Alien Soulmate (Paranormal Romance Aliens) (2 page)

"I love you, Father," he murmured, unable to let it go unsaid in these last moments.

Angen smiled and there was understanding in those eyes, but when Carver went to pull away, he found his father quite unwilling to let go.

Angen drew in a deep, rasping breath and whispered "Remember Kithairin."

Before Carver could puzzle out what that could possibly mean, Angen was letting him go and flopping back against the pillows. His eyes closed, and within minutes he was gone.

E'lira placed a hand over her heart and whispered the Sitheri words to ease passing, and all three of them made the salute, standing there over the body that had once housed their father before Ithril went to get the doctor.

They stood there until the doctors had come and collected Angen's body, taking it to go be prepared for the burning. The Sitheri were firm believers that the body was only a temporary home. It housed the spirit until it was time for it to make the journey back to the stars from where it had come.

They also believed that the body needed to be burned once the spirit left it so that no other spirits could come and taint the body that had belonged to someone else.

No one was allowed to watch the burning of a body because it was a private thing, and there would be no lavish funeral. The Sitheri clan would wear blues for two weeks to mourn the passing of their leader and then they would return to their lives as normal. That was their way.

Someone had to go tell the people who were keeping vigil in the homes and in the public halls that the leader had passed. That his spirit had broken free of its flesh container and had gone to take its place in the stars.

Ideally, it would be one of the three of them. E'lira was having a hard time, it seemed, but when Carver brought it up, she wiped her eyes.

"Let me do it," she said. "You two need to go speak to the Council. I'll go and tell the people what's happened."

Ithril didn't seem to have any complaints about that, so Carver nodded. "Alright." He drew his sister into a hug that she seemed grateful for and then let her go, watching as she slipped out of the room, leaving the two brothers alone.

"The Council should already be prepared to meet," Carver said. "They knew Father would pass tonight and that he would be naming the new leader."

"Yes," Ithril said, but he didn't meet Carver's eyes. "They'll be surprised, I think."

"Everyone will be surprised. This has never happened before. Leave it to Father to do something no other leader has ever done."

"Will they reject his decision?"

Carver shook his head. "They can't. The leader's word is law. Father was still leader when he said it, and now…now we're the leaders, and if we say it then it's law."

Ithril was quiet for a moment, and then he finally looked up. "And what if we say something different?"

For a moment, Carver couldn't speak. True, they could come up with something new and that would override their father's decision to make them co-leaders, but that was unheard of and disrespectful. Their father had been dead no more than fifteen minutes, and they were not going to end this night by going against him. Not if he had anything to say about it. "No, Ithril," he said firmly. "We'll share the power. Father was right in his judgment. Neither of us know all we should to be a leader, and we will already have to rely more heavily on the Council than is strictly wise. We won't cripple ourselves further. Not now." Not when things with the Des'kos were barely what you could call civil and the people would be mourning the loss of Angen and less vigilant.

"You're right," Ithril said, smiling a little. "I was only asking what would happen. I know we are stronger together. So come, brother. Shall we go and speak with the windbags? Better now than later if we plan on getting to sleep before the sun comes up."

Seeing his brother smile and hearing him joke made Carver relax, and he nodded. It had been ages since he'd slept properly, and the coming days were going to be a trial. They would have to go through their father's belongings and divide them up, decide what they were going to do about where to live, have a million meetings. It made his head hurt just thinking about it.

But now was not the time to succumb to that. Now he had to put on a brave face and go with his brother to meet with the Council.

Luckily, the Meeting Hall was in the same building as the leader's home, so they wouldn't have to stop and speak to anyone on the way. From the windows Carver could see the throngs of Sitheri gathered outside, and he could hear E'lira's gentle voice singing the song of the departed. She really was the perfect one to speak to the people about this, and Carver made a mental note to go to her before he went to bed and make sure she was going to sleep alright.

The Hall was already full of the Council, each member sitting around the square table that dominated most of the room. Some of them were watching the large screens on the wall that showed the breaking up and reforming of some of the vigils outside, and others were looking at the screens that displayed the current state of events with the Des'kos.

When the doors opened, all of them rose and looked at the two brothers.

Ithril and Carver exchanged a glance, as if trying to decide who was going to break the strange news.

The look in Ithril's eyes clearly said ‘you're the oldest; you do it', and Carver rolled his eyes but turned to face the Council.

They were a mixed bunch, to be certain. The purpose of the Sitheri Council was to serve as a go between for the Sitheri people and the leader. The leader of the Sitheri was just one person (usually), and the Sitheri people were a varied bunch. There was no way that one person could see to the needs of all of the people on their own. So the Council worked to help, each member taking a region of the Sitheri land and speaking to the people, serving as their representative.

Though the Sitheri were one clan, one race out of the many that could be found in their corner of the galaxy and even just on Khaosali, the planet they all lived on, they were varied as a people. Some of them had more human appearances and some were more beastly, with horns and spikes and leathery skin. There were various stages of the in between as well, especially since marrying outside of the clan had become popular.

The Council sought to represent all of the Sitheri, so the diverseness of the people was echoed in the members in the room.

Carver looked over all of them and then let out a breath. "As you all know by now, Angen has passed. His spirit has gone on to the stars, and he will be dearly missed. In his last hours, he told us who would be the next to lead the Sitheri, and in his wisdom, he has appointed both my brother and myself as the new leaders."

