Shang stared at her, clearly caught off guard.
"Whatever else happens," she swallowed a lump in throat as tears threatened her again, "Whether I get home or not, I won't ever accept that!"
Shang moved closer suddenly, surprising her, but all he did was reach out to pat her head, ruffling her hair, still mussed from sleep.
"Calm down, Fluffy," he spoke seriously, despite the terrible nickname, "I'll get you some clothes. So just relax for now, okay?"
Erena sniffled, still too close to tears to argue with him. He wandered off towards the wall he had found the first aid kit in the day before and opened another panel, pulling out a black suit similar to what he'd worn the day before. He tossed it at her.
"Put it on," he explained as he was grabbing another for himself, "It'll adjust to fit you."
A little suspicious, Erena turned her back on him to step into the weird one piece. She watched, wide eyed, as soon as she'd pulled over her shoulders, as it shrunk, sealing to her skin.
"You can adjust it to suit your tastes," he said, appearing behind her, his own suit still adjusting to him, "Like this."
He tugged at a section and the outfit loosened, becoming more comfortable and less skin tight. He ran a claw up her thigh, making her jump, unexpected tingles running up her spine as, in response, the cloth fell away from her legs, becoming a long skirt, slit high up one leg almost to her hip.
"It only stays malleable for a few minutes," he explained, "So pick what you like fast."
"Thank you," she mumbled, trying to be grateful in spite of everything. She experimented with the material for minute, finding she could push the fabric together to remake pants legs if she wanted, fold it into itself or stretch it to make it thinner or thicker.
She couldn't help imagining how this would have revolutionized everything on earth. If she could bring this back with her...
"As for the not staying inside," Shang sighed, looking away, "I can't really make any promises there. I told you, you were very expensive. And even if you weren't..."
He eyed her, but Erena couldn't guess his meaning, just frowning back at him instead.
"I'm just saying don't get your heart set on it," he finished, "I'll do what I can."
Erena nodded, grateful he was willing to compromise that much. She could probably get more out of him with time, but this was enough for now.
"There is one rule you've absolutely got to follow," he continued, pinning her under that inescapable stare, "You do not, under any circumstances, leave this apartment when I'm not here. Understood? Try it and I'll throw you off the balcony."
She scowled, not appreciating the threat, and more or less deciding right then to leave the minute his back was turned.
A hologram appeared above Shang's wrist, flashing blue at him. He cursed quietly and swiped at it.
"I have to go," he said, turning away, waving at the window to turn it dark again, "I'll be back tonight. Don't break anything."
"Wait, where are you going?" Erena asked, following him, "Can I come with-"
He slammed the door in her face without answering, and she watched as the seams disappeared and the handle withdrew, sealing it completely. She sighed in frustration, stomping back into the living room.
"He could have at least given me something to do..."
The hours ticked past slowly. Erena had been training to go into space her entire adult life. She hardly knew what to do with free time. She investigated the apartment, learning as much as she could about the weird furniture and other knick knacks lying around.
She was almost positive some of them were supposed to serve a purpose, but like the window and the weird floor nightstand thing and the door and everything else, nothing seemed to respond to her the way it did to Shang.
By the time she heard someone at the door she was ready to tear her hair out from frustration and boredom. She was lying on the mattress, trying to think of something to do, when she heard the door knob rattling.
"Finally!" she called, "I've been waiting forever!"
A pop like a small, controlled explosion cut her statement short. Smoke drifted out of the entranceway. Erena tensed, realizing something was wrong as she heard the front door swinging open.
She reached for one of the fireplace pokers, swallowing nervously as footsteps headed towards the living room.
A man, or something man shaped, stepped through the door, his eight yellow eyes wandering over the apartment with a proprietary gleam before they settled on her. He was big, with cobalt colored skin and insectoid jaws, which he licked as he looked at her.
"You must be the new pet," the man hissed, "Don't you look tasty?"
"Who are you?" Erena asked, pointing the poker at him, "You're not supposed to be here."
"I'm Rin'rokir," The man replied, "If you knew what that meant, you'd know I can go pretty much anywhere."
"Well, I don't know what it means," Erena tried to steady her shaking hands, unnerved by the way his mandibles clicked, "So you should leave. Now."
"Don't look so nervous," his voice was teasing as he strolled towards her, "I'm a friend of Shang's. How about I just wait here with you until he gets back? It won't be too long now. And we can get to know each other."
He was uncomfortably close now and Erena, hoping he would take the hint, swung at him with the poker with all the force she could muster. Rather than jumping back as she'd hoped he would, he caught it.
His arms were thicker than she'd expected, straining against his sleeves as he jerked the weapon from her hands and tossed it aside. A second later, he was on top of her, pinning her to the floor. His mandibles worked and clicked near her face, his body heavy on top of her.
"Ooh, you smell so good," he growled, his hands gripping her wrists tight, "I know it's impolite to play with my food but for you, I might make an exception."
Erena screamed, kicking at him with all her strength, but it only seemed to amuse him as he wrapped his dripping jaws around her throat.
