Page 14

Racers huddle up and run through hallways in the opposite direction as us. Security lights flash. My guard’s arm tightens around my waist. He shelters me in the shield of his body and guides me to a wall as two Retterwan males stumble over each other while hurrying toward their ships with everyone else.

Warm breath falls over the top of my head. My guard’s rippling body is hard, steady, and locked in around mine. The wall against my other side feels cold compared to him.

“How do I know you aren’t one of them?” I peer up at him.

He doesn’t look at me, but his eyes squint in the flashlights of the other personnel and Abr guards that guide the evacuation. “Unless you’re telepathic, there’s no way to know. So all you have is my behavior. What does it tell you?”

I think he cares more than he’s admitting to me. I’ve never worked with a private security detail that was so attentive or attractive. They’re always hard, cold, and calculated with me because I’m usually negotiating with their clients for dry goods deliveries. That’s it.

When the mob thins enough, he encourages me to keep going. We pass another six rooms and then the mingle celebration hall.

He slows me near the far end of the complex. “Be quiet and still, please. No questions.”

I grumble because I have a lot. But he looks highly alert as he eases us toward a section of private dock pads, so I keep them to myself.

He finds a screen on the wall which lights up at his touch. A heavy breathing sound makes him sling me behind him. His eyes find me in the light of the yellow screen. “Stay.”

The breathing gets louder when he disappears. I slink to sit against the wall, wishing I had a gun or at least a knife to defend myself with.

A security light blinks down the dark hallway, providing a pathetic amount of help with deciphering the situation.

Heat grazes my face, carrying with it the scents that remind me of fresh, raw meat. I squint and try to find the source to cover up my panic.

Its presence leaves me in a crashing racket, followed by a grunt. The security light blinks, exposing two shadows of beings prepping to attack one another. Something growls. A gun flashes, and I see my guard and a monstrous creature I’m not familiar with. It has long dark fur and six-limbs if what I saw in the light was accurate.

My guard grunts in the dark. The alien roars, and I tuck myself tighter against the wall. Another gun flash. I count two more of the creatures. Then a third in a different direction. Scuffles echo in the pitch-black hallway.

The screen overhead goes out, and I hide the light of my wristband under my sleeve. I crawl away from the spot, hoping they’ll lose track of me.

If there was ever a time to be undetectable, it would be now. But as I circle the docking pad toward another ship, I feel claws curl over my shoulder, and I know I have waited too long.

The monster pulls me backward and then grinds my body into the floor so hard that the pressure in my spine makes me worry it might snap.

“Leave her alone! Or I will rip out your talons one by one!” The voice is so familiar. So clear.

Audible scuffles of boots mix with scraping talons. The security light flashes, exposing a tangle of creatures I can’t sort, my guard barely visible among them.

A heavy foot or hand, I can’t tell, presses into my chest. I claw at the talons, feel the breath leaving my body, and know I haven’t got long.

“Tell me,” a low, ghostly voice shudders.

“What?” I wheeze.

“Your father’s gold—”

Tears burn my eyes. “I don’t know.”

It comes out in only a whisper of air.

Talons press harder until a sharp pain cuts into my right lung.

A squeak is all I manage.

My guard’s gun goes off again and again. I can’t tell if it’s him who growls or one of the monsters.

The talons leave me and are followed by the heavy thump of a limp body falling to the floor. I roll to my side, strain to pull in air, and scramble to find the things I’ve dropped.

“Come on, we have to go.” My guard clicks on a flashlight and scans the bodies piled up around him. He’s bloodied and out of breath, but on his feet. “Did you get everything?”

He brings the light to me and pans the area around my feet.

“I think so,” I barely rasp.

“Are you hurt?”

My ribs ache as I breathe. “Yes.”

“How bad?”

“Barely tolerable.”

He points his light toward the hangar, then collects me and helps me up. “That way.”

I follow his lead but can’t quite seem to bring the dock door into focus.

“Abr, do you copy?” he calls out over his wristband.

“Copy. Status?”

“Seven down. Two leaving private security hangar One Charlie.”

He lowers a ramp and checks inside. “MONA, confirm life forms aboard.”

