A ripple of excitement spread through the assembled Resistance leaders. One of them, a tall, broad woman with shockingly red hair, said, “We need to take advantage of this. They are off balance. The time is ripe for an all-out attack.”
“Not quite yet,” Theyn said. The assemblage looked at him in surprise and anticipation. “There’s something we need to do, first. We need to disable the telemetry and weapons systems on their picket ships.”
The sour man grunted. “And how are you supposed to do that?”
Beno smiled tightly. “We have our ways.”
Another man said, “And you won’t tell us? How are we supposed to help you if you don’t let us in on your plans?”
“The only thing you need to do,” Theyn told them, “is to organize your people into two groups. One group will help civilians load into the shuttles. The other group will defend against ground troops. When the moment is right, you need to move quickly. I’m depending on you to do this.”
“How will we know when to move?” a woman asked.
“There will be a signal.”
“What is it?”
The prince smiled. “When the alarms go off in the House of the High Council, and all of Bruthes is put on alert, that will be the signal.” He looked at Alaia, then told them, “I and the Mother of the Flames will be taking the High Council as our hostages and convincing them that they should let us go.”
“How will you do that?”
“Don’t doubt me. We will use their own cowardice against them.” He looked around the room at the faces before him. Some looked doubtful, some hopeful, some resolute. “We will free our people. I swear to you.”
As if to underscore her father’s words, Kira squealed again, her hands extended once more toward the phoenix emblem on the wall. He turned to look at her with an indulgent smile, and the expression froze on his face.
Kira’s hands were glowing. A soft red light surrounded them, emanating from her palms and growing brighter. Sera was staring at their child, and silence fell over the room.
‘What is she doing?’ Beno asked.
Sera sounded baffled. ‘I don’t know.’
The red glow became almost too bright to look at, and Theyn walked toward her, squinting into the scarlet glare. Kira pointed one finger at the phoenix on the wall, and where there had been flames of glass and jewels, real fire sprang to life. It was so hot that everyone retreated from it. The child giggled and pointed at the Burning One, then to herself.
The emblem burned brighter than it should have, and the glass and gems that should not have burned were completely immolated in the flame. The image was reduced to ashes, and then Kira was surrounded in a nimbus of fire. Sera put her down on the floor quickly and patted out the places where her own clothing had ignited. Theyn bent down and grabbed Kira in his hands. The fire did not touch or harm him; if anything, it felt tingled. He looked into her eyes as she giggled and played with the flames she had created.
‘Can you hear me? Are you the Burning One?’ he asked her.
She looked up at him, and with a clear, steady voice, she said, “Yes.”
Consternation gripped the temple’s occupants, who erupted into a roar of fervid babbling. Theyn stared at his daughter, so shocked that he barely recognized his child at all. There was someone else speaking through her, someone other than Kira who was in control. As he held Kira, the flames extended around both of them in a burning halo. They were both unhurt, but Sera and Beno both stepped toward them in concern. Kira held up her little hand.
“Stay,” she said, her voice sounding like that of a full-grown woman.
‘That is not my child,’ Sera told her mates.
‘No,’ Theyn replied, his voice full of religious ecstasy. ‘It is the Burning One.’
Beno was silent, staring at the two of them with wide eyes.
The congregated Resistance fighters, led by Alaia, knelt before the two of them, their faces shining with zealotry. Sera inched closed to Beno and took his hand for support.
Kira – or whatever creature was inside her – spoke to the assembly. “Go and tell the people that I’ve returned. I am here to lead them to safety.”
Beno’s mental voice spoke to Kira, pitched so that both Theyn and Sera could also hear. ‘Who are you?’
Their baby smiled toothlessly at him. ‘I am the one they called the Burning One. I am not a god, and I am not a spirit. I am a symbiont. I have been dormant inside Theyn since he was born. I could not exert myself in him fully, but when this vessel was created…’
‘She’s not a vessel!’ Sera objected. ‘She’s my daughter.’
