Chapter 12

Kalzudaud

For three days now, Caitlyn had worked tirelessly in the lab I'd furnished for her. Her every request for supplies was fulfilled with the highest priority. I'd divided my time between sitting at Sera's bedside, hovering over my mate protectively, or hounding the head spy for progress on locating the traitor.

Caitlyn did not come to bed unless I physically pulled her away from her microscope and slides. This was taking a toll on her; I could see it in the dark circles beneath her eyes, and the way she only barely touched her food when I brought it to her. At night, she came willingly into my arms, eager for the distraction that making love provided. If this wasn't about Sera, I would have put a stop to it by now, but it was, so I waited and watched as the woman I loved worked herself to the bone with a heavy heart.

Each day that passed made me grow tenser. We still had not eliminated the threat, and that threat was definitely hanging over our heads, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I could not watch both the females of my heart at the same time, and though Iru went where I could not be, that didn't feel good enough.

"I'm close, Kal," Caitlyn murmured as she slipped her lab coat on in preparation for a fourth day of work. "I think I might have something by the end of the day." Her words made my heart sing with hope, and I swept her into my arms and pressed my mouth to hers, smiling when she kissed me back as eagerly as always.

"Good, I can't stand the waiting," I said to her, and then I held her close as I escorted her personally to her workspace. My spine prickled the entire time, certain I felt eyes on me, but that could just as easily be the security cameras and extra presence of guards.

Today, I was meeting with my head spy, but that would involve more waiting than I liked. Savar would show up at some point, but it was impossible to pin the man down at any specific time. He held his own timetable, not even changing it for his king. He was the best man for the job, though. His dedication was unparalleled, and like Iru, I trusted him completely. Bonds like that grew when you had shared a sandbox as a toddler and shoved dirt in each other's faces at one point or another.

Guards swept the lab before I entered it with my precious burden in my arms. As I settled her rump on one of the lab counters to say goodbye to her, something heavy settled in my chest. A feeling that was directly opposite of what I should have been feeling at her earlier news. If she was close to a cure, this could be over soon. Then why did I feel like the worst was yet to come?

"I'll be alright. There are plenty of guards. Go find that traitor," Caitlyn murmured against my neck. I hadn't managed to uncurl my arms from around her slender frame, and it struck me how much weight such small shoulders could carry. The responsibility of healing my heart-daughter, the stress of having a target on her back, and then she still seemed more than willing to ease my own burdened heart.

"I will," I vowed to her. Today she was finishing her cure, I hoped, so I would finish my own task, and end this viper in our midst. My eyes lifted from the soft crown of her hair to glance around the lab. Three vetted lab techs hovered near one wall, assigned to assist her after they had been triple checked by Savar's agency. They did not mask their avid curiosity as well as the guards did, but I knew that the entire kingdom was already abuzz about Caitlyn being my mate, anyway.

I needed to grab my tail and tug it free from around her leg before I could step away. "I'll be over there. I'll be watching." I pointed to the bank of glass windows, the room that I'd previously used to let my suspects get a good look at the lab. She didn't even lift her head to look at where I pointed. As soon as I'd stepped back, she'd turned to flick on the computer next to her. From the looks of it, she was already deeply engrossed in her work. I smothered a smile at how endearing I found that.

Waiting really was not one of my strengths. That was probably part of the reason why I'd resorted to kidnapping my beautiful, clever female, rather than go through the official channels. Savar was taking his own sweet time to get here today, though, and I was inclined to wring his damn neck when he showed up. My fists clenched as I paced across the observation room, the place shrouded in the darkness that suited my spymaster.

It looked like Caitlyn was synthesizing something, and her expression had taken on an eager, excited cast that made me think she might have it. Was she about to hit her coms to let me know she was ready to attempt her cure on Sera? Did she hold the answer to reversing the damage to my heart-daughter in that small glass vial, right there?

"You can't trust her, Kal," a voice suddenly said darkly. I jerked around, wings spreading, battle-form shivering over me even though I knew exactly who it was in an instant. Savar had managed to startle me; I should have heard the door as he entered, but I hadn't. I glared at the smug grin that curled his mouth.

"If you are talking of my mate," I growled at him, my fists clenching at my sides. Nobody got to speak badly of my woman, nobody, not even my oldest friends. But I should have known that Savar was not speaking of my Caitlyn. He shook his head, his eyes growing darker with intensity, and I knew that whoever he was about to name was still going to hurt me. I had my answer. There was only one reason my spymaster would struggle to put into words what I needed to hear.

"Arrest her then," I said, just as I heard sounds coming from the lab. When I turned around to look out the window, I was just in time to see Caitlyn spin around to where one of the lab techs was opening a glass cabinet with cultures. Her posture was all I needed. At a glance, I could tell that she was tense, that something was wrong. My feet carried me from the observation room to the surprised call from my spymaster, but I paid him no heed.

I crashed through the door and into the lab in time to hear Caitlyn's shout, "Don't! It's gonna blow!" There was nothing but instinct left in me at that moment. Time seemed to freeze as adrenaline roared through me. I took it all in with a single glance; the lab tech who was pulling the door to the cabinet open as casually as could be. Caitlyn's outstretched arm toward the male, and her other arm curled against her chest with the synthesized fluid, the cure.

I leaped across that room, sliding over the counter top with a push of my wings. An expensive microscope was a casualty of my mad dash, clattering to the floor and shattering, but that noise was drowned out by what followed next. The boom that rocked the lab blew out my hearing, but I still sensed how Caitlyn screamed when I collided with her fragile, small body.

Pain blasted across my spread wings, heat and shrapnel as it struck, then more pain as I landed on the floor with my mate beneath me. Knees and elbows struck marble while I tried to cushion her fall and cover as much of her as I could. I folded my wings closed, tucking them along my spine as the shrapnel clattered to the floor around me, hitting but not penetrating my stony skin. Ringing in my ears told me the explosion was substantial, but I rose as soon as it was over to check my little human for any harm. "Caitlyn, are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?" I demanded, loudly, too loudly probably.

She blinked her pretty brown eyes at me, her mouth a startled ‘o' that she snapped shut when a frown furrowed her brown. "Did someone just try to kill me?" she demanded right back of me. Her voice coming to me as if from a great distance but thankfully, my hearing improved as more words tumbled from her lips. She was demanding answers from me, asking me if I was harmed, a frantic hand running over my chest, and then her worry about me morphed to worry for Sera.

"Oh, no! The cure!" She opened her fist to look at the vial she'd been clutching against her chest. The translucent liquid swirled with a faint sparkle inside the glass container. Whole. We both drew in a relieved breath, and then my Caitlyn's eyes slid to half-mast. "Kal, I don't feel so good… I suspect sudden traumatic blood loss. My leg…" I caught her in my arms, holding her tight against my chest as I glanced down, my eyes catching on the piece of metal sticking from her thigh and the rapidly forming pool of bright red blood on the floor next to us.

"No! Don't you pass out on me, my mate! Stay with me now!" I commanded her attention firmly, gripping her by the chin to make sure she fluttered her lashes open and met my gaze. "Get a doctor here! Now!" I shouted without turning my head.

I knew it was Savar who'd gotten over his aversion to bright lights to come to my aid. He was covered in streaks of soot and pressing a swatch of fabric around her wound to stop the bleeding. "I got her, Kal," he said, and I was not sure if he meant he had my mate, that he would keep her alive, or if he meant that he'd caught the traitor.