Shadowed Read online

  This is stupid, he lectured himself angrily. There’s nothing special about this Earth girl. It’s just been a long time since I was able to talk to anyone, to be around them without wanting to crawl out of my own fucking skin. I’m just…Pathetic, sad, disgusting, stupid…all the harsh words he could apply to himself, any of them fit. Yet the one that rose to the surface of his mind was Nina’s. Lonely, she’d said. It must be so lonely.

  Yes, that was it. He was so fucking lonely. He felt like a man who’d spent the last ten years in solitary confinement. But now, suddenly, he was out in the open air, breathing free at last, soaking in the sunshine. And Nina was the sun.

  Reddix choked off that particular image as quickly as he could. Nina was nothing special. And as soon as this last bout of numbness ended he would start hating her just like he hated all the other pretty girls who stared at him with lust, making his flesh crawl with the strength of their petty emotions.

  Get to work, he lectured himself. You haven’t got all day—however long a day lasts here. It might be really short—so get going while you still have some light to work with if you need to make outside repairs.

  Taking his own advice, he began digging into the engine. But no matter how he tried, he couldn’t get the picture of Nina standing there, waiting for his touch. Couldn’t stop hearing her soft words when he’d wanted to touch her. “You can,” she’d said, her gold flecked eyes drowning deep. “If you want to.”

  Gods how he wanted to. But he knew he couldn’t.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Nina sat up front in the pilot’s chair, wishing she could do something—anything—but think of Reddix. For a while she hunted for the emergency beacon, even though he had said it would do her no good without a Kindred’s handprint. It seemed important that she at least know where the damn thing was although she didn’t know what good the knowledge would do her. She imagined a scenario where she held her finger over the green agony button on the Hurkon collar’s controls and threatened to shock him if he didn’t activate the beacon. But somehow she just couldn’t picture herself really going through with it.

  You might have to do more than just picture it, eecho, Mehoo-Jimmy’s voice warned in her mind. It might be the only way to get home again. You do what you have to in order to make that happen.

  Yes, Nina supposed she would. If it came right down to it, she wanted to survive and see her home planet again. Still, she hoped it wouldn’t come to that. She hated the idea of threatening Reddix when he had willingly placed himself in her power by wearing the agony collar.

  Face it, Nina, she told herself. You don’t want to upset or threaten him because you’re starting to feel for him. Which is about the stupidest thing you could possibly do.

  She knew it was true, but who could help feeling for him once they’d heard the big Kindred’s story? Nina was a very demonstrative person herself—she tended to touch a lot with those she loved—it was just the way she’d been raised. If someone was happy, you hugged them. If someone was sad or grieving, you put your arm around their shoulders. Kisses on the cheek, backrubs, squeezing a hand to show sympathy and support…these gestures were as much a part of her vocabulary as the words she spoke. The idea of never being able to touch anyone she loved, of never being able to let them touch her…it was pretty much the worst thing she could imagine. And for it to continue that way for ten years…

  He must be so hungry, she couldn’t help thinking. So hungry to touch and be touched. Once more she remembered the heat of his palm as his big hand hovered over her cheek. She’d almost felt the longing emanating from him. The need to make contact however briefly…

  A movement outside the windshield of the ship caught her eye. The planet outside was, as far as she could tell, a vast plane filled with high pale purple-gray grass. It waved gently and monotonously under the pale green sky, and Nina had long since stopped staring at it. Except for the strange colors, she might almost be on a Midwestern prairie on Earth.

  But now the purple grass seemed to be ruffling in a different direction—almost as though something was coming toward her—toward the ship. Nina sat up straight in the pilot’s chair and leaned forward, staring intently at the scene outside the ship. What was happening?

  Suddenly, an object came sailing out of the air and hit the windshield with a heavy thump.

  “Oh!” Nina gasped and sat back in the oversized chair, one hand pressed between breasts. What had hit the ship?

  She tried to sort out her confused impressions. It had been big and round and dark gray—about the size of a beach ball. In fact, it had looked remarkably like a beach ball. But the thud against the side of the ship had been substantial—as though the thing had weighed a ton—more in the neighborhood of a medicine ball you might find in an old fashioned gym than a child’s inflatable toy.

  The tall grass ruffled outside the ship again, and Nina felt a chill go through her. Who was out there? And were they going to start lobbing more things at the ship? It had already been shot up by the police back home and battered by the wormhole and the crash landing—how much more abuse could the little craft take?

  Suddenly, Reddix appeared right behind her.

  “What was that?” he demanded, his voice a low, threatening growl. “I felt something.”

  “An object hit the ship—something dark gray and round,” Nina said. She eyed the sleek black weapon in his fist. “What’s that?”

  “A blaster,” he said shortly. “I was hoping whatever might live on this planet would leave us alone until we got out of here. But if they want to get aggressive, I’m ready.”

  “Good.” Nina was a firm proponent of gun control back home, but that was because she firmly believed nobody ought to be able to buy an assault rifle for “self-defense.” Here in the wilds on this Godforsaken planet a million light years from home, she found herself hoping that Reddix’s weapon had plenty of stopping power. This was a place where an assault rifle or something similar might come in handy.

  The grass outside ruffled again, and then something came into view—something huge.

  Nina had spent years babysitting a little boy who lived down the block from her who was obsessed with dinosaurs. Having watched plenty of documentaries on the prehistoric monsters, she thought this alien creature looked kind of like…

  “It’s a triceratops,” she muttered.

  Reddix frowned. “What?”

  Nina shook her head. “Nothing. It’s…it looks like an animal that used to live on Earth millions of years ago. Well, kind of, anyway.”

  Because this triceratops was covered in long, bright purple hair. Also, its three horns seemed to wiggle strangely—that was until she realized they weren’t horns at all but tentacles.

  “Oh my God,” she whispered, putting a hand to her mouth. “It’s not really a triceratops at all. What is that thing?”

  “Nothing good.” Reddix sounded grim, and he tightened his grip on the blaster.

  “What do we do?” Nina asked.

  “Nothing. We wait. Watch it through the viewscreen.” He gestured at what Nina had been thinking of as the windshield. “If it leaves us alone, we leave it alone. If it bothers us—menaces the ship—I’ll go out and give it a little incentive to make itself scarce.”

  “Oh,” Nina whispered. She stared again at the big purple triceratops thing. When it jerked its head up and down, the long hair flopped out of its face, and she could see three big, glaring yellow eyes at the top of its head, just under the two tentacles placed on its forehead. The gesture reminded her of a sheep dog jerking its head to get the hair out of its eyes—if a sheep dog was huge and weighed two or three tons, that was.

  The thing came right up to the ship and actually put its long, beak-like snout right up to the viewscreen. The horn-tentacle on the tip of its nose waved against the glass like an elephant’s trunk. It made snuffling noises and nudged the screen, making Nina gasp and shrink back farther into the chair.

  “Is it…can it get in? Can it