Chapter 16

Date Night

~ Haden ~

The next day, Haden sat down with Raec for his midday meal. It was becoming the high point of his day.

Raec handed him a food box. “How goes the stone cutting today, my friend?”

“As well as can be expected. When my mind is occupied, the day goes along much faster.”

“Ahh, you are thinking about the storyteller. I saw you finally got her alone for a moment last night.”

“Her name is Venice Valentine.”

Making a screeching laugh, Raec commented, “What an absurd name. I knew her first name was Venice but the last name is odd.”

“It does seem a bit much.”

Raec pulled the lid off his own food box. “I do not believe she cares who knows her name any longer. In any event, I believe all the queens have two names.”

“This I have heard as well. I do not think they expect us to use the second one.”

His friend agreed. “It is reserved for formal occasions.”

“I am to have dinner and storytelling tonight with Queen Venice.”

“Just the two of you?”

Nodding, Haden disclosed quietly, “I feel anxious about being alone with her again.”

“You no longer have a glowing disk on your neck forcing you to do things you do not wish to do.”

“This is something I already know. I worry that… I worry that I will try to pick up where we left off. I also fear our evil queen left behind some other dark magic. What if it overtakes my better judgement once again?”

“Kabelda is long dead. My father has scanned you many times and assured you this is not the case. You must trust in his judgement. He is a healer, after all.”

Squeezing his tray in his hands, Haden growled out, “I have no wish to be dangerous to the one I love.”

“So, you do love the storyteller?”

“She is kind, beautiful and sweet. Tell me who among us wouldn’t love her if they were given half a chance.”

“Calm yourself, Haden. You are just eating food and listening to her story. What harm can come of that?”

Digging into his food, Haden turned the situation over in his mind. “She wishes to look through our archives for Maruvian stories and then discuss them with me.”

“See, you have a common interest.”

Tossing a hydrating ball into his mouth, Haden washed down the food. “I suppose you are correct. It is only for one night.”

“How do you feel about her joining our military?”

“It terrifies me. She is far safer on the ground, where I can keep an eye on her.”

“You watch her?”

“No, but I feel certain she would alert me if she were feeling threatened.”

“She thinks of you as her protector.”

“Maybe.”

“She has turned down offers and gifts from other drones.”

“You have mentioned this before. Perhaps she is not ready for such pursuits.”

“Yet she pursues you and the evidence is you are meeting her alone tonight.”

“Don’t be absurd. She seeks knowledge not mating.”

“But you are open to such, right?”

“I would never turn down her queenly advances, especially knowing she will be leaving soon. Yet, I cannot imagine her wishing to advance our relationship to that level again. She now knows I am damaged.”

“I think you underestimate a human queen’s ability to love. Many love damaged warriors. Even Arac found love with his queen.”

“Arac is a queen maker, and therefore highly coveted as a breeder. You are as well, making the both of you a poor basis of comparison for a simple drone such as myself.”

Standing abruptly, Haden stomped back over to his station. His longtime friend had little perspective on what it meant to be a simple drone with few distinguishing qualities.

I began wishing for someone… you seem like a good choice. Those words haunted him with possibilities he shouldn’t be considering. Queen Tara indicated that the new queen was not comfortable enough to sleep peacefully on their new home world. The thought of her tossing and turning all night tormented him. Queens should always feel safe and secure. If she was anxious here, how much more so would she be all alone on a battleship. Memories of her sleeping peaceably in his arms drifted through his mind. She would be contented with him, not realizing how much more so she could be with a less damaged drone. Then again, if she never gave another drone the opportunity to get close, she would never know. Haden was giving himself a massive headache thinking about it.

The rest of the day passed peaceably. As Haden mulled over what food to order and possible stories that might interest her, time got away from him. Tossing aside his gloves and powering down his heavy equipment, he rushed home.

No sooner had he gotten dressed than his door chime sounded. Whoever it was would need postpone their ill-timed visit, for he had no time to spend on unexpected guests. Prompting his door open, he was brought up short by the sight of the human queen he was supposed to be visiting. Seeing her again was breathtaking. He could see anxiety in her eyes and the cute way her nose tilted up slightly on the end.

Holding up a tiny food box, she pulled her bottom lip from her teeth. “I hope that I’m not late.”

“Not at all. I thought we agreed for me to come to you, but now that I replay our conversation, it is clear that we did not decide whose home we would be meeting at tonight.”

“We can go to my place if you like?”

“Do you have a personal preference?”

“Your place is on the top floor. Mine is on the bottom floor and everyone keeps coming to visit me.”

Stepping back, Haden gestured her into his space. “Since answering your door all evening would interrupt our meal and storytelling, my home would be the better choice.”

Stepping over the threshold, she looked around. “You have a nice place.”

“I know some drones customize their space in anticipation of finding queens. Since securing a queen was such a remote possibility, I left my walls bare.”

Looking at him curiously, she held up her gift. “I made you an Earth treat for after our meal.”

Taking the box, he asked, “Is it something to eat?”

