The Krinar Eclipse, page 15
part #0 of Krinar World Series
“Go away!” she snapped and focused back on the TV.
A cold, familiar voice frosted the blood in her veins. “Ms. Crowley, I think you’re going to want to adjust your tone.” She slowly spun around in her chair.
Ambassador Soren and another Krinar who looked exactly like him were standing shoulder to shoulder just inside her office, blocking her escape. She recognized Soren’s voice from years of press conferences and political events. But who was the identical man beside him? Did the Ks clone themselves? Maybe Soren was dead and they were both clones of him? This could be a hell of a headline!
Then she remembered she was alone in a room with two of them. Fear prickled inside her like a thousand spiders scuttling beneath her skin.
“I…” She swallowed hard. “What do you want?” She tried to keep her bravado intact, but the blackness of their eyes was terrifying.
“You hired resistance fighters to attack my mate. Twice. The little stunt in the factory was unpleasant,” Soren said as he stepped farther into her office, the panther-like grace of his body spiking her terror even more.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I wasn’t even—”
“Enough. We know the truth. Others have talked. You are spiteful and greedy and care nothing about taking a life to get yourself ahead. You’re the kind of filth that sets back the future of your people.”
She frowned, beaten, but unwilling to yield. “So what are you going to do, kill me?”
Soren loomed over her, his hands pressing at either side of her desk.
“One tiny snap, that’s all it would take,” he warned in a dangerously gentle tone. He moved fast, catching her neck in his hands, but he didn’t squeeze.
“So much for being an enlightened people,” she said with a triumphant smirk. “You’re no better than us. You’re just more dangerous. Just like I’ve always said.” Tarah choked, unable to get air into her lungs as he squeezed. An animal-like panic made her spasm. She flailed, clawing at his hand. Just as her vision began to tunnel, he released her. She fell gasping down to the ground, hitting her knees hard enough that her bones rattled.
“Make no mistake, we are just as capable of violence as you are. But we also know how to afford mercy. You will tell us everything about your connections to the anti-K resistance, and then…” He waited for her to meet his eyes. “Then we will erase your memories. Who you are now will be wiped away forever. But what remains will have a chance to become a better person.”
The man who looked like Soren slowly smiled and reached for her. The scream she gave was abruptly cut off.
Epilogue
One month later – Monterey Bay Research Lab
Bianca finished typing up her latest report about sea otters crushing oyster shells on large rock formations along the coast. The shells then bore unique markings from the striking of the shells against the rocks as they sank to the bottom of the sea. The layers of crushed shells could actually be dated back hundreds of years. In a way, the sea otters were leaving an archeological record of their activities, almost like humans would. She hoped the study would change the way the world saw sea otters, as something more than just playful mischief makers.
She shut down her computer and said good night to the two other lab technicians before she slipped off her lab coat and retrieved her purse from her locker. She checked her phone, saw a few text messages from Claudia and with a little smile, she texted her friend back before putting her phone away.
She walked out of the lab and then froze. Something soft and red lay at her feet. She bent and picked it up. A rose petal? She smoothed her thumb over the velvety surface of the petal and inhaled its soft, alluring scent. She grinned. Lately, she seemed so much more aware of the beauty in life. The scent of a rose, the briny smell of the sea, the heat of Soren’s kisses, the sound of children laughing at a park. There were thousands of small joys to be experienced in every moment of the day. After the tire factory, she’d made a promise to herself that if Soren returned to her safe and sound, she would never take anything in life for granted again.
She looked at the petal, wondering how it had gotten into the lab. She glanced around the hall and spotted a second petal farther away. She headed toward it, picking it up too. Then she noticed another petal, and her smile grew even bigger. She started walking down the trail of petals, following the winding maze through the aquarium, laughing sometimes as the trail had her walking around in circles past certain fish exhibits, the ones that were her favorites, naturally. She always paused to look at the brightly colored fish or the elusive octopi or the floating jellyfish. Each moment built up her sense of wonder, but she knew where the trail would ultimately lead.
The kelp forest viewing room.
She drew in a nervous breath as she entered the darkened room, which was lit by sunlight filtering down through the waving strands of kelp. The entire floor of the viewing room was covered in petals. The table had been set up with food, and a tall figure stood with his back to her, but she’d know that form anywhere.
“Soren?” She whispered his name, and he turned around.
“Bianca.” He smiled as he walked up to her and held out one hand. Her heart gave a jolt as she placed her palm in his, loving the way they fit together so perfectly. He bent to one knee, and her eyes began to burn with tears. She’d teased him about proposing, and she’d known this moment would someday come, but he’d completely surprised her tonight.
“You are my heart, Bianca. You eclipse everything else in my life. Will you do me the greatest honor of becoming my wife in the human way?”
She laughed a little at his phrase of “the human way,” and Soren answered with his own charming smile that made her melt inside.
He removed something from his pocket. Her heart stopped beating when she saw what it was. A ring with a black pearl rather than a gemstone. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
“You love the ocean so much, it seemed fitting for you to have a part of its natural treasure.”
