Kam walked over and crouched in front of her. “It monitors and analyzes emotions. You don’t need to be afraid of us, Alexa. I know your fear has subsided a great deal. But you can completely trust us. We’re the good guys. Really.”
“And the three who attacked me outside?”
“Not such good guys.”
Erik snorted. “There’s an understatement.”
“Braden said you were specially trained. Trained for what?”
That gentle smile of Kam’s again crossed his face. “Let’s just say that we’re very capable of fighting our enemies.”
“Those creatures…what are they?”
Erik muttered something under his breath and turned away.
“They’re called Egesa. They’re from Marid, one of the five moons of Xylon.”
A planet with five moons. Like in her dreams. Could these people really be aliens?
“It’s a slaving colony basically. But don’t worry about them, Alexa,” Kam answered, cutting his eyes momentarily toward Erik, who was still mumbling to himself. “You have enough to deal with, right now. You’ll learn everything, in due time.”
Chapter Four
Alexa watched Braden, Kam, and Erik file into the hallway, frowns on their faces, like a line of little boys banished from their playroom. If she wanted to try an escape, now would be the time. She glanced toward the window, gauging the chances of success. She’d have to kick out the sunscreen. That would take time, not to mention cause a lot of noise. She wasn’t even sure she could do it. She’d have to incapacitate Leila first. The woman was smaller than she was, but Alexa didn’t know what kind of training the woman might have. She could be a killing machine, for all Alexa knew. They did call themselves Warriors, after all.
Leila sat down on the bed. With an understanding smile on her face, she caressed the yellow and green pattern of the comforter, giving Alexa a moment to assimilate everything that was happening. “I guess you’re a bit out of sorts with all this,” she said, repositioning herself on the bed, so she sat between Alexa and the window.
Alexa nodded in response and inwardly sighed. So much for escape. Leila was no fool. The up side was that she felt more at ease now that all the testosterone was gone. She needed a break from the men, and she needed answers. Talking to Leila would be easier. Or at least less intimidating. “I came here to settle my mother’s estate as soon as I was able. She died a couple of weeks ago, from a heart attack. Mostly, I’ve lived abroad with other relatives all my life. Shuffled from place to place, with no explanation why.”
“It must have been a hard life for you.”
“I didn’t know anything different. That’s just the way it was. Supposedly, her missing journal contains the answers. I received a call from a woman who said she had it, and I was supposed to meet her in the cemetery. That’s where I came across Braden and a lot of stuff I don’t understand.”
“I’m sorry for your loss. And for the information obviously kept from you all your life. You’re having the dreams?”
The question caught Alexa by surprise. “How did you know?”
Her nightmares were always of some strange red and green planet with five multi-colored moons. She’d had the images in her head for as long as she could remember. In the dreams, she was always running from some danger she couldn’t see. And searching for someone she couldn’t name. She had to do something, accomplish something vital. Carry something to, or for, those she loved. The dreams had gotten so powerful, so repetitive, that she often felt her sanity slipping away from her. Each time she awoke from one, it took her longer and longer to recover.
“The visions will ease off after the Initiation, then eventually stop altogether.”
“What’s their significance?”
“It identifies you as an off-worlder, half-breed Xylon—still unclaimed. Your father was one of us, Alexa. Our men used to be able to mate with any humanoid-type female from another world and produce children, but that stopped approximately twenty years ago, for reasons we don’t understand. We no longer have that many females on Xylon. And many are sterile. So, we’re now seeking females born from Xylon genes, particularly Warriors, left on other planets, in the hope of re-populating our own world with children who are strong and can help us fight the Egesa, who are at this point threatening our very existence. Not to mention causing problems on other worlds, including Earth. Your dreams simply prove you have the correct DNA to carry a Xylon child in your womb. I’ll run a test to be sure, but I already know what the result will be.”
Alexa sat there, staring at the woman. This was unbelievable. Even after everything that she’d already seen and heard.
