Miracle of the Beast (A Winter Starr Book 2)

by Sonia Nova

  Zeriq nodded and began the march back to the shuttle without a word. Hazel was just glad to get away from that disturbing animal corpse.

  If only they had found something they could eat…

  Freezing and defeated, Hazel followed in Zeriq’s footsteps. One foot after another.

  CHAPTER 6

  ZERIQ

  Well, this was going fantastically.

  They had made it back to the shuttle and were now in the cabin, trying to see what emergency supplies the shuttle might have. Zeriq had found a foil shock blanket and a squeeze packet of electrolytes and given both to Hazel. She was now wrapped in the blanket, sitting in one of the shuttle seats, shivering, while he opened every storage compartment in the shuttle.

  “Sorry I can’t be more helpful,” she said through clattering teeth.

  Zeriq just frowned, not looking at her, and opened another compartment.

  She was right. She wasn’t helpful at all.

  Even though she had mentioned looking at the comm systems once they had returned to the shuttle, she had been so chilled that ice crystals had been forming on her skin and she could barely think straight.

  It had been a struggle to even get her back to the shuttle, and Zeriq was annoyed. He wasn’t annoyed that she was cold. She was a human, weaker and more fragile than him. He was annoyed that the female had kept walking for so long when she clearly couldn’t handle the weather. Why hadn’t she stopped sooner?

  As it was, the comm would have to wait.

  But at least the emergency beacon was on, although with the condition the shuttle was in… Zeriq wasn’t even a hundred percent sure that the beacon was broadcasting.

  He shut the drawer he had just pulled out with more force than necessary and the whole shuttle shuddered.

  Fuck this.

  The shuttle didn’t seem to be stocked up at all. While he’d found the blanket and electrolytes, there was no food, no water…

  Even with his genetics, he wasn’t going to be able to survive for very long without those necessities. Sure, they could melt the snow and drink it, but food…

  This wasn’t how he was supposed to go – he was supposed to die in battle, hopefully surrounded by a pile of Krezlian corpses, as he took as many of them with him as possible. The slow, torturous death of starvation was not what he had in mind.

  “Are you okay?”

  The soft voice surprised him and brought him back from his thoughts. He looked back at Hazel, narrowing his eyes. Her brown eyes were filled with concern as she peeked at him from under the blanket. It was an odd question, because out of the two of them, she was the one shivering and clearly not okay.

  “Yeah,” he grunted finally. As much as he resented being stuck here with this female, he didn’t have to scare her and make her worry unnecessarily. He would try to keep it together.

  “The temperature’s dropping,” Hazel said. “It’s getting colder in here.”

  Zeriq slid open one of the round window covers and looked out over the snow. Whatever star had been providing daylight on the planet had now set. The snow was a dark glittering gray, illuminated by a strangely egg-shaped moon unlike anything he had seen before.

  “It’s nighttime,” he said, sliding the cover shut to preserve as much warmth in the shuttle cabin as possible.

  “I wonder how long night lasts on this planet,” Hazel said quietly. Their eyes met, and Zeriq knew just what she meant. Both of them had received enough training on universal variation to know that some planets rotated so slowly that night could last the equivalent of Earth months.

  He hoped that wasn’t the case here… Because if it was, they wouldn’t survive.

  In the dim emergency lighting of the cabin, Zeriq noticed that Hazel’s brown skin was becoming a shade of purple at the cheeks and ears. The color was odd to him, and he realized that, even with the blanket around her, her weak human circulation system was starting to fail.

  Hazel blinked at him, her eyes bright. Despite the horrible situation, the beauty of her soft features somehow momentarily distracted him.

  “What?” she asked, shivering as she spoke.

  “You’re developing frostbite,” he said.

  “No shit,” she said, pulling her foil blanket closer around her. He noticed that she was swearing more and more as she got colder and more desperate. If the situation had been different, it would have almost been amusing to hear someone with such a sweet face swear like that.

  Zeriq frowned at the sudden thought. What the hell was he thinking?

  He had never had these kinds of thoughts about a female before. Sweet face? Soft features? He shook his head. Maybe it was a survival instinct kicking in, forcing him to find something positive about the companion he was stuck with. Not that he’d ever before thought sweet and soft were positives either.

  “We should sleep,” he said. “I found a few more blankets in the back storage compartment, and if we take the cushions off the seats, we’ll have pillows.”

  Not waiting for Hazel’s response, he easily ripped the cushion off the nearest shuttle seat and set it on the ground of the aisle between the two rows of seats.

  “You want us to sleep on the floor?” Hazel asked. “There’s barely room in the aisle for you to lie down, let alone both of us. No thanks. I’ll just sleep sitting up.”

  “No, you won’t,” Zeriq said gruffly. “Trust me, I’m not excited about it either, but you need to sleep down here with me. My body temperature hasn’t dropped like yours since we crashed here, and you need the warmth.”

  He looked at her meaningfully, and thought he could detect a slight blush even on her paling, freezing cheeks. Instead of continuing to protest like he had expected, Hazel surprised him when she nodded slowly.

