The Lasaran (Aldebarian Alliance #1) - Dianne Duvall Page 0,95
in a universal gesture of surrender. “Hey. Don’t blame me. As soon as I realized how many vampires we’d be facing, I told her to get her ass out of there. But your sister is as stubborn as a mule and refused.”
Ami grinned up at him. “You love my stubborn streak.”
He arched a brow. “Not when it scares the shit out of me.”
While Taelon tried to process the image of his tiny sister fighting in hand-to-hand combat against insane vampires, she turned back to him.
“Even though I haven’t been out guarding Marcus’s back since Adira was born, I still play an important role. I help Darnell train Seconds and put them through their paces so they can better aid their Immortal Guardians. I use my gift to help Seth track missing friends and family and alert him if the enemy is near. And once Adira is older, I can resume my former duties as Marcus’s Second and go back to aiding him in battle.”
Marcus frowned. “That will be decided at a later date.”
This time she arched a brow. “That has already been decided.” She turned back to Taelon. “My whole purpose in coming here was to save both our planets, to save our peoples. Seth and the Immortal Guardians and their Seconds just prevented freaking Armageddon, Taelon. They literally saved the world. It wasn’t the first time. And I helped them.” Such pride and happiness shone in her face. “If I leave, I won’t be part of that anymore. Mother and Father will expect me to return to my diplomatic duties and will assign more guards to shadow me because they aren’t going to know how to deal with my having been tortured. I won’t be able to touch my husband as much in public because I’ll be heavily scrutinized as a member of the royal family. And I like being able to touch him and freely express my affection for him. I like it when he does the same with me. I like Darnell and Seth and David and everyone else here hugging me and openly expressing their affection for me. Yes, it took me a little while to get used to it. But I really like it, Taelon.”
“We could change things on Lasara,” he blurted, trying to find a solution. “We enacted the laws prohibiting touch between unmarried males and females to slow our planet’s population growth. But now that our people have such difficulties reproducing and are facing extinction, we don’t need that.”
“You know how long it would take to enact such a change. And I have no idea what Marcus would even do there. He’s a warrior. He’s spent the past eight centuries hunting every night and engaging in battle. But there aren’t any wars on Lasara. To fight in battles there, he’d have to join the Lasaran military and leave the planet.”
“Fuck that,” Marcus spat out. “I’m not leaving you and Adira. I’ll find something else to do with my time.”
“Like what, honey?” she asked gently. “When Gershom was targeting me and Adira, you stopped hunting so you could stay here and protect us. You never said it, but I could tell the inactivity drove you crazy.”
He glanced around the room, opened his mouth, closed it, and shook his head. “I don’t know. But we’ll think of something. We’ll figure it out when we get there.”
“No, we won’t. Because we aren’t going.”
Taelon’s heart clenched when he read the finality of her decision on her face as she turned back to him.
“If I stay here,” she said, “I can still accomplish what I set out to do. I can still help save both our worlds. I can continue to help Seth and the Immortal Guardians protect humanity and I can serve as the Lasaran ambassador to Earth.”
He blinked. “What?”
Ami motioned to Lisa. “I was right. Earth women—at least those who are gifted ones—are compatible with Lasaran males. With Seth’s help and the network’s connections, I can look for gifted ones who would like to volunteer to move to Lasara, look for lifemates there, and help us repopulate our planet. I’ve already talked to Seth about it, and he’s given me the okay.”
Marcus’s eyebrows flew up. “Really?”
“Yes. Though the long trip there makes him nervous, he said he would actually be relieved that gifted ones would be able to find sanctuary in a place where people won’t hate or distrust them because they’re different.”
Marcus slid Taelon a look. “Your people really wouldn’t treat them badly for being