Alien Protector: Sci-Fi Alien Invasion Paranormal Romance (9 page)

But putting it off wouldn’t make it any less crappy to hear, so she squared her shoulders and nodded. “Yeah, of course. What’s up?”

“I…” Draco faltered, finally looking up at her with a helpless expression on her face. “I’m not sure where to start, actually. Some things have...changed. And not for the better.”

“And so you don’t want to see me anymore?” she asked, trying to spare him having to drag this out.

He blinked and shook his head. “No, that’s… No. That’s not what I’m trying to say.”

Oh. Well, then. Stephanie brightened and leaned on the counter in front of her. “Then what is it? You’re not going to tell me you’re actually an illegal alien and you need to marry me to stay in the country, are you?”

Draco frowned, opened his mouth, and then closed it again. “Well. I don’t know about the illegal part or the-”

Steph’s eyes widened and she pushed off from the counter, appalled. “You have
got
to be kidding!” she said, louder than she’d meant to, cutting him off. “That’s what this whole thing has been about? Not because you
liked
me but because you’re from another
country
and need someone stupid enough to get involved in this with you? And you thought, what? You buy me one dinner and that’s enough for me to just say sure, yeah! Let’s get married!”

“Stephanie, I don’t-”

“You don’t
what
?” she snapped. “God, you know, I know this stuff happens on TV all the time, and in movies, but I didn’t think it was something people actually tried in real life. Unless they were really, really desperate.”

“I
am
desperate,” Draco said, standing and moving closer. “But I’m not from another country, and I’m certainly not trying to
marry
you.”

“Oh, what? I’m not good enough?”

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Will you please just listen to me? I
do
need your help, but it’s… I need to explain first.”

Stephanie folded her arms over her chest while the coffee maker bubbled and brewed behind her. “Fine,” she said. “Explain.”

Draco looked almost taken aback to be allowed the opportunity, and he nodded, faltering again when he tried to speak. I guess there’s nothing to do but come out and say it,” he said. “Do you remember how you told me one of your colleagues made a joke about the blade being from another planet?”

She nodded, unsure of what that had to do with anything. “Yeah, I do.”

“Well, if the blade came from another planet, then it would stand to reason that there are
people
out there on other planets making things like that, right?”

“I...guess so, yeah. But I never said that I believed the blade came from somewhere else.”

“No, you didn’t,” Draco agreed. “But it does make sense, and I think you know that. And it’s true. The blade comes from a planet called Aldara. And so do I.”

The room was plunged into silence after his pronouncement, and Stephanie gaped at him for long moments. There was no hint of mirth in his eyes or amusement on his face, so either he believed his was telling the truth or...or he
was.

She laughed shakily. “Yeah, okay,” she said. “You’re an actual
alien
as in an extraterrestrial. Right. Of course. And you’re here to do what? Collect information and take it back to the mother ship?”

“It’s
not
a joke,” Draco snapped, sounding agitated. “I can prove it.”

“How? Are you going to take me back with you to your other planet?” She wiggled her fingers as she spoke, trying to make light of the fact that she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do now.

“Come here,” he said, and his voice was as commanding as she had ever heard it before. “I want to show you something.”

In his hand was a device, about the size of one of the latest smartphones. Without even really thinking about it, Stephanie found herself moving closer, frowning as she peered at it. It didn’t look like any model she’d ever seen before, and none of the writing on it appeared to be in English. Or even in the standard alphabet.

Draco swiped a finger across the screen a few times and then appeared to find what he was looking for, turning the device to show her. “Do these markings look familiar?” he asked.

It was a picture of what appeared to be a wall, covered in thick vines the likes of which she’d never seen before and weathered away by, well,
weather.
She frowned and leaned closer, just about making out a set of six runes carved into the stone. Her eyes widened as it hit her that they were almost exactly the same as the ones on the blade.

“Where is this?” she whispered.

“A planet called Hordura,” Draco replied. “Where I found the first Artifact.”

“The first what?”

“The blade you found is part of a set. That’s why you just have the blade. There’s a hilt and pommel and a sheath that go with it. Together they make up the Cillidan Artifacts, a trio of objects that my people have been trying to put together for ages. My friend has the first two already. Well, he
had
them, but they were stolen.”

Stephanie finally looked away from the screen and back up at his face. She had that familiar feeling in her bones where she knew something exciting was about to happen, and she wondered how she’d gone from thinking Draco was a bit off his nut to being interested in what he had to say.

However fantastical his story was, Stephanie found that she believed him, and she wanted to know more.

“Tell me everything.”

Draco nodded and sat back down on the couch. Stephanie moved to get her coffee and then perched on the armchair, watching him closely.

“I didn’t mean to lie to you,” Draco started and then made a face. “Alright,
that’s
not true. I did mean to lie. I thought that I could just...win you over and get the blade and be gone before you were the wiser.” He cut off her indignant protest with one hand. “I’m sorry, but you don’t understand yet. Like I said, things have changed.”

He took a deep breath and then began.

“Cillidan was a king. Some say he was a Daebtheri, some say he was something else, but since there aren’t any pictures of him, no one knows. What
is
known is that he was one of the most powerful and wealthy kings Aldara has ever had. None of his enemies were able to defeat him, and people gave him tribute just so that he wouldn’t attack their lands.”

“He sounds like a bully,” Steph interrupted.

