Page 46 of Fever

I weave through the bodies and kick out the door at the top of the stairs. Wood breaks, and I push Leah up on the deck, followed by her mom. Then I climb up. Leah’s lying there, unmoving, her mom crying and screaming into the night. The ship is sinking. I feel the water filling it.

I press a palm over Leah’s chest, and when her heart doesn’t beat back, I hit it. Hard. Not hard enough to break her breastbone, but enough to get her heart going. I hit it again. Her mom tilts back Leah’s head and breathes inside Leah’s mouth. “Again,” she says. “Hit her again.” I do. I beat her chest. A feeling of helplessness comes over me. Leah won’t wake up. Her mother cries as she breathes into Leah’s mouth. The ship sinks, water splashing her body. Mom screams to the sky.

I pick up Leah and cradle her. We are going to sink together. “Get out of here,” I tell her mother, but she can’t hear me past the shouting of the many Warlords and Horde and Guardian males swimming around the ship. I can’t hear well, but I know they’re shouting because their mouths are moving and their expressions are horrified. The pod descends. Dreikx struggles to get Leah’s mother on board. I don’t blame her. She can’t leave her child.

We are going to sink together. I pat Leah’s hair. I am not afraid. My dad will be proud of how I died.

Leah’s body shudders, and she vomits warm water over my shoulder.

I widen my eyes.

I pull Leah away from me, and she blinks and blinks, mouth open, trying to suck air. I hug her tightly and rise, then put two fingers into my mouth and whistle. Dreikx returns in record time and opens the door, his silver pupils wide, arms extended. I climb on with Leah and then hold her so tightly, I hope I don’t crush her.

I have lived and died ten times in a single minute.

Chapter 18

Leah

Amazingly, the hospital bed is more comfortable than my old bed at home, with soft body-molding material I imagine the Teleans worked endlessly perfecting. Everything about that race seems to flow out of their need to perfect their own and now our society. This includes medicine and developments in the field.

General Dreikx transported Mom and me straight into their main ship and into the hospital wing, where Mom and I, reluctantly, separated. The Telean doctor, who never introduced himself, asked no questions like a regular doctor. Instead, he scanned my body and placed me under anesthesia in order to perform a thorough brain scan, then surgery. After I woke briefly yesterday, the Telean doctor assured me that he repaired the damage in my brain. I had gone without oxygen for too long.

Sotay had stayed behind on the sinking ship, Raven informed me, to kill more of the enemy and work on his body count. Whatever that means. But this evening, he’s in the room with me, on his own bed, eyes closed. He sleeps there, bloody, dry scales peeling off, leaving purple spots all over his body. Transition, Raven told me, is natural, if painful, and Sotay should feel better by morning.

With no plastic lines transporting fluid or medicine into my body, I’m free to move around. Rising slowly, I pause when stars play over my eyes, then lean on the bed for a while longer until my vision clears. Putting one foot in front of the other, I pad toward him, the cold floor making me shiver. Sotay is a big male, taking over most of the bed, so I lie down next to him awkwardly, wondering if I’m hurting him more. But I need to feel him. Selfishly, I need him. After you see your loved one onthe other side, your view on life changes. I saw Latisha, standing in front of a bright light, and I turned away from her. I wanted more time. I returned for Sotay.

Gently, I lay my head on his shoulder and pat his chest. His natural breathing pattern, a rattle from his chest, changes to a purr, telling me with no words that he feels me too. “Thank you,” I say. “I’m sorry I lied. I was afraid of what they would do to my mother.”

The purr intensifies. Maybe he’s telling me it’s okay. He would. It’s just like him to want to soothe me even when he’s going through these horrible physical pains. I open my mouth to talk, but the door creaks. Light from the hallway shines through, but nobody enters. Feeling awkward, I start to get up, but my gown gets caught. I tug, then see Sotay has fisted the flimsy cotton. He wants me to stay. And so I lie back down, head on his shoulder, listening to his purring.

The figures in the hallway step inside our dimly lit room. An older Regha Alpha with flaps for ears, black eyes, a pierced nose and a pierced bottom lip holds hands with a woman with an afro, who carries a gun holstered on her hip. I think these are Sotay’s parents. The woman nods and moves to the other side of the room. There are two chairs next to my bed, so I presume she’ll take one. The Alpha, however, smiles wide and approaches me. He stands next to Sotay, eyes gleaming with…delight, I suppose.

“Hello, Pumpkin,” he purrs. “Kori’s here.”

I blush profusely because I’m in my flimsy gown sprawled all over his son. And I also wish he’d stop purring. My toes curl at the sound. Sotay purrs louder. It’s almost like they’re competing. The Alpha chuckles. He reaches into his kilt and pulls out a feather, then holds it up. “Do you know how difficult it is to catch a bird and pluck its feather?”

“Very difficult, I imagine.”

“Indeed.” He sniffs and makes a face. “Got some crap on it too. Perfect.” He tickles Sotay’s nose.

Oh my God, he’s teasing him.

Quietly, the woman laughs. Sotay’s rattling his lungs out, but otherwise doesn’t move, and the Alpha is smiling while purring. I extend my hand, hoping that’ll make him stop. “Leah Jenkins,” I say. “Sotay’s Omega.”

“You can call me Kori, dear.” He doesn’t shake my hand, so I lower it.

Still behind me, the woman laughs a little louder. “Nice to meet you, Leah. I’m Sam, Sotay’s mother.”

“I’m sorry we had to meet in these circumstances,” I blurt. “I never meant for him to get hurt.”

“It’s not your fault,” Kori says. “We are at war here, and my son killed thirty-seven for the right to his bonded Omega. He will grow strong red armor and breed me grandkids. Baby girl, these are the best of circumstances.”

The chair scrapes, and the woman finally rounds the bed, takes Sotay’s hand, and squeezes. “We’ll be back shortly.”

Just as Sotay’s parents prepare to exit, the door opens, and a massive Alpha walks in. Whereas the parents came in quietly like a summer breeze, this one storms in like a hurricane. He commands the lights and stands by Sotay’s bed. The scar over his eye and the kilt he wears with a hound mascot on it tells me this is Loven, former Horde Alpha, one of the most feared males on Earth.

“Omega.” He nods at me.

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