Page 32 of Scars & Starlight
“Where is our princess?” Orien asks, rolling his head to release tension in his neck. “Are the females safe?”
I lift an eyebrow at the question. “How about the males?”
“Eh.” He shrugs. “Competition.”
Eager to return to Tara, I ignore his cheekiness. “The Talon’s sensors reported nine more foes. Where are they?”
The male points his weapon at the main entrance to the building above Elmsleigh’s bunkers. I tilt my head, motioning for him to follow me. “Let’s hunt them down.”
We go from room to room, slaying our foes as we encounterthem, making a mess of the already-trashed building. When we hear human gunfire coming from below, we share a concerned look.
“Tara,” I hiss, then turn around to head to the tunnels entrance I’m familiar with, trusting Orien to follow. According to Kiko, the side of the corridor I told him to monitor is clear, so the Ghorvek must have entered the same way we did.
It’s not long until the noise of human weapons becomes deafening, and we pin the remaining Ghorvek between us and Elmsleigh’s soldiers. Tara stands behind them, the neural interference gun I gave her aimed at the enemies, but she wisely doesn’t fire without having a clear shot. At the setting I left it at, it would cook any living creature’s nervous system. Elmsleigh stands a few paces back, a gun held in her hands but pointed down.
When a hulking Ghorvek sweeps aside two human males and charges toward the females, I move faster than I ever have. One moment I’m behind the lines, the next, I’m facing the brute, my match behind me. With the burst of anger fueling me, I take care of the monster in an instant, rip off its arm, and throw it at the other one. That Ghorvek rears back, straight onto Orien’s weapon.
In the sudden silence, I turn to Tara and check her for injuries, even though the enemy would have had no time to touch her. For a moment, though, it wasn’t Tara standing there, but my father, the King, caught unawares and taken down. I will not allow that to happen to anyone I love again. Not that I could possibly love Tara already… could I?
“Earth to Kairen,” she murmurs, gazing up at me with a bemused expression. She’s so beautiful. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
I recall my exoskeleton and touch her cheek, unable to resist the call of her soft skin any longer. “I thought I told you to call me Kai,” I admonish quietly.
Orien sidles up to us and scans Elmsleigh from head to toe. I see a dangerous interest burning in his orange eyes.
“Well,” he purrs. “You must be Maggie.”
“Well,” Margaret echoes. “I don’t recall tellingyouthat you may call me that.”
17
TARA
We decide to spend the rest of the day and the following night at Maggie’s, so Kairen runs to the Talon to store Kiko and grab a few things, including a nano bot package he had prepared for my own exoskeleton. We’re sitting on the bed now, ready to implement them.
“Is this going to hurt?” I ask with trepidation as he marks off the areas where I’ll have ports that match his.
My prince shakes his head, and the silky-looking tresses atop his head brush against his forehead. I don’t know what I’m more jealous of – the forehead, or the hair. Damn, I’ve got it bad.
“They’ll numb and heal as they work. You’ll only feel a tickle.” I shudder when his breath hits the shell of my ear, and feel goosebumps emerge. He kisses the side of my neck in response, making me arch.
“Keep doing that and we’ll never get those installed,” I warn him somewhat breathlessly. His answering chuckle feels so intimate in the narrow space between us.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to allow you to go unguarded for a moment longer.”
I purse my lips. “Does everyone on Avaris have these then?” When there’s no reply, I tilt my head to see the thin lines on his face pulsating.
“These are military-grade nanites,” he explains. “With them, you’ll be impervious to many attacks and able to call up weapons such as plasma blades and the pulse emitters.”
“The what and the what?” I ask, grinning at him. I’m squinting a bit, trying to focus on him from this close, and he smiles wryly in return.
“I’ll teach you everything, Princess,” he vows.
“When you say ‘everything’, do you mean–” I inhale sharply. “Oh, my god, that tickles!”
His teeth flash in the dim light of the suite Maggie assigned us, the view of the sharper canines sending a thrill through me. “I’m almost done, love.”
That’s the second time he’s called me that, and I don’t know how to respond. Are words of affection something that comes easily to him? I don’t know him well enough yet to see if I should assign any meaning to it.
