Mad Panther (Alien Guardians of Earth Book 2) Read online

  She peered out of a window that didn’t let her see far through the darkness and wondered again where the Lyran palace was located. As if to mock her attempts to discover her whereabouts, seconds later the craft was flying down through clouds and leveling out like a plane.

  “Are you ever going to tell me where the palace is located?” Sugar asked.

  “Not if I hope to keep sharing Nyomi’s bed,” Rodu answered.

  Sugar laughed at his reasoning, but she believed it too. She had no doubt Axel’s mother would make Rodu pay dearly if he told. “I’m going to figure it out, you know. It’s just a matter of time.”

  “It’s been over ten months, and you still haven’t,” Rodu pointed out.

  Grinning over how sure everyone was about her remaining in the dark, Sugar leaned back in her seat and got comfortable. She knew something they obviously didn’t know, which was that finding out secrets was a way of life for her.

  She’d just have to pay more attention to their return trip. All she could really see at that moment was what was out the front window of the craft. The view was expansive though, and she really did feel like she was flying through clouds.

  As she wondered about why they were headed to Machu Picchu, all thoughts of a potentially mad panther left her mind.

  2

  On top of an Andes mountain at the site of Machu Picchu…

  Lake Wright wandered the ancient stone-lined paths bored out of his twenty-two-year-old mind. Despite the panoramic views, all Lake could do was wonder about the amount of manpower and energy it had taken to build the megalithic citadel.

  What were the ancient Incas trying to accomplish when they hauled all those giant rocks up the mountain? Lake figured they probably were thinking the same thing his father had been. They thought that when Lake got to the top of the mountain, he’d be totally awed by the majesty of their accomplishment.

  And he was, at least a little bit, but at the end of the day, this place was just rocks and dirt and stories. It was nothing life-changing for him.

  His father had meant well with his Peruvian going away gift. To be fair to the man, Lake had used the word exotic when he should have used words like tropical and island during their conversation about where he’d like to go. It was a typical mistake for him. Lake had never known how to communicate clearly with his absent-minded yet academically brilliant father.

  Inventor and futurist, Frank Wright, hadn’t been the best at listening to his one and only child. Born late to parents in their mid-forties, Lake could look backward and see that he’d been way too much trouble for them to manage gracefully. He’d had too much energy and too much curiosity. He’d been too much of everything really. Their answer to the question of what to do with such a child was to send him away to boarding school.

  He’d been away when his mother died. He’d come back for the funeral before returning to school two days later. His father’s emotional distance hadn’t given him any reason to linger.

  Afterward, self-reliance had become a matter of survival. Over the years, friends drifted in and out of his life, but Lake never mourned their loss. He just made new ones and moved on.

  And girls—girls were fun but a bloody enigma. They all seemed to want things he couldn’t find it in himself to give them—like marriage and babies. The last thing in the world he wanted was to create another version of himself.

  His father’s sudden heart attack just before his graduation had taken away Lake’s secret goal to force his father to connect with him. Whatever was said during the last conversation ended up not mattering one whit. His father was just as dead.

  Yet ever the good son though, here Lake was on top of a wild Peruvian mountain suffering from oxygen deprivation. Either that or he was being haunted by his father’s ghost because he could swear someone kept calling his name.

  Lake…

  Lake looked around and felt instantly embarrassed by his mental breakdown. Had anyone noticed? There were others walking the paths, but so far not a single tourist or guide had looked his way. It was like he was invisible.

  Maybe this was what being dead was like, he thought as he walked. You wandered among the living while they didn’t know you existed. Shaking his head at his strange thoughts, he trudged on following one path after the other.

  How many stones had the Incas carried up here anyway? He’d read the history. The Temple Of The Sun was not all that impressive to him nor was the whole of Machu Picchu unless you were into all the legends.

  He’d traveled to Cambodia on a school trip his father had funded a couple of years ago. The temples of Angkor Wat were far more interesting to him—all the giant heads and giant gods. It was creepy to most visitors, but he’d oddly felt right at home among those ancient buildings with trees dissecting them.

  Lake followed the winding path to the end of the stone walls. He listened to a guide talking about the “The Temple Of The Moon” and its purpose. In it was a strange rock throne and several rooms. Some peculiar, pointless doorways were carved out of what appeared to be an open cave or at least part of a cave.

  He stepped around the other tourists who were still politely listening. He pushed his hair back and bent his six-foot frame to fit through the first genuine opening that went inside. No one paid any attention to him as he walked to one of the many fake doorways. They were obviously just part of the rock wall that hadn’t been excavated.

  Lake…

  Lake’s head whipped around. What the hell was going on here? That time his name had been louder and clearer. His imagination was probably being affected by the lack of oxygen at Machu Picchu’s high altitude.

  His gaze scoured the cave area looking for the owner of the voice but came up with—well, nothing. There was no one else in the cave but him.

  Snorting over his idiocy, Lake glared at everything around him. He finally turned back and frowned at the closest “fake” doorway that went nowhere. There were all listed in the visitor brochure to make sure tourists didn’t miss seeing them.

