Zuran: A Paranormal Sci-Fi Alien Romance: Albaterra Mates Book 6

by Ashley L. Hunt

  “It may very well not be,” Vi’den agreed. “But I believe it is in yours.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means I feel, and, by extension, the Council feels, moving up the trial date for Venan will prevent further rash action from you. As I said, I understand your emotional bond to this particular case, and I do not wish for it to torment you longer than necessary and urge you into the life you have left behind.”

  The way he phrased it, it sounded like he was doing me a favor, like he was looking out for me. Whether that was true or not, I did not know, though Vi’den was notoriously honest, but it did not matter. I was enraged. “You are only looking to pin Kharid’s death on someone!” I barked. “You only intend to make an example out of Venan. This is not about him; this is about not about his actions and if they were criminal. You know the team has compiled plenty of evidence proving the Novai who attacked Kharid was unstoppable without lethal force. It was unfortunate that Venan’s actions resulted in Kharid’s death, but his actions were necessary nonetheless.”

  Vi’den merely looked at me. Had I spoken that way to another Elder, particularly Sevani, it would have been grounds for severe consequences, possibly imprisonment or—if the tension grew thick enough—even a battle. But Vi’den was not impulsive or emotional. He just looked at me and let me rant.

  “You know that, if Venan had not killed the Novai, there would have been a dozen dead bodies in that palace instead of two,” I went on. Phoebe had turned around to look at me, and her hand continuously squeezed my forearm in an effort to quiet me, but I would not be quieted. I was out of control. “Every healer, every doctor here, can tell you the Novai who have contracted this disease have displayed excessive amounts of aggression and even super strength. What else was Venan, a warrior of the Dhal’atian kingdom, to do upon seeing his Elder in close combat with this beast?”

  “I understand,” Vi’den replied. He spoke calmly and evenly, but his tone did nothing to calm me. “For that reason, I would be happy to call you as a witness to testify on Venan’s behalf. As you say, his actions may have well been justified, but that cannot be proven without a witness. I would venture a guess that you are more than willing to be that witness.”

  “Of course I am,” I said at once, “but the rest of the Council is likely to think I am only speaking from bias because of our familial relation.”

  Vi’den tilted his head, but, before he could say anything, Phoebe stepped forward. “I will be a witness too.” The Elder turned his attention to her, and she tilted her chin slightly upwards with resolve. “I was there, and I’m also working on treating the disease that led to this entire mess. I can offer medical knowledge backed with credentials and experience to support Zuran’s testimony.”

  I felt a surge of gratitude for her. She was so giving, so willing to put herself on the line, for something that had nothing to do with her in the grand scheme.

  Vi’den studied her for a moment, flicking his eyes once to me as if to analyze the chemistry between us. I stared back stoutly at him. “I think we may permit that,” he finally said. “Provided the rest of the Council agrees as well.”

  “Good,” I said this rather than letting Phoebe respond. “See that they do.”

  Again, had it been any other Elder, my order would have been taken with a large dose of self-righteous anger. As it was Vi’den, however, he merely inclined his head, bent at the knees, and jumped into the wind. It was just Phoebe and me again.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Phoebe

  Once Vi’den disappeared, the weight of what I’d just agreed to suddenly crushed upon me. A new set of nerves churned in my stomach as I realized I had volunteered myself to go before the Council in the sacred Elder City to argue on both Zuran’s and Venan’s behalf to essentially claim that an Elder’s death was justified. It sounded like suicide. It sounded like something that was going to get me locked up.

  Zuran was practically shaking with anger. He was staring at the place where Vi’den had just been and refused to look at me even when I stood on tiptoe to try to meet his eyes.

  “Zuran,” I said quietly. For a moment, he didn’t respond. Then, finally, he looked down at me and blinked.

  “I cannot believe they decided to honor his request,” he snarled. “They know that is not in his best interest.”

  “If they view him as a criminal, they might not care what’s in his best interest,” I pointed out.

  Zuran shook his head. “It does not matter if they view him as a criminal or not. He is not due judgment until a trial has been held. Their own personal biases against him, or me, or anyone else are to be forgotten until all evidence has been provided. That is the duty of an Elder.”

  “I know,” I said. “I understand you’re frustrated, but the decision has been made. They’re going to move up his trial date, and they’re going to let you testify. And me.”

  Saying it sent a jolt of sick fear through my belly. I didn’t want to testify, not because I believed Venan was guilty but because I didn’t want to be in the spotlight, particularly in front of the eyes of the most powerful people on the planet. But I had to do what was right, and I had to do what I could to help Zuran.

  He was still quaking with anger. “They are just looking to make an example of him,” he said, just as he’d said to Vi’den. “They are looking for someone to blame because they do not want to tell the A’li-uud that an Elder died by accident.” He scratched his fingers against his scalp, pulling his hair back away from his face. It waved in a pearly sheet behind him. “They want to appear so invincible, one united and all-powerful force. They cannot permit anyone to believe they are vulnerable to that which the rest of us are vulnerable, so they need to criminalize Venan for what he did to prove to the rest of the world the Elders are the elite.”

