Emma's Heart (Brides of Theron 3) (26 page)

“You
just took me off guard, that’s all. It’s been a really long time since anyone has offered to brush my hair for me. Growing up like I did, I had to learn very quickly to take care of myself.” She scooted back until she felt the pressure of his thighs against her body. She handed him the brush and then relaxed. She closed her eyes when she felt the first touch of the bristles as they slid through her hair. Brylon repeated the motion several times then moved her long black hair to the side, revealing her neck. The motion of the brush stopped completely, and that was when she felt the warmth of his breath on the skin next to her ear, followed by the soft touch of his lips on her neck. The sensation of his touch sent chills all the way down to her toes.

“Brylon…what are you doing?” She tilted her head to the side so that she could give him m
ore access to the sensitive skin of her neck where he was currently kissing her. “Umm…Brylon…Are you a hungry?”

The nibbling stopped long enough for him to reply to her que
stion, “Oh yes, I am hungry, but I’m not hungry for food.” She could tell he was amused by her question by the breath on her neck.

Just outside the house
, she could hear the first sounds of the rain as it fell. The rain wasn’t anything like it was on Earth, where the rain would normally start with a few drops and build into a downpour. On Theron, it was as if someone had switched on a fire hose full blast. It was unbelievable how the rain fell so hard so quickly. The sound of it as it blasted against the windows of the tree startled Emma out of the amorous moment.

“It’s just a
storm, nothing to worry about.”

“I have never seen rain come down so hard so quickly. If it rains like this for much longer it will surely flood everything, won’t it?”

“This isn
’t Earth, Emma. Everything on this planet has its own purpose. The rain nurtures the forest while the forest sucks up the water. We learned many lessons the hard way after the invasion of our planet. We took the resources the planet had offered us for granted before then, but now we respect our planet and the gifts from the Gods more than we ever did. Nothing on Theron goes to waste anymore.” Brylon resumed brushing her long hair.

“What about your parents? Were
they killed in the war?”

Th
e brush faltered for an instant. “You know I used to brush my mother’s hair like this when I was a boy.” He stopped brushing her hair altogether. “I don’t know exactly what happened to my parents. They were here on the planet when the Drylons attacked and took over for a while. But, when we were finally able to drive them off with the help of our allies, many of our elders and most of our women were either dead or missing. I was never able to recover their remains, so I don’t know and may never know what happened to them.”

“I’m sorry. I shoul
dn’t have asked you that,” she said.

“Why
shouldn’t you have asked me? It’s a question that you wanted to know the answer to. Emma, it doesn’t pain me as much as it used to when I think about them. I miss them, but there’s nothing I can do to bring them back. Here you go my love, all done.” He handed her the brush.

“Will you have
to go back up to the ship in the morning?” She got into to her side of the bed.

“
I’m going to be working on the ship for the next couple of weeks. Engine number two needs to be completely rebuilt. The mother ship wouldn’t be able to go very far without one of the main engines, would it? Would you like to come up to the ship with me?” He was now lying on his side as he spoke.

“No, I think I will stay here. Avery and I
were going to get together again, and maybe go to the market.” She yawned as she said those last words.

“No,” he replied curtly.

Her head snapped to the side, “No, what?”

“No, I do not want you to go to the market without m
e.” The look on his face showed that he was dead serious.

“Umm…why
, may I ask?”

“Because
, I said I don’t want you going there without me.”

Emma sat up and faced him.
“Are you forbidding me from going anywhere on this planet without you?”

“Yes, you are not to leave this house unless I
come with you.”

“You’
re joking right?”

Brylon
sat up in the bed too, staring into her face. “No, I am not joking. You will remain in this house as I’ve told you to, or you will be coming with me up to the ship.”

“This is bullshit Brylon.
Are you actually expecting me to remain locked up in this house, only to be allowed to go out when you are with me?”

“I
’m not going to say anything else on the subject, Emma. You will do as I say.”

“Whatever!” She lay back down
on the bed and rolled onto her side facing away from Brylon.

“Emma…” he started to say.

But she cut him off from between clenched teeth, “Leave me the hell alone, and do not touch me again.”

He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. The storm was still raging outside, but the storm inside was just starting to build. He was going to protect her at all costs, and was determined that he wasn’t going to let the same thing happen to Emma that had happened to Avery. He had waited too long to find a mate and he wasn’t about to take any chances in losing her like he did his parents.

The days were passing too slowly now for Lars’ taste. Even though they worked the twelve hours shift every day, Lars was growing impatient. Not only was he ready to leave this place, he was fucking hungry all the time. The few pieces of dried meat and bread he was rationed every morning were not enough to sustain him for the work he had to do. He saw firsthand from Zirlo, and many of the others in this sector, that food was scarce. He remembered Zirlo before the war. He was a very tall and extremely muscled warrior without an ounce of fat on his body. Now the former commander was basically skin and bones. Some days he wasn’t even sure how the man managed to lift the stones and rocks that needed to be discarded.

Most of the women weren’t fairing any better either. Their
ragged dirty clothing hung on their frames sometimes several sizes too big. If the Drylons had any real brains in their heads, they would make sure that their workers were well feed in order to keep the production level at a steady pace. Lars had the unfortunate task the week before of carrying out a worker who had died from starvation, while he was in the mist of searching for the Emperor’s precious gold.

