Page 29 of The Edge of Dawn

Funny, she could almost admit to herself that she kind of missed him. She’d been betrayed by those closest to her and pursued by the ones she was supposed to be able to trust. She was alone, trapped in a nightmare with nobody to turn to. Even the close friends she would normally confide in weren’t an option.

They would all listen to Cameron over her. They all believed in the Federation—in the damn system, in whatever the powers that be told them. She couldn’t blame them—not too long ago, she’d been the same.

Even her own family wanted her to be under the care of MWA. They thought they were doing the right thing.

I don’t feel insane, though. I’m not psychotic or delusional. Surely.

The only one who might even remotely understand her situation was an intimidating alien with luminous platinum-hued skin, pitch-black eyes, and raven hair, who was hard and brutal and terrifyingly competent at violence.

Dragek.

But… he wasn’t evil.

If he was that kind of bad—reptilian-alien-unthinkingly-cruel kind of bad—surely, she would have sensed it.

So. I leave you for the briefest of moments, and you end up like this, hm?

The sound of his voice inside her head—deep, resonant, mildly amused—shocked the hell out of her. She tried her best to calm her thoughts and gather her mental voice. Back already? For someone who pretends to be so high and mighty, you seem rather involved in my business.

It’s because you’re special.

Huh. What a strange thing to say. There isn’t anything particularly special about me. Now, she really couldn’t tell whether he was being serious or sarcastic. Did Kordolians ever get funny like that?

She decided she wouldn’t react, even though the possibility of him praising her for some characteristic—she didn’t know what—was highly intoxicating.

I presume I’m not fully conscious right now, so where are you? Don’t I get to see you? The words were out of her mouth before she could even think. Part of her wanted to see him again, to take in his otherworldly beauty. For he was a visual feast, and she hadn’t observed him enough.

“Over here.” His voice echoed in the recesses of her mind, but it was as if he’d spoken the words aloud. She could barely tell the difference anymore—whether he was talking in her head or in the surreal space that existed between wakefulness and oblivion.

In this version of existence, she was standing in the crypt-like chamber, her body light and free of pain.

She could have died and gone to some sort of purgatory for all she knew, although she didn’t know what she would have done to deserve that.

She turned toward him. “Oh. There you are. So, what do you want now?” Her words came out blunter than she’d intended, partly because she was trying to conceal her reaction.

She stared. She couldn’t help it. He was leaning against the wall, arms folded, his expression maddeningly cryptic. She took in his partly exposed form; his honed body, all muscular power and deadly perfection.

She studied his features: strong, angular, alien yet strangely familiar, made otherworldly by his platinum-hued skin—a shade somewhere between silver and moonlight.

He was a bit different to the Kordolians she’d seen on the Networks. Those ones were all similar in their coloring, although their skin could vary in shades of silver, from light to gunmetal grey. But they all had snow-white hair, and their eyes were always in the warm-colored range: crimson, yellow, amber…

This guy, Dragek, was different.

He was the first dark-haired Kordolian she’d ever seen, and his eyes were different, too. From the sclera to the irises to the pupils, they were pure black.

His hair was a very deep ash-brown, almost black. Tied back in a simple ponytail, it was long and lustrous, and she was overcome with a sudden urge to run her fingers through it.

He was darkness: deceptively beautiful and utterly compelling.

Jeez. Would you snap out of it already?

If there was any part of her that was losing touch with reality, it was the part of her that found him… attractive.

“My bosses are going to retrieve you from here. It will be much faster if you tell me your precise location on Earth.”

“R-retrieve me?” It was one thing being chased by people from the MWA. At least those people were human, and she had a rough idea of what to expect, even if it was horrible.

But now, due to some ridiculous twist of fate, the Kordolians had taken an interest in her.

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