Page 12 of Rogue Starfighter

“It’s the only answer I have that doesn’t make me sound completely insane.”

Vesh reached the eighth floor. Another guard stepped into the stairwell. Blue flash. Down. He never hurried. Never looked confused. He knew exactly where he was going.

Three nights had passed since I completed the Starfighter Training Academy game. Three nights since my gaming rig died and a strange voice welcomed me to Velerion. I had spent all three nights scouring every online post, rumor, conspiracy theory, podcast, whistleblower interview and meme about Jamie Miller, Mia Becker, and Lily Wilson.

Officially, their missing persons' cases were still open. Unofficially, the police believed the missing women were dead.

The Internet, however, believed they had been taken by aliens. I had spent three nights pretending I still thought the Internet was wrong. Now seven feet of proof was climbing the stairwell.

The back of my neck grew hot beneath my hair. I reached up and touched the skin, but there was nothing there. No burn. No rash. Just heat.

Vesh reached the tenth floor.

“Priya.” Alvarez moved between me and the cab door. “I don’t know what is happening, but you need to get away from the entrance.”

“I think he’s here for me.”

“That is not reassuring.”

“He won't hurt me. I'll be fine.” Somehow, I knew I was right. That should have terrified me more than the armed alien.

The mag-lock on the cab door was designed to hold during an active attack. It lasted approximately three seconds. The control panel sparked. Metal slammed inside the frame. The door slid open.

Half my coworkers ducked behind consoles. My supervisor stepped in front of the weather technician. Alvarez stayed planted between Vesh and me even though he was five foot ten, unarmed, and visibly reconsidering every decision that had brought him to work that day.

“It’s okay,” I said.

Nobody listened. I yelled. “Everyone stop. I know him.” That got their attention.

Vesh filled the doorway. The game graphics had not done him justice.

He was taller than I had imagined, and broader through the shoulders. His matte-black armor fit close to his body, layered over muscle the game had rendered with fantastic accuracy. Dark hair. Hard jaw. Bright green eyes that found me instantly.

Then traveled from my face to my chest, my waist, my legs, and back up. Slowly. My nipples tightened beneath my blouse. Excellent timing, girls. Vesh took one step into the cab. His gaze remained locked on mine as if the terrified people around us did not exist.

“Priya Anand. I am Vesh of Velerion, your bondmate. You have completed the Elite Starfighter training program. You must come with me. Velerion needs your help to defend my people from Queen Raya and the Dark Fleet.”

His voice was real. That low rumble had lived in my headset for almost a year. Hearing it come from a living male, close enough to touch, went straight through me. My knees went weak. Heat gathered low in my belly. I clenched my hands into fists at my sides so I wouldn't reach out and try to touch him. God damn it. The sane response to an armed intruder was not sexual attraction. Not just attraction. Need. Lust. Made ten times worse by the fact that I felt like I knew him. I'd spent hundreds of hours with him. Knew the way he thought. Moved. Talked.

Guess my sanity had left the building the moment Vesh had entered.

“Hello, Vesh.”

His pupils widened. "You must come with me."

“You really know him?” Alvarez asked.

“Sort of.”

“What does sort of mean?”

I kept looking at Vesh, held his gaze. Dared him to deny what I was about to say. “I created him in a video game.”

“You did what?”

Vesh frowned. “You did not create me. And it was not a game.”

“I picked your face from a game menu.”