Chapter 20
Lively music carried through Tovuunshai—the strum of string instruments, the pounding of drums, the hum of voices weaving a wordless melody.
Tas and several winddancers sat near the humans, while many others mingled with the thornskulls, conversing, chittering, and eating like they’d been friends for all their lives.
Striking colors swirled as other winddancers danced, trailing long scarves of sheer silk through the air.
But all Lacey could do was stare at Sophia.
The brown-skinned woman sat crossed-legged on a blanket across from her, eyes shifting back and forth between Lacey and Cole, in a similar state of shock.
They hadn’t spoken much beyond introductions before Tas had led Lacey and her companions to their makeshift dens so they could drop off their things and clean up before joining the festivities.
While Garahk and the thornskulls opted to remain together in a larger structure, Cole and Lacey had selected smaller buildings, preferring to have some privacy.
Of course, Telok had simply followed her into the building she’d chosen and dropped his things next to hers like they belonged there, effectively claiming the den alongside her.
He’d looked at Lacey as though daring her to argue, but she’d kept silent, secretly delighting in it.
She’d been sleeping in his arms for the past five nights, and though she wasn’t about to admit it to him, she knew she wouldn’t have slept well without him against her.
Satisfied, he’d retrieved a blanket from his bag and hung it across the entryway with sticky silk, making the room immediately more intimate.
And then they’d been shown to what Tas had jokingly called the village waterfall—essentially a communal shower where they could wash away the grime and sweat of travel.
Numerous cisterns in the boughs above collected rainwater, which fed into a simple but effective system of aqueducts and spouts in the village, ensuring the winddancers didn’t have to venture to the jungle floor to fetch water.
Lacey had been in heaven as she’d taken a quick shower. Who cared that she’d done so with her clothes on? Just feeling that water flowing over her, just feeling clean, was divine.
“I…still can’t believe it,” Sophia said with a shake of her head. “When they came to my den and told me there were more humans here, it…it didn’t feel real. Didn’t feel possible. I thought it had to be a mistake, or that I’d misunderstood.”
“We felt the same,” Lacey said. “We thought we were the only ones who survived. We didn’t know if other parts of the ship crashed here too.”
“Do you know what happened? When I woke up, there was no power, and everyone was…”
Dead.
Though Sophia hadn’t spoken the word, Lacey felt it hanging in the air, heavy and oppressive. She’d seen the remains in many of the cryochambers when she’d woken up, and she’d known those were just a fraction of the ones who hadn’t survived.
Lacey shook her head. “All we know is that something struck the Somnium and our compartment fell here.”
Prompted by his unusual silence, she looked at Cole to find him sitting there, staring at Sophia, his food untouched. Smirking, Lacey leaned over and nudged him with her elbow.
Cole started and cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah.”
Sophia grinned as her eyes moved over Cole, who blushed before stuffing his mouth with a piece of meat.
Lacey could see why Cole was so out of sorts.
Sophia was a beautiful woman with large, sultry brown eyes, full lips, and thick, arched eyebrows.
Her long, dark brown hair was twisted up and pinned atop her head, with shorter wisps framing her face.
There was even a small cleft in her delicate chin.
She wore a slitted, yellow skirt and a bra-like top, which showed off her slim belly and toned arms.
“You said your compartment had no power. How did you wake up?” Lacey asked.
Sophia shook her head. “I don’t know. A glitch when the power went out, or maybe some kind of failsafe? All I remember was jolting awake in pitch black darkness, gasping for air like it had all been sucked from my lungs.”
Cole cringed. “Fuck. And I thought we had it bad.”
“It was an experience I’ll thankfully never have to repeat.”
Lacey couldn’t imagine enduring that kind of terror alone. Heck, she couldn’t even imagine what it had been like for Ivy, who’d first regained consciousness outside the wreckage, in the arms of a spider alien carrying her through an immense jungle.
Slipping a slice of fruit into her mouth, Lacey turned her head and scanned the crowd until she spotted Telok.
He stood on the outskirts of the gathering, beyond the light of the fire bowls the winddancers had lit, leaving his green markings to glow in the darkness.
His arms were folded over his chest, and his gaze roved ceaselessly, ever watching.
