Page 24 of Wrath

It troubled me beyond words that Linette went back out while carrying Wrath’s soul inside her psychic vessel. The selfish part of me thought Myriam should have gone instead. But thanks to all the enhancements Linette had received through her mating with Varnog, she was closer now to a Warrior than any of us. If things went belly up again, she would have a better chance of making it back than Myriam.

“What the fuck happened with the Nomad?” Myriam asked as we headed briskly towards the Infirmary.

Although her tone held no accusation, I couldn’t help the feeling of shame and guilt that our prisoners had managed to escape under my watch.

“I’m not sure, to be honest,” I said. “Marcelle used her cybernetic arm next to the com system in her cell. It was really sudden. It’s like she’d received a jolt or something when Wrath entered deeper into the stasis chamber.”

“The motion detectors,” Myriam said pensively while slowly nodding her head.

“That’s what I’m thinking, too,” I said with a frown. “And then she immediately started fiddling with her arm and seconds later, the organic bombs went off. After that, I confess that I was much more focused on what was happening with you guys than what she was doing,” I admitted, my face heating. “But I’m certain her cybernetic implants allowed her to bypass the security locks on both the holding cells and the ship.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re right,” Myriam said, anger seeping into her voice. “Something much bigger than we realized is going down. Wrath scanned and checked the ID of her implants. Only someone at the highest levels could have manipulated the records to show hers as being a civilian model instead of military grade.”

“Not only that, but it also fooled our scanners,” I added, deeply disturbed. “This is some seriously advanced technology.”

Myriam nodded as we reached the Infirmary. The door parted before us, and we shifted our focus on our teammate. Varnog had already placed Nathalie in the medical analysis chamber. Myriam made a beeline for the interface, tapping a few instructions while reading the results.

“How bad is it?” I asked, impatient. “She shouldn’t be out this long.”

“There’s a major brain swelling and some slight bleeding,” Myriam said, her voice laced with worry. “Thankfully, she hasn’t sustained any spinal injuries. That was what I had feared the most. The proposed treatment should be easy enough for us to handle,” she added while tapping some more instructions on the interface. “Please get me a hypospray syringe and a set of virgin nanobots.”

I jumped into action, once more blown away by how efficient, knowledgeable, and all-around badass Myriam and the other women of the Vanguard were. Then again, there was a reason she had been Legion’s Soulcatcher for many years before meeting her husband. Only the best could work with the co-leader of the Vanguard.

Myriam turned to one of the counters, grabbing a few vials from the cooling unit, mixing a small amount of each in an empty vial. Taking the blank nanobots I brought her, she placed them on top of the encoding machine on the counter, her fingers flying over the keyboard while she uploaded their subroutine. Then, she injected the nanobots into the mix of medicines before placing the concoction into a medical device I didn’t know the name of. It shook the vial, reminding me of the paint mixer machines.

Once done, Myriam inserted the vial at the back of the hypospray and walked back to the medical analysis chamber. Without her needing to ask, I opened the glass dome, my hand instinctively reaching for Nathalie’s. It was cold and clammy, her normally beautiful golden-brown skin looking slightly ashen.

Myriam gently cleaned the side of Nathalie’s neck with alcohol then pressed the hypospray right next to her artery, injecting her with what I hoped was a miracle cure.

“We will need to get you fully up to speed on using this medical analysis chamber,” Myriam said in a soft voice.

“Nathalie had started,” I admitted, feeling self-conscious, “but I couldn’t have done what you just did.”

“Not yet, but in time you will,” Myriam said with confidence. “I just have years of experience. But you did wonderfully. You saved all of our lives.”

My throat tightened, and I smiled to hide the turmoil of emotions raging through me. I was trying not to worry about Wrath, but my innards would remain twisted into painful knots until he was back in a new Shell, alive and kicking, and looking at me with that gentle gaze that always made me feel like the most precious being in the entire universe.

“He’s going to be fine,” Myriam said gently, as if she’d read the thoughts crossing my mind.

My face heated, and I squirmed uneasily. I nodded, and opened my mouth to respond, but her eyes suddenly went out of focus. I waited with bated breath, presuming the team was telepathically communicating with her.

“They’re on their way back,” Myriam said, making no efforts to hide her relief. “They’ve got all six of those fucking beasts inside the containment chambers.”

“Thank you, God,” I breathed out.

Myriam smiled and gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Talk about baptism by fire. Your introduction was supposed to be smooth sailing. I guess we missed the mark on that one,” she said with an amused glimmer in her eyes.

“That’s the understatement of the century,” I mumbled back.

She chuckled. “Welcome to the Vanguard.”

“Thanks,” I said, crinkling my nose.

A beep on the monitoring machine drew both our attention. To my relief, although I was no medical expert, I could clearly see Nathalie’s stats were moving out of the red and dark orange to pale yellows.

“It’s working,” Myriam said with a grin. “Can I leave you here to look after her? I need to communicate with the Vanguard and sort a whole lot of shit out with the files I’ve downloaded. The others will be here shortly.”

“Sure thing,” I said.

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