Battle Queen: Red Ruler Series (Book 1) Page 10

  Two years later and that terror of possible loss still lived inside my psyche.

  “I’m sure you have other rounds to return to, Hs’tar,” I sounded as subdued as I felt. He stood from his chair, his fists curling and uncurling.

  “Welo, I—“

  “Thank you for the food,” I smiled tightly. He grabbed the box off my desk and took two steps toward the door then stopped. He turned around and faced me, his posture rigid.

  “Welo, I’m trying, damnit,” raw frustration poured from his eyes.

  “You know, Hs’tar,” I looked at him coldly and stood. Rounding the back edge of the desk I tapped my fingers down, “My people, we don’t even have the word ‘try’ in our language.” I paused and let him see the rage and hurt in my eyes as I felt my nostrils flare in indignation. “You either do something or you don’t.” He hissed in anger and threw the box back on my desk. Stepping up to me he wrapped one arm around my back and one hand around the back of my head to grip my hair in his fist.

  “Then consider this me doing something,” his hot breath fluttered across my mouth. He pulled my hair tighter and yanked me towards his lips. The kiss was full of need and longing. Such aching longing that I moaned my own right back upon my tongue to his. He smashed our bodies tighter against each other but his lips and mouth held a possessive gentleness that I had never felt from him before.

  It wasn’t the soft and loving kiss of Merooth. Hs’tar’s kiss was as if every precious drop of goodness in his soul had been gathered and poured from his lips onto my own. He gave everything of himself. His soul was the last sip of water to sustain the one he loved as we battled to survive the harsh and endless desert we found ourselves in.

  He kissed me softly once more then pulled away. His eyes never left me, not even as his hand reached out to grab the box. He simply nodded then turned on his heel to walk out the door. He left me with my lips swollen and my heart shaking with hope.

  Welo

  I walked down the long hall nodding my head here and there in greeting to those that passed me. Originally, we had built the Blood Palace as a sustainable multipurpose compound and not as a palace at all. Offices. Cafeterias. Green Houses. Barracks. Workshops. In House Medical Facilities. Treasury. We even had a built-in landing pad on the same level as mine and Mel’s office. It had only made sense that Planetary Security would get their own private landing pad.

  Mel had argued against it for security reasons saying it would be too easy a way to breach my offices and personal quarters. I had agreed with her completely. She had just given me her ‘are you brain damaged’ looked. I told her that we needed to be practical about our own lack of power. I had argued that if we didn’t have the firepower to protect ourselves then we needed to be cunning in our application of force and tactics.

  Once I explained to her that by providing our own plausibly exploitable ‘overlooked’ or ‘weak points’ then we could control where an enemy would hit first. Like the long hallways in the old Japanese palaces with ‘singing’ boards, only an enemy would step on the wrong ones. Our ‘weak’ breach locations would also appear like any other section of the Blood Palace, except they could easily be turned into choke points or abattoirs for our enemies.

  Mel’s office was on the complete opposite side of our level. It took up the entire left corner of that side while her personal quarters were above that. On the opposite side of the hall from her office was the main Planetary Security hub where most of her people worked. A hot breeze blew in from the open archway that separated the two offices. This archway led both inside the palace and out to the private landing pad.

  I stood outside Mel’s door for a beat knowing she wasn’t inside. If the archway wasn’t blocked by its normal protective field then I just knew Mel would be outside in the hot sun. “Close,” I spoke over my shoulder as I strode out into the harsh light.

  This was going to be hard on her and I knew it. I blew out a breath and watched her back as Mel stood with her arms crossed, looking over the parked shuttles. She had a habit of needing to be outdoors when she wanted some space. After the years we spent in festering underground cages I didn’t blame her. I had my need for open archways and she her need for the open wind of the hot desert.

  “Ya know,” I drawled out, “One of these days you’re just going to need to invest in sunscreen and a bikini if you keep coming out here to sun yourself.”

  “I wouldn’t need it,” she replied.

  “Considering I don’t want my guards to die from raging hard ons I mildly assert that you at least not be naked,” I teased.

