Invaded

by Melissa Landers

  Had she done something wrong? Maybe once the equipment had powered down for the day, students weren’t supposed to turn it back on. L’eihrs were pretty stingy with energy.

  “Sorry,” she said as he approached. “I was practicing. But wait till you see—”

  “Why you ignore summons?” he asked, his eyes wild. She’d never seen him so upset. “Look much bad when you refuse answer.”

  “What summons?” Cara checked her tunic pocket to make sure she hadn’t lost her com-sphere. It was right there, but she hadn’t received a message. “Did you call me?”

  “No.” He backed toward the Aegis, motioning for her to follow. “Headmaster and guard. Come now.”

  A sick, sinking feeling settled in the pit of Cara’s stomach. If the headmaster and house guard had both summoned her, that meant bad news. Her mind flashed to Troy. She hadn’t heard from him since he’d left for Earth. What if his ship had crashed into a rogue meteor? That had happened once, years ago, when a transport’s thrusters had failed. Cold sweat collected along the back of Cara’s neck as she sprinted past her fitness instructor, across the courtyard, and up the front steps of the main dormitory.

  She halted at the doors only long enough to extend her wrist for the security scanner. The doors parted and she bolted into the lobby, stopping short in time to avoid a collision with Odom and Skall, the seniors who’d fought with her brother.

  They moved aside to let her pass, revealing a small crowd that had gathered in the lobby. The house guard shouted for everyone to return to their classes. When the man’s gaze landed on Cara, his eyes narrowed, mouth tight in a way that warned she was in trouble. An unexpected rush of relief washed over her. As long as Troy was safe, nothing else mattered.

  At least that’s what she thought until she saw the blood.

  A slick smear of burgundy stood in stark contrast against the tile floor, winding a macabre trail that led from the far hallway to the lobby.

  What had happened in here?

  “Try it,” Skall said in L’eihr as he brushed past her. “I’ll be ready for you.”

  Try what? Before she could bring the question to her lips, he strode away with his friends. The clones stole glances at her over their shoulders. Fear darkened their gazes, despite the fact that each of the boys outweighed her by fifty pounds of solid muscle. They were scared of her, though she couldn’t imagine why.

  “Sweeeeeney.” Satan had caught up with her. “Please to say you not do this.”

  Cara recalled the stolen tablet beneath her pillow and the false accusation in the dining hall. She had a feeling Dahla had framed her for something a lot more serious than tampering with her food this time.

  “Do what?” she asked, glancing at the blood. “I don’t know what happened here.”

  Instead of telling her, the guard demanded to know her whereabouts as of thirty minutes ago. Cara told him the truth—that she’d spent most of the day in the nursery before practicing on the outdoor track. Then he asked if she’d seen Dahla today.

  “I see her every day,” Cara said. “In the washroom and in our classes.”

  Satan interrupted the interrogation and took her gently by the shoulders. “You have much fights with this girl, yes?”

  “Is that what she told you?” Cara swallowed a lump. She reminded herself that L’eihrs couldn’t lie through Silent Speech, so there was no way Dahla could hurt herself and blame Cara for it. “Because I think she’s been trying to get me in trouble. Whatever she said—”

  “She tell us nothing,” Satan said. “Girl is barely alive, getting new blood from clinic.”

  Cara stopped breathing.

  “There you are.” Aisly strode in the front door with Jaxen and the headmaster at her heels. “We’ve been searching for you. Why didn’t you answer your sphere?”

  Still in a daze, Cara stammered a few times before getting the words out. “It never rang. Or buzzed, or whatever.” She pointed at the bloody trail and tried not to let her voice crack. “I didn’t do that.”

  “Of course you didn’t,” Jaxen said. But he dropped his gaze to the floor and puckered his brow. “Now that you’re here, you can help us understand.”

  “Understand what?”

  “During the last class change,” Aisly said, “two clones found Dahla brutally stabbed, along with a message scrawled in blood.” Her gaze flickered to Jaxen’s. “It said, I’ll come for you next. But it was written in English.”

