Mad Panther (Alien Guardians of Earth Book 2)

by Donna McDonald

  But how was he supposed to charm a beautiful woman whose mind ran sharper than any calculator? Only one part of him was indeed up for the full challenge Gina presented, but there was no Lyran social engagement with her in his foreseeable future.

  In different circumstances, that would have bothered him until he’d figured it out, but for once, Lake had bigger problems than his non-existent sex life. And he was waiting for the potential solution provider to walk through his door.

  He ran to open it the moment there was a knock and ushered Sugar quickly inside. He ordered himself to be calm. In the short time he’d known his fellow Protector blade carrier, he’d already figured out that Sugar reacted much better when he wasn’t acting passionately erratic.

  “How’s Rodu doing today?” he asked. It was something he genuinely wanted to know.

  Sugar hugged herself as she went to sit in a chair. “He’s finally on the real mend, I think. I asked the artifact. It’s gone back to saying host alive until death which I’m choosing to think of as a positive sign of his recovery.”

  “Speaking of the blades, I asked you to come to see me because I needed to talk to you in private about something involving mine,” Lake began. He blew out a breath and tried to think of what to say that would convince her. “I’ve been having dreams—lots of dreams. They’re about my father.”

  Sugar nodded gravely. “That’s not all that surprising, Lake. He died shortly before the blade called you to it. Then Rodu got hurt, and he’s kind of a father figure to both of us because he’s had his blade for so long. Your dreams are probably your mind’s way of working through what’s been happening. Plus, it was your blade that saved Rodu’s life. I think your dreams are normal.”

  Lake shook his head. “No. They’re more than that. They’re a message. My father was a college professor, but he had a side-gig that paid much better than teaching history. That’s how he was able to pay for my boarding school life. My father had a military contract where he researched and reported on antiquities rumored to endow special powers. Based on my dreams, I think the people who hired him know about the blades. My blade refused to discuss the matter with me, but it was really bossy about advising me to act as quickly as I could.”

  Sugar made a sound of acknowledgment in her throat. “What kind of action?”

  “I need to visit my father’s house and go through his papers. My blade wants me to do this too. We’re in agreement for once. I’m not sure whether to be happy about that or fearful.”

  “My blade is pushy too, but visiting a place where the wrong people could be waiting for you is not a safe risk to take. Chances are the military people your father worked for have already found everything of interest among his papers. They likely confiscated his work as soon as they heard your father died.”

  “I don’t think they found it. Not where my dreams say he hid it,” Lake said. “I have a feeling he left information meant just for me. I’m obsessed with finding out, Sugar. Will you help me get away from the cat people?”

  Sugar ran a hand over her hair. “Wherever I go, Lake, people who want my blade manage to find me. I have no idea how. I met Axel at a really low point where I needed a guardian just to get through a single day. He and I were attacked about ten minutes after we met. He had a hidden lair and it only took them a month to track me there.”

  “So the answer is no?” Lake asked.

  “I didn’t say that—yet.” Sugar ran agitated fingers through her short hair and sighed as she thought about all her resistance to Axel wanting to shadow-protect her. She hated the loss of her personal freedom but had come to appreciate the peaceful—well, mostly peaceful—environment of the palace. The trip to Machu Picchu had been a treat that had reminded of her losses. It had felt good to be walking among humans again.

  Lake squirmed uncomfortably in his seat but told himself just to tell her what he knew for sure. “Whether you support me or not, I’m going to go eventually, even if I have to wait ten months to get a better grip on this bossy thing inside me. I really don’t want to have to break out of here. I may be a kid, but I’m a smart one. I’d rather leave with the option to come back. I can only imagine what it must be like to sleep for weeks or months and not wake up to anyone taking care of you.”

  Sugar nodded. “I can already tell you that answer. It’s scary as hell. And I understand how frustrated you must feel to find out you lost so much time for what our blades call host recovery. Even when I went to stay with Axel, every time the blade took me over, I would be unconscious for at least a day or two after. Axel brought me here to his mother’s palace because it was the one place he believed people could be there for me when he couldn’t be.”