  “I wouldn’t need the sunscreen,” Mel’s voice was flat. Too flat. My gut tightened, she was going to the bad place. I put my arm around her shoulders and squeezed, running my hand up and down her bicep. “I’ll never need any of that stuff ever again. I’ll never have to worry about that, even now.”

  I kept silent and let her get it all out.

  “Bibi...,” she cleared her throat, “I explained to her the reality of what she’s taking on for us.”

  “I know.”

  “But she’ll never really get it, you know? Not really, not until it’s already too late,” she whispered. My eyes felt gritty and my throat spasmed. I had to finally ask her what I had avoided asking her for far too long.

  “Do you regret coming back to us?”

  “No,” she said firmly. She turned and the deep blue of her eyes held nothing but raw honesty. “Oh, Welo! I never want you to think I regret the decision I made.”

  “It’s just,” I sighed and looked down, letting my arm drop from her shoulders, “I don’t even know if I would have made the same choice you did.”

  “We don’t know what the future will hold, Welo,” Mel held my shoulders in a tight grip. She locked her eyes with mine, “Maybe one day I’ll rejoin them. Hell, maybe one day you will too.” My stomach twisted in knots. There was so much that I had learned today. Too much.

  “Maybe,” I hedged, “But for now, it’s time to take Bibi to her new family.”

  “Yeah,” Mel turned and let out a sigh of determination. We walked back in, Mel leading the way. Her door swished open and I was hit with the raw assault of her office. It was so unlike my own. The organic metal of the facilities veined through the stone like beautiful vines. Where they didn’t cover, the deep blues and violets of Mel’s paint spread in gentle waves.

  It made the large office appear like a pocket of open space. The entire affect was disorienting, and that’s just the way she liked it. Anyone who looked closely at one vein of the organic metal could turn their head, look back, and it would be minutely different or completely gone. Mel loved watching how inherently alarming it was for those who didn’t know what we knew.

  I didn’t begrudge her wanting to be near and surrounded by the tendrils but I did worry that someday, someone, would recognise them for what they were. She assured me that they could be explained away as an expensive decoration for a rich commander, meant to impress and unnerve visitors, but I wasn’t so sure anymore.

  “Bibi,” Mel smiled.

  We stood and watched as one tendril had released itself from the wall and was playing with Bibi’s fingertips. It reminded me so much of a kitten batting its paw at a feather duster. A pale tear dripped from the edge of Bibi’s eyes as she giggled in complete and utter delight. The innocence of the scene took my breath away.

  “Are you ready, Bibi?” I asked. She and the tendril both turned to us and dipped in unison. Mel’s shoulders loosened and lost their tension. It was in this moment that she knew this was the right course of action and not just the necessary one.

  “I’m ready.”

  Mel lifted her hand and helped Bibi up from the couch she had been waiting on. It was sucked into the floor and the tendrils reached to wrap around all three of us. Bibi’s breaths increased and I saw the beautiful pastels of her skin pale in fear. “Think of this as jumping into water, you’ll feel a falling sensation then we’ll arrive.” I rubbed her han
d and smiled reassuringly.

  “We’re with you Bibi,” Mel pushed Bibi’s teal hair back over her shoulder, “and from today on you’ll never be alone again.” Pride and awe filled me as I watched her square her shoulders and nod at us both. “Let’s go girls.”

  We fell down and down towards the facilities well below. Bibi squeaked and Mel laughed. I just shook my head and smiled. We fell much quicker than normal, our feet leaving the floor so much higher, as if the girls were bouncing impatiently for us to reach them.

  The metal veins peeled away from us after a nice soft stop. Standing just outside the lift was Mel’s girls. Bibi stepped back into my chest. “It’s ok, Bibi,” Ally smiled happily, “We’re so excited to finally meet you!” A soft blush touched her face as she inched forward.

  “Really,” she asked shyly. It was like watching the new girl at school meet all the cool girls, who all genuinely wanted to be her friends.

