by Susan Kelley
The sound came again, cloth against cloth.
Callie tried to let her breath out slowly but the shadow moved toward her, carrying a light odor of human sweat. Her mind found only one solution. She screamed.
* * * *
Joe slammed his shoulder into the steel door. It didn’t budge. Callie screamed again. He pulled one of his knives and used the point to work on the electronic lock. He popped open the faceplate and destroyed the circuits inside. Alarms blared, drowning out Callie’s screams.
The door slid open a crack. Joe gripped it with his fingertips. His sinews stretched and pulled until he thought his muscles might split. The door gave way far enough.
Joe slipped into the dark outer room, finding the door to Callie’s bedroom closed also. Her screams had stopped, but Joe heard the shuffling sounds of a struggle. She lived still.
The bedroom door wasn’t locked. If only he’d slept in the room with her like he used to do. The alarms quieted, replaced by the hushed approach of men. He didn’t wait. Easing the door open, Joe glided across the threshold. He spotted them near the bed.
A man held Callie in front of his body, a glint of metal held to her throat. The man didn’t see Joe though he stared toward the door. Subdued light flickered in the outer room.
“Anyone comes through that door and the queen is dead,” a rough voice called out.
Joe melted against the wall, working his way closer. Darkness served as his ally as it had so many times in his career. Fright, hers and the kidnapper’s, scented the air.
“You can’t escape, Hadrason,” Sontu called from the outer room. “Give yourself up and live.”
The man holding Callie wasn’t Hadrason. Joe knew the mine owner’s scent and his height. Was this one of the mercenaries in his employ?
“Clear a way for me. I’m walking out of here with this queen bitch.”
Joe didn’t like the panic he heard growing in the man’s tone. The metal weapon glinted again. A drug injector!
“Come out slow,” Sontu called back. “I guarantee safe passage out of the castle.”
“Move, bitch.” The man nudged Callie. She resisted, moving slowly.
Joe had to be perfect, or Callie’s attacker would have time to drug her. They shuffled toward him like a drunken crab. He could see the angry determination pinching Callie’s lips together and the tremor in her captor’s arm.
“Get out of my way!” the man screamed.
“We’re moving back. Calm down,” Sontu answered.
Callie sucked in her breath, preparing herself to act. Joe moved before she did. He used a closed fist to knock the man’s wrist away. The snapping of bone sounded loud in the room until the man screeched. The metal cylinder tinkled on the floor as it dropped from his useless fingers.
“Joe!” Callie gasped as she jerked free from the injured man’s arm.
Joe slammed the heel of his hand into the abdomen of the cowardly bastard. The kidnapper sank to his knees.
Sontu and his men rushed in, carrying light with them. Callie threw her arms around Joe, distracting him.
“You’re all right, your highness?” Sontu asked.
Joe noticed Captain Edow behind Sontu just as he heard the kidnapper move. He swung Callie behind him, and grabbed the man by the throat as the bastard stood up. Joe saw a silvery glint coming at his chest and fell back. But not far enough.
The injector caught him in the side, carving a thin scratch. Sontu’s men fell on the man, beating him to the floor.
Joe straightened but then stumbled to his knees. His peripheral vision faded, leaving him with a slim tunnel of hazy sight.
Callie asked him something, but he couldn’t quite get the words out. He clawed weakly at his chest, wondering what was tied so tightly about him. He couldn’t breathe. A wave of blackness swept over him and his balance deserted him. Fuzzy sounds teased his consciousness. Full darkness took him.
Chapter Twenty
“Only his extraordinary physical condition and superb immune system has kept him alive so far.” The doctor injected another vial into Joe’s arm. “I’m trying to counteract the synthetic narcotic, but I’m not sure I’m making any progress.”
Callie tucked the cover tighter around Joe’s bare shoulders. “He’ll recover. You’ve tended him for nearly an entire day, sir. I’ve had a meal and room prepared for you down the hall. If there’s any change, I’ll let you know.”
The physician had come from Edow’s ship. He’d worked more with chemical and biological weapons than Doctor Palm.
“I won’t be far, your highness. We’ll know in a few hours. Either his organs will start to shut down, or he’ll start to improve.” The doctor shuffled out of her room.
Callie took Joe’s hand, studying the long, strong fingers and his rough palm. Though warmth remained in his skin, the deep unconsciousness frightened her. She traced a finger along his brow, ruffling the dark hair of his eyebrow. Not a twitch of response to her touch.
“Come back to me, Joe. Stay with me and raise our child.” She watched the slow rise and fall of his chest, each breath so far apart she despaired that it would be his last.
Hours passed. She told him of Giroux, her family’s history, and her childhood. “Giroux’s a good place to raise children. A child needs a mother and a father.”
Did the pulse in his temple beat faster? “I’ve missed you. I feel like I’m only half alive when you’re gone. We’ll figure something out.”
Another hour passed before a soft knock interrupted her description of the annual harvest celebration. Edow and Jak entered.
“Any change, your highness?” Jak asked.
“No. Any sign of Hadrason?”
“Your attacker, Emer Mast, could tell us little,” Edow answered.
