by Viola Grace
Nitska sighed. “Well, then, come out from under the shade and take a walk with me.”
Sil could feel Kalek nearby and suspected this was a setup. She got up from her lounger and walked with her feet in the sand. Her finger and toenails had been groomed, her body polished, and she now had a team of people who could swarm her and get her coiffed and dressed in twenty minutes. She had to calm her mind while it was going on to keep from throwing a fit, but when they stepped away from her, she was presentable to just about anyone.
Kalek didn’t like the makeup, so they used a neutral lip colour and a light eyeliner. That was it.
Today, she was out in the sun with a coating of UV protectant, and she walked along with Nitska down the beach. She heard the soft thud of his wings a moment before his shadow raced ahead of him, and he caught her up in his arms. She squawked and clutched at him as he began to gain altitude.
He was having fun. That much was certain.
“Having a good day?”
“Meetings are done, and you are in my arms. It is a great day.” He smiled and slowly did a spiral.
She leaned up and kissed him in greeting. “Good. Do you spend a lot of time on Korvil?”
“I believe I will be spending more time here now.” He flexed his fingers around her and nuzzled her cheek.
Sil closed her eyes as they continued to climb. “Why would that be? I liked the ship. I was just getting used to it.”
He laughed. “My wings need room to spread out, and the energy that you have provided me with is beginning to create alterations in my psychic skill set.”
“Oh. Right. I had almost forgotten about that.”
He laughed. “I am sure you did. I have tried to keep you distracted when the power slips.”
“Flipping me over the table and sliding into me was extremely distracting.”
He let out a heavy sigh that had a rumble in it. “But an inspiring memory.”
She snorted. “Inspiring?”
He nodded. “Next time, I can do it better.”
She laughed and stroked his neck, jaw, and the dark waves of hair. “I would like to see that.”
“If you could see it, I would not be doing it the same way.”
She leaned in. “No, but it might be better.”
He did a slow roll, and she clutched at him. When he straightened again, he asked, “Have you given further thought to opening a business or a school?”
She shrugged. “My skills are as an analyst, so all I can do is gather together auditors and go over numbers.”
“Would you want to help local businesses?”
“Of course.”
“So, begin by analyzing them and seeing where they could improve. I know we waste a lot of labour here that could simply be redistributed. The Byrcal were built for action, not housekeeping.”
She smiled. “Too bad there were no Terrans here. We thrive at menial customer service. Well. Most of us. I was always better not dealing with people.”
“You deal very well with me.”
She laughed. “You treat me like a person, not a walking calculator. Oh, speaking of treating me like a person, have you heard from Jornal?”
“He believes he has found a Terran. She is in another Hmrain’s colony, so he has to tread carefully, but the Hmrain who has her bond also has his own companion of long-standing. He should be willing to part with her if she is willing to change her contract.”
She laughed, and he gave her a strange look. “If she is in a short-term contract and he is trying to lure her into a Hmrain contract, he had better be persuasive.”
“Who wouldn’t want to be with one of my kind? We are respected, imposing, and extremely wealthy. All of these things are conventionally attractive.”
She kissed his cheek. “You are also arrogant, bossy, and just competent enough to be charming. The sex drive is a whole other thing.”
He shrugged. “Without the sex drive, there is no point to finding companions, and you would still be in a container being sold as part of a breeding group.”
“Flaw in the logic there. You still would have retrieved us as stolen goods, but you would have returned us to the education station. Or sold us on after testing us. I would have ended up as an analyst on a distant world, and you would have continued on.” She chuckled.
His arms tightened. “It is good that that didn’t happen.”
She asked him a question that had bothered her for a while. “Why was I separated from the other humans? When they finished the initial scans and med treatment, they put me in the cells next to you.”
He let out a rumble. “Because I was in there, and they were testing Dlafen’s accuracy. He was pretty accurate.”
He smiled. “Talking to you was surprising. I always imagined my companion dressed in gauzy silks, and her gaze beckoned me to touch her. Your gaze was analyzing me, tracing the patterns that moved over me, and you were staring at my wings. It was not what I had been expecting, but I agreed that it was probably what I needed. Your fear of flying seems to be dissipating, Silhouette.”
She chuckled. “You no longer hold me like a small animal, so yeah, it is easier now. Plus, practice, practice, practice. I know what it feels like to drop and rise. I also know that wrapping my legs around you is an option, and we won’t crash when I do it.”
He laughed. “I do like it when you do that. Why aren’t you doing it now?”
“Because I was having a lovely day at the beach, and I was lured out into the open by my heartless bodyguard and swept into the sky by my lover.”
“Lover?”
“Captain, overseer, bondholder?” She laughed. “You are definitely not my boyfriend or my spouse. I don’t have another word for it.”
“Mate. I am your mate, and you are mine.”
She blinked. “That is used for life partners, and you are going to outlive me by eons.”
