Mystic

by Cheryl Brooks

  He moved his head, noting that he felt rather strange. He’d rarely allowed himself the freedom to get drunk for fear of blurting out his secrets, but that was exactly how he felt. His vision swam when he sat up. A shake of his head only made it worse.

  How odd.

  Especially in light of his Zetithian blood. Zetithians might go to sleep feeling rotten, but they seldom woke up ill. If any of his brothers or friends had ever done such a thing, he surely would’ve heard about it—and remembered.

  He lay back down with caution. Falling out of the narrow bunk would really make him look stupid.

  Unless the new strain of the Scorillian plague was sexually transmitted.

  He caught himself before allowing that thought to go any further. Sula might have given the plague to Raj that way, but none of the other inhabitants of Ecos would’ve contracted it.

  Still, he was a Terran–Zetithian hybrid with Mordrial ancestry. Did this have something to do with losing his virginity?

  He frowned, noting a peculiar scratchiness in his eyes. If his brother Aldrik’s experience was any indication, becoming sexually active wouldn’t have that effect.

  A sweet flavor coated his tongue, like a potent wine that tasted strongly of raisins. He hadn’t noticed it the night before.

  He nudged Sula. “Do you feel okay?”

  “Perfect,” she murmured. “You?”

  “I’m not sure. Try sitting up.”

  She rose in one swift, graceful movement and stretched her arms as far as the limited space would allow. “I feel great. Don’t even have a snard hangover.”

  “I’m thinking maybe I do. I’ve never heard of such a thing, but there’s a first time for everything. I feel really strange. Can’t see straight, actually.”

  Sula leaned closer. “Your skin color looks okay.” Peering at his eyes, she retracted one of his lower lids. “Mucosa is nice and pink.” Obviously noting his quizzical expression, she went on, “If you had the Scorillian plague, it would be very pale, and the whites of your eyes would be slightly yellowish. They both look fine to me.”

  “Thank the gods for small favors,” he muttered. “Although I really wasn’t afraid I had the plague. The medscanner at the orphanage might not be the newest model, but it isn’t so old it can’t detect a virus.”

  “Think Curly would have a scanner on board?”

  Aidan shrugged. “He might. Jack likes to be sure her sons are equipped to handle any emergency, and she’s had enough experience to know the sort of difficulties you can run into in space.”

  “Yeah. Like weird new diseases and broken legs.” She placed a hand on his forehead. “You don’t feel feverish—no hotter than usual, anyway.” A smile threatened. “I mean, you’re always hot, but not the kind of heat that can be measured with a thermometer.” She pushed herself up on her hands and knees. “I’m getting up. Hold still while I climb over you.”

  Aidan was pleased that the ship’s lighting was currently on the daytime setting or he might’ve missed the early morning treat of watching Sula get out of bed. Granted, he could see quite well in the dark, but a little ambient light didn’t hurt.

  Her hair still had a slight curl to it, and her breasts swayed as she straddled him briefly before swinging her other leg over to land on the floor.

  “Where’s my—” Her roving gaze stopped at the foot of the bunk. “Ah. There it is.”

  He was only given a few seconds to admire her lithe form before, to his infinite disappointment, she turned the gown right side out and dropped it over her head. Rashe had chosen a very pretty nightie for her, but unfortunately, it covered her from her shoulders to just below her knees.

  She pulled her hair out from under the gown and combed through it with her fingers. “Stay put until I get back. I’m going to find Curly and ask if he has a scanner.”

  Aidan thought for a second. “Val was carrying a pack when he boarded. He might have brought along something of that sort. Just don’t tell Giklor I’m feeling bad. You know how he is.”

  “Trust me, I haven’t forgotten.” She gave him a quick kiss, then hurried toward the door. In an instant, the door slid open, and she was gone.

  Left alone with his thoughts, he tried to imagine any source of contamination and couldn’t come up with a thing, unless he was allergic to Drells. He’d never had that problem in the past, but stranger things had happened, and a Drell allergy was something he figured he could live with.

