“I have always wondered why the citizens never asked why the light looked so much like us.” She placed her hand on her chest and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she was holding a brightly colored lavender stone in her hand that was veined with black.
“That came from you.”
“It did.” The stone matched her hair and skin color perfectly. “How could others on your planet not know?”
“In order to know, you had to be one of the few who loved what the planet stood for. You had to remember whence we came from. Each one of my people is a descendant of the faithful and carry within them the ability to produce the stones needed to keep our economy our world prosperous. Take care of them for me.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Life is messy.” Payton turned and watched as Cassic walked into the room. “Is she alright?”
“I did another exam and gave her a muscle relaxer to help her sleep. You’re right life is messy. That doesn’t mean we give up on it. Malic and I would be dead if we hadn’t fought back.”
“How do we fight for Leela? Her people are not warriors. By my count, we have one hundred fifty with us. Fifty of them are under the age of eighteen. Roughly thirty of them seem to be over the age of sixty-five. That leaves us seventy able bodies that know nothing about fighting. We have eight Hasians that includes the two of you. They’re not warriors either, although they have an advantage being trained by both the second and the third in command. I figure even if we employ guerilla warfare were dead in the water.”
“Guerilla warfare?”
“I’m not an expert, but in the movies, all the able body people get together and hide in the trees. They fight the intruders off when they come.”
“It could work.” Malic grabbed a tablet by the bed.
“Are you kidding me? Seventy people to possibly hundreds from a ship.”
“We can give her up when they come looking for her.”
Payton huffed and turned over in bed. After a few minutes, she rolled over again. “If that’s all we can do.”
“We have two choices, love, we either fight for her or give her up. How about you choose?”
“You know the answer.”
“Tomorrow, we start making a plan. We’ll get everyone who can fight to help us and find a place for everyone else to stay.”
“I’ll be fighting.” She folded her arms over her chest, waiting for them to protest.
“We can’t do this without you,” Cassic told her.
She stared at him, looking for the catch. After a while, she nodded her head. He was serious, and that’s all she needed to know.
“How many days do you think?”
“Two,” Malic told her.
“What?” She sat up in bed between them. “How do you know?”
“When you asked to have Leela examined, I started looking for possible ships coming our way. When Cassic was able to not only see the device but help me find the frequency, I increased the broadcast signal to find the receiver. They’ll be here in two days.”
“You’ll still be here.” She hated the whine that was in her voice, but she didn’t want to do this without them.
“We’re not leaving you.” Malic pulled her close. Cassic snuggled up behind her as their hands started to roam over her.
They began to kiss and caress her. Her eyes went half-mast as she touched them. She loved the way they felt under her hands. How long and lean their muscles were. What she loved more was the feelings inside of her. There was an acceptance of who she was. Neither of them tried to change her, even when she was trying to change herself. They found happiness with the earth reject. A strangled chuckle came out.
“You’re laughing?” Malic nipped at her ear.
“I thought if you heard me call myself an earth reject, you wouldn’t like it.”
Cassic growled at her. “That ball of blue lost the best thing it ever had.”
“I agree, make love to me.”
They came together fast. Cassic sank deep within her. Her mouth opened; she worked to swallow her cries of pleasure. Cassic’s eyes flew open as Malic sank into him.
This was heaven. Payton held on tight, trying to enjoy every thrust and groan. She loved the feeling of Cassic deep within her and then Malic driving him just a bit deeper when he slammed into his ass. She quivered as Cassic hit her spot. The one that made her see colors as sound and sound as flavors that she’d never tasted before. A ragged plea for more left her lips as she worked on moving her hips just enough for the thick head of Cassic cock to pound into her. Her nerves fired as small little quakes went through her body. She clung onto sanity, wanting to enjoy the feeling and the combined presence of her males loving her.
Malic adjusted himself until her hand was between her legs, playing with her pussy as well as Cassic’s cock. She wasn’t going to last. When Cassic gave her that look, the one he perfected when making love to her, she knew. His hips picked up speed like he was a drill going for the gold. The imaginary chain she saw holding them together flashed colors before she lost all sense of anything except the pleasure swamping her. She screamed her release, not caring who heard her. Two male voices followed her over the edge of the waterfall into the rushing waters below. Tossed and thrown onto the shoreline, but nothing touched her except the pleasure of making love to her males.
She sighed, contentedly, when someone washed her so she wouldn’t stick to the bed in the morning. With more contentment than she believed one person could have, she went to sleep.
Leela gingerly made her way into the kitchen the next morning. Payton's head was down as a flush worked its way from her neck to her forehead.
“I’m hoping this is the source of the food I smell.” She sat in her chair from last night, trying to turn to keep from hurting too much.
“It will be done soon. How was your night?” Malic asked her.
“At first, it was a little loud. Then I discovered there was a program built into the room that recreated the sounds of different planets. There was one in there for Casillian. It was like being home again.” Her voice was soft when she said it.
