“This muck on my face feels disgusting,” Ren grumbled from the back seat.

Zoey pressed her lips together to hold back her laughter. He’d been complaining incessantly since she applied the foundation to his face. It didn’t look all that great, especially with it caking in the tiny gaps between his scales, but at least people in passing cars wouldn’t see a big green alien if they happened to look his way. His hood and sunglasses helped obscure his appearance.

“It’s not like I have tinted windows or anything, so it’s kind of necessary.” She glanced at him in the rearview mirror and finally lost her struggle, allowing a rogue chuckle to slip out.

“As I said, I could have just remained cloaked during the journey.”

“How long can you keep that up?” she asked. “Because something tells me if you could maintain it, you would’ve kept it going during the entire car ride last night.”

He muttered something in a strange language.

“What? What was that? I didn’t quite hear you. Did you say you want me to turn around and go back to your friends with the helicopters?”

“No,” Rendash snapped. “But nobody will be fooled by this disguise. It seems an unnecessary source of discomfort.”

“No one will be staring at you long enough to notice that. You look human enough at a passing glance. Just…keep those extra eyes closed, and your extra arms out of sight.”

“They are not extra.”

“By your own standards.” She grinned; she could feel his eyes burning into the back of her head.

“You are enjoying this?” he asked.

“No, not at all.” She pressed her lips together tightly to keep from laughing.

“You told me yesterday that you are a terrible liar, and that was a true admission.”

“Okay, so maybe I’m enjoying this just a teeny, tiny bit.” Lifting her right hand, she brought her thumb and forefinger close, leaving only a miniscule gap between them. She looked at him in the mirror again and burst into laughter at his expression.

“Insufferable female,” he said. “I should have waited for a different vehicle last night.”

Zoey pressed her hand to her chest. “That cuts. It really does.”

She really shouldn’t have been enjoying it so much, but she was having more fun than she’d had in a long time. More than she’d ever had with Joshua.

Ren actually listened to her when she talked, and, apart from a few offhand comments, always took what she had to say into consideration. And the trust he’d placed in her thus far… It seemed wrong, given his situation, to like feeling needed, but she couldn’t deny it. He needed her help, and that made her feel good. He wasn’t just trying to mooch off her. Rendash genuinely needed her.

“You like me, admit it,” Zoey said.

He grunted, and she felt his leg shift against the back of her seat. The only way he could fit in her car had been to sit with his back to the passenger-side door, legs stretched across the rest of the seat. He’d slouched to mask his true size a little.

“I do,” he finally replied, perhaps a bit too seriously.

“I think that deserves a prize.” She reached into the bag sitting on the passenger seat and pulled out a Twix bar, holding it up. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that empty wrapper in the motel.”

His hand darted around the seat and snatched the candy bar from her grasp.

“It was moderately enjoyable,” he said over the sound of crinkling foil.

Zoey returned her hand to the steering wheel. “Oh? Well, in that case, I won’t buy anymore.”

“You may continue to obtain them, human,” he said through a mouthful of chocolate.

“What? Human, you say?”

“Are you of some other species? Have I been mistaken this whole time?”

“I suppose not, alien.”

“I certainly look the part of an alien, after your makeup.”

Zoey snickered.

“Thank you, Zoey.” His words were punctuated by a crunching of cookie.

“You’re welcome,” she replied.

She drove on in silence, focusing on the busy interstate around her. They were making decent time, but she hoped traffic would thin out and they could move a little faster once they left Vegas behind.

“There are far too many vehicles nearby,” Ren said after a while. “The likelihood of someone taking notice of me is great. Are there no other routes we can follow to avoid so many humans?”

“If someone hadn’t smashed my phone, I’d have easy access to maps that could show us all kinds of routes. As it is, this one is the most direct. I’m not going to sit here with the road map I bought open on my lap, trying to puzzle out all the little lines around this city.”

“But if I am seen—”

“That’s what the disguise is for. I know it’s not good, and I know you’re not comfortable, but just relax and keep looking ahead. Most humans avoid eye contact with each other while they’re driving, anyway. They have a lot of other stuff they’re focused on, and unless you cut them off, they couldn’t care less about you.”

“Cut them off? Is combat a frequent occurrence when traveling on this planet?”

“No. It’s if I were to swerve into another lane in front of someone without leaving much space between our cars.”

“How do your people keep track of their words when so many of them have multiple meanings?”

“Our language is ever-changing,” she replied, “but I guess it’s easier to keep up with when it’s all you know. Sort of. I’m still not sure what on fleek means.”

Gaudy casinos rose over the interstate on either side. The only other time she’d driven through Vegas had been at night, when she’d first gone to California, while everything was lit up and gorgeous. It seemed to lack a lot of that magic during the day, but it was still a struggle to keep her eyes from wandering.

