Chapter 12
After a bumpy takeoff, the ride smoothed out enough that Cass didn’t feel like she’d get sick from the motion, but she still felt nauseous from the horrors carried by the ship. She couldn’t forget what hid inside the cargo hold, nor could she forget the bodies of the crew.
The idea of just huddling in the cabin and trying to ignore the nightmares waiting for her beyond it tempted Cass, but there was one nightmare she wouldn’t be able to ignore forever—Nahash. Whether she liked it or not, the imprinting bound him to her. Short of killing him herself—which she didn’t think she had the heart to do, even if she could somehow manage it—she had to accept his presence, at least until they could find a cure for the imprinting. There had to be something out there that would work.
In her experience, dealing with a bad situation involved facing it head-on and figuring it out. Right now, she needed to do that with Nahash. She still had a lot of unanswered questions, and thus far, there hadn’t been much time for conversation—friendly or otherwise. And he certainly wasn’t friendly.
That fact made her hesitate to go out to him and see if he could spare some time to speak with her. He obviously resented her, because her pheromones had trapped him.
She sniffed her armpit, but all she smelled was the fact that her deodorant had long ago failed, reminding her that she hadn’t taken a shower in some time. She couldn’t even guess how long it had been since she’d been captured. So much had happened that Earth seemed very far away. Although, she supposed it was very far away.
She wished she had full body armor on, rather than the robe the female Iriduans had given her when she’d awakened in Kiari’s prison. She crossed her arms over her chest, the embroidered, silky material bunching up as she stepped up to the door of the cabin. It slid open upon her approach. At least he hadn’t locked her in.
She felt a strong temptation to wander around the ship, but recognized her own attempt to procrastinate from facing him again. Instead of giving into temptation, she forced her steps forward, searching for the bridge, noting the details of the ship in passing.
The ugly, utilitarian vessel lacked the shiny, futuristic look she expected for an advanced spaceship. Instead, the light emanating from within the complicated panels that covered the walls appeared to be fluorescent, and it cast more shadows than it banished. The aged brown panels—stained or pitted in some areas—lent a gloomy air to the corridors.
The uninspiring cabin contained a small mattress covered in a grimy, green blanket and crumpled, under-stuffed pillow, so the rest of the ship didn’t surprise her much, although it did disappoint.
It didn’t take long to move through the cramped corridor to the one door she suspected opened onto the bridge. Like all the other surfaces she’d seen, an incomprehensible tangle of wires and tubes covered the brown, grimy door. It still slid open as she approached, revealing a startling view.
Windows took up the entire wall opposite the door, and showed a tunnel of light speeding past them, just like warp-speed in a science fiction movie.
The sight so enraptured her that she walked towards it, her gaze fixed on the windows, instead of on where she stepped. She stumbled over the end of Nahash’s tail.
She flinched away from it when he hissed, shooting her a glare as he whipped it away and tucked it beneath the coils that wrapped around his chair.
She stammered out an apology, struggling to decide if she dared to look at him or wanted to avoid the sight, which left her giving him a side-eye that really didn’t tell her much about his mood.
“I thought you were resting.” His tone also gave little away.
She couldn’t tell if he was simply commenting, or rebuking her for not doing what he wanted her to.
She decided to avoid the conversation altogether for something more important. “Are we really on our way to Earth?”
“It’s not that simple. This ship doesn’t have a map to Earth. Most of the species in the Cosmic Syndicate don’t know where it is. Those who do have the star map keep it a closely-guarded secret.”
His words struck her painfully, making her stomach churn with acid, which reminded her she hadn’t eaten since she’d awoken from her abduction. The first one. The fear that she’d never see her home again made her sick, rather than hungry. It just seemed incomprehensible to her to process that kind of loss.
“You said you would take me home.”
He didn’t look away from the windows. “My people have held the secret of your world’s location for hundreds of thousands of years. It was once an Iriduan colony, and humans are descended from the original Iriduans—the true ‘light from the stars.’ When our galactic civilizations would topple, our secrets would be buried to protect them from being destroyed during the barbarism of our dark ages. We can still find the star map, but we must travel to an ancient temple that has long been forbidden to visit—so much so that the entire world is off-limits.”
His words raised a ton of questions, but the most important ones involved getting her home. If she could just see Earth again, she’d be able to deal with what had happened to her, and figure out what to do about Nahash himself. He might be a killer, but she couldn’t just abandon him to die because of the “affliction” he had.
“Is there a way for us to get to the temple, if the world is off-limits?”
Nahash’s coils shifted around the base of his chair, the fluorescent light gleaming off shiny scales that gleamed with obvious iridescence in the bridge’s lighting.
“There used to be a military blockade around the planet. Now, it’s nothing but defensive satellites. This RimRunner—as crude and ugly as it may seem—was designed specifically to avoid detection from such defenses. We can get to the planet, but I don’t know what we’ll encounter on the surface. The world is a desert now, though our history claims it was once covered by vast oceans and lush jungles.”
She stared in fascination at the play of light over his scales, only realizing how focused her attention had become on his tail when the silence stretched out between them. As she looked up, she met his eyes. A hunger filled them that frightened her—and deep down, thrilled her.
