She gave a nod and followed him out.
“A moment,” he said when they were standing on the landing area platform. “I would leave this as inconspicuous as possible.”
While Ke’lar hefted the heavy door and forced it shut, Summer looked toward the spires in the center of the capital, rising high into the sky.
“Summer?”
“I wish I could see the city,” she murmured. “It must be amazing.”
“Perhaps once it was.” He adjusted her hood again. “Little one, you must not speak.”
“Not speak?” Summer’s brow creased. “Why the hell—Oh, right. Because I’m speaking English. Because anyone would know I was human just by hearing me talk.”
Funny how she’d forgotten that. How those growls and snarls were starting to sound natural, to sound normal, how she’d gotten used to hearing them and the translation in her head too.
“The ship master’s home is not far from here,” he said and she noticed that his free hand already hovered by his blaster. “And the sooner you are indoors again, the better.”
Summer was careful to keep her face hidden, looking out from under the hood to see, clutching the garment to her from the inside so no one would see that she was far too fair to be g’hir.
The city had an air of hopelessness to it and seemed too empty for a metropolis this size. It was clean, much better maintained that any city on Earth, but the warriors here were narrowed-eyed men, some of them clearly drunk, and Ke’lar sped her past more than one brawl.
It was a tense trip to the city’s center. It was full night and the streets well-lit but Ke’lar wasn’t kidding about her drawing attention. Even cloaked, her face covered, she drew the interest of every passing male. It wasn’t her attractiveness—hell, what could they see of her under the voluminous cloak?—it was that she seemed to be the only woman around.
Certainly she didn’t spot any others—accompanied by a half-score of warriors or not.
A few of the warriors were bold enough to step in her path but even those few were warned off by the viciousness of Ke’lar snarls, his bared fangs and ready weapon. She bit the inside of her cheek at every encounter, frightened she would give herself away as human and double their interest in her.
And I was just going to show up here alone with a pack of jewels! Ke’lar was right, I wouldn’t have made it ten feet without one of these guys trying to capture me.
She was trembling by the time they reached their destination, a building near the center of the city, set back from the empty street and fronted by a very neglected front yard. The houses beside it seemed to be abandoned and the whole area rundown and forlorn.
Ke’lar stood before the security panel and thankfully whoever was in the house recognized him because the gate opened.
“That was pretty awful,” she said as soon as they were safely inside. There was no one about to hear her just then but she kept her hood up and her voice low.
Ke’lar threw a narrowed look back the way they’d come. “Not nearly as bad as I expected. We were fortunate.”
“Who is this guy anyway?” Summer asked worriedly as they reached the door. “Is he really going to give you a ship?”
“She,” he corrected.
The door opened and Summer gasped and reared back, away from the large insectoid creature standing there.
Ke’lar caught her, frowning at her. “This is Ezzari, the ship owner I told you about.”
Summer turned toward the creature that regarded her with enormous multifaceted eyes. She wore an elaborately beaded dress over her dark gray exoskeleton and seemed to be looking back at Summer in equal astonishment.
“A human!” she exclaimed—or rather buzzed.
Summer blinked. This creature wasn’t speaking English any more than Ke’lar was but Summer could understand the buzzing as words.
“You did not say you had a human!” Ezzari continued, looking her up and down. “I have never seen one.”
“May we come inside?” Ke’lar asked, throwing a look over his shoulder. “No one must see her.”
“Of course!” she buzzed. “Forgive me!”
She stepped back to allow them entrance and only Ke’lar’s pressure on her back got Summer’s feet moving. Ezzari shut the door behind them, content, it seemed, to stand just inside and stare at her.
“Is that your natural coloring?” the creature asked.
“Yeah,” Summer stammered. With platinum hair she got that question a lot. “It’s all mine.”
The creature tilted her head. “Then all humans are this pale?”
