Page 141 of Decadence

“No need.” Ikriss made a small, oddly formal bow. “I protect my clan. Let’s go, Sienna.”

In the background, Ed Markey was busy introducing his eight-member panel of intergalactic political analysts. One of them was an alien; an Avein with her elegant long black wings tucked behind her.

She glanced at her friends. “I’ll be back soon.”

Emmett looked at Ikriss, then at Sienna. He slumped back in the sofa and let out an exasperated sigh, making a little shooing gesture with his hand. “Go.”

Uncharacteristically subdued, Cleo gave her a solemn wave.

As if under a spell, she followed Ikriss as he ushered her away from the staff room; through the kitchen and the dining room and into the cold dawn outside.

He walked behind her, his hand grazing the small of her back, gently guiding her past the stern Kordolian guards who snapped to attention as he passed, reminding her that Ikriss commanded the full loyalty of these fierce warriors.

He didn’t say a word as they walked outside onto the empty street, which was covered in a light dusting of snow. The sky was fading, turning from deep purple to pale lavender.

Hyper-colored neon holo-ads burned fervently in the aerial street above, their oversaturated hues flickering through the snowflakes that drifted down from the sky.

The scene was surreal and utterly beautiful.

She’d never seen her city in this light before.

Ikriss led her to a spot where the air shimmered ever so slightly, like a heat mirage in the desert. He uttered a single command in Kordolian.

The mirage wavered and disappeared, and suddenly it was replaced with the dark interior of a Kordolian ship.

“C-cloaking?” she asked weakly, shaking her head. There was a Kordolian cruiser parked right in the middle of the street—her street—and it was fully invisible.

Ikriss nodded and ushered her inside. The doors slid shut behind them, dousing them in shadow.

Sienna blinked as her eyes adjusted to the dim light.

Ikriss dropped to his knees before her and placed his hands into hers. At some point, his armor-gloves must have disappeared, leaving his hands bare.

Her skin tingled with a faint electric sensation as he ran his fingers over hers.

“Ikriss,” she whispered as her heart did a backflip in her chest. “What is going on?”

He bowed his head. “Eva is alive, but she is badly injured.” He took her hands and pressed them against his forehead, closing his eyes. “I did not expect our enemies to be so callous and stupid that they would attack the things that are most precious to us… that they would try and destroy their own future. Perhaps I have been out of the Empire for so long that I have forgotten what they are capable of.” He shook his head and let out a deep sigh. His shoulders slumped. All that tightly controlled tension melted away, and suddenly he was just a man.

Not a commander, not a lethal warrior, not one of the most powerful alien beings in the known Universe.

Just Ikriss.

And just like her, he had his hopes, his fears, his disappointments…

He wasn’t trying to hide any of that from her.

He’d never tried to hide what he was.

And now he held her hands to his forehead, allowing her fingers to graze the emerging tips of his horns; those strange, mysterious, alien things that gave him so much pleasure and yet caused him so much pain.

He took a deep, shuddering breath and curled his fingers tightly around hers, bringing her hands down to his lips.

He kissed her softly and reverently, demanding her complete attention, silently asking for her understanding.

For a moment, they just stayed like that, and Sienna didn’t want to break the delicate, bittersweet silence, but she had to. “How bad is it, Ikriss?”

His eyes snapped open. Abruptly, he released her hands. He was back in Commander mode again. He rose to his feet. “Plasma burns to over half her body. They took her to our medical facility on Earth, where Zyara started to cultivate the skin graft. She is being transferred to Silence for the final treatment, which will be done by Zharek. She will be fine, my love.”

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