by Ashley West
“No, you didn’t,” Draco agreed. “But it does make sense, and I think you know that. And it’s true. The blade comes from a planet called Aldara. And so do I.”
The room was plunged into silence after his pronouncement, and Stephanie gaped at him for long moments. There was no hint of mirth in his eyes or amusement on his face, so either he believed his was telling the truth or...or he was.
She laughed shakily. “Yeah, okay,” she said. “You’re an actual alien as in an extraterrestrial. Right. Of course. And you’re here to do what? Collect information and take it back to the mother ship?”
“It’s not a joke,” Draco snapped, sounding agitated. “I can prove it.”
“How? Are you going to take me back with you to your other planet?” She wiggled her fingers as she spoke, trying to make light of the fact that she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do now.
“Come here,” he said, and his voice was as commanding as she had ever heard it before. “I want to show you something.”
In his hand was a device, about the size of one of the latest smartphones. Without even really thinking about it, Stephanie found herself moving closer, frowning as she peered at it. It didn’t look like any model she’d ever seen before, and none of the writing on it appeared to be in English. Or even in the standard alphabet.
Draco swiped a finger across the screen a few times and then appeared to find what he was looking for, turning the device to show her. “Do these markings look familiar?” he asked.
It was a picture of what appeared to be a wall, covered in thick vines the likes of which she’d never seen before and weathered away by, well, weather. She frowned and leaned closer, just about making out a set of six runes carved into the stone. Her eyes widened as it hit her that they were almost exactly the same as the ones on the blade.
“Where is this?” she whispered.
“A planet called Hordura,” Draco replied. “Where I found the first Artifact.”
“The first what?”
“The blade you found is part of a set. That’s why you just have the blade. There’s a hilt and pommel and a sheath that go with it. Together they make up the Cillidan Artifacts, a trio of objects that my people have been trying to put together for ages. My friend has the first two already. Well, he had them, but they were stolen.”
Stephanie finally looked away from the screen and back up at his face. She had that familiar feeling in her bones where she knew something exciting was about to happen, and she wondered how she’d gone from thinking Draco was a bit off his nut to being interested in what he had to say.
However fantastical his story was, Stephanie found that she believed him, and she wanted to know more.
“Tell me everything.”
Draco nodded and sat back down on the couch. Stephanie moved to get her coffee and then perched on the armchair, watching him closely.
“I didn’t mean to lie to you,” Draco started and then made a face. “Alright, that’s not true. I did mean to lie. I thought that I could just...win you over and get the blade and be gone before you were the wiser.” He cut off her indignant protest with one hand. “I’m sorry, but you don’t understand yet. Like I said, things have changed.”
He took a deep breath and then began.
“Cillidan was a king. Some say he was a Daebtheri, some say he was something else, but since there aren’t any pictures of him, no one knows. What is known is that he was one of the most powerful and wealthy kings Aldara has ever had. None of his enemies were able to defeat him, and people gave him tribute just so that he wouldn’t attack their lands.”
“He sounds like a bully,” Steph interrupted.
Draco shrugged. “Maybe. But his people prospered when he was in charge. The thing about it is that no one knew why he was so powerful. They assumed that it was just because he had a large army or because there was a wizard on his side or something like that. But it wasn’t the case. When Cillidan died, three items were found with his body. A hilt, a sheath, and a blade. No one had ever seen him wield a weapon, so they didn’t know where the objects had come from, but they were clearly Cillidan’s possessions, and the runes on the blade proved it even more.”
“What do they say?”
“Long live oh, king of kings,” Draco recited. “They were buried with Cillidan and stayed in his tomb for decades. Until one day they were dug up and they disappeared, scattered across the galaxy.”
Stephanie waited to see if there was more, but it appeared that was the end of the story. “But what happened? Who dug them up?”
“No one knows. This all happened about three hundred years ago, and the history tomes are very closed mouthed about it. The Artifacts became a kind of legend on my planet and on the planets surrounding it. People said that whoever could unite them would get the favor of Cillidan and bring honor to their kind. Which is why I assumed that Plintos, my friend, wanted them together so badly. He’s the king of our people, you see. But it turns out that I didn’t have all the information. Together, the Artifacts don’t bring you Cillidan’s favor. They give you Cillidan’s power. Because together they make a powerful weapon, like nothing anyone has ever seen before. According to Plintos anyway.”
“And you said...you said that someone stole the other two from your friend?”
“I did.”
She blinked, chewing on her lip. “So you think they’re coming after the third one, then. The one at the museum.”
Draco inclined his head. “I do.”
Stephanie watched him for a moment, thinking hard. “When you said you needed my help, what you meant was that you need me to help you to get the blade,” she said finally. “That’s why you’ve been so interested in it, isn’t it?” She very purposely did not follow that with wanting to know if it was the only reason he was interested in her.
“Yes,” Draco admitted. “I was hoping that I could get it and then get back to Aldara without much hassle. Of course that’s different now.”
