Hawtness - Hawtness - Volume 2 - Chapter 8

Now, I was on my own. At least
Andrew would be around somewhere. The greeter announced my presence, and I
walked into the room. It was a massively decorated hall, complete with
chandeliers, an orchestra playing strange ethereal music, and large groups of colorful
guests.  

Colorful was exactly the word to
describe them. No two aliens had the same skin color. Although some of them
looked a lot like the host Prince, their species seemed to have different skin color
like humans had a different eye or hair color.
I was able to see aliens with blue skin, green skin, and even yellow; all
seemingly belonging to the same species.

Prince Skyf was surrounded by a
group of people. He had a platter of some kind of food. I decided I’d stay away
from the alien foods. Some of the food on the plates looked like they were
still moving. The Prince looked over and noticed me entering the room. He
excused himself from his companions, making his way in my direction.  

“Hello,” he offered a
hand. “Princess Nefriti, I see the rumors are true. You are as beautiful
as the rumors suggest.”  

“Is that what they say?”
I offered flippantly, trying not to blush.  

The Prince leaned closer to me,
speaking in an almost whisper. “Are the other rumors true as well?”
 

I frowned behind the veil.
Something about the Prince’s leering eye and tone of voice made me uneasy with
what he was asking.  

“I suppose that depends on
the rumors.”  

Prince Skyf laughed as if I had
made some kind of joke. “They say that the people of Magratea … are very
progressive.”  

“I’m not sure I follow what
you mean.”  

“I’ve heard rumors of this
thing you do called the Pon farr.”  

“I’ve … yes, of course.”
I had no clue what he was talking about.  

“And is it really like how
they describe it?”  

“It’s exactly like they
describe it.”  

Prince Skyf’s eyes brightened. “You’ve
given me something to think about. Say, would you be interested in-”
 

“May I have this dance?”
 

The voice broke in, causing
Prince Skyf to turn an annoyed gaze on the interrupting party. A man dressed in
elaborate red robes extended his hand towards me. His face was completely
obscured by a mask. My first instinct was to tell him no, but the familiarity of the voice slammed home. That was right;
Andrew was in disguise too. I took his offered hand and gave Prince Skyf an apologetic smile, and he led me away.
 

A song began. It wasn’t something
I recognized, but it sounded orchestral and quite pretty. I took Andrew’s other
hand and suddenly found us moving out onto the dance floor. His feet were quick
and sure. I didn’t realize Andrew could dance like this. He spun me in a tight
arc, then pulled me close to him.  

“I’m sorry, but he was all
over you and I thought you could use the bailing out,” Andrew whispered.
 

I smiled. “Thanks. He was
giving me a kind of creepy vibe, but we’re supposed to be keeping his
attention.”  

“Oh, you have his attention.
He hasn’t stopped looking at us.” Andrew chuckled.  

I glanced back to see Prince Skyf
watching us move with a distinct frown on his face. He seemed very unhappy for
some reason. I accidentally slipped,
stepping on Andrew’s toe. I fought back a
blush as my lips quivered, but he cupped my cheek and gave a smile that I could
see through the mask. 

“It’s okay; you’re doing
great.”  

“Where did you learn to
dance like that?” I asked as he pulled me into a dip.  

“You didn’t know that angels
are incredible dancers?”  

I let out a laugh. “No, I
didn’t.”  

Another robed person suddenly
approached us and tapped on Andrew’s shoulder. He looked to his side at the
newcomer.  

“Rune? Why aren’t you
helping Ryan?” Andrew asked.  

“There’s a problem.”
 

The two of us dropped our hands
and parted, turning to Rune. 

“What’s going on?”
 

“We made it to the Prince’s room, but the doors are locked tight. My powers have been insufficient to bust my way in. I was thinking a certain… holy sword might be able to cut through.”

“You know… Gemini is not a
lightsaber …”

“I know that!” Rune responded in
annoyance. “

I looked over at the Prince. He
had previously been giving Andrew and me dirty looks from across the room. Now he
was talking to one of his soldiers, his face steadily growing angrier.  

“We need to go now,” I
told the boys, picking up my dress.  

“No, wait.” Andrew put
up his hand.  “Jane, we still need someone to keep Prince Skyf’s
attention. If you go, we might as well be announcing our intentions. Stay here
for a bit longer.”

I gave a look of disgust and
stuck my tongue out. “I don’t want to talk to that slimy bastard any longer. I
feel like he’s licking me with his eyes.”

“That’s a graphic description.”
Rune winced.