Payton turned to look at Malic. The jewels around his eyes glowed. She sent him a silent thank you. He always thought about her. They thought about her and what they could do on any given day to make her life better. This was part of love that she didn’t know existed before they came into her life.
“What are we going to do if my enemies come?” Leela’s words broke the happy bubble Payton was floating in.
“We fight,” Malic told her.
She nodded her head. “The stones are important.”
“No, they aren’t. You’re important. We fight for you and your people who are now our people,” Cassic told her.
A tear slid down her face. Payton moved around her until Leela was in her arms.
“We love you, baby girl.” Leela sniffed and buried her head in Payton’s chest.
“Enough crying, you need to eat, and then another exam. After that, Malic has a plan.”
Leela sat up and wiped her eyes. “I’m ready.”
Payton kissed her cheek before she helped get breakfast on the table.
Malic looked around at his seventy able-bodied warriors. The children and the older adults that weren’t capable of fighting were taken to a cave they found that offered protection both from the air and from ground entry. They also decided to store supplies there to keep them dry when the rainy season came.
“On earth,” he raised his voice to get their attention. “That’s the planet Payton comes from. They fight a lot. Their people have learned to hide in the trees and fight that way. That’s what we are going to do. I’ll be assigning stations, and we’ll be using anything that can act as a weapon. Your people want Leela. I know what your bodies are capable of, and I don’t care. If you never share that gift again, I wouldn’t blame you. Let’s do our best to protect that one person who matters to us.”
“Why?” an older Cassillian stepped out of the g
roup. She was different from the others with her blue hair so dark it looked black. When she stood still, there was no telling her apart from the night. “Why do you want to protect Leela? Why should we believe you?”
“Do you know what a cryo pod is?”
“I do.”
“I was on one for seven years, maybe more. In that time, I was alone. My mate was in a different pod I didn’t know if he was alive or dead. Some would say, of course, I didn’t. They would have you believe that you’re asleep when in the pod. Allow me to correct that assumption. My body may have slept, but my mind was awake. Seven years of silence. You either learn to fill it or allow it to fill you. I did many things in that time. I taught myself a new science that dealt with AI and computer programming. I learned the world was not as black and white as those in charge would have me believe. I learned that love came in different forms. It was only the fool who decided he could not love unless it looked like him. The minute I understood love didn’t have to be blue, was the minute I began to grow.”
“Make sure you save him and his mates, we’ll need them.” The woman turned and walked away, fussing underneath her breath. Payton’s bird sat on a tall tree branch, staring at Malic.
“You scare me, all of you scare me,” he shouted after the woman before gathering everyone together to assign weapons.
They spent the day learning the weapons. There were a few casillians that were natural warriors. The Hasians were ready to fight something, and since each of them found themselves liking the tiny teen as they thought of her, they were willing to fight for her.
They moved the site of the fight away from camp. Leela destroyed her tracker, but Malic had the frequency allowing him to set up a temporary campsite away from the others. They each helped to donate items to the site to make it look authentic. Each item would honor her station while convincing them she was like those hunting her. They would also have an advanced warning if the enemy were able to infiltrate without setting off the alarms Malic placed around the planet.
“Tomorrow, we fight.” Malic gathered them together. “We don’t know what will happen, but we do know we are a family.”
“We are a family that I am willing to die for.” Leela left the tent where Cassic was giving her last injection to counter the effects of the tracker. “Tomorrow, as you fight to save me, save yourselves. No one person, male or female, can come between us and who we are as a people. If I don’t make this journey with you, keep fighting. I’ll be at the finish line whether you can see me or not. This is our new planet, and we will defend it. We are no longer Casillians. I renounce our citizenship. We are new; we are independent. Together when this is over, we will find a name that will honor all of us. We will win!” Leela screamed as she raised her arms. Her people joined in with a war cry that rocked the planet.
The woman walked up to Malic and Cassic as they watched everyone disburse. “We will win for the children.”
They both turned to look at her. There was a fire in her eyes they had never seen before.
“For the children,” Malic repeated. When he followed her line of sight, the only child he saw was Leela. When he looked back, the female was gone like she’d never been there before.
“Cassic,” Malic whispered. “I’m starting to worry. Who or what was that female?”
“I’m with you. According to my scanner, she wasn’t there.”
Chapter Twenty
They came in the middle of the night. Of course, they did. She half expected them to be wearing military-grade infra-red googles. They weren’t. That put her at a disadvantage when she realized everyone except her could see in the dark.
She followed along hastily, trying to keep the low lights in her line of vision.
“Over here.” A hand she couldn’t see took hers, leading her to the tree she was waiting to defend. Leela was one tree over. She couldn’t see her, but she could feel her. It was the same with the others. She couldn’t see them, but she could feel them. There was some excitement. It wasn’t because a war was preferred; it was the excitement of doing something you weren’t used to. It reminded her of that sickly feeling she would feel inside when she was going to stand up for herself no matter what happened.
