by Tasha Black
He looked at her like she might be holding a thermal detonator.
Slowly he extended his own and firmly took hold of hers.
A jolt of desire shot through her body at the feel of his warm hand around hers. Her stomach was flip-flopping again, and this time it had nothing to do with gravity.
She had already noticed that he was handsome. She would have had to be blind not to see the broad shoulders, strong jaw and dark hair hanging a little too long over startlingly blue eyes.
But Raina wasn’t the type to mindlessly drool over a guy for his looks. And she knew next to nothing about this man, beyond the fact that he was angry, and hot as hell.
But it was no use telling that to her libido, which seemed to be square dancing all over her common sense in its eagerness to connect with the good-looking stranger.
She withdrew her hand as quickly as politeness would allow and tried not to make eye contact.
“Raina,” he said, his voice husky and low.
She felt it between her legs.
“Yes,” she said, backing up a step. “And you are?”
“Nick,” he told her.
He stayed put, for which she was grateful, though her traitorous body booed and hissed inwardly.
“Nice to meet you, Nick,” she said. “I’m sorry that I didn’t know your ship was occupied. I’m new at this job.”
“That’s okay. I think I’ve got some post-stasis lag. I didn’t mean to lash out at you,” he said. His expression was chastened enough that it almost made her smile.
“That’s okay,” she said. “I’ll just send word to my captain that she needs to come back and pick me up.”
Nick got a strange look on his face.
“My comms are down,” BFF20 reminded them.
“I’ll tell you what,” Nick said quickly. “Maybe we can help each other.”
“Go on,” Raina said.
“If I’m the last living being on this ship, then if we leave together the ship will be abandoned by the time your drones get here to loot it, right?”
She nodded.
“I was assigned to guard one thing on this ship, and one thing only,” Nick said. “If you help me retrieve that, you can take anything else you want.”
“Why would you let me do that?” she asked.
“Because you’re going to help me,” he told her.
“Where is this thing that you need? Is it dangerous?”
“It’s on the far side of the ship,” he explained. “And I’m sure the most valuable things onboard are with it.”
Raina observed him carefully. She had no idea why, but she felt to her bones that this was a decent person.
Although she hadn’t planned on working with a partner, it wasn’t like she had much choice. If she didn’t work with him, she couldn’t work at all.
And comms were down, which meant she couldn’t call for help, even if he turned on her. She was as well off with him anywhere on this ship as she was right here.
Raina had always been a planner, but it seemed she would have to be flexible today.
“Okay,” she said, nodding slowly.
He smiled for the first time, and she was lost for a moment in the warmth of his twinkling eyes. A small dimple had formed next to his left cheek.
“Let’s go,” he told her.
“I’ll keep an eye on him, my dear,” BFF20 said crisply.
Raina tried to hide her smile from the courtly little droid. She moved toward the doorway Nick had gestured to.
“We’ve got a ways to go,” Nick warned her.
They started back down the corridor toward the forest. The gravity was still low, and still fluctuating.
Raina found herself having a hard time setting a pace. She was the kind of person who liked to hear her boots click a rhythm on the floor as she cast herself forward with determination. But her pace here was necessarily dreamy, no matter how quickly she moved. It was like being underwater.
“Was the gravity like this when you went into stasis?” she asked Nick.
“I don’t remember going into stasis,” he said quietly.
“Oh,” she replied, unsure of what to say. That was odd. There was usually preparation for a technological hibernation. No wonder he seemed so lagged.
“Something was wrong on the ship,” he told her. “That’s all I know.”
“Aren’t you the head of security?” she asked, wondering how anything could possibly go wrong on a ship without the security head being briefed immediately.
He didn’t reply and they kept moving.
The forest loomed overhead, and Raina feasted her eyes on the delicious greenery. She hadn’t seen trees or plants in… in centuries. Though to her it felt like less than a year.
She forced herself to think about something else. It was dizzying to imagine the years that had passed while she slept on in stasis.
“What are we retrieving?” she asked Nick.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted.
“So you were hired on as head of security, with the instruction to protect one thing with your life and you don’t know what it is?” Raina was incredulous.
“Whatever it is, if they hired me to protect it, I know it’s incredibly valuable,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll find other valuable things near it.”
“How will we know what it is?” she asked.
“I have a feeling we’ll know,” he told her.
She nodded, deciding it didn’t help to question him. He was obviously sensitive about the situation, and given what he’d been through, it wouldn’t help to browbeat the poor guy.
“I like a little mystery,” she said, giving him a small smile.
He smiled back and they headed further into the ship, the graceful trees on the other side of the glass thickening even as the hallway they travelled remained as elegant as ever.
4
Nick
Nick stole a glance at his human companion.
Her hair streamed out behind her. She moved like a dancer, her limbs supple and graceful even as the gravity shifted unpredictably.
