Alien (29 page)

“Do not be sad,
pani
,” Isar
murmured, “for it makes me sad when you are.”

“I’m trying not to be,” Kari
whispered, “but we both know our time together is nearing its end.”

“Only for a while.”

Kari knew differently, but said
nothing. She morosely decided the plot of
Romeo and Juliet
was too close
to home for her liking.

Standing up, she walked to where
the warlord sat. She got on her knees and fumbled with his leather pants until
his long, thick, hard cock sprang free. She looked up and met his glowing gaze
while she stroked his shaft. His intake of breath was quickly followed by a
massive hand entwining its fingers in her hair.

“Fuck me with your mouth,” Isar
said hoarsely. “I needs be close to you.”

“Don’t ever forget me,” Kari
murmured, her heart wrenching, “because I’ll never forget you.”

He opened his mouth to speak.
“Shhh,” Kari said softly, “right now we have each other and it’s all I need.”

She lowered her head and took his
cock into her mouth. His low growl of approval made her want to please him all
the more. She slowly began sucking his shaft, taking in as much of him as was
humanly possible.

“Kara,” he hissed. His fingers
wrapped tighter around her tendrils of hair. “Suck him hard,
pani
.”

Her nipples stiffened at his
provocative words. She picked up the pace, sucking his cock in fast, deep
strokes. His groans of pleasure mingled with the sound of wet mouth meeting
rigid flesh. Her head bobbed up and down as she ferociously sucked him off,
ready and wanting to taste his cum.

“Faster,”
Isar gritted out.
“I’m almost there,
pani
.”

Kari sucked his cock harder and
faster, her throat opening for his huge erection. She took him in impossibly
deeper while maintaining a feverish pace. She fucked him with her wet mouth,
over and over, again and again. When his entire body tensed, she sucked even
harder, her head wildly bobbing up and down.

“I’m coming,” he said thickly. “
I’m
com
—”

Isar came on a roar, his flexed
body convulsing, as he spurted his hot cum into her mouth. Kari moaned as she
drank him, her mouth and throat still sucking him off, milking him of
everything he had to give. She kept sucking and sucking, like a grown baby on a
bottle, until a harder, final spurt of cum erupted in her mouth. He groaned as
she eagerly drank from him, loving the taste of his seed.

His breathing was ragged, his skin
slick with perspiration. The moment her mouth stopped milking him, he lifted
her onto his lap. Kari plunged down onto his cock, her tight pussy enveloping
him, causing both of them to moan. The warrior lowered his head and sucked on
her erect nipples like lollipops while she rode him to orgasm.

“And so you know?” Isar said,
panting. “For a certainty I love your perversions.”

Kari grinned and kept riding him.

“I asked you
not
to
penetrate me,” Kari hissed as the pod spat them back out into Klykka’s Crystal
City palace. “But you did. What if Arista tells my sister?!”

“I seem to recall you begged me for
it,” Isar reminded her. His stance and timbre reeked of arrogance. “Leastways,
the hard fucking I gave you knocked out every bedamned warrior within an hour
of Crystal City.”

Kari agitatedly ran a hand through
her long mane of curls. “Only because you got me so worked up. You could have
saved that for when we got back here, you know.”

“Aye.”

She frowned at his admission. He
had told her he wanted everyone to know she belonged to him and had taken it
upon himself to demonstrate as much. Now when called out on it, he
unapologetically confirmed he had done so. She sighed. She supposed the bright
side was the warrior didn’t bother with lying.

“Kara,” Isar said thickly, calling
her by her birth name. He took her hand and placed it on the bulge in his
leather pants. She could feel his massive erection beneath her palm. “I needs
be inside you.”

Kari wet her lips. It wasn’t
natural to be this horny thirty
Nuba
-minutes after engaging in sex. She
didn’t understand the effect this man had on her, but she was tired of trying
to analyze it. “You’re driving me insane.”

“Insane?”

“Mad, daft.”

