LUKA
for a hopeless cause.
“Charlotte D’Arcy?” a deep voice said.
She turned and found herself eye to eye with a muscular chest as wide and blue as an ocean. Thin, leather straps of armor only served to make the rippling muscles beneath look more naked.
Charlotte was tall. But she had to tilt her chin up to see the man that chest belonged to. If she had thought his muscles were impressive, they were nothing compared to his face.
The warrior had the perfect bone structure of a furious fallen angel. The razor-sharp angle of his azure jaw was partially hidden behind a curtain of long, raven hair.
She blinked into his dark eyes for a moment, forgetting what he had asked her.
“Charlotte D’Arcy?” he asked again. His voice seemed deeper now and she could almost hear harmonics in it.
“Yes, that’s me,” she said, tearing her eyes from his and taking a step backward.
She felt half-hypnotized by him, but it was probably just the long flight. And the long romantic dry spell before the flight.
“I have your whelp,” he told her.
The words bounced around in her head, not making any sense.
He moved, pulling a pack around from his back.
“Oh,” she breathed, seeing that it was not a pack at all, but a baby carrier. “My baby.”
Charlotte had never exactly had a ticking biological clock. Though she loved kids, she wasn’t entirely sure she would love having a baby specifically. They seemed so helpless, so unable to tell her if she was screwing something up.
But this baby, herbaby, gazed up at her with dancing blue eyes, as if assuring her that they were going to have a great time on this crazy moon together. Any uncertainties Charlotte might have been harboring flew right out the airlock.
“Hello, beautiful,” she said, holding out arms that suddenly felt empty. “What’s your name?”
“She can’t speak yet. And she doesn’t have a name,” the man said, handing the little one over with surprising gentleness for one
Maybelle grasped her finger immediately, a surprising amount of strength in her little hand.
“Neat trick,” Charlotte said. “What did you say your name was?”
“I didn’t,” he told her. “But it’s Luka. I’m the whelp’s guard.”
“Invicta, eh?” she asked, eyeing his distinctive uniform and coloration, and doing her best not to drool. “That seems a little extreme.”
Everyone knew that the Invicta dragon warriors were the fiercest force in the galaxy. They’d had an accidental dust-up with the people of Imber many generations past, and they were footing the bill and the tech to grow Imberian babies in pods to make up for the civilization they had inadvertently destroyed all those years ago.
When the babies reached adulthood, they would inherit the wealth of the planet of Imber, with its rich mineral deposits.
Charlotte was here to adopt one of those babies and care for her until she was grown, in exchange for passage to this moon, as well as land and a small stipend.
But she hadn’t expected an Invicta to be acting as a chauffeur for the baby, too. Those guys were really serious about making amends.
“It is my duty to watch over her until she is twenty standard years old,” he told her solemnly. “Your small family will be protected with my life, even in this dangerous place.”
Twentyyears…
“Really?” Charlotte asked, amazed. He nodded.
That was a lot to take in, especially when it came to living arrangements. But that was a conversation for later. Right now, she was thrilled to have the burly warrior by her side for the immediate future.
“That’s fantastic,” she told him. “I can really use a guy like you with what I have planned. Shall we walk and talk?”
“What you have planned?” he echoed.
“Oh, my friend, you thought you were just going to watch me change diapers and make rules about screen time and dessert on
“Look, I don’t know if you think being a bodyguard means that this child and I are going to be prisoners in a little farmhouse or something, but I did not sign up for that,” she told him. “We are going to explore the Night Parade. You can help us, or you can watch us walk away.”
She stalked off, half holding her breath.
After a minute, she heard heavy footfalls behind her and the raspy sound of a big man cursing under his breath.
Thankthegods…
She hadn’t been sure of her next move if he had refused to go along. For all her fierce posturing, she wasn’t exactly experienced with childcare. The Adoption Agency had given them some basic training on practice droids, but that wasn’t the same as a real baby. She was relieved to have some help with first-hand experience.
If he hadn’t surrendered in the game of chicken, she might have had to go crawling back to him.
