Fire's Touch (The Enlightened Species Book Three)

by Hales, Wendy S.

  “Great Fates, Hans, what the hell just happened? You’re pale as a ghost.” Umbrae had been his partner before she’d mated and gotten pregnant. She was also one of the few people Hans trusted completely. A highly effective assassin, Umbrae was deadly when necessary, but she was also one of the most generous and compassionate females he’d ever met.

  “My … friend Cassie has turned up. No one’s heard from her for the last twenty years.”

  Umbrae’s brows creased as she looked in his eyes. “Friend, are you sure that’s all it is?” Hans shifted his gaze and nodded. “Okay, whatever you say.” She grinned, pulled Erisa onto her lap, and blood-nursed the baby at her wrist.

  “How do you keep up with them all?” Hans tried to change the subject for both of them.

  “Only Tana and Erisa need blood. Well, and Enlil, of course.” She blushed; sharing blood with one’s mate was far more intimate than blood-nursing a child. “At least I get to eat all the iron-rich food I want.”

  Harmen crawled into Hans’ lap, spreading cookie crumbs up his arms. His godson let out a sigh as his eyes drooped and he fell fast asleep. “You know Conlon’s partner Mattie, right?” He needed to tell someone. If anyone would understand feeling hopeless, it would be Umbrae. Of course, she’d never let hopelessness get the last word.

  Umbrae laid Erisa on one of the sleeping mats and rubbed the hair of a sleeping Jestyl’s brow before lifting Tana to her opposite wrist. “Yes. She’s come with Conlon to some of the family gatherings Jess and Shane throw.”

  “Her full title is Princess Matalina Aleen, and she and Cassie—Princess Cassiopeia—are only a few years apart and closer in age to me than any of my sisters. We come from neighboring colonies; I’ve known them all my life. The three of us grew up together.” Though she nodded, she didn’t rush, push, or prod him for more information. Maybe that was why she was so easy to talk to—why he continued, “and I love Cassie … I shouldn’t … it’s forbidden … but I do. At one time I thought she loved me too.”

  “Forbidden is a pretty menacing word, Hans. Are you sure it’s the correct one?”

  He sighed. “Unfortunately, yeah. We Tellus are pretty tight-lipped about our culture, but being a royal sucks. Being heir to the crown and/or throne really sucks. Sexual intimacy between members of royal bloodlines is forever binding. I’m not sure how to put it delicately.”

  Umbrae scoffed, “Then just spit it out. I’m hardly a delicate flower.”

  Umbrae had spent centuries under the control of a blood master who not only used her sexually he’d also traded her to others. Hans swallowed at her subtle reminder. “Until I sexually mate with another royal, I am sterile. So are princesses like my sisters and Cassie and Mattie. The mingling of bodily fluids binds us genetically. If I have sex or even open-mouth kiss a female of royal bloodline, that female will be the only person capable of having my young … and I would be the only one able to sire her young too. My eldest sister is heir to my mother’s crown. Her marriage was arranged, and as first-born, she and her husband will one day sit at my parent’s throne. I am heir to my father’s crown as first-born son, only son. My nuptial is pre-determined, contracted and arraigned to the eldest daughter and heir to a different throne. My other sisters can marry and mate with any one of royal bloodline if they want children or whoever they want if they are willing to let their individual bloodline die out, since they wouldn’t be able to conceive. My mating was arranged before my birth.”

  “I take it the female you’re supposed to marry isn’t Cassie.” Umbrae gave him a sympathetic look when he shook his head. “Is the arranged marriage more important than your happiness?”

  “Our nuptial contract ended a feud between our two colonies that preceded our species’ enlightening. Neither the princess nor I wish to marry each other or mate …” The thought of bedding Mattie actually made his balls shrink up. “We’re friends, so by mutual agreement we have contrived to delay our nuptial until one or the other of our parent’s forces our hands. As long as her mother and my parents are content in their roles as king and queen, we can wait … and we have. Eventually we will be forced to mate or our colonies will go to war over the territory.”

  “If this queen, your betrothed’s mother, rules alone now, why can’t the princess take the throne whether you mate her or not?” Umbrae asked. This was part of the reason Tellus didn’t talk about their political structure—it was confusing to outsiders.

