Drenched: Elemental Warriors (A Sci-Fi Alien Warrior Paranormal Romance) Page 6

  "They melted?"

  "I don't know how else to describe it," she said a little defensively. "It was like...I don't know." She didn't have the words to explain how it had seemed. "You know how you can usually tell when people are nearby? Even if they aren't making noise, you can just sort of...tell that there's someone there. You can feel their presence in the space they're taking up or something like that."

  He seemed to consider it for a moment, and then he nodded. "Yes, that makes sense."

  "Right. So it was like that with the first guy, I could tell he was there, but the second guy just...appeared almost. There's this patch of grass with four big trees growing out of it in the parking lot, and it's the only thing around for maybe two hundred feet that this guy could have been hiding in. And if it had been just a bit lighter, there wouldn't have been enough shadow for him to hide. But there he was, hiding, and he all of a sudden, he was grabbing me, and the first guy put a hand over my mouth and held up his finger to his lips in that shushing motion, you know? I couldn't see his face, though, and I was freaked out, so I tried to scream. And then I was unconscious."

  Luther frowned. "How? Did they hit you? Or drug you?"

  Alanna shook her head. "I don't know. I just remember trying to scream for help through the hand over my mouth and then everything went dark. When I woke up, I was in a cage."

  "On the ship?"

  She nodded. "Yeah. In the back, like where you found me. They kept me back there the whole time. I woke up, and one of them was standing over me, still wearing that cloak. I remember I kept trying to see his face, so if I got out I'd have something to tell the police, you know? But I couldn't see anything. It was just...darkness in that hood. So I demanded to know where I was and what they wanted, and he didn't say anything. Just tossed some bread through the bars and then walked off.

  "It was like that all the time. I'd demand to know what was happening, and they'd say nothing. They fed me and gave me water, but they wouldn't talk to me. The only thing they said the whole time was what I told you. And when I demanded to know what that meant, they just laughed and went back to the front."

  Luther's face was thoughtful. "They let you out of the cage, though," he said. "Since you were free when I found you."

  Alanna nodded. "Yes. A few days in, they let me out. I guess we were in space by then, so there wasn't anywhere I could go. I was aware we were moving, but I had no idea what was happening or where we were going."

  "Tell me about the crash," Luther said.

  "It was...sudden. One minute I was trying to pry open the top of one of the boxes in the back with me and the next there was this huge explosion sound and the ship was shaking so hard. I fell over and a box nearly fell on top of me. And then it was really clear that we were falling. It seemed like it was going to last for hours before we finally crashed down. I tried to hold on as best I could."

  "So you didn't see anything?"

  She shook her head. "There weren't any windows back there. I had no idea what was happening."

  "I suspected as much. This is all very strange," he said. "A human being involved in this is unheard of, practically, and the queen is sure this is a personal attack against us. But there isn't enough motive. Or at least, we don't know what the motive is yet. It's perplexing."

  "I'm sorry," she said, shrugging a little. "I wish I had more to give you."

  His eyes snapped to hers, and she was struck all over again by how lovely they were. "Don't be sorry," he said, giving her a small smile. "You've been through an ordeal. It isn't your job to figure this out. We will handle it, and you should rest."

  "Here?" Alanna asked. "But it's your home. I don't want to intrude."

  "Neither of us has a choice in that," Luther said, which was somehow more comforting than him telling her that everything was fine. "The queen wants you to stay here, so here you will stay."

  Alanna arched an eyebrow. "This queen of yours sounds bossy."

  Luther surprised her by laughing at that. "She is the queen," he said. "It is in her nature to be bossy. Now, you must be tired."

  She wanted to say that she wasn't, but that would have been a lie. Her body was humming with exhaustion, and her brain was muddled. Fear and anxiety had kept her going for a while, but the truth was that she hadn't slept properly since she'd been taken. Since before that, even, considering all that had happened with Alex and the surprising amount of guilt she'd felt afterwards.

  Luther got up from his chair and held a hand out to her. "Come," he said. "I will show you to the bed."

  "I can't take your bed," she said, but lying down on something that wasn't a floor for the first time in days sounded amazing.

  "You can," he said. "You will. Come."

  Arguing took more energy than she had to spare right then, and she told herself that was the only reason she was letting him steer her to the bedroom like he was.

  His bed was huge, which made sense because he was over a foot taller than she was, even in heels. It was piled with pillows and soft looking sheets.

  She barely listened as he explained how the bed would conform to her particular sleep needs. She didn't even know what that meant, but when she sat down on it, there was a soft humming and suddenly the bed was the most comfortable thing she had ever touched.

  "Oh, god," she said softly.

  "Sleep," Luther replied, lips twitching in amusement. "You will be glad you did."

  She moved so she could lay down, and within seconds, she was out.

  Chapter Four: Show Me

  "Is it weird? It seems like it would be weird."

  It seemed like only yesterday that Luther had been sitting in a cantina with Clio yammering at him, but it had, in fact, been several days. He knew that because it had been several days since he'd had time to breathe, let alone sit around and drink with his friend. Or at least that was how it felt.

