by Vi Voxley
"Where do they come from?" Audrey asked. "I'm starting to doubt everything I've ever heard of them."
"The stories might be right. One of them, at least. We honestly don't know."
Audrey watched Tieran put his armor back on, looking on with regret as that stunning body disappeared under the dark gray surface.
She waited until he raised his eyes to her again before teasing: "I never thought I'd hear a Palian say those words. ‘We don’t know’."
"We don't know everything," Tieran pointed out. "But we are trying to find that out, I can assure you."
"I believe that," Audrey said, leaning against the wall of the pit, enjoying the sight of his muscles playing under his skin as he slid his arm into the armor sleeve.
"As for this new one, one of my fellow commanders hopes to receive a vid of it very soon. It keeps moving around, never staying in one place for too long. There have been reports of odd attacks that we think could be it… We should be receiving a vid of one of them soon.”
"Sounds dangerous."
"It is," Tieran said, the gaze of his hazel eyes piercing her soul. "But any of us would gladly give our life if it meant killing a Fearless or, more importantly, stopping one from getting their hands on the lifestone."
"That stone is dangerous too," Audrey pointed out, to her surprise seeing Tieran nod.
"Everything valuable tends to be," he said, a weird look in his eyes as he let his gaze wander around her for a second. "If Verien is inducted into the Union, I will make sure it is well guarded. Brions would definitely post one of their generals nearby if they knew what they were protecting."
A terrible sense of loss overwhelmed Audrey all of a sudden. If she understood him correctly, Tieran intended to leave Verien once he'd made sure it was safe.
She turned away from him wordlessly, only to be pulled back by a pair of strong arms. Audrey found herself face to face with Tieran, all his attention focused on her. She shuddered, feeling her mouth go dry. Night after night she'd dreamed of that moment and now that she was there, Audrey was at a loss of what to do.
"You are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen," he said.
His voice cut right to her very core, making something warm in her chest grow like a balloon. Audrey thought her heart would jump right out of her body, but it simply kept beating wildly as the commander brushed a lock of her hair away from her face.
"Paladins don't think like that, you know," he went on. "We notice beauty. We register it, but we don't react. You are making me do that. I think that makes you the most dangerous creature I've encountered so far."
Audrey began to laugh, but he was being serious. The laughter died in her throat and she stared up at him, wide-eyed.
"I'm no threat to you," she said quietly, hearing her voice shake. "Is that such a bad thing?"
Instead of replying, Tieran leaned in to kiss her. His lips were soft, but demanding against hers, pulling her deeper into the kiss. Audrey was lost in the feeling of him, letting him run his hands all over her body, caressing her.
He held them so tightly together she could barely breathe, but she loved it. She tasted him, feeling Tieran explore her mouth with his tongue in return, both of them so eager to get more that the kiss was almost painful.
Audrey's hands were tight around his body, holding herself against him, letting go of all of her doubts for just that glorious moment. She could feel his hands in her hair, gently running his fingers through them before pulling back, making her gasp in pleasure. He took the chance to kiss her deeper, drink in all her moans.
They must have been locked together for a minute before she pulled back, searching his eyes for any answer of what that kiss meant. She didn't know much about Palian paladins, but they certainly weren't the relationship types. He'd said as much. They simply didn't do that.
Not exactly the perfect time to get in a fling…
Her body was calling to Tieran, aching for anything he might give. She wanted more. She wanted all of him, for herself, to try and see what he was like stripped naked of his armor and clothes and all the rigid control he wore around himself like a cloak.
Before she could say anything, he pulled her in for another kiss. More passionate, desperate, filled with unspoken desire. She was left panting, her clothes messed up, but not nearly as much as her hair.
Tieran looked better, but she saw a feral need in his eyes that he'd never thought the reserved Palians were capable of. The way he kept her gaze in his, it felt like he was reaching into her soul and pulling her apart.
"When you're around," Audrey heard herself say. "The call of the stone isn't so bad. I feel a different pull then."
For you was left unsaid, but he seemed to understand that well enough.
The moment was interrupted by his comm link suddenly coming to life.
"Commander," the bridge called in an urgent voice.
Tieran looked annoyed enough to snap something about horrible timing, but his dutiful Palian nature won out.
"Speak," he ordered, still keeping her in his arms.
"Commander Yoan sent a vid. You need to see this, sir. It's the Fearless."
That was the single thing that could rip Audrey out of the moment. Her eyes turned to the device on Tieran's arm, willing it to say more, but the bridge remained silent after that. Apparently the visual was the best to describe the situation.
"I will be right there," Tieran responded and shut the link off.
A long moment of silence stretched between them before Audrey felt him lift her chin up gently with one finger. Even that, the slightest of touches, sent pleasant sparks through her body, making her feel like the very blood in her veins was reacting to him.
"I can't remember ever wanting anything for my own," Tieran said. "But since the moment I saw you, I have been waiting for this to happen. I want you."
Audrey didn't know what to say to that, but she moaned when he kissed her again, gently this time, cupping her face in his strong hands. When they parted, he looked focused once more, but on his duties instead of her.