But it was her smile that undid him. It was like starlight, beautiful and mysterious.
She’s human, the voice in his head told him furiously.
He tried to remind himself that no matter how lovely she was, inside she was just another indolent, entitled creature. Even her stated mission was human-typical.
She was one more heartless colonizer coming to steal anything that wasn’t nailed down.
And she would take his good name too, if word ever got out that he’d allowed her to pillage a ship under his protection.
Mate…
His heart simply wouldn’t let go, and his body was in a near frenzy trying not to touch her.
And so they walked, as the storm inside him raged on.
The hallways were the same as ever, but the trees in the biodome seemed taller than he remembered. He certainly didn’t recall tendrils of ivy snaking through the seams in the glass. The maintenance crew would have had a fit over something like that.
It began to occur to him that he might have been out longer than he’d thought.
He was still feeling rough around the edges, but he’d only ever traveled a month or two in stasis. He wondered how long it would take a tree to grow that much.
He opened his mouth to ask the woman what year it was.
Then he closed it again.
He didn’t want to show her that kind of vulnerability. They had just met. His body told him he had a lot to prove if he wanted her to see him as a mate and protector. And his mind told him she could be trouble and he didn’t want to hand her ammunition that might help her manipulate him.
He was sure that he loved her, but he definitely didn’t trust her.
After a few more minutes of walking together in silence, they reached the sealed-off corridor that led to the protected wing.
A simple DNA lock kept Nick out, but Raina was human - she could open it easily.
BFF20 hovered in f
ront of it, waiting for them.
“Here you go,” Nick said to Raina, indicating the door.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked.
He studied her a moment. His inability to access the DNA lock was enough for her to know what he was. Was she really going to make him say it?
“Open it,” he said simply. “Please.”
“Why can’t you do it?” she asked.
There was consternation in her eyes.
Was it possible that she really didn’t know?
Surely not.
“Why do you think?” he asked.
She bit her lip.
“I don’t know what that is,” she admitted softly after a moment.
He looked at the girl, the door, back to the girl.
“You don’t?” he echoed, completely lost.
“Look, I didn’t exactly want to tell you this, but I’m on my first mission,” she admitted. “And I was in stasis for… a long time. I woke up on a privateer’s frigate six months ago. I’ve never been on a ship like this. I’ve never seen a lock like that…”
“Hey,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder and then squeezing his eyes shut as the sensation rocked him to the core. “Hey, it’s okay. I didn’t know.”
When he reopened his eyes, she was staring up at him. For a moment he was lost - he forgot where they were and what they were trying to do. There was only the haze of his lust and the bright happiness of being near his mate.
“So, what do I do?” she asked, dragging her eyes from his.
“Well, that’s a DNA lock,” he explained. “It allows certain users and blocks others. This particular lock, and all the other DNA locks on this ship, are set to allow human entry only. When you place your hand against that lever, you’ll feel a pin prick. It will analyze your blood and then open.”
“You… don’t like having your finger pricked?” she asked.
She didn’t know.
Or maybe she was just too afraid to say it herself.
“I’m not human,” he told her.
She didn’t step away, or even flinch.
He watched as the expressions crossed her face, surprise, confusion.
“I’m a barbarian,” he told her. “Surely you know what that means?”
She shook her head, golden hair spilling over her shoulder.
“It means I can take on other forms, including human ones,” he explained.
She blinked up at him.
“Like, change your shape?” she asked.
“Yes,” he told her.
“I want to see,” she said.
He took a step backward. He’d been prepared for a lot of things, not for that.
“I’m sorry, is that rude?” she asked. “I don’t know the protocol for this sort of thing.”
“It’s okay, since we’re partners on this mission,” he told her. “If you meet another barbarian, though, don’t ask.”
She nodded, a serious expression on her face.
“I’ll shift for you now, but nothing crazy. I don’t have any other clothes on hand,” he told her. “Any requests?”
“Uh…”
“Kidding,” he said. “I’m kidding. Hang on.”
He closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, he had transformed. His clothes hung loosely from his new frame.
She stared at him in open wonder for a long moment.
“You’re me,” she breathed at last.
“Except for the hair,” he pointed out.
He’d purposefully made purple hair. It was illegal to impersonate a real human for public or private gain. And it was bad form even in a casual setting.
But he had wanted to impress her.
“Wild,” she breathed. “I look good with purple hair.”
She reached out, smoothed a lock of hair away from his eyes.
Her gentle touch was intoxicating.
“This doesn’t frighten you?” he asked.
“I guess if you hadn’t warned me, it would have been a little strange,” she said. “But it’s a pretty spectacular super power.”
“A mere parlor trick for his kind, my dear,” BFF20 sniffed.
“Thank you,” Nick said, ignoring the little robot.
He actually agreed with Raina, his ability was spectacular. Too bad the rest of society didn’t see it that way
“What do you really look like?” she asked.
