Weight of Penumbra Ch. 04

Synopsis: Before Eclipse, Aliens have lived on earth as humans for decades waiting for the moment to leading up to take it over -- The Eclipse. After Eclipse, Gaelen meets Kiowa, the first human allowed to attend college. Little does he know she is not Y'vori; and she doesn't know he is the King that will lead the final eradication of the humans from the planet he will soon rule. Their story is A Wider Sky. This is the weight of that story.

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Weight of Penumbra

A Beyond Eclipse Novel

Book 2

by Talyis Bagley Ellison

(C) 2017

Chapter 4

✯✮✰~Gaelen~ ✰❂✬

I ran to the room that was going to Kiowa's, for the third time in the last 20 minutes, just to make sure it was better than any room she had ever stayed in her entire life. I included a playlist of her favorite human music to the panel and ordered the maids to place for fresh daisies near the window seal. I even snuck out to the arts neighborhood and bought an colorful afghan blanket that Kiowa was so partial to at college. It wasn't identical to the one she had but I was pretty proud of myself that it was close. I fluffed her pillows with my big clumsy hands.

"What is your deal?" Bellas chuckled, leaning against the door seal, but I ignored him. I reset the notebook and pen on the desk and took a deep breath; and again, I glanced at my watch.

She is coming any moment. A transport picked her up from purgatory three hours ago and she should be here at any moment. I forced myself to dismiss thoughts about last night and her last words to me.

She had been hurt so much and I am sure my father and Bellas will have more in store for her. But my goal is to have her fall in love with me again. I have to convince her that I will protect her and that she wishes for me to end her life will never be a possibility. I vowed that I will do everything within and out-of-bounds of my power to protect her.

"You know that you will have to kill her eventually. But hey, I am all for you having fun. You're still a virgin right?" Bellas teased me with a cruel smile and I pushed right passed him.

I want to say at least Kiowa had class and wasn't a heckling banshee of a wife that he was forced to love. But I didn't.

Instead, I hear the door forcefully swing open. I dash to the hall and catch a glimpse of Kiowa quickly being escorted to the study where my father is. I only saw her braids floating in her wake as she's strong handed into our loft by a human hating Y'vori security officer my father had assigned to the family.

"Oh good. Welcome, Ms. Walker to my home. We are glad you are here." I heard my father introduce himself to Kiowa, as I near the study. Fuck I wanted to meet her at the door.

"Father," I say as I burst through the door and Kiowa turned to me in shock. She sways. My little Mouse swayed and normally I would tease her it was because she was struck by my sexiness but she was emotionally pulled in so many directions, I probably should have rethought this bursting entry.

"I see you know my son. I assure you, you will be safe while you are in my home," My father said so coldly. I was just waiting for a snort retort of his own comment.

"I will never harm Kiowa." Yep, I put it out there.

My father didn't like it either. He stiffly adjusted in his chaise and swirled his glass of amber cognac. For someone so anti-human, he held onto more pre-Eclipse human things than anyone I had known from his generation. "My wife and sons, Bellas and Anesola, and Bellas' wife, Nyna, will join us for dinner promptly at 7pm. We will treat ourselves to a human dinner tonight to make sure Kiowa feels welcome but afterward, we should consider enjoying separate meals." Kiowa couldn't tell if he was addressing her or the cadet standing at attention to deliver his orders to the kitchen.

"So, sit, Kiowa," My father turned his attention to Kiowa, "I am sure you are weakened by your journey."

"I am fine, thank you," Mouse responded and jutted her chin up a bit to make herself seem brave. That's my little mouse. Father retorted with a snort, he saw through Kiowa's guise. She withered a bit and then sat down. My father had a knack of knocking one down a few pegs. He had done it to me my entire life since Eclipse.

I sat down without invitation next to Mouse. I didn't care what he thought. I wasn't gone to leave her here alone to be interrogated by my father. Mouse scooted away from me and gave me a nervous glance.

My father bellowed in laughter. "Young love! Well, I assume that love ended when my son nearly finished you," He continued to laugh, "But I am glad he didn't. You are very peculiar to me. I want to learn more about the human girl that was able to surpass nearly all Y'vori. There are only a handful of us that could pass the test with flying colors not just once but three times as you have. I am sure you know who those people are."

