Page 26 of The First Omega Made
“Merriel fill you in?” he asked as he immediately approached me and grabbed my hair, tilting my head back.
“Ack! Yes, what are you—” I flinched as he prodded at my face and neck.
“I had to implant you into his other lung since Shafa had already laid a neural network down. Once I removed his body and flushed my venom free, it was only a matter of stimulating your space leech into chomping down onto a major artery.” His cold touch pricked along my chest as I huffed.
“Thanks for asking permission, by the way. That body was supposed to be my last.” I flinched when Noel tightened his grip.
“You did not take over a body. You were forcefully implanted into one. As for your death—it was inconvenient for me to have Doc moping about. Also, my child would be short an uncle and I couldn’t have that.” Noel’s flat voice didn’t show a flick of emotion in it, only succinct fact. So cold. It was like his freezing never wore off.
“And you’ve not infected a host. You’ve been absorbed by one. Any attempt to remove yourself will result in death. I’m confident there’ll be nothing left of your space leech body in time.” He prodded at one of my eyelids with his thumb and frowned. “Get some more rest and get accustomed to your body. I don’t want to show you off until I’m certain you’re going to survive this.”
“What were the odds of me dying?” I huffed.
“Like 97 percent. I’m not certain, really. According to my assay, you already had Naleucian DNA in your core body—likely as a result of whatever you’ve been doing with Doc. Fucking. I suppose that makes me an STD at this point.”
“Life seed,” I said, staring him down.
“Hmm?”
“The correct word for you is not gene bomb. It’s a life seed. You’re part of the terraforming process. You weren’t spread fastenough, so the small percentages they used were doing more harm than good. It never was you, Noel. They fucked up.”
“I’m aware, now. Merriel showed me the letters. Thank you, by the way.” He opened a view screen and typed something in midair, storing notes away, I was certain. “I think you’re ready to drink something. No solid food, yet. I don’t think your digestive tract is fully enervated, yet.”
At that, he turned and left, closing the window as he did so. As the door opened, the scampering of claws preceded Nexus running in and onto my bed to wallow around and laugh, eyes bright with mirth. “Dada!”
“Nope! Nope!” I glanced around, lips pursed. “Sarge. I amSarge!”
“Sard…” Nexus stood on his hind legs, balancing with his tail unsteadily as he sniffed and leaned against me, getting close to my neck and mouth. “Sard!”
He beamed and rubbed his head to my chest with a slight purr, saying my name again.
Serjio Vaskez had been my old name. Sarge. I was accustomed to taking the name of my host, but Sarge still fit me. Itwasme.
Noel smirked over his shoulder, a hint of fang in the gesture before he left my field of view.
I had another chance, and I’d make the most of it.
Chapter Fourteen
Doc
“Wake up and stop moping. You’re depressing me.” Noel’s flat voice roused me from the worst sleep of my life.
“Fuck you. Like you’d want to parade about and smile if Vil died.” I shoved my head back under the blanket and followed it up with my pillow to block out any further attempts at conversation.
He pulled my pillow away and stared me down, that cool mask of his infuriating. “Get up.”
“Why? What reason do I have to do anything anymore?” It was all I could do not to break down into tears.
“Because I want you alert enough so you don’t try to murder my little experiment.”
“Experiment? Have you been fucking around in my lab this whole time?” I fought my way from the covers.
“I have made full use of your space lab, yes.” He rummaged through my drawers and threw a paid of pants and a shirt at me, muttering something about underwear.
“What did you do?” I snarled and flopped onto the floor, my hair in tangles as I fought to stand on weak legs. I’d not eaten in days and it was catching up with me.
“I found an appropriate vessel for your mate.”
