Rendash shifted to lay in the shadows, bracing two hands on the floor. The sounds of air rushing around the vehicle, the thrumming engine, and the wheels humming over the road were constant indicators of movement, but looking at the night sky through the far window almost created the sense that they weren’t moving at all. Those unfamiliar stars hung motionless; they stared at him, mocked him, twinkled with cosmic mirth.

Detachment.

Those old teachings could only go so far now. He’d won some room to rest, even if the inadequately sized seat forced him into an uncomfortable position with arms and legs folded up awkwardly, but how far could he truly hope to get?

He had no allies, no weapons apart from his own body, no idea of where he was, and only a vague direction in which to head. He and his Umen’rak had often operated on alien worlds without reliable intelligence, but there’d always been some enemy to face, some invader to repel.

Earn the trust of the locals if you have a common enemy.

That wouldn’t work here. His only enemies here were human, and there was a chance, however small, that they were the only species on the planet. He couldn’t fight them all. At the moment, he couldn’t even handle a few. He needed human assistance to navigate their world, but why would any of them betray their own on behalf of a stranded aligarii warrior who’d already killed several of them?

And yet here was this human — this Zoey. She’d regained her composure quickly despite her apparent fear and had already gone so far as to demand assurance from him as though she had leverage in the situation.

But she does have leverage. Even if she doesn’t fully realize it, I’m at her mercy, not the other way around.

She didn’t conduct herself like any human he’d met — she was certainly nothing like the people who’d held him captive — and she possessed an internal strength that seemed rare in most intelligent species.

And her scent! It was alien and familiar at once, bearing a hint of the fragrant flowers that blossomed in the jungles of his youth. It was alluring, provocative, and had subtly dominated the air inside the vehicle since he’d moved close enough to smell its fullness.

He’d never been so intrigued by a female’s scent, but he couldn’t allow curiosity to dictate his actions.

There was only one question regarding Zoey that needed to be answered.

Can she be trusted?

He glanced up at her seat. Her body was blocked from his view, but tendrils of her brown hair — most of which was gathered in a messy knot atop her head — hung over the headrest, and her pale neck was visible between the thin metal supports. Her skin had felt strange against his arm; smooth and soft, so delicate he thought it might tear if he ran his scales over it too harshly.

Rendash’s fingers twitched; he longed to brush his fingertips over her bare flesh again, to learn its feel properly.

What was he thinking? She was a human female, a member of the species that had held him captive for four of their years, the species that was hunting him like an animal. She was his enemy. It didn’t matter if there might’ve been sympathy in her voice when she’d offered her condolences for his lost Umen’rak. It didn’t matter that she said she’d help him.

What obligation did she have to him? What did these creatures know of honor?

Honor…

Those questions were irrelevant; he would keep his word. If she did not betray him, he would keep her safe, even from her own kind.

“Rendash?”

Her voice broke through his thoughts, serving as a reminder of just how tired he was — normally, he’d never drift so deep into thought that he lost awareness of his surroundings. That was an easy way to get killed.

“What is it?” he asked.

“There’s something up ahead.”

Grasping her seat, he pulled himself up to look between the front chairs. There were more ground vehicles stopped ahead, their rear lights lit bright red. Zoey slowed her vehicle as they approached the congestion. Just beyond the line of transports, flashing lights bathed the surrounding wasteland in blue and red.

“What is this?” Rendash asked.

Zoey leaned forward. “Looks like a police checkpoint. I…I think they are searching the cars.” She turned her face toward him. “What are we going to do? They’ll see you.”

Thanks to the light from the vehicle behind them, he was finally offered a true glimpse of her features. Long, dark lashes framed her blue-gray eyes; those eyes were her most striking feature, wide and clear, snaring him within their depths. She had gently curved lines of hair on her brow over her eyes and full, pink lips that were currently downturned.

She was as bizarre looking as any human he’d seen, and somehow infinitely more appealing. There was a softness to her appearance to which he was wholly unaccustomed, a softness that made him want to touch, a softness that did nothing to diminish her underlying vitality.

