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Authors: Juliet Cardin

Tags: #Erotic Romance/Science Fiction

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BOOK: Creature Worlds: Solar Slick
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“Yes.”

“I think the charges the king speaks of may be real. I think they may be about my brother.”

“Your brother is a spy?” I hissed quietly as I could.

Tigg shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. In the months leading up to when we left he was acting strangely. I fear what he may have been mixed up in. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d involved himself in dangerous games.”

“This isn’t a game! If what you say is true then he may be the reason for the revival of war—’cause that’s what could happen if the king gets his grubby hands on the cure.”

“I know and I’m sorry. I had no idea Teneg had involved himself this deeply. But at the same time, I cannot betray him.”

I shook my head at the dilemma. I’d never had siblings, but I knew I would take any steps to protect my parents if they were alive.

“There is only one vial of the cure,” Tigg reminded me. “The chances of them duplicating it are slim. At best only one or two men could use it to infiltrate themselves on Earth. That shouldn’t cause much harm.”

“Despite how primitive it appears, Ventillia is pretty advanced. If they’re able to reproduce the cure, who knows what damage it could cause.”

“The chances of that happening are slim,” Tigg said.

“Why?”

He looked at me pointedly. “They’re missing the main ingredient.”

“Me.” Now it was my turn to sigh.

Chapter 16

Tigg kissed me lingeringly before he finally left. I was terrified for him, and warned him to watch out for Clay and his thugs, despite his assurances he could handle himself. About an hour later I was struck by terrible wracking pain in my belly. My screams brought the guard posted outside my door bursting into the room. He eyed me with fear and suspicion.

“What ails you?” he demanded.

“Fuck if I know, asshole!” Wow did it hurt. The pain had brought me to my knees and the guard carefully assisted me to my feet and over to the bed to lie down. I saw the look of doubt on his face. “It’s not some grand ruse you dolt, I’m in labor.”

Seeing me settled, the guard rushed to the door and began yelling. Moments later the hall echoed with sounds of pounding feet and my room filled up with half a dozen people. All of them were men.

King Ranox, alerted to the emergency, soon entered the room and stood at the bed eyeing me. “The baby?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said abruptly, seized by another pain.
Oh my God!
I was going to give birth—early—and Tigg was gone.

“It’s early,” the king said, voicing my concerns.

“Stress,” I ground out. Damn them to hell if anything happened to my child.

A man was ushered into my room and by his long white coat—similar to something I’d seen on Earth—I guessed him to be a physician. My thoughts were confirmed when he introduced himself as such. He felt my belly and whispered something to the king.

“Clear the room,” the king instructed. Everyone left except the king, the physician, and a young man I assumed was his assistant. The king turned away discreetly while I was relieved of my pants and tucked under a blanket.

“I don’t want you to start pushing yet,” the physician said as he got into place at the foot of the bed and lifted up the blanket. “Bend your knees and slide down a bit.” I did as he instructed. Another pain assailed me and I cried out in agony.

“Yell if it helps,” the assistant said.

“Gee, thanks,” I returned sarcastically.

I screamed and swore and sweated for nearly two hours before I finally felt the child slip free. The king remained the entire time, pacing and worrying as if he were the expectant father.

“It’s over,” the physician said. He got to his feet holding a bundle, his face a tired but victorious mask.

The stillness of the swaddling in his arms disturbed me. I’d laid back after the ordeal was over, but now I sat up in alarm. “What’s wrong with the baby?” I demanded, my voice tinged in fear. “Why doesn’t it cry?”

The physician handed the bundle into my outstretched arms and smiled indulgently. “Silly girl,” he cajoled. “It won’t cry for another month or so yet.”

I pulled back the blanket carefully, so afraid of what I may see, and almost dropped the bundle so great was my shock.

“Did you not know?” he asked.

“I’d no idea,” I admitted. In my hands I did not hold the child I was so anxiously expecting. Instead, I held a greenish colored egg about the size of a football. It was warm to the touch and despite its sturdy appearance I’d have sworn I felt movement. Intricate designs in darker green were etched over the shell forming a swirling pattern that glimmered and shined as it caught the light. It was quite beautiful actually. I trailed my fingers over the smooth surface and was stunned to discover the ‘bump bump’ vibration of a tiny heartbeat.

