17. Emma

The streaks of electricity pulsed across my body.

The Surgeon told me not to move, but how could I not?

A powerful snake might have been slithering over my skin, tensing every few seconds to test for weaknesses.

When one wave reached my toes, another worked its way upward.

I shivered involuntarily and cursed myself for moving.

Too late, I noticed handholds above my head.

Was I supposed to hold onto those?

Should I move in order not to move?

It was too late now.

Thick columns of soft yellow light flicked on one segment at a time, working from the bottom of the pod up.

Then a second set of lights, these ones red and angry, moved horizontally.

Not for the first time, I began to have second doubts.

I wanted to shout:

"Let me out of here! Let me out!"

But I maintained my calm.

I knew Vai would never let any harm come to me.

It came as sweet comfort that he was on the other side of this strange egg-shaped pod.

Within minutes, the lights died.

"Well done," the Surgeon said over a speaker I hadn't noticed until now. "We've just about finished. I'll open the door now and you can step out."

I shivered as I stepped from the pod and gratefully took my jacket from Vai.

"How was it?" he said.

"Strangely stimulating," I said, barely able to keep the chuckle out of my voice.

Goosebumps writhed up and down my body, still capable of feeling those electronic pulses.

I noticed the holographic projections in the box before the Surgeon.

He manipulated them with rubber gloves.

"What is that?" I said. "Looks like a monster from a movie."

"That's you," the Surgeon said. "Every part of you."

The Surgeon turned a dial and the image shifted from the outside in, revealing me layer by layer.

And there, at the heart of me—literally—was the golden glow of what I assumed had to be the bond.

I had a physical with my human doctor every year and not once had he mentioned that little bundle of energy tucked inside my chest.

I supposed there were some things our doctors didn't see because they weren't looking for them.

I wondered what they would say if they could get their hands on this technology.

"What happens now?" I said.

"Now, we prep for the Procedure," the Surgeon said, hopping onto his feet spritely.

"Already?" I said.

I'd been expecting a delay of at least a few hours.

As if he had heard my thoughts, the Surgeon said:

"With Vai's Shadow still able to sense you, it does no good to wait any longer than necessary. Speaking of which, can you feel his Shadow out there?"

"Yes."

"Any idea how long it will take for him to reach us? I know how difficult it is judging space and time."

I focused on that pulsing sensation in my chest and peered up at the ceiling.

Maybe it didn't help to look in his direction but it felt natural to do so.

I was surprised at how much closer he had gotten.

Just like that, he'd covered a good part of the distance.

It wasn't enough to worry about but enough to know he was heading directly for us.

"It took us about five hours to get here," I said. "He's traveling faster so I would say he's maybe two or three hours away."

It was the best I could do with my limited experience of the bond.

"More than enough time," the Surgeon said happily. "By the time he gets here, you'll both be long gone. As an extra precaution, I'll place you each on a separate ship. Vai can take his ship home. As for Emma, we'll place you in one of our shuttles and send you back to Earth. If you can give us your address, I'll make sure you wake up in your own bed."

The nurses handed me a clipboard and pen.

I scribbled my address and handed them back.

"Are you sure you can find it?" I said. "Earth is a big place."

"Trust me," the Surgeon said with a grin. "We haven't failed yet."

"I'm not sure about us being split up like that," Vai said, frowning with concern. "I'd feel more comfortable if I could return her home myself."

The Surgeon shook his head.

"After the procedure, you should stay apart. If you're together for any length of time, the bond will try to re-establish the connection it once had. Distance helps us heal."

The frown remained on Vai's face.

He wasn't so sure.

"Trust me, we have the best service in the Empire. No harm will come to her. Now, if you'll step outside for a moment, the nurse will come get you once the machines are prepared."

The nurse ledus along the white line that ran the length of the hallway to another waiting room.

None of the chairs were occupied so I took a seat on the closest corner.

I sat but Vai didn't.

