Dox gathered up his belongings to transfer them into the next room. The rest followed behind him as Kelen remained in the hallway. At the last second, she caught Kyber’s glance her way before the door closed. The look was unreadable. Pasting a smile on her face, she turned to Sandow. “Okay, Doc. Looks like it’s just you and me.”
Sandow snorted and gestured at the bath. “After you, Chambliss.”
Once the door closed behind them, Kelen quickly shed her clothes and stepped into the pool. She let out a soft groan as she lowered herself into the warm water. “I think I’ll stay here for the next hour or so,” she told Sandow, who sat on the edge.
“It would be nice if we could all afford that luxury, but time is limited.”
“Yeah. I know.”
She swam around a bit. The pool was irregularly shaped, and the bottom fluctuated in depth. “It looks as though this place wasn’t carved out, but is a natural part of this room.”
“It could be the pool was enclosed for their convenience,” the physician commented.
“It’s possible. It feels like there’s sand or something similar beneath my toes.” She dipped her head below the surface, then rubbed her fingers over her scalp in an attempt to wash her hair. When she surfaced, Sandow was watching her with a worried expression on his face.
“Chambliss? Those two days you were missing?”
She wiped water droplets from her face. “Yeah? What about it?”
“What happened?”
“What do you mean? It’s like I told you. We fell into that little room by lucky accident. Kyber needed a little time to recover from the attack, which is why we waited before leaving it. Besides, we had no idea the rest of you were still alive.”
The man slowly shook his head. “That’s not what I’m talking about. I mean, what happened between you and the Seneecian?”
She paused, her mind racing. How truthful could she be? How much could she tell the man? She still didn’t know how the physician felt about the aliens. Whether he was tolerant of them, or secretly despising them.
Kelen threw more water on her face, wondering how to answer the man, or simply flat-out lie, when Sandow spoke again.
“Were you intimate?”
Damn her, but she couldn’t erase the stunned, guilty look on her face that appeared as soon as he asked. To her surprise, Sandow frowned and sighed.
“Was it a survivalist reaction? Or something else?”
“What’s a survivalist reaction?”
“The two of you were involved in deadly combat against those eye worms, and you survived. People have been known to have extreme emotional ups and downs in situations like this. Perhaps the two of you becoming…intimate…was a psychological response after what you’d endured.”
She bowed her head. “I think you’re right, Doc. But I…” She shrugged. “I don’t know what I think.”
Sandow smiled gently. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Kelen, but females do tend to put more of an emotional spin on such circumstances than males do. Is that why you’ve been mooning over the big Seneecian male?”
Kelen frowned. “I have not been mooning over him.”
“Maybe mooning isn’t the correct term. But I’ve noticed how you’ve been casting furtive glances at him ever since you rejoined us.” The smile widened. “He’s been doing the same to you.”
“He has?”
“He appears to have made it his mission to protect you. On his world, that may be the way Seneecians claim their mates.”
“Oh, God, Doc. I don’t know what to think. I wanted him as much as he wanted me, and it felt right. It felt like it was meant to be, you know? But now…” She gave him a morose look. “I don’t know if he’s acting the way he is because we can’t let the others know the truth. Or because what happened back there meant nothing to him. Not in the same way it did to me.”
Getting to his feet, Sandow shoved his hands in his pants pockets. “Don’t worry, Kelen. As a doctor, your secret’s safe with me. Now hurry and finish up so the next lucky guy can have his turn.”
She gave him her warmest smile. “Thanks, Doc.”
She dove back under the water for one final lap around the pool’s perimeter. As she came up for air, she pushed back her hair and glanced over at the doorway.
The door was open, and the physician lay sprawled, face down, on the floor.
Kelen whirled around to see what had attacked him. The last thing she remembered was screaming as the fist caught her on the side of her head, knocking her unconscious.
