by D T Dyllin
Jane drummed her fingers along the arms of her chair. “We’re going to need to stay in cloaking mode until just before we drop into a light slide.”
“I know.” Who does she think she’s talking to?
“I wish we had more concrete details about what’s going on around here, and then maybe we could have done something instead of tucking our tails between our legs and speeding off into space.”
I sighed. Talking about the situation on Xianfrey wasn’t a conversation I wanted to deal with at the moment, but if I didn’t give her something she’d keep going on at me until I snapped, giving her what she wanted in the end anyhow. “What we’re doing is for the greater good.” I adjusted our trajectory, steering us a bit to the left. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with, and the risk is too great to do recon. Even if it turned out that a minimum amount of soldiers were sent to occupy the capitol, we don’t stand much of a chance with just us. It makes more sense to get what’s on that super computer to the Gartians so we can do more good in the long run.”
Jane shifted forward, resting her chin in her hand. “Even still … they are your people. You don’t even know if your parents are alive.”
The truth was, my thoughts hadn’t turned often to my parents. I didn’t have much grief over their potential loss. “If they’re dead, they reaped what they sowed.”
Silence fell over us as outer space loomed in front of The Pittsburgh, no sign of any ships waiting or lingering in Xianfrey’s orbit. It was clear the electrical shield was used as the primary, if only, way to keep spacecraft planet side.
“I can’t believe the Galvrarons, the smartest species in all of the Universe, were taken down so easily,” Jane muttered, obviously considering the very same thing I was.
“It’s not surprising. The Denards and UGFS didn’t defeat them … us. It was our own arrogance that felled my people. Even I never thought Xianfrey would be outright attacked. Our military was mostly for show since we didn’t factor in the plausibility of our defenses ever being breached. Arrogance is ultimately what overcame the Galvrarons. Hopefully we’ll learn from it and have the opportunity to rebuild.” I wondered how many, if any, had survived the attack. It wouldn’t be the first time that an entire species had been wiped out in the blink of an eye.
No. You and Mikla are still alive. Plus, it didn’t make sense to slaughter all of Xianfrey’s inhabitants … enslave, yes.
“If any species has the ability to rebuild, it’s the Galvrarons.”
My stomach twisted as we punched through the atmosphere into outer space. War had once again found its way into the Universe, and the future of everything was uncertain.
Clearing my throat, I glanced at Jane. “You can take over from here, right? I was in the middle of something in the medical wing when you—”
“Sure, sure.” She waved me off as she unbuckled herself, preparing to switch seats. “I’ll want to get a bit farther out before we drop into a light slide, though, so make sure you’re strapped in down there.”
Resting my hand on her shoulder, I squeezed. “New Earth was prepared for the Denards, they’ve been making themselves ready for this war since before Earth was destroyed. I’m sure your family is safe.”
“My family is here on this ship.” She shirked out from under me, and slid into the spot I’d just vacated. “Now go figure out how to get that crazed Talsen dragon hybrid under control. I know he’s more important to you than you want to admit.”
“I’m not afraid to admit my feelings anymore. I love him, and I’ll do anything to save him.”
“Well, I’m happy for you, Smurfette. Now, go take your blue ass out of here and let me concentrate.”
Even though Jane was half human, she hated sappy moments, and even I could tell we were heading for a rare one. “Right. You know where to find me if you need me.”
Hurrying from the control room, I made my way back to the medical wing. Hope made me buoyant, as I let myself believe Mikla’s method of helping me bond with Kade would be a successful one.
“No! I won’t let you do this!” Tamzea tackled me into the wall before I could even get one foot across the threshold of the infirmary.
I shoved at her petite body, surprised at the resistance she was able to give me. “It’s not your choice. I’m not going to let Kade lose his mind more than he already has.”
“I get it. I do.” She grimaced when my elbow met her ribcage. “But we’ll find another way. I’m not letting your brother inject you with the concoction he made.”