"Would you like something to drink?" he said.

Although Vai put a brave face on it, his voice shivered in his throat.

He was trying to contain the fear, I realized.

"Water would be good," I said.

For some reason, my mouth had turned as dry as a fistful of sand.

Vai drifted to the drink stand in the corner.

He filled one paper cup and set it to one side.

He picked up another and began to fill it.

He stared directly at the rapidly filling cup but didn't notice as water sloshed over the edge and onto the floor.

He hissed through his teeth and shook his damp hands off.

He picked up a flannel from a pile in the corner and set to wiping up the spilled liquid.

He brought the cups over and handed one to me.

I drank half before I even really felt it on my tongue.

I peered over at him as I drank.

He returned the glance.

We both pulled our eyes away and focused on the ornate room.

There was plenty of artwork on the walls, carvings, and statues dotted at regular intervals, but I took in none of it.

Instead, my mind returned to the machines the Surgeon was prepping and the procedure we were about to undergo.

There were so many things I wanted to say to Vai, so many things that tumbled like overturned kids' toys in my mind.

So much to say…

And I couldn't give voice to any of them.

Finally, a thought elbowed the others out of the way.

"The Surgeon seems to know what he's doing," I said.

Vai nodded.

"He's the best at what he does."

We sat in silence again.

I sipped on my water without really swallowing it.

"You must be looking forward to getting home—" Vai said at the same time I said:

"You must be looking forward to seeing your dad—"

We shared a nervous smile.

"You go first," he said.

"I said, you must be looking forward to seeing your family again."

"Some. How about you?"

"A little."

I was surprised I wasn't more excited about returning home.

After all, wasn't that what all this had been in aid of?

To get back to my normal life, my normal job, my normal friends, and everything that entailed.

But the idea of going to work in a lab now, wearing my perfectly starched coat, goggles, and mixing chemicals one experiment after another suddenly seemed so…

Dull.

Not that I had developed the desire to have my life threatened with every breath I took.

Still, I wondered if my life would change for the better once I returned.

Would I make an effort to do more exciting things?

Maybe.

Most likely, I would slip back into my usual routine.

I would think back on these moments when entire lifetimes had been lived in a mere few days.

And Vai.

I would think about him most of all.

Him with his shining golden eyes and those twisted black horns that had the texture of ancient and gnarled tree boughs.

I wanted to touch them.

They'd intrigued me since the very first moment I saw them.

Well, okay, they shocked me the very first time I saw them, but they were still beautiful.

Without realizing what I was doing, my hand reached up toward them.

I hesitated when I noticed him looking at me.

"Can I touch them?" I said.

His response was immediate.

He lowered his head so I could better access them.

I ran my hand over them.

They were craggy and rough but smooth along the inner ridges.

The tips weren't as sharp as I had thought they would be.

Vai shut his eyes and snorted—with pleasure, I thought.

I ran my hands the full length of his horns.

At their base, nestled in the thick tuft of his hair, I felt small nodules where the horns had grown from his head.

I wondered if children of his species had smaller horns that grew and became more majestic with age.

I wondered if the grooves meant anything, if they represented age or strength or health the same way the rings of a tree did back home.

The moment the Procedure was over, we would likely never see each other again.

And that thought made me sadder than I thought it would.

Not seeing his face or his horns or his golden eyes.

Contained within this broad room with corridors filtering off into a dozen different directions, should have felt anything but intimate.

But it did.

I sensed the space between us grow thicker, denser.

I kept one hand on his halo of horns and placed my other hand on his cheek.

He placed one of his huge hands on my knee.

When he opened his eyes, his gleaming golden irises stole the breath from my chest.

We drifted closer, our lips coming within inches, so close I could practically taste him.

His breath was hot and heavy as it angled toward my mouth.

My tongue involuntarily moistened my lips that had grown dry and chapped.

His red lips took up my entire vision and I could see nothing but him.

We drifted closer…

"Vai? Emma?"

