by Vivian Star
"See, you already like me," he replies and holds out a hand for me. "What do you say, Sav? Want to make this kidnapping easy on us both?"
I stare at his hand for a second before meeting his eyes. That strange feeling fills my stomach once more, and I wonder what the hell it is. "First, why did you kidnap me?"
"To get close to my sister. I need a pretend mate for a ceremony party in a mansion. I need you," he honestly tells me, and for some reason, my heart feels like it flutters. "Trust me, Sav. I won't let you down or get you hurt. I promise to protect you."
"I don't trust anyone that isn't family," I reply, and he stares at me.
"I learnt the same lesson young too. That's why I need to save my sister," he replies. "But still, I promise you will be safe."
I take a deep breath and then grab hold of his hand with mine, a strange warm tingly feeling where our hands touch. "I will hold you to that promise, Xair."
"I would expect nothing less," he replies and lets go first. He shakes his head and turns back to the food. We might be two strangers on a stolen ship, but this might be exactly what I need to get to Isabelle.
The best assassin in the universe could be my perfect plan.
"What do you know about space dragons?"
"Nothing more than anyone else in the universe knows," Xair replies. I watch him tinker with the main console in the engine room as I use the chair to spin around. It's been an hour or so since I've woken up, and I'm stuck thinking of what I should do next. "I believe the dragons are like us, but clearly something has drawn them back to our worlds."
"Women and water," I mutter.
"Two things that make the worlds go round," he answers with a smirk.
"What do you know about space pirates?" I ask him. This time he looks back, crossing his arms.
"I was working for some of them a few years back. Why?" he asks.
"There was a rumour my sister Chloe was taken by them," I explain. He furrows his eyebrows.
"They only take women if they need them for work. They have no interest in mating or breeding with them," he explains.
"Chloe is good with tech. Maybe they will keep her alive for that reason alone," I suggest, and he shrugs.
"Depends which ship took her. The pirates have gangs, teams of sorts. Either way, getting her back will be hard unless you know who took her," he tells me. "I will help, of course."
"I know you will," I answer with a wink.
Suddenly, an electrical hum starts in the console Xair is working on. It gets louder, and then a streak of electricity bursts through one of the wires he's holding, zapping his palm. Grimacing, Xair shuts that panel off and then closes his eyes as if he's in pain. I look around for something to help him when I spot my medical bag.
"Hang on, let me help you," I tell him as I open my bag and find the device that reverses burns. I place it on his palm and let it send a cooling laser that stops the burn internally and minimizes the damage.
He takes a deep breath and opens his eyes. "Thank you," he says, staring intensely at me. Our eyes stay locked for a moment while the laser finishes its cycle, and then it beeps, breaking whatever moment we just had.
After putting the device back in my bag, I hold his hand to inspect the injury. There's hardly a mark now, but that tingling is going through my body again. Maybe I need to inspect myself for injuries.
"I'm going to settle in and choose a room," I tell him, breaking the contact between us.
Xair nods and goes back to whatever he was doing as I leave the room. I find an empty room opposite the kitchen with a plastic sealed bed. I strip the plastic back and then find a box in the hallway storage with a selection of blankets. I pick the blue one and a pillow before making the bed. I start searching the drawers and find ship clothes, so I make a pile of them, ready for me to throw on. As I continue searching through the drawers, I find a tablet. Yes! Maybe I can use it to signal for help. I click it on and search for a way to contact anyone on Strixa, only to find it doesn't work.
Dammit.
I'm stuck with this alien…and even though we have a deal, I'm not sure I can count on a space pirate assassin, so I'm going to figure out how to escape if Xair goes back on our deal. I’m watching my new assassin friend carefully. My sisters need me, after all.
Chapter Three
The warm shower does wonders as it falls down on me, and it's something I don't think I will ever get used to or take for granted. Showers were always cold on Earth at the farm where once a month we would get warm water enough to make a bath up. So once every five months, I got a warm bath, and still, that isn't quite like a warm shower. I take my time washing myself and my hair before getting out and drying off. The women's space clothes I found are the kind that automatically fit to my shape, and I put them on before French plaiting my hair, the movement reminding me of my youngest sister Alice. It reminds me of the nights she would wake up screaming, the sickness crawling through her veins and poisoning her while she's alive. She would be covered in sweat, too weak to move when it was all over. I would bathe her, plait her hair in this way, and stay with her until the sun came up.
Now no one is there to do that for her. To protect her.
And my heart hurts all over again.
How am I going to save her? Or Chloe and Isabelle for that matter?
Who knows if they are still alive? Who knows if Isabelle is?
A sharp knock snaps me out of my thoughts, and I slide my shoes on before using the pad on the wall to open the door. Not surprisingly, Xair is leaning against the frame of the door, his big arms crossed tightly against his chest.
"Dinner is ready. I'm not the best cook, but I thought you'd wanna eat?" he asks, his eyes slowly running down my body in the tight clothes. I can't help but notice he has shaved his beard off, as well as cut and styled his hair. I take it back, I liked shaved guys now. “Your clothes fit you nicely.”
I clear my throat and step out the door as he moves back for me. "Sure. Food sounds good. You made a good breakfast earlier today."
