Even though he wasn’t proud of what he’d done, or how he’d responded to the venom, he was glad he’d bitten her. He now had a fresh supply of her blood in his system to track her without tracking technology, which he couldn’t access from Q’s ship.
Listening for any movement, he heard nothing as he moved along the corridor. He followed her scent in a direction that was starting to concern him; his feet led him to the med bay.
He halted at the corner, peeking his head around to check for any of the eight original crew members. So far, he’d seen none. Not even the flamboyant male who owned the ship.
Armed with a pistol and his teeth, he rounded the corner and entered the med bay, preparing for the worst.
Three Trr’kiki males stood in the infirmary, focused on a very naked Selena. She lay strapped onto a medical bed, exposed for all to see. One male held her silver hair in his hand, chuckling and commenting that it would make a pretty rope. Another two had sliced open her chest with a scalpel.
Kaede saw red.
Snarling, he lunged forward, sinking his teeth into the closest male, who had dared to hold Selena’s hair like a prized trophy, and injecting him with Vusyte, his painful and instantly lethal venom.
< ONE DOWN. SEVEN TO GO. >
< THANK YOU, REI .>
He shot the other two in the head before they could react and scanned the room for more Trr’kiki with his pistol drawn.
< THREE DOWN. FIVE TO GO. >
His gaze fell on a bruised, naked body tied in the corner of the room. Kaede was confused, for he had never seen a species like this in his life. As he untied the male’s restraints and uncovered his head, he gasped.
If Kaede’s visor hadn’t lit up with a yellow dot and marked him as ‘Q,’ he wouldn’t have recognized the male blinking in the med bay’s harsh lighting.
Someone had stripped off all his feathers and left him here, alone and naked.
“What happened?” Kaede asked, standing.
While he cared about the male because his sister B did, his allegiance lay with Selena. If forced to pick between the two, he would rather bring home Selena's dead body than a live Q, but hopefully, he wouldn’t have to choose.
Kaede stood and ran over to Selena, trying to piece together how to proceed. He was no healer, and only knew the basics of stitching up wounds, but judging by the faint readings on the scans, she was still alive.
“My crew mutinied,” Q replied. “I was waiting for Z to contact us like he always does, and they insisted that we take this one mission. The merchant was willing to pay us five times as much if we agreed to deliver some precious cargo to them. I refused; they all insisted. I told them this was my ship, and they could leave if they weren’t happy.” He sighed. “They swore they’d changed their minds, so I allowed them back on the ship, believing they were fine with waiting. Stupid me, they jumped me while I was sleeping and took over. On the way to the palace, they decided they could make a nice chunk of credits off my feathers, so they decided to strip me. I’ve been here ever since, bound in that corner.”
Kaede shot a glance at the male. “Do you know who hired your crew? And do you happen to have anything to seal this wound?”
“They made two deals to be paid twice,” Q seethed. “The Aldawi Sovereign was willing to pay them to get rid of Selena and her clan, and the Quaww were willing to pay for Selena and the cubs. My crew reminded their customers that Circuli venom—especially in mated males—was highly potent and deadly, so they received danger pay as well.”
Kaede shook his head. She wasn’t going to survive if he didn’t do something fast.
“Q,” he hissed. “How can I stop her bleeding?”
“You can check the cabinets, but we’re probably out of med supplies. My backstabbing crew sold anything remotely valuable at the nearest trade station, stripping this ship to its bare bones since they were going to ditch it anyhow after they collected their money.”
Kaede gripped the necklace in his pocket and cursed. He didn’t want to use it, not when its function wasn’t tested and verified, but he had no choice.
Taking the necklace, he unthreaded the gem from the cord and bit down on the encasing. The glowing jewel fell into his hand as he spat out the crushed tracking device and threw it on the ground. Rolling the gem in his hand, he sent a prayer to the Stars beyond.
He handed Q his pistol. “Stand guard and shoot anyone who enters this room.”
“What are you doing?” he asked, confused, flicking his gaze between Selena and the gem in Kaede’s hand.
“A miracle,” Kaede muttered. “If it works and we live, I’ll tell you all about it.”
As if that answer satisfied him, Q shrugged. “Don’t go blowing up my ship while we’re on it with whatever tech experiment you’re about to attempt.”
Kaede huffed a dry laugh. “I’ll do my best,” he muttered before waving the featherless Q away.
Kaede had heard whispers in his sleep as he dreamt up fantasies of being with Selena in the future. They always ended the same.
They would be having fun together, and suddenly something would hurt and almost kill her. Every time, a soothing female voice told him to give her the gem. The gem will save her. Use the gem.
And every time, he refused, letting her die in his arms as he jolted awake from the recurring nightmare.
Logically, he knew his dreams meant nothing, and yet, his current situation felt too close for comfort. The only way he could convince himself that he wasn’t insane or hadn’t knocked something loose while he long distanced teleported was how he had no other options.
At this point, he had no other choice.
Staring at
