Page 39 of Bound

“Gryn heal well. It’s one of the reasons we were chosen for the dome,” I respond, wrinkling my nose and turning my head away from where she has applied the salve.

Instead I shove my head into her hair and gulp down her scent. It makes Chrissie chuckle, something I like much more than the salve.

“Don’t get yourself stuck to me,” she says, her voice filled with mirth.

“I am stuck to you, little mate.”

As much as I hate to admit it, the salve makes the pulsar burn feel considerably better.

“We need to find shelter for tonight.” I look at the darkening sky.

“Do you think they’ll follow us out here?”

“Yes, which means we need to find somewhere which will make it hard for them.”

“Where?”

I heave myself to my feet and go over to the hover craft, activating the mapping console as Chrissie joins me.

“Oh, I didn’t realize it had a GPS,” she says, slipping her hand into my feathers and making my knees go instantly slack.

“GPS?” I slur.

“I don’t know what you call it here, but on Earth, a map like this would be generated by satellites above the planet. We called it a global positioning service.” She studies the vid screen. “It meant you could get directions to wherever you wanted to go.”

I pull her into me. “Every time you impress me, I wonder what else you will do, and you do something more, little spark.”

“That’s what your planet gets for underestimating a sick female,” Chrissie responds.

“You were never that to me.” I tilt her face up to mine and press a kiss to her lips. Her hand curls against my skin and my mind goes gloriously blank.

“There’s a settlement not too far from here,” Chrissie says, pulling me back to the present. “Do you think we should go there?”

I look at the map. The tiny speck of a settlement which the map names as Szar. Not the place I was hoping we’d get to today, but given we have our own transport, at least until we can find something more legitimate, it’s probably the best we can do.

I climb onto the transport and lift my little mate on in front of me.

“You want me to drive?”

“I do. I can’t operate one of these,” I respond.

“What?” Chrissie says as the hover craft fires up. “How did you know I could?”

“I didn’t, but it turns out you do.” I grin. “A happy coincidence.” I wrap my arm around her waist as we shoot forward, following the map and heading in the direction of the settlement. “Everything is good if it involves you, my Chrissie.”

I feel her growl rather than hear it and bury my face in her flowing hair again. Chrissie is my happy place.

CHRISSIE

One thing I don’t have to worry about is the health of Rych. From having a wound which looked very nasty, within a very short space of time, it was healing, the skin knitting together, and the entire injury could have been done days ago.

One thing I am worried about is the place we’ve reached. It’s a complete contrast to Kal. Consisting of one street where all the commerce takes place, the rest is dwellings which are covered in dust from the plains. Dust no one can be bothered to remove.

“We walk from here,” Rych says in my ear. “Put the craft behind this building.”

I park the thing in a gap between a shack and a more solid structure.

“We could find somewhere else,” I say, my legs trembling as I dismount. “We don’t have to stay here.”

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