Chapter 1 #3
I don’t have any idea how I managed it, but I dragged him across the square into one of the crumbling buildings. I hid him in the shadows and peered out into the streets, knowing that soon they would be crawling with people and aliens alike.
As I dragged him through the door, I realized I’d pulled him into some kind of tourist shop full of dusty trinkets and moldy stuffed animals.
I hid him behind the counter, dragging him across the crumbling tile and when I finally stopped, I groaned.
Every muscle in my body was coursing with adrenaline and now that I’d made it to safety, they started to ache with increasing soreness.
I was drenched in sweat and when a cool breeze swept through the room, I shivered and crouched down closer to the alien beside me.
Talyn groaned with terrible pain, and I cried out. I gripped the bottom of my shirt and tore it apart before I stuffed a piece of it into his mouth. I needed to keep him quiet.
His eyes opened in disbelief and narrowed toward me. His body shook hard several times. I tore of another strip of my shirt and wound it around his throat, trying my best at a makeshift bandage to cover the wound I’d caused. I didn’t know if I did it to save him or cover up what I’d done.
Did it really matter?
I didn’t have any antibiotics or pain reliever, but to be honest, I didn’t know if any of them would be safe to use on him. The poison hadn’t worked as I’d intended, so that left me feeling terribly unsure of everything else.
I sat behind him and pulled his head into my lap, petting his brow and wiping several beads of sweat off his forehead. I wanted to make it better. I shouldn’t want that.
He shuddered hard and a wet squelching sound made me jerk my head down to look at him. I gasped. The bullet was working its way out of his head.
He was healing. I watched, captivated. His flesh began to knit back together and in seconds, it was as if the wound had never been there at all. I swallowed as his body shuddered several more times.
He yelled into my makeshift gag, and I cautiously petted across his forehead again. I brushed my fingers across where the injury had once been and felt nothing. It was perfectly healed.
I closed my eyes.
Why had I dragged him in here? Why hadn’t I run?
I felt him twitch beneath me. He groaned and his muscles jerked, making me open my eyes again. His fingers were moving, and his toes began to move too. Soon enough, he gained control of the rest of him, and I realized that even if I wanted to escape now, it would be far too late.
He sighed and I couldn’t read what it meant. What was he thinking? Would he kill me now? Had I signed my own death warrant by dragging him here?
“You are curious, little female,” he began.
I crawled back in a panic as he sat up, turning those dark purple eyes on me with mysterious intent. My back slammed against the wall behind me, and I stopped breathing.
I was trapped. The only way out was through him, and I’d already played my hand.
“I expected you to try to kill me,” he continued, and I chewed the inside of my cheek.
“What I didn’t predict was you dragging me off and trying to save me.
There was a secondary attack planned, wasn’t there?
That’s why we’re here in this decrepit building, isn’t it?
” he questioned, narrowing his gaze with suspicion.
I nodded slowly. What did it matter? I was probably going to die now.
“Very curious,” he murmured. He studied me for several long seconds, and I squirmed a bit before him, feeling like nothing more than a naughty little girl who’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“Are you going to kill me?” I finally managed to get out. My voice was trembling and soft. It revealed just how scared I was.
“Do you want to die?” he asked instead. My mouth opened in shock before I closed it again.
“No. I don’t want to die,” I whispered. Maybe it was selfish to answer him like that. I should want to save the humans I’d left behind. I should try to kill him a second time, but I’d heard him scream and I never wanted to hear something like that ever again.
He continued to assess me like I was a specimen in a lab that needed to be analyzed. I licked my lips, staring back at him and trying to remain brave even in the face of such incredible danger.
“I could kill you. I could reach out and snap your neck. I could end it all for you so very easily,” he replied cruelly, and I shook my head.
“Please, don’t kill me,” I begged. My voice sounded so small.
He held out his hand. He didn’t reach out to grab me. Instead, he left it up to me. I lifted my fingers with the intent to take them, but he cleared his throat first, giving me pause and I waited.
“Little one, I want you to understand something. You attempted to kill me. In my world, that would unequivocally result in your death. But you also saved me from a second attack, which might have killed me. It might have not. We will never know now,” he paused, and his mouth tightened just a hair.
My stomach dropped precipitously. What did he want?
“You will come with me and there will be a punishment for you to contend with by my hand. It will hurt. I won’t be gentle, Raiza,” he commanded.
Punish. He said he was going to punish me.
My mouth went entirely dry.
I closed my eyes. I pretended to take the time to weigh over the possibility of any other option, but I knew what I would do already.
I peered back at him with a silent acceptance and nodded my head as I reached out to take his hand.
I don’t know why, but I chose to trust him.