The Burning One ignored her. ‘… I transferred to her, where I found fertile ground in which to grow.’
The look of fear on Beno’s face was replaced by one of absolute hatred. ‘Why are you here? What do you want?’
Kira giggled. ‘I want to help the Ylian people escape from their persecution, and I want to destroy the Taluans. My world was once as Ylia was, a beautiful place of nature and peace. Then the Taluans came, and I was the only survivor, because I was traveling beyond our atmosphere, bonded with a scientist and studying a new form of propulsion in space travel.’
Sera shook her head. “This isn’t happening,” she whispered. “This can’t be happening.”
Theyn spoke softly. ‘Speak on.’
‘I can disable the Taluan fleet. Your plan about sending a virus to weaken or destroy their systems is a good one, but it will take more than technology.’ Kira blew bubbles, and the symbiont chuckled. ‘Such a charming child.’
‘How?’ Beno asked. ‘How will you do it?’
Kira’s little face turned toward him, and the symbiont answered, ‘I need to be passed to another physical being, one more capable that this one, who will carry me onto the Taluan vessel. Once there, I will penetrate into the computer system and disrupt it from within. It will be a one-way trip for both me and the vessel, but I am content and ready to go. I suggest you find someone who feels the same to carry me there.’
Sera asked, ‘Can we put you into a Taluan?’
The being hesitated, then answered, ‘It’s an unpleasant thought, but that would work.’ Kira smiled at Beno. ‘I suggest that you capture a Taluan at your first opportunity and bring him to me… or I can transfer from Kira into you, and when you encounter a Taluan, I can leave you for him…’
Beno’s jaw set. ‘Do it.’
She looked up at Theyn. ‘Carry me to him.’
He did as he was commanded. Kira – or, more appropriately, the being within her – reached out her little arms for Beno. The flames receded, vanishing into her little body, and when Beno took her, she cuddled into his arms like their baby had always done. She put her tiny hands on Beno’s face and held him close, their mouths only a breath apart. Abruptly, a flash of light and heat burst from Kira and into Beno’s mouth. He choked and gagged, but the creature kept moving, diving down his throat until it had fully switched from Kira to her father. The baby started to wail, and Sera took her from his arms. Beno gagged once more, then retreated back a step, holding a hand out in front of himself to keep Theyn from coming closer. He coughed, then shuddered and sank onto his knees.
The congregation began to chant prayers. Beno’s skin beaded with sweat, and he wiped the back of his hand over his trembling lips.
“Are you all right?” Sera asked, her voice strident in her fear.
Beno nodded, and the voice that emerged was not his. “Yes. Perfectly fine… both of us.” Their dark mate bent over, falling onto all fours. In his own voice, he gritted, “Make those fools shut up.”
He fell forward onto the floor at Theyn’s feet. The royal Ylian knelt at his bond mate’s side, his hands glowing with healing energy. Beno pushed him aside, and the symbiont said, “No. Do not. He is unharmed.”
Theyn pulled back, uncertain. He looked up at Sera, who stared back at him in alarm. He saw a flicker in her eyes, a whiff of betrayal that made his heart hurt. Kira wa
s still crying but no longer screaming. He held out his hands to her, and Sera pulled away.
He was no longer at all certain that he had made the right decisions.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The family returned to the royal apartments in anxious silence. Kira clung to Sera, a little girl once more, and she was glad, because at that moment, all she wanted to do was hold her baby. Beno had a strange, tense expression on his face, and he walked silently. Theyn walked close beside him, stealing worried looks at his bond mate as they went.
As soon as they entered their suite, they were greeted with a Texan twang. “Well, ain’t you a sight for sore eyes!”
Joely and Asa were sitting together on one of the couches that surrounded the fountain in the middle of the room. Sera hurried over to them and hugged them each with one arm, juggling Kira with the other.
“I am so glad to see you two!” She looked them over. “Are you okay? Both of you?”
