Kyele's Passion: A World Beyond Book 4 (23 page)

Chapter 31

The sun’s rays heated Kyele’s oil-slicked body, creating a sheen over his glistening muscles. His bare torso drew Joni’s gaze and the knee- length leather kilt he wore dropped her stomach to her feet. He spread his legs in a wide stance, arms folded arrogantly over his chest. Corded thighs led to his calves and bare feet. The women around her cheered as they raced past the curtain, kicking up the sand covering the ground of the giant arena.

Awe held her frozen at the entrance to the arena while she absorbed the sounds of the roaring crowd and the sight of dozens of men waiting to be chosen. Faye and Lissi tried to warn her but nothing compared to the reality of the moment.

“You should hurry before someone takes a male you have your eye on,” The man who’d given instructions on the process said.

Joni held up the Chosen medallion that she needed to present to Kyele. “I’m not worried about that.”

Proving her words true, the women dressed in the heavy brown hooded cloaks similar to hers took a wide path around Kyele. It would have been funny if she didn’t know how much it hurt him to stand and be judged by the people of his adopted home world. When she’d asked him to be her Chosen, she didn’t realize how hard it would be for him to accept. Not because he doubted her love but because he knew none of the females attending the presentation would choose him.

Yet he stood proudly among his peers, trusting Joni. His courage astounded her. She walked forward, her bare feet scuffling sand in her wake. Attendees were not allowed to wear shoes on the grounds and she winced as grains squeezed between her toes.

As she got closer, the subtle tension in his shoulders loosened. His green eyes began to glow and a fine mist swirled in his pupils. Joni tugged the hood down about her shoulders and held up the chain and medallion. “I choose you, Kyele Bastien.”

He didn’t return her smile. He bent forward and lowered his neck within reach. It was important for participants not to speak until the selections were made. Joni found it ridiculous to be honest but she didn’t hesitate to place the medallion over his neck, her fingers fussing with it the chain to disguise her caressing his chest.

Kyele lifted his head. Joni almost stepped back from the love blazing at her.

“Kyele Bastien, present.”

Joni jolted at the loud voice. Kyele steadied her with a hand at her lower back. She wanted to feel him skin to skin. She couldn’t wait to get rid of the scratchy robe and show him what she wore underneath.

The three members of the Commissioning body stared at them. For the first time, Joni felt a spurt of fear. What if she’d done something wrong? Faye warned they could deny her if she and Kyele messed up then they’d have to wait until the next presentation to claim one another. Joni never wanted to subject him to this again.

“Kyele, you have been Chosen. Present her.”

***

Kyele wanted to grab Joni and run. She was almost his. He reached for her hand and lifted his arm in the air. Conra, the head of the Commission nodded.

“Joni Miller has Chosen.” His throat locked. His gaze jerked unerringly to the line of men waiting outside the waist high barrier. His Unit, every member, dressed in the formal white of their Jutak uniforms. Kyele took a deep breath and let it out. When he faced Conra once more, his voice rang clear, “Kyele Bastien has accepted.”

Conra smiled and walked past them to the next couple.

Kyele shuddered and tightened his grip on Joni’s fingers.

“Congratulations, Kyele.” Merlyn nodded as she and Naine, the last member of the Commissioning body, strode by.

Kyele hurried Joni to the sidelines. Faye, Lissi and Sylvie surrounded Joni as they hugged her but she never let go of Kyele’s hand. For that he was grateful.

Torkel wrapped an arm around his shoulder and whispered in his ear, “We deserve love, too.”

As Joni talked animatedly with her friends, her gaze checking on him every few seconds, Kyele believed him.

Epilogue

Months later

Kyele should never have listened to Joni and stopped taking the birth control shots Dr. Maku dispensed to all of them. It was hard denying his Chosen anything she wanted much to the amusement of his fellow Jutaks. She wanted children and wanted them born close to her friends who were already pregnant. With reluctance, Kyele gave in.

Watching the three women from Earth interact during each stage of the pregnancy had caused panic, laughter and fear among them. Torkel suffered the most as Faye didn’t agree with him following her everywhere including the bathroom. Their child had been born last month. Sylvie complained about the ease of Faye’s birth until her child entered the world. With Arak there to influence the baby to shift and maintain its human form, she too, came through with little difficulty.

Kyele envied them. Nothing about Joni’s delivery went right and now he wished he could turn back time and refuse her this one request.

“Don’t die little one. She needs you.” He swallowed. “I need you.”

