Star Kissed (3 page)

She was soon tired of running, even in a dream. Ready to go home, Mandy tugged her hand away from the cyborg. His pace slowed to a quick walk, and he led her into a small side street. She was about to complain out loud but was struck by the details of the world around her.

The buildings were put together like a Lego city constructed of interconnecting blocks. They strode between and beneath the blocks through a labyrinth. The air was heavier than LA smog on a bad day and tasted and smelled like the interior of a car repair garage. Her ears and fingers were cold, and she realized she could almost see her breath. Black fog clung to buildings and hung low overhead.

Wake up!
She ordered herself.

This had to be the longest flight ever.

“Wait here,” the cyborg said and paused at the corner of one block. He didn’t wait for her response but trotted down another road leading further into the labyrinth.

Mandy looked down where her watch had been. It had to be time to wake up or for the plane to land! She leaned against the building, surprised by how rough it was. The material scraped her arm, and she touched the forming welts.

There’d never been pain in her dreams before.

The others on the craft you were in
, Gonor had said. What did he mean? Even if he meant her plane had landed in the city he’d called Aratta, there was nowhere on earth like this place!

She peered around the corner, suddenly wondering if the men in black were the men Gonor had warned her against or those he hoped would find her.

A few minutes passed. The cyborg didn’t reappear. Was he a dream ghost that now vanished? Concerned she’d be left completely alone, she looked back the way she came. The labyrinth was too confusing for her to remember her way back to Gonor. She started towards the street.

“Wake up, wake up,” she told herself, this time loudly in hopes of jarring herself out of the dream. She closed her eyes halfway down the alley and concentrated, trying to force herself awake.

“Human.” The man’s voice was low and quiet, much closer than she expected. Mandy jumped and turned around, jaw almost dropping.

Whoever he was, he was the most stunning man she’d ever seen. Tall and lean, with his hands clasped behind his back in a display of checked power, he was what every Ralph Lauren perfume ad’s model aspired to be. His eyes were large and deep blue, his long brown hair tied in a braid down his back. His body was toned and muscular without being bulky. He wore all silver, like the men fighting the cyborg, with a medallion of fiery orange dangling around his neck and several sashes in different, vibrant colors crossing his chest.

She guessed he was important by the sashes marking some kind of rank or stature, his chiseled carriage and commanding gaze. He was certainly the most incredibly handsome man she ever saw, even from among all the male models she worked with.

“You have something I want,” he said in a tone that matched his bearing. “I have something you need.”

Dear god, let it be me!

“What might that be?” she asked in surprise. “I don’t have anything.” His gaze went to her chest, and she glanced down at the medallion. She lifted it. “This?”

He gave one short, brisk nod.

“Okay, I know what you want.” She dropped it. “What could I possibly need when I wake up and leave you behind in this dream?”

“Dream,” he repeated, gaze intensifying. “You think this is a dream.”

“It’s too strange not to be.”

They looked at each other for a long moment before he spoke again.

“Then give me the medallion. When you wake, it won’t matter to you anyway.”

His words made sense. She reached for the medallion and gripped it. It glowed and warmed her cold fingers. She hesitated. She shouldn’t be able to feel the chill in the air or the shallow ridges of cuneiform writing in the medallion’s surface.

“I don’t know if I should,” she said uncertainly. “I shouldn’t care, but I …”

“It’s mine. It was taken, and I wish it returned.”

The man approached her cautiously. He paused a short distance from her.

She looked up at him, seeking some sort of reassurance. If anything, the warmth of his closeness and details of his features – from the long eyelashes to the shadows below his high cheekbones and the strong line of his jaw – began to melt away her doubt about this being real. His skin was smooth porcelain with faint pink blooms in his cheeks from the cold. His jaw was heavy and angular and his forehead broad. She was an even six feet tall, and he was at least half a head taller than her. She didn’t remember the last time she dated a man who was actually taller than her.

