by Tasha Black
“BFF20, can you scan for lifeforms again?” she asked.
The little drone made a low humming sound.
“The only identifiable lifeforms on the ship are yours, your companion’s, and the plant-life inside the biodome.”
Identifiable?
A whoosh of cold air lifted Raina’s hair as the door back to the main corridor slammed shut behind them.
6
Nick
Nick spun around.
Raina’s drone shone its light behind them, but it was not strong enough to penetrate the darkness coalescing around the door.
“We need to run,” he whispered, taking Raina’s hand. “And turn off your light.”
She bolted without hesitation, fleet as a deer in the low gravity, tapping her wrist to extinguish the soft glow.
“BFF20, go that way,” Raina whispered, motioning toward an offshoot of the corridor.
The little drone whistled indignantly but obeyed.
Nick tightened his hand around Raina’s. They were running in complete darkness now.
He called on his gift, shifting his eyes to make them more useful.
Instantly, he could see the hallway ahead of them in tones of blue.
They ran on, deeper into the unknown wing.
There were no sounds coming from behind, but Nick’s spine still crawled. Something was there with them. He only hoped it might have followed the drone. That had been quick thinking on Raina’s part to send it off as a distraction.
Gravity kicked in slightly, and Raina stumbled.
He swept her up in his arms without a thought, his senses reeling with her nearness in spite of the danger they were in.
“I’ve got you,” he told her, his breath making plumes in the frigid air.
She clung to him, her hands like ice against his shoulder blades. The surrounding temperature was well below freezing. He wondered how long the power had been out.
A blinding line of bright white appeared ahead of them.
He allowed his eyes to slide back to the human spectrum of vision and looked closer. It was coming from under a door.
He clutched Raina tighter and ran for the door with all he had.
It pushed open easily.
He slipped inside, closed it carefully, and put his back against the door, hoping whatever had chased them couldn’t hear his breathing.
A touchscreen panel beside the entry allowed him to extinguish the light within. He hoped it was in time that their pursuer hadn’t seen it.
“Can we lock it?” Raina said, still catching her breath.
He tried, hopeful due to the presence of the working light, but it required power to seal.
“The slide lock on the door won’t work with the main power out,” he whispered her.
Raina tapped his shoulder and pointed.
He turned his head to see she was indicating the viewing glass on the door.
She wiggled to be put down and he placed her gently on her feet.
He missed the sweet weight of her immediately.
“Can you change your eyes again?” she whispered, pressing her lips to his ear.
He nodded. She had noticed. And she wasn’t freaked out.
Warmth bloomed in his chest.
He transformed his vision again and saw her in the pale blue tones of his large, nocturnal eyes. There was no revulsion on her face, only an eager smile that made him forget the cold.
She grinned up at him and pointed at the door.
He wrapped a protective arm around her and placed his face against the smooth surface of the door to gaze through the glass.
The hallway was empty.
Raina rested her cheek against his chest. Her hair smelled like starlight.
Focus, Nick…
His blue tinted view of the hallway was unchanged.
He could feel her breathing, the swell of her breasts each time she inhaled. Only thin layers of clothing separated their bodies. Waves of lust threatened to overwhelm him.
He clenched his jaw and forced himself to think of the danger they could be in.
A flicker of movement in the hallway caught his attention. Something was coming.
Tendrils of smoke seemed to curl around one of the chandeliers.
Then there was a clink as the tendrils turned to talons that clung to the metal and swung the rest of its inky, swirling body through the air and further into the hall.
The talons turned back to smoke, releasing soundlessly as the thing swam down the hallway like a giant squid, frayed ribbons of it drifting behind. Slowly, it passed the door where Nick clung to Raina, praying it had not sensed them.
He waited, ready to do whatever had to be done to protect her.
But the creature did not return.
“It’s gone,” he whispered.
“What was that?” she asked softly.
He wracked his brain for a way to describe it that she would understand.
“It was almost like a ghost,” he said. “It moved like it was swimming, like it was only solid when it wanted to be. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Raina shuddered.
He cradled her closer, touched her cheek.
It was icy cold, and still tinged with blue even when he shifted his eyes back to the normal human range.
“You’re freezing,” he said.
It was too easy to forget that his body temperature simply adjusted to his environment.
He spun to scan the room, hoping there would be something he could warm her with.
Raina switched on her light, illuminating the small room. They were in some sort of antechamber. Another DNA lock secured the door leading further in. The amber dot glowing at its center indicated it was still working.
“Hey,” Raina said, moving to it and placing her hand against the pad before he could stop her.
There was a loud beep and a hiss as the door slid open.
Both of them froze in place, hoping the noise wouldn’t attract the thing’s attention.
But the luck of Gothora was not smiling on them. A clinking sound on the other side of the door to the corridor let him know they’d been heard.
