Page 3 of Scars & Starlight (Of Blood and Conquest #1)

KAIREN

I slide my hands under the unconscious human, not paying any attention to her bloody utilitarian overalls, and lower my visor.

Scan for injuries.

My visor’s display blinks ominously, then shows me a diagram of the human’s body and each injury. SUPERFICIAL CUTS AND CONTUSIONS. INTRACRANIAL BLEEDING.

You should have led with that.

My nanites don’t reply, naturally. They have no sense of humor.

I hesitate for a moment, vacillating between helping the seemingly kindhearted human female and letting her own kind take care of her.

Chances of survival using known human medical technology?

The odds displayed by my exoskeleton don’t put me at ease.

Chances of survival using Avaren technology?

Not perfect, but not barely above zero either.

With a sigh, I get to my feet, taking the injured female with me.

She’s so small. As her shaggy brown hair falls from her face, I take in the small button nose and rounded lips.

She looks like adult humans do. I see faint lines near her eyes and on her forehead. Perhaps her growth got stunted?

My nanites answer my unspoken question. MILD MALNUTRITION. SIZE AND DEVELOPMENT BOTH WITHIN HUMAN FEMALE AVERAGES.

Huh. Once we saw what type of creatures human leaders are, we decided against initiating contact for now.

All the soldiers I saw – some of whom foolishly opened fire as if we weren’t here to eliminate the Ghorvek in the process of exterminating them – were smaller than Avaren males, even some females.

But this human is half the size of an average Ghorvek.

I order my nanites to open a channel to the fleet communications station. “Prepare the med bay on the Sovereign,” I say.

“Yes, Commander.”

If Eira, the comms officer on duty, is surprised at my order, she doesn’t show it.

Then again, after working with me for decades, she has learned that I generally know what I’m doing.

I just wish I were as certain of that right now.

I take one last look at the infected human child, now at peace.

I should have been faster. I should have tracked the scum to this planet faster.

Bring the Talon around.

While the nanites connected to my small attack ship execute my command, I catch up with the squad I brought to this skirmish.

“All threats have been eliminated, Commander,” Sorin says respectfully.

“Why are you carrying it?” Caden – my first officer, cousin, and best friend – asks with a lot less deference.

“Did Sahraki flies eat your eyeballs?” I ask dryly. “Or have you just not seen a female in so long that you cannot recognize one?”

“Who knows what these humans look like under their clothing?” he replies wryly, not taking any offense. He lifts his white eyebrows and points at my cargo with his chin. “Perhaps she can show us? Appease our curiosity.”

I remove my visor and shoot him a glare .

Zane, another of my soldiers, lifts his hands up. “I’m not curious.”

My cousin smirks. “His Highness obviously is. Feeling a bit territorial, Kai?”

I blow air out of my nose. “She’s injured and won’t make it without Lirael. I’m not thinking about anything else.”

Though her body does feel nice in my arms, and her scent isn’t unpleasant at all. Her hair looks soft…

Not now, Kairen.

I shake my head.

Jorik, the last soldier with us, joins the conversation. “We already know they’re compatible. It stands to reason they look… the same as us.” Despite his words, his silver eyes gleam with intrigue as he eyes the human I’m holding, gaze lingering on her chest. I squeeze her tighter.

“Mind if we kill all the Ghorvek before you start thinking of nothing else but breeding?” I growl quietly.

Sorin, Zane, and Jorik look appropriately chastised. Caden looks like he just won in a game of Drazhani cubes. Thankfully, the Talon descends just then, landing at the edge of the cliff with a low vibration. The doors open with a hiss of hydraulics, and I board with the girl, my men following.

“Do you want to strap her onto the cot, Commander?” Zane asks, indicating the triage station.

I click my tongue and head to my seat at the front of the ship. “Let’s go. The medics on the Sovereign are expecting her.” There’s no time to waste, and it will be fastest if she remains in my arms.

I sit by the human’s side, observing her cuts healing as the nanites get to work.

Lirael, my chief medic and another cousin, patters around the med bay, preparing to do research on the small blood and tissue samples she took while healing the Earthling.

Every now and then, she looks at me questioningly.

“The damage is all but mended, Kairen,” my cousin says softly. She only addresses me by my first name when we’re alone – a sign of respect Caden never bothers to mimic. Then again, I guess when you dunk someone’s head in Vorthai excrement as a child, it’s hard to observe honorifics in the future.

“I know,” I answer softly, not wanting to wake the woman up while the nano robots are still active.

When Lirael says nothing, I glance away from the human’s face and take in the medic’s curious demeanor.

“So, you are free to clean yourself, change out of your suit… attend to commander things,” she continues.

I can feel the sides of my mouth twitch up into a smile. Unlike Caden – again – Lirael’s sense of humor is the quiet kind, not boisterous and obvious. Leaning back, I lift my arms up into a stretch and yawn. Perhaps I could get some rest while the human sleeps.

Before getting up, I take the woman in one more time.

