by Selena Kitt
K’s heart beat harder in her chest for some reason. “And... and what did she say?” she whispered.
Boone scrubbed a hand over his face again. “She said that you were home now and she’d take care of things. Basically she told me to forget about you.”
K felt her stomach lurch. “What did you tell her? Could you do that?”
“Never.” Boone cupped her face in his hands and stared earnestly into her eyes. “I know we haven’t known each other long K but, well, I feel like you’re a part of me now. I can’t let you go.”
Something in K’s chest loosened. “I... I’m glad about that,” she admitted in a low voice.
“Mmm-hmm.” For a long time, Boone held her eyes with his. Was he waiting for her to say she loved him? Did she? K wasn’t sure. She still didn’t even know what love meant. Finally, she was able to tear her gaze away and Boone released her face gently.
She cleared her throat. “So then... how are we going to get out of here?” She looked around. “The secret passage runs all through the palace—I think they made it in case of a siege.”
“Darlin’, there’s no way I’m going to fit in there,” Boone said. “You could barely get out of it yourself and you’re a hell of a lot smaller than I am.”
“Yes, I guess you’re right,” K said reluctantly. “All right, then we’ll have to gas the guards and run for it. We’ll wait until it gets dark—”
“K...” Boone put a hand on her arm. “I know you don’t want to hear this but... maybe we shouldn’t leave. Not yet.”
“What?” She frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fact that by tomorrow morning you’re going to need to have sex—multiple times,” Boone said in a low voice. “And darlin’, I’m afraid I won’t be able to help you. Not as many times as you need to be helped—it just isn’t possible for someone without Erian DNA.”
“But you’re a geneticist, Boone,” she protested. “Can’t you think of some way to help me?”
He looked frustrated. “Maybe if I had my lab and all my equipment and more time to work on the problem.”
“Time is what we don’t have,” K snapped. “By tomorrow morning I’m going to become this vicious, mindless creature intent on nothing but getting myself penetrated and injected with male seed over and over again.” She put her arms around herself and shivered in disgust. “I’ll be no better than Sweetie was.”
“Come on now, darlin’,” Boone said. “You can’t think of it that way.”
“There’s no other way to think about it.” K took a deep breath. “I’m going to have to put my suit back on.” She was surprised all over again at how reluctant she was to do it. But if there was no other way...
Boone shook his head. “I’ve thought about that, but I just don’t think it’s safe. Interrupting your cycle—especially your first cycle when your hormones have been suppressed so long—could kill you.”
K gave him a level look. “I’d rather be dead, Boone. Rather be dead than let myself be touched—penetrated—by a stranger. By anyone but you.”
“K—” he began.
“But I can’t be with you,” she continued relentlessly. “Not just because of our different DNA but because I’d hurt you.” She looked up at Boone and bit her lip. “I know I swore to kill you but now that the opportunity presents itself I find myself... strangely reluctant to follow through on my threat.”
One corner of Boone’s mouth quirked up. “You say the sweetest things, darlin’,” he said dryly.
“So I’ve got to put on the suit,” K went on. “There’s no other way.”
“There is a way—you could go through the cycle,” Boone said quietly.
“Are you serious?” K looked at him, disbelieving. “Do you hear what you’re saying, Boone? You want me to let myself turn into some mindless, lust crazed...” She shook her head and tried again. “You want me to be contaminated—penetrated—by other males? I thought the Impure were territorial about their mates.”
“We are,” Boone said grimly. “And believe me, darlin’, the idea of letting some other guy touch you...” His big hands balled into fists and his voice dropped to a growl. “I don’t like it one damn bit. But if it’s a choice between that and letting you die—I want you to live, K. I love you.”
K felt numb. “You told me you’d teach me what love is, Boone,” she said in a low voice. “I have to tell you, I didn’t think it would be like this.”
“I just want you to be safe,” he began, reaching for her.
K dodged away from his touch and jumped off the sleeping platform.
“I’d rather die than buy my safety—my life—at that price,” she said coldly. “I thought you could help me, Boone. I was stupid enough—emotional enough—to think I could bring you my problems and expect you to solve them.”
He spread his hands. “I’m only human, K. I honestly think the best thing would be to go through the cycle and then try to find a way out of here. If... if you still want to leave afterwards, that is.”
“Why wouldn’t I want to leave?” K demanded.
“Because, well...” Boone shifted and cleared his throat. “You’re a princess here, K. You can have a whole new life if you want it.”
“I had a whole new life. With you.” K felt like her throat might close but she forced the words out anyway. “You stole me out of my old life, stripped away my suit, taught me to feel—you changed me, Boone. I don’t want to go back to what I was—I don’t know why but I don’t.”
“Then don’t do it,” he said softly. “We’ll get through this together, K. I swear we will.”