Silence greeted the pronouncement, and it was easy to see the surprise on the varied faces in front of him. Some of the members looked to Ithril for confirmation, and he just shrugged and nodded.

"Well, then," said Marsh, one of the more beastly looking of the group. "The leader's word is law."

"The leader's word is law," the others murmured, though a few still looked disturbed.

"It is," Ithril agreed. "Shall we be seated?"

From there, it was all fairly routine. The Council members asked for more information about Angen's passing, which Carver and Ithril supplied when they knew the answers. They spoke about the current state of things with the Des'kos, and while Carver seemed in favor of continuing things the way Angen had maintained them, Ithril was much less vocal in support of that.

Carver glanced over at him, but Ithril's face was closed off once again.

"Have there been any new attacks?" Carver wanted to know.

"Not that we can see. The guards will change in an hour, and they will let us know if anything has been seen. For now, it seems quiet."

"For now," Ithril said softly. "If they find out about the change in power here, that might not last for very long."

"What do you mean?" Marsh asked.

"I mean that the perfect time to strike would be when there's a vacuum of power. When there's chaos."

"But there isn't," Carver said firmly. "Angen has passed, but leadership has been assured. There's no chaos, and there's no need for them to know that something has changed yet. If their king wishes to speak with us then he can, but until then, they don't need to know anything."

Ithril pursed his lips together, and Carver resisted the urge to sigh. It was too late in the night, and he had been awake for too long to deal with this. On top of that, he didn't want the Council to see the unrest between them. They needed to show a united front or else things would quickly dissolve into chaos, and that was one thing that they didn't have time for just then.

"If there is nothing else, then I would like to retire for the night," Carver said. "It has been a trying day for all of us, and a long trying day for some of us."

"Of course, Leader," Cain said, nodding. "Shall we reconvene tomorrow?"

"That's acceptable," Carver replied, rubbing at his face. "In the afternoon, perhaps?"

There was a chuckled of appreciative laughter and general agreement, and then the meeting started breaking up. As soon as they were out of the Hall, Carver let out a sigh. The first tendrils of dawn were visible outside, and all he wanted to do was curl up in his bed for a few hours.

"I need to find E'lira," he mumbled to himself.

"I'll speak with her if you want," Ithril said, coming up behind him with a glass in his hand. "You look like you got less sleep than I did last night."

Carver tried to let go of the tension he was feeling towards his younger brother. It was probably just the lack of sleep and the fact that neither of them had properly had time to grieve for their father yet. With time, things would be alright. He rolled his shoulders and nodded at Ithril. "You're probably right. Tell her… tell her that she's not alone."

Ithril nodded. "I will. Here." He held out the glass. "Water and something to help you sleep. I figured you'd need it."

"I probably need something stronger than water," Carver joked, but he took the glass and downed it in one go.

"I thought of that, too, but you need to sleep not get drunk."

Carver opened his mouth to reply, but the room was spinning all of a sudden. He frowned, head suddenly fuzzy. He couldn't hold onto his thoughts, and it was hard to keep his eyes open. "What…" was all he got out before blackness was swamping his vision and he collapsed onto the floor.

When he woke up next, his head was throbbing, and he was confused and disoriented. The last thing he could remember was talking to Ithril and now… now he was lying down on something soft and warm. Maybe he'd made it to bed?

The ordeal of the day would explain why his head was hurting so badly for sure, but there was something else there. Something tickling the edge of his memory and making his headache worse.

He opened his eyes and sat up, and everything dropped into place.

Ithril had given him something and then he'd passed out. And now he was… in a transporter?

What in the worlds?

Carver scrambled up from the cot and walked around the small space. Transporters were small crafts, usually built to hold no more than one or two people. They could be preprogramed with a destination and would head on that course unless the program was overridden.

He made his way to the control panel, frowning at the coordinates that had been put into the system. They weren't immediately familiar, but when he looked out of the massive window and saw where he was heading, his stomach dropped.

The blue and green of the planet was instantly recognizable.

Someone was sending him to Earth. But why? Earth wasn't even in the same quadrant as Khaosali. Someone clearly wanted him out of the way, and though the niggling voice in the back of his mind told him that he knew exactly who it was, he didn't want to think that his brother was capable of this kind of treachery. Not so soon after their father's passing, and not in general. There had to be something else going on, something he was missing. Perhaps someone pulling the strings that his brother felt compelled to obey.

The reasoning seemed flat in his own head, but he pushed that away. When he got back to Khaosali he could find all the answers. But first he had to get there.

Carver punched in the usual override code so he could reprogram the destination, only to be informed in a cool Sitheri voice that his code could not be confirmed.

He swore violently in the same language and tried it again with the same results. No one but a Council member of the leader of the clan had the authority and the clearance to change override codes, which significantly lowered the number of people who could be responsible for this.

He still couldn't understand the motive, though. What did anyone gain from having him gone?

You know the answer to that, the little voice in the back of his mind said. And maybe he did. Maybe he just didn't want to face the fact that it could be possible. Either way, he was heading towards Earth, and there was very little he could do about anything until he got there.

All he could do was take a seat and watch the strange planet he knew very little about get bigger and bigger in the window.