Alien Freak - Calista Skye Page 0,15

low-frequency component I feel deep in my chest.

“This could be the heart of the ship,” I narrate. “If we wanted to sabotage it, this would be the place. Now, do we want to sabotage it?”

This is my abductor’s ship. I’m being held against my will. I have every right to damage it and him. But it occurs to me that trying to break a spaceship that’s probably flying in space may not be a great idea if you’re inside it and you enjoy being alive.

“I don’t think we do,” I conclude. “I’d have no idea what I would be doing, and I’d put myself in possibly very serious danger. As a last resort, maybe. We’d need to know more. But now at least we know about this place if we need it later.”

I wander aimlessly around the space for a little while, knowing I don’t have a hope in hell of understanding any of this.

I turn to leave and bump right into a big, red alien.

“Oh fuck!” I recoil reflexively and fall on my butt on the soft floor.

The poacher towers over me, blue eyes shooting lightning. But then, I think they always do that.

“You exploring the ship?” he growls. “Very dangerous.”

I don’t reply, just discreetly aim the phone’s camera at him.

He bends down and bores his gaze into me. “You should stay in cabin. Much safer.”

I swallow. “Take me back to Earth,” I demand, sounding just as persuasive as a mouse squeaking.

His forked tongue shoots out and back. “You’re mine.”

“I’m not. I do not agree to any of this. Take me back now.”

He looks around. “What you touch in here?”

I don’t reply. Let him worry about that.

With reptile quickness, he grabs both my my arms, pulls me up and into his face. “What. You. Touch. In. Here.”

“Nothing!” I blurt truthfully, because it’s like looking death right in the eye. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Everything here dangerous,” he states and drops me to the floor. “Especially me.”

“I don’t want any trouble,” I say as calmly as I can. “Just take me back to Earth. I won’t tell anyone.”

He takes me in, eyes wandering from feet to head and back down, pausing at my chest and crotch.

I wish I was wearing more than just thin panties and a sports bra. But I didn’t know I would be abducted. It’s not something I could plan for.

The alien is tense. His hands keep closing into tight fists. He’s definitely struggling with something.

“My name is Averie,” I say, so he’ll know I’m an actual person and not an object. “What’s yours?”

“Zaroc!” he booms, drowning out all the exotic machinery.

“Zaroc,” I repeat. “All right. We can be friends, you know.” Anything to keep him from thinking of me as an object.

He keeps staring, his hands clenched into hard fists.

Another deep hum fills the air and makes my chest tremble.

Ah. That’s him growling.

My fight-or-flight reflex is triggered, hard. It’s so strong it paralyzes me. I’ve never been in greater danger. He’s much more dangerous than the tiger and lion rolled into one that Gabrielle compared him to. Those animals can only kill you. This alien can do a lot worse.

My shaking hand clenches hard around the phone. I suppose I could throw it at his face, right where I hit him before. He’s pretty swollen, with a purple splotch among all the red.

He’s bit me once. He could easily do it again.

In a flash, I remember that bite and the fangs as they slid out of me again. So long and thin, barely visible. Like crystal glass.

The tongue shoots out and in.

Then he jerks, as if he’s waking up from some reverie. “Come.”

He grabs my hand and pulls me up on my feet, then drags me along out of the engine room and into the elevator floor.

I blink, and then I’m in some kind of flight deck with controls and instruments and a very large windscreen that shows a crazy swirling pattern that changes all the time.

Zaroc puts me down in a chair and straps a soft webbing around me, tightening it so I can barely move a finger.

“You are escape artist,” he growls. “Cage, cabin. Nothing can hold you. Here I can keep an eye on you.”

He leans over the console, and suddenly the swirling pattern is replaced by a huge map of the galaxy. There are thousands of stars in every color, with lines going between them. Trade routes, I would guess. A little green icon in the middle may well represent this ship. No trade