by Lucia Ashta
“Maybe even open skirmishes within the royal city,” Tanus said. “If we don’t hurry back home, the home we come back to might be beyond our help. People will die if we don’t return to defend them.”
The Princess said, “Then I need to return immediately, and I need all of you to come back with me. How do we do that? What’s the fastest way to get us back to O? Do we have a way? Tell me we have a way.”
Tanus said, “The transport capsule we arrived on is in the Sahara Desert, less than a day’s walk from the condensers.”
“Is it functional?” Yudelle asked.
Lila said, “No, the stabilizer function is broken, and Aletox left it invisible out in the desert. He made it so with a wand of some sort, that he pocketed—oh shit, what happened to the wand? It would’ve been in his clothes when the hyenas attacked.”
“No, nothing like that,” Yudelle said, sharp. “We checked his clothes.”
“Then maybe his pack,” Kai said.
“We found something that might meet this description,” Yudelle said, and looked to the henchman closest to her, who took off, presumably to retrieve said device.
“And you didn’t say anything to us about it?” Tanus said, and I realized that he still didn’t trust his mother.
“We’ve been busy, or have you forgotten?”
Even to my ears, it sounded like a lame excuse.
Yudelle continued, “Is there a way to fix the stabilizer function?”
Tanus, Dolpheus, Kai, and I looked to Lila. “He said there was, but he designed the transport machine, I didn’t. He told me I’d be able to help him fix it once we found the parts, but that he didn’t have the parts to repair it on hand.”
“Okay,” Yudelle said, “so it’s fixable, that’s good.”
“Aye,” Lila said, “although the only person that knows how to fix it hasn’t woken up, so how good that is might be a bit debatable.”
“You don’t think I’ve been stranded on this planet all this time without setting myself up with some options, do you?”
“Does that mean you can fix the stabilizer function?”
“I’d imagine so given that one of my fancy titles here on Sand is aerospace engineer. But we may not have to fix anything.”
We all waited for the punch line.
“I have my own transport machine.”
Yudelle knew how to wow a crowd.
15
Everyone was in better spirits now that we were in action again. We didn’t have a firm plan, but at least we all had a role that would help us move toward the idea of traveling to O. Whether Jordan and I would travel with the rest of them still wasn’t clear, and I didn’t think Yudelle realized yet that Narcisse meant to leave with or without her.
Tanus was more like his usual self now that he and Dolpheus were preparing to head up the effort to reclaim the transport capsule. His hard edges were back, and once more he appeared the efficient, dangerous soldier.
Tanus and Dolpheus were to lead a team of Yudelle’s men out into the Sahara Desert. With the aid of Aletox’s wand, which Yudelle’s henchman retrieved, the hope was that they’d be able to find the vunter capsule by activating the beacon that had led Yudelle to find us in the first place. She had a device, tuned into the frequencies of the beacon, which she’d arrived at based on centuries of researching how wavelengths changed from one planet to another. It was all vague to me, but somehow Yudelle had managed to pinpoint the frequencies at which Aletox might try to communicate with her. This same frequency would pick up the beacon’s signal again. Assuming that the wand still worked, that Tanus or Dolpheus would be able to figure out how to activate it once they reached the capsule’s general location, and that the capsule would respond to the wand even in invisible mode.
The good news—and of that we needed all we could get—was that Yudelle had recorded the coordinates of the beacon, which meant the guys would have a very good idea of where to look, and that Lila was familiar with the general technology of Aletox’s wand. Between the two women’s explanations, a team of Yudelle’s henchmen, all armed to the teeth, and a couple of helicopters, Tanus and Dolpheus had a good chance of finding the capsule.
Already, they were preparing to ride out to a remote location, where they’d meet up with the choppers. Yudelle didn’t want to reveal the location of her underground lair prematurely, and for once, I agreed with her wholeheartedly. There was something reassuring about the underground bunker, so disconnected from the happenings beyond its walls.
Once Tanus, Dolpheus, and team located the transport machine, they’d mobilize trucks to retrieve it. I couldn’t imagine how that, along with the helicopters’ flight, would pass under the worldwide spy agencies’ radar, but Yudelle seemed confident they’d manage it.
I hoped it wasn’t a show of false confidence, because we needed things to go our way. We needed lots and lots of things to go precisely our way if we had any chance of saving the world—on the opposite side of the universe.
While Tanus and Dolpheus were leading the scouting expedition, Lila was to check out Yudelle’s space shuttle and determine if modifications needed to be made to prepare it for travel to O. Yudelle seemed confident it was ready. After so much time, during which she’d waited for the technology of Earth to catch up to that of Origins so she could build a device that would transport her back home, she had no idea how the atmosphere of O might have changed. For decades, she’d been waiting for some sign that it was safe to travel back.
That sign had arrived in spades.
Kai and Narcisse were to remain behind with Lila to assist her in examining and testing the shuttle. Even though Dolpheus was leaving, Lila seemed happy enough at the arrangement, and I remembered that I’d told her I’d teach her the ways of the sex goddess. I found myself wishing there’d be opportunity for such trivialities after I survived my own adventures with a true sex goddess.
