Page 8 of The First Omega Made (Scales and Tails of Fate #2)

Sarge

The moment we entered the ship; I hung by the door to the medical bay long enough to hear his first words.

I understood Naleucian better than Noel, even, and the translations Merriel used were only approximate.

I was in danger, and, for some strange reason, I didn’t want to die. Not by a Naleucian’s hand.

The irony that I associated almost exclusively with them was not lost upon me.

Every thread of my being wanted to step in, to grab Doc and run away with him.

I couldn’t. I couldn’t and I didn’t, so I retreated, going to the only safe space I had—my room.

Maybe I could feign illness, quarantine myself out of mold fear or something.

Merriel had done a good job of decontamination, but there was always room for flaws.

I’d absorbed plenty of Mater Terra horror movies.

By the time I got my panic under control, the door to my room slid open and shut in the blink of an eye—Merriel letting Doc in.

“He knows.” Two words I already knew but made me feel cold in the pit of my true body.

“I know. I was there for that much.” I opened my arms and took Doc in. “I’ll be okay. I’m at the end of my host’s lifespan anyway.”

“But I don’t want you to be. And he made my body react, and I hated it, and he thinks Noel is this thing called a gene bomb, and he wants my eggs and to ablate me—” He choked over his words and told me all that was said.

I wanted to die. I was ready for it not a day prior, but hearing Doc cry into my arms, sobbing about his body’s betrayal—the potential for this male to claim them. I wanted to live. I wanted to live just long enough to save him. “Stay in my room. Do not leave. Stay with me.”

“But I have to—they’re in my lab.” Doc tensed and clutched to me.

“Come back to me, then. Tell them I’m sick. In fact… Merriel!” I held Doc and took him to my bed, pulling him down with me.

“’Sup?” Merriel’s tinny voice obscured Doc’s sharp breaths.

“I’m sick. Not coming out for a while.”

“Yep. Space sickness.” He cut out with that finalized beep he sometimes did for show.

“Do you think they’ll buy it?” I caught Doc’s gaze with what I hoped was a humorous grin.

“They buy everything Noel says, and he’s refuted any sort of current language initiatives.

” Doc’s misery broke for a moment, a half smile dusting over his pretty lips.

Despite the anxiety I felt over my lips, the mustache I grew covering a deformation that refused to heal, I kissed him.

And for a moment, I could swear I felt a spark between us.

Feeling that, I continued the kiss until Doc nuzzled away, placing his head in the crook of my neck.

“I wish you could mark me for yourself like Vil and Noel. I don’t like this feeling. ”

“It’s okay. Even if he does lure you in, I’ll understand.

If your body draws to him, it means there’s compatibility.

” I knew so much about Naleucians that I could never speak about.

And Noel being a gene bomb? I had heard the concept, and gene bomb was the best term for them.

He was a transmissible recombinant donor.

Pieces of him were like me, in a way. My body could inhabit a host and change it.

His body could infect a host and alter it down to the DNA, as I saw happening with Doc.

I traced fingers over his scales. “Do you trust me?”

“I trust you. More than anyone.”

“How much serum do you have left from Noel’s isolate?” I traced my fingers through his hair, the once-dark locks pale from root to almost the tips, just the barest dusting of dark brown left from his last cut. I twisted the ends between my fingers as he thought.

“Six more treatments before I’ll—”

“Merriel! Tell Noel to get four of the green labeled vials from the cryo and bring them. Please.” I waited for a response for a solid minute, confident he’d heard me.

“With a syringe?”

“You know it.” I continued to play with Doc’s hair.

“He’s on his way. And he’s absolutely delighted to get away from whatshisname.

Shafa.” Merriel beeped out, and I continued to cradle Doc until the door to my room opened a few minutes later.

Noel slipped in, equally disturbed by his expression—though he didn’t show it nearly as vividly as Doc. His stiff features withheld so much.

I rose from my bed and held my hand out. “Thanks, Noel.”

“Are you going to—”

“No. Please understand that I cannot. I’m going to give Doc a large dose.

It’ll put him out of commission, but it should kick things off to make them permanent.

It’ll take a while.” I took the syringe and loaded a vial into it, glancing over at a fearful Doc without making eye contact.

He had every opportunity to stop me and say no, but he didn’t.

He pushed the waistband of his pants down and rolled to his side to give me his hip.

“Speeding things up. Because I’m a gene bomb thing? A lot of humans died from my genes. I am in so many of them.”

“No, your space genes weren’t the reason so many died,” I said, and Noel blinked impassively.

“They tried to alter your genes before using them without realizing that you’re mostly stem cell.

You’re recombinant, so when your genes infect someone, it alters their genes, and they need maintenance until the change is complete. ”

“How do you—” Noel held two of the vials while I injected one into Doc’s hip, rubbing the spot where the needle pierced. I didn’t bother getting another needle or sterilizing. He’d not need to worry about bacteria soon.

“I just do.” I reached toward Noel, beckoning for a third. “I didn’t know what you were, but now that I do, I know you’re very special. It’s why you’re near colorless.”

Noel glanced at his hair and skin, brow furrowed. “I have blue in me.”

“A little, but you have the markers for all the colors. Green, blue, purple, red, yellow, and potentially bicolored alphas. I’ve studied Naleucian history—I don’t talk about it much because it’s just hearsay.

What Shafa said is the truth.” I pushed the second and third syringe in as Doc hid his face in the blankets and tensed.

The needle pushed between two scales, and red blood that had a slight magenta cast to it beaded next to the sharp tip.

“Oh.” Noel stared me down, those black and blue eyes penetrating me so deeply. All the questions left unasked would remain unanswered.

“I’ll tell you as soon as I can, any question you ask, but let Vil know that Doc and I are out of commission until he’s better. I’ll stay with him.”

“I cannot keep secrets from Vil.” Noel didn’t blink, eyes boring into me.

“Then keep it from Shafa at least. Please.” I tried to give Noel my most desperate look, but it didn’t make his expression budge.

“Doc is completing his change and needs you to sit with him. I need say nothing more.” Noel glanced between us, expression cold and unreadable—none of the venom that the alpha had.

I nodded, and Noel handed me the last vial. “It is my dearest wish that your journey to become a space lizard goes well.”

As I drew the last syringe from Doc, he barked out a shaking laugh before Noel took the waste and left without a further word.

Doc rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling above, eyes unblinking. Color flooded his irises, that beautiful green. That stayed the same, at least. His sclera? Nah. Black claimed them like oil crawling over water.

“Will it hurt?” A tear trailed his cheek, and I couldn’t help reaching for it. I wanted to cry, too. I brought the drop to my own eye to rest it there. Still, that tingle of connection remained.

“Doesn’t it always?”

He closed his eyes and nodded, but there was little I could do for him but wrap us in blankets and hold him. By the end of it, he’d be strong enough to handle himself.

And by the end of it, I’d have to let him go.

“Can you take my body? If you need?”

I shook my head and held him tighter. “Infecting a Naleucian would destroy me.”

The reason our species warred. I’d burrow in and we’d both die. But we kept finding hosts to attack. Always had.

Never again.