“No, nothing like that. We want to stay here, of course. It’s just that our supply of Yillium is running dangerously low—that’s the mineral that powers the Darkling Shot cannons,” he explained. “Without it, we have no ammunition to fight the Darklings with and our weapons are useless.”
“Well, that certainly is news that warrants a face-to-face discussion—I’ll give you that.” She dragged a hand through her long, silver hair, her lovely face troubled. “If the mob outside knew that we’d granted you the right to call human brides and now you can’t even protect us—”
“We have enough Yillium to ward off one more attack—we think,” Rarev said, frowning. “And we think we’ve found a source of it on another planet, just a few million light years from Earth.”
She gave a short laugh that didn’t sound very amused.
“Just a few million, did you say?”
“We can fold space and be there in an instant,” Rarev explained. “The only problem is—”
But his words were interrupted by a piercing whistle that took him by surprise.
Quickly, he drew his blaster from his belt and moved to put the human female behind him.
“Stay back,” he growled, scanning the room for the source of the shrill, alarming sound. “Keep behind me—whatever it is, I’ll protect you.”
4
Em wasn’t sure if she should be irritated or impressed. On one hand, she was still not happy with him for breaking into her home—it seemed a very arrogant and high-handed thing to do. But on the other hand, the big Monstrum had moved so quickly, shielding her instinctively with his large, muscular body and drawing his weapon in a move so fast his hand was no more than a blur. She had to admit a grudging admiration for that level of extreme physical prowess. However, there was no cause for alarm.
“It’s only my kettle,” she assured him, pushing tentatively on his broad back to get him to let her get around him, since he had backed her against a wall. “If you’ll let me by, I can take it off the heat and it will stop.”
The big Monstrum stepped cautiously out of her way and watched as Em took the kettle off the burner and poured hot water into the cup with her tea bag.
“Would you like some tea?” she offered, nodding at the steaming cup. She might as well be civilized, even if the big Monstrum was rather irritating. “It’s just herbs steeped in hot water,” she added, thinking she saw confusion on his leonine face. “It’s warm and comforting—very good for when your nerves are on edge.” Which seemed to be the case for both of them at the moment, she thought.
He nodded gravely, his golden mane ruffling against the broad shoulders of his metallic gold uniform shirt with the movement.
“I will have some, thank you.”
Em reached in the cupboard and got out a larger mug than her own. She poked a tea bag into it and poured the hot water over it, releasing the sweet scent of fresh tea.
“Do you take milk and sugar?” she asked, getting out the sugar bowl and finding a pint of milk in the fridge. “I can do without the sugar but I must have my milk, I’m afraid,” she went on, adding milk to her tea. “I shouldn’t though.”
“Why not?” Rarev frowned at her, an expression that centered more in his golden eyes than his mouth, which had an upper lip that was slightly split, like that of a cat’s.
“Well…because.” Em patted her full hips, rather uncomfortably. Why had she brought this up in the first place? “It’s not exactly slimming, is it?”
“Who said you had to be slim?” he asked, looking honestly confused. His golden eyes scanned up and down her body in an almost hungry way. “Aren’t Elites valued on Earth?”
“Elites?” It was Em’s turn to be confused. What was he going on about?
“Females the Goddess has blessed with generous curves,” Rarev explained. His voice dropped to a low, rumbling purr and his eyes went roving over her body again—almost as though he’d like to eat her up, Em thought indignantly. “They are considered desirable among my people—extremely desirable. Do the humans not feel the same way?”
“Er…no. No, I’m afraid not,” Em said shortly. “And why are you looking at me like that?” she demanded at last, tired of the way he kept eyeing her.
“How can I help looking at you?” he purred softly. “When you’re wearing such a provocative outfit?”
“Provocative outfit?” Em exclaimed. She looked down at the dark blue dress with muted silver accents that she was wearing.
She’d been trying it on to see if it would work for the Cabinet meeting she had later on that day and had come to the conclusion that it wouldn’t do at all. It was too tight across her hips and behind for one thing and the V-neckline dipped a bit too low, showing more cleavage than was acceptable. She had been going to change but had decided to get herself a cup of tea first—all that, of course, was before Rarev had let himself into her flat without so much as a by-your-leave.