by Sonia Nova
Alyssa shook her head, cutting off her thoughts before they traveled too far. What was wrong with her?! He was her bodyguard, for god’s sake!
She didn’t know why, but somehow, the man was getting to her – and she couldn’t let that happen. If she was going to stay sane and focused on her job, she couldn’t allow that to happen. He was so not even her type! Rather, he was the brooding silent lethal kinda guy. And an alien on top of that.
This was so not happening.
Taking a deep breath, Alyssa tried to erase the thoughts of him from her mind and concentrate on this moment. She turned back to the window, watching out into space at the stars, and despite feeling his intense gaze bore into her back, she tried her best to ignore it.
“Do you know when exactly it’ll happen?” she asked Xarq after a moment of silence, remembering she didn’t have much more time before her meeting.
The activation of the Fold Drive was supposed to take place before the conference, but when traveling in space, there were never certainties about anything. A sudden meteor cloud could slow them down any moment, and for the Fold Drive to activate, the space around them had to be completely clear.
“Any moment now,” the masculine voice said behind her, much closer than she had expected.
Startled, she turned around, and noticed Xarq had walked a few feet toward her and the window. Did he want to see the Fold Drive activate too?
But then she followed his gaze, and realized he wasn’t looking at the window – but her.
A deep blush rose to her cheeks and her whole body heated up at the intense look he was giving her. What was wrong with her? Moments before, she had been dead afraid of him and now…
Get it together, Alyssa.
She shook her head again and fortunately, didn’t have much more time to think about the nearness of the man before her when the buzzing of the engines suddenly increased.
She swiveled around to face the window again – just in time to see the colors whirl around them as the scenery changed. She felt a strange pull in her body and the stars and planets morphed into curious spirals before her eyes.
For a moment, she felt unfocused. Her head spun and all she could see were the colors before her eyes – blue, red, yellow… But once her eyes focused again, she saw how beautiful it all was. Lights and colors twisted around them, and her breath was taken away at the sight of it.
She simply admired the wide array of colors that whirled past her as they folded space.
This was what she had been looking forward to this whole trip. Although going to an alien planet was exciting, seeing the Fold Drive activate had been a part of her dream for the journey. And it was just as beautiful as she had imagined.
Unfortunately, it was also over all too soon.
The whirling lights slowed down, and the starry scenery shaped before her again. Alyssa stared at the stars, all of which had turned back to their natural, stable selves – although the landscape around them was different.
It was crazy to think, but in those few seconds, during those whirling lights, they had arrived on the other side of the universe – near Agaria.
Alyssa simply stood in her place for a moment, watching the stars. Although the space folding part was over, the stars seemed different in this part of space too. The image before her was serene and peaceful, and while you would think stars looked the same anywhere in space, that was definitely not how it was.
She wanted nothing more than to stand there for a moment and admire the view before her, but her silent meditation was interrupted a moment later.
“Time to go,” Xarq’s rough voice said behind her, and Alyssa blinked, her mind slowly returning to back to reality.
Time to go? Already?
Reluctantly, she turned away from the window to face Xarq. She looked at him in the eyes, and perhaps the confusion showed on her face, because he repeated, “If you want to make it in time for the meeting, you need to go now.”
The meeting. Right. Alyssa shook her head. She had already almost forgotten the whole thing, so drawn in by the sight before her.
“Alright,” she said, looking up at Xarq as she started to walk toward the exit.
Disappointment settled in the bottom of her stomach, but she knew she couldn’t miss her first mission meeting. She only hoped she would be able to see the space fold around her again on her way back to Earth, once their mission was over.
But she doubted the second time would be anywhere near as good as the first. Especially since she wouldn’t have access to this special platform without Xarq…
* * *
A few hours later, Alyssa wished she was still at the viewing platform in the back of the ship, watching the space fold. Instead, she sighed probably for the thousandth time, twirling a stylus in her fingers as she watched yet another man step up on the platform to hold a speech on the working life of the Agari.
The meeting had turned out to be dead boring. What she had assumed to be just a briefing and a chance to meet her new team members had turned into a several hours long lecture on the Agari culture and their customs – much of what had already been described in their mission files.
Alyssa couldn’t understand it. For some strange reason, she had assumed they had actually been supposed to read the documents before the mission. Stupid, right? Who would’ve known that wasn’t the case after all?
Alyssa sighed, her eyes glazed on the tablet before her. Maybe the next meeting would be better… Once they actually arrived on Agaria and got to work.
When the man on the stage started his incredibly boring speech, not for the first time, Alyssa found her mind wandering to things besides her mission… Such as the muscular bodyguard standing only a few feet away from her by the side of the room.
He had been so kind to her, going out of his way to take her to the viewing room.
And although her back was turned to him, Alyssa could once again feel his intense gaze on her backside – concentrated on her – and it made her whole body prickle in self-awareness. She was pretty sure the man hadn’t taken his eyes off her even for a second since they had entered the room. And while that was probably normal for a bodyguard, somehow, his gaze made her whole body feel hot.
