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  Their current situation was like a beetle that randomly reared its ugly head, biting her back to the reality. “So, guys …” She drew out the words over a couple seconds until both men turned to face her. “Things have been in a status quo up until tonight. But that will have to change.”

  Even though neither man spoke, she could feel tension rolling off Legian, and the tightness in Jax’s face hinted that he felt the same.

  “We can’t put off the military forever,” she continued. “At best, the Sephians will be considered squatters on American soil. At worst … well, let’s not go there.” She turned to Jax. “I was thinking if you could get a message up the line, we could hook up a hotshot general or someone with the Sephian leader here. That way, they could talk mano-a-mano. The Sephians have a ton of technology to offer. The military could get access to the Sephian brain trust. And, we’d all join forces against the Draeken.” Easy peasy.

  No response.

  “Jax?” she asked.

  He sat there for what seemed like an eternity. Just as Sienna inhaled to say something, he spoke. “I have no authority. And — let’s face it — these guys haven’t exactly proven themselves as friendlies. I know my CO prefers to make first contact as amenable as possible. Either way, you can’t keep us out forever.”

  Legian frowned before speaking barely above a whisper. “There’s a lot of risk involved. It’s likely they’ll require the location of the base, especially since we’re on their land. Who’s to say they don’t take that information and destroy the base, with everyone inside?”

  Sienna leaned against him. “I know. It’s incredibly risky, but we have to do something. And we’ve got to do it fast. The cat’s out of the bag. The Americans know you’re here. They aren’t known for their patience when it comes to a potential terrorist threat. They’re going to find this base, that is, if the Draeken don’t find it first. It’s just a matter of time. The question is do you want the humans to attack or come in peace?”

  Legian said nothing so she continued. “The Draeken may also know you’re here. You stopped that one scout in time, but there may have been more.”

  Legian looked up to the sky and muttered under his breath. It sounded like a prayer. Then he lowered his head, resting it against her forehead. “Yes, it is time for contact.”

  With perfect timing, a silent shuttle touched down in a wider spot on the dry creek bed. The sound of slate cracking under its weight was a welcome sound. At least for her. Jax looked like hell, like the grim reaper had come for him.

  Sienna placed her hand over Legian’s. “We’ll get the chance to set things right. Now come here, you big lug.” She held her arms out and pulled him into a big hug. “That’s one of the reasons why I’m crazy for you.”

  “And the other?” he asked.

  “I’ll tell you later. When we’re alone.”

  Legian kissed her before disentangling himself from her and stalked over to the ship. She stayed on the rock, watching Jax. “Don’t worry. They’re not going to do any funky alien experiments on you. Well, at least not many,” she jabbed.

  In response, she got the glare of death.

  She batted her hand at the air. “Oh, bite me. Legian’s one of the good guys, you know.”

  That earned her a snort from the man on the ground. “Sure. That’s why I’m sitting here with my hands tied behind my back. Because he’s one of the good guys. No, Sienna. The good guys wouldn’t invade our country. They wouldn’t build a secret base on American soil. They wouldn’t be obtaining supplies from pirates. Only someone with something to hide would do those things.”

  Her mouth dropped. “You know about the supplies?” They’d been so careful, so discreet. How in the hell did the military know about that? Oh, shit.

  He paused to look her up and down. It wasn’t a flirtatious look. Instead, he looked at her like she was some kind of Typhoid Mary. “I wouldn’t have figured you for the Stockholm Syndrome type.”

  Sienna strolled over to Jax and kicked him in the chest, knocking him onto his back. When he scowled, she held him down with a foot on his chest. After several seconds of making her point, she backed off and paced in front of him. He pulled himself back up to his knees. With a drawn out sigh, she stopped, grabbed his arm, and helped him to his feet.

  “I may not agree with Apolo all the time or even most the time. He’s the Sephian leader here on Earth, by the way. His tahren, Krysea, is the leader over all of Sephia. Oh, and don’t ask for their last name. Sephians don’t use them anymore because it was a slave thing. They get annoyed when you bring it up. Trust me on that one. Anyway, I’ve known Legian for only a few months. But I’ve learned enough.

