by Shea Malloy
“Where in Tarabet?” Kess demanded.
“Commander, you’re looking like yourself again,” said Anric, frowning. “But you’re asking for an early death if you keep going after that Xarxi.”
“Where, Anric?” Kess insisted, ignoring Anric’s warning.
Anric shook his head. “Give me your comm so I can enter the coordinates.”
“I lost it.”
Anric retrieved a comm device and entered the location.
“Here,” he said, handing the black strip to Kess. “I would offer myself as backup, but I like living and I don’t like killing.”
Kess chuckled. “Then you are in the wrong business as a weapons merchant.” He turned for the door, then paused his steps. “How did you learn where they were handling the shipment?”
Anric grinned. “Let’s just say that not all servants are loyal to their master, and a bit of ruya herb goes a long way to loosening their traitorous tongues.”
—
Night approached by the time Kess arrived at the location Anric provided.
The coordinates led him to a spread of foggy flat land. A cluster of air rocks floated above, nary a building or Xarxi lizard in sight. Kess frowned at his comm, wondering if Anric had given him incorrect directions. Then he heard voices. He jerked his head up, squinting into the foggy gloom at one of the larger air rocks some distance ahead. There were lights. Those sneaky bastards were hiding in plain sight.
He ran forward and used the force of his telekinesis to launch himself up in the air onto the closest rock. At a higher vantage point, the fog thinned, awarding him a better visual. Straight ahead, one monstrous ship occupied the centre of the biggest air rock while four smaller ships flanked it. He leapt closer and counted at least fifteen Xarxi men—five armed and standing watch, the others unloading metal cases from the smaller ships and loading them onto the larger one.
But that was fifteen he could see. There would be more watchmen on the other side of the rock, as well as those on the main ship stowing and securing the cases.
Including Liol.
Kess remembered Anric’s words about him dying in pursuit of Liol, but he ignored it. He launched himself onto the next rock and the next, taking care to be quiet and inconspicuous. Not only was his physical health restored, the strength of his telekinesis was almost unwieldy. Yet another benefit he had Karen to thank. If he ever got to thank her.
Karen’s beautiful face swam to the forefront of his mind’s eye and guilt accosted Kess. He was going to be a father. He should be with the mother of his child supporting her, even if she despised him. He shouldn’t be out here, jeopardizing his life for a questionable cause. For a brief moment, Kess began to second guess his actions. But it was too late. Lost in thought, he’d forgotten to crouch low and remain hidden. One of the Xarxi men saw him and immediately opened fire with a shouted direction to his comrades to do the same.
Swearing, Kess dropped to his stomach to avoid the barrage of red laser blasts. Then the men shot at the rock. It quivered beneath Kess, rapidly disintegrating. Thankfully, another was close enough for him to leap to as the rock crumbled into several pieces far below.
“It’s that fucking Dava!” snarled someone and Kess recognized it as Liol’s voice. His thirst for vengeance renewed, Kess sprang up, leaping from rock to rock. A laser shot grazed his arm, another tearing into his left shin. He grunted, clenching his teeth against the searing pain. He swept his hand to the side sharply, sending the shooters flying with horrified screams over the edge of the rock.
Kess forced himself forward, taking deep breaths of the musty, damp air with each jump. His heart thudded in his ears, his leg singing with agony as he landed. His healing wounds from the Muridian attack protested when he threw himself onto the large rock and rolled out of the way of more laser shots behind one of the smaller ships.
“Liol,” Kess shouted amid the noise of laser blasts ricocheting off the spaceship. “I didn’t come here to fight. I just want answers.”
“You wasted your time, Dava scum,” Liol spat.
Enraged, Kess lurched out of hiding just in time to see Liol and his men running up the rising ramp of the large ship. Kess grabbed Liol telekinetically, yanking him backward onto the rock’s surface. He dodged another hit as the other Xarxi lizards shot at him, shoving them back into the belly of the ship with a vicious swipe of his hand.
