Page 20

CHAPTER 20

VANESSA

M y head throbs as consciousness creeps back. Cold seeps through my clothes, making me shiver. The floor beneath me is smooth, hard - metal, not concrete. Not my apartment. Not the alley.

I force my eyes open. The ceiling above me gleams with a dull, silvery sheen. No light fixtures, but a soft blue glow emanates from somewhere I can't pinpoint. The walls curve up from the floor in one seamless piece, like I'm inside a giant metal egg.

"Hello?" My voice cracks. The word echoes strangely, bouncing back at me with an electronic undertone that makes my skin crawl.

I push myself up to sitting, fighting a wave of nausea. My muscles ache like I've run a marathon. The events before I blacked out flash through my mind in disconnected fragments:

Jack's face changing. Red skin. Black eyes. Horns.

The grip of steel arms around my chest.

The mercury creature appearing behind him.

The sickening crack as Jack fell.

"Oh god." I press my palms against my eyes, willing the images away. "This isn't happening. Wake up, wake up, wake up."

But the cold metal floor doesn't vanish. The strange blue light continues its eerie pulse. And when I lower my hands, I'm still alone in this impossible room.

Jack is an alien. The thought bounces around my skull, refusing to settle into anything resembling sense. The man who held me, kissed me, made me feel safe - he's not even human.

A laugh bubbles up, edged with hysteria. All those weird questions about dating. His intense focus on human behavior. The way he moved during laser tag. How could I have been so blind?

I bring my knees to my chest, trying to make myself smaller in this vast, empty space. The memory of his transformation plays on repeat - familiar features melting away to reveal something otherworldly. Something impossible.

But what terrifies me most isn't Jack's true form. It's the desperate look in those alien eyes when he tried to reach me. The raw fear in his voice when he screamed my name.

A soft hiss cuts through the silence. A panel in the curved wall slides open, revealing a figure that makes me scramble back until I hit the opposite wall.

She's tall - at least seven feet - with iridescent scales covering her body in shades of blue and green. Her eyes are huge, silver orbs without pupils, and what I first think is hair turns out to be dozens of delicate tentacles flowing from her scalp.

"Please don't scream." Her voice has a musical quality, like wind chimes in a breeze. "I'm not here to harm you."

I press myself harder against the wall, heart thundering. "What do you want?"

"My name is Mar'oo." She stays by the door, hands raised in what I guess is meant to be a calming gesture. "I'm supposed to prepare you for transport."

"Transport where?" My voice comes out stronger than I feel.

"To auction." She tilts her head, tentacles swaying with the movement. "Pure humans are... rare out here. Especially ones as physically appealing as you. The bidding will be fierce."

The words hit me like a punch to the gut. "Auction? You're going to sell me?"

"I don't want to." Mar'oo's silver eyes dim slightly. "But we all have our roles here. The collectors find specimens, and we prepare them for sale."

"Specimens? I'm not a specimen. I'm a person."

"To them, you're both." She gestures at my body. "Unmarked human DNA is valuable. Some collectors want to study you. Others..." She trails off, looking away.

I think of Jack's warnings about his superiors, about the danger. He tried to protect me from this. And now I'm here, about to be sold like a piece of exotic art to the highest bidder.

The tears come without warning, hot and desperate. I curl into myself, shoulders shaking as sobs wrack my body. All those times I thought my life was falling apart - bad breakups, losing my scholarship, fighting with my parents - seem laughably small now.

"Please don't cry." Mar'oo takes a hesitant step forward. "The process isn't painful. They'll make sure you're comfortable-"

"Comfortable?" I choke out a bitter laugh. "While they study me like a lab rat? Or keep me as what - a pet? Or even a…oh god."

She drifts closer, her tentacles rippling with what might be distress. "Some masters treat their humans very well. Like precious treasures."

"That's supposed to make me feel better?" I swipe at my cheeks, but fresh tears replace the ones I wipe away. "I had a life. A job. Friends. And now I'm just... property?"

Mar'oo kneels beside me, close enough that I can see patterns swirling beneath her scales. "I wish I could help. But the collectors... they own everything here. Including me."

Something in her voice makes me look up. Those silver eyes hold a shadow of understanding, of shared captivity. She reaches out with one delicate hand, hesitates, then gently touches my shoulder.

"I'm so scared," I whisper, the admission breaking something loose inside me. Fresh sobs bubble up, and to my surprise, Mar'oo pulls me into an embrace. Her scales are smooth and cool against my tear-stained face.

"I know," she murmurs, her musical voice carrying notes of sorrow. "I know."

I sink into Mar'oo's embrace, my mind drifting to Jack. Not the alien version that shattered my reality, but the man who made me laugh during laser tag. Who kissed me under the stars. Who made me feel like I was the most fascinating person he'd ever met.

The image of him crumpling to the ground plays on repeat. That mercury-like creature appearing behind him. The sickening thud. The way his eyes - those impossible black eyes - had locked onto mine in that final moment, filled with desperate love and regret.

"He tried to warn me," I whisper against Mar'oo's scales. "He pushed me away to protect me, and I thought... I thought he just didn't want me anymore."

My chest aches with the weight of everything unsaid. I'd been ready to tell him I loved him. Now he's probably lying dead in that alley, and I'll never get the chance.

"The man they took you from?" Mar'oo's tentacles brush soothingly against my hair. "The one who changed form?"

I nod, unable to speak through the fresh wave of grief.

"He wasn't like the others," she says softly. "Most observers maintain strict distance. They never... fall in love."

Love. The word pierces through me like a blade. I'd been so careful with my heart, built walls so high after every disappointment. Then Jack came along with his strange questions and intense focus, and somehow slipped right past every defense.

"I loved him back," I admit, the words barely audible. "God, I loved him, and I never told him. And now…"