Chapter 3

Chapter Three

S tella ran blindly, both literally and figuratively. She could barely see the hallway in front of her face and even if she could, she’d have no idea where it led. But she had to get away. The scary monsters, creatures, animals , or whatever they were, had fought. One had killed the other, she was sure, based on that final sudden scuffle and the horrible smell that had flooded her little sleeping chamber.

Why had she hidden here? Why hadn’t she stayed by the ship where rescue crews were sure to find her? Why was she so stupid ?

A sob tore out of her throat and her fingers came away wet when she wiped at her eyes.

What kind of planet had monsters living in caves? For the first time since she crashed, she wished that this planet had been a barren wasteland, incapable of sustaining life. At least then she wouldn’t have to hide from invisible threats and deal with caves that trapped her when all she wanted was a little shelter. Was that really so much to ask?

She tried to suck in deep breaths, but she was running too fast and her lungs were overworked. Bile rose in her throat and she was afraid she was going to puke. Or pass out. Stella forced herself to slow down. As she slowed, she came to a fork in the path and solid rock blocked her from continuing forward. Only then did she realize that the light was getting better.

She hoped that meant she was moving towards an unblocked opening. Without pausing to think, she turned right, towards the brighter of the two paths. Even if it didn’t lead to an escape, she’d take a little bit of light. She’d happily trade one of her candy bars for a flashlight at the moment.

The light was getting brighter and Stella slowed even more. Once her feet stopped pounding, she couldn’t hear anyone behind her and came to a complete stop. Fatalism crushed her. Either her pursuer would catch up or not. She was too tired to do anything but move slowly. Her heart beat a hundred times faster than it should have and she could barely gulp down a breath.

When she’d joined up with the civilian fleet she’d been looking for more excitement in her life. Now she’d happily go back to the boring drudgery of LA if it didn’t involve ship crashes and scary monsters.

She looked behind her, but if the survivor from earlier trailed her, he wore darkness like a suit. She could feel something back there using some sense that her ancestors who’d evolved in the caves of Earth had used for survival. Never before had she needed it, but now it was the only thing that kept her alive. And sane. She needed her wits now, and every bit of survival instinct that lived deep within her. There were monsters in these hallways and she didn’t want to be dinner.

She moved on soft feet, carefully walking on the balls of her feet and leaving her knees soft, ready to sprint or jump. The light got closer, a weak but steady stream at the end of this interminable tunnel. How long had she been walking? How long had she been stuck here? Her fear said days, but it couldn’t have been more than an hour or so.

The hallway narrowed around her and as the light grew stronger she became more sure in her conviction that this was a hallway and not a cave passage. The walls were smooth, almost flat to the touch, and they met at angles at the roof and the floor. It was all solid stone, but this had been carved by machine. It didn’t look like a mine, either. If someone bothered to lay a carpet down on the ground, she might think she was in an office basement.

Strange.

Her critique of the decor cut off when she made it to the source of light. Despite her hope, nothing seemed to lead outdoors. But there was a small cylinder wedged into a crack in the wall. It was small enough that she could wrap her hand around it, and one quick tug pulled it out.

The light didn’t shut off. In fact, it looked a little bit like one of the flashlights she so dearly needed. Unlike what she was used to back home, there wasn’t a power button and the light bulged out, illuminating a bubble of space around her rather than a straightforward beam. It meant that she had more light within arm’s reach, but she couldn’t make anything out more than a few meters away.

Still, it was much better than what she’d had before.

Stella pointed her flashlight at the crevice that she’d grabbed it from, trying to see if there was a power source or anything else she could pry out. She didn’t know why the light was there and it worried her to think that someone else might have abandoned it.

But it didn’t worry her enough to put it back.

When she couldn’t find anything useful, she continued down the hallway. Now that she had light, it didn’t seem so scary. The sound of her breathing and echoing steps made her twitchy, and she wished there was some kind of comforting ambient noise. But the light made the quiet less terrifying. Only a little less terrifying, true, but every bit helped.

When the hallway forked again, she went right since it had worked so well the last time. The hallway crawled on and on, and there was no light at the end of this tunnel.

But there was a door.