“However I want,” he said.
“Don’t you have a native form?” she asked him.
“That’s not how it works,” he told her.
“Does it hurt?” she asked. “When you change?”
He shook his head.
“Does it happen on the full moon?” she asked.
“I’m not a werewolf, Raina,” he told her, chuckling. “But it can happen then, or at any other time - whenever I choose.”
“But it’s only when you choose, right?” she asked, looking a little worried for the first time since he had shifted.
“The instinct comes on its own sometimes, but I’m in control of allowing it to happen,” he told her. “One of my brothers has a harder time with control, but he would never harm anyone. We’re trained from a young age to use our powers, not let them use us.”
Thoughts of his brothers made him anxious to move on.
“Are you ready?” he asked her, indicating the door.
“Are you, um, going to stay like that?” she asked.
He’d been so hypnotized by her nearness and the surreal conversation he’d forgotten he still wore her form.
“No, sorry,” he said, closing his eyes.
When he opened them this time, he was in the human form she’d first seen him in.
She smiled and something about the curve of her lips told him she found his appearance pleasing.
He was glad. He’d chosen the form based on a photograph of an actor in a magazine - tall, muscular, with a well-defined jaw and striking green eyes. The actor had been described as “catnip for women” in the caption.
Barbarians didn’t have to be handsome, but they were expected to wear a human form when they worked with humans. And it helped to choose a form they would find physically attractive - humans were shallow creatures.
“Here goes nothing,” Raina said, turning and placing her hand on the DNA lever.
5
Raina
Raina hardly noticed the pinprick. She was still reeling from everything Nick had just shown her.
She had headed into space fully expecting to meet aliens. She was prepared for tentacles and horns, puddles of ooze and gaseous masses.
She wasn’t ready to look into her own eyes.
And when the relief from that was to be faced again with a man who wasn’t a man, but still looked like he had just escaped from a Calvin Klein underwear ad photo shoot… well, it left her feeling rocked to the core.
It wasn’t just that he was attractive. From the second she’d laid eyes on him, she’d felt inexplicably drawn to him. And there was something about the way he looked at her that made her forget herself.
You went to space for an adventure, she chided herself. You can’t be bowled over by the first unexpected thing you see.
The light on the lever turned green and she moved to open it.
“Wait,” he said softly, that big hand on her shoulder again. “We don’t know why the door sealed in the first place.”
“Why do you think it sealed?” Raina asked, pulling her hand back.
“During almost any emergency a door to cargo this valuable might seal,” Nick said carefully. “Something as simple as a stowaway alert or a power outage elsewhere on the ship could do it.”
“Okay,” Raina said.
“Or there could be a breach in the hull,” he added.
Holy shit.
“A breach?” she echoed.
“The ship compartmentalizes like a submarine when that kind of thing happens,” Nick explained.
“Sure, I knew that
, it’s just…” she struggled to find a way to articulate her shock.
“Different to think about in real life, isn’t it?” Nick asked sympathetically.
“Yeah,” she agreed.
“If it were something that dangerous, the door wouldn’t open again for any reason,” he explained. “But it never hurts to be cautious. Maybe your little drone could try to analyze what’s beyond the door.”
“I have already attempted a scan,” BFF20 said in a tone that could only be described as haughty. “The door is shielded. I can’t get much through it. But the oxygen levels are adequate. The environment supports human life. And yours as well, I suppose.”
Raina stared at the drone in disbelief. Was he insulting Nick?
“So then I guess we’re ready to go in,” Nick said.
Raina noticed that he hadn’t even blinked at the droid’s remark.
“Sure, okay,” she said.
“Get behind me, just in case,” Nick said.
“I’m no damsel in distress,” Raina retorted, reaching for the door.
“Humor me?” he asked. There was an anxious note in his usually deep voice.
She shrugged and he slipped in front of her and pushed the lever to open the door.
There was a hiss as the seal released.
The door opened to reveal a hallway that was much like the one they were standing in, except it was cold and dark.
“Power must be out,” Nick said.
BFF20 activated his night mode. A cool beam of light swept the corridor.
The same rugs ran the length of the hallway and the same opulent light fixtures graced the ceiling in measured intervals. But here a thin layer of dust frosted the woodwork.
Nick headed down the hallway after BFF20 and Raina followed.
She turned on the light in her wrist plate so she could see her surroundings.
Each door they passed was framed in walnut and had a golden number on a placard. This had definitely been the nicer residential wing of the ship.
It occurred to her that this area might have been sealed off to protect from something wrong in the larger part of the ship. Maybe the VIPs in this area had wanted to insulate themselves from whatever was happening to the masses.
Visions of the Titanic appeared in her head and she had to fight to focus. That was nonsense. There was no sign of anyone in this section either. At least, nothing that she could see.