At first, the man had seemed scary – dangerous, even – but now that she knew him a bit better, she couldn’t help but think that there was something utterly sexy about him too. Sexy in a rough, animalistic way – something that made sparks of electricity course through her every time their eyes met, like during that hand shake, and…
Oh, god. Alyssa closed her eyes, shutting out the image that threatened to surface in her mind. Was she really thinking this about her bodyguard? …Again? She couldn’t believe she was. She had no idea why she was thinking about him so much, but she had tried all day to ignore the feeling inside her.
Unfortunately, the tedious meeting was no help I blocking out her thoughts.
But she could simply not go there…
First of all, he was her bodyguard. And you did not get it on with a bodyguard. And second of all, the man was built and trained to kill and being an Ezak-X, he probably viewed sex in a completely different way than she did… Maybe he didn’t even know what sex was!
An image of the man in question appeared in her mind. His large frame and hard muscles practically oozed sex and… Heat crept to her cheeks at the indecent thought. Okay, he probably knew what sex was. But the point was, he was her bodyguard.
No matter what he made her feel at that moment – or any other moment, for that matter – it was just a no-no. She was here on official business and there was no way she was going to screw up this mission in any way. Scary but sexy bodyguards be damned. Her career depended on it.
Sighing again – this time in resignation, she tried to focus again on the exhaustive speech on the Agari and expel the muscular Ezak-X from her mind – as difficult as it was with his eyes drilling into the back of her head. But as she turned her attention back to the podium, she realized t
hat the speech had already ended.
Suddenly, everyone in the room was shuffling around, packing their things, and some people were even moving toward the entrance. Alyssa’s brows rose in surprise. Was it time for a break? She looked around, wondering what she had missed.
“Your first time?” a male voice asked beside her.
Startled, she turned toward the voice, coming face-to-face with a brown-haired human man who didn’t seem much older than her. He smiled kindly at her, his blue eyes sparkling, and Alyssa couldn’t help but feel at ease in his presence although she didn’t even know him.
“I haven’t seen you around,” the man said. “Is this your first Immigration Mission?”
“First mission, period.” She rolled her eyes.
“That explains.” He chuckled. “I’ve been on several missions in the past five years that I’ve worked for the Agency and I’ve never seen you around. Robert, by the way.” He offered his hand, and Alyssa took it, quickly getting up from her seat.
“Alyssa,” she replied with a smile.
“Nice to meet you, Alyssa.” His smile widened, revealing a perfect set of white teeth. “And don’t worry,” he whispered, leaning in close to her ear. “The first meetings are always a bit boring. It’s okay not to listen.” He winked at her, making her eyes widen in surprise.
Heat crept onto Alyssa’s cheeks at his words. Had she been that obvious? Embarrassed, she didn’t know what to say.
When the man pulled back, he only continued to smile at her, and it seemed like he found the situation more amusing than anything. But still, Alyssa felt like a child caught doing something she shouldn’t have, and she couldn’t help but feel a bit ashamed.
“I assume this is your first time on a Va’ii ship?” Robert asked, as if nothing out of ordinary had happened. “Have you tried the restaurants here? The Va’ii cuisine is to die for. I know we’ve already folded near the Agari space area, but it should be still a few hours before we land on the planet. I was wondering if you’d like to–”
His words were suddenly cut off as a menacing growl emerged right behind them – the kind of a rumble that a horror movie monster would make in the dark. The sound made a shiver run along Alyssa’s spine and the hair on her neck stood on end.
Robert’s eyes widened, and he turned to look at the source of the sound behind her. Her whole body stiff with fear, Alyssa slowly turned around as well, only to see Xarq standing there, right behind her. Surprised, she blinked.
She hadn’t even heard him approach them – hadn’t realized he was there. The last time she had seen him, he’d been standing by the wall behind her, watching her. And now, suddenly he was here, a mere foot away from her.
“I assume he is your… bodyguard?” Robert cocked an eyebrow at her, seeming to have recovered from his initial shock as he looked quizzically at the man behind her.
Alyssa’s cheeks heated up again in embarrassment, but she nodded.
What was Xarq doing here? Had he heard that she was about to leave the room? He’d been standing by the side of the room during the whole meeting, even when they’d had breaks. But for some reason, he was here now, with a very unfriendly expression on his face. His eyes were almost shooting daggers in Robert’s direction, and Alyssa couldn’t help but turn her gaze away.
Had she thought the scowl he had given her in the cabin was scary? This was a lot scarier and she wouldn’t have wanted to be at the receiving end of his glare.
Realizing that Xarq was the only one who had appeared at their side, and that Robert didn’t have anyone looming behind him like she did, her eyes widened in surprise. “You-you don’t have one?” she asked in confusion.
“A bodyguard?” The man shook his head. “I have one. He’s there, by the back wall.” He gestured toward the back of the conference room and, for the first time, Alyssa realized there was a whole group of bulking men in the back – the bodyguards of everyone else.
Her eyebrows rose even higher on her forehead. Why did everyone else have their bodyguards there and hers was… here? Truthfully, she hadn’t paid much attention to anyone’s bodyguards, but she now realized that no one else had theirs standing behind them during the conference.
