Alluring Darkness
Chapter 1
"Perhaps parts of her life
had been nothing more
than illusions masquerading
as moments in time."
Christy Ann Martin
It always started out pleasant, her nightmares. Her mind took her back to the before. Before her life ended, before her world was destroyed before her parents...it was such a pleasant memory that when the terror came, she could not scream.
"Allura! Allura my song, come here to mommy."
"Mommy! Look at my dress?" She spun in a creation of blue satin and lace. Her hair had been pulled off of her face in a golden braided coronet around her head, blue ribbons and white star-bright woven into the strands.
"Oh my, you look just like a fairy princess!" Her mother had exclaimed with eyes like glittering sapphires, alight with pleasure."
Allura thought her mother to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Her hair was no the rich color of the sun like her hair but the pale light of the moon. Her skin, a dusky peach. She wore a gown of swirling amethyst, the ribbons trailing elegantly down her wrists. Upon her brow was circlet of platinum set with a star sapphire.
"Come we must not keep our guests waiting..."
The scene changed and she was no longer in her bedroom, with the blue walls shot with silver and the butterflies painted on her walls, but in the grand ballroom of the palace.
"Papa!" Allura cried out, seeing her distinguished father milling with the rest of the guest. Like her, he wore formal garb of brilliant blue, with a sash of royal amethyst across one shoulder that held part of his cloak in place. His hair, having shaded to silver in his youth, gave him an air of incredible wisdom and his green-gold eyes spoke of laughter and kindness.
He was, after all, known as Alfor the Generous for a good reason.
"Allura, my precious child, how you look like your mother!"
Her mother smiled her quiet smile and slid into his arms, a tender moment between the two ruling monarchs.
"Come you must meet our esteemed guests. King Zarkon has arrived with his son, Crown Prince Lotor."
The scene changed again and this time Allura found herself meeting a young boy with eyes gleaming golden like a cat, dusky blue skin and long hair of true silver, not the pale blonde of her mother's hair.
"Are you a fairy?" The young girl she had been asked with obvious innocence to the boy's heritage.
"I beg your pardon?" The Prince of Drule asked with confusion. He was not familiar with the term 'fairy.'
"You have pointed ears, like the pictures in my book, so I thought you might be a fairy prince."
There was a sudden cough and Allura looked up to see her father, a twinkle in his gaze. She knew that look and grinned. Her father was trying very hard not to laugh.
"Allura, this is Prince Lotor. His ears are pointed, not because he is a fairy, but because he is Drule."
"Oh." Her disappointment was evident.
"I would be most pleased," replied Lotor with a courtly bow before the young princess, "to hear more about this 'fairy' you mistook me for. I confess I have not much knowledge on such things."
"Okay." she replied, her smile lighting up her eyes like a summer sky, "I can show you the gardens. My book said that fairies like flowers gardens the best."
She then looked up at her papa, "May I?" she asked...then the dream shifted.
She was no longer in the ballroom, asking to take Lotor to see the gardens and talk about fairies.
She wasn't even on Arus anymore, but on Korrinoth, referred more as Planet Doom. Her ballgown was long gone and she wore nothing more than a tattered gray tunic, her legs a mottle of bruises, her hair in tangles about her face.
"PAPA! MAMA!" she screamed and screamed, even when the guards gagged her, the cloth cutting into her small mouth until blood leaked out of the corners.
"You will not defeat us Zarkon." she heard her father say to the man who had revealed himself to be a monster.
"Your 'Knight' has been destroyed. Your planet has been reduced to rubble and two thirds of your people are now my slaves." Replied Zarkon, taking a sip of red wine out of goblet of hammered gold studded with rubies. He gave a snap of his fingers and suddenly Allura saw the figure of her mother shoved next to her father.
Her hair was tangled liked her daughter's and her left cheek bore the stain of a bruise, as though someone had struck her across the face.
Gone were her regal robes of state. Instead she wore what amounted to were scraps of silk and lace that barely covered her breasts and legs. Her legs and arms bore numerous cuts and there was a dazed sort of look in her eye.
"You monster! What have you done to my consort!"
Zarkon's smile grew even more cruel as he gazed upon her mother. "She has the most enticing of screams."
King Alfor, who was known to be a gentle man, suddenly surged to his feet in rage. But Zarkon's soilder's were already there, wrenching his manacled hands back down, forcing him to his knee's.
"When you die, take peace knowing that your daughter shall live." Zarkon told her mother and father. "A gift...for my son when he comes of age. Should she survive, that is."
At that Zarkon unsheathed his blade and Allura screamed against the gag as she watched as her beloved father's head fly from his body and landed on the floor behind him, a fountain of blood streaming from his neck.
