Idara has spent her life avoiding confrontation, entanglements and living for herself. When a workrelated incident ends her life, a handsome dark elf is there to catch her and whisk her into a new one. Joining the Nameless is strange enough but finding out that the Orb of Time has a special assignment for her to mess with destiny, changes her from one of the guardians of time and into a prisoner. Harken felt her life resonating with his the moment that he restarted her breathing. Trailing after the shy Terran takes his normal duties from normal to ridiculous, and he couldn’t be happier.
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Avoid Copyright © 2012 Viola Grace ISBN: 978-1-77111-219-2 Cover art by Martine Jardin All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher. Published by eXtasy Books Look for us online at: www.eXtasybooks.com
Avoid A Terran Times Tale By Viola Grace
Chapter One
I
dara Queering paced calmly through the royal palace of the Skiilar, the message she was transporting clutched in her hand. Wearing the clothing of a servant of the prime family, Idara was given free passage through the entire structure. It was a requirement for an internal courier, as was the elaborate dressing and hair preparation that she went through every day. As representative of the Skiilar prime family, she had to look as elegant as she could at all times, and times like today when her clothing exposed her hips through clever draping, she really wanted to be back wearing the polyester uniform that she had worn back on Earth. With the document in her hands, she passed the guards at the edge of the Geenari quarters. They were a ferocious race who seemed to lack the very rudiments of decorum when it came to dealing with such a formal race as the Skiilar. When the guards barred the entrance to the quarters given to their contingent, she tapped her document. “I have a reply from the prime family.” Down the hall, shadows shifted and she saw the man who had been dogging her steps for the last month. 1
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He inclined his head and shifted back into the darkness that shielded him. She focused, but when the Geenari guards cleared their throats, she turned and entered the open door. Tusks, four eyes and foul temperaments were the Geenari traits, and she was carrying something guaranteed to make them unhappy. “What were the results of our request?” The king of the Geenari sat on a throne that he had his minions carry with him wherever he went. She bowed and handed him the document, waiting for the response, as ordered. She braced herself, and when he roared his displeasure, his hands closed around her throat, she clawed at his arms and fought for her life. The king of Geenari had proposed a marriage bond to the Skiilar, and the Skiilar had laughed themselves silly before penning an arrogant declaration of denial that they had handed to the least-welcome courier within the confines of their palace. Light flickered behind her eyes, and as she started to black out, she wished a thousand STD’s on the Skiilar princess who had decided that Idara was too pretty to be around the royals of the palace. Kiidorial was a vindictive bitch, and she was going to have to deal with the Alliance after the Terran courier was dead. Death was the only way for the Geenari to deal with the insults that had been pressed into the document. Idara was simply the luckless courier that carried the bad news. She fought as best she could, clawing, kicking and struggling for breath. She wounded him, there was no 2
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doubt of that, but as she fell completely into the blackness, she wondered at her travelling so far into space to die in such a stupid manner. **** Harken caught Idara’s body as the Geenari threw it from the window. He started to pour the power of time into her while he breathed air into her starved lungs. There was a series of shouts as he glowed and disappeared with his precious burden, and he wondered for a moment if he had left it too long. Harken had watched her for weeks. The Orb of Time had taken him to the time that the woman in his arms was in the most danger. The problem was that in the heightened political climate of the Skiilar palace she was always in danger. He had never thought that she would be in peril during the course of her duties, but when the howl of rage had come out of the chamber, he went where time directed him and caught her as she fell. When he stepped onto the floor of the medical centre, he called out, “New arrival, she has been strangled.” The medically trained Nameless jumped into action, and Harken carried her to the bed where they started to work to heal her. The man leading the team looked at her neck, “What did this?” “A Geenari. Strangled her with both hands by the look of it.” “Ouch. You work on the breathing, and we will 3
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work on her neck.” Harken leaned forward and exhaled into her mouth. Time energy was swirling around them, and when her lips parted slightly and she coughed, he backed away. Her breath came in with a wheeze, and her hands flailed up, smacking into the medical team that was assisting her. Harken held her down. “Idara, please, calm down. You are safe now. Relax and breathe. Just breathe.” She sucked in another breath, and he couldn’t help but watch her breasts rise and fall in the barely-there top that she was wearing. Whoever had dressed her definitely had more than the guise of a simple courier in mind. She was dressed like a Companion, and not an expensive one. He slid an arm under her and helped her sit up, easing her intake of oxygen. “Just breathe slowly, the healing will continue until you are completely well again.” She looked up at him with wide blue eyes, and she whispered in a hoarse voice, “You.” Grinning at the woman he had watched for weeks, he winked, “Me.” **** Pain was rippling through her throat and lungs, but with each breath, Idara felt vastly better. “What happened?” She looked around, and the three persons who had attended her receded out the door, leaving only the man who had been watching her, staring at her with a curve on his inky-black lips. In fact, now that she could see 4
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him, all of his exposed skin was the same black velvet as his jaw line. “Who are you, and why have you been following me?” Her voice was a croak. “I will explain all of that in time. Do you wish to change clothing? I can obtain something for you.” She touched her throat and swallowed with effort. “Please. I don’t want to wear this livery after what they did.” Struggling to stand, she fought his hands and instead tore off the hated clothing of the Skiilar prime family. Her companion stared at her in shock. “Um, I will go and get you some clothing. There is a lav to the left if you want to have a shower.” She perked up, “Real water?” He laughed, “Real water.” To her consternation, he glowed brightly and then disappeared. Naked, she pattered into the lav and scrubbed her skin from head to toe under hot water, removing all traces of the Geenari’s hands and the noxious perfume she had been forced to wear. Idara didn’t know where she was, but she was certain that her life had just taken a particular swing in an upward trajectory.
