by Anna Carven
He actually looked interested in what she was saying, and the familiarity; the Humanness of his words made Riana laugh. “We have that saying too. I guess it’s never been more appropriate.”
Kail frowned, a look of intense concentration crossing his stern features. “You’re a vizak.”
“A what?”
“It’s an ancient term. In Aikun, it means: one who wields knowledge as a weapon.”
“I guess I used to do that, in a crude kind of way.” Riana looked down at her bare feet, an odd sense of shame engulfing her. “After I got dismissed from my job as a security analyst, I went through a dark phase. Some might say I went through a bitter and angry depression. I was young and idealistic. I made a few questionable life choices. I stole from corporations, diverted credits to worthy causes, outed war criminals, leaked sensitive information, and exposed traitors. But probably the best and worst thing I ever did was to support a group of rebels.” The emergence of a new nation in East Africa known as the Free Nile State had shaken up the world order. The powers that be hadn’t liked that one bit, and to her horror, people had ended up dying.
She’d gotten a taste of what covert power could do, and it had scared the fuck out of her.
Would they have been spared if she hadn’t meddled? If she’d just accepted the status quo? She’d spent countless sleepless nights weighing up questions and possibilities in her mind. Guilt and doubt were never far from the surface.
Still, the Free Nile State was here to stay, and that was a good thing. An entire generation of Humans now had a future, instead of being caught in limbo.
“I really thought I’d gotten away with it.” At some point, she’d sensed the Feds were getting too close. So she’d thrown out a red herring and allowed herself to get caught committing small acts of information piracy. It had been the only way to cover up the bigger crimes.
The Board of Corrections had sentenced her to twelve months compulsory peacekeeping duty onboard a shitty mining station in the middle of nowhere. To the Federation, she was just another petty offender. At least that’s what she’d thought, until people and machines started trying to kill her.
“You did all this… without lifting a weapon in anger?”
“It was all done from the comfort of an underground data console. Most wars on our planet are fought through the Networks. Bombs and guns are a little bit passé nowadays.”
“Hm.” Kail’s low, rumbling voice sent chills through her. “I can’t say I agree with that last part, but I understand now why Arin was so insistent that I seek you out.”
“Arin gets a little… over-confident in my abilities. She seems to think I can work miracles, but I’m only Human.” A sudden wave of dread coursed through her, morphing into hopelessness. If there was a hit out on her, she was going to end up dead sooner or later. The reaches of the Darkweb were too vast, too insidious. She’d spend her whole life running, and then one day she would die.
What a shitty existence that would be.
Riana looked up and was surprised to find Kail staring at her with a fierce expression.
“No,” he growled, startling her with his intensity. “Do not doubt yourself.” He moved then, faster and more fluidly than rushing water, and all of a sudden he was standing in front of Riana, one gloved hand under her chin. He applied the slightest pressure and tilted her face upwards. The sun had moved, tugging the shadows towards her. Kail’s face was half-shrouded in shadow, his eyes hooded and unreadable. “Do you know how close you came to dying?”
Riana froze, staring up into the darkness. “I-I hadn’t…” Her memory of the last few days was hazy. She suspected she’d been unconscious for most of it.
It hadn’t actually occurred to her that she might have been knocking on death’s door, but with Kail standing over her now like the gatekeeper to the afterlife, the enormity of it all finally hit her.
The bottom fell out from under her. Her reality distorted into something new and undefined.
“Your life is a gift thrice given,” he whispered. “A transient, fragile thing. It almost slipped away from me three times. The first was when they removed the monitoring chip. You did not know it, but tampering with it released a toxin that temporarily paralyzed you. The second time, you cried out to me in your sleep. Your heartbeat was weak and irregular. Your pulse was faint. I found the Human medic and brought him to your side. Told him that if you died, then he would too. He squeezed the bag of fluid, pumping it into you. Then he brought another, and another. Eventually, your pulse became steady.”