No man had ever looked at her like he needed her to keep breathing. In Nahash’s case, that need was literal. As huge and terrifying as he was, he belonged to her. She wished he hadn’t bonded to her in such a terrible way, but she couldn’t help thinking that maybe it wasn’t so difficult to see herself with him.
His tongue flicked out from between lips that looked human in appearance. The length and forked ends of his inhuman tongue served as a reminder that no matter how easily she could ignore the tiny scales that shimmered over his face while admiring its perfection, she couldn’t ignore the rest of his body.
He broke their gaze, turning his attention back to the control panel in front of his chair. He released a soft, low hiss that raised the hair on the back of her neck.
Desperate for something to ease the sudden tension in the room, she returned to her earlier questions. “How long until we reach this forbidden temple?”
He gestured to the windows. “The Runner is equipped with a hyper-drive for interstellar travel, but it wasn’t designed for long runs. We’ll have to stop at recharge stations—which means we’ll risk encountering the worst scum in the galaxy.” When she glanced at his face, he grinned, baring his lethal teeth. “Should be fun.”
“You-uh-you’re excited about that, are you?”
He chuckled—a deep, sexy sound that came straight from his broad, armored chest. “I enjoy fighting for my life, if that’s what you’re asking. Iriduans engineer their soldiers to receive a burst of stimulants from special glands when we engage in combat. The more critical the battle, the more stimulant our body produces. It makes us faster, stronger, and more focused. To someone who doesn’t experience this, it’s impossible to truly explain what it feels like.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat, realizing that the monster male she’d accidentally bound with her treacherous pheromones also happened to be addicted to fighting to the death. “So, that’s what you felt when you… um… when you killed….”
The thought of him killing those people—even though they were clearly not good people—made her feel dizzy. She lifted a hand to her forehead, stumbling over to one of the two other chairs in front of the bank of control panels that faced the window.
Nahash hissed and surged out of his chair, his tail uncoiling from the base as he moved towards her. “When was the last time you had something to drink or eat?”
Suddenly, he balanced on his coils in front of her, his hand pulling hers away from her face so he could look into her eyes, studying her with a deep frown and lowered brow ridges.
The last thing she could remember eating was a sub sandwich in the Pet Galaxy breakroom before the Halloween costume show. Given all that had happened since then, she had no idea how much time had passed. Hunger and thirst might be the cause of her nausea, rather than being sick at the thought of the violence and death she’d witnessed.
“It’s been a while.”
A large, strong hand circled her wrist, making hers seem tiny and delicate. His skin felt surprisingly warm, despite being covered in fine scales. She’d expected him to be cool like a reptile, but when he leaned so close, she could feel the warmth from his body.
He released her wrist and left her side to dig through a cabinet hidden behind one of the panels that covered one wall. She heard him muttering in a low voice she didn’t think he intended for her to hear.
Within moments, he returned to her side and pressed something to her lips.
“Forgive me, Casss. Caring for a woman is an unfamiliar experience for me. I didn’t train for this.”
She closed her lips around the straw he’d placed against them, sucking up what turned out to be a sour-tasting liquid that cooled and soothed her dry mouth and throat. The flavor made her think of lemonade.
When she finished taking a long drag of it, swallowing gratefully, she released the straw. Lifting her gaze, she noted that his face had moved very close to hers. His tongue flicked out just like a serpent’s.
She sucked in a shaky breath as the tips of that tongue brushed across her cheek.
Trying to ignore the way that made her shiver, she focused on their conversation instead of the fact that the shiver hadn’t been in disgust. “I’m a grown woman. I should’ve taken care of my own needs. I just got too distracted, what with all the abducting going on.” She waved to the container in his hand. “Thank you for this, though. What is it?”
He glanced down at the drink as if surprised to find it in his hand. “A vitamin-infused fluid designed to provide all of your daily nutrients. All Iriduan-crewed ships carry a supply for emergency rations. There’re other rations aboard that will probably be more satisfying for you, but for now, this will serve best to replenish what you’ve lost.” His lips tightened, not quite frowning, but certainly disapproving. “It’s fortunate this ship was outfitted by Iriduans, scum that they were. There’re some species that have nutrient requirements incompatible with ours.”
She held out her hand for the drink, which he handed over after a long hesitation, as if reluctant to stop providing for her. Once she had the drink in her hand, she lifted it and took another long, grateful swallow. The fact that she enjoyed the sour taste of citrus made the liquid more refreshing for her.
“I haven’t seen you eat or drink either.” She motioned with her chin towards the drink in her hand. “You gonna join me?”
He rose up on his tail so his body towered over her seated height. Then he leaned back until he balanced on the coils of his tail. “I took care of my needs before the mission.” His gaze touched on her face before sliding away. “My diet is… different from yours.”
She tilted her head, studying him frankly, disarmed by his sudden air of self-consciousness. “You said you ‘used’ to be an Iriduan. How did you end up like…?”
He frowned, crossing his arms over his chest, the light spilling from overhead flashing on the slick surface of his armor as he moved. “I volunteered.”
