"I never realized earthlings were so barbaric," Micah replied contemptuously.
He waited, hardly breathing, until he felt Red Hair's hand on his arm, and then he grabbed the man's wrist and gave it a cruel twist reminiscent of the hold that was commonly used by security officers on the prison planet of Enguath to subdue inmates. "Release me!"
"No way." Red Hair groaned as Micah applied pressure on his arm. "Go ahead, break my arm. Break my neck. It won't do you any good. I don't have my keys with me, and this place is soundproof. You'll both starve to death before anyone finds you."
Micah's grip tightened on Red Hair's wrist. Everything the man said was true and yet it was tempting, so tempting...
Muttering an oath, Micah released his hold on Red Hair, then fell back against the wall of the cage, his whole body tense as he waited for the earthling to retaliate.
But other than shackling his right hand to the wall again, Red Hair didn't seem inclined toward vengeance.
Micah felt the prick of a syringe as the man drew some blood. He heard Red Hair's footsteps as he left the cage, the sound of the key turning in the lock, and then there was only silence.
Lainey? Fear clawed at his insides when she didn't reply.Lainey, can you hear me? Please , cominza, answer me if you can .
Micah...
Are you all right?
Yes. Micah heard the revulsion in her voice.He's examining me .
Micah clenched his fists as he imagined Red Hair's hands on Lainey, touching her intimately. He felt the rage well within him, the urge to kill surprising him in its intensity.
To his shame, Micah remembered the exhilaration he had experienced when he destroyed Red Hair's two companions. Killing went against everything he had ever been taught, and yet he had not know a moment's regret at taking the lives of those two men. They had threatened Lainey, and he knew he would gladly do it again.
He felt the power rise within him, felt its heat build. Immediately, he forced himself to relax. The mask was made of metal. Should he unleash his power, the heat would incinerate his face before it burned through the mask. He wondered how Red Hair knew such a thing, and then, in a flash of intuition, he realized that the alien whose skeleton stood in the corner had incinerated himself rather than submit to Red Hair's experiments.
Micah, no!
Lainey's fear burst into his mind. Too late, he realized she had been reading his thoughts, that she was afraid he was thinking of doing the same thing rather than allow Red Hair to examine him further.
Lainey, don't be afraid. I won't leave you.
Promise me?
I promise, Micah said, but he knew in the depths of his soul that if it wasn't for Lainey and the child, he would destroy himself rather than submit to more of the earthling's crude experiments.
The next few days were like a nightmare that wouldn't end. Red Hair's constant cheerfulness made Lainey want to scream. He spent hours at her bedside, trying to convince her of how important his work was, of what he hoped to gain. Chief among his goals was the need to prove to a doubting world that aliens existed. There were other extraterrestrials prowling the earth, he said, he was sure of it. And he would find them.
But it was her child that was Red's primary interest, and it was that topic that made up the bulk of his conversation as he wondered, over and over again, whether she carried a boy or a girl, if it would look completely human, or if it would have some of Micah's alien characteristics. Or if, in blending two races, she would deliver a monster. He speculated often on that, too. Would it be inhuman, fit only for a sideshow, or be born mercifully dead?
Sometimes Red took her into the lab and made her watch while he examined Micah, wondering aloud how it was possible for their two races to be so alike, and yet so different. Red constantly pestered Micah for information about Xanthia, its inhabitants and their lifestyle, even though Micah refused to answer him.
Red took copious notes, recording everything he did, jotting down Micah's reactions to various drugs, to pain, to drastic changes in heat and cold.
He took numerous blood samples in an effort to learn why Micah's blood was brown; he took skin samples to try to determine what caused the