by Maree Dry
Something flashed across the screen.
Julia looked up at Zurian with desperate hope in her eyes. “He sent new coordinates.” She turned back to the TC. “Do you have any more useful information on Sarah?”
“They seem to be going underground but I’m fairly sure you friend is at the coordinates I just sent you.”
“Why did you call me and where do you get your information?” Julia asked.
The agent ignored Julia’s question. “The Raiders are surprisingly organized, considering they were almost wiped out not long ago.”
“Are you going to send in forces to rescue the people they hold captive?” Julia asked.
Zurian could have told her that her government hadn’t had forces for a while. If his suspicions were correct, the sudden reappearance of the Raiders was their last effort to take control.
“At the moment, we have no resources available to rescue your friend. If you want her safe, you will have to get your friends to help.”
“What friends?” Julia said with credible innocence.
Zurian did not know if he should feel proud of her or fear for her future.
“The friends who helped you take out the Raider camp last week.”
“I wish whoever did it were my friends, but I’m afraid you have it wrong.”
“I doubt it,” the tinny voice said.
Zurian cut the connection. She looked up at him.
“He seemed very interested in you,” he said. “Something was wrong with that whole conversation. “
“I don’t trust him. He steered us wrong before,” Julia said. “Is it even a man? It could just as well be a woman.”
Zurian looked at Zacar and saw his leader was surprised at this as well. “Women are allowed to be agents? To do such dangerous work? Our probes have not seen anything like this.”
Julia shook her head and frowned at Zurian. “Women do dangerous work and the probes probably didn’t pick up on it because very few women choose to work at that job.” She shrugged. “Very few men actually want to do it these days. Government pay is lousy.”
Zurian looked down at his woman. “Is it a woman?”
Julia shrugged. “I couldn’t tell. The agent disguised his voice. It sounded like a man and I just assumed it was.”
“The agent is trying to trap us,” Zurian said. “We will go to that the camp and interrogate the Raiders before we kill them all.”
“What? No. You just said it’s a trap. You could get killed.”
He knew this was normal behavior for human women but the slight in front of the other warriors grated on his honor. He curled his lip at her. “No human can trap me.”
“Do you think Sarah is really there?”
He wanted to reassure her but, about this, he would be honest. “No.”
“She’s dead, isn’t she?”
Julia leaned her head against his chest and clutched her arms around him. He liked her clinging to him. He did not approve of unseemly behavior in public, but this time he would make an exception.
“Is she? Dead, I mean?”
He had to answer her. “Yes, I believe she is dead.” He stroked her hair the way he knew she liked. He searched for something to say to make her feel better about what happened to Sarah. “I will kill all the Raiders and all government agents to avenge her.”
“Maybe not all government agents. Just this one if he betrayed us.”
His breeder was soft in the heart and he liked that. Zacar had already given the command for both agents to be observed.
They were fairly sure one of them, the one that called Julia, operated close by, even out of town. He was surprisingly elusive but the real danger came from the one in Washington.
“If she’s been in a Raider camp all this time, the things they do to women there...” She snuggled closer to him. “I don’t think she’ll ever be normal, even if she’s still alive.”
He knew of nothing to say. The lack of honor among humans frequently surprised the Zyrgins. Natalie blamed them for killing the weak, but the way humans turned on their weak was worse.
“I don’t know if she even would want to go to Charles. She can’t go back to town.”
He had no plans to allow that human male anywhere near the women. “We will give her shelter.”
She smiled at him and he rubbed her lips with his thumb. “It is strange.”
“What is strange?” she asked.
“Your odd smile makes a warrior’s day better.”
“My smile is odd. Never mind. As long as it makes your day better.”
He thought maybe that was sarcasm.
Natalie walked in. “Look, Julia, I found a file with Sarah’s picture. We can show it to the warriors so they’ll know who to look out for.”
She’d brought the whole TC instead of just the file. Primitive human, Zurian smirked. Unlike Zacar, Zurian, at least, had a human with above-average intelligence.
Natalie handed her TC to Zacar. “Here it is.”
A large picture with a tiny blonde woman hovered in the air.
He’d thought on it many times and had decided that Julia was the most beautiful woman in the world. It was a conclusion he’d come to, after logically comparing her features to many of the other Earth women on the TC.
“I never noticed before how sad she always was.”
He vaguely heard Julia speak.
“Me neither, but it’s there in her eyes,” Natalie said.
Both Zacar and Zurian stared at the picture with awe.
“She is the one,” Zacar whispered.
“The one what?” Natalie asked, clearly not happy with her warrior’s reaction to Sarah’s photograph.
“It has been foretold for centuries that a woman would come from a far planet and restore the leader’s honor,” Zacar said.
“And you think Sarah is this woman?” Natalie asked. “Which leader exactly are we talking about here?”
“The leader of all Zyrgin territories,” Zacar said, still staring at the image of Sarah.
