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Chapter Eleven

B rianna

We run up the ramp straight into the barrels of three lasers. Dax, the huge Neanderthal, would be imposing enough on his own, but strong, silver Steele is on one side, and heavily-muscled, heavily-scarred Shadow is on the other.

Only a crazy man would argue with these three, and the geneslave doesn’t appear crazy. In fact, he sinks to his knees and puts his hands behind his head in complete surrender. I’m almost knocked to the floor as we take off, and again when we launch into hyperspace a moment later.

Stryker returns to the loading bay at a run, pushing the empty hover-stretcher. Braxxus balks for a moment, not wanting to get on it, but when I urge him, he lies down and we’re off running through the halls.

When we arrive in medbay, I’m torn between checking on Axx, and holding Braxx’s hand. There are only two exam rooms. Tall, white, Norse-god looking Theos is in one, with a very worried Savannah at his bedside. I’d like to console her, but she’s crying and I’m distracted with my guys. I’ll catch her later.

Axx is in the other exam room, lying on his side facing the far wall. Some of the blood has been sponged off his back, but the medbot hasn’t begun to clean or stitch any of his injuries. And by the look of things, there are a lot of them. Two of the wounds are gaping open and blood is pouring out onto the absorbent pad on the mattress. My throat constricts in worry just seeing the extent of the damage.

Dr. Drayke is consulting his medpad, Nova at his side. Or...is there a word that indicates closer than at someone’s side? She’s practically glued to his hip. I wonder if this is the only way he can function without the trembling hands and brain fog he’d complained of the other day.

The doc hurries over to Braxx, gives a perfunctory look at his back, and asks, “Any new injuries?”

“No,” Braxx croaks.

“You, Brianna? Any injuries?”

I shake my head no.

“Axx is the most serious injury at the moment. I’ll address his wounds, then get to you, Braxx. I’ll keep you out in the hallway for now.”

Braxx grabs my hand and squeezes it. “Don’t worry, Angel, everything will work out, it always does.” He smiles weakly at me.

“You said that before, how can you be so sure?”

“‘Cause we found our angel. The Galaxy has conspired to bring us together. It wouldn’t go to all that trouble just to pull us apart, would it?”

I bite back a cynical retort. He doesn’t need to hear my cynicism right this moment.

“Things are better between you and Axx now, right?” Despite all the pain he’s in, this seems to be his primary concern.

I pause a moment to consider his question. A montage of pictures of Axx’s handsome face flashes through my mind, but the question isn’t about whether I find him attractive, of course I do, who wouldn’t?

But he’s changed, something’s happened to him since his brother came out of his coma. He’s more...alive, more able to experience his emotions.

I dig even deeper into myself. Even if he wasn’t in touch with his emotions, I have to admit I’d like him. The problem was I liked him too much. I didn’t want to love without being loved in return. But after the blazing kiss we shared in the alleyway and his protection and concern at every turn, that doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a problem.

And then I realize what I just said. I used the “L” word. Holy shit, do I love him? We’ve been through a whirlwind together, that’s true. But love?

“Angel?” Braxx interrupts the hamster-wheel of my thoughts. “You had to think way too long. You don’t like Axx, that’s okay.” He pats my hand.

But by the look on his face—like his dog died and his pickup truck broke and his boss fired him and his house burned down—I don’t think it’s okay at all.

“Hey,” I lean close and give a sweet kiss to those pale pink lips. “My thoughts are spinning, B. We were almost killed less than an hour ago. I’m worried sick about both of you. My relationship with your brother is far more complicated than how I feel about you. But yes, I think my problems with Axx are behind me.” I kiss him again. “Are you in pain? After caring for you the last few weeks I know how to give a pain shot.”

“Actually yes, but I’ll wait to hear what Dr. Drayke says about Axx’s condition before I dull my senses.”

Less than ten minutes later, the medbot arm has cleaned Axx’s back with an antiseptic solution and is now hard at work plucking out shrapnel.

My shit detector turns up to full blast when I see the doc hand Nova a hazmat suit, then climb into one himself. My hand is trembling in Braxx’s grip, my eyes wide in terror.

The doc comes out into the hall, Nova at his side, and closes the door behind him. “We have some intel—what we heard over security comms from the ground, and now we’re hearing from other ships that escaped Fairea the same time as us.