After Las Vegas, they found themselves in the desert again; it stretched on in all directions, always seeming to lead to distant, blue-tinged mountains. The traffic thinned, but not enough to ease Zoey’s nerves. She caught herself on numerous occasions watching for cliché black SUVs in her mirrors, expecting government agents in black suits and ties to leap out, toss a bag over Rendash’s head, and wipe her memory with some high-tech gadget.

They took their first rest stop after an hour of driving. Zoey glanced out across the desert as she exited the restroom. There was a certain beauty to it, though she couldn’t stand the heat or the blazing sun in such places during most of the year. The December temperatures made it bearable; today was cool and clear, the sort of weather she could appreciate.

To the south, a trio of aircrafts — made into tiny specks by the distance — sped through the sky. Her anxiety increased, constricting her chest.

People are flying around in helicopters all the time. It’s nothing.

But what if they were the same ones that had been searching for Ren?

Zoey returned to the car, opened the door, and pulled out her road atlas. She flipped through the pages until she found their current position. Using the little scale ruler and her fingers, she measured the distance back to where she’d found Rendash, pausing to blow warm air into her chilled hands as she turned pages from Nevada to California.

She knew her estimate was inaccurate, but they were somewhere around one hundred and fifty miles from the rest stop where he’d entered her car. Would the search area really have inflated that much since last night? It seemed unlikely, but she couldn’t dismiss the nagging fear that they somehow knew Ren was with her. Should she have told the cop she was heading somewhere else?

For the first time, she was glad Ren had destroyed her phone. There were stories on the internet all the time about the government and criminals alike hacking into phones, accessing data, and tracking them via GPS.

“I’m here,” Rendash whispered from behind her, making her jump.

“Ugh! I’m never going to get used to that,” Zoey whispered back. She stepped away from the car, checked for onlookers, and opened the back door. The brush of his invisible body as he passed her was equal parts eerie and exciting.

The car wobbled as it took his weight. Would her shocks hold up to carrying him for untold miles?

Why the hell am I worried about my shocks, of all things?

She tossed the map onto his lap, shut the door, and hurried to the driver’s seat. She started the car and continued their journey.

They crossed into the northwestern corner of Arizona an hour later, where the terrain grew decidedly rockier, and forty more minutes took them over the Utah border.

They stopped twice more — once for gas and food, and once to stretch their legs and pee. Rendash didn’t take any chances; he turned invisible before she entered the parking lots, and she slipped her purse into the back seat as an excuse to open the door and let him out without looking like a crazy person.

Each time they stopped, she expected him to return with the foundation scrubbed off his face, but he kept it on despite his complaints.

As they drove on through Utah, the mountainous terrain that had remained in the distance for most of their drive grew steadily closer to the road, much of it dusted with snow. The snow only deepened as they turned onto I-70 and moved up into the mountains. She’d turned the heater on to high as the day progressed. Too soon, the sky began to dim with the approach of evening.

“Is there snow where you’re from?” Zoey asked.

“What is snow?”

Zoey swept a hand out to one side, indicating the land spread out around them. “All that white stuff. It falls from the sky in winter.”

“Yes. But only in certain places. Much of my home world is too warm for it.”

“It doesn’t snow where I lived in California, either, but it did a lot in my hometown in the Midwest.”

“I have been on a number of planets where it snowed heavily. It…” She saw him shake his head from the corner of her eye, and he said no more.

“It what, Ren?”

He sighed. “It serves as a stark contrast to freshly spilled blood.”

“Oh.” She was sorry she’d asked, but she couldn’t leave it on that disturbing note. “I used to love it when I was little. My dad and I played in it for hours, throwing snowballs, building forts and snowmen. Our fingers and toes would be so cold by the time we went inside that we were sure they’d fall off. Afterwards, he’d make hot cocoa to warm us up.” She smiled. “He always gave me extra marshmallows.”

“You speak of him with great fondness in your voice.”

“Yeah,” she said softly.

“Is he who you are traveling to see?”

“No, I was going to stay with a friend.” Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel, and her chest ached. It always did, when she thought about her dad. “My father…died when I was ten. He had cancer.”

“That is some sort of disease?” Ren asked, voice uncharacteristically gentle.

“Yeah. We didn’t catch it soon enough. By the time he was diagnosed, it was too late.” Those last few months with her father had been at once the best and worst time of her life. If nothing else, they’d made what little time they had left together count. Now that she was older, she understood how difficult that must’ve been for him, the willpower he’d demonstrated in giving his daughter happy memories while he was dying.

Tears stung her eyes, but this time she didn’t allow them to spill.