  “That doesn’t prove anything,” Cara argued. “Lots of people here speak English.”

  Jaxen hesitated twice before telling her, “The boys claim they had a feud with your brother—and that you and Dahla have had several altercations.”

  Cara closed her eyes and tried to think. Someone was still trying to frame her, but it couldn’t be Dahla. Maybe Odom and Skall were to blame. Both boys had access to Dahla’s breakfast that day in the dining hall. “I’ll bet one of them attacked her and wrote that message.”

  “But the guard searched your room,” Aisly said. “And found a bloody kitchen blade.”

  “Along with several decapitated animals and a h’urr blossom,” Jaxen added softly.

  “No,” Cara whispered. She didn’t even know what a h’urr blossom looked like, let alone how to extract a neurotoxin from it. “I swear I didn’t do it.”

  Jaxen took a tentative step toward her, holding both hands forward like a crossing guard. “You’ve been under a lot of pressure, Cah-ra. You’re alone and worried for your people. If you feel hopeless or depressed, perhaps you require…help. We can provide that for you.”

  So now they thought she was criminally insane? “I don’t need help,” she cried. “Someone planted the knife and blossom, and Vero put dead animals in my room as a present.”

  Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say if she wanted to avoid sounding crazy.

  The group exchanged worried glances and began using Silent Speech to cut her out of the conversation. A vise tightened around Cara’s lungs. She could use Silent Speech to clear her name, but her instincts begged her not to let Jaxen and Aisly find out she could communicate with her mind.

  But what choice did she have? The siblings were in control here. One word from either of them would deem her innocent beyond reproach. As members of The Way, their decree was law.

  Wait.

  There were ten members of The Way, and even Jaxen and Aisly answered to a higher power. Cara had one other option to save herself. It meant putting her trust in an Elder she barely knew, but she’d gladly take the risk. Cara licked her lips and stood tall, faking a confidence she didn’t possess.

  “I held a Sh’ovah,” she declared. “I’m a citizen and I have rights.”

  Aisly tipped her head in confusion. “Of course you do.”

  “Then I request a private audience with Alona,” Cara said. “And only her. I want to go to the capital.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Aelyx couldn’t stop thinking about the probe—and more specifically, who’d sent it. When the Voyagers had discovered Earth, they’d descended in a cloaked shuttle to explore the landscapes and urban centers. After determining a reasonably low safety risk, a crew of twelve had integrated with the human population, altering their eye color with medicated drops and wearing street clothes to observe human culture. Later, they’d reported their findings to The Way and received authorization to make official contact.

  But that wasn’t happening on L’eihr.

  The fact that an advanced race had launched a fleet of scouting devices meant one of two things: either the society lacked the capacity for interplanetary travel—which Aelyx doubted based on the probe’s extensive language database—or the senders didn’t wish to establish personal contact. If the latter were true, he had to consider the possibility of an invasion.

  Had The Way kept the probes a secret for fear of alarming the citizens? Was L’eihr covertly preparing for war? No, that couldn’t be the case. The Aegis would train the clones for combat if an
outside force posed a threat, and from what Cara had told him, the routine hadn’t changed.

  Curse it all, what was going on?

  He wanted to ask Stepha, but then Aelyx would have to explain how he knew of the probe’s existence. And Syrine was no help. Her mind was so clouded by infatuation that Aelyx had refused to engage in Silent Speech with her until she regained control of her libido. He wished she would simply bed David and be done with it. The tension inside the hotel penthouse was thick enough to spread on toast.

  Aelyx leaned back in his leather armchair and watched Syrine, who in turn ogled David from her place on the sofa. Their bodyguard had taken Aelyx’s advice of giving Syrine space, and it had worked too well. She wanted David so badly she’d begun daydreaming torrid fantasies about him…which was a disturbing thing to glimpse through Silent Speech.

  In the interest of figuring out what was going on, he needed to clear Syrine’s mind so they could work together. Which meant giving her “relationship” a little nudge. “David,” he said. When his friend glanced up from his magazine, Aelyx suggested, “You should show Syrine that card trick you did for the guards last night.”

