Page 10

It made both of us grumble a little, but it seemed worth it.

Now, thinking about the diplomatic talks I had to take up again, presumably right after Black and I finished having our honeymoon, I grimaced. We still had a lot of shit to sort out with the humans if we wanted to live even semi-normal lives here. Meaning, lives where we weren’t being actively hunted by multiple human militaries, or stuck in some kind of black ops lab, slowly being vivisected as they tried to figure out how to use us as weapons.

Black had told me all the stories about Old Earth.

We had to do whatever we could to avoid that happening here.

Shoving that from my mind with an effort, I looked around my private hospital room and noticed the vast jungle of plants and flowers was missing. The last time I was awake, Black said something about giving them old people in the hospice ward before we left, and I’d agreed. Did that mean we were finally leaving today?

I had to hope itdidmean that.

I didn’t want to get my hopes up again, but gah, I wanted out of there.

My eyes did another pass around the hospital room and bed.

That time, I noticed all my photos and cards were missing, too.

“I packed those up,” he told me. “And yes, doc. We’re leaving.”

Turning my head, I looked up at him. Black’s gold, flecked, tiger-like eyes glowed faintly in the lights from the instruments around my bed.

He watched me look at him.

When I didn’t look away, his expression tightened with pain. That pain hit out at me, his light coiling into mine. His eyes were glassy, and I saw pain reflected there, too.

His fingers tightened in my hair.

I writhed and twisted my body around so that I was facing him.

Glancing down, I saw they still had me hooked up to some kind of IV, enough that the tubes got tangled when I tried to put that arm around him. Pulling my arm back, I leaned my head against his chest instead.

“I thought we were going to wait,” I mumbled, rubbing my face with the hand that wasn’t hooked to a tube. “It’s tonight, right? The wedding? That means our honeymoon starts tonight, too. Tomorrow at the latest.”

He exhaled, and I felt a glimmer of frustration leave his light.

“I suppose,” he conceded.

“You suppose?”

“On the waiting part. It’s a definiteyeson the tonight part. I called ahead, so Frank and the others already got the word. And the docs here more or less okay’d you to leave last night. I have most of the discharge paperwork filled out… everything I could do as your spouse. You’ll probably need to sign on the dotted line in a few places.”

He checked his military-style watch, the one the Admiral had given him, and yawned.

“They’re probably awake already. At the resort, I mean. In Santa Fe. They’re an hour ahead, so they’re probably up and working already. Nick told me last night that Jem’s working on a new batch of cakes. He’s been cooking and meditating and not much else for a few days now, according to Nick… ever since you first woke up. Jem knew it would take time, so he wanted to get started right away.”

I winced. It hadn’t fully occurred to me that Dalejem would have had to throw out the first batch of seer “space cakes” he’d made for everyone.

Two weeks was too long for magic cakes to sit unused.

“More likethreeweeks, doc,” Black said.

His fingers combed through my long hair, pulling it away from my neck. He stroked my cheek, tracing my jaw and throat with his fingers. Bending down, he kissed my collarbones, then my throat, sucking gently with his lips and tongue. When he put more of his light into the kiss, I closed my eyes, feeling my pain worsen.

He raised his head a few seconds later, and both of us were short of breath.

I glanced up at him, fighting to smile. “They’re going to make me pretty again, right? Johan and the others? Or do I have to get married in a bathing suit this time?”

Black grunted a half-laugh.