Flames of Arousal

by Kerce, Ruth D.

  “After you’re taken care of, order killed any remaining Xylons on Marid or in the Banishment Zones. I don’t want to deal with uprisings, even minor ones, should the Xylons try to organize what’s left of them.”

  The Top Commander again nodded in acknowledgment. “Some Warriors are still in the air, piloting Xylon or Marid fighters and orbiters. And there will be some Warriors outposted on or orbiting other planets, conducting experiments and on special missions. What do you want to do about them?”

  “We’ll take care of them one at a time. Send Agents and Pain Masters. Any Warriors remaining will be too few to cause significant damage as long as we get to them quickly before they can join up with each other. Use the long-range trackers, then switch to the short-range, implant chip trackers when in the vicinity of a target. All enemies of Marid need to be extinguished. Send out the word. Rewards will be given for any Xylon carcass brought back to the Dome. Higher rewards for Warriors, especially upper-class ranks. What’s our casualty report?”

  “We lost all the Egesa foot troops on Xylon who didn’t get off before the bomb, and quite a few fleet fighters from attacks, mostly from those Warriors who turned back to serve the Lair, but we are still strong. I’ll have exact numbers sent to your terminal once they’re available.”

  “I want you to send two fleets to Sunevia and Tamara. Offer enslavement of their people. If they refuse, take them by force. If you need to kill some or even most, do so.

  Let them know we will not tolerate defiance.”

  “It will be done. Now that the Lair is destroyed and Xylon is unlivable, I don’t think we’ll find any significant opposition. Not when word gets out. The outer planets’ own security forces can’t defeat us without Lair backup.”

  Daegal smiled. “Perfect.” The taste of victory was indeed sweet. “Secure those missions first. Then after you’ve taken care of the orders, get my personal ship, the med-ship, a research vessel, and one fleet of fighters together. Assign the Egesa Commander to take over the running of the Dome. Be sure he sends regular reports.

  We’re headed out of the quadrant to our final target.” He turned to look at the navigation screen and practically salivated in anticipation. “They won’t know what hit them.”

  “The planet they call Earth?”

  “Yes. Earth.”

  * * * * *

  Sand Moon

  Rave entered Frost’s quarters. She was outfitted in full security gear and heavily armed. “The ships are ready. We can leave at any time. We should be in orbit before Daegal to avoid suspicion. They’ll be watching most closely for anything that appears out of place or following their own orbit. All of our ships have been stripped of identifying marks and codes. So if we are picked up, they shouldn’t be able to identify us easily. We can masquerade as supply vessels, if we have to. Or at least, some of our ships can.”

  “You have the destination coordinates?” Frost grabbed the last of the items she needed to take with her. They’d follow, but couldn’t afford to be picked up by Daegal’s tracking equipment. They’d need to be careful. If anything went wrong now, years of planning would be lost. Their fighters especially needed to be cloaked well, because fighters were more likely to be spotted and questioned. It wouldn’t be easy.

  “Yes, I have his course. We’ll follow far enough back to avoid normal detection.

  Unless Daegal gets suspicious for some reason, I think we should be all right. I’ve got the fighters fully armed.”

  “Communications?” Everything needed to be in place before they left. There was no room for mistakes. No time to redo the programming or return for anything forgotten.

  “Secure. When the time is right, and they’re at their weakest, we’ll be informed to move.”

  “Good work, Rave.” The best thing she’d ever done was save Rave from Daegal’s wrath. The woman had proven invaluable, making her life and plans a lot easier. “I’ve been in contact. Daegal sent word for Kam to be killed.” Not that she intended to follow that order, but she wanted Rave to know.

  “Oh?” Rave cocked an eyebrow. “And?”

  “We will wait.” She still believed that Kam was too valuable to kill, especially if what Rave had told her proved true. He would be able to destroy the new Triad of Power for them, and their hands would be clean. Not that she particularly cared about clean hands, but this way would be so much easier than sending in executioners of her own.

