Lion Man's Captive, Kaitlyn O'Connor [top fiction books of all time .txt] 📗

an access to the surface that she had a better chance ofnavigating, she yielded to his determination and struggled up. Hepulled her between his spread legs, settled her briefly on his lap,and then lifted.

“Oh shit!”

With a lot of grunting,straining, and cussing, she managed to inch her way up a few feet.The opening at the top still seemed impossibly far away, but everytime she stopped to rest, Aidan planted his hands on her bare assand gave her another push upwards. It worked better the first fewtimes. The feel of his hands on her bare ass was enough inspirationto get her struggling higher, but it didn’t take long for her tomove beyond caring wherehe put his hands.

The problem with giving up was that bythe time she reached the point where she didn’t feel like she couldclimb anymore if there’d been a fire under her, they were a longway from the hard concrete floor below. Feeling more than a littlenauseated from the strain and the gallon of water she’d drank, shefought trembling, burning muscles, nausea and fear and kept tryinguntil the lip of the shaft was almost within reach. Her anxietythen switched from fear of falling to what might beoutside.

Right up until the moment of truth,she’d actually felt somewhat more secure to have Aidan below her tobreak her fall.

Or to land on if they bothfell.

She began scanning everything that shecould see above her. Relief didn’t really sink in, though, untilshe was high enough to get a 360 degree view of at least twentyfeet surrounding the manhole. It took the last of her energy andAidan shoving from behind to climb out and collapse on the dirt.She lay panting, shaking, and struggling with the urge to pukewhile she listened to Aidan climb out. He collapsed beside her,huffing for breath.

That was somewhat mollifying. He lookedto be in great shape. If he was exhausted from the climb, maybe shewasn’t doing too badly?

He was on his feet in a few moments,however. Leaning down, he hauled her to her feet, checked the thingon his wrist and began hurrying roughly southward. They’d emergedin a utility cut. The trees had been cut down in a wide swath toaccommodate the high power lines, but there was vegetation that wasnearly breast high on her. With that as a yardstick, she deducedthat the cat alien must be between six and seven feet tall.Certainly a good bit more than six!

So he didn’t justseem big and scary! Hewas!

It was an advantage for him. Hetrampled through the high brush relatively unfazed. Following inhis wake, Anya didn’t fare quite as well, for although he blazed apath with his boots, there were still plenty of bushes to slap ather as she followed.

When he stopped abruptly, she smackedinto his back and then fell back a step. He sent her a look overhis shoulder. “What?” Anya demanded irritably. “Like I can see adamned thing!”

“Looks like whatever thisis it’s running in roughly the right direction. We might makebetter time to stick with it.”

“Yes, well, gobble-dy gookto you, too!”

He shook his head. “Disvay.”

Anya followed his pointing finger andwent up on her tiptoes to get a better look. Then she looked up atthe sky uneasily. “What about those things?”

Aidan studied the sky, as well. Withouta word, he led her to the edge of the forest. Except for the damnedbriars, it was a good bit easier to follow the line of trees. Pinesjust naturally worked as weed killers and not a lot grew beneaththem—except the briars—which Anya discovered still had someblackberries attached! “Oh thank god! A food-type substance I’mfamiliar with!”

Ignoring his tug to keep moving, shestopped and plucked a handful, looked them over perfunctorily, andthen popped a couple into her mouth. Without sugar, they were a lotmore sour than she’d anticipated. She scrunched her face up at thetartness, shuddering.

Aidan chuckled.

The sound caught her completely offguard. Her eyes popped open and she stared at him with a mixture ofdoubt and amazement. But she could see pure amusement in hisexpression and that dispatched the last of her doubts that she’dactually heard him laugh.

An alien!

Except that wasn’t what went throughher mind. It was a nice sound, created pleasure. Before she evenconsciously acknowledged that she liked the sound, she felt theeffects on her spirits, felt a buoyancy arise from the pleasurethat seemed to ‘lift’ her. She found herself looking back at himwith amusement even as his smile faded. “They’re good. Really! Wantsome?” she asked, lifting her hand to offer the last few she stillhad.

He grinned, wryly, and shook hishead.

Anya used her finger to mark a cross onher chest. “Cross my heart. They won’t hurt you.”

He studied the gesture and then herface, looking vaguely puzzled but intrigued. Shrugging, Anya poppedthe last couple into her mouth and searched for more, filling thepockets of his jacket. Sour as they were--and she couldn’t handle alot of that at once—they were food and she had no intention ofmissing out on it when all she had to do was pick it.

They’d been walking about an hour whenAnya realized the viewing area ahead of them was widening. Aboutfifteen minutes later she caught a glimpse of asphalt and thencommercial-type metal buildings. Her heart skipped several beatswith a mixture of hopefulness and anxiety.

Buildings! Civilization!

Well, bits and pieces.

Chapter Six

Anya decided that they’d reached anindustrial park after surveying the area thoroughly.

It was almost more bizarre thananything she’d seen since the alien landing/invasion!

There were patches of asphalt. Someeven still bore the paint stripe that indicated it had been aparking lot. Ditto the buildings and everything else that had oncemade up the industrial area. Nothing looked corroded, as if timewas the culprit for the missing pieces, and yet it still lookedrather like a ghost town, something that had stood long, long agoand had been worn away by time and the weather until there wereonly pieces left here and there.

There were parking lots around each ofwhat she could see had once been massive metal buildings, but nosign of cars or of people, no sign of bodieseither—thankfully!

Was everyone in hiding,