Marie tilted her chin in that defiant little move he’d come to learn she did mostly when she didn’t like what he’d said. Which was quite often, now he came to think of it. “Well, if you’re in your right mind, you won’t have to reject me again. I know how you feel about kissing me.”
He had rejected her. Because of Kiera. Because he wanted to avenge her death. The death of his family. His friends. Fellow soldiers. Planets filled with doomed souls. Everyone the Reptiles had killed. And now…
Now…
Now it didn’t seem to be so urgent. The rawness in his heart at the thought of Kiera simply wasn’t there. There was no ache. More a hole that had recently been filled with loose grains of sand. There wasn’t the intense urgency to act. To kill. To enact revenge.
He focussed on the beauty before him, rather than on the image of Keira in his mind. His precious Keira. His wife. It had destroyed him when she’d died. A part of him had died along with her. The agony of losing the woman he loved had been more than his sanity could stand.
This war had separated so many couples. This hadn’t just happened to him. It had torn apart friends and family, and changed the fabric of the universe. Hell, they were still on an occupied planet. The Reptiles could attack and kill them at any moment.
Unless they were stopped, they would continue to invade more planets and mind-enslave their populations. Killing more people. Subjecting those remaining to face the pain alone.
Unless this entity that guided them could be stopped. Stopping it seemed a harder task than dealing with the Reptiles. How could an unseen enemy be defeated? The odds were impossible. More probable was the fact there would be many more deaths to come.
Marie was unwittingly a part of all of this. Sweet, pure, filled with inner strength. She was so opposite of his own battle-hardened soul it was beyond reason.
A woman didn’t return kisses like she had if she didn’t return some sort of feelings. It was obvious in the way her gaze snagged and tangled with his. The way she reacted with the same burning intensity he did with her. The way she looked at him with such caring and longing, he had to clench his fists not to tug her into his arms and kiss her, and touch her, and fuck her until they both saw stars for a week.
What if they lost their hearts to each other and he was killed in action? How could he expose Marie to that kind of pain he knew so intimately?
He couldn’t do that to her. Wouldn’t do that to her. He had to keep himself under control. He’d be doing her a kindness by keeping his distance.
He loosened his grip on Marie’s wrist and fought every instinct in his body to pull his hand away. He closed his eyes and let his forehead slump onto the pallet.
What sort of man would he be to condemn her to a life of devastation and loneliness if he did actually end up dead at the hand of the Reptiles? The one thing he thought he’d wanted, changed in an instant. The irony wasn’t lost on him.
He’d just found everything—and it was out of his reach.
“Yes. And it can never happen again.”
Strange how words could taste like acid.
Chapter Sixteen
Marie’s heart stuttered like a hummingbird caught in a too-small cage. It also hurt. Not a physical hurt, like Alastor’s ragged wounds, but still painful. Rejection stung, whatever world she was on.
She hugged her wrist to her chest for a moment, in shock that what had turned out to be the best kiss she’d shared in her entire life had changed into something else. She wasn’t entirely sure how it had wound up like this.
And boy, the man could kiss, even though he’d just woken up from a coma and had come close to losing his life. It was only through the skill of the doctor that he had survived.
“He’s awake!”
Marie had never been so happy for another person to appear. Seriat came into the room in which she’d spent the past three-days straight tending to Alastor. Deseree peered around Seriat’s leg. Since they’d been reunited, they hadn’t been out of arm’s reach of each other. Not that Marie could blame them. The little girl’s thin limbs were heartbreaking. She’d almost died herself. Marie hoped that with tender care and regular meals, the little girl would regain her health and not be so scared.
Their appearance also gave her an opportunity to move away from Alastor’s reach—and his kiss. If he felt that way about her, why kiss her again? Maybe he was confused, reached to her for comfort, and she was the lucky person in the room. Not that she’d ever heard of people waking up and kissing, but he wasn’t a man, or even human. Who knew what Hexonians were like, other than a frustrating mix of testosterone, muscle, and annoyance?
