Unabashedly, I stuck my mouth under the running water and drank until my stomach was full. I hadn't realized how thirsty I was until just this moment—making drinkable water from seawater was a tiring business. I slid to the ground, a happy smile on my face. We might not have been as screwed as I'd thought. This place was shelter from the elements, relatively warm, and had fresh running water.
It must have been sent by God. That was the only explanation that made sense to me.
Galian
All my excitement about this place evaporated when I saw the Kylaen crest on the wall. Not that I'd really paid attention in the military history class—Dig and Rhys were too busy making the after-school lesson a living nightmare for me. But I knew these islands weren't part of our country's land and never had been.
So what was my great-grandfather's crest doing on a wall? For that matter, what the hell was this place doing there? And what did a Kylaen base mean for my chances of getting home?
For the moment, I was focused on other things. The laceration on Theo's leg had grown a little red and warm to the touch when I last checked it, so I was hoping to find a medical kit there to clean it before it got worse. The search would have gone a bit faster had there been working light fixtures, but the dim light filtering in from the high windows was enough so I could see dark shapes.
Eventually, I banged and bounced my way into a supply closet that was full of boxes. And to my ultimate surprise, they contained medical supplies.
"Well that's...convenient," I said, pulling down a box of syringes and needles.
In fact, most of the equipment in there was for blood testing—odd for a radar station. I did manage to find a box of gloves, some gauze, and rubbing alcohol that would prove useful for cleaning the wound.
She was snoozing lightly against the mess hall cabinets when I returned, and I almost hated to wake her.
"What'd you find?" she asked with an uncharacteristically cute yawn.
I opened the rubbing alcohol and smelled it, deciding it was still good enough to use.
"Going out for a drink?" Theo asked, walking over to me.
"Hardly," I said. "Hop up, I want to clean your leg."
"We find shelter and your first thought is my leg?" She sounded surprised, maybe a little flattered. Or maybe my mind was playing tricks on me.
I tried to play it off. "You're my patient until you're fully healed."
She unzipped the jumpsuit and climbed up on the table as I prepped the gauze and the other supplies. It was damned near impossible to see as I removed the old, bloody wrapping on her leg. The wound was healing, albeit slowly, but I would still feel better if I cleaned it.
"Theo, this is going to hurt a little," I said, picking up the alcohol.
"I have come to expect that from you." She hissed when I touched the wet gauze to her open wound, but said nothing else.
"Boy, this is going to scar something awful, I'm sorry," I said, hoping to distract her as I cleaned. "I wish I'd had more sutures in the bag to sew it tighter."
"Scar is better than being dead," she replied. "I've been wondering...where did that bag come from?"
"I haven't told you about Maitland yet?" I said, surprised that it had taken me this long to broach the subject.
"Don't..." She inhaled loudly as I cleaned deep into the wound. "...recall."
"Dr. Maitland is the royal physician at the hospital. He's the one who inspired me to go into medicine."
"Mm-hmm?"
"He gave me that medical supply bag. And taught me that a life is important, no matter what country it comes from."
She opened her mouth to retort, but then closed it. I had a good idea what she was going to say, and I appreciated her holding her comment. Instead, she asked, "Why did he give you a bag of medical supplies to raid a country?"
I smiled. "I doubt Dr. Maitland expected I'd actually use it. I think it was supposed to be more symbolic."
She turned to look back at me. "For what?"
"He wanted me to remember that I could make my own decisions," I said, remembering our last conversation and wondering if he had given up hope that I'd come back alive. "That I'm not my father's man."
"Dangerous words," she said, wincing as I tucked the end of the gauze into place. "But good ones."
"I still got into that plane," I said with a laugh. "Maybe I should have taken his advice after all..."
"How does it feel?" I asked.
"Hurts."
"Better or worse than it did?"
She let out a breath. "Worse. But...better."
I picked up a thick roll of gauze and wrapped it tightly. "Hopefully I can find another roll of this stuff so it won't get infected. How does your other leg feel?" I asked, picking up her left foot to check on the break in her lower leg. It was a garish purple now, and I wished I could at least take a scan of it to check on the severity of the injury.
"Ow." She winced as I gently turned it to the left.
"Sorry." I set her leg down and glanced around the kitchen. "Let me see what I can do to get a better brace for you."
"Galian." Something about the way my name rolled off her tongue drew my attention. "I think my leg will be fine. What else did you find in here? Any chance there's electricity?"
I ducked into one of the cabinets and ran my hands along the dusty shelves, coming up empty. "There are lights here, so they obviously had to have turned on somehow."
"Or maybe they found a way to make it self-sufficient."
"I'd say the latter," I said, considering the distance and the resources required to lay electrical wire from Kylae as I peered in another cabinet. "This place is too far from anything."
"There's a good chance it's water powered, since I didn't see any wind generators or solar panels," she said, pushing herself off the table. "Interested in looking for a hydroelectric generator?"
"Oh, I thought you'd never ask..."
