They will kill you to get to me. We are not one. I cannot save you.
“What happened to the snake guy? You took care of him.”
He and the others returned to the Earth.
Did that mean it had killed them? Or that they’d run away? Fearing to ask for more details, Reva gasped when the hole slowly closed over. Grass instantly grew back in the spot as if the snake man’s appearance had been nothing but a brief nightmare.
Reva lifted her wrists and stared at her bracelets. “You’re scaring me,” she told the thing wrapped around her wrists.
Fear is an emotion that was programmed into humans to keep them safe. You are a sacred human, Reva Hunter. Flee to protect your life. I am calling for the Protectors but the Earth shields them from hearing me.
Reva thought about the life insurance money in the bank. She could run for a little while. She had retired from her job after Hank died. No one would miss her if she left town for an extended time. “Where are the others located? I’ll book our travel to get there. We’ll make it easy for them to find us.”
Human travel cannot access the location. When the Guardians next take a craft to the surface, they will then hear my distress call.
“What happens if the snake guys return before that?”
Once I am no longer on your person, perhaps those with ill intent will leave you alone. Those who crave power are very determined. This is a profound truth on every planet.
Reva ran both her hands through her hair and tugged in irritation. “So what are we going to do while we wait?”
We must find a place to hide.
Reva chewed her lip. “Got any suggestions?”
Caves can constrain the frequency. It is absorbed rather than emitted.
Reva rushed back into the house and grabbed her phone off the foyer table. She pushed a button as she lifted it to her lips. “Locate a cave you can spend the night in,” she told the automated assistant. Moments later, the answer rolled across the screen. “I found one. It’s in Arizona at the Grand Canyon Caverns.”
She opened an app and arranged for a taxi—no use taking her car and racking up parking costs at the airport.
In ancient times, an ocean covered that location. Is it a place of many caves now?
“Research says the canyons are full of caves. People aren’t allowed to explore enough to find them, though. When he was alive, my husband believed our government was hiding Egyptian treasures and other relics in some of them.”
In my time, a unique race lived beneath the waters there. They genetically altered humans to breathe underwater. Did that race survive?
Mer-people in the desert? Reva shook her head as she grabbed her suitcase again. “If they survived, they’re in hiding too. Our ride should be here any moment.”
Two strands of her necklace lifted and gently touched the sides of her face. She backed up to the foyer mirror to see what was happening. Each strand separated from the necklace and formed into an earring. She could feel a gentle pulse against her earlobes as golden drops formed.
I am now alert to future dangers. It has been a long time since I moved across the Earth.
Reva touched the earrings. She’d always favored posts over dangles, but these looked good. The artifact thing had good taste. “How long has it been?”
Eighteen thousand years by your Gregorian calendar.
Reva’s hands dropped from her ears as she stared at her reflection. She gently touched the necklace. “I can’t imagine what that must have been like for you. What did you do all that time?”
Watched and waited. It was what I programmed all the blades to do. The Destroyer Blade woke early to save its current host’s life. The pyramid his host was altering collapsed and trapped him inside.
“Pyramid?” Reva’s hand moved to her own heart. “How old is that blade’s host?”
He had been many ages. The collapse occurred during the time of the Ptolemy leaders. The reigning Pharaoh intended it to be used as a tomb. They left the host for dead, but the Destroyer Blade saved him. His host found help and a new life, but the Destroyer Blade has been alone for many years.
A taxi honked outside. Reva pulled the suitcase through her door and locked it behind her. She dragged it down her sidewalk and over to the trunk that the driver popped open for her. She stored her luggage herself. Chivalry might be dead, but at least she wasn’t. Running was bad, but she was sure dying at the hand of a snake guy would have been worse.
Reva slid into the backseat and took a moment to check out the driver’s credentials.
Atman Saranga is a father of six. He works two jobs. Transporting people is his secondary source of income. He is no threat.
Internally sighing at the data report, Reva managed a small smile for the driver. “Airport, please.”
“What airline, Miss?”
Delta flight 4067 from St Paul, Minnesota to Flagstaff, Arizona leaves at four. Two first-class seats are available. I reserved one of the premium seats with the information you used to return from Cambodia.
Startled to know her personal information was so readily available to the thing bossing her around, Reva cleared her throat. “Delta,” she told the driver, wondering how insane it was to be listening to a voice inside her head that wasn’t her own.
Reva didn’t know what the artifact had meant when she talked about them “not being one” yet, but she sure felt utterly taken over. Possession was now real for her. The proof gleamed beautifully around her throat and wrists as the taxi sped them through the quiet St. Paul neighborhood she’d called home all her life.
On the way, she opened an incognito browser—yet another thing she’d teased Hank about supporting—to book the cave room.
Reva hoped her funds held out long enough for the mysterious Protectors to come get the bossy metal off her.
5
Lake looked around the shuttle bay. He’d never been down here by himself before, but Gina had said to meet her here. When he didn’t see her waiting for him, he wandered over to where a sizable Lyran airship hovered two feet above a metal plate. He reached his hand out to see if he could feel what was between the two objects.
“Do not put your hand in there. The craft will drop if the magnetic field gets disrupted.”
