Alien-Under-Cover (29 page)

When this crises was over, some technicians were going to die under his blade after many months of torture. He would demand the right to take their heads.

Thirteen hours later, the doctor walked out of the isolation booth. Zurian wanted to ask him if Julia was all right, but he couldn’t find the words. He did not want to hear that his Julia would never look at him with laughter or intelligence in her beautiful eyes. He pulled back his shoulders.

Viglar flexed his arms and legs. “She will heal. We have to make sure there is no infection but I believe there will be no damage to her brain.”

Zurian’s legs gave way beneath him, disgraceful behavior for a warrior. Viglar turned and fiddled with his equipment. Zurian appreciated the gesture but he was not ashamed. If his Julia was all right, he did not care if he appeared weak to Viglar. “I promised her I would kiss her the moment she is conscious.”

“I will keep her asleep while she is in isolation, to keep her still. I promise when I bring her out of the coma and out of isolation, you will be the first to see her.”

“And kiss her.”

“Yes, then you may kiss her. For now I am most careful because of the possibility of infection.”

Zurian paced up and down, vaguely aware of warriors coming and going and absently answering questions about Julia’s welfare.

Natalie brought him food and he ate it to get rid of her sympathetic presence. It did not help. Most of the time, she stood next to him watching Julia. At least, she didn’t bother him with a lot of her talking.

He counted each day, while Viglar and Natalie tried to get him to go to sleep. As if he would be able to rest with Julia lying there so quiet. The battle still raged outside the town but they were winning.

On the third day, Zacar came in looking battered. His eyes glittered and Zurian knew the fight must have been glorious.

If Julia would only wake and look at him with her eyes full of life and intelligence, Zurian would forgo a thousand brilliant battles.

Natalie ran to Zacar and clung to him, sobbing into his shirt. He looked at Zurian over her head while he stroked her hair. “There were many. We killed most of them but some got away.”

“We will have another battle soon.”

“This was just the advance. To see what we have,” Zacar said. “They think we are purple and battle only with our swords.”

They’d decided to camouflage as explorers since that was what the humans thought they looked like. They locked gazes, threw back their heads, and laughed.

Natalie whimpered and clung tighter to Zacar.

Zacar stopped laughing and rubbed her back. Zurian might try that with Julia the next time she was upset with him.

“These humans are weak,” Zacar told him. “We did most of the killing with our swords. I was hoping for a battle worthy of us.”

“We will never find a worthy battle on Earth. We will have to settle for owning a fertile planet.”

“I have never had any desire to become a herdsman,” Zacar said. He held Natalie against him and looked at Julia through the transparent wall. He switched to English. “I received reports that the operation was successful. How long?”

“Another three days and then Viglar brings her out of the coma,” Zurian answered, also in English.

“She is fortunate to have a warrior like you.”

Zurian said nothing. It was because of him that she was in an isolation booth.

Zacar and Natalie left, and Zurian continued his vigil. Each morning and each night without fail, Zacar and Natalie returned and stayed with him for a while. He appreciated their support but he would have preferred to be alone with Julia. He could pretend she was awake, that they were talking to each other.

On the third day, the three of them stood and watched as Viglar injected Julia and fiddled with the equipment.

“I want to find Sarah for her,” Zurian said to Zacar, wanting to concentrate on anything but his fear that he would not see her soul once she opened her eyes.

“We will find her. Every probe that Azagor repairs is going out to search for her.”

“It is time I installed the surveillance.”

When they conquered a planet, they always ensured they could monitor everyone by replacing the local communication systems with Zyrgin technology. The strange decision to go slowly with this conquest had prevented Zurian from doing that.

“As soon as your breeder is well, you and Azagor will replace the antiquated TC technology with Zyrgin.”

Zurian nodded, his eyes on Julia. He watched Viglar’s every move as the doctor brought Julia out of the coma. Viglar turned toward them and nodded at Zurian. Feeling as if he went to his execution, he walked into the isolation booth.