Shouting at his workers to leave with the shipment, Liol got to his feet and gunned for one of the smaller ships. Just as he opened the hatch, Kess yanked him to the floor again. He limped to where the lizard squirmed beneath his firm hold, triumph a balm against the pain in his leg. Finally. He’d cornered the slippery bastard and he would get answers to the questions he’d harboured for years.
He yanked Liol to his feet, maintaining his telekinetic grip on him as he advanced on the lizard.
“Who is your leader and where is he?” Kess demanded.
Liol answered him with a humourless laugh. Kess fisted the stretchy black material of the lizard’s suit, ready to shake the truth from Liol. Then he heard it. Felt it. The low rumble of the larger ship’s thrusters in motion, the vibration beneath his feet as it grew stronger.
Kess spun, pausing in horror at the blooming bluish light from the ship’s thrusters. He regained mobility, dragging Liol with him as he raced for the edge of the rock. He had mere seconds to get them out of the ship’s blast range if he had any hope of survival.
The ship’s blast thundered, deafening him. A powerful gust of fiery heat punched him from behind, knocking the breath from him. He went careening off the rock before he could jump.
Kess free-fell into the foggy darkness below, a ringing in his ears disorienting him. As he laboured to slow his fall, he realized he’d lost hold of Liol. He staggered forward when he landed, crumpling to the ground from the jolt of excruciating pain in his injuries.
“Liol!” he shouted desperately into the darkness, and his voice’s echo answered his call in the eerie quiet.
He dug out a light from his pocket, grunting as he got to his feet. The chilly air nipped at his sweaty skin, the musty scent of damp soil so strong he could almost taste it. He limped forward, sweeping the bright light in his immediate area, pausing when it highlighted a misshapen lump nearby.
The twisted, grotesque remains of what was his last link to his brother’s murderer.
Fury, disappointment, and failure formed a thick heavy mass on his chest. It cloaked him, threatened to smother him like the fog that ghosted around him.
Once again, he’d failed his brother.
His hands fell limp at his sides. His grip tightened on the light until, finally, he shut it off.
7
Karen
—
Karen thought she’d gotten used to Omaron and its strangeness.
The spaceships, the flying vehicles, the various races of beings, the underwater cities, the intelligent and self-operating robotics that the people treated as commonplace.
But this? This was just a new level of weird.
“They’re called what?” she asked staring into the pool. There were things swimming in the water. They looked like eels, their colour morphing from iridescent blue-green to silver as they swam in idle circles.
“Wai,” answered Suri. “They are harmless.”
“But you said they bite.”
“No, they nibble. It is different.”
“Nibble, bite, eat, it all sounds the same to me, princess.” Karen gripped the belt on her robe. “I love smooth, healthy-looking skin like the next girl, but I’m not getting in that pool with those things. Lotion works just fine.” She screwed up her face in disgust as a new and horrible thought dawned on her. “Aren’t you afraid they’ll enter certain… orifices?”
“These were trained for regular use,” said Suri.
“You can train them?”
“Yes.” Suri’s eyes were alight with amusement. “There are kinds trained for pleasure. Or, as you said, ‘e
ntering certain orifices.’”
“Suri, my ladyparts have put in a vote: they would like to vacate this planet immediately.”
Suri laughed as she undid her robe, unveiling her nakedness beneath. Karen stared, caught between open admiration and envy of the Dava female’s stunning body. The princess didn’t seem to have any shame that she stood naked in front of someone else. Who would when they looked like that, Karen thought.
Her friendship with Suri had strengthened ever since that night when Suri had helped her with Kess. Karen used to believe the alien princess would live up to her title, possessing an uptight, superior attitude perfected by years of extraordinary wealth and privilege. Karen had quickly learned Suri was quite the opposite. Suri had a sense of humour like her sisters, her friendliness and jubilant nature genuine.
