by Poppy Rhys
Tall, pointed ears were adorned with golden loops, and golden notched horns sprouted from her temples, bowing outward to rise above her head into sharp points.
She was breathtaking and terrifying all at once.
My admiration—Zaid’s admiration—for her weighed heavy in my chest. I’d do anything. Anything she wanted.
“Are you unhappy, Ghishwy?” I asked, Zaid’s voice rumbling from my throat. I knew something was wrong. She turned, and I followed. We stood at the open glass doors overlooking Ghi.
Oh, it was so beautiful. I suddenly understood Lonan’s words and the former glory Ghians were working to restore.
The stone dwellings carried a pearly sheen, various hues of colored glass dotted the structures, and they were decorated with rainbow hued shells and pebbles from the sea.
Ghians milled about, and others that were unfamiliar to my eyes, but I instantly knew they were valos of different races since I was in Zaid’s mind.
The market at the center of the city thrived, the different valos seemingly here to peruse the offerings and mingle with Zaid’s brethren.
Music played in robust waves of sound that floated delightfully across the air and to my ears.
An underwater civilization at the peak of its glory. I wanted to witness it with my own eyes. Me. Charlie.
“You fought well, my Zaid,” she crooned, but her usual lust had waned.
“What is wrong, beautiful one?” The words came from my pseudo-mouth, and I trailed fingers down the back of her arm. The skin was smooth, latex-smooth.
Ghishwy looked upward, the rays of sunshine spearing through the ocean to glide across the city. When her white eyes turned on me—her expression one of sadness and longing—she curled her fingers to graze my cheek.
“Tell me of your love for me and let us not speak of anything else.” Her radiant smile lit her face, double fangs—nearly identical to the four valos I’d come to stay with—flashed behind dark lips.
I felt unease, but it was quickly forgotten as I reminisced of victories, and praised her in a show of love and admiration that she expected from those she created. The kind of worship I knew how to give her.
The memory was snatched away and I was me again. Back in my own head.
A weight sat on my chest, left there by Zaid’s feelings of confusion, and abandonment, and a gust of air rushed from my lungs. The tear tracks on my cheeks grew cold and I touched them. I hadn’t realized I’d been crying.
Every time they showed the past, it erupted an emotion in me I didn’t want to feel.
Zaid’s hands dropped to his sides, and his voice rolled over me like the tail end of a storm that had weakened. “That is my last memory of her.”
I staggered back, finding the chair and collapsing into it as I tried to reel in my emotions and get rid of the ones that weren’t mine.
“Did she say goodbye?” I heard myself asking, even though I somehow knew the answer.
“No.”
Zaid went back to hammering and I didn’t ask any more questions. I didn’t say any more words. The silence simmered in the room, the only sound the steady thump-tink of a working valo.
It took me a while to recover, but by the time he was done with his work, I finally felt like myself again.
My dislike for Ghishwy was once more solidified, and it was blatantly obvious that this city—this planet—was not my home.
Zaid walked ahead of me, but once I shrugged my thoughts, my hand slipped into his. He didn’t stop walking, he didn’t pull away. His fingers tightened around mine.
Having time to go through all that had been transferred to me, I knew if Zaid loved Ghishwy at some point, it was gone. Only puzzlement and a fading anger remained—an anger that had more to do with being a pariah to his people with Ghishwy’s absence.
That was why they didn’t talk to the other valos. Their brethren viewed them as Ghishwy’s Four, her soldiers, their betters, and the Ghians had begun to hate Ghishwy, and in turn, her men.
I shook my head. It made sense now why they wanted to kill me when they thought I was their Creator, which I’d pieced together, finally. Though I looked nothing like her, paranoia did strange things to people. Made them see things, signs, that weren’t there, and reason away the sense.
Again, something tugged at my insides, and I rested my head against Zaid’s arm as he walked me back to their home.
DINNER WASN’T AS AWKWARD as I imagined it would be. Sitting at the table with the four, it was... normal. No one mentioned what happened last night, and they didn’t treat me differently.
Kahn cooked my food, Dason got griped at for ‘borrowing’ something again—he never learned Zaid seemed to have shed the dark cloud of the memory he shared with me, and Lonan refused to let me clean up after myself. I did try, though.
I was extremely relieved. Sometimes human men had this habit of making things complicated after sex. They acted like they didn’t care, or that things had changed and their body language would be more strained.
Didn’t think I’d be happy that they were aliens, but I found myself liking that part.
The couch was where I started out, but by the time I woke the next day, I was in Dason’s bed. It was clear I’d made a full rotation, which meant today it was Lonan’s turn to take me to work.
That was how the days and weeks passed, and we didn’t have another sexual encounter. I’d start out on the couch and end up in someone’s bed by morning, and then I’d play tagalong.
Until I found myself standing at the entrance to the city about to make a break for it.
EIGHTEEN
WHAT WAS I doing?
My priority was to find Preta, and for weeks I’d been living with four alien men like it was normal, like this was my life now. Like I’d just given up.
I had to get out of here.
