Alien-Under-Cover (18 page)

“No.”

“How am I supposed to pass the time if I can’t talk to my friends?”

She tried hard to look pathetic and tearful. She’d made a very good living as a certain type of programmer but she didn’t plan on telling him that. If he knew of her gift with TC technology, he would never allow her near theirs and she planned to have a very close look. She also needed her TC to organize a new identity for when she escaped. Why did she feel sad at the thought of leaving him?

“You will rest and prepare to give me plenty of sex when I return from warrior business.”

“
What
? Are you, crazy? I’m not some harem slave lounging around until I can give you pleasure. Give me back reception on my TC, Now.”

“No.”

“If this is your attitude, I’m shaking the dust of this place off as soon as Sarah is found.”

He looked around. “Why would you want to dust when I have found your friend?”

“That’s not--” She threw up her hands. “Oh, never mind. If I don’t have something to do during the day, I will--I will--” She cast around for something terrible and then remembered his obsession with her weight. “I will waste away with unhappiness and become very thin.”

It actually worked. Before her astonished eyes, he stalked forward and punched what she assumed was buttons on the wall while he grunted to himself.

Should’ve examined that wall earlier
. It was the same wall they watched the news on. Her TC bleeped and several of the menu’s hovered above the table. She frowned when she saw her favorite folder with the Space Ranger in wasn’t highlighted. “You need to fix it some more. I have to be able to watch the Space Ranger.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “It is forbidden.”

“What, forbidden to watch the space ranger?”

“Yes.”

“Are you deranged?”

Who in his right mind would forbid anyone to watch the space ranger? Zurian growled deep in his throat. Goosebumps broke out on her skin and she rubbed her arms. Every hair on her body stirred as if an evil wind had blown over her. He stalked her. There was no other way to describe the way he moved toward her. She wanted to get up and run and keep running. His eyes pinned her in place, shot red sparks at her, his lips pulled back from his teeth.

He grasped her hair at the nape of her neck, pulling back arching her neck painfully. “Do not ever say that to me again.”

“Ouch! My neck. Let go.”

He hissed down into her face, his incisors growing while she watched. She was terrified of this monster who looked capable of killing her.

“Zurian, please, you’re hurting me.”

He released her, slowly straightened, and moved away from her. Then the pacing started. Every now and then he stopped and stared at her. She wished he would start again no matter how terrifying that restless pacing made her. When he stared at her like that, she felt like prey. Julia sat absolutely still.

At last he came to stand over her with his legs braced apart and his arms crossed over his chest.

“We will have rules.”

“Okay.”

She wouldn’t argue with this monster. Not while she could feel the anger simmering in him anyway. But she would find a way to escape him. Again that sense of betrayal haunted her. How could he step in front of bullets and laser blasts for her and then be like this?

“You will not wander around without permission.”

“How dare--”

So much for not arguing. But really, she was supposed to get permission before she went anywhere? Like a child?

“You will not interrupt me when I speak.”

“Should I bow every time you pass, your majesty?” She really needed to curb her tongue before he decided to rid himself of a noisy human breeder.

“You will not see the space ranger.”

“It’s a child’s show. What’s your problem?”

“It is unseemly.”

“What?”

“You will obey me at all times,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken.

She snorted at that. Not even when John threatened her with his pistol did he make her obey all those years ago.

“You will not make me angry.”

“Good luck with that one,” she muttered.

He might not be on Superman Crack but either aliens from that Zyrgin planet were demented or he was snorting alien crack.

He stalked forward and lifted her chin in his hand. “That is the most important rule. You will never make me angry.”

“Why not? Because you’ll kill me?”

“Yes,” he said with chilling matter-of-factness.

Chapter 13

“You’d kill me?” Her whisper echoed in the living room.

They stared at each other. Including the times he’d come to her house, she’d known him now for more than a year and still she couldn’t read him.

He didn’t move a muscle or showed any emotion but something rolled off him in waves. The kind of something that activated every survival instinct she had.

