Page 44 of Elanie & the Empath
Look, I’d be lying through my teeth if I said that waking up cocooned in Elanie’s arms wasn’t one of the most perfect sensations I’d ever experienced. But I couldn’t do it again. In part because I liked it too much. I likedhertoo much. Enough to follow her across an entire solar system. I didn’t regret it, but I hadn’t only followed her so I could be her knight in shining armor. I’d done it because I was into her. Smitten. Mildly obsessed. I couldn’t deny it anymore. And even though she’d fired me, she’d once been my patient. I’d been her physician. Being mildly obsessed with her was inappropriate. Cuddling with her, even for warmth, was inappropriate. Probably. I didn’t know. I’d have to think about it some more.
But even more important than my confusion over my professional boundaries was the fact that I refused to harm or weaken her in any way. I had no idea how long we’d be here, but neither of us would survive the week if my life continued to hinge on her strength. And since I’d rather freeze to death than drain another drop of her energy unnecessarily by playinglet’s heat up the Portisan, I needed to be useful and self-sufficient. I needed to be someone who made her life easier, not harder. Someone she could rely on. Someone who could get her home. And then, once we were safe, once more time had passed since she’d sat topless onmy examination table, maybe I’d shoot my shot. Maybe I’d tell her all my favorite things about her. Like her honesty, her directness, her inability to be anything other than exactly who she was. Like how beautiful her eyes were and how I liked the way my heart stumbled over itself when I caught her looking at me. How my skin tingled when I heard her laughter. When I saw her legs. Her hips. Her ass.Saints, her ass…
Shaking my head, shaking off the sense memory of lying nestled against her curves, I got back to work. Moving as quickly as I could, I filled our satchel, and then my arms, with evergreen boughs that smelled like Yuletide as their sharp needles pricked my skin through my now-filthy shirt. Keeping myself clean wasn’t high on the list of priorities. Warmth, food, safety. Getting back home. That was what mattered, even though the idea of smelling bad around her made my jaw clench. Maybe I could rub some of the pine needles under my armpits. Might be pokey, a little sticky, but vanity never came without a cost, right?
These were my thoughts as I left the shelter of the woods. It made me more than a little suspicious that hypothermia had started to set in again. Hustling back to the cave, I rounded the southern border of the lake, wondering what Elanie had been up to while I’d been gone. If she’d been resting like I’d asked. Probably not. She was stubborn, not easily swayed. That was another thing I liked about?—
My breath caught, my feet burying themselves in the snow as my heart leaped into my throat. We weren’t alone. Someone was prowling outside our cave. They’d found us.Saints of the deep, I should never have left her alone.
Despite my pulse roaring in my ears, I moved silentlyover the snow, trying to see who—or what—it might be and what weapons they might have. As soon as I was close enough to make out the details of their body, the curved line of their back, the narrow slope of their shoulders, the shiny pinkness of their pajamas, a bone-deep relief washed over me.
It wasn’t a stranger. It wasn’t some roving marauder. It was only Elanie, and she was definitelynotresting her feet. But why was she hunched over like that, frozen in place on her hands and knees in the snow?
“Elanie?” I stepped closer. “Are you okay?”
Her jaw was clenched, her breathing harsh and ragged as sweat beaded across her brow. Every muscle in her body strained, strung taut like she was fighting the pull of some invisible leash.
“What’s wrong?” I took another step. “What are you doing out here?”
“He’s…calling…me,” she hissed between her gritted teeth. “Have…to go. Have to…leave.”
The hells you do.“Is it the voice?” I asked, holding my hands out with my fingers splayed. “The one that brought us here?”
“Can’t…resist. Hacking my…neural interface. Controlling my…motor cortex.”
When I moved even closer, she bared her teeth.
“Stop. Might…hurt you.”
After a split second of paper-thin contemplation, I said, “Worth it.”
Dropping the sticks in the snow, I swept in fast, hauling her into my arms and carrying her writhing and struggling back into the cave.
“Put…me down,” she grunted. “Don’t want to…hurt you.”
“Shh,” I tried to soothe, narrowly avoiding taking a foot to the balls as I set her down on the ground.
“Hurts,” she moaned, clutching her head, curling into a fetal position. “Can’t…resist. Thoughts…not mine. I’m not…me.”
Pacing around her, not knowing what the fuck to do, I racked my brain. She said she was being hacked. The voice, whoever it was, had to be using some sort of signal to compel the bionics to leave their ships. Could be satellite. Maybe military subspace relays. Or?—
Saints, how could I have missed it?
I turned back to the cave opening, then wheeled around, squinting into the darkness of the deeper chamber.
“Are you still connected to the SBN?” I asked.
Thathadto be it. That was why the Shared Bionic Network was active all the way out here. It was him. It was coming from him.
When she didn’t answer, I got to my knees beside her. Sweeping her sweat-soaked hair back off her forehead, I said, “Elanie. I need to move you to the back of the cave.” It was a long shot, but it was the only shot we had. “I think you’ll be safe from the voice there.”
“Don’t…touch me,” she snarled when I tried to roll her onto her back.
“Oh, now.” A nervous laugh. “Let’s not get all growly.” But when I reached for her again, she did, in fact, growl.Shit.Studying her, planning my attack, I wondered how quickly she could break each of my bones if she wanted to.
“Fuck it. If I die, I die.”
With a desperate lunge, I thrust my arms under hers, clasped my wrists around her chest, and yanked.