“I’m already there,” Isar murmured.
“’Tis a boon do we go daft together.”

Kari half snorted and half laughed.
“That doesn’t even make sense.” She grinned, her dimples showing, as she
squeezed his erection. “But you’re so sexy I’ll let you get away with it.”

His expression grew serious. “I
love you, Kara. No matter what fate decides, know that I always will.”

Her hand dropped to her side. Her
gaze softened. She could feel his pain again as though it were her own. “I love
you too, Isar, and I always will.”

The warlord picked her up as though
she weighed no more than a flower and carried her into the bedchamber. Their
sex that night wasn’t rough and animalistic, but all-consuming and emotional.

Isar had given her another first.
Until this night, Kari had no idea what it felt like to make love.

* * * * *

Kari had stopped keeping track of
the days and no longer knew how many had passed. Seven? Nine? Ten thousand? It
didn’t matter; she could never get enough of Isar Kal Draji. And therein lay
the problem.

The more time she spent in his
presence, the more difficult the idea of separating from him became. Their
holiday together was a hairsbreadth from ending. Once upon a time she’d been
heartbroken when she thought he’d left Galis without saying goodbye; now Kari
wondered if that parting farewell was a word she could handle hearing.

“Maybe I should leave Crystal City
now, while Isar is out attending to business,” she murmured to herself. Her
heart was heavy—and broken. “At least then I could pretend it’s not
goodbye
and only a
to be continued
.” Sighing, she sank down into her favorite
vesha
-soft
crystal chair on the balcony. “I don’t know what I’m doing anymore.”

“Mayhap you are desirous of my
counsel?”

“Not really,” Kari said, her voice
as monotone as Rumschlag’s, “but I’m sure you’ll give it to me anyway.”

“Like as not, aye.”

Kari grunted. “You barely spoke
when I arrived in Crystal City. Hell, you didn’t even tell me how the bathing
chamber worked or how to order food for that matter! Now you rarely shut up.
I’m starting to wax nostalgic for the old days.”

“’Tis rubber I am, ‘tis glue you
are.”

Kari plopped her elbow onto the
table and her chin onto her palm. “Your English is improving at least. Go on.
Counsel away.”

“’Twill injure the warlord’s
feelings do you take your leave without giving him your farewell, yet ‘twill
pain you sorely do you say it to him.”

“Thanks for the recap. You’re a
regular Oracle of Delphi.”

“I know naught of this Oracle,
yet I recognize sarcasm when I hear it. Do you desire my counsel or nay?”

Kari sighed. She really had nothing
to lose. “Okay, Rumschlag. I’m listening.”

“I have run all the variables
and calculated all the probabilities in 30,000,000,105 known mathematical
systems. Leastways, you should take your leave of Crystal City the soonest.”

“I don’t want to hurt him,” she
whispered.

“Leave a holo-message with me
and I shall give it to the High Lord upon his return.”

Kari closed her eyes.

“I sense you wish to gaze upon
him a final time, yet my calculations assure me ‘tis wiser do you not.”

“Because I’ll hurt even more than I
otherwise would?” Assuming that was in the realm of possibility. “Or because
it’ll hurt us both?”

“Probability suggests that when
faced with the reality of separation, the warlord will defy the path the
goddess has decreed and steal you away from Galis.”

Kari’s pulse picked up. She lifted
her head. “Really?”

“’Tis foolhardy do you give him
this opportunity, even do you desire it. Leastways, he can never truly be free
of the mental chains that bind him do you not force his hand that he might walk
the path the goddess has so decreed.”

The former master Isar had spoken
of. The one he was determined to track down and eradicate.

“You will be all hindrance and
no help, Kari Gy’at Li, for you’ve still to complete your training in the
warring arts.”

“Can you read my damn mind?” Kari
asked, her irritation apparent. She rubbed her weary temples. “Don’t answer
that. I’m sure I don’t want to know.”

