Page 16

CHAPTER 16

S asha

I close the bathroom door behind me, my legs still trembling from what just happened. The cool wooden surface soothes my burning skin as I press my forehead against it. The cold anchors me, keeps the storm brewing between my ribs at bay.

My chest heaves. I squeeze my eyes shut, fighting the urge to hyperventilate.

This is too much, too fast. My fingers curl on the door’s surface, nails scraping against the grain.

“Get it together,” I whisper to myself.

Inhale. Hold. Release. Again. The tightness in my chest loosens with each controlled breath until my heart settles into a steadier rhythm.

I grab a threadbare towel from the rack and dampen it with precious water from my canteen. I don’t really have any water to spare, but I can’t bear the thought of not washing myself. The cloth feels rough against my sensitive skin as I clean myself. It’s like every cell in my body stands on high alert.

I can smell him on me; every inch of my skin is covered in his scent. Like I’m branded by his body. Like I belong to him, or like I’m a part of him and not my own person anymore.

When I’m finally clean of the evidence of our passion, I turn around to the little shelf leaning against the wall. Calling it a shelf is generous. It’s more like a few pieces of scrap metal tied together, but I don’t care. As I reach for the clean clothes waiting in a neat pile, I congratulate myself on being always so damned careful.

It feels good to wear my own clothes, like I’m somehow regaining parts of myself that Eirik stole from me. Stole from me with his mouth, his fingers, his cock.

Heat spreads below my navel as my mind wanders back to Eirik’s body and what he did to mine, but I shake my head and push it away. I won’t let this happen again. I don’t care what Eirik says or how much I want it. I won’t allow myself to belong to a man in the way the Huugwor wants me to belong to him.

I slip into the worn fabric with practiced efficiency, each piece a reminder of who I am. What I am. What I want.

Then my eyes land on the metallic shine of a small blade, resting on the top shelf. I grab it and secure the straps of the leather holder around my thigh. The knife slides home into its holder in a silent motion.

This, at least, makes sense. This, I understand.

A soft scraping sound catches my attention, wiping clean all the useless internal conflict about Eirik and the amazing and disturbing sex we just shared.

Then I hear it again. The sound is so faint I almost miss it, but years of being a thief have honed my senses as sharply as a fine blade. I may not be a warrior or a force of nature like Eirik, but I am better than anyone at this one thing: I can sense danger coming like a sixth sense. And someone is coming, right outside the flimsy walls of my safehouse. Someone who, unlike me, doesn’t know how to move without making any noise.

It’s coming from the stairway, just outside the wall to the bathroom. If I hadn’t come in here to regain some of my senses, I wouldn’t have picked up on it.

I press my ear against the wall, every muscle in my body tensing. Footsteps and stairs creaking, the heavy kind that makes the wood whine and bend. Then voices, muffled and too low to make out words.

Shit. They found us. My safehouse isn’t safe anymore.

A board creaks again, closer this time. Metal scrapes against metal—someone drawing a weapon. These idiots never learned proper stealth. But their lack of skill doesn’t make them less dangerous, it just means they’ll be more likely to shoot first and ask questions, like, never.

“Eirik,” I shout-whisper, hoping his enhanced hearing will pick it up through the bathroom door.

But I’m too late.

Just as I call out his name, the floor trembles with heavy footsteps ascending the stairs. Three sets, maybe four. The narrow stairwell will work in our favor—they’ll have to come up single file. All this goes through my mind as I turn back toward the door. Toward Eirik and toward my best chance in a fight. I’m not kidding myself. Eirik is the biggest, baddest warrior in this city.

I open the door, ready to burst into the room and join forces with Eirik in a fight when all hell breaks loose.

I have just enough time to see Eirik, already standing up, his body turned into a deadly weapon, long, black spikes poking out of his skin along his arms, shoulders and back. Then my front door explodes in a blast of splintering wood. The crash echoes through the small space as the door flies off its hinges, remnants of wood hitting the wall.