Chapter 23
Taken
Kyber had wondered how long it would take Dayall to assert his dominance over Kelen. It had been clear to everyone soon after their initial confrontation in the temple that she was the only female in the group. Thus, he had expected Dayall might order her into submission once the man realized their situation. Using the code of the military to assure she would obey his direct command. What Dayall hadn’t planned was for Kelen to flatly disregard his orders and take a stand against him. But when the commander grabbed her to either physically punish her, or force her into doing as she was told, Kyber reacted by jumping into full protective mode. His initial response had been to rend the man into shreds. At the last second, he’d retracted his talons and struck Dayall instead with his fists.
His actions shocked and surprised him. He had acted as a mated Seneecian would, to protect his life partner. Kyber glanced over at his crew members and their stunned expressions. When Gaveer stared back at him, he’d glowered and threw his attention at the commander.
It was becoming more and more difficult to deny his affection for the Terran female. Worse, he was finding himself unable to deny the physical pull she had on him. There was an open, fresh appeal to her. In the way she sexed him. In the way she teased him. No Seneecian female would behave in that manner, or even dared to try. Kelen’s drive, her stamina, kept him going. She also challenged him mentally, and he was discovering he thrived on it.
He took a spot near the doorway inside the large room filled with pallets. Gaveer claimed the areas close by for himself and the others. Kyber wasn’t surprised that the Terrans chose the opposite side of the chamber to make their camp. The strange little man named Dox decided to place himself and his armload of objects directly between the two species, like a human stopgap. A quick glance around the room revealed a small section left unclaimed on the Terrans’ side. He assumed that was where Kelen would sleep.
Sleep.
At the thought of rest, his body reminded him of his wounds. Although he’d sustained worse during his career, he’d never pushed himself until after he’d completely healed. The piercing in his hip no longer bled, but it pained him every time he took a stride.
He ran his claws through his fur. Moisture from the falls still clung heavily within the short, thick pelt. Kyber got to his feet and pressed his hands over his body, squeezing out the accumulated water. In a way, he was thankful for the wetness. Between it and his uniform, it prevented the others from detecting any residual scent of Kelen that remained on him.
“Hey, sneek!” Dayall called from where he’d been made to sit. “You’re getting water all over the floor. Why can’t you do that outside the room? Better yet, why can’t you find yourselves your own room, and save us the trouble of having to smell your wet fur all night?”
Mellori glanced from the commander to Kyber. He motioned with his head for the Seneecian to meet with him out in the corridor. Once out of Dayall’s earshot, the Terran turned to face him.
“I don’t know what’s come over him. You have to believe me when I say, in all the time I’ve served with the commander, he’s never acted this way.”
“It’s possible the man has snapped, given our present circumstances,” Kyber responded.
“That’s what the rest of us think,” Mellori acknowledged. “But he also sustained a small concussion during the crash landing. That could be a contributing factor, too.”
The sound
of footfalls caught their attention. They waited as Fullgrath and the other Seneecians joined them. “That didn’t take long,” Kyber remarked.
“Not much to see,” the Terran replied. “They’re all just a bunch of empty rooms. Some large, some small. All singles, as far as we can tell.”
“You didn’t go inside to inspect them?” Mellori asked.
“We felt it would be safer to remain in the corridor and just do a brief check this time around,” Tojun told him.
“Did you notice another door symbol somewhere in the back of the rooms?” Kyber inquired.
Fullgrath shook his head. “We didn’t look for it. Why? Is it important?”
“It may indicate another room, or a back door to someplace else.” He glanced into the larger room. Dayall struggled with the fabric strips binding his arms and wrists. Dox was busy working on something. At the sight of the young man, Kyber pivoted around to stare at the entrance to the bath.
Massapa noticed his concern. “What’s wrong, Kyber?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But it seems Kelen is taking a long time at her bath.”
Fullgrath snorted. “She’s female. They love to take long soaks. Don’t worry. Doc’s with her.”
