Wyst

by J. A. Hornbuckle

  But as I passed in front of him, he gave me a-not-so light slap on the butt. “Just do not let it happen again, mica purvya. I find I do not like it when you tease me.”

  *.*.*.*.*

  He wanted to ask her about the underlying cause of her anger, to correct whatever it was she was carrying inside her head that bothered her so much.

  However, the thoughts and words she’d shared more than let him know she would not be amenable, much less approachable until she got a handle on whatever was upsetting her. Although he suspected her anger was based on an untruth, some delusion she’d created in her own mind. But one thing he’d learned in their brief time together was, once the Pam went silent, it was time for him to be as well.

  Unless he wanted to feel the rough side of his pixie’s tongue and not in the way his tailpor might find enjoyable.

  So it wasn’t until they were at the diner, after she’d had two cups of the vile brew she called coffee and they’d ordered breakfast that he brooked the silence between them. And even then, he did it verbally instead of connecting with her along their link, which was the way they’d communicated all morning. “I spoke with Bronsyn and the other warriors last night. ”

  Raising her beautiful, frosted blue eyes to his without lifting her head while holding a forkful of the gelatinous mass she called ‘eggs over easy’, caused him to swallow dryly. She was already so on edge, he wasn’t quite sure how she would react to what he needed to relate. Causing his next words to come out in a rush. “It seems our troubles have multiplied exponentially.”

  “Troubles? You mean more than, like, with the delay in getting to Leah because of the SUV? Or unknown guys asking about us?”

  He nodded and looked down to his own plate without seeing the food there. “Yes. The governments of both Galaxia and Nutrol, at the advice of the Search Committee, have named me and Rykhan as traitors to the Protectorate. And Pete told me we are being sought by a trio of unknowns.”

  He glanced at her intermittently as he played with his silverware, trying to gauge her reaction. When none was forthcoming and she continued to eat, he felt further explanation was necessary. “This means the Searcher’s crew have been given complete authority to hunt us down in order to force us into Gyed’s sacred veil.”

  Her utensil paused between her plate and her mouth as her gaze again met his, although it didn’t feel as harsh as it had been earlier. “Us? As in you and me, or just you and Ryker? Or is it for all four of us?”

  “They have limited authority over you and Rykhan’s mate while we are planet-side, but can enact retribution because you are in our company. Or should I say if they find you with us.” At least she was asking questions which meant she had some level of interest in what he was saying, unlike earlier.

  “What does it mean to have ‘complete authority’, Wyst? That they can freaking do anything they want to make you guys fall into line and get with the program?”

  “In Picari, the words mean more than a simple directive.” His stomach clenched hard as he again reviewed the steps the crew would take to assure he and his warrior-brother were brought to justice for disobeying a direct order and jeopardizing the mission. “It gives the crew absolute power and approval to hunt for us, utilizing every means necessary. And then enact the Cessation of Life Protocol.”

  As her blank expression shifted into a frown, Wyst hastened to explain. “They do not want our treasonous thoughts and attitudes to infect any other Picari and the only way to do that is to—”

  “You’re talking about, like, killing you and Rykhan. Aren’t you?” she whispered on a stricken note, the whites of her eyes exposed as her shaking hands sought the bottom of her throat and her breathing sped up. “What about me and Leah?”

  He honestly wasn’t sure how to answer since the Committee wanted human female eggs almost more than they wanted their next breath. Something Bronsyn had discovered as the real mission, one not told to the warriors until Rykhan’s mate was found breeding. “I am sorry, my Pam. I do not know if you and Leah are scheduled for...”

  He couldn’t even verbalize his concerns when it came to the two human females he and his brothers had come to cherish.

  “Oh my god,” she moaned, dropping her utensil onto her plate with a clatter as she sat back in her seat and glanced around as if looking for any of the Picari crew members to appear at any moment. “What are we going to do, Wyst? Like, what the eff are we gonna do? We’re sitting ducks, stuck here with no way to get to Rykhan or Leah, with nothing but our tresls as weapons! What if they find us?”

