Star Kissed (10 page)

Chapter Six

Mandy watched Akkadi’s mother leave, feeling the loss more than she expected. By the way Helen spoke, Mandy almost thought she was another human from her time. The serene woman had appeared borderline ecstatic to meet her, despite Akkadi’s attempt to dull her enthusiasm. Besides, who else in this time would know anything at all about California?

Akkadi glanced towards her, away then back when he saw her watching him.

“I need my rest,” he said. “Don’t disturb me.”

She sighed, not impressed by his blunt commands. For a few moments when he held her, he’d been approachable, sweet, the way he was when they met. Now he was back to himself.

He stripped off his shirt and tossed it beside the round bed before lying down. Mandy’s gaze swept over his muscular frame. He had the body of a soccer player, lean and ripped, from his wide shoulders to the ridges of his abs. His trousers were slung low on his hips, revealing the ridges of muscles gripping his hips as well. He folded his arms beneath his head, oblivious to her inspection or how the position showed off the rounded muscles of his shoulders and thick biceps.

She’d felt how solid and strong he was with his arms wrapped around her; seeing it was even more of a turn on. She fanned herself. He had the body of Roman god. If only he didn’t have the personality of a space Twinkie …

Mandy shook her head. She felt the sudden need for fresh air and lamented briefly over the fact there was no such thing anymore.

Akkadi’s breathing deepened, indicating he had fallen asleep.

Mandy eyed the door his mother had exited. She approached it and stuck one hand through it to make sure it wasn’t solid. The door was open. A robed and hooded, ten-foot tall guard stood in the antechamber. Mandy tensed, waiting for him to alert his master or stop her.

He did neither. She stepped from the antechamber into the corridor, looking at the lighted walkway anew. How many of the paneled walls were entrances into other quarters? Did any of the doors lead straight into space?

She chose a direction and began walking. Half a dozen feet down the corridor, she froze at the sudden realization she had no idea how to tell Akkadi’s door from anyone else’s. She turned around, unable to recognize which paneled wall was the one she went through to get back to Akkadi’s quarters.

Not that she wanted to go back, she told herself, angry with the inhospitable alien who wasn’t willing to open a star gate. With some trepidation, she began walking again. She felt lost the moment she left Akkadi and wished she knew what it was about the frustrating man that made the world seem less scary.

There were no markers on the walls to indicate which panels were doors and with were walls. Confused, she continued walking, hoping to find a map or signs or something that would tell her where she was and what her options were to escape. She passed a few people in robes and hoods while others wore the same grey uniform she did. They ignored her.

She walked for half an hour then stopped again. There were no intersections or signs or even an end to the bizarre hallway. It reminded her of being in a Fun House at a carnival, where mirrors were used to distort the distances and appearances of everything around. There were no mirrors here, and it was definitely not a carnival.

Mandy turned around completely with a frustrated sigh. She approached one wall and reached out to a panel. This one was closed. She moved to the next. It, too, was inaccessible. On the third try, she found a door and stepped through, entering someone’s quarters. It was vacant of aliens and small, nowhere near the size of Akkadi’s rooms.

She retreated to the hallway, disappointed, and continued walking. More people passed without acknowledging her. She gauged she was getting closer to some common area; a steady stream of people began to walk by her.

“You are the new slave Naki-prince Akkadi bought,” one said.

Mandy turned at the voice to see a man half a head shorter than her with grey skin and abnormally large eyes.

“I guess I am,” she said, agitated by the reminder.

“We haven’t seen you in the slave quarters.”

“I can’t find my way anywhere,” she complained. “How do you navigate these hallways?”

He tilted his head to the side, as if uncertain how to take her words. After a moment, he pointed to the floor. She looked. There were faint cuneiform markings, lines and dashes engraved along the edge of the corridor.

“Okay,” she said, studying the unfamiliar writing form. “I can’t read them, though.”

“You don’t really have to
read
them,” he answered. “I’ll show you.”

Mandy glanced around, half expecting Akkadi to rescue her and take her back to his quarters. She wasn’t certain why she wanted him to when they seemed to end up upset at each other whenever they talked.