“I sense that you are desirous
of
matpow
. Shall I have a carafe delivered?”

“Make it two, Rumschlag,” Kari
muttered. She sighed. “I have a feeling I’m going to need it.”

* * * * *

Safely ensconced in her rooms back
in the Gy’at Li sector, Kari didn’t know whether or not she wished to see the
holo-image Rumschlag had transmitted to her. She’d been back home for nearly a
week and had been in possession of the as yet unviewed transmission for almost
as long. It was time to make a choice. Klykka and Dorra were expected to return
from their pack-hunt in a mere few
Nuba
-hours. If she wanted to view the
holo-image without worrying someone would walk in on her while watching it, the
time to do so was now.

Kari nibbled at her bottom lip, an
anxious quirk she’d developed this past week. One of the manservants had even
commented on it, pointing out how raw her mouth looked. She couldn’t help it.
Every time she contemplated Isar’s possible reactions, she unconsciously
resumed the biting. Was Isar angry? Hurt? Unaffected? Unfortunately, none of
the possibilities would make her feel better. And yet…

“Who am I kidding?” Kari whispered
to the walls. “I have to know what happened. I’ll drive myself crazy
otherwise.”

She took a deep, steadying breath.
As prepared as she ever would be, Kari reached out a shaky hand and pressed the
button. The recorded memory instantly zinged to life.

“I’m sorry I ran, Isar.”

Kari watched her hologram spill out
her apology to the warlord. Her heart raced just seeing him again, even if it
was only in holo-memory.

“I just couldn’t bear to hear
you say goodbye. Nor could I bear saying that word to you. Just know that I
will never forget you and I will keep the memories of our time together close
to my heart.”

Isar reached out a heavily muscled
arm, his hand extending as if wanting to touch her, though he realized she
wasn’t actually there. Kari’s eyes filled with unshed tears. She knew too well
how he felt.

“You have a path you must walk
and a destiny to fulfill. I fear that my presence will only serve to distract
you from that goal. You deserve to be whole again. You deserve to feel worthy
of your birth name.”

He said nothing, only listened, but
his eyes blazed with emotion.

“When you love someone—I mean
truly love that person with all that you are—their happiness becomes more
important to you than your own. This is the love I have for you, Isar Kal Draji.
And this is why I had to leave.”

The warlord lifted his hand to her
holographic face. He wanted to wipe away the single tear that had spilled down
her cheek. Kari watched in silence, the scene as humbling as it was
heart-wrenching.

“Whether our paths are destined
to cross again in this lifetime or whether we must wait to be reunited at the
Rah, know that I will always—
always
—love you.”
Her final words were
a whisper.
“Goodbye, my love.”

Kari couldn’t stop the tears from
flowing as Isar spoke to her hologram.

“I love you too,
pani
.”
His
voice caught in his throat.
“Goodbye, my beloved.”

The recorded memory zapped out of
existence. Kari collapsed onto her bed and sat there unblinking. She stared at
nothing for a long moment, praying the numbness she felt would stay.

It didn’t. Kari Gy’at Li, born Kara
Summers, slid to the floor of her bedchamber. The tears turned to weeping and
the weeping into body-racking sobs of anguish. She was completely and
irrevocably broken.

Two
Moon-risings Outside Khan-Gori Airspace

Zyrus
Galaxy, Seventh Dimension

6049 Y.Y. (Yessat
Years)

Kari Gy’at Li studied Princess Dari
Q’ana Tal’s wide-eyed expression. She’d finished telling her story and the
princess looked ready to faint. Out of all the horrors Dari had endured, surely
Kari’s life story wasn’t
that
freaky. She hesitated. Her deductive
reasoning skills were usually spot-on, but this situation eluded her.

“Dari,” Kari said, “Why are you so
upset? Is it—oh damn.” She sucked in a gulp of air through her teeth. “I’ve
already considered the possibility that the evil Isar was hunting is the same
one we hunt now. My training in the warring arts was completed long ago so I’m
more formidable an adversary than I once was.”

