His glasses shielded his eyes, his attention fixed ahead of him where she’d first seen the beasts.
“Come back inside,” she whispered, hands pressed flat against the terminal. Her gaze bounced over the terrain, never stopping. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”
Why was he doing this? She didn’t even understandwhathe meant to do. How the hell was he going to “converse” with wild, rabid, homicidal beasts?
A shadow skulked to the left of the building. Wynn sucked in a breath, holding it. One beast emerged from the blowing snow. Its faceted and mutated flesh, like armor, lifted around its spine and shoulders in warning. Razor-sharp tines lined its jaws, the front six elongated, curving over an angular mandible.
Iax raised his hands away from his body, palms facing the beast, and stopped.
She gripped the edge of the terminal, preparing for the beast to pounce. She wouldn’t be able to watch.Not again.With its head lowered and teeth bared, it paused two meters away, as motionless as a statue.
If it weren’t for the snow and the way Iax’s jacket pressed against his legs, she would have thought she viewed a still image. Neither the man nor beast moved for what seemed like an eternity.
Her heart pounded between her ears. She kept waiting for something to happen, for blood and death, but everything remained as frozen as the breath she held in her lungs.
Where’s the other one?Her vision blurred, and Wynn exhaled, taking another quick breath to dispel the faint sensation consuming her head.
Icy goosebumps spread across her skin when the second beast cleared the opposite corner of the building. Low to the frozen earth, it stalked Iax.
Wynn slapped the windowpane. “Behind you!” Her hand stung from the force of the smack.
Iax twitched, his chin jerking to the side like he’d heard her through the transparent aluminum, but he didn’t turn around to confront the threat.
The second beast stopped, its head down, mimicking the posture and distance of the other.
The three forms stood there in the snow, motionless. Was he really conversing with them?
There was so much guessing with Calypsons. Some people said they could read minds. Others said they sucked people’s brains out throughtheir ears. Since they’d created the nebula that hid theCalypsoandOmega Stationfrom sight and scans, no one knew much of anything about them except that some worshiped the race because of their apparent longevity, wanting that for themselves. People pilgrimaged to the nebula, never to be heard from again.Like Iax.
Her throat clogged, and Wynn swallowed, mesmerized by the inconceivable tableau. Everything was stuck, static, until the beasts twitched. Wynn inhaled sharply, braced herself, but they tucked their tails between their legs, and backed away one slow step at a time.
Her vision blurred again, and she forced herself to exhale. It did nothing to dispel the turmoil seething inside her. They’d eaten Foster but onlytalkedwith Iax? Memories of Foster’s desecrated body flashed in front of her eyes. Blood. Flesh. Muscle. Bone. A living, breathing, intelligent person downgraded to a piece of meat.
An invisible band squeezed her chest so tight she couldn’t breathe. Her vision blackened around the edges. Rage and relief mixed a terrible cocktail in her stomach.
The snow swallowed the beasts as they retreated. Iax didn’t move for a long while, then turned, his alert focus aimed toward her.
Wynn stumbled away from the window, and wheezed, staggering toward the hallway. With one hand braced against the wall, she tried to inhale, but it was like breathing through a clogged straw. She bent at the waist, but it did little to help the way her head felt like it was about to explode.
The building spun around her. Stars speckled her vision. The need for pain, forsomethingto focus her, cascaded over her head, and she reached for that section of arm that should have three lines etched into the skin, but remained smooth. More panic swelled.
The sound of the decontamination process pierced through the buzzing in her head. Her throat burned; her heart pounded.
Hissss.The inner door to the decontamination zone opened, and a full breath expanded her lungs for the first time in minutes.
The texture of the carpet sharpened. She inhaled a breath, and another, then lifted her head to find Iax naked before her, skin pink and eyes glinting.
A new familiarity shot through her, one she hadn’t connected yesterday. But after seeing the beasts again, she realized their eyes glinted, caught the light similarly to his, almost glowing.
Her mind rejected that new insight as she choked out, “Whatthe fuckwas that?”
Chapter seventeen
Volatile emotions speared toward him, assaulting his senses. Wynn clutched at her arm, her face twisted like she was in pain, but he did not see an injury, even when he adjusted his eyes to look deeper.
“What the fuck was that?” She repeated her question, softer, but no less distressed.
He stepped forward to help, but paused when she lifted her hand from her arm and held it up flat.