“What do you need me for now?” Stephanie wanted to know, trying not to let her tone be too bitter. Of course it had been too good to be true. She should have expected that from the get go. There was no way that Draco was just...that interested in her. Their conversations had been almost effortless with how well they’d worked together, but it had all been an act from the beginning.
“For now it’s more important that whoever is after the blade doesn’t get it,” Draco replied. “According to Plintos, who would know, if they got their hands on all three Artifacts, the devastation they could bring would be terrible.”
“Bring here or bring against your people?”
“I don’t know. Neither does Plintos. We don’t know who this is, but it’s been ages since our corner of Aldara has seen fighting. There’s no telling who this is or what they want, and it’d be short sighted to assume that they wouldn’t do anything to your planet in their efforts to get what they want.”
“Right,” she said, rubbing at her forehead. For one of the first times in her life, she was dealing with information overload, and she wasn’t sure how to deal with it. Usually she had some frame of reference for the things she learned, but all of this was so new and so different and so out of her depth. Aliens and magical weapons and just...all of it.
What was really sticking with her, of course, was the way he had been planning to use her to steal from the museum and then just disappear. Try as she might, she couldn’t help but be hurt by it, and she had to look away from him to keep the emotion from showing in her eyes.
“Well,” she continued, shaking her head to clear it. “It shouldn’t be hard to keep whoever it is from getting the blade. It’s under lock and key, except for when it’s being examined, and the research team wouldn’t let anything happen to it. It would help if we knew a bit more about who these people or creatures or whatever are.”
Draco sighed. “You’re telling me,” he said. “Plintos is investigating. Someone in the palace had to have seen something. He’ll l
et me know when he knows something.”
“Just keep me posted,” Steph said with a brightness that she didn’t feel. She got to her feet, cradling her empty coffee cup and still not looking at him. “I’ll put some clothes on and then take you back to your place.”
“Alright,” Draco replied softly. “Thank you.”
Stephanie got as far as the kitchen before he spoke again. “I am sorry, you know. I didn’t expect…”
She waved the apology away, shaking her head. “No, no, it’s fine. Someone threw a wrench in your plans, right? You never wanted to have to explain all of this to me.”
“That’s not exactly what I was going to say.”
“Still. It’s fine. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”
Practically bolting to her room, she shut the door and leaned against it, closing her eyes and trying to breathe through her nose and let it out through her mouth like she’d always been taught to when she needed to calm down.
Her head was spinning with new information and the fact that there was indeed life on other planets and one of the examples of that was sitting in her living room. In any other circumstance, she would have had a million questions for him about where he was from and the differences between Earth and his planet and the people in each place. She would have asked all about the kind of metal the blade was made of and if they had other weapons like that and soaked up all the knowledge.
But that wouldn't be a good idea.
Once this whole thing was over and done with, Draco would take the Artifact and go back to where he came from, leaving her here like he’d always meant to.
It was probably better for everyone involved if she didn’t get too attached or try to get too much information. It wasn’t like she could tell anyone once he was gone, after all.
She sighed and dragged a hand through her hair, pushing away from the door and crossing to her closet to pull out an outfit for the day. Maybe after she dropped Draco off she’d go to the museum. She could get another look at the blade with her new information and see what Nate knew since the last time she’d asked. There could also be some kind of way to clue him into the fact that extra security wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for them to have.
Once she was dressed and as put together as she could be, given the circumstances, she opened her bedroom door and then jumped when she saw Draco standing there.
“God, you scared me,” she said. “What do you want?”
“To apologize and explain,” Draco told her.
“You already did that, remember? I believe you. You’re from another planet, which is all kinds of weird, but I believe you. You don’t have to-”
“No,” he said, cutting her off. “Not about that. I didn’t… I know you think the only reason I went out with you, the only reason any of this happened, was because I was trying to use you.”
It wasn’t a question, and Steph stared back at him, arching an eyebrow. “Are you trying to say that wasn’t the only reason?”
He sighed. “At first it was. I wanted you to trust me, so that maybe you’d let me see the blade, and I could come up with a plan to get it. But then we actually went out, and… And it was harder for me to lie to myself that there wasn’t something more I wanted.”
She didn’t want to get her hopes up. After all, this could just be a clever ploy for him to remain in her good graces until this whole thing was over. But there was something about the way he was looking at her just then that made her think there was more to it than that and that maybe he was being honest.
“What else did you want?” she asked, barely daring to breathe as he pinned her with those eyes.
“You. You’re just… You’re not like anyone I’ve ever met before.”
“Well, I am a human, and all your friends are aliens,” Steph pointed out.
Draco cracked a smile at that. “You are very good at misunderstanding me, did you know that?” he murmured, stepping closer. “What I mean is that you fascinate me more than I ever would have thought possible, and I want you for you and not for what you can do for me. I swear it.”