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Chapter Two
F
our boxes were piled on the bed when she returned to the room, wearing a towel around her and one on her head to dry her blonde locks. “Wow. Are those all for me?” Her companion jumped at her silent arrival and sudden speech. He cleared his throat, and his posture seemed a little nervous. She still hadn’t seen his face completely, but his body was built along lines she really appreciated. Tall, wide shoulders and narrow hips, he was a beautiful ideal, and if she could see his face, she would be better able to judge if it did justice to his body. His lips curved in a smile, “They are a selection of clothing appropriate to your species. Choose what you like, and the others will be brought to your quarters should you need them.” Bemused, she wandered over to the stack and opened the first box. It contained a bodysuit and boots in a lovely shade of navy blue with silver and bronze piping running across them. “Oh. That’s nice, but let’s see what else we have.” She hummed to herself as she opened a box with a 6
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lovely gown and another with a tunic and trousers set, the last was a gauzy wrap that would have appealed to her before the Skiilar incident. “Bodysuit it is then.” She dropped the towel and stepped into the suit, amused when he turned his back. “Are you shy?” He tilted his head. “That is not the precise word for it, but I am not used to women who remove their clothing without warning.” She snickered as she fastened the front of the suit. “In training as a private courier, we were given mixedgender drills to get us used to changing clothing for differing events in one room. Embarrassment was soon a thing of the past, especially if you needed a second set of hands to complete the fastening of your clothing.” He shrugged, peeked and turned around. “I suppose that makes sense. It is a sensibility that not many women of my acquaintance share.” She snickered and sat on the bed, pulling the boots on one by one. At the bottom of the box there was a metal belt, and she fastened it low around her hips, smiling at the feeling of being a Terran superhero back on Earth. Idara looked to her companion. “What is your name, and why were you stalking me?” He blinked, then grinned and bowed low, “Harken, at your service. As for stalking, I went where time sent me. You lived a very dangerous life, Idara. It is a wonder you survived this long.” She scowled, “So, you knew he was going to strangle me, and you didn’t help?” Harken shook his head. “I knew you were in danger, 7
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and I had to take you here the moment that you were officially dead in front of witnesses.” That surprised her, “I was dead? If I was dead, what is this? This seems to be one crappy afterlife.” He laughed out loud. “Come with me. I have something to show you that might raise more questions than answers.” Harken took her hand and led her out onto a balcony that looked out over a fantastic landscape. The sky was full of whirling starscapes and she smiled as she looked out into an endless spiral that might have driven other folk mad. “It’s wonderful.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him flip his cowl back, and he turned to face her full on. “I am glad you think so, because those stars are in the eyes of all the Nameless, and you are here to join us.” He was a member of a race almost extinct. Dark Admaryn. His black skin had a velvety texture, absorbing light and reflecting nothing. His hair was a snowy white, fastened back in a snug braid, and his brows were white as well, framing the eyes that captured her full attention. The same stars that she had been admiring were within his eyes, the blackness of space with the pinpoints of moving lights gave her something to watch as she got used to the idea of staring at an elf from human legend, myth and fairy tale. “You are Admaryn.” She blurted out the words. “I was. Over a thousand years ago I became one of the Nameless, and here we are today.” “I have never heard of the Nameless. What are they?” She couldn’t look away from his fascinating 8
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gaze. “It is a long story, but basically, when this universe began, what did it replace?” He was moving closer to her, step by step, until he was touching the front of her bodysuit with the leather vest and trousers he wore. She licked her lips, and his lids dropped for a moment. “There was nothing, wasn’t there?” “There was an old universe, a universe that gave up its space and everything in it for the sake of the new, but it kept a part of itself separate and planted seeds of hosting in a vast array of species throughout the new universe. Those seeds become ripe after time, and when you die, if one of our kind is there, we bring you here and restart you, but you have to officially leave your timeline first and that means witnesses.” “So, they all saw me die?” Harken quirked his lips. “They all saw your unbreathing body launched out a window. I caught you and brought you here after enough bystanders confirmed that you were actually dead.” “What happens now? I would really like to go back and teach that Geenari a lesson as to what a Terran can do when she is not restrained by fluffy clothing and etiquette.” “What of the Skiilar who sent you to your death?” “I already wished her a death via thousands of STD’s, so my work there is done.” The catalyst was not to blame. It was the intemperate fiend who had actually strangled the messenger just to make a point that she had a bone to pick with. Fate would take care of the royal. 9
Viola Grace Harken chuckled. “It would be a just death, but think of the partners that she would infect on the way.” “True. But she really needs to get taken down a peg.” “Let’s get something to eat and discuss this further. There is always more to learn about anyone, and her early days might surprise you.” “How could I possibly know about her early days?” His grin showed amazingly white teeth, “That is part of what I am about to show you. Food first though. You Terrans seem to think better after food.” She shrugged and had to admit he had a point. “Wait, Terrans? How many of us are there?” “That is a topic to discuss while sharing a meal.” He wrapped his arms around her, his hands sliding over her hips a little too tightly, but there was a flare of light, and they were no longer in the same place that they had been before. “What was that?” “A directional shift. We moved in space.” He released her, and she could feel the reluctance in his body as they parted. The smells of food caught her attention, and it came to her that she had not had lunch or breakfast. She was definitely hungry, and it seemed that he was prepared to take care of her needs. He showed her how to manage the food trays and where to find coffee, a luxury that she had not had in years. With her selections weighing her down, she picked out a table away from folks gathered in clutches and sat with her back against the wall. 10
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Harken joined her and raised his snow-white brow. “You don’t like to socialize?” “I am not sure yet where I am or what I am doing here, so I will err on the side of caution.” She bit her lip and poked her meal with her fork before trying a few bites and swallowing reluctantly. “You don’t like it?” She smiled. “I do, but my throat is still a bit sore. Apparently, I don’t bounce back as fast as I would like from being strangled to death.” Deep in her mind, she still wasn’t sure that this was a cross between a hallucination and a perverse afterlife that no culture she knew of had yet discovered.
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Chapter Three
B
y the time she had eaten her entire meal in tiny bites, a few folk had come by to meet her and formally give her their greetings. When she was alone with Harken, she had to ask, “How do they know I am new?” His smile was blinding. “Your eyes. When you have met the Orb of Time, they will change from your charming blue to the same swirling darkness that we all bear.” She blinked. “Is that why you wore that hood while you were stalking me?” Harken looked innocent. “I wear the hood to keep folk from becoming alarmed by looking into my gaze. We all do.” “Aha! So you were stalking me.” “I went where the Orb of Time sent me. It was not my will to chase you around, but the fact that you noticed me time and again is rather flattering.” She exhaled noisily. “Men.” He chuckled and leaned back in his chair. “What questions do you have about Home?” “What is that?” 12
Avoid “Home is the ground that you sit on, the air that you breathe. It is a place outside of time and space, a piece of the lost universe that was here before our own.” Every television program about the big bang that Idara had ever seen ran through her mind. “So, there was a universe here before ours?” “There was. It knew the end was near and protected this piece of itself, making a haven for those who would bear its mind when the seeds had been sown.” “What about the seeds? How long ago were they planted in my body?” He shook his head, “Not your body, your mother’s mother’s mother back hundreds of generations. Over ten thousand years by Terran time measurement, back before my people tried to take yours by force.” Idara rubbed the back of her neck. “So, somewhere in my past, a cave-dwelling ancestor or a woman bounding across the plains was infected by this ancient universe, and she passed that trickle of power on to me?” “More or less. The power has to degrade to the point where it is simply buried in your genes, and when you died, we had free rein to pull you out of that universe and bring you Home.” “Why did I have to die?” He steepled his hands in front of his face, and his voice took on a lecturing tone. “We all make an impact on others within our timeline. Families, friends, they all are touched by our presence in their lives. When we died, our timeline officially came to an end. The death has to be one that we could not recover from, and in that moment, a burst of energy calls to the Orb of Time, 13
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and it sends one of us to retrieve you.” “How could you be there before I died? I mean, if you were waiting for the signal, you should have only shown up after I died, not before.” “The Orb gave me an image of you that I had to match to your experiences and appearance. As for the before part, we are talking time travel after all. You are allowed to enter and observe any timeline that is not your own.” She sipped at her coffee and sighed as the heat relaxed her throat. “So, you are saying that I will be able to traipse through time?” He grinned. “You will be assigned a tutor from those who are available and from there you will have someone to ask your questions of as well as you will accompany them on their travels to get a feel for stepping through time.” “There is a pool of prospective tutors?” He shrugged. “The Council of Seven usually matches the tutor with the pupil based on information given to the speaker of the council. Currently, Ravikka is holding that position, and she is fair and direct with her communications. She will choose the right tutor for you.” Idara sighed, “I hate waiting for other people to decide things in my life.” Harken grinned and took her hand. “Then, it is a good thing that your life is over.” She blinked for a few seconds before she burst out laughing. “I think that that might be the single most insensitive thing that any man has ever said to me, and I have heard some doozies.” 14
Avoid He grinned, “The Admaryn always strive to make an impression, even if they are basically extinct right now.” Idara sighed, “What if I don’t want to be one of you? What if I want my old life back?” He shook his head. “You can’t. You are no longer part of that universe, and they will see you as something that does not belong.” A very unladylike snort came from her. “I have never belonged. I don’t even know what I am doing off my planet.” He nodded. “Walk with me. It is easier to accept Home if you can see it.” She got to her feet, and the tray she had been eating from disappeared. She looked back at the space where it had been and frowned. “Where did it go?” “Acquisitions obtains the food and disposes of the plates when they are empty.” He wrapped an arm around her waist, and he started a slow walk out the door and onto one of the ramping walkways that connected the buildings. “Acquisitions?” “They are a group of the Nameless responsible for bringing food, clothing and amenities here. If you want anything in particular, Acquisitions will pull it from time and deliver it Home.” “Anything?” “Within reason. Books, hobbies, games, anything that has been mass-produced basically. You can also take a stint in Acquisitions if being in service to the Orb is too difficult.” They were walking in the eternal light that pulsed 15
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from the stars above, and she had to smile at the elegant grace of the stellar dance. “It really is lovely.” “I am glad you think so.” “Where are we headed?” The boots she was wearing made no sound on the bridge that spanned a crack in the ground beneath her. When she noticed that there was nothing but empty space on the other side of the crevice, she moved more to the centre of the walkway. “To the council hall.” “So, this is being done no matter what I want?” “Sometimes fate cannot be avoided. Your new life is about to start. Do you wish it to start without you?” She pondered the twisted logic of his words as they moved inexorably toward the building that housed her fate, whether she wanted it to or not.
