Birth of a King Read online

  She didn’t know if that would make any difference at all to her, but she felt better about it—frightened, uneasy for reasons she couldn’t wrap her mind around at that time, but vaguely relieved when she’d turned around and headed back.

  The uneasiness prompted an impulse to head back to the anonymity of the city again and find a room at a hotel that looked respectable but not upper crust. They might be safer from discovery at a flea motel, but she didn’t feel up to trying to fight off murderers and rapists and drug addicts.

  She was so exhausted by the time she managed to get them into a room all she really wanted to do was drop to the bed and sleep, but she hadn’t really examined her little rescue. She’d given him a cursorily exam when she first got to the car with him. There’d been no sign of bleeding—no stickiness—and none of blunt force trauma that she could tell. He seemed alert and strong, but she thought she should still check him.

  And it was a him, she discovered as soon as she removed the swaddling on his bottom.

  “Oh my god!”

  She was startled and she startled him.

  He looked like he was thinking about bawling.

  “No! It’s ok, sweety. I just didn’t expect to see anything like that on a baby!”

  She hadn’t seen anything like that on a grown man!

  Maybe it was like the human head? Almost adult size at birth?

  She’d guessed at his weight after lugging him around and was pleased to discover she was close enough the diaper fit.

  He seemed fussy after she’d changed him and very carefully looked him over for any sign of injury from his ordeal.

  The knots on his forehead worried her until she realized they matched—like the pointy ears.

  And the crinkled things on his shoulder blades that looked an awful lot like wings.

  And the strange, thin membranes along his forearms and calves that reminded her of the fins on fish.

  The urge to burst into tears assailed her.

  Aside from his coloring—and no human of any race on Earth had that kind of pigmentation—which was more nearly mahogany that any other color she could think of—all of the projections were going to make it impossible to help him pass.

  She sniffed and pushed those thoughts aside.

  She didn’t even know that it was going to be her problem at this point.

  She didn’t believe for a moment that he’d simply been discarded callously.

  Someone had gone to a great deal of effort to protect him and she thought they might be coming back to reclaim him—or someone might.

  It occurred to her abruptly, though, that she had a problem looming a lot closer.

  There wasn’t a damned base in miles and miles! That was one of the things that had totally blown her mind. She wasn’t used to seeing military men at all and certainly not a group blocking the road.

  But they were there for one reason, she realized.

  The baby’s escape pod!

  Fate had been smiling upon her when it occurred to her that she needed to get supplies before she settled for the night.

  Otherwise, she would have been caught in the dragnet with the baby.

  And god only knew what they would do with him.

  Her throat closed at that thought.

  Shaking it with an effort since the baby seemed to react to her emotions, she went to mix up a bottle for him and then settled in the chair to feed him.

  He didn’t seem terribly impressed with the taste of the formula, but after a little fussing he settled to drinking it and dozed off when he’d drained it.

  Emmaline dozed off about the same time.

  She woke a little later, got out of the chair with an effort, and staggered to the bed with the baby. Cuddling him close, she went back to sleep and slept better than she could ever remember.

  Which was crazy all things considered.

  Her last thought as she dove into nothingness was that she’d gotten her wish. It bore no resemblance to the vague notions that had been circulating in her brain at the time, but she thought she could love the baby with no problem at all, alien or not, and, maybe, he would love her back.

  The question was, would they get the chance for the tiny bud to bloom?

  * * * *

  Kadin, Gaelan, and Hauk stood immobile and grim faced, staring at the blue marble growing larger and larger in their forward viewing portal.

  They’d lost the tracking signal before they were much more than halfway into their rescue mission.

  The chances were probably roughly the same percentage for the successful resolution of their undertaking—fifty/fifty if they were lucky.

  Actually, Kadin thought, the odds probably weren’t even that good.

  It had taken too long.

  The monarchy was dead.

  There would be no uniting the tribes of the Hirachi, no raising the army they’d envisioned and without that he thought their chances of defeating the Sheloni, the bastards that had been preying upon them for generations, enslaving them for profit, were not terribly good.

  They would fight regardless.

  They had captured and mastered the weapons of their enemies and meant to turn their technology against them and do their best to wipe them from existence.

  He would be satisfied, though, to teach them that it was too expensive to come after the Hirachi to be worth the effort.

  “From here it looks much like the home world, Ach,” Gaelan murmured, almost reverently, almost as if speaking to himself.

  Hauk glanced at him and then returned his attention to the planet they were approaching. “I see the similarity. But then the same can be said of the many worlds such as this one that are more water than land.”

  Gaelan frowned at him, but then shrugged. “I have not seen that many.” He thought about it. “I did not even see Ach in this way when I was taken.”

  “There is one thing very different here,” Hauk murmured.

  Neither Gaelan nor Kadin argued. They merely glanced at him questioningly.

  “There is a debris field surrounding this world.”

