Page 87 of Sky Song
She took a step forward, mind reeling in disbelief.
“I’m fine.” His voice was so guttural she barely understood him. “A nice trick, huh.”
“What… trick…”
The tremors were subsiding, and his head came up. He rolled his shoulders, pushing away from the wall. “Electric shock forces the hearts in overdrive. I learned about it in prison. Let’s hope it lasts for three rounds against Dainty Red.”
Her own heart in overdrive, Cricket could only stare at him. She quit trying to make sense of what was going on.
Lyle shook his head, sending his silky hair flying, and took an unsteady step forward. “I’m so heavy,” he said with surprise.
“The shock made you self-reflect?”
He laughed. “My senses are back and I can feel my weight.” He cracked his neck, right and left. The move was sudden and fast and… alien, in a way that Ren was alien. It was also predatory, like a shark twisting its body and starting to circle.
“It’s time to go,” Lyle murmured, and raised his face to hers.
Cricket’s breath caught. The black eyes were flat and malevolent, without dimension. Snake eyes, cold and sharp, just like she had seen them that very first time in that cavernous conference room, across the gleaming table, staring, staring, marking her as prey. Marking everyone.
He advanced, and she could only stand there, trapped by the unfeeling black orbs.
“Move, my hearts,” he murmured when he halted in front of her, blocking the door. The endearment was Lyle’s. The voice was Lyle’s. But it was like he was possessed, and someone else was looking at Cricket with an emotionless assessment out of Lyle’s eyes.
But then he blinked his lazy blink, and the illusion passed. But his eyes remained flat.
She whirled around and pushed through the door ahead of him. “How much time do you have before the shock wears off?”
“No idea.”
Only Lyle could sound so inanely blasé about something so dramatically serious. It calmed Cricket some more, this realization that he was still here, still the same.
The music was conspicuously silent after the glitch with the lights, and a group of loudly speaking men was entering the corridor. Cricket heard the words “circuit breaker.”
“The electricians are here!”
“Already?”
“The club can’t function without the lights.”
“Oh, but c’mon now.” Lyle pushed Cricket into a wall, crowding her like an ardent lover. She closed her eyes, inhaling his familiar scent that was heavily tinged with a coppery undertone. Under her hands on his chest, she perceived echoing vibrations, a whirring of Rix string of hearts - all of them. A fine motor that propelled a strong body to commit unspeakable feats.Like Simon, a persistent whisper hissed inside her brain. But he wasn’t Simon. He wasn’t.Hewasn’thewasn’thewasn’t…
One of the men snagged them as the group passed by. “Yo, lovebirds, have you seen any activity down there?” He pointed to the electrical room.
Lyle pretended to reluctantly lift his head. “I don’t know what you are saying, human,” he uttered in a badly accented Universal.
The man recoiled at the realization that Lyle was an alien, and gifted Cricket with a truly disgusted glance before heading after the rest of his crew.
The music resumed, slow for now.
“Let us go.” Arm around her waist, Lyle steered her into the club, elbowing a swaying patron out of the way. They flowed into a throng of people and molded into the crowd, a part of the revelers. As the music picked up, Lyle moved with the beat and turned Cricket around, pressing close from behind.
“Oh, my hearts, I can smell you,” he whispered directly into her ear. “What a boon. I’ll carry your scent into the light.” He held her fast, pressing his cheek against the side of her head. “Don’t worry about the fight. It’s nothing, and it will earn me their trust.” He spun her again, and when she stopped rotating like a table top, he was gone.
Cricket found her way back to their little table where Paloma was sucking ale through a straw, and Zaron lounged in Lyle’s abandoned seat.
“I heard you were looking for me, little one.”
She sat down between Paloma and him. “They bullied my friend Lyle into a fight so they can all win some bet money.”