Draco shrugged. “Maybe. But his people prospered when he was in charge. The thing about it is that no one knew why he was so powerful. They assumed that it was just because he had a large army or because there was a wizard on his side or something like that. But it wasn’t the case. When Cillidan died, three items were found with his body. A hilt, a sheath, and a blade. No one had ever seen him wield a weapon, so they didn’t know where the objects had come from, but they were clearly Cillidan’s possessions, and the runes on the blade proved it even more.”

“What do they say?”

“Long live oh, king of kings,” Draco recited. “They were buried with Cillidan and stayed in his tomb for decades. Until one day they were dug up and they disappeared, scattered across the galaxy.”

Stephanie waited to see if there was more, but it appeared that was the end of the story. “But what happened? Who dug them up?”

“No one knows. This all happened about three hundred years ago, and the history tomes are very closed mouthed about it. The Artifacts became a kind of legend on my planet and on the planets surrounding it. People said that whoever could unite them would get the favor of Cillidan and bring honor to their kind. Which is why I assumed that Plintos, my friend, wanted them together so badly. He’s the king of our people, you see. But it turns out that I didn’t have all the information. Together, the Artifacts don’t bring you Cillidan’s favor. They give you Cillidan’s power. Because together they make a powerful weapon, like nothing anyone has ever seen before. According to Plintos anyway.”

“And you said...you said that someone stole the other two from your friend?”

“I did.”

She blinked, chewing on her lip. “So you think they’re coming after the third one, then. The one at the museum.”

Draco inclined his head. “I do.”

Stephanie watched him for a moment, thinking hard. “When you said you needed my help, what you meant was that you need me to help you to get the blade,” she said finally. “That’s why you’ve been so interested in it, isn’t it?” She very purposely did not follow that with wanting to know if it was the only reason he was interested in
her.

“Yes,” Draco admitted. “I was hoping that I could get it and then get back to Aldara without much hassle. Of course that’s different now.”

“What do you need me for now?” Stephanie wanted to know, trying not to let her tone be too bitter. Of course it had been too good to be true. She should have expected that from the get go. There was no way that Draco was just...that interested in her. Their conversations had been almost effortless with how well they’d worked together, but it had all been an act from the beginning.

“For now it’s more important that whoever is after the blade doesn’t get it,” Draco replied. “According to Plintos, who would know, if they got their hands on all three Artifacts, the devastation they could bring would be terrible.”

“Bring here or bring against your people?”

“I don’t know. Neither does Plintos. We don’t know who this is, but it’s been ages since our corner of Aldara has seen fighting. There’s no telling who this is or what they want, and it’d be short sighted to assume that they wouldn’t do anything to your planet in their efforts to get what they want.”

“Right,” she said, rubbing at her forehead. For one of the first times in her life, she was dealing with information overload, and she wasn’t sure how to deal with it. Usually she had some frame of reference for the things she learned, but all of this was so new and so different and so out of her depth. Aliens and magical weapons and just...
all
of it.

What was really sticking with her, of course, was the way he had been planning to use her to steal from the museum and then just disappear. Try as she might, she couldn’t help but be hurt by it, and she had to look away from him to keep the emotion from showing in her eyes.

“Well,” she continued, shaking her head to clear it. “It shouldn’t be hard to keep whoever it is from getting the blade. It’s under lock and key, except for when it’s being examined, and the research team wouldn’t let anything happen to it. It would help if we knew a bit more about who these people or creatures or whatever are.”

Draco sighed. “You’re telling me,” he said. “Plintos is investigating. Someone in the palace had to have seen something. He’ll let me know when he knows something.”

“Just keep me posted,” Steph said with a brightness that she didn’t feel. She got to her feet, cradling her empty coffee cup and still not looking at him. “I’ll put some clothes on and then take you back to your place.”

“Alright,” Draco replied softly. “Thank you.”

Stephanie got as far as the kitchen before he spoke again. “I am sorry, you know. I didn’t expect…”

She waved the apology away, shaking her head. “No, no, it’s fine. Someone threw a wrench in your plans, right? You never wanted to have to explain all of this to me.”

“That’s not exactly what I was going to say.”

“Still. It’s fine. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”

Practically bolting to her room, she shut the door and leaned against it, closing her eyes and trying to breathe through her nose and let it out through her mouth like she’d always been taught to when she needed to calm down.

Her head was spinning with new information and the fact that there was indeed life on other planets and one of the examples of that was sitting in her living room. In any other circumstance, she would have had a million questions for him about where he was from and the differences between Earth and his planet and the people in each place. She would have asked all about the kind of metal the blade was made of and if they had other weapons like that and soaked up all the knowledge.

But that wouldn't be a good idea.

Once this whole thing was over and done with, Draco would take the Artifact and go back to where he came from, leaving her here like he’d always meant to.

It was probably better for everyone involved if she didn’t get too attached or try to get too much information. It wasn’t like she could tell anyone once he was gone, after all.

She sighed and dragged a hand through her hair, pushing away from the door and crossing to her closet to pull out an outfit for the day. Maybe after she dropped Draco off she’d go to the museum. She could get another look at the blade with her new information and see what Nate knew since the last time she’d asked. There could also be some kind of way to clue him into the fact that extra security wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for them to have.

Once she was dressed and as put together as she could be, given the circumstances, she opened her bedroom door and then jumped when she saw Draco standing there.