  I wasn’t sure he really believed that, and I knew I definitely didn’t believe that, but now didn’t seem like the time to argue with him. I rested my hand on top of his shoulder and stood up on tiptoe again to press a gentle kiss to his lips.

  “I need to go back inside,” I said. It wasn’t exactly true. I hadn’t been asked to come back in, but it seemed like he needed to cool off, and my presence wasn’t helping.

  He nodded, and I turned. Before I went back in, I took one last look at him. He was pacing back and forth, watching his footprints disappear in the wind-blown sand.

  When I entered the hall again, Antoinette had busied herself with a Novai on the far end. The Novai nearest me, the one I had inspected, was being tended to by Dr. Griep. I strode over to him.

  “I see there has been a lot of progression in their condition,” I said casually. I wanted to gauge if he was angry with me for my absence or not.

  “There has,” he acknowledged. He didn’t sound mad. “And I’m worried we’re not going to be able to stop it before it progresses fatally. The Novai who passed away on their journey here had only reached the stage of skin discoloration. We don’t even know if there’s a stage after.”

  “I know, but, if we don’t have any treatment, how are we supposed to stave it off?” I asked. I was basically asking how to prevent death, which was something I was pretty sure no human or A’li-uud had the answer to.

  “I don’t know,” he said with a sigh. “I guess that’s just why we keep working.”

  I looked down at the Novai. He was clearly awake, as his eyes were moving back and forth between us, but he was not fighting his restraints like they all had when they were first brought in. He was just lying there, docile. I wondered if the aggression that was part of the first stage dissipated upon entering stage two, or if his body was beginning to shut down entirely. I leaned down and looked closely at the back of his hand. The black veins there were protruding, almost like you would see on someone who was wasting away, and the ashen gray hue beneath his thinning skin had a strange pattern to it. It was like half-circles or U-shapes of darkness which gradually shaded lighter and lighter like a tattoo as it moved up
ward. They were clustered together. Nearest his thumb, there were three, but the section closer to his wrist revealed a group of nearly a dozen. I snagged Dr. Griep’s sleeve.

  “Have you noticed this?” I asked, pointing to the odd markings.

  He followed my finger, leaned close, and nodded. “Yes,” he said. “I noticed them yesterday. The others have them too, but his are the most pronounced.”

  “What is it?” I had wondered before if the weird color developing beneath their skin was muscle, but now I was starting to doubt that theory. The markings were completely unlike muscle and, unless their muscles were as small as quarters and massed in groups, I doubted I had been right.

  “I’m thinking of taking a biopsy to find out,” he said. “I feel like it might be something we need to know about.”

  I nodded in agreement. Dr. Griep walked away, but I continued to stare at the black and gray half-circles. This no longer looked like a disease to me. This looked like the Novai was turning into something, or something had taken over his body, like a parasite, and it was slowly growing until the Novai would be no more.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Zuran

  If my head had been confused before, it was nothing compared to now. After Vi’den had made his visit, I spent several days in a fog, unable to focus and completely obsessed over Venan’s fate. It did not occur to me until the next day after I had learned the trial would be hastened, that Venan may never have gotten my message, or never would get it. Now that his trial had been moved up, it seemed unlikely Feq would be able to get word to him.

  I supposed it was irrelevant now as far as asking him to rescind the request, seeing as the Elders had already agreed to grant it, but I still wanted him to know I was preparing non-negotiable evidence in his favor. I did not want him to ruin himself in hopelessness and regret. Then again, he was the kind of personality that, like me, would do something if he was determined to do it, and nothing I or anyone else could do would stop him.

  Several days later, nearly a week after Vi’den had come to the hospital, I woke just before the sun broke the horizon. It was around the same hour Phoebe and I had first held a conversation, sitting together on the patient bed in the hall before the Novai had arrived. I felt a hint of nostalgia and wondered if I ought to wake her to reenact the memory, but the beds were occupied, and I had a task to perform. I had not awoken so early by chance.

  Every day, warriors from Ka-lik’et arrived before the break of dawn to deliver food for the team. Their journey to and from the city was not nearly as lengthy or uncomfortable as it had been for Phoebe and me because they traveled by way of an uhudu caravan. Why they made a trip daily rather than weekly, I did not know. I presumed it was because they were only able to carry so much and our team was not a small one, but I could not be certain. Either way, it did not matter. I needed to speak with them, so I rose from my bed, exited the room without waking Phoebe, and waited for them just outside the front door.

  I saw them coming one by one. First, a head appeared over a dune followed by a torso and then the head of an uhudu. Behind him came two more heads of A’li-uud and two more heads of uhudu. I waited silently. I did not know if they saw me, but I did not make an attempt to gather their attention. They would see me soon enough.

  When they drew near enough, I opened the door to allow them easy entrance while they carried in the goods. They dismounted their uhudu, unlatched the sacks and crates of food, and began transferring them inside as they murmured thanks to me in A’li-uud. After they had stacked everything at the front of the hall, they turned and bowed their heads in goodbye.

  I stopped them.

  “Do you have a moment to spare?” I asked politely.

  They turned toward me, looked at one another, and then looked to me with nods.

