Chapter Twelve
"It's been four days."
Pyra slammed his hands on the counter and stared at the men sitting in the living room.
"We've looked, Pyra," Gyyx said. "We don't know this planet and without a guide there is no way that we can go too far from the settlement. Maxim knows this planet better than we do and he would be able to get them somewhere that we didn't know much faster than we are going to be able to find them."
"By now their supplies will be running out."
Pyra looked at George who stood away from the rest of the group, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked stony and defensive, refusing to make eye contact with any of the men. Zsilvia stood beside him, rubbing his back. After a moment she lifted her eyes to stare at Pyra.
"We're trying to find them," Pyra said.
"You aren't trying to find them," George said. "You're hunting them. They would rather die out in the badlands than have you get to them and kill them. They won't let you control what people will know about this. They will do this on their own terms and then at least history will remember them."
As soon as he said those words, George straightened. Pyra noticed the change in his posture and watched as he turned to Zsilvia. He wondered if they were communicating in the same unspoken way that he was able to with Eden. He had never really paid attention to the other couples communicating in this way, but now that he knew that Zsilvia and George were likely talking to one another about Ivy and Maxim, he wanted to know exactly what was passing between their minds.
"Are we finished here?" Ty asked.
Pyra looked at him, taking a moment to register what he had asked him.
"What?"
"Are we finished? We have to go switch out the guards at the meeting hall in less than an hour and Samira has lunch waiting for me."
It seemed such a mundane sentiment in the military state that Pyra had created and for a moment the Denynso warrior leader wondered if Ty was joking. The young warrior stood and faced him, though, his face showing that he was anticipating a response.
"Yes. We're done. Be sure that you aren't late to your posts. Any of you."
The group dispersed and headed out of the house, George and Zsilvia rushing out first ahead of the warriors. As Gyyx walked past him Pyra grabbed onto his arm, pulling him into the kitchen so that he could speak to him without the others hearing.
"George and Zsilvia know something about Ivy and Maxim. Follow them. Report to me what you hear."
Pyra paced through the living room, his hands clenched. It had been almost two hours since the men had left, but Gyyx hadn't come back. He was starting toward the door when it opened and Gyyx came back inside.
"What the hell took you so long?" Pyra demanded.
"I'm sorry, Pyra. When they left here they went to the clinic and started working on more of the healing ointments just like they were supposed to. It wasn't until they left to go to the garden that I heard anything."
"What did you hear?"
"They ran into Zuri on the way and I was too far away to hear everything. All I could catch was George mentioning the wreckage."
"The wreckage?" Pyra asked.
Gyyx nodded.
"I don't know what he meant by it, but I think that they are planning on going there tonight."
"Rain said that they used the wreckage to build the settlement."
"I don't know."
"Find Lynx. Have him bring Rain to me."
Gyyx rushed out of the house again and Pyra went back to pacing through the room. He felt like his was mind was spinning. He was losing control of his hatred for the Klimnu and the only thing that was keeping him from decimating the entire group still quarantined in the meeting hall was the feeling of the pendant around his neck and the thought that he owed it to Eden and to their baby to make sure that every last one of the creatures was gone. And that meant finding Maxim before he and Ivy had a chance to escape.
Twenty minutes later Rain came into the house with Lynx close behind her.
"What's going on, Pyra?" Lynx asked.
Pyra gestured toward the furniture arranged in the middle of the living room.
"I just need to talk to Rain for a minute."
"What is it?" Rain asked, sitting down on the edge of one of the sofas.
"You told me that you and the rest of the humans here used the wreckage to build the settlement."
"We did."
"All of it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Did you use all of the wreckage?"
"Most of it. There were pieces that were too large to move so we left them where they were. I think that some people still had hope that one day we might be able to salvage it and return to Earth."
"Can you lead me to what was left?"
Rain nodded.
"I think that I could. I haven't been back there since the last time that I took pieces for the building projects. It was too painful for me to even think about going back. I'm sure that I would remember once I started. Why do you want to go to the wreckage?"
"I think that that's where Ivy and Maxim are."
"I don't understand."
"You don’t need to."
"Pyra, if you are going to ask my mate for help, you will show her the respect that she deserves." Lynx said, stepping up beside the sofa so that he could look into Pyra's face.
Pyra tensed, feeling his jaw set as he looked into Lynx's glowing orange eyes. He didn't appreciate one of his warriors standing up to him that way, but he knew that when it came to the mate of a Denynso, calm and tenderness did not extend beyond that mate. A warrior's primary duty was to fight. His primary responsibility was to his mate.
"I'm sorry," Pyra said, choking out the words through the angry tension in his throat.
As much as he didn't want to give Lynx even the smallest amount of leeway, he knew that Rain was his only chance to get to the wreckage and possibly find Ivy and the creature she had chosen. At this point, it was all he had to go on and he couldn't risk it.
"I will bring you to the wreckage," Rain agreed. "If you promise that you won't hurt either of them if you find them there."
Pyra's jaw twitched. He was not accustomed to being told what to do, especially by a woman, and it had happened with disturbing frequency since they had encountered the other species in the settlement, though he had primarily received obedience since declaring himself leader.