“I thought you were—No, not all of us. But what—what are—”
“She is a xenari,” Ke’lar said with a puzzled how-could-you-not-know-that look.
“Oh,” Summer said faintly. “I didn’t—I mean I thought there were only humans and g’hir . . . and the Zerar. I didn’t realize there were other intelligent species too.”
“The xenari are allies of the g’hir,” Ke’lar assured. “They have been great help in defending us against the Zerar’s incursions. They are an honorable people and great friends to ours.”
“Thank you.” Ezzari inclined her large head but her buzz sounded amused. “But I do not think you have come to my home when the Sisters are so high in the sky with a disguised human in tow to pay homage to my species.”
“I have come to ask a favor,” Ke’lar admitted.
The xenari glanced at Summer. “If you have a human consort your clan would provide all you could wish and more.” Her head tilted. “So I am thinking that she is not yours, Erah warrior.”
“She is mine,” he said, his fangs showing.
“Then what do you need of me?” Ezzari asked. “If you already possess what the males of your species all clamor for?”
“I need a ship. A xenari ship. Tonight.”
“Since you cannot make use of any g’hir vessel?” The xenari regarded him with curious eyes. “An expensive favor since you will need xenari exit codes to leave orbit. So you need the ship and my help to disguise you as a xenari vessel leaving the system?”
Ke’lar’s jaw twitched. “Yes.”
“And what do you offer me in exchange?”
“What do you want?” Summer asked sharply. Despite the bug eyes and the buzzing language Summer was starting to feel like she was standing on a used car lot in Alexandria instead of an alien world.
The xenari turned her big bug eyes on Summer. “Perhaps I do not want for anything, human.”
“Yes, you do.” She hated buying cars and had learned the hard way about getting screwed over. “Or you wouldn’t still be talking to us. You’d have thrown us right out into the street.”
Ezzari stared at her then suddenly started making a weird chirping sound.
It took Summer a moment to realize the xenari was laughing.
“These humans are delightful!” she said. “Even if they are primitives.”
Summer’s eyes narrowed. What I wouldn’t give for a can of Raid . . .
“Ezzari,” Ke’lar prompted, no doubt noticing how Summer’s nostrils had flared. “The ship?”
“Yes, yes.” The xenari waved an appendage. “What will you give in exchange for such an . . . expensive . . . favor?”
Ke’lar indicated the jewels Summer wore and named a sum that made Ezzari’s appendages flutter a bit.
But she sure recovered fast. “I am not saying I do not appreciate the merit of your offer but . . .” She looked around her dismal quarters. “It is hardly enough to make me comfortable.”
Summer gritted her teeth. “And just what would it take to make you ‘comfortable’?”
The xenari turned her huge black eyes on Summer. “The location of your world is a valuable and much desired commodity, human. Yes,” she buzzed. “The sale of that information to a few select g’hir would make me very wealthy indeed . . .”
The breath exploded out of Summer’s chest. “Absolutely fucking not!”
Ezzari gave he
r as haughty a look as an insectoid could. “If you wish my help—”
“Ezzari—” Ke’lar began but Summer broke in.
“Come on,” she urged, grabbing his arm. “Let’s go talk to that other guy again. It’s pretty far but at least he’s willing to be reasonable.”
Ke’lar’s gaze searched hers for an instant. “I am sorry to have made you walk such a distance,” he rumbled, catching on. “I have dealt with this honored xenari before.” He sighed. “But if it is your wish, we will return to the other ship master and accept his offer instead.”
Ezzari was startled. “Other—?”
Summer opened the door and paused at the threshold to give the xenari an arch look. “Hey, sorry, obviously Ke’lar really would rather work with you but . . .” She lifted one shoulder and pulled her hood up.
“It is regrettable,” Ke’lar agreed. “I think highly of you, Ezzari, and knowing your present difficulties I wished those funds to be yours.”
“A moment please!” The xenari scrambled to follow after them into the courtyard. “Ke’lar—my friend! I did not mean that we could not negotiate . . .”
