Page 25 of The Emerald Boa’s Lover (Operation Colonise #3)

Gjenti

Trigger warning. Blood and gore.

Dalahan

I just start to tighten my coil around my lover and looking forward to surrounding him as I massage his body with mine to get some frisky touches in, when a flurry of screams cut through the air above us. Charlie and I both look up and see Ucfeni slithering down the side walls at speed.

“What’s going on? Dal?” Charlie is tense and I dart my head from side to side as more people pour out of the festival hall. “This isn’t part of Gcorket, is it?”

“No.” I reach down and lift Charlie up by his armpits.

I bring him protectively to my chest to secure him there with my arms. He must know that something isn’t right, because he doesn’t complain at being manhandled like he usually does.

His arms go around my harness and neck and we both look around.

At the stampeding panic. We’re close to the wall leading up to the second tier and on either side we’re caged in by fleeing bodies.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, but we’re getting out of here.” I see an opening and start to wind towards it, but Charlie swings his weight to the other side and I have to snap back on my tail to compensate.

“We need to get up there.” Charlie pushes down on my shoulders and I struggle to keep hold of him as he crawls up my body.

Normally I’d be rather pleased at having Charlie’s crotch in my face, but there’s nothing sensual about the way he’s climbing me like a tree.

I lift my chin and see he’s looking over the edge of the middle platform.

“Son of a bitch.” Whatever Charlie saw lit a fire under him, because before I could stop him, he threw his upper body onto the middle platform and crawled off my shoulders to stand.

Alarmed that Charlie was no longer safe in my arms, I too pulled my upper body up and rolled quickly over my own tail to get to him.

My eyes widened as Charlie skidded over toward an Ucfeni sprawled on the ground with a dagger jutting out of her chest. I could taste the tang of her blood long before I joined Charlie beside her.

It was thick in the air, and pooled dark around the wound and the floor beneath. That’s…too much blood.

“Help me!” She sobbed, her pale pink hands trembling at either side of the dagger’s handle.

Her eyes are pearly with a pink sheen, her face and underbelly pale pink and the rest of her is magenta with wavy black lines from her neck to the tip of her tail.

Typical for a Coral Sweeper. Two ridges on her head give a horn like appearance, but they don’t break her scales.

I hurried to crowd around Charlie as he dropped to his knees beside her.

“Hi, hey, look at me. There you go.” Charlie got her attention, tears streaming down her face as she looked at Charlie.

“I’m a doctor. I need you to stay still for me, and don’t touch that dagger.

No matter how much you want to, don’t.” Charlie shrugs off his jacket and shoves his sleeves up to quickly take stock of her injuries.

My head is on a swivel as I look for the source of danger.

Where the abyss are the Elite guard? I hiss and ululate with aggression, guarding Charlie as he works.

“I-it hurts.” The female whimpers and something instinctive inside me knots at the sound. Where are her friends? Her partner? Her family? Why is she here alone? Why is no one with her? My horror rises with Charlie’s next words.

“Mam? I need to ask? Are you Gravid?” I take my emerald eyes away from the fleeing bodies, and listening to the sound of fighting on the tier above us, to look down at the female.

Charlie’s right. Her lower abdomen and upper tail are swollen with the telltale signs.

She’s far along as well, from the size of her. Why is she out of the nest?

“Yes.” She sobs. “M-my clutch. I have 4.” Charlie is checking her pulse at and her pupils whilst ripping into his jacket. “I-I only came out tonight because my sister wanted some company. I-I thought it would be okay. Have you seen her? My sister? Tulla is a coral sweeper, like me.”

“I don’t see another with your markings.

” I answer and I am wary of us being here.

However, I know there is no point asking Charlie to flee for safety with me.

Not now he has a patient. He would kick my tail if I even tried.

Still, if Charlie comes into danger, I’ll drag him out kicking and screaming if I have to.

The dagger in the female’s chest has a small hilt, so I hope dearly that means the blade inside her is small as well.

It’s not in the centre of her chest, and it could be low enough to have missed her heart and lungs.

The volume of blood she’s slick with…is worrisome.

Charlie will know better than I will of her odds.