  The minds of both instantly snapped to the target of their mission. Anger swiftly followed.

  “Do not instantly leap to the conclusion that it is the remnants of the life pod,” Hauk said harshly. “We do not know that it is.”

  “Or that it is not,” Kadin pointed out.

  Hauk considered it. “We should review the data we retrieved.”

  The trio left their observation position and headed to the bridge. Hauk, by far more familiar with the workings of Sheloni technology than either of the other two, settled to manipulating the main computer system.

  It seemed to Kadin to take far longer than it should have. Before he lost his temper, however, Hauk pulled up images. “These are computer generated, not actual, but you can see that the calculation is that the pod was well past this point and nearing the surface when we lost the signal. The debris is from something else.”

  “Then they attacked?” Gaelan said sharply.

  “We cannot determine that. Hold on. I will have the system scan and analyze.”

  “We may well discover it for ourselves if this thing takes as long to analyze as it did to give us the other information.”

  A sour smile twisted Hauk’s features. “You have no patience. Your brain cannot work as swiftly.”

  Irritation flickered in Kadin’s eyes, but he held his tongue, moving instead to the control console to activate the ship’s cloaking for stealth mode.

  “You should throw up all of the shielding,” Hauk murmured. “This debris isn’t guided. We’ll have to dodge it.”

  “Looks like a trash heap,” Gaelan observed.

  “Good guess,” Hauk responded after a moment. “It appears to be remnants of various crafts they put into orbit for some purpose. Or, I suppose, more accurately, many purposes over the years.” He turned to face Kadin and Gaelan. “The pod may have been damaged by some of the debris, but it wouldn’t have been target
ed—not by any of this. Clearly they have some fairly advanced technology, however—which means sophisticated weapons—and it’s possible the pod was targeted when it came within range of their weapons.”

  They decelerated as they drew nearer the planet, detecting a veritable web of artificial satellites orbiting at various heights and trajectories.

  Avoiding everything was going to be a challenge, Kadin thought grimly.

  They didn’t manage it. Although nothing sufficient to damage their craft struck their shields, they repelled some debris into other courses that they knew were liable to cross paths with something else.

  It couldn’t be helped.

  They just hoped they could remain undetected, complete their mission, and be on their way.

  Unfortunately, they discovered the life pod was not at the location indicated by the computer that had calculated its trajectory and pinpointed the landing spot.

  Not only was it not at the location, they couldn’t find so much as a speck of debris to indicate where it might have crashed.

  There was, however, some damage to the plant life and since it was just where the computer had told them they would find the pod they concluded it had been taken.

  Their mission might have ended in that moment of realization that they had no clues to go forward except that when they returned to the ship they discovered the tracking beacon had mysteriously begun to ping again.

  “It is a trap,” Hauk said grimly.

  Kadin and Galen both nodded agreement.

  “One we must spring since they have something we want,” Kadin responded.

  “They may live to regret the invitation,” Gaelen growled.

  Kadin shrugged. “And they may not live long enough to do so.”

  * * * *

  Hauk managed to refrain from puking until they had evaded the soldiers that had set up a trap for them. They had very nearly managed to slip into the base, gather the information they wanted, and leave without detection.

  But then again, they had not expected it would simply be a fact finding expedition. They had thought they were on a rescue mission.

  “You are a seasoned warrior,” Kadin growled, clearly irritated. “I would not have taken you for someone with a weak stomach.”

  Hauk glared at him and spat. “I am not accustomed to seeing anyone blow their liquefied brains out of their nose,” he snarled.

  Gaelen held up a hand in a motion to stop. “Please! I am queasy myself.”

  Hauk whipped a look of surprise at him. “You did it.”

  “Do not remind me! I have never seen the like of it. Who knew their brains were that sensitive to a little pressure? I certainly did not!”

  Kadin looked thoughtful. “I had thought these beings must be my mother’s people, but that does not seem likely. She does not like having her mind probed, mind you, but I have never seen her have any ill effects. Mayhap it was the heat? I have to say the … uh … materials looked a little … singed.”

  Gaelen puked.

  Kadin looked surprise and then irritated. “Gods! We do not have time for this. If you are certain you had the truth from that man then our trail is cold already for it has been many weeks on this world since they found the pod. If we have any chance at all of extracting the child we must get to it.”

  Hauk and Gaelen exchanged a speaking look.

  “And what do you suggest since we got nothing useful here from those we questioned?”

  Kadin shrugged. “Their military did not capture him. He was not in the wreckage when they arrived and we know he was not able to escape on his own.”

  “Unless he was thrown from the ship when it crashed,” Hauk said pointedly.

  Galen shook his head. “I am certain I detected him and he was alive.”

  “Then we return to the crash site and search until we find whoever it was that took him,” Kadin said grimly. “And then we will deal with them.”

