Dark Cure

by Cynthia Sax

  “If that is your choice.” Kralj’s head dipped, the unnatural darkness moving with him.

  Whether or not they returned to Carinae E was Gisella’s choice. He would honor whatever decision she made. “We’ll leave as soon as possible.”

  “The Palavian will die during this shift.” The Ruler stopped in the middle of the pathway. “Your gerel will insist on being the medic to speak with the two brothers about his death.”

  The Palavian was her patient. Oghul straightened. His gerel would consider speaking to the brothers to be one of her duties.

  He couldn’t allow her to undertake that task. The brothers would fly into a grief-driven rage and try to kill her.

  “We’ll leave immediately.” That would be the only way he could stop her.

  Kralj faced him. Silence stretched.

  Oghul shifted his weight from his right foot to his left. Was there more information he should know?

  “A great team can survive without its leader,” the Ruler finally said.

  Oghul’s warriors would endure without him. He wasn’t dooming them to death by leaving them, by returning to Carinae E.

  He inclined his head. “Thank you.” He needed to hear that.

  “That message wasn’t meant for you.” Kralj grasped one of Dita’s hands and walked away, carrying the body parts on the spike. The little assassin traipsed beside her much taller mate, the severed head tucked under her free arm.

  Oghul frowned. His gerel’s team would be without its leader for a short duration. She wouldn’t—

  “You’re here early.” Hulagu punched his arm. The other Chameles gathered around him.

  Here was the fighting rings, Oghul realized. The Ruler had led him to that site, knowing his males and his brother would be found there.

  “We’re leaving for Chamele 2 immediately.” He communicated that decision.

  “Yes!” Yesun’s fists pumped the air. “We’ll return home in time for my sister’s birthing planet rotation celebration.”

  Hulagu, in contrast, appeared stunned by the announcement, gaping at him. Oghul would speak with his brother later, explain his need for a hasty departure.

  The other warriors didn’t require an explanation. They grinned as a ripple of excitement flowed through the group. The males had enjoyed the visit to the Refuge but Chamele 2 was home.

  Oghul experienced the same happiness and he wouldn’t be staying on that planet. He would, however, be showing his gerel Chamele 2 for the first time.

  She would love it. He knew that in his heart.

  “Qulpa, choose two other warriors and transfer the contents of my gerel’s chambers to the ship.” He wasn’t certain which possessions Gisella would need during the voyage. It was better to take all of her things than leave something critical on Carinae E. “Ariq, I require restraints and a gag.”

  His number-one warrior lifted his eyebrows but said nothing.

  Oghul’s gerel wouldn’t go with him willingly, not without having a long lengthy discussion first. She’d also request plenty of time to prepare, would worry about her patients and her team.

  To speed the process, he would have to abduct her. His jaw jutted. That was the only way to get her off the planet quickly, keep her safe.

  “The rest of you, ready the ship for departure.” He gave that order to the remaining males. They would leave as soon as Gisella was on board.

  His warriors rushed to follow his orders, leaving Oghul alone with his brother. “I won’t be able to say goodbye to your gerel. I regret that.”

  He doubted she would feel the same way. His brother’s gerel was still terrified of him. Her reaction to his presence made him feel like a brute.

  “I’ll tell her you had to depart quickly.” Hulagu waved his hands dismissively. “She’ll understand.” His forehead furrowed with worry lines. “Is there trouble on Chamele 2? I live here now but I will always be a Chamele. If you need me—”

  “There’s no trouble on Chamele 2.” Other than the rogue warrior all three of the Warlords were hunting, the system was peaceful. “Beings in the Refuge are seeking to harm my gerel.”

  His brother’s eyes widened. “Then you have to go. She’s the light to your darkness. You must keep her safe.”

  Oghul dipped his head. “We will return.” It wasn’t a permanent good-bye. “I’ll speak with our Warlord, explain our situation to him.”

