Chapter Seven

To all of our relief L’oana grew tired of the pace we were forced to keep –partly because I wasn’t a superhuman and partly because the men were stopping often to listen and observe- and went on ahead. We walked in relative silence.  I, for one, reveled in the break from her taunting, whining, and bitching.  I still hadn’t figured out why she was even with us, but then there was a lot about what was going on that confused me.

I used my time of silence to contemplate and absorb all that had been told to me.  Both Jack and Sergeant Org were adamant that I was the heir to the throne of Kurr.  I wasn’t sure what that entailed, but it sounded pretty important. In fact, it had to be somewhat important since my parents were killed and I was hidden in exile because of it. 

I’d been brought up to be comfortable hiking and hunting, but my body wasn’t prepared for the rigorous trek we were making.  The terrain was far more aggressive than anything I’d encountered. It demanded complete attention to navigate around the ruts and rocks and tree roots that covered the ground in all directions.  My thighs were burning from exhaustion and I was sweating from the exertion.  I looked at Jack and Sergeant Org with dismay.  Neither showed the least sign of being tired.

Jack must have sensed my predicament because he tapped Sergeant Org on the shoulder and nodded his head in my direction.  Sergeant Org gave a quick nod of agreement and signaled us to follow him off the path and into the thick of the woods. 

At one point, the trees were so close together that, had any of us been grossly obese, we’d be hard pressed to pass through them.  As it was, both Sergeant Orb and Jack’s muscular torso’s filled the gaps between the trees that we passed through quite thoroughly.  I looked above in wonder at the way the branches were intertwined with each other.  It was like they were forming their own type of net. Although what the net was intended to catch was beyond me.

I was just about to collapse from exhaustion when we reached a small clearing next to a large pool of water.   I assumed it was the native’s watering hole by the array of animals we found drinking their fill.  A few deer spotted us and darted off into the thick of the foliage, as did some rabbits, while a small flock of ducks made it a point to announce the arrival of intruders.

Jack was a little more reserved about leaving the protection of the trees. I followed Sergeant Org to the water’s edge while Jack lingered back on the edge of the forest, clearly on watch.  I smiled when I discovered a large flat rock to sit on.  I quickly removed my moccasins and dangled my feet in the clear blue liquid.  The soothing coolness of the water traveled therapeutically up my legs, relaxing me almost instantly.  This was the first I’d been alone with Sergeant Org.  It felt a little odd, but it also gave me an opportunity to ask a few questions that were weighing heavily on me.

“Did you know my parents?” I asked hesitantly.

“If you mean the King and Queen, I served them and was in their company on multiple occasions, but I was not close to them.  If you mean the man who swept you off to safety, Captain Berger…. I knew him well,” he replied.

“It’s difficult to imagine myself a princess, let alone heir to a throne. It seems surreal,” I said wistfully.  “In fact, this entire ordeal seems surreal.”

“Believe me, it is very real,” he assured me.  He glanced in Jack’s direction before asking, “What do you know about the Mannadors?”

“I’d never heard of them until L’oana mentioned them,” I replied.

“We killed two of them on the road,” he said bluntly.

“The lions,” I gasped.

“Mannadors are shape shifters.  When injured or dead they return to their natural humanoid state.  It’s because of their ability to disguise themselves that they are so dangerous.  When you encounter a Dragos, there is no guessing what they are.  Not so with a Mannador.  Any of these creatures could be a Mannador in disguise… any of them,” he said with disgust.

“How did you know that’s what the lions were?” I asked gently.

“There are two ways.  If you’re lucky like I was, you will be downwind of them and pick up their scent.  Because the Mannador takes on so many disguises, it has a unique scent.  I’ve grown accustomed to it and can generally spot it with one whiff.  Secondly, if you look closely into their eyes, you will see a hint of red and green speckles floating around.  This is a pure Mannador trait that you won’t find in any other creature on the planet.  There are a few exceptions to the rule, of course, but for the most part you can spot ninety-nine percent of them that way,” he explained.

“Jack thought the woman was a lion,” I mused.

“Jack is new to the planet.  He’s only been here once before for a brief visit just after he took over guarding you.  He understands the need to kill them, but hesitates because it’s not his nature to kill,” he explained.

“Which is why you did it?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied.

I looked over at Jack thoughtfully.  He looked so handsome leaning against a thick sycamore tree while scanning the area.  I allowed the revulsion that started to form over his participation in the killing of the man and woman Mannadors to subside as I realized just how difficult this must all be for him.  He’d traveled to an alien planet and put himself at risk in order to save me.  I had no right being repulsed by anything he did or was.  If it wasn’t for Jack and the sergeant, I’d be a part of that pile of bones Jack picked me out of. I chastised myself for my naivety and ordered myself to shape up and grow up.  It was time I looked at things with a different perspective. 

I caught Sergeant Org assessing me and blushed.  Although I was sure he wasn’t attracted to me and was merely taking note of the subtle changes my body was experiencing, it still made me self-conscious. I looked away and caught Jack’s eye from a distance. Was he assessing my body’s maturing progress as well?  Interestingly, instead of being embarrassed, like I’d been when I caught Sergeant Org looking, I was mildly aroused.

I quickly looked away and forced Mark’s image into my head. I needed to put space between myself and that vampire.  Whether he was truly my guard or not didn’t matter.  It was clear to me that he was trouble. He brought forth emotions, reactions, and feelings I could barely harness.  If I wasn’t careful, I’d be making a fool of myself again.

“Jack worries about you,” Sergeant Org volunteered.

“So he says,” I replied softly, while steeling a glance at him.

“I think he has stronger feelings for you than he lets on.  He can’t fool me.  This guarding thing is more to him than just honoring a promise,” the sergeant chuckled.

“What do you mean?” I asked innocently as I pulled my feet from the water and stood up.

