Promise

by Yolanda Sfetsos

  Alex wanted to knock the smugness off his face. Her fists balled up at her sides with rage. Her blood boiled as she glared at the rocky surface—wondering what this crazy bitch had in store for them, and hating this man who was so blindly being led by her. Aleena obviously didn’t care about Elroy, yet he was willing to do whatever she wanted him to do. She was leading him on, using his unconditional devotion against him.

  “Give me the weapon,” she said, taking it out of his grip and dropping it at her feet.

  Priestess Aleena smiled and let go of his hand before placing both of hers against Elroy’s chest. She caressed him lightly and pushed. He stumbled, a confused expression on his face. When she took another step and pushed once more, Elroy tumbled out of sight.

  His screams echoed up from what sounded like a void.

  A bolt of light shot up from a huge hole in the ground—like some sort of vertical force-field reaching for the moon.

  When she turned to face them, Aleena’s demeanor had darkened.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Damon asked. Instead of approaching the Priestess, he backed up until he stood beside Alex. Taking her hand in his filled her with a sense of safety that had been absent since Elroy forced them into this situation. Yet, she couldn’t help but wonder how he’d gotten the restraints off his wrists.

  It doesn’t matter.

  “Oh, Damon. I had to do it. Elroy’s love for me makes his life-force much stronger. Besides, he’s made a few too many mistakes, and I never did get over the betrayal of men.” She wiped one hand on her dress. “After I get a child out of you, I’ll never need a man, again.”

  “That’s not going to happen.” He tightened his hand around Alex’s. “I’ve got no interest in you.” Damon gave Alex a sideward glance, as if the latter bit had been said to her and not Aleena.

  A low growl echoed around them. It was followed up by the word, “No!”

  Alex shivered, because she knew exactly who was making those sounds.

  Damon’s green eyes blazed with anger. “What else are you hiding?”

  Aleena smiled as she leaned over, picked up the blaster, and tucked it in between the silver cord around her waist.

  Damon stiffened beside Alex. Milo and Levi took on defensive stances, but the Priestess walked past all of them. They all turned with her, following her every move to see where she was going.

  Alex noticed a cage and something pacing inside.

  “The animal,” Damon whispered. He made a move to push Alex behind him, but she held her ground.

  “I’d like you all to meet, Ulric.” She unfastened a large padlock and threw it to the rocky ground at her feet. “Well, all except for Alex. You already know him quite well, don’t you?”

  She could feel the heavy weight of Damon’s stare but refused to look at him.

  A brown blur raced out of the cage, across the rocky surface, and charged Damon. He let go of her hand just as he was knocked to the ground with a savagery that made Ulric’s furry snout dribble with spit.

  “Damon!” Alex called. The last thing she wanted to do was aggravate Ulric, but Damon had already been weakened.

  Levi and Milo stared in amazement, stuck to the spot.

  Alex stepped forward but was stopped by the eyes of the beast. Ulric looked at her over his shaggy shoulder, his dark gaze penetrating hers. Horror and repulsion filled her, reminding her of how he tasted when he’d kissed her inside the room. Of him being naked, and that she’d actually touched him only moments before he morphed into something else.

  Her stomach churned, but she kept the sickness down with quick, shallow breaths.

  The animal watched her until Aleena stepped between them. “Let him be, son.”

  For a moment, Alex didn’t know who the Priestess was talking to.

  The fangs protruding from Ulric’s top lip seemed to retreat a little. His giant paws pressed down against Damon’s chest, pinning him to the spot.

  She couldn’t bring herself to say the name filling her mind.

  “Ulric.” It was Aleena who said it. “Come to me. Now.”

  The beast took a step back, removing his paws from Damon. He went from quadruped to bipedal within moments. His face convulsed, and his spine arched as the fur retreated and became smooth skin.

  Damon struggled to sit up. His left arm still didn’t seem to work properly.

  Alex made a move to help him, but Ulric blocked her path.

  “No.” Ulric seemed to have struggled with the change. His skin glistened with a layer of sweat. The muscles of his back and arms shifted into place, until she recognized every naked contour. “Alex, you belong with me.”

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t.” Her breath remained unstable, but it was enough to string words together. “What are you doing here?”

  “I could ask you the same thing.” His body shook, and he was a mess. The air of self-assured control had been stripped from him, and he didn’t smell all that nice. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. You were supposed to get your business done in Lark, and then I was going to surprise you.”

  “Surprise me? My ship crash-landed. What did you do to it?”

  “It wasn’t me.” Ulric took another step. “I told you that it’s an old piece of crap. It was only a matter of time before this happened.”

  How dare he say that? She resisted the urge to slap him, because she couldn’t bear the thought of touching him.

  So, she was right. He’d been on her ship all along. She just hadn’t sensed him. Had he been trying to secure some sort of romantic getaway for them as she headed out on her latest cargo delivery? His offer of a permanent place on the Anteris Space Station had been sweet, but she’d refused and should’ve been given the decency to continue on her way. Alone. Not have him do something as possessive as this.

  “Actually,” Aleena interrupted, “it was you, Ulric.”

  He looked at her, confused. “What are you saying?”