  “The people of our colonies won’t follow an infertile leader. They have to be assured their monarchy will reproduce and ensure the integrity of the monarchy structure. The queen rules alone because her mate was killed after she had children to carry the line. Unfortunately she doesn’t have a son, so her mate’s crown will not pass—only hers along with her throne, which means whoever marries her first-born daughter must also be a first-born son. And heir to the crown of his sire king to hold the king’s throne in her colony.”

  “You’ve never even kissed the female you love? You’re right, being a royal sucks.” Umbrae shook her head with her comment.

  “Oh, it gets worse.” She quirked a brow at him “My intended is Princess Matalina Aleen, first born and heir to both crown and throne of Queen Della Aleen.”

  “Mattie? Cassie’s sister? Oh, great Fates, you’re saying that if you mate with Cassie, your colony will declare war.” He nodded, the festering hole in his heart ripped open. “And her colony, without assured continuation of their royal bloodline, would fall to your Alba colony.” Umbrae whistled through her teeth. “Could you … I don’t know … have both sisters? Mate and procreate with Mattie and be with Cassie too?”

  Hans gaped at the suggestion. Yes it was possible. His father and mother both had other lovers outside the marriage bed. That wasn’t something he’d ever wanted for himself, to be reproductively connected to someone he didn’t truly desire. Of course, once he mated Mattie that would be his fate, but to ask Cassie to share him with her sister … he could never do that. To have his love for Cassie rubbed into Mattie’s face for all time wouldn’t be fair either. Mattie was his friend. He respected her, cared for her, but he wasn’t in love with her.

  “If you ever saw Cassiopeia around young children, you wouldn’t even ask that question. More than anyone besides you … she deserves to have children of her own.” Hans wished he could take back his tone when Umbrae’s hand went to her lips.

  “I didn’t think about that. What an impossible situation. Does either of them know how you feel? Does Cassie love you, too?”

  “I don’t know. Since the three of us have always been friends, I doubt Mattie has a clue … I hope she doesn’t. Cassie ran away twenty years ago. Mattie and I tried to find her, but she was in the wind and she placed a ‘do not disclose’ on her SOSC file. So no, I don’t thinks she knows how I feel or loves me in return. When she first disappeared I wondered if her mother …” He shrugged. It didn’t matter what he thought, and twenty years had clarified to him that Cassie didn’t want to be found. “I guess I hoped that her leaving wasn’t by choice. That she would come to me and explain. Queen Della is a formidable female, a great queen. Her colony means everything to her.”

  “More than her daughter?”

  Hans tried to think of a way to make Umbrae, a new mother, understand. “Queen Della loves both her daughters, I’ve seen it, but she is queen. She is responsible for the life and future of thousands of people. They are all her children. When I mate Mattie, they will become my people as well.”

  They sat in silence for a while, both lost in thought. Umbrae turned to him curiously. “Why did you tell me this?”

  Hans shrugged. “I think I needed to tell someone I love her, needed to say the words out loud to another person since I’ll never be able to say them to her.” He hugged baby Harmen tighter.

  “What you need to do is go see her. You know how I feel about the word ‘never.’ There is no such thing as never. You may not have said the words to her yet. Either way you need to face her.
” Umbrae’s reasoning filled him with a sense of yearning, but what if she disappeared again?

  “Mattie wants me to go talk to her.” He laid Harmen on his sleeping mat with a kiss to the baby’s forehead.

  “Whether you love her or not, she’s still your friend, Hans.” Her gray eyes rimmed with moisture. Hans took a deep breath and lifted Umbrae’s scarred knuckles to his lips. Fates love her, Umbrae was right … but could his heart take looking at Cassie’s beautiful face even one more time?

  ****

  “You think you can hide from me? I will kill you slowly, my son.” Mick heard his father’s voice loud and clear before he slammed his mental shields up against it.

  “I’m sorry, what?” Mick asked Gil. His father’s interruption had caused him to lose part of the conversation.

  Commandant Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes at Mick. “Yer father?” It had been a while since Osiris’s voice had broken through, and Mick felt shaken. He swallowed hard and nodded. “Ya get any sense of where the bastard might be?”

