A bot was waving a small napkin over its head.
She sighed and pressed her forehead to Arkenor’s. “I am guessing that it’s time for dinner.”
He blinked slowly and carefully stood up. “I would say something about timing, but I believe that I should just consider myself lucky and accompany you to dinner.”
“It sounds like a plan, but who outranks whom here?”
He grinned. “Let’s leave that up to Quell. All I care is that we are finally sharing the same roof. The rest will come in its own time.”
He put his arm around her waist and it felt normal, right and intriguing. Those were three things she thought she had written out of her life. It was nice to feel them again.
The boots adjusted from a four-inch to a flat heel with the lightest touch of her inclination. If she shifted her weight and held it, they changed.
The adjustable heels came in handy as she left the transport on her first assignment. Local peacekeepers had an alien in their custody, and they needed someone who could speak to him to determine his origin. He was not being cooperative.
Quell took the lead. “This is Peacekeeper Liaison Halt. Please take her to your prisoner.”
The detachment commander blinked and looked her up and down. His hair was the normal purple of a Decolian, but he did not reach for her hand. The gloves forced him to break protocol. It was a nice touch that Tazzy had not taken into account.
He led her through a standard peacekeeper outpost and to a holding cell. Whatever Tazzy thought she was going to meet, it wasn’t a young Hyandu.
“Please stand back outside the cell. He will not react well if you are here.” She spoke calmly with a catch to her voice that made the deep pink male perk up his ears.
“He attacked two of my men when they tried to speak with him.”
“He doesn’t understand. His people do not put in implants into their children. He should have been with a handler. Where did you find him?” She used a low cadence with a higher pitch at the end of every sentence.
“He was outside a bar. There was no one near him.”
“Check the bar. His handler should have been inside, but they may have run when he was taken. They aren’t very good at confronting officers.”
She waved off the peacekeeper and approached slowly.
“That is a child?” He was retreating slowly.
She smiled but did not show her teeth. “He is about six or seven decades old. He has fifty years more before he is out of adolescence. He will get smaller with age.”
Tazzy knelt in front of the twelve-foot giant, and she reached out with her right hand to raise his left. His hand dwarfed her skull, but the moment they made contact, images flowed between them.
He was scared, he was upset and she had a clear image of his handler. She calmed him, crooning softly and stroking his hand with hers. Skin on skin would be more effective, and the moment she thought it, her gloves thinned and slid aside to let her make that contact.
Her crooning took on a low singsong, and she felt him relax. Lotoi was his name, and she sang it to him until he slumped back, murmuring quietly. He fell asleep when she gave him the whispered command, and the moment he was out, she left him and eased the door closed.
Out in the hall, she gave a concise description of the handler and a likely location. The man was in search of a whore and a drink.
The peacekeepers dispatched their closest officers and instructed them to be polite and tell him that Lotoi needed him.
Silver asked, “Are you all right?”
“Of course. This was actually in my peacekeeper training, but the Hyandu don’t travel much. They may not have gotten the briefing here. Now, excuse me, until his handler returns, he can’t be alone. He will be frightened.”
She patted Silver on his cheek and slipped back into the holding cell. She stayed and sang to Lotoi for two hours. When the handler arrived, he inclined his head to her.
The Hyandu shrank and became bipedal with age. Lotoi still walked using his knuckles, so it had been the biggest clue as to his age. His handler was seven and a half feet tall and the same bright pink.
“Thank you, miss. I did not know what to do.”
She reached out and cupped his jaw. Seconds later, he was on his knees as she whispered commands to him. When she was done, he was shaking in place and blubbering in Hyandu.
“Take care of your charge. Get him back to his family unharmed and your body will be yours again.” Tazzy jerked her head, and he nodded eagerly.
She turned back to Lotoi and caressed his hand. “Wake up, darling. He will take you home now.”
The young hulk sat up and smiled as he rubbed his eyes. His handler touched his hand, and they walked together, following Tazzy out of the peacekeeper garrison.