“Okay,” she repeated.

“I’m Belo, another of the Naki-prince’s slaves. I can show you to the slave quarters.”

Slave.
The word made her want to scream.

“I’m Mandy. I’d appreciate that.”

“You look very pure on the human side, above eighty percent, even,” Belo said, peering up at her. “Naki-prince normally avoids the more human slaves.”

She shrugged, uncertain what to say. Akkadi had been clear about not telling anyone she was purebred. When she didn’t respond, Belo motioned for her to follow him.

“Did he take you as his consort?” he asked.

“Uh, no,” she replied. “He seems to hate me.”

“It is his way. The other Naki-princes prefer the more human consorts. I thought maybe he changed his taste from Naki to human-like.”

“Not that I know of,” she grumbled. “I just got here, though, so I wouldn’t know.”

He walked for a short distance then through a wall. She followed, surprised to see what looked like a small barracks just beyond a sloping ramp guarded by two of the ten feet tall creatures. The open bay was lined with round beds, at the foot of each was a trunk. There were several other people in grey sleeping while a few more gathered in a break area. Belo led her past them to what looked like a break area, where two more aliens sat on white block serving as couches. The two ceased talking at Belo’s approach. One was a woman with yellow eyes, the second a man with a scarred face.

“I found her,” Belo said. “She has been wandering the halls. This is Mandy, our Naki-prince’s newest slave.”

“He traded five ships for you,” the woman said, looking her over. “I’m not sure why.”

“Neither is he,” Mandy quipped.

The woman looked startled then smiled.

“It is a lot to trade for a woman a man doesn’t intend to take as a consort,” Scar-Face said.

“Trust me. He wants nothing to do with me,” Mandy said and sat across from him. “The feeling is mutual, unless he decides to send me home.”

“Naki-royalty is very kind to their consorts,” Belo said. “His cousins and sisters have given great gifts to theirs.”

I’ll take a star gate or two.

“Where is home?” the woman asked.

“I don’t know,” Mandy said in a hushed voice, recalling Akkadi’s warning about revealing herself. “I guess I… I don’t remember anything before arriving here. But I know it was far.”

“If Akkadi took human consorts, you might have a chance,” Belo said kindly. “Perhaps you should try to become one of his cousin’s consorts. You have the beauty to tempt them.”

Great. Now I have to sleep my way out of here.
She nodded in response, not liking the idea. Yet if all it took was sleeping with someone to go home, it seemed like a small sacrifice to return to her family. Thinking of her mother made her want to cry.

“Two of the Naki-princes share a consort,” the woman said with a gleam in her eye. “They don’t know it, but we do, because we see all that happens here.”

“She’s been with four of them,” Belo added in a conspiratorial whisper. “The two wouldn’t take her as their mate, so she moved to the next two. She should’ve started with Akkadi, for he likes the Nakis as consorts.”

“He’s the last in the succession to replace his father,” the woman said. “She wants to be the Naki-queen. I heard that she has a plan to poison all his brothers and sisters.”

“Seriously?” Mandy asked, astonished. “Has anyone told him?”

The three exchanged looks then laughed.

“Most of what we hear isn’t true,” Belo explained. “We know it, but it helps us pass our time. We all miss our families.”

Mandy frowned. The woman nodded in agreement, though Scar-Face didn’t seem as interested in discussing his family.

“We don’t have slave where I’m from. This is all bizarre,” she said.

“Naki-royalty are kind to their slaves. Much kinder than where I came from,” Scar-Face said. “I don’t want to leave.”

The other two said nothing. Mandy felt bad for them and worse for herself. Akkadi wanted to hook her up with one of his cousins anyway, but wasn’t that just another way of limiting her freedom?

And why didn’t
he
want her? He looked more human than any of these aliens. She knew how pretty she was; she was a model, for god’s sake!

A fired model
, she reminded herself. Even so, she had never found a straight man she couldn’t woo or charm. Until Akkadi.