“He doesn’t need to know that,” she whispered to Maybelle.
“I don’t need to know what?” Luka asked in a grumpy voice.
Gods,buthe’sgotgoodhearing.
She couldn’t help but wonder if he excelled in other areas as well.
But what was he supposed to do? He couldn’t let the whelp out of his sight. It was his duty to watch over her.
And more than his duty, it was his privilege. Luka was convinced it was the reason he had been born.
At first, he hadn’t exactly been eager to be pulled from active duty to babysit a whelp, especially when he heard he would be staying on a farm.
Luka had grown up on a farm, and he found his small-town rural life boring. When the Invicta asked his father to release him so that he could join the cadets, he had been overjoyed.
But as soon as the whelp was in his arms, he knew the best thing for her was the same quiet life his parents had provided for him. In the secluded natural beauty of a frontier farm, he could easily keep her safe and well fed. Her adventures would come later, if she even wanted them.
There were days he hoped she never had any adventures at all. Though of course that was his selfishness and protectiveness talking. In reality, he wanted everything for her. He wished he could wrap up the universe with a bow and place it in her little hands.
Instead, he’d had to put her in the hands of a madwoman.
Though if he was being completely honest with himself, a tiny voice in the back of his head was just a little bit excited at the prospect of one last adventure. And the dragon seemed content to follow her anywhere, so long as he followed just a little more closely…
“I’m glad you’re coming,” she said, as if she had heard the dragon’s thoughts and wanted him closer, too.
Luka grunted noncommittally.
“Don’t you want to know more about the mission?” she asked. Obviously, he did, he just hated to encourage her imperious nature by agreeing.
“Are you really planning this mission on foot?” he asked her instead.
“Do I have other options?” she asked, stopping in her tracks. “We have horses,” he told her, sighing.
He could have given her a stern lecture about starting off on a mission without figuring out what assets she had, but what was the point?
“Are they back at the farm?” she guessed, a suspicious look on her face.
A funny sound came out of his chest, and he realized he was laughing.
“What?” she demanded, looking irked.
“Nothing,” he said, still laughing.
She smiled at him, as if his laughter were irresistible.
Her smile was quite beautiful. Though she was large for a Terran female, she was scrawny compared to dragon women. He had thought there was nothing unusual about her except for her bright, fiery hair.
But now he could see there was a beauty in the liveliness of her features. He liked her proud stance too. Tall females often cowered, as if they were ashamed of their own height. But this one stood at her full bearing, as if daring anyone to say she was taking up too much vertical space.
It was a dragonesque attitude, and he liked it very much.
“What?” she asked.
Her voice was softer now and her eyes were slightly hazy. He noticed a spray of freckles across her nose and cheeks, like a field of stars, and almost lost himself studying the possible constellations.
The dragon flung itself at the bars of his consciousness again, begging him for freedom.
Mate.
Luka staggered backward slightly, his world turning on its axis. No,there’snoway.
But the breeze picked up, sending her scent to him, and he nearly groaned as his entire body came to life, every cell begging him to claim her.
LUKA
When they reached the horses, Luka fully expected her to need his help mounting and learning to ride. A woman who wore a ballgown to Han-2 wasn’t likely to be an experienced rider.
She surprised him by striding right up to one of the mounts and stroking its long, furry face, completely unafraid.
She had chosen the chestnut mare, leaving the larger gray stallion for him.
“They’re broken the same as on the Terras?” she asked him.
“Standard bareback,” he told her, feeling a little stunned.
She placed one hand on the creature’s withers, the other still holding Maybelle firmly to her chest, and leaped on, swinging her leg over at just the right moment to land cleanly on its back.
The shaggy pony didn’t even blink.
“What?” she asked.
Gods, he hadn’t even realized he was staring. Who was this woman?
“I didn’t expect you to know how to ride,” he admitted.
“I’m an archaeologist,” she said again, as if that explained everything.
“I thought that meant you dug up old civilizations,” he ventured.
“Sure,” she said. “But that means going to out of the way places. Which means we often travel on animals. Although I have to admit
I’ve never seen an honest to goodness horse before, outside of the history reels. But it’s not all that different from a stag-mount.”
