Page 6 of Argurma Monster

Her fault. She should have stopped it. She should have found a way. She shook violently with the effort to walk but her guilt assailed her in addition to some sort of instinctive response to him that she couldn’t control now any better than she had been able to control it then. Regardless, she couldn’t let him suffer. She made her way slowly, painfully, until she could make out his huddled form and sobbed with pain as she stumbled forward and dropped to the floor beside him. Her hands ran over him blindly.

She found the thick horn-like spines on his shoulders, the coil of his vibrissae sliding over her hands as her hands slid up his chest and toward his head. Her fingers brushed the spurs along his jaw, and he turned his head into her palm, leaning into her touch. Talech’s massive arms curled around her, and he clung to her as he trembled, his vibrissae twisting erratically as he uttered nonsensical sounds and words while caught in the depths of his nightmare. Beverly wept for him and for herself... two damaged creatures abandoned on an island together.

Whether it was pity, for him or herself, or something more, she didn’t move from his side. She held him as he sank into her arms. She held him until he quieted and until his tremors stopped as his glowing blue eyes slowly opened. Talech’s eyes slowly cleared as he peered up at her, and he shifted as he lifted his weight from her. Her body screamed with relief and she could feel a hint of wetness where some stitches may have pulled loose—she mentally pushed all of that aside as she eyed him.

“Are you okay?” she murmured.

He nodded as his vibrissae dropped to a more relaxed state. “Yes. The past revisited me as I slept. Did I hurt you?”

“No,” she lied. “I also had a nightmare. It is a natural response to trauma.” She bit her lip and glanced back toward her bed. She didn’t think she could make it back on her own. “But I think I need help getting back into bed.”

He clicked his mandibles and stood, gingerly gathering her up into his arms in the process. She tried her best not to whimper at the stabbing pain, but it escaped and was treated to a faint hiss by the male who held her.

“You are in pain.”

“So are you,” she countered as he strode toward the bed. “How do you expect me to leave you on the floor to suffer alone?”

He came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the room and glanced down at her. “You wish for me to be near?”

She lifted her shoulder in a shrug. “It may be easier on us when we’re having nightmares if we have someone nearby. I woke up afraid as well,” she admitted. “It would be good to have the comfort.”

“Comfort,” he hissed and then proceeded to walk again. “Yes. We will protect and soothe each other.” His eyes dropped to her uncertainly. “You touched my spurs.”

She grimaced. Was that uncouth in some way. She had no idea what sort of social interactions were expected among the Argurma. While the other scientists in the lab were more interested in how his biology worked, they shot down her attempts to revise their study to include an emphasis on the social norms of his species. Because of course not... why would they wish to learn anything that made him less an experiment in their minds.

Resting a hand on his chest, Beverly measured the rapid beat of his hearts. He was still in shock as he was coming down from the nightmare.

“Who was Griiga?”

His eyes flickered and he frowned. “Griiga,” he said slowly, and then an awareness came that was filled with sadness. “Griiga... you knew her. She damaged you and I killed her.”

She blinked up at him in shock. “What? E-302? But how?”

“Changed,” he rasped. “Griiga was dorashnal. My companion from my youth. Changed and experimented upon. Humans cut away her vibrissae and awoke spontaneous mutations. They made her into a monster.”

Beverly’s hand went to her mouth in horror. He had been robbed of so much and then he had killed his pet for her. Now that she thought back on it, E-302 had never attacked him. Talech had chased after them and had been the one to deliver the blow when she had never once tried to harm him.

“Oh, gods,” she whispered.

His gaze dropped to her as he gently set her on the side of the bed. “Do not be sad. She was driven mad. It was a mercy killing.” His mandibles clattered softly as he sighed, and the bed shifted with his added weight as he lay down beside her. Turning toward her, he brushed a hand over her hair. “Sleep, Beverly. I will protect you.”

“And I will protect you,” she whispered.

Chapter 6

Beverly tipped her head back, soaking in the sun as she dug her toes into the beach sand. It had been weeks since she awakened, and she had begun to resign herself to her current crapshoot. At least Talech made sure that she was fed. Even when she rebelliously fought him on it, uncertain if she wanted to keep living, he had ruthlessly chewed up food and transferred it from his mouth to hers until she wanted to gag at how unhygienic it was. Needless to say, she started eating again, however little she could manage that was since the gnawing pain had made her physically ill. Then one day she woke up, and the pain was less. And a week later it had faded even more. The pain receded as time passed until gradually, bit by bit, she had recovered until all she had were a few ugly scars and a foul mood to keep her company... and Talech, of course.

She never could escape him and his overly attentive attempts to take care of her. Was it her punishment for all that she had been a willing participant in? He didn’t understand, and she didn’t know how to tell him that all his hovering—once she realized that he didn’t intend to harm her—and all of his careful tending to her needs made her feel guilty. She did not deserve it—not from him. From the beginning there was an unexpected but undeniable connection between them, a magnetic pull that she couldn’t resist, and all it did in the end was harm him and was the eventual cause of his stasis because she had been his one proven weakness. Although she had tried to mitigate the damage as much as possible, she couldn’t deny her involvement and that she had not stopped it.

She buried her face in her hands but looked up when a cool shadow passed over her.

“Regret,” Talech hissed, his expression shifted subtly with the twisting of vibrissae as he fought to find the words. “Do not feel regret for what was not in your power to change.”

“You remember, don’t you?” she said and sighed as she reached out a hand. He clasped it and allowed her to drag him down beside her so that he could pillow his head in her lap. She stroked the spurs along his jaw gently as she had become accustomed to doing whenever his confusion or fear got the better of him. “You remember what I did.”

He rumbled in agreement. “You had great... responsibility. It is in the past. You tried to help me. I remember this. Nothing else matters. Only now matters.”

Beverly’s lips thinned but she nodded. Perhaps he was right and this was her chance to start over. She knew what Talech wanted. He wanted a mate by his side. Something within her responded to that desire but she continuously quashed it, unable to face it. The truth was that they were still both very damaged, and even now, she didn’t know when or if she could forgive herself. She sighed again, this time heavier as she glanced around the beach, her eyes pausing on a shadow a few feet away in the sand.

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