Page 11 of Scars & Starlight (Of Blood and Conquest #1)

KAIREN

W ith mounting alarm, I watch as Tara’s undertone turns green.

“We’re nearly there,” I soothe my human, whose eyes are locked on the approaching ground. I had her sit next to me on the Talon so she could have a clear view of the descent, but I see now it’s mostly just bringing out colors in her complexion I didn’t know humans possessed.

“If your nano mites are so powerful, why can’t they cure motion sickness?” Tara asks with a groan, her head now hanging between her legs.

“Huh…” I connect with the nanites I shared with her, envious that they’re one with her and I’m not. Yet.

What’s causing her discomfort?

MISMATCH IN PERCEPTUAL TELEMETRY. BIOCHEMICAL PURGE RESPONSE INITIATED.

There is no biochemical threat. Abort the process. Log the conditions. Suppress response in future instances.

COGNITIVE-SENSORY DESYNCHRONIZATION NEUTRALIZED .

Tara slowly lifts her head, her brown tresses parting to show wide-eyed awe on her beautiful face.

“Oh my god,” she breathes. “I’m less nauseous by the second.” She faces me with a wide grin. “I could kiss you!”

Her face turns scarlet, and if we didn’t have a similar response to embarrassment, I’d be worried all over again. Knowing the cause, though, I smirk, resting my eyes on her plush-looking lips.

“You could?” I ask, pitching my voice low. “Why don’t you–”

The Talon’s artificial intelligence speaks over me: “Landing system activated.”

I’m setting fire to this ship as soon as we land.

Tara watches as her camp grows larger, a sad expression on her face.

“What’s the matter, Princess?” I ask her, thoughts about kissing forgotten for the moment.

She waves me off. “I’m just being silly.”

When the Talon touches down on Earth’s soil, I reach out to place a hand on her shoulder. “Then be silly with me,” I prompt, smiling at her when our eyes meet. Her cheeks color again, this time less violently.

“I was just thinking… what if they think I’m dead? That I fell off the cliff like Stacy almost did. What if they held a funeral for me along with Micah’s?” When I don’t immediately respond, her flush deepens, and she looks at her lap. “I’m just stupid.”

I gently tip her chin up with my fingers. “From what I’ve seen, you’re far from stupid,” I tell her when she gives me her soft-brown eyes again. “I want to hear all your thoughts, no matter how silly you fear them to be. They’re what makes you who you are.”

Her mouth opens slightly, and she visibly hesitates. Seemingly coming to a decision, she swallows hard. “Are you this nice to every alien female you meet on Ghorvek-infested planets?” she asks quietly.

I smile, seeing an opportunity to divulge my interest in her specifically.

That’s when one of the humans’ bullets hits the Talon’s armored exterior with a soft plinking sound.

I sigh and give her shoulder one last squeeze before turning to the console.

With an internal command, I bring up displays of the Talon’s surroundings, then hit a button and tip my head in Tara’s direction.

“Your voice will carry outside now. Tell them to stand down.”

She blinks a few times, looking at the humans pointing their weapons at us, and probably trying to come to grips with the ever-changing circumstances she finds herself in.

“Um...” she stutters. “It’s me, guys, Tara. Don’t shoot.” She nods to herself, then her eyes open wide. “Oh, and I’m not a zombie, but there’s going to be an alien with me.”

Though the humans exchange perplexed looks, they eventually lower their guns slightly, obviously still prepared to fire at us at a moment’s notice.

I grit my teeth – I hate putting Tara into danger.

Even though I saw she’s clearly capable of taking care of herself, she doesn’t have a nano-exoskeleton with deflecting shields.

I need to convince her to allow her nanites to self-replicate and install the ports on her neck.

Thinking of her in the skin-tight armor makes my pants feel tight around the crotch, and I shift in my seat.

I’m not sure how I’m going to survive working closely with her once she’s actually equipped with the suit.

“Are you ready?” I ask softly, mindful of her fears over her comrades’ reactions.

Tara takes a deep breath before nodding in one sharp movement. She stands up and brushes her hands against the pants of her overalls, then turns to the exit.

“I’m going first,” she says.

“Absolutely not,” I retort, shaking my head. If some scared human’s shaky trigger finger unleashes projectiles in our direction, they’ll hit me, not my vulnerable match.

She rolls her eyes at me and puts her hands on her hips. “What do you think will happen if you go out first? They’re going to think you faked my voice to get them to drop their guard and shoot at you! ”

“Then they’ll shoot at me,” I say, shrugging.

“Your handheld weapons can’t hurt us.” I turn the nano shield around me opaque for a moment so it catches the light from the Talon’s consoles.

Tara’s lips part into a small circle of surprise, and I’m back to thinking about kissing her.

I’m locked in her orbit, and I don’t care to ever escape.

She doesn’t reply, and I take it to mean that the matter is settled.

I release Kiko from the AU compartment, and he rolls out, instantly going to Tara’s side.

The two quickly became inseparable. As we reach the exit, I open a small-weapons compartment to take out a neural interference gun.

It can be set to induce paralysis or, if need be, neutralize a target by essentially cooking their brain from a distance.

I attach it to my utility belt – it wouldn’t do to come out pointing it at the humans.

As I said, they can’t hurt me, and I won’t allow them to hurt my princess.

The Talon opens with a hiss of hydraulics as I carefully step in front of a pale Tara. She must be really nervous about how her people will react to seeing me with her. Well, they’ll have to get used to it. I’m never leaving her side.