“You need to open your eyes princess. It is as plain as the nose on your face,” he huffed before walking to the water’s edge and filling his water flask with the clean, clear liquid. I was still tongue tied by his statement when he added, “If we don’t get you teleported back to earth soon, there’ll be no explaining those curves you’re developing.”

“She’s promising to be quite the voluptuous dish,” Jack added as he walked up behind me and circled his arm around my waist.

I leaned back into him absent mindedly, while fighting the tingling that was spreading through my body. It took several moments for me to realize what we were doing and pull away.  Jack chuckled softly and Sergeant Org snorted as if to say, “point proven”.

“I question if she should return.  It might be too late,” the sergeant said to Jack.

“Of course I’m going to return!” I blurted forcefully. “I want to go home.  I don’t want to stay here.  I want to go home.”

Surprised by my sudden emotional outbreak, they stood in silence for a moment before Jack nodded.

“So you will,” he assured me.

I couldn’t believe what happened next. Just as brazenly as you please Jack ran his hands lightly over my breasts and hips.  I was speechless.

“We’re going to have to hurry,” he barked to Sergeant Org and then started walking as if he’d done absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

“Unbelievable!” I growled as I stomped behind him.

I was sure I heard a chuckle coming from Sergeant Org, but I refused to turn around to see for sure.  Instead, my eyes bore into Jack’s back as I followed him back to the path we’d been traveling. 

It felt like we’d been traveling for days and days.  The realization that we’d only left the cave a few hours earlier was hard to believe.  I was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.  I looked up at the sun’s position.  It hadn’t moved much. How many hours had we been traveling anyway?

“Five,” Jack said over his shoulder.

I grumbled to myself, knowing full well he could hear me, “Is there no privacy for me? Groping my body, reading my mind…. It’s all so invading.  I can’t wait to get home.  I can’t wait to be in Mark’s arms again.”

If I analyzed my grumbling more closely, I’d have to admit that it wasn’t Mark’s arms I was eager to get home to.  The arms that pulled at me like an undeniable magnetic force were walking ten feet ahead of me and I was doing my best to convince myself otherwise.  It both embarrassed and concerned me that I was so attracted to a vampire that claimed to have been my guardian for the majority of my life.  Was it hero worship and not pheromones in action?  I sincerely hoped so.  Hero worship would eventually fade away as I discovered more and more flaws to focus on.  The pull of pheromones was far more difficult to ignore.

A soft breeze brought Jack’s erotic scent my way.  It caressed my senses like sinewy fingers, arousing me in ways I’d read about in books, but never thought were real.  My stomach tightened and twisted like a wet rag being wrung to dry.  My knees buckled beneath me and I stumbled to catch my balance.

“Are you alright princess,” Sergeant Org called from a few feet behind me.

My throat was so tight all I could do was nod.  Through it all, Jack never made a sign of acknowledgement of my predicament.  Although, since he’d consistently known what I’d been thinking up to that point, it was hard to believe he was unaware.  I found this fact annoying.

What an arrogant ass, my mind projected with as much force as I could muster.

I smiled as I watched Jack’s shoulder blades tighten.

We’d barely returned to the path when L’oana reappeared.  My disappointment in her arrival was only heightened when she announced that we were approaching an encampment of Mannador soldiers.  L’oana said they were searching for two members of their party that were due back earlier that day; a man and a woman.

My body was consumed with renewed fear mixed with frustration. From what I’d learned about the Mannador so far, they were a force to be reckoned with.  Since they were able to shape shift, climbing the trees like we did when the Dragos were near would be useless.  Since they shifted in a variety of life forms in order to cover the area thoroughly.  Birds would seem a natural form. 

She warned us that staying where we were would put us right in line to meet them within the next fifteen minutes. If we were forced to make a run for it, I was far too exhausted to get very far.  My heart sank and my eyes filled with tears.  It seemed the Mannadors would wipe out my family after all.  I looked around at the beauty around me and filled my lungs with clean, refreshing air.  I regretted not knowing more about this planet of my birth, but vowed to at least enjoy the beauty it was presenting me for the brief time before my death.  I wondered if the spiritual dimensions that one went to after death on earth were the same dimensions for those who died on Kurr.  Would I meet my parents there?

“It’s not your time to die, my sweet,” Jack whispered as he scooped me into his arms.

The stress of the potential encounter of the Mannadors, combined with sheer exhaustion and the nearness of Jack, was more than I could handle.  My body literally collapsed against him as we moved with lightning speed through the forest in a direction that would lead us far away from the soldier’s encampment.

When we finally stopped, we were in mountainous terrain miles away from the path we’d been following.  Jack set me down slowly. I fell to my knees and emptied my stomach. He rubbed my back sympathetically, while holding my long dark hair out of harm’s way.

“It’s natural for the humanoid body to react like that when you’ve traveled at vampire speed,” he explained in a soft and gentle manner that was almost a coo.  “I wouldn’t have put you through it if I didn’t think it necessary.  I’m so sorry.”

I wanted to tell him that even after traveling just a hair’s breadth below the speed of light, my hormones were still out of control and I just didn’t need him adding to my discomfort by speaking to me in such a sultry manner.  I wanted to tell him that he caused emotions and feelings in me that I couldn’t explain and made me uncomfortable. I wanted to tell him that I didn’t trust that I wouldn’t throw myself at him like I had in the cave and make yet a bigger fool of myself.  I wanted to tell him that I was terrified of being caught by the Mannador and my only comfort was in knowing he was at my side. I wanted to tell him that I didn’t care if he ever returned me to Mark, because I didn’t know if I could go on living without him at my side.  His method of guarding me from a distance was no longer acceptable. I wanted to say these things, but all I managed was “don’t” before my body succumbed to more purging.