by Lucia Ashta
It was one of these guards who’d shot Tanus, and I remembered all of what we’d done to them. Undoubtedly, the missing guards were convalescing, just as Tanus should be. Tanus, Dolpheus, and I had stabbed, kicked, and otherwise knocked the shit out of them.
But only Tanus had been shot.
We’d managed to rouse him enough to get him out of the pyramid on his own two feet, even if the majority of his weight was on Dolpheus and Kai, who each draped an arm over their shoulders.
“Oh no, not again,” Tanus said, his words slurred. I didn’t know whether to attribute it to energy drainage, the morphine still circulating through his system, or the hundred other things his body was dealing with. After all, just because we hadn’t identified any differences between our two planets, didn’t mean there weren’t any. The fact that I hadn’t experienced any ill effects from the days I spent upon Planet Origins didn’t mean Tanus wouldn’t feel the change in environment. Although it was an encouraging sign that both his mother and brother had survived for centuries on Earth without apparent issue.
“It’s all right, Tan,” Dolpheus said. “We got this.” But in reality, Yudelle was the one who had this. Thank goodness.
Whatever wavering she might have done within the pyramid’s chamber was completely gone. Restored was the woman who behaved as if she served men’s balls for breakfast, sprinkled with a little salt.
The guards rushed at us, guns already drawn and pointed. There were at least three times the number we encountered before. I guessed we were the reason for the increased security.
A few of the more aggressive of the guards got right up in our faces and pointed guns at our chests, shouting at us in Arabic. Moments before, Tanus had been as much of a droopy mess as a hardened soldier could be when his body was begging for rest and recovery. Now, every single one of his muscles bulged under his restraint, and Dolpheus was worse. Kai moved his outside hand toward his sword.
I stepped between my friends and the gunmen. “I am not going to watch this happen again.” I glared at the man who was so close to Tanus that I had to squeeze in between them. “You! Put that gun down right this second.”
He yelled at me in Arabic, his breath as hot and unpleasant as the day.
I yelled right back. “You will stand down. Right this second.” I spoke with authority. I didn’t give a damn that no one had given it to me, I was going to take it. There was no way this was going to go down the way it had last time.
He said something back to me, but the aggression was a fraction less than before. It wasn’t much, but it showed me I could do this.
I might or might not be the princess of a planet, but whoever I was, I was going to own this. I closed the distance.
I was now touching him, and the instant I saw his eyes trail down to my body, I knew what I had to do. There might have been other ways to resolve this conflict, but with automatic weapons in our faces, if boobs worked, I had no problem using them.
The man realized what he was doing and forced his eyes back to my face. He barked something else at me, spit flying. But it was a half-assed attempt to prove to the two men that flanked him that he knew his job and wasn’t about to let some woman distract him from it.
Well, I wasn’t just some woman, and I damn well knew it.
I took another step up against him, effectively pushing him back, and I flicked a glance at the men to either side, inviting them to join us. Because obviously this was ramping up to be a party, not an attack, right?
I didn’t really expect the men to be dissuaded quite this easily, but I sensed the moment they gave in. Apparently, so did Tanus. “You don’t need to do this, Ilara.”
But I did.
At my 4 o’clock I could see Yudelle making headway with the rest of the men. Already, some were beginning to fall back. She’d get this straight, I only needed to buy time. And what I was selling, these men wanted.
I pressed my breasts against Spittle Man, ignored the rank smell of sweat he was giving off, and gave him my practiced coy look. I knew it would work, because it’d worked on every man on whom I’d ever used it. I winked and smiled at the other two, and they drew closer to me, converging on their deluded little foursome.
“No guns if we’re going to have fun,” I said, as if I were in some kind of absurd skin flick. I pushed my boobs out, drew all three pairs of eyes to them, and then moved the barrel of the gun down with a feminine finger.
Then, as if I were about to lead them off to the orgy of a lifetime, I extended my arms out and brought a hand down to each of the other men’s shoulders. “No guns.” These enthusiastic men actually adjusted their guns, slung across their chests, to hang from their backs.
“No guns,” one of them said. “We go now?”
“Why didn’t you tell me you understood English before? Now we can have even more fun. But no guns, all right. I don’t want anyone to get hurt for real, just play.”
“Just play, yes, play.”
The shouting to my right was winding down, and I saw men putting up their hands in defeat. Yudelle had that under control, and Lila and Narcisse were with her. They were safe.
I imagined that in moments Yudelle would march over here and tell these three buffoons that playtime was over. But I just couldn’t help myself. I really couldn’t. Okay, let’s be real, I could, but I didn’t want to.
Whatever warrior training the Princess had been given, I could access. Why, none of us were yet sure—beyond theories that I was connected to some extent with all versions of myself, or that I was, indeed, the Princess.
Yudelle was on her way back when I moved my hands up to the faces of the men on the outside. I smiled at them and then slammed their heads against Spittle Man’s. They groaned, and when Spittle Man rummaged for his gun, I kicked him in the groin.
