Page 54 of Leviathan

I was all in on this.

"How do I close the hatch?" I asked Lyrien. "If I can’t get her out of there, the next option is to steal the ship and take them both up to you. Do you think you can handle him?”

I knew what I was asking.

Lyrien had said multiple times that he wasn’t used to having people on board, that it wasn’t something he wanted to do, and here I was asking him not only to take on another human, but to take on another of his species that he was concerned about bringing on board.

I was asking him to push his boundaries wider for me, for what I wanted.

“I can,” Lyrien said, not even hesitating. “He is in a severely weakened state. He needs help. Just promise me you won't go within his reach.”

Warmth flooded my heart at his agreement.

The things he did for me.

"I promise," I said as I watched Eun bite down on one of the hyena's throats, tearing it free in a grotesque display. This was messed up, but Leija stood in the center of it all, looking radiant and peaceful, the blood dripping from the edges of her dress as she smiled, as if this were a present she had waited months to receive.

Lyrien sighed over the coms.

"I've hacked the ship’s systems," he said as the back door to the hatch began to close. "Get to the control room, the entrance is on the far side of the cargo bay. Just again, don't go within his reach."

I moved across the room, sticking to the wall. When I made it to the There were no more hyenas standing, and as I watched, Eun hunched over one of the corpses. He grabbed it, lifted it and...

I looked away.

"He's EATING THEM," I shrieked on the private com. “What the actual fuck!”

"I tried to warn you," Lyrien said.

"You said he was unstable, not that he was a cannibal!" I said. I looked back over to see Leija standing next to him, stroking the top of his head as his neuro filaments entwined with her hand.

"He needs to gain mass to feel safe," Lyrien said. "He doesn't have a shell. Where do you think he is going to get the calories to grow one? This is a very good reason I don’t want you going within his reach right now."

He was being way too calm about this.

I stepped into the control room.

"Lyrien, do you eat people?" I said.

"No, I eat normal organic material, plants and eggs generally, it's why I have such large gardens, and that is what he would be eating as well if he wasn't in a state of severe physical and psychological shock from having his filaments cut off and stuck in a room filled with only corpses for calories," Lyrien said. "What he is doing isn’t normal, but it is understandable given his current state.”

"Is he going to hurt Leija?" I gasped, turning back to the door.

"She is clearly his mate," Lyrien said. "He won't hurt her, but he will likely envelop her."

"What do you mean by enveloped?" I asked.

As if summoned, Leija appeared at the doorway, the glee gone from her face, replaced by worry.

"We need to get off this planet," Leija said.

"I'm about to take off," I said. "My shuttle is automated, and I will fly this ship out of here."

"Then we can go home to Earth?" she asked.

"I don't know where Earth is," I told her. "But I'm going to find it."

She gave me a long look.