Grinning like the kid she probably thought he was, Lake turned to face the bossy speaker and lost his breath. Gina was wearing a red jumpsuit that hugged every curve she had. Her eyelids were smoky and highlighted with gold. Her slightly slanted eyes were also lined delicately to emphasis her exoticness further. The cat-eye design suited the eyes her Lyran cat mother had donated to her genetics.
“Wow, if that’s what Lyran women consider date wear, I highly approve,” Lake said, letting his eyes roam over her. “You look beautiful.”
Gina dipped her head to inspect herself. “Thank you. I had to use my mother’s stylist to achieve this feminine look. I’m not well practiced in the art of being alluring to males.”
Lake grinned wider. “So you’ve not dated much in your long life?”
Gina lifted a shoulder. “I have had my share of social engagements, but I did not care about what the males thought of the way I looked.”
“Then why did you go to all this trouble for me?” he asked.
Gina blew out a breath. “I do not know how to respond to that except with a directness that would no doubt offend you.”
“Answer anyway,” Lake ordered.
“Very well. I am not used to letting any male be more assertive than me. I am trying to make an exception with you since you are a textbook human male whose ego seems to require I hold back my interest until you have made the first move.”
Lake blinked. “So you dressed up to make sure I stayed interested in having a social engagement with you?”
“Yes. Does the truth of my appearance offend you?” Gina asked.
Lake chuckled. “Yes—to my complete surprise. I’d prefer you were interested in a social engagement because you liked me.”
/> “I do not dislike you. I merely struggle to see what we have in common besides…” Gina paused to search his gaze for discomfort.
“Just say it, Gina. You may upset me or offend me or hurt my ego. None of that will change the chances of us having a social engagement or two or three or even a hundred. Maybe even a thousand—who knows?”
Gina laughed at Lake’s exaggerations. “I hope not all at once,” she replied.
“Bloody hell… you actually laughed and joked back,” Lake said in surprise.
“I find it very amusing that you think so highly of yourself. Is no one allowed to be humorous but you?”
“Says the princess who wants to control everything…”
Shrugging off the accuracy of his comment, Gina walked to stand in front of him. Lake stared down into her sparkling eyes and wondered why he was so obsessed with her.
When he lifted a hand to touch the side of her face, Gina made a soft trilling sound in response to his touch. She was way more cat than she appeared to be, which was okay with him because all he wanted to do was make her purr like that over and over.
“What are we doing in the aircraft bay?” he asked roughly before he caved in to his urges to forget everything except getting them horizontal.
Gina reached a hand up to pull Lake’s hand down into her grasp. “I thought we might go out instead of staying in.”
“Out? Like out—out?” Lake lifted his free hand and pointed to the giant metal pinwheel that opened to let the aircraft leave the hangar.
“Yes. There is a place I know where we can share a meal and perhaps forget our life here for a short while.” She pulled the necklace she was wearing off and reached up to drape it over Lake’s head. “This will emit a frequency that scrambles your own. Hopefully, people trying to capture you won’t interrupt us. Where we are going, the people think I’m a medical pilot. They treat me with great respect, so I go there to escape my work. I’ve never taken company before, but I’m sure they will treat you well.”
Lake let her lead him when she tugged on his hand. “So this is like a night off for you? I thought you loved your work.”
“I do love my work, but the human part of my brain requires that I occasionally leave it to recharge. I believe that is why my father reads so much. I do not find his sort of reading to be relaxing. Reading is too much a part of my work for me to view it as entertainment.”
“I get that. I’m not much of a reader either.” Lake squeezed her fingers with his. “I notice you don’t have any TV here.”
“No—such pretense is mind-numbing and kills brain cells. Lyrans find watching real human drama to be more entertaining. Sugar and Axel’s relationship has kept everyone in the palace buzzing since he brought her here.”
Lake grinned as they entered her ship. He recognized it now. “I’ve never watched TV much. My parents didn’t approve of it, so I got used to ignoring it. All I miss is watching sports. I can’t explain what it does for me but watching sports events relaxes me.”
“I can set up a portable com for you to pick up any sports event in the world—or the recording of one. It would be a simple matter. Would it help you be less bored?”
Lake chuckled. “Yes. Absolutely.”
She led him to the co-pilot’s chair. “Then I will do that for you. Fasten yourself in.”
He grinned at the order. “Do you ever say please?”
“Sometimes. I do not say it often,” Gina said, taking the pilot’s seat. She looked at a laughing Lake. “We’ve had this discussion before. Must we repeat all our debates?”
“What we had doesn’t count as a full discussion. I made a snarky comment or two. You responded with a defense of your behavior. I recall one of us pointed out your royal background.” Lake shrugged. “I forget the rest. One thing I notice is that you and your family are formal, but not polite. You have a protocol. I bet that drives Sugar crazy. She’s from the South. Manners are like breathing to her.”
“My brother seems to offend his mate often. Perhaps our rules for communication with full humans require some updating,” Gina said as the airship lifted. She listened for the landing gear to tuck under the craft and then engaged the drive. “I will endeavor to be more polite in our exchanges if you think it would reduce future misunderstandings.”
