Page 16 of The Dreamer and the Deep Space Warrior (Xaal Alien Romance #1)

Isobel

Over the last several days, Isobel had fallen easily into the routine of helping Ved whenever she could.

On that particular morning, Henry and Clara had decided to visit some art display that other genteel families would conveniently be attending. It left her with the entire day to herself, and, of course, she was spending it on the ship.

Isobel was currently inspecting a wire to ensure it had nothing exposed out of its casing. Ved was outside, attempting to repair his thrusters. She’d been diligently working on the tasks he’d delegated to her for the last handful of hours. Her hands and arms ached from the exertion.

But it felt good.

Having a purpose that challenged her both physically and mentally was something she’d yearned for. If anyone saw her now, with dirt and grease smudges here and there and her curls rebelliously escaping the ribbons she’d tied them up in, they’d perhaps die of shock .

“ Isobel Nott, I need you to listen to my instructions very carefully .” The unfamiliar voice echoed in the space, coming from some unidentifiable location.

“Exxo?” she asked, pausing in her work. Excitement rushed through her. Ved hadn’t let her speak with the neurolink up to this point, giving the excuse that he could be rude.

“ The one and only, but we do not have time for introductions. I need you to take ten paces forward. ”

The excitement dissipated, and a primal feeling that something was terribly wrong infiltrated her senses. “What’s happening?”

“ Ten paces forward ,” Exxo repeated, sounding on the verge of exasperation.

She followed his instructions, counting low beneath her breath.

“ Kneel down and look to your right. The siding there has a handle on it. Pull it. ”

It took her what felt like a small eternity to find the handle, but when she did, the partition hissed as it opened.

“ Get inside it. Hurry now. ”

She ducked and looked inside. It led to a small compartment that was just big enough for her to crouch in. It took her a bit of maneuvering to fit into the space as she kept stepping on her dress. Huffing, she pulled her skirts up around her.

“ Close it ,” Exxo commanded.

Taking a deep breath, she obeyed. With the panel closed, it plunged her into a darkness that was only broken by the sparse light between the siding’s edging.

“What’s happening?” she asked again.

“ Ved has the situation under control, but you need to be quiet, or they will hear you .”

“They?” she squeaked .

“ Kroids. ”

She bit her lip to keep herself from asking more questions.

Kroids. Were they something different than a Xaal, or another clan?

Ved had told her there were countless beings from countless planets in the universe.

Whatever it was, Exxo thought it dangerous enough to hide her.

Did that mean Ved was in danger? What if something happened to him?

Between the steadily rising panic and the enclosed space that forced her to pile her skirts up around her, she quickly became overheated.

A bead of sweat trailed its way down from her forehead when she heard footsteps. Somehow, she knew that it wasn’t Ved. The cadence was wrong. She wanted to whisper to Exxo, be told more information, anything , but he’d explicitly told her to be quiet.

Then she looked down, and her entire body went cold.

A small piece of her gown’s gauzy fabric was caught in the crack between panels. She saw it at the exact moment the Kroid stopped in front of her hiding position. As close as she was to the panel’s slit, she could see the being’s calves and oddly booted feet. It was definitely not a Xaal.

She didn’t dare move even as her eyes darted between the exposed piece of her dress to the Kroid.

It continued forward, out of her sight. She let out as soundless a breath as possible, but the exhale caused her to shift enough that her dress rustled.

Damn it all to hell.

The steps in the near distance stopped, then grew closer. The Kroid had turned around. It was coming back for her. Whatever luck she’d managed thus far had run out.

She held her breath as it stopped in front of where she hid again. A strange chuffing came from somewhere far above. Dread captured her lungs, squeezing them tight.

It was sniffing her out.

Her lungs burned. It’d been foolish to hold her breath. But just when she couldn’t manage it any longer, the panel was torn completely away.

Hands— four hands tipped with long claws—reached in to grab her.

Screaming, she tried to find purchase on anything, but to no avail.

She was wrenched from her hiding space and hoisted high into the air.

