She returned to his knee and continued with her work.
She was quiet for a few minutes and then looked at him. “Over fifty percent of his original body has been lost. They’ve had to integrate him fully into a cybernetic body. It’s not advanced. The muscles... the body... it’s passable... but...”
He got the impression from her pale face and wandering eyes that she didn’t want to say anything more. How bad was it? It had been hard enough for him to come to terms with his arm. How would Jericho cope with losing his entire body? What had he done to Jericho? He should’ve let him die. He’d been so blind to his friend’s feelings. What if Jericho hated him for what he’d done?
“But?” he said, needing to hear the extent of the damage.
“His head is a different matter. It could be years before we have technology advanced enough to recapture how he’d looked. They’ve resorted to modifying one of the androids heads.”
He felt sick. The androids were barely advanced. Their bodies were bulky like Heavy Armour and their heads were almost robotic in appearance. They resembled the helmets he’d worn into battle to shield his face.
“Iskara...” he whispered, unable to say anything more.
Emmanuelle’s fingers played softly against his cheek and he looked up at her, not hiding any of his feelings. She sighed and leaned over him, her body covering his as she held him. It comforted him more than anything could have at that moment. He raised heavy fuzzy arms to hold her and closed his eyes. She was warm against him, soft and soothing.
“He won’t hate you,” she whispered against his bare chest. “Jericho is strong. He’ll be grateful that you did all you could to save him. It’s not him I’m worried about.”
She drew back and looked into his eyes.
“It’s Ambra. I don’t know how she’ll take it.”
Would Jericho forgive him as easily as Emmanuelle thought he would? His friend had always envied his arm, saying how much he wanted cybernetic parts so he could be the best soldier there was. Would he say that still when he awoke to find he was more than half cybernetic?
The look in Emmanuelle’s eyes demanded he say something to allay her fears. She was worried about Ambra almost as much as she worried about him.
With a lot of effort, he managed to cup her cheek and smiled. The drug made it hard to move and almost impossible to control the strength in his arm.
“Ambra will be fine. She’ll always love Jericho, regardless of what he looks like,” he said and she straightened. He caught her wrist to stop her from going back to her work. “Has she seen him?”
She shook her head.
“I want to be with her when she does.”
She nodded. “I’ll tell them. She wanted to see you.”
She handed him a clear blue bottle and he realised it was water. He pushed himself up a little and gulped it down as she helped him hold it. The cold was soothing and refreshing.
“Is she still outside?” he said when he was done and Emmanuelle took the empty container.
She laughed and shook her head. “You’ve been asleep for over three days. I think she’s with some of the other female soldiers today, on the hydroponics deck. The doctors suggested they talked.”
“Therapy, huh?” Remi said with a sigh, recalling how much he’d hated the months of therapy, both physical and psychological, that he’d been put through after losing his arm.
She nodded again. “It’s good for them to talk. Ambra needs female companionship right now. I can’t imagine... actually I can... I can imagine how hard it has been for her.”
A tear streaked down her cheek. He reached out to her, wanting her to come to him and hating the fact that he couldn’t go to her. She kept her distance, staring at the floor.
“I was so scared, Remi,” she said and looked across at him. It broke his heart to see the tears in her eyes. “I thought I was going to lose you... I couldn’t stop thinking about you, fearing that the next call I received would tell me you’d died.”
He reached out again, less patient this time, flexing his fingers as best he could to make her come to him.
“I said I’d fight for you and I’d come back to you. I wasn’t planning on being dead when that happened.”
His words only made her cry harder. He cursed himself and pressed against the padded table, forcing himself up into a sitting position. His knee protested and ached, sending pain shooting up his leg.
“Idiot!” she snapped and tried to push him back down.
Ignoring her feeble attempts to stop him from getting up, he lowered his legs over the edge of the table and grabbed her, pulling her into his arms.
“Shh,” he whispered into her hair as she sobbed against his chest, curled up with her hands pressed to it. He stroked her hair and held her close, making a silent promise to never let her go. “I said I’d come back... although I’m a little broken.”
A giggle rose from the depths of his embrace.
“I was fixing you,” she mumbled against his skin, warming it with her breath. She tried to wrestle free of his arms but he held her, unwilling to relinquish her now that he had her. It had taken a phenomenal amount of effort and had given him a lot of pain to sit up. He wasn’t about to waste it all by letting her go so quickly.