Ren was silent. She half-expected him to go off on how primitive humans were, on how his people likely had cured all the diseases that once afflicted them.

“I am sorry for your loss, Zoey,” he said. For once, she was glad to have misjudged someone. “What of your mother?”

Zoey shrugged. “Never knew her. She walked out on us when I was two and never looked back. My dad took it hard, though. He loved her. I don’t think he ever got over the pain of knowing she didn’t care about either of us enough to stick around. But my dad was the best there ever was, and he made sure I knew I was loved.” She glanced up at the rearview mirror. Ren’s face was unreadable in the deepening shadows, his eyes masked by his dark sunglasses. “What about your parents?”

“I was born into the Khorzar, which is the class of warriors in aligarii society. A soldier from birth. I knew my parents only as my earliest trainers and chose at a young age to be separated from them to continue my training. They were at the ceremony when I received my nyros and took great pride in my accomplishment. I have not seen them since.”

“That’s…kind of sad.”

“What’s sad about it?”

“It sounds like you never really had time with them. That you immediately went into this training program, or whatever, and that was it. I couldn’t imagine not having my dad around as a kid. We did everything together, and if he were alive now, I’d be calling him every day to talk.” She blinked back a fresh wave of tears. “I’d give anything just to hear his voice again.”

“I had a strong bond with my Umen’rak. We spent every day together, whether in combat or not. They were my family. Their absence leaves a great emptiness inside me.”

“I know I said it already, but I’m sorry, Ren. Blood doesn’t always make a family. I’m sorry you lost yours.”

A large sign up ahead caught Zoey’s attention.

Zoey looked down at the dash. She had three-quarters of a tank of gas, a bag of beef jerky, chips, a few candy bars, and a small styrofoam cooler filled with bottled water and packaged sandwiches. It was only 5:42pm. They could make the stretch and book a motel in the next town.

“I’m curious about something,” Zoey said as they drove past the Salina exit. “You keep saying nuros; what is that?”

“Nyros,” he corrected before falling silent.

She glanced at his face in the mirror. His features seemed drawn in thought, though she couldn’t be certain between the caked-on makeup, the sunglasses, and the deepening twilight.

“All of the aligarii receive a lesser form of it, called uldros,” he finally said. “They are…machines, too small to see with the naked eye, that mend the body from within and prolong life. They allow us to heal quickly and battle disease without additional treatment. But aekhora, like me, receive the stronger form, nyros, when coming of age. Strong enough that the bonding kills many hopefuls despite spending their youth in training. Those who survive are honored to become aekhora, the greatest of our soldiers. Those who do not are honored for giving their lives in the attempt to serve the aligarii in a greater capacity.”

“Wow. That sounds amazing and totally scary all at the same time. No wonder you call us primitive. You have tiny machines inside your body.” An oncoming car in the far lane flashed its headlights as it passed. Zoey flipped hers on; it didn’t seem like it should be so dark already, but she’d been caught up in conversation. “So…what does your nyros do? Other than heal you, I mean.”

“I should not tell you any of this,” he said softly. “I’ve already revealed too much.”

“As curious as I am, I can respect that. Betrayal of your kind to a weak human—”

“It is not because I distrust you, Zoey. The more—”

“Ren, I get it. You don’t have to tell me.” She cleared her throat. “Besides…it might be for the best. What if one of those guys gets hold of me and tortures me for information? I don’t like pain, and as much as I’d like to say I wouldn’t break, I can’t make that promise.”

“That is the only reason I am hesitant, Zoey. The more you know of me, the more valuable you become to them.”

“Yep. Totally not looking forward to torture.”

Despite her genuine fear that such a scenario would come to pass, Ren’s words had softened something inside her. He trusted her. Though he’d chosen her car at the rest area by chance, though he’d known her for less than twenty-four hours, he trusted her.

“I gave you my word, on my honor, to keep you safe.” The tone of his voice — the dedication, the graveness — drew her eyes back to the mirror. He’d removed the sunglasses and opened his side-eyes to meet her gaze. “I will not fail in that.”

Zoey smiled. “I know you won’t.”

They continued driving in silence, through snowy hills blanketed in shadow now that the sky had darkened to night. Under other circumstances or with different company she would’ve turned on the radio. Even while she and Joshua were good, their conversations usually died out within fifteen or twenty minutes. With Rendash, she felt no need to fill the silence. It was oddly comforting.

The more she thought about her relationship with Josh, the more she realized how blind she’d been. Sure, he’d often made her laugh, and he had shown her kindness while they were together, but it was nothing more than she had with Melissa — a friendship. Zoey could count on one hand the number of times they’d had real sex during their relationship. All those rare occasions had been in the dark with little foreplay — at least on his end — and usually wound up with porn on at some point.

