6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

A melia was warm. She'd been so cold for such a long time; the warmth was a shock to her system. Her heart started beating faster and her mind sluggishly woke as she tried to figure out what was happening. What was the heat source? Had she died already and been granted a boon? The heat felt good, but not like the raging inferno of hell. Not how she thought hell would feel like, anyway. What did she know? This was her first time going there. Her eyelids felt like concrete sealed together with super glue. It took all of her concentration and force of will to open them until there was a small slit letting in light to her retinas.

"Ah," was the only sound she'd been able to make. Zylar was holding her with one arm, the other was beside his body. Amelia needed to be held in both his arms to soak up the heat that only he seemed to have. She flailed at the arm not holding her and then it was there, pulling her body securely against his. She took the heat from his body deeply into her. Her head nestled against his chest, and she stopped fighting. Just for a minute, she assured herself, but now she needed whatever protection she could get from him.

He placed her on a bed. She assumed by the white sterile walls and the machine she couldn't make heads or tails out of that this was a hospital room. She prayed it was, anyway. Forcing her eyes the rest of the way open and shivering now that Zylar wasn't holding her, she looked around the room. Her eyes landed on someone she thought might be a doctor because he was looking at numbers over her head.

"Are you a doctor?" He replied in a language she couldn't understand.

Was her life worth her pride? If you had asked her a day or two ago, she'd have said yes and kept running. Now she didn't feel the same way. She was in a foreign land, even if it was just a spaceship that she didn't understand. Not speaking the native language, especially when all she had to do was allow them to implant a disc in her wrist, didn't make sense anymore. It wasn't a hill she was willing to die on.

Her cousins also had another thought coming. She wasn't going to march willingly to the gallows. One fight with death was enough for her.

"Please give me a translator chip." She held out her wrist. Did that sound apologetic enough? She snorted. Zylar would assume she was playing a new game, rightly so.

The male looked at Zylar, who nodded his head. One point for her. She hid her smile but saw his eyes shining. Okay, it was a draw, a point for both of them. She threw that point out; they were both back to zero. She ignored that he was one point ahead since he kidnapped her and then saved her life.

The doctor worked fast, wiping her wrist and then injecting it with the translator. How long would it take for it to attach and start working? She gave a slight wince.

"There won't be any more pain," the healer said.

"Now you decide to talk English." She frowned.

"Listen carefully, I'm speaking Dizan, the official language of the Diza." Well, hell, he was. She could hear the foreign words, but her brain translated them with no downtime. She had to admit this chip was amazing. Jenna told her it translated all of Earth's languages. With this, she could travel overseas and not worry about being taken advantage of. That was if she could get off this ship alive.

"How long did you leave me in that lift?"

"Thirty of your minutes. I wanted to make sure that the Tar-qu settled with her parents. She's only a week old."

"You might think that's funny, but I don't. That tar thing was as big as I was!" She shuddered thinking about it.

If she had been an adult, you would have never had the opportunity to escape. She's a child, and she was curious. Make no mistake, she would have killed and devoured you with no problem. She was playing with you, taking her time to decide if you were prey or not."

She wanted to laugh at him, but some part of her said he wasn't playing. She almost became a snack for an overgrown child. When that settled in, she wondered how big the parents were and decided on the heel of that thought she never wanted to know.

"I'm going to check you over. I'm Healer Bly and I take care of the crew."

"Hi, Healer Bly. I'm Amelia Astor." Healer Bly was tall and purple like Zylar, but he didn't have as much muscle mass. He wasn't bad-looking for a monster, but he was no Zylar. "What happened to me?"

Healer Bly looked at Zylar. "I've been reading some of your medical books on the body and the mind. There was one that talked about what you believe can affect your physical body. I think that's what happened to you. Healer Bly couldn't find a physical reason for what you went through." She hadn't been aware they were communicating, but they were both healers and must have worked together many times in the past.

She thought about it, twisting that statement into different forms and looking at it inside and out before deciding that she could see that. The good book said laughter was the best medicine, and that made sense. She'd read stories about people with deadly diseases that closed their doors to the outside world and watched nothing but comedies. It had worked in the ones she read about. How long it took she didn't know. If laughter was the first medicine, then unreasonable fear could kill. She'd almost done herself in with her fears. It was a sobering thought.

"Okay, it's food for thought. Something I'm going to have to watch out for in the future."

