Unexpectedly, Kristoff’s eyes softened and he came to sit beside me.
“My Lady,” he murmured, looking at me earnestly. “I see how weary you are. Why don’t you take your ease and sleep for a time? I will guard you that your sleep may be free of fear.”
“You talk like an escapee from the Renaissance Festival, you know that?” I said, but there was no anger in my words, only a weariness so deep I felt it all the way down to my bones.
Suddenly I was so tired I could barely move and I wanted to sleep more than I’d ever wanted anything else in my whole life. When I woke up, I could fight with my new, unwanted houseguest some more but for now, I simply couldn’t find any more energy to deal with him or any of the rest of the crap going on in my life.
“Sleep,” Kristoff urged me.
I wanted to agree with him, get up, and go slide into bed. Even with the racket coming from Mr. Peterson’s TV on the other side of the wall, I felt like I could sleep about a hundred million years. But I was so tired, I couldn’t even nod my head, let alone get up and go to bed.
With a little moan of pure exhaustion, I scrunched down and laid my head against the arm of the couch.
I’ll just take a fifteen minute power nap, I told myself. Then I’ll get up and get everything worked out. But right now I just need some time…just a little time to recharge…
So telling myself, I drifted off and knew no more.
Kristoff
I waited until she was deeply asleep and then I gathered her into my arms and carried her into her sleeping chamber. She sighed deeply and turned her face towards me, nuzzling against my chest in her sleep. The innocent gesture made my heart tighten strangely though I could not have said why.
I slid her between the sheets of her sleeping platform and debated taking off her outer garment, which was a type of robe. I didn’t want to overstep the boundaries she might perceive between us but actually, there are no boundaries between the Goddess-Empress and her personal guard when it comes to such things.
As the Empress must be protected at all times, it is considered best to have her surrounded by attendants she can trust and so we of the Imperial Guard are trained in all aspects of personal care and comfort. We are able to give a soothing massage as well as fight off a would-be assassin. We are as capable of bathing and tending our Empress as we are of finding out and foiling a deadly plot against her life.
My old mistress, Sundalla the 999th never required such intimate services of me, though she confided in me a great deal. But I knew that past Empresses had used their Guards for much more than just protection. And why not? Our bodies are sworn to the service of she who sits upon the Golden Throne. We are there for the Empress to use in any way she sees fit.
There is no shame in such service—only honor and loyalty and the pleasure of a job well done.
I decided at last that Charlotte would sleep easier without her outer robe. Carefully, I untied the sash that held it closed and slipped it from her sleeping limbs.
Then I wished I hadn’t done it.
She was too beautiful, lying there with her silky blonde hair spread over the pillows and her long limbs carelessly splayed. She was full figured, with ripe breasts and rounded hips—lush and gorgeous in a way I didn’t think she was at all aware of. The tips of her pink nipples poked through the fragile black lace of her small sleeping outfit and the V between her thighs was capped with a mound of silky-looking blonde curls.
For a moment I thought of some of the other, more intimate duties I had heard past Guards had performed for their mistresses…and then I pushed the thought away.
I made myself pull the coverings over her, hiding her luscious body. It was wrong to think such things about the female I had sworn myself to. Wrong and strange. I had never had such problems in my service before. Of course, my old mistress was forty cycles my senior and had once confided to me that her desire for any male had died when her bonded mate and Consort had passed into the other realm.
It’s only her blood calling to me, I told myself uneasily. My chastity is dedicated to her along with my life. These feelings will pass…they must.
Speaking of her exulted blood, I was cautiously relieved that, despite the large amount of it she had given me, Charlotte didn’t seem to be showing any signs of the Calet Sanguis, also known as the Burning Blood. It is the sickness which most often occurs following the Culling of the Consorts ceremony, after the Goddess-Empress has given her blood to the ones the Council deems worthy of her attentions.
Of course she hasn’t experienced the Calet Sanguis, I told myself sternly. Your blood isn’t rarified enough to call to hers, no matter how much of her own blood she pumped into you!
It was a ridiculous thought and I pushed it from my mind. I was there to protect and serve—nothing else. Accordingly, I looked around for another way to serve her.
There was a pile of clothing which needed washing on the floor and I thought I remembered seeing a machine in the closet by her food-prep area that had pictures of clothing on it. Perhaps I could figure it out.
Gathering as much of the clothing as I could, I slipped out of her sleeping chamber and went to make myself useful.
Chapter Nine
Charlotte
I had the God-awfullest weird dreams while I slept—all about a snake made of flames that wrapped itself around and around me, crawling all over my body and making me itchy and restless and hot.
When I finally woke up, I thought I was still dreaming.
Stacks of neatly folded clothes were sitting at the foot of my bed and Kristoff was putting them away in my dresser, obviously trying to be quiet so as not to wake me. He had taken off the white lab coat—which was good because it looked like it was about to burst at the seams—and was just wearing the light green scrub. The thin material of the top was stretched tight over his broad, muscular shoulders.
