Page 3 of Matched to the Alien King
“Hey, one battle at a time.” He leaned down and dropped a kiss on the top of my head. “Maybe we’ll get to stay…and continue fighting for our lives.”
“Yeah…” At this point, I wasn’t sure which would be worse—continuing to fight for our lives here or being separated from Maxx.
Or, if we both got voted off, what he planned to do. Go back to Xenoxx and his daughter, Roxxanne, obviously, but then what? Would I ever see him again? I wanted to ask him, but a really annoying part of me was afraid to hear the answer.
Besides, Maxx was eying the bed now with sleepy yearning. I gently pushed him toward it, and we both climbed underneath the covers like we’d done this a thousand times before in a crowded room.
But this was our first time in a bed together. It felt in no way awkward or strange with him though, and I took full advantage of him sprawled out next to me and nestled myself against his warmth with my head tucked under his chin.
We held to each other, and when the lights dimmed, my eyes could no longer fight the pull.
It wasn’t until sometime later that I sensed something strange. My heart beat itself into a riot and sprang my eyes open.
Because I could hear. With my lazy ears that had given up on the whole bothersome listening thing except for the constant buzzing, I couldhearmusic. An eerie, magical song with delicate piano notes, soft violins, and no words.
And I knew that song. Every time I heard it, it simultaneously broke my heart with its sadness, filled it with hope and longing, and stopped me in my tracks just so I could listen.
It was my daughter’s favorite lullaby. My Lucy’s. By default, it was my favorite too. I hadn’t heard it since before…
Before.
So why was I hearing it now?
I bolted upright in bed, or tried to. Maxx’s arms tightened around me, and his chest rumbled beneath my cheek as if he was speaking. I only heard the music though.
“Do you hear it?” I whispered into the darkness.
He gently tilted my face toward him, a hint of moonlight from the window painting his features in a silvery glow, and brushed my bedhead hair away from my face. “Hear what?”
Then, just like that, the music stopped. The steady ringing in my ears took over again.
“A dream,” I said, sinking into his arms again.
But had it been? It had sounded so real, like the first time Rain had played it.
Where was she right now? Wherewasmy daughter’s killer?
Instead of falling back to sleep, my thoughts churned over memories of Lucy, Rain, and the uncertainty of tomorrow.
Chapter two
Maxx
Iwasn’tproudofwhat I’d done.
As soon as Nera and the Killian left for the crew’s beach house, I fished the weapon out of the pool with a nearby net. Then I quickly fumbled to power the damn thing off. Borrowing Nera’s idea, I’d stuffed it down my pants before the police arrived.
And now? Now, it was hidden in the upstairs bathroom, the one few ever used. Or at least I guessed no one used it since it was so much cleaner than the others. I’d wedged it inside the toilet paper holder, a temporary location until I found someplace better.
That would have to do while I held Nera through her restless dreams.
“A dream,” I’d told her, wrapping her up even tighter.
She’d nodded, but she hadn’t seemed so sure.
I hadn’t slept at all. Neither had the Killian on the couch, if the red bags under his vomit-green eyes were any indication.
“All quiet on the beach-house front,” he told Nera when we got up the next morning. “Not a creature has stirred, not even another assassin.”
