Tail, Dark and Handsome: Celestial Mates

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3

An unlikely voice from war torn Talmar! Rebel Cayne, formerly Ferre, releases her recording debut, Starshine, with catchy, lighthearted lyrics.

-Interstellar Music News

MarigoldThe communication unit vibrated. With a sigh, Mari checked the message.

A pair of deep purple velvet booted feet rested on her sofa. The caption read, “Had a report of a water leak.”

Nox.

Disgusted, she tossed the device on the table and covered it with a napkin. Ignoring her problems at least for a few days had been too much to ask.

The comm unit vibrated again, dancing across the table between plates and cups.

“Are you going to answer that?” Valerian asked.

So much for a peaceful breakfast.

Two new messages. “Enjoy your little trip. We’ll talk when you get back,” Nox wrote, and followed that with a picture of his hands wrapped around a steaming mug of tea. Her favorite mug.

Lovely. Now she’d have to throw away her dishes.

Mari must have made a face or scowled because Valerian said, “What’s wrong? Your aura is out of alignment.”

“Mom, auras don’t have an alignment,” Mari said.

“But you admit something is wrong.”

Mari poured herself another cup of coffee and bought herself time adding milk and sugar. Morning sunlight warmed her shoulders. She tilted her head back, enjoying the feel of sunshine on her skin. A born spacer, she spent her life on ships and stations and had the pale complexion to prove it. The forecast promised rain, but she didn’t let that keep her inside. Her exposure to real sunlight or weather—oh, she looked forward to the promised rain!—happened rarely.

Wind fluttered the loose strands of hair around her face. A wide brim sat in an empty chair next to her. That morning, the cleansing unit automatically coated her in sunscreen after her shower. Only two days in the sun, and her complexion already picked up a slight tan.

“Sunshower in a Marigold Fields, do not ignore me,” Valerian said.

The comm unit vibrated again. Before Mari could grab it, Valerian snatched the device. She frowned. “Is this from Joseph? Why is he giving wine to a houseplant?”

“What!” Mari reached for the phone, horrified at the photo of Nox emptying a bottle of not inexpensive wine into her potted fern. She furiously typed back, “I’m deducting that off the cost of my debt.”

“I also had a snack. I can’t say I’m impressed with your selection of cheese,” Nox replied.

“Stop eating my food!”

“Pay me my money,” he replied.

Ready to scream with frustration, Mari turned the comm unit off. He’d sent her messages for the past two days, mostly of him invading her privacy in her empty apartment but also, disturbingly, of the outside of her cabin at the resort. He knew her location and had a connection on the island to keep tabs on her. There was no escape and no way to pretend, even for a little while, about the debt hanging over her head.

She couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t enjoy breakfast.

Her gut instinct told her to bury the problem and hide it from her mother, but Mari knew it would come to light. Valerian would eventually read the messages because she was a nosey busybody. It’d be better to get in front of this, to take away the hold Nox had over her imagination.

“I got a problem, Mom,” Mari said.

The bemused expression slipped from Valerian’s face. “Tell me.”

“Tomas borrowed money from people, the kind of people who always get their money back. I may have—okay, did sign a promissory note.”

“You did what?” Valerian’s tea cup rattled in the dish. “I think I need something stronger than an herbal blend this morning.”

“I don’t remember, but there were so many forms. I just signed anything Tomas gave me.” Mari stared down at her hands in her lap, shredding the paper napkin. “I trusted him.”

“You love him,” Valerian said.

Mari shook her head. “Not anymore.” If she ever did. The more she discovered, the more she realized that she hadn’t known Tomas at all. He presented a completely false front, designed from the start to be her perfect match.

“How much does he owe?”

Mari told her. Valerian spilled her tea.

It was a large but not impossible amount. The interest was the real killer.

“It’s worse. If I don’t pay, Nox says he’ll put a lien on the business,” Mari said.

“Nox? Noxious the Moneylender? Noxious the Poisoned Tooth?” Valerian shook her head. “He has a terrible aura. So murky. Why would Tomas go to him?”

Good question. That exact question kept her up all night.

“I think he approached Tomas,” Mari said.

Valerian tapped the crystal pendant hanging around her neck, then the crystal bracelet. “Probably fishing for a legitimate business to do the laundry,” she said, astutely.

Startled that her mother’s mind worked that way, Mari said, “Launder. To launder money.”

Valerian waved a hand and said, “We’ll figure it out.”

For a moment, Mari believed her mother. She might have been flighty and drifted through life, letting the currents of the universe take her where they willed, but Mari never doubted her mother’s love or questioned her safety. It was such a happy, comfortable place to be. She really shouldn’t allow Nox to live in her head, keeping her up with worry.

Or at least charge him rent.

“You should take a walk. Enjoy the sun while you can,” Valerian said.

Mari agreed. She needed to work out her restless energy and a walk into the village sounded good. Taking her hat and the dang comm unit, she set off.

The island was a long, thin curve of dry land centered around a dormant volcano. The windward side boasted gorgeous white sand beaches. Hotels and resorts ran up and down the beach. Steep hills filled the center, and two villages crouched around harbors on the north tip of the island.