  “Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Legian’s world, Sephia, was taken over by the Draeken during what they call the Great War. From what I got, this war was worse than all of ours thrown together and condensed into one massive attack. Kind of like the first episode of Battlestar Galactica. The new series, not the old one. Anyway, the Draeken had advanced technology. They slashed the Sephian population in half within a couple weeks. The Sephian leader at the time — I can’t remember her name right now — surrendered. It was that or be killed off completely.

  “For several centuries, the Draeken ruled over Sephia. All in all, both races flourished. Except for the fact that the Sephians were nothing but slaves to the Draeken. So, a couple decades ago, the Sephians rebelled in a drawn-out guerilla war that decimated both races. It was called the Noble War, and that is where they finally drove the Draeken from their world.”

  During all this Jax listened and looked more than a little suspicious. But he said nothing, so she continued.

  “Kudos to the Sephians for getting their planet back. Bad news for us. Because you see, the next habitable planet along the space highway was little ol’ Earth. Fortunately, the Sephians found out the Draeken had come here and figured they planned to do the same thing to us that they did to the Sephians. So a group of five hundred or so Sephians gave up everything and volunteered to come to a world they’d never heard of, a world they had no reason to care about.

  “They didn’t need to come here, but they did. They could’ve left us to fight the Draeken on our own. After all, no one helped them. They came because they didn’t want to see another world enslaved. And you know what? We’re lucky they’re here. I’m glad, and you should be, too.” With that, she crossed her arms over her chest and refused to make further eye contact.

  “How can you be sure that’s not some line of bullshit to get us to relax our guard? And then attack when we least expect it? What if the Draeken don’t even exist? What if these guys are the ones after our world?” Jax shot out to her in a low voice.

  “You’ll see for yourself. Then you’ll believe, too.” Sienna walked back to her rock, grabbed her bandana, and tied it around her wrist. Turning on her heel, she started walking toward the ship and paused. “Well? You coming or not?” she called out over her shoulder.

  The soldier made no move.

  “Stay, and you give up the chance to learn about the Sephians and their technology first hand,” she said, trying to entice his curiosity.

  The soldier still made no move. Dammit.

  “Ugh. Men.” She stepped over to Jax, grabbed his elbow and pulled. And he didn’t move an inch. “Jesus. You weigh nearly as much as Legian.”

  Without responding, Jax moved forward, warily watching Legian. Sienna only then noticed her tahren’s gun aimed at the soldier.

  “Dammit, Legian. He’s not our prisoner,” she said, before tugging at Jax’s arm again. “C’mon, Jax. It’ll be okay. Trust me on this one.”

  He moved again, but clearly wasn’t looking forward to each step. Sienna couldn’t blame him. She felt the same way when she made the journey to the base the first time. Except she had no choice. Then again, Jax was kind of in the same position.

  “Hey, Lea.” Sienna waved to the female pilot who could have been a doubl
e for Sigourney Weaver — the bad ass one from Alien, not the blue funky one from Avatar. Almost a double, but not quite. Nalea sported glittery skin, pure ebony eyes, and long pitch-black hair. Like all Sephian women, Nalea’s soullare was barely visible. It wasn’t until a woman mated that her male’s soullare overlaid her marks. Sienna had seen several mated Sephian women, and their double-layered marks were far more surreal than any tat she’d ever seen. “Please tell me you brought a scanner.”

  With a smile, Nalea held out a small device.

  Taking the tool, Sienna scanned her clothes to find the second tracer planted on her belt. “You’re a jackass, Jax,” she muttered as she crushed the bug and pulled her clothes back on. She held the device up in front of the soldier. “Your turn.”

  Sienna didn’t for a second assume they didn’t have tracers on their own guys for protection. The scanner vibrated over his forearm. She pulled up his shirtsleeve and ran it over him again. Dammit, he was microchipped. “Uh, guys?”

  Nalea and Legian turned as one.

