Daegan

by Veronica Scott

  “No choice,” he said. He shifted from a walking pace to an easy run, trying not to jar her, although she whimpered in pain anyway. The enforcers flanked him and they arrived at the hut as the medic was sprinting in their direction from the barracks area.

  Daegan laid her carefully on the bed and stepped back to let the healer have room. Flo held up her hand and he clasped it tight.

  “There are side effects,” she whispered.

  “Tell me later, when you’re stronger—save your energy now. The consequences of taking my blood can’t be as bad as the poison.”

  “True.” Flo seemed exhausted uttering even those few words.

  He kissed her forehead. “I love you and I need you—you’ve got to pull through this.”

  She tried to smile and his heart clenched at the effort she was making for him. “Do my best. ” Her voice was a thin whisper.

  Working rapidly, issuing orders to the enforcer who was his helper, the healer opened a vein in Flo’s arm and withdrew a good amount of blood. Daegan bit his lip when he realized how much was being taken, but the healer was already punching into his arm and running the tube from Daegan to Flo’s other arm.

  “I have no idea what we’re doing here.” Jaw clenched, Hainn watched them both as Daegan’s rich red blood pulsed through the line and into Flo. “Or if it will work or even what to worry about for side effects.”

  “Take as much as you need,” Daegan said. “My body is regenerating the supply already. And if this doesn’t work, I absolve you from all blame or responsibility.”

  “Should we ask a few of her fellow humans to come and help?” The healer scanned her with a handheld. “Her vitals are up a bit.”

  “She’s not truly one of them,” Daegan said. “She belongs to me, to us now and we’ll take care of her.” Even if one of the other prisoners was a doctor, which he’d not heard any rumor of, no one was touching Flo but members of his own group, men he trusted.

  The healer nodded, cleared his throat and began to chant, a song to the Great Mother, asking her blessing on what he was doing. As the transfusion continued, Daegan thought Flo regained color in her face and her leg was less swollen.

  “I think it’s working,” said Ivokk.

  “Even though it shouldn’t work at all.” The healer ran another check. “Definitely improving.”

  There were more than a few tricky moments, where Flo suddenly broke out in purple splotches head to toe and had a frightening convulsion, which the healer said was due to her body fighting the alien blood. He ended the transfusion shortly thereafter. “She can’t take any more and it’s either enough to work or it isn’t. She’s so much smaller than we are—I must have drained half her blood volume and refilled her veins with yours. More won’t help.”

  “Give us a bit of privacy.” Daegan needed to be alone with Flo, just the two of them and give in to his fears without anyone watching, not even his closest friends.

  One enforcer had already gone outside earlier to stand guard. Now Ivokk and the healer stepped out of the hut as well. Daegan lay against the pillows, cradling Flo. He shut his eyes and prayed to the goddess as he’d never done before, putting his entire heart into his thoughts, asking for Flo to live. He remembered the beautiful clouds he’d seen a few days ago, in the shape of the Great Mother’s circle and tried to imagine himself carrying Flo into the sacred place, to ask for the help he needed. I need her at my side, I need her help to free my brothers and go forward. I need her to be my mate but even if she never agrees to my claim, I want her to live.

  He smelled the perfume of delicate flowers so unlike the lush, bold tropical blooms he was used to on the island and there was a light touch on his forehead, much as he imagined a mother might kiss a child in distress, although he was a full grown, blooded soldier. He swore his heart stopped and when he dared to open his eyes, there were green sparks dancing in the corners of the room and escaping through the open window like a flock of winged nightglowers. Daegan blinked and both scent and sparks were gone. Hardly daring to hope, he looked at Flo and found her watching him from bloodshot, bleary eyes.

  “Did you bring me more flowers?” she said nonsensically. “Who was the woman?”

  “There was no woman, just you and me. My men are outside.”

  Flo closed her eyes. “I thought I saw someone else. Never mind me.”