“It appears it was some type of terrorist activity. Who knows why they targeted a harmless planet that provides recreation? If we wanted to, I’m certain we could find some manifesto littered with poor grammar in the bowels of the Intergalactic Database.

“The bottom line is...not only were they lobbing antiquated pipe bombs at the fair-goers, the bombs were filled with shrapnel. If that wasn’t bad enough, some of the shrapnel was irradiated.”I touch my hand behind my right ear as if I could make certain my translator was working properly. “Radiation, doc? Does that mean what it does on Earth?” It dawns on me that I needn’t have asked, he’s wearing a hazmat suit.

“Radiation can be deadly if the exposure is prolonged. Is that what it means to you?”

I nod slowly, a sinking feeling in my stomach. “So Axxios has irradiated shrapnel in his back? Theos, too?”

He shakes his head. “We checked him. Theos hasn’t been contaminated, he’ll be fine. Here’s my plan. First, the medbots will remove all of Axxios's shrapnel, then jettison it immediately and get it off the vessel.

“There are medication regimens we can follow to minimize the damage caused by the radiation. I’m hoping this will all be a bad dream in a week or two. In the meantime, I don’t want anyone in Axxios's exam room without one of these hazard protection suits on.” He raises his voice and uses a tone I’ve never heard come out of his mouth before. “This means you, Nova.” Never underestimate the protectiveness of a bonded male.

“I’m going to administer pills to you to minimize any possible effects you may have received from being in close proximity to the fragments. I—”

He’s interrupted by a vile sound coming from Axx’s room. The doc is up and in the exam room before I can blink. Braxx is struggling to get off his gurney, but I stop him. “You can’t go in there, B. You’d have to be in a hazmat suit. Let’s wait a moment and see what’s going on.”Five minutes later, the doc comes out with a bright yellow medical waste bag. “One of the symptoms of radiation poisoning is nausea and vomiting,” he says as he double bags it and puts it in the medical waste chute.

The doc comms the bridge and within minutes every person on the ship has been scanned for radioactivity. No one has been exposed except for Axxios. I sigh in relief.

“Brianna,” Doctor Drayke says, “I’m going to ask you to leave, it’s just too chaotic in here. I—”

“Doc,” Zar’s voice interrupts over the comm, “You’ve got an incoming. No one checked on the prisoner. Evidently, he got hit pretty bad when he was carrying Axxios. Steele tells me he lit up the radiation detection device almost to the max. He’ll be handcuffed to his gurney.”

“ Drack ,” Drayke mutters, his eyes looking at the ceiling as if the answers to all his questions were written there. “Listen, everyone,” he calls loudly enough for all to hear. “This medbay just wasn’t built for an event like this. I need everyone’s cooperation.

“Stryker,” he barks into his wrist comm, “Come to medbay and help Savannah get Theos to his cabin.” To Savannah he says, “I’m asking you to watch him for the next few days. I’ll stop by your room to check on him before I go to sleep tonight no matter how late it is.

“Brianna, Braxxus is already on a stretcher. Grab some plas-film from the supply cabinet as well as antiseptic and cleaning supplies and take care of him in his room, it’s larger than yours. I’ll stop by later tonight. You’ve done this before, you should be fine.”

I nod. I’m totally capable of this and glad to have something to do.

“Nova, I want you in our room. It’s too dangerous here with radiation and a prisoner.” Almost as an afterthought, he asks, “Who’s the dracking prisoner?”

“My project,” I admit, so guilty my voice is whisper soft. I hadn’t realized my choice would put my friends in danger.

“Who?”

“A geneslave who helped us get to the Slacker .”

“My dear Lord God Anteros,” the blue doctor says. “You’re leaving me in medbay with a geneslave? What type?”

“Appears canine,” Braxx grits in pain.

“Zar,” Drayke speaks into his comm. “I’ll need round-the-clock security even if the geneslave is cuffed to the bed.”

“I’m already arranging it,” is Zar’s clipped reply.

Braxxus

I’m lying on my stomach on my bed within ten minutes. Angel’s gentle hands have washed me and are now dabbing at my tender flesh with a soft towel. I’m barely aware of any of it, though. I’m trying to get through to Axx through our twinlink. Nothing.

“You probably need stitches on two of these. Everything tore loose on that wild run back to the ship. Don’t worry, I’ll fashion some butterfly bandages out of the supplies I snagged before we left medbay. They’ll hold you together. They don’t have a medbot to spare.”

