Chapter Nine:

***

Norah had never felt more ashamed of herself, not even when she left her parents and her siblings high and dry to study the worlds beyond Earth’s borders and beyond their solar system. Her soul didn’t belong on Earth, not on a planet that had dried up its oceans and all of its natural water sources.

He just transformed into a snake. A SNAKE. Norah had never seen a metal weapon like him before. A metal creature, a monster, hiding behind a beautiful facade.

She wanted to look away but she couldn’t.

Stryker’s hand felt hot over hers, sending a bolt of warmth through her body. Her fingers twitched under his, knowing his arm, his hand was part of the silver coils and stretched skin that was his inner form.

Her feelings for him were locked in her throat, a ghost on the tip of her tongue. She didn’t believe in them herself but when she had almost died in his arms...and love had filled her as her last emotion. It had yet to dissolve in the aftermath.

Now, however, she didn’t know what to do about it. She was above the fairy tales of emotional, life-altering love. Kisses that could cure any curse, princes in shining armor, it was all a lie. Her eyes caught the glint of metal over his face.

Why does everything feel so god damned uneasy? He’s not a man.

“We don’t have much time left, right? And I figure that we’re about halfway to our destination. By foot, or at least by water and a lot of hard work, we can make it to the landing site within two, maybe three hours. But,” she looked at him. She needed to change the subject to something safe. At least for a moment to let her misgivings unwind. “We may be able to tell if the ship is still there now.” She took her hand back.

She watched as the Cyborg strained the polluted water out of the purifier and handed her the clean stuff. Norah drank it without question.

“I think I know what you’re after but I can’t sense the technology from where I am. It’s either powered off or it’s beyond my scope.”

“What else can you do?” she eyed him, waiting for him to shift again.

“A lot.”

Norah swallowed. “Can you see over a great distance? If you can climb to the top of this tree, you may be able to see if the ship is still there.” She wrapped her arms around her stomach, feeling chilled next to the heated man beside her. “That is if you’re not a target for lightning.” The intermittent flashes surrounded them.

Stryker looked up and didn’t say anything. She watched as his eyes darkened and computer code appeared over his pupils. Minutes passed before he responded, minutes where she began to count the noises around her.

“I can try. I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to see over the other trees.”

“You won’t need to. The landing zone is above sea level. It’s on a plateau that juts high above this jungle and can be seen from above.  We probably could have seen it miles ago from the ground if it weren’t for all this canopy. And all this rain.” She sighed and looked out between the leaves. “It’s dark, though, and the rain is impenetrable.”

“It’s going to continue to be dark and the rain isn’t going to stop. What kind of ship is it?” he asked.

“It’s commercial, midsize, and it doesn’t have much defense but it can comfortably transport up to twenty-five beings.” Norah tried to remember the name of it but drew a blank. “It’s silver and fast. I’m sorry, I can’t remember the name.”

Stryker turned his face away from the sky and looked back down at her. The numbers were gone. “The organization you work for, what’s it called?”

“EonMed Corporation.”

He snorted but it came out low under his band. “Funded by the EPED. No wonder you eased up back at your lab. That you knew I had a card. They employ cruisers–”

Cruisers. “Yes, that’s it. A cruiser,” Norah let out a breath.

“Yeah?”

She eyed him. “Yeah.” The sides of her lips twitched up involuntarily.

“Alright, I’ll go check it out.” He reached for his rifle. “Get some rest.” His free hand backed up over her temple, Norah held still as he checked her temperature. “There are more synthesized pills in the medkit. Take ‘em.” Stryker lifted up, taking his hand from her face. She instantly missed the warmth of his touch.

“Stryker?” she breathed out the question. “Why do you wear a mask around your face?”

“You don’t already know?”

Did she? Norah shook her head. “Tell me. Please.”

“It’s so I don’t strike out at people,” he said as he climbed up and out of her sight. She didn’t see him shift before he was gone, but his voice trailed him. “It’s so I don’t kill them.”

Norah sat there and waited. And listened for more words in the wind but none came. She looked around herself, at the flickering leaves snapping against each other, some torn from the gusts. The smaller sticks creaked and groaned around her. The tiny waterfalls of rain surrounded her and the weather raged. The humidity was suffocating, yet she shivered from the cold.

She continued to listen and the more she did, the more she began to hear.

“Uuup...up.”

“Uuuuuuup...”

Norah scrambled for the knife, hidden under her poncho and the Cyborg’s pack. She looked around but didn’t see anything but her shell and the small pod split open off the branch towards the end.

“Eep Uuup.” The sound whistled, followed by a crunch and a blast of thunder. “Hhhate this juungle.”

She dragged her supplies away from the trunk and perched at the end. Either cover my back, or see every angle. A familiar shriek sounded in the growing darkness.