He’d often skipped occasions like this, but whenever he was present, he always seemed to take it upon himself to stand guard so others could relax and enjoy themselves.
His eyes met hers and halted. The change in them was immediate and staggering—they lit up like eight green flames, infernos of barely contained desire.
Lacey’s heart and breath quickened. The whole world fell away under the intensity of that blazing stare, which seared her with Telok’s consuming, raging need.
Lacey had caught glimpses of that need when it slipped through the cracks in his composure, and her body never failed to respond. Over the last couple of days, her thoughts kept returning to their time at the stream. To their kiss, to how intimately he’d touched her, how close they’d come to…
If there had been no one else near, would Telok have touched her pussy?
Would he have taken her?
Lacey’s core clenched.
Not the time or place, Lacey…
Damn it.
Though warmth suffused her cheeks, Lacey smiled and raised her hand, wiggling her fingers in a wave as she fought her growing arousal.
Telok’s mandibles shifted up subtly.
“You survived by yourself in a wreck with no power for two months?” Cole asked, calling Lacey’s attention back to the conversation. “That’s amazing.”
Sophia chuckled, dropping her gaze. “I don’t know about that.
It was…hard. Really, really fucking hard.
Thank God I remembered the emergency supplies, or I never would’ve made it.
I had to pry the door open to get out of that room, and everything else…
was just gone. All that was left was jagged metal overgrown with vines.
And then a freaking alien jungle outside.
Took me a couple weeks to work up the courage to leave the ship, but I knew the supplies I had wouldn’t last long.
“So I started to go out a little at a time, exploring. It was terrifying, but it was kind of exciting too. I found some fruit and used the scanner thing to check it, but I hesitated even though it said it was safe. Obviously, I didn’t die, and I didn’t get sick after eating it either.
I managed to set up some simple traps and catch some small animals, and I even took a few down with my spear…
which was just a knife tied to the end of a stick.
The emergency supplies dwindled, but I was learning not to rely on them.
“I won’t lie… There were a lot of times that I thought about giving up. What was the point? Why should I keep going when everyone else was dead? When there were so many pods filled with the bones of people who just...never woke up?”
Sophia looked to the side, brow pinching as the corners of her mouth turned down. “When my brother, Damián…” She drew in a deep breath and let it out heavily. “He died in the pod right next to mine while I was in stasis. He died, and I just slept.”
“I’m so sorry,” Cole said with a softness Lacey had rarely heard from him.
Lacey couldn’t find words. She’d never been close to her family, and she hadn’t had siblings.
Hadn’t even really had friends before all this.
But she guessed the pain of losing a sibling had to be similar to what she felt when she thought about losing any of the members of her little tribe, human and vrix alike.
When she thought about losing Telok.
“It’s all right.” Sophia lifted her eyes to Cole’s and gave him a small smile. “I’ve had a long time to grieve, and I know there’s nothing I could’ve done. Not for him or any of them.”
“Doesn’t make it hurt less,” he replied.
“No, it doesn’t. We joined the Initiative together.
I was a bank teller, doing the nine to five and barely scraping by.
Damián was a contractor, getting construction work wherever he could, and had finally had his divorced finalized.
He’d been miserable in that marriage for so long, and both of us were just so worn down by life that we decided to make a change together. Fresh starts for the both of us.”
“And we get to have that, even if it’s not what we thought it would be,” Lacey said quietly. “But it’s not fair so many others didn’t get the chance.”
Sophia shook her head. “It’s not fair. Nothing ever really is, is it?
But it was my brother that kept me going.
I kept hearing his voice telling me not to give up, to be strong.
He was always there for me, helping me with homework, encouraging me when I had a test coming up, cheering for me at sports games.
Celebrating my every little accomplishment, even when they seemed so insignificant.
He would have wanted me to live. So despite how hard it was, and how alone I felt, I kept going. ”
Tas leaned toward Sophia and placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “You are strong. Your brother’s spirit surely floods with pride and love when he looks upon you, Sophia.”
Covering his hand with her own, Sophia smiled at the winddancer before facing Lacey and Cole again. “I think it was Tas showing up that kept me from losing my mind. Though I found him completely terrifying at first, I started to look forward to his visits every day.”
The winddancer huffed. “I am not terrifying.”