I recall the exoskeleton suit away from my hand so I can feel her skin as I push back a fine lock of light-brown hair and graze my fingers down the soft curve of her cheek.

When I realize I still haven’t moved, I clench my fist and jump up, then exit the trauma station, followed by the med bay in its entirety.

It’s not until I’m in the hallway, away from the prying eyes of meddlesome cousins, that I bring my fingertips to my nose and inhale the lingering remains of the human’s scent.

I close my eyes and curse myself. I had a female back on Avaren, cycles ago, never intending to look for my match elsewhere in the universe, believing one of my siblings would do their duty of providing offspring to the Veyrathi line.

When she left me for my more politically minded brother, I was disappointed, but not surprised.

Perhaps she thought the chances of producing an heir were higher with someone who goes to forums and not battlefronts.

Either way, I never looked for a female meant for me as we liberated planets from the Ghorvek oppression.

So I don’t know why I’m so interested in this one.

Is it because she fought against all odds to save her species’ children?

By the time the door to my quarters opens, I still don’t have an answer, so I forcefully put it out of my mind.

Instead of dwelling on the human in the med bay, I face the wall-length aquarium I have installed in my anteroom.

With a push of a button, food for the many colorful Vasari fish is released into the water.

The tank has an automatic timer, or otherwise, I could have ordered my nanites to execute the command with a thought, but the ritual of doing it physically relaxes me.

After watching the rainbow school nibble on their meal for a minute, I find my thoughts wandering back to the female.

With a sigh, I enter my cleaning chamber and recall my armor.

I feel a light tingling over my skin when it retracts to the ports at the sides of my neck, leaving me completely naked.

After stepping in front of the vent, I order a cleansing mist at the coldest possible temperature.

When the icy droplets hit my skin, they raise goosebumps in their wake and make my nipples pebble.

I wonder if the human girl has nipples. Groaning, I hit the side of my head with my palm.

Nevertheless, I resolve to have Kael, my chief engineer, access any available human databases and compile a report with the most salient information.

It would have been a necessary step once our work here was done, but with our guest here, it’s prudent to move up the timeline.

Right now, we only know what we stumbled upon.

I move to the drying vents first, then to my closet.

Deciding to wear the formal uniform, which denotes my rank, I skip past the more casual and utilitarian clothes.

Come to think of it, in some ways, those are similar to what the human I saved is wearing…

I shake my head as I close the last of the decorative clasps.

I’m starting to think human females have a mind-altering weapon Avaren males are susceptible to.

That would explain my seemingly boundless curiosity.

After exiting my quarters, I hurry to the engineering floor. I want to have as much knowledge as possible before she wakes up and realizes she’s orbiting her home planet on a vanguard ship from Avaris.

As soon as the doors open, Kael greets me with a broad smile. “Commander. I heard you brought an indigent aboard.”

I quirk an eyebrow at the fair-haired male. “Caden?”

Kael nods. “Naturally.”

I scoff, picturing my cousin doing the rounds while I was waiting at the girl’s bedside.

“Did you gather any information on the species from their databases?” I ask, not beating around the bush.

My head engineer shakes his head in a so-so motion.

“Readily available, widespread data transfer has been disabled by the Ghorvek, as per their usual pattern of occupation.” He moves to his station, where he starts pulling up charts and diagrams. “With Caden’s permission, I sent down several teams to locations we had already determined to be useful.

” He pulls up images of human buildings in disrepair.

“Research facilities, medical centers, teaching institutions.” He flips through the pictures as he speaks.

I hum in approval. Caden’s a rascal, but he’s a good and trustworthy first officer. “Anything yet?”

“Well,” the engineer begins. “Lirael already confirmed compatibility with the blood samples you’ve gathered from their fallen soldiers.

” He taps his finger against his lips. “The medics and biologists ran their genetic screening, so we’re now more interested in learning their history, including wars and diseases, as well as their languages, dietary preferences, and, of course, their mating habits. ”

I can feel the tips of my ears turn hot at Kael’s last words, even though we gathered similar data on every planet we’ve come across with compatible species during our hunt for the Ghorvek… and for mates.

“The crew is excited,” Kael continues, oblivious to my perplexing discomfort. “As we arrived on Tyren too late to find many viable partners, seeing how strong the survivors here are gives them hope.”

I purse my lips at my old friend. “Them or you? ”

It’s Kael’s time to get warm in the ears.

He has been alone ever since the Ghorvek slew the mother of his son, Zane.

Like many Avaren, he believes forming an attachment to someone who provides a negligible chance of reproduction is a waste of time and emotions.

Others, most of whom live strictly on Avaris and nowhere else, defy our biological imperative, choosing to partner with incompatible Avaren, some even with those of the same gender.

“I admit that my hearts skip a beat each time when females are being tested,” he says, voice pitched low and confidential.

As I open my mouth to reply, the ship's lights blink from their typical blue hue to an alarming red. With a thought, I form my command cube in my palm. When I see that the alert was initiated in the med bay, it’s time for my hearts to skip a beat.

Something is amiss with the human girl.