Suddenly, she heard a snarl, which escalated to a roar as someone grabbed Rin'rokir and dragged him off of her. Shang, his face a mask of rage, flung the other man into the wall so hard a dozen of the little secret compartments sprang open around him.
Rin'rokir was back on his feet a second later, hissing like an angry cockroach as Shang, claws and fangs bared, stood between him and Erena.
Erena, too stunned to fully comprehend what was going on here, could only stare as the two men flung themselves at each other without weapons or the pretense of skill, just tearing at each other in animalistic rage.
Despite Rin'rokir's advantage in size, both wider and taller than Shang, it was all over in a matter of seconds. Shang used the other man's weight against him to flip them so that he was on top, and then tore at Rin'rokir's throat until bright cyan colored fluid gushed out over his claws, spreading over the floor.
As Rin'rokir's last, wet gasps for life sputtered and faded, Shang's heavy, panting breaths were all that disturbed the eerie silence.
"Shang?" Erena asked, quiet and nervous.
His head snapped towards her, his teeth still bared, blue blood on his face, and Erena flinched back, horrified. Slowly, he came back to himself, shaking his head and looking away from her as he recollected his senses.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, his voice rough, unable to look at her.
"I'm fine," she whispered, too afraid to say anything else.
"You're not fine," he corrected, "What can I do?"
"Are you okay?" she asked it before she could think about it.
He was silent for a moment, obviously caught off guard by her concern.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he promised, instead of answering, "I just need a minute to pull myself together."
A few seconds of silence ticked past. Erena stayed where she was, still staring at Shang warily. Shang, with distracted, fumbling motions, tried to scrub the blood from his face.
"I could use a shower," Erena broke the silence at last, h
er skin still crawling where Rin'rokir had touched her.
"Yeah," Shang agreed with a sigh, "Me too."
He stood suddenly and Erena flinched. She shifted to stand as well, hoping he hadn't seen it. He went to the wall with the secret cupboards, many of their doors still swinging open forlornly.
He ignored them, touching a different spot instead. A larger door opened on a small room like a walk in closet. He looked back to beckon her closer with an impatient gesture. Still cautious, she moved slowly closer.
"Settings are there," he said, pointing at a panel, "Take your time. I'm going to deal with him."
He looked back at the still bleeding corpse in the center of his apartment. Erena stepped into the closet/bathroom space and jumped when he closed the door behind her. It was a little claustrophobic, with a tiled floor and no fixtures or furniture that she could see, just plain pale yellow walls and the panel Shang had indicated.
The buttons didn't appear to be labeled in any way that was meaningful to her, though each one was a different color. She pressed a blue button, figuring it might be cold water and then at least she'd have a point of reference.
Instead, a low hum filled the small room, vibrating in her bones. Her dress began to ripple like a liquid at once and abruptly dropped off of her, dissolving into the floor.
Erena slammed the blue button again to shut the hum off before anything else could dissolve off of her. She tried a pink one more hopefully, and a basin slid out of the floor.
A little experimenting led her to conclude she'd found a toilet, or something very like it, which was a relief if not the one she was looking for. Further buttons produced other basins, tubs, and depressions with attachments she didn't dare consider too thoroughly.
One button filled the room with a blue smoke that made her eyes water and her head spin. At last, an orange button near the bottom of the panel produced a wide showerhead, which began pouring something very similar to the liquid water she was used to.
Quietly hoping it wouldn't kill her, Erena stepped under it. It was cooler than she'd have preferred, and it made her skin tingle like peppermint, but it didn't seem immediately harmful, so she decided to take what she could get, beginning to scrub herself off.
She was just beginning to relax when the door suddenly slid open. She squeaked in surprise, jumping to the far wall, but Shang only sidled inside anyway, ignoring her as he pulled on his suit, dragging it off over his head.
"You're not done yet?" he scolded.
"You said I could take my time!" Erena protested, startled.
"You took too much," he snapped back, dropping his suit on the floor where it dissolved like Erena's had.
"You wash with liquid?" he asked, wrinkling his nose up at the showerhead, "Weird."
He stepped under it anyway, sighing as the water soaked his long hair. He was even more covered in blue blood than before, and it ran off of him in cerulean rivers, cascading down the muscular curves of his body. Erena watched from where she was still huddling against the wall as he adjusted the settings, making the water warmer.
After a moment, annoyed at the interruption but not done showering yet, Erena stepped in behind him, glad the shower head was so big. She tried to wash herself quickly without thinking about the man next to her, but her eyes kept wandering to his sculpted body, all the more gorgeous with water running over his curves. His eyes still seemed distant, his movements distracted.
"You... You missed some," Erena worked up her courage to point out. He looked back at her, frowning in confusion, and Erena, her heart racing, reached up to scrub the blood he'd missed from his cheek herself. He held still, just staring down at her with those piercing dark eyes as she helped him clean.
"You saved my life," she said quietly, running her thumb over his cheek to smudge the blood that had dried there, "More than my life. I don't know what he was planning to do."
