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  She gathered her skirt and cloak in her hands and rushed over to him, even though it felt like she was wading through the sand. He was bent over, his hands on his thighs. His black cloak was torn and hanging from one shoulder, and his face was covered with sand and smeared with something dark and sticky.

  She put an arm around his waist. “You saved me.”

  He shook his head and winced. “We saved each other.”

  “So, are these sand snakes one of the reasons you didn’t want to come out here at night?” she asked.

  “One of them.” His voice was tight, and he didn’t meet her eyes.

  Holly pushed back his cloak and ran her hands over his chest and stomach, her heart stopping when she pulled them back wet and sticky and covered with his blood.

  Twenty-One

  T’Kar didn’t feel pain. Not at first. What he first felt was Holly’s fear.

  She attempted to keep her face from betraying her panic, but he could sense it as if the terror fluttered in his own stomach. Then he looked down at her hands, glistening dark and shiny in the moonlight.

  “Blood,” he said, his mind momentarily muddled. “Are you hurt?”

  The smell was metallic and made his nose twitch and his stomach turn.

  She gave a brief shake of her head, not meeting his eyes. “I’m fine, but we need to get you help.”

  T’Kar scanned the sands. “There is no help out here. It is why my people never venture onto the sands.”

  Then he felt it, the sharp sting in his side when he tried to take a deep breath. He dropped his hand to the pain, his fingers finding the gash. The blood was warm as it oozed out of him, coating his palm as he pressed it to the wound.

  The sand serpent had been fast, faster than he’d expected, with fangs like blades. At least the creature hadn’t bitten down, although even grazing the sharp fang had opened up his flesh. He looked down at Holly. At least it hadn’t bitten her.

  Time had stopped when he’d seen the snake turn on her. The terror of her being hurt had been greater than anything he’d ever experienced before, the fear in her eyes making a red haze come over him. He’d heard nothing but the fiery pounding of blood in his head as he’d attacked the snake and felt his blade sinking into the creature’s tough flesh. Even now, the adrenaline of the murderous rage pulsed through his body, making him shake.

  “I’ll have to fix you up, then,” Holly said, her voice artificially bright. “We must have some first aid supplies in these packs, right? I may not be the best medic on our crew, but I’ve had to patch up people before.”

  He didn’t answer, and Holly continued to babble on, filling the worried silence with her chatter.

  She moved around, gathering both packs and hunching over them. “These sand snakes don’t travel in packs, do they?”

  He dropped his gaze to the dead sand serpent, its lifeless body limp on the sand. “No. From what I have read, they are solitary.”

  Holly let out a breath. “That’s a fucking relief. I don’t think I could handle any more of them.” She hesitated and looked up. “You don’t happen to know if they’re poisonous, do you? On Earth, some snakes have venom in their fangs.”

  “I do not believe these do.”

  “Hallelujah,” she muttered, then glanced around them furtively. “Wait. There aren’t any other terrifying animals that live under the sand, are there?”

  He started to laugh, but pain shot through his side. He shook his head. “Nothing like sand serpents.”

  T’Kar’s legs were weak as he steadied his breath, the horizon shifting and the moons replicating before his eyes, multiple, glowing orbs dancing in sky above.

  “Whoa.” Holly grabbed him by the elbow. “You a little dizzy?”

  “I’m fine,” he said, even as his vision blurred.

  “Okay, tough guy. Why don’t we sit you down before you fall down?” She lowered him gingerly to the sand. “I found some cloth I can use as bandages, which should help staunch the blood flow. What I really need is some med tape or auto-sutures, but either you guys don’t have those, or we didn’t happen to bring any.”

  “I have never heard of auto-sutures.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of.” Holly glanced at his torso, frowning. “I guess we’ll just have to make do. Can you lean back while I wrap this around you?”

  He rested one arm behind him and angled his body, so his stomach was flat, then removed his other hand from the gash.

  Holly sucked in a breath. “That’s not so bad. Now hold still while I wrap this around you.”

  He flinched as she wound the cloth tightly but did not move. The more she wrapped, the less pain he felt. After a few moments, she sat back and appraised her work. “That should hold until we can—”

  “We will not be able to reach the Dothvek camp tonight.”

  She turned back to the packs and pawed through them. “No, and you shouldn’t try to move much for a while.”

  He jerked his head up and made a clicking sound in the back of his throat. “We can’t stay out here. It’s too dangerous.”

  She shot him a look. “What do you suggest? We limp across the desert with you bleeding to death the entire way? No. We’re going to make camp until you heal.”

  He glared at her. “It will take too long. You should go on without me.”

  Holly pulled a bundle from one of the packs. “Look. I found the tent. I’ll just pop this up and we’ll be good to go.”

  “I do not know your species well, but are all the females as stubborn as you?”

  She smiled at him as she unfurled the stiff fabric. “All the ones in my crew.”

  He tried to stand, but his wound ached when he moved.

  “Seriously? You’re going to mess up my perfect bandaging job?” Holly put a hand on his chest. “Stop moving around and making it worse. I’ve got this.”

