Page 20 of 80% Beef 20% Cake (Alien Fated Mates #2)

20

T he thick odor of fear soured the room’s stagnant air. A thin bead of lights embedded in the ceiling’s loose soil cast a dim glow over the less than welcoming space. Sully paced before his younglings as TeyTey settled them against the rough-hewn wall. She swiped a tear from below her youngest’s eye and leaned into him. “We’ll be safe in here.”

TeyTey waved me to her side. I lowered my weary body to the floor beside her. Besides the odd heap of piled earth and the layers of cobwebs netting every crack and crevice, the space was empty. The coppery tang of blood trickled into my mouth. I hadn’t realized I’d gnawed my cheek raw. JayJay and his damn heroics. He better be careful out there.

Mutters laced with fear filled the hot air as soil rained down.

TeyTey scanned the ceiling as if it might collapse any minute. “If the town plans on using this space as an emergency shelter in the future, it could certainly use some work.” She snorted, dusting off the heads of her children. “You’re a designer. Maybe you have some ideas?”

“Of clothing TeyTey.” I appreciated that she was trying to distract us as the vibrations from the hellsna rattled the half-constructed building loose, but I couldn’t muster one iota of interest about fabric for future curtains with JayJay out there.

As hours passed and the settlement’s siren rang on like a constant drone in my already agitated mind, one need became paramount—my full bladder.

“Fata.” YimYim shifted on his feet. “I gotta go.”

The sentiment seemed to echo around the dusty space as bodies wiggled to get comfortable.

“Tino and I will take people up one at a time to relieve themselves,” Sully announced. Faces relaxed, legs stopped wriggling, and a trickle of tension leaked from the air.

D’ovey clambered up the metal staircase after Sully. His bulk squeezed like a sausage in the protective ring that circled the vertical stairs. Tino took up the rear, prodding the old Boola’s butt through the tight space. Despite the tension, laughter burst from me when the good-natured Boola waved to the crowd from the top rung and flourished his new linobee hat.

When my time arrived, the sense of doom that had been building deep inside me set me on edge. My sweaty hands slipped on the rung and Tino reached up to steady me from below.

“You okay, Ginger?”

I nodded, but each heightened nerve screamed something terrible had happened to JayJay, that he needed help. And I was trapped in what would be the equivalent of an unstocked bomb shelter on Earth.

I climbed the last steep rung and exited through the hatch, then walked to a long trench bathed in dark shadows as Tino kept his back to me, watching for hellsna through a crack in the barn-style doors. The siren’s blare, so much louder on the surface, overrode all my other senses, and I hustled to relieve myself. A notification flashed red on my wristport. JayJay? Maybe the threat had passed…

“Damn it,” I muttered at the stupid bedtime reminder to take my medicine. I tapped Tino on the shoulder to let him know he could take me back down, but we both froze when the blaring alarm turned to a harried announcement.

“Immediate diversion required at the cantina. Medical attention required.” The siren resumed its awful drone.

“Is your hoverbike outside?” I asked Tino, my voice a cool contrast to my racing heart. Without a doubt, I knew something terrible had happened to JayJay. Every part of me demanded I help him.

Tino scrubbed a hand over the tattooed firebrands on his dusty head, not suspecting a thing. “Sully had us park them in the shed around the side.”

Taking advantage of everything I knew about Rock Dwellers, I kissed him square on the lips and then dashed for the crack in the doors. I’d already slipped between the gap and rounded the corner before I heard his footfalls behind me.

“Ginger, I can’t let you go out there!”

Inside the shed, I skidded to a stop and jumped over the hoverbike’s saddle.

He rubbed a thumb over the spot my lips had touched. “Females are prized. Let me—”

And pressed the starter. Sorry, I mouthed to Tino as I hit the throttle, choking him in a cloud of pink dust. A quick shoulder check showed him sitting on another hoverbike, forehead ridge high, and tapping out a com on his wristport. Tino would follow in my wake in seconds. I wanted the backup, but I couldn’t afford to waste time convincing him. He’d forgive my devious tactics.

