I don’t know how long I remained floating, blind, in the cold, lonely darkness. Long enough to learn to hate it, and myself, for being a lie, a fraud deserving nothing better than this warmthless abyss.

Except warmth wasn’t entirely absent.

Ba-dump…

A slow, regular beat called out through the frozen dark. I listened and drifted closer. It was small, at first, but gained strength the closer I crawled to it. It pulled me in. I was like a moth to a flame, knowing I could only get burned, but aching for the warmth all the same. I felt so cold. At this moment, being consumed seemed like a small price to pay.

Ba-dump… Ba-dump…

Eventually, I reached the edge of the darkness, at the top of a cliff. There, I realized I hadn’t been in the dark at all. But not because I could suddenly see.

Below me opened a pit of actual Darkness.

Looking down, I saw it. Bottomless. Inextricable. It was a black hole abyss that whispered the meanings of true despair. Like a wretched animal, I wailed and crawled away from the ledge.

Ba-dump… Ba-dump…

However, floating above the pit like a transparent jewel was the source of the warmth. I pulsed, slowly, strongly, steadily. I stared at it fearfully. I looked back at the not-quite-darkness I’d come from. Would it be so bad to go back? It was cold. It was dark. It was lonely, and I hated it. But it was better than the Pit.

Did I really dare try and reach the warmth if it meant risking the fall?

I found myself back at the ledge. Don’t look down. I knew what I’d see. I knew it was there. But staring into it would bring nothing but terror, and my weak will would crumble.

Ba-dump… Ba-dump…

I focused on the Warmth. Promising. Hopeful. So hot it burned despite the distance. So bright it hurt just looking at it. But my heart longed for this pain, for the burn, for my worthless self to be scorched, melted, and forged anew.

Ba-dump… Ba-dump…

I rose to my feet, transfixed.

I leaped. Below me, the Pit beckoned, hollow, endless, poisonous.

I reached for the Warmth.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

My eyes blinked open—to my instant regret. “Argh…” The light was too much!

I shut them back tight. Blissfully, I wasn’t cast back into the freezing dark. A glow still filtered through my eyelids, and I felt the Warmth all around me, enveloping me, suffusing me, fighting off the cold. It seeped through my clothes and against my cheek. In my ear, its steady pulse was like the voice of peace and safety.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

I sighed contentedly and rubbed my cheek against the source of the warmth. It felt soft yet firm. Something like a purr crept up my throat. Not a sound humans should make, but I was past caring. I curled closer and wished I would lose myself in this soothing heat. Forever, I’d listen to its calming beats. Each which spoke of loyalty. Each which spoke of love.

Also, it smelled a lot like Hunter’s cologne.

…

My eyes snapped open.

I jerked back and looked up. Icy blue eyes looked back at me, infinitely warm despite their frozen color. A new warmth seized me, this one burning up my face into a faithful tomato impersonation.   

Like a snapshot, my mind took an abrupt and complete stock of the situation.

I sat curled up in my Hunter’s lap. His arms were around me, as were a couple of blankets. We’d moved to the living room floor, right in front of the open fireplace.

I was clothed, still wearing the same dirty, bloodied outfit I had donned for our disastrous stargazing trip. Hunter was decent as well, probably the best for my sanity, but I couldn’t help my disappointment. His bland t-shirt provided a sheer but impregnable rampart between my hands and the broad, muscled chest they pressed against. I felt like crying, though I wasn’t sure why.

Our faces were close—Gah!—far too close! I just had to raise my head a little, and our lips would press together.

And I wanted to. Oh God, I wanted to. But the vague memory of the Pit kept me down like a lead weight around my throat. I’d escaped once. I should be grateful. If I was too greedy, reached for more warmth than I deserved, this time, I would fail and be swallowed whole.

Then Hunter’s gorgeous lips hooked up in a lazy smile. Seriously, it’s unfair how kissable his lips look. Anyone could see that, even the blind. Ah. And now that I imagined anyone else claiming those perfect lips, I started feeling somewhat… angry?

Well… that’s new.

Hunter’s smile turned teasing, and with mounting dread, I knew. I knew without a doubt… that his next words would be an absolute disaster.

