Lady (2 page)

“I am seriously in charge of a trident as well as super cuffs. This even beats language day.” She stayed still as she was cuffed and banded to complete the outfit.

She had gone from warrior to alien princess in a matter of minutes. “Oh. I like this. I wish my senior picture in the yearbook made me look half as good.”

“Do you mind if I take an image?” Weebr was nearly vibrating with excitement.

“Go ahead. I am heading to the range after this. I want to try out the focus.” She smiled.

He ran the imager over her body, and she kept a heroic pose the entire time. When he was finished, he beamed. “Excellent. I am so delighted with how this is working out. Wear the suit through your classes and let me know how it performs.”

“Will do. Thanks, Weebr. Talk to you later.”

She hopped off the fitting podium with her weapon in hand and walked toward the range with as much confidence as her high heels allowed. She was getting used to working in heels, as the boots that went with her normal suit had some built in.

At the firing range, she had the bots light a fire that flared into life for a few seconds. She aimed her trident at it and the target frosted over, killing the flame.

Giggling, she triggered the target again, but this time, she extended her hand to the target and focussed the draw that normally came from her body toward that one point. Her body sucked the heat from the fire and it collapsed.

She clapped her hands and headed to her next class with her trident in one hand.

* * * *

Devnin checked his mail, and he grinned. “About time.”

Walking Darkness came up behind him and said, “What?”

“My bride is leaving her moon in three days. They have sent images of her in training.” He opened the files and his jaw dropped. The first three showed a woman in a modest hairstyle with ivory hair twisted into a bun at the back of her head. Her eyes were ice blue and her skin chalk white. The fourth image was the one that surprised him. She was standing with her hand on one hip and a pronged spear in the other. Her skin was exposed in several locations and less than one third of her was covered by fabric.

“Is she going to be fighting crime like that?” Skorin laughed.

“I have no idea. Apparently, the design of this suit is supposed to help her control her talent. I don’t know how, but if she is willing to run around dressed like this, I am willing to defend her honour.” Devnin smiled.

“I don’t have a problem with her attire.” Skorin grinned. “Rowen might.”

Devnin looked at the woman’s file. “She’s a talent. She is being sent here not only as my bride, but also as a member of the Guardian detachment.”

“What?”

“Check your roster; they filed the transfer order this week. She is coming in five days and will be one of the Irudan Guardians.” Devnin leaned back and laughed.

Skorin took off to check his mail, and Devnin took in the images of the woman he would be marrying in three days. If his mother was speaking to him, he would let her know, just so he would be able to hear her screaming in denial that a member of the Niil family was mating with an alien.

There were many bonuses to taking a Terran bride. Irritating his family was merely one of them.

* * * *

Rox stood in the administrative offices of the Terran Moon Base, and she waited for the clerk to finish his work.

He looked up with a jolt. “I am sorry. I didn’t hear you come in.”

She looked around and shifted in her new robe. It was more like slightly shaped poncho, but it was comfortable and kept her from cooling the room. It also was the same ice blue as her inner costume, which meant that her eyes and her robe were the same colour.

“Roxelena Barinova. I am here to formalize matters?”

“Oh, the wedding. Of course.” He smiled and got to his feet. The wall behind him opened and disgorged a box.

He nodded and stood in front of her. “Do you, Roxelena Barinova, agree to become the bride of Devnin Niil?”

“I do.”

“Do you promise to uphold the honour of Irudan and place the lives of its people above your own?”

“I do and I will.”

“Will you gladly take on the position of Guardian of Irudan and work with the others to save their world on a daily basis?”

She smiled. “I will.”

“Do you swear this by your family, by your blood and by your world?” He gave her a serious look.

She suddenly sobered. “I do.”

He nodded his head with a jerk and opened the box. The band in the box had an elaborate design on it, and she reached out to touch it with shaking fingers.

“Put the band on your wrist or arm. It will do the rest.”