Barely noticing the surrounding devastation, I sped toward the cantina. Though the streets were unrecognizable, the hellsna’s shrill scream guided me truer than a compass. Please let him be okay. Seconds crept by as if sucked into a vacuum until I finally arrived on the main street.

I idled in the shelter of the hardware store. Or what remained of it. Waiting. Waiting for a break. Any kind of break. JayJay dodged and weaved around the head of a worm that stood four stories high.

Dark clouds appeared out of nowhere, rumbling across the sky, and the streets turned to rivers as a deluge of rain flooded them. A series of lightning bolts, the color of midnight laced with silver, shot through the sky.

The hellsna sank low, and I launched through the torrential rain, flashing like strobe lights, sensing what would happen next.

JayJay spiraled higher and higher, coaxing the beast away from the buildings it hadn’t yet destroyed. But as he surged over the beast, it uncoiled and sprang toward him, knocking him out of the sky with its tail.

“JayJay!” I yelled as he flew from his hoverbike, freefalling toward the hellsna’s snatching jaw.

On a hope and a prayer, I gunned the throttle and dove through the sliver of space separating them. A backward glance would leave me dead. I had no idea if JayJay had survived his fall, and if I took the time to think about it, I’d be nothing more than worm fodder. My chest heaved and my white-knuckled grip slipped over the wet handlebars, but I’d managed to grab the motherfucker’s attention.

“Come and get me, you stinking pile of shit!” I tore through the ravaged part of town, running on instinct.

Toward the wastelands, the ground lit up, electrified by the storm. What was left of an old skyscraper exploded. For a moment I flew, blinded by the light.

Driven by the vibration, the hellsna broke from tailing me, darting westward to pursue the explosion. Even from this distance, I could hear the ground rumbling and see debris hurtling through the air. The lightning must have hit something below ground to detonate like that.

Twisting my dripping hair out of my eyes, I flew back toward the main street, scanning for JayJay. The downpour dulled the siren’s warning, but the sound barely registered as I squinted in the dim light for the cantina. Where was he? At last, through thick sheets of rain, I spotted a boot and hiscus-dyed leather pants sticking out of an intact doorway.

Parking the hovercraft under an overhang, I prayed Tino kept his bike stocked with an emergency first aid kit. A quick search later I fumbled it free from the hatch, and raced toward the local drinking hole.

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” I knelt next to where he was lying in the entranceway and placed a trembling hand on his arm. JayJay’s eyes were closed, one leg bent at an awkward angle. His lips were pinched in a grimace and his mighty hand clutched his rib cage. But his chest rose and fell, and I forced back the tears of gratitude threatening to burst free. “JayJay?”

At the sound of my voice, JayJay’s eyes fluttered open for a moment, showing dilated pupils. “Ginger…” He coughed, clutching his ribs. His eyes tracked everywhere but never focused, before he sank back into unconsciousness. Afraid to move him—not that I could—I felt all around his body, careful to avoid his leg. When I reached his head, my fingers came back smeared with blood.

“Damn it. Where’s Tino?” The sky lit up with another series of lightning bolts that I would’ve thought extraordinary on any other day, but at this moment I just thanked whoever was looking out for us for the light. I pulled a roll of gauze out of the first aid bag and slowly wrapped it around JayJay’s head.

Rock Dweller voices and footsteps splashing down the streets registered dimly as more lightning lit up the bar. Mounted on the wall were what looked like cricket bats, and I quickly pulled two down and was carefully splinting JayJay’s leg when Tino and Sannit ran in.

“Dr. Ten’s at the volcano. We need to get JayJay there.” Sannit crouched next to me in a sodden mess, inventorying JayJay’s injuries.

“He’s got a concussion, a broken leg and likely a few broken ribs.” I lifted my chin toward Tino. “Can you grab that bar table over there? I’m worried about his neck. I think we can strap him down to it.”

Minutes later we had him secured with the tavern’s curtains, and Tino and Sannit hoisted the table onto the trailer, which they’d backed up to the door.

“Sorry we took so long, Ginger.” Tino looked at me shyly, kicking his toe into a puddle. “It took forever to find the blanting trailer.”

The spring rainstorm had ended as quickly as it had come.

