Dzar-Ghan (Alien Barbarians of Vandruk #3)

7. Chapter 7

Arnesuud, I repeated the strange, beautiful name in my head, staring at the rock, holding it into the bright yet hazy sunlight. The blue veins inside it glittered in the most beautiful hues. I couldn’t wait to start peeling parts off, putting them under the polymer microscope—one I had specially ordered for this expedition like my other instruments.

Dzar-Ghan, all but forgotten, I rushed to where he had deposited my backpacks. The gray one held all the equipment and tools I needed. I fished it off the top, uncaring that the men carrying the long stretcher-like contraption faltered for a few steps since the terrain was already so uneven, and me picking something off, no matter how light, disturbed their steps.

With the arnesuud pressed into my fist, I searched for the right pocket to retrieve a small plastic baggie and put the rock inside, writing the name down the way it sounded, clueless as if I spelled it correctly or not. Then I stored the arnesuud in another side pocket and threw the backpack back on the stretcher, ignoring once again how the Vandruks carrying the end lost his step. My eyes were already glued to a group of outcroppings filled with a heavy, green-orange growth of what appeared to be moss.

I sidestepped Dzar-Ghan, who had been on his way to me, veering to the right and missing him, stumbling to avoid us colliding once again.

Excitedly, I grabbed for the rocks and was more than startled when strong hands grabbed me by the shoulders, pulling me back. “Nek, rotburn.”

I didn’t understand what he said, but the tone of his voice suggested danger. I scrutinized the overgrown rock formation but didn’t see anything.

Dzar-Ghan let go of me with a deep sigh and pulled out his wicked-looking sword—was that made from bone? After he put the tip to the stone, an insect the size of my fist, reminiscent of a scorpion, hurried out and scuddled away, followed by Dzar-Ghan’s frowning gaze.

“Oh.” I stared after the repulsive-looking thing, rubbing my arms. I hated crawly creatures, and it looked like I would hate alien crawly creatures even more.

“Thank you.” I turned to look up into his frowning face. Damn, he was hot. Even with his lips pressed together in a mask of disapproval. I normally didn’t like men with beards, but the way the sun caught his, playing with the red in the brown, my skin puckered with the desire to feel those beard stubbles pressed against my cheek. Combined with longish hair bound at the nape of his neck in the same color as his beard and his perpetual scowl, he looked completely like the alien barbarian he was.

So not like my type. Not that I really had a type. I had had the perfunctory fling because it was expected of a woman to have a partner now and then. I had been tired of my mom and sisters harping about it, telling me I would end up an old, lonely cat lady—I had no idea why they thought I needed a pet; I didn’t even have an apartment. But all the men I had ever dated—all four of them—had been too high-maintenance for me. Too needy. I wasn’t one to drool over a man opening a can, but that’s what they had expected, along with caring for them when they were sick—ugh, germs. They never got how I just wanted to run away at the sound of a sneeze. ‘Don’t you love me, baby? Don’t you want to take care of me ?’ ‘No, no, I don’t. sorry.’

Now I couldn’t help it, though, as my eyes traveled down his thick neck to his shoulders and stopped by the strange scars on his skin. They took over most of the skin on the right side of his body, including his massive biceps and, here I swallowed, pecs and abs… this man was stacked. Nobody had a right to have this many muscles. The play of them underneath his skin with every movement did things to my core… that normally didn’t happen from just looking.

Right, scars, I reached out and tentatively touched his skin. It was rough where lines like honeycombs had been pressed into his skin. I felt him shudder slightly under my touch but ignored it, just like I ignored the increasing burning sensation in my vagina. Mesmerized, I traced the hard lines outlining the honeycombs.

“What happened to you?” I asked in a breathless voice.

Khadahr was the only word I understood in his reply.

I withdrew my hand, realizing I was overstepping some boundaries I shouldn’t cross yet. That last word, yet , rushed through me like a heated wave. I averted my gaze and flexed my fingers before I tucked them into my hand, worried he would see my desire for him written all over my face, in my body language. I couldn’t understand what came over me in the first place. I didn’t like to be touched, least of all by strangers, and here I was, pawing him like… like… some love drunken fool, asking private questions.

