Page 20 of Argurma Warrior (The Argurma Chronicles #1)

M eg glanced over at her alien helper and smothered a smile. He was so damn adorable. Kaylar was literally treating everything as if it were spun glass. Even the ornaments were hardy enough to stand a bit more jostling than he seemed to be willing to risk. Not only that but he adhered so meticulously to every detail that he was putting her own carefree arrangement of decorations to shame. He even returned to the maintenance closet to get a number of nails so that they could secure the strings of lights along the walls. Several even curled like snakes around the posts of her bed in perfectly spaced coils.

The trail of garland that she laid down after his careful strung path of lights was ridiculously lopsided in comparison despite her best efforts and yet, it succeeded in providing a cheery atmosphere that she didn’t believe was possible in a lab. The tinsel garland caught and reflected the light which made up for a lot of it, but it was the ornaments hanging from the string of lights that really made her smile. Each glass ornament sparkled from the lights surrounding it, and even the little cheerful plastic and wooden ornaments interspersed among them contained a joyfulness that was contagious just by looking at them.

But it was more than that—more than just the glitz strung around the room—it was because Kaylar had painstakingly helped her with every little bit of it until her room was more decorated than her family’s entire home had been in her youth. There were even thick green bunches that appeared to be various kinds of plant life, some possessing numerous needles, none of which she knew what it was since only the scraggly brush and a few sad trees managed to survive around Phoenix where she had lived, or even along the coast near The City. As far as she could tell, they didn’t even inhabit the island that they were on since all the trees she’d seen in passing had possessed broad, flat leaves that gathered pools of liquid along their surfaces. Still, bedecked in red ribbons, and perfectly spaced by Kaylar, it made her smile to look at them.

“This looks wonderful,” she announced. “It almost makes me feel guilty that I’m hogging all of it and you don’t get to appreciate any of this when you go to bed.”

The Argurma’s gaze slid down toward her with a look of curiosity. “Unnecessary. When I go to my quarters it is merely to sleep. I do not sense the lack of anything that I would not appreciate anyway.”

Her lips twitched at his response, and she stepped back, taking position beside him, as her head craned back to get a better look at their handiwork.

“Well, I think we did a great job.” She grinned happily as she leaned slightly into him and took a good look around. That he didn’t automatically move away from her was surprising, but she’d take it. “In fact, I think we managed to outdo every holiday of decorating with this, too.”

“And this is… good?” he asked as he turned his head, observing the decorations hanging throughout the room.

“It’s the best,” she confirmed. “It will certainly be hard to outdo.”

Kaylar fell silent, all except for the soft sound of his clicking mandibles as if he too was overcome by the magic of the moment. She was still unclear what he meant by his malfunctions, but she swore she saw a hint of wonder in his eyes in that moment as he looked around and if that was a malfunction then it couldn’t be anything too bad.

Without a word, she slipped her hand into his, her fingers lacing with his own as she regarded the room with a content and appreciative smile. Everything in that moment was perfect, even if Meg was aware of the way he suddenly stiffened at her touch and that he glanced down at their joined hands in surprise as if he’d never experienced such a thing. She kept her grip on his hand light, enjoying a genuine connection with another being for what felt like the first time in a very long time.

Slowly Kaylar’s clicking was replaced by a low rumbling purr that made her melt into his side. Tucking her head against his shoulder, she relaxed against him, a smile playing on her lips as she took everything in. The moment was perfect and selfishly she hoped that it wouldn’t be their last one.

* * *

Kaylar tried not to react to the soft touch of her hand. It was entirely unexpected and should have inspired reaction in his defensive instincts and those which were honed by his handler during his training period. Instead, the feeling of it enclosed within a, small, soft, and warm hand sent an unexpected calmness through him. He felt connected in a physical way to her as if they were tethered together even more closely than when he connected to a data system. Like she was entwined with him as neatly as their hands.

He could not stop casting glances toward their joined hands. He was caught by it as his systems attempted to puzzle out what she intended to convey and his own reactions to the gesture. He was of mind to ask but he processed that if he did, it would likely terminate the moment prematurely, and he did not wish for that.

Instead, he selfishly locked his fingers around hers as he glanced down at her from the corner of his eye to catch the satisfied tip of her lips. His vibrissae puffed out with pleasure that she enjoyed his returned touch.

But it was a dangerous shared enjoyment, one that he indulged in solely because of the perfection of the moment as the lights danced around them in a glittering display that they had achieved together. It was a product of their joined work and as such, he processed that the parts of his systems that were malfunctioning were coding it as pleasure and that was the light warmth seeped down deep within him, burrowing to attack the marrow within his bones and potentially infecting those parts of his brain that were connected to the networks and implants that were merged irreparably with him.

Sooner or later the malfunction would spread, and his control would slip. When that happened, he would not even have the option to remove the implants to preserve their integrity until he could return to Argurumal and be reconditioned by his handler.

No Argurma could entirely remove their implants once they became permanently fused with their biological systems because they were connected not only by mass material but also through nano machinery that attached to the corresponding cells. They could possibly remove some, but they could never be as tech free as they were born. For an elite warrior, even getting to that point was nothing more than an improbable dream. So many of his implants were fused and grafted not only cellularly but on vital organs and bones, but also replaced parts of his brain more significantly so that he could not live without them. He would have to remove an eye just to remove the optic implants attached to it.

He only hoped that if he lost control of his malfunction that it would be on Argurumal where he could be dealt with before he did anything that brought danger or dishonor to his people. He did not have hope of terminating his malfunctioning systems to keep it from spreading. Without his handler present to subdue him, Kaylar processed that he would become every bit as dangerous and reckless as his cousin, Veral.

Meg squeezed his hand at that moment and the tension eased from his body as he looked down at met her gaze. There was no demand in that touch, just reassurance and something more that gave him peace despite the heavy weight of his own personal conflicts occupying his mind so often. There was nothing there but that great warmth that filled him. He held onto that tightly, jealously, wanting the moment to never end so that he could have just that for a little while longer rather than the loud clamor within his mind from waiting communications, his own system alerts, and the constant awareness that with every day he was slipping further and further into corruption from his malfunctions.

That he did not care so long as he was holding her hand and had her tucked against him should have registered an alarm in his systems. But all he felt was peace and that elusive peace was worth giving up everything for. For a moment he could forget that he was a malfunctioning elite warrior male on the long road to eventual termination. For now, he was simply a male with a female like any other pair among all the species throughout the cosmos. And he clung to that without remorse.