Aedian: Alien Warrior: A Sci-Fi Alien Invasion Paranormal Romance (17 page)

As she ran, she became aware that she wasn’t alone, and turned her head to see Llya easily keeping pace with her. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“You will not do this alone,” was the reply, and honestly, it was good enough for her.

They made it to the doors in record time, and Llya made her hang back while she checked to see that the coast was clear. There didn’t seem to be any stragglers, everyone was occupied with the fighting, and so they made their way outside and started inching along the curved outside of the building.

Roxanne had never really been one to pray, but she found that she had a litany of pleas in her head as they moved forward:
please let him still be alive, please let us make it in time, please don’t let anything come out of those woods, please please please.
It was unsettling to be so exposed, especially when she could hear yelling and fighting getting louder the closer they got.

But they kept moving, steady and quiet, and soon enough they’d found their way to where Aedian was laying, face down in the dirt.

Roxy swallowed hard, heart pounding. If it weren’t for the sluggish rise and fall of his back, showing he was breathing still, she would have thought he was dead. As it was, he was bleeding freely and that couldn’t be good.

Without waiting, she darted out, glancing around to make sure that there was no one close, and knelt down beside Aedian, fingers going to his hair.

A raspy inhale startled her, and he coughed and then spoke without lifting his head. “Kill me and have done.”

“I should kill you, you big moron,” she snapped under her breath, trying not to draw attention to them. “How could you do that? I thought you were going to be alright.”

Now he did lift his head, eyes wide even as he winced with obvious pain. “What are you doing out here?” he demanded. “It is not safe.”

“Obviously,” Roxanne snapped. “I came to get you. Or do you just not care that you could die here?”

He averted his eyes, and Roxy just shook her head. Llya approached cautiously, her eyes darting around. “We cannot stay here,” she said. “This is death for certain.”

“Then help me,” Roxanne hissed.

Together they managed to get Aedian in a seated position. The gashes running down his chest were deep and still bleeding, and Roxanne bit her lip in worry. Llya touched her hand and then each of them took a side, hauling Aedian up and to his feet.

He was ridiculously heavy and large and bulky, and there was no way they were going to be able to get back inside without someone seeing them.

All at once they heard a sound from behind, and Roxy turned her head to see a Platok running at full speed to reach them, and god, those things were so much uglier from this close than they were from the window.

She swore under her breath and Aedian turned his head to look, growling when he saw their pursuer. In one smooth motion he grabbed his fallen sword up off the ground and threw it, sending it sailing through the air to slice neatly into the Platok’s chest, buried in him as he fell to the ground.

“I am going to need a new sword,” he mumbled, sagging once again as his wounds started bleeding more freely.

“You need a new brain,” Roxy retorted and they made their slow, plodding way back inside with Llya watching their backs.

By some miracle they made it in, and the doors slid shut. Platoks weren’t going to be getting through that reinforced steel, so they relaxed.

Together, Roxanne and Llya got Aedian to the infirmary. The medic was a female, and she was there with bandages, though she looked surprised to see them. When Roxanne asked why, Llya shrugged. “You were right about our kind. Most of them die on the battlefield rather than retreat to get help.”

She considered that. “Is this going to come back to bite him? The fact that I made him leave?”

Llya shook her head. “I do not know. There is no dishonor in survival, but most would rather fight and die than run and live.”

Well, if any of them had a problem with it, they could come to her.

The next hour was an up close view of how amazing Calphesian tech was. The medic cleaned the wounds and then sealed them closed with a laser that she said cauterized them and kept them from getting infected or reopening very much. As Aedian had passed out, Roxy couldn’t tell whether or not it was painful.

When it was done, the medic told them that there was nothing more they could do. Aedian had lost a lot of blood and needed his rest, and she made to usher them out, but Roxanne stood firm. She wasn’t leaving him.

Llya placed a hand on the medic’s shoulder and the two of them left instead, leaving Roxy alone with the unconscious Calphesian.

For a long time she just stood there, watching him sleep. It was as if the battle outside didn’t matter anymore. She couldn’t hear the fighting, so it was like they were removed from it.

She lost track of time as she stood there, but eventually she shook herself and sighed.

“Are all humans so disobedient?”

Aedian’s voice made her jump, and she looked down at him. His eyes were still closed, but as she looked, he opened them slowly, blinking at her. He looked a bit dazed, but otherwise alright where he lay on the large cot, and Roxy let out a sigh of relief.

“Are all Calphesians so pig headed and stubborn?” she fired back.

“Yes,” he replied, smiling at her tentatively. “There will be talk, you know. Of me exiting the battle on the arm of a human.”

“If anyone has anything to say about it, they can come take it up with me. I’ll tell them that I prefer you alive.”

A slow smile spread onto Aedian’s face, and he struggled to sit up, holding a hand out to her. “There was a time when you wouldn’t have felt that way. If I were dead, you would be free to go back to your life.”

“You shouldn’t be moving around,” Roxy said, ducking her head to hide the look on her face.

“I’m fine,” he said. “Just light headed.”

“Are you going to try and go back out there and fight more?” she wanted to know.

Aedian looked like he was considering it, and then he shook his head. “I wouldn’t be able to do much. I’m weak from blood loss, and I would not be an asset to my people. I will remain here.”

“That’s the first sensible thing you’ve ever said.”

He shook his head at her and held his hand out more insistently. “Come here.”

She could have told him off for trying to give her orders, and she could have refused him, but after the way she’d felt when she’d thought that he was dying or already dead, she wasn’t going to do that. Instead she took his hand and let him draw her close to the bed.