She raised her eyebrows, taking another sip of her drink as she waited for him to expound on that.
After a long silence, he sighed, apparently accepting her unspoken insistence that he continue. “My record was impeccable, my loyalty unquestioned, and my performance exceptional. I was a perfect candidate for the program. Initially, we were only told we would be undergoing a second metamorphosis—“
Her eyebrows rose even higher. “Second metamorphosis?”
“I forget that you know nothing of our people. We don’t begin our lives in the forms you’ve seen from the other Iriduans. We must undergo a transformation through metamorphosis from our juvenile state. We’re only supposed to undergo meta once in our lives, but the scientists were attempting to avoid the problems with direct gene splicing by introducing the splices prior to meta.” His lips peeled back, exposing his teeth. “Of course, that’s what they said. By the time I realized they’d lied, it was already too late for me. I didn’t understand what they intended when I volunteered, or why they put us through such a dangerous process.”
“Us?”
His story fascinated her, though she found the very concept of it unimaginable. She tried to imagine what the Iriduans—what Nahash—must’ve looked like in their juvenile forms.
His scowl deepened, creasing the space between his brows. “There were sixteen candidates. I’m the only survivor. Those who didn’t die in meta didn’t survive the changes to their new nervous system.”
She gasped, her sympathy for what he must have been through further disarming her. She still felt wary of him, but something about the vulnerability he revealed in his story made her soften her guard against him.
“I’m so sorry. That must have been horrible.”
He turned his head, looking away from her to stare at the windows where the strange light-tunnel effect continued. “They were all soldiers. They knew a second meta was dangerous and their lives might be forfeit.” He gestured to his body. “None of us expected this to happen.” He shook his head, the light shifting on the scales that covered the top of it, revealing more iridescence on the tan coloring. “I don’t think even the professors expected such a dramatic change.”
She eyed his body where it extended below his armored torso. His tail looked so much like a giant boa constrictor that it could have been shrunken down and fit right in place in a pet store, poking out of a fake log in a terrarium.
“Didn’t they test this stuff on guinea pigs first?” She didn’t like animal testing, but recognized the value in it for medical trials. She couldn’t imagine human scientists just jumping straight to the human trials without running a few tests on monkeys or rats first.
“There’s only one other species we know of that undergoes a similar process of metamorphosis, and we avoid dealing with the Menops in any capacity. Though our scientists suspect our imprinting affliction came from our shared ancestry with them, we can’t truly understand them and how they link to their queens. Entire research facilities have been lost because they kept Menops captives. Somehow, their queen and her army always find them.”
Cass had forgotten about her drink until Nahash waved at it, motioning for her to keep drinking it. She took a sip, then quickly swallowed so she could speak again. She had so many questions about him that it took a moment for her to decide which one to ask first. As much as she wanted to know more about Nahash, something more important pressed her to change subjects.
Raising her free hand to indicate the windows, she pointed to the light tunnel beyond them. “I see we’re in some kind of light tunnel, but how long do we have before we need to stop at a recharge station?”
Nahash seemed unfazed by her abrupt subject change. Perhaps the slight loosening of his tension meant he even felt relief that their conversation had veered away from him. “A solar shield covers the windows. What you see is a,” he paused as if searching for a word that might make sense to her, “a moving image that’s pleasing to the eye and symbolizes our motion.”
She stared at the display, surprised and somewhat disappointed that it wasn’t real. “What does it really look like? Outside, I mean?”
He shrugged. “The ship is surrounded by a repulsion field to keep it from being struck by debris. All you’d see—if you were insane enough to open the window shields—would be the light of that energy field.”
Her gaze returned to Nahash. She might not have real space travel to look at, but she sat in the company of a real-life alien who would put movie-monsters to shame.
When his tongue suddenly flicked out, she realized she’d been staring at his face in silence.
She blushed and glanced down at her drink, the nearly drained container almost flat now. “Uh, you never said how long we have.”
He turned to the control panel in front of the covered windows and began to swipe his fingers over the flat console. After several minutes, he looked back at her. “There’s a recharging station about fifty two Standard hours from this point. From there, it will take a few days to reach the next two, then a week to reach SSusshera.”
She whistled softly. “That’s a lot of travel time.”
She’d foolishly hoped she’d be back on Earth within a few days. After all, she’d thought people who traveled in space had figured out how to zip back and forth in hours. Understanding the naivety of that belief did nothing to quell her disappointment at hearing that Earth still remained so far out of her reach.
He nodded. “The jumpstations would cut our travel time to mere hours. Unfortunately, the empire will be scanning those stations looking for us.”
“Jumpstations?”
He chuckled, drawing her attention to a dimple on one of his cheeks. The surprisingly charming dent softened his features. Somehow, the asymmetry made his face look less perfect, but even more attractive.
“It’s a good thing we have time.” He rose off his coils and returned to the cabinet to fetch another drink, bringing it back to her to trade for the empty container.
After he slid the empty drink pouch into an opening in one of the panels, he turned back to her. “Drink the rest of this, and I’ll explain what I can for you. Then, you should rest.”