There was no point in thinking about those things now.
After all, she’d come to enjoy the relative freedom of operating in space. They did things differently up here.
Rykal’s golden gaze dragged her back into the present. “That’s the difference between you and me,” he said, a trace of admiration in his voice. “You try to save people. I merely follow the orders of my commander, and occasionally, I take what I desire.” His expression turned wry, his tone half-serious. This was his way of becoming guarded, and there wasthatsmile again, the one that never quite touched his eyes. That expression of his could be brutally mocking or scarily bleak.
“Why do you get flashbacks, Rykal?” she asked in a subdued tone, surprising herself. The question had been on her mind for some time, but she was almost afraid to hear his answer.
For a split-second, so quickly she almost missed it, his eyes turned hard, like polished amber. A gamut of emotion crossed his face as he warred with himself, but a part of him finally won. Absently, he pressed his thumb to the spot where he’d marked her with his fangs. “I don’t really know. You see, I’m a half-person. I don’t have any memories of who I was before they changed me.”
Arin’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You sure don’t act like someone who’s lost their memories.”
“I was taught not to question such things. I was brainwashed.”
“Was?” Shocked, Arin stiffened. He’d admitted it so easily, as if it were no big deal.
“It was very effective at first, but over time it started to wear off. They thought they could control us by erasing our memories. They thought they could put a mindbond on us just like their cursed Silent Ones, but nano-particles interfere with mindbonds, and eventually things come back, including fragments of memories long past. So you see, I’m walking around with half a brain in my head.”
“You aren’t a half-person,” Arin said vehemently, suppressing a shudder. What had her Kordolian been put through in order to become what he was now? Perhaps she would never know the full extent of it. “Don’t you ever call yourself that again, Rykal. I don’t care if you can’t remember everything. You are who you are, and I’ll take you as you are.” She was only getting a small glimpse into the dark world Rykal had come from, and it was unsettling.
What would happen to the human race if the Kordolians ever reached Earth?
She didn’t know, and neither did Rykal, but the fact thatshe’d just made transcendent love to one of them gave her hope. He wasn’t at all what she’d expected a Kordolian to be like.
Rykal shook his head in wonder. “See how much I need you?” he mused, half to himself, before raining another storm of kisses upon her.
They were still floating, like capricious spirits out of some ancient tale, except that they were in an escape pod, waiting for somebody to find them.
As soon as they’d ejected, a distress signal would have automatically gone out to all spacecraft in the near vicinity. Right now, that would consist of theArawenand theMarcia. It was a little concerning that neither of the vessels had tried to make contact yet. Had Rykal heard from his people yet? She had no idea what the range of his hidden comm device was.
As they drifted, Rykal’s arm shot out and he snagged something out of thin air. “I get the feeling we’ll have company soon,” he draped her jacket over her shoulders, then hooked her utility suit with his toe.
“That’s just a hunch?”
“I felt something just now. Vibrations.”
She stared at him blankly. “But you’re floating.” He wasn’t touching any part of the escape pod’s hull. How could he possibly feel any sort of vibration?
Rykal shrugged. “Just a feeling I get. Happens sometimes.”
By now, Arin knew better than to doubt Rykal’s weird preternatural instincts, so she started to dress herself. As if on cue, the pod’s comm started to chime.
Rykal withdrew from her, raising his eyebrows as if to say:I told you so.
“Shit.” Arin tugged on her utility suit and smoothed down her cropped hair, trying to make herself look presentable, and not like she’d just had wild sex with a sensual alien.
As she settled back into her seat, buckling herself in, theheady afterglow of their lovemaking faded, and cold, hard reality hit her like a wet slap in the face.
The rescue team that had been sent to retrieve her from Fortuna Tau was dead, and Rykal and his fellow warriors, who just so happened to be near-indestructible super-soldiers, were going to force their way into Earth, and…
She was probably in big fucking trouble.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Arin.” Her mother’s image appeared on the flatscreen as Arin sat forward, tension making her stiffen. For a moment they just stared at each other, two human beings trying to communicate something profound across the cold void of space.
They failed. If there was something Alison Varga lacked, it was the ability to express emotions with words.
Perhaps Arin had become a little that way herself.