  Frost knew the Super-Breeder, as well as others, had previously disappeared. No doubt ensconced in a safe location. Kam would be privy to their location. If Daegal figured them dead from the attack, the man was truly losing his mind and command abilities. Until she saw bodies, she’d never make that assumption. She fingered the remote device on her belt. Once found, if alive as she suspected, their deaths would be executed so simply by a man they trusted, all with the touch of a few buttons. She smiled at her own genius.

  “Agreed.” Rave nodded. “It’s a good idea. He’s on the inside. We’ll need access eventually, one way or another.”

  “Yes, my thoughts exactly.”

  “How many do you think survived?”

  “Not enough to be a threat. Not now that we have someone on the inside.”

  After Daegal was destroyed, the Triad of Power eliminated, and Rave endured an unexpected death—poor thing—then she and their contact would rule this entire quadrant of the galaxy. Oh, how she loved the sound of that! And best of all, none of them even knew it was coming.

  Anyone foolish enough to trust her would suffer the consequences. Distrust your enemies, but distrust your family and friends even more. A hard lesson to learn, but one she’d been forced to master years ago.

  “What did you tell Daegal you’d do about Kam?”

  “Nothing. It wasn’t necessary. He didn’t contact me personally. He’ll be told that the message was unable to be delivered.” Everything was working out exactly as planned. She couldn’t be happier. Soon all would bow down to her greatness. A smile crossed her face, though she squelched the laugh that bubbled up in her throat. The growing sense of power was indeed a heady feeling.

  “Ah.” Rave nodded, and a small smile tugged at her lips. “Understood.”

  * * * * *

  Forests of Xylon

  Kam watched a range of emotions pass over Laszlo’s face before he switched his attention to the others. Everyone felt the tragic loss, but especially Braden, Brianna, and Torque. They all looked devastated.

  Delemar had retired to Laszlo’s bedchamber. Pitch had escorted Josella and Briggs to the common area. They’d all been quite shaken by the near-total destruction of the planet.

  Reaching out, Kam touched Laszlo’s arm. “You tried. There was no way to identify genetics before you brought them over. And if you had been able to, could you have made the decision to purposely leave one of them behind?”

  “I don’t know. But if we’d had more time…” he said, sounding so tired. “I should have known what might happen and taken measures. I know Daegal and how his mind works.”

  “You couldn’t have known,” Kam told him. “And again, even if you had, there’s nothing we could have done to stop it.”

  “We could have destroyed that bastard and the Dome first!” Erik responded, anger and frustration lacing his voice. “Xylon probably has weapons of equal destructive force.”

  “And take all of Marid out too?” Kam shot back.

  “So? Daegal did it to Xylon. Supposedly, all weapons of that class were destroyed years ago. But if the Dome had one, I’d bet my balls the Lair did, too. Isn’t that right, Laszlo? Isn’t it!”

  “Erik,” Braden interrupted. “Drop it. It’s done. We can’t change it now.”

  “We can avenge our people! That was your sister who just got killed!”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” he shouted back.

  “Then why are you just standing around, acting like we have no retaliatory power?

  Do
something about it! Now!”

  “We’re not destroying an entire society,” Laszlo said. “Xylon made a pact.”

  “Bullshit, you bastard! That’s fucking—”

  “Erik!” Brianna admonished.

  Braden held up his hand for silence. He looked over at Laszlo. “You did know, Laszlo, didn’t you? You told me the Lair could be destroyed. I refused to believe it.” He shook his head, and a deep sadness crossed his features. “It’s my fault. If I’d taken better precautions. If Frost hadn’t stolen the base codes from me years ago, this never would have come to pass.”

  “Braden,” Brianna said, rubbing his shoulder. “No. Nobody could have stopped this. Daegal and Frost are to blame. No one else.”

  “She’s right,” Laszlo acknowledged. “I predicted war. That’s why I brought you all here. I predicted the destruction of the Lair…though not like this, not this quickly. I predicted so much. For the Warriors to ultimately survive, all this was predestined, even necessary.”

