by Starla Night
Her sadness touched him. She was as solitary as he was, and their burdens were obvious to anyone with eyes. His were scars and size.
Hers was existing as a female dragon.
Males hated and feared her. She could control their lives, crush them until they obeyed her wishes, tear them apart if they disobeyed. Relatives, enemies, strangers all had to respect her regardless of their true feelings.
Amber never flexed her power. She tried, as much as possible, to remain quiet and observe. Only contribute when required. Suppress her true nature to let her siblings live without the burden of her presence.
Just like Kyan.
He reached out and cupped her cheek.
She blinked. But she did not move away.
This was a gesture of comfort Laura would make. Kyan would walk past Amber’s sadness to get on with his job. But Laura would stop, comfort Amber, and tell her it was okay.
Kyan couldn’t go so far as to tell her it was okay. He didn’t think it would be. But he could share this silent moment, the two of them frozen in a statue, and she could know by his touch and his respectful silence that he heard, understood, and empathized.
“I work alone,” he said finally and dropped his hand.
She touched her own hand to her cheek. “Let me know if I can help.”
“I will.”
“Sir!” The ops manager summoned him. “A ripple has appeared next to one of the five projected locations of decloaking.”
“Contact the Vermillion family. Tell them to prepare for a salvage operation.”
The ops manager looked up. “They’ll want to know what they’re salvaging.”
He closed his tactical helmet. His rough voice growled from its speaker with a soft, metallic echo. “The wreck of a Draconis warship.”
Chapter Thirteen
“I’m a nurse,” Laura told the severe captain of the warship one more time. “I promise you. Just a nurse.”
The captain, sitting on the single elevated seat like a futuristic throne, stared down his long nose. “Then why do you, a human, own a lair designed to hide from dragons?”
“I told the other people already. It’s not my lair.”
An armed team had appeared outside the wreck shortly after the destruction of Kyan’s fortress. They’d taken her patient and ordered her into their small spaceship at gunpoint.
“Er, it wasn’t my lair,” she corrected because her last glimpse had shown a smoking crater.
“We received intelligence that it was.”
She rubbed her eyes.
Kyan had to rescue her soon. He must have noticed she was missing by now.
She really should have gotten his cell number.
Of course, her cell phone was still in her work locker. Kyan had taken her to her apartment but deemed the hospital still too dangerous.
The captain sniffed imperiously. “So many human lies.”
In the same nondescript gray uniform as his crew, his rank was only obvious from the throne and the way his commands were instantly obeyed. A long nose and thin, high brows gave him regal disdain.
“I’m telling you—”
“And I am informing you. The crime for attacking an aristocrat of the Dragon Empire is death. Destruction of your bloodline. And, across your entire planet, the immediate institution of martial law.”
“But—”
“Resistance will result in strafing the major cities until all natives are in full compliance.”
“But I didn’t attack anyone!” She dropped her hands. “I don’t even know how to operate those guns. They went off all by themselves!”
He raised a thin brow. “Weapons do not discharge ‘by themselves.’ They are programmed.”
“I didn’t program them.” She sucked in a breath and let it out. “Look. I really am a nurse. And I wasn’t trying to attack your pilot. He had two dislocated shoulders and putting a ball joint back into its socket can cause anyone to scream.”
After the shock of the laser cannon, she’d fixed one dislocation before the warship’s troops arrived. And then, over her and the pilot’s protests, they’d arrested her for being a spy.
The captain waved her explanation away. “I am not talking of the pilot. You attacked an aristocrat.”
“There’s a difference?”
“My nephew.” The male eyed her severely. “Chrysoberyl Carnelian.”
“Chryso—no! No, no, no.” She shook her head wildly. Relief filled her with semi-hysterical laugh. “No, there’s been a mistake.”
“There is no mistake.”
“But I didn’t attack Chrysoberyl. I was his nurse. I got attacked because of him.”
The captain frowned.
Oh, thank goodness. This was all one big misunderstanding.
“There’s an anti-dragon cult on Earth. After I treated Chrysoberyl, they broke my window, vandalized my apartment, and cut the brakes on my car. They even sent someone to stab me.”
Huh. When she described what had happened, it sounded more serious than she’d realized.
Laura’s laughter died. She rubbed her bare elbows.
The dragons had removed her bulky outer clothing to prove she didn’t have weapons stashed in Kyan’s borrowed trench coat. They’d been impressed with the shrapnel resistance of the fabric.
“So that’s why I was in this secret lair,” she finished. “I’m hiding from cultists.”
“Then why was the lair designed to hide from dragons?”
“The owner’s a security freak.”
The captain considered her for a long moment, then slowly shook his head.
Her stomach sank. “It’s true!”
“Chrysoberyl’s attacker hid in a secret bunker on this planet. You hid in a secret bunker on this planet.”
“Am I the only one? Alaska’s not Idaho, but it is populated by rugged individuals who don’t like crowds.”
He cast his gaze over his stiff, silent crew. They manned their screens. Mysterious whirs were the only sounds.