“I will remain low,” he said. “Tell me when we near the view of the humans searching.”

At that moment, his life was entirely in her hands. Her small, soft, human hands. He held no illusions as to his ability to fight or flee on his own without significant recovery time. His strength was spent. His connection to his nyros was still disrupted by the human concoctions lingering in his system.

If she chose to betray him now, Rendash would be doomed.

“Oh God, I’m such a terrible liar,” she said in a rush. “They’re going to catch us. It’s not like I have tinted windows, Rendash. They’re going to see you and then they’re going to—”

“Quiet, human,” he snapped.

She obeyed. He felt a moment’s guilt for the wide-eyed, vulnerable, nervous expression that overcame her face.

Control. Detachment.

“They will not see me, and you do not need to worry over it,” he said, taking a gentler tone. “Be…honest without revealing anything. Do you understand what I mean?”

She breathed slowly in and out several times. “I’ll try.”

“Remember, Zoey, my life depends upon your honor.”

“More like it depends on my acting. No pressure either way, right?” She groaned. “We’re so screwed.”

Based on his understanding of screwed, her statement was nonsensical, but he didn’t waste time asking for clarification. Humans were often imprecise in their use of words. He couldn’t be sure if it was a result of their language’s complexity or part of that complexity.

He lay back, pressing as much of his body as he could into the narrow space between the rear and front seats — which turned out to be two arms, his left hip, and a thigh. The position was uncomfortable, but it would reduce the chances of the humans detecting any faint anomalies in the light while he was cloaked. Some creatures were more sensitive to such phenomena, and he wasn’t sure where human eyesight ranked in that regard.

“Okay. We’re getting close,” Zoey said. “Just a few more minutes.”

The flashing lights shed alternating blue and red glows across the ceiling of the vehicle. Rendash’s field of view was limited to the ceiling, the back of Zoey’s seat, and bits of dark sky visible through the rear windows. The situation was far from ideal, but he could do little about it now.

“Oh, shit. There’s a cop walking this way.” Zoey spoke rapidly, voice at a higher pitch. “He’s got a flashlight and it looks like he’s spot-checking the cars as he goes. There’s no way he’s not going to—”

“Control, Zoey. Control your emotions. Detach yourself from the moment. I am trusting you, and you must trust me.”

“Control,” she breathed. “I can do this. I can.”

Drawing upon whatever concentration he could muster, Rendash created a cloaking field; it crackled and hummed around him as though it would fail at any moment. He clenched his jaw and willed it to hold. Immense heat flared inside him.

The vehicle eased forward and stopped again.

“Oh my God, he’s going to see you,” Zoey rasped.

Several moments later, there was a tap upon her window. It was followed by a soft hum, and the outside sounds grew louder — the sigh of ground transports passing on the opposite side of the road, voices from humans in other vehicles, the wind flowing over the wasteland, and the distant beat of helicopters.

“Do you have identification, ma’am?” asked a male human.

Rendash tensed; this was the moment in which everything would fall apart. He wouldn’t to be taken again. He could only hope his nyros would be responsive enough to allow him a worthy final stand.

Zoey’s heart raced. Her nerves were frayed, and she swore she was dripping gallons of sweat. Couldn’t the cop see Rendash? Why hadn’t he said anything about the giant, green alien filling the backseat of her little car?

She stared up at the cop with a wide, strained smile, probably showing way too many teeth. “Yeah. It’s in my purse. Can I…can I get it?”

The cop nodded and turned his flashlight toward the backseat for a moment. Zoey froze, heart lodged in her throat.

Oh God, this is it. I’m done for. Rendash is done for.

Shouldn’t she want them to find the alien? She could tell them she was forced into it against her will, that she was a hostage, that she’d been given no choice but to help him. She could tell them everything, and because she hadn’t done anything wrong they’d let her carry on with her life. She’d resume her trip to Des Moines as though nothing had happened.