She’d told herself repeatedly it wasn’t about the sex. What did sex matter when you had someone you could talk to, someone you could depend on?

But Joshua wasn’t dependable. Zoey had worked every day, taking every extra shift available, and he’d taken her hard-earned money and spent it on himself — and on other women, too.

Had she been so desperate for love and companionship that she’d allowed herself to be used for a year?

Pathetic as it felt, the answer was yes. She’d been lonely and craved some stability in her life, a family…something.

Her decision to stay in California, to make it her new beginning, hadn’t gone as she’d imagined. She’d worked small jobs, earning barely enough to pay for her first apartment — a cramped studio — and rarely had time to socialize. After she’d been hired on at Bud’s, she happened to wait on Joshua’s table. His easy smile and laidback manner had drawn her in, and he must’ve seen something in her because they became friends and things quickly progressed from there…

The warning lights on the dash suddenly lit up and the car slowed. Zoey frowned and pressed her foot on the gas pedal, but nothing happened.

Ren grasped the front seats and pulled himself forward. “What is wrong?”

“I-I don’t know.” She attempted to turn the steering wheel, but it barely moved, as though the power steering had failed. “Oh no, oh please, don’t do this to me.”

She battled the wheel to guide the coasting vehicle onto the shoulder, where it finally came to a stop. Shifting it into park, she shut it off and turned the key to start it again. A high-pitched, electric spinning noise — almost like an amplified remote-control car — was the only sound the engine produced; it refused to turn over.

“No, no, no, no! Damnit!” Zoey smacked the steering wheel. Frustration filled her eyes with tears as she dropped her forehead to the wheel in defeat.

“Zoey?” Rendash asked gently from behind her.

“The car’s broken,” she said. “Now we’re stuck in the middle of nowhere.”

“We can walk to the next settlement,” he suggested. His practicality almost made her want to scream.

Zoey lifted her head and looked around the car; they were in a snow-dusted desert with barely enough light to see by.

“We’re maybe halfway to the next town. That’d leave us with fifty miles to walk. Even if I was in the best shape of my life, that’d take me…I don’t know, twelve or thirteen hours. And this is my car! Even if I had my phone to call for a tow, I can’t afford to repair it. I have nothing!” She let her head fall back against the seat. “Nothing.”

Was this rock bottom, so quick to introduce itself after she’d been having a decent day? It sure felt like it. Funny how rock bottom seemed to get a little lower every time she thought she’d finally hit it.

Can’t even win at losing.

“We cannot simply give up and sit here,” Rendash said. “This is a complication. A setback. But it is not the end, Zoey.”

She closed her eyes. “I know. Just give me a few minutes to wallow in self-pity.”

The car rocked gently as Rendash moved. He settled his fingers on her left cheek, and she opened her eyes as he guided her to face him. His features were largely cast in shadow, but his eyes gleamed with faint, reflected light.

“You will not wallow in self-pity,” he said firmly. “We will take action, no matter how small. While we still breathe, we will carry on. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Zoey sighed. “Okay, okay. No more self-pity.”

One day at a time, Zoey. One day at a time.

Though reluctant to break contact with him, Zoey sat up. She pulled the keys out of the ignition, popped the trunk, picked up her purse, and climbed out of the car. The cold sucker-punched her.

“So not dressed for this,” she muttered, rubbing her arms through her long sleeves.

The back door opened and closed as she went to the trunk. Ren stood beside her while she rummaged through her suitcases, stuffing as much of her clothing into the larger of the two as she could. She made sure her photo album was in there, too, before she zipped it up.

Setting the bulging suitcase on the ground, she wrapped her blanket around her shoulders and closed the trunk. As much as it hurt to ditch her belongings, Ren’s statement after he’d smashed her phone had been true — stuff could be replaced. Their lives, not so much.

“Bet you’re glad I got you those clothes and boots now, huh?” she asked, looking at Ren.

He glanced down at himself. Even though she’d bought clothes from a big and tall store, they’d had to tear the sides of his shirt and hoodie to allow his lower arms to fit, and his long overcoat hung in a way that made him look too wide. He was also ridiculously tall.

Zoey cracked up laughing when the image of Ren’s coat opening to reveal he’d been three waist-high aliens standing on each other’s shoulders slipped into her mind.

“Should I be wary of the sudden shift in your demeanor, human?” Ren asked as he took the suitcase from her.

“No wallowing, right?”

“Right,” he agreed. He shifted his attention to their surroundings. “Shall we begin?”

Zoey stared at her car. It wasn’t new, luxurious, or even nice, but it had been the first major purchase of her life, bought with money she’d earned, and it had seen her through a lot over the years. This second cross-country trip had simply proven too much for it.

