"Riley, speak to me." Vox's husky voice resonated through her at the same time as frantic fingers kept pulling at the tattered remains of her beloved jacket. "My lumi, please speak to me. Tell me if it is still hurting you."
It took a minute for his words to process in her stunned brain. What the hell was he talking about? If what was still hurting her? She slowly opened her eyes to stare into the frantically worried tawny color eyes above her. A shiver coursed through her as the icy metal under her seeped into her already chilled body. Huge warm hands pulled her up into equally huge and warm arms. One big palm pressed her head against his chest as the other pushed the remains of her jacket away from her. Riley's heart began to slow even as the heart under her ear beat with a thundering roar, as if he had just run a marathon.
"Please, my love, please be all right," Vox whispered cradling her against him fiercely. "It will not harm you again. I promise."
"Vox, let me look at her," Lodar said urgently coming up behind him. "I need to see what damage the creature may have done. It was wrapped all around her."
"Adur, Cross, and Banu can help me search the freighter for any more of the creatures," Tor said harshly. "We should have done that in the first place," he added with disgust.
"Perhaps that is why no one else wanted this ship," Fred whispered, looking up at Bob who was standing behind him.
"I have sealed off the two lower levels," Bob said. "If there are any there, they will not be able to get to us and with the environmental systems shut down they shouldn't be able to survive for long."
"I have not seen any other purple and silver creatures, but if I modify the scanners I might be able to pick them up on it," Titus added.
"I can help you," Cross said, looking down at the remnants of the beast that had attacked Riley. "I have never seen anything like this before," he murmured as he pushed a piece of the purple fur with the tip of his toe.
Riley listened as the men talked back and forth between each other. Each piece slowly fitting together in her brain to make the puzzle clearer until the image of her jacket, totally shredded, loomed like a beacon in the mass confusion. At first, just a little giggle escaped as she thought about Fred's reaction when he first saw it. His comment and her offhand, sarcastic response floated through her memory. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that they actually thought her jacket had been alive. That it was some type of alien creature that ate aliens! A little hiccup escaped her as she fought the surge of adrenaline-laced hysteria at having the shit scared out of her all because of her beautiful but dead birthday present.
Vox stroked Riley's back tenderly as he felt her beginning to shake. He looked at Lodar with wide, worried eyes. Lodar nodded as he moved in closer so he could examine her without having to pull her too far from his friend.
"Riley, it will be all right," Lodar said calmly. "We won't let anything happen to you. I just need to take a closer look at you. Can you tell me about what happened?"
Riley turned her face into Vox's chest and burst out into uncontrollable laughter. It was just too much! They were totally freaking out over a gaudy piece of cloth. She shook her head, knowing she wasn't going to be able to speak rationally yet. She was too busy having a hysterical moment.
"Just … just … a … moment," she breathed out in a muffled voice against Vox's warm skin. Hell, he was ten times warmer than her jacket! She snuggled closer and was rewarded when Vox's arms wrapped even tighter around her, pulling her so close she was practically molded into him. "You … You … You … killed my … my … jacket," Riley giggled.
"I killed your what?" Vox asked, confused, looking at Lodar to see if he understood what she was trying to say.
Lodar shrugged and touched Riley's wild wave of curly hair. "What did you say, Riley? We couldn't understand," he asked gently.
Riley tilted her head back until she was looking up at both men. Her eyes danced with merriment as she fought back the uncontrollable laughter threatening to escape her. Her face warmed as she saw the other men looking on with concern.
"Vox, you dolt, you killed my favorite jacket!" Riley burst out laughing. "This is priceless! You thought my jacket was attacking me, and you killed it! My Grandma Pearl was right. She said that it looked like an alien attacking me and threatened to shoot it the one time I wore it to the bar. But hell! I never really thought that would ha-ha-happen!" Riley crowed before she buried her face into Vox's warm chest again as her body shook with glee.
"Not one damn word," Vox growled out, looking down at Fred. "Do not say one damn word!"
Fred tucked both of his chins down into his chest and nodded before scurrying away. Vox watched the little Tiliquan move rapidly down the corridor. He was probably going to go apologize again to Riley for getting her jacket killed.
"You should go easy on the little guy," Adur said, trying to keep a straight face. "After all, we all thought the damn thing was alive."
Banu and Titus turned around quickly, trying to hide their grins. Cross didn't even bother turning around. He just grinned. He couldn't wait to see what happened next. He had to admit, ever since they had been introduced to the young female, life had been very, very interesting.
Vox growled darkly at all of them before he got up and strode off the bridge. Why, oh why, did he continue to screw up whenever he was around Riley? He had always been so in control, so commanding, so not an idiot before he met her. Hell, others trembled in fear of him! Riley trembled, but it was because she was either madder than hell at him or laughing her ass off at the idiotic things he did.
Vox paused and took a deep breath. Well, that was about to end. He was going to show her that he was not some idiot! He was the Sarafin king! He ruled over some of the fiercest warriors in the known star systems. He was a male that females from numerous different species begged to make love to them. It was about time that Riley realized that. She was his damn mate, his queen. It was time he claimed Ms. Riley St. Claire from Denver, Colorado and showed her he wasn't going to take no for an answer any longer.
Chapter 10
Riley snuggled down into the thick pile of blankets trying to get warm. She could swear ice was beginning to form on the inside of the walls. She understood they needed to have shields and things like that, but none of that would do a damn bit of good to them if they were all dead from hyperthermia. She hated cold weather! That was why she had left Colorado and stayed to the south as much as she could. She should have just gone to live back in San Diego where her Grandma Pearl and Tina lived, but she had wanted to see if she could make it on her own.
Tears pooled in her eyes and overflowed as she thought about what a mess she had made of her already crazy life. Was it too much to ask for just one thing to go right in her life? She pulled the covers over her head and turned her cellphone on. She was going to have to talk to Tor about recharging it and her iPad again. She didn't know how he did it, but she was grateful that he had figured out a way to keep them charged for her. It was the only link she had to her life back on Earth.
She pulled up a video of her sister and Pearl at the bar. She had recorded it on Tina's birthday several months ago. Her Grandma was relating some silly story that happened the weekend before when a bunch of biker wannabes encountered the real thing. They had sat around laughing, drinking beer, and having a good time. Tina and she had been getting along better lately. Riley had a feeling it was because they had confided to each other that they were terrified of ending up being like their mom and Pearl. All either one of them really wanted was to fall in love, have a happy home, a couple of kids, and the mangy mutt that would come along and adopt them.
"Pearl, have you heard from momma lately?" Tina was asking Pearl.
"Now don't you be asking about that wasted piece of fluff," Pearl said gruffly. "She made her decision when she left you girls and decided not to come back."
"But," Tina started to say.
"She's gone, Tina," Riley heard her videotaped voice say. "Let her go."
Riley bit her lip now as she looked at the sadness in her baby sister's eyes. Tina was only two years younger than she but had never given up hope that their mom would one day come home. Riley and Pearl knew that would never happen. Riley had used her contacts at the bail bond company she had been working for to look up information on their mother. She found out their mom had died when she was ten and Tina was eight, of a drug overdose in Los Angeles. Riley had traveled up to the City of Angels to visit the grave. Pearl had their mom cremated and her ashes placed between her great-grandparents.