“Fine,” Joely said with a smile. “They took good care of me.”
“Never better,” Asa told her.
Beno spoke at last, his voice deceptively casual. “Well, that’s a lie.”
The Texan went to shake hands with both of Sera’s mates. He looked from one to the other, then at Sera. “Okay. What happened?”
She sat down beside Joely with a cynical laugh. “What didn’t? God… you won’t believe this when I tell you…”
The symbiont’s voice spoke through Beno’s lips. “Allow me to explain.”
Mental images of the events in the temple played out in everyone’s mind as the symbiont telepathically got Joely and Asa up to speed. It was strange to see everything through Kira’s point of view, since her eyes were the ones through which the symbiont had recorded the events. When the display was done, Joely and Asa sat, mouths agape, staring at Beno. Kira whined and clutched Sera, who pulled her closer.
“I…” Asa started. “Wow.”
His former boss nodded. “Tell me about it.”
“Is she okay? I mean… she seems scared,” Joely asked, putting her hand on Kira’s back.
The symbiont replied. “She is overwhelmed and a bit frightened by what’s happened, but she is essentially unharmed.”
Sera glared. “Essentially,” she echoed bitterly.
“She has never known life without me,” it told her. “I was with her from conception. That, Selected, is why you were changed. I needed your Ylian bloodline to be strengthened during her gestation. The changes will continue for as long as you are nursing, but then the effects will fade.”
She didn’t know what to think, but she felt strangely violated. She turned her face away and concentrated on comforting her child.
Theyn crossed the room to the fountain. “When this is over, will we be free of you?”
“I will be gone, yes.” The symbiont tilted Beno’s head and considered his bond mate. “You are relieved to hear this?”
“Ecstatic.” He grasped the phoenix necklace and tore it from his neck, shattering the chain. Theyn threw the ornament onto the floor. “I will be glad to finally be done with this charade.”
Sera looked at Beno and addressed the being inside of him. “You’ve been occupying the people in Theyn’s family tree since that first Ylian, the one who was called the Burning One. Is that correct? You’ve been passed along like some kind of congenital disease?”
Beno smirked, and the expression was so completely her bond mate’s that Sera wanted to scream. This thing that was controlling him was using him, and it felt like mockery to her. “That’s an unkind way to say it, but apt, I suppose.”
“How strong are your powers?” Asa asked. “Can you just affect everybody in the world, or do you have to do it person by person?”
The symbiont looked at Asa quizzically, then said, “I need to be enmeshed with a person to alter them in any way.”
“So you can’t fix this inability to merge thing?”
“Ah. No. That issue was with the Ylians long before my arrival, and it is beyond my ability to repair.” It shrugged Beno’s shoulders. “Some races simply die out. Perhaps that is the Ylians’ fate.”
Theyn sat down on one of the couches, and for a moment, he looked ragged and tired. Sera’s heart broke for him. She had never seen him look so alone. He straightened his spine again almost immediately, though, and lifted his head. His royal veneer slipped back into place, and he was once again controlled. She knew how deeply his emotions ran, and she wondered how many times he’d been punished for revealing them when he was a child. The longer they stayed in these apartments, the more Theyn remembered, and she was beginning to think that his childhood was nothing but misery. She was grateful that she had never met his mother. She would have unkind words for her now, she thought.
“Maybe,” Asa said, responding to the symbiont. “Maybe not. Maybe there’s something I can do about it.”
Sera was surprised. “So you know about the tests on your blood?”
“Yeah, I know.” He sighed. “I know a lot of things.”
Joely put a hand on Asa’s knee, and he covered it with his own. The look she gave him was heavy with meaning, but Sera didn’t know how to interpret it.
Beno walked slowly toward the balcony. Sera watched him. His posture was unlike the other times she’d seen him go to the balcony for the comfort of fresh air. She closed her eyes and turned away.