"I will bring them back here unharmed."
Chapter Thirteen
Ivy rested her hand on the metal shell of what used to be the main cabin of the ship. The moss that covered it felt soft and warm beneath her palm as if the planet itself were trying to shield it. She moved aside the vines that had grown up over the shattered entrance to the cabin and gazed itself. Even crushed it was massive, like a tremendous metal and glass cave. The plants had completely covered the outside and were creeping along the interior, tangling around the single seat that was left and weaved through the structures inside the wall.
"I can't believe I'm looking at this," she said softly. "We learned about this ship through school. There's even a monument of it at the university."
"Why?" Maxim asked.
"They were pioneers, a team of researchers and paramilitary forces who left Earth to explore a planet that had recently been identified. The government and most of the scientific community believed that the planet was empty and barren, but this group, Project Nyx 23, was made up of people who believed that it was not only not barren, but that it was being used as an illegal prisoner of war camp against the most recent incarnation of the galaxy peace treaty. They left with the mission of exploring the planet and confirming their suspicions. They never came back."
"What is 'Nyx'?"
"She was the Greek goddess of the night."
"I like it. That is what we should name our daughter."
Ivy looked at him sharply and saw Maxim gazing back at her softly. He extende
d his hand toward her and she placed her fingers against his palm, allowing him to draw her against his chest and tilting her mouth up to accept his. She relaxed into his kiss, parting her lips to draw his tongue in against her own.
"Ivy!"
Ivy's mouth tore away from Maxim's and she turned to see George rushing toward him through the scattered pieces of the wreckage. She ran toward him, jumping into his arms.
"George!"
George released her and Ivy reached up to embrace Zsilvia.
"Are you alright? Both of you?"
"Yes," Ivy said, stepping back so that she could take Maxim's hand and pull him closer to George and Zsilvia. "We're fine. Look."
She held Maxim's arm out so that they could see the healed skin.
"That's amazing. You only used the healing ointments?"
"And some extra herbs."
"How long did it take?"
"Three days." She lowered Maxim's arm. "How did you find us?"
"I remembered how much this story fascinated you. It suddenly occurred to me that no matter what, if you had the opportunity to see this wreck, you would."
"And that is exactly what you did."
George whipped around and over his shoulder Ivy could see Pyra standing at the edge of the wreckage, his hands on his hips and a cruel, satisfied smile curving his lips.
"I didn't tell them, Ivy," George said. "I promise you, I didn't tell them."
"That's right," Pyra said, taking a step toward them. Now Ivy could see Gyyx and Lynx behind him. "He didn't tell me. But he did make it really easy to figure out."
He started toward them and Ivy felt Maxim step up beside her, carefully pushing her back behind him.
"Stay back, Pyra," he said.
"You're going to come along with us now," Pyra said. "We're going back to the settlement and you are going back into quarantine where you belong. As for you," he said, looking sharply at Ivy, "I don’t know how you got him out, but you are never going to have that opportunity again. You went against the command of the king by leaving the supervision of your guard and protector. You will be put into isolation with a warrior guard until we can return you to the compound for Creia to deal with you."
"You can't force them to go anywhere," Zsilvia said.
"I wouldn't test me if I were you, Zsilvia. As a guard and protector who has failed in your duties, you are subject to even more severe punishments than Ivy. All of you come now or we will bring you with us by force."
Maxim launched toward Pyra and the two crashed into each other. Despite being much larger, Pyra was taken aback by Maxim's sudden attack and stumbled. They fell to the ground and Maxim slammed his hand into Pyra's face, sending blood splattering across his chest. Pyra reached up and clutched the front of Maxim's throat, gripping him hard enough that Ivy could hear the choking sounds coming across the space toward her. She screamed and ran toward them, but Zsilvia grabbed her by her waist and pulled her back.
"Pyra!" Rain shouted. Ivy hadn't even realized the other woman was there until she heard her voice and saw her rushing toward the men. "You promised me that you wouldn't hurt them. Let him go!"
Pyra hesitated for a moment, then dropped Maxim. He clambered to his feet and pointed down at Maxim where he still crouched on the ground, gasping for breath as he held his bruised neck.
"All of you saw that," he said, hissing through his ragged breaths. "All of you saw this creature attack me. It is absolute proof of everything I have said about him and all of his kind."
"You provoked him!" George argued. "Any man would respond as he did."
Pyra took a step toward George, lifting his hand to point into the older man's face.
"You would do very well to remember whose planet you are on. I am stronger and more powerful than you will ever be and you are under my control."
"You may be bigger, Pyra, but I will never be under the control of someone with a mind that would find it justifiable to kill an entire species because of simple prejudice and fear."
"The Denynso fear nothing."
"You fear everything!" George spat back. "You want to kill off all of those men because you are so afraid of what they might turn into. You haven't even stopped to notice that Maxim is fully healed. His skin is fully repaired."
"I don't care about his skin," Pyra fumed. "It wasn't the Klimnu skin that waged war against us, that tortured our women, or that shed our blood. Nothing will change what he was born to be. We know what he is, and that means that he and all of the others deserve to die before they are able to destroy any more lives."