That sounded ominous, but she placed the band on her left forearm. The band slithered against her skin and completed itself, linking around until it was seamless and locked onto her from mid-forearm to wrist. It scooted under her wristband and flattened against her skin.

An uncomfortable cold faded as soon as she felt it.

“Lady Roxelena Barinova Niil, your ship will be ready at dawn. You leave for Irudan and are expected at the Guardian base there. Your call sign will be determined once you settle in.”

“Call sign?”

“Well, Lady Niil would be inappropriate. The Guardians of Irudan will determine your call sign once you arrive. Your skills will be the indicator and the key to your new name. Good luck, Lady. You are going to need it.”

The rest of the formalities consisted of her signing the wedding contract and a blood sample being recorded to officially mark her entrance into the Nyal Imperium as a full citizen of Irudan by virtue of her marriage.

She left the office a little dazed and with her right hand clasping the band on her forearm, memorizing the pattern under her fingers.

It already felt like part of her, but the design was fascinating. She went to dinner and pulled her cloak down to hide the silver cuff. It wasn’t something she wanted to share with everyone on the day before she left them.

When dinner and the hugging was done, she went to her room to pack. It took three minutes, and then, she settled in for a restless night of staring at the ceiling and imagining a world where you could be a citizen without having set foot on the soil, just by the possession of a bracelet.

Her pilot wasn’t chatty, and because of the nature of her talent, she was asked to nap on the way. The unit was a simple one, she just had to lie down in a box and let her body seek all the heat it could. There wasn’t any heat in the capsule and her body began to shut down. Based on previous tests, she could remain in a self-induced cryo state for seven days before she shifted from sleep into coma. She was trusting her pilot to get her to Irudan in one piece.

It was more trust than she had put in anyone other than Julian in years.

Fire Fall stood in the field and controlled the flames. The high-oil-content plants turned out to be highly unstable and the researcher in the area didn’t realise that his sparking vehicle would ignite the oil with the exceptionally low flashpoint.

He rose in the air above the field and lowered the flames until smoke curled around his legs and coloured the sky.

“Fire Fall, there is a call for you at the shuttle landing.” Walking Darkness’s voice came through the com in his ear.

“A call?”

“A rather urgent call. A shuttle has landed with a new Irudan citizen in it, and it has frozen shut. I believe your bride has arrived.” Walking Darkness chortled.

He looked around the field and made sure there were no more flares. “Now?”

“There is a creeping frost covering the tarmac. If you wouldn’t mind going to thaw her out?”

Fire Fall turned and used the remote on his cuff to summon his flier. The conveyance met him, and they were off, heading toward the base as fast as he could manage. The silver on his wrist shifted as if it knew something he didn’t know. It cooled his normally fevered skin and gave him the sensation of a hand stroking up his arm and across his chest with fingers that trailed so lightly, he looked down to check and see that there was nothing there.

Unnerved by the sensation and the throb it created in his groin, he focussed on finding the spot of cold that contained his bride. The moment he reached the spaceport, he knew that it wouldn’t be a difficult search.

A pool of frost five hundred metres wide surrounded the shuttle that he had sent to bring her to him. He brought his flier in and settled it just outside the creeping crystals on the tarmac. Fire Fall called heat and began to walk toward the shuttle with a keen sense of anticipation firing his blood.

As he approached, the frost receded, but he felt the pull of the cool emanations in the vessel. He melted the ice that sealed the hatch and used the Guardian override code to open the door. The inside of the ship was cold, but there was no ice within. The lack of humidity stopped the crystals from forming.

Fire Fall smiled, the sensation was almost comfortable. He radiated heat in waves and followed the feel of the sucking need as it took the heat and devoured it.

The pod that was consuming the heat was sealed tight. He worked at the joint until it finally popped free. With a sigh, it creaked back, and he was left looking at the body of the woman in the images he had been sent.

He removed his helmet and put it on the deck next to the capsule.

