Chasing Constellations (The UGS Constellation Series) (7 page)

“Thank you Doctor Maleet, for everything you've done for me.
Um… what does Dena mean?” Elisa nodded towards her body and the food.

A
lthough a strange combination of pasta and a rich creamy blue sauce, the food was astonishingly good if a bit strange.

“It was my pleasure, Dena. Please feel free to call me Yannick, Doctor is not a term I am accustomed to and Healer Maleet is my father.
As for Dena, hmm… it is similar to what you would call an offspring.” Having said what he wanted to, Yannick slipped quietly into his office.

Chapter 10

“How’re you feeling Anare?”

The voice from the doorway startled Elisa into nearly spilling the food all over her lap, though she managed to catch it in time to keep it from spilling
. She didn’t catch the slight smirk at catching the poor girl off guard and Chase didn’t miss the grumbled words.

“I’d be better if people would stop sneaking up on me.” Glancing
up, she noticed that Chase had changed into a form fitting one piece suit that matched the Doctor’s.

The cloth looked smooth and supple as it encased his trim body, accenting the ripples and planes of his muscles. Speechless Elise let her eyes wander over it, a slight blush gracing her cheeks as she noticed how well it didn’t hide the stretch over his chest and abdomen before lovingly caressing his thick thighs and vanishing into the tall knee high combat styled boots.
He’d left his hair loose and flowing about his shoulders. The long strands easily brushing the small of his back. Although from the damp appearance, it looked as though he had recently come from a shower. He stood in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest as well as his ankles crossed, creating a vision as the low light contrasted with the bright light shining behind him.

Dropping his arms, he strode confidently into the room, grabbed the stool and wheeled it towards Elisa before sitting in it. He looked ready to sit there until all of his questions were answered to his satisfaction, no matter how long it took.

“Do you believe I’m not the person responsible for your current state?” Once again thick arms moved to cross in front of his chest as he leaned back slightly, just enough to comfortably cross one ankle at the knee.

“Yes, but you look just like him.” Her voice trembled slightly as Elisa spoke, Cha
se noticed her hands shaking as she pushed the food around in the bowl while she cast quick glances up at him through her hair. “I don’t know why he attacked me, I didn’t do anything to him, why would he want to hurt me and then leave?”

Cha
se reached forward and took the bowl from her hand, twisting at the waist; he set it down on the table next to the bed. “You were too close to the truth and he’s trying to drive you away. Plus, it was a warning to me that he’s going to hurt you again and again until I can stop him or he stops me.” He said. With a lift of his shoulders, Chase shrugged before turning back to her.

He dropped his foot back to t
he floor, crossed his arms and leaned forward to pierce her with his neon blue eyes. He reached forward with his hand and tenderly brushed the tips of his fingers against her cheek. He said, “He knows about you now. I can’t let you go back or you’ll be attacked again.” His voice dropped, turned rough as he spoke ending with a soft growl.

“Can’t let me… but… I can’t stay here!” Elisa jerked her head back out of his reach, her words a bare whisper that broke on the fear choking her.  She forced herself to go on, “I have to help them catch him. If… if he’s the one that was doing the killings then he has to be stopped! Maybe… maybe they can use me as bait. If I talk to Detective Tanner I’m sure he can come up with something. I can’t let him hurt anyone else. Please, you have to see that!”

Chase shook his head as he leaned back slightly on the stool, once more crossing his arms across his chest as his face drew into a fierce frown. It was obviously a look he used often on the rest of the men under his command, but one that Elisa was determined to not let get to her. “I can’t risk that Elisa. I can’t risk you. I
won’t
risk you!”

“
You can’t stop me.” Elisa said as she stubbornly mimicked his pose by crossing her own arms under her chest, accentuating her breasts by pushing them up and together over the sheet covering her. She had forgotten that her shirt and bra had been removed to allow the Doctor to see to her wounds.

“I got hurt, yes. But in a few days I’ll be good enough to help. And besides, if he sees that I’m not there he’ll leave the area. Although if he sees me there
, and still covered in bruises from his attack, he might be tricked into using me as bait. It’s worth a shot at least! Normally he just kills. He doesn’t just attack like this and then leave.”

