Page 30 of Alien in the Depths
She’d tried to push the thought from her mind until now, simply focusing on her own part of the plan, but now, as they sat silently in each other’s arms, clutching each other, Sofia finally acknowledged that Zaraq was risking his own safety that night, too.
“You’ll be in and out quickly, right?” she asked now, running her fingers up the shimmering skin of Zaraq’s bare biceps.
“As soon as I can find what I’m looking for,” Zaraq answered, and she felt his breath warm on her shoulder. “That bastard has to have it somewhere.”
“What if he doesn’t?” she asked, fear finally tinging her voice.
“Then I’m doomed either way.”
The words hung heavily between them, filling the silence with a kind of dread that made them cling to each other even tighter. The thought that they wouldn’t get through this had barely crossed Sofia’s mind, but now, on the brink of it all getting very, very real, the possibility made her heart ache.
The tension was suddenly broken by a knock at the door. For a second, Sofia and Zaraq froze, expecting the worst, but when Elena’s voice called out, they breathed a sigh of relief.
“Coming!” Sofia called, motioning for Zaraq to hide just in case.
When she opened the door, though, Elena was alone except for a stretch of black fabric she held in her hands.
“I think we landed in the right part of town for skimpy dresses,” she announced, barging into the room without asking.
“Sure, come right in,” Sofia joked, shutting the door.
Elena stopped in her tracks when Zaraq stepped out of the bathroom. He was still clad in only a towel, and it took a second for Elena to snap out of it.
“Uh, well, I can see you’re busy,” she said, turning to Sofia with a knowing grin. “Just wanted to give you this for your, uh… date.”
Elena held up the black dress—a sleek, figure-hugging piece with cutouts designed to reveal Sofia’s waist. In the background, Sofia could see Zaraq’s skin flush blue. She could only imagine the jealousy he was feeling, knowing she was wearing this dress for someone else.
“I guess I’ll leave you to it,” Elena muttered, giving Sofia’s arm a squeeze.
When it was just her and Zaraq in the room again, they gazed at each other for a long moment. This time, they didn’t say anything. Sofia knew as well as Zaraq did that in a few short hours they would both be risking their lives for Zaraq’s freedom.
Sofia’s throat tightened a little at the thought, and though she wanted to speak, the words stuck in her throat. Finally, she simply stepped forward and folded herself into his arms, breathing him in.
She couldn’t say it out loud just yet, but she knew if they made it through this, there were three words she needed him to hear.
Chapter 12
Zaraq
Zaraq’s reconstructed helmet kept knocking against the back of his head as the pod zoomed haphazardly toward Vexis’s house in the rich part of town. He was pretty sure one of the wires Elena had put back in had come loose again, and along with the banging from the bouncy pod ride, he got a small electric shock every so often if he bumped it too hard.
“Ouch!” he muttered under his breath when the pod screamed over a particularly deep pothole.
He wanted to tell the driver to take it easy on the bumps, but he decided the risk of drawing attention to himself just barely outweighed the risk of concussion and electrocution.
So he kept quiet, trying not to think of what Sofia and Vexis were doing. She’d said they were going dancing, leaving Vexis’s place empty, but “dancing” in the underworld was rarely an innocent affair.
Worse still, Vexis had decided to take her to Goendir—one of the planet’s shadiest clubs, known for its sleazy clientele, frequent bar fights, and illicit drugs. He’d warned Sofia to always keep an eye on her drink, to refuse any “cigarettes,” and to stay alert. But beyond that, he knew he couldn’t do much.
He pulled his pack across the greasy transport pod seat and double-checked its contents for the night’s mission. Conspicuously missing was the blaster he’d carried everywhere since escaping this wretched planet. But he silently thanked Sofia for insisting on taking it with her. He could probably do without it tonight, but if anything went wrong for her…
Something else tugged at his mind, though, something he couldn’t let go of. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t help but get flashes of Sofia’s skin and then of Vexis sliding his hands under her dress as they danced along to the club’s pulsing music.
“Oh, gods no,” he muttered to himself, his voice filling the helmet.
The thought of it was enough to make him want to hurl, but that wasn’t an option for obvious reasons. Besides, it would put him squarely inside the “drawing attention to himself” category, which could ruin everything. Tonight, of all nights, everything had to go perfectly.
Trying to distract himself from thoughts of Sofia and Vexis’s date, he turned and peered out the window at the dark streets. They were driving through the slums now, an area known for its constant power outages—an area where he had lived in for a while before finding work at the casino.