The Melier: Home World (Women of Dor Nye Book 2) Page 6

  “I will take you,” and then he turned toward the door without waiting for her to voice her disagreement, like he was used to people just automatically obeying. She supposed that was probably true.

  I have to get back to the suite.

  Do not follow him!

  She fisted her hands at her sides as she followed anyway, against her better judgement, lagging far behind. She learned her lesson about going against the warning of her gut with Quin, and she wasn’t about to let herself stupidly fall into anymore traps.

  When Val’Koy stopped at the door and waited for her, she slunk past him, nearly plastering herself to the frame in order to keep as far away from him as possible. He continued to stare at her, and it made her scalp tighten and tingle like he was a hunter about to spring a snare.

  ****

  Soren stared at the report his father handed to him. They had lost another ship to the Treps, another eighteen souls dead to a war that was unfounded.

  The muscles in his jaw jumped as he clenched his teeth together.

  “I will reach out to Emperor Vu’Mal’Su,” he nodded. Swallowing his pride was easy compared to the danger this war posed to his family and their people.

  Vu’Mal’Su was evil.

  “No,” Val’Zun protested. “It will show weakness, and then nothing will satisfy him other than your death. There is nothing more he wants than revenge.”

  If that would stop this insanity.

  Could he continue sacrificing the lives of soldiers when all of this could be solved by his submission to the emperor? Those soldiers had families too; people who would never see them again. Were their lives worth less than his own, considering he’d created this mess initially?

  If he had been more thorough and killed every last Trep on that ship, this wouldn’t be happening. If he had erased the security vids, they may not now be at war. If he had been more thorough…

  Loo-Sha would be dead.

  Soren scrubbed a hand over his brow before he looked hard at Val’Zun. “If Loo-Sha accepts you as her mate-”

  “No.” Val’Zun’s nostrils flared angrily.

  “Then I will put together a team. I will do what I have been trained to do.”

  “No.” This time it was his father who rejected his approach.

  Soren stared sharply at both of them and bared his teeth with frustration. “Am I to sit on my hands? Let others fight for me, like a coward?”

  His father laid a hand upon his shoulder and squeezed. “You are a prince, my son. This is what our soldiers have dedicated their lives to, knowing full well they may die protecting you to do so.”

  This was not satisfying to hear. He too had been trained and dedicated his life to protecting the crown, his people, his family. He had been fortunate to survive that failed mission years ago, even if it had brought him grief at the hands of Trepnils.

  He was alive.

  “I will not stand by while others continue to fall,” Soren finally said as he looked back to the report in his hands.

  ****

  On Val’Koy led Lucia through the halls of the palace and she wondered how the hell she’d wandered so far off course. She began to notice the subtle differences in the attire the guards wore, as they passed many. Very few had the black, shimmery robes and golden belts, like the ones that had escorted them to the palace upon their arrival. Most were wearing a red robe with a bronze belt while the guards closer to their destination were wearing purple robes with silver belts.

  She would save her questions for Soren, or someone other than Val’Koy. The less she had to talk to him, the better.

  As if summoned, she saw Soren and Val’Zun exiting from a door on the far end of the hall they were walking. Immediately she dashed around Val’Koy and ran like a devil was on her heels toward Soren, her arms flung out and once she was close enough, she jumped at him. His arms caught her and swept her to his chest while hers squeezed onto his neck, threatening to never let go.

  “Loo-Sha,” he whispered. “What is wrong?”

  She exhaled loudly while a pair of his hands rubbed over her back, and his lips kissed her shoulder and neck. Val’Zun peered at her face from beside Soren, one of his hands brushing back the curls from her forehead while he too waited for an answer.

  “Nothing,” she sighed. “I just missed you.” It wasn’t a lie, she really had. It just so happened, she also wanted to get the hell away from his older brother.

  He’s too weird.

  Soren began to purr then, making her grin just a little. Her hand reached out and she scratched under Zun’s chin too, helping to wipe his worried expression from his face as his loud purr tumbled forward as well.