  “Necessary?” Erik repeated, sounding incredulous. “Son of a bitch!” When Erik started forward, hands clenched into fists, Braden stopped him, pulling him away from the others.

  Kam stayed close to Laszlo, just in case. Emotions ran high right now and no telling what might happen. People weren’t thinking rationally. At least Laszlo had confiscated everyone’s weapons.

  “I never saw the complete destruction of Xylon,” Laszlo finished in a low voice, sounding weary. “I swear I didn’t. I would have saved more.” He shook his head. “I would have saved more.”

  Kam glanced at Torque, who stood looking at a screen with a vid of what was left of Xylon’s surface on it. The man stood so still, as if he’d heard nothing of the conversation around him. As if he no longer cared.

  Braden flipped on the internal communications channel. “Leila, are you there?” he asked softly. “Are you and the others all right?”

  “I’m here, Braden. What happened? It felt like a bomb went off. We’re all right. You need to get over here though.”

  Everyone glanced toward the speaker.

  Concern filled Kam. Leila had said everyone was all right. So something else must be happening. Even so his heart picked up its pace at the possibility of a problem.

  Braden’s brow crinkled. “What’s going on?”

  “Alexa is giving birth to another child.”

  “A third?”

  “Yes. None of the medical scans picked up a third child. I don’t know why. You should be here. Alexa is asking for you.”

  “On my way.” Braden turned from the speaker and ran out. Erik followed close behind.

  Kam’s heart pounded harder than he thought possible. The new Triad of Power?

  He looked over at Laszlo, who nodded. Laszlo would now be forced to tell the rest of them the secrets of Xylon, in order to keep the three babies safe. Unless… “Will the third one survive?”

  Laszlo’s eyes intensified. “Yes. The child will live. It has begun. Come. We must prepare.”

  Epilogue

  Surface of Xylon

  Two moons since the destruction by fire and gas had occurred. Still, the air showed no signs of clearing.

  He rummaged through the debris. The stench from the dead almost made him gag.

  Everything lay burnt and dying—the free-walkers, the animals, even most of the foliage. Everything except his people. His people, the ones they’d labeled as savages so long ago, had survived this devastation and would survive much more.

  The deaths of those in control gave his own clan new hope. Now they could thrive as it should have been from the beginning. They knew the ways of the forest and would be able to see this through.

  A pale hand caught his attention. Another body. Another one who’d tried to crawl to safety. Only no safe place existed for them.

  The twitch of a finger caught his attention. Impossible. The free-walkers couldn’t survive the poisonous gases. He dug through the rubble. A woman. She wore some sort of mask, which seemed to be helping her breathe. She’d known and prepared. An intelligent one.

  Her eyes fluttered open, and she groaned. Blood dripped down the side of her face from one of many wounds to her head. She needed much care.

  When she spotted him, her eyes grew wide. He saw her fear, admired how she worked past it in her head to finally reach up for his help.

  “You are?” he asked in her language, his large hand curling around her much smaller one. Though it felt odd on his tongue, he still remembered their words. She seemed disoriented and confused at his speech, but finally answered. He had to strain to hear her pain-filled voice through the mask.

  “Tara Koll.”

  Koll. His heart pounded, for he recognized the name. One of the family of controllers. A smile of satisfaction crossed his face. Yes. It was good that she had survived. Now…she was his. A valuable prize to take back to his people.

  “You will live, Tar’a,” he told her, pronouncing her name in the Def’mal way. As he pulled her free and swung her up into his arms, he continued in his own language, knowing she wouldn’t understand. “But you may wish that not to be so. You may soon wish that you had perished along with the rest of your people.”

