6. Chapter 6
Chapter 6
So it's fucking cold.
After I cleaned the blood off my face, I started to dig through every panel to search for anything useful. I found plenty of rations and water cubes, so we wouldn’t starve or die of thirst as long as someone found us in a reasonable amount of time. From the passionate way the big drakcol had talked, I assumed he and Serlotminden were in a relationship. He would come searching; I wasn’t too concerned about that. It was more about whether we were in a place that could be found.
That thought sent a tremor down my spine and a needle to my heart.
What if we were somewhere that no one could find us? What if Serlotminden died, and I was here alone? What if—I viciously cut that train of thought off.
Spiraling into a pit of fear didn’t help anyone, least of all me. Logically, I had to remain calm to stay alive as well as help Serlotminden. Being freaked out about what might happen wouldn’t help anyone. Survival had to be my main focus. Surviving so I was alive to return to Vince, because he deserved to be saved.
With great difficulty, I closed my eyes and breathed.
Once my pulse slowed, I popped open another panel and found several blankets, which was good because it was balls-cold in here, and who knew how cold outside. I covered Serlotminden in a heap of blankets, then kept searching. I needed to make some sort of tent because staying warm was going to be priority number one. My jumpsuit was thin, and Serlotminden was in a high-collared sleeveless shirt and pants—neither offered much warmth.
After more searching, I found a tarp made of a plastic-like material. It should work. The plastic would help contain our heat, and it was big. I unrolled the sheet to make a tent and saw an image of Serlotminden winking on it as well as a place for ties. It was a flag. Nice to know.
The end result, with several pieces of wreckage and ties I’d found, was a fort-esque tent, like I’d made as a kid with my moms and sisters. A sudden twinge in my chest started at the thought of them, and I pushed it away. Now wasn’t the time to dwell on them. I had to stay focused.
I pushed all the remaining blankets, pillows, and even his clothes into the tent before joining Serlotminden. It was already warmer than the rest of the cabin.
Settling under the blankets with him, I cuddled close. There was no point in being shy. I didn’t want to freeze, and I doubted he did either, not that he was awake to ask. Snuggling for warmth wasn’t a new concept for me. When the weather turned cold on Xome, Vince and I had often shared a single cot for warmth because Agk had never given us a blanket or warmed our cell, saying it was unneeded. I scoffed. Agk was a sack of shit.
I curled against Serlotminden, draping an arm over his waist. The scent of musky rain wafted off him and made me take another deep inhale. Fuck, he smelled good. I was sure I smelled like B.O. and death had a baby, but bathing was a luxury I didn’t often get. My smell was what it was.
I lay there, watching his chest rise and fall with each breath. If he died, I had no idea what I would do. Panic began to creep in. I tried to push it away, but it didn’t want to go. I had successfully remained focused on surviving when I was moving. Now that I was still… I started to shake, fisting Serlotminden’s shirt.
My thoughts flipped to Vince. Alone. God. He wasn’t going to know what happened to me. Agk might punish him for me leaving, or sell him. I hoped not. The first thing I was going to do when we got rescued was go back for him. I would never leave Vince behind.
I burrowed under the blanket, hiding like that usually calmed me, and rubbed against Serlotminden’s arm, soothed by the scritch of his scales. I took deep breaths to force the fear away, but it danced under my skin like ants.
What was I going to do?
Serlotminden had to survive. That big drakcol would come for him, and we would get out of here. Together. No other option was acceptable. This stupid ice and snow would not kill me. I had lived through too much to die here. I needed a chance to make up for my mistakes. I had to save Vince, who deserved to be rescued.
A tremor went up my spine, but I forced myself to still. I did not want to think about anything. Survival was all that mattered, and that was what I would focus on. I took several deep breaths to calm myself, but my pulse kept racing.
I slammed my eyes closed and pressed against Serlotminden, relishing the warmth emanating from him. First sleep. I had nothing else to do, and oblivion would be a welcome relief. When he woke up, we’d figure out the next step to fixing this horrid rescue attempt.
My stomach ached and my head throbbed in time with my soul, making me groan, but I was warm. That was an unexpected surprise, and someone was pressed against my side, another nice surprise. My tail was curled around them, and I pulled the thin form closer, nuzzling the spiky hair. Bartholomew. My eyes popped open, taking in my flag and the blankets surrounding me.
