Guard (A Sci-Fi Alien Romance) Page 7

  I nodded.

  “She was brilliant,” he whispered.

  I hesitated. “Was?”

  “Yeah. She died when I was eight.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He glanced at me. “So am I. I wish you could have met her.”

  “She was human, your brother said?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. My father was one of the first to come here. It’s rumored that the whole thing was his idea. Some of them saw the problem early. They saw what was happening to the Erostrian women. At first they thought that they could all relocate to Earth while the women healed and they worked out a way to decontaminate Eros. My father and some of the early settlers came to see how that might work. But then the women started dying. And what was supposed to be a mission turned permanent. He stayed here.”

  “Where is he?”

  Simo shook his head. “I’m not sure. Last I heard he was in France.”

  “He must be pretty important now if it was all his idea.”

  “You’d think so. But he was too far ahead of his time. Word got out that he’d had a child with a human woman. Things were different then. And he had a wife back in Eros.”

  “Saman’s mom.”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Saman came here not long after she died.”

  “Why does he hate you so much?”

  He looked at me sadly. “I honestly don’t know. It wasn’t like that before. Some of our people hate humans. They see you as inferior and resent the fact that we need you for our race to survive. Saman was never like that. It’s true what I said. We grew up as brothers. I was always his brother. You saw the way he looked at me earlier. It was like I sickened him.”

  “Because of who your mother was?”

  “Probably. That’s what I don’t understand. It’s not like he’s arrived fresh from Eros and hates all humans because he’s never known one. My mother was good to him when he was a boy. And that’s how he repays her love?”

  I opened my mouth to comfort him but words failed me. I stroked his back. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” He shifted his weight onto his hands and leaned up to kiss me.

  I started as the speakers in the corner let out a buzzing sound.

  “We’re here,” he whispered, easing himself off the daybed and reaching for his clothes. He looked around at me solemnly. “Are you ready?”

  I nodded, trying to ignore the knot of terror that was growing in my chest.

  Chapter Twenty

  “What are we going to do?” I was finding it harder and harder to stay calm. We were back in Kefi’s city. Anything could happen to us know.

  “Relax.” Simo squeezed my hand without slowing down. “We’ve still got a couple hours if we’re lucky.”

  “If we’re lucky?”

  “Yeah,” he said. He stopped walking to allow me to catch up to him. “We don’t know for sure. And let’s not talk about it in public.”

  I looked up into his amber eyes and nodded. “We’re going back to Kefi’s?” I had known it deep down ever since we stepped off the train but that didn’t stop me from being absolutely terrified at the prospect.

  He looked wary. “Yeah. It’s the only way.”

  He let go of my hand. We ducked into the alleys as soon as we could and took the backstreets to Kefi’s. I was glad it was still dark: the streets were almost deserted. Finally, we reached the old cathedral. The street was empty. Simo knocked loudly on the door.

  I balked. “Do you want to get us killed?” I hissed.

  “Of course not,” he muttered. He reached down and pushed my hair out of my eyes. “Trust me.”

  I nodded.

  He banged on the door again. There was no answer. Just as he reached down to open the double doors, they flew open in front of us. I gasped in shock. It was one of the Erostrians who had opened the door to us the previous day. One of Tyno’s colleagues. My heart beat so fast I could barely breathe. He looked at me in surprise.

  “Aren’t you going to let us in?” Simo snapped, grabbing my arm roughly.

  “What’s she doing here? She’s supposed to be inside. It’s mating night,” the assistant muttered, glancing from me to Simo.

  “Doing your job. Catching her. What would Kefi have done if I wasn’t here, eh?”

  Simo pushed past him and dragged me through the door into the foyer. I stared up at him in confusion, but he wouldn’t look at me.

  “Where is he?” Simo demanded.

  “I don’t know,” the other Erostrian stuttered.

  “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  “I just got here. I had the night off because of the mating. It’s tradition. You know that.”

  “This isn’t turning out to be a normal mating,” Simo said gravely. “Where’s Tyno?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know, I swear. I assumed everything was going to plan. If I’d known…”

  Simo shook his head. “Kefi won’t be happy with you, what’s your name?”

  “Yon, sir,” he muttered. “But please don’t tell him you saw me. It’s not my fault. I wasn’t supposed to be here.”

  Simo stared at him coldly. “Go back to whatever you were doing.”

  Yon turned around and started for the interior door. He hesitated. He turned back to us with his hands on the handles. “I’ll take you to him.”

  “And let you place the blame on me?” Simo roared.

  Yon flung the doors opened and rushed down the corridor. We followed closely behind him. In front of me, I saw Simo’s shoulders relaxed. My terror intensified. I grabbed his arm and raised my eyebrows. He looked confused. I nodded toward Yon, who was getting further and further away from us. Simo glanced at him and shook his head. We continued walking.

  I held my breath as Yon got closer and closer to the end of the corridor. I was about to keel over by the time he made it. If he reached the living quarters before us, we were as good as dead. Simo still looked completely unfazed, striding along the corridor as if we were just out for a stroll. Yon turned and glanced back at us. Without saying a word, Simo pointed to the door on the right. Yon opened it and scooted through. The door was closed before we got to the end.

  I started to speak but Simo turned and put his finger to his lips before I could get a word out. It was only when he’d closed the door to Kefi’s living quarters behind us that he stopped and turned to me. He leaned down. I could feel his breath on my ear.