  “Except we’re not safe here either. Some of the cat people hate us for just being human.”

  “Who told you that?”

  “No Lyran—if that’s what you’re thinking. The voice inside me has been very chatty since I woke up this last time. Yesterday, it basically gave me a play-by-play of what happened when we helped Rodu. And it also informed me that I was a truth-seeker, whatever that is.” Lake chuckled even though none of it was funny. “It’s also been giving me advice about Gina. I think my blade has more of a crush on her than I do.”

  “How are you doing with your geek-speak? It took me forever to learn how to talk to my blade in a way that it could understand me.”

  Lake made a face and then laughed. “Geek-speak? What are you talking about?”

  “You know—affirmative, acknowledged—all that. My blade speaks in two or three words most of the time,” Sugar explained.

  “Get out. You really think we've got geeky computers inside us?” Lake asked, laughing over the idea.

  “Well—yeah. I think the blades are organic computers of a sort. Axel thinks so too. He spent a lot of time talking to my artifact before my symbiosis had progressed enough for me and the artifact to share my brain at the same time.”

  “My blade sounds as normal as I do. It lectures in full sentences—lots of them—more like paragraphs. It’s truly like living with a roommate who never shuts up.”

  “Wow. So they’re different then,” Sugar mused. “I don’t know why I thought all the blades would be the same. They have different armor colors. Maybe they were made at different times. I can imagine the complex work of making them wasn’t done instantly.”

  “Living computers,” Lake repeated, pretending to think about it. If he told her what he really thought, Lake suspected Sugar would think he was crazy. “I don’t think of mine as a computer. It seems too…”

  “Smart?” Sugar suggested.

  “Human,” Lake corrected. “It’s like I have another complete person living inside me. I’ve been lying to Gina about hearing it because I freaking forget she can’t hear it. Every time I answer it back, Gina starts talking about testing my brain.”

  Sugar leaned back in the chair. “The truth is that none of us can prevent you from leaving, especially not if your blade decides you need to go. The Lyrans can deny you transport out of here, but someone will eventually provide a getaway. The Lyrans are stuffy but terrific people.”

  “Ever been around Brits for long? I lived in English boarding schools most of my life. Your aliens are a lot like the people I grew up with, right down to loving their royalty.”

  Sugar laughed. “Can this trek home wait until Rodu is recovered?”

  “I don’t know,” Lake said honestly. “It reminds me almost hourly that I need to go home.”

  “That’s an escalation,” Sugar said with a frown. “When you don’t do what the blade thinks is the right course of action, eventually the blade takes over to just do it. But that’s only happened to me when it’s been a matter of life and death. Does it feel like that?”

  Lake shrugged. “I’m not sure I could tell even if that were the case.”

  “Okay.” Sugar rose from the chair. “Let me talk to Axel. Nyomi and I explained your blade’s appearance as you being in training to become a superhum
an warrior. I told the Lyrans we had the golden breastplates installed in us on purpose. Axel knows the truth of course, but Rodu’s going to have to come clean with his other children. The bad guys stripped him before they put him in the cryogenic cylinder. They all saw his trident. It’s now public knowledge among the Lyrans as are ours.”

  “It’s amazing Rodu kept it from them for so long.”

  Sugar nodded. “Rodu did it because the Lyrans, just like some of the humans on Earth, would have tried to cut the blade from him to use for their own purposes. They don’t know how picky the blades are.”

  Lake snorted. “We’re pretty much fucked everywhere we go, aren’t we?”

  Sugar shrugged. “Yes, but I try not to let it get to me. I do think the fewer people who figure out what we are—the safer we will remain. The rest of the Lyran traitors have yet to be found. The last thing we need is a bunch of Lyrans figuring us out, which means we need to keep your blade from making an unexpected appearance. Tell it I’ll find a way for you to make the trip.”

