Fallen from the Stars

by Tiffany Roberts

  He and Theo would quiet the ghosts of each other’s pasts.

  She replaced the other supplies she’d taken out of the box, closed the lid, and stood up. When she turned to move away from him, he caught her wrist.

  Halting, Theo stared at him in surprise.

  “Do not close me out, Theodora.” He stroked the tender skin of her wrist with the pad of his thumb. “Not when you just let me in.”

  Her eyes fell to the hand on her wrist, her inner conflict written upon her face. After several moments, she tugged her arm, and Vasil released her with great reluctance. Silence stretched between them as she returned the case to the storage area.

  Vasil clenched his hands and gritted his teeth, shifting his gaze to look outside.

  Twilight had settled over land and sea, dragging the world toward full night, and the storm had only intensified with the growing darkness. Soon, the vegetation would be reduced to thrashing shadows, the angry ocean to roiling, impenetrable black.

  “Kane, turn off the lights,” Theo said.

  Her voice called Vasil’s attention back to her as she moved to the seat beside him. She plucked the blanket off the back of the chair, wrapped it around her shoulders, and sat down, all without looking at him. The lights dimmed as she moved until all that remained was the faint gray of the darkening sky.

  “After my mom died, I was placed in my aunt’s care,” Theo said, staring up at the sky. “She wasn’t an addict, but she wasn’t much different from my mother. Didn’t want any kids around that weren’t hers. She had enough mouths to feed and no time for more, especially not her deadbeat, druggy sister’s brat.”

  For a few moments, Vasil’s jaw was slack; he hadn’t intended to push her for more information, hadn’t expected her to volunteer it. He respected her reluctance to share the painful parts of her past despite his longing to learn more about her. Sharing emotions — especially pain or fear — was something he’d never done until he started living among humans, and even then, those moments had been so rare and brief that they hardly counted for anything. But this…

  This was important. This was everything.

  “You were eight years old, correct?” he asked. “You said you were thrown into the system. Is that what your aunt’s home was called?”

  A smirk played upon her lips. “No. We just use that term for a lot of things. Anything that seems to treat people like…like something less than human, I guess. I was put in the government foster care system. They take orphaned children and place them in homes where they can be nourished with love and care.” Those last few words contained a note of bitterness.

  She ran a hand through her hair and pulled it over her shoulder in a bundle. “Anyway, yeah, I was eight. It was miserable. I had some food, more than what I usually got from my mom, but my cousins were mean little shits. They called me names, picked on me, and hit me all the time. The only time my aunt ever seemed to be looking was when I hit them back. I was always a scrawny kid, but I knew how to throw a punch, and at least I know I paid them back a little before their mom whopped my ass.

  “Her and my uncle fought all the time, especially when it came to me. I was back in the system within a year. After that, I was moved around to a different few group homes — that’s where they have a bunch of kids living together — to await suitable placement. But the last place…”

  Frowning deeply, Vasil dropped his gaze to her right hand, which rested atop her thigh. He yearned to touch her, to reassure her. The move would be risky, but he didn’t have the right words to express what he wanted her to know — he was there for her. He only hoped the risk was worth it. Every other time he’d touched her, she’d pulled away from him within a short while and closed herself off.

  He drew in a deep breath and settled his hand over hers, giving it a gentle squeeze.

  She started and looked down at his hand but didn’t look away. To Vasil’s surprise, she flipped her hand over, lacing their fingers together as far as his webbing would allow.

  “Continue, Theo,” he urged softly.

  She tipped her head back against the headrest, keeping her eyes on their intertwined hands. “I was eleven when they sent me to my last group home. It was a nice place. Really clean, which kind of blew my mind. The kids were quiet, but they were friendly, too, and some were my age. We always had full bellies, and we each had our own rooms with all kinds of things. Things that we could call our own. It felt…nice. I even made a friend, the first one I remember ever having. Her name was Tess.

  “I should’ve known something that good couldn’t last, that it couldn’t have been real, but I was so damned naïve. I gave in to hope, even though I should’ve known better.”

