Enthralled by Tiffany Roberts

Chapter 22

Ivy rubbedher hand over Ella’s back in slow, soothing circles as the woman dry heaved over the side of her cryochamber. Anything Ella had eaten the day before had been expelled last night, and she’d had no appetite since—not that she would’ve been able to keep anything down.

Helpless, Ivy stood by through Ella’s pained retching and shuddering convulsions. The only comfort she could offer was in making sure Ella knew she wasn’t alone. Ivy didn’t know what else to do, didn’t know how to ease the woman’s suffering.

“You’re okay,” Ivy said, tasting the bitterness of the lie as soon as the words left her mouth and hating it.

“No, I’m not.” Ella shook her head, making her hair pull loose from its bun and tumble around her face. Her body trembled, and a choked sob escaped her. “I’m not okay and I’m not…I’m not getting any better.”

She clutched the side of the pod and dry heaved again.

Chest constricting, Ivy gathered Ella’s hair and held it back. Tears stung her eyes as despair and guilt flooded her. She couldn’t help but feel like this was her fault. She’d woken Ella from stasis; had she done something wrong?

I woke them all the same way.

But why was this happening to Ella and no one else?

We knew there was a chance of stasis sickness when we were put under. It was explained to us. We accepted it.

Because they said they could treat it. They said it could be fixed.

Ivy pressed her lips together.

If I’d just let her sleep, she could have died peacefully. She wouldn’t be going through…this.

How could I have known? I couldn’t have. I just… I just wanted them to have a chance. I wanted them all to have a chance.

Ella drew in a few shallow, wheezing breaths, and struggled to sit up. Ivy helped her to lay back against the cryochamber’s cushioned interior. Ella winced, hissing through her teeth as she clutched her side.

Ivy didn’t rush her, pausing whenever needed until finally she was settled down with a blanket tucked around her.

Ella closed her eyes and was still except for the erratic rise and fall of her chest with her rasping breaths. It was crushing to see her lying there, so thin and pale, her cheeks hollow, and deep, dark circles beneath her eyes. One of her hands rested on her chest, looking skeletal with its knuckles and tendons standing out through her skin. The woman’s cheeks were wet with tears.

She looked nothing like she had when she’d awoken from cryosleep only a few days ago.

Ivy brushed damp hair off Ella’s forehead.

“I’m dying, aren’t I?” Ella asked, opening her eyes to look up at Ivy. Despite her sickness, there was such clarity with their green depths.

Unable to lie again—but also unable to speak around the tightness in her throat—Ivy nodded.

“I…I thought so. I mean how could I not?” With tear filled eyes, Ella looked up at the pristine white ceiling. “I saw it in Diego’s eyes. The fear, the pity. I see it in the way everyone looks at me. And I… God, I can feel it, too. I can feel myself dying.”

Ivy placed her hand on Ella’s. “I’m so sorry, Ella. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

Shivering, Ella turned her hand over and clutched Ivy’s, giving it a weak squeeze. “I know. I just…” She turned her head and looked at Ivy, her tears spilling. “I wish I had been able to see more of this world. To explore it. I wish I could have known more about the vrix. I want to learn their language, their culture, to just…get to know them. They’re so, so fascinating, Ivy.”

Ivy couldn’t help the soft smile that curled on her lips as she thought of Ketahn. Of how far they’d come since they first met. “Yeah, they are.”

Ella smiled in return. “I can see why you care for him. I’ve seen how protective he is of you, the way he looks at you, cares for you. I guess deep down, we’re all the same. Our souls see what our eyes can’t, and they connect no matter what’s on the outside. Our bodies…they’re just shells.”

Our souls see what our eyes can’t.

Ivy hadn’t been able to see past the exterior, not at first. By all appearances, Ketahn had been a monster. How could she have seen the male beneath when she’d been so fearful of his looks? But once that fear had subsided, once she’d allowed herself to get to know him, her attraction to him had been overwhelming. It hadn’t mattered how much she’d fought it, hadn’t mattered how wrong it should have been.

She was irresistibly drawn toward Ketahn. And now…now she was forever bound to him by an unbreakable thread.

“You make it sound like we’re soulmates,” Ivy said.

“Maybe you are. How else could you have found each other?”

“All it took was a trip through space and one hundred and sixty-eight years.” Ivy grinned. “And well…he was pretty much the first guy to come around, and a woman has…needs.”

Ella chuckled, though it was cut short as she stiffened in pain.

Ivy’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry!”

“It’s okay. Worth it.” Ella smiled and took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. “I’m glad you woke me, Ivy. I’m glad I got to see something so amazing before the end. I get…I get to be one of eight humans in the whole universe to have met the vrix.”

Ivy squeezed Ella’s hand. “And more than that, you befriended them. I think Ahnset really likes you.”