She looked pale, so helpless. Some primitive instinct inside him screamed
weak
. He leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips. Her eyes opened, beautiful as the exotic blue sky above the Earth, and empty. Her lips were slack against his. He continued to kiss her. If he didn’t stop, eventually she would recognize his kiss and come alive. He couldn’t move. This terrible thing that had happened had taken his strength.

He turned to face Viglar, unleashed his claws. “You took her soul.”

“No, she is coming out of a coma. Humans take longer to be fully aware.”

“Zurian,” she whispered.

Zurian knelt next to the slab. She blinked and he saw his Julia in those exotic eyes.

It was a good thing he hadn’t eaten these last few days. His stomach would have expelled the raw Eduki meat.

“Yes, it is me. I kept my promise.”

“Promise?”

The confusion in her eyes worried him. She had to be all right. “I woke you with a kiss.”

“Yes, you did.” She licked her lips. “My warrior has honor.” She lifted her hand and it fell back on the bed. Before she could worry about her weakness, he curled her hand around his scarred cheek the way she liked to do.

“May I give her some water?” he asked Viglar.

“Only wet her lips with this. Allow her very little for now.” Viglar handed him a sponge soaked with water.

He accepted it, glad Viglar had insisted he put on protective gloves. Getting him to allow the kiss had been a battle. “When can I take her home?”

“Another three days,” Viglar said. “I will allow her out of bed for short periods but I want to monitor her to make sure she has regained all of her motor functions.

If she did not regain all her motor functions, Viglar would find himself without some necessary limbs.

“Zurian, I’m fine.”

She did not sound fine to him, but he smiled at her and wondered why she seemed to draw back into the cushion.

***

The doctor kept her in the infirmary two more days. Natalie brought her some cloths to cover her head once Azagor removed the bandages. Zurian pretended to adjust her bandages every hour in order to check, but there was no sign of her hair growing back.

At last, Zurian used the hidden tunnel to carry her into their dwelling.

“Interesting route we’re taking,” she murmured.

He walked to their bedroom and laid her down in the bed. “If you follow the doctor’s orders and get well, I will show you another hidden tunnel.”

She smiled at him and she looked like his Julia. “I am practically sizzling with health.”

He pulled the blanket over her. “I do not have honor.”

“Why do you say that?”

He could see darker blue flecks in her eyes--more importantly, her soul and her intelligence. The stubborn spirit that drew him from the first time he saw her. “All I can think of now is that I want sex making with you.”

She cupped his cheek. He still couldn’t understand why she preferred to cup his ugly face. He leaned into her caress like a weak human male. The softness of her hands illustrated their differences.

“What about one of your dangerous faint-inducing kisses for now?”

Her blue eyes twinkled at him with humor he didn’t understand. For the first time, he didn’t care. His Julia looked at him. His knees nearly buckled.

He leaned down and touched his lips to hers, moving them from side to side to feel every inch of her. Every aware, intelligent inch. “Maybe I will practice kissing your whole body while you are too weak to try and take over.”

She cupped his cheek again, her thumb caressing his scars. “Believe me, you don’t need practice.”

“I need to perfect my technique around some of your areas.”

“Areas?”

He touched her ribs with his forefinger, tracing the alien bones. “The strange ribs.”

“They’re not strange.”

They were strange and alarmingly fragile. He followed the full curve of the underside of her breasts. “I have not explored these enough.”

“I agree. You were shamefully neglectful.”

“I am a warrior with honor. I am never shamefully neglectful of my breeder.”

He forced himself to stop touching her beautiful skin. She had to heal first. Viglar had insisted she should lie down and rest for at least a week.

“You need to eat.”

“I feel like a chocolate,” she said.

Zurian carefully touched her skin but it didn’t feel warm as Viglar said it might if she developed a fever. Had Viglar’s operation damaged her mind, after all? “Do you fear you will turn brown and become like sugar?”