He clicked an intercom button on his glowing armrest. “Medical. What was the disposition of the away ship pilot?”
“One dislocated shoulder, one swollen shoulder.”
The captain’s gaze flicked to her.
She bounced on her sock-clad toes. Her ankle barely even bothered her. “That was me! I fixed one shoulder. He should keep it in a sling until it’s healed.”
The captain’s gaze slid back to the intercom. “Carry on.” He closed the connection, then studied her. “You treated Chrysoberyl?”
“He was burned by hot coffee.” Patient confidentiality flew out the window when her life, her family, and the freedom of her planet were at risk. “Ask him. He’ll remember me.”
She hoped.
The captain’s gaze narrowed. His fingers hovered over the buttons on his armrest. Then, he unbuttoned his uniform cuff and rolled up his sleeve. “If you truly are a nurse, tell me what is wrong with my forearm.”
A test.
Oh, god.
She needed Galina, all the equipment of Saint General Restoration, and an encyclopedia of dragon-human ailments. Stat.
But there was only her. Would she be enough?
She approached.
A red bump rose in the middle of his forearm.
Infected mosquito bite? Allergic reaction? A single case of hives?
She turned his forearm over, mentally crossing off diagnoses until the picture clarified.
“I think you have an ingrown hair.” She tapped the puffed skin near the white head and he grimaced. “This one’s turned into a cyst. I recommend lancing. Normally, if you have a warm cloth and acne medication, you can treat it before it gets to this stage.”
“Acne medication? Lancing?” he repeated as if those words had no translation.
Maybe they didn’t. Kyan had said minor injuries would not be healed. Like the other dragon injuries she’d thus far treated, none made use of her medical degree.
How strange. Dragon tec
hnology could heal a fourth degree burn in days but they couldn’t treat one ingrown hair? And that neglect caused a minor irritation to swell until his uniform brushing his arm probably hurt.
Chronic, endless pain put anyone in a bad mood. No wonder he looked pinched, easily irritated, and didn’t believe in her.
She rummaged in her pockets. “I don’t have topical acne medication, but the others…”
Yep, she still had tweezers, gloves, a packet of antibiotic cream, and a small plastic bandage in a back pocket, along with another condom.
Ooh. Her feminine parts clenched. Kyan would rescue her and she would be so glad to see him and then she would have a reason to use up the last condom. And then they’d have to discuss acquiring more.
She arranged her implements on the armrest and lofted the tweezers. “Can anyone sterilize this for me?”
In a short time, she cleaned out the cyst and bandaged the dragon captain all up.
“Because we removed the hair, you’re at risk for a re-occurrence,” she warned him sternly. “Rub the area with a warm wash cloth twice a day until it’s grown out.”
He nodded his understanding.
She stepped back — into an audience. The entire bridge crowded around silently watching. She was like a superstar surgeon in an operating theater.
Except … it was only an ingrown hair.
Seriously.
And to be honest, the dislocated shoulders could have been treated by any reasonably qualified sports coach.
Still, it was good to be useful, and she was glad to have helped out.
“Impressive.” The captain flicked to his first officer, who hugged a hand to his chest. “Can you heal his injury?”
She examined the first officer. Infected hangnail on the ring finger.
“Soak it until the skin softens, then cut off the rough edge and bandage it with antibiotic cream. And rub on vitamin E to prevent a re-occurence. Repeat the soaking and bandaging twice a day for four days. If it’s not looking better by that time, you may need a prescription.”
His posture straightened with new hope. “Then, it can be healed?”
“Absolutely.”
“I have suffered for years.”
“Okay, then, stay hydrated, wear gloves when you do rough work to protect your cuticles, and invest in a quality hand cream. Everyone gets hangnails but there are measures you can take to head them off.”
The next officer limped forward. Rubbing his hamstring, he launched into his problem. “I was running and felt a sharp pain…”
She diagnosed shin splints, a sinus infection, tinnitus, lower back strain, plantar fasciitis, carpal tunnel, and overexertion. Half way through the bridge officers, she was just starting on a possible vision disorder when the warship shuddered and the lights flickered.
The officers raced to their screens.
The captain pressed his intercom button. “Engines. Report.”
Shouts filled the bridge. A rubber band sound twanged across the connection. The shouts turned to screams.
The captain punched another button. His voice tightened. “Security Team Four. Assist Engines.”
Silence.
“Security Team Four? … Security Team Three, answer. … Security Team Two?”
No answer.
“We are losing power to all systems,” the first mate reported tersely. “Switching power to backups … backups are also failing.”
The captain fixed on Laura. “What did you do?”
“Me? Nothing. Oh! Did anyone tell Kyan I’m still alive?”
The captain paled. “Kyanite Onyx? What is he to you?”
Ooh, good question. She licked her lips. “Um, we’re kind of seeing each other.”
The officers whirled from their stations. Their terror matched the captain’s alarm.
“You see him?!”
“No, I mean, dating.”
They didn’t appear to understand.
“We’re together.”
No comprehension.
“We had sex,” she said flatly.
The captain grew horrified. “You are his mate?”
