The Alien’s Obsession by Zoey Draven

Chapter Three

“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” Lainey breathed once Vixron landed a freaking hovercraft onto a wide stone terrace at the top of a mountain city.

So this was Luxiria…

Lainey and Crystal stumbled off of the hovercraft, declining help from the hulking Luxirian acting as their bodyguard and raced to the long, stretching balcony of the terrace, their bellies pressing into the hard, warm stone.

Luxiria was…darkly beautiful. Lainey hadn’t expected that. In her mind, she’d imagined a stark landscape or perhaps a jungle of thick trees, humid, suffocating air, a forest filled with odd sounds from strange monsters and creatures with four or five or six eyes and a thousand legs. Then again, she only ever had Star Trek and Star Wars to fuel her imagination for what an extraterrestrial planet would look like.

But Luxiria wasn’t like anything she’d imagined.

It was striking. Black sand billowed out from the mountain they were high upon, flowing over and covering the land as far as Lainey could see. In the seemingly never-ending distance, she saw tall, jagged black mountains, impressively majestic.

Lainey had been to Scotland once, had remembered the striking landscape of the highlands, of Glencoe, beautifully melancholic and haunting, like her favorite concerto.

But Luxiria’s landscape was like Glencoe on steroids. And she found that she could look at a view like it forever.

Next to her, Crystal said softly, “You know, for some reason, it never seemed real before right now.” When Lainey managed to peel her eyes away from the scene to look at her, the blonde shrugged and said, “None of it seemed real. But how can I deny this?”

The abduction. Alien life. Being on another planet, so great a distance from Earth that Lainey didn’t know how to quantify it with numbers she knew.

That was what Crystal was talking about.

Lainey knew the feeling. Because she was experiencing something very, very similar.

Another thing that registered was the heat. The moment they’d stepped foot outside the building that had housed them for a few weeks, thick heat had settled over them.

It didn’t bother Lainey. While she was sweating bullets underneath the two suns, high overhead in the sky, anything felt better than the cool, circulated, sterile air of that goddamn room. She felt the heat on her skin and the suns on her face, felt a hot breeze blow strands of her red hair across her eyes…and she was happy for the first time in a long time. She was free, unshackled, in open air.

And it felt like music.

“Ready to go check out our new digs?” Crystal asked after they’d been standing there for longer than Lainey realized.

She looked over her shoulder, saw Vixron standing near the entrance to a domed…house? Or at least what Lainey assumed was a house.

The terrace was quiet, deserted. Five houses in total lined that particular terrace, but Lainey had seen that the entire city—which Vaxa’an had called the Golden City—had been lined with terraces, carved out of the mountain.

“Yeah,” Lainey said, turning her back on the spine-tingling view to approach the place they’d be staying at for who knew how long. “Let’s go.”

Passing through an arched metal door, the two women examined their temporary home. And already, Lainey knew it was a tremendous upgrade. Not only because it was spacious, but because it was flooded with ample natural light pouring in from the large windows.

Inside the ‘living room’ was the same fire pit set-up they’d had in the other room, a place they’d often gathered at meal times. And despite the heat, there was a fire flickering in the very center, as if someone had come to prepare the house for them.

Vibrant rugs were spread out over the floor, in varying patterns and colors to protect their bare feet from the stone. Lainey approached the back of the house, to a labyrinth of a hallway, that revealed two rooms that had been outfitted as bedrooms, complete with actual beds—two in each room—instead of padded mats on the floor. They were piled high with furs and plush cushions and Lainey wanted to sink into one, but continued exploring instead.

The last door revealed the holy grail of bathrooms.

Behind her, Crystal said, “Oh my God.”

Because the bathroom was huge. In its very center was a large, sunken in pool, with steam rising from its surface. The largest bathtub in history.

“I know what I’m doing tonight,” Lainey muttered, her eyes wide.

That was when the guilt hit her. Hard.

“Erin should be here,” Lainey said. Only at the last moment, did she add, “Bianca too.”

“She’ll come around,” Crystal said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

When they returned to the living room, Vixron was still at his place by the front door, legs spread apart in a wide stance, arms straight at his side.

He was watching Lainey warily and her lips almost twitched. Admittedly, she hadn’t been the best behaved under his watch and had ripped him a new asshole a time or two once she’d discovered he understood and spoke English.

Even still, she straightened her spine and sniffed, “This will do, Vixy. I suppose.”

Vixron’s lips pressed together. “I will inform the Prime Leader of your satisfaction when I see him next.”

“So,” Crystal said quietly. “What now?”

Lainey sighed, her eyes straying back out the window, at the impressive view of Luxiria.

She was itching to go back onto the terrace, but already, her skin was turning red and blotchy from the intensity of the two suns. Being a redhead, nine times out of ten, meant fair skin. Fair skin never agreed with the sun. She’d always been jealous how easily Nadine had tanned during the summertime, when Lainey had to cover herself with large brimmed sun hats and the highest SPF money could buy.

