My Alien Warrior (11 page)

When she started to clench around him, he moved harder, faster, taking her again and again until she fell apart, crying out his name in a way that sent him right over the edge with her.

The two of them spent the rest of the night together, wrapped up in a blanket, sharing take out and body heat. Khaos was calmer, his hot irritation dulled to something more easily ignored in favor of relaxing with someone he cared about.

He didn’t know if he believed that they were mates, but he knew that this was something that made him happy, and when all of this was over, he was going to have to find some way to keep it.

Unbeknownst to Khaos and Kayla and any of the other Kaspersi, their problems were really just beginning. Kaspersi and other peaceful races were not the only ones who had representatives on Earth. No matter how well regulated the intergalactic traffic was, it was always possible for someone to slip through unnoticed.

Unfortunately, the Vekosh, for all their hatred of Earth and the humans who populated it, had representatives there, too. And when the signal to find Khaos went out, two of them made it their mission to hunt down the Kaspersi champion.

Khaos, in his need for comfort, had unwittingly made the Vekosh’s job much easier. Not only did they now know where he was, but they knew that there was someone on Earth that he cared for. Someone who it would hurt him to lose.

And now they had a plan.

Back on Blessini, Nambroc received this news from his minions and sat back on his throne with a terrifying grin. It wasn’t what he had been expecting, but in a way, it was better. Khaos was formidable, everyone knew that, but now they would have some leverage against him, and it was really a much better plan than the one he had been toying with before.

Everything was falling perfectly into place.

Chapter 9: Too Close to the Fire

Despite the fact that things were not going so well for Khaos and his people, Kayla kept catching herself grinning a lot over the next couple of days. She hummed to herself as she made coffee and dealt with patient files, and more than one patient had commented on the fact that she seemed more cheerful than usual lately.

She didn’t want to admit that her new and improved mood had something to do with being in something like a relationship because she firmly believed that you didn’t need a relationship to be happy, but she wasn't too proud to admit that there was something uplifting about not being completely alone.

Khaos understood her, and he was willing to work with her and her job and not spend all his time pouting because he couldn’t have as much attention as he wanted, and that was perfect. It made things so much easier, and having something to look forward to at the end of the day was such a welcome change.

All of the nurses noticed, and Kayla was just waiting for them to say something about it.

It wasn’t until a particularly slow day, just after Khaos had found out about the Vekosh, that any of them said anything. They’d all met Khaos before since he tended to hang around the clinic when he had the time, but they’d refrained from asking too many questions, which had made Kayla suspicious instantly even though she’d decided not to push and try to find out what they were up to because not having to answer a bunch of questions about it was nice.

When she looked up from a chart to see Nina standing in her office door, she knew her reprieve was over.

“Something I can help you with?” Kayla asked, arching an eyebrow in a way that let Nina know that she knew exactly why she was there.

“Probably. I was just noticing that the big guy you’re usually with isn’t here today. Did something happen?”

Kayla barely contained her snort. “He’s having something of a family emergency,” she explained. “So he’s off dealing with that.”

“Oh. Well, I hope it’s nothing too serious. He seems like he’s been good for you. Is he your…” She trailed off, clearly hoping that Kayla would fill in the blanks for her. Any other time, she might have, but for the moment, she was having too much fun with this.

After all, how often did she get to do this? Usually she had to just sit back and listen while the rest of them went on about the men they’d gone out with, all the teasing going over her head because she’d spent the night with leftovers and her dog. It felt good to be able to do this for once, to be a part of it, even though she kept telling herself that she’d been fine before.

“My what?” she replied, smiling just a little because she couldn’t help herself. “My brother?”

“We all know he isn’t your brother!” Christina called as she walked past.

“Not with the way he looks at you when you aren’t looking,” Nina agreed with a nod and a knowing look.

“How does he look at me?” Kayla asked. That caught her off guard and made her forget all about how she had been planning on teasing them. She knew that Khaos
looked,
but she’d never noticed anything special about it, really.

“Depends,” Nina replied, leaning in the doorway with her arms folded. “Sometimes like you’re his own personal hero. Sometimes like he wants to eat you. A couple of times like you were some puzzle that he couldn’t figure out. Definitely nothing familial about it.”

At the mention of him wanting to eat her, she was reminded of the bite marks Khaos had left on her breasts when she’d been ‘comforting’ him, and she knew that they were probably right. “Okay, so he’s not my brother,” she admitted. “I don’t know what we are, and I’m not trying to rush into anything. It’s good the way it is.”

“That much is obvious,” Nina said. “You’ve been practically glowing. We just want to make sure that he’s good for you and isn’t some creep just trying to get in your pants. What do you know about him?”

It was funny just how little she could actually tell them about what she knew of Khaos. “This coming from the people who wanted me to just casually go start flirting with the florist across the street?” she asked.

“That’s different,” Christina insisted, joining Nina in the doorway.

“How?”

“It just is. This guy feels different. We just want you to be careful.”

Well, they were right about that. Khaos was definitely different, and Kayla hadn’t really stopped to think about using caution with him. Everything they did just felt so right, and she was loathe to stop and try to think of all the ways that it could go wrong, even though she knew that there were a lot of them.

“I appreciate your concern,” she settled on. “And you know me. Impulse isn’t really my thing. I know him pretty well.”

“Okay,” Nina said. “As long as you feel safe with him and he treats you well, we’ll leave it alone. If he starts being a massive jerk, then let us know. He’ll rue the day he messed with you.”

Kayla laughed and felt a surge of affection for them. “Thanks,” she said. “I’ll be sure to do that, but I really don’t think you need to worry.” From what she could tell, Khaos felt the same way about her as she did about him. They had been sort of thrown together by him asking for her help, and everything since then had just felt good.

