Protected

by Evangeline Anderson

  He sighed. “I thought we’d get less flack as a couple of females. But since I apparently make one seriously ugly woman…”

  “You do.” I tried to stifle a laugh and couldn’t quite manage it. “Sorry but you really do.”

  “Ah, well…” He shrugged and grinned. “We’re Majorans then. A mated pair. Which means…” He looked at me, the humor fading from his face to be replaced by a strange intensity. “Means I’m devoted only to you, darlin’, and have no interest in any other female.”

  The way he said it and the intense look he was giving me made the blood rush to my cheeks but I tried not to show it.

  “You don’t have to be anything, you know,” I said, trying to ignore my hot face and pounding heart. “You don’t have to go down to the planet at all—just let me go. I’m a female so they shouldn’t have a problem with me.”

  Thanks to the universal translation viruses the Commercians had been sending through the hole in Earth’s ozone layer, I should be able to communicate with any sentient species in the Galaxy—at least, that was what Grav had told me when he explained about the Alien Mate Index. So I thought I would be able to do the job with no problem.

  But Grav clearly didn’t agree.

  “Let you go into danger by yourself?” His face darkened, making him look scary despite his drastically altered appearance. “No fuckin’ way, darlin’, not gonna happen.”

  “But I thought the danger stemmed from the fact that you’re a male trying to infiltrate an exclusively female planet,” I protested. “Or at least, the wrong kind of male since only mated Majorans are allowed.”

  “That’s part of it. But…whew…” He seemed to relax and the human-looking image faded, replaced by Grav’s normal appearance again. (Which was much better, at least in my opinion.) “That image is fuckin’ hard to hold,” he remarked. “Look, the danger isn’t just that I’m a male—a Braxian male at that—invading their sacred female-only planet. There’s also the fact that the guard is being held at the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy.”

  “So?” I said.

  “So the Temple is on sacred ground. The only way Princepae Kiv’orop could get the Geminanian authorities to let us question Teeny’s guard is by saying we’re acolytes of Naamah.”

  “Acolytes of who?” I frowned. “I thought everyone whose planet was seeded by the Ancient Ones worshiped the Goddess of Mercy.”

  “Most do. But Naamah is the Goddess of Truth on Yall’ala Prime. It’s an entire religion devoted to truth-telling and transparency.”

  “Really?” I frowned. “Well, I guess I’ve heard of religions founded on weirder things.”

  Grav nodded. “People come from all over the galaxy to undergo the initiation process and join them. Believers in Naamah literally can’t lie. And a lie can’t be told to them without their knowing it. They drink some kinda special herb concoction to enhance their natural abilities of discernment.”

  “They really can’t tell a lie? Not even a little white lie?” I thought of all the pretending I’d had to do with Gerald to protect his ego when we were making love and I wasn’t feeling a thing and grimaced. “I bet that makes for some happy marriages.”

  “Don’t know about their joining habits.” Grav shrugged. “I do know they always come in pairs—one Truth Sayer, who speaks the truth of Naamah, and one Truth Knower, who can tell if someone is lying. I thought it’d work best if you were the Sayer and I was the Knower.”

  “Acolytes of Naamah sound like a really, uh, interesting people,” I remarked dryly.

  He nodded. “Yeah, fascinating. And they make fuckin’ good interrogators. In fact, I would have told the Princepae to get some for real, except that they’re on the other end of the Galaxy and they generally won’t work for a male outside their faith.”

  “How will we explain that, then?” I asked. “If the Gemina authorities know we’re being sent by the Princepae?”

  Grav shrugged. “If they ask, we’ll tell them it’s a special exception since Teeny is a female and an innocent.” His expression darkened. “At least, she’d better still be an innocent when I find her. Or those fuckin’ bastards that took her are gonna pay twice as bad. They won’t just die…they’ll die slow.”

  I shivered at the look on his face. Most of the time he was so gentle he seemed almost like a big, cuddly teddy bear. But every once in a while I got a glimpse of the other side of him—the animal side. And there was nothing soft or cuddly about it.

