Текст книги "Arrival"

Автор книги: A.G. Wilde

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

Chapter Twenty-One

ADIRA

I’m slamming my hands against him, my curses echoing in the hallway as Fer’ro moves into another room and sets me down.

“What are you doing? I’m not leaving her in there all alone!”

With that psycho, I want to add.

I try to brush past him but he holds me still.

“No,” he growls. “We have waited too long. It is far too mature to expose you to it.”

My shoulders heave as I look up at him.

“What do you mean?”

“There is no time to explain.”

He hits something on the wall and the wall disappears into a transparent shield.

“Whoa,” Sam mutters.

Across the shield, I can see Mina on the table, the medic still over her.

I step forward, pressing my hand against the shield. It’s solid, like glass.

He’rox hasn’t cut her yet. He is looking in our direction and I realize it’s not a one-way mirror.

He can see us too.

Off in the corner of the room, is a tall being with so many spikes I almost do not recognize San’ten.

He is completely distorted with the multitude of blades around him.

My breaths are still coming hard as my heart thumps against my chest.

“Are you sure it’s okay for him to be in there?”

Fer’ro bristles beside me. His suit actually moves.

“No,” he says.

Not the answer I expect and my eyes widen. “What do you mean? Why is this so dangerous?”

Fer’ro’s gaze flick to me. “I have to go back, Adee’ra. One or both of my brethren in that room will not be safe.”

I blink at him. I don’t understand why they’re being so ominous.

What could be so dangerous about something that should, essentially, be a baby?

“You stay here. This room is secure. You will be safe. And…when that thing comes out…do not let anyone who has been in that room inside.” He pauses. “Even if we beg.”

I glance at Sam but she is now as terrified as I am.

I manage to nod at Fer’ro and he pauses again as he looks down at me.

At that moment, I want to hang on to him because I feel something is about to happen that I won’t like.

I open my mouth to say as much when he pulls his gaze from mine and turns.

Ga’Var follows him out the door and as I watch them leave, the ba’clan pulse against my arm.

It’s a warm feeling, as if they are trying to comfort me and I brush my other hand against them.

“Adira?” Sam calls my name and I move over to where she is standing, arms crossed, in front of the barrier.

Fer’ro and Ga’Var are back in the room and their focus is on the medic.

I wish I could understand what they are saying because they’re obviously discussing something critical.

That’s when Fer’ro’s blades suddenly rise all around him. So does Ga’Var’s and I know enough now to understand that means they feel threatened or are about to attack.

The medic brings his blade down, slicing through Mina’s skin and blood fills the table.

I’m frozen as I watch.

It’s too much blood.

They can’t let her bleed out.

There is a sick pulsing in her stomach and I hold my breath.

“What are they waiting for? Why don’t they take it out and kill it?!”

I can’t take the suspense. It feels like I’m about to go into cardiac arrest when something moves fast, so fast I almost don’t see it.

It falls to the floor and I have a moment where I see gray.

The Gryken.

It’s huge!

There’s a moment where I see its blurry form before chaos explodes in the room.

The medic is wheeling Mina away to another room whose door was an invisible rectangle in the wall, while Fer’ro and the others…

Someone smashes into the barrier right in front of me and I jump.

“Fer’ro!”

His back is to me while San’ten is to his front, his teeth bared, his blades all extended.

I don’t understand what’s happening.

And where is that fucking thing? The Gryken.

Somewhere in the back, Ga’Var is tearing the room apart. I think he’s trying to find it, while Fer’ro is desperately trying to hold San’ten off, even though San’ten looks like he’s about to rip his throat out.

Every slash San’ten aims his way, Fer’ro dodges but without aiming an attack on his own.

He’s playing defense, but San’ten looks crazed.

His claws extend and he swipes at Fer’ro, drawing blood.

A scream leaves my throat as that blood splashes against the barrier, painting it a deep, dark red.

I can’t see anything, but it’s not because of the thick blood slowly dripping down the wall in front of me.

I can’t hear Sam’s deep intake of breath as she stares transfixed. I can’t see Ga’Var ripping the room apart in the background.

I can’t even see San’ten as he aims another strike.

