Chapter 4

Harper

Twirling a lock of hair around my finger, I grinned at the screen cradled in my lap and contemplated my answer. It was quiet inside the med bay because Dravion had stepped out for a while. He said he was making rounds, and I wondered what other patients he had aboard the spaceship. I was sitting on my bed, legs crossed, and humming while I thought.

Nick and I had been talking nonstop. Well, if he was online, that was. Sometimes he had to sign off quickly, it always coincided with mealtimes. Or when it got late in the evening and I'd just started to yawn. Mandy showed up to talk with me and keep me company, but I enjoyed chatting with Nick so much that I was almost eager to see her go most of the time.

I definitely had a crush on him. He was just so clever, and he never told me I couldn't know something. Not that I could verify what he told me, but he always pulled up news articles or papers for me to peruse on whatever subject we'd breached. Thanks to him, I was starting to feel like I had a better grasp of this situation and the quadrant.

It sucked that I'd been kidnapped, abducted. I shuddered to even think about that first week I'd been woken from stasis, anything Batok-related I just wanted to avoid. This was why I'd already collated a huge file on the crimelord; I was all about facing my fears, or at least arming myself with information. And Nick had helped with that.

"And now you're starting to get naughty, aren't you, my friend?" I mused out loud, still staring at his question. He'd typed: if I asked you on a date, what would you like to do? A date… He'd tried to make it sound hypothetical, but I didn't buy it. He was interested, and we hadn't even seen a picture of each other. Online dating was the most normal thing to me, but I wondered how that worked in outer space with aliens. That I hadn't dared to ask my friend yet.

I'd been taking too long to answer, and I saw dots appear, which meant he was composing another message. I expected him to backtrack, to tell me to forget about it, instead he was making a statement. "I'd take you flying," he said. "Show you the stars and the skies, and I'd hold you close to me the entire time, safe. Then I'd lay out a picnic, and cuddle with you to keep warm."

I was smiling widely, enjoying the fantasy, and eagerly watching for more dots. "I'd kiss you if you'd let me," he typed. My heart rate soared as I tried to imagine that, but it was hard when I didn't know how he looked. Not that it really mattered; I would probably still like him if I discovered he wasn't a cover model. I had adored our conversations too much not to give him a shot. He could still be an alien too. I hadn't asked him if he was actually human, but he had known more about the human sanctuary than any source I could dig up.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard as I tried to formulate a reply, my body tingling. I was happy, I realized, which was odd considering what I'd been through. My grandma always did say that I bounced back fast, but it felt more like my time in the vault, the slow starving, was ages ago. It was, a year had passed while I'd been in stasis, but I'd been asleep all that time, it shouldn't feel like that.

"Ah, happy feelings. My favorite," a dark voice said so suddenly that I jerked and nearly tumbled from the bed. The tablet fell onto the blanket beside me while I tried to detangle my legs and focus on who'd just walked into the med bay. A complete stranger, an alien, and he didn't look like a nice one. His voice made me think of a certain potions teacher from one of my favorite series; dark, menacing, with a hint of derision.

The guy was big, bald, and a gleaming silvery gray. He wore black, as all the crew members on the ship did, but on him, it looked extra intimidating. His entire appearance put me on edge, and while I made myself get up and stand next to the bed to face him, I took in the rest of his odd appearance.

His arms were bare, and I could see markings gleaming beneath the surface of his skin, not quite readable, not quite there. They looked like some alien script but hinted just enough at coincidental curves to be natural. His eyes were dark pools of which I couldn't define the color, and something like quicksilver was curling around his hip and slithering up over his chest. Tendrils that fanned out and reshaped in strange, organic forms.

He was offering me a sardonic smile, hinting at a sharp fang in one corner of his mouth, the other hidden. Everything about him made my skin crawl and though he was handsome, with a firm jaw and killer cheekbones, I could not imagine ever finding this guy approachable. From the corner of my eye, I spotted the shape that smoothly glided into the med bay behind him.

Entirely silver, shimmering brightly in the light, the creature was shaped like a dog with a jackal-like snout and large ears. It moved too fluidly, in such an uncanny way that it seemed it had no joints. As I watched, that hound settled on its haunches and its body seemed to melt and reform. No longer was I staring at a hound, but at something that resembled a great big cat, a silver panther.

"Who are you?" I demanded, filled with suspicion. My eyes flicked from the really weird shapeshifting creature to the big gray alien with his piercing, angry eyes. If anyone carried secrets, it was this guy, and I felt a first tingle of curiosity. What kind of alien was he? What was his role on the ship? And what did he want from me?

The alien stalked to where I stood with no respect for my personal space. Trapping me against the edge of the cot while his smile grew into something even more sinister. From the corner of my eye, I could read the messages popping up on my tablet, one after the other. "Are you okay? Harper? What's going on? Talk to me!?" Nick was worried, he wasn't the only one, I was getting pretty worried about this guy too.

Happy feelings? I wasn't feeling any of those now. Fear, yes. That was definitely a healthy dose of fear skittering up my spine and curdling in my belly. I had never met a guy more terrifying, and that was saying something because I'd dealt with an eight-foot-tall blue ice beast, a doctor with tentacles, and yesterday Mandy had introduced me to her Naga mate, half-snake half-man.

In comparison, this guy looked much more human, if you discounted the weird gray skin. Yet, he seemed the most alien creature I'd ever met. It was all in his eyes and his weird shapeshifting pet. More silver was slithering over his chest and melting down his arms; it curled over his fists like a strange, liquid armor. I had the feeling that he was on the edge of an attack.

