“I think you’re expecting me to work miracles, but...” She heaved a sigh. “All right. Next Saturday will be the day I officially become Mrs. Beckett Kincaid.” She grinned down at him. “I love the sound of that.”
“I do, too, darlin’. But don’t let the feminists hear you.”
“The what?”
“It would take too long to explain, and it might start a movement.” He reached up and curled his hand around the nape of her neck, ordering softly, “Come here.”
He didn’t have to ask twice. With fingers splayed wide, she slid her palms up his muscular chest, the light dusting of hair tickled her skin, but it barely registered as she lowered herself into his arms and his kiss.
Beck ended it there due to the technicians coming in and out periodically, and the monitors that would surely pick up an increased pulse rate if he took her. Instead, he held her close, his lips against the top of her head, murmuring words of love and the future he envisioned for them in their new home.
Chapter Sixteen
Surrounded by her friends and family by day and Beck’s arms at night, the only shadow in the otherwise perfect week leading up to the wedding came three days after she was released from the clinic. The science team had conducted a thorough investigation of the alien’s cave but, after ending up with more questions than before they started, requested to speak to the survivors, the only ones on the colony who had knowingly interacted with the being.
Since the immediate threat had been neutralized, and to avoid inciting alarm in the already on-edge population, they gathered in a private meeting room in the nearly completed justice center. Present were the six members of the joint leadership council—three influential colonists and three representatives from their Primarian hosts. Also in attendance, four scientists from the investigation team, Myron Sensabaugh, the miner who had been captured and caged alongside Amy and Adria, Max Kerr, the general, Tarus and Remus who were heading up the warrior security presence on the colony, and the base commander along with two of his lieutenants. Not at the table, but present at their insistence, and with their mates’ indulgence, were Eva, Maggie, and Lana, who sat quietly in chairs against the wall behind their influential mates.
Beck sat beside Adria, who had a death grip on his hand under the table. Trask took the seat on her other side, so she was flanked by loyal protectors. He wasn’t sure about the general, but, at the first sign of agitation on her part, he was ending this. Only a short time had passed since she’d woken from a three-day coma, where she’d hovered on the brink of death, and, while she’d been cleared medically and insisted she felt no ill effects, emotionally, she was still fragile. Beck knew that better than anyone from the way she started at sudden noises and cried out in her sleep when the nightmares came.
Conspicuous in her absence was Amy Stone.
“Where is the other female victim?” Oran, the lead scientist in charge of the investigation asked when Ellar entered and shut the door firmly behind him.
“She isn’t coming,” Juna informed him. “She has no recollection of anything after leaving work the night she was captured, and can contribute nothing. I feel hearing of the events may trigger memories she is psychologically not ready to handle yet. Perhaps after some time passes and she receives counseling—”
“This is disappointing,” one of the other scientist’s observed. “We had hoped to get a clearer picture—”
“But we will follow her doctor’s recommendation,” Kerr cut in. Although he spoke in a normal tone and didn’t raise his voice, the princep’s authority rang clearly in his words. “The three survivors have endured enough trauma, and we will not contribute to it further, especially when the alien has been neutralized.”
“Yes, Max Kerr, of course,” the man conceded, immediately contrite.
Dr. Juna picked up where she’d left off. “As I was saying, with Miss Stone’s dissociative amnesia, I determined interviewing her would do more harm than good at this point.”
“This amnesia is something unknown to our people,” Ellar explained for the Primarians present. “In humans, it is a rare protective mechanism where the distraught mind, unable to cope with the trauma, blocks information surrounding the event.”
“Will she recover these memories, or is it permanent?” Oran asked.
“Only time will tell,” Juna replied. “Everyone reacts differently, but Amy is fairly new here and doesn’t have family to support her. Adria has Beck to help her through it. Myron has a wife and two kids. He was held longer than the women and fed upon repeatedly, but his participation was motivated by a determination to find out who did this, and how and why this happened.” The doctor paused and gave the man seated at the far end of the conference table an apologetic glance. “I’m sorry if this is hard to hear.”
“It ain’t easy, Doc, but there’s no point denying what happened. Knowing the motherfucking bloodsucker who done it—’scuse my French, ladies—got blasted into tiny bits and is nothing more than cosmic dust helps me sleep at night.”
With their hands still clasped under the table, Beck gave Adria’s fingers a reassuring squeeze. She hadn’t been as lucky as Myron. Her rest had been disturbed by vivid, horrifying dreams every night. She woke screaming, her body trembling violently after reliving each terrifying moment. Beck held her against him, whispered words of reassurance until she fell back to sleep, and, while he listened to her deep breathing, hoped it wouldn’t turn to pants and broken cries when the nightmare returned. He regretted the vile creature who’d terrorized her had come to such an easy end. Beck would like to have seen him suffer before meeting a painful demise.
“Did you say bloodsucker?” Oran referred to a handheld device, waving his hand over it as though flipping through multiple screens of data. “This was not mentioned before. Only the energy drain.”
Myron pulled up his sleeve and exposed a deep-purple area with twin puncture marks in the center on the inner aspect of his forearm.