  “Thank you,” I said. “I need to ask you something.”

  “The crate on the bottom is the meat,” said one. I glanced over at the pile, my eyes finding the crate on the bottom, and then shook my head.

  “No, that is not the answer I seek,” I replied. “I want to ask you if you have seen Faro around Ka-lik’et.”

  I did not know these particular warriors, though I had seen them once or twice, and I did not know if they were familiar with Faro. It seemed by the way they exchanged confused glances they did not, but I knew they would know him, if not by name, then by description. I rambled off brief details about his appearance and added that he was known to be intoxicated much of the time. I felt guilty saying it, as if I were speaking ill about a good friend behind his back, but it was the only thing that made their eyes light up with recognition.

  “He is Feq’s father,” the middle warrior said.

  “Yes,” I confirmed. I was surprised they knew Feq and not Faro, but I was not going to question it. “Have you seen him around?”

  “We have not seen him,” said the last, the one nearest the door, “but it has been rumored he has recently suffered grievous injuries and is confined to a hospital bed.”

  I pulled my head back as if a terrible stench had suddenly wafted over my nose. “What? What has happened to him?”

  They all jerked their heads simultaneously to indicate they had no further information. “We only know the drunkard has been hurt,” the first said. “There has been no more news than that.”

  They bid me goodbye, which I responded to respectfully, and I closed the door behind them. Alone in the hall with no one but the Novai, I stood frozen. It had to be Terrik’s doing. Faro may have been a drunkard as the warriors had said, but not so much so to perilously injure himself. If he was hospitalized, it would be at Terrik’s hand, and it would have been in revenge for Faro’s interference in the scuffle with me in the lair.

  I felt guilt wash over me. It no longer mattered if Feq had even heard that I asked for him to pass along a message. It was too late anyway; the trial had been moved. And Faro was fighting for his life because he had come to my defense. Now, more than ever, I understood how important it was that I never went back to my old ways again.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Phoebe

  It had been ten days since Vi’den had come and told us about Venan’s trial. Something in Zuran had changed. It was like he had found out something that he wasn’t telling me, but, as far as I knew, no other Elders had stopped by, so I didn’t understand why he was suddenly quiet, brooding, and constantly in a bad mood. Of course, I imagined it was because of Venan’s situation, but it was as if the last few days had been the hardest on him.

  I spent as much free time as I could with him when I wasn’t tending to the Novai in the hopes I’d be able to cheer him up or at least get his mind off of things. However, the only thing he wanted to do when we did spend time together was talk about Venan, the trial, and our testimonies. He kept saying, “We need to make certain our stories match.”

  “Zuran,” I told him. “Our stories will match because we were actually there. We saw what happened. We don’t have to make anything up.”

  “You do not understand,” he would come back. “The Elders already believe Venan is guilty because of what he did without even considering the reason. We need to give them a reason to consider why he did what he did and why it was necessary.”

  I understood that, but I also understood trying to match our stories too much would make us seem like we were lying. And, since we weren’t lying, that was the last thing I wanted. I wouldn’t go in front of the Elders and lie, anyway, but I didn’t even want it to cross their minds that I might not be telling them the truth. I was horribly nervous. With each passing day, I was regretting my decision to testify for Venan with Zuran. I did want to help Zuran, and helping him meant helping his brother, but I didn’t want to put myself in the limelight.

  It was night, and Zuran and I had ventured outside to sit in the sand while he continued one of his many rants about the Council and how they were wronging his brother. I was leaning back on my hands with my knees propped up, staring at the sky. No m
atter the circumstances, one thing I had always been able to do since arriving in Albaterra was to appreciate the beauty around me. Albaterra was infinitely more beautiful than Earth, and that was saying something because Earth had some truly exquisite sights, but Albaterra was like Earth on steroids. The colors were more vivid, the landscapes were more intriguing. Even the smells in the air were more vibrant and intoxicating. There was nothing about Albaterra, as far as nature that I disliked. In fact, there wasn’t much about Albaterra at all that I disliked, and I was constantly glad I’d made the decision to leave Earth and come here. That gladness was only heightened by my relationship with Zuran. Of course, that was discounting how hyper-focused he had been lately on something that, every time I thought about it, made my stomach curl up into a ball like a hedgehog.

  There was a thump. I turned around in surprise, nearly falling down onto my elbow with the speed of my reaction. Zuran was faster than I was. He had been sitting similarly to me, though his legs were stretched out in front of him, and he whipped around onto his knees to see what had made the sound. It was Vi’den. He was back.

  “It is time,” he said.

  I looked at him, waiting for further explanation, but his expression said that I should’ve known what he was talking about, to begin with. It seemed Zuran did. He got to his feet at once, dusting off his pants and brushing his palms against each other. Then, he reached down, offered me a hand, and pulled me to my feet as well.

  “What is it time for?” I whispered to him.

  “The trial, I presume,” he said loudly enough for Vi’den to hear.

  Vi’den nodded. “Indeed. If you do not mind, I would like to take you each to P’otes-tat Ulti via wind travel, but I am only able to take one at a time.”