Cha
se chuckled at this declaration, his head shaking back and forth slowly. “I know he usually kills. Trust me. I’ve been following him for a while, a lot longer than you. I have a personal interest vested in capturing him and making him pay for what he has done. As for using you as bait…” He tilted his head to the side and studied the young lady before him, watching her hands as they clutched her upper arms in an attempt to hide the shaking. “I don’t like you putting yourself in such a precarious and dangerous position, but it might be what we have to do. You are my Anare, my heart and my soul, it is not something I like to think of having to do, but I will do whatever I can to catch him and end his reign of terror.”

Elisa nodded as though she understood what he had said, granted she knew most of
it, but she had no idea what Anare meant or why Chase thought she was one. Dropping her hands back to her lap and working the material back and forth between her fingers, she thought of the next words she wanted to say, choosing how to tell them so she wouldn’t appear to have lost her mind.

“Am I… am I really out in space right now?
If you’re not from Earth, then why do you look like one of us and why are you here?” Softly spoken, as though the words had to be coaxed into existence, Elisa peered at the man beside her from the corner of her eye.

Her breath caught as she watched the slow smile spread effortlessly across his lips, traveling up to his electrifying eyes.
Chase took a deep breath as he ran his hands over his face, then dropped them down to his knees, his weight leaning against his elbows. Those mesmerizing eyes of his locked on Elisa’s and seemed to peer into her very mind.

“I only l
ook like you because I need to. I, and most of my crew, am Zeraken. I’ll tell you more about that later when you’re not in shock and sedated. Yes Anare, you are in space and no I’m not going to let you get hurt, but I think you might have something with using you as bait… but first I want to you to think back as well as you can. Try to remember what your attacker looked like, and describe him to me with as much detail as you can remember. I need to make absolutely sure we have the correct person responsible for this. I can smell him on you, but I need confirmation that it’s Mestrock before I bring charges against him. Can you do that for me please?”

Elisa nodded as she returned her gaze to her lap, watching as her hands pulled and twisted at the blanket covering her body. Closing her
eyes, she started to remember everything, Chase’s soft words had made it easier to remember, his soothing voice walking her back through the attack. Gently they coaxed her to remember every minute detail right down to the light flashing off of the metal keys as she slid them into the lock. Details she thought she had forgotten suddenly became crystal clear, drawing a startled gasp as she watched in her mind as though she were floating above the event itself.

She witnessed the male
stalking her unsuspecting body, then grabbing her and forcing her into the single story brownstone house. Watched as they fought and Elisa was finally able to break away. Screamed with all of her breath as the male pulled her back in through the window and tossed her before he started raining blows down on to Elisa.

Elisa didn’t know she was verbally reciting everything she saw as she relived the memory
. She didn’t feel Chase as he lunged from the stool and carefully wrapped her in his warm embrace, too caught up in the horror of the memory.

“He was tall, a little shorter than
you, but still taller than me. His hair was dull, greasy as though he hadn’t showered in days. I don’t… I don’t want to remember it, but I’ll never forget.” Elisa shuddered as she spoke, her voice barely above a whisper; she gripped Chase’s arms like a lifeline.

“He had this… this sneer like he was excited and mad at the same time, like… like he couldn’t believe he was enjoying it but couldn’t deny it either. But it didn’t go all the way to his e
yes, they looked glassed over, almost like he was on drugs or drunk or something.”

“Do you remember their color, Elisa?” Cha
se asked as he gently brushed a strand of her red hair off of her face, tucking it behind her.

At the mention of eyes, Elisa turned her head to study
Chases’. Caught in their depths she was startled as he easily lifted her body and moved her until she was comfortably stretched across his lap.

She didn’t notice the dark tunnel
that had started to surround her vision. In a haze of desire she watched as one of Chase’s large hands moved along her arm, tenderly brushing against it as it made its way up to her shoulder with a touch as light as a feather as it made its way against her skin. It kept its slow trek up along the top of her shoulder, not stopping until his palm cupped her cheek while his left arm kept her held to his body. Skimming his right thumb along the side of Elisa’s face as he gradually brought his lips against her in a deliberately leisurely pace, although he gave her plenty of time to reject him and pull away.

To his
apparent shock Elisa curled her arm about his neck and pulled him in closer, twisting her body until her chest was pressed against him, her fingers twining their way into his long hair. With an almost desperate mew of need, Elisa’s lips parted enough to glide her tongue against Chase’s lips. He answered her with a soft growl as his own tongue darted out; twisting, curling, and dominating the dance back and forth. Their breaths mingled as they panted, lost to the desire found in each other’s embrace. Chase’s fingers glided back, the tips just brushing the hair behind her ear.

