Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
NORA
Just as Nora came to terms with the fact that she’d either die here or end up in a fancy zoo for alien children to throw peanuts at, Airik burst in through the broken doorway.
He rushed to put on her backpack, ripping one of the straps to accommodate the width of his back.
“What—”
He scooped her up, throwing her arms over his shoulders. “Tight, Nora. Like before. Eyes closed.” He gripped her under her thighs, pressing their fronts together. Alarmed, she tried to pull back. He cupped her head, pushing it roughly down into his neck. “No.”
He broke into a run with dire speed and agility, so fast she had no choice but to clamp her legs around him to keep from bouncing. Light burned her eyes as he ran back in the direction of the rock wall.
“Airik?” she squeaked.
“Eyes closed. I will fix.”
Despite his warning and every memory and experience in her life screaming at her not to look, she lifted her head toward the ocean. “Oh, fuck.”
Whereas before she’d seen the dark water’s surface, maybe a little far out but definitely an ocean of some sort, now there was no ocean. Only a rumble that hadn’t been there before, and planes of wetness dotted with dark brown balls of vegetation.
In the distance, something came into view. Nora gasped. A white shelf stretched the length of the horizon, foaming as if the very ocean had gone rabid.
Bile rose in her gut as the monstrous wave surged toward them.
She turned back to Airik, panicked. Breath fogged the glass, his panting visible as he ran at an inhuman pace. He wasn’t going to make it if he had to carry her. Every nauseating and horrible memory of that day so many years ago rose like a spike from the depths of Nora’s personal hell.
“Airik.” Her voice was barely a croak.
The tsunami raged toward them. They were still only halfway to the wall.
So this is how it’ll be for me, too, she thought. It wasn’t the same ocean, but it would bring about the same end. It should have been her, not Theo, all those years ago. And this time it should be her, not Airik.
“Airik,” she said again, trying to push out of his grasp. “Let me go.”
His breath faltered. The sounds of his feet hitting the sand were even but not fast enough.
“Let me go. I’m too much.”
His fingers dug into her flesh.
“It’s okay. You won’t make it.”
His arms tightened around her—steel bands she couldn’t escape. She searched his visor. All she saw was her own strangely serene face.
“Let me go.”
He said nothing, only kept pushing. The ground shook as the waves approached, tall as skyscrapers.
“Air—”
“No!” he cried out. “You are mine!”
There were still several dozen yards before they reached the rock wall. Gritting her teeth, she punched him as hard as she could in the chest. He made a stunned noise, his stride breaking.
But he didn’t drop her. Instead, he growled, like a wolf, then squeezed the breath out of her. The expansion and contraction of his chest forced her to match his ragged breath.
Airik slammed her against something hard, covering her body with his.
And then, they were out of time.
Water smashed them violently against the rock. There was only the oppressiveness of dark and cold.
Everything burned at once. Every raw shred of her cuticles, her eyes, and her cracked lips.
Water rushed into her lungs. Airik’s firm mass anchored her to the wall.
A mechanical strain worked in his suit, twitching as he caged her in, fighting the might of an entire ocean.
His chest pressed her head flat against the rock, sparing her from being pummeled.
Not knowing how long they were under, Nora’s chest throbbed with the pressure of needing air.
This was how it had happened to Theo. She knew it.
Just as the blackness of oblivion pressed over her, Airik kicked off from the wall and pulled her with him.
He breached the receding water first, holding on to the collar of her suit.
She had the irrelevant but no less impressive thought that his stitching somehow survived the waves and his strength. His mother had taught him well.
He dragged her up the stairs until they both fell through the cutout of the wall, into the dry field above the cliff. Airik threw her onto her back with such force that water expelled from her lungs in painful spurts.
Nora scooted away from both him and the wall as fast as her battered body could move.
Water, trapped under the suit, pressed on her skin. She unzipped the suit and tore it off, leaving her in Airik’s large shirt. Hopelessly soaked but at least not trapped.
Airik’s body jerked, like a malfunctioning animatronic. He grunted with effort, trying to reach something behind his head. Whatever powered his suit snapped his arm back, causing him to cry out. Dropping to the ground, he braced against the rock to block the suit’s erratic force.
