Warriors Of Cadir (A Sci Fi Alien Romance Collection)

by Maia Starr

  Fenris twitched at that, and he gave Pash a wary look. “Oh,” Pash said, waving me off. “There's only a handful of them left; who is going to spot you?”

  “But if they do?” I asked, cocking a brow.

  “Tell them he's checking up on the humans!” Pash shouted from the dais. “They know you're checking in with us, don't they?”

  “Yes, sorry,” I swallowed.

  The room went silent again, and I watched as Illox stepped into the room from the doorways behind the raised dais. He was a long and wiry shifter with dark gray scales and wide set eyes. Pash grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze, nodding as she guided him toward me.

  We made our way back to the mainlands in haste. It was raining fiercely in Titan, which worked perfectly for getting around without being seen.

  Most of the tower’s inhabitants were locked away in the safety and shelter of their rooms.

  Illox and I pressed our bodies thin against the outer blue stone walls of the tower as an Atherien warrior passed by.

  My breathing increased, my breasts heaving nervously as the warrior stopped suddenly, just feet away from us. Illox looked at me, raising a finger to his mouth.

  I started shaking, thinking the shifter would turn around and catch us, but after a brief stop, he kept walking.

  I exhaled loudly as the water crashed down on us and Illox’s eyes widened with amusement.

  “That was close,” he said, and I shook my head.

  I pointed up the outer staircase of the tower and said, “He lives at the top of the tower. It’s literally the last set of doors.”

  “And there are open windows at the top?” he asked.

  I nodded, shielding my eyes from the rain to get a better look at the man. “If this is just a routine checkup, then why are we hiding?” I asked.

  Illox smirked but only responded with, “You best go back to your room. Or even better, find Kaayde.”

  Done with the secrecy, I began to make my way back to the front entrance of the tower to find my room with Xereris.

  The exchange made me nervous, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. I had no loyalty to the Atherien… and the Gilds claimed they were only interested in the health of the new alliance, but

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a familiar shifter: aqua and purple scales cascading down his body as he swayed toward the staircase.

  It was Kaayde.

  I watched as he ascended the staircase, probably on his way up to the Dendren. He was the king’s personal guard, I had been told.

  Biting my lip, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to catch his attention like I was told or let him go find Illox and stop him from doing whatever he was planning.

  Feeling a sense of panic I narrowed my brows and ran toward him. “Hey!” I yelled, and he immediately turned. I looked he at me with his amethyst eyes, and they seemed to flicker in the darkness.

  We locked eyes, but he kept walking.

  “What was that about with Xereris?” I yelled.

  Kaayde stopped briefly and raised a brow. It seemed I finally got his attention. He turned to me and took several steps forward, coming out of the darkness so I could see his cut jaw and oversized nose.

  He looked confused: sexy, mysterious as he came even closer.

  “You attacked him!” I shouted, checking in my peripheral to make sure that Illox was out of sight.

  “Ah.” He nodded. “And?”

  “Um, and why?” I snapped.

  “I was just getting out some aggression,” he said in a relaxed, amused manner.

  “Yeah, against me, not him,” I fumed, pushing him backward.

  He smiled at the aggression and asked, “What's that supposed to mean?”

  “I get it! You don't like me!” I laughed. “But I've let you go, okay? You don't have to come in and destroy everything I'm trying to build. Are you really that cynical?”

  “Are you really that stupid?” he breathed.

  My brows shot up, but I was just as amused in our little game as he was. “Um. Apparently, yes!”

  Kaayde shook his head and continued up toward Veynore’s room. I set my jaw and ran toward him, feeling a rush of feelings crawling up my throat.

  “I hate what you did!” I yelled: emotions flooding my tone more than I meant them to. Kaayde turned again, looking hurt this time as I clarified, “To me.”

  “So do I,” he said, descending the staircase and making his way over to me once more.

  “You didn't give me a chance,” I said softly.

