Amber

"So where are you taking me?" I asked him, the excitement welling up inside me. I looked around, my heels clicking down the station halls with my Vinduthi at my side.

"You ask too many questions," he said, dodging me with a half smile. I looked up at him. He clearly enjoyed the game. Whatever he was up to was gonna be good, I just felt it.

"I can't help it. I'm too excited."

"But you said you like surprises," he teased, taking my hand and twirling me in a circle.

Ryrik was like that sometimes. He was tough and proud like many Vinduthi, but his inner side was playful. I saw him for the outgoing social chameleon that he was, but I also saw this other man bubbling underneath the surface. The closer we got, the more he emerged as his true self.

"Are we close then?" I asked, loving the moments and being close to his kind of unknown. My life before had too much uncertainty. There was no safe space to lay my head at night and amid that constant struggle for survival, I had too much time to think about who it made me. I'd been left with questions about who I was in the first place.

Being with Ryrik made those worries wash away. The pull of his hand as we walked through the Promenade was its own kind of safe space. I'd never had a real home before, everything around me was just too fluid with uncertainty. But his palm in mine felt like something sure, something steady in a way I had never known before.

"Yeah, we're close." He looked giddier by the second. "Trust me."

It was easily done. Everything with Ryrik was easy.

We walked to the hoverlift, which would take us to the storefronts on the highest level of the Metro.

"What are you up to?" I asked. I got more suspicious by the second. But I figured this well-connected Vinduthi likely knew things about Thodos III, things newcomers like me only hear about as rumors.

"Oh, nothing," he bemused, not looking at me as the lift ascended to the top of the Metro.

I could see out from the glass elevators, the station below us and uncertainty ahead. Normally, a moment like this would make me spikey. I'd guard myself against this unknown, unsure of where it would lead. But I didn't need my old tricks with Ryrik. Uncertainty could mean hope, it could mean surprise. It didn't have to mean fear.

We went higher than I knew we could go until we reached the peak of the station. Finally, it hit me.

"Are we going to the Nebula?" I asked, realization finally hitting my face even as nerves balled in my gut. I'd always believed I could brazen my way through anything. But the Nebula was its own world.

"It took you long enough," he teased, buttoning his suit jacket as we exited the elevator and approached the famed restaurant.

The Nebula's white glow and cascading colors illuminated my mind with delight. Architecturally speaking, so much of Thodos favored function over taste. Gray steel walls and heavy iron bolts made the place feel more like a battleship than a home. The Nebula, however, was a total antithesis.

My eyes wandered up to smooth, white lines, curving in a large archway at the top. Overhead, the reaches of space loomed beyond us. I could barely see inside, but as we were escorted to our table, my eyes met with the namesake of the place. Behind a glass partition, the giant gas cloud glittered in the heavens beyond us.

"Amazing," I said as the hostess led us to our table. "Are you sure about this?"

"Amber," he said, tucking his napkin coolly while he sat down. "Don't fidget."

I couldn"t help but smile as he said it, because I knew what he meant. It reminded me of all we'd been through together. In a way, if I had acting left to do in my life, this was where I could use that skill. I wasn"t a high-born human, living off the fat of this station like some girls. I was a refugee, a fake indentured, a survivor.

But not then. I'd transformed, as I"d done many times over. And sitting up in my chair, I arched my head in a careless way as the hostess unfolded my napkin and placed it gently on my lap.

"There's my girl," he said, sipping the glass of water on the table. "I knew you'd fit in here."

"Well, you could"ve warned me," I teased, sipping and tossing my head. Ryrik looked like he enjoyed me, both in character and on display.

"And ruin the surprise?" he said, looking over his menu. "So, how is Isa doing?"

I loved it, watching him make small talk and sit casually like he didn't just storm a rival gang's compound a week ago.

"She's doing great," I said, smiling at how adorable my Vinduthi was. "Draven gave her a job and private quarters, contract-free. She gets to keep her wages and everything. She's really happy, and I'm happy she's safe."

"Conii's gone. A lot will be safer now," he remarked as the server approached.

"Good evening." He stiffened, looking at me like I was offensive, just by sitting in the chair. But I knew the part I played and the skills it required.

"We'll have champagne," I said, not looking at him. My nose was as high as I could make it without looking silly. I caught Ryrik from the corner of my eye. He smiled at me like he was proud. "Also the finest floysteras, and they better be fresh."

The waiter looked unsure until he made eye contact with Ryrik.

"You heard her," he confirmed, looking at me and not at him.

"Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir!" he said, jetting away to retrieve our order.

"There's my girl," Ryrik said, snaking his hand across the table to take mine.

I tossed my red-orange hair over my shoulder and said, "Your girl, huh?"

Suddenly the air changed between us. We weren't playing a game anymore. We weren't acting.

"You've never called me that before," I said, taking advantage of the stillness of the moment.

"I know," he said, looking down. "There's a reason for that."

I didn't say anything. He clearly brought me here for a reason. He was proposing something, I had only to wonder what it was.

"I want you," he started. He looked like he had a speech rehearsed and forgot the words. "I want you to be my mate."

"We call them girlfriends in human culture," I said, thinking I understood him perfectly.

"No." He smiled, still holding my hand. "That's not what I mean. I want you to join me, bond with me. I want you to be my mate for life."

There was something more. Something he didn't say.

"I want to be with you, too," I said, still unsure what he held back. "I'll be your mate, or whatever."

"No," he said, looking serious. "I want you to understand. The Vinduthi, when we take a mate, it's for life. We don't just marry or live together. We claim our females, join our DNA with hers. She becomes bonded to her Vinduthi male in a sacred way."

I sat there, stunned. I'd never heard of such a thing before.

"So I would belong to you?" I asked, trying to make sense of it. It was hard, this thing he was asking. I'd always belonged to one group of thugs or another. If I was going to give myself away again, it had to be to trustworthy hands.

"Sort of," he replied. "My DNA would enter your body and join with yours. You'd still be you but enhanced with Vinduthi blood qualities."

"Such as?"

"Once my inner teeth break your skin and enter your bloodstream, you'll fall asleep. When you wake, you'll be remade, almost rewritten as a hybrid. You'll have keener senses. You'll be stronger and have a better sense of smell. You'll be faster, too."

My heart raced. It was better than I thought. It wasn't another kind of ownership. It was a new kind of freedom.

"There's one more thing," he said, and my shoulders dropped. "You know my tracery? The green that glows in my skin."

"Of course," I said, worrying that what the catch was in this dream.

"Well, you'll have it, too. A lighter version of my sigils will appear on your skin. When you wake, you'll look a little more like me."

I was silent, thinking it over. He had a worried look on his face that I needed to shake away immediately. "It sounds beautiful."

I looked down at my arm, imagining his tracery etching in my skin.

"Will I glow like you?"

"You already do." Oh. My heart just skipped. My sweet, deadly man.

"How soon can we do it?"

"Do you mean this, Amber? This is for life, this agreement. I know what you've been through and I need to know now if this is something you want. Do you want me, Amber?"

"Wow," I said. My face felt twisted into an awkward grimace as I tried to process my feelings. "You ask a lot before dinner."

I wanted to hold him here at this moment and sit there guiltily enjoying the tortured look on his face. I knew what he didn't. Not yet. I knew we had a long life together to look forward to, and no more games to play. I wanted fifteen whole seconds of healthy worry before I let him know how much being part of him would mean to me.

"Yes, silly," I said, loving the relief washing over his face. "I can't think of anything better. I want to be with you. I've known it for a long time. I just didn't realize it came with perks."

"And you're sure you want me to bite you?"

"I want you to take every part of me," I said. And I meant every word.