Miracle of the Beast (A Winter Starr Book 2)

by Sonia Nova

  “Thanksgiving,” he said, “I am unfamiliar with the term.”

  Hazel turned toward him, putting down the purse that she had been rifling through. She had a hairbrush and some kind of a snack bar in her hands.

  “It’s an American holiday,” she said. She put her purse aside and started to open the package of the snack bar. “Do you want some?”

  Zeriq shook his head, frowning slightly at the sugary confectionery.

  “I can’t believe I forgot I had this in my purse,” she said, her mouth full of the chewy bar. He wrinkled his nose at the overly sweet smell. “This is delicious.”

  Zeriq wasn’t sure if she was trying to move their conversation forward, away from the subjects that reminded her of her family, or whether she was just so happy about discovering her little snack, but he was still curious about the holiday.

  And maybe, if he could bring a little bit of Earth tradition to their shuttle, she would feel better.

  “Is there a way… How do you celebrate Thanksgiving?”

  Hazel swallowed the last bite of the bar. “Food,” she said. “Good food. Mashed potatoes and pie and cranberry sauce and chicken. Usually a turkey, but in my family, we bake a chicken.”

  Well, that would be impossible to recreate here. “And… family?” Zeriq guessed.

  “Yeah. My parents host the dinner and all of my extended family in the New York area comes. People I don’t even see the rest of the year. And before dinner, we all go around and say something we’re thankful for.”

  Zeriq nodded silently. The tradition was like nothing he had ever heard of before. Saying what you were thankful for?

  It sounded strange, but in a way, he could see the value of it. He had never stopped to consider what he was thankful for – other than his freedom from the Krezlians. He couldn’t imagine being surrounded by people who cared for him, sharing what made him thankful for his life.

  “Is there something you are grateful for today?” The question slipped from his lips before he’d really even thought it out. Hazel laughed, and he instantly knew asking had been a mistake.

  “No,” she said, her expression pained even though she was smiling. “I don’t think so.”

  “Try,” Zeriq urged. “Our situation doesn’t mean you have to leave your Earth traditions behind.”

  Hazel looked at him, clearly surprised by his insistence.

  “Okay…” she said after a moment. “But only if you go first.”

  Zeriq blinked slowly. He hadn’t expected that.

  “I… Well…” He settled into the pilot seat beside her. Apparently, they were going to be talking for a while. “I am thankful for this shuttle. It crashed us here, but it is also our shelter from this planet’s freezing climate.”

  “Okay,” Hazel said, a slight smile tugging at her lips. “That’s true. Me too. But usually when we share what we’re thankful for, it’s a little bit more than just acknowledging our shelter. Anyone who says ‘my job’ or ‘having a roof over my head’ gets badgered until they say something that takes a little more thought.”

  “I was only telling the truth,” Zeriq said, feeling affronted.

  Hazel laughed again, and this time it sounded just a bit more genuine. “I know. This is your first Thanksgiving. I can give you an example of what I mean. Something a little more meaningful.”

  “Please,” he said, curious what she would be thankful for when she was spending this day so far from her family.

  “I’m…” She trailed off. “I’m thinking. Give me a second.” He watched her look down at her hands, her expression serious. Her long eyelashes cast thin shadows on her cheeks in the pale light of the snow-covered windows. “Okay. I got it.”

  “Go on.”

  “I’m thankful that I’m not stranded here alone.”

  Zeriq’s heart clenched in his chest at her words.

  What was this feeling?

  “I could have been shot by those lizard aliens, stuck on a shuttle that got hit by a missile, or even gotten in this shuttle by myself and ended up here alone to freeze and starve. But none of that happened. I’m alive, and I’m with someone else who is just as determined to survive. With you.”

  So that’s what she had meant.

  Thanksgiving was apparently a time to tell those around you how much they meant to you, in specific and heartfelt terms. Whatever Zeriq had thought she might say, he hadn’t expected it to have anything to do with him.

  But essentially, that’s what she had just admitted, hadn’t she?

  In this whole horrible situation… she was thankful to be here with him.

  CHAPTER 11

  HAZEL

  “If we’re going to follow Thanksgiving traditions, then we should probably search for more food,” Hazel said. “Anything will do. Doesn’t have to be mashed potatoes and gravy.”

  Anything but those berries, she thought, but didn’t want to bring that up. She should’ve realized in time that the delicious little things were too good to be true. She didn’t even want to think about what had happened between them after they had eaten them.

  Zeriq stood up, his hulking form filling the cockpit and his horns grazing the roof as he stooped. “I will go,” he said.

  “No!” she interrupted. “I’m just going to try a few more things with the communications system and then I want to come with you.”

  As awkward as she still felt with Zeriq, and as fragile as she felt emotionally, she didn’t want to be alone in the shuttle. Although no animals had come around the shuttle so far, she could still remember that horrible howl they had heard in the woods, and the memory of it made her shiver.

  No matter what, she didn’t want to be left alone.

  Zeriq nodded. “Then I’ll leave you to it,” he said and left the cockpit to do who-knows-what in the shuttle cabin.