Nora sat rooted, watching as he used the sword to cut himself out of the suit. He crawled out, kicking the suit back, which was still convulsing like a frenzied snake. In the space of one breath, he lifted the suit—his arms flexing with effort from its weight—and threw it down the stairs.
He collapsed onto his back, obscured from her by tall grass.
For a long while, his gasping breath was all Nora could hear.
But she had seen enough. Flashes of black, silver, and white. She hadn’t dreamed of the angel. It had been him.
She wanted to call out to him, but a timidness struck her silent.
He sat up suddenly, then turned to her. He shook out his hair—silvery white and gleaming in the sun, like snow on a mountain peak. The sides were shorter, but the longer strands on top fell into his eyes and over his ears.
Despite all the millions of light-years between their worlds, however long they’d been separated while they evolved, his expression was unmistakably human.
Enraged.
His scowl deepened as he stood, retrieved his sword, and attached it to a belt at his hip. Grayish-white skin, a straight nose, and a strong jaw.
Then, he came for her.
She thought he’d be smaller, more manageable, without the armor.
Instead, without the suit stifling his form, he’d grown closer to a god in stature.
He was incredibly well muscled, his build evident beneath the tight black shirt he wore.
Below, he wore tight bicycle-style shorts that left little to the imagination, but Nora’s eyes were locked on his as he walked to her—distressingly slow, each step as if she were the one being walked off a plank.
There was the distant thought that she should run, but she was too transfixed by his eyes to move. They glowed bright, like turquoise-colored diamonds.
He didn’t stop until his shadow fell over her. “Get up,” he said, his voice thickened by fury.
Nora simply stared up at him, watching his mouth as it moved.
“Now,” he said again. “I will not ask two times.” Something glinted between his lips.
Fangs.
Oh god, she thought, a deep fear rattling within. Not the fangs of an animal or vampire, but a species better than humans, honed to predatory perfection. The world that might have shaped such a man as him flashed in her mind. She’d be eaten alive in such a place.
“A-Are you going to kill me?”
He jerked back, an unknowable look in his strange eyes that somehow seemed brighter than before. The muscle in his jaw tightened. “Afraid and stupid,” he said, radiating energy so powerful, it’d be easier to let it crush her.
“I-I’m —”
“What?” He crouched, caught her braid, then pulled so their faces were close and her scalp stung. “Sorry?”
Fuck, he was beautiful.
Without waiting for a response, he swung her over his shoulder as he’d done in the woods.
Snapping out of her temporary paralysis, angry that any of this was happening at all, she kicked her legs as hard as she could. His other hand grabbed her feet, killing her attempt to escape. He headed back toward his ship, not saying a word.
“You were struggling! You couldn’t carry both of us! I was trying to save you—”
He didn’t respond, only kept walking.
Panicked, she started to squirm. “I thought…I thought we wouldn’t make it. I’m—”
“Do not say sorry or okay. I am tired of those words from you.”
She stiffened against his back, her fists balling up. “You can’t do this,” she cried. “You can’t just pick me up like a caveman whenever you want.”
He repositioned her so she fit better across his shoulder. His clothes stuck to his back, rippling with strength as he carried her back to the ship.
“Put me down, please. I can walk the rest of the way.”
His fingers dug into her thighs and hip. She wanted to scream. Even angry, he found it in himself to ignore her.
Unable to tolerate his silence, and despite knowing she shouldn’t, Nora spoke. “You mean twice. Instead of saying two times, you can say twice. It sounds more natural—”
His hand came down in a slap across her ass, cutting her off. The pressure prickled her skin, almost painful but not quite, before giving way to a warm throbbing sensation. “No more talking!”
Heat rushed between her legs, stilling her. It hadn’t hurt. Not at all. And she knew, without a doubt, that had he wanted to, he could have made it hurt a lot.
Oh fuck, she thought, staring at his bare feet as he walked across the field. Her brain was broken. He’d spanked her. To shut her up. And she’d loved it.
This is normal, she thought. She’d been drugged, then nearly killed, and now nearly killed again. All of this was normal.