He fell to his knees, all thoughts of partytime forgotten. I crossed my arms over my chest and drew a knife with each hand from the sheaths on my arms. I pressed a blade to the throat of both men standing. “Don’t. You. Move.”
They weren’t planning on it. I could read it in their eyes.
“Well, I see that you choose your women well, son,” Yudelle called ahead to Tanus.
When she reached my side, she barked out something in Arabic. I didn’t understand the words, but I understood their meaning. She was scolding them, and it was clear they were as afraid of her bite as they were of my threat. Nervous eyes flicked back and forth, fear of the blades I pressed to their throats.
I didn’t pull back.
“Remove your blades,” Yudelle said. “They won’t harm you or anyone here.”
I did as she asked, and the men wasted no time in scurrying away. She called after them and they ran back to drag Spittle Man away with them.
“Well, I’ll grant you one thing,” Yudelle said to me. “You have quite an... array of weapons at your disposal.”
I met her judgment head on. “I did what I needed to do to keep this from escalating. Tanus has already been shot twice. I think I was more than tolerant of those trigger-happy assholes.”
Yudelle studied me. “I agree. I would have done the exact same thing if I’d had to.”
Something passed between us. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was enough to suggest I should reexamine my thoughts on this woman. I was looking into the eyes of a survivor. Perhaps she’d only done what she thought she needed to do to protect those she loved. Maybe.
The moment over, she said, “Now, let’s get out of here before the real problem descends on us.”
“Violent men aiming to kill us isn’t the real problem?” Kai, who’d followed Yudelle over to us, muttered.
“Unfortunately not. But I’ll worry about how to deal with the Ministry later. For now, Tanus needs rest, and I need to check up on his father.”
It took me a second to figure out that ‘his father’ was Aletox. I didn’t think I was the only one. There was nothing fatherly about the man, even when he was unconscious.
“Everyone, l
et’s go. The vans are waiting for us. Narcisse, up here with me.” And then Yudelle, who was clearly used to being in charge, even on a planet that wasn’t her own, marched off. We followed.
Dolpheus and Kai half-carried Tanus despite his complaints, across the parched expanse between us and Yudelle’s vehicles. Lila and I fell in behind them.
We walked in silence for a while, and I was grateful for it. Since the day I was drawn into the lake, things had been crazy. I yearned for a long, quiet soak in a hot bath in a dim room. That sounded divine. I wondered if I’d ever manage it. I didn’t get the feeling being with Tanus and friends left a lot of opportunity for long soaks.
Lila broke the silence. “I saw what you did.”
“Oh?” If I didn’t care what Yudelle thought, I most certainly couldn’t care less what Lila thought about my manipulations. What I did was the most direct way to take the men’s minds off shooting us. And yes, I could have restrained myself from hitting them in the end, but I only hurt them a little, just enough to remind them not to do what they’d done.
“I thought it was awesome.”
“What?” I looked at her, surprised.
“I only wish I could do something like that.”
“Press up against disgusting men to keep them from shooting at you and your friends?”
“Basically.” She sighed. “Anytime you want to, you can have any man willing to do whatever you want.”
I wasn’t going to deny it. It was mostly true. “I never thought it was something particularly admirable.”
Lila sighed again, this time wistfully.
“You really wish you could that, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Well then, what’s keeping you?”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, why don’t you put moves on men like that if you want to?”
“Uh, Ilara, have you looked in a glass lately? Have you seen you? And have you seen me?”
“Lila, it’s mostly attitude.”
“No amount of attitude will make up for this.” She gestured to her whole body.
“What are you talking about? Trust me, it’s all about confidence. Now that you’ve lost that horrendous lab suit, you can work it.”
“Work it?”
“Yeah, girl, work it. I’ll help you.”
“Really? You will?”
“Of course. If you want to strut your stuff, I’ll teach you how to do it.”
“Excellent,” Lila said, and she looked happier than she had since I met her.
How I’d gone from living on Earth to another planet and back in a matter of days, I had no idea. How I’d managed to fall in love in that time was almost a greater mystery. And now I had agreed to transform the mousy Lila into a sex goddess.
I thought life couldn’t possibly get more bizarre. Of course, I was wrong.
3
It had been easy to convince Tanus to get back into bed once we reached Yudelle’s house, which could only mean that he felt as bad as he looked. But I’d examined his sutures and determined that nothing had ripped open, so nothing was left for me to do but fluff his pillows unnecessarily and pick at invisible lint on his blanket.
“Come on,” Dolpheus said to Kai and Lila, “let’s go talk to Yudelle. Figure out what our next steps are. Just as soon as Tanus is better—”
“I’m well enough now to move,” Tanus said. “Just say the word.”
“Yes, Tan, I know you’re ready. But you do need to recover at least a bit before—”
Tanus started to interrupt again, but Dolpheus put a hand on his shoulder, the one that wasn’t injured. “Remember, Tan, I know you. You don’t need to worry. I’m just thinking of myself.”
Tanus arched an eyebrow.
