Drenched: Elemental Warriors (A Sci-Fi Alien Warrior Paranormal Romance) Read online

  "It's collateral damage," Luther told her. "No one will cry if a few humans get lost in this struggle."

  Her eyes had flashed irritation. "Humans will cry."

  "I'm not saying they're right to treat it like that," he said. "I'm just telling you their motivations for doing it here."

  Alanna didn't like it, but then she didn't like any of this. It wasn't going to be all out war, but there was no way to tell how big this fight was going to end up being. The orange man and his employer wanted something that didn't exist, and there was no way that they could convince them that they were chasing something they would never have.

  That kind of blind zealotry never led to anything good, and if their warriors were as fanatical as the orange man was, then this could get very dangerous, very fast.

  With the help of the warp paths, Varen's fighters arrived inside of a week. There were more of them than Luther had been expecting, and they showed up in a battle cruiser, armed and dangerous. The queen had placed them under Luther's command, which was surprising, considering he was hardly the most senior warrior there, but no one seemed to have a problem with it.

  Luther met with a couple of them when they arrived, finalizing the battle plans. Jalal was gone, but it was likely that they were still being watched somehow, so he didn't even bother to issue a challenge to the orange man. He knew that when the time came, there would be someone to fight.

  Before they could make a move, though, the orange man reached out again.

  "This is folly," he said, still looking so placid through the communicator screen. "You cannot hope to defeat us."

  "There isn't a choice," Luther said. "You are on a planet that doesn't belong to you, pushing a conflict over something that doesn't exist and wouldn't belong to you even if it did. There is no other option."

  "People will get hurt," the orange man warned. "Innocents."

  "Innocents have already been hurt. This will put an end to it."

  He tutted, shaking his head. "So confident. Jalal was like you, and look at what happened to him."

  That actually made Luther laugh, though it was short and mirthless. "I happened to Jalal," he said. "And we are nothing alike. Believe me."

  Luther drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. This was it. He hadn't been training for it, or even preparing at all, really, but then, he hadn't felt the need to.

  If he couldn't win this battle, with the might of some of Lin-Vayel's finest on his side, then he didn't deserve to call himself a warrior.

  Just because they weren't a war mongering people, didn't mean they couldn't defend themselves, and Luther and the rest intended to prove that on this day.

  The orange man and his people would come, and they would show them what came from trying to steal from them.

  A hand touched his, and Luther looked down to see Alanna standing there, an apprehensive look on her face.

  "This seems dangerous," she murmured.

  That made Luther smile. "Battles usually are."

  "I know, just... Please be careful. I know you're doing this for my planet and for me, really, but please don't do anything too reckless. I want you back in one piece."

  Luther nodded. He was resolutely not letting himself think about the fact that after this, he wouldn't have much reason to stay here anymore. Instead he would be called back to his home to report to the queen and do damage control there. He'd have to leave, and he probably would never see Alanna again.

  It was a sobering fact, but he didn't let it distract him.

  "I promise I will be fine," he said.

  "Don't do that."

  "Why?"

  "Because, you can't control that. If you promise and then you don't come back, I'm going to be pissed off, and you know it."

  He smiled at her and then pulled her closer so they were as close to face to face as it got with their height difference. "I'm promising anyway. I want to see your face and hold you and kiss you and imprint you in my mind before I have to go back to Lin-Vayel."

  "Oh," Alanna said softly. She went onto her toes, and Luther met her halfway, kissing her hard and wrapping his arms around her.

  She had come to mean so much to him in a relatively short time. She had quite literally crash landed into his life, and he didn't want to let her go. He wanted to whisper 'come with me' against her mouth and tell her all about how good things could be if they were together on his planet.

  But he had a battle to fight and things to do. There was no time for this now. He needed to focus.

  "Be careful," she said again, mouth moving against his.

  "I will," he murmured back. "And you stay safe. I don't want to see you anywhere near the fighting."

  Alanna nodded. "I'll keep my distance."

  "Good. I promised you once that I would keep you safe, and I mean to keep that promise as well."

  "I think you were promising to keep me safe from water," Alanna pointed out.

  Luther made a face at her. "I will keep you safe from everything that would harm you for as long as I can," he said firmly.

  Alanna smiled in a way that said she had already known that about him and was pleased with it. He wanted to hold her for longer, keep her there beside him, but he had to go. The others were waiting.

  Trident in hand, he strode to the door and then headed out.

  "Luther."

  Queen Varen really did live to make things difficult for him at times, didn't she? Standing in front of him was Amon, Jalal's brother, and while Luther could agree that he was one of the best, he was also probably carrying a large grudge against him for what had happened to Jalal.

  "Luther, look at me," Amon said. "I am not here to seek revenge or anything like that. What Jalal did... He betrayed us all. You did only what you had to, and you used his over confidence against him. I am not angry with you."

  That seemed too easy, but Amon was honorable, and Luther had to take him at his word. He strode forward and held his arm out, and the two of them clasped wrists in a gesture of solidarity and camaraderie.

