uncoil

He was a King in hiding. Taking a page from his Queen, he silenced Dezrick, and he found a place far away from everyone. From everything.

Pensley was a wake. He was weak of body after weeks of bed rest, but his mind seemed to be well rested.

He had none of the side effects that Kellum was experiencing.

As soon as Frey showed up, they had taken each other into their arms. They did not even need to speak. Feeling like an intruder, he left them.

He envied them their peace with each other. Their quietness together. He and his mate would never have that.

He rubbed his forehead at his unloyal thoughts. There was no peace to be found with his mate, but her leadership skills surpass his own nearly every day.

Today she had no qualms about throwing herself into harm's way for one of her people.

She always jumped before she questioned. Before she found out the consequences or planned a course.

He was learning that made for a good queen, but he was not so sure that made her a good mate.

With a deep breath, he tried to banish his ill thoughts. It was wrong for him to have these thoughts.

Not only was it not loyal, but it was uncalled for.

She brought Pensley back to them. She banished New Ruler Lusiana's demon.

He panicked. He could feel her, but she had been weak. Far away and dim. That had been more than he could handle. His hands had wanted to force New Ruler Jedda to bring her back, and it had taken everything in him not to hurt the other man.

The only thing that stopped him was Hayden. Her peace flowed over him, then through him. When he would have cast her out because of the amount of guilt he felt to have her near, New Ruler Adrian and New Ruler Sean were there lending him their strength.

With their help, he found his mate again, and he could let her finish her quest. Then, like the weak King he was, he left before he had to face her.

"I hope you're not thinking about jumping."

He closed his eyes. She could always catch him unaware. When he went to her, she always knew he was coming before he was even there.

When he opened his eyes, she was seated next to him, but closer to the edge. Her feet hung over, and he had to look away.

Why must she always live like that? On the edge?

"Dez, is worried about you."

Kellum raised an eyebrow. "He contacted you after I banned him from addressing anyone about me leaving the cities?"

She snorted. "Yeah, right. He didn't have to. Wherever he is, he's worried."

"He does not worry."

She looked out over the giant canyon below them. "Sometimes I wonder if I should envy him that."

He watched a bird in flight, and he wondered if he should envy the bird. He had a freedom that Kellum has never known, will ever know.

"You're in a dangerous mood tonight. I guess even stick in the muds need a moment from time to time."

"I would never jump. Only a human would think about such a thing. You may go without worry."

"Is that how it is? Well, tough shit. I'm not here because I missed your sparkling personality. I had no choice in the matter. Believe me, I fought it. I think it has something to do with us all being so close today. Which is crazy."

He knew she told the truth. She could not stay away. "I apologize."

"Don't. I don't like this anymore than you do."

He looked at her. Some days he had to force himself to look at her and others he had to force himself to look away.

She sighed. "It's like their strength showed me the areas that I'm weak. We definitely don't spend an hour a day together. Just being in the same city as you helps, so I never even noticed that I'm one of the weakest ones in the bunch."

"You are stronger than me. I could not even help him."

"We're harming ourselves by playing this game we're trying to play."

"What game is that?" If it was a game, he felt like no one told him the rules or the objection.

"I'm just telling you what I felt. I was strong, but I'm meant to be stronger. We all are. The others aren't at their best because some of them are missing. We are not at our best because... because we're letting each other become a noose around our necks."

That was exactly how he felt sometimes. Not just her, but all of it. The committees, all the expectations, everyone who is looking to him for the answers.

"Until I find a way to end all this bullshit, then we need to try harder."

He could feel how much she disliked saying those words. It was hard, but he knew she was willing to do it for the others. She would do a lot for her people.

"Tell me how to do this. Any of it."

She looked back at him. "It's not so hard. You already know what to do. You've been molded just for this moment."

"No. I was never meant to be King."

She frowned and searched his eyes. "The other you always told me I was born to be Queen. If that's true, then how is it not true for you?"

He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead.

At the touch of her fingertips on his, he stilled.

The universe stilled.

He could breathe.

He lost her touch.

"That's what I thought." She whispered.

He longed for that small touch back.

"There is something we need to talk about. I felt something else today. It was tiny but I'm pretty sure about it."

His eyes opened at hearing her unease.

Her voice was grim. "It's Savion. He's one of us."

"He cannot be." His voice was little more than a whisper.

"My feelings exactly." She looked out over the canyon, her eyes touching upon all its beauty. "We have a chance at a perfect world. Is it horrible that I just want my old one back?"