Theo
We left the small kitchen, Galian leading the way, and me bracing myself on his arm as I hobbled behind him. He showed me the open closet where he said he'd found the gauze and alcohol to clean my wounds. We checked a few more boxes to see if there was anything else, but it was more of the same.
"If I wanted to check your blood cholesterol levels, I'd be all set," Galian said, picking up another syringe from a box. "But you'd have to fast first, of course."
I snorted at his joke and rubbed my empty stomach. We should have probably looked for food, but I was a little more excited about our new sanctuary.
The station was a series of long hallways lined with locked doors. Galian insisted on stopping at each room, using his body weight and shoulder to break the lock on the door. We found a set that appeared to be either barracks or prison cells. My guess was the latter, considering there was only one bed in each room and it was devoid of anything else...but why would there be prison cells in a radar station?
The puzzle grew more interesting when we found another set of rooms also empty except for a single bed—though these beds were metal with leather restraints on them.
"This is an operating room," Galian announced, sounding as perplexed as I was.
"What's an operating room doing here?" I asked, running my hands over the restraints. They looked very well-used, although their age was starting to show.
"What is any of this doing here?" Galian muttered to himself as we continued on.
In the last hallway, we finally found something promising. A red door with No Entry—Authorized Personnel Only on it. It took Galian a few tries, but the door finally gave way to a pitch black staircase.
"Are you going down there?" I asked, peering down the darkness.
"Yeah, piece of cake," Galian said, grasping at the wall until he found the railing. "You stay here. I don't want you breaking something else."
"Speak for yourself," I said as he stumbled down a step.
I caught a glare from him before he disappeared. I eased down on the top stair, my thigh wound stinging. I sm
iled as I touched the bandage under the jumpsuit. My first concern was how well this place boded for our survival—there was water, shelter, warmth, possibly food if we could find something unexpired. But Galian's worry was my leg. He'd said it was because I was his patient, but there was something else there, too. Or perhaps I'd just never been cared for in my entire life, and this was how it felt to have someone worry if I lived or died.
Either way, I liked it very much.
"Theo! I found something!"
"Really?" I popped my head up. "Do you need me to come down there?"
"Stay...up there..." He grunted, as if pushing something.
I heard rushing water, and immediately my heart began to quicken. "Galian?" I called.
"I'm okay," he replied. "Just give it a sec."
Machines and gears that hadn't moved in over half a century groaned and squeaked as they churned forward by the water.
The staircase shook as he ascended to join me at the top. Above us, a light flickered to life, bathing us in a grimy, dingy glow.
I looked over at Galian and shared a smile with him.
"You were right," he said. "Hydroelectric generator. How'd you know?"
I shrugged. "Lucky guess."
"This whole place is a lucky guess," Galian said, leaning back.
With the basement lights on, I could now see the small water wheel at the bottom and the latch Galian had opened to let in the sea water. I was mesmerized by the water pushing the wheel forward, which squeaked pleasantly every few turns.
"You look more relaxed than I've ever seen you," Galian observed.
"Shelter will do that to me, I suppose," I said with a laugh. "And working lights."
"Well, I saw something that will make you even happier than shelter."
"Food?"
He faltered a little. "Okay, not that happy. But the bathrooms are right over there."
Galian
I stood under the bone-chilling cold water spraying out of the shower head and couldn't have been happier. I'd probably been in there for much longer than was healthy, especially considering the temperature, but I didn't care. I had long since used up the remnants of the harsh lye soap caked onto the soap holder and now I was just standing under the water, enjoying the feeling of being clean.
"Did you drown in there, princeling?" Theo called from the other side of the wall.
"I hear the water running on your side, too!" I barked back at her.
Suddenly, I began to imagine the cold water dripping down her naked body, puckering her skin.
I coughed, more to quell the thoughts in my own head. It was a good thing the water was cold. I hadn't thought about Theo in that way in some time, not when we were so busy trying to survive. But even now that things were a little easier, I was pretty sure there was no way she'd ever consent to sleeping with me. All my explicit thoughts served to do was give me an erection and nothing to do with it.
"I'm stepping out," she said.
I closed my eyes and tried not to think of her naked again. "Good."
"I didn't want to offend your delicate princeling sensibilities." There was a note of playfulness in her voice I hadn't heard before. Now I really couldn't stop thinking about her naked.
"Oh? You'll recall I'm a doctor," I said, more for myself than for her. "Did you get your bandage wet?"
"No, Dr. Princeling, you only told me four times not to," she said from the common area between the showers. I told myself not to look, trying to remind myself that she was technically my patient and I wasn't supposed to be wondering what she looked like naked.
But my fingers pulled open the shower curtain and I caught a glimpse of her. I already knew she was too thin in the ribcage, I knew the shape of her thighs. But now I was looking at the whole woman, the curve of her breasts, the way her long, wet hair clung to her back as she bent over to dry herself off.
Before she noticed me watching her, I tore my eyes away, stepping into the cold water again that was suddenly much more necessary.