  “The ship crashed, because you were onboard. As soon as you passed by Paradise, you were pulled into the planet.”

  “What the hell were you thinking?”

  Ulric stared at Alex. “I didn’t know.”

  “He’s right. He didn’t know…how could he?”

  Alex speared Aleena with the filthiest look she could manage. He might not have known any of this would happen, but it didn’t make up for what he did do! He’d invaded her ship and tried to force himself into her life after she’d made it clear that she wasn’t ready for such a commitment.

  “I told you I didn’t want to stay with you. Why couldn’t you just take the hint and let me go?” She sneaked a quick glance at Damon, who was now standing and rolling his shoulders, as if he was concentrating on recovering and not listening to this uncomfortable exchange.

  Ulric’s eyes were darker than she remembered them, and no longer fully human. The glint of the animal he’d somehow transformed into still lay beneath the surface. His face was shadowed with a beard.

  “I just want to be with you. Is that so bad, Alex?”

  “Get away from her!” Damon shouted.

  Ulric looked over his shoulder, then met her gaze. “It looks like you’ve already replaced me.”

  “I don’t understand what you were thinking. Why would you stow away on my ship? Damn you for being so possessive. You don’t own me, okay? I’m not one of your many possessions back on Anteris.” Alex yelled. She thought she’d already established herself as something more than just another possession. Yet, this invasion of her privacy proved otherwise.

  Aleena stepped in Ulric’s path when he approached her. “I think it’s time we get a few things straight. You all look so angry and confused.”

  Ulric turned and glared at the blonde woman. “I’ve dreamt about you so many times. Who are yo
u?”

  “I’d like you all to meet Ulric Cale. Although, that wasn’t the name I gave him. Someone else had the honor of naming him.” She wrapped a small hand around his arm, forcing him to face her. “He’s the one who’s been slaughtering people on our planet.” Aleena sighed. “It was inevitable and certainly wasn’t his fault.”

  “Wait a minute,” Alex said. “You knew he was the one slaughtering your people, and you didn’t do anything to protect them?”

  She shrugged and grabbed Ulric’s other hand when he tried to slip out of her grasp. “As I mentioned before, while I was out in the stars, something happened to me.” Tears filled her eyes. “The man who attacked and raped me, not only left me for dead in a back alley behind a market, he also impregnated me.”

  “What are you saying?” Damon asked.

  “The pregnancy was harsh, painful, and long. I killed a few people in the gardens myself, and the Elders locked me up for the last half of it. After much research, they understood what had happened, but I refused to believe them. That is, until my son changed from a baby into a pup after his second birthday. It was our moon, you see. Paradise forced him to become a monster. Every single night, he would change. I wanted a better life for him, so I went in search of a place without a moon and someone willing to adopt him.” She wasn’t looking at anyone but Ulric. “I found them on a space station called Anteris.”

  Ulric tried to let go of her hands, but she held on tighter.

  “No, son. Don’t be angry with me. It’s because I loved you so much that I had to give you up.”

  A growl echoed around them. “You were raped, and the experience turned you against men. I heard you say it before. How could you have loved a product of such a thing, someone who would grow up to be another man?”

  Aleena sighed. “Okay, maybe you’re right. Maybe I despised you, because you reminded me of the filth that had violated my body. Maybe without you, I would’ve been able to overcome the rape and forget it ever happened…but when I carried you to term—”

  “Why didn’t you kill me before I was born?” Ulric lifted her hands between them. He was holding on so tight, Aleena’s skin glowed unnaturally white.

  “Oh, I tried. Trust me, I did. Though, you wouldn’t get out. There was nothing I could do to purge you.” She paused. “I even tried to kill you afterward, by leaving you out in the jungle, but you always made your way back home before the birds could get you. The strength of the moon was too potent within you.”

  The snap of bones filled the silence.

  Aleena winced, but Ulric didn’t release her. What had he broken?

  Ulric looked around his mother, to focus on Alex. “Don’t look at me like that.”

  How else was she supposed to look at him? She couldn’t believe what had happened, what he was. The fact that she didn’t want anything to do with him went beyond the secrets and realization of him being a flesh-eating animal at night. She’d let him go the moment she stepped out of his quarters. She just hadn’t realized it until now.

  “Alex, tell me you’ll come home with me,” he whispered.

  She shook her head. Pain and anger swirled inside his eyes, but she refused to string him along any longer. A tug of confusion and uncertainty pulled deep in her gut, and she recognized it as Damon’s reaction. Her decision had nothing to do with what had happened here on Eden—not Damon, not the beast, or even getting stuck. Alex turned to look at Damon, wishing he hadn’t gotten caught up in all this craziness. He deserved so much better.

  “Don’t look at him! You’re mine,” Ulric growled.

  Aleena cried out, and another series of snaps erupted.

  “No one walks away from me!”

  “Consider this the first time,” Alex whispered.

  Ulric’s eyes were rimmed with tears as fur sprouted from his pores. He tossed Aleena to the ground and rushed for Alex, but he was stopped when Damon shouldered him out of the way.

