by Bailey Dark
I unsheathed the sword and held it up. Rhone’s glowed green, but mine had a red sheen to it.
“It is made of a special metal only found in the volcanic rubble of ancient areas on our planet. Not only that, it is blessed with magic that applies a poison immediately to anyone who is wounded with it. It burns an acid-like substance through their cut. There is no chance of recovery from a blade like this. There have not been many forged, and the only two blacksmiths who can forge such blades were recently abducted. I think by Rhone. He would like to challenge my right to the throne. He is from a different race, the Bordash. They don’t have the telekinetic abilities that we Curan have, but they do have extreme physical skills in fighting. Some of them can train a bit of the telekinesis, even, but not much. We are well matched adversaries. They also control all the high-end technology companies on Farian, so it is important for me to do trade and diplomacy with them. Our kingdom couldn’t function without a solid alliance between the two.”
“And Rhone wishes to disrupt that?”
“Yes. I don’t know how far along his plans are. Fyland was a double agent, but I can only assume he was giving me false information.” Why am I telling her all of this? She’s so easy to speak to…I feel a trust. Maybe it is because she is an outsider.
“Why are you telling me all this? Is it because I am an outsider?”
I looked at her sharply. “Did you just read my mind?”
“No. Of course not. I’m not a Curan, after all. Humans can’t really do that. I have always been very intuitive, though.”
She seemed to have calmed down a little. She was opening up to me, too. And, if she was that intuitive as a human, she might just be able to become a ceremonial Curan…If I dared to take our relationship that far.
There’s no way she could be my Destin. My Fated Match. The Chosen One. There’s no way she, a human, of all species, was my Destin.
As soon as I thought it, the pieces of the puzzle began to be flung into place. That would explain my connection to her. The way I physically wanted to mold my body with hers, the way I wanted to meld our minds, to match our futures. If she was my Destin, how would I ever explain that to my people? Choosing someone other than a Curan to save my life when in need, to give life to my children, when it was time, and to rule beside me?
No. It couldn’t possibly be her…
The ship rocked in warp as it hit some turbulence. She sprawled over the chaise and landed, head in my lap.
Her dainty fingers clutched at my chest as she pushed herself back up. There was a momentary pause, I couldn’t have just imagined it, as she pushed up, where her brown eyes, golden ribbons through the iris, looked into mine. Her mouth parted and I wanted to smash those lips with mine. I ran my fingers down her spine lightly. She shivered, something between anger and desire flashing on her face.
She jerked back and stood up.
“I’m tired. It is past midnight for me. I am going to sleep.”
“Fine.” I stood up. “This suite will be your quarters. I will ask one of my technicians to stop by in the morning. I would like you to join me for breakfast.”
She nodded consent, then walked into the bedroom area. She looked back over her shoulder at me.
“Good night.”
“Good night, Daphne.”
I watched her sit on the bed and then exited the room, feeling a trill of excitement, thinking that someday soon, I would throw her onto that bed and ravage her. I had to just get her to the moment where she would invite me to do so. If she was my Destin, there would be no forcing, no cajoling, no commanding; she had to be my equal.
Imagine that, a human, my equal.
Her fierce, intelligent brown eyes told me that it just might be true.
I needed to learn more about her.
I needed her to look past the Beast and see the nobility I knew I could sway her with. She shouldn’t fear me…other than to fear that, if she was my Destin, she would soon be giving up her heart to me, to cradle and cherish. Forever.
Five
Daphne
I woke up and rolled over in the silk sheets.
Silk sheets…I didn’t own silk sheets.
I squeezed my eyes open slowly, one at a time. The light in the room was bright, but the most mesmerizing light came from outside the window as we streaked through space and time at warp speed, flashing past stars, planets, nebulas, and asteroids, as they warped into multi-colored smears.
I really was in space. It hadn’t been a dream…
The door to the suite slid open and a technician entered.
