by Sophie Stern
“You can do whatever you want, Lana. You can do anything. You can be anything.”
“You really believe that, don’t you? You really believe I can be happy here.”
“I will do everything in my power to make sure you’re happy here, Lana. I can’t tell you why or how, but there’s this connection between us.”
She opens her mouth to say something, but closes it instead. I wonder what was on the tip of her tongue.
“I feel it, too,” she says finally. “But I don’t know what it means, and right now, I just want to see my friend.”
“Of course,” I tell her, and I hand her a small box.
“What is it?”
“Open it.”
Lana looks at the box suspiciously, as if bugs are about to pop out and begin crawling on her, but eventually, she opens the container and pulls out a small communications device.
“What’s this, Cody?”
“It’s a communications unit,” I tell her. “Here.” I show her how the device works. “This way, you can call me if there’s a problem.”
“How convenient,” she looks at the device and Lana actually smiles. She gives me a great big grin and my heart swells. “Thank you,” she says. “This is really sweet of you. Very thoughtful.”
“Well, I assume you’ll want me to pick you up after your visit,” I say, brushing off the compliment.
“It’s really nice of you,” she says again. Then Lana leans over and brushes her lips softly against mine. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
Then she hops out of the hovercar and heads toward the house. I see her friend open the door and rush into her arms. They hug for a long time, as if they haven’t seen each other in years – not just hours. The two of them wave to me, and then they disappear together into the house.
I wait a minute, just watching. Lana really is the most incredible woman. She’s interesting, and she really cares about the people around her. Those are two simple, yet difficult traits to find in a woman, and I fight the word that’s been floating around in my head.
Mate.
She couldn’t be my mate.
There’s no such thing.
“Mates” are something my mother dreamed up when I was a little boy and she needed a story to tell me at bedtime. Mates are just something that have been invented as a way to make people feel less alone, to make people feel like there’s actually hope for the future.
Mates don’t really exist, and Lana certainly isn’t mine.
I’m no good for her, anyway.
Lana is kind and gentle. She really cares about other people. She’s genuine in a way so many people aren’t. Me? I’m dark and broody. Angry. Scared. I’m afraid of falling in love because I don’t want to lose the woman of my dreams to death. Isn’t that shallow of me? Isn’t that dumb? The big, bad warrior is afraid of losing his woman, so he’d rather not have one.
It doesn’t make any sense, but it’s the life I’ve been living for a very long time, and the truth is that I am afraid. I am scared. I’m worried that Lana is going to steal my heart away and then she’s going to break it, and I can’t have that happen. I don’t want to become a shell of a man. I don’t want to lose who I am.
With a sigh, I pull away from the house and drive to my father’s office. Today we’ll be working on scheduling and speeches. Part of my job includes arranging security personnel everywhere he goes. He always has at least one bodyguard with him. After Patrick was lost during my father’s last trip, he didn’t have someone with him for awhile. All of that is going to change. He needs a new personal bodyguard in addition to me because I can’t be with him all of the time. Today, I’m going to be trying to find someone to watch over my dad, and they have to be the very best.
He deserves the best.
***
The office is in full-swing when I arrive. Everyone is busy preparing for speeches, meetings, and political gatherings, but all I can think about is Lana. It’s all I can do to push her from my head as I go seek out my father to find out how he’s doing his first morning back.
“Hey,” Axel comes up alongside me as I make my way down the busy hallway.
“Good morning,” I greet him. “What brings you in today?” While Axel and I go way back, we have very different jobs. It’s not often he stops by the office unless he needs to talk with Cecil about something related to my father’s schedule or he needs to help the two of them arrange transport.
“You seem happier this morning,” he says, by way of greeting.
“What are you talking about? I’m always a bundle of happiness and joy,” I tell him, and Axel rolls his eyes.
“Yeah, right. Are we both talking about you right now?”
“We are,” I look at him. “Sorry I was a dick yesterday.”
Axel stops mid-stride and turns to look at me.
“You fucker,” he says.
“What?” I look around, hoping none of the employees heard him swearing. Sapphirans tend to be pretty narrow-minded, especially when it comes to things like appropriate speech.
“You like her, don’t you?”
“Who?”
“The girl who saved your father. Lana. You like her. Did you fuck her?”
“What? No!”
“Just asking, man,” he shrugs, as if it’s no big deal, and I try not to let the brash question bother me.
“It’s none of your business, Axel, even if I did.”
“So you like her,” he says with a smug smirk. I want to smack that damn look right off his face, but I don’t. Instead, I take a deep breath.
“It’s irrelevant,” I tell him. “She needed a place to be safe, and we have provided that.”
“That’s why I’m here, actually,” Axel says.
“To talk about Lana?”
“Yes,” he says, but he glances around, as if he doesn’t want to be overheard by anyone.
“What about her, Axel?” He’s got me a bit worried. Lana can hold her own, but if he has information I need to know, I’d like for him to tell me sooner, rather than later. I don’t want to do this dance around the topic of what’s polite and appropriate. Axel needs to just be blunt with me and spit it out.
