Chapter Eighteen

 

Tabitha watched Savich break camp. It was an easier process with nanobots, she thought with a half-smile. As a teen, she had hated breakdown. It always seemed to take forever to collapse the tent, brush out dirt and sand, and if it had rained? Ugh. Now Savich pushed a couple buttons, and it was practically done.

She cocked her head. “Tell me about Kavelt.”

Savich stood up straight and looked at her.

She felt a thrill every. Stinking. Time.

His face relaxed.

“Strange as it might sound, I miss it.”

Not what she was expecting.

“You have to realize I spent several of your human generations on the planet.” He walked a step closer and folded his arms. “My life had a very predictable rhythm.”

Tabitha kept quiet. Her scary alien wasn’t talkative. Each word he spoke was a golden drop of honey to her ears.

“There were three or four beasts I hunted regularly,” he said. Then he fished out a silvery elongated egg. He pressed a button. A beautifully rendered high definition image appeared. “The scabika, kind of like a small version of one of your earth dinosaurs.” He let her look, and she held her fingers out as if to touch the red scaly skin. “The teel, a very, very distant cousin of a rabbit or tapir. Kind of a mix of those. The rokhura tasted quite good but was the deadliest reptile on the planet. Three times the size of a scabika. Venomous saliva. Always hungry…” he looked at the image. “One of them almost killed me.”

Tabitha started. “The scars on your back?”

He gave a grim smile. “Among many.”

She returned his smile with a sad one of her own. “Like me. I guess we’re a good match.”

Savich grabbed her shoulders. “You’re too good for someone like me.”

She would protest, but he covered her mouth with his own. He broke away before she could faint from desire.

“But I’m never giving you up.”

“Okay,” she whispered. She took the metal thing he still grasped in his palm. “There was a fourth?”

“Yes, a frowlak. But it was easy to catch.”

They began walking a game trail, Savich leading and Tabitha trying not to stare at his butt. “So you hunted every day?”

“Yes. Either because I was hungry, or I wanted to have a safe perimeter.” He held a branch aside for her. “They always crept back into my area. I set up primitive fencing, but there’s only so much one Krinar can do.”

“Hand to mouth,” she murmured. “A true survival situation.”

“Yes. It suited me for many reasons.”

“You’re not the beast you make yourself out to be, you know.” She touched his arm. “You’re the most caring person, uh, Krinar, I’ve ever met.”

Savich shook his head. “You don’t know me, Tabby.”

“You don’t know me either,” she said. “Why did you save me?”

He stopped and turned to face her. She felt naked under his scrutiny—his gaze drifting over her body, but also seeming to search her soul.

“How could I not?”

Tabitha pressed. “But you didn’t know anything at all. I could have been,” she grabbed her hair and flung her hands. “I don’t know, some kind of thief or something.”

Savich’s eyes grew dark. “They had you chained up like a wild animal.” His voice was a low rumble. “Only humans do that. Krinar don’t even treat animals like that. It’s why we’re vegetarians.” His face colored then. “It’s why my banishment to that planet was so final. I was forced to kill in order to live.”

Tabitha gasped. “They wanted you to die.”

He refused to meet her eyes. “Perhaps.”

“They thought it would break your spirit,” she pushed. “Instead you embraced it. Thrived.” She reached a hand to touch his muscled arm. He stiffened under her touch but didn’t pull away. “You are a very special soul.”

He inhaled through his nose and faced her. “I could say the same about you.” He reached out and played with a strand of her blonde hair. “How long do you think you would have lasted?”

She closed her eyes, relishing the tingling sensations as he twisted the strand around his fingers and twirled it.

“I was going to die the night you took me.”

He took a sharp breath.

“I had given up all hope. They raped me until I passed out. Then threw water on my face until I woke up. And raped me again.” Tabitha kept a steady voice, compartmentalizing the horror so she could speak. “It wasn’t just the power over my sex,” she said with a frown. “It was everything. They controlled every aspect of my life. Like I was some kind of object they could play with then discard once it broke.”

Tabitha glanced at Savich’s other hand, the one at his side. The one he clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white.

“I knew they were going to kill me that night. And probably go find another woman.”

“I want to go back there,” Savich told her. “I want to slice their throats like a dirty scabika.”

Tabitha’s heart jumped into her throat. “I can’t go back, Savich.” Terror crouched behind her shoulder blades. Tears sprang to her eyes. “I never want to see those three again.”

Savich squeezed his eyes shut. He pulled her into his arms, and she felt warm and safe. She whispered into his chest. “Stay with me always, Savich.”

She felt his arms tighten around her, but he didn’t promise anything, and Tabitha felt a tiny shard break off from her heart.