Keen

by Viola Grace

An interior transport that was a cross between a hovercraft, a magnet and a scooter waited for her. She stepped onto it and zipped through the kilometres of documents from thousands of worlds that were all protectively sealed in the vacuum.

  This was her domain now; it was her world and she rather liked it.

  The Jhenno had asked her to concentrate on one thing when she took on her position. They wanted to know where, precisely, the Drai was sleeping under the surface of the planet. She was now poring over all the original colonist reports in an effort to find that spot.

  She found a clue to her next avenue of inquiry in the diary of the first lady of the colony. Haliata mentioned speaking to the captain of the ship that had brought the colonists. He had heard talk of a stranger in the blue sands who told the colonists where they could and could not build.

  Haliata’s husband had grown pale when she asked him about the stranger in the blue sands. He had not answered her.

  Kee stood up and rubbed the base of her spine. She checked her chrono and scowled. Leno should have sent a signal for lunch. She had been working for four hours already.

  Another archivist walked up to her through the stacks. “Good day, Wenderson.”

  She inclined her head. “Good day, Akenan.”

  He walked up next to her and his sleeve brushed against hers. “Productive morning?”

  “Fairly. Yours?”

  “I have hopes for a productive afternoon.” He smiled, his yellow eyes burning behind his mask.

  She didn’t know how to respond to that. “Well, good luck with that.”

  He patted her hand and asked, “May I borrow your slide for a few minutes? I will bring it right back.”

  She didn’t have a chance to ask where his was going. He hopped on and was skimming away on her scooter in seconds.

  Kee sighed and turned back toward the diary. She heard a hiss and froze. Panic gripped her when she saw the thin line of vapour leaking from her elbow where she had been in contact with Akenan. He had punctured her suit.

  What should she do? She looked around as if he was going to return on her slide. When she realized that he was genuinely trying to kill her, she made up her mind. She sealed her workstation with a voice code and headed toward the exit with her right hand clamped over her left elbow to slow the leak.

  Three attempts of her inner com to Leno let her know that her suit had been sabotaged before she even put it on. Depressing.

  It was a five-kilometre hike to the exit and she could do it in twenty minutes through the stacks of records. Nothing was a straight line, but she walked through the centuries and aeons of documentation, keeping her steps even and her mind calm. The song in her mind had taken on a thunderous intensity.

  With a sigh of relief, she finally made it to the exit. She struck the access panel for the first air lock and fell to the interior floor the moment that the doors opened.

  The door closed and she lay there, waiting for it to allow her into the next segment of the locks.

  Her air was nearly gone, and she rose and pounded at the locks to allow her access to the far side, trying to get the doors to open. The ground under her feet rumbled and she wasn’t sure if it was just her panic or an actual physical event.

  She groaned and slid down along the wall. Kee had crossed solar systems, met aliens, met a few friends, and now, before she could even begin her new career properly, it was over.

  Stupid. She had been so stupid that her leaving Earth had been her ticket to something bigger. All her life she had wanted more. More life, more experiences, more love and family of her own. She wanted more, and now, she was concentrating on one thing. She needed more oxygen.

  Her tank was sending out distress signals and her thoughts were going grey. As a last effort to keep calm she pulled up images of Drai over recorded history.

  The squealing of metal on metal brought her out of her dazed state. The sound repeated itself, and she turned her head limply to look toward the point where the noise was emanating from. Huge clawed hands parted the doors in front of her, and they pulled the door open, letting in a rush of air as the metal was ripped in half over and over until the huge bulk of the man attached to the claws could make his way to her side.

  She lifted her hands to the seal on her helmet, but she had no strength.

  The deep blue male with the huge bat wings opened her seal with the utmost care.

  Air rushed into her lungs and she coughed a little. “Hello.”

  He smiled and lifted her in his arms, carrying her carefully through the torn holes in metal and circuitry.

  Instead of setting her down in the changing room, he kept walking with her in his embrace right up into the high council chamber.

  “Um, you can put me down now.”

  He looked down at her and smiled, his eyes were the same yellow as the rest of the colonists on Jhenno, but he was not one of them. She had just found her Drai, or rather, he had found her.

  The council was in session and he simply walked past the security officers, kicking the chamber door open to face the councillors who were responsible for inviting her to Jhenno.

  The men jumped to their feet, and they looked at each other nervously before one got up the nerve to say, “Welcome to the modern day, Jherin Utal.”

  Another councillor said, “I see you have found the bride we located for you.”

  “A few more minutes and she would have been dead. Now, why would anyone try to kill a woman who had been assigned to find me?” He stood easily with her as if she didn’t weigh a thing.

  The first speaker cleared his throat. “We have been aware of a resistance to the idea of returning the responsibility of the world and colony over to you again. We were not aware that they would take action against your female.”

  “What did you think they would do?”

  The seventeen men in the room looked at each other and shrugged. “We thought they would file protests when you reappeared. Do you know who made the attempt?”

  Jherin looked down at her, and she blinked, nodding minutely. “I know the person who pierced my suit.”