“Hey now, if anyone should be apologizing it’s me.” I squeezed Tino’s hand. “I’m sorry I stooped so low, but I knew you wouldn’t have let me go.”

Sannit’s gaze ping-ponged between us.

With a hopeful gaze, I prayed I hadn’t done any real damage. “Ummm…I didn’t mean anything by it. My heart is already spoken for.” I stepped closer to JayJay.

Tino grinned so widely I could see almost every tooth. “I know you’re with JayJay, but anytime you feel the need to deceive me with a kiss, the door’s wide open.”

“She kissed you?” Sannit looked at Tino, then back at me. “I knew I should’ve blanting volunteered for bathroom duty.”

My laughter was cut off by JayJay’s groan. I rushed toward the trailer, hopped up, and sat at his shoulder. “Let’s get to the Starry Volcano.”

“One moment.” Sannit dashed back into the cantina, returning with bottles of whiskey, and I shook my head at them.

“What? It’s medicinal,” Tino shouted over the hovercraft’s downdraft, a bottle of whiskey sticking out of the storage compartment beside him as we rose into the air.

Sannit waved us off, and as I forwarded directions to Tino’s wristport, I watched him jog back toward the shelter.

JayJay’s skin warmed my icy fingers as we swept over the wastelands, and I couldn’t help the tears escaping down my cheeks. Even unconscious, he unknowingly helped me. As my adrenaline tapered off, a rush of feelings poured in—helplessness that I could do so little for him, anger that he put himself in high-risk situations so his team didn’t have to.

And an overwhelming wave of love. Oh God, how have I ignored my love for this man for so long?

The rushing air lashed at my exposed skin, and tears stung my eyes as I sheltered against JayJay. My shirt, not thick enough, billowed and deflated, releasing any body heat that lingered on my skin. The hoverbike’s drone prevented conversation—a good thing, because my chattering teeth skittered like fake wind-up teeth across a table.

Every twisted piece of metal we flew over morphed into a nightmare image of me finding JayJay lifeless. I’d never been so scared. Despite his even breaths beside me, I couldn’t stop my internal chant. He’s going to be okay. He has to be.

As dawn approached, the pink soil underlining the horizon glowed a juicy peach color, jarringly cheery against the black volcano just ahead. While Tino parked his hoverbike, I raced to the elevator alongside the four enforcers carrying JayJay on the makeshift stretcher. The bandage on his head had soaked through with blood, and I was worried about his jostled brain.

The wind-powered turbine jolted to a stop, and the door jerked open to the command center, a hive of activity. Sisip’s eyes caught mine, but I had no time to talk. I lurched as fast as my frozen legs could manage, but the enforcers’ much longer legs and stronger bodies left me behind in the long tunnel. Calm down.

The volcanic air played havoc with my body. It was like immersing someone with hypothermia in boiling water. It shocked my system, forcing me to slow further or else stumble and faceplant. What seemed like hours later, I stuttered to a stop at his round door. My breaths came in giant heaves. He’s fine. He’s tough .

Tucking my hair behind my ear, I smoothed my sweaty palms down my leggings. After a centering breath, I slid the door open and, with the step stool missing, forced my rubbery arms to heave my swollen joints onto the soft blue moss carpet.

“Goodness gracious, my dear.” Dr. Ten rushed toward me and lifted me by my armpits over the lip of the cave.

Saluda, Hill, D’unter and Efred turned toward me. They sat around JayJay’s still body on crates—and my step—turned into chairs. The news had spread quickly.

I rushed to JayJay’s side, where Nebula lay curled on his chest. Her fiber-optic lights flashed at a frenetic pace, visible to all.

My eyes grew wet. His skin, though covered in dirt, shimmered as if it had been painted with a brush of pure starlight, glowing with a life of its own. His oil slick sheen would’ve knocked me to my knees in awe if he hadn’t been so motionless. Instead, I crouched before him with trembling hands. “Please be okay.”

As if sensing my nearness, he moaned, his voice so raspy it scratched over every raw nerve in my body. “Ginger.”

Thank you. Thank you. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”

Hill stepped away from his spot near JayJay’s head, and my numb legs moved on autopilot to take his position. Dr. Ten helped lower me to the vacant box, and I leaned in, placing my hand on JayJay’s bandaged forehead and brushing a kiss there.