  Theo gathered the ends of the blanket with her free hand and held them together. Vasil would’ve loved to put his arms around her, draw her body against his, and hold her through the night, but he knew it would’ve been too much.

  “I was having trouble sleeping one night and was just lying in bed. I heard a noise in the hall coming from Tess’s room, which was across from mine. It sounded like crying. So, I got up and went to check on her. When I opened my door, I saw the man who owned the house coming out of her room. It’s frustrating, but I can’t remember what his name was. I’ll never forget his damned face, but his name is just…lost. Anyway, I think I scared him, because he jumped when he saw me, but then he smiled.

  “He told me to get back into bed, so I did, but he followed me into my room. I didn’t think anything of it. A lot of the kids got tucked in at night, and like I said, it was nice to finally have someone who seemed like they cared, you know?” She squeezed Vasil’s hand. “But…he didn’t tuck me in.”

  Emotion loomed on the edges of Vasil’s mind, but he held it at bay; he wouldn’t allow himself to react until she’d said all she meant to say. He didn’t know enough about humans to guess at what she’d say next, didn’t know enough to guess what had happened to her. The only thing he knew was that it hadn’t been anything good.

  He leaned closer to Theo. Her scent perfumed the air, mixing with the briny smell clinging to him to create a new, sweet, maddening scent. He took her chin between the pads of his thumb and forefinger and guided her face toward his, meeting her gaze. “I am here for you. Tell me what he did, Theo.”

  She nodded slightly. “I remember the bed dipping as he sat beside me, and his breath. It stank. It always stank, but I never said anything about it because he’d been so nice. But I remember that smell as he leaned over me. He kissed my cheek, my nose. I remember feeling odd, like I knew it wasn’t right but couldn’t understand why. Then he kissed my mouth.

  “I cringed away from him, but he followed, and kissed me again. Then he slipped his hand under my nightgown to grab my leg, and I knew, I knew what he was doing. What he’d done to Tess, what he was going to do to me. I’d seen it in other homes, heard from the other kids who’d been molested. And it was wrong.”

  The emotions that had been building in Vasil crashed into the temporary wall he’d erected in his mind, smashing it to pieces; they were held back temporarily by his disbelief. He understood what she was inferring, but it seemed unfathomable. Kraken, male and female alike, protected their young. That was the responsibility of every adult. Protect, provide, and teach. Everyone did their part to raise all the younglings. Not to take advantage of them, not to force them into situations they couldn’t possibly understand.

  Her story went against everything he’d learned in his life, and yet there wasn’t a trace of deception or exaggeration in her voice or expression. She was sincere.

  Vasil’s skin took on a reddish hue as anger boiled up from his gut and filled his chest. He focused all his will on keeping his body still; he didn’t want to risk causing her any harm in his rising fury.

  “And did he?” he growled through clenched teeth.

  “No,” Theo rasped, shaking her head. “No. Even in that place, I always kept something on hand to protect myself. I don’t know if it was habit, or pa
ranoia, or a suspicion I never fully acknowledged, but I just felt safer that way, even when it wouldn’t have made a difference. So when he touched me, I reached for it under my pillow, where I was hiding a fork from the kitchen…and I stabbed him in the throat.”

  She pulled her hand from his and looked at it. “I remember the heat of his blood on my skin and the choking, gurgling sound he made, but I didn’t stay. Couldn’t stay. So I ran. I just ran, and ran, and ran.”

  Vasil shifted his hand to rest atop his bunched tentacles, squeezing it into a tight fist. He released a shaky breath through his nostrils. “Did you kill him?”

  Theo reached for him and took his hand, tugging gently until he allowed her to pull it closer. She eased his fingers open and rubbed the spots where his claws had pricked his palm.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I hope I did, because it would have meant he couldn’t hurt anyone ever again, but…I don’t know.”

