Beyond Read Online Free

were disparities as far as physical traits, of course, although predominantly all were fair in coloring. Blonds, pale brunettes, blue eyes, green eyes. The consistent factor that she noticed was that there didn’t seem to be an unattractive person in the crowd. Even Vodu, with his wrinkles and tan skin appeared very regal.
    “How is our guest doing?” Vodu asked Chara, while looking directly at Aimee.
    “Her name is Aimee Patterson, Vodu,” Chara informed. “I believe she is experiencing some displacement shock. She thinks she is dreaming.”
    Vodu shook his head in sympathy and narrowed his eyes as he turned to glare at the young man standing nearby. Aimee recognized Salvan, the blonde who had supposedly plucked her from her peaceful stroll along the pond in error. He stood now with his hip against a console, his arms crossed and a smug expression on his alabaster face. His light blond hair was a little long and curled up beneath his ears, and he wore the familiar silver apparel over a lean body. He was probably close to perfection, along the vein of Corey Burnfield, but she perceived his perfection as a flaw. He looked too pretty. Dare she say feminine? He made her uneasy, dissecting her with his eyes as if she was a specimen.
    “We apologize, Aimee Patterson, for the mistake that was made in bringing you here, but I assure you that you are not dreaming,” Vodu explained. “Soon the shock will wear off and there will be people here to help you acclimate to your new surroundings.”
    “Just Aimee,” she replied.
    Vodu’s words settled in and Aimee felt a nagging sense of doubt that she was ever going to wake from all this. She’d landed in a world full of perfect people from the stars and she felt frumpy and awkward in their presence. Maybe it wasn’t so different from high school, but at least she had known what to expect there.
    “Where exactly am I?” The question made her feel vulnerable, but it had to be posed. “And don’t say the Guardian ship, Hoorah or whatever.”
    Vodu looked perplexed. He glanced over her at Chara for insight, but the woman shrugged her shoulders.
    “You are on the Guardian Ship Horus. We have just completed our Lifequest, a journey where we visit planets from four galaxies to collect samples.” Vodu shot Salvan a disappointed glance. “ Not human samples. Plant life, mostly. Occasionally some wildlife as young Salvan here was aiming for.”
    Aimee was distracted. Silver uniforms flooded the bustling deck, but in her peripheral vision, she caught a glimpse of someone dressed in black. When she turned to look, there was no one there.
    This had been the answer that she’d screwed up her courage to get?
    “It was an accident that you were taken from your home, Aimee Patterson.” Vodu explained, still patient. “But it is an accident we cannot correct just now.”
    “Aimee,” she whispered, still searching the expansive room with its industrious, shiny staff.
    Then she saw it again. A black uniform. It was like the others, tight enough to detail the tall, brawny frame. Its fabric shimmered with gold flecks to make it glisten, but not as obnoxiously bright as the others. Aimee was so busy admiring how striking the fabric was on the obviously masculine body, she didn’t yet manage to raise her glance. Once she did—even from this distance she found herself locked by eyes of such intense amber that they made her breath hitch. They were like looking into the sun. You knew you weren’t supposed to do it—that it might damage you—but it was so beautiful you just couldn’t help it.
    It was a young man standing off the melee of the busy deck, his shoulder hitched against the window so that the black void of space was his backdrop. No wonder she couldn’t locate him on her second pass. His uniform looked just like the panorama behind him—black, with subliminal bursts of light that flashed as he moved.
    “I know you are in shock and denial,” Vodu continued, either unaware