“He cooperated?”
“We persuaded him,” Jak said with a dark look. “We’ve rounded up almost two hundred men we believe worked for Hadrason, but none of them know where their boss is.”
“General Drant contacted me. He’s on his way here.” Edow didn’t meet her stare.
“Coming here?” Callie looked at Joe, lying so helpless and still. Everything seemed against him. “Why?”
“I’m not sure. I had to tell him of our delay. He told me to wait here for him.”
“Keep looking for Hadrason, Jak. Thank you for your help, Captain Edow.” Callie returned her gaze to the slow rise and fall of Joe’s chest. “You deserve to know ahead of time that I intend to take this marine away from you. He’s mine.”
* * * *
“Will he live?” General Drant asked.
“The doctor can’t say,” Edow answered.
Callie motioned the two military men and Jak out of her bedroom. Though Joe showed no signs of awareness, she didn’t want him to hear the conversation.
“I prefer to get directly to the point, General. As you have probably surmised, I have a personal interest in this marine. I’d like to keep him as my personal guard.” Callie used all her training and experience to keep her voice cool and commanding. Inside her heart raced.
“I might be able to arrange it if you only wanted him as your guard, your highness.” Drant’s tone matched her for coolness. “I fear you have more in mind for him. He was never meant to live among the people he protects. My superiors insist he never be permitted to reproduce.”
“Why is that?” What if these people knew she already carried Joe’s child? Would they insist she end the pregnancy? Hot anger simmered in her middle.
“They fear him,” Drant answered.
“Do you?”
“I wouldn’t want him as my enemy, but I don’t think he had a mad desire to rule the universe.”
“That’s what they fear from him?”
“Him or his descendants.”
“Joe wouldn’t know where to begin or what to do with the universe if he did control it.” Callie smiled as she thought of Joe’s social awkwardness. “He dreads interactions with groups of people.”
“He could learn.”
“You’ve met Joe and spoke with him. He risked everything because he wouldn’t harm innocent civilians. His code of honor is bred into his bones as surely as his intellect and physical attributes.”
“What exactly are you asking of me, your highness?”
Callie lifted her chin. “As soon as Joe wakes up, I intend to make him my king. He shall take my family name and father the heir to my throne.”
“I don’t think I can allow that.” Drant didn’t look surprised, only sad. “I know you feel grateful to Joe, and perhaps sorry for him. It’s difficult not to sympathize with his situation, but….”
“He will be King of Giroux.”
“Did you know of this, Edow?”
“No, sir. Joe and I spoke of how his presence might cause difficulties for the queen and Giroux. He understood that it would be best for him to break his connection here.”
“Has Joe agreed to be your husband, your highness?” Drant asked.
“When has Joe been given a choice in anything? His entire life had been directed by others. He was happy to be here with me.”
“I can’t give my approval for this.” Drant glared at Callie. “Don’t get your hopes up. You may believe Joe can live a normal life, but there are those that would see him dead rather than allow him to rule a planet. They would see the planet destroyed to end him.”
* * * *
Joe stayed in the dark, content with his dreams even though he knew he dreamed. His favorite one never went beyond his declaration of love to Callie. They’d just finished a bout of lovemaking in her big, soft bed. While her eyes still looked soft and dreamy, he’d said the words. In his fantasy world, he even understood what love was. She opened her mouth to reply, and every time the dream cut her off.
A nightmare of his training intruded into his dreaming. One of the boys failed the twenty mile rum, finishing a few minutes late. They were all fourteen years old and understood what would happened. The trainers came to take the boy away, but he was already big and strong. It took five grown men to overpower him. That night after lights out, Joe called the rest of the boys together. They made a pact to make sure no one of them ever failed a test again. They became brothers that night, and Joe became the leader.
He cried as he saw the faces of his dead brothers in his dream. He cried for himself, and that he continued to live, fight and kill.
Callie’s voice stroked his senses at times, halting the meandering of his mind. He put aside his dreams and listened. She told him of the prominent families of Giroux, explaining their oddities and petty squabbles.
Joe didn’t try to surface. As long as she was near, he stayed and avoided the greater darkness lurking outside his dreams. It called to him with the voices of his dead brothers, promising peace.
“You’ll need to know all of them when you’re king.” Callie said.
King?
“The Reverend Master of Giroux waits for you to wake up so we can be married.
Married? Joe opened his eyes.
* * * *
Callie’s heart skipped and then raced with elation. She stared into Joe’s dark blue eyes, afraid to blink. She’d almost given up on his recovery. “Will you marry me?”
Joe blinked and opened his mouth as if to speak, but nothing came out.
“I’m an idiot. Your throat must be dry.” She helped him sit up and held a glass of water to his lips. He pushed it away after only a few sips. “How do you feel?”
“Weak. Tired.” He looked around the room before turning his wary gaze back to her. “You weren’t injured.”
“You saved me. Again.”
“Hadrason?”
“We can’t find him.”
“Why am I in your room?”
“I wanted you here while you recovered.” Callie gathered her hopes again. “I want you here all the time. I want you to marry me.”
