Page 38 of Rebirth

Or perhaps I have simply gone deaf in the aftermath of what just occurred, senses overwhelmed.

I shared touch with a hyu’man…and if I died now, in all my years of existence, nothing would have ever come close to the feel of Soh’fee’s lips against mine.

Minutes or days may pass; I lose track of all but the memory of her lips on mine. The feel of her body yielding, accepting, setting me aflame. Part of me shrivels at the loss already while the rest hungers to hunt her down, to finish what her challenge set in motion.

I have lived over a hundred years by hyu’man count, and I have never come so close to losing myself. All my training, discipline and denial shattered with a single brush of soft skin. I thought myself long past such base needs and reactions.

I was wrong.

I sink to the floor, unable to move. Unable to go to her.

For if I do, I know I will claim her.

And she may be confused right now…but I am positive that’s the last thing she wants.

Or needs.

CHAPTER TEN

SOPHIE

I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. I have no clue why I did what I did. And even then, why my heart’s beating so hard in the center of my chest even as I storm away. Not from fear. Not from shock. But from the fact that the simple contact of my lips on his sent shockwaves through me that shouldn’t exist.

Fuck.

Gripping the straps of my pack, I breathe hard as I make my way back through the winding tunnel. My heart pounds so hard I almost mistake it for that incessant thrum of the network of veins that had surrounded us.

Just thinking about those sends a chill through me that provides some grounding, some clarity, in what is quickly becoming possibly some fraying of my consciousness.

I kissed him.

In the middle of him chasing me, I kissed him. I… fuck! Why did I do that?

Seeing him come after me like that, my fear overrode everything else. His eyes changed. Bled to black. I’ve never seen anything like it. Just like the eyes of that thing floating in the back of his lab, his eyes were a deep, empty void. And yet, I still knew he was in there.

For unlike when I looked into the eyes of that beast and felt nothing but evil, here I felt hope. And in the middle of that chaos, something else woke up inside me. Something that defied all logic and reason. At that moment, I hadn’t seen a dangerous alien chasing me. I’d seen a powerful male driven by raw need—a need I realized was completely primal. Completely pure. Completely…unsullied. Perfect. And I remembered where I was. At the end of the world. The loss of everything. The finality that is there when faced with my mortality.

So I kissed him. And for a few seconds, it was bliss. His lips were surprisingly soft, his skin like smooth leather, and his embrace almost tender despite the fact he could rip me in two. And that fact, the thrill of the chase and the ‘forbiddenness’ of it all only heightened the contact between us.

But then he pushed me away. Ordered me to leave. And the rejection stung.

Even though this whole thing is madness, his rejection hit me like a brick that’s left me reeling.

I don’t even know He’rox. Not really. I know nothing about his kind, his past…who he is…what he is. Yet I gave myself to him. If only for a moment, I…opened myself. And that moment has ruined me.

I know it.

We’re at the cusp of something here. Something bigger than it seems.

Maybe I should have stayed in my bunker after all. But I know that isn’t true. I stayed hiding long enough.

“Shit!” A breath shudders from my throat as I continue on, fighting my heart to calm down, my breaths to even.

I’m muttering to myself, arguing with no one but my stupidity for the entire time I trek my way back through the cave. I don’t know how I do it, moving through this winding cavern without stumbling or feeling afraid. Without He’rox as my guide, this place is terrifying. But my whole focus is no longer on the journey, or where the hell I’ll end up.

By the time I emerge from the tunnel, the sun’s gone down so much, night’s crawling in. I stand paralyzed at the entrance, afraid to face what might come next. Afraid He’rox will avoid me now, and I will never have the chance to solve this mystery I’ve stumbled into.

For although he just revealed to me something that sends fear to the base of my cells…I am still not afraid of him. He isn’t what I thought he was, and yet, despite it all, I still yearn to be in his presence.

---