Alien (27 page)

“You commanded the entire audience
on your first attempt?” Dorra’s hologram asked. She looked bewildered and in
awe. “For a certainty?”

Kari’s chin notched up. “I sure did.”

“She is the first to ever
accomplish a feat such as this,” Klykka’s hologram proudly announced. “’Tis
honor you have brought to the House of Gy’at Li, Kari. My hearts are swollen
with pride.”

“As are mine,” Dorra chimed in.
“Leastways, you are the talk of the entire sector. My’ani is set to give birth
any day now. She wishes to name the babe for you should the goddess gift her
with a girl-child.”

“Are you serious?” Kari enthused.
“Wow!”

Recalling the last movie she’d seen on Earth mere months
before her departure, Kari allowed herself to relish in the glory that came
from being Neo—
The One!
—for a moment. She had mastered her own matrix,
albeit a pervy one. In fact, Arista said after she taught her a few more
mind-and-body control techniques, her apprenticeship would be over. That gave
her almost three moon-months in Crystal City to spend her time as she pleased.

Kari felt like she’d conquered Mount Everest, won Olympic
gold—or graduated as the valedictorian from Sodom and Gomorrah High. However
one chose to view it, it was a job well done.

“Will you be returning home early?” Dorra asked.

“’Tis unlikely,” Klykka wryly interjected. “Leastways, she
has earned the right to holiday for a spell.”

“Were I you, I would sample every cock that crossed my
path,” Dorra said matter-of-factly.

Kari grinned. “I’m hoping to sample something.”
Unfortunately, the cock she wanted so badly belonged to a man she couldn’t
tempt fate with by trying. She decided against mentioning that part. “I also
told Arista that as long as I’m in Crystal City I’ll be glad to serve tables on
the nights she needs additional help.”

“’Tis a generous boon, that.” Klykka inclined her head. “You
make us proud. Now get yourself some sleep. You look nigh unto exhausted.”

“I am.”

“Dorra and I leave for a pack hunt on the morrow so you
shan’t hear from us again. Leastways, not until our return.”

Kari nodded. Her smile was sleepy. “Good hunting.”

* * * * *

The next week was the busiest period in Kari’s life. Her
days were filled with Arista’s training, her nights with erotic performances,
and her stint at Mettle Tavern was nearing its end. Other than occasionally
waiting tables when—and if—the need arose, her time would officially become her
own after tomorrow night’s performance. She had been taught well and learned
eagerly. She had surpassed Arista’s expectations and earned her respect. She should
have been happy, should have been ecstatic in fact, but she wasn’t. As much as
she hated admitting it, she knew the reason why.

It was
him
. The giant, brooding warrior with the
glowing, gold gaze and a skull tattooed into his forehead. The muscled warlord
whose name she didn’t even know.

He hadn’t returned to Mettle Tavern since her premiere
performance. Kari had expected to fend him off every night, doing her damnedest
to thwart his advances, but such was not the case. Her pride wasn’t smarting,
which left her with one unmistakable and utterly frightening conclusion:

She missed him.

She didn’t know him and could never attempt to try so
thinking about him was pointless, yet the weirdly inexplicable connection she
felt toward him was all-consuming. Stranger still, she knew—
knew
—he felt
it too.

Plopping into bed, Kari let out a sigh and absently stared
at the ceiling. He was her every daytime thought and her every nighttime
fantasy. He was everything she wanted in a man and all she couldn’t have. And
he was throwing her off her game without even knowing it.

Earlier this evening she had helped out by serving trenchers
of food and drink to the patrons overflowing the tavern. Kari had been so
distracted by thoughts of the colossal warrior that when two vacationing
females asked her what her name was, she had said “Kara” without thinking.
She’d quickly corrected herself and told them she hadn’t gone by that name in
years and was now called Kari.

There had been something eerily familiar about one of those
women, but by the time it dawned on her what that something was, the traveler
was nowhere to be found. The female had looked…
earthy
. Weirder still,
she had the height and accent of a woman who heralded from her home planet. Her
speech pattern was what one would expect from a human who’d been whisked away
from Earth in the 1960s.

The moment Kari’s hazy mind cleared enough to question her
had turned out to be a heartbeat too late. She’d asked one of the serving
wenches about the foreign woman only to be told she’d fallen ill and had been
removed from Mettle Tavern by the warlord Kil Q’an Tal, the brother of the
emperor and king of Tryston’s dominant red moon Morak. “Leastways, she was
mayhap a bound servant who fled from her Master,” the serving wench had
informed Kari. “He likely came to collect her and return her to his harem.”

