by Cara Bristol
Logically, she knew that wouldn’t happen. Secret Service agents were professionals with eagle eyes, quick reflexes, and advanced weaponry. As one of Helena’s closest friends, she’d gotten used to the presence of security, but this was the first time she’d had an agent assigned to her.
It was daunting to think she might need it. A nobody with a famous, important friend, she could become collateral damage. After the administration had announced the intention to send Helena to Draco, the public had gotten ugly. Not everyone supported the first daughter “consorting with the enemy.” Helena had received death threats.
Whether you supported or opposed the plan, how could you fault her noble intentions? At a time when everyone on Earth should join together to defend their planet, domestic threats were the last thing they needed.
Security had been ramped up. Besides their respective Secret Service shadows who walked in step beside them, two other agents set the pace in front of them, and two others guarded the rear.
A horrible thought flashed through her mind. What if their identical outfits hadn’t been a coincidence? What if she represented another line of defense between a sniper and the first daughter? Am I her body double? Am I here to take a bullet for her? Was that why she’d been instructed to walk in front of Helena?
After college, Rhianna had toned down her orange hair to be more auburn. From a distance, it would be hard to tell her and Helena apart.
Paranoid much? She should be ashamed for thinking such a thing. She and Helena were best friends. Women of the same age and social circle tended to dress alike. She and Helena had shown up in similar attire before. How many parties had they attended wearing little black cocktail dresses? Or kicked back in jeans and a tank or T-shirt? In fact, the day they’d met at the sorority rush, they’d worn very similar dresses.
Except, her friend’s jumpsuit didn’t resemble hers, it was exact. Since when did Helena shop at middle-class department stores?
She peeked over her shoulder.
“Is something wrong?” Helena arched her eyebrows.
“Other than the obvious?” She halted, so Helena did, too. Rhianna took a deep breath for calm and exhaled. “All of this is starting to mess with my head.”
The Secret Service agents stopped moving when they did, remaining on alert, scanning the field, hands poised on their weapons.
“I can’t thank you enough for coming with me,” Helena said.
Rhianna forced a smile. “What are friends for?”
The large alien spacecraft loomed, as menacing as the people who’d built it. Spikey wings extended from a massive fuselage covered with gray-green tiles resembling scales. The jagged red nose of the craft created an illusion the ship spewed flames. The sun tinted the sky a fiery orange and provided a perfect backdrop for a spacecraft built in the dragon’s image.
A Draconian PR flack couldn’t have planned a better photo op, except photographers and everyone else had been banned. The spaceport had been evacuated, except for Rhianna, Helena, and the Secret Service detail insisted on by the president.
She swallowed. “Their ship looks like a dragon.” Like it could swallow them whole. I could eat you. She remembered the prince’s words.
“It does, a little bit. But I’m confident everything is going to be fine.” The words sounded reassuring, but her gaze fell short of Rhianna’s eyes. Her friend had to be scared to death. How could she not be? She would become the consort to the son of the king who’d threatened to attack Earth. Draco had pledged to treat Helena well, but what did that mean to them? Maybe “well” meant they tossed her a blanket when they threw her into the dungeon. Maybe what they really wanted was a hostage they could exchange for Earth’s surrender.
Rhianna motioned at the ship. “Any guesses whether the prince will be there to meet us?” Her stomach fluttered at the thought of seeing him again. Even in wingless form, he’d vaulted off the stage like he’d flown. If she closed her eyes, she could see his golden eyes glowing with laughter. He hadn’t been teasing—he’d been mocking. She doubted he’d remember her. Their encounter had lasted only a couple of minutes, and she had been one inconsequential person among hundreds, maybe thousands he’d met on that trip a decade and a half ago. The prince hadn’t visited Earth since.
“We were informed he wouldn’t be.” Helena shook her head. “We’re being met by a minister of the royal court. Given the sensitive situation, Draco won’t risk sending anyone of political importance who could be taken hostage. That’s why no one has disembarked to meet us.”