  I still hadn’t gotten over it. At first, all I was interested in was information, but the subtle, soft moments he let me be a part of made me feel addicted to his company, and then he ripped it all away.

  “I was afraid,” he said, and I stiffened.

  “Why?”

  “I loved someone before,” he said.

  I nodded. “I heard.”

  Kaayde stiffened and ran a hand through his fire-red hair. “Of course you did,” he said, bemused.

  I swallowed and quickly corrected, “I mean... I heard she died.”

  A sharp silence penetrated the air, and I tried to think of something to say other than asking why he killed Tifayy or what she had meant to him, but the silence prevailed.

  He took me by surprise when he raised a hand to my hair and brushed it back before setting his thumb on my lower lip and asking, “What if something happened to you?”

  I could feel my face going red and suddenly began to wonder if he was conning me this time. Why was he being so sweet?

  “Why would it?” I said with some levity. “You may not think so, but I'm a pretty capable person.”

  “I know,” he said, and the corners of his lips folded up ever so slightly, seeming proud of my actions. “I saw you shoot down those creatures near the badlands.”

  I scoffed. “You're following me?”

  Kaayde breathed heavily out his nose and pulled his hand away from my face.

  “I don't know why Xereris lets you go off into the woods alone,” he said.

  I could feel my body go cold suddenly as the knowledge that he’d been watching me really sunk in. It seemed like it should have been romantic somehow.

  And somehow it was.

  But I had never been followed before. Across three planets and thirty-four missions for the SAEW, I never had a tracker I couldn’t lose. It made me nervous, especially if he had overheard my conversation with Pash.

  “Xereris doesn't own me. In fact…” I gave a mock gasp and tapped my fingers against my chin and teased, “he’s not even my partner.”

  Kaayde raised a smug chin to me and reached out for my hand. I looked down at it and swallowed hard, slipping my cold hand into his massive palm. He pulled me closer and out of nowhere, pressed his lips against mine. They were cold and thinned: desperate for reciprocation.

  I gave it readily.

  Our lips danced around each other’s, and I could feel a warmth stirring in between my legs as he pulled me tight against his muscular body.

  When he pulled away from the kiss, my face had entirely reddened.

  “If I asked you to... would you go somewhere with me?” he asked in a tone that was so sincere, it sent shivers down my arms.

  I nodded breathlessly and agreed.

  Chapter Seven

  Kaayde

  I led Ivy deep into the woods: the shimmering trees lighting the way for us to go deeper and deeper into the brush.

  “Are we going to the treetop villages?” Ivy asked curiously as we walked by the long row of ladders that led up to the wooden cottages above us.

  “Not exactly,” I said, taking her hand and bringing her closer to the edge of the forest’s brush.

  “I'm feeling safer by the minute,” she scoffed, trying to keep up with me. “How come you guys can roam through the forests without worrying about the creatures out here? The Gilds are terrified to come out here.”

  “Well, well... I thought you were done talking about the Gilds?” I tea
sed.

  “I thought you might like that one,” she winked.

  I ducked under a low hanging branch and didn’t let go of Ivy’s hand, watching as her long and graceful frame crouched and came up behind me.

  “Merenora,” I said, as though that should explain it all. If Ivy were an Atherien, it would have. “She's the one who made peace with the creatures out here. She had a way about her.”

  “She was the last Atherien marked as a Dendren?”

  “Sort of,” I said. “She made her way through the wilds until she came across one of the largest beasts there were. It was called a Xennzin. Terrifying: fifty feet tall. It was almost entirely covered in spikes.”

  Ivy hurried to keep up with me until we were walking side-by-side once more, no longer inhibited by the thick brush of the forest. Her arms were long and slender, almost too long for her body.

  “Like a hedgehog?” she asked.

  I smiled at her and shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  “They’re these little animals on Earth that are all spindly and covered with spikes. They’re adorable, if I’m being honest,” she gushed.