  Sienna pointed to the forearm she was currently holding. “You’ll have to use the blocker until we get back to the base.”

  “Use your knife,” Nalea replied.

  Her eyes widened. “You serious?”

  Legian nodded in agreement.

  Sienna gulped, pulled out her Swiss Army knife. and gave Jax a wary look. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

  He scowled, his look a silent dare. Not like he had any say in the matter. Only once she was sure she found the rice-sized microchip did she make a small slice and pushed it out. Immediately, she unwrapped her bandana and tied it over the bleeding wound.

  Sienna gave the wrapped wound a light pat. “I really am sorry about that, but you have to give me the bandana back when the bleeding stops. It’s my favorite.” Then she walked away, nudging between Lea and Legian on the way to the ship.

  “What happened?” Nalea asked as she handed Sienna a pair of drades, the goggles that allowed night vision.

  “Don’t ask. By the way, this is Jax. He’s coming, too. He needs drades,” she called out over her shoulder as she stepped into the ship. Sienna went straight for a cube-shaped compartment in the back and opened it. She pulled out a smooth blanket and wrapped it around her. Instant luxury enveloped her, and she ran her fingers over the silky black material.

  Sienna never understood why the Sephians were so in love with dark colors. Maybe it was because they were a nocturnal race. They had no sun near their planet and three moons, which meant they had amazing night vision but could see less than a one-eyed shrew during the day without corrective glasses. With oversensitive eyes, they kept everything insanely dim, even their computers. No wonder their skin sparkled.

  If it weren’t for the drades she wore to see in the ultra-dim lighting maintained at the base, she would have gone blind before she turned thirty-six living in their gloomy dungeon-like conditions.

  A solid thump and a grunt behind her interrupted her thoughts. She turned to see Jax wince as Legian “escorted” him into the ship.

  “Hey, Lea. Drades?”

  “He doesn’t need them,” Legian grumbled while he strapped into a seat across from her and close enough to keep a close eye on Jax.

  Sienna preserved her dignity by not responding.

  “Hold your hollies.” Nalea brushed past her on the way to the front of the ship. “I have an extra pair up here.”

  “It’s horses,” Sienna replied with a smirk to her best friend. Nalea had been a superstar at learning English, but for some unknown reason, clichés and jargon threw her off every time.

  Nalea rubbed her head. “Horses? Son of a bitch. I always mess that one up. Hold your damn horses, Sienna.”

  Sienna grinned and shook her head. And for some other unknown reason, Nalea picked up profanity and slang faster than a sailor finding a whore at port.

  After a minute or so of opening and closing compartments, Nalea handed back a pair.

  “Thanks.” Sienna grabbed them from the pilot and slid them onto Jax. It took a couple attempts to get them straight and around his ears. “There. Cool, aren’t they?” she asked before strapping him in.

  Jax said nothing, instead taking in the high-tech cabin. She had to admit the first few times she had been in a Sephian ship, she had also been inquisitive. Everything was so different from planes she’d flown. There were no keyboards of any kind. Every unused space was covered by smooth panels of dim screens. Sienna wouldn’t have been able to read them, let alone know they were computer screens versus just panels, without the drades. The ship was controlled by mental commands made through a band worn around the pilot’s neck. Legian swore the technology was simple, but when he tried to explain it to her, it sounded anything but.

  Sienna stepped back with a sigh, dropping the blanket. She threw Legian a glare. “Fastening his shoulder harness is a pain in the butt with his hands tied. It’s not like he’s going anywhere.”

  “Then don’t buckle him in.”

  She brushed Legian off with a wave of her hands. “With Lea’s flying? Don’t think so.” After several more seconds of fumbling, she finally got the belt hooked.

  Jax glanced down at his belt, as if he were brainstorming ways to get out of it, before his eyes turned back to the cockpit.

  “Pretty impressive, isn’t it? The first time I was in one of these I didn’t get the chance to browse around much. I was too busy saving this big lug.” Sienna reached down, grabbed Legian’s face and pulled him to meet her kiss. She could kiss him every day for the rest of her life, and it would still curl her toes. She pulled away with a smile and picked up the blanket.

