by Kresley Cole
His heart thundered in his chest. In arousal, yes, but also in disappointment. He’d wanted the vixen.
She wore the T-shirt and jeans he’d brought her, and the material hugged her body nicely.
“Nothing to say?” he asked, feeling tongue-tied himself. Never had he wanted something so badly. Never had he had to tread so carefully.
She arched a brow, as stubborn as ever. “What about, and stop me if you’ve heard this one, let me go. Let my friends go.”
So. She still meant to resist him. He revealed no hint of his frustration. “You will stay with me. Your friends . . . maybe.”
“Why keep us? You’re going to destroy us anyway. That’s why you’re here, right?”
He frowned. “What do you mean, I plan to destroy you?”
“Why else would you be here?” Every word was layered with disgust. “I’ve been thinking about it, since that’s the only thing to do here, and I’ve decided you’re here to prepare the way for that stupid queen.”
“What are you talking about? I have no queen.” Not anymore. Apparently, the Rakan queen had been one of the first females to succumb to the disease. She had killed her own husband. Her own children.
Aleaha studied him, her expression pensive. “I know you’re not ill since I bit you and haven’t exhibited any symptoms, and I know you’re Rakan rather than Schön, but why else would you have come to Earth if not to help the Schön queen? An alien was interrogated recently and revealed that warriors would be arriving that night in the forest with the sole desire of clearing a path for the Schön queen. Then boom, you arrive. You take out AIR. What’s that if not clearing a path?”
Everything inside him locked down. First in panic—not again, he couldn’t put his men through that again—and then in rage. “Schön? You expected those vile Schön?”
“Yes. We’d already killed a few of them, and you and yours won’t be any different.”
“We would never help them. We hate them.” Mouth suddenly dry, he pivoted on his heel, exited the room, and locked the door behind him. He was trembling again, but this time it had nothing to do with desire.
“Hey,” he heard her call. “If we were mistaken about your race, it’s possible we were mistaken about you following the Schön queen. Come back! I’m not saying I believe you, I’m just saying we can talk about this.”
Breean quickly called together all of the men who had accompanied him. They filled the living room, spilling out into the hallway. As he told them what he had just learned, they reacted first with panic, as he had. And then the rage set in.
“Bastards.”
“Murderers!”
A couple jumped up to pace, bumping into everyone around them.
“I will leave the decision up to you,” he said. “If you want to leave, we will leave. If you want to stay, we will stay.” Either way, Breean wasn’t letting Aleaha go. He wouldn’t leave her here to face the deadly Schön on her own. Because she was female, she would be one of the first to fall. But knowing her as he thought he did, she would not go easily.
The debate began.
“We’ve worked so hard, finally found a home. We can’t just abandon it now.”
“Yes, we can. We deserve peace.”
“Will we ever truly know peace? We are outsiders wherever we go. Here, at least, otherworlders aren’t killed on sight.”
“I can’t watch another home be destroyed.”
“And what happens when the Schön ruin this planet?” Talon, his second in command, scrubbed a hand down his tired face. “They will move on to another, perhaps the next one we have chosen. We need to destroy them. Now. Finally.”
Breean agreed. “At least here we know there are medications and technology to combat such a loathsome enemy. That’s why we chose it. Besides, my female told me that AIR defeated the first diseased warriors who came here.”
“Think of it. We can kill the Schön, as we’ve dreamed for so long,” Talon added. “For what they did to us. For what they did to our loved ones.”
“How are we to kill them? They can make themselves invisible. As we well know, it’s impossible to fight an unseen enemy.”
That cast a gloomy shadow over the men, memories consuming them.
“AIR obviously knows how to fight them, and there are ways to get the information from them. So tell me.” Breean eyed them one by one. “Leave? Or stay?”
In the end, it was unanimous. They would stay. They would fight. Or try to. If they died in the process, at least they would die as the soldiers they’d become.
“I am proud of you,” he told them. “Surrender is unacceptable. Once we are established in our new home, we will figure out a plan of action. As for tonight, we have much to do. Go about your duties. I will meet you outside.”
As they strode off, Breean returned to Aleaha’s room. This time, she was seated at the edge of the bed. Still blond. But, damn, if she didn’t make his heart stop. “Come.” He waved her over.
“Don’t you want to talk?”
“No.”
She stood on shaky legs. “Well. Are you sure you’re not going to take off again, leaving me here?”
“I’m sure.”
“Why did you rush off like that?”
“You mentioned my greatest enemy.” He saw no reason to lie. Not when he might gain information. “My men needed to know what they will soon be up against.”
“Oh. So you really do hate the Schön?”
“Yes.” Guess they would talk, after all. “Does AIR have any idea what those bastards can do? I know you told me some were killed, but I just want to make sure you understand the danger.”
“Yes. They are infected with a disease that turns people into cannibals.”
“That disease destroyed my planet. That disease is the reason we are here.”
“Oh,” she said again. “I’m—I’m sorry. You aren’t . . . infected, are you? I mean, I know we’ve had this conversation and I know I bit you and tasted your blood and I haven’t experienced any unusual symptoms, but you’ve got me worried.”
