Page 50 of Shattered Silence

Fuck.

Horrible, all of it. She’d be dealing with the aftermath in her head for some time yet; just another bunch of crap she could add to all of her Earth baggage.

But then her savior had come.

A Kordolian. A lethal warrior who could cut through metal with nothing but his sword.

She studied Enki out of the corner of her eye, trying to be discreet even though she got the feeling he noticed everything.

He showed so little emotion that his face could have been sculpted from marble, but he maintained an insane level of focus on the ship’s strange blue-glowing console thing, reading data that was written in indecipherable Kordolian symbols. Occasionally, the console would speak in that lyrical language of theirs—ensuring she couldn’t understand a word—but for the most part, it was silent.

And now and then, Enki’s features would tighten, as if he were under some sort of strain. He’d been doing that ever since he rescued her, and she suspected it had something to do with the scary green-eye thing, but she didn’t dare ask.

Not yet, anyway. There was a time and place for these things, and it wasn’t when one was trying to escape from a massive enemy warship.

“We’re out,” he said softly, managing to surprise her even though he was right beside her. Enki could probably even do stealth in his sleep if he wanted to.

“I can’t believe it,” she whispered as a sense of un-reality washed over her. A glittering field of stars greeted her through the view-port, and the sight that Layla had come to detest during her time in the escape-pod now felt like something else.

Freedom.

After thinking she was going to die time and time again, she was so close to…

“Layla, in a moment, we will need to move again.” Enki’s aristocratic features softened as he looked at her. He whispered a command to the ship’s… computer, or whatever it was, and the low hum from the rear grew louder and louder.

The starfield in front of them became a blur of silver and white. Layla was thrown back in her seat, and the writhing black fiber things curled around her body, holding her firmly in place as the ship accelerated.

Whoa.

Such impossible force.

As quickly as it came, the acceleration-force disappeared, the ship stabilizing within seconds.

Amazing.

Layla was awed and a little intimidated at how smooth their departure had been. Leaving Earth on the Malachi had been a lengthy, arduous, and sometimes terrifying experience. First, they had to leave Earth’s atmosphere in one of the Federation-approved transport vessels. Then they were transferred to an orbital station, where they boarded the SS Malachi, strapping into claustrophobic safety seats for the acceleration.

And then there was the takeoff. Impossibly loud, shaky, and long, minutes stretching into hours as the ship reached full speed. Only when they were in stable flight had they been allowed to get out of their safety seats and transfer to the cryosleep slings.

This Kordolian ship was tiny compared to the Malachi, and yet it had just achieved all of that in mere seconds.

Scary.

Kordolians were scary. Everything about them was scary. Enki was scary, but she was no longer afraid of him. At some point during the escape ordeal, Layla had decided he wasn’t her enemy. The way he held her was just too… gentle. He could have been harsh and brutal if he wanted. Layla knew all the different ways in which a man could hold a woman.

“Layla.” Now he stood over her, holding out his hand, a sense of urgency in his voice. “Follow me. Don’t argue. No questions. Just move. Everything will make sense in a moment. You need to trust me.”

When did he even get up? I swear the man is part-ghost. Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed him as he moved, but Layla was used to his ways by now, so she just took his hand and allowed the spaghetti-chair to release her from its strangely comfortable grasp.

Enki took her into her arms and crossed the floor.

Whoa!

Step. Step. Step. He moved as gracefully as a big cat, and Layla’s world blurred into dark walls and blue light and the distant glow of the stars in the background. So fast! This was so surreal. She felt as if she were floating, lulled into a semi-trance by Enki’s effortless movements.

“What are you—?”

“No questions.” He put a finger against her lips and put her down, his deep amber eyes burning with terrible intensity. Anger. Darkness. Heat. Desire. Maybe Layla was just imagining things, but she swore she saw all that and more, and all she could do was throw down her defenses, throw herself completely open to him as he placed her inside some sort of safety pod at the back of the ship. Seriously, the thing had walls and a small window to peer out of, and a kind-of padded area designed to protect the passenger from impact, and…

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