Twenty
Summer held her breath as Ke’lar transmitted the xenari’s codes, wondering if Ezzari had managed to screw them over after all. Vast, terrifying g’hir warships patrolled the space around their homeworld to protect against any Zerar attack but they would just as easily stop a g’hir fugitive and the human woman he’d taken from her clan.
After an agonizingly long moment the Hironian station sent the signal allowing them to pass through the battleships that orbited this world. Ke’lar piloted the ship past them, only the slight tremble in his fingers betraying his anxiety.
“Well done, my Summer,” Ke’lar said approvingly as soon as they were clear.
“You’re the one flying the ship,” she pointed out.
“I meant with Ezzari.” He gave a huffing chuckle. “I have never witnessed such maneuvering.”
“The only reason I got away with it at all is because she’d never seen a human before,” Summer said dryly. “Anyone else would see right off I was lying through my teeth.”
The xenari ship was not at all like a g’hir ship. All delicate controls and fine shapes, this ship was far better suited to slender insectoid digits, not broad powerful warrior hands.
But Ke’lar was handling the ship beautifully.
“The chairs are pretty comfortable,” Summer commented, settling back into the co-pilot’s seat.
“The padding protects their exoskeletons during space travel.”
“Well, it’s pretty nice under a human butt too.” Summer glanced back at the main part of the ship. “Do you think there’s anything we can eat onboard? I’m starving.”
“I requested the ship be stocked with g’hir foodstuffs,” he assured gently. “You will not starve, little one.”
So freaking literal. Just like—
She swallowed hard.
Just like Emma.
Summer undid the safety straps of her chair and stood. “I’m going to see what’s back there.”
She found the galley easily enough, and even recognized some of the food there. She grabbed a piece of cali fruit, munching while she searched through the more substantial selections.
“There is kartlet,” Ke’lar suggested, joining her. “It is not of my hunting but I would be pleased to prepare it for you.”
“I can cook, you know,” she said, fingering the cali in her hand. “Kinda . . . if it’s Earth stuff.”
“There is nothing more I can do until we reach the jump point and the ship is set to bring us there.” He offered a smile. “And I like to cook.”
“Roasted, right? You said that’s your specialty.”
He chuckled. “I had hoped to impress you.”
“You did,” she said softly.
He was as efficient in the kitchen of a spaceship as he was in the forest of his own world and he soon had their meal ready.
Summer inhaled deeply as he placed the plate in front of her at the ship’s table. The furniture was affixed to the floor and Ke’lar gave her a proud look as he took a seat across from her.
At the first taste she closed her eyes in appreciation. “Oh, man, this is amazing.”
He grinned. “I am very glad it pleases you.”
Apparently he was as hungry as she because he cleaned his plate, and a second helping before she finished her first.
“Seriously,” she said, savoring her last bite of kartlet. “You should have been a chef instead of a warrior.”
He gave a huffing chuckle. “My father would have been scandalized.”
She bit her lip. “I’ll bet he’s pretty scandalized now, Ke’lar . . .” She wrapped her hands around her water cup. “What will happen when you return home?”
“I do not know,” he rumbled. “And I do not care. Once you are safe—our daughter is safe—what happens to me is unimportant.”
“Of course it’s important! Everyone is furious with you.”
“Not as angry as you when you thought I’d left you to Ar’rar.” He tilted his head, his vibrant eyes crinkled with humor. “Do you still wish me suffering in the underworld?”
She gave a faint smile. “No, I take back the ‘rot in hell’ thing. And you didn’t answer my question. Will they banish you permanently for taking me home?”
“I think they will be far angrier that I have returned you with your memories intact. By doing so I have broken Hir law and endangered all g’hir who follow me to Earth. Humans on your world are to have no knowledge of us.” He gave a rueful smile. “I am not sorry for that either.”