  “Really,” they smiled and clapped. Ally reached out her hand and Bibi hesitantly took it. Bibi looked over her shoulder back at us

  “Will you stay with me, until...” she gulped nervously.

  “Of course,” Mel rubbed Bibi’s shoulder, “We’re going to help you get all settled in.” She nodded then wobbled a bit as the floor lifted under us. The lower levels were all a darker almost black, blue, and dark grey. The only light source was from the particle projections of the girls themselves. They were glowing wisps in the cold dark.

  The lifted floor gracefully whisked us down the hallway at a fast but comfortable speed. I kept my eyes focused forward. In my mind I knew we were passing hundreds if not thousands of sarcophagi, hidden just outside of the glow from the girls’ light. They surrounded Bibi and cooed and stroked her teal hair telling her how pretty they thought she was.

  Sneaking a look up I saw Mel’s face. A gentle and loving calm softened the creases between her brows. For once we knew that something truly good and beautiful was about to happen.

  A bright pool of light shined up ahead, getting closer and closer. The girls jumped off the metal we stood on and floated down to the floor as we made our own landing. This room had a high curved ceiling. In the middle of the room was a glowing pool of liquid light. Sixteen large black rectangular sarcophagi sat surrounding the pool of light.

  Everything in the room was pitch black, as if the darkness of the void itself had been cut like cloth to furnish this whole place. Ally held Bibi’s hand leading her to the pool while the girls circled around them. Ally stopped just short of the pool and the other girls walked to stand in front of their own particular sarcophagus.

  “Will-Will I be buried here,” Bibi asked fearfully, her eyes darting left and right.

  “No, Bibi,” Ally’s warm smile beamed from her eyes, “This?” She caressed Bibi’s cheek, “This body will be kept safe here, just like ours.” Ally ran a soothing hand across Bibi’s hair, “But your mind? Your soul? You’ll be out there, free, and safe with us.”

  “I’ll be safe?”

  “Yes.” Bibi’s entire being seemed to throw off the weight of her life. Every indignity, every terror, fell like lead weights off her shoulders. She sighed like a woman who had finally found a safe haven from a raging storm.

  “Thank you,” happy tears dripped from Bibi’s eyes as she looked from me to Mel. No more words needed to be said. Ally walked her into the liquid pool of light until not even a strand of Bibi’s teal hair could be seen. All the girls’ projections blinked out and we were left standing there waiting.

  “What does it feel like?” My awe and curiosity urged me to ask. Mel chuckled wistfully.

  “Warm,” she said, “Like a mother’s hug, and hot cocoa. Like love and acceptance. Patience and reassurance.”

  “It sounds wonderful,” I could feel a tug of jealousy in my heart.

  “Right now the Facility and the girls are helping Bibi let go of her hurts and be the best of who she is,” silent tears fell from Mel’s eyes. “That day Welo,” she frowned and shook her head, “I had given up. I knew I was the last of our group still breathing. The old leader.. He only kept me alive because he wanted something to hold over you.”

  “You kept me going,” I nodded at nothing, just looking ahead.

  “That day he brought me down into that horror chamber, I finally saw firsthand what he was doing to you,” Mel kept going but I could tell there were no lingering harsh feelings, she was simply stating facts. “While he was busy ‘perfecting’ you I had found a bit of metal on the wall and slit my own throat. The bastard didn’t even realise I had been dead for half a day!”

  “Half a day?” Shock punched through my body, “You said you had died but I just thought he had healed you in time or you found some way to fake it.”

  “Welo,” Mel gave me her ‘don’t be stupid’ look, “It was the metal that kept me on life’s edge. The Facility had felt me through the brittle shard. She... She pulled me through the floor after he thought he had dumped me in a trash shoot in the room.” My mind was reeling, I hadn’t known any of this. We had been in the final days of our planned uprising, and I had just assumed that Mel had gotten herself free somehow. She was always good at finding ways to sneak around.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “The Facility wanted to integrate me right then but I resisted. I didn’t know what was going on but I mentally pushed back,” she shrugged as if that explained everything, and if I was honest, maybe it did. “I must have shown her mental images of what was going on and what we were planning. She healed me, changed me, and the metal became part of me.”

