“Why are you here?” I asked, on the heels of that very dark and suspicious thought. My fingers curled toward my wrists and brushed the fine strands of shimmering silver that clung there. Tiny pieces of his symbiont, pieces that Val had left behind. Why? What did it mean? A way to track me? Control me? Had I become his prisoner without realizing?
My stare had to be pretty fierce; he had to feel it into the back of his smooth, gray head. He didn’t turn, didn’t so much as twitch a muscle. It was getting annoying that he didn’t answer, and I had my hands propped on my hips, toes tapping against the floor before I realized I was expressing my frustration that loudly. He didn’t look, but I was certain he knew. Val had sat down next to him in her Gracka shape, and she was wagging her tail and giving him not-so-subtle nudges against his thigh with her pointed snout.
When he finally answered, it was as he hunkered down by the hatch and ran his fingers over the control unit, reading data, clearly experienced with the way these worked. “I’m here because I was sent to kill someone, or several someones, depending on what I’d find.” That was it, said coolly, as if he were talking about the weather, not murder.
I glanced over my shoulder at the dark ship and the empty hallways. Everyone aboard was dead; I was the only one left alive, unless Davidson really had been incorporated into that strange, alien creature. A xenomorph of the strangest proportions, with properties possibly similar to Val’s. Maybe Sinwas here for that thing, not me… The shiver of unease that shot down my spine was not quite fear, but it wasn’t trust, either. I knew next to nothing about him; he really could be here to kill me.
His head tilted to the side just a tad, one silver eye gleaming at me from beneath his brow. I thought the corner of his mouth tilted up—a hint of a smile—and my stomach twisted. He was laughing at my expense, and taking a good, long minute to do it. Eventually, though, he drawled in a lazy, almost bored tone: “My sensors caught a faint signal from your ship, and I thought it prudent to check it out so there would be no strange surprises.”
So it had been by accident that he’d found theLancing Light; he hadn’t been looking for it at all. My shoulders lowered as tension left my spine. If he had not seen that little blip on his sensors, he never would have known I was here at all. That my ship had landed on the bottom of an ocean.
“I’m going to complete my mission once we get to the surface,” Sin said, rising and giving the hatch a nudge with his boot so it sprang open. He pointed a finger at me. “I’m going to kill the bastard I’m here to kill, and you’d do well to stay out of my way. Got that?” Everything about him was dark now, sinister, mean. He was trying to intimidate me, scare me so I’d meekly nod my head and do as he wanted. Perhaps he hoped it would make me want to keep my distance.
Tough. Backing down was just not in my genes, be it a scientific problem or one of a more personal nature. This was why I’d signed on for a mission to the Zeta Quadrant, because I fought hard for what I believed in. I didn’t want to believe this guy would hurt me, and I didn’t want to believe the passion that hadflared between us was a lie. My fingers touched the silver around my wrists again, then rose to touch more of the stuff clinging to my throat. I scoffed, then a laugh escaped, and I shook my head. No, he would not hurt me; I had nothing to fear from him at all. The faith in that was absolute, although I had no concrete explanation for it yet.
I laughed harder when his expression took on a hint of confusion. Good—let him be the one on edge for once. I had had enough of that already.
Giving in a moment later, I stepped up next to him to check what he’d done on the controls, then adjusted them to better accommodate both of us inside that small pod. “It’s gonna be a bit of a squeeze. How did you get aboard? Didn’t you arrive with a ship of your own?” I leaned a bit lower to peer into the small escape pod and take note of the very limited seating space. A bit like a drum, we’d just be strapped in facing each other, then handed over to the autopilot and its very limited propulsion to take us to the surface of the ocean. It was a pod made to withstand a whole lot of pressure and damage, but it still looked flimsy and tiny.
“I swam down,” Sin said, and I nearly leaped out of my skin when he touched me, his hand sliding along my spine to my ass—a far too proprietary touch for a guy I’d just met, even if we’d played tonsil hockey not that long ago. “Val offers the perfect protection against all the water pressure, but I am willing to trust this pod to do its job, tight squeeze or not. The creature is wounded; now is our best shot.”
I reflected on my small bag of belongings, including my tablet with possible data on the Sons of Ragnar, but quickly had toconclude it wouldn’t be worth the effort. Not at the risk of running into that tentacled xenomorph again, which may or may not have absorbed Davidson’s body. Gripping his big wrist, I pulled his hand from my ass and gave him my most withering stare. “Then let’s go. Provided you know how to respect personal space.”
I did not expect that to make him laugh, but it did. He tipped back his head, throat bobbing as the sound burst from him. Loud, almost roaring with it, and completely free and unfettered. “I need to respectyourpersonal space? Human, you’re the one invading mine!” I flung his hand at his chest, making my point in what I thought was a most elegant fashion. Then I clambered into the tiny pod and tried to make myself as small as possible.
It was much easier to take offense at what he said than to allow the simmering heat between us to flare. His laugh was sexy, his surprise at laughing was cute, and on top of that, he was simply too pretty and big not to be appealing. I was the one invadinghispersonal space? No way, I’d kept a polite distance most of the time. He’d been the one pinning me to a wall, twice. He was the one kissing me, although Ihaddared him to do that.
He looked too big to fit through the hatch, so he could slide down into the pod. Wide shoulders, thick thighs, and arms that bulged with muscle. Somehow, he seemed to twist and then slide in with ease, gracefully landing in the open seat, his knees bracketing mine. If he’d appeared big before, crowded in such a small space, he felt huge now. He dwarfed me by a good foot, and his shoulders did not properly fit inside the seat. He casually reached over his head to pull the hatch shut, then touched the control unit and initiated the launch with competent fingers.
