by Susan Kelley
Emma knew Jenny spoke from fear, but her tone hurt. Perhaps Emma’s exhaustion made her more sensitive. She pressed her lips together, vowing to say nothing more until she could speak to Russ alone.
Vin hadn’t her manners. “Pain is better than dead. Pain means you’re alive. Pain means you can move.”
Tears welled in Jenny’s eyes, but Russ nodded. “I know, Vin. I’ll be pushing myself as soon as Emma tells me it’s time to move.”
“Tomorrow we’ll try to get you in the chair for a short time. No weight on your legs until I remove those stitches in a few days. We have to be careful of swelling. Now, I have some work to do in the café. Jenny, I put extra bread on the tray for you. You need to eat more than you’ve been for the sake of the baby.”
Jenny nodded, biting her lip while the tears ran faster down her cheeks.
Emma turned to Vin, intending to usher him from the room. He watched Jenny with wide eyes, appearing distressed. With a little nudge to his solid shoulder, Emma gestured him toward the door. She closed the door behind them while Vin stared at it.
His wide shoulders rose and then fell with a heavy sigh. “What made her cry like that? I thought the chair would make them happy.”
“They are happy with it. Jenny is afraid of causing Russ more pain.”
“Afraid? His pains are not hers.”
“Not in the physical sense but she’s sharing the emotional pain.”
Vin narrowed his eyes at her, as if suspecting her of lying. Were Vannie and Moe correct? Was Vin brain-damaged? As a psychiatrist she understood how complicated the workings of the brain were. Though Vin seemed intelligent, his emotions and social abilities could be compromised.
“Where did you find that chair?”
Vin again gave her that searching stare, his answer coming after an odd hesitation. “I made it out of spare parts I found in the shop.”
“Vin told me you’d moved into the abandoned repair building. Where did you lean to design such a thing?’
He answered after a longer moment. “In my military unit we all had to know how to make repairs to equipment and treat injuries.”
Emma’s training had taught her how to read people but Vin’s brain injury challenged her. She saw no visible scars but many modern weapons caused concussive damage without external wounds. But his careful answers led her to think he lied about something. “Well, let me buy you dinner.”
She wove her arm through his, surprised at the thickness of his muscles. Vin’s clothing, all neutral colors, hung on him and gave the impression he was skinny. She reevaluated, deciding lean muscle and bones composed his body, his very fine body. Tugging firmly, she drew him into the café. “Moe and I prepared thick slices of roast from the game you brought in last night. There’s gravy and potatoes to go with it and sweet grape pie for desert.”
The early evening crowd filled most of the tables. All gazes lifted toward them, reminding Emma of her intimate hold on Vin’s arm. Heat rose in her face and she untangled her arm from his. She directed him toward the table nearest the kitchen that she usually shared with Moe and Vannie for her own meals. “Sit down and I’ll bring your food.” She retreated through the curtain into the safety of the kitchen.
“Did you bring a date tonight?” Moe had a small glassless window above his cutting board he used to keep an eye on his diners.
“Maybe. Aren’t you the one who mourns my lack of a social life?” Emma tried for light to hide her embarrassment. Though she wasn’t a practicing psychiatrist anymore, Vin needed her help. It crossed an ethical boundary for her to feel this physical heat in his presence. She busied herself readying a plate for him, selecting the thickest slice of meat and an extra serving of potatoes.
Moe folded his thick arms over his chest. “I know the selection of eligible young men is thin and the kind of men settling in Hovel Port aren’t for the likes of you. Vin may be pretty compared to most, but there’s something not right about the lad.”
“I noticed his struggles with his conversations.” Emma smiled at Moe, feeling she’d set aside her physical reaction to Vin. “Now stop your worries. We only walked in the door together.”
Moe grunted and started on the stack of pans soaking in the sink.
Emma delivered Vin’s plate to him but had no more time for him as more miners drifted into the café. She scurried back and forth to the kitchen, trading small talk with familiar faces and fending off some flirtations. More than one of the men stopped by Vin’s table, but the conversations didn’t last long.