“You do not make me angry,” he said at last.

The smart thing would be to back off and talk to him when she didn’t get the feeling he suppressed a volcano of dangerous emotion. But who wanted to be smart. She put her hands on her hips and tapped her toe.

“So you seriously expect me to have a relationship with you?”

“Yes.”

“A relationship where I cower and compromise and you act like an arrogant jerk and expect me to take it lying down.”

“Why would you lie down?”

She threw her hands up in the air and stared up at the ceiling. “Give me strength.”

He grunted, turned away from her, and she knew he spoke to his secret communicator again.

Once again icy calm, he took her arm and turned her toward the wall where the news image flashed before. “Someone is trying to contact you on your primitive device.”

“Hey, what do you mean primitive?”

“Primitive, not very advanced.”

“Never mind, is it Sarah?” Maybe she was safe after all.

“No, the call originated in Denver.”

Julia held her trembling arms around her middle. She saw his lips move but couldn’t hear what he said. She’d known this day would come, had feared it every day for the last five years. Had known when she saw who she thought was John that her past had caught up with her.

“I don’t want to talk to him.”

She wanted to go to the bedroom, lie down, pull the blankets over her head, and pretend she was a normal person who didn’t sleep with an alien and whose family wasn’t mafia.

“Him?” he said with menace.

She had to swallow a few times before she managed to speak. “It must be my evil uncle. Well, cousin really, but I call him uncle because he is so much older than me.”

“Evil.”

How to explain centuries of criminal behavior and unspeakable cruelty. “You have no idea.”

“This uncle is the brother of your father.”

“No he’s my mom’s cousin.”

“I will allow you to speak to him.”

“That’s so kind of you, but I don’t want anything to do with him.”

He ignored her and continued. “We will allow him to try for a few days.”

“Make him work for it? I like that idea but I’m still not talking to him.”

“When we allow him to make contact, you will not tell him anything about us.

“Are you deaf? I said I’m not speaking to him.”

“You will find out what he wants.”

Julia threw up her hands. “Fine, I’ll talk to the man who has been sending enforcers to kill me for six years.”

“When we find out what he wants, I will kill him for you.”

She could almost forgive him for earlier. “I like that idea. He doesn’t deserve to live but I suppose we can’t just kill him. I am ashamed to admit that I fear and loathe him. Family should not be like that.”

At least that’s what she’d always thought. Maybe it was normal. Look how Sarah’s mother had sold her.

“You will not tell him of this place or about us.”

“Of course not.” She wouldn’t tell her uncle the way to hell if she could help it.

“If you do, we will kill him and everyone in his family.” He said it matter-of-factly, but she believed every word.

“No big loss,” she bluffed.

He couldn’t get through her uncle’s security anyway. The violence of the day she left was etched into her brain. The man her father had beaten to death. If the family could get to such a powerful man, she doubted Zurian could get to them. Still he’d put the reverend’s head on a pike, something she still hadn’t processed.

“I will make you watch as I kill them,” he stressed.

It was an empty threat. She didn’t know how, but she knew he would never let her watch something like that. His arrogance and domineering ways grated on her but there was no denying he would protect her with his life. Making her look on while he killed her uncle was an empty threat. Though she didn’t doubt for one moment that he was capable of following through on his threat to kill Uncle Jacob.

“All right I get it. Don’t tell my evil uncle anything. Jeesh.”

“You will take the call in the main cave when we allow it”

Success at last. She’d get to see where Natalie lived. She wisely didn’t show too much interest. “Okay, but, Zurian, I’m more worried about Sarah right now.”

“We will find her.”

She paced up and down. “What if they took her out of the country? Or to a really big, well-armed camp?”

“I am warrior.”

Julia stopped and frowned at him. “All right, don’t get all offended again.”

“No matter where they take her, I will find her for you.”

“I know you will,” she placated and could’ve kicked herself.

She did not cajole and coax. She prided herself on the fact that she’d escaped that life and made her own way.

