Page 35 of Devin
“For all that’s holy, trust me. You don’t want to see it,” Jane said.
Devin began backing away from the mates.
“Really, I do,” Meadow assured her.
“It’s Haxit. What’s left of him,” Jane said.
“Really, I don’t.” Meadow’s face turned white, and she looked as if she were about to fall over herself.
Where were the other Mahdfel? Surely if it was their mate that had screamed, he would have had a knife in his belly by now. And he couldn’t assist her with his hands behind his back. Devin began to walk backwards slowly. Once he got far enough away, he flipped around and took off to the command center at a sprint.
“What’s that? Who’s that?” Goru said as he got a look at the arm.
“Haxit. Where is everyone?”
“Where’s the rest of him?”
“Under a building, presumably. Where’s Kave? Where’s everyone?”
“He and Zenik… everyone else is doing inspections.”
“I need you to go put Charlette in her quarters,” Devin instructed.
Goru’s face betrayed what he thought of Charlette.
“I can’t leave my post,” he said.
“Meadow looks like she’s about to pass out too.” Devin knew that mentioning his precious Meadow was all that was needed to get Goru out the door. Devin gently placed the hand next to a console and began a search.
It didn’t take long to locate Kave and Zenik. They had left in the shuttle nearly the moment after he’d come back to base camp. The others were dutifully following his orders and checking the foundations and structural integrity of each structure. So far, the data coming in was all looking good. Everything was within expected parameters.
Except Haxit was not an expected parameter. It was not acceptable in the least. Devin had never lost a warrior under his command, and no amount of computer scanning gave Devin the slightest clue of why Haxit had been standing in the middle of the building’s footprint to begin with. The noise alone would have alerted him to the tons of building material falling from the sky.
Had he been unconscious? Then why had he been running out of the foundation? The doctor would need to do a full chemical analysis to determine what had gone wrong, if the Mahdfel immune system hadn’t scrubbed traces of it from his system already.
“What the fuck?” Jane stood in the doorway, arms crossed over her chest, her large belly protruding out in front of her. “I’ve seen a lot of screwed up shit, but I’m really not in the mood for this today.”
Devin looked down at the arm. He lacked anything handy to cover it.
“And if you say accidents happen, I’m gonna be pissed,” she continued.
“Even Haxit was not that stupid. His death can’t have been an accident.”
“Are you saying someone murdered Haxit?”
Devin thought about it. “He could have been accidentally poisoned, but chances are slim he’d end up directly in the path of a structure unless placed there.
“Then you’re saying he was murdered by a Mahdfel? None of the women could have budged him, not even me in my current condition. I’d trust every Mahdfel here with my life and the life of my unborn child.”
It was unthinkable for a Mahdfel to kill another warrior in such a dishonorable manner, but Jane was right. None of the Terrans possessed the strength to move him without help. But there was no other explanation. Jane stared down at him, like she expected him to disagree.
The console beeped. The field reports were in. The bones of his city were solid. It should be a time for celebration and joy, but Devin only felt the urge to collapse like a female and wallow in his despair. It was unseemly. It was Val’s fault. He missed her. It wasn’t natural to be separated from a mate after one night.
Kave stepped off the craft. He was not the jovial never-take-anything-seriously Mahdfel that Devin had come to know. His skin was flashing with grief and rage and for the moment, it was centered on Devin.
“This is your fault. You didn’t like him. You wanted him gone.”
It was true, but before Devin could open his mouth, Kave punched him. That didn’t bother Devin. He deserved that. What bothered him was the screech that came from behind Kave,a screech that made his breath catch in his throat. It was unnatural, and it took Devin a moment to realize that it wasn’t just his mate that had made the cry. Val came hurtling down out of the shuttle with a ball of fluff on her heels. Val went straight for Devin. Nivy went straight for Kave. It bit him on the ankle then scurried up and away onto Devin’s shoulders. It let out a fearsome hiss at Kave, daring him to attack again.
