12
“Who are the Khonsu?” I shuffled in my bed in the mansion, pulling the blanket to my chest. Thane had flown us both back to their place in the helicopter after exchanging blood with me. Derrian needed to attend an urgent matter in another country so he hadn’t returned home yet after he had been assured by Thane that I was safe. I suspected Derrian was an ambassador for his home planet, even though he had refused to tell me what his position was while I was with him. But it would explain why he seemed to be so damn important. I wished he would hurry home so that I could ask him more questions. Despite how my relationship had changed with the Vepar, I still wanted to know all about them and how the hell I could avoid them and the Khonsu for eternity.
“You need to get some sleep for the blood to fully heal you,” Thane insisted, staring down at me, his strong arms folded over his chest. I couldn’t help but stare at where his biceps bulged. With his short, dark hair, he could easily pass for a god. He looked like he was almost built of stone, and ready to battle any monster.
I lifted my arm and wiggled it. My wounds had healed to thin marks on my skin. “Looks pretty good to me. Your blood is like magic. You could help so many humans with it, you know.”
He studied me, and I wasn’t sure if he intended to burst out laughing or scold me. “My blood is toxic to anyone who isn’t compatible with our kind.”
There was that word again. Compatible. The way he said it made it sound so robotic. But why was I special to the Vepar? I gained healing from them, but what did they get from me? I tried not to think too hard about the fact that Derrial took the chance to exchange our blood, knowing if I wasn’t compatible, I’d die. We would be talking about that later. I’m just glad their hunch that I was “special” from the beginning had been true.
“Khonsu,” he began, and I shoved all other thoughts aside, focused on his words. “They’re a race that inhabit my home planet, Veon.” He paused for a moment, the wheels of thinking spinning behind his gaze. He sat on the bed’s edge, facing me. “I’ll try to explain using Earth terms. There are over 400 billion stars in the Milky Way, and all kinds of races exist there. But Veon circles a sun that is the closest to your Solar System. Your scientists call it Proxima Centauri.”
I nodded, wishing I had my phone to Google all of this. I tried to lock it in my memory for later.
“The Khonsu aren’t originally from Veon. They arrived after the sun near their home planet died. They apparently came from one of the rings of stars that circled the Milky Way. Their kind had to either escape or die, and we accepted them onto our land.”
I nodded, wondering if there was more to these Khonsu then what had first appeared. I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to get up one morning and leave a planet forever.
“At first, they settled on the isolated side of Veon, but soon, Vepar started going missing, and we later discovered the Khonsu were hunting our kind, killing us in masses, to take the planet for themselves. We also found out we weren’t the first race to have them attack in this manner. And now we hunt one another on Veon, and it’s unsafe for anyone.”
Engrossed, I almost forgot to breathe. “Holy shit! So, what the hell are they doing on Earth?”
He exhaled loudly, his shoulders sagging forward. “Some stowed away on our ships when we came to Earth.”
I recalled Derrial’s threat about the dog-like creatures escaping from the vessel. I still didn’t know if those creatures were real, but the creature that I knew for sure had escaped was a million times scarier.
"You should get some sleep now." He pulled the blanket to my chin, but I didn’t want to sleep. I had so many questions, so many things I had to understand.
As he turned to leave, I grabbed his wrist. "Please, don't leave."
He stared at our connection, at my hand so pale and small against his tanned skin, his strong arm. When he met my eyes, an expression I didn't understand fluttered across his face, and his breathing quickened. His reaction made my pulse start to race as the heat from where our skin touched spread over to me.
I released my hold, and he sank onto the edge of the bed, pulling a bent leg between us as he faced me.
"Nothing will harm you in this home. It's reinforced, and you're safe."
"Why did the Khonsu come after me?"
With a deep inhale, he sighed. "We never should have let you go to the Summit, but we didn’t know the Khonsu had infiltrated the meeting. Or maybe they didn’t infiltrate it, and they just happened to see you while you were outside."
I swallowed hard. "That doesn't answer my question."
"Just like we sensed there was something different about you, so can they."
"Is that why you brought me to your house in the first place? That Khonsu said I glowed and that I was easy to detect to your kind."
The corners of his mouth tightened. "He's not our kind," he snapped, then inhaled sharply. "We are different races, but share some abilities, like blood bonding. For us, it's about finding our forever mate, but for them, it's a feeding frenzy as others’ blood heightens their energy. It makes them stronger, feeds their adrenaline, and not even one of your human bullets would stop them. They have one purpose. Take over worlds and hunt down as many compatible females to feed from."
"Crap." I paused for a moment. “Wait! Why wouldn’t they attack men for their blood?” I pulled my knees up under the blanket and hugged them.
“Only females carry the pheromone.”
I swallowed the boulder in my throat because this told me the women on their planet were in danger, and the men would have had to step up to protect them, save them.
"What's stopping them from going out there and finding another compatible woman to drink their blood?"
"You're the only one we've found so far on Earth, and we've been watching your planet for years."