Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Commander (3 page)

She ached to step into his
arms, wrap hers around his neck, and bring his mouth down for a
kiss that would be the undoing of them both.

She coughed and shook her
head.

“
Maybe I’m
coming down with something,” Amerii muttered, thinking it was a
reasonable excuse for her fluctuating heartbeat, blazing cheeks and
trembling.

Van moved closer, his
eyebrows knit tight, dark lines against his moon-white
skin.

“
Then I will
have quarters arranged so you may rest once the declaration is
signed.”

Amerii shook her head, her
eyes wide. Staying on the ship was a bad idea. Being close to Van
was a bad idea.

“
I don’t want
to be an inconvenience, really. I can sign it and then hop back to
my ship and rest there.”

“
I insist,” he
whispered.

Amerii found herself dazed
and nodding in agreement as she stared at the beautiful bow of his
lips.

He insisted after all. He
seemed to insist a lot. Could she become insistent too? Did it work
both ways? If she insisted that he kissed her, would he?

She was royalty after all
and he seemed to place great importance on that.

Did that mean he would do
as she had asked or refuse because she was royalty?

By the time she had come
out of her thoughts, he had moved away and was waiting by the open
door. She went to him, her gaze skimming over the knee length black
jacket he wore. It was almost as snug as hers was. It fitted
tightly across his chest and dipped in at his waist before flaring
out into loose tails. He had been wearing something similar last
time she had seen him. His polished black knee high boots matched
her own.

When she reached him, he
moved on, leading the way through the ship. She tried to think of
something to talk about but failed. He had already told her that
Sophia and the children were doing well.

Younglings he had called
them. They had inherited their father’s traits, which she knew was
a delicate way of saying that they too had bloodlust, fangs and red
eyes. She wished she could see them and Sophia. She longed to hold
them before they grew. She had never held a baby before but
whenever her mother spoke about the day that she had been born, it
sounded magical. Perhaps it had to be your own child to experience
such a wonderful feeling. She glanced at Van again.

His gaze slid to meet hers
but he said nothing. Their eyes remained locked as they walked and
she wondered if he felt the same as she did. Did a jolt run through
him whenever their eyes met? Did he think about her? Did he dream
of her?

Amerii couldn’t stop
dreaming of him—fantasies so wild that she woke in a sweat with her
heart thundering. Several times the brainwave monitors on the panel
beside her bed had reported unusual neural activity and had
suggested she report to the medical officer. She had ignored it
every time. She really didn’t want to sit with the doc and explain
to him that she was having highly charged erotic dreams about a man
she had only met once.

“
Is Regis
well?” she said to break the silence.

Van turned his head fully
to face her. “He is well and enjoying some time with his family.
The whole of Varka Prime has been celebrating their birth for many
months now.”

“
Is that
usual?” She hadn’t read anything about royal births. The Varkans
placed such importance on royalty that perhaps it was normal. On
Lyra Prime, they only celebrated a royal child’s birth for one
day.

He nodded. “It will most
likely continue until they have had their first feed.”

She frowned and then her
eyes widened when she realised that he was talking about
blood.

“
How will they
know?” She was pleased that she had him talking but, at the same
time, she wished that she didn’t have to ask so many questions. She
was beginning to sound ignorant about Varka and she didn’t want him
to think that was the case. She thought about impressing him with
her knowledge of Varka and his species but decided against it.
Looking like a swot probably wouldn’t get her anywhere
either.

“
The first feed
is public.”

“
Oh,” she said
with raised eyebrows. They were going to feed the younglings in
public. “I think I remember reading something about
this.”

It was Van’s turn to frown
and he stopped walking, moving to face her. “You do?”

Amerii smiled nervously,
hoping that she remembered it right so he would continue to be so
impressed. “Yes... younglings of the royal family are fed from
their father first, aren’t they? It’s something about strengthening
their blood so they... live forever.”

“
You paused,”
Van said and stepped up to her. “You paused before speaking of
eternity.”

“
It’s just...
it’s a strange concept to me,” she said, her eyebrows raised and an
embarrassed smile tugging at her lips. “Lyrans live a long time,
but to live forever...”

Van raised his hand as
though to touch her and then lowered it again. “I can understand it
would be difficult to comprehend. Sophia shares Regis’s immortality
now. He has gifted it to her.”

“
Are you... I
mean, is every Varkan immortal?”

“
It is not true
immortality.” His look softened. “We live many times longer than
any other species that we have met and can give a member of another
species the ability to also.”

The way his dark pupils
narrowed on hers made her heart thunder.

“
Regis made
Sophia live forever... will she need to—” Amerii cut herself off,
afraid to ask about blood in case she offended Van. She knew that
Varkans believed the universe saw them as monsters for their
feeding habits. It was probably unwise to mention it. She didn’t
want to shatter this sense of ease between them.

“
She will not
need blood. The eternal kiss only grants her a longer life. She is
unchanged. You need not fear for your friend.” His voice held
darkness that said the sense of ease between them had already been
shattered.

“
I don’t!” she
said quickly, cursing him for thinking that she was frightened of
his kind or anything they could do. His right eyebrow quirked. “I
just... I find it... fascinating.”

His other eyebrow joined
it and he stared at her so intently that her cheeks coloured under
the scrutiny.

“
Fascinating,”
he whispered, as though tasting the word, savouring it. “You find
my species interesting?”