Kyele had done many things in his adult life with little remorse. He’d killed and served Jutak justice without hesitation but nothing was as hard as staring at his own son in this clear box, struggling to hold on to his physical form. Dr. Maku insisted on the medical unit designed for a young child.

One moment his pink arms waved in the air and the next, he was a ball of coiled smoke. Back and forth, back and forth, each shift ending in weak cries and clearly leaving him tired. His pink skin now took on a pale cast.

Maku came into the medic center and checked the readings with his scanner. Kyele cleared his throat. “How are they?”

Maku gaze softened. “I’m sorry.

Kyele froze. “Sorry?”

“A day maybe two. For both of them. Their conditions have steadily declined and nothing I’ve tried has worked.”

It was as if someone had sucked all the air from the room. Heart racing, Kyele clumsily rose to his feet. “What do you mean?”

“Kyele,” Maku said slowly and clearly. “They are dying.”

“No!”

Rage lashed out. Fear and pain collided. Kyele lost his physical form and filled the medical center with a swirling mass of fury that knocked over containers and tore objects from the shelves. Chairs overturned and a table slammed into the wall splintering into pieces.

Dr. Maku hunched down into a corner as the Jutak warrior expended his anger. He glanced at his patients both mother and child, strangely undisturbed or unharmed by the turbulence that filled the room. The storm lasted minutes. Minutes in which the man who never lost his calm vented his anger and pain. When Kyele at last resumed his physical shell, his eyes were red rimmed, his chest heaved in short exhales.

“I won’t lose them, Maku. I’ve lost everyone who has ever loved me. I won’t lose my son and the only woman who made my heart beat again.”

There was no stopping the inevitable. “Kyele, I am truly very sorry.”

“She’s my heart, Maku,” Kyele cried out. How could he live without his heart?

The doctor left him alone. Alone. Was he always to be alone?

Kyele clenched his fists. No he wouldn’t be alone. If the gods chose once more to take away the only people he cared about then he’d follow them. Even to the afterlife.

“They need to be together.”

Kyele palmed his weapon and aimed it in the direction of the deep voice. The one man he hoped to never see stood in the center of the room within a hands span of his son. Kyele aimed his laser higher. Right between the general’s eyes. “Why are you here?”

General Azar lifted his hands from his sides in surrender. “Your pain reached me. Your despair unfathomable, son.”

“I’m not your son,” Kyele growled.

“I thought you dead until your Spectar soul called to mine.”

“I wouldn’t call to you.”

The general lowered his hands, eyes steady on Kyele. “Blood calls to blood. It is the way of the Spectar. I knew instantly what had touched me. I thought…I thought you were dead.”

He was. He’d die if he lost Joni. “Pretend I’m dead and go away.”

“Son…”

“I’m not your son,” Kyele roared.

General Azar flinched, his gaze falling to the clear box where the baby tossed, shifting from one form to the next. “This little one is yours.”

The remark didn’t require a response.

“He needs to be with his mother. When hybrid Spectar are born you can’t separate the two until the child is a year old. If they have to be parted nothing more than an hour or they decline.”

Kyele lowered the weapon. “How do you know this?”

“Your mother. The foolish healer took you to another room after your birth and immediately she began to fail.”

His son mewled. General Azar leaned over the container that held Kyele’s son.

Kyele tensed. “Stay away from him.”

His son opened his eyes and turned his head to face the both of them. Dark lashes fluttered as green eyes stared at the world.

The general inhaled sharply. “He has your mother’s eyes. Like you.”

Kyele kept his gaze firmly on the man he detested more than anyone. He pressed the release buttons on the side of the special unit Maku had placed his son after his birth. Though he didn’t want to, Kyele holstered his weapon and reached inside. The tiny weight filled his large hands and Kyele cradled him close. He crossed to Joni and wrapped her limp arms around his son’s form with utmost care.

“She is from Earth?”

Azar kept the distance of the room between them, but Kyele stayed on guard. He ignored the question and used his hand to adjust his son in the crook of Joni’s arm so he wouldn’t slip.

“Earth women are special. They grab a piece of your heart and don’t let go. I tried to force your mother to feel something for me. I went about it the wrong way and lost her anyway.”

“Shut up about my mother.” Kyele didn’t remember the woman who’d lost her life trying to save his. All he had were the stories Faan told him of her beauty and spirit. “You made her a sex slave. You forced yourself on her time and time again.”

Azar’s shoulders slumped. “I didn’t make her a sex slave. She was captured by Marenians. But I did nothing to free her and I will live with that for the rest of my life.”

