“You are reading my mind without permission.”
“Yes. That part of my programming which has manifested because Host Lake has a compatible mind. It is how I found your father. I read the minds of those who harmed him to find where they had put him.”
Gina frowned and forced herself to nod. “I am grateful for that intervention, but that does not erase my concerns about your reading my mind.”
“Understood,” he replied quietly.
Gina turned to her older brother. “You must stay here to protect the throne.”
Axel nodded in agreement. “Yes.”
Gina swallowed her concerns and lifted her chin. “Very well. I will take them where they need to go. When do we need to leave?”
Sugar glanced at Protector Lake whose energy was in the process of slowly retreating back inside Lake’s chest. “As soon as Lake is back to normal.”
“When will that be?” Gina asked, not looking at Lake.
“The sooner, the better,” Lake said from beside her. He tugged his shirt free which was still gripped in her hand. “Thanks for holding my shirt.”
Gina put a hand on his arm to stop him from dressing and turned Lake to face her. She glanced at the metal wrapped around his chest and then lifted her face to search his gaze. “Where were you while the being spoke with us? I wish to know.”
Lake stared into her worried eyes. Her worry had to mean she liked him a little. “Why do you care so much? I thought you were angry with me.”
Gina’s hand immediately left his arm. Lake reached out to grab it back. She instantly froze at his touch and Lake felt regret for causing more alarm than she was already feeling. He squeezed Gina’s cold fingers in apology and didn’t reveal his discovery to her curious family. Gina was far more upset than she was showing them. Why didn’t she want the people who loved her to know she was scared shitless?
Lake cleared his throat to shift the attention from Gina to him. “I don’t know where I was, but I got to listen to everything. Sugar said that was part of the process. I’m fine—or mostly fine. No harm was done. Promise.”
Gina nodded numbly and slipped away from Lake’s touch—the real Lake’s touch. It was intense, invasive, and there was nothing but demand in his fingertips. “The being was controlling your body, Lake. Why do you trust it?”
Lake pulled his shirt back on before answering. “That’s not easy to explain. Not trusting it would be like not trusting my arms to reach out or my legs to help me walk. That being is not just a foreign thing inside me—not anymore. The blade and I are merging in a way I can’t explain. It’s becoming part of me.”
Gina frowned. “And yet it remains the voice you argue with. You do not concede to its control all the time.”
Lake laughed. “That’s certainly true. We don’t often agree on what I think or how I communicate. But it saved your father’s life. It would be illogical to hate it for being part of me.”
Gina turned away. She did not agree, but to say it now would only cause more problems. “I go to prepare my airship. You and Sugar can meet me in the docking area in two hours.”
Gina needed to escape the throne room before the panic she was feeling grew any larger.
21
Axel slipped the clothes from her the moment they got to their quarters. He dragged her into the Lyran shower with him but directed the stream away. He lifted her up and joined their bodies in more of a claiming than anything Sugar would have called lovemaking.
With her legs around his waist and her back against the warm surface of the bathing area, she was braced comfortably for his thrusts. She soon went up and over, hissing and moaning her delight within the small space.
Axel didn’t let her come back down from that height until he’d gone over as well and emptied himself in her depths. Her body vibrated contentedly as her half-alien prince regally stood with her body impaled on his. His half-purr, half-growling kisses of gratitude were the sweetest music her ears had ever heard.
The artifact inside her had brought this extraordinary male into her life. For that, Sugar knew she would always be grateful.
“I love you,” Axel said firmly. “I love you beyond what is reasonable or logical. I am honored that you have chosen to live with me as my mate.”
Since it was the first time her bad panther had ever declared his appreciation of their relationship with such sincerity, Sugar wasn’t going to point out the angry tone of his declaration.
“I love you too,” she replied instead, giggling against his neck as he carefully lowered her feet to the cylinder floor.”
Axel sighed and turned the spray to where it would hit their bodies and then kissed her temple.
Sugar giggled again, this time against his chest. “You’re in a strangely nice mood.”
“I am acting with purpose.”
“I like the sound of that,” Sugar said as her fingers went exploring downward. She grinned when Axel flinched at the first stroke of her fingertips. His sensitivity was high after sex.
“As much I would like to continue, Gina will be expecting your promptness.”
Sugar removed her teasing fingers. “Is Caesar the only child of Rodu who knows how to relax?”
Axel sighed at the mention of his brother. None of the children of Rodu had remained unchanged. “Father’s injury seems to have inspired a new intensity in Caesar. I hear he trains with the elite guards now.”
“I think it was also the knife against his neck that inspired him. Your mother saved his life. If she hadn’t moved fast enough, your brother would be dead.”
Axel glared downwards, regretful that she’d stopped touching him. “But Caesar is not dead… and that is enough talking of my brother.”
“Sir, yes, sir,” Sugar said in answer to his bossiness.
“I wish to talk of us. I expect you to return to me, Sugar Jennings. But if you do not, I want you to know with absolute certainty that I care for you as I have never cared for any other. I have decided to consider that the same as your human concept of married love.”