Except, this time, she was almost sure they were going to die. Not today, she reminded herself of Branny, and the other children who needed a teacher. They were helping her learn like she was helping them. Still, it was a job she was beginning to love. When the space around her lit up, her head jerked up, looking for the ship that was powerful enough to turn night into day.
There was a glimpse of one as several smaller ships separated from it headed for the ground. They only had one weapon big enough to stop those ships. It blasted out through the night, taking down two of them before the ship in orbit targeted it. It blew up lighting a fire she was sure could be seen hundreds of miles away.
The quietness in the jungle was enough to rake its fingers down her back. The animal life wasn’t dangerous, but they did love their nighttime noises. Now there was none of that, as if the animals were holding their breath too.
When the ships opened bodies poured out with weapons. Payton lifted hers, targeting the intruders there to kill them. There were shots and screams all around them as people began to crash into battle. Malic was up leading a group of fighters while Leela commanded another group. Cassic was already helping some who were hit in the beginning.
Payton was going crazy as the buzzing in her head went wild. She moved, knowing she was supposed to stay still. She couldn’t help it; she needed to fight for her world too. Leela had to live through this. Her people needed her. In some strange ways, she felt their world needed her. With one last look at Leela, who was surrounded by her people, she took off.
She went to the ground crawling with her walking stick clutched in her hand. There was fighting happening around her, but she stayed on the fringes. Until she came close enough to see the lead ship. It was out in the open; there was no way she was going to crawl into that without being seen. She pulled on her walking stick to get up and came face to face with a weapon.
“What do we have here?”
“You’ve never seen a female before?” She probably needed to bite her lip, but after crawling through fighting, and avoiding getting stepped on like a worm. Then to stand up to find a weapon pointed at her, she was already over the intruders.
“Knock her out.”
The guard hit her with the weapon, knocking her unconscious.
“Well,” she woke up in a room with audio and visuals of the fight shown on the monitors. “There’s more than one way to make it on board.”
“There is indeed. Which makes me wonder why you were so desperate to get on board my ship.”
“I was wondering who felt they had the right and the might to take on my people?”
“I’m not interested in you or your people. I don’t care about the waste of space that followed the young princess to this planet in some remote part of the galaxy. I want the princess.” The monitor zoomed onto Leela as she fought in hand to hand combat with a solider much bigger than her and won.
“Are you planning to force her into marriage?” Payton took a step closer to him, looking for a weapon.
He turned, a surprised look on his face. “Why would I want to unite in this marriage you talk about?”
“It’s a bond between a male and a female, like a fated mate. That may be what you call them.”
He drew himself up to an impressive height. “Why would I want a dirty little girl?” There was a sneer on his face at the thought.
She almost wanted to laugh at the look on his face. Okay, maybe youth didn’t turn him on like it did with her ex. “You said you wanted her.”
“I do, dead.”
“Why? She’s not on the planet. It’s all yours, let her go.”
“As long as she is alive, there will be someone who will rise in her name. As long as she is alive, the people will believe their goddess will save them. I will no
t have it. There will be no goddess on my planet. The only one who will protect the people will be me. I will also be their demise if they choose to ignore me.”
“Goddesss are picky people. What will you do with the one that haunts your planet?”
“Kill her, of course.”
“And the people who are faithful to her?”
“If there are any left, they know to leave. It is a new day with a new king.”
“On earth, we always thought a new regime change would make things better. We fought more wars that our ignorance led us into than necessary.”
“Earth is where the pale people live?”
She threw back her head and laughed. “I guess compared to you and your people; we would be considered pale. Although, we do have a few that are as dark as you.”
They both turned to look at the monitor as the noise outside got louder. Leela was being held up by the throat in the hand of one of the guards.
“No,” Payton screamed as she launched herself at the male in the room with her. He backhanded her, sending her flying across the room into one of the bulkheads.
“Guards bring her.” He turned as they swiftly bowed for him before dragging Payton behind them.
Payton clutched her walking stick in her hand. Never had she wanted to throw it on the ground and watch it turn into a snake like Moses did in the Old Testament. For once in her life, she wanted the impossible to be possible. Maybe this goddess who watched over Leela and her people would come like Moses parting the Red Sea. Then again, maybe they were out of miracles. She looked up to see her bird flying around her head. He reminded her of Saturday morning cartoons. What a thing to think when you’re about to die.
The guard threw her down at the male’s feet. Payton clutched her stick, looking for a way to change what was happening. Cassic and Malic pressed to the front of the crowd, both nodding their heads at her in the universal ‘don’t you move a muscle’ scowl. Leela looked down, Payton could tell she was holding back a cry. Not for herself, but for Payton.
Payton's Surprise (The Perfect Match Book 2) Page 12