  He did as he was told, leaning back and closing his eyes as she worked to set up the small tent. The night air was cool, but his body was still warm from the battle, especially where her hands had touched him. He put his fingers to his bandage, glad to find that the blood was not seeping through.

  “You do not have to do this,” he said after a while. “It is I that is supposed to be taking care of you.”

  Holly let out a huff of breath. “You saved my life. Not letting you die alone in the desert is kind of the least I can do.”

  He opened his eyes. A small ,peaked tent stood off the side—as far away from the dead snake as possible without tilting up the side of a dune—anchored into the sand with stakes she’d pulled out of the serpent. He could feel her pride as she stood looking at it with her hands on her hips.

  “You are sure your people are not descended from nomads?” he asked.

  “Not for millennia.” She brushed her hands off on the front of her dress, which he noticed was both ripped and stained. “Now, let’s get you inside.”

  T’Kar bent low to enter the tent, then lay flat on his back. The tent was long enough to cover his entire body, but not by much. Holly crawled in after him, tucking both packs by their feet, and tied the flaps closed so that only the smallest slivers of light crept in.

  There was enough space for her to lie beside him, but their bodies were flush. She shifted a bit, twisting and turning until he reached out and put a hand on her leg to still her. “I have no intention of taking you tonight.”

  Even in the dark, he could sense her amusement. “Considering you can barely move, I didn’t think you were going to try anything.”

  “Then why are you so nervous?”

  “It’s nothing. It’s silly.” She let out a sigh. “It’s just that I’m used to sleeping alone. I don’t know how to sleep next to someone else. Ridiculous, right?”

  “No. I have never wanted to sleep next to another before, either.” He pulled her close to him, grateful she was lying next to his uninjured side. Her body was warm and her fingers soft as she rested them on his stomach. “We will learn together.”
/>   Her body relaxed into him, and she let out a warm breath that tickled his chest. T’Kar closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on the feel of the female beside him and not think about the very real danger they were in.

  Twenty-Two

  Holly sat up suddenly, and her head grazed the side of the tent. It took her a few moments to remember where she was—in a tent in the middle of the desert with T’Kar. Light filled the small space, and she could feel the heat rising off the surrounding sands. It wouldn’t be long before the inside of the tent was sweltering, although she’d rather be hot than freeze to death.

  She looked over her shoulder and felt a small amount of relief that he was still sleeping peacefully, his chest rising and falling. Her gaze trailed down to his bare chest—the chiseled muscles, the gold skin, the elaborate tattoo—and then on to the swatch of fabric wrapped around his stomach. She was glad to see that it wasn’t completely soaked with blood. Only a small amount of red had seeped through all the layers.

  She released a relieved breath. The bleeding had stopped, and he’d made it through the night. That meant the sand snake hadn’t been poisonous, and no major organs or arteries had been damaged. She didn’t want to admit how happy that made her.

  It was her fault he’d been injured in the first place. If she hadn’t been so insistent they cross the desert at night, they never would have been attacked by a sand serpent, and he never would have been bitten. Of course, he might have mentioned why he was hesitant to cross the desert at night, although if he’d told her there were snakes slithering under the surface of the sand, she might never have stepped off the rock ledge at all.

  Holly shuddered as she remembered the large serpent and its flashing fangs. She could easily go the rest of her life without seeing one of those again.

  “You do not need to worry,” T’Kar said, his voice thick with sleep. “They do not emerge in the daytime.”

  She jerked her head around. “What? How did you…? Did I wake you?”

  He smiled slowly, raising a hand to his makeshift bandage. “I needed to wake up. We should not spend all day sleeping when we should be traveling.”

  Holly remembered Danica talking about her Dothvek hottie being able to sense what she was feeling and sometimes thinking. She’d assumed the empath thing was unique to his species, but maybe the Cresteks had it too, since they looked so similar. She’d have to be more careful with her thoughts, although she knew that was easier said than done. The moment she tried not to think about something, it was all she could think of.

  T’Kar tilted his head at her. “You slept well.” It was a statement more than a question.

  “Yeah, actually. I guess yesterday wore me out.” She eyed the flap of the tent and the bright sun peeking through the ties. “Are you sure you’re up to climbing sand dunes? We can always rest until you’re better.”

  “And risk being on the sands another night?”

  She swallowed hard. Another night meant another chance for them to encounter a sand serpent. “Maybe you’re right, but we can go slow.”

  He nodded, sitting up and bumping the inside of the tent’s peak. “We might not have a choice. I do not think I can carry you yet.”

  “Are you saying I need to be carried?” She tried to sound indignant, even though she knew he was right. They’d moved much faster when she’d stopped rolling down the dunes and he’d picked her up.

  T’Kar reached down and touched one of her bare feet. “You are not designed to cross the sands easily. That is all.”

  His touch made a jolt shoot from her foot up her spine, and she shivered.

  His brow wrinkled. “You are cold?”

  “No.” She moved her foot away from his hand. “Just ticklish.”

  Pulling roughly at the flap ties, she pushed both flaps open and crawled outside, grateful to get some space from the man whose slightest touch made her body react. So much for getting him out of her system. The big alien was still very much in there, and still very much driving her crazy.