But what would become of Rendash?

She stopped her mind from going there fully; the half-imagined torture sessions she’d conjured up before still weighed heavily upon her.

How could I live with the guilt of knowing I willingly allowed him to be tortured or killed?

Zoey turned away from the cop to reach into her purse. Careful not to turn her head, she shifted her eyes to the side as far as they could go to glance at the back seat.

Her heart stopped.

I’ve lost my fucking mind.

Rendash was gone. Like, gone-gone. There wasn’t a trace of the alien anywhere, except… There was a light coating of dust across the back seat, and the cushions sported large depressions as though something heavy was settled atop them. Had it always looked so broken-in?

“Quite a mess you have back there,” the cop said.

Him calling attention to it allowed Zoey to turn her head toward the back without worry.

Yep, just seat depressions and dust. No Rendash.

Zoey swallowed, and let out an uneasy laugh. “Yeah. I was babysitting a coworker’s dog this weekend, and well, you know how dogs are! They love to roll around in the dirt.” She grabbed her wallet, flipped it open, and turned back to the cop, forcing her smile to remain in place.

A dog, Zoey? Think maybe he’ll notice the total lack of fur?

“Here you go,” she said cheerfully, handing him her wallet.

Frowning, the cop turned his attention back to her and took the wallet, shining his flashlight down onto it. She realized only then that he was wearing sunglasses. The lights weren’t that bright, were they? Who wore sunglasses at night?

She forced her mind to abort that train of thought before the damned song popped into her head.

Control, Zoey. Not the time or place for eighties pop.

“Where are you heading tonight, Miss Weston?” he asked.

“I’m making my way to a friend’s.”

“And where would that be?”

“Iowa. Des Moines, Iowa.”

“Quite a way to go,” he said flatly, shifting the flashlight’s beam to her face. Zoey squinted against the blinding glare. Ass. “Any passengers tonight, or are you making that trip all alone?”

He swept the light over the back seat again before moving it toward the passenger seat.

“Unless you can see my invisible friend,” Zoey said with a nervous chuckle, “I’d say I’m traveling all by my lonesome.”

He stared at her. At least she assumed he did, as his eyes were hidden. “Have you seen anything out of the ordinary tonight, Miss Weston?”

“Out of the ordinary? What would be considered out of the ordinary, these days?” she asked, speaking a little faster than necessary. They really were looking for Rendash! “Whole bunch of helicopters zipping around, making a bunch of noise and shining searchlights everywhere. Don’t see that every day, right?” She grinned.

The officer’s face was as unmoving and cold as stone. After several uncomfortable seconds, he turned toward some of the other cops and signaled them. They began to direct traffic, albeit slowly, around Zoey’s car.

“I’m going to need you to shut off the engine, remove the key, and step out of the car, ma’am,” he said when he looked back at her.

The hair on the back of Zoey’s neck stood on end as fear slithered down her spine. A chill raced through her body. “Um, what is all this about, anyway, Officer…?”

He took a long step back from the door and dropped a hand to the pistol on his hip. “Out of the vehicle. Now.”

“Okay! Okay! I’m getting out.” She turned the key, pulled it from the ignition, and tossed it beside her purse. It was a struggle not to look at the back seat again; it’d be too obvious now. She opened the door and stepped out, keeping her hands up.

He waved his flashlight toward the hood of the car. “Move to the front of the vehicle and place both hands flat on the hood.”

Zoey did as she was told, despite the fearful tremors in her limbs. What had she done wrong? What would they do to her?

Once she was in position, the officer leaned into the open door for a moment, reaching down to pop the trunk. She felt him glare at her from behind his sunglasses before he walked to the back of the car. It shook slightly as he shifted around the contents — two suitcases of clothes and toiletries, the little photo album, her box of romance novels, and her favorite blanket.

After a minute or so, the officer slammed the trunk closed and walked back to the front of the car. Zoey peered up at him but was careful not to lift her hands off the hood.