“No.” K picked up the dress she’d shed from the floor and dug around in the inside pocket until her fingertips encountered the familiar, slithery fabric of her skinsuit. “No, there’s no more ‘we’ Boone. I never should have let there be in the first place.” She began pulling on the suit, heedless of the way her body was shivering in revulsion as the familiar black webbing flowed over her skin.
“K, stop!” He jumped off the sleeping platform and came for her, one hand outstretched to keep her from her task. “You can’t do this—that damn thing really could kill you. Take it off!”
“No.” K pulled the suit higher and slipped her arms inside the sleeves. As soon as she did, the familiar needles bit into her forearms, injecting coldness, replacing emotion with reason. Mercifully numbing her to the tortured feelings of hurt and disappointment that had swamped her just a moment before.
“K, stop, before it’s too late!” Boone began pulling at her suit, trying to get it off her again.
“It’s already too late. It was too late the first time you took off my suit and contaminated me.”
K reached into an inner compartment of her suit, pulled out a stun capsule, and broke it under his nose.
Boone took in a breath and clamped his hand over his mouth and nose. But it was too late, already his eyes were rolling up in his head and he was sinking to the ground.
K watched him slump to a heap at the foot of the sleeping platform and felt nothing... well, almost nothing. For a moment, she knelt beside him and put a hand on his neck to check his pulse. It was strong and steady—the capsule was meant for smaller humans than Boone. He would be all right. Not that she cared.
Then Boone startled her by lifting his head. His eyes fluttered, as though he was fighting the stun gas—fighting to stay with her.
“K,” he muttered. “Don’t... do this. Not... safe.”
“Neither is staying here,” K said coldly. “Don’t worry, Boone—I don’t ever expect to see you again but I keep my promises. Goodbye.”
“Don’t go.” He struggled to move but couldn’t—clearly the gas had incapacitated his arms and legs. “Love... you.”
K didn’t know what to say to that. Even with the needles of her suit biting into her arms, injecting her with the calming essence of Purity, she still felt her heart thump strangely in her chest.
“
Goodbye, Boone,” she said again. Then she left him, lying in a heap, and went back to the secret passage behind the fireplace.
She had much to do and she couldn’t let emotion get in her way.
Chapter Twenty-two
“Boone? Oh my Goddess, Boone—are you okay?”
Boone blinked his eyes with some difficulty. His eyelids felt incredibly heavy for some reason. When he could finally focus, he saw Loki leaning over him, a worried look in his gold ringed eyes.
“What happened to you?” Loki demanded.
“Dunno...” Boone blinked again, trying to remember. Why was he lying on the floor in nothing but his underbriefs? And why was his head pounding like a saurian had decided to sit on it?
Suddenly it all came back to him—K coming through the secret passage, the way she had begged for his help and afterwards, the way he had failed her. I failed her and she put the suit back on. The suit... oh God, the suit!
“K!” he gasped, lurching upright. A bolt of pain shot through his head and he groaned and clutched at it.
“Take it easy, big boy.” Loki patted his back.
“Can’t take it easy.” Boone tried to get to his feet and couldn’t manage. Loki grabbed his arm on one side and someone else grabbed on the other. Between the two of them they managed to haul him upright.
“There you go.” Loki dusted him off. “Now do you mind telling me why you passed out in your underbriefs like a party boy who took too many psi-poppers?”
“It was K. She drugged me.” Boone looked around woozily. “Where is she?”
“That’s what the entire palace would like to know,” Loki said waspishly. “She’s been missing for hours.”
“Apparently she’s disappeared just like she did so many years ago,” the other man who’d helped Boone up said. “The lost and found princess has been lost again.”
Boone rubbed his face and looked at him. “And you are?”
“This is Rolf—my new touch partner.” Loki stroked the other man’s muscular bicep. “Isn’t he just a dream? He’s new to the whole gay thing too, so be nice to him.”
“Didn’t know I could jump the fence until I met Loki.” Rolf batted startlingly long eyelashes at the effete pilot. “It was an eye-opener, and no mistake.”
“Well I’m happy for you,” Boone said shortly before turning back to Loki. “We have to find K,” he said. “She put back on that damn suit before she left. It could kill her!”
Loki raised an eyebrow at him. “And how may I ask did she get the suit back in the first place?”
“I gave it to her,” Boone growled. “When we found out exactly what was involved in the Erian sex cycle. You know how K feels about contamination. She couldn’t bear the thought of... needing what she was going to need.”
“Ooo, I told you the cycle was a beast.” Loki made a tsking sound. “Especially in royals. I have to tell you, Boone, if I’d known she had the sacred triple rings, I would have been scared to death about her staying in your room every night. You’re really, really lucky that her cycle didn’t start sooner. You wouldn’t have survived it—hell, none of us would.”
