Starlaw (21 page)

“Darius, we have to keep going,” she insisted.

He finally let go of her hand and shook his head. Conversation was hard. Energy ebbed. He made good use of the time and fought off the darkness threatening to overwhelm him. “Wh-what was this plan you s-spoke of?” he gasped.

“We were supposed to be a diversion. Barst was going to engage a rescue operation for the hostages if we could get the vamphieres to follow us. Or at least one of us,” Laurel replied. “I-I guess it didn't work. If they came after us, I haven't heard them.”

“They knew we were armed and reached the cover of the woods. The vamphieres are probably where they always were … inside Char's residence. That probably means there are a lot of dead, innocent people back in that house! Whose insane idea was this?”

“If you thought they wouldn't follow us, then why did you pull me through that damned window? And by the way … you're welcome!” she snapped.

“What?” Darius weakly asked, his breathing labored and heavy.

“I said … you're welcome! For saving your ungrateful, alien ass.”

“
Why you little …
did it ever occur to you that you're the alien among
us
? You unappreciative little … I don't know whether to shake you or hug you … ”

He stopped and slumped forward. Having contained any sign of pain before, during the torture and in front of the wizard and his conspirators, he could no longer stop the low moan emanating from deep within his lungs now.

“Fuck … Darius … how bad are you? When you took us through that window I thought maybe you weren't so bad off … sweet Jesus!” she anxiously muttered as she placed her hands on his shoulders. She rummaged beneath her dark blue tunic to produce a small medical kit. “Gemma gave me a medical recorder and a few emergency supplies. Everyone on the
Titan
saw you being tortured … oh, God! There wasn't time before … ”

He shook his head and waved off her attempts to use equipment that was as far above her ability to comprehend as the stars were above the forest leaves on which they stood.

“At least let me try,” she coaxed.

Using what precious little strength he had, he grabbed the small, handheld bio unit in her palm, turned it on, then pressed it back into her hand. It would only diagnose injuries, not treat them.

“I-I don't know what … Gemma told me how to read the screen.” She paused and shook her head in confusion. “I-I'm getting different sets of vital signs. How can that be?”

“Just attribute it to my alien physiology,” Darius said, mocking her earlier use of the term describing him.

He wasn't about to tell her she was reading the recorder correctly. There were three parasites in his body. Four different readings were what she should see. His and
theirs
.

Laurel gazed around her quickly. “If we weren't followed, I can at least try to do something about the pain and dress those wounds.”

“No … we s-should get b-back. If Barst is trying to free the hostages, he'll need help … ”

Darius tried to stand but the pain was far too intense. He fell to the ground, and darkness closed around him. He heard Laurel calling his name. He felt her hands on his face and body but even the blessed softness of her touch quickly faded.

• • •

“Darius, can you hear me?”

Laurel tried talking to him but he was well and truly out. Nothing she did or said made him respond.

The whip wounds on his massive back and chest were deep and ugly. But the bleeding had long since stopped. He'd made it through that huge window, out of Char's residence, and into the woods. She figured they'd run for a couple of miles.

Something about his having passed out now wasn't right. And why was Gemma's black bio-thingy not showing correct readings? If she'd heard the instructions right, there should be one set of vital signs. A blue gauge on the read-out should have shown how badly his body varied from norm. Anything to the left of center wasn't good. His readings came in at almost all the way to the left.

“Dammit! Your wounds are nasty, but not so much for someone of your size … you big-ass, tanned giant! Don't you dare die on me. Don't you dare.”

She pulled some white, sterile-looking dressing from the small kit. It was covered in yellow paste that Gemma referred to as
anti-biotic fixative
.

She could neither leave him nor go back. Barst was supposed to have used the tracker in Darius's body to send help if his commander couldn't get back to the ship. As it was, she didn't even know where the hell his tracker was.

“Probably in his gravity-defying left butt cheek,” she angrily muttered as she continued to dab at the long gashes on torso. “Where the hell is everybody?”

She sighed heavily, shook her head, and moved closer to her downed comrade. Light was fading and it was getting harder to differentiate between where she'd cleansed and those places on his body where she hadn't.

As she put her face only inches away from a very bad gash near the base of his spine, movement just beneath the skin caused her to fall backward in shock.

“
What the fuck
!”

When a wriggling, worm-like thing—about five or six inches long and as round as her thumb—repeatedly moved several more times, her eyes opened wide in horror.

“What the hell is that?” she whispered as she slowly turned her face to consider Darius's blank, unconscious countenance. Even in the fading light his pallor stood out.

“What if that thing's
supposed
to be there and I somehow pissed it off?” she softly muttered as she considered, for the thousandth time, how very different these beings were from her. “What if there're more?”

She jumped again when Darius's moan echoed through the clearing.

“Okay … okay … big guy. I-I'm gonna roll you over, onto your back. J-just don't turn into something ugly and b-bite my face off. All right? We're on the same side here.”

Slowly, carefully, she completed the task, hoping not to awaken some living appendage that might take offense to her having touched him at all. At any moment she expected five inches of wriggling, wormlike critter to break free from his skin and do something terrible—something she'd only seen in horror movies.

“Darius? Talk to me, spaceman,” she begged. “Wh-what am I supposed to do?”

“Astral … I thought … I thought you were gone,” he whispered.

Laurel stared down at him. If the man thought she was someone else, then he was in worse condition than she'd assumed.

He began to tremble. There was only one conclusion to draw. “Darius … if you can hear me … it's Laurel. We have to get you out of here. If your physiology is anything like mine, you're going into shock. All I've got are bandages. Where's your tracking device? I think it might have been damaged 'cause nobody's showing up. I-I don't want to leave you but I might have to.”

“K-keep me warm,” he uttered.