Ella smiled, her eyelids drooping. “I can’t believe how big she is. And she’s so kind with me. I just wish… I wish I could have had a real conversation with her. You’ll tell her thank you for me?”

“You can tell her later when they get back, and I’ll translate. I think she’d like hearing it from you.”

As her eyes drifted shut and her grip on Ivy’s hand loosened, Ella spoke again; her words were slightly slurred. “Yeah. I…think so…too.”

The door hissed opened, claiming Ivy’s attention. Cole entered, sweeping his eyes over the chamber before they found Ivy. She brought a finger to her lips. He looked at Ella and nodded, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the wall. The door closed soon after.

Ivy waited for Ella’s labored breaths to even out before carefully pulling her hand free. Stepping away, she retrieved her own folded blanket from the floor and returned to Ella, draping it over her for extra warmth. She hadn’t missed the subtle shivers coursing through the woman’s body.

Sighing, Ivy turned away and picked up one of the waterskins from the gathered supplies. She opened the top and took a drink.

“How is she?” Cole asked quietly.

“Worse.”

“She sleeping now?”

“Yeah.” Frowning, Ivy sealed the waterskin and glanced toward Ella. “Even just talking tires her out lately.” She looked back at Cole, brow furrowed. “You’re back early. Where are the others?”

“Uh, yeah.” One corner of his mouth pulled back as he scratched the back of his neck. “So…I didn’t go up with them.”

“Why not?”

“I wanted to explore the Somnium a little more. What’s left of it. You know, before we leave in a couple days and never see it again?” He dropped his hand and pushed himself away from the wall. “And I actually found something in one of the other rooms.”

Ivy returned the waterskin to its place and cocked her head. “What’d you find?”

“I think it’d be better if I showed you. I’m not really sure myself.”

Ivy returned her gaze to Ella. The woman was likely to sleep for a while, and she’d be safe inside this room. Ivy could step out for a bit in the meantime.

“Okay, but let’s be quick.” Ivy walked toward Cole. “I don’t want to leave her alone for too long in case she needs anything.”

Cole pressed the button on the doorframe. The door slid open. “We shouldn’t be long.”

He stepped into the corridor, and Ivy followed close behind. Though the air here was warmer and more humid than that in the stasis room, it was also moving, and its flow over her bare arms and legs raised goosebumps on her flesh. Since she hadn’t accompanied the others out of the pit, she’d worn the silk dress Ketahn had made her instead of the jumpsuit. After weeks of traveling in light, minimal clothing, the jumpsuit made her feel restricted and uncomfortable, especially in the jungle heat.

As they passed one of the doors, Ivy’s eyes flicked up to the red light over it. No matter how many times she’d walked this crimson corridor with its deep, dark shadows, she could never quite shake the chill that crept beneath her skin whenever she was inside it.

Cole hadn’t gone far before he stopped at a door that was stuck halfway open. Unlike the other doors in the corridor, this one was totally flush with the wall, and it didn’t have a light over its frame. There was a soft white glow coming from within the room.

Turning his body to the side, Cole looked at her and flashed a smile. “In here.”

He squeezed through the doorway.

Once he was inside, Ivy slipped into the room and looked around.

This room was much smaller than the stasis rooms, no more than fifteen feet by fifteen. Each wall had two beds, one over the other, built into sleek recesses, and beside each set of bunks was a large cabinet. Like the chamber that had housed Ivy and the other survivors, this room was free of dirt and water damage, but there was no air flow within—and the white glow was produced not by overhead lighting but by a solar lantern from the emergency cache placed at the center of the floor.

That lantern created strange shadows, giving the space an ancient, otherworldly feel. This room should have been mundane—the bunks, the posters and pictures on the walls, some of which were curling with age, the articles of clothing and the blanket scattered on the floor. But like the rest of the ship, it was only sad, lonely, and more solemn than it ever should’ve been.

“What room was this?” she asked, looking at the photographs on the wall. Most of them appeared to be of wives, husbands, and kids. Families.

“Crew quarters,” Cole replied from directly behind her. “Me and Will opened it up the other day while we were looking for supplies, but he got all weird about it and pretty much shoved me out after he looked around. The door jammed when he tried to close it.”

Because Will knew the people who’d lived in here.

Ivy’s heart went out to Will. Had he recognized any of the faces in the photos? Had he known the crewmembers who’d bunked here when the crash happened, had he known their families? Had he brought along photos of his own?

“I hadn’t even noticed the door.” She turned to face Cole. “So what did you want to—”

Ivy’s words were cut off by a gasp that itself was silenced as Cole caught her by the back of the neck and slammed his mouth over hers. Her eyes widened, and she stood frozen, stunned, as his other hand smoothed over her hip to grab her ass. He tugged her closer, groaning as he ground his pelvis and his already hardening cock against her. In that moment, Ivy was aware of everything—his rough stubble abrading her skin, the flick of his tongue in her mouth, the heat of his flesh, his callused fingers on her neck, the smell of sweat and male.