Leila pulled a small book from inside her jacket. The gold lettering on the front stood out from the brown, suede cover.
“That’s my mother’s journal!”
“Yes. Braden retrieved it from the house before you arrived.”
“Braden. He was the one who lured me to the cemetery with that note, not the woman?” Anger filled her. He’d manipulated her, and she’d fallen right into the trap. “Why? To witness that woman being fucked, or initiated, or whatever you want to call it? Did he think it would turn me on so much that I’d beg him and those other two out there to do the same thing to me? Who was the woman who called me on the phone? You?” Unable to control her tone, her voice rose with each question.
“No, Alexa. It wasn’t me. Braden took the journal for safekeeping. He found it when we came here looking for you. He didn’t send the note, though he did know about it. We suspect Daegal ordered it sent to lure you out where the Egesa could get to you easier.”
“Oh.” The common sense of Leila’s words sank in. She kept hoping they’d trip up somehow, contradict something already said, so she’d know for sure they were lying. But no such luck. “Daegal. I’ve heard that name before. He’s associated with those others who attacked me.”
“Yes. The Egesa serve him.”
Egesa? She kept hearing that term too, but remembered what Kam had told her. “The bad guys. Is Daegal one of them? I mean, you referred to him as separate from the creatures, it seems like.”
“We’re not sure what or who Daegal is, other than their leader. No one who has seen his face has ever betrayed him and lived long enough to tell the secret.”
Alexa bit her bottom lip. “What do they want with me?”
“They were in the graveyard, hoping to capture you. Make you sterile, so you would be incapable of producing Warrior children. That’s the Egesa Initiation. The Warrior Initiation is almost identical, except instead of making a person sterile, it prepares their body for breeding.”
Alexa shuddered at the thought of going through what the woman on the slab had experienced at the hands of those vile creatures. They weren’t sexy and sinfully hot, like—
She gave herself a mental shake. Focus. She had to stay focused. “Braden killed one of them.” She rubbed her arms, suddenly chilled.
“Two, actually. One came back after you passed out. They thought that other woman was you. Until they spotted you in the shadows, I guess. They must have figured out then they had the wrong target and followed you home. I don’t really know the complete details.”
“Why go through the trouble of luring me to the cemetery? They could have just come to the house to begin with.”
“They probably wanted to get you someplace where you couldn’t get any help from neighbors or other passersby, someplace even the authorities don’t normally patrol. After they missed you at the cemetery, they must have gotten desperate though. Time is running short.”
“Short? Braden said something like not having time, too. I didn’t realize he meant it literally.”
“We can’t stay on Earth much longer. If we do, we’ll miss the entry point back to our star system.”
“Which would mean what?”
“We’d be stuck here for several more months, and we don’t have the necessary fuel to orbit our ship for that long. We’ve been in space to
o long and have regenerated our power to its limit. I’m assuming the same is true for the Marid ship, since they’ve probably been shadowing us the entire time.”
“Okay.” Alexa’s head was spinning with more questions, and from trying to understand what answers she’d already received. She had the sudden urge to search every cubbyhole just to see if she was being set-up and taped for some new, weird television show. She could see it now, Stupid Woman Convinced She’s Part Alien, Wednesday nights at 8:00pm. “So, I’m supposed to be some sort of breeder? Half-human and half-Xylon. Is that it?”
“Yes.”
“Mmm hmm.” If it weren’t for everything that she’d already seen with her own two eyes… “How did you find me?”
“Braden found your mother through some careful research. That wasn’t too hard. A few computer and database cross-references, along with the info we already had, produced a hit. But he couldn’t find you, not your exact location. Lots of information, but no current address.”
“I’m a photographer. I move around.”
“Once you entered the city, he was able to track you through your implanted computer chip. It’s short-range only, so it couldn’t pick you up prior to your entering California.”