  It was terrifying. But thankfully, not directed at me.

  “Um, Grav?” I said after a moment, probably interrupting half a dozen bloody vengeance fantasies.

  “Mmm?” He frowned.

  “So once we get down to the planet and fool the authorities, how will we get her—the guard I mean—to talk? And how will we know if she’s telling the truth?”

  “Oh, she’ll talk all right,” he said grimly. “I can promise you that.”

  “You’re not going to…hurt her, are you?” I asked, feeling sick. I was sure the guard deserved some kind of punishment for whatever part she’d played in Teeny’s capture but the idea of watching Grav torture anyone—especially a woman—made me nauseous.

  But I had misread him.

  “Hurt a female?” Grav looked offended. “Fuck no, darlin’! That’s not me. But I do have this.” He pulled something out of one of the pockets on the black leather vest he wore. It looked like a long, thin, green porcupine quill to me.

  “What’s that?” I asked frowning.

  “Something else I got from Shekk—a truth-saying spike. One prick with this and she’ll spill her guts.”

  “And you’ll be able to tell if she’s telling the truth?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Got a lie detector of my own.” He laid one finger to the side of his nose. “This.”

  “What?” I raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you telling me you can smell it when somebody’s lying?”

  “Sure can. The chemical composition of your sweat changes when you lie—even the coolest customer can’t help it.”

  “Wow.” I looked at him admiringly. “I didn’t know your nose was that sensitive.”

  “I smell everything,” he said darkly. “Lies, truth, fear…” His white-on-black eyes raked over me. “Desire.”

  I thought of how horny and needy I’d been feeling the last few days, ever since he’d healed me for the second time, and felt my cheeks heat with embarrassment.

  “Um…so we get down to the planet, get the guard to tell the truth about who took Teeny and where they took her, and get back up here as quickly as possible?” I said, trying to change the subject. “That’s the plan?”

  He nodded. “Essentially. But remember, the Temple Guards will be armed and ready to kill anyone committing blasphemy on their sacred grounds. So we have to be careful—don’t give them any reason to doubt us.”

  “But is it blasphemy?” I looked at him curiously. “I mean, do you feel bad about what we’re going to do? I thought you worshipped the Goddess of Mercy too.”

  “I do,” he said shortly. “And I’m sorry to invade her sanctuary under false pretenses. But what’s blasphemy is kidnapping and hurting an innocent like Teeny. We have to get her back before any kind of permanent harm is done—I think the Goddess would understand.”

  “All right.” I took a deep breath. “Well then, let’s get going.”

  “Not just yet,” he said. “First we have to get changed and I have to get the generator implanted. C’mon—let’s go to my fresher. I have everything I need in there.”

  Grav

  “Implanted?” Leah asked once I was positioned in front of the viewer in my fresher—what she called a ‘bathroom’ for some reason. “What do you mean by that?”

  “I mean the image generator can’t hold my new image steady without me concentrating on it all the time—unless it’s actually inside me,” I explained. “See?”

  I concentrated again, bringing up the
Majoran image. I looked strange without my horns and with tan skin and light-on-white eyes, but my facial features were still the same. It would fool almost anyone—until I stopped concentrating.

  With the image fully in place and wearing the extra, extra-large gray robe I’d bought on Sincon to wear to the temple, I looked reasonably Majoran. But if the image flickered, no amount of costuming could disguise my ugly mug or the fact that I was a Braxian male. The image needed to stay constant.

  Luckily, I knew how to fix it.

  Taking off the gray robe and my black vest, I drew one of the blades I kept on me at all times and considered my torso. “Let’s see…where’s the best spot for this little fucker?” I muttered, examining my body.

  Of course, the small cylinder would be easier to insert into fat than muscle, but unfortunately, I don’t have much fat on my body. I’m mostly muscle—my Braxian and Vorn DNA account for that. I had just decided it would be easiest to hide the Image Generator down along the side of my hip bone when Leah stopped me with a horrified sounding exclamation.