She swallowed hard and carefully measured her words, "Professor Windsor and you, Your Majesty."

"No, I am not the King. I wasn't born to be king. Cato is fine. The King is sitting beside you. I am curious how you happen to seduce my son?"

"Seduce?" We both said at the same time in choked voices.

A chuckle rolled out of me. The idea of Mouse seducing. It took me forever just to see her in her bathing suit. "I assure you, Father, I did the seducing. Kiowa is more like--"

"A little mouse, I can see that. It's a fitting pet name for your little pet." Father said in such a sweet nature it leaked with the bitterness it was meant to have -- burning Kiowa's ego, and what a humble ego she had.

"I am not a mouse and I am not his pet," Kiowa snapped.

"A mouse with claws that thinks it's a cat. Has she met Taxa yet? Now, there is a cat!" Father snided.

"Father, what is the purpose of this? I thought we were going to be cordial to our guest. Why bring her here away from her family on the holiday to insult her? She will face enough of that at school."

"Because, Son, we can." He slammed his fist into his desk and stood up leaning both hands on the desk. "They are the lesser beings on this planet. But you are right." He smoothly took his seat. "I apologize, Kiowa. It has been a long time since I have had to be subservient to your kind."

"Subservient. I assure you I am not trying to dominate any Y'vori and I am sure humans would have embraced you if you hadn't...."

"Kiowa!" I stopped her and grabbed her little fists into my own. Our touch felt electric. Is this the hope I am waiting for, is there a chance for us? If felt like we still had a connection deep inside of us. But she was going to not allow us to find it, if she went Rebel on me now, in front of my father.

My father arched a silver eyebrow and just watched us, inspecting us. I know his mind was churning. We all felt the tension crackling in the room. I could even feel it.

Wait, fuck, that's Kiowa's hand! It is pulsating hot. I thought what I was feeling was a lingering deep connection inside of us, but it was just Kiowa's powers sparking. Maybe its both, I hope it is both. But she was going to not allow us to find it, if she went Rebel on me now, in front of my father.

I covered her hand more, I didn't want my father to find out about her powers, then she would be good as dead. A human with Y'vori powers. I couldn't even explain it nor had I made the connection until this moment. Since that first moment we met, I had thought she was Y'vori. She used powers to save my life and breaking my neck on the staircase.

"So Kiowa, tell me about your family. Who are you parents before-Eclipse? "

"Were. My father died in the war."

"Spunky too. I can see why you have an appeal to her, Son." He raised a speculative eyebrow at me. "Go on, Ms. Walker."

"My mother was a nurse. I was born after Eclipse."

"So you have no memory of the world prior?"

"No. Everything was destroyed. All we have are the memories and stories passed down."

"So it's safe to assume you were conceived before-Eclipse."

"Yes. I was born a few months later in the colony."

"Gaelen remembers the world before-Eclipse." My father turned his bow and arrow back to me. "But they are not fond memories, I assure you, Kiowa. The world is better as it is now and will soon be better with Gaelen crowned king."

"King of the World. That seems like a major power trip." Kiowa smarted and I squeezed her hand tightly again feeling the crackle and the heat of her power. Maybe it wasn't our mutual love I was feeling. It was her powers, maybe she was about to do something to my father or me.

"Humorous human." Cato wagged his loafer shoe and took a large unimpressed gulp of his cognac. "Gaelen will show you to your room." He dismissed us like that, he was no longer interested in niceties. I think she hit a spot in his diamond strong armor and instead of killing her, he pushed her away. Thanks, Dad.

I guided Kiowa to the door easily and once we were out of the prying eyes of my father, my hand really began to burn.

"Mouse, you're burning my hand," I want to kiss her.

"Then let go of my hand." She spat, yet I still want to kiss her.

"Let me show you to your room first."

"Well, that's a surprise! I thought you attempt to trick me into going to yours first."

"Don't put it past me. The week is still young." Damn, my hand was really burning now. I don't know what is being packed in that tiny little mouse frame of hers but it was really delivering a wallop of energy to my innocent hand.

"Why am I here, Gaelen?"

"My father knew we were dating and he summoned you. I think he is genuinely intrigued by you."

"Is he also forcing me to return to University?"

"Yes."