“I’m sorry, Jane. We need you.”
Andrew lifted his hand, barely tracing his hand across my cheek. “Please. You
don’t need to talk to him. Just pick a group of men and start chatting. I think
his jealousy will keep him distracted.”

“Jealousy? Of what!” I demanded
as the guys turned away, not meeting my eyes.

“Please, Jane, for us?” Andrew
gave a rich smile that made my heart throb.

I looked down, trying to hide my
blush.

“It’s not like I said I wouldn’t
do it.” I murmured.

“Good.” Andrew smiled happily and
turned while grabbing Rune and headed out the door. “Let’s go, Rune.”

Rune was a little flustered,
looking back at me and Andrew. “Do you
think that maybe Jane is a little too willing to do anything as long as the
request comes from a pretty face?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking
about, Rune.” Andrew played dumb as the pair of them left the room.

“I heard that…” I muttered under
my breath, shooting Rune a hateful glare.

It wasn’t that I did whatever a hot boy told me to do. I mean, Earth was in jeopardy and they just happened to have good reasons. I wasn’t easily influenced by a pretty face, right? I was a lot of things, but I wasn’t shallow.

Oh, those guys are cute. I’ll go talk to them.

I picked a group of three guys.
One of them had a brown skin color that wouldn’t be weird on men I’d be
interested in from Earth. He had slightly long ears, but not pointy like an
elf. One of the guys was just a tad too blue, but still sexy for a white walker. His face had oval-shaped eyes but otherwise looked human.
The third one had red skin and resembled a demon, complete with two ram’s
horns. His demon vibe far surpassed the vibe Rune’s pretty face ever could. It
left me wondering if demons were some kind of extraterrestrial. I walked up to
the men, and they all bowed towards me.

It was the white walker who spoke first. “Princess
Nefriti. We’ve never had the chance to meet. It seems like the rumors of your beauty
were not in the least bit exaggerated.”

Double-score! They wouldn’t recognize
me and I got compliments; not that my
fragile sense of self-worth needed a boost at the moment. I didn’t just blindly
agree to do anything for a guy with a pretty face!

“After dinner, would you like to
come visit me in my room?” It was the dark-skinned man who spoke.   

“Absolutely!” I froze, realizing
I said something without listening to the question first. “Um… That is, to say…
we’ll see how the night goes, yes?”

The three men all let out
chuckles and I hid my grimace behind the veil.

Relax, Jane. Distract, don’t instigate.

My eyes quickly shot to where
Prince Skyf was standing. It appeared
like he didn’t want to lower himself into joining our group. Instead, he sat
glowering in an easily displeased manner.
Why was he so focused on me, anyway? I mean, I probably shouldn’t complain
because it made my job easier, but it still worried me a bit.

When they realized I didn’t have
anything else to say, the demon-like man spoke. “We were just betting on
whether the Riptari would succeed in their invasion.”

“What bet?” The white walker snorted. “This planet is a
technologically primitive civilization. They have almost no means of fighting
back.”

“True… but they share two realms.
One with the angels, one with the demons. If those realms act out, they could
likely stop this invasion.”

“Working together? Angels and demons?” The demon-looking guy scoffed.” We’d rather die than work with their kind.”

As he said this, he nodded toward
someone hidden in the back that I hadn’t seen before. He actually had a halo
and wings, unlike Andrew. Just as this man looked like the definition of a demon,
that guy was clearly an angel. Angels and demons were here too? This was deeply
confusing.

“You’re a demon?” I asked, trying
to tease out more information.

“Of course!” the demon straightened his back. “Not from this planet, mind you. The demon realm connects with many different worlds. While I admit, it’s odd to find a planet this far along that has both a doorway to heaven and hell.”

“What do you mean?”

The demon gave a toothy grin. “Demons and angels are like water and oil. Most worlds where the two can touch are obliterated long before any dominant species comes to be; often in a bloody war. But somehow, they’ve managed to keep a truce on this planet. A half-century ago they signed some kind of peace accord. They were strong-armed by some kind of supernatural being called the necromancer, so I’m told. Attempts to induce fighting to gain supremacy over Earth have failed… and of course, there is that cult always working in the background…”

“That’s right.” The blue guy
snapped his fingers. “It was stopped by that time-traveler, Jane. She might
stop this invasion too!”

My ears perked at hearing my own
name.

The demon opened his mouth in
surprise. “The Jane? This is her planet? Oh-ho… this might get interesting.”