Kari had swallowed rather roughly after hearing that, the
reality of what Trystonni warriors do to women they snare fortified in her
consciousness. That reinforcement alone should have made her overjoyed that the
giant hadn’t returned for her, yet it didn’t.

“I’m going crazy,” Kari whispered aloud. She closed her eyes
and prayed for sleep. “Let him go,” she instructed herself, “just let him go.”

* * * * *

“’Tis honored I am to have trained
you, Kari Gy’at Li.” Arista de Valor’s smile was infectious. “Leastways, what
little training you needed! By the sands, Klykka taught you well.”

“Thank you, Arista. That means a
lot coming from you. I’m certain Klykka will feel the same way.” Kari
nostalgically scanned her now former dressing room. “I’m actually going to miss
this place.” Her silver-blue gaze returned to the The de Valor. She absently
cast a glance over the High Mystik’s ever-perfect form. Arista always looked
stunning and tonight was no exception. The golden
zoka
and violet
sandals she wore accented her caramel coloring while drawing attention to her
almond-shaped, indigo eyes. “But I’ll especially miss you.”

“None of that, child.” Arista
embraced her with the warmth, pride, and bittersweet sentiment of a mother
telling her daughter goodbye just before the teenager left home for university.
“For a certainty you may visit me whenever you so desire. And do you ever need
me? You now understand how to pull me into
hyatzi
.”

Kari blew out a breath. “Let’s hope
the need for thought-lock never arises.”

“War is coming to Trek Mi Q’an,
child. Mayhap not for many moon-risings, but ‘twould be naïve to think we will
never again see battle.”

“Do you really believe we could
withstand an attack by Tryston?”

“If it came to that, aye, I do. And
after you complete the final, necessary step of your training in the warring
arts, you will believe it too.”

“They’re so big,” Kari murmured.
“And ruthless.”

“Yet they know naught of Galis
beyond the taverns and bartering stalls. Our technology, our training, even the
vast majority of our terrain…it all remains a mystery to them.” Arista smiled
as she released Kari from her embrace. “Do not waste your moon-risings fearing
the unlikely, child. The emperor has no reason to attack us.”

Kari blinked. One wine-red eyebrow
rose. “Then what do you mean about war coming to Trek Mi Q’an?”

Arista’s expression was
contemplative. “I cannot say as I do not know. ‘Tis naught but a feeling I
have, this.” Arista sighed. “Ancient I may be, but Ari I am not. Only She Who
is Borne of the Goddess can foretell destiny.”

“But this feeling…” Kari tried to
understand. “You don’t believe it has to do with Tryston and Galis going to
war?”

“Nay. If anything we will be
allies, just as we were when the insurrectionists of Tron wreaked their havoc
across the galaxy.”

“So the war coming to Trek Mi Q’an
will be started by those not from it?”

Arista was silent for a protracted
moment. “’Tis the gift of intuition bestowed upon females coupled with the
wisdom of an ancient that gives me…well, ’tis difficult to describe, but one
might call it a knowing. Not a seeing as Ari experiences, just a knowing.”

That was plenty of proof for Kari.
Arista was never wrong. “This knowing tells you war is coming?”

“A darkness has breached Trek Mi
Q’an.” The de Valor inclined her head. “Aye. ‘Tis the knowing that tells me war
will be made against it.”

Kari visibly shivered.

“None of that, child.” Arista smiled before embracing her a
final time. “You’ve two and a half moon-months of leisure to experience. Go
enjoy it.”

* * * * *

Kari returned to the
zoka
bartering stall she’d first visited upon her arrival in Crystal City. She
wanted to have a few more
zokas
made for her sisters and herself. Nyoki
Zha’Ri was eager to oblige. Apparently very few patrons ordered custom-made
zokas
because Nyoki seemed excited by the artistic challenge.

“I love the maroon one I’m
wearing,” Kari said. “It was purchased for me as a gift by The Gy’at Li.” She
whirled around to show the tradeswoman every angle. “I’m hoping you can make a
similar one that matches my hair a bit closer.”

“The color of the fire-berry?”
Nyoki’s chin notched up. “I can spin the jewels to be an exact match.”

“Really?”

“’Tis a vow amongst Galians.”

“How long will it take?”

“The gemstones I require must be
bartered from one of the far sectors before it can be spun.” She pursed her
lips in thought. “’Mayhap one moon-month? Leastways, two at most.”

“I’m not sure how much longer I’ll
be in Crystal City. If I pay extra credits can you send it by
yoma
when
it’s finished?”

Nyoki waved a hand. “I have never
charged a customer more credits for delivery do they dwell within Galis. For a
certainty I shan’t start now.” She grinned. “’Tis true then that The Gy’at Lis
still rely upon the
yoma
for travel and deliveries?”