“Chip? I have a chip. Where?” Alexa blew out a heavy breath of air. She felt like jumping into her rented car and driving until she was as far from Black Marble as she could get.
“It’s in your brain, very small, very hard to detect, unless you’ve had an MRI. Implanted at birth. At least your father did see to that.”
She sat stunned. Now every time she had a headache she’d wonder if it were normal or if her head was about to explode due to some malfunction. She also didn’t like the idea that she was basically a tagged animal, even if the thing only had short-range capability. “Where is my father?” she asked, barely above a whisper.
“We don’t know. I’m sorry.”
Disappointment, then suspicion, flowed through her. “If he’s really one of you, how can you not know?”
“He disappeared shortly after leaving Earth and returning to Xylon. The Council, our ruling Board, has sealed the information on his whereabouts. I don’t know why.”
“How come I’ve never heard about you people before? Why wouldn’t my parents have told me? And can I have the journal, please.” If it held the answers she so desperately needed, the book would settle everything, once and for all.
Leila gave her an indulgent smile. “I don’t know what’s in the journal. I’ll have to clear it with Braden before I can give it to you. He did want you to know it was safe though.” She slid the journal back into her jacket. “As far as your parents telling you… would you really expect them to? They obviously chose the human life for you to live, as opposed to bringing you to Xylon. And they moved you around enough to make you difficult to find, if we came looking. But we need you, Alexa. And all the women like you that we can locate. Not only to ensure the safety of Xylon, but also to make sure the Egesa can’t spread their evil to other planets and systems. No more than they already have anyhow. Earth is one of those planets, Alexa. You should know that.”
Earth might be in danger? Her stomach clenched at the possibility. “I’m not agreeing to anything,” to say the least, “but if I did agree, then that would mean I’d have to have sex with Braden, Kam, and Erik in order to be initiated, so I can breed and have these Warrior children. Right? Do I have a grasp on the situation here?” How convenient for the men that the Initiation was sexual in nature. It didn’t take a genius to figure out which gender had come up with the specifics for this rite.
“Braden will attempt to initiate you by himself. I’m not sure why he made that decision. It’s not standard. But it’s what he wants.”
Alexa wasn’t sure if she should be flattered or not. Though if it were only Braden… Geez! Was she actually considering this?
“And, yes, you do need to be initiated in order to breed with our men. A lot is riding on this, Alexa. We need you. The future of many free planets is in jeopardy. We need our numbers to remain strong, so we can continue to fight the Egesa.”
This was all too much. However, if Leila was telling the truth, then a lot did rest on her decision.
“Would Braden be my husband then, or whatever you call it?”
“Breeder-mate.” Leila wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Yes.”
She got the uncomfortable feeling that Leila wasn’t telling her the exact truth with that answer. The woman looked too nervous, all of a sudden, sitting there, chewing on her thumbnail.
In their favor, these people hadn’t hurt her, even when she had tried to hurt them. Braden had saved her, in fact. The circumstances were just all so strange and confusing that she wasn’t sure what to do or believe. She needed more information. Anything to help her figure all this out. “Can you explain the ceremony?” Her voice lowered. “From what I know, it’s very erotic.”
“Yes,” Leila answered, her gaze returning to Alexa, and her voice lowering in kind.
She stood and lifted a case that was leaning against the wall. Alexa hadn’t even noticed it there. It looked a lot like the one Lizard-man carried. That did not calm her. Leila brought it back to the bed and pushed it open.
She took out what looked to Alexa like a clear, glass dildo with a tube encased inside, along with some wires. And she saw buttons located on the base.
“This is the first part of the rite. The tube contains a vaccine of sorts that will protect you from any diseases the other side might try to infect you with. The Egesa sexually transmit diseases, and they often inflict various poisons through torture techniques. It’s how they sterilize or incapacitate their victims.”
Alexa shuddered, thinking about the now-healed wounds to her breasts. What she’d experienced could have been a lot worse. “Those creatures did say they planned to make me sterile.”