Leaving was easy for me. Packing some necessities and disappearing had been trained into me years ago. Once my target was terminated, Jamie wanted to get me out of there as soon as possible. It was protocol that I get to a safe house to be transferred out.
So while Dason was bathing, I’d tied up my extra clothes, my comb, and conditioner in one of my dresses and left as silently as I could. My fingers gripped the bag now, and the sharp shard of stone I’d stolen from a rubble pile the last time I’d gone to work with Zaid.
Every time I’d gone to work with Dason, we’d passed the entrance to the city, so I knew exactly where it was.
This had to happen.
The longer I waited, the colder my sister’s trail would become, the harder it would be to find her. As it was, I had no idea how the fuck I was going to retrace my steps. It had been night when I escaped the attack, and I hadn’t exactly been paying attention to landmarks when all I could think about was not becoming alien food.
But I had to try.
Every time I brought up someone taking me back to the surface, they’d redirect the conversation. No one ever gave me a straight answer. Soon was their favorite response. When it’s safe was a close second.
I canted my head, eyeing the transparent bubble I was trapped beneath. The ero’ha were gone. It had been days since I’d seen a shadow.
It was time to go.
I didn’t ruin my career, get sent to prison, and crash land on an alien planet for nothing. That last part was unplanned, but it still counted.
These valos had been kind, and maybe I was lying when I assured myself I wouldn’t miss them, but I couldn’t think of that right now. Preta was blood. My blood.
Abandoning my flesh and blood to waste time with four kind, caring, sexy-for-an-alien—hell, sexy-by-human-standards—and attentive valos... was just unacceptable.
I couldn’t live with that kind of guilt. And guilt aside, this was my sister! There was no way in hell I was going to be okay knowing she could be out there on this death-trap of a planet and not go looking for her.
We had to get back to Earth, somehow. I was still holding onto that thread. I didn’t ca
re how implausible it was. We had new lives to make for ourselves, and our dad...
Ugh, Dad.
I hoped he was okay. We were all he had. Us and the military. That was his life exactly in that order.
I took a step toward the tunnel—the tunnel I’d first woken in front of before getting toted off by a mob. There were pockets along the walls, and a track running across the width of the tunnel. A thick door lay at the end, sealed.
Most likely, I’d have to cross onto the other side of that track. It was probably a pocket for a second door so the city wouldn’t flood. That seemed the most logical to me, anyhow, given what I saw with my own eyes.
My pits grew slick thinking about getting in that water. It was so vast. All I saw was blue.
I knew how to swim. That wasn’t my problem. I had no doubt in my muscle memory. The water was my problem.
Up until the summer when I was ten, I loved the water. Anything I could swim in, I was there.
Getting caught in an undertow nearly killed me. Clinically, it did.
I still remembered it so vividly. Dad was stationed on the US east coast, and we spent every day at the beach that we could. Despite the erosion, and pollution, the ocean had a lure we couldn’t escape.
The waves were huge that day, and I’d been grumpy when Dad told me I couldn’t get in the water.
“It’s not safe,” he’d said. “You’re too small to be out there today.”
He was right, I’d been a small child, but a small child full of determination to prove my size couldn’t dictate what I could and couldn’t accomplish.
Had my dad not been the proficient swimmer he was, I wouldn’t be here today. Trying to fight that undertow, my hands scraping against anything to stop my spiral before I cracked my head on a rock, was still fresh in my mind.
The panic I’d experienced, the urge to reach the surface, to breathe, had scarred me so badly I never swam again. The fear of drowning was all too real.
Twice I’d been in the grips of death by drowning. This second time around, I’d come back with a new development that would prevent me from dying a watery death ever again.
My fingers drifted over my chest, feeling the new, unwanted growth.
I’d tested my gills in the tub days ago with Dason nearby. I knew I’d be leaving one day, and while we were close enough to the surface I could easily swim upward to grab dry air, my gills were a part of me now no matter how much I disliked it.
I’d utilize them if they’d help me survive this planet until I could get home.
If Dr. Friedrich and Dr. Hale had known they’d be helping me save my sister thanks to their sadistic experiments, I doubt they’d be happy. Thankfully they never realized all they had to do was stop my heart and shock me back to life like some fish-lady Frankenstein.
I’d sleep better not knowing what they would’ve done with me had my gills manifested on the Concord.
Something tickled my fingers.
I looked down just as Rezz bumped his big head against my side, the action causing me to shuffle or fall.
His tail rattled as he looked up at me.
“Rezz,” I chided lowly, my eyes darting around to see if he’d brought any of the valos with him, but he was alone.
“You can’t be here,” I whispered, running my hands through the thick gray fur on his big noggin. “Go on.” Giving him a gentle push was like trying to move a boulder. He flopped over onto his side, stretching.
“You ass,” I grumbled, trying to smother my smile.
I turned my gaze forward and rubbed my shoulder, working the tense muscle, and psyching myself up.
I stepped into the tunnel.
Time was ticking away. Soon, one of the four would notice I was gone.
Had to leave.
Rezz’s tail rattled again and he was up, trying to follow me.