“I feared as much. About the evil
one I mean. Leastways, ‘tis not the cause of my upset.”

Kari’s face scrunched up. “Then
what is?” Her eyes rounded as the answer struck her. “I forgot you are still a
virgin. I shouldn’t have been so graphic in the details.” She grimaced.
“Forgive me?”

The princess’s mouth worked up and
down, but no words came out. Kari stared at her quizzically, not understanding
Dari’s reaction.

Kara—the very high princess whose
birth had required Kari to change her name—had been taken in by the Gy’at Lis
as one of their own. Before Kara’s Sacred Mate had tracked her down in Galis,
she’d lived many years in Klykka’s stronghold. Kara’s stories of Tryston had
been terrifying, but enlightening. As such, Kari knew that Trystonni females
were accustomed to seeing decadent displays of sexuality so hearing about them
shouldn’t be this anxiety-provoking.

“’Tis true I am a virgin,” Dari
stuttered out, “yet I find naught offensive in your tale.”

Kari frowned. One wine-red eyebrow
inched up. “Then what is wrong, sweetheart? I’m confused.”

Dari’s glowing blue eyes were round
as saucers. Her hands were shaking. By the time the young princess made eye
contact with her, Kari felt as nervous as Dari looked. She swallowed heavily.

“What is it?” Kari whispered. “Tell
me.”

“There is something you needs must
know. Leastways, there are several things.” The princess took a deep breath.
“For a certainty I know not where to begin.”

Kari’s eyes were as wide as Dari’s.
A chill worked up and down her spine. “Begin anywhere, but please do start.”

Dari inclined her head. She was
quiet for a long moment before she finally spoke. “The sister you mourn, the
one you say has been dead for mayhap hundreds of Earth years?”

“Kyra.” Kari’s gaze fell to her
lap. Hundreds of thousands of Earth years could go by and the pain would still
be as fresh as it was the day she arrived on Galis. She sighed before raising
her head to meet Dari’s gaze. “My sister’s name is Kyra.”

“Your name was taken from you.”

Kari’s forehead crinkled. “What does that have to do with—”

“Please,” Dari said, holding up a
palm, “let me say all what needs be said.”

“Okay,” she replied, her voice
lowering in timbre. “I’m listening.”

“Your name was taken from you upon
the birth of the High Princess Kara Q’ana Tal. ‘Tis an odd name in Trek Mi
Q’an, Kara is.” At Kari’s nod, Dari continued. “Kara, my cousin, was named by
her
mani
—mother.”

“I realize we’re conversing in
Galian, but I speak Trystonni fluently. I know that
mani
means mother.”

“Kara’s
mani
, the empress,
named her in deference to the memory of her dead, beloved sister.”

Kari rubbed her temples. “Dari, that’s
a sweet story, but we have a lot of important matters to discuss. Every moment
brings us closer to Khan-Gor if indeed this planet even exists! I need to know
what awaits us there.” Her expression softened. “You’re a sweet girl telling me
heartwarming stories, but right now I’m more concerned with keeping you and
Bazi alive than with—”

“The empress’ name is Kyra,” Dari
interrupted. “Kyra Q’ana Tal.” She grasped Kari’s hand. “She was born in first
dimension Earth by the birth name of Summers.”

Kari’s eyes widened. Her heart
raced and her breathing grew labored. “Why would you say this?” she gasped,
pulling her hand from Dari’s grasp. “Is this some cruel joke? What the—”

“My
mani
was also born in
the first dimension,” Dari continued, undeterred. “Her name then was Geris
Jackson, daughter of Hera Jackson. Hera was a famed singer on a planet called
Broadway.”

“I never told you about Hera,” Kari
breathed out, her voice guttural. She sounded like a wounded animal. “You
couldn’t have known that.” Her eyes were wild, her face drained of color.
“Unless…”

Dari removed the anklet she wore, a
bangle with a single holo-charm dangling from it. She handed it to Kari. “Look
through the holo-images in the charm,” the princess softly instructed. Her
glowing blue eyes were filled with emotion.
“Please.”