  Hazel turned back to the control panel and immersed herself in the communications system, trying a variety of frequencies she couldn’t remember if she had yet or not.

  Nothing.

  Sighing, she opened up the only other part of the shuttle she could possibly do any maintenance on: the transceiver. She popped the little device out of its case beneath the comm panel and looked at it.

  None of the connections looked corroded, and its slot looked free of dust or any other interfering particles. She blew sharply into the slot anyway and replaced the transceiver.

  Wait.

  She nearly screamed in excitement as a notification appeared on the tiny comm screen.

  The shuttle was now emitting a regular signal!

  The emergency beacon had already been on, but now she could connect to an actual frequency too! Her heart leaped with excitement.

  Just before she called for Zeriq, she swiped the screen that had popped up to check the new signal’s strength. Her heart immediately fell. The signal was emitting, sure, but only barely. The range wouldn’t even reach past this planet’s atmosphere.

  But maybe… If there was anyone on this planet with their own transceiver who had somehow missed their emergency signal…

  She would wait to call Zeriq until she had checked, just in case it wouldn’t work, but her heart still started to beat faster.

  With shaking hands, she activated the comm and leaned into it. “T-This is Hazel Brennan, Alliance recruit transmitting from a downed E’lania emergency shuttle.” She took a deep breath, willing herself not to stutter again. “We are requesting immediate emergency protocol initiation. I repeat. We are requesting immediate emergency assistance.”

  She listened to the open line, waiting. Nothing but static. She gave it another minute. Two minutes. Still nothing.

  If there were any intelligent beings on this planet, then they either didn’t have communications systems or weren’t tuned to this frequency. But most likely, there was no one here at all.

  Her heart sunk at the thought, but she tried to remain positive. At least they were in a better place than before, she told herself. The system was somehow working,
even if only in such a limited range.

  “Zeriq!” she called, turning towards the entrance of the cabin.

  Zeriq already stood by the doorway, watching her with a curious expression on his face. Clearly, he had already heard her try the comm.

  “I’ve got it transmitting about one-sixteenth its normal strength,” she said. “I tried transmitting to this area of the planet, but no one answered. But it’s working!”

  A wide grin spread on Zeriq’s face, revealing his pointed teeth. “Nice.”

  “I’ll try to tweak it more and strengthen the signal later. For now, let’s go find some food.” She was already wrapping her scarf around her face and shoulders in preparation. After such an emotional rollercoaster of a morning, she was feeling in much better spirits and energized to go find food and come back to see if she could make any more improvements on the comm’s strength.

  She grabbed a few of the foil blankets, wrapped them around herself, and almost stomped into the snow to lead the way, before remembering that it was too deep. She stepped aside and let Zeriq leave the shuttle first.

  Their footsteps leading toward the blue forest were still barely visible, but a light snow had fallen the night before and everything had a freshly pale and sparkling sheen around them. It wasn’t as cold as on their first day on the planet, but the temperature had once more dipped just below freezing.

  Her hopes that the weather was getting warmer and the snow would melt had turned out to be totally off mark. The sky was a gloomy, cold gray and there was a slow, chilling breeze. Hazel tucked her hands into her sleeves and followed in Zeriq’s footsteps, keeping her thoughts trained on the food they might find.

  Since they were following their previous path into the woods, they walked straight to the berries. Hazel tensed, hoping Zeriq wouldn’t stop or say anything, but he walked on by the clearing and deeper into the woods. She let out a breath of relief.

  Her cheeks still grew hot with embarrassment when she thought about what had happened between them after eating the berries. She could barely believe it had been real, and she had basically been pretending it hadn’t happened at all.

  But the truth was, every time Zeriq had looked at her since then, butterflies had fluttered in her stomach. The thought of him as he thrust into her while she came, the memory of the salty, musky scent of his sweat, the softness of his pale gray skin… There was no way she was ever going to get those memories completely out of her head.

  Just thinking about it got her hot and bothered again, in this completely nonsexual situation marching through the forest. And she couldn’t blame that on the berries. It had been almost a full twenty-four hours since she had eaten them and, clearly, neither of them was feeling the effects any longer.

  She really, truly, actually was attracted to Zeriq. All aphrodisiac alien fruit aside.

  It was the first time she had actually let the thought form completely in her mind, and it surprised her a bit. This alien – gruff Zeriq with his demonic appearance and all – was apparently just her type. Not that she’d ever imagined it to be so. But there was no arguing with the way her body responded at the thought of him.

  She shook her head, trying to banish the thoughts of him from her mind.

  As they kept walking, the trees began to thin around them until they were no longer in what could be considered a forest. They marched up a long, snowy slope with bulbous rock formations jutting out here and there among the scattered blue trees.

  Zeriq stopped, and Hazel stepped into the set of footsteps right behind him, leaning out from behind him to see what he was looking at.

  “Is that a river?” she asked. There was a thin gray ribbon cutting through the snow toward the horizon.

  “Looks like it,” he said, picking up his pace. “We can make it there in less than half an hour if we hurry.”

