by E. A. James
Not Mr. Stirling, Hannah though. His first day of anything was just as efficient and seamless as any other day. She didn’t say it.
When they reached the door again Hannah took a deep breath and tried to calm the nerves that had knotted in her stomach like an iron fist. She swallowed hard and tried not to show her fear. She had to make her father proud in the end. Fainting was already bad.
When she glanced through the little window again he was back on the bed and back in human form. The man leaned his elbows on his knees, head hanging low. His back muscles bulged where he supported himself and his arms were big, too. He had a spectacular build.
It was deceiving that he looked so human.
The moment she thought it he looked up as if he’d heard what she’d been thinking. His eyes found hers again and she felt an echo of him in her mind. It wasn’t as bad as it had been before – just a remnant, but it was enough to make Hannah think that he really did know what she was thinking.
His eyes were striking. Diamond eyes that threatened to suck her in. She tried to look away but found she couldn’t.
“Careful,” Doyle said, but honestly, it was a little late.
He got up and Hannah realized he was naked. Of course, how else would he shift? The clothes would rip, anyway, and it wasn’t like the lab would keep paying for new outfits if the alien was going to rip – or burn – everything off him.
He walked closer to Hannah and her first reaction was to get out of the way. But he held her there with his eyes. Her second reaction was to let her eyes slide down his body. This wasn’t his doing, and she knew it. She felt her cheeks flush, her ears burn. He was the one that was naked and she was blushing.
“This is specimen four five one,” Doyle said and Hannah finally managed to peel her eyes away from the naked man with the eyes that captivated her body and soul. “We need to get you acquainted with him and able to read his reactions so that you can sample him.”
Doyle started unlocking the door, working with keys and pin pads until it clicked open. Hannah stepped back.
“He won’t bite.” Doyle sounded irritated. Sure, he wouldn’t bite, but he could incinerate her. Or worse. She swallowed her fear and stepped through the door, following her superior. She’d already fainted. It would look terrible if she ran now, too. She forced herself forward even though her body and her mind protested.
“Another one,” he said. Perfect English.
Hannah looked at Doyle.
“He can talk?”
Doyle nodded. “He’s referring to you.”
“And I’m right here,” four five one said.
“You get acquainted and I’ll get the equipment,” Doyle said and locked Hannah in with the specimen. Hannah whipped her head around. Had they not seen what the dragon had done? How could they leave her with him? She wanted to run to the door and pound her fists against it, screaming and shouting until they let her out. She was an employee for God’s sake.
She didn’t do any of that. Instead, she turned her eyes back to the specimen. If he was going to come at her again she wanted to see. She wanted to look into his eyes if her death was going to come.
“I’m not a monster” he said.
“Right.”
She was being sarcastic with him. Smooth move, Hannah. How to make friends and influence people. Dragons. Whatever.
He stepped forward. Hannah fought the urge to step back. His eyes pierced her again and she expected him to climb into her thoughts, but this time it didn’t happen. Instead, her body heated up. Warmth flushed over her body and pooled between her legs.
“What are you doing?” she asked and took a step back.
He grinned. Dammit, he was gorgeous.
“That’s all you,” he said. He was reading her mind. And her attraction to him was all self-generated. Fantastic.
The door opened behind her. The specimen stepped away. Doyle glanced at her, disapproval behind his eyes. He’d seen him that close. Dammit. She glanced down. He had a silver suitcase in his one hand and a gun with a long silver needle in the other.
“You’re using that?” she asked. “On him?”
Doyle nodded. “Samples.”
Of what? Hannah though, but she didn’t say it. She looked back at the specimen. He was reserved now, his eyes that ice blue it had been before. He glanced at the needle.
“This is what you’re going to do,” Doyle said. “Come on, four five one.”
Bane, the name bounced around in Hannah’s head. Bane. That was his name, she realized. Four five one wasn’t a specimen, he was alive. He had humanity. And this was going to be torture.
CHAPTER FOUR
“I’m sorry I scared you. You’ll understand its not easy being a test subject. The samples hurt every time.”
Bane was alone with this woman in his cell now that the superior had left. He’d shown her the first shot. She looked horrified. This was a good sign – there were humans with sympathy after all. He hadn’t seen anything of the sort since he’d arrived.
“If they knew what they were doing, they wouldn’t do it.”
She still kept her distance. Her hair was honey colored, her eyes were evergreen. The attraction and the fear mixed into a toxic cocktail that pinched Bane’s nose. The fear bothered him but the attraction underneath that? It was interesting.
“They don’t see you as someone who’s alive,” she said. Bane knew that was true but that didn’t make what they were doing any less wrong. “It’s hard not to see you as a threat when you’re a fire breathing dragon.” She shivered as if she remembered what Bane had looked like.