“Which is why you told me while we were having sex,” Sugar concluded, running her hands over his chest.
“Yes. I hope I wasn’t too rough. I am still angry about your arrangement with your blade. I don’t want you to leave me.”
“And I don’t want to leave you, but…”
Sugar giggled when a stern-faced Axel put a finger firmly over her lips. It was a move she frequently made with him to shut him up. Her bad panther was learning. Maybe that wasn’t the good thing she’d hoped it would be.
“I love you, Sugar. Go in peace and return swiftly. That’s an order from your mate who will worry until you return.”
Sugar dragged his fingers away from her mouth and smiled. “Don’t get used to me saying this but I will gladly obey that order.”
“See that you do,” Axel whispered as his lips descended.
Sugar nearly melted into a puddle over the slow, sweet kiss Axel gave her.
Sugar put Lake in the passenger seat so he could be close to Gina. She was hoping that the two of them would reach some sort of peace agreement before they arrived at their destination. Her brilliant plan didn’t work out for two reasons.
First, sitting in the back of the airship meant she once again couldn’t look out of the window and try to see where she was.
Secondly, the tension between Gina and Lake grew larger as the silence went on and on. In the end, she was forced to talk just to fill in the awkward quiet.
“Rodu seems to be genuinely improving at last,” Sugar finally said.
“Yes. Marta reports that he is once again refusing to go into the regenerator even though it would be the fastest way to heal him. Father only goes in it when Mother insists.”
Sugar remembered Rodu calling it a death machine. She’d be avoiding that process for as long as possible as well. “How far from being healed is he?”
“Father’s health has always been hard to predict,” Gina said coldly. “Of
course, now we know why. A being who is not my father controls his body.”
Sugar hated to be the bearer of bad news. “Uh… Gina? I hate to mention the obvious, but that being was merged with your father long before you were born. It is possible that some of that being manifested in you and your siblings. I don’t know the intricacies of DNA inheritance among Lyrans, but I think it’s possible Rodu’s sentient blade could have passed some traits to you if it had wanted to.”
“That is an appalling thought,” Gina replied.
“Why?” Sugar asked, noting that Lake was listening intently despite his constant stare out of the front window.
“There are species within the alliance of planets Lyrans know who share their lives with living parasites which grow inside them. This shortens the host entity’s life—sometimes reducing it to a small fraction of its natural length. The parasite lives on and will have a chance to continue in another host. It is inherently selfish of the parasitic beings. I do not see how the blades are any different.”
Sugar thought about it before answering. “Your father’s lived a long time. His sentient blade has obviously accepted his efforts not to age.”
“Because Mother insists he be regenerated. I’m well over two hundred now. I’m seventy-five years from having to do it myself. It is an honor to be chosen for such a life extension. But to allow a parasite to take your real life and substitute their own? That is abhorrent to me because it values one being’s life over another.”
Lake turned angry eyes to Gina. “You didn’t have any ethical problems with Sugar before you found out the truth. I’m the one who’s changed your viewpoint. What you’re really saying is that I’m abhorrent to you.”
“No,” Gina said, glaring back. “The original Lake—the human Lake—is preferable to…”
“Protector Lake?” Sugar suggested.
“You are all under their influence—all of you—even my father,” Gina said sadly.
Sugar watched Gina touch a gadget on her wrist. When it beeped twice, she pressed a button on the dash.
“Prepare to debark if you intend to reach your destination,” Gina ordered as the craft slowed to a stop and then started its slow downward descent. Clouds diminished, and soon they were passing treetops.
“We’re here already?” Sugar asked in complete surprise. Lake seemed equally shocked. “That was fast.”
“You flew with my Father who has not accepted that airships can create their own internal gravity. My craft flew at a speed invisible to human eyes from the ground. You were not aware of our travel speed because inside the craft I kept the gravity set to your comfort level. Because of the artificial gravity, time passed differently inside the craft. This is why it feels like it’s only moments after we left.”
“Fascinating,” Sugar said as she felt landing gear set down.
22
Gina got up from the pilot’s seat, ignoring Lake’s startled gaze as she moved by him. She pulled two metal disks on cords from a jacket pocket. Then she pulled out two atomizers with labels on them. She handed a metal disk and an atomizer to Sugar.
“Use the spray on your clothing and then spray it on the material in center of the disk. Wear the disk while we are off the ship. You will need to reapply it hourly for it to continue to work.”
“What’s in it?” Sugar asked, sniffing the sprayer once she’d done as directed. “It smells like roses to me.”
“Yours is rose oil which has one of the highest known frequencies on Earth. It will hopefully confuse whatever devices they are using to track your normal frequency.”
Gina turned to glare at Lake and handed him the other disk and atomizer.
“From tests I ran while you were unconscious, I noticed your normal setting shows up to all radar on Earth as being in vibrational flux. Your spray is helichrysum oil. It also carries a high frequency. Use it generously and often to keep them from finding you.”
Sugar chuckled. “What about you? Do you have a spray?”