  * * * * *

  Forests of Xylon

  Halah snuggled deeper under the covers. Two days had passed since the PowerIIRad bomb had hit the surface. She still felt horrible about not being able to stop the destruction. If only she had possessed more knowledge…

  She hadn’t been familiar with the system the weapon operated on and couldn’t understand why the base codes hadn’t worked, which would have allowed the computer to complete the sequencing. Because of her previous account access and Kam’s security code bypasses, she’d gotten into the control system, but from there she’d had to work solely by hand without database support, keystroke by keystroke.

  The weapon had been set up on an ancient grid, probably not used in centuries.

  She’d recognized the grid, but had never trained in its operation, which had slowed her sequencing progress even more. The computer, if functioning properly, should have been able to change the trajectory of the bomb. Xylon would have been saved.

  PowerIIRads had been outlawed years ago, even before she’d become a Warrior, because of their devastating effects. All planets in the quadrant and surrounding quadrants had agreed to the Pact of Salvation that outlawed weapons of such magnitude. No society should be so completely annihilated.

  The only thing that had saved all of them here was their location deep underground. But if they’d sustained a direct hit, like the Lair, they’d all be dead now too.

  The ripple effect of the bomb had damaged quite a few of Laszlo’s systems, so they’d been working hard to fix everything. Only then would they be able to effectively check the status of the surface and decide what to do next. They were still far from safe.

  Kam came out of the bathing room. She loved watching him, all naked and strong, coming toward her. Earlier, she’d told him the shadow of whiskers on his face looked oh-so sexy, so he’d opted to allow a hint of them to remain, just for her. His presence made her feel able to deal with anything. He slid beneath the covers, joining her in the comfortable bed. With a sigh, he turned toward her and stroked her stomach. The feel of his fingers on her skin soothed her.

  They’d been given one of the four personal bedchambers here. Laszlo had another.

  Erik and Leila the third. Braden and family took the fourth. Delemar, Torque, Pitch, Josella, Brianna, and Briggs shared the common room.

  Kam had offered to switch with Josella, but Josella insisted he stay. Halah admired her sister’s generosity. She also had a feeling her sister had eyes for Pitch, which would be all right with her. He was a good Warrior and a fine man. Although Josella had never agreed with the sexual ways of Xylon, which could later prove to be a problem.

  Delemar hadn’t been happy about not getting a room for himself, but Laszlo hadn’t mu
ch cared. He’d done the assignments as he’d seen fit, or so he’d said. Delemar had threatened to sleep in the med-lab, just for some privacy, as long as no one was ill. She didn’t doubt he’d probably end up doing just that.

  Things were definitely crowded in the facility, but they were managing. Their food and water supplies wouldn’t last long. And they couldn’t continually reprocess their air. They’d need to leave the chamber and most likely leave the planet soon. All of them couldn’t fit into the available ships, so decisions would need to be made. But one thing at a time.

  “Are you all right?” Kam asked. “You’ve been quiet.”

  “I suppose. Just thinking about what life will be like for Josella and me, once we get out of here. If we get out of here.” Now that she’d finally found her way back, all was lost. And not just to her, but to everyone. She doubted the Warriors would ever be the same. She didn’t even want to imagine the Kolls’ pain. “What were you and Laszlo up to? After Alexa delivered the third baby, you two disappeared. He’s such a beautiful boy. His eyes are mesmerizing.”

  “Yes.” Kam smiled. “The babies are beautiful. I’m definitely a proud uncle. Laszlo and I needed to prepare a few things.”

  When that’s all he said, her curiosity rose. “A few things? That’s a little vague, Kam.

  Does it have anything to do with the meeting the Warriors were told to attend tomorrow?”

  “Yes, but I really can’t say anything more about that right now. It needs to wait until the meeting.” He patted her stomach. “Let’s just enjoy tonight without worrying about tomorrow. Hard times are in our future. We need to cherish these quieter moments while we can.”

  She shrugged, trying to appear in agreement, though his decision not to confide in her hurt. “I’m sure it’s no concern to me and Josella anyhow.” She hadn’t specifically been invited to attend the meeting, so she didn’t even know if she was welcome. Other than Erik, none of the others had really treated her any differently than any other Warrior. But still…