by Lolita Lopez
“She’s got two other holes I can use just fine,” Ted leered and advanced on her.
“Are you deaf or just dumb?” the leader shouted. “I meant what I said. Leave her be.”
“She might be contagious,” the wiry one commented before taking a long swig of moonshine. “Whatever she’s got, I don’t want.”
“It’s a water fever,” the brute interjected matter-of-factly. “I seen it a dozen times when I was a kid. She drank some bad water, and now she’s poorly.”
“She gonna die?” the leader asked. “She’s useless to us dead.”
“Depends,” the brute replied with a shrug. “Most of them die, but if she makes it through the night, she’ll be fine.”
“Should we give her something? Water? Moonshine?”
“No shine,” the brute said with a shake of his head. “Clean water will help.”
“What about those sky warrior rations she had? We could fix her up one of those.”
“Hell no,” Ted refused. “We can get good money for those! Let her have some water out of the canteen. If she dies, she dies.”
Cipher had heard absolutely enough of their bullshit. Although he wanted to kill each man slowly and with his own hands, he understood the situation. He was outnumbered, and she was at risk of being hurt if he tried to fight them. Instead, he took up a firing position against the tree, bracing himself to stay steady, and lifted the rifle to his shoulder. He sighted each man down the scope, deciding which one would get a bullet first and then the order of the others.
Once his decisions had been made, he didn’t hesitate. He fired four rapid shots, striking each man in the head. They crumpled and dropped right where they stood, their wounds soaking the ground around them with blood. Adrenaline spiking, Cipher flicked on the safety and returned his rifle to his back. He hurried into the campsite, sparing a glance at each man to be sure they were good and dead.
When he reached Brook, she had found the strength to lift her head. Her eyes were glassy, but she smiled when she saw him. “Cipher,” she said, her sweet voice reduced to little more than a croak. “You came for me.”
“Of course, I came for you.” He wrapped one arm around her body to support her slight weight and reached up with the other to slash away the ropes with the knife he’d yanked from his belt sheath. Her arms flopped forward, and she sagged against him. Not caring one bit about the mess on her skin or the smell that clung to her, he embraced her tightly to his chest. “You’re my girl, Brook. I’ll always find you and keep you safe.”
She didn’t reply. She had gone completely unconscious, her poor body pushed beyond what it could handle. He lowered her to the ground and started to strip out of his gear. As he cleaned her with the disposable wipes in his pack, he called in and requested an exfil. With that done, he pulled off his vest and peeled out of his uniform shirt. He gently maneuvered her into the shirt, granting her what modesty he could, and then wrapped her in an emergency blanket, the thin foil-like material crinkling and glinting in the firelight.
Certain she was safe, he gathered up her backpack and the equipment that belonged to the Shadow Force. He searched the bodies for any useful intel and crammed what he found into the pockets of his tactical pants. He left the fire burning for now but planned to douse it once their transport arrived. The flames would keep predators away from the fresh kills and served as a beacon for the ship.
With his back against the nearest tree, he hauled Brook into his lap and tucked the blanket around her legs. He held her close and hoped his body heat was enough to keep her warm. Even with her fever, she trembled from the chill of the mist on her bare skin and the cool night air. His gaze moved to the sky, and he silently urged the ship to fly faster.
He finally had the mate he had always wanted, and he couldn’t bear the thought of losing her now.
Chapter Six
Of all the ways she had expected her kidnapping to end, it definitely hadn’t been cradled in Cipher’s strong arms as he carried her onto a spaceship. The strange metallic sheet he had wrapped around her crinkled as he hefted her through the cargo bay and into the main cabin. Medics ran toward them and started barking questions. So weak and confused, she barely understood them.
“I think she’s been infected with bacteria or a parasite from contaminated water,” Cipher said as he placed her on a gurney. “She was in the same mine as Terror. She busted open an old fire suppression system line. I’m not sure how long that water was stagnant.”
“If she was with Terror, she has the same thing they’re treating him for on the Valiant,” one of the medics remarked. “Let me reach out to Risk. He’ll tell us how to get her stabilized.”
The entire ship started to vibrate, and she blindly flailed for support, grasping onto Cipher’s gloved hand. He leaned over her, pulling off his glove, and stroked her face with his bare fingers. “Look at me,” he commanded. “You’re okay. We’re taking off. It will be a little rough for a few minutes while we ascend and then we’ll level off. The gurney is locked in place, and you have a harness keeping you on it.”
“Stay,” she said weakly. “Please.”
He ran his thumb along her chin and smiled encouragingly. “I’m right here with you.”
A medic reached up over the gurney and snapped a carabiner similar to the one on her climbing harness to an overhead mount. It allowed him to work without sliding around as the ship tilted sharply up towards the sky. Cipher slid a few inches but held onto the gurney with his free hand to anchor himself in place. He had taken his promise to stay with her seriously.
She watched his handsome face, marveling at the way he had come for her. When the skin traders had nabbed her, she had been sure that was it. No one ever escaped them. No one ever saw the girls and boys and young women who went missing ever again. Sick and unable to fight back, she had accepted she was either going to die on that mountain from whatever horrible disease had taken hold, or she would slit her own throat before letting a stranger rape her.
