Page 37 of Darken
It was more than ten hours since he’d last eaten, so he got himself a meal bar and a glass of juice. He didn’t really have an appetite, but he knew he needed to maintain his body by keeping it adequately nourished. He pinged Gina’s rejuvenation tank. Ninety percent? Ninety percent!
“Yes, Darken. She should be ready to come out in a few hours,” Medic Kydel responded after his query. “I will send a shuttle for you in three hours.”
“Thank you, Kydel. Thank you for saving her.”
“You are welcome, my friend. It’s what I do. See you soon.”
When the medic signed off, Darken let out an earsplitting war-whoop. Then he ran outside under the clear starry sky and called joyously to the wolves.
Within minutes, the pack came trotting into the front yard to join them. He shared the news that his mate was coming home with them in their language, and they celebrated with him.
Devlin White’s shoulders ached from having his wrists chained above his head for hours after the cyborgs left. He’d yelled for his men to get him down, yet no one came. Devlin shouted until he was hoarse, and his mouth was almost too dry to swallow, but no one came.
He let his body hang from the manacles because he was tired of standing. Finally, the sound of someone climbing the stairs made him stand and hold his head up. “Price, where the hell have you been? The place was overrun with cyborgs last night; you should have been here!”
“You sent me to kill Darken Wolf,” said Colton Price. “I went looking for him.”
“You’re a cyborg, for Chrissakes! Don’t you have a network you tap into? Darken Wolf was right here with the rest of them? Where the fuck were you?”
Colton stopped in the middle of the room and stood looking at Devlin. “Only manufactured cyborgs are on that network. I’m a convert, remember.”
“Yeah, okay. Never mind. Just get me out of this.”
“I don’t know; it looks like karma to me.”
“Fuck you!”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Every minute was an eternity from when he spoke with Kydel on the network until the shuttle brought him to theStarfire Nemesis. Finally, he was there in the chamber beside Gina’s rejuvenation tank. She looked perfect, as if she were simply asleep and without a mark on her body. Not that it would matter if there were.
She was his heart, his soul mate. No other woman was more beautiful to him. Darken could hardly stand still waiting for Kydel to retract the lid and drain the nanite gel from the tank.
Kydel removed the mask from her face as the gel receded and extubated her. Gina gasped and opened her eyes to Darken, looking down at her anxiously. She swallowed and whispered, “Darken!”
She started to raise her hand to his face but realized her hands were dripping with gel. Darken didn’t care. He took her hand and brought it to his lips, staring at her beloved face.
“What’s going on?” asked Gina with a frown.
Darken looked at Kydel then his mate Sana.“Do I tell her?”
Both medics nodded.
“We were on a mission, and one of them shot you with an armor-piercing weapon. Gina, I am so sorry; I never expected one of them would have a rifle that could pierce the new armor.”
“Gina’s frown deepened. “I---I don’t remember.”
Kydel’s mate Sana started spraying the gel with warm water, and Darken held Gina’s hand under it.
“That’s probably for the best. Things didn’t go quite as we planned because two other flyers came in while I was securing Stockman and his men.”
Gina blinked and took a long breath. “I shot one of them down. The other one fell on the ground, then nothing….”
“He got up and shot you, and I killed him.”
“Where are we?”
“In a starship, orbiting Earth. There wasn’t time to get you to New Chicago for treatment. I knew Medics Kydel and Sana could get you treatment faster.”
