Page 20 of Akur

When he still didn’t move, panic threatened to close up her throat as she wedged her arms under his shoulders and pushed with everything she had. His body rolled slightly to the side, enough for her to wiggle free. The ground beneath her was rough stone, uneven and cold against her palms as she scrambled to her knees.

“Where are we? How…how did we get here?” Her whisper sounded loud in the darkness, and that only made the hairs along the back of her neck rise as if in warning. Where the hell were they? Her eyes strained against the darkness, but she could barely make out a thing. The air felt close, confined. Underground, maybe? But they’d been in the middle of the street moments ago. A street that had tall white buildings that looked so surreal…

And the rebel. Gods, it felt like a dream, but it must have been real. That gator-guard pushing her in that shuttle and injecting her with…something. And then seeing the tall teal alien free-falling toward their ship. It seemed impossible, but it wasn’t. It hadn’t been a dream because he wasright here. And if everything that happened out there was real…there was no way he was still alive.

“Shit,” she breathed. “Oh, shit.”

Her hands shook, grasping bits of loose stone underneath her fingertips. A laugh threatened to rise, but she wasn’t sure if it was because of the drugs or just pure anxiety. She was pretty sure the alien was dead. And the other women? She didn’t know where Meredith and that silent woman were now.

“Oh, shit.” In the dark, her eyes slowly adjusted. She could barely make out the alien’s still form beside her, and her heart cracked where it had risen at the center of her throat. What this alien did—however he’d transported them from the center of that fight—was the only reason she wasn’t kneeling in front of one of those High Tasqals rightnow. The only reason she wasn’t being forced to bow before those deceased toad-like creatures.

She wasn’t a fool. She owed him her life, and she knew it. But the worst thing was, she couldn’t even thank him for what he did. He wasn’t moving, and the weight of that—the weight of it all—felt almost too heavy to bear.

What now? She couldn’t leave him here. She couldn’t just abandon him to find a way out. Not after what he’d done to save her. At the very least, he deserved to not have his body left rotting in…wherever this was.

“Shit,” she muttered again.

That’s when she heard it. A faint sound that whispered across the stillness—the barely audible sound of a soft breath, labored and wet.

Her heart stopped. “Big guy?”

Reaching out in the dark, her fingers trembled as they closed on his chest. Hard, the muscles felt like stone under her palm, but even with the chill stiffening her fingers, she felt the slight rise and fall.

He was breathing.

“Oh God.” A breath of relief shuddered through her, followed swiftly by anger that had no fire. “You stupid, stubborn…” A sob made her choke as trembling hands ran over what she could feel of his body, trying to map it as she assessed the damage. Her fingers came away sticky and warm. She lifted them in the dark, unable to see the blood that no doubt stained her hands red. “You fool.” Her hands trembled, a strained laugh that sounded more like a sob leaving her throat. “What kind of idiot dives into a horde of monsters to save someone they barely know?”

But the alien didn’t respond. Probably couldn’t. She was trying to remain positive, but the amount of wetness that came away on her hand could only mean one thing. He was alive, but barely so.

It was too dark for her to see the extent of his injuries, but she could feel them. Deep gashes in his side, charred flesh that crumbled under her touch. The metallic scent of blood that filled her nostrils. Her stomach turned, a wave of nausea rising at the unseen extent of the damage beneath her fingertips. It was more horrifying than anything she could imagine.

But the fact he was breathing meant he was still fighting. And that meant she’d fight with him, too.

“Don’t you dare die on me.” She gripped the alien’s shoulders, staring down at where his face must be. The voice that left her lips was firmer, surer than she felt. But by God, she wouldn’t let him die. Fuck that.

Mind set, a sort of wild determination gripped her, burning through her veins like the heat emanating from the alien’s skin. She yanked at her blouse, gripping one end with her teeth as she pulled hard, tearing a strip of fabric. Beneath her, the alien released another breath, followed by a low groan, and she ripped the fabric harder.

“We’re going to get you patched up, and then we’re going to find a way out of this hole and back to the Restitution.” She ripped another piece of her blouse, so hard her jaw hurt. “I promise you that.”

The material was thin, but it would have to do. She wrapped the largest piece around him, struggling in the dark to get the fabric under and around him as she pulled it tight against the worst of the wounds she could find with her fingers. His skin was so hot, she was sure he was running a fever. But that had to be a good sign. It meant he was still fighting to stay alive.

“I have no idea where you came from.” She ripped another piece of fabric. “I still think I imagined it. You were…I saw you falling throughspace.” Her words tumbled out between hitched breaths as she worked. “If that didn’t kill you, I’ll be damned if we let this take you out.”

He needed to make it.

Right now, he was her only hope, and it seemed she was his.

Her hands moved as fast as she could make them, binding the makeshift bandages as tight as she dared. “You want to be a hero? Then stay alive, dammit. We’re not out of this shit yet.”

God. Why was she saying all this? The nerves? The anxiety? The fact she was stuck on an alien planet with nothing but enemies all around them? If the teal alien hadn’t come, she’d have been alone. And she was thankful that he was here. Some selfish part of her was happy he’d come, even though he had to risk his life to make it so. What did that say about her?

The only part of her blouse left was a short scrap that barely covered her breasts. She didn’t know if all the binding was even helping. Even with her eyes adjusted to the dark, she could still barely see a thing. For all she knew, her efforts were doing jack squat.

Swallowing hard, her fingers trembled again as she stretched them over the alien’s chest, documenting the rest of his injuries. There were other deep wounds, some that she missed. Fuck, he was charred and fried. Stabbed and clawed. How was he still breathing?

All she was wearing were pants made of the same thin material as her blouse. It took a lot of effort to bite into the material at her legs, but she made two holes, tugging at them until she turned the pants into shorts. With the free fabric, she balled it into her fist before pressing the wad against the remaining wounds she could find. It was all she could do, and she was very aware it wasn’t enough.

“Come on,” she whispered. “You can’t die here. You—”

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