“Hold on to me.”
“What’s happening?”
“I believe my grouping is attacking.”
There was another boom from somewhere and the lights flickered again. Darla clutched at Gnaw. “Why are we on the bed?”
“Gravity might be lost, or there is the risk of a hull breach if we are on a ship or space station.”
Breach. That one word terrified her. She may not have ever been up in space before leaving Radison, but she’d heard about hull breaches—and the results of them. Everything in the room would be sucked out into space, including the very oxygen they breathed.
It meant death.
“We’ll die if that happens.”
“Most ships have emergency shields that cover breaches when they happen, but it can take up to ten seconds. Hold your breath if it occurs and don’t let go of me. I’ll keep us on this bed. It’s bolted to the floor.”
She adjusted her legs enough to wrap them around his waist and clung to his big body tighter. His weight pinned her but if gravity failed, it wouldn’t for long. She remembered how it felt to be weightless in the shuttle.
Another explosion sounded, and that time the lights didn’t come back on after going out. A soft yellow light blinked on, near the part of the wall that could open, but it was faint.
Then Gnaw’s weight felt lighter, and she experienced a slight dizzy feeling.
“Gravity is going,” Gnaw warned.
“I feel it.”
“Don’t let go of me.”
“I won’t.”
Gravity faded but returned. There was a loud pinging noise and a hiss. She twisted toward the sound to see the wall to their cell had opened.
Gnaw must have noticed too. He moved fast, releasing the bed and sliding them both off the surface.
“Get behind me and stay there. Grab hold of the waist of my pants. Don’t let go,” he snarled.
She hated that she wasn’t wrapped around him anymore as she slid down his big body, but she didn’t protest. It was their chance to escape. She grabbed hold of the waist of his pants as tightly as she could and kept close to him as he stalked quickly toward the open wall.
They exited into the wide, tall corridor. “My sister and the other women are there.” Darla pointed to where she’d been kept before.
“Let’s find out what’s happening first. They might be safer locked inside a cell. If the Elth approach, release me, crouch into a ball against a wall, and stay down.”
Darla didn’t like those instructions. She understood them. He wanted her to make herself a small target and stay out of the way if he had to fight. But she still didn’t like it. She really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
A blast sounded to their left, and Gnaw headed that way, almost dragging her behind him. She wanted to protest. They should be running away from scary noises, not rushing toward them. But it wasn’t as if he was giving her a chance to offer her input.
He had admitted to having a job that involved fighting. She came from a mostly peaceful planet. Violence scared her, but then again, she’d never had a huge Veslor using himself as a human shield, either.
Gnaw moved down the hall—then halted so fast, she bumped into him.
“Release me and stay down,” he whispered.
She didn’t hesitate, even though she hated to let him go. Darla threw herself at the wall and slid down, her attention focused on the hallway. Squeals sounded, and then four Elth were quickly rushing toward them. One Elth shot his weapon but it wasn’t at them, instead aimed at whoever they were fleeing from.
In shocked awe, she watched as Gnaw leapt forward. He didn’t attack the aliens at first, instead landing on his hands and feet, bent over—and then his body began to instantly transform into another shape. It happened so fast that within a few blinks, he’d gone from being himself to becoming a beast with four large paws sporting long, sharp claws. It looked strange to see that scary creature wearing torn pants, the waist split open.
He roared in rage and attacked the Elth.
They tried to flee from him, but the big alien cat moved too fast. He took them down, their shrieks loud as his claws tore open their skin. White stuff sprayed the walls, floor, and even the ceiling. Some of it hit Darla, too. She flinched but couldn’t take her gaze off Gnaw as he tore up the Elth with his lethal claws, stomping on them once he had them down. The thick white stuff that must’ve been their blood spread across the floor around them.
Gnaw slipped on it with all four of his big paws when he was done killing the aliens. The pants weren’t on him anymore, the destroyed material scattered with the dead bodies. His long claws scratched on the floor as he moved. He turned his head, and the only thing she identified in that altered beasty face of his were his beautiful eyes.
He jerked his head at her and started to walk slowly in the direction he’d indicated.
Darla was shaking as she used the wall to get to her feet. There was no way she could follow him without stepping in the white blood still spreading on the floor from the torn up corpses of the Elth.
“Oh frack,” she hissed, locking her gaze on Gnaw as he prowled away from her. As scary as he currently looked, she didn’t want to be left behind. That meant following. He hadn’t attacked her. It had to imply that just because his body was in another shape, his mind remained the same.
The stuff she stepped in had the same consistency as lukewarm
