Starlight [Warriors of Dareen] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Sara Anderson

  Laura shook her head at him while she looked around for something. “Fuck you,” she screamed and spotted a tray leftover from their lunch. She picked it up and hurled it at Varnis.

  Varnis dodged the tray easily, his face looked concerned instead of angry. “No, I do not think in your present condition sex would be a good idea.”

  Kara shook her head at Varnis to let him know Laura was not talking about sex, but his full attention was on Laura.

  “Let me go, I want to go home.” Laura gasped for air between her sobs. She was trying to keep her eye on Varnis and find some way to fight him off at the same time.

  “That is not possible, now sit down and put your hands in your lap,” he ordered her. “I do not want to have to force you and risk hurting you.”

  “You’re a fucking asshole. I just want to go home.” Laura spotted something glass on another shelf and hurled it at his head. He batted it away and it shattered all over the floor.

  Varnis’s frightening face softened, even though Laura was hurling whatever she could find at him. “I mean it, Laura. If you do not get down on your own I will have no choice but to force you.”

  “No, I will not just lay there and let them hurt me.” Laura hurled another medical instrument at him.

  Varnis looked determined, but his face never hardened with anger.

  “No one is hurting you. You are the one that tried to hurt yourself. I cannot allow that.”

  Laura whimpered. She wrung her hands together when she saw she was running out of weapons to hurl at Varnis.

  Kara wiped tears from her eyes. It hurt seeing Laura so distressed. She had never seen her friend ever act this insanely out of control. Laura looked around for another weapon. “Laura, please, do as he says.”

  Just when Laura looked over at Kara, Varnis jumped. He had Laura on the ground and was wrestling to get her flailing arms under control.

  “You’re hurting me,” Laura cried while she continued to fight Varnis.

  “Stop fighting me and it won’t hurt anymore.” Varnis growled as he pulled one of her arms behind her back. Laura’s scream was full of pain and something else Kara had never heard before.

  “Don’t hurt her, get off of her,” Kara screamed pulling on Varnis to try and pull him off of her. Laura screamed louder, thrashing around.

  Another set of hands pulled her off of Varnis and held her tight. “He’s hurting her.” Kara saw an arm that had a gray uniform holding her. She kicked at the medic that had held her tight.

  “You can be sedated as well and spend the night on lockdown instead of with your bonded, Joran.”

  Kara stopped struggling immediately at the threat. “He’s hurting her.”

  “No, he is restraining her so she does not hurt herself,” the medic told her.

  Laura screamed her rage while two warriors and several medics fought to get her under control. Varnis got her pinned under him and pulled her hands behind her back.

  “No, let me go.” Laura’s cry was so full of pain and terror it made Kara’s heart ache.

  Varnis ignored her demand and held her hands pinned. The way Varnis looked at Laura softened his fighting features.

  “Bastards, I will have you all fucking arrested for this. I know a lot of cops, you all will fucking pay. I will make sure those cops shoot your asses.”

  Kara could hardly believe this was Laura. It was so far from her personality. Laura was the type who was always joking, always finding fun in whatever she was doing. Not fighting and threatening people.

  “She is not much better, I see,” Kara heard Doctor Legav say. She glanced over and the doors to the infirmary were open. The doctor and Joran both walked in, looking grave.

  Varnis was standing and holding Laura against him, holding her still as if she were a doll. “Hush now, Laura, I have you. It will be okay now,” he whispered.

  Laura kicked her feet at him. “Fucking bastard, nothing is okay.”

  The others helped to hold her kicking legs while Varnis held her. He continued to tell her she was safe, and that she would feel much calmer in a moment.

  “Then make them stop hurting me,” Laura screamed brokenly.

  “No one is hurting you. These other warriors are simply holding you to keep you from hurting yourself. You and Kara are both safe here.”

  Tears filled Kara’s eyes. She had always been afraid of Varnis. He was so large and his terrifying face made him look even more frightening. She had thought he was hurting her friend a moment ago. Now he was cradling Laura against him as if she was precious to him. He looked tender, despite his frightening face and massive muscles.

  “Bring her back into her room,” the doctor ordered, gathering medication.

  Varnis nodded to the other warriors so they could let go of Laura’s legs. She kicked Varnis, but he did not seem affected.

  “Get away from me with that,” Laura hissed. She tried to wiggle, but Varnis held her in a steel grasp while he walked back to her room.

  Dr. Legav followed Varnis into the room with her medication and Varnis laid her on her bed, then moved her hair to the side. Laura thrashed around on the bed when they adjusted her. Varnis was able to once again restrain her. Laura tried to break free even more.

  “No, Laura, hush. This will calm you.” Varnis stroked her hair with his free hand while he soothed her, his normally deep voice gentle. “You are safe, I promise. Just relax and the medicine will make you feel better.”

  “It won’t.” Laura tried to fight. “I just want it to end.”

  “No.” Varnis’s face was suddenly fierce again. “I will not allow you to give up. I know you are hurt, I will be strong for you until you are well.”