She closed her eyes and exhaled softly.

One day at a time.

A few cars drove by on either side as they walked — none of which slowed down even slightly — but the road was otherwise deserted. Thanks to the darkness, Ren wasn’t likely to be recognized as anything other, not that anyone would be encouraged to stop and help when they noticed an obscenely large man walking beside Zoey.

“So, I guess this means you’ll need to find someone else to help you?” she asked after a while, keeping her eyes on the ground.

Anxiety soured her stomach. She didn’t want Ren to leave her. Even though they’d just met the night before, she liked being around him. Her laughter had come naturally and been more genuine than it had in years. He made her feel…good.

There you go being desperate again, Zoey.

Maybe she was desperate for companionship, but this felt different. Was it wrong to like the way Rendash made her feel?

“We will simply need to obtain another means of transportation,” he said.

“You say that like it’s an easy thing.”

Well, maybe it was for him. He just needed to go poof! and slip into someone’s car.

“Whether it is easy or not, Zoey, it is necessary. We must find a way.”

Another car drove by. She watched its taillights vanish around a bend.

“Maybe if you make yourself invisible, I might be able to grab us a ride,” Zoey said. “With all the scary stuff on the news nowadays, people aren’t likely to stop for hitchhikers, but maybe if they just saw me they’d be more willing to take a chance.”

He walked a few more steps, boots crunching over dirt and snow, before responding. “Why are people more willing to assist females on this world?”

“Because we’re basically labeled as the weaker sex.” She raised a hand and jabbed her finger at him. “Don’t you dare say anything. I didn’t say we are weaker — I mean, physically, we usually are, but that’s not the point. Anyway, you’ve made it clear what you think about humans to begin with.”

“My species has been physically enhanced over many generations,” Rendash said, placing a hand over her jutting finger and gently guiding it back down. “To compare aligarii to humans would be unfair. But I see great strength in you, Zoey.”

“Well, I haven’t broken yet. I guess that’s something.” She held out her hand. “Give that here.”

He handed her the suitcase with his brow knitted in confusion.

“Do your disappearing act,” she said, “and I’ll see if I can get us a ride. If it’s a truck, you can just climb in the back while I distract them. If it’s a car…I don’t know, I can ask to put my suitcase in the back seat, and you can climb in as carefully as you can. We’ll play it by ear.”

“I…am not sure how long I can maintain the cloaking field. I will wait for a vehicle to approach before I activate it,” he replied.

“As long as they don’t see you.”

They continued walking. Zoey’s suitcase bumped over rocks, snow, and uneven ground; it definitely wasn’t an off-road model. The cold nipped at her cheeks and nose. “Was it something your captors did? To make your cloaking not work right?”

“My control of my nyros was disrupted during the crash due to my injuries. That disruption was exacerbated by my captors. They injected me with chemicals regularly, and repeated experimentation and beatings ensured that my body was in a continual state of healing. It left little energy for anything else.

“The connection to my nyros only rekindled when they were relocating me. They skipped the injections, and my body had adapted just enough to take advantage, but the chemicals haven’t yet left my system entirely. They no longer block my nyros, but it takes an immense amount of effort to utilize it.”

Zoey frowned. She couldn’t imagine all they’d put him through. “I’ll do whatever I can, Ren, to stop them from capturing you again.”

He met her gaze, and his smile was visible even in the darkness. “I do not doubt your fierceness for a moment, little human.”

She snorted. “That’s just a nice way of saying you believe I’ll try my best, but you doubt my ability.” Zoey glanced at him. “That’s also the second time you’ve called me little. There’s not much little about me.”

“By your own standards.”

Before she could respond, a flash of light caught in the corner of her eye and she turned to look behind them. “Car!”

But Rendash had already vanished. Zoey turned and walked backward, raising her arm with her thumb out. “Come on, come on.” The vehicle drove by without slowing, blasting her with chilled wind. “Damn.”

“There will be others,” Ren said.

A few more cars passed as time went by, but none of them stopped.

When another vehicle approached, Zoey turned again, only to realize at the last moment how close the car was driving to the shoulder. She jumped back with a shriek. The car sped by less than a foot from where she’d been standing as she stumbled and fell on her backside in the snow.

“Assholes!” she yelled.

Ren materialized and darted forward; somehow, she understood what he meant to do and caught the tail of his coat before he was beyond her reach. His momentum dragged her forward, her butt skidding over dirt and snow.

“Ren, stop!” she shouted, losing her grip on his coat.

He came to a staggering halt and twisted to look back at her. For several moments, he said nothing, and then he seemed to shake whatever mood had overcome him. He kneeled. She reached toward him to accept the hand she expected him to offer, but instead he slipped his upper arms beneath her armpits and lifted her off the ground, depositing her on her feet.

