Irresistible: A SciFi Alien Mail Order Bride Romance (TerraMates Book 9) (20 page)

* * *

M
y heart
still ached when I remembered Gallia's death. Her grave was far from the colony, marked with a small stone pyramid constructed from loose rock. It was in a breathtaking spot high up in the mountains where she could gaze upon Earth.

She would have wanted a burial on Earth, but it was the best Bellona could do for her. At least Gallia was in the ground, and not where the Surtu sent their dead.

What bothered me most was that her family did not know what happened to her. Like my family, they were on Earth, oblivious to our fates.

I jumped off my hover bike and sat next to her grave, tucking my legs beneath me. I had come here for clarity, but it was soon apparent to me that I did not need clarity. I had it already.

I was determined to leave, with or without Jidden.

It had been hours since our fight, but I didn't want to return to the hut. I knew that once I did, the distance between us would be greater than ever.

The problem was, we were too like-minded. When it came to doing what we felt was right or necessary, we were stubborn as hell.

You had to be stubborn in war. Indecision led to failure, and failure led to death. A woman being forced to mate and borne children against her will was a slow, torturous end. How could I live a peaceful life in paradise when millions of women on Earth were living to die?

It didn't escape me that Jidden and I were fighting for the same thing – to protect our family. It should be a cause that united us, but it was causing division. The possibility of leaving Jidden behind and never seeing him again was painful. I couldn't think about it. I just had to do it.

The first rays of daylight lit Gallia's grave and the night faded into a soft dawn. I looked into the morning sun and confronted it, knowing it would one day lead me away from the man I loved.

An odd orb of light caught my attention. I thought my eyes were tired and deceived me, but it looked real. The orb danced, mesmerizing me so that I could not ignore it. I immediately thought of the nameless beacon that had lured the ships here. I wished the orb of light was a sign from Gallia.

On a whim, I followed it through the thick forest around me. As the daylight was increasing, the light became more difficult to follow. The head and light of the two suns was merciless in the drought. If not for the shading of the jungle, it would have been impossible to see.

Next to the side of a cave, where there was no jungle coverage, the orb finally disappeared into the sunlight. I was high on top of the mountain, but I was not lost. I was where the orb wanted me to be.

A narrow stream of water brightly sparkled as it poured down the side of the cave. I saw something in the water. Within it was the image of my brother, Daniel. It was like looking through a window into the cave. He sat in a hollow chamber dressed in military gear. He looked worn and solemn, but he was alive.

"Show me more," I asked, but the strange force that had led me here ignored me.

I put my hand in the stream, imagining I could reach in and touch my brother and let him know I was alive. As I did, the image disappeared. My hand only felt the clear water and touched nothing but the warm stone of the cave.

"Come back," I murmured, feeling the full burden of being separated from my family. Unlike on the Fortuna, there was no way of contacting them. Unlike on the Fortuna, I did not know if they all lived.

The smell of smoke interrupted my despair. I climbed so I could see the source. A wildfire had broken out. It was a consequence of the drought and intense heat. Wildfires were a natural phenomenon, so I did not worry – not until I realized the fire was heading straight for the colony.

* * *

"
T
erra
!" Jidden called when he saw me return to the colony on my hover bike. "Where have you been?"

The anger I had felt towards him earlier had vanished. The colony was in danger. There was no room for emotion.

The wildfire had not yet reached the huts, but it licked at the guard posts stationed just outside the treetop village, where people on patrol watched out for dangerous native creatures. The fire was like a beast itself, consuming the guard posts with an insatiable hunger. Soon the fire would spread to the huts, burning everything and anyone in its path. The colonists prepared to evacuate, but they were moving too slowly.

"Please tell me there's a plan," I said, ignoring his question. A crowd ran around us, chased by a dense smoke. There wasn't time to explain where I'd been, especially not when I didn't fully understand what I saw in the cave.

Before Jidden answered, he gathered me in his arms and held me tightly, towering over me as the muscles of his arm buried into my shoulders. "You're safe," he uttered quietly. He was reassuring himself.

"I'm safe," I promised him. Tears welled in my eyes as he clung to me.

He pulled away reluctantly. "We're gathering the colonists onto the ships. We're flying everyone to a spot the scouts found near a lagoon. We should be safe there. The lagoon will make a good water source."

"If we get them there in time," I stated. "Where is your ship?"

"Bellona is preparing it now. We're going to leave last with Godfrey to make sure everyone gets out."

I looked up as the first of the Surtu ships took off. They were painted a sterile black and made of metallic elements foreign to anything scientists knew before. I took my lover's hand into my own, refusing to let go, not until it was time.

"Good," I said, but despair filled my heart. Our departure had come much sooner than I'd anticipated.

If Bellona were piloting the ship, we would not be joining the colonists at the lagoon.

We would be returning to Earth.

* * *

A
Surtu soldier
boarded Godfrey's ship. It was positioned on the jungle floor next to Jidden's. Only these two ships remained.

One carried colonists and the other carried an army of women, minus Minerva and Lucina. One would find a new refuge on this strange and wondrous planet and the other would not.

