Before Boone could protest, the Grand Viceroy turned to the gold and purple carriage and nodded. The two footmen in livery blew another blast on their trumpets and several of the soldiers quickly rolled out a lush purple carpet which started at the steps of the carriage and reached all the way up the gangplank of the ship right to Boone’s feet.
The carriage opened and a tall female with long black hair done up in a elaborate style that involved golden braids and expensive looking diamond netting stepped slowly down. She had the same strong but delicate facial features as K and her eyes were the same violet with a triple golden ring. Her elaborate, jewel encrusted dress rustled richly as she strode in a slow, stately manner down the purple velvet carpet.
“What’s the matter with you?” Loki hissed at Boone, breaking his contemplation of the elegant female who had to be the Empress of Eros. “Bow before her majesty! And never look directly at her—especially not her face!”
Boone suddenly realized that everyone in the crowd, including the soldiers and the footmen and even the Grand Viceroy, were bowing low, their foreheads nearly touching the ground as the empress approached. Only he and K were left standing in what was probably a huge breach of Erian etiquette.
Reluctantly, he got down on one knee and tugged at K’s hand.
“C’mon, K. When in Rome.”
“No.” K shook off his hand, refusing to get down or even to bow. Instead, she faced the approaching empress head-on, a look of fierce concentration on her face.
The empress continued walking, never giving any sign that what K was doing was wrong, though everyone around them was bowing low. Boone watched, unable to help himself, as the two women finally came face to face. He kept expecting them to talk, to say something—anything. And there was certainly something to say—the resemblance between them was undeniable. K could have been a younger version of the empress they looked so much alike.
At last K spoke. “Mother?” she whispered, her voice breaking on the second syllable. “Are you…is that you?”
The empress’s expression remained stern but tears filled her violet and gold ringed eyes.
“Krissana, my darling,” she murmured. “You’ve come home.”
* * * * *
The next few hours were like a blur to K and not just because she was being bundled along with Boone—who she refused to let go of—into the elaborate gold and purple coach and taken to a ridiculously ornate palace. All of it—the jostling, shouting crowds, the overwhelming richness of her new surroundings, the strongly perfumed interior of the coach—was eclipsed by the memories that were pouring into her head, like water from a broken dam.
This road—I recognize it. I remember riding along it when I was little. But everything was so much bigger then. But the road hadn’t gotten smaller—it was just that she had grown, K realized. And it had been over twenty cycles since she saw the place.
When they pulled up in front of the Empress’s palace, a huge gilded affair with massive purple columns carved of some rich alien marble, she grabbed Boone’s arm.
“What, darlin’?” he asked in an undertone, casting a glance at the Empress who was sitting quietly across from them. “What is it?”
“The…the columns,” K choked, staring out the glazed windows of the coach. “I remember…I used to hide behind them and my nurse would try to find me. We made a game of it. Sometimes the guards played too if no one was watching. I remember laughing…laughing, Boone. I remember being…happy. So happy.”
“Yes, you always were a cheerful child,” the Empress remarked from the other seat. “Everyone in the palace loved your sunny personality.”
Loki, who had also been dragged into the coach along with them nearly choked. “Sunny personality?”
The Empress turned a cold eye upon him.
“Indeed, commoner. Does that amuse you?”
“Not at all, your highness.” Loki attempted to bow and nearly knocked his head against the ornately carved door handle of the coach. “Forgive me. It’s just that—”
“It’s just that K, well, she hasn’t had a whole lot of happiness in her life,” Boone finished for him. “Or, well, any emotion for that matter.”
“Ah yes, the emotionless state of complete and utter Purity.” The Empress nodded as K stared at her, wide-eyed. “Yes, my dear Krissana, I know the Precepts of Purity. The Purists are our enemies—it behooves me to know their beliefs and motivations.”
“I am a fourth level Paladin,” K said, trying to keep her voice from shaking. “I fear nothing, I feel nothing.”
“No, my darling—you are a princess. Stolen from your bed when you were only five cycles old,” the Empress corrected gently.
“Look, your majesty,” Boone said. “I’m sorry but this is all news to us. K is just a Paladin I captured to try and help me get my sister back from the pshalite mines on Midas. Her eyes were black on black until last night so we had no idea—”
“And why did her eyes revert to their true color?” the Empress cut in, her voice harsh. “What exactly did you do to her, giant?”
“Boone helped me,” K squeezed his hand tight.
“She, uh, started her cycle, your majesty,” Loki supplied. “She was growing desperate.”
“And you let her bond sexually with a non-Erian? With a giant?” the Empress snapped. “Why did you not at least try to help her yourself? True you are a grubby little commoner but even that is better than letting some alien—”
“There was no bonding involved,” Boone cut in quietly. His cheeks grew red but he refused to look away from the Empress. “I simply helped K, um, take the edge off.”
“Not that it is any of your business,” K interjected, lifting her chin. Purity but this would be so much easier if the memories didn’t keep crowding into her head like noisy guests all shouting for her attention. She remembered the woman across from her—remembered fearing her regal beauty, being forced to sit beside her at state dinners on a tiny, raised golden throne—always on her best behavior. Remembered—
“Of course it is my business whom you form a sexual life bond with, Krissana,” the Empress snapped, looking irritated. “Your consort must be of royal blood if you hope to rule the planet when I am gone.”
