Arrival, page 11
part #1 of Captured Earth Series
My situation isn’t an emergency. At least, not yet.
I need to focus on Mina.
“I need to go.”
Fer’ro eases back a little and rises as I do.
God, he’s so big.
As soon as he’s standing again, I feel…vulnerable.
I glance at my arm once more.
I still can hardly see it in the star light, but if I don’t look down at it, it will feel normal, as if I don’t have an alien sentient liquid thing on my skin.
“Where are the other females?”
Of course, he hasn’t forgotten about them.
“They’re safe.” I hope. It would be bad for the first wild animal we come across to be a starving bear or something. That’s why I need to hurry back to where I left them.
“Not for long.”
His words chill me and I jerk my head back as I search his gaze.
It is as it usually is—revealing no thoughts. No emotion.
“What do you mean by that?” I force myself to stand still but everything within me wants to take a step back from him. “Not safe from who? You? That dark-eyed one?”
For the first time, I see a flicker of emotion pass through his eyes.
“I would never harm a female,” he almost growls. “San’ten would never harm a female either.”
I do not believe him.
I saw what I saw.
I heard what this, San’ten, said.
He’d transformed into something terrifying right before our eyes. His body…no, his suit, the same thing on my arm right now, completely distorted. His whole body had spikes all over it and he was ready to come at us if Fer’ro hadn’t intervened.
“I do not believe that.”
There’s a flicker across Fer’ro’s flaming gaze.
The first I’ve seen.
“We are not like the Gryken.” He almost spits the word. “We have never and will never hurt females.”
I swallow as I stare up at him.
He’s all darkness before me.
Again, I’m faced with trusting what’s before me or going with my instincts.
It’s hard trusting something that looks like a demon from hell.
“Can you…can I see you?” For some reason, my heart kicks in my chest and I feel a shiver of anticipation. “Can you retract the suit? Is that even possible?”
Fer’ro blinks at me in the strangest way. His eyes are open, but that inner eye-lid slides across his eyes. It happens in a split second. I would have missed it if I wasn’t staring into his eyes.
Nictitating eyelids.
I’m in awe just like the first time he did it.
I’m almost holding my breath as the darkness moves from him in a smooth wave.
Down his head, his shoulders, and my eyes widen as I notice it slipping lower.
I didn’t expect him to take it all off but curiosity has me silent. I don’t stop him.
Not when the suit melts away to reveal a sculpted chest and arms or when it goes lower, passing his waist.
There are ridges everywhere.
All across his dark skin they run, giving him a strange textured appearance.
I find my throat going dry as the suit slips over his torso, his pelvis, his…
There’s a bulge. A large one underneath what I assume is his genital flap.
My cheeks grow warm when I can’t pull my eyes away.
It’s still dark. I can’t see much but I can see enough and that “enough” is making me feel strange inside.
“Um,” my lips are dry and I have to flick my tongue over them to wet them. Fer’ro’s gaze is locked on everything I do and my heart skips a beat again. “Um, I didn’t know you could do that.”
“We rarely do. Like this, we are vulnerable.”
My eyebrows shoot up as my gaze moves over him, trying my best not to look at his crotch. Nothing about him looks vulnerable to me.
He still looks like he can bench press a tiger without sweating.
My lips are so dry, I have to lick them again, and the way he is looking at me makes my cheeks blaze.
“You are naked now, aren’t you?”
“Naked?”
“Yeah, you don’t wear clothes.” I grip what’s left of mine. The dress is ripped in several places, the threads hardly hanging on.
It’s not a great example of clothes at all.
“There is no need to wear garments. Underneath the ba’clan, all Vullan are bare.”
“Vullan,” I whisper, my gaze moving down him again. His people are called the Vullan.
They are magnificent.
He is magnificent.
I have to blink to get out of the trance I’ve fallen in.
I’d told him to remove the suit so I could relate to him better.
But seeing his true form isn’t helping with that.
He’s something carved by the gods themselves.
Something forbidden.
I clear my throat in an effort to clear my thoughts.
I don’t know where my head’s going but the thoughts are clearly inappropriate.
“Okay, talk to me now. If you’re not going to harm Mina, what are you going to do to her if I take you to her?”
His ears twitch. “We will extract the Gryken.”
I blink at him. “Can you do that? Without harming Mina, can you do that?”
“Our med bay will have to learn about your species before the operation, but that should not take too long. You appear similar enough to the Vullan.”
“Med bay?”
He glances to the dark sky.
“Our ship waits. As we speak, my brethren are returning to it.”
Ship?
I look up into the sky as well, but I can’t see anything.
I’d thought their ship had sunk or something, but now that I think about it, that’s a stupid thought.
I hadn’t seen them bringing up anything except the machine from the water. Surely, they’d have tried to retrieve their vessel too, if that was the case.
“You have a med bay,” I whisper, hope making my heart beat fast again.