Yudelle offered Jordan and me her private jet so we could settle our affairs—in case we decided to join the crazy train as it flung across space toward another planet. I hadn’t made up my mind definitively yet, and Tanus and I hadn’t had the chance to talk things through, but I figured settling my affairs couldn’t hurt, especially when I had so few to settle.
Once Jordan and I decided that we had little to lose by allowing ourselves the option of joining everyone when they left, the Princess announced she was coming too. I had the feeling she wanted to tag along because she figured the more she worked her moves on Jordan, the more likely it was that he’d do as she wished. Without a doubt, it was true. Jordan was strong, perhaps even as strong-willed as Tanus, but I could almost see him swaying under the Princess’ influence. Her gravitational pull was as significant as either of the two planets I was considering living on, and Jordan couldn’t break free of it. I didn’t think he even wanted to.
Yudelle, who was to stay behind to monitor Aletox and to answer any questions Lila might have, arranged everything for our departure. The woman seemed to have anticipated nearly every occurrence, no matter how bizarre. It didn’t seem as if it could get much more bizarre than this, and yet she’d responded to nearly every one of our needs in astonishing time.
Cars, not the ones we’d ridden in before, were waiting for us in the garage above with the engines running. The choppers were ready, the trucks to retrieve the vunter capsule on call, and the jet fueled and staffed.
“May you find the oasis,” Kai said to all of us.
“May you find the oasis,” Dolpheus replied.
I imagined that must be an Oer’s version of good luck. “See you later, Kai, Lila, Narcisse,” I said. “Good luck.”
A few more words were exchanged that wished for the best, with no way to guarantee it, before Kai and Narcisse followed Lila to another part of the bunker, one that had to be large enough to house a space shuttle. I marveled at what other secrets Yudelle’s lair might hold that I’d likely never discover.
“You guys better get moving too,” Yudelle said to t
he rest of us. “The cars and everything else are just waiting on you. The men are stocked for everything you’ll need.” She didn’t bother wishing us luck but returned to Aletox’s side.
The rest of us walked toward the elevator while I wondered how I was going to get Tanus to myself to figure out what I was going to do after I jetted around the Earth with my holographic replica and his.
The elevator was open and waiting for us as if Yudelle controlled even its timing down to the millisecond. The Princess was the first to go in, followed closely by Jordan. When Dolpheus stepped in, he told Tanus, “Why don’t you take the next one?” and I realized yet another reason why Dolpheus was Tanus’ best friend. His manipulations were as effective as Yudelle’s.
The elevator doors were already shutting on Dolpheus’ mischievous smile and the Princess’ flaring nostrils, revealing that she wanted to have her cake and eat it too, especially when that cake came in a handsome, muscular package. She seemed to want Jordan and Tanus.
Well, I might not be a princess, but hell no.
The second the doors closed, I forgot all about the Princess and how she filled out that dress. Even though the henchmen had done a decent job of dressing us all—a necessity when we’d stick out like aliens in the middle of Cairo’s conservative business sector—I intended on doing better. Much better, as well as the Princess at least. Just as soon as I could, I was going shopping.
Then Tanus kissed me, and inconsequential thoughts evaporated. In a nanosecond, he had me pressed against the wall next to the elevator, his lips on mine, his body, injuries and all, pressed against my chest, where my breath was already coming heavily.
His leg parted mine and I wrapped them around his hips, already wanting what I couldn’t have in the lobby of an underground lair.
His tongue twisted with mine, my hands wove into his hair, and all doubts of who I was and what I was meant to be faded into the love I wanted to share with this man.
His hands moved across my body, squeezing flesh beneath tight jeans, teasing beneath the hem of my tank top, making me want to tear it all off and throw caution, which I’d never had much of, into the elevator shaft.
His kiss deepened, and I pressed my hips against his, verifying he was as ready for me as I was for him.
I reached for the button on his jeans and he didn’t stop me.
I’d never done it in an underground lair before, and now seemed a fantastic time for that particular first.
His hands slid roughly beneath my bra. When his thumb flicked across a nipple I didn’t even bother suppressing a groan.
I was bursting with liquid heat, and I thought I might go crazy if I didn’t manage to get him inside me in the next few seconds.
When I reached my hand into his pants, he groaned, and that one deep, animalistic sound was enough to fully awaken my animal side. There was nothing that would stop me now.
I ripped my shirt off one-handed and tossed it to the floor while I unclasped my own jeans.
And then the elevator dinged open behind us. I went to take off his shirt anyway, but sobered at the sight of his bandaged torso, the pink that oozed and seeped from the wounds, far too fresh for something as rough and uncalculated as this.
I gave him one last, regretful squeeze and removed my hand from his pants. His mouth was on my nipple and it took real strength to step away from him. I scooped up my shirt and backed into the elevator, trying to convince myself it was the right thing to do, waging a war with my impulses, the ones that drove me toward him even then.