  A river meant fresh moving water. Organisms that lived in water – plants, aquatic or amphibious animals. And other animals would flock to the water as well for the source of hydration. This planet’s ecosystem had enough similarities to Earth’s that there was no question.

  If this was a river, that meant there was literally food on the horizon.

  Hazel struggled to keep up with Zeriq, but she didn’t mind. The faster pace kept her warm and she felt just as urgent as he did to get to the river as soon as possible.

  Plus, they had already walked a long way away from the shuttle and any step they took forward was another step they would have to take back on the way back, so they better hurry. If they ended up stranded without their shuttle for the night, there was no telling if they would be able to survive the freezing temperatures and… whatever else this planet had to offer during the nighttime hours.

  “That’s definitely a river,” Hazel said excitedly, even though she wasn’t sure if Zeriq could hear her when she spoke through her scarf from behind him. It didn’t matter. He had also realized.

  Soon, they were scrambling down the rocky, icy bank to the small strip of gravelly beach beside the water. It was a wide, fast-moving river carrying chunks of ice with the current.

  Apparently, Hazel’s vision of a river lined with plants had been a little optimistic. There was nothing but rocks and water in either direction as far as she could see, but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be any animal life.

  Zeriq knelt by the water and dipped a hand in, drawing a cup in his palm. He took a long drink.

  “It’s cold,” he said, wiping his mouth the back of his hand. “But it seems safe to drink.”

  Good thinking. She hadn’t even stopped to think that the river could be carrying pretty much any type of chemically possible liquid, and it didn’t necessarily have to be water. For the umpteenth time, she felt grateful that she was stranded with someone who seemed to be all about survival, and who was a little less fragile than the average human.

  She thought back to what she had said to him. About how she was thankful to have him here with her. His reaction had been so bashful in his own stoic way that she had found it kind of adorable.

  Kneeling beside him, she leaned her head against his shoulder, playfully.

  “Thanks for risking yourself for me again,” she said, and took her own drink of the water.

  Although they had been “drinking” the snow so far, a shiver still ran down her spine as she tasted the water. Her tongue prickled from the cold liquid and she nearly spat it all out at once.

  “Oh my God! That’s freezing.”

  Zeriq shrugged. “Maybe the melting point for water is lower on this planet.”

  “No, I think it’s just freezing cold water.” Another shiver wracked through her body, and she pulled the foil blankets tighter around her.

  Hazel was about to stand up from her spot by the river when a silvery flash in the water caught her eye some ten feet away.

  She was immediately catapulted into memories of fishing on the banks of the St. Lawrence River along the New York and Canada border. She used to go with her grandfather before he passed away. When she was little, he had taken her out in his rowboat to fish in the morning and later to explore the many tiny wooded islands on the river. That had been her favorite part. He would take out a picnic for the two of them and they would enjoy the quiet solitude together.

  But right now, one memory stood out above all the others: the silvery flash of a bass near the surface of the water. Who knew what type of fish-like creature this could be, but there was no question that it was a fish-like creature.

  And that meant a possible meal.

  “Hey,” Hazel whispered, nudging Zeriq with her elbow. “Do you see the fish over there?” There was no reason to whisper – talking at normal volume wasn’t going to scare away a fish – but it seemed right, for some reason. They couldn’t mess this up.

  Zeriq nodded. “There are about fifteen or twenty, all clustered around the one that is closest to the surface,” he said.

  “Do you think we could…? Do you have any ideas for how we…?” She tra
iled off as Zeriq stood up and walked away from her. Apparently, he already had a plan and didn’t think it was necessary to fill her in.

  He walked up to a long, blue tree branch that had washed up on the gravel shore nearby. He picked it up, along with a thin, flat rock and, a few seconds later, he had whittled one end of the branch into a point.

  Hazel stared at him incredulously.

  “You’re going to spear them?” She couldn’t keep the skepticism from her voice.

  Zeriq shrugged. He held up the “spear” and thrust it forward and down experimentally.

  If Hazel hadn’t been so hungry and on edge, she would have laughed. The makeshift spear combined with his muscled figure and unkempt appearance after days stranded on this planet reminded her of drawings she had seen of human cavemen. Not that she was going to mention that to him.

  “Stand back,” he said, his eyes narrowed and focused on the area of the water in front of them.

  Hazel moved farther away from the shore and watched him kick off his boots and wade into the water, slowly – almost prowling – until he was up to his knees. Apparently, the freezing temperature didn’t faze him at all. He crouched low, staring into the water, spear held high with the point facing straight down.

  He waited so long Hazel was about to say something, when he stabbed into the water with a lightning fast movement. Her stomach flipped at the sight, and she couldn’t tell if the feeling was from excitement at the idea of a meal, or sudden fear at the realization of how deadly Zeriq must be as a soldier in battle.

  The spear tip came out of the water and she watched with bated breath.

  A fish.

  “You got it!” Hazel cried out, unable to control herself. She could hardly believe her eyes.

  He turned to face her on the shore and grinned. “Catch,” he called back and flicked the spear so the fish came flying through the air and onto the gravel in front of her.