“Down!” Eirik shouts just in time.

Blaster fire erupts, deafening in the confined space. Bullets tear through the bathroom door inches from my head. I drop and roll as wood splinters rain down around me. I flatten myself on the floor instantly. My fingers curl around the knife strapped to my thigh, but I don’t dare make a move.

Not when a giant steps in front of me like some sort of monstrous bodyguard.

Eirik roars, that deep, resonating sound that makes my bones vibrate. There’s a meaty thud followed by a scream cut short.

More shots. Glass shatters. Something heavy crashes against a wall.

I grip my knife tighter, coiled and ready. Then fingers curl around my hair and a blast of pain rips through my scalp.

I yelp in pain and pull on my knife, but a bruising grip stops my movement short.

“You shouldn’t have gotten involved, Sasha.” Kendall speaks, his fetid breath coming right to my nose as his lips brush my ear. “Sargul would have found a way to get you out of trouble, like he always does. Why’d you have to betray him like that?”

“Fuck you, Kendall!” I retort, and he twists my arm behind my back with a cruel jerk.

“Maybe later,” he chuckles. “When I finish here, with your Huugwor lover.”

A body lies still at Eirik’s feet in a growing puddle of blood. I recognize one of the new guys who hung out with Kendall a few days earlier. More bodies line the floor and Eirik turns on his heels, looking not at me, but at the man who holds me up like a shield.

“Stand down, Huugwor. Or I’ll snap her lovely little neck before you get a chance to take another step.”

Blood splatters his smooth gray skin and his blue on blue eyes shine like cold flames. He looks every bit the part of the savage alien. He looks absolutely glorious.

“Let Sasha go.” Eirik’s gaze fixes on Kendall. “If you do, I might just give you a quick death. Don’t and I will make you watch as I pull your insides out and strangle you with your guts.”

Kendall chuckles, but I know him enough to hear the nervousness in his tone. He’s right to be nervous. He should be shitting his pants, if he had a semblance of smarts in that thick head.

But he’s too stupid to see that he’s no match for Eirik and this might just cost me my life.

“I don’t think so.” Kendall raises his blaster, centering it in the middle of Eirik’s perfect, broad chest. “I see the way you look at her. To be honest, I don’t understand it. Pussy is pussy as far as I’m concerned, but your kind doesn’t like variety much, if I’m correct. Huugwors mate for life, right?”

At these words, Eirik’s eyes flick to me and what I see inside his gaze shatters my heart in a million pieces. No one has ever looked at me like that. Like the sun and moon hang in my hands. Like he could stop breathing just to please me.

And for the first time in my life, I feel hatred. I’ve felt anger and despair, outrage and lust, even disgust from time to time for people. But true hatred? No. But in that moment, I hate Kendall for hurting Eirik through me.

Kendall’s grip tightens on my hair, making me cry out in pain.

“Drop those spikes, big guy,” Kendall orders. “Or I might just carve up her face to show you how serious I am.”

The pressure on my throat increases as Kendall lifts me by the neck. My feet dangle as panic fills my mind and I claw at Kendall’s grip on my neck, but he’s way too strong for me.

Eirik’s eyes lock with mine, and I want to tell him not to listen to Kendall. I want to tell him to save himself and not worry about me.

But I can’t. Black spots form in my vision and I know I’m going to pass out.

Eirik’s spikes retract slowly, sliding back beneath his gray skin.

“Good choice.” Kendall eases the pressure, allowing me to stand on my tiptoes. I gulp air in big, greedy mouthfuls as he backs up, dragging me with him. “Now hands where I can see them.”

Eirik raises his hands, his movements deliberate and controlled. But there’s something in his eyes I’ve never seen before. It’s fear. Not for himself, but for me. The realization hits harder than any physical blow.

My eyes stray to the little window and I glimpse a group of men, armed and waiting. I don’t recognize any of them, but they all hold blasters and expressions on their faces that mean they’re ready to kill.

Shit. If we get down there, we’re as good as dead.