His son chose that moment to shift into his Spectar form. The small bundle of gray smoke swirled around Joni’s arms as they limply fell to her side.

Kyele jerked, hands in the air in a futile effort to hold onto his son.

“Let him be,” Azar snapped and took a step forward.

Kyele didn’t have time to kill the man. “He can’t hold his form. That’s why the doctor had him contained.”

“He needs her. She needs him. Watch.”

His throat clogged with fear. It went against every instinct he possessed to follow the direction of the general. The gray swirl lengthened into a dark stream of ribbon. What would he do if his son didn’t regain his corporal form?

Joni twitched in her sleep. Kyele waited with baited breath. Her arms clenched and her eyes popped open. His son solidified and she enfolded the boy in her embrace.

Kyele fell into the side of the bed. Joni blinked. “Kyele? What’s going on?”

“I’ll leave now.”

Kyele spared the general a glance. He forced the words out as his heart stuttered. “Thank you. I owe you a debt.”

“I claim the debt.”

Kyele gritted his teeth. He should have known the man would not help without wanting something in return.

Joni tried to sit up. “Kyele what…?”

He stroked her hair to calm her. “What do you want, General?”

“His name,” Azar responded instantly.

Kyele frowned. He hadn’t expected that. “Viktor.”

The general closed his eyes and bowed his head. The answer seemed to have moved him in some way. Kyele wasn’t sure if it was an act or not. When Azar got himself under control, he opened his eyes and stepped back.

“She would have liked that.” And with those words, he faded to his Spectar form and vanished.

Bonus
Epilogue

“I can’t find Viktor.”

Kyele closed the report he’d been reading to glance up at his Chosen. Joni had her arms around her waist and worry darkened her eyes. “Were you playing hide and seek again?”

His son loved the human game and was quite adept at it. To everyone’s dismay.

Joni flushed. “He begged, Kyele. You know I can’t resist those green eyes.”

He smiled because she often used the same complaint about him. “Have you called to him?”

Despite being three years of age and long past the age of being separated from his maman, Viktor constantly sought Joni’s presence if she was out of his sight. Almost as if the child needed to reassure himself of her presence.

The general had been right about that and his family had thrived to the surprise of Dr. Maku and his fellow Jutak warriors who had been waiting to grieve with him.

“Of course, I called for him.” Joni rolled her gold eyes. “But you know how he gets when Shiloh challenges him.”

Shiloh was Torkel and Faye’s daughter and though the smallest of the children, she was always identified as the leader in whatever mischief occurred.

“Plus,” Joni continued. “Arak’s son won the last time and has teased Viktor incessantly.”

Kyele smirked. Raze inherited his father’s Argoran ability to shift into his cat form and spent a lot of his playtime climbing the trees and hiding from the others.

“How long has he been hiding?” Viktor tended to reveal himself if it took too long for others to find him.

“Three hours,” Joni admitted.

Kyele jumped to his feet, his heart slamming into his throat. His son wouldn’t drag a game out that long. Especially not if he knew it would cause his maman to worry. “Where have you looked?”

“Everywhere.” She started to cry and Kyele went to her immediately and pulled her into his arms.

“We’ll find him. Call the others to help.”

“I already did.”

A kernel of worry niggled at his gut. If an entire unit of Jutak warriors couldn’t find his son, it was definitely time for him to be afraid.

***

Outside the men from Team One, Two and Three actively searched for Viktor. The women stood to the side keeping an eye on the other children.

Kyele noticed Lindsey with them. Where Lindsey went, her husbands were not far behind. The men had lost her once and vowed to never let that happen again.

Holding tight to Joni’s hand, Kyele walked toward Lindsey and her children. “Did you arrive before or after Viktor went missing?”

Her husbands joined them and a knowing look crossed their faces at Kyele’s question. Lindsey had three identical daughters by the Senators Zadal and Baruk. At least the girls were identical to everyone but his son. Viktor had developed an attachment to one of them.

“Before,” Lindsey answered and chewed her bottom lip. “I’m sorry this is our fault.”

“Not at all,” Kyele dismissed. “Viktor is a full of pride. He must learn to control his need to impress the females.” He smiled to put her at ease and squatted before the three blonde girls with their bright blue eyes.

“Hello.”

“Hello, Seppi Kyele.” All of the children had adopted the Earth custom and referred to the Jutak warriors as their uncles. Lindsey’s best friend status to Faye automatically included her and her husbands into that tight circle of love. The women encouraged the saying it took a family to raise healthy children.