She looked at him. A strange expression crossed her face and then she laughed. She reached up to kiss him but groaned and held her head.

He quickly kissed her and held her still. “Please do not move, Julia. The doctor said you should be quiet for a few more days.” He did not have the heart to tell her that he found her strange human laugh grating and ugly. When she was well again, she could laugh as much as she liked.

“You are such a caring warrior, Zurian. You will make a wonderful father.”

The bottom dropped out of his world.

Chapter 24

Julia’s laughter dried up when he stiffened and moved away from her. She wanted to grab him and hold him against her. His presence reassured her. For the first time since she ran form her family, she felt safe, had an emotional connection with another human--well, not a human, exactly.

She reached out and he sat next to her again. She cupped his scarred cheek and something flared in his eyes. “What’s wrong? What did I say?”

“You said nothing wrong. I will bring you food.”

His face never moved in a frown or smile but she’d learned to read him and something she said had upset him. He was trying to hide it but she’d come to know him these months. She thought back to their conversation. All she’d said was that he’d be a good father. Why would that upset him?

He came back with a bowl of soup. “Viglar assured me this is appropriate food for a breeder recovering from illness.”

“Or an operation recovering from having alien technology removed from her brain,” she couldn’t help saying.

She could swear he was happy to have her poking at him. His shoulders relaxed and he fed her the soup.

She’d taken the last swallow and teased him, calling him a mother hen when he stilled and then grunted. “I have to report to the leader. Stay still.” He leaned his forehead against hers and then left. He returned almost immediately. “Do not break into my equipment.”

She had something more interesting in mind. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” He continued to stare at her. “If that is your suspicious face, it’s not working. You need to show facial expressions if you want to pull that off.”

He turned and left and Julia closed her eyes. She seemed to be sleepy all the time.

***

She woke lying in bed, her hand still on Zurian’s knee, while he sat in a chair next to her and worked on one of the silver balls that she suspected were probes. He’d done this, worked close to her since the operation. Images and strange symbols, she assumed were Zyrgin writing, flashed before him at dizzying speed.

She flexed her fingers. “Your sons will be handsome like you.”

His leg became rock hard under her hand. He sat absolutely still, said nothing. Didn’t even look up from the probe. She prayed his reaction was not a rejection of having children with her.

She decided to push a little and see what happened. “I know we should get to know each other more but I can’t wait for us to have children. Apart from the fact that I would love to have cute sons like Zorlof and Larz, I would have access to your TC technology.” She prayed if she ever did have children, they never looked at her with cold killer’s eyes like Natalie’s sons.

He was silent for a long time looking down at the images on his tablet.” That will never happen.”

“What will never happen?”

“We will never have children.”

“What? Why?”

Still he didn’t look up from his tablet. This was the man who promised to look after her even if she turned into a vegetable?

“I will not give you children.”

“But why?” Did he think she wasn’t good enough to have Zyrgin babies? He never hid his contempt for humans. Except she’d thought she was different to him.

“All you need to know is that we will never have children.”

She got up carefully and paced and still he didn’t look at her. For the first time in days, he didn’t insist she sat or lay quietly.

“Please talk to me, Zurian. Don’t shut me out, not after everything we’ve been through together.”

“I will always call you breeder.” This time the words did not comfort her. It was said with the same tenderness as before, but now they scared her.

“What are you trying to tell me?”

“I am a monster.”

Julia stopped and knelt before him, crossing her arms on his knees. “Why do you think yourself a monster?” Maybe he couldn’t have children and was too proud to tell her. She squeezed his leg. “If you cannot have children, there is no shame in that, Zurian.”

“I can have children. It would have been easier if I could not. I know you would not look at me with hatred if I could not have children.”

“I could never look at you with hatred, Zurian. Never.”

He focused on the probe again. “Is that true?”

“Yes. Please look at me.”

His eyes blazed red at her. As she watched, black tendrils filtered back.