All I can see is Fer’ro.

I watch as the scene plays in slow motion before me.

He dodges another attack as San’ten aims for his throat.

The sharp blade misses by an inch and pierces the wall in front of us.

Fer’ro.

Against my arm, the ba’clan pulse in a rhythm that beats with my heart.

Fer’ro!

He manages to throw San’ten across the room and the dark-eyed male collides with the wall.

San’ten falls to the ground but he’s not down yet, for he’s rising again.

I’m staring at them, wondering what the hell is happening, why San’ten is trying to kill Fer’ro, when something comes sailing through the air, right at me.

I jerk backward instinctively but whatever it is doesn’t reach me.

Instead, it lands on the barrier right in front of me and all I see are sharp teeth sticking into the barrier itself as huge dark eyes meet mine.

I’m staring into the eyes of the enemy and God knows, it’s terrifying.

The Gryken screeches at me.

Even with the barrier there, the sound dampened, I can still hear it.

Its six limbs are extended and it catches itself as it slips to the floor to stand on them.

“Holy fuck…” Sam whispers.

Its rows of teeth clamp down and open again.

Its face is wicked.

All I can see is pure evil.

I want to look away, but…I can’t.

There’s a dark blur in the background as San’ten rises once more and rushes toward Fer’ro.

I only have a moment to scream his name before Fer’ro moves in the opposite direction, away from the male charging at him.

He moves so fast, it’s hard for my eyes to keep track.

Smooth. Efficient. He flips in the air, going airborne as he dodges San’ten.

At the same time, one of the blades on his arms extends as he descends.

The Gryken screeches again, just before Fer’ro’s blade pierces through its skull.

The body goes limp and dark blood splashes against the barrier, mixing with the blood already there.

My heart is in my throat now.

What the hell just happened?

Fer’ro is staring at me through the barrier, those lava eyes of his engulfing me. And then he…collapses to his knees.

I don’t know what gets into me.

I just have the sudden urge to get to him.

My arm pulses, as if his ba’clan are telling me something, and then I’m darting from the room.

“Adira?”

I can’t even pay attention to Sam. I just have to go.

I press my good hand against the side wall where I assume the door is but nothing happens.

Something tells me to try the other, the one with the ba’clan, and I do.

The door materializes and disappears. In the next second, I’m running through the opening, heading back to the med bay.

As soon as I enter the med bay I stop in my tracks.

The whole room is destroyed and San’ten is standing before me.

But his blades are retracted now and he’s standing, staring at Fer’ro.

“What have you done?!” My scream hits him and he turns to look at me.

I should be afraid.

I know I should be. Instead, I’m running into the room, my feet taking me toward the one thing that’s calling me.

This strange alien male who in on his knees facing the barrier.

Fer’ro’s blades are still out and the Gryken is still pierced on the end of one of them.

“Fer’ro?”

I crouch before him, but his gaze is unfocused.

“What have you done to him?!”

At my words, San’ten takes a step closer.

“Stay away! Don’t you come any closer!”

My hands hover over Fer’ro’s face.

He isn’t responding at all.

His eyes are open, but it’s like he’s not there.

San’ten clicks something but I’m too filled with emotion to care to try and understand what he’s trying to say.

“It’s the Gryken,” Ga’Var finally says and I realize he’s bloody too.

He’s covered in his own blood.

The Gryken must have attacked him when I wasn’t looking.

“What do you mean it’s the Gryken?”

At the thought of the thing, I glance at it and swallow hard.

It’s hideous.

But it’s dead now.

“The moment it detached from its host, it sensed danger. It needed to protect itself.”

“I do not understand.” I’m still staring at Fer’ro, my gaze falling down his face, his body…

When I glance back at his face, he blinks and I feel a sense of relief.

“Fer’ro?”

I didn’t realize tears filled my eyes till my gaze grows blurry.

“San’ten was not himself,” Fer’ro says. “Forgive him.”

His voice sounds so strained that the anxiety within me doesn’t calm. “This,” and he shakes his arm and the Gryken’s dead body moves, “this was controlling him.”