“No, I’m not infected. You would be able to tell if I were. The skin turns gray, the eyes sink into the skull. I would have been the one to bite you that night in the forest.”
She gulped, but that was her only response.
“How did your people defeat them?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t working for them at the time.”
He was glad. Though he wanted the information, badly, he didn’t like the thought of Aleaha engaging such fierce creatures. At least there was hope, a way to win. He would like to work with AIR and increase the chance for victory, but he didn’t think they’d welcome him.
“All I know,” she continued, “is what I’ve already told you. Several warriors came here. They were crushed, and now their queen, the most powerful of them, is on her way.”
Oh, yes. The queen was indeed the most powerful. She was also heartless, selfish, determined, and irresistible.
“Come,” he said again. For the moment, there was nothing else to say on the subject.
“Are you taking me to my friends?”
Rather than start a debate—because no, he wasn’t taking her to her friends—he remained silent as he escorted her out of the home and into the backyard, keeping her beside him with an arm draped around the feminine dip of her waist. She didn’t try to escape. Perhaps she’d realized there was no place to go, nothing around them. Perhaps, as concerned as she was about her fellow agents, she didn’t want to leave without them.
Or perhaps he wasn’t giving her enough credit. Maybe she meant to bide her time and kill him while he slept. If he was lucky, she stayed because she wanted another kiss. Had she thought of him at all while inside that room? Dreamed of him the way he’d dreamed of her?
“The air,” she said, nose wrinkling in distaste as her eyes scanned the darkness.
“Cold?” He removed his jacket and placed it around her shoulders.
“Yes, but a
lso pungent.”
“You become used to it.” He peered down at her, hungry. “Change for me. Please. No one will see.” There were no trees offering solace, but there was a tall iron fence surrounding the barren yard. Plus, there were no other homes nearby. They’d all collapsed.
She didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “I will if you’ll tell me where the agents are. I never heard them, and I’m trying not to go crazy, imagining them d-dead.” There at the end, her voice shook.
“They were underground, in a cell not far from where we are standing.” Truth. He didn’t mind telling her since they had already been moved to the new home. “I swear to you, they are alive and well and will remain so. They are also angry as hell that you are not with them.”
“I-I believe you. That sounds like them. Thank you.” Her relief was palpable. “And now for my part of the bargain.” Again, she glanced around. When she saw that they were alone, she began to grow several inches, becoming leaner. Her long dark hair fell over his wrist, and he basked in the silkiness of it. Her eyes were so deep a green he would have sworn he was standing in a lush, dewy meadow every time he peered into them. Her skin was translucent, smooth, and, as easily as she’d responded to him, probably sensitive. She might be able to come with only a caress.
A man could hope, anyway.
Actually, a man could hope for a lot more. Even now, he could taste her in his mouth, rainstorms and passion. So much passion he’d nearly drowned in it. Had wanted to drown in it. No matter which guise she’d worn, even as the male—surprising, but something he wasn’t going to question—she’d tasted the same. And he’d loved it. She could have eaten him alive with those sharp little teeth, and he would have died with a smile on his face.
“Beautiful,” he said. The clothes were a bit too short for her now, though they bagged over her smaller chest and leaner waist, but, oh, did the sight of her like this please him.
A tremor slid the length of her spine, brushing her shoulder against his chest. “Thank you.”
Renewed desire pounded through him, hot, readying his body for her. If he wasn’t careful, his resolve to wait until she begged would snap and he’d try to seduce her. Here and now. No matter who watched. Even now that honey scent was wafting from him. . . .
“What are you going to do to me?” she asked, her voice raspy. Did she smell it? Yearn for him? “What are you going to do to the other agents?”
The doorway to the underground tunnel was thrown open, Talon climbing the makeshift steps, a metal box in his hands, barking orders in the Rakan language to the others, who were carrying large boxes of their own.
Aleaha gasped at the wide, dark pit now revealed. “Is the cell down there?” she asked, her previous questions forgotten. Then, she must have realized that someone else was seeing her true form, because the black locks began to lighten.
“Don’t change. Please. I did not expect him to appear so soon, but hiding now will do no good. Besides, he will not betray you.”
A moment passed, but then her hair returned to its full, dark glory. He offered her a grateful smile and was rewarded with a hesitant twitch of her lips. One day he would make her laugh. One day he would—
Forget his purpose if he didn’t look away. “Do you need more men?” he asked Talon in Rakan. There was no reason for Aleaha to have this information, and every reason for her not to have it. “I want us out of here as quickly as possible.”
Talon’s golden braids slapped his temples as he faced Breean. “No,” he said. “Cain and Syler just arrived. Said they couldn’t listen to the AIR agents any longer. I’ve got them carrying the last of the weapons.”
“Were the agents still demanding their release?”
“Yes. But they also want to know what we did with their dead.” Disgust dripped from Talon’s voice when he uttered the word dead.
“When Cain and Syler return, they may explain that we buried them.” It was the truth. But Breean was as disgusted as his friend that humans had died. Killing the agents so viciously and so violently had been unnecessary. They’d had things under control—a few of their own men had been stunned, yes, but no one had been injured— so there’d been no need to resort to bloodshed.
