Dammit… We had shielded ourselves unknowingly from telepathic communication. With the Tarsine camp right there, it was unsafe for me to respond, they would be able to know I was close. They would likely have a Reader waiting for me to make contact telepathically with my troops. I would have to think on the right code to compose for my Trio to decipher, according to Code Blue, which meant Aimer was taking control and safe in command of the military. Thank the Worlds she was safe.
They knew, at least, that the plan had been to head for these mountains. We hadn’t, at the time, known they were salt deposits. But, they would hopefully try to find us here, anyway. I could trust Aimer and my Commanders.
I fingered the ring in my pocket. And I could always use this, too.
But, only if I was really in a lot of trouble…
So far, my biggest trouble was going to be the way this Earthling was pulling at my heart. I was frankly afraid that she might be awake if I went back in there, because I wasn’t sure how I was going to act if she was…
Best be gruff and mean to her, I decided. There was no time to venture into anything other than that.
We were at war, after all.
No time for distraction. No time for whatever the ring was telling me to want.
A flare went up in the distance.
Tarsine’s troops had found something. I hoped it wasn’t one of my soldiers lost from the transport crash. My reinforcements would be on the way. They would find us.
To the south, lightning cracked in the sky.
There it was. The storms we had prayed for. The Bordash were superstitious about being outside during lightning storms, but not the Curans. We thrived on it. We unleashed our power in the storms. I would be able to sneak down to their camp and find a way out of here for me and the Earthling.
The distant thunder echoed in my soul, and I thought about the first meeting I had had with Vania, just the day before, the rain having slicked her training shirt slick to her heaving breasts, her indignant anger in her eyes, those strong fists that I was sure could be gentle, firm, demanding, commanding, and oh, so delightful on my skin…
I clambered back into the tunnel and crawled through toward the cavern.
“Did you leave me?”
Vania's telepathic message was tentative, vulnerable, a touch scared, and I wasn't sure if all of that was because she was still exhausted and weak from the injury, from waking up in the dark without me thereafter I had threatened to leave her a few hours before, or if it was because it was one of her first times ever trying telepathy, but my resolve to be mean to her faltered in that moment, and I wasn't sure I would ever find that resolve again.
“I’m in the tunnel on my way back to you…” I wondered that we were able to communicate mentally once inside the mountain. The salts must be mainly on the surface and not thickly within the soils. It would make the cave a good interrogation location…
Vania was sitting up when I got there, holding the fallen Bordash’s sword in her hands, looking at it, confused, unable to see his body in the dark corner I had thrown it to. Her hair was wild and swooshed to one side. Her lips quivered a little, pale and pinched.
“I thought for sure you had decided again to leave me,” she said, “and I wouldn’t blame you.”
“No. You’re part of my team, Earthling.”
“I haven’t proven myself, yet.”
I held the ring up to her. Its seven rings of carbon twisted around and glowed in the dim light. “Yes, you have.”
She nodded and shrugged at the same time, a clearly Earthling gesture. “It was not mine to keep.”
I took a deep breath and bent down to one knee beside her. I held the ring up before her eyes. Their green were dark pools in the cave’s dimness, and they seemed hazed over from pain and sleep, but there was that spark that was intoxicating… “I would like you to do me the honor of wearing it for now. It will heal you, if it doesn’t kill you, which it doesn’t seem likely to. Since I have lost its protective box, I am afraid it is going to slip out of my pocket, but it appears to fit your finger perfectly. Would you wear it for me, please, Earthling?”
“Yes, Alpha, of course. I am at your service.”
I took her hand in mine. As I slid the ring onto her finger, the electric shock split apart the room again, lightning pulsing from the ring, lighting up the entire cavern, making the mineral mysteries glow and spark in delight, a fizzling crack startling all the bats into a rage as they rushed up the tunnel and out of the cave. Sparkles descended around us as the tingling lit up our fingers, shaking our entire bodies and the tremble reached into my entire body and shook my heart. Even my lips shivered, and I knew at that moment that the only way to stop the shaking was to kiss her. Her mouth had dropped open slightly, and her lips were shivering, too. Her fingers were entwined with mine, and I was surprised they were not shaking, but they did seem to be radiating heat, sizzling as if there was extreme energy coursing through them.
“Are you tingling?” she gasped. “Is this part of Curan magic? Are you making that happen?”
“I don’t know what’s happening…” I whispered back. I leaned in close to her, pressing my lips gently into her forehead. Her hair smelled sweet. Slightly of sweat and dust and transport ship exhaust, too, but sweet like summer melons and honey. Her hand squeezed mine as my lips pressed into her skin and I took