She stared at it and then at him, her lips quivering.
“Yes.” It was the only word that mattered right now. Yes, yes, yes!
He swept her into his arms before she could say another word, and he gave her a kiss full of honey and fire. He caught her left hand and slipped the ring onto her finger, but she could only think of the endless, glorious future which lay ahead of them.
When their mouths parted, he held her close, their foreheads touching.
“The Council granted my request for your father. He will be given the nanocytes after his term as president is over. The Council has decided that your father will become an ambassador of Earth when he finishes his last term, and he will live among my people in a Krinar Center as part of a cultural exchange. It will help cover the fact that he will start to de-age rapidly. We can visit him as often as you like. The nearest center is an hour from here.”
Bianca’s head was still buzzing with joy as she gazed into her lover’s face. How had she ever feared this man? His brown eyes were as warm as honey, and concern lined his face as he studied her in return.
“I wish…”
“Yes?” he asked.
“I wish you knew how much I love you. How it fills me inside with such joy that I feel I might start crying.” She couldn’t stop a sniffle from escaping. “You’re the most wonderful man.” She laughed and wiped at her eyes. “I just wish you could feel what is inside me.”
“I think I do, Bianca.” He nuzzled her, smiling softly. “When I struggled from the Wailing Pit to freedom, I fell to my knees and wept like a child because of the joy of being free and alive. Holding you now in my arms is a thousand times stronger than that moment.”
He bent his head toward hers and kissed her again. The scent of roses and the flickering sunlight filtering through the kelp created a private nirvana for them, a heaven of their own making. Soren was right. Their love for each other was an eclipse. A Krinar eclipse.
Sef stared into the bathroom mirror. Gone were his dark-brown eyes and russet hair. Now he had dark-blond hair and blue eyes. These were features not found naturally in Krinar. He looked like a human, but a human version of himself. It was unsettling. Very unsettling. But his skin was still a deep golden tan color, which was human enough.
He rubbed a hand over his jaw as he gave himself one more look in the mirror before he slung his leather motorcycle jacket on. He hadn’t cared for the feel of animal skin at first, but he’d grown to accept it. Still, he looked forward to the day where he could be himself and not a Krinar guardian constantly trying to root out the last of the human resistance.
Stepping out of the bathroom at the truck stop in Kansas, he eyed the humans nearby. No Krinar here. The resistance was strongest in middle America, primarily because the Krinar had stopped the production of animals for meat and dairy products. The farmers had been ordered to start growing fruits and vegetables instead, but many had not been able to make the change effectively. The heart of the businesses here in the Midwest, as humans called it, had been drastically affected. Sef knew about the situation, but his job wasn’t to change the economy. His duty was strictly in law enforcement and espionage. As a guardian, he was duty bound to protect his people, and even the humans from themselves, if necessary.
He nodded politely at the convenience store clerk. The man offered a friendly nod back. Once outside, Sef climbed into the 1967 black Mustang that he’d created using his fabricator. He curled his fingers around the black steering wheel and studied the horizon. The flat plains of Kansas were glowing with the setting sun. A sign beside the road read, “Lawrence, Kansas—2 Miles.”
He knew what he would find once he got there. A small bar run by two brothers, Liam and Mason King. They were leaders of an anti-K resistance movement, and Sef was going to infiltrate them, find out what level of threat he was dealing with, and neutralize them.
They would never see him coming.
Thank you so much for reading The Krinar Eclipse! If you want to see how Sef, Soren’s twin brother, gets tamed by a human female, keep reading for a 3 chapter sneak peek of The Krinar Code by Emma Castle!
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The Krinar Code by Emma Castle
Chapter 1
“Ow!” Harper King swallowed a curse as she sucked on her pinched thumb. The big Corvette suspended above her was in decent shape, but the axle was dented all to hell. The owner had been pissed when she’d recommended he replace the axle or sell the car. Given that it was an expensive classic, he’d opted for the replacement, but he’d grumbled the entire time. Between the parts and labor to fix them, new axles could cost almost as much as the car itself. She didn’t mind the work, but the customers at King Auto Repair usually didn’t like the price.
“You okay, Harper?” A deep voice came from nearby. She glanced around and saw her older brother’s boots as he stopped next to the car she was beneath.
“Yeah, I’m fine, Mason.” She lay flat on her creeper and pushed herself so she rolled out from underneath the Corvette. Her thumb still stung from where it had gotten caught in part of the undercarriage. She glowered at the car. “This axle, though, is going to have a very bad day tomorrow.” She tilted her left wrist to check her watch. It was a little after nine at night, and her brother should have been working, not here in the garage.
Mason held out a hand, his brown eyes full of worry. He and Liam didn’t approve of her running the mechanic shop on her own, but she was damned good at it, and they needed to get with the century.
Mason’s eyes darkened with shadows, and his voice lowered. “Liam and I have a meeting tonight. You got any more jobs, or can you watch the bar with Neil for the rest of the night?”