It was truly amazing that Zirlo had lasted for nearly ten years in this hell hole. He had to give the warrior credit for not giving up.
Right now though, Zirlo was his ticket off this hunk of junk planet. He would just continue to play along with Zirlo and the others, just until he could make his move and escape.

Lars had already decided when he first discovered who Zirlo was
, that he wasn’t going to divulge anything about what he had done to get thrown into the prison in the first place. There wouldn’t be any chance for him to have befriended Zirlo, if the commander knew about his betrayal to the Theron race, and more importantly, to his son. The former commander probably would have slit his throat if he had learned about his traitorous actions. For now, all he had to do was stick by his story, about being taken prisoner when his ship had been discovered by a Drylon fighter adrift in outer space.

“Lars!” The sound of his name being called brought Lars out of the stupor he was in at the moment.

“Lars, come on man! We need to go to the pit and dump the load.” Zirlo was calling for him across the cavern. “Carel is waiting for us.”

Underneath his breath he said
, so no one could hear, “I am coming, you old fool.”

The small group of prisoners along with Carel, the guard, made their way towards the pit. The rail cars had to be pushed the entire way out of the cavern and then back again once they were empty. This ga
ve them some precious time to work on befriending whatever guard was escorting them to the pit, because the entire run usually took about two hours to complete from start to finish. Luckily for them, Carel had been the one assigned to oversee the dumping of the excess waste rocks for the past several days. Zirlo was always along on the runs to the pits because he held an attitude of authority among the prisoners.

The first day Carel escorted them to the pit, Zirlo had tried to make small talk with the Drylon guard, only having moderate success in getting the man to talk. Zirlo had started off by asking the guard where he had transferred in from. Carel had answered him
, but it appeared as if the man was trying to hide something. Lars watched from the back of the rail car as he helped to push it to the surface. He was able to study the guard’s body language as he spoke to Zirlo or would stare at the old man when he thought no one was looking.

Each day from that point on Carel would call for Zirlo to come supervise the dumping car
, and then Zirlo would call for Lars. Each day Zirlo would work on Carel and draw more and more information out from him. Each day Carel appeared to be more at ease with the small group of prisoners that he was getting to know better. With every day that they were able to communicate with Carel, they drew closer and closer to being able to pull off the escape.

The trip to the surfa
ce was no different that day than any other. Lars and Danuwee would push the car while Zirlo and Hator pulled. Carel walked along side of Zirlo as usual.

“Carel, do you have any family?” Zirlo asked.

The young guard glanced at the older man who, by race, was his sworn enemy. “I do, but I have moved them far away from Drylon. It’s not safe for them to be anywhere near here anymore.”

“But
, why would you move your family away and not go with them?” Zirlo strained as the group struggled to push and pull the heavy load up a particularly steep area.

“My family does not agree with what the
Emperor has chosen to do over the years, especially my father. You see, my father is a believer in the old ways when the Drylons and Therons were once allies and friends. His grandfather was one of the key people who had fought for the treaty about a hundred years ago. Now the Emperor has destroyed what he and many others of my family had fought so hard for, peace. There are many, many Drylons that do not agree with the Emperor and want things to go back to the way they were before he took charge. I, for one, would like to bring my family back home to Drylon, but as long as the Emperor is in charge that’s never going to happen.” Carel had a look of complete sincerity as he spoke to the once high ranking commander. “Before I came here, I asked my father about the beginning of the war, and if he knew what happened to the Theron people who had been captured.”

Zirlo was confused
by the man’s last statement, “How would your father know what happened to any of us?”

Carel stopped walking and said,
“Stop the car.”

“Carel,
I’m confused.” Zirlo leaned against the wall to rest while he had the chance. He may have once been a great warrior, but now he was just a shriveled up old man.

“My father was onc
e in the Emperor’s guard when Gatton first took over ruling this planet. He was one of Gatton’s highest ranking officers and had access to a lot of secret information. My father didn’t know exactly what the Emperor’s plans were, until it was too late to do anything about it. About the time that the invasion took place, my father had faked his own death so that he wouldn’t have any connection to the slaughter of the innocent people that were once allies to the Drylon people. Shortly after the first year of the war my grandfather passed away. Sometimes, I think my grandfather grieved himself to death because of the actions of the Emperor. All the years of trying to make peace and keeping friendly relations were wiped out by one man.”

“I can understand the sadness
that your grandfather felt. So many lives have been lost by this senseless war that was started by Gatton and to what ends, power, or greed? No one in the last ten years has ever gotten a clear reason on why the Emperor wanted to start the war in the first place, other than wanting to take over Theron and our natural resources.” Zirlo looked into the young soldiers eyes.

“From what I understand about the
Emperor, he wants to systematically strip planets for their resources and use them for his own personal gain. That is basically what he is doing here on Drylon. He doesn’t care about the planet itself or even Drylon people for that matter. His strategy is to strip the planet, and then move on to the next one. I wouldn’t be surprised if he eventually tries to go after the planet where your people recently found mates.” Carel took a few steps in the direction of the entrance of cavern to see if anyone was near enough to overhear them.

Lars’ head snapped up
attentively at the last comment that Carel had made about the Therons finding mates. How in the hell had he found out about that? If Zirlo found out that he was the one who had betrayed Zeb and the rest of Therons, his chances of escape were over.