He’d picked her up as though she were as light as a feather. A feather!

“Are you all right, Zoey?”

Cheeks heating, Zoey brushed the snow from her chilled backside. “My ass is soaked, but yeah…I’m fine.” She eyed him. “No more chasing after cars.”

“They nearly struck you!”

“But they didn’t, and you shouldn’t reveal yourself, remember?”

He scowled, and Zoey had a feeling that there wouldn’t have been anyone left to report the sighting if he’d caught the car. It was an unsettling thought.

But if the bastards had hit me, maybe they deserved it.

Ugh, begone dark thoughts!

She bent down and righted her suitcase, which had fallen over. When they continued walking, Rendash positioned himself between Zoey and the highway.

It was a small gesture, but she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit it warmed her heart.

Headlights from behind had Zoey turning again. She stuck her thumb out, and the vehicle — a big, red pickup truck — slowed as it passed them.

“Yes!” she exclaimed as the truck pulled over on the shoulder ahead. “Remember, climb into the back of the truck as carefully as you can.”

The only signs of Rendash’s presence were the ghostlike boot prints that appeared in the snow beside her as she hurried toward the waiting truck.

The window rolled down when Zoey approached the passenger-side door.

“Need a lift?” a man asked from inside.

Zoey looked into the dark cab. The faint light from the dashboard bathed the man’s face in a soft green glow. Though it was difficult to tell because of his facial hair, he looked to be in his late thirties. He had short-cropped blonde hair and a neatly trimmed beard. Heat pulsed from inside, which explained why he wore a t-shirt, one muscled arm draped over a fold-down armrest beside him. His jacket lay on the passenger seat.

“If you don’t mind,” she replied. “I have a suitcase.”

“Toss it in back and hop in.” He smiled, flashing straight teeth.

Zoey moved to the back of the truck. “He’s going to give us a ride,” she whispered. “Climb in as I toss my bag in.”

She lifted her bag over the edge of the bed and dropped it in. The rear end of the truck rocked slightly, and she heard the gentle scrape of cloth as Rendash settled himself in.

“Be safe, little human,” he whispered.

Zoey untied the blanket from her shoulders and dropped it into the back of the truck. “I will be. It shouldn’t take more than an hour to reach the next town. We’ll find a room there, okay?”

The blanket moved and then faded away, like it had been erased from existence. “An acceptable plan. I will await our arrival in the next town.”

“You need help back there?” the man called.

Zoey hurried back to the cab, opened the door, and lifted herself in. He’d removed his jacket from the seat. “Thank you for this.”

“No problem,” he replied. “Heading the same way, right? Toward Green River?”

“Yeah,” Zoey said, holding her hands up to the sweet, hot air blowing from the vents. The window beside her rolled up.

“What’s your name?” the man asked as he eased back onto the highway.

“Zoey. Yours?”

He turned his head and smiled at her. “Matt.” He slouched slightly, leaning on the armrest with his right arm while he kept his left hand draped over the top of the wheel. “Green River your final stop?”

“Just passing through,” Zoey replied. She glanced in the side mirror, knowing the angle would be all wrong but longing for a glimpse of Ren anyway.

“Was that your car back there on the side of the road?”

“Yeah. All the power just suddenly cut out, and it wouldn’t start.”

“Sounds like it might be a timing belt.”

Zoey arched a brow. “You a mechanic?”

“Nah. I know just enough to get me in trouble.”

Zoey chuckled. “Trouble? Sounds more like you’d be useful in that kind of situation.”

“Knowing what’s broken isn’t the same as knowing how to fix it.” His smile hadn’t faded, hadn’t changed at all.

They drove in silence for a time before his hand moved to the radio on the dash. “Music?”

“Sure.”

“What do you like?”

“I’m good with anything.”

He nodded, pressed a button, and the radio lit up. He flipped through the stations, stopping on the Golden Oldies. The same kind of music Bud played in his diner to set the atmosphere.

“This good?” he asked.

Zoey smiled. “Yeah.”

He could’ve put anything on without objection from her; she was just grateful to be out of the cold and moving forward. They’d be in Green River soon, and from there… Well, they’d figure something out. Rendash had made no indication that he intended to leave her, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t. She couldn’t blame him if he moved on alone.

Matt tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as he sang along with the music under his breath, casting occasional smiles in Zoey’s direction. She offered one more smile of her own before turning her head to look out the window and watch the dark landscape pass.

The road was fairly smooth, so at least Rendash wouldn’t get tossed around, but it was likely freezing back there. She wished they’d had some other choice.

“So where did you say you were going?” Matt asked.

“Green River,” Zoey replied.

“I mean after that.”

