Page 40 of Across The Stars
No more games.
“Hey!” she complained, but the force when she tried to hang onto the rod threw her off balance again. She stumbled back and nearly slipped in her own blood.
I grabbed her arm, steadying her. “You’re injured,” I said in my native language.
She blinked rapidly, staring into the reflective visor of my helmet like she could see right through it. My body tingled and I wrinkled my nose at the sensation. Now was not the time for my body to get excited. Its constant, inconvenient signals were going to get me in trouble.
“You’re hurt,” I said again, that time in English.
Innifer blinked again, righting herself only to sway a little on her feet. She turned her eyes down and gasped when she saw the pool of blood under her boot.
“Oh,” she said. “Wow. That’s way worse than... than I thought.”
Her eyes fluttered before they started to roll back a little. She reached out for something to hang onto and I stepped in to be that stability for her. Her hand clutched weakly at my arm and I quickly scooped her up, feeling the warm wetness behind her thigh. She moaned a little, uncomfortable, and then rested her head against my chest as I walked her onto the Irlos. As Iascended up to the main deck, I felt her shiver and calmly picked up pace toward the med bay. She was bound to go from an adrenaline-pumped animal to a woman in shock.
“You’re valerian, right?” she slurred. “You’re not going to probe us?”
I felt her body becoming laxer in my arms. When I came to the med bay, I found Salukh frantically scrubbing his hands over the sink as the other female was hurling her last meal into the disposal in the far corner. Salukh turned his attention toward me as I laid Innifer on a metal table, his helmet removed.
“It regurgitated on me,” he said, panicked. “Why’d it do that?”
“She, Salukh,” I said.
“Shethrew up. I knew we should have brought Dr. Lorik with us. But you said it was a short trip and we didn’t need him. Now look.” He eyed Innifer in my arms. “What’s with her now?”
As soon as Salukh noticed the blood dripping all over the floor, his curiosity turned to action and he walked toward the nearest wall and tapped a control panel, extending a counter with medical supplies and tools. Innifer was moving her head, but her eyes were narrow and fatigued now.
“You better patch that up,” Salukh said. “I have to detach from the shuttle so we can get out of here.”
I nodded. “Go. Head to Sylos.”
The other female, who was mostly oblivious about what was happening, curled up on the cold floor and groaned uncomfortably. I let her be, carefully rolling Innifer onto her stomach. I found the tear in her trousers covered in fresh, red blood. I reached up, removing my helmet and setting it aside to work. Innifer squirmed a little, but she was slowly drifting into unconsciousness. I gripped both sides of the tear and ripped the fabric apart with one tug until the whole back of her leg was exposed. The cut was only the length of my finger, but it wasdeep. I grabbed a sterile pad from the supplies and doused it in disinfectant.
One plus was that human anatomy was similar to valerians and I knew how to repair my own kind well enough. I cleaned the blood away and quickly grabbed a laser wand from the counter. I set it to something slightly less intense than what I would have used on my own skin and began laser stitching the flesh back together, actively cleaning the blood away as it seeped. Innifer gasped, waking up just enough to feel some pain.
“You should stay still,” I said.
“Shit!” she gasped. “That hurts like hell.”
She complained, but she stayed put, gripping the edge of the table as I slowly finished my work. I could hear her screaming behind closed teeth, but she endured, slamming her head on the table and panting as soon as I was done. I switched off the laser and set it aside, letting the gloves of my suit recede so my hands were bare. I glanced at them, noticing the faint purple hues pulsing under my skin. My secondary heart jolted a bit and I groaned internally at my own body for trying to distract me again.
Innifer whimpered, very slowly rolling herself over onto her back, her injured leg slightly bent to keep the cut off the table, and raised herself on her elbows. My gaze met hers and I froze, realizing there was nothing between us anymore. Innifer’s breath stopped, her lips slightly parted and her eyes rounded with surprise at my uncovered face.
“Oh,” she muttered. Her gaze drifted down my body and back up as she struggled to sit upright. “Um... wow.”
I was unsure what to think of that reaction. Her friend was still a groaning mess on the floor while she was sitting in her own blood, unable to form words. Not that I was doing any better with words myself. Especially when I felt a surge of energy shudder through me again just for being close to the woman.Sjek, I couldn’t look away. Everything burned and my heart was scalding, leaping with excitement at a time that I needed to be composed. The sound of her pulse filled my ears. The scent of her skin flooded my lungs.
It was almost too much…
18: Innifer
I was a little dizzy. A little dazed. A little everything. I was in pain and confused and I was staring right into the pale, bluish eyes of a freaking alien. I sat up on my hands, unable to tear my gaze from the angelic features of the unmasked valerian standing next to me. Damn, he was pretty. Much prettier than the big-headed, gray, funny-looking extraterrestrials I grew up envisioning. This guy was a pale, violet color, his skin slightly translucent with hints of fuchsia pulsing through him in faint patterns. There were subtle ridges over his eyes like brows and others down the angles of his cheeks, amplifying his facial structure.
A dark rope of hair hung over his shoulder, but he swept it back behind him before I could make out what the tiny, silver decorations were that were woven into it. If I didn’t know better, I would think I was dreaming and I was in some enchanted, elven fantasy. You know… in space.
I gulped, resisting the urge to reach out and touch him. The valerian’s eyes slid down my length very calmly and I felt my breath hitch. I was used to men looking at me like I was a snack. It came with the territory when you made a living dancing for them. But his attention was different. It felt focused and disarming.
He took a sharp breath and turned around, walking to a sink near the wall. He rinsed his hands in a weak stream of steaming water and then slid them under a silver panel above the faucet.The panel flashed, a small puff of steam rose up, and his hands were dry. He turned toward me again and that was when I noticed Sam's little body bundled on the floor.