“I wasn’t just talking about me. I was talking about the others. They can handle one dragon but when the rest come it will be war.”
“There are more of you?”
Her fear spiked when he mentioned war. He didn’t like it when the fear overruled her attraction. He liked that her body wanted to be closer to his. He wanted her closer, too.
“What do they want?”
“Peace.”
“How ironic.”
Her voice was stern despite the fear. These humans were complicated, layered creatures. Still, her resolve wavered. She didn’t know what he was saying was the truth. He had to tell someone and so far no one had listened. No one but her.
“You don’t have to believe me. We just need a new home. We’re not here to start a war. But if the humans bring it to us we can defend ourselves. We won’t roll over and die.”
He pinned images of the dragons in her mind, blue and green scales that shimmered like oil. There were more dragons in this picture. Orange and red. Green and red. Brown and black. He pinned them onto her frontal lobe one by one. After a few images, she grabbed at her temples like it was painful. While he was in her mind he searched for something of hers. Something he could hold onto. Hannah. They called her Hannah.
“Stop it,” she cried.
He withdrew them. “Sorry. I needed you to understand.”
She dropped her hands and she was breathing hard like she’d been running. He moved closer to her. Heat radiated from her skin, drawing him further. There was something magnetic about this one. His body stirred in response. She glanced down at his sex. She’d noticed. He expected more of the fear, but the attraction spiked this time.
Very interesting.
“Why don’t you show them, then, if it’s so important?” Hannah asked. She was keeping on track.
“You’re different than them.” Hannah didn’t just see him as a test. She saw him as a person – a person she was attracted to, apparently – and that was why he could show her the things he had. Her mind was the only open one he’d encountered so far. The same heat washed through her again, the attraction.
He raised her hand and touched her cheek with his fingertips. Being in contact with her was like touching a live wire. His body tingled all over. He parted his lips. She looked at his face and blushed.
“It’s hard to persuade those who believe beyond conviction that
they are right. Even with images.”
Hannah nodded slowly. He hoped she was starting to understand.
“I have to do the rest of the tests,” she said. Her voice was breathy, hoarse like she’d exerted herself. Bane took a deep breath. This was going to hurt, but if she failed she wouldn’t come back. There had been others that hadn’t come back. That had been a blessing.
“Do what you must,” he said, holding out an arm to her and turning his head away. He kept his attention on her even though he wasn’t looking at her. The first shot hurt like hell. He bit his cheeks, closed his eyes, breathed in through his nose. The anger was just under his skin. If he wasn’t careful the dragon would break free again.
He didn’t want to do that to Hannah. Not this one.
“I’m sorry I’m hurting you,” she said. She sounded genuinely sorry. The pain cut him off from her emotions, but he believed her just by the tone of her voice.
“You keep doing what you need so that you can come back.”
The words were out before he’d thought about them. But it was true – he did want her to come back. He liked being around her. Despite the pain she was causing him her fingers were soft on his skin. Her voice was calm in his mind. Her presence was good for his soul.
When she didn’t prick him again he turned to look at her. She looked at him. Her face was soft and gentle, her eyes a lighter green now. There was a mixture of compassion and sorrow on her features. She smelled like the forest after a rainstorm. She smelled like freedom. When last had he had a taste of that?
“You’re attracted to me,” he said. A statement that would deflect from his own attraction.
Her face colored, her cheeks going rosy, making her that much more beautiful.
“I have to report this,” she said, taking a step away. The heat went with her and Bane wished she would come back.
“Will I see you tomorrow?”
She nodded. “As long as there’s a job to be done and I don’t fail him, I will be back.”
Him? Who? He tried to reach into her again but she was shut off from him now. Somehow she managed to hide her true emotions, her thoughts, and Bane couldn’t reach them. Cunning human.
She left the cell. Bane retreated back to his bed. The anger was suddenly uncontrollable inside of him. There had been nothing on this planet justifying their mercy. Not until now. He had intended to tell the war council that the earth didn’t deserve survival. The humans were merciless and selfish, out to gain and willing to risk nothing. But if there was one human like Hannah, there was something worth saving.
He couldn’t reach his superiors. He wished he could. He would ask them to spare her; to search for humans that were like her and to spare them the fate that the others deserved.
He paced around his cell. Hall. The place was gigantic to accommodate the beast. And it had come out a lot lately. He felt the animal bristle under his skin, aching to get out and cause havoc as much as it could. He held it in. If he caused too many problems, they might execute him. If he was too dangerous she wouldn’t come back. He needed to see her again. Not just because she was good, but because there was something about her that made him want to be good, too.