  “That’s how we found everything else,” my eyes widened in understanding, “You knew? Or was the Facility telling you?”

  “A bit of both,” Mel sucked in a breath, “She would talk to me in my dreams, show me how to do things, find things, make things.”

  “That’s why you kept calling it a ‘sleepy sentience’?”

  “Yeah,” she chuckled, “I guess I took to your whole Hawaiian play on words, hidden deeper meaning thing.”

  “Asshole.”

  “Bitch,” she laughed. We both started laughing uncontrollably. Holding our stomachs and laughing each time we made eye contact, descending finally into hiccups and giggles. So much had happened.

  “Gods, did you ever think that this would be your life?” I wiped away the tears of laughter running down my face.

  “Yes, Welo,” she snarked, “I totally knew I would be abducted by aliens, forced into slavery,” she ticked off each item on her fingers, “then soul bound to an ancient, I still don’t fully even know what, then unbound, then become a badass security commander for an entire planet and solar system. Yup. When my kindergarten teacher asked me, that’s totally what I said.”

  “Oh, yeah,” I guffawed, “same here. In fact, I was just wondering what the hell was taking so long for the aliens to come pick me up.” We laughed again and turned back to the pool. “Once Bibi’s fully integrated we can go over what the girls told me earlier.”

  “They already told me,” she smiled slyly.

  “Seriously?” I narrowed my eyes in irritation.

  “Did you seriously think they hadn’t already?” I stuck my tongue out at her like a petulant child and made an exaggerated frowny face, but could only hold it for a few seconds before I shook my head and laughed softly.

  “We’re moving a lot faster than I thought,” I sighed.

  “I know.”

  “And this General L’Ryx,” I shook my head, “he says he’s here to negotiate a breeding contract with me but we both know that’s bullshit.”

  “Yeah, but I still think he’d like to do a little breeding with you, if you know what I mean,” Mel wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

  “Well, he can try his luck tonight then because I’m going to figure out what angle he’s trying to work eventually.”

  “Oh, yeah, work that angle hard,” she winked.

  “Mel,” I growled. “I have enough drama, I don’t need
more.”

  “Welo, cut the crap. It’s me you’re talking to here,” she gave me her most disappointed stare down, “L’Ryx is exactly your type.”

  “What type?” I asked defensively.

  “Brutally strong, ridiculously intelligent, cunning,” she rolled her eyes, “and probably a beast in bed.”

  “I have enough from Merooth and Hs’tar,” I coughed and looked away.

  “No, you don’t,” she grabbed my shoulders and held tight to stop me before I could contradict her, “I know you love Merooth. And I know you love Hs’tar. You two are bound to patch things up so don’t deny that at least.”

  “He, um, he came to my office today and brought lunch,” I felt my cheeks blush at the memory of his possessive kiss.

  “Like I said, you’re patching things up,” she gripped my shoulders in happiness, “But...”

  “But, what?”

  “But you know they won’t be your only mates,” I looked away to the pool of light. “Hey,” she hugged me softly and quickly, “I know you’re not ashamed of being polyamorous and neither are they. They get it.”

  “I just feel like everyone is always adjusting themselves to me. To what I need,” my jaw tightened at the confession. I was supposed to be taking care of us all and instead everyone was trying to accommodate me. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t what I deserved.

  “We never wanted an all powerful leader,” she said softly, “We wanted... No, we want a leader who will put us first. You’ve done that. Time and again, before we were even free. We’re loyal because you gave us hope.” She pointed to the pool. “This. This right here in going to change everything for us. Change the galaxy even. But it was you who got us here.”

  Light shot out from the pool and arched like aurora borealis to touch each of the now sixteen sarcophagi. The girls blinked into existence before their own and I stared at the last one. Mel and I held our breath and waited for the final moment.

  Bibi’s semi-transparent form slowly formed into existence before her sarcophagus. I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. Her face was devoid of any pain, fear, or hesitation. If I could have ever tried to describe it, it would be beatific.