Constance
7
Constance
A sound cut through the darkness. A wet, rattling breath, followed by a single word spoken in a voice like gravel.
“Female…”
Constance spun so fast she nearly lost her balance. He was awake?
She didn’t wait for a response, already running toward the sound. Her foot caught on his boots and she stumbled, the water cupped in her hands falling between them.
“Oh, shit.”
There was a chuckle, or something like it. He sounded horrible, but the alien was alive. It worked. All those trips just trying to get him hydrated worked!
“I’m here.” She crawled over him, careful not to rest her weight on any part of his wounded frame. Her hands found his chest in the dark before reaching up to his jaw. He must be looking right at her, judging from the position of his head. He was awake. She couldn’t believe it. His heart still beat, but each breath sounded like it was being torn from his lungs. “I’m right here. You’re going to be alright. ”
He was still burning up. So much so she was pretty sure his temperature had increased more than before. Contrary to what she’d been thinking, maybe it wasn’t a good sign after all. The last thing she wanted was for him to have a seizure or something. Little drops of water wouldn’t help with that.
“The wall,” he rasped. “Please help me…to the wall.”
His voice was different from what she remembered—rougher, strained, but still carrying that otherworldly resonance that marked him as not-human. She nodded before remembering he could probably see her perfectly well in this darkness while she was practically blind.
“Okay. Just…let me figure this out.” She ran her hands carefully along his frame, trying to determine the best way to move him without aggravating his wounds. “Can you move at all?”
A grunt that might have been affirmative. She felt his muscles tense under her touch, a slight tremor running through him. The heat radiating from his skin was alarming—no one should be able to survive a fever this high.
“I’m going to get behind you. Support your shoulders.” She worked her way around, hands never losing contact with him. The darkness was absolute, but she’d memorized his position through what must have been hours of tending to him. “Tell me if anything hurts too much.”
Another sound, this one definitely amusement. “Everything…hurts.”
Her own body ached. Tiredness had transformed to weariness. She could hardly move. Felt like she would collapse at any moment.
But she wasn’t back on Earth where she could just fall into bed and call for takeaway on a lazy night in. She was on an alien planet in some part of the universe humans didn’t know about. And she was surrounded by aliens who wanted to use her for things she didn’t want to even imagine.
So the tiredness, this weariness, it would have to wait.
She’d collapse when she was dead. Right now, she was going to help this alien get back on his feet .
“More than it already does, then.” She positioned herself behind his head, legs spread to brace herself. The uneven stone pressed hard into her ass and her thighs, making her wince. But she pushed the discomfort away. “Ready?”
His only response was to try to push himself up. She slid her arms under his shoulders, pulling upward as carefully as she could. The noise he made—somewhere between a growl and a hiss—made her pause, but he didn’t tell her to stop.
Too tough to give up.
At least they were on the same page.
The movement was agonizingly slow. Every inch gained seemed to cost him, his breathing becoming more labored, the heat from his body intensifying. She could feel the tremors running through his massive frame as muscles fought against whatever was still affecting him.
“Almost there,” she encouraged, though they’d barely gotten him a few inches off the ground. But he was their only hope. Fight as she might, draw bravery as she might, she was no match for what awaited them outside these tunnels.
The thought made her swallow hard. She was a liability. He would do well to abandon her here. After all, this whole rescue attempt was a suicide mission. If he forgot about her, he had a better chance of making it out of this alive.
Shit.
She bit her bottom lip, worrying it between her teeth, happy he wasn’t facing her at this moment to see the fear flashing in her eyes.
She had to help him. But she also had to ensure he didn’t leave her here. And that meant becoming invaluable to him. Whatever it took, she was making it out of this place alive.
It was a promise.
Grunting, she braced against him, but his weight was substantial. “Fucking hell.”
Despite the pain wracking his frame, the alien managed to make a sound—something between a wheeze and a chuckle. “First…mouth mating ritual. ”
What?
His words made no sense.
And then they did.
Her eyes widened in the dark. Oh God. Oh God, no. He was conscious when she kissed him?
“Promises of jobs of blows and…and now the hells of mating.” His voice was strained, but carried a hint of dry humor. “You humans are…very confusing.”
She almost dropped him in surprise. “What?”
“I’d rather the hells of mating, with gratitude. If I am to die here, female, I can think of no better way to go.” He tried to push himself up, but his muscles trembled and he failed. “Qrak,” he cursed. “Never thought I’d ever say this, but I haven’t the energy to mate.”
What the—
She got the idea he tilted his head slightly as if to look at her, and she stared open-mouthed at where his head was. “I didn’t say anything about mating.”
He grunted.