  “Let us go find Lenny and steal her from Gi’Ren,” Zun suggested.

  She giggled, and when she looked back down the hall at Val’Koy, he simply smirked and quietly turned to walk away. Lucia inwardly soured and turned back to Soren and Zun.

  They set about hunting down Gi’Ren.

  ****

  The days flitted by and Lucia slowly began to keep to herself. Each night, third meal was spent with the royal family and each night the queen insisted on addressing her, if she addressed her at all, as ‘beast’. She was no longer ‘the human’, ‘she’, ‘it’, or ‘creature’; simply beast.

  Lucia didn’t know why, but even when Gi’Ren and Val’Zun had initially addressed her with those titles when she met them on Dor Nye, they didn’t bother her. When anyone else used them, it felt foul.

  Each night Val’Koy insisted on taking pleasure in her discomfort by bringing up things like her scent, and other subjects pertaining to her strange anatomy, but she continued to show up.

  Each night Lucia calmed Soren and Val’Zun down by reiterating this entire thing would take time. Lots of time, by the way things were going, but it had only been a week.

  A week was not enough to change centuries of ingrained prejudice, no matter how much Lucia wished it was.

  The big picture actually depressed her when she thought about it. How the hell was she supposed to change Melierun’s collective mind? It seemed impossible and she was just to a point where she would be happy to be on civil terms with the queen, the rest of Melierun be damned.

  Most of her time was spent in the princes’ suite and it was hard to avoid all of them, but she managed to most of the time. Soren and Val’Zun would disappear every day to take care of their duties, which she still had yet to find out what those were.

  Val’Koy was often gone and she really didn’t care what he was doing or where he was, so long as he wasn’t around her.

  The days Gi’Ren did steal Lenny, she was alone, doing nothing but pacing the suite and watching Melierun’s news channel. She would usually turn that off too, since half of that time was spent speculating on Prince Val’Ja’s beastly mate and her terrible manners.

  There had even been a small protest calling for her imprisonment because of how she had disrespected the queen during Soren’s homecoming banquet.

  That part actually scared her.

  Lucia was too wary of venturing past the suite doors, afraid of running into Val’Koy again or worse, the queen. She highly doubted the queen would hesitate to slit her throat without anyone around to stop her.

  The stress of everything was turning Lucia into a scratching, shaky ball of nerves.

  When two weeks had passed, she finally figured out how to work Melierun’s odd comms that were really data linking gadgets called CID, which stood for Compact Interactive Device; something the Melier had actually created and marketed off world.

  She got comfortable on a cushion once she was alone again one afternoon and took out the CID.

  She pulled apart the two thin, white wands, and a flexible transparent screen stretching between them lit up as it became rigid. She typed in Dor Nye’s coordinates, and then the code for the Herana residence.

  The rush of homesickness clawed at Lu’s chest and her stomach flipped when her grams answered the call.

  �
�Oh sweetling, it’s so good to see your face,” she sighed and instantly Lucia burst into tears.

  All the frustration that had built up over the last couple weeks and even the time leading up to the journey, it just came pouring out in ugly, snorting sobs. Her grams waited patiently until she was able to form sentences without blubbering incoherently.

  “I don’t think I can do this, Grams,” she swallowed and tried to talk. “I don’t know what I was expecting, but it just feels hopeless. The little time I spend outside of this suite is spent listening to the queen make snide comments about me, or Lenny, and call me a beast.” She took a moment to hack out a few more sobs. “I knew they hated humans, but…”

  “Sweetling, have you spoken to Soren about this?” Grams asked. She had a sour look to her face; the same look she always had when someone or something upset one of her granddaughters.

  Lucia snorted in a very unladylike manner that would have Nova tsk’ing her. “Soren actually wants to take me back to Dor Nye, but I keep telling him if we run, it won’t change anything. It’s really just a show, because I’m honestly a little scared, and upset, and I feel like this will never work.” Lu shook her head and wiped at her eyes. “I just want to come home.”