“Go,” Nick hissed to Raina.
But she seemed to be rooted in place.
The door to the alcove slammed open so hard against the metal wall of the alcove that sparks flew.
Raina’s light shone on the thing. It rose up to a terrible height, eight feet tall, filling the doorway. The wispy smoke of its tendrils seem to take on weight before Nick’s eyes.
“Go,” Nick roared.
Raina pushed the lever to open the door behind them.
The thing coiled itself up then struck out at Nick.
He managed to duck beneath its reach, shifting into another form as he did.
His clothing shredded and his vision blurred, even as his sense of smell expanded.
He rose in his new form, striking out with a mighty paw, claws extended, teeth bared.
But the thing gave way like smoke and he ripped through nothing, landing with a thud on all four paws.
Something came down hard on his head, like an ironwood club.
He roared again, stunned, and snapped his teeth at his assailant.
But it was like biting air.
The creature’s talons slashed at him this time, wounding his shoulder.
He reared up on his hind legs again.
Somewhere, a voice called his name.
“Nick,” it cried plaintively again.
Something about this voice tugged at his instincts and he went to it.
Small hands grasped his fur painfully and the human thing pulled him with a strength that should have been beyond her.
He tumbled into the room and heard a door slam behind him, followed by a hiss as it sealed shut.
Talons screeched against the door, but the thing did not get in.
Nick moaned and shoved his snout into the human’s belly in thanks.
The shiver of her laughter made
his heart pound.
7
Raina
Raina looked down at the enormous creature at her feet.
This puppyish thing was Nick.
It was also a polar bear.
And not just any yellowed polar bear at the zoo, this bear looked almost familiar, with his ocean of snowy white fur and perfect coal-black eyes. She had never had any contact with bears in her former life, but somehow she felt like she knew this one. She just couldn’t place it…
“Nick,” she whispered, shaking her head in wonder.
The bear closed its eyes.
Suddenly it was Nick’s face she was cupping in one hand.
He gazed up at her, his crystal blue eyes intense through his fringe of long, dark lashes.
“Did I frighten you?” he whispered, still kneeling at her feet, naked.
She shook her head, hypnotized. Even under the current circumstances, it was hard to ignore the magnificence of his form, or the warmth pouring off him. She’d barely registered how cold she’d gotten.
Her teeth began to chatter, as if in acknowledgement.
“You’re freezing,” Nick said, standing. “We have to get you warm.”
He moved quickly, searching for something to warm her with.
Raina looked away, so as not to stare at his god-like… assets.
They were in a luxurious suite, not so different from what she might have seen in a five-star hotel back on Earth, with a few upgrades.
Low sofas encircled the room. A slab of what looked like real wood hovered at the center, suspended by gossamer strings from the ceiling. It was a modern look, unadorned by throw pillows or blankets. A crystal chandelier also hung from the ceiling, as opulent as a wedding cake made of ice.
The bitter cold seemed to shoot through her now that she was no longer in contact with Nick. She wrapped her arms around herself and let out a breath. It formed a small cloud in the crystalline air.
Nick slid his hand along a series of small screens on the wall and more lights came on, followed by a low hiss from behind her that made Raina spin on her heel in alarm.
“It’s the ventilation,” Nick said gently. “It’s been off. That’s why it’s so cold in here.”
She nodded, feeling a little embarrassed.
But Nick was already moving toward the arched doorway on the other side of the room.
Raina turned to check the light on the door to the suite one last time.
The lock’s single amber light shone bravely. It was sealed.
She followed after Nick and found him standing at the center of a bedchamber.
The ceiling was vaulted, with snowy white columns at intervals throughout the room. Fluffy white bedding covered the bed, which was suspended from the ceiling. The Mediterranean blue floor tiles below gave the whole room the impression of a foamy sea or a cloudy sky. On the far side of the room two doors flanked a carved driftwood bench.
“Wow,” Raina said, impressed.
Her family had traveled a lot, but she had never seen anything quite like this - so ancient and so modern at once.
“Get in,” Nick said without ceremony.
For one golden moment she thought he meant with him.
“You’re freezing,” he said. “Get in.”
Oh.
She didn’t want to sleep with him anyway. She didn’t want to sleep with anyone. It was bad enough, owing her soul to the Stargazer. The last thing she needed was an unrequited crush on an Adonis of a hunky alien.
She slid off her boots and climbed into the bed.
For all that it looked like it was floating, it was definitely supported by something. It didn’t so much as creak under her weight.
The covers were soft, but the fabric had a sheen that made it bitingly cold to the touch.
She was shivering head to toe by the time she was under the comforter.
Nick looked down at her with obvious concern.
“I’m coming in,” he told her.
There was no time for her to get her mind around it. He was already climbing in, already pulling her into his warm, naked arms.