“Klykka insists on keeping
everything as utilitarian and basic as possible. She doesn’t believe warriors
should ever rely on technology so very little in our sector is based on it.”
Kari grinned back. “So yeah, we still use the flying monkeys.”

“There’s no method of instant
transport available in your sector?”

“We have holo-ports for humanoids
coming to and going from our sector, but no transporters once you’re inside.
From there it’s all done by
yoma
.”

“I may just deliver the
zokas
myself. In all my moon-risings I’ve yet to see a
yoma
in person.”

“They are much bigger standing next
to you than they look in the sky.”

“Now I know ‘twill be I who makes
the delivery. I needs must see this!”

They chatted for a few more minutes
after which Kari paid the necessary credits for her purchases. “It’s been a
pleasure, Nyoki.” Kari smiled. “If I don’t see you again before I leave Crystal
City then I hope to see you in my sector.”

“You will,
galishi
. ‘Tis a
vow, that.”

Kari admired Klykka more after her
conversation with Nyoki Zha’Ri than she had before, which was saying a lot.
She’d never understood her adoptive sister’s insistence on retaining such
Spartan ways, but she got it now. Klykka was actually quite genius. If Galis
ever came under attack, the Gy’at Li sector would be the toughest to breach let
alone conquer. Technology couldn’t be used against them, making the
yoma
the only available transportation system. More loyal than dogs to their humans,
the flying monkeys of Gy’at Li would defend their humanoids to the death.

Kari strolled back toward the
purple, crystal dwelling that was her temporary abode. Lost in thought, she
didn’t realize she was being tracked.

Or that the one hunting her could
barely contain his fury.

Kari walked into the nearest
entrance pod of the purple, crystal edifice. The doors to the pod whisked shut
behind her. She held up her palm so the transporter could identify her and
instantaneously spit her out on the 700
^th
floor. Stepping out of the
transport, she heard the pod whizz shut.

“You permitted another warrior to
touch you.”

Kari yelped. Her eyes round and
heart racing, she whirled around to face the intruder.

Her breath caught in the back of
her throat. It was
him
. He hadn’t forgotten her after all. Half elated
to see him and half wary about his presence in Klykka’s penthouse, she latched
onto the latter. “How did you get in here?”

“Why did you permit another warrior
to taste you?”

“I asked you a question.”

“Why?”
he barked.

Kari’s nose wrinkled. “I don’t know
what you’re talking about.”

His golden gaze was frightening in
its intensity. His musculature, intimidating on a normal day, was increasingly
so tonight. She could see his vein-roped arms cording and tensing, which only
served to exaggerate her wariness. He looked ready to kill her where she stood.
Swallowing roughly, Kari instinctively took a step back.

“You permitted another warrior to
lick your channel.”

She blinked. “My channel?”

“Aye. Your channel.”

She ran a shaky hand through her
hair. “I don’t even know what a channel is and you never answered my question.”
She forced her chin up and feigned a sense of control over the situation she
didn’t feel. “Until you answer it, I’m done listening to this.”

“I have my ways,” the giant
murmured. “Leastways, you paid no heed to your surroundings when trekking back
from the bartering stalls. ‘Twas not difficult to enter the transport behind
you.”

How did a man so large walk so
quietly? There she went swallowing again.

For some reason, until this moment,
Kari hadn’t noticed all his tattoos. There was more than the skull on his
forehead—his chiseled arms were covered in them. The effect would have been
arousing under normal conditions, but in this circumstance it only added
further intimidation to his already commanding presence.

“A channel,” the warrior grimly
instructed Kari, “is what Galians call a pussy.” He took a single step, putting
him directly in front of her. “For a certainty you let another warrior touch
and lick upon it.”

Kari’s mouth worked up and down,
but nothing came out.

“Never lie to me,
pani
.”

Pani
. The Trystonni word for
“baby” that differed in meaning upon its context. Since she wasn’t his child, Kari
safely assumed he’d just called her by an intimate term of endearment.
Channel
must have been Trystonni slang for she’d never heard the word before, but
pani
she definitely knew. She didn’t know whether to feel honored or terrified.

“You mean during one of my last
shows?”

“Aye.”

She flung her arm out. “You weren’t
there and I had a job to do!” She took another step back so she could glare up
at his face. Her eyes narrowed. “I looked for you. Every night I looked!
Finally Arista started getting suspicious and asked why I hadn’t let another
patron bring me to peak.” Her lips turned down. “I did what I had to do.”

His glowing, gold gaze searched her
silvery-blue one. “You looked for me?”

