with his fingers inside her, something primal, bestial, in him, took over. He fucked her for hours.

  The old male had been right. The symptoms were gone, and he was back to his better self in no time. All that remained of his discomfort was a slight self-disgust in the morning. Kai wasn’t simply back to normal; he’d never been stronger. Without any effort, he could feel every single Evris breathing in the building. He could feel his wolves, tell where they were.

  He’d taken Bettra to the principal room in the residence he was occupying. Before fucking her in there, he’d intended to claim this room as his. Instead, he gave it to Hart, packed his things, and picked another suite, adding another rule to Krane’s; he wasn’t bringing females into his space ever again.

  Kai did the one thing that helped calm him down: he took a knee, and breathed in and out, eyes closed. This should have looked like a submissive stance, but no mage would think so. They were so much more powerful when they cleared their minds, calmed down. When he knelt, those around him knew to be careful.

  He wasn’t preparing a large discharge of energy this time; just trying to think. When he got up again, he’d decided to accept this—his indifference mixed with his self-disgust. He accepted that he would do it again, next time his energy level went down. The encounter truly had made him more powerful. If fucking females he was indifferent to was part of him, he wouldn’t deny himself. He had to survive. Nothing mattered more than living to see the day he’d glimpsed in his vision.

  This was per
haps the first thing that molded him into a dark, coldhearted, ruthless monster.

  The second step was losing wolves.

  After Tenera, the rest of the Krazu system fell to their rule within a year. Until then, they’d been quite informal about their quest, but as more planets were added to their territory, it became necessary to have a governing body set up. Authorities, enforcers, and people they answered to. They were a nation, and nations had leaders.

  Kai wasn’t much for politics. Talks and negotiations bored and frustrated him. He had no desire for power. Only peace. Building a world where their kind would be safe was his purpose, his goal in life. And finding that scarred woman one day, would be his reward. Nothing other than those two ends mattered to him.

  Thus, he was quite stunned when the bulk of his people proposed to name him their ruler. Kai frowned, looking around the crowded hall, as though expecting a better option to materialize itself. But there was no one. Hart was the best second option, but Hart hadn’t started this. Kai had. He wasn’t the man their enemy feared and respected in equal parts. Kai was. Thousands of Evris looked to him, silently, expectantly.

  “I’m no warlord,” said Kai, his voice carrying through the vast hall. The words felt like lies. He pictured that image that never quite left his mind. For once, instead of looking at her, he focused on himself – more specifically, his habit. A long white cloak with gold trim. Funny how he’d never stopped to really consider the implication. He’d be a warlord one day, if that vision came to pass.

  “I wasn’t born for this. Trained for this. Educated for this. I have no inclination for this.”

  At his side, Sky bumped her head on his leg, as though encouraging him to keep talking.

  “But none of us were meant to have a place in this story. They would have us dead. For the last years, the last decades, every day we drew breath, we resisted their prejudice, their hatred, their tyranny. Surviving was our victory.” Kai got up as the crowd nodded their agreement. “As I stand before you today, I’ll tell you one thing. The world we’ll build for our children will be better than this one. A kingdom where order and peace are law. Even if we need to forge it in fire.”

  The crowd cheered. Those words echoed through space and time, and, far from there, hearing every word clearly, Nalini bit her lips. So, that was it. Darkness was really coming. It meant Enlil’s end, but at what price?

  The members of Kai’s fleet, mage or otherwise, were called “insurgents.” People talked of them from one end of the sector to the next. Their numbers and their monopoly in a consequential system made them a force impossible to ignore. Soon, politicians and nobles started to openly support them. As they annexed more territories, their influence grew exponentially.

  Kai took to wearing white; white and red. That way his people immediately recognized him, even at a distance. He heeded the little lady’s advice and had a mask forged for when he appeared in public. A mask his enemies knew to fear. First came the messengers. Then the politicians. Kai Lor only appeared when the insurgents were done talking. He only appeared for destruction.

  He left servants and children alive. Everyone else burned.

  Imperial year 1219, when Nalini turned seventeen, Kai held three systems out of the nine in the Ratna Belt sector. The insurgents had become a growing concern, and Enlil decided to fight fire with fire. He went to the Wise and told them of mages in his sector. He demanded that he be allowed to train his own battalion of mages for his protection.

  The Wise knew better than to deny his request. Exchanging glances, the four women and two men nodded in unison. “It is time,” they agreed.

  None of them had expected that the prophecy would be easily thwarted. Killing those who developed aptitudes had only been a way to delay the inevitable, until they couldn’t hold off the danger any longer.

  So, they started to plan.

  Twelve

  Colder

  Kai grew cold. Colder every year. Colder yet when the first wolf of his pack died.

  Strange. He courted death at every step—witnessed it, caused it sometimes. But Lok’s demise took a piece of him.