  “I hope the same.” He glanced down at her fingers as they continued to soothe his hand. What she’d described had happened long ago, when she was a child. He could not blame himself for his anger, but it would do neither of them any good. “What happened after you fled?”

  “The home must’ve been close to a spaceport, because that’s where I wound up. Somehow, I made it past all the security and to the launch pads. I really don’t remember how, it’s all fuzzy, but when I think about it now it seems impossible. I wasn’t caught until I’d already snuck onto one of the ships. And that’s…that’s when I met Malcolm.”

  “Who was Malcolm?”

  Theo smiled, but the expression was tinged with sorrow. “He was this gruff old man with black-stained hands and a big scar on one side of his face. And he scared the shit out of me when he found me in the parts storage room of that ship. He grabbed me by the wrist, and his hand was so strong that I knew he could crush my bones to paste if he wanted to. He looked me up and down, saw the blood staining my hands, and for a moment I thought I’d run away from one bad man into another. By the look of him, I was convinced he’d chop me up and eat me or something.”

  She chuckled softly. “And then he said you look too scrawny to even lift a screwdriver, but I guess I got work for ya. He tugged me over to some lockers against the wall, opened one up, and took out a shirt that was too big for me. Told me to get changed and get to work.

  “When the ship’s captain came down for inspection a little while later, I thought for sure I was caught. They’d turn me in to the police, and I’d go to prison… But Malcolm said I was his granddaughter, and that he’d taken me on as his apprentice. That was enough, I guess. I worked with him for eleven years on at least a dozen ships. We went wherever there was work, and he taught me almost everything I know about spacecraft, engines, and machinery.”

  Tears welled in her eyes and tumbled over her cheeks. She quickly wiped them away. “He was everything to me. He became my friend, my mentor, my mother and my father…and I can still picture the look he would’ve given me if he heard me say that. Hell, he was the one who gave me my name.”

  Vasil’s brow furrowed. “You did not have a name for eleven years? Even after your mother died?”

  “I made one up when I was young. When Malcolm found out that my mom never gave me one, he decided to because… Well, I was the daughter he never had.” She flattened her palm against Vasil’s, lining up their fingers. “What about the ones that hurt you? Are they dead?”

  “A few of them died when the ship caught fire and sank,” he replied; though he did not know all their names, he too remembered each of their faces. “The rest survived. My people chose peace.”

  “Did you?”

  “I did not intend to as we fled the burning ship. I would have ended all the hunters then to ensure the safety of my people. Peace came at great cost to us.” He looked down at their hands; hers was small and delicate-looking compared to his own, but he knew it was strong and sure. “The kraken clashed with each other, and many died. There is blood on my hands, too…but I think the cause was just. By the time we made contact with the humans again, we had had our fill of bloodshed and death.”

  “Have you told anyone else about the torture, or about the anxiety you’ve been suffering?” she asked.

  “No one.”

  “Only me?”

  There was something in her voice that called his attention back to her face, where he found something new in her eyes — vulnerability, perhaps? Hope?

  “Only you, Theo.”

  “Besides Malcolm and Kane, you’re the only one I’ve told about my past.” Raising her other hand, she brushed her fingers over his siphon, smiling when it twitched. “Maybe it’s time to let go of the past. To bury it here. It can’t hurt us anymore. They can’t.”

  Vasil shifted his gaze toward the sky, which had gone black. The console was the only remaining source of light, but its gentle glow did not extend beyond the invisible walls of the pod.

  Was it really that simple? Just…let go, and be free? She’d said earlier that there would always be relapses — flashbacks to those moments that haunted him — but he was stronger than those memories, just as Theo was stronger than hers.

  He nodded. “They cannot control us anymore.”

  Theo smiled. “Right.”

  Lightning flashed through the tumultuous clouds, lighting up their surroundings and displaying, for a few fleeting instants, the intensity of the storm. The nearby vegetation thrashed wildly, and the dark sea churned. Theo jumped and turned her wide eyes skyward. She nearly pulled her hand away, but Vasil laced his fingers with hers before she could.