But Fer’ro doesn’t reply.
He doesn’t get the chance to.
There is a sharp high-pitched sound, one that makes me jump and almost immediately, Fer’ro’s suit slips over his entire form.
I realize in the next second that one of the others is nearby—has been nearby the entire time!—and I hadn’t realized, but before I can even ask what the hell is happening, Fer’ro grips me.
Chapter Eighteen
ADIRA
My legs are wrapped around his waist, my arms around his neck as he runs.
He’s moving so fast, the darkness itself is a blur.
“What’s happening?! What’s wrong?”
He clicks in response and I want to tell him I don’t understand, but that’s when the darkness moves to my left and I realize he’s not clicking at me.
I only get a glimpse of burgundy-eyes as we move through the trees and when I look to the other side, I get the sense someone else is running with us as well.
I have no idea where we’re going but they’re not slowing down.
If anything, they are starting to go faster.
Not human.
Definitely not human.
No human can move this fast.
Fuck, I don’t even think a cheetah can.
We break through a clearing, one of the areas the machine had trampled, and cool night air presses against my face.
That’s when I see it.
It’s only a glimpse as we dash across the clearing, but nothing could have prepared me for the sight.
A machine.
Off in the distance is a machine, the orb reflecting the starlight.
My heart stops beating.
It was just a glimpse, but I know it is heading this way.
They always head toward water.
Shit!
I grip Fer’ro tighter. Now I know why they are running.
It had only been a matter of time before we faced another machine, but I’d hoped we’d had more time.
More than a few days at least.
And then I hear it.
That sickening sound that makes the air vibrate. The one I’ve learned the machine does before it is going to attack.
I don’t realize how tight I’m gripping on to Fer’ro until I feel his suit move against my fingers.
My face is buried against it and I can feel it against my skin.
And even though I now know it’s sentient, it doesn’t scare me half as much as that orb does.
The night is so silent, I hear the distant thump as one of its metal legs slams into the ground and the trees splitting and falling beneath its weight.
It’s going to catch us. I’m terrified that it will.
No matter where you hide, it’s like it can sense you.
I thought we had more time!
Fer’ro is suddenly slowing down and I grip him tighter.
“Mina,” I say. “We have to go get Mina and Sam.”
“Done,” he replies and his words don’t connect till I hear Sam’s voice.
“Adira? Is that you?” Sam sounds hesitant, scared, and as Fer’ro puts me down, I realize that he and the others have run directly to where Sam was hiding with Mina.
So I was right.
He’d known how to find them even without me telling him.
Why had he asked me anyway?
I scramble away from him and through the little group of bushes I left Sam and Mina behind.
“It’s me,” I whisper. “And we’ve got company.”
“I heard it,” Sam’s voice shudders and when I part the bushes, I see the utter terror in her eyes. It shines through even the darkness around us.
She’s referring to the machine and even as understanding passes between us in that second, we hear another distant thump.
Trees split and fall.
It is far away. We might have a chance.
I hope we do.
I do not feel strong or capable.
As a matter of fact, my insides are jelly and my legs are rubber.
Still, I try to keep my voice level as my gaze slips to Mina.
“They’re here too,” I whisper. “Fer’ro and two others.”
Fuck. Mina looks even worse than when I’d left her not long before.
“She’s unconscious,” Sam whispers and I nod.
We can survive this.
We’ll be fine.
I try to believe in those words as I somehow sense Fer’ro behind me.
I don’t know how, but when I turn and look up, there he is and behind him is the burgundy-eyed one and San’ten.
San’ten.
“What’s he doing here?” My voice quivers a little as I glance from San’ten to Fer’ro.
Fer’ro clicks something at him and San’ten steps forward. His gaze is not on me…it is on Mina.
“I will not harm the female,” he says, but even as he speaks, the darkness spikes around him a little as his suit reacts. He growls in his throat and his suit flattens again. “I give you my oath.”
I gulp as I glance back at Fer’ro. He’s the only one I trust, but there’s no time for deliberation on this.
There’s another distant thump and I know the orb is one step closer to our location.
If it finds us…I know we are dead.
Fer’ro is clicking again…but it sounds different.
Lower.
Deeper.
He’s not looking at us either. His gaze is focused somewhere in the darkness ahead.
Burgundy Eyes replies and so does San’ten.
What follows is a sharp series of clicks and Fer’ro’s lips pull back as his gaze suddenly shoots to me.
His anger isn’t directed at me though, somehow I can sense that, but whatever they are talking about obviously has all their emotions rising.
Fer’ro ends the conversation with a sharp click and I’m left glancing from one to the other.
I have no idea what’s about to happen now.
“Ga’Var will take the tiny one,” he finally says.
“Who?”
“They are all tiny,” Burgundy Eyes says, but he moves toward Sam.
“Oh, you’re talking about m—me?” There’s a tremor in Sam’s voice and we hear another distant thump that makes her shiver beside me. “My name is Sam.”