“Regardless, I’d feel better checking on her progress. She needs to be reminded there are others waiting their turn.” The excuse served him well. It covered up the fact that he was beginning to worry about her absence. Whether or not Terran females had the tendency to spend exorbitant amounts of time cleaning themselves was irrelevant. It was being separated from her that bothered him. The need to keep her in sight and under his care was becoming pervasive.
Stepping over to the doorway, he hesitated. Was it possible to knock on these doors without opening them? If it opened anyway, and he found her to be safe and unharmed, would she accept his reason for invading her privacy?
He had to face the fact that taking a Terran female as his life partner was going to be challenging. He had no knowledge of the rules for taking one into his heart, as well as into his bed.
“Kelen, can you hear me?” he called out, then paused to listen for a response.
“The door’s probably too thick for her to hear you,” Massapa guessed.
“That, or she’s making too much noise splashing around,” Fullgrath added. “You’re gonna have to open the door.”
Kyber grunted in agreement and slapped the symbol. The door slid aside, and he instantly knew something was wrong.
Fullgrath yelled and ran over to where the physician was lying unmoving on the floor. Once quick sweep of the room told Kyber that Kelen was not here.
“Who did that to Doc?” Mellori demanded, whirling around to survey the chamber.
Tojun walked up beside Kyber. “Where’d she go?” he asked as they stared at the empty pool.
Kyber moved without thinking, striding around the edge of the pool toward the rear of the room. He found the green symbol almost immediately and slapped it. The portal dropped into the floor, revealing a black interior.
“She went this way,” he called to them. “Someone go get me a light.”
Several joined him at the second entrance. “That’s not a tunnel,” Fullgrath noted. “It looks like another chamber.”
“It makes no sense,” Gaveer commented. “Why would she leave?”
“The bigger question is why did she knock out Doc?” Fullgrath gruffly remarked.
“I’ve got another one for you,” Tojun called out to them, and held up a piece of clothing. Kelen’s blouse. “Why would she leave bare skinned?”
Kyber glanced over his shoulder where the Terran was bent over his comrade. “Is he alive?”
“Yeah. Got a knot on the back of his head the size of small meteor, but he’s breathing okay. When he comes to, he’ll have a bitch of a headache. Hopefully he won’t have any serious aftereffects.” Fullgrath frowned. “Why’d she do it? Why in hell did she attack Doc?”
“Kyber.”
He looked over to where Massapa knelt at the edge of the pool. The Seneecian ran his fingertips over the rock, then lifted his hand to his face and sniffed. Cold, stark fear raced through Kyber’s body at the expression on the man’s face.
“There’s blood here, Kyber. Terran blood.”
“Maybe it’s Doc’s,” Mellori wondered.
Massapa shook his head. “It can’t be. The physician is on the other side of the pool. This is fresh. And warm.” He pointed into the bath. “There are also traces in the water.”
Dox hurried into the chamber with a tube light. Switching it on, he shone it into the Stygian interior. It disappeared into a black hole.
“Something’s happened to Kelen, Dox. She’s missing, and the person, or thing responsible could have also attacked the physician,” Kyber told the little man.
Without answering, Dox vanished into the darkness to search for her.
Kyber looked to Fullgrath. “I’m going in after her.”
“Not without backup, you’re not,” Fullgrath growled as Kyber plunged into the void to catch up with the engineer. Fullgrath rushed after him a split second before the portal slid upward and closed with a hiss.
Chapter 24
Tracking
They found themselves not inside another room or chamber. It was another passageway, but this time the tunnel was wider and more open than those they’d previously traveled. It wove back and forth like the gutted remains of some enormous creature, never going for any considerable length in a straight line. To make things more difficult, the walls and floor were slick with mud and moisture. The atmosphere reeked of decay.
“What kind of tunnel is this? This isn’t like the other routes we’ve taken,” Fullgrath noted in a hushed voice.
