“Morning,” he gruffly said, stroking her flank.
Sounded like an invitation to make it good.
They made love, softly and sweetly, and when they lay entwined after, he noticed the faint hint of tears brimming.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Fine. Just happy.” She reached out to cup his cheek. “I’m really glad you invaded my lair.”
“Thank you for giving me a chance.”
“We should probably get going. Fate of the world and all.” She offered a slightly brittle laugh.
“Yeah, guess we should.” He rolled out of bed and stretched, and she admired his magnificent body one last time. “I’ve got an idea I want to run by Little Star.” He grabbed at the clothes laid over a bench. “You coming?”
“Later. I’ve got something I need to do first.” She hoped he didn’t hear the tremor in her voice.
“Okay.” He finished dressing and then came close to plant a lingering kiss. “See you soon.”
As he left, she whispered, “I really hope you do.”
But that all depended on how her plan went.
CHAPTER 14
Knee bouncingand partially spinning his chair, Aquarius couldn’t help but grin as he punched in his newest idea for Little Star to analyze. As he waited for the results, his thoughts went to Ishtar and the night they’d spent.
What a woman. He’d always been a bit envious of the warriors who found their perfect someone. They seemed so happy, so complete. Given how much he immersed himself in work—which didn’t require him leaving Tower often—he’d never expected to find someone he could engage with on a technical and physical level until he met Ishtar. Usually when he spoke about coding, eyes glazed over. Not with Ishtar. She could follow along and contribute, her intelligence so damned sexy. As for their chemistry? Just thinking about her got him hard.
When they’d first met, he’d gotten the impression she hated him—make that everyone. Turned out her prickly exterior hid a woman who cared too deeply with a sense of honor and duty greater even than a warrior’s. Was it any wonder he wanted to not only solve the problem with the alien on Earth but find a solution that would fix Mars?
She might have told him to forget about it. However, he knew, deep down, her one desire was to see her world restored.How cute she wanted to spare his life, but if his theory was correct, he might not actually be in any danger. The clue lay within the prophecy and how it could be interpreted. However, testing his hypothesis would have to wait until he’d dealt with the Kukakk. Every day it lived and spouted its bullshit was another day humans died. It bothered him to no end to see people turning on each other and falling for its lies. Add in the fact it fed on souls and this thing had to go ASAP.
The many assassinations and their counter messaging would hopefully slow it down—or make it worse. Pisces had been doing his best with his new Satan-themed group trying to refute everything Alien Jesus said. He’d been encouraging those new followers to not kill but rather convert. Kind of oxymoronic when you thought about it, the roles of good and evil being flipped, but desperate times and all that.
Ping. Little Star had processed his latest idea. A click of the button brought up a simulation that, once more, showed devastating consequences to the planet. Bummer. It had occurred to him that Antarctica with its isolation from the continents might mitigate some of the aftereffects of the energy blast. Wrong. One of the possibilities had the entire South pole melting, raising the sea levels, unleashing catastrophic storms, and causing flooding on the level of that which inspired Noah’s ark.
Another dead end, but he wouldn’t give up. Before Aquarius dove back in to play with the data, he took a moment to peek in on the news. No surprise. Alien Jesus, wearing his fourth, or was it fifth, face, appeared front and center on pretty much every channel.
Currently, the fucker stood in a wide-open field covered in lush green grass. A few paces from the body-snatcher, a crowd of people wearing religious robes and dripping in crosses, swayedand chanted. Holy cult behavior. It appeared the disciples arrayed at the alien’s back waited for something.
The reporter on the scene flipped her hair before offering a fake smile over her microphone. “If you’re just tuning in, good news. I have it from a reliable source that the thief who stole the messiah’s God-given stone has agreed to turn it over. The meeting is expected to take place any moment. As you can see, Jesus is currently awaiting its arrival.”
“What?” Aquarius sat straighter and leaned forward as if he could crawl through the screen. It must be someone with a fake trying to stem the deaths. Had to be because Aries wouldn’t have ordered Ishtar to hand it over, and Ishtar wasn’t about to give the Kukakk a power source that would cause mayhem.
Or would she?
He couldn’t help but recall her expression as he left, the hint of sadness in her gaze. He’d assumed she wanted to spend more time in bed before dealing with reality, but what if he’d misinterpreted? Ishtar claimed she had to do something before joining him. What exactly? A sudden sense of foreboding tightened his gut.
The news channel flipped to a commercial, and Aquarius bounced out of his chair to dash across the hall to Aries’ office. He barged in without knocking and found his boss watching, much too intently, a toothpaste commercial with a dancing toothbrush.
The knot in his belly grew. “What’s going on?” Aquarius exclaimed. “The news is claiming someone is handing over the kyawthuite gemstone to that alien bastard. Tell me it’s not true.”
Aries opened his mouth and shut it, hesitating.
Fear flooded Aquarius as he whispered, “Where is Ishtar?”
“Gone—”
