Shadowed Read online

  The sunlight wasn’t particularly bright, but it still took Reddix’s eyes a moment to adjust. He saw that they were in a small village filled with wooden huts—some small to normal sized, some very tiny that looked like they had been built for children or dolls, and a few huge ones that looked more like facilities for keeping immense animals.

  “That’s the kids’ part of the village,” Nina said, following his gaze to the big huts. “They mostly keep them over there to keep the little ones from trampling the town like Godzilla.”

  “Who?” he frowned.

  “A big scaly movie monster that liked to flatten cities,” Nina said. “If you’d ever promise to take me back to Earth I’d take you to see some classic monster movies—they have them sometimes at the Tampa Theater. They’re a lot of fun if you don’t mind the cheesy acting and terrible special effects.”

  “Sounds…interesting,” Reddix said doubtfully.

  “It is.” Nina smiled. “Sitting in the darkness in a classic old theater, eating hot buttered popcorn and watching a black and white monster destroy Tokyo—it’s a lot of fun.”

  “I don’t know about a monster destroying things or eating hot buddered pockorn, whatever that is, but I’d welcome the chance to sit in the dark with you any time,” Reddix murmured, looking at her.

  “Oh.” Her cheeks got pink, and she turned away quickly. “Come on, we’d better go. It’s freezing out here.”

  It felt pretty temperate to Reddix, but he followed her willingly enough to a round wooden building at the center of the town. He was apprehensive as Nina swung open the tall wooden door, but when he saw that the interior was empty except for a large steaming pool of pale purple water, he relaxed.

  “Here we go. And it looks like we have the place entirely to ourselves.” Nina looked pleased as she settled onto a sturdy gray wooden bench. “Well, go on.” She nodded at the pool. “It’s really shallow until you reach the halfway point. Then it gets pretty deep—I guess so they can wash the kids in there.”

  “All right.” Reddix looked around. “Should I just undress here?”

  “No, of course not,” she said quickly. “See over there behind the wooden partitions? They have restroom facilities and a changing area. Towels too. You can, um, wrap one around your waist.”

  Reddix went behind the wooden partitions to the far side of the steaming pool and relieved himself before stripping down. Then he grabbed a soft furry gray towel and wrapped it around his waist and came back to the pool.

  Nina was watching him as he walked out with the towel draped low around his hips, but she looked away hurriedly when he got to the edge of the water and dropped it. He slipped into the pool which came up to his waist at its lowest point and sighed in delight as the warm water caressed him.

  “It like the bathing pools they have aboard the Mother Ship,” he remarked, wading out deeper. “Only a hell of a lot bigger.” He ducked down and submerged himself briefly in the slight current. “Any soap?” he asked, coming up and shaking his long wet hair out of his eyes.

  “Those little round rock looking things around the edge at intervals are soap,” Nina said. “They work really well.”

  “Great.” Reddix found one that did look exactly like a rock, but when he rubbed it against his chest, it lathered up at once, releasing mounds of pale grayish-pink suds. “This feels amazing,” he groaned, working it into his hair. “I haven’t had a shower since the night I…”

  “Since the night you snatched me?” Nina asked quietly.

  “Well…yes.” He frowned and rinsed his hair.

  “I love it in the big bath pool,” she confessed, changing the subject to his relief. “I’ve been out here twice already thought I didn’t get to spend much time.”

  “You didn’t like bathing with the aliens?” Reddix asked, wringing some of the water out of his hair. Gods, it was really too long, and his face was covered in a scratchy, full beard which needed to go.

  Nina shook her head. “I didn’t like leaving you alone. I didn’t know what might happen if you woke up and I wasn’t there.”

  He was touched all over again by the way she’d watched over him when he was helpless. She was too good to him—truly a female with a pure heart. He opened his mouth to thank her, but just then the door opened again, and five of the furry aliens came in, waving their tentacles and chatting to each other.

  There was almost no physical noise except for a few clicks and chirps which seemed to be the Feeling People’s only spoken vocabulary. But the emotional outpouring was deafening to Reddix. It felt like someone was simultaneously blasting incredibly loud music in his ears and blinding him with bursts of super bright light.

  He cursed and staggered backward, into the deeper water. Though he was a strong swimmer, the intense overload of emotion-thoughts made him disoriented. Before he knew it, his head was slipping under. He fought his way back to the surface, choking and gasping. It was like trying to swim in a pool of poison—he couldn’t see, couldn’t think…

  “Reddix!” Suddenly, Nina was right beside him, splashing into the water fully clothed. She got an arm around his neck and tried to drag him up which was difficult since Reddix could tell she couldn’t touch the bottom at this depth.

  “All right. I’m all right.” He stroked for shallower water and gulped air. “As long as you keep touching me I’ll be okay,” he told her as they came to the place in the pool where they could stand.

  “Sure.” She took his hand and entwined their fingers with a tight grip. “Are you clean enough? Can we leave now?”

  He nodded, relieved she wanted to go. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Nina made some polite remarks to the aliens that he barely caught, and they climbed out of the pool together. She kept holding his hand but blushed and looked away as Reddix bent to retrieve his towel. It was hard draping it around his hips with one hand, and he wound up just holding it in front of him as they shuffled awkwardly around behind the wooden partition.

  “Sorry,” Nina mumbled as he attempted to dry himself with one hand without exposing too much. “I’m, uh, trying not to look.”

  “I don’t care if you look,” Reddix growled softly and realized it was true. How long had it been since he’d felt that way about a pretty girl staring at him? How long since he’d been free to expose himself to anyone without having to feel their lust coat his skin like cool slime? He found he liked the short, shy glances Nina was stealing at him as he dried his naked body. And for his part, he was having a hard time not looking at the way her wet dress clung to her, outlining her tight nipples and the tender V of her sex.

  “I guess we’d better get going before more people come in,” she said, still not looking at him directly.

  “Shouldn’t you dry off too?” Reddix asked. “You were just saying how cold you get.”

  “Well…” She bit her lip, clearly uncertain, but she was already shivering.

  “It’s okay.” He turned away from her though he was still holding her hand. “I won’t look.”

  Nina seemed to make up her mind. “Okay.” She nodded. “Just hand me that towel…”

  Reddix handed it to her and looked away though he was dying to see her lush body naked. He waited, the damp towel slung around his hips, as she fumbled with her dress. She seemed to be taking forever. Finally, he heard her give a soft, frustrated curse.

  “Problem?” he said, still resisting the urge to look at her. “Need some help?”

  “It’s this damn dress. I’m really not that much of a seamstress—it’s really just a glorified toga sewn together at the side and knotted at the shoulder. Only I can’t…get…the damn knot…loose.” She appeared to be jerking at the offending knot with every word but without much success.

  “Let me help,” Reddix said, turning back to her.

  “Oh, I don’t know…” Her cheeks were pink all over again. He admired her modesty, but he was getting tired of standing around in a wet towel.

  “It’ll be all right,