I look at his face for any sort of indication, and his expression alone makes me think he knows her chances are low as well.

“M-my sister—”

“We will find your sister after you’re out of the woods.

Right now, your clutch needs you to remain calm, still, and follow my instructions.

Okay?” I am amazed how calm Charlie sounds.

He smiled, even when surrounded by Chaos, and the female responded to his confidence.

She stilled and nodded obediently at him.

“This is going to hurt, but we need to keep pressure on your wound. We need to get you to an operating room, steralise the wound, stitch you up, get you a blood transfusion and some antibiotics.” She nodded, agreeing and whimpered when Charlie pressed the torn fabric to either side of the wound.

Thud.

An Ucfeni wrapped from his hips to his head in brown leather wrappings falls to the floor to our left.

I protectively whip my tail around to form an arc around him, really unhappy about being poised below the ledge separating us from whatever violence was going on up there.

Bodies were literally dropping around us.

I didn’t need to be a doctor like Charlie to see that the Ucfeni dressed as a mercenary was dead.

Not with the way his throat was ripped out.

“Dal?” Charlie addresses me without dropping his smile.

“Yes?”

“See any guards?”

“No.”

“Any first aid kits?”

“Not within reach.”

“Be a dear and find one. Now please.” Charlie commands with a smile, and I know that’s an order.

I lift up and turn on my tail to look around for the nearest medical aid station.

Adrenaline pumps through me, wary of the danger, as I lift up higher on my tail to peer up and see what’s happening on the top floor.

I see one hell of a fight. Ornanian and Rapali Royals and are fighting to the death against more disguised mercenaries, alongside Naltik and Eryan Royals.

I spot the dark figure of a Death Striker snapping his mighty fangs around the throat of his enemy and taking chunks out of him.

My stomach twisted at the sight of him spitting pieces of a person out of his mouth…

oh ancestors…that was gross. “Dal? What’s the hold up?

I hate to keep a lady waiting.” I glance down and see Charlie has his hands pressing fabric to the bleeding wound in her chest, and she’s trembling with pain.

I see a flash of fear in his green eyes as he looks at me, and I nod at the silent plea.

I look back at the upper platform, looking for a medical aid station, when a body starts tumbling towards me.

“AAAAH!”

Instinctively I back up as a human tumbled over the edge of the upper platform and clings on with one hand. I realise she’s wearing a Peacekeeper uniform, and hurry forward to catch her just in time.

◆◆◆

Trigger warning. Blood and gore and death.

Charlie.

“Hannah?!” My jaw drops as Dalahan lowers my friend down beside me. “What the hell is going on?”

“A shit-storm, that’s what.” Hannah barks and steps back up to the platform like she’s thinking about trying to climb her way back up.

“It’s a power grab by enemy Royals.” She looks mad as hell and as dangerous as a pissed off scorpion.

Hannah thwacks her baton out to full extension in her right hand and I pitty the fool who’s going to be on the other end of her wrath. “Get me back up there.”

“Charlie?” Dalahan asks me and I see he’s less than thrilled at the idea of going towards danger. I look down at my patient and know she’s on borrowed time.

“You heard the lady. I need a medical kit too. Now.” Dal swallows thickly and nods, before lifting Hannah up and winding up against the wall towards the upper platform.

I focus on my patient. “Hey beautiful. What’s your name?

” I try to keep her focused on me rather than what must feel like hellfire raging in her chest. I don’t like how pale her lovely pink scales are turning. Or how much blood she’s lost.

“Gjenti.” She smiles, but it’s weak, and my heart clenches. She’s fading fast. I need to do something quickly. She’s lost so much blood. If the dagger wasn’t still in her chest she would have already died from blood loss.

“What a pretty name?” I smile and dart my eyes down to her stomach.

I am really worried about what the lack of blood flow will be doing to those eggs.

Depending how far along she is, and it looks like she’s quite far along, her body could trigger an early laying to protect the eggs.

Only, she’s lost so much blood her body won’t be able to withstand the added trauma.

“I’m Charlie. I’m sure any minute my boyfriend will be right back with a first aid kit and I’ll get right on—”