by Ramy Vance
Love And Aliens
Dragon Approved™ Book Eight
Ramy Vance
Michael Anderle
The Love and Aliens Team
Thanks to the JIT Readers
Kelly O’Donnell
Diane L. Smith
Dorothy Lloyd
Kathleen Fettig
Deb Mader
John Ashmore
If we’ve missed anyone, please let us know!
Editor
The Skyhunter Editing Team
This Book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2020 by Ramy Vance & Michael Anderle
Cover Art by Jake @ J Caleb Design
http://jcalebdesign.com / [email protected]
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
First US Edition, April 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-1-64202-833-1
Print ISBN: 978-1-64202-834-8
Dedication
To Waleed and Rana … romance is in the air!
—Ramy
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
to Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
to Live the Life We Are
Called.
— Michael
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Author Notes Ramy Vance
Other Books by the Authors
Connect with The Authors
Chapter One
Myrddin declared a holiday at the Wasp’s Nest, the first ever. Most of the staff didn’t know what to do with their time, and none of the students did.
Other than Alex Bound.
She knew exactly how she was going to spend her day off.
And who she would be spending it with.
The wind was rushing past Alex’s face, bringing out the red in her cheeks. She almost gasped for breath. The cold air had come out of nowhere, but it was refreshing. She continued to climb into the clouds as if she were trying to get as far away from the ground as possible.
Her dragon, Chine, had been silent for most of the ride, trying to give Alex space. It was a big day for her, and they’d discussed the proper boundaries the night before.
The reason it was such a big day was that Jim was flying in his mech dragon next to Alex, both of them heading toward some destination Jim had picked out. There were many ways in which Alex could see this day going terribly wrong, and each of them had something to do with her. They were generally vague notions, but if she thought long enough, a crystal-clear version of her screwing things up would manifest itself.
Alex had no idea why she was so nervous. She’d been through much more nerve-wracking experiences over the last few months. She was thousands of feet in the air on the back of an ether dragon, which would have been enough to freak most people out. Going out with Jim should have been a walk in the park. I wonder if he’s taking me to a park? Alex thought. We didn’t bring anything to eat.
A gust of wind pushed past Alex and sent another set of shivers down her spine. She tapped the environmental control on her dragon anchor and felt her suit warming up.
Jim had hardly said anything since the two of them had left the Wasp’s Nest, the main base of the dragonriders. He had been all jokes and flirty glances when Alex had been getting her dragon ready. Now there was comm silence between the two of them.
Alex wondered if Jim was as nervous as she was. This was technically a date. Maybe everyone was nervous on their first dates, but that didn’t make any sense for Jim and her. They had spent years playing Middang3ard VR together, and since then, they had gone on several death-defying missions as members of the dragonriders corps. She’d think they could hold a simple conversation.
Yet here they were, flying through a perfect sky, on the way to a date they were both looking forward to, riding in complete silence.
What did people do in situations like this? Alex wished she knew what to say, but any time she felt like she was supposed to say something, she froze. It was almost as if awkward silences made her brain shut off.
Was it awkward, though? Wasn’t one sign of a good friendship that you could be comfortable being quiet with someone? What if that was all this was—just two friends going out? Jim hadn’t said it was a date…or he hadn’t used those words specifically. What if this was just one of those “friends” type of things?
Fighting the Dark One’s forces was nothing compared to the stress of this ambiguity.
Alex cleared her throat and looked at Jim as she hit her comm. “So, where did you find out about this place?”
Jim looked through his cockpit’s windshield as he answered. “Gill told me about it,” he replied. “Said it was a nice, romantic place.”
Alex felt a dagger in her chest. Figures I’d say something that would bring up Gill. She still hadn’t thought about her feelings about Gill, but she’d already made up her mind about Jim. It didn’t seem like Gill’s feelings had been hurt, either. I mean, he did recommend a romantic place for Jim to take me. He can’t be too heartbroken, Alex thought.
Chine interrupted Alex’s rambling train of thought. You seem to be having a problem speaking to the human you’re infatuated with. Perhaps you two could talk about the weather?
Chine, shut up. I’m not having a hard time talking. Just, this is my first date.
Chine chuckled as he soared higher. Ah, human mating rituals. Your species is downright adorable when you’re trying to—
Alex interrupted Chine, shouting, “Wait, who said anything about mating? This is just a first date. Like, my first date ever.” Alex realized she was speaking out loud and not telepathically directing her thoughts toward Chine.
And her comm was still on.
Jim was looking at Alex, trying to hold back his laughter. “I’m not laughing at the first date thing. I mean, it’s my first date too. You knew this was a date, right?”