  “My gerel feels protected in the Refuge.” Hulagu’s face glowed whenever he mentioned his female. “And I belong here.” His gaze lowered. “Maybe it’s because I didn’t fight in the succession wars, but I don’t have your attachment to Chamele. I like being different. Having the ability to fade into the background makes me valuable in this settlement. That wouldn’t happen on Chamele 2.”

  “I understand.” Oghul would be harming Hulagu, a being he loved, by permanently living in the Refuge. Having two Chameles in the same settlement would lessen his brother’s uniqueness.

  Oghul quashed his concerns. He could derive a way to make everyone he cared about happy later. Right now, he had more important tasks to plan.

  He had a gerel to abduct.

  ***

  A quarter of a shift later, he hunted his female.

  Oghul located her in the Palavian’s chamber. He breathed in her sweet musk as he entered, preparing himself for their confrontation.

  His little medic’s spine immediately straightened. She was aware of his presence.

  That didn’t surprise him. Although he was in stealth mode and was naked except for the restraints and gag wrapped around his forearms, she was his gerel.

  The two of them were connected. He could detect her presence with his eyes closed.

  “I don’t understand what happened.” She gazed at her handheld. “I was certain I removed all of the growth yet it’s back and more pervasive than it was previously. Oh, fuck.” Her shoulders rounded. “It now encompasses his heart.”

  “He’ll die.” Kralj had been correct about that. “There’s nothing you can do to stop that.” Oghul made himself visible.

  “He’s my patient.” She stripped the covering cloth off the male, exposing his naked form. “I won’t allow him to die.” She grabbed another device, placed it on the Palavian’s stomach. “I can do this.”

  She worked on the male, becoming more agitated and more desperate with each passing moment. Sweat dripped down her nape. Her leather-clad fingers trembled.

  His medic was waging a war she couldn’t win. He wanted to drag her away from the Palavian, wrap her in his arms, safeguard her from emotional harm. “Gerel—”

  “I’ll heal him.” Her words were choked. “I have to.”

  Why did she have to heal the Palavian? Oghul opened his mouth.

  All of the machines started beeping. Screens flashed warnings.

  “Fuck, no.” She traded the second device for a third. “Don’t die on me, Egor.”

  The male’s body jerked. The machines continued to sound an alarm. Her patient’s form convulsed again.

  “Fight, you four-armed bastard.” Oghul’s gerel adjusted the device’s settings, tried three, four, five more times. Her cheeks were flushed. Her hands shook.

  Her patient’s status didn’t change.

  “No. No. No.” She thumped the Palavian’s chest with her fists, the agony on her beautiful face tearing Oghul’s heart to pieces.

  “He’s gone.” He turned her toward him, pulled her close. “You can’t do anything more to help him.”

  He must have been correct about that because she didn’t disagree with him. “I have the machines.” Her voice was muffled against his skin. “I should have been able to save her.”

  She should have been able to save her. His gerel was thinking of her mother.

  “She knew you did your best.” He hugged his grieving female to his big form, trying to soothe her, comfort her. “She knew that.”

  Anyone interacting with his little medic, however briefly, would realize she would do anything for he
r patients.

  “It wasn’t enough, Oghul.” His gerel sobbed. “I wasn’t enough. I failed her.”

  The sound of his tough female falling to pieces was more painful than any wound he’d ever endured. “You couldn’t save her.” He rubbed her back. “No one could. But you didn’t fail her, gerel. You were there, ensuring your mother didn’t die alone. During those last moments, she had you, someone who loved her, by her side, holding her hand.”

  “I did hold her hand.” She looked up at him. Her eyes were rimmed with red. “How did you know that?”

  “I know you.” He smiled gently. She might act like a badass but she had a generous, giving heart.

  “Oh.” Her bottom lip trembled. “Then-then you also know…” Her voice faded.

  She had another secret, assumed he had uncovered it.

  Oghul reviewed everything he’d learned about his gerel, replaying her actions during the Palavian’s passing, how she had fought for the male’s lifespan until the very end.