The deep-set blue gaze was intent enough to make her feel self-conscious. The warmth of her cheeks and his athletic frame countered the weather. She sniffed, unable to recall the last time she’d been cold since moving to LA several years before.

“This is what you need,” he said and took one step closer. He held out a small medallion similar to the one she wore, except it glowed faint peach. This one was on a necklace of silver links. “It is meant only for you. Do not give it to anyone.”

His fingers were long and slender, his palms strong and round. He even had neatly trimmed and clean fingernails, a trait she found rare with most men. Staring at the hand he held out, she had the unworldly sense that
he
wasn’t a dream. Even if everything else was questionable, the man before her was real.

When she didn’t take it, he eased forward with an abundance of caution. He carefully placed it around her neck. His fingers brushed her cheek, sending a warm thrill through her. She tried to determine the exact shade of his blue eyes. They were dark, like tanzanite gems, lined with long eyelashes. Aware that she was openly staring, she reached for the peach medallion.

“What is it?” she asked.

It, too, was warm to the touch, as if still heated by its former place nestled between his shirt and chest. She closed her fist around the peach bauble. Mandy felt sick to her stomach suddenly. Her heart beat hard and fast. She was close to panicking. The sensations were too real.

 “Protection.” His gravelly voice was quiet with an edge of alertness befitting the strange world at war around her. It drew her attention away from the medallion.

He didn’t retreat. While she saw no compassion in his features, she sensed some thaw that kept him from resuming his safe distance beyond arms reach. In that moment, he was the only thing that made much sense to her. A stranger offering her some odd form of protection from a world that was becoming real enough to terrify her.

His gaze went to the medallion he wanted again. He reached forward but didn’t take it, instead cupping her cheeks in his warm, strong hands. He peered into her eyes and shifted her head right then left, almost the way a doctor might examine a patient.

“You are healthy,” he observed with some satisfaction. “Beautiful. What are you called?”

“Mandy.” Accustomed to being complimented, she nonetheless felt her face flush hot and her lower belly tingle with awareness. Something about the way he said it made his compliment special.

“I am Akkadi.” His examination over, his gaze returned to hers, though he didn’t drop his hands from her face. He had the hands of a man: roughened and strong, large enough to make her feel feminine and delicate standing before him. She envisioned those hands running down her body while she nibbled on his full lower lip. Warm energy crept through her, stirring her blood.

“You’re too real,” she managed, taking half a step back to break the contact with him.

“You will soon come to realize this is all real.”

“No. I was on a plane to LA. You’re just … just a dream.”

He didn’t argue and held her gaze. The panic at the back of her mind was growing, and she heard her breathing grow quick and shallow. Mandy stepped back again and looked around wildly for some exit to this nightmare.

“Calm.” The man moved with her. He cupped her face once more, forcing her to meet his eyes.

Lost, horrified, she stared into his dark blue depths. His quiet strength soothed her once more. It felt right for him to be real, even if the rest of the world was freaking her out.

“Wear the shard I gave you. Do not take it off. Ever. You are under my protection,” he said in a low, firm voice.

With his commanding demeanor and direct gaze, she found herself believing him. He eased closer to her until his body was touching hers lightly enough to ensure her he really wasn’t a dream. His face was inches away, his penetrating gaze riveted to her.

“Stay with Urik. Tell him Akkadi told you not to leave you alone again,” he continued. “You will only survive here if you remain calm.”

“Calm. Stay with Urik,” she said through her ragged breathing. She rested her hands on his chest, absently noting how the heat of his skin warmed her palms. “Urik can get me home?”

“Focus elsewhere.” Akkadi’s brow furrowed. “Calm. Stay with Urik.”

She was afraid to ask again about going home. The simple instructions were something she could sink her teeth into. Mandy nodded. Her sense of urgency subsided.

“Okay,” she said and rested her hands on top of his. She tugged his hands from her face and clutched them, his warmth and strength anchoring her emotions. With a couple deep breaths, she regained control of her mind enough to think.