  * * * *

  It just wasn’t in human nature to maintain a high level of survival readiness without fairly constant stimulus and Emma was no different. She was so uneasy, at first, that she was completely unaware of the baby’s efforts in enthralling her or she would’ve tried harder, out of a healthy sense of self preservation, to protect herself from getting so attached to an infant that didn’t really belong to her. But the truth was that by the time she’d come down from high alert she was pretty far gone already and by the time she’d begun trying to teach him to call her mama she was done for.

  For days she’d expected a pounding knock on the door that heralded the arrival of the military to wrest the child from her or the people he actually belonged to but that hadn’t happened. No one, in point of fact, had come anywhere near her and she’d been able to devote herself completely to falling under his spell.

  He smiled back at her when she smiled at him lovingly.

  He touched her face with his little hand when she stroked his soft cheek.

  And when she said ‘come to mama’ he lifted his arms to her.

  Who could resist that?

  Well, she supposed his appearance would be a turn off to most humans, but she discovered after little more than a few days that she hardly thought about the differences between them beyond her fear for his safety if anyone saw him.

  She couldn’t resist struggling with ‘what if’ scenarios and trying to come up with a way to protect him from the outside world—supposing no one ever showed up to take him away from her—but nothing realistic occurred to her.

  Little by little, she let her guard down, though, becoming convinced with each passing day that nothing horrible was going to happen. She’d found him and now he was hers and it was safe to focus on taking care of him.

  To that end, she began to research medical possibilities online, hopeful she could pass his appearance off as the result of a disease or birth defect or maybe a combination ….

  She hated the thought of branding him as a ‘freak’ of nature, but thought that beat the hell out of allowing people to believe he wasn’t human at all.

  God only knew what might become of him then.

  Better to be ostracized than …. Be a lab rat.

  She was so lulled by her conviction that they’d gotten away clean and no one would be coming after ‘her’ little boy that she almost dismissed the sounds that warned her.

  Except her survival instincts weren’t as dormant as they seemed to have become.

  Someone was outside and approaching the front of the house.

  Emma shot up from her chair, glancing toward ‘baby’ in his playpen uneasily.

  Relieved to see he was asleep, she’d already taken a step toward him when she heard the footsteps on the front porch.

  Her brain erupted into chaos, survival instincts urging her to run and, at the same time, trying to convince her she didn’t have a chance in hell of outrunning anyone carrying the baby.

  She didn’t actually make a decision that she was aware of.

  Instead of racing to the playpen, snatching baby out and running with him, she strode to the door and snatched it open, ready to demand to know what they were doing on private property.

  There was a veritable wall of flesh on the other side of the door, however.

  And it took no more than two seconds for her brain to identify this wall of flesh as non-human.

  Due to the skin color, the giant bat wings she could see behind his shoulders and the horns growing out his forehead.

  If Satan himself had landed on her front porch, she couldn’t have been more stunned.

  Chapter Three

  Bemused, Kadin stared down at the pretty little heart-shaped face roughly chest high to him, feeling a little like he’d just run into a wall he hadn’t thought would be there. For a handful of moments, he could not recall what he was doing there … or really where he was. The demand he had intended to make died in his throat.

  Then she slammed the door in his face as abruptly as she’d opened it and the ‘curtain going down�
�� was all it took to knock him from his stunned admiration of the prettiest female he had seen in—well, maybe ever—and throw him into high alert.

  It did not occur to him that his appearance alone might have had that effect upon her. It leapt into his mind that he had found his quarry.

  * * * *

  Emma slammed the door, bolted it, and ran to the playpen. Baby was groggy and dead wait. He set up a wail immediately at being so rudely awakened.

  She was already jogging to the back of the cabin and through the tiny kitchen. “Shh, sweety! It’s ok! We’re just going to take a little walk…!”

  She snatched the door open just as she heard a crash from the front of the cabin, leapt the narrow stoop and the two steps leading up to it and took off with no clear destination in mind. It was dusk, the winter light fading fast, but not nearly dark enough to hide them even if they could reach the cover of the woods.

  The tiny cave she and brother had discovered as children leapt to mind. It wasn’t much of a cave, though—or in actual fact a cave at all, just an alcove formed by an uprooted tree. She recalled it had seemed big when they were children, but she doubted she could actually hide in it with the baby. Maybe in the darkness …. Assuming they couldn’t see any better than she could in the dark.

  Unfortunately, she discovered fairly quickly that she wasn’t going to have time to figure out whether it would work or not.

  Even as she charged across the back yard, she saw two more aliens come around either side of the cabin. She hadn’t reached the trees when the first alien emerged from the back door of the cabin.

  Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide and she could barely catch her breath after the short run.

  Without the baby she might have some chance. With him ….

  But then he was the point of the entire race.

  Casting around for help, her gaze lit finally on a weapon of sorts—a tree branch.

  She had a bad feeling it was probably rotten or it wouldn’t be on the ground, but she couldn’t fight them off with nothing.