  When Queen Varen wanted something done, she wanted it done thoroughly and right. The warriors were spending their time questioning people and looking for evidence to support her theory that the crash of the cargo carrier on their planet had been an act of aggression.

  So far, they hadn't found anything.

  The queen was upset that Alanna couldn't remember more, and Luther wouldn't be surprised if she assumed that Alanna was holding out on them. Luther told her the story that Alanna had told him four or five times before she finally let up and admitted that perhaps she was telling the truth.

  Luther didn't see why Alanna would have a reason to lie, honestly. It wasn't like this was a good thing for her, after all. She'd been grabbed and brought to another planet against her will. She was a victim in all of this.

  Varen seemed to think that Luther's 'soft heart' led him to believe these things, but she hadn't been there. She hadn't seen the fear in Alanna's eyes when he'd pulled her out of the carrier. So yes, Luther believed her story.

  "It's...strange," Luther admitted. He stared down into the darkness of his drink. "She isn't what I expected her to be like."

  "What were you expecting?" Clio asked.

  "I don't know. More weeping? She's so far from home. If someone took me from my home and brought me to a strange planet, I would be horrified."

  "Well, she's not in a safe place," Clio said with a shrug. "Maybe she doesn't feel comfortable sharing that emotion."

  "Perhaps," Luther said. He sipped his drink slowly. "I don't know what to do with her, honestly. She's not one of us, but she's here, and she'll be here until her Majesty decides what to do with her."

  "Do you talk at all?"

  Luther sighed. They did talk at times, but it wasn't much. Alanna would ask him if he was holding her prisoner, and he would say that he wasn't, but it wasn't safe for her to wander around on her own and he didn't have time to escort her around. Plus, he wasn't sure if the queen had intended for her to stay inside or not. So inside she stayed.

  It seemed to chafe at her, being made to stay put, and she lashed out at him when they were in the same roo
m, usually when he was coaxing her into eating or showing her how something in his house worked.

  Luther didn't blame her, though. After all, she was in a strange land, and had no idea when or if she was going to be able to go home. Even though the people of Lin-Vayel thought their home was a paradise, for someone who didn’t know its wonders, it probably didn’t seem like one. And it wasn’t like Alanna had the opportunity to see it for what it was, anyway. All she knew were the walls and rooms of his house, and that probably contributed to her moodiness when he tried to talk to her.

  If he couldn’t get her home right away, perhaps there was something else he could do to help her.

  Alanna was just where he had left her when he got back to the house that next afternoon. It was nearing evening, and it had taken longer than he’d been expecting to secure the permission that he’d needed for what he wanted to do, and he’d already been expecting it to take quite a while.

  "Out drinking again?" Alanna asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "Must be nice to be able to go out to the bar whenever you want."

  There was no mistaking her tone, but Luther frowned. "What's a bar?"

  "The place where you drink," she said, slowing her words down like he was particularly slow.

  "Oh. We call them cantinas here," he told her, and then winced when she gave him a look that told him that what the place was called was hardly the point she had been trying to make. "I wasn't there, anyway," Luther hurried to say.

  "Oh," she replied.

  He waited to see if she was going to say anything else, but she just turned her head to look out the window. "Do you want to know where I was?" he asked her, eagerness dripping from his words.

  She made a face at him that was all disdain. "Yes, please do tell me of your adventures in the outside while I'm trapped here in your house," she said dryly. "That sounds like great evening entertainment."

  "I went to talk to the queen," Luther said, not letting her dampen his excitement. He was proud of this accomplishment, after all.

  That seemed to catch Alanna's attention. At the very least, she knew that the queen was the one who decided what freedoms she was allowed to have while she was here. Something bright lit in her eyes, and Luther watched as she dimmed it with some force. Clearly, she didn't want to get her hopes up. "About what?"

  "Well," Luther said. "I was thinking about how you're trapped here, and how it might not be so bad if you could see all this planet has to offer. If you weren't supposed to stay inside."

  "If I wasn't being held captive in your house, you mean," Alanna muttered, loud enough for him to hear.

  He dipped his head, acknowledging that. "Fine. I'm sure that's how it feels. At any rate, I went to ask Queen Varen if there was something we can do about that."

  "And what did she say?"

  He smiled. "She said you can go out."

  Alanna blinked, seemingly taken aback by that. "Just like that? I thought it was dangerous or whatever."

  "Well, it still is," Luther admitted. "And you can only go out with an escort, but all the same, it's more freedom than you had before." He waited, trying to see how she was going to react to that.

  Luther didn't know Alanna well at all. She was staying in his home, but he was busy and she was upset, so they rarely talked. He didn't know what her life had been like before she came here or how she was accustomed to living, but he was pretty sure that being escorted around and told where she could and couldn't go was not how she was used to living.

  Still, Luther willed her to see how much better it was than nothing.

  There was a long moment where she didn't say anything, and then she let out a soft sigh, shoulders slumping. "Thank you," she said softly. "For doing that for me. It's not what I want, but it's better than nothing."

