Page 195 of Galaxy Games Four-Book Box Set (Galaxy Games)

195

The Next Step

M aya

I’m floaty. Not sure whether I’m asleep or awake. Maybe both.

I dream, then wake and take a deep, reassuring whiff of A’Dar’s scent, then slide into slumber again. I know I’m being selfish and not very safe. People are fighting and dying out there. I should be on guard, not lying naked on my lover’s lap.

Lover. Weird word for a person I met mere hours ago.

Well, not even a person. An alien. A Xenon warrior.

Any moment now, I should open my eyes and get up and pull on those coveralls. Forcing myself, I climb up from this dreamy place.

A’Dar’s the first thing I see when my lids pop open. He’s watching me sleep with those glowing golden eyes. He doesn’t look sick anymore. He seems healthy.

I promise myself I’ll slide off his lap in a moment. Just one more lick of his chest.

That one lick, along with a deep inhale, makes lust travel through me like a runaway freight train. No, not lust. Blood lust.

I have truly lost my mind. Maybe this is a hallucination I’m having from the safety of a looney bin, because this couldn’t be real, could it?

Was it just an hour ago I wondered if machta had made other, yet undiscovered, changes to me? I can hear his blood. And I want to drink it.

“I need your blood.” My soft voice is serious and panicked. In case his translator hasn’t caught up with me, I repeat it. “A’Dar, I need to drink your blood.”

“That is the Xenon way,” he says, his eyes wide in his face, “but you’re human.”

“What color are my eyes?” I snap irritably.

“Gold.”

“So I’m not human anymore.” I can’t look at his face, can’t tear my gaze from his wrist. Running my tongue along the tops of my teeth, I realize my eyes may have changed, but my teeth are still human. “How am I going to drink your blood?” I ask, my voice half panicked, half furious.

Fear tears through me when the plots of half a dozen vampire movies fly through my thoughts. Have I lost my mind? Am I going to lose all higher thought on the quest to quench my unholy thirst? I feel out of control, certainly not a good sign.

To his credit, A’Dar doesn’t argue, nor does he hesitate. He simply uses his fangs to pierce the flesh of his wrist, then lifts it to my lips.

I don’t pause or falter, I simply crouch to get a better angle, grab his hand and forearm with all my strength to keep him from pulling away, and take deep pulls of his blood. Somehow, he turns me on his lap, never pulling his wrist from my mouth. This lets us keep eye contact. For a moment, when I was hunched over him, I felt like an animal. Now that our gazes are locked, this seems… sensual and connected.

I don’t worry that I’ll take too much. He’s so much bigger than me. He’ll stop me if he needs to.

The taste of his coppery blood should repulse me, but I find it delicious, so I simply drink my fill.

I’m surprised to wake up in bed. For a moment, I wonder if everything has simply been a bad dream, but Jahzara Zedd is on the vid screen blathering excitedly about the numbers and what’s going to happen next.

And the vampire thing? Certainly, that was a nightmare, right? Except the coppery taste in my mouth belies the truth.

When my tongue sweeps my mouth, I realize my teeth are different. I have fangs. Fangs! Once again, I pray, please, please, please, dear God, don’t let me have tusks.