“Of course, I knew it was a date. I’m not dense. What the hell did you think was so funny?”
Jim pointed at Chine, who was lazily blowing out small ether fireballs to dispel the clouds in front of him. “Just the whole telepathy thing you have to do with Chine. I’m very happy I don’t have to deal with that. Mechs don’t talk, and they can’t give me shit.”
“Haven’t you ever heard of the ghost in the machine? Maybe it’ll grow its own soul.”
Jim opened his cockpit and stretched his arms out, letting the mech fly on autopilot. “I’d prefer not to think about that. These things are already hard enough to handle. I don’t even want to think about contending with a real personality.”
“Guess that’s the difference between us dragonriders and you mech riders. We can interact. I’m pretty sure all you guys are doing are pressing buttons and hoping the thing doesn’t break down on you.”
Jim feigned taking a shot to the heart and fell back into his mech. “Damn, if that’s your idea of flirting, you might want to put on some gloves. You’re going to leave my ego way too bruised.”
“Dude, I haven’t even started teasing you yet. This isn’t even the first round.” Alex started shadowboxing, tossing jabs and hooks at imaginary foes. “You’re lucky you’re not in the ring with me,” she said as she jabbed. “They call me ‘Thunderfists’ out on the mean streets.”
“Oh, really. Thunderfists? When did they start doing that?”
“First thing my mother said when I was born,” Alex said, putting on a fake Southern accent. “Mamma said I punched my way straight out into the world. Been a slugger ever since. What’s your story, cowboy?” she asked.
Jim steered his mech closer to Alex’s dragon and leaned out of the cockpit. “My story? Oh, I just came in with the wind. I don’t have a story,” he replied with a horrendous Western accent. “And I’d like to keep it that way. Stories hold you down. Make you all weighty and heavy. Nope, a man like me don’t need no story. We just roll with the wind. Can’t lose what you don’t collect.”
Alex giggled as she noticed how widely Jim was smiling at her. It was the kind of smile that made her want to stop what she was doing, whatever it was, and just stare for a little bit. “You’re not too bad at that. Wouldn’t have pegged you as one for improv.”
“Before Middang3ard VR, I used to do a lot of tabletop role-playing. Sometimes we’d just roll random characters, and you’d have to pretend to be a klepto orc or a skittish elf for a month. Kinda seems funny in hindsight. You know, with having to fight orcs and having a drow for a teammate.”
Alex was glad she had never cared much for fantasy books or games. It was much more interesting to be experiencing it all for the first time. The most she had ever learned of fantasy had been from Middang3ard VR, but now she was living the real thing. “How much longer until we get to this place?” she asked.
Jim looked at his dashboard while he pushed his upper lip out with his tongue. “Probably another half-hour. I know it’s a little far, but it’s supposed to be beautiful.”
Alex half-wondered why Gill knew about it. He wasn’t from this realm, so he must have recently gone there. “I love riding,” Alex said. “It could be six hours away, and I’d be glad for the ride.”
Jim started to slowly bring his mech into a descent, getting out of the clouds. “You know, I can’t remember the last time I had a full day off. Between training and these recent crazy missions, I thought I was going to lose my mind.”
Alex agreed. It had been too long without a break. The last few months had been nothing but a blur. Between the invasion of the Dark Nest, fighting a reality-warping meteor and being recruited for a rescue mission in an orcish arena, Alex had hardly had a chance to catch her breath. And that wasn’t counting all the regular classes and training sessions Alex and the rest of Team Boundless had to attend.
Myrddin had informed the Nest that today was going to be a national holiday but hadn’t elaborated on whose people or which nations were host to it. Alex thought it was just a way for Myrddin to give the Nest a chance to relax without looking like he’d gone soft. It was a good idea.
Jim kicked his feet up in the cockpit as he pulled out a soda. He whistled for Alex’s attention and mimed opening the can, and when Alex nodded, he tossed one over to her. “Wish we would have gotten more than a day off,” Alex grumbled. “I feel like my nerves have been fraying for the last week.”
Jim nodded his agreement before saying, “Yeah, I’m not sure if they think running us ragged is going to make us tougher or if they don’t realize we’re tired. I mean, my dad used to talk about how bad boot camp was sometimes. Doubt this is much different. At least we’re clear of getting any more missions. I can deal with school and training.”
School and training were easier than missions, but Alex didn’t want to do either of them. Spending a week flying with Chine and goofing off seemed like a more appropriate reward for saving a realm and thwarting the attack on the Nest. That was probably reserved for heroes, though, and Alex was just a soldier, one of many.