“We’d better keep moving.” One of the agents in front motioned.
Helena nodded. “You’re right. They’re probably watching. We don’t want to arouse suspicion.”
Dragging her feet wouldn’t solve anything. They had to board the ship. Dead humans walking. She stifled a snort of laughter, afraid it would turn to tears.
It would have been much more secure to have driven to the launch pad, but the dragons had insisted they approach on foot—another reminder the biggest danger didn’t arise from homegrown whack jobs, but from Draco.
And, unfortunately, bodyguards couldn’t accompany them there.
Helena scooted forward and linked her arm through Rhianna’s. “Are you getting cold feet?” she asked.
“Freezing,” Rhianna replied. It was literally and figuratively true. Her fingers and toes were cold from fear.
Helena glanced at the Secret Service agents then hugged Rhianna’s arm tighter. “I hope you don’t feel like Dad and I pressured you into this.”
She did kind of.
“It means the world you’re doing this with me. I don’t deserve a friend like you. I wouldn’t blame you if your gut is telling you not to do this, if you’re having misgivings. Dad feels going to Draco will buy Earth some time, but there are no guarantees this will work. There is risk involved. We could be trapped there.”
Helena’s pep talk could use a few more rah rahs. It almost sounded like she was trying to scare her off, dissuade her from going. Perhaps her diplomacy skills weren’t up to par with her strategic planning ability. Maybe that’s why they asked me to come? To be the mouthpiece?
“I hope you don’t walk away, but I would understand.” Helena’s intense gaze turned pleading.
She’s afraid I’ll leave her.
Tempting, oh, how tempting. She hadn’t bought into this crazy idea. In moments of runaway panic, the “plan” reminded her of natives tossing virgins into volcanoes to appease their angry gods. Helena was a sacrifice to an alien dragon.
Everyone was making sacrifices. Lives had been irrevocably altered. Normal didn’t exist anymore. Store shelves had been picked bare. Once-bustling cities had become ghost towns. Her fellow citizens had abandoned their homes to huddle in terror in parking garages, subway tunnels, and any other concrete or stone structures they hoped wouldn’t burn. Leaving now would mean turning her back on them.
Not just them—her family, too. If she fled, she would sever her connection to the powerful Marshfields, and her mother, father, and brother would join the masses. In the president’s request for her service, he’d pointed out the government protected its own, i.e. family members of officials. If she accompanied the first daughter, her family would be housed safely and comfortably in Bunker One.
The Marshfields had done so much for her, and this was the first time she’d been asked for a favor.
And beneath fear, anger simmered, growing hotter with every passing day. What right did the dragons have to cause such terror? Their actions had been unprovoked. Earth had done nothing to them except offer friendship. Her pride, her patriotism as an Earthling demanded she show the enemy she would not be cowed. She would show the alien assholes what humans were made of. And, she might identify some vulnerability to assist Earth in defeating them.
If she survived, it would become her personal mission to revamp the Draconian Relations university curriculum. For as accurate and practical as her studies had be
en, she might as well have taken classes in mythology. Everything she’d been taught was a joke.
“I’m not going to leave you,” Rhianna said. “I intend to see this through to the end.” Hopefully the end wouldn’t mean their deaths.
“Are you sure? You don’t have to do this.”
“I’m sure.” She squeezed her friend’s arm.
They’d almost reached the ship towering over them by an intimidating three stories. Its wings spanned at least half the length of a football field. Were the wings just for show? They had to be, didn’t they? A vehicle didn’t need wings to achieve lift in the vacuum of space.
“How many do you think are onboard?” Rhianna asked.
“I don’t know,” Helena replied.
“A ship this size could carry hundreds of crew,” one of the agents volunteered. “That’s my estimate, based on military ships. I was in the Air Force.”
“Hundreds of dragons?” She gulped then chided herself. When they got to Draco, they’d be among millions of them. Better to get used to them now, wasn’t it?