I didn’t always condone recklessness, but in situations like this, I certainly did. My eyes were on fire, and as he stepped into the elevator with me, he read them.
He pinned me to the back wall of the elevator, slid my bra up with his teeth, and picked up where he left off, the elevator closing behind us and propelling us upward as if on the whims of a god.
“Tanus, stop,” I said, breathless, halfheartedly trying to push him away.
“Why should I?” he asked, his tongue still on my breasts, driving away my sanity with every flick.
“Because you’re hurt.”
“I’ll heal.” He pushed his pelvis against me and I lost control.
My hands were on his shoulders, his lower back, inside his pants again. I’d never been much for rules or restraint. This was beyond what I was capable of denying.
“But we’ll be up with the others and they’ll see us.” I said it, but the truth was that I didn’t really care. “The Princess will see us fucking. Is that... smart?” Was I really talking us out of this? Who is the real me and where can I find her? The me I knew wouldn’t have given a rat’s ass if a princess were there to watch me getting it on with the man I loved.
And who obviously loved me.
But when I mentioned the Princess he stilled. Pressed against me, he brought his face to my neck and breathed, trying to calm down.
When I caught my breath and the floors continued to whoosh by, I asked, “Has she really given us permission to... love each other?” I hadn’t known if I could say the L word, but there was no other real way to describe what I felt for him that wasn’t the way of the chicken. I was a lot of things, but scared wasn’t one I was used to being.
When he finally settled his breathing, zipped and buttoned his pants, and pinned his eyes on me, I lost my breath all over again. “The Princess’ permission or not, it’s already been decided.”
I thought I understood but needed to know, without a single doubt. “What’s been decided?” I pulled my bra back down over my breasts and slipped my shirt over my head, pretending my heart wasn’t about to jump out of my body waiting for the answer, the one I was yearning for now more than I’d yearned to have him inside me just moments before.
Tanus didn’t dodge my question or the pounding of my heart. He pulled me into him in an embrace, my heart going crazy against the beating of his own. And that’s where I felt his answer before he voiced it. His heart was pounding as furiously as mine.
Against my neck, with hot breath that sent shivers down my body, he whispered, “We’ve been decided. You and me.”
I pushed him back to look in his eyes. I needed to see the truth of his words there. “You and me? You’re sure?” I asked.
“Absolutely. I love you in a way greater than I realized possible with the Princess. Just don’t ever tell her that.” He sounded gravely serious.
“I won’t.”
“You’ll consider coming back to Sand with me?”
What choice did I have? “I will,” I said, though I suspected I’d already made my decision.
“And once we arrive on Sand, I hope you’ll consider joining with me. I’ll ask you properly then. With the Princess’ permission and cooperation, it should go smoothly.”
I registered the should. Nothing ever seemed to go as planned for us, especially not when the Princess of Planet Origins was involved.
But I was willing to take on a princess to get what I wanted, and maybe, just maybe, the path for our love would be smooth one.
I’d wended my way up a mountain, beyond lighting and thunder, beyond the lake of one world, into the arms of this man. I couldn’t have planned it if I’d tried. If there was such a thing as a divine path, then this was where it had led me.
When the doors of the elevator dinged open, Tanus held my hand. A united front, we faced the Princess and Tanus’ holographic replica, smiled at Dolpheus, and stepped out to take on the world—together.
Bring it on.
16
Once the jet took off, I claimed exhaustion and headed off to one of the bedrooms aboard the plane. I did it to avoid dealing with the Princess while we crossed an ocean, and it looked like she wanted time alone with Jordan, anyway.
I wished I was claiming the bedroom along with Tanus, but when my head touched the mattress, exhaustion truly did claim me, and I slept until a flight attendant came to rouse me.
I buckled in for landing, facing Jordan and the Princess. “We’re
going to settle your business first, then Jordan’s,” she said.
I prepared to complain, I took orders from no one. But in the end, it didn’t matter which way we went about doing things. Either way, I was preparing to say farewell to a whole big planet and all the life on it. I didn’t answer her, but instead turned to look out the window, wondering how it could be that after so many arrivals in Chicago, this would be the last time.
Already things were unfamiliar. I knew the layout of O’Hare by memory, but we arrived at a different airport, one for private planes. I disembarked behind the Princess, trying to quell the unease that overcame me without greater explanation than I was resisting change.
I’d never feared change before. Quite the opposite, it fueled me. I enjoyed the different and unpredictable, the new and adventurous.
But things were different now. Since that moment I crawled over to peer into the pristine lake that reflected lightning, things were unable to be the way they’d been before.
I wasn’t even the same person I’d been when I left Earth. And now I was going to have to tell my parents.
I slid into the black town car with darkened windows next to the Princess, and she asked, “So we’re going to your parents’ house then?”
“I guess so,” I said, staring out the window, already feeling like a stranger in the city I’d grown up in, not caring to wonder how she figured out what I’d want to do.
“What’s your plan?” Jordan asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, are we going to wait in the car while you go in to say goodbye? What are you going to tell them?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“Are you going to tell them they’ll probably never see you again?”