  Mick shared everything he knew and continued to remember with the SOSC. Well, most of it. Something’s were too horrible and personal to share. How many times had Osiris rooted into Mick’s psyche? New memories continued to bubble up from his mind. At first it happened all the time. One minute he’d be fine, the next some memory his father had compelled him to forget would resurface with agonizing clarity. Others trickled back slowly over time or in dreams.

  Mick swallowed down the bile that rose into his throat. “No, just threats … and the feel of his rage.”

  Gil leaned back in his chair and locked his finger behind his head, emphasizing the male’s giant arm muscles. Mick liked Gil, though Gil’s bloodmate, the Presiding Oracle Innanna, scared the shit out of him. “Ya know ya can keep yer job here. Bein’ on the mainland will make it so Osiris can get closer ta ya physically even if he can’t breach the weave. It might make shieldin’ harder.”

  Mick knew that. Staying in Meshy Hell would be safer, but Mattie was worth the risks. “My cousin Umbrae’s there. It will give me more time with her to work on my shields. It’s difficult to coordinate time with her now that she has children.”

  Gil nodded with a knowing grin. “I’m sure ya have more reasons than that. Well, just know ya will be missed around here, and yer always welcome back.”

  Mick thanked Gil and headed to his last class at Meshy Hell. His replacement had arrived the night before. Mick needed to go over the class schedule and help his students get familiar with their new teacher. Just a few more days. He shoved his father’s voice to the recesses of his mind and tried to focus on the future. At least with the SOSC he had a future, unlike all his brothers he’d seen die either for his father or at his father’s hand.

  Chapter Eight

  When Stacey stepped out of her plane with silky, thick black waves flowing down her back, a trim-fit navy skirt that ended at her knee, matched with a blazer and cream silk shirt, Conlon had felt his heart thud in his chest. Meeting him at eye level, she sashayed across the concrete floor, her cream-colored heels clicking unerringly with each step, making the shapely curve of her ass his reward for letting his eyes reach the top of her long, sinful legs. His heart rate went through the roof. The female would be the death of him.

  The blistering of his hands had been well worth the feel of her soft skin. She boiled hot like a pissed off Aquatie, yet she’d drawn from his energy to do it. Aquaties could boil or freeze moisture, water, even the blood running through a person vascular system. But Aquaties used thermodynamic energy converted from sunlight to do it. Stacey had drawn off him. He could practically feel the molecular friction her gift generated within her. It had taken a full pint of blood after her massage before Conlon’s strength returned.

  Mattie stepped near. “Con, you’re going to scare the humans. Get a grip.”

  Conlon quickly clenched his jaw closed to conceal his erupted dentes. At the car Stacey stopped and her eyes did a quick visual roll call of the security members, pausing when she met his eyes for a fraction of a second. She glanced at his hands as if assuring herself he wasn’t harmed before moving on. “Where’s Alto?” she asked.

  Jack walked over and opened the limo driver’s door for a thin, elderly human man with gray hair creating a rim around an otherwise baldhead. Perfectly dressed in cuffs and gloves, he shuffled to Stacey. Much to Conlon’s surprise, Stacey smiled. Her face brightened to near glowing and her eyes twinkled with joy as she bent over to give the chauffeur a heartfelt, loving hug. All the wind rushed from his body. If he’d worn button-fly jeans, the damn things would be shooting across the hangar like missiles from the pressure in his pants. As it was, Conlon’s erection knew the teeth of his zipper intimately.

  “Mevrouw Stacey.” The happiness in the old man’s face spoke volumes. This was someone from Stacey’s youth who’d known her a long time. “Meneer, Jack said there are many threats to you right now. I was very careful to not be followed when I left the estate in the limo. I had the Hummers sent over from your corporate fleet.” It had been awhile since Conlon had spoken Dutch, but he was able to follow the conversation.

  “Aw, Alto, when in my life has there not been threats against me?” Stacey’s Dutch was perfect. “Bedankt for taking extra precautions. I am so sorry about Grieta.”