Lake leaned toward her as far as the flight harness would allow. He grinned as he stared into her beautiful eyes. “Are you some sort of clone? I don’t think Gina of Rodu would make such a concession. I’m still in shock from getting that apology earlier.”
“That was not an apology, Lake Allen Wright, Savior of Rodu. That was an explanation to clear up one specific misunderstanding, which was more about your ego than my comments.”
Lake chuckled. “Oh, there you are.” He leaned back in his seat and waved his hand. “I’m ready to go now that I know it’s really you.”
“Humor?” Gina asked.
“Sarcasm—the best kind of humor,” Lake said firmly.
Gina pushed a button on the craft’s control panel. Lake watched as twenty metal blades folded out of the way to reveal the large exit shaft. He could see a tiny amount of light somewhere ahead of them as the craft entered it.
“Am I allowed to know where we are?” Lake asked.
“Why wouldn’t you be?” Gina asked in confusion.
“Sugar doesn’t know where we are.”
“That’s between her and Mother. I can tell you, but you can’t tell Sugar until Mother allows it. Telling her would dishonor our queen’s decision to keep Sugar from finding out.”
Lake burst out laughing. Lyrans might not have much of a sense of humor, but they were funny in their thinking. “Why doesn’t Queen Nyomi want Sugar to know our location?”
“Sugar is not…” Gina closed her mouth and thought carefully about how she could explain it. “Sugar’s mind still reels from finding out that Earth has always had alien guardians. All primitive planets do. It is the way of those more advanced to safeguard new creatures. Sugar does not think of humans as…”
“New?” Lake suggested, his mouth quirking at one corner. How primitive did Lyrans consider the people of Earth?
Gina shrugged both shoulders. “Our understanding is based on how long humans have existed compared to beings on other planets in our universe.”
Lake nodded. “That is hard on my human ego to hear, but I’m glad you’re here to guard Sugar and me. Those of us hosting sentient blades seem safer with Lyrans hiding us.”
“You are welcome, Lake Allen Wright.” Gina let her mouth lift in a small smile. “We have managed not to fight for a whole three minutes.”
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Lake replied, looking outside the craft as it shot free of the tunnel. There was nothing but white for as far as he could see. “Looks like we’re still on Earth.”
“Yes. You are correct,” Gina said with a nod. “We live on the continent of Antarctica. Queen Nyomi’s kingdom is five miles beneath the ice at the pole. Only a few humans have found us over the years.”
“You’re talking about people like Admiral Byrd.”
“Yes. We chased him and his military away. Mother attempted to explain our purpose on Earth to him. When he would not accept that Lyrans posed no threat, Axel made sure his story was discredited. We created a cover story about Lyrans being Germans who’d come here during one of your wars.”
“That’s fascinating,” Lake said. He strained against the seat harness and called out in alarm when his chest expanded rapidly. He put a hand to where his heart still beat. “Chest hurts,” he whispered. “Blade is coming forward.”
“Why now?” Gina’s alarmed gaze turned Lake’s way. “Hang on. We’re going home to Sugar and Father. They’ll know what to do,” she said, banking the craft to turn it around.
Lake’s hand reached out until his fingers touched her arm. Only it wasn’t Lake’s touch. It was the stranger inside him. “Hold your course, Gina of Rodu. We are picking up a distress call. Time is needed to receive the m
essage and determine its origin.”
“Protector Lake,” Gina said with a frown.
“Yes. I have come forward to retrieve the message. His mind feels too much pain to interpret blade communication on his own.”
Gina narrowed her gaze and glared. “Fine. I’ll fly a short pattern. You have fifteen minutes to do what you have to do. After that, we are returning to the others.”
“You seem angry. Host Lake was not angry at my need to come forward.”
Gina grunted. “Yes. I am angry. You ruined our date.”
“How? I kept silent to let Host Lake have time with you. He wished to communicate without my help. I apologize for the disruption. Hearing from the Creator was unexpected.”
Gina nodded tightly. “I do not need your apology. What kind of message are you receiving?”
“The Creator is now awake. Potential host has declined to merge. We need a new resting place for the sentient blade to keep it safe from those seeking it. An attack on the life of the potential host has already been made.”
Frowning, Gina nodded. “We will contact the hosts of the other blades to let them know we need to see them. Can you respond to the Creator blade and tell it what we intend to do?”
“Are you not willing to go with me to retrieve the Creator blade?”
Gina’s head turned as she glared at the entity. “No. I am not dressed nor prepared for any confrontation. I also refuse to let you use Lake’s body to attempt a rescue alone. Once you are reunited with my father and Sugar, the three of you can collectively decide what to do to help the fourth blade. If I am needed as a pilot for your mission, I will take you then.”
“Host Lake and I are one.”
“Which I still do not approve of,” Gina said. “I dislike when you take over Lake’s body without warning. How long will that continue?”
“I intrude on my host only to spare him pain when I must do the job they created me to do. He remains aware.”
“But he is not here. Your energy is not his. I will always know the difference,” Gina said firmly.
“We accept your compromise about returning to the others.”
Dad Panther (Alien Guardians of Earth Book 3) Page 4