Just for fun I slap my fingers around the screen of the docking stationing and watch the dashboard brighten, flicker wildly, then darken again.
I ball my fists and start pummeling the buttons until something buzzes and a plate in the wall shifts and moves, opening a thick glass window. I trace my fingers over the speckled surface and feel the icy void of the atmosphere pressing in.
The universe stretches out in front of me. Stars and planets like bright gemstones in the sky floating in bands of soft colors, framed with the absolute darkness of space. And in the middle of it all, Earth.
It’s so far away. Like a small blue ball.
I wonder what time it is down there.
No, I don’t, not really. I’m just homesick and worrying over Claire. She’s not going to be okay alone. She needs someone there to take care of her and that someone is me.
“Oh God,” I whisper, hanging my head in my hands. “Please let Claire be okay. Please.” I climb up onto the cold chunk of metal on the other side of the room and curl myself into a ball to try to keep warm.
It doesn’t help and shivers begin racking their way across my shoulders and down my spine. My teeth start chattering right after. Was it this cold in the preservation lab? Or are they slowly freezing me to death in here?
My fingers and toes start to feel numb. I hug myself tighter. Oh God, what if Pious is trying to kill me?
What if I did this to myself from pressing all the stupid buttons I had no business pressing?
Fuck, I’m going to die in here.
Metal clicks and rattles through the lock in the door.
I gasp, quick and loud. If it’s Pious, my limbs are too weak to fight him off me.
I press myself into the icy flatness of the wall behind me and start praying in my head. Please God, I don’t want to go through this. I don’t want to die. I can’t, I have to save my sister. Please.
Another loud click and the door whooshes open.
I want to lunge forward and claw at his metal eyes. I want to slam my fists into his metal chest and scream and bite and make him bleed. But I can do none of it, because the intensity of the shudders vibrating through my body are at violent levels.
Four guards file in, large and menacing.
I try to speak through my trembling lips, but the words come out choked and slow. “I’ll die before I let him touch me!”
The fuckers still advance on me.
I steel myself and kick my feet out. I don’t have a clue how I can defend myself against these monsters, but I need to try.
“No!” I scream, as the closest one’s hands reach out for me. I thrash my legs out again trying to block it from touching me, but I miss completely. Because, of course I do.
Frigid alloy fingers catch around both my ankles and yank me forward. My bottom slides to the edge of the bed and stops just before falling off. My pulse is a hurricane in my ears; will Pious have his way with me now, in front of these men?
The vice grip on my legs opens and the Caelum’s hands reach straight up. I still my movements instantly. What is he doing? What is he going to do to me?
The Caelum’s fingertips land on the edge of his jaw and his faceplate comes off, making my breath catch in my throat.
The three Caelum behind the first copy his motions.
It’s not Pious standing in front of me with three of his guards. It’s Rune. And Jex and Tore, and another. My eyes dart over each one of their faces and settle back on Rune’s. My heart stops. He saved me again.
I fling myself at him, arms around his neck, my shivering body against his, and hug him. He stumbles back with the force of me, but his arms, although cold and clad in steel, wrap themselves around me. “What is this?” he whispers breathlessly in my ear, tightening his hold.
“This is a hug, you big idiot.” I lean my head back and look into his eyes.
“How many times does this make, Kate?”
“Shut up, asshole,” I smile.
His hands slowly slide down my spine, gentle and feather soft. “Why did you stay? Why did you follow Pious?” Cool alloy fingers stretch out and press themselves into the small of my back.
“He told me Claire was here, in the preservation lab,” I whisper through quivering lips.
“She’s not, Kate. I made sure she stayed on Earth, where you wanted her to be.”
I shiver against him.
His head jerks back, and his expression turns to worry. “Your body temperature is too cold,” he snaps.
“I-I’m freezing,” I say with a violent shudder.
“Tore!” he yells, without taking his eyes from mine. “Retrieve clothing for Kate.”