“Mikla is a genius even among my people.” I ducked to the right, ending up twisted underneath Tamzea’s arm. “He’s the one who spliced Kade to begin with. He knows what he’s doing.”
“He doesn’t have the proper equipment. He’s letting his arrogance get in the way of what he knows isn’t right.”
All the fight went out of me, and we slumped to the ground in a tangle of limbs, both of us panting. Arrogance. Would I let Mikla’s arrogance be the downfall of me, too? There was no telling what could happen if the formula he injected me with wasn’t right. The best case scenario … I’d end up dead.
“You’re right,” I admitted. “I can’t let him do it, but—” A lump formed in my throat. “I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.”
Tamzea smoothed my hair out of my face, the gesture comforting. “I know. We’ll figure something out. We won’t let you lose him.”
“I appreciate your intent, but platitudes of assurance are nothing more than false hope. You don’t know if anything actually can be figured out in regards to Kade.” I swallowed back tears.
“We’re making an unscheduled stop before heading to Gartian territory,” Jane’s voice crackled over the intercom.
Scrambling to our feet, Tamzea made it the button first, smashing it down. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” Jane responded. “I just got an idea.”
Tamzea and I groaned in unison, knowing Jane getting a spontaneous idea and following it through usually lead to catastrophe.
Ash raced past us, turning into flame mid-step. “I’m on it.”
“Everyone better be buckled in. I’m taking us down in a few seconds,” Jane said over the intercom.
“Shit!” I muttered, staggering after Tamzea into the infirmary.
“Where can she possibly think is a good idea to stop before getting to Gartian territory?” Eron demanded from his seat.
“Who knows with her,” I snapped, flopping down across from him, and making quick work of strapping myself in.
“Your captain is quite insane,” Mikla said. “The options of what she can be up to now are potentially limitless.” He turned his gaze to me. “I finished the compound. I can inject you now if you want. My hands are steady, as you well know.”
My brother had been the bane of my existence growing up, experimenting on me every chance he got. Was it possible he actually thought he’d been helping me? And if he had, then would he risk my safety now? Of course there was still the possibility that he’d never recovered from his breakdown, or simply that his arrogance made him think he was infallible.
I began considering the pros and cons of using Mikla’s compound, snagging on the first pro on the list: Get to be with Kade. All logic went out the window once again, love for my Talsen making me one of the biggest idiots ever to be born a Galvraron. But even as a part of me knew my behavior was asinine, the rest of me considered the risk acceptable.
Unsnapping my harness with one hand, I lunged towards Mikla. “Do it! Do it now!”
“No! You said you wouldn’t!” Tamzea’s body thumped onto the ground as she scrambled after me.
The Pittsburgh lurched to the left, and then back to the right, Jane’s maneuvers while flying not as smooth as mine. Somehow, I managed to get a grip on Mikla’s chair and I pulled myself closer to him, reaching out my right arm.
The needle plunged into my flesh, the sting turning to a burn a
s Mikla shoved the plunger down. When I retracted my arm, I stared at the small dot, blood oozing out of the tiny hole.
I chuckled darkly. “You do have steady hands, you hit a vein on your first try.”
Mikla grinned. “Of course I did.”
The ship leveled off, the landing thrusters humming as they were engaged, the sound louder since we were so close to the engine room. I pulled myself to my feet, and made my way back to my chair.
Tamzea watched me, her brows furrowed as she weaved her hands through the air. “I don’t sense any changes in your energy field.”
I glanced at my brother. “How long until something happens?”
Tamzea leaned in to whisper in Eron’s ear, although everyone could still hear her, “Do you sense anything changing within her?”
Eron waved his arms through the air, his movements more precise than Tamzea’s as his lavender gaze locked onto me. “No. Nothing.”
Mikla stared at his watch. “Won’t be long now.”
I wanted to smack my brother. Not only was he ignoring me, but he hadn’t answered my question. “Not long now,” he declared, still not lifting his head. “Three, two, one.” His gaze snapped up to mine, and his lower lip jutted out in a pout. He glanced back at his watch, tapping it several times. “Oh. That’s better. One.”