JayJay let out a long breath. His rigid body loosened, and the corners of his mouth twisted up. I clutched his big hand, and a tear rolled down my cheek. He was waking.

Instead of Nebula showing me her bushy tail as she flounced away, she turned to face me and curled into a ball over his heart, closing her eyes. At last, a smile reached my lips. I’d done something that passed muster in Nebula’s eyes.

“His heart rate is regulating.” Dr. Ten monitored a device over JayJay’s heart. “Were you in the battle too, my dear? You look dreadful.” His Nacer wings fluttered behind him.

Efred laughed, breaking the palpable tension in the air. His purple scales flashed like embers in the orange glow. JayJay’s team bantered back and forth with each other, but their voices turned to murmurs. I only had eyes for JayJay.

Irrational fear made the hairs on my arms rise, along with a clawing desire to have his forest-green gaze, alert and attentive, on me once more. “Why won’t he open his eyes?”

Dr. Ten pressed a button on the device and JayJay’s heartbeat filled the room, as steady as a metronome. “Yes, indeed. That he’s alive and doing well is in large part due to the effectiveness of your protective clothing. He doesn’t have one outward scrape. Quite remarkable.”

But why won’t he open his eyes? I stroked his forehead ridge and adjusted the chain mail hood around his neck.

“Ginger, I’ll help you at every market day until the end of time if you make me armor next,” Saluda begged, a curl of smoke swirling from his nostrils.

JayJay growled, kicking toward consciousness, and I smoothed my hand over his forearm.

Hill walked toward the door. “JayJay’s not calling out for Ginger anymore.” He lifted his chin at D’unter and Efred’s bloody hands and shredded clothes. “He needs his rest, and we all need long showers.”

With a few quick words, Hill removed his team from JayJay’s side. I let out a breath, thankful for the quiet, but I still had a few questions for Dr. Ten.

“As I was saying”—his head swiveled to the side and back again—“outwardly, he’s fine, but inside is another story. A hard and fast fall across inhospitable ground has broken his leg and lower ribs, which I’ve set.” He ticked JayJay’s injuries off one by one on his fingers. “I’ve administered a high-dose sleep inducer for pain and to reduce movement. Once he wakes, I’m afraid he’ll experience some discomfort from internal bruising. He’s lucky to be alive. I commend his team’s prompt rescue.”

“Me, Tino and Sannit rescued him,” I muttered absently as I willed JayJay’s eyes to open. “And I splinted his leg.” With my eyes, I traced the muscles of JayJay’s arm, his collarbone, his round shoulder, up and down his neck and over his smooth head. I’m lucky he’s alive.

“Well done, well done.” Dr. Ten patted my shoulder before his eyes flickered to Nebula, who still lay curled on the blanket on JayJay’s chest. “Fortune is in his favor. Dorats vibrate at a frequency that aids healing. She’ll be an excellent asset to his speedy recovery. A useful ally.”

Nebula opened one eye and fixed it on Dr. Ten as he spoke, then she trained that single eye on me as if to ask, ‘are you up to the task?’ I nodded.

“On another matter.” Dr. Ten switched his focus to me. “Have you commenced your treatment?” He tipped his beak so that both his small eyes narrowed on me.

This was so not the time to be talking about this. I could barely focus and JayJay would clearly be out of commission for a while. “Yes. I kinda wanted to talk to you about that. It seems my symptoms return after three days or so.”

While he pulled up my file, he stretched out one wide wing and tucked it neatly to his side. “Well then, I recommend you arrange engagements at that frequency.” He entered a few notes into his wristport.

“Yes, but the thing is…I was really hoping to take the next shuttle home.” As soon as I said it, my body recoiled. The thought of going home without JayJay no longer appealed to me.

“That’s unfortunate. The volatile hellsna activity has prompted a moratorium on travel to and from Tern.” The points of his wings skimmed the sea-colored moss before he shrugged his shoulders. “The Intergalactic Federation on Transportation and Travel has canceled the next passenger shuttle.”