"Thanks," he replies and leads the way, occasionally looking back at me. "Can I be frank? I am surprised you are not more frightened of me."
"Should I have reason to be?" I ask as we step into a dining room I haven't seen before. The table seats four, but two of the plates are full of colourful food and meat. The back of the room is all glass, showing off the planet Strixa in the far distance. The planet of falling diamonds looks beautiful in space, standing out like a green jewel in the darkness. Xair doesn't speak until we are both sitting down, facing each other over the table. The whole thing is...date-like. And I don't know how I feel about that.
In the middle of the table is a small wooden statue of Vyuna placed between two bright flowers in pots. I stare at the Vyuna statue, the goddess I have come to know so much about recently. On Earth, people just believe there is a god and there is little proof to his existence. And the rest of the universe believes in Vyuna, the goddess of the Harvest. The harvest of the entire galaxy. I know deep down I find myself believing in this goddess and her fate. How everything is done for a reason and magic is real, just normal for the other races. I think back to a few weeks ago when I saw Rox and Darcie praying in the chapel they have at the castle. The statue there is made of glass, with water pouring out of the goddess's hands into a stream below. The way they prayed to her, thanked her for their mating, it was enchanting to watch. As is the way the people of Strixa respect their goddess.
"Human women are worth more than gold in the universe. Are you not afraid I am taking you to sell to the highest bidder?" he asks as I cut up some of the chicken breast on my plate and try to push thoughts of mating and Vyuna to the back of my mind. The dinner he has made looks and smells amazing, and I almost wonder if this meal is his way of saying sorry for kidnapping me.
Turns out this alien assassin can cook.
"Nope. I believe you about your sister because you have the same desperate look in your eyes that I have when I think of
my sisters lost in space," I admit. "And even if I didn't, where could I possibly go?"
"Sisters? How many do you have?" he asks me in between eating his food after a little bit of a silence between us.
"Four. I'm the oldest," I say. "What about you? Only one sister?"
"Yes. We didn't grow up together, but we kept in contact," he explains to me. "Where are your parents?"
"Dead," I answer bluntly, because there is no way around this subject. "Five years ago."
"I'm sorry, Sav," he softly tells me.
"Why do you call me by a nickname?" I ask. I won't admit I enjoy it.
"Because I like it," he answers with a smirk. I shake my head and go back to my food until my plate is completely empty. I notice he eats all the food on his plate too, which is something I don't see many aliens do. It's normal for a human, because we are always starving thanks to our planet dying, but none of the alien races have a food supply issue, as far as I know.
"So what did you do to get locked up anyway?" I ask, watching him as he stares out at space. "I want to know." His expression changes immediately.
"Why do you want to know anything about me?" he asks, fixing me with a cold glare. "I'm not fixable to you or anyone. Once I have my sister, we will disappear to somewhere quiet and live out our lives."
"So what is wrong with me knowing something about you?" I ask, ignoring how defensive he is being. I don't know why I feel the need to push my kidnapper. "You'll just be an alien stranger to me. My alien stranger."
"I'm not your anything, and no magic in this universe would tempt me to change that, Sav," he counters. "Getting to know me will only get you killed or lost. It happens to everyone."
"I never asked you to be anything to me," I remind him.
"No, but the universe, the fucking goddess is," he growls out and stands up. "And magic, fate or whatever fucked up language she speaks in only ever ended in pain for me."
"Vyuna? I don't understand why—" I pause because he is already leaving the room, and when I'm alone, I feel loneliness more than I have before. I mean, I'm never alone, having four sisters and then working as a healer, but I'm used to being lonely in some sense. For five years, I've looked after my sisters and never thought much of myself or my needs. I dumped my high school boyfriend when my parents died, because I knew they had to come first. And that's all I've done.
Keep them alive.
And now...they aren't here. I can't protect or help them, I can't fix everything for them. I can't fix my patients. And I have a bad feeling I'm now trying to fix Xair, while it's clear he really doesn't want to be fixed.
But there was no need for him to be an asshole when I am helping him save his sister. Full of anger, I push up off my seat and storm out of the room, looking for my alien assassin. I am not being told off for trying to care, and if he really doesn't want my help, then he can take me back to Darcie. I search most of the five rooms of the ship before I come across another room I haven't been in. I push the door open, and I come to a halt, seeing Xair shirtless, punching the shit out of a punching bag while moving around it in a circle.
Holy ripped alien.
He is by far the most impressive alien I've ever seen in my life...and I've watched the guards train at the castle with my sister. Silver tattoos, his mating marks, wrap around his shoulder and up to his neck, and they look like water moving in swirls. It's stunning to look at, and they almost seem to glow. His muscular arms are thick and match his large chest that is damp with sweat. His blue skin seems to take on a shine as he moves, and he has a rippling six-pack that would put most men to shame.
He doesn't seem to notice me as he lays into the punching bag, smacking it with hit after hit, and I watch in silence, wondering what happened to him to make him so...angry. It's more than anger, it's the kind of anger that comes from pain. It comes from trying to escape your memories, and I know that well.
