Star Kissed (27 page)

“No. I just can’t …” she drifted off, thinking madly. She’d never seen the two of them together, never heard one mention the other. Even Helen had never mentioned…

Mandy sat up. Helen had neatly countered each of the three cousins of Akkadi she introduced to Mandy several days before. No wonder they were surprised about Akkadi taking a consort and all vowed to talk to him about it.

“My head hurts,” she muttered. She held her head in her hands for a long moment, feeling sick at the possibility Cesar was right. Akkadi’s behavior began to click into place.

She’d been ready to give up her only chance of going home to stay with him. How stupid did he think she was?

Why wasn’t she crying or screaming? Mandy was numb. The world have never seemed clearer, the decision before her simple.

“I have to tell you something else,” she said to Cesar.

He sat beside her, leaning close at her low voice.

“Hichele has energy marbles … cells. They can open the star gate. I planned on taking them to Urik at one point before … well, I will take them to him,” she said. “Cesar, will you help me?”

“No question. What do you have in mind?”

“We need the marbles and we need to get back to Urik.”

Cesar was quiet, thoughtful.

Mandy waited, unable to think straight enough to know what to do.

“Okay. Since we’re trading secrets,” Cesar said. “Here’s mine.” He twisted and shook the sash he wore. A tiny storage cube on a simple chain dropped into his lap. “Urik asked me to do something when he sent me here.” Cesar fingered the box. “He said if I needed help or got caught to use this little thing.” He opened the storage cube and dumped a small plug onto his hand.

“What is it?” she asked, picking it up.

“It’s a beacon. To activate it, I just put it on the plug they put in our necks. He said he’d be able to send me instructions on how to get back to Earth, if I activate it.”

Mandy chewed her lip. “You have the means to get us back. I just need to get the marbles.”

She didn’t let her thoughts drift to the children in the healing ward. Hichele’s family was loaded with energy, probably the reason Akkadi was marrying her. How could he not have enough energy to save people with what she brought to the family?

Bitterly, Mandy realized the good Akkadi could do with Hichele as a wife. It was far more than she had to offer. She had nothing to give him; if anything, she’d been about to take away what energy he had for the selfish reason of going home.

It didn’t seem so selfish now when she realized she was being used and manipulated by everyone in the family.

“Can you?” Cesar interrupted her solitary thoughts.

“Maybe.” Mandy found herself looking at a watch that wasn’t there. She grimaced. “I’ve got to go. Can we meet up here in a few hours?”

“Yep. I told Akkasha I was done for the day.”

A laugh bubbled up despite her misery. Cesar smiled and flopped back onto the bed, unconcerned about the Naki princess who was probably fuming over his refusal to listen to her.

Serves these damn Nakis right,
Mandy thought darkly. She stood and left, headed first to Helen’s quarters.

She reached the elevator before the first of her emotions freed itself of the shocked numbness in her mind. She leaned against the wall of the elevator, almost staggering under the sudden tension in her chest. It
hurt.
Her heart hurt. It wasn’t anything she’d ever experienced before with the string of ex-boyfriends she’d left in the past.

“I’m just tired from the beat down,” she told herself through clenched teeth. “Calm. Stay focused.” Akkadi’s advice upon meeting made her hurt more.

Mandy tried to center her thoughts. Instead, she felt as if she was floating, the world around her a nasty mirage that would disappear at any moment and leave her … nowhere. Alone. Forever.

When her mind returned, she was slumped against a wall, her body trembling and covered in a sheen of sweat.

“The episodes fade after awhile,” Helen said from somewhere nearby.

Mandy lifted her head from her knees and concentrated on the world around her. It was solid again. She wiped her face and stood unsteadily. She hadn’t yet recovered from her trauma, and it took longer than usual for her to orient herself.

She was in Helen’s quarters. The Naki queen was seated nearby, watching her. A glance around revealed Hichele was thankfully not present.

“Did you need anything?” Mandy sat on a chair. “I might not be up to standing through any more shitty meetings.”

“Company.”

I hate all of you right about now.

“Is everything alright?” Helen asked.

“No.”

“I’m happy to listen.”

Mandy eyed her. “So you can manipulate me even more?”

