Page 13 of Doom Averted

He was huge, his horns nearly scraping the ceiling. Glowing purple eyes in a face that looked human if not for the black skin that looked cracked like fine porcelain by amethyst lines. His hair was a wild mane of purple and black, restrained by a bandana tied around his head. Shoulders as wide as a linebacker and a thickly muscled body clad in a pair of coveralls with heavy combat boots encasing his huge feet. Then a tail lashed out around his hip, the pointed tip of it glinting metal just like his hands.

On his shoulder a blue and black creature perched, eyes a bright blue, head shaped much like that of a Maine Coon. A long fluffy tail was curled around the alien’s thick neck, striped in black and blue.

“Arianna!” the giant rumbled at me, a deep note of concern filling his sub-harmonic voice. His footsteps thudded on the floor as he started to rush toward me and my breath faltered a little. I knew who that was just from the sound of his voice and he was everything I’d imagined and more. Sexy as sin, completely alien but somehow comfortingly human too.

He paused, his footsteps slowing. Then he swung his head around to look over his shoulder at the airlock which was opening again behind him. I saw it happen, how his expression went from open relief at seeing me hale, to an angry frown. Behind him, two very different aliens stepped out into the hallway but I had no eyes for them.

My heart was pounding for very different reasons now and I gave in to the impulse that struck me, even if I heard my father scold me in my head for even entertaining the thought. Pushing away from the wall, I started running, my bare feet slapping on the cold floor. In seconds I reached him, my hero, my gruff mechanic who’d just performed a miracle.

His dark expression morphed into one of astonishment and then I leaped, wrapping my arms around his chest, and pressing my face into the fabric of his clothing. I was struck with the scent of motor oil, of something intrinsically male, something a little sharp and tangy, like metal. “Da’vi, you made it. I’m so glad!”

He was stiff in my embrace for long seconds and as they ticked by I worried that I’d crossed a line. I did that sometimes, misjudging personal boundaries. I liked to hug and sometimes I forgot that not everyone felt the same way. Then he curved his arms around my lower back, pressing me to him just as I was about to move away. The grip was strong and it suddenly felt like he didn’t want me to stop at all.

He rumbled something at me in that deep deep voice and my insides melted, my belly clenching in desire. That voice was pure sin even if I didn’t understand a word he said since he was speaking in an alien language. I wasn’t entirely sure why he wasn’t speaking English now when he had been during our many calls. It didn’t matter, he was here, I was no longer alone. He was holding me in big strong arms and his face was the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen. I felt like I’d just won the lottery.

Standing there, enveloped in his scent, the heat that seemed to pump from his body like he was a furnace, I didn’t even want to leave. Then a voice called out, distinctly female, and definitely in English. “Hi! Are you Arianna? I’m Noa,” she said. She had an accent I couldn’t place, and during my travels I’d heard many, so that piqued my interest.

Not letting go of Da’vi’s slender waist, I leaned my head to the side just enough to look at the people that had followed him out of the airlock. Two large alien males, one in striking silvery, shimmering colors. One completely red, with four arms. In front of them stood a human woman, with wavy blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a wild array of colorful flower tattoos on her bare arms.

Behind the two giants, who matched Da’vi in size and muscles, stood a slightly smaller, slender alien with the freakiest black eyes. He offered me a soft smile that instantly put me at ease, while the other two aliens were staring at me like I was a freak with two heads.

“Yeah, that’s me, Arianna,” I said to the girl. Then I lifted my chin to look into Da’vi’s vibrant amethyst eyes, “How come I can’t understand what you’re saying?” I really wanted to know what he was thinking but he hadn’t let go of my waist and wasn’t pushing me away; that had to be a good sign.

Naturally, he just grunted, his expression a little grumpy, with furrows between his brows, his lips thin like he was pinching them together. Noa was the one to pipe up again from behind his shoulder, “That’s because you don’t have translator implants. We can all understand you, but without implants, you won’t be able to understand Da’vi and the other guys.”

Huh, that made sense, but then how had I understood him while on the calls? I really wanted to ask but it hardly mattered right now anyway. What mattered was getting off this damn wreck and out of here. If I didn’t have to, I was not inclined to spend another moment here, where I’d explored every nook and cranny, and had far too many skeletons for company.