“The creature did that?” one of the other investigators asked.
Ellar stated from his seat beside Juna, “Mr. Sensabaugh’s memories are a bit foggy from the ordeal and because he sustained a blow to the head at some point.”
“It don’t seem at all foggy to me,” Myron stated matter-of-factly. “I distinctly remember being his lunch on several occasions.”
The physic exchanged a look with the investigator. “It is possible the being also fed on his blood, but the puncture marks are consistent with an indigenous species of venomous spider. Notice the discoloration? It is from the toxin the spider injects when it feeds.”
Oran nodded, immediately stopping his search. “We found several large nests and hatched eggs deeper in the caves.”
“But I have no such marks,” Adria offered.
“Neither does Amy,” Juna confirmed. “Myron was held by the alien for days. You and Amy only hours. The fact he survived leads us to believe the venom isn’t what killed the others.”
“The cause of their deaths is presumed to be the energy drain,” Ellar concluded.
Beside him, Adria shuddered. Trask must have noticed, too, because he shot her a concerned glance.
She shook her head, squeezing Beck’s hand while she laid the other on her brother’s forearm. “Even before this, I never could tolerate creepy, crawly insects.”
“Me either,” Maggie whispered from behind them.
All the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in Beck’s mind. “Since Betsy and the others were found in the woods between the landing site and the caves, and this occurred months ago, we can assume he has been feeding off humans all this time.”
“That means there could be others,” Lana breathed.
“Yes, but why weren’t they reported as missing?” This was posed by Eva.
Remus weighed in. “The human population has been increasing rapidly with ships arriving weekly. There are records of the new colonists, but many did not have families, and those in construction or planning t
o work in the mines haven’t started work yet due to the foul weather and the delays caused by the explosion. Factoring all of this in, I’m not surprised they weren’t identified as missing.”
“And he could take on their appearance with no one the wiser,” Adria reminded them.
“Hiding in plain sight,” Lana breathed. “Like a chameleon.”
“I don’t understand the reference,” Oran stated.
“It’s a lizard native to Earth with the ability to change its appearance to blend in with its surroundings.”
“This is a fair analogy,” he agreed. “It was also likely cold blooded not to have shown as human or Primarian on a thermal scan.”
“What else have you learned about it?” Trask asked.
“Their species is presumed to be highly intelligent. His technology was quite advanced as was their ability to communicate across great distances since the signal the Intrepid picked up was outside of our galaxy. And their grasp of language—both of the transmissions and the markings on his equipment—used Universal standard. He was able to make the humans he encountered understand so must have had a translator or communication device of some kind.”
“When he took Amy’s form, he looked and sounded just like her. This ability is how he planned to infiltrate our societies.”
They looked at Adria when she made this comment.
“Societies as in plural, little star?”
“Yes, it’s just coming back to me.”
“What is, darlin’?”
“Something he said. That I was the key to the real prize, which was to infiltrate Primaria, as me.”
“For what purpose?” Kerr demanded.
“I’m sorry. If he said, I can’t recall.”
Beck squeezed her hand as he leaned in and said low in her ear, “Myron is foggy on the details, and Amy has blocked everything out. No one is faulting you, darlin’. You’re doing great.”
“I truly believed it was Amy, until she laughed. I’ll never forget the evil in his bone-chilling laugh.”
“We should stop, now,” Beck declared. “She’s barely recovered; I won’t have her upset.”
“I’m all right,” she assured him.
“Now, maybe. But it will haunt your dreams.”
Trask turned to her, his face dark with concern rivalling her mate’s. “You’re having bad dreams, little star?”
“Yes, but they’ll pass. I’d rather get this done then try never to think of it again.”
“What kind of bizarre creature was this thing?” Lana breathed. “It sounds horrifying.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” she stated flatly. “When he stared at me with his cold, soulless, black eyes, it was like I had come face-to-face with the devil himself.”
“Absolutely horrifying,” Eva murmured behind her.
“What about the blue orbs?” Tarus inquired of Oran. “Have you identified what they are?”
“The exterior is impenetrable to the tools we brought with us. They are available on the Reliant, however. Once they’re transported to the surface, we’ll set up a mobile lab to test them further. I hope to know more soon.”
“Why not transport them up to the ship and test them there?” Juna asked.
“They were powering all his equipment, and their physics is unknown,” Oran explained. “They could be volatile.”
“Which could prove deadly on a battle cruiser,” Roth expounded further.
“Of course. I can imagine,” she replied.
“So, we still have more questions than answers,” the princep declared in frustration.
“A highly advanced species with malicious intent managed to infiltrate the colony, somehow took on the form of its victims, and blended in, and I’ll hazard a guess that is how it accessed the mine and destroyed it, as well. It also fed on humans and Primarians like a parasite.”
“Like a vampire,” Myron corrected.
“Myron...” Juna replied patiently.
“Supposin’ I imagined Dracula feeding on me in that cave, this thing still had the ability to drain the life out of us. How’s that different?”
