by Jade Waltz
Confused, I stepped away, my back hitting his coiled tail once again.
Why wasn’t my translator working? It was a newer model.
Eyeing him carefully, I reached behind my ear and winced in pain when my fingertips graced a raw wound where my translator should’ve been. “What did you do to me?”
He shook his head. “Ixxaka zzisk tssu.” He sounded apologetic. His amber slitted eyes softened in a way I had never seen Kaede’s neon ones do.
Instead of continuing to stand here and attempt to make something out of a failed conversation with this scaled male, I needed to figure out where I was and how I could return home. There had to be a reason he was trapping me here within his wall of scales, preventing me from leaving the confines of this room.
I would do whatever was necessary to escape. My sudden lack of a communicator and weakened state wasn’t ideal, but I couldn’t stay here. Not when my clanmates’ lives were on the line.
My life was no longer just mine, and I couldn’t allow anyone to control me any longer.
“Look, it’s been nice. Thank you for”—I glanced around his coil wall once more, trying to find the best way to exit this scaled prison—“allowing me to sleep here, but it’s time for me to go.” Frantically, I traced the layers and discovered the easiest path to climb. “And find someone who can understand me.”
Turning around, I gripped the middle layer and climbed. My muscles burned from the unexpected exertion as I forced them to pull me off the ground. Hissing in pain, I reached for the top, arms shaking. Digging one foot into the wall, I used the boost to push up and swing my leg over the top of the coil wall.
I sat on the crimson scales with one leg hanging on either side and scanned the room for a way out.
I cursed myself for mistaking this body for my nestmates. How could I be so foolish? The scales felt nothing like the ones I loved. Was I so delusional from the drugs they had injected me with to make such a grave mistake?
I wondered why he had placed me here. The room was too clean to be a prison and the lack of medical equipment meant this wasn’t an infirmary. The room was bare of any personal belongings other than the cushioned bed that the naga-like alien male was lying on.
This must be a guest bedroom of some sort.
Wherever I was, I didn’t want to remain trapped with him.
Swinging my other leg over, I sucked in a deep breath as I summoned the courage to leap to the floor. On any other day, I wouldn’t have hesitated, but my body felt strained and I wouldn’t be able to do much more acrobats in my weakened state.
Sending a prayer to the Stars, I jumped, stumbling when I hit the floor hard. Hissing from the painful shock that rattled my bones, I pushed the soreness away and dashed toward the door.
I was better than this. When had I become so soft? Ignoring simple aches should be easy considering what both my Yaarkins masters and the Trr’kiki kidnappers had done to me.
“Ixxaka yuisst twtskk.”
Ignoring my captor’s shout, I reached for the door and slammed my hand on the scanner.
It blinked red.
Growling in frustration at my terrible luck, I smacked my hand onto the scanner again—and again.
“Why won’t you work?”
Suddenly, something snaked around my torso and yanked me backward, flipping me upside down. I screamed as I clawed at the naga-like tail, failing to break free.
The Kaede look-alike pulled me closer until I was hanging face to face with him. Pursing his lips, he shook his head as his fiery eyes dimmed with sadness.
“What do you want from me?” I hissed, struggling against my restraints. “Why can’t you just let me go?”
Something shiny glistened in my peripheral vision. Snapping my head toward the glint, I opened my mouth to protest too late. He pressed a medgun to my shoulder.
“Wait!” A sharp prick burned my skin. Growling, I glared at the male. “What was that for?”
A sad smile was his only reply. I could sense my body numbing. The ishing frax had injected me with mind-numbing drugs—once again.
Why did everyone want something from me?
I jerked toward him, trying to take a bite out of his neck, hoping for a chance to inject him with my venom. My sluggish movements were too predictable, allowing him to easily dodge my repeated attempts.
Slowly, my body stuttered to a halt as I lost the energy to move any longer. Closing my heavy eyelids, the last image I saw was the concerned male, who looked eerily like the security guard I wished he were, frowning back at me.
Chapter Two
Kaede
It had been almost a month since Selena’s kidnapping, and every day that had passed without finding her was another reminder of how badly he had failed.
No matter where he looked, her face haunted him. Even his dreams couldn’t protect him. Whenever he closed his eyes, all he could see was her expression the last time he had been with her.
Videos of Selena in her best moments played on the hundreds of displays around him. Watching them as he leaned back in his commander’s chair had become a daily occurrence. All he could do was to try to fill his last memories of her with times when she was happy to replace the nightmare that replayed in his mind.
The layers of her laughter filled the room, echoing off the walls and creating a symphony of joy around him. Closing his eyes, he could almost lose himself in her delightful song.
Now he understood how Odelm found beauty in music.
Kaede had often wondered why the purple male would sit on the edge of the villa’s private wing’s pool and play his shelled ocarina. One time, as the musician floated on his back with his eyes closed in the sanctuary’s pond, Kaede had stopped by on his way to the garage to ask the male what he was doing. The gentle Ulax hadn’t even opened his eyes when he’d smiled and replied, Music is always around us, but everyone is too busy to stop and listen these days. Maybe you should try it sometime. You will be amazed at what you’re missing.
