Nick spun around.

Raina’s drone shone its light behind them, but it was not strong enough to penetrate the darkness coalescing around the door.

“We need to run,” he whispered, taking Raina’s hand. “And turn off your light.”

She bolted without hesitation, fleet as a deer in the low gravity, tapping her wrist to extinguish the soft glow.

“BFF20, go that way,” Raina whispered, motioning toward an offshoot of the corridor.

The little drone whistled indignantly but obeyed.

Nick tightened his hand around Raina’s. They were running in complete darkness now.

He called on his gift, shifting his eyes to make them more useful.

Instantly, he could see the hallway ahead of them in tones of blue.

They ran on, deeper into the unknown wing.

There were no sounds coming from behind, but Nick’s spine still crawled. Something was there with them. He only hoped it might have followed the drone. That had been quick thinking on Raina’s part to send it off as a distraction.

Gravity kicked in slightly, and Raina stumbled.

He swept her up in his arms without a thought, his senses reeling with her nearness in spite of the danger they were in.

“I’ve got you,” he told her, his breath making plumes in the frigid air.

She clung to him, her hands like ice against his shoulder blades. The surrounding temperature was well below freezing. He wondered how long the power had been out.

A blinding line of bright white appeared ahead of them.

He allowed his eyes to slide back to the human spectrum of vision and looked closer. It was coming from under a door.

He clutched Raina tighter and ran for the door with all he had.

It pushed open easily.

He slipped inside, closed it carefully, and put his back against the door, hoping whatever had chased them couldn’t hear his breathing.

A touchscreen panel beside the entry allowed him to extinguish the light within. He hoped it was in time that their pursuer hadn’t seen it.

“Can we lock it?” Raina said, still catching her breath.

He tried, hopeful due to the presence of the working light, but it required power to seal.

“The slide lock on the door won’t work with the main power out,” he whispered her.

Raina tapped his shoulder and pointed.

He turned his head to see she was indicating the viewing glass on the door.

She wiggled to be put down and he placed her gently on her feet.

He missed the sweet weight of her immediately.

“Can you change your eyes again?” she whispered, pressing her lips to his ear.

He nodded. She had noticed. And she wasn’t freaked out.

Warmth bloomed in his chest.

He transformed his vision again and saw her in the pale blue tones of his large, nocturnal eyes. There was no revulsion on her face, only an eager smile that made him forget the cold.

She grinned up at him and pointed at the door.

He wrapped a protective arm around her and placed his face against the smooth surface of the door to gaze through the glass.

The hallway was empty.

Raina rested her cheek against his chest. Her hair smelled like starlight.

Focus, Nick…

His blue tinted view of the hallway was unchanged.

He could feel her breathing, the swell of her breasts each time she inhaled. Only thin layers of clothing separated their bodies. Waves of lust threatened to overwhelm him.

He clenched his jaw and forced himself to think of the danger they could be in.

A flicker of movement in the hallway caught his attention. Something was coming.

Tendrils of smoke seemed to curl around one of the chandeliers.

Then there was a clink as the tendrils turned to talons that clung to the metal and swung the rest of its inky, swirling body through the air and further into the hall.

The talons turned back to smoke, releasing soundlessly as the thing swam down the hallway like a giant squid, frayed ribbons of it drifting behind. Slowly, it passed the door where Nick clung to Raina, praying it had not sensed them.

He waited, ready to do whatever had to be done to protect her.

But the creature did not return.

“It’s gone,” he whispered.

“What was that?” she asked softly.

He wracked his brain for a way to describe it that she would understand.

“It was almost like a ghost,” he said. “It moved like it was swimming, like it was only solid when it wanted to be. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Raina shuddered.

He cradled her closer, touched her cheek.

It was icy cold, and still tinged with blue even when he shifted his eyes back to the normal human range.

“You’re freezing,” he said.

It was too easy to forget that his body temperature simply adjusted to his environment.

He spun to scan the room, hoping there would be something he could warm her with.

Raina switched on her light, illuminating the small room. They were in some sort of antechamber. Another DNA lock secured the door leading further in. The amber dot glowing at its center indicated it was still working.

“Hey,” Raina said, moving to it and placing her hand against the pad before he could stop her.

There was a loud beep and a hiss as the door slid open.

Both of them froze in place, hoping the noise wouldn’t attract the thing’s attention.

But the luck of Gothora was not smiling on them. A clinking sound on the other side of the door to the corridor let him know they’d been heard.

“Go,” Nick hissed to Raina.

But she seemed to be rooted in place.

The door to the alcove slammed open so hard against the metal wall of the alcove that sparks flew.

Raina’s light shone on the thing. It rose up to a terrible height, eight feet tall, filling the doorway. The wispy smoke of its tendrils seem to take on weight before Nick’s eyes.

“Go,” Nick roared.

Raina pushed the lever to open the door behind them.

The thing coiled itself up then struck out at Nick.

He managed to duck beneath its reach, shifting into another form as he did.

His clothing shredded and his vision blurred, even as his sense of smell expanded.

He rose in his new form, striking out with a mighty paw, claws extended, teeth bared.

But the thing gave way like smoke and he ripped through nothing, landing with a thud on all four paws.

Something came down hard on his head, like an ironwood club.

He roared again, stunned, and snapped his teeth at his assailant.

But it was like biting air.

The creature’s talons slashed at him this time, wounding his shoulder.

He reared up on his hind legs again.

Somewhere, a voice called his name.

“Nick,” it cried plaintively again.

Something about this voice tugged at his instincts and he went to it.

Small hands grasped his fur painfully and the human thing pulled him with a strength that should have been beyond her.

He tumbled into the room and heard a door slam behind him, followed by a hiss as it sealed shut.

Talons screeched against the door, but the thing did not get in.

Nick moaned and shoved his snout into the human’s belly in thanks.

The shiver of her laughter made his heart pound.