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A tall figure with a mop of yellow hair appeared in the hallway. “Gianna?” a high voice asked.
Gianna breathed a sigh of relief. “Davey,” she muttered. The tall alien was a young friend of Gabe’s. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for you. You were gone a while, and Gabe’s gone, too.”
“Yes, I know,” Gianna told him. He might have been worried about them, but she also knew he’d been checking out their stuff. It was the decent thing to do if someone died or disappeared—give their gear a good home.
“Have you seen Oliver?” Gianna raised an eyebrow in question.
Davey shook his head. “No, I’ve only been back a little while. I went out to Hayton’s Moon with a bunch of friends.”
“Did you get in?” She chuckled. Hayton’s Moon was a full-time amusement park. Sometimes poorer folk tried to sneak in to scavenge or run a con.
“We did.” Davey grinned. “We had a blast. We convinced this old lady that we were the lost children of Zareth, and she took pity on us.”
Gianna rolled her eyes. “People still believe that tale? Wow. I’m impressed you pulled it off. But, Davey, seriously. You said Gabe’s gone. How did you know?”
“Because he’s not at the Old Haunt or here. Oliver was going to be my next stop.”
“Oliver will tell you he’s gone missing, Davey. Like, actually missing. It happened not long after you left.”
Davey stared at her, his long, thin lips twisting like worms. He was a weird, cross-bred alien. No race would ever claim him. “That’s not good.”
“Why?” Then she saw the look in Davey’s dark eyes and pressed further. “You know something. Don’t you?” she snapped.
Davey nodded. “I might. He was doing some very shady drug deals on the Far End. You know where that is?”
“The illegal spaceship dock.” She gasped. “No, he wouldn’t do anything so dangerous!”
“He did,” Davey replied in a dull voice.
Gianna gathered her robes around her. “I’m going out to look. Did you want to come?”
“No way.” Davey shook his head emphatically. “I’ll wait here if it’s all the same to you.”
Gianna left, slamming her door shut behind her on the way out. The illegal dock wasn’t far away, but it was surrounded by empty streets that echoed as if they were haunted. No one wanted to live near that kind of violent crime.
As she got closer to the busy dock area where heavy shuttles were parked the more people were around. She saw only a few humans, and they were all muscular and well-armed. Gianna concealed herself in a dark corner, praying no one would notice her.
Strange, frightening creatures walked, hopped, and crawled past. Some were hideously disfigured, and it was impossible to tell if they were a very weird kind of alien, or if they’d gotten tangled in a mega sized propeller at some point in their lives.
Gianna turned away from the street, trying to avoid seeing the crates being taken off a nearby ship. She was hoping no one would take note of her, but she knew she’d have to ask questions eventually if she wanted to find Gabe.
She was staring into the darkness, letting her idle thoughts tick over, when she suddenly realized she was looking right at a group of aliens who were passing small packages back and forth. She tried to straighten up and look away, but it was too late. They had seen her.
And I was staring right at them!
She didn’t wait—she turned and ran. Their footsteps came after her, and Gianna knew it was hopeless. Her miserable life was about to come to a messy, painful end.
She rounded a corner and glanced behind her. Suddenly, she hit something solid as someone grabbed her upper arms. Gianna shrieked as loudly as she could and struggled against the firm grip of her assailant.
“Gianna! It’s me,” Kozien snapped. She stared up at him, blinking in astonishment. “No time.” He whisked her into his arms and darted through the streets.
Kozien charged through the alley, thinking himself lucky to have come along when he did. He knew Gabe had last been seen in the old dock, and after talking to Oliver, he’d come here hoping to intercept Gianna more than he’d been looking for her brother.
The more he heard about the situation, the less likely it seemed that Gabe would be alive. Kozien wasn’t sure how to break it to Gianna, and he knew she wouldn’t just accept his decision. She would have to find evidence before she really believed he was never coming back.
Kozien lost the criminals easily, his long legs and superior strength giving him the speed and stamina to outrun them. It wasn’t difficult to twist through the streets and lose them either. He wasn’t sure where to go, so he headed back to the same inn where he’d rented a room the night before. It was getting dark and Kozien wanted to get off the streets as fast as he could.