  Then a more devastating thought surfaced. One that, if true, would indeed be a tragedy.

  What if I’m allergic to Sula?

  * * *

  Sula hadn’t been given a tour of the ship, but she found the bridge easily enough. Without bothering with pleasantries—or even caring who was there—she blurted out, “Does anyone have a medscanner? Aidan isn’t feeling well.”

  Curly swiveled his chair around to face her. “In the morning? Impossible.”

  She stomped her foot. “I’m not kidding. Trust me, he’s as weirded out about it as you are. He doesn’t have a fever. It’s mostly visual disturbances.” Using Aidan’s own choice of words would’ve undoubtedly resulted in the kind of morning-after jibe she would prefer to avoid. Unfortunately, Curly’s skeptical expression seemed to presage precisely that sort of comment.

  Val sat perched on a tall stool at what could’ve been the comstation or the science station. She wasn’t sure which. He glanced up from the console. “Any other symptoms?”

  The Avian’s arched brow and piercing stare made her want to kick herself for not questioning Aidan more thoroughly. “He just said he feels strange.”

  “I’m sure he does,” Curly drawled. “Losing one’s virginity will do that to a guy.”

  Planting her fists firmly on her hips, she fixed him with her best angry glare. “And how would you know that?”

  “You slept in the same room with him, didn’t you?”

  “Well, yeah…”

  Curly folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. “I rest my case.”

  Her palms itched to slap that cocky smirk right off his handsome face. “Have you ever known sex to affect a Zetithian man’s vision before?”

  “No,” Curly replied, relenting a bit. “But you have to admit, the timing fits.”

  Clearly, Curly was going to be no help at all. She dismissed him with a wave and returned her attention to Val. “Do you have a portable medscanner?”

  Val nodded. “Yes, I do.”

  “Thank you.” With a sharp exhale, she aimed yet another glare at Curly. “All I wanted was a straight answer, not a load of schoolboy crap.”

  To her surprise, Curly actually laughed. “I’m beginning to understand why Aidan likes you so much.”

  Spreading his wings slightly, Val slid off his stool and started toward the door. “I shall retrieve the device and meet you in Aidan’s quarters.”

  “Might want to scan Typhoid Mary while you’re at it,” Curly called after him. “What with the orphanage’s scanner being such a relic and all.”

  “That’s an excellent idea,” Sula said, doing her best to mask her annoyance. “But first, we need to figure out what’s wrong with Aidan.” Curly would probably grow on her after a while, but at the moment, she found his brand of humor difficult to appreciate.

  As she followed Val down the passageway, she couldn’t help marveling at his wings. Aidan’s wings were pretty cool, but they weren’t real, nor were they anywhere near as beautiful. Val intrigued her in other ways too. His speech patterns varied from stilted formality to colloquial slang, and he seemed serious to the point of being chronically troubled, as though there were dark times in his past from which he had yet to recover. Aidan might’ve known about some of those episodes, but Val’s demeanor suggested that he rarely shared his burdens. As with Aidan at the start of their relationship, Val seemed to have built a wall aro
und himself, with the result that his life was probably as lacking in romance as Aidan’s had been.

  Still, there was a great deal to be said for a compatriot who stuck to business.

  Aidan’s eyes were closed when she entered the room but slowly opened as she approached. “What’s up?”

  “Val went to get his scanner. If Curly has one, he didn’t volunteer that information.” She huffed out a breath. “Is he always that irritating?”

  “Not really. You just need to get to know him better.”

  She responded with a snort. “Sounds like loads of fun.”

  “Val’s his exact opposite,” he said. “Hardly ever says anything and rarely cracks a smile.”

  “I noticed that.” She took a moment to study his face. He didn’t look any different than when she’d left him before, but the urge to check his sclera again was strong.

  Any further discussion was thwarted by Val’s arrival. As she’d expected, the Zerkan hadn’t been content to remain behind.

