Chapter 63
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
NORA
With hours remaining before they took off, Nora decided to take another shower because it was something to do.
The metal-walled room was simple, just another variation of the horrible fun house of cold and gray she found herself in.
On one side was a short toilet similar to what she knew, only it lacked a base.
A glass cabinet was filled with teeth-cleaning sticks and dozens of tubes filled with green gel—probably soap.
On the other side was a glass-enclosed shower stall.
After locking the door the way Airik had shown her, she stripped out of the red jumpsuit he’d given her and put it in the box that would supposedly refresh her clothes. Not knowing how to operate the shower controls, she swiped the panel and hoped for the best.
As Joe had told her, hope wasn’t a strategy, so she ended up standing in the corner of the stall as a nearly scalding stream of water poured from the ceiling.
She washed up by jumping in and out of the stream, grateful the water hadn’t been so hot that it blistered her skin.
Once finished, she wrung the excess water from her hair, coiled it, and wrapped it into a bun.
A braid would have been better, but Airik had been the last to do her hair.
Like everything related to her hair, she had the foolish yet no less persistent belief that if she braided it herself, it’d break the wonderful spell they’d been under.
Just as she secured the top button of the ridiculous red jumpsuit that hugged her hips and chest too tightly, the shower lights went out.
She blinked, her fingers still frozen over the button at her throat.
Only the door’s power panel remained on, casting a red glow throughout the room, like those old-time photo development rooms.
She thought she caught a large shadow shifting outside the door, but the lights were off in the hall, too.
“Airik?” she called out.
There was no answer.
Being stuck in a dimly lit washroom was the last place she wanted to be.
Trying not to hyperventilate, she reached for the right icon to unlock the door. Before she could activate the door, it slid open. A large body filled the doorway.
Xallix blocked her way. His clean-shaven, blue-gray head reflected the red light, except for the jagged black markings covering it. They were uniform in shape—maybe tattoos. They didn’t look like the brands she’d seen on Torren.
“H-Hello,” she said, idiotically.
His mouth opened, revealing rows of sharp teeth like a shark’s. He was trying to smile, she realized, but the tough skin of his lips didn’t curl in the right way.
Despite the heat of the still hot and humid room, goose bumps rose on her arms.
“I’m sorry,” she hurried to say. “I was just leaving. You can use the shower if you need it, though something’s wrong with the lights.”
Widening his stance so Nora couldn’t get past, he pulled a small black box from his pocket, tapped the screen to turn it on, then tucked it back in his pocket, out of view.
He started to speak. The box recited English words in a metallic, androgynous voice, audible through the fabric of his pants, the only clothing he wore.
“I approve of your appearance. Healthy. Nice.”
Nora’s stomach clenched. Something about the translator speaking English felt wrong, but she couldn’t think past the fact that Airik and Torren were all the way on the other side of the ship, in the command deck.
Unable to move, she stared at his pocket. Airik had nearly killed him, or at least castrated him. The only reason he still stood before her, whole, was that Airik had been trying to behave. Xallix couldn’t be so stupid as to try to engage with her again.
Maybe this was just curiosity. He’d take a look at the strange human, and once he was satisfied, he’d leave her be.
She moved around him, but he matched her step, stopping her. In the small, hot space, instability vibrated the air, prickling on her skin.
“Come with me,” he said, reaching to grab her arm. “Do not worry—I have fooled the eye. No one will know.”
“No.” She stepped back until her back pressed against the wall. “I know you’ve probably never seen a human,” she said, trying to sound firm. “You can look. I—I’m okay with that, but no touching.”
He prowled after her, stopping just short of stepping on her toes. “All right. I can do what I want to you here.”
Alarm blared inside her, and she pulled her shirt collar tight. “N-No,” she said again, raising her voice and projecting it to the box.
“The man you let touch you—his blood is weak and tainted,” Xallix said. “He doesn’t deserve to play with you as I do. Open your clothes, female. I want to see how many burns he’s earned.”
“He didn’t touch me,” she rasped.
Xallix blinked once, then threw his head back laughing. After a second, he stopped just as abruptly, looking straight down at her. “Then I will savor the first bite.”
Before Nora could scream, a hand clamped around her throat, silencing the small squeak she made before air was cut off. His hand covered her entire throat, his fingers touching behind her neck.
Her hands flew to his, scratching and shoving. Her palms stung. The skin on his forearms was somehow cutting her, as if armored with small razors.
“Don’t resist me—it won’t hurt as much.” He glanced at his arm, covered in dark smears—blood from her injured palms. “You poor thing, as fragile as the others.”
The red light on the panel let her see how he flicked the air with his tongue. “I did not think I’d ever find a human I’d want to”—the translator made an unintelligible sound. “Makes my years of suffering worth something. What an unexpected—”
Something beeped from inside his pants pocket.
Keeping one hand on her throat to keep her silent, Xallix pulled out the same black glass she’d seen before. A hologram of a sphere projected above it, with topography and landmarks—a map. Blinking at the edge of the display field, a dot barreled toward the larger sphere.
He clicked something on the screen. The lights in the shower flickered, and even though blood rushed in her ears, she felt something pounding inside the walls of the ship. Once. Twice. Three times.
It stopped.
Then the room went dark again.
Groaning, he put it back into his pocket and sighed. “I’ve done enough, working in the shadows for the greater good. And you’re such a small thing. I don’t think I’ll bother saving any for the others.”
Others?
Nora struggled as best as she could. He leaned down and licked her blood from his arm.
A scream, primal in its purpose, rose in her throat. But he pressed down hard, choking out the hoarse sound.
“You’re untrained. But I’ve learned that pain tames a human fast—”
The red light around Xallix dimmed. A scarred hand came around his shoulder, so quick that Nora could barely register it in the darkness. But her heart pumped hard, knowing who it would be.