Chapter 6
My boots hitthe floor with a wet thud. His hand stays around my waist as though to steady me or to keep me from running—I’m not sure which. Though where I’d run to, I have no idea. We are completely and utterly alone in the cave city and I have no idea how to get back to my ship. Maybe in daylight I’d risk the track and the climb up the slope. But at the moment the risk of falling and certain death holds me hostage.
“Do you live here?” It’s a stupid question, of course he does. But the need to make conversation isn’t something I can stop from bubbling up.
“Sometimes.” He steps back, releasing me, and glances around. Is he looking for someone?
“Are there others? How many were on your ship when you crashed? What were you doing when you crashed How long have you been here for?” I’m rambling, but I can’t shut up. I need there to be other people living here. He can’t be the only person on the planet?
Can he?
He turns and glances at me, a fang revealing smile on his lips. “Only I survived. I’ve been here…” his eyebrows pinch together. “A long time.”
I guess it’s easy to lose track of time if you’re alone. “Did you carve out the city?”
“It was already here.”
And there is no one else. I try not to be too disappointed. If there were lots of people, they would’ve shown up on the scans. How hadhehidden from the scans? Was it something in the rock?
What had happened to the city’s builders? Before the mining company moves in, archeologists should come and investigate what remains of the original inhabitants.
“Right.” Carving a city like this would take a lifetime and then some. He couldn’t have done it on his own.
My teeth chatter without his body heat. While it’s warmer in the cave city, it’s still not balmy and my clothes are wet. I should light a fire and take them off. Staying in wet, cold clothes will lower my body temperature. I’ve barely had the thought and my cheeks start burning. Getting naked anywhere near an alien man who’s been here on his own for too long is probably a really bad idea.
Once again, I regret not following protocol and staying in the ship. But I’m sure he still would’ve found me. Or had he been hunting the beast and finding me was just luck?
His gaze lingers on me. There’s something wild about the way the light catches his eyes. “You’re cold.”
I nod, the marrow of my bones is frozen and I’m almost sure I’ll never be warm again. “Can we light a fire?”
He removes the fur from around his shoulders and drapes it around mine. It weighs a ton and I wilt. But it’s warm from his body heat. It smells of storm and just a little musty like it’s been in storage. While I’m warmer, I am not warm. And I’m tired and aching. The crash, the cold and the beast’s attack are catching up with me.
“In my room. Will you come?”
I traipse after him, knowing if I don’t, he’ll just pick me up—given how tired I’m feeling that doesn’t seem like an entirely bad thing. Walking behind him, I get the chance to study him. His pants seem to be made of leather and they hug his ass and thighs in all the right ways. His white hair hangs down to the middle of his back, swaying gently. My gaze drifts over his broad shoulders and down his arm—I swear his biceps make my thighs look skinny. His purple fingers are wrapped around the thick wooden staff. Four fingers and one thumb, no different to me until I look where the nails should be. I stare at the long black claws for several heartbeats, trying to figure out what species he is.
He reminds me of one of the aliens that fought a war in this system hundreds of years ago. The ones that left all the debris floating between the planets and creating a travel hazard. As far as I know none of those aliens had purple skin, and one species was wiped out at the end of the war. He looks a little like them, but he can’t be that old.
And I can’t remember the species that fought in the war. Learning the alien races was never my best subject, but I’m sure that his kind wasn’t one of our trading partners.
“What’s your name? I’m Rin Daley.” I need to know more about him and forge some kind of connection, and I’m curious about how he came to be here and why no one came for him.
He doesn’t respond. I’m about to ask again—because it would be rude not to swap names—when he answers.
“Indiz.”
There’s an inflection that I can’t hope to match without practice, and he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who appreciates nicknames. I mutter his name to myself, trying to get the second syllable right. After half a dozen attempts, I’ve forgotten what his name is supposed to sound like. Great, he saves me, and I can’t even get his name right. I follow him up some stairs, along a walkway without a railing—the fall wouldn’t kill me, but I’d break something, and I don’t like my odds of getting quality medical care.
Then he stops at a gap in the smooth stone wall and motions for me to go in. There’s no door, but the entry elbows around twice so it’s not possible for anyone to see inside from the walkway. Not that there’s anyone around.
I stop and turn in the entrance. “Maybe I should have my own room?”
There’s no need for us to share. There’s a whole empty city. Why did he pick this one as his? Are the other rooms in ruin or full of bodies? My imagination spirals out of control.
His expression becomes fierce. “No. Do not go into anyone’s room. You can use mine.”
I shake my head. “But there’s no one here.”