Ga’Var doesn’t respond. He simply reaches down and grasps her. Sam stifles a yelp as she’s lifted as if she weighs nothing.
Fer’ro reaches for me at the same time.
“Take her where? Where are we going?” As I ask this, my eyes are on Mina.
San’ten reaches for her and alarm goes through me. But he simply lifts her limp body toward his chest.
He’s all darkness but there’s a snarl on his face. I can see his white teeth in the dark.
I hesitate as Fer’ro lifts me.
“He will not harm her,” Fer’ro speaks low near my ear before lifting his head once more.
“We go away from here,” Fer’ro says before clicking a command to his friends. “We leave. We hide.”
FER’RO
Adee’ra is against my chest and I can feel every beat of her blood organ.
Her fear scent is almost overpowering but I hardly notice it now.
Every instinct within me is focused on the great danger in our midst.
The Scrit is steadily approaching…and we are running toward it.
I don’t think Adee’ra realizes this yet, but it is the way we have to go.
The Gryken is not likely to return from whence it came. Safety is behind, not in front.
Keeping to the trees, we move quickly over the surface and I sense the big machine around me even before I catch sight of it once more.
Every symbiote on my being bristles.
Ga’Var growls his frustration but we cannot attack.
Not yet.
Our ship is not ready to.
And so, we will have to let the Scrit go. We will have to watch it walk away while hiding like cowards.
Small hands grip me and I glance down at the hyu’man in my arms as we move.
Her wide eyes are focused far ahead. Her gaze rising to the Scrit.
Her chest heaves in distress.
“You’re heading the wrong way!” She grips me tighter. “It’s in front of us!”
There is no time to explain as I slow down, my gaze darting around to find a good spot.
There’s a little area that’s without many flora.
“Fer’ro,” she’s staring at me now, “tell me you know what you’re doing.”
Her gaze is frantic as I put her down so she’s laying on the ground, back against the dead leaves.
The Scrit sounds again; its warning call.
It senses the hyu’mans.
But it doesn’t sense us.
“Adee’ra,” her name slides off my tongue easily, as if I have been saying it for eons. Her breathing staggers as she stares up at me. “Do you trust me?”
Off to the side close by, Ga’Var and San’ten are also putting their hyu’mans down.
“Are you leaving us?” she asks and I cannot read the look in her eyes. “Are you leaving us here?”
The Scrit sounds again and trees split and break as the ground shakes far too close to our location.
It will be right above us soon.
“I’m about to do something that might…terrify you.” I sense her fear rising but I continue. “Do not raise an alarm. It already knows you are here.”
At my last line, her blood organ palpitates.
There is no more time.
I only see her eyes widen as I settle over her and the shroud covers us.
Suddenly, the world around us is no more.
The dark sky, the trees, my brethren close by…everything disappears.
We are…cocooned.
Adee’ra glances around but she doesn’t move. “What is this? What’s happening?”
“Hiding,” I say. “It will not sense us like this.”
The ba’clan thin a little so I can see and the moment the Scrit comes into view above us, a breath hitches in Adee’ra’s throat.
My ba’clan bristle but keep their form around us.
It has been a while since I’ve had this sort of view. Small and looking up at the terror towering above us.
I am reminded of just how mighty the Gryken make themselves appear.
The shiny orb hovers above as it raises one of its legs and for a moment, the light of the stars is blocked out as the leg descends.
It’s coming straight at us.
“Fer’ro!”
The earth shakes, shockwaves going through it as the leg slams down around us and Adee’ra grips me, her small hands digging into my skin.
Her eyes are the widest I have ever seen them as she stares at the leg that’s now beside us.
We are in between its claws. So close.
If I stretch, I can touch it.
But I am not focused on that.
What catches my attention is the sudden silence.
The Scrit is not moving.
The ridges across my body are slowly rising as the seconds tick by.
The Gryken should not be able to sense us. They can sense the hyu’mans but now all three are protected by our ba’clan.
In the last days of the war, it had been by mere chance that a Vullan child had somehow removed its energy signature as a Scrit had approached.
It is a useful effect of the ba’clan, one we discovered far too late, one that might have saved us if we had discovered it earlier.
Now, I am praying it saves the last few beings alive on this planet.
But the Scrit is still standing still.
My ba’clan ripple as energy passes over them.
Scanning.
The Gryken is scanning.
It would have picked up energy signatures of three humans that have now suddenly disappeared.
An impossible occurrence as far as it knows.
But I wait, hoping it thinks it’s been a mere error.
Across the clearing from us, I can see my womb-mate stiffening underneath the cover of his ba’clan.
I can almost feel his tension…
Something is wrong.
I am seconds away from mounting an offence when I sense movement.
My ba’clan bristle as another loud thump shakes the earth again.
One huge leg of the Scrit rises and falls.
