Star Bright (Big Sky Alien Mail Order Brides #22)

Chapter 3

Fire ignited on his lips.

There was a strange spice too, but the fire that roused him was something else: an essence he’d never tasted before, something deeper than flavor or aroma.

His beast flared its wings within him, trying to rise. But for some reason he couldn’t quite pull himself out of the mire.

Still, he could at least open his eyes.

An unfamiliar female was gazing down at him. No, not completely unfamiliar. He’d seen her before, sometime, maybe a long time ago?

She was enticing, the pretty coils of her hair catching all the hues of bronze and volcanic basalt and umber. The same depth of color striated her eyes as she watched over him, and his beast was soothed by the warmth there. It wanted to reach for the beguiling softness of her, curves half-hidden under a layer of fuzzy fabric depicting creatures he did not know.

“What happened? Where am I?” His own voice shocked him. Why was it so weak and wavering? He tried to push himself upright.

But the female put her hand on his chest, and that touch, light as it was, pinned him in place. “Easy, big fella. You crashed your spaceship in my backyard, and it seems like you might’ve hit your head. And maybe you were poisoned?” She hesitated. “What do you remember?”

When he frowned, his head ached. “I…” Alarmed, he snapped his gaze up to hers. “Nothing! I remember nothing. Who am I?”

“It’s going to be all right. We’ll figure this out.”

Unlike his own shaking voice, hers was low and soothing. And her eyes held focus on him, the cool brown like a stone smoothed by soft rain.

This was not all right, he knew that. And yet his beast calmed. It took a breath, a deep breath.

And tasted her.

She was the essence that had roused him.

“Here. Drink this.” She held a beverage to his lips. When he couldn’t even lift his head steady enough, she cupped a hand at his nape, helping him. Her touch was gentle but strong.

Had she crashed his ship? Was she poisoning him again?

Ignoring his concerns, his beast took a sip, hoping for another taste of her. The gush of water was subtly enhanced, refreshing when his body seemed to cry out for hydration. Had he burned too hot? Was that what had brought him to this place, to her?

He drank greedily, as if sucking it all down would sluice away his confusion.

“Hey, go slow,” she warned, tugging the straw back. “This robot here thinks you, um, might’ve been frozen too?”

When she let him recline again, he stared up, straining to recall. The roof was only an arm’s reach above him, made of some floating white fabric. Strange. “Frozen?”

“Cryopreservation.” The clarification came from a small service droid. “Your ship was obviously programmed for this location, but there are no scheduled arrivals. Previous records are being retrieved, and you will be updated as soon as possible. Did you have a contract for an Earther bride?”

The female made a choked sound, but when he looked at her, she only took a quick sip of her own from the beverage, as if to cover her cough.

Not poisoned then.

But she looked down at the bottle, blinking rapidly. “Spicy,” she gasped as she pressed the back of her hand to her lips.

Did she taste him?

Was she an Earther bride? His Earther bride?

His beast twisted restlessly with his confusion. “I don’t remember,” he admitted.

“Only identified patrons and staff—”

The female broke in. “Okay, whirly-gig, you’ve told us before about what’s allowed, but clearly that’s not what’s happening right now. You said our guy here needs fluids and rest and…and let’s do that instead of the inquisition, hmm?”

The droid’s neural gel glinted, a bit resentfully. “If that is your order. But memories may be wiped.”

His beast roused with instant fury, giving him the energy to sit up. “Is that what you did to me?”

Though he knew his beast must be blazing in his eyes, the female put her hand on his shoulder. “Mini-bot Mussolini over there is threatening me, not you. You came to us already messed up.”

Came to us . Is that what he’d done? Because he’d been seeking a mate? He wished he could remember if she’d chosen him.

Maybe his bewilderment was even more obvious than his beast, because the female patted him before handing him the drink again.

The touch, so gentle, still reverberated through his body, and he shuddered.

“How are you doing? Too much pepper?”

“Like lightning in my blood,” he murmured to his beast.

The droid whirred. “Aftershocks of reanimation. Your nerves are having trouble processing impulses because they’ve forgotten how to feel.”

The female let out a breath. “But you said his memories will come back, that his prognosis was good.”

“Guardedly.”

She looked down at him, her brown gaze flitting over him though her tone was steady. “I found an ice pack in the first aid kit. It’s not much, but that bump on your head must be hurting.”

He touched the aching knot. “I hadn’t realized, but now that you say it…”

“Let’s see what we can do.”

The scent of her wafted around him, hints of spices he didn’t know and flowers he couldn’t name—and beneath that, the subtle musk of her skin that called to him in a tongue he hadn’t heard before but was somehow familiar.

How could he know her and not himself?

She kept her ministrations light as she taped a strip of gauze over the lump to protect his skin, but he still winced at the pressure and the chill of the gel pack. At the same time, his beast leaned into the contact, as if it had gone too long without any touch.

“Too much?” she murmured.

“Better.”

“It’s late, and you need to rest and rehydrate. When you feel up to it, maybe tomorrow, we can go look through your ship, see if we can find any clues why you were coming here and why you crashed.”

As if he had any other choice considering he lacked the strength to stand. When he took another drink, the liquid washed warmly through him, but it was the lingering essence of her that soothed the beast. That made sense if he’d been coming here for her.

