Page 85 of The Alien's Private Redemption

The creature's flesh felt wrong under her fingers - not like a real snake's smooth scales, but something artificial and cold, like wet plastic. It writhed in her grip, sending waves of wrongness through their connection that made her stomach turn. Each time it moved, the natural atmosphere of the cave seemed to warp around it, torch flames flickering and shadows twisting unnaturally.

Zoric slipped out of her and she allowed a brief thought to mourn the loss of his body in hers, the sudden absence of his heat making her shiver. Their Bond crackled with interferenceas she focused her attention on the intruder, the creature's presence creating discordant notes in their mental harmony.

"Do you recognize it?" he asked, and she looked at him like he'd lost his mind.

"Why would I recognize it?" she demanded and he shrugged.

"We should have Ae-cha look at it," he said. "It feel like the triggers she's trying to pull from your body."

Angela looked up at him in horror, then down at her body. "Not like this," she said.

"No," he agreed. "This is just for me. Can you keep holding it?"

She nodded and tightened her grip on the squirming snake-thing. It was thrashing in her hands, trying to connect with its head or its tail. Something told her that, if it did, it would burrow even deeper into her mind and she wouldn't be able to pull it out again.

Suddenly, she was clean, with a flowy summer dress covering her. Then Ae-cha was there, her presence a discordant note in an otherwise harmonious place. Angela didn't want her there and she didn't want to be there.

The lizardwoman placed her hand over the head of the snake thing and crushed it. Angela dropped to the floor of the cave and Zoric wrapped his arms around her. Ae-cha took the corpse of the snake-thing and sifted through it as it crumbled to ash.

"This one is newer than the others," she announced. "And placed deliberately to keep you from strengthening your Bond."

"What do you mean?" Angela asked, shaken.

"I mean, it was designed to make itself known when you attempted to consummate your relationship with Zoric. I don't think they expected you to do it while you were asleep."

"Are you saying that you can tell when-"

"Everybody with five working senses could tell what was going on," Ae-cha said. She sounded angry and Angela wasn't sure she could blame her.

"Get some rest, we'll talk when you wake up."

Ae-cha did something that sent Angela deeper into sleep and she was grateful for the comforting darkness that surrounded her.

Chapter 18

Zoric pulled out of Angela's mind to see a very angry lizardwoman staring at him.

"Thank you," he started, hoping she could hear him over the noise of the plane.

"I hate you," she told him. "Not only was that rude, you were so fucking lucky you did it, that I can't even be mad at you for it. Though I really, really want to."

"I didn't intend to-"

"Shut. Up." Ae-cha said. Her eyes flashed with anger, hurt, and a little bit of fear. Whatever she'd seen while she was reading the metaphorical snakes entrails had shaken her.

Zoric nodded, and put his arms more securely around Angela. It was awkward in the harnesses but he couldn't bring himself to break contact with her. More than the ache of unfinishedbusiness, the attack in the deepest part of her mind, while she was at her most vulnerable had shaken him.

"It was a new intruder," she told him. "Though it has several signature marks from some of the others. It's not the same person who made the death triggers but they learned from the same person. And neither of them match the old ones."

"Old triggers?" Zoric asked.

"Did you not catch the ones in her memory? Shecouldn'tbe seen by a doctor until her Uncle got there. Whoever, whatever, he is, he created the first triggers in her brain. I think he was doing it to try and keep her safe but I have no idea what he was protecting her from."

"From discovery, I'd assume," he said.

"Discovery by whom?" she asked. "There's no way to know without asking him. And I get the feeling he's harder to find for anybody who isn't family."

Zoric thought about it and nodded. "What do you want to do?"

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