The Gryken falls off Fer’ro’s blade and slips to the floor with a sickening wet slop.

“What?”

San’ten takes another step forward. He clicks something at Fer’ro.

“It’s only a small wound. You couldn’t help it,” Fer’ro says.

I look at his chest. I cannot see the wound. The suit covers it but the blood against the barrier told me enough.

My chest is heaving as my breaths take a while to slow down.

“Mina,” I whisper.

As if hearing me, the door off to the side opens and He’rox stands in the way.

He clicks something to Fer’ro and Fer’ro answers back.

For a few moments, their conversation fills the room until He’rox disappears behind the door again.

A lump forms in my throat.

“Where’s Mina?”

“Mee’na is well. But it will take days for her body to heal, even with our technology.” Fer’ro’s gaze engulfs me once more. “He’rox says your kind does not heal as quickly as we do.”

A breath I didn’t know I was holding shudders through me.

“I want to see her.”

Fer’ro rises and he staggers a little.

Whatever San’ten did must have hurt him a lot.

I cast an angry glance in San’ten’s direction and his ears twitch before falling back to press against the sides of his head.

Fer’ro moves over to the wall He’rox is behind and presses something in the wall.

Another transparent barrier appears before us and I see Mina…floating above a table.

She is completely naked but there’s not a wound in her belly anymore.

Just a line where her skin has been stitched together.

“Mina…” I whisper.

“She will heal,” Fer’ro says. “We got the Gryken out just in time.”

I stare at her and I feel myself relax a little as I see her chest move.

She’s breathing.

“Just in time,” I whisper. “What would have happened if we…weren’t so lucky?”

“That thing would have birthed itself and used her for its first meal.”

The thought makes me shudder.

What sort of being birthed itself?

Only something extremely terrifying.

I’m still staring at Mina, my hands pressed against the barrier when Fer’ro turns and clicks orders to Ga’Var and San’ten.

He moves away from the barrier and I hear him talking to them before the room goes silent.

I don’t realize we are alone till I glance behind me to find Fer’ro blocking my way.

My gaze moves up his chest to meet his eyes and his ears twitch when I meet his gaze.

“Thank you,” I say and his ears twitch again.

“He’rox will examine you next,” he says.

I glance back at He’rox and I find him watching me through the barrier.

It’s unnerving how the Vullan stare and my spine stiffens a little.

I don’t trust any one of them enough to be alone with them.

Fer’ro is the only one…

I turn back to him, turning this over in my mind.

“I feel fine. These,” I lift my arm with the ba’clan still attached to it, “seem to be helping. I know they’re only on my arm but my whole body feels a little better.”

His ears twitch again. “He’rox will need to look at that too. It is not…usual.”

I gulp as I nod and glance back at He’rox.

“Maybe later. I want him to focus on Mina. She needs all the attention she can get.”

“Then you should rest.”

“What about Sam?”

I’d rushed out of the room, leaving her behind, but when I cast my gaze to that side, I can’t see her waiting there.

“Where is she?”

“My womb mate has taken her to private quarters to rest.”

“Ah.” I nod again and end up folding my arms across my chest.

It’s been so much high-anxiety over the last few hours that now that it’s slowed down, I feel at a loss.

“Come,” Fer’ro says, and then he’s leading me from the room.

Chapter Twenty-Two

FER’RO

Adee’ra’s scent has changed.

I do not think she is aware of the change at all and I do not know what it means.

The moment she rushed into the room, I’d smelled it.

She rushed in…for me.

Despite the danger San’ten had posed, she’d come anyway, fierceness on her face and in her voice.

Just like a Vullan female when protecting a nest.

I do not know what this new scent means but even while in pain, I have to focus on stifling the thrum threatening to burst from my throat.

I wonder if Ga’Var and San’ten smelled it too.

It wasn’t her fear scent.

That scent is mostly gone.

She doesn’t fear us as much as before.

She doesn’t fear me.

Again, I have to stifle a thrum at that thought, and as I lead her to my quarters, I try to focus on what is ahead of us.

This planet is filled with raw resources. We scanned and found enough of such.

But these resources are not readily available.

They are deep below the surface.