“He just woke up,” Marie said, omitting the kissing and the pain in her heart.
“Thank the Blessed One he woke at all. I’ll get the doctor, and then get him something to eat.” She laid her hand on Marie’s shoulder, “You should eat too.”
Fatigue settled into her bones. Now that Alastor was awake, the exhaustion of the past three days caught up with her. What she really would like was a shower, food, and a bed. Preferably her own.
On Earth.
However, those things would not be forthcoming, so she smiled and said, “Thank you, Seriat. I think that’s exactly what he needs.”
“I’ll go and get him some food.” She left the room after a meaningful glance at Marie.
“Where is my uniform? Need the tech in it.” Alastor tried, and failed, to sit up.
“We had to cut it off you to treat your wounds. It’s destroyed. You won’t ever be able to wear it again.” She hadn’t put it past him to attempt to stand upright and dress himself. She winced as she retrieved it from the corner. It was a ghastly mix of stiff material, dirt, gore and dried blood.
“Can you please bring it here?”
She handed it to him. He rifled through an inside pocket and pulled out a hunk of sleek tech, shiny metal, and broken glass. It fell apart in his hands.
“Frek,” he groaned, his forehead slumping to the mattress.
“What was that?’ she asked.
“A communicator.”
“My uniform is still intact. Use mine.” Her suit looked as good as new, thanks to the tech of the self-cleaning material.
He shook his head. “Your uniform is basic survival. I put a communicator in mine for absolute emergencies.”
“We took the Seeker from your wrist. That wasn’t damaged,” Marie said.
“The Seeker is for location. It doesn’t have a communication function. At least not strong enough to breach orbit.”
“Oh.”
Seriat appeared with a bowl of fragrant, steaming soup, Deseree still clinging to her leg. Luckily the stores of dried food and medical supplies hadn’t been raided. The food and medicinal herbs were still good. The doctor followed behind them, as skinny and malnourished as Seriat. He’d set about caring for the others as soon as he was mind-freed, which included treating open wounds, setting bones and making everyone eat their first truly nourishing meal in who knew how long.
“The patient is awake,” the doctor said. His sharp gaze ran over Alastor before speaking to her. “Hello, Marie.”
Marie smiled. “Hello, Alias.” She liked the doctor. He was kind and gentle, and had a way with patients, with a special talent for those in pain. She’d seen it first-hand as she’d been helping him tend to them.
“I’m glad to see you recovering, but I need to see your wounds. If I may?”
Alastor nodded. “Thank you.”
Alias unbandaged Alastor’s back. Marie worked hard to hide her wince. The wounds were healing nicely. They were much better than the raw, venom-filled gashes they had been, but they still looked painful. Thanks to the doctor, there was much improvement from three days ago.
These people were a very peaceful population. They lived a simple lifestyle that belied their technical and futuristic knowledge. To Marie’s astonishment, the doctor had grown a small crop of herbs and medicinal plants in hours, as there had been nothing left
after the Reptiles had trashed everything.
Alias applied more salve to Alastor’s wounds and re-bandaged his back. “It’s looking much better, but still a way to go. You need to eat and rest.”
“What I need to do is get up.” Alastor tried to push up, his biceps flexed and Marie was momentarily hypnotised by the interplay of muscle beneath satiny, golden skin. It was frightening how weak he actually was. She’d come to think of him as indestructible. Almost a machine that could go on and on.
And yet, she’d seen his soul start to separate from his body. Panic had seized her. She’d prayed with everything she had, pleaded with him not to go. Once people saw what waited for them, they rarely came back.
She didn’t know why he had. He seemed so hell-bent on destruction. She’d seen a bright white aura surround him and then he’d woken. Whoever it was had masked themself from her.
Alias pushed Alastor back down, much as she had done. “I have other patients to check up on, rather than waste time here on someone who is too stubborn to listen to a doctor. I assume you have the intelligence to recognise when you need to sleep and rest, young man. We all worked hard to save your life. Have the good manners to show some gratitude, and rest when you are told.”
