“Celyze, have you tried communicating with her?”
“That was the first thing I did when I entered this room,” Celyze said. “She must have the same strong mental shields as Tori and the rest of the humans in our crew.”
A sapphire-skinned male stood next to my medical bed, one hand outstretched and ready to grip my wrist. His long hair’s color matched the white speckles that danced along his skin, defining his agile body. A pair of white-and-blue wings fluttered on his back. Without his coloring, I could’ve mistaken him for a demi-human or perhaps a fairy from my stories from Earth.
Humans.
Celyze had declared that Tori was human and that more were aboard. However, I doubted Tori could truly be human. Earth had supposedly been destroyed, along with all other evidence that humans had ever existed. The Yaarkins wanted a monopoly on our species, genetically engineering our children and creating a diverse set of demi-humans by splicing our DNA with other species.
Kaede and his sisters had been their greatest successes. Their mother had been part of the second generation of humans who were genetically enhanced and spliced with an unknown alien species that allowed their offspring to inherit more of their sire’s traits. Each sibling had been born to a different father. The Yaarkins had added an AI system based on theirs and forced them to work as a unit, thus creating the deadly squad that now served the Aldawi.
The female in front of me seemed too normal to be a demi-human. She lacked the solemn stare that was the default expression of most demi-human experiments, frozen into place by all the terror they had faced over the years. Instead, she appeared full of life with no signs of past trauma in her bubbly demeanor.
Who was she? What was she?
“Can’t you touch the patient to communicate with her?” Zyxel demanded. “Or do I need to get the commander in here?”
Celyze’s icy blue eyes widened as he shot a glance between Zyxel and me, his mouth wide open.
“Don’t touch me,” I hissed, squinting as I sat up. I didn’t know what this Celyze was capable of and didn’t want to find out, even with Vowels protecting me. “I’ve had it with everyone wanting to touch and prod at me, so don’t you dare try it.”
“You can understand us?” Tori asked, standing beside Celyze at the foot of my bed. Her bright-green eyes locked onto mine as she gave me a gentle smile. Pressing a hand to Celyze’s chest, she pushed the blue male back to take his spot beside me. She thrust her hand out, her blonde hair streaked with multiple colors bouncing around her as excitement filled her face. “Hi! I’m Tori, and this is my mate, Celyze—”
“Tori!”
The cheery female’s expression instantly morphed into a scowl as she glared at Zyxel across my bed. “Don’t you dare Tori me. I remember how you welcomed me when I first came aboard the ship. You have a worse bedside manner than the commanders. Do I need to remind you about your failed attempt?”
The crimson-and-gold male pursed his lips as he returned her glare, annoyance etched onto his face. Was I about to witness a fight on my bed?
Scanning the room, I realized I wasn’t in the same bare guest room I had first woken in. This one looked more like a long-term personal infirmary, fully equipped with medical equipment and spacious furniture. A second bed sat in the corner, resembling the one I had woken in, wrapped in Zyxel’s nest of coils.
There was a clear division in the room on how they wanted to address me. Zyxel seemed to want to force answers out of me through brute force while Celyze seemed to be on Tori’s side, since he hadn’t argued with her moving closer to speak to me.
“Should I be worried?”
“The three of them mean you no harm.”
“Not even Zyxel?”
“He doesn’t want anything bad to happen to you. Though he seems to be under a lot of outside pressure to get you to cooperate.”
Was that why he had been so kind to me when I had woken up alone with him? Why was he acting so differently now? I assumed the other bed in the room meant that he was still sleeping near me for some reason.
Didn’t they have cameras, sensors, and alarms to supervise a patient? I would have expected any infirmary to possess such a basic system, regardless of the supervising species.
Trusting that Vowels was right about Tori being a human, I reached for her outstretched hand. Clearly, she was the friendliest out of the three and seemed to genuinely want to give me a welcoming first impression.
All three sets of eyes shot to our enclosed hands as if no one could believe I would accept her peaceful gesture.
“Hello.”
Tori beamed with joy. “Hello!”
Squealing in excitement, she covered my hand with both of hers, shaking it excitedly. Biting my lip, I glanced at the two males, unsure of what I should do.
It would be foolish to trust the three of them, especially so soon. My faint mental threads to my nestmates were proof that I was still a great distance away from them—and thankfully, they were still alive. Our separation only heightened my urgent need to figure out why I was here and escape to return to my clan.
“What’s your name?” Tori asked, releasing my hand. “You have nothing to worry about. I won’t allow these two to do anything to you.”
“We know what her name is,” Zyxel hissed. “Why are you even asking her that?”
Snapping my head toward the male who I had mistaken for Kaede, I gaped.
I had known this was too good to be true.
Had they hired kidnappers to take me? I remembered the Trr’kiki mentioning there had been two parties who had wanted me before I’d slipped into the drugged haze. Were these people one party or
