18. Chapter 18

Pretending to have fallen asleep was harder than I thought. The seffy next to me was restless, her legs angled then stretched, then moved edgily up and down, creating sweat that ran down my neck in no time, at the imagine of anchoring those legs around my hips, shoulders or any part of me. My cock had been hard for I couldn’t have said how long, needing to be sheathed into her wet warmth.

She turned from one side to the other, creating more vivid imagines of her head moving left to right while I thrust into her.

In the end, I didn't think either one of us slept a lick and another day of planning and debating with my fellow vissigroths lay ahead of me.

I had assigned one of my dragoons, Samurg, to be in charge of the diving equipment, while Kyle took over command of the entire diving training while I focused on the Chrymphten threat.

Kyle picked up Niara to take her to the docks before the boat left, to have one more look over the equipment to make sure Samurg had done his job right .

Another dragoon would escort her back up to the penthouse, where the vissies and Niara would enjoy a breakfast on the balcony and a tour of the underwater domes. A ploy to get them out of our hair while we vissigroths discussed war tactics.

It wasn't like I didn't appreciate any input from the seffies, but things would get heated. It was the way things were done and I didn't want the seffies to interrupt us, no matter how good their intentions were.

They worried we would draw blood from each other, which might happen, but was highly unlikely.

I was sure the seffies saw through my ploy, but politeness demanded they accept my invitation of a tour.

Later in the afternoon, I called for Niara. It was time to visit her brother and discover what the Chrymphten were planning.

The other vissigroths weren't happy to be left behind, but it was dangerous enough for all of us to be in one spot on Aecor, being all on a boat would make too much of a target.

Niara hadn't spoken much to me since we got up this morning other than to let me know that Samurg had done an excellent job with the diving equipment.

Now she was coming back to life, as we neared Attourna.

"Do you think one day we can explore this place?" she asked, staring out the window frowning at the shadow of a passing siren.

"One day we will, I promise," I said. Now that the playing field was leveling, I intended to have new conditions drawn out in our peace treaty contracts. One of them would be to give us access to Attourna. I shared Niara's passion to find out more about the ancient culture that had inhabited Oceanus before it was swallowed up by water.

I wasn't anticipating a war with the sirens, but if Sarissa proved herself to be difficult, I wasn't adverse to the idea. There could only be one ruling race on Oceanus and I hoped she would understand that and bow to the inevitable. That however was still far in the future. We were only beginning to train the first group of dragoons, once Niara showed us how to produce more of the necessary equipment, those dragoons would begin training their own legions.

"Oh, look," Niara pointed at something excitedly and interrupted my dark musings.

I had ordered the captain to take us closer through Attourna and to turn the lights on, anticipating to lift Niara's mood.

Her animated face showed me how right I had been.

"There, do you see it?"

She pointed at the ruins of what in all likelihood had once been a sprawling temple. Once I saw it, I realized what she was so excited about, it was an exact replica of the one we had seen in our ruins.

"What I wouldn't give to see if the inside was the same," Niara breathed.

I couldn't help myself, my knuckles brushed over the exposed flesh of her arm in what could have been seen as an assurance but was meant as a caress. I yearned to fully explore her soft body, and just this little touch enflamed my core to the burning point.

"Soon," I promised in a hoarse voice as my throat and mouth went dry with desire for her .

She turned slightly, my knuckles were still moving up and down her arm. Her eyes were filled with excitement but I wasn't sure if it was from my touch or the sight of the city. Probably the latter , I told myself, remembering her words of being betrothed.

Conrad , my nostrils flared, what a stupid name .

I was an honorable male though, no matter how much I desired the seffy, if she was truly promised to another, I would step aside and pour my desire into a different vessel. I wasn't like she was my querilly—soulmate. Right?

To gain some distance from her, emotionally and physically, I stepped back, "Are you excited to see your brother?"

The space I had created between us seemed distant and cold. I already yearned to be closer to her again.

"Yes, I hope he accomplished what you tasked him with," she nodded.

"And… Conrad?" I fished unable to keep my disdain for his stupid name from my voice.

"And Conrad, of course," she nodded, but her eyes seemed to dim just a bit, or was that just my wishful thinking?

Not much later the boat began to rise as we returned to the surface to dock at one of Horn's bays.

A small group had already clustered on the pier, awaiting Niara's return. Nathan, I noted wasn't one of them and my eyes narrowed. If the Chrymphten had decided to keep him, it would definitely put a damper into my plans. Not disastrously because they would still have the false location of our defenses and unless they tortured Nathan I doubted he would let them know about that. But it would be more useful to talk to him and find out exactly what had been said. Besides, I didn't think Niara would be easy to pacify if her brother had been taken prisoner during a mission I had ordered, no matter if the idiot had placed himself in that position or not. Seffies could be unreasonable like that.

A human male stood out from the group, inviting me to assess him from head to toe. He was dressed even finer than I had seen Niara and Nathan when I had first met them. He was tall, taller than most humans, and young. Maybe a year or two older than Niara, with the still innocent expression of youth around his fuzzy cheeks.

"Conrad," Niara waved at him and I suppressed a snicker. This was Conrad?

By the gods, he was nothing but an unproven youth. And stupidly arrogant at that, as he proved by sending me a disdainful glare. I chuckled if he was going to challenge me, I would throw him in the ocean to cool his temper. I wasn't about to fight a pup like him.