And the third time…? She waited, but he didn’t say anything.
Riana was at a loss for words. Reinforced by his seamless armor-gloves, Kail’s fingers were hard against her skin. They were surprisingly warm, and she wondered what his bare skin would feel like against hers.
“Don’t discount yourself, Human. Not when you have spurned death. Not when you have me watching over you.”
How strange that the one to affirm her existence should be an alien from a vicious race of conquerors.
The enormity of it all hit Riana in the chest like a swift punch, stealing her breath away. “But for how long?” Kail wouldn’t be with her forever. At some point, he would complete his mission and move on, and Riana would be stuck on Earth, doomed to live as a fugitive, a complete outsider, especially now that she’d broken the conditions of her micro-surveillance period.
The Federation would never allow her to live as a free citizen again.
“I am at your disposal. Point me in the right direction, and I will eliminate the threat.” Kail’s eyes glittered dangerously in the dim light. “Regardless of what you might think, the best way to fight is by gun and sword.”
Riana shook her head. “I can’t agree with you there. The whole point of a bloodless fight is to preserve lives.”
Kail nodded. “I know. But I’m not interested in preserving lives. That is not how we fight.”
Riana was transfixed as she caught a brief glimpse of his gleaming fangs. His features had taken on a slightly ironic cast. Is this somehow amusing to him? If so, it was the darkest, most complicated amusement she’d ever seen.
Again, she was reminded that they were from completely different worlds. He was an enigma, fearsome and strange. She didn’t understand how he thought, or what made him tick.
And for some reason, he wanted to protect her.
“Idealism is a luxury,” he continued, gently stroking her soft skin. “I am glad you have it, but it is not a trait I can afford to share. Death is the only certainty I can offer. Anything less would be dangerous for you and unsatisfactory for me.”
Riana inhaled deeply, shuddering. His words chilled her to the bone, but his presence stirred warmth inside her core. As she basked in Kail’s overwhelming closeness, unbidden images entered her mind.
She was deathly cold. The chill was like nothing she’d ever felt before. It seeped into her bones and made her teeth chatter. It froze her fingers and toes, and if it went on for any longer, she feared her fragile digits might succumb to frostbite and snap off. Shivers racked her body as she curled up into a ball, trying to gather the sheets around her, but even though the covers were thick, they did little to warm her.
She had no body heat left. She was fading away.
Perhaps she was already dead.
She mumbled and moaned, unintelligible words escaping her lips. She couldn’t form a coherent sentence. She couldn’t open her eyes. Everything was cold and black and hopeless…
Until a hand slid across her bare back, thawing her frozen skin. An arm curled around her waist, impossibly thick and strong. Was she dreaming? She was still shivering like crazy, but the sensation of his bare skin against hers was a deliciously warm salve.
He slid in behind her, pressing his hard, bare body against her naked skin. He was all around her, engulfing her in exquisite warmth, chasing away the cold, chasing away death.
This had to be a dream, because it felt too good to be tru
e.
It had to be a dream, because there was no way he would do such a thing.
Nevertheless, she stopped shivering almost instantaneously and finally drifted off into a merciful, dreamless sleep.
“You…” she gasped, a half-formed thought escaping her grasp as the tantalizing dream-fragment lingered in her mind. Words eluded her. After all, what was she supposed to say? Excuse me Kail, did you, uh, crawl into my bed at some point when I was naked and freezing?
Had it happened or not?
A cold, ruthless killer, or a warm, unwavering protector. Which one was he?
“You barely survived,” Kail said quietly, curling his fingers around her chin. There was something physical and possessive about the gesture; it was almost forceful, yet at the same time, he was oh-so gentle. He demanded her attention, no; he stole it from her, without question, without hesitation, without compromise. “But now you are here. Don’t waste the life you’ve been given. It’s fleeting.”
This seemingly invulnerable Kordolian was lecturing her on the value of her own life. What the hell had happened over the past three days to make him all strange and intense like this?