  Laura suddenly stopped fighting Varnis. Her face nuzzled into his lap, and her body shook from her wracking cries.

  Kara clamped her hands over her mouth to hold in her own cries. She thought they had overreacted to keep Laura sedated like they had, but to see her in so much pain… The life seemed to have faded from Laura’s eyes. It was crushing to see Laura so broken instead of the one person who always lit up a room with her very presence.

  Laura’s cries softened until she was once again drifting off to sleep. “How long will she be like this?”

  The doctor looked over at Kara while the medic and Varnis released her and arranged her on the bed. “I really do not know. She is not near as bad as she was when you two first came here.”

  “She was worse?” Kara’s face blanched at the thought of Laura worse than this. This was horrible.

  Varnis nodded. “We had to hold her down until the doctor arrived when she woke up. That is how we discovered the medication did not work.”

  Kara glanced at Laura. “I do not understand. This is not like Laura at all. She has always been so strong, nothing seemed to get to her.”

  The doctor looked at Laura for a long time before answering. “I spent all of last evening in a meeting with our top doctors on Dareen. It makes no sense how the Tahearan serum would work fully on you yet have no effect on your friend. The same situation with the survivors of the attack on the colony. Some responded exactly like we expected, while others, like your friend, are showing mentally disturbed behaviors. I spoke with our doctors, and they are suspecting that it is not so much that the medication does not work but that there is something in the Shara’s DNA that attacks these women’s minds.”

  “You have never had this before?” Kara could not believe they had never dealt with this before if the Shara were their enemy.

  He shook his head. “In the time we have been at war, there was never a live victim before the attack on the colony. They usually die during the rape. Joran’s brother’s bonded, Karrina, was one of the first that survived. That was only because our warriors arrived before they could kill everyone.”

  Kara shuddered at that and thought of Laura’s mind being under attack, but it made better sense than Laura not adjusting well to the trauma of the attack. She was so engrossed in her thoughts she never he
ard the door open, and jumped when strong arms came around her. She looked up to see Joran. “Are you off duty, yet?” she asked, knowing he should have several more hours to be gone.

  He shook his head sadly. “I am free for only a few hours. The area we thought all the Shara were in only had a couple. Then when Varnis called out for help, I came to check on you. Sunter is questioning them on where the others are hiding.”

  Kara’s eyes widened. “You found some of them?”

  “Yes, and I even got them here alive. The Alliance judges will be thankful we brought back some of the inktas to put on trial.”

  “How long will that take, to go through the trial and everything?” Kara chewed her lip, knowing that the justice system on Earth was painfully slow, and wondered if it was the same on Dareen.

  “Their trial will be within one of your Earth weeks of their charges being read to them.” He stared at her for a moment, indecision clear in his expression. “It may be very hard on you, my lenora.”

  Kara gave him a confused look. “Why?”

  “More crimes were committed against you and Laura. I doubt Laura will be stable enough, and our lawgivers will want a detailed account.”

  Kara swallowed hard. “I don’t remember much.”

  “That is the medication. There is a short-acting drug that will sharpen your memory for that time. You will remember everything. It will not allow your trauma to hide any detail.”

  Kara felt the blood drain from her face. “Wait, what if I don’t want to?”

  Joran looked at her for a moment then took her face in his hands. “Dareen law is very strict on such things. I would spare you from this if I could, but my superiors already have the reports of your attack.”

  “Can’t they be tried for their crimes against your colony?” She hated how her voice shook.

  Joran slowly nodded. “Yes, survivors from the colony attack who are stable will also tell the lawgivers detailed descriptions of the attack.”

  “Were there a lot?” Kara could tell instantly that the answer was grim by the hard look on his face.

  “There is a small child about eight Earth years old who witnessed his siblings and parents murdered.”

  Horror made Kara’s mouth open in a soundless cry. She could feel her chest rising and falling, the horror of what that poor child witnessed making her feel cold all over. “That poor child.”

  “Thankfully the medications worked on him like they did you. While he has some sadness at the passing of his family, he is living with other family, free of the trauma you are witnessing your friend endure.”

  “Thank God,” Kara breathed. She could not imagine a child having to live through that.

  “There will be at least two of our doctors and many warriors there to be strong for him, then to again treat him as soon as he has finished his accounting. While it will make you both relive the trauma, it will be short. There were a couple of Dareen women who also survived and will be stable enough for trial.” He moved her hair out of her face while he talked to her.

  Kara looked into Joran’s face. She saw how much sadness he had endured with the loss of his brother and his brother’s children. The way he looked at her, she hoped it was love. Whenever Joran talked to her about bonding, he told her about protecting her, but he never talked about love.

  “If those women and a small child can do it, then surely I can, too,” Kara told him in a brave tone she didn’t feel.

  Joran’s face lit up with pride. “I am proud of you, my bonded. I know you are afraid, but the mark of true bravery is to do something even though you are afraid.”

  Kara’s body warmed with his approval. Nothing made her happier these days then to see his face light up when he was happy with her. She would do almost anything just to make him happy.

  Kara looked up and realized the doctor had left at some point during their conversation, and Varnis had taken a seat by Laura and held her hand while she slept.