  Grams eyes softened and she tilted her head slightly. “I want you home too, but I don’t think you will ever forgive yourself if you give up now. It may seem like an impossible task, and it might be. If you stick it out, you can at least say you gave it your best effort.”

  She sniffed and wiped her eyes again. Her sinuses were beginning to swell and make it hard to breathe from all the crying. Grams had a point; it was just hard to even think of staying on a planet where literally every being except three hated her. Lenny didn’t count because she loved anyone who would snuggle her.

  That thought made her lips twitch just a little.

  “My grandfather once told me,” Grams began. “The Melier never agreed with the Coalition helping Earth’s people relocate to Dor Nye. Humans ruined their planet and Melier thought dying along with Earth would be due punishment. They didn’t feel humans deserved the opportunity to destroy another home. That happened hundreds of years ago, sweetling,” Grams said softly. “It is time for both our peoples to move on.”

  “You’re right,” Lu sighed, mulling over the information. “I can’t let them run me off. I’d only be doing exactly what they want, and expect.”

  “That’s my girl,” Grams smiled.

  “Wait,” she quirked a brow in confusion. “I thought you didn’t know who the Melier were?” Lu thought back to when she first introduced Soren those months ago. Everyone had been thoroughly surprised by him; everything about him, as if they had never seen a Melier before, like her.

  Grams gave one of her classic mischievous smiles. “I’m old. Maybe my memory isn’t so good.”

  Lu narrowed her eyes, knowing full well that was her overused excuse when she conveniently omitted information.

  They chatted a while longer and the comm was passed around so she could say hi to everyone and tell them she missed them.

  When she ended the call, she sat there in silence.

  It was at that point how much she realized her family really was important to her. Not just because she loved them, but because they were a network of support. She noticed since her time away from them, being in an unwelcoming atmosphere, her self-confidence was slowly ebbing away. Her sense of adventure, fearlessness, and the spark that was distinctly her was no longer what it once was.

  How did that happen?

  Lu wasn’t weak. She didn’t run from a challenge when it got difficult; she stood her ground and faced it. Soren believed in her. Val’Zun believed in her. Gi’Ren believed in her. All of the Herana’s believed in her and she had to do this.

  No, she wanted to do this.

  I can do this.

  Lucia inhaled through her nose and exhaled through her mouth, expelling all the negative energy of the past two weeks and vowing to start fresh.

  No more avoidance, no more silence. She had a royal family to convince, a planet to explore, and an entire species to sway into throwing away centuries of prejudice that was only wasted energy and potential.

  When something moved out of the corner of her eye, Lu’s concentration was interrupted. She turned her gaze and shot to her feet, face contorted in horror at what she saw across the room. Perched on a cushion was a giant, glossy black beetle. It was half the size of Dezzy, her family’s pet Ro’Catta, with three beady, black eyes that watched her. Its jagged pincers were large enough to literally rip off limbs or saw through her ankles with little effort.

  Lucia tried not to trip while searching for something to kill the fiendishly large bug with.

  She tried to keep the bug in her peripheral vision, and rummage about as quietly as possible. Her eyes lit up as she wrapped her fingers around a glossy, long piece of wood sticking out from under a couch. She examined it loosely and figured it was part of a table.

  Oooooh! This will work.

  Definitely.

  The servants must’ve missed this piece from Soren’s raging episode the night of the party.

  Lucky us.

  Weapon in hand, Lucia stalked the gigantic insect like a child after an ant; small steps, quiet as possible, and ready to lunge. She imagined she looked ridiculous. Luckily, no one was around to witness her tomfoolery.

  I really am ridiculous, stalking a bug.

  How did you go from taking on space pirates to having a baby, and now you’re hunting creepy crawlies.

  Well, it all started with a meddling Sanruki healer, and a freaky aphrodisiac…

  I was being sarcastic.