  “You ready?”

  I swallowed hard. “Yes,” I croaked.

  Simo turned and strode through the grey reception room to Kefi’s chamber. My pulse buzzed in my ears as he opened the door and I followed him inside.

  To my surprise, Kefi was lying there, exactly where we’d left him.

  “Is it a trick?” I hissed.

  Simo closed the door quietly behind us. He put his hand on my shoulder. “If it is, we’ll deal with it.”

  I nodded. Then I realized I had no idea what the plan was. “What do we do?”

  “You may want to turn around.”

  I turned around and came face to face with a pale, lifeless Tyno. I gasped.

  Simo came behind me and held me from behind. “It’s okay. Close your eyes.”

  I squeezed them shut like he’d said. But then I heard a noise behind us. Simo heard it too. He let me go and spun around. I looked around in time to see Kefi come around and roll over onto his back. Even though he was groggy from the drugs, he knew something wasn’t right.

  Simo was beside him just as he started to groan. He shook his head as he covered Kefi’s mouth and grabbed my mate’s neck with his other hand.

  I shook my head. “I want to—”

  I stopped talking when I saw the warning look in Simo’s eyes. I folded my arms across my chest and stared at him until he understood. I wanted to see this. I wasn’t going to shy away from watching something that I had caused. It was necessary for us to gain our freedom.

  At first, Kefi struggled against him, but as Simo squeezed his neck
tighter and tighter, what little fight he had left him. He went limp. Simo kept holding him for a couple minutes to be certain. Finally he pushed Kefi away from him onto the bed.

  Simo leapt off the bed and came to me. I opened my arms, but he kissed me on the cheek and raced past me to the door. Terror seized me as I heard his screams from the outer room and beyond. I ran to the door and stared out.

  Seconds later, he was back with Yon, who was almost as pale as Kefi.

  “What happened?” He could barely get the words out.

  “While I was looking for her, Tyno must have attacked your master.”

  Yon looked like he was about to cry. “What? That’s impossible.”

  “Is it? I found him cowered in here, with Kefi’s body on the bed,” Simo snarled. “This is your fault.”

  “It’s not. I swear it.”

  “My brother’s on the higher council. He’ll see to it that you’re shipped back to Eros.”

  Yon fell on his knees. “Please, sir. Don’t do that. Help me.”

  “And why should I do that?”

  “Because there’s no future there. It’d be a death sentence.”

  Simo stared down at him. “That’s true,” he said finally.

  “Please. Go now. Don’t say a word. You’ve killed Kefi’s killer. Isn’t that enough?” Yon pleaded.

  Simo nodded and helped him to his feet. “What about you? What will you do now?”

  Yon shrugged. “I’ll be assigned to another member of the city council I expect.”

  “I could have a word with my brother; see if they need you at the higher council.”

  “You’d do that?” Yon gasped.

  Simo shrugged. “I’ll mention it.” He turned around and nodded at me. “And her?”

  Yon glanced in my direction, barely registering me. “What about her?”

  “What’ll happen to her?”

  Yon held up his hands. “I don’t know. The brothels? That’s where Kefi usually does – did – when they were no longer of use to him.”

  Simo nodded curtly. “I’ll take her there on the way.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Home,” he said, running his hands through his hair. “It’s been a long night. You’ve got things under control here?”

  Chapter Twenty One

  “I feel guilty,” I whispered, rolling off Simo and pulling the crisp white sheet up to my chin.

  “Why?” He rolled over to face me and bit my shoulder.

  “Ow!”

  He smiled. I stared into those beautiful eyes of his. They grew serious when he registered the look on my face.

  “You have nothing to feel guilty about.” He stroked my shoulder.

  “But, Yon,” I protested. “We scared the guy half to death.”

  Simo sighed and put his arm around me. “We had to. I had to. If I hadn’t convinced him I was outraged by Kefi’s death, who do you think they’d be looking for right now?”

  I shrugged.

  “I needed to do it.”

  “Okay,” I muttered.

  He grabbed my jaw with his hand and pulled me close enough to kiss me. He paused and frowned. “Why are you so concerned with Yon? And not Tyno or Kefi?”

  I stared into his eyes and shrugged. “They were horrible. Yon seemed different. More innocent or something.”

  Simo laughed. “Clem, my darling. He’d have been every bit as bad as Tyno given half the chance. Come here.”

  He pulled me to him and held me tight. My body reacted immediately even though I was utterly exhausted at that stage. I still hadn’t slept – we’d found more interesting things to do since we arrived back at Simo’s, giddy with relief and freedom.

  “Wait.” I put my hand to his lips. “You’re sure they won’t come looking for us.”

  He stared at me, his eyes open wide. “Yes. I’m sure.”

  “How can you be? How do you know they won’t break that door down and arrest us both?”

  He kissed my neck. “Because Yon will have told them exactly what I told him.”

  “And you know that how?”

  “He doesn’t care about Tyno. Or Kefi. All he wants now is to be assigned a job working for the higher council.”

  “Your brother will never agree to it.”

  He smiled and rolled over on top of me, holding my wrists over my head. “Of course not. Now can we please stop talking about Kefi and Tyno and Yon? And my brother?” He kissed me gently.

  “Okay. What do you want to talk about?”

  He kissed me again. “Let’s start with what we’re going to do with the next day of our lives? I have some ideas.”