Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
The sound hit Arin first. It was a dull, muffled rumble crescendoing to a roar. A wave of pressure followed, a solid mass of moving air that hit her in the back.
She looked over her shoulder and saw a mass of flame. The air was igniting, billowing out in a burning orange cloud.
It was strangely mesmerizing.
Searing heat slapped her in the face, and as Arin looked into the inferno, time slowed to a crawl.
She became aware of the harsh sound of her rasping breath through the crude filter of her respirator.
She became aware of her heartbeat, of her pulse thudding loudly in her ears as she tried to run, but her feet were frozen to the ground; no, actually, it wasn’t that she was frozen, it was just that she was too fucking slow for what needed to happen next.
Arin was wading through molasses, but the flames were moving in real-time.
Perhaps this exquisite hyper-awareness was what happened just before death. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t panicked. She wasn’t falling into the pits of despair. All she saw were the beautiful, hypnotizing red-and-orange flames rolling towards her.
Painful longing filled her, sharp and bittersweet. She would never get to see Rykal again. They’d found something incredible amongst the stars, something she’d never have thought would be possible between his kind and her, a human.
She’d wanted to explore this unnamed thing further, teasing it out until it opened like a flower, unfurling from bud to blossom.
But now, death was before her, and she was about to be swallowed into the afterlife.
Rykal.
At least she could die thinking of what might have been.
All around her, people were screaming and turning to run, having also been bitten by the slow-motion bug.
It was hot and noisy, and all she could see were the blinding flames. Heat seared the sensitive skin of her face as a black blur shot out from the flames, and Arin was swept up into the arms of something dark and impossibly fast.
Rykal.
The inferno was at his back, nipping at his heels, chasing them with savage hunger, but Rykal was always one step ahead, moving so fast that he seemed more machine than Kordolian.
His legs pumped, his arms flexed, his chest heaved, and they shot down the corridor until they reached a place where the air was thin.
Deprived of oxygen, the rolling, raging inferno started to lose momentum.
Rykal’s features were concealed beneath his menacing black visor, but Arin could hear him gasping. Still, he ran, not once slowing his pace, never faltering as he took them farther and farther away from certain death.
There was wind in the tunnel now, which was strange, considering the freighter was a closed environment.
The temperature dropped quickly as they escaped the fire, going from searing hot to icy cold in just a few strides.
The flames dissipated as the air became thinner, eventually disappearing, as if a bucket of cold water had been poured on them.
There was no oxygen here, but at least the lights worked. They flickered as Rykal shot past.
Still, Rykal ran. He was truly inhuman, with a body made from the stuff of nightmares and a face made for carnal sin. Only he had the audacity to snatch her from the jaws of fate.
Once the threat had well and truly disappeared, he stopped, looking back and forth down the corridor.
Arin pressed her hand against his chest as he set her down.
No movement.
He wasn’t breathing at all.
And here she was, comfortably sitting in his arms with sweet oxygen streaming into her lungs. Arin pulled off her respirator and held it out to him. “Don’t forget to breathe,” she said softly.
Rykal looked down at her through his visor. She no longer thought he looked terrifying in his full armor. He was just… Rykal.
Slowly, his faceless black helmet melted away, revealing his strained features. Faint tendrils of smoke rose from this black armor, teased out by the frigid air. His dark lips were pressed together in a thin line, and there were shadows under his eyes.
“Breathe,” Arin said again, holding her breath as Rykal took the precious oxygen source from her hands and held it to his face, inhaling deeply. The respirator was connected to a condenser unit that Arin had strapped to her body.
Relief flooded through her as she watched him take life-sustaining air.
“That gas in the corridor was highly flammable,” he said, his eyes widening as he took in her appearance.
He brought his hand up to the side of her face and caressed her cheek with his fingers.
To Arin’s surprise, they were bare, but even though his touch was gentle, it stung like hell. She flinched.
He handed the respirator back to her. “That’s all I need for now.”
Arin was already craving air. She couldn’t hold her breath for all that long. She held it to her face and inhaled deeply. “You’re hurt,” he said gently, withdrawing his fingers from her face.
Arin winced. “A few superficial burns, that’s all.” She closed her eyes as a horrible realization hit her. “But the others are dead, aren’t they?”
At first, Rykal’s expression bordered on callous. Anger flickered in his golden eyes, but it dimmed as he looked at Arin. “I am sorry,” he said finally.
Arin dropped her face into her hands and let out a cry of frustration. This was the very thing she’d been so desperate to avoid. Too many had already been lost, and now these soldiers’ lives had been claimed by the disintegrating freighter.
They’d been sent to rescue her, and she couldn’t help but feel responsible for their deaths.
Something gentle dropped onto her shoulder.
Rykal’s hand. “We have to go,” he said slowly, and it was the sound of his voice that forced her to pull herself together.
She knew he didn’t care much about the dead humans, but at least he’d made the effort to acknowledge her sadness. He would never be human, but he’d shown he was capable of learning empathy.
“Now, how do we leave this place, Sergeant? The environment is volatile, and I don’t want you to remain here any longer.”
A series of dull booms shook the freighter, shaking the walls and floor. Overhead pipes rattled, and there was a great groan as the freighter listed slightly to one side.
Rykal wrapped his arms around her as the floor tilted diagonally, preventing her from falling
“The fire must have ignited the gas in the pipes.” Cold dread filled her.
This thing was indeed a floating death-trap.
She thought hard and fast. Her rescue team had probably come in on a small, fast craft.
But they wouldn’t have been able to enter any of the docking bays without someone in navigation operating the airlocks.
That was the standard security setup for a freighter like this.
“I’m guessing there’s a getaway craft hovering somewhere outside.
” The logistics of getting onto such a vessel would be tricky.
First, they would have to convince the pilot to let them on.
Then, they would have to attempt a quick space transfer.
Without the proper equipment, the wrong move could send her careening off into space.
Maneuvering in zero Gs was always risky.
Rykal inclined his head, a strange expression on his face.
After a while, Arin realized someone was communicating with him.
He seemed to have some sort of hidden comm device - an implant maybe - that allowed him to communicate with his comrades at will.
Rykal replied tersely in Kordolian, and Arin found the strange, lyrical sounds of his native language incredibly sexy as they dropped from his lips.
Shit. She shouldn’t be thinking about such things at a time like this.
“My people are coming back to get us,” he informed her. “I believe the first docking bay’s airlock failed to close properly. We will go down there and wait.”
Arin nodded, studying him carefully. Even though he acted normally and spoke normally, he wasn’t breathing at all.
His chest was perfectly still. It was slightly unnerving.
He was like a living silver statue, carved from unbreakable stone.
She removed the respirator from her face and handed it to him. “Don’t forget to breathe.”
Rykal gently pushed the apparatus away. “I can last long enough without it.” His look was one of mild surprise, as if her concern for him were something out of the ordinary.
Arin wasn’t used to being looked after either, but when Rykal worried about her, it only felt natural.
“Let’s go.” He drank her in with his luminous golden eyes, handing her his soul in a glance.
He showed her everything: his worry, his anger, his darkness, his light, his emptiness.
And he invited her in.
“Come.”
Her cheeks stung, her throat burned, and her legs felt like jelly, but all of those things faded into the background as she took his hand.
Arin had stared death in the face before being snatched from its jaws by her lover. She wouldn’t die here. There was too much they still had to do.