Boone glared at him. “What the hell are you talking about? I know she’s supposed to get a little, uh, feral when her time comes but—”
“A little feral?” Rolf made a choking noise. “Forgive me, giant, but that’s a huge understatement—especially for a royal.”
“What is he talking about?” Boone demanded, looking at Loki. “And no more lies or half-truths or evasions. Just tell me, damn it.”
“When a royal enters their cycle, they turn into a kind of mindless beast,” Loki said seriously. “They’re savage and very strong. Of course, it doesn’t help that part of the mating ceremony involves tying down their sexual partners so they can’t defend themselves...”
“Typically they kill the first two or three males they mate with,” Rolf put in helpfully.
“What?” Boone stared at Loki in disbelief. “So that’s what K meant when she said she would hurt me?”
“Hurt you? More like rip you limb from limb.” Loki nodded knowingly. “Believe me, Boone, mating with K during her first cycle would be like trying to get it on with Sweetie. You really dodged a bullet.”
“I didn’t dodge a bullet—I failed her.” Boone sat heavily on the sleeping platform. “No wonder she put on the suit and left. It wasn’t just about being contaminated, she was afraid for me. Afraid she’d hurt me or kill me.”
“I thought she promised to kill you—multiple times,” Loki said.
“Yeah, she mentioned that. But she said she felt...” Boone tried to think how K had put it. “She felt ‘strangely reluctant’ to carry out her threat.” Boone rubbed his aching forehead. “God, how could I be so stupid?”
“You didn’t know.” Loki looked suddenly contrite. “I should have told you more. Although in my defense, the first cycle of a royal is a lot different than it is for us commoners.”
“We don’t tear each other apart for one thing,” Rolf said. “And we don’t require multiple partners to get the job done.”
“Thank goodness.” Loki smiled at the other man. “Just one man is enough for me. As long as he knows how to do the job.”
“You taught me well,” Rolf murmured, smiling back.
“All right, enough with the love fest,” Boone growled. He had a feeling if he didn’t stop Loki and his new touch partner they would start going at it like two dogs in heat right in the middle of his room. “We need to find K. That damn skinsuit could make her sick or even kill her.”
“Well, good luck with that,” Loki said. “Nobody seems to know where she went. In fact, I’m surprised you haven’t had a bunch of palace guards in here questioning you already.”
“They probably thought he was safely contained,” Rolf said. “After all, there’s a whole squadron right outside his door. They must have known the princess escaped on her own.” He frowned. “But where would she go?”
“Back to Athena to be with the Purists again, probably.” Loki shrugged.
“No, she was contaminated,” Boone said. “There’s no way she would go back there unless...” His breath caught in his throat.
“Unless what?” Loki demanded.
“Unless she decided to go back and purge herself. God.” Boone put a hand to his eyes. Please don’t let that be it. Don’t let her kill herself. Please.
“Well, we might not know where K went but I do know where we ought to go,” Loki said.
“Where?” Boone asked tiredly.
“Anywhere away from the palace,” Loki said definitively. “You are officially persona non grata around here, Boone. The Empress says she never wants to lay eyes on you again.”
“What? Why? If she doesn’t think I had anything to do with K’s leaving, then—”
“It’s best not to question her majesty,” Rolf said quietly. “If she says she wants you out of her sight, it’s best just to go and thank the Goddess you’re leaving in one piece.”
“Rolf’s right. So come on.” Loki tugged on his arm. “I’ve already got the ship out of dry dock. We need to get going if we’re going to do anything for Shayla.” He frowned. “Although now that we’re minus a Paladin, I’m not sure exactly what we can do.”
“What?” Boone was surprised all over again. “But the Empress said she’d take care of that.”
Loki shook his head. “I’m sorry, Boone. Once you lose the royal favor, I’m afraid it’s lost for good. Nobody is going to help us get Shayla back—we’re on our own.”
“On our own,” Boone muttered, rubbing his head. But how would they get to his little sister without K?
“Kneel!” shouted a new, angry voice, breaking into his muddled thoughts.
Looking up, Boone saw a battalion of heavily armed soldiers barging into the room. Their leader was waving a weapon in his face and before he knew it, he and Loki and Rolf were all on their knees in the thick blue carpet with their hands on their heads.
T
he soldiers parted and the small, plump figure of the Grand Viceroy appeared.
“What the hell is this all about?” Boone growled, frowning at the little man.
The Grand Viceroy unrolled a thick vellum scroll and read from it.
“By order of her majesty the most high Empress of Eros, you will be detained for a time to determine if you know the whereabouts of the missing princess.”
“Uh-oh,” Loki muttered from the side of his mouth. “I think we just lost our get out of jail free card, Boone.”
Boone was afraid he was right but he wasn’t about to go down without a fight.