Claimed by the Alien Bodyguard - Tiffany Roberts Page 0,96

hung freely about her shoulders and down her back, was colored a vibrant blue that gradually faded into darker coloring.

Her face held his attention the longest. There was a familiar symmetry to her features, a configuration common to many of the intelligent beings in the Infinite City, but her face was softer, more refined, and more expressive than most creatures he’d encountered.

The slight downturn of her full, pink lips conveyed a sadness so simultaneously powerful and subtle that it pierced his chest. Her averted gaze did not hide the untold emotion sparkling within the frames of her dark lashes.

Tenthil watched as she walked around the middle tier toward the large, central staircase leading down to the lower level. She didn’t look up, though many of the people around her stared while she passed. Oddly, most everyone who noticed her stepped out of her path, a few of them casting worried glances to nearby security guards. Legs moving of their own accord, Tenthil followed her. He felt as though he were floating through the emptiness of the Void, hearing nothing but his own heartbeat, seeing nothing but the terran.

The female continued to the lower floor. Tenthil halted at the top of the stairs as the crowd, even those caught in the deep rhythms of drink, drugs, and song, parted for the terran. No one seemed willing to come within arm’s reach of her. Vague, half-formed speculations tumbled through the back of Tenthil’s mind, but he was too distracted to address them.

Who was this female? Did her kind possess some psychic power he wasn’t aware of that bewitched those around them?

How had merely looking at her sparked these reactions within him?

Keeping her gaze downcast, the terran strode toward the stage. Her footfalls left glowing patches on the floor—part of the club’s special effects, undoubtedly—that lingered for several seconds before fading; only as the lights faded did the crowd fill in her wake. The boldness and surety of her stride were at odds with her averted gaze and the mournful expression she’d worn as she’d passed Tenthil. That only intrigued him further; outwardly, she was the sum of conflicting parts that shouldn’t have fit together.

And he wanted her like he’d wanted nothing else before.

The terran reached the edge of the stage and, without sacrificing any momentum, pulled herself atop it. The nearby guards made no move to stop her—they didn’t so much as cast her a fleeting glance. She walked along the stage’s length, pausing only to slip off her sandals. Her expression had hardened, leaving only a glimmer of underlying sorrow in her eyes; she now wore the look of a professional preparing to act, of a hunter surveying the killing ground.

Tenthil leaned forward as though that tiny movement could somehow bring him close enough to smell her, to touch her.

She moved to the center of the stage and turned her back to the crowd. Tenthil barely noticed the hush that had fallen over the place; though the gentle din of conversation continued all around, it was softened by the anticipatory energy thrumming through the air.

Tenthil’s legs itched with the urge to move closer, but he held himself in place at the top of the steps. He didn’t want to take his eyes off her for even an instant.

The terran turned her head toward the booth from which a four-eyed, violet-skinned valzin controlled the music and nodded once.

The lights on the stage and dance floor went out abruptly. The ambient glow from the bar and the floors above cast faint highlights on the crowd, but impenetrable darkness dominated the stage. It had become the Void. This was not the first time the Void had devoured Tenthil’s desires and snuffed out what small hints of light he’d discovered in the vast, dark universe. Unease reintroduced itself, this time in his chest—it was a boulder-sized lump lodged between his ribs.

Though he couldn’t explain why, losing sight of her set him on edge. He felt it in his tense muscles, in his protruding claws, in his grinding teeth and aching fangs.

For several moments, everything was quiet and still. The crowd’s eagerness suggested this wasn’t merely a matter of an exotic species on stage—they had some idea of what was coming. She must have performed here before.

Tenthil envied everyone who’d seen her before tonight.

The terran reappeared on the stage, a lone figure cast in violet-blue light that fell only upon her. Her back remained toward the crowd. It was only as she lifted her arms to