  Chapter 16

  Joran listened in to the emergency call, his heart beating like he had spent the morning training. Only this wasn’t training. This was a child calling into the center that would alert law enforcement that someone was breaking into their home.

  “Are you sure it’s them?” Kara watched Joran, holding her hands in her lap so he did not see how they shook.

  “Yes, lenora. I am listening into the call for help at the moment. We must beat the local law enforcement to the scene. It is in the laws of the Alliance that aliens cannot reveal themselves to planets that have not advanced enough for space travel.

  “What will happen if the police see the Shara?” Fear made her heart pound. She was human. What would they do to her?

  “They would either need to come with us or the Alliance will send in a team to wipe memories. They are brutal about it. Some lose months or years instead of the targeted time frame. That is why the serum is not used for trauma therapy.”

  “What about me?” Fear made Kara squeak while her hands fisted in her lap.

  “You are with me, and Laura is under the captain’s guardianship, which is the same as him declaring himself her father in our culture. You are both safe from the Tahearans.”

  “The who?”

  “Tahearans, our closest neighbors. They are a highly intelligent race that make many of our serums. We have a treaty with them. They supply us with scientific advances and we protect them. The Alliance calls on them to clean up any accidental exposure.” Joran’s lips twisted in disgust. “While the Tahearans have provided us with many medications and other useful advancements, not many like the idea of wiping out someone’s memories, permanently.”

  Kara nodded. “Is that why you do not just use that on your sister-in-law and Laura?”

  She watched him strap on his armor. It was thin, but she assumed it was much stronger than it looked.

  “Yes, it is too unpredictable. Laura could lose all her adult memories. In severe cases, they try it, but it is only when every other therapy has not worked.” Joran placed a belt around his waist, then placed his laser weapon in a holster. Kara’s eyes widened at the amount of knives he placed around his body. She had no idea he had so many weapons on him. She was sure that if he was in a fight and lost a weapon, he could easily grab another.

  “What happens if Laura does not get better?” Kara asked, chewing on her lip.

  “Then she may get her memories wiped, but from what Doctor Legav was saying, it may be nothing to do with trauma.”

  Joran wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close to him. “Give our doctors time, sweet Kara. They will do everything to make your friend whole again.”

  “I will try,” Kara murmured into his chest.

  “I will return as soon as I can. With the universe’s blessing, we will capture or execute every Shara and be on our way home by the end of this day.”

  Kara stared up at him, trying to be brave, but fear made her heart pound. “Please be careful. I could not stand to lose you,” she whispered hoping he would not reject her. While Joran had assured her he would protect her and care for her, he had never once promised to love her.

  Joran’s face softened, and he placed a hand gently on her cheek, then moved it down to cup her chin. “Dare I hope you have grown to care about me?” His stare was intense.

  Kara decided then and there to risk everything and let Joran see her true feelings for him. If he rejected her, then she would make her final decisions about escaping. “Yes, I care very much for you. I love you. It seems insane that I have gone from infatuated to love so quickly, but the way I feel when you are close to me…” Kara broke off to take a deep breath. “I love you, Joran. The thought of living my life without you…well, I do not even want to think about it.”

  Joran’s gaze darkened and he ran his thumb over her lips. “If I did not have such an urgent mission, I would strip you bare and take you until your body had no strength left. Such a bond is yearned for among warriors.” The emotion in Joran’s words as well as the
blatant love shining in his eyes brought tears to Kara’s eyes.

  “You love me?” Kara could feel herself shaking with emotion as she stared into his face.

  “I have loved you since the moment I first saw you. I tried to deny it at first, but no longer. I do love you, sweet Kara.”

  Joy burst into Kara’s heart like an explosion. She did not realize she had held her breath until she let it out and whooped another gulp of air in. He loved her, she could see it shinning in his face, the way he held her, kissed her, and spoke her name. The evidence was all there the entire time, but Ryan’s ill treatment of her had made her put up walls around her heart. They were crumbling now and a strange feeling overtook her heart that she had not felt since her father was alive. Kara laughed. “I love you,” she told him through her tears. She cried, knowing that for the first time in years, she was loved.

  * * * *

  Despite the danger of their mission, Joran’s heart felt light. He wore the grin of a lovesick Dareen adolescent. Joran pulled the helmet down to hide his lovesick grin from his warriors. They would no doubt find endless tales of amusement if they got a good look at his face.

  Joran decided the best way to distract himself would be to link into the emergency call.

  The 9-1-1 operator picked up the call to a frightened woman on the line.

  “Please help me. There are monsters in my house.” The woman sounded terrified. Joran was hopeful that they would assume they were humans with masks.

  The operator almost sighed. “Why do you think there are monsters in your house?”

  The woman was breathing heavily into the phone, then whispered, “They smashed in the front door. They are going through our kitchen.”

  “There are men in your house?” Joran could tell by the sudden interest the operator was taking the woman seriously now.

  “Yeah, at least three, maybe more.” Joran could hear a child start to cry in the background. “My husband went to see—”