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Chapter Four
I
dara stood in the centre of the mark on the floor and waited for the councillors to speak. She was very good at keeping herself quiet when folks in power were deciding what to do next. Apparently, when she had been in the Volunteer recruitment centre, it was her very avoidance of confrontation or eye contact with the interviewers that had captured their imagination. People who were entirely non-confrontational were in high demand when dealing with royal families across the Alliance. Idara stood with her feet slightly apart for balance, her hands behind her back and her head slightly down. “Idara Queering, palace courier and member of the Alliance Protectorate of Terra. How are you adapting to the thought of being a member of our select gathering?” The voice was a pleasant female tone, and it must be the speaker that Harken had referred to. “It will be interesting. It will certainly be better than living in the Skiilar palace and probably less dangerous as well.” A ripple of laughter spread through the people in the room. There were folks standing in shadows behind the 17
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council, and they chuckled as well. “That is probably true, but know that while we do live a strange existence outside time, we can and do die when the damage is great. Are you prepared to go where you are sent no matter the consequences?” “I am. It is what I have done up until this point, so there is no use changing my career at this stage in the game.” The woman stood up and stepped out of the shadows. “That is all we can ask. Come and meet the Orb. I get the feeling that it has a special task for you.” Harken followed behind, the king of the shadows that surrounded her. As they stepped down into the belly of the building and to a stone spiral that was fixed over the vast expanse of open space, Idara looked for him to comfort herself. When she saw him off to one side, witnessing what was about to happen, she relaxed marginally. “You will know what to do, Idara. The Orb would not bring you this far and not tell you what you needed to do.” The woman smiled and walked along the narrow edge of the wall, standing next to a protrusion that seemed to have a purpose that Idara could not figure out. Her instincts told her to walk the wide spiral to the centre of the room, and she throttled down her conscious mind that told her it was the stupidest idea she had ever had. Breathing calmly, she walked around the spiral, and when she reached the centre, seven figures around the wall touched the icons next to them. Looking into the swirling vastness, a tiny piece 18
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separated from it and came toward her. A glow hovered in front of her, twinkling playfully before it eased itself into her chest and bloomed inside her. Flickers of awareness started in her mind, scenarios she had never seen began to play themselves out. Idara began to see the effect of every decision she had ever made. Putting herself between her sister and harm had been the first decision that she saw. The two branches of reality that could have come out of it were so different, she swayed in shock. Remembering where she was, Idara quickly walked the spiral out and onto solid ground. The speaker took her arm and led her up the stairs. “The disorientation fades. It is showing you the branches of your life, is it not?” Idara swallowed. “It is. Some of them are quite frightening.” “If you did not live the frightening ones, then you made the correct decision. That is what matters. The Orb insists that we learn the options for our actions.” Idara shook her head. “It hurts.” “That will pass. Now, come and get your belt and dagger. We wear the dagger to give us a last line of defense if we are confronted.” Idara blinked. “Does that happen a lot?” The woman shrugged, “Often enough. We try to keep ourselves out of the line of fire, but sometimes, it cannot be avoided.” They were back in the council hall, and the speaker walked to a huge chest, removing a length of leather 19
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and a knife in a scabbard. She helped Idara get the belt into place around her hips. “After a while, you won’t feel dressed without it.” “What is your name?” The woman blinked, “I thought that Harken would have told you. I am Ravikka, speaker of the Council of Seven.” Idara smiled as the weight of the knife slowly felt less foreign. “Pleased to meet you, Ravikka. Now what?” Ravikka looked at her with her swirling, starry eyes. “I think you are one of those who will work best with the man who retrieved you. Harken will be your new tutor and will be responsible for answering your questions and making sure that you learn the ins and outs of being a Nameless.” “What if that relationship doesn’t work out? Can I get a new tutor?” A voice rumbled from behind her. “I will make that extra effort for you, Idara. Now, if you would care to see your new rooms? They overlook…everything.” His pause was suspicious, but she turned and smiled up at him. “Can we walk there?” “Of course.” “Good. I am still acclimating.” He offered her his arm, and they walked out into the light. **** The councillors turned to Ravikka. Gwetho whispered, “What did the Orb intend for 20
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her?” “She’s a patcher. She will skip through time and remove folk who have slipped into disaster that does not involve them.” The others murmured, and Gwetho scowled, “Shall we make room in the tower?” Ravikka shook her head. “Not necessary. She is here to put things right. No timeline will be altered, but ones that have been skewed will be corrected.” He scowled. “This is far more fancy than our lives as observers. What is the Orb doing?” “It is carrying out its plan, and we are simply the tools that it uses. You know that, Gwetho. Perhaps you need to be called out of Home more often. It seems to be something that you are forgetting frequently.” Gwetho’s frown intensified. “And you seem to be forgetting the regulations that we put in place centuries ago. They are there for a reason, Ravikka.” Ravikka felt a surge of heat from the base of her soul and light streamed from her mouth and eyes, bathing Gwetho. When the wave completed, Ravikka closed her mouth and licked her lips. “I believe that that answers your comments, Gwetho.” He blinked, and his eyes had gone from Nameless black to blazing white. Ravikka gestured to the two nearest councillors, “Help him to medical. He has been blinded until he can see things the way they are. If the Orb wants to give these new recruits a purpose, it is not for us to deny them.” Gwetho gave her a shaky bow, and the councillors 21
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helped him walk from the council hall and into the daylight. Ravikka sighed as the other members of the seven dispersed, leaving her alone with the heartburn aftershock of the Orb’s emanation. The newcomers were satisfying something that the Orb had been waiting for, but instead of having them snatched from their times, they had been given a chance to learn what they were. It was a gift, whether they knew it or not.