It was with obvious reluctance that Cha
se ended the kiss, licking against her lips as he pulled his head back. He realized with a start that he had moved from growling to a soft stuttering purr that timed his rapid breathing. Chase leaned his head against Elisa’s, resting his forehead as he battled with the need to take her, to claim her as his own, but he knew this was not the time. He had to be patient; he had to do his duty before he could see to his pleasures and the rest of his life.

“Elisa? Are you alright? You’re breathing just increased… if you need to we can take a break.” Cha
se hadn’t moved. He was still sitting in the chair as he had before; his elbow’s resting against his knees as he coaxed Elisa into telling him everything about the event that she could recall. Although he had reached forward and held one of her hands in both of his, she still didn’t know what had happened or why she had such a vivid image of what it would be like to kiss him.

“I’m
… I’m not sure?” A bright red stain traveled over her cheeks, down her neck and vanished beneath the blanket. Uncomfortably, Elisa shifted her weight in the bed as she realized it was all in her mind. Chase hadn’t pulled her into his lap, he’d never touched her softly, and he certainly hadn’t kissed her breathless. “I think I might be reacting to that stuff the Healer gave me… I could have sworn… Never mind. I… was that all you needed or…?”

Shaking her head as she let the sentence hang silently between them, Elisa refused to meet his eyes again.
But it all felt so real, I could have sworn he was touching me, kissing me I swear it was real! My lips still tingle and I can still feel his pressing against mine!

“No, I think right now you need to rest some. I’ll return after you’ve gotten some sleep ok?” Cha
se said as he pushed himself off of the stool. He turned briefly to push it away against the far wall and watched as it coasted to a stop before he turned back and pressed the controls on the bed to have it recline once more. Chase leaned over Elisa, grabbing the light blanket and tucking it around her shoulders as he whispered, “Good dreams, Elisa.”

Elisa nodded as she gave him the ghost of a smile, “Thank you Cha
se.” She closed her eyes and turned her head to the side closer to the wall, attempting to calm her rioting emotions so that she could drift off to sleep.

He stood and watched her for a moment, a slight quirk of his lips. Cha
se knew why she had blushed profusely and it pleased him that she had wanted to take things to the next level. With that thought in mind Chase turned and slowly made his way from his Anare, the one that could piece his heart and soul together.

Chapter 11

As he passed by Yannick’s office, he peeked in and nodded to the healer as he said, “She’s getting some sleep now. When she’s in a deep sleep, go in and retrieve the cortex recorder. I placed it on the inside corner of her lip.”

Yannick nodded and leaned around the
door frame to peer at Elisa. The slow rate of her breathing, her eyes fluttering under her lids, told him that she had fallen into a deep sleep. She had turned onto her side facing the rest of the room, curling into a loose ball. She looked peaceful and almost childlike as she had tucked one hand under her cheek while the other rested on her hip above the blanket.

“I will give her a bit more time before I fetch it, Commander. Shall I alter anything while I am retrieving it?”

Having stepped back to allow Yannick to peer around the door, Chase turned to glance at the woman sleeping peacefully finally. “That sedative is finally working and should be enough to make her think she only dreamt everything while she was here, so unless you think there’s something else you need to do then go ahead. I’ll be back in a mark or two to collect her and take her home.”

“Do you want me to leave it in place or remove it completely, Commander?” Yannick said as he turned to a cabinet and began removing various tools from it.

Chase shook his head as he came to a difficult decision. “Don’t remove it, we might need it later. Just retrieve the data on there from my investigation and the attack on Elisa.”

With that being said, Cha
se turned sharply on his heel and left the medic ward. His thoughts had already turned toward the next steps needed to capture Mestrock and remove him from harming anyone else.

Yannick waited for several minutes before he approached the sleeping figure on the bed quietly, he didn’t want to wake Elisa but he also wasn’t sure how long the sedative would keep her asleep.
His fingers moved in a feather light touch as he straightened her body on the bed before brushing the back of his knuckles against the side of her cheek. Once he had her laid out on her back with her arms and legs straightened, the Healer pulled a long wand from his coat pocket. It looked like a metal tube with a ball at the end, the handle was black leather-like and had several buttons all the way around it.