“It was just an expression. And the water thing…the kiss wasn’t…I was only trying to…”
God, she was a therapist, but if she survived this, she was pretty sure she was going to need to go in for some therapy herself.
“Explain later,” the alien grunted. “Wall first.”
She nodded, grateful the darkness was hiding her cheeks because she was pretty sure they’d gone red. “Right. Wall first.”
When they finally got him somewhat upright, she had to pause, her arms shaking from the effort. He was pressed against her. Slumped back against her chest from the simple fact she’d been too weak to shift from under his falling weight. At the very least, the position forced her to rest.
Every breath he took, she could feel against her chest. His head fell back, too, to rest against her shoulder. The position brought home just how large he was compared to her. Even sitting, he dwarfed her frame.
“Rest,” she whispered. “Just for a moment. ”
He grunted again.
For a moment, there was silence. Silence and darkness. Silence, darkness, and heat.
He was scorching hot.
“You feel…good,” he suddenly rumbled. “Maybe I do have enough energy for the hells of mating after all. Though, with me, it will be no hell at all. Only what you call ‘heaven’.”
Her brows dived as she pushed against his shoulder. “Get off me.”
She only knew he laughed because she felt how the mirth moved through his frame.
“Do not fear, female. I only make light of this situation.”
Constance released a slow breath. “Well, I don’t think you should be making jokes. For a good while there, I thought you were dead.”
“I might as well be.”
His sudden words, said so matter-of-factly, caught her off guard.
“But I won’t,” he continued. “You are still here. You are alive. I must get you home safely.”
Home. A place she didn’t even know anymore. Where was home?
He relaxed more against her, and she hadn’t the energy to push him off or slide from under him. He still needed more energy, but at least he was awake. That was moving in the right direction.
“You found me,” she whispered after a few moments. “You…you found us.”
The alien grunted. “Don’t rejoice. I nearly didn’t.”
But he did. “How did you even find us? I thought…I didn’t think anyone was coming. Are there more rebels out there? Will there be a counterattack?” She kept her voice low, still aware the darkness could be hiding any number of things. The screeching sound she’d heard long before hadn’t returned, but that didn’t mean they were in the clear. It didn’t mean they were alone.
“There is no one.”
Her breath stopped in her nose, halted neither in her lungs nor outside of her. “What…what do you mean?”
But he didn’t say anything else, and frankly, she was too afraid to ask .
There was no one else?
The last she saw of the Restitution’s base had been death and destruction. Before that beam took her, the entire base had looked like a war zone—and her side had been losing. But even though she’d lost hope that they were coming to save her, she guessed a part of her had still wished some of them had survived.
But he said there was no one.
He was the only part of the resistance that was left?
His breathing was ragged, each exhale burning against her skin where he tilted his head against her shoulder. She could feel his pulse racing, feel the way his muscles spasmed as they tried to respond to commands.
“Gratitude,” he rumbled.
She hummed a tone in her throat. “For what?”
Heavy breaths were all that came from him, and he breathed deep and long.
“You braved this oppressive darkness.” He said after a few moments. “You are a courageous one, female of fire.”
She didn’t know how to respond. Thinking about it now, she’d crawled through pitch-black cold darkness to get the water. She wasn’t scared of the dark, but what she did was nothing compared to diving after a ship in space.
After what felt like an eternity, he managed to speak again. “Left…pocket.”
For a moment, she didn’t realize what he meant, but then it clicked that he was giving her a command. She shifted, trying to maintain her grip while reaching around him. Her fingers found the pocket he mentioned, feeling something smooth and flat within. She hadn’t felt that when she’d been looking for his teleportation device. When she pulled it out, his hand covered hers, the heat within them warding away the chill as he guided her fingers to what felt like a tiny depression. A button.
The sudden flare of light made her eyes water. It wasn’t bright—just a soft, bluish glow emanating from the device in their hands—but after so long in complete darkness, it felt blinding .
As her vision adjusted, she finally got her first proper look at their surroundings. She was right about them being in a tunnel. It was about as wide as a subway tunnel, the walls rough-hewn from solid rock. The ceiling arched overhead, disappearing into shadows beyond the reach of their small light. For as far as the light reached in both directions, the tunnel stretched on.
“Hmm.” It was a grunt. As if the alien was surprised to see where they were.
“Think you can do your magic and get us out of here again?”
“You speak of this ‘magic’ as if it is a weapon I wield.” His head tilted as he looked one way down the tunnel, then the next. “I had no part in transporting us to this place.”
“What do you mean you had no part?” She shifted, adjusting her grip to better support him. “We were above ground, fighting those assholes, and then we were here. If you didn’t do it, who did ?”
