Page 3 of Jordan

Chapter Two

Nina Janelle walkedthe outer perimeter of the compound, triple checking it was secure and free from signs of intrusion. The fence, made of metallic alloys and charged with energy that could be either steady or intermittent, was supposed to keep out anything. Sadly, the enemies had managed to find ways around it. Some had gone so far as to crossbreed supernaturals with levitating powers and those with the ability to leap clear over the fence in one bound.

Nina tossed a small rock at the fence, testing it, watching as it kicked into action. Energy pulsed, causing the rock to explode into hundreds of fragments. A smile touched her lips as a clear mental picture of the enemy meeting a similar fate filled her mind.

If only she could rid the planet of the others, then she and her people would be safe and could live in harmony once again. Even as a small child, her life had been riddled with violence. All caused by the others. Her hatred of them ran deep. Legends of old told of a time before the coming of the supernatural vessels, cast away from planet Earth, a time before the wars. The period was said to be a peaceful one.

She’d not known peace in her lifetime. The closest she’d come had been the recent stretch of relative silence on the home warfront. It was odd, and she found herself wondering what lay on the horizon. What plot thickened in the enemy camp and why was it taking so long for them to make their next move?

It had been too long since Stegian, the vampire hell-bent on destroying her people, had attacked. Her brother seemed to think it meant they were winning. Nina knew better. Stegian was brilliant and ruthless. He was up to something, she just wasn’t sure what that something was. And soon, she’d be off-world and unable to help, should he launch his plans into action and attack her village, her people.

The idea of leaving Sargaidia even for a few short weeks terrified her. As head of security and defense, it was her job to assure her family and her people were as safe as could be, considering the threat they were up against. Leaving them sickened her. If Stegian knew she was absent, he’d find a way to attack. It’s what he did. He looked for weaknesses and exploited them to their full potential.

Regardless, she had to make her move. Dreams of her twin brother’s demise had plagued her. While she’d not spoken nor seen Kyriakos in nearly thirteen years, she still loved him deeply, as she did all her siblings. But she and Kyriakos shared a bond, a connection that occurred between twins. To lose him would destroy her. While she was scheduled to head off-world in an attempt to locate Marisa’s father, she fully planned to search for Kyriakos.

“Boss,” said a deep voice from behind her that tended to not only make her sex moist but grate on her last nerve. “Christian mentioned you wanted a security status report.”

Nina sighed, the will to be difficult with him suddenly gone. “Thanks, Jordan. You can put it over there with the other handheld.”

She turned to face the tall, muscular man with a head of sandy-blond hair that hung to his broad shoulders. His skin was bronzed by the sun, his features strong, demanding attention. Her body responded to his presence. It always had, but as of late, she’d been going through a fertility cycle—and Jordan Vasil was who her hormones begged for.

All right, demanded.

She resisted.

When he’d first landed on her planet, he’d worn his hair shorn and kept the appearance of a well-cut, well-bred man. He was wilder now, free of the confines the Commission had laid upon him. There was a certain feral edge to everything he did. Sadly, it only served to turn her on more. The damn man was walking temptation, and she had half a mind to punch him because of it.

“You feeling all right?” he questioned.

“Yes,” she replied. “Why do you ask?”

“Because you never call me by my name. You call me everything else in the book, but not Jordan.” His green eyes locked on her, and for a moment, she thought they held concern. That was wishful thinking on her part. She was sure of it.

“I call you Vasil all the time,” she said, doing her best to put reason into a nonsensical argument.

He inclined his head in agreement. “Yes, you call me by my last name often, but rarely, if ever, do you say my first name, Nina.”

Hearing her name fall from his full lips made her body tingle. Jordan had always been able to make her breath quicken and her heart race.

The man had literally fallen from the sky when the vessel he was on experienced unexplainable malfunctions while in their orbit. His brother, Sevan, was the captain of the vessel and had ended up mated to Nina’s sister, Lorelei. Their children, twin boys, were just over a year. Sevan had carved out a life for himself on their planet. Jordan, on the other hand, hadn’t.

“Nina? You’re zoning off on me again. Let’s get you inside. Something is wrong.” Jordan reached for her but Nina took a step back.

“I’m fine, Vasil. Really.” She eyed the perimeter fencing. Even with it there, the beauty of nature still managed to prevail. She took a deep breath, savoring the floral scents of her home planet.

He stepped closer, his body touching hers. “The Dsendiyun group do you in?”

She cringed at the thought of the alien race that seemed to make landing on her planet a monthly affair. They were a race whose female population had dwindled to nearly nonexistent. While relatively harmless, they did tend to be very grabby while planet-side. Their ships were either the worst ever made or they tinkered with them prior to approaching Sargaidia’s atmosphere in hopes of gaining permission to dock. She suspected that was more the case. A vessel holding nearly thirty of them had required a tow less than four days prior. In those four days, Nina had responded to more complaints from the women of her village—in regards to the Dsendiyuns’ nasty habit of grabbing a handful of ass whenever the opportunity presented itself—than she had to any other calls.

Jordan had accompanied her on several of the calls, finding the alien race amusing—until one of them had put his hand on her backside. Nina was then forced to pull Jordan off the Dsendiyun and had to spend nearly two hours calming Jordan down. She’d spotted the same alien later that night, at a tavern in the heart of the village, and she could have sworn he was more bruised and battered than he’d been when she’d left him previously.

She raised one eyebrow in question. “By chance did you happen to meet up again with the Dsendiyun you were so fond of?”

He blinked incredulously. “Whatever do you mean?”

“Vasil.”

“Hey, can I help that the guy just happened to be where I was?” he asked, faking shock.

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