When I emerged, Theo was gone, as was one of the sets of old Kylaen uniforms I had found in the supply closet. It was nice to slide on something that wasn't the disgusting white shirt and khakis I had been wearing since landing there. Even if it did smell like moldy cotton.
I followed the hallway from the showers to the dormitories we'd found. Eight bunks of two beds each were stacked neatly on the walls. Theo was curled up in the one furthest away from me, her wet hair dangling over the edge of the bed.
I sat down in a bunk directly opposite from her, finding it silly to sleep far away when we were the only two people there.
"It's almost like I'm back home," she said wistfully.
"This is home?"
"I suppose the Kylaen military housing is a bit more private?"
I blushed. "I...uh...wouldn't know."
"Ah," she said, rolling onto her belly. "So the princeling never had to bunk with his troops?"
"No," I said with a small shake of my head. "Too dangerous for me to be out of the castle."
"Was that their estimation or yours?"
I saw the playful smile on her face. "What do you want me to say? The 'princeling' wanted to sleep in his own bed."
She pressed down on the mattress as if testing it. "This one actually is softer than the ones we have back in Rave. I consider myself an expert in mattresses."
"Oh?" It was now hard to not think about her naked in the shower.
She caught my meaning and blushed. "I mean, I used to steal mattresses from people when they...when they didn't come back. Trying to find the most comfortable one."
"Do you think someone's swiped your mattress yet?"
"Probably before the sun went down on the first day." Her face tightened. "They aren't going to waste resources to look for me. I'm not...I'm not important."
"I've been wondering," I said, leaning back onto the highly uncomfortable mattress. "You didn't seem surprised to see me."
"Hm?"
"After you crashed, you didn't seem surprised to see me on the island with you."
"I knew who I'd shot down."
"How?"
"You made the unfortunate mistake of alerting us to your participation in the air raid by speaking to your brother."
My cheeks reddened. I'd forgotten about my selfish and irresponsible conversation with Rhys. Possibly the last I'd ever have with him.
"Sorry, by the way," she whispered. "For shooting you down. For getting us stuck here."
I cocked my head to the side. "I thought you were just following orders."
She snorted and looked at the wool coverlet on the bed. "I didn't have an order to go after you. I knew it was you and, I thought if I shot you down, I'd get promoted out of...battle."
"I might have been pissed off a few days ago," I said, looking around us at the bunker. "But now I know what true survival is like. You take what you can get. I would've killed me if it meant I could get off this island."
She glanced up at me again then back down without saying anything.
I laughed and laid down in the bed, turning my head to look at her. "Did you consider killing me?"
"Yes," she said without hesitation. "But...it seemed rather ungrateful considering you'd just saved my life. And it's easier to shoot down some faceless evil Kylaen in the sky than the person sitting across from you, breathing, eating, talking."
"But you've killed people before."
"I didn't have a choice," she whispered, looking at the ceiling. "I try not to think about all of the people I've..." She swallowed. "But when someone's shooting at you, there's only one way to get them to stop."
I considered the seven years she'd spent in the Raven military. My one flight was enough to convince me that I never wanted to do it again. My admiration for her resolve grew.
"Did you ever get scared?" I asked.
"Every time I got in my plane," she said with a sad smile. "But I realized early on that I don't have the luxury of being scared. Not here. Not
in the air. Not until my plane was back in the hangar."
"Then what?"
"Then I cried myself to sleep."
I could see the toll so many years of keeping it together had taken on her. I wished for a tenth of her strength, but at the same time, I was grateful I didn't have to have it.
"Look at the bright side," I said, cocking my head. "You kind of did get your freedom by shooting me down. You are free to do whatever you want now."
"I like that about you, princeling." She yawned, curling up under the covers again. "You always look at the positive."
I turned my head to comment, but she was asleep with a sweet, content smile on her face. So, after turning off the lights, I settled back onto the uncomfortable mattress, pulling the scratchy wool blanket over me, enjoying the first bit of good luck I'd had since I landed on this stupid island.
Or, I thought, looking over at Theo, the second.
TEN
Theo
When the ache in my leg woke me the next morning, I momentarily forgot where I was. The familiar lumpy feeling of a mattress lulled me into thinking I was back in Rave. But no, I was still on the island, the princeling sleeping soundly on the next bed over.
I decided that being there was no longer terrible. I was hungry, of course, but I was warm and I'd had a good night's sleep, undisturbed by worry about waking up to fangs in my face. Most of all, the princeling had grown on me and it warmed me to see his sleeping face. He was easy to talk to—and not because he was my only conversation partner. And, if I were being completely honest, I'd caught a glimpse of his naked body before he'd jumped into the shower, and it had left me thinking about crawling into bed with him.
I smiled to myself. My lieutenants would've thrown themselves at him on the first night. If we were ever rescued, I could just imagine the media storm—
My amused thoughts ended as quickly as they'd begun. It made no sense for me to become attached to the princeling. Us being an "us" would never work, and even entering that territory was asking for heartache.
The Complete Madion War Trilogy Page 9
