Alien Protector: Sci-Fi Alien Invasion Paranormal Romance (14 page)

Before either of them could say anything else, the crowd ahead was parting, and Plintos came striding through the market, flanked by two guards. Draco closed his eyes and let out a breath. If the king had come down from his tower to meet them in the market, then he already knew that Draco had come back with more than just the blade.

“Evening, your Majesty,” Canna said with a wicked smirk.

“Canna,” Plintos greeted without even looking at her, his bright eyes fixed on Stephanie who was standing behind Draco still. “I wonder, Draco, because I seem to be confused, if you could remind me of what it is I sent you to Earth to do.”

Draco squared his shoulders and met Plintos’ stare. “To get the blade. Which I did, I should point out,” he said, waving the cloth covered bundle. A ripple of murmuring went through the assembled people at the fact that the blade was on Aldara at long last.

Even Plintos seemed momentarily distracted from whatever tirade he was building up to, and Draco mentally encouraged him to take the blade and leave them alone.

But Plintos could be absurdly stubborn when he wanted to be, and he just folded his arms. “Yes, well done,” he said. “But you seem to have come back with something that wasn’t on the list.”

“Don’t talk about her like that,” Draco said without thinking. “She’s not a
thing
, and there’s a reason she’s here.”

“Oh,
wonderful,
” Plintos said. “You’ll have to tell me all about it, then. But not here. We need to get
that,
” and he nodded to the covered blade in Draco’s hand. “Somewhere safe. Come with me.” He turned to walk away, making it clear that it hadn’t been a request.

Draco glanced back at Stephanie, who had yet to say anything, but was scowling at Plintos’ back. “I’m sorry,” he mouthed at her and then turned back to his friend. “Plintos, I’m not just going to leave her here in the market.”

Plintos sighed, aggravated and clicked his fingers at one of the guards. “Take her to Draco’s rooms,” he said. “She’ll be fine there.”

“I’ll see you in a bit,” Draco said to her. “You’ll be okay?”

“Sure,” Steph replied. “I'm a big, strong girl. I’ll see you when you’re done.”

He watched as she followed the guard and then sighed, following Plintos to the palace. Of course, his friend was muttering to himself the whole time, and Draco could already feel a headache building behind his eyes. They didn’t have time for this. Who knew when the Triptherus would decide that following them was a great idea and turn up with the other two items in tow.

They made it up to the tower and Plintos held out a hand. Draco put the blade in it and then stepped back, forgetting his irritation for the moment so he could watch his friend unwrap the blade and see it in person for the first time. He glanced to the shelf where the other two had been and found them bare.

There wasn’t time for feeling bad about that, either. They would just have to get them back.

Plintos had unwrapped the sword, and Draco could hear the hitch in his breath as he stared down at it. They’d cleaned it up from Stephanie’s use of it to fend off the Triptherus, and it was just as bright and beautiful as it had been in the museum.

“Long live, oh king of kings,” Plintos murmured, fingers tracing the runes for just a moment. “We were so close to having all of them.”

“We’ll get the other two back,” Draco said. “If they want the blade, they’re going to have to come and take it.”

“And if they don’t bring the other two Artifacts?”

Draco rolled his eyes. “Then I’ll hunt them down all over again. But they’ll bring them, Plintos. They want all three, and they won’t turn down the opportunity to put the weapon together here. Not after I snatched the blade right from under their...well, I guess they don’t have noses, but you get the point.”

“I do,” Plintos said. “What I don’t get is why you would bring her here.”

“Because she would have been in danger if I’d left her there,” Draco explained. “She was attacked, remember? How long do you think they would have waited before they went after her again? And then she would have been basically alone with nothing and no one to protect her, and I wasn’t going to leave her there to deal with that when none of this is her fault.”

He folded his arms, daring Plintos to argue with him, though Plintos being who he was, Draco knew he would try.

“Do you know what I think?” Plintos asked, sharp eyes on Draco. “I think that’s just a convenient excuse. I think you thought of that bit after you’d already decided to bring her back. I think you’ve lost sight of what’s important here.”

“Important to
who
, Plintos?”

“To
all
of us! We’ve been trying to do this for years now, and as soon as some pretty human takes an interest in you, it’s like none of it even matters anymore. Would you have come home at all if it weren’t for the fact that we’re basically in a crisis right now?”

Draco spluttered. “Of course I would have!”

“Would you? Or would you have stayed there with her?”

It was a ridiculous question. Yes, alright, so Draco had been having some trouble with the idea of leaving towards the end, and the crisis at hand had pushed it so he
had
to leave, but that didn’t mean that he had been willing to turn his back on his home or his people. Or on Plintos, for that matter because irritating as he was, he was still Draco’s best friend. His brother.

All he’d wanted was more time to try and come up with a plan that would have allowed him to have all the things he wanted, as selfish and greedy as that sounded.

“I would have come home,” Draco said firmly. “And I’m going to take
her
home as soon as she wishes it. This isn’t a permanent thing.”

Plintos snorted, looking skeptical. “Sure, it isn’t.”

“She has a home, too, Plintos. I won’t keep her here if she wants to go.”

“But will she?”

Draco didn’t know the answer to that, and he didn’t want to think about it just then, either. The headache that had been building was threatening to blossom in full, and all he wanted was food and fresh water and a nap.

“Do we have time for this?” he asked. “Because I thought there was something we were meant to be doing. Some reason I rushed back here. Do you have a plan?”