  All Lake saw was just work gone unfinished—places the builders hadn’t managed to get around to carving before they’d abandoned the temple.

  Following some urge he couldn’t refuse, Lake reached out a hand and placed his palm on the rock surface of the wall in front of him. Though solid at first touch, his hand with the slightest push went entirely through the cold stone.

  “Fuck this,” Lake yelled as he yanked his hand back.

  Not really believing what had just happened, he reached out a second time. The rock surface seemed to melt as his hand, wrist, and finally, his whole arm went through.

  Then he felt a tug, and there was a humming sound like a jet engine gearing up for takeoff. It seemed to be coming from the opening his hand was passing through.

  What the fuck was this place?

  Lake…

  And how in bloody hell did the person with the voice know who he was?

  “Shit,” Lake yelled loudly as the rest of his body got tugged through the stone.

  3

  “Are we there yet?” Sugar bit her lip when Rodu turned to glare at her.

  “Why do you keep asking me that question? It’s only been fifteen minutes since you last asked.”

  Sugar shrugged. “I don’t know. Guess I figured a flying saucer should travel faster than an airplane. It feels like we’re not even moving. I’m pretty sure I keep seeing the same clouds passing by.”

  “Peru is very far from the palace,” Rodu said carefully, turning his attention back to the sky in front of them. “Earth physics apply to all craft moving through its atmosphere. Perhaps it would help you to know that we are moving at triple the speed of the fastest commercial airliner. That’s the safest acceleration our human bodies can handle, even for you and I who are aided by the artifacts within us.”

  Sugar made a face. “So are we talking more than four or five hours to get there?”

  Rodu turned to glare again. He pressed a button on the panel in front of him
. “Calculate and report the estimated time of arrival when maintaining current speed.”

  “Four hours fifty-two minutes and twenty-eight seconds,” the craft’s programmed voice reported.

  Sugar giggled at the information and how Rodu got it. She couldn’t help it. This was definitely a flying saucer, and it had an onboard computer just like in the movies. She turned a wicked grin his way. “Are you sure the calculation is right?”

  Rodu grunted. “No wonder you tamed my son. The uncertainty you create is like trying to walk through wet cement. He probably never knows where he stands with you.”

  “Not if I can help it,” Sugar agreed with a smile.

  She turned to stare out of the window. All she saw was the sky. It had stopped being amazing after the first ten minutes. Now it was just tedious.

  “Actually, I don’t try with Axel. It’s like we meshed without all the common struggle two people experience when they’re attracted to each other. My relationship with him is not like any I had before him.”

  Rodu shrugged a shoulder. “Nyomi is as foreign a female companion as a male could ever find. We have nearly nothing in common except that we are obsessed with each other. How it came to be that way remains a mystery to me, even after all this time.”

  “That sure doesn’t sound like an easy relationship.”

  Sugar grinned when her comment finally managed to get Rodu to smile.

  “No. It is not easy. But being with her is more wonderful than anything a human male could ever dream of finding. Her adoration alone is worth living for, no matter how many lifetimes it costs me. And it has cost me several already. The blade I carry would have probably found a new host long ago if it had not agreed with her regeneration plans.”

  Sugar sighed in understanding. “All mine says about the potential end of our connection is host alive until death. It doesn’t seem to get how that kind of statement is not exactly reassuring.”

  “If you’re expecting it to develop nuances of understanding, give that up now. My blade is as direct as it was in the beginning. The only thing I’ve gained over time is that it doesn’t seem to have an opinion on every action. Sometimes I forget it’s in me until it speaks up.”

  Sugar chuckled. “I’m really far away from that place. I address it as ‘Artifact’ when I talk to it. Honestly, everything that’s happened to me still seems completely surreal. Hearing you talk about your blade seems surreal too.”

  “After all the years it has been with me, I assure you the being I carry is very real,” Rodu answered. “Soon you will come to understand your bonding with your blade is a natural state. Your blade sought a host for a long time, and it finally found one in you. It was created solely to make its host become superhuman, as trite as that sounds.”

  Sugar nodded. Being superhuman no longer seemed like something fictional, but her brain still couldn’t accept it yet either. The only reason she stayed silent was that too much had happened for her to debate Rodu’s description or his conclusions.

  Sugar?

  Sugar glanced at Rodu then returned to staring out the window. Private mode, Artifact. Understood?

  Affirmative. Urgency recommended. Protector now awake.

  Sugar closed her eyes. Yes, but don’t you think the Protector needs sleep too? I’m still tired.

  Response is unclear. Please restate for clarity.

  Sugar rolled her eyes behind closed lids. Like the artifact was making sense tonight? Never mind, Artifact. Explain things to me. I’m listening.

  Choice now made.

  Sugar felt her eyebrows draw together. I know, and I get it. You chose me. You and I are a team.

  Affirmative. We are team. Protector chose Lake.

  Her eyelids squeezed tighter as Sugar tried to sort out what the artifact was trying to tell her. Are you saying the new blade is now in a lake?

  Negative. Previous answer valid.

  Sugar opened her eyes and stared out at the sky. It was acres of blue with fluffy white vapor puffs. Funny how from the ground the sky always seemed more interesting than when you were moving through it in an aircraft. Is that where we’re going? To retrieve the Protector blade?