The peacekeepers backed away as they walked, and she kept her head high. The Guardians directed them to the transport, and without any spoken orders, they took off with Halt watching over her charges.
The Hyandu trading party was in a nearby city. They delivered Lotoi and his handler to his grateful parents. Lotoi’s mother quickly took his hand and crooned to him in the high pitch he found so soothing.
Quell spoke to the father who communicated through the same sort of implant the handler used.
Once they were finished, the Guardians returned to their transport and the Hyandu to theirs.
Halt sat in her seat and looked at her companions. “That was different.”
Flick smiled. “You did well. I am guessing that those peacekeepers missed the class when it came to dealing with alien species.”
“It doesn’t get much more alien than Hyandu.”
“So, you knew that he would respond to a female?”
“Of course. Keeping the voice high enough is my problem. It tends to drop.” She shrugged. “You have dealt with them before?”
“They come in to trade for textiles and the tech to make translation implants now and then. They rarely bring their young.”
Silver asked, “What did you do to his handler?”
“If he is with a youngling and not doing his duty, he will be unable to get an erection. It is a combination of hypnosis and my chemical influence. I pumped him full of it. He will be lucky to get a boner in the next four years.”
The three Guardians winced, and she cackled. “Sorry, but Lotoi could have become far more violent than he was. People could have been seriously damaged and so could he. Getting your rocks off isn’t worth living beings being damaged because a child is terrified.”
Quell nodded, “You were very good with him.”
“Thank you. I am trying to compose my first report, but I am unsure if I use that new name or not.”
Over his shoulder, Quell said, “All correspondence leaving the Guardian base is done under pseudonym.”
She shrugged, picked up a data pad and started to make notes. It would make the final report go faster if she had her thoughts arranged.
Five minutes after arriving back at the base, Quell had her report and she was on her way to the pool. There was time to get a swim in before dinner.
“Darn it!” She hadn’t been the only one with that thought. Silver was doing an impressive front stroke back and forth through the pool.
He surfaced and wiped the water from his eyes. “Come on in. Test my resistance.”
She could see his body, blurred under the water, and memories of it torn and bleeding made her pause for a moment. Shrugging, she tried to act casual as she removed her uniform, but it came off with some trouble. It would take practice to get it on and off with dexterity.
Before she could change her mind, she jumped into the water and began to swim. Seconds later, Silver took up his own rhythm next to her. They swam in tandem for an hour until she called a halt and held onto the side of the pool.
Arkenor drifted up to her, and he pinned her against the tile. “You are in amazing shape, Rikkat.”
She blushed as his unrestricted erection brushed against her thigh. “Fitness has never been my problem.”
He pressed his lips to her shoulder, “I have always admired your body.”
“I have noticed yours as well.” She felt his smile against her skin, and she shivered.
He placed his hands on her hips and lifted her to sit on the edge of the pool. With a wet surge, he flattened his hands next to her on the tile and he lifted himself out of the water.
Tazzy cupped his jaw and kissed him again, her nipples tightening in the open air. He rose against her until his chest pressed to her breasts and the blue and silver waves of his hair swung around them in a concealing curtain.
She broke the kiss and looked up at his glowing blue eyes. “Why me? I am damaged, scarred. You are still as lovely as you were.”
He feathered kisses along her forehead, nose and cheeks. “You are more than you were. Stronger and a survivor. That is the headiest aphrodisiac that I could have wished for. I wanted you before, I need you now.”
She opened her mouth to reply and a bot came in waving its arms and chirping wildly.
Blushing, she looped her arms around his neck. “And that is the call to dinner.”
He groaned. “We were just getting somewhere.”
“It will keep. I am not going anywhere and you have roots here.” She idly trailed a hand down to stroke his
root,
and he closed his eyes tightly as her hand skimmed over him.
The bot chirped again, and she released him. “Time to go. For some reason, I have worked up an appetite.”
He sighed and slipped back into the water. “I am beginning to remember why we didn’t get anywhere two years ago.”