“I’m going to ask you one more time. Have you seen anything out of the ordinary tonight? Hitchhikers, cars stopped on the side of the road, anything? There is a very dangerous man at large, and your silence will make it that much harder for us to catch him.”

“I haven’t seen anything,” Zoey replied, fingers curling on top of the hood.

“Your behavior suggests otherwise.”

“What behavior?” she demanded. “I gave you my ID, answered your questions, and now you got me bent over my damn car like a criminal? I lost my fucking job today, got a notice that my landlord’s about to evict me, and found out my boyfriend was cheating on me. Please excuse me if my behavior is unusual, but I say I’m holding it together pretty damn well, all things considered.”

Zoey glared at the officer. Apparently, she’d straightened to stand with her fists clenched at her sides at some point during her blow up.

Whoops.

The cop’s jaw muscles bulged, and his hand drifted toward his gun again. He hesitated, tilting his head slightly as though listening to something. “Negative. She’s clear. Just got a nasty attitude.” Another pause. “Copy.”

Jerk.

“Back in your vehicle, Miss Weston,” he finally said. “Move along.”

Keeping her distance from Officer Asswipe, she got back into the car and slammed the door. She held a hand out the open window. “I need my wallet back. Please.”

Ignoring her extended hand, he tossed the wallet through the window to land in her lap. “Drive safe.” Before she could hit him with a scathing — and foolhardy — remark, he turned and walked toward the next car.

Zoey stuffed her wallet into her purse, grabbed her keys, and buckled up. She started the car and glared at the cop’s back as she rolled up her window. Throwing the shifter into drive, she promptly got the fuck out of there.

Once she’d passed the barricade and the police car lights were fading in the distance, Zoey was slapped in the face with the realization that they’d made it through. She released a shaky breath as relief flowed through her. “We did it.”

She lifted a hand to adjust the rearview mirror, angling it to see into the back seat. Her eyes widened as a dark form materialized there. Was she crazy? She wasn’t sure how to reconcile his appearing-disappearing act otherwise.

Rendash shifted to meet her gaze in the mirror. “You’ve kept your word thus far, human. I will keep mine.”

Zoey frowned. “Told you I would.”

A pang of guilt pierced her chest; for a single moment, she’d considered giving him up. Now that she was on the other side of the checkpoint, she was glad she hadn’t, but she could only hope the decision wouldn’t come back to bite her in the ass.

“What are the lights up ahead?” Rendash asked.

“A casino,” she replied. “The first of many. Welcome to Nevada.”

“I find myself more confused now than before I asked.”

“Oh.”

Despite his accent, he spoke English so well that she’d assumed he knew. Didn’t aliens spy on humans? Didn’t they abduct people in the middle of the night, stealing them away to flying saucers, to probe and prod and question? Aliens were supposed to be super smart.

Intelligence and knowledge are different things. This world is alien to him. Can’t expect him to know all about the convoluted things humans do.

“Nevada is a state. We just crossed into it from California. There are fifty states in the United States. They’re like…divisions of territory, I guess, and we might cross more of them depending on where you need me to take you. Um…where do you need me to take you, anyway?”

She felt his hand on her seat again, and he pulled himself into a hunched sitting position, placing his face between the two front seats.

“In the direction we are traveling,” he replied. Just as she was about to get annoyed at his vagueness, he continued. “I know only that there is a great distance to cross. I have no knowledge of your world to provide you with even a general location to aim for, only the direction.”

“All right. I…guess that’s better than nothing.”

“And what is a casino?” he asked.

“A casino is a place where people gamble.”

“Gamble their lives?”

Zoey glanced at him. A chill ran through her. While his two center eyes looked ahead, the leftmost one stared at her. She forced her gaze to the road.

Creepy. As. Fuck.

“Might as well be their lives,” she said. “But no. They gamble with money.”

“Money. That is an abstract means of assigning value to goods and services, is it not?”

“You say that like it’s a strange concept to you.”

“My people do not have such a thing.”