  A chill ran through Daegan as he seriously considered whether the goddess had been there in answer to his desperate prayer. “How do you feel?”

  “Like a robo tank ran over me.” She tried to smile and his heart turned over at the effort she was making. “But at least I can move my leg now.” Clenching her jaw, she made a visible effort and shifted her injured limb out from under the covers. “What are those things in the ocean? Pretty but they pack a mean punch.”

  “We call them wind drifters. You were lucky.” He didn’t think she needed to hear the details of how the small predators dealt with their prey.

  “Sorry I went in the water by myself.” Two fat tears dripped down her cheeks.

  Daegan gently wiped them away with his thumb. “I’m not upset. I understand the allure of the ocean. All I want now is for you to recover.” Flo rubbed her face against his hand and he bent to kiss her. “We did the transfusion although my healer thinks we were crazy.”

  “Must have worked then,” she said. “It has been done before, a few times, although not quite like this. Thanks for taking the chance.”

  “Anything for you, my heart.” He was curious what the side effects she’d mentioned before might be, but right now he couldn’t take any more bad news. He wanted to enjoy the happiness he had as a result of her improved condition.

  I’m actually thirsty and maybe a little hungry.” Flo sounded amazed at herself. “Probably good signs, right?”

  “Absolutely.” He called his men inside, using the telepathic connection. The enforcer brought her a glass of water while the healer checked her vitals, leaving Daegan free to continue to sit and hold her, which was what he wanted to do more than anything.

  “If I hadn’t seen this for myself,” Hainn said, shaking his head, “I never would have believed it. She’s doing well, comparatively speaking.”

  “Better than being dead, you mean.” Flo laughed. “When can I eat?”

  The healer frowned. “In half an hour you can try a nutrient drink and then an hour after that, a quarter of a survival ration and we’ll re-evaluate after seeing how those hit your system. Let’s don’t rush anything here. More water in the meantime would be fine.”

  “You medics are always so conservative,” she said, plainly teasing. “All alike.”

  Her voice was stronger and Daegan relaxed a bit more. His Flo was a fighter and he was proud of her. Sending the Great Mother a thank you, he adjusted to make them both more comfortable.

  “Do you want all three of us on duty tonight?” Ivokk asked.

  Daegan shook his head. “It’ll cause too much talk and draw attention from people who don’t wish us well, like Wint. I don’t want questions or comment on anything concerning Flo. Thank you for everything tonight and I release you now. I can keep an eye on her for the balance of the night and confer with you telepathically as needed, Hainn.”

  “Thank you all,” Flo said, reaching out to touch the healer on the arm. “And I especially appreciate your willingness to do the transfusion, which I’m sure struck you as an insane idea.”

  The healer blushed. “My pleasure. I’m glad it worked by the grace of the goddess. Someday you’ll have to explain to me where and how this has been attempted before. You weren’t making much sense earlier, talking about some valley.”

  She glanced at Daegan and he shook his head a fraction so she held her tongue. “Maybe I was dreaming? Maybe your goddess sent me a vision? At any rate, thank you for taking the risk.”

  The Badari left and Daegan was content to be alone with Flo drowsing in his arms and waking enough to drink more fluids and nibble a survival bar, but cle
arly improving while she slept, her heartbeat growing stronger, her thought processes more clear and her general appearance less wan. He hoped her group wouldn’t try to contact her tonight because she needed all her strength to heal.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Flo awoke right before dawn, to the sound of a few sleepy birds tuning up for the day. Daegan was wrapped around her, his warmth reassuring and comforting. She tried to slip out of bed without waking him, which of course was a lost cause. He tightened his arms to hold her when she made the first move. “I’m going to the bathroom,” she said, “And to rummage in the kitchen for the flavor of nutrient drink I prefer.”

  Gazing at her face, he hesitated. “How are you feeling today?”

  Flo kissed him on the lips. “Pretty damn good actually, thanks to your busy little Badari red blood cells.”