Raina instinctively cuddled herself closer, pressing her frozen nose to his chest.
He was so warm. The pleasure of touching him far surpassed any memory of a hot cup of cocoa after a morning out in the snow.
She soaked him in greedily, snaking her arms around him, flattening one palm against his chest, another across his shoulder blade.
Nick hissed in a breath.
“Sorry my hands are so cold,” Raina said.
“It’s not that,” he growled.
Suddenly she was aware of him in a very different way. The heat that poured off him took on new meaning. She could feel the tension in his muscles, hear the barely restrained lust in his voice.
Her own body responded instantly, nipples pebbling against his chest, blood rising in her cheeks.
“Raina,” he breathed.
And though Raina had always lived her life in an organized manner, she threw caution to the wind.
To hell with your plans. I want to live a little, she told her inner critic sternly.
She pressed herself closer against him, tilted her chin up for the kiss she knew was coming. It was going to be a doozy - her toes were already curling in anticipation.
Nick’s eyes went hazy, then he moved fast as a striking cobra.
Raina found herself on her back, her hands pinned above her head.
“We can’t do this,” he growled, looking down at her, his eyes flashing with lust.
She blinked up at him, stunned.
Raina wasn’t the type to preen, but she knew her long hair and curves were attractive, she’d always had her fair share of admirers. She certainly never expected to get kicked out of bed.
“You started it,” she heard herself say.
It came out petulant and she winced at her own stupidity.
Nick glared down at her.
“I did not start it,” he said. “You were cold. I only wanted to help you. I didn’t ask you to rub that amazing body up against me, or to look at me in that hungry way.”
Amazing?
“If you don’t like it, then why are you still on top of me?” she demanded.
He opened his mouth and closed it again.
No matter what he was trying to say, his body was telling her something else entirely.
Raina was furious with herself for still craving him, but she couldn’t help it when she felt those muscles pinning her to the mattress and his enormous throbbing package pulsing against her belly.
“I’m saying that we can’t do this until I know you understand what you’re doing,” Nick growled.
Oh.
“I’m no virgin if that’s what you mean,” Raina said. “That ship has sailed.”
He blinked at her.
“You were on a pleasure ship?” he asked, sounding horrified.
“What? No,” she said. “That ship has sailed means that there’s no chance of something - that it was over long ago.”
“Ah,” he said, looking relieved. “If I let you go, will you promise not to touch me?”
“Listen, you’re a good looking guy and all,” Raina said. “But I’m not going to lose control or anything. I can take a hint. If you tell me you aren’t attracted to me…”
“Not attracted to you?” he roared. “Is that what you think?”
“Well, I can kind of tell you’re attracted to me. At least, part of you is,” she joked weakly, glancing downward. “But what I’m saying is that I understand that you don’t want to do this. I get it. We don’t have to.”
He sighed and released her wrists.
Raina held still and watched him sink back on his knees, head in his hands.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as gently as she could, trying very, very hard not to stare at those biceps, those abs…
“You won’t like it,” he said, looking up at her at last. “Just know that you have a choice. I will fight to give
you that choice.”
“What are you talking about?” Raina asked, leaning up on her elbows.
“You’re not familiar with my kind,” Nick said carefully. “So it might be hard to understand.”
“Try me.”
He rolled off her legs and lay beside her, pulling the covers up over his waist.
“Barbarians once had a home world, like you,” he told her. “But we’re nomadic now. Meaning we go from place to place, following our work.”
“I know what nomadic means,” Raina said.
She knew exactly where this conversation was going. Baby, I like you, but I can’t commit, I’ve gotta go wherever the wind takes me. At least Earth guys didn’t have the market cornered in jerkish commitment-phobia.
“I know it’s always been this way with us, but in some ways the nomadic lifestyle makes it more important,” he went on slowly.
“Makes what more important?” she asked, hoping he would get to the point already.
“Mating for life,” he said simply, fixing her with that clear blue stare.
Raina stared back at him, speechless.
“Do you know what that means?” he asked gently after a moment.
She nodded slowly.
“Humans claim to mate for life, but this is a fallacy,” Nick went on. “They may intend to share their lives, but things go wrong and promises are broken.”
“Break-ups you mean,” Raina said, finding her voice. “And divorce?”
“We have no such terms,” Nick explained. “But break up seems like what would happen, quite literally, if a barbarian were to be parted from their mate.”
It sounded completely over-the-top, but he looked so serious.
“So you don’t want to fool around with me because… if you do, then we might mate for life?” she asked.
He looked down. It was the first time he hadn’t met her eyes since this strange conversation had begun.
She waited, meeting his eyes as he raised them to hers again.
“From the moment I met you, I’ve known,” he said. “Did you feel it too?”
Yes, her heart agreed.
“What do you mean?” she asked instead.