Helen said nothing.

“I found out Akkadi’s marrying Hichele,” Mandy started. “You couldn’t tell me?”

Helen rose and paced to one of the windows looking into space.

“It’s not like you just forgot to mention it. You kept his cousins from telling me, too, and probably everyone else.”

“I understand your anger,” Helen replied.

It was an Akkadi-answer, non-committal and calm. It was definitely not what Mandy wanted to hear.

“We had to tell our advisors and the senior crew on the station about you being purebred,” Helen said.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Mandy demanded.

“It has everything to do with this.” Helen faced her. “Your trip to the healing ward gave you away. Now, we have a choice: marry you off to Vekko when he wakes or send you away, before our enemies make you a target.”

Because Akkadi cares more for energy cells than me.
Mandy was silent, hating the truth.

“What were you doing in the healing ward without your medallion?”

“Oh, now it’s my fault I got the shit beat out of me?” Mandy stood, infuriated. “I didn’t ask for any of this! Not to be ten thousand years in the future, not to become the personal punching bag for Hichele, not to be told that sending me home will jeopardize the entire fucking universe or to fall for some Naki jerk waiting to pass me off to his cousin after he slept with me!”

Helen’s face softened.

Mandy paced then let out a growl of frustration.

“Who hurt you?” Helen asked.

Mandy rolled her eyes.

“I’m serious. I need to know if you’re in danger here.”

“Would I have had a chance with Akkadi if not for Hichele’s energy marbles?” Mandy asked bluntly. “If you can make me believe your answer, I’ll tell you.”

Helen’s disapproving look did nothing to sway Mandy.

“Very well,” the Naki queen said. She sat down and drew a deep breath. “Yes. His heart is yours. His duty, however, requires him to marry Hichele for her energy cells.”

The truth was crushing. Mandy hoped for a simple yes or no, not to know Akkadi did care for her but couldn’t be with her. She’d never felt insecure in her life. She knew she was beautiful and that she could have whatever man she wanted.

Except for the one who loved her, because all her looks were wasted on him. Her emotions were too close to the surface for her to address anything else Helen said.

“The energy cells … they’re really that strong?” she asked.

“They are.”

“I don’t understand how.” Mandy made a show of looking around. She needed to know where they were if she was to steal them out from under the noses of the Naki family.

“It’s hard to explain. Even I don’t understand how they work,” Helen admitted. “When you visit Akkadi next, ask him to show you. They’re in his quarters for safekeeping as Hichele’s dowry.”

Mandy groaned internally. She didn’t want to see Akkadi again. She wanted to walk out without ever having to deal with him.

“Your turn. Tell me what happened to put you in the healing ward,” Helen directed.

“Simple. Hichele had one of her guards beat the crap out of me,” Mandy replied.

“Hichele?”

“I guess she found out I was Akkadi’s consort or maybe just hated how I mouth off to her. When you left the station, she called me down to her quarters,” Mandy explained. “Told her guard to do everything but kill me then I woke up in the infirmary.”

Helen’s face was much like Akkadi’s earlier: cold, unreadable. Mandy waited for her to reaction. The Naki queen didn’t, simply sat.

“You okay?” Mandy asked, unsettled by how rigid and still the woman was.

“I wasn’t expecting this news.”

Mandy laughed, her emotions were too near the snapping point for her to react any other way.

“I guess my precious medallion fell off,” she continued mockingly. “Sorry for ruining your perfect little deception.”

“Please, girl,” Helen growled. “Our concern was for you not for the cover-up.”

“Right. I’m not convinced anything you’ve done has been for me or my benefit. In fact, I think the opposite is true. You all have lied to me since I got here,” Mandy snapped. “You know what? I won’t marry Vekko. You want to send me away? Then send me back to Urik! He’s the only person who hasn’t lied to me since I woke up in some Ishta hospital waiting to have my blood drained out of me!”

“Urik is an option.”

Helen’s quick, calm statement robbed Mandy of her anger and replaced it with the sense she was far too correct in her assessment: her welfare had never been a concern of the coldhearted Naki royals. She wanted to cry suddenly.

“He’s a good man,” Helen said.