"How do you feel?" That came out as a growl and Amelia's stomach lurched. She wasn't sure if it was from the promise of pleasure or with dread. She took the time to do an overview of herself, both physically and mentally. This was the best she'd felt in a while.

"I feel good." As she said it, she wondered what she was condemning herself to.

"It's time for us to go." That growl was back in his voice. Amelia swore her pussy quivered. She had to be wrong.

"It was nice to meet you, Healer Bly." She jumped down from the table and hurried across the floor to keep up with Zylar's long-legged walk.

He was silent as they walked through the hallway, took a lift to his floor, and entered his cabin. She stayed silent because sometimes her sense of danger was keen, and Zylar was not a happy male. That made him unpredictable. He wouldn't hurt her, most likely, but she wasn't willing to take the chance.

"Stay here. Do not walk out that door." He pointed to the door that led to freedom.

"Right, I got it. Stay here, yep, I understand." He must have a screw loose if he thought she wasn't escaping at the first opportunity.

"Not yet, but soon you'll have it." She frowned at him, but he went through a door she hadn't explored earlier.

***

It was time to talk to his cousin who was the king elect to find out if his mate had a death sentence over her head.

He sat at his desk and called SaKura. Hopefully, Rakha will be with him.

"Zylar, where have you been?" SaKura was sitting with a female on his lap who reminded him of Amelia. She must be one of her cousins. He moved his eyes from SaKura to the female and back to his cousin.

"You know I'm going to be king, right?" SaKura complained. "You always were a stickler for convention. Healer Zylar, this is my mate, Frya, and consort Jenna. Jenna, this is my cousin Healer Zylar."

"Nice to meet you," Jenna said. "Are you the one who dropped off Anna and Sarah?"

"I am. How is the baby?"

Jenna's smile lit up the room. "She's perfect." Sakura gave his cousin a strange look, and Jenna smacked his chest to stop him.

"Why did you call?" Jenna frowned and SaKura gave her a quick kiss. "I haven't heard from Zylar since I've been on the planet. He did not call out of the blue."

"You always understood me. I picked up a hitchhiker that I didn't drop off with the others."

"I see." Zylar sighed. SaKura probably understood. He knew him from the time he was born and had lots of insight into how he ticked.

"Anna and Sarah mentioned there being another woman who would come soon. They told us all about their great escape and how you're a god among males."

He couldn't keep from smiling. They were gifted with strong imaginations.

"All I did was deliver a child and get them out of a bad situation." He could look at the future queen and know that she suspected him of harboring her cousin. It would make her a good queen in the future.

"I see," Jenna settled on saying. "That was all you did." She snuggled into SaKura's chest, indicating the next question was his.

"Who did you take to the ship?"

That was a direct question that Zylar couldn't avoid. "I have Amelia Astor on my ship."

"Your ship? You have my cousin on your ship. Where is she?" Jenna craned her neck, trying to see further into the room.

"I left her in the outer room, not that I expect her to be there when I get back." The grin on his face gave Jenna pause. She wanted to tell her cousin to come home at once, but the feeling that this might be what Amelia needed sat on her chest like a heavyweight. You get what you sow was another thought.

"I do. That's why I got in touch. She seems to think that you and your sister ordered her death."

Jenna gasped. Did Amelia think so little of them? Or did she think little of herself and assume everyone else felt the same? If she hadn't been so caught up in her dreams of SaKura. Then there was Jeffrey who was stalking her, maybe she could have seen that her cousin was in trouble and helped her. It was too late for her to help now, but that didn't mean it was too late for Amelia to get help. Zylar the healer, looked like he might be up to the task.

"Neither Bella nor I want Amelia dead. We were hoping to help her, but she refused by running away." Zylar stared at her, weighing the truth of her words. When he was satisfied, he nodded.

"Since she has done nothing to warrant death by the crown, I'll take care of the situation."

"Not death," SaKura growled. There were shadows of remembrance in his eyes. Jenna quickly kissed him as a reminder that she was alive and on his lap.

"I'll meet out any punishment needed." Zylar's growl was filled with satisfaction. His cousin was a male of his word. Amelia was the cousin of SaKura's mate. They were truly connected. Tell Rakha I'll be in touch soon. I have a naughty mate to track down. Consort and soon-to-be queen, it was a pleasure to meet you." He could hear SaKura asking what he meant by soon-to-be as he disconnected.

The outer room was empty like he knew it would be. He growled. His mate would not enjoy what happened next.