Page 33 of Argurma Warrior (The Argurma Chronicles #1)

M eg yanked another handful of wires free, unplugging them from their ports. It was oddly satisfying after being forced to deal with Beverly the last two days. The woman was everywhere and constantly underfoot and in the way whenever Meg tried to catch even a moment alone with Kaylar. And always with that speculative gleam in her eye that made Meg want to bloody her nose.

Beverly seemed to just show up unwanted everywhere. It was an uncharitable thought, especially since she was as stuck as they were there, but she wasn’t even trying to help out. Even now, she had her hip elegantly propped against a desk as she languidly operated the computer in front of her.

Like the computer offered anything useful for their salvage. Kaylar was quite clear with what he needed, so what was she doing?

Meg didn’t understand why she was even hanging around if she wasn’t going to be useful.

“You are distracted, anastha,” Kaylar observed as he pried off the metal hull from something that looked like it was once pretty expensive.

Meg shook her head, frustration eating at her. She didn’t want to be the jealous girlfriend sort. Kaylar hadn’t said anything about it, but he would get tired of it eventually if she was constantly acting insane any time Beverly seemed to do anything, but she didn’t like how it made her feel.

“I’m fine,” she mumbled as she gave another group of wires a vicious tug.

His gaze shifted from her to Beverly and his mandibles clicked softly as he looked back at her once more. “Has Doctor Ryder emotionally damaged you again?”

“She hasn’t done anything…quite literally,” she added under her breath, giving the scientist another irritated look.

Kaylar chuffed. Abandoning his work, he crossed the short distance separating them and dragged her to his chest. Immediately his vibrissae came up to brush against her cheek and neck as his mandibles brushed the top of her head affectionately.

“We will finish here soon and retreat to our quarters where you will not be agitated by the female’s presence.”

Meg huffed and leaned into him. “I’m not agitated, I’m annoyed. She just props herself over there… studying whatever she’s looking at on the computer over there and just randomly calls you over for no reason—”

“Kaylar, I’m sorry to interrupt your little chat with Meg, but come take a look at this and tell me if it’s something useful,” Beverly interrupted with a little wave.

“Like that,” Meg grumbled. “We are looking for parts and she just looks for an excuse to have your attention.”

He pressed his lips against her brow. “Do not be concerned, anastha. She does not want my attention.”

“Could’ve fooled me.” Meg scowled at him in disbelief, and he chuffed again.

“She gives pretense that she does because she does not wish to be left behind. This world is different than the one she remembers that had luxury and technology available to her. She faces a life of comparative hardship. That scares her more than I do.”

Meg scoffed but angled a hopeful look at him. “You really think so?”

“She smells of fear even when she attempts to gain my attention,” he replied with another quiet chuff. “She has not realized that her efforts will yield no result. Argurma males choose only one and once we mate there will be no other.”

“We haven’t exactly done the deed,” Meg replied with a snort of laughter as she detangled herself from him. Beverly wouldn’t wait very long before heading over to see what the holdup was.

“That will soon be remedied… the virus, it is ready,” he rasped, and a responding tingle rushed through her.

“You mean—” her eyes widened as she looked down at his crotch.

With the crook of his finger, he tipped her chin back up so that she was once again looking at him. “Yes, anastha. All is ready. I intend to claim you—but make sure you wish this because once it is done it cannot be undone,” he cautioned.

Meg nodded eagerly, her heart racing with excitement. She wanted him. Part of her worried that on some level she wanted him for the wrong reasons, that she was no different from Beverly when it came to securing her own safety. That, in some small way, she was using him. But if there was some small kernel that was acting on self-preservation, the rest of her simply just wanted to be with him. His smile grew at her reaction but he dropped his hand with a growl of irritation as Beverly called out to him again.

“Kaylar are you coming?” Beverly’s lips pursed with obvious annoyance as she looked back and forth between them as if studying them.

Meg cupped his hand in her and gave it a warm squeeze. “Soon,” she reminded him in a whisper.

