Shadowed Read online

  He was slumped in a sitting position in the narrow walkway behind the cockpit area. His head was sunk on his broad chest, his face hidden by his shaggy dark blue hair, and his hands dangled limply between his spread legs.

  The sight gave Nina a sudden chill—he looked like a marionette whose strings had been cut. She couldn’t be sure if he was breathing or not, and a strange squeezing feeling began in her chest. Part of her was glad he’d been injured and possibly killed in the crash—at least now he couldn’t hurt her or do whatever horrible thing he’d had planned for her.

  But if he’s dead, you’re trapped. Marooned on an alien planet in another part of the universe miles—no—light years—from Earth. How will you ever get back?

  It was a good question, and as Nina considered it, she felt panic rising in her chest, filling her throat like dry cotton until she couldn’t breathe…couldn’t think…

  I need to check on him. Need to see if he’s okay or not. She scrabbled frantically at the side of the tight harness, but the alien locking mechanism defied her suddenly clumsy fingers. Trapped—she was trapped and couldn’t get out.

  “Hey,” she shouted at him—or tried to shout, anyway. Her voice came out in a tight little whisper instead. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Hey—are you okay, Mr.…uh, Reddix? Come over here and let me out of this thing!”

  There was no response.

  “Oh God…Oh my God…” Nina heard herself mumbling.

  Suddenly, it was as though Meehoo Jimmy was whispering in her ear.

  Slowly, eecho—take a deep breath. Going crazy won’t help you now. You have to be calm.

  Yes. Calm. Nina took a deep breath, following her Meehoo’s advice. She had to stay calm if she was ever going to get out of this mess. She closed her eyes for a long minute and put her head down, concentrating on breathing. When she opened them, something between her feet caught her eyes. Something with the same dull, coppery sheen as the cuffs around her wrist.

  The key thingy! Excitement shot through her. If she could get her hands on the key to her cuffs, she was halfway to being free.

  The difficulty was getting it. The harness she was in wasn’t like an ordinary seatbelt—it had a lap belt and two thick straps crisscrossed over her shoulders and chest in an X. These straps seemed to have tightened during the impact—so much so that Nina could barely breathe. She wiggled around a little, and they loosened some—but not enough to slide out of the harness altogether. She felt for the locking mechanism on the side again with no luck, though she had the maddening feeling that if she’d just had both hands free she could have figured it out.

  Finally, she decided the best thing would be to try and get the small copper key-thing with her feet. Blessing the weekly yoga class she always made time for, Nina managed to grip the small device, which was about the size and shape of a lighter, between the rubber soles of her tennis shoes. Raising her feet carefully until she felt like her hips might pop out of their sockets, she was able to snag the copper mechanism with two fingers.

  She almost dropped it at that point, but somehow, after a moment a frantic cursing, she managed to juggle it back into her palm. She gripped it tight, being careful not to press any buttons, and sent a silent prayer of thanks. Step one completed—she was halfway to being free.

  Her first impulse was to start pushing buttons, but Nina forced herself to stop and study the device carefully instead. After all, what if she pushed the wrong button and the cuffs tightened so much they cut her hands off?

  As it turned out, the copper key looked like a very simple device. There were only two buttons on it. The top one glowed a soft blue, and the bottom one glowed red. Taking a deep breath, Nina pressed the top one.

  She was all ready to push the red one in case the cuffs started tightening, but she was pleasantly surprised. With a soft hiss, the cuffs abruptly opened, freeing her hands instantly.

  “Thank God!” Nina whispered under her breath. She rubbed her wrists for a moment even though the strange alien handcuffs had left no marks on her—no cuts or bruises. She wasn’t even chafed from wearing them. All the same, she was extremely glad to get them off.

  Once the copper cuffs were off, the locking mechanism of the harness proved to be a snap. Literally—it made a snapping sound when Nina finally released it. She drew a deep breath of relief when the X-shaped harness slid away.

  Standing up, she tried to get the pins and needles out of her fingers and toes.

  “You are now free to move about the cabin,” she muttered to herself and had to smother a giggle that rose in her throat and popped like a soap bubble. God, what was wrong with her? She felt positively giddy with relief in being free but how free was she, really? True, her captor was out of the running—injured or possibly dead—but she was still marooned on an alien planet light years from her home.

  Stop giggling like a fool, eecho, she heard Mehoo-Jimmy scold. And get busy finding out where you are and how you’re going to get home.

  Right. She needed to check on Reddix—what an odd name, but then, he wasn’t exactly a normal guy—and see if the only person who knew how to fly the ship was dead or just incapacitated. Taking a breath to calm her nerves, Nina stepped toward him.

  Even slumped down as he was, he was still huge—like a mountain of muscle at rest. She found her heart was pounding in her ears as she got closer to him. What if he was putting on an act? Waiting for her to get close enough that he could grab her and strap her down again?

  Slowly, she reached for him, meaning to check for a pulse. But her fingers lingered just above the strong column of his neck, unable to make contact. There was something about him—something that made her reluctant to touch him. It wasn’t just the electric shock she remembered from their first contact—it was the way he smelled. A warm, deep, masculine musk that seemed to invade her senses until she felt almost dizzy. That scent brought back every strange dream she’d had of him—along with the strangely entwined sensations of dread and desire that had accompanied them.

  She stood there hovering over him so long she got a sharp cramp in her back from bending over. Putting a hand to her lower back with an angry little cry, she massaged fiercely.

  This is stupid. Stop being such a coward and just do it!

  Leaning down again, she forced herself to press the pads of her first two fingers to the side of his neck, feeling for the carotid pulse. Except…did Kindred have carotid arteries? Apparently they did because after a moment, she felt his pulse, strong and steady and slow, as though he was simply asleep.

  Feeling braver, she pushed his head back carefully until it rested against the cabinet type panel behind him. He didn’t even stir—just kept breathing slowly and evenly with his eyes closed. Hmm. Bolder than ever, Nina pushed his shaggy dark blue hair out of his face and looked at him—really looked at him—for the first time since he had abducted her.

  He had a cut above his left eye that looked nasty—it was going to leave a scar, which was a shame with a face like his. The blood had trickled down the side of his cheek along his strong jawline, which was badly in need of a shave.

  But even the ugly wound couldn’t diminish the perfection of his features. Nina bit her lip as she stared at him. Her first assessment had been right—he really was almost inhumanly gorgeous. With a face like this and his huge, muscular body, he could have any woman he wanted. So then, why had he bothered to kidnap her? It couldn’t be for her looks—Nina knew she was pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way, but she was nowhere near beautiful enough to match this man. Honestly, she didn’t know if anyone was. He’d said something about her being the one he needed though, back when he was shouting at the other guy on the ship’s radio—what could a man who looked like this possibly need from her?

  Suddenly, Nina realized she was just standing there staring at his perfect face and that she had been for a long time.

  Everyone said Ted Bundy was handsome and personable too, and he was a serial killer. Gorgeous or not, this Red