She kicked wildly but was unable to move her arms as the Kroid pinned them to her side. It was strong—struggling was useless.

“Exxo!” she screeched.

“ Working on it ,” he responded unhurriedly.

The creature made a series of deep clicks and scratchy trills, and Isobel finally looked into its face.

There was nothing to compare it to. Its skin was a mixture of scaly dark greens and browns.

Wide-set, black eyes ran over her hungrily.

But it was the rows of sharp, pointed teeth set into its blockish face, beneath a nose made up of long slits, that terrified her.

That terrible maw opened wide, a whiplike tongue slithering out to lash against her chin and cheek.

The Kroid brought her closer to its body, its rotten breath hot on her face. Isobel screamed as she attempted to knee it in the chest and push away, which only served to tighten its hold on her. Its claws tore into her dress and poked the flesh beneath. Any deeper and it would shred her skin.

“Exxo, I don’t know what to do!” she cried in a panic.

“ Put your head down ,” Exxo warned.

She ducked her head down and squeezed her eyes shut just as a hissing sound emitted from the panels of the ceiling. A wave of heat burst across her hair, but she wasn’t close enough to be burned by whatever defense Exxo had chosen.

The Kroid roared and tossed her away.

She scrambled back from the creature’s stomping feet lest she be trampled to death. It thrashed wildly, trying to escape the pressurized steam releasing from somewhere in the ceiling, but it slammed into the opposite wall.

“ Run now, Isobel Nott .”

A bolt of lightning went through her as she found her footing. She obeyed, gathering up her skirts and dashing toward the control room, which looped back to the entrance she always used. She wiped the Kroid’s drool from her face, willing herself not to vomit.

“ When you leave the ship, go to the left ,” Exxo instructed, “ I will not be able to see you once you get into the tree line. Find a tree to hide behind and stay put until Ved finds you. He will not be long. ”

“Thank you, Exxo.”

As she stepped out of the ship, though, she heard distant fighting. Was that Ved? Could she really run and hide while he fought for his life? It didn’t seem right.

“ You will only distract him ,” Exxo said boredly. “ The Kroid in the shadowdrifter is recovering, and I am serious when I say that Ved will be most displeased if I allow you to become a Kroid snack. ”

It was going to eat her? The thought alone made her stomach turn until she thought she would be sick, even as she ran as fast as she could manage toward the trees.

When the woods engulfed her, it was a welcome feeling.

Only looking back once at the ship, she didn’t see any ugly, human-eating creatures coming for her.

Still, she didn’t slow down until she found a sturdy tree to crouch behind.

Ved’s world was violent and exacting, she’d known that, but something about this put it more into perspective. Did he ever face a day when there wasn’t an enemy plotting his demise, or him theirs? Was there any softness or rest for him?

Would he even want such things?

Time passed in a way that made her uncertain whether she’d been there for minutes or longer. Listening intently, she couldn’t hear anything.

Even the wood’s constant chatter had stopped. It was so eerily quiet she could almost hear her heart beating.

Had it been that way the entire time?

Twigs snapped nearby.

She jumped. Dragging in a shaky breath, she tried to peer through the wiry bushes all around her. It had to be Ved. Exxo had said he wouldn’t be long. Yet it was noisy footsteps that drew closer, heading right toward her.

Too noisy to be Ved.

She popped her head up, needing to see what was coming for her.

And regretted it immediately. The Kroid spotted her and let out a strange chitter.

Another responded, coming from behind her. She whirled around to not only a second Kroid, but a third, too. Backing up, she kept them in her line of sight.

They stood upright on thick legs, but their knees were bent as if constantly prepared to pounce.

All three held big, rifle-like objects unlike she’d ever seen in two of their four hands.

Though the color of their scales varied slightly around their black eyes, they were all similar in appearance.

Meaning large, terrifying, and ready to eat her.

One gestured at her and spoke in a series of strange noises. The same Kroid from Ved’s ship, whom she identified by the bubbled and irritated burned skin across its head and neck, closed the distance between them faster than she could move .