  His little medic had never given up. He had to pull her away from her patient, force her to accept the truth.

  When her mother died, she’d been alone, utterly alone. His stubborn brave wonderful female would have done everything she could do to save her loved one. She would have tried all possibilities, again and again, believing if she did one more thing, fought just a little longer, she could bring her mother back.

  There had been no one to tell her to stop.

  No one to tell her to say good-bye.

  He bracketed her cheeks with his hands, forcing her to look at him. “You didn’t have to utter the words, not to her. Your mother realized you loved her.”

  “I should have told her.” His gerel pressed her face against his palms. “I knew…I knew she was close. But I was so certain the machine would arrive, I would save her and there would be time, a lifespan to tell her I loved her.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “But I was wrong and then it was too late. She was gone and I hadn’t—” Her voice broke.

  “Your mother felt your love.” He glided his thumbs over her skin, brushing the wetness away. “It was conveyed through your fingertips, how you held her hand. It shone from your eyes.”

  “I still should have told her.” She sniffled.

  “She didn’t need that.” He kissed her forehead. “There was nothing you could have told her that she hadn’t already known.”

  Moments stretched.

  His gerel peeked at him between lowered eyelashes. “I could never keep any secrets from her.” Her tone was sheepish. “My mother always knew.”

  “That’s a power mothers have.” His mother had that skill also. “It doesn’t go away when they’re ill. If anything, it gets stronger.”

  She studied him for a moment. He held her gaze.

  Her lips lifted slightly. “Then she must have known I loved her.”

  “She knew.” He gave her the confirmation she required.

  Gisella glanced at the Palavian’s body and her shoulders slumped once more. “But did my patient know? His brothers didn’t have the opportunity to say good-bye. I should have—”

  “They wouldn’t have said good-bye to him.” That was one regret Oghul could eliminate for her. “That isn’t their way.”

  Palavians didn’t visit the dying or engage in mourning. If the brothers acted true to their culture, their sorrow would be expressed through violence. They would kill and maim and hurt others as they were hurting inside.

  His gerel would be far from them when that happened.

  “My way is to give loved ones that opportunity.” But she no longer worried about not having done that. He heard that in her voice. “I should note the details of his death in his file.” She hurried toward a viewscreen. “That’s procedure.”

  Notifying the brothers would also be procedure. Oghul couldn’t allow that.

  He faded from his little human’s view and removed the gag coiled around his forearm. She was facing the viewscreen, didn’t notice his movements.

  He approached her slowly, silently. She would be angry at him for taking this action but it was necessary. The brothers would kill her.

  “I’m doing this because I care about you.” He wrapped the gag around her head, inserting the widest part of it between her lips.

  She shrieked, the sound muted, and pulled on it. He drew her arms behind her and bound them with the restraints. She fought him, kicking, bucking. Her eyes blazed with rage.

  “The brothers will try to kill you.” He hefted her over one of his shoulders. She kneed his chest. He winced and strapped his right arm across her legs, pinning them to his body. “My role is to protect you.”

  He walked with her out of the chamber, along the corridor. Beings gawked at them, their eyes wide and their mouths open.

  Oghul’s face and form weren’t visible. His gerel would look like she was floating high above the floor.

  If he hadn’t been concerned about her reaction to the abduction, that would have amused him. Greatly.

  “We planned to travel to Chamele 2.” He reminded Gisella as he carried her out of the medic bay. “We’re merely taking that trip earlier than we had planned.”

  Her wiggling told him she didn’t accept that reasoning. He slapped her ass and she jerked. The scent of her arousal teased his nostrils.

  His lips twitched, some of his trepidation easing. His gerel was furious but she was also turned on.

  She still wanted him.

  “Kralj gave me a message to give to you.” He could take one of her worries away from her. “He said a great team can survive without its leader.” The other medics would take care of her patients.