  “Grav, don’t! What are you doing?” she gasped just as I was about to slit myself open—not a lot, just enough to slip the cylinder inside.

  “Inserting it,” I said, frowning. “It has to be encased inside my flesh to work properly.

  “But…won’t that hurt?” she asked faintly. “I mean, I can’t believe you’re going to…to cut yourself open and put that in without any kind of antiseptic or numbing medicine or anything.”

  “It’s just pain, darlin’,” I told her, trying to make my voice gentle. “And don’t worry—my Braxian DNA makes me immune to most infections. We’re tough sons-of-bitches.”

  I sliced open my skin, watching as the blood welled deep crimson against my dusky blue hide, and slid the little cylinder inside, just under my epidermis. Naturally it hurt like a bastard but I had expected that. I blotted the wound and reached for the skin-stapler, which I had brought along to the fresher.

  “Ugh…” Leah was making a face. “Do you really have to staple yourself closed?”

  I shrugged. “Works as well as anything else and I don’t have any skin glue—forgot to get some.”

  She laughed faintly, though her face was looking a little green, which I didn’t think was the right shade for one of her people.

  “Oh right, skin glue. We’ll just have to put it on the grocery list for next time.”

  “It’ll be okay,” I told her. I put six staples into my side, holding the cylinder in place and then added a seventh, just to be sure. It hurt but what the hell, I’d known it would. As I had told Leah, it was only pain. I could deal with it, especially if it meant I could get Teeny back safe and sound. I put back on the gray robe and concentrated on what I wanted the image generator to show.

  The Braxian me flickered out and was replaced in the viewer by a Majoran with brown eyes, tan skin, and dark blue hair.

  This time, it held.

  I examined myself critically from all sides. I missed my horns, even though I knew they were still there, just hidden by the field the small machine was generating.

  Well, it didn’t matter what I looked like. After all, I wasn’t going down to Gemina to win any beauty contests. I just wanted to get information to save Teeny and then I’d get the Frozen Hells out of there.

  “Come on, darlin’,” I said to Leah. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Leah

  Gemina was a jungle planet—at least that’s how it looked from what I could see. Grav landed his small shuttle—much smaller than the space-hopper which was still in orbit above us—in a designated parking area, which looked like just a big, grassy field on the edge of a wild, untamed forest. Of course the grass was dark blue and purple and the sky was a deep, burnished bronze but still, the effect was nice.

  As soon as we got out of the shuttle, a guard came to meet us. She was big—almost as tall as Grav was—although not nearly as muscular or broad across the shoulders. She had light pink skin and pale purple hair pulled back into a tight bun at the back of her long neck. Grav had explained to me that the descendants of the Ancient Ones, had skin tones in all colors of the rainbow so her appearance wasn’t really surprising.

  The guard—I assumed she was a guard because of the long pike-like weapon in her hand that crackled with electricity—frowned disapprovingly when she saw us. We were wrapped in our modest gray robes but the way she was looking at us, I might as well still have on the naughty school girl outfit. I hoped we could fool her or the game was up before we’d even begun.

  Glancing at Grav, I saw he was eyeing her, his look assessing, as though he was trying to find weak points on an opponent. I gave him a discrete jab in the ribs with my elbow—we were supposed to be humble acolytes here! He needed to start acting like it.

  He seemed to get the point because he lowered his head and fell in line behind me as I approached the tall guard.

  “Greetings,” I said, nodding to her in what I hoped was a pious way. “We are Acolytes of Naamah, here to question she who was warding Teeny Kiv’orop of Thonolax.”

  “Ah. So you’ve arrived all the way from Yall’ala Prime.” She gave Grav a quick up-and-down glance with her sharp gray eyes. “But why is there a male with you?”

  This time, Grav spoke up.

  “Though we have been serving at the Temple of Naama, we came originally from Femme 1 and the court of the Empress,” he rumbled. “We know males are forbidden here but my mate and I are a bonded pair and I cannot bear to be without my goddess.”

