Lucinda

 

A pair of red rimmed amber eyes watched her as Lucie woke. The eyes barely stood taller than the mattress and the grey-toned face lacked the fissures and cracks of a more mature valo. This was a child.

“Hey there, cutie,” she said, sitting up slowly.

The child fell on its butt and scrambled away, disappearing out the door.

Lucie planted her feet on the floor. Her head swam and her body… didn’t ache. That was unexpected. She felt great, actually. Her back and shoulders didn’t have the normal morning stiffness and for the first time since the crash, her ankle didn’t hurt.

Another valo entered the room, wearing a bright yellow sarong tied around her chest. She carried a tray with a small meal.

Lucie had two thoughts: so the valos did wear clothes, despite what her fellas tried to tell her, and where did this woman come from? Clearly she was a female valo from the slight swell of her breast and the gentle curve of her hips. She had a series of bony spurs along her scalp instead of hair, like Lucie’s valos. Beyond that, she seemed… comforting. Nurturing. Ertale was comforting in a snuggly attack-teddy bear sort of way, but he was never nurturing.

“You’re up. Good,” the woman said.

“I think I scared that kid.”

The tray rattled as the woman’s hands shook. She paused, her chest raising and lowering with focused breaths, before setting the tray down on a nearby table.

“I’m sorry if I upset you,” Lucie said.

“No,” the woman said quickly. “Your voice… You speak our language flawlessly.”

“Thank you,” she said, even though the translating device attached to her ear did all the work.

“I never thought to hear a Creator speak our words. They warned me, but I did not believe them.”

“They? Sarsen? Ertale? Asche? Are they here? Are they okay?” She rose to her feet, wrapping a sheet around her.

The woman handed Lucie a robe. “They are well and here. Please eat. You need to regain your strength.”

Lucie sat at the table. The meal was simple grains cooked in the milky juice of a hard shelled fruit with assorted fruit. “I’m sorry, I was rude and I didn’t ask your name. I’m Lucie.”

“Lucie Morales of Earth,” the woman said with an unexpected smile. “I know. I am Joi. And the little one listening at the door is Loa.”

“That’s a lovely name.”

“Thank you.”

“Would you join me? I understand that Fire Valos don’t eat but…” She’d feel uncomfortable with Joi standing and watching her eat. Lucie waved at the empty chair.

Surprise flickered across Joi’s face, but she nodded, arranging her sarong with care as she sat. She took a small red globe and peeled the rind. Bringing the fruit to her nose, she inhaled the scent, eyes closed as if savoring a memory. “You are not how I expected,” Joi said at length.

Right. She expected a Creator, cruel and uncompromising. Time to root out that misconception. “I’m not one of the them,” she said. “I’m from a planet called Earth. My ship crashed, along with others. We’ve never heard of Sonhadra or the valos.”

“So they said.”

“But you didn’t believe them.”

Joi shook her head.

“I’m sorry,” Lucie said, unable to contain her curiosity. “Where did you come from? I thought my guys were the last of their kind?”

“You were asleep for several days.”

Lucie hardly saw what that had to do with it.

“I was—am—a healer. They revived me first to tend to you.” Joi spread her hands as if that explained everything.

“They did it? They revived the fallen valos?” Joi nodded. “How many?”

“Sixteen.”

Sixteen lives brought back.

A smile spread over her face. Sixteen revived valos was so much better than sixteen lives taken in revenge. “I’m so glad.”

Joi’s smile faltered and she looked off to one side, towards the open balcony. Something troubled the woman, but Lucie would not press the issue. Only sixteen made it through. Perhaps she lost a mate or family. “If you are finished with your meal, you will want to know what happened to you.”

Lucie knew what happened to her. A bomb went off and a tower fell on her. “How long was I asleep? I can’t possibly be healed.”

“Three days and the renewing fires did the majority of the work.”

“The renewing…” An image of the pool of molten lava in the Forge came to mind. “They put me in that?”

Joi nodded. “It was very clever of them to realize the renewing fires would heal you. Otherwise…”

Yeah. Dead. Bomb plus collapse equaled a lot of blunt force damage, broken bones and internal bleeding.

“Does anything pain you?”

Lucie flexed her hands and wiggled her toes. “Not really. I feel good. Better than ever, actually.”

Joi ran a hand along her left arm, pressing at a small knot. “Does that hurt?”

“No. What happened to my arm?”

“Broke. Sarsen set it, but his understanding of healing was rudimentary at best.”

“Did you know him before?” Dread curled in her stomach. Was this his long lost mate? Lucie wouldn’t share him with another woman. She just wouldn’t. Yes, it made her a hypocrite as she expected her guys to share her, but that was their custom. 

“Our mothers were sisters. I have known him since we were children.”

Her shoulders slumped with relief. “Has he always been so—”

“Serious? Oh yes.” Joi’s eyes sparked. “It is good to see him happy again.”

“When can I see them?”

“Do you wish to bathe first?”

Not particularly, but that wasn’t a bad idea. She probably smelled, but part of her was disappointed none of her guys had been there when she woke.

As if sensing her thoughts, Joi said, “One of your triad was at your side every moment, always under my feet and questioning me.”

“Sounds like they got on your nerves.”

Joi tilted her head to one side. “We don’t have that phrase, but I understand the meaning. Yes, they were biting at my ankles. Very annoying.”

Joi offered to help Lucie into the bath, but she waved the woman away. Despite her injuries, despite not eating or drinking for days, she had no weakness or lethargy. The hot water soothed her muscles, but she hurried through it, anxious to see her valos.

“I will never get tired of this sight.”

Lucie smiled but did not turn around, instead dunking herself to rinse the cream from her hair. “I understand I have a lot to thank you for.”