His lips tipped and he nodded before turning to make his way to Beverly’s side. Gritting her teeth, Meg forced a small smile as she gave Beverly a cheery wave. The other woman’s expression tightened briefly but she returned Meg’s smile, if somewhat prickly, before turning her back on her altogether to speak to Kaylar.

The quiet murmur of Beverly’s was too low for Meg to hear so she tried to ignore it completely as she continued to pull parts. If she did it a little more aggressively, well that was fine because there was no one watching her to even notice—and it made her feel a little better. Apparently, whatever Beverly thought she had to tell Kaylar, she didn’t think was important enough for Meg to know as well.

Or she didn’t think that Meg was smart enough to understand whatever she was showing her. Her jaw tightened angrily but after a long moment she relaxed it as she expelled a long breath. It didn’t matter what Beverly thought. Meg hated being left out but Kaylar would tell her if it was anything important. So far it hadn’t been from what she’d been able to tell each time he returned to his work with the slight tell-tale signs of irritation on his face.

She glanced over at them curiously. Kaylar straightened abruptly from where he was bent peering down at the screen, a loud growl rattling in his throat as he spun away. Observing him in profile, she noted that his mandibles were spread wide in aggression as he raced from the room.

What the hell?

Meg glanced over at Beverly again and moved closer at the look of worry on the other woman’s face. That didn’t look like a performance—and Kaylar’s reaction was definitely the real deal. Her eyes trailed off in the direction he’d hurried off as she stopped at Beverly’s side.

“What’s going on?”

Beverly shrugged. “There was something big moving around there that was detected by the security system circling the lab.”

Meg’s eyes shot over to her in panic. “ What? And Kaylar went after it?”

Her question was met by a confused frown. “I assume so. Do you know something I don’t?”

Backing away rapidly to the center of the room, Meg shivered as her gaze lifted to the ceiling. She swallowed nervously. She wasn’t worried so much for herself right now. At the moment they were perfectly safe inside the lab. E302 couldn’t have broken inside since there were no alarms going off, but she suddenly wasn’t so certain that the walls of the laboratory would keep it out forever. Why hadn’t Kaylar sensed its approach? And was he really heading out there now… alone?

She snorted quietly to herself. Of course, he was. He would head out there and do his warrior thing. Probably would call it a matter of duty. She would be a lot happier if he was there with her to wait the creature out, but realistically knew that wouldn’t do them much good when he needed to go out and repair this ship.

“Any decent secret lab in a novel would have a hidden escape tunnel to the beach,” she groused. Beverly looked over at her in surprise which just made her more annoyed. “What? I told you I can read. Trust me, with the hellscape I’ve spent most of my life in, old books I found were my only real means of getting away. Even slipping off into a horror novel was good enough to make me forget my own fucked up life for a while.”

“I—didn’t realize,” Beverly said lamely. “You said The City was safe, so I assumed—”

“That I’ve always lived there?” Meg glanced back over at her with a mirthless laugh. “Not a chance. My life probably would have turned out a lot different if I had. Like I said before, the world out there is a harsh place. You will sell your dignity and a lot more that you’d never imagine just to be safe.” She narrowed her eyes as a look of discomfort crossed Beverly’s face. “Take it from me. No amount of security is worth that shit… in always being afraid and not being able to shake it and hating every fucking day you’re still breathing but too damned stubborn to just roll over and die.”

An uncomfortable silence fell between them as they both waited and listened for any sign of activity from above. For Kaylar’s return—or worse. Meg just wanted him to return as quickly as possible.

“I’m not ashamed to admit that I don’t think I can survive in that world out there,” Beverly said stiffly after several minutes, and Meg looked over at her in surprise that she’d even admit it aloud. Beverly sighed and glanced over, meeting her eyes. “Look, my first priority is getting off this island because as shitty as the deal is out there, there are things about this place that scare me more. And now there is something out there that obviously frightens you that I haven’t even been told about—something that has made this place a whole hell of a lot worse. So yeah, I want to get out of here by any means possible, but I’m not going to pretend like I won’t take a better opportunity to get off this planet altogether, and take my chances out there, if it’s offered to me.”

