Page 5 of Ghost Ship Numenon

I stared at my hand in horror, then swore as I stepped toward her. “I do not! This isn’t me.”

“It sure looks like you.” Maddie backed away fast, but there wasn’t much space for her to move. I’d corner her sooner rather than later, only for once I didn’t want to. I pulled back with all my might as I took another step toward her, but the suit was too strong. Turning it into a stumble was the best I could do.

It gave Maddie time to duck safely past, getting some room to maneuver. She stared at me as I struggled to my feet. “It’s your fucking suit.”

As soon as she said it, I knew she was right. My hardsuit’s servos no longer amplified my strength. Instead, they hijacked me, turned me into a puppet. Taken by surprise, I was too stunned to do anything, letting the suit get the better of me as it lurched toward her. I threw myself to the side, or tried to, but the suit had better balance than I gave it credit for. It staggered, righted itself, and kept going. “Fuck. I can’t fight it. I’ve got no leverage.”

Maddie’s eyes widened. “It’s the Anima Numenon. It has to be. She’s been animating the dead crew and…”

Her voice trailed off as the understanding of what had happened hit us both. It must have been hell, I realized in a flash. The crew’s hardsuits hijacked, leaving them helpless observers piloted by an uncaring artificial intelligence. A shudder ran through me as I imagined the crew starving while forced to work.

A lurching leap brought me back to myself, and I caught myself by grabbing hold of a strut with my tail. I jerked to a painful stop, my arm swinging dangerously close to Maddie’s head.

“Get out of here,” I snapped. “Run. My ship’s theAvir, docked at port one-one-seven blue.”

What possessed me to think she’d obey my command, I can’t say. Just because it was the course to take? Of course that wasn’t enough. Of course she’d defy me to the end. Something flashed in her eyes, too fast for me to read, andshe stepped closer.I howled in outrage at her suicidal stupidity, and then her multitool hit my suit. I fought against the servos as it tried to crush her in my arms.

No. She is my prey, damn you. Mine to hunt, and I will not have you take her from me.I roared in rage and pain, every ounce of my willpower pitted against the suit. It was enough to slow us. Enough to buy Maddie time to escape.

The idiot used it to fiddle with the tool, accessing the suit’s operating system. My roar faded to an agonized hiss as my arms closed around her in a deadly embrace.At least she’ll die fast,I thought. Unlike me—I’d have to live with this memory while I starved.

Maddie brought her palm down on the hilt of her tool, and somethingclickedinside my suit.

The suit split open and clattered to the deck, every bond releasing at once. Suddenly, I had nothing to fight against and I fell in an undignified heap surrounded by parts. “How the fuck did you do that? And why didn’t you do it sooner, human?”

She shrugged, grinning down. “I’ve been working on ways to hack your hardsuit ever since I saw it,” she said, as though I was an idiot. “Just in case you wanted to crush my skull someday. There’s a factory reset option, and I tracked down the relevant serial numbers to hack it.”

“Ah. So, no use against the crew?” I picked myself up, checking for injuries. Bruises and scrapes where I’d pitted my flesh against the suit’s metal, nothing serious.

“Nope, not unless you’ve got a lot of data on them.” As she spoke, I realized Maddie was watching me intently, her cheeks reddening. I chuckled and stretched, letting her take a good look at me in the skintight pressure suit that she’d left me wearing. “Uh…”

Flustered, she forgot what she was saying. Fair repayment for her own attire, I thought, my gaze tracing the curves which had distracted me from the first time we met. Her breath caught as I rose to my feet.

She looked up at me, swallowed, and held her ground as I advanced on her again. How close we’d both come to dying, her brutally, me slowly. I shivered at the thought of losing her. Somehow, that felt worse than dying.

“You saved me,” I said, reaching out to undo her tool belt. She twitched as though about to stop me, then pulled her hands back.

“I savedme,idiot,” she said, but she made no objection as I set her belt aside. “You don’t owe me anything.”

This close, her scent filled the air, alluring and potent. Like flowers and delicious spices, like the beginning of summer, likeeverything I needed and wanted. I breathed deep, but it was not enough. Meeting her gaze, I knew only one thing would be.

Maddie. Nothing else, no one else, would do. I growled, my tail curling around her leg in a gentle caress, and I saw the answer to my unspoken question in her eyes. My tail tightened, Maddie’s breath caught, and she nodded.

It was all the invitation I needed.

7

MADDIE

He slammed me back against the wall with enough force to shake my bones, and I snarled up at him, grabbing his neck. Pulling him to me, bringing his face down, his deep blue lips to mine. His tongue, strange, alien, and rough, pushed into my mouth to dance with my own. He kissed me like his life depended on it, and I returned his kiss with every bit as much fire.

Like a dam breaking, the tension between us flooded out in a tremendous cascade that would destroy everything in its path. Suddenly, I wanted nothing between my skin and his, no words to mess up the passion we each felt for each other.

What little self-control we had left, we spent getting naked without damaging our spacesuits. I pulled at his, seals parting under my fingers. Kahdrex made frustrated noises as he searched for the fastenings on mine. I gasped out a laugh as his suit slid off him to pool on the floor.

“I win,” I whispered, and he stiffened against me in more ways than one.

“Keep that up, human, and I’ll put you over my knee.” His voice was a growl that shook me more than the fighting had, and his words made me ache inside.

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