Educated and adaptable, no matter how silly her attire was.
“Do you normally dress so… formally for work?” he asked as politely as he knew how.
She threw her head back and laughed, and the sound did something strange to his insides, like the first few seconds of a freefall.
Maybelle chuckled too, waving her little arms around for emphasis.
“Sorry,” Charlotte said after a minute, wiping her eyes. “The adoption agency wants us to wear these. It’s something from an Imberian poem, I think? Yourmothergreetsyouwithapurplegown, or something like that.”
Suddenly, Luka found himself laughing as well.
“Yes, I know, I know, they dropped me off on a frontier moon in a dinner gown,” she said, rolling her eyes. But she was smiling.
“It’s not that,” he said, still chuckling. “Do you know what that phrase is referring to? Because it’s not talking about a dress.”
“What is it, then?” she asked, looking mystified.
“The Imberian phrase purplegown translates to what you would call the placenta,” he told her. “Imberians have a very complex and layered language.”
“So, I’m wearing a placenta?” she asked.
“The agency’s intentions were honorable,” he offered.
And then she was laughing again, a real belly laugh this time.
Maybelle joined in, and then Luka did too, an unexpected warmth spreading in his chest.
The woman might be stubborn and a little crazy, but he liked that she had a sense of humor. She would be a good mother for Charlotte, who also liked to laugh.
Mate,the dragon reminded him.
He ignored it, determined that it would not wreck his mind at a moment when he had so much responsibility just keeping these two laughing females safe in the wild.
He would think on all of this later.
“You coming?” she asked after a moment.
He shook his head and crossed to his horse, speaking to it in low encouraging tones before mounting.
It whickered back at him, flicking its ears as if to await instruction.
Luka squeezed his knees and they set off.
“Did you know these ponies are what’s left of the horses that were transported on the Night Parade?” she asked him, her eyes sparkling.
Actually, he did know that. But he liked listening to her talk, so he shook his head.
“It’s true,” she said. “They thrived here and the only thing that changed in so many generations is their fur getting thicker and shaggier.”
“They’re very handy for our purposes,” he told her.
“Hey, we’re heading in the wrong direction,” she noticed.
He’d hoped that would take her longer, but she was proving to be more attentive than he’d expected.
“I know you want to go to that ship before we go to the farm,” he told her. “But we’ll need supplies. I figured we’d at least go into town first.”
“Not a problem, I’ve got it covered,” she said, pulling her horse up to a stop.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“I’ve got all the tools and supplies we need in my pack,” she told him, indicating the bag on her back.
“The baby will need formula, and we’ll need rations,” he told her patiently. “This isn’t one of the Terras, we’re not going to pass a shop along the trail.”
“Look,” she told him simply, slipping off her pack and tossing it to him.
He caught it instinctively in one hand.
“Open it up carefully,” she told him. “Go on.”
He eased his thumb along the slide and the pack fell open, revealing two clear bags inside.
In spite of the dangerous possibilities, Luka had to admit that it felt good to be heading toward the horizon instead of the farm.
CHARLOTTE
Charlotte drank in the cold, fresh air of Han-2 and looked out over the verdant land that spread unbroken in every direction. Now that she and Luka had forged a tentative accord, she was free to appreciate her surroundings. And they were beautiful. Every so often, something would sparkle in the sunlight, and she would realize she was looking at the skeleton of a wrecked ship, overgrown by the forest or meadow they were traveling through. The sight was hauntingly beautiful. It was as if Han-2 had taken it upon itself to lay those ships to rest, embracing them until they were part of the moon.
Maybelle was getting sleepy, snuggled against her neck. When they stopped, Charlotte would try to rig up a sling of some kind so she could have both hands free.
Luka had one, but she didn’t want to push her luck asking to borrow it.
She glanced over at the massive warrior. He was frowning, as usual, eyes scanning the horizon then sweeping to each side and then forward again. If she didn’t know any better, she would think the man was all business.
