Daughter of Destiny (30 page)

"The only reason you have
enough energy to stand without falling flat on your face is because
Kat is giving you some of hers."

Zane walked over and pulled
Katarina into his embrace. He tilted her chin up and then brushed
his thumb over her pale skin. "Thank you,
rahmali o mi,
but
do as your father says. I’ll manage."

"Do not worry daughter.
I will heal him."
He grinned.
"After all, you are my
daughter. He’ll need every ounce of energy to keep up with
you."
He laughed out loud when she sent him an image of her
bashing him on the head.

Katarina withdrew the
stream of energy she fed into Zane. As soon as she did, Zane’s legs
buckled. Finn flashed to his side and caught him under the
arms.

"Easy." He helped Zane into
the chair Katarina conjured earlier. "Close your eyes and relax.
I’ll heal your body so you can properly care for my
daughter."

Katarina rolled her eyes.
"Oh, for heaven's sake! Did we not just have this
discussion?"

***

"What will I tell General
Xu?" A man came in, following on Katarina's heels. Every ounce of
his attention focused on Katarina. "Shouldn't you rest awhile
longer?" The desperate edge in his voice was a sound Finn knew
well. The Fae could have that effect on some people, arousing them
to the point of obsession.

Finn raised an eyebrow at
the man and glanced at Zane to see if he noticed the problem. Zane
glanced away and coughed behind a hand, but Finn saw the grin he
attempted to hide. For Katarina's sake he figured it better Zane
viewed the situation as humorous. In Zane's place, he did not think
he could be so benevolent. Granted, Katarina seemed oblivious that
her looks and pheromones turned the poor alien into a corked bottle
of lust. She didn't pack as much punch as a full-blooded faerie,
but judging by the man's aura, which swirled with desire and
desperation, a trip to Fairy looked better and better, even though
he hated going there.

"I’m sorry Commander Vrion,
but we dare not stay longer. We have more important things to do
than to wait for General Xu to figure out how best to use me to his
advantage. Besides, we both know I won't let Zane be arrested. My
government agreed to grant him asylum, so IGC can't touch him,"
Katarina explained to the man.

"I understand, but--" The
commander drew up short when Finn stepped into the man's field of
vision. His hand went to the phaser at his side, but Katarina’s
sharp command halted the movement.

"No, Re’lool. He is
family."

"How'd he get by the
alarms?"

"In case you hadn't
noticed, we aren't exactly standard issue humanoids," Katarina said
with a wry smile.

Zane stood and saluted the
commander, which focused the man's attention on Zane and cooled his
desire. "Thank you for your help and also for tolerating my wife."
Zane offered a smile meant to charm and soothe, and the man's aura
cooled further. Finn watched his daughter's consort with interest,
noting the cold assessing look in his eye which spelled death for
the man if he proved a threat.
She's chosen well.

"It’s been an honor, sir.
As for your wife, well, she's a special woman."

"That she is."

Zane caught his eye as
Katarina collected her belongings.
"Poor guy. He's probably
cursing whatever Goulal ancestor participated in a little
interspecies mating with a human."

Finn winced in sympathy for
the man. Unless he had a human parent, his Goulal rearing would not
equip him to deal with his human urges, and worse, they probably
came on him as suddenly as an allergic reaction. Zane's compassion
and understanding added yet another measure of respect in Finn's
eyes.

"What shall I tell General
Xu?" the Commander asked Zane. He met Zane's gaze, despite the
mottled flush on his cheeks.

Katarina joined them. "Just
tell him the truth. We left and you couldn’t stop us."

"If he doesn’t believe you,
inform Xu that she is half Danua and that should convince him,"
Zane added.

The man's eyes widened for
a moment, but then he nodded. "Good luck to both of you." He
glanced at Katarina for a moment and then said, "If you'll excuse
me." He bowed, turned on his heel, and exited the room at a brisk
pace.

When the sound of his
retreating steps could no longer be heard, Katarina readjusted her
satchel on her shoulder. "Well, that was awkward."

Finn coughed into his hand.
So much for oblivious.
"Shall we go?" Finn asked, not
wishing to discuss the issue. Lessons in controlling pheromones and
dimming the attraction humans felt could be saved for another
day.

"Let’s go," Zane
said.

"I’m shifting," Katarina
said.

"No," Finn argued. He
recalled Kieran's first few attempts at shifting space and
shuddered. "Definitely not."

"I want to get Zane’s ship
first. We may need it. Besides he spent weeks working on that
thing."

Finn rolled his eyes.
"Neither of us has been to Yopmar. It isn’t safe to simply shift
space to someplace without knowing the layout first. It’s too
dangerous."

Katarina waved a hand,
dismissing his argument. "Zane’s been there."

While trying to figure out
how that mattered, Katarina stepped forward. She took Zane’s hand
and put a hand on his arm. They were shifting space before he could
protest or stop her.
"Katarina!
"

Rotvraoq stood behind
Karglock on the ship’s bridge. He struggled to maintain a neutral
expression while his stomach roiled in revulsion at the thought of
the helpless beings on the beautiful blue planet.

"Attack formations!"
Karglock barked. He grinned as he gazed on the magnified image on
the viewing screen. "Earth will fall before our mighty fleet. Today
our glorious Empire will be reborn!"

At the shouted
proclamation, a roar of approval rose up around them. Rotvraoq
thought about killing Karglock right then and there, but it
wouldn’t stop the invasion. The only thing it would guarantee would
be his death. He had to wait. An opportunity would present itself
sooner or later, but his gut tightened in worry as the first wave
of
Kekkes s
hips shot off toward Earth.

***

Katarina, Zane, and Finn
materialized in a metal hangar next to a large, sleek, black ship.
"That was very foolish, daughter." Finn scowled at Katarina, but
she ignored the look.