He’d created a shelter for us.
Bartholomew was curled against my side with his head on my shoulder and his arm slung over my waist. His bones were poking out beneath the threadbare jumpsuit; he was severely underweight. Something I needed to remedy shortly. He was covered in dirt and the stench of sweat mixed with smoke clung to him, but he was alive. He was here.
My rescue hadn’t gone well, but we were alive.
While aching, my stomach would heal.
I was going to have to protect this human until we reached safety. I might even be able to convince Dontilvynsan or another captain to make the six-month journey to Earth. That was if my brothers found me. I had no doubts they would search—they would never stop—but I didn’t know how far we’d traveled in the slipstream.
It was possible Bartholomew and I were in uncharted space, making it near impossible for anyone to find us. If that was the case, I would protect him for the rest of his life.
I cradled him close, and my tail coiled up his leg, holding him securely. I liked the feel of him in my embrace. He fit. It was odd. No one had ever fit beside me. I’d always felt the urge to leave right after fucking, once the intimacy had vanished. Not that this huddle for warmth was romantic, let alone a post-fuck snuggle, but still, I had no urge to move. I had no words to express why, and perhaps it didn’t matter. Bartholomew fit against me. It didn’t have to make sense.
He shifted, and I tightened my hold, unwilling to let him go. If he fit, he needed to remain. Right here. That was only logical.
Bartholomew opened his eyes and his expression was completely blank. Caleb bounced around as much as possible in his body, and Seth was always fidgeting or turning red. Both were so expressive, but this tiny human showed no emotion.
Humans, of course, came in as many personality types as us, but I’d expected him to be similar to my mate-brothers.
“You’re alive,” he said calmly in an even, smooth voice.
“I am.”
“Good.” He closed his eyes and remained against me. Even he knew where he fit. It was logical.
“You made a…” I trailed off. I didn’t know the English word for what he’d made.
Thankfully, he understood. “Tent. It’s a tent. A shit one at that.”
Shit. I believed that meant bad and poop. Humans. Their words doubled or tripled in meaning. I loved it. “It is a fine tent. It’s keeping us warm.”
He grunted.
I wanted to hear his voice. “How did you know how to create a tent?”
“My mom. She used to take me, my other mom, and my sisters camping every summer. None of us really wanted to go, but we had to. She finally stopped making us when I became a teenager .”
“Camping” and “teenager” were a mystery, leading me to believe that Seth, Caleb, and Edith had lied about my near fluency, but I understood enough. “You have sisters?”
“Two.”
“I have four brothers and one cousin who is like a brother.”
Bartholomew grunted again.
“Three of my brothers are mated.”
“So you said. They’re married to humans.”
“Two of them are.” I turned my head toward him, my chin brushing his bristly hair. “Kalvoxrencol mated Seth, and Zoltilvoxfyn mated Caleb. Though Caleb had been dead, so he’s not exactly a human anymore.”
“What?”
Grinning, I told him the story of Zoltilvoxfyn and Caleb, and how Caleb came to be in a drakcol body. Bartholomew listened, bobbing his head occasionally in the human way that meant agreement. Although to me, it seemed like he was conceding to my dominance. Humans. Odd things. So adorable, though. I had the urge to squish him, much like I did Seth.
Once I finished, I told him of Kalvoxrencol and Seth, because why not? “They were bound by the Crystal.”
His forehead crinkled in the cutest way. “The Crystal?”
How did I explain the Crystal that our people revered? I didn’t know if I had the words. “It linked Kalvoxrencol and Seth together as soulmates.” When Bartholomew didn’t say anything, I continued, “We have different types of mates: bound and chosen. Chosen is when we pick our mates. The mate bond forms naturally between people. Bound is when the Crystal reveals your soulmate and ties you to them. You are physically linked and can speak mind to mind.”
“Your brother can read Seth’s thoughts?”
“Yes, sort of. It’s complicated.”
“That’s not something I would like. No privacy.”
I’d never thought of it that way. I had never dreamed of having a soulmate, but mind-speak had never bothered me either. “Mates are important to drakcol,” I said. “Kalvoxrencol would never infringe on Seth’s privacy. They love each other.”
He grunted, not looking even remotely interested.