“… carama… mintok…” Two words stood out to me in his reply. They didn’t mean anything to me back then, but later, I learned the words meant: beautiful and mine. I was glad I didn’t know then. It was enough that his hand moved forward and cupped my face. I bit my lower lip and raised my head. Not feeling the usual urge to pull away. Dark, oh so dark, brown eyes burned at me. Combined with his touch, it was nearly too much for me as my emotions overloaded. My legs weakened and I nearly leaned into him for support. But he shifted and the moment broke. He fished out a small knife that also looked as if it had been made from bone; holding it out to me, he indicated the rocks I had wanted to investigate.

Curiously, I stared at the bone blade and carefully ran my finger over the material, which felt cold and hard. My scientific mind reeled; normally, bone would brittle over time. It definitely wasn’t strong enough to build a weapon from, but this… I remembered that I was on an alien planet. Everything was possible. My mind churned with ideas on how to test the knife, to see what it was made from to…

He said something in his deep voice, pointing at the rocks. Right. One thing at a time.

I pried a smaller rock free, ready to jump back should another scorpion—or what had Dzar-Ghan called it… rotburn—came squirreling out. When nothing happened, I took the rock and carefully brushed my hand over the green-orange moss-like texture; it was soft like fur.

The rest of our group was already far ahead of us when I finally ripped myself from staring at the knife and the rock. Dzar-Ghan stood by my side, waiting for me to be done and ready to follow the others.

“Right, let’s go,” I agreed with his unspoken words. “It’s just this is all so fascinating here. I don’t even know where to start examining everything. I have nothing to compare it to, and the few instruments and machines I brought for testing and assessing won’t be that helpful. I wish I had brought more.”

My words were sounding a bit breathless since we were walking fast now and the terrain was so uneven I had to watch nearly every step. I always prided myself on being in good physical shape, but nothing had prepared me for this.

“Oh, what is this?” a granite-like boulder appeared ahead of us.

Tiredness forgotten, I made a beeline for it. This boulder was amazing. Black with dark grayish veins and sparkling crystal specks. I pulled out the knife Dzar-Ghan had given me and scraped against the rock, loosening tiny dust particles.

“Oh!” I caught some with my hand and stared at the glistening crystals. Even the black sparkled.

Dzar-Ghan pulled on my hand and led me around the boulder. Larger crystals were growing on the other side; effortlessly, he broke one off and handed it to me. “Moondust,” he said.

“Moondust,” I repeated. “Thank you.”

“Khadahr,” someone yelled from far away.

We both looked up and realized his men were at least a mile ahead of us now.

Dzar-Ghan shook his head, gave me an exasperated look, and motioned for us to move forward. I sent another longing look at the boulder, wishing I had scraped off more from the surface…

An impatient tug at my arm brought me back, and with a sigh, I followed Dzar-Ghan. “I’m sorry. This is just all so new to me. Everything is so strange and yet familiar. Like that plant over there? It looks like an oversized asparagus, but it’s so tall, taller than the trees at home. And that layer of sediment over there? I really would like to scrape some samples to try to figure out how many years have passed since… oh, are those tectonic fault lines? And that rock formation, I’ve never seen anything like it on Earth, I mean, I haven’t been everywhere on Earth yet, but I’ve been to many places, probably more than most people, but—”

Abruptly, Dzar-Ghan stopped, giving me another exasperated look.

“What?”

His answer was long and guttural like always, leaving me craving something… I think I could have listened to him talk for hours. Just the sound of his voice was… arousing.

“I really wish I could understand you. We should probably start teaching each other more words,” I rattled on because I was nervous. He made me nervous. I hastened to catch up to him as he was already moving forward again. I had never been much of a talker, but his presence changed me, and I didn’t seem to be able to control myself or shut up. It was as if all the words I hadn’t spoken in years suddenly poured out of me. An urge to give voice to every single thought in my head.

“Do you always walk this fast? I’m not used to this. Do you think we could take a break and—oh, what is this?” I interrupted myself, rushing forward, but before I could make it to a large pyramid-shaped mound, he grabbed my arm and pulled me back. Shaking his head, he jerked his chin toward our group, which was still about a mile ahead of us.

“Oh, right, catching up.” I nodded, sending a futile look at the mound but concluding this probably belonged to some kind of animal or insect, and those weren’t really my forte, so I wasn’t all that upset following Dzar-Ghan once again.