“Okay, how can I get some?” I asked, but my eyes left Noa to look at Da’vi again, his eyes drawing me in. He was extremely intense, staring at me avidly, his pet studying me from its perch on his shoulder in almost exactly the same way. I thought that it almost looked like the corner of his mouth was tilting up in a slight smile and it was just the cutest thing I’d ever seen. I decided then and there that I’d do my very best to pull a real smile from him at some point, better yet, a full-on belly laugh.

“On our ship. If Da’vi can manage to let you go for a second, you could come to the Vagabond’s medical bay, and my mate, Luka, can help you with that.” Noa’s words had an interesting effect on Da’vi, his arms dropped from my waist, and the beginnings of that smile disappeared. It was like before my eyes he transformed from slightly softened, a little affectionate even, to this grizzly bear with the sore tooth. The prickly armor that protected his soft, squishy heart.

Stepping back, he kept one hand around my wrist, the metal of his palm cool against my skin. He said something in his language which sounded all deep and growly, especially in that deep, sub-harmonic voice, it made my belly tingle. Then he gesture with his palm at the two big, warrior-like-looking aliens and the two nodded and jogged past us without another word.

Noa had her arms crossed over her chest, frowning at Da’vi as if she thought he was being an ass, but the black-eyed alien behind her was smirking. “Huh, Da’vi’s told me to ask you if there’s anything you wish to take with you?” She turned her head a little to shoot him a glare, making it clear that she didn’t appreciate playing translator for him, or maybe she just thought he was acting out of character.

“No, nothing I want,” I said, I had the only clothes I owned on me, and the food was all gone except for the two bars in my pocket. There was nothing else on the ship worth taking as far as I was concerned.

Da’vi’s hand around my wrist tightened just a fraction and then I was being pulled along the hallway, past the open smuggler’s hatch I’d hid in. Noa and the alien male she was with followed us into the airlock and onto Da’vi’s ship.

Chapter 10

Da’vi

Arianna was perched on the edge of the medical cot, her bare feet swinging back and forth while her soft brown eyes darted around the med bay full of interest. There was a smile gracing her pink lips that kept drawing my eyes to her, even if I tried to act like I didn’t care. Standing with my back against the wall, arms crossed, to make sure that Noa didn’t start asking me questions, she was already shooting me curious stares.

Luka had just installed a set of translator implants behind Arianna’s ears and I was anxious to find out if the procedure had been successful. Ziame and some of my other brothers and their mates had gathered around to welcome her aboard. I was pretending I didn’t hear how Thorin and Kitan were joking with each other that another male was biting the dust. They thought I was claiming Arianna as my mate but they didn’t understand, I didn’t deserve a mate. They were wrong.

It was making me feel tight in the chest to notice how much Arianna seemed at ease with all kinds of aliens surrounding her. With the ladies asking her questions, sharing where they’d come from, moaning together about things they missed from Earth. Arianna seemed like the kind of person able to talk with just about anyone, that much was clear.

Selfishly, I hated that she was no longer mine alone to talk to. She’d forget about me pretty quick with so many new friends to make. I was terrible company, she was probably happy she didn’t have to deal with me anymore. That hug meant nothing, she’d just been relieved to finally be rescued.

“What I want to know,” Arianna said with a cheerful lilt to her tone, her head tilted as Luka scanned her ear to make sure everything was alright. “Is what will happen to those stasis pods the bad guys took just before you all arrived.” Her face turned serious, her eyes meeting mine across the room before she unerringly zoned in Ziame, he hadn’t introduced himself as the Captain, but she seemed incredibly sensitive to the social dynamics. She instinctively knew he was the boss here.

“We don’t know where they were taken,” the Lacerten male rumbled. He reached out to curl his arm around Abigail’s shoulders, clearly feeling the urge to make sure his mate was close to him; safe. Arianna was focused on him, listening closely, there was no confusion on her face so I had to assume her implants were working.

“I heard them talking as they hauled them to their ship,” she said. Pushing off from the cot, she landed on her dainty bare feet, shaking her hands out of the oversized sleeves of the large sweater she wore. I’d seen her make that sweater with her bare hands during the course of the many conversations we’d had the last three weeks; I was still impressed by that.

“There were two kinds of aliens I think, and they both sounded really different when they spoke.” She shivered, even though she couldn’t possibly be cold in her warm clothing. I fought down the urge to push through the crowd to be at her side. I had never been the type to hug so the urge to do so now baffled me.