Silas: Imperial Warrior (A Sci-Fi Alien Warrior Romance) (9 page)

"We
are
friends. But sometimes you need to learn when to let things go." She turned away before Ava could reply, putting down her trays. "Jerry, I'm leaving now. I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Bye, Ava."

"Bye," Ava said, sounding as stunned as she looked.

Katia felt bad about how she'd spoken to her, but honestly, she didn't know what else she was meant to do. Ava was her friend, but she was also a busybody, and she knew that if she told her the truth, it would spread, and either people wouldn't believe her and would think she was crazy, or they would believe her and everything would get chaotic and weird.

Plus, she didn't know if Silas wanted people to know he was on Earth, and she didn't want to be the one who blew his cover, if he had one.

Honestly, she didn't know much at all about what Silas was doing on Earth. She knew that he had crash landed here, and she knew that he was supposed to be letting his people know about some threat, but other than that, she had no idea what his plans were.

They hadn't talked all that much the night before, really. He'd woken up that afternoon and then had immediately gone out to find the wreckage of his ship. Apparently after wandering for a while, he'd been unable to retrace his steps back to it, and had come back to her house in defeat and didn't speak to her again.

It had been an awkwardly quiet night, and Katia was a bit miffed at getting the silent treatment in her own house, but she still didn't really know how to talk to this man who wasn't even from her planet.

"What do you do?"

It was the first question that greeted her when she came through the front door that evening.

Silas was standing there, and—oh god— he was shirtless.

His bandages had been removed, though, and the wounds seemed to already be healing. Katia was reaching out to touch one that was already fading to shiny scar tissue before she caught herself and curled her fingers into a fist and pulled it back.

He was so...muscular. And so well put together. And she realized that she was standing in the middle of her entry way, practically ogling the alien man who had crash landed and somehow ended up in her yard. Katia shook herself. Hard.

"What?"

"You said you were going to work. What do you do?"

"I...run an inn."

"An inn."

He didn't sound impressed, and Katia bristled.

"Yes, an inn. I know it's not as fancy as being a member of the military, and the Champion of whatever it is you're the Champion of, but it's what I've wanted to do my whole life."

"Why?"

The question brought her up short.

"What?"

"Why?" Silas repeated. "Why was that what you wanted to do? I don't say that to judge your profession, of course. I'm only curious."

"Oh." Katia blinked, still feeling like she was on the back foot with him and unsure of what he was really asking. She needed a cup of tea.

He followed her into the kitchen and watched as she went about boiling the kettle and measuring out her loose leaf peppermint. It was a ritual that always calmed her down, and surprisingly enough, not even Silas standing there, watching her curiously, could take the relaxation out of it.

Silas didn't ask his question again, either. He just stood there, letting her do what she needed to do, and when she had a steaming cup in her hand, she leaned against the counter and sighed softly.

"It's not some great story, you know," she said. "I can't stand here and tell you that I always felt a calling to be in the hospitality business. I just..." Katia shrugged. "When I was a kid, my parents took me and a couple of my cousins on a trip up the coast. We stayed in this bed and breakfast when we got there, and it was...I dunno. It was wonderful. Everything was neat and decorated and the people who ran it were so nice. Every day we went to the beach, and that was fun, but the best part was coming back to the B&B at the end of the day. The owners had lemonade and iced tea waiting for us, and cookies for us kids. We showed them our seashells that we'd collected, and it was like being away from home, but still being in a place that felt homey, you know? I never forgot that."

"And you wanted to give that to someone else."

Katia smiled at him. "Yes, exactly."

"You do your job because you love it." He said it with a certainty that surprised her. It wasn't that he knew her, because he didn't, but clearly that he knew what it felt like to love what you did.

"Yes," she said again. "I do."

He was looking right at her, and they held eye contact for a several seconds. At least until Katia noticed and then blushed darkly. "Um," she said, and then wanted to kick herself. "How was your day? I noticed you didn't destroy the place."

Silas gave her an arch look. "Were you worried?"

"Maybe a little. I didn't think you'd know how to use any of my appliances or anything."

"I don't," he said. "Because they're primitive."

"They are not!"

"They are," Silas insisted. "Compared to what I'm used to.

Katia supposed she couldn't argue with that since she had no idea what his technology was like. "Okay, fine. I'm still glad you managed. Do you...have any idea how long you'll be staying?"

A cloud seemed to pass over his face, and Silas sighed. "I don't. I need to get off of this planet. I need to warn my people about what's coming for them. I need to find my ship and figure out if there's anything I can salvage of the communications devices."

He spoke with a passion that made it clear he was serious about all of this, and Katia wished there was something she could do to help.

And then it dawned on her.

"You know...there's not much I can do about your communications stuff, but you crashed here on Earth. Like literally crashed."

"I'm aware of that," Silas said flatly.

Katia flapped a hand at him, getting excited now. "No, no. I mean, anything like that, crashes and rubble and all, gets reported by someone. Even if it's just small beans kinda news, someone will have seen it and be talking about it online or something. We just have to see where they said they found it."

Those strange blue eyes lit up at that. "And then get there before they strip the ship bare."

"Why do you think they'd do that?"

"Humans are known for not being able to keep their hands to themselves."

"Hey!" Katia said, indignant. "I take offense to that."

"I'm sorry, but that's what I've heard."

And, actually, she couldn't really deny it. Instead she sighed and went with her tea to the living room, curling up on the couch. She had to be back at the inn in the morning, and it would be the same all week.