There was so much blood...
Allura woke up, the screams building in her throat. Tears were streaming down her eyes, unchecked and she breath was a ragged gasp. Her arms were locked about her body and she was rocking back and forth, desperately trying to forget.
Allura flung off the covers and ran from the bedroom in the half-destroyed castle. She couldn't stay in the castle, not right now. Her memories were too raw, her pain too close to the surface.
A glance out of one of the repaired windows showed the moon still high in the sky. She had only been in bed for a handful of hours.
The castle was quiet and Allura quickly slipped out one of the corridors to the stairs that led to one of the parapets that formed the Castle of Lions.
The air was mild, and the slight breeze that blew held the scent of rain upon it. Still when Allura tilted her head to look at the sky, she could still make out a dozen stars and the moon bathed her in its silvery light.
"Allura, what are you doing out here?"
Allura spun, sucking in a sharp breathe as she heard the deep timbre of Commander Keith Kogane's. His voice was like midnight, all secrets and shadows that made the blood in her veins heat in the most discomforting of ways.
"K-Keith! You...you startled me, I didn't think anyone was out here."
Allura was already backing up, trying to keep to the shadows. The tears on her face had not yet dried and she did not want this male, out of all of them, to see her like this.
"That doesn't answer my question." Keith stepped out of the shadow of the spire he had been standing in and again Allura thought she had never encountered a male more beautiful or more fascinating than him.
His hair was the color of darkness itself, the midnight shadow on a raven's wing. For a military-minded man he did not wear his hair cropped short, like Sven, but slightly long so that the edges just brushed the strong lines of his shoulder. His bangs were feathered to fall around his face so that they did not obscure his vision and as always, her fingers itched to push the jagged edges away from his eyes.
His eyes were like that of the obsidian stone, a black stone she was from earth. They seemed to absorb the light and reflect one's image back at themselves so that no one could truly see what was behind those beautiful eyes.
He wore the clothing he had first landed in, all those months ago. His red flight jacket fitted over a black t-shirt and form fitting black pants. Both jacket and pants were made of leather, a durable substance she had never encountered.
"Allura?"
Her name a question on his lips, a slash of hard sensuality that begged to be kissed, had a stain of red run across her cheekbones. She had been staring at Keith, completely forgetting he had asked a question.
"I...I just wanted some air. I'll be going now..." Allura turned quickly on bare feet and came to shocked halt when she felt warm, masculine fingers close gently around her wrist.
He wasn't wearing his flight gloves and the heat of his skin nearly scorched her own.
"Someone doesn't come out here at two in the morning just for fresh air." He said softly to her, "so why don't you tell me the real reason you're not asleep?"
"Why are you out here then?" she asked, evading his question.
"Guard duty. It's my night to stand watch."
Of course it is, Allura thought with a sigh.
A tug on her wrist and suddenly Allura was pulled out of the shadows.
"There now I can see you..." his voice died abruptly when the moonlight fell upon her slender form.
"Allura...you're arms..."
Allura glanced down and gasped in horror. She had forgotten she had been wearing her sleeveless nightgown, the only one remaining, when she had been running from her nightmares.
She never went sleeveless when around other people.
"Oh golden gods! K-Keith...let me go please!"
But he did not release her wrist, instead his grip tightened and he took a step forward. Allura turned her head, not wanting to see the disgust in his eyes.
"What happened to you?"
Her eyes widened as she heard the anger, the sheer rage in his voice...but there was nothing that spoke of disgust at the scars that covered her arms.
"Zarkon. Or to be more precise, his solders." She said in a soft, weary voice.
"When?" His voice was like an unsheathed blade, honed to a killing edge and she shivered at the sound of it.
"When I was six." Just breathe, recite it like the history it is. Detach yourself. "When Zarkon annexed our planet he took my mother, my father and myself along with royal dignitaries to Planet Doom."
She sighed, the wind playing with the strands of her hair. "You asked why I came up here? The truth is...the truth is like most people who have experienced war, I have nightmares. When I cannot sleep," when I cannot breathe past the pain, "I come up here to clear my head."
"What do you see?"
His words were harsh, his voice so gentle that Allura instinctively turned her head...and the moonlight fell upon the glistening wetness on her cheeks.
Keith, his other hand not holding her wrist, reached up and wiped away the tear that slid out of the corner of her eye.
The touch was so intimate, it was a shock to her body. Her eyes widened at his touch, her mouth parting in surprise, but he did not remove his hand. Instead he slid it behind the nape of her neck and pulled her close so that their foreheads touched.