She let Mason lift her up onto her feet, and she glanced around at the shop. “Yeah, I can watch it for you.” She didn’t mind tending bar most of the time, but her true love was the auto shop.
King Auto Repair shared a building with King’s Bar, the bar that her brothers ran together. It wasn’t much, but given that Lawrence, Kansas, was a little college town of just under a hundred thousand people, it passed for the center of the local nightlife.
Harper wiped at the sweat on her brow. It was quiet. The usual sounds of electric drills, men whistling, car hoods slamming, and the symphony of choking engines, sputtering motors, and hydraulic ramps going up and down were absent since they’d closed two hours ago. Her two employees, Jeff and Alan, had already left for the day. The shop had closed at seven, and she’d been so deep into her work that she’d lost track of time. It wasn’t the first time that had happened. When she was working, she could dive so deep into the job that the rest of the world just fell away.
“You and Liam will be careful, won’t you?” she asked him.
Mason, at twenty-nine, and Liam, at thirty-one, were grown men, but Harper still worried about them. Ever since they had lost their parents on K-Day, the day the Krinar invaded Earth, the three of them seemed to be standing alone against the world.
“We’ll be fine,” Mason promised her. He and Liam wouldn’t let her join their meetings because they thought it was too dangerous for her. They were running a resistance group out of the back of the bar. Every couple of weeks they held a meeting with local men and women who wanted to find a way to resist the Krinar occupation. But even if they had let her join, she wouldn’t have. Humans couldn’t fight the Krinar—or the Ks, as most humans called them—and it was just out of plain old human stubbornness that they even tried.
From the moment they had arrived five years ago, the aliens had taken charge, almost effortlessly. They looked human enough, just insanely attractive, like muscled supermodels. They weren’t skinny and gray with black oval eyes like many people obsessed with extraterrestrials had expected them to be, and they sure as shit didn’t need help phoning home like E.T. The Krinar were stronger, faster, and smarter than humans. They lived for thousands of years and had technology that made Earth science look like humans were still banging rocks together trying to make fire.
We never stood a chance when they invaded. What makes anyone think we have one now?
Harper sighed and rubbed her grease-covered hands on a towel and watched Mason walk back through the hall that connected the bar to the garage. Then she busied herself with closing down the shop. She made a note in her calendar to call the Corvette owner tomorrow with an update, but the simple task of writing tended to make her head hurt.
She’d been diagnosed with severe dyslexia in high school. She’d graduated high school, barely, but she hadn’t been able to get into college. Numbers were easier to write, but words and names? It was like she was watching the letters dance around the page, and it gave her a migraine. If her father hadn’t discovered she had a knack for mechanics, she didn’t know where she might have ended up.
Thankfully, engines, mechanics, and electronics all came to her with stunning clarity. When she’d turned eighteen, she’d been able to take over her father’s repair shop.
Harper paused to look at the photo of her parents that hung behind the reception desk inside the shop. In the photo her parents were standing outside the repair shop entrance. It had been taken nearly twenty years ago when she was only four. Her father beamed with pride, and her mother was looking at him with admiration. They’d been so in love, so in tune with one another.
And they were gone.
A deep sting lanced through Harper’s chest, a pain of loss and sorrow that would never fully heal, no matter how much time had passed. No one deserved to die the way they had.
She kissed the tips of her fingers and pressed them to the glass of the framed photo. “Night, Mom and Dad.”
Then she lowered the shop doors, set the alarm system, turned off the lights, and passed through the hall and into the small office between the auto shop and the bar. The large desk against the far wall by the single window was littered with paperwork from both the shop and the bar. Harper growled. Every night she came back here she had to clean up after Mason and Liam. They were great at dealing with vendors and customers, but they sucked at basic business organization and bookkeeping. She practically had to pester them to keep up their records.
Harper shoved the papers aside to retrieve the folded set of clean clothes she brought to work every day. Shop work always left her khaki work suit covered in grease. She changed into her jean shorts and T-shirt with the King’s Bar logo, a retro-looking crown beneath the King name in a bold stylistic font. Then she removed her work boots and slipped on some simple leather sandals. She wasn’t girly, not compared to most girls she knew, but after work she did like to feel a bit more feminine, even if she was tending bar for her older brothers.
As she exited the office, she could hear the rowdy sounds of the bar over the thrumming bass of the bar’s modern jukebox. She opened the door and scanned the room. The walnut wood tables and even the bar itself were full, which was typical for a Saturday night. The kids from the University of Kansas loved to come and hang out after tough classes all week.
“Harper!” Jessie Lang, one of the full-time waitresses, grinned and waved at Harper. Jessie carried a full tray of beers toward a table of men who were watching the nearest flat-screen TV hanging from one of the bar’s support beams. They whooped as someone made a touchdown. College football was serious business in Kansas, and any good bar worth its salt would have a dozen TVs up and running with the latest games on.