Without waiting for him to ask, Emma delivered a double serving of grape pie to Vin. She sensed him watching her as she served the other customers. On the few occasions their gazes collided, she could read nothing from his. He might have been an alien species.
* * * *
Desire for a woman hadn’t stirred in Vin since Yalo had died. He’d expected he might never feel it again and accepted it. Until now. Emma Jones had disturbed his sleep since the first day he’d tracked her down to this outpost. He’d thought it was some strange twist in his mind created by knowing he’d found the last ingredient needed for his vengeance. But from the first time he’d spied her small form flitting cheerfully about the street, regions of his body had awakened with base need.
Now Emma tempted him with delicious foods and bright smiles. Everything about her differed from Yalo. Yalo had been physically strong, her body firm with muscles. Emma looked so tiny and fragile Vin wondered how she lifted the heavy plates she balanced so skillfully as she served the men in the café. Yalo’s personality had been one of grit and command similar to the commander of a fighter squadron. Nearly every word out of her mouth sounded like a challenge. Vin had loved the way she gave no quarter and expected no help from anyone. Emma’s voice was soft and kind, even when anger sparked in her dark eyes. There seemed not a tough bone in her body though she’d handled the blood and gore of Russ’ injuries without flinching. Her contradictions confused him at their every meeting.
Vin dug into the grape pie, savoring the tang of the fruit softened by some type of syrupy sweetness. Other men watched Emma with the same avid interest Vin couldn’t deny in himself. She flitted about like a sparkle of sunlight reflecting off a crystal. No matter how many times he reminded himself she was only the bait he needed to find her father, his body ignored him. He shifted in the chair, glad his civilian clothing hung loosely on him.
Experience and training had taught him to put personal physical discomforts behind the needs of the mission. He didn’t need Emma’s body though he wanted it, wanted it more each day. It was the other longing that challenged his control, this fierce desire to linger here so she might talk to him again. Or turn her smile his way. Perhaps thank him again for the chair though he hadn’t made it for her.
He’d escaped the despairing loneliness of being a Recon Marine once for mere weeks. The heartbreak of losing Yalo overshadowed the memories of happiness. He wouldn’t give into the addicting warmth of a woman’s companionship ever again.
Vin left the pie unfinished. He walked out when Emma carried a stack of plates through the curtain. The short walk to the cold, empty repair shop dampened his physical yearnings but not even the quiet emptiness of his loft bed wiped the image of her smile from his glum thoughts.
Chapter Four
Vin woke six hours later during the darkest part of the night when men slept the deepest. He didn’t move, waiting to hear whatever had pulled him from sleep. He’d intended to rise an hour before the sun, the best time to hunt. Recon Marines needed no alarm bells. He could lift himself from sleep at any hour of his choosing. It was still almost an hour before his planned rising time.
The dark held no terrors for Vin. His genetic superiority included enhanced eyesight, hearing and smell. The thin walls of the shop didn’t keep out the cool air or sound. The faint scratch of a foot on stones behind the building followed by another drove Vin from his bed. He’d retired naked, preserving his few articles of clothing so he h
ad as little laundry to do as possible. For this night work, he put on his camouflage military clothing that he wore to hunt. The extraordinary clothing blended into any variety of backgrounds, but it wasn’t available to civilians. Emma had already guessed his military background so it wouldn’t matter if she saw him wearing it.
Vin strapped on his weapons belt holding his laser pistol and took up a sonic rifle. He judged the footfalls as heavier than a man though the walls should have kept the forest beasts out. Then again, he hadn’t examined the entire surrounding structure. He navigated through the shop, avoiding the work tables and equipment he’d organized. One of his first chores had been to fix the door so it made no sound as he exited.
The boardwalk ran in front of the buildings for the length of the town, a necessity on the rain days. The buildings shared walls, three or four homes together, with narrow alleys cutting between them to give access to the gardens behind.