“Did any of you say something to Viktor before he hid?”

The one in the middle peeked from behind her mother’s legs and grinned. “I told him I gots two new poppy.” She held up two chubby fingers.

Kyele rose and frowned. He couldn’t read anything into her words that would hint at where his son had gone.

Lindsey paled. “Baruk’s mother unexpectedly remarried in a Triad. We introduced her husbands to the girls.”

“Oh God,” Joni gasped. “What if he tried to go to Earth to see my father?”

Joni’s dad and brother came to visit every few months determined to be a part of their daughter’s new life. Both men were admirable and welcomed Kyele into their family fold.

“There’s no way he could travel to Earth, Joni.”

“I’ll call the space port and make sure he’s not there,” Torkel said, already on his communicator.

The men and women circled them while they tried to figure out his sons whereabouts. Tears streamed down Joni’s face. Kyele hugged her and repeated, “This isn’t your fault.”

“You warned me. You said not to let him play this game any more.”

He had. Viktor’s skills as a Spectar were far beyond Kyele’s at his age.

Kyele kissed her forehead. “He knows not to hide after he’s won. I told him that.”

He thought he’d been very clear when he explained the rule to his son regarding his safety. There were those that would seek to harm him.

A shimmering portal opened in the midst of them. Fifteen Jutaks aimed their lasers at the center to see what or who emerged.

General Azar walked forth, the portal fading behind him. In his arms he held Kyele’s son.

“Viktor,” Joni shouted and ran to grab her son.

“Joni!” Kyele was a step behind her.

Azar handed the boy to her and Joni smothered their son’s dark curls with kisses.

“Your son has the skills of a full blooded Spectar,” the general said.

Kyele choked in disbelief. “He traveled to you?”

Azar nodded. “He crossed the barrier and ended up in the middle of a field with my soldiers during a training session.”

Kyele’s stomach dipped. He ran a trembling hand over his son’s head. How easily they could have lost him. Like Joni, Viktor was the center of his world.

He looked none the worst for wear. Except for a silver band on his wrist. Kyele fingered the strange jewelry and read the words written in his birth language. Anger soared. Prepared to snap the metal, he slipped his finger between the band and his son’s tender skin.

“Don’t,” Azar yelled. “It is enhanced to keep him from crossing the barriers until he is old enough to manage his abilities.”

A full Spectar could travel wherever they chose in mist form. Some like his father could travel to different dimensions in addition to different worlds.

“If he proves as powerful as I believe he will be and breaks the enhancement to travel away from his parents again the band will at least keep him safe,” the general added.

Kyele snorted.
Under the protection of General Azar
was inscribed on the hammered metal. Anyone foolish enough to attack his son would face the wrath of the armies under the Spectar General. Azar’s reach went well beyond Spectar.

Once more he owed this man a debt.

“Thank you. I owe you.” The words were reluctantly dragged from Kyele.

Viktor lifted his head up and waved. “Bye, Poppy.”

Azar’s eyes danced. “I claim the debt.”

Kyele grunted. “Why am I not surprised? What do you want this time?”

“My grasp of the Earthling language is sufficient but I don’t understand…Poppy. He called me this when the men summoned me to the fields after Viktor formed surrounded by a hundred of my armed soldiers.”

Joni shuddered in his hold. Kyele wanted to mimic the gesture but held Azar’s gaze. He didn’t want to tell him the meaning.

Unfortunately, Joni had no such restraint. “It’s a loving term for the father of the father. Poppy.”

“Saleyo,” Kyele murmured the Spectar word in her ear unwilling to aid the general publicly.

“Saleyo,” Joni announced.

“Saleyo. Poppy,” Viktor chirped.

Azar smiled. It was a frightening sight since Kyele couldn’t recollect anyone ever saying the general smiled. “Poppy. Blood calls to blood.” He nodded. “You will be welcome on Spectar should you choose to visit.”

“Not likely.”

This time, Azar didn’t bother with a portal. He shifted into a tall funnel of smoke and faded.

The men all put away their weapons. Not one had dropped their guard during the conversation for which Kyele was thankful.

“So wait,” Jaron said. “Your son is the grandson of General Azar, ruthless leader of the Spectar armies?”

There was no need to avoid the claim any longer so Kyele answered, “Yes.”

“The man known throughout the galaxy as The Butcher?” Jaron pushed.

Joni shivered, causing Kyele to glare at Jaron who muttered, “I’m staying far, far away from these females from Earth. They bring trouble to your doorstep.”