Free Lawked Flame by Erosa Knowles Page A

which he proved by
giving his life to ensure their safe passage to Earth. He could do
no less. In some ways his life was forfeit, he had no choice in the
matter. Swallowing back the bitterness, he accepted his fate. He
would woo the human creature and do his duty to his people.
    Khayden thought of the female at the store. If she
were the sampling of human females Nature’s Mother had chosen,
things would not be so bad. She was exquisite. Compared to
Lawkmerian females she was tall, a little over five and a half
feet. The oversized coat hid her body, but he believed that would
be pleasing as well.
    Sighing, he placed his hands beneath his head. He
needed to discover what human females liked and did not like in
order to bed her.
    “ We must bond in haste. How do I
get her to agree?”
    Silence answered him in the darkened room.
    He studied the ceiling as if the answers were in the
white paint. Her reaction to him didn’t bode well. What had set off
the sneezing fit? When she had gasped for air, he'd thought to
contact the Murlins for some type of cure.
    Ironically, once she stopped
looking at him the sneezing stopped. That was the first time he'd
received such a response. It was confusing. Clotho claimed she was
a Kee, yet she could not stand to be in the presence of the Master
Lawke. If all the human Kees rejected him there would be no
unlocking. And all of this speculating would be a waste of
time.
    With the Geleets breathing down their backs, he had
no time to waste. He wondered if there was a way to insure the
human was a Kee or not before he approached her.
    Frustrated, he sat up. Clotho said the human Kee
needed to accept him and their alien lifestyle. She'd warned him
that may take some time. He groaned trying to reconcile the two
needs.
     
    ####
     
    Alayna tossed and turned, caught in the trap of her
dreams. Initially, her surroundings felt dark, cold and damp, like
the forest after a light rain. Prisms of light lit the leaves and
traveled slowly down the trunks, exposing the death grips of the
parasitic vines. Beyond the trees she saw water. Excited she ran to
the banks of the pond and stuck her toe into the warm clear
water.
    “ I tried to find you,” she
murmured while looking around for a landmark to identify her hidden
oasis. Her eyes skipped over a few fallen logs, a large boulder,
some sort of canister, and landed on a large male lying on his
back, his hands folded beneath his head as he looked up at the
clear sky.
    A jolt of recognition hit her as she pulled her feet
from the water and backed away. Her survival instincts blared,
demanding she leave before he noticed her. Panicked, she turned to
run and fell over a fallen log.
    “ Ow,” she yelped as her outer
thigh hit the hard ground. The throbbing in her leg pushed all
other thoughts from her mind. Touching the fast-forming bruise, she
released a breath, glad there was no blood. Hands pushing against
the ground, she rose, placing most of her weight on the other leg
and stood. Gingerly she tested her sore leg, hoping she could put
some weight on it.
    “ Does it hurt badly?”
    She screamed and pitched forward,
her fast moving descent interrupted by a strong pair of hands
beneath her arms. His scent, reminiscent of the forest, enveloped
her, stirring and resonating in places she refused to name. It
teased and tortured, her heartbeat slowed as she caught hold of the
strong beat coming from his chest pressed against her
back.
    “ Answer me, does your leg hurt
you?”
    “ No.” Goosebumps raced across her
skin at the dark cadence of his voice. How could a man sound so
delicious? He made her hungry. Hungry for something she had deemed
dead and buried. She straightened and moved away as her senses
returned.
    “ Thanks, I wasn’t looking where I
was going. I need to go. Thanks again.” She was babbling and knew
it. But she absolutely refused to look at him. If she did, she
would know who had caused her insides to quiver and melt with a few
words.