Chapter 5
FIVE
Hara
With every ounce of my being, I tried to blank.
I longed for the familiar clicking of my scales matching my surroundings, but instead, all I heard was my panting breaths, and the heavy footfalls of the Rogastix.
Their smell permeated the air, fogging my brain even worse than the vanik.
I couldn’t concentrate as I could barely make my legs work.
They have dragged, half-marched me into the depths of the forest, leaving behind a bound Ethan.
I choked on a sob. The Rogastix left behind had been ordered to kill Ethan. He might even be dead now, my brave human. He’d fought for me as hard as he could, and his curses through ragged, pained breath echoed in my ears. I hadn’t even told him my name yet.
The Rogastix wouldn’t kill me. I was too valuable.
Kaluma females were worth a lot of czen in the Rinian Galaxy.
Likely they’d sell me to some far away planet as the companion to a wealthy oligarch.
But first, they intended to get their fill of me.
The reminder of the Rogastix’s tongue on my face made me shudder with revulsion.
I stumbled and went down hard on my hands and knees.
No one grabbed at me or forced me to my feet again.
Two large boots stopped in front of my face.
A hand tangled in my hair. My head was wrenched back, and the leader stood above me, teeth bared in a sick smile that made bile rise in my throat.
“Far enough,” he said. “That thing can’t hear you scream anyway. He’s dead by now.”
I clenched my hands on my thighs, gauging my strength against his.
If it was one-on-one, I might have tried to fight.
But I couldn’t take on three Rogastix on my own.
The leader grasped the obvious bulge in the front of his pants.
He squeezed, and his grin went feral. “A Kaluma female all alone. Never thought this would happen in my lifetime.”
I had to get through this. Somehow, someway. I’d done it before, and I’d have to do it again. Shut my mind off. Go to that place in my head where I couldn’t feel what was happening to my body.
The leader tugged at the tie to his pants. I closed my eyes. I thought of Ethan sleeping back at the pond. The way he’d muttered in his sleep. Scratched his nose. Scrunched his eyes. Pursed his lips.
I felt his arms around me in his dream, and the world around me fell silent. I didn’t feel the hand in my hair or smell the stench of my captor. I was in a faraway place where nothing could touch me.
A distant click entered my dream world a moment before the Rogastix leader roared and let go of my hair.
I opened my eyes as the world slammed back into focus.
And it was chaos. Laser fire pinged over my head, and I dropped to a crouch, curling into a ball as the Rogastix leader launched himself over me and advanced on the threat.
Had Sherif sent a search party to find me? Was I being rescued?
I peeked through my fingers, expecting to see Rogastix battling some blanked Kaluma. But there were no Kaluma in sight.
Only Ethan.
A bloodied, stumbling Ethan. He held his laser gun with hands far steadier than possible while shot full of vanik.
Two Rogastix bodies lay in the clearing, smoke rising from their mortal laser fire wounds, but the leader hadn’t gone down.
Despite one of his arms hanging limp at his sides, he reached Ethan before the human could fire more shots.
With his good hand, he picked up Ethan by the throat.
But Ethan was ready. With a snarl, he brought the heavy gun down on the Rogastix’s elbow joint.
The leader hollered in pain, and his fingers loosened from Ethan’s throat.
And that was all the time that Ethan needed.
He raised the gun and fired a shot right into the leader’s face.
The Rogastix dropped to the ground with a thud. He didn’t move again.
My body bucked. I couldn’t stop shaking, whether it was from the fading shock, or the adrenaline, or the pure relief that my human was alive.
“Ee-Ethan,” I called in a hoarse voice. I had thought he was dead. Gone. That I’d failed him. But now he was here in front of me, standing like a conquering warrior in front of the bodies of his enemies. Brows pulled low, anger firing from his eyes, chest heaving.
His gaze landed on me, and his expression shifted immediately.
“Goldie.” He dropped his gun and raced toward me.
He slid to his knees as he reached my side and gathered me in his arms. I shoved my face into his neck, wrapping my arms around his solid back as the reality of how close we’d come to permanent separation hit me.
I’d just met this human, but I didn’t want to let him go. Not now. Maybe not for a long time.
His hands gripped my face, and he forced me to look into his intense brown eyes. “Did they hurt you?”
No, not in any way that mattered. Ethan had come at just the right time. I shook my head, and a small smile curled his lips. “Good. If they did, I’d revive them just to kill them again. With more pain this time.”
