Contaminated by Amanda Milo

Author:Amanda Milo [Milo, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-21T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

When the darkcycle hits, Skynan is once again lying beside me, sharing my resting place. Where her closeness was soothing before, it’s still that—but it’s more. I feel very aware of her, in the way that a male senses a female, and I know it will be a long time before I succumb to anything resembling sleep.

It’s made a lot longer when I stare at Skynan.

I can’t help it; my gaze is drawn to her like my eyes are magnetic and she’s an iron-containing object. Wait, no—like she possesses an impossibly strong external magnetic field.

She absolutely does.

My third eyelids snap over my eyes, rehydrating the dry surfaces—dry because I haven’t so much as nictated.

Erreck, this is unhealthy.

Yes, but if I feed this compulsion now, perhaps I won’t stare at her all of tomorrow’s daycycle where it will be unhealthy and surely unnerve her.

Skynan’s thin, strange eyelids twitch.

I pull back, frowning.

They twitch again.

Nooo…

Why is Skynan *experiencing spasms*?

DON’T PANIC!

Carefully, I lay my hand across her smooth, silky forehead.

She doesn’t react.

When her twitching continues, I slide my fingers to her cheek, and pat her lightly—and insistently. “Skynan?” I whisper.

Her lips part, her mouth opening slightly—but she doesn’t speak. And her eyelids are still seizing.

Fear skitters up my spine.

She doesn’t have Lʊʊnjaɠ—she doesn’t!

The odds of her displaying late-onset symptoms of a mutation like or exactly like ours are so infinitesimal, it’s impossible to extrapolate. But logic does nothing to quell my anxiety. “Skynan, I am concerned,” I tell her, raising my voice a fraction higher—but not quite able to rise to my normal speaking voice. It’s the middle of the darkcycle; it seems wrong, somehow.

I bring my other hand up to her other cheek, and—if she weren’t caught in mid-seizing!—I would like how it feels to… to hold her small, soft face between my hands.

To stare into her eyes.

If only they weren’t flickering and twitching. It’s frightening.

“Skynan!” I whisper loudly, and—and I press inward with both my hands, squeezing her too-soft self very carefully.

Her face mushes between my hands—as malleable as if she were made of melting wax!—and I nearly draw back in shock.

But that’s when Skynan’s lids tap open. “Mwhaa… Erreck? Wbahts wrong?”

“You sound strange, for one thing,” I tell her, searching her features, not moving a muscle as I study all of her with intense focus.

“That’s becawse yourb squeebing myb faceb,” she points out.

“Apologies!” I draw my hands up and away from her.

Immediately, the lost touch makes my chitin tingle.

Skynan huffs a laugh, and her own hands come up to rub at her cheeks, making the roundness shift and move unnaturally. Well—probably naturally for her, I suppose. “S’alright. There a reason you woke me up?”

I breathe a sigh of relief. “You were spasming in your sleep, and I—” I shake myself, feeling the tension and anxiety ebb, seeing that she’s looking normal. “I was concerned.”

I jump when Skynan’s hand is suddenly pressed to my cheek. “Oh, Erreck—no, I’m not coming down with motor function trouble.” To herself, she mumbles, “I deserve an award for being able to say that at the crack-of-whatever-time this is.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.