“We only have one mate ever. If our mate dies or rejects us, we usually die. We’ll fade away. Drakcol can’t live without their mates. Seth is the most important thing to Kalvoxrencol, as Caleb is to Zoltilvoxfyn. Both of them are well cared for. I promise.”
“Did I say otherwise?”
His voice was impossibly smooth, sliding down my spine like water. Wanting to hear more and to change the subject, I asked, “Are your sisters mated?”
“No.”
My little human didn’t speak much. “Tell me of them.”
“Why?”
“So I can learn more about you.”
Bartholomew grunted. He did that quite frequently. “We need to figure out what to do. I assume that drakcol you spoke to will come for us.”
“Dontilvynsan, and yes.”
“We have a decent amount of rations and water.”
“But it will not last long, depending where we landed,” I remarked.
“Do you know where we are?”
“We were attacked before I had a chance to study the star coordinates. I will have to try and get the computer working.”
“Can you?”
I honestly had no idea. NAID wasn’t something I frequently worked with. I maintained my ship, but I wasn’t an engineer who knew the intricacies. “I will try.”
He started to sit up, and I instinctively pulled him closer before relinquishing my grasp. I had no right to hold him. We hadn’t discussed permissions. Bartholomew didn’t have to accept my touch, even though I wanted to keep touching him. He was soft; it was nice. It was quite normal to like touching soft things. That was all. But we needed to talk, and soon, because it wasn’t right for me to keep forcing my touch on him, though he didn’t act upset.
“I have no idea where we landed,” he said, “but now that you’re awake, I’m going to check it out.”
“No.” I grabbed his hand to drag him closer to me, where it was safe. Animals or dangerous creatures might be outside. I didn’t know what planet we’d crashed on. It was possibly inhabited. The local residents might not be friendly. They might take Bartholomew or hurt him, and I would be unable to protect him. Or he might leave me and never come back, and I would never know what happened to him.
Bartholomew shook me off. “I wasn’t asking permission. You stole me when I didn’t ask to be saved, then crashed. We need to know where we are. For all we know, we’ll be stuck here for months and we’re going to need food.”
“You’re right,” I said, thoughts whirling. I had to keep him here. “We’ll wait until I’m able to move, then we’ll go together. It’s safer.”
He frowned at me, making that divot appear between his black eyebrows. Stars, it was cute.
“Let me get you some food.” He slid over me with ease, and I struggled not to catch and snuggle him.
What was happening? I didn’t understand. Never, not ever, had I felt this possessive of someone, certainly not someone I’d recently met. I desperately wished my brothers were here to talk to. They would help me work through whatever was going on, well after several rounds of well-meaning teasing, but they would let me talk it out or ask the right questions or blatantly tell me what was happening.
Perhaps humans had some sort of pheromone that made drakcol protective of them. That had to be it. I was reacting to him because of that. No other reason… Though Kalvoxrencol had never mentioned such pheromones, and he told us everything about humans. He was obsessed with researching human care; he did have a human mate to protect.
It must be because Bartholomew was small and helpless. Like a lost animal. I had to keep him safe and hold him close. He did fit beside me. Maybe we were meant to become great friends. That thought made me frown, and I didn’t know why.
When Bartholomew slipped back in, he sat cross-legged beside me and handed me a simple nutrition bar. I accepted, my fingers brushing his. He was freezing, more than normal. He was too thin to be out in the cold for long. Watching him closely, I nibbled on the tasteless bar. It met our needs, but it was dusty on my tongue.
“I must say sorry about the food,” I said. Bartholomew deserved the best, and this was hardly it, nor would this help him gain weight. How was I going to fatten him without supplies?
He lifted and lowered his shoulders, and my brain struggled to recall what it meant. I was so tired that my eyes started to close as I chewed. I fought it, needing to keep talking to him. We were going to be friends after all.
“It’s fine,” Bartholomew replied. “Better than what I normally get.”
That simple comment sent a wave of anger crashing through me, waking me up. “That should not be true.”
Bartholomew grunted and finished eating the bar, then popped a couple of hydration cubes in his mouth. The water would vanish long before the food, especially because humans required more than us drakcol. Humans were always dehydrated, from Kalvoxrencol’s research. It was quite a problem. He had to constantly make sure Seth consumed enough water. Though I’d heard Seth blaming Kalvoxrencol for having to pee too often.