Riana wrapped her fingers around his wrist and pulled his hand away from her face. He didn’t resist, even though his wrist was impossibly taut and thick, his tendons hard and prominent like corded steel. If he’d wanted to force his will upon her, he could easily have done so.
But he, a being of immense power, momentarily acquiesced to her will, allowing her to push him away. That tiny, symbolic gesture took Riana’s breath away. She didn’t let go. She wasn’t ready to let go just yet.
She’d made up her mind.
“I can help you find the people who tried to kill us on Fortuna Tau. Just promise me you won’t kill anyone who doesn’t deserve it.” She was just being realistic. If it was Kail, then someone was going to die. It was now up to her to make sure he targeted the right people.
“Hm.” Kail nodded, a deep, approving rumble emanating from his throat. “That is all you need to do. I will take care of the rest.”
“In exchange, you have to… sort out the people who want me dead.”
“Naturally. I will have no trouble sorting them. I’ll make it so that you never have to walk in fear again.”
A wave of relief washed over her. With Kail’s promise came dark certainty. In a world of danger and uncertainty, he was the ruthless protector she needed. “We have to get out of here.” Riana didn’t even know where here was, but it was time to move. “If I’m going to access the Darkweb from a secure, untraceable connection… well, there are only a few places on Earth I can do that from.” She needed a stable dataport connection, and those were very hard to come across unless you knew people.
And then… virtually all such connections could only be found in Undergrounds—the murky no-man’s land that existed beneath the gilded streets of Earth’s major capitals.
“Oh?”
“You’ll love the Underground,” Riana said wryly. “There’s no sunshine and no centralized heating. And it’s freezing in London at this time of year. All we have to do now is try and figure out how to get in without being detected by the Feds.”
“That is where I am relying on you, although I’m not averse to fighting my way past these so-called Enforcers if the need arises.”
“You’re not going to do that,” Riana said abruptly, mildly horrified at the thought of Kail going on a Kordolian style rampage through the tunnels and hollows of Underground London. “You’re going to follow my lead on this one.”
Kail said nothing. His expression was inscrutable, and Riana got the sense he would do whatever was necessary, whether she liked it or not.
She had no sway over him. He was a law unto himself.
Surprising herself, she stroked his large, armored wrist, allowing her fingers to drift down to his impressively wide palm. The nano-stuff covering his hand was like strange putty under her fingers, hard yet soft at the same time; it almost seemed to move in response to her touch. His gloved fingers felt like iron encased in velvet.
Weird.
He didn’t pull away. He just looked at down at her, a silent, impassive shadow.
A sudden burst of warm air filled the room, and the gauzy curtains billowed around them, pale and ethereal. Something shifted in the skies above, and a shaft of golden light flooded the room, bathing Riana in warmth.
The sunlight hit Kail’s face, illuminating him for a split second. His golden irises flashed briefly before he closed his eyes, retreating into the shadows with a grimace.
His wrist slipped out of Riana’s hand. This time, she let him go.
“Prepare yourself,” he said softly, walking away. “From now on, you travel with me.”
Her face must have betrayed her apprehension, because she caught a flash of teeth in the darkness. Was that a cold smile or a savage grin? She couldn’t imagine him smiling in a warm-and-happy kind of way.
“Don’t look at me like that. There is nothing to fear,” he reassured her. “Soon your enemies will understand that I’m the one who decides whether they live or die.”
Somehow, that was the most comforting thing Riana had heard in a long, long time.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Hey,” Riana blurted in surprise as she entered the small kitchen, inhaling the lingering aroma of real food and spices.
Arin and her Kordolian other half, Rykal, were here.
In the corner, a woman wearing a brilliant blue headscarf in the fashion of the local Touareg people stirred a steaming pot of tea, frequently stealing wide-eyed glances at Arin and Rykal.
Was this her house? If so, why was she allowing them to stay?