“We don’t know how long you will live, but I am giving my all to maintaining you. Signs of aging should be kept at bay for centuries. When you pass on, it will not be because I ceased to need you.” He smiled. “And we may have children in a few years.”
“Are you born with wings?”
He frowned. “I believe others have said there are buds that form and sprout after birth, but we are all different.”
“Interesting. It is something to think about.”
“It is. So, introduce yourself as my mate in the future. Silhouette ynic Kalek.”
She looked down, and the beach was a speck in the distance, and they were a few hundred feet in the air. “If I don’t?”
“I will have to earn it. I have been introducing myself as Kalek ynor Silhouette.”
She kissed him, holding his head steady as she duelled his tongue with her own. They wavered and started losing altitude. She turned toward him and wrapped her legs around him while moving her kiss to his neck as she slowly rocked herself against him. They fell toward the ocean, and then, when she bit him, his wings caught them, and they climbed skyward.
She leaned up and whispered in his ear, and their flight wobbled as he climbed skyward. When she could barely breathe from the lack of oxygen, he slid into her and held her tightly to him as he bit her shoulder, and they began a controlled spiral as he thrust into her, and she started cumming over and over as they descended. She had been thinking of this particular move for a while and had just never been able to bring it up. Today was the ideal day.
She could have reached out and touched the sea when he caught them and pulled them upward. She was limp, and he held her against him, soothing her as he climbed upward.
“You are going to do that again.”
He chuckled. “Tempting, but we will save it for another day. You are tired, and we have a state dinner this evening.”
She held onto him. “Home, please.”
He murmured, “Where is that?”
“Wherever there is you and a place to sleep. Everything els
e is negotiable.”
She smiled against his neck as she felt him shudder. Telling him that he was wanted was his greatest erogenous zone. It was only fair, he told her all the time.
* * * *
The medic kept his hand on her wrist. “I can’t believe you are choosing to do this now.”
“It took three years for us to sync up; I never imagined that the day before I figured out I was pregnant, he would head off on an emergency evacuation mission.”
“But he will be landing in an hour.”
“Good for him. The baby will be here when it decides to show up.” She shifted. “It currently feels like it will be a day or two.”
“Your instinct is wrong. You are in labour.”
She blinked at the doctor she had been seeing throughout her pregnancy. There had been very few folk who were willing to hide the event from the overseer.
“Right. Well, I am going to head home.”
She waved her arms around and pulled herself up off the bed and took the feather that was tied into her hair and brushed it against her lips. Her guards took her back to her residence, and she called Kalek.
His voice came to her, “Silhouette, is something wrong?”
“Um, no, but I was wondering when you will be home.”
“I am on the shuttle right now. Did you miss me?”
As he spoke, she heard a strange echo. She turned her head and saw him in the office doorway. “Kalek?”
He smiled, and then, she turned her body toward him. He paused and stared. “You said there was nothing wrong.”
“There isn’t. There is something urgent, though. I think we have a few hours before anything happens.”
“When did this happen?” He walked to her and knelt in front of her. He touched her belly carefully, and he pressed a kiss to it.
“The pregnancy was about six weeks along when you had to leave. I knew you were heading somewhere tense, so I didn’t want to distract you.”
He murmured, “We had to do an emergency evac of the surviving Terrans. They called in all ships to get them to the station and then disperse those that had been bonded out.”
“Oh. You didn’t say that.”
He looked up at her ruefully. “I did not want to stress you out.”
He paused as he felt her belly. “You are having contractions.”
“Little ones. Yes.”
He picked her up, kissed her, and carried her to their bedroom. He stripped her while making a call on the com and ordering three personnel from the ship to make an emergency drop. Dlafen was one of them.
“I have a doctor who is also a Byrcal-Yith. Dlafen doesn’t have to rush down on my account.”
Dlafen’s voice came through the com. “I am already bonded to you, Silhouette. This is going to be fine.”
She sat up and realized that everyone was slightly insane about what was happening. “Nitska!”
Nitska popped her head in. “Yes, Mistress?”
“Get a tranq gun. Prepare to use it. Anyone but me has hysterics, and I want you to put them down.”
“Yes, Mistress.” Nitska looked at Kalek. “Anyone?”
“If you can. If not, try and then run.”
Nitska nodded and headed to the medical supply cupboard on the main floor.
Silhouette got up and pulled on her favourite robe, and she started walking. She could feel things going on in her, but it didn’t hurt. Her mom had told her once that she had been sneezed out, but Silhouette had thought that was ridiculous.
“What are you doing?” Kalek was staring between her and the bed.
“I am walking. My body is doing something, and instinct is telling me to walk, so I am walking.”
He fidgeted, and he frowned. “What can I do?”
“Kiss me every time I get back to your side of the room.”
She waddled up to him and tapped her lips. He kissed her and smiled slightly. “Is there nothing I can do?”
“Nope. This little creature is going to arrive by its own schedule. You just have to be here to meet it, and you are. Since I am two weeks overdue, I think it was waiting for you.”