"Come," he said, turning away. "We have a chance to see our enemy at last."
Audrey wanted to say something about there being so many better things to do than looking at a monstrosity, but that would have been impossible to explain to a paladin. She went after him, not missing the glances he threw her way. He adjusted his step, walking slower to allow her to keep his pace.
She couldn't stop wondering what it all meant, even when they reached the bridge and Tieran ordered a crew member to bring up the vid.
Paladins don't do stuff like that, she thought. But I don't do simple kisses that don't go anywhere either.
Clearly, there needed to be some sort of understanding between them now that they'd established the obvious attraction.
Yet even that ominous thought couldn't stop Audrey from admiring the way Tieran commanded the bridge with ease, turning every pair of eyes to him without asking for attention. He dealt out orders and directions, looking her way every once in a while to see if she was still there.
Finally the vid came up and Audrey went to Tieran, wanting to see his reaction first. After all, it wasn't her that had to fight the monster.
The vid showed a little boy, standing in the middle of a street. People kept walking by him, some even knocking into the child, but he didn't move from his place. After it had been going on for almost a minute, a man approached him, clearly suggesting that he move out of the way of the foot traffic.
Audrey waited with a thudding heart, ready to wince when the monster came crushing down, but that never happened.
Instead, the boy smiled. She knew what it was instantly, seeing the same empty, hollow grin. The boy reached out his arm, pulled it back then and punched it right through the man's stomach. Audrey could hear screams from all around them as the boy pushed his other hand into the wound as well and ripped the howling man in two, right down the middle.
There were people rushing closer and Audrey s
aw paladins in huge armors, glaives held ready at full length. The vid cut a second after the boy's smile stretched impossibly wide and something gigantic and black emerged from it.
There were no sounds on the bridge for a long moment before Audrey whispered: "The Fearless... it's a Jorcossi now."
8
Tieran
As Tieran watched the vid, his prevailing emotion was curiosity.
The Fearless had plagued the galaxy for thousands of years, Palians knew that very well. While other species didn't always keep their history, Palians most certainly did. Records put the appearance of the Fearless long before the Galactic Union was founded, in a past so long gone it was hard to imagine.
Back then, they had been an even worse nuisance, because the cooperation between different species had been practically nonexistent. Making contact with others mostly resulted in trade relations or war or both. It was far too easy for the Fearless to sow seeds of terror all across the galaxy back then, and Tieran was sure that there were several civilizations that had been wiped out by the creatures.
Palians thought of those times as the dark days. Before the Union, before the comfort of being able to call one of the invincible Brion generals to deal with any enemy, it had been every species for itself.
Tieran knew for a fact that the Fearless were one of the main reasons – perhaps the only one – for the creation of paladins. Palians weren't naturally hostile to anything, but they quickly realized the need to be able to protect what was important. They couldn't afford to confront the galaxy defenseless.
Ever since those days, there had been seventeen documented sightings of a Fearless. Some had been killed, some disappeared after they achieved their purpose, but ultimately they remained the same.
Audrey's words rang true and hollow through the reigning silence on the bridge. The only comfort the galaxy had ever had when it came to Fearless was that the creatures looked the part. They were impossible to miss, which made it possible to both find and escape them.
Now it had been taken from them.
"Can it do that?" Audrey was asking.
The female's eyes were wide, unbelieving. Tieran thought he would have loved to feel the same disbelief, but not trusting his very own eyes wasn't a luxury he could afford.
"Apparently it can," he said.
Audrey turned to him, the same emotion now turned in his direction.
"How can you be so calm?" she asked quietly. "That thing... it could be anyone right now."
"Yes," Tieran admitted, raising his voice then to be heard all over the bridge. "I want you all to take a good look at this. The Fearless have evolved and are more dangerous than ever."
He paused, letting his words sink in, before continuing: "But this is not anything new. Fearless have always changed and we have always adapted. It is a major disadvantage not to know when the attack might come or if it possesses any other qualities the Jorcossi have.
“That is true, but it does not change the very nature of this monster. It is still Fearless, named after the core principle of the creature. It can't stop hunting what it wants. For now, it is the lifestones. Undoubtedly the end goal is to use the power of the stones to dominate everything around it, just like every Fearless before it has sought to do. Ultimately, it will reveal itself and I will kill it."
His words echoed in the room and Tieran saw the immediate effect they had. His voice was a weapon like everything else about him, made to instill faith and confidence in anyone he addressed.
He was very careful not to use it on Audrey when they were alone. He didn't want her to obey. His very being hungered for her honest, pure affection.
Right now, Audrey was as mesmerized as everyone else, but in the end, she was a Terran. They had skepticism in their blood.
"You make it sound so easy," she said. "The Fearless are horrible even without gaining another edge over you."
"That's right," he agreed. "But it is easy. Not the fight to come itself. We must prepare with more care than ever before. The fact that we will need to kill it is the easy truth. It can't be allowed to have the lifestone. Imagine what it could do with that."