  “Thank you,” Lake said, standing to walk with her to the door. “There are some other things you might find interesting too.”

  “Like what?”

  “My blade says your blade is the original one—the one from which all the others were made.”

  Sugar chuckled. “Great. So my programming is the oldest. Figures. That may explain my blade’s vocabulary being so stilted.”

  “And it says Gina has the energy of the blade creator. I translated that to mean personality because I’m not into woo-woo shit.”

  Sugar put a hand on his arm. “Ever heard of remote viewing? Or the theory of entanglement? Gina’s knowledge exceeds all Earthly science. I’m not saying she can make a sentient blade, but only someone like her could understand how to make one.”

  “What’s entanglement?”

  “It’s physics, Junior. String theory. Teach yourself all you can about it because your blade is a master of manipulating all kinds of energy. And here’s another tip…the more you learn about your blade’s skillset—the better the chances of your blade agreeing to let you keep your consciousness when it’s in control.”

  “Is there ever a time that it’s not calling the shots?”

  “Not as far as I know. I always end up begging and making bargains just so it doesn’t kill a bunch of innocent people. You’re going to have to ask Rodu who’s the boss of his.”

  18

  The silence in the room went on for a very long thirty seconds without an outburst of any sort.

  Sugar stared as she tried to get a reading on how upset Axel was. She got nada. Her intuition either wasn’t working or the artifact was ignoring her concerns.

  “Why aren’t you yelling at me? Or throwing a fit? Or…”

  Axel held up a hand to stop the tirade. “Don’t misread my calmness as acceptance. I’m angry on the inside.”

  Sugar laughed nervously. “I don’t think I like this calmer version of you. I can’t tell what you’re really thinking.”

  Axel scrubbed a hand over his mouth to keep from smiling. This was not an amusing matter, but the genuine panic in Sugar’s eyes was priceless. Perhaps his father was right about there being something valuable in forcing yourself to have a calm first reaction.

  “Do you remember that last attack on us at my lair?”

  Sugar nodded. “Yes. We were in your bed having sex. They interrupted us.”

  Axel smiled. “Yes. They interrupted us. I was talking, and you put a hand over my mouth to shut me up, announced my security had been breached, and then bounded off my sated body without a backward glance. You didn’t question the validity of what your blade told you about the security breach despite my denials of it being impossible. You trust the being inside you more than you trust me. You trust what it tells you to do. You were only worried about breaking everything in my house with its weaponry if you changed into Golden Girl before you got outside.”

  “Okay,” Sugar said, crossing her arms. “Is there a point to this walk down memory lane other than pointing out my shallow concerns during crisis moments? You should be grateful I care about your stuff.”

  Chuckling despite the panic he was feeling, Axel walked to Sugar and pulled her arms apart. “My mother said I had to get used to you obeying the blade when it called. She said I needed to let you follow its dictates without trying to stop you. I know her advice is logical, but I don’t want to do it. I want to keep you safe and never let you out of my sight.”

  Sugar smiled at last. “Now that’s more like what I expected to hear when I told you about Lake and I needing to take a trip to his house.”

  Axel held her hands and looked deeply into her eyes. There was only honesty reflected in their depths. She wasn’t trying to drive him crazy on purpose. “If I were to say no, that I think it’s unwise for you to leave the palace, what would you do?”

  Sugar bit her lip and shook her head before speaking. “That’s an unfair question. Lake is going with or without me, Axel. You know I can’t let him go alone in his current condition. His symbiosis with his blade is not far enough advanced. I would prefer to wait for Rodu to get well, but I don’t think Lake’s blade is going to let him wait that long. He says it nags him every hour now.”

  “Which means you are on the verge of having to act,” Axel said. “So what is your plan?”

  Sugar pulled her hands from Axel’s and lifted a shoulder to shrug. “Well… the next thing I was going to do was to ask you to come along. You know the bad guys always manage to find me. I think I’ve progressed enough to save my own ass, but I don’t know if I can keep Lake safe too.”