  Wyst reached for one of her hands that were holding the tabletop in a white knuckled grip. But as soon as her fingers entwined with his, an unexpected calmness stole over him. “I will protect you with my life, my Pam-ah-lah Swain. I will never allow anyone, human or otherwise, to harm you. Do you understand?”

  As the words rolled out of his mouth, he knew he’d made a vow. One his hearts proclaimed were true and life-long in the way all true vows were to be spoken.

  She blinked a couple of times before her hand tightened on his. “And I won’t let anyone, human or otherwise hurt you either, my Wyst Marnd.”

  Her words surprised him or perhaps it was how fervently they were spoken that took his breath away. There was no doubt she meant what she said, just as much as he had in reminding her she had his protection. But it was the totally unexpected sense of peace her touch provided that held him spellbound and was the probable cause for the way his wahrom began to heat and tingle.

  Dropping her hand, whatever measure of harmony invading his mind and emotions became lost. And he mourned its passing, even as he touched the back of his neck, experiencing tiny flickers of the familiar electrical charge.

  She in turn, shoved both her hands underneath the table and out of sight.

  “There is more, pixie.”

  She rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. “Might as well confess it all in one go, cowboy. Get all the god-awful crap out in one convo.”

  Though her words were light, her tone let him know she understood the gravity of the situation. “Dr. Jyrl along with two of the members of his team showed up at the warrior house and demanded entry in the name of the Quest.”

  “Motherfucker,” his pixie breathed on a low note as she again raised a hand to her throat. “Why?”

  Wyst found himself completely unwilling to tell her of the next step in the Quest Committee leader’s nefarious plans, especially since her most trusted friend, Rykhan’s Leah, was the female who’d brought the true reason of the mission to light. Simply by providing ample proof Picaris and humans could successfully mate and create a youngling. “So they can convert one room of the warrior house into an operating theatre and harvest a human female’s ovum on-site.”

  His beautiful companion went pale as she sucked in an audible breath. Her lips opened and closed as if she wanted to speak, but her eyes wildly searched his as if waiting for him to tell her of the humor behind his bald words.

  When he didn’t offer any further explanation, she shut her mouth with an audible click and clenched her jaw before snatching up her purse. Throwing two twenties on the tabletop, she maneuvered herself out of their booth and avoiding her large suitcase on wheels filled with their sheets, their towels and his dirty clothes, she raced to the door. But just as she went to push the large windowed portal open, she turned back and stared at him. “This is insane, Wyst. Like, totally and completely crazy no matter how you look at it!”

  Which was accompanied by a mental shout so loud it made his brain ache. And I don’t give a shit which planet you’re from, even you have to admit what they goddamn want and how they plan to get it is completely fucked up!

  Chapter Nineteen

  After running out of the diner like some sort of demented drama queen, I paused on the sidewalk and realized I had no place to run.

  Couldn’t go back to the motel, and besides, who’d want to?

  Outside of Pete and the bar, I didn’t know anyo
ne else in town. And that meant I’d left the table and Wyst in order to escape, to get away from the idea of the smarmy Dr. Jyrl and his need to…his need to…

  Jaysus I couldn’t even complete the thought, it was so awful.

  But the medical chief didn’t make a move without it being an order. Which led me to connect the dots on just who had given the directive to not only harvest human ovaries but to demand an Earth-side operating facility to boot. And I was sure as shit it was that goddamn Commander Stege, the leader and bat-shit crazy sonuvabitch who’d dreamt up this whole scheme!

  A sanctimonious douche-bag of a man who held the very top slot on my shit list.

  Just as I came to that conclusion, Wyst pushed the suitcase I’d left behind out the diner’s door and came to stand beside me. I looked up at him to see his face full of concern.

  “Are you all right, mica jain?”

  I nodded and reached for his hand, craving a bit of the tranquility his touch always seemed to provide. As the syrupy feel of it spread and appeased my jangled nerves, I finally found my voice. “Yeah, I’m fine, big guy.”