“The humans are my people. I’d rather be there,” Mandy said. “His war I understand. I don’t get any of this.” She waved around her.

Helen considered her for a long moment. “You’re right, Mandy. We’ve been too involved in our own end states to care what you want. But believe me when I say I have done what I thought was right to ensure you were safe and content in this place and time. If you view that as manipulative or cold, then I am sorry for that, but I am not sorry for what I’ve tried to do.”

Mandy looked away, uncertain what to think of the honest words.

“If you want to go to Urik, then I’ll arrange it.” There was a question in Helen’s voice, one Mandy didn’t hesitate to address.

“Yes. I do.”

“When do you want to leave?” Helen asked.

“Now is good.”

“Very well,” Helen said after a pause. “I’ll contact him.”

Mandy nodded. “I’ll go … pack.” She headed towards the door.

Helen’s voice stopped her.

“Urik is my nephew,” she said. “My two sisters and I were both transported here many years ago through the star gate. My husband saved me and one sister but couldn’t save the third. The Ishta on the planet used her for breeding. All her children died, except Urik. He was her last, and she died in childbirth. My other sister married my husband’s brother, and they had five sons. Soon after the fifth was born, they were killed on a visit to the planet.”

Mandy listened, realizing the deaths of Helen’s sisters were potential fates she faced if she went to Earth.

“We found out about Urik when he was ten, and I begged my husband to save him. He did, negotiating with the Ishta to free him.” There was a smile in her voice. “He has been a family secret since. My husband and sons protect him. Akkadi sends him weapons and energy cells so he can battle the Ishta openly in a way we cannot on the planet.”

“They don’t speak very highly of each other,” Mandy noted. She turned, fascinated by the family history.

“No, but they are both men of honor. Akkadi will always do his duty.” Helen held her gaze when she said this.

Mandy was already painfully aware of the message Helen was trying to help her understand.  

“He is too Naki.” There was a note of sadness in Helen’s voice.

“He’s definitely nowhere near human,” Mandy said with bitterness. “I’d rather take my chances on the planet.”

“No one on the planet can open a star gate, if that is your goal in returning to Urik.”

“No one here will either!”

“So you’d rather run away. You can do good here, Mandy, wed to Vekko or one of my other sons.”

“I keep hoping I wake up and this is over.”

“I’m disappointed, Mandy.”

“Disappointed?” she retorted. “Because I want to go home? Because I don’t want to be a slave or being bred to death by crazy aliens?”

“Because you know what you want and you choose to run away,” Helen replied.

“What I want is to go home.”

It was the older woman’s turn to sigh. “You realize if I send you to Urik, my husband or one of my sons is likely to hunt you down and bring you back? You’re too valuable to our people for them not to.”

“By then I’ll be dead or home,” Mandy said stubbornly. “Or both, if I get sent back to the dinosaurs. Maybe I can be the first human in the fossil record.”

“My god!”

Mandy crossed her arms.

“Very well. Wait here.” Helen rose and retreated to the closet.

Mandy did so impatiently. Her eyes went to the planet. She felt almost as dead inside as the planet appeared. Helen’s husband and sons might come after her, but Akkadi wouldn’t.

It was a good thing. If she wasn’t distracted by Akkadi, she could concentrate on getting home.

“This is for Urik,” Helen said, emerging from the closet. In her hand was a storage cube. “Shards, so he can help get you settled.”

“Thanks,” Mandy said, accepting the necklace.

“Take care of yourself, Mandy. Come by tomorrow, and I’ll take you to my personal ship to go to the planet.”

Mandy nodded, not looking at Akkadi’s mother. She wasn’t going to return; there was too much of a chance Helen would have some sort of manipulative plan to keep her here if she did. Mandy had to leave now, before her raw anger wore off and left her wiling to hang around for another day or so to see if Akkadi would change his mind.

Mandy left and walked to the nearest elevator. She slumped against it, her emotions too jumbled for her to figure out.

Two things were clear: she had to get the marbles from Akkadi’s quarters and then leave quickly.

Akkadi had never been serious about her, and she’d intended to use him to get home. Leaving should be easy. Why did she hurt?

Chapter Sixteen

“Your father wishes to speak to you.”