Charlotte
Light filtered through my eyelids, pale, soft, not painful but still remorseless. I resisted it, wanting to stay burrowed down in the comfortable darkness.
Gradually, I became aware of a floating sensation, as though I had become weightless. I was lying on a surface that caressed every inch of my back, legs, and neck. Every ache and pain, and every bit of stiffness built up over the past few weeks was gone. Not even my knee hurt.
Confusion nibbled at the edges of my consciousness. Distantly, I remembered banging my knee in the bathroom, then making it worse by rushing through the streets to get to State after Derek called but I couldn’t because--
Without warning, memory slammed down, a technicolor series of images exploding in my brain. The mob, trying to fight my way out, being pushed, so hard, my head…the blinding pain, the darkness--
Panic filled me, warring with the even more urgent instinct to get away, to save myself.
“Easy,” a deep, masculine voice nearby said. “It’s all right. You’re safe.”
The low, soothing timbre of that voice, the sense of strength and confidence that it conveyed evoked an instinctive response in me. My heartbeat steadied even as I was driven irresistibly to open my eyes.
I was vaguely aware of a room around me--white walls, some sort of very high tech-looking equipment, but all I really saw was…him. The most gloriously handsome man I had ever beheld. Thick dark hair of the kind made for running fingers through, the subtly golden hue of his skin and the perfect, powerfully masculine symmetry of his features made me think for a moment that he was a hot movie star or male model.
But a second later, my head cleared enough to realize just how utterly wrong I was. He was one of them. Too gorgeous, too powerful, too everything to be merely human. Krinar, just like the beings I had seen ripping the heads off people like me and tossing them helplessly into the dirt.
Of course, I wasn’t being entirely fair. Those Krinar had been attacked; they’d merely defended themselves. But even so, stark, cold terror roared through me as I stared at the stunningly dominant male standing less than a foot away.
He stared right back, his thick-fringed eyes a shade of dark chocolate shot through with shards of gold and hazel green. Easily the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen on a man…well, a male.
“How are you feeling?” he asked in perfect, unaccented English.
How was I feeling? I knew how I should feel--stunned, terrified, frozen in fear. But I couldn’t seem to manage any of that. Instead, I felt remarkably good given what I remembered had happened to me. From the top of my head to my traitorous toes curling at the sight of him, I was--
Wait, what? I couldn’t possibly be aroused…by him? He was an alien. A danger to the very existence of my own species. Never mind that he looked like the very personification of male hotness. What on earth was I thinking?
“Who are you?” I croaked, driven helplessly to know the identity of the being who was suddenly making me feel as though I was in freefall.
Those perfectly sculpted lips moved. That deep, caressing voice said, “My name is Jarek. I am Counselor to Ambassador Arus.”
Somehow to my addled mind, that sounded almost like consigliere. Looking at him, I could well believe that the arrogantly handsome being exuding an air of supreme confidence could be the chief advisor to a Mafia don. But that was ridiculous. The Krinar certainly weren’t a crime family…at least not in the usual sense. Although they had pretty much shoved their way in, interstellarly speaking, taken over the neighborhood and announced that from now on, they were calling the shots.
“You are Charlotte Hughes, of the State Department, is that correct?”
I gulped, dragged myself away from my fevered thoughts. “How do you know that?” What kind of super advanced alien tech had he used to discover my identity?
The corners of his mouth quirked. I got the distinct impression that I amused him. Resentment flared in me.
“One of our Guardians recovered your purse. It contained your ID, among other things.”
Flushing, I thought of what else he must have seen…tampons, my cell phone, a package of the chili mango jelly beans that I was addicted to. But no condoms, thank heavens. It had been quite a while since I’d had any use for those.
Note to self: Do not think about condoms while staring at the most incredibly gorgeous male on the planet especially when he doesn’t even belong there.
“How did I get here…?”
“I brought you inside. This is our medical facility. Your injuries have been treated but you still need to rest.”
I was inside the Krinar Embassy? That was shock number two--the first one being the much too hot to handle Counselor Jarek himself. But hard on it came the realization that he must have gone outside the wall, the one I vaguely remembered striking my head against, while the riot was in progress. Surely, he wouldn’t have gone alone. Other Krinar must have been with him. What had they done?
Visions of the video from Saudi Arabia made my stomach churn. Not at all sure that I wanted the answer, I said, “Outside…the people. What happened to them?”
As though he knew exactly what I was thinking, Jarek said, “Your National Guard handled the situation. The disturbance is over. It is now past curfew, which is being enforced across the city. Everything is calm.”
I struggled to sit up only to become aware that I was naked under a sheet so light and airy that it felt as though it wasn’t there. That was shock number three. Had he undressed me…seen me…? I should have been dismayed at the prospect but there it was again, that flare of heat and excitement, and a tightening deep inside me unlike anything I had ever experienced before.
I dragged in breath, willing myself to calm down. It was a medical facility. There must have been doctors or nurses…or robots, some kind of automated thing, whatever it was the Krinar had. No doubt Jarek had only stayed because he’d been the one to rescue me. He was just being polite. I really needed to get a grip.
Clutching the sheet to my chest. I said, “I have to go.”