  “Okay,” she said. “Honestly, I’d do anything to get warm at this point.”

  Anything? Zeriq cocked an eyebrow at the female. He wondered if she recognized the subtext in her words, but as he watched her sluggish movements, he decided he was the only one who had heard anything suggestive. This was hardly the time.

  He busied himself with preparing the cushions and blankets in the aisle. Soon, there was something resembling a bed between the rows of seats, and he turned back toward the female.

  “Go ahead,” she said when Zeriq paused.

  He shrugged and lay down, pressing himself onto his side with his back against one row of seats to try to leave Hazel some room. Not unwrapping herself from the foil blankets she already had, she awkwardly climbed into the space between him and the other side of the aisle.

  Her back pressed against him as she lay down. In fact, she moved her body so that she was as close to him as possible. Zeriq bit back a groan as the curve of her ass brushed against the front of his pants. She was so close that he could feel her every shiver, inhale, and exhale, and it made him crazy.

  “You’re so warm,” she breathed. “Let me know if I’m too close.”

  Zeriq just stayed silent. The truth was, she was too close for comfort. Far too close.

  The beauty of her face had been what had initially attracted him to her, but now… it was everything. Her closeness overwhelmed him: the scent of her hair, the curve of the small of her back and her ass against him, the slowness of her breathing as she began to warm up and relax.

  Was she falling asleep already?

  Zeriq didn’t know how that was possible. After her initial protests, she now seemed completely relaxed in this situation. And here he was, lying stiff as a board on his side, trying to think of anything else than her softness against him.

  Her body felt cold against his, but he certainly was not. He was burning up from the inside, his blood pulsing in his veins and attempting to travel down below.

  Experimentally, he shifted so one arm was draped over her small frame instead of held awkwardly at his side. She didn’t say anything, so he tried to relax into the position.

  Even if he was more comfortable now, he knew there no way he was getting an iota of sl
eep that night. It took all of his attention just to keep himself from getting hard, and even then, more blood was rushing in that direction than he was comfortable with.

  Stifling another groan, he moved so there was some room between his hips and her curled-up form. But within half a minute, she had somehow found her way against him again.

  He looked down at her. From this angle, her head was facing away from him at about his chest level. He could see her eyes were closed and her lips were parted. Her breath was even and slow, and he could see the slight fog of condensation as warm breath met the still freezing air.

  She was deeply asleep.

  Good for her.

  He pulled the blanket up from where it had slipped so it was covering her ears, and then shut his own eyes. Not that he thought he was going to get any sleep, but he knew enough about human customs to know that watching someone – a near stranger – sleep was frowned upon.

  Fuck… How had he ended up in this situation?

  This was going to be an interesting night…

  CHAPTER 7

  HAZEL

  Was she dreaming?

  Hazel drifted comfortably into consciousness, her eyes still closed, marveling at how warm and cozy she was. Her bed was incredibly soft and warm, and even smelled good. A faint smell of musk, but also something darkly complex and sweet… Was her sister making hot chocolate this early in the morning?

  No.

  That was impossible.

  She sat up with a snap, hitting her head on the seat above her, as the events of the past day came back in a rush.

  Instead of being on vacation for the holidays, nestled into the warm blankets of her sister’s futon while hot chocolate warmed on the stove… she had been sleeping like a log on top of the Ezak-X soldier.

  Hazel stared down at the man, horrified. But even with all her movement, Zeriq still appeared to be asleep. He was on his back, as sprawled as he could be on the floor between the rows of seats. The blankets had all ended up wrapped around her somehow, but he looked as warm as ever in his regulation t-shirt.

  Hazel knew his genetics came with a horrible past full of mistreatment and abuse at the hands of the Krezlians, but she couldn’t help but think some of the specialization of the Ezak-X genome really must come in handy. Zeriq struck her as being able to comfortably survive just about anywhere.

  “Ow…” she whispered a bit belatedly as a throbbing pain made itself known on the side of her head, where she had collided with the metal base of the seat next to her.

  She rubbed the spot gently and took a look around the cabin. Even with the covers on the windows, it somehow looked brighter in the shuttle than it had the night before. Was it daytime? She stood up, making sure her sock-clad feet landed next to Zeriq’s sprawled limbs and not on top of him, and tiptoed toward the sliding door of the cockpit.

  After a strangely good night’s sleep, she felt refreshed and ready to look at the communication systems. If she could get them working, they could be off this planet in hours – and just that thought was enough to get her to work.

  Hunger gnawed at her, just starting to go from a level of unpleasant to truly distracting, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her from getting them rescued. She might not have eaten much the day before, but at least she wasn’t freezing anymore. Maybe it was the five blankets wrapped around her, or maybe the temperature had risen outside, but she now just felt cold instead of freezing.

  Entering the cockpit, a bright white light blinded her momentarily. It seemed she had been right about it being daytime. The sun had come up again on the planet and the snowy expanse visible from the cockpit shimmered in daylight.

  Hazel sighed a breath of relief. At least their fears that night could last months were no longer relevant. And while she had no idea how long she’d slept, the day on this planet seemed similar to Earth’s speed of rotation, or possibly even shorter. It could be that she had only slept a couple of hours before daylight had lit up the cabin; she didn’t know. But either way, she was glad for the sun.