An alien bride? His beast twisted again with an urgency he couldn’t decipher.

She rocked back to her heels, and the motion wafted the enthralling scent of her to him again. He breathed deep.

“If you need anything, just tell us,” she urged. “My name is Darcy. And that’s, um, Ug.”

“Darcy,” he repeated, wrapping his tongue around the syllables. “And um-Ug.”

She made a little noise that he identified as amusement. “Just Ug. And I just met the robot tonight.” She pivoted on one knee. “What do we call you?”

“Service droids do not require individual designations,” it said primly.

“So I should just yell, ‘Random service droid, I’m ready for my memory wipe now’?”

“After your memory is wiped, you’ll have no need to yell for any service droid.”

“Well, until then , what should we call you?”

The servo whine was pitched so high it was almost inaudible. Then the neural gel flickered. “I am Kong.”

The female—Darcy—shook her head at the droid. “Okay, Kong.” Then she looked back at him. “And who do you want to be? At least for now.”

He thought for a moment. “What is the spice in the water?”

“Chili powder. But I don’t actually know what kind of pepper it is. Maybe ancho or jalape?o or cayenne. How about Caye?”

“Caye. Yes.”

“All right, Caye. I’ll check on you later, make sure that knock to your head wasn’t worse than Kong could tell. And if you need anything—”

“I will tell you.” He settled back to the cushions, staring up unblinking, wondering if he would sleep in this strange place. If he did, would he forget the name that Darcy had given him?

Would he forget her?

At the softest brush over the crown of his head, he twisted to look at her.

“Are you hurting? I’m sorry, but Kong says we don’t have any painkillers suitable for a drakling.” Her lips quirked in a way that made his beast follow the wry swoop on the wing. “I don’t even know what a drakling is.”

“I don’t know what an Earther is,” he confessed. “But I came here, so maybe I used to know.”

“We’ll figure it out,” she repeated.

We . For some reason, the idea that he wasn’t alone let him close his eyes.

Maybe some time passed, maybe he even slept, the essence of Darcy lingering on his lips.

But from the stillness and silence and darkness, a monster—not his beast—unfurled, rising through him. He sensed its coming, numbed nerves screaming to terrified, agonizing life.

“Shanya!” That scream ripped from his throat like fire. “Yadira! Atsu!”

He lunged to his feet, or tried to, forgetting his weakness. But he only managed to tear down the white fabric above him. He flailed at the veil as if he could grab the kaleidoscoping memories. “Shanya!”

“Caye! Stop, you’re going to hurt yourself.” Darcy’s hands were on him again, unwinding the shroud, uncovering him.

He hurt, badly, so bad, memories raging back like immolating flame.

“My fledglings are on that ship,” he grated. “My mate.”

“Children?” She stilled “But we didn’t…” Hesitating, she glanced down uncertainly.

The droid rolled nervously behind her knees. “Scans did not indicate any other lifeforms aboard. And no…not lifeforms either.”

“No! I would not have left them.” The cry broke from him.

Should have broken him, but somehow he rose to his feet.

It was Darcy’s shoulder under his. Shorter than him, but sturdy, holding him upright when horror threatened to crush him again.

“Ug, let him lean on you. Let’s go together.”

They supported him across the grand hall and out into the cold darkness. There, the gray bulk of the ship. More memories, tumbling back. He’d rented it to come to Earth because…

The thought disintegrated, torn as if by cruel claws.

“Yadira, Atsu,” he whispered. “My daughter, my son.”

“Wait here,” Darcy said as they reached the hull, half buried in the dirt.

Buried… “No,” he snarled. “I must go to them.”

With Darcy and Ug flanking him, he staggered up the twisted hatch ramp. As if in reverse, he remembered stumbling down after the crash. Before that…

“Stasis pods.” He turned toward the rear cargo area. “I was in cryo. I remember. The ship’s emergency overrides ejected me just before the crash. My fledglings…”

“If they are still in stasis, that would explain the lack of readings,” the droid said from behind them.

Hope and fear twisted through him as tiny lights gleamed ahead. “The pods, there.” He lunged forward, wrenching away from Darcy and Ug to fall upon the two pods, one arm draped over each. The lights were bright and steady. “We needed to rest, just for a while, because…” He fumbled for the pod controls.

“Stop!” The droid’s speaker was turned up much too loud for the confined space. “Do not initiate reanimation.”

Darcy knelt beside him. “Why not? Kong, what’s wrong?”

“These stasis chambers appear stable and properly calibrated, but there is something peculiar about them that they didn’t sync with the outpost systems.”

She made an odd sound. “More peculiar than…”

Caye twisted around, seeking. “My mate. Where is she?”

“One moment please.” The droid’s dome lights spun in the murk of the cargo bay. “Accessing available pod data. Cross-referencing local records. Processing…” A thin whine echoed in the bay, somehow worse than the droid’s shout. “The time stamp and programmed duration on these units is showing a glitch that seems to have preceded the recent crash. And according to the Intergalactic Dating Agency archives, it seems your name is Vash, and per planetary solar rotations, your contract for an Earther bride expired one hundred years ago.”