She then yanked her hand from mine and stormed into the room we had stopped at. She didn't even notice the flowers, nor the silk pillows, the Afghan or the notebook and pencil for her to journal in. She disregarded it all and just sat on the bed crossing her arms tightly across her chest.

Shit. Clear my head. Clear my head.

"Kiowa, I am sorry. It was all I knew. It was a reaction which I didn't even know was so ingrained. See a human, take its life before the human risks so many more Y'vori lives."

She only shook her head.

"Kiowa, I will say I'm sorry until the day I die. Please forgive me. I didn't even know that I was reacting to."

She turned her head not looking at me yet not noticing anything. She was furious, I hadn't seen anyone get this angry -- other than myself.

"Please Mouse, I love you. I love you so much," I was on my knees at her feet afraid to touch her knees. My hands just hovered around her like this was a close as I could get to hug her to me.

"You didn't stand up for me."

I inhaled sharply a cold chill ran down my back, "What? When?"

"Last night. You didn't stand up for me. You allowed Sebol, Taxa, Bane and Haazic treat me like that."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, the last name or person I wanted to think about right now was Sebol. "My little Mouse, I cherish you. I will figure a way to love you, but I cannot disrupt the culture of hatred for your kind right now."

"Why am I here?"

"Right now, I can't. But I will protect you. I love you. And when the time comes, I will publicly decry you and no harm will come to you. But it has to be like this first. I cannot -- it will start a chain of events neither of us wants."

"Why am I here?"

"Kiowa, I told you my father summoned you, but I am not going to lie, I am not disappointed he-"

"No! Why am I here? Are you planning on making public ridicule of me or kill me."

"No, Mouse. You are our guest. And, I assure you, you will be safe here and anywhere in The Realm."

"I don't know if I can trust you, Gaelen."

I hugged her knees to me and I was so happy she allowed me. I wanted to pull her into my lap on the floor next but I knew she wouldn't allow it.

"I know. I will prove myself to you. I promise. I love you, Kiowa Walker. I do."

"Until your soul opens."

"My soul has already opened and I choose you."

"Yeah right, I am human, you are Y'vori."

"Kiowa, trust me, my heart is yours, my soul, my everything is yours and it has your name engraved on every inch of everything. I will prove to you that I will keep you safe."

"I can't guarantee anything." Kiowa replied. My body released with such relief I had a tight been so tightly wound that I knew I would break if she would have stayed indifferent to me.

"Mouse," I got up, sat next to her like we had when we were on campus. I took her hands into my own. She must have also relaxed considerably since deciding to give me a chance because there wasn't a charge anymore. "How are you able to do things?"

"I don't know what you mean?"

"You have abilities like Y'vori do." It was why I never considered her to be human. She didn't often display her abilities in public only once and every time she did she seemed very afraid of consequences. "Who else knows about your abilities?"

"No one. Just my mother..." She seemed to suck in air and her eyes shifted like she was considered adding more details. "If I am to trust you, then you will not tell anyone that I have powers."

"Mouse, you don't have to explain to me what it would mean if someone were to find out. But, don't worry, your secret is safe with me.

I felt so naked under her unscrupulous gaze, I even began to question myself if I had the ability to keep her secret safe. I would do everything I could do to make sure Kiowa's trust was assured.

"I've never known any Y'vori with the ability to manipulate electric currents."

"I wasn't manipulating electricity?"

"You're hands were glowing in front of my father. You can't do that, especially around him. He is dangerous, Kiowa. You have to be cool and docile as ever. I don't know why he doesn't like humans but he's dangerous to your kind."

"My kind," she said more as an exasperated statement than what I meant it to be.

"Come on, let me show you around."

Change the subject. Make her happy. Bring her peace: Is my mantra now.

I grabbed her hands and felt a gentle spark between us. A good spark, not one ready to zap me out of anger. Maybe there was hope for us. I first took her to my mother's terrace garden which looked out onto the city. Kiowa for a moment as she had always done, took everything in like a sponge, first with awe and then with guilt. Having seen the utter desolation she grew up in, I could understand the tinges of guilt that probably plagued her when she was in the Realm.

"Your kind and my kind were one kind once a time ago. When I was young, I had a friend who was human -- my best friend." I leaned against the rail looking out onto the city skyline, I loved the cool breeze it was a perfect crisp end of summer day.