Mandy listened to them gossip about their Naki masters and mistresses, outright laughing at some of the stories they told. They didn’t talk again about the Naki woman who wanted to off Akkadi’s sisters. The topic seemed far too serious for Mandy to dismiss. The idea it bothered her made her angrier with Akkadi. True, he held her to comfort her, and she’d felt safe for the first time since entering this world when enveloped in his arms, pressed against his lean body. With his noble features, cold address and apparent preference for Naki women, she was more surprised at his tender display.

She needed a hug at that moment, and he didn’t just let her hug him but wrapped his arms around her as if he was concerned.

He had put a great deal of effort into keeping her safe. If that’s all he did, she could almost see he was Naki and not human. But his gentle touches and the rare flash of emotions told her otherwise. He was a human inside a Naki shell, one that didn’t seem to know if he wanted her around or not.

Mandy waited until there was a lull in talk to approach the subject she most wanted information on.

“What is a star gate?” she asked.

“You must be from very far,” the woman, Wren, said. “A star gate calls forth wormholes. Only some of the Naki rulers and their children can open it.”

“Do they travel through it?”

“No, of course not. They’re dangerous and unpredictable.” Belo chuckled.

The wormholes or the Naki?
She asked silently.

“It rarely opens. The amount of energy and shards required is too much. Though there has been talk of opening it again, in hopes of finding more humans to sustain the Nakis.”

“There are stories of humans traveling through it,” Wren added thoughtfully. “Myths mainly, about how long ago, before all the wars, humans learned to travel through the wormholes and some made it here.”

“Not in the last two thousand years, though,” the other man, Geiki, said. “Assuming the myths were true.”

“I heard a craft of real humans came through this time,” Wren said. “And the barbarians on the planet killed them all.”

“They could’ve saved the Naki,” Belo said. “Their race is dying fast.”

“What’s wrong with them?” she asked.

“A genetic plague. The Naki rulers are immune, but it’s decimated their planet. They had enough people to fill several galaxies, until the disease began to kill them off. When a Naki turns twenty, nine out of ten die.”

“The humans used to be pure enough that their blood could be harvested,” Wren added. “But no longer. The plague has moved to their planet and the Ishta, and they’re being wiped out.”

“But the Naki have spaceships and can open wormholes. Why don’t they have some sort of medical technology to stop the plague?” Mandy insisted. “Even where I’m from, we can find genetic anomalies and we can’t leave our own planet.”

The three exchanged looks.

“It’s true. Naki healers can heal broken bone and stop all other diseases,” Wren said slowly. “But they can’t stop the plague. No one knows why.”

“Maybe they have grown too powerful,” Scar-Face replied, shrugging. “Perhaps the universe has a way of keeping the different races in check.”

Mandy listened, saddened by the news but horrified at the thought of how the Naki planned on using purebred humans to repopulate their race.

“These questions are beyond us,” Belo added. “The Nakis probably know and won’t tell anyone.”

“My master, Vekko, has recently quit his consort. He is the most generous of the Naki-princes,” Wren told her. “He would probably send you home if you pleased him.”

Like hell.
Mandy didn’t say the words or roll her eyes. If there was one thing she knew she could do, it was draw the attention of men. Except Vekko didn’t have the power to open the star gate.

She dwelled on Wren’s offer. Were all of them as willing to hide a purebred human as Akkadi? Were they as aloof and unemotional? She doubted the cold prince knew one thing about hot sex, even if he did have the perfect body. If all he did was mount her and leave, she might find the idea of being a consort not as bad.

Akkadi seemed far too … untouchable. If she propositioned him, would he reject her? If so, was there a way to use Vekko to get to Akkadi?

She’d never before considered sleeping with someone she wasn’t involved with. She’d never even had a one-night stand. Of course, she’d never been stuck ten thousand years in the future among a race of creatures that wanted to use her as breeding stock then drain her blood. Her throat tightened at the thought. She breathed deeply to keep from panicking and tried hard to focus on the three people around her.

Sleeping with a sexy man was a small price to pay to leave this nightmare behind. She just had to find her way back to him through the maze of a ship.

“Maybe,” she said, aware of the expectant silence around her. “I might try Akkadi first.”