  “Then definitely not,” I laughed, shaking my head at her. “The Xennzin are horrifying. Merenora fought the largest one she could find and, as legend goes, all the creatures of the regions came to watch. After she killed the beast, they all showed reverence to her and the rest of the Atherien.”

  “That’s a hell of a legend,” she said. “Did you like her?”

  “She was... everything a leader should be. You remind me of her.”

  Ivy blinked several times, and I watched the most adorable blush come over here cheeks. “Don't try and butter me up,” she giggled.

  “You do. Brave, a little mouthy, surefooted. And everyone you meet falls in love with you,” I said.

  “Obviously, not everyone,” she rolled her eyes.

  “No, it's true. Even Z'echs has been singing your praises and he only met you for a couple of minutes.”

  Ivy brought her long fingers to her mouth and smiled into them, shaking her head at me.

  It felt good to be able to finally be honest with Ivy… and with myself. I had worked so hard to resist her, but I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t pretend she didn’t mean something to me.

  Now I could give in to the intense connection I felt: the smile that threatened to slide up the sides of my mouth every time she spoke.

  “I tried to tell him that if he actually sat down with you, he'd realize how annoying you are but... I digress,” I said with a wry shrug.

  Ivy laughed into her hands, and it was such a beautiful sound, I couldn’t help but laugh alongside her. I couldn’t remember the last time I did that in earnest.

  We reached the end of the forest and stepped out into the rocky, black valley of the badlands. The ground was desert-like and cracked: dry and stony.

  In the distance was a cave with a glowing light coming from within. On top of the mountainous cave flowed down an oozing blackness.

  “What is it?” Ivy asked, squeezing my hand. “That black swamp.”

  “That is called the siccus,” I said toneless.

  She swallowed. “And it's alive?”

  “You're a fast learner.”

  Ivy stepped further into the wasteland and then turned to face me. “What does it do? I mean... how alive is it? Can it feel?”

  I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. I could feel the warmth of the siccus in my lungs: the familiar smell of the badlands that sent a chill through my body. A mass of memories flooded back to me.

  “Yes,” I said, my eyes snapping open. I pulled her deeper into the rocky terrain, and she pulled back. “Come on,” I said softly. “This is what you wanted to see, isn't it?”

  “Actually, when you said let’s go somewhere, I was thinking more like a romantic stroll in the forest or around town but...” She gave me a charming smile and offered a half-shrug, continuing, “if this is your master plan then I guess I have to give it a chance.”

  I stared at her beautiful face: high cheekbones and deep-set, oversized blue eyes. Clear blue.

  “I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since we first met,” I breathed.

  “Liar,” she snorted.

  “It's true. I think about you all the time: what you're thinking, what you're doing, what you eat, why you enjoy that terrible coffee,” I admitted.

  “Someone sounds like they're a little smitten,” she teased me, spinning herself under my arm as though we were having a dance.

  “Beyond that,” I said.

  It was true. My mind had grown obsessed with thoughts of her.

  She narrowed her eyes toward me and dared, “Is that right?”

  “Yes,” I said, taking her hand in mine and bringing it to my lips: kissing it and then pulling her toward me aggressively. The gesture startled her, and when she met my eyes, she almost looked afraid. “The thought that you've been with Xereris makes me sick. I've imagined your bodies together...”

  She shook her head. “Kaayde,” she mused, “all I've wanted was your approval since I got here.”

  I nodded. “I know.”

  “And for the record... nothing happened between us,” she said with a smirk.

  I felt my whole body settle then. A weight left my shoulders, and I felt loose and in control once again. That was the most terrifying part of letting yourself get close to someone… losing control.

  My instincts took over, and I pulled Ivy close to me, brushing the wet hair from her forehead and drawing her chin upward. I leaned down and kissed her, tasting her honey-sweet lips and dipping my tongue into her mouth.

  I felt hers press and twirl against mine and relished every movement of her pink lips dancing against mine.

  “You said once that you wanted to know me,” I said, eyes-closed as I broke the embrace.