She had to move closer to hear. Part of her was scared of getting so near someone who had a critter embedded beneath his flesh. But she couldn't just let him lie there shivering, either.

The same reason she'd left the safety of the ship applied. He'd suddenly become too important in her life. Nothing in the world mattered so much as making sure he made it through this mess.

She pulled off her tunic and shirt and began to shiver, too. The sleeveless compression top she'd been given to wear under the garments did nothing to ward off the evening's chill.

“Okay … I'm putting some of my clothing over you … so don't grow some third arm or something and attack.”

She took a deep breath and dropped her garments over his chest. They were far, far too small to cover his frame but it was all she had. They still held her body heat and might help.

When nothing happened she let out a long sigh, unaware she'd been holding her breath.

Some minutes later, he showed signs of consciousness. He turned his head toward her and sighed deeply. Whether it was in relief or pain, she couldn't tell. But his trembling resumed moments later.

“I-I won't let you go this time, Astral. Nothing can take you from me again,” he softly murmured.

Laurel leaned toward him and was immediately shocked by his next action.

As if he knew exactly where she sat, how far away she was, and what it took to get her closer, the man pulled her onto his chest. Seconds later, he buried one hand into her long hair as it cascaded over his shoulder. His emerald-colored eyes slowly opened and he gazed straight up at her. In them she saw pain and terrible sorrow. It was enough to almost break her heart.

She struggled and tried to speak, but he lifted his head quickly. His mouth made contact with hers.

His lips were hot. Their full, luscious movement against her mouth was sensual, sweetly passionate, and not-to-be-forgotten. Even she momentarily forgot the bad timing of the loving contact.

He parted his lips and his tongue touched hers.

In that split second, she closed her eyes and moaned into his mouth. If there was an alien thing living within him, the presence of it didn't matter at all, not at that moment in time. All she cared about was how desperately tender the connection was, how a jolt of pure energy shot straight down into her abdomen. In less than a heartbeat, she was wet with desire.

His free hand slid around the small of her back, just where the compression top fell short of the top of her leggings. She wanted to kick off the tall boots she wore and writhe against him like a thousand-dollar whore. His palm was warm. His strong hand caressed her spine like a soft summer breeze. The feel of it was infinitely tender and made her pelvis thrust forward automatically.

She lifted her face a scant inch from his. She felt his breath on her lips but had to stop while she could.

“D-Darius, I'm
not
Astral. L-let me go,” she murmured as he pressed oh-so-soft kisses into her left cheek, chin, and throat. The pressure of his palm on her back became more insistent.

“No. You're mine,” he softly responded. “Locking doors between us won't stop me this time. Out of respect for your wishes I held back. But no more.”

The words weren't stammering or disjointed as before. They'd been uttered as if he was in full control of his faculties but she knew he wasn't. Something was obviously very,
very
wrong.

Darius rolled over, pinning her body to the ground. It was as if he was being forced to behave this way. For whatever reason, the man wasn't in his right mind. Thinking quickly, Laurel decided to humor him long enough to find a way out.

“All right, Darius. I'll do whatever you want. It's time to stop fighting.” She stopped struggling and caressed his shoulders instead. His size and strength, with her current position beneath him, prohibited a fight.

He rose slightly and looked at her as if the words confused him. She pushed his dark hair back, trailed her fingertips across mammoth biceps to his strong, hairless chest. Her caresses lingered on his nipples. He actually shuddered at the contact.

“You never touched me like this. Not even when we were trying to conceive,” he said as he gazed down at her with an expression of great tenderness in his eyes. “I know we were both so young. But … ” His words suddenly trailed away. He stared at her for a very long moment before continuing. “You're eyes are blue. So very blue. Just like a mountain lake.” He pushed himself up and off of her. “You're
not
Astral!”

“No, I'm Laurel. The Earther you picked up out of the dirt … remember?”

Darius hung his head and moaned.

The man was in deep pain when he'd been about to make love to her a moment before. It didn't make sense.

“Listen to me …
Laurel
,” he said, as if trying to reinforce the name of the woman with him. “I-I can't control what's happening. The n-next time will be worse unless I go unconscious. You've got to leave. Find Barst or Gemma, but don't come back. The pain is … I can't … ”

He plunged his hands into his hair and dropped his head back. His eyes rolled upward as if he was going into a seizure.

“I can't just leave you like this. We don't know where those vamphieres are. But I know Barst will put together a search party and come looking, even if your tracker has been damaged. I believe it must have been or we'd have been located by now.” She sat up and moved closer to him. “If you can still hear me and understand … just try to hang on.”

He passed out and became so still she was afraid he'd stopped breathing. When she checked, his chest still moved up and down but barely.

Time crawled by. She lay next to him, trying to keep him warm and murmuring any nonsensical thing she could think of, hoping he could hear. All the while, she prayed he'd be all right. Nothing else that happened mattered if he didn't make it through. Even the thought of his having some other life forms within him no longer mattered.

Eternities passed before Laurel heard the familiar sound of Barst's deep voice. She cried out for help and a dozen crewmembers from the
Titan
rushed forward, Gemma among them.

She backed away, giving the medical technician room to work. Only a moment later—after Gemma pulled out a larger version of the palm-sized bio reader she'd been given, and took the time to take more readings—she saw the med-tech glance at Barst and slowly shake her head in sadness.

“Wait … he's not that bad,” Laurel blurted. “He's a bit out of it, but I think anybody would be after being whipped like a medieval serf.”

Gemma gazed up at her from her kneeling position by the commander. “It's not the wounds, Laurel. It's what's been put inside him.”

“Drillers,” Barst uttered as he knelt to view Darius's back and saw a wiggly creature still moving beneath his skin.