AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He stuck his hands into the front pockets of his low slung, navy sweatpants, his wings trembling behind him. It was kind of nice to keep his armor off and give his wings a decent chance to stretch. Living on Earth meant he had to conceal them at all times. When he got the chance, like now, he let them spread out.
In reality, his wings were the last thing on his mind.
It hurt more than he wanted to admit that Sienna didn’t return his deep feelings. But what did he expect? She’d known him for not even a handful of days. He’d been transfixed by her holo-image, then dreamed about her for weeks before they’d finally met.
That she’d been through so much already was just an added deterrent. Not only had she lost almost her entire species, she was on an alien planet trying to elude an enemy that wanted to wipe her from existence.
He bent and pressed a tender kiss to her brow, surreptitiously breathing in her scent of spiced vanilla with aquatic notes. Smoothing some dark hair back from her face, he straightened and took a step back. If he wasn’t careful he’d wake her, and right now what she needed most was to sleep and recover.
He stepped out of the master bedroom she now shared with him and strode down the hallway, the distant clunking sound of the washing machine as it gently washed their clothes somehow soothing his frayed nerves. He still had half-an-hour before he’d need to put them in the dryer, enough time to contact his planet and inform them of the latest news.
He stepped into his small office at the back of the house and shut its door. Then keying in the combination to the small safe under his office desk, he pulled open the safe door and reached inside to retrieve the comms cube.
The safe was laughable at best in protecting his precious communication cube. He relied almost exclusively on the shielding technology of the dozen anti-spy spacers he’d planted around the exterior of the house. They ensured nothing would enter the yard or house without him knowing. And if enemies did approach, those same anti-spy spacers could be triggered to do much worse than sound an alarm.
Placing the cube onto the desk, he waited for it to self-activate. It lit up with a soft glow, then floated up into the air, only when it stopped did he cup his hands around it and begin a series of hand motions that would initiate its universal comms.
It buzzed and he stepped back and waited less than a couple of seconds for the holo-image of his emperor to appear in front of him. The emperor’s short-clipped, striated hair revealed the gold band of priceless, shimmeringstellapsthat crowned his head, the one true indication of his rank.
Gray bowed his head dutifully even as his emperor’s yellow eyes narrowed suspiciously before he greeted him. “Bastine. It’s been too long since your last update. Please tell me you have useful intel this time?”
“Emperor,” Gray murmured respectfully, for a moment shocked to hear the name most others called him. “I’ve gleaned some information that I believe will prove very useful to the potential threat against our world.”
His emperor nodded at someone in his chambers Gray couldn’t see. No doubt the emperor’s many comms-tech personnel were triple-checking that the halo-image and audio worked perfectly. His emperor refocused on Gray. “Do tell.”
“The Dronians aren’t tolerating Earth’s atmosphere. They’ve been sending their hardiest soldiers to Earth to find and kill the last seven Strazanians before whichever of the gases on this planet kills their soldiers first.”
His emperor inhaled sharply, his interest now absolute. “You’re certain about this?”
He nodded. “I am. The intel came from someone I now trust completely.”
“So you succeeded in capturing the Sienna woman?”
“I did.”
His emperor cocked his head to the side. “I presume you fucked her to gain her trust and collect this information?”
He withheld a flinch. He wasn’t yet ready to say he’d more than fucked her. That he’d marked her as well had never been authorized, and in fact might see him branded as a traitor. The latter meant he’d never be welcomed back on his world, no matter that he was doing everything in his power to save it.
He cleared his throat. “Yes, I fucked her.”
“Good. She must trust you now. You don’t need me to tell you to take full advantage of that.”
He remained silent, though resentment surfaced, almost suffocating him.
“Any other intel?” his emperor asked, impatience snapping from him as he crossed his arms, his wings tucked neatly inside his armor.
Unlike Gray, emperors didn’t need to fight and win to earn their priceless armor, it was their birthright.
“There is, Emperor. Dronians apparently won’t go near water. I’m yet to ascertain if that is because they can’t swim or if they simply can’t tolerate it.”
“It makes sense,” his emperor said in a thoughtful voice. If it wasn’t for those Strazanianraresswimming in the Great Waters, none of them would have survived.”
“That’s not completely true, Emperor. Sienna was one of theraresguarding the royal palace.”
The emperor frowned. “Shewasthe onlyrarewho survived, though?”
“That is correct.”