Why not try it right now? There wasn’t anything else pressing to do other than spiraling farther into depression and self-doubt as he searched for his star—the center of their constellation.
The ship was in capable hands. No hint of danger showed on the sensors, both on the star map and the mental signature one. He trusted his vessel’s systems would alert him if anything changed while he tried to relax and sense the direction they needed to go.
Selena was nearby, or at least, her kidnappers had stopped and the Abyss was heading directly toward them, shortening the distance between.
Whether it was her blood stored within his system or the will of the Stars showing him the way, if Kaede let go and allowed himself to feel, he knew he would be able to find her.
Or he would die trying.
“REI, you have command while I focus on my hunt. Let me know if anything changes.”
“Are you sure that is wise?” REI replied, coalescing in her ethereal form beside him. Her soprano voice was tinged with a concern he hadn’t known her kind was capable of. “Your behavior isn’t healthy, and it has been keeping your body’s stress levels elevated. I do wish that you would take better care of yourself and perhaps even call off this search.”
If he hadn’t built his Abyss from the ground up, observing every detail of its creation process, and installed his five core systems himself, he would question his success on this personal mission. Unfortunately for those who had captured Selena’s escape Cryopod, Kaede was willing to do anything to return her to where she belonged: in his arms and surrounded by their clan.
Even if that included sacrificing his body for another.
“I’ve faced worse forms of torture.” He opened his eyes and glared at the teal-robed female in annoyance. “You may not be able to comprehend my reasoning. Even if I didn’t feel the way I did toward my master’s Nova, I would still be required to investigate any threat to the Aldawi Empire and determine whether I need to extinguish it.”
Five more ether
eal forms appeared, each robed and glowing a different color, each resembling whatever major system of his Abyss they controlled. After losing his title as leader of the Fab Five and being assigned the task of keeping Selena safe, Kaede had needed replacements that succeeded in the set-up he was accustomed to.
Piloting a deadly vessel equipped with novel technology unparalleled throughout the galaxy would have been impossible alone.
This time, he had needed station workers who wouldn’t fight his decisions constantly and take jabs at him as the only male aboard the ship—even though he was now the only solid lifeform in a crew of energy beings.
Violet YUO of communications made sure Kaede didn’t need to figure out whatever poor souls were contacting the ship. YUO could do all the talking for him so he could focus on the bigger picture.
Crimson VYA was his weapons specialist and maintained security both within and beyond the Abyss. While Kaede was fully capable of blowing shit up with his fleet of drones aboard, having another being capable of causing serious damage with the same—if not better—accuracy was useful for their mission.
Sapphire EYN oversaw engineering and all operations of the vessel, which was work he just didn’t care about. He had never envied his sister, Aunya, her assigned position within the Fab Five. Out of all the tasks and responsibilities on a ship, supervising mundane—though important—matters like oxygen levels and waste management was as painful to Kaede as when Z used his aura on a room to make a point. He would rather be pinned to the ground, struggling to breathe, than deal with technical tasks.
Emerald LIU was the ship’s medical officer, fully capable of running a full infirmary by itself. Kaede wasn’t foolish. He didn’t have the skills to treat life-threatening injuries. If anything happened to the crew, he would just throw them in the Cryopod in a healing stasis, hoping that would suffice until he could reach a verified healer. LIU may not have had a physical form, but the robotic arms and levitation technology within the infirmary were all he needed. If anything, they had back-up plans to treat patients, but Kaede didn’t want to make medical decisions for anyone without their approval or knowledge. As it was, he would need to deal with the aftermath of what he had done to Selena whenever he found her.
Silver ZYU was his helmsman and in charge of navigation, which relieved Kaede of any need to enter the bridge the whole time he spent aboard his ship. Having someone else control the piloting meant he could handle other tasks that required his attention, like trying to sense what direction Selena lay in the universe.
“You know we are about to leave the Euph Galaxy,” ZYU announced, pointing to the vessel’s trajectory on the chart. “We don’t know what is out there. Is it wise to stay on course?”
“Our target lies outside the galaxy,” Kaede deadpanned, eyeing the silver-robed advisor. “Where else would we be going?”
“Back to Destima,” VYA replied, pointing at the moon on the star chart. “Or we can take out some of the Quaww ships that were illegally attacking us along the shared border.” Symbols marking where the most recent skirmishes occurred appeared on the real-time projection. “Wouldn’t our resources better serve the Aldawi Empire if we returned our focus to the front lines rather than chasing the absurd idea that we will somehow find this female you are so enamored with?”
“I would like to remind you that this female isn’t some lost soul,” Kaede snarled. “This is the last time I’ll go over this. When I offered you five the freedom to explore the universe, I explained that I would be in charge. I understand that the concepts of love and familial bonds may be foreign to you, but I know that loyalty and honor aren’t. Your moral compass doesn’t allow you to defy me, so you have been trying to convince me to change my mind because you don’t understand why this mission matters. I swore to serve my master, Sovereign Zirene Darcaw of the Aldawi Empire, and through my duty to him, I am bound to that female in more ways than one.
