Aurora Rising: The Complete Collection (109 page)

Dark indigo-and-violet bruises marked his torso and shoulders. A deep scrape ran diagonally from his collarbone down to his ribs, and in three places it had torn open the skin. Though none of the gashes cut hazardously deep, the flesh surrounding them had swollen an angry scarlet.

She stared at him as he entered the water, her gaze solemn with concern. She met him halfway and reached up to oh-so-gently run fingertips over the bruises and along the edges of the wounds.

Her heart clenched at the stark sight of him being hurt. Not invincible. He had joked about the dragon slaying, but she hadn’t realized until now exactly how close he came to dying. All because he was trying to get to her.

His hand grasped her wrist and pulled it away from his chest. “No eVi to direct and supplement the healing. But I am healing.”

Incredulous at his cavalier attitude, she exhaled harshly. “You’ve been hiking all afternoon and evening like this? You lugged the pack like this?” She’d offered to carry it twice over the course of the hike; both times he’d blithely refused to hand it over. “You should have said something. And there are painkillers in the med kit, right?”

“If I couldn’t feel the pain I might forget about it and hurt myself more. It’s okay. I’ve had worse.”

She frowned at the notion but dipped her hand in the luminescent water and brought it up to the cuts, carefully washing off the dried blood and dirt. “You’re putting a medwrap on this as soon as we get out.”

“After.”

The tone in his voice inexorably led a corner of her mouth to tweak upward, despite the fact she was still worried about him. “After?”

In a blink he had submerged beneath the surface. Strong arms wrapped around her hips and lifted her up to drop her over his shoulder. The chill of the air blasted her wet skin. She squealed and played at struggling as he carried her out of the pool and to an area of thick grass on the shore.

He fell to his knees in the grass and eased her onto her back, then rested on an elbow beside her.

She shivered from the cool night air and the feel of his hand ghosting along her cheek, across her jaw and down her neck. When his fingertips delicately caressed a breast her breath hitched in her throat, due both to the caress and the reverence with which it was delivered.

His hand continued on to trace the contour of her hip but his eyes now rose to meet hers. His voice glided over her, as silken as his touch. “I thought you were dead. I didn’t dare admit it to myself at the time, but…I thought I’d lost you.”

Her hand found its way into his hair, damp waves lengthened to tickle his cheekbones. “I’m not dead. I promise.”

The curl of his lips sent a tremor shooting all the way to her toes, one having nothing to do with the cold this time. The glow from the water brightened his irises to a dazzling iridescent cerulean, but it was the look in them which sent her head spinning.

No one had ever looked at her in such a way as this. It reminded her of the moment before they had breached the portal, though in retrospect the previous gaze had been but a pale hint of what she saw now.

And now, she didn’t need to ask what it conveyed. Her chest tightened as if it strove to constrain the emotions swelling within.

“No, you are not.” His head dipped to plant a tantalizing kiss on a nipple, then the curve of her breast where it met her sternum, then mirror his actions on the other side.

The kisses drew agonizingly down her abdomen. “You are very…” his tongue darted out to swirl around her navel, then drifted lower “…very much alive.”

Her head dropped back and her spine arched, and for a time she forgot every single thing that might have existed except the sensation of his hands and his tongue.

When she could endure the rapturous agony no longer she reached down and wound both hands into his hair, desperately urging him up.

He complied maddeningly slowly, and she was forced to raise up to crush her mouth against his and drag him on top of her. She relished his weight upon her, strong and sure, seemingly to the ends of the universe.

But just as he was about to slip inside her she shifted her hips, catching him off guard long enough to roll him onto his back beneath her. She giggled in devilish delight at the groan of frustration emerging from deep in his throat.

Her hair fell in waves to tickle his skin as she kissed each corner of his mouth and the curve of his jaw, holding herself centimeters above him with her hands on either side of his frame. Teasing him as he had teased her.

Judging by his expression of unbridled, smoldering desire, it was working.