  Alto nodded sadly. “Ya, she were a fine honden. Her last litter of pups lift my spirits some. Are you planning to come by your home this trip?” The old man shifted his feet uncomfortably. Stacey turned her back before Conlon could decipher her expression and shook her head. Alto’s shoulders sagged a touch. “Well, just know it’s being taken care of.” Stacey nodded and slipped inside the car with Alto gently closing it behind her.

  Alto shuffled to the opposite back door and looked expectantly at Jack, who tilted his head at Conlon as he climbed in. The old man’s sharp gaze met Conlon’s and narrowed, and he got a knowing grin. With a deep breath, Conlon walked over to join Stacey and Jack inside the limo. Mark and the other members of their detail loaded into the two Hummers and they exited the hangar.

  “Did you tell anyone else we were coming?” Conlon directed the question to both Stacey and Jack.

  Stacey never took her gaze from the scenery out the window. Conlon didn’t think she would answer him. There was a profound hollowness in her voice when she did. “Alto was my father’s personal chauffer and butler. Now he is the steward of my hom—” her voice caught “—my private estate in Amsterdam. He is the only one ever given advanced notice of my arrival. I trust him.” Her blue eyes swung around to clash with his in challenge. She was protective of the old man too.

  “Has the estate been properly secured for your arrival?”

  Stacey turned to look back out the window. “I won’t be staying there … this trip.” Her eyelashes batted moisture away quickly.

  Conlon sat back and watched the heads of people out the window turning at the sight on the silver limo being escorted by American-made black H3 Hummers with dark tinted windows in front and back. Yeah … this was really traveling incognito; might as well paint a target on their asses.

  This whole plan was the epitome of un-secured. Conlon couldn’t believe it when Jack and Stacey insisted she be the first person through the door of her holdings company. The building needed to be fully searched. He should have had hours and a hundred warriors there before she even showed up.

  “You will never get into the building without her,” Jack stated when Conlon voiced his disgust at the lack of security precautions. “Once we’re in and Stacey’s in her office, you can secure and check anything you want. It’s the trip between the airport and the building that is the most dangerous. Her safety right now comes from the fact no one knows she made the trip. Once she leaves the holding company for any reason, we send sweep teams ahead and more than double our security using the holding company’s personnel as back up.” But Alto had known—what if the phones were tapped?

  Conlon could tell Jack had a great gr
asp on Stacey's protection … right. No wonder the SOSC had been called in. He could kick himself for not seizing the transport and doing it his way. “So the new threat … what exactly are the concerns?”

  Jack glanced at Stacey, who gave him a nod. The Aquatie released a sigh of relief; apparently his boss had barred him from sharing the information. “We always face the usual stuff. Threats of kidnapping, extortion attempts, fraudulent claims, the occasional stalker. Once a man was bound and determined to make Stacey his sugar mama—that was hilarious.” Stacey silenced Jack's laughter with a glare. “Over the last eight months or so, there's been numerous attempts to access her on a more personal level. Whoever is seeking her is most likely enlightened and probably frustrated. So far they've gained access to Stacey’s financials and some of her childhood records but nothing else. Cassie called in a computer expert named Moira via the SOSC to determine the vulnerability of all Stacey's system. That female is amazing. She found the backdoor the hackers where using in every one of Stacey's extensive systems and sealed them up tight. That was six months ago. Since then the threats have been more … overt and intense. These people want Stacey. Last night, someone shot at her with a long-range tranquiller rifle. Cassie has been keeping the SOSC informed about the occurrences, and they have offered to help many times.”

  Conlon could understand wanting Stacey. Of course, his want of her probably wasn't the same as the rogues. The realization someone took a shot at her put a lump in his throat. This was not an idle threat. The entity threatening Stacey was undoubtedly a rogue organization. Perhaps it was Stacey's money that was making her attractive to the rogues. Just how rich is she? He doubted the idea of a few million would be worth the rogues’ continued pursuit once the SOSC interceded. Jack was correct, Moira was scary smart and inventive as all get out. She'd probably sent computer viruses and reverse monitoring at the infiltrators. In the last five years, Moira had made the SOSC's systems completely impenetrable. Even within the SOSC headquarters’ private offices, the savvy female monitored every keystroke. Because of her, they'd uncovered a half-dozen rogue spies within the SOSC.