Page 36 of Chained

I duck down to follow him into the darkness, my eyes adjusting instantly to the lack of light. The doorway leads to a passage carved from stone which slopes down. Behind us, I hear the door close.

“Now you are mine,” Pryax cackles.

“Not if I make you my snack first,” I respond with a growl which echoes down the passage.

“Bad joke,” he grumbles, with something added about Gryn having no sense of humor.

The passage soon opens out into a larger cave with three further passages leading off it. Pryax takes the far left one. In my arms, Cleo stirs and moans, but she doesn’t wake. I move quicker up behind the Cirmos, and he quickens his pace too.

The passage ends in a large room filled with equipment and furniture. The floor is covered in bright rugs, and despite the fact it’s a cave, it’s warm and welcoming.

“Put your mate on the healing chair.” Pryax points to the contraption I know well. “I will prepare the cure.” He hurries away as I do what he says.

The chair whirrs to life as I place Cleo on it. The way she lies reveals the swell of her stomach.

“This cure won’t hurt her unborn young, will it?” I call out.

Pryax’s head pops up from behind a set of drawers. “She is with young? Is it yours?”

“No,” I rasp. “I believe it is human, like her.”

Pryax mutters something to himself, and I hear him opening and closing cabinets. I brush Cleo’s hair away from her face.

“Stay with me, little scrap,” I murmur.

For a nova-second, her eyes flutter open, and I’m sure I hear her say my name, only her lips don’t move. Then she’s gone again.

“Stand back, Gryn,” Pryax says, marching up to the chair with a hypo syringe in his hand.

“Not a chance,” I respond.

He shrugs and activates the healing process on the machine which ramps up the chilling noise it makes. I should know, I’ve been in one enough times. Pryax growls under his breath, a low whining sound, and huffs out a breath while shaking his head. He checks the settings and then inserts the hypo into the machine itself.

“What are you doing?”

“My job,” he retorts. “I told you to stand back. Let me work.”

“Are you a healer in the dome?” I say, slightly embarrassed I might not have recognized him.

Although I do tend to get out of the medic-center as soon as I can.

“Not the dome,” he says as he checks over the settings. “Although I worked there before your time, Gryn.”

A blue light covers Cleo. I reach out to touch her.

“Don’t break the seal.” Pryax bats my hand away. “The cure is being infused so she can metabolize it. Bogarok venom is unpleasant at the best of times, but more so for a defenseless species like a human.”

He looks at me.

“Now let’s deal with your wounds. After all, I need you to be fit to protect me.”

“What wounds?” I look down at myself in surprise. My torso is covered in slash marks. On one arm, the injury is down to the bone.

“A Gryn protecting his mate.” Pryax huffs as I stagger slightly. “I suspect they could cut your head off and you’d still keep going.”

CLEO

I can hear voices and there’s the scent of woodsmoke in my nostrils, along with the spicy smell of Maxym’s feathers. None of it makes sense to my foggy brain. I put my hand to my head and rub over my eyes before I open them.

---