7. Drova

7

DROVA

D rova glared at the massive history book in her lap, muttering curses under her breath. Of all the punishments Parker could have devised, he'd chosen the absolute worst. Public humiliation would have been better.

Even a good old-fashioned whipping would have been preferable to this torture.

"The rise and fall of human civilizations," she read aloud mockingly. "As if I care about what humans did thousands of years ago."

She'd started on the first chapter, but even though her English was pretty good by now, the book had many words that she didn't understand, and sometimes she was reading them wrong in her head. She had to use the translating software that William's crew had designed, and it was making the already boring reading even worse.

The chime of the doorbell startled her so badly that she nearly dropped the heavy tome, but for once she welcomed the interruption, not even caring if it was someone looking for her mother. Though with Jade working from her office at Ingrid's design center, few people came to the house. That was where Drova had been spending most of her time lately, but between the hours of twelve and four, she was supposed to be studying, or as she preferred to call it, serving her sentence.

When she opened the door and found Pavel standing there, her heart made a silly little flutter that she immediately tried to quash, but it wasn't easy. He looked so handsome in the black fatigues of the Guardian force, the fabric fitting his tall, lithe frame perfectly.

"You are officially a Guardian? When did this happen?"

"Official as of this morning," he said with a grin. "Though we're not called Guardians because Onegus does not want to offend the old timers who've spent many decades to achieve what we did in mere months. The new Kra-ell recruits are called either Saviors or Avengers, depending on which division we are assigned to, and we've not been assigned to either yet."

"Come in and tell me all about it." She stepped aside, trying not to stare at how the black fabric stretched across his shoulders.

She headed toward the couch but changed direction at the last moment, leading him to the dining table instead. If he sat next to her on that couch, she would have trouble breathing. It was safer at the table where the huge stack of books could serve as a barrier.

He pulled out a chair and sat down while glancing at the books. "What's all that?"

"My punishment." She waved a dismissive hand over them. "Tell me about those divisions. It's the first time I'm hearing about them."

"That's because they are new. The Saviors will continue the work of rescuing victims of trafficking. The Avengers is a new division, but no one's saying exactly what it will be doing yet." He straightened in his chair and waved a hand over his fatigues. "When we get our posts, we will receive a special insignia to designate us as one or the other."

"I wonder what the other division is for," Drova said. "Maybe they are finally going after the Doomers? I never understood why the clan just hides from them. They should do a preemptive attack and eliminate the threat. They keep saying that there are many more of them than there are of us, but that's precisely why they need to attack first and catch the filthy Doomers by surprise. They know where they are, so I really don't get why they hesitate."

Pavel regarded her with an amused smirk that was too sexy to be allowed. "There are a lot of innocent people on that island. The clan doesn't want to harm them."

Drova crossed her arms over her chest. "I get that, but life is not fair. They should think of their people first and then about the harm the Doomers are doing to the entire world. I think the collateral damage of a few dozen innocents is acceptable."

"What if it's a few hundred?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Even a few thousand. As I said, life is not fair, and you need to choose. It's either us or them. There is no middle ground."

He lifted his hands and clapped. "Spoken like a true Kra-ell."

"I take that as a compliment."

He nodded. "It was meant as such. I happen to agree with you, but the Clan Mother decides for the clan, not us, and she is too soft and merciful."

Drova let out a breath. "Yeah, she is, which is a damn shame since she has so much power that she does nothing with. Still, I can't complain since she invited us to live with them. But frankly? If it were me, I wouldn't have done that. It was a mistake."

"Why not?" Pavel waved a hand over his uniform again. "We strengthen them. Thanks to us, they can launch this new division and do whatever they plan to do with it. They didn't have enough warriors before."

That was true, and if that was the reason the goddess had invited them, then her decision had merit, but Drova wasn't sure that the Clan Mother had thought that far in advance. She'd just wanted to be the Good Samaritan who offered a hand to a bunch of displaced Kra-ell.

The goddess was lucky that the Kra-ell were generally honorable people. Others, who were less concerned with honoring their pledges and expressing their gratitude, might have bitten off her offered hand.

"I want in," she said without having given it much thought. "Maybe that could get me out of this stupid punishment." She gestured at the history book she'd left open on the table. "I'd rather fight any day of the week and twice on Sunday than read another page of that boring book."

Hopefully, Pavel had learned that human phrase and didn't ask her to clarify.

It seemed that he had because he reached over and picked up the book. "What is it about?"

"Human history. That's Parker's idea of justice," she grumbled. "He's making me read all these boring books, and then he will test me on them. As if I need to know any of this."

Pavel began flipping through the pages. "My English reading skills could use improvement. Perhaps we could read these books together to help me get better at it? In the Guardian training, we are assigned reading about technical stuff. You know, guns, rifles, grenades, ammunition, and many other things, and it takes me forever to get through it because I read so slowly."

Drova kept staring at him. "Reading about guns and ammunition is exciting. This is the most boring stuff you can imagine. Why would you want to read about human history? It had nothing to do with us."

"I value education." He ran a hand over his sleek, long ponytail. "It's the greatest equalizer. It doesn't matter who you are born as, if you educate yourself, you can best the most highborn prince or princess. By rejecting it, we Kra-ell doom ourselves to be as ignorant as the Doomers."

A laugh burst from her throat. "Ignorance will doom us to be dumb as the Doomers? That's one hell of a tongue twister but so apt."

Pavel grinned, and Drova's heart did that annoying flutter again. "Exactly. I don't want to be as dumb as a Doomer."

She leaned back to get some more distance between them. "Jade says that the Doomers are breeding for brains instead of brawn now, so they won't stay dumb forever."

It was obvious that the clan had spies in the Doomer camp, but Jade either didn't know who they were or didn't want to share it with her untrustworthy daughter.

"I guess so. But I'm sure they are not teaching their warriors history. They might teach them physics and chemistry so they can make better weapons, but I bet they won't teach them any of this." He tapped the book. "I think that by learning about the mistakes of others, you can avoid making the same mistakes yourself. Also, reading manuals about strategy written by successful generals has a lot of merit."

"I suppose," she conceded.

"Think about it," he said. "The clan has been influencing human development for thousands of years. Don't you want to know how they did it? What worked and what didn't?" He tapped the book again. "This isn't just about what humans did. It's about how gods and immortals shaped their progress."

Drova hadn't considered that angle. "We are not immortals or gods, and we can't do what they have done, but I get what you are saying."

Having won the argument, Pavel looked smug. "It doesn't matter that we are neither. We're living among gods and immortals, and we should understand their past. Know what shaped them."

"Yes, you are right," she conceded, not because she agreed with him but because it had occurred to her that if she appeared to do so, Pavel might come over more often to study with her. "We will need to find a way to work our study sessions into your training regimen and my shadowing sessions with my mother. She thinks I will learn about governing the Kra-ell by trailing her and watching what she does."

"There is no better way to learn." He grinned. "We will figure out something."