Acting on instinct, he lifted one of her hands in his and pressed a kiss to the cool flesh. Heat surged from his body into hers, and her lids fluttered. She opened her ice-blue eyes and blinked slowly. “Are we there yet?”

He grinned. “You have arrived, Lady Roxelena Barinova Niil. I am Fire Fall.”

She smiled. “I am pleased to meet you. Can you help me out of here?”

“It is my fondest wish.” He kissed her hand again and eased her out of the capsule. Once she was in his arms, he understood one thing. She was meant for him and he was not going to let her go.

* * * *

He had grey-silver skin and pale green eyes. His hair was a blend of leaf green and pine. He had the scent of warmth on him, and he held her tight against the armoured bodysuit he wore.

“Fire Fall?”

“Yes?” He smiled again, his eyes warming and darkening in colour.

“You are taking me to the Guardians?”

“I am.”

“Can you let the pilot out of the cabin? He locked himself in there after I started to pull heat into my capsule.”

“You were aware of that?”

“Of course. I just sleep in there. If he hadn’t sealed my capsule, everything would have been fine. The moment I was stuck without a heat source of any kind, my body panicked and this was the result.”

“You frost over?”

“And take everything with me.” She tried not to burrow into him, but it was a battle. “I believe you should put me down now.”

He sighed and slowly lowered her to a standing position. “Do you have bags?”

She nodded and kicked at the connecting door to loosen the frost. It slid open with a shriek. Her bag and trident were waiting for her.

Fire Fall knocked on the flight deck door, and he heated it until it opened. The pilot was curled in a ball and shivering, but he was still alive. He was muttering, “It got colder.”

Rox shrugged and settled her bag diagonally over her torso.

Fire Fall pressed a finger to his neck and spoke. “I need a medical team with hypothermia kits. The pilot has been affected by the chill.”

He must have gotten a response, because he nodded sharply. With a small smile, he turned to her. “I believe we shall proceed to the base now. I have ordered a copy of the flight record to be sent to the base.”

“Why?”

“So that we can prove that your body was acting under a self-preservation reflex when your talent attacked your pilot.”

She nodded. “This isn’t the smooth arrival I was counting on. I had really hoped to just open the pod and get out.”

“Life tends to throw you out of balance. You simply have to learn to dance at an angle. Shall we go?”

Rox smiled and lifted her trident. “Lead the way.”

“What is that?” Fire Fall examined it as he passed her.

“Every lady needs her accessories.” She winked and blinked when he winked back. She wasn’t playing with fire, but she was fairly sure she was flirting with it.

They left the ship, and he stepped astride a vehicle, which resembled a motorcycle with a ledge around the base and no wheels. “Get on behind me and hold on.”

“What is it?”

“A flier. No fancy names, just a description for what it does.” He fastened the helmet that he had retrieved from next to the capsule before they left the shuttle.

“Will I need a helmet?”

“Eventually. For this trip, hang onto me. I will keep you safe.”

She straddled the flier and settled against him, holding her trident out with her left hand and clutching him with her right.

“Are you settled?” His voice sounded odd coming through the featureless helmet.

“I am. Whatever you are going to do, you can do it now.”

He laughed and the flier lifted off the ground and kept going.

She squeaked with alarm and hung on tight as they began to move forward with a shift of his thighs. Rox clutched at him and hoped that he knew what he was doing.

It took an hour to fly to the base, and she spent most of it with her face pressed to the back of his suit. His shoulders were even with her forehead and wider than she was by at least a foot. His easy smile had taken away the impact of his body, but pressed against him, she was gaining insight very quickly.

His body heat was incredible. The warmth she was taking from him caused her to relax as her body became comfortable for the first time in a very long time.

She suddenly became nervous as to her husband and what he would think of her seeking out Fire Fall for temperature release.

“We are landing now.”

She nodded against the heavy muscle of his back and squeezed him tight.

When she felt the small impact of the ground, she looked around. They were on a stone landing site with a few other vehicles sitting and waiting.