Natalie visibly relaxed. She smiled at Julia. “Zacar’s father is the leader of their planet. They don’t make a lot of distinctions with their titles. Zacar is called a leader as well.”
Zacar spoke to Zurian in the old language. “We will not stop until we find her. If she is not walking this planet anymore, we will kill her murderers and their children’s children.”
“It will be done,” Zurian agreed.
“How can you be sure it’s her? Julia is blonde as well,” Natalie asked.
Zurian resisted the urge to bare his teeth at his leader’s breeder’s disrespect. “The mark on her neck.”
“So how exactly is she supposed to restore the leader’s honor?” Julia asked. She had her hands on her hips and her head dipped sideways. She was looking at him and Natalie strangely. Did she suspect?
Zurian looked at Zacar and knew his leader was just as glad as he was that humans could not read their faces.
“We do not exactly know how,” Zacar said.
Zurian was quite happy to stay silent and let Zacar do the lying. The humans called it plausible deniability and Zurian planned on using it when they found her friend. He was not a warrior stupid enough to think Julia would not find out the truth.
They returned to their dwelling.
When they were alone, he turned to her. “I will feed you now and make sure you do not become skinny. Then we fuck.”
“You can be so conservative and then turn crude. But we have to talk about your habit of killing people.”
“Why?”
“Why? Because I can’t live with a cold-blooded murderer.”
“I am a warrior. I do not commit murder.” He did not understand why a murderer’s blood should be cold. Didn’t that describe her better than him?
“You killed John for his identity.”
“I followed orders and did my duty as a warrior.”
“Zacar ordered you to kill him?”
“He did not have to. This is not for y
ou to know or discuss.”
Zurian realized this was one of those times he would have to cater to her like Zacar suggested. “I will give some thought to your concerns about killing.”
She had a strange look on her face and he thought it might be suspicion. He picked her up and placed her on the counter, moving between her legs.
Her strange brows went up. “Did your sex manual tell you to do this?”
“It said that it was important to have sex in strange places at odd times of the day to ensure a relationship retain spontaneity.”
She looked at him. Her lashes fluttered then she leaned her forehead against him and her shoulders shook.
“If it makes you cry, we do not have to be this spontaneous.”
Her shoulders shook harder. She threw back her head and her laughter peeled out. He cringed at the terrible sound but was relieved that she wasn’t crying.
She pulled him closer, tugged his head down, and kissed him. He clenched his hands. This was not proper but she enjoyed kissing him. He would give her this.
She kissed him and all the blood in his body rushed to his groin. It would please her if he responded. He allowed himself to experience the feeling of her soft lips, the texture of her tongue against his. He grabbed her knees and pulled her even closer to him. She wrapped her legs around his waist. Her skin was cool. Humans ran at lower temperatures than Zyrgins. They’d speculated on this but it turned him on. Sometimes, he thought how it would be if he made her hot. Pleasured her until she exploded with heat. The evil inside him tried to burst free. Very carefully he forced it back, continued to kiss Julia with the appearance of strong emotions.
He kissed and licked her whole body and her skin was set on fire with wanting him. At last, in the early morning hours, they fell asleep. She muttered something about cuddling. No one could say he was a warrior incapable of learning. Or being prepared. He drew her carefully into his arms.
***
When Julia woke he was gone. She hurriedly showered and dressed in jeans, boots, and a dark shirt and rushed outside. They were going to find Sarah and she wanted to see Zurian before he left. When he’d made love to her, he’d tried to hide it from her but she’d seen him turn cold. Except she didn’t think he wanted to. It was as if he believed there would be dire consequences if he didn’t control himself. She suspected it had something to do with his scars. He zoomed in on her immediately, grunted something to Zacar, and stalked over to her.
Everyone was gathered in front of the entrance of the cave.
Zurian lifted her chin with his finger. “We will take the Raider camp and rescue Sarah. Stay with Natalie.”
When all the warriors had left, Natalie motioned to a small sphere hovering outside with the younger alien punching in something. “They always send in the probes first and they use the swords because they enjoy fighting. They have weapons that could take out entire towns.”
“Do you think they will?”
“No, I don’t believe they will harm innocent people. Zyrgins are hard and merciless, but I have never seen them act with senseless cruelty to innocents. Honor is everything to them.”
“I hate waiting.”
“Me too.”
They stared at the probe in silence.
“Do you think they’ll find her?” Natalie asked.
“They have to, I think, I know, she is running out of time. It’s been months since they took her. I’m going to go crazy waiting for them to come back.”
Natalie’s eyes gleamed. “I’m not supposed to but let’s try.”
“Try what.”
“To get on their spaceship. It’s amazing. You have to see it. And it will take our minds of worrying about Sarah.”
They walked toward a tunnel and Julia half expected someone to stop them. But lights came on as they walked into a long, narrow, very precisely cut tunnel.
“Did they do this?”
“Yes. It’s fascinating to watch them work. They’re turning this mountain into some kind of command center.”
“How long did it take them?”
