Page 138 of Homebound
She didn’t obey, still wrapped around Simon.
The guy swung his gun and hit her in the temple, not so hard as to render her unconscious, just to get her to follow orders.
But for her, the blow had a force of a freight train hitting her head. Everything receded. Her hands slipped from Simon’s waist as if in a dream, and she tumbled gracelessly to the ground.
“Shock him hard,” she heard a distant order.
Something was happening, but she was fading in and out, unable to concentrate. She fought the unconsciousness like a wild Amazon, furiously forcing her brain to function, to stay online. She didn’t know how much time had passed before she managed her eyes to focus. Sounds of a busy bustle reached her ears.
“Bring the stretcher,” Gemma heard Dr. Delano's order from far away. The world kept spinning.
A heavy-duty gurney appeared, outfitted with industrial size restraints. Dr. Delano wasn’t messing around. Helpless, Gemma observed strong men pick up Simon’s limp body and hoist it onto the gurney. She reached out, trying to touch him, to hold on to him, but in confusion, her hand found Dr. Delano and grasped his clothes as if in supplication.
He tsked. “Shame about you, Gemma. Were you so desperate for a male touch to throw away your life for an alien?”
Loosening her fingers, she let go of his clothes. “My life is not for you to judge, doctor,” she sneered the last word, letting him know what she thought of his use of the title.
“You know,” he continued, benign, waxing philosophical now that his quarry was being secured to the gurney, “if you’d’ve cooperated and helped me locate the Rix, I would have considered giving you a job at the lab. I really would! In time, one of my orderlies might have given you the physical intimacy you so desperately desired. You’re a pretty little woman. Of course, now that the word’s out that an alien has been inside of you, no man will come near. Way to ruin your life.”
Gemma only half-heard his trash talk, only half-understood his hurtful words. Deep down, she knew his chastising her for naughty behavior was a pointless pontification to pass time. He had no intention of letting her live.
Simon sprawled limply on the gurney with his eyes closed. He didn’t respond when one of the orderlies roughly manhandled his arm. He never moved. And his utter lack of reaction cracked something vital inside Gemma. She knew his silences and his terrible sick stillness, and she hated it. Hated it… She wanted to scream. She was already screaming inside, wallowing in misery, losing her mind from the fear of finding him again imprisoned by his own body. Statis, he’d said, was a natural defensive reaction of a Rix body.
“Fuck stasis,” she hissed vehemently.
“Say what?” Dr. Delano raised his eyebrows as if he had misheard her.
Simon’s neck was exposed showing off his intricate tattoos slightly blurred now by the healthy slick fuzz covering his skin. To taste him would be heaven. She lived for him. Oh, to see his eyes one more time!
Wait. Why were his eyes closed? Stasis meant blank unblinking stare and a dull film across the surface of the eye. He wouldn’t be able to close them if he were in stasis.
Gemma’s heart jump-started itself into a feverish rhythm.
“Doctor,” she hadn’t known she was going to speak until the words left her mouth. “What are you going to do to him?”
Dr. Delano peered at her suspiciously, like he believed her capable of witchcraft. “What business is it of yours?”
“He saved my life. I’d like to know he won’t suffer.” Instinctively, she knew she needed to keep talking to distract Delano’s attention.
“Suffering is a relative concept. If he cooperates, he won’t suffer. Much.”
It was too far for her to see, but she thought Simon’s nostrils fluttered. The orderlies kept getting him ready for transport.
“Please let him go,” Gemma begged, knowing she was wasting her breath.
Dr. Delano’s mouth turned down at the corners. “Enough with the melodrama. Get his legs buckled and let’s get moving,” he shouted at the orderlies and gave Gemma a push with his boot. She fell back on the ground like a discarded wrapper. “Kill her.”
One of the men in Dr. Delano’s entourage pulled a gun on her and cocked it, keeping her in crosshairs. All breath left her, and a childish question popped up: Would it hurt?
Simon’s feet hit the ground as he left the gurney in one powerful lunge. Chained to it by the wrists, he swung it by the chains, flattening the orderlies in charge of shackling him, swiping at the guy targeting Gemma. Eyes black and wide open, there was no question how many of his hearts were functioning - all of them were. Full blast.
Shots rang out, panicked and wide. Simon wielded the stainless steel gurney as a shield, the laser hitting it in bursts of sparks.
“Don’t shoot!” Dr. Delano yelled. “Goddamn it, I need him alive!”
Simon freed his arms by way of popping the chains free of their moorings and sent the gurney flying like a frisbee at the largest cluster of the orderlies before they had a chance to regroup.
“You always wanted to see a Rix defender fight,” he addressed Delano in a thickly accented gravelly voice. “Watch.”
