Alien (24 page)

Kari stepped into the teleport and
out into Crystal City. When selling males on the marriage auction block, the
Gy’at Lis had always teleported to the capital seat of Valor City where such
dealings occurred and where foreigners were never granted access. But in the
opulent Crystal City, where humanoids from every planet in Trek Mi Q’an galaxy
were permitted to trade with Galians and do all the things tourists do was
vastly different. It was, in a word, mesmerizing.

Kari couldn’t help but to gawk at
the soaring crystal structures that made the skyscrapers back on Earth look
like huts by comparison. Try as she did, she couldn’t see where the buildings
ended. It was as if the shimmering towers rose past the moons and disappeared
into the heavens. The sight was, without hesitation, the single most wondrous
view she’d ever laid eyes on.

She walked down the main path into
the metropolis as Klykka had instructed her to, but kept a slow pace so she
could sightsee. Humanoid tradesmen of every color and size imaginable lined the
street, hawking their wares. Children laughed together as they played, five
young Galian boys holding hands and skipping like girls back on Earth would
have done. Galian women strolled the bartering stalls with their eager-to-shop
husbands, several of them buying trinkets for their men to ooh and aah over.

“Mistress, may I have it?” Kari
overheard one husband squeal excitedly to his wife. “Am I worthy of the credits
it might cost?”

“Aye, of course, my beloved,” the
wife responded. “You submit to me in all things and seek to please me at all
times. ‘Tis a boon you are worthy of.”

Kari came to a sudden halt. This
was the first time she’d ever seen what became of a Galian man after he was
bagged and sold. She wasn’t altogether certain what happened when a male was
tagged, but clearly a deep bond was forged. She just wished it was a bond that
didn’t make her want to gag.

A thousand Yessat Years could tick
by and a wimpy man like that would still fail to arouse her. That
acknowledgment was more than a little depressing so she thrust it from her
thoughts and resumed her open-mouthed marveling of the surroundings.

The decadence and sparkle of
Crystal City had no rival. She was going to make the most of her three
moon-months here and enjoy every
Nuba
-second of the experience. She
smiled as she walked, excited by the prospects this new undertaking presented.
Exploring Crystal City, if nothing else, would be an adventure unto itself.

She spotted a bartering stall where
the most beautiful
zokas
she’d ever seen were on display. Kari picked up
her pace, making a beeline straight for it. The gold
zokas
would make
perfect gifts for Klykka and Dorra, while the sparkly one spun from black gemstones
would look great on her. If nothing else, Kari thought, staring at it, the
black
zoka
provided an interesting contrast against her porcelain
skin—great for her upcoming performances on stage.

“You don the dress of a Galian
warrior, but ‘tis a certainty you haven’t the look of our kind.” The owner of
the stall gave Kari the once-over. “Nor the height.”

“I’ve been here seventeen Yessat
Years, though. My Mistress sent me to Crystal City to wait tables and perform.”

The Galian inclined her head. She
implicitly understood the underlying implication. Namely that Kari was a
warrior in training.

“You are
galishi
?”

Galishi
—the Galian term for
what amounted to a naturalized female citizen with full rights. The word was
more meaningful than that though because it also denoted that Kari had been
taken in by a High Mystik and raised as her own. “I am.”

“From which sector?”

“Gy’at Li.”

The owner looked impressed. “I
herald from the Zha’Ri sector.” She waved a hand toward the array of
zokas
.
“’Tis an honor to trade with you. Purchase what you will.”

“Thank you. I already know what I
want though.”

A minute later the three G-strings
and their matching sandals were wrapped in a
vesha
pelt and handed over
to her. Kari held up the palm of her hand so the Galian tradeswoman could
laser-scan it, which would automatically transfer the credits from her account
to the stall owner’s.

“Next time.” She waved the
proffered credits away. “Tell your Mistress ‘tis a gift from Nyoki whose
allegiance is sworn to The Zha’Ri.”

“I will. It was a pleasure to meet
you, Nyoki. I am Kari.”

“Likewise, Kari. Do you find
yourself in need of aide, you have an ally in me and any warrior of the Zha’Ri
sector.”