“Well…” They hadn’t exactly discussed it. She skipped to the point. “You blew up his lair. I thought it would be okay because I’m wearing his tracker.”
“No signals can escape the warship.”
“Then he might think I was inside when it blew up.”
“Heat shields are down,” the first officer reported. “Exposure to radiation is imminent.”
The captain jolted to his feet and slammed buttons. “All hands protect the core!”
The order echoed. It was an all-ship broadcast.
All bridge officers flew out the door but the captain, his first officer, and one grizzled security guard. The trio tightened, vigilant.
“He must be on this ship right now,” the captain mused.
“Impossible,” the grizzled officer growled. “There is no record of an intruder.”
“Kyanite Onyx was a Black Shadow. A ghost! They retook Broken Sun Station when we nearly lost the Colony Wars.”
The grizzled officer shut his mouth, removed a gun from his side holster, and faced the closed door.
The captain gritted his teeth. “Life support?”
“Failing,” the first officer reported. “And so is navigation. Planetary gravity is sucking us into its well.”
A giant window appeared on the main wall. Earth floated below their ship … and it grew as their spaceship tilted.
The captain’s gaze darted around the bridge. Suddenly, he slammed his palm on the intercom again. “Kyanite Onyx! Desist. We have your mate.” He motioned to her. “You talk.”
She swallowed and spoke in the general direction of his armrest. “Kyan? It’s Laura. Don’t crash the ship. I need it to get home.”
Silence.
She cleared her throat. “I’m on the bridge. There was a misunderstanding. They thought I was a bad guy, but now they know I’m just a nurse.”
Silence again. She met the gaze of the captain. He released the button.
They were probably going to die.
“You are not just a nurse,” said Kyan.
She whirled.
The wall behind her, filled with blinking lights and tiny screens, was otherwise empty.
Weird.
His voice hadn’t sounded like it came from an intercom. It had sounded like he was right—
The screens and lights shimmered and faded into a hulking male the size of a steel tank coated with bulky black ops armor.
Kyan.
He wrapped one arm around her, drawing her against his armored chest, and leveled a gun at the captain. “Explain.”
Chapter Fourteen
Kyan held Laura to his chest. Her soft, rounded, whole derriere pressed against his lower waist.
She was unharmed.
The dragons on this warship would be allowed to live.
He pressed the interference signal in his pocket. The survival systems restarted.
Meanwhile, he needed to have a chat. “Misunderstanding?”
The captain stared down Kyan’s barrel. He spoke fast. “I answered a distress call from my nephew. He was badly disfigured and the human aggressor was hiding on this planet. We had no idea that was your lair.”
“Your mistake.”
He swallowed and glanced at his grizzled security officer. The experienced male had the good sense to remain seated with his hands in his lap.
“I need that distress call.”
“There was more than one.” The captain clicked buttons on his armrest. “If you restore our power, they’re yours.”
Laura leaned against Kyan. “We’re not really going to crash, are we?”
The lights blinked, and the warship shuddered. Engines revved to reverse the warship’s free-fall and regain cruising altitude. On the wall screen, Earth tilted to a safe distance.
“No,” he said.
She released a big sigh. “I didn’t think so.
”
The doors flew open, and the officers raced in. They fanned out, seeking an opening to attack.
Foolishness. Kyan would not give them one.
The captain held up a hand. “At ease! At ease.”
They froze.
“Here. The distress calls.” He offered Kyan a clear military file.
Laura and took the file. It was big in her small hands. “Neat.”
“Where can we escort you?”
“The Onyx Corporation head office.”
The captain nodded to his officers. They returned cautiously to their seats, gazes never straying far from Kyan’s gun — unless it was to Laura under his arm.
His fingers tightened possessively.
“I hope you weren’t frightened when your lair blew up,” she said. “I’m really sorry about that, by the way.”
“You are not to blame,” he murmured, his mouth near her ear.
She shivered.
What a delicious reaction.
He nuzzled her, unable to stop himself. The thought of losing her had shaken something dangerous loose in his soul.
She turned her head and tilted her lips up, silently inviting him to claim her.
Cravings warred with his control.
Control won.
“Were you treated well?” he murmured.
“Hmm?” Her lids opened wider. “Oh. Yes. Actually, once we got past the misunderstanding, everyone was super nice. I’d like to come back.”
The captain’s taut shoulder seemed to ease. His officers’ hard gazes softened.
Laura made friends in the most unlikely of places.
“You want to come back,” Kyan repeated.
“They could use the services of a nurse. I want to come back with real medical supplies and treat what I diagnosed.”
Possessiveness fired through him. “They should be treated by their medics.”
“But their injuries are minor, you know? The ones that ‘aren’t worth it.’ Except even minor injuries can turn into major problems.” She shook her head. “It’s criminal to ignore the pain of a child, and flat out stupid to deny good health to adults. How can ill soldiers give their best? They should be in peak physical condition. It only makes sense.”
He didn’t know what to say.
The captain did. “The Gnashing Teeth would be well-served by your healing. In exchange, we could take you anywhere in the galaxy you wished.”