Depressing two of the buttons as Yannick scanned it down her body and back up the other side
where he paused to read from a small handheld screen in his other hand. With a smile he nodded and put his fingers on three of the buttons while holding it over her lip. For several minutes he held the scanner in place, watching with a small smile as the data transferred from the small hidden device in Elisa’s lip to the one he held in his hand.

*~*~*

Chase paced the halls of the large ship, his hands gripped tightly behind his back and his head held high. He didn’t feel bad about placing the cortex recorder inside Elisa when he crashed into her intentionally at their police station. He knew the evidence he had gathered previously would be needed when the Council called him after his assignment was over.

“Commander, have you got a moment
?” Chase stopped as he heard his name, cocking his head to the side he watched as Tracker came up beside him. With a critical eye he noticed that the first officer was tense and needed to speak with him. Slowing his steps and allowing his friend to catch up to him, Chase waited for the other to speak. “How goes the case? Are we close to leaving this primitive space?”

“It goes. He attacked an Earthling earlier
, but Yannick is seeing to her as we speak.” Chase said before stepping onto the bridge. He didn’t pause, knowing that Tracker would follow him into his office off to the side.

Trac
ker nodded before he made his way to one of the two wing back chairs, locked to the floor in front of his Commander’s desk. His form suit was quite similar to the others on the ship, the only difference being its dark green color that matched the intense pale emerald of his eyes.

Cha
se sat at his desk, leaning back in his chair and folded his fingers together under his chin as he braced his elbows against the armrests. He studied the man before him. He’d known Palee “Tracker” Stalvik since they were children. Both men entering the United Galactic Securities together, Chase was sure the only reason the other man survived the time in training was because of their tight friendship. Tracker had always been serious and didn’t have much of a sense of humor when it came to… well… everything. That severity increased tenfold as they both advanced through the ranks and Chase was astonished each day when Tracker refused to take command of his own battle cruiser, instead staying at his place at Chase’s side.

“How do you know it was our perpetrator?” Trac
ker’s tenor voice was such a surprise for most people, expecting a deep bass instead from the six foot eight man. His lean body often had them believing he was less of a threat meant that he could go into situations where most would instantly be suspect.

“I was able to place a
cortex recorder inside her lip. If I hadn’t then we would have lost her Tracker, and I wouldn’t have survived. She is my Anare.” Said Chase as a huge grin split his face at the shock spreading throughout Tracker’s angular face.

Steely white
eyebrows rocketed up into the high and tight hair on his friends head, nearly blending into one line. “Are you sure? I know tradition says we only need to gain the scent of our Mates but neither of us has met anyone other than our parents that have been mated, and even then it was an arranged mating. To find your Anare here would be… both a blessing and a curse I think. If word gets out the rest of the crew will be demanding leave time to try and track theirs down.”

“I’m aware of that Trac
ker, but I cannot deny what she is to me. I intentionally had myself arrested when I followed her home from one of the crime scenes, and realized she was doing her own investigation. When I smelled her there I lost all thought and the next thing I know I’m tackling her down and kissing her so I can place the cortex recorder on her.” Chase laughed as he filled in Tracker, not skipping any of the details. He knew that while she was laying in the bed in Medical telling him of her attack that the sedative was working on her. That's when she had stopped speaking verbally and shared her thoughts unintentionally with her that the connection between their hearts and souls was already strong and growing stronger.

“I wish you luck
with it Chase. It sounds like you are going to need it.” Smirking as he said this, Tracker leaned back in the seat and surprised Chase as he began to truly relax. It wasn’t something the other man did, even when he wasn’t on duty. “Does she know about us?”

Cha
se dropped his hands to his lap as he shook his head from side to side and spun his hover chair about. His gaze turned to the plant through the stasis field far below them, “She hasn’t a clue what we are other than we’re not from around here. I am not sure how to tell her about it all. I need to take her back to her planet after Yannick has removed the information from the device. I might have to use her to get to him, but I am loathing the thought of using her as bait because she’s already been through so much.”

“Sometimes we need to do what we don’t want to in order to protect the greater good Cha
se. If she truly is yours, then we
all
will do our best to protect her. I know you have a plan, tell me what it is you are thinking and I’ll get the men together.”

“Thank you Trac
ker. I need to settle a few things first, but then we’ll depart for Earth as soon as Yannick clears her.” Chase said as he turned back to his desk and the mountain of reports he had yet to go through.