Page 316 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

“Bad luck,” Aramon said. “Guess Mitnick isn’t as omnipresent as he likes to think.

” He jabbed his brother in the stomach with his elbow, and the quieter Asrai male bared his filed, sharp teeth at him in response.

Something flashed in those dark red eyes that made my skin crawl for a moment; it made his louder brother flinch back.

I’d heard that Asrai could be telepathic, and I wondered if something had passed between them.

“No, they must be here,” Eoin said. “Spread out, let’s look.

There are probably plenty of hiding places.

” I followed closely behind Eoin as he walked deeper into the dismal barn, my eyes searching the piles of straw, carefully stepping around indecipherable piles of dirt, and desperately hoping for a sign of life.

I was starting to lose hope after we’d walked a circuit around the room twice.

I didn’t think there was anyone alive in here.

We had discovered the dead body of some unfortunate alien in the back, which was probably part of the reason it stank so badly in here.

Aramon and Solear seemed less bothered than I was by the piles of dirt and straw; one of them had found a stick and was poking each one to check.

“Hello, we’re here to help. This is a rescue.

Any humans here? My name is Tori. I’m from Earth, New York.

” My words were tentative at first; I felt a little self-conscious talking like that in front of others.

But the more we walked around, the more sure I became as I spoke—pitching my voice a little louder with each pass, then waiting in between to listen for a response.

When I heard a soft, little moaning noise, my skin broke out in goosebumps and my heart started racing. Had I imagined that, or was it real? One look at Eoin’s face told me he’d heard it too, and he was gesturing with his hand, urging me to keep talking.

Keeping up a one-sided conversation, we circled around once more, listening intently for another moan. When it came, we were closer, and the pained sound repeated again, a little more forcefully, allowing us to finally locate them.

It was no wonder we’d failed to spot the dark shape and recognize it as human.

They were curled up into a tight ball, wedged in a small, dug-out trench in one corner of the barn.

I wasn’t quite sure if they had intentionally tried to hide or if it was just happenstance.

Nothing covered them beyond torn and shredded clothing, and what became quickly obvious were horrendous wounds.

By size alone, I knew this wasn’t a woman but a man, though any distinctive features were hidden behind the injuries.

His face was badly beaten and swollen, burns and cuts covering him extensively, and broken bones were evident in the way his limbs lay at odd angles.

He wasn’t even chained up, though a pain collar circled his bruised neck—he was too injured to move at all.

Too injured for my meager first aid kit to be of much help.

“What a wreck,” Aramon said softly. “Now that’s what I call bad luck, poor bugger.

” I had to agree, but that didn’t mean I was going to give up on him.

I knew there was at least one thing I could do, and, heedless of the dirty floor, I went to my knees at his side.

My fingers felt clumsy as I dug through my medical supplies for the pain relief medication, picking the highest dose I had available.

“Hey, I’m going to help you. Can you open your mouth?

This will help with the pain,” I said. He couldn’t even open his eyes to look at me, they were so swollen and bruised.

He did respond to what I said, his mouth opening just enough for me to slip the tab inside.

It would dissolve on his tongue and rapidly offer relief.

I could see it working in the way his body went slack, and I hoped that meant he’d dropped off into unconsciousness.

“I’ll have a stretcher fetched,” Aramon said.

“Better give him a dose of antibiotics too, if you want him to have a chance.” He and Solear’s booted steps echoed through the barn as they departed on those grim words.

I figured he was right, though, so I pulled out the injector, loading it with the meds I needed.

I still struggled a little with the alien script, but Eoin didn’t comment, letting me do it on my own.

“I think I can make him some splints,” he said quietly.

“Better we set his bones now too, since he’s out.

It’ll make it easier to move him.” I had to concur, but the thought of having to do that was making me sweat.

I wasn’t a doctor or a nurse—this wasn’t what I was good at, but it was what I was here for.

With the handheld medical scanner, I charted the breaks in his limbs, then checked his body for any sign of internal bleeding.

That was important, right? He was so banged up that it had to be a serious risk.

By the time the Asrai twins returned with a stretcher and a few more of their colleagues, Eoin and I had splinted the breaks in his legs.

Or rather, Eoin had formed thin but firm metal splints, which we’d padded and tied in place with the ample supply of bandages in my bag.

It took four men to carefully lift him onto the stretcher, and moving him definitely still hurt.

He moaned, turning his head restlessly, and black, shaggy hair spilled around his face in dirty, unkempt hanks.

I wanted to stay with him, to do more, but I didn’t even know where to start.

He needed really serious medical help, and I couldn’t give him that.

“I got a bead on the second one,” a male voice said, his tone lazy and disinterested. I looked away from the unconscious human to spot the comms specialist standing just inside the door. “We need to hurry. I’m scrambling communications, but a distress call might have slipped through.”

I eyed the feathered mohawk lining the top of his head, because that was all I could see, hunched down as he was over a datapad, and with much of a cloak obscuring his body.

“Then we need to hurry. Get this man to the shuttle, please. Let’s go, Eoin, we’ll try to find the second one.

Which way is it?” Brushing my hands clean on the slick fabric of the high-tech armor I wore, I gazed around in surprise when two mercenaries leaned in to pick up my patient.

They were actually doing what I told them to… Had I sounded that decisive?

Eoin shot me a wide grin. “Mmm, maybe we should revisit this side of you later tonight.” Heat shot through my face in embarrassment, especially when Aramon wolf-whistled at us. But I also felt desired, confident, wanted even. I liked it so much that he liked it when I was confident.

The hacker didn’t respond to anything going on around him, as if he were completely unaware of the conversation.

Talking over Aramon when he started to make a bawdy comment, he said, “I’ve sent the location information to your comm devices.

Let’s go, we’ve got a safe to locate and crack.

” Then I saw a smirk curl his lips as he shot Aramon a look from under the feathers curling down over his forehead, and I realized he’d talked over the male on purpose.

Maybe he wasn’t as self-absorbed and distracted as he appeared.