Because of that bloodshed, he’d had to command everyone to burn their clothes and bathe the moment they’d reached this dilapidated, forgotten house. No exceptions. Not even for the prisoners.
“Speaking of AIR,” Talon said, “neither Cain nor Syler saw any sign of them, here or there, during their journey. You were right. There is no better time to finish our switch.”
“Good.”
“What shall I do with Marleon? Leave him,” which meant, kill him here, “or take him with me?” Which meant, kill him there. “I didn’t know what to do with him, so I kept him locked up here.”
Marleon was the warrior, the traitor, who’d whisked inside several of the agents, taking over their bodies and forcing them to shoot themselves. He’d been sequestered this entire week while Breean considered his punishment. A punishment he didn’t want to deliver, for he loved Marleon like a brother. But there was no way around this. He’d merely been putting off the inevitable.
“Take him. It’s past time I made an example of him.”
“Consider it done.” Talon’s gaze shifted momentarily to Aleaha. “I know that you wanted no reminder of her while she was locked away, so I didn’t ask what I’ve been dying to ask. Now that you have her . . . did you learn how she was able to become you?”
He sighed. “Not yet, but I will find out.”
“The change was amazing. You are keeping her for yourself, I gather.” Talon switched to the Earth language on the last sentence, a hungry gleam in his golden eyes.
“Yes,” Breean answered, a little stiff.
“No sharing?”
His hands clenched at the thought, dark possessiveness clamoring through him. Aleaha stiffened as well. “No.”
“She—”
“Is mine.”
A nod and a grin from Talon; a growl from Aleaha.
“I thought as much. Very well,” Talon said. “We have been monitoring the headsets from the agents as you told us to do, but the female voice has stopped talking in them. And this morning, Torrence found and destroyed the cameras they used to watch.”
“Oh, God.” Aleaha groaned, paling. “The cameras. I had forgotten about them. They must have seen me . . . what I . . . oh, God.”
“Excellent,” he told his second, ignoring her outburst for the moment. Otherwise he would have drawn her into his embrace and forgotten his purpose yet again. “How much do you lack before the tunnel is empty?”
“We’re down to the last.”
“Finish up, then. I’ll stop bothering you.”
Talon returned to directing the men, and Breean’s attention returned to the woman as if pulled by an unbreakable cord. Finally. Her lips were puffy, as if she’d been chewing them, and a bright, vivid red. Like blood. He should have been repulsed.
He wasn’t.
Moonlight bathed her, and he would have sworn stars twinkled around her, as drawn to her loveliness as he was. Her eyes sparkled like emeralds, and strands of dark hair whipped around her face.
Obviously, her agent’s mind had flipped on. She was studying the surrounding area with sharp precision, taking in every detail. He could not wait to have all that concentration directed at him.
As if sensing his perusal, she faced him. His desire must have been evident because she shivered, gulped, even inched backward, sinking deeper into night’s shadows. But when she realized what she’d done, she straightened and reclaimed her position in the moon’s amber rays. A true warrior, she was.
“What’s inside the chests?” she asked, only the slightest catch in her voice.
He liked that voice, layered as it was with equal measures of fear, courage, and sexuality. “Weapons.”
Her attention whipped back to the boxes, as if she could burn a hole through the metal with her gaze. “What k
ind?”
“Does it matter? They all do the same thing.” Kill.
“We’ve got everything,” Talon called.
Good. Breean didn’t remove his focus from Aleaha. “Close the pit and head out.” He wanted the girl to himself for a while longer. “We’ll be along shortly.”
“As you wish.”
He couldn’t stay long; in a few hours, the sun would rise. Only once had he made the mistake of coming to Earth during daybreak. The sun was simply too hot for a Rakan’s golden skin, too blistering, something they weren’t used to since Raka had three alternating moons and a small, sun-like orb that produced only the barest hint of light.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Talon and a few others secure the tunnel doorway, then gather their supplies and stride away. He should be helping them—he never asked his men to do something he wouldn’t do himself—but again, he couldn’t force himself to walk away from this moment with Aleaha.
“I thought the agents were in there. Where are you moving them?” she demanded. “When are you moving them? What if they’re injured and need medical attention. And why did you leave me in that room so long?”
He didn’t have to answer, but he found that he wanted to alleviate her concerns. “They’ve already been moved to a house in the city. I moved them for safety reasons. They are uninjured.”
“Take me there.”
Soon. “Kiss me first.”
For a moment, only a moment, stark desire played over her delicate features. But it quickly disappeared, obliterated by fear. He sighed. Why did she continue to fear him? He had not hurt her, even though he’d had every opportunity.
Then that same intense look of concentration darkened her features, the one he’d seen that first night. She meant either to run or to challenge him. Sadly, there was no time to indulge her. “I would not do that, were I you. It . . . excites me.” Truth. “And I will catch you, you know I will.”
She scowled. But slowly, bit by bit, her body slackened. “What I know is that you’re a bastard.”
“How so? I did not force you to my bed. Did not starve you. Kept the others away from you.”