I don’t want to mention that the stitches tearing open on my back are nothing compared to what the Glee’non did during my captivity. Her voice sounded forlorn. I imagine she’s feeling guilty that the geneslave is taking up a bed that could belong to me.

“Don’t feel bad, Brie. That thing risked its life to carry Axx to the ship. It didn’t have to. It could have run in the other direction. It made sure to bring up the rear in an effort to protect us both. I’ve got to give it credit.”

“Do me a favor, please don’t call him it. I don’t fully understand what a geneslave is, but he was clearly male, and clearly a sentient being. He spoke to me.”

“Okay.” I have nothing else to say right now. My head is spinning with worried thoughts about my gem.

She dabs my back with antiseptic, applies a layer of plas-film, and lets out a deep sigh.

“I think I should move in here until you’re better. I don’t want you to be alone.”

She sucks in a breath, probably realizing how horrible that sounded, reminding me Axx isn’t here.

“I’d like that, Brie.” I don’t say what’s on the tip of my tongue, that we belong together, that she should sleep here every night.

“I’m going to take a shower and gather a few things from my room. Want your pain shot now? You can nap while I’m gone.”

Yes. No. I don’t know. I’m a terrible gem, sleeping while Axx is fighting for his life. “Yes.”

I wake up with my arm around Brie’s waist, pulling her tightly against me. I love her long, brown hair, which is fanned around her head, some of it ribboned across my shoulder. I breathe in deeply, it smells clean and fresh, like a field of flowers on a humid day back on Mythros.

That thought brings back memories of playing with Axx in the sprawling gardens behind the Governors’ Mansion when we were kids. We knew every hidden nook and secret hiding place on the grounds. We waged imaginary war and fought battles with the enemy, and laid on the grass and watched the clouds. We were inseparable. Even our fathers remarked on how close our twinbond was.

We don’t exactly speak inside each others’ heads like I’ve read about psychic phenomenon in other species. We communicate in pictures. Well, pictures and emotions. We can send each other a visual along with an emotion and know what the other sees or knows or feels.

We knew when each other was bored. Of course, you didn’t need a twinbond to know that; we were the Governors’ boys at state functions, what child wouldn’t be bored?

But we could feel each others’ pain and longing and happiness and fear. And we loved each other so much that sometimes his pain became my own. I honestly don’t recall any jealousy of Axx—even when he did better at sports, even when he turned gold. I always wanted the best for him.

It was hard for me when he became gold, his depth of emotion faded away and our connection seemed faulty. Now we’ve only had each other back a scant few days. It was wonderful experiencing the twinbond full blast. And now it’s completely severed.

But I don’t want to think about that right now. There’s nothing I can do to make things better. I’m lying here with my Angel in my arms. I want to focus on that.

I breathe in deeply through my nose to bring myself back to the present. She smells sweet and warm. The skin at the back of her neck is partially exposed. I kiss it, then my tongue peaks out to lick it there. I don’t know how to describe her taste. It simply tastes like Brianna.

Her head is lying on my bicep, I’m cradling her. I wrestle down the urge to cup her breasts, that wouldn’t be right. I’d love to kiss her pink lips. I want to explore her lush curves, first with my hands, then my mouth. I want to discover the taste between her legs.

And then I realize the rock-hard erection I experienced for the first time the other night, the one that should be pressing into her soft rear right this moment, is absent. My cock is soft. I can’t get hard without the twinlink.

I’ve never disappointed a Mythrian female by my lack of arousal. No female from my planet would expect anything like that from an unbonded silver. But Brianna doesn’t understand our foreign biology. From what I’ve learned about her species, my lack of properly functioning equipment would be a serious disappointment to her. Every male’s fondest wish is to satisfy his female. If I wasn’t flaccid already, I would be after that sobering thought.

She stirs next to me then rolls onto her side, facing me—and smiles. It’s a slow, languorous smile that starts almost shyly, then widens to a sexy grin.

“So handsome, Braxx. You’re so warm,” her words are slightly slurred and fuzzy, her eyes are heavy-lidded.

“I like you, Braxx.” Her eyes shift from mine to my mouth, then she breaches the gap between us so slowly I could easily stop her if I wanted. But I don’t.

Her lips are soft and pillowy against mine. The sounds we make together are wet and welcoming. We lean into each other, tasting, mingling.