I looked up from the jungle floor as the huts burned. The flames hypnotized me into stillness as if they belonged to a mild campfire, not a devastating fire. I was almost contemplative.

"Terra," Jidden murmured, stepping out of his ship. "We're ready to leave."

I don't want to leave without you, I thought, refusing to turn from the flames. I could not face saying goodbye, especially when goodbye would feel like a betrayal.

A woman suddenly appeared in the flames of the central building. She had blonde hair darkened by heavy smoke. It looked like Godfrey.

Before I could be certain it was her and not vision, she disappeared.

"Are you sure we have everyone?" I asked Jidden, hesitant to leave for a different reason. I wouldn't abandon Godfrey despite our differences.

"Godfrey gave us the okay to go."

"Where is she?"

Jidden was confused by my line of questioning. "I don't know. She gave the order on my communicator."

That's because she isn't here, I thought.

She was up there, in the treetops, hunted by the flames. She was about to become a casualty of a force more dangerous than war.

"Don't leave," I told Jidden. "I'll be right back."

Before he could stop me, I grabbed one of the hover lifts being loaded up. It carried the last of the cargo. I rode it towards the huts, strategically guiding the disc towards the building where I knew the General was trapped.

I misjudged the direction, deceived by the distorting haze of the heat. The disc got trapped between a burning hut and a burning tree. Hover lifts were not designed to move horizontally. They went up, and they went down. I was stuck.

I picked a branch on the burning tree that looked most stable and I jumped for it. I almost slipped off as I landed, but I hugged the trunk of the tree to steady myself. I was still alive, for now. If I had fallen, I would not have survived the long drop below.

I had chosen a branch that was not on fire, but most of the tree was burning. The heat was painful against my skin, but it did not blister yet. Through the haze around me, I tried to figure out a way to get to the central building.

I would have to use the bridge to cross. Like the branch, the bridge was still intact, but it wouldn't be for much longer.

I prepared to move, but the tree started shaking suddenly. Below me, the ships lifted into the air. They had no choice. The fire had reached them. All that remained of the ships was a pit of flames, like the teeth of a savage land giant.

I didn't have much time left to save Godfrey or myself, so I climbed onto branch after branch, dodging fireballs and falling cinders as I crisscrossed my way to the bridge. My lungs and eyes burned from the smoke, but I eventually reached it.

Taking another leap of faith, I grabbed the rope of the bridge, thankful that it hung low, and I pulled myself up onto it. I was close enough to the central building so I could make out the silhouette of Godfrey standing at the door, waving to me. The rope felt hot as I took step after step. I was directly over the pit of flames.

Almost there, I thought.

Unfortunately, the distance to Godfrey was not the only measurement essential to my survival. There was also time, and mine had run out. The flames beneath me reached up and ignited the rope I held. It snapped almost immediately, causing the bridge to collapse. There was nothing to save me.

I noticed the air felt pleasant as I plummeted downward. It was a cool breeze on my hot skin.

My last thoughts were about my two good friends. I thought of Lucina, and how I failed to help her find herself again. I thought of Jidden and how I had planned to betray him.

The heat of the flames beneath me made my body burn.

TERRA

I was falling into a pit of flames, and I wasn't going to survive. I had tried to cross a bridge in the middle of a wildfire consuming the jungle, and the bridge collapsed.

There was no one to help me. Both spaceships had departed. Godfrey was inside the central building and couldn't move as our treetop village burned to cinders. I looked for a rope or branch to grab onto as I fell, but there was only flames and death.

I wish I could say I thought of Jidden in the seconds before I hit the ground, but I didn't. I didn't think of anything. I could only feel, and what I felt was peace. It blanketed me like a soft cloud, distracting me from any fear I might have while falling. All I could see was light, a bright, radiant light.

It had been too long. I should have hit the ground by now, been burnt alive by the flames, or both. Either I was dead, or something else was happening.

The light suspended me and harnessed me to it. I did not know if I was still in the jungle or if I was elsewhere. I could not see anything but the light. I wasn't even sure if I was breathing. I floated in space, and my existence was sweet and peaceful.

Then the light was gone, and I found myself in the central building on the stark floor next to Godfrey. I gasped loudly and watched an orb fly out the glassless window. It was identical to the ball I had seen near Gallia's grave.

"How did I get here?" I asked Godfrey.

"You appeared out of thin air," she told me. She sounded a lot calmer than I felt.

Flames licked around us, threatening us with the pain they could bring. Despite the danger, Godfrey showed no fear. Ash covered her dark blonde hair and the tight fitting commando uniform she wore. She was a General. Her attire was casual, but she emitted leadership and authority, even as the ash continued to coat her.

I finally caught my breath, but I wished I hadn't. The smoke from the fire burned my lungs, making me dizzy and ill. If we didn't leave now, the smoke would kill us before the flames did.

"We have to go," I urged her, and I moved towards the outer balcony of the building.

"There's nowhere to move to," Godfrey said, but she followed and crawled behind me. "The balcony is about to give out. It won't hold our weight. I tried already."