“I don’t want to be impaled.”
“No. We have to make sure we stay alive in this timeline. Or. Do we? Wait. If we die in this timeline, I feel like our other selves would take back over, no problems. What we really want to avoid are loops.”
“Loops?”
“It’s rare, but occasionally creatures get stuck in recursive time streams which remain unresolved. When the universe can’t do the mathematics to make things work out, it restarts the part of itself that is stuck. You don’t have to worry about that. We’re good.”
I feel like he’s really starting to worry me. I’m stuck in time with an alien who is now questioning the value of mortality. I’m not nearly as confident as he is that this will all be okay once the timelines meet up.
“I think we should stay alive,” I say. What I really mean is I think I need to get the hell out of here. Zed is dangerous. He’s reckless. He might be a genius, in that chaotic way some people and apparently, aliens, are.
He looks at me and gives a curt nod. “Let’s stay with the alive plan unless something comes up that is incompatible with that.”
I want to go home.
Funny how one moment I was swept up in his charm and the ease of pie. I celebrated all this chaotic experience, the potential of all that might happen between us. Now I want to escape back to the known, where there is less potential but more safety.
I pull the bedding up to my chin. Bed is safe. Bed is good. You can trust bed, even when the rest of creation is going mad.
“What do you want?”
“Huh?” I look at him askance.
“You don’t seem excited. I am guessing that’s because you don’t see what’s in this for you.”
“I’ve never wanted anything except experience, I guess. Being rich doesn’t appeal to me.”
“Nonsense. You can see much more and much more comfortably with riches on your side,” he says. “Riches bring choice and power.”
I don’t have either of those things. I have ended up hitched to Zed. What he does, I do. At least until I can find a viable way out of his custody. The sex is good, but the relationship is, well, is there a relationship? I think I have fallen for him, but I don’t know if he’s fallen for me. I don’t know if he is capable of falling for me. He might be more like my ex with the node-chasing fantasies than any long-term lover of mine.
“Are you still going to try to trade me?” I ask the question casually, masking the vital importance of it by barely paying any attention even as I ask it.
Zed shrugs. “I don’t see why not. You may as well do something useful. I have no intention of letting anybody actually take you, of course, but there’s real value in a human female. We need to exploit that.”
“Of course, got to exploit everything we can,” I mutter to myself.
“Absolutely,” Zed says, pushing his hair back out of his eyes and looking unintentionally handsome as hell in the process. He really is a beautiful specimen. I can’t stop staring at him. At the same time, his attitude and his words are some of the least attractive things I’ve ever encountered. He wants to use me. I thought, for a second, when we had sex, that might change. It has changed nothing whatsoever.
That’s disappointing.
CHAPTER 4
Zed
I wake up and reach for Ava before I open my eyes. Her soft, curvy, hot little form has become a customary part of my morning. The inquisitive dark set of her eyes and the pouting fullness of her lips make for an alluring combination. She really is a pretty little thing. I love the way her glossy dark hair curls rebelliously, even moreso when she tries to tame it with a comb or a hair tie.
The bed is cool. That’s not typical. I open my eyes and look around, listening for the familiar sounds of her scuffling through the rations. The ship feels empty, the way it used to before I picked up my new favorite female.
“Ava?”
There is no answer.
She is gone. I knew it the second I opened my eyes. I hope she’s in the diner getting some more pie. She really seemed to enjoy the one she had last night. She’s a good travel companion. She’s bright and she’s hot as hell in bed. I feel my cock throb for her. It’s been too long since I was inside her. I miss her.
I get dressed, pulling pants and boots on. I hesitate before reaching for my hunting harness. Will this become a hunt?
When I step out onto the station, the platforms are deserted. A cool solar wind whips through the ventilation system which prevents all atmosphere from whipping off into space. A tumbling mass of wires rolls past me on a journey from here to there.