He looked more cautious, blinking several times as if to stay awake. “Why?”
Callie hesitated. Would her declaration of love frighten him? The fact of the baby really would.
The door opened behind Callie and General Drant spoke. “You’re awake, marine. Good. We have your future to discuss.”
“I would speak with Joe first.”
Drant lifted an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, your highness. Please allow me to speak to my man before you put your proposal to him.”
Callie couldn’t think of a logical argument. Her hesitation had cost her the chance to get Joe’s agreement before Drant filled his head with the demands of duty.
Jak waited for her in her outer room. “Bring the Reverent immediately. You’ll be our witness.”
“Joe agreed to the marriage?”
“He’s going to be my king.”
* * * *
It mirrored his dream. When she should have said she loved him, she hadn’t.
Drant waited until the door closed behind Callie before speaking. “You seem to be important to the queen. Is she important to you?”
Care, Joe warned himself. “She’s kind to me, sir. You know I want to protect her.”
“Kind?” Drant guffawed. “She practically threatened me if I didn’t let her keep you. I thought you and I had agreed you were to avoid involving yourself here?”
“Keep me, sir?” Joe latched onto the words.
“She believes you’re her marine. We both know you belong to the Galactic Military, body and soul.”
“Yes, sir.” But she’d asked him to marry her.
“Her situation is precarious with the discovery of crystallized iron on Crevan Four. Every thief and scoundrel in the universe wants a part of it.”
“Yes, sir.” Joe’s empty stomach roiled as he thought of what Callie had already faced and that worse might yet come at her.
“Giroux is the only planet in this area that belongs to the Galactic Alliance. It’s not cost effective to maintain a large military presence here, and Crevan isn’t even in our patrol patterns.”
“You’ll abandon her?” Joe found the strength to push himself up straighter.
“I didn’t say that, soldier.”
Anger, an emotion that had been beaten out of him before age five, startled Joe as it smoldered in his chest. “She needs protection.”
“She claims to need you as her personal guard.”
Joe’s anger sputtered. “I can protect her.”
“Perhaps. I might be able to sell it to the ministry. But I can’t convince them to let you marry her and have children together. I’ve seen your personal record, Joe. You’re an intelligent man. I’ve already explained to you what a relationship between the two of you would do to her. Marriage is unthinkable.”
“Yes, sir,” Joe said around a tight throat.
Drant looked satisfied if not quite pleased. “Let’s call the queen back in here and tell her that you and your remaining men will be her guards. I’ll have them brought here from the troop transport ship.”
* * * *
Callie ushered the Reverent into the bedroom with her. Drant turned his back and looked out the window. She picked up Joe’s hand. “Jak will witness for us.”
“What’s going on, Callie?”
“We’re getting married.” Tonight she would sleep soundly at last, pillowing her head on his smooth chest.
Drant turned back to them. “If I could speak to you in private for a moment, your highness.”
“As soon as I finish here. Please begin, Reverend. The short version.”
“Joe, do you pledge your troth to Queen Callie Adell?’
Joe looked at the man as if he couldn’t understand a word. He shook his head and then looked at Callie with naked pain in his usually guarded eyes. “I will not.”
* * * *
Callie entertained the military officers at dinner, hiding her injured pride and broken heart. Joe didn’t want to marry her. She couldn’t even remember what had happened after his negative response.
“We’re leaving tonight, your highness.
The area around your city is secure. Hadrason is still about, but most of his miners have been rounded up.” Drant had been very kind and not mentioned the arrangement with Joe other than to say he was giving him temporary assignment as her guard.
Edow explained more details of the security precautions. She nodded politely but heard none of it. The other marines would be returned to Giroux in a little more than week. Already Riba and the others planned a huge welcome.
The meal stretched on until Callie’s head pounded. Finally the two men took their leave, Edow’s sympathetic look telling her he’d heard of the afternoon’s debacle.
“I’ll push for the marines’ permanent assignment to you,” Drant said as he kissed her hand with an old fashioned gallantry. “Perhaps in time, if my superiors become accustomed to their existence among us, you can proceed with other things.”
Callie stared after the general as he stalked out of the room. What did that mean? What had the general and Joe discussed? Was Drant saying he could approve of her marrying Joe but not at this time? Had Joe’s negative answer been an order from the general?
She marched to her bedroom. She hadn’t thought she could ever face Joe again after the embarrassment of his rejection, but now she couldn’t get there fast enough. The door bounced off the wall when she threw it open.
Joe stared at her but not with surprise. Of course, his exceptional hearing would have let him know she was coming. His short hair stuck up in all directions, and his blue eyes glowed warm with recent sleep. He looked beautiful and desirable.
If she hadn’t been so angry, she would have jumped on him. “What did Drant say to you?”
“About what?”
“Joe, don’t try to play a game of wits with me. Why won’t you marry me?”
“The general told me it wouldn’t be allowed.” Joe looked down at his hands folded on his lap. “Why did you want to marry me?”
“I’m asking the questions here, marine. Would you have said yes if he hadn’t told you that?”
“I want to make sure you’re safe. I don’t have to marry you to do that.”