Actually, she supposed that if she wanted, she could take a day off, considering in all the time since The Lily had been open, she’d never once called in sick or had someone cover her shift. She could easily say she had some kind of emergency and get someone to fill in for her while she dealt with...whatever this was. But she didn’t want to do that.

Silas had followed her into the living room, and he hovered nearby, looking unsure.

Katia flapped a hand at him. “Sit down, will you? You’re so tall that you’re making me nervous when you stand up like that.”

He smiled and shrugged before he folded himself onto the loveseat. “I shouldn’t be inconveniencing you like this,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“You have a life. This is your home. I am a stranger.”

“Ah, that. Well, it’s not really your fault. I’m the one who let you in and haven’t kicked you out yet. I’m actually surprised that you’re still here.”

“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” Silas said.

“I know, I just mean I’m surprised that you feel like you can trust me enough to stay here.”

He looked surprised himself at her words. “You’re trusting me in your home while you’re at work,” he countered.

"That's true. I am." Katia took another sip of her tea. "But you seem like you need someone to be there for you while you're here. Since you're a stranger in a strange land, and all. And I've never met anyone from another planet before. Call it curiosity."

Silas smiled, and if anything, it made him more attractive. Katia averted her eyes. This was not the time to be feeling the years she'd gone without being with someone. As soon as a hot alien landed in her lap, she wasn't going to go all goo goo eyed over him.

"Then I'm grateful for your curiosity. As soon as I can figure out how to get a message to my Empress or to anyone else in HIMA, then I'll no longer be your problem."

"Don't worry about it," Katia said. "I'll just go grocery shopping on my way home tomorrow evening. I don't think I have enough food in my house to feed someone your size."

He laughed at that. "Do you work every day?"

"Every day but Saturday," she replied.

"What day is it today?"

"Sunday."

"Hm. Your days are named oddly."

Now she was intrigued. One of the coolest things about having an alien in her house was probably going to be getting to know the differences between his culture and hers. "What are your days called?" she wanted to know.

"Kas-ar, Sin-ar, Dorn-ar, Ult-ar, Ilk-ar, Torrind-ar, Samul-ar, and Felst-ar," Silas explained.

"You have eight days in a week?"

He tipped his head to one side. "I guess so. Ilk-ar, Torrind-ar, Samul-ar, and Felst-ar are at the end, and no one gets much done on those days, really."

"Four weekend days? Lucky." Silas smiled again, and Katia made herself more comfortable. "Will you tell me more?" she asked.

"About my people?"

"Yeah. And about you. If you're going to be staying here, then there's no reason why we should be strangers, right?"

He inclined his head, clearly in agreement. "Right. What would you like to know?"

"Well, for starters, what's HIMA?"

Silas began to explain, and Katia hung on every word.

Chapter Six: Progression

Even though he was on Earth and not on Gathra, Silas' built in need to wake up with the sun was still something that happened. As soon as the sun rose over the horizon, his eyes snapped open. It was still an adjustment, knowing he wasn't on his home planet, knowing that his friends were far away, his Empress, his team.

Were they worried about him? Had they given up hope? Did they assume he was dead or worse?

Thinking about it just hurt him, so he pushed it out of his mind and got himself up. Every morning, he walked out to the front porch and watched the sun rise properly. The sky was streaked with colors, and it was actually quite beautiful.

Earth was a lot better than anyone he knew seemed to give it credit for, and the people were better as well. At least Katia was. She'd been so kind to him over the week that he'd been there, buying him food and new clothes and waving away his assurances that he didn't need anything and would be fine with what he had.

His clothes, his uniform, was ripped and bloody, and Katia had told him that she'd rather just get him some other things to wear than watch him walk around in his bloodstained clothes all the time. She assured him that she hadn't spent that much on his things, and he was relieved that they fit, at least. Silas hadn't thought that humans came in his size, but apparently sometimes their clothes did.

It had only taken him two days to get Katia's routine down, and so he did his part by making sure her coffee was ready for her when she finally came out of her room dressed and showered.

The way she smiled at him when she came into the kitchen to see a steaming cup of coffee waiting for her made it all worth it.

And Silas didn’t want to examine why he wanted her to smile at him so much.

Instead, he made small talk with her while she flitted around the kitchen, asking about her inn and making sure she was still fine with him being there.

But today was different. Today, she was off of work again, and she had promised that she would drive him out to the scene of his crash. Waiting for an entire week for her to have time had been hard, but he recognized that he had no idea where he was going and didn’t want to end up wandering around some strange city alone looking like he did.

So far, he hadn’t gone out much. He was sure that Katia’s neighbors caught glimpses of him when he was out watching the sun rise and set each day, but she’d said that none of them had made any comments about the color of his skin. Which he appreciated. The last thing he wanted to do was cause some sort of riot or panic because he couldn’t blend in well.

As anxious as he was to get going, he recognized the need for Katia to get some rest, so he tried to keep his pacing and anxious fiddling to a quiet minimum as the sun came up and then rose higher in the sky.

She gets up every morning with the sun to work all day
he reminded himself, telling himself over and over again to be patient.

But being out of the loop and unable to do anything had never sat well with him, and he wanted nothing more than to wake her up and get the day started. He was just considering dropping something heavy on the floor just for the sound it would make when he heard the mumbling that accompanied Katia’s morning routine. It was followed by the sound of the shower coming on, and he sighed with relief.