And all of it disgusted her.

“How does it feel to have a real man kissing you?” Cole rasped against her mouth, clenching her ass to pull her even closer. “Did you crave it, Ivy? Did you crave this?”

Flattening her hands on Cole’s chest, Ivy tore her mouth from his and shoved him away as hard as she could. “Let me go!”

Cole’s hold on her broke, and he stumbled backward a step, eyes widening in shock an instant before her fist connected with his mouth. His head snapped back as his feet met the blanket on the floor—one landing atop it, the other catching on its folds. Between the blanket and Ivy’s punch, it was enough to send him to the floor. Cole landed on his ass with teeth-clacking impact.

Ivy hissed, hugging her hand against her chest as pain radiated into her bones. She glanced down to see blood oozing from a cut on her knuckles.

“What the fuck!” Cole brought a hand to his mouth, which was also bloodied.

Fury roared through Ivy. She vibrated with it, and she had to clench her hand to her chest to keep herself from lashing out at him again. She took a step toward him and glared. “What the fuck? Shouldn’t I be asking that? No, Cole, you what the fuck?”

Cole drew his hand away from his mouth and looked at it. Blood glistened on his fingertips. “Why’d you hit me?”

“Why the hell do you think?”

With a scowl, he snatched up the blanket he’d tripped over and stood, touching the corner of the cloth to his split lip. “Was just trying to spend a little time with you now that he’s not breathing down your neck.”

“So you brought me in here to assault me?”

“I wasn’t assaulting you!”

“You kissed me! You put your hands on me and forced your mouth on mine. That’s assault, Cole.”

“I thought you might like to be with a real man. I wouldn’t have told him.”

“Did you really think that just because Ketahn is busy and you got me alone, that I’d want this?”

“I just thought…”

“You must not be thinking very hard. When have I given you any hint that I wanted you?”

He threw his arms out to the sides. “Come on! You can’t really want to be fucking that thing, can you?”

Ivy growled and stalked toward him. Cole retreated several steps, dropping the blanket to hold his palms up in surrender. But Ivy didn’t stop until she stood directly before him, head tilted back, furious eyes locked with his.

“I am with Ketahn because I choose to be. He is who I want. He is my choice. And I’d never betray him in any way.” Her skin still crawled from Cole’s touch. “It doesn’t matter what he looks like, or what you think of my relationship with him, it’s what I feel here”—she struck her fist against her chest—“that matters.

“I’ve been with someone like you before, Cole. A man with a handsome face and pretty words. He was more of a monster than Ketahn could ever be.”

Cole’s brows were drawn low, and his lips, still bleeding, were downturned as he stared at her. “You…really care for him, don’t you?”

Ivy rolled her eyes and threw her hands out. “Yes!”

How dense could Cole be?

Cole groaned and thrust his fingers into his hair, combing the strands back from his forehead. “Still fucking weird you’re banging a spider though.”

Ivy crossed her arms over her chest. “Yeah, well, no one asked you, and as I’ve said, it’s none of your damn business.”

He chuckled, shaking his head.

“He’s also not a spider,” Ivy said. “He’s vrix.”

“Not human, either way. None of them are.”

“And what does that matter, Cole? They’re not human, but they’re helping us anyway. Maybe we could’ve survived this place on our own. Maybe…maybe we could’ve figured it all out. But more than likely, we would’ve all died trying—not that any of us would have ever woken up without Ketahn.”

Frowning, he dropped his gaze and shifted his weight uncomfortably from one leg to another and back again. “We can’t afford to forget who we are here, Ivy. Humans. On an alien world. Doesn’t matter if it’s not the planet we were meant to colonize, this place is ours now.”

“That’s not how it works, Cole,” Ivy replied with a sigh.

His short laugh was a little bitter, but there was no real bite to it. He met her eyes. “It works however we want it to, Ivy. We’re all that’s left.”

Ivy’s brows fell, and she jabbed a finger at him. “Yeah, well, what you just tried to pull is not how it’s going to be. Do you understand?”

Again, Cole put his hands up placatingly. “I get it. You’re not interested. I just…” As he lowered his arms, one of his hands eased forward, and he caught a lock of Ivy’s dangling hair between his fingers. “I’m not coping with this well. I’m…angry. Frustrated. Lonely.” He stroked her hair between index finger and thumb.

“Did you seriously not listen to—” Ivy was reaching for his hand, meaning to snatch her hair away, when a huge, dark shape appeared in the doorway behind Cole, silhouetted by the corridor’s blood red glow.

A shadowy monster out of nightmare—but Ivy had no fear for herself in that moment.