“I need you to have my back, especially on this planet that’s been none too friendly to us since we’ve arrived. I need you to recover at least a little bit for my sake. I need to know you can swing your sword without ripping anything, okay?”
Tanus studied his friend, but eventually said, “All right, Olph, for you.”
I smiled and didn’t bother hiding it. “Men.”
All eyes in the room swiveled my way, but only Lila’s mirrored my smile.
“What do you mean?” Dolpheus asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“No,” Kai said. “What did you mean?”
“Nothing.”
Kai huffed. “Women,” he said a bit too theatrically, hands at his waist, then he turned and walked out of the room.
I laughed. “Well played.”
Dolpheus looked at me and then back to Tanus, then said to Lila, “Let’s go, let’s let them have a bit of time to themselves.” I suspected it was the real reason he suggested conferring with Yudelle in the first place.
When Dolpheus took Lila by the elbow to lead her out, she looked all too happy to comply. As they crossed the threshold, I noticed she was already leaning into him. It didn’t seem like she needed much help figuring out how to use her womanly charms to get closer to Dolpheus; she maximized every opportunity he gave her.
The moment Tanus and I were alone, I started to fidget, and I wasn’t one to fidget.
He extended a hand to me. “Come closer.”
I obliged, taking in the thin sheen of sweat that coated his brow and the pale color of his skin. “Are you feeling all right?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Are you sure? You don’t look so great.” Immediately, I realized it was the wrong thing to say.
He stiffened and it looked like even that hurt. “I’m sure.”
I tried to take my hand from his and step away, but he held on. “What’s going on with you?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Ilara, look at me.”
I looked up.
“No, look at me.”
I forced myself to look into his eyes.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing.”
He waited.
“Okay, not nothing, but nothing important.”
He continued to wait.
“It’s just that I’m used to doing whatever I feel like doing without thinking about how it will affect anyone else. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.”
“Explain.”
“Well... did it bother you what I did back there? With those guys?” I’d never been in a ‘relationship’ before, if loving a man that another version of you—or the same you that didn’t remember—from another planet could be called a relationship in the first place. I was used to flitting from one man to the next as it pleased me, never worrying about what they thought about what I did. In fact, I wasn’t in the habit of caring about what anyone thought. That’s what happened when you had eyes that reflected the universe. When you were that different from everyone else, somewhere along the way, you stopped caring what anyone else thought of you. It was a necessity of survival, especially through school, where children looked for any reason at all to mock.
I continued. “I mean, I don’t think I did anything wrong, I did what I thought was best, but I did use my... feminine wiles to do it.”
“And you think that because I love you that might bother me?”
I looked away from him, then forced myself to meet his green eyes. “Something like that. I don’t know, I’ve never loved a man before, I don’t know how that changes things, if it does at all.” It was a stupid thing to say. Of course being in love with someone changed things, but I couldn’t seem to keep my mouth from rambling on. “I just, well, I was wondering. I didn’t want to upset you.”
Since when did I worry about upsetting a man? Ugh. I was done for. I needed to get my head screwed back on tight, preferably facing the right direction, with my priorities straight.
But he laughed.
I yanked my hand out of his so fast that he didn’t have a chance to grab it again before I stepped away from the bed. I crossed my arms over my chest and paced the length of the room farth
est from him like a wildcat in a cage, debating whether just to leave.
Sure, I was no stranger to emotions, but I wasn’t used to having them control me, especially when I didn’t understand what the hell was going on with me. I felt like jumping out of my skin.
“I’m going to go for a run,” I said without thinking, but once it was out, I knew it would help. It was just the thing to soothe my jumpy nerves or whatever the fuck was wrong with me.
I headed to the door without looking back at him, but he stopped me before I could slip through it and save myself from... myself.
“Ilara, please, don’t go.”
As much as I wanted to, I wouldn’t. Not when he’d asked me like that. Not when he was lying in a bed looking like he did because he’d saved me. No man had ever jumped in front of a bullet for me before. Granted, my life had never been this insane before either. Everything had changed the moment I catapulted into this man’s arms.
“Please, Ilara, come over here and sit with me.”
That was all it took. As if my body had a will of its own, I found myself perched on the edge of his bed, feeling vulnerable. It turns out that you don’t need to understand why you feel something to feel it. My chest felt physically sore, and I had to resist the urge to rub it.
“Why did you laugh at me?” Before I could stop them, the words were out, betraying a bit of what was going on inside me. I wasn’t a meek woman who worried about every little thing someone else did or said. That wasn’t me—it wasn’t before, and I wouldn’t let it be now.
I sat up straight and pursed my lips. That was the last time I let something like that out.
But when Tanus smiled at me again, I forgot my resolve, and scooted half a foot closer to him, so that my thigh touched his.
His eyes were adoring as they gazed at me, and I realized for the first time that this was a very different way of being for the hardened soldier that couldn’t even accept the idea of bed rest when he’d been bitten by wild hyenas and shot by angry men on an unwelcoming planet.