“Hey…” he drawled sexily. “Hello there, Sleeping Beauty.”

Nyooooooooooo!! I was sure, there and then, that my face self-combusted. How could this guy be so shameless?! I weakly punched his chest. He didn’t even seem to feel it, making me feel like a kid throwing a tantrum. “You’re impossible!” I complained.

“Why, thank you.”

“It wasn’t a compliment!”

Tracy chose that moment to enter the room. “Oh, good, you’re awake. You’ve given us all quite a fright, Your Highness.” She spoke the title with a teasing smile and a twinkle in her eyes. She’d heard him! Ughhhhh! I buried my face in Hunter’s chest to hide my embarrassment. Then I realized what I was doing and struggled out of his embrace.

I didn’t expect to be let go suddenly. Gasping, I stumbled backward into another pair of waiting arms—well, really, one arm and a half.

Onyx forcefully spun me around to face her. Her intense black eyes roamed over my body, maybe looking for signs I might collapse out of nowhere again.

Eventually, her shoulders sagged in relief. Then, she startled me by pulling me into a quick yet crushing hug before releasing me and standing awkwardly.

I gaped at her. Onyx looked… better.

She had received new clothes to replace her battered outfit. The simple white sundress hung loosely on her lean frame—and fluttered weirdly where her chest and abdomen were still dented. Her skin was still torn, bits and hints of white metal visible underneath. But none of that mattered much when she seemed herself once again.

“Onyx!” I think I surprised both of us by initiating the hug this time. “Please don’t let whatever that was happen again. You scared me.”

“I’m sorry, Terry. If I’d know a Vraex–”

“Not that, you dummy!” I leaned back to stare at her without breaking the hug. “I mean you turning killer robot on us– Ah! I hope using the r-word isn’t some slur? I mean, I’ve read somewhere it means something like a slave, and I­– I’m really sorry! I’m still new at this whole aliens are real thing and–”

“Terry?”

“–I’ll do better. Just tell me what–”

“Terry!”

I jumped. “Yas?!”

She sighed softly, brushing a strand of grey hair out of my face. “You’re fine,” she said. Her slight smile was conflicted. I saw relief, sorrow, and guilt. So much guilt. “I’m a class-CCC android, generation X, ID zero-N-Y. Though many call us andro, for convenience, especially within the Empire.

“I wouldn’t worry about racial slurs. Slave is rather appropriate regardless. Most of us are barely sentient enough to recognize sarcasm, let alone have the self-awareness to get offended. You wouldn’t worry about insulting a microwave. I am… defective, in that respect.” She briefly looked ashamed.

“Don’t say–”

“Also, technically, you’ve always known aliens existed, only not extraterrestrial ones. The term means foreigner before anything else, even if the primary use has somewhat shifted since the Alien movies came out.” Her lips twitched into the faintest smirk. I glared in response to show I was onto her. She was purposefully changing the subject, and I was letting it slide only for now.

Fortunately—for her—Hunter chose that moment to interrupt, engulfing both of us in a bear hug. “There’s the smartass we love! You scared us there, kung-fu girl.”

Onyx’s shredded face went slack. “I don’t care about scaring you, pony boy. Only Terry.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re a badass emotionless robot who cares for no one but her princess. We get it.”

“Hunter, be nice.” I slapped his shoulder. Although, was Onyx… blushing? No way. Must have been a reflection of the light on her metal parts, or something. Though, I knew I was. Blushing, I mean.

“Ahhh… Young love…” A dreamy sigh brought my attention sharply back to Hunter’s mom. I’d forgotten she was in the room, and now, there was that broody motherly twinkle in her eyes, the one that Aponi only got when she was about to ask embarrassing questions about grandchildren.

Nooope! My mind changed gears in full reverse. I ducked and shimmied out of the group hug. Nope. Nope. Nope. I’m not ready to be a mother!

Father! I meant father! I’m not ready to be a father!

...Oh, God. Who am I kidding?

All this princess talk was getting to me, wasn’t it?

Then again, I hadn’t denied it much, hadn’t I?