But here she was, on her way to space, safe with Cipher. He had tracked her down and saved her, and she would never be able to repay him.
Looking up at him through her bleary vision, she sensed he didn’t expect any sort of payment. He wasn’t that sort of man. His worried expression and reassuring caresses convinced her that he had come for her because he felt the same pull she did. Their gazes clashed, and she knew in that moment that she had been wrong about what happened between them at the cabin. He wanted her as much as she wanted him.
Overwhelmed but feeling secure with Cipher at her side, she stopped fighting against her exhaustion and let go. She drifted away to the sound of Cipher’s voice, certain she would wake up to him at her side. Just as she expected, he was right there next to her when she came to in a brightly lit room.
“Brook, my name is Risk. I’m the physician who will be treating you tonight.” Like the other sky warriors she had met, he towered over her and had wide shoulders and muscular forearms. He wore a different type of uniform, a utilitarian sort of top and pants.
Cipher ran his thumb along the back of her hand, drawing her attention. “Risk is the best. He’ll take very good care of you, Brook.”
Overheated and cramping, she nodded. Before she could ask if anyone else saw the thin snakes crawling out of the ceiling, Risk asked, “Have you claimed her?”
Cipher brushed damp strands of hair from her eyes and forehead. His tender gaze helped her ignore the slithering snakes for a moment. “She’s mine.”
“Do I have your authorization to treat her?”
“Yes.”
Risk unlooped a strange device dangling around his neck and stuck two ends in his ears. As he leaned toward her, he said, “When she’s better, we can arrange to put her through the bride protocol.”
Not liking the sound of that but much more concerned about the spiders now crawling on the ceiling, she blinked rapidly. When they didn’t disappear, she managed to speak, her voice rough and dry. “Can we mo
ve to a room without snakes and spiders?”
Risk’s expression changed from relaxed to alert. He leaned closer and examined her eyes with a light so bright it hurt. He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead, his skin covered in a strange glove made from thin material like rubber. “We need to get her fever down. She’s hallucinating. Much more of this and she’ll seize.”
Cipher was suddenly pushed away from her side, and her hand grasped futilely for him. More medical personnel crowded around her bed, and she closed her eyes to avoid seeing the writhing mass of snakes and spiders on the ceiling. Her sick brain was losing its grip on reality, and she couldn’t bear to look.
Something cold and stinging rushed through the vein on her arm, and she gasped in shock. Almost as quickly as the pain registered, sleep claimed her. She fell into a bizarre world of fever dreams she couldn’t escape, like a trapped miner in a cave-in. Desperate and terrified, she struggled through a black void of pain and heat.
In her delusional mind, she crawled through a maze of small and dark tunnels before dropping into a pit of snakes and spiders. Her body slid down through the pile of creepy things, and she dropped out of the bottom, falling and screaming and flailing until she hit a deep pool of filthy water. She fought her way to the edge of the pool and climbed out of the water onto a ledge of sharp rock that cut her hands and knees.
Stumbling forward into another tunnel, she emerged into a room filled with shiny canisters. The scent of hay and grass overwhelmed her, and she staggered forward, desperately searching for a way out of the room. When she found it, she tripped into the next space and landed at the bloated feet of a corpse. She scrambled away from it and out through the open door opposite.
In the shadows, a man held out his hand. He was trying to help her, but she couldn’t reach him. He started to ascend, lifted by a harness toward a light in the sky, and she screamed for him to wait, to not leave her behind. In the last glint of light before he disappeared, his scarred face came into view. The one-eyed man waved at her before disappearing.
With an agonized shout, Brook bolted upright. She panted, clutching at her chest and trying to make sense of her surroundings. Sick. Hospital. Spaceship.
“Easy,” Cipher urged in that commanding yet gentle way of his. She glanced to her left where he sat in an uncomfortable looking chair and held her other hand. “You’re safe.”
“Cipher,” she croaked, her throat raw. “Sir.”
His eyes closed briefly and then he was moving, sliding into the bed beside her. He shifted her so easily, lifting and arranging all the tubes attached to her arms and tucked into her nostrils. As if they had been cuddling together every day of their lives, he cradled her close and pressed her ear to his chest, letting her hear the soothing thud of his heartbeat. Ever so carefully, he brushed his hand along the tangled strands of her hair. “You gave me a terrible scare.”
“I’m sorry, sir.” She breathed in the clean, fresh scent of him, wondering whether it was his soap or aftershave that made him smell so good. “I didn’t mean to drink that awful water or get kidnapped.”
“Hush,” he admonished gently. “None of that was your fault.” He shocked her by pressing a fleeting kiss to her forehead. “You’re a hero now. Everyone on the ship wants to meet the miner who saved Terror.”
“I’m not a hero.” She swallowed nervously at the thought of anyone thinking she was special like that. “You’re a hero. The men who fight beside you are heroes.”
“You can’t argue your way out of this one.” He swept his fingers down her cheek. “You’re a hero. Accept it.”
She didn’t know how to accept that sort of praise. Uncomfortable, she changed the subject. “His name is Terror?”