Dammit!

We just needed an extra few seconds…

A portly nurse with ears at uneven heights on either side of her head smiled politely at us.

"The Surgeon is ready for you now."

We shared a disappointed smile, the moment splintering between us.

But I could see the question on his face, the same one plastered over my tongue:

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

Neither of us gave it voice.

Vai stood first and took my hand.

He led us out of the waiting room and down the corridor to the operating room.

Butterflies danced in my stomach.

Not all of them were playing nice.

The machine looked simple enough.

On either side of it was a pod big enough to hold creatures larger even than Vai.

They were connected by a thick bundle of cables to a desk where the Surgeon sat.

It was festooned with monitors displaying graphs and charts and blinking lights.

It gave me a headache just looking at it.

Between the two pods, peeping out from a slit in the ceiling, was the base of what looked to be a chain bond fence.

"Please take a pod on either side of the machine," the Surgeon said.

I shared a look with Vai.

As we drifted apart, our hands slipped from each other, our fingers gripping on as if some internal instinct was telling us not to let go and to hold on tight.

I stepped up before the pod's entrance.

"Please enter your pod," the Surgeon said.

We shared a fleeting look that telegraphed sadness and desperation.

Then we stepped inside our pods.

The door whirred as it thumped into place.

Through a window, I made out Vai in his own pod.

The Perspex-like glass was bent and warped.

I realized with dawning horror that it must have been caused by someone banging on it from the inside.

Vai placed a hand on the glass.

Although I couldn't see his expression clearly, I could picture his sadness.

It reflected my fear.

There was a loud rattling sound as the chain-bond fence between us drew down.

It clattered when it snapped into place and a pair of nurses quickly slipped hooks over restraining loops on the bottom.

"We will carry out the Procedure now," the Surgeon's calm voice said over the speaker.

It popped and wheezed, rattling in its flimsy restraint.

Panic began to overtake me.

This machine was not as honed as the scanning device from earlier.

This one had been used a great deal.

A loud whirring grew in volume, coming from above my head.

The actual machine must be located in the room above us.

I had only ever heard such loud groaning from an airplane's turbine engine.

My pod shivered and shook.

I could feel the reverberations in the soles of my feet rising through my legs.

Powerful waves of electrical power shuddered up my arms.

Like the scans from earlier but much more powerful.

"Making the incision now," the Surgeon said over the crackling speaker, barely audible with the rattling and screaming engine above.

A bright flash of intense light doused the pod's interior and I threw up my arms to block it.

Through the smudged window, I watched as the chain bond fence hummed and burned liquid white and cobalt blue about its fringes as the energy sifted through the metal frame, leading down, down, down, reaching for the floor.

I jammed my hands over my ears to block the worst of the noise.

I wondered if this was normal.

Had the machine malfunctioned?

As the screeching energy edged closer to the base of the metal latticework, it blotted Vai from view.

The searing white burned my irises and left an afterglow when I shifted my focal point.

I clutched my chest, my eyes boggling at the sensation.

The pulsing light prickled and prodded, throbbing as if attempting to escape.

I pressed a hand to it, instinctively wanting to keep it inside.

I felt it tearing.

I even thought I heard it.

I banged on the glass.

I panicked.

"I don't want to do this!" I bellowed. "Let me out! I don't want this!"

I beat at the window with my fist and screamed and wailed and yelled.

"Stop! Please! I don't want to do this!"

The glass window was taken up entirely with the glowing chain bond fence.

I couldn't see Vai on the other side.

The engine's electronic whirring kicked up another gear and the shelf of white struck me and knocked me bodily off my feet.

I smacked into the pod's back wall and my body turned to jelly.

The world turned black before I hit the deck.

I awoke sometime laterin a room with a soft mattress and cheap pillows.

A smiley emoji face peered back at me from my pillowcase.

My pillowcase.

I clutched the blanket close and recognized the same design there too.