Jim leaned over the edge of his mech’s cockpit and peered down. Then he sat back down and closed his cockpit, tilting his mech slightly to the left. “Pixies in trouble,” he said through the comm.
Alex chuckled and shook her head. “You’ve been hanging out too much with Jollies. I don’t think I know enough pixie slang to make sense out of that,” she replied.
“No, I mean, there are pixies down there. And they look like they might be in trouble.”
Alex looked down. She didn’t have the benefit of Jim’s mech’s surveillance tech, but she had something that a lot of other people would have envied: magical dragon eyes. She was still learning how to master them, but every day was easier than the previous one. Focusing on things beyond human capacity was a parlor trick now.
Alex closed her eyes, took a quick breath, and opened them, looking down thousands of feet in perfect clarity. It was a feat that would have given her a migraine for days a few weeks earlier.
Jim was right. There was a group of pixies near the surface who were fleeing from something. Alex looked back a little way and could see that the pixies were trying to avoid a group of giants. “Great,” Alex moaned. “Not even a full day off.”
“We could just postpone until later. You know where I live.”
“You live across the hall from me.”
“And yet you never try to sneak in.”
Alex blushed, remembering a few nights ago when she had snuck out of her room and stood in front of Jim’s room for nearly five minutes, debating whether or not she should knock. She stood there until Gill passed by, smirking a little but remaining silent. “Oh, come on! Pack up the jokes and let’s go help those pixies before they get crushed.”
Chapter Two
The pixies Alex and Jim were worried about were currently flying through a forest, trying to take advantage of the trees as cover. They were nearly a hundred of them—a small tribe, since woodland pixies tended to keep their tribes smaller. The trees were not doing much to hide the pixies, though, since their anxiety and fear could easily be seen in their glowing, changing pigment.
There was a good amount of distance between the pixies and the giants, but it was being closed fast. Although the pixies were fast, the giants had the benefit of being huge. These giants were larger than any Alex had seen so far. As she’d learned through her studies, there were dozens of different species.
These seemed to be yhomir or forest giants. They usually kept to themselves and avoided conflict whenever possible. But as Alex had learned, a creature under the Dark One’s sway rarely acted as it should. Creatures and sentient beings would behave in ways contrary to their ideals or traditions. Alex was terrified of what would happen if the Dark One were to ever take control of humanity.
The yhomir were closing on the pixies as the seconds ticked by. The giants were now running nearly on all fours, their lanky, muscular arms almost touching the ground as they ran forward, their mouths foaming and eyes red. They looked as if they’d been reduced to some feral pre-giant form, devoid of intelligence or understanding.
The pixies were no longer trying to hide. They were screaming and flying as fast as they could.
Alex and Jim descended into the forest. The trees were a problem Alex hadn’t had to deal with yet. Generally, the battles she had fought had taken place in the sky or open spaces, since her enemies usually were riding something as well. Today, that was not the case. The farther the pixies ran into the forest, the thicker the trees became.
The forest was almost dense enough to block out the sun. As Alex got closer to the tree line, she commed Jim and asked, “You got
any ideas on how to deal with this one?”
Jim shrugged as he steered away from Alex. “There’s no way we can take on all those giants head-on. We need to cull their numbers. Did you count how many of them there were?”
“At least thirty. I don’t know why they’d need that many to go after those pixies. You think it’s the Dark One? What would he want with a bunch of woodland pixies?”
“What does he ever want? Seems like the guy wants to dominate just for the sake of it. There doesn’t seem to be any reason behind this whole war, or none that I can figure out. None that anyone is telling us.”
Alex directed her thoughts toward Chine. Do you think you can maneuver through the trees?
Chine replied, I will be able to move more easily on the ground. The trees are too close together for flying, but I won’t lose any speed on my feet. It would be a more effective strategy.
Alex commed Jim again. “Hey, how’s your ground game look in that thing?”
Jim flipped a couple of switches and brought up his holoscreen. “Should be good. Faster than a giant. We’re supposed to be getting these things upgraded later this week. That nerd-farmer we went on that mission with is supposedly a genius. Convinced Roy to let her take a look at the mechs.”
Alex was interested in what the nerd-farmer (Alex knew the kid’s name was Abby, but nerd-farmer sounded kind of endearing in her head) had in store for the mechs, but now wasn’t the time to talk shop. Those pixies were going to be dust if Alex and Jim didn’t move in fast enough. “All right, I say we take a stealth approach. See if we can sneak up behind them and thin the ranks a little,” she suggested.