Chapter 6

Sabine

Shit. I knew it. I knew something would happen. The instant Dakkan left, my gut told me something would go wrong.

I had been in the cargo bay, going through my equipment and double-checking to make sure everything was intact when something heavy slammed against the side of the transport vessel. I jumped and let out a yelp.

It didn't sound like something was trying to bash in the hull, exactly. This was more like something heavy had fallen against it. Since there were no windows on the sides, I could only guess what that was. I suspected it was Dakkan. I hurried to that part of the ship and pressed my ear to the wall. Sure enough, I heard a barely audible groan that sounded male, and I unlatched the side hatch. I opened it carefully just in case it wasn't Dakkan, but there he was, sprawled against the side of the vessel, not looking well at all. I slid the door open all the way and stepped out into the humid air of the jungle.

"Can you hear me?" I touched the side of his neck. His pulse was uneven and he was cold, clammy. I ran my gaze over him in a quick assessment. His skin looked splotchy. It didn't take long for me to identify the source of the problem—two small puncture wounds on his shoulder, which was swollen and oozing. Most troubling were the lumpy, white spiderweb-shaped striations that reached up towards his neck and down towards his elbow.

Whatever had bitten him was highly venomous and the poison was working on him fast. I looked at the distance—only a meter—from the open hatch to him and knew I would never be able to pull this large alien male, who was nearly seven feet tall and thickly muscled, inside. I gave his face a tap. "Hey. You're going to have to help me out here. I can't move you."

His brow furrowed, which was basically the only expression I'd seen on him so far, but his eyes cracked open. They were glassy and struggled to focus on me. "Sabine," he slurred. "Told you…"

"Tell me later," I said, and tapped his face again to keep him from slipping back into unconsciousness. "We need to get you inside." I maneuvered to his side and slid my shoulder beneath his. "Come on now," I said. "Just a little bit farther. You can do this, Warlord."

He grunted. I could feel chills rack through him, but he gritted his teeth and forced strength into his legs. He leaned heavily on me as I managed to get him partly to his feet. It was enough to drag, propel, push him through the opening and onto the transport's floor where he collapsed just inside.

I hurried over to close the hatch and grabbed an emergency battery-powered light to look more closely at his wound. Considering it was likely to be drained as fast as the scanning device, I'd have to do my looking quickly. There was some light that came in through a clear ceiling panel, but I needed more. I shone the emergency light over him and was able to see how far the venom had progressed. I did not know what kind of creature had bitten him, but I collected a sample that oozed from the puncture wound and set it aside to test later, then quickly turned off the light. There were numerous synthesized antivenin medications in my storage that I could administer, as well as treatments to stabilize him long enough for one of them to work.

"I'll be right back." I placed a hand on his forehead and wiped away some stray brakas that had fallen over his brow. "Hang on a moment."

I dashed to the crates of equipment and began taking out what I needed to treat a patient presenting with an unknown animal bite. I had no clinic, no protective gear, and this was not a sterile environment, but I'd use what I could. Hopefully the devices would work long enough to treat him. Based on my experience earlier, devices only became drained once they were powered on. I would be as fast as I could to preserve the precious charge in them.

I ran back to Dakkan and got to work. Kneeling beside him, I cleaned the puncture wounds and began administering treatments and attaching stabilizers to his chest and head.

I couldn't help but acknowledge, as I worked, how unhappy he would be if he knew I was doing this right now. I was familiar with the customs at his Thrail. It was one of the more traditionally based groups of Mitrans on the planet. While their society functioned well and the human women who had come here were happy, they had also demanded more modern medical practices, which was why I was here.

There had been resistance to new medical technology. Thrail Sakra had a team of healers who used traditional medicines, herbs, brews, and other natural methods to combat illnesses and injuries. But the women, wisely, also wanted the modern medical technology that they'd had on Earth.

Maybe he would thank me when he was better—if he got better—or maybe not. It didn't matter. It was my job to save him and I would do everything I could to do so. I ran a neuro-scanner over his head and found no brain damage, thankfully, but his other vital signs were not great. His body was working hard to fight the venom coursing through him, and if he had not been so robust with his unique alien biology, he would've been dead already. I would've been dead, if I had been the one bitten. I powered down each device immediately after use. It seemed to be working to slow the power drain.

"Hey, how are you doing?" I asked soothingly, so that he knew he wasn't alone.

He let out a groan and turned his head, wincing in pain. "Eh."

