The main camp was slowly shifting from tents into permanent buildings of synthetic metal provided by the Rijiteran fabrication machines given to us by Anu. It looked like a proper military compound now, complete with turret rail guns mounted on the new black wall surrounding the camp.
With the Rijiteran orbital station halfway complete, it was time for us to go. Rema had received the official invitation by the royal family, or whatever the alien equivalent was, and our shuttle was being prepped while I sat here being accused of arson. Or maybe it was murder by arson. Was it arson or murder when you set someone on fire?Allegedly.
Jack would be so proud of what all we’d accomplished in such a short time. She’d only been gone two weeks, but I felt her absence keenly. I missed her, and no matter how many spies I set on fire,allegedly, it didn’t help assuage the hole her being gone left in our family.
Hot, dirty sex with one four-armed, winged elf alien would probably make me feel much better, but Rema’s people did a whole ceremony before the consummation of a relationship. It had to have some kind of official to sign off on the whole thing, and was more about consent than anything to do with religion or societal norms. They wanted to be sure both parties were fully on board with any sex acts taking place and was actually a law, and Rema was such a boy scout about laws. He’d laughed nervously when I’d said laws were more like guidelines to me.
They took consent very, very seriously on Tuanov. Which was all well and good, but I was getting impatient to leave. The taste of Rema’s scent was starting to drive me insane, a weird heat starting to settle into my body with alarming intensity the longer we went without having sex.
I’d questioned Anu about it, but she hadn’t known, and I’d had blood drawn to test for further information. She thought what was happening was an actual heat… like an animal. Or a really, really horny plant, as the DNA Anu had used to splice with mine to save me from the Red Plague had been mostly plant monster. I was literally flowering now when Rema was around, little white flowers blooming over all my skin and in my hair. They released the pheromones of my arousal into the air like a calling beacon, and Rema’s usual calm demeanor was starting to turn a little feral.
“Have any of us received news from Aga?”
My attention snapped back to the conversation around the table, my heart doing a hard little drop.
“No. He will be outside of transmission range while he is in the pirate rings. The outer reaches are too many jumps away,” Izari said with a shake of her head. Her avian features were sad, which somehow only made her more beautiful. Izari was like a fairy creature, her blue feathers shimmery and soft looking. Even her beak was beautiful, the graceful way it curved into a sharp killing point both lethal and pretty. It was a darker blue than her indigo face feathers, with the feathers of her wings blending into a deeper shade of blue towards the ends of the larger flight feathers in a reverse ombre.
She shifted her large indigo eyes to me, her pupils widening just like a bird with her emotions. “You and Rema are free to leave now. We have everything under control. Keep in contact with us, please. The Unity is on the move again and we may need to get ahead of them.”
I tilted my head. “Do we need to bring crates of vaccines with us?”
Shuttles from Korsal had been flying out to all of the outer planets that would permit us into their orbit and dropping off vaccines to cut off the Unity’s Red Plague threat. No cheating inthis war. The Unity was going to have to fight down and dirty, just the way we liked it.
“No. We sent the vaccine ahead of you. They already have it,” Sam said, her smile kind. I did love that girl. She was proving to be quite the savvy leader, her genius brain finding solutions to problems well before anyone even saw the issue. Several elders and various diplomats that had landed on Korsal with their troops or supplies had started seeking Sam out whenever they needed something.
I’d watched her blossom from uncertainty to competence. It was pretty amazing and I wished Jack was here to gush over her with me. Callie will be so pissed she missed it. Anxiety swirled in my stomach thinking of our punchy pilot all alone in the universe somewhere. I’d stopped believing in God as a child, but holy shit was I praying my shriveled black heart out that Callie would make it back to us. I’d even sent some prayers to the Rijiteran Mother Goddess. Maybe she was more likely to hear me.
I pushed back my chair and stood, moving around the table to gather Sam up in a hug. “You be careful, okay? Call me if you need anything. I’ll come right back if need be.”
