Page 77 of Holiday with the Aliens

“What?”

“Authorization code required.”

Damn it!Stella rocked back in her chair. She watched the video feed and glanced back at the Keeper, who sat preternaturally still. Her mind played through the options of how that sentence could end. But she knew what he was forbidden from telling her. He’d already said it, even if he hadn’t used so many words.

The Keeper was to render all assistance to Arest. And if he needed motivation to lower those bars, the Keeper would make sure he had it. By making Stella bait.

Chapter Ten

The monster came back later in the night, or what Arest thought of as the night, and prowled around the room. Arest’s own muscles had gone cold and stiff from his confines. He longed to run, but settled on squats and vertical pushups, body parallel with the bars and pushing from a headstand.

The scent told him he wasn’t alone.

This wasn’t the monster’s first time back. As the hours of the day wore on, he’d come in and out, walking right up to Arest’s cage and sniffing him out. Another of the smaller creatures had wandered in to its own doom, and at each opportunity, Arest watched.

But this time was different. Instead of sniffing or devouring an unprotected beast, the monster ambled up to the cage on sure feet. He crouched beside it and studied Arest, their eyes locked.

He saw intelligence. And anger. So much anger. Even more, he saw himself, the thing he’d been becoming until crash landing on this forsaken planet and finding his salvation in the arms of an irresistible woman.

But understanding did not lead to pity. Pity got a man killed, and the longer Arest stood in this cage, the more sure he became that his job was to end this beast any way he could.

His only warning was a tensing of the monster’s shoulders before it lunged for him, plunging a thick arm between the bars of the cage, expertly aimed to skewer him on its claws. Arest jumped back, pressing himself flush against the wall and barely missing the swipe of huge claws.

The monster pulled back, intelligent enough to know he couldn’t reach Arest. And Arest studied him with new eyes. This creature could end anything with brute force, but it had to be smart to take its prey unsuspecting, lunging with moves too fast for its size. Had it been something else before? Like Arest? It was the shape of a man, two legs, two arms, and a head, but hair covered its naked body, thick enough that it was almost a layer of clothing, obscuring the parts Arest would rather not see.

And obscuring any weaknesses.

But it was made of skin and bone, not rock or the metal of this cage. As long as his claws here strong enough, he could tear through skin and take it down. He just had to be cunning… and close.

As the monster disappeared into the shadows and down whatever hidey hole he’d claimed, Arest looked around again. This time, something caught his eye. A red light blinked high on the ceiling and a shaft of light reflected off a piece of glass embedded up there.

A camera.

As he stared, the light went black, no longer signaling whether the camera was active or not. He’d guessed he was being monitored, and now he knew for sure.

It changed nothing.

His stomach growled and Arest knew he had to make a decision. He’d lost his pack at some point and had neither foodnor water. The stone behind him would not open again, not until he did what he was supposed to. Maybe not even then. But his only chance at survival was to kill the monster. Only then would he be able to find Stella.

A panel in the stone next to his cage opened and Stella was thrust through. Without thought, Arest stepped on the controls of his cage to raise the bars and pulled her in, lowering the bars before the monster could realize he was vulnerable.

He pressed her against the wall and the bars brushed against his back. If the monster came back, he’d be able to get one of them, and Arest would do anything to keep Stella safe.

He ran his fingers through her hair, cradling her face and touching his forehead to hers. Her own fingers pressed against his chest, sliding around and making him think of things that were completely inappropriate for the location.

“How?” he asked, wishing his mind would give him more words. “Here?”

She kissed a line along his jaw, holding him close, and as she touched him, he realized this had nothing to do with sex. She was checking him for injuries. “You’re okay,” she said, more to herself than him.

Okay might have been relative. But he had Stella in his arms, right where she belonged. “How?” he asked again.

She took a deep breath and hot air blew over his shoulder. “There’s an android in charge of this place. He has a feed in here, but he can’t hear us.”

She stroked a hand up his back and Arest made a noise in the back of his throat that he didn’t know he was capable of making. His soul rejoiced that she was here beside him even as he would have wished her anywhere else.

“He said that you were taking too long,” she continued. “You needed motivation. Me.”

He was going to murder the android for putting her in danger, even if the thing wasn’t technically living. Just as soon as he got them out of there. He reached down to disengage the cage once more, but Stella put a hand on his chest to stop him.

---