  He kissed her back and released her. “We have no orders for today so I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

  “Sounds like a good plan to me.” She visited the bathroom, frowning at her own appearance in the mirror, and then went to check on their supply of nutrient drinks. Finding the flavor she liked, although ‘like’ was an overly generous emotion to apply to the stuff, she wandered to the window to see if any of the birds were visible. So far every avian creature she’d spotted on the island had magnificent plumage in a wild profusion of colors and she enjoyed watching them.

  Nyddfalorr, the guards and Wint have entered the Preserve and are coming your way.

  The urgent message from a Badari soldier was meant for Daegan of course, but sounded in Flo’s head as well, startling her into dropping the drink container. She turned to stare at Daegan. “Did you hear that?”

  “Stay there.” Daegan threw the covers back and leaped out of bed as the guards burst into the hut, stunners drawn. He backed away, blocking their access to Flo. “What do you want?”

  “I’m reliably informed you’ve been keeping secrets,” the Khagrish scientist said, strolling through the door, followed by Wint. “Hiding things from me for years in fact. I’ve been told you’re an alpha-born, which as you know is an automatic death sentence. I must say you’ve been quite cunning and crafty, and the other animals have colluded with you well. But your true nature is revealed to me now.”

  “I told him,” Wint said, thumping himself on the chest and standing tall. “I’ve been willing to tolerate a lot of things from you over the years but now you have something I want—the woman. I want you to remember as you’re dying in the lab that I’ve taken her for my mate.”

  Go. Daegan’s command was fierce in her head and Flo responded immediately, diving out the open window, doing a tuck and roll and leaping to her feet to sprint away from the hut. Behind her she heard the terrifying growls of Badari men in hand to hand combat and she assumed Daegan had attacked Wint to buy her time to escape. There were shouts in Khagrish and the sound of shots being fired.

  She kept running, heading for the interior of the Preserve, where she’d never been before but Daegan had described it to her when they were discussing the coming attack. The beach and the ocean offered no true escape and she’d had enough encounters with the deadly fauna living there. What she needed right now was to buy herself time to regroup and come up with a plan. Her leg was a bit weak, slowing her progress more than she liked, but overall she was doing okay. Briefly she considered trying to get in touch with the two enforcers using her newly created telepathic ability emanating from the transfusion but what could they do to help her or Daegan at this point? The guards had been armed with neurocontrollers as well as their stunners and pulse rifles. Even the Badari couldn’t resist the pain the bracelets inflicted.

  Slowing to a walk as she made progress through the dense underbrush, using every ounce of cover, Flo glanced at her own bracelet. How long before the guards activate it to either summon me or track me or both? Daegan must have created quite a chaotic situation by attacking Wint because so far there was no sign the Khagrish were after her.

  I’m going to rescue you, she promised the Alpha in her head, not broadcasting the thought but taking a deeply felt personal vow.

  Eventually she ended up in a far corner of the Preserve, well hidden under the trees and other cover. Close to her the force barrier hummed and sizzled, marking the boundary of where she could run. Flo considered what to do next. The rising wind blowing through the tree tops above her was a constant reminder she couldn’t simply hide out for the next few days until Aydarr launched his attack. She’d never skulk in the bushes to save herself anyway—it wasn’t in her nature to abandon a friend and Daegan was far more precious to her. She wondered what the Khagrish were doing to him and had to push herself not to focus on the mental pictures. She’d heard horror stories in the valley, from Badari friends who’d been tortured by the Khagrish.

  She prayed to the Lords of Space he’d still be alive by the time Aydarr arrived. The Khagrish liked to draw out their torture and abuse as long as possible, from what she’d been told.

  But she didn’t want Daegan enduring any of it.

  She glared angrily at the force barrier. For the most part it was invisible but at times there’d be random shimmers and iridescence to warn of the field’s existence.