  His eyes searched mine like he was looking for a lie but finding none (which I knew he wouldn’t because I’d mostly told him the truth), he tugged me closer. “Shall we go cleanse our clothing then and put this morning behind us?”

  I liked his phrasing because it whittled it all down into more manageable chunks. We’d just put our overly emotional and crap-blasted early hours, like, behind us and get on with what we were supposed to do until we could meet up with Rykhan and Leah. Squeezing his fingers, I tried on a small grin. “Let’s hit it, babe. But is it okay if we talk some this shit through as we do?”

  “Absolutely,” he replied with his own small smile and a returning squeeze of his fingers as he began walking. “What was it about Dr. Jyrl’s plan that causes you such fear? The warriors denied him entry and Arbrynt is ensuring the doctor and his team will have no access to the house or property.”

  “Remember how I used to take Leah food when she was sequestered onboard the Searcher? That Jerry dude seemed to make a point of dropping in when I was there or would catch me just as I was coming or going. Each and every goddamn time I saw him, the man would make his pitch for my eggs.” Anger flared white-hot at the recollection and I had to push it down just to continue speaking. “I told him no again and again but it was like our previous conversations didn’t stick in his head. As if he didn’t respect the ‘no’ I’d given him the first time and every time thereafter. But it was his speeches about how much the fates of Galaxia and Nutrol depended on my donated ovum that really set my ass on fire.”

  “As it would any sentient being,” Wyst growled. “I too have had dealings with him in the past and rather than providing me with a sense of well-being as a person in the healing arts should, I left his presence more unsettled than when I arrived.”

  “But he’s not the decision-maker for this shit, is he? I mean, in order to try and set up something at the Troon North house, he’d need some kind of order or command, right?”

  When Wyst didn’t answer right away, I glanced up and found him frowning in thought. “No, he would not. So he must have been given a directive from the Quest Committee.”

  “You mean from the Grand Pooh-bah of Dickness, Stege. He’s the shit-for-brains running the show, correct?”

  Wyst came to a full stop and stared at me in shock. “You know of Commander Stege?”

  “Yep. Leah and I had a video-chat with that supercilious pile of steaming shit a few weeks ago and, let me tell you, it wasn’t pretty.” A shiver of revulsion involuntarily ran through me at the memory. “How you guys can take orders from such a demeaning dirt-bag boggles the mind.”

  “I do not interact with him. He communicates with Bronsyn who gives us our orders.” Wyst began to walk again although at a much slower pace. “What was your meeting about?”

  “It started out okay, I guess. A little discussion about why two lowly human females were helping you guys find your brides, et cetera. But it didn’t take long before he showed his true colors, screaming about Leah and I were ‘unsuitable’ to even lick a Protector’s boots, much less help in their search.” Actually Stege had said a helluva lot more than I told Wyst, citing Leah wasn’t woman enough to hold onto her one and only boyfriend and calling me a whore to my face due to the myriad of sexual activity I’d engaged in. But I wasn’t gonna tell Wyst that particular embarrassing piece of info. “Then he told us if we wanted to continue to be with the team, we had to shit or get off the pot.”

  Again Wyst pulled me to a stop, but this time his face held a look of horror. “He wanted to watch you and Rykhan’s mate…defecate?”

  Damn! I’d forgotten to watch my speech again and Wyst had taken my words at face value. “No, no,” I hurried to explain, yanking on his fingers to get him moving again. “Nothing like that. He told us we had to have two more warriors find their mates over the next three weeks or he would ensure we wouldn’t be allowed near any of you again. And I quote, ‘wahrom or not’.”

  Wyst’s face went a funny shade of pale at my words. Though he tried, really tried to respond. “Even, uhm, Co-Commander Stege wo-wouldn’t da-dare to-to—”

  I cut in before he could complete his stuttered sentence. “Oh he dared, all right. But Leah was awesome and chewed his ass up, but good. Told him you guys needed us more than we needed you. Managed to shock him by flashing her wahrom at the screen and gave him the same brand of smartass he spouted. Bronsyn was very impressed at the way we held our own and told us so when we left.”