He pulled away enough to meet her curious gaze. “They didn’t tell you when you took the job?”
“No.”
“Oh. Well—yes. His name is Terror. He’s arguably the greatest Shadow Force operative in this lifetime. He’s also the best friend of the general of this ship, of our commanding officer. Vicious would have done anything to get him back.”
“He must be very special,” she decided. “Terror, I mean.”
“He is,” Cipher agreed. After a few heartbeats of silence, he said, “But he’s in a lot of pain right now.”
She understood Cipher wasn’t talking about the physical sort of pain that was easily deadened with the miracle medicine they had on their ship. It was something else, something deeper and impossible to cure. After what she had seen happen to him, she couldn’t imagine him rebuilding his life with the memories of surviving that hellhole forever reminding him of what he had endured.
Next to her, Cipher relaxed, his muscles losing all tension, and his breaths deepened. She slowly tilted her head back so she could see his face. Smiling at the sight of him fast asleep with his arms around her, she studied him for a moment. He looked absolutely haggard, with dark circles under his eyes and stubble on his cheeks and jaw. He had obviously had a shower since she had seen him last, but she doubted he had done more than eat a quick meal before returning to her side.
To keep his promise to me.
Too tired to think, she snuggled in closer and closed her eyes, falling asleep to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. This time her dreams were peaceful and familiar. When she woke to Cipher’s sudden movement a long time later, she instinctively clutched at his side, grabbing his shirt and holding him close. His hand covered hers and rubbed along the length of her arm. Sounding reluctant, he said, “Baby, I have to get up.”
She flushed at the endearment and let go. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He kissed her temple. “I’ll be right back.”
She sat up as he slid off the hospital bed and crossed the room to a frosted door. It slid to the side, disappearing into the wall as he approached and slid back out to close behind him. She deduced it must have been the bathroom.
When he emerged, he returned to her bedside and helped her stand. The thin gown puddled around her feet and was so oversized that Cipher had to wrap the excess around her waist and hold it. He moved the tubes coming out of her arms and nose with his other hand before unhooking a box mounted on the wall. All of the tubes were plugged into it.
“The med box can be carried or put on a rolling pole,” he explained. “I’ll hold it for you, but if I’m not here and you need to move around, you can ask a medic to put it on a pole.”
Uncertain about the tubes, she asked, “How do I move?”
“Slowly,” he said with a smile. “Carefully.”
She rolled her eyes and huffed. “Obviously.”
He seemed impressed. “I had no idea you had a sassy streak in you.”
“You barely know me,” she remarked without thinking.
He didn’t take offense to that. “We have all the time in the world to learn everything about each other.”
Remembering what he told Risk, she asked, “Did you mean it? Have you really claimed me?”
“Yes.” He answered without hesitation. Then, as if worried he had overstepped, he said, “I should have asked you first.”
“Ask me now,” she replied boldly.
“May I keep you?”
She arched her brow. “Like a pet?”
He grimaced and amended his question. “May I keep you as my mate?”
She grinned. “Yes.”
Her stomach swooped as he smiled brightly down at her. It was the first time any man had ever looked at her with so much joy. As he led her to the bathroom and placed the box on the counter next to the sink, she suspected he seemed so happy because he finally had someone that was his. Like her, he was alone. She understood the longing in his eyes. She understood what it was like to want someone to share the burdens and triumphs of life.
When the door closed behind her, she took a few moments to explore the bathroom. It wasn’t very big, but it was the nicest one she had ever seen. There was a shower on one side and a toilet and sink on the other. As she handled her busine
ss, she marveled all the wonderful luxuries now available to her. Only briefly, while working at one of the bigger mines as a teenager, had she been able to regularly visit a real, honest-to-goodness bathroom with plumbing and hot water. Those seven months on the job had been like paradise.
Back at the cabin, she had to haul water from the well and heat it over the wood burning stove for a shallow bath in their old metal tub. Needing to pee in the middle of the night meant using and then emptying a chamber pot or braving the darkness with a lantern or flashlight, if she had the batteries, to visit the outhouse. She would be able to shower whenever she wanted, brush her teeth without having to haul water or fight off bugs and critters to pee at three in the morning.
Her initial excitement at having access to an indoor bathroom faded quickly when she realized how very poor she was compared to Cipher. As she washed her hands under the motion activated faucet and watched the soap foam on her skin, she felt deep shame. On the mountain, when a man and woman decided to live together, there were expectations of a financial nature. The man had to prove he could provide and care for his woman, and the woman needed to bring money, land or something else valuable like livestock.
I don’t have anything to give him.
As she washed her face and cleaned her teeth with the provided toiletries, she tried to remember everything she had ever heard about the sky warriors and their marriage customs. Beyond the salacious sex rumors, she had only heard that they chased and claimed their brides with collars and preferred fertile virgins. She couldn’t remember ever hearing anything about their dowry customs.
What if Cipher expected her to have something to offer? Would it insult him if she brought nothing, not even a set of dishes or embroidered linens?
“What’s wrong?” Cipher asked when she emerged after a few minutes. “Are you in pain?”
“No.” She shook her head and tried to hide her embarrassment. “It’s nothing.”
