I swallow hard at that but I do not respond.

“Where are the others?” he rasps.

He towers over me.

My head is well below his chin, yet he leans down and I can feel his breath brush over my forehead.

“If I tell you…what are you going to do to Mina?”

He’s so close I can feel the heat radiating off his skin…his suit.

“Mee’na?”

“Oh…you don’t know their names.”

I stare straight ahead as I force myself to breathe normally, and I’m staring straight into his chest.

“You speak of the infested one.”

I swallow hard at that.

He’s too close.

It’s hard to focus on what he’s saying, what we’re discussing when I’m becoming more and more aware of him.

“She’s not infested,” I manage to get out. “That thing, the Gryken, it forced itself…”

At the sound of the creature’s name, Fer’ro growls, but he is so close to me, I feel the vibration move down my skin.

I never considered it till now, but he is male. Not just an alien, but a big strong male one.

One that could force us just like the Gryken had.

“The Gryken bred her.” His voice is so harsh, it pulls me from my thoughts. “She is infested with its spawn.”

I gulp again at his words. “There’s still a chance we can save her. She was only bred over a day ago.”

“Even as we speak, the Gryken is growing. Its former is dead. There is no longer a neural link. The life cycle has been disturbed.” His growl sends another shiver through me. “It will grow speedily to take its former’s place and continue its role in its species.”

I do not understand a word he is saying. I want to ask more.

He obviously knows a lot about them.

“Tell me where she is.”

I tilt my head back finally and his lava eyes meet mine.

Why is he asking me this when something tells me he could find Sam and Mina on his own if he wanted to?

“She’s scared. Terrified. But I think I can help. I can take the thing out of her.”

He freezes at this, his gaze boring into mine.

“You have no idea what the Gryken are.”

I can’t stand for much longer and my knees buckle as he says those words. Without thinking, I reach out and grab his arm and pain shoots through my hand.

I’ve grabbed him with the wrist that’s broken.

Pain makes tears swell in my eyes but I couldn’t move my hand now even if I wanted to.

I can feel his muscles flex underneath my touch, but Fer’ro doesn’t move.

So I hang on to him for a little while as I gather enough strength to straighten my back.

“What do you mean?” I breathe through the pain in my hand.

That’s when I feel it.

It’s like a tickle, almost a whisper, moving up my arm. Like water—and for a moment, I’m fighting against the pain and sudden dizziness to focus on the sensation crawling up my skin.

It’s at my wrist now, moving higher and I cast a confused glance in Fer’ro’s direction.

“What—what’s happening?”

Releasing him, I slip to the ground as I bring my arm up to look at it.

I can hardly see anything, but what alarms me the most is that I can’t see my arm either.

It’s like it’s…melded into the darkness.

“What’s happening to my arm?” There’s urgency in my voice, fear, and I am dimly aware that Fer’ro is now crouching beside me.

He makes a sound I’ve never heard him make before.

It’s a different kind of purr from the others.

“They like you,” is all he says.

They? “Who is they?”

I swing my arm in front of me.

I can feel it, but I can’t see it, and I realize slowly, my eyes widening with each second, the reason why.

My arm melds into the night like Fer’ro does, as if he is a part of the darkness itself.

His suit is on me.

FER’RO

Adee’ra shrieks and the sound hurts my ears as she flashes her arm in front of her face.

“What’s happening?”

My ba’clan writhe against me and I sense their distress at her reaction.

“Do not be afraid. They will not harm you.”

I hope the last sentence is true.

I have never seen them do what they are doing now.

Never have they left my being since I was birthed.

They are as much a part of myself as my eyes, my ears, my limbs.

But Adee’ra is becoming more panicked.

I can hear her blood organ thumping in her chest.

“Tell me I’m not imagining this,” her words are shaky. Disturbed. “Part of your suit is on me.” She glances up at me and I scent her fear rising. “How?”

She is scrambling away from me now and I can feel the shroud of her fear surrounding me.

“What are you doing to me?”

The accusation in her tone stings.

I want to tell her that I’m not doing anything. That we, the Vullan, would never harm a female, regardless of her species. But with San’ten’s recent lack of control, I doubt she will see my words as truth.

And…I do not know what the ba’clan are doing.

I did not even consider that they could connect with her species.

Hyu’mans.

Maybe they are more similar to us Vullan than I first realized.

“Do not move,” I say as I close the distance she has put between us.

Her eyes are wide but at the sound of my voice she stops throwing her arm about. Instead, now she is staring at it as if she cannot see it and her fear scent intensifies.

I clench my teeth and stifle a growl, closing off my nostrils to her scent.

After engaging with San’ten, my instincts are still in fight mode.

I told Ga’Var these beings are not our prey, but my body isn’t listening.

Adee’ra is still staring at her arm and her blood organ continues to hammer hard.

She is completely unaware of my state and I am thankful for the darkness.

She has no idea that her instincts to protect herself make me want to chase her.

But not to kill…or to eat…

At least…not in the way a predator would deal with its prey.

I have never seen another being like her before.

I want to know more about her species. More about her.

There was another scent earlier. Before my ba’clan decided to migrate unto her skin.

The scent had been faint, but there nonetheless.

A scent that made me want to…taste her.

The thought registers and my cells constrict.

I have to stop myself from thrumming.

If she knew what was crossing my mind, would she fear me again?

“Fer’ro…what is it?” Panic is rising in her voice, reminding me of why I approached her. “What’s happening to my arm?”

Moving closer, I take her arm in my hand, ignoring the way she flinches from me.

“Do you feel pain?”

She is shaking her head but I do not know whether that means the affirmative.

“No pain,” she says, her breaths coming fast. “It’s the arm that’s hurt. My wrist is broken. I hit it too hard while trying to break free from the orb. It was hurting really bad earlier, but now it’s just…tingling.”

Her eyes flash to mine and I can still see the panic there.

“What’s happening?”

My gaze falls back to the ba’clan that have transferred to her arm.

They are a stark contrast to the paleness of her skin.

“I do not know.”

Wrong answer, for her blood organ picks up pace.

“But you need not worry. I believe my ba’clan are…mending you.”

She blinks at me. “Your what? What?”

I meet her gaze again. I do not know how to explain it.

She probably has no idea what ba’clan are.

“Your suit…” Her gaze moves over me. “You put part of it on my arm, right?”

I pause, contemplating how much I should reveal to her.

“I did not.” I wait for her panic to rise more, but it is stable. “They ventured to you of their own volition.”

She gulps. It is audible and I watch her throat move.

The skin there is so thin, I can see her skeleton beneath.