  David made a show of considering the request, then waved it off. “She doesn’t want to see that.”

  “Yes, I do,” she said in a rush. Aelyx could practically hear Syrine mentally chiding herself for answering so quickly. She faked an unaffected shrug. “I mean, there’s nothing else to do while we’re trapped in here.”

  David continued playing hard to get. “Nah. You’ll figure out the trick and call me a stupid human.”

  “No, I won’t.”

  “That’s what you say every time you beat me at backgammon.”

  “Because you deserve it,” she criticized. “You make careless mistakes. Sometimes I think you’re losing to me on purpose.”

  Aelyx rolled his eyes. “Let’s make it interesting,” he said. “Syrine, you pick a card, and if David guesses it correctly, you give him something. But if he can’t guess it—”

  “A bet?” she interrupted.

  “Exactly.”

  She thought for a moment, then gave a decided nod and nudged David’s leg with her socked foot. “What shall we wager?”

  Though David maintained a disinterested expression, his eyes brightened. “I don’t know. What do you want?”

  Aelyx knew exactly what she wanted. “How about this,” he said. “The loser has to bring the winner supper in bed tonight.” If getting them alone in a bedroom while the ambassador was away didn’t set something in motion, nothing would.

  Syrine smiled as if she’d already won. “Perfect. I’ll have a turkey club sandwich from the hotel deli—on freshly baked rye, no condiments and no tomatoes.”

  “That’s what you think,” David said as he threw his magazine on the coffee table and pulled a pack of cards from his back pocket. “I’ll have a calzone from the deli, and then you’ll feed me grapes while I lounge on a stack of pillows.”

  “You’ll feed me sliced pears,” Syrine countered. “Drizzled in cinnamon and honey.”

  “Honey?” David’s throat bobbed. “I love honey, especially…drizzled on stuff.”

  Sacred Mother. Aelyx was going to be sick. “Just do it already.”

  “Patience, my friend.” David collected himself and shuffled the deck. “I don’t want to give Syrine a reason to accuse me of cheating when she loses.”

  And she would lose. Aelyx had watched David stump his fellow soldiers a dozen times last night when he’d stepped into the hall to put out the recycling. Afterward, David had confided that the deck was marked. He’d bought it from a specialty store in New Jersey. The cards were decorated in an intricate—and deftly coded—design that only David could interpret.

  He offered Syrine a chance to cut the deck and then fanned out the cards so she could choose one. When she made her selection, David told her to hold the card in front of her face and study it closely. The pretense was that he would try to read her thoughts, but in reality, it gave him a clear view of the encrypted symbols in the upper right-hand corner.

  “Do you have it memorized?” David asked.

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  He handed her the stack. “Then put it back in the deck.”

  Thinking she was clever, Syrine slipped her card on top of the pile and snatched the deck to shuffle it. “I know how this trick works,” she boasted. “You positioned a key card in the deck when I wasn’t looking. But now it’s out of order.” With a beaming smile, she handed him the stack. “You’ll never guess my card.”

  Aelyx held back a laugh while David searched the deck, pretending to seek a card he’d already identified. David held one up and announced, “The jack of clubs.”

  “No, it was the five of hearts!” Syrine bounced in her seat, clapping wildly. “I win!”

  Flashing a wry grin, David wrapped a rubber band around the deck. “Yep, you beat me fair ’n’ square. Guess I’ll be feeding you pears and honey tonight.” He peeked up at her. “Hey, any chance you’re hungry? Dinner’s not for a while, but I spotted a fresh pear in the fridge. If you want, you can go get comfy and I’ll bring it to you.”

  Aelyx hid a smile. He should be taking notes, because David was a damned genius.

  Syrine was too busy gloating to realize she’d been played like a game of sticks. “Okay. Make sure you slice them extra thin, and don’t forget the cinnamon.” She practically skipped to her room and left the door open for David to follow her into paradise.

  “And that, my friend,” David said, pointing at Aelyx, “is how it’s done.”

