Chapter 6

I wasn’t expecting her to scream. The piercing sound made me flinch as we fell, and I almost let go of her. Overcorrecting, I nearly crushed her ribs. I felt them creak in my embrace and relaxed a fraction. At least the tight squeeze had emptied her lungs, silencing her and letting me think.

My combat tutors would say the time to come up with a plan was before jumping off a balcony. I’d answer that four murderers with pulse rifles made this the least bad plan available—even as it was, at least one shot had tagged me. Time to worry about that later, I told myself. It didn’t hurt, so my armored coat had likely taken most of the hit.

The air whistled past us as we tumbled toward the sea below. At this speed, impact would likely be fatal, which while not ideal was probably preferable to trying to swim in the acid. But I didn’t intend to try either, so I focused on keeping hold of my squirming burden and hoping that my gambit paid off.

Darkness embraced us moments before we hit the poisoned waters, swallowing us up and wrapping us in forcefields that set us gently down on a floor of black metal. The wind’s howl cut off as the cargo hatch shut, leaving us lying in each other’s arms, shaking and gasping for air.

I do not know which of us started laughing first. It started as spluttering, and grew as we both fought against it, until we were both shaking helplessly with the dheer joy of being alive. Every time one of us started to recover, the other set them off again.

We might have gone on like that forever if Eden hadn’t managed to sit up and look at me. The humor drained from her instantly.

“You’re bleeding,” she accused, thumping me on the shoulder. “You asshole, you’ve been shot.”

Perhaps it wasn’t sound diagnostic technique, but her light punch was enough to make me hiss in pain. Okay, perhaps my coat hadn’t done as well as I’d hoped. It’s amazing what you can ignore when your blood is up.

“Do not worry, it’s only a flesh wound,” I said, pulling myself to my feet. And promptly falling back onto the cargo bay deck with a crash. “Nothing to worry about.”

Eden’s litany of swearwords showed impressive range and variety, even if I didn’t understand any of them. “You’ve. Been. Shot. Fuck, where do you keep the first aid kit on this damned thing? And how did we get aboard, anyway?”

I sat up, and Eden tried to stop me. Her hand felt warm through my shirt, and that warmth spread through my chest as I looked up at her, smiling. She snatched her hand back as though scalded, glaring.

“This is the Blackwing, my personal yacht. The ship AI is smart enough to do some simple tricks, and I hoped that would extend to catching us.”

“You hoped?” Eden’s lips compressed into a thin line, and she rested her hands on her hips. “You carried me off a balcony and hoped your AI was smart enough to catch us?”

“It was a very high balcony,” I pointed out reasonably. “She had plenty of time to figure it out.”

Perhaps it was unkind of me, but I took some pleasure in watching Eden splutter for words, her face darkenning and hands flexing as though she was thinking of throttling me. I shrugged, gasped as my wound made itself known, and carried on before her anger got the better of her.

“It was a safer bet than fighting Duke Vazand and his guards in his own home. Besides, I gave Blackwing a head start. I called her for a pickup as soon as the duke had us cornered, so she was waiting for a chance to grab me.”

My plan had been to meet Blackwing on the balcony, but that detail didn’t matter. Eden kept up her glare for a few more heartbeats before throwing her hands up and sighing. “Fine. Sure. We’re alive, and I guess that’s the important thing. So let’s try to keep you that way.”

There was, of course, medkit on the wall. Eden snatched it down and holographic instructions flashed into existence to guide her in its use. The first tool it produced was a vibro-knife, which didn’t bode well.

“My wound can’t be that bad,” I said, trying to smile. “I don’t need to be put out of my misery just yet.”

Eden snorted. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t want you dead yet. Give it a few minutes to get to know you first.”

She set about cutting the sleeve from my coat, and I kept still. A vibro-knife is nothing to take chances with, and while the human’s hands were steady, I didn’t want to bet on her reflexes.

Once she’d removed the sleeve, she cut along the seams and peeled back the armorcloth fabric. I tried not to flinch at the pain as it tore free of my wound. “What do you see?”

I didn’t like Eden’s pause, but her words were no better. “It doesn’t look good. Your coat took most of the hit, but there’s a deep burn here and a lot of blood.”

She sounded faint and a little nauseous, but she kept right on working. Tougher than she looked, this human. “I’m going to apply sensor-gel now, so keep still. It’s cold, but I doubt you’ll notice that past the searing pain of me spreading it on your wound.”

“I do not fear the pain,” I told her, then roared in sudden agony at the icy touch. I’d take being shot a thousand times over this crawling, blinding suffering. It spread out across my injury and into it, before a sudden numbness took hold. I took a few deep breaths before speaking again. “You see? It is not so bad.”

That won a startled laugh from Eden. “Sure. I guess you just scream sometimes, huh? For the fun of it?”

“I do not scream. That was a roar.”

“Right. Of course. How...ignorant of me to miss the difference.”

“Just so,” I said, my voice dripping with injured dignity. It got another laugh, this time more relaxed, and I smiled.

“I think I’m supposed to be the one making you feel better,” she said. “You’re the patient.”

“You heal my wound, I heal your morale. A fine division of labor. What does the kit say?”

“That you should shut up and give it time to work.” Eden sighed, tapping her way through the kit’s readouts. “Okay, it can’t fix you, but it can keep you functional while we get you to your autodoc. Which is good, because I’m trying to imagine me hauling you anywhere, and it would make a funny farce.”

I groaned at the news. “That means I’m going to have to stand up.”