  When her silent stalking brought her just feet away from the beetle that had its back to her, she silently raised her makeshift weapon and swung.

  Unfortunately, her aim was terrible, and she missed the beetle entirely, instead connecting with a small statue. She watched as it busted into multiple shards, creating a hackling sound that seemed to shriek throughout the suite.

  “Shit!”

  It was ugly anyway.

  Lucia sighed as she watched the beetle scurry to the far side of the room, and perch on a stack of books belonging to Soren.

  Once again, she assumed her hunters stance.

  Tiptoeing toward the bug, she was honestly surprised it had its back to her once more. Maybe it was just dumb. A big, dumb beetle.

  One can always hope.

  Again, she got close enough to swing. This time her aim was considerably better, but she still missed the damn thing. The piece of wood whizzed just above the beetle, skimming the shiny black shell of its back, and bouncing into the wall with such force, vibration jittered up the length of her arms and nearly chattered her teeth. Knocked off balance, she squawked, and tumbled to the floor, flat on her bum.

  “Jeeezzuuuzzz,” she moaned as she rubbed her tailbone, and watched the stupid bug skitter across the room once again, evading her efforts to end it.

  Frustrated she stood, grabbing one of the books it was previously sitting on and flung it with a screech. The book missed the beetle, as expected, but it unfortunately caught its attention.

  The beady, black eyes assessed her after it turned around and she watched as its shell cracked open, revealing four very large wings.

  She made a surprised sound and took a step back.

  The beetle took a step forward.

  Its mandibles chittered at her, and she watched in terror as its wings began to beat in an attempt to lift its fat body off the ground.

  Lucia let out a strangled cry, her hand flying to her throat and she took a few more steps backward.

  The beetle lifted from its place, and she screamed and hopped over a cushion.

  It hit the floor as if it was regaining its strength. Once again, its hard, black shelled wings flipped up as it prepared to fly, flexing its pincers once, then twice.

  Lucia lost her damn mind.

  She turned and ran, screaming until he
r own ears felt like bleeding. Every time Lucia chanced a look behind her, the beetle’s many black legs were scurrying faster, closer, which only made her scream like a wild animal.

  As she neared the entrance to the suite, the sensors tripped and the doors opened automatically, Lucia nearly slamming against the opposite wall of the hallway before she could gain traction to turn and fly down the corridor. The beetle gained on her and she thought she was going to faint from lack of oxygen and her mounting fear as images of being maimed by giant pincers flitted through her mind.

  When she turned a corner, she crashed into a chest of muscle that barely flinched. She hit it so hard she went bouncing backward and nearly landed on her ass before multiple hands caught her. The fear was too strong as she continued to shriek, and climb whoever she’d run into, like a tree.

  “Loo-Sha!” Val’Zun rasped, wincing and trying to control her jittery, flailing limbs. They were drawing the attention of half the palace, but she was too out of her mind screaming ‘big ass bug’ to even care. She only desired keeping her feet attached to her body.

  Lucia was clawing, and thrashing, and climbing until she nearly sat on Val’Zun’s shoulders. He pulled her down and clamped a hand over her mouth, panting with frustration and the pain her screams had caused his ears. His gaze bore down into her panicked face with a glare that would naturally have the hairs on her body rising to attention, but that was furthest from her mind.

  Her eyes kept looking back at the beetle that continued to gain on them, and her peels of shrieks started up again as she pushed on Zun’s chest to get him to run.

  Run anywhere, really, but preferably in the opposite direction.

  Val’Zun saw the beetle then.

  He took a step back.

  “Loo-Sha,” he whisper-hissed. “You must cease screaming. It is attracted to loud noises.”

  Immediately she stilled, eyes darting from Zun to the beetle that had finally stopped scurrying toward her. Her blood was whooshing in her ears and she struggled to breathe while her fear riddled veins wore out in her rigid body.

  A palace guard with a cinching net attached to a pole stealthily approached, caught the beetle and carted it off.