“A guess.” The agent shrugged. “The ship’s AI probably flies it, so little manpower, er, dragonpower, is needed. It could be the crew is very limited. We don’t trust them; they don’t trust us. Why risk a big crew if you don’t have to?”
“The crew includes the minister of the royal court who will ‘see to our comfort’ during the voyage,” Helena added.
Their personal guard. They weren’t going to be left alone to wander the ship and see or do something they shouldn’t. This keeps getting better and better.
The agents leading the way stopped at the edge of the launch pad. “This is as far as we can go.”
Her stomach lurched, but she straightened her shoulders. Let’s kick some dragon ass. Didn’t success always start with a can-do attitude? Fake it till you make it?
Helena stepped up beside her. “You’re such a good friend. I don’t deserve you.”
“Of course you do. We’re a team. I’ve got your back,” she said. She’d made a commitment, and she’d stand by Helena and see this through. “Let’s do this!”
“Good luck,” Rhianna’s agent said.
“Thank you.”
She and Helena moved toward the ship. Its fuselage appeared to be one solid, scaled mass. She saw no hatch or door, no gangway. “They didn’t roll out the red carpet, did they?” she murmured, hoping the lack of welcome wasn’t an omen of things to come.
She’d no sooner spoken than the side of the craft shimmered like a mirage on a desert road and an opening appeared. Moments later, stairs leading up to it shimmered into place.
“That’s some impressive technology.” She gulped again.
“I guess we…climb aboard.” Helena touched Rhianna’s arm. “Listen. Do you trust me?”
“You know I do. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”
Helena focused on the ship with an expression of grim determination. “I need you to follow my lead and go along with what I say. Can you do that?”
There had never been a discussion as to who would lead this two-person operation, but if she’d thought about it, she would have named Helena. She had the most at stake, and she was the first daughter. Rhianna’s role was to support her in any way she could. But, from the president on down, she’d been told her credentials in Draconian Relations were among the keys to success. Now, it sounded like she should keep her mouth shut and nod. Did they consider her expertise an asset or didn’t they? Why did she feel blindsided? Maybe because she waited until we’re boarding the ship to mention it? “What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?”
Helena darted a glance at the Secret Service agents then wet her lips. “The plan is bigger than you know. The success depends on us presenting a united front. Dissension is a vulnerability the dragons will exploit.”
Something didn’t smell right. Maybe she should turn around and walk away, like Helena had hinted. No, run away. As fast as she could.
Except…she couldn’t. Despite her qualms, she couldn’t abandon Helena to face the dragons alone. She couldn’t jeopardize her family’s safety—nor risk the lives of everyone on Earth. If she had a chance to help save them, she had to do it.
But it was hard to have faith in a plan when you didn’t know what it was.
Maybe it wasn’t her place to know. A soldier didn’t question the general—or the president, the ultimate commander in chief. She disliked being kept in ignorance, but she accepted she was a small cog in the wheel. And if she was honest, she preferred it that way. She would hate to have the fate of the world resting on her shoulders. Saying yes sir, no sir, and following orders absolved her of responsibility—didn’t it? She felt guilty that she’d had to be, not exactly coerced, but coaxed into this, but she could admit her failings and inadequacies.
“I’ll follow your lead,” she agreed.
“I knew I could count on you. I’ll tell you as much as I can as soon as I can. Promise.” Helena moved on ahead and marched up the stairs.
At least the steps, which had materialized out of thin air, felt solid beneath her feet. She squinted around Helena’s back, trying to catch a glimpse of the craft’s interior, but some sort of high-tech force field blocked the view. Helena glanced back at her before vanishing into the ship.
Shoring up her courage, she stepped inside, too.
She entered a cavernous bay, the same greenish-gray as the exterior, only with unscaled, smooth glowing walls, to find Helena frowning at a dark-haired, brown-eyed man in a gray uniform bearing the Draconian royal crest on the upper chest.
Rhianna’s jaw dropped in shock. “You’re the Draconian minister? You’re human!”
