Finally, I pause to take full stock of my body.
I’m thirsty and hungry, but don’t seem to be hurt beyond the head injury and the wrists. I’m still wearing the same clothes I was wearing before, nothing, not even my jewelry or bags, has been taken off me. Whoever has me isn’t after me for my money or belongings.
No, why would they be? Out here in the middle of nowhere?
But they knocked me out for a reason…
Did I stumble on a deserter’s hideout? I take another quick check around again, noting the few items left out, signs that someone definitely lives here.
They apparently didn’t think I’m threatening enough to hide their belongings. Because on the wall behind me, where several pillars rise from the floor to frame a dark entrance I can’t see into, there are spears and sharpened rods and blades.
Whoever has me either doesn’t care that I see them because they plan on letting me go, or they plan on ending me when they are done with me.
Sabrina, again?
This isn’t the first time I’ve woken up in a strange place after being knocked out. Before getting a job on Weston’s crew, I’d been a part-time thief and had ended up in some tricky situations and untoward confrontations. Good thing I’m a prickly sort of girl and tend to stab those who get too close to me.
I lie back with a sighing flourish, already exhausted by fighting with the frayed rope and rock. My stomach yawns, signifying its emptiness. Unfortunately, focusing on it makes me realize how badly I need to pee. I’m searching for a good place to go in my immediate vicinity when I hear arustling noise from the tunnel behind me and scramble back up on my knees.
Rocks shift and tumble as the long sliding sound draws nearer, scattering in the darkness between me and it. I straighten, poised on my heels, readying to kick out at whatever, or whoever, approaches, intent on hurting them before they hurt me. If nothing else, I’ll go down swinging.
Suddenly the noise stops, and fear hits me for the first time as I grasp how very out of my depth I am.
He knows I’m awake. He can see me.Why else would he have stopped right outside where I can’t see him?
He… It had to be ahe…It sounded like a he…
Big…
It also soundedbig.
Breathless, I spin away from the tunnel, kicking and pulling at the stone and the rope at the same time.Shit, shit, shit!Adrenaline floods my mind. Because I know my captor isn’t going to be a human when he finally decides to face me, he is going to be a naga, one like the alien onThe Dreadnaut.Nothing else could sound like that when it moves.
Just as I rip through the last shreds of the rope with panic-given strength and yank it out from under the rock keeping me tied down, the rocks shift in the tunnel again.
I jerk free and scrabble to the far wall at the edge of the water only to discover there’s no exit this way, only larger piles of crumbling stone making deceptive shadows. By the time I turn to flee in another direction, it’s too late. He’s in the room with me.
My jaw drops and I straighten, the rapid breath in my lungs stifling. I take a half-step back, then freeze, realizing I’m either going to have to talk my way out of this and use my charm or I’m fucked. There is no way I’m making it outof here alive if I try to fight or flee. Because the largest creature I’ve ever seen now is in front of me, rising on a massive tail.
I drop my hands to my sides in surrender, palms outward. “Don’t hurt me!”
Staring at him, I open my mouth to say something else but end up closing it instead, unable to find words. He’s… stunning. Not in a handsome way, but in a ripped physique type of way. Blueish-gray from tailtip to the top of his bald head, the muscle-packed alien—naga—stares back at me, regarding me in turn.
I gulp my next breath, then release it, taking another, steadier one in, trying not to hyperventilate. Because it doesn’t matter so much about his strange flat features, or the subtle change in colorization, or his wide bright blue eyes. None of that matters in comparison to his gargantuan size.Andthat, like the alien on the ship, this one’s bottom half is a single, long tail while his upper half is onlymostlyhuman.
Swallowing, I tilt my head and frown, feeling my stomach sink to the floor. He’s not nearly as human as the other naga I saw.Human and something else… Something I haven’t seen before.
But he’s not attacking me.
“Are you an alien-human hybrid?” I shout out to him, my voice louder than it needs to be.
He draws his tail deeper into the room and I eye it warily; it’s big enough for me to climb on.
To stand on.
To lie down and roll over without falling off on…
He tilts his head back at me, then peers around the room as if looking for something in a way that has me pausing. Whatever it is, he doesn't find it, and seemingly sighs. “I do not understand,” he rumbles.