The white walker waved his hands. “You’re overestimating this girl.
Besides, it was that necromancer who actually stopped that war criminal. I’ve
heard her involvement in the peace treaty was minor at best.

“According to the angels, the
necromancer himself offered her life.”

The men all stopped for a moment,
staring in silence like something profound had just been said, and then the
demon broke out into a loud guffaw. “According to an angel? Yeah, I’d
believe that. I’d even doubt that she’s a time-traveler. A human time-traveler?
What are the chances?”

“Is it really that rare?” I spoke
before I could help myself.

The men all raised eyebrows like
I had just said something strange, but it was the blue guy who responded.
“Don’t you think everyone would go back in time and try to perfect their lives
if the technology existed? Even if it’s outlawed, there would be no way to
enforce something that already happened. The reason that time hasn’t been torn
apart by greedy people is that time travel is nearly always fatal. Only a very,
very small portion of people from any race can survive. Simply having traveled
in time would make someone famous.”

“I can name every time-traveler
in existence.” The demon gave a gloating smile.

“That’s not hard, there are only
three.” The white walker rolled his eyes.

“Is one of them Daltom?” I burst
out before I could help myself.

The demon wore a confused look
and shook his head. “No… I’ve never heard of that one. Has there perhaps been
another time traveler?”

“No…” I waved my hand, deflecting
the question quickly. “I just… never mind. There is no current time traveler by
that name.”

It wasn’t a lie. By all account,
Daltom wasn’t even born yet. However, his time traveling
ability was somehow special. I had never realized that his ability was so
meaningful. Of course, I had time traveled too. I wanted to be angry that he
had risked my life, but Daltom was from the future. He had already known I
could time travel before I could. Doesn’t that create a paradox? I shook my
head, deciding to ignore the time-traveling
shenanigans for as long as I could. That event was still too fresh in my mind
and I didn’t like dwelling on it.

My eyes snapped back to Prince Skyf. He was no longer looking at me. Rather,
he had a group of men around him. They were security detail and, as they spoke
to him, his eyes suddenly snapped to me. The face that originally held jealousy
and desire started to grow angry and hateful.

Oh, shit…

Things weren’t going according to
plan.

“Uh, sorry guys. I just realized
I have to do… something. Good luck with your bet!” I turned and picked up my
dress, scampering towards the exit with quick steps.

I slammed face-first into a large
person and, as my hand reached out, I found myself grabbing something hard and
feathered.

“Huh?” I looked up, realizing I
was directly in front of the angel I’d seen earlier.

He reminded me of someone, but at
the moment I was too flustered and rushed to think about it. He also seemed to
be giving me a hard look.

“Do I know you, girl?”

“I’m sorry,” I said simply, lowering my face and immediately moving past
him. “I don’t know you.”

I could feel his eyes on the back
of my head as I speed-walked out of the room. I had expected to have guards
pile on me the second I walked out the door. Perhaps the conversation was my
imagination? Perhaps I was in the clear?

As soon as I made it out the
door, I tested my luck and broke into the fastest sprint my dress would allow.
I needed to check on Ryan and the rest as quickly as possible. I raced towards
the Prince’s room. In the back of my head, I realized it was probably stupid.
There was almost certainly nothing I could do.  

I burst into the room to see that
the furniture was destroyed. Various trash was scattered across the room like
it had been ransacked. Ryan lay in the middle of the floor, his eyes closed. I
knelt down and touched his skin. It was cold and hard. Oh no, he had no
heartbeat. Ryan was dead! Tears began to fall down my face as I let out a sob.
 

Ryan’s eyes snapped open and I
jumped. The boys seriously needed to stop doing things like that to me. That
was right; he was a robot; no heartbeat. I blushed in embarrassment.  

“Self-repair at 42% and
rising.”  

“You’re … going to be
okay?”  

“I apologize. The ambushers
managed to acquire the codes and incapacitate me. I have failed you.” Ryan
answered. 

“It’s alright. I was worried
you might be hurt. I’m just so happy you’re okay.”  

“You … really care about
me?”  

“Of course, I do! You’re a
friend.” I gave him a smile.  

“I … thank you so much.”
 

“Wait; ambushers?”

“We weren’t the only ones here
tonight after the codes,” Ryan responded.

“The cult!” I stood up, but a
moment later the door burst open.

“What is this?” An
incredulous voice snapped.  

I glanced up to see the Prince
standing at the entrance to the room with a large group of guards.  

“You!” he shouted with
an angry voice looking down at the pair of us. “Guards, arrest these
traitors!”