Zoey looked at him. “Des Moines.”

“Long way. What’s in Des Moines?”

“A friend. She invited me to live with her as her roommate.”

“Does she know about your car?”

Zoey frowned. That was a strange question. “Yeah. I let her know my trip would be a little delayed. I already have a rental car set up in Green River.”

“Really?” His tone implied surprise. “I’ve been through Green River a lot. Never saw any rental places.”

“They were…offering a pickup service because of the circumstances.”

“Tow truck driver probably would’ve given you a ride into town. Decided not to wait?”

“It’s late,” she said, “so I figured I’d get a room for the night and deal with it tomorrow. The car is likely totaled if you’re right about the timing belt. Wouldn’t be worth fixing.”

“Most likely not.” He cleared his throat. “Anyone else waiting for you in Des Moines? Parents? Siblings?” He glanced at her. “A boyfriend?”

“My husband. He just got out of the military.”

“So why are you moving in with your roommate?”

Ah, fuck, I’m so bad at this.

Zoey rubbed her palms against her thighs. “He’s moving in with us, too. Just until we get settled and find a place of our own.”

“He didn’t get you a ring?”

“What?”

Matt gestured toward her hand.

“Oh.” She pulled her left hand back and covered it with the other. “I lost it.”

“That sucks,” he said with an oddly flat tone.

His questions stopped there.

Maybe it was just her imagination causing the strange, tight feeling in her chest. Matt was probably just trying to be friendly; picking up a hitchhiker under any circumstances had to be awkward, right? Still, if not for Ren, Zoey would’ve asked to be let out right here. The red flags were steadily mounting in her mind, and Green River couldn’t be much farther.

But they needed to keep moving. She could suffer through some probing, uncomfortable conversation for Rendash’s sake.

The truck slowed, and Matt turned off the highway. The headlights shone on an overgrown dirt path.

Heat tingled over Zoey’s skin. Her back stiffened, and she twisted to look back at the interstate. “What are you doing?”

“I need to take a piss. How about you?”

Something about the way he’d asked that made her stomach twist into a knot. “Um, no. I’m good.”

Matt kept driving, bouncing along the dirt road through scrubby vegetation until it finally dipped behind a small rise. When Zoey looked back again, the interstate was out of sight.

“Why are we so far off the road?” she asked, dropping her gaze to search for Ren in the pickup’s bed. Knowing he was there, even if she couldn’t see him, calmed her a bit, but her heart pounded with unease.

“Relax.” Matt unbuckled his seatbelt and turned his body toward her. “Just want some privacy.”

Zoey released her seatbelt and placed her hand on the door handle. “Okay. I’ll stretch my legs while you…do your business.” When she tugged on it, the door didn’t open. With her other hand, she pulled the lock up, but the door still didn’t budge. “It’s stuck.”

“I know.”

She faced him again.

He grinned and slowly lifted the center armrest, sliding over the seat toward her. “It’s nothing personal, okay? I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”

“W-What opportunity?” Her breath was suddenly ragged, struggling through a constricted throat.

“A young woman, all by herself, out here?” He chuckled and settled his hand on her knee, slowly moving it up her thigh.

Zoey smacked it away. “Don’t touch me.”

“You know you want me, too. Why else would a woman be out here by herself? You hoping to fulfill some fantasy? I can help with that.” He sat back and dropped both hands to his pants, opening the fly and pulling out his junk. His dick was an angry red, already fully erect. He gave it a stroke before reaching for her again.

Zoey swung to bat his hand aside, but he was fast, grabbing hold of her wrist and tugging her closer. She slapped at him and lifted her leg to kick him, pressing her foot into his gut and pushing. He was nothing if not strong.

“I said don’t touch me!” she yelled.

Balling her fist, she punched him in the temple.

Matt winced and snapped back, shaking his head. Within seconds, he shook off the blow, glaring at her. “I was going to take it easy on you, but I guess you want it rough. Fine. I can play rough.”

He backhanded her.

The impact knocked her backward, disorienting her just long enough for him to shove her down onto the seat. He settled his weight atop her. She struggled as he attempted to grab her wrists.

“Hold still, damnit!” Matt snapped.

“Ren!” Zoey screamed.

Before the sound had fully left her mouth, the sliding panels on the back window exploded inward, knocked off their tracks by an immense force. Matt shouted in shock, but his voice was cut off when a huge arm snaked around his throat.

Zoey threw up her arms to shield herself from Matt’s flailing limbs as Ren pulled him backward. The man’s grunts and heavy, stilted breathing only grew in desperation as his shoulders caught on the window. Zoey scrambled aside, bracing her back against the door, and slammed her foot into Matt’s abdomen, chest, and groin.