"Tell me what you see." he asked her softly, keeping her in place with gentlest of pressures that she knew she could pull away anytime.
But it had been so long since anyone held her with such tenderness that she could not find the will to break away.
"The death of my parents." she whispered, closing her eyes. "I was there, in Zarkon's throne room when they were murdered."
"Christ." Keith swore, his fingers tangling in golden skeins of her hair.
She shivered again, this time the breeze pulling a little harder. Keith felt her shiver, goosebumps erupting on her skin as the night air began to drop.
Reluctantly he pulled away from her body, the intoxicating scent of her threatening to drown him in sensual pleasure. It had been a long time since he had held a woman like this.
"Keith...I..." Allura began, but he stopped her by shrugging off his jacket and draping it about her shoulders, giving her body some protection against the wind.
He skimpy nightgown, though pleasurable to behold, was damn little protection out in the open.
He also found himself not wanting any of the other sentries to see her like this. So vulnerable and so damn desirable that she threatened to cut him off at the knee's. His desire so was sudden, so violent, that it was like a punch to the gut.
"Oh! Thank you...it's so warm." Allura snuggled into his jacket and he caught the fleeting glimpse of smile on her face and felt a thread of male satisfaction go through him, seeing her marked by his clothing.
"Sure." he told her, a growl in his voice. "I don't need you catching sick. Coran would have my head."
"Ah...yes. Of course." Once more he heard the 'princess' in her voice. A woman who distanced herself so that others would not see her as just another beautiful female, but a leader worthy of respect.
He found himself angry at the tone, considering he had his fingers in her hair only moments ago.
Of course, he realized, he had used the exact same tone on her only moments ago.
"I...I should go."
"Will you go back to your bedroom?"
"No...I...not yet. I can't."
"What will you do then?"
Allura gave him a considering look, and he could see the secrets swirling in her eyes. Sapphires-in-moonlight, that was the color of her eyes. In the morning he thought they might be more akin to indigo or cerulean.
He wanted to know the secrets in her eyes. Eyes that spoke of years beyond the nineteen she had lived.
"Who else is on duty tonight?"
Keith blinked at that, for he had not expected the question out of her.
"Adam and Sig are in the control room, monitoring from the inside."
"But out here? Who else stands guard with you?"
Keith shook his head. "No one. With the sensors now up and running there isn't any need for more than one person to stand watch outside."
"Mmmm, alright. Will you stay here? I will be back in a moment."
Keith thought it an odd question, but he gave a nod of his head. Allura turned and disappeared from his sight.
Some men might have doubted her return, thinking she used it as an excuse to get away from what could potentially become and embarrassing situation.
But not Keith. He trusted her word. She said she would come back and so he would wait for her return.
Even if that meant he would stay up until the dawn lit the sky.
Allura moved on quick, silent feet, her heart in her throat. She hadn't given Keith his jacket back and the truth was, she didn't want to. It smelled like him, like the wind and lightning and so potently male that she could only sigh and snuggled deeper into it.
It was not his arms about her, but it was the next best thing to it. What she was about to next...she had not done in several years and never for anyone.
Not even Coran knew she did this...and yet I told Keith I would return to him.
Allura turned the corridor to what used to be her parents room and were now just another empty room with broken furniture, dusty from disuse. Allura swallowed hard, and despite the nightmares still in her head, she crept through the room until she found what she was looking.
Taking the slim, battered case in her arms she took the object out and brushed a loving hand over it. Smiling behind her tears, she clutched it close to her chest and with a soft sigh, she slipped out of the room and quickly made her way back to Keith.
He was exactly where she left him, leaned up against the steel column. His head was tipped back, as though studying the stars.
"The constellation in the upper left is called Galyia, the Star Catcher."
Keith looked to where she had entered...and her heart quickened beneath her breast as his lips lifted in a slight smile.
"I am still learning these stars." He tilted his head until a lock of hair fell in front of one eye. "What is that you are holding? It looks like an old earth instrument called the ehru."
Allura came forward, the instrument cradled close to her body.
"What is an ehru?"
"Something the noble women of japan used to play a long time ago. Usually with only two strings and played with a bow."
"This has more than two strings and is not played with a bow. It is called a kryndil." Allura looked to the ledge and decided it was low enough for her to sit upon.
"Will you hold this?" she asked, holding out the delicate wooden instrument with with gleaming strings.
Keith nodded and took the kryndil from her and watched with narrowed eyes as she backed up to the ledge and jumped up on it.
"Allura!"
"I'm fine, Keith. Heights don't bother me and the ledge is thick enough that I have no fear of falling off." She shrugged off his jacket, despite her want to keep it on. She placed it next to her for she would not risk it falling off of her body and the sleeves were far too long for it to fit properly.
