66. Aru

The cold mountain air bit Aru"s skin as he stepped out of the hotel on Monday afternoon, his eyes squinting against the bright midday glare of the sun.

Negal and Edgar had spent the night at the crater, guarding the pod so Aru and Dagor could get a break. After spending two nights in the field, showering in the trickle of hot water that the hotel supplied had felt like such a wonderful luxury.

He had become so spoiled.

Best of all, though, was spending the night in bed with his mate. The short separation had felt much longer, and he had been loath to leave the warmth of her embrace in the morning, but duty called, and there was still much to do.

Glancing at his watch, he estimated that Yamanu and Kalugal should be arriving momentarily. There was barely any traffic on the road leading to town, so spotting them wouldn"t be difficult.

A few moments later, the roar of engines and the billowing clouds of dust heralded their approach long before the vehicles came into view.

Kalugal could have chartered a helicopter, but he had chosen to arrive with the large truck full of fuel barrels he had commissioned.

As the vehicles rumbled to a stop and the engines cut, Aru strode forward to greet the newcomers, his hand outstretched in welcome.

"You"ve gotten a tan." Kalugal shook his hand. "And you look like a rugged Tibetan."

Aru chuckled. "I"ve spent two nights inside the crater. The tan is from before." He turned and shook Yamanu"s hand. "Thank you for making it here so quickly."

"Couldn"t have done it without this guy." Yamanu tilted his head toward Kalugal. "His connections made it possible."

Kalugal grinned, his teeth flashing white against the dark hair of his goatee. "I couldn"t pass up the chance to see the pod with my own two eyes, and the survivors, of course. This discovery might change the course of history."

Aru nodded. "Frankly, I hope the impact won"t be that big."

He didn"t want the Eternal King to discover it and turn Earth into a dust ball. There were many good people worth saving on this little rock, not just Annani and her clan. There were also many who seemed like a lost cause, barbarians who committed unspeakable atrocities, but he hadn"t lost faith in all of humanity yet. They could still be salvaged.

"I appreciate you smoothing the way with the Chinese authorities," Aru said, his gaze shifting to the pile of permits and paperwork that Kalugal held in his other hand. "I can only imagine the hoops you had to jump through to arrange all this so quickly."

Kalugal waved a dismissive hand, his grin widening. "Child"s play," he said, his tone smug. "When you know who to approach and have a little bit of persuasion on your side, there"s no such thing as a locked door." He winked.

Being a compeller certainly made things easier, and Kalugal had proven that and then some in Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco.

As they made their way back to the hotel, Yamanu fell into step beside them. "Where are you keeping the twins?"

Aru"s lips twitched with amusement. "The princess is in Julian and Ella"s room, and the prince is in Edgar and Jasmine"s, if you can believe it. We wanted another room in the hotel, but none were available. We had to work with what we had."

Yamanu snorted. "Talk about creepy. I hope that they don"t carry bad luck."

Aru frowned. "What do you mean?"

Yamanu shrugged. "Their ship malfunctioned, arriving seven thousand years later than it was supposed to, then it exploded in orbit, and their pod also malfunctioned. That"s a lot of bad luck. They might be cursed."

"First, I don"t believe in curses; secondly, at least some of that was deliberate sabotage. Maybe all of it."

"True," Yamanu agreed. "But that might be part of their curse. In any case, I don"t want to spend too much time around them."

"We didn"t have much choice," Aru said. "It was either that or leave them out in the open, and that wasn"t an option." He smiled. "Speaking of luck, it"s good that you don"t plan on staying the night because you would have to sleep on the floor in our rooms."

"Lucky indeed," Yamanu said.

As they reached Edgar and Jasmine"s room, Aru rapped his knuckles against the weathered wood door, and a moment later, Jasmine opened up.

Aru had warned her that Yamanu and Kalugal were on their way and would want to see the stasis chamber, and she had taken it to heart. She"d styled her hair and put makeup on, which she hadn"t done since their first night in Tibet.

Kalugal stepped forward, his hand outstretched and a charming smile plastered across his face. "A pleasure to see you again, Jasmine."

"The pleasure is all mine, Kevin." She gave him a charming smile as she shook his hand. "Or should I call you by your real name? What"s the protocol when we are around humans?"

He chuckled. "I"m glad to hear that you no longer think of yourself as one. I prefer Kevin when in mixed company."

"Noted." She took a step back and motioned for them to enter. "I bet you want to see the prince more than chitchat with me."

"Chitchatting with you is a pleasure, my dear."

These two could have been a perfect couple. They were both naturally flirtatious and outgoing and competed over who was more charming. Then again, they might have been too similar to make it work.

Not that it was anything but hypothetical. Kalugal was happily mated.

"Hello, beautiful." Yamanu leaned to kiss her on the cheek. "How have you been holding up here?"

Jasmine looked a little surprised by his display of familiarity, but she didn"t seem put off by it. "I"m doing fine. I miss having a proper shower and a comfortable bed." She glanced at the stasis chamber. "And I"m worried about him. Julian says he and his sister are barely hanging on, but he"s afraid of reviving or moving them out of the chambers in these conditions. He wants to do it back in the keep"s clinic."

Kalugal leaned over the stasis chamber, where the glass was more transparent. "Yeah. That doesn"t look good." He straightened up. "Is Julian positive that they are alive?"

Aru nodded. "He checked their vitals. They are very weak, but they are there."

The next one to look was Yamanu. "They look more like us than them," he murmured, his voice soft with wonder.

Kalugal frowned. "How can you tell? It"s impossible to say for sure. Not without opening the pods and getting a closer look." He turned to Aru. "Can we do that?"

Aru looked at Jasmine and shook his head. "I wouldn"t do that without Julian"s permission. Let"s go to his room, and you can ask him yourself."

If not for her being present, he might have allowed Kalugal to take a quick look, but he didn"t want her to see what her prince looked like.

After they visited the princess, Julian allowed Kalugal and Yamanu a quick look. Aru opened the door and motioned for them to step out. "We"re losing daylight," he said. "We need to get moving if we want to have any hope of extracting at least some of the other chambers before nightfall. There are eighteen of them, and every round trip takes an hour and a half. Edgar is at the site with his helicopter, but we can fly out there with the other pilot."

Kalugal grinned. "I can"t wait to see that pod."

"We took a lot of the components out," Aru said. "But even with the big pile we made, you couldn"t tell by just looking at the pod. We also need to fly that pile out, which means more trips."

Yamanu nodded. "I"ll fly with Edgar and shroud the helicopter to make it look like we"re just surveying the area or not even there."

"Not there at all is better," Aru said.

After collecting Dagor, the four of them headed to where Norbu was waiting with the other helicopter.

Kalugal grimaced when he saw the chopper. "We are flying in this?"

"It"s old, but it seems to be okay." Aru climbed in.

Kalugal followed him inside. "It"s going to be cramped here with the four of us and the pilot."

Norbu turned around and smiled at Kalugal, who smiled back and waved.