There was something about her that made him want her.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Hannah!” Doyle’s voice ripped her out of her focus. She had her eye against the lens of a microscope, studying a sample taken from the gorilla-type monster.
When she looked up Doyle’s mouth was turned down. It had been one week since Hannah had started working at Technico and Doyle’s pleasant demeanor had changed as the time passed. She didn’t see him now as the kind man she would rather answer to than her brash father, but she saw Doyle in the same light.
He demanded results. He expected them. When she didn’t deliver he wasn’t scared to go to Mr. Stirling. Being the boss’s daughter had a lot of downfalls.
“Yes, Mr. Doyle?” She tried to sound innocent but her stomach sank. She must have made a mistake again. She was going to get in trouble. She could see it by Doyle’s thinly pursed mouth, his disapproving eyes. The way the other employees glanced at her like something dramatic was going to happen.
“The samples you took yesterday are no good. Again.”
Doyle’s voice was stern and she flinched. Hannah had been trying to do them right but it was hard being so heartless when she knew that she was hurting the subjects. Bane was the only one that could tell her how much it hurt. But the others had to be secured when she took them which was saying enough.
“I want you to do them again.”
Hannah closed her eyes for a second. It was bad enough that she had to hurt them every day. Doing it an extra time seemed downright cruel.
“Your performance reports are being logged today,” Doyle added. Hannah cringed on the inside. She was going to have to answer to her father for that, and that was never pleasant. But she had survived him until now – she could do it again.
“I’ll make sure that I do it right this time, Mr. Doyle,” she said.
He nodded. “I want you do to it at sunset.”
Sunset. That meant she was going to stay late again. It would be the third time this week. Staying overtime had never bothered Hannah – she was a hard worker and she wasn’t scared to exert herself. She always had to go the extra mile for Mr. Stirling, anyway. But staying behind alone in the lab after the other employees left wasn’t her favorite thing to do.
The day dragged on. The employees started leaving one by one. Some of them glanced at Hannah before leaving. None of them really spoke to her – no one wanted to be involved with Stirling’s daughter.
The last man left and Hannah was alone. The sun was on the horizon, the last rays reaching through the narrow windows against the ceiling. Shadows formed in the corners and under the testing stations. The lab got colder, the temperature falling more than it should have with the lack of light.
Hannah shivered. This place was downright creepy at night. The darkness came alive as soon as night fell as if it was another creature in one of the cells. It was as if the darkness was bitter, out to get her.
She picked up the kit with all the needles and punches that she had to use to take the samples. Her stomach sank, dread filling her. This was horrible. If she wanted to be a biologist, someone worth mentioning at all, she had to endure this. Honestly, if she knew that this was what it entailed to be a biologist she would have chosen to be something else.
Not only that, it was a shock to know that her father was doing something like this behind closed doors. Then again, nothing should have been a surprise for a man who didn’t have a heart. Hannah had grown up being dominated by him. He was cold and incapable of feeling. The only thing he offered when he bothered to speak at all was verbal abuse. She shouldn’t have been surprised that pain was his way of life.
Hannah unlocked the cell where the little squid-like creature was pacing out a track that always had the same pattern after dark. It was almost like it was trying to communicate or send signals. No one else bothered to find out what it was doing, and Hannah couldn’t figure it out.
She worked fast, taking the samples as quickly as she could so that the pain would be over. The squid squirmed under her fingers, a silent scream, and Hannah died a little inside. This little creature’s mute agony was almost worse than the screams of distress the gorilla-like creature made, or the liquid that seeped from underneath the blob like it was wetting itself every time.
This job was going to gnaw away at Hannah’s conscious unless she lost her sense of compassion. And that wasn’t going to happen. Every time she hurt them a little bit of her was being tortured as well.
She finished with the samples and left the cell again. When she peeked through the glass window the creature was in the corner, shuddering as if it was in shock. This happened every time she visited it. Sometimes it lasted much longer than others. She hated being seen as the enemy.
The gorilla was next. She had to take care of this
one as soon as possible. It was aggressive and it had to be secured with manacles. She pressed the button that had metal clamp down around the gorilla-like creature. The moment she opened the door it started screaming. The sound was so close to a human scream it shattered through Hannah.
The creature was furry. It was built like a gorilla but it had shorter legs and longer arms. A long face with red eyes glared at her when it didn’t scream and a mouth with fangs that elongated along with its emotions opened and snapped at her.
She tried to take a sample but despite the manacles it fought too much. She couldn’t get an accurate sample.
The manacles rattled dangerously. Hannah wanted to run and hide. She wanted to stop being the bad guy. She wanted to go home and crawl into bed. She wanted one night where the eyes of these creatures – filled with pain and agony – didn’t haunt her dreams.