“It’s strange, isn’t it?” Axel says.
“What’s that?”
“Someone targeting her like that. At the terminal, the guy didn’t go after any of the other girls from the planet. Only her. Why? Do you think it’s because of her father?”
“Maybe he had enemies,” I shrug. “You didn’t find any other stowaways, did you?”
“Just the one,” he says. “No one else was even from her village. Well, except for her buddy.”
“Kitty,” I say. “She’s with her now. Lana said she wanted to visit her friend.”
“I wanted to talk to you about that,” Axel says. We turn into my office and I close the door behind us. The office is large and roomy, like everything else in the building. My father is an important man in Diamond. Hell, he’s an important man on the entire planet. He’s not the only senator in the city, but he’s one of the best and the most well-respected.
If anything had happened to him, I’m not the only one who would have suffered. I’m not the only one who would have felt pain. No, it would have been worse than that. The entire city would have grieved his loss because my father truly cares about the people of Sapphira.
Just as Lana’s father did, or so I’ve been told.
“What is it?” I ask. I can’t imagine what Axel has to say, but he seems genuinely concerned.
“I interviewed all of the people brought in from Alipoiaen.”
“Anything interesting?” I press a button on the wall panel beside my desk and the robotic assistant in the corner begins making me a blue petal juice. My favorite.
“That’s just the thing,” he says, taking a seat. “We asked them all questions about what happened during the rebel attacks and all of their stories are more or less the same. They’re all from the same area, so their stories should be s
imilar. Although each of the refugees are from different villages, the coordinated rebel attacks were alike. At least, as far as we can tell.”
“Go on.” The robotic assistant brings me the drink and I take a sip. Instantly, I begin to calm. My entire body relaxes, and I lean back in my seat.
“Kitty’s story is different.”
“Excuse me?” At this, I sit forward. We couldn’t save everyone on the planet. There was no way. I’m lucky the Extrinsic team was even able to extricate my father. When Father and Patrick decided to take a detour to Alipoiaen, they visited a couple of villages via local transport. When the rebels attacked, they couldn’t make it back to their ship. Thanks to my father’s tracker, the Extrinsic team, who had been monitoring the situation on Alipoiaen, were close enough to make a heroic rescue.
The Extrinsic team really is an extraction team. They’re an elite group of people, but they can’t do magic. They can’t save everyone. They couldn’t get every single person out of the villages before the attacks occurred. In fact, they were almost too late to save my father himself.
“Kitty’s story,” Axel says. “It’s strange, but when she told me what happened that day, it almost sounded like she had rehearsed her story.”
“What do you mean, Axel?” My eyes narrow. Why would Kitty have a fake story about the rebel attack? That doesn’t make any sense. This is the attack that claimed her father’s life. This is the attack that’s the whole reason she came to Sapphira.
“You’re the security expert,” Axel says slowly. “But Cody, I’m concerned. After interviewing her, I felt like there’s more to who she is than we originally thought.”
Than who we originally thought?
We originally thought she was Lana’s friend, but now I’m not so sure about that.
“Harper had to have help hiding on the ship,” I tell him. “Extrinsic’s ship is difficult to penetrate, but staying on the ship without being seen? That feels almost impossible.”
“Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”
“That Kitty could be a member of the rebels from Alipoiaen? I don’t want to think that’s true.” I don’t want to think that she could have betrayed Lana in this way. “It doesn’t make sense, Axel. Why would Kitty be harboring a rebel? How could she have done it without anyone seeing? And why would she permit him to attack Lana?”
“I don’t know,” Axel shakes his head. “And that’s not my job to find out, Cody. I’m not the one in security. You are. I’m just here to inform you that if you want to find out why your girl was attacked, you need to talk with Kitty. Something isn’t right.”
Axel stands and turns to leave.
“Thank you,” I tell him. “I appreciate you coming to me with this so quickly.”
“Of course, Cody,” Axel says. “You know you’re like a brother to me, friend. I would do anything for you.”
Then he leaves, and a sinking feeling of dread begins to creep over me. I just dropped Lana off at Kitty’s place. While the housing area for new citizens is secure, it’s secure from outsiders trying to break into the house. It guarantees the people inside will be safe. It doesn’t mean they’ll be safe from each other. If Axel is right and Kitty really is a rebel in cahoots with Harper, then it means Lana might not be safe. She could be in danger this very moment.
I stand up and leave my office as calmly as I possibly can, but I only make a few feet from the door before I start to run.
I need to get to Lana before it’s too late.
Chapter Eleven
Lana
Kitty and I head straight for the kitchen, where we sit down across from each other at a comfortable little table. It’s not as big as Cody’s house, but it’s still so much larger and more spacious than the homes Kitty and I lived in growing up.
“How are you adjusting?” I ask her, looking around. “Do you like it here? Is it what you hoped for?” There’s no one else around. It’s just the two of us. The little kitchen is messy, but homey.
“It’s okay,” she says slowly, but she doesn’t seem like her usual, carefree self. Instantly, I’m on alert, and I look at her sharply.
“What’s wrong, Kitty?”