  Her struggles ceased. She uttered a word that sounded like the Ruler’s name, her voice lifting into a question.

  “He knew there was nothing you could do,” Oghul murmured, conscious others could be listening to them. “The Palavian was destined to die. I told Kralj I’d take you off planet until the situation was handled.”

  Gisella sagged. His gerel was intelligent. She must have realized she couldn’t fight her abduction.

  He rubbed her legs. That didn’t mean she had forgiven him. His little medic preferred to be in control and he had stripped her of that.

  She’d express her unhappiness. He didn’t doubt that. Their battle would resume once he untied her.

  He sped toward the ship, his female slung over his shoulder. She was the lightest and loveliest of burdens.

  His thoughts churned as he moved. He didn’t have to release her immediately. There were many things he’d like to try while she was bound.

  They hadn’t experienced angry bonding. His cock hardened. That could be extremely…passionate.

  Oghul increased his pace.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Her barbarian was abducting her.

  Gisella glared downward, didn’t see anything except the stone pathway because the damn male was invisible. She couldn’t even gaze at his leather-covered ass cheeks as he hauled her around the settlement like a pack of dirty garments. He’d deprived her of that view.

  And she did enjoy looking at his ass. It was firm, extremely biteable.

  She wiggled. Nothing associated with this experience should arouse her—not his rough handling, not his extreme arrogance, not the possibly he’d do more than carry her while she was bound.

  Yet it did turn her on. She was restrained, gagged, needy. Blast him.

  She was a medic, a grown female, intelligent and capable of making her own choices. It irked her that Oghul and Kralj had decided her fate without her.

  It annoyed her even more that the decision they made had been the right one. She had to leave the planet. If she stayed, others might die.

  Her warrior would be one of those beings in peril. The Palavian brothers would attempt to follow through on their threats, try to kill her. Oghul would become all protective and dominant. They’d fight.

  She could lose him during that altercation. Her heart squeezed.

 
But the rightness of the decision didn’t excuse his high-handed behavior. He should have asked her before taking action. She was a rational being. She would have gone with him willingly.

  Instead, he had treated her as though she was a child, hefting her over his shoulder, carrying her through the Refuge like the primitive savage he was.

  That was unacceptable. She kicked him in the chest.

  “Behave.” He smacked her ass. Hard.

  Heat and desire radiated from the point of contact. Her pussy dripped. He sniffed loudly and she squirmed with embarrassment. With his enhanced senses, he would know his reprimand affected her.

  Fuck. She mumbled that curse.

  The damn male chuckled.

  Her mortification increased as Yesun’s round baby face appeared behind her. He grinned at her. She scowled back at him.

  “The ship’s ready, Second.” The Chamele bounced on the balls of his feet.

  The drone of engines punctuated his statement. They had exited the settlement, approached the area where vessels were stationed. The smell of engine fluid irritated her nostrils.

  “Good. We’re leaving. Now.” Her warrior barked that command.

  Both Yesun and Gisella straightened. The order hadn’t been directed to her yet her body responded to it.

  “We’re going home.” The youth’s tone was gleeful, his excitement barely contained.

  “We’re returning to Chamele 2.” Oghul carried her up a ramp, into the ship. “It’s no longer my home.”

  The sadness in his voice pulled at her soul while his words reassured her. Her abduction wasn’t permanent. She’d see her fully stocked medic bay again.

  Though those advanced machines and quality supplies hadn’t saved the Palavian. Her shoulders slumped, regret sweeping over her.

  As Kralj had mentioned to Oghul – nothing could have extended the four-armed male’s lifespan. He had been doomed.

  She might not have been able to save her mother either. Her father could have retrieved the machine, gone to that extra effort for his mate, only to watch her die.

  Not everyone could be healed. Gisella had long accepted that heart-wrenching truth.

  Access to the best resources, however, gave patients a greater chance at survival. There would be fewer deaths. She’d know she’d done everything possible for them.