“Um, here, let me show you.” Keeping one hand on the wheel, she blindly reached over and dug her wallet out of her purse. She glanced down a couple times as she withdrew a dollar bill and her debit card, holding them up for him. “This is money. There are lots of different paper ones, and some that are metal, and each has a certain value. The card is a…an electronic way of accessing the money we own that’s stored in a bank — not that you’re likely to have any idea of what that is, either.”

He plucked the dollar from her hold. “This paper has value? What use can it be put to?”

She caught a glimpse of the confused look on his face in the mirror; his brow was furrowed, and his lips turned down in a deep frown.

“We use it to buy things,” she said. “Food, clothes, our homes. Just about everything. If we don’t have money, we’d be homeless and starving.”

“So its only purpose is the procurement of other goods that actually have use? Does that not seem…foolish? Why not trade those goods directly?”

Zoey shrugged. “It’s just the way that it is. We work and slave away the hours to earn it, and most of us barely make enough to get by.”

“All aligarii serve their roles to ensure our society has all it needs,” he said, his tone implying it was madness to do things any other way. “Even the other species who live among us want for nothing, so long as they do their part.”

“I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that there’s one kind of alien, so I definitely don’t need to hear about any others right now.” She glanced at a passing sign. Thirty miles to Vegas. “Your society sounds much nicer than ours.”

“Perhaps. I have spent little time in true aligarii society.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am Aekhora, born into the Khorzar. I have trained for war since my youth and have fought on many different worlds.”

“Did you…” Her tongue slipped out to wet her suddenly dry lips. “Did you come here to start a war?”

He turned his head toward her, and reflected light made his eyes glow at the edge of her vision. Zoey tensed.

“Aligarii do not start wars. We finish them. We protect those unjustly attacked, protect worlds unable to defend themselves. My Umen’rak was simply passing through this system. We were unaware this planet bore any life.”

“Okay,” she sighed in relief. “No end of all human life as we know it anytime soon, then. Unless…you bring more of your kind back to take revenge for what was done to you.”

Rendash released a heavy breath. “What was done to me would be my responsibility to avenge,” he said. “I would not make your entire, primitive planet pay for a personal vendetta.”

Zoey’s muscles eased. “Thank you. Though I resent that remark about us being primitive.”

“You drive wheeled vehicles over the ground. How could that not be considered primitive?”

“We’re intelligent beings who have advanced quickly through the years. We are not primitive.”

“By your own standards.”

“And you’re just rude,” she shot back.

“Again, by your own standards.”

Zoey cracked a smile and shook her head. “I give up.”

“That you haven’t given up yet is the only reason I am not locked in a dark room, Zoey.” To her surprise, there seemed to be genuine gratitude in his voice.

Her smile faded as the weight of the situation settled atop her again. “Yeah, guess you’re right.”

What more would they have done to him if she’d given him over? Would they have shot him right in front of her eyes? The thought churned her stomach.

She swallowed back a sudden wave of bile and cleared her throat. “Are you thirsty? I have some water.”

“Yes.”

Zoey groped over the passenger seat until she found the water bottle and passed it to him. She watched in the rearview mirror as he twisted off the cap, leaned back, and drained the bottle in two gulps.

“We should probably grab some food and find a place to stop for the night. You can do that…disappearing act you did back there to hide.”

“Stop? We must continue. As I told you, we have a long way to travel.”

“I don’t know about you, but this primitive human needs sleep. Even if I hadn’t had a shitty day, I can’t drive all through the night. I need to rest. So, if you’re keeping me on as your personal chauffeur — that’s someone who drives people around, by the way — then you go at my speed.”

He was silent for a time. “Very well, human. Acquire lodging and sustenance for us.”

“My name is Zoey.”

She glanced in the mirror and caught a fleeting glimpse of his face; his mouth was quirked up at one corner.

“I know that, human,” he said as he lay back on the seat.

Zoey rolled her eyes. She had a feeling this was going to be one interesting road trip.