It’s a primitive world, this Er’th. Our technology is not compatible.

Setting up an offence will be difficult. We need the resources to build more weapons and we need to do so soon.

One Gryken node is dead. The hivemind will know now that a threat is in their midst.

They will think it is the hyu’mans though. At least, we still have the element of surprise.

As we head to my quarters, Adee’ra a slight step behind me, we walk past several Vullan. Despite that my mind is on many things, I sense my brethren’s curiosity as their eyes flick to Adee’ra.

I want to shield her from their eyes.

Some of them must see the ba’clan on her arm as well.

That is something I am sure will spread across the ship.

Something I do not know how to address.

As I stop walking abruptly to activate the door to my quarters, Adee’ra almost bumps into me.

Her soft body brushes against my back and my ba’clan shiver a little before every muscle in my being refuses to move.

I can feel them stretching toward her.

I’ve never…I’ve never felt anything like it before.

“Fer’ro? Are you all right?”

Her soft musical words tickle my ear and I turn to look at her.

She isn’t looking at me though. Her gaze is wide and on my back.

My ba’clan snap back to my skin the moment I look down and realize it hadn’t simply been a feeling.

They had physically been leaving my being, going toward Adee’ra in spikes.

Reaching toward her.

“Do you feel threatened right now?” she whispers, her gaze darting around us as her fear scent begins to grow.

“No,” I growl in her language.

“Your suit was…your spikes…the blades…”

I’m both impressed by her level of observation and her fortitude for standing so still while she thinks danger might be near.

She has already realized our hackles rise when we feel threatened.

“Those were not my hackles…”

Her brow knits in the most curious of facial expressions, and for a moment I find myself trying to mimic it.

I cannot. My ridges do not allow my forehead to move so freely.

“What was it then?”

I do not know.

“In time I may be able to tell you.”

Her brow knits farther and she glances behind her down the empty corridor.

Around the bend, I sense several of my brethren.

They are listening to our conversation.

Adee’ra is looking past me now, into the dark room that is my private space.

“Where is Sam? I thought we’d be sharing…”

“No. You will not be sharing.”

Not with the other female, at least.

“Ah,” she says and looks around me into my dark room. “So…these are my quarters?”

Her words are hesitant as if she finds it out of place to be asking such a thing.

“No,” I reply. “They are mine.”

I turn and finally step into the room. The light activates enough for me to see clearly but I’m sure Adee’ra is still mostly blind to what is inside.

I click an order to the onboard computer and as the light brightens, I hear her gasp.

It is a singular room but it has everything I need. A cleansing area and a resting space.

Adee’ra takes a single step inside, leaving half of her body out the door. She is particularly staring at the geometric lights forming patterns in the walls.

“Wow,” she whispers.

I assume it is a good thing.

“You should rest.”

I click a command and the floating sleeping area descends from the roof. It’s filled with feathers from great flying creatures from Edooria and should be comfortable enough for her.

I do not know.

Only Vullan women sleep on the feathers.

Adee’ra’s eyes bulge out a little, her cheeks growing warm, but she nods and steps forward, allowing the door to close behind her.

Now that she is in my space, a feeling envelops me that I did not expect.

Her scent is already invading my quarters and my ba’clan begin to react again.

I shut them down and head to the washing station.

I must prepare myself for the work ahead and tend to my wounds.

Anything to take my mind off this hyu’man being that my whole body is drawing toward.

ADIRA

I sit on the edge of the strange bed, my eyes on Fer’ro as he moves toward the corner of the room.

I have so many questions for him, I do not know where to start.

And everything is so different now. It’s moved in a direction I did not expect.

I thought I was going to die in that orb…

Now I’m in an alien spaceship as a guest staring at an alien who is…

My breath stops in my throat as I watch Fer’ro.

He’s n—naked.

Completely.

And this is a whole different situation than when he’d been in that forest with me in the dark.

Now I can see everything clearly. And my God…

The ba’clan seem to have disappeared somehow, as if they melted into his skin.

His body is like sculpted charcoal magnificence.

There are more ridges down his chest, his back, his arms, his legs and his skin seems to glisten in the light.