  Needless to say, Aelyx spent the rest of the afternoon alone.

  At dinnertime, he prepared a bowl of lo mein noodles and settled at the dining room table with a data tablet he’d borrowed from the ambassador. While Aelyx ate, he scanned the Voyager archives for information about the life-forms they’d discovered. He’d read most of these files in past years, but perhaps he’d overlooked a crucial detail that would lead him to the identity of whoever had launched the probes.

  To shorten the possibilities, he sorted the list by intelligence, which left eleven sentient species. He eliminated ten of those because their technology hadn’t advanced beyond the use of basic gear systems. The remaining race of beings had gone extinct fifty years ago from a lethal pandemic.

  After an hour of research, Aelyx was no closer to solving the mystery. All that remained to explore were various academic theories on the existence of interstellar travelers. It was worth a try. His first search yielded a thesis by Larish, who believed aliens called “the Aribol” had abducted a legion of ancient humans from the Black Sea region and relocated them to L’eihr, where the soldiers had perpetuated Aelyx’s entire race. Other scholars argued that humanity traced their lineage to L’eihr. But what none of these dissertations told him were any details about the Aribol.

  Did the society truly exist? And why would the Aribol send probes to investigate L’eihr if they had already been there, thousands of years ago, when they’d allegedly seeded the human battalion? Aelyx was more confused than ever. He wondered if it would seem suspicious to contact Larish for more information.

  He was still debating whether to message the scholar when Syrine’s bedroom door clicked open and she drifted into view as if floating on air, an intoxicated grin dimpling her cheeks. She stopped in the kitchen to fill a glass with water, then sat opposite Aelyx at the long wooden table and rested her chin in her hand.

  She sighed dreamily. “That was an amazing pear.”

  “Oh?” Aelyx laughed and checked his watch. “Then why did it take three hours for you to finish it?”

  Instead of blushing or stammering as he’d expected, Syrine widened her smile with a contentment that said nothing in the world could provoke her tonight. Aelyx noted the sheen in her eyes. This was no mere infatuation—she was completely smitten.

  “When each bite is that heavenly,” she said, “you want to savor it as slowly as you can.”


  Aelyx wrinkled his nose. “I’ll take your word for it.”

  “We probably shouldn’t use Silent Speech for a while,” she added with a giggle.

  “I appreciate the warning.”

  He’d never seen Syrine so happy. The perpetual smile on her mouth made his own lips curve in response. He’d wanted this for her—a morsel of normalcy and comfort in the wake of Eron’s death—but still, Aelyx couldn’t stop the tentacles of envy from gripping his chest. Until today, Syrine had never kissed a boy, and now even she knew more about physical love than he did. Sometimes he worried it would never happen for him, that he and Cara were jinxed.

  Syrine must have read his heart. “Only one month until you see your Elire.” Her gaze was sympathetic, even as she teased, “If you’re nice to me, I might give you some pointers.”

  Laughing, Aelyx grabbed the nearest object he could reach—a cloth napkin—and threw it at Syrine’s head. “You can shove your pointers!”

  David strode into the dining area, refastening a gun holster around his hips. “What’s so funny?” When he stood behind Syrine and rested both palms on her shoulders, she reached up and covered his hands with her own, not the least bit ashamed to show him affection. Aelyx attributed the uncharacteristic behavior to the rush of dopamine in her system. A post-sex haze.

  “Nothing,” Aelyx said. “Did you tell Syrine the secret to your card trick?”

  David dropped a kiss on top of Syrine’s head. “Nope. A magician never reveals his secrets. Besides, I might want to raise the stakes and win a bet with her someday.”

  “I already know your trick,” Syrine said. “And you owe me a sandwich.”

  “This is true. I never flake out on a bet.” David smoothed his hands over Syrine’s upper arms, clearly reluctant to leave her. Gods, this was going to be a long, awkward month. “I’m supposed to stay with you,” David said. “I’ll call in the order and have one of the guys in the hall pick it up.” He glanced at Aelyx. “You want anything?”