  The animal slid near the edge of the crevice Aleena had pushed Elroy into, but he was back on his feet in moments. He surveyed the area with his snout in the air. His lips curled over his fangs, exposing them, seconds before leaping toward Alex a second time.

  Ulric landed on the ground with a thump when the laser bolt blasted him in mid-leap.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Aleena held the blaster one-handed. The barrel was still smoking when she dumped it on the ground and stumbled forward. She fell to her knees. Her other hand hung uselessly at her side, looking like a rubber glove. Ulric had obviously broken every bone.

  Her face was focused on him. Not with love, but with a look of hate marring her usually flawless face. “I never thought I’d see you again, but when I watched you jump out of her ship, I felt it deep within me. A mother never loses her bond with her child…no matter how much I wished I could.”

  “Aleena, why did you drag all of us into this?”Damon’s voice was harsh, frustrated.

  She sighed, avoiding all eyes. “All I ever wanted was to protect us from the dangers outside.”

  “By culling the older population? What exactly did you do to them?”

  “Damon, they served the same purpose as Elroy. The same purpose you will all serve, as well.”

  Ulric looked up at Aleena with red-rimmed eyes. He’d been crying, and none of them had noticed. Alex felt a twinge of sympathy toward her former lover, but her anger surpassed any pity. It was his fault that she’d ended up on a planet run by a selfish freak.

  “What about the prophecy?” Damon continued his interrogation, never letting go of Alex’s hand.

  “I made it up.”

  “It came true!”

  “Yes, Damon. It did. You can imagine my shock when the monitors showed me our atmosphere had been breached by a ship, and I watched it crash into the jungle.” She sighed, looking down at her lap. “When I sent you out there, I didn’t think you’d find anything but a carcass or two. I was wrong on many counts. It wasn’t until I saw Ulric that I realized we were all in a lot of trouble, and that my hidden secret had finally caught up with me. That’s okay. I can clean this up the same way I’ve always cleaned up every other mess.”

  “What other mess?” Damon’s anxiety echoed through his fingers and into Alex.

  Aleena looked at him, tears cascading down her pale face. “Do you really think we live in the kind of community I try so hard to keep together? Of course we don’t. People disobey me all the time. They constantly break the rules, and I’m forced to deal with them.”

  No one said anything.

  She released a breath. “It’s hard to rule with an iron fist and make the rest of the people believe we’re living in utopia. I have to do whatever it takes to make things work.”

  “That’s despicable!” Damon shouted. “How dare you keep us in the dark about everything?”

  “Don’t you dare judge me! Do you have any idea who your parents were? Those bloody gypsies were so easily lured by the promise of credits…” her voice trailed off. “They never cared about you. All they wanted was the riches I lied to them about.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Didn’t you think it strange that you’re the only one who can practice any sort of magic within our walls? The only one who can freely wander in and out whenever he pleases?” The calculating look in her eyes made Alex shiver.

  “It’s because of my connection to the arcane,” he answered with a shrug.

  “No.” Aleena shook her head, making her hair sway like a wave. “Damon, you’re the only one who can connect to the magic holding our fortress together, because the sorcerers who made it were your parents. They gave their lives so I could save ours.”

  “So, you killed them?”

  “I took you in and raised you as my own. You replaced the son I lost in Ulric. Don’t you think that was payme
nt enough?”

  What the hell was this lunatic saying?

  “Are you really my mother?” Ulric winced. Aleena had been a much better shot than Elroy—she’d burned a hole right through Ulric’s chest.

  “Yes, I am. I promise your sacrifice won’t be in vain.”

  “What sacrifice?” A vein in Damon’s rigid jaw pulsed as he glared at Aleena.

  Alex couldn’t believe she’d fallen into a planet with an outward appearance of peace and serenity, paid for with vicious lies and cover-ups. Maybe her mother wasn’t the only bitch in the galaxy willing to do whatever it took to secure her own position of power. No matter what the cost.

  What Aleena had called Damon’s parents kept echoing inside her head: sorcerers. Sorcery was a completely different thing than magic. Her father had told her about it only once, claiming all sorcerers came from a long line of gypsies who travelled the stars and lived all over the place. They were nomads who spent most of their lives moving from one place to another, selling their wares or smuggling what wasn’t theirs. They also had use of something he called the Arcanae—the force of energy they believed flowed through all of creation and could be accessed via ritual.

  The only reason he’d confided this in her was because they’d once crossed paths with a female sorcerer who cut him up pretty bad, without laying a hand on him.

  Her heart sank. I can’t believe I didn’t put this together before. Damon had referred to his use of magic as arcane…

  She turned to look at Damon, with his gorgeous, caramel skin and glowing, green eyes. If he carried the blood of sorcerers, did it mean her father did, too? Her mother had often referred to him as a ‘gypsy’, but Alex never thought anything of it. She couldn’t believe her life was clicking together at the same time as Ulric and Damon’s.

  “Aleena, what are you planning?”

  “Hush, Damon. It will all work out. You’ll see. My son can’t stay on Eden, and now that he knows the truth, he can’t go back to his space station, either.” Aleena looked at Ulric with a sad smile curving her lips. “Do you understand why you’re here? You were never supposed to leave your home. I thought your parents made sure of that.”