Page 15 of Treasured By the Hunter

“First time for everything.”

But now all I could think about were all the possible new variants of bugs. “Now I’ll never get to sleep. I’ll be worried about new bug mutations all night.”

“I will help.”

Before I could protest, strong fingers were digging deliciously into my scalp, giving me the galaxy’s best head massage. I sighed, not believing what was happening. But I had to admit that with him here, I felt safer. A hell of a lot safer than if I was alone.

I closed my eyes, and this time, sleep wasn’t as elusive. It arrived with dirty dreams of a certain purple warrior. In the dreams, things didn’t stay PG-13. His kisses didn’t stay on my lips and neck and instead traveled all over my body.

The dream was full of sensations but lacked any details. I caught an occasional claw or a sexy fang, a pair of warm golden eyes. There was, however, a lot of hot, sexy purple skin, some a lighter purple than the rest. Everything was happening, but also nothing at all. So frustrating.

Just as I was about to catch a glimpse of what lay behind Harb’k’s leather loincloth, the morning sun rudely woke me. I groaned and stretched out on the bed and found it empty. He must already be on his way to scour the countryside for anomalies.

But as I stepped outside after my quick morning routine, I found myself staring at an alien craft. It was sleek, gray, and looked straight out of a sci-fi B movie. I’d seen them uncloaked from afar but had never been so close to one before.

Had it been here all along? This had been right outside the window all night, and I hadn’t noticed it. But then again, I wasn’t one of the fortunate people who could see through the cloaking.

A panel at the side of the vessel suddenly moved forward before sliding up to expose a door, and Harb’k stepped out.

“You are ready. Good.” He glanced over at the house on top of the “hill.”

Corey had been particularly generous when he called it a hill. It was only barely higher than the land surrounding it. Movement there had me cursing. The asshats were already up.

“Well, thank you for the company,” I said as I lugged my scooter down the stairs and set it on the pavement. “I’m sure we’ll mee—”

Harb’k was suddenly there, whipping my scooter out from under me. He slapped his palm on the side of his shuttle and a panel opened up, showing the alien spaceship equivalent of a trunk. He placed my scooter inside.

“Hey! Give that back!”

I found myself hoisted over a broad purple shoulder. I stifled a yelp, worried I’d give my location away to the three men by the big house.

I did, however, pound on his back with my fists. “Let me go,” I said through gritted teeth. My pack started to fall off my back from being inverted. “My bag!”

He caught my pack with the hand not holding onto the back of my legs and strode into the shuttle.

He deposited me and my pack onto a soft surface. “We will travel together. I will fly you to your destination.”

“You said you wouldn’t steal me away in your shuttle.” I put on my angriest face, but I was more surprised than angry because the idea of being dropped off at the next safe house in a hunter’s shuttle sounded a lot better than scootering there.

“That was last night,” he said plainly. “Today is another day. Your pursuers are on their way. They believe only I am here, but they will find you if you do not leave with me now.”

He did make a good point. Besides, I knew that pounding on the door and demanding he let me go wouldn’t be very productive.

I looked around. The inside of the shuttle was rather bare bones. I was on a sleeping platform. There was a large screen at the front, a pilot’s chair, an alcove at the back, a counter, and the platform I was sitting on. Along one wall was a shelf set into the shuttle walls with model planes on it. They were clearly of Earth origin and were the only thing that showed any personality at all.

He sat down on the pilot’s chair, and the screen lit up. “Shuttle, cloak, lift off, and turn on the external display.”

The shuttle rumbled to life, and to my surprise, the walls around me suddenly disappeared, all except for the section with the model planes. I could see the sky above us as the sun crested the horizon. Below us, Corey and his group were already driving toward the row of homes we’d just been in.

“I have an idea. He wants to steal your water, food, and energy. We will help. We give him water.”

I looked over at Harb’k to see what he meant. He had a mischievous look on his face.

He guided his craft until we were hovering right above them and the vehicle. They’d stopped in the middle of the road and were getting out of the car. I watched curiously as Harb’k scrolled through a list of icons on his screen until the one that looked like a trap door opening.

“It releases stored water from the shuttle. There’s not much left, and I have to refill anyway. I will give you access to the shuttle so you can initiate the action.” He took my hand in his, then pressed my fingertips to the bottom corner of the screen. After a few screen changes, we were back at the water release icon.

Corey and his friends were still beneath us, getting ready to check each house for the “purple freak.” We heard everything as the shuttle played back their conversation. The assholes wanted to ambush him and steal his shuttle.

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