Gina lifted one shoulder. “No. I smell like a Lyran but vibrate as a human. That is a unique enough combination for me to hide fairly well among the population of those who live on your planet. They know I’m strange but don’t know why. Plus, I carry a portable cloaking device at all times.”
They exited the craft which was hidden in a grove of trees. Lake looked around. “I know where we are. This is the forest behind my father’s house.”
Gina nodded, lifted an arm, and pointed. “We must walk in that direction. The house is being watched. Pressing the back of the disk I gave you will produce a small personal shield around your body. It should cloak you long enough to get us all inside the house and back out.”
“Just how freaking smart are you?” Lake asked, lifting up his disk to inspect it.
“Your Earth measurements for intelligence are childlike when compared to Lyran measurements. I can’t give any credible answer to your query.”
Sugar laughed. “You’re starting to sound like Axel.”
“Thank you,” Gina said as they walked. “I consider being compared to the person destined to rule my mother’s people to be an honor.”
Lake dropped his disk down his shirt and rolled his eyes. He rolled them again as he and Sugar were forced to follow behind a stomping Gina.
He almost told her how cute her ass looked in the form-fitting leggings she wore. He would have also added that the long jacket didn’t hide her assets as well as she likely thought it did. Maybe it showed some maturity on his part that he was able to stifle the urge. He counted it as a win when his blade didn’t chastise him.
As they neared the house, Lake sighed and shook his head. He’d never in his entire life let a female get under his skin as much as Gina of Rodu had. And he didn’t for one minute think she was actually two hundred years old, especially not looking as good as she did. Lyrans must count time differently.
Lake winced when Sugar elbowed him and laughed.
“Stop with the condescension, Junior. I see it on your face. Gina’s just trying to help.”
Lake huffed. “I used to live here, you know. I could have led the way.”
“Want to deal with your unwanted visitors by yourself then?” Sugar asked, leaning to one side so Lake could see the vans and cars parked along his father’s circular driveway.
Lake?
Lake stopped walking. “I’m hearing you,” he answered.
Ask Gina of Rodu for her resonance tool.
Lake blew out a breath. “The blade wants me to ask you for your resonance tool.”
Gina stopped walking and looked at him. “It wants my what?”
“Resonance tool,” Lake said again. “I have no idea. Am I not saying it correctly?”
Gina glared. “I have no resonance tool. Wait…” She dug into a hidden jacket pocket. “My father gave this to me as a gift. It creates resonance.”
Lake’s face creased in disbelief. “It’s a whistle.”
Hold it in your palm, the blade ordered.
“May I hold it?” Lake asked reluctantly.
Gina shoved it toward him. “Do not damage it. I’ve had that since I was a child.”
Lake put the shiny, silver whistle in the center of his palm. He winced when blue strands erupted from his skin there and wrapped around the metal. The whistle vibrated under the strands of energy. The blue energy vibrated around the metal of the whistle.
He would have rolled his eyes at what the blade was doing, but it hurt like bloody hell. It took all the composure he had to keep that fact to himself. Two minutes later the blue strands disappeared once more into his palm. The whistle looked as normal as ever.
Sugar made a face as she peered over his shoulder. “Dude, your blade is very strange.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Lake grumbled as he closed his eyes. “Now what?” he demanded of the blade.
“How should I know what is next?” Gina answered sharply.
His eyes popped open. “I wasn’t talking to
you. I was talking to the blade” Lake shook his head when Gina glared and turned her back to him.
He closed his eyes and sent a message with his thoughts instead of speaking again. See what you did?
Gina of Rodu is having what many call an existential crisis. Much patience may be required. Estimation is high that she will not stay angry forever.
“So you say,” Lake muttered to himself as he watched the people milling about in front of his father’s house. Were more inside?
No. None are inside. Give the resonance tool back to Gina. Instruct her to use it as her father taught her to do.
Lake tapped Gina on the shoulder and earned a glare again. “Here—the blade said I should give this back. The blade also said for you to use it as Rodu taught you to.”
Gina held it between her thumb and finger. “If I use this, they will absolutely discover us. It turns breath into loud noise.”
Lake’s mouth twisted. The urge to be sarcastic was too strong to fight. “I know what a whistle does. I’m telling you what the blade said. Not being as innately intelligent as the great Gina of Rodu, I can’t explain what the blue energy did to change it, but you can bet it did something.”
Speaking in a friendlier manner will better accomplish what you hope to achieve. Irritation will further motivate Gina of Rodu to keep away from you.
Lake all but growled as his irritation climbed to a whole new level. “Shut up. and stop telling me what to do,” he ordered his blade. He glared at Gina who looked ready to take offense again. “Just blow the fucking whistle and see what happens. You and the blade are both driving me crazy.”
Gina glared at Lake for giving her orders but put it in her mouth. She blew it in the direction of the men outside the house. She heard nothing. The men guarding the house looked around in surprise and then flopped to the ground.
Gina blew again when the ones inside the vehicles popped out to see what was happening. They fell across their comrades—most while they were stooped to check the life signs of those already on the ground.
Mad Panther (Alien Guardians of Earth Book 2) Page 14