  He looked back to the councillors. “So, I will track down the person who attempted to kill her and deal with them. Once that has been completed, I will return to begin working on the expansion of the colonization.”

  The men in the room looked nervous. The second speaker cleared his throat, “Lord Jherin, our laws do not allow for murder in the line of duty.”

  The warm body that she was leaning against stiffened. “It is fortunate that my laws predate yours on Jhenno. Your kind were accepted here on my terms, and those included living on my world under my sufferance. My world, my rules.”

  Kee watched the second man’s hand spasm toward his pocket. It seemed that he wanted to call someone in a hurry.

  She felt a small predatory move from the man carrying her. He had caught the gesture as well.

  “I am getting my mate somewhere safe. From there, we will discuss what comes next, so you have four hours to get your cohort somewhere safe.”

  Gazes turned toward the second councillor, and he blanched.

  Kee didn’t have a chance to enjoy the view. Jherin turned on his heel and walked out of the council chambers through the crowd that had gathered outside it. Vid cameras were in the hands of reporters, and Kee’s introduction to the man in her mind was captured for posterity.

  The instant that they cleared the interior of the building and the fresh air struck them, he bent his legs and his wings flared wide, scooping the air and pulling them into the sky.

  Kee closed her eyes and tried to come to grips with what was happening. Her mind was delighted to have him close that much was certain. A trickle of joy was in her that hadn’t been there before but was definitely her own emotion.

  The air whipped past her, and she kept her face curled toward his chest. The idea of being hooked on a scent had never entered her mind before, but Jherin’s was something that she wanted to get used to. Every happy memo
ry she had was rising to the surface every time she inhaled.

  His chest flexed as his wings worked to slow their forward progress. They dropped altitude and he was soon striding across sands as blue as he was.

  She looked over her shoulder and froze when she saw a wide tower slowly rising from the sands. “What is that?”

  “My home. Do you like it?”

  She blinked rapidly and remembered everything she had read about the Drai. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen it yet.”

  He paused and looked down at her. Despite her attraction, his wide jaw and harsh cheekbones gave him a frightening appearance. The sharp points of his canines didn’t do much for her sense of calm.

  “You know, don’t you?”

  She smiled weakly. “What? That I have to approve your home or the deal is off?”

  He chuckled. “Yes, that.”

  “I did some research in the tank. My time there was for your benefit, wasn’t it?”

  He gave her a rueful smile. “For mutual benefit. I have to fit if this is to work.”

  Kee blushed hot pink as he carried her through the door of his home. The sandcastle was twisting its way out of the blue grains of stone, and they rose in the air, inch by inch.

  Chapter Five

  He set her down on a low couch and crossed the room.

  Kee let out a small squeak as she realized. “You’re naked.”

  He turned and grinned. “I don’t know if I should be offended or flattered that you didn’t notice until now.”

  He was taller than she realized, and she had not shifted in height even after her alterations. He was semi-erect, and she couldn’t figure out how she missed that. No wonder they had had to make changes to her body. He never would have fit otherwise.

  She mentally snorted. With the dimensions she had to accommodate, no one else would fit now. No wonder the Drai men were faithful to their own kind. No other woman could manage them.

  “I was nearly blacked out and then you picked me up.” She sat up and plucked at her suit. “I didn’t really get a good look at you, and I certainly wasn’t in a position to request that you hold still so I could get a gander.”

  He returned to her side and knelt. “I did not believe what I was seeing through your eyes.”

  “I imagine it was quite a bit. I was being extra careful as I made my way out of the sealed archive.”

  Jherin cupped her jaw. “I am glad that you are all right.”

  Kee grinned. “Me, too.”

  He kissed her softly and the music soared in her mind again. She sat still with her hands on the closure to her pressure suit. When he pulled back, she licked her lips.

  Jherin’s eyes narrowed as she closed her mouth.

  She swallowed as her mouth watered. He tasted the same way he smelled, like every happy memory in her life would come back to her if she just kissed him long enough.

  Kee cleared her throat and tried not to look as dazed as she felt. “I think you need to put something on?”

  His hand stroked the straggling hair on her cheek. “Why?”

  “Because I just met you, and despite the fact that you have been humming in my brain for a week, I consider you a stranger.”

  His sigh moved the hair on her forehead. “I appreciate your modesty, though I really wish it wasn’t so definite in your thoughts.”

  That was unnerving. “Can you read all of my thoughts?”

  “Just your emotional state. You are putting up barriers to your arousal right now. It would be rude of me to insist on breaking through when—as you said—we have only just met in person.”

  He got to his feet, and his wings closed around him, hiding the ridged musculature of his torso from her interested gaze.

  He left the room he had deposited her in, and when he returned, he was wearing a short wrap around his hips that covered the essential bits…barely.

  Kee had seen them after all and knew that there was not a lot of fabric between her and the interesting areas.

  “I am rather surprised that you are not staring at my wings.”