  Holly angled a hand over her eyes. The suns had only begun to rise over the golden dunes, but the light was already bright, bouncing off the shimmering sand and making her squint. The cold of the night had burned off quickly, and the sand felt warm to the touch.

  She avoided looking directly at the corpse of the snake, although she could see that it had already sunk down into the powdery sand so that only the top third of its body remained out in the open. In the light of day, the creature that had looked black in the moonlight now appeared to be iridescent, the scales catching the light and shifting color from brown to gold.

  T’Kar emerged beside her, his lips a hard line as he stared at the creature. “We shouldn’t stay here much longer. Other creatures will come for the corpse.”

  Holly put a hand over her nose. She could already smell the decay. He was right. The hotter the temperature got, the faster the body would rot. She wouldn’t mind getting far away from the dead animal as soon as possible.

  T’Kar draped her cloak over her shoulders. “You’ll need this for the sun.”

  The fabric immediately felt hot as it covered her body, but she knew he was right. “I wouldn’t need to wear a cape in the desert if your people didn’t dress me up in the world’s most impractical dress.”

  “It is practical for some things.”

  Her cheeks warmed as she thought about him easily pushing the gossamer fabric out of the way. ”Well, desert travel isn’t one of them.”

  He expertly folded the tent and tucked it into one of the packs. Neither of them mentioned the dried green blood coating two of the metal stakes as he slid them inside, as well.

  T’Kar handed her a canister of water and pulled out one for himself. She was grateful to drink, but her belly fluttered when she felt how light the bottle was compared to the day before. If they didn’t find the Dothvek village today, they would be in serious trouble.

  She clinked her bottle with his. “Cheers.”

  He seemed perplexed, but he nodded and drank. After he tucked the bottles back into the packs, he passed her a round of bread. It wasn’t warm like it had been when they been in his apartment, and it had hardened slightly from the day before, but it would quell the rumble in her belly.

  Holly hiked her pack onto one shoulder, then twisted her neck to see the rocky mountains behind them, turning back around and pointing to an invisible spot in the distance. “It’s over there somewhere.”

  T’Kar nodded, hoisting the remaining pack on his back. His face twinged in pain for a moment before he took her hand in his. “Hopefully not more than a day’s journey.”

  “Not unless I got it really wrong,” Holly said under her breath, taking a bite of bread.

  T’Kar jerked his head around, his brow furrowing. He scanned the horizon, then shook his head. “That is strange.”

  Holly swiveled her head but saw nothing. “What? Something else under the sand?”

  He shook his head. “No. I thought I felt something. It was probably nothing.”

  Aside from them, the desert seemed pretty quiet and pretty desolate. No people. No animals. Not even birds overhead.

  Holly studied T’Kar’s worried expression. “You sure?”

  He grabbed her hand and urged her forward. “It was nothing, but we should move.”

  She was glad for his hand as her feet sank into the sand, and she trudged after him. Even injured, he would move faster than her. Especially since he was moving much quicker than he had been the day before.

  She didn’t need to be a mind reader to know he’d lied when he’d said it was nothing. The man clearly thought they were being followed.

  Twenty-Three

  T’Kar barely noticed the pain in his side as he took long steps along the ridge of a lengthy dune. He tried not to glance behind him, as this action seemed to concern Holly. He couldn’t see anything, anyway. There was not a soul anywhere in sight, which made the knot in his belly tighten further.

  He might not be able
to see whomever was out there, but he had felt them. The pulse of emotions had been sudden and unfamiliar. It was not a Crestek mind, of that he was certain, but he was not sure if it was a Dothvek, either. He’d sensed curiosity about him and Holly, but also a flicker of fear and hostility.

  He squeezed Holly’s hand and moved faster. Someone had been watching them. He was certain. Since they’d started moving, he could no longer pick up on the other mind. Either his skills were not strong enough or they were no longer being followed.

  Glancing up at the colorless sky, he saw that the two suns were nearly straight overhead, their rays relentless as they beat down. His throat was bone dry, and he could taste the tang of blood, which he attempted to swallow down and ignore.

  He was not used to such punishing heat in the Crestek city. Their cool stone buildings and awnings protected them from the worst of it. For a moment, he longed for the comfort of his home, then he glanced over at Holly and pushed the feeling aside. Soon they would both be safe and free.

  “Can we take a break?” The small female asked, pulling back on his arm. She pushed her hood down and peered up at him, her face flushed.

  “Are you unwell?” He touched his fingers to her pink skin.

  “I’m hot as hell, but okay,” she said, putting a hand gingerly on the cloth wrapped around his middle. “It’s you who needs to take it easy.”

  T’Kar followed her gaze and saw that the bloody spot on the fabric had indeed grown larger. “I am fine. Once we get to the Dothvek village, I can rest.”

  She scowled at him. “If we make it. I’ve got news for you, big guy. If you collapse, no way can I drag you the rest of the way.”

  He closed his hand over hers. Now that he’d stopped moving, he was aware of the pain in his side.

  “You want to tell me the real reason we’re going so fast?” she asked, swiping a damp strand of red hair off her forehead. “And don’t even think of feeding me some bullshit story, because I’ll know if you’re lying.”