I tried to smile, but I was just so tired. How had he managed to recover from the vanik so quickly? I still felt woozy.
He brushed my hair out of my face. He licked his thumb and then rubbed at a spot on my cheek.
He fixed my clothes, as my skirt had twisted around my waist. His hands were everywhere, checking me for injuries, and it took a while for me to realize that his touch didn’t repulse me.
I wasn’t eager to get away from him. As his arm brushed my breasts, he muttered a, “Sorry.” His cheeks flushed a soft pink.
And I found that I wouldn’t have minded if he touched me again. For the first time in a very long time, the idea of someone else’s hands on me didn’t fill me with disgust.
He wrapped his fingers around my neck, thumb brushing along the bottom of my jaw. “Let’s get out of here. Those green assholes stink, and I’m sure they’ll only get worse now that they’re dead.”
I nodded. He wasn’t wrong. He helped me to my feet, and we began to walk back.
He picked up the laser gun as we passed it.
With each step, I became more in control of my body.
My head began to clear, and I was pretty sure if I tried to blank now, I could.
But I didn’t. Because Ethan’s arm was around my waist helping me walk, and I didn’t want him to know I could walk just fine on my own.
I liked his arm there. I liked his strong fingers curled around my hip. Our thighs brushed with every step.
We reached the clearing where the Rogastix had tied him to a tree. And there we found the Rogastix who had been left to kill Ethan on the ground. His shoulder oozed with a bite wound, and he lay with his eyes closed. His chest didn’t rise and fall.
His blade was stuck in the tree above him, and Ethan’s bloody rope lay below it. A battle had taken place there, and Ethan had been the victor.
As Ethan left my side to gather our supplies, I drew closer to the Rogastix.
Ethan must have bitten him, and the vanik transferred to the Rogastix.
Normally vanik wouldn’t kill a Rogastix, but the wound on his neck was vicious, and the ground around him was completely saturated in his blood. He’d bled out from Ethan’s bite.
I now noticed the smeared blood on Ethan’s chin, dark like the Rogastix, not red like his own. He’d done that to get to me, bitten into the Rogastix and torn out his throat with his blunt human teeth.
In a crouch, Ethan poured some water from a canteen into his mouth, swished it around with puffed cheeks, and then spat it out onto the grass.
He did that three times before splashing his face and neck with the water.
As he rose to his feet, he tossed his pack on his back and approached me, canteen in hand.
“Here, drink some.” After handing me the canteen, he pointed to the Rogastix at our feet. “Blood tastes about as well as you can imagine.” He made a fake gagging sound. “Wish I had some vodka to kill any disease that fucker might have given me.”
Rogastix, for all their faults, didn’t carry disease.
But I didn’t have a way to tell Ethan that.
I drank some water and then handed the canteen back to Ethan.
With my own pack slung across my back, I grabbed his arm and began to lead him in the direction we’d originally been heading before our capture.
Ethan walked with me silently as we left behind the Rogastix bodies and entered a plain with tall grass.
The sun shone overhead, bright and hot, while Corin loomed behind us.
“Hey,” Ethan said finally, drawing me to a stop with his hand on my shoulder. “Goldie…” he blew out a breath and his lips fluttered. He rubbed at the back of his neck, which was damp with his sweat. “I think you should go home.”
No way. Not without Ethan. I crossed my arms over my chest and remained silent.
His eyes searched mine. “You have a home, right?”
I nodded.
He didn’t seem relieved, only sad. “Is your home safe for you?”
It hadn’t been for a long time. Now, it was. But Ethan wasn’t there. Still, I nodded again.
“I can’t let you be in danger again because of me.” His tongue poked at the corner of his mouth. “Go home, Goldie.”
Ethan
She met my gaze. A muscle in her jaw jumped. Her teeth ground. And then she spoke, haltingly, one word. “N-no.”
I blinked. Did she just speak my language? What the hell? “N-no?” I questioned, my own voice stuttering
“No,” she said again. Firmer this time. More confidently.
I turned away, unable to look into her big blue eyes anymore. I rubbed my palms over the short hair on my scalp.
“Fuck,” I swore. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do this. I could barely keep myself alive on this planet, and the thought of something happening to Goldie because of me… I was going to be sick. I wouldn’t survive it. I’d follow right after her. I’d rip my own heart out to stay at her side.