“One what? What the—” Pain exploded inside my skull, and I doubled over, clutching at my head. Dark patches streaked across my vision. I couldn’t tell if I was upright anymore or not. “Tamzea,” I croaked out.
“I’m here.”
“No need to fuss. She’ll be fine,” Mikla said, his tone bored. “After a bit of pain first, that is. There’s always a bit of pain with this type of thing.” He laughed, sounding every bit like the mad scientists in Jane’s fiction novels.
Someone had lit me on fire, and I was burning from the inside out, while someone also pummeled me with a bar made from Gartian grade alloy … everywhere. There was no other explanation for the utter agony I was experiencing.
Please let it stop. Please let this end. I was lost in torment, lost in a bottomless pit of misery with no end in sight. Please … please … let it stop. Make it. Make it stop.
But it didn’t. It simply went on forever.
“Zula? LaLa, baby, you have to come back to me. Please.” Kade’s ragged voice drifted through my subconscious, tugging me awake.
My eyelids fluttered, slamming shut from the bright light. “We need to stop this. I mean, I like waking up to you, but not after being forced into unconsciousness. The whole thing is ridiculous, really.”
I was crushed in a too tight embrace, Kade’s sweet scent surrounding me. “Fuck, LaLa, I was so scared. You have no idea what it was like hearing you scream like that.”
“Was it as bad as what I felt while I was doing the screaming?” My body tingled, not quite numb, but all my nerve endings pulsed and throbbed from what they’d just gone through. “I was sure I was dying.”
“We all were,” Tamzea said from off to my right somewhere. “Eron and I poured all of our healing energy into you. It drained us almost completely.”
Peeling my eyelids open, I took in my surroundings. I was tucked into Kade’s arms, his chest heaving with strong emotions. Beside me on her own cot was Tamzea laying on Eron, both of them with dark circles under their eyes.
“Did it work? Where’s Mikla?” I turned my head, searching the immediate vicinity.
“Jane and Ash are with him in the prison. We had to lock him up for his own protection.”
“What? From who? From me?” Tapping at Kade’s shoulder, I struggled to put a little distance between us so I could breathe properly.
“From me,” Kade growled. “I wanted to rip his head off for injecting you with that crap when I saw what it was doing to you.”
“But I’m fine now. And—” I met Tamzea’s exhausted gaze. “I am fine now, right?”
“Yes. Although your energy patterns aren’t stable. Your body is changing, and I’m not sure what that means.”
“Good going, Smurfette.” Jane strode into the room, Ash close on her heals. “You picked a hell of a time to start acting like … me. What you did was totally something I would have done.” She glanced at Ash as he took her hand, squeezing.
“For the last time. Stop. Calling. Me. Smurfette.”
“Maybe you want me to call you LaLa then.” She leaned against Ash, his arms wrapping around her waist from behind. “Want to tell me what that little gem means?”
“No,” I snapped. “We have more important things to worry about now.”
“Oh.” Her eyebrows flew up. “Now you’re worried about everything else when just a little bit ago you didn’t seem to care about anything but Kade and the bond you wanted with him.”
“Leave her alone,” Kade growled, shifting so he was in front of me. “What’s done is done. Let’s move on and do what we came her to accomplish.”
“Right. This is what’s going to happen. You and Zula are going to go to her living quarters and figure out if Mikla’s concoction actually worked so we don’t have to worry about any of this anymore. Tamzea and Eron … you guys stay here and rest. We might need your abilities again soon. Mikla is fine where he is for now.” She paused, tapping her chin. “Okay, while all of that is happening, Ash and me are heading out to secure us a weapons base.” She snapped her fingers. “Oh, Masha and Dar will continue to work on the super computer. And who the hell knows where Nina is hiding? I’m not even sure she’s on the ship anymore.”