“Clothing, sir?” Tore questions.
“Armor. A blanket. Anything. Her body temperature is too low,” he says in a rushed voice.
Jex moves closer toward us then, cupping his gloved hand over Rune’s shoulder. “General, may I remind you this is an escape? Staying here waiting for Tore to find cloth of some sort for the female will be detrimental to reaching our goal.”
“Fine,” he growls, sliding his hands off me and detaching his upper armor from his chest and arms.
“Sir? Without any armor you’re unarmed and visible—”
“Yes, quite. But,” he says, sliding the armor around my shoulder and pressing his bare chest against mine, “I need to raise her body temperature.”
The moment his warm skin touches mine I gasp and melt into him. I can’t help myself, he’s so toasty and smooth, I heat up instantly. “Oh my God,” I whisper.
“Are you praying to me?” he whispers back, sliding his hot cheek against my cold one.
“No,” I breathe out, with a laugh. “It just feels nice.”
“You lie, Kate. This is a lot more than nice,” he says as his lips move against the shell of my ear. My heart pounds at the base of my throat and my stomach fills with a fluttering wave of butterflies.
“Ahem,” Jex clears his throat. “Far be it from me to break up this little—well, I must apologize, I’m not sure what this is—but sir, we need to vacate this room immediately.”
Rune’s hand slides quickly up my back and cup around the back of my neck. “Will you come with us? Will you let me help you?”
“Yes, yes! Get me the hell out of this room,” I say, grasping my hands around his arms. Now that he’s warmed me up a little, I don’t want him to stop touching me. Shit. That’s not good. I back away until the back of my legs hit against the metal slab of the bed.
Rune’s eyes drop from mine immediately, and devour the rest of my body. My neck, my breasts, my stomach, my legs, and linger on what’s in between them. I want to cover up, but I don’t know what to block from his view first, his eyes are moving fast up and down my entire body. He’s taking every inch of me in. A curl of desire twists and aches deep inside me. It makes my breasts fuller and heavier, tightening my nipples to hard smooth pebbles. “Stop looking at me like that.”
He swallows hard, staring at my breasts, then dragging his gaze back to mine. “I-I’m trying but I just…I just can’t,” he whispers.
Jex grunts and moves between us, holding out his hand for me to take. “Female? If you would just follow along this way—”
Rune growls out a curse and shoves him out of the way. “No. No one touches her.” His tone is ice-cold and full of rage. “No one lays a finger on her. No one!”
“No one but you?” Jex asks, spinning on his heels to face Rune.
They stand face to face glaring at each other.
“Okay, enough,” I say, pushing myself between them and walking to the door. “I’m warmer now, can we please get out of here before that idiot comes back? He wants me to have his little alien babies and I’d rather not, so can we go?”
“This way, Kate,” Tore says, ushering me out of the cell.
I follow him out and to the right, the rest come out right behind us.
“You didn’t have to undermine me like that,” I hear Rune say.
“Undermi
ne you? Rune, you looked as if you were about to pounce on her, and she observed it as well.”
“Can you blame me? For Solar sake, do you see her? All that skin and those, those—”
“Yes, General, of course I do,” Jex hisses. “I am a male, same as you. But it looked like you were frightening her.”
“Frightening her?” Rune’s voice is louder now, sharper. “She has nothing to fear from me. I would rather be extinguished a thousand times before seeing her hurt.” Rune’s footsteps stomp faster down the hallway behind us. “Kate? Kate!”
“What?” I sigh, stopping short and whirling around on him.
Again, his gaze eats up every part of my body. And I’m not sure I completely dislike it.
“What, Rune? What is it?” I step toward him, asking again.
He shakes his head and slowly pulls his faceplate over his hungry eyes. “Nothing, girl. Never mind.” With it on, he looks so otherworldly and foreign, I want to tear it off him. I want it off him and I want his hands on me again. And that thought complicates things and scares me a hell of a lot more than the way he’s looking at me like a man starving.
