Page 54 of Taken to Heimo
“Deena,” I call. She stops in the center of the four seats, choosing the largest one with the control panel embedded in the arm. “The moment you detach, warp into another sector.” These escape pods can’t move faster than the speed of light, but they can get close to it. “Rhorkanterannu’s ship will be able to immobilize yours the moment they lock on. You can’t let them lock on. Keep warping until you lose him. We’ll do the same.”
With a serious look on her face, she nods jerkily. “Got it.” She doesn’t say anything else, or offer any thanks.
I feel the edge of my mouth jerk up. “Stay safe,” I tell her.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” The door to her pod slams shut between us and she begins to detach without warning.
I rush Svera into the pod we’ll be commandeering and steer her to one of the seats. Four of them sit facing in towards one another. Meanwhile, the fabric of this ship is built by the same material as the Niahhorru mothership. It is one single window, relatively circular, with black matter appearing and disappearing across the transparent body. The stars are visible all around us, as is Deena’s escape pod detaching, and then floating into space.
The rumbling of our own pod detaching has Svera muttering prayers again. I take the seat across from her and type the coordinates to the human colony into the armrest.
I wait to warp, wanting to make sure that the ship does indeed chase Deena and that Deena does, in fact, manage to warp herself.
Svera stares in the direction I do and we both sit, tense, watching the infinitely larger ship power to speed as it chases the tiny pod into the starlight, until even the ship the size of an asteroid — or possibly a small moon — eventually winks out of sight.
They’re gone.
Svera’s safe.
I exhale.
I fire on power and set course for home.Home? Why would I think that?And as our escape pod finally begins to move, Svera rips her eyes away from the view pane and looks at me. Finally.Maybe for the first time.
My skin feelspricklyevery place her stare touches. And it isn’t astare,really, because nothing about her is ever exactly what it should be. Becauseshouldsdon’t exist anymore in my vocabulary.
Twitching underneath the weight of her silence, I unlock the belt strapping me into my seat and stand. “You owe me, Svera.”
She jerks, eyes narrowing. “For what?”
“For sacrificing yourself for humans —again.”
She balks, “And I owe you for this?”
“Hexa.” I prowl towards her. It only takes two strides to bring me to her knees.
“And what is it that you want?”
I take the rolled carpet in her lap and pull it aside, noting the way her thighs are clenched tight beneath it. “May’reeme.”
She quiets, her jaw goes slack. I brace my either hand on either arm of her seat and lean in, undaunted to by the rejection I expect to hear. I know that I deserve it. But it will not stop me from asking again and again and again.
“You don’t want to marry me,” she says as I lean in towards her, mouth separated from hers by a single hesitation, not more than that.
I kiss her tenderly. “Don’t tell me what I want.” I kiss her again.
“You really want to marry me?”
“More than I want my second heart.”
Her eyes blaze when she opens them. She licks her lips and her chest hitches. “Oh stars…I think…” Her gaze flicks to my ridges and I tense when she leans in, bites my pectoral where my plates meet more sensitive skin.
The sensation ripples like electricity through my right side, making me stiffen awkwardly. I wrench her hips out of her seat, picking her up and carrying her to the nearest wall of the transporter. Against the vastness of space, I rub her against my body. She feels so xoking good.Mine.And she’s safe and she’s alive.
“May’reeme, Svera,” I breathe against her neck, rutting her through our clothes.
I hike her shift up and she mewls as her wet lips come in contact with my skin. I lower her down until she’s separated from my xora by nothing more than my kilt.
“I will consider it,” she says, bloodthirsty little thing.