“Halt,” a clear, male voice says. The word carries without him having to shout – this is someone used to giving orders and having them heard. I raise my hands to show they’re empty. Tara taps my shoulder, but I refuse to move aside and expose her.

“Kairen,” she grumbles. “Are we gonna stand here like this all day?”

“Tell them I’ll move when I’m sure they won’t shoot at you,” I say calmly, uncaring that she’s now tugging on my jacket.

Her motions cease, but I notice she’s not letting go. “Oh. Right,” she murmurs. “I forgot they can’t understand you.” She chuckles nervously, then raises her voice. “It really is me. Um, the color of the day was purple yesterday.”

She presses closer, as if seeking shelter, and I wonder what the humans will think if my penis bursts through my pants this first time they see me. Probably that the Avaren are sex-crazed animals. Which is not far from how I’m feeling right now .

“This is Kairen,” Tara continues. “He can understand you, and they made it so I can understand them. He says I can pass once he’s sure you won’t shoot.

Oh, and,” she adds after a beat, “there’s a robot behind me too.

His name is Kiko. Well, it’s actually something a lot longer than that, but I shortened it to Kiko. ”

After a moment of stunned silence, a female from the human camp speaks up. “That’s definitely Tara. They can’t fake that adorable awkwardness.”

The sides of my lips twitch up into a smile. Adorable awkwardness, indeed.

“Also,” Tara speaks up again, ignoring her colleague. “Shooting at him isn’t going to do a damn thing, but it might hurt me.”

At the reminder, the smile melts off my face.

No one, and I mean no one, is going to hurt my princess.

Wisely, the humans finally put their weapons away, and the man who spoke up first takes a few strides closer.

When he’s close enough to see Tara, who’s still clutching at my jacket like a child at the marketplace with their parents, he stops and levels a serious look at her.

“You let him put something inside you?” he asks.

Not yet , I think.

I can hear Tara’s boots squeak against the ramp as she fidgets. “Technically, they had to put the mites inside me because the Ghorvek rang my bell. I just let them put some more in so I could understand them without Kiko.”

The man’s pale blue eyes narrow in confusion. “Mites? And the Ghorvek?”

Holding on to my arms for balance, Tara peeks out, obviously tired of having her vision blocked by my back.

“They’re actually nano robots – nanites – but I think of them as mites.

And the Ghorvek are what the Avaren call the ugly aliens.

And the Avaren are Kairen’s people. Well, he’s their commander. I think, at least…”

The more she says, the wider my grin turns.

“I am the fleet commander of the Avaren space forces,” I tell her.

“And also the crown prince of Avaris.” When she says nothing to my proclamation, I turn around, worried.

She looks so small like that, staring up at me with wide eyes and a slack jaw.

“Are you okay?” I prompt, wincing. Did I break her?

“What is it saying?” the human male asks, a little impatiently.

Tara swallows and looks at him. “He’s obviously a he, Sergeant Potts,” she admonishes gently. “And he’s telling me that he’s royalty.” She turns those beautiful eyes my way again. “Should I call you Your Highness now?” There’s a little bit of sarcasm in her voice.

Only in bed , I think, but what I say is: “Not unless you want me to call you that too.”

She snickers at that. “Yeah, right. Can’t believe you were a prince this whole time and didn’t tell me.” She goes to punch my arm, obviously changes her mind mid-swing, and aborts the motion adorably.

I hope you feel as lenient about me keeping things a secret in a couple of moonfalls when I tell you that you were literally made for me.

Kiko makes a chirping series of beeps as if he’s reading my mind. He'd better keep what’s by now probably known to every Avaren to himself.

“And what’s that again?” the older human asks, pointing his chin at the small mech.

Kiko answers before Tara does, eager to join the conversation as any assistive unit. “I am an S-class autonomous assistive unit equipped with adaptive artificial intelligence.”

Tara crouches so she’s closer to the mech’s height. “This is my robot, Kiko.”

The soldier raises a graying eyebrow. “Your robot, eh?”

“Stop bugging them, Dad,” a younger version of the man says from the line of humans. “Let Tara come inside and explain.”

Sighing, the man my match called Sergeant Potts, turns around and waves for us to follow. “Well, go on then,” he says over his shoulder. “I’m guessing if he wanted to kill us all, he’d do so from the sky.”

“If I wanted to kill you, I’d do so from orbit,” I murmur. Tara gives me a wide-eyed look. “What?” I mouth, even though the humans can’t understand me. “We could release nano-bots into your atmosphere and have them bind to the oxygen particles in the air you breathe.”

My princess shudders and places a hand on her neck, maybe imagining being unable to breathe. I hate that I caused her distress, but the humans need to know we’re not a threat to them.

“Why don’t you wipe out the Ghorvek that way, then?” she wisely asks.

“We did,” I reply grimly. “There are none left on their home planet, but still multitudes in the vastness of the universe. I lost my father, the king, in that battle.”

Her fingers graze the back of my hand in a caress that makes my pulse race. “I’m sorry,” she whispers earnestly.

I give her a tense smile. It’s not her fault. His death was one of the motivators for my pursuing the Ghorvek so relentlessly as well. In a way, it brought me to her.

“You okay, Tara?” the younger soldier asks when we reach their lines. I’m not completely at ease with how he looks at her.

“Fine, Eric,” she replies with a friendly smile. “How’s Stacy?” she asks him and the rest of the wary humans. “And did I miss Micah’s funeral?”

The older soldier clears his throat and points toward a bunker entrance. “Let’s get out of the sun and talk.”