I lean back and inspect his eyes, the ones that try to avoid mine.
“You saw him?”
He clenches his teeth hard enough that the muscles in his jaw dance. “I tried to stop him and his men.”
“That was nearly impossible for even the most elite crews,” I offer.
Elix pushes aside the collar of his jacket, exposing a long scar down his neck.
I run my fingers over the mark, knowing how close he had come to dying. Rage over my father’s heartlessness clashes with my pity for Elix and his species. “I’m so sorry.”
He clutches my hand in his, rests his nose against my wrist, and inhales. “Me too. For once, I just want to see our kinds work together, help one another.”
“Fear makes us do terrible things.”
“Your father feared nothing.”
I can’t hold my arms up any longer. They’re too heavy, and I’m too weak. “Everyone has something they fear, something that drives them. His was fear of being powerless. He wantedmoney and immortality because he felt those would be all he needed for life.”
“What do you want?” Elix asks.
I rest back on the bed. “For someone to give a damn. You?”
“I didn’t know until I met you.” Then he kisses my forehead and slips my grasp. “Rest.”
I watch him walk to another med station, sit on the bed, unbuckle his chest armor, and unzip his jacket. In the screen that lights up before him, I get a view of his stacked torso and the wound on his side. He cleans his injury, keeping his back to mine, then rubs some sort of paste on it from a small tub he pulls from a nearby bin.
He grunts and sways his head like he’s in pain. The injury fizzles much like I remember my lungs doing in my dream.
Elix shivers in waves, every glorious muscle flexing. I want to comfort and help him as he has done for me. Instead, I’m drifting off in my exhaustion, staring at his gorgeous body, my most delicate flesh slicking and aching for a taste of the brutal body that brought me back to life.
17: Zariah
Elix sleeps at my bedside for about an hour based on the time on the nearby screen. I’m in and out, resting when sleep takes me, consumed by lustful dreams of a green alien with gold eyes in the moments between.
He shifts where he rests by my shoulder, rousing me.
“Elix?”
He snaps awake like a soldier who’s used to it. His eyes find mine before he lifts his head. “Yes?”
“Did you ever get revenge?”
Elix breathes out and adjusts his nutrient tube. “Tried when I was younger. Then I realized staying alive was more important. Infiltration often resulted in me getting captured, used as a healer for those who didn’t deserve it, and me barely escaping.”
“Why not just blast them out of the sky?” I ask. “Most would try.”
He caresses my forehead with his fingers, making tiny circles. “I fear I will take innocents that way. I like to get dirty so I can be sure only those who deserve punishment are dealt such. I don’t want any collateral damage.”
Elix rests his nose against my neck, inhales a breath of me, and then sits back up. “I’m sorry, just needed confirmation that you’re still here with me. The last few hours have been—hard.”
I survey him and the way he won’t look at me for very long. “You’re not telling me something.”
He opens a nearby screen and pulls up pictures of monstrous beings like the ones I saw at the complex. I blink to clear my vision. I’m used to waking up quickly, but my body still isn’t ready.
“The creatures that attacked us are called SoulStealers. They’re from a sister species’ moon. They dig their claws in, thread tendrils inside a body, and take over the central nervous system. They’re not just animals. They sell their services to top bidders. Someone wanted you to be their puppet.
“Crolis?”