“It’ll hatch in a month or so, then you’ll know if you’ve born a son or a daughter.”

Hatch?
“Wha…What am I supposed to do? Sit on it?” Why the hell hadn’t Tigg warned me?

“No,” he said with a chuckle. “Just keep it warm and as close to you as possible. Your heartbeat will sooth it.”

“Oh. Okay,” I said, wrapping the egg snugly and pulling it up against my chest.

“A nest is usually made up and the egg can be placed in it when the parents are not able to hold it.”

“A nest?” I was gonna strangle Tigg when I saw him.

The physician watched my face and must have noticed the annoyance at my ignorance. “He may not have been sure,” he told me.

“Who?”

“The father. After all, you are Ventillian. He probably wasn’t certain that you’d birth an egg. You might not have.”

“It’s true,” the king chimed in. “You could have had a live birth. One never knows how these things will turn out with mixed species and all…” I gave him a look that silenced him.

“He could have been here with me if you hadn’t sent him away!” I snapped.

The king looked at the physician and his assistant. “Thank you, you may go,” he dismissed them. The physician said he’d return later to check on me and they left the room. The king and I were alone—with my egg. I wrapped my arms around it protectively.

“I’m granting you and Tigg the opportunity to escape,” he reminded me.

“At great cost.”

He smiled benignly. “All that should matter to you now is your little family and keeping them safe.” The threat was clear.

“As soon as Tigg returns we’re out of here.”

“Of course. As soon as I have what I want you are free to leave. You have my word.” He looked at me a moment and then turned and left the room. My attention returned to my bundle of joy. I peeled back the blanket once more and traced my fingers lovingly across the shell.

“Hello, sweetheart,” I whispered. “Mommy loves you.” And I did. Fiercely. The king could take the blasted cure—for all the good it would do him—and Tigg and I and the baby would leave and never return.

Nestling back against the pillows, the egg secure in my arms, I drifted off to sleep with that comforting thought in my mind. I spent the rest of the day and also the evening in bed. Food had been brought to me and the physician had returned and assured me my egg was healthy and strong. The next morning after breakfast I rose with some discomfort and dressed in a short pretty dress the king had found and sent to me. With the egg in my arms, I informed the guard outside my door that I would like to go downstairs to the great hall. When Tigg returned he would be brought there, no doubt, and I wanted to be ready to meet him. I smiled as I walked slowly down the hall holding my egg, the guard leading the way. Tigg would be surprised to see I’d had the baby. Perversely, I hoped he would feel terrible for not being here for the birth. So what if it wasn’t his fault? Served him right for not warning me about the egg.

I took a seat at a table and waited. The room was practically empty with the exception of some servants who were cleaning up after the morning meal. It wouldn’t be long now. Soon Tigg would arrive and then we’d leave. I held my egg close to my heart and rocked it a little. Mothering an egg was actually quite enchanting. I got to take pleasure in the joy of holding my child without any of the fussing and dirty diapers that accompanied a baby. Soon enough I’d be feeding the little one jineg bugs in the hot jungles of Treox.

Chapter 17

There was a great ruckus by the doors of the great hall and soon I saw King Ranox appear with some of his soldiers. He nodded as he passed by me and took his seat upon the raised dais. Since he was here I assumed Tigg would soon be arriving. I tucked the blanket securely around my egg and rested it on my lap. Finally, Tigg was ushered into the room with two guards on either side of him. He smiled at me as he walked by and then a look of alarm registered on his face. He stopped dead in his tracks and turned back.

“Minka?” he gasped, looking at the bundle I held.

“We have a bouncing baby…egg,” I told him. His eyes opened wide as I got to my feet and strolled over to him. I put the egg into his outstretched arms and he pulled back the blanket with wonder.

“I wasn’t sure,” he told me.

Instead of giving him heck as I’d planned, I winked at him. “Guess we’ll have to wait awhile to see if it’s a boy or girl.”

“It’s early,” he said, looking at me with concern.

I shrugged. “The birth went well.”

Holding the egg securely with one arm, he reached to pull me to him with the other. “I love you,” he said.