"Still..." Keith muttered darkly as he gingerly gave her back the instrument. He said nothing else as he watched her tune the stringed instrument, her fingers skimming lightly over the chords.
"Have you heard the Arusian legend of when Sypreen, the moon maiden, fell from the sky and Telimar, the star wolf, went looking for her?"
Keith gazed at her with a surprised look. "No," he said slowly, wondering if she was going to do what he thought she was, "will you tell me the story?"
With a nod of her head, Allura placed the kryndil across her lap and began moving her fingers along the strings, a haunting melody that strongly reminded Keith of the sound the ehru made...and then she began to sing.
Her voice was soft and so pure a sound, Keith forgot how to breathe for moment from the sheer beauty of her voice.
An angel, he thought with a dazed kind of feeling, a space angel has fallen to my side and I am listening to her song.
It took him a moment to focus on the words of her song...and found the legend she sang of full of poignant longing and love lost and then found once again. He was not ashamed to admit to the tears that gathered behind his closed eyes and listened to the princess of Arus sing to him.
It was a memory, he knew, that would forever be tucked away in the secret part of his soul. He would never speak to this to anyone, this was his and his alone.
His opened of their own accord when her voice stopped and he found an ache deep inside himself, an open chasm where her voice had filled him. She had set her instrument to the other side of her body and watched him eyes that seemed ageless.
"Allura...I..."
"Shhh," she told him when he had moved closer to her, unable to remember when he had moved, and leaned down to touch his lips with her fingers. "Say nothing else. I have a confession to make."
Keith waited, a stillness over him that was born of years of rigorous discipline, for her to continue speaking. He did not even try to move her fingers from his lips.
"I have...to this day...never played for anyone."
Except I played for you, her eyes told him and this time Keith did not curb the impulse that had struck him the moment he had laid eyes upon her, in that tunnel beneath Arus.
Reaching up to capture the nape of her neck again, he pulled her further down, as his arm slid around her waist, anchoring her in place.
"Keith..what...are..." her words were lost for his mouth captured hers, his mouth slanted over hers, nibbling and sucking on her lips until she opened her mouth to his...and groaned with uninhibited desire as his tongue slid into her mouth.
Coaxing, exploring her mouth, he lit off a thousand fireworks behind her eyes and she closed them, rocked by the sensation of his lips upon hers.
They were at once demanding yet utterly gentle with her, until her hands were braced on his arms and she made a soft, needy sound, that soon had her off the ledge and backed up against it, his body pressed intimately against hers.
She was no longer cold, but burning from the inside out. He was melting her bones with his desire, the force of his sensuality overwhelming her mind.
She met his mouth, kiss for kiss, greedy for the taste of him. She had waited all of these months for him to kiss her like this.
But as quickly as it had started, he was suddenly thrusting her away from him, both of their breathing harsh in the silence that was the night.
"Keith...I...that is..."
"Don't." Keith told her with such soft menace that Allura actually gasped softly, "apologize. I am not sorry I kissed you."
"Neither am I."
Keith shot her a hard look, but she lifted her head to look at him straight in the eyes. "I may not be as...experienced as you," she told him despite the fierce blush on her face, "but I am not a child. I knew exactly what I was doing."
Keith jerked a hand through his hair. "Allura...I can't give you what you want..."
"Did I ask you for anything?"
This time Keith jerked his head to look at her and she gave him a soft, beguiling smile that would have dropped him to his knee's, had he not locked them at that moment.
She took a step closer to him, until once more their bodies were only inches from each other. "My life ended when I was six," she told him softly, not breaking eye contact, "my parents murdered, my world destroyed. I have little knowledge in the matters of love...or the intimacy between a man and a woman."
When Keith opened his mouth, she forestalled him by once more placing her fingers on his lips. "But that doesn't mean I regret what happened. This night...it will be nothing more than a lovely dream, for the both of us. In the morning I will go back to be the leader of my people and you will go back to being the leader of the Voltron Force."
She removed her fingers and pressed a soft, tender kiss to his mouth. "But just for this one night, I wanted to only be with you, as Allura. A woman, not as a princess or a member of the Voltron Force or the leader of a destroyed planet."
She pulled away from him and picked up her instrument, well aware of his eyes upon her.
"Good night...Keith."
She walked away and did not look back, despite the hum in her bones, the ache in her body from his touch. Her mind was, for once, at peace and the nightmares no longer held sway for her.
Keith had given her a memory to fight them off. She had just reached the doorway when she thought she might have heard his voice, speaking.
"Good night...my Allura."