He knew what he was doing, all right, as if he’d been inside one of these before, or one very similar to it. Sons of Ragnar lived for as long as they did not die in battle, and killing them in combat was nearly impossible. Their symbionts were immortal, strange beings that nobody had ever been able to study. It was very possible that while I’d slept for over seven hundred years, Sin had actually lived through each and every one of them.
Val had become part of him while inside the pod, coating his body like a second skin and somehow managing not to take up all that much space. In her Gracka shape, she never could have fit in here with us, but as armor? You wouldn’t even know she was there, very impressive.
As the control unit began counting down its launch in a monotone female voice, I hurried to secure the safety harness around me. Sin did not bother with his, and I did not tell him that he should. I doubted he needed it. When he pushed my fingers away and tightened the straps over my chest, every brush of his hands seemed intentional, and it made me clench my thighs tightly together. Sharp noses didn’t need to know how that made me feel, even if the point was probably moot. His smug smirk said it all.
To distract him, I talked over the sound of the countdown. “Have you been to Earth? You seem familiar with our technology, and it must be pretty dated by now…” Ah, damn, why did that suddenly make it feel like a rock had lodged itself inside my throat? So what, I’d slept through the war and we’d lost. Nothing I could do about it now. I should be glad Kadri and the others would never know.
“I don’t remember,” he said, and I knew that was a lie. The last buckle was secured, but his fingers lingered on it, gleaming silver. I watched more of it spread across my chest like a stain of mercury, pooling there and then spreading in a web-like pattern. When it reached my shoulders, it curled over them, and I knew he was adding his own layer of security to keep me in my seat. See, I knew he’d never harm me; that was simply not his nature. Trap me, tie me up, boss me around, sure, I could see him do all those things. The way my pulse hammered between my legs at the thought, I clearly liked that.
“What’s Earth like now? Did the UAR take control of everything, or did others manage to stop it?” I asked. That was the most important question, and one I was almost certain I already knew the answer to. Maybe I shouldn’t ask it; maybe I should let him distract me with more claiming kisses and intimidation tactics. It would make me feel good for a while, and maybe I’d be better equipped to deal with the answer afterward.
He didn’t answer, but whether that was because he knew I was not ready to hear it, or because he was not willing to give me the bad news, I wasn’t sure. Then the pod finished its countdown and launched, abruptly forcing me back into the seat, noise roaring as we rattled around in the tinny canister, packed together like sardines. It took several endless seconds before the rattling faded and our escape pod’s route smoothed out. Like this, it was impossible to even tell if we were moving.
I locked eyes with Sin, wondered only once if I had been mistaken in putting so much faith in him, and then brushed that thought aside. “Fine, don’t tell me,” I said, and then threw down my dare. “Tell me what this means instead.” I raised my wrist to point at the silver Val had left around it. Nothing in anyliterature I’d read about the Sons of Ragnar mentioned anything like it. As far as anyone knew, the symbiont never touched other people—only their bonded master. Then again, the symbionts were supposed to be black too, not silver.
Sin’s silver eyes were so dark beneath his brow that they reminded me of thunderclouds. I squirmed uneasily, and that made my legs bump against his. We were packed so closely together that the only way we’d be more comfortable was if I climbed into his lap. I couldn’t, because the safety harness—and Val—kept me restrained, pinned to the seat.
“Play with fire, you get burned,” Sin drawled—a warning, voiced in a tone that seemed designed to be cruel. I bumped my legs into his again, just to annoy him, because he really didn’t scare me. His arms rippled as he crossed them over his chest, and now they almost brushed against the harness over my breasts. If I inhaled deeply, would we touch? Tempting.
“Coward,” I told him, and got a furious growl in response. It had been too big a shove; he couldn’t let it pass without some kind of retribution. I knew I had to get my words in now, before he silenced me. Although I was pretty certain I’d enjoy the way he’d do it, every aching second of it. “You’re the one invading my space, you big lunk. You’re the one who woke me and then ran away. And you’re the one who can’t give me a straight answer, and it’s not for the reasons you think. You’re scared you’ll hurt my feelings, aren’t you? You’re scared of facing the truth. You’re scared to make yourself that vulnerable. Well, I’m not.”
The harness dropped away from my body like it was nothing, and then I reallywasin his lap, and also pinned, by his arms, by the way his symbiont had curled around me. He roared, andit made my ears ache, but it was a pain that instantly vanished. Soothed by the silver that rushed to cover them, protect them, heal them. He kissed me next—all teeth and fang and tongue—definitely meant to punish, and it just made me ache for him.
“Mate,” I snarled in his face. Val let me raise my hand, freeing it from his restraints to press against his cheek. The faint shimmer of markings that lay beneath his gray skin gleamed brighter at the touch, exactly as I’d known it would. “That’s right,” I said, when he snapped his teeth but only glared in silent fury. “I knew it, you knew it, and you tried to walk away, anyhow. Coward.”
If I hadn’t studied alien life forms as thoroughly as I had, I probably wouldn’t have realized. I had, though, and the signs had begun clicking together when Sin tore into Val the moment he noticed the silver clinging to my wrists. No wonder his scent was like catnip, and every word he’d snarled or drawled at me in mockery had felt a bit like foreplay. It was kind of a relief to know this, to call him out on it. If there was anyone I could trust to see to it that I had a future beyond this wreckage of a mission, it was my mate.
Sin certainly did not appreciate being called a coward, or being called out, period. Given his arrogant attitude, he probably rarely encountered anyone who tried. I was not going to accept anything less than a full partnership, though, so he’d better get used to it.