Xarq had been the only one by the side of the room, and now that she saw the rest of them in the back, she imagined they had all been there the whole time.
Why had hers been so close to her…?
And why had he growled at Robert? She didn’t know much about bodyguard etiquette, but she was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to growl at the co-workers of the person they were guarding.
Robert seemed to find the situation odd as well, although he acted relatively laid-back about it. But when Xarq wouldn’t stop staring at him, he straightened his back and turned to face him directly.
“Do we have a problem?” Robert asked, glaring at Xarq as if he wasn’t in the least intimidated by him.
From the corner of her eye, Alyssa could see that one of the bodyguards leaning against the back wall – a bulking Ekrin male – had suddenly started to walk toward them. Her heart sank in her chest as she realized he was likely Robert’s.
What was going on? This wasn’t going to turn into a fight, was it?
Somehow, the situation didn’t feel good in the least. Aggressive energy seemed to swirl around them – most of it coming from Xarq. Why didn’t he like Robert? He had been much calmer before as they had walked around the spaceship, and now, he had just inexplicably appeared here, as if ready to render Robert to pieces.
Did he know something about the man that Alyssa didn’t?
She couldn’t imagine Xarq would go growling at people without a reason.
Robert’s bodyguard kept approaching them and just as Alyssa worried the situation would escalate to violence, Xarq took a step back. It was an obviously reluctant step, but it was a step nonetheless.
“No,” he grunted in answer to Robert’s question, although his eyes were still trained on the man.
The Ekrin male was now right beside them, and settled himself between Robert and Xarq. He glowered at Xarq, but Xarq only glowered back, as if he wasn’t at all concerned by the other man.
“Good,” Robert said finally, his voice flat as he continued to glare at Xarq. “You should remember your place. Aren’t you an Ezak-X?”
Xarq grunted, showing Robert a flash of his sharp teeth, but at last turned his gaze away.
Alyssa felt a stab in her chest at Robert’s words, although the words hadn’t even been meant for her. She knew that the Ezak-X didn’t have a very high position in society due to their origins, but… Robert’s words still seemed harsh – as if because of what he was, Xarq was less than a human – or less than any other alien. And for some reason, that really bothered Alyssa.
Xarq had been nothing but kind to her, helping her even beyond his duty as he had showed her around the ship and taken her to the viewing platform before the meeting. She knew it wasn’t a bodyguard’s job, but he had still done it nonetheless.
Suddenly, Alyssa couldn’t blame Xarq for his earlier growl. Although Robert had seemed easy-going enough – to her at least – he didn’t seem like such a nice person after all. As it was, whatever Robert had been asking her to do, she wasn’t sure she wanted to go with him anymore.
The situation around her seemed to diffuse slowly as Xarq took yet another step back and was no longer glaring at Robert, but the whole thing had left a sour taste in her mouth.
Robert finally turned back to her, his voice was oddly cheerful considering what had just happened. “So, how about it?” he asked. “Lunch? If your bodyguard will allow it.” He winked at her, but although Alyssa knew that Robert had meant his words only as a joke, she wasn’t too sure it was a joke after all.
She glanced at Xarq who now stood by the side of the room again, leaning against the wall. His eyes were still trained on them, the energy coming off him was only more menacing now after Robert’s comment. With how he was looking at them, Alyssa wasn’t
sure at all he would actually let her go for lunch with Robert.
And honestly, she wasn’t sure she really wanted to go for lunch with him anymore either. Although he had seemed nice enough at first, after his comment, she didn’t really think he was the kind of a person she could be friends with.
But then again, this was her first mission, and he was still her colleague… So guess it wouldn’t hurt to be polite.
“Umm, yeah… Sure, why not?” She answered at last, although she was definitely out of her element here.
But maybe through Robert, she would meet other people too. She didn’t know anyone on the mission and considering they would be spending quite some time on Agaria, trying to make friends probably wouldn’t hurt – even if Robert’s behavior toward Xarq had rubbed her off wrong.
And maybe having someone to talk to would help her ignore the pair of eyes constantly staring at her back...
Her cheeks reddened at the thought as she packed her things into her bag, trying to make sure that no one could tell how her heart had just skipped a beat.
“Great!” Robert said, seemingly oblivious to her initial hesitance. “There's a really amazing buffet on Deck Five. I think we should check it o–”
His last words were swallowed by a blaring alarm going off in the ship. It echoed in the near empty conference room and a feeling of utter dread paralyzed Alyssa in her place even more than the menacing growl only moments ago.
This time, Robert looked equally horrified, his eyes fixed on the entrance of the room. Sounds of commotion could be heard on the other side of the door, with people running around and Alyssa could swear that someone even screamed in the distance.
Wh-what was that? Were the pirates here? Had they somehow gotten on the ship?
“I-I don’t think we should go for food after all…,” she muttered in horror, hardly even able to make her lips move in fear.
What the hell was going on?!
CHAPTER 4
XARQ