  Curious, she pulled up the environmental information. The panel showed it was around zero degrees Celsius outside. So, not only had day come, the temperature had also risen by about twenty degrees.

  Thank god… Maybe they would actually survive out here.

  Of course, the preferable solution was still to get out of here as soon as possible. Who knew how cold the next day would be if the temperature fluctuated this much. Hazel shivered at the thought.

  She sat down on the floor of the cockpit and turned to the control panel. Somehow, she had the energy and will to get started on fixing the comm, and she wasn’t about to let that go to waste. Though most of her training had focused on using various forms of communications equipment, she had studied the mechanics and software enough to troubleshoot almost any common system.

  Within a few moments, she found a groove in the smooth surface of the control panel, stuck her fingernails into it, and pulled. The panel opened to reveal a small screen with dials, buttons, and sliders that controlled the fine-tuning of the settings of the shuttle’s comm.

  The thing was, this was Va’ii technology. Hazel was used to accessing communication systems from a computer, but the Va’ii technology was… different. The Va’ii weren’t really that open about their tech, which meant that Hazel could only make an educated guess of what the panel of unfamiliar mechanics would do.

  At least a bright red light was blinking in the top corner of the panel. Hazel knew what that meant – the shuttle was emitting the emergency signal. Now, if the signal was actually emitting strongly enough to be detected was another question…

  She busied herself with the panel, moving dials and then testing the system, then trying new configurations. The sunlight hit her skin through the windows of the shuttle, starting to warm her pleasantly as she worked. Soon, she forgot her surroundings and was immersed in the work of trying to get the system to function.

  After what felt like hours of trying, she reached across the cockpit to check the functions on the other side. When she did, the shuttle shifted underneath her and sunk deeper into the snow. Hazel’s heart leaped in her chest and she nearly yelped out loud. It was a subtle move, only about an inch, but it took her a few moments to feel comfortable moving again.

  The snow must be warming up around them along with the temperature, she realized. The shuttle would be more likely to move in the slushy snow as they walked around inside it.

  A low groan sounded from behind her in the cabin.

  The move must have woken Zeriq.

  She could hear him shuffling behind her in the cabin, and the sounds distracted her. But even with her concentration broken, Hazel sat back down and tried another configuration. And another. By the third, she found it impossible to focus.

  Somehow, she could feel Zeriq’s eyes on her. Although he hadn’t said anything, she was pretty sure that he was watching her.

  She kept thinking that he would look away, do something else in the cabin, go back to sleep, anything else, but that uncomfortable prickly feeling didn’t go away. Her cheeks were getting hot at the attention, and she didn’t like the distraction.

  Finally, she whirled around and met his gaze through the open sliding door between them. He was still lying down, his head propped up on one palm, facing her. Those dark eyes were looking right at her.

  “Please stop staring at me,” she said. “It’s distracting and I think I’m getting somewhere here.”

  “How does the comm look?” he asked, ignoring her plea.

  She sighed. “It’s weird. I think it’s broadcasting – like the emergency signal – but when I try to tune in to any frequency, there’s just silence. So something’s definitely wrong. Which we already knew.”

  He grunted in response.

  Hazel turned around, started to work again, but then stopped.

  “You’re still staring,” she said, not turning around. When Zeriq didn’t answer, she gave him a flat look.


  Finally, he sat up, stretching his arms overhead. Hazel marveled at how tall he really was. Even sitting down, when he reached his arms upward his fingertips nearly reached the shuttle ceiling.

  “I need something to do, too,” he said. “I’ll go outside and try to find us something to eat.”

  Just the words made Hazel’s stomach ache. How long had it been since she had eaten? Almost twenty-four hours now, she realized.

  She was about to nod and tell him to get out of here already so she could focus, when dread started to fill her. The memory of that animal’s corpse came back to her, the holes in its body and its strange green blood seeping into the snow…

  “Wait,” she said as Zeriq started to stand. He paused and turned around to look at her with an eyebrow raised. “You can’t.”

  “You don’t need to eat?” he asked, the sarcasm in his tone annoying her.

  “No, I just…” She wondered how best to explain the fear she was feeling. “You can’t leave me alone here,” she said finally. “You know that creature we saw in the trees? Whatever killed it… What if whatever killed it comes back here looking for something else to eat?”

  Zeriq just looked at her, the sarcasm melting from his expression. “So, you’ll come with me then?”

  She thought about the endless fields of snow out there, how she had been so cold the day before that she had literally started to freeze, the cold prickling her skin and making her fingers numb. Hesitation filled her again.

  “I should keep working on the comm…” she started to say.

  “We have no food,” Zeriq interrupted. “Just a couple more electrolyte packets, and those won’t keep us from starving. Sooner or later, you’re going to be so hungry your body will start to become weak and you’ll lose mental capacity. Will you be able to work on fixing the comm then? No. Eventually, I’m going to start to starve too, and when that happens, I won’t be able to defend us from any mysterious alien predators that could be out there.”