  Negative. Retrieval will result in death.

  Whose death? Sugar demanded, her eyes widening at the warning.

  Death of Lake.

  Sighing, Sugar leaned forward in her seat. The artifact was usually much clearer, but at the moment, she was getting a headache trying to figure out what it was saying. That hadn’t happened in a while.

  “Getting airsick?” Rodu asked.

  “No, I’m straining to figure out what the hell my blade is trying to tell me. The artifact says the other protector blade is awake and now in a lake. She says if we try to retrieve the blade that the lake is going to die.”

  Rodu pondered the possibilities. “Perhaps the blade is speaking of Lake Titicaca. It is the closest lake to your coordinates. There is a science base beneath its depths staffed by a variety of aliens from other planets.”

  Sugar turned to Rodu and lifted a hand in disbelief as he chuckled at her reaction. “Are you telling me there are real aliens living underwater in Lake Titicaca?”

  “Many visitors from other planets have limited capabilities. There are aliens living in lots of places on Earth—probably in places you’d never believe unless you saw them there.”

  “You got that right,” Sugar said with real feeling.

  “How can you be so shocked when you’re sleeping with a half-alien male yourself? You know for certain that aliens exist, Dr. Jennings. How can you not accept that there are more of them?”

  Sugar let a long breath escape. Because it was incredible that Earth had been invaded long ago and not many knew it, she chuckled over bumping up against the limit of her willingness to believe. “Guess you got me on that one, Rodu. The possibility simply hadn’t crossed my mind.”

  Rodu grinned. “In Earth terms, Lake Titicaca hosts a scientific observatory where other species study Earth’s ecosystems and biology. But there are no humans there. Human bodies simply aren’t made to be handle pressures down that deep. Only certain aliens can do so.”

  Sugar nodded. What else could she do but accept all the new knowledge Rodu kept dropping on her. “Okay, I got it. Blades only go into humans, and there are no humans in the nearest lake to the coordinates. We’re now officially back to zero understanding of what my blade is saying. I think we need to go to the coordinates and look around for clues until I get clear on the message.”

  Rodu frowned as he nodded. “It makes sense that you should trust your instincts in the matter. I will take us to the Temple Of The Moon. We will pretend to be explorers and hopefully find our answers.”

  Sugar felt her lips twitch. Her wicked side was never far away. “I actually am an explorer. Remember?”

  “I suppose that’s true,” Rodu said, nodding. “Our ruse will be highly believable then.”

  Sugar didn’t bother reminding Rodu that if it was true, then it wasn’t a ruse. Rodu was concerned enough about the new blade. She’d save her sarcasm for another day.

  4

  Nyomi sat on her throne brooding. She hated this. She hated it every time it happened even though she’d accepted the reality of it before Rodu even did.

  She’d been a warrior for the entirety of her long life. She well knew the cost of that kind of service.

  “Mother, my bed is empty, and there is no trace of my mate in your queendom. Where is she?”

  Nyomi straightened and faced the male stomping toward her. “Where is who, Axel?”

  “You know who I mean.”

  Nyomi huffed—then narrowed her eyes at her son. “I do not know where Sugar is. Ask your father.”

  “Very well,” Axel said, looking around. “Where is my sire? I’ve checked the training room and the library.”

  “I don’t know where your father is either,” Nyomi said stiffly. “I will not know where he has gone until he returns to me. That is how this works, A
xel. The blade calls him to duty. He follows its directions.”

  Axel frowned. “Are you saying the blade made Father do something? Do you think Sugar went with him? Do you think her blade made her leave me?”

  Nyomi shrugged. “I do not know the answers to any of your queries.”

  “What do you know then?” Axel demanded.

  Nyomi lifted her chin and glared at her angry son. “I know I will have my guards lock you up if you continue to yell at me. Do not forget that I am your queen. When I sit on my throne that trumps being your mother. But—if it helps you—I’m just as concerned as you are about them.”

  Axel turned away and stomped off, hissing loudly with frustration. A low growl rose from deep within him and echoed throughout the room. When it died away, he took some calming breaths.

  Then, and only then, did he turn back to his queen.

  He approached the throne and knelt at her feet. Axel schooled his expression to calmness when he lifted his face to hers. “Forgive me. My human emotions have made me unreasonable.”

  “Will my forgiveness stop you from being mad at Sugar for leaving?” Nyomi asked.

  Axel grunted. “No. It will not.”

  Nyomi waved a hand and glared. “Get up then, Axel. Fifteen hundred years ago, every time your father left I reacted as you are doing. Now? Now I know it is a waste of my energy to get so emotional over what cannot be changed. I suggest you turn your anger into quiet seething and find something purposeful to do while Sugar is gone. That is your destiny as the mate of someone merged with a sentient blade.”

  Axel rose to his feet. “Father disappears from you without a trace? And you accept this as normal?”

  “Yes. The blade tells him what he must do, and he goes to do it. He doesn’t tell me because he knows I would go along. He will call if he needs help. That is our agreement. For the last thousand years, he has kept his word.”