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“Okay, now you stop it.”
“Sorry. It comes more naturally to me than verbal speech. It’s much more efficient.”
“Right. Well, I don’t like the idea of someone climbing around in my head.”
“I will cease, then.”
“Now that we’ve gotten to know each other, Kronos, why don’t you show me where you have Taylor.”
I wasn’t afraid of him. I’d seen what he did to Taylor. If he wanted to hurt me, it would have been easy.
“You aren’t afraid at all of being on an alien vessel?”
“No. I’m not afraid.”
How could I be? My mind was working at a million miles a minute thinking of a way I could use meeting this creature to my advantage. I’d pinched myself twice when we wasn’t looking. Everything that was happening wasveryreal.
“Come with me then.”
“What do you actually want from me?” I asked as I followed him, “Why did you attack Taylor?”
He stopped and turned around.
“Before we see him, I should tell you.”
“No. I want to see him first. Is he…dead?”
It hadn’t crossed my mind that perhaps this alien had killed Taylor and he wanted to kill me too. He was an alien after all. Didn’t they like probing people? Kronos seemed to find the notion amusing.
“I would not kill unless I was threatened. I only intended to disable him. Your physiology is weak and fragile. I had to heal him afterwards.”
“Hey, I’m not weak!”
Staring up at the giant, I realized how ridiculous that might sound to him. Compared to him, I was beyond weak. He could have snapped my neck in an instant with one tight grip from his hands, nearly as large as trash can lids.
“Come on.”
He was stern, silent most of the time, and I could never read him well enough to tell what he was thinking. His facial expressions never betrayed him, nor did he seem to mind when I stared at the funny ridges on his nose. I found myself wanting to reach out and touch his hair to see if the platinum white was as silky and smooth as my own.
“Your thoughts are loud,” he finally uttered out loud.
Heat rushed to my cheeks. I’d forgotten that he couldn’t just talk to myself inside my head without him listening in.
“If you weren’t crawling around in my head, you wouldn’t hear my thoughts,” I snapped back.
“It is not my choice. It is yours. On Devor, we learn to protect our thoughts and clear our heads. Children learn how to do this.”
I sensed a prickle of irritation from him and wondered if he’d communicatedthatvoluntarily. He opened a door, tall enough to tower over his head and then we were in a room where Taylor lay strapped to a bed unconscious.
“Is he sleeping?” I whispered.
“Yes. He will be sleeping for a while.”
“I don’t understand. Last night, I thought you killed him.”
He turned to me and said, “No. It is not my nature to kill. Yet, I could not release him knowing you might be in danger.”