She reached out with her foot and pushed him back. “Cheeky.”
Tazzy got to her feet and one of the larger bots held out a robe from her rooms. “So, you have been rifling through my things. Well done.”
Arkenor left the pool in a sheet of water and wrapped a towel around his waist. “Just because Quell isn’t physically compatible, doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to try.”
She towelled off and slipped the robe on. “That is a chilling thought.”
“Don’t worry, I will keep you warm.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and pressed a kiss to her neck.
The bots held up a Decolian skirt for him, and he tucked it around his hips, covering himself from navel to toes in rippling silk. His hair dried quickly, and where it ended, the pale silk of his skirt took over.
She chuckled, “Dinner is formal?”
“This is my casual wear. It is less grubby than those loose suits of yours but it suits me.”
He kept his arm around her, and they headed off to the Guardian dining room. Some things had to be kept to schedule, and they had all the time in the worlds.
Dressed casually, Quell and Flick rose to their feet. Quell smiled, “It seems you are making progress.”
Tazzy snorted, “He is developing a tolerance for me if that is what you are thinking.”
“I believe he always had one.” Quell flicked his inner lid and gestured for them to sit.
Quell held her chair for her, and she smiled, “I meant the chemical agent.”
Arkenor grinned. “That is the least of the issues to adapt to. As long as I keep your mouth busy, you can’t give me any orders.”
She felt her skin turn bright pink as she settled into her spot. “Good point. My telepathy is weak at best.”
Flick perked up. “You have telepathy?”
“Only along the chemical chains that I forge.”
She sat back, and the bots brought out the meals. There was one for each of them, tailored to their requirements. Each course was adapted to the physiology of the particular Guardian.
Tazzy was used to her meals being close to Arkenor’s, but Flick’s high protein diet was the most surprising. It had more meat in it than Quell’s.
Quell grinned after the first course, “How did you and Silver meet?”
She paused and looked to Silver. He shrugged with his gleaming skin flickering in the light.
“Well, I had completed my training as a hunter and tracker for the Alliance and had been traded to the Nyal Imperium as part of the exchange program. Eighteen months in a garrison on Raiumi had me climbing the promotional ladder, and then, I was assigned to a small, elite squad of peacekeepers. We were sent into situations where a larger force would have been unwieldy. We were partnered up for security. Silver was assigned to me, and we made a very good team.”
Silver reached out and took her hand. “We still are.”
“Well, we were within twenty feet of each other all day and all night until the explosion that nearly tore him to pieces.”
Flick leaned forward. “How did that happen, precisely?”
“There was a rash of stimulants and toxins being shipped out of Urganic station. We had gotten the tipoff that they were going to be completing a new batch and shipping them out, so we went in with our team and had everything under control until one of the smugglers turned and blasted a vat of the chemicals. It shattered and exploded in a burst of fire, propelling shards of metal. Silver was standing just ahead of me, and he took the brunt of the damage.”
She shivered at the memory. He had been torn in so many places, she hadn’t been able to see anything but those blue, blue eyes staring into her own.
“One of our group called for emergency medical, and I administered what I could. I wrapped him in a bio seal and held onto him until the medics got there.” She shrugged. “You know what happened after that better than I did.”
Quell nodded. “You went into counselling with a Minder and had your memories of him dampened.”
Silver jerked in surprise. “You didn’t say that.”
Tazzy smiled slightly. “You didn’t ask. I needed to keep going, but I had to keep the skills I had gained during our time together. Having you faded was the easiest way to let me get along with another partner. One month later and I was back on duty.”
She could remember the loss, the feeling of darkness that had accompanied the explosion. “Don’t forget that you were declared dead, Silver. I needed to go on, and I missed you.”
He blinked and scowled. “They were supposed to tell you that I was alive.”
Quell shook his head. “It was thought to be unwise as she was not stable. The Minder faded your memory and blurred the rest of her thoughts together. Halt got faster, stronger and became an exemplary peacekeeper until the accident, and then, she was incredible.”