He grabbed her by the nape of her neck and kissed her. A hard open mouthed kiss that stated his ownership with every movement of his lips and every stab of his tongue into her mouth. For someone who’d never kissed before he met her, he sure knew how to make a woman’s knees turn to jelly. She moaned and kissed him back, and she thought at least an hour could have passed when he lifted his head.

“I give you the word of a Zyrgin warrior, I will find your friend.”

“Thank you.”

He picked her up and carried her to his bedroom. Julia had to admit she enjoyed the sheer drama and romance of being picked up and carried to his bed. In the doorway, he stilled and his arms around her hardened. His whole body vibrated.

“Now what?” she snapped. Couldn’t she just enjoy one romantic moment.

“You took away the Eduki skin.”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Thank heavens, she hadn’t put it away in the closet. It might have caused the sky to fall in. “I thought it would look nicer over the chair.” She’d actually tossed it over the chair with the idea of getting rid of it later. It weighed a ton.

His hold tightened. “You cannot reject me.”

“Having a dead animal in my bedroom doesn’t exactly do it for me. And how does that mean I’m rejecting you?”

The thought of walking away from him caused a strange tension around her heart. He dropped her down on the bed and she bounced a few times before she sat up and glared at him. “What’s your problem?”

“I faced the Eduki without weapons and killed it. I cleaned and skinned the pelt and invited my fellow warriors to feast on its meat.”

“You ate a
bear
?” Julia exclaimed, nauseated at the image of a bunch of warriors eating bear meat.

“As is proper,” he said.

“Did you at least cook it?”

“Why would we want to cook it?”

Ask a stupid question. “Never mind. Wait, where did you find a bear?”

He stared at her.

“Don’t even try that ‘you don’t need to know’ nonsense with me. Bears are extinct and I’m reasonably sure they weren’t blue.”

“I killed it for you. You cannot reject me or the Eduki skin.”

Julia knew an evasion when she heard it. What she couldn’t figure out was why the location of the bears was such a big deal.

He lay down next to her.

She leaned down and kissed the deep scars on his chest. “How did you get this?”

He’d been almost relaxed but his body tensed. He stared up at the ceiling unblinking, his teeth grinding together. “When I was very young.”

“I thought it might have been during a war.” She bit her lip and then said in a rush. “It looks more like torture than wounds received during battle.”

“I have never been captured or tortured.”

“You’re that good, huh?”

“Yes.”

“And so modest.”

She knew he didn’t tell her everything. Something in the way he held his body, the tense sound in his voice, said that there was a lot more to this story.

“I am scarred but not weak. I can protect you.”

“I’m sure you can. You proved it when the reverend caught us.”

She knew she shouldn’t feel sympathy. He’d turn dictatorial soon enough. And she still doubted that he was capable of emotion as she understood it.

“I will kill all the Raiders walking the Earth for you.”

“Okay, that’s...uh...nice of you.”

“Their heads will adorn pikes as far as the eye can see.”

“Uh, that’s very kind of you but not really necessary. I’m not all that into the dead heads decorating style.”

He continued as if driven. “I will prove to you that I am a good provider.”

All urge to laugh left her. She stroked his brow, the ridge on his head. “You are a good provider, Zurian. You protected me against the reverend, looked after me ever since.”

He kept talking as if her words hadn’t penetrated. “I will make sure you get more food so that you do not become thin and, when I am doing warrior business, I will always store you in a safe place when I cannot be here to protect you.”

“Thank you, I think.”

Julia kissed his chest, to hide her smile. She should not allow him to charm her. The smooth warm skin with scar lines patterned all over it seduced her. Tempted her tongue to come out and play. Coffee and spice filled her nostrils.

He tensed when she touched her tongue to the largest scar on his chest. The one that ran from his shoulder to his chest. When she reached his chest, she found another one and changed direction to follow it with small kisses. She could do this forever. His spicy taste dissolved on her tongue, causing her to crave more of him.