Sitting down on his settee, she explained. “We call them cookies. They are similar to chelva.”

Sitting down next to her, he opened the box. “They do look like chelva but they are different.”

“Good different, I hope.”

“They smell delicious. Thank you for making them. It was nice of you. As you know from our time on the ship, I enjoy trying new foods.”

“I remembered that. Thanks for asking me out.”

“I had planned to come to your place, but you came here instead. I would have been the one going out.”

“I meant out on a date.”

“The multi-language bacteria is sending me images of mouth mating, holding hands and laughing together.”

“Yep, that’s what we tend to do on dates. It’s is a form of testing compatibility.”

That was twice now that she’d reminded him of their intimate time since coming see him. First was by taking the initiative to come into his space, just like she had done on the ship. The second was talking about testing compatibility. It was difficult to forget just how compatible they were. Her warm soft body taking his hard thrusts was something he’d never forget if he lived to be five hundred.

Finally looking up at her, he took a deep breath. “I honestly thought this was just storytelling.”

“Sorry to disappoint you.”

“You already know that I am not appropriate for mating.”

“We can dine together and I’ll take my leave of you.”

“It would be for the best.” God knows she didn’t need to get attached to a murderer all over again. He got enough pity filled looks from his fellow drones. She didn’t deserve to be pitied for ending up with a killer. Still, Haden hated to see her rushing through her meal.

“It grieves me to disappoint you.”

“I’m used to it. Almost no one I take a liking to likes me in return.”

“I didn’t mean to imply…”

“It’s fine. You don’t have to keep apologizing. I know you’re going to say it’s not me, it’s you. I won’t be the first time a man told me something like that. I liked being with you so much on the ship that I felt that I had to try one more time to work things out with you.”

Staring down at his hands, Haden wasn’t sure what to say without offending her further. She did care for him and those feelings blinded her to his defects. He could feel his antennas wilting at the prospect of hurting her feelings, but he had to be strong and do what was best for her.

He mumbled, “I would still like to talk about stories with you.”

Her expression brightened. “I’d love that.”

She was so damned pretty when she smiled. Haden felt a surge of possessiveness well up inside his chest. He wanted all her smiles just for his own. Shaking his head, he realized he was being crazy. A drone could not own all a queen’s smiles. That didn’t even make sense.

Glancing up at his beautiful storyteller, he was hit with the image of her in another drone’s arms. It left him feeling nauseated. Unable to stand not knowing for sure, he asked casually, “Have any of our family units caught your notice?”

“Nope. You’re a pretty tough act to follow.”

“What does that mean, exactly?”

“That I liked being with you so much that no other drones can compare.”

Smiling slightly, he responded warmly, “I enjoyed your company immensely, as well.”

“I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing much of each other from here on out.”

Haden asked the question that had been bearing on his mind. “What made you decide to join our military?”

“The best memories I have so far are from living on the ship with you. I suppose this is my way of being productive and trying to recapture some of those feelings.”

Haden never thought to capture the notice of a queen, much less a truly perfect one like Queen Venice. Her words were spoken with such tenderness. “You love me, do you not?”

“I do, but I know you don’t feel the same way. I’ll just have to be happy with your friendship.”

“I love you as well. I am just not appropriate to take a queen.”

“You really care about me?”

Glancing away, he sat the box of cookies on his floor. “I do.”

Staring at him curiously, she asked softly, “How about we have one final night of love, before I go up to the battleship? It can be just like the night we spent together on the ship when you were in charge.”

Trying unsuccessfully to throttle back an excited screech, Haden knew he was going to agree the moment the words came out of her mouth. Watching her move closer, he nodded. “We should eat first. You will need your strength.”

“I can hardly wait. Quick, order some food.”

Taking out his handheld, he ordered food from the dining hall. Haden already knew what his sweet queen liked eating from their time on the ship. She sat on his oversized settee, swinging her legs capriciously. His chest hurt to know her happiness relied upon him agreeing to love her. He suddenly felt selfish and ignoble at withholding something from a queen that she valued so highly. It was in times like this he doubted himself and his resolve to see her properly fitted with a mate. He’d thought it would tear a gigantic hole in his soul but now he was beginning to see the damage it was doing to the queen he loved. It was excruciatingly painful to know she suffered for lack of him.

Scooting closer, he put one arm around her. She came to him willingly, lifting her face to his. Unable to control his needs, he made the human kiss with her. How long they sat together, enjoying each other’s kisses, he didn’t know. They stopped only when his delivery-chime sounded.

Coming to his feet, he walked to the sliding doors leading to his balcony and took the boxes of food from the droid hovering there. The boxes were almost too hot to handle. After the droid flew away and back to the dining hall for its next delivery, Haden closed his door and motioned Venice over to his dining table.

They quickly ate their food and chatted about current events. Queen Carolyn had announced one of their ships would be going to monitor the rift. They were as close to all-out war as they had been since settling on their new home world.

Landing back on the settee they fell into old habits all too quickly.