Alastor’s frame was rigid as he stared at Alias. A muscle ticked at his temple, before he gave a curt nod.
Alias patted Alastor’s shoulder, “Good man. I knew you’d see reason. I’ll be back after my rounds.” He sent Marie a wan smile before disappearing out of the room.
Marie took the bowl from Seriat. “Here, I’ll help you.”
“I don’t need any help,” Alastor said.
“Well, unless you want to end up with your face in a bowl of stew, I suggest you accept some help for once in your life,” Marie said, once she had given him a few seconds to flounder about.
“Fine.” His mouth firmed into a tight line, which she did her best to ignore.
She spooned a small amount of soup into his mouth. His groan went right through her solar plexus. Her stomach tightened, which she resolutely ignored. He managed about half of the bowl before his eyes glazed and dropped. Soon he was fast asleep.
“We sedated the food and added the proteins he will need to fully recover. He’s not a man who takes no for an answer, and he needs to rest for the proteins to work. It was doctor’s orders,” Seriat said.
“Thank the good doctor for me.” She was grateful the food did have a sedative in it. She wouldn’t have put it past Alastor to try to get up again. Alias knew his patients.
In sleep, Alastor’s face lost the tension that always seemed to thrum through him. Golden stubble dusted his chin, making his jaw more defined and his cheekbones sharper. He was just as handsome asleep as he was awake.
Even in a coma, he’d been tense, his body rigid with pain and fighting the venom, but now that he was asleep, he seemed younger. Although, not too young not to have impressions of life on his face. Fine lines fanned from the corners of his eyes, and lines bracketed his mouth, making him no less handsome, but he didn’t look tortured. The pain that usually radiated from him was strangely absent.
She detected strength, fortitude and… sorrow. Not the soul-gouging sorrow that he wore like an identity. Something fresher. Closer to the surface. Recent. Then again, maybe she was just tired and imagining things.
She cricked her neck, wincing as her muscles protested. She hadn’t realised how tense she had been while she watched over him, but now the exhaustion of the past few days was making itself known.
“You should rest too,” Seriat said.
“I’d really like to go outside first.” She’d been inside for three days. Sunshine and fresh air streamed through the window. It would be nice, now that she could relax, to get some fresh air. “I’d like to see how everyone is mending.”
“Very well, thanks to you,” Seriat said.
Marie followed Seriat into the sunshine, blinking for a moment and waiting for her eyes to adjust. People milled about, doing what they had to do to get their lives back on track. When they saw her, they stopped what they were doing. Marie fidgeted, embarrassed to be the centre of attention.
A gaunt woman approached Marie. Her skin was pale, but her smile was large and bright. She took Marie’s hands in hers, “Thank you for saving us.”
A small smile played on Marie’s lips. “It was nothing. I’m glad I was able to help.” It had been such a long shot. The odds had been stacked against her. She was still reeling from it all, completely surprised she’d managed to do anything at all.
“It was more than nothing. Much more. We would still be enslaved if it wasn’t for you.” The woman frowned. “How did you help us? I don’t remember much, only that I was lost and could find no way out.”
“I used a meditative technique...It’s hard to explain until you do it. You just have to focus.” Her insides twisted. Even though these people had been mind-enslaved, she still couldn’t get past the ridicule she sometimes received even from people who had experienced the unexplained.
Still, the woman looked intrigued, rather than disturbed. A crowd gathered around them. “You are a Priestess, then?” the woman asked.
Marie shook her head. “No more than you are. This is something anyone can do with a little training.”
The woman’s shoulders dropped, and she looked so sad it brought tears to Marie’s eyes. “If only that was so. I could rescue my Tannon.”
“Your Tannon?” Marie asked.
“Yes. My beloved. I don’t know if he is alive or… or…” Tears filled the young woman’s eyes. “If only I could save him like you saved me!”