I was dazed. How long had I been out? “Weapons base?”
“Yes, these two phoenixes,” she hooked her thumbs at herself and Ash, “are about to singlehandedly storm and take over Zeffrin.” I opened my mouth to protest, but she raised her hand. “Don’t worry, we have everything under control. Maddox contacted me just before I made our little detour, and him and several New Earth First Wave ships will be here shortly to take our spoils off of our hands.”
Maddox? Jane’s ex-boyfriend from her adolescence on New Earth? Isn’t he Special Ops, not First Wave? He was the man Nina was in love with though. And I was pretty certain he loved her back. Things kept getting stranger and stranger. Or were things always like this during a time of war? Not that I’d know since I hadn’t been alive during such tumultuous times. “Okaaay,” I drawled. “Have fun, I guess.”
“What?” Jane stumbled forward, her mouth hanging open. “You’re not going to argue with me? Tell me what I’m doing is crazy and list all of the reasons why I shouldn’t?”
“No. I’m not because I’d be wasting my breath since you’re going to do it regardless of what I say. Nothing I ever say changes your mind.”
She snorted. “The same could be said for you.”
I tilted my head. “Touché.”
“Come on,” Kade rumbled. “I’m quite eager to find some answers to the question we’ve all been asking since your injection … behind closed doors.”
Rolling my eyes, I smacked at his arms. “Really? Just like that you’re ready to—”
“Yes.” He scooped me up and tossed me over his shoulder.
My cheeks flamed, embarrassment that Jane, Eron, and Tamzea were seeing me like this. “Put me down.”
“When have I ever put you down when you’ve told me to?” He raced through the hallways, not setting me on my feet until we were outside my living quarter’s door.
Glaring at Kade, I shook my head. “Our relationship is not going to be like this. I told you that before. Do not make decisions for me. That includes just picking me up and—”
He leaned down, brushing his lips gently against mine. “Guess we’re even now since you made the big decision to inject yourself without—”
“Nope, huh-uh. We’re not even. If anything, you still have to make up for all the other times you pushed me to do things I didn’t want to do. You’ve kind of been an asshole.” I scrunched up my face. “Why do I want to be with you again?”
Kade grinned, flashi
ng his pearly whites and dimples to match, causing my knees to weaken. “Because you love me.”
“Yeah, but why? I still haven’t figured it out. When I really look at all the facts it doesn’t make sense.”
“Just open the door, LaLa, and I’ll show you why you love me.”
I shook my head. “No. That’s lust. Lust isn’t love. There isn’t one single logical explanation why I love you.”
“Sure there is.” He pulled me flush against him, causing me to shiver. “The heart wants what the heart wants, and it never listens to logic or reason.”
Molding my body against him, I murmured, “That kind of makes sense, although the heart, like the way you’re referring to it, doesn’t actually hold love, it’s just a muscle used to pump blood. And one more thing … Why are you so calm all of a sudden? We don’t even know if we can bond yet. What happened? Not to mention—”
“Would you just shut up and kiss me?” Not waiting for an answer, he slammed his lips against mine, stealing my breath and my will to ask more questions. I idly wondered why I was stalling, holding back and wanting to deny the emotions that I’d already admitted to everyone, including myself.
You’re afraid of what you’re going to find out in your room. You’re afraid Mikla’s solution failed.
Flailing my arm behind me, I smacked at the control panel, my door whooshing open. I’d come to terms with a lot of things lately, one of them being my fast growing love for Kade, although it still scared me. But I refused to let fear control me. It was still an unacceptable emotion not welcomed within this Galvraron.
Breaking away from Kade, I grabbed a fistful of hair, yanking him roughly into my room. “Come on and show me exactly what my heart wants. Every inch of it.”
His eyes lit up like flashlights. “Oh, LaLa, you know I like it when you play rough.”
“Mmm … I know.” Leading him to my bed, I pulled him down on top of me, nipping his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood. It only garnered another smile from him.