"That's better," he drawled, pleased with my response. "Fear always tastes so good, don't you think?" I wasn't sure if he asked me that question or directed it at his alien pet. Not until I saw the creature shift into a longer upright position beside him, like a lemur or a meerkat.

It got almost tall enough to reach my chest, and then it opened its silver mouth to display rows of needle-like teeth. I didn't mean to, but a squeak of fear escaped. Instinctively, I pressed myself back against the bed. I regretted that I'd decided to face him rather than put that bed between us for safety. Now, I had nowhere to run. "What do you want from me?" I demanded, injecting bravery into my voice that I didn't feel.

The gray alien smirked, revealing both sharp fangs like he was a vampire or something. I felt empty, hollow, beneath that dark look; it felt like he was tasting my fear and pulling it out of me. Draining me somehow, though he wasn't touching me anywhere, and neither was his creepy pet.

"Want? Nothing from you, human," he said derisively. His head tilted at an angle, dark eyes glancing away from me to the corner of the room. I wanted to keep my gaze on him at all times, but it was instinct to flick my eyes along his gaze to see what he was looking at. Was that the blinking light of a camera in the corner? "Stand really still," he ordered, his gaze returning to me. "This won't hurt a bit."

Those ominous words were followed by a sharp lean of his torso toward me and instead of staying still, I threw myself back. I flinched away from him and collapsed onto the bed. His arms came down around me, bracketing me against the mattress; I kicked out with a foot and caught him square in the chest with a scream. "Stay away! Don't touch me!" I yelled.

I rolled, trying to get out from beneath him, but everything was spinning around me. This was more than just fear; I felt so empty, so drained, that I could barely lift my arms as I threw myself off the bed on the other side. I struggled to push myself up on my hands and knees and looked over my shoulder the entire time. The creepy guy was stalking around the cot to come at me again. "I said, stay still," he warned me, shaking his head and tssking like I was some kind of misbehaving student.

Too weak, my limbs shaking, I gave up on getting to my feet and rolled onto my back to scrabble away with flailing hands and feet. I didn't know what to do or how to call for help. Didn't anyone hear us? Where was Dravion, or Mandy? Though I had never met Nick, I was suddenly desperate for him, too.

My thoughts of aid seemed to have summoned something . One moment, this creep was still stalking toward me, his awful pet prowling on four legs at his side, jaw gaping wide open like it intended to eat me. The next? I was staring at a writhing mass of limbs and feathers, silver and gold, as they clashed in a vicious, violent battle.

A roaring, growling noise filled the air. It rattled my bones and made my teeth click together from its intensity. The sound should have been terrifying, but all I could feel was relief. Not only was that creepy gray guy no longer stalking me, but his pet was gone, and the weakness that pervaded me had lifted.

Rising to shaky feet, I tried to take stock of the situation, utterly confused by what I was watching. The gray guy was no longer gray, but entirely silver like his creature had been. His opponent was a blur as they fought, moving uncannily fast. I saw wings; big, with bloodred tips and pearly white feathers. I could make neither heads nor tails of his shape, but he was definitely alien and really pissed.

"Harper, over here!" Mandy yelled. I glanced over my shoulder, and only barely managed to rip my eyes away from the fighting pair. She stood in the door opening to the med bay, her huge, black-scaled mate protectively hovering in front of her. She waved with an arm to urge me over, but the Captain was not allowing her to move any closer. On her other side stood the doctor with a worried expression.

I had to climb over the cot to get around the two combatants, then pressed my back against the wall to sidle carefully around the room. They seemed oblivious to anything around them, focused on fighting each other. I could not risk getting caught up in that; they would flatten me in a heartbeat.

I didn't draw breath until I reached the doorway, shuddering with a relieved sigh when Mandy pulled me into her arms for a tight hug. "Are you okay?" she asked me. But I didn't know. How was anyone okay after that?

The med bay became oddly silent, and I turned to look at the fighters in time to see my winged rescuer take the upper hand. The gray one, now silver, lay sprawled on his back, his arms limp at his sides. While the other was straddling him, huge wings spread wide behind him. He raised a fist and then slammed it into the silver-covered face of the other one, but he was no longer growling.

Golden skin, human but just a bit more alien than a simple, deep tan. One arm was covered with dark tattoos in a primal, primitive pattern; they curved over his thick, bulky biceps and down a veined forearm. His hair was red, as was a neat beard that curved along his jaw, but from his skull also rose a mohawk of feathers. Brown, white, and red, it was a fantastic display of colors, and I was instantly reminded of an exotic bird. A mating display or a threatening one.

Then he turned his head, glancing from his downed opponent to me with unerring accuracy. Deep tigerite eyes with a huge pupil and a wild, utterly feral look. That looked seared me, like it burrowed inside me through my eyes, and settled deep in my soul. A bridge, a connection.

His shoulders started to lower, the snarl dropping from his mouth to transform into something more peaceful. And then the guy beneath him shifted an arm and his attention snapped back to his foe, a growl rattling from his big, muscled chest. "Mitnick! Stand down. That's an order!" Asmoded shouted when he raised his fist again. He shook as he paused mid-swing, but that fist grew tighter.

"Mitnick?" I mouthed, glancing from this huge, winged, and muscle-bound alien to the tablet, still lying precariously on the edge of my bed. My Nick?