He was quiet for a long moment, his breathing still labored, and she didn’t like it. It made her anxiety go up a notch. Made the chances of their survival seem to waver and fade.
“Unknown. But…” He paused, seeming to gather strength. “Not good.”
Great. If he hadn’t transported them here, and the Restitution was gone…
“It had to be them. The gator-guards. They put us down here for a reason.” Her head snapped up as her eyes scanned the length of tunnel she could see. Suddenly, the absence of that screeching sound was even more notable. Where was the thing that made that sound? Was it waiting? Watching them?
“Possible.” The alien’s muscles tensed under her hands. “Or worse.”
Note to self: if she wanted positivity, she probably shouldn’t turn to him for it.
“Worse?” She didn’t want to ask, but she needed all the information she could get. “What could be worse than our enemies?”
He made that sound again—the one that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Many t hings. But I am here now. You need not worry.” Then, so low, she almost didn’t hear him. “You are far too precious.”
She frowned at him, her gaze skipping over the side profile of his face.
His skin was still darker than its usual vibrant teal, but she was pretty sure the color was slowly coming back. She stared at him, noting the two narrow furrows that gave definition to his skull, his humanoid features with their distinct ‘alienness’. Like the way he had no hair, not even eyebrows. Or the way his shoulders sloped dramatically, displaying corded flesh that was pure muscle. He only had three thick fingers on each hand, and from what she could see of his feet and the strange way his boots were made, they looked to be digitigrade.
But it was his condition that drew her attention and made her breath catch. The makeshift bandages were saturated with what looked like black oil in the soft light, but it was his blood. So much, so thick, it looked dark against the brown fibers. The wounds beneath were brutal. Burn marks from the shock rod created patterns across his exposed skin, and deep gashes were already forming scabs all over him. The skin around the injuries was mottled with colors she didn’t have names for, patterns shifting beneath the surface like oil on water.
And yet, even in the few minutes that had passed since the light source activated, he looked to be improving. It shouldn’t be possible, but even his breaths were evening out. He was adjusting to the trauma, probably even healing, faster than any human could.
“You’re healing,” she breathed, her voice barely over a whisper.
He made a sound that might have been agreement. “Not…fast enough.” His free hand moved to one of the deeper wounds, fingers pressing against the strange discoloration. “You tended to me with your garments.”
She didn’t answer. Didn’t have to.
“Why?”
But that question felt like it came out of the blue. Why? Why did she help him? She thought it was obvious. She’d thought he was going to die if she didn’t help. And, more than that, she was the reason he was here. He came after her and the others. He tried to save them. That meant he was worth saving, too.
“I didn’t want you to die.”
He released a grunt, and she was sure she saw his lips twist into a wry sort of grin.
With another grunt, he eased off her a little, enough for her gaze to fall on his back. There were more injuries there. Deep welts that were scabbing over. But what grabbed her attention almost immediately was the fin-like structure that ran from his nape to disappear into his spine.
It was red. An angry red. It looked like a warning sign.
“Mint…rebel guy…your neck. It’s red.”
He froze. Went so still it was clear he stopped even breathing.
He shifted away from her then, so suddenly that she gasped. Gone was the wounded creature she’d been supporting. In his place was something entirely different—predatory, powerful, otherworldly. She couldn’t see the fin structure now because he turned it away from her. All she could stare at were his eyes. They caught the light. Reflected it like a cat’s now. And they were staring right back at her.
She swallowed hard, instinct suddenly screaming at her to back away. This wasn’t some injured soldier anymore—this was an apex predator from a world she couldn’t even imagine, and she’d gone and stepped on a landmine. Suddenly, everything about him radiated danger. From the way he was looking at her to the way he was so impossibly still despite his injuries.
It was then that she realized the absence of the warmth. The heat radiating from him was gone. While he’d been leaning against her, his fever had been keeping her warm and, despite how wrong it was, she hadn’t realized she’d been comforted by it till now.
But he didn’t look like a male dying of a fever. This was…this was something else.
“What did you call me?” he finally said, golden eyes still piercing into her soul .
Constance blinked. “Um…” Her eyelids fluttered a few more times, her brain trying hard to catch up. “I don’t know your name.”
He released another grunt, but his face was unreadable. He wasn’t even pretending to smile.
“It is Akur.”
Akur. A name she didn’t expect, but one that suited him perfectly, nonetheless.
“I’m Constance.”
“I know your name.”
She swallowed hard.
What had she done wrong? Had mentioning the red fin really been such an offense?
His head turned slightly, the soft light casting strange shadows across his features. “We need to move. It is not safe here.”