Eh. Shoot. I sighed deeply.

Let’s toss this into the “freak out later” dumping ground for now. What had started as a pile was closer to a landfill now. When the time came to work through all of it, I’d probably die instantly of a heart attack or a stroke.

I looked at Tracy. “What exactly happened?” I asked, if only to curtail any question about popping out any foal.

Wait. Are Iskorns born as human babies or dragon unicorn babies?

Ugh. More freak-outs for the Freak Out God!

Praise be! Praise be!

…please kill me now. I’m losing my mind.

Tracy’s pout told me she knew I knew that she knew that I knew that she knew what I was dodging… or something. However, her expression quickly faded to seriousness. “You started shivering. Then you passed out. Your temperature was dropping, and you weren’t responding to anyone.”

“You were like an ice block, dude. Onyx just about rebooted herself from worry.” As usual, Hunter shielded his own worry with humor.

“I did not,” the andro clipped. “Terry, you went into withdrawal.”

“What? But I’m not… I don’t understand.” I’d never taken any addictive drug. Not even medically.

“That’s not what she means, dear.” Tracy crept up from behind me and caught me in a flower-scented hug. My head rested on her pillowy mounds, and I did my best not to warm up to the feeling.

I failed.

Hunter’s raised eyebrow caught my eyes. “Seriously, dude? That’s my mom,” his gaze seemed to say.

I shook my head nervously—but not too much, lest it caused jiggles.

“Aw, poor dear.” Tracy didn’t help matters by lovingly kissing the top of my head. “I bet you were worried your parents would reject you once they found out what you are. Don’t be. If I know one thing about Gerald Barker, it’s that the man is loyal to a fault.”

I stiffened. “How do you know–”

“How loyal sweet Gerry is?” There was a sly smile in her voice, and I couldn’t help remember some of the raunchy personal tales Aponi and Gerald had shared with Shivaya and me in the wake of my sister’s grand closet busting extravaganza.

I can still picture it clearly.

It was on Christmas day. Snow-covered the garden outside, and the entire extended Barker family had gathered around a meal of stuffed turkey and mashed potatoes. Shivaya had made her passionate revelation midway through the meal, followed by noisily shoving her tongue down the throat of her “friend” Sally, whom she’d invited over.

The evening had ended at the ER after grandma Barker choked on her denture.

The day lived in infamy, and family relationships remained strained with several relatives to this day. Not with our parents, obviously. Aponi never truly outgrew her hippie phase. And Gerald, well, he’d married her.

The point was, in the weeks that followed that debacle, we siblings were treated to several bouts of sudden recollections from Aponi and Gerald’s surprisingly wild youth. Definitely TMI. I could never think of Aunt Carmen the same way again.

And now, pressed between my male crush’s mom’s breasts, with her talking about Gerald like one might of a particularly succulent dessert, my mind couldn’t help going undesirable places. It couldn’t decide whether it was more disturbed or turned on.

I meant, if I made abstraction of Gerald and Aponi’s parental status, they were objectively gorgeous people. And Tracy definitely had something of a wild MILF vibe—the kind of wildness that included running naked in the fields and rutting in the moonlight.

…what am I thinking?

Hunter’s eyes were boring holes into me. “Dude!?”

“It’s not my fault!” I wanted to shout. She’s very much doing this on purpose!

Then Tracy spun me around and got to her knees in front of me. Even like this, her eyes were barely below mine.

Height definitely flowed into the Geraghtys’ blood.

Or maybe that was an iskorn thing.

Or maybe I was just stupidly short.

…all of the above?

“I’m just teasing, dear.” Tracy’s expression had lost her mischievous edge, replaced by motherly concern. “How did I guess what you were thinking? Well. You’re a Draskelite. Your race survives on one thing only, and denying it to yourself is like food poisoning. Though, I don’t know how your genetic disguise might be affecting things.”

I blinked. “Food poisoning? I don’t– What am I supposed to be feeding on?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Her eyes twinkled. “It’s love!”

My brain ground to a halt with a sound of a piece of chalk on a scratching vinyl on top of a skidding car.

I’m sorry… “Whut?”

 

. . . . .