“I still feel Galen here. That part isn’t a hallucination,” Amanda said. “The Magistrate recognized my picture.”
“You did not show a picture of a half-breed to a spirit-paranoid culture. Please tell me you didn’t,” Danny intoned.
“I did,” she whispered. “He had so many questions.”
“Won’t tomorrow be fun,” Danny muttered, rubbing her back. “It’s okay. Let’s not worry about that now. One fire at a time.”
Morrigan danced through the street, never dropping the hand of the handsome man walking beside her. She and Chase had been swept away by a small group of friends who promised to take them to a livelier party. Despite the Secretary’s warning, it was surprisingly easy to get out of the Palace when on the arm of a local. Between the wine and the company, it felt like the drunken yacht party she’d had when she graduated medical school. The men danced a little too close to her and the women even closer to Chase. She could not stop laughing.
“Hey. Hey! You got a message!” Chase said drunkenly, shaking his hand loose from hers. She hadn’t even noticed the vibration of the Virp. It felt like her skin was crawling. She read the message twice, but it didn’t make any sense.
“Hold still, hold still,” she told the man grinding against her, flapping her hands while trying to remember what might have happened to her Feather. The man didn’t speak her language, but he gleaned her meaning from her attitude.
“You press this button,” Chase said, leaning over her and touching her hand. “Danny!”
Morrigan couldn’t tell if it was Chase’s hand on her thigh or someone else’s. “Danny, did she lose it already?” Morrigan laughed. She brushed the hand off her thigh and another one off her chest. Then she wasn’t at all sure if the hands touching her were real, and that seemed hysterical. “I’m not fit to practice medicine right now.”
“Morrigan, Amanda’s in catamenses,” Danny said. “She’s vomiting and in pain and I don’t know how to stop the bleeding.”
The words felt hazy and the meaning even hazier. She took a deep breath and stepped away from the men who were touching her. Her skin felt sticky and sweaty and her new dress was disheveled.
“I need bunna,” Morrigan said. She wiped her face, streaking yellow lip gloss onto her skin. “Chase? I need to go to the ship.”
She turned around, stumbling, already dizzy. “I’ll go to the ship. Get bunna. Then I’ll figure out what to do.”
“So there’s nothing in your bag I can give her for this?” Danny asked.
“Gauze?” Morrigan said, squinting her eyes, trying to remember what was in the bag. She wasn’t sure what he wanted, but she couldn’t figure it out here. “I need bunna.”
“Then get some bunna,” Danny said. He sounded so serious that it made her giggle. She stumbled and Chase caught her, which made her laugh harder.
“Chase,” she laughed. She kissed him hard and opened her mouth, letting her tongue play against his. Then she backed away, shaking her head. “No. No, I can’t.”
“Sure, you can,” he said, kissing down her neck.
“No. No!” she cried, yanking herself free. It was maddening to want him so badly and yet know that she did not. “I’m going back to Oriana,” she said, tears coming to her eyes. The physical separation was painful, and she felt her body cramping up.
“Go,” Chase said, backing away from her and taking the hand of a short brunette woman. “We can meet up later.”
Morrigan rubbed her face, fighting to clear her head. She had Detox back on the ship. Whatever they’d put into her system, she could clear it with the Detox.
20
Sky ran the blue marshmallow over her tongue, keeping her eyes locked on the sweet doctor standing by the dance floor. The simple green and silver stripes in his hair showed that he was loose enough to have fun, but not so loose as to do so irresponsibly. The offer of a drug-free invitation, and a sugary treat besides, made her shiver with desire. He moved to counter her, keeping his distance. Then she felt Spirit’s talons dragging across her chest, just like she had at the parade that morning. Her eyes widened as her throat tightened.
The doctor rubbed his neck and took another step back. Then he held up a marshmallow of his own and took a bite. He knew. He’d put something in the marshmallow. Sky hoped it would bring more clarity than the Hyproxin.