“Life forms, none. One, Zariah Landing, on ramp.”

“Go,” he says, pointing up the ramp.

In the dark, I stagger up to the deck and steady myself on a support rail. When I look back at his faint silhouette, his eyes are a startling radiant gold.

He’s not human.

He draws another gun. My heart pounds.

My guard backs up the ramp as three more creatures charge down the hallways toward us. One goes down, then another. The third makes it onto the ramp.

“MONA, undock. Get us out of here! Disregard Ramp Down!” He slaps a flashing button above the ramp.

The ship jolts. Thrusters ignite and whir into a powerful drone. Lights blink on throughout the ship as he sets foot inside. Daylight pours in as we become exposed to the lunar envirodome.

He grabs a strap from the wall without looking and then shoots the last creature. It scrambles to hold on as he kicks it off the back. Then he leans out and watches it fall.

“MONA, take us out of here with the others.” He closes the ramp. “Shields up.”

A blue-green film coats the view of the stars through the windows. But it’s the first clear look I have of him that makes me choke up. He’s covered in blood. Splits cover his face. He’s been stabbed in the side at some point. Or maybe that was a talon from whatever creature had control of me.

I can’t keep myself upright anymore. My knees buckle as the ship falls in line with the others, leaving Abr behind. The sky outside the ramp has turned a rippling purple. The first ribbons of the space storm have arrived early.

He sighs and helps me into a seat in the back. “Belt in, please.”

I do as he says, but my body feels cold and shaky. The urge to cough overpowers me, but it’s a weak attempt at best and thrusts the taste of blood into my mouth.

“Um—is now a bad time to tell you I don’t feel so good?” I try to say.

He pauses restocking his weapon magazines from a cabinet in the wall, holsters his guns, and looks at me. His eyes widen in fear.

My breaths aren’t as satisfying as I want. Dizziness sweeps through my mind. “Is it bad?”

“Zariah?” He braces me as my body gives out, and I fall into him.

I try to look down at myself, but every breath hurts. I cough and blood splatters uniform. I choke and gag out a “sorry.”

“Oh, stars.” He frantically unstraps and collects me.

I feel so heavy and cold, yet he carries me with a strength I cannot fathom in his condition. He rushes me into another room, where he lays me on a bed under bright lights. My guard—my alien protector—taps a button. The hard bed rises in an array of pegs that conform to my body and support my aching parts.

“Forgive me for this touch. But you’re going to die if I don’t help.” He tears open the top of my Abr uniform and lowers his head to the puncture in my chest. Warm, wet heat slides into my wound. His hands find the belts on the bed as his tongue massages my chest, spreading a tingling heat through my ribs.

He straps me into place, grabs a tool from a drawer, and places the device against the base of my neck. He twists something, and I feel a pounding sting ricochet through my skull. But it’s nothing compared to the agony in every breath.

I try to inhale from the pang as the device burrows into my flesh. It’s a rattling, wheezing noise instead of a quiet rush of air. I’m too weak to fight, to breathe, to do anything but be absolutely terrified that I’m going to suffocate.

He grabs me and rolls me onto my bad side. I fold up on the bed. “Your good lung is filling up with blood. You need to cough, Zariah. Get it out.”

I try, but it’s a poor gurgling attempt. Bloody drool hangs out of my mouth, and I feel so embarrassed and disgusting that I want to die.

He tried so hard. Fought and got hurt for me.

It’s the opposite of anything I ever wanted.

He grabs a tube from over my head, guides it to my neck, and clips it in. Whatever fluid flows into me makes me drowsy.

“Zariah, stay with me.”

Can’t—

He rolls me back, crawls on top of me, and bonds his mouth to my puncture, slowly. Tingles replace the sloshing sensation of liquid in my lungs.

“Zariah.”

His hands are strong. His tongue is a delicious death.

I wish I could stay. I think I’ve finally found someone who truly cares, even if it is just his job.

I smile up at his bright gold eyes, like little suns. I’m choking, my vision fading fast. I can’t say it, but I hope he can read my lips. “Thank you for caring.”

“Zariah!”