Page 27 of Crash Landing
“Shit. Shit!”
Looking around, I tried to figure out how I would get us through the night. If another one of those big, spindly creatures showed up, I would lose my mind trying to kill it and I’d probably just mess it up and we’d both die.
“Ok,” I said, taking a deep breath.
I slid the pistol into my back pocket and then did the first thing I thought I should. That was pulling the little spines out of Saleuk’s side. It took some force. They were hooked on the ends and ripped his suit on the way out.
“Hey, now we’re matching,” I laughed humorlessly, tossing the spines into the water.
Next, I pressed the back of my hand to his forehead. He felt cool and damp, but like me, the mist had covered him in a thin layer of sweat.
“What the hell temperature are you supposed to even be?” I muttered, shaking my head. “I’m not a doctor.”
I went over a thousand different things in my head that I could do to help. His complexion, which was usually a light shade of purple or flushed, was now a bright, moon-white and Ididn’t know if that was how they were when they slept or if it had something to do with the toxin.
Glancing at the river bank, I saw black mud where the water met the land. The same mud my foot got stuck in before the horrible creature lunged. Evil mud. But it was clay-like and maybe it would suck out the toxin.
I knew nothing, but I was going to try. First, I reached into my bag and pulled out the tiny pruning knife. I used it to slice open a larger seam in his suit. Or, that was the plan at least. My knife did nothing to the suit. It was like trying to cut rubber using a rolling pin.
“Ok?” I surrendered, tossing my knife back in the bag. “You guys have a release somewhere on these things. I know you do.”
I started searching his suit for one of those round little dials that controlled the material. They had several, if I remembered correctly, that controlled different portions. I found one in the middle of his chest where the light veins met and circled my finger around it. A little blue light followed my touch in a full rotation and in an instant, the entire top half of his suit receded into a thin harness that he wore across his chest and over his shoulders.
He was still wearing his captain’s jacket, but the front was open so all I had to do was move it aside to see the puncture wounds on his hip. I did just that and was dumbstruck at the sight of his bare, white chest.
Valerians had a strange, near-translucent quality about them. Blue veins were almost visible under the surface of his flesh, but it was beautiful in an otherworldly, fantastical sense. He was all chorded muscle and hard abs save for the bone-like plating all valerians had over their chest. Saleuk’s was subtle. It was a natural armor to protect the two hearts they had.
Distracted, I reached a hand out slowly and traced the lines of the plating with my fingers, thankful to see his chest rising and falling with breath.
God, he was beautiful.
Under his ribs were three shallow ridges that traced the contours of his body and the same ridges were on his neck and under his high cheekbones. And extending from his forehead was what valerians called their crown, three graceful points that followed the curve of their scalp partway over their hair. When they changed color, the tips of the crown were always more vivid.
“Shit,” I hissed, stealing my hand away. “Mud. I need mud.”
I ran over to the bank of the river and scooped some of the clay up in my palm. When I returned to Saleuk, I carefully spread a thick layer of mud over his wounds. Blood was weeping from the punctures in slow but continual streams and I hoped the mud would help that, too.
Shit, what if I was making it worse?
A rustling in the trees made me jump up and pull the pistol from my pocket. I waited, aiming the pistol in one direction and then the other. There was no movement, but there also wasn’t any cover. I was screwed.
I managed to drag Saleuk closer to the little cliffside so I could have my back against something and keep a lookout. Not that it would help much. Even with my dim torch, I couldn’t see anything worth noting. Something could be watching us and I’d have no clue.
After a while, I moved to put Saleuk’s head in my lap. There was a minuscule sense of comfort in touching him. It was easier to make sure he was breathing that way.
“You better wake up,” I said to him. “Because if I die out here, I will haunt you forever.”
I found myself absently stroking my thumbs down his cheeks as I stared warily into the speckled darkness. I wasn’t cut out forplaying a nightwatchman. My heart was pounding and knowing my luck, I was going to shoot myself in the toe if anything snuck up on us.
“Do you guys believe in ghosts? Humans do. Some of us, anyway. You know, one of my foster homes was haunted. No one believed me, but I swear my bedroom door opened all on its own once. You want me to haunt you? I’d do a lot more than open doors, you asshole.”
I didn’t know if he could hear me. I wasn’t sure I should have even been talking, but it made me feel better. Marginally.
I wanted to say it had been a couple of hours, but I had no way of knowing. With the fog rolling in, I couldn’t see the sky. If I could, I’d be able to see Sylos and it might give me a sense of how long we’d been sitting there in the dark. But Phesah was impossible and harsh.
Another sound in the trees startled my droopy eyes open and I palmed the pistol, waiting for some monster to pop out of the foliage. When nothing did, I let out a ragged breath and bent forward, pressing my forehead to Saleuk’s.
“Ugh, you suck,” I whimpered. “I need you to wake up.”
