Page 40 of Stalker
They carried him into the bedroom and set him on his side of the bed as it was closest to the door.
“Should we get a medic for him?” Neely asked. “He seems to be hurt pretty badly.”
“He was,” said Argus. “I just scanned him. His internal bleeding has stopped, and the nanites are repairing the damage to his organs. It’ll probably take a couple days, but he’s no longer critical. I saw the nanite syringes in the grass. That was exactly what we would have done for him on the battlefield.”
“Thank you for your help.”
“Anytime,” said Argus. “The weapon that did this to him sounds a lot like the mechanism in the rifle that nearly killed Darken’s mate. She only survived because she assimilated nanites from Darken, and he added more immediately after she was shot. That bought time to get her up to the Starfire Nemesis and into a regeneration bath.”
“But you don’t think Stalker needs that?”
“No, he’s steadily improving. I will do another scan and send it to our base medic to confirm that for you.”
Argan paused to rescan Stalker and send the result to the base medic. Seconds later, her com-tablet signaled an incoming call.
One of the other cyborgs brought it to her from where she had dropped it earlier. “Neely, I agree with Protector Shield’s assessment of your mate’s condition. His nanites are steadily repairing the damage to his organs. It could still be a few hours before he regains consciousness. If anything changes to contradict that projection, please call me back.”
Neely nodded. “I will.” And ended the call.
“Do you want me to leave one of my men to guard your premises if Colton Price returns?”
Neely glanced at Stalker and frowned. She was normally adamant that she could take care of herself, but she would be distracted by Stalker’s incapacitation. Even if Colton didn’t come back to finish Stalker off, he might return to steal the Mesaarkan flyer.
She didn’t know whether he could hack the security code to unlock it or not. But the AI would warn her if he came back. If he did, Neely would shoot to kill.
“No, thanks,” she said with a smile. “The AI will warn me, and we have a whole arsenal here. After what he did to Stalker, he should think twice before returning. He only got away because Stalker was hurt, and I turned my attention away for a second. I should have blasted him.”
“Don’t fault yourself. It is only natural for you to be more concerned for your mate than detaining his assailant,” Argan said with the right tone of sympathy. “You followed your instinct to care for your mate. He is a lucky cyborg.”
“And I am lucky to have him,” she said with a faint smile.
“If anything changes, call; someone can be here from the base in five minutes.”
“Thanks, I will.”
Chief Protector Shield inclined his head in a gesture of respect and left immediately.
Neely directed the AI to run a scan of the house and premises and lock the house once it was cleared. Then she lay on the bed beside Stalker to wait for him to awake.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The room darkened, and Neely had fallen asleep, cuddled against Stalker in their bed. He moved and gave a low groan.
Neely awakened instantly and called to the AI, “Light thirty percent.”
Raising herself on her side, she saw that his eyes were open, and he turned his head to meet her worried gaze.
“Stalker, honey, how do you feel?”
“Like somebody tried to gut me.”
“Yeah, that bastard Colten Price.”
“You were naked. I thought if I was dying, at least I got to see your tits one more time.”
Neely burst out laughing. “That must be why you started to smile as you passed out.”
“Fuck, I’ve been stabbed before, and it never hurt this bad.”
