“So all of those people who claim to have been kidnapped by aliens for sexual experimentation were telling the truth?” Of course, there was a smile in my voice when I said this.
His tone was dry when he stated, “Hardly.”
“Can I volunteer?”
“Taylor,” he groaned. “You’re killing me.”
“Okay, okay. Something safe. So what is this place where you live? It looks like a cave.”
“I live in the Catacombs, over an old volcanic site.” The sound of his voice was hypnotic, and I could feel my lids growing heavy. “There is still geothermal activity, and it gives us access to natural hot springs, but the volcano is dormant. A number of us live here. The Catacombs have been lived in continuously for generations. We’ve found evidence of our earliest ancestors in some of the rooms that are now underwater.”
“Kind of like a natural apartment complex with plumbing benefits. Are there any traditional neighborhoods like we have on Earth around here? You know, like Leave It to Beaver style?”
“No,” he said firmly. “Makes us too vulnerable. Over the last twenty or so years, we’ve blended our homes and businesses into the natural structures that make up our environment. It helps to keep us out of sight and protected. We build around the trees within our forests, within our caves carved out from erosion over time, within the hills and mountains that surround us. To the north, the homes have been built underwater. To have a home out in the open shows your enemies right where you are. It’s foolish. We learned our lessons in the past.”
“When was the last time you guys were attacked?”
“It’s been twenty-five years since we won our last battle, but there have been skirmishes over time, and more recently, acts of violence we are still investigating that cost hundreds of lives.”
My eyes closed. “You guys sound like you’ve made yourselves prisoners. Don’t you all miss the sun? Freedom?”
“Now you sound like my sister.” He sounded disapproving.
“A sister. I always wished I had a sister. How many siblings do you have?”
He paused a moment, and I caught sight of two different girls in his mind, one with dark hair and one with red. “Just one. Her name is Shandria.”
He’d forgotten to up his mental shield, so I knew he wasn’t giving me the full story. It must have meant that something horrible had happened to one of them. “So how do I sound like her?”
“She chooses to live outside the boundaries of the province as an outlier. For her own protection, she was sent to live there with my grandmother when she was a child, but as an adult, she refuses to return.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“She has a house aboveground where anyone can know where she is and know what she’s doing. Anyone can get to her.” He scowled his frustration. “We’ve all tried to reason with her, but she refuses to move. She listens to my grandmother, who is also an outlier.”
“The grandmother who made this blanket?”
“The very same.”
“Why is that so bad? Shouldn’t they be able to choose how they want to live? Women have been fighting for their rights for hundreds of years on my planet.” I giggled, hearing myself say that aloud. “My planet.”
Ryder ignored my humor. “We have no way of protecting either of them.”
“Can’t they protect themselves? Maybe use some of that mylunate to beam out or something?”
“They choose not to have any, though my grandmother was offered its use by the high council, our governing body. She insists on using the transfer unit that was built near her region, saying the walk is good for her. She argues that if she doesn’t have it around, then there won’t be a reason for anyone to attack. So no, there are no defenses that would be strong enough to hold off even one Brausiian warrior. It’s well-known that the Brausa have vowed to exterminate every one of us.”
“She must be important, if your government is trying to protect her.”
“She’s highly important to our...spirituality.”
There was so much. It was hard to process it all. Hearing Ryder talk about spirituality was showing me yet another facet of his personality. I wondered what this big, tough guy believed in, really.
“So were you referring to your sister and grandmother when you said you were familiar with stubborn women?”
“Yes. They play with their lives.”
“But freedom’s important.”
“Only if you’re around to use it.”
“It must be nice to have a grandmother and sister.” It was the last thing I remembered saying before darkness settled in.
Chapter Nine
Powerful gusts of frigid wind were rushing over my body, but I wasn’t cold. I was feeling absolute exhilaration. Riding on the back of an amazingly large bird, I felt part of him, as free and limitless as the bird itself, able to predict the movements he was going to make. The powerful wings pumped effortlessly, creating the whump...whump rhythm of our travel, propelling us over the vast countryside. Dipping and coasting, we punched through cottony clouds, and pure joy spilled unfettered from my soul in great gasping peals of laughter at the magnificence of the experience.
What a gift to be alive!
I saw that the countryside was lush and green, vibrant with varying colors of wildflowers. There were beautiful forests amid the mountains, and beyond that, in the far distance, yellow hilly grasslands. They called to me! They looked soft and welcoming. They needed someone to lie down at the top and just start rolling sideways until a body was dizzy with silliness.
Before long, a large lake sprawled beneath us, reflecting our rapidly soaring undercarriage, and I knew when I looked up, the two moons would be hanging, pretty as a picture, in the blue sky. To skinny-dip under the moonlight sounded sinfully sexy. What I wouldn’t do to get Ryder on board with that plan.
Meeting him had changed my whole view on myself. Before, I would have considered myself a less sexual creature than many of the girls I’d known who gossiped about experiences in the ladies’, but lately, I’d had a number of creative wishes and fantasies that involved his beautifully sculpted body. Definitely wanted to try me some of that.
Where are we going? I asked, running my hands affectionately over the downy, burnt-sienna feathers under my fingertips.
I wasn’t even holding on. There was no fear of falling. My whole body felt enveloped in a cloud of protection, as though I were a cherished being to my animal friend.
No words were spoken, but projected into my mind from my feathery companion was the understanding that someone was waiting for us and that we would be there soon. Within moments of this communication, I saw a little house in the distance. It was like an old farmhouse, with a wraparound porch and fields and fields of white, iridescent flowers, tall and swaying with the breeze, surrounding it.
The flowers! That’s where they came from. So beautiful. There were rows and rows of them here. Magical. Shimmering. An energy field that wrapped around me with pure contentment. What a rush.
How had they ended up in my dreams?
Standing outside, at the bottom of the front steps, was an older woman. She was turned away from us, shading her eyes against the sun and squinting up at the sky with a frown. She seemed to be looking for something up high. She angled herself more toward us and relaxed.
She waved and smiled, a gesture and expression I returned eagerly.
Is this who we’re visiting?