  Kee got to her feet and opened her pressure suit, easing it off her hips and kicking it away. Her archivist suit of brown and gold was snug on her body and it just felt good to get out of the suit that almost killed her.

  “You are a Drai; your wings are part of you. I haven’t had a chance to really embrace what is going on right now, so I am sure that once I do, I will be properly curious.”

  He grinned. “Would you like to come and see the progress of my home?”

  Jherin extended his hand and wiggled his fingers.

  Kyna slipped her fingers into his, and he carefully closed his grip. He escorted her through the doorway and into a wide bedroom before walking with her onto the balcony adjacent to the enormous bed.

  She ignored the bed and walked to the waist-high railing, looking out over the blue sands. “Have the sands always been blue?”

  “When I first arrived here, I ground the granite to make the sands. This is my home, my territory, and I wanted to mark it as mine no matter which species come in to live on Jhenno. The world is registered as mine, but I have opened it for colonization when I was awakened by my mate.”

  Kee looked at him sideways, “So, the people who are here?”

  “Place holders and curators of the archive. It took me centuries to bring it together, and I needed someone to keep track of it for me. I brought in the Eurgal, and they took on the name Jhenno.”

  She was stunned by the first part of his statement. “You assembled the archive?”

  He smiled. “That was my calling. I accumulate knowledge but am not skilled at using what I find. I also built the current Alliance archive.”

  “Dragon horde.”

  “What?”

  “My people have tales of dragons capturing and hording riches. Ancient tales of dragons sitting on gold and jewels under castles.” She waved her hands at the structure rising from the sands. “Apparently, the tales are true.”

  He stared at her. “Do you know many of these stories?”

  She grinned. “Quite a few.”

  “Can you write them for me?” He was looking at her, and there was an acquisitive look in his eyes.

  “My handwriting is rather poor and I can only write in one of the languages of my people. I have not had time to learn to write in Common yet. Some of the words don’t really translate.”

  “Would you tell them to me? It sounds like my people visited yours at one time.”

  “I think that would be likely. From the little bit I have been able to learn, many of the species have dipped their toes in Terran waters.”

  “Really?” He seemed fascinated. Jherin placed his hand on hers and that one act had her moving closer to him.

  With her arm touching his, she told him of the races that had touched humanity over the centuries, had wars on their soil and made off with their population.

  They stood talking until the suns dipped down in the sky.

  Kyna sighed, “I need to return to the city. I need a meal and a change of clothing.”

  If he could have blushed, he would have turned scarlet; instead, he cleared his throat. “Food. Right. The little things that are forgotten when you sleep for hundreds of years.”

  She screwed up her courage. “Would you like to have dinner with me? I mean, folk might stare a bit, but I know a great restaurant in town and I am sure that if you didn’t want to fly back here, you could take the bed and I could crash on the couch.”

  Jherin smiled at her and caught her in his arms. “I would like that very much, and I am already dressed for dinner.”

  She laughed in surprise as he stood on the barrier and simply dropped off the edge, opening his wings to catch the heat rising from the sands.

  With strong beats, he pulled the air to his will and he brought her back to the city, landing in the restaurant zone with easy flexes of his wings.

  She was right about the crowd staring, but she grabbed his hand an
d pulled him to a table where they could see and be seen in the exterior café. He turned his chair sideways to allow for his wings

  Jherin took the menu from the astonished server and smiled brightly.

  Kyna knew what she wanted, but she went through the motions of looking at the menu while keeping her gaze flicking to Jherin’s studious expression. Now that the shock had worn off, she could see his large, pointed ears, the tight braid of thick navy blue hair streaked with silver and a thick thread of crimson.

  His features were broad and sharp at the same time, and the curve of his lips looked hard, but she knew they were firm and flexible.

  Mentally, she smacked herself and smiled brightly as the server returned. She ordered a light meal, tea and water. He ordered stew, bread, a sandwich, wine and water.

  The manager came out, and he spoke to Jherin, “Lord Jherin, congratulations on your awakening.”

  He cocked his head. “How does everyone know who I am?”

  She snickered; he was referring to the councillors earlier. “There is a statue of you in the main square.”

  Appalled was a good word for his expression. “You are kidding.”

  “I am not. It was how I knew generally what you looked like. The details aren’t in the statue though. You are much more vibrant in person.”

  He drummed his fingers on the table. “I want to see that statue.”

  “Well, I need to eat first. You can go by yourself if you like.” She smiled and pointed. “It is two blocks east.”

  The manager was looking at her in surprise, and she smiled brightly.

  The server behind him had a tray with their drink order on it. She beckoned him forward, and he reluctantly eased around his manager to deliver the beverages.

  She took the teapot and the smooth, round cup. He placed the water glass next to her and another in front of Jherin. The wine was served in the largest wineglass that the café could manage.

  Kee sipped at her tea and ate some of the flatbread and dip that the café brought out as an appetizer. It was one of her favourite things to have, and it came free with the meal.

  The manager wanted to speak to them some more, possibly to kiss up to Jherin, but the Drai was ignoring him in favour of the snack that Kee was taking down.