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Chapter Five
I
dara stood on her balcony and watched the slow turning of the stars above her. “This is really my home?” “It is. My room is just across the hall, so feel free to knock any time.” Harken was watching her from the doorway. She turned and smiled. “When does the whole tutoring thing begin?” “Whenever you like. What would you like to know?” She turned and placed her hands on the waist-high edge of stone. “Why me? There are other women far better suited to this sort of action.” “But none that have the destiny looming before them that you do. Out of all the descendants of your originally selected parent, you are the only one that the Orb chose. It sets us on our path, and while we don’t know it at the time, it shapes us. It is very humbling to know that some of my best choices in life were nudged there.” He joined her looking out over the expanse of the city. 23
Viola Grace “It explains why my first memories after it entered were all the crossroads moments in my life. It was there every time I wanted to back away and run, whispering that I needed to try harder, do what was necessary.” “It tends to do that. It drives us to put ourselves in the position where we become what it wills us to be. The best our genes can make us, I suppose.” “This happened to you?” “Far away and long ago, but yes. I was standing between a village and a drunken Admaryn. He had a long knife that sliced through my torso. It was not pleasant, but my death was quick.” “Who retrieved you?” “An Enjel named Krassion. He passed away a century ago. He was the first Nameless I had ever seen. The Admaryn called us the Hooded Ones and that was what came to take me Home.” He sighed, and she could see the shift in his shoulders as he remembered his rescuer. “Was he your tutor?” “No. That was Veviki. He was a Kreedan with a bad temper, but he taught me what I needed to know to serve the Orb of Time.” She chuckled. “The Kreedans are born bad tempered.” The race was thousands of years old in the Alliance and yet, the insectoid population was constantly harping and nit picking on other species. “That they are. He was an informative tutor though. The Orb sent him to worlds where his body would not cause comment.” She smiled, “When do I pick a cowl?” “Whenever you like. We can go to the repository 24
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now if you like. You can get a better feel for what is available.” She nodded. “I am not tired, so we may as well go. When is sunset?” “It depends. Your perceptions will colour the amount of light that comes into your rooms. When you are tired, the light will fade and trigger your sleep cycle.” His voice was matter of fact. They walked across the bridges, and when she heard the only sounds of mechanical movement on the whole way, she knew that they had reached their destination. Inside the building, she noted a line up and a large display where one of the Nameless was making selections. “What is this place, exactly?” “It is the Acquisitions repository. Anything you can imagine can be provided and all clothing that we use is obtained and stored here.” His arm waved out to cover the entire warehouse. The whirring that was audible belonged to the mechanical arms that swivelled on bases and visited all portions of the warehouse. The arms not only delivered objects to the waiting Nameless, but they were putting objects away and dropping some into slots connected to long tubes that disappeared into the floor. “They deliver too?” He laughed, “Once you know what you have in mind, you can request clothing to be sent to your rooms. It isn’t something to do lightly though, you can order far more than you think if you are not careful.” She smiled, “So, I simply get in line?” “That is the way it works. You see that man who just started to glow?” 25
Viola Grace “Yes.” “The others will let him pass. That glow is the sign of the Orb calling him to duty.” He was right. As soon as the others noted the glow, they parted and gave the illuminated one first crack at the selector. “Well, that is polite.” She smiled and walked toward the line of folks waiting to take their turn at the selector. The process went pretty fast. She kept an eye on the glowing man as he returned from a change room, and when he flared brightly and disappeared, she closed her mouth with a snap. “Wow. I thought I was imagining the flash of light.” Harken was surprised. “You remember that?” “Well, more like it was printed on my memories. I can see myself falling out a window. Wait, did that Geenari toss me out a window?” He looked abashed, “He did. That is where I caught you. The Orb must have given you my point of view of the event. If you want to see it from another perspective, we can go to the library after you have obtained your cowl.” “Library?” “Key moments in time are stored and recorded in the library. You can view any moment from countless worlds.” He grinned, “It is both educational and entertaining.” They moved forward in line, and she peeked over the shoulder of the woman in front of her as she made her selections. The process seemed straightforward. Idara moved up and started by selecting the scan-formeasurements feature. The beam shot out and covered 26
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her from head to toe. From there, she was free to pick the style that best suited her. She selected a cowl that would look like a loose collar until she lifted the hood. Once she had made her selections, she stepped to the side and waited. The box was narrow, but once she had put the cowl into place, the robot arms removed the empty box, and she turned to Harken with a happy smile. “There, all…uh oh.” He was glowing. It was a strange look. It lit all of his musculature from within. Idara’s fingers curled into fists to stop the urge to touch. “You are glowing, Harken.” He laughed, “It happens, Idara. Would you care to accompany me to witness?” She cocked her head as thoughts began to stream into her mind. Images of another world, a procession and an explosion rippled through her consciousness. There was a woman outlined in black light, and to Idara, she glowed more brightly than any other being at the procession. With her skin matching her target, she looked to Harken helplessly. “Idara, I have never seen one of our kind glow with a black light before. I am guessing that you are getting thoughts that are not your own?” She nodded and swallowed. Harken lifted his cowl and settled it so that it shadowed his eyes. Idara did the same. She took the hand he extended, and his light flared and engulfed her as they stepped onto the world where all hell was about to break loose. 27
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“Why is it that no one notices our clothing?” “They are busy watching the royals. I am here to watch the event. Why are you still glowing black?” Idara looked around her as casually as she could manage. The woman that she had been sent for was standing in the crowd, close to the path that the royals were about to take. As smoothly as she could, Idara worked her way through the crowd and picked up a beverage off the edge of a cart. Wincing at what she had to do, she moved forward, tripped and dumped the beverage all over the woman who glowed black with the mark of the Orb. The young woman cried out, “Oh, what in the name of the living gods?” Idara apologized. “I am so sorry. Come here, there is some water, and we can try and get the stains out before the promenade starts. If they won’t come out, I will buy you a new outfit.” The woman was brushing frantically at her clothing and had tears in her eyes. “I will lose my place.” “Better to lose your place and look presentable when the royals come by.” Idara ushered her into an archway and made a show of getting some water from a nearby shop to dab at the stain that reached from her shoulder to her thigh. “I don’t even know what I spilled on you.” “Fermented makkaki juice. Where are you from, stranger?” The woman inclined her head and tried to make eye contact. “Far away. I did so want to see the festivities.” Idara 28
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was going to say something else, but a tremendous thunderclap shook the ground. Screams sounded and people ran in every direction. The young woman’s black aura faded and Idara breathed a sigh of relief. She looked around and spotted Harken walking toward her. The moment he was close enough for speech, she asked, “Did you see what you needed?” “I did. It is time for us to go.” The young woman was stunned and staring into the crevice a few feet from where she had been standing. “You saved me.” Idara coughed. “I did nothing of the sort. I simply spilled a drink on you and tried to make it right. The rest was coincidence.” Her mission was over. Idara turned and took Harken’s hand. He led her back Home without a backward glance, but she knew that his silence meant something else. She hadn’t avoided trouble. She had run right to it.