“I love you too.”

The king cleared his throat. “I hate to interrupt the family reunion, but if we could get on with this,” he encouraged.

“Did you get it?” I asked Tigg. “No problems?”

“No, none,” he replied.

We walked up together to stand before King Ranox. Tigg reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out the precious vial. Doctor Jeneva had assured us that he could make more of the cure, but I hoped fervently that the scientists on Ventillia couldn’t reproduce it using this small sample from us. As Tigg had said though, they were lacking the main ingredient, which was my blood. I wasn’t about to offer up that little tidbit to King Ranox.

One of the soldiers took the vial from Tigg and handed it up to the king who eyed it with speculation. “Is this all?” he demanded.

“I swear to you that is all we have,” Tigg answered honestly.

“Hmm, it’ll have to do then,” the king said. He looked at the bundle in Tigg’s arms and smiled suddenly. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” Tigg said with fatherly pride.

“I’m very sorry about this, if there’d been any other way…” the king went on.

“Other than blackmailing us, you mean?” I supplied.

“Oh, I don’t just mean about the cure,” the king said. He nodded to the guards and two of them rushed up to grab me by the arms.

“What the hell…” I gasped.

“Get your hands off of her!” demanded Tigg. “We’ve given you what you asked for.”

“You promised us we could leave,” I reminded him.

“Yes. I did promise
you
could leave. You and Tigg, but not your child.”

“What the hell?” I snarled. The guard beside me pulled out a nasty looking little gun and aimed it at my head.

“Move and she gets it,” the guard said to Tigg.

“Hand over the egg,” a guard beside Tigg said to him. I could see Tigg’s grip on it tighten.

“Tigg?” I cried. Even if I had to die, I didn’t want him to put our child into the hands of that filthy guard.

“Give up the egg,” King Ranox urged Tigg. “You can always have another.”

“You son of a bitch,” snapped Tigg. He looked at me full of regret and slowly passed the egg into the guard’s hands.

“What are you going to do with our baby?” I screamed at the king.

“Why, give it to me, my dear Minka,” came an answer from behind me. My head snapped around in the direction of the voice. “Clay?” I gasped. It was him—my worst nightmare. He strutted forward—in one of the most vicious kingdoms in the universe—without a care in the world. Was he mad? What was he doing here? Didn’t the fool realize he was in mortal danger? When he stopped beside me I could see the gleam in his eye. His gaze traveled the length of my body making me involuntarily shudder. He reached out a finger and stroked it down the side of my cheek. I pulled my head away in disgust. Even after all this time he still had the power to make me cringe.

When Tigg would have rushed forward the two guards grabbed his arms and pulled out their weapons aiming them at him.

“I’ll kill her if you move,” threatened the guard holding the gun to my head.

Tigg stilled his movements, his gaze darting from me to Clay. “Keep away from her,” he said to Clay.

Clay walked up to stand before the king. “You have my payment as agreed upon?” he asked.

“I do,” the king said. He nodded at the guard holding my egg and the man came forward and put it into Clay’s hands.

Tigg and I both struggled fiercely. The king looked at me with mild compassion. “If it weren’t for him we never would have learned about the cure,” he said indicating Clay.

“You’d betray your own planet?” I demanded. “How could you?”

Clay looked down at the egg adoringly. “For this,” he said simply. He thanked the king and then turned to leave. “Goodbye, Minka.”

“Wait!” I begged him. “Take me instead. The baby can’t be of any use to you for years.”

“Actually, Lizord young grow quite quickly,” Clay assured me. “And since it will be
my
child, it will obey me unquestioningly. Let’s just hope it possesses your talent or you’ll be correct, it won’t be of any use to me.”

“I will hunt you down to the ends of the galaxy,” Tigg yelled. “There will be no peace,” he promised. The look on Tigg’s face was frightening. He meant what he said. Little beads of sweat broke out on Clay’s face. He laughed a little but nobody bought it. He was afraid. He began to walk quickly from the room, my screams following his every step.

Once he was gone I turned my wrath upon the king. “Betrayer! Liar!” I began, until the king’s growl cut me off.

BOOK: Creature Worlds: Solar Slick
2.83Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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