Chapter Twenty-One
Aphrodite returned to her work bench before they returned to Xexis’ chambers.
Buddy loitered at the station, playing with her tools.
After organizing everything into drawers and scooping up her drone in her arms, she followed her mate back to their room.
Buddy and data pad on the side ledge, she snuggled down into the bed.
Xexis wrapped an arm around her and held her close.
She fell asleep replaying the sounds of the hunters teasing each other and sweet laughter.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last long.
She was in the ship again, inches away from sliding into the belly of the hull.
The stench of burnt flesh in her nose, haunting her.
She stared at Danny. He was frozen. Slowly, two blades sliced through him, filling his visor with blood.
Hands crawled through the blood on his visor.
It slid down like a window and let the blood spill out onto the floor.
Aphrodite crawled out of the access hole toward him as Danny’s suit collapsed to the floor.
Her suit was soaked in sinew and torn pieces of muscle.
Her gloves hid the trembling of her fingers as she dug through the chunks of human to find him.
Something grabbed her by the leg. She ripped around and found Danny, without a suit and without eyes, shrieking at her. “Traitor!”
Aphrodite kicked at his grabbing hands, panic turning her body to stone.
Her heart raced and pumped the adrenaline through her veins, solidifying her fate.
She cemented in fear, screaming silently.
Danny dragged her closer. Inch by inch, he yanked her toward the hole.
It wasn’t till she was pinned to the side of the ladder with him that she saw his eyes were clawed out of his face.
His fingers grabbed her visor and cracked it.
“You traitor! They killed me and you let them”
Sweat drenched her body as she dropped down the hole and up into her body once more.
She shot up in bed, heart thumping and lungs tightening.
The blankets were wrapped around her like a vice grip.
Her sweat soaked through the fabric, and she searched through the damp layers for Xexis.
Panic returned as she realized she was alone in the bed.
Aphrodite slithered from the mattress, hugging her torso. Shivers ran down her body with abandon. Even the sensors didn’t make her feel real as she tiptoed across the floor.
“Xexis?” she croaked.
The doors to the room hissed open. It wasn’t the ship anymore.
It was a darkness that devoured everything.
Empty space. Her breathers kicked in as she stepped through the doorway.
There was no floor. She sank through space, unable to find the walls or the sensors.
No stars to guide her way, she fell slowly through the void.
Then, with a crack, she slammed knees first into a hard floor.
Looking up, she was in the human space station, chains keeping her locked to the floor like she were a rabid beast. Xexis was draped across the floor, bleeding from where they left spears in his body.
His muscles twitched as electricity sparked off his flesh.
“Aphrodite Kerso, you are a traitor and a danger to the human race. After giving our enemy a weapon to destroy us, and mating with this beast, you have been—”
She didn’t hear the rest as she screamed until her throat cracked and blood filled her mouth.
Lurching toward Xexis, her hands clawed for him but could not reach him.
She wailed a broken, mourning wail as she coughed up blood onto their stainless steel floor.
Xexis flopped his head to the side, croaking, “My mate?”
“No!” she roared.
“My Mate!”
She was ripped to reality by a hard shake.
Aphrodite shot up in the real bed, drenched in sweat, and fighting the restraints of her hefty mate.
Xexis clenched around her, tightening his hold as she thrashed.
Aphrodite gasped for air, blinking herself back to reality.
Buddy bobbed above her head with soft, worried clicks.
After a long moment, the light of the room and sensors blaring red in the room, she woke up.
Aphrodite dropped down into the bed and snapped her attention to Xexis.
He observed her with worry all over his face.
“Please tell me this is real,” she murmured.
“I do not understand,” he breathed.
She patted him down with her hands, feeling down his face to his torso. With a heavy sigh, she wrapped her arms around him and ripped him closer. “My dreams…they killed you.”
He engulfed her in his arms and nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck.
She happily laid in his arms, wanting nothing more than the weight of him against her.