“Chameleons, parasites, vampires, whatever we call them, we will hunt these monsters down and destroy them before they can wreak havoc on another unsuspecting world—or return to one of ours.”
Kerr’s pronouncement was greeted by nods and grunts of approval. His deadly determination sent a chill down Beck’s spine, but he was fully on board with his plan. In fact, if he didn’t have a colony to finish or a risk of separation sickness from being away from Adria, he’d enlist in the Primarian fleet and do what he could to help take them down.
The princep turned to Commander Roth. “Any word from Captain Allon?”
“Yes, but nothing promising. They tracked them as far as the Azluseon Star System but had to change course due to gamma-ray bursts and dangerously high radiation levels in the sector. Allon and his crew will circumvent and continue to search.”
“Maker bedamned bad luck,” Kerr muttered at the same time Trask bit out, “Faex.”
Beck had another question that had been nagging at him for some time. “I can understand one of my crew being taken. They work in remote areas, and the miner was part of the crew surveying potential new sites, but Betsy Barker? How does she fit in with all of this?”
“She was a geologist, Beck. And while I hate to speak ill of the dead, not a very good one. But she could have been out doing field research.” From Lana’s expression, she didn’t appear to buy her own explanation.
“She wasn’t dressed for field work,” Adria observed. “Who wears a silk blouse to examine rocks and dirt?”
“That’s not unusual for Betsy,” Lana scoffed. “I saw her show up to excavations back in college in full hair and makeup while wearing four-inch heels. It gave the professors fits.”
“Perhaps,” Beck mused aloud. “But I think there’s a correlation we aren’t seeing.”
“Based on high heels?” Remus asked.
“Based on my gut.”
“If there is one, I don’t know what it is. Our search of her apartment, as well as the two men who were found near where she was, turned up nothing. Even her journal gave us no clues into what happened or her involvement.”
“Betsy kept a journal?” Lana exclaimed in disbelief.
“A scientific one,” Tarus expanded.
“May I see it? As a geologist, I might have more insight.”
“I don’t see why not,” he assented with a nod. “I’ll have it sent over. May I suggest reading it at night if you suffer from sleeplessness. It will cure it really quick.”
Lana blinked in surprise. “Was that a joke from Tarus?” Her gaze cut to his twin. “Or, do I have the two of you confused?”
“No, you’ve got us straight,” Remus said, his purple eyes dancing as he glanced from her to his twin. “Being around humans is rubbing off on him, I think.”
“That has to be a good thing, especially with all the shit hitting the fan around here,” Myron, who’d been quietly observing muttered.
“Agreed,” Beck put in. “Life is too short not to laugh and enjoy it when you can.”
Knowing the truth of his words firsthand, Adria slid her arm beneath his and hugged it close as she leaned her head against his shoulder.
LATER THAT NIGHT, TRASK’S soft deep breathing told her he slept soundly. He’d closed his eyes as soon as his head hit the pillow, and he’d been out. It was one of the few times since they’d been together that he hadn’t made love to her before falling asleep—he was that exhausted. Worry over Adria and the alien threat the cause.
Lana had agonized with him every second, but sleep wasn’t happening for her tonight. Not because she wasn’t tired, or the fact he took up at least three-fourths of the full-sized bed. They could be in his quarters on the Reliant, with a Trask-sized bed, but she hated transporting. It never set well with her, and, with her mate dead on his feet, her old apartment had been closer. And she wanted to pack
up a few more of her things. She’d been fortunate Beck had moved Adria to his place immediately after the transformation. She still couldn’t believe her dear friend was the fated mate of her mate’s sister. What did that make them? Mates-in-law?
She burst out in giggles then quickly covered her mouth, keeping the rest of her sleep-deprived, giddy amusement inside while she glanced over at Trask. He hadn’t moved a muscled—thank goodness.
Silliness aside—Lana turned back to what was keeping her awake.
Betsy’s journal.
She flipped through another few pages and stifled a yawn.
“Tarus was right,” she uttered to herself. “This is a giant snooze, and filled with inaccuracies.”
Another yawn followed, and this one made her eyes water. She dabbed at them with the sheet then began thumbing through the pages, scanning the headings, underlined words, and rough sketches.
She was on the verge of setting it aside for later—or never—when a drawing on the next page made her sit straight up in bed.
“Trask,” she called.
When he didn’t stir, she nudged his shoulder.
Lana looked back at the page, blinking to make sure she was seeing it right. “If I’m not dreaming, this is the correlation everyone has been looking for.”
She turned to her mate and shook him, speaking louder. “Wake up, Trask. You’ve got to see this.”
“Paulova, I’m dead to the world. Can’t it wait until morning?”
The bed creaked when he rolled his big body over and gave her his back. Her throat went dry seeing the smooth expanse of bronze skin, and his dark hair in a glossy, sexy tangle across both their pillows. But she shook herself. Important discovery now, discovering more of Trask, later.
“No, it can’t wait,” she insisted as she crawled over him and pushed him—which required considerable effort on her part—onto his back.
His eyes opened and he blazed up at her. “If I bring you to orgasm, will you let me sleep?”
Bound by Fate Page 27