Page 59 of The Interstellar Rake's Irresistible Kiss
Chapter 17
To think she had questioned Blackworm wanting a ghostly facsimile of his consort, and here she was running through a dreadnaught with the animated might-be corpse of her lover.
Trixie glanced back at the robotic armor carrying Nor. His eyes were half-lidded. Dropping in and out of consciousness? Or just dead? She couldn’t even stop long enough to check.
And she didn’t want to seethe bootprints of dark crimson blood following them.
She guided the armor into the service tunnel, finally grateful for the neuroses that had trained her to count her steps and her turns. Sealing the hatch behind them with a low blast from her smaller plasma pistol, she raced through the slow automatic lights toward the exosuit. The thudding steps of Nor’s armor were slower than her frantic heartbeat.
And her wild heartbeat was slower than the pulsing thrum she felt in the walls. At this speed, could they even exit the ship without being ripped apart?
Did it matter?
“Trixie.”
Startling, she glanced back at Nor again and almost tripped over her own feet.
It wasn’t his voice.
“Trixie,” Blackworm said through the armor’s comm. “Where are you?”
Oh. He knew her name. How…squicky.
She’d haveto share that word with Nor. He’d like it.
“I can’t see you,” the cool, cultured, crazy voice continued, “but I see what you’ve done. And I see the blood that means your captain is done.”
Her own blood seemed to fall to her boots. Blackworm must be right behind them.
She almost sobbed when the last pool of light shined on the empty exosuit awaiting them. Nor’s armor halted behind her and stoodpatiently while she scrabbled at the front plate latches in panic.
“Nor,” she hissed. “Wake up. C’mon now. You have to help me.”
He mumbled something, and this time she did sob. He was still alive.
For the moment.
Blackworm was yammering on, but she ignored him. “Nor, we have to get into the exosuit, but you need to getoutof the armor first.”
“You want to get me out of my pants,” he slurred.
She laughed. “Yes! Now!”
He swatted weakly at her hands. “Spread the…mech. Gonna be…tight.”
While he extracted himself from the armor, she widened the opening on the exosuit. It split through the middle like a giant cicada shell. Giant enough for two?
She turned back to Nor and gasped. He was clad only in a thin white tunic lined with thin electrode wires. As he staggered out of the armor,the wires snapped, and the armor collapsed behind him, leaving him swaying.
Blood soaked the left side of the shroud. She wasn’t sure how many pints a Thorkon could lose, but it seemed as if at least that much was dripping down his thigh.
“You could have told me how bad it was,” she said through gritted teeth as she led him to the exosuit.
“We’re about to emergency eject from a spaceship screamingthrough space toward a black hole,” he said. “It’s bad.”
He slumped back into the suit as if she had cut his wires, his eyes closing. But he held up one arm, reaching out to her.
She turned and backed gingerly into his embrace. He grunted once as she kicked off her boots—every free inch counted—and dropped the plasma rifle to the deck. Naked and defenseless, but together.
