“But there could be again.” Dean smiled and stepped forward, his gait relaxed. “Don’t you miss it? Going wherever we wanted. Answering only to ourselves.”
Serac shook his head. “Until I had to answer to my conscience.”
“You think I don’t have a conscience?” Dean said. “I do. I always have. It was my priorities that were different.”
“Obtaining resources,” Serac said.
“Protecting our team.” Dean shook his head. “You were my priority. Our operation was my priority.” He stepped closer, aggressive now, pointing at Serac as he went on. “You’re not the only one who was cast aside by your people. The difference between us is that you cast me aside. I thought we were brothers.”
“I…” Serac didn’t know what to say.
Dean had always been aloof with him, but then, Scorpiians weren’t known for sharing their emotions. The thought that Serac had betrayed a bond he didn’t even know existed caused a sharp pain to cross through his chest.
“I’m sorry,” Serac said. “But if I had told you my concerns, would you have changed anything?”
Dean shook his head. “I guess we’ll never know.”
He held Serac’s gaze for a few moments, then slapped the center of his chest. Serac heard a metallic click. He tried to leap back, but it was too late.
The floor came rushing up with bruising speed. His body was crushed against it, gravity pressing down on him everywhere. He cried out as the force increased, making his joints pop and his innards feel like they were in a vise.
A high shriek drowned out his cries as Kimmy ran toward him. He could hear her footsteps, but couldn’t turn to see her. He couldn’t warn her away.
She skidded to a stop, then something clacked on the floor and she let out a yelp. Had her broom hit the field first?
He heard her struggle for a few moments, then she crawled to where he could see her. Her eyes were filled with tears.
He had to free himself. But how could he escape the gravity well? It was too powerful even for his zyln to work against.
“What are you doing?” Kimmy screamed. “You’re killing him.”
“Centaurans are tougher than that,” Dean said. “But a few amplifications and he’ll be a pool of jelly on your floor.”
Dean sat in one of the overstuffed chairs in the living room, pulling out the device he was using—a large, bronze disc. “You ever talk with a Sadirian? What they make up for in arrogance they lack in imagination. Antigrav pallets are great, but if you take one of these things and flip it, you can make a localized gravity field ten, twenty, a hundred times stronger than whatever normal gravity a planet has.”
“Turn it off,” she begged. “Please turn it off.”
“Grown attached to him, have you? Good. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll let him go when you get me the cats.”
Kimmy blinked the tears from her eyes and stared at Dean for a few moments.
“Oh my God,” she yelled. “What is it with you and those cats?”
“I believe you Earthlings have an expression…” Dean said. “‘Time’s wasting.’”
“Okay, okay,” Kimmy said. “You win. I’ll get you the cats, but just ease up on him.”
“I don’t think so. I let up a bit and he’ll be able to freeze me after you leave. The pain will keep him controlled. You better hurry, though. I’m not sure just how much of this he can stand.”
Kimmy stood and started toward the door. She had to thread her way between the coffee table and couch. She slowed as she neared Dean. What was she planning?
Serac could feel her growing fear and excitement. Her determination to save him. He wanted her to just leave and be safe.
“One more thing, though.” She paused and reached up to rub the back of her neck. With surprising speed, she tossed something toward Dean—a bright red something—and said, “Payback, tickles!”
Dean leaped up from the chair, but not before the parcel landed on him. Payback scurried up Dean’s chest and disappeared down the back of his shirt. Dean reached for the disk, but before he could modify it, his eyes widened and he doubled over.
Serac knew that Dean’s clothing was actually part of his body. What Serac didn’t know was how they were connected. He couldn’t imagine what Dean must have been feeling at that moment.
As Dean spun in circles, his arms distending wildly as he tried to reach the parcel, Serac could see a little lump scurrying around under Dean’s jacket and shirt.
“Make it stop!” Dean yelled, between bouts of…laughing.
Serac had never heard Dean laugh. The Scorpiian could barely breathe.
Dean dropped the gravity disk, and Kimmy darted forward to pick it up. Dean tried to grab her, but then let out a particularly loud laugh and fell to the floor.
“Please, make it stop,” Dean said, gasping.
“First, tell me how to release Serac.”
“Turn it sunwise,” he said.
“Sunwise? You mean clockwise?”
Dean’s face suddenly contorted, his body shrinking into the form of an older man with a bushy gray mustache and thick glasses. As he continued to laugh, he morphed again, but this time into a thin, green-tinged humanoid.
Kimmy ran toward Serac and dropped to her knees next to him. “Is this direction right?” She gestured above the disk in a direction that would crush Serac.
She gasped as she must have felt his spike of fear.
“Okay,” she said. “Not that direction.”
She placed her finger on the disk and ran it in a circle over its surface. The gravity pinning him to the floor lessened.
The moment he was free of it, he grabbed the disk from her and snapped it in half.
“Whoa,” she said. Then her hands were on his face, her lips on his. “Are you okay? That was so scary. Tell me you’re okay.”
It was hard to, with her kissing him, but he managed a muffled, “I’m okay.”
They heard a thud, and then a low growl. Payback came scurrying over to them—his fur bright yellow. He climbed up Kimmy’s arm, running behind her hair and squeaking softly.
Serac turned toward the growl to see Dean in his quryl form. His head was low, tentacles lashing at the curtains behind him, his lips peeled back from his teeth.
Serac stood slowly, bringing Kimmy up to stand next to him. He noticed that her fingers had curled around the handle of her broom. She was ready to fight, his fierce mate.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Serac said. “Leave now. Never threaten us again.”
Dean growled, then leaped at them.
Kimmy shrieked, “Look out,” trying to push Serac away.
He held her tight against his side, lifting his free arm toward Dean and letting all of his rage and grief at the loss of their friendship blast out of him—as well as his desire to protect Kimmy above all else.
Dean froze mid-jump, ice coating his body and locking him to the floor. The entire room was covered in a thin layer of frost—windows, furniture, floor.
For a moment, neither of them said a word. Then Kimmy stepped a bit away from him, turning in a slow circle.
“Oh, wow,” she said. “It’s like an ice castle.” She ran her finger over the couch. “Everything is going to get so wet when it thaws.”