  Giklor darted past Val and ran toward Aidan. “My dear friend, please let me heal you,” he urged. “One dose of my healing fluids, and you will feel perfectly well in a trice.”

  Aidan put up a hand. “Let’s do the scan first. I’d really like to know what we’re dealing with before you try to fix it for me.”

  “As you wish.” Giklor didn’t sound the least bit contrite as he stepped aside. In fact, he seemed as hurt as he’d been when Sula first refused his services.

  Val knelt at Aidan’s bedside, a position that would’ve been easy for anyone else, but Val had to spread his wings in order to do it. He held up a small, round device. “This portable scanner is state-of-the-art. With it, I should be able to determine the cause of your problem.”

  “Go for it,” Aidan said.

  Val activated the scanner, then directed the beam toward Aidan. After several passes, he consulted the display. “Interesting.”

  Sula waited several excruciating seconds before prompting him. “How so?”

  “There is a foreign compound in his bloodstream that reads like an inhibitor of some sort.” After a few moments, he aimed his predatory gaze at her. “An ovulation inhibitor.”

  Sula suspected that being peered at by Val would take even more getting used to than Curly’s peculiar sense of humor. As a result, her voice was little more than a squeak. “Seriously?”

  His expression was an accusation in itself. “Have you been given some form of birth control?”

  “I have an implant that’s good for several years.” She gaped at him. “Are you saying that some of it has somehow gotten into Aidan’s bloodstream?”

  “So it would seem,” he replied. “If you intend to continue as sexual partners, may I recommend its removal?”

  “Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” she protested. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. A man being affected by his partner’s medication? It’s impossible.”

  Val’s wings rose in an apparent shrug. “You’ve never had sex with a Zetithian. I’m surprised it didn’t inhibit his erection.”

  Her cheeks prickled with embarrassment. She wasn’t accustomed to such frank sexual discussions, even if Val did sound a bit like a doctor.

  He stood without waiting for her to comment. “Where is it?”

  She pointed to the underside of her left upper arm. “I don’t understand. People have been using these for ages. Raj was never bothered by it.”

  Val continued to glower at her. “As I said before, you’ve never been with a Zetithian. They are very sensitive to such things.”

  Sula didn’t ask how he knew that. Should she remove it and risk conception at such a precarious time? Or should she simply abstain?

  Tough choice.

  Before she could say another word, Val grasped her wrist and lifted her arm. Following a pass of the scanner over the area she’d indicated, he studied the display. “This is also the source of another of your difficulties.” A flick of his brow was accompanied by a grim smile. “It’s covered with hundreds of nanobots.”

  Chapter 22

  “Take it out,” Sula demanded. “Now. Then we can space it.”

  “Let’s not be too hasty.” Aidan sat up on the side of the bunk and rubbed his eyes. He still felt odd, but at least his vision wasn’t jumping around like a Borellian grasshopper. “I’m guessing you got that implant just before you left Ursa Prime, right?”

  “I’ve had it a whole lot longer than that.” Sula closed her eyes and pressed her lips together for several moments before she took a deep breath and spoke again. “Are you saying I’ve been traceable during all that time?”

  “Possibly,” Val replied. “Although these bots may have been programmed to seek out your implant after they were injected. Most bots are filtered out by the kidneys and excreted in the urine. These would appear to be more sophisticated. Although if what I was told is true and you were supposed to die on Ecos, tracking you would be pointless.”

  For someone who had only joined the party the night before, Val seemed surprisingly well informed. Apparently, he’d been brought up to speed during the night by someone who hadn’t been busy making love with their roommate.

  “I’ve wondered about that,” Aidan said. “It does seem”—he caught himself before saying overkill—“superfluous. Could you have been injected with them after you landed on Rhylos?”

  “That’s possible,” Sula replied. “Except the injections Raj and I received weren’t entirely painless. I’m pretty sure I would’ve noticed it.” She glanced at Val. “Could I have swallowed the bots?”