Kari’s hands shook as she accepted
the charm. Everything felt surreal, like it was happening to someone else.

She turned the charm on and the
holo-images zapped to life. Her heart raced faster as a three-dimensional
photograph of two best friends opened before her. “Oh my God,” Kari murmured,
her voice hoarse. The strongest chill she’d ever experienced coursed down the
length of her spine. “Oh my God.”

* * * * *

Meanwhile, also in
Zyrus Galaxy…

“Dari’s holo-charm has been turned
on!” King Kil Q’an Tal announced on a roar. He could hear the heavy footfalls
of warriors rushing toward the front of the gastrolight cruiser. “Leastways,
I’m trying to bring up the signal without alerting her.”

“Is my hatchling alive?” Kil’s
brother bellowed. King Dak Q’an Tal ran toward his elder sibling. The anguish
he felt from failing to protect his beloved daughter was extreme. “Is my Dari
alive?” he growled.

Gio, Dari’s betrothed, ran beside
Dak. The desperation he felt just to see her holo-image was apparent to any
warrior who looked upon him. “If she has passed through the Rah,” he rasped,
“’tis my desire to reunite with her there.”

“Cease this bedamned talk of doom!”
the emperor shouted. Zor Q’an Tal, the eldest of the brothers, slashed a hand
through the air. “’Tis a command!” His teeth gritted as he addressed his
brothers and his niece’s betrothed. “Leastways, the only warrior on this gastrolight
cruiser not driving me nigh into panic is High Lord Death.” He absently waved a
hand toward the giant in question. “‘Twould be wise did the lot of you follow
his lead.”

Death’s golden gaze revealed
nothing, but in truth he was mayhap in more agony than all of them combined.
All those Yessat Years past, had he held his tongue when the young princess had
innocently flirted with him rather than follow the obligatory protocol of
debriefing her sire, Dari never would have been removed to Arak and ‘twould be
safely in Tryston. And then to find out the evil he hunted had been on Arak
terrifying Dari all the while…’twas difficult to forgive himself.

Death maintained his composure on
the outside, yet felt anything but on the inside. ‘Twas the young princess all
the warriors fretted over, but he knew for a certainty his unclaimed Sacred
Mate would die did it mean saving her. It angered him that the others cared
naught of the fate of Kari Gy’at Li, yet neither did they know she belonged to
him. Leastways, they should still care. “Does her companion live?” he asked
Kil, his voice betraying no emotion.

“Even if she does,” Kil answered,
“she will still be sent to the gulch pits for aiding and abetting Dari’s
escape.”

Death’s jaw tightened. “You would
rather Dari be alone than accompanied by a woman skilled in the warring arts?”

“Nay,” Kil answered, “but ‘tis the
holy law.”

“Laws can be changed.” His glowing
golden gaze narrowed at the emperor. “Leastways, do you desire me to continue
to rule o’er your sectors, the law
will
be changed.”

All the warriors fell silent as
they gaped at him. For a certainty High Lord Death was known for his loyalty.
That he would throw down a gauntlet against the ruling family of Trek Mi Q’an
for a wench was startling.

“Have you gone daft?” Kil asked,
bemused. “What does this wench—” His glowing blue gaze widened in
comprehension. His jaw dropped. “She belongs to you?”

“She’s your Sacred Mate?” the
emperor asked, shocked. “The Galian?”

All eyes were trained on High Lord
Death, including those of the fourth and final Q’an Tal brother, King Rem,
who’d just joined them. None of the warriors had seen this development coming.

“Aye,” Death confirmed, “she is.”

Silence.

“Why then did you not claim her?”
Dak, Dari’s sire, asked. “How could you withstand the anguish?”

