Terran Times 18 - Emerald Envisage (16 page)

“What is involved in a formal commitment?”

“A simple sharing of blood, which you have already done, but I believe Venel wants the formal rites. We now have a fabricator on hand to create clothing, as well as your storage items from the Khalic. You have all the comforts of home at your disposal and an open com for ordering anything you wish. My finances are your finances. Bring in whatever springs to mind.”

“Wow. Does that include people?”

“Your friend Ella has already been invited to attend the formal commitment ceremony. Venel was adamant that you have a witness.”

“We only need one witness?”

“No, two. Ella is bringing her mate. She caught him on one of her Hunter runs and decided to keep him.” His phrasing was precise.

She smiled as he quoted her friend directly. “I knew she would find someone eventually. He is Nyal, isn’t he?”

“Indeed. How did you know?”

“I just had a feeling. She was always blushing when she saw them on training vids.” Ella had been her bunkmate in basic training. They had gone through alien identification class and a dozen others together until they were separated for their specific branches of training.

“They are in orbit right now. We were just waiting until you actually agreed to it before sending for them.”

“You are back to being a we now?” She looked him in the eye and saw Nero fade to leave Venel behind. “Good. Venel, show me what is a traditional outfit for a formal commitment ceremony.”

Relief lit his face. “We will have it soon?”

“In eight hours if I send for the witnesses. The clothes?”

Instead of heading to the fabricator, he returned to his rooms and dragged out a box made of blue, purple and silver woods. “These belonged to my mother.” Instead of collapsing under the weight of their age, the fabric swirled and held together, creating robes that were made of drifting panels in a rainbow of jewel tones. “I would be honored if you would wear them.”

“I would be honored to accept. Do I change now? Or right before the ceremony?” She held the robes up against her body and swung her hips from side to side to watch them swirl.

“You might want to put something on or at least close the tunic. It may as well be the robes, just don’t get them dirty.” He came forward suddenly and planted a kiss right between her eyes. “Enjoy the day of your joining.”

He shooed her out of his rooms before she had a chance to see his clothing for the joining and she scuttled away to her quarters.

The gown was as beautiful as she thought it would be, and a certain warmth appeared between her thighs as she wore it. One way or another, she was getting laid tonight.

The meeting between friends started with girly screams that alarmed their respective men, but the babble that followed it made them smile indulgently.

Sunset was approaching rapidly. The time for the rites that would enable Sofee to jump Venel was almost here. They had transported to the city as a group, with both Sofee and Venel hiding their finery from the other. The shuttle landed in the center of an area that could only have been a temple of sorts. The other hooded figure on the shuttle looked over at her and she knew what it was. “Oh, gods. It is a temple to Nero.”

“Of course. The Afax were planet worshipers, similar to the Gaia cult on earth. You know that.” Ella was surprised by her friend. It showed, but she also didn’t know that Nero was standing next to her, riding around in a very attractive body.

“Yes, I knew that. I just never put it together.” She had to keep her mouth shut. She wasn’t sure of how many people knew about the Sentient planets and she wasn’t going to add to the number.

Venel wasn’t talking, he just walked to the temple in a direct line, leaving the rest of the party to trail in his wake. The doors to the temple opened in front of him with no hands to touch them. Panels of light streamed through the doors as they entered and bathed in the emerging radiance.

Venel was standing on a ring of green stone imbedded in the floor.

On instinct, she took up the opposite position. The green stone began to glow and, with the two witnesses watching, Venel and Sofee began to rise. Their cloaks fell, leaving them in their formal wear, which consisted of the robes for Sofee and a blue and green sarong for Venel. He had never looked more beautiful to her, even with the black swirling in his silver eyes. Once they were fifteen feet over the floor of the temple, they began to spin. Each slow rotation took them closer to each other until they were finally within arm’s reach.

Venel looked down and reached out, a knife flew from his cloak to hover between them, again on instinct, she reached out to grip the knife near the tip and Venel gripped it above the hilt on the blade. They both pulled at the knife, which opened their skin. As her hand flew free, so did his, and she gripped the blade again, now on top of his wound mark. His hand went near the tip, where hers had been. Again, they tugged, this time letting the knife fall to the center of the circle.

Their bleeding hands met and held. “My life to yours, my body to yours and my planet to yours,” Venel’s voice boomed out.

“My life to yours, my body to yours, my children as yours, my mind to yours.” She was too wrapped up in what was going on in her mind to pay attention to the witnesses.

“As Avatar to Nero, I pronounce us mated. As a bringer of life, I pronounce you goddess.” The voice that Venel was using was not his own. It was Nero, plain and simple. The planet itself was conducting the final part of the ceremony.

To shut him up, she used the oldest trick in the book. She kissed him. Kissing Nero was not like kissing Venel, but he surrendered control to his avatar rather rapidly. It may have had something to do with her mind pushing him back. Ah well.

The kiss went from desperate to delicious. She felt Venel’s body balance itself and absently noted that they were on the ground. Fabulous.

She was so going to get laid today.

MYSTICAL PASSIONS

Stephani Hecht

Korin saw the elf at exactly
11:45 AM
.

She was working at teller station number two and had a clear view down the cereal aisle. Her bank was situated in the far corner of the grocery store so she got to spend a lot of time people watching, or as the case may be, creature watching. Lately, the paranormal seemed to be showing up more than normal.

Two weeks ago, she had seen a tall, willowy blonde angel walking through produce, squeezing the melons. Another time she’d spotted a handsome male demon with dark hair and sunglasses nicking a loaf of bread and, just this afternoon, a trio of brooding vampire brothers had strolled down the aisles with a werewolf buddy in tow.