He kissed her hair and then her forehead, gradually working his way down to her mouth. She looked up at him and then closed her eyes when he leaned in to kiss her. Their lips barely touched, sending a warm shiver through him and filling his heart with tranquillity and happiness. On the planet, he’d feared that her feelings would have changed when he came back to her. The thought of that had scared him more than the Varkans.
“If I were in Jericho’s shoes,” he said, opening his eyes and meeting hers. “Would you still... I mean... if you do, I don’t know if you do, but if you do... would you still love me?”
Her pink cheeks darkened and she dropped her gaze to his chest for a moment before meeting his eyes again.
“I would... it’s the man you are that I fell in love with, not your appearance... although...” Her blush deepened. “There’s nothing wrong with your looks.”
He smiled at her, glad that she would love him regardless and thrilled that she’d admitted her feelings for him. She tried to make him lie down again. He refused, catching her hands in his and holding them.
“How long am I going to be stuck with you?” he said to her hands.
“About two weeks and then you’ll be fine. You’ll be healed before you start at the academy.”
He brushed his thumbs across her knuckles. Her hands were so small and delicate but they worked such wonders.
“And how long do you want to be stuck with me?” he said with a smile and raised his eyes to meet hers. “Does forever sound alright?”
Her cheeks blazed again but this time she didn’t avert her eyes. She held his gaze, sure and steady.
“Forever?” Emmanuelle said with a mock frown, stringing him along and teasing him. She pulled a thoughtful face. He frowned for real. The smile rose to her lips, breaking free of its restraints. “Forever sounds good... but...”
“But?” His frown didn’t shift. His dark eyes grew a little blacker.
“You’re a prince of Lyra. I don’t think your family would like you going out with a nurse.”
He shrugged and parted his legs. She rolled her eyes when he pulled her up against him, accidentally knocking his knee in the process and causing a grimace to compress his lips. He could pretend all he liked that he was fine but she knew that sitting as he was caused his knee pain.
“I don’t care what they think.” There was a beautiful honesty in his eyes. “No one stopped Balt from marrying his slave girl, or Sebastian from marrying the woman he ran away with, and no one will stop me—”
Her eyes widened. He wasn’t insinuating what she thought he was. A deep look into his eyes revealed that he was.
“We barely know each other,” she said and placed her hands against his chest. It seemed
like a valid excuse to take things a little slower. Unfortunately, from what she’d heard, none of his brothers had taken things slow. Balt and Sebastian had married their wives barely a week after meeting them. Slow just wasn’t their style.
“Oh, I think we know each other pretty well,” he whispered, eyes full of meaning that his sultry smile backed up.
She blushed again and cursed him for making her react that way all the time. So they’d had sex and she’d admitted that she had feelings for him, loved him no less, but that didn’t mean they had to get married right this minute.
“I... need time,” she blurted out and he frowned. “Your training starts in barely a few weeks time. You need to focus on healing and your studies.”
His frown tightened.
“I thought you—” he started and she cut him off by clamping her hand down over his mouth.
“I do... I really do... but I wasn’t expecting this.”
Hurt surfaced in his eyes.
Her hearts ached. She had to say something to make him feel better and make him see that she did want to marry him, just not this second. They were still in the middle of a war and he couldn’t throw his dream of becoming a pilot away like she knew he would if he married her. She wanted him to become one and follow in his brothers’ footsteps as he wanted to.
“I’ll marry you,” she said and his eyes brightened. She felt him smile against her palm. “I’ll marry you when you can fly me, yourself, to Dazkara to tell my family.”
He pushed her hand away, dragged her up against his chest, and kissed her breathless.
She took that as a yes.
***
Remi paced nervously along the dock in front of the small fighter. He locked his hands behind his back and stared at the floor, slowly losing his patience as the anticipation and excitement ate away at him. She’d promised. She’d said that she’d be here. Where was she?
He looked up when someone entered and turned to pace back along the dock when he saw it was two of his older brothers, Balt and Acer. Not Emmanuelle. Where was she? Wasn’t she coming? She’d been at the graduation ceremony. He was a pilot now and he had a promise to keep. So did she. It had only taken him six months to qualify as a pilot, faster than anyone in his class. He’d graduated with the previous class.
“Relax,” Acer said with a smirk and slapped his shoulder. “You look a little desperate.”
