Melli was grateful her mom was safe and happy, but she and Jodi were still in danger. And it wasn’t like they could just decide to move to the Mother Ship with their mom. Melli was still in her sophomore year at USF and Jodi was in grad school at the same college. Pulling up roots and moving off planet just wasn’t practical for either sister right now.
Which was why Melli was so grateful to have her own bodyguard—the Blood Kindred, Liosh.
He had come to her rescue when the Varians attacked her mom’s house and Melli had fallen out of a tree and broken her leg. He had fought off the disgusting, lizard-like aliens—blasting them into grease spots—and then examined Melli carefully before gathering her into his arms and holding her close to comfort and protect her.
It was the closest Melli had been to a man in a long, long time and she was surprised that her panic response didn’t kick in when the big Kindred held her. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn’t human and her body responded to him on a visceral level because of it. He didn’t even smell human, Melli thought—he smelled amazing—fresh and clean like the Arctic ocean with a warm hint of masculine spice underlying it.
Her bodyguard was tall too—nearly seven feet to her five-six, which meant they had a significant size difference. He had lifted Melli with no problem, even though she had put on a little weight since moving out of the house and starting college. And the way he looked at her with those pale, husky-blue eyes of his made Melli want to reach out and touch him—made her wish to be wrapped in his arms again.
Stop it, she scolded herself, forcing her eyes away from the front seat where she could see Liosh’s profile as he talked to Vorn. You know nothing permanent could come of it so you might as well not start in the first place.
Inwardly, she sighed. Yes, that was true enough. She was probably going to be single and alone forever, no matter how many handsome Kindred warriors came into her life. It was time to just admit that to herself and try to keep things light and casual between her and Liosh.
Once she had thought that she’d be able to date and marry and raise a family—but those dreams seemed very far away now. They had been torn away from her back in high school, the night of her junior prom. They—
But no. It didn’t do any good to dig up past wounds. Melli had mostly gotten over what had happened to her—mentally anyway. But physically was a different story altogether—it was like her body just couldn’t let go of the trauma.
I’ll keep it friendly and casual with him, she promised herself, stealing another look at the big Kindred with his neatly clipped dark blonde hair and pale blue eyes. And I won’t hang all over him—no matter how much I might want to.
She balled her hands into tight fists at her sides, making the promise fiercely. She was, by nature, a touchy person who liked a lot of physical contact—or she had been before…
Melli pushed the thought away and looked out the window of the shuttle at the blue-green curve of the Earth getting bigger and bigger. Soon they would be home. Thank goodness that the Kindred medical technology meant her broken leg was already mostly healed. Commander Sylvan—who was also a doctor—had said she would need to be a little careful with it for a while, but on the whole, he thought she would recover completely and not have any long-term problems from the break.
I’m lucky, Melli told herself. My leg is going to be okay and I have a big, strong bodyguard to keep me safe until the danger blows over.
I can’t believe how unlucky I am, Jodi thought, as she punched savagely at her cell phone. They weren’t within contact distance yet, but she had a message all ready to send to her fiancé, James, the minute they hit the Earth’s atmosphere and her cell carrier kicked in.
First we get attacked by aliens, then Melli breaks her leg so we have to go up to the Mother Ship and then I get saddled with that Wookie in the front seat. That Vorn.
She glared at the Kindred warrior in question, who happened to be piloting the shuttle taking them back to Earth. It was hard to put her finger on why he got on her nerves so badly but he certainly did.
Maybe it was because he was everything her fiancé James wasn’t, Jodi speculated. Vorn was huge and muscular—seven feet tall if he was an inch—while James was barely taller than her own 5’7 and frankly, kind of slim. Of course, he made up for it with his acerbic wit and fierce intelligence, but there was no denying there were times Jodi wished she could wear heels instead of flats when they went out.
Also, it would be nice if he could help her with things like opening tight jar lids or fixing things around the house when they broke. But James disdained such traditionally masculine duties, preferring to live the “life of the mind” as he
called it, and concentrate on loftier concepts than who was going to fix the car if it broke down or open the lid on a jar of pickles.
Of course, “the life of the mind” was all well and good. Jodie was in grad school herself and appreciated academia and the mindset that went with it. But on a practical level, it could be kind of a pain sometimes, especially when she ended up doing what she had been raised to think of as “man stuff.”
After all, pickle