  A cuss from under Jax’s breath interrupted them.

  Her first instinct was to ignore him. Her second was more fun. “Behave or else I’ll take the drades back.”

  “Drades?”

  “Draeken night shades. I call them drades for short.”

  “That’s the worst slang word I’ve ever heard,” the soldier replied.

  “You’re just jealous you didn’t think of it.”

  Jax replied with a grunt at the same time Legian rolled his eyes.

  “So what do you think of them? The drades, I mean?” she asked.

  “Impressive,” he replied, returning to his defensive one-word commentary.

  “They were designed by the Draeken. Those guys came from a planet with a sun like ours, so they had to wear these all the time on Sephia, where there’s no sun. Only moons.”

  “Sienna,” Legian scolded.

  “What? It’s not like it’s classified information. Well, okay, maybe it is right now. Not that it should be. Jax needs to learn this stuff. We help him. He helps us. Quid pro quo.”

  Legian lowered his head into his hands and muttered under his breath.

  “And you’re lucky I’m crazy for you, too.” Sienna moved closer to Legian and leaned over to kiss his cheek. She’d been trying to learn Sephian, which was a darn tricky language, especially for someone who couldn’t even order a drink in Spanish. At least she’d picked up the important stuff. Cuss words. Lovey dovey words. And one she used quite often at the base: “Help. Where’s Legian?” Right now, Legian was giving a fair display of the Sephian language of the cussing persuasion.

  Sienna sat down and buckled herself in, watching Legian in his colorful display. After he calmed down, the next few minutes carried on in uncomfortable silence. In fact, Sephian ships were so quiet she couldn’t even hear any engine noise. There was a slight vibration that always put her right to sleep. One thing was for sure. The Sephians were a few decades — or make that several centuries — ahead of human technology.

  No one must’ve spoken the rest of the flight because she’d fallen asleep within minutes after takeoff. It wasn’t until Legian nudged her awake that she realized they had landed.

  Sienna unbuckled her belts, stood, folded the blanket, and stretched. “Yay. Hot bubble bath time.”

  She unlatched Jax’s belts and gave him a p
at on the shoulder. “It’s going to be fine. Trust me.”

  With the look on his face, he didn’t.

  She helped him to his feet, but Legian blocked the door. “Not yet. Let me speak with Apolo first.”

  “Oh,” she said, suddenly frozen to the ground. “Good plan.”

  With a quick kiss to her cheek, he and Nalea stepped out to greet Apolo, God’s gift to women and infected thorn in Sienna’s side. It seemed like everything she did pissed the guy off. And tonight was going to be a doozy. She really did try to behave around him. Most of the time.

  Like usual, the Sephian leader wore the plain black Sephian uniform. No logos, decals, or emblems of any kind. There were no differences in uniforms. After being slaves for so long, it seemed like the Sephians wanted nothing to do with hierarchy. And so every uniform was identical. The only way to tell Apolo from any other Sephian soldier was the haughty air he carried. Being mated to the leader of Sephia tended to give a guy an ego boost. Being in a matriarchal society, he was male number one on Sephia. Except he wasn’t on Sephia right now. He was stuck leading a small rebel force on a small backward planet. At least that was how Apolo described it to Sienna once.

  The guy was bad-tempered and gorgeous and militant. Only one of those traits she admired, so they didn’t hit it off that well. They had an unspoken agreement that had been working so far. Sienna stayed out of his way, and he stayed out of hers. Except, with five hundred or so Sephians in an underground labyrinth and her and Legian’s room two doors down from Apolo’s, she still managed to run into him several times a day. Legian claimed she did it on purpose. She didn’t. Much.

  The Sephian women on the base flirted with him and followed him like a harem. He was their Johnny Depp. Not that he noticed. He only had eyes for the mission. That and his tahren. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that he remained faithful to his mate, Krysea, who remained on Sephia. She’d stayed behind because she had an entire world to rebuild. And that made him all the more irresistible to women. Unattainable goodies always looked tastier.