Page 41 of Hijack!
“Felicity, when I say go, I want you to climb out and run for the exit.”
Her fists clenched in his fur, not in a pleasurable way. “And you’ll be right behind me.”
“As soon as I’m sure the anomaly is neutralized.”
“That wasn’t a yes.”
“The energy needed to contain the distortion might be too much for you.”
Her jaw clenched. “What if it’s too much for you?”
“I’ve survived worse, and you’ve seen the scars to prove it.”
“Ellix, this is definitely no time to tease.”
No time left at all. More of the crystals were darkening; he needed to send the command to flood the capacitorus, to spring the trap.
“I’m not teasing,” he said harshly. “That’s an order.”
When she lifted her chin, it trembled a little. “Yes, Captain.”
He didn’t need a feelings button or an IDA handbook on Earthers to know he’d hurt her. The blue of her eyes dimmed, as if the distortion’s shadowy reach had fallen over her. But it wasn’t the anomaly’s fault; it was his.
With a shuddering breath, he pulled her back into his arms, closing his eye. “I’m sorry, azeeli. I’m not questioning your commitment to this ship, but I need you to be out of reach of the distortion.”
“What if I need you to be with me?” She pressed her face into his ruff, muffling the question.
Gently, he cupped her chin and tipped her head back to meet his gaze. “You know that’s not possible, considering.”
She rested her cheek against his paw. “If not for this anomaly, the cruise would be over already.”
That truth struck him hard. If not for that little surge he’d noticed in the Starlit Salon, he would’ve spoken with the passengers, danced with her briefly, and then gone back to the command module, maybe seeing her again when they disembarked. They would not have experienced any of these stolen moments.
As his chest tightened in visceral denial of such loss, the distortion swallowed more of the light in the crystal facets. In response, the capacitorus brightened, drawing harder on the engines. The exertion combined with their excessive speed and reverberated through the bulkhead as a deep, unsettling vibration. At least the old ship was too sturdy to tear itself completely apart.
He hoped. As for whether the same thing could be hoped for himself…
“Ellix. The distortion, it’s fading.”
Cursing under his breath, he checked the datpad which Suvan had linked to the capacitorus. With the circulating matrix of energy only halfway to maximum, he couldn’t lock it down, especially not if the anomaly wasn’t properly aligned along the capturing wavelengths.
“Kiss me again, azeeli” he urged. “One last time.”
Choking out a cry, she reached up to frame his jaw. The backs of her knuckles brushed his whiskers as he swept them forward to feather over her face. Their kiss was all teeth and tongue and yearning breath while the accelerating shine through the torus and the dark distortion chased across the crystal facets, around and around them.
Only half heard through the irregular thrum of the struggling engines, a distant whisper—not Felicity’s voice—broke through his haze of sensation.
Where the belonging?
It wasn’t words his translator understood, more like a feeling. A confused, anxious seeking that struck him as utterly alien—and yet achingly familiar.
“Ellix,” Felicity whispered. “Do you hear that?”
“I don’t know.” The desperation in the not-words clawed at him. “It might be some sort of feedback in the capacitorus.”
“Where is your feelings button? I left mine in the salon.”
“Why—?”