"Lay eggs in you, probably," Shang answered frankly. Erena shuddered.
"Thank you," she finished awkwardly, taking her hands from his face, "I owe you a lot."
He caught her hands as she withdrew them, bringing them to his chest with surprising gentleness. Erena blushed, her hands shaking, as he leaned closer to her, tilting his head to kiss her. She turned her head away at the last second, heart pounding, her hands splayed on his chest to hold him back.
He hesitated, and for a moment she could tell he was considering kissing her anyway. Instead, he took a deep breath, shifted to kiss the top of her head instead, and pulled away. He turned his back to her then, returning to washing.
"I'm glad you're alright," he said, his voice gruff.
Erena let the silence linger a little longer while her heart slowed back to its normal speed.
"I'm glad you're alright too," she said after a moment. He didn't respond, but his movements seemed more purposeful now.
Chapter Four
When they'd finished, Shang pressed a button that filled the room with a warm breeze which dried them both in moments. They stepped back out into the living area together and Shang went to get new clothes for them both.
As he dug through his cabinets, Erena couldn't help staring at the pool of blue blood in the center of the room. There were drag marks on the floor now, leading to the balcony.
"Did you just..." Erena bit her lip, trying to think of an alternative, "Toss him out?"
"Yes."
Shang didn't even look up from putting on his suit, tossing Erena hers over his shoulder.
"Won't you get in trouble for that?"
"No."
Erena couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.
"Hurry up and get dressed," he said as he turned back around, "We're leaving."
"What?" Erena's eyes widened and she scrambled to pull on the black garment, "Right now?"
"You said you wanted to leave the apartment, right?" Shang was cutting a jacket out of his suit and making pockets, "So it's time for a night on the town. Wear something nice."
Erena still didn't have a complete grip on how the material worked, deciding to just leave it as a tight bodysuit.
"Are you sure it's a good time for that?" she asked, fussing with the neckline, "Not that I mind but, doesn't this planet have police or something that are going to want to question you?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Shang said flatly, pulling things out of his cabinets and shoving them into his coat pockets. He turned around, pausing when he saw her in the skin tight suit, which covered her wrist to ankle.
He stepped closer abruptly and drew a claw down her front, opening up a plunging neckline. Before she could stop him he'd sliced off the sleeves as well.
"Better."
He declared, and then strode past her.
"Not better!" Erena replied in frustration, blushing as she tried to close the deep, cleavage baring front and realized the fabric had already solidified, "How dare you?"
"You owe me a nice view, remember?" Shang replied without turning back to her, "Now pick up the pace. You need to stay close to me out there or something a lot worse than Rin'rokir will snatch you in a heartbeat. In fact-"
He paused in the entrance way and turned back to face her, snapping a collar around her throat in the same motion. It was the same she'd worn in the auction house and she blushed scarlet with shame and indignation as he attached a black bracelet to his wrist. Between it and the collar a cord made of golden light hung shimmering.
"Hey!" she tugged at the collar, offended, "Take this off immediately! I'm not going out there like this!"
"Oh yes you are," Shang replied with absolute certainty, and opened the door, tugging her after him. She dug in her heels to resist him, but the minute she did so a sharp electric zap flashed through her, surprising her so much she stumbled forward into his back.
He stopped long enough to let her get her feet under her, then kept going. The zap hadn't hurt, but it had surprised the hell out of her, and removed voluntary control of her muscles long enough for hi
m to drag her forward. Clearly, pulling against it was pointless. Pursing her lips in irritation and crossing her arms over her bared cleavage, she sulked after him.
"So who was that guy anyway?" she asked as he pulled her into an elevator, "That Rin'rokir?"
"My boss," Shang replied briefly.
"And why was he breaking into your apartment?" Erena pressed for more.
"To kill me or steal you," Shang's words were terse and irritated, "Probably both."
"Why?" Erena, growing annoyed with his short answers, pushed harder, "I can't possibly be that valuable. He was going to eat me!"
"He wasn't going to eat you," Shang scowled, tugging on her leash to pull her closer as they left the elevator and headed down a plain hall, "You're the only known specimen of a brand new intelligent race with a currently undiscovered home world.
That doesn't mean he wasn't going to do plenty of very unpleasant things to you, or that other people less concerned with money wouldn't chew asteroid for the chance to eat a brand new species before anyone else, but Rin'rokir would not have eaten you."
"Then why did he want to stick around and kill you?"
"Because!" Shang snapped, stopping to turn around and bare his fangs at her, "Do you not understand that I own you? You have no rights and I can do what I like with you, so why don't you shut up and show me some respect?"
Erena, uncomfortably reminded of the way he'd looked when killing Rin'rokir, flinched and struck out without thinking, slapping him across the face. Shang's eyes widened in shock and surprised pain for a moment, then he snarled, yanking her leash closer.
Erena cowered, expecting violence, but they were interrupted by angry voices coming from the other end of the hall. Shang cursed in a language Erena didn't understand and hurried in the opposite direction, yanking her after him.
The Warrior's Proposal (Celestial Mates Book 7) Page 31