I didn't expect he would be up for a conversation anytime soon. But any information I could get from him would help me treat him. "Do you know what bit you?"

"Viper," he said in a ragged voice. "On a tree." He bared his teeth. "Careless. Foolish."

"Shh," I said, resting a hand on his chest. "You're not familiar with this area, so how could you have known?"

His eyes cracked open and blinked slowly with exhaustion. "I got water," he said. "Must boil it."

I smiled reassuringly. "Great. Thank you. We'll do that later."

His eyes slid shut. "Am I going to die?"

"No way." I would administer some pain medication just in case he started having any ideas about getting up. "Your body is very strong. It's fighting hard. What you need to do is rest and let me take care of you." I began to lift my hand from his chest, but his moved to mine, holding it there.

"Don't leave." His voice was a whisper. "Don't leave me."

"I won't," I said. "I'll be right here with you."

His fingers closed over my hand. And the whisper of a smile curved his lips. His really nice lips. Now there was something I shouldn't be noticing about a patient near death. I slid my hand out from under his and administered a dose of pain medication. He let out a sigh and slid into sleep.

There was nothing to do now but watch and wait. I sat back on the floor beside him and let out a sigh of my own.

The vulnerability in his voice when he asked me not to leave him had made me like him somewhat. I was certainly aware of my attraction to him. He was handsome. I'd treated plenty of handsome men before, and never gazed at their mouths while wondering what their kisses felt like. This wasn't normal for me.

Then again, there was nothing normal about these circumstances. We were both stranded. We were relying on each other. Still, his comments about my permanent cosmetics shouldn't have had such an impact on me. So what if he didn't like it? I hadn't gotten it for him. I had gotten it because after back-to-back shifts, I got tired of being told how tired I appeared, and I liked the way the cosmetics made me look. That was what it came down to. It certainly wasn't to please anyone but myself.

If I was being honest with myself, what affected me most was what he said after…

I shook my head and focused on the job at hand. Dakkan was stabilizing. His heartbeat had strengthened. His breathing was stronger and even. According to my readings, one of the medications was working. He would recover, but something was strange. It wasn't an antivenin that was helping, it was a synthetic neurotoxin antidote I'd administered to cover all the bases.

I picked up the vial of ooze I'd collected from his wound and put it in my portable analyzer. It would take a few minutes for the analyzer to tell me what the venom actually was and I hoped it would last long enough to give me a result. In the meantime, I sat back and waited. As I did so, my thoughts went to my patient, who had become the person I was relying on to survive. I couldn't deny that he was…interesting.

You're beautiful. You need no enhancements.Ah, those words had affected me more than they should have. They'd made me feel warm inside. I'd been instantly aware of him as a male. And this male, the warlord of his Thrail and someone so overwhelming in power and appeal, had bluntly told me I was beautiful.

I didn't know what to do with that. I still didn't. In my family, beauty was derided as the most unimportant trait a person could have. I still didn't argue with that. Physical beauty was short-lived and could be negated by a simple accident. It was stuff for artists and poets to fawn over. My parents had valued intelligence, and so had I. I was proud of my accomplishments. I loved medicine, but it had felt good to be told I was beautiful. And there was a part of me that was uncomfortable—ashamed, even—by how good it felt.

It wasn't as if I'd never been told I was attractive. I had dated on Earth, but no one had ever looked me in the eye and stated that I was beautiful as a simple fact to be observed, with no motivation behind it. No angle. He wasn't trying to get something from me. In fact, he'd also stated that he wished I wasn't here.

Ironically, that had been the power of those words. That's what made me believe him, and why it had affected me so much.

I ran a cooling wand over his forehead, then followed the path with my own fingers, feeling a scar that ran from his eyebrow up into his brakas. I gently tested the firm texture of the skin, the solid bones beneath it. By all accounts, he was an excellent warlord. His people liked him. The women who had written messages requesting a medical doctor to be sent—they liked him a lot. They just wanted a better balance between tradition and advancements.

Maybe I could help him find that balance, if he let me.

I double-checked to make sure I'd powered everything down, to avoid wasting any of the precious power supply, then packed the instruments away safely in their containers. When I returned, I saw the analysis of the ooze was complete and checked the results. I had to read them four times before I grasped the implications. Still, I was trying to process it all when he began to stir.

I went to his side. "Dakkan, can you hear me?"

His brows snapped together, although his eyes did not open. "Yes."

"How do you feel?"

"Good." His eyes opened and locked onto mine, full of accusation. "Too good. What did you do to me?"