Chapter Four
Her! The girl child whose face he’d never been able to forget entered his ship. But she wasn’t a child any longer.
K’ev’s dragon rumbled, urging him closer. His nostrils flared as he inhaled more of her scent. Nervous, wary, a little angry, but not deceptive. He smelled no lies on her.
Not like the other one. Like a rotting corpse, she reeked with the sickeningly sweet odor of deceit. It rolled off her in waves.
“I’m from Draco. My name is K’ev ulu K’rah Qatin.” Quickly, in Dragonish, he reeled off his full name, K’ev son of the mighty king K’rah, to prevent either female from catching the K’ev part. It didn’t fit into his plans for either of them to know they stood before the prince. He’d adopted human form so he wouldn’t be recognized.
“It’s an honor to meet you,” said the odorous female whose stench worsened with every word expelled from her mouth. She didn’t consider meeting him an honor at all. “My name is Rhianna Montclair. I would like to introduce you to Helena Marshfield.”
“What—what—” sputtered the female he knew as Rhianna. Confusion and betrayal wafted off her. “You—I’m—I’m not—”
“You wouldn’t think the president’s daughter would be tongue-tied and shy, but she’s never met a dragon before.” The imposter nudged Rhianna. “Say hello to…” She looked at him. “I’m sorry, could you repeat your name?”
“K’ev ulu K’rah Qatin,” he said even faster. He folded his arms and waited to see what would happen next.
“Mister, uh…Qatin,” the imposter said, and K’ev stifled a snort of laughter. The part of his name she’d picked up on meant mighty. How apropos for this lying, weak human imposter to call him mighty.
He’d decided before he got shackled with an unwanted alien concubine, he would gather as much information on her as he could, figuring he had a better chance of getting the truth if she didn’t realize she was speaking to the prince himself. The king hadn’t been pleased when he discovered K’ev had switched places with his minister and was on his way to Earth, but he hadn’t ordered him back.
His brainstorm to meet the consort himself had turned out to be fortuitous considering the humans had pulled a switch. But why bother to send two women? Why not just plant the
imposter?
Disgruntled and irritated, his dragon growled. He resisted being confined in human form and had taken a dislike to the imposter the second she set foot on the ship and stunk it up with her deceit. However, when Rhianna had appeared, he had purred.
Her eyes clouded with indecision. Eyes so icy blue shouldn’t arouse heat, but they did. She bit her lower lip, and the urge to lean forward and bite it himself surged within. Want. Mine, said the dragon.
Never would he have guessed he could be attracted to a human, but this one? Something about her seemed less odious than all the others. He met her gaze. Did she remember the prince from all those years ago? In eternity, a decade and a half wasn’t long, but she had been a child. Then again, how many dragon princes did humans get to meet? What if he’d chosen to appear in his demiforma state? Would she have recognized him then?
“Yes, I-I’m H-Helena Marshfield. It’s nice to meet you.” The acrid odor she emitted revealed reluctance, but she went along with the lie. His dragon snarled with angry disappointment, and K’ev’s own desire waned. Were there no humans who were truthful?
Still, if a concubine were forced on him, he preferred Rhianna to the other, who he assumed was the real Helena Marshfield.
“It’s very much a surprise to meet you.” He extended his hand in the traditional Earth greeting. Draconians didn’t shake hands, and he’d dive into the nearest icy river before he’d touch the imposter, but he felt the oddest urge to connect physically with Rhianna. When her hand touched his, he pulled her close and scrutinized her face. Against her pale, smooth skin, her red hair shone, although it wasn’t as fiery as he remembered. With a bold jut of her tiny chin, she lifted a frightened, but defiant gaze.
Her bravado amused him. A quick shift into dragon form and he could snap both of them in his powerful jaws before they took more than a couple of steps. But he wouldn’t. The imposter would taste terrible, and he had no desire to hurt Rhianna.
His dragon rebelled, trying to shift so it could enfold her in his wings and protect her from the imposter’s machinations.