Page 24 of Dark Space
I looked away, keeping my eyes on the wall screen until the door slid closed behind them.
Dainn’s eyes were still open.
Dainn had taught me how to count. He’d looked after my scrapes and cuts and breaks through childhood. When my father whipped me, Dainn had intervened before the King stripped the skin from my back.
But he’d also tried to kidnap Anna and deliver her to a fate worse than death.
‘You deserved to die,’ I told his body fiercely. ‘You are everything that’s wrong with our species.’
I thought about the way I’d wanted to steal Anna away, to keep her safe, to protect her.You’re hardly any better than Dainn,I told myself.Complicit in kidnap, with your instincts still shouting more loudly than your morals.
One of the cupboards was full of the moss sheeting that covered the surgical bed. I took an armful and spread it out on the floor, rolling Dainn’s cooling body onto it. Blood had soaked everywhere, and by the time I’d wrapped him up, my hands were covered in it. I added another layer of moss for his head, closing his eyes – it was unnerving to see him staring up blankly – then awkwardly folded the moss sheet over his horns.
The nearest airlock was just down the hall. I slung Dainn’s body over my shoulder and tucked his head under my arm, thanking the dread gods that it was still in the early hours of the simulated morning. The corridors were usually full of crew moving between the orb’s different quarters; as it was, I was alone as I opened the airlock and unceremoniously shoved Dainn inside it, placing his head on top of his body. Moments later, I watched him – and his head – float into the blackness of space, his blood boiling and crystallising behind him.
I thought I’d feel more.
The hall and the airlock had an automatic cleaning cycle, so I added a manual override and went back into the surgery so the bots could do their job. After I closed the cupboards, I did the same thing in the clinic, watching as they mopped up the blood and disinfected the floors and walls. It was almost too easy; other than the missing moss sheeting and bandages, there was nothing out of place, no way to tell what had happened in the room.
I closed my eyes. ‘Other than the security feeds.’
I had full access to the feeds, so I logged in from the clinic screen and blanked the entire night for the whole ship, adding a feed of the previous night to replace what I’d wiped. When I was done, I leaned forward on the desk and put my head in my hands.
‘Fuck,’ I said aloud.
I’d killed my mentor – my father’s friend – to protect the human female. And ifIhadn’t done it, Callan would have, without thought, without question. And if neither ofushad acted, then Vesper would have tried to blow up the ship.
I had a feeling that our problems were only just beginning.
Anna was small andshaking in my arms.
I hated it. I hated that she was hurt, hated that she was afraid, hated the way she was shuddering.
And I hated myself for the way I liked holding her close.
I tried to ignore it, but I couldn’t. She fit perfectly against me, as if I’d been born to hold her. Her scent had deepened with blood and fear, but she still filled my senses with spring. I hated that my body reacted with a flood of heat and need, hated that my instincts roared to take her somewhere dark and private to protect her. I hated myself for wanting her, hated myself forneedingher, and I hated myself for noticing it at all when she was injured and terrified and vulnerable.
I forced myself to refocus, my senses full of sweat and tears and the sweet scent of her hair as I carried her through Alcide’s quarters and to the cell.
The starling had been captive for months now, and in all that time, he’d always sat the same way – his back to the cell wall, his chained foot stretched out in front of him, his free foot pressed against his outstretched thigh. When the door slid open, it revealed him kneeling, plucking at the dark-matter chain with angry fingers, as if he glared at it vehemently enough it would simply detach itself from the floor.
Anna stirred in my arms. ‘Vess-perr?’ she whispered.
‘Give her to me,’ the starling rasped. ‘Give her to me.’
I paused for a moment. I didn’t want to give her to him; I wanted to keep her close. I wanted to feel her warm and safe in my arms and have my nose and mouth full of spring. But Anna reached out to him, so I pushed those thoughts aside and collapsed down to my knees. Vesper held his arms out and I handed her over, careful not to touch her shoulder.
The starling took her up as if she were made of Tirian rose platinum, cradling her with gentle hands. ‘Brightness. Talk to me.’
Anna croaked something tiredly, pressing her face into Vesper’s neck.
Jealousy stirred, hot and angry in my stomach.
‘She wants to know what that fucker tried to do,’ Vesper growled. ‘She knows it’s bad, otherwise the Prince wouldn’t have cut his head off. Do I tell her?’
I leant back. ‘I don’t want to lie to her.’
Vesper gave a short nod, and dropped a kiss on Anna’s forehead. Her eyes flew open with shock, then widened again when Vesper said bluntly: ‘He tried to kidnap you for the Roth King.’