Vin slipped into the one on the far side of Moe’s café and immediately caught the gamey whiff of a large animal. The slow shuffle of a hoofed foot drew him around the back corner. The beast stood taller at the shoulder than Vin, with a back broader than his arm span. Its massive head dipped down to the herb garden he assumed belonged to Emma. Thick projections of horn sprouted straight up from its forehead. An herbivore, but that didn’t mean it was harmless. An animal as massive as it could crush a man as easily as it stomped on the green plants beneath its wide hooves and with as little notice. Its antlers didn’t look for show either.
Most of the houses had small gardens planted in their rears. Vin could see the path of destruction the animal had wrecked as it ate its way to Emma’s plantings. He regretted letting it eat her garden but shooting the sonic rifle would wake the entire town and alert anything else lurking about.
He backtracked the animal to where it had squeezed between two buildings on the north end of the town. The center street curved slightly east as he followed the depressions left in the dry surface of the road. The thing must weigh over a ton.
Vin veered off the trail in the center of the street and crouched near the corner of the last building on the east side of the settlement. Ahead of him the north gate should have blocked the road but the metal-banded panels stood wide open. The narrow trail bordered by the jungle led away toward the distant Hadrason Mine twenty miles away. The thick wooden locking bar sat against the wall as it did during the daylight hours.
The sounds of the wild crept in along with the scent of damp green rolling down the street like an invisible mist. After listening for any sound not of nature, Vin left the cover of the building and edged closer to the opening. He saw where the large foraging animal had gobbled and trampled the garden closest to the gates.
No whisper of cloth against cloth nor scent of man sweat touched Vin’s senses, convincing him the man who’d opened the gate hadn’t lingered. He would check for man sign outside the walls after taking care of the creature.
Should he try to herd the garden destroyer back out of the gate? Then again, the settlement depended on hunting for a fair portion of their food. Vin started for the rear of the buildings, hefting his rifle. There was no way to quiet a sonic rifle. An ear piercing howl followed the rounds when they cut through the air at three times the speed of sound.
Impatience, an emotion he’d only learned through his interactions with civilians, spread through Vin. Why did he care if he woke the entire town? He was here to keep watch on Emma and only so he could capture her father. Why should he care if someone sabotaged the colony? Damn it all!
Vin strode down the street, listening for any other beasts that might have slunk inside the open gate. A loud snort echoed off the walls from the large animal behind the café but otherwise he heard nothing unusual. He’d learned where Emma and Moe slept before he’d ever entered the town for the first time and now knew Vannie shared Moe’s quarters.
Vin took the narrow steps three at a time that led to the rooms above the café. He tapped on the wooden door at the top.
Movement and gruff voices answered from behind the thick door but it took a few minutes before the door opened. Vannie stood before Vin, shirtless and wearing only a pair of loose trousers. Moe loomed behind him, attired in a similar fashion.
“What is it, lad?” Vannie grumbled.
“A sound woke me. A large animal is in the village.”
Moe swore and stomped away.
Vannie groaned. “Give us a few minutes, and we’ll be with you.”
Vin waited at the bottom of the steps and listened to the night. Not a single light glowed during this hour. A dozen solar captures were arrayed on the tallest buildings, feeding into the large commercial battery that serviced the entire town. Adequate power but the thrifty miners knew better than to squander it chasing away night shadows.
The two large men came down the interior stairs and exited out the front of the café. Though they moved well for such large men, they made too much noise for Vin to listen for more intruders. They each carried small gas powered pistols and thick clubs. Neither weapon would do more than irritate the animal out back.
“Holy hell,” Vannie muttered when Vin led them behind the buildings. “It’s a moose.”
“Moose?” Vin had never heard the word.
Moe snorted. “We just call it that after some old Earth animal, a large kind of deer. I think this thing is a lot bigger than those moose ever were.”
Another civilian inane conversation. “Should we chase it out or kill it?”
