Zerberu by Athena Storm

Author:Athena Storm [Storm, Athena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Athenaverse Press
Published: 2019-08-31T18:30:00+00:00

Seventeen

Zerberu

I am not a man who fears the torment of nightmares. Most of my dreams are fairly mundane, or—before Vera came to reside with me—full of carnality, but not terror.

But when I awaken, covered in sweat, the last vestiges of my dream still haunt me. I had been at the airfield, watching Vera as she boarded a vessel so she could be a companion to another man.

I wanted to stop her, to scream at her to stay, but it was as if I had been struck with paralysis. I couldn’t move, and her only response to my impassioned pleas was to wave at me and smile. The boarding door slid shut and cut me off from her, forever.

Panting in the darkness, it takes me a moment to register that I’m in bed alone. I force myself not to panic. Just because I had a dream where she left me doesn’t mean it was prophetic. Straining my ears, I listen intently for any sign that she’s using the ensuite attached to my my bedroom, but it seems curiously silent.

I check the chronometer on my nightstand. It’s past the third hour, dawn hours away. On a whim I rise from the tangle of sheets and head to what had been her quarters before she started sleeping in my bed.

But when I fling the doors open, the chamber is dark and empty. Her extensive wardrobe is still hanging in the closet, though I do notice the black jumpsuit she’d worn in the pod is missing.

It doesn’t mean anything, Zerberu. Don’t panic. Just find her.

There are drawbacks to living in such a spacious manor. I check each and every room on the top floor, softly calling out for her.

“Vera?” My voice echoes back to me strangely in the dark. I can’t shake the feeling that something is terribly wrong. Padding on bare feet, I head back to my chamber and throw on a long robe. Being around Vera has made me far too comfortable with my own nudity. Good thing none of my guards saw me.

I head down the arched staircase, looking over the rail to see if she’s reading in my study. But again all I see is darkness and empty spaces. A noise from the kitchen gives me sudden hope, and I take the last few steps at a near run.

Coming around the corner, I flip on the light in the kitchen.

“Vera?”

But when the light comes on, I’m greeted not with her smiling, freckled face but Gurtal. The big brute is raiding my pantry. A slimy tentacle dangles out of his mouth, oozing clear ichor, and his arms are laden with various foodstuffs.

“Ah, hey. You’re up late tonight, Mr. Zerberu.”

In all the years he’s been working as my guard, Gurtal has never called me by an honorific. If I weren’t so distraught over Vera’s disappearance, I would be laughing.

“Just getting a little snack.” He’s actually sweating. Who knew that getting caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar would be more frightening than battle for a Vakutan?

“It’s fine, Gurtal.

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