I bolted upright into a sitting position and peered closer at the room.

There was my small but enthusiastic music collection.

And there, posters of my latest idols—a hang over from my teenage years.

And there, my basket of dirty clothes that needed washing.

I even grew excited at the idea of washing my clothes!

My room.

I fell back, relief flooding me from head to toe.

I chuckled and pressed a hand over my mouth.

I felt at my chest and, reaching out and searching for that familiar glow, felt nothing.

"It worked?" I said.

I threw my head back and danced a jig beneath my bedsheet.

"It worked!"

I clutched my hands over my face and let out a scream.

Tears blossomed unbidden in my eyes.

I felt like I had come to the end of a long and dangerous journey.

Against all the odds, I had, somehow, managed to survive.

My joy faded a little when I thought of Vai.

Those delicious curled horns of his and the seductive smile with its childhood dimple.

I felt sad that the price of returning to my old life had cost the one thing I'd grown attached to during this whole mess.

Vai.

I knew he would be out there somewhere thinking of me too, and, when enough time had passed—for both of us—we could begin our search for our true fated mates, the ones we would pick for ourselves.

I was more than a little jealous of who his fated mate would turn out to be.

Probably some stunning M'rora who'd also failed to protect her fated mate from her Shadow.

Something popped in the pit of my chest.

Heartburn? I wondered.

No.

It was something else, something that pressed from the inside.

I realized what it was immediately.

The bond I shared with Vai.

It was trying to come in contact with him again.

Maybe the process hadn't worked properly?

No, this was normal, the Surgeon had said.

Sometimes there would be phantom sensations.

It would take time for my body to recover from the Procedure.

It was just in shock.

The tugging in my chest grew a little stronger and lurched from one side of the room to the other.

My eyes followed it.

Toward the hallway outside my door.

It was puzzling because the bond never slipped from one direction to another so quickly.

It only ever happened on Vai's ship when he was so close a tiny movement could shift the flowing orb on its axis.

That could only mean one thing.

Vai was outside my door.

Right now.

My heart leaped for joy at the thought of seeing him again so soon.

We weren't supposed to stay together after the Procedure, the Surgeon had said, but I was willing to take the risk if it meant I could see him again.

Even if for only a few minutes.

Maybe Vai had decided to ignore the doctor's advice.

Heavy footsteps reached my door.

I shivered with excitement.

Shadows snaked under the doorframe cast by the hall light outside.

The door creaked open, revealing Vai's unmistakable outline.

The tall muscular frame…

The twisted horns…

The gleaming golden eyes…

I smiled up at him as he entered my room and took a seat at the foot of my bed, entering the soft glow of my bedside lamp.

His golden eyes flickered like distant flames in a cold wind.

I wanted his broad chest and arms to wrap around me and never let go.

He smiled at me, forming those cute dimples in the corners of his cheeks.

I smiled back at him, reflecting the same warmth.

Then my smile faltered.

His remained in place.

There was no warmth in that smile.

He had Vai's look.

The same eyes, the same horns, the same everything…

But something was off.

Something dark and sinister resided in the shadows cast across his face.

He somehow seemed more dangerous than before.

"Iav?" I said, my voice barely a croak.

"Welcome to my world, little one," he said in his deep voice.

A voice that had always seemed so friendly and kind had now become deathly dangerous.

But no…

This can't be right.

I was back in my room.

I should be safe and sound tucked up in bed.

None of this was supposed to happen.

Iav wasn't supposed to be here.

I wasn't supposed to feel the strengthening flicker of the bond in my chest either.

I glanced at the open doorway behind him.

And the blood fell from my face.

No…

The walls were shiny black in the hallway outside, not the rustic wood of my shared apartment.

I wasn't at home.

I was on an alien ship.

A Shadow's ship.

My scream morphed into a muffle as he pressed his huge hand over my mouth.

He whispered in my ear:

"You're mine now. And you're late for the ceremony."