But she had seen him laugh. And felt what that sound did to her. Gods,buthe’shot…
She bit her tongue, even though she hadn’t said it out loud. They were about to spend twenty standard years together. She couldn’t
afford to think about him that way.
“So, Charlotte D’Arcy,” he said suddenly, his deep voice surprising her after so much silence. “What are you expecting to find on that ship?”
But before she could answer, something darted into the path ahead of them.
It was small and fluffy, with huge glossy eyes and a pink nose.
“Oh, how sweet,” she said.
“Stay back,” he told her, his voice harsh and urgent.
“It’s just a little herbivore,” she protested, pulling up her horse anyway.
Another one darted out, followed by five or six more. They moved across the path and into the wooded area on the other side.
“Arbistles would never come out into an open space like this,” he told her. “Especially not with us here.”
“Then why are they here?” she asked.
“Because something bigger is coming,” he said ominously.
Her heart pounded, and she pulled sleeping Maybelle closer to her chest.
Luka moved his horse unsubtly in front of hers. She wasn’t some damsel in distress that needed rescuing. But she wasn’t going to argue about how much safer it made her feel to have him there, especially while she was holding the baby.
The ground rumbled, and a shiver went down Charlotte’s spine.
Something enormous, covered in greenish scales, crashed out of the underbrush from almost the same spot the little arbistles had come from. It made her think of a crocodile, if crocodiles stood up and ran at lightning speeds on unusually long back legs.
There were squeals of fear in the direction it was heading. But the creature itself was eerily silent, but for the sound of that huge body throwing itself ravenously forward.
A moment later, it was gone, and the sounds had disappeared into the trees, leaving them in the same verdant, peaceful wilderness she had been admiring before.
Luka clucked at his horse, and they began to move forward again.
Charlotte’s horse followed on her own, rightly suspecting that Charlotte was lost in her thoughts and had forgotten to give her a squeeze.
Charlotte had been on a lot of really rough field sites. Some were dangerous because of animals, others because of people who didn’t want them digging up the past.
But she had never seen anything like that creature.
She had a whole new respect for Han-2. It was a beautiful moon, but dangerous. She would have to keep that at the front of her mind.
Her eyes moved automatically to the Invicta warrior in front of her.
He had pulled up his horse to wait for her, his eyes scanning the horizon once more.
She suppressed another shiver, wondering what else he might be looking out for.
However Luka might feel about his agenda, her choices, or how she raised the baby, she was determined now to remember the most important thing.
She was very lucky that he was here.
“Charlotte,” he breathed in relief, his eyes finding hers the moment she stepped out of the shadows.
She grinned at him and held up her hands. An arbistle hung from each.
“Wow,” he said, impressed.
“Sorry it took so long,” she said. “With only a dagger, I had to take the time to get close.”
“You got those with a dagger?” he echoed in disbelief.
“Sure,” she said. “You have to be patient, and you only get one chance. But since I had seen the way they moved earlier, I figured they would leap up when they were scared. I took out the first one without him noticing me, and when the second one startled at the movement, he jumped right into my swing, and I got him too.”
He nodded, impressed.
She really had nerves of steel. Especially for a soft-looking Terran woman who had called the creatures sweet only a few hours ago.
“Where’s the fire?” she asked.
“It’s ready to go,” he told her.
“Trouble getting it started?” she asked, sounding surprised.
“Nope,” he said. “I just wanted to wait for you.”
“You were worried you’d have to come in after me, weren’t you?” she asked, a teasing smile playing on her pink lips.
“Maybe,” he said. “But I meant no offense. You are new to this place, and there’s plenty of danger here.”
She nodded once and didn’t argue.
“I’ll clean these while you start the fire,” she offered.
Gods, but he admired her.
She strode off before he could answer, ostensibly to prepare the game to be cooked.
He returned to the kindling and crouched, breathing a spark onto the pile to get it going.
He knew how to start a fire with flint, of course, but he was a dragon after all. The short cut would get them that much closer to a meal and some rest before getting back on the road tomorrow.
He had no idea how much she knew about the NightParade, but there was no way he wanted to approach the thing in full darkness.