He’s not aware of me staring at him and I’m glad, because I can’t pull my eyes away.

There’s a circular ring on the floor and he sits within it, his back turned to me.

There are deep gnashes in his skin and I see dark blood seeping through.

He’s hurt. Much more than I realized.

I thought the ba’clan protected him but apparently not?

There is so much that I have to learn about these things.

Even as I think about them, I feel them pulse against my arm and I look down at myself.

My arm looks alien to me but it’s quite obvious my hand is no longer swollen. It doesn’t hurt anymore either.

It feels…normal.

There’s a blast of air and when I look up, Fer’ro is standing.

As he faces me, like magic, his ba’clan crawl back over his skin.

It takes just a second to happen but I’m staring at him in awe.

The only thing he leaves uncovered is his face.

“You should cleanse yourself then rest,” he says.

I glance around the room. I would gladly take a bath but I don’t see a bathroom anywhere.

“Where?”

He pauses for a second before turning to look at the ring on the floor.

“What?” So that’s what he’d been doing? Taking a bath? So quickly and without water?

“Sit or stand here,” he says, gesturing to the circle as I slip off the bed.

My tentative steps toward the circle are met with patience on his part. He’s just watching me move and as soon as I get to the edge of the circle, I pause.

I will have to get naked.

I glance at Fer’ro, contemplating this.

Maybe it’s okay.

He’s been nothing but respectable so far and despite that he is male, I doubt my pale, bruised, fleshy human body appeals to his kind.

Now is certainly not the time to be modest.

The world is ending.

My nakedness doesn’t matter.

As my clothes slip to the floor, I watch them fall.

Stained. Dirty. They are as every bit a reminder of the last few days as my scars are and I realize I never want to see them again.

I’ll just have to find a new way to cover myself.

I slip off my shoes and leave them in the pile too before stepping into the circle and sitting the way Fer’ro did.

I’m about to ask what I should do next when the ring of light moves up from the floor and passes over my entire body. A blast of warm air follows before the light settles back in place.

A moment passes where I’m wondering what’s next. I look down at my body and it looks…clean.

The dirt and smudges that were all over my arms and legs are gone.

“Tha—that’s it?”

I turn a questioning glance in Fer’ro’s direction and my breath catches in my throat.

His gaze is like fire as he stares at me and his ears are perked off the side of his head.

But what’s more alarming is his ba’clan.

They are stretched off the front of his body toward me, like dark fluid contorting.

My eyes widen as I scramble to my feet and I watch as they snap back in place.

This is the second time I’ve seen them do that.

It happened at the door too.

“Fer’ro?”

He is staring at me and his pupils have become so narrow that the slits look like lines.

“I should take you to He’rox,” he says. “You need to be…checked.”

I swallow at this and wrap my arms across my chest.

“Is there something wrong? Do you think something is wrong?” I glance at the ba’clan still on my arm.

I’m getting so used to them there now. I keep forgetting they’re on my skin unless they pulse or I look directly at them.

“You have wounds.”

His gaze is moving over my skin and I shuffle on my feet. I have several scratches, bruises, and cuts, but I feel fine.

The thing is, I should go to He’rox, just to be sure everything is all right.

But I don’t want to…

“I don’t want to be around the others. I don’t…”

I don’t trust them.

But somehow…I trust him.

“Can I just stay with you for now? Until I get used to all this?”

His ears twitch and I wonder what the action means in this instance.

He studies me for a moment and he’s standing so still, it feels like the air in the room doesn’t move.

“Rest on the feathers. I will heal you myself.”

My eyebrows shoot up a little but a sense of relief flows through me.

I didn’t know he could do that and I release a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.

It’s a much better option. I’d rather only deal with him and him only.

Apart from San’ten, the others don’t seem hostile but…the more time I spend around Fer’ro, the safer I feel.

As I walk back to bed, I allow myself to relax a little.

It’s a huge thing and it has a soft wool-like layer on top of it.

I feel small as I climb up, the thought that I’m completely naked lingering in my mind.

I should be more concerned about that.

But Fer’ro doesn’t make me concerned.

That’s until I turn around and notice he’s climbing up on the bed behind me.