“Closer,” he urged, and before he was satisfied, she was straddling his lap.

“This isn’t what infirmaries are for, you know,” she muttered under her breath.

“Hush,” he replied, and tipped her face up to kiss her firmly. And just like that, she melted against him. After everything that they’d been through in the last few hours, it was like relief to just have him there and have his mouth pressed against hers. She threaded her fingers into his hair, uncaring about the fact that it was matted with sweat and blood. He was warm, and best of all, he was alive, and she kissed him back with all the relief and dawning feelings that she felt for him.

His hands came down to hold her hips, and he urged her to move with him, her hips grinding down on him over and over again.

When they broke the kiss, they were both breathless, and Roxanne looked up into darkened silver eyes. “I don’t think you’re supposed to be trying to do this right after you were nearly gored by something that looked like a maggot on two legs.”

He laughed softly at that, touching her face. “I thought you were going to get hurt.”

“I watched you get hurt,” Roxanne replied, and then all at once, she didn’t care. She didn’t care about the battle outside or the fact that he was still recovering. Someone had once made a joke about Calphesians getting off on battles, and from the hardness she could feel against her where she was straddling his lap, she wondered if there wasn’t some truth to that. Either way, she thought they both needed this.

She was just going to suggest that they do something about all the layers between them, when the door burst open and Llya came rushing in. “They’re leaving!” she said. “The Platoks are retreating.”

Aedian and Roxy were on their feet in a matter of seconds, Roxy having to steady Aedian as they made their way from the infirmary outside.

Quite obviously, Llya was right. The Platoks were fleeing in droves, most of them wounded. There were bodies on the ground, broken and bloody, and Roxanne averted her eyes from them.

“What happened?” she asked.

“They gave up,” said a voice, and they all turned to see one of the larger Calphesians limping over. “They underestimated us.”

“They always did,” Aedian put in. “It is good to see you well, Prias.”

“And you, Aedian,” he said, inclining his head.

Roxanne didn’t know who this was, but he seemed important. Despite that, she had a question of her own. “What about the city?”

Prias looked at her as if surprised she’d spoken up. “I believe they are fine,” he said. “I have sent a group of the least injured to make sure and to chase away any of the remaining foes. The ones they sent after the humans were their captives and no doubt once they find out the Platoks have fled, they will cease their fighting.”

It sounded neater and easier than Roxy could have imagined possible, but she wasn’t going to contest it.

And so the Earth survived its second invasion, and this time without having to give anything up. The Platoks turned tail and ran for their ships, most of them making it, but many of them were caught and killed by the Calphesians. They had underestimated their enemy to devastating effect. Assuming that the Calphesians were weaker because of their time on Earth was their first mistake. Going after the humans that they had sworn to protect was the second.

When it was all said and done, the casualties were much fewer than anyone had anticipated. Six Calphesians had been killed in the fighting as well as two humans. Many more were injured, but they were all expected to make a full recovery.

As for the other races that had been brought over by the Platoks, they were spared for the most part. A new treaty was made between the Calphesians and the group of refugees, some of them going back to their planets on the ships the Platoks had left behind and some of them choosing to remain on Earth.

They were put under the jurisdiction of the Calphesians, and for the first time since the treaty had been struck, the compound found itself home to different races.

There were those who believed that the whole thing had been staged by the Calphesians in an effort to take more control of the planet, but most of the population thought that they were heroes for keeping them safe. Some of the tensions that had been there for ten years began to ease, and attitudes on both sides started to change.

In the middle of it all, Aedian and Roxanne grew closer. They’d saved each other, in a way. Aedian was impressed and touched more than he knew how to say that she’d run out there to save him, and Roxanne couldn’t deny that Aedian had kept them safe when he’d thrown that sword and when he’d stepped into battle with the intent of keeping her and her kind safe.

For weeks after the battle, anyone who had anything snide to say about Aedian being pulled off the battlefield by a human was met with the sharp edge of Roxy’s tongue and never said anything else about it.

She gave Aedian a lecture as well, about locking her in rooms and treating her like a child, and Aedian didn’t promise not to do it again. Instead, he promised to teach her to defend herself better and that he would always be there to make sure that she was alright.

Roxy accepted it as probably being as good as it would get.

Humans and Calphesians alike pitched in to facilitate the cleanup, and bodies were burned and people were mourned, and they came together in a way they hadn’t before. It was expected that there would be some kind of tournament to commemorate the battle and subsequent victory, but instead there was a feast with no fighting.

It felt like progress.

Roxanne and Aedian found themselves slipping away from the feast, finding a quiet corner of the compound and finally giving in to that urge that had started back in the infirmary.

With her dress hiked up around her hips, her front was pressed against the wall of a quiet alcove, and Aedian held her hips, pushing into her from behind. Roxy kept one hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t make too much noise and the other pressed against the wall as she worked herself back on his cock.

It felt good and the thrill of possibly being caught only added to it. They moved together in a rhythm they had created themselves, blind and deaf to whatever else was going on around them.

In the end they came one after the other and then left the feast altogether, going back to their rooms to clean up and continue their own private celebration together, bickering good naturedly the whole way up the stairs.

Chapter 14: A Matter of Forever

Roxanne and Aedian’s wedding was the first one in history to be a complete mix of alien and human traditions. Aedian, in true fashion, had been mostly apathetic about the proceedings, but Roxanne had been determined that she was going to have a wedding that she was proud of.