Page 40 of Star Defenders (My Alien Mates 2)

Mazic prepared a fresh needle and inserted it into Danec, just below the scanner. The moment she finished depressing the plunger, his back arched. She managed to pull the needle free before he kicked out. She rolled out of the way, eyes wide.

Danec's back arched again and he let out a piercing scream which sliced my nerves in half. He kicked out with both legs and his arms flailed. He narrowly missed hitting me in the face with a hand.

"We need to hold him down, for his own safety," Mazic said. "The gas isn't sufficient to contain him."

Zarex scooted over to grab both of Danec's ankles, while Mazic and I gripped a wrist each.

I held on with everything I had, my eyes focused on Danec's face. For approximately a century, he didn't look like one of the guys I cared about. He looked like a wild beast. Eyes white, mouth frothing, jaw clenched with the effort of fighting us, or fighting the nanobots.

"Come on, babe," I said firmly. "You can do this. We can do this."Please don't let us have killed him.

His eyes snapped closed and the skin on his face turned entirely silver. The colour crept into his hair, bit by bit.

"Nonono." My vision blurred with tears. We must have made the nanobots fight harder to get control of him. Ofcoursewe had. In trying to save him, we had condemned him, turned him into a host.

I let out a sob, and managed to cling on while he gave one last furious thrash.

Then he flopped, completely still.

"Danec?" I blinked away tears.

An expression of utter calm came over his face. He smiled.

Shit.

Shit. Shit, Shit.Andfuckfor good measure.

His face went slack and his head rolled to the side. The silver colour drained out of his face and in a heartbeat it was completely blue again.

"What the—" I shook my head. Before I could say another word, or fully grasp the situation, Mazic jammed yet another needle into Danec and was busy sucking dormant nanobots out of his system.

"Nurse, scanner," she ordered. "Commander, get that glass dish over there. No, over there. Open it and hold it."

In the corner of my eyes, I saw Zarex nod. He picked up the vial of Brinley's blood and emptied the contents into the dish before he held it out to Mazic.

Good thinking. If they stayed drenched in blood, they may remain dormant indefinitely.

Clump by clump, Mazic pulled nanobots out of Danec and squirted them into the dish.

"Scan over here," Mazic ordered. She nodded toward Danec's right hip.

I did as she asked and winced at how close several bots were to his bone.

Mazic pursed her lips and moved slowly and carefully. At one point, she winced and Danec twitched. She must have grazed bone, but any pain he suffered later would be better than bots.

"Scan his head and chest." Mazic sat back and wiped her brow with her sleeve.

I did as she asked. "Clear." Anticipating her next words, I scooted down to scan his groin—no ball bots—and his legs and feet.

"Right heel," I said finally. "It's moving like crazy."

"Too far from where the blood was administered," Mazic said. "I'll have to try to isolate it."

I hoped by that she didn't mean cut off his foot.

Instead, she grabbed a tourniquet out of her bag and wound it around his ankle. She pulled it tight.

"As soon as it's out, pull that off," she said. "We don't want to cut off the blood flow for too long, just enough so the little bastard doesn't escape." Did she have to sound like she was enjoying herself quite so much?

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