  The pack had grown. Sky had a litter of pups, so did Lok. But born around Evris who fed them and looked after them, rather than in the wild, frozen lands of Haimo where survival was a constant battle, the pups weren’t quite the same animals. They weren’t exactly tame, but somewhat closer to a dog than a wolf. The young pups bonded with some of his followers. Kai liked them well enough. Little Nura, for example. The pup who’d attached herself to Hart, his first advisor, had perfected an irresistible look that prompted her victims to spontaneously scratch her fur just where she wanted them to.

  Lok fell in battle, taking a blow that would have killed him.

  The insurgents and the warlord’s forces rarely fought on the ground; most of their battles happened in space. When they got to the surface of a planet, it meant that the war was already won. No regular force could fight against mages. Knowing his wolves loved the exercise, Kai had never tried to prevent them from accompanying him. He’d grown complacent, too sure of himself. Used to blasters, he didn’t see the metallic arrow coming at him during that fight. It might have pierced his energy shield; he’d never know. Lok jumped in the way.

  As Kai stared at the fallen beast in disbelief, Sky howled high, sending the pack on a hunt. They ignored everything else in their path, everyone else, heading right to the archer.

  The male who shot that arrow died screaming in agony, Kai saw to it. He got to him before the wolves were done ripping him apart, and dragged him away from the battle alive. Kai locked him in a cold, dark cell, and breached his mind, making him feel untold torments until his last breath. And then, he wished he could have made it last even longer.

  Torturing that vile creature didn’t help much. Nothing had ever prepared him for the pain and loss.

  He carried Lok and headed to the one place that seemed fit for her burial: Haimo, where she had a shrine fit for a king.

  “We need to build them armor,” was the first thing Kai said upon his return. “Exosuits.”

  He oversaw that project directly, needing a way to get his mind off the wolf’s death. Finding ways to prevent the others from getting hurt worked as well as anything could have.

  Kai learned quickly, reading every text he could access on biotech, familiarizing himself with the most advanced, responsive technology, until he knew as much as their best scientists. Wench, now a young man, who still trailed him whenever he could, had developed a knack for all kinds of tech during the time they spent in those labs. Above all, the kid was good with software and protocols. He’d make a fine hacker in time.

  “Exosuits think for us; but honestly, it might freak an animal out. If something appeared out of nowhere to protect their heart, they might spook and end up putting themselves in danger,” Elia, their best tech, explained.

  “One way to find out.”

  Kai tried the suit on Sky. She wasn’t impressed, at first; getting it to Her Furry Highness’s high standards took a few tries. Finally, the wolves were safe.

  Safer, in any case. The armor wasn’t as responsive as Kai would have liked. He worried about it, but as the years passed, it proved effective.

  Still, in 1216, he lost Nor to sickness. 1217 was the year Torj died of old age, peacefully. That left Nox and Sky, who seemed to hold on to the last pieces of his heart.

  They were close to Torj’s age.

  Killing was easier each time he came back from burying a member of his pack.

  What would he be like when Sky left this world?

  Kai closed his eyes and searched inside himself, attempting to see a light, a piece of hope and goodness.

  He cared about his people as a whole. Wanted them safe. Content, if possible. But that wasn’t even close to what he felt for the beast at his side.

  “You’ll leave me one day soon” he told Sky.

  Then he might truly be a monster.

  He thought of the litt
le girl who’d saved him twice, and of that female he still saw in his dreams. Perhaps they’d be enough to make him retain some degree of compassion, warmth.

  Perhaps. Doubtful.

  “Well, let’s make sure that day doesn’t come too soon, kid.”

  Only one male called him that.

  “Krane.”

  The old male usually accompanied him for the beasts’ funerals, but not this time; he’d stayed back. Kai was trying not to see it as a betrayal.

  Ian Krane held a vial in his hand.

  “This is a prototype concocted by them Imperials, and modified by the best in the market. Nanocytes built and developed to regenerate cells at an accelerated rate. One cell dies, it creates its replacement. This thing can regrow a damn arm overnight.”

  Kai had heard of this; everyone had. They whispered about it, grumbling about the way Imperials, high nobles, and the Wise selfishly kept it to themselves.

  Immortality.

  “You got your hands on a Rejuvenation Serum?” Kai sounded downright incredulous, for good reasons. This time, he had to ask, “All right, who are you?”

  The old male winked and casually threw the vial his way.

  “I’ll do Nox. You do your beast. She’d rip my hand off. Press on the sides, a needle comes out. It’ll work almost as soon as it’s inside them. They’ll just need a nap while the nanocytes sync.”

  Kai did as instructed, and Sky only bit him twice afterward. She growled at him for the rest of the day. Ian Krane managed well enough with Nox. Once they were done, they stared at each other defiantly.

  Eventually, Kai just shook his head.

  “You can get immortality serums, and you’re giving it to animals.”

  The male made no sense.

  “I’m giving it to the most important animals in this galaxy. These two die? How long before you kill us all in a tantrum, kid?”

  Kai glared. “I don’t throw tantrums.”

  He didn’t. Did he?

  “Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, boss.”