“What…what are you doing?” I asked, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. It looked like he was cleaning but that couldn’t be right—could it? The few guys I had been with before I gave up on dating wouldn’t have been caught dead doing household chores. It was beneath them—unmanly. Yet I had never seen anything more masculine, somehow, than my huge, seven-foot tall, self-appointed bodyguard folding my undies.
Hey—he was touching my undies!
“Excuse me!” I jumped out of bed and went to rescue my best black lacy panties from his large hand. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Serving you, my Lady.” He shrugged innocently. “Forgive me—did you want to wear those now?” His eyes drifted down to the area between my thighs and I remembered that the black lace teddy I was wearing didn’t have any panties to go with it. Also, it had somehow hiked itself up so that my little mound of well-trimmed curls was showing.
“Oh my God!” I pulled the hem of the teddy down as quickly as I could. “How…why…don’t look!”
“Forgive me.” He turned his head away considerately while I pulled on the panties.
“Where’s my robe?” I demanded, looking for it. “I don’t remember taking it off—or getting in bed either!”
“I carried you to the sleeping platform and removed your outer garment so that you could sleep more easily.” He spread his hands. “I ask your pardon if that makes you feel uncomfortable. I wanted only to serve you.”
He looked so innocent that I felt bad accusing him of anything pervy. I still couldn’t find my robe so I crossed my arms over my chest, frowning at him.
“I just…” I shook my head. “Did you actually do my laundry?”
“I protect and serve,” he said simply.
“Okay, well…” I looked around and finally spotted my robe, folded neatly on the side of my bed.
“You don’t need to fear to show your body to me, my Lady,” he remarked as I put it on. “The Empress has no secrets from her personal Guard.”
“Well this Empress does,” I snapped. “I don’t know you well enough to run around barely dressed. There.”
I felt better when I put my robe on, though I knew I would feel more in control if I was wearing scrubs and a lab coat instead.
Speaking of wearing scrubs, I noticed that Kristoff had reached beneath the stolen scrub shirt he was wearing and was rubbing his chest and abdomen, right where he had been wounded.
It reminded me that I was his doctor—or had been last night when I’d stitched him up and given him a blood transfusion. Since then he’d escaped from the hospital, run all the way here, and had fought off an attacker who wanted to kill me. Then he carried me to bed and let me tell you, I am not light. All that and I hadn’t even thought to check his wound! What was wrong with me?
“Take off your shirt,” I told him abruptly.
He raised his eyebrows at me.
“For what reason? Do you wish a different type of service, my Lady? Because though my chastity is sworn to you—”
“No, no—nothing like that!” I said quickly, feeling my cheeks get hot. “I just want to examine your wound. The stitches I put in should dissolve when you’re healed but that’s going to be a while—I want to make sure you didn’t pop any of them fighting that thing. Or doing laundry.”
“As you wish.” He tugged the shirt over his head, and spread his arms, displaying himself for me.
“Oh…” I whispered. His chest was absolutely mouthwatering—seriously, it looked like something out of a porno aimed at women or gay men. From the heavy musculature of his pecs right down to his eight-pack abs he was completely ripped. Of course, I had seen him the night before when I treated them but then I had been completely focused on saving his life. Now I could really appreciate what Sebastian had been going on and on about—shirtless, Kristoff looked like some kind of a Greek God.
The stitches—you’re supposed to be looking at the stitches! an accusing little voice whispered to me.
Right…the stitches.
But there were no stitches to see. To my utter amazement, they were gone—and so was the wound they had been holding closed. The only thing left was a long, faint scar that started just under his collarbone and ran down his long, muscular abdomen into the waistband of his scrubs.
“What in the…how is this possible?” I asked out loud. Forgetting to be intimidated by his amazing physique, I stepped forward and examined him, tracing the long, nearly invisible scar with my fingertips. His skin was warm—almost hot—but not in a fevered kind of way. More like it was his normal body temperature. As before when I had touched him, I felt a strange tingle jump between us, like a low-level electrical current. I barely noticed it—I was too caught up in witnessing what appeared to be some kind of medical miracle.
Kristoff made no comment or complaint and it wasn’t until I was starting to explore the end of the scar, under the waistband of his scrubs that he caught my hand in his own, much larger one.
“My Lady,” he said, his deep voice hoarse. “I don’t believe…I don’t think it would be wise for you to go further.”
I tore my eyes from the faded scar and saw that there was a different kind of “miracle” happening in his scrub bottoms. His thick, heavy shaft had come to full attention and was pressing hard against the thin green material. He was so long the broad, mushroom-shaped head was almost peeking out the top.
Blushing, I dropped my hand hastily.
“I’m so sorry. I’ve just never, uh, seen anyone heal that big…uh, I mean fast! I’ve never seen anyone heal that fast before,” I stammered, feeling my cheeks get even hotter. Oh God, this was so embarrassing!
“Forgive me for the way my body reacts to you,” Kristoff murmured. “It is…inexcusable.”
“Well, I was kind of, uh, touching you.” I cleared my throat. “Not that I meant to, you know, turn you on or anything. I just wanted to examine you. I can’t believe you healed so rapidly!”