She finished the marshmallow in two bites, and he did the same with his. It was sweet and delicious, and very rapidly, the pain in her chest faded. She felt light-headed and content and ready to lie down. The doctor opened a bag, showing her even more candy. This time, instead of countering her, he closed the distance between them. He took her hands, guiding her arms around his neck, taking her weight as her knees went weak.
“I’m glad the secretary convinced you to dance with me,” the doctor said, swaying slowly, out of sync with the fast-paced music. She was a good inch taller than him, but he was wider and comfortable to lean on.
“The candy convinced me,” she slurred, her lips buzzing against his neck. She could still feel Spirit prowling in her gut, but she had the sense it was caged.
“Would you like another?” he asked.
“Yes. But I think… Wow.” She laid her head on his chest, her eyes drifting shut, enjoying the respite from Spirit’s normally brutal assaults. She kissed his neck and tugged at the fabric of his shirt, but it was quickly apparent that even if she could sleep next to him, it wouldn’t be dreamless.
“What is your title?” he asked, running his fingers up and down her spine. He seemed more sober and less handsy than the rest of the partygoers
“Sky. Just Sky,” Sky said. “And you?”
“Haren,” he said. He had deep brown eyes and a few light freckles on his nose and cheeks. “It’s strange telling you my name.”
“Haren. This is more than candy,” she said, helping herself to the pouch on his belt. She took a powder blue marshmallow from the stack, sniffed it, then licked the sugary coating. Her mind went silent, like a loud whirring noise in her brain had turned off, and she could hear clearly for the first time.
“You’ve never had anything like it before?” he asked. “So, you’ve never met another… another.”
“Don’t say it,” Sky begged. Even in dancing around the terms, she didn’t like what he implied. “It’s scary that you know so many that you carry this with you.”
“We felt you at the parade this morning,” Haren said. “The flower… she couldn’t breathe.”
“But she survived?” Sky asked. She understood why his friend wouldn’t come, and why he wouldn’t say her name out loud. They had no reason to trust each other. Sky had already confirmed more than she wanted to reveal.
“Thankfully,” he said. “Or not. She’s never really liked her role as a… as—”
“I know the feeling,” Sky said, touching the pouch with the candy. “Will I need many more of these to get around town?”
“It’s better if we keep our distance so you don’t have to. My uncle said it’s bad for a spirit to be left defenseless,” Haren said. His use of the word ‘spirit’ made Sky cringe. “Try to hide your concern while I speak. I don’t want us to be separated before I deliver this warning. I hope you can help me.”
Sky forced a smile and rubbed the marshmallow to her lips. Then she put it in her mouth and rested her cheek against his while they continued to dance.
“A century ago, there were dozens of spirits living here, carried by human hosts. The carriers are called Questre. The word signals their involuntary participation in the process. The Magistrates and Princes are still trying to exterminate any suspected carriers,” he explained. The words sounded rehearsed. “Your ship is named for the spirit, Oriana.”
“And because of my ship’s name, your Princes think we’re carriers?” she asked carefully. “I think if they meant to kill us, they would have done it already.”
“There are hunters in the city. Vigilantes. They will kill anyone they suspect of harboring a sp
irit. They don’t need proof,” he said.
Sky didn’t need to be told twice. She backed out of his arms, then she reached into his pouch for another marshmallow. “Thanks for the warning. We’ll be careful with our words,” she said.
“Sky, there’s more,” he said. “The Magistrate—Madame Magistrate—is especially fearful and prejudicial against spirits. She killed her own mother to destroy the spirit that possessed her. If she becomes convinced that Oriana is with you, she will kill your entire crew.”
“Then we should leave,” Sky said, looking to see if Tray and Saskia were still around, then getting distracted by the marshmallow in her hand. “Will this hide me?”
“That’s not what it’s for. Leave before sunrise if you can,” Haren said.
Sky looked at the candy, her eyes drifting shut. She stumbled into his arms again, resuming the dance. “We keep wanting to leave. We keep trying. Then we argue. We fight. Physical fights. Then… then the clothes came, and we weren’t thinking of leaving anymore. The hours all run together.”