Real, alive, awake. Her fingers clutched him as if he would slip away.
Tears welled up in her eyes, but she didn’t let them spill.
It’s just a dream. Aphrodite peppered every inch of him she could reach with kisses. He’s fine, you’re fine, chill out!
Finally, the panic subsided, and she was able to relax against the bed. Buddy sat on her pillow, rubbing his tentacles slowly against the plush. Xexis let her sit back in his arms. “My mate, you were screaming.”
“I had a nightmare,” she panted, detaching her hands from him. Wiping the sweat from her brow, the cool air of the room brushing across her damp skin. She shivered. “We were back at the station, they sentenced you to death, then they said I gave you…”
She trailed off as the answer to the puzzle she’d been playing with for days now clicked together. A weapon. Shifting in place, she looked at Buddy with shock. She was a weapon against the humans. She stared into his unblinking eye.
“My mate, I am missing context, why are you staring at the drone like that?”
“The reason they were upset I was missing, the reason my people want me back. It’s because I’m a technician.
Because I know how everything works. I know their security measures, I know what weapons they have, I know how to shut down their ships from afar.
I was…I was top of my class; I did my final on how I would crack into the station if I were an enemy.
We upped our security based on my findings!
They think…they think I’m going to give you secrets, help your people hurt them. ”
Xexis sat up on two elbows, furrowing his brow. “Why would we want to hurt them?”
“Because humans are behind, don’t you see? They’ve just joined this massive community of other beings who are bigger, stronger, some even smarter and more advanced than we are. We’re at a disadvantage, but our only peace of mind is that none of you have true access to us—”
Xexis’ face lightened as a light bulb flickered on inside his skull. “Until I mated you.”
“And now my loyalty is to you, not them.”
“Your people already imagine us monsters and thieves and killers,” he growled, pushing the blanket back from the bed. Aphrodite lurched after him, hands failing to reach him before he slipped out of his bed.
“Xexis, wait.”
“No, the Korzavic should know, and Xnasis should be aware. As the next Korzavic, he is the one sat at the Council. He should not return to the Council unaware.” Xexis pulled on his royal garb once more, stuffing his body into it with snaps of his limbs.
Aphrodite scrambled across the bed. He stopped to look at her with confusion.
She rushed to stand beside him, grabbing him by two of his forearms.
“Xexis,” she breathed.
His face softened, “My mate, my anger is not for you.”
“I know but, you should know, not every human is a political scheming bastard. Most humans just want to exist, to live, to explore.” She squeezed his arms affectionately. “Please do not blame the regular people for the sins of the government.”
Crinkles returned to his eyes and his pincers danced tenderly.
“My mate, I would never. It is simply your government I have anger with, your leaders need to see the Council as allies, not enemies to test. We do not judge the people by those in charge. Do not worry, my mate, this is a political issue, not a human issue.”
Aphrodite relaxed, stepping back. “Okay, thank you.”
“Now, you should dress. I had official robes made for you; they’re in the closet.
” He nodded to Buddy. The drone bound up from the pillow and zipped across the room.
The wall where he collected his clothes from slid open to show a garment bag hidden in the back.
Buddy scanned it with a blue light before giving an electronic chirp.
Aphrodite stumbled to the closet, the world around her slowing to a stop.
Her hands touched the soft cotton and plastic mixture of the garment bag.
Xexis reached past her and took it off the shelf.
She followed him with her eyes as he draped it over the bed.
The zipper echoed in the room. Aphrodite held her breath as he pulled out a black dress.
It wrapped around her like his robe did, but hers had bell sleeves.
It had a cinching aspect to the torso with distinct space for her breathers like his.
The hem of the wrap dress was an opalescent fabric that glimmered.
The symbols on the sides of his pants matched the ones etched into the skirt of the dress.
It almost looked like flowers designed by knife edge; they were sharp and beautiful.