A viblade didn’t function in the repulsion field, and his stubble was now veering dangerously close to a beard. Her lips burned from the friction, but she found she quite enjoyed the coarse roughness of it.

She stretched herself out along the length of his body, careful not to place undue pressure on his bruised, battered torso.

His hands lowered to her hips, firmly and somewhat insistently guiding her as she slid down over him, evoking a gasp from them each in equal measure.

Their lips met once more, then his palm rested against her abdomen and he urged her upward. A halting, wondrous breath escaped as she settled fully on him.

Lit by the glow of the pool, she could see the pleasure and the fervor consuming his eyes. Lit by the glow of the pool, she wondered if he could see the passion and the tenderness brimming in her own.

Deep in the recesses of her mind, she knew
they
were probably watching. They watched everything, after all.

Let them watch.

Let them see what it meant to be human. To live.

Let them see what it meant to love, and be loved in return.

40

EARTH

W
ASHINGTON,
E
ARTH
A
LLIANCE
H
EADQUARTERS

M
ARCUS FOUND HIMSELF ONCE AGAIN
surrounded by boxes, though the office was again larger and the view again better.

This would be the final time such was true, for both the office and the view did not get any better in the Earth Alliance than the Prime Minister’s office. Yet these were the same boxes containing the same items as before and he felt no different than when they had surrounded him in the Attorney General’s or the Foreign Minister’s office.

If the conditions were otherwise, he told himself, he would be able to feel satisfaction, be able to take pleasure at having achieved precisely what he had sought for decades. He had risen from a homeless street urchin in the slums of Rio de Janeiro to the most powerful office in the galaxy. What else could one possibly ask for?

The aliens having the decency to hold off another year before deciding to attack, for one.

He had been
so close
to maneuvering humanity away from this crisis. After more than five years of planning, it had come down to a matter of weeks.

“Sir, Admiral Miriam Solovy is here to see you.”

He winced at the voice of his Chief of Staff emanating from the speaker. Weeks which he could have bought if not for his guest’s daughter. Frustration clawed up his throat to leave a stale, rotten taste in his mouth, but he dared not show it. He was the Prime Minister now. So he grabbed a glass of water to try to wash the taste away and granted her permission to enter.

He had met Miriam Solovy half a dozen times over the last five years, the most recent being at the Select Military Advisory Council meeting mere hours before the Headquarters bombing. She had always carried herself with the quiet confidence borne by military officers who earned their rank rather than fell into it. Flawlessly composed in every setting, not once had he heard her yell or even raise her voice, yet when she spoke one felt compelled to listen.

He had never managed to ascertain why that was. It disturbed him when he didn’t understand some facet of human interaction, but she remained a mystery to him.

If only she had died in the bombing like she was supposed to…instead she now stood in his office wearing an immaculate uniform and an air of righteous authority.

He gestured with as much warmth as he was able to muster. “Admiral Solovy. I have a few short minutes, but I’m happy to spare what I can for you.”

“Thank you, Prime Minister. I would offer my congratulations, but I’m afraid the circumstances are far too grim for it.”

“I couldn’t agree more. I hope I can be half the leader Luis Barrera was. Now, what can I do for you?”

“In short? Find a way to negotiate a cease-fire with the Federation, commit the whole of our forces to defending against the aliens and fire General O’Connell from the EASC Board. Not necessarily in that order.”

“Is that all? It may take a few hours.” He chuckled, and was shocked at how frayed it sounded. The glint in her eyes said she noticed it too.

In his mind he uttered an old gutter curse learned in his gang days. Handing her a tactical advantage on a platter was not a good way to begin the meeting. “Admiral, I’m sure you appreciate the difficult situation we find ourselves in. I can’t overlook the atrocities the Federation has committed upon the Alliance in the last month.”