“So, you think the answer is to try snag Kaylar?” She raised an eyebrow at her, and Beverly smiled thinly in return.

“Why not? Isn’t that what you’re doing?” She laughed brittlely. “We are both thrown in with this alien and we both have the same motivation—escaping. If you’re worried that he might prefer me as a companion over you—well, you probably should be. Aliens are beyond more advanced than we are, and that was before this planet went to hell. Do you really think he won’t get bored of a human who can’t do anything for herself but forage for food and bits of scraps?”

Meg blinked. That was kind of brutal. And really bitch-level blunt, for that matter.

“I think you’re really mistaken,” she said slowly.

“Oh, I don’t think so.” Beverly’s smile turned cool. “I think I’ve hit on the truth here—we both know it—and sticking your head in the sand is not going to make reality disappear. We are leagues apart and I am a very determined woman. One way or another, I’m getting off this fucking planet.”

“Except it doesn’t work that way. Not for his kind. Kaylar already chose me. We are going to be mated as soon as—”

“But you are not mated yet,” Beverly interrupted with an expression of feigned compassion. “Which tells me that he is not as certain of it as you are. Otherwise, why is he waiting? Like I said, Meg, you never know what the future brings. It has a tendency to do the unexpected.”

What if the whole needing to create a virus thing was just an excuse? A way to avoid making a decision once he set eyes on Beverly while she was in stasis and saw that he had more options?

Meg frowned. That didn’t line up with what she knew of Kaylar. The early days of the relationship were tense, bordering on hostile, and he had planned to give her over to his council that entire time. He’d only recently changed his mind. It wasn’t something that was any of Beverly’s business, but she doubted she would have been so overjoyed to go with him if he had been keeping to his original plan. Unfortunately, Beverly’s observations, as groundless as they were, were designed to feed on her own doubts and struck their mark hard.

And Kaylar had pointed out that she was still afraid of him. It didn’t make any sense. For that matter, why was she so afraid of the island? She didn’t even know about E302 and was desperate to get away from it as fast as possible.

Above, the lights dimmed and flickered violently, drawing their gazes up toward them.

“Does this happen often?” Meg whispered.

“No,” Beverly choked. “Only when the generator nears the end of its cell-life is there minor flickering.”

Meg grimaced. “Oh, well, it happened a lot when I found you.”

“Makes sense. The AI and power being used would have overworked the system. But that’s not happening now. It shouldn’t be happening at all unless…”

“Unless?” Meg prodded.

Beverly swallowed. “Unless we are coming close to having a system collapse from rapidly draining power. That should only happen if large machinery were being used or—”

“Or what? Spit it out!”

The other woman looked over at her frankly. “Unless something is attacking the building itself in coordinated strikes that is triggering the security system alerts. A strike is met with a moderate bolt of electric shock to discourage wildlife from coming near the lab but we did once have that large flock of buzzards attacking the building when it was first put up. There was speculation that it was set up too close to their nesting areas but the company had to deal with the birds because they were attacking so frequently that they were causing power collapses.”

“And if it does?”

The lights flickered wildly again, randomly plunging them into darkness. Beverly’s eyes sought her when the light came back on, her face pale.

“Then all the secured locks go down, the doors open as they would in the event of an emergency so not to trap personnel inside. We will be completely vulnerable.”

“Fucking wonderful,” Meg hissed as she hurried toward the door. “That’s going to be a problem.”

“Wait! Where are you going?”

Stopping at the doorway, Meg glanced back at her impatiently. “I’m going to check if Kaylar is still in the building. If he is, this is information he really needs to know.”

“Why? What the hell is out there?”

Meg’s lips thinned. “In a word—a monster.”

“Oh damn. I just had to ask,” Beverly muttered as Meg slipped out the door.

She only hoped that she was in time, and that he hadn’t yet left the building. The lab wasn’t as foolproof as they’d believed. And that changed everything.