Anguish was too gentle a word for
the bleak emptiness that had consumed him o’er the years. Once a warrior found
the only female in all the galaxies who could biologically complete him, being
removed from her was the most painful of torture.

“She ran from me,” Death admitted.

“A hunter of your skill could have
located her.” Kil stated what every warrior was thinking. “And you’ve a lock on
her scent does she belong to you.”

“Why?” the emperor quietly asked.
Zor shook his head as if to clear it. “Leastways, I would that I could
understand.”

Death hadn’t wanted to burden them
with what he knew until they caught up with the gastrolight cruiser they were
trailing. ‘Twould bring naught but more worry to every warrior aboard ship. In
the end, he realized he had to tell them for he’d already said too much.

“The one that Dari trails…”

“Who?” Gio growled. “The male in
her company?”

“How could Dari follow a male in
her company, dunce?” Kil rolled his eyes. “Leastways, I know in my hearts Dari
would never betray you. Whoever that male aboard the cruiser is none can say,
but she protects him like a mother, not a lover.”

Gio’s nostrils flared, but he said
nothing.

“Dari spoke of an evil,” Death
continued. “Leastways, I believe she shields the male from it.”

Gio’s eyebrows drew together. “You
believe this evil to be real? ‘Tis naught but the imaginings of my runaway
bride.”

“Nay,” Death said softly, “’tis far
from imaginary. For a certainty I have been tracking the evil one for more
Yessat Years than I care to dwell upon.”

“’Tis why you didn’t claim your
Sacred Mate,” the emperor announced, his voice monotone. It was all starting to
make sense. “You desired to vanquish this evil afore putting your necklace upon
her.”

“Aye,” Death confirmed. “’Tis true,
your words.”

The warriors fell silent again as
they contemplated the implications. If High Lord Death said the evil one was
real then so it was.

“You thought to protect her from
the very thing she now chases,” Gio said. He stared unblinking, lost in
thought. His jaw clenched. “As my betrothed pursues it to protect that bedamned
male.”

“Mayhap to protect you,” Death said
pointedly.

Gio blinked. His gaze flew to the
High Lord. “Me? She thinks me so weak that—”

“Enough!” Death bellowed,
commanding everyone’s undivided attention. “For a certainty am I angered
listening to your bedamned self-pity.” His nostrils flared. “The girl-child
obviously loves you for she has sacrificed herself that you might live!”

Gio’s eyes rounded.

“You know naught of the evil one,”
Death ground out. He slashed his hand through the air. “You know naught of its
trickery, of its deceptions, or its power! Yet all that consumes you is
thoughts of this male in Dari’s company—a male who could himself be a child for
as much as we know! ‘Tis a vow amongst warriors I will kill you myself do you
not cease your self-pitying ways and think only of the princess who has shown
herself ready to die for you!”

The warriors once again fell into
silence. Rem, who’d said nothing up to this point, grunted his approval of
Death’s verdict.

Gio ran a shaking hand across his
jaw. He understood now what Dari had done for him. He fell to his knees in
anguish. “I do not deserve her,” he rasped out.

Silence.

“Aye you do,” Death said quietly.
“Leastways, you are a good man and a warrior second to none. But ‘tis time to
put aside the jealousy of a male removed from his mate and prepare to fight for
her.”

Gio inclined his head. “Aye. I
would die for her.”

“We know,” Dak said in low tones.
His expression betrayed him for who he was—a warrior racked with grief and
desperation to find and save his daughter. “Have you been able to harness the
holo-charm’s signal?” he asked Kil, changing the subject. Dak cleared his
throat, obviously trying to steady himself. “Have you seen Dari?”

“I’ve almost got it,” Kil answered.
“Just a few more
Nuba
-minutes.”

“How do you know this evil one?”
the emperor asked Death. “When did your paths cross?”

All eyes looked to Death. His stoic
face didn’t betray a hint of the pain wreaking havoc on his insides.

“Our paths crossed,” Death
murmured, “the day it bought me and named me.”