“Neither are there any symbols carved in the walls,” Kyber said. “Unless they’re underneath the muck. Dox?”
The little man paused ahead of them and turned to wait for them to catch up. “Hurry,” he urged.
“Dox, do you have any idea where we’re going?”
Dox pointed forward. “That way,” he answered, and took off again.
The engineer moved quickly, surefooted even on the slime-covered ground. Behind him, Kyber heard Fullgrath grunting to keep pace.
“Hey. Kyber. Any idea who took her?”
“No.” He started to tell the man that the fact that an unknown entity had kidnapped Kelen both worried and terrified him, but restrained from making the admission.
Since Dox had the only light, it was difficult to see whether there were any footprints in the ooze. Stopping, Kyber held out a hand to keep the Terran from stumbling into him.
“Dox! Hold up!”
It was nearly impossible to see the little man, but the pinpoint of light ahead of them appeared to halt.
“Shine that thing down on the floor. I need to see if there are any prints,” Kyber ordered.
Dox moved back closer to them and played the beam over the ground. Fullgrath came up behind and peered around him.
“Those look like human tracks,” the Terran whispered in surprise.
“They are,” Kyber grimly replied. There were two distinct sets of boots. The smaller set matched Dox’s prints. The others were larger. Man-sized. “We’re tracking one of our own.”
Fullgrath jerked his head up. “One of our own?”
“It’s difficult to tell if a boot or sandal made that print,” Kyber told him. “Which means the person who took Kelen could either be your rogue man, or mine.”
“Why don’t we see Kelen’s prints? Think he’s carrying her?”
“He has to be. It would explain why the prints are set deeper into the mud. Look at our prints. See how the wetness is already filling the tracks? Those deeper tracks are taking longer for the mud to cover up. Keep moving, Dox. We have to hurry before the prints are completely obliterated.”
Dox bobbed his head once and took off again.
After another few more minutes, Fullgrath noted something else. “We’re not go
ing in a downward direction.”
Kyber had realized that earlier. “We seem to be keeping level.”
“And it’s getting warmer,” the Terran added.
Kyber didn’t reply.
After a few more minutes, the light ahead of them quit moving. Dox had come to a halt. When Kyber and Fullgrath caught up to him, they discovered they’d reached an intersection. Kyber stared at the two separate tunnels branching at right angles from the one they were in.
“Well, that’s another first,” Fullgrath said. “What now?”
Kyber turned to the little man. “Which way do the footprints go?”
Dox lifted the tube light so that the others could see the sadness on his face. “There’s no more mud,” he softly said, then aimed the beam at the floor. At some point, the muck had hardened. The tracks had disappeared. The culprit could have taken either branch, and they had no way of knowing which one.
Fullgrath let go with a word Kyber assumed was a derogatory one. “What now?” the man asked.
Kneeling, Kyber ran a hand over the packed earth. He hoped to feel a depression or an unevenness to indicate a boot scuff or heel indentation, but there was nothing. Grimacing, Kyber stared at the two openings.
“There are three of us, and two possibilities.”
“Are you suggesting we split up?”
“Do we have any other options?” Kyber glanced up at the man. “You and Dox take one tunnel. I’ll take the other.”
“And then what? These fucking holes could go on forever.”
Kyber shook his head. “One of them has to end somewhere. If it is your man, or mine, he must already be familiar with the route. That, or he’s been following us this whole time, but staying out of our line of sight so we remained unaware of his presence.”
“I agree with you, Kyber, but how far should we keep going down these corridors? I mean, what if we never catch up with him? How long should we continue to track him before we realize we’ve reached an impasse, and need to stop and backtrack?”
Getting to his feet, Kyber faced the Terran. “I’m going to follow this route until I can go no further. I don’t know how long that’ll take, but somewhere down one of these tunnels, Kelen has been taken by a person who has plans for her.”
Neverwylde (The Rim of the World Book 1) Page 13