Stella let out a whoop of joy and shimmied from side to side, doing her happy dance. Yes! Just what she needed. She took a steadying breath and stood there for a moment, basking in her good fortune.

Or stalling. She really hoped this wasn’t a supply closet.

She pressed her ear up to the dark metal surface and tried to hear beyond it, but the door was thick and heavy and all she heard was her own heartbeat.

She reached out a hand to test the handle and it took a moment for her to figure out how it worked. This wasn’t an Earth door and it didn’t act like any of the doors on the ship either. But when she found a little latch and flipped it up, a small depressor sprung out and Stella figured all she had to do was press it down and she’d be in.

Wherever “in” was.

Air rushed up around her and she jerked her head back, but she was already moving. The punch of a body slammed into her, rocking through her as the air whooshed out of her lungs.

“Bad!” came the guttural cry of the beast on top of her. He held her carefully, cradling her head so she didn’t bang it against the wall. But when she struggled to sit up, he kept her down, not even straining as she put as much of her weight into it as she could. But he had all the leverage.

Was he one of the monsters she’d seen fighting earlier? The one who hadn’t died?

He pulled back, not quite letting her up, but giving her space to breathe. Stella wedged her light in between them as if it might serve as a weapon or a shield, something to keep her safe. What she saw stole her breath.

He was a man, but not. He might have been human once, but now his skin had turned almost as purple as an Oscavian warrior. His hair was cropped short and kept dark. Claws protruded from his index and middle fingers, and from her angle, he looked nearly seven feet tall. He was all muscle and strength and devastatingly blue eyes.

Stella could barely breathe, but the air she dragged into her lungs carried him with it. She caught a hint of the creature he’d battled in the entrance to the tunnels, and the charred remains of the crash she’d run from. But under that he was pure male, salt and sweat and something she wanted to sink her teeth into.

Huh?

Stella scuttled back and stood, placing a hand on the wall behind her and moving slowly, deliberately. She didn’t want to scare him and send him into attack mode, not when he was watching her with that terrifying intensity.

He still had a hand on her arm and his fingers were like fire, but in a strangely soothing way. She realized he had a bag strapped to one shoulder, which seemed odd. When Stella pulled all the way back, she felt cold and wanted to reach for him again, but she forced herself to stay still.

“What’s bad?” she asked. In the silence of the tunnel, her words wrapped around them, creating an intimate little world where only the two of them existed.

He sucked in a deep breath and nodded towards the door. “Bad,” he repeated.

Okay, he didn’t like something about the door. Did it lead outside? Was he trying to keep her in here so he could… have company? But he was staying still and not moving to take her. Had he stopped her to protect her?

“Why is it bad?” she asked. And if he was so certain, should they really be standing outside the door and talking about the danger?

The man opened his mouth, revealing teeth a little too sharp to be human. They weren’t quite fangs, but they could definitely tear her apart. His face scrunched up and pure frustration poured out of his throat as he looked at her, like he wished she could understand. Finally he scrunched up his face like he smelled a dirty diaper and waved a hand in front of it. “ Bad .”

“It smells bad?” She couldn’t tell, but her nose had never been the greatest.

The man nodded, eyes lighting up as she caught on.

“Can you understand me?” she asked, eyes narrowed. Subdermal translators were common across the galaxy and Stella’s could handle nearly a thousand languages. She could also speak Interstellar Common, the common language in space. But right now she spoke English, which meant he had a translator or he’d been to Earth.

The purple man nodded again.

“Can you speak?”

Arest wanted to howl in frustration at the woman’s questions. Death and decay emanated from the door and here she was trying to force him to do something he couldn’t remember. His mouth had no trouble figuring out bad , but he couldn’t manage much else.

Now that the woman was awake and facing him, he had time to study her. Unlike him, her skin was a pale beige. Human . Long dark hair fell in tangled waves over her shoulders and soulful, scared brown eyes stared at him like he might bite at any moment. Her black shirt was torn at one shoulder and it was covered in dirt. He noticed the swell of her breasts even as he knew he shouldn’t stare, some old instinct urging him to tear his eyes away.

Instead, he wanted to touch.