“The King would like you to join him for breakfast. Please dress yourself and then ring the button next to the door. I will return and escort you to his eatery.”
I nodded and swallowed deep. “Thank you.”
She was speaking a language I couldn’t understand, but there was a small module hanging around her neck that looked kind of like those old iPod shuffles. A human voice, British, came out of it, translating her words as she spoke them.
Cool technology.
It wasn’t just more advanced technology that this species of very human-seeming Curan had. They also had that magic mind-reading and mind-moving ability.
How was I supposed to compete with that?
I thought of the Beast King as I slipped back into the outfit he had requested—commanded—I wear. It was cute, comfy, and edgy. But it made me uncomfortable showing so much skin in a world I didn’t know.
“Oh well,” I muttered. I pressed the button next to the door and was soon being led by the same technician down hallways that glowed and flickered with different light commands. It didn’t look all that different from ships in Star Trek. I supposed that must truly be the most efficient use of space and lights.
At least our fiction was ahead of its time. But, if there were aliens regularly using our planet, I wondered how long humanity would actually last.
The eatery was quite small. It was not the crew’s cafeteria, but the King’s private dining area. He stood up from his seat as I entered. He was wearing the same cape, so similar to the one he had given me to wear, but he had replaced the leather body armor with a tight black shirt that did nothing to hide the chiseled pecs, abs, and arm muscles I had already been so madly attracted to.
“How did you sleep, Daphne?” Kajo asked me as I sat down across the table from him.
“Not well. I was kidnapped last night, after all.”
“You are not my hostage. On the contrary, I am beholden to you.”
I looked at him, suspicious of such a claim. “What do you mean?”
He didn’t answer, the scar over his eye twitching with his furrowed eyebrows. He passed me what looked like orange juice but was probably from a fruit I had never had before. It was also carbonated and incredibly sweet. As he handed me the plate with eggs and sausage on it, our hands brushed. He jolted in his seat, and then looked away, pulling his hand back. Shame? Shame for reacting in such a way to a girl? A human girl?
To test it, I reached out and laid my hand on his, where it lay on the table, on top of his napkin. It was as if an electric shock transferred from my soul into his hand and touched his soul as well. We both jumped, then stared at each other in silence.
“What is that?” I finally managed to breathe out.
Kajo sighed and rubbed his temples. He pushed his fairly full plate back and stood up. “I will come and get you this afternoon. Thank you for joining me for breakfast.
Without another word, he exited his own dining area. The food looked, and smelled, wonderful. My stomach rumbled. I looked up as the woman technician entered.
“Can I still eat without him?”
“Yes, of course. He asked me to join you, if you would like company.”
I shrugged and gestured to the seat Kajo had haphazardly left pushed back from the table. The tech sat down, pushing her lush black hair back behind her ears. She poured herself some of the not-orange juice and sipped it quietly. Her eyes were b
ewitching. They were pure gold.
“What is your name?” I asked between mouthfuls of a fluffy pancake-like biscuit that I had smeared some type of purple, chunky jam across.
“Delicha.”
“You work for Kajo?”
“We all do. He is out King and leader.”
“The Beast King.”
Delicha’s eyes widened. “We don’t call him that.”
“Who does?”
“The Bordash. The people who wish he had not taken the kingdom from the previous ruler. King Darrs, before King Kajo, was Bordash, but he kept the Curan in a lower caste system.”
“What do you mean?”
Delicha’s gold eyes misted with tears. “Kajo freed us. He led the war that we fought against King Darrs and his soldiers. Many Bordash fought with us and made sure we had access to the same technology as our foes. It was a fight for more than the freedom of the Curan; it was a fight to secure the soul of Farian in the universe as a fair planet, committed to integrity and freedom. Just like King Kajo.”
I stared at her and nearly dropped my biscuit. “You have got to be kidding me.”
She wiped her eyes and shook her head. She took a deep drink of the juice and then sighed, smiling at me. “Not at all.”
