“I can.”
He moved his thumb so that it was pressed gently against her radial pulse. His hands were surprisingly warm, and the sensation of his bare skin on hers sent a thrill shooting down her arm and into her chest. “Jesus, Rykal,” she breathed, pulling away from him. “Help me find my link-band.”
He let out a low rumble of satisfaction. “What’s that?”
“The black thing I usually wear on my wrist. You might have noticed it before. It’s in the front pocket of my pack.”
“Ah.” There was the sound of zipping and rustling material. Moments later, he was pressing something into her palm. Arin activated the light, bathing them in a faint blue glow.
Rykal’s golden gaze was impossibly intense in the dim light. He’d been watching her the whole time, and she hadn’t been able to see him. Inwardly, Arin cringed. What had she revealed to him in the darkness?
“Let’s go,” he said, this time picking up her pack and the EI launcher without asking. He carried them effortlessly as Arin rose to her feet, strapping the link-band to her wrist.
Arin looked up and saw that there was an oval-shaped hole in the middle of the elevator’s giant metal doors. They were indeed stuck between levels, but Rykal’s blade had actually managed to carvethroughthe two-foot-thick metal floor of the ship, leaving two deep gashes in the actual floor of the ship. He held out a hand, indicating for her to wait as he stuck his head into the gap. “We go up,” he said.
Arin had no idea what level they were on, and she didn’t care. She just wanted to get out of the elevator.
“Wait here,” Rykal ordered. “I’ll go first and check.”
“But-” Arin opened her mouth, thought for a moment, and closed it again. She wasn’t used to taking orders. She was the one who gave orders, the one who went first, the one who took risks on behalf of her squad. She could outgun, outrun, and outthink even the most decorated peacekeeper.
But now she was with Rykal, and he was inhuman in every sense of the word.
So she let him go first. Arin stepped back and watched as he pushed her pack and the launcher out onto the floor above. He glanced back at her, winked, and then pulled himself upwards. Underneath his obsidian armor, his muscles bunched and flexed. Arin stood back and secretly enjoyed the view. It lasted only for a split second, because he moved so damn fast.
Then he was up and extending his arm to her. “Come,” he said.
Arin looked up and saw a smiling face free of guile. The hard look in his eyes was gone, replaced with nothing but warmth. She stared at his outstretched hand. It was still bare, his silver palm luminous in the soft glow of her guide-light.
She could easily jump up out of the elevator herself, but when Rykal looked at her like that, how could she brush him off?
For some bizarre reason, she got the feeling that if she refused him, he’d be hurt. It seemed stupid, but Arin didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
So she gave him a curt nod and placed her hand into his. His warm fingers curled around her hand, and Arin marveled at the fact that this alien, who was capable of such great violence, could feel so damnhuman.
The very hand that pulled her up was a killer’s hand, andyet he was so gentle with her, applying just the exact amount of pressure needed to help her up onto the ship’s floor.
He held onto her hand for just a little bit longer than was necessary, helping her to her feet. It was a strange feeling.
“Uh, thanks,” she murmured.
Rykal’s gaze turned distant as he continued to grasp her hand, his grip tightening. His expression became strange.
Arin froze. “Rykal?”
He murmured something in that strange melodic language of his, which Arin guessed was Kordolian. It sounded like a language that elves might speak, and coming from Rykal’s throat, it was oddly beautiful.
“Rykal,” Arin hissed, alarm coursing through her. His body was here, but his mind was wandering.
“Rykal!” she said again, injecting force into her voice. That seemed to get a reaction out of him. He blinked, his gaze slowly becoming focused again as he released her hand. He muttered something under his breath that sounded like cursing.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He turned away, bending to retrieve her pack and the EI launcher. “I can carry these if you like…”
Arin shook her head. “I’ll take them.” The pack contained some sensitive equipment, including some tiny DNA collection devices. The intelligence people wanted her to use them to collect biological material from the Kordolians.
Ha. They had made it sound so easy.