Kari smiled. She inclined her head
then resumed her stroll down the main path of the city centre. Lost in thought,
she was too busy wondering over Nyoki’s parting words to care about
sightseeing. It wasn’t so much
what
the Galian female had said as the
manner in which she’d said it. Were there warriors in Crystal City from sectors
hostile to The Gy’at Li? She would put the question to Klykka the next time
they spoke.

A tingling sensation zinged through
Kari’s body as an odd feeling stole over her. Her senses instinctively kicked
into hyper vigilance mode. Someone was watching her. No,
watching
was
too weak a word for this feeling, she decided. The jolt of apprehension and
awareness that was causing the hair at the nape of her neck to stand on end was
what she expected a hunted animal felt like when trying to evade a large
predator.

She came to a standstill and looked
around.
“Always trust your instincts,”
she knew Klykka would instruct
her if she were here.
“’Tis a gift from the goddess bestowed upon women,
this is.”

Kari’s gaze darted around, looking
for the one who was causing the gift to kick in. Just when she was about to
give up and resume walking, certain that her instincts had failed her and she
was reacting in an overly sensitive manner because of her conversation with
Nyoki, her silver-blue gaze honed in on a massive, muscled chest.

Holy. Shit.

Kari’s breath caught in her throat.
They were separated by the street, yet she was still forced to tilt her head
back to look up at the largest giant of a man she’d ever before seen. His hair
was black as the night, his skin and eyes as golden as finely aged whiskey.
Standing nearly eight feet in height, his four hundred to five hundred pound
frame was carved of solid, unyielding muscle. She swallowed roughly. This was
no Galian male. Even had his eye color been violet, which it wasn’t, his gaze
was too commanding to belong to a male native to this planet.

He’s a Trystonni warrior…

There went the gift again, telling
her the one alien species of male she least wanted to interact with was
watching her like a cheetah stalking a gazelle. Her gaze flew to his forehead
where a skull had been tattooed into his skin, then down to the necklace he
wore.

A Trystonni bridal necklace.

The gift hadn’t lied. There was no
question about it. She’d heard the stories of those necklaces, knew that if a
Tryston warrior removed the one he wore and placed it around a woman’s neck,
she was bound to him forever—literally. The necklace made him able to track her
should she flee and wouldn’t unclasp until death, if even then.

Kari’s breathing grew heavy,
causing her breasts to heave and jiggle. The giant’s gaze flicked down to study
them. His eyes narrowed in arousal.

Kari’s body responded against her
volition, her pink nipples hardening and jutting out. Her heart rate picked up,
causing her breathing to become impossibly more labored.

For seventeen Yessat Years she had
worn the
zoka
; for more than sixteen of those years she’d grown so
accustomed to near-nakedness in public that she no longer felt the
vulnerability that went hand-in-hand with nudity back on Earth. Or at least she
hadn’t, Kari conceded, until this moment.

Standing in the heart of Crystal City,
surrounded by more people than she’d ever before encountered, the silver
zoka
and turquoise sandals she wore provided no shield from the giant’s covetous
gaze. His golden eyes flicked back and forth between her painfully erect
nipples and the G-string hiding her pussy from his view. The gift was screaming
that he found the
zoka
a nuisance as it kept him from seeing what he
most wanted to be inside of.

Kari blinked. She shook her head
slightly, as if forcing herself to snap out of a sorcerer’s spell.

Their gazes clashed again. The
warlord’s possessive, hungry eyes were at once arousing and frightening.

Kari dashed away, running as fast
as her feet would carry her. She could feel the giant’s gaze following her,
branding her…

And promising her that they
would
meet again.

* * * * *

“This place is incredible.” Kari
stared in amazement at the penthouse she’d be calling home for the next three
moon-months. “And the technology? Whoa!”

“Whoa? This is another one of your
Earth words?”

“Yeah.”

“’Tis not translating in my mind,
that word.”

“Because there’s no Galian
equivalent.”

“I see.”

Kari realized she was being rude.
She forced herself to stop examining every inch of her new, temporary home so
she could give The Gy’at Li’s hologram her full attention. She plopped down on
a purple crystal chair—then immediately shot back up to her feet. She gasped.

Klykka smiled. “You assumed a seat
carved from crystal would feel hard and cold, aye?”

