Page 10 of Scars & Starlight (Of Blood and Conquest #1)

TARA

I jump out of bed with a squeak, confused for a long moment until the soft blue lighting gradually turns up to illuminate my surroundings.

“Kiko,” I exhale, sitting on the edge of the funky alien mattress. “You scared the bejesus out of me.”

The little robot’s eyes whir while it thinks with a tilted head, reminding me of a human frowning or raising their eyebrows.

“It’s an expression of fright,” he concludes, lowering and raising himself on his digitigrade legs, almost like a hop. “For a moment, I feared you had lost a vital body part.”

My lips stretch into a wide grin. He’s just the cutest.

“Not all humans have Jesus, and we’re all told to find him.

Or touch grass.” I scrunch my nose up. “In fact, having an opinion and not voicing it is wrong, having an opinion and voicing it is wrong, and also not having an opinion is wrong. You pretty much can’t do anything as a human without someone telling you how you should be thinking or feeling. ”

Kiko makes a long, mournful note. “Your stress levels are rising.”

I wave my hand. “Yeah, I tend to get fired up… hey, wait, how do yo u know my stress levels are rising?” I narrow my eyes at the space chicken.

“Your heart rate and breathing accelerated, and your nanites report an increase in the hormone you call cortisol.” Kiko’s explanation is alarmingly chipper. I gnash my teeth together.

Stupid, tattletale robot mites.

I can’t be mad at all of the aliens’ technology, though. Before I went to bed, Kiko showed me how to use their version of a shower and washing machine. I don’t think either I or my clothes have ever been this sanitized. It even repaired the tears.

“I’ll be fine,” I tell the robot now. “I just need to stop working myself up over everything that’s happened to me and random people I read about on the internet in the middle of the night. Before the invasion, when we still had internet, that is.”

Kiko’s gears whirl. “Re-establishing global communications for your planet shouldn’t be difficult once the Ghorvek have been chased away,” he says, making me perk up.

“We could have cat videos again?” I ask in a hopeful voice.

“Obvi!” he replies in his Valley Girl voice, and I burst out laughing. Kiko hops up and down again, seemingly pleased to have elicited the reaction.

I slap my hands on my thighs and get up again, this time in a less frenzied manner. “All right,” I say decisively. “Let me take care of my morning bathroom stuff, and we can get this meeting your commander wants out of the way so I can return home.”

Halfway to the bathroom, I realize Kiko is following me. When I stop, he stops. When I turn around, I see he’s staring at me.

“It’s okay, buddy, I got this one alone,” I tell him gently.

The robot hangs his head dejectedly anyway. It’s just like having a needy cat. I guess the upside is that he (hopefully) doesn’t have to mark his territory by peeing everywhere.

Speaking of peeing.

I rush through my morning routine, made weird to the nth degree by the alien surroundings, trying to remember everything Kiko told me last night. As soon as I’m done, a chiming sound comes from the direction of the door.

“Um, come in?” I invite uncertainly. Kairen didn’t say if he’s going to put any guards by my door. Though I’m guessing would-be attackers aren’t about to ring the doorbell.

My fears are laid to rest as soon as the commander’s imposing frame fills the doorway. His eyes are gentle when they meet mine, as is his smile. Butterflies take flight in my stomach when his pearly whites are exposed and the grin reaches his eyes.

Bruh. It should be illegal to be this hot.

“Good firstlight, Tara.”

Scratch that. His voice is not only illegal, it’s lethal.

“Good… firstlight, Kairen,” I reply haltingly. “We say morning,” I add. “Good morning.”

His brow furrows. “What are you mourning?”

I open my mouth to correct him, then decide it’s not important right now. “Never mind. Are we good to go?”

It’s then that I notice his clothes are a lot different from what they were last night. He’s now wearing what could almost be described as black cargo pants and a beige army jacket with a really thin black shirt peeking through at his collar and sleeves.

I bet he pulls any look off, like a runway model.

“Yes,” he drawls out. I look up to see him smirking at me. He totally just caught me ogling him. “This way, Princess,” he says smugly. There’s that skin-tingling nickname again.

Rubbing my arms, I follow the commander and try not to stare at his ass. Kiko’s right beside me, after all, and he seems to notice everything. Between the two of them, I might as well look at my feet the entire time.

When did you turn into such a lech, Tara?

I mean, the apocalypse made for slim pickings, and the alien is beyond beautiful, but I’ve never spent my time thinking with nothing but my vagina before.

“Did you sleep well?” the object of my daydreams asks, giving me that gentle smile, which I’m slowly coming to learn graces his face often. Or at least it does when I’m around to see it.

“I did, actually,” I admit. “Maybe it’s because I wasn’t on pins and needles, waiting to hear alarms going off for the first time in four years.”

I don’t get a chance to take in his immediate reaction to my words because a group of aliens approaches from the opposite side of the corridor.

Staring in fascination, I note the different eye and hair colors; the nuances are stunning.

They’re all taller than me, though that’s not hard to achieve.

Two of them are male and one is female, and all three are staring in our direction.

“Good firstlight, Your Highnesses,” the female says, bowing her head in our direction. I twitch my lips into a smile and try to keep the frown off my face. Are these nanite mites in my brain malfunctioning already?