“But, he kidnapped me.”
“You are a guest.” The words were almost an admonishment, as if she couldn’t believe I had such a perspective. “He saved you. Rhone was going to kill you. Besides, you will see. You are now better off than any human has ever had the opportunity to be.”
“Will I ever be allowed to go back to Earth?”
Delicha looked honestly confused. “Why would you want to do that?”
“It’s my home.”
“You would never be able to tell anyone that you met us, that you traveled in space, that you were almost killed and yet saved by the King of Farian. You could never say you tasted gortan cat milk,” I immediately spat out my mouthful of what I had thought was a fruit juice, not milk from an animal that was effervescent and orange, “or put fret eggs on your toast.” I looked at the purple jam sourly and pushed back my plate. “You will be thought crazy, if you ever said these things. Your people are small-minded, viscous, unintelligent. Trust me, you want to stay with us. You want to stay with our King.”
“What is he going to do with me?”
“I don’t honestly know. Humans are not…thought highly of…in the rest of the universe. You are so ignorant and backwards. I do not know if he wants you as his pet to show off to the rest of the world, or if he wants you as something else.”
I shivered, thinking of his fingers making a soft trail down my spine the night before. I had an idea of what he wanted…
Delicha suddenly put a hand to her head and her eyes glazed over. I waited as she spoke to someone else with her mind. Her eyelids finally fluttered open and she stood up.
“Someone else will come to escort you back to your quarters. I am needed on the bridge.” She bowed slightly. “Thank you for enjoying your breakfast with me, Daphne. Please feel free to read the universal news on your computer terminal in your quarters. Maybe that will help you understand the magnitude of your opportunity here with us.”
Then she was gone, and I was left alone at the breakfast table with orange, bubbling milk and purple jelly eggs.
This was going to be difficult…What Delicha had said about Kajo repeated in my mind. She clearly was loyal to and loved him dearly. I hated my boss, Rhone of the Bordash. If I was going to choose any team in this wretched world, it would certainly be the team working against his evilness. That was Kajo. But, not having the chance to choose was not going to make things any easier.
Even more difficult at this moment, as my stomach rumbled again, I wondered: if I did stay with them, and assuming I wasn’t made a sex slave or freak show act, would I ever adjust to this food? I was starving.
I wiggled the purple eggs on the biscuit and sat it down as a new technician appeared to have the rest of breakfast with me. They weren’t making me eat it; at least I didn’t have to obey all the commands here.
Six
Daphne
I was escorted by three technicians, including Delicha, from the landing pad of the spaceship, to board an open-air hovercraft. We floated through a bustling city with spiraling minarets, sprawling markets, and graceful bridges suspended in the air. The buildings varied, made either from glass and metal or roughhewn stone. Green vines wrapped the columns and steeples, making curls of bedding for vibrantly colored birds with long tailfeathers and a whispering call that somehow still echoed in my head even after we had entered the expansive palatial grounds of the King of Farian. The cobblestone driveway wound through beautiful red and orange trees, green fruits decking their limbs, as rivulets of crystal-clear water paralleled the path. The palace itself had billowing domes, surrounded by parapets, and razor-sharp edges of stained-glass making mosaic prisms as sunshine burned through its panes.
My mouth dropped open and my heart started beating fast as we passed through the giant archways that led to the courtyard. Brilliant lights burned in each hallway we passed through on the way to the fourth floor and my private quarters. No matter which way I looked, the lights branched in that direction, suspended without tether, directed without manual input, as if by magic.
The technicians left me without many words. They said Kajo would call on me after he had settled some state affairs. He had been gone from the kingdom awhile, seeking out Fyland and Rhone.
The three days on the spaceship prior to reaching Farian had passed without much incident. I had seen Kajo for breakfast each day and, each day, I had started to soften toward him. There was something gentle under his beastly exterior and rough mannerisms. I had spent much more time with Delicha, and she could never say anything about Kajo without tears welling in her eyes. To her, he was a hero. To me, he was my captor.