“What makes you think anything’s wrong?” She says flippantly, brushing her long hair back with her hand. “It’s fine, Lana. What about you? Did you and the alien man…you know?”
I blush.
Hard.
We didn’t. We definitely didn’t. I wanted to, though, and I don’t like the idea of admitting that to Kitty. Am I embarrassed of Cody? No. Absolutely not. Cody is incredible, and sexy, and strong, but I like him. A lot. I don’t really want to go talking about what we did or didn’t do.
“No,” I finally say, but Kitty glares at me. “What is it?” I ask her. “Why are you upset?”
Kitty just shakes her head and leans back in her chair. “I’m not,” she says. “It’s just typical, you know? You have all this good luck,” she says. “While the rest of us are just…ordinary.”
“What are you talking about?” I look around the room. “And speaking of normal, where’s everyone else?”
“They’re all tied up at the moment,” she says, and then Kitty stands up. “I’m glad you came to see me, you know,” she tells me, walking around the table to my side. She stands beside me and sits on top of the table. It’s sturdy. It doesn’t shake or wobble beneath her weight.
“I’m glad I got to come see you, too,” I tell her, although suddenly, I’m feeling nervous and uncomfortable. “But I have to be honest with you, Kitty, you’re being a little strange.”
“Aw, is the little princess getting anxious? Welcome to my life,” she hisses, and then Kitty does something I don’t expect, something I don’t see coming.
Kitty does something she’s never done in all of our years of friendship.
She slaps me in the face.
“What the hell, Kitty?” I rub my face and look up at her, but something is different about Kitty now. She doesn’t look calm or nice or interesting or fun. She doesn’t look like some girl who’s nervous about living on a new planet.
She just looks evil.
And that’s when I realize I’ve been completely, totally tricked.
“It was you,” I whisper. “You sneaked Harper onto the ship. That’s why you never wanted me to be alone in our bedroom.”
She shrugs, and I realize I was completely tricked. For a week. I thought Kitty was just being weird when it came to our shared living unit. She didn’t want me to go into the closet and she didn’t like me going to her side of the room at all. Anytime I was in the bedroom, Kitty was there, too. I was never alone.
Was it because Harper was hiding in there?
“You two were together,” I whisper. “Fuck, you’re a rebel, aren’t you, Kitty?” How could I not have seen it? My friend has always been unhappy with her situation in life. She’s always been uncomfortable with where she is, but I never expected this from her.
“I thought losing your father would teach you a lesson, you stupid bitch,” Kitty hisses, and she grabs my arm, digging her nails in hard. Pools of blood pool where the sharp tips of her nails have pierced my skin, but I ignore the pain and keep my eyes on her.
I’m going to have to escape.
I’m going to have to find a way to get out of here.
Cody.
Cody will come for me, but he has to know I’m in trouble. I don’t want to draw Kitty’s attention by pushing buttons on my communications unit, but there’s a tiny distress button I can push. She’ll never see me do it. The alarm is silent, Cody told me, and it will notify him and the local authorities that I’m in trouble.
“You’re hurting me,” I whisper, and I act like I’m trying to rub my wrist with my hand. As I make the motion, I quickly hit the secret alarm button. Kitty doesn’t see, and I breathe a quiet sigh of relief. That’s it. Help will come. Cody will come here, but I have to hold her off until then.
“I’m barely touching you,” K
itty says. “And believe me, you deserve so much worse than this.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” I ask her. “Why would you let Harper try to hurt me? And why wait until we were already on the planet? Were you two in love or something?”
She scoffs. “Me and Harper? Hardly. No, my darling,” she slaps me again, and then she yanks my hair back so I’m forced to look at her. “You’re so fucking naïve,” she says. “Harper paid me a lot of money to get him here. I wasn’t about to let him kill you on the ship and draw all of that attention to myself. No. I didn’t want to be a suspect, honey. I wanted him to get his score and finally kill the rest of you all. Waiting until Sapphira meant he could make it look like an accident and the two of us could go our separate ways and live our separate lives.”
“But, why?” I ask her. “It doesn’t make sense.” I’m stalling, yeah, but I also need to know. “You loved my father, Kitty. You loved our village and our planet. Why would you betray it by joining the rebels?”
“You stupid girl. I’m not even from your planet, but then, you never even noticed, did you?”
“What? Yes, you are. We grew up together.”
“I came to the planet when I was five, Lana. I was born on Mirroean. When my family died, I was adopted by a couple on Alipoiaen. You think that’s easy? You think it’s okay losing your family and then having to live somewhere you don’t know? In a new place you don’t even like?”
“No,” I say sarcastically. “I have no idea what that’s like.”
“Well, you do now, you stupid girl.” She raises her hand to hit me again, but this time, I block her hit, and I use all of my strength to push her away.
“No, Kitty, we aren’t going to play this game. Where’s everyone else in this house, huh? You have them tied up upstairs?”
A look of surprise crosses her face, but then she shakes her head. “No,” she says, and I realize she’s lying. She’s got them locked away somehow because she knew I was coming over and she wants to finish Harper’s mission of killing me.