Haren stroked her skin soothingly, but he seemed eager to end the dance.
“I’ve been accused before. I’ve been stabbed before by someone who was convinced I was…” Sky trailed off and covered her mouth, her body squirming against his. Haren stepped back, but Sky closed the gap.
“I hear myself talking, but I don’t want to tell you this,” she said.
“It’s the wine,” he consoled, brushing his fingertips against her arms, like he was fighting the urge to hold her. “You are trying to form an emotional bond before sex. It’s a natural reaction.”
“Is there a test your doctors do? A blood test to check for spirits?” she asked worriedly.
“No. How can there be?” he asked.
Sky stammered and shook her head. Other cultures had found a way to test for the presence of spirits and hybrid powers. If these people didn’t have a test, then they’d kill indiscriminately.
“Sky, the blood they took from you before the Festival was to test your tolerance for the wine and for the presence of disease,” Haren explained.
Sky shook her head. “No one asked for our blood.”
“So you’ve been consuming the food and the wine without any tolerance testing?” he asked.
She nodded.
“And your people have experienced fits of anger and confusion,” Haren said.
“We want to go, but we can’t,” she said.
“I can’t believe the Magistrate would be so reckless,” Haren said, leading her to the nearest couch. “Sky, you need to stop drinking and start coupling. If you wait, you will feel a burning sensation. It starts as desire, but it can easily be turned to anger or jealousy. By morning, it will be pain. The fact that you’ve experienced this explosive anger already is not a good sign.”
Sky hummed in anticipation, tilting her head so that he could kiss down her neck. He reclined on the couch, pulling her overtop.
“You know I’m married, right?” she asked nervously.
“I don’t mind,” he murmured between kisses. The dyed-green stripes in his hair were disheveled now and messily mixed with his dark curls.
Sky sat up, rubbing her neck, wiping over the trail of kisses he’d planted. “Oh, handsome doctor. I want to. I can’t do this with you.”
“Because of your husband?” Haren asked, pinning her to the couch and straddling her lap. “We could invite him to join.”
“I would love that,” Sky giggled, her face getting red. She tugged Haren’s hips, pulling him closer, then hesitated again. There was less pain when she touched him, but more fuzziness in her thoughts. “You asked for help,” she prompted.
“If you have not been around other Questre, then you wouldn’t know about the twice-cursed. The children of two… two,” he said, leaving the implication in the pause.
“We call them half-breeds. Spirit forms with physical bodies,” Sky said, her heart sinking. Amanda had sensed the half-breed, and none of them wanted to believe her.
“She doesn’t look human anymore, and we don’t know what to do. She can’t hide like us,” Haren said. “Can you help hide her?”
“No,” Sky said, rolling off the couch and crawling away. “No, no, no.”
She gasped, feeling physical pain as she pulled away from him. The pain came from the drugs in the wine, not from Spirit. She wanted to scream and call for help. He touched her shoulder, and she shifted her head into his lap, confused.
“It’s better if you don’t speak. You’ll wind up saying more than you want,” he said. Sky nodded. She wanted to forget the entire conversation. He moved her back to the couch but didn’t sit next to her.
“The on-call physician has an antidote to the wine,” he continued. “For your own safety, gather your crew and get that antidote. You haven’t been tested. You could suffer permanent damage.”
He kissed her hard on the lips, and for a moment, she felt relief. Then the pain shifted as Spirit started to wake. Haren ran away, leaving her alone on the couch. Half-breeds and spirit-carriers. They needed to get out of the city! Sky flopped onto her back, the urge to run not reaching her feet.
21
Morrigan was accustomed to functioning in the fog of a drug-induced stupor. She’d done it for months after her parents died, and it saddened her how easily her tricks for hiding it came back. She hadn’t felt this hazy in a while. Separating from the group made her ache and by the time she met up with the guards at the city gate, she was yearning to be touched. She flirted her way past them. She may have done more than flirt. Her mind was set on Detox—the catch-all drug that would clear her head again. Detox and then bunna. If she had the bunna first, the Detox would counter the effect of the caffeine. The rule was to always have Detox before bunna. She remembered that much from her days of addiction.