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Chapter Six
H
e pulled them to her rooms and immediately questioned her. “What was that?” “She wasn’t supposed to be there. She has a life to live, and she needs to live it.” Idara dropped her cowl and looked up at him. The stars in his eyes flared and swirled as he dropped his cowl. “That is not what we were there for.” She crossed her arms and went up on her toes. “It is not what you were there for, but for me, she glowed black, and my instincts told me that she was not supposed to be there.” He lifted her by her arms, “Do you know what they can do to you?” She kicked him in the groin and spun away from him. “Strangle me and throw me out a window?” She looked for a weapon and lifted one of the clothing boxes. “Try that again and you will be feeling it for a week.” He slowly stood straight, and she could feel him taking in her posture. Calmly, he crossed the room and sat at the table. “I 30
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will be ready to talk about what just happened when you are.” She blinked and stood from her defensive posture. With deliberation, she put her weapon down on the couch and joined him at the table. “What was that, Idara?” “It was a reflex. One I thought I had outgrown.” “I cornered a cat that had that look in its eyes once. It had been burned and beaten. Do you want me to look in your past via the library, or do you want to tell me?” She sighed and ran her hands through her golden locks. “I will show you, but I am not going to look.” He nodded. “Fair enough. Around Home, you need to visit each place once so that you can picture it in your mind. We will walk to the library, and you can explain to me what you saw when you looked at that young woman.” She nodded and smiled weakly. “I can use the walk. I am not used to having someone near me who isn’t plotting my destruction.” “Since you came into Alliance space?” “Since I was born. Come along.” She got to her feet and left her apartment. She waited for him after he closed the door. “Which way are we going?” He gestured to the left, and they walked together. She felt bad for kicking him in the groin, so she reached out and took his hand. He turned his hand and threaded his fingers through hers. “I accept your apology.” She blushed at her transparency. “Thank you. It was a reaction that I could not control.” He nodded. “It was sensible considering that hours 31
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ago you were strangled to death.” She shrugged. “Well, when you put it that way, what were you thinking?” Harken laughed. “Point taken, Idara. I behaved foolishly.” She smirked, and they bantered on as they walked to a stately building with ornate designs carved into it. Idara started to tense as they walked onto the ramp inside and started winding their way up the slope. Harken paused and waved at one of the open frames that was taller than he was. “This contains the records of your life. When you became one of the Nameless, your memories were uploaded.” She walked to the frame and put her hand on the flat plate. “I will not watch what is happening. Tell me when you have seen enough.” With her eyes closed, she took the images back to her first memory of being struck. Her mother had hit her while her father watched. She started to move the memories faster, stepping between her sister and an incoming fist, talking to people at the hospital while she explained what had happened, and after her lungs had been pierced by broken ribs, they finally found a relative far enough away to take her and her sister. Harken pulled her hand away from the frame, and she looked up at him, gauging his contempt. There was no contempt in his gaze, but tears streamed down his cheeks. With a trembling hand, she reached up and wiped at the tracks. “I made it through. The Alliance healed the irregularly knit broken bones, and I am now better than 32
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I was before I came to space.” His tears still fell, so she went up on her toes and kissed one side of his face and then the other before pressing a soft kiss on his lips. “Thank you for your tears. It means a lot to me. More than you know.” In her entire life, only one other person had ever shed a tear for what she had been through, and her sister had quickly learned to forget that anything had ever happened. With arthritis in the once-broken bones, her life had been pain and quiet servitude. When she entered the Volunteer project, her pain was removed, but the servitude was still part of the package. Idara lowered herself back to a standing position, but she stumbled forward when Harken pulled her to him. His kiss was not sweet or soft, but demanding and insistent. To her shock, she felt herself responding. A flare of light rippled around them, and she was pressed to the wall of her own apartment, her body held to the stone by Harken’s body and her balance maintained by her legs around his waist. She pressed against his shoulders, and he broke the kiss. “What are you doing?” He grinned and pressed his lips against her neck. “Courting you.” She squirmed against him as he licked, nipped and sucked his way from the left to the right. “This is a courtship for the Admaryn?” He worked her suit open with the tips of his long fingers. “Since we are now as good as extinct, I would say that we were doing it wrong. What do you think?” He cupped one breast and thumbed her nipple while 33
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his lips continued to torment her neck. Idara stopped thinking as her body took over, arching into the hard ridge in his trousers. Admaryn were supposed to be compatible with Terrans, and she wanted desperately to find out precisely how compatible. Her breath was coming in and out of her lungs, and a high-pitched whine burst from her throat when he exposed both of her breasts completely and used his mouth on first one, then the other. The wet heat spurred her body into reacting, and her hips ground against him in a slow twist. His snow-white hair cascaded over her hands when she wove her fingers through it. The cool silk contrasted against the heat of his mouth, and she started a convulsive shiver that rippled through her and made her clench her hands against his scalp. Harken chuckled against her skin, and he lifted her away from the wall, walking through her apartment before peeling the bodysuit to her waist. She clutched at him when he tilted her back, but his hands swiftly unbuckled both of her belts before he peeled off the rest of her suit. Idara shivered as he removed his clothing faster than she could see. Ominous was a good word for a dark Admaryn when he was approaching with sex on his mind. His starry eyes were intense, the stalk of his cock was insistent, and it curved upward toward his flat, muscled belly. He moved to cover her, rubbing his skin along every inch of hers until his slick cock was wedged in her 34
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equally moist opening. He rocked against her, spreading the lips of her sex wide with each thrust. Idara stared up at him, wide-eyed as he began to work his way into her, inch by inch. Her lips twitched when she realized that there were a few more inches than she had bargained for. “How is the courtship from your end? From mine, I had not expected it to be so hot and tight.” She blushed. “There is more to this than I had anticipated. Much more.” He grinned and worked his hips against her until she moved with him in counterpoint. Together, they shifted, rocked, twisted and moved against each other until she was panting with each thrust, and his back was slick with sweat where she clutched at him for support. Banter was forgotten as they worked their way to release, and when Idara could not stand the twisting tension any more, she screamed and clutched at him, digging her nails into his skin. The noise that he made could be described as a roar, but it was audible triumph and nothing less. He shuddered and poured into her with short jerks of his hips. Harken slowly collapsed on her, rolling with her to one side and holding her close. She smiled, “Courtship, huh?” He laughed and stroked an elegant hand down her spine. “It is as good a word as any. You have been mine since the moment you dropped into my arms.” Yawning, she snuggled against him, inhaling the scent of their joining. “You say the sweetest things.” She was almost asleep when her skin took on a dark 35
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glow. In an instant, she snapped into alertness, and she sat up. “Honey, I have to go to work.” He grinned. “How lucky. It is take an Admaryn to work day. A quick shower and we will be ready for anything.” She got to her feet and headed for the lav. “You do know how to sweet talk a girl.” He followed her closely. “I know a lot of things. I look forward to sharing my knowledge with you at every opportunity.” “Only your knowledge?” Her shower stall filled with laughter, smooth touches and the most thorough scrubbing that she had ever received. Idara’s skin was smooth, tingly and ever so sensitive by the time she was in a fresh bodysuit and preparing for her assignment. Harken was right beside her as she lifted her cowl. “Ready?” He nodded and lifted his own cowl. “Ready. Where are we going?” She laughed, “It’s a surprise.”