With a girlish squeal one would not expect from a woman who usually carried herself with poise and grace, Suri jumped into the pool, her long dark hair flying behind her. The wai encircled her, pecking away at her skin.
“Join me, Karen,” Suri said. “Your sisters were hesitant too, but now they use it often.”
Oh, so that’s why Megan and Jillian’s skin looked so flawless. And here she’d thought it was just the different air on Omaron. Karen eyed the eel-looking things with mild distrust. Then again, what was life without some new and strange experiences? Case in point: she was pregnant with an alien man’s baby in an attempt to save his life. That was the definition of ‘new and strange’.
It’ll be fine, Karen told herself. She’d worn a swimsuit, after all. As she undid her robe, Karen hoped that the spandex covering her ladyparts would deter any wayward wai from enacting anything resembling tentacle porn.
As soon as she slipped into the water, some of the wai broke away from Suri and swam to her. Karen giggled at the slight ticklishness as they nibbled on her arms, stomach, and thighs. The pool was somewhat deep, so she paddled her hands to keep herself afloat.
“I guess it’s not so bad,” Karen admitted with a sheepish grin. They floated in comfortable silence as the wai did what they were trained to do.
“I want to host a party,” Suri said after a while. “For you and Yen Kess.”
Karen furrowed her eyebrows. “Why?”
“To celebrate your baby,” said Suri. She made a wide sweeping motion with her hands and the wai retreated, swimming away. Then she swam closer and Karen fixed her gaze only on the princess’ face. Why were Dava beings so carefree in the nude? It was just like that moment in the infirmary when Kess had awoken. He’d stood before her, unconcerned in his nakedness, his sculpted body begging her fingers to caress every groove in his flesh, his cock—
“You don’t need to do that,” said Karen abruptly to cut off her lewd train of thought.
Suri gave her a strange look like if she knew exactly the sort of filthy ideas Karen harboured about Kess. Megan had said Mikaal once joked that Suri could read minds. Which probably wasn’t inaccurate since Karen had learned that, with training, Dava beings were capable of mind-reading.
“It is Omaron tradition,” Suri said in emphatic tones.
“Yeah, maybe for a happy couple who wants a kid.” Karen frowned. “But Kess and I are just two people tied together by a tiny thing growing inside me. Without it, we would mean nothing to each other.”
“You are connected by much more than the babe in your belly,” said Suri. “Your meeting wasn’t coincidental, it was fated.”
Karen snorted. “Suri, have you been reading those fated mates Paranormal Romance books on my e-reader?”
“Perhaps.” Suri grinned. “The images of the muscular Earth men are very appealing.”
Karen shared a laugh with Suri then swam to the edge of the pool and climbed out. Suri followed suit, guiding Karen to the showers to wash away the transparent slime the wai had left on their skin. When they finished, Karen marvelled at her smooth, healthy-looking flesh. Huh. Bitten and slimed on by alien fish had its benefits after all.
“Every push inspires a pull, and so, a strong fighter inevitably becomes weak,” Suri said, out of the blue.
Karen raised an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”
“It is a quote from the ohma san, the book of teachings by which the Elders live and which they encourage others to live.” Suri rolled her eyes, a smile curving her lips. “Every Omaron being has to learn the gods-be-damned passages from front to back of that heavy, tedious book. Though I’ve never bothered to listen to my tutors drone on about the meanings of all the phrases.”
“So why did you quote that line from the book, then?” Karen laughed.
“Because it applies to you and Yen Kess. The more you fight against fate, the harder you’ll fall for each other.” She grinned and raised a fist in victory. “And I will get to host that party for your baby.”
—
The door to her room slid shut behind Karen with a soft thump.
She padded to the bathroom and undressed, looking forward to a lazy afternoon of snacking and napping. Why bother returning to Earth and all the worries that awaited her down there when she could stay on Omaron and mooch off of Megan forever?
Karen smiled wryly at the thought. As much as she deserved this vacation, she could never be content with a life lacking direction and purpose.