There was a heavy silence in the room for a long while, until finally Theyn said, “I have much to consider and plan before our main attack in three days’ time. If you’ll excuse me…”
He rose and walked into the bedroom, whose door he closed quietly. Beno, or perhaps the symbiont, turned and looked at the closed portal, a thoughtful expression on his face. Sera stood up with Kira in her arms.
“I’m going to put her down,” she announced. “It’s time for her afternoon nap.”
She left the main room for their private chamber, too. She found Theyn sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. She sat beside him, and Kira reached out for him. He was so deeply buried in his thoughts that he didn’t see at first, but then he took his daughter in his arms and kissed her cheek gently. Sera rubbed his back is slow, soft circles.
“I always knew that Beno would be the reason I gave up the priesthood someday,” he whispered, “but I never imagined it would be like this.”
She put her arm around him, and they leaned together. “This is only for a few days,” she promised, though in her heart, she feared she was lying. “Once we get a Taluan prisoner to pass that thing to, we’ll have him back.”
“I can’t even imagine… he’s trapped within himself while the symbiont is in control. He must feel so helpless, so violated… and Kira! She went through the same thing for her whole life. How could I not know?”
“How could you have? How could anybody have suspected something like this?” She kissed his shoulder. “You can’t blame yourself. And Beno accepted this… he knew what he was doing, and he knew it was only for a brief time. He’s strong. He’ll be all right.”
Theyn shook his head. “He’s still so scarred by his captivity with the Taluans, and I don’t mean just physically, as you know. This… this incarceration inside himself might be more than he can take.”
She shifted so she was standing in front of him, and she took his face in her hands. “I know you love him. I love you for being so sensitive and caring. But you’re killing yourself right now. Beno is strong. He’s always been a fighter, and he’ll be back. You’ll see. And if he has any after effects of this, well, we’ll be at his side to help him work them out.”
He looked up at her, his blue eyes damp with unshed tears. “Do you really believe that?”
“Yes.” She knew she sounded uncertain, so she explained, “I’m afraid, too, and I don’t know what to expect or what’s going on. But I do know, without a shadow of a doubt, that Beno is strong, and his love for us and for our daughter is even stronger still. He will be back.”
Theyn blinked the tears away and looked down at Kira. “She’s so beautiful.”
She smiled. “Yes, she is. And she needs to get some sleep.”
“I don’t want to let go of her.”
She understood. Between Nima’s kidnapping and the symbiont taking control of her, they had nearly lost their little girl twice. “I don’t want to let her go, either. Let’s lie down with her. We can all try to rest.”
They did as Sera suggested, lying back on the bed with Kira between them. They lay on their sides, facing each other, their hands on their child as they tried to comfort her and themselves. They lay that way for a long while, watching Kira sleep.
The door opened quietly, and Beno came in. Sera tensed immediately, and he held up a hand. When he spoke, it was with his own voice, not the symbiont’s.
“It’s all right. It’s me. I just wanted to see if you were all right.”
Theyn sat up. “Does it allow you autonomy?”
“For now.” He leaned against the wall. “Whatever happens, remember that I love you, and that I did this voluntarily. It was my choice.”
Sera held out her hand to him. “Come here. Please.”
He hesitated, then came to the bed. Theyn scooped Kira up in his arms and transferred her to her crib, where she woke briefly but fell asleep again. Beno took Sera’s hand and let her pull him down to the bed, and then Theyn joined them, wrapping himself around Beno’s back and hugging him.
‘It’s sleeping,’ Beno told them. ‘We’re alone.’
They wasted no time removing their clothing. They needed each other, needed the comfort of touch and presence to confirm their bond while they still could. Theyn and Beno lay down on their backs, their legs intertwined and their hardening cocks together. Theyn took them both in his hand, and after a few strokes, they merged into one. Sera watched it happen, mystified and aroused.
Ignition: Alien Ménage Romance (Phoenix Rising Book 2) Page 24
