Page 69 of Claimed By her Alien Prince

Her breath shuddered, her lids fluttered, but I think she fell asleep right then and there. While I lay there holding her. I did close my eyes, reveling in her nearness, in the steady, slowing thump, thump of her heart and her even breathing. She was alive, satisfied, and MINE.

And I swore I would keep it that way.

Thisiswhatweknew.

The Nayphyllym abandoned their new home, Earth or Adama as the Daemons called it, to return to Tartarus, their home planet, while Behlial was cursed for eternity to make his journey—styx—from Elysian to Adama to Tartarus, back to Elysian.

During his allotted stay on Elysian, the Daemons would unload the Nayphyllym brides, who by then had done their duty by giving birth to seven sons. The brides were highly valued in Daemon society and eventually found new, happy homes.

During their stay of terror on Earth, the noble Daemons, and even some of the seven princes, would scour the surrounding area of wherever Behlial had chosen to land that time, and harvest any Nayphyllym or Tainted they could find. Because, as I was told, the Nayphyllym who mated with the humans, also confusingly called Tainted, were also able to give birth to Daemon offspring, replenishing their decimated race.

Nayphyllym mating with humans altered not only human history, but human development and DNA. Every time the Daemons returned, they discovered a more plentiful well to drink from.

As long as the humans taken had a trace of Nayphyllym blood, they, too, would enjoy immortality, but the way the Daemons picked their victims, regardless of whether they had a family or not, sickened me. Seth promised he would have any prisoner who wanted to return to Earth escorted back, and nearly came to blows with Azazel over it.

But that's his brother's story to tell, and I don't want to step on his toes.

Anyway, I was assured by Ishtar that all the captured would be highly venerated on Elysian and live happy lives, same as with the seven maidens, at the end of the journey.

As for the nobles aboard, they were chosen among the Daemons as witnesses for the journey and vied for the opportunity to maybe find a mate of their own, same as with the guards. The Tainted servants came because it was considered an honor to serve on a styx.

Behlial had to give up his crown on Elysian, he could not have reigned over a planet he only saw once every seven hundred years for one year, but every time he arrived, he was treated like a god, which made up for the fact that he lost his kingship on Elysian. On board theAsphodelduring the styx, he was the unopposed king of his domain, at least until his sons rebelled and put him under lock and key.

Ishtar returned to her home in what is now called Iraq, formerly known as the Babylonian empire. Going to a city which was merely ruins now but called Uruk at one time. There was nothing there for her but memories. I hoped she would find some solace in those. I was sad to see her leave, but also knew that this was what she wanted. I regretted that I would never see her again, because our journey, our styx, was just beginning. And if we ever returned to Earth, she would be long gone.

Our styx to Tartarus took us a little over two hundred Earth years, Seth and his brothers decided to keep the styx as close to the original quest as possible but allowed Judith and Sara to return to Earth. After the death of their mates, they only wanted to go home. The other maidens and I stayed.

We didn't know what would await us on Tartarus and the unknown hung over our happiness like a dark blanket.

For the most part, we were happy though. Especially after I gave birth to our first son, Osiris, named after the first Seth I had ever met in my past life.

The plan was to speak with the leader of the Nayphyllym. After these many years, we were hoping both species had not only advanced from their warmongering ways but would be willing to renegotiate Behlial's deal. It was a gamble, but our only chance to put an end to this barbaric quest.

In that, the remaining brothers and their mates were unified. The distrust between them was put to rest, and we were all curious about Tartarus and Elysian.

When we reached Tartarus, we were ready to bring this quest to an end, one way or another, but we were sorely disappointed by what we found.

Of all of us, I should have been the least surprised. After all, according to legend, Tartarus was hell, cast in darkness.

But that the darkness came from a dying sun was nothing any of us had expected. No form of life greeted us. According to Ishtar, the Nayphyllym had been very advanced spacefarers, and even after their defeat, we had expected for them to have recovered after so many years, but there was nothing.

No space stations, no orbiting fleets or ships, not even satellites.

The entire planet appeared as dead as the space surrounding it.

As Seth and I stood by the shuttle that would take us down to Tartarus he tried one more time to convince me to stay on theAsphodel, just like he had for the past two hundred years.

"Are you sure I can't change your mind?" Seth's eyes were filled with pain, a pain I wanted to take away from him but couldn't. This was his only wish I refused to fulfill. I would not remain on theAsphodelwhile he tried to make contact with the leader of the Nayphyllym—if there was even one left.

"Where you go, I go," I said simply for the thousandth time.

"What about Osiris?" he asked about our son.

"What about him?"

"The boy needs his mother."

I laughed at that. "Theboyis over two hundred years old."

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