“Why are you surprised?” he asked, sounding surprised himself. “You healed me last night—you’re a Healer, correct? Is that not your La-ti-zal power?”
“My what kind of power did you say?” I asked, frowning at him.
He sighed. “I keep forgetting that you’re ignorant of the galaxy beyond you. Listen…”
He told me a lot of stuff about the Goddess of Mercy and the Ancient Ones, whom she had created and given the seeds of life to sew across the galaxy. And about La-ti-zals, who were females blessed with extra gifts from the Ancient Ones.
“Only I thought that the gifts were dormant until you left your planet’s atmosphere,” he remarked. “At least, that is how it worked for your other two friends, Lady Zoe and Lady Leah.”
“What? You’re saying that Zoe and Leah have, uh, special gifts too?” I frowned at him. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “From what I understand, Lady Zoe is an Opener and Lady Leah is a Healer. I thought you were one as well.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t have any special gifts. Except, well…” I trailed off, thinking of my touch-sense. But I had never told anyone about that before.
“What?” he asked. “Please, my Lady—I need to know.”
“I…sometimes I know things about people when I touch them,” I said reluctantly. I’d been keeping my secret for so long it made me feel naked and vulnerable to say it out loud.
“A Knower?” He frowned. “That is a rare talent indeed. Do you also have visions or dreams that portend the future?”
I thought of the strange dream I’d been having about a snake made of flames twining around my body and shook my head.
“No, my dreams are pretty much nonsense—like everybody else’s. And the, uh, touch-sense—that’s what I call it—usually just works the first time I touch someone. Like with you, I knew that you’d recently been fighting for your life and that I couldn’t give you regular O neg blood because it might kill you. And—”
“And?” he prompted in a soft, low voice.
“And that’s all,” I said quickly. There was no way I was going to tell him the third thing I had picked up from him.
That of all the men I had ever touched, he was the only one I knew my body would react sexually to.
Just thinking about it made me feel hot and cold all over. I tried to push it out of my mind but it didn’t want to go. The fact that he was standing there looking so damn sexy and mouthwatering didn’t help any either.
“Um…you can put back on your scrub shirt now,” I said, feeling like it would be safer not to have him half-naked right in front of me. “I don’t know how it happened but you certainly seem to be healed.”
“It was your blood,” he said quietly, pulling the too-tight scrub top back over his broad chest. “It saved my life—but you should not have given it to me. I am not worthy to receive such a gift from the Goddess-Empress herself.”
I sighed. So we were back to that again.
“About the Empress thing…” I began.
“I have been thinking,” he said, before I could get going. “I have a small message cube that her majesty, Sundalla the 999th recorded for me to give to you before she Ascended to the Heavens. It’s tucked away in a secret compartment of my belt. If I could just get my armor I could show it to you. Perhaps it would change your mind.”
I didn’t think anything could change my mind about believing that I was supposed to be the ruler of the whole freaking galaxy but I was willing to watch the message out of sheer curiosity.
“Sure,” I said, shrugging. “I’ll watch it but I’ll have to go get your armor first.” I looked at the clock on the wall. “My shift starts in about an hour and a half and it’s going to be at least twelve hours long so you’ll just have to wait until…” I stopped because he was frowning and shaking his head.
“You cannot go to the House of Healing alone and unprotected,” he growled. “It’s been long enough since I incapacitated the first droid that another attack is imminent. Your enemies will be waiting for you to step outside your door to swoop in and kill you.”
“What?” I put my hands on my hips. “I hope you don’t expect to
go with me—you’re an escaped patient, remember? Security will be on you like a duck on a June bug the minute you step in the door.”
“Neither of us is going,” he said calmly.
“First of all, you don’t tell me what to do,” I said angrily. “And second, how are we supposed to get your armor if neither of us goes to the hospital?”
He frowned. “I think I know of a way. How enamored of you was that male I choked for disrespecting you last night?”
Chapter Ten
Charlotte
“Sebastian, you are the best friend, ever. I really mean that—thank you so much,” I said.
“You’re welcome. Is he with you now?” Sebastian looked up and down the empty hospital corridor, trying to catch a glimpse of Kristoff.
“I am.” There was a shimmer in the air behind me and my huge, self-appointed bodyguard suddenly appeared. He was dressed as he had been when I first saw him, in the Roman-soldier looking armor with the molded golden breastplate, high black boots, and short leather kilt. He had the long golden sword in a sheath at his back and its hilt stuck up above his blue-black hair.
To be honest, he looked nothing short of amazing and the intense way he watched me made me feel strange inside—kind of shivery. It was like I had my own private gladiator, although it was hard to see how I merited such loyalty and devotion. I couldn’t help thinking of the way he had looked at me and said, “I am yours,” as though it was an irrefutable fact that could never be changed.
Don’t be silly, I told myself, looking away from that changing rainbow gaze. He’s just protecting you because you’re the Empress or whatever. It’s his job, that’s all.