Marie hugged the distraught woman, her heart breaking as she sobbed. She’d only freed a small village, and only just barely. The rest of the population was still mind-enslaved. Tortured and dying.
“Would you like to learn this technique?” She could at least teach her to help with her grief.
The woman sniffed, new hope shining in her eyes. “Would you teach us? I would free my Tannon in a heartbeat.”
“Free Tannon?” Marie said.
“Yes. If you teach me, I will free him myself.”
Marie glanced between the woman and Seriat. Grief was one thing, but teaching people to go into the in-between and save others from the fog, that was something else altogether.
“You could do that, Marie. You saved me. You saved all of these people. Teach us and we can save others,” Seriat said.
“I don’t know.”
“You said this planet was different. That there is an energy here you don’t have on your world. That we are different as a people,” Seriat said.
It was true. The planet thrummed with it, the energy practically crackling through her body, yet fear turned her stomach to liquid. She mentally shook her head. This wasn’t like before. It couldn’t happen again. Yet her stomach continued to revolt and churn the way it always did when she was asked to do something of this magnitude.
“If you could teach me, I would give anything to save my Tannon,” the woman said.
“We all would try to save our loved ones,” a man said.
“Even those we don’t know,” a girl not much older than a child said.
There was a murmur of consent amongst those around her. Soon everyone agreed, determined faces nodding. The grief was palpable, and now so was their hope.
She had to remember these people weren’t like the people at home. They had accepted her. They understood about the energy that connected all beings, only lacking the technique to be able to access it.
Her heart beat faster, her blood pulsing through her veins. Maybe it could be done. Maybe if they all worked together, they could free a planet. Having this gift meant that she was in service to people. It was her duty to aid those who could not.
She turned her mind inwards. “Black Feather, what do you think?” There was no response. She hadn’t heard from him for such a long time and worry lined her stomach. Without his help, aid, and guidance, this could
turn bad. She knew just how bad things could turn. But it would never be possible if they didn’t at least try. It was better than doing nothing.
If only Black Feather would answer her. If only that hadn’t happened to her. If only she wasn’t stifled by fear that the same thing could happen again. But these were different people. Different circumstances. A different planet, for Pete’s sake.
Yet, the lingering fear was still there. The people about her waited for an answer, their faces determined and hopeful.
So hopeful.
Marie swallowed heavily, “It could possibly be done. Ten can free fifty and fifty can free two hundred and two hundred can save the rest of the planet. Yes, I’ll help you. I’ll do my best to help you all.”
The crowd cheered, but she didn’t hear them. She was lost in hope. Hope that didn’t really mask the fear. Hope that things didn’t end in the disaster of the last time she’d tried to “help” people. She reached again for Black Feather, needing his presence. His calm. His control. His words of wisdom and advice.
There was still nothing.
Chapter Seventeen
The former agony was nothing more than a burning heat. At least his mind was clear and he could think, rather than just react to the pain. The room slowly focussed around him as his vision cleared. He slept on his stomach, his cheek pressed into the mattress. He’d slept like the dead.
Marie had fed him and then he’d passed out. He never passed out. The slight heaviness in his limbs told him there was more in the meal than meat and vegetables. Most likely a sedative, although Marie wouldn’t have been the one to add it. No doubt the good doctor. He’d seen that ploy done many times by doctors wanting soldiers to recuperate. He had to admit it was effective, given the reduction in his pain levels and increased mobility.
He was alone. Moonlight filtered through an open window. A fresh, warm breeze caressed his skin. If he wasn’t on a hostile, occupied planet, this might almost be pleasant.
Except he wasn’t. And the person who he was meant to be protecting was nowhere in sight. He swung his legs to the floor, flexing his back. The heaviness in his limbs faded quickly. He stood slowly and apart from a slight twinge, there was no residual pain.
Alastor: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (A Hexonian Alien Romance Book 3) Page 10