CHAPTER TWELVE
Ash
Ash felt funny. She couldn’t put her finger on it. Probably, she was just tired. She and Zade had had a lot of sex, vigorous sex, and it was way more exercise than she was used to since arriving on the Raplan-B. Yes, she was tired.
While Zade bent over screens at his workstation, Ash lay down on her reju and let the soft, warm gel support her.
The door between the two rooms remained open, and the wall dividing them was clear, so she was able to watch him.
He tended to scrape his fingers through his blond hair and shake his head when he didn’t like the result of a test. She had gained some intuition when it came to him, so she knew when he was frustrated.
He moved between the screens and his large laboratory space, where tubes and machines blinked away. She drifted to sleep and awoke later to see him leaning over her, checking the results of the full-body scan he’d just run that were displayed on the screen before them.
“I’m fine, Zade,” she murmured.
His brows were furrowed. “Your temperature is slightly elevated.”
“Sure. This bed is warm.” What was he worried about? “And I just woke up.”
He peered down at her. “How are you feeling?”
She leaned up and captured his lips with hers, drawing him down for a deep kiss. “Fine.”
He drew back, eyes gleaming with a now familiar hunger. Still, a twinge of worry remained. “I am glad to hear it.”
He looked to her monitors, but Ash put her fingers to his cheek and turned his face to hers. “Have you made any progress?”
“Yes.” He backed off, arms crossed. “I have narrowed the possible species of the creature to four. There is no good news there, as all four are ravenous and brutal and require different methods to kill them.” He tilted his head.
“This creature devours some of its victims immediately, but bites others, resulting in a slow breakdown of the flesh. It is ideal for the creature to return to later and eat already partially digested. So if it is any consolation, I believe your survival was not accidental. You were intentionally left alive, for a meal to be consumed at a later time. We cannot be too careful.”
“That sounds horrible,” she said, swallowing thickly.
“The compounds in the saliva are all slow-working toxins.” A shadow of worry crossed his features. “I hope we were able to clear all of it from your system.”
“I’ve been walking around here for weeks,” she said, sitting up and stretching. “I think I would have gotten sick by now, don’t you?”
He stroked his chin and strode to his workstation, checking the progress of the tests he was running. “I do not know.”
She followed, wandering over to the complex twist of tubes and humming compartments. Digital readouts offered the statistics of the contents of each. “All these are the tests?”
“Yes. There are many, many species in this quadrant, and we are not the only aliens making trips to your planet.” He gave her a rueful shrug, then turned back to his lab.
“Are you serious?” A chill ran over her skin.
“Unfortunately, yes. Although we have made it clear that Earth is not a free-for-all, as you would call it, we cannot prohibit others from scouting it unless we claim it as ours. That, I think, would not be a welcome status for your people. Whatever is on the surface of Earth is a mistake and we will rectify it.” He unhooked a tube from a port and slid a clear box from a slot.
The interior was a vibrant orange. Despite being sealed, the smell of sulfur assaulted Ash’s senses.
She covered her nose and jerked away. “God, that stinks. What is it?”
“It is…” Zade’s expression sharpened. “Is something wrong?”
Ash was staring into nothingness as memories surfaced. “That smell…”
He frowned. “It is not pleasant.”
Her head spun, and she was back there, in the Colorado lodge with those four women. There was wine and a fireplace and laughter. Then, it all turned to fear and blood. She remembered the large creature busting through the glass, all sharp claws and flat black eyes and that smell…
“The creature that attacked me smelled like that,” she said, pointing at the container. “Sulfur.”
Zade’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure?”
She nodded, swallowing hard. “Positive.”
He braced his arms on either side of her, staring directly into her face. “Are you recalling what happened the night you were attacked?”
Ash pulled in a lungful of air and closed her eyes. “I—I think so. Oh God, it was horrible.”
Hands closed around her shoulders, firm and wide. “Tell me. Anything could be helpful to the tracker currently on Earth trying to find this creature.”
She felt a sob welling in her throat. Not remembering had been so much less awful.
Knowing her retreat companions had been killed was easier to accept than hearing their frantic screams in her mind.
Nevertheless, she had the opportunity to help prevent it from taking more lives.
She took a deep breath and told Zade what the creature looked like, smelled like, sounded like.
The way it moved and its eerie speed. How easily it bit her, then threw her.
How very, very alien it was. As she spoke, Zade’s face darkened.