  “Bronsyn was there?” Shocked hazel eyes met my own, but I managed to keep him moving. His color was just edging on normal and I wasn’t somebody who wanted to change it again.

  Which meant I nodded and bit back my smile of triumph at both the recollection and in preventing Wyst from dragging me to another stop. At the rate we were going, our clothes wouldn’t be done before the start of my shift! “Yep. Heard every word and even gave us hugs afterward.”

  When he didn’t say anything further, I glanced up to see him staring off into the distance as if he was processing what I’d told him.

  I only hoped it helped him understand my earlier need to escape.

  *.*.*.*.*

  Wyst’s mind whirled with all his pixie told him after rushing away to find an explanation when she’d related Dr. Jyrl’s antics. He’d known nothing of what she’d experienced in most of her time in the house. Mainly because he’d avoided her as much as possible.

  Opening the heavy glass door of the laundering facility, Wyst wondered why his leader never told him or the other warriors in their group of the females meeting with Stege. The pixie had named it as ‘not pretty’ in her retelling, but never really got into the specifics of what was said. And the fact Bronsyn never related the incident made him think there was a lot more to it than she’d let on.

  Should he delve into it, gaining answers to questions he’d yet to formulate or simply leave it alone?

  By the time he came out of his head and back to the matter at hand, the lively sprite was sorting through the mish-mash of fabric from their room, seemingly throwing their clothes and bedding into piles he didn’t understand. “What are we doing?”

  “Separating the colors,” she said, from a bent over position. One that prevented him from seeing her eyes, her hands a flurry of movement as she tossed a few pieces of material into the different mounds on the floor. “Whites are here. Medium colors, there. And darks are behind me.” Tossing her hair out of her eyes, she didn’t change position but still managed to point her face to his. “You could help, you know, instead of just standing there with your tongue in your mouth.”

  He had no clue what she meant, much less her intent, but was willing to pitch in to do what she called ‘separating’. Grabbing a handful of cloth in each hand, he looked from them to the different stacks she’d created and still couldn’t see the pattern she’d detailed. So he just stood there watching a
s she threw the different scraps into the different heaps.

  “Jaysus! Didn’t you have to wash your shit on Nutrol?”

  “Yes, but we have robotics for that.”

  She straightened to her diminutive but full height and gave him a glare as she back-handed an errant blonde lock from her eyes. “Lucky. Fucking. You.”

  He blinked at the venom in her voice and wondered if it was solely because of his lack of help in their current chore or if it she’d somehow surmised he’d never performed such a menial task before. Not even as a recruit at the academy.

  But one of the things he liked most about her was how her thinking and emotions could be redirected. For a short time, anyway. “You said you and Rykhan’s mate agreed to three mating-pairs in three weeks? There are six warriors and one leader planet-side.”

  Carrying a large armful of nothing but whites, she teetered to one of the large washers, shoving everything inside before she slammed the small, circular door closed. “So?”

  Opening up a couple of slots in the panel that fronted the unit, she poured in whatever she’d purchased from the quiet woman manning a counter in the far corner of the business, before feeding the machine some silver coins. All the while ignoring him.

  “Who were they? The three you and your friend promised to find mates for in such a short amount of time?”

  “Don’t worry, big guy. Everybody knows you want as much pussy as you can get before blowing this ‘burg the rest of us consider a planet.” Both her tone and her walk as she passed by was one of scorn, of derision even if her words held a measure of reassurance. “We all know you refuse to get stuck with just one Earth-girl until you abso-fucking-lutely need to. Believe me.”

  Why did her summation of his edict sound so…hateful and selfish? He wasn’t at fault and had been very upfront about his wants and desires from the beginning. Didn’t humans value the truth as much as he and his warrior-brothers did? And his confusion made the next words out of his mouth sound tense as well as suspicious. “Who were they, pixie? Those brothers who you chose to secure mates for within Stege’s timeline?”