Alien Protector: Sci-Fi Alien Invasion Paranormal Romance by Ashley West Page A

But it turns out that I didn’t have all the information. Together, the Artifacts don’t bring you Cillidan’s favor. They give you Cillidan’s power. Because together they make a powerful weapon, like nothing anyone has ever seen before. According to Plintos anyway.”
    “And you said...you said that someone stole the other two from your friend?”
    “I did.”
    She blinked, chewing on her lip. “So you think they’re coming after the third one, then. The one at the museum.”
    Draco inclined his head. “I do.”
    Stephanie watched him for a moment, thinking hard. “When you said you needed my help, what you meant was that you need me to help you to get the blade,” she said finally. “That’s why you’ve been so interested in it, isn’t it?” She very purposely did not follow that with wanting to know if it was the only reason he was interested in her.
    “Yes,” Draco admitted. “I was hoping that I could get it and then get back to Aldara without much hassle. Of course that’s different now.”
    “What do you need me for now?” Stephanie wanted to know, trying not to let her tone be too bitter. Of course it had been too good to be true. She should have expected that from the get go. There was no way that Draco was just...that interested in her. Their conversations had been almost effortless with how well they’d worked together, but it had all been an act from the beginning.
    “For now it’s more important that whoever is after the blade doesn’t get it,” Draco replied. “According to Plintos, who would know, if they got their hands on all three Artifacts, the devastation they could bring would be terrible.”
    “Bring here or bring against your people?”
    “I don’t know. Neither does Plintos. We don’t know who this is, but it’s been ages since our corner of Aldara has seen fighting. There’s no telling who this is or what they want, and it’d be short sighted to assume that they wouldn’t do anything to your planet in their efforts to get what they want.”
    “Right,” she said, rubbing at her forehead. For one of the first times in her life, she was dealing with information overload, and she wasn’t sure how to deal with it. Usually she had some frame of reference for the things she learned, but all of this was so new and so different and so out of her depth. Aliens and magical weapons and just... all of it.
    What was really sticking with her, of course, was the way he had been planning to use her to steal from the museum and then just disappear. Try as she might, she couldn’t help but be hurt by it, and she had to look away from him to keep the emotion from showing in her eyes.
    “Well,” she continued, shaking her head to clear it. “It shouldn’t be hard to keep whoever it is from getting the blade. It’s under lock and key, except for when it’s being examined, and the research team wouldn’t let anything happen to it. It would help if we knew a bit more about who these people or creatures or whatever are.”
    Draco sighed. “You’re telling me,” he said. “Plintos is investigating. Someone in the palace had to have seen something. He’ll let me know when he knows something.”
    “Just keep me posted,” Steph said with a brightness that she didn’t feel. She got to her feet, cradling her empty coffee cup and still not looking at him. “I’ll put some clothes on and then take you back to your place.”
    “Alright,” Draco replied softly. “Thank you.”
    Stephanie got as far as the kitchen before he spoke again. “I am sorry, you know. I didn’t expect…”
    She waved the apology away, shaking her head. “No, no, it’s fine. Someone threw a wrench in your plans, right? You never wanted to have to explain all of this to me.”
    “That’s not exactly what I was going to say.”
    “Still. It’s fine. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”
    Practically bolting to her room, she shut the door and leaned against it, closing her eyes and trying to