He remembered the calm, the rightness of waking up next to hisluxivathat morning.She’d slept soundly beside him throughout the night after she’d sought him out in the central hub.His Instinct had been at peace for that brief moment of time when he’d held her close, when he could feel the slow beat of her heart against his body.He hadn’t seen her much through the span, since he’d had his duties to attend to, but he’d made sure to return to her with hot meals whenever he had a break.
Rixavox felt guilt leaving her for so long without entertainment.But his home was devoid of pleasures that might distract her, since he was there so rarely.From the bazaar that morning, he’d bought her better coverings—fresh, soft tunics in luxurious colors, the smallest fur wrap he could find, and lined boots for her small feet, although they were too large for her—they’d had to stuff the toes with strips of excess furs.But he hadn’t thought to buy her other things that might keep her mind off the long span ahead.
He chided himself for his oversight throughout most of his duties.His mind wandered to Sessela every other moment until he found he couldn’t concentrate on his Ambassador duties.He was even seriously beginning to consider inviting Levrix to meet her, so that hisluxivawould have a companion throughout the span.
His female understood, of course.She didn’t blame him for his absence.When he’d finally returned to her right before the twin suns began their descent, he’d apologized profusely.She’d brushed aside his apology, saying that he had an outpost to look after, that his duties were more important than wasting the span away with her.
He’d frowned, silently disagreeing in his mind.All he’d wanted was to waste away the span with her.
Rixavox realized that she was so different from the females he’d known in the past.Hisluxivawas calm about almost everything.She was selfless, putting his duties above her own needs.She was mentally strong.He knew that those traits were ones forged from her illness.On the ride over to theRilliraxthat night, she’d told him about the human treatments for what she calledcancer.She told him there were different types, different levels of severity, different approaches to treatment.
He’d been horrified by her accounts, by her memories.His stomach had knotted when she’d told him how sick the treatments made her, how they made her vomit, how her hair had fallen out, how they drained her of energy.Hellixaxavawas a common disease among Luxirians, especially at a young age.It saddened him that so many humans suffered, when it was an easy, painless, quick cure on Luxiria.
He thanked the Fates for bringing his female to his home.He wished he could’ve eased her suffering at the hands of the Krevorags, but if nothing else, even if she chose to return to Earth, she would be cured, would live out the rest of her spans without the illness that had caused her much suffering.
Rixavox looked at her, soaking in theRillirax, a serene smile on her face, and his heart stuttered in his chest.She was so beautiful to him that sometimes it hurt.He’d hardly been able to keep his hands off her.Whenever he’d returned to her throughout the span, he’d palmed her waist, stroked her fingertips, her hair, her soft cheeks, taking many liberties that should’ve been forbidden to him.She’d let him.She’d seemed to enjoy his touch, which elated him.
“Rixavox,” she said, her lyrical voice echoing around the cavern, only dulled slightly by the growingpevrillaalong the walls.
“Tev, female?” he rasped, his hands aching to touch her.But he sat in his place, along the edge of the pool, wishing only to be soaking inside with her, his bare flesh against her own.
“Tell me something.Anything at all,” she commanded, her eyes shining in the silvery light.“I…want to hear your voice.”
Another stutter in his chest, followed by a warmth deep in his belly.“I think you have the better voice between us, female.”
“I like to hear yours,” she admitted softly.“So talk.Tell me something about you, about what it was like growing up on this planet.Sometimes it’s still so strange to me, like a dream, that all this exists.”
“Luxirian youths grow up knowing there is life beyond our planet,” he said.“We have close relations and partnerships with many species.I confess I cannot think what this is like for you, for the other humans.”
“It’s a little overwhelming,” she said, a hint of a smile touching her lips.“Not gonna lie.”
Rixavox watched as she floated closer to the edge, closer to him.He thought about her request.“What is it that you wish to know about me, female?” he rasped.
“Do you have a family?” she asked him.
Rixavox sobered, but he vowed he would answer anything she wished to know.A fated bonded could not be strengthened with lies or half-truths.
“Not anymore,” he said, shifting slightly.“My mother and sire have passed from this life, into the blackworld.”
He paused, wondering how to bring up his blood brother, but before he could, she said softly, “Oh, Rixavox.I’m sorry.Were you close with them?”
“Close?” he questioned, thinking it was an odd word for the familial bond.“More than close, female.I loved them, I respected them.They honored me with life.”On Luxiria, it was rare that there was dissension in family units.“It is only natural that you disagree with your mother or sire on occasion, but Luxirians are taught to respect our elders, to respect their wisdom and guidance, from an early age.I think of them often and it pains me every moment when I remember they are gone from this world.”
Sessela was quiet for a moment.Her eyes softened as he spoke and then she asked, “Can I ask how they died?”
“My mother was killed in the Plague.My sire chose to end his own life after her death, like many Luxirian males who lost their mates that lunar cycle.”
“What?” she whispered, voice aghast.“Rixavox…”
His eyes slid sideways a bit, staring down into the water of theRillirax.“We lost many of our race during that time.Not just our females.”
“The Plague,” she murmured softly, gazing up at him.“Kate mentioned it to me.She said it was an attack by your enemies.”
“Tev, it was,” he confirmed.“The Jetutians.The virus they unleashed wiped out the majority of our females.”
“And left the rest infertile,” Sessela finished for him, shaking her head.
“Tev.”