“No!” I pointed a finger at him. “Stay.”
A big, growly harrumph came from him before he slowly planted his butt in the sand. If lion-birds could look annoyed, he did.
Couldn’t think about how much I’d miss him and his sassy attitude.
I walked over the metal strip; a loud click echoed around me before a barrier rose from the second track, separating Rezz from me. I was trapped.
My free hand flexed—open, closed, open, closed.
What was I thinking?
My arms trembled and my muscles refused to cooperate. The sensation struck a fear into me that turned my gut to stone and made it hard to draw breath.
Another click sounded in front of me, and the door to the ocean unsealed. Water rushed in over my head, the whole tunnel filled so quickly I barely had time to suck back what little air my body allowed before I was submerged.
I dropped my pack. My hands gripped onto the metal door sealing me off from the city where there was oxygen on the other side.
I blinked rapidly, my head thundering with thump-thump, thump-thump as my panic reached its peak inside me.
Charlie, my dad’s reassuring voice in my head surfaced from memory as it always did when my fear tried to consume me as a child, breathe.
The tremoring in my hands gradually receded, and I knew I’d have to take a breath. I could do it and survive. This was a sure thing.
Slowly whirling around, I stared.
Outside the tunnel, the waving fields of pink, purple, and green grasses danced like there was wind moving the blades, calling to anyone who laid eyes upon them.
I squeezed my lids shut, knowing I had to let go.
Bubbles escaped upward as air slipped from me.
I took my first breath.
The saltwater rushed into my body and I immediately coughed. My first instinct was to expel the liquid. It was like rewiring my brain, going against all that I knew to take another inhale.
It burned. Burned so badly it made my eyes sting and my nose tingle.
But I was breathing. I was breathing the water. It weighed inside of my lungs like stones, adding to the gravity I was forced to feel.
Another inhale and exhale. The water blurred around my face, but I was getting oxygen, and that was all that mattered.
My sight took in everything before me and moving through the water on my own felt foreign and familiar at the same time.
I picked up my pack, my rock shard, and moved my arms, my feet pushing against the floor and sending me out of the tunnel. The ocean spanned around me, and unease soared up my spine.
Realization hit that I was in an alien ocean and I knew nothing of the marine life here.
Fuck, I can’t think about that.
I’d only retreat, and that wasn’t an option. I couldn’t turn tail now that I was out here, breathing saltwater like a fucking mermaid.
The quicker I swam, the quicker I’d get to the surface and out of this place.
The images of getting here flashed in my mind’s eye. I vaguely remembered seeing the waving grasses, and the city far off like a light that beckoned me before I lost consciousness.
The general direction was clear. All I had to do was backtrack. I was sure I’d get to the channel I’d been in before if I just headed that way. Fast.
I clamped my mouth on my pack and pushed off the sandy floor, my arms and legs working in sync after a few awkward strokes. Muscle memory kicked in, just like I knew it would, and my body propelled forward.
I tamped down my fear, using my pulse as a rhythm. Every beat meant another second closer to the channel, to Preta. I’d worry about the rest when I got topside.
As I swam over the field, farther and farther away, I turned my head, taking one last look at the city where the four valos had become my unexpected companions for a temporary time.
There was something special about each of them, and I’d be grateful to them for the rest of my life. Even Dason. I might’ve made it back to Preta by now if he hadn’t dragged me down there, or I might not have. I’d never know.
But they’d given me a place to recuperate, taken care of me, and opened my ey
es to a world where there weren’t just targets and civilians. There were friends, moments of laughter, and normal, boring everyday jobs.
I didn’t know if I’d ever see them again.
My eyes stung when I looked away, surprising me, before the water wiped away the sensation.
They would understand. Preta was my family. I needed her.
On I swam, steadily breathing.
Small schools of harmless looking fish dove around me and down toward the grasses. My pulse beat of out tempo whenever I’d spot something, hoping it wasn’t aggressive.
I was almost far enough away from the city I could see the edges of an underwater cliffside forming. That had to be topside. The channel had to be around there somewhere!
I swam faster, my breaths picking up.
The water whirled around my feet in a different direction, drawing my attention for a split second.
Nothing was there.
I pushed forward.
The urge to get to the surface was closing in around me like a fist encircling my throat.
Again, water swirled in the opposite direction, and I gazed back over my shoulder.
Nothing.
The light of the city was fading, and the water was darkening around me. Only the sunlight from the surface illuminated the waters now, but the overall feel made me kick my legs a little harder.
A shadow caught in my peripheral, distracting me and throwing off my next stroke.
My gaze darted over the ocean below me.
As much as I tried to suppress the fear, it was becoming a waste of energy. Panic never helped me in the past, and I tried to shove it down into oblivion, but I was failing.
There was something out there and it was taunting me.
Adrenaline burst through me when a large fin slapped my leg.
I spun, the offender coming into view.
Ero’ha.
DASON
“Charlie?” I stood in the middle of the empty room after I finished grooming. “Charlie?” She wasn’t in the living space either.
Maybe Lonan came to get her? It was his day.
