Energy sizzled between them. Liam swiped at his running nose, but the gauntlet didn’t offer much in the way of absorption. In fact, it made it worse. Now streaks of dark blended with the gooey glaze across his nose and cheek.
Mike wasn’t sure why, but Liam’s disastrous hygiene situation urged the bloom of affection inside his chest to flower. He felt his cheeks tighten and figured a smile had crept into his expression.
Worried? Not about that. Not right now.
Instead, he turned his attention to separating the breathing filter of Liam’s helmet from its housing. Soft and significantly more absorbent than the hard shell of the flight suit, it was a good way to wipe the mucus and metal maintenance lubricant smeared across Liam’s face.
“Since I’ve met you,” Mike said, as he worked, “you’ve been nothing but balls to the wall courageous. You requested a dance, you took a kiss, you accepted mine…”
Mike paused to drop the used wad of filter and pull another one free, which he used to continue his project.
“Inside you, Liam, there beats a huge heart. I saw the data streams after the data was delivered to your media outlets. I saw you stand strong against the pushback of your culture and defend your choices. Unashamed, you never cowered. In fact, you volunteered to serve as well as to come here.”
“Stupid,” Liam muttered around his ministrations.
Mike set the wad of filter down and braced himself on both hands as he gazed at the man so close emotionally and physically, and yet parsecs away from safety.
“No, Liam. Not stupid. Fearless.”
He opened himself all the way so Liam could feel the truth as he spoke.
“Fearless and beautiful, Liam. Everything beautiful’s inside of you. In fact,” he paused, “beautiful is you. Heart and soul.”
Liam’s gaze didn’t waver from his.
“In fact, I doubt you could ever disappoint me.” The truth was the truth, and it deserved to be said, although it was saddening to realize the same thing couldn’t be said about him.
He was doomed to disappoint this pure and perfect human.
Liam flinched. Or maybe he winced. Mike didn’t have a chance to figure out which because less than a second later, Liam twisted onto his side and vomited.
“Ah, fuck.”
Mike stroked Liam’s sweaty head as he puked and was a happy guy when a medical team fell to their knees beside them and took charge.
CHAPTER 9
The sun had long set and the waning moon nestled against the mountains when Mike finally found time to visit the infirmary. He pushed through the doors and came face-to-face with a member of the medical corps, seated in the reception booth.
“Perfect timing, as usual,” teased the technician.
The scowl was a good one, crunching the young cabal member’s forehead into uneven folds of skin. If it wasn’t the twinkle in his eyes and the slight upward tilt of his mouth’s edges, Mike might have paused for a moment and wondered.
“Are our guests resting comfortably?” he asked instead.
At the table, he stopped and placed his palm on the ident-a-cube. The machine lit up with a bluish-white glow. A low buzzing filled the air as it took and recorded his cellular information.
Amusement flowed between the two men.
“At this moment,” said the corpsman. “The vomiting and diarrhea stopped about three marks ago.”
Mike nodded, and suspected his expression was a smirk.
“You’re right. Perfect timing.”
His fellow cabal member’s booming laugh drowned out every sound in the area except the loud click as the security lock disengaged. With a wave, Mike moved through the door, which made a sharp snick as it closed and locked behind him. He headed deeper into the medical facility.
He wasn’t gonna lie; he was here to see Liam, but he made time to check in on all the other volunteers as well. They all lay still and quiet in their bunks, on their sides to aid in the noxious task of cleaning up the vomit and…the other thing.
Each volunteer had been stripped and put into the bunks naked.
Fuck if he knew why, other than it was the medical team’s peculiar preference. Probably so they could more easily slip a guy an injection. Can’t trust them anywhere within arm’s reach.
He was glad to see a cabal-member inside the room of each volunteer, ones who didn’t wear the uniform icon that indicated assignment to medical. The energy around the visiting Urilqii blazed with agitation and concern.
The visitations were proof of intimate connections on the horizon. It purported fantastic things for the goal to embed human troops and for the necessary full immersion and inevitable claiming.
What did surprise him, however, was one of the visitors.
Steve sat beside the bed of volunteer Jace Goodard. Startled, Mike paused at the threshold. Steve looked up, raised his eyebrows, and Mike kicked himself back into gear. He continued into the room and stopped by the foot of the bed.
Under his pod-kin’s regard, Mike’s cheeks warmed. ::I’ve been too self-involved lately. I missed the obvious. I missed your concern or I would have reached out earlier.::
::You’ve got enough on your mind these days.::
Shame slammed into him. ::You’re my pod-kin. I’ll always have time for your concerns. You know that.::
One side of Steve’s face dimpled with a half-smile. ::Of course you do. But I can handle my heart myself.:: The flood of reassurance Steve sent his way brought a sting of emotion to his eyes. ::So, I’m not such an arrogant asswipe after all?::
Steve huffed a laugh. ::I wouldn’t go that far.::
They shared a brief smile. Brief because in the next heartbeat, Steve’s attention swung back to the figure on the bed. He snatched what looked like a moist body cloth even before Mr. Goodard’s body began to shudder.
Steve sat on the mattress and drew the cloth across the human’s shoulders and back with gentle but confident strokes. The link between his pod-kin and this human volunteer was strong and vibrant.