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Chapter Seven
H
arken jumped at the first shriek, and Idara laughed. “Calm down, Harken. No one here will hurt you.” The stampeded of small creatures jostled them, and he gripped her hand tightly. Idara had to admit that the transfer was not as smooth as when Harken moved in time and space, but she was learning, and it was something that had to be hammered out. “Why are we here, Idara?” She looked at the playground that surrounded them, and the parents who had a careful gaze on their children. Idara smiled and looked over the children and their toys. A little girl was outlined in black and images of the child running into traffic and being struck by a vehicle. That accidental death would devastate not only the girl’s family but also the driver and all the witnesses. The Orb of Time was insistent that she keep that child from following that ball into traffic. “We are here to help control a disaster, Harken. Just stay close and be prepared to move when I say so.” 37
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They walked slowly, and she steered them to the point between the girl and the swirling vortex of blackness on the street. One child came up to her and asked, “Is that a jogging suit?” Idara nodded. “It is. I am also allergic to sunlight, so this is the only way I can go out during the day.” “You don’t have a kid.” The earnest crimson face was serious as the girl in pigtails spoke. Idara laughed. “I am planning a family and looking for play structures in the neighbourhood.” Her attention was split as the ball came tumbling toward her. Idara held her breath, knelt, caught the ball, pulled her knife and stabbed it. As quickly as she had killed the bouncing ball, she heard the child cry out, and she got to her feet and took Harken’s hand. “Time to leave, Harken. Those kids look mad.” He was staring at her as if she had gone mad, and Idara had to pull him into the light with a short, sharp tug. Stumbling back into her bedroom, she scowled, “You could have helped back there.” He started laughing until he was bent double and tears streamed down his face. “You…went…all…that…way…to…stab…a…ball.” Idara went to the dispenser and got a cup of tea. It took ten minutes before Harken was sitting up and she looked at him with one brow arched, “Are you finished?” He shook his head and got up with a wheeze. “That is the most perverse assignment I have ever heard of.” 38
Avoid She grinned. “I think I am about to specialize in perverse.” He was about to respond when a chime emanated from a panel in the wall. Idara grimaced. “I am guessing that it is time to pay the piper, so to speak.” Harken stiffened. “I hope not.” Before he said anything else, he quickly checked on the tall spire off to one edge of the city. Grimly, he returned and wrapped his arm around her. “There is another level on the tower. Know that wherever you go, I will go.” She cocked her head. “How cheery. Come on. Better to get this over with, I have already been strangled once this week, I hope they mix it up.” He was looking down at her with amused surprise as he transported them to the council hall. “You have a peculiar way of looking at things.” “Now that my eyes aren’t focused on the floor, I am seeing things I never knew were there.” She grinned, patted him on the ass and sauntered into the council chambers where the seven were waiting. Only six of the seven were seated around the central icon on the floor. Ravikka was smiling grimly. “Idara, please come forward.” Idara stepped forward, but Harken was at her back. She could feel his warmth through her suit. “You have broken one of the cardinal rules of the Nameless. You have stopped a young child from losing her life in a stupid accident.” Idara played it dumb. “Did I?” 39
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Ravikka flicked her fingers, and the image of the child standing and wailing over her destroyed toy filled the screen. “She was supposed to die.” “I was sent there to follow the direction of the Orb. It wanted the disaster stopped, so I stabbed the ball. Where did I affect time and space?” Ravikka narrowed her eyes. “You know what you did.” “More or less.” She nodded and waved her hand. “You are hereby confined to the tower until such a time as the council rules on your actions.” Energy surrounded Idara and Harken was right behind, grabbing and holding onto her as she transported from the council chamber and into a huge room. Harken staggered slightly and released her. “Well, that is new.” She looked up at him. “You knew that would happen?” He blinked innocently. “I had a suspicion. Come on and let’s explore.” The entire width of the tower was at her disposal. There was a small communications node, a delivery panel that was a faint outline on the wall. “Okay, what is this place?” “This is the tower. By putting you here, the Council of Seven can pretend that you don’t exist, and therefore, you do not fall within their rules.” She leaned against the kitchen counter while he selected food from the digital screen. “You mean to say…” 40
Avoid “That something is going on and you were sent here for a reason. There is something going on behind the council doors, and none of the Nameless know what it is.” His fingers glided over the dispenser buttons and soon there was a cup of tea pressed into her hands. She looked up at him and his earnest expression. “Why me, why this? Why am I seeing two branches of each life that the Orb sends me after?” He ran his hand through his hair. “Sit down. This is going to take more than a cup of tea.”
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Chapter Eight
“W
hen the Orb called its first candidate, there was confusion as to what was expected of him. He muddled about, and when the Nameless began to appear at Home, there was a need for regulations.” He paused and retrieved the food he had ordered. Harken lay out the meal he had punched up and put a plate in front of her. She picked a few pieces that seemed familiar to her and gestured for him to keep talking. In between bites, he explained how the Nameless had started. “The first Nameless were wild and drunk with power. They changed time as they willed it and caused endless ripples in the new universe. There was no idea of what their actions would cause, and when the signs began to show, cracks in the new universe started to spread.” Idara nibbled at a chicken nugget and nodded. “That is creepy.” He shuddered, “You have no idea. The Orb had only initially seeded one race, and it rapidly spread seeds in thousands of races, hoping that they would mature as 42
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the race developed. Some races died out. Some flourished, and those who had been touched by the power of the Orb of Time tended to die early deaths. “Generation after generation percolated the power inside them until it was calm, controlled and integrated into their nervous systems. No power surges, no energy flares, nothing that would interfere with the timeline exists by the time we are ready to become Nameless.” “What happened to the original Nameless?” “The Orb removed their charge, and they returned to their natural state.” It took her a moment to recognize what he was saying. “Oh. They were dead again.” “They were dead again. The Orb didn’t just remove its power, but also the very stuff of life.” “Wait, how did it start repairs on the incoming folks when there was no one to catch or heal them?” He nodded. “It chose those who could be healed by accelerating their biology. Those few people formed the base for the current ranks of the Nameless.” She finished her meal and sipped at her tea, watching him slowly consume everything on the table. “When there were thirty Nameless, the Orb gathered them together and made them select a council of seven to coordinate supplies, living quarters, discipline and training. Acquisitions have a talent for forethought, and they bring in the food that we eat and the clothing that we wear. The objects and food are paid for using money that has been lost to time. A few bakeries on differing worlds have contracts, and they provide the food which disappears each day with money left in its place.” 43
Viola Grace She raised her eyebrows. “So, that does not answer why we are here.” He sat back and sighed. “There are some who guess that the Orb of Time, the kernel of the lost universe, is lonely. Others feel that the new universe was put on a skewed path by the first Nameless and we are here to set it right.” “What does the council think?” “That we are here to witness history and record it for some unknown purpose.” Idara blinked and concentrated on the bright spark inside her mind. “I don’t think that that is it.” He cocked his head. “Are you sure?” “No, but I will gain surety through action.” She grinned and got to her feet. “Action?” “Neither one of us is on duty, so why not find the bed and try and forget our day.” She grabbed his hand and tugged him to his feet. The moment that he wrapped his arms around her and leaned in for a kiss, she groaned. He was glowing white and she was burning black. “Damn it.” Laughing he kissed her deeply and took them to the world that burned in both their minds. Idara looked across the wasteland and found her target. A tiny plant grew in the arid desert, and it called to her. Harken was off near the settlement, watching the last ships of Ekhalio leave the surface. The sun was flaring wildly, and Idara was running out of time. 44