Backing away, she stumbled over a raised root. The Kroid grabbed her before she fell.

As soon as she was balanced again, Isobel stomped on its foot. “Let me go!”

It bared its teeth at her as it’s mouth yawned open. Wider, and wider until its jaw popped and unhinged. Rows of razor-sharp teeth lined its dark, putrid orifice and rotten strips of its earlier meals were caught between its teeth. Its tongue was a whip that lashed out toward her in anticipation.

What level of hell was this? Isobel thrashed wildly in its hold, but before she could fully comprehend what she was seeing, she was snatched out of the Kroid’s grasp. At the same time, her captor was knocked violently to the ground.

A large, familiar body braced her. Ved looked down at her, red shields burning. Then he turned his focus to the Kroids and let out a deadly, rhythmic growl that traveled through her bones.

The two remaining Kroids pointed their guns at him.

The next moments were a blur that her brain refused to fully register. All she could say for certain was Ved lunged at them. One moment the creatures had all of their limbs, and the next, they were gone and strewn about. Inky green blood drenched the area around them.

“Ved,” she choked out, taking a stumbling step toward him.

But that same terrible Kroid from the ship sprang to its feet, still very much alive, and grabbed at her. She fought, throwing a sloppy punch and kicking its shin, but then something hot and metal pressed to her head.

The barrel of a rifle.

She froze.

Ved came to his full height.

Looking from the weapon at her temple to the Kroid, he snapped his jaws.

The creature behind her began to chitter, but before it was finished, before Isobel could comprehend what had happened, the sound was cut off. A flash, an electrical whir, and the Kroid holding her let out a grunt.

Ved snatched her to him, turning her so her back was to his front, before the body even hit the ground. “Isobel Nott,” he growled. He lifted her as if she weighed no more than a child’s doll and stalked forward, his arm snaked around her midsection, his huge hand gripping her hip.

She didn’t argue against the contact, too shaken from the ordeal to do anything but cling to his arms. He was so sturdy. Solid. The thick cords of muscle beneath his body suit made her feel safe despite having witnessed him commit unthinkable violence once again.

But this time, it had been to save her.

“I can walk,” she rasped eventually. They’d been walking for too long. The ship wasn’t that far away, was it?

But then she truly looked around her. They weren’t going back to his ship; he was taking her to the edge of the forest.

“Ved?”

But he didn’t answer her, and something gnawed at her insides. Was he upset with her? Had she done something wrong?

When he set her down on her feet not seconds later, she swayed where she stood. She wasn’t injured, not really, but her mind and body were having a difficult time comprehending what had taken place. She’d almost died. Multiple times. And Ved was angry with her.

“I don’t know what I did wrong,” she said as she turned to face him, but he was already stepping back from her .

“It isn’t safe for you,” he said gruffly. There was something else there, something unspoken. As if what he really wanted to say was I’m not safe for you.

His red shields flashed to a dim orange as his hand worked in and out of a fist. “Go home, Isobel Nott, and stay there,” he ordered in a rough voice that brooked no argument. His tone was icier than usual. Was this how he commanded his clan? Was this the true him?

But I don’t want to go home. I want to stay here and help . Isobel took in an involuntary inhale and willed herself not to cry. She stepped toward him, and he stepped back again. Something cracked deep within her.

Her lips trembled. “Please, talk to me. I don’t understand what is happening. What—”

He let out a growl, his hand squeezing into a fist. “I can’t be a part of your world, and you’ll never belong in mine. Go home,” he said again. Clipped. Cold.

Each word was like a shard of ice stabbing her. After the time spent learning his language and his culture, she’d thought, even if just for a little while, she could belong. The crushing weight of the truth settled on her chest like dirt on a grave.

It had been silly of her to think such a thing.

“Oh,” she breathed. Tears came unbidden to her eyes, but he was already turning from her.

His long strides carried him away faster than she could think to call for him.

Faster than she could realize that this was the last time she would ever see him—just a blurred silhouette of his hulking form stalking away.

“Don’t leave me here,” she whispered.

But he was already gone.