Kari’s face blanched. She shouldn’t
be encouraging him. She knew what his kind did to women. She broke his stare
and cast her eyes downward.

“You looked for me?” His hand,
massive enough to crush her skull like a tin can, cradled her chin and gently
prodded it up. “Answer me,” he murmured.

“Yes,” she quietly admitted, “I did.”

His gaze searched hers. She wanted
him so bad she could cry.

“You should go.” Kari pulled away
and walked toward the doors, preparing to press the button that would summon
the pod. She had to remain strong and keep her promise to Klykka. “This can’t
happen. This can
never
happen.”

He didn’t move, just watched her.
“I can smell your arousal, wee one.”

Kari blew out a breath. She didn’t
know if he meant that literally, but suspected he did. Either way, his thickly
murmured words made her arousal a thousand times worse.

“I don’t even know your name,” Kari
said feebly. She regained her self-control long enough to wave a dismissive
hand. “Not that it matters because
this
can’t happen!”

“It can. And for a certainty, it
will.”

Her eyes widened. “You mean to rape
me?”

“I won’t have to rape you.”

She wished her mouth wasn’t
cotton-dry because the need to gulp yet again was paramount. “This,” she
shakily repeated, “can never happen.” She steeled herself against any argument
the warlord might make. She raised a palm. “I know what your kind do to women
and it won’t be done to me. You need to leave.
Please
.”

“What do we do?” he asked. His
expression was stoic, but his eyes were amused.

Her jaw tightened. “You steal
women. You put those weird necklaces around their necks—” She pointed toward
the bridal necklace he wore. “And throw them into harems where they’re never
heard from again.”

The amusement didn’t leave his
eyes. “Death.”

“Huh?”

“My name is Death.”

Chills worked up and down Kari’s
spine. Talk about throwing a bucket of ice water over the libido. “So you don’t
intend to rape me, just fuck me and kill me.” She knew her eyes were bulging
because they felt ready to pop out of her head. She reached for the button to
the pod, preparing to escape through it. “You people are even more barbaric
than legend allows, which is saying a lot!”

What the fuck have I done?! Holy
shit! I need to get out of here!

Her heart racing, Kari fumbled for
the button to the pod, not wanting to take her eyes off the towering,
eight-foot threat looming close to her. She ignored the fact he was staring at
her as though she were a simpleton.

“Stay back!” Kari yelled, her hand
still blindly searching for the escape button. “Nobody is killing me!”
Terrified, she gave the giant her back so she could see the pod’s control. “His
name is Death,” she hysterically mumbled to herself while pushing the button.
“All the men in Crystal City and I find the serial killer!”

The transporter’s doors whizzed
open. She ran inside, only to have a muscular arm unforgivingly snatch her back
into the penthouse. The scene was hopelessly reminiscent of Ann Darrow
attempting to flee from King Kong.

“’Tis my name, High Lord Death,” he
grunted. “’Tis not a bedamned metaphor nor a pronouncement of your impending
doom.”

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Kari
screamed, her body flailing against his hold. Her heart threatened to beat out
of her chest. “Somebody help
meeeeee
! A serial kil—” She abruptly
stopped kicking and fell limp. She was silent for a long moment while she
steadied her breathing. “Your actual name is fucking
Death
?!”

“Nay. Just Death. Not fucking
Death.”

She frowned at his shitty attempt
at humor. “That’s the stupidest name I’ve ever heard! What the hell was your
mother thinking, naming you that?! And put me down!”

“’Tis not the name bestowed upon me
at birth.” He set her on the ground. “’Tis the name I was given by my Master
whilst a slave.”

Kari blinked. She turned around to
face him. His golden gaze had dimmed somewhat, melting the righteous
indignation straight out of her. “You were a slave?”

“Aye.”

“And now a high lord?”

“Aye.”

She shook her head as if to clear
it. “Why didn’t you discard your slave name and reclaim your birth name?”

“And so I shall when he has died at
my hands.”

Now he was definitely talking about
killing someone, but this time Kari wasn’t frightened. Nor could she blame him.
The warlord had to be talking about the man who’d once owned him and lord only
knows what the giant endured while in chains.

She’d never been more confused in
her life. Her brain screamed to run, but her body wanted to stay exactly where
it was. The chaotic state of bewilderment she’d been thrust into was dizzying
in its force.

Kari had to make a choice and she
had to make it now. Listen to her head and obey Klykka as she always did or
follow her heart and succumb to eight feet of temptation. Why, why,
why
did this man who haunted her every thought have to be the one species of male
she couldn’t have?

He must have realized she was in
turmoil. The giant slowly ran a massive hand through her hair. “The color of
the fire-berry,” he softly rumbled. “’Tis as beautiful as you.”