  The others were in place, as well, and Luther recognized most of them. They were strong fighters, good fighters, and Luther knew they were in good hands.

  "On your command," Amon said, saluting him.

  Luther saluted back. "I thank you all for being here," he said. "This is not your planet, and these are not your people to defend. As we speak, our fellows on Lin-Vayel are probably under attack, and you all could have stayed there to defend your homes and your families. But you are here, and I appreciate it more than I can say. The Earth need never know that there are those out there that would put them in danger just for the sake of a fictional piece of treasure. Let us make sure they never need to find out."

  The others lifted their weapons with a cry, and it was a thunderous moment. Luther didn't mind that they didn't fight like this often, in fact he preferred it, but he had to admit there was a rush to this right now.

  The company moved out.

  There was no preordained meeting spot for this battle, but Luther had a hunch that he knew where it would take place. He led the warriors under his command to the place where he had all but destroyed Jalal, and there was the orange man.

  He was even less pretty to look at in person, and he seemed to be frantically hunting for something in the underbrush of the trees.

  Luther stood there for a moment, watching, hand raised, signaling for the rest of the warriors to wait a moment. Finally, he cleared his throat, smiling at the way the orange man startled. His eyes went wide, and his mouth opened, making him look like a sea creature.

  "What are you doing here?" the orange man snapped. He looked past Luther to the warriors behind him, all hundred of them, and his skin paled. "What is this?"

  "You seemed like you were ready for a fight," Luther said. Ever since Jalal had completely played him at the beginning of their interaction, Luther was working on being less sure that he knew what was going to happen. It looked like the orange man was here alone, but for all
they knew there were soldiers hidden amongst the trees. "So we brought one to you."

  The man glared. "You never do know when to leave well enough alone, do you?" he snapped. "You're not going to win this."

  "I think that's a matter of opinion," Luther said cooly. "What are you looking for?"

  For a moment he was sure the orange man was going to spit curses at him, but he didn't. "Where is Jalal's body?" he wanted to know.

  That threw him.

  "His...what?"

  "His body. You killed him, did you not?"

  "What do you want with his body?" Luther asked, ignoring the question.

  The orange man smirked at that. "My employer has a new idea for how to harness your power. It involves the corpse of your friend."

  That sounded perfectly horrible, and Luther narrowed his eyes. "You're an idiot," he said. "There is no way to 'harness' our power. And Jalal has no corpse. He is one with the water now." It was more or less true, anyway.

  Now the smile was turning into something more sour, and the orange man sighed. "Why can nothing ever be easy?"

  His eyes flicked to the side, and Luther followed them to see a flicker of movement in the trees. His lifted his hand once more, signaling the others to be on their guard.

  "It doesn't matter if Jalal didn't leave behind a body," the orange man said. "I can get what I need from one of yours. Now!"

  He shouted the command and waves of soldiers, all armed with blasters, came pouring out of the trees. They looked like mercenaries instead of a proper army, and Luther could tell from a glance that his warriors outnumbered them.

  They were also trained and not in it for the money or whatever these mercenaries were there for, and he wasn't worried. Still, he was on his guard, and when their opponents started to advance, Luther gave his own signal.

  For a moment, the air was filled with the scent of the sea, as the hundred warriors summoned their power and drew their weapons. The rest of them could take care of the mercenaries. Luther was going for the orange man.

  Around them, it was chaos. Weapons clashed, and blaster beams sizzled through walls of water, hastily thrown up in protection. Luther walked through the main mess of it, heading for the orange man who was trying to run away.

  "Where are you going?" he asked, voice pleasant. "Don't you want to stay and watch? Lend a hand to fight? For someone who's so proud of the results he can get, you aren't a very hands on person."

  The orange man turned to glare at him. "You know nothing about me," he spat.

  "I know you are a coward," Luther said. "Which seems to be all I need to know about you. Where are you off to? Running back to your boss?"

  "I am not running," he snapped.

  "Looks like running to me. And I am not going to let it happen. You see, I have a problem with you. You've ordered the kidnapping of someone I care for very much more than one time. She doesn't like being kidnapped."

  The orange man rolled his eyes. "You and the human," he said, making it sound like it was something dirty. "I will never understand that. What can a human do for you? You have all of this power, the might of the sea under your skin, and you waste your time with some human woman who could never hope to match you."

  "I don't need her to match me," Luther said, spinning his trident in his hand. "I just need her to be with me."

  "Perhaps I'll kill her, then," the man said, and his eyes were wild. "Or give her to my employer as a gift. He does so like pretty packages. Little bundles that he can tear open."

  The rage rose in him quickly, and Luther raised his trident, lashing out with a wall of water that seemed to come from out of nowhere. It smashed into the orange man, sending him reeling, and then it pinned him to a tree.

  "You will not touch her," Luther growled.

  "It's not becoming, you know," the orange man said. "Having such an obvious weakness. It makes it too easy to grab up the thing you want to keep and do bad things to it."

  Luther had a white knuckled grip on the staff of his trident, keeping his anger and concern in line. He knew that Alanna was probably fine. She hadn't been taken again. She was at the house, probably fretting about him. The orange man was just trying to rile him up, and it was working.