“My memories aren’t worth sending you back to a life of misery,” she said hoarsely.
He cupped her cheek. “I could not bear for you to forget me. To forget that you once loved me. To remember that I will always love you.”
Summer’s vision swam. “How long do we have?”
“Not long,” he rumbled.
She entwined her fingers with his and stood, leading him to the bedroom. It too was meant for xenari, less a bed than a large padded floor.
His bright gaze was pained. “Summer . . .”
“I know,” she whispered hoarsely.
He nodded—a human gesture. His nose brushed hers in a g’hir kiss, and then he cupped her chin to touch his mouth to hers tenderly.
She wound her arms around his neck, pulling him closer, relishing the taste of him, breathing in his spicy scent. She shivered as his purr started, soft and deep. He flicked his tongue against the inner part of her lip, his rumbling sending heat curling between her thighs.
He made short work of her gown, a rush of air raising goose bumps on her skin as the fabric slid away.
His gaze was fevered, his purr vibrating through her. “Are you cold?”
Mute with need, she shook her head.
Ke’lar gave a faint smile, pulling at his own clothing, bare in moments. “Good.”
His fingers brushed her breastbone and his hands moved lower. She gasped at the sensation as he traced her nipples, his hands dipping to her waist. He bent his knees, taking her with him to the softness of the floor.
He coaxed her thighs open and she shivered as he ran his fingers down the inside of her thighs.
“I have longed to do this,” he said huskily, then his lips were tracing the path his fingers had followed. Summer’s breath drew in sharply as his mouth found her clit, his hands cupping her buttocks to hold her.
Her hands were threading through his black hair, the flicks of his tongue and the growling-purring rumble sending tingling fire racing between her legs. She arched against him, gasping, as she came, and then Ke’lar was spreading her wider, sliding easily into her, filling her to the hilt with his slick hot cock.
Ke’lar’s brilliant gaze held hers as he rocked inside her.
His hips picked up speed. “My Summer . . .”
“I love you,” she managed a moment before she contracted hard around h
im.
His purr thrummed through her and he moved faster, deeper, drumming against her with a g’hir’s speed. His fangs flashed then he was pulsing hard inside her.
He raised his head then to meet her gaze.
Tears stung her eyes. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“You cannot,” he promised, brushing away the wetness with his thumbs. “I am yours, my mate, always. I will love you for all my life, and into the next.”
He touched his forehead to hers and started to move again, slower this time, savoring every stroke. Summer shut her eyes as his rumble-purr vibrated through her again . . .
Sometime later Summer awoke. She rolled over, reaching for Ke’lar, and found only emptiness.
She half sat up, her hand still stretched toward where he had lain.
I’m going to do this for the rest of my life. I’ll reach for him, look for him, and the place beside me, where he should be, will always be empty . . .
Summer dressed in the blue gown and slippers again, the only clothes she had with her. The ship was very quiet.
She found him in the cockpit. He would have heard her coming with that g’hir hearing of his but he didn’t turn around, his gaze toward the vast black emptiness of space framed by the ship’s front windows.
“We are clear of the Hironian system,” he said quietly. “I can initiate the jump any time.”
Summer’s throat tightened. “Okay.”
He waited until she was seated in the co-pilot’s chair, until she was strapped in.
His fingers moved over the controls. “Initiating jump in three . . . two . . . one.”
She drew her breath in sharply as a blinding burst of light appeared and vanished again, leaving the stars in completely different places, and a wondrous sight filling the viewport windows.
It was beautiful, hanging in the blackness of space like some exquisite blue jewel, so isolated, so vulnerable.
“Earth . . .” she whispered.
“You are home, my Summer,” he rumbled hoarsely, and the world blurred at the anguish in his voice.
Twenty-one
“The house looks okay,” Summer said, chewing her lip for a moment and pulling the cloak tighter around her.
Stolen: Warriors of Hir, Book 3 Page 17