“Good firstlight, Eira,” Kairen says back. “Jorik, Sorin,” he greets the males next. One has incredible silver eyes that capture me for a minute. I imagine that’s how stardust would look if it were a tangible thing and not a metaphor for our beginnings.

When we’re past the aliens and I think they’re out of hearing range, I ask Kairen about the odd way Eira addressed us. “Why did she call us–”

“In here,” he interrupts with a tight smile.

He’s pointing through a doorway where a conference table surrounded by several Avaren waits for us.

I swallow the lump that suddenly appears in my throat.

Through everything, I wasn’t thinking about this part; talking about Earth with a bunch of extraterrestrial officers.

And they’re all superiorly good-looking.

I feel like the ugly duckling in a flock of swans.

Glavo gor, mala , I tell myself. Keep your chin up, little one.

“Hi,” I greet them, then wince, thinking about the morning/mourning thing. “It’s how we say ‘hello’,” I rush to add. “I’m not saying something is high. Even though you guys are. Tall, I mean. You’re all so tall. ”

Their frowns of confusion quickly turn into smiles of amusement, bigger with every second that I blabber.

“I’m just gonna shut up,” I mutter, taking half a step closer to Kairen as if I could disappear inside him where I can’t embarrass myself. The weight of his hand on my shoulder surprises me, but it doesn’t scare me at all. It feels comforting, safe.

“Everyone, this is Tara,” he introduces me.

“Tara, these are Sovereign’s officers. They are…

” He points at a grinning male with white hair and sparkly indigo eyes.

“Caden, my first officer, cousin, and frequently the bane of my existence.” I can’t help but smile at his description of the Avaren, who, now that he mentions it, does bear a striking resemblance to the commander.

“Lirael, my chief medic, you already know,” Kairen says next, nodding at his other cousin.

“Next to her is Kael, Sovereign’s chief engineer.

” The light-haired male gives me a soft smile.

“Then we have our security chief, Avenis.” Another stunning Avaren female, this one with short, blueish dark hair.

“Zorath, the tactical chief.” A slim male with sharp, narrow eyes, though not unkind.

“Rhaevik, the communications officer, is on the far end.” I nod at the male who, despite his title, doesn’t speak. “Orien is the intelligence chief.”

The male in question tips his head with a calculating twist to his lips. His yellow-orange eyes are incredible. “Pleasure to meet you, Tara,” he says, his voice low and even, like a whisper with the volume turned up. I swear it tickles my brain.

“Likewise,” I return with a smile. There’s something magnetic about him.

Kairen clears his throat. “And lastly, we have Cyrel. As chief science officer, she worked closely with Lirael to heal you.”

I nod at the female with curly, muted red hair who’s giving me a welcoming smile. “Thank you,” I say sincerely.

“It’s good to see you on your feet,” she replies, scrunching up her pixie nose with a mischievous grin.

“Yes, Tara,” Caden, the white-haired male purrs. “Looking forward to getting to know you as… intimately as our healers did .

My jaw drops while Kairen smacks the back of Caden’s head. He didn’t mean… “Wait, you guys didn’t… probe me or anything… did you?” I look from Lirael to Cyrel and then to Caden.

“What?” Lirael asks in a confused murmur.

“Probe?” Cyrel adds, just as befuddled as her colleague.

Feeling doubly embarrassed by my presumption, I backpedal quickly. “Never mind,” I rush out. “A stupid human movie thing.”

“No,” the first officer drawls out slowly. “I’d like to know more about this probing. What can we probe with?”

Judging by the movements of their bodies, Lirael just kicked her cousin under the table. Caden grunts, but the chaotic smile stays plastered on his face. This one’s a demon, and if I didn’t have nine pairs of eyes on me, I’d laugh alongside him.

“Let’s allow Tara to sit down and explain her planet’s politics before we overwhelm her with everything that is Caden,” Orien says in that mystery villain voice.

I snort but sit down on the chair at the head of the table when Kairen motions to it. When it starts shifting under me to adapt to the contours of my ass, I squeak and nearly jump back up, much to the aliens’ amusement.

“What I meant to say before this chair fondled me,” I mutter, making Caden choke on the drink he just took, “is that you guys probably know more about who’s in power around the globe than I do.

I knew a little bit about the dudes in charge four years ago – and yes, it was mostly men – but with the internet and global media disrupted or downright inoperable, they could all be dead and eaten by the Ghorvek. ”

At an unspoken command, Kiko chirps and hops up on the table. His eyes turn into projectors again, and he shows us a 3D image of one of America’s tech billionaires.

“According to all the information we could gather, this man, Jethro Besson, is the one giving commands on your continent,” Kairen says.

I nod – this isn’t news to me. Even with the collapse of society, it pays to have resources and connections.

These men take pretty young brides in droves and hide away in their mansions behind their armed security.

Kiko’s image shifts to an Asian man in a tailored suit, his face unreadable and detached. The next human leader.

Much more interesting than the humans I’ve mostly seen in the news before are the Avaren around me. None of them is paying attention to what’s being said – their eyes are on me, glinting with unhidden curiosity that makes me blush.

I’m not sure what could ever be fascinating about plain old me, but I hope I won’t disappoint them too badly.