She blinked at him, but it was like he’d suddenly transformed. He was all business now, and she supposed that was alright. This wasn’t a five-star hotel where they had an unlimited stay. They needed to escape. Get the hell out of here.
“Right. Any idea which direction?”
The alien—Akur’s—eyes narrowed as he studied both directions. “Right. Slope…slightly upward. Surface closer.”
Wow. Damn. It took her crawling on hands and knees to even figure out that there was an exit somewhere close, and he discovered that in a matter of seconds? How?
He was already shifting upward, trying to stand. Guess they were moving.
“Right it is then.” She braced herself. “Ready when you are.”
Akur grunted and rose, stumbling slightly. She reached for him, but all he did was jerk away. She frowned. Well then, he can piss off if he’s suddenly going to be a dick.
Scowling at him now, she watched as he reached for his sword that she’d been carrying for protection. That only left the blaster she’d been wielding in the fight above ground. It was a few feet away on the stone floor. She’d all but forgotten about it.
Limping, her muscles ached as she reached for it. By the time she turned back around, the alien was standing straight. His movements were more fluid now, controlled. And frankly, a bit freaky with how quickly he was recovering.
Meanwhile, she felt like roadkill.
Without a word, he turned and began walking, the glow of the light source moving with him. It only took a moment for her gaze to skip around the tunnel before she looked up into the cavernous darkness above them. With the light quickly receding, it was like the dark had mutated and was trying to swallow her whole. Her body jerked into action. Guess that was her cue to follow the alien.
Hurrying after him, he was already a few strides ahead, moving down the tunnel with steps that were becoming steadier with each passing moment. The soft light cast their shadows long against the walls, making them look like monstrous creatures following alongside them. Constance put more energy in her steps, making sure there was hardly a breath between her and the alien in front.
This would be scary if she wasn’t already crippled by fear. That meant it was past scary. She was frickin’ terrified. If she could tell her friends back on Earth about all this, she’d say it was something out of a nightm—
She almost ran into the alien’s back. The same moment that the light suddenly went out.
“Shit. Did you run out of batter—”
Her voice stopped in her throat when Akur’s palm slammed against her mouth—or more like her face. His palm was so large it was almost like he was trying to suffocate her, and she was mildly aware that he’d shot his arm back to do it.
The scent of blood on his palm filled her nostrils. But he wasn’t trying to stop her from breathing. He was silencing her with the universal signal to shut the fuck up. And she’d be damned if she was going to be a fool and argue about it.
So she kept her mouth shut, frowning into the darkness, wondering if he’d heard something that—
But then she didn’t have to wonder. Because she heard it, too. The scratching .
Her body went still.
It was the same scratching sound she’d heard before. The one she’d wanted to forget about as if it’d never happened. She wished she could, but there was no way to forget about it now.
This time, the scratching sound wasn’t just coming from one direction. It was coming from everywhere—ahead of them, behind them…above them. Her head tilted back slowly, her face shifting under the weight of Akur’s hand as her eyes widened in the pitch black.
The scratching sound echoed off the tunnel walls; it was impossible to pinpoint the source, and it was impossible to ignore.
Akur went rigid beside her. “I knew this was too easy,” he said under his breath.
Too easy?
Clearly, they had a different interpretation of difficulty.
“What?” Clutching the blaster in both hands, she wished she could see something, even though the thought of actually seeing something appear from the darkness made her quake inside. “What is it?”
Her voice was mumbled, words fading into his hot skin.
She felt him turn. Felt his warmth envelop her even as the scratching sound grew so loud it sent a chill straight through to her soul.
“How fast can you run?” he spoke so quietly she barely heard him.
The scratching grew louder. Closer. Something skittered across the wall above, sending small rocks pattering around them.
The alien’s palm left her face, and he gripped her shoulders instead.
“Listen, human. You’re going to turn around, and you’re going to run.”
“Wh-what are they?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, his heat became almost scorching as he pressed his face into hers, forehead to forehead. Their breaths mingled. Hers frantic and uneven, his steady and measured .
“You don’t want to know. Now run. And whatever you do, don’t stop running until you no longer hear a sound.”
He released her so suddenly that she almost stumbled. When she reached out, he was gone.
“Akur!”
“Run, human!” It was a command this time, and only a moment before a sound came from the darkness that made her blood run cold. It was a low, wet chittering that spoke of teeth and hunger and crawling things that should stay buried.
As Akur’s roar echoed through the tunnel, followed by a deafening screech that made her teeth vibrate, Constance raised the blaster and took off running. Whatever was in that darkness with them, she wasn’t going to make it easy for them to catch her.
She just hoped she was running toward safety and not straight into their nest.