Archon knew the moment his lifemate regained consciousness and breathed a sigh of relief. He’d been so concerned that it took so long. They’d been sailing the open seas for more than two days and she slept through everything. They would disembark in New York City and embark on a new ship in Philadelphia sometime in the wee hours of the morning. Philadelphia was a risk but it was still their best option.

Philadelphia, while technically under UFE control has a high concentration of Anunnaki and Anunnaki can’t be trusted. Technically they are one of the three races that make up the UFE. Earthlings, Sirians, and Anunnaki. In our faces, the Anunnaki claim to support us, but in reality the Anunnaki care only about are themselves. Oh, like the other UFE allies they were forced to come to earth when their planet was destroyed but like the Venusians and Halflings they sell their wares and lives to the highest bidder.

In many cases the Venusians and Anunnaki are unknowingly doing the dirty work for the Galactic Alliance instead of fighting against them. That means they might help Archon as easily as not. Archon was counting on the port in Philadelphia being very busy since it’s a military area. They would leave this vessel around eleven in the evening and take a car from New York to Philadelphia. From there, they would sail to Greenland in exactly five days. That’s were the two of them would meet up with the rest of us.

The trip would be a cakewalk since the Sirians own the ocean. Hell, the Galactic Alliance races never go anywhere near the water. They prefer to use their hover crafts and airships to get around. Travel across continents is tough for them since hovercrafts don’t go over water and the fuel for their airships gets harder to find every year the war continues.

Archon had been thinking about just those things when he felt more than saw that his lifemate was getting ready to open her eyes and make a run for it. Not wanting her to become panicked he slowly moved closer to the bed and allowed the feeling of warmth and harmony to push out of him and wrap around his lifemate. As I mentioned before, Archon has some unique skills including a couple of magical abilities and ESP. As part of his natural born ESP, Archon developed several skills or tricks as some would say.

I already told you about his visions and OBE abilities. There are only three are also forms of ESP and magic combined. Which are magic and which are ESP are mysteries even to me.

Anyhow, the first of the three remaining skills is his photographic illusions. This skill allows him to temporarily trick and fool weaker minds into believing they are seeing, hearing, smelling or feeling something that isn’t real. This has come in handy on more than one occasions during a mission. I’m sure I don’t have to point out its usefulness for you to get some general ideas.

The next is his brainmuting ESP. Sometimes, with a lot of effort he can change and control the thoughts, mindsets and upper brain functions others. Not other strong willed races like Andromedains, Earthlings even Reptilians but certainly the weaker minded races like the greens, greys and Venusians.

Then there is his mindtwisting ESP. This one lets him alter and twist recent memories. Nothing too big but he could for example make someone believe they’d spoken to a greyling instead of an Earthling. He knew his lifemate suffered terribly at the hands of the Reptilians and wished he could use his mindtwisting ESP to change her recent memories. As a Venusian she we be more then susceptible but sadly however there were too many and it went on for far longer than his ESP was capable of changing.

On top of all of things I’ve told you so far, Archon apparently also had a few skills or magic tricks that the rest of us never knew about. One of them was his ability to influence emotions. He called it emofluence. According to him, he could hold a crowd of more than a hundred people calm even under major duress if the people already wanted to be calm and confident.

That day, Naelia wanted desperately to remain calm and to feel safe so it was easy to help her continue. It took no more than a tiny little push. As soon as Archon sent a little wave of warmth towards her, he could see her visibly relax. Then he heard her sigh of relief. If that however had not been enough he could have used far more of his emofluence to force her into a better emotional state.

There had been no need, since she opened her eyes and moved through several different emotions. Each emotion surprised him a bit more than the one before it. First she allowed herself to enjoy his appearance. She found him very pleasing to her eyes. Then she moved on to his face and was memorized by his smile and the look of joy on his face. Finally, she reached out and gently touched him with her finger tips and sent millions of small butterflies loose in his bloodstream. That nearly threw Archon into a panic as his heart beat double time and pure pleasure rocketed its way through his body.

Archon would have loved to touch her so much more, but he wasn’t a ready. He knew she was Venusian and probably more than ready to e but as an Earthling, he wanted time allow her to grow comfortable with him and his touch. He’d never considered that his lifemate would be anything but an Earthling like him.

Honestly, though he was happy to find her, even if he hadn’t been prepared for her to be Venusian. Venusians were still alien, and aliens, even the y ones had always been taboo to him. It didn’t matter that Venusian females and males lingered around the UFE barracks in hopes of finding a benefactor. Most of our unit kept Venusian concubines. Archon had never even dabbled with them.

The moment he saw her however, he knew he would do anything to keep her. The last thing that mattered to him was that she was Venusian. While she was asleep, Archon couldn’t stop from poking around in her mind to find out what her life was like. He knew the most recent moths had been bad from the dreams they shared, but the last few weeks were far worse than he imagined. So bad in fact, that he thought even though she was a Venusian she might still not welcome any man’s touch.

Her childhood however seemed almost enchanted. Underground, so far away from the war she lived an easy care free life. He knew before she ever woke however that she was language challenged. He found memories of her daydreaming of find him when she should have been learning languages. Too bad, he would have to be creative when it came to communicating with her until she learned. He wasn’t overly worried about it since he could get one of the Venusian concubines to help once they got to Greenland.

Until again, he decided to create a game that would hopefully help her learn earthlish so that she could communicate more effectively in the human tongue. Archon tapped his chest, then calmly said

“Archon” then touched his chest again. Then he tapped the bed, and said,

“Bed”

It took only a few times before she grasped the concept of the game. Naelia seemed to have fun learning words and she was very good at the game. Before long she was sending moving about the room touching things and waiting for Archon to say the word out loud. The moment he said the word she repeated it then chose another item. After a while Archon could tell that she was looking around the rooms for something new to touch.

Once she did every item in the room, it all started again. Archon named them aloud to her one after the other and she repeated. With each item, and word that Naelia said aloud Archon felt her become happier and more relaxed. Archon too was happy, in fact he couldn’t remember a happier time in his life.

Naelia’s stomach growled and Archon knew it was time to bring her lunch. While she’d been sleeping he’d managed to secure some basic supplies. Regatta being the top priority since he knew it was essential for Venusians. He also grabbed a bunch of other vegetables and fruits since he knew she would be ravenous. However when the food arrived, instead of shoving the food in as Archon expected, Naelia surprised him.

She calmly pointed out every piece of food and waited for him to tell her their names. Only after he gave her the word for each item did she begin to eat. They ate lunch quickly and Naelia started the game all over again. It was clear to Archon that Naelia was desperate to learn his language. Every time he said a word she tried to say the word back to him. Her voice was deep and serious, and Archon could tell her vocal cords had never been used to speak anything but Aquarian the Venusians native language. That however didn’t stop Naelia from trying.

About an hour after lunch, Archon noticed that Naelia was twitching and moving around the bed in a strange way. He started to wonder if she had to use the facilities. Not knowing for sure he dropped the game and instead opened the door and pointed at the privy. Naelia rushed inside and closed the door. He turned away when he heard the door open again. When he looked over at Naelia she patted her chest, gave him a huge smile and said,

“Naelia”