Page 16 of The Edge of Dawn

Fight?

She forced herself to relax. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done.

This was madness.

I don’t know how to fight.

Fortunately for you, I do. He raised her left hand, flexing her fingers experimentally. Even though this body is pathetically weak and slow, and one hand appears to be dominant over the other, I can still kill your enemies for you.

Kill? She recoiled in horror. I don’t want you to kill anybody. Just… immobilize them or something. Shit, I don’t want to kill anyone.

It would be her hands with blood on them, after all.

The lines between reality and insanity blurred and shifted yet again, and Jade felt like the ground had been yanked out from underneath her feet.

Do you want to be captured? Detained against your will? Given this so-called treatment?

N-no…

Then be silent and let me work.

Fine.

She might be terrified, but at least she had enough sense to know when to shut the fuck up.

She wasn’t going back to the MWA. She didn’t want to be holed up in some sterile facility for lord knows how long.

She didn’t want Cameron to have Complete Power of Attorney over her.

Anything was better than that.

So she threw caution to the wind and surrendered to the alien’s will. She didn’t fight it when he made her walk, and for some reason, the way he moved her body… it wasn’t walking; it was more like stalking.

Jade thought she was reasonably athletic, but she’d never been able to move her body like this.

Her limbs became supple and fluid.

Her feet didn’t even make a sound as she walked across the coarse gravel. She—no, he—reached up and switched off the headlamp, dousing them in darkness.

What are you doing?

This thing will give away your position.

But surely, not being able to see is much more dangerous.

Still, in spite of the darkness, he moved her body with astounding self-assuredness. If she were alone in the dark, she’d be stumbling and fumbling around the place.

How did he do that?

Surely you can’t… somehow actually see through my eyes?

He chuckled softly in her head, a deep, dark sound that made her feel a certain kind of way—she couldn’t put her finger on it. No. In the darkness, your eyes are as sightless as mine. I can use your ka’qui, however.

At first, she had no idea what he was talking about. But then she felt it… a subtle extension of her will, probing into the darkness, making sense of shape and form. And all of a sudden, she could feel the way in front of her.

A mental image of the tunnel formed in her mind, but it was more than just an image. It was a perfect 3D map, complete with an understanding of texture, temperature, and movement.

The amount of detail she noticed through his eyes blew her mind. She imagined it would be similar to having terrible vision for all of one’s life… and then suddenly undergoing corrective eye surgery.

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