“I lost thousands of people in the Headquarters bombing—colleagues and friends. I assure you, no one understands the losses we’ve suffered more than I do. But the clear fact is we no longer have any idea who committed the bombing. Many people are beginning to question whether the Federation was responsible. There’s even less evidence they were responsible for the Orbital explosion. Sir, the Federation may be our adversary today but such a feud appears ridiculously tiny in the face of the alien menace which now exists.

“Prime Minister, I am not given to hyperbole. But the entire human race is threatened with extinction.”

The problem inherent in each of his possible retorts was that she was correct. To anyone who didn’t know what he knew her position was unassailable and he would be insane to argue with her. But given what he did know and she did not, he needed to buy whatever time he could.

“You are of course correct. Circumstances such as these require bold actions. I will do everything I can, but there is no guarantee the Federation will be interested in talking. And perhaps we will discover in the Messium offensive that these aliens are not as formidable as we believe. Our prospects are changing rapidly and for now I must keep all our options open.”

“Sir, I—”

“Now about General O’Connell? I realize his demeanor can be abrasive, but he has years of leadership experience and—”

“He has made a disaster of the Federation war and shows no interest in the alien one. I believe he is driven by a personal vendetta against the Senecans due to the loss of his mother in the First Crux War. It is clouding his judgment and forcing him into rash decisions not backed up by cogent strategy or the facts on the battlefield.”

“And the fact your daughter not only uncovered these aliens but then was apparently falsely implicated in the EASC bombing isn’t clouding your judgment?”

“Sir, we have lost eight colonies. 6.4 million citizens—quadruple that number if you count those who are perishing on Messium as we speak. Another four Senecan and five independent colonies are decimated. 1.2 million people missing or dead. I hardly need my judgment clouded in order to want to defend those who remain.”

Knight takes Queen.
“Fair enough, Admiral. You’ve made your point. I’ll have a word with General O’Connell and make certain his priorities are as they should be. If they are not, I will consider a change in leadership.”

“Thank you, Prime Minister. Hopefully we will receive good news from Messium in the next few hours.”

“I hope so as well. Now if you’ll excuse me, the Assembly leadership awaits.”

But once she had departed, he did not head for the basement situation room where the Assembly leadership would be gathering. Instead he activated privacy shielding and walked behind his desk.

The alien had almost always been the one to contact him over the years, but there had existed a few instances where he had needed to be able to reach out. In those instances it had responded promptly.

He provided the code to his eVi, a nonsensical string of symbols and numbers.

“Hyperion, are you there? I’d expected to hear from you by now. As you’re no doubt aware, I’ve now risen to the position of Earth Alliance Prime Minister and can at last control humanity’s path.”

Silence.

“I ask you to pull your forces back. Pause the attacks. Give me a few weeks, and I promise you humanity will no longer represent a threat to you. I can make this happen—I possess the power. I simply need more time.”

Silence.

“This is why you sought me out so many years ago. Because you recognized the great deeds I could accomplish. I have fulfilled all that potential and from here I can move mountains. I can move worlds. From here I can do anything. Give me the opportunity to prove it. Pull back.”

Silence.

“Please. I beg you. Do not forsake me now.”

Silence.

41

KRYSK

S
ENECAN
F
EDERATION
C
OLONY

O
LIVIA DIDN’T BOTHER TO
tamp down her scowl as she approached the receptionist for the second time in as many months. She also didn’t introduce herself this time. Given the outcome of her previous visit she doubted the woman had forgotten her.

The receptionist quivered violently. She hadn’t, then. “I’ll inform Mr. Ferre you’ve arrived, m-ma’am.”

Laure Ferre had contacted her the day before to discuss a recalcitrant broker. Ferre’s largest supplier of block-stripped hardware components was pitching a fit in the wake of the ‘accident’ involving Ilario and Alaina Ferre and demanding to speak to whoever was in charge—really in charge—or he was cutting off his supplies. He refused to travel to New Babel and a holo would not do. The man blamed his obstinacy on the chaos of the wars.