  This one is screwed up. The longer she watched it, the more clearly twisting threads of energy, oddly pink with orange mixed in stood out to her, running through the barrier and creating the actual force that repelled higher sentients such as herself. I wish I had MARL with me, or one of his manifestations. MARL could totally eliminate the Khagrish force fields through some process known only to himself. He could also open a passageway through it, like a door, wide enough for one person. The manifestations, or ‘mini-MARLs’ had the same useful ability when it came to creating openings.

  To rest her eyes, which were burning the longer she watched the force barrier, she rolled onto her back in the soft grass. Throwing one arm across her face, she took a shaky breath before abruptly sitting up, struck by a thought. She did have a mini-MARL on this mission. True it was tiny and in her head, not floating at her side but could she use it to do the things his bigger offspring did? “Is that why I’m seeing the threads of energy?” Flo studied the force barrier and just like the last time, the more she looked at it, the more detail she found. It was fascinating to watch the threads twist and turn and flash through the larger, more opaque force field. Rising from her concealment, she walked right up to the force barrier, not quite touching it.

  There, there’s a gap, a hole.

  The pattern contained quite a few places where there was an inconsistency, where the threads seemed weaker, less organized, and chaotic. Was this was what MARL observed when he scanned a force barrier? Certainly no other human had ever perceived a force field this way. If she extended her hands and pushed the threads apart when one of these anomalies was traveling along the barrier, there’d be a hole. The other threads would flow around it for a while, until another major clump came through.

  Lost in her contemplation of the force barrier, she didn’t realize she’d actually touched it. Only when her arms sank into the pink-orange haze and she batted away new threads as she took a step, did she have a flash of pure panic. Quickly she quelled the shaking and the fear. If I stop now, I’m dead. Forcing herself to keep her eyes open, no blinking, she took another step, extending her arms to the sides, hands upright as if to say “Stop” to the energy flow.

  On the third step there was an audible popping sound and suddenly she was seeing in all colors again and falling to the ground, the back of her head aching as if someone had driven a spike into it. She was on the other side of the force barrier though—free. Flo forced herself to roll over and crawl as fast as she could, anxious to get away from the boundaries of the Preserve. Now she did head toward the beach rather than going further into the impenetrable depths of the island.

  Once she thought she could stand, she was able to walk faster and the pain in her head cleared. Flo sought shelter under an outcropping of old vol
canic rock and took stock. She was barefoot, in one of Daegan’s tee shirts, with no weapon, no food and no water. On the positive side, she was free of the Preserve and in a spot where the Khagrish wouldn’t expect to find her. Although if they chose to use the tracking device in the bracelet and didn’t refine their search parameter to only include the enclosure, she’d be easy to locate. The enemy weren’t renowned for out of the box thinking but she hated to rely on their laziness.

  A sudden shower pattered down on the plants in front of her makeshift hiding place and she ventured out to catch a few precious drops on her tongue to help with her thirst. Flo figured this was probably one of the first storm bands associated with the hurricane so conditions were bound to get worse. Maybe the Khagrish would abandon the hunt for her altogether.

  Of course she couldn’t survive the storm without a sturdy shelter.

  Shaking her head and scurrying into the dubious cover of the rocky overhang, Flo decided she was going to focus on one thing right now—rescuing Daegan. Tonight.

  She settled back into the grotto to rest and gather strength for the solo mission. Thanks to her discussions with Daegan on strategy and the lab complex’s layout, she had a damn good idea where he was being held. She might even risk trying to contact him telepathically when she was close. Flo didn’t have much idea how to manage her newfound ability there and obviously she could hear the other Badari if they weren’t sending one to one private messages. She didn’t want to give away any information by messing up the telepathy thing. Wint had had his followers, after all.

  Suddenly a flash of heat washed over her entire body, head to toe, followed by agony in every single nerve ending. She screamed in anguish and crumpled onto her side, curling up as tightly as she could. Trying to think through the pain, she wondered with horror if this was an aftereffect of the wind drifter stings, or even from the crude blood transfusion but neither surmise seemed correct. It hurt like holy hell, she knew that.