Now that I’ve had the experience of masculine arousal, its absence is a palpable loss. This isn’t the same, not as wild or all-consuming as I felt the day the three of us shared a massage.

My hand is pressing the back of her neck to pull her closer. Neither of us can get enough of these kisses, at first close-lipped, now open.

Our tongues are dancing with each other. We’re like two people on the dancefloor who have just met, but whose bodies move together in perfect harmony.

My hands glide up and down, from the small of her back to her shoulders. I notice every curve and indent. I’m cataloging every detail, to play back later when I’m alone. After she realizes my deficiencies and rejects me.

I push those thoughts to the back of my mind and focus on the warm, willing female who’s alive in my arms right now.

She presses her pelvis toward mine, but I jack back, wanting to prolong the mystery, wanting just a few more minimas of this, the bliss of this intimacy, even if it’s an illusion.

“You’re right,” she says, pulling away. “I know it’s not the way Mythrians behave.” She scoots farther from me on the big bed. “That wasn’t fair of me. I don’t understand everything about the twin thing, but I know the magic number is three. I’m a shit. Here I am trying to seduce you when your gem is in medbay.” She reaches out and gently cups my cheek in her palm, then pulls away. “Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for, Brie. Every cell in my body aches for you, too.” Well, almost every cell. She’s not the villain here. I am, for not admitting my inadequacies.

I see the way she looks at me. Hell, I don’t need a written roadmap; what just happened in this bed made it indelibly clear what she wants. I can’t give her that. In her culture, without my twin, I would be considered half a male.

Brianna

Luckily, Dr. Drayke interrupted that awkward conversation before I felt compelled to apologize again. As soon as we let him in he got right to the point.

“Sorry I waited so long to stop by, but I’ve been crawling through all the information on the Intergalactic Database. Not good.” He shakes his head.

Great bedside manner, doc.

“I’ve removed all the irradiated shrapnel from the geneslave, and patched him up as well as I could. He was badly wounded, but will recover.”

Long pause. The doctor’s pinched blue face is tighter than usual. He rubs the back of his neck with his palm, then tells us the bad news. “Axxios's injuries were actually less severe than the mutant’s, but there’s a serious complication. There’s a small fragment of shrapnel lodged next to his spinal column.

“We’re in a difficult spot. If we leave the shrapnel in, he’ll suffer from radiation sickness and possibly die. If we try to remove it, we could paralyze him. The metal is lodged between thoracic 6 and 7.” He points to his middle back. “If things go wrong he’d be paralyzed from there down.”

Braxx had been standing next to me listening to the news. He sits heavily on the bed, then rests his face in his hands. I settle in next to him and gently rub his thigh.

“Tyree’s on the bridge, trying to find the nearest planet with Class One hospitals. The best we’ve found is a twenty-six hoara journey from here. That isn’t optimal, but it's the best we can do other than perform surgery here on board the Lazy Slacker . If…” he pauses and waits for Braxx to give him eye contact, “you decide that we should do the surgery. Some would choose to leave the metal where it is.” He shrugs, “It’s up to you.”

It seems as if Braxx transforms before my eyes. He stands to his full height and steals his muscles. The set of his jaw seems firmer; the look in his eyes is sharper.

“Leave the shrapnel in and it’s certain death, right?”

“With the levels of radiation we’ve measured, I would say yes, he’ll die from that.”

“And the surgery? What are the odds of paralysis?”

“Fifty percent, maybe higher. The odds are the same if we rush him to Champion III or we do the surgery on board. The better performance we could expect from a top-notch hospital would be offset by the length of time it would take to get there.”

Braxx’s gaze is fixed on the floor. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was doing complex algebraic calculations in his head, he’s totally focused.

“He’d hate being paralyzed. Hate it.” He rubs his chin. “But you can’t let him die. Can you start the procedure right away?”

“I thought that would be your choice,” the doc says as he stands. “I’ve already instructed the medbot to calculate the entire procedure. By the time we get back to medbay, it should be ready to make the first incision. You are going to wait in medbay, right?”

Braxx nods.

“You can’t be in the procedure room until the shrapnel is removed and safely disposed of, but you can wait in the hall.”

“Brie,” Braxx looks at me, “get some sleep, it’s the middle of the night. I’ll comm you when the procedure is complete.”

“Like hell I'll wait here.”