After laying a kiss upon her forehead, Legian stalked toward Jax, who was now in a sitting position on the ground. Legian knelt down on one knee and leaned an arm on his other leg. All business, he held the gun steady at the soldier. “You’re awake. We need to talk.”
Jax tossed a glare in her direction and then gave a grunt in response that sounded more like, “Yeah, right, like that’s gonna happen.”
Sienna hastily pulled Legian’s shirt over her head, thankful for his height so that the shirt fell to her knees. Instantly she picked up the now-familiar scent every Sephian naturally carried. It had taken her a week before she noticed the base smelled like a faint, soft rain. Now she couldn’t imagine how she hadn’t noticed it right away.
She walked over to the two men, stopping at Legian’s side. He may be her
tahren
, but it didn’t mean she trusted him to play nice. Especially since they both already had a bone to pick with Jax. In fact, she knew he wouldn’t play nice if she wasn’t there.
“I gave my word I’d reach out to you in a week. Why’d you bug me? Why’d you come after us?” she asked.
“Jerrick, Jackson. Lieutenant. U.S. Army Rangers. Four-five-eight-eight-seven-two-nine-eight-seven.”
She rolled her eyes at the soldier giving Legian a stare-down. “Oh, that name, rank, and serial number thing is so nineteen-nineties. I’ve known you for years, Jax. We’re not the enemy. We’re on the same team.”
Silence.
“That’s why we brought you with us. Legian and his people are here to protect us. The real enemy is out there.” She gestured around the dark woods.
“Then untie me.”
Legian grunted.
“So you can attack us?” She shook her head. “We don’t mean you harm, but we’re also not idiots. Sorry, you stay tied up. Consider it a temporary inconvenience until we know you’re not going to do something stupid, and we can prove to you that the Sephians are here to help.”
Jax looked at her. “If that’s true, then why didn’t they contact us?”
“It’s not that easy. Look at him.” She ran her hand over Legian’s ethereal warm skin. “The Sephians don’t exactly blend in. They know that once they’re out of the so-called closet, there’s no going back. They want to take things slow and play their cards right.”
“Invading our country is an act of war. And aiding them is an act of treason.”
“Yadda, yadda, yadda. Listen, it’s not like the movies,” she replied. “The Sephians aren’t invading anything.”
Legian cut in. “Your small planet has no recorded visits from other worlds. You are too proud a race to accept that you are not alone. We felt you were not ready to accept the knowledge.”
She smirked at Legian’s irony in calling another race
too proud
.
He continued. “We had no desire to come here. We have our own world. Unfortunately, we could not avoid it. My
tahren
speaks the truth. We have come to protect you. Your world has been invaded, and you don’t know it yet.”
“Invaded by an army of goldenrods. Yeah, I got it,” Jax replied, sarcasm dripping from his words.
Sienna’s lips curled up, and Legian frowned. He shook a fist in the air at Jax. “You ungracious
human
.” He spit out the word like it tasted bad on the tongue. “You have no idea what we’ve sacrificed to come to your world.”
“Play nice. I hate it when you say that word like that,” she scolded, pulling Legian’s arm around her.
Jax pulled himself to his knees far easier than she could if her hands were tied behind her back. “Well, then, why don’t you explain it to this
human
,” he sneered. The challenge was clear.
“Guys, guys.” She stepped between the kneeling man and the laser-wielding alien. “Testosterone overload here. You two can have your pissing match later.” When both ignored her, she continued. “This is all beside the point. The Draeken are the real issue here. Okay, Jax. I have a better idea. How about we show you?”
Legian grabbed her arm.
“Ow, ow, ow. Delicate human here, remember?” She lay a hand over his and pulled gently from of his grip.
“Tread carefully, Sienna,” Legian cautioned.
“What better way to show that we come in peace than to bring a military officer onto base as a guest?” She placed a quick peck on his clenched jaw before turning to Jax. “Come to our base. Watch the videos. Hear the stories. You’ll see for yourself that we’re not the enemy here.”
“This man has already shown you he can’t be trusted.” Legian raised his gun, nudging her to the side.
Sienna rubbed her neck. “He was just doing his job.”
Legian shook his head. “We can’t afford the risk. Not without Apolo’s approval.”
“We can’t afford
not
to take the risk,” she replied, grabbing onto his forearm. “We walk a fine line already. If you hurt one of my kind, how can they believe that the Sephians are the good guys? Besides, look at the risk you took for me. And everything turned out fine.”
As fast as a frozen snail in Alaska, Legian lowered his gun.
Sienna hopped up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Trust me on this one.”
“Sometimes I think you became my
tahren
to drive me mad.”
She waved him off. “You know I’m right.” She turned to their new “guest,” whom Legian continued to glare at. “Now, Jax. How about showing some friendship and telling us where you planted the bugs on me so I don’t have to stand around with my bare ass to the world?”
The hardened look on his face said enough.
After a minute of the stare-down, she gave up. “Fine. Be a jerk,” she snapped back and stomped over to the big rock, picked up her crumpled jeans, and pulled out her Swiss Army Knife.
“What are you doing?” Legian asked.
“Untying him. Showing him some faith.”
“He stays tied.”
Legian was wearing that look again. The one where once he made up his mind, she’d have an easier time melting an iceberg in Antarctica than convincing him otherwise. Reluctantly, she snapped the knife shut.
“Fine. You’re both jerks. I’ll let you win. For now.” She gave her best snarky hair flip, turned around and promptly tripped, landing unattractively on her butt.
She looked up to see both men chuckling at her.
Great. Just great.
Sienna snuggled into Legian’s arms, wearing nothing but a man’s long-sleeved thermal in the middle of a forest full of things that literally went bump in the night. The night air was full of strange sounds. Insects, owls, and other things she had no idea what they were. The sounds, paired with menacing surroundings and a grumpy soldier — make that two grumpy soldiers — made the entire setting less than comfortable.
She would’ve tried for a catnap, but the Sephians were a nocturnal bunch. Over the past few months, with the occasional late night snooze, she’d switched to their sleep schedules. Making midnight her lunchtime.
Legian wrapped his arm tighter around her when she shivered. His higher body temperature kept the chill off, but it didn’t make the situation any better. The worst part was the waiting. Even though Bobby had been killed years ago and they’d only been married for a little over a year, she felt almost as if she were cheating on his memory by being with Legian in front of Jax, who was keeping busy watching Legian like he was a puppy beater.
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.