Khaos didn’t come by that day, but it wasn’t really a surprise. She knew that he and the rest of the Kaspersi who were on Earth had a lot on their plates just then, trying to figure out what they were going to do about the whole thing with the Vekosh. It sounded like something out of a television show or sci-fi novel, but the more she thought about it, the more she hoped that everything would be alright.

Since Khaos was busy, she stayed late at the office that night, trying to get a head start on some things and wrap up some paperwork that she’d been putting off to spend time with Khaos. It was high time that she picked another doctor to come and help her out, and she had a pile of resumes to go through.

She was so engrossed in that, that she barely noticed the rest of the office clearing out. Christina called a good night to her, and she remembered answering and getting up to make another pot of coffee, but other than that, her focus was on her work.

Kayla wasn’t sure how much time had passed before she heard the sound of breaking glass in the waiting room.

Her head snapped up from where it had been bent over her work, and she glanced around, heart pounding. She knew the nurses would have locked up when they left, not leaving her alone in the clinic at night with the door unlocked.

She listened for a moment, wondering if maybe something had been knocked over in one of the others rooms because of a window being left open or something. There were plenty of explanations for glass breaking that didn’t have to involve an intruder, she tried to remind herself as she fought to regulate her breathing, but when the sound of footsteps because audible, her heart rate slammed into double time.

Apparently there was no use kidding herself.

The office door was closed, but there was no lock on it, and she didn’t have any way out of the office without going through the door. Whoever was out there didn’t seem to be in any hurry, and she wracked her brain, looking frantically around the office for something she could use as a weapon.

If someone was trying to hurt her, her best bet would be to try and get to her car somehow so she could get help.

Carefully she reached towards the phone on the desk, wondering if she could call 911 without making too much noise. Maybe whoever it was would assume there was no one there and leave after they’d taken whatever they’d come for.

Before she could so much as reach for the number pad to dial the number, though, the door to her office slammed open, splintering around the hinges from the force of whatever had hit it.

When she looked up, she could see a hooded, hunched figure in the doorway, and it appeared that it had
kicked
her door open.

“Ah, it’s the pretty human,” the creature said. It was male, she could tell that much, and his voice was whispery and cold. “I was hoping for the both of you. So careless of the champion to leave you here alone. Do you want to come with me, pretty human?”

Kayla’s blood ran cold, and she shook her head. “I’d really rather not. What do you want from me, Vekosh?” It was a leap, considering she couldn’t see anything but red eyes and a hunched form, but she was pretty sure she knew what this thing was, considering it knew who Khaos was and that she was something to him.

“Ohoho,” the Vekosh said, inching closer to the desk. “Such a smart human girl. Your champion has taught you well, but did he teach you to fear?”

“Why should I be afraid of you?” Kayla snapped, willing her voice not to shake.

He grinned, showing off rows of sharp teeth that glistened with what could only be the venom Khaos had told her about. If it was strong enough to kill the Kaspersi, then she didn’t even want to know what it could do to her.

“Because, little human, you aren’t safe here. Or anywhere as long as our king wants you. Your precious champion can’t keep you safe. He’s not even here to save you now I don’t understand why humans hold such power over more powerful beings,” the Vekosh mused. “Maybe we’ll figure it out when we take you.”  

As much as she wanted to pretend like she wasn’t afraid of whatever this thing was going to do to her, she had to admit that her body was shaking. What did they want with
her?
It wasn’t like she posed any threat to them, unless…

Unless it was really Khaos they wanted, and they were planning to use her to draw him out.

Kayla leapt to her feet, eyes darting around. If she could get past him, she could run out and get to her car, maybe find Khaos and warn him before something happened.

She didn’t know if her intent was clear on her face or if the Vekosh just didn’t want to take any chances, but before she could so much as round her desk, her arm was caught in a strong grip, claws scraping her skin as she was yanked close enough that she could smell the rotten stink of the creature’s breath.

“Not so fast, pretty human,” he hissed right in her face. “You’re going to come with me, and then we’ll see how good the champion is at protecting his own.”

“Let go of me!” Kayla shouted, jerking and trying to remove her arm from his grip. “Get off!”

The creature sighed and drew back his other hand, smacking her hard in the face. Pain exploded behind her eyes, and though she tried to fight it, darkness consumed her vision.

Chapter 10: Come Hell or High Water

Being the champion of the Kaspersi turned out to be a lot less glory and a lot more dealing with things he really didn’t want to deal with, Khaos was finding out. Especially considering he was on his third holo screen call with Calin that week, trying to remind him that he had no idea of the Vekosh’s motivations and that, for the most part, they didn’t really matter.

“They want us dead,” he said for what felt like the hundredth time. “What more motivation do they need.”

“But
why
do they want us dead?” Calin asked, and Khaos had to work not to throw his hands up and storm out of the room.

“I promise I mean no disrespect, Leader,” Khaos began, feeling like his head was going to explode if he didn’t speak his mind. “But why does it
matter
why they want to kill us? Clearly they just
do
, and they aren’t messing around. People are probably dying right now while we’re sitting around talking about this.”

“Spoken like a true warrior,” Calin replied, looking calm over the holo screen. “But that is exactly why we must find out what they are up to and why. Their plan to poison us is already underway. They’ve already killed us in multitudes. What if there’s another plan waiting in the wings? We’ve underestimated them already, for years, and look where that’s gotten us. If it was just a simple matter of wanting us dead, they could have done more. They could have attacked our homes and burned our factories to the ground. They could have poisoned everything we eat and drink. And yet they didn’t. They’re playing the long game.”