“I don’t want to rule anything,” K objected. “I don’t even want to be here.” She turned back to Boone. “We need to leave now. I may have come from Eros but I don’t belong here—not any more.”
“Krissana, of course you belong here.” The Empress reached forward to touch her hand and K jerked away.
Contamination! She still couldn’t bear to touch anyone skin-to-skin but Boone, even though her newly restored memories insisted that the Empress, was in fact, her biological mother.
“K,” Loki hissed at her. “You can’t do that! You must never refuse the touch of the Empress. It’s a gift.”
“One I fear I bestowed all too infrequently when Krissana was little.” The Empress sat back, a look of sorrow in her jeweled eyes. “I always felt, you know, that your kidnapping was a punishment on me. For not spending more time with you. For allowing you to imprint as an infant on another female.”
“My nurse…Vanja,” K whispered as another memory rushed into place. “Is she—”
“She is still here in the palace.” The Empress nodded. “It was clear she had nothing to do with your disappearance and I couldn’t bear to let her go. She was the only one I could speak to about my lost daughter…about you, Krissana.”
“Stop calling me that.” K crossed her arms protectively over her chest. “I’m K. Just K.”
“Not anymore.” The Empress spoke with determination. “You are a royal princess of the blood—one possessing the rare triple golden ringed eyes. And you will conduct yourself as such.”
“Now wait just a minute,” Boone growled. “K is her own person. Just because she started out here doesn’t mean you own her now that she’s back.”
“Of course I don’t own her.” The Empress spread her hands. “Kr
issana is owned by the entire planet of Eros—as are all of us who rule.”
“Don’t you understand?” K said, fighting to keep her voice steady. “I was raised and trained to eradicate you—all of you. Your filthy Impure ways of sexual procreation—”
“Don’t seem quite so filthy now that you’re going through your own cycle, do they, my dear?” The Empress raised one perfectly arched eyebrow at her.
K opened her mouth and found she had noting to say. All she could think of was the warm, delicious pleasure of Boone’s hands on her, of the incredible release he’d given her and the hotness of his mouth covering hers as he brought her to the peak. Purity! Even though she’d had a release just the night before, she could already feel her nipples and sex getting tender again, could already feel that hollow emptiness between her thighs growing, begging to be filled…
The Empress frowned. “Speak of your cycle, Krissana, I do believe you’re about to enter the second phase of it very soon.”
“You…but how can you know that?” K demanded, feeling suddenly naked.
“Your eyes—the golden rings are glowing.” The Empress gestured toward her face.
“Are they?” K looked up at Boone for conformation.
He nodded. “Afraid so, darlin’.”
K’s stomach clenched like a slick fist. “But that means…what exactly does that mean?” she demanded, speaking to Loki rather than the Empress.
“It means you’ll be experiencing the urgent need to mate.” The Empress spoke as though it was no great matter. “Don’t worry, though—we can have a host of acceptable candidates for you to pick from by early tomorrow morning.”
“Acceptable candidates?” K felt like she might be sick. “I don’t want to pick and choose from a bunch of strangers to contaminate me. I don’t want anyone but Boone!”
“Now, Krissana…” The Empress spoke as though to a small, willful child. “I understand that you went through a second infancy as it were after that horrible black suit thing the Purists put on you came off. And you imprinted on this…this giant at that time.” She nodded at Boone who was giving her a stony stare. “But we grow, my dear. We change. We do not choose to bond with someone simply because of an early imprint. That’s irrational—childish.”
“But—”
“We’ll speak of it later.” The Empress tapped on the ceiling of the carriage and one of the footmen rushed to open the door for her. “We cannot sit out here in front of the palace arguing all day. There is much to be done.”
Much to be done about what? K thought but the Empress—her mother—had already swept from the carriage and was making her way in a stately manner toward the vast double doors bound in gold and covered in silver script which led to the interior of the castle.
“Boone,” she said, turning to him. “I don’t like this. Being here, knowing who I am all of a sudden—these are the worst emotions I’ve had yet. I don’t want to be here feeling like this, knowing the things I know now. Can’t we go?”
He shook his head regretfully. “I don’t think so, K. I don’t think they’ll let us.” He nodded his head at the procession of soldiers who had lined up on either side of the carriage door as though to be certain they got out and went directly into the palace.
For a moment K was filled with frustrated rage.
“This is all your fault,” she stormed, turning to Loki. “If you were looking for a way to punish me for the death of your partner, you certainly found it.”
“I was trying to do you a favor.” Loki shrugged. “I mean, it’s like something straight out of a fairytale from Earth-that-was. Who wouldn’t want to find out they’re secretly royalty?”
“I wouldn’t,” K spat.
“Well I’m afraid you’ve been outed now,” Loki returned waspishly. “And there’s no going back in the closet, your highness. Now if you’ll excuse me, I do believe I have a hero’s welcome to collect.” He stepped out of the carriage, flashing predatory looks at some of the assembled soldiers as he strutted into the palace.