Once Ren forced Matt’s shoulders through the opening in the back window, the struggle was over. The man’s legs swung as he was dragged into the bed of the pickup, forcing Zoey to duck for cover. The truck rocked wildly with a series of bangs and bumps. Matt’s cries were renewed, but they faded — as though with increasing distance — once the rocking ceased. Soon, the only sound in the cab was the crooning voice of Dean Martin.

She sat up and twisted to see Rendash on the ground outside the passenger door, hauling a still-struggling Matt toward the brush. Their forms vanished as they left the glow of the headlights. A shiver crept up Zoey’s spine; she told herself it was just the cold air coming in through the gap in the back window.

A short series of agonized, terrified screams rose over the music, and then fell silent.

Zoey pressed her trembling hands onto her thighs as minutes crept by.

Unable to wait any longer, she crawled over the seat and opened the driver-side door. She climbed out of the cab and steadied herself with a hand on the hood as she walked around to the front, the headlights making her shadow impossibly long. She barely registered the cold as she scanned the darkness.

“Ren?” she called.

Only the wailing of distant wind answered her. She folded her arms across her chest, tucking her hands beneath them, and strained to see anything outside the beams of the headlights.

The faint crunching of footsteps in the snow called her attention to the right. A large, shadowy figure came into view, cast in a soft-but-menacing glow at the farthest edge of the light. Zoey took a step backward.

The figure raised two hands — both on the right side of its body. “It’s me.”

“Rendash!” Relief washed through Zoey. Her legs wobbled, threatening to give out, but she remained upright. “Is he…?”

“I left his remains farther out in the wasteland, hidden in the vegetation. It should be some time before he is discovered.”

Remains. She knew the word was basically interchangeable with body or corpse, but it made it sound like there were only pieces left of the man. Zoey’s gut churned. The bastard had deserved it, but that didn’t mean she wanted to imagine what Ren had done to him.

Rendash moved closer, entering the light fully. All four of his gleaming eyes focused on her as he angled his head down. “Are you all right, Zoey?”

“Yeah. No. I…” She shuddered. “I’ll be fine.”

Frowning, Ren placed a hand on her shoulder. “He cannot harm you now.”

Zoey raised a hand and curled her fingers around his forearm. “Thank you.”

A faint trembling ran through his arm, and she heard it echoed in his exhalations. She was more inclined to think of it as fury rather than nerves.

“We have a vehicle, now,” he said after a while, voice strained. “We should make use of it before it gets much later.”

She nodded and glanced toward the truck. It’d be best if she didn’t reflect upon the circumstances that had brought it into their possession. God, she’d been stupid for so long. And tonight…

Zoey had been well aware of the dangers of hitchhiking, the dangers of being a woman alone after dark, and of course those dangers would coalesce into reality the one damned time she was in such a situation.

You keep swinging, life, and you’re banging me up pretty good. But you know what? I’m still on my damn feet.

“Let’s go,” she said.

Ren’s hand didn’t fall away when she moved to walk around the truck. She glanced at him, and he guided her to turn toward him again. Taking gentle hold of her wrists, he spread her arms to either side. His eyes — and his lower hands — ran over her carefully. His touch sent a thrill along her limbs that shot straight to her core. It was the most inappropriate time to feel aroused — she’d been assaulted, and a man had been killed! — but she had no control of her body’s reaction. She was aware of every point of contact between them.

“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly.

“Making sure you are unharmed.” That tremor remained in his voice, faint but audible.

He frowned as one of his fingers brushed over the spot on her cheek where she’d been struck.

“I’m fine. Really. I hit him more than he hit me.”

His hands didn’t still as he turned her around to continue his examination from behind. He moved close to her, so close that she felt the warmth of his breath on her hair as he slid his palms down to her hips.

Her breath quickened. “Ren?”

His only acknowledgement that she’d spoken was a soft, questioning grunt. His upper hands slid to her ribs, fingers curled just beneath her breasts, while his lower hands dipped to her outer thighs.

Zoey had a powerful urge to press herself against his hard body. Her sex clenched, and heat pooled between her thighs. “Ren…we…we should get going.”

Finally, his hands stilled, though they lingered on her. “Yes. We should. It…is cold out here.” His arms fell away, and he stepped back. Zoey shivered with the loss of his warmth.

The passenger door opened without issue from the outside, and the truck dipped to one side as Ren entered. Zoey walked around to the driver’s seat and climbed in; it was a small wonder she was able to, considering her limbs felt like jelly.

Helping Ren force the window panels back into place to block the cold offered her a few minutes of distraction, but reality soon reasserted itself.

Dean Martin had given way to Buddy Holly. Zoey turned off the radio; her appetite for music had fled.

Her appetite for Ren, however, still raged through her blood.