  He put an arm around me and drew me protectively close as he spoke. I felt the heat radiating from his big body and had to take some deep breaths to control my instant reaction to him.

  It’s all right, I told myself. He’s just acting the part—that’s all.

  On our flight down to Gemina’s surface, Grav had explained that the Majorans worshiped their mates as goddesses and treated them accordingly. He’d warned me that he might have to do the same and I’d thought I was prepared. But nothing could prepare me for the need that pounded through me, the desire that claimed me when I felt his big, hard body pressed against mine.

  “Oh, Grav,” I murmured, turning to press my face against the hard planes of his chest. I inhaled his spicy, masculine scent and felt another wave of desire swamp me. God, I wanted him!

  “Mmm, my goddess,” Grav rumbled, stroking my hair gently as he played along. And then he leaned down and took my mouth in a searing kiss, one that seemed to turn my insides to jelly.

  I moaned low in my throat and returned the kiss with interest—how could I help it? I’d been helplessly horny for days now, with years of pent up sexual frustration driving me crazy. And I felt so drawn to Grav—like an iron filing to a magnet.

  His tongue traced gently along the seam of my lips and I opened for him hungrily, taking his tongue into my mouth, eager to accept his penetration. Grav growled in response and suddenly his big hands found my ass, pulling me up to rub against him.

  I moaned again and he swallowed the sound hungrily as he pressed me against him. I could feel the long, hard length of his shaft through both our thin robes, rubbing between my open legs, parting the lips of my sex and making me almost wild with need. God, I ached for him—needed him as I had never needed any man before. And judging from Grav’s reaction to me, he wanted me every bit as badly as I wanted him.

  I was so hot I was ready to make love right there but the priestess-guard with the sizzling pike-staff ruined it.

  “Please, I understand that Majorans are very…fond of each other,” she said, sounding both embarrassed and irritated. “But we here on Gemina find the display of physical affection between a male and a female most distasteful. I must ask you to restrain yourselves, at least until you can be alone with no one to witness your passion.”

  In other words—get a room.

  “Forgive us,” I said, disentangling myself from Grav, though it was t
he last thing I wanted to do. My whole body was throbbing and my lips felt swollen from our frantic kisses. It was hard to think—my head was fuzzy with passion. “I, uh…we’re sorry,” I added lamely.

  “Yes, forgive us,” Grav echoed. “We are…very much in love.”

  I couldn’t help shooting him a glance when he said that. To my intense discomfort, I saw that he was looking right at me as he spoke.

  My heart was pounding and I found that I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his. I wanted to touch him again—wanted him to touch me. I wanted to feel his body against mine, hard and hot and undeniably male. I wanted the feelings he gave me again and this time I didn’t want to stop. I wanted him on top of me—inside me, filling me with himself, making me his own. And from the way Grav was looking at me, I wasn’t the only one who wanted to finish what we had started.

  The moment seemed to stretch between us like a thread of honey, fragile and impossibly sweet. Neither of us said anything but we were definitely doing what my friend Zoe calls, “eye-fucking.”

  “A-hem.” The guard cleared her throat pointedly. “Excuse me, acolytes. If you’re done gazing into each other’s eyes will you come this way? I will put you on the path that leads to the temple.”

  “Thank you.” I dragged my eyes from Grav’s and nodded.

  “Good.” With obvious relief, the guard led us to the edge of the forest, which looked more like a jungle, with its profusion of towering trees and dark blue and purple vines and creepers. There was a narrow dirt path leading into the dense vegetation and the guard nodded at it.

  “There is your way. Enter with pure hearts or do not enter at all. Do not step off the path for the wood that guards the Temple is a dangerous place. And when you reach the Lake of Torment, do not touch the water. These are the only warnings I am permitted to give you.”

  “Uh…thanks.” I didn’t like the sound of that at all. Unlike my friend Zoe, I’m a pretty strong swimmer, but I had no wish to take a dip in any body of water with the word “torment” in its name. Still, I thanked the guard again and Grav and I set off on the path.