“Kill it?” Moe slapped Vin on the back, knocking him forward a step. “We could put every shell we have into it, and it would only shake its head and try to impale us with those prongs on its head.”
Vin rolled his shoulder. The first time a civilian had hit him like that, Vin had beaten him to the ground. Only later did he learn it was some strange ritual of male bonding. So he didn’t hit Moe back, instead he held up his weapon. “This will take it down with one shot, but will we be able to butcher it for food?”
Vannie squinted and leaned in for a closer look at the rifle. “What kind of gun is that? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“It’s a weapon that can kill any size of moose if you think we can use it for meat.”
“Don’t know what moose tastes like,” Moe said. “Nobody ever brought one in from the hunt.”
“Would take a dozen men to carry the meat back if someone did kill one,” Vannie added. “But with the days we missed panning and no supplies coming in, maybe we should think of stocking up.”
“We’ll need some help.” Moe scurried back through the alley.
“It’s a magnificent creature,” Vannie said.
The moose stopped eating and looked over its shoulder at them with its jaws still moving over a mouthful of green.
Vin knew many animals didn’t have good eyesight, but the moose stared right at them, unafraid. Chances were it hadn’t encountered many predators it had to fear. Even the massive Vannie would look small and weak to it.
Noise rose in the streets on the other side of the buildings as Moe roused the townspeople to help butcher the animal. But the more he watched it, the more Vin regretted the plan to kill it. He would hunt other wildlife. Would ten small deer offset the giving of life to the moose?
Vin scented Emma before he heard her as she joined them. She nudged Vannie aside and brushed against Vin’s arm. Heat slammed into his middle, spreading downward and up. The dark hid the blush rising to his face and a slight turn of his hips hid what else was rising.
“My herbs!” Emma whispered.
The moose heard her and took a step in their direction. Vannie swung his thick arm in front of Emma and forced her to back up. At the same time, Moe and a number of men thundered around the side of the building. The excited men surged forward, forcing Vin, Vannie and Emma out into the open beyond the shelter of the alley.
Vin heard the jumbled exclamations of the civilians behind him, but all he saw was a two ton enemy snorting
aggressively. With the people behind him, no retreat or cover was possible. The moose charged. He swung his rife up and took a step forward to put everyone behind him. He fingered the first trigger that would only answer to his genetic code. He pressed the fire trigger as a small body slammed into him. The howl of the sonic round filled the entire world for a fraction of a split second.
Shouts, curses and other sounds of panic erupted behind Vin as Emma bounced off of him and stumbled back into Vannie. The moose folded down to the ground as if its legs had been cut from beneath it. It slid on its belly across the gravel, the sharp prongs stopping less than a yard from Vin.
Silence like the stillness after a lightning strike fell on the civilians. Vin watched the moose for movement though he knew his shot had caught it exactly where he’d aimed it. In all the different worlds he’d traveled, every alien creature had its brain in the same place behind its eyes. It made work easier for a killer like him. He didn’t want to see what Emma thought of him. Hell, she’d thrown herself against him to try and stop him.
“Damn good shot, Vin!” Vannie did the shoulder slapping thing even as he steadied Emma with his other arm.
Emma stared at Vin with her mouth agape. She brushed aside Vannie’s aid.
Vin knew what to expect. Despite the acceptance he and his brothers had found on Crevan Four, most of the world hated and feared his kind. Though they couldn’t guess his true nature, Emma and the rest of Hovel Port had seen what an efficient killer he was.
“Don’t you ever do that again,” Moe snapped but he spoke to Emma. “Why do you always do that?”
A flush rose in Emma’s smooth cheeks. “I … he was standing right in its path.”
“Damn it, girl.” Moe gestured at the dead moose. “He’s a well-armed man and can watch out for himself.”
“I’m sorry.” Emma directed the comment at Vin.
Vin thought his excellent eyesight had failed him. Emma didn’t look frightened or disgusted. “Sorry?”