"I think I might wish for the same thing." He admitted softly.

"Talk to Adrian, or better yet, check Savion for the mark. I know what I felt."

"We would know. I can feel all the others."

"Me too. And he's there now too. Small, just a thought, but he's there. Pensley is one of us and we couldn't feel him until today."

"I will not accept Savion as one of us."

"Again, I'm right there with you. The thought of seeing any of them ever again..."

He put his hand on the ground next to him and willed her hand to find his. He just needed a moment of peace.

She took a deep breath. "I'll worry about that when we get to it. So, you and Hayden, huh? Make sense that if they took me away, they'd give you a replacement."

Why did that statement hurt so much? He could not even speak past the sadness that engulfed him.

Or was that her feelings?

"How did you find this place?" His mate asked.

"I think... I know that you once told me before we destroy things, we should find out what is important to you and your people. A committee comes up with a list now and this was on one of them. I wanted to see it for myself."

She caught his slip and her eyes moved over his features before she went back to taking in the natural beauty before them.

"I've never seen the Grand Canyon before."

"Your world is enormous. At least four of mine and all full of wonders."

"So, there's nothing like this on your planet?"

"No. A few small mountains. Some glazing land. Nothing that takes your breath away."

"A lot of cities?"

"No cities. Just one, and nothing like what you are thinking. Most days you could go through the entire day and never have to venture out."

"I can see that, I guess. You don't have any reasons to run to the store and work comes to you. What about visiting family?"

"We are already together."

"You don't always live on the spaceship, do you?"

"Not at all. We have two of them and about thirty warships, two ships that are about a fourth of the one you have seen. Then about six dozen transships."

"The little ones that carry people around?"

"Yes."

"Do you live in houses?"

Her small finger touched his and stayed there. A sigh went through him.

"Apartments?"

Kellum nodded. "More like that, yes. The interior and the exterior look like our ship, but it cannot move from place to place. Imagine something like a beehive. Everyone lives there. Works there, except a selected few."

"What happens when someone finds their mate and wants to move out?"

"It is unnecessary. Everyone gets their own room."

She grunted. "I knew some mates don't live together, but none of them do?"

"They do not."

"Do they at least have rooms near each other?"

"Highly unlikely."

"What about kids? Babies?"

"Most of our children, which you already know we have had none in a long time, are kept all together with advisors to watch over them. Parents can visit whenever they choose. Once the child no longer needs to be cared for, they receive their own room."

"I don't like that thought. Thad is a terror, but I can't imagine not having him with us. How old are the children when they get their own rooms?"

"Around three."

"Shit, at three I was still eating crayons. Is that what your plans are for here? A giant beehive?"

"That was the plan. Come here and show humans how to live properly. Find mates and continue with our lives. Now everything has changed."

He felt her eyes on him, but he was afraid to look her way. Afraid she would take her touch away.

"Including you. Do you want to go home?"

He needed her to see the truth in his eyes, so he had to chance looking at her. "Home is not an option. I made sure of that."

"How?" She asked softly.

"The ones we left behind are on their way here. They will not beat the enemy, but they are coming. They have left behind nothing except for our barriers, which can be maintained from here. I left those up in case we ever need to use the planet to house others."

"What do you mean by others?"

"Some of the beings collected off the Ratkillgon ship are unsuitable for this planet. Some are unsuitable for coexisting. The vile creatures that we cannot get back to their home planets will have to be placed somewhere. A lot of placements will have to be decided on. The Ratkillgon collected everyone in their path and most do not know where home is, much less how to get there. We have no maps past the planets we already knew about. I have a new team leader who wants to explore beyond, but it will be a long time before we can safely do that, and some of these individuals cannot stay here in the meantime."

She was interested in what he was saying. Jessalynn turned towards him, and now her knee touched his.

"Will said he could stay. He also said he cannot populate with us."

He would have talked about anything if it meant that she would continue to stay close. "True. He is not a danger to us but nor is he acceptable for copulation. We gave him the choice. He was the only one of his kind aboard the ship, but he is still unconcern about returning home. Zonsonee and the two like him are the last of their kind and are incompatible with our generics. We will be unable to mate or conceive with them but since they do not wish to be a threat and since they have no home to go to, we have accepted them into our society."

"He's one of us. That has to mean something."

"Yes."

"Any aliens who we can conceive with?"

"Not ideally. There is one race my people are calling the Aquazs. They are small men and women who are slightly blue. They only have half our lifespans and populate like rabbits. Sex would be a possibility, but my experts have concluded that our kind nor the humans would ever choose to mate with them because they give off a very plangent odor. At all times. It is their bodies' way of clearing out toxics. Even the Ratkillgon had a hard time overcoming it and had them all hidden away."