  Luther smiled, surprised. He'd expected more of a fight from her, but he was pleased. "It's the best I could do right now," he told her. "There's more to consider than just you, which I know doesn't seem fair since you're the one stuck here, but we are working on it."

  "I know," she said. "I just. Want to go home."

  "I know," he echoed. "But until you can, I hope you'll allow me to show you the wonders of my home."

  They started the next morning after a quick breakfast. Mornings were busy, usually, with people getting ready to start their day. Of course word had spread around the metropolitan areas that there was a human among them, and Luther would have been much surprised if word hadn't spread to the more rural areas by then, too.

  Of course, they probably all thought she was still confined to his house, and he was hoping that there wouldn't be too much commotion when they were seen out.

  Alanna looked nervous, which struck Luther as odd until he thought about how different this must be for her and how he'd feel if he was somewhere other than home.

  "It's alright," he said to her, offering her his arm. "No one's going to hurt you."

  She looked embarrassed to be caught with her nerves showing, and she ignored his arm, but stuck close to him. Independent to a fault, then. Luther could respect that.

  "Where are we going?" she wanted to know, looking around at everything as they started walking.

  "Is there anything you want to see in particular?" Luther asked.

  Alanna looked surprised to be consulted, but she quickly frowned. "I don't know what there is to see here. What are the popular tourist spots for aliens?"

  He was going to point out that she was the alien here, but instead he bit his tongue and turned his attention to trying to think of where he could take her.

  The marketplace would be just coming to life at this time of the morning, people setting out their wares and the smell of freshly cooked foods beginning to waft through the air. It would be packed within minutes, though, teeming with people grabbing breakfast on their way to their jobs. Perhaps not there at the moment, though Luther was sure she would enjoy it.

  There were places that were important to him, of course. Places that he went to when he needed to be alone or to have a good think or to just remind himself of how much he loved to be on this planet that he called home. But he didn't think those would hold the same importance to her, and he didn't want to show them to her and then have to risk her laughing in his face or something. So instead he started small.

  "Come," he said, motioning her to follow him.

  It was a short walk to the shore, the place where the water met the land. There were many shores on Lin-Vayel, of course, considering each of the seven sections was practically an island, give or take a landmass or two, but this was the main shore. The one where you could see the nearly endless swathe of water stretched out before you like a glittering jewel in the sunlight.

  It was a good day to show it to her, too. Aside from the watercrafts that bobbed and floated some ways away, gathering water creatures for food and trade, it was otherwise deserted.

  "Wow," Alanna breathed as she took it in.

  Luther had seen this sight enough times that he was more interested in watching her expression as she stared off into the distance. You couldn't even really see the horizon very well with the swells of water, and the smell of salt and sea was heavy in the air.

  He watched as she dragged in deep breaths of it, eyes wide with wonder.

  "Is it safe?" she asked, turning to look at him.

  "The water?"

  She nodded.

  "It's as safe as anything that deep and powerful can be, I suppose," Luther replied. "Safer for me than for you."

  Her features twisted into a strange look at that, but she was already toeing off her shoes. "Can I wade?"

  Ah, that was what she meant. Luther nodded. "Of course. Just be careful. The undertow is strong." Although this was perhaps the safest place for her to explore, considering he was right there and could save her in a heartbeat.

  He watched as she rolled up her borrowed pants and then stepped into the water, flinching for a moment and then grinning all of a sudden. "It's so nice. I thought it would b
e cold."

  "No," he said. "It's never cold. Not even in the cold months. There's so much of it, and it has a life of its own." That was the going theory, anyway. Some thought that it was because the great sea was the source of their powers and since they called on it so much for that purpose, it kept the sea awake and warm.

  Luther didn't like to think of it that way, though. It made it sound like the sea was some kind of tool for them to use, when that was the opposite of how things were. If anything, they were the tools and the sea granted them its awesome power to go out and spread its influence.

  Either way, he knew that the water was a living, ever changing creature, but he didn't go into all of that with Alanna.

  Instead he watched as she waded a couple of feet out, face turned up into the sunshine.

  "It's so beautiful," she murmured, and he wondered if she knew that he could still hear her. A breeze kicked up, blowing her hair around everywhere, and she reached up to push it back and out of her face.

  The sunlight sparkled on her skin, and when a particularly strong blast of air sent water spraying everywhere, it glistened on her. Luther knew she wasn't from this place and never could be, but in that moment she looked like she belonged. She looked like she had climbed out of the sea and come to stand on land for a moment, and Luther's heart beat a bit faster at the sight.

  "What's she doing out?"

  And then the moment was over. Luther turned to see Jalal standing behind him, also watching Alanna. "She's standing there," he said.

  Jalal's impulsive nature had yet to wane, and he still had a tendency to get other people hurt with his antics, which was something that Luther didn't approve of.

  "Well, I can see that," Jalal said, rolling his eyes. "I thought she was confined to your house, though. For our protection."