Amerii nodded and cast her
gaze downwards, looking at her boots. His appeared in view, the toe
of them incredibly close to hers. His hand rose and he placed the
backs of his fingers under her chin. The soft brush of them made
warm tingles dance down her neck. She followed his silent command
when he brought his hand up and raised her chin. Her eyes met his
and she nibbled her lower lip when she found him smiling at her.
Her body mourned the loss of contact when he released her chin and
she barely stopped herself from showing it.

“
You do not
fear us, as your captain does?”

Her eyes widened. He had
noticed her captain’s fear just as she had during their journey
here. Half of the crew feared Varkans and didn’t want to be working
with them.

She shook her head. “I
have no reason to fear you.”

His smile widened and a
glimmer of bright red flashed across his eyes. “There are reasons
you should fear me.”

Her chest heaved with her
breathing and her throat felt tight. She held his gaze, desperate
to show him that what he spoke of didn’t frighten her either.
Sophia had told her about what had happened when Regis had been in
the grip of his bloodlust. He hadn’t hurt her. It was only others
that needed to fear him.

Just as it would be only
others who would need to fear Van.

He wouldn’t hurt
her.

At least that was what she
told herself.

“
Not you...
others perhaps,” she said, “but not you. I have no reason to fear
you.”

He tilted his head to one
side, his dark gaze penetrating hers. She continued to hold it to
show him that she was telling the truth—she had no reason to fear
him. He really didn’t frighten her.

“
I am pleased
to hear that,” he said and then looked to his left. She looked
there too and saw the two escorts had rejoined them.

Van held his hand out,
intimating the door. Stood just inside the room were two young
females. They were beautiful, their pale faces framed by long soft
black waves of hair. Their deep red eyes were rimmed with black,
their long lashes making Amerii envious of their looks. They nodded
to her and then looked to Van. Van said something she didn’t
understand and the two women smiled and nodded again.

Amerii’s feelings moved
beyond envy to jealousy, especially when Van continued to look at
them for long seconds.

“
We are ready
for you,” the women said in unison and bowed.

Amerii swallowed her anger
and all feelings with it. She had been foolish to let herself get
caught up in Van. He wasn’t the reason that she was here and she
shouldn’t have let herself behave so openly with him. His easy
conversation and manner with her had probably been the result of
him taking his cue from her and not because he liked her in
anyway.

He was Varkan.

She was Lyran.

It was best she remembered
that and why she was here.

She had a duty to do, a
task befitting of royalty, and she was going to do it well and get
back to her ship.

Amerii walked into the
room, sat in the chair that the two beautiful females drew out for
her, and stared at the contract. She read every word that was
written in her own tongue, ignoring the Varkan translation. It
seemed fair enough to her. They could create a base station on
Varka Two but ownership of the planet remained with
Varka.

With a trembling hand, she
picked up the electronic quill, and again swallowed her feelings.
Her duty here was to Lyra, not to her heart, no matter how much it
protested and tried to make her change her mind.

She signed the space below
the Lyran translation.

Princess Amerii
Lyra.

That was who she was. It
was foolish to let herself get caught up in a fantasy. Her dreams
of Van were just that—dreams. They weren’t reality. She didn’t know
him and he certainly didn’t know her. She frowned at the contract,
wondering what was wrong with her. Was this all jealousy speaking
or were there other emotions at play too?

Disappointment.

That one rung truest of
all.

She had been starting to
think that Van might like her, that his words about her being
frightened of him had been because he felt a hunger for her and
desired her blood. The two females now flanking her were a reality
check that she had badly needed. She realised now that she had been
wrong.

Amerii pushed the contract
across the table to Van. The second he had finished signing it, she
stood, bowed and walked out of the door.

The corridors passed in a
blur as she hurried through them, breathing hard and struggling to
get a grip on her feelings. They burned inside her, a heady
combination of disappointment, jealousy, anger, and
self-reproach.

The metal floor of the
corridor rang with each heavy step she took, her pace swift with
the intent of reaching her destination—the shuttle.

Another set of boots rang
out on the walkway.

Amerii pulled on her top,
breathing faster in an effort to stop her head from spinning. Her
clothes were too tight. She tugged at them, pulling a face when she
found no relief. Her chest heaved against the jacket. Her
temperature rose. She frowned and pulled at her jacket again,
desperate to breathe.

She couldn’t
breathe.

Idiot.

“
Princess
Amerii!”

Van.

She doubled her pace and
her head felt heavy as she burst through a door onto the docking
level.

“
Princess
Amerii,” he called again, his footsteps closing in.

She silently called him an
idiot too and then her anger rose again, breaking through the
restraints that had been holding it inside.

He grabbed her arm. She
spun to face him, yanking his hand off her and pushing it away with
all of the violence burning inside her.

“
Get your hands
off me!” Amerii shoved him backwards, a small part of her aware
that she was damaging relations between Lyra and Varka but the
larger part controlled by the maelstrom of her emotions. She
blinked and tried to focus.

Van wavered in front of
her.

She pulled at the collar
of her jacket and went to move backwards but stumbled as her legs
felt weak.

She couldn’t
breathe.

Her damn clothes were too
tight.

Panic shortened her
breaths. Van wobbled in her vision and then suddenly he was close
to her, his voice distant to her ears as he shouted. Her eyelids
dropped and comforting darkness loomed up from below
her.