  “Yes,” she said, breathless.

  I let her hand go and walked far out into the badlands. She followed at a distance, but I raised my hand for her to stop. Once I was at a safe distance, I called out, “This is me. This is why I was afraid.”

  The deeper I walked into the siccus’ land, the quicker the liquid scurried toward me. I watched Ivy watching me and felt the black sludge crawl slowly along the land, coming from all sides. It started coming in quickly once it sensed me and then suddenly spiked into the air like a breathing spire.

  I watched the siccus splash down beside me: spiking up and then slamming down like a tentacle grasping at the land. It rushed toward me and crawled up my body, consuming me.

  Ivy looked terrified; her eyes went clear with worry. She looked disgusted and horrified, so much so, that I couldn’t bear to look at her anymore. I closed my eyes and felt the goop spike up again.

  My connection with the siccus made my whole body go warm. I could feel the creature spike up into a threatening spire, hovering above Ivy, wanting to take her from me.

  I put my hand up to stop the goop from moving, and it crawled slowly back down to me.

  All at once the siccus slithered around my body and then slinked back down to the ground, going up and down in waves as it left me.

  I opened my eyes and looked back at Ivy. I hadn’t been here since Tifayy died—since I watched her die. I could feel the emotion constricting my throat as Ivy ran up to me, ignoring the siccus that was still at the base of my feet and threw her arms around me.

  “You're the weapon,” she whispered.

  I stiffened. “Excuse me?”

  “You're... the secret weapon, because of this. How... how is this possible?” she said.

  “I was taken to the badlands when I was a child,” I said, looking down at the blackness. “The siccus was just small then,” I moved my hands, just inched apart from each other to indicate the size. “I kept feeding it.”

  Ivy cupped her brows into a U-shape and set a pitying hand against my cheek as she asked, “Feeding it... what?”

  “Sap. It gathers in globes around the spiked trees.
I used to come out here and eat it as a dragonling. Sweet, you know? What little ones like. Then it grew into... this.” We looked out over the valley of blackness. “It became obsessed with me.”

  “The siccus… I heard…” she said but didn’t finish.

  I nodded. “It kills.”

  “And Tifayy?”

  I winced at the sound of her name and pressed my eyes shut. “It swarmed her. I couldn't control it. I told our Dendren... and we couldn't explain it to anyone.”

  She nodded as if she knew something that I didn’t. “Why is it behaving now?”

  “We've become... less than friends these days.”

  “I think I prefer it this way,” she said, offering me a weak smile.

  “If something happened to you... I wouldn't be able to forgive myself.”

  “Then let's find out right now,” she said firmly, “Because I can't wait another minute.”

  I met her eyes, flicking back and forth from them desperately as I asked, “And how do you plan on finding that out?”

  With that, she set both of her hands on me and pulled me toward her lips, devouring my mouth with a hungry passion. Our mouths moved in perfect unison, like we were made for each other.

  Between kisses she began pulling off the black top that crisscrossed along her small bust and undid the black hairband that had wrapped her thick mane up and out of her face, letting the blonde locks fall wildly against her pale skin.

  “Don’t,” I whispered, but she didn’t stop.

  The blackness looped around my legs, confused and curious as Ivy snaked her hand into my pants, kissing me and exploring how hard I’d become, stroking me up and down until I finally gave in and removed my clothes.

  Her body was beautiful: a pale white canvas of skin with deep pink nipples. We stood in the valley of darkness, entwined, her hand working along my length as I caressed the small mounds along her chest.

  She looked frightened but fierce as the blackness still didn’t leave us.

  We made our way to the ground, and the siccus splayed out beneath us like a blanket: humming along with our bodies but never crawling back onto me.

  Ivy lowered herself on my length and began to rock back and forth on me, her body seeming to grab and constrict around me. I ran a hand up her navel, and she let out a low moan, arching her back and tilting her head back as her moans got louder and louder.