“They built the tunnel leading to this in a little over a week with an amazing gadget and then they hollowed out the mountain until they came to a natural cave which connected to what they already hollowed out.” Moving deeper into the tunnel, Natalie lowered her voice. “They started on another tunnel and I’m dying to know what they’re doing there, but they won’t allow me in.”
“Do you think it’s for another spaceship?”
“Shh, not so loud. I don’t think so. But whatever it is, sure is important to them. And that damn alien won’t even answer when I ask him what they’re planning there,” Natalie said and Julia heard affection beneath the frustration in her friend’s voice.
“You should not be here,” Zurian said behind them.
Julia nearly dropped to her knees with fright. She screamed and jerked around and glared at Zurian. “What did I tell you about making noise when you creep up on me?”
“I’m out of here.” Natalie moved through the passage way and Julia glared at her retreating back.
“Traitor,” Julia shouted after her. She turned to face him. “I thought you left.”
Zurian motioned to the door. “You set off the sensors. We are leaving within ten Earth minutes. You will stay with Natalie and you will not try to come here again.”
“Oh, all right. I suppose I have to pass some test first before I’m allowed on it.” She’d let it go for now but she would see that spaceship.
His whole body stiffened and he motioned her to precede him. “You will never be allowed near the spaceship.”
“Why? That’s unfair, Natalie’s allowed on it.”
“She is breeder to our leader.”
“Not even to see that spaceship would I want to be called that,” she mumbled.
Julia tried to see the sensors he mentioned but nothing stood out. All the walls were made from the silver material they seemed to use to do literally everything.
“It is an honor to be called breeder.”
Not in this lifetime would she consider being called that an honor. “Fine, there’s something else I’ve been wondering about.”
If she could get him to explain just one component of their technology she could figure it out. The possibilities of what she could do with their technology was endless.
“We will discuss your thoughts later. I have to go.”
“You are carrying a torch for Natalie.”
It just slipped out. Earlier when Natalie ran out, Julia had seen her look at Zurian with some kind of knowledge.
He stiffened. “She has a warrior that can carry her torch.”
He turned and walked out without pressing his forehead against hers, acting exactly like a man with a guilty secret.
Chapter 18
Tempted to turn around and stomp with as much noise as she could make back to the spaceship, Julia returned to the main cave. Zurian didn’t follow her so there had to be other exits. She found a very guilty looking Natalie in the main cave.
“Traitor,” Julia told her. Please let my suspicions be unfounded. She could not see them both day after day, if they’d ever had an affair.
“That alien scares me and he does not have the same tolerance for me that he has for you,” Natalie said.
Julia laughed at her. “Tolerant? He just told me he will never allow me to see their spaceship.”
Would Natalie be this scared of him if there had ever been anything between them?
Natalie motioned to the couch, almost seeming uncomfortable. “Do you want to wait here with me? We can watch a space ranger episode.”
“It feels wrong for us to enjoy ourselves while Sarah might be enduring hell.”
They watched an episode they both liked without their usual banter and, all the while, Julia thought of Zurian’s reaction to her accusation.
She stood when the raunchy end song played. “I have to go.”
Natalie got up as well and went with he
r to the entrance. “At least he didn’t try to keep you confined in the house.”
Julia smiled with real enjoyment. “I think he realized he couldn’t keep me in.”
“Don’t be too confident about that.”
“I’m sure he could try,” Julia said. “I’ll talk to you when they bring Sarah back.”
Natalie nodded but they both knew they might not find her.
Julia went back to their dwelling. Normally, she always took time to look at the majestic mountains with the dramatic blue sky as a backdrop. Even though she preferred cities, there was something captivating about Natalie’s mountain. Today she could only focus on that moment when Zurian had stiffened at her accusation. It replayed endlessly in her mind. If only he’d denied it. If it had been her imagination, he would’ve been incredulous. But he’d acted as guilty as an expressionless Zyrgin could look. She stumbled over the uneven terrain, too upset to be careful. Julia absently rubbed her head. If only she could have some relief from this headache.
Zurian returned hours later, looking more disheveled than she’d ever seen him. His eyes briefly glowed red.
Julia looked up form where she sat on the couch, trying to open his silver disk. She still didn’t know what it did and whenever she asked him he would tell her it was not for a breeder to know.
“Tough fight?”
“They led us into a trap underground.”
“Oh, no.”
“The humans were only a slight challenge.”
“She wasn’t there?” Julia couldn’t help but notice that that he didn’t press his forehead against hers or kiss her.
“No.”
“That agent lied to us.”
“He will die for his attempt to deceive a Zyrgin.”
She didn’t want to think about that. She would much rather confront him with her suspicions. It was easier to focus on than the thought that Sarah was in one of those horrible camps. That they might never find her.
In her saner moments, Julia knew Zurian and Natalie probably just disliked each other. Then she would wonder what happened during the long winter her friend was trapped in the cave with four virile aliens. She would feel ashamed of her thoughts and the cycle would start all over again.