Footsteps filled the bathing chamber. “Lucie—” Sarsen’s voice was rough, as if he had not had any rest for several days. She knew the valos didn’t need to sleep, so it had to be pure emotion.

“No, stop. There are things I need to say first.” Lucie wrapped a towel around her and climbed out of the pool. Sarsen, Asche and Ertale stood side by side, feet shuffling and hands twitching. She sat on the pool’s ledge. “Don’t be nervous. I just wanted you to know that right before that tower came down, I realized there were things I never said to you. Important things.”

“You do not need—” Sarsen started to say, but Lucie waved a hand at him.

“I do. I love you guys. I don’t think I’ve said it before.” A blush crept along her cheeks. There was no good reason for her not to say it. She’d felt it for a while now.

“We are one,” Asche said, and for the first time Lucie understood that meant they loved her. Their heartstones beat with her heart not because of a trick of biology or an accident, but simply because they loved her.

“I didn’t know that until I thought I was…” Her voice grew thick. “Until I thought I was going to die.” Every fear induced heartbeat came back, thudding in her ear, potent as ever. “This is my home. I don’t ever want to leave. To leave you. It broke my heart imagining you alone. All I wanted was one more moment with you.” She studied each of their faces, memorizing them. Her attraction to them might have started because they were the first decent men she’d seen in years, but they were so much more now. She couldn’t imagine her life without them, or going on if she lost them. For them to be left behind because of the actions of one bad person, to be alone again… The pain was real and sat heavy on her chest. Tears welled up at the corners of her eyes. She didn't want them to suffer that. She didn’t want them to suffer, period.

Asche crouched at her feet. He rested a warm hand on her thigh, his thumb moving in a circle. “That moment is passed.”

She shook her head. It hadn’t. It still lived in her, full of dread and despair. Now that she started crying, she couldn’t stop.  So much had happened, not just in the tower with Halliday, but the crash, life on the Concord, extending all the way back to her arrest. She had been focused on surviving for so long that she forgot what it was to live.

“What did you say to her?” Sarsen hissed.

“I don’t know! Why is she leaking? I can get Joi. That looks unhealthy.”

Strong hands rubbed her back. She said nothing as Ertale shifted her to his lap. “I’m okay, big guy. Just a little emotional today.” She scrubbed her face with her hands. “So I want you guys to know I’m committed to you.”

“As we are to you,” Sarsen said.

She flashed a smile and his eyes flared bright for a moment. “On my planet, we have a ceremony and exchange vows. We get married. I guess the ceremony is not important, but the vows are. Marriage is how we announce our relationship.”

“Marriage is being mated?” Sarsen tapped a finger on his chin. “I will marriage you.”

“Not just like that,” Lucie said.

“Me, too. I marriage you,” Asche announced.

Ertale took her chin and turned her head towards him. He nodded before planting a soft kiss on her brow.

“How do we do this marriage?” Sarsen asked.

“Wait, I need a dress. Or at least some clothes—”

“We will do this now. Life is uncertain,” Sarsen said with authority.

“Is marriage important if you have offspring?” Asche asked.

“For some—”

He nodded, mind made up. “Then we marriage now, for the offspring.”

Okay, this was happening. She was getting married in a towel in a bathroom. Not exactly the dream wedding she’d imagined as a little girl, but it was… unique.

Asche’s words caught up to her brain. “Wait… offspring?”

All three nodded, proud smiles on their faces.

“You guys know I can’t get pregnant, right? I mean, we’re not even the same species. The likelihood is astronomical—”

Ertale’s hand rested on her belly. His chest rumbled and hummed, amused. Sarsen’s hand rested next to his, followed by Asche.

“You’re not serious,” she whispered. She’d be a terrible mother. She was a terrible person, most of the time. She was an escaped convict for crying out loud. “I’m too selfish to be a mom.”

Sarsen pressed a kiss to her stunned mouth, soft and sweet. “Tell us the vow, our Lucie Morales of Earth.”

“Oh.” Right, that thing. “So, um…” She scanned through every movie wedding she could remember. Dearly beloved, blah blah blah. Right, she had this. She added her hand to the pile on her stomach. “I, Lucie Morales of Earth, take you, Sarsen, Asche and Ertale of Sonhadra to be my husbands. To have and to hold, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”

They watched her, expectantly.

“Now you say that back to me, use your name,” she prompted. “Then you can kiss the bride.”

“Sarsen of Sonhadra claims Lucie Morales of Earth to be my mate. Always.”

She tapped her lips and Sarsen complied with a grin. The first kiss of married life was sweet and deep. Her stomach fluttered and she leaned forward, wanting more. He pulled back, grin even wider.

Asche pushed Sarsen out of the way. “Lucie Morales of Earth, you are the mate of Asche of Sonhadra. To have in sickness and hold. Death is not the end.” He nodded, pleased at his rendition, and claimed his kiss.

Demanding and hungry, his tongue pushed in her mouth, stroking her own tongue. She moaned and his grip on her arms tightened. He took her breath, every single time.

Ertale’s arms wrapped around her to reposition her on his lap. Lucie rested her hands on his chest and tilted her head back. He signed, “Love you.”

“I know,” she said. “I feel it here.” She touched her chest just over her heart and then his heartstone. It pulsed under her palm.

His mouth slanted over hers and his arms tightened around her. Warm and patient, he would never let her go. He’d stand between her and any threat, tear down a mountain with his bare hands and wait a thousand years for her.

Her lashes fluttered, wet again. His blunt, inhuman finger wiped away the tear. He gave her a quizzical look. “Must be the hormones,” she said with a smile. A baby. That would take a while to sink in.

She stood up, the towel falling to the floor, and she reached for Sarsen and Asche. “Let me introduce you to the honeymoon—”