  “Yes,” Val replied. “Although injections are more reliable.”

  “Think, Sula,” Aidan urged. “Were there any seemingly chance encounters—someone bumping into you or a diversion that might’ve distracted you for a few seconds?”

  Shaking her head, Sula plopped down beside him on the bunk. “You mean aside from being fired upon when I was buying supplies? No, not really.”

  “How long had you been on Rhylos when that happened?” Val asked.

  “Only a couple of days,” Sula replied. “I’d already decided what I was going to do long before I landed. Once I’d sold the ship and had credits to spend, I didn’t waste any time.”

  “And yet you were able to escape an assassin who was presumably able to track you,” Val mused. “That seems highly unlikely.”

  “True,” Sula agreed. “Maybe after the attack failed, they just decided to keep an eye on me and see what I intended to do. When all I did was head for the mountains, they might’ve figured they’d scared me off.”

  Aidan stared at the floor in front of him, trying his best to stop it from appearing to move in waves. “Or maybe they chose not to compound one mistake by making another.”

  Turning her head, Sula stared at him in apparent disbelief. “You think what happened on Ecos was a mistake?”

  He clasped her knee, as much to reassure her as to steady himself. “No. I think what happened with you was a mistake, not the natives. I can’t imagine anything of that magnitude being accidental.”

  “I agree,” Val said with a grave nod. “I have seen far too much evil in this galaxy to believe otherwise.”

  Sula’s shoulders sagged briefly. A moment later, she sat up straighter, her eyes wide. “Wait a second. What if the bots have nothing to do with the Ecos mission? What if they’re related to the sale of the ship?”

  “That’s a possibility,” Aidan said. “Your shady ship dealers could have tagged you with bots so they could find you and steal back their money.”

  “That might explain why I was targeted. But left alone for months afterward? Surely, they wouldn’t give up that easily.” Her shoulders slumped again.

  “Perhaps your attacker found you by chance the first time.” Giklor had been so quiet, Aidan had almost forgotten he was there. “Perhap
s you didn’t acquire the bots until your most recent return to Damenk.”

  “That makes even less sense,” Aidan said. “Unless there’s a traitor in our midst. I don’t even want to consider that possibility.”

  “Perhaps you should,” the Zerkan advised. “Who among you should not be trusted?”

  “I refuse to accept that,” Aidan growled. “I—”

  “Wait! I’ve got it!” Sula exclaimed. “I think the bots were injected before Raj and I left for Ecos, either as a fail-safe measure or a means of making sure we actually made it to Ecos. Afterward, until someone learned that the ship made it to Rhylos, we were both presumed dead. With the ship as evidence, they had to figure at least one of us had survived, so they started tracking me again.”

  “The signal is relatively weak,” Val said. “Although it may have lost power over time.”

  “That could explain how I was able to escape from the assassin and hide out in the mountains. No one could’ve predicted where I would go after they lost the signal, but when I came back to Damenk, they were able to find me.”

  Aidan squeezed his eyes shut as his vision wavered once more. “That sounds reasonable. At least I think it does. Not sure my brain is a hundred percent right now.”

  “I’m amazed that contraceptives would affect you like that.” After a moment’s hesitation, she turned to face him again. “Does this mean we can’t have sex without having a baby?”

  “Triplets, actually. But you knew that.” He rubbed the back of his neck, which didn’t help any more than blinking had done. “Okay. The signal is weak, so they can’t track you in space. But if we remove your implant—and the bots along with it—we should be able to use it as bait, maybe?”

  “Bait for an assassin?” she suggested.

  “Mmm, yeah. Doesn’t sound very good, does it?”

  “Not really, no.”

  Aidan opened his eyes wider, hoping that might fix the problem. It didn’t. “Okay, then. Let’s try this. We pull your implant, leave it somewhere, but you won’t be anywhere near it, so you can go to the university and see who’s the most surprised to see you.”