She cleared her throat and Arest dragged his gaze back up, startled to see even more fear. She breathed deep and pulled her shoulders back, adding to her height and somehow appearing even more vulnerable than before. He wanted to comfort her, but he forced himself to step back, to put a little bit of room between them.

The chaos of his mind was calm now and he didn’t know why. Was it this woman? Was it that he was sated from the kill? The past remained a swirling blur, but for the moment he could think.

He placed a hand on his chest. “Arest,” he said, giving her his name. “Safe.”

Her brows drew together and she stared at his hand. No, at his claws. Arest kept completely still. They were as much a part of him as his skin, and he could not hide them from her, even if he tried.

She licked her lips. “I’m Stella. Stella McDonald. From Earth. What about you?” Her eyes flicked towards the foul smelling door at his back and she pushed herself back against the wall as if she could phase through it to safety.

His mind ticked off the information. McDonald, family name. Earth, planet. And she wanted the same from him. Arest sorted through the scant memory he’d recovered, but there was nothing there. Nothing but his own name. “Arest,” he said again. “Safe.” He had no history to give her, only protection.

“Ooookay. Arest safe. Got it.” He couldn’t tell whether she believed him, but so long as she didn’t run he didn’t care.

He pointed back at the door. “Bad,” and then back down the hallway, “safe.” Then he held out his hand, claws and all. Even with her little light stick, the tunnels were dark and full of tricks, and he needed her close.

He needed to touch her.

Stella eyed his claws, and then her eyes crawled up the rest of his arm, pausing on the letters embedded in his skin. She snapped her gaze up to him and then back down to his arm. Suddenly self-conscious, Arest pulled back and gave her his other arm, the one covered in mud and gore from his scuffle with the creature. But Stella didn’t seem to mind that.

She stepped closer and touched his claws, rooting him in place as effectively as a chain. “What’s this?” she asked, rubbing his forearm. Mud and blood and dirt came away and revealed raised dots that Arest hadn’t noticed before. They weren’t as clear as the name tattoo, but he could trace his claw over it and spell out the word.

BEAST.

Was that what he was?

“Someone did something to you, didn’t they?” Stella asked, running her finger over the bumps. “Something very bad.”

Did they? Arest couldn’t remember. He covered her hand with his own and almost groaned when her fingers flattened against his forearm. Her skin was a little cool against his own and even though she wore more clothing than him, he was certain that he was the warmer of the two.

She needed shelter, he needed to provide it.

He wrapped his fingers around hers and tugged, even though he’d have loved nothing more than to let her touch him all day. “Safe,” he said, pulling her toward the hallway they’d come from.

Stella stared at him and then down at their joined hands. “Safe,” she agreed.

He led her back the way they’d come, his first thought to return to the chamber where she’d slept. If the doors were to open again, then they could both escape. But something in his gut warned him he was on the wrong path. Those doors had closed for a reason and Arest doubted they’d open any time soon.

Something about this seemed eerily familiar, as if he’d been here before. And that same familiarity told him that they’d only find more trouble if they waited by their entrance.

So Arest turned away, thankful at least that he would not need to follow the stench of the rotten creature that he’d killed earlier. The smell would have only gotten worse. The caverns weren’t cold enough to halt the decay.

They walked for a long time, but Arest noted every turn, drawing a map in his mind. These tunnels were a maze, and without his keen senses, they would have long ago been lost.

Stella remained silent beside him, gripping her light stick tight with one hand and holding loosely onto his palm with the other. Arest knew he’d be able to fight better if she let go, but he would not trade the contact with her for the world. For any world.

He passed two more doors, the scents emanating from them even fouler than the one he’d stopped Stella from opening. The second door was by far the worst. Not only did it stink, the air around it moved like something hungry lived within it, just waiting for the unwary to get too close.

There was something unnatural about these halls.

He turned a corner and stopped, but Stella took another step, crossing the threshold. Arest pulled her back, hugging her close to his chest, the press of her body soft against his naked skin. Her scent washed into his nostrils, hitting him low and setting a fire of desire burning bright.

As he was distracted by skin and scent, something growled loudly and sprang onto his back.