I kind of like that he’s looking at me like that.
But I have to focus on what’s happening around us. I need to focus on staying away from Pious and getting back to Claire. I can’t think of anything else—none of my human wants or needs—Claire is more important than me right now.
She always was and she always will be. She can’t take care of herself out there alone. Neither can my father.
Suddenly, a high-pitched sound fills the corridors. All of us stagger toward the walls and clap our hands over our ears. About a hundred feet in front of us a thick iron gate slams down from the ceiling to the grates on the floor. Rune lunges for me and pulls me behind him.
“What’s happening?” I scream. The noise rises to a screeching, piercing siren that grinds at my teeth and scratches against the inside of my ears.
I’m yanked to the left and pushed hard into another long hallway. Jex and Tore run ahead of us, but I’m not wearing their Caelum body armor and my legs don’t move fast enough to keep up with them.
Sudden shouts echo out behind us and instantly my feet sweep up off the floor and the wind in the hallways whistles fast over me. “Is this the fourth or fifth time, my lady?” Rune pants as he runs with me in his arms away from the incoming Caelum.
His legs are like machines, pumping and grinding gears, moving as fast as light through the ship. I bounce in his arms like a ragdoll and squeeze my eyes shut tight. The rough ride is making me sick to my stomach but the only thing I can do is keep my mouth shut and hold on for dear life.
“How do they know where we are?” Jex huffs in front of us.
Oh shit. The tracker! “Wait. Wait! Stop moving. He put a tracker in my arm. He knows exactly where I am! He’ll know everywhere we hide.”
“Why did you not think to tell us this in your room?” Jex snaps.
Why wasn’t that the first thing I said? “I-I don’t know. Me freezing to death was really the only thing that was on my mind at the time.”
“Where is it?” he demands.
I lift my forearm up for him to see. There’s a small dark spot just under the skin below the crook of my elbow.
“Do something, Jex!” Rune shouts.
“What would you have me do, General? No one is allowed to touch her, not even lay a finger on her but you!”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake! Can one of you just get it out of me?” I spit.
Tore’s giant hands reach between the three of us and takes ahold of my arm. “This is going to hurt,” he says, right before he slices a sharp blade through my skin and squeezes out the small tracking device. The pain hits sudden and deep and my knees buckle and drop as I watch his actions. I’m seeing stars.
Immediately, Rune pulls off one of his armguards and presses it hard over my bleeding wound. I feel the liquid alloy surge through my skin, pulling it taut and connecting it back together. It burns and sizzles.
Tore holds up the little tracking device and the metal gears along his jaw lift up into a smile. “Where should I put this?”
Rune scoops me up in his arms again and laughs bitterly, “Out an airlock. Let that solar-sucking asshole try to find us out there.”
43
Kate
Behind us, Rune pushes forward and gestures for us to move. He’s right. The shouting is getting closer. We need to get out of here and find someplace to hide quick. I can’t have Pious find me. I just can’t. But we’re running blindly down corridors not knowing who’s closing in from behind or what’s waiting up ahead of us. And even though Rune is carrying me, I can barely breathe from the anxiety of it all.
At the next uploading station we pass, Tore shouts for us to wait and taps wildly at the screen. Rune lowers me to my feet and I shiver and hug myself watching Tore’s actions. What is he doing? Why are we stopping? I can still hear the hurried stomping of the Caelum’s boots closing in. Why am I standing here watching him? Doesn’t he get it? I don’t want to get inseminated with that idiot’s jizz! I glance over my shoulder, positive I will see Pious and his small mushroom dick coming for me. I knock on Tore’s armor like an idiot. “Tore, seriously we have to get going. They’re catching up to us.”
“Not for long,” he says, steadily.
My face heats with anger. “Ugh. It’s easy for you to be so nonchalant about this, you’re not the one with a fully loaded alien penis chasing after you. Come on!” I say bouncing on the balls of my feet.