“It’s one of the ways they’re trying to extinguish our race. We can protect you from that. You’ll be stimulated with the dildo, then when you orgasm, the fluid will be ejaculated into you. Your orgasm will pull in the medicine, so to speak, and your system will absorb it.”
The dildo looked huge. She had to be kidding. “Um, can’t the vaccine be administered through a shot or a pill?”
“This is an Ancient Rite, Alexa. It’s a protection and bonding ceremony, full of tradition and very powerful. We’re looking for alternate ways, but so far nothing has worked effectively.”
“What if a person can’t orgasm? Is that required?”
“Why do you ask?”
She shrugged. “I’ve…never had one.” She averted her eyes when she felt her face heat at the admission.
“Never? Are you a virgin?”
“No.” Though she might as well be. Her past relationships were, well, unexciting. “I’ve just never been able to do it.”
“Hmm.” Leila chewed at her thumbnail. “It might present a problem. I’ll talk to Braden about it.”
Alexa’s gaze snapped to hers. “I haven’t agreed.”
Leila studied her a moment before answering. “Okay. I understand that.” She set the dildo into the case and withdrew a much smaller dildo with feelers at the end. “Are you still willing to at least listen and consider what I say?”
Warily looking at the object in Leila’s hand, Alexa hesitated, but then nodded. She might as well hear it all. It would buy her time to think, if nothing else.
“This is the second part of the rite. The tiny feelers are coated with the protective vaccine and inserted anally.” She pulled on the base, and the feelers disappeared inside the dildo. Then she pushed, and the feelers re-emerged, shiny with liquid.
Alexa shivered. Oh, no way! “I’ve never done anything like that. I don’t think I could.” The understatement of the year. She should get a trophy for keeping her voice much calmer than she actually felt. Why would anyone agree to that sort of bodily invasion?
“Braden’s very skilled. You wouldn’t have to worry. He won’t hurt you.�
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Alexa wondered if the woman’s knowledge was first-hand. “Did he initiate you?” The thought of him initiating who knows how many women bothered her. It was such an intimate act. And did that mean he bred all of them, too? She didn’t like that idea. Of course, being a man, he probably got off on it. Or was she judging him unfairly?
She tended not to give men the benefit of the doubt much. Because of caution or self-preservation, she wasn’t sure. That’s just the way she was. Maybe her mother’s constant mistrust of the opposite sex rubbed off on her in her formative years. Or maybe she simply always knew, deep down, that she wanted a different sort of man.
Wait. No. Her thinking must be wrong. Because if he initiated Leila, then they’d be mates. Unless she lied about the mate part. Or unless they could have more than one mate, which kinda made sense, since normally three people performed an Initiation. This whole thing was so bizarre.
“What makes you think I’m a breeder?”
“Oh! I’m sorry. If that’s an insult or something…”
“No, it’s a compliment. I am a breeder, but unmated so far. And, no. He didn’t initiate me. My ceremony was…different.” She slapped the dildo back inside the case and slammed it closed.
Whoa! Distress and anger were clearly visible on Leila’s face. Maybe Leila had feelings for Braden and wanted him to initiate her. Then didn’t get her way. Why hadn’t she produced children if she was a breeder and there was such a need? And if Leila went through the initiation, then how could she be unmated? Something was wrong somewhere. “You’re lying.”
Leila’s head snapped up. “What?”
“You said that Braden would be my breeder-mate. If you’re a breeder and went through the initiation, then you can’t be unmated.”
Leila stiffened, and Alexa swore she saw tears in the woman’s eyes, before she got herself back under control.
“My situation is a special case. It has nothing to do with how yours will play out.”
That’s all Leila said, and it was obvious that’s all she intended to say, much to Alexa’s frustration. “Is that everything then? I mean, everything I need to know about my situation?” Alexa asked, though she really wanted to ask more about Leila’s situation.
Initiation Page 5