“I’ll be okay,” Sam said, hugging me back. “Aga tasked a group of his best to bodyguard duty before he left.” She stepped back, looking around the tent before leaning in to whisper, humor dancing in her eyes. “They never leave me alone! Apparently Aga threatened body dismemberment should anything happen to me and the guards are taking that very seriously.” She straightened and shook her head, laughing. “Lars, the boss of the group, wouldn’t let me open a can of wound sealant yesterday. He said cuts on fingers counted, and then actually shuddered. Aga’s threats must be really potent. I had to do a little threatening myself before they agreed to stay outside during our meeting.”
I nodded seriously, suppressing a smile at how adorably oblivious she was. I pulled away from Sam just enough to hold her at arm's length so I could take her in. She was taller than my five feet by a few inches, with a softer build than my lean frame. Her blonde curls had been cut even shorter, now a pixie cut that went wild when the curls weren’t contained under a cloth Sam had cut into a scarf to keep her hair out of the way while she worked. Wide, dark blue eyes held raw determination and a stubbornness that had started growing more set by the day.
Sam had lost weight in the months since we’d first been taken by the Vrax, even with all the food the Korsal’s insisted we eat. Her cheeks had gone from soft to sharp, and the strain around her eyes had aged her. Sam was always moving, always looking for something she could do or help with. She’d taken over organizing the healing tents, with the creepy pink Healers taking orders from the small human woman like she’d always been the boss. And now with being left to assist Izari with running the whole damn outfit, the stress was visibly weighing on her.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay on your own here?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
Sam’s eyes softened, a small smile touching her lips and she raised her hand to give my shoulder a gentle squeeze. “I’ll be fine. Izari is a tactical genius, and Amee keeps the masses in line. I’m really only handling the diplomatic side of things.”
A smile tugged at my lips. “That’s not what I meant. I mean areyougoing to be okay, not if the war effort is going to be okay.”
Sam’s soft smile turned to a wide grin. “Yes. I’m going to be okay. I promise. I’ve got Izari and Ghix to keep me company, plus Anu is always here,” she said, tapping a finger to her temple. She gave my shoulder a little shove. “Now go get your alien and have fun. Try not to scare his people away. We need all the help we can get, remember?”
“I’ll try. No promises though,” I said with a laugh, giving her one last hug before walking backwards out of the tent, keeping my crazy smile in place and shooting at her with my fingers. Sam’s eye roll and head shake was the last thing I saw before the tent's door closed with a soft thunk. The new metal blocky “tent” gave the command meeting place a very foreboding, intimidating look that I liked.
I was still walking backwards when my back hit a solid wall of male and four hands helped steady me when I stumbled. A grin formed on my face when I turned to look up at Rema. By all that was holy this male was beautiful. Painfully so. Tall, like seven feet tall, with chiseled features like some marble statue of an alien god. All hard muscles under the Rijiteran long-sleeved tunic and pants he was wearing. The black cloth complimented the pearl color of his skin.
When he smiled at me my stomach tried to turn to goo. His lips were so full it drew the eye to them over and over again, though the gold flecked silver of his eyes competed with his lips for my attention, the otherworldly quality of the color both strange and alluring. His black hair was pulled away from his face in a half braid today, the rest falling to his waist behind him like a dark haired Legolas.
Huge brown wings rose over his wide shoulders, their expanse mottled with lighter tan dots. Shaped in a cross between angel wings and some great bird of prey, they were soft to the touch. Something I’d discovered early on when the need to touch them had nearly overwhelmed me, and I’d reached out to stroke one of the large feathers. Rema’s twitch and shudder had clued me into the fact that his wings were very sensitive. His blush had solidified my theory.
That blush was tinting the pearly white of his cheeks a very light pink, and the longer I stared at him without speaking themore the pink spread, until the tips of his pointed ears were stained with it.
His eyes shifted to my temple, his nostrils flaring and the black of his pupils dilating to swallow the silver as one of his hands slowly rose up and plucked a white flower out of my hair. The pulling sensation of him removing a flower that grew out of me felt similar to plucking a hair from my head and I suppressed the flinch so he wouldn’t stop touching me.
“You’re flowering again, Patty,” Rema said hoarsely, holding the flower up for me to see.
I shivered a little at the sound of his voice, and then shivered harder at the taste of his desire coating my tongue. It was hot and sweet, like a pepper coated in honey. My mouth watered, and the urge to lick the thick column of his throat was so pressing that I had to lock my muscles into place to keep myself from jumping him.