Norah gripped the dagger and waited for a shrieker to appear. She pictured it as she stared out into the gossamer rain. Long fingers. Pale grey and thin. A body that slithered through the water and mud, tall, crooked, and thin. It used the heavy rain to go where it couldn’t go before.

“Oh my god.”

She looked up toward the invisible sky.

I’m surrounded by monsters.

Her clothes flapped madly, as if even her shirt was amused by her predicament.

When nothing happened and the riotous stillness multiplied she realized something, something she wasn’t sure was possible because, deep down inside, she knew her mind had to be playing tricks on her.

She was, after all, tense and alert, straining to hear something that may or may not be just outside her sight. But she had heard something, even if it was just in her mind.

And her mind was well-honed and had undergone all the psychological tests it took to work out in space, in a small communal environment.

She had heard Robert’s voice, repeating one of the last things he had said to her. He hated this jungle.

Well, Robert, I hate it too.

Her stomach growled, shocking her back to the present as her nerves eased throughout her body. Norah let go of the dagger and grabbed her head and squeezed. Don’t lose it.

The image of Stryker’s form appeared in her mind. Norah squeezed harder.

“Norah, what’s wrong?”

She looked up to see Robert kneeling before her. Not Stryker.

“I don’t know,” she cried.

“We’re going home tomorrow. Think about that. Lindsey would be so happy to see you, and your family is waiting for your return.”

“I don’t want to leave.” Tears formed in her eyes.

“Yeah, well, we don’t always get what we want.”

“Norah, are you okay? Look at me!” The voice changed and she blinked the tears away. “You’re bleeding.” Her vision returned with every tear she shoved away. Strong, heavy hands captured hers, an inferno built to fight the awful chill. The head of a snake appeared in her eyes.

Handsome and oh-so-wrong. With silver that sparkled with a thousand minuscule beads of water. I love water. She leaned forward and kissed the sparkling metal. “Yes.” Her lips coated with warm water.

“No.” The snake jerked back. A cloth appeared under her nose. It wiped her skin and she saw the smear of crimson before it vanished within the chemicals.

Norah grabbed the cloth and stared where her blood had been. “I think,” she trailed off.

“You think what?”

“I think I’m losing my mind.”

The cloth was torn from her hands and she let it go without a fight. “Look at me! Norah, stop.”

She was pulled inside the molten lava as she continued to focus on what the voice was saying. Bands of steel encircled her, and her head was tipped up by a hand that felt like heaven against her skin.

“Open your mouth,” the voice demanded, fading from her co-worker to a snake over and over. “That’s it.” Something entered her mouth and caught in her throat where she tried to cough it out only to be foiled by a stream of water.

Norah choked and coughed and swallowed only to cough again. Drowning.

DROWNING. She saw the water cascading around her before she realized she was pinned within a jail of limbs. She struggled but the things in her throat went down and spittle caught at her lips to trickle down her chin.

“Relax,” it sounded like a shriek. A shrieker. But it was low and so close to her ear.

Something pinned her arms. Her senses came back. Not all at once, but one-by-one. The discomfort of her body eased.

“Relax,” the voice repeated.

Norah leaned into the comfort it created, feeling so very tired, and so very protected. She felt warm and safe and strangely so very in love. In desperation.

She found oblivion within the thunder.

***

Norah’s eyes shot open and darkness surrounded her. She tensed with fear and looked every which way her trapped body could. Her memories came back with a flash of lightning illuminating her chaotic surroundings.

Everything swayed around her, controlled by the storm that continued to rage overhead.

But she was warm and she was dry. And it felt like heaven, so she settled into the nest that held her tight. She had forgotten what it was like to feel dry. Her body relished it. She found a strange sort of bliss in it.

She wiggled her toes. She swallowed and felt the tingles return as her mind came back to her with fresh clarity. Stryker held her, his arms wrapped around her body and she laid against him as he laid against the Giant.

Norah whispered but didn’t expect an answer. “Did you see a ship?” her question breezed away in the wind.

“I did.”

Her eyes squeezed shut. Stryker’s words were everything and nothing. The stress still existed but it was dampened by his presence.

“The time limit is over?”

“For now.”

Norah leaned her head into the pillow of his hard chest. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, you were sick.”

She rubbed her cheek against him, listening to the howling around them.

He continued, “You were dehydrated, exhausted, and who knows what else. You had a panic attack. I’m glad I arrived in time. You consumed my thoughts.”

“You had me on your mind?”

“Yes,” his voice came out clipped.

Time passed as she sat there, high up off the ground, against the Cyborg. She listened to the constant din all around them until her focus narrowed. Everything fell away as she concentrated on the one noise she needed to hear. Norah lifted her head and closed her eyes.

And waited.

A hand slithered through her loose hair, spilling forth from a messy bun to clutch the back of her head.

He knows.

And before her thought finished the sound of his heartbeat thumped. She exhaled a breath.