"Disarm the alarm,
hon."

Zane went to the hangar
door and went through the procedures to turn off some mechanical
device.

Katarina glanced at Finn
over her shoulder. "Stop stressing. I knew what I was doing." Then
she walked over to the ship and stoop beside Zane.

"It’s beautiful,
Zane."

Zane stroked his hand along
the hull of the ship. "Fast, too. I took her for a spin to work out
any malfunctions." He grinned. "There weren’t any."

Finn interrupted. "If
you're done admiring the hunk of metal, stand back so I can get
this thing out of here. We’re wasting time."

Katarina turned to Zane as
they stepped away from the ship. "Is it me, or is he impatient for
an immortal?"

Zane snickered and Finn
shook his head. He was still trying to determine of his daughter
was reckless or talented beyond belief. He preferred the latter,
but reserved judgment for the moment. Before Katarina got any more
ideas that might cause him to vote otherwise, he focused on
transporting the massive waste of material through space-time. He
closed his eyes, pictured where he wanted it to go and let energy
channel through him and encompass the ship. He opened his eyes and
it was gone, as he knew it would be.

Zane let out a low whistle.
"Impressive."

"Now can we go?"

"I don't think you want me
poking in your head, so shift away," Katarina said.

"And I thought Kieran was
bad," Finn muttered as they dematerialized.

***

Katarina forgot her retort
when the faerie dwelling appeared around her. She caught the last
notes of a hypnotizing melody as the music faded into silence and
then voices rose in a low murmur. Nothing in Katarina’s imagination
compared with the wealth and beauty displayed. The walls shimmered
with jewels and gold. Her eyes traveled the cavernous room taking
in the sheer majesty. What struck her as most ironic was that the
statuary, the paintings, all of the artwork was of human
origin.

Zane’s arm hooked around
her waist. Trusting Zane to assess the crowd, she gave in to the
impulse to stand and gawk. What was it like to see something like
this so many times it no longer produced the slightest awe? Finn
didn't stop to stare. He stood, waiting for her to look her
fill.

Finally, she transferred
her attention to the faeries in the room. Most ceased what they
were doing in favor of eying the newcomers, but a few in the
shadowed recesses of the room remained oblivious. Her eyes widened
when she noticed what they were doing, but she refrained from
reacting in any other manner to the fornicating faeries.

No plastic surgeon could
achieve the perfection of features gathered here. Their features
drew the eye, but their cold eyes offered no welcome. The power
concentrated in this one room took her breath away, but it didn't
frighten her. With each step she took behind her father an inner
awareness grew. Intellect, plus power, combined with her empathic
skills allowed her to assess each faerie in the room. At least a
hundred faeries occupied the cavernous room. Instinct she didn't
even know she possessed kicked in and her mind laid out the
location of each with a flames of various brightness denoting the
power levels of each Fae. Each and every one could potentially pose
a threat and something inside her realized that.

Her father glanced back at
her.
"Disconcerting, I know, but you'll get used to it. Maybe
ten people in this room possess the ability to do what you just
did. Another dozen may be what I think of as chameleons. They can
mask their power signature and make it appear brighter or dimmer as
they wish. With practice, you should be able to spot them as
well."

Her father's signature
dwarfed all but the queen's in brightness. She could not truly see
her own flame, but she sensed she perhaps matched her father. Only
the fact she did not yet understand the breadth of her abilities
allowed the faeries in the room to pose a threat. She began to see
why Fate cast her as the emissary. Humanity needed a powerful
advocate.

They approached the queen’s
dais. A lithe female separated from the crowd and paced her walk to
Zane's. She licked her lips, as if she wanted to devour Zane bit by
bit. The air tingled with the electric tingle of magic as the
female attempted to enchant Zane and draw him to her.

Zane eyed the woman, but
kept walking.

Katarina stopped walking
and Zane followed suit. "He's mine."

The female's musical
laughter echoed, rebounding off the walls, so that it sounded as if
there were many laughing. The others did not join in her laughter,
but they watched the interaction play out.

"That's what you think."
The female increased the power of the spell she wove and sidled in
front of Zane, swaying her hips with skill that put a street walker
to shame. Her white diaphanous gown left little to imagination. The
woman was not a threat, but Katarina understood power plays. To
gain respect, she couldn't walk away or lose. Besides, putting the
little tramp in her place appeased the pettier part of Katarina
which she rarely allowed to show.

Zane's hand traced a path
along her arm. His love for her held true against the minx's spell.
She leaned into his touch. Then she eyed her nemesis and conjured a
large, baggy t-shirt which appeared on the female. It read, "Will
Have Sex for Botox." The faerie shrieked and turned a venomous
glare on Katarina. Her hands curved into claws, which reminded
Katarina of a
tyrannosaurus rex.
The faerie pulled off the
shirt, revealing another one that read "Dinosaurs R Us."

Finn and few others laughed
as the woman pulled off that shirt to reveal one that said, "I saw
the Big Bang". A tall regal woman with golden hair piled on her
head in an intricate woven coronet stepped forward. "Enough! She
has bested you, Ariel." She looked at Katarina
expectantly.

Katarina kept a bored
disinterested expression as she waved a hand. Ariel was once again
clad only in her diaphanous gown. Her cheeks mottled red. Ariel
sent Katarina a murderous look and then vanished.

The faerie queen watched
Katarina and tried to probe the depth of her power, but Katarina's
blocks repelled her.

"Your majesty," Katarina
said in a neutral tone as she executed a quick curtsey, enough to
show respect, but no more.

"Welcome child of the
Tuatha De’ Danann. Torin has told me about you. I am Queen Grian.
Come. Sit and rest while we discuss matters." She led them to a
settee. Zane assisted Katarina in sitting on the low
cushions.