  Thunder vibrated the pod, beginning just before the world went dark again and lingering for several moments afterward, but its sound was greatly muted from what he’d expected.

  “I’ve never seen a storm before,” she said, staring at the sky. “Not like this.”

  “Did it not rain on your homeworld?”

  “Not nearly this much, and not very often. It was usually pretty dry where I lived. Kane, could you turn the exterior audio up a little more?”

  “Of course,” Kane replied through the console speaker.

  Vasil had forgotten about the computer’s presence; he wouldn’t have believed it possible for Kane to remain so quiet for so long. His mind was quickly turned away from those thoughts when the sound of wind and rain grew louder, heightening the immediacy of the storm.

  His mind couldn’t quite wrap itself around the situation — he was in the middle of the storm, witnessing it, hearing it, feeling the thunder rumble, yet was somehow so far separated from its touch.

  He turned his head toward Theo. She was still looking skyward, her face bathed in the soft light of the console. The next pulse of lightning made her jump again. She squeezed his fingers, body tensing for a few moments.

  Dipping his gaze to her bare legs, he stroked her knee with one of his tentacles. She drew in a sharp breath and glanced down but didn’t break the contact between them. Emboldened by her acceptance, he coiled the tentacle around her calf, brushing its tip along her shin while he simultaneously brushed the top of her hand with his thumb.

  The storm raged around them, but he wasn’t aware of any of it — not the lightning and thunder, not the torrential rain, not the violent ocean or rolling clouds, not the invisible walls upon which the falling water shattered. All his attention, all his awareness, was directed toward Theo — toward the taste and feel of her skin against his, toward her nearness. Toward the fragrance of her arousal, which permeated the air.

  He inhaled deeply, and his body heated in response to her scent. His cock ached behind his slit, and he tensed to keep from extruding, unwilling to spoil the moment. He wanted her. Needed her. From the first time he’d seen Theo, he’d felt an undeniable pull toward her, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to resist it for much longer. She was meant to be his — Vasil’s body knew the truth of it, even if the words had not been spoken. Fate had dropped her from the sky for him to find.

&n
bsp; All he needed to do was make her understand that, too.

  Chapter 9

  The storm raged, and the howling wind, roaring sea, and pounding rain were so loud and clear it was as if Theo and Vasil were standing in the middle of it, exposed. But it was the thunder and lightning that fascinated Theo as much as it frightened her, making the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stand on end. It electrified her senses, increasing her awareness of Vasil — of his touch, especially, as he slowly, sensually stroked her skin and sent little thrills straight to her core.

  With every arc of lightning that lit up the heavens, with every boom of thunder that rattled the pod, her body grew tenser with anticipation, fear, and…arousal. She stared at the sky through the blur of water hitting the pod as another forking bolt of lightning streaked across the dark clouds, but most of her attention remained on Vasil. His touch soothed her worries and heightened her desire.

  She was out of her element here; every time she’d had sex in the past, it had been a passing thing, a moment of weakness, the mere scratching of an itch. There’d never really been words involved, and, despite what she’d wanted in her heart, there’d never been expectations established beyond a quick screw.

  But Vasil wanted more. He wanted it all. He wanted her.

  And I want him.

  She wanted him here, now, at the peak of this storm. She wasn’t concerned with tomorrow, she just wanted.

  She sent a thought through the neural link. Kane?

  Kane released a soft sigh in her mind. “Go to sleep, right?”

  Yes. Good night, Kane.

  “Good night, Theodora.”

  Theo slipped her right hand out of Vasil’s grasp and turned toward him, lying on her side against the seat. She briefly met his eyes before lowering her gaze to his chest. Extending her left arm, she settled her palm on his abdomen. His muscles twitched, but he didn’t pull away from her. His skin was warm and velvety, so different from her own. Slowly, she smoothed her hand down, absorbing his heat, relishing the feel of his flesh. When she reached the slight bulge at his pelvis, she paused, catching the inside of her lip with her teeth.