The passcode to unlock the ship was programmed into her Virp and it still took her twenty minutes to remember how to open the back door. She was pretty sure she locked it behind her, but it didn’t matter. There was a guard keeping people from coming out of the dome and now that Festival was in full swing, people had other things on their minds.
Morrigan’s cramps were getting worse and she feared she was suffering premature catamenses as well. Her chip had been degraded by her drug addiction and she couldn’t get it replaced without admitting to the first problem. She had meds to regulate her hormones, and they were less effective than the chip, but they’d work on Amanda.
The cramps left her breathless and she leaned heavily on the infirmary counter, trying to remember where she’d hidden the Detox. The air was dryer and less fragrant than in the city, so every breath felt cleansing. The taste of wine was stale on her tongue. She downed a glass of water and shook her head. The pain and confusion she already felt were joined by fear.
Morrigan hated Detox. She was afraid of it. She was a doctor afraid of her own medicines—afraid to be left alone with them. The effect of the wine, aphrodisiacs, and other drugs felt worse than her old cocktails. Gritting her teeth, she loaded the Detox into a jet, pressed the jet to her arm, and injected the medicine.
The drugs felt cold moving through her bloodstream, and the cramping in her abdomen intensified. Sinking to the floor, she clutched her head, fighting the dizziness. It felt like a fireball was bouncing around her torso, followed by something freezing. This was why she hated Detox. It was a terrible and ruthless drug.
With shaking hands, she slapped vring on her Virp. “Danny?”
“Morrigan, you okay?” he croaked, his voice gravelly.
“I used Detox to clear my head,” she confessed. It felt like she’d cheated herself by getting into a place where she needed the drug. “I forgot how rough it can be. May be a little longer than I thought.”
“Is Chase with you?”
“He’s—no, I’m alone,” Morrigan stammered, rubbing her head and hugging her knees. The yellow gems on her dress felt rough and cold against her skin. “How is my patient?”
&n
bsp; “Resting,” he said, taking a deep, shuddering breath. “Don’t suppose a knitter will work on the bleeding?”
“Please tell me you’re joking,” Morrigan said. With the advent of medical interventions, she’d forgotten how frustratingly little men understood about female anatomy.
The pain reared as the Detox reached full circulation and attacked the drugs in her system. The next thing she knew, she was lying on the floor. She could hear Danny calling her name.
“Danny?” she moaned, staying on the floor. “How long was I out?”
“Half a sentence?” he said. “I just asked you how much you took?”
“Um. Hold on,” Morrigan said, fumbling for the jet. She hadn’t thought about the dose; she’d just gone with what it usually took.
“No, Morri. Lie down and let the meds work,” Danny said. “I think we’re okay here now that I know what’s going on.”
“Lie down,” Morrigan repeated, crawling to one of the beds. The blanket was too thin to keep her warm. The cramps intensified and she felt shooting pain down her legs and through her torso. She cut the call so that she could scream in privacy. Something wasn’t right.
Amanda arched her back and winced as her damp skin clung to the silky sheet. She felt Danny’s body spooned behind hers, and though it was nothing unusual, it felt sexual now. She shifted her legs to get more comfortable and Danny’s hand slipped under the towel she was wrapped in. She’d never dressed after getting out of the bath. She was naked!
“Danny, let go,” she said urgently, sliding off the bed, keeping a firm hold on her towel.
“I’m up. I’m up,” he said, bolting up, then rubbing his forehead. He smiled coyly at her. “Hello, beautiful.”
“No. No, do not,” she said, turning away and re-tucking her towel. The lower part was heavy with her blood and seeing it made her yearn for Galen. “Do not fall in love with me now.”
Premonition: A Space Opera Adventure Series (The New Dawn Book 7) Page 14