Akkadi was right. Maybe she was stuck in a dream or maybe she was really here. In either case, panicking wasn’t going to help her, especially since Gonor and Akkadi both seemed to think she was in some sort of danger.

The stranger squeezed her hands.

“I need my shard,” he said in the same soft voice.

Mandy hesitated a moment longer. It only seemed fair that she give him something in return for his kindness. She pulled the teal medallion free and handed it to him. He accepted it. His eyes lifted from her face to the street the robot had disappeared down.

“They are coming,” he said.

She didn’t know to which
they
he referred.

“Go to the road, turn right, and cross the street. The cyborg will be there.” The command in his voice was back. “Do as I say, and you will be safe.”

Mandy didn’t know what to say. Akkadi wore the same silver clothing as the men the cyborg was fighting yet was telling her how to find the half-man in black.

“Stay calm and focused,” he said.

“Calm and focused. Stay with Urik,” she repeated.

“Go. Quickly.”

 Did she thank the stranger or run from him? She wasn’t sure or why she trusted him. He had been almost tender in his attempt to comfort her, even if he provided no real answers to what was going on. Their connection was strong – powerful and natural, as if they’d always known one another.

Mandy turned away and walked down the street. When she reached the street where he told her turn, she glanced back, expecting him to be gone or to have morphed into some dream creature.

He remained, gazing steadily in her direction, as if to make good on his words about protecting her.

This isn’t a dream.
The enormity of the realization was too large for her to process. She followed the only rational thought in her mind:
turn right and cross the street … Calm. Stay with Urik.

She didn’t know who – or what – Akkadi was, but there was something about him that removed the edge of her panic. She should be a hysterical mess, and she couldn’t help but think whatever he’d given her, it was more than a simple trinket. She took a deep breath.

He said it would protect her. She had no other choice but to trust him.

Chapter Two

Mandy followed the stranger’s instructions. Her eyes scanned the darkened street, and she saw the half-man, half-robot with his back against one wall and a spray can sized object she presumed was a weapon in his hands. The cyborg looked ready to have a heart attack as she joined him.

“Human, you were supposed to wait there!” he said, pulling her against the wall with him. “They’ll pick up on your DNA!”

“I don’t think it’s possible for someone to just randomly figure out my DNA,” she said. “Is it?”

“Yes, it is!”

Her head was starting to hurt.

“Quiet. We have to wait for the patrol to pass.” He motioned overhead, towards the dense dark fog clinging to the city. She followed his gaze, waiting to see something to indicate there was a patrol. Nothing happened for a full five minutes, but he said at last, “We’re clear. We must go.”

“Wait,” she said, taking his arm.

He paused.

“Are you Urik?” she asked.

“No. We are going to him, if you don’t keep impeding our progress,” the cyborg replied crisply.

Mandy sighed and released him.

He jogged across the street and between two more buildings. She considered walking away before realizing she had nowhere else to go. The cyborg didn’t go far and disappeared into one of the buildings. They entered a building as labyrinth-like on the inside as the city. He ascended a set of stairs and waited before indicating for her to enter a large chamber resembling an auditorium. Small clumps of half a dozen or less men in black gathered sporadically around the auditorium while a couple dozen were gathered in the center around a light that glowed like a fire but produced no flames.

She trailed the cyborg down gigantic steps that reached her hip in height. She took one at a time while he leapt deftly. When she’d climbed down the last of them, the cyborg and two men stood waiting for her. One of the men looked normal while the other appeared more like the half-man, half-lizard, Gonor. Her eyes lingered on the normal man, whose brown hair was close-cropped and whose eyes were like green gems. His features were rugged, his body muscular and wide. If Akkadi was built like a panther, this man was a bear.

“Stand still,” the cyborg directed her, pointing to a spot on the floor.

She went nervously.

The lizard-man stepped forward with a wand in hand and ran it from her head to her feet. He looked at a watch, as if reading the results of the odd test.

“One hundred percent,” he said with some surprise. The bear-like man beside him twisted his forearm towards him to double-check the results.