“You don’t know the sex?” He blinked.
“Nope. It doesn’t matter to me, and the Byrcal have no particular rituals for either.”
She kept pacing and kept coming back to him for an hour. The medical team that had been sent for burst into the room just as she slipped into bed and Kalek sat at the business end.
Dlafen asked, “Why did you lie down?”
She laughed. “Because the head is crowning, and I didn’t want to step on the little one.”
Dlafen and the two Terran medics looked at her, and she inhaled, exhaled, and the child slid into the world. The ship’s medic looked at her in surprise. “You aren’t in much pain.”
“Nope. So, Kalek, male or female?”
He grinned. “We have a son. Same wing bud pattern as me. Same Hmrain design as me. He’s a strong little fellow.”
Dlafen got a towel and wrapped it along the blue and red baby. Silhouette extended her arms. “Give him to me.”
She held her son and grinned. “What is Hmrain for secret?”
“Genlo.” Kalek laughed. “You want to name him Genlo?”
“Or hidden.”
“Hytin.”
“Oh. Weird. It almost sounds like the word in Hmrain common.”
He shrugged and touched his son’s little arm. “Hytin is a good name. Hytin vek Silhouette ynic Kalek. Next generation Overseer of Korvil.”
She looked at the dark blue face and smiled. “Hytin. Next analyst of Korvil.”
Kalek leaned in and kissed her. “When you are ready, we need to discuss the punishment for hiding this from me.”
She laughed. “Immune from punishment. This was something done to me. Not by me. Therefore, we just need to wait until my body is back into a more hospitable condition, and I can give you a proper welcome home.”
The afterbirth emerged, and Dlafen took care of it before giving her an exam. “Uh, Mistress Silhouette?”
“Yeah?”
“You are already healing. The Hmrain compounds in your bloodstream must have had an effect. Your belly is flattening, and the muscles are moving. I can check in a few hours, but I believe that despite the delay in conception, you will not suffer extended side effects from childbirth.”
Her son looked at her with solid black eyes, and she helped him start to nurse.
“So, you didn’t want to distract me?”
“No. I didn’t know where you were going or what you were doing, so I wasn’t going to guess that you wouldn’t want to rush home.”
“I absolutely would want to rush home. I wanted to be at your side for this.”
She grinned. “I did a video log that you can watch, and you can get the highlights of the pregnancy.”
He moved and sat next to her, lifting them both into his lap, and he wrapped them in his wings.
She murmured, “Computer, display While you were away.”
The projector started, and Kalek pressed his head to hers as the projection of her said, “So, Kalek, you had to take off today, and you made sure that I was nice and exhausted, but I went out for a medical test and came home to find that I am pregnant. You are exiting our system right now, so I am just going to record it. I am a little nervous that it will be huge, but I am sure that the medics can deal with that. It sucks that you aren’t here, but I hope you do what you have to do and come home soon. I miss you.”
They sat as she rambled on, and he laughed at a few parts, grumbled at the ones where someone had hurt her feelings by saying it wasn’t Kalek’s. When the baby started to move, she had been so happy. As she got bigger, Nitska started making appearances as the ersatz masseuse.
When she got to her due date, she started to grumble until the note from that morning. “Kalek, if you don’t get your butt home soon, I am going to have this kid, and you are
going to have to deal with the results. I love you, but this is getting ridiculous.”
“End of file.”
Silhouette smiled down at Hytin, and she leaned against her mate.
“You love me?”
She turned her head to look at his stunned features. “Of course. You have become enough to me that there would be a tremendous loss if you were gone. I would be hollow and half of what I am used to being.”
He kissed her, and the small kitten-like sound reminded him that there was another person in their bed, even if he was short.
He pressed his head to hers. “I love you, too. Him, I am on the fence about. He seems sneaky to me.”
She smiled. “He is, but he’s ours. Our beloved hidden treasure.”
Kalen nuzzled her cheek. “Thank the stars for pirates.”
She caught on to his reference, and she settled the little one on her shoulder. “Thank the stars for the Byrcal-Yith, or I would have been dropped in the hold and gone on my own way.”
“Dlafen is getting a raise.” Kalek grinned.
She leaned against him and stroked their son’s back. “Wise decision. Hytin is going to have to look for his own companion one day. We need to keep the Byrcal having babies.”
“He will be able to sense it the moment he meets her. I knew the moment that you were in that cell that you were for me.”
She smiled. “I was staring at your feathers.”
“They are attached to me. You had to look around sometime.”
She laughed and leaned against him. He triggered the files again, dinner was brought to them, and they watched the video again. He liked to see the progress as the baby got bigger, and she liked to lean against him while her mind accepted that he was home.
If he tried to leave again, she was getting the tranq gun.
Author’s Note
I started this one before Wrapped in Fire but then came back to it afterward. I am currently working through half-written books and all the covers that have backed up. So, I have two more Stand Alone tales coming, and I am getting back to the Covert Dragons and a Digital Demon in there somewhere.