Tore shakes his head and chuckles.
I’m about to tear out of there and leave them all to deal with it themselves, when I hear a soft click and my attention is pulled up to what Tore is actually focusing on.
A small square in the docking dashboard opens, filling the hallway with a glittery beam of faint blue light. Tore shoves the small tracker into a cylinder that floats and bobs in the glowing shaft. It spins around, makes a loud suction noise, and vanishes. The flap closes with a low zipping noise, emptying the hallway of its bluish glow.
“What did you just do?” I ask.
Tore’s face turns to mine and a small gear lifts at the edge of his lips. “I sent your tracker on a tour of the ship, in the opposite direction of where we are now.”
“Really?” Well, now I feel awful for thinking he was just wasting time. “Thank you.”
“You saved my life before, Kate. I won’t ever forget that. You could have left me to die and you didn’t. My allegiance is to you, not Pious.”
My first thought is to ask about his allegiance to Rune, but I don’t want to stay out in the open in the corridors any longer and I’m truly not sure Rune will like the answer Tore gives. I’ll keep the question to myself, for now.
“That’s brilliant, Tore,” Rune says, grabbing my hand and gently pulling me forward. It’s warm and strong, sending tremors through my still cold body. “Now we must find a doorway into the passageways and head back to the core, where it’s safe.”
It’s easy enough to find a hidden entryway, Jex seems to know every secret inch of this chumped-up aluminum foil flying saucer. But once we step through and slide back the panel in place behind us, we are instantly enveloped in complete darkness and I feel even less secure.
“Why are there no step lights here?” Rune snaps.
“I’m unsure,” Jex replies, moving forward. “I have not been through these tunnels in some time.” His voice hesitates for a moment before adding, “If at all.”
Rune squeezes my hand.
I don’t care about the darkness. I’m not scared in the cover of it, but as we walk, I can’t help to dart cautious glances back at the way we came to see if Pious’s face appears in the blackness behind me. The hairs on the nape of my neck bristle and stand on end like something or someone is there, fanning hot breath into the middle of my shoulders.
A hot burst of adrenaline explodes in my chest as a hand presses against the small of my back. I rus
h forward, but the hand remains, hot on my skin.
“Kate?” Rune’s voice is warm in my ear. “What’s wrong?” The hand slides up gently and pulls me in. I let out a loud sigh, it’s only Rune’s hand, protecting me, leading me to safety.
“Nothing’s wrong,” I whisper. “I just feel like he’s right behind us in the darkness, ready to grab me.”
His movements still and his hands slowly slide up my arms, over my shoulders and cup my face. “If you do not realize by now, I will keep you safe here, at all costs.”
My hands lift up to cover his. “You have no clue how surreal this all is to me. I just want to get out of here and go back home. I need to find Claire. Promise me, Rune,” I say, stepping closer to him until our bodies almost touch. “Promise me, you’ll still help me get back home.”
For a moment he says nothing.
“Please, Rune,” my voice catches on the words and break. “Please.”
“Will you let me take you both back here?” he whispers back.
I drop my hands and step away from him, hitting my back into the cold metal of the darkened hallway’s walls. “What? I don’t—”
“The near future of your world is a horrible one, where outbreaks of plagues and diseases will outnumber the humans there. If you stay…” he takes an audible breath. “If I leave you there, it’s a guaranteed termination of your life.”
How am I supposed to believe that’s what’s really going to happen? And how do I make this kind of a decision right now? My only goal is to find Claire. I can’t think about anything beyond that until she’s standing next to me again. And what about my father? Who will help him?
What if neither of them is no longer alive?
“Rune, I don’t—I can’t make that kind of choice right now. I just need to make sure Claire is okay.”
“I want to help you find your sister, but to what avail, if I know you’ll both be victim to what lies ahead on that forsaken planet? You could both be safe here, that I will promise you.”
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