Page 33 of Claimed By her Alien Prince

"We have a very extensive bybliotheca," he said.

The word sounded curiously close to the Latin word for library. Which brought on another question. "How come you speak Sumerian?"

"You mean my language?"

"We call it Sumerian," I clarified. "A language that died off long ago on Earth."

"Ah Earth. I keep forgetting you call your planet this."

"What do you call it?" I asked.

"Adama," he said, putting some curried chicken on his naan bread and folding it like a taco.

"Adama," I repeated the word, thinking it over. There was of course Adam from the bible, but something else nagged at the back of my mind and it took me a moment before I could pinpoint it. "Adamah!"

"No, Adama," he corrected.

A shiver went over my spine at the realization of how close those two words were related and how old the Hebrew word for Earth was. How long had these aliens been visiting us?

A very long time, my mind supplied, especially given the fact that they only came every seven hundred years. Seven hundred years. I let that sink in.

"How come you speak this language if you say it has been dead for a long time on Adama?" he asked curiously.

"I was taught many dead languages," I said proudly. "I'm a historian."

"You like to study the past?" he concluded.

I nodded.

"So do I." His response surprised me.

Finding something in common with an alien or vampire—or both—had been the last thing on my mind. Wait, no, sex would have been the last thing, and we had already done that. So there was that.

I smiled at him. "Maybe one day you can show me your bybliotheca," I suggested. "I would love to see it."

"We will go tomorrow morning," he promised.

"Tomorrow morning." I smiled, wishing with all my heart I could see this as just a date. Not something I would do with an alien whose people had invaded Earth and were killing thousands of humans.

"What is it?" he asked, noting my darkening expression.

"I…" I didn't want to insult him, but I couldn't forget about all those people dying either. No matter if I liked them or not. I had never had any close relationship with humans, which, I guessed now that I found out I was a Nayphyllym explained a lot, but still. They were people. They had children. They were brothers, mothers, grandparents, uncles and more.

"I keep thinking about all those people on Earth," I said in a low voice, unsure of how he would react.

"The Adamas?"

I nodded.

"I know." His face darkened as well, surprising me. "Trust me when I say I wish I wielded the power to stop this bloodbath, but my hands are tied. This is Behlial's show, not mine. We all have roles to play."

I listened for resignation in his voice but found none, and I almost missed his quietly added words, "For now." But I didn't ask any further questions.

"Tell me about your vampires." He changed the subject.

"Oh, well, there isn't much to tell, only that they were supposed to have been on Earth a long time ago and that they live off the blood of humans. They don't eat or drink, and they sleep during the day because the sun will burn them to a crisp."

"Hmm, intriguing. We don't really care for light much, but it doesn't burn us. I wonder if this legend comes from us returning to Adama so many times."

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