"Yes, you told me," she seems to also enjoy the fresh air and leans her elbows on the rail.

"But when my parents stole me and Bane, Taxa away to Siberia, we were told things. We were young and we saw our parents as everything. Parental stability became a funny idea, then. We had been wrenched out of a good life with humans, pre-Eclipse."

"What sort of things?"

"They made us fear. Humans wanted to kill us. They told us how humans killed the planet that we depended on to live? How we were smarter and better than humans? Humans were like monsters to us by the time we were older. Monsters that we could control.

"By the time Eclipse had happened, every Y'vori my age and still in school had been fully indoctrinated with the ideas that humans were dangerous, inferior and not fit to be in charge of the earth. We were. We first cited your Charles Darwinian theory of the survival of the fittest for the more older Y'vori who had known humans for many years growing up. Older Y'vori like my brother's age were just enlisted into the army and fully taught military style what to think and when these young 20-somethings learned that being Y'vori came with powers they loved the ability to use them. It was like a gun that could easily be discharged without ever feeling the effects of pain in a fist to fist killing of a person."

"This is how your brothers behave towards humans today?"

I hummed because I really didn't quite know where my brother's stood. Well Bellas, I knew --he's an idiot and a jerk; but Anesola, I was unsure of. He lost a lot when Eclipse happened. I even vaguely remember his fiancée. She was nice, she gave me lollipops and helped me chase down the ice cream truck driver in the summer. She taught me how to actually eat the individual tri-flavours of a firecracker popsicles without having one blend into another. Anesola loved her and after our family dinner that went so well. I am sure we knew father made sure she was killed and hoped that his soul would open for another. Bellas loved another Y'vori before cackling Nyna but his pain was not as deep as Anesola's who never loved another person.

"I don't know, I guess you will have to find that out for yourself, Mouse."

"Great." She said sarcastically.

"Listen, everything will be ok. Just relax. Think of it as auditioning to be my wife."

She barked in laughter and hit me good on the shoulder. God it was good to see the twinkle return to her eyes. "That is the last thing I want to think of. Aren't you suppose to say, picture them naked or something?"

"Yeah, that might work too, you can picture me naked anytime you want, Mouse" I bellowed in laughter, pulled her close to me and kissed her forehead. "Hey lets meet some of the family. I pulled her to the staircase that was lined with photos of my family."

I pulled her close to my body. God she smelled wonderful. I pushed her braids from off of her shoulder so I could smell more of her natural sweet perfume that was like a drug to me. And when she leaned into me, I felt like I would set afire with passion.

"This is your family?" Kiowa whispered looking at the wall of photos going back to when my people landed on this planet.

"Yes, that is my grandfather and great-grandfather. And that large picture is my great great grandfather who was the first to settle on this planet." I pointed to the photo of a man that supposedly I resembled a lot of but I couldn't see it in his stoic expression. He had dark hair and a dark expression but I always accounted that to being the only Y'vori on the planet and having a difficult time adapting to the world that was so far from our home physically and intellectually.

"Did your great-grandfather get along with humans?"

"Actually, I want to show you something. It's in my room." I wagged my eyebrows at her and smiled at how I even surprised myself how I was able to get an excuse for her to come to my room.

"I don't know, Gaelen?"

"Don't be a mouse, I only want to show you something?"

"Yeah sure, I am sure that is what you want to do."

"Well I would love to show you all kinds of things to you but I promise you to be on my best behavior in that area as long as you want. Anyways, I think you will like this."

ºO•❥❧ ~Kiowa~ ❧•❥Oº

I sighed, I knew the moment I had officially given him a second chance, he would move on to his next goal and that was to conquest me. I had kept his hands off of me the entire year successfully to protect myself from the pain of when he either finds out that I am human or when he realizes he was really in love with Sebol. But now staying in his house, I am sure he would only stoke the flames of pressure to sleep with me. Only thing was I loved how he made me feel wanted and I could no longer deny it, I wanted him to stoke the flames of the passion I had for him. I couldn't even believe I was now admitting it to myself, I had a passion for Gaelen, despite the fact he almost killed me, I wanted him. I wanted him to want me.

"I love it when you blush," he sweetly whispered into my neck. His black and iridescent purple-blue hair falling slyly over his forehead.