“Did you get enough water?” I asked, tail twitching. “You should drink another.”
“I’m fine.”
“You need more.”
“We’ll run out.”
“Not a problem,” I said. “When I have healed, I can melt some snow.”
He wrapped his bony arms around his knees. “You know how to start a fire?”
I grinned, and his expression didn’t change. Unusual. Most people were affected by my smile. I had won the Most Charming Smile award on Tamkolvanloknol for the last three cycles. I was an exceedingly popular racer because of my smile and aspect. That helped on my diplomatic assignments. Many species found me attractive.
Bartholomew was the exception apparently.
My soul throbbed. I didn’t like the thought of that. Perhaps drakcol did not interest him anymore than humans interested me.
That didn’t comfort me.
Letting it go, I answered, “I am fire.” I lifted my hand and pushed up a single ember of the roiling wildfire in my gut. A flickering flame grew in my palm until it became a perfect sphere.
“You can create fire?”
“It is a rather boring gift,” I admitted, wishing I didn’t have to confess it to him, but Bartholomew deserved the truth. “All of my brothers have more exciting, not to mention rarer, inner fires. Mine is the most common, but it’s the same gift as my mother, so I think that’s rather nice. Also, in this situation, it’s quite helpful.
“Every drakcol has an inner fire,” I told him, even though he didn’t ask or appear the slightest bit interested. “It develops in…” I trailed off. I couldn’t think of the correct word. This was far harder without Edith, Caleb, or NAID to rely on to translate for me when needed. “When we grow.”
“Hmm.”
“Mine was boring when it appeared. I lit a bush on fire. Zoltilvoxfyn yelled at me for destroying the plant, then he sobbed. Kalvoxrencol had been so mad at me for making him cry. He’s extremely protective of Zoltilvoxfyn.”
“Ah.”
Bartholomew wasn’t talking at all, but he was nodding along or making encouraging noises. The longer I stared at him, the more I wanted to never look away. I could study the flecks of deep green and bits of gold in his eyes for the rest of my life and not be bored, which was new. I often got bored. Deep inside of me was an urge to run, play, fight, and never stop moving.
That urge wasn’t present right now. Maybe it was the injury to my stomach, but perhaps not. The only other time I’d felt something similar was with my cousin Monqilcolnen. He could calm me with a glance, but he was the purest spiritual soul ever recorded.
Bartholomew didn’t react to me staring at him; he simply watched me back. I smiled, and he didn’t return the gesture.
“I’m a warrior soul,” I said, hoping to impress him for some reason.
“Okay.”
Not the reaction I was hoping for. Maybe he didn’t understand. “The Crystal reveals our soul type. We get tested when we’re little. Drakcol have four soul types: warrior, spiritual, seeker, and creator. I’m a warrior soul, and it’s deep red.”
“Ah.”
“That means I’m a…” What was the word? “Full warrior. Warrior and seeker souls grow darker the more… of the soul they are. Seekers are blue.” Stars, how did I explain that the purer the soul, the deeper the color was. “Spiritual souls, which are white, and creator souls, which are green, grow lighter.”
“Interesting.”
He didn’t sound interested. I continued, “Warriors are very important to drakcol. The most important. I am an excellent one. I can and will protect you.”
“I can keep myself safe.”
My tail flicked. This wasn’t going well. Bartholomew looked bored and unimpressed. I took his hand, and he didn’t fight. I placed it over my thrumming soul, in the center of my chest. “I will keep you safe.”
“Fine.”
That was something. I smiled, and he didn’t return it, but neither did he try and pull away from me. I kept staring at him, tracing the planes of his face. This human was special. I wasn’t sure why, but I planned to find out.
“I’m thirty-one in standard or twenty-eight in Earthen age,” I said.
“Hmm.”
My tail twitched. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-four.”
He wasn’t that much younger than me, which relieved me for some reason.
When I could hold it off no longer and sleep started to claim me, I reached for him. Bartholomew came to my side without a word, and I hauled him close, settling him right next to me.
We would discuss permissions tomorrow. For now, he was perfect against me. By the Crystal’s light, I’d never felt anything so wonderful. His head was tucked against my shoulder and his hand rested on my stomach, fingers trailing over me in lazy motions. I drifted off, warm and content.