Standing naked beneath the stark light of the bathroom, Karen watched herself in the mirror as she touched her stomach. No baby bump yet. Only that bit of extra flesh acquired from many late nights of junk food as she poured over pages and pages of medical textbooks. She turned to the side, curving her hand over an imaginary larger bump. What would she look like?
I’m having a baby.
She grew excited even if the thought scared her too. A baby on the way meant all those decisions she’d been avoiding to make had a rapidly approaching end date. Then there was the fact that her relationship with the baby’s father had a big fat question mark on it. Nevertheless, her douchebag brain produced a fantasy of him and her and their baby. A tiny, happy family of three.
Oh my god, I am such a moron.
Rolling her eyes at herself, Karen slipped on her robe and left the bathroom to find some comfy clothing to wear. Instead, she found Kess seated at her table.
Well, think of the devil and he appears…
Kess’ violet eyes froze her where she stood. Then his gaze left her face and worked its way down her body in slow deliberation. Karen blushed to the roots of her hair and the tips of her toes when she glanced down and found her robe open.
She tugged her robed closed, fastening it in hasty movements.
“You’re not supposed to be in here,” she said, her voice higher than normal. Her face burned with a special kind of embarrassment reserved for moments like, say, finding yourself naked in front of a hot guy.
“Perhaps. But you left your door unlocked.”
“That doesn’t mean you had a right to enter.” Never mind the fact that she’d yet to figure out how to lock the doors on this alien planet in the first place.
“I wanted to see you,” he said, standing. The room shrank as he encompassed it with his magnifying presence, the usual anger in his violet eyes non-existent. “I came to apologize for the way I behaved the last time we spoke. It was inexcusable. It was never my intention to treat you poorly.”
Karen raised her eyebrows, stunned by Kess’ humility and sincerity. He approached her and she frowned at the slight unevenness in his gait.
“What happened to your leg?” she asked.
“I was shot.” His features clearly said he had no wish to explain the reason.
“You seem to have a knack for getting hurt.”
“So it would appear.”
A brief silence fell between them as they regarded each other. She fidgeted, Kess’ focused gaze compelling her to speak.
“What I did wasn’t fair to you,” she said quietly. “I know that. But I’m not sorry I did it. If I had the chance to go back in time, I’d make the same choices.”
He smiled wryly. “You made that choice under wrong assumptions. You thought I was your saviour but I was nothing more than a dying man who had given up the will to live.”
“It doesn’t matter why you did it,” she said. “You were there when I needed you.” She paused. “Why were you there, anyway?”
He clenched his jaw, that forbidding look reappearing on his face again.
“To meet someone.”
“The same someone who shot you in the leg?”
“He was related to the incident.”
There was an under layer of remorse and disappointment in his voice that piqued her curiosity. She longed to ask him more questions, but she let herself be content with what he’d told her. She chewed on her lip, nervous to speak the words that she’d prepared to say to him.
“I’m… I’m keeping the baby. If you don’t want to be a part of its life, that’s fine.” She fiddled with her robe’s band, speaking faster. “You probably never wanted children, anyway. And if you did, I’m definitely not the woman you would have wanted them with. So, I’ll understand if you don’t want—”
“No,” he interjected. He stepped closer and Karen straightened her stance, dropping her hands to her sides. “You risked your life to save that of a stranger’s. You are a brave, strong, and kind being. There is no-one else I’d rather have as the mother of my child.”
Amazed, Karen peered at him suspiciously. “Why are you being nice?”
“I am nice.”
“You once told me I should be afraid of you. Nice people don’t say things like that.”
He leaned in, his voice low and silken. “I want to tear that bulky cloth from your body and fuck you until you’ve screamed yourself hoarse, until you’re breathless and can’t take another stroke of my cock inside you. But I am restraining myself. Is that nice enough for you?”
Karen blushed, her heart pounding faster. Arousal and excitement joined forces, filling the pit of her stomach with flutters.
