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“Why do you give him such a hard time?” Inferno asked.
“I don’t trust him.” Wingman pulled in his wings to make more room for Inferno to walk alongside him. The passages were narrow and so low, his wingtips scraped the ceiling. The suppressed urge to fly had become a physical pain, but he couldn’t leave the ship. Humans didn’t fly.
“Why not?” Inferno asked.
“Do you trust him?” he countered.
“I don’t distrust him. Tigre seems to accept him.”
And so had Psy and Shadow. All the more reason to maintain vigilance, as far as Wingman was concerned. “Tigre is too accepting.” He sighed. “Do I think Chameleon is legit? Probably. But our lives are at stake. If we trust the wrong person, we’re screwed.”
“What other choice do we have? He led us to the spacecraft. If he’d wanted us dead, he could have left us on ’Topia.”
“And that’s why I didn’t airlock him.” Wingman clenched his fists as the grief he’d suppressed rose to the surface. “I lost people in the bombardment. I was visiting another province when the firebombs hit. I saw the flames, the smoke rise from my village. Lissa, the female I’d planned to mate, and my parents, friends, and neighbors died. Everyone died. We’re playthings to the Xenos. And he’s one of them.”
“I happened to be outside when my village came under attack. I saw a flash from the destroyer, so I had a few seconds’ warning. I managed to combust into flames before the fireball engulfed me, but others weren’t so lucky.” Inferno shook his head. “The Xenos scorched everything. For the longest time, I feared I was the sole survivor. Village after village had been reduced to ash. Finally, I encountered you and Tigre.”
With the entire planet in flames, the three of them had teamed up with Psy and Shadow to find a way to escape. They’d run into Chameleon, who’d led them to the Castaway. Under bombardment, they hadn’t questioned his identity. When an entry scan alerted them they’d joined up with the enemy, Wingman had insisted they lock him up.
“We’re all starting over,” Inferno said. “Chameleon is, too.”
“He escaped from the brig and impersonated you to gain access to the bridge.”
“Wouldn’t you have done the same?”
Besides the point. “He disappeared overnight.”
“Because he met his mate.”
“So he said.”
“You don’t believe him?”
“The fact he would consider leaving her makes me question whether she is his mate,” Wingman said. She certainly couldn’t be a genmate.
Inferno shrugged. “He thinks he’s protecting her.”
“Maybe,” Wingman conceded. If he had a mate, he’d do anything to protect her—even leave her behind. He hated to admit he might have something in common with the Xeno.
Inferno peered at him out of the corner of his eye. “Have you ever wondered what sex with a human would be like? I wouldn’t mind blazing a trail with a human before we leave.”
“We’d have to get off this ship, first!” He snorted. “Maybe that’s part of it. Maybe I’m jealous. Chameleon and Psy can blend with the natives. Meeting Mysk was the only time we’ve been off the ship. That’s what infuriates me. We agreed to lie low. We isolate ourselves while Chameleon runs all over Earth, meets a mate, and then reveals his real form! I haven’t flown since we left ’Topia.” He flexed his aching wings.
“I hear you. We wouldn’t have been able to meet with Mysk if he hadn’t sent a limousine with tinted windows.” He stopped in the middle of the passage. “But maybe...”
“Maybe what?”
“As long as no one sees us, why can’t we leave? At night, we wouldn’t stand out as much. Can you make your wings less noticeable?”
“It’s not comfortable, but how’s this?” Wingman folded them tighter and closer to his body.
“That’s good!” Inferno scrutinized him. “They’re almost not visible from the front. If you wore a cape, nobody would see your wings.”
“What about you though?” Wingman eyed Inferno’s red face and horns.
“In the dark, my red skin will look brown. There are a lot of brown humans. And I can have the replicator make me a ball cap to hide my horns.”
“Ball cap?”
“A sporting hat. They are quite popular with male humans.”
“Make me one, too. Let’s fly the coop!” Wingman grinned.