Audrey's face told him that she had a very good imagination.
Her eyes turned back to the vid, now playing again for everyone on the bridge to see. Tieran wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her, to tell her that everything was going to be alright, but he couldn't make that promise.
Only that he would keep her safe, would protect her to his last breath.
He wondered if she knew that. If the little Terran knew she was turning his life upside down simply by existing, ripping all control from his hands.
He thought he was prepared for anything. But he hadn’t been prepared for her.
"The bracelet," he said simply. "In the light of this revelation, it's vital that we catch the Jorcossi as soon as possible. There is nothing more important in the galaxy right now."
That simple Palian truth had never felt so untrue before. Looking at Audrey smile bravely and nod, knowing that he was calling on her to hurt herself again by leading them in the right direction, Tieran wondered when exactly did she replace his sense of duty with such longing that it was painful to stay away from her.
"Alright," Audrey said. "I'm ready."
He took her into his arms gently, knowing it helped to dull the effect the lifestone had on her. Tieran had immediately informed the Palian scientists of her situation, asking them to look into curing her from the connection that pained her so. If anything were to happen to the bracelet, she'd be defenseless against it.
So far, the scientists were baffled by her condition. There shouldn't have been any remaining symptoms once she let the stone go.
He already knew he would give his life for Audrey if need be, but he didn't know how to defend her against something unseen and untouchable.
She removed the bracelet, standing above the galactic map with the pilot waiting to adjust their course. In the last few days, they had been making good speed, but the closer they got, the more it hurt Audrey to lead them.
Tieran couldn't wait until they were close enough to track the ship with their own technology and no longer had to torture her like that.
Audrey's entire body shook and a small scream escaped her lips. He had learned that there was a great pride in her, refusing to admit pain even when it was obvious to see.
She gritted her teeth and opened her eyes, looking at the map. Her hand in his was cold like the depths of the mountains back on Verien. He helped her point, feeling her body tremble against him, wracked under an assault he couldn't feel.
The pilot was taking notes, marking down the direction Audrey was giving them, making sure she pinpointed it as precisely as possible. The map kept zooming in and Audrey's finger moved over the glass surface, narrowing down the location of the enemy ship.
Finally the pilot nodded and went to insert the new course into the ship's navigation system.
Tieran reached for her hand to help snap the bracelet back on when Audrey screamed. It was not a sound a human throat was supposed to make. She threw her head back, collapsing in his arms, a high, pitching cry falling over her lips.
Tieran grabbed her wrist and started to lock the bracelet, but Audrey pushed him away.
The little Terran actually knocked him away, but she seemed surprised by her own strength. He was up in a second, ready to face anything, the same objectless prayer in his head as on the station.
Don't let her be a host.
Though the scans had brought up nothing, he couldn’t escape the slim possibility that she could still be a vessel. If she was, he’d be utterly devastated.
Audrey was shaking her head, whimpering quietly. She had stopped screaming but it was clear she was suffering.
"Wait, wait," she panted. "I see something else. Let me... I can find it."
"Find what?" Tieran asked, although he could already guess.
"The Fearless," Audrey said, her eyes filled with te
ars.
He pulled her back into his arms, hoping it protected her from the pain, at least a little. Audrey was now crying, but under the tears her eyes were determined.
"You can't take this much longer," Tieran said. "We will find the Fearless, I promise."
"I can almost see it..." she replied. "Just give me a second."
"Audrey–" he warned, running his fingers over her skin. "You are turning to ice. You need to put the bracelet back on."
She shook her head furiously.
Tieran could feel Audrey shake so hard she nearly twisted herself out of his grip. He had never been so conflicted in his life.
On one hand, no one understood sacrifice in the name of a higher cause like paladins did. If it was Tieran himself, he would have taken the punishment unflinchingly, but it was a whole other matter to watch Audrey endure it.
On the other hand, she was free to choose her own path like every being in the galaxy and she wanted to help. He couldn't deny that to her, but he wasn't prepared to let her die before his very eyes.
"The lifestone," Audrey whispered, " It – It's already in the Fearless' hands. It has it. It wants more."
That was incredibly bad, but Tieran was a Palian – any information she gained was useful, it would help them all to put the picture together, to find and fight the monster. He had to weigh it rationally.
Already he sensed that the new skills of the Fearless made more sense if it possessed a piece of the lifestone.
Audrey's flesh was becoming too cold to touch, but Tieran refused to let go of her. Everyone on the bridge had stopped what they had been doing, their eyes focused on him and her as they waited to hear what they were going to face at the end of their chase.
"No," she said. "I was wrong. It doesn't have it. Like you said... it's in it. It is one with the lifestone now. Tieran, it – it saw me!"
Everything happened incredibly fast after that.
As a born warrior, Tieran was bred to be better than anything the galaxy might throw against him. His reflexes were honed by years and years of hard, relentless training and naturally keen senses. Yet the warning only came a fraction of a second before Audrey's eyes clouded over and the little Terran struck him.