"Stop it!" Ivy screamed. "All of you. Stop this now. You say that you have the right to kill all of these men because you think that they are inherently cruel and destructive, but you have never stopped to think of how everyone sees you and your kind. You are considered the most fearsome warriors in the galaxy, not because of your training or your precision, but because of your cruelty and unstoppable viciousness in battle. I know that the other human women have chosen men among you as their mates and that they wouldn't have devoted themselves to you so deeply if you were nothing but that level of violence and aggression. But since that is the way that the rest of the galaxy sees you, are those species who you have decimated in battle entitled to come here and kill you all one by one?" Pyra shifted uncomfortably, his eyes flashing at Ivy, and she took another step toward him. "This is not your planet, Pyra. You are the leader of one group of one species who lives on one compound."
"If anything," Zsilvia said, her strong voice showing that she would no longer give Pyra or any of the warriors the satisfaction of her fear, "this decision belongs to Creia, not yours. He gave you permission to come out onto the planet to explore and find other species. What is done with any of them is still up to him."
Chapter Fourteen
"You're right," Pyra said after a long pause. "This decision belongs to Creia. We will go back to the compound and he will settle it from there."
Pyra turned on his heel and stomped away from the rest of the group, seething with fury so intense that it felt like it was burning through his muscles and consuming everything that was within him. His grasp on everything was slipping. He longed for Eden, to hold her and rest his head on the belly that cradled his child, the first baby to be born to the Denynso since the last of his generation. He had been away from her for so long and it made him feel like he was losing his grip on his mind. His need to protect her had become even more desperate as the days past, and soon had turned to obsession. He wanted to rid the world of anything that could put the most treasured beings in his life, his mate and his baby, at risk.
The walk from the site of the wreckage back to the settlement took a few hours and he remained in absolute silence throughout it. The conflict at the site tumbled through his mind as he tried to piece together everything that was said. Now that Maxim was healed, he couldn't stop thinking about Creia. The king of the Denynso compound, he had been at the center of the war with the Klimnu. He had the capability, or at least the Klimnu perceived that he had the capability, to heal them and reverse the gruesome reaction to the flowers. When he refused, telling them that if they wanted his help they would have to leave Uoria and vow to stop all attempts to take over the planet, they had turned all of their hatred and violence toward him. This conflict had been long and destructive, and when they finally thought that they had eliminated the Klimnu in that last battle in Loralia's mirrored realm, Creia had been so proud of them. He had honored them highly and granted them permission to leave the boundaries of the compound, something that they had never been allowed to do. By all rights, it truly was Creia's situation to handle. It was as though he had the same decision to make as he had during that fateful meeting, only this time he was making it in advance. He was owed that moment to look at the men who held within them the potential to become Klimnu and decide what he thought should be done.
They gathered everyone who was to make the journey back to the compound as qu
ickly as they could. The remnants of their abandoned plans to travel throughout the planet cast aside at the entrance to the settlement, the warriors, the human women from the compound, Loralia, George, Ivy, Maxim, Rain, and Rey started back toward the Denynso compound. Pyra had left eight of the warriors in the settlement to continue to guard the men in the meeting hall, instructing the human men from the settlement to take shifts as necessary. He knew that the authority that they saw in him was enough that they would comply with this command. Even if there was dissention in the settlement, those who protested would not be able to stand up against those who followed the orders and the warriors who had been left in Pyra's place.
A heavy, thick silence defined their travel back to the compound. It seemed to pull on all of them until their bodies barely moved and their pace was so slow it felt as though they would never make it back. Pyra scarcely slept along the way. Maxim and Ivy had gotten away from him once before, he wouldn't give them, or any of the others, the opportunity to do it again. At night he wandered through the rows of tents and pallets, listening for whispers, or sat in the center near the fire, losing himself in the flicker of the flames. Sometimes he could see Eden's face in the colors and it fueled him forward.
He kept them traveling throughout the day and late into the night, and they began again in the morning before the sun was fully up. It was grueling, but it was necessary. Until he got all of them back into the compound, Pyra would not feel at ease.
The moon was high above them when he finally saw the stone wall of the compound in front of them. It was so similar to the one that surrounded the settlement, and yet so distinctly different that he knew he would be able to recognize it no matter what. Their pace quickened as a group when they saw it and soon they stood at its base. The warriors stepped up to it and rested their foreheads against it, each immersed in his own thoughts and feelings about finally being home.
Pyra stood watching each person climb and cross the wall into the compound until he was the only one left that was not inside. When he was confident that they had all made it into the boundaries of the compound, he launched himself over the top and dropped to his feet on Denynso ground for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime. The feeling was not as joyous as he thought that it would be. Instead it felt like a film of dust from the other part of the planet had coated him, following him into the compound and showing him that life was not as it was, and would never again be what it was before they had climbed that wall for the first time. Things were completely different now and it felt almost as though he were stepping into the past, a past that didn't fully remember him.
Alien Romance Box Set: Uoria Mates II Complete Series (Books 1 - 10): A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance Page 47
