MINE! [New World Book 8] by C.L. Scholey Page A

friend.
    “Raymond? What happened?” Becky asked.
    “I’m hungry, Becky. Help me, please.”
    Closer they came; all the while Raymond muttered needing food. His feet crunched on the foliage beneath him yet the others made no sound. Raymond raised his arms and Becky was tempted to embrace him, to soothe him, but something kept her immobile. Something wasn’t right. More noise to her right stopped the men’s advance. The sound was as though a bull elephant was running wild. Huck barreled from the dense brush and grabbed Becky to his shielded chest. Becky was surprised at his intense grip. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized the hold he had on her wouldn’t be broken no matter her move; he meant business. That alone gave her pause.
    “The humans crash-landed here and are dead and dangerous. Becky they’re dead, not alive. If they suck you in their dimension on this planet, you’ll be living death.” His words were frantic. Becky stilled. She didn’t feel him tense, there was no tail. She gazed at Raymond.
    “I’m not dead,” Raymond said, his confusion was apparent. “The dead don’t get hungry or touch plant life. I feel the ground beneath my feet.”
    “Look, little man and see your male friends,” Huck demanded.
    Raymond stared hard at Jack and the others as though seeing them for the first time. He noted their feet, hovering, and sent a questioning glance at Becky. She watched his confusion when he fingered a branch. A tentative hand reached out and he made contact with Jack briefly. Becky jumped when Raymond’s fingers grazed Jack, Jack seemed to solidify, his feet stirred up the dust beneath his feet. Raymond smiled, appearing less worried.
    “See, I can touch Jack.”
    “We want your vessel,” Jack said.
    The second Raymond released Jack he hovered again over the ground. But it was Jack’s voice, the tone that made the fine hairs on the nape of her neck stand tall. Eerie hollow words droned. Jack was a shadow but eerily different from the dead that inhabited this world. He saw her and she saw and heard him.
    “You can’t leave here. If you do, your outer shell may disappear but your ghosts or essence will linger. Damned to wander the galaxies in a haunted shuttle. You can never land,” Huck said.
    “You know this how?” Raymond asked.
    He didn’t, Becky felt Huck tense and knew his tail grew, but the reaction was short lived. There was more to the explanation.
    “I’m not positive. When my people came, we captured dead creatures accidently when they appeared on our shuttle. Not human, but similar enough. Once leaving the planet, they disappeared. We thought they were gone but they weren’t. They were still there, we could feel their presence. The Gorgano disposed of the residue. I won’t have you haunting my vessel. Cobra would never allow me to land, even with a mate.”
    And, now, we’re back to mate.
    “Who says you’re invited?” Jack said. He leered at Becky. “She belongs with us, Tonan.”
    Jack strode toward her, but Huck flung her behind him. The grin on Jack’s face was spooky. Becky was annoyed; of course Jack would develop balls when he died. It wasn’t as though Huck could kill him. Jack placed a hand onto Huck’s chest, nothing happened. There was no real contact. The grin began to fade. His features turned enraged.
    “You will die, Tonan,” Jack howled. He tried to touch him again. “Damn you, why isn’t my touch affecting you? It only took a fingertip when I touched Ray.”
    “You did this to me,” Raymond said to Jack. Disconcertingly, he walk-floated sideways with the dirt under his feet leaving a trail of unsettled dust. “You touched me on the shuttle and something bad happened.”
    Becky gazed into his incredulous expression. Raymond appeared wounded, hurt, betrayed. As though understanding lit his thoughts.
    Jack spun and glared at him. “You were dying.”
    “You were dead, Jack. I remember, I was lying there. I wasn’t dead. It’s no wonder