Humans couldn’t see the other creatures for what they really were. To the average Joe, they looked like any other Sally Shopper. Unlike her, the lucky humans had the luxury of sailing through life not knowing they shared their space with angels, demons, fairies and countless other creatures. But Korin knew, and not because she was crazy or doing mushrooms, it was because she herself was an elf.

An elf in hiding, passing herself off as a human. She hid her pointed ears by fashioning her white blonde hair into intricate styles or by wearing scarves. Whenever someone asked, she said her slanted, ice blue eyes were a freaky genetic anomaly passed down by her dead mother.

One thing she had never come across was another elf trying to pass as a human and that was obviously what this male was doing. There was no mistaking he was an elf, despite the fact he had the brim of his hat pulled low, shielding his eyes and ears. The long, angular, lines of his build, along with the graceful way he carried himself, gave him away. Curling her fingers over the edge of her counter, Korin admired his tight buns as she briefly wondered if he was that well muscled all over.

“Korin! Can you take Mrs. Moore?” Tammy, one of the other tellers pointed at the elderly customer who was standing in line. Mrs. Moore was a regular and they all knew her on sight.

“Yeah, sure,” Korin responded absently, never breaking her gaze from the elf. It appeared that he was trying to decide between the cereal with the frog or the one with the bird.

Mrs. Moore came up to the window and plopped down her twenty-year-old purse. Her plump cheeks were ruddy from exertion and her gray hair was in its usual tight curls. “How are things going with your brothers and sisters?”

“Great, Loredean finally got that motorcycle he’d been eyeing up,” she said as she continued to study the elf over Mrs. Moore’s shoulder. The head teller, Val noticed Korin was distracted and she followed her gaze. The teller shot her a look that was equal parts confusion and chastisement. Korin ignored her co-worker and continued to ogle the male.

When he moved, his hard muscles slid under the T-shirt he wore. Oh Goddess, he was fine all over, just as she had hoped. Even with the baseball hat he was wearing, she could still see some dark hair peeking out from underneath the bottom. It was cut short, ruining all her fantasies that real elves wore their hair long like the ones in
Lord of the Rings
.

Mrs. Moore looked over her shoulder and let out a chuckle. “Oh, now I see what has got your attention. He is a cute one.”

Korin gasped in shock even as she felt her cheeks get warm in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, I guess that’s not very professional of me.”

Mrs. Moore gave her a wicked grin. “Nonsense, I may be old, but even I enjoy the sight of a good pair of buns in tight jeans.”

Korin let out a giggle. The male did look good in his blue jeans. The green tee that he had on with them wasn’t too bad either. It was just tight enough to emphasize his chiseled abs.

Korin gave a slight shake of her head, quickly finished Mrs. Moore’s transaction and sent the woman on her way. It was only then she dared glance back up and what she saw made her heart freeze up. The elf was looking back at her and he had an expression on his face that looked liked he’d just been bitch slapped.

He jabbed a finger in her direction and she found herself pointing at her own chest in the classic w
ho-me
gesture. He gave a tight smile, before he nodded and crooked his finger at her, ordering her to come to him.

Korin was no coward, but she did suffer from brief bouts of chicken-shit syndrome. She spun on her heels and made a beeline to the vault room. She had her hand on the door before an interesting thought occurred to her. This was the first time she’d seen another normal elf besides her brothers and sisters. Before now, the only other elves that any of them have had contact with were the Red Ones who were never pleasant.

A shiver went through her as she thought about them. Monster like in appearance, they had black skin, stringy hair, razor sharp teeth and red eyes, hence the name, Red Ones. They were evil to the core and, for some reason, they seemed to have a vendetta against Korin and her siblings.

The male out in the store was nothing like them. He was nice looking and well…cute. Maybe he could tell her something about where she and her family had come from. For as long as she could remember, her brothers and sisters had lived on their own, with no other elf contact. They knew nothing of their people and he might be able to tell her something about their race. Better yet, maybe he knew something about their dead parents. Scared or not, she decided she was going to talk to him. If he turned out to be mean, then she would just kick his ass. Female or not, she could fight with the best of them.

She about faced it and started to walk causally toward the exit. Plastering on a smile, she tried hard to hide the fact that she was shaking with terror and that she was two seconds from piddling her panties. She had never willingly made contact with anything other than humans and the prospect of doing so now was scary. But it was exciting and a surge of adrenaline shot through her veins.

“Where are you going?” Tammy asked, her voice laced with annoyance.

“Lunch.” Korin grimaced when she noticed her voice was high pitched with fear.

Val frowned. “But it’s Micki’s turn to go. You’re not due for another hour.”

Korin kept making her retreat, never looking back. “Pretty sure it’s my turn.”

Val followed her. “Is everything okay? You look peaked.”

“No, I think I’m might be coming down with the flu.” Which couldn’t have been a bigger lie since elves never got human illnesses. “I probably should go home for the day.”

Val’s mouth twisted into a deeper frown. “But you haven’t even counted your drawer down.”

“Do if for me, ‘kay?” Korin turned to face the human. She was an older woman who usually pulled her graying brown hair back with a headband. The female was sweet and always willing to help. “Please, it’s kind of an emergency.”

Val gave her a nod of consent and Korin rushed out of the bank. She looked frantically around for the elf, but he was nowhere to be seen. Disappointment coursed through her until she spotted him exiting through the automatic doors. She forced herself to walk until she reached the doors of the grocery store. Once outside, she scanned the parking lot until she saw him turning the corner. He paused long enough to turn around a give her a smile.