His voice was sincere and Stephanie let out a low breath and then smiled at him, one hand on her hip. “You know, you should have said something like that earlier. Could have spared me being so worried that you just saw me as something convenient and easy so you could get what you wanted. I don’t like feeling like that.”
“I’m sorry,” he said and then reached out for her. When she didn’t pull away, he pulled her closer, one of his hands going under her chin to tip her face up. “Let me make it up to you?”
Before she could reply, she was being soundly kissed, and she melted right into it and into him.
He put his arms around her and kissed her like he meant it, lips moving with hers, tongue tracing her bottom lip and then dipping into her mouth to tangle with hers, drawing a breathless gasp from her at the heat that seared through her body.
She still had the memory of his hands on her from the night before. The way he had pushed into her body and made her moan his name.
All of a sudden, she’s not thinking about taking him back to his friend’s house.
“Do you have to leave?” she murmured against his mouth when they pulled back enough to breathe.
Draco shook his head. “I have my comm. Plintos can call me just as well here.”
Putting on clothes turned out to have been a waste of time because as soon as she got Draco back in her room, he was stripping them off of her again. He pulled her shirt over her head, hands tracing the curves of her breasts before he dipped his head to kiss the rapidly hardening buds of her nipples.
Stephanie sucked in a sharp breath and arched just a bit, feeling him smile against her skin as he sucked one nipple into his mouth, grazing it lightly with his teeth.
She made a sound that was probably more of a whimper than anything else, and already she was getting wet.
When Draco turned his attention from her breasts to removing his clothes, she watched as he stripped out of his clothing and then gasped when he turned his back to her. Apparently she’d missed it before when they had been having sex in the dark, but there was a line of what looked like scales going down his back.
Before she could remind herself that it wasn’t polite to just reach out and touch something like that, her hand was already moving, fingers sliding a bit down the expanse of his back and finding the scales smooth and slightly cool to the touch.
They were darker than his skin, overlapping as they trailed in a line from the nape of his neck to disappear into his pants.
“I’m not human,” Draco reminded her, glancing over his shoulder at her with something tight in his eyes.
It looked a lot like fear, and Steph didn’t know whether she should remove her hand or prove to him that it didn’t bother her. So she managed to do both, pulling her fingers away and stepping closer so that she could press her lips to the line of scales.
Draco sucked in a breath and then groaned softly at the contact, and Stephanie smiled. “Do you like that?” she murmured, not wanting to do something he wasn’t into just to prove a point.
“Yes,” he breathed, and she grinned.
When they got on the bed, Stephanie decided that she wanted to be on top. She had Draco lay down on his stomach, and she explored him, touching scales and skin with hands and mouth. She didn’t have anywhere to be, and unless Draco’s friend interrupted them by calling, then there was no need for them to rush.
She didn’t know when she’d get this chance again, and she wanted to mark the differences between their bodies and find out what he liked and then do all those things.
It seemed like he hadn’t been just humoring her when he’d said that he liked having her touch and kiss the scales on his back, and they seemed to be sensitive to her touch, flexing with his body as he squirmed under her.
Of course, he only let her get away with it for so long before he was flipping their positions and pinning her to the bed, arms over
head as he leaned down and kissed her thoroughly, one hand holding her wrists and the other sliding down her body. They practically devoured each other, lips clashing and meeting hungrily as they teased and tasted.
After a few moments of the intense kissing, he let go of her wrists and slid down her body as well, a heated look in his eye as she kissed and licked at all the skin between her mouth and the heat between her legs.
Steph’s eyes widened when his destination became apparent. She’d never dated someone who wanted to go down on her before. Not even Paul had been interested in that, sweet as he’d been, and when Draco kissed her clit before licking and thrusting with his tongue, she moaned, one hand burying itself in his hair and the other twisting in the sheets of the bed.
Part of her wanted to ask if he’d done this before to women on his planet, but a much larger part of her didn’t want to know. Even if he had, she was probably the first human woman he’d done it with, and that was what mattered. She could be content with that.
Especially when his tongue was dipping and swirling along her sensitive folds, making her shudder and groan at the sensation. Her hips lifted at their own accord, rolling along with the pleasure that was building inside of her. She didn’t try to hold back her vocalizations of that pleasure, either. Instead letting it be heard that she was enjoying herself a lot.
And Draco seemed determined. Each cautious, exploratory flick of his tongue was followed by a more confident one, and the whole thing was just good.
Stephanie couldn’t be still. Not when he was making her legs shake with how much she loved it and, she practically humped his tongue as it plunged inside of her.
“Please,” she groaned. “Oh my god, don’t stop.”
Draco released a sound of amusement into her, but he didn’t stop. He worked her until she was crying out and arching at the overspill of the hot sensation, eyes closing as she rode out her orgasm.
She laid there for a moment, panting and trying to remember what it felt like to breathe. Draco lifted his head and grinned at her, licking his lips. “You enjoyed that.”
