Five
Daphne
I woke up and rolled over in the silk sheets.
Silk sheets…I didn’t own silk sheets.
I squeezed my eyes open slowly, one at a time. The light in the room was bright, but the most mesmerizing light came from outside the window as we streaked through space and time at warp speed, flashing past stars, planets, nebulas, and asteroids, as they warped into multi-colored smears.
I really was in space. It hadn’t been a dream…
The door to the suite slid open and a technician entered.
“The King would like you to join him for breakfast. Please dress yourself and then ring the button next to the door. I will return and escort you to his eatery.”
I nodded and swallowed deep. “Thank you.”
She was speaking a language I couldn’t understand, but there was a small module hanging around her neck that looked kind of like those old iPod shuffles. A human voice, British, came out of it, translating her words as she spoke them.
Cool technology.
It wasn’t just more advanced technology that this species of very human-seeming Curan had. They also had that magic mind-reading and mind-moving ability.
How was I supposed to compete with that?
I thought of the Beast King as I slipped back into the outfit he had requested—commanded—I wear. It was cute, comfy, and edgy. But it made me uncomfortable showing so much skin in a world I didn’t know.
“Oh well,” I muttered. I pressed the button next to the door and was soon being led by the same technician down hallways that glowed and flickered with different light commands. It didn’t look all that different from ships in Star Trek. I supposed that must truly be the most efficient use of space and lights.
At least our fiction was ahead of its time. But, if there were aliens regularly using our planet, I wondered how long humanity would actually last.
The eatery was quite small. It was not the crew’s cafeteria, but the King’s private dining area. He stood up from his seat as I entered. He was wearing the same cape, so similar to the one he had given me to wear, but he had replaced the leather body armor with a tight black shirt that did nothing to hide the chiseled pecs, abs, and arm muscles I had already been so madly attracted to.
“How did you sleep, Daphne?” Kajo asked me as I sat down across the table from him.
“Not well. I was kidnapped last night, after all.”
“You are not my hostage. On the contrary, I am beholden to you.”
I looked at him, suspicious of such a claim. “What do you mean?”
He didn’t answer, the scar over his eye twitching with his furrowed eyebrows. He passed me what looked like orange juice but was probably from a fruit I had never had before. It was also carbonated and incredibly sweet. As he handed me the plate with eggs and sausage on it, our hands brushed. He jolted in his seat, and then looked away, pulling his hand back. Shame? Shame for reacting in such a way to a girl? A human girl?
To test it, I reached out and laid my hand on his, where it lay on the table, on top of his napkin. It was as if an electric shock transferred from my soul into his hand and touched his soul as well. We both jumped, then stared at each other in silence.
“What is that?” I finally managed to breathe out.
Kajo sighed and rubbed his temples. He pushed his fairly full plate back and stood up. “I will come and get you this afternoon. Thank you for joining me for breakfast.
Without another word, he exited his own dining area. The food looked, and smelled, wonderful. My stomach rumbled. I looked up as the woman technician entered.
“Can I still eat without him?”
“Yes, of course. He asked me to join you, if you would like company.”
I shrugged and gestured to the seat Kajo had haphazardly left pushed back from the table. The tech sat down, pushing her lush black hair back behind her ears. She poured herself some of the not-orange juice and sipped it quietly. Her eyes were bewitching. They were pure gold.
“What is your name?” I asked between mouthfuls of a fluffy pancake-like biscuit that I had smeared some type of purple, chunky jam across.
“Delicha.”
“You work for Kajo?”
“We all do. He is out King and leader.”
“The Beast King.”
Delicha’s eyes widened. “We don’t call him that.”
“Who does?”
“The Bordash. The people who wish he had not taken the kingdom from the previous ruler. King Darrs, before King Kajo, was Bordash, but he kept the Curan in a lower caste system.”
“What do you mean?”
Delicha’s gold eyes misted with tears. “Kajo freed us. He led the war that we fought against King Darrs and his soldiers. Many Bordash fought with us and made sure we had access to the same technology as our foes. It was a fight for more than the freedom of the Curan; it was a fight to secure the soul of Farian in the universe as a fair planet, committed to integrity and freedom. Just like King Kajo.”
I stared at her and nearly dropped my biscuit. “You have got to be kidding me.”
She wiped her eyes and shook her head. She took a deep drink of the juice and then sighed, smiling at me. “Not at all.”
“But, he kidnapped me.”
“You are a guest.” The words were almost an admonishment, as if she couldn’t believe I had such a perspective. “He saved you. Rhone was going to kill you. Besides, you will see. You are now better off than any human has ever had the opportunity to be.”
“Will I ever be allowed to go back to Earth?”
Delicha looked honestly confused. “Why would you want to do that?”
“It’s my home.”
“You would never be able to tell anyone that you met us, that you traveled in space, that you were almost killed and yet saved by the King of Farian. You could never say you