“I do,” Plintos replied. “It’s not a very good one, but we’re short on both options and time. When they come, we fight. The guards are armed with the usual swords and blasters, and they’ve been training. We outnumber the Triptherus, which will hopefully give us even a small advantage over them. I’ve set some civilians who wanted to be involved to keeping watch. We don’t need to be taken by surprise again. Every little bit will help here.”

“Yes,” Draco agreed with a sigh. “It will.”

And so it seemed that, for the moment, all they could do was wait.

Chapter 10: Trouble Lurks in the Dark

For her part, Stephanie wasn’t put off by Plintos’ less than gracious handling of her being there. It seemed to be par for the course from what she knew of him, and she took it in stride, the excitement of being somewhere she’d never been before (and somewhere probably
no
human had been before) was taking over and not leaving room for any negative emotions.

She was shown to Draco’s rooms that first day, and she was surprised that they were so lavish and well furnished. While Draco and Plintos talked or argued or plotted or whatever it was they were doing, she explored the suite of rooms, finding a bedroom as well as a sitting room and bathroom all adjoined.

There were a number of things that she didn’t recognize, little switches and knobs in the bathroom and sitting room that looked interesting, but she didn’t want to touch them and mess something up.

One whole wall in the sitting room was dedicated to a large screen surrounded by several smaller ones, and she wondered what TV was like in space. Obviously they got Earth channels if Draco had seen the blade on their news programs, and she could only assume that there was something to do with satellites at work there.

On another wall there were pictures, though they were sparse, and the wall that didn’t have the door set into it held a shelf full of books. It was these that Stephanie amused herself with while she waited, flipping though them even though none of them were written in English or even in an alphabet she recognized.

When Draco came back, he looked tired, and he wasted no time in dragging her into the large bathroom and drawing them a bath to soak in.

Stephanie was perfectly at home sitting between Draco’s spread legs in the bath, her back to his chest while she asked him about the things in his rooms. They didn’t talk about Plintos or about the Triptherus, and Steph was pleased as she felt Draco’s tension melting away.

“I have my own house,” Draco explained. “It’s not far from here, but I grew up in the palace, and Plintos likes to have me close when he needs me, so. I’m here a fair amount of time. You’re welcome to stay here or at my house. Wherever you’re comfortable.”

“I’ll stay with you,” Stephanie said. As if that was even a question. She didn’t know anyone else here, and she wasn’t convinced that any of them were going to like her judging by the way they’d been looking at her when she got off the shuttle. The palace servants and guards had been polite to her, but that was most likely a part of their job or out of respect to Draco.

Still, she wasn’t going to let that stop her, and the next day, when Draco had apologized and said that he had to go meet with Plintos for a bit, she kissed him and assured him she would be fine. The servants provided breakfast for them, which contained a large amount of strange fruits and meats, and then Steph got dressed and decided to head out.

She hadn’t come all this way to hide in Draco’s rooms, after all, and if the people didn’t like her, then she would keep to herself, but she wanted to explore a bit.

Aldara was a lot like Earth, she learned. It was similar in climate, though the air was much fresher and cooler than she’d ever experienced on her own planet. The people of Leothian (as she learned that particular area was called) seemed to be a strange combination of advanced and primitive.

They all dressed in loose bottoms and long tops, the material seeming light and airy, and while she knew that they had advanced technology like the shuttle, the screens in Draco’s room, and comm devices that allowed for communication across planets and large sections of space, there didn’t seem to be any cars or other modes of transportation that she could see, and everyone was walking.

Everything was modern looking, though, and the area around the palace was definitely what she would describe as urban with paved streets and houses that were all carbon copies of each other. It looked like a city, but had the air of a much smaller town, and Stephanie loved it.

The marketplace was apparently the center of the town, and it was where Stephanie found herself drawn to the most.

The more they saw her around, the more the people seemed to warm to her, and she let them ask her things about Earth and about her clothes and way of life, pleased to exchange information. Canna introduced herself and plied her with pastries and tasty things on sticks while she explored, and she learned more about the people and about Draco and Plintos as children.

Plintos was perhaps the most perplexing bit about the whole thing. She didn’t see him often, usually just when Draco brought her to meals with the two of them, but he always seemed to be watching her with a look of suspicion and unease, and she didn’t really know what she’d done to warrant it. She could understand him being wary of having someone he didn’t know or trust in his kingdom, but surely he knew that she would never do anything to hurt Draco or his people.

They avoided each other for the most part, at least until one day, about three days since her arrival, when she was summoned to Plintos’ tower.

A wide eyed servant girl took her there and remained a respectful distance from the door while Stephanie knocked and waited to be allowed to enter.

When she stepped inside, she had to work to contain the gasp of delight that wanted to spill from her lips. Every inch of the wall space was lined with shelves and each shelf held an array of trinkets and treasures and books.

Draco had told her about this room and how Plintos kept all of his finds there, and seeing it for herself, she could understand why apparently the king didn’t leave the tower sometimes. It was amazing.

And in the center of it all was Plintos, standing with his back to the door and facing out the only window in the room. His posture was ramrod straight and his hands were folded behind his back.

“You like it,” Plintos said, not turning around. “My tower.”

“I do,” Stephanie replied cautiously. “It’s lovely, really. But then, I’ve always been drawn to stuff like this.”

He nodded and finally turned around. He looked tired, and Steph’s heart went out to him, knowing things had to be hard. “I’ve been rude to you,” Plintos said. “Since you’ve been here, and I wondered if you knew why.”

“Because you don’t trust me?” Steph ventured. “Or because you don’t like me. One or the other.”