"How unpleasant?"

He made the smallest of faces, but it must have been enough because she smiled.

"So, they have to go?"

"I would think so. They need to at least be separate from us by a lot of distance."

"Frick mentioned there are some blood suckers. Any werewolves? People who look like a mean Cupcake?"

His eyebrows raised. "There are indeed. They call themselves aarrr. It is more a sound than a name. They are men, there was only one female, who have hair covering most of their bodies. They are not a malicious race, but they are a very dominant race. Very. None of our women, nor a human woman, would choose to be with them. Women hold very little appeal to them except to mate with. In fact, that is all they use a female for. You can well imagine how well they got along with the Ratkillgon's. The two races did nothing but fight over who was the strongest. Population is a possibility but very few of them were immune and it will be nearly impossible for them to produce children."

"What will you do with them? Please don't tell me you left the woman with them?"

"We did not plan to but after a few days it was clear that we needed to. The female insisted. Wholeheartedly. She knows no better and does not see the way they treat her as wrong."

His Queen paled. "How many men?"

"Six."

"Oh, lord."

"Yes."

"What will you do with them?"

He sighed. "We are unsure. There are bigger worries. The blood suckers, as you call them, are a very real danger. Their thirst is unquenchable. There is also a group we are calling Imporgants. Huge beings that seem to change from male to female as needed. They also populate like crazy and can carry anywhere from three to nine children at once. Dezrick, says in less than thirty years they could overpopulate your entire planet."

"Dear lord."

"Not only that, but they are also having trouble handling this atmosphere. My people are hard at work trying to create them a large enough chamber that can house them until the rest of our people arrive."

"Then you hope to send them to your planet?"

"That is our hope. We are making the adjustments to the shield now."

"Other than the Ratkillgon and the bloodsuckers, are there any who are a real danger to us?"

"We dislike the Undoys. Very smart, and very... for a lack of a better word, evil beings. Ratkillgons have no qualms about killing others to get what they want but the Undoys would kill us just because they like to kill. Even among themselves. There are four of them and we must keep them all in separate rooms and heavily chained. The Ratkillgons' collars are very useful in this case because___."

He felt her unease before he saw the unease on her face. "I am sorry, Jessalynn. I did not mean to bring up the unpleasantry I know you have endured."

She looked away and hid her unease. "Why are they useful?"

"The Undoys can convince a person to hurt themselves or to hurt others. My people are not as acceptable as yours, but it still has proved very problematic."

"What will you do with them?"

"Right now, we are studying them. I have set up a whole committee just for them. Some believe we need to know more about them because they fear the outcome if these aliens ever decided to invade."

"Do you have a group to decide what to do with the Ratkillgons? I don't care what anyone says, we must do something about them. They have hurt too many. Destroyed too much."

"What would you have us do, Jessalynn?"

"I don't know but something."

"I have been reassured that within days a vaccine will be in my hands that will make it where humans can be around a Ratkillgon to up to fifty years and never get sick. It is taking longer to reassure my people of the same because we still do not know why they affect us at such a higher rate. They believe it has to do with our brain capacity and have assured me that within a week, two tops, they will have a vaccine for us as well. We might have to take ours in doses, but we will get the same outcome."

"And then what? We forget what they've done?"

"No. We are learning everything we can so that we are better opponents. My people do not fear them. They are intelligent but they do not use it to better themselves. They have no ambition. When they ran out of mates, they built some ships to go find them some. They have been without a planet for nearly sixty years. The spaceship we captured has not even been in contact with the one on the way here in years. The only reason they are headed in this direction is because they noticed the other ship here and figured that must mean good news. These Ratkillgons have been trying to figure out how to get them to not come so they would not have to share the humans with them. All together there are three such ships."

Kellum could feel her unease, and it bothered him greatly. "We will not forget."

"But you won't make them pay either. Your people do not believe in killing. You don't believe in payback or doing what has to be done."

"Do you? I believe in doing what I must do to keep my people safe. What I have to do to keep my Queen safe."

"Put me in charge and I will do what has to be done and I'll start with the ones right here. Some of them shouldn't be able to live."

"The ones that hurt you cannot hurt you ever again."

"You don't know that. They could___."

"I do know that. I made sure of it."

She looked at him, her eyes searching. "What do you mean?"

"All you have to know is that___."

"What did you do?"

"I killed them."