Aerdan: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Romance (Zhekan Mates Book 1)

by E. A. James

  “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.

  One of the manacles broke. The creature, realizing was getting somewhere, starting fighting with renewed vigor. Hannah realized she was in trouble. Fear rippled through her. She packed up her sample kit as fast as she could. This would have to wait. She would rather face her father than die – although which one was worse was debatable.

  Hannah turned for the door. Before she reached it the other manacle broke and the monster was free. She ran for the door and tried to close it, throwing her weight against it.

  The creature was much stronger. It shoved open the door with no effort at all and bellowed a roar that echoed through the lab and came back at Hannah threefold. She started running but the creature caught up to her and hit her on the neck with a clawed hand. She fell and tried to scramble away but her vision was starting to blur.

  This was the end. She knew it. She looked into the red eyes, now fiery and blazing, and in it, she saw her death. It was going to be painful. Hopefully, it would be quick.

  Her vision went black. The hit on the back of her neck had done more damage than she’d thought. With her vision gone she focused on what she could hear. A terrible noise like the creature was destroying the lab, squealing and shouting and crying in way that wasn’t human. And then another hit on her body, her legs this time. Hannah wasn’t going to make it. Her head already felt like it was full of air. She was floating. The pain was lessening. She was drifting away.

  She heard another crash, the sound of metal ripping. It sounded far away like she was removed from it all. A roar that didn’t sound like the creature that had attacked her. They were all escaping. Hannah had really messed up.

  Good thing she wouldn’t be around for her father to be upset about the destroyed lab.

  Heat on her skin snapped her out of the sinking pit. Fire?

  CHAPTER SIX

  The alarms were an incessant whining in Bane’s ears. He wished he knew where to switch them off, but Hannah was on the floor in his cell and there was too much blood everywhere. His head swam.

  When the creature had broken free and attacked Hannah, Bane had lost it. He’d barely made it through the human-sized cell door – which he’d torn off without thinking twice – before his dragon had broken free. He’d run into the labs breathing fire and fury and killing that creature.

  He’d had to shift back into human form to make sure she was okay, and the shift had been too quick – he’d forced the change and it had taken its toll on his body. He wasn’t as strong now. But she was safe.

  He was possessive over Hannah. He would kill for her, no matter what or who it was. The thought struck him only as he was staring at her, unconscious and drenched in blood. He hadn’t felt like that about someone in a while. In fact, he couldn’t remember feeling that strongly about anyone, ever.

  Her eyes fluttered and he felt her come round before her eyes opened. She looked confused for a moment, her eyes flitting around, not settling on anything. Then they settled on Bane. The blue was dimmer, a summer sky instead of cerulean as they’d been before.

  Beautiful as ever. Bane sat back on his legs. She was alive.

  “Where is it?” she asked, terror tackling her. The creature. She remembered.

  “You’re safe.”

  “You killed it?”

  Bane swallowed hard and nodded. Her body sagged with relief, then, and he knew he’d done the right thing saving her. She was someone worth saving. She was a human worth his time. Her face twisted in pain and she reached for her shoulder where the blood seemed to be coming from.

  The smell of blood was thick in the air – not only hers but what remained of the creature he’d killed as well. The metallic smell was thick in his nostrils. Hannah tried to sit up. She groaned.

  “Don’t, you’re hurt,” Bane said, leaning forward and easing her down again. His face was only inches from hers, and when he was this close he could see the outline of her irises. Dark. Midnight.

  Her eyes slid down to his lips and her emotions spiked again, attraction rather than agony or fear. Bane’s body responded, something inside him lurching. This woman would be his end.

  As if she knew what he was thinking – which was impossible for a human – she blushed. Her cheeks had that color that made her look like a vision. He let himself look at her lips, too. Plump. Kissable. He shouldn’t be doing this.

  Bane lowered his lips onto hers. Her eyes were open for a moment, surprise traveling through her body, but then she gave over and closed her eyes. Bane relaxed when he felt her letting go of the idea that it might not be the right thing to do either. Her reserve was pushed aside but passion that surged through her. Bane stifled a growl that started low in his throat, a guttural sign of possession. He had to keep himself in check around her – he didn’t want to look like a monster.

  Her hands lifted and her slim fingers pushed in his hair. The feeling on his scalp made his skin tingle down his neck and his and his spine.

  When he finally broke the kiss her eyelids were half drooped. Her face had a soft glow. If it weren’t for the blood on her ripped lab coat or the squealing alarms that created the wrong backdrop for this scene it would have been perfect.

  A crashing sound came from the lab. Bane snapped his head up and listened. Footsteps. Dozens of them.

  “They’re coming,” he said, but it was too late. Suddenly there were humans in his cell, streaming in with fire arms pointed at him. Someone had shut of the damn alarm, finally.

  “No, don’t shoot!” Hannah cried out. It looked bad, Bane knew that. He was a specimen from a foreign country, a dragon that was deemed dangerous. Hannah was on the floor covered in blood. It definitely didn’t look good.

  “He saved me,” Hannah said. That seemed to get their attention, but there was a lot of tension and nervousness in the air. It was so thick Bane could draw his fingers through it.

  The guns were all trained on him. He could taste the gun powder on his tongue, a toxic mix with the smell of the anger and the fear and the shock in the room. Emo
tions were running high. Dangerous.

  The soldiers moved slowly. They all wore protective gear and kept those guns trained on Bane. In the circle they were forming he couldn’t see all of them at the same time. The ones in front made a move to come closer. Bane took a step forward, but they jumped on him from behind. They’d tried to distract him and succeeded. He should have known better.

  “Stop it!” Hannah’s voice rang through the cell but they weren’t listening to her. The butt of a gun came down on Bane’s head, sending him to his knees. They started hitting him with their guns, blows raining down on him. The anger pushed to the surface. If they didn’t stop soon he was going to lose it and a lot of them were going to die.