Did he really care that much or was she misreading things?
He couldn’t really care that much…could he?
She was just…Song.
Him on the other hand…
He was...well, he was everything.
He was an intergalactic fighter. He was a rebel. He worked with a badass team of other alien kickasses that carried out secret missions and brought down the arm of justice.
To top it off, he was young, tall, striking, and gorgeous.
She couldn’t deny it. And even though she’d been trying to ignore it, these new feelings developing within her made it hard not to come to terms with the fact that he made her heart flutter more than chocolate ice-cream and a good movie.
The thought shook her.
A pairing between them was…
It...it wasn’t possible.
She knew Athena and Xul seemed to have something going but…that was only to help Athena cope till the situation changed right…it wasn’t for the long-term…was it?
They were too unevenly matched. They wouldn’t mix well.
He was an alien. She was human.
If he was oil. She was water.
He was like a bikini and she was unshaved pubes.
Heck, if he was knowledge. She was Jon Snow.
That’s why she needed to control her thoughts.
This longing wouldn’t get her anywhere except at a bus stop labelled “friend zone” waiting for the bus to Pityville.
Someone like him couldn’t look at someone like her and see anything except a regular girl who’d blended into the background all her life.
She wasn’t exactly Miss Congeniality.
To hope would be ludicrous and depressing.
Her inner monologue brought some despair as she settled into the sadness it left behind.
But she knew it was the truth.
She wasn’t someone he could ever be attracted to. He was an alien…a gorgeous one…and she was an Earth girl…a regular Earth girl.
One who had no experience in anything really.
Her thoughts were troubling...distracting. So much so that she almost didn’t hear the tune that began to fill the room.
It took her a few moments to realize that she knew that melody.
She’d sung it so many times while on the alien slave ship.
It was a song that reminded her of good times—the only song she seemed to have been able to remember when she’d wanted to block everything out.
It was the lullaby her mother used to sing.
At first, she thought she was imagining it. But she wasn’t.
She was hearing it and as before it brought a comfort that calmed her spirit and her thoughts.
Song’s eyelids flickered as her gaze landed on Kyris.
The lullaby.
The lullaby was coming from him.
26
As the hours ticked by, she went in and out of consciousness, falling asleep and waking.
Now, as she woke for the umpteenth time, she realized it was late. The darkness outside was evidence that time was passing by without her.
She was alone as well. Kyris wasn’t by her side and the place had fallen silent except for water running somewhere close. That she could hear.
It sounded like a shower and she imagined he was washing himself.
The more the water ran, the more thoughts of him naked, water running down his lean body…over his shoulders, down his pecs, down…down…
A sound reached her ear and Song tried to turn her head, but her body was still largely unresponsive.
As the cause of the sound came into view, the breath caught in her nose.
Kyris entered the room.
Wet hair hung limp on his head and beads of water still clung to his shoulders as if not wanting to let go.
His chest, too, was still damp, as were his wings. Across his chest was a large bandage that formed a diagonal cast that wrapped over his shoulder and back over his side.
That bandage, she’d expected. After all, he’d cut himself deep when he’d tried to lure the nesters away from her. But, across his body, were many other bruises…bruises all over his face, his chest, his arms, his torso…
What the hell had happened to him? She’d thought he had been evading the nesters’ attacks but she must have been wrong.
The lump in her throat felt like it grew larger and she was going to choke on it.
When he turned and headed across the room, his back turned toward her and tears brimmed into her eyes.
His wings.
His magnificent wings were…as her eyes roved over what she was seeing, her mind refused to comprehend.
One wing looked as if it was more damaged than the other. Instead of folding neatly, it slanted slightly to the side in what looked like an awkward position. There was a bandage across where it connected at the top of his shoulder blade close to his spine and, even with the bandage, she could see the area had gone dark.
It was like a massive bruise that ran into the blades of that one awkwardly set wing.
Apart from that, she could see that parts of both wings were missing, as if feathers had been ripped out.
It was almost as if he’d been tortured.
Had he really endured so much for her?
The thought was too much and she forced her eyes closed.
His wings. His perfect wings. They looked ruined.
The bedding she was on moved and she felt his warmth even before he settled beside her.
She heard him grimace as he made himself comfortable and it made her feel even worse.
“Kyris?” She felt him stiffen beside her.
“You’re awake.” He moved so fast she had to open her eyes.
He was leaning over her, one hand touching the side of her face in a soft caress. He was looking at her as if he could not believe what he was seeing.
“You’re awake.”
“You must thirst.” He ignored the look in her eyes as he let her go, his eyes and hand lingering on her a little too long, as if he didn’t want to release her.
Hopping off the sleeping area, he reached for a tall receptacle that swished with liquid.
“You can’t speak fully yet, can you? You must be confused...”
Song squeezed her eyes shut for a second. Looking at him hurt too much. He’d gone through so much because of her.
He looked like he’d entered hell and come back.
“Drink first. It will help