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The plant in question was a bright bloom that had a star in its centre. It had the potential to power whole cities if cultivated, and it was going to die here on this world if she didn’t get it onto one of those transports. She dug it out of the ground with care for its elaborate root system and turned to face the settlement. She would never make it in time if she didn’t find some way to get close in a hurry. Harken’s face flitted through her thoughts, and an understanding smile crossed her lips. She focused on him and used that image to pull her next to him in a single step. He was near the launch site, and a crowd was pushing to get on the last ship. Cradling the small plant in her hands, she pushed through the crowd and got to the edge. When she was near enough, she shouted at one of the timid team members who were walking onto the ramp, “Botanical sample!” The woman’s head snapped toward her, and two men with blasters came toward Idara, The crowd surged against her, but the men with blasters threatened them and they fell back. The woman in the researcher’s white bodysuit asked, “What do you have there?” “Botanical sample from Ekhalio. It is giving off an energy signature. Please, take it.” “How do I know it is real?” “Take it, put it in stasis and research it at your leisure. It has soil and traces from this world and it needs to live.” The woman reached out. “I can’t take you as well.” 45
Viola Grace Idara smiled. “I don’t want to go. That ship is not for me. Take it and be careful. It is the last of its kind.” The researcher took the plant and the guards held back the wailing crowd. Backing out of the press of bodies was far easier than pushing her way in. Idara walked back to where Harken was waiting. “The Orb sent you after a plant?” “It is an energy source for a new colony. No one here was selected for life, and so I didn’t interfere in their affairs.” She dusted her hands off on her thighs, free of the black glow at last. Harken watched the hatch seal, and Idara stood with him. There was no sense rushing these things. If time wanted him to witness that moment, then she would wait.
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Chapter Nine
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fter the ship left, the remaining persons rioted and engaged in a range of inventive suicides. Harken watched it begin, and when the Orb allowed him, they left. Silence reigned when they returned to the tower. In a dazed stupor, Idara stripped off her bodysuit while walking to the lav. When she got to her dagger, she threw it from her with a sob and kicked her boots off viciously. The water from the shower washed the muddy tracks of tears from her cheeks, but when her body shook with sobs, it was Harken’s arms that soothed her. “How can we be expected to just let people die? They were screaming, sobbing, begging for help. Why couldn’t we help them?” Her words were broken as her voice crackled alarmingly. “Because people live and people die. You died, and I could not save you. I knew that death was coming for you, and there was nothing I could do.” She snivelled and ran her hands over his back, mimicking what he was doing to her. “Yes, but you knew that there was a chance I could 47
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survive. These people had no chance.” “The decision to leave them was made by their ruling body. They were the unwanted members of the society, and the folk in the shuttle chose to escape rather than weigh themselves down with unusable beings. We merely witnessed it.” She sighed, and he quickly bathed her as her stressed body slumped against him. Idara remained quiet while he wrapped her in a towel and sat her on a chair. He combed her hair with expertise that she supposed was appropriate considering his own snowy locks. “It isn’t right.” He nodded in the mirror. “I know it isn’t. It is why this tower was built. One of your fellow Terrans has been selected to avert disasters and rescue innocents. It seems that you change fate in a slightly different manner.” He braided her hair into a thick rope and wound it into a coronet. She smiled, “You are very good at that.” “My sister’s husband died when she was pregnant, she needed help with her hair, so I learned to braid.” His smile was wistful. “How long ago was that?” “Fifteen hundred Admaryn years. Her grandchild is actually still alive today, you know.” He adjusted a few tendrils before putting the comb down and lifting her in his arms. “It is?” “Yes, he has taken a Terran to wife actually. His name is Vere, hers is Tess, and they live in a traditional tree home on the planet’s surface.” 48
Avoid She looked up at him and the pride in his eyes. “You watch them.” “I do. He looks so much like his grandmother that I see my sister every time he opens those red eyes of his.” “You miss her.” “I really do. When the Admaryn were harassing your people and trying to wipe them out, I stood on the side of humanity and was pulled Home when I died.” He put her gently on the bed and removed the towel that had been snug and warm around her. Harken leaned over her and pressed soft kisses across her forehead and trailed them across her face. He nipped her lips and laved them with his tongue before working his way down her neck, across her collarbone, between her breasts and he cupped each one in his hands as he worked lower. His tongue laved her navel, and she flinched but arched her hips against his chest in reflex. His chuckle was dark and then, he worked himself between her thighs and his tongue delved deep into her, parting her sex before flicking at her clit. He repeated the motion over and over until a high, keening note broke from her throat. The wet slide of his tongue continued and held her at the pinnacle of her orgasm until her limbs were shaking with the effort to hold herself still and she collapsed on the bed. Harken shifted her under the covers and curled against her. “Don’t you need to…” Her voice was lazy, drugged with exhaustion. 49
Viola Grace “I did. That was quite the release you had. You took me with you.” She blushed. She hadn’t noticed a thing. “Relax now. The first few steps through time can be taxing, and you have gotten more than your fair share.” She nodded sleepily and inhaled the scent of him while her mind spiralled into a resting state. Pleasure was a good way to get to a restful sleep, and she was going to see if he would be willing to provide her with a reliable prescription whenever she needed it. The glow woke her. “Aw come on.” She looked over at Harken, but he was sound asleep, no glow to be seen. The images in her mind were of a world where there was a fairly strict dress code, so she went to the requestcentre console near the kitchen and sent in an order for a gown with accoutrements. She brushed her teeth and performed her ablutions. By the time she was finished, a package was waiting in the slot. It took some trial and error, but she managed to get into her disguise, including a lacy veil that covered her head and, by extension, her freaky eyes. The folds of the elaborate skirt concealed her knife, and when she was sure that she was acceptable by the standards of the world she was about to visit, she charged up and stepped through time. Waves of the crowd surged forward, and she moved with them. When the flare of shadows led her down a hall, she parted from the wave of people to watch the 50
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ten-year public consummation of the king and his land with the sacrifice of the current queen. Idara ran swiftly to the nursery. The door opened under her hand, and she was treated to the sight of the nurse and her guardsman boyfriend going at it in the front room. The nurse yelped and clutched her dress to her breasts, but she was not why Idara was there. With long strides, she entered the child’s room and walked to the window where the child was watching the splaying of the woman down below. Calmly, Idara stepped between the child and the window, drawing the shades closed with her hands. “You do not need to see this, child. Your mother loves you and your father and is sacrificing herself for the well-being of the country.” The little girl had huge tears welling in her eyes. “Mama told me not to look.” Idara knelt and cuddled the child to her chest. “She didn’t want you to remember her that way. She wants you to remember her as she was standing proud and knowing what needed to be done.” The child started to sob and when the nurse came in, dishevelled and shocked to see her charge up and near the window, Idara waved her back. The princess eventually stopped her sobbing, and her even breathing told Idara that she had fallen asleep. Awkwardly, she got to her feet and took the girl to her bed, tucking her in and kissing her forehead. Idara got to her feet and was about to go when a small voice said, “Can I see your face, lady?” With a low bow, Idara lifted her lace veil and then 51
Viola Grace stood straight. “Be well, child. Life will start anew tomorrow.” She flared with light and disappeared, returning to her home and leaving behind a child who just lost her mother in the most horrific of spectacles. In her apartment, she removed her clothing and crawled back into bed with Harken. His arms came around her as she burrowed against him, and she shuddered until she fell asleep again. The smell of breakfast woke her, and she scooted up against the headboard when Harken came toward her with a tray. “Where did you go last night?” He pressed a kiss to her lips and nudged her to eat. She shook her head. “I don’t know. Formal clothing though. Big skirts and a lace veil.” He looked to the floor where she had dumped the clothing and nodded. “I see. What did you go for?” She sighed and swallowed with effort. “I was sent to stop a child from watching her mother being sacrificed so that a new woman could take her place as queen.” He froze. “Please tell me you are joking.” She shoved her plate away. “I wish I was. The nurse was having a tryst in the front room and had no idea that the child had woken up and was watching her mother being strapped to an altar.” “I am sorry.” “It will be fine. I am sure that eventually I will have another moment like when I got to stab the ball. That was sort of fun.” She chuckled weakly. He nodded. “Well, here is hoping that you will get 52
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another assignment soon.” Her skin started to glow, and she groaned. “Harken, be careful what you wish for.”