The news didn’t hit as hard as I would have thought. My priority was JayJay. A missed competition seemed minor in comparison, but I still wanted to return home one day.

I forced out a response as Dr. Ten eyed me with concern. “I guess that makes sense,” I whispered. Maybe JayJay and I could catch a private shuttle when all this hellsna shit was done with. Makir might be able to ask Bonic. “And the oral treatment the lab’s working on. When will that be ready?”

He placed a warm hand on my shoulder. “The media responsible for stabilizing the medicine for travel is reacting poorly to human DNA. Pharmalab’s working through alternatives.” We jerked our heads toward a groaning JayJay before Dr. Ten said, “But that will take some time.”

Okay, so that wasn’t a definite impossibility. I moved back to JayJay’s side as he stirred in his sleep.

“On that note, I must return to my practice. Nurse Claice is overrun after those heinous beasts trampled our settlement. I trust JayJay will be fine under your care?”

“Absolutely.” Weariness worked through my body, but I was used to pushing through discomfort. JayJay would have the best possible care under my hands.

“Get some sleep, dear.” He patted my shoulder and, with wings half-spread, fluttered out of the room.

“Thank you, Dr. Ten,” I called before the door slid shut.

Too tired to change, I stretched out alongside JayJay and placed my head on his chest. He began to purr as I settled in the shelter of his arm.

Tears slid over my cheeks, landing on my folded arms, and I stifled my sobs so as not to wake JayJay. Despite my happiness knowing he would heal, not being able to attend the competition left a hollow ache in my heart. Eventually, his soft purr lulled me to sleep.

When I woke, still damp, Nebula’s steely gaze caught mine where she maintained her vigil, a queen perched on the throne of JayJay’s shoulder. I pressed two fingers to his wrist, noticing a strange pattern. Quickly dismissing it, I focused on the reassuringly steady beat, along with the rise and fall of his chest.

The dim glow inside the volcano made time impossible to tell, and I glanced at my wristport. Eight hours. I’d slept for eight hours! My joints still ached, but a sense of determination thrummed in my veins. Maybe JayJay’s nearness alone staved off my symptoms. Or did having Nebula nearby help? Dr. Ten had said she would assist with JayJay’s healing. Why not mine, too?

As much as I didn’t want to leave JayJay, I couldn’t handle having dirty hair any longer. I fingered a limp strand and grimaced. Why was hair color so tricky to come by on Tern, anyway? After I rushed through the fastest shower in history, I swung by the kitchen and collected two containers of soup. Hurrying back to JayJay, I answered as few questions as I could get away with.

As I approached our door, I laughed at the stack of mantu hides heaped to one side. Word must have gotten around that I could make use of these. Nebula’s ears twitched from her perch on JayJay’s chest when I propped the soup on the mossy floor and then dragged the hairy brown coats inside. After assessing the potential threat with her shrewd eyes, she dropped her head to rest on her paws again.

Sitting beside JayJay, I ladled salty, tangy mantu broth into my mouth. It filled the hole in my stomach. Wow-ees were awesome, but one donut hole since lunch yesterday had left me starving. I rolled up a mantu hide and propped it behind JayJay’s head before spooning a mouthful between his lips, mesmerized by the iridescent sheen of his gray skin.

After filling the container lid, I placed it on JayJay’s lap in front of Nebula. Would she accept an offering from me? With a twitch of her whiskers and an unnerving glance, she dove in. I filled it a second time.

I passed the day intermittently napping and feeding JayJay broth, usually after one of his crew dropped a container at the door, inquiring about his health.

The following day, Geo delivered my sewing machine and tools, then set up a table I could work on. Mantu hides occupied most of the floor space now. Measurements marked the hides in a series of dots and dashes, ready to be cut. Between my short work sessions, my naps beside JayJay and Nebula grew more frequent.

My vision faded in and out as I spun a round helmet in my hand, double-checking the blurred stitches. I’d taken inspiration from boxing-style head guards to design protection for D’Rasma. Pleased with my latest creation, I lifted the helmet for Nebula’s approval. “That should do the trick.”

“What should do the trick?” JayJay’s raspy voice filled my heart with joy.

He’s awake!