A brisk fifteen-minute walk brought Mari into the closest village. White washed cubiform buildings with azure blue tile roofs seemed to be stacked on top each over on the hillside, gleaming against the deep blue of the harbor. A constant sea breeze kept the temperature comfortable, despite the intensity of the sun.

It was a beautiful spot in the universe. She could only imagine what it would be like to experience it with someone she loved.

Thoughts of Tomas brought back the familiar sensation of sour worry and irritation. On the first day, she half-hoped he’d be foolish enough to turn up in their private cabin on the beach. It was part revenge fantasy but also a wish that he’d come back to beg forgiveness because he loved her, but no. It was just Mari and Valerian in the honeymoon suite. And no, she wasn't disappointed because she was over him. So over him.

She’d keep repeating that mantra until she believed it.

A fresh start.

That sounded so nice. She had her pilot’s license. She could fly anywhere in the galaxy. Well, the Interstellar Union. Nothing in particular kept her at Olympus Station other than her mother. Finding a new job that took her away from the station would be good for her, a complete break from the old.

It was a sweet fantasy, but only a fantasy. Nox would continue his pursuit. He might be satisfied if she paid on the interest, if the mood struck him. With luck and taking on more jobs, she could whittle down the principal. If not, he’d put a lien on her shares of the business.

It was hard to predict which way he would go, as his moods were notoriously mercurial. He’d taken over other businesses in the station, but he’d also let people work off their debt. Some people were smart mouths to him, but they remained whole with all their fingers and toes. Other people gave him one wrong look and Nox’s henchmen put them in the med bay.

She hoped she amused him, given the way he seemed to enjoy invading her privacy and rummaging through her apartment. The only thing she knew for certain was that running away wouldn’t solve anything. If she stayed, she could shield Valerian and Joseph.

Mari knew she should swallow her pride and accept Valerian’s offer of help. Her mother wasn’t sitting on a fortune, but maybe together they could pay off the debt, or at least make a dent in it.

She had a week before she had to deal with it. A week to pretend she was an average jilted bride on a not-weird honeymoon with her mother and not a woman with a ticking clock hanging over her head.

So what if Nox sent her a message that morning with a photo of her cabin? Big deal. She wasn’t going to buckle under a little light intimidation. She had a week.

Mari hopped on a public transport. The crowd thinned as the transport moved away from the beach and deeper into the island’s interior, climbing up to the temple ruins perched on the mountainside. Gray clouds rolled in, taking away the worst of the heat. As the transport reached the top, she felt as if she rose above her troubles.

Alone, Mari disembarked to climb the final steps to the temple site. Gravel crunched underfoot. The air smelled of sea salt and the pungent scrub plants that grew along the rough terrain. Above her on a steep incline, the weathered stone columns of the ruined temple framed against the stormy sky.

Her thighs burned from climbing the uneven steps. By the time she reached the top, she needed to sit for a moment to catch her breath. She brushed off a conveniently placed bit of stone and sat. Wind kicked up dust and stirred the loose strands of hair that escaped from her ponytail. The village below appeared tiny, like toy blocks stacked on top of each other, and the blue water stretched out endlessly.

Maybe, after this mess was over, she could find a job on this planet. Shuttles moved tourists every day from the orbital station to the planet’s surface. The work was a bit mindless, but she’d get sunshine, stunning views, and real weather.

The wind changed direction, growing cool and damp. Droplets pattered against the ground. A splash touched her shoulder.

Mari jumped to her feet in excitement.

Rain. Real rain.

The few tourists at the temple crowded around the main temple complex, despite the temple having no roof and offering no protection from the elements. Mari tilted her head back with a ridiculous grin on her face, letting the rain soak through her light dress.

The rain did not last long, though the clouds remained. Mari soon found herself alone as she wandered through the ruins. A computer-generated voice lectured her about the history of the site through her communicator. The planet had been an early Tal colony, but the ruins predated the Tal’s arrival. An unknown people had lived on the planet, built monuments, carved roads into mountains, and shaped the landscape before vanishing.

Unknown aliens. Mari had been born in deep space and never set foot on Earth, like her mother and her grandparents. She lived with aliens every day, but people came in six flavors: human, Fremmian, Tal, Gyer, Wyer, and Corravian. That was it. There might be more civilizations and people out there, but their corner of the galaxy was fairly empty.

Well, there were the Edder, but no one had seen them in centuries. Stories of the Edder portrayed them as bogeymen—vicious, bloodthirsty and merciless. Humanity’s first encounter with the Edder had been bloody and disastrous. The earliest history of Earth colonizing other planets included a prolonged war with the Edder.

Then they vanished. No one knew why. Historians and conspiracy theorists speculated, but the fact remained that more was unknown about the Edder than known. Home world? Colony planets? Basic information. Why the aggression against outsiders?

Mari had always wondered if the Edder really ate people. One of the more outlandish stories claimed that they raided unprotected colonies and harvested people like livestock, but that seemed unbelievable, like time had twisted the truth.

Lost in fascination, Mari wandered away from the main complex and down a footpath. She failed to notice the darkening sky as she followed a winding path through scrub and trees, opening to a secondary location. The site lacked the towering columns of the temple. Half walls and exposed flagstones outlined where buildings once stood.