Page 15 of Vicious
“Enough sleeping on the job,” a rough, familiar voice said behind me. Captain Glenn whisked toward Mase, his black clothes and skin making him appear as a living shadow. “Time togo.”
“Captain…” I started, unable to draw in enough air. “You shothim?”
“It’s not the first time. Probably won’t be the last.” He knelt at Mase’s side, gripped his jaw in his large hand, and shookhim.
His eyes fluttered open, and when he stared up at the captain, hegroaned.
At that beautiful sight, I rushed toward him and covered his wound, scouring the rest of his body for signs of damage. Blood speckled his face from underneath the bullet hole in his white thermal shirt. The right knee of his pants bloomed red, but otherwise he wasalive.
“Mase.” I swallowed, trying to sound out my relief, but held to his wound even harderinstead.
“Fine,” he said, but his gaze didn’t connect with mine for more than a second. “Really.”
I wished I could’ve believedhim.
“Let’s get you up.” Captain Glenn holstered his gun and hefted him into a sitting position, careful of hiswounds.
Mase winced then turned a glare on the captain. “You shotme.”
“You needed it to get that She shit out of you.” He slung Mase’s arm around his neck and did a double-take at my chains and hair. “Absidy, get his other side, wouldyou?”
Mase put his other arm around my shoulder, and with Captain Glenn helping, he stood while a grimace rolled across his face. We needed to get him patched up, andfast.
“Captain, where’s Ellison?” Iasked.
“On the ship. Said she wasn’t feeling well. Probably for the best though. One less face to see.” He pinned me with a meaningful look that I pretended I didn’t understand. “We need to move before Parker comesback.”
As we lugged Mase toward the doorway, Captain Glenn noticed the albino alien. “Who areyou?”
Her large yellow eyes flicked away from me and zeroed in on him. “Poh.Engineer.”
“Well, Poh Engineer, it appears you don’t frighten easily. I just hope you take direction better than these two.” He glanced at Mase then at me, the question in his dark eyes clear—Saelis?
I shook my head. Probably distantly related, but the Saelis we’d met up close and personal hadn’t battled on our side and helped us. Not the living ones, anyway. I wasn’t all that excited about trusting anyone with scales, but if she had our backs, then we might actually survive deep space a little longer. If we couldn’t trust her…well, it wasn’t as if we had a ton of time to search for another engineer. Not with Mase’s gunshot wound. Not with Parker still outthere.
“She’s legit,” Mase said and winced. “I checked hercredentials.”
“Was that before or after the bar fight?” I asked. “The first one, Imean.”
“Before…” Mase slid his gaze toward Poh, but her yellow eyes stayed locked withmine.
I tipped my chin at the wall we’d been pressed against by her invisible touch. “Can you...do whatever it is you did on the way to ourship?”
She nodded once, her pale blonde ponytail falling over the shoulder of herduster.
“We need to move fast,” Captain Glenn said. “We don’t want to be here after dark. This part of Orin only has four hours ofday.”
We stepped outside, where the sun sat lower in the sky and was tinged in red, casting the buildings of the same color in a deeper, richer hue. The sweltering heat leaked down Mase’s face in rivers. He swallowed thickly, and my chest ached for him, for his gunshot wound, for the track marks along his arms that had come alive with need. Light still winked faintly from inside them, his eyes, and hisscar.
Poh walked behind us, touching our huddled backs and protecting us from sight. Her eyes dug into the back of my head with her earlier question—what are you?—as if to pinpoint the truth in mymind.
I had the same question for her. I shrugged out from underneath Mase’s arm while the captain hauled him the rest of the way. Before the alien crested the top of the ramp into the ship, I sliced my arm open with my ice pick. I waited for her eyes to glow a brighter, deadlier shade at the sight of my wellingblood.
It was a reckless thing to do on a strange planet where Saelis hybrids might be lurking within the crowds. The smell of the parasite swimming through my blood would drive them mad and bring them out in droves to slurp my insides through my nostrils. Same for this engineer, who shared an alarming number of traits with theSaelis.
But nothinghappened.
“Good,” I said, my voice too breathy with relief. “You’rehired.”