Remi shot him a glare. His nerves threatened to overwhelm him. He took deep breaths and let them go slowly, trying to calm himself. She’d come, just as she’d promised. He’d take her to Dazkara and then they’d return to Lyra Prime to be married. He’d already arranged everything. She couldn’t back out now. He hadn’t let her out of his sight for the past few months for this reason. He had to marry her. She had to be his.
He’d had her transferred to the academy medical team just so he could stay near her and they could share accommodation. He’d spent each night with her in his arms, had awoken this morning to see her face. Now he needed to see her more than ever.
The door at the end of the dock opened again. He looked up, shoulders tensed, and then relaxed again when he saw it was Jericho and Ambra. He was glad to see them together again. Jericho had been a nightmare since the battle on Varka Two and his integration into the cybernetic body. He’d turned his back on Ambra, convinced that she couldn’t love him and that she deserved better, and had ignored everyone when they’d told him that Ambra still loved him. He’d even ignored Ambra. At least now they’d worked things out.
Remi was breaking with tradition at the wedding and borrowing something from Kayla’s species’ history. It was called a ‘best man’. From how Kayla had explained it, he’d got the impression that it was someone to support you on the day and someone you were close to. He wanted Jericho to be that man.
“I thought we were seeing the happy couple off,” Jericho said, the smile evident in his voice even if the dark visor of his new face didn’t shift to show it. “Ambra was panicking that we’d be late. She stood you up?”
Remi turned his glare on him. “No... I’m sure she’s just late.”
“You sure?” Ambra said, hanging off Jericho’s arm and grinning. “Maybe she got cold feet—”
“Why would she do that?” he barked.
“I’ve seen your flying... it gives me the chills.” She laughed and hid behind the bulky mass of Jericho when Remi tried to grab her.
Remi sighed and then went still when the door opened again, this time behind him. The steady tap of boots on the metal walkway rang in his ears, a step so light that it could only be her.
“She’s beautiful.” Her soft voice caressed his ears and warmed his heart.
He turned and looked at Emmanuelle.
“She certainly is,” he whispered, turning her comment about the fighter towards her, and caught her wrist, pulling her close to him. “I thought you were standing me up.”
She giggled and stepped out of his embrace. When she twirled on the spot, his attention fell to her clothes.
“I had to change,” she said and ran her hands down her sides and over her hips, following the line of the snug blue flight suit. “Acer gave me it. He said that you didn’t fly in a fighter without one.”
Her grey gaze fell to his body and a half smile tugged at the corner of her lips. There was a hint of sensuality about the soft curve of it and the way her eyes raked over him.
“They’re a little revealing,” she said and took hold of his hand. “I like you in it.”
“My thoughts exactly,” he whispered and went to kiss her.
Jericho cleared his throat. Remi shot him another glare and turned back to Emmanuelle. She had moved and was now waiting on the gang plank to the ship.
“Are we flying?” she asked with a wide smile.
He smiled at her. “I don’t need a ship to make me fly.”
She blushed at his sexual reference. He still couldn’t get used to the insane energy transference that happened. It was better than any drug, but there was something that would make him happier than it ever could.
“After you,” he said and ushered her onto the ship, impatient to get going now. “The quicker I meet your parents, the faster I can marry you.”
She laughed. “Don’t the sons of Lyra know how to take things slow?”
She looked over his shoulder in the direction of his brothers. He looked there too. Balt shrugged. There was a look in Acer’s eyes that said slow was torture. He’d seen him around the female engineer from his ship several times now, and it was obvious to him that he liked her. He looked back at Emmanuelle. Perhaps speed was a must when it took so long to get the courage to act on feelings. It seemed that neither he nor Acer could move as swiftly as Balt and Sebastian.
He pushed Emmanuelle onto the ship, waved a quick farewell to his brothers and Jericho and Ambra, and then closed the door. Striding up to the deck, he focused, intent on getting out of the atmosphere and to Dazkara as soon as possible. It would take at least two days to get there and then three to get back to Lyra Prime. He could be married to Emmanuelle within a week. He smiled.
“You alright?” she said close to his elbow.
He nodded, wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her hard, his tongue tangling with hers as their mouths fused together. When he let her go, she was panting and breathless.
Before she could say anything, he grabbed her waist and settled her down into the co-pilot’s chair. He buckled her in and then hopped into his own chair. Her fingers closed over the end of the armrests when he fired the engines up and the roar shook the ship.
Sons of Lyra: Fight For Love Page 5