“Of course!” Kari frowned as she
eyed the chair suspiciously. “But it felt like the softest
vesha
hide on
the planet.”

“’Twill not eat you, child,” Klykka
teased. “Be seated.”

Kari hesitantly prepared to sit.
She didn’t really have a choice. An order was an order.

“For the love of the goddess,”
Dorra grunted, her hologram appearing next to Klykka’s, “The Gy’at Li did not
send you to Crystal City to kill you, sister. Leastways, she would have done so
long before now did she not find your primitive reactions bemusing. Sit.”

“
Primitive
reac— Now listen
here, Dorra!”

“Remember the time you gave shelter
to the visiting Tumians?” Dorra said to Klykka, effectively ignoring Kari.
“’Twould have thought they were
heeka
beasts the way she screamed.”

“Aye.” The Gy’at Li grinned. She
shook her head slightly. “’Twas a passing fair laugh she gave us.”

Kari’s nostrils flared. “I don’t
trust anything that has more than two legs,” she gritted out.

“And the time she thought a
yoma
was trying to eat her?” Dorra continued. “The poor beast did naught but look at
her.”

“By the sands, aye!” Klykka said,
chuckling. “I remember!”

Kari sat down on the chair. “Well
maybe if you rode around in cars like normal Earthlings instead of on the backs
of flying monkeys with huge fangs…” She folded her arms across her breasts.
“And for the record,” she huffed, “those Tumians are creepy, okay? They have
eight fucking legs.” She held up eight fingers to underscore her point.
“Eight!”

“Wait until she spots a visiting
pugmuff
in Crystal City,” Dorra mused. “Ahh—to be a holo-mirror on the wall when it
happens.”

“Can we move on?” Kari bit out.
“For two women who rarely smile let alone belly laugh, you’re sure making up
for guffaws gone by.”

“More of her Dearth words?” Dorra
asked her sister.

“Aye.”

“Earth!” Kari seethed. “They are
Earth words!”

Dorra waved a dismissive hand.
“Mayhap my most favored memory ‘twas the moon-rising when she…”

Kari sighed, tuning her so-called
sisters out. This had the makings of a long day. She grabbed a chalice from the
table next to her. “Fuck the
pici
juice,” she muttered under her breath,
“I’m ready for the
matpow
.”

“Oh aye, ‘tis one of my favored
memories as well! Leastways, ‘tis almost as amusing as the eve when she…”

Kari stood and poured herself a
drink. “To
matpow
and a raging buzz.” She raised the chalice and toasted
the air. Her lips smoothed into a grim line. “And to beating the shit out of my
siblings.”

* * * * *

“Have you familiarized yourself
with the penthouse?” Klykka’s hologram asked. “Need I explain aught else to
you?”

“Oh I had plenty of time to look
around while Dorra was here,” Kari said drolly. “I’m sure I can manage.”

Klykka hesitated. “You realize
Dorra was not there, aye? Leastways, nor am I.”

Kari slithered out of her
zoka
.
“Yes, I realize that.” She kicked off her sandals and sighed. “I won’t pretend
to understand how holograms and holo-images work, but my primitive mind grasps
the fact you aren’t actually here.”

“Kari…”

“It’s fine, Klykka. I’m fine. I
just want to get some sleep.”

“Kari, look at me.”

She tried to school her features
before obeying The Gy’at Li’s command, but she’d never been much good at that.

“Your heart is in your eyes,”
Klykka murmured. Her violet gaze softened. “’Tis sorry I am your feelings are
smarting. We should not have teased you thusly.”

“Were you teasing?” Kari asked the
question, but wasn’t altogether certain she wanted the answer. “Or do you
really only keep me around as your personal court jester?”

“Oh, child…” Klykka held out her
hand. “I would that I could hold you right now. Alas, ‘tis naught I can do but
extend a hand that is not really there to you.”

Kari blinked back tears. She blew
out a breath. “That’s the only part that hurt,” she quietly admitted, “when
Dorra said you haven’t killed me only because I amuse you.”

“Dorra loves you with all of her
hearts, as do I, child.” Her smile was at once reassuring and comforting.
“Leastways, Dorra is as talented at making jests as you are at breaking bread
with Tumians.”