They were almost back to the ship when she felt the first drops of rain. It burned.
It wasn’t until a few more drops fell that she realized it wasn’t just the expected jolt of cold, falling raindrops. She shot up, nearly sending him off balance. “Is this acid rain?”
Airik took her hand roughly, swiping his thumb over the little red circles of irritation on her skin. He brushed his own cheek, rubbing the drops between his fingers. His skin was gray and unblemished.
He grimaced, revealing his fangs. Nora didn’t have time to feel fright or awe because he pushed her back against his shoulder, keeping his hand on her neck with firm pressure.
Metal rattled as he ran up the ramp. He didn’t set her down; instead, he rushed toward the back of his room.
“Oh, no! Not that fucking shower again.”
Her stomach lurched as he kicked the washroom door open.
She grabbed the doorway, trying to pull herself free. “It doesn’t hurt anymore,” she lied. “That shower is too hard—”
With one swift pull, he tore her free, her fingers painfully tearing away. “Wrong,” he said. “It was soft before. I will make it worse.” He dropped her into the stall.
“I’ll be okay. It’s not too bad! I need—”
He slammed the washroom door shut, leaning against it to catch his breath.
A shudder rolled down her spine, realizing he was going to get into the small stall with her. She held the door closed, but he pushed it aside—she hadn’t offered the least bit of resistance.
Not sparing her a look, he stepped into the stall, then turned on the water to full strength. He was right. This was so much worse.
Nora tried to open the door to get out, but he grabbed her arms and pushed them against the shower wall.
“I will do it if you do not. Clean.”
“Turn on the lights,” she said between gasps for air.
With a huff of annoyance, he tugged her bare arms straight, rubbing her down with large hands that wrapped entirely around her limbs.
“It’s better—it doesn’t burn anymore! Please lower the water power at least.”
Her mouth fell open as he put one arm beside her head and the other under her chin, pushing it up, forcing her to look at him.
Water blasted her already raw face. In the room’s half-light, he was a heaving shadow blocking everything but him. The water, which had been warm only seconds before, felt as if it were boiling the muscles off her bones.
“Your mind is broken. Wrong. Why?”
She tried to turn her face away, but he wouldn’t allow it.
“You want death. Dying. You almost kill us both.” He spoke slowly, as if she were the one having trouble understanding. “Tell me why. Now. I want to know.”
Airik’s eyes burned like two suns. She could no sooner escape his gaze than a planet could leave its sun’s orbit.
Her heart felt like it was cracking, exhausted. “I should have died anyway.” She felt her chin quiver in his hand. Fuck, she thought, hating herself for it. “Why won’t you let me?”
His eyes glinted. Nora was certain now that he could see her in the dark. The darkness posed no shield to his eyes. He could probably see her rotten essence in colors her human eyes could never even fathom.
“I saved you,” he said. “Was that wrong to do?” His gaze cut into her like razors.
Water assaulted her from all sides.
He pushed her chin up higher, stepping closer. “You want it, but death won’t catch you with me. Good for you or bad for you, I do not care.”
She opened her mouth to respond but immediately fell into a coughing fit, water spewing from her nose and mouth.
He flinched, his hand falling away from her face. The deluge softened as he swiped something over her head.
The water switched to cold. Without a bra—she hadn’t had a chance to put one on when Joe had come for her—she rushed to cover her chest. “I want to get out,” she said, shivering.
He went still above her. Even with icy water running over them both, she swore she saw steam rising off his shoulders and arms.
“Listen to me,” Airik said, quiet and firm. “I found you. I saved you. I did not let your life go, though it wanted to fade. You. Are. Mine. Until I am done with you. Until the Veynari comes. And then—” He pushed her jaw up, which had started to dip. “I don’t care what happens to you.”
Water dripped from his hair, down the perfect slope of his nose, landing on her cheeks and lips. The trails would burn long after the drops would evaporate.
“Say you understand.”
She nodded, sagging pathetically against the wall.
His dark form shifted as he slipped out, leaving Nora trembling and confused in the wet darkness, knowing that this was exactly what she deserved.