  He thought about the sea. He thought about the way the waves hit the shore, the sound they made, the smell of it, the feel of the salty spray on his face. He thought about the sun setting from the hill he liked to sit on, and he thought about Alanna with him, her hand in his as they watched it get dark around them.

  And then he was calm. He held the trident in a much looser grip and then leveled it so it was pointing at the orange man's throat. The gleeful look he'd been wearing melted away, leaving him wide eyed.

  Luther watched impassively as he tried to struggle to get away from him, but the water held him firmly.

  "I will not play your games," Luther said evenly.

  He could see the moment that the fight drained out of the man. His eyes went dull, and his posture went loose. "You can kill me if you want," the orange man said. "It doesn't matter. The man I work for will never stop until he gets what he wants. He will never back down until he's triumphant, and he will destroy anything that gets in his way. You killing me here will just save him the trouble of doing it."

  Whoever this man was that was pulling the strings of all this, Luther didn't want to meet him. "What is your name?" he asked, wanting to at least know that much before he made his decision here.

  Around them, the fighting continued, but neither of them were paying much attention to it.

  "Cythel," the orange man said. "I am called Cythel."

  "Cythel," Luther replied. "Goodbye."

  Instead of jabbing the trident forward, Luther moved the water, bringing it up until it covered Cythel's face, blocking any hope he ever had of breathing. He struggled, of course, drowning was a terrible way to die, but for what Cythel had done, Luther thought it seemed fitting. He felt remorse for his actions, and he sent a prayer for the departed to the depths and then dropped the wall of water when it was clear that Cythel moved no more.

  He raised his voice without looking at anyone. "Your leader is dead," he said.

  Mercenaries were a fickle lot, which was why only those who were desperate or rich chose to deal with them. They only responded to money and the promise of more of it, so when it became clear that Cythel had fallen, the ones who were still alive fled the field.

  They were victorious.

  It turned out, that there wasn’t even a need to protect Lin-Vayel. The fighting there had been minimal, and barely worth mentioning. As predicted, no one on Earth even noticed that there had been an entire battle on their soil. There were a few mentions of odd puddles of water being found in strange places on the internet, but it was nothing that was given any second thought, really. They waited for a full week to make sure that there wasn't going to be any backlash from the humans or retaliation from whoever the orange man had worked for, but nothing happened.

  "That is how we know we did it right," Luther said with a smile. Alanna had seemed...diminished somewhat in the days following the battle. Luther knew she hadn't been hurt, but she wasn't the same as she'd been even right before the fight, and he was fairly sure it had to do with him leaving and her not wanting him to.

  He didn't want to, either.

  Well. That wasn't strictly true. Luther had had his fill of Earth now. It was too dry and too loud and the air smelled bad. The food wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything like what he had on Lin-Vayel. He wanted to go home, but the thought of leaving Alanna behind made him feel ill.

  She was his, in his mind. He wasn't sure how she felt about that at all, and he could only imagine that she wouldn't be too pleased with him claiming ownership of her like that, but...well. He wanted to keep her with him for as long as he could.

  Which wasn't going to be much longer, since Queen Varen wanted him home as soon as possible.

  "We have much to do here," she'd said, which was basically her telling hi
m to get on a shuttle at the soonest possible moment and say goodbye to Earth. And Alanna.

  She was in the kitchen on the day when he could no longer put off bringing it up. She washed dishes and stared out the window absently, and when Luther put his hand on her shoulder, she jumped, startled.

  "I'm sorry," he said, giving her a smile. "I just wanted to speak with you for a moment."

  Alanna nodded, putting a clean plate in the drying rack. "I want to talk to you, too."

  "I'll have to leave soon," Luther told her. "In the next day or so. I don't want to, but..."

  She smiled. "You don't really like it here. I know that."

  "No, but I am in no hurry to leave your side."

  "I want to go with you."

  Luther stared at her for a long moment, unsure if he'd heard her correctly. "You want..."

  "To come with you. This is my home, it is, but I...it just hasn't felt the same since I came back here. The only thing that made it better was having you with me, and if you leave..." She shook her head. "So, I was thinking that I could go with you. You once told me I could stay while I was there, and I know it's different than going back once I already left, but if you'll have me, and if you think Queen Varen will be okay with it, I'd like to go with you."

  Luther didn't even need to think about it. He didn't even need to run it by the queen. He knew what he wanted. "Yes," he said. "Yes. Come with me. Be with me. Stay with me."

  Alanna's nervous expression faded, replaced by a bright smile and a look of elation. "Really?"

  "Really. For as long as you want to."

  When she threw herself at him, he caught her up and kissed her. He kissed her cheeks, her mouth, her nose. He wanted to throw her down and kiss her everywhere else, too, but he held himself in check.

  There would be time

  Epilogue: Home Again, Home Again

  Queen Varen was waiting when they touched down on Lin-Vayel again. She held herself with the same regal posture she'd had the last time Alanna had seen her, and was dressed with the same elegant grace that seemed to be her signature style.