I wondered if Vania was missing me on Earth. If my step-brother, Sean, had called me for more money. There wasn’t really anyone else that even cared about me. Perhaps a couple women at the book club, or my favorite barista that I flirted with every now and then, but really, I had no one.
Maybe this life wouldn’t be so bad…
I spent most of the afternoon on the balcony of my room. It suspended over the rivulet’s pool. Small fish with many fins and turtle-like creatures with large snouts made ripples in the pool’s clear water. It looked inviting enough to swim in, but I was having to judge everything around me as toxic, strange, to be feared. After all, I was a human. How was I to be certain how my body would react to any of these things?
A knock on my door made me spin back to the room from my lounging chair. I stood and walked across the threshold, the gossamer fabric of the window curtains wrapping about me in a splendid array of color and softness.
King Kajo stood in the doorway, his hands in fists at his side, his mouth set in a straight line, his blue eyes keen and questioning.
“May I enter?”
I had noticed he had started to offer more and more deference my way. Perhaps it was the fact that I was bold enough to tell him when I didn’t want to do, eat, or wear something. Perhaps it was because I was a question mark in a life he had already conquered. I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like he honestly liked me…
“Yes.”
Kajo sauntered into the room. He was wearing the customary black and blue, but this seemed even more regal, as if he had donned the cape of his kingdom. He also had a small circlet of gold about his brow. His shaggy black hair framed his face even more cunningly with the small imprint it made, and the gold in his blue eyes sparkled as he walked toward me.
“Do you like my crown?” He flicked one of his fingers toward it and nodded upward.
“It’s nice,” I said. He continued to walk toward me. I circled away from the open balcony and toward the other side of the room. He shifted his walk to a path of interception. “Rather simple, but I don’t suppose I have seen that many crowns. Seems li
ke a crown is something only worn when compensating for a lack of polish and prestige elsewhere…”
Kajo grinned, pausing a moment. It was the first time I had seen more than a frown or brooding smirk. It made a flutter spring forward in my chest and I tried to silence its flight. I couldn’t resist how charming he looked with that smile. He stepped closer again. “I would lay my crown at your feet to show you just how polished I am in other ways.”
“You? The Beast King?” I laughed but groaned inwardly at how shaky the laugh was, shaky as I tried to control my rapid heart rate and shallow breathing. A position of strength, a position of strength, I told myself over and over. “I can’t imagine you are polished in any action.”
“Fine,” he said, stepping closer again. “But, I might show you my ample prestige.”
He was but two steps away now and I found I had walked myself into a corner of the room, the canopied bed on my right, the door to the bathroom on the left.
“I can’t imagine—”
“Then, let me show you.”
He took the last two steps forward. Before I could react, he had grabbed me be the arms and lifted me. That same bolt of electricity went through my entire body, as if he were an electric charge wired to my soul. I gasped as he tossed me onto the bed and sprang quickly on top of me. My heart was beating so fast and part of me was screaming to stand my ground, to not let him, to remember that he had captured me from my home, but the part I couldn’t control, the part that was fluttering and yearning and lusting, let loose a giggle as he straddled me, pressing my hands back into the soft bed, and grinding his crotch into mine.
I made a sharp intake of breath as his hard cock, ample, indeed, pressed into my clit. He rocked hard into me, pressing with his body like a wave into me, swooping in close to my face, his lips just an inch from mine, his eyes dancing and sparking and daring me to kiss him, stopping right before our lips touched.
My breath was fast, my breasts heaving up and down. His eyes strayed for a moment to them as they rose and fell and I chose to act in that moment, slipping my hands down and out of his, and he let them go. I slithered down in the bed in a swift motion, aiming to go directly under him and out of the bed, but instead, he crossed his legs over my waist and pinned me down so that my head was right under his crotch and I was staring at the shape of his hard, engorged dick beneath his tight leather pants.