K watched him go and squeezed her hands into fists. If only she had her plasma gauntlets on right now she would carve a path through these Erian soldiers, all dressed in their ridiculous, colorful uniforms with those foppish plumes on their hats and the useless metals gleaming on their chests. She would make a way to get back to the space port and leave, taking Boone with her.
Boone seemed to sense her frustration.
“Easy, darlin’,” he murmured, squeezing her hand. “I know it’s upsetting and unexpected but we’ll get through this.”
“Together?” K looked up at him, trying to keep her voice from shaking. “Because I can’t do this alone. It’s too much, Boone. I…I need you.”
“I need you too.” He stroked her cheek. “And I love you. You know that, right?”
K let out a shaky sigh. “I don’t exactly know what it means but yes, I know.”
“I told you I’d teach you and I still will,” Boone promised. “Right now, though, we need to get going. The sooner we face the music, the sooner we can figure out a way to get out of here.”
K nodded and allowed him to lead her out of the carriage. She held Boone’s big hand and drew strength from his large, solid form as they passed through the assembled lines of soldiers. But in her other hand, she clutched something small and tightly wrapped and black.
She didn’t want to put the skinsuit back on. But she would if she had to.
Chapter Twenty
“I love K,” Boone said stubbornly, glaring up at the Empress who was sitting high on an impressively ornate solid gold throne. He wasn’t used to having to look up at anyone and it didn’t sit right with him that he couldn’t look her squarely in the eye. Especially considering how important this conversation was.
The minute they’d gone into the palace, he and K had been rushed away in different directions. K hadn’t wanted to leave him at first but then she’d caught sight of her old nurse—the person she’d imprinted on as a baby, apparently. Boone had reluctantly allowed himself to be parted from her so she could have a little reunion but when he’d found himself installed in separate quarters in a whole different wing of the palace from K, he’d decided it was time to say something.
Accordingly, he had marched to the throne room where, to his surprise, the Empress admitted him at once. Now he was standing in front of her throne, trying to get the whole situation straightened out.
“I love her,” he said again.
The Empress gave a long suffering sigh. “Spare me, please. You’ve only had Krissana in your custody for a single solar month. I’m sure you think you love her—”
“I don’t think, I know,” Boone growled. “And she loves me too. Do you know how much that means—do you have any idea of what she’s been through? Because I do, your highness. I know about what was done to her when she was taken away from you. I’m the one who held her all those nights to keep her from shaking herself to pieces. I’m the one who comforted her—who helped her learn to feel again after that damn skinsuit had been pumping her full of emo-dampers for most of her life.”
“For which I am most grateful, giant,” the Empress said patiently. “But if you truly care for Krissana, you must let her go.”
“Like hell I will!” Boone growled. “I’m responsible for her. I’m the one who found her in the first place.”
“You mean you captured her in hopes that she would come in handy while trying to retrieve your sister.” The Empress tapped long, shapely nails on the golden arm of her throne with a metallic click, click, click. “You don’t have to worry about that, by the way. We have several Purist ships in our royal docking bay—ones we’ve captured in raids. I’ll have one outfitted and we’ll be in and out of Midas before the Purists have any idea we’re not one of them. Consider your sister saved.”
“I appreciate that, your highness,” Boone said. “But your generosity doesn’t change my feelings for K or my obligation to her.”
“Your obligat
ion ended the moment you brought her back to her rightful home,” the Empress snapped. “You’ll have nothing more to do with her.”
“I think that’s for K to say.” Boone’s voice was quiet but dangerous. “If you ask her, I think you’ll find she still doesn’t want anyone but me touching her. Let alone doing anything more…intimate.”
The Empress raised an eyebrow at him.
“Are you inferring that you should be the one to mate and bond with Krissana?”
Boone lifted his chin and glared at her.
“I may not be royalty but she could do worse.”
The Empress gave an incredulous laugh.
“Forgive me, my dear giant. I have checked your background and I will admit you have rather impressive credentials in your field. And so, it is to your scientific mind I appeal, rather than your wounded male pride. As a renowned geneticist, how much do you know about the Erian mating cycle?”
Boone shifted uncomfortably. “Well, you’re all so secretive about it…”
“Nothing,” the Empress cut in scornfully. “You know nothing. But listen closely, for I am about to enlighten you.”
“By all means, please do, your highness.” Boone crossed his arms over his chest. “What is it that’s so special about your cycle that I can’t be with K?”
“Tell me something, giant…” The Empress leaned back in her golden throne and glared down at Boone. “When you have sexual relations with a woman, how many times do you usually satisfy her?”
“Satisfy her? As in…” Boone cleared his throat. “You mean give her an orgasm?”
“Not just an orgasm. I’m asking how many times you penetrate her. When you take a female to your bed, how many times do you have sex with her over the course of a single night?”
Boone frowned. “I don’t know…two? Three? Maybe four?” Although that was really pushing it. He was a virile male in the prime of his life but he was only human, after all.
The Empress gave him a cold smile. “Try fourteen.”