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Chapter Ten
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nowing that a man is ticklish and having to actually tickle a warrior in front of an audience were two separate things. Putting the whole thing on a Raider station made the process more difficult. Idara was wearing her bodysuit and belts once again, and the Enjel warrior that she was facing had been trying to take a Terran woman by force. It had been a while since her basic defense training, but when he stopped laughing at her challenge, they had faced off waiting for the signal. The moment that the hands clapped together, she lunged forward, ducked under his swinging arm and she got behind him, running her hands down his sides until he convulsed and fell to the ground. The Terran woman was free to go by the terms of the challenge. The Enjel howled and pounded his fists into the soft dirt of the challenge ring, and Idara faded into the crowd. “What have we here, another little morsel to play with?” A huge, hulking male stepped into her path, and she 54
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scowled up at him. Her cowl was still shading her eyes but only barely. “I am not for the likes of you, fellow. Stand aside and let me pass.” He reached out and lifted her by her arms. Following her reflexes, she kicked him where his genitals should be, and he merely grunted and scowled. “I don’t know what you were aiming for, but you missed.” Idara was about to try something else when the giant’s eyes rolled back and he dropped to the ground, releasing her on the way. “You can thank me later. Can we leave now?” Harken was quite fetching in the black leather that the men on the station favoured. She grinned. “That leather looks good on you.” Idara walked up to him and caressed the skin visible through the open vee of his neckline. “Don’t tease, pet. Off we go.” He wrapped her in his arms, and they disappeared in a flash. Back in their room, she took the opportunity to explore the skin under the leather, and he was content to let her. Apparently, the passive moment was now his to enjoy. Idara pushed him back onto the bed with one hand and peeled the leather shirt off, using her mouth to taste the sweet-salty taste of his skin as she worked her way to his belt. She opened the fastening of his belt, and his cock sprang eagerly from the rapidly opening vee of his trousers. She wrapped her lips around the head and 55
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flicked the tip with her tongue. With slow suction, she worked her head up and down, fighting a smile as his hips moved in time to her strokes. One hand clutched his waist and the other worked on his shaft, extending her coverage and increasing the low groans that were coming from his throat. When he shouted, she felt the pulse under her hand a moment before the thick cream hit her mouth. She swallowed convulsively and fought the urge to make a face. Idara looked along his body and noted his narroweyed stare. “What?” “Come here.” She crawled up and over, careful not to knee him in the groin. “You called?” He laughed and rolled with her until she was under him and his waking cock pressed against her. “I did indeed. What did I do in my last life to have a woman like you in this one?” She smiled and leaned up to kiss him. “You haven’t had me yet today, and I have to say that I am disappointed.” “I will have to remedy that.” With a determined gleam in his eyes, he opened the closure of her suit and slowly worked the fabric from her body. She laughed when he flipped her to her stomach and continued to strip her, but her laughter stopped when two long fingers slid into her from behind. Idara pumped her hips against his hand, and when he slid his cock into her in place of his fingers, she shuddered. Harken lifted her to her knees with an arm around her waist, and when the world stopped rocking, 56
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she was on his lap, her back to his chest and his hand was across her belly, his fingers on her clit with every short thrust of his hips. She gripped his thighs with her hands and rocked with him as she got closer and closer to orgasm, and when she tensed, her body was thrown into riot as he bit down on her shoulder. Her low moan turned into a high-pitched scream as adrenaline added to the mix. The lazy pleasure turned into a hard spike, and she shook and quivered against him. He thrust into her hard and fast, groaning against her shoulder until his cock finished flexing inside her. Together, they collapsed to the bed, and she smiled into the sheets at the feel of him inside her. “What did I do in this life to get you in it?” He pressed soft kisses against her shoulder where his teeth had made their mark. “You fell out a window and into my arms. From there, I was swept away.” They rested together and enjoyed the moment between assignments from the Orb of Time. Soon enough, she would be called to help someone avoid their fate and Harken would be called to witness. Life would be interesting, but at least she had one. As Idara fell asleep, she wondered if going to wreak revenge on the Skiilar or Geenari would ever come up, because if it did, that was one assignment she would go to eagerly. Time would tell.
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Author’s Note Sorry for Avoid being short, but I am on my way to a convention, and I had to get it done before I left. I know that is no excuse, but I promise to make it up for you in Await. Await will take us back to Earth, and for the first time since I started this series, a normal human woman who has not left the Earth will be called to the stars. Patience may be a virtue, but even virtue has to take a day off sometime, and Ophelia is done waiting. Viola Grace
[email protected] www.violagrace.com www.Extasybooks.com
About the Author Viola Grace was born in Manitoba, Canada where she still resides today. She really likes it there. She has no pets and can barely keep sea monkeys alive for a reasonable amount of time. Her line of day job tends to be analytical which leaves her mind hopping to weave stories. No co-worker is safe from her character analysis. In keeping with busy hands are happy hands, her hobbies have included cross-stitch, needlepoint, quilting, costuming, cake decorating, baking, cooking, metal work, beading, sculpting, painting, doll making, henna tattoos, chain mail, and a few others that have been forgotten. It is quite often that these hobbies make their way into her tales. Viola’s fetishes include boots and corsetry, and her greatest weakness is her uncontrollable blush. Her writing actively pursues the Happily Ever After that so rarely occurs in nature. It is an admirable thing and something that we should all strive for. To find one that we truly like, as well as love.