“We wait,” Lainey said, shrugging her shoulders and going to stand at one of the larger windows. There was a ledge right at its base and Lainey couldn’t help but notice that it was the length of a 76-key keyboard. “Like we always have.”

Her eyes found the jagged peaks of the mountain and she traced their outline with reverence.

Crystal sighed, “I’m going to take a bath. Might as well swim in there while I’m at it.”

Lainey heard her retreat down the hallway they’d just come from.

As she looked at the view, her hands rested on the wide ledge. She placed her fingers in the starting position, imagining black and white keys in place of stone. And she began to silently play Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 20 in C sharp minor.

* * *

“I have sentCruxan back to his outpost,” Vaxa’an told Kirov later that night in the war room, the moment he stepped inside after receiving summons.

The door closed behind him. Kirov frowned. “Why?”

“He received news from some of his guards stationed there. That they heard about a Luxirian crystal arriving with a relief batch of warriors earlier this morning.”

“He thinks one of them has the crystal?” Kirov questioned, but he already knew. “But how? We’d already questioned all the warriors on duty here multiple times.”

“Perhaps they lied. Perhaps they handed it off to a warrior who could take it out of the Golden City,” Vaxa’an growled. “I am questioning my decision to let those two females out. I cannot completely trust my warriors anymore.”

Kirov’s jaw tightened. “Only a few know they left. They will be safe. I will be there during the nights when I return to my dwelling and I will be diligent in ensuring no males come near them.”

Vaxa’an watched him carefully. “You will need to return to Troxva soon for the lunar celebration. You have been away from your outpost too long.”

Kirov inclined his head. “I will leave in a few spans. I wanted to finish the armor technology I have been developing.”

Vaxa’an’s eyes went back to the Com screens in front of him.

“Besides,” Kirov added, “if I leave, there will be no more Ambassadors left in the Golden City. You should call on Lihvan or Rixavox to return in my absence. As a precaution.”

“As if I could tear them away from mated life,” Vaxa’an said, huffing out a short breath. With a tap of his fingers, he powered off the Coms and Kirov realized that he probably hadn’t left all span. Again, Kirov didn’t envy Vaxa’an his role, his responsibilities. “But you are right. This is not the time to leave the Golden City without at least one Ambassador. I will call on Lihvan to return once you leave.”

Kirov jerked his head in a nod.

“Go,” Vaxa’an said. “Get some rest. You look as if you have not slept in a rotation.”

Kirov felt like he hadn’t slept in a rotation.

“Cruxan suggested I go find a female to mate,” he muttered.

Amusement poured off his friend. “That would do you good too. Nothing will take the edge off more.”

Kirov eyed Vaxa’an and before he turned to leave, he said, “Perhaps you should take your own advice and return to your luxiva.”

Behind him, Vaxa’an growled, “Planning on it. She will not sleep tonight.”

Once outside the command center, Kirov boarded a hovercraft and shot up into the sky, flying towards the terrace where he resided. Once the five Ambassadors’ dwellings came into view, his eyes immediately sought out the one where the human females now lived.

The windows spilled out a golden light and through one window he saw Vixron, standing watch. He didn’t see the females. He assumed they were sleeping.

That buzzing curiosity returned full force, but he tamped it down, stomped it out like a fire, remembering that Vaxa’an didn’t take well to betrayal.

He thought he saw a flash of red on the terrace in front of the dwelling, but when he refocused his gaze, he saw nothing out of place.

Kirov landed the hovercraft smoothly in front of his own dwelling and powered it down. The gentle hum of the technology he’d helped create faded into silence and he was met with the calmness and coolness of a Luxirian night.

After he jumped down off the hovercraft, he stood for a moment, looking over his home planet, brightly illuminated with a silver light from an almost full moon. He looked towards the east, towards his own outpost of Troxva.

A familiar tightening encased his muscles and he closed his eyes.

Troxva and all the weighted responsibilities and old guilts that came with it.

Troxva, where Kirov was not a technology advisor, where he could not spend his spans in his labs, but rather…he had to be a leader.

Troxva, a place he both loved and loathed.

Troxva, where his sire lived.

A sigh escaped him, though it sounded more like a rough growl to his own ears.

A soft sound near the human females’ dwelling drew his attention, his eyes snapping open, his body tensing, preparing. Peering into the darkness, he scanned the terrace, listening, completely still.

But he heard nothing else, sensed no other Luxirians except Vixron.

Kirov shook his head, taking one last look in the direction of Troxva, one last longing look at the human females’ dwelling, before turning to go inside his own.

Frustration made his shoulders ache and he rolled his head around his neck, trying to ease the pain. Once inside, he remembered he was supposed to find a female to mate that night, to help ease that frustration before it drowned him.

With a curse, Kirov closed the door behind him. He would just release some tension manually. Maybe then, he’d finally be able to sleep.