What was this guy playing at? Looks aside, the compulsion and the QEC gear were dead giveaways that Ry was immortal. His old school pistol couldn’t inflict more than a scratch on her. While infected with the Ukruum virus, she couldn’t be killed. If the old man was still standing, it was because she wasn’t like the other commandos. She was kind and took the immortal oath seriously. Her job was to protect and keep the peace.
“Catita, go get the vehicle and your uniform. Now.”
When I faced the alley behind us, a gunshot rung out. The awful din left a screeching buzz in my ears. My gaze darted between the old man holding the smoking gun in his hand and the spot where Ry lay on the ground wounded.
He stared at her. Eyes wide and wild, while he gasped for air. “It worked?” His head snapped up to me. With trembling hands, he cocked his weapon and aimed it at me.
I sat on my haunches, shielding Ry, and raised one arm in surrender so the old man wouldn’t shoot again.
8
Until the Blood Runs Red
Catita
From behind me, Captain Weston charged in and shot the weapon out of the man’s hand. He needed to do more than that. The drunk old man had a weapon that could pierce through immortal skin. How was that even possible?
“Catita.” Captain Weston called for me, but the humming in my head muffled his words. “Catita? Goddamn it, answer. This isn’t the time to lose your shit.”
“Yes, sir.” I snapped out of my initial shock of seeing Ry wounded and scrambled to my feet.
“Were there others?” he asked.
“I only saw him. He came out of that alley.” I pointed behind me. “Then he shot Ry with a pistol.” I glared at the old man. Now that I had time to really look at him, he seemed familiar, but his skin was so discolored and his features so distorted, I wasn’t sure. Was this Lee? Tek’s friend from the supply store, the one who helped us hide from the QEC commandos?
“What?” Captain Weston’s gaze scanned the area until he spotted the weapon a few feet from us. He picked it up and checked the barrel. “It’s empty.”
A throbbing ache burned across my chest as I glared at it. “He said doing this would earn him creds,” I said under my breath.
“He got paid and was only given one bullet?”
“What the hell happened?”
“I’ll find out.” Captain Weston stalked over to the old man. “Stay with Ry.”
I dropped to my knees and pulled Ry onto my lap. “It’s going to be okay. The Ukruum will heal you. Okay? You’re fine.”
“Catita, get back to the ship.” Ry shoved my hands away from her.
“Captain Weston is here. He’ll fix it.”
“It worked,” the old man repeated over and over, cowering near the dumpster.
“Who sent you? Where did you get that shot?” Captain Weston grabbed his arm.
When the man didn’t answer, Captain Weston clocked him in the face. Blood sprang from the man’s nose like a faucet, but he didn’t try to stop it. He wiped his face on his shoulder, leaving a streak of red on his cheek. But other than that, he didn’t seem to be in any kind of pain—not from the gash in his hand or the Captain’s interrogation tactics.
“What the fuck are you on?” Captain Weston gripped the man by the wrist and swung him around.
In a flash, the old man was in restraints, eating dust on the street. His dull eyes stared straight ahead as if he were dead. Maybe the dim light in the alley was playing tricks on me, but I could swear his skin had turned a grayish tone like concrete.
“How is she?” Captain Weston joined me.
“The bleeding hasn’t stopped.”
“Eli, take her away,” Ry said.
Her silvery, immortal blood seeped through the hole in her armor. I’d never seen her injured like this before, bleeding like the rest of us. Ry was the strong one. The one who couldn’t die. I didn’t know what to do other than lay her flat on the pitted street and let the virus heal her.
“It’ll save its host to save itself,” I said, as if saying the words aloud would make it happen faster. “Is the man on Ukruum wafers or something?” I asked Captain Weston.
“No, the wafers give you stamina and strength. This is something else. He can’t feel pain, and I can’t influence him.” Captain Weston knelt next to Ry, glaring at the man lying ten feet from us, then tapped on his wristband. “What the hell? I have no comms.” He tried a few more times, but the same out-of-range Phoenicis symbol hovered over his device.
“We need to get her out of here.” I couldn’t feel Ry anymore. Something was terribly wrong if she wasn’t strong enough to share her emotions with me.
“No one’s coming.” He glanced up and down the deserted street.
“There’s no time.” Ry winced and reached for my hand. “It’s starting again, Catita. No matter how hard they try.” Her words were barely above a whisper.
“Damn it, Ry. Why did you do it? I saw you.” Or at least I thought I had. The old man had fired at me. “You shielded me instead of going after him.”
“My job is to protect you.” A sound like a cough and a chuckle escaped her lips. “I didn’t think his pistol could do much damage.”
“What do you need me to do?” My hands hovered over her torso. “Captain?”
“Let me take a look.” Captain Weston touched my shoulder to move me out of the way.
“Why is she not healing?” I asked.
He shook his head, focused on Ry as he ripped open her breastplate and shirt. The man had shot her straight through the heart.
“How the fuck did he get his hands on this kind of weapon?” He stared at the damage in disbelief.
“What kind of