  Axel walked to their bed and sat. “I want to go with you, but I can’t if you must go now.”

  “At Machu Picchu, you said I couldn’t go without you. Now suddenly you can’t go with me?” Sugar asked in surprise.

  Axel shook his head. “No. Mother sits with Father. It eases her to be at his side. But Queen Nyomi’s throne can’t be left unattended—not now. The traitors have yet to be discovered. The palace is on full alert. I can’t leave my people when they need me.”

  Sugar nodded. “I heard the man your mother killed say the children of Rodu are on the Lyran bad guys hit list. And by the way, your mother dispatched the bastard the moment Lake’s blade said he was of no further use. She was lethal with that spear and it was obvious that she knew how to use it.”

  Axel nodded. “Before you came into my life, I was mistaken about many things concerning my parents. Marta told me Lord Gatos put an arm around Caesar and then put a knife to his throat before I got there. Gina said Mother moved so fast to unarm Lord Gatos that no one knew what she’d done until he was subdued. If he’d harmed Caesar, she would have killed him instantly.”

  “I don’t doubt it. Your mother is a genuine badass. Maybe she secretly hosts a blade as well,” Sugar teased.

  Axel laughed. Only this female had ever made him do so. “My mother is three-thousand-years-old in Earth years. She is what the Lyran feline race call an ascended matriarch. She raised two other families on her home planet before she accepted the job of guarding Earth. If she does not die early, a natural death will transform her into a being of energy only. Her powers grow with her age.”

  “Like the force field she can put around herself when she travels in a ball of light?”

  Axel grinned. “You continue to surprise me. How do you know that?”

  Sugar grinned back. “I saw her do it once. It was so impressive I never forgot.”

  “Was that the day my father told you about him hosting a blade?”

  Sugar nodded as she recalled that day and how embarrassed she was after mistaking Rodu for Axel. Discussing the sentient blades and their activities was such an ordinary, domestic conversation for her and Axel now. What a crazy life she and Axel had together.

  Sugar smirked at the idea. How was work today honey? Fine—I turned twenty bad guys into black dust. How was yours? Oh, I tortured people trying to find
out who’s plotting to kill my family. What’s for dinner?

  She looked at him and smiled sadly. “So back to your answer… you can’t go with us.”

  “No. I have to protect my people and guard my family. You at least have the blade. Most Lyrans have no skills to fight off attacks.”

  Sugar nodded. “Yes. I do have the blade. And it takes good care of me.” She walked to the bed and plopped down beside Axel. “Look at us being adults instead of fighting. Adulting really sucks though.”

  “Yes, it does. I hear a similarly worded complaint from the boy all the time. You’re starting to sound like him.”

  Sugar laughed and hooked her arm through Axel’s. She laid her head against his shoulder. “If you can’t go, is there someone who can at least give us a ride? I don’t know of a way to order a flying saucer to pick Lake and me up at the Lyran palace of the Guardians of Earth.”

  Axel sighed. “An airship is not a flying saucer. How many times must I explain that?”

  “As many times as it takes for you to develop a real sense of humor,” Sugar replied, laughing against his sleeve. She sighed and hugged his arm tighter. “I promise in the future that I’ll try to call it by its proper name.”

  Axel blew out a breath. “As much as I don’t like it, the best pilot among the Lyrans is Gina. She uses her skills to guard my mother and all Lyrans. She is skilled at maintaining stealth and at detecting other stealthy crafts. But she is not a warrior. Will you protect her if she pilots you?”

  “You know I will. It’s what the artifact and I do. But if Gina flies us to Lake’s house, we need to tell her about the blades and about Rodu having one. It’s only fair. She’s going to know something strange is going on when Lake stops being the resident jerk with her when his blade takes over.”

  “Agreed,” Axel said with a reluctant nod. “Gina has been questioning me anyway.”

  Nodding, Sugar rubbed her mate’s arm. “I’ve never liked you keeping my secrets at the expense of lying to your family.”