“She is the central star of my constellation. No matter how we crossed paths, our fates are forever entwined. Some ishing fraxes took her, not only from me but from her clan and her children. If that isn’t enough reason for you to stop questioning the lengths I will go to find her, then know this: If we don’t find her, the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance.
“The Aldawi Sovereign will slowly slip into darkness without his Nova, his light to balance him. With the recent change of power over the Aldawi Empire and the hostile developments with the Quaww, it is only a matter of time before he becomes irrational and declares war against them, thus breaking up the CEG for the first time since the initial Yaarkin invasion.”
“Are you saying that countless lives are on the line because of this Selena?” EYN waved to the collage of her best moments repeating on the multiple displays. “This female demi-human is the center of the galaxy’s problems, and once she is returned to Destima, everything will settle once again?”
“I refuse to give you a definite answer when it’s impossible to know what the Stars and Fates have written for us.” Kaede’s gaze landed on a recording of Selena sunbathing in a bikini while her nestmates played with their cubs in the sanctuary’s pond. Her dazzling smile was contagious as she watched her clan enjoying their time together. “She has sacrificed so much to give others a chance to be happy and live their lives. She deserves that opportunity too, without outside forces taking it away.”
“Kaede is right,” REI announced, stepping between him and the others. “I have seen her sacrifices in his memories and confirmed them in the same recordings all of you have seen. We have sworn ourselves to Kaede and must do what is best for his cause.” She peered over her shoulder, meeting his eyes. “Even if he tends to endanger himself for reasons we can’t comprehend.”
“If that is the price I pay to succeed, so be it, but we both know there is no way for me to stay safe.” He sighed, becoming aware of the heat returning to his veins. He licked his fangs, feeling the bloated weight of his Bahzyl sac threatening to overfill once again. He would need to drain it soon before it became even more uncomfortable. Now wasn’t the time to lapse into the mating cycle he’d been trying to delay all this time.
He feared what would happen once he found Selena. It would be foolish to believe he could keep prolonging the inevitable, especially since he needed to drain his sacs and ease his arousal more frequently each time he did it.
Gripping his commander’s seat’s arms, he growled in annoyance at his body’s betrayal. He couldn’t afford to be aroused when he was busy searching for his target.
“There is one thing I need you to understand,” he announced, scanning the six ethereal forms. “Selena is it for me. All the troubles and sacrifices I’ve made to be assigned her bodyguard were in service of having a chance to be with her. The Fates have brought us together and the Stars have led me to her once, so they can do it again. This time, I have the six of you to help me.
“Just know: Once I get her back in my arms, I’ll make sure she will never leave my sight again.”
Chapter Three
Selena
The darkness faded into the familiar tropical paradise that I had grown to love—both in my dreamscape and in person.
Destima.
I leaned against my porch’s stone railing overlooking the island. The peaceful sound of lilac waves filled the air. A gentle breeze blew against my nightgown as I watched the stars above.
Only one thing was missing from the sky to make this real: Lunkai, the purple planet Destima orbited.
Frantically, I searched for signs of my nestmates’ doors, hoping that this wasn’t some sort of trick. Once again, I found nothing.
This was neither a dreamscape nor real life, so what was it?
“A psychic construct between symbiont and host.”
I stilled as ice coursed through my veins.
That voice. It was me—yet not exactly.
“You’re right. I am you.”
Spinning around, I followed the voice to find Zirene sitting in the pavil
ion, just how I had always remembered him, with his hands behind his head and legs crossed on the ottoman. But instead of his black-and-pewter striped fur, he was golden, his form ghostly like he had met me before in the dreamscape.
This wasn’t the male I had known all these years. He couldn’t be.
“Who are you?”
“I am whoever you want me to be.” The golden impostor opened his eyes and found mine. He didn’t have the amethyst eyes of my Shadow; instead, they appeared celestial, searching mine. “This is the body of the male who occupies most of your memories. If you want, I can change to someone else.”
“What are you talking about?”
Suddenly, there was a blinding flash. Gasping, I shielded my eyes. A moment later, a golden Xylo appeared right before me.
“I can be whatever form you are most comfortable with or want me to be. Whatever will make the transition easier for you.”
“Transition?” I spun around and searched the sky, trying to piece together what he was saying. There’s no way… “Is this what it is? Am I dead?”
“Almost.” The golden Xylo stepped beside me and leaned on the porch railing. “You almost died. If Kaede hadn’t introduced me to you, you would have. Now, we are inseparable.”
“Inseparable?” I shook my head, refusing to believe his words. “You aren’t making any sense. And I would appreciate it if you stopped using my mates’ forms to speak to me. You aren’t them,” I hissed, stepping away from the impostor. “Explain! Now!”
“I’m sorry that I am making this harder on you.” The golden Xylo sighed in my voice, making the conversation even eerier. “I am still trying to learn everything about you.” Another flash blinded me. In Xylo’s place, a golden Kaede appeared, with the same multicolor, speckled abyss eyes that froze me to the spot. “Is this better? I know you have a connection with him even though he isn’t your mate, so I hope it’s not as offensive.”