He laid a hand on my arm. Lightly, no pressure but I still felt the latent power in him. And, even more so, my own response to it.
Quietly, he said, “You suffered a severe blow to the head that caused some intracranial bleeding. That’s been taken care of but you must remain here over night.” After a moment, he added, “In the morning, I will see to it that you get wherever you want to go.”
I’d never had a serious physical injury before but I was reasonably certain that it couldn’t have been repaired so quickly in any hospital on earth. That I’d been healed by alien technology was daunting enough. But far more so was the idea of staying there overnight, the lone human among several hundred Krinar.
All of that faded to inconsequence as I gazed back at Jarek. The truth was that only one particular Krinar worried me. Fortunately, he couldn’t possibly be aware of my incredibly inappropriate reaction to him.
I had to focus on the fact that he was presenting me with an amazing opportunity. Only the Secretary of State and a handful of similarly exalted dignitaries had even been inside the Krinar embassy and then only for a few hours. I’d be crazy to turn down a chance to spend an entire night there.
On the off chance that the end of the human race might not be at hand, it wouldn’t hurt to pay some attention to my career. As grateful as I was that colleagues of my late parents wanted to help me, I still had to prove my own worth, if only to myself.
“Okay,” I said.
A startled K might not be the funniest sight that I’d ever seen but just knowing that I could surprise Jarek lifted my spirits.
Still, I have to give him credit, he bounced back fast. With a slight narrowing of those stunning eyes, he asked, “Are you always so compliant, Miss Hughes?”
Maybe the blow to my head really had affected me because the thought flitted through it that I wouldn’t mind being compliant with him, not at all. Whoa! Where had that come from? I’d never gone that way but then the truth was that I’d never gone much of any way.
My parents had been killed just as I was starting high school. The aftermath, dealing with the grief and notoriety that came with their executions at the hands of terrorists, derailed any sort of normal social life I might have had. By the time I got to college, I’d resolved to change that. Maybe I hadn’t tried hard enough but after my boyfriend of two years announced that he needed to “explore other options”, I didn’t have a whole lot of incentive to get back on the horse, so to speak.
Not that it was much of a loss. Whatever it was that we’d had was so tepid that I’d begun to wonder if I was even capable of the kind of passionate, fire-breathing relationship I secretly dreamed of.
Only to come to find out that what I’d wanted all along was a stunningly hot alien. Maybe that blow to my head had been worse than he was letting on.
With an edge to my voice, I said, “No, Counselor, I am not compliant at all.”
Belatedly, I remembered that I was supposed to be a diplomat--if only an extremely low level one. Tact had never been my strong suit but I could at least try.
“I am grateful to you for rescuing me and I appreciate the care that I’ve received. But my colleagues will be concerned that I didn’t arrive at State. I need to let them know where I am.”
“Secretary Loomis has been informed that you are here and being well looked after.”
Had he? I didn’t want to think what kind of reaction that was getting but at least I’d been accounted for.
“I see…thank you.”
I didn’t know what else to say, especially not while I was still lying naked under a little nothing of a sheet alone with him in what amounted to the sovereign territory of Krina where he, apparently, wielded tremendous authority.
A sudden feeling of isolation swept over me, as though my own world and everyone in it that I could depend on were light years away. I hated that sense of being completely alone. I’d experienced far too much of it in the after being orphaned. Even with everything that had changed in my life since then, it was still there, a lurking insecurity that I could never really banish.
“You have a very expressive face,” Jarek said quietly.
Too late, I realized that he was watching me closely. Being the recipient of such focused attention was more than a little disconcerting, not in the least because I had no real idea of his motives. Even so, I sensed they were more complicated than just being a Good Samaritan. Did the Krinar even have a tradition of strangers helping each other? I had no idea.
“Then you know I’m thinking about how little we know of you,” I said.
His eyes never leaving mine, he said, “I assure you, Miss Hughes, that can be remedied.”
While I was still trying to come to terms with that, he added, “I’m going to leave you for a few minutes so that you can dress, then I’ll show you to guest quarters.”
Grateful that he wasn’t offering to stay and help me, I nodded only to freeze when Jarek walked over to a nearby wall and touched it lightly. At once, a portion of the wall right in front of him dissolved. Just beyond, I caught a glimpse of a wide corridor filled with plants--everything from full-sized trees to flowering vines hanging from the ceiling. It was as unexpected as it was beautiful.
But the sight was cut off a moment later as the wall reformed as soon as Jarek was a few feet beyond it. Seconds later, nothing remained to indicate that there had ever been an opening.
I leaped up, wrapped the sheet around me and ran over to the wall. Running my hand over it, I felt nothing to indicate how it could be opened. To the contrary, it remained firmly solid.
Rather than dwell on the fact that there was no way out of the room, I looked around until I spotted the neatly folded garments on a table near the bed. They weren’t mine and I saw no indication of the clothes that I had been wearing. But at least they were of recognizably human design--soft plum-colored leggings of the sort I commonly wore paired with an oversized apricot knit tee with long sleeves.
No underwear though, leaving me to wonder if the Krinar didn’t bother with any. I was still doing my best not to think about that when Jarek returned.