She ran out of words, and energy, and he wrapped her in his strong arms, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
Amazing, how safe she felt there—comforted, supported, cherished.
Ash had been certain she’d never feel that way again.
She settled into his warmth. Aside from being an alien, Zade was the opposite of Shaun in so many ways.
Calm, measured, somewhat ruthless, Zade made his way in his world by conquering each challenge that came to him.
Shaun had flitted from thing to thing, always in and out of master’s degree programs. Always ready to jump at the next idea that came to him.
And she loved him, but she could never do this: lean into him and let herself be held.
“Thank you,” she breathed into Zade’s chest.
She almost felt his frown. “I am the one who should be doing the thanking.”
“No, you knew that I needed this,” she said, snuggling into him. “Just…this.”
A low rumble sounded from his chest. “I am your mate, Ash. I will always know what you need.”
Why did that sound so comforting? Not long ago, those words would have freaked her out. “Did I help?” she wanted to know. “Do you know what that creature was?”
His hold tightened. “Yes.”
She pulled away and looked up into his turbulent eyes. “And?”
“Of my list of possible species, the one that bit you is the one I feared the most.” He pulled up a file on the largest screen. It displayed a model of the creature that attacked her.
“That’s it!” she pointed to the image with a shiver.
“This is called a Gylbala-3R. Gylbala4 is the fourth planet from a star in a system quite far from here, and 3R is the creature’s classification.
It does not have a name, as Gylbala4 is not inhabited by creatures advanced enough to name them, and conditions there are too extreme to be colonized by space-faring life form.
It is visited by research vessels, however.
” He rubbed his chin. “The strange thing is that these creatures are typically much smaller. Your description is exact, however.”
“So a giant version grew on Earth.” Ash sucked in a breath. “How did it get to Earth?”
“That is a good question. With this one appearing so very large, it is possible that it is a genetically mutated version. Or possibly a mechanically enhanced form, being tested. One of our enemies, the Zelopian species, frequent that quadrant. They could easily have experimented on Gylbala-3Rs.”
“Mechanically enhanced.” She mulled that over. “Like an android?”
He frowned. “Possibly. That would indicate that its appearance on your planet was intentional.
“Despite the great size of the creature you saw, Gylbala-3Rs are no larger than a piece of sand when they spawn.” He sighed.
“So on the other hand, it is possible that this Gylbala-3R became attached to a piece of gear or clothing of an alien who later visited Earth and there, it grew. But that does not account for the size of it.” He shook his head. “We do not know.”
Ash swallowed hard, processing this new information. “Why is it the one you feared the most?”
His gaze swept her face, and not in a lover way, but in a clinical way. “Because they are extraordinarily toxic.”
“Do you think…” she paused, curled her fingers into his sides, “the poison is still in me?”
“I will run some scans and blood tests,” he replied carefully.
“However, I am hopeful that if you were going to grow ill, you would have by now.” He turned to his workstation and eased away from her.
“I will return to you in a moment, but I must inform the tracker of our findings, and the possibility that it is either mutated or part machine and that an outside force could be controlling it.”
Ash waved him off, fighting a wave of dizziness. “Of course. Please.”
She got off the reju and moved toward the washroom.
A splash of water to the face never hurt, and she could use a drink of water.
Her mouth felt incredibly dry. She’d gone two steps when the dizziness hit her harder than before.
She reached back and grabbed the edge of the reju to steady herself.
The room swam before her eyes, threatening to turn the whole space upside down on her.
She gasped and closed her eyes. It was the stress, she told herself.
The memories of that night had hit her hard. Of course she’d be dizzy.
But it wasn’t going away, and truth be told, it wasn’t the first time she’d felt it.
It had floated at the edges of her vision when she’d been walking through the Baylan park and sometimes during her physical therapy.
Now, however, it had a strong grip on her.
There was no moving, since she couldn’t tell where the floor was.
Zade was at his workstation on the other side of the glass, speaking through his v-link to the tracker.
When she opened her mouth to call for him, nothing came out.
Then, all of a sudden, her stomach made a great heave and she threw up all over the floor.
Through her swimmy vision, she looked down in horror to see her vomit was black.
Her grip on the reju was failing. Darkness crept in from the edges, tunneling her vision. Everything was becoming muddled, fuzzy. Vaguely she heard Zade call to her. Arms came around her as she was falling, sinking, fading away. Into blackness.