Kari closed her eyes and sipped in
a few calming breaths. She was tired of fighting him off in her dreams and had
even less desire to fend him off in reality. This thrust and parry pretense was
exhausting and futile. She knew what she wanted; she’d realized it the first
moment she saw him.

Kari opened her eyes and slowly
looked up. There would be no more lying to herself or to him, no more running
from what “the gift” screamed was right. Klykka might never understand her
choice, but neither did The Gy’at Li have to live with the “what-ifs” Kari
understood would forever haunt her if she walked away from this moment in time.

She gently cleared her throat. Her
gaze searched his. “I’m not calling you ‘Death’.”

He studied her face. “Why not?”

“Because I’ve been in this galaxy
for seventeen Yessat Years and the only time I’ve truly felt alive is when
you’re looking at me.”

Silence.

The tension was thick, but the
burden of pretending had been lifted from her. When the warrior remained
silent, Kari experienced a moment of trepidation from her honesty. In the end,
no matter what happened, she decided she wouldn’t regret being true to herself.

“Isar,” the giant finally murmured.
“My name is Isar Kal Draji.”

Her eyes softened and her heart
skipped a beat. “Isar,” Kari whispered. “That’s a beautiful name.”

“I would that I could put my
necklace on you. Leastways, you are safe,
pani
, for I will not test you
as a Sacred Mate until the evil has been vanquished.”

She had no idea what most of his
words meant, but she rightly concluded he wouldn’t steal her away and throw her
into a harem. She just wished that knowledge felt as liberating as it should.

“You are a virgin,” he said
thickly.

The sudden change in topic threw
her for a moment. “No.” She looked away. “It’s been a long time, but I’m not a
virgin.”

“You do not carry the scent of a
warrior.”

Her head flew back up. “You can
smell that?!” Did Trystonni males have heightened senses like animals or
something? “And I didn’t say I was with a warrior.”

“A humanoid of a lower species?”

Kari frowned. “Of
my
species, yes.”

There went his eyes, dancing again.
The change would have been imperceptible to anyone not closely studying him.

“My people do not consider wenches
of any species to be lowly. Leastways, only their males are below our notice.”

Kari swallowed with a little less
difficulty. His speech reeked of unintentional arrogance, but she could live
with that. It didn’t matter what value or lack thereof he placed on male humans
because the chances of him ever meeting one was in the zilch-to-nada range. She
didn’t agree human men were lesser beings than warriors, but she wearily
admitted
any
male paled in comparison to the tattooed one standing
before her. At least where she was concerned.

“’Twill hurt,” Death said.

Kari blinked a few times. She
wasn’t following his train of thought. “What will hurt?”

“The first time I impale you.”

She wet her lips. The apprehension
and doubt was returning.

“Leastways, I will be gentle with
you when I breach your maidenhead, but once your channel accepts my shaft
inside and you are a virgin no more, I make no vow that I can continue to be
gentle.”

He hadn’t even touched her and
already she was wet. She blew out a breath.

“Make no mistake,
pani
. You
are mine and your virginity belongs to me.”

He really viewed her as a virgin.
She hesitantly wondered just how well endowed the giant was.

“Remove your
zoka
,” Death
said thickly. “Then lead me to your bedchamber.”

This was everything Kari wasn’t
supposed to let happen—and everything she wanted more than air to breathe. She
raised a beleaguered palm to her forehead. “What the hell is happening to me?”
she dramatically wailed. “Seventeen Yessat Years I’ve been in this crazy place
and the first man I’m attracted to is causing me to lose what’s left of my
mind!”

“Remove your
zoka
lest I
remove it for you.”

Her clit pulsed. She shouldn’t
break her vow to Klykka, but every word he uttered made her arousal grow
stronger. “Isar…”

“Don’t force me to test you,” the
warrior warned. His words were spoken in a deep, gravelly timbre with a hint of
reverberation—much like a computer-synthesized voice back home—and they made no
sense to her. “Do you pass the test, ’twill make it nigh unto excruciating for
the both of us when I must leave to hunt him.”

“Test me? I don’t understand what
you’re talking—hey!”

Kari yelped as her
zoka
and
sandals fell to the ground. She was completely naked. “What the hell happ— Did
you do this?” Nobody had warned her that Trystonni warriors possessed
telekinetic powers! She was clearly out of her league here. “How did you…”

The giant’s expression, for once
not stoic, looked pained. She didn’t understand anything that was happening, or
why being able to remove her clothing with his mind was significant to him, but
for reasons she couldn’t explain the thought of him hurting was unbearable. Her
face softened. “Isar…”