“Welcome back to the world of the living.” Arin grinned, relief spreading across her face. “For a while there, I was worried.” Her expression turned serious. “I’m sorry, Riana. I had no idea the fucking Enforcers might be involved in this craziness. I didn’t think it was possible for a monitoring chip to be compromised like that. That’s why we had the good doctor take it out as soon as possible.”
Riana dismissed her concerns with a confused shake of her head. “What the hell are you guys doing here? I thought—”
“There was no way in hell I was going to leave you. After Kail followed you into the Corrections facility, I doubled back, keeping an eye on the exits. Wasn’t hard to figure out where he was going to emerge. I just followed the bolt-blasts and the explosions.” She shook her head in amazement. “The fact that he managed to get you out relatively unscathed is a near-miracle, but then again, I’m not surprised. It’s Kail we’re talking about here.”
“He might not look it, but Kail’s a good sort.” Rykal leaned back in his chair. Although he was armed to the teeth, he carried an air of nonchalance about him. He offered her a conspiratorial wink. “Don’t tell him I said that, though.”
Riana gaped at the Kordolian. Her head was in a fog, her thoughts percolating slowly through her paralyzed brain. Perhaps it was the effect of being close to death for three days, or maybe it was the because she’d just had an intensely overwhelming encounter with Kail, but she couldn’t seem to think straight.
“He insisted on following me,” Arin grumbled. Her tone was harsh, but the look she gave Rykal was totally indulgent. It was clear she was infatuated with the silver alien. “At risk of blowing our cover, and at risk of pissing off the Federation authorities, he slipped out of the Hot Zone.”
“I shouldn’t have let you go alone in the first place,” Rykal shot back. “You’re too exposed out here.”
“I’m a big girl, Ry. This is my planet.”
“Things are different now. Your people don’t entirely trust you anymore. They’ve sidelined you.”
“Trust is relative.”
“You keep saying that. What does it even mean?”
“Ahem.” Riana cleared her throat, feeling awkward. The blue-garbed woman was staring openly at Arin and Rykal now, her attention fixed mostly on the
Kordolian.
Her eyes were slightly narrowed and her lips were pressed into a straight, disapproving line.
You people are crazy is what her expression seemed to say.
Not that one would say such things out loud with the likes of Rykal and Kail stalking around the place.
Riana empathized with the poor lady. It wasn’t every day a former peacekeeper and a couple of lethal Kordolian warriors turned up to an old house in the middle of nowhere and forced the owner to make tea.
The entire situation was crazy.
Rykal was frowning, the points of his fangs visible between dark grey lips. “Arin, I don’t trust your people one bit, and I’m not leaving your side until all this is resolved. If they want to try and fuck with you, they’ll answer to me.”
“They won’t fuck with me because I won’t let them. Relax, Rykal. I’ve been taking care of myself on this planet long before you set foot in the Ninth Sector.”
“I can’t relax when it comes to you.”
Arin threw Riana a sly sidelong glance. “You see? That’s how they get. Obsessive and possessive.”
“That’s because you are my mate,” Rykal said matter-of-factly, as if explaining the most basic of concepts. He wasn’t offended in the slightest. Instead, he appeared to take Arin’s observation as a compliment.
Despite Arin’s heavy sigh, a slight smile curved her lips.
Riana’s head spun. “Sorry to interrupt your, uh, discussion, but I’m struggling to regain my bearings. I assume we’re in a… safe house of sorts, and that you’ve somehow had my monitoring chip removed?” Feeling lightheaded, she grabbed a nearby stool and pulled it up to the table. “Kail told me I was really sick.”
“He wouldn’t leave your side,” Arin informed her. “Sat there for three days and three nights watching over you like a damn terrifying hawk. The only person he let in was the local doctor. The poor man was scared out of his wits, but he removed your monitoring chip, he kept you hydrated, and most importantly, he kept you alive. For a while there, it was touch-and-go. Not many people survive what you had.”