I, too, have tried to escape that kind of pain by throwing myself into protecting my sisters at all costs and never once trying to find a place for me. I left all my dreams of a husband, children and well, everything in the past the day my parents died.
Deciding to leave Xair to it, I close my eyes and step back through the door, making my way to the dining room and to the view of space.
I've spent most of the last year travelling through it, ever since those Illon fools picked me up from The Mates Lottery and soon figured out I wasn't all that interested in purple dick like the two other winners that came with me.
They had group orgies, trying to find their mates, while I tried to figure out a way to escape. I couldn't have been more thankful when I was saved by Darcie and Rox.
I was lucky, and my sisters...well, except Darcie, not so much. I place my hand on the glass, and for the first time, I pray to the goddess of these people that she will keep my sisters safe.
Because we Jackson sisters need a miracle. And not an alien-shaped one if Vyuna can help it.
Chapter Four
Flicking through the tablet books in a box, I pull out a few only to find they are all detailed descriptions of various parts of the ship and what they do. Two weeks of sitting on this ship is finally getting to me, or more like the thoughts of what could be happening to my sisters. I resent Xair a little bit. I could be on my way to saving one of my sisters, or at least working on a way, but now I’m taking a big detour. I feel like my family's guardian angels are messing with me. I take one step forward, and two steps back each time.
Deciding that I'm not that bored even though I've been stuck on this ship for two weeks, I push the box back onto the shelf and grab the one above it. This one is heavier and takes me more than a minute to carefully pull it out and place it on the floor. I crack the box lid open, and I'm surprised to find glass bottles of some green liquid in there. I pull one of them out and unscrew the lid. I take a little sniff and immediately cough, screwing the lid back on.
Whatever it is, it reminds me of the vodka the boys in town once made. I had one shot and hated it. The guys did more than one and ended up sick for days.
"What did you find?" Xair asks, making me jump. The alien is sneaky, I will give him that.
"I actually don't know," I say, holding up the bottle. He laughs, picking the bottle up from me and offering me his other hand. I slide my hand into his, and he pulls me to my feet. For a moment he doesn't let go.
And a weird part of me doesn't want him to.
He clears his throat, letting my hand go at the same time. Unscrewing the lid, he takes a deep whiff of the inside before lifting it to his lips. I step forward, wanting to warn him as he takes a long drink.
"Smells stronger than it is. This is Strixa's version of human wine," he explains to me. "Worth a fortune and takes forever to make. We shouldn't waste it."
"We?" I raise an eyebrow. "We aren't drinking anything. You are."
"Yes, I am. I'm bored as shit," he replies with a grin. "I'm sure you have a list of much more important things to be doing."
"Give it here," I mutter, taking the bottle. I try not to breathe in how it smells as I bring the bottle to my lips and take a big sip. I expected it to taste terrible, but it doesn't. The taste reminds me of sugar candy, the kind my dad used to get for us when he went to the market in the main district once a month. It's been years since I've had anything as sweet as that before. "Okay, this one is mine."
I walk away, hearing his laughter as he follows me into the dining room. I sit on one of the many pillows in the room, and after a little while, soft music plays in the room. I don't recognise the music, it's not from Earth, and it reminds me of the song I caught Xair singing that first day on this ship. Xair walks back in and sits next to me on the pillows, picking the bottle up from my hands and taking a drink before handing me it back.
"I've been wondering how you know my sister. Darcie?" I ask him as we drink in silence.
He looks over at me. "I was on the ship, the one that Rox was leading that stopped off at Earth. He got Darcie then
and you later. In the middle of that, the ship was attacked by the Tabres because their king wants me dead. I found Darcie and her friend, Marnie, being attacked by some Tabres on my escape. I shot the Tabres and then went back to my cell, as I couldn't escape after I saved them. My time slot was gone."
"You saved my sister's life?" I whisper with wide eyes. "Why in the worlds were you locked up then?"
"One good deed doesn't correct a bad," he tells me.
"An Earth saying is 'A life for a life.' Maybe use that when they catch us," I suggest.
He laughs.
"What is this music?" I ask.
"Do you like it?" he asks instead of answering.
"Yes," I answer before taking another sip of the wine. "Now answer my question and stop evading."
His lips tilt up in amusement. "Back on Strixa, there is a musical instrument you can only play in the water. It takes years to learn, and the song depends on the current of the water you are in. Many have travelled deep into the oceans of Strixa to play the instrument where it can be heard for miles. This is a recorded version, and it does not do it justice. The sound of the music bouncing off the waves is the closest form of pleasure music can give."
His eyes are closed as he speaks, like he is imagining it, and I can almost imagine it as well.
"I'd like to see and hear that," I tell him. "The music is enchanting and makes you want to dance."
"Do you dance?" he asks, and I nod. I sip some more of the wine before handing him the bottle and climbing to my feet. I step over the pillows and into the clearing in front of the glass and close my eyes.
I let the beat of the music